Merry Christmas!

Just a quick little post to say Merry Christmas!  Although I had to work Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, it wasn't too bad and it's been nice to come home and hang out with Mike, just the two of us.  This will be the last year that it'll be just the two of us, and we're trying to savor it.  Next year will be a whole new ballgame and we are sooooooo excited to start this chapter of our lives!  Here are some pics from our 2010 Christmas season:

Decorating the tree!

Daisy wouldn't cooperate for a Christmas pic....shocking ;)

The Hetrick Christmas tree 2010!

PICU Christmas party 2010

Addy's first Christmas present!  From Dad and Beth from the Art's Festival

Getting ready to open my stocking from Dad and Beth!  You never get too old to love stockings...although I have a feeling this may be my last year of getting one from my parents....

Mike's gifts from Dad and Beth.  It was so fun getting those packages filled with presents!

Just had to throw in an extra cute pic of Daisy dog!

Addy says thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for the blanket!  (Mom is looking a little rough in this pic.)

Daisy with her favorite Christmas present.  She hasn't let that ball out of her sight!

Merry Christmas everyone!  This one was taken tonight right before we opened the last of our gifts. 

It's snowing outside to make a white Christmas in Raleigh, NC!  Our last Christmas as a childless married couple!  I know I keep saying that, but I almost can't even fathom it.  We are so so so excited to meet our baby girl in a few short weeks!

From our house to yours....Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!!!



Nursery Mania!

About two weeks ago Tina came down for 5 days to help Mike and I with the nursery.  I use the term "help" loosely, because she basically did most of it and I helped her.  And we definitely needed her here to give us the push to get the whole project underway.  I really had NO idea that it would be as much work as it was, take as long as it did, or be as fun as it was!

Here are some "before" pictures:

The room was a second guest room before we converted it.  Luckily we already liked the wall color, so no painting for us!

The first thing we did was get rid of all of the pictures on the wall since all of the ones that ended up in this room were the ones that I didn't really like, or didn't know what to do with.  None of them matched and it made the room look so haphazard.

The little frog picture on the left is the only one that made the cut to stay in the nursery, because Mike made it when he was younger and it kind of matched our nursery decor.

We obviously got rid of the crappy old double bed that was in there and we gave it to the salvation army.  They came and picked it up, which was nice.  The other furniture stayed in the room and we managed to finally find a crib to semi-match the existing furniture.  The furniture was my Dad's, and then it was mine growing up, and now it will be Addy's too!  There are some scratches and chips, but all in all it's in pretty good shape for how old it is.

Haha, I just realized that I already posted these before pics a few posts back, but oh well, here they are again so you can compare it to the finished nursery.

Now for some nursery in progress pics:

Here is what the room looked like after Baby Shower Number One.  I really wish I would've taken a picture of it after Baby Shower Number Two, because at that point you literally couldn't even walk in there.  It was a giant mess and I had to keep the door closed to keep Mike from going crazy over it!

I was proud of myself at this point because I at least cleaned up the floor.  Tina hasn't arrived yet to really get the decorating in full swing though.  The cradle in the center of the picture is one that my uncle made for me when I was born.... and he was only in high school at the time!  Talk about talent!

Here is a pic of all of the blankets that we received for Adilyn.  It's a combination of my old baby blankets, Mike's old baby blankets, and even my grandfather's old baby blanket!  The pink one in the middle is the only new one of the bunch, and Mike's Dad's dental hygienist made that one for us.  So we are loaded with blankets and we needed to find a spot for them all.

And the work has begun!  Note that Mike is starting on those floating shelves and everyone is still all smiles at this point...

Tina is folding tiny socks and loving it!

 This pic is taken after four consecutive hours of Mike working on the shelves, a lot of cursing, a lot of unnecessarily large holes in the wall, a spilled Bloody Mary on the white carpet.....we decided it was time to enlist help.  But there was no helping this project.  We ended up decided that these shelves were not safe as "floating shelves"....

So Tina and I took it upon ourselves to head out to Home Depot the next day and get some brackets to help stabilize the shelves.  Mike was sooooo over this project so we hung them ourselves.  (Note the sexy belly creeping out). 

Then Tina painted all of the little screws that went into the brackets since they were black and the brackets were white.  We also attempted to find the right paint in the garage to touch up the wall where one of the shelves ultimately fell during the fiasco the night before.  No such luck though.  Wouldn't you know it.  We have paint for every other room in the house, but not this room.  Oh well.

The finished product!  So they are no longer "floating", and I still wouldn't hang on them or anything, but they are up, they are fairly stable, and they look awesome!  We are using the shelves for memorabilia, both new and old, and I think that all of the hard work and frustration was worth it because they are my favorite part of the room!

Remember this sign from the baby shower?  I loved it and really wanted to display it, so although Tina and Mike didn't necessarily agree with me, they got up there and hung it.  And now we all agree that it looks great!

Then we decided to practice swaddling a baby since Mike had never done that before.  Daisy wasn't too interested.

Haha we did it!

