39 Weeks

Here I am at 39 weeks. We're in the home stretch!! I can't believe she could be here anytime! She is so much lower now!

Travel System Success

We got our travel system in today! That relieves tons of stress! Now we have something to take Ramona home in. We were back and forth about what travel system to get. We liked the Bertini that we registered for at Babies R Us. It has good ratings, but I wasn't just crazy about the pattern and color. We talked to a couple of people about what they recommended. Both people said Chicco. Nick did some research and decided to order one from diapers.com. Nick picked a pattern that I didn't like. We got it shipped for free and received it in 2 days. We returned it (UPS came and picked it back up), and they shipped the above one to us - again free shipping and received in 2 days. Diapers.com is a dream to deal with! We got the 30 pound Cortina KeyFit. We're both super happy with it and can't wait to use it!

Another Doctor's Visit

I went in for my weekly visit today. My mom had an appointment in the morning and mine was in the afternoon. Good thing we were going for different reasons! I have actually lost a pound. Nick says I can contribute that to stress. There's probably some truth to that. Dr. Robbins said everything looked the same as it did last week, so we're on schedule still. She's happy with the progress and how things have gone and are going thus far.

She said I have 2 options I can come in on Monday to schedule a time to be induced next week or I can just schedule a normal appointment next week. I opted for a normal appointment. The floors should be finished on Friday of next week, so we'll be able to live in the house by then. If she comes before then, I'm okay with that. I just figure I might as well wait instead of being induced at this point. Technically, we still have a week until her due date. I am ready to see her and physically ready for this pregnancy to be over! However, I want to be patient and bring her home to our house if possible.

Dr. Robbins thinks Ramona is about 7 pounds 3 oz right now. I guess she might be 8 pounds by the time she's born.

38 Weeks & 3 Days

Well we were a few days late taking our 38 week picture with the hospital visit and a packed weekend. You can tell that Ramona has dropped which I knew from my doctor's appointment and from feeling her work her way down. Ramona is just sticking out there. Everyone is asking me when I'm due. I guess it's obvious I'm near the end. It's funny because this entire pregnancy has gone by without strangers asking me about being pregnant. That's stopped now. I'm okay with that especially since people have kept their hands to themselves.

The Hospital

I went to the hospital today. Don't worry I did not think I was in labor. I had a very sharp back pain that kept Nick and I up all night. It felt similar to what I have experienced with a kidney infection. I called the doctor in the morning because I'm terrified to wake her up at night and get on her nerves. She said I should head up to Baylor to make sure it's not a kidney infection since that could be problematic. We got right into a room and were thinking well this won't be that bad. Almost 6 hours later we had missed our hair appointment and discovered no kidney infection. It was apparently something muscular which is totally fine I can handle the pain as long as I know everything is okay with Ramona. Luckily, we completed some health questions that we won't have to answer again when we go in for the big day. We also discovered the nurses were very nice! Lindsey our friend and hair stylist let us come 2 hours late to our appointment. I didn't get to dye my hair though because Nick had to play at a coffee house in downtown McKinney. Oh well next time baby Ramona will be with us!

Doctor Update

I went to the doctor's today. I have gained 3 pounds in 1 weeks. That's just insane and nearly impossible! Dr. Robbins thinks that Ramona will be here a week to a few days early. Wow. At the end of the appointment she said, "I'll see you next week and that will probably be your last appointment!" Seriously has it already been 9 months?!? I made sure to pre-register for Baylor Downtown Ft. Worth. She said they have my chart and are just waiting on Ramona! Also encouraging to know that if I'm in active labor then I'm cleared by her to get an epidural! Hopefully there won't be a whole lot of waiting on that. There is so much left to do before she gets here. Nick and I have been all smiles today realizing that it won't be long. It's exciting but scary too.

Ellis Shower

I had my last shower today at school. It was nice to fellowship with the wonderful ladies I work with! My team did a fabulous job putting everything together. I know it wasn't easy to coordinate everything especially at the beginning of the year! I appreciate them so much more than they will ever realize! I got some very cute things including a diaper bag from Cut Out & Collect.

