Progress!

So, we are still just one centimeter dialated but I am 50% effaced which means, bascially, that I am progressing. Better than 0%, I guess! Ella's official debut is tomorrow but Dr.Tan thinks she will need a few more days...fine with me....I am getting REALLY nervous but am excited. It is so surreal. I cannot wait to meet our munchkin.

We have had a busy weekend and it has been so wonderful to hang out with good friends, have dinners out with just the 2 of us and to catch up on some errands. I have a big day of flower hunting and cleaning off the deck. Very exciting stuff!



I got to hang out with Beth for a late breakfast/early lunch on Saturday. So good to catch up with her! I haven't been able to catch up with BL so it was nice to sit and enjoy Sweet Bean on Diversey on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. I can't wait to take Miss Ella to Sweet Bean during our summer break.

On Sunday, Miss Kayla had her 2 year old birthday party! Tiffany had everything just perfect and it turned out so wonderfully! The icing on the cake, literally, was the Sweet Mandy B's cake that she had made. I cannot begin to tell you how amazing SWB's is. Honestly. Best. Cake. Ever. Tiff gave us a HUGE slice to nibble on. Yes, I had a little for breakfast this morning. Hey, I only have a couple more days of being pregnant so I went for it. Check out some pics from the party- we had such a great time! So nice to catch up with my friend, Holly, at the party as well and to hang out with Miss O, her 3 month old baby girl. She and Ella will be great gal pals!!











I also wanted to post a pic of my official 40 week belly. I can't believe how big that bump has gotten! Ella has a little less room in there to move around these days but still likes to hiccup whenever possible. She is an active little girl and those "long" legs are still finding ways to fit under my rib cage, especially when it is late at night and I am trying to wind down =) No worries, I know that this is nature's way of preparing me for some sleepless nights.

Ella's room is almost done...there are some little things I want to do (like picking out a chandelier, what? Every girl needs one, right?!) Check out some pics of the pink and green that has become Miss Ella's room. Hope this girl likes pink....
















I have an email already drafted and ready to go to alert everyone of our trip to the hospital! I hope that I am feeling good enough for visitors at Northwestern. Chicago friends- if you are up for a visit to NW Prentice Hospital, let us know! We can't wait to introduce our little nugget to our in-town friends.

Just One?!!

Well, it looks like Miss Ella D. will be taking her very sweet time in arriving, according to Dr. Tan. I am only 1 centimeter with no changes from last week. I was feeling pretty wonderful up until about, oh, a day ago. I am getting pretty uncomfortable and getting a little swollen. My ankles, legs and feet are swollen and my back is aching a lot. I have had a pretty "easy" pregnancy so I guess I am making up for lost time! I will be 39 weeks on Sunday....it could be anyday? Most likely not but that's ok; I have a few more errands to run. Now, if I can just get my swollen ankles and legs moving.....

A lot of happenings...

We have had such a busy couple of weeks preparing for our little Ella Bear (as Daddy likes to call her!) to arrive. We are officially within 2 weeks (or less- OMG) of her arrival. I cannot even believe it sometimes. She is this little person that, according to my babycenter emails, can grasp fingers and make eye contact with her parents already. I cannot wait to smell and squeeze her little fingers right back!

We went to the doctor on Friday for our weekly appointment and we got to see our little girl on the big screen again! It is always exciting to see her. Just her little heart beat alone is the most amazing thing to hear. She is a lot bigger in there now so things are a little harder to discern these days. The sonographer told me that our little one has "cute chubby cheeks". I have scanned a picture of the cheeks but honestly, I cannot tell that they are cheeks! Can Y'all?
We also got to meet another doctor in the group. One of the first things she said was, "oh, your husband must be tall because your baby's legs are long! 75th-100th percentile!" Um, no....both of us are pretty averaage sized?! Apparently, her femur bone is measuring somewhere b/w those percentiles. We will see when she arrives!

Daddy and I had a nice, long dinner outside on Friday night. We have had a stressful couple of weeks with changes coming up and it was just so nice to have a laid back dinner with just the two of us (eeekkk! not for too much longer)!

On Saturday, Scotty and I headed down to the White Sox game to help celebrate Belly's 30th birthday! I was prety impressed with myself and lasted until the 7th inning! I was having pretty bad braxton hicks contractions all day. They have been getting progressively worse the past couple of days which means the end is near, I hear...We had such a gerat time and were so happy to send Belly off into his 30's.
PS- We do not think that Belly is an acceptable nickname for the svelte and buff Kent Bellgrau!





