I appreciate the advice..

.. but OMG please make it stop!



I don't know what it is about pregnant women that makes complete strangers think it's ok to give out unsolicited advice, but seriously everywhere I go I hear something from someone about how to raise my baby.

- Don't hold a baby too much, they will be spoiled

- Don't let a baby have a pacifier, it teaches them to put something in their mouths when they are upset and when they are older that can turn into them being emotional eaters. (seriously I have heard that from someone..)

- Sleep now, you won't be able to later. OK, yes I get that babies keep you up a lot, but it's not like sleeping today is going to make me less tired next month. When I am tired I sleep, but I am not going to sleep every second of every day for no reason.

- Don't do this, don't do that..  blah blah blah..

UGH. Sorry, I know I shouldn't complain. Everyone is just trying to help, but it does get slightly annoying at times.

And while I am complaining.. let me also add that it is really annoying when people ask me all the time when I think she will actually be here. Umm.. do I look like a psychic? I have no idea.. all I know is it will be sometime between today and her due date (or maybe even after that).

Again, I know I shouldn't complain because people are just excited to come meet her and I totally get that (I mean HELLO obviously I am excited to meet her too).. but I promise I will make sure I call/text/post a facebook status or something so everyone knows once she is here, but until then please RELAX a little. Everyone constantly asking and hoping she is here soon just stresses me out.. obviously I would love to have her now, but I also want her to come whenever she is ready to come and not a moment sooner.

ughhh... OK, rant OVER. Sorry! It's just been one of those days!

Is it Friday yet?? haha ;)

d a y d r e a m i n g . . .

.. about all things baby.

Today is March 29th. My due date is April 29th. So that means that sometime in the next month I will finally get to meet my little girl and I CAN'T WAIT <3

I had the option of either planning to stop working before the my due date or working up until whenever the little one decides to grace us with her presence. I chose to work as long as possible so that I can actually spend all of my time off with her when she is here rather than just waiting at home for her to come.

Well, I made that decision months ago.. and now even though I still think that's the best way for me to do it.. there are days when it is so hard for me to focus and get any work done.

I spend hours thinking about her and making lists constantly of things I still want to pick up or add to my hospital bag (or just random things I don't really even need haha).

I imagine holding her for the first time and I tear up just thinking about it. (I don't however get quite as excited when I think about the actual delivery..)

I literally cry just thinking about seeing Vince holding her for the first time.

And I still have 30 days to go.

Sounds like such a short time, but there are days when it seems like f.o.r.e.v.e.r.

So for now, I guess I will just continue to daydream about my little girl (and try to do some work too) and hopefully before I know it she will be here in my arms. (probably screaming.. but I won't think about that part just yet.. haha)

All About Me :)

My good friend Angela  posted this earlier today and I thought it was cute so I copied it :) Thanks Ang!

1. If you have pets, do you see them as merely animals or are they members of your family? - if you have ever read my blog you already know the answer to this.. yes of course we consider Ty as a member of our family.. he is our first kid.

2. If you could have a dream come true, what would it be? to become a mom... and I'm pretty sure that dream is becoming a reality sometime very soon ;)

3. What would you do with a million dollars? to be honest I have thought about this a hundred times before and all I think I would really do with it would be pay off our mortgage and then save the rest... boring? maybe. But it would be so nice to have your house 100% paid for and still have a good savings put away.

4. What helps to pull you out of a bad mood? friends, family, vince.. and maybe a glass of red wine (when I'm not pregnant of course)

5. What is your bedtime routine? Well during the week Vince doesn't get home until around 10, so I eat dinner then with him (I know it's late, but I like sitting down and having dinner with him every night and if thats the only time we can do it then that's fine with me) and then we curl up with Ty and watch the 11 o'clock news (unless we have something good in the dvr) before going to sleep.

6. What activities did you do in high school? I was a cheerleader, I danced from the time I was 6 years old until 17 (I quit right before senior year because I was on two 2 cheerleading teams and couldn't fit everything in), I was on the ski team (really that was just because Vince was on it too) and I was a member of NHS.

7. What kind of books do you read? Anything really. I don't like to just pick out a random book, I prefer to ask friends/family/etc for suggestions so I know if it's good or not... but some of my favorite authors are James Patterson (I think I have read almost all of his books), Nora Roberts, and Nicholas Sparks.

