04/03/2008 - 38 Week Doctor's Appt.

I am still continuing to progress...I'm now up to 4 cm dilated and about 65% effaced. I'm very excited about having made it this far without any contractions!

Everyone that knows how much of a planner I am, knows how hard it is for me to not know when I'm going to go into labor. We're just trying to take things one day at a time and remember that God is in control.

We'll continue to post updates as we know more!

03/30/2008 - 38 Week Belly

Here's an updated belly shot in the original outfit. It's a good thing that I'm approaching the end of my pregnancy because the shirt is barely still covering my belly!

I have been blessed with a very easy pregnancy but I am starting to get a little uncomfortable now that she has gotten so big!

Since we've ended up with a little extra time on our hands, we decided to play around with some pregnancy photos this weekend. You can see our work under "Pregnancy Pics" on the right.

03/27/2008 - 37 Week Doctor's Appt.

We had a much less eventful doctor's appointment this week...I'm still at 3 cm and 50% effaced (he didn't mention anything about effacement last time). So, we breathed a little sigh of relief and just spent the evening relaxing. She could still be here any day now but after hearing 3 cm last week, we're pretty much ready (my bags are packed and actually in my car!)

03/26/2008 - Nursery!

I couldn't post any finished nursery pics without first posting this picture of Blair working in the nursery, since she was such an inspiration for the entire room! Blair was my college roommate and you may remember her beautiful voice from our wedding ceremony. We like to refer to her as our "right brain" friend :)

Eric used a wide-angle lens to capture as much of the room as possible.

The first thing that Blair helped with was her name above the crib. She made this limb and 3-D birds and had the idea for the actual letters. But I do have to give Eric and myself a little credit for actually making the letters, since we typically do not think of ourselves as being crafty :) Eric painted the letters and frames and I hot-glued various colors of seersucker fabric to the backs of the frames.

Here is a close-up of one of the birds that Blair made...she was able to exactly duplicate the birds in the bedding!

There's a lot to share about this pic (don't forget you can always click on a picture to view a bigger image). This is Eric's old dresser that his dad refinished...I really like how the door knob pulls that I ordered on E-Bay pop on the black! The memo board above the dresser is another Blair inspired project that Eric and I managed to pull off. It will be used for pictures and other special baby mementos that we want to keep and display. In the meantime I've displayed some of the mementos from my showers.

The curtain hold-backs are also Blair inspired but sewn by G.G.

I think the $15 changing table turned out to be a great find! (not sure if Peepaw Grau would agree or not :)) Nana got us the baskets and pink gingham liners that we needed to finish it.

Our little girl already has a pretty full wardrobe :) These are her dresses and jeans for the first 6 months (her onesies and gowns are in the dresser). These include shower gifts and clothes from Emery (the daughter of our friend's Joey and Steph, who was born at the end of February 06, so the size & season should line up pretty well!...Thanks Em!)

So, there's the finished nursery! Finished for before her arrival at least :)...I told Eric that we still have some wall space available, but after thinking about it, we want to be able to put some pictures of Anna Claire in the room, so we're probably good for now (he was amazingly quick to agree :))

03/22/2008 - Baby Wash

Today was the most fun laundry day I've ever had! I washed all of Anna Claire's newborn outfits and blankets with Dreft. We will not be air drying this much in the future but I just didn't think any of the little newborn stuff could afford any shrinkage!

I thought all of the little onesies and gowns were so cute hanging on our drying rack :)

03/20/2008 - 36 Week Doctor's Appt.

This was my first appointment where my doctor checked to see if I had started dilating any. I told myself before I went that no matter what he said, I wasn't going to believe that she really would be coming early (I have just heard too many stories from friends that hear news from their OB that the baby is almost here and then they still go past their due date!). But when he told me that I had already dilated 3 cm, I have to admit that I got a little panicked about the nearness of her arrival! My doctor doesn't anticipate that I will go into labor as soon as the next week but he said there's a good chance that she will be here before April 16.

