Our Nursery

Our Nursery, isn't it cute!!!

Ok, so it isn't exactly what a normal baby's nursery looks like. Since we are moving 3 weeks before Aubrey is due, we are just having to pack everything up and decorate the nursery when we move. Wherever that nursery, house, apartment, condo, or whatever may be. (Colleen and I are going to Cookeville this weekend to start looking for places to live.) When I brought our "loot" back from the baby shower we had baby stuff in our living room, office, and extra bedroom. I told Kyle it looked like Babies R Us had thrown up all over the house. Well I finally got the motivation last night to organize, pack, and even clean the newborn clothes we'll use. It felt so good to get everything organized. So above is our "baby corner" in our extra bedroom. It may not look organized but I can tell you where anything is. This is a picture of what it looked like before and I should have gotten a better picture because our living room was a disaster!

I even have her clothes separated into 3-6 months and 6 and above months boxes, I know, impressive, right? Well I was on such an organizing kick that I wanted to have everything we'll need when she gets here easy to access in case she comes pre-moving, although both Kyle and I have had several talks with her and she knows she needs to come after June 10th (possible moving date). Well I got her a box full of stuff we'll need as soon as she gets here and that includes all of her 0-3 month clothes cleaned, folded, and boxed away. It was the most fun load of laundry I've ever done!

Here's my organized newborn box.

Yay for organizing!!! I feel so much better now. Now just to find a place to put all of her baby stuff in oh and a place to put our baby in too.

Hello Third Trimester!

Well I am happy to say this week I started my third trimester. I can't believe that in 3 months we will have our little baby in our arms. It's been a good week in the fact that I passed my glucose test at the doctor, woo hoo no gestational diabetes! My doctor's appointment went well and we had lots of questions to ask the nurse practitioner who we met with this time. I really like the nurse practitioner, I like our doctor too but I've always had female obgyns and I feel more comfortable with the nurse practitioner. Our other big thing is I had to get a Rogam shot because I am RH negative, which means I'm A- blood type and since Kyle is O+ I have to get this rogam shot at 27 weeks and then again when I deliver. I don't have a problem with shots or giving blood, but this wasn't fun. The nurse put the shot in the back of my hip and when I turned around I hadn't seen the needle (no problem, shots don't bother me, right?) well Kyle's eyes got really big and I jumped forward when she stuck me. That sucker was long and hurt pretty bad. Kyle's eyes were big at the size of the needle. Overall everything went great and now I start going to the doctor every two weeks.

Here's a picture from our SAA shower. Rebecca is 34 weeks, I was 27 weeks and Alarie is just 5 days behind me.

We've talked about her name a lot, and we even got some things embroidered from my baby shower last week so we're sticking with the name unless she comes out looking like a Frederick or something else. Sooooo we will be calling our baby girl...

Aubrey Lynne
We are having a relaxing Sunday, but I am going to start boxing up some of the baby stuff that we won't use until after we move. Kyle and I both say it looks like a babies r us has thrown up all over our house. We have a thunderstorm in Harrogate right now, which we don't have many. That is one thing I miss about St. Louis is all of the tornado warnnings, thunder, and listening to the rain. I know weird, but I love listening to a good thunderstorm. You can't really tell in this picture but we kept our front door open watching the rain and Bailey seems to like it as much as we do, until there was a loud clap of thunder and she ran over to us scared. Well I'm going to sit back and enjoy the rain. (When I really should start on the boxes, but they can wait.)

My Hilarious Nephew

I had so much fun playing with my 2 nephew and neice this past week. I wasn't able to catch every funny thing they all did on camera, but I was able to catch two funny things that Caden had done. Caden and Pa Pa watch clips from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, yeah Pa Pa gets in trouble for this sometimes. There is a part in the movie where they have the Knights that say NI! He loves saying it and it was cracking us up.

The other thing I caught on tape was Caden picking toe jams. He used to have this fetish of looking for toe jams a while back and he started looking for them again last week. He goes through each toe methodically and if he sees anything he picks it. Well then he decided he needed to pick Aunt Kimmy's toes too. He had us all cracking up. I'm glad I have a funny neice and nephews. I can't wait to see what they teach their cousin.

I'm back...

Well I made it back safely from a great visit with family and friends back in Bethalto. Just some of the fun things I did.
1. Go out with Kimberly several times for her birthday!
2. Go to Disney's on Ice with all of the kids, sisters, and mom
3. Have an awesome shower and got tons of stuff for our baby girl.
4. See Kyle's mom, sisters, and tons of the Toti family. (Thanks guys for coming all the way over to Bethalto)
5. Go shopping in Chesterfield...oh how I miss you civilization.
6. Have lunch with my teacher friend Katie
7. Hang out with several other friends (see Joy and her new baby Reese, dinner with Amanda, and hours of chatting with Lauran)
8. Spend a ton of time with my nephew Caden and experience his hilarious antics.
9. Breakfast in bed (crepes and bacon), with my mom and sister, while watching Grey's Anatomy...I know it sounds like heaven, right?
10. Watch everybody jump on Caden's new trampoline, I just got to watch though. No jumping for me and baby.