8. How do you see yourself in 10 years? hmm... lets see.. I will still be married, raising a 10 year old daughter ( and maybe another kid too ;) ), and hopefully just being happy and enjoying life with my family like I am.

9. What's your fear? ugh spiders. I seriously can't stand them... just thinking about them right now gives me the chills.

10. Would you give up all junk food for the rest of your life for the opportunity to see outer space? Um.. is it lame if I say no. Not that outer space isn't fascinating (because really it is), but I just don't know if I really care to leave earth anytime soon to see it... I'm perfectly content just seeing it on tv or in movies haha.

11. What's the first thing you do when you wake up? brush my teeth. I hate morning breath, ugh.

12. If you could change one thing about your significant other, what would it be? I would make it so he never snored again.. ha, kidding.. kind of. But other than that nothing.. I love him for who he is, so why change anything?

13. If you could pick a new name for yourself, what would it be? I think I will stick with Jenna Nicole... not that I am in love with my name, but it's my name and it's never bothered me so there's no point messing with it.

14. If you had to choose between six months of sun or six months of rain, what would you choose? Sun. Would anyone really choose to have 6 months of straight rain??

15. If you could only eat one thing for the next 6 months, what would it be? Anything Mexican. Mmm.. I could eat it every single day and be perfectly happy.

16. What is the thing you enjoy the most about blogging? I just enjoy being able to write whatever I feel like and sort of keep a journal of what's going on in my life these days.

17. Do you prefer salty or sweet foods? Definitely salty. I've never been a huge sweets person.

18. What items are in your purse right now? ha.. what isn't in my purse right now? Let's see there is my wallet, my planner, 2 cell phones (BB for work, Iphone for personal), work keys, car/house keys, an apple, lots of chapstick and lipglosses floating around in there, business cards, sunglasses, checkbook, hand sanitizer, bronzer (because I am as pale as a ghost), and my flip video camera. I think that's about it ;)

19. Name 3 things on your bucket list. The #1 thing I know for sure I want to do at some point is move. Not that I don't like PA, but I would LOVE to live in North Carolina.. and thankfully Vince says the same thing, so we talk about in the future possibly moving there, but not right now. Other than that I would like to drive coast to coast and really take the time to see the United States. (I would love to travel Europe too, but there is a lot I haven't seen right here in the US too), and the 3rd I'm not really sure.. Vince really wants to go skydiving, so maybe I would try that with him.

20. What do you watch on television that you know you shouldn't? What don't I watch really? I guess the only thing I watch that I sometimes feel like I shouldn't is Teen Mom... I don't like that teens are getting famous for getting pregnant it's not something that should be glamorized, but OMG the show is addicting!

Life is a Roller Coaster

I got an email yesterday from my grandfather, he lives in Florida so we obviously don't see each other very often, so we email to keep in touch. He was my father's father. Typically when I write on here and I mention my "dad" I am talking about my step-dad, he is who raised me and I started calling him dad when I was 2 and never ever think of him as anything less than that.

My parents divorced when I was just a year old and while I had a relationship with my father it wasn't always an easy one. I loved him and he loved me, but whether due to distance or just not seeing eye to eye on things we had a lot of ups and downs. At the end of the day he was a good person who I loved more than words can describe and when he passed away of cancer when I was 17 I was devastated. I was sad about losing him, but I was even more sad for not getting the time to make up for all the ups and downs we had.

Well anyways.. back to my main point (sorry my mind trails off at times haha).. in my grandfather's email he was talking about all of those ups and downs in life. He has had a very interesting life (it could seriously be a lifetime movie) and he was saying that there are things everyone wishes they could take back or things they wish they could do again, but that's not reality. Life is a roller coaster. As cliche as it sounds you have to have learn to appreciate all of the ups and downs to really enjoy the ride.

Sometimes I think I forget that. I feel like I spend a lot of time worrying about the "downs" or wasting a lot of energy trying to reach the "ups" and not just letting things fall into place.

I would say that is probably my biggest weakness. I over analyze things or try to plan everything in my life, and the truth is you can't.

There is no way to know what tomorrow holds, you can drive yourself crazy trying to plan for it. In the end whether things work out perfectly or not, life is still going to go on. So instead of worrying about it so much, I need to learn to relax a little and kind of go with the flow. Be thankful for what I have, the family and friends who are always there, and just enjoy life.

It's a little late, but I think that should be my new years resolution: learning to just enjoy the ride.

