Juli & Co.

Today I had my routine OB visit and everything is just fine and dandy :) The baby is happy and growing and I only gained 0.6 pounds over the last two weeks! Hooray for that! At this point, the baby should be gaining about a 1/2 pound a week until delivery so I am pretty sure the next weigh in will not be so nice to me.

I did confirm that the standard hospital stay for c-section moms is only 2-3 days and, yes, the hospital "highly encourages" rooming in with the baby. This is quite a difference from Medical City Dallas where the standard is 5 days and they only bring the baby to you to breastfeed. Ummmm...information that would have been nice to know before we decided to move to The Woodlands! Kidding! ...kind of :) So what this boils down to is, I am going to have to actually take care of the baby...myself...like right away. Oh, and the 5 day hospital vacation that I was so looking forward to, yeah, well, that's obviously not going to be happening. Ha! I guess I'll manage :) Is it bad that I've actually considered driving back to Dallas to deliver this baby? Like seriously. Ha!

In other big news...we finally got the official c-section date! It's going to be Wednesday, June 29th at 7am. That's assuming the baby doesn't decide to come earlier. And, yes, I realize that is just 3 days after Olivia's birthday, but the way I see it, does it really make a difference if they are 3 days apart or 7? Either way, we are going to be doing birthdays back to back or maybe even double birthdays while they are little.  So, that's the day!  And the official countdown has begun!  I'm going to have to find one of those cute countdown thingy-ma-jigs to put on my blog now :)

So...with just 6 and a half weeks left until we meet this little bambino, Operation Baby Ready needs to be kicked into high gear!  Here are the things that we still need to do before the baby arrives.

1. Sand and paint changing table

2. Organize baby closet

3. Buy remaining baby items

4. Finalize baby names

5. Pack hospital bag

6. Buy big bro/big sis shirts and gifts

7. Buy going home outfit for baby

8. Coordinate child care and Nick's time off from work

9.  Buy new infant insert for carseat

10. Figure out car situation

I'm sure there are more things, but this is all my preggo brain can manage right now. :)

So Olivia has officially transitioned into her new big girl room and I can honestly say it has been quite a success. Not only does she love sleeping in her new big girl bed, she now wants to be a big girl in every way. She is now wearing big girl undies all day and all night. She has not had an accident in about a week now and has even started to go poopie in the potty! And for anyone who has had the luxury of knowing us during our first go round with potty training, knows this is a major feat! She was also very happy to give her baby crib and rocking chair to the new baby. I am so happy that this transition has gone as smoothly as it has since just a few weeks ago she was talking about her "big girl crib" and how she may consider sharing it with the new baby but it was her's and she wanted to make sure that we all knew it!

I'm so proud of our little big girl and how much she has grown in the last several months. She is so excited about becoming a big sister soon and is constantly rubbing and talking to my belly. She loves finding old things of her's that do not fit anymore or toys that she has outgrown and taking them to the baby's room. And she asks me just about every day "how's your baby doing?" She brings so much joy and happiness to our lives and I know she is going to be a great big sister.

Here are just a couple of pictures of the completed room, I will upload the rest of them to our family picture website if you'd like to see more. Some of my favorite parts of the room are, of course, the bed that Nick and Luke built together and the "you are my sunshine" wall art. That is Olivia's favorite bedtime song that we have been singing to her since she was born.

Fun times in the Evans House! The things we do to entertain the kids :)