I had an amazing time but was glad to come home and see Kyle and Bailey, I missed them a ton! We had a great day in Gatlinburg yesterday after dropping my mom off at the airport and then we headed to a friends house to watch the Kansas game, bbq, and roast smores (minus the hershey's part). This morning I woke up and was in the middle of a dream where I was in labor, so I told Kyle I'm 5 cm so I'm going back to bed to finish this thing. I couldn't wake up like that only being halfway done. So I go back to bed and for some reason my mom was there in the delivery room and we were waiting for Kyle. So I had to go back to sleep to see how this thing ended, hopefully with a beautiful, healthy baby. After starting to feel some tightening contractions I wake up and realize that what I was feeling was real...weird. I'm only 26 weeks and I didn't freak out and think oh my gosh....pre-term labor. I just laid there for a while to wake up some more and see what was really going on. Kyle had read about the possibility of Braxton Hicks happening this early so I figured ok this is probably what it is, I'll just see how it goes. I woke up Kyle to give him a heads up and explained to him what I was feeling and he was guessing it was the same thing. This went on for about 30 minutes and I finally fell back asleep. I told him it basically felt like someone was twisting a rag for about 30-40 seconds and then letting it go. I wonder if this is really how a contraction will feel like, I guess I will just have to wait and see. The one big thing I learned from this was if I tensed up when my stomach tightened then it hurt more and lasted longer. If I just relaxed then it seemed to not be as bad. I'm feeling fine now and we're not worried but I am going to let our doctor know about it at our appointment next week. This was definitely a learning experience for me and for Kyle.

New Baby Belly Purpose

Kimberly turned 21 on Friday and we found a new purpose for my baby bump. We had two fun nights of going out, more to come about that later.

A beer holder!!!

Happy Birthday sis! Love ya!

Baby Shower

I am spending this week at home since I have the week off for spring break. My fabulous sisters, mom, and friends threw a baby shower for me and it was a blast. We had people coming from all over. Kyle's mom came up from Texas. My sister came in from Indiana and several of Kyle's family came over from Missouri. It was so good to see family and friends and it makes me miss living around here even more. Here are just a few pictures from the day and thank you to all of my amazing family and friends and their generosity to me, Kyle, and our baby girl.

My mom, sisters, and neice and nephew who helped throw the shower. Thanks for everything guys!


My awesome friends Savannah and Lauran who helped throw my shower. Thanks girls! Lauran has a little friend for our little girl in her belly right now, she's almost done with her first trimester.


4 Generations. 1 member just isn't visible.


Kyle's mom, Aunt Shelby, and Aunt Erika


My amazing friends that I still have from high school. I love you girls!


My Geggie teacher friends and now my blogging friends too, Megan and Katie drove from Eureka to come. It was so good seeing you girls, thank you sooo much for coming. Megan and Katie both have blogs, Megan has some cute crafty stuff and Katie is an amazing photographer.


It was an awesome day and we got tons of great stuff for our little girl. Thanks everyone for everything!!!

Not a Calm Day

Some days our baby girl is calm and relaxed and I can just imagine her just chilling and relaxing in there. Well today was not one of those days. It started when I was actually sitting down at school(this doesn't happen that often) and we were reading in the library. Well she started moving all over the place and pushing and kicking. It was cute and maybe that means she likes reading!! Then later I was doing a Jeopardy review game with my 6th graders and she was all over the place. Jeopardy isn't quiet in my classroom like it is on tv either. We play boys vs. girls and they get so excited it's hard to keep them in their seats. Well with all of the excitement and all of the moving around I was doing I was shocked that she was so active. All of a sudden I felt a huge punch to the kidneys or something because I said Ow! The kids were like what's wrong Mrs. Toti. I told them I just got sucker punched by the baby. They were like are you alright. Well I was and then two 6th grade boys said, Sorry Mrs. Toti we taught her karate. They crack me up. So either our baby loves Jeopardy or is going to be a karate fighter.

Only in Harrogate

I was sitting out on our front porch today because it was beautiful out. I was talking to my mom on the phone for a while and letting Bailey run around and in those 10 minutes of sitting outside I saw two interesting things on the road. The first one was 2 kids driving a 4 wheeler. We live on a pretty busy street so that was weird. The second was even weirder. I saw a kid sitting on his mom's lap driving a pick up truck. The lady wasn't even holding onto the steering wheel and the kid was like 4 years old. He looked like this kid off of Jerry Maguire.

To top it all off the truck was a spray painted camouflage truck, just didn't have the dog in it. Oh, Harrogate...

