Where did March go?

Oh my gosh... I just realized that I haven't posted since March 8th! My bad.

It has been so long, I can't even remember what we've done in the last few weeks :o) We had yet another ultrasound last week and got to see the little one in in action. Baby R was caught on the ultrasound taking a big gulp! It was pretty cool to see, but of course it was only for a second - I blinked - and it was over. Bummer.

After a few measurements were taken, we had the all clear from the doctor that Baby R is growing just as it needs to be. I'm finally growing as well, not that I'm ready to see the scale creep up. According to the ultrasound images, Baby R is still feet down. Nothing to worry about just yet, but we did have to sit down and talk options of a possible C-section if he/she decides to stay put. Not cool, considering I'm planning on doing this delivery as natural as possible. So the last few months we're going to be coaching the little one and just hoping that it will turn! I've read that babies usually will turn on their own between 37 and 40 weeks, so we'll see what happens.

I had the option of getting my glucola test over with that day as well, so I went for it. Drinking something that resembles a warm Mr. Freeze pop on sugar steroids and one hour later my blood was tested. It resulted in a normal range for sugar levels and I was told I have nothing to worry about. Phew! Turns out, no matter how much sugar I consume, I'll be OK. I kind of wish I had a reason not to eat cookies and Easter goodies, but bring them on :o)

I'm feeling the baby kicking multiples times throughout the day and he/she just happens to love punching my ribs at night. Last Sunday I woke up to what I thought was an earthquake going on inside of me. It must have been the baby punching with both arms from side to side screaming, "Let me out of here!" It was entertaining, but definitely frightening at first. Playing punching bag isn't going to be much fun as the baby gets stronger, but if it means we're developing and staying on track - I can handle it. I think!

In the past few weeks we have been doing a little traveling. We spent St. Patty's day (actually weekend) celebrating with friends and watching the river turn green. This year we stayed at the Sheraton Hotel downtown and actually watched the neon green coloring be dumped and spread out with the boats from our hotel room. It was pretty cool to see, especially not having to be standing outside in the cold weather! We did some shopping, bar hopping and ate at Giordanos. AMAZING pizza place that is famous for their stuffed crust pizza. Yum. It was well worth a long drive and a great weekend out of Ottumwa with friends.

The photos below were taken on March 22nd. I was 27 weeks, 1 day. Not too much has changed since then (at least my weight hasn't in the last week) but I feel MUCH MUCH MUCH larger and round this week! It is definitely starting to get uncomfortable to sit - sleep - breathe. Just a few more months....sigh.

Side shot... 27w 1d

Front shot... 27w 1d

Where did my abs go?

 The abs went away just as fast as the month of March I think! Tomorrow (March 31st) is my big brother's birthday! We'll be celebrating at a wine and chocolate fundraiser for the Jefferson County Hospital. Wine tasting for Brook, chocolate for me! I better get in a few extra minutes on the treadmill before we go :o)

A Work in Progress

Lately I've been working on the back bedroom. A little bit here and there, and we're hopefully half way done...hopefully. After much deliberation and total convincing from a friend, we decided to reorganize the bedrooms in the house. When I say 'we' I mean that I decided and had to then convince the hubby it was for the best. In the long run, changing up the rooms will make perfect sense, but moving furniture up and down the three staircases and making room for baby things has been a bit overwhelming!

We moved the guest bedroom into my old office so it is now at the same level as the guest bathroom. My office has been moved upstairs to be closer to the nursery and is now in the brightest room in the house. Maybe it will be a bit more of an inspiration for me to have a new space. Maybe this means I'll finally get off of the couch and actually into my office again :o) We'll see!

Before shot of the nursery

We started with new paint in the nursery. The green walls were primed and painted a creamy beige. Yes, you read that right, I went with a light color! There is a first time for everything I suppose. My mother in law came over to help paint the walls one day and after 3 creamy beige walls, we decided to tackle the dark red. I went with a super neutral concept and wanted a pop of color in a dark red. I've been waiting to use a red color somewhere in this house - so I went for it! After all of the painting was done - it just wasn't 'finished' in my mind. So after a little research, I found a really cool idea using stripes and polyurethane. It gives the look of a flat color with a high gloss stripe. Turns out, if you tape the walls  in the stripe pattern that you like, VERY lightly roll on the poly.... then you better wipe whatever you can off before it drips! It was a bit difficult, but well worth the work. I removed the tape and did some touch up paint to give a clean line where anything may have run. It might be my new favorite room.