And now for the completed nursery..... drum roll please!!!!

Tada!  (The ottoman is where we ended up storing all of those baby blankets.)

All of her precious little clothes!

Daisy and I are so happy with the results!

So there you have it.  All of the sweat and tears (literally) were totally worth it!  I love our nursery and every time I walk by that room I just have to smile thinking of how much fun I had with my husband, my sister, and my dog getting it ready for Adilyn's arrival.  We can't wait to meet you Baby Girl!

Baby Shower Number 2 and 8 Month Photos!

Wow, I can't believe it has been almost a month since I've posted anything!  Things have been a little crazy with the holidays and I have definitely been lagging with my blog posting.  So we have to go back a few weeks to my second baby shower that people at work threw for me.  It was held at Top of the Hill in Chapel Hill and it was such a great time!  There were 10 people there and I got some amazing gifts for our baby girl..... including our travel system stroller!!!  I COULD NOT believe that my co-workers got that incredible gift for me!  To say that I was blown away is a complete understatement!  Here are some pics from the night.

The girl who coordinated it all...while pregnant herself!  Thanks Regina!

Red velvet cake...yum!

Not the most flattering pics of myself that I've ever seen, but it's all I have.  I loved the balloons that Regina got me and the little Mom to Be pin that I wore all night!  Would you believe that those balloons are STILL inflated...almost a month later?  They are hanging out in the nursery, much to Mike's dismay.  He and my sister told me to get rid of them, but I refuse to throw them away until they are deflated!

So my work shower was a success, and I'll tell ya, my co-workers sure are generous.  So far I have received baby gifts from 34 people that I work with!  That's right....34!!  Mike and I are almost completely set for Addy's arrival, thanks in large part to the amazing people that I work with.  We really didn't have to buy much at all!

Onto some 8 month pics!

Don't know why I keep taking the belly down shots since they aren't changing now.  Still obviously can't see my feet, but oh well.  I've taken them every month so far, so I might as well finish it off.  And my belly button still takes over the pics.  Talk about an outie!

Here are my 8 month stats: December 15th, 2010

Weight: 156 lbs          Weight gain to date: 28.2 lbs

Waist: 38 1/2 inches    Waist gain to date: 9 1/2 inches

Breast: 37 inches         Breast gain to date: 3 inches

I cannot believe that I've gained almost 30 pounds already!  Crazy.  So let's see, this past month I felt pretty darn good.  Can't complain much really.  My back hasn't been hurting as much, and although I still pee a lot in the middle of the night, I have been sleeping better.  I got a humidifier and some saline spray and that has definitely been helping with the nosebleeds.  They still come every once in awhile, but not daily like they were.

The one thing that has been making me nervous is that TONS of people have been telling me that I've "dropped" or that I'm all of the sudden carrying much lower than before.  I agree that I look lower than some of the other pregnant people, but I haven't noticed a huge change in myself or anything.  I wonder if it's because I'm taller, so I have a longer torso, which makes it look like I'm carrying lower.  People just have me nervous that I'm about to pop this baby out at any moment!  I hope she hangs in there until January, because I really don't want her birthday to be lumped in with Christmas for the rest of her life.  We'll see.

Otherwise, my doctor's appointments have gone well over this past month (I guess I've only had one).  BP 110/67.  Adilyn's HR 144.  They told me that it's time to start doing kick counts, which means that after dinner every night I am supposed to lay down for an hour and make sure she moves at least 6-10 times in that hour.  Do I do that every night? ...ummmm, not really.  But that is because I am hyper-aware of her movements.  She has been moving a lot lately, and it's totally visible to the naked eye, which is awesome.  I'd realize if she wasn't moving as much as normal.  There was one night after dinner when I didn't notice any movement for awhile and I got kind of nervous.  I layed on one side...then the other....then sat up...nothing.  I'll admit I was nervous that night.  So I asked Mike to grab me a ginger ale, and low and behold...she woke up!  She loves ginger ale!

Hmm, what else has been going on over the past month?  Mike and I went up to my Dad's new cabin in PA for Thanksgiving, which was a lot of fun.  There were 19 people there, so it was a little bit crowded, but we all had a great time.  Tina, J, Mike, and I all shared a room with 2 single beds, which was interesting.  It started out with the boys on the hardwood floor and ended up with them sharing the single beds with us.  Yes, at 7 1/2 months pregnant I was sharing a single bed with my husband.  Comfy?  Not so much.  But it's comical looking back on it.  Tina did a maternity shoot for me while we were up there and those pics came out great!  I'll post some as soon as she sends me a CD.

We went to the PSU vs. Michigan State game while we were up in PA for the weekend, and that was a lot of fun, albeit pretty darn cold.  It was funny though, because Mike was the bigger baby about being cold, which is totally opposite of normal.  Maybe it's because I'm pregnant, maybe it was the 2 cups of hot chocolate...maybe both.  But I really was not too cold.  I would have stayed for the whole game, no problem.  But poor little Mike...he couldn't hang.  We left at the end of the third quarter, and we would have left even earlier if he had any say in it!  Living in the south has made him wimpy when it comes to the cold weather.  He tried to blame me, saying we left early because his pregnant wife was cold, but I didn't let him get away with that one. 