I'm doing weekly visits now, so we'll continue to post updates. No one really knows when Anna Claire will decide to make her arrival, but we definitely feel like a fire has been lit underneath us to finish up the remaining things that we would like to do before she gets here! (hopefully I can post some finished nursery pictures in the next week or so)

03/09/2008 - Grau Baby Shower

G.G. (Grandma Grau) and Megan (Auntie Mimi) threw me a shower on Sunday. Eric's aunts (Diane and Gayle) drove all the way down from Maryland to come to the shower!

We had such a great turn out!! I was exhausted from opening so many wonderful gifts!


This picture is from one of my favorite memories of the day. I really wish we had video footage of this: As soon as I sat down with my plate of goodies, Anna Claire started moving. At first I just felt it but then I could actually see my stomach moving. It seems like most of the times when I've noticed her moving, by the time I'm able to tell someone, she's stopped. But not today! She was moving so much that anyone who was in the living room could see it. It was like she knew she had an audience and wanted to perform!


I decided that this pic can be my 34 week belly shot. I really wanted to stay on top of taking those to watch the growth but we have been so busy lately! Eric has planned a "babymoon" trip for us in Asheville this weekend (we leave on Wed.) to make us take a break from all of the baby preparations and relax a little bit before the real work gets here! Now that the trip is here, I'm so grateful for his persistency in making sure we take time to relax.

The other pics from the shower are posted under Photo Albums on the right.

03/01/2008 - Harper Baby Shower

The Harpers had a couple's get together for us on Saturday night.

We enjoyed a really fun and relaxing evening. We had dinner, cake, opened presents and played a couple of fun games (well, mostly fun...check out the Harper Baby Shower photos on the right for more details :))

02/23/2008 - Columbus Baby Shower

My aunt and cousins threw me a baby shower in Columbus this weekend.

The decorations were so cute and creative and I think everyone had a great time!

Click on "Columbus Baby Shower" under Photo Albums on the right to check out some of the neat gifts that we got!

02/21/2008 - 32 Week Doctor's Appt.

Today I discovered that Anna Claire and I have had a little growth spurt :) She went from just under 3 lbs. at my last visit just 3 weeks ago, to 4 lbs. & 5 ounces at this visit! This took her from the 47th percentile to the 67th! My doctor said not to put too much weight on the percentiles this far out, but I must admit that I'm a little nervous now about having a bigger baby than I was anticipating!

That was the most interesting part of the visit...everything is still coming along smoothly!

02/17/2008 - Glider

Back in October, Mandy's dad said that he wanted to buy the baby a gift and asked us what he could get.

Mandy remembered a story that her dad used to tell about the first time that his little girl was visiting her paternal grandparent's house and wouldn't go to sleep. Mandy's dad knew immediately that his little girl was desperately needing a rocker so that her mom could rock her to sleep, but the only problem was that Mandy's grandparents didn't have one. Well, when Mandy's paternal grandfather found out that his granddaughter didn't have what she wanted, he got up in the middle of the night, woke up the shop owner of the local furniture store and went down to purchase a rocker! It was such a simpler time then!

So, Mandy thought that a glider would be a very appropriate gift from her dad :) As the nursery started coming together, we decided that a yellow glider would be a nice compliment to all of the pink and green. We ordered this glider about 3 weeks ago and got it this week. We're very happy with how the color and fabric pattern turned out and also very excited that the glider is super comfortable to sit in!

02/04/2008 - Prepared Childbirth Course

For the past 5 Monday nights we've attended a prepared childbirth course at our hospital. Our instructor was thoughtful enough to take a picture of our class and email us the picture.

The class turned out to be really informative. We realize there's only so much we can do in anticipating what Mandy's labor experience will be like, but we found it really helpful to learn about all of the different possibilities (induction, epidural, cesarean birth, etc.) We'll see how well Mandy remembers the breathing techniques we learned once those painful contractions begin! :)

01/31/2008 - 3D/4D Ultrasound

Today was my 3D/4D ultrasound appointment and we got our first glance at Baby Grau. It was so strange to see her for the first time...she looks different than I expected, but I don't really know exactly what I was expecting her to look like! Of course she is still developing and although better than 2D images, there's still some distortions in these pictures since my OB said her face was pressed up against the placenta.