Dark red accent and creamy beige with the polyurethane stripes

Now you can see the flat vs. high gloss of the stripes

I only painted 3 of the walls with stripes because I had yet another inspiration for the last wall. I found an idea from a blog post on Project Nursery that rocked my world. As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to figure out how to do it! I rented a projector from the local library and spent an entire Saturday with my girl Kelli (another designer and my bestie) hand painting a mural of the alphabet and numbers. Monochromatic colors so it isn't crazy, but modern enough that if we decide to move the baby into another room, I have another office without having to repaint!

My Alphabet mural wall!

A-Z & 0-9 all there (even hiding behind the door)!

Here are the photos of the nursery. Just this weekend we set up the crib with my parents and the surprise early birthday present. I got an incline trainer! It's amazing... except my nursery has now become my nursery/workout room. We'll have to see how this goes... but for now - I'm ok with hanging out in the coolest room while kicking my butt at a 40% incline.

The crib all set up & my new incline trainer

I asked Cody if he wanted to learn how to W-A-L-K on the trainer.... he got on, until I turned on the machine and it started moving. I'll train him someday, but for now - I'll just keep getting this reaction whenever I ask if he wants to go for a ______?

Huh?

P.S. I finally got around the getting those belly shots done. I am officially 25 weeks, 1 day today!
Time just flies, but I'm going to try to keep the belly pictures up as I start to grow. The doctor said I'm finally hitting that rapid growth spurt - which explains my expanding cheeks. My face seems to gain more weight than the rest of me - so hopefully it will slow down so the rest of me can keep up. 

Cody and I posing

Pushing the belly out

Messing around with Cody

Where's the baby?

Drum Roll Please!

Intruducing Ms. Peyton Marie Richardson!

As of last Friday, February 25th at 11:05am I became an aunt to a beautiful baby girl named Peyton Marie. I traveled up with my in-laws to the quad cities on Thursday afternoon and we all spent the night in the waiting room at the hospital. Subrina was induced 5 days before her due date of March 2nd, so we weren't sure how long we would be waiting for Ms. Peyton's arrival after the doctors induced her. Unfortunately, things were done a bit different at this hospital and although she was induced at midnight, the doctor did not come in to break her water until after 9:30 or 10am Friday morning.

The good thing is - baby was healthy and Subrina only needed a bit of pain medication for the delivery. No epidural, she even looked great just after! Crossing my fingers here that our delivery is smooth and not too painful. I'd like to go as natural as possible as well, if I can avoid pain medication and epidurals, I will as much as possible!

Here are a few photos that I grabbed of the new edition to our family. Proud grandparents, Bill and Patty have been telling the world about her!

Grandpa Bill holding Peyton Marie

Proud daddy

Grandma Patty and Tim with Peyton

Peyton sleeping

Just leave me alone!

Her big feet!

I'm pretty sure she can grab a basketball with these toes

Finally opening her eyes

Grandma Patty and Peyton

Grandpa Bill rocking Peyton

Peyton Marie Richardson was born February 25, 2011 at 11:05am
She weighed a whopping 10 lbs 1 oz and was 22 inches long!

P.S. If this is the size Richardson babies are supposed to be, I'm in trouble!

Wow... it's been awhile so here is a recap!

First off, I wanted to appologize for not keeping the post updated as much as I would've liked the past few weeks. It was a chaotic couple of weeks while finishing the bathroom remodel, so no baby updates were given. Since then - I've just been lazy and watching TV at night instead of taking belly shots and blogging :o)

At 18 weeks, I was supposed to have an ultrasound. The big one....where we would get to find out what the gender of the baby was. I was called by the clinic twice to reschedule. I just kept telling myself, maybe this is a sign that we shouldn't find out! We finally had the chance to see the baby at 19 weeks. I was measuring bigger (about 19 weeks, 2-3 days) which was not enough to change the due date, but enough to keep an eye on the growth throughout the next few appointments. I'm scheduled to go in on February 25th for a stomach check and around March 25th for another ultrasound. The doctor didn't make it seem too out of the ordinary to have another ultrasound, but another chance to see the baby is a bonus! Here are the latest ultrasound photos. The little bean just seems bigger by the day!

Playing peek-a-boo!

Look at that belly!

Sucking it's thumb!

Must get the big feet from Daddy :o)

Anyway...  for the long awaited photos. These were taken at 20 weeks I believe, maybe 20.5 weeks? I'm starting to really round out - although it's not showing THAT much yet.

Anything?