Then last weekend Tina came down for 5 days to help us get the nursery in order, and boy were we busy!  I had no idea that it would take as long as it did, but I loved the process and I love the end result!  She also took more maternity pics when she came down (including some with Daisy dog and her Christmas sweater!).  More on all of that in my next post!

PSU Baby Shower!

Yay!  My baby shower with my and Mike's family and some friends was last weekend up at Penn State, and it was a blast!  Baby paraphernalia is soooooo fun!

My sister, my mom, and Mike's mom got it all together and it was such a perfect day.  From the venue, to the decorations, the gifts, and of course, the people, it was exactly what I hoped it would be!  There were 17 girls there including me, and then all of the guys came too and hung out in the other room playing pool, watching football, and drinking beer.  It was a great place to have the shower because we had a little section in the back with our own long table, area for gifts, and places to hang things on the walls.  And the fact that the guys could all come and hang out together was awesome too!

Onto some pics!  Luckily I have an amazing photographer for a sister, so I knew I'd get some awesome pictures from the day!  Here are some of her shots:

My queen seat

I loved this banner so much that I saved it, and now it has it's own spot in the nursery!

Yum!  The dessert table

The cute invite that Tina designed

The whole set up....loved it!

Baby Hetrick Bingo!  And four of those jars with the wheat sticks made their way to the nursery as well

Gift display

Loved this clothesline of mini baby clothes!  Tina did such a great job!

Me and the baby shower organizer extraordinaire

The whole crew

Snail puppet from my BFF....a huge hit!

An absolute necessity for any girl in our family

My moms Christening outfit...which became mine, then my sister's....and now my daughter's!

Mike's mom gave him his Christening outfit too

These are Mike's old baby shoes, which...yup, made their way to the nursery

One of the games we played where everyone had to cut a piece of string that was the size of my belly...closest wins.  Closest was my mom and Mike's mom!

Me and Mike's sister....both preggers!

Me, Mom, and Tina

Me with all four of my grandparents!  Love them all so much!

Mommy and Daddy to be!

I wasn't planning on putting that many pics on this post, but Tina sent me a CD of over 100 and it was tough to narrow it down!

As you can see, the decorations were adorable!  Tina made a bunch of little mason jars filled with wheat colored sticks, a cute Baby Hetrick banner, flowers in tiny glasses on the table, and a clothesline of baby clothes!  She is the best!  She also tied the pink and white balloons around my special chair!

I got lots of amazing gifts for our little girl, including the ones shown above.  The snail puppet from my best friend was a huge hit, as was the PSU cheerleader outfit (a "must have" in our family!), and a little blue onesie that says "My auntie is awesome".....guess who that one was from ;)

Then Mike and the guys popped over at the end to help load the gifts into the car, so Tina got a quick pic of the Mom and Dad-to-be :)

AND....we announced Baby Girl's name!!!!!!!!!  Her name is Adilyn Marie Hetrick!  We were having some issues with how to spell it and we're still not totally decided, but we are between Adelyn and Adilyn.  E or I.....E or I????  It's a tough call.   I think that it looks prettier with an "e", and most people agree with me, however, Mike thinks that it will be mispronounced more with the "e".  He thinks people will say "Ade-lyn" (like lemon- ADE).  But we pronounce it Add-a-lyn.  Soooooo, it's a tough call.  We actually handed out little cards at the shower and asked people how they would spell it and 14 of the 16 said "e".  So we're torn.

Mike actually came up with the name while we were on vacation with my fam in September.  I always liked Addison, and Addy is such a cute nickname.  He said that Addison was too popular.  But we had been tossing around using Lynn as a middle name since that's my middle name, and he came out and said, "How about Addi-lyn instead of Addison?"  And I loved it right from the start!  He was so proud of himself and he said "I made it up!!".  Come to find out that the name existed before he spit it out of his mouth and actually one of the doctors I work with just named her daughter Adelyn.  But I'm thinking that since Mike came up with the name he can spell it too.  And I do agree that her name will probably be mispronounced less if we spell it Adilyn.  Still a work in progress.

But I think (again, not a definite) we're going to spell her nickname Addy.  I think it's so cute for a little girl, and then Adilyn is so beautiful for when she's grown up.   Little Addy is kicking up a storm right now in my belly!  She must know that I'm talking about her ;)

Heading up to PA this week for Thanksgiving to spend the holiday with my dad and step mom and her family and my dad's new cabin!  I haven't seen it yet and I can't wait!  There will be something like 25 people there in a 2 bedroom cabin with a loft.  Luckily, since I'm pregnant, Mike and I get a bedroom.  Pregnancy has its perks!

P.S.  These nosebleeds are really getting out of control!  I have one almost every day now and it's getting really annoying.  I bought a humidifier today and I just tried Afrin nasal spray.  We'll see if these things help, because this is becoming a nuisance!