Maternity Photography

I kind of meant to share these pictures with you before Leon was born, but it didn't really work out that way.  I wanted to take a few maternity photographs because I just like taking pictures.  But taking pictures of myself is always hard.  I have an idea in mind but it is hard to get someone else, or the timer to take the picture just how I want.   I do like how these turned out.  And yes, in case they look familiar, I was inspired by pinterest!

I look so tiny in this next picture, definitely not full term.  I was probably about 7 1/2 or 8 months pregnant.

Next week I'll post more pictures of Leon, I promise.

Watch What I'm Wearing

Looking at these reminds me of how happy I am that I'm not pregnant anymore.  These are the last maternity pictures I took and I am 39 1/2 weeks pregnant!  No wonder Leon was 9lbs 6oz, look how big my tummy is!  And believe me it was hard as a rock.  I was so uncomfortable I couldn't bend at all or I felt like I would throw up.  I also couldn't eat very much the last two weeks because my stomach was so squished it barely held any food.  Oh and my back/ribs hurt anytime I sat or laid down.  Lets just say that this was by far my hardest pregnancy and I am glad it is over.

Dress: Target  Shoes: Gift

The  most clicked on link was...

by Stylishly in Love

It's a Boy!

Leon Woestman was born 3-19-13 at 4:32pm.  At 9 lbs 6 oz and 21 inches long he definitely is our biggest baby! And he surprised us all with brown hair!

The labor and delivery went pretty well. I'll post more info later but for now i'll just let you know that there weren't any complications and we are both healthy and doing well.

Watch What I'm Wearing

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  I wore this dress last weekend when Sister Sheri Dew came to speak to our stake.  She was very good and inspiring.  That morning I was having contractions so I thought I might not make it.  But they died down and even though I wasn't feeling great I was able to stay for the conference.  This is the first time I wore this dress during this pregnancy.  Which is funny because I wore it pretty much every other week during my last three pregnancies.  It was my favorite, but I did get kind of sick of it.  I thought I would wear it one more time and be done with it, probably for good.

Dress: Motherhood  Cardigan: Old Navy  Shirt: Down East  Shoes: Gift

The most clicked on link was...

by Elena at DC In Style

Hospital Visit!

For those of you who have been following you might have noticed that I have been sick a lot.  It seems like I have been sick more times during this pregnancy than the rest of my life.  First I had morning sickness that was worse than anything I ever dealt with, then I got some sort of virus and started having tons of anxiety issues from there.  I got the never ending cough and a separate cold.  I blame some of these on Tucker because he is exposed to so many more people at school and this is our first year dealing with that.  Anyway, yesterday I was hospitalized for the second time during the pregancy, but this time for some sort of stomach bug.

Bob had it on Monday and it was pretty bad.  I tried so hard not to get it.  He stayed in the bedroom the entire time and sanitized the house a ton, not to mention endless hand washing.  I even slept on the couch I really didn't want to get what he had.  Unfortunately I woke up at about 3am Wednesday morning throwing up.  I had it bad and the doctor wanted me to go to the hospital to get an iv because I wasn't able to keep any liquids down.  So Bob took off work and I spent the day in the hospital.  Good news is that Thursday morning I was already feeling much better.  And Bob took off again, making it the fourth day in a row, so I can still rest.  I bet people at his work think I had the baby.  On a side note, congrats to my brother and sister-in-law who were in the hospital (different hospital)  the same time as me but actually did have their baby!  

Hopefully next week I can have a much more pleasant hospital visit and have my baby. And by more pleasant I mean I am not throwing up everywhere and almost passing out.   I know having a baby going to be hard!  I'm shooting for Wednesday, the first day of Spring.

Watch What I'm Wearing

When I bought this dress I didn't realize that it would get shorter and shorter as my belly got bigger and bigger.  Kind of a no brainer now that I look back but at the time it went to my knees, which is perfect for me, and I bought it.  This week I wore it with my new black slip sticking out a good 5 inches.  I think that because of the way the dress layers in the front the slip sticking out looks ok.  Besides I only have a few more chances to wear the dress, I really wanted to make it work.

dress, tights, & belt: Target  Shoes: Ross

I'm 37 1/2 weeks pregnant in these pictures and my tummy is nice and round!  I'm not sure how much bigger it can get, my skin is already so tight.

The most clicked on link was...

by Stylishly in Love

Birth Announcements

Ok, so with the baby coming soon (hopefully) I am thinking about sending out birth announcements. I didn't send out any with the other kids but I think they are fun and really cute so this time I am going for it.

I came across this website called Tiny Prints and it was pretty addictive.  I actually spent a couple hours going through their hundreds of announcement ideas and picking out my favorites.  I even uploaded old pictures I took so I could get a feel for what it would look like.  What do you think?

Don't mind the wrong info, I just filled it out for Scarlett off the top of my head and didn't really change it when I put other kids into the cards.

They have lots of boy and girl options but I couldn't help but lean toward the girl announcements.