Side belly - I hide well :o) 

There it is! My little round bump

Seeing these photos - makes me want to take more. At 22 weeks, I've changed quite a bit (in my opinion anyway) I've noticed that my pre-pregnancy clothes are definitely getting tighter. Luckily - I do have a few pairs of khakis that were larger sizes that I was in this summer as well as 2 pairs of jeans that I can still get into and button. Soon I'll be sporting the belly band - but hopefully the rest of me will fit into them so that I won't have to worry too much about maternity clothes! Working from home has been a life saver though - no need to worry about fitting into much more than workout clothes and sweats. Phew!

We've been working on the nursery and figuring out our registries in the past few weeks. Time has flown by and we're quickly moving from the half way point, to the end of the 2nd trimester. It's a little unbelievable, but we're getting very excited to meet the little one!

I'll post newer photos later this week of the nursery in progress and new photos. The rooms will be rearranged a bit once we set up the nursery - so it should be interesting :o)

Finally Finished!!!

We finally finished the bathroom. It officially took 41 days to complete, although at day 38 our job was done - we were just waiting on the professionals to install the shower glass panels and door. What a difference! I think it is officially our favorite room. If only we had a TV, and I'd think about hanging out in there more ;o)

As promised, here are the updated and final shots of the room. Enjoy it - because I do! For the full effect, I've added the OLD bathroom photos, for the extra reminder of how far we've come :o)

Before: single vanity...tiny bathroom

After: View walking into the bathroom (double in size)

New double vanity

Before: the old shower (and tub...)

After: new steam shower and tub!

View from the bathroom doorway

close up of vessel sink

Before: small toilet area next to shower

After: open toilet area and shower

What do you think? Worth the 41 days of walking down 3 flights of stairs just to use the bathroom? YOU BET IT WAS!!! haha. Now I can relax - get the nursery ready and enjoy the 2nd half of my pregnancy. woo whoo!!

Deadline Day :o)

Well - it is official. Today was 1 month since we started this bathroom renovation and we were planning on being done in 1 month. You'll have to cut us a little slack here, our home was built in 1938.... and we have no idea who actually worked on the home. There were a LOT of hiccups in the process that definitely set us back, and a few days here and there that we just needed a breather. Knowing all of this - we aren't that far behind. Tonight we are officially done laying tile! It has been quite awhile since the last post that gave any sort of update on the bathroom - so pictures are truly worth a thousand words here!

Lets see... the vanity and linen cabinet are installed, the butcher block countertop has been cut to size, sanded, sealed with Waterlox and finished with a satin coat. The vessel sinks and faucets have been plumbed and the mirror hung! We finished the electrical and installed all of the outlets and lighting (including the new exhaust fan for the bathroom). We installed the heated floor and put a coat of self-leveling concrete on top to make sure our tile would be level. Also sanded down and painted the pocket door white. We let the concrete set overnight and tested the heated coils in the morning to make sure everything was still working. Heat will be a luxury in a drafty old house - I can't wait!

Heated floor down with the quick set concrete layer
(plus a quick glance at the vanity!)

The heated floor coils are on the entire floor area
and stop by the toilet

Here's a quick glance at the tile on the walls as well

Today I spent a majority of the night texturing the walls to match each bedroom that we removed a doorway from. Since we stole one of the closets in the back bedroom, we had to close up a doorway in that room. 6 coats of mud later, and I'm finally 'stippling' the walls. This is a fancy word for - sand mixed into paint which creates that rough feeling. It is almost a mix between an orange peel texture and a popcorn. Barely there, but not flattened out like a knockdown style would be. It is close enough - and we'll be painting that room soon anyway. (I've picked this one to be the nursery... so new paint colors are coming soon!)

Back bedroom wall with stippling texture

The 2nd doorway that was closed up happens to be what I called the 'secret' closet. There was an original tiny closet in the front bedroom that we had to square off to create room for the tub. We only used this closet to store our suitcases and extra bags - so it's no big deal to lose it. The same texture was done on this wall as well. Just a coat or two of the sanded paint and then I'll paint the color 'Prickly Pear' on this wall so that my closet can be put back together and clothes all hung back up.