This picture makes me think that she has her daddy's nose...which is probably a good thing for her :)

During the ultrasound we could see her moving her little hands in front of her face as if to say, "No more pictures please!"

This picture shows a clearer image of her lips. She kind of looks like she's smiling!

My OB added little comments to some of the pictures.

So far, we are both still progressing well. My glucose test came back okay, so no sign of gestational diabetes. He said that she's still growing in line with my due date and is currently in the 47th percentile on size, weighing almost 3 pounds.

We did one more check on the gender and since we are 99.99% sure that she really is a girl :), we are ready to share the name. We are going to name her...

Anna Claire

With Anna as the first name and Claire as the middle name and we're going to call her "Anna Claire". The name Claire is from Mandy's maternal grandmother...we shared a very special relationship and her middle name was Clarene. The name Anna is just a name that both Eric and I like. We wouldn't mind if she decides to drop the Claire when she gets older and just go by Anna. We can't wait to meet Anna Claire for the first time!

01/30/2008 - 29 Week Belly

We took a lot of pictures at Christmas but decided that I was due for another "official" belly shot.

Eric chose this outfit when we first started taking the belly shot pics. I was skeptical about being able to wear it for all of the pictures, but so far I'm still able to squeeze into it! We'll see if it continues to "fit" over the remaining 11 weeks!

Baby Grau continues to become more active. I usually feel her move some during the day at work but I feel the most movement when I'm lying in bed at night just before I go to sleep. Eric was recently able to feel some of the movement and I've actually seen my belly move a couple of times, which was also pretty cool. Showing more and feeling more movement have definitely made the pregnancy feel more "real".

01/12/2008 - Pink Gingham

Mandy's mom used various shades of pastel gingham to decorate her nursery (almost 30 years ago!) so she was very surprised to hear that PB Kids is still selling it and even more surprised that her daughter was interested in using it!

Our mom's and Mandy's Aunt Carole bought us a couple of items off of our registry for Christmas.

These curtains have a blackout panel in an attempt to darken a room that gets a lot of sunlight. We're still hoping that little opening above the top doesn't let in too much light.

This lamp has such a cute shape in person and will look great on the dresser.

This changing pad cover is so soft and the gingham liners will be very cute in some baskets that we plan to use with the changing table.

I found a changing table at a consignment sale for $15 (you can't beat that!). Eric's dad is currently refinishing it along with Eric's old dresser. We're all doing what we can to make sure that he doesn't get bored with retirement :)

01/06/2008 - Painting the Nursery

Eric painted the nursery the weekend before Christmas, but we just took down the painters tape today. At first we had talked about doing a darker second coat but we are officially sticking with the original color.

I think he had some fun with it :)

Here's the final color! It's probably hard to get a good feel of the color on the computer, so you will just have to come see it in person!

I took this picture of Daisy while Eric was painting the nursery. She got into a fight with another dog and got a cut just under her left eye. Daisy thinks she's a lot bigger than she is and tends to instigate things with bigger dogs. They usually just ignore her (or she out-runs them!) but this dog decided to teach her a lesson. The wound is just about completely gone now, but we hope Daisy remembers this experience for the future so this doesn't happen to her again!

12/20/2007 - 23 Week Doctor's Appt.

Today was my 23 Week check-up. Since my doctor was delivering a baby at my 20 Week visit, he did a thourough scan of the anatomy this time. Here's what he told us:

• Our baby has a 3 vessell umbilical cord (which means the umbilical cord developed properly)
• The spine is fully formed and has good curvature
• From viewing the nose and lips, our baby does not have a cleft pallette
• All of the organs (stomach, bladder, kidney, liver, etc.) look good
• The heartbeat is in a good range (about 132)...we still love to hear it!
• The bone measurements indicate that the baby is growing at a rate that puts her within 2 days of our due date

He wasn't able to get as good of a view of the genitalia as the PA did (just based on how the baby was positioned), so he gave us a 95% probablility of girl as opposed to the 99% that we got last time. We'll continue to check on the gender, but as you can see by the previous post, we're proceeding forward assuming that Baby Grau is a girl!