Pound of Ground Beef

Ok, I have to start this post out by saying I love you Colleen and I'm only sharing this because you are one of the funniest friends I've ever had! So I went for a girl's day of shopping with my friend Colleen and Alarie. Alarie is pregnant too and her due date is 5 days after mine. We were sitting having an Auntie Anne's pretzel (delicious by the way) and Colleen asked how big the babies were right now. I said they are as long as a ruler. Well then she asked how much do they weigh and Alarie said between 1 pound and pound a half. Colleen then was baffled by how skinny that would make our babies. She then asked, so are they like a snake. By this time, I am busting up laughing and I said no they are more full than that. Then, she goes...Oh, like a pound of ground beef. I start to laugh even harder. She goes well that's a pound and if you stretch it out to about the size of a ruler that's how big your babies are. So yes, right now our baby girl is a stretched out pound of ground beef! I love you Colleen, thanks for the laughs and the fun day of shopping. Our pound of ground beef baby girl can't wait to meet her funny Aunt Colleen.

Bailey likes her baby sister already too!! Yes, it's frozen but Kyle said it would make her sick so I took it away from her, don't worry.

Bass Pro Baby

Kyle and I drove to Gatlinburg last weekend to go to his favorite store Bass Pro Shop. Kyle had some gift cards to use and he actually said we were going to buy baby bedding. I wouldn't let him get the bedding but he did a few things for his little soon to be fisherwoman. She now has her very own bass pro bib and a pink camouflage bottle. Yep, a camouflage bottle, you read it right. I wonder how long until she has her own fishing pole.

I'm so ready for spring so I broke out my skirt and said I hate you snow, please come spring. I even wore a yellow shirt and yellow earings hoping the sun would come out today annnnnd it did! I thank you. I know I'm a dork. Well here's 24 weeks for you. Only 16 more to go. We'll have a baby here in less than 4 months...crazy! Oh, she's moving like crazy now and Kyle loves feeling her move around and kick like she's going for a field goal. Kyle said she was moving last night while I was sleeping. Weird to think she's moving even when I'm sleeping.

I also got to wear my cute Christmas boots...thanks Grandma.

Half Gallon Baby

So I have a half gallon of milk in me, but no not because I drank one because that's how big our baby is. I got an email today that said at 24 weeks our baby girl will be the size of a half gallon milk! That seems huge! One girl today at school said Mrs. Toti you're so big, you're going to have a huge baby. A teacher that heard it said no she's not, she's really small. The girl proceeded to tell me that she thinks the baby will be like 10 pounds. REALLY??? What junior high kid tells a teacher that. I just stood their and said, nope she's really not that big. After reading the milk email though she does sound big.

Tonight I am headed to water aerobics at LMU. Yep, I sound like a 60 year old grandma saying I'm headed to water aerobics. The woman that teaches yoga that I go to told me about it and said it feels really good to be in the water when you're pregnant. I can't use the excuse that I don't have a swimsuit, because before our Thanksgiving cruise I bought a maternity swimsuit top. It didn't fit at all when we left for the cruise but now it definitely does. I may even give you a sneak peek of what I looked ilke before heading off to water aerobics (haha, every time I say that I laugh and picture a bunch of older women wading around in the water).

Do you notice anything that has grown besides the baby? Yeah, definitely a good sympton of pregnancy. :)

*Post water aerobics update- Ok so it did look like this...

But it was actually a decent work out. My lower back or actually "sacrum" (my fancy medical term, aren't you proud) actually felt better after being in the water for an hour. I will definitely be going back to go swimming with all of the grandmas (Don't laugh at me).

Weird Dreams...

So one thing I didn't expect with pregnancy were these crazy dreams that I've had. When I was only about 10 weeks I woke up from such a surreal dream that we had already had the baby. I woke up thinking I had actually had the baby, it was really bizarre. Well just recently I've had the dream that has topped any so far. So if you didn't know, Kyle would've really liked having a boy. Sure he's going to love his little girl and he'll be wrapped around her finger but he thought without a doubt we were having a boy...boy, do I like being right :). Anyway, so I had a dream that I went into labor, ok nothing new there have had those dreams before. Well when it came to the baby our Doctor said here's she comes....wait it's a boy. At this point, Kyle starts shouting Yes! Yes!! I told you so!! in my face while I'm still pushing (something he would totally do). Then the doctor said wait there's another one, and I was thinking WHAT!!! We only ordered one! Well what do you know that one was a boy too. Kyle was really going nuts at this point and was jumping up and down and yelling Told you so! I knew I was right! Then, I woke up.

Hmmmm, what does this dream tell me. I don't know. Are we really having a boy? Pretty sure that's a no since the ultrasound tech. said she was 100% sure it was a girl. Are we having twins? I SURE HOPE NOT! Don't get me wrong I love babies and excited for this one, but exactly just excited for this one, not two. I don't know what it means but I'm interested to find out what the next crazy dream will be about.