The 3rd, and most difficult of the textures is the plaster walls that I had to match in the hallway. This technique takes 2-3 sizes of trowels and many layers of plaster or joint compound. Unfortunately, to match the walls of the hallway I would have to somehow add sand to the mixture so that it has a scratched look to it. I opted out and just went with 3 layers of trowel scrapes in different directions. Since we haven't painted the walls yet to match, it is hard to tell if it will even look good - but from what I can tell - it is good enough ;o) Hehe. We'll see once the first coat of beige goes back on the walls.... that will be the true test! From there, it will either end up with me doing my own technique to the rest of the hallway to match what I did, or trying to figure out what else I can do to somehow add that sanded look. Ugh - I hope it will fabulous with just a coat of paint!

My version of the troweled plaster texture...
I like to think of it as an art piece, haha!

Here's the painted pocket door!

After I was done with the walls, it was time to start helping Brook with the tile floor. Diamond patterns are beautiful and so worth it in the end, but what a pain in the but they are! At least we did the wall tiles last week and had a bit of a break from them! Tonight was much easier, but gravity was not working against us! Brook and I might be frustrated with tile for awhile as looking at it gives me a negative vibe, but we both love how it has turned out so far! We have ordered our shower/tub glass panels and door from a professional company out of Des Moines. They stopped by on Saturday to do any final measurements and will be installing by Feb. 3rd or 4th. This will be the last step - so we may not be able to shower until then, but I can definitely take a bath before then! :o)

Floor is done!
I love the diamond pattern look

Here's a better look at the wall and knee wall

A better look at the new vanity, sinks, faucets
and my favorite mirror

I'm not sure about the rest of you, but I'm a huge fan of HGTV. I almost worship it - when the TV isn't turned to ESPN while Brook is home, it is tuned into Divine Design, Color Splash, Dear Genevieve, Holmes on Homes and my new favorite: Design, Inc. I learn something new everyday and come up with new crazy ideas for projects in our house. One of the more recent ideas was to use a stone cap on our knee wall instead of the typical grouted tile look. Since our knee wall is only 6 inches, if we used tile - it would create one grouted seam all the way up the center of the wall and on top. I wasn't a fan and neither was Sarah Richardson on Design, Inc. Her idea was to use a marble slab for the front as well as the top because it creates a more 'professional' look and you don't have to deal with the corners of grout and tile not matching up, etc. I took the idea and ran with it! We ordered a dark brown granite slab that will cover the top of the knee wall and run down the front of it. I'm super excited and supposedly it will be done tomorrow! I'll believe it when I see it, but if not tomorrow, definitely by Saturday we hope!

Here is Sarah Richardson's (Design Inc.)
table with the stone caps. It finishes the legs
of this table much better than the tile.

We will take that idea and put in on the top
and front of the knee wall, only ours will be
dark brown granite instead of white marble :o)

Now... if you know who I am married to, or at least the personality type of an engineer, you would understand what I go through on a weekly basis whenever we have projects planned. Brook enjoys his spreadsheets and I enjoy getting emails throughout the day with lists of what needs to be accomplished and what errands need to be run to get them done. Here is the list that I received today :o)

Wednesday: CHECK!
Paint door - Steph
Install door - Brook
Texture back bedroom, front bedroom and hallway - Steph
Cut and install window sill - Brook
Paint window sill - Steph
Lay floor tile - Brook and Steph

Thursday:
Menards run to select vent covers - Brook and Steph
Cut window, floor and door trim - Brook
Cut trim for back bedroom, front bedroom and hallway - Brook
Paint window, floor and door trim - Steph
Paint trim for back bedroom, front bedroom and hallway - Brook
Paint front bedroom wall - Steph
Paint hallway wall - Brook
Paint 3rd coat on bathroom window sill and bathroom door - Steph
Paint back bedroom wall (new nursery color) - Steph
Install vent covers - Brook
Grout all tile - Steph
Use flexible caulk around tiles (all corners, tub, etc.) - Steph

Friday:
Day off! Dinner with Brook's parents and a comedy show

Saturday:
Install granite slabs - Brook
Install toilet - Brook
Install door, window and floor trim - Brook
Install back bedroom, front bedroom and hallway trim - Brook
Seal tile grout - Steph
Install shower head and tub faucet - Brook
Install toilet paper and towel racks - Brook
Cut and router oak transition piece to bathroom - Brook
Stain transition piece to bathroom - Brook
Clean front bedroom (set closet back up, clean room) - Steph
Clean rest of house before Steph's parents come in the afternoon! - Brook and Steph

Looks like we have a lot of work still ahead! It goes pretty quickly though. As long as I can get the grout done the rest will just fly! I'm getting excited though! It is almost a working bathroom!! In the meantime - this is the look I get whenever I walk out of the bathroom..

Poor Cody - he just wants some love!