Kaylee's Nursery

This weekend Vince and I worked a little bit more on the nursery and I thought I would share with you what we have done so far.

**Please note.. it is not painted because we are living in an apartment right now... BUT things with our house have finally started moving along and looks like they will be done building in July (thank goodness!), so then we will be able to really finish her room. However for now we are working with what we have and I think it's looking pretty cute ;)

I loved the saying on the diaper cake from my shower so I took it apart and framed it ;)

 

I thought this box was so pretty and it ended up being perfect for holding diapers and lotion/creams/etc on the changing table

Girl has more clothes than me ;) haha (and this probably isn't even half of them lol)

So that's it on the nursery for now. I found a wall decal with a cute saying that I want to put over the crib and I need to hang curtains, but other than that I doubt we will be doing much more to her room.

Once our house is finally done being built we plan to have most of the rooms painted before we move in, so the nursery will look more finished then. Plus her room will be quite a bit bigger in the house and I want to get a book shelf to put in there too.. but anyways for now I am happy with how it turned out (there's no sense going crazy with it just to use it for a few months before we move haha)

Baby Shower

A few weeks ago my family and friends threw me a beautiful baby shower and I wanted to share some of the pictures from it. (I meant to post this awhile ago, but kept getting too lazy to upload all of the pictures) It was such a special day and I really appreciated everyone being there to celebrate this time with me. 

We are extremely blessed and clearly Miss Kaylee is very loved already <3

Baby Shower 2.26.11

Some of my favorite Hokies came to town for the weekend

Such a cute diaper cake from my sister-in-law Lauren :)

SO many presents!

Loved the cute favors my mom got

With some of my bests from high school

with my mom<3

With both of the Kaylee's grandmothers! A huge thank you to both of them for putting together such an amazing shower :)

Make sure to check back tomorrow for even more pictures... I finally decided to get out my actual camera (the iphone just wasn't cutting it anymore haha) and take a couple pics of what we have done so far in the nursery :)

Weekly BUMP Update

I took these pictures this morning and the sun was really bright so it was messing up the coloring, but at least I have some pics this week ;)



How far along: at about 34 - 35 weeks (ahh just typing that out makes me realize how close I am to 40 weeks!)

Total weight gain/loss: according to my scale no change since last week... so at a total of 16lbs (but I will find out at next weeks appointment if that is accurate or not)

Maternity clothes: Same as before.. some pants, but other than that just trying to make my normal clothes work. (and actually in the pictures above I am wearing my regular jeans with a hair band looped through the button so that they still fit haha)

Stretch marks: not as of now.

Sleep: This week has actually been somewhat better. I think that is because I have been so exhausted that I just kind of pass out at night haha.

Best moment this week: This has nothing to do with the baby.. but my dad called me Tuesday afternoon and said he just found out he had to fly to Philly that night so we got to meet up for dinner before he headed off to an appointment in Jersey. I miss my family so much and it really did make my entire week :)

Movement: constantly... and at times it hurts a little, but I can't complain I am just happy to feel her moving <3

Food cravings: same as normal, nothing crazy.

What I miss: well since yesterday was St. Patty's day I kind of missed being able to have a green beer ;)

Anything making you queasy or sick: Thankfully no.  

Gender: girl :)

Labor Signs: a couple contractions here and there like usual, but nothing out of the norm. Not sure why, but I kind of feel like she plans on staying in there until right around 40 weeks.

Belly Button in or out? In, but looking like it might pop out any day now...

Wedding rings on or off? On.

Weekly Wisdom: All first time mom's get nervous about being a new mom. I am SO excited to hold my little girl in my arms for the first time... but I am also getting a little nervous about whether or not I am going to know what I am doing. There are days when all I do is worry about if I will know how to do this or that the right way, and I read books about babies and search things online constantly. But after talking to a good friend this week, who is also a mom, she just laughed and said she felt that way too and told me to relax because everything just kind of falls into place and I (like all new moms) will figure it out as I go. So I am going to try to just not stress about it and instead just looked forward to meeting my little girl soon <3

Milestones: hmm... well I can't really think of any milestones that I have reached this week, but in general I am just so happy to finally be past all of the craziness that was going on in the beginning/middle of my pregnancy. It's nice to actually be able to just enjoy being pregnant and not have to worry about every little thing.

 

Hope everyone has a great weekend!