He didn't print off any new ultrasound pics this time (she still looks pretty much the same :)). We'll post another update when I go back in 4 weeks.

12/16/2007 - Nursery Bedding

Here is a picture of our bedding. I actually found it in June on clearance at PB Kids. Even though I wasn't even pregnant yet :), I knew it was exactly what I would want if we had a little girl one day, so with it being on clearance I went ahead and got it!

I also got the crib skirt and bumper.

Here's a close up of the bumper. At first, I wanted a white crib to go with the bedding but I think the black will be more versatile if we have a boy later and when we convert the crib into a full size bed. And now that I see it together, I think the bright colors are really going to "pop" against the black.

You could maybe tell in the crib pics that we've been experimenting with a paint color. We decided to paint another sample in between the white trim, since the paint color that's already in the room was kind of skewing our perception of the color. We still think it may be a little bright/light since this room gets so much natural light but we're still thinking about it.

The only piece of furniture that we have purchased for the nursery is the crib. We're going to use Eric's old dresser and paint it black. I found these drawer knob pulls on E-Bay that coordinate with the bedding. I was very excited about this find!

These prints are another E-Bay find that coordinates with the bedding. My cousin, Kristy, gave me these at our gift exchange this weekend.

This is another Christmas gift from Kristy and Matt. It's a super cute toiletry bag for me to take to the hospital. It will also work great as a smaller diaper bag.

Here is an updated belly shot from our weekend in Blairsville. You can see more pics from the weekend under Photo Albums on the right.

12/02/2007 - Crib

Here is our first nursery pic!

We ordered this crib on Nov. 18. They told us it would take 10 - 12 weeks for it to come in but then we got a call on the 26th saying that it had arrived!! I talked Eric into making an "emergency" trip to Atlanta on Saturday to pick it up, but he was the one that decided to put it together when we got home around midnight (I think someone else is just as excited about it as I am :))

We plan to paint the walls some shade of green, right after Christmas. So, we'll continue to post updates as the nursery becomes more decorated.

The Harpers came over for dinner tonight and Kathy and I decided that we needed a picture of the two of us while we're both still pregnant. Kathy is due on December 23, so she could be having her little girl any day now!

I have added a link under "Photo Albums" to some of our Christmas Decorations.

11/26/2007 - 20 Week Doctor's Appt.

We're having a..................

GIRL!

Probably the only thing actually indicating girl to you from this picture are the words "girl parts" :) Unfortunately, this image is not as clear as what we were able to see on the ultrasound screen. Last time I didn't even realize that we were looking at the genitalia when he said "girl" but this time it was a lot more obvious.

At first I thought that I might not even have this appointment today b/c when we showed up they told us that my doctor was away delivering a baby (pretty acceptable excuse for an OB I suppose :)). So instead of seeing him, the physician's assistant did the ultrasound and gave a 99% probability that Baby Grau is a girl.

Here are some other pictures that she took:

This is a picture of the bottom of the feet. Baby Grau was all over the place today! I think I have actually felt her move a couple of times. It's still very subtle but I have definitely felt a few "flutters".

I thought this picture was really sweet. You can tell that she likes to rest with her hand up by her face.

My doctor had planned to do a full anatomy scan this week to make sure all of the organs are okay but we will have to wait until the next visit for that. Since my next visit fell during the week of Christmas, we're actually going to go a little sooner than four weeks (Dec. 20).

Here is an updated belly shot:

My "baby bump" has arrived!

To see details of a recent event leading to "enhancement" of the baby bump, check out the Thanksgiving photos on the right :)