They have all kinds of announcements and invitations on their website.  I really like this baby shower invitation.

Ok, so which did you like?  One picture so you can see the baby close up, or multiple picture options.  There are so many choices it is going to be really hard for me to pick one.

Getting Ready

Ok, so the baby is officially full term and we spent the weekend getting ready.  I feel like this baby could be born any day now and I am getting pretty anxious about it.  Every time my stomach feels a little off I think I am having contractions and then I get really nervous about it and that just makes me feel worse.  Even writing this post I ams starting to feel nervous.  You would think with my fourth baby I would be calm about the whole thing but for some reason I am more nervous than ever.

Bob got down the newborn cloths and I went through them picking out one boy and one girl outfit for the hospital.  I really think it is a girl though.  I can just see us being a family of mostly girls.  Not that we have any names picked out.  We have a list of about 20 names and I think we are just going to end up picking one after the baby is born.  Bob is set on a boy name, but I don't know about it.  We will see.

Bob also got out the baby swing, bouncer, carseat, and bassinet.  I washed everything and we packed our bags.  I put a few things in for me at the hospital and one bag for each of the kids.  The plan is for my mom to take them to her house for a couple days once the baby is born and I didn't want to stress about getting their stuff ready when I am in labor.  It seemed like I had to pack a lot for them but I  had to be ready for different scenarios, like if they need church clothes, or something green for St. Patricks day. While at the same time not packing anything favorite that will be missed if we are still three weeks out.

Tucker also worked hard on cleaning up his room.  His closet and underneath his bed was getting pretty messy and it really needed going through.  The bag he is holding is full of garbage.

Now we are just waiting, waiting, waiting for this baby to come.  Part of me wants something exciting to happen, like my water breaks while in public.  But I also want things to be smooth and easy.  It is just hard, and a little fun, not knowing what will happen.

Watch What I'm Wearing

This dress is probably the last thing, aside from unbuttoned cardigans, that isn't maternity that I still fit into.  Probably because it was kind of big in the first place.  Confession: I think I like this dress more as a maternity dress than a normal dress.  It was really comfy and not many things are these days.

Dress: Gift  Jacket: Gift   Shoes: Payless  Belt: Good Will

I know I have grow out and need to re-dye my hair but I think I am just going to wait until after the baby is born.  I'm 36 1/2 weeks pregnant in these pictures and I'm not really planning on getting out much for the first couple of weeks so what is the point of having great hair?  I'm sure it won't get too bad during the next month.

I had to throw in a picture of Bob this week.  I think he is wearing his "new" favorite church pants.  They are not really new.  They were actually bought at Good Will about 2 years ago but he never ever wore them.  Now he likes to wear them all the time so it seems like he got a new pair of pants.  I like them too.

The most clicked on link was...

by Love on a Budget.

Watch What I'm Wearing

This was my Valentines Day inspired outfit.  I love holidays and had to wear either something red or pink.  FYI: I'm 35 1/2 weeks pregnant here.

Shirt: Motherhood  Belt: f21  Skirt: Made it!  Shoes: Payless

The most clicked on link was...

by Loverly She

Pregnancy Work Out Videos

Working out while pregnant can be hard.  Especially during this pregnancy.  I didn't work out at all during the first part while I was sick.  But now that I am getting closer to the delivery I want to get somewhat in shape to help not only with the delivery but with the recovery.  I'm not really sure it makes a big difference but I know it is good for me either way.  Plus working out while pregnant helps me feel a little bit better.  I notice my back isn't in as much pain on days when I work out.

I don't have a gym membership so I have been doing various work out videos.  It was great when netflix had them but they have been taken down so I rely on the library.  I think I have tried somewhere around 15 or 20 different prenatal work outs but I narrowed it down to three that I like.  So many of the maternity work outs are in my opinion pretty lame.  They don't even give you a work out.  But these three are good.

Ok, so don't make fun of my yoga poses.  I know they aren't perfect.  And yes, I work out in my pajamas.  Why would I buy maternity work out clothes for my family room?

 The first is 10 Minute Solution Prenatal Pilates.  It is about $7 on amazon and my favorite prenatal work out dvd.  I love it because it has 5 short 10 minute workouts so I can do as much or as little as I feel like.  I've used this for three of my pregnancies and am only a little bored with it.

The Prenatal Fitness Fix with Erin O'brien cost about $12 and pretty good to.  It doesn't break up into sections like the others but I get a pretty good work out with it.  I guess I can't really explain it but for some reason I like this one more than the other random ones I got from the library.

The third DVD I really like is Jennifer Wolfe's Vinyasa Yoga.  It is a bit pricer at $25 but the yoga is good and sometimes I am in the mood for yoga instead of something faster pace.  Most of the prenatal yoga videos I have done can be a little weird.  Like chanting and a lot of resting, but with this I really get a work out.  And the best part is that it has 15, 30, and 45 minute workouts!  I usually do the 15 minute one on days where I don't have a lot of time.