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Mother's Day was a little surreal for me this year. I cannot believe that I will have a little one here soon that will call me "mommy", or, with any influence from my side of the family, "mama". Southerners never say mommy. We are "mama" kind of people.

We had every intention of going to church, however, sleep is hard to come by for me lately. I woke up at 3:30 or so on Sunday morning and couldn't fall back to sleep until 6 am...needless to say, I slept until after 9 am and felt amazing. I definitely think that insomnia is nature's way of getting you ready for having a hungry/cranky/tired baby. We had a wonderful brunch with the entire Vajda family! It was so nice to hang with everyone for Mother's Day. Later, the boys went to play golf and I cleaned as much as I could before running some errands. We topped off the night with sushi with Marko and Tiffany. It was a perfect Mother's Day!



I also wanted to post a picture of my 38 week belly! Look at how huge that bump is now....



Nursery is almost done..I think. We have a duvet coming for the guest bed in her room for visitors. Our chair just got in (yay!) so we will be picking that up this week hopefully! More items are on their way from PBK. I think we are almost there....once the chair is in, we will take pictures of the nursery to post!

Beautiful Start to a Productive Weekend....

Well, I finally remembered why I live in Chicago.....when the weather turns off warm for the first day in a LONG time, transplant Chicagoans (or, I guess just Scott and I) breathe a collective sigh of relief. "Oh, this is why I like living here!" Friday and Saturday were the best days we have had in such a long time. We had our 35 week appointment on Friday and we are looking great! We were able to meet another doctor in the practice and we really like her. She said that my weight gain was perfect and right on track. I have this fear that I am cooking a 10 lb'er..... Seriously! Dr. Buscher seems to think that Ella will be 7.5-8 lbs which is way more managable than a 10 pound baby...We ended the day with take out and an early dinner. Perfect Friday night for me.
After taking the pups for a warm and loooonnggg walk with a pit stop at Dunkin Donuts and crusing Hamlin Park, I left to meet up with some new moms I have met in the past few months. A lot of the girls I haven't seen since early February and most have had their babies! So fun to see what my life will look like in a 4.5 weeks. It is so nice to have first time mom friends to give you their perspectives and experience. They are all so nice and I hope to see them again soon! Hopefully, I will be able to hang with them a little more when I go out on maternity leave. Walks and coffee grabbing will be in order. I stole a picture that was taken of the little ones on Saturday that are already here. They are all boys! Ella will have a ton of boyfriends to play with!



We ran errands (shocker) on Saturday afternoon and picked up more Ella essentials. I am sure there will be at least a few more trips to Babies-R-Us before she arrives. There is one Babies-R-Us in the city but it is not very nice and always picked over...we have been going out to the burbs every weekend for the nicer BRU. We got to run some other errands while out in the faraway burbs. We were very productive! We came home and made dinner on the grill.....

On Sunday we finished painting finally! It turned out a little more pink than I thought it would look...I will let y'all be the judge. Mom will be here to give me her opinion which will be nice. I am thinking about adding some stripes...we will see. I also have to get some window treatments and look for a chandelier. Every girl deserves one....

A picture of me, or should I say, my belly...I forget how truly big I am now. While painting, I needed to squeeze by something. The result: a perfectly pink circle on my obscenely too tight sorority shirt. I think the pink circle is a fun momento from our room painting adventure!

Almost there...

Scotty hard at work...

Scott looks JUST like his dad in this pic!

Final pics coming soon...that is, when the room is finally ready. Hopefully this will occur before my water breaks!

Easter Weekend Activities

No fun pictures to upload, I cannot believe we forgot to break out the camera this weekend. I am the designated picture taker in our family as Scott, bless his heart, ALWAYS forgets to capture memorable happenings. I seem to think that all events are memorable, however, I don't think that sentiment is shared by SMF.

We had an ALL DAY baby class on Saturday at the hospital where we will deliver our Ella. I was hoping that it would be a really laid back with several cool couples to chat with, however, it was a little more intense than I thought it would be....

One of the first questions asked by the hyper, Type-A instructor was "who here plans to use an epidural?" Hate. this. question. It is a very personal decision and I hate how everyone who has an opinion on the matter is quick to tell you theirs. I, however, am not that way. If you want relief, power to you! I am gettting the epidural. Why put myself through undue hardship? Modern medicine is wonderful. I am glad to partake in drugs available for pain. Of course, there were a few people who were anti-edpidural and anti-vaccinations in the class. No biggie. The information provided was helpful and I ended up loving the instructor. Hardcore labor and delivery nurse who was so honest and candid. I didn't want either going into the class. I am more of a "wait and freak out when I get there" type gal. I am glad to know that I understand the process a little better.

I was so tired after the class but so looking forward to having some sweet friends over for Saturday night! People brought plenty of goodies and we had a ton left over on Sunday. After eating a huge brunch on Sunday with Scott after church, I continued to nosh on left overs and Easter goodies that Abby and Beth brought =)

Easter was a little bittersweet this year =) I really miss Atlanta a ton right now and while it was nice to be so productive and spend time with friends this weekend, I would have LOVED to have been home in the warmer weather with family. I miss my Dad a ton and haven't seen him since early March which isn't a long time, however, I know it will be a while until I get to see him again. My mom is coming up in a couple of weeks and I have many errands planned for the both of us. She is super helpful and I love that she will be here before Ella comes to help me get ready.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter this year! This time next year, I hope to have little Ella looking for eggs (or, atleast, looking at Easter eggs!) in an egg hunt with a scary Easter bunny in tow for pictures. It is hard to believe that I will be getting an almost 1 year old ready for Easter next year! We are so excited. I cannot wait to meet this little one who is bumping, kicking, and hiccuping incessantly. She is such a gift and we are so in love with her already.

It is April, for goodness sake....

Well, we had one great day this past weekend and it was Saturday. We were on the go the entire day! A lot of errands were on tab for our weekend. I feel like it will be that way from here on out! We went back to Benjamin Moore this weekend and got a couple more samples for Ella's room. Pink is really hard to pick out! It never seems to be the same color as the swatch. Ever. I posted a pic below of the first 3 colors I picked out...let's hope for some better luck soon.



Also, the dogs are really funny when we are trying to get Ella's room ready. Finlay loves to go in and sniff around and lay around....he has been underneath the crib a few times and I think he has a sneaking suspicion that something big is happening. He is extra sweet and affectionate lately. I think he knows that I am cooking a new sibling for him. I have a feeling that Finaly will be extra protective of our little one. Savannah hasn't a clue, bless her heart....



We went to dinner on Saturday night at the Stefl house. Holly planned a greek menu and it was delicious. I forgot how much I love phyllo dough. I need to make more phyllo dough based entrees. Everything was delicious! It is so fun to see Olivia every week because she changes so much from week to week. She is precious and I had to post a pic of her below. Can't wait for she and Ella to meet!



We spent Sunday on the go as well and are almost finished with baby shopping! We are just have to get the pack and play and stroller. We are almost all set! Ella's room needs some shelves and paint and a new duvet for the bed (we need to coordinate colors, of course!), but other than that, we are almost there. Miss E just needs 6 more weeks to grow...

Birthday and Other Happenings.....

So, I have officially hit the late 20's. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I know, I know, but still! I am very thankful for all of the wonderful things that have happened to me throughout my 20's.....I was not really looking forward to my birthday but Scott had planned a dinner and I spent the day receiving flowers, cards and sweet emails and calls from friends! I also got to have lunch with my sweet friend, Abby. We went to the cutest little bistro at the Peninsula hotel. I posted some pics below from my birthday but am sad to say that I don't have any from our dinner at Coco Pazzo. Dinner was good but not great...it was a tuscan menu but I think that it failed to live up to our expectations coming from our amazing Italian vacay just a few weeks before...



I also realized that I never posted any pictures from our shower in Atlanta that we had a little over a month ago! It was such a wonderful treat to get home to Atlanta to unwind a bit and spend time with family. Scott's parents, Bob and Peggy, were able to come all the way from Danville, Ca. to celebrate with us. It is so nice that Peggy has 2 brothers, John and Bob, in Atlanta as well. It was almost like a mini family reunion. It was so cool to have both families together for such a happy occasion. I got to see some wonderful family friends that I haven't been able to see since our wedding almost 3 years ago. Some of my closest friends in Atlanta were able to come and it was so nice to see my girls =) I was really pregnant this trip down so I was glad to see them before Ella arrives. I posted some pics below of family on the day of our shower. I was sad to not have my grandmother present as she was in the hopsital. She is out and better now, however, we would have love for her to have been there....





Scott was out of town last weekend but the pups and I were able to run a lot of errands, hang out with sweet friends (thanks for the cupcakes, Beth!!) and got to babysit little Kayla while Marko and Tiffany went out for dinner. She is such a doll and we had fun hanging out. While it was fun to run baby errands and have plenty of time to work out and eat cereal in bed while watching Sex and the City multiple times, I was so happy to have my fabulous husband back in town from his bachelor party weekend. We have a lot more to do this weekend and have fun plans with friends. I hope to post more of our nursery progress next weekend. We need to decide on a paint color as soon as possible!! More to come....