Ramona has a bath! I can't wait to wash her little feet (and hopefully her hair)!

Shower at Lolli's

My mother-in-law aka Lolli hosted a shower for me and Ramona this weekend. It was raining and the traffic was crazy but eventually everyone got there despite the highway closure due to an accident. We had an intimate gathering of family and friends. It was a great time to celebrate our upcoming arrival and share baby stories about me and Nick. We received amazing gifts and are so blessed to have such great support. We got a baby food maker from Lolli! I'm really excited to make Ramona's baby food when we actually get to that point!

We finally got a picture of the Snowden ladies - my little sister Apryle, mom, me and my sister Alicia!

It wouldn't be a Wills gathering without great food!

The cake was delicious of course. It matched the invitations complete with a bird on the front!

Thank you Lolli for a great shower and all the time and energy you poured into it.

37 Weeks

37 weeks and growing. We only have 3 weeks left! Nick and I have been reading Oh Baby, The Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss/Tish Rabe to Ramona. I am preparing for maternity leave and by preparing I technically mean that I'm thinking about it a lot. It's so stressful to plan that far ahead especially since my kids don't know the routine of things yet.

Maternity Photos

Here's a sneak peek at our maternity photos. We took them on Labor Day. It was extremely humid which did not work in our hair's favor. However, these are really cute. I can't wait to see more. Carleen Sparkman of Charm Me Photography took the shots at Rose Park in Mansfield.

Sweet kisses from Nicholas.

Baby belly love.

Look at that 36 week and 2 day belly!

Another Day at the Doctors

I had a routine checkup today. It was my last bimonthly appointment which only means I go weekly now. Ramona is somewhere around 4 pounds now. Dr. Robbins said she's average and will probably be 6 lbs something when she's born. She's right on schedule for her due date as well. There's probably only a few days give or take from her projected Oct. 3rd arrival. I have at least 2 to 3 weeks left. I've gained 4 more pounds..ugh. I guess I'm just going to quit counting because I'm on track to blow through my weight goals.

They started on the house today. I guess it's a good thing Ramona doesn't look like she's coming too early because the tear out is slow going. They took out the marble in the entry and the dining room along with the laminate in the kitchen. To our surprise linoleum was underneath that laminate. I was hoping that entire tear out would be done today. Let's just hope the wood goes down by Friday. I am not as stressed about it as I thought I would be. I guess I just figure I'll wait until tomorrow to see how much is done before I stress. It might just be because I'm too exhausted from moving all that crap off the floors last night to have any energy left to stress out.

36 Weeks

I can't believe it's already been 36 weeks. Where has the time gone? I hear these next 4 weeks will drag, but with the remodel officially beginning (We close on Tuesday!) I don't know if that will be the case with me. I am also hoping to get my students in more of a routine and more independent before my precious Ramona arrives.

I went to get my nails and a pedi today with my mother in law. I am having pregnancy photos taken Monday morning by Carleen Sparkman of Charm Me Photography. Check out the link. She has some very precious photos. Let's hope Ramona is a good newborn model for her!

We went to Chuy's tonight to celebrate Nick's Uncle Bobby's 50th birthday. The entire Wills family was there (except Allen and Taylor)  including Nick's 2 cousins - Trey and Trista from GA. It was nice to see everyone especially since we really don't see them anymore. We went to Dave and Buster's afterward and played around eventually ending up on a trivia game to burn up all the money left on our card. There were 6 spots and so we all played against each other once everyone left the game. It was lots of fun and extremely tiring. I'm glad it's a 3 day weekend to recover from the madness.

Baby Shower #2

I am so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends who attended my baby shower. My sister Alicia took on a huge job of having it at her house with her husband out of town and 2 kids! My friend from 4th grade Kristina hosted the shower along with Alicia. It was so beautiful and absolutely perfect! It was great to see friends I had not seen in a while and open Ramona's first presents! I can't thank Alicia and Kristina enough. They did a fabulous job.

This is only half of the clothes Ramona got! We ran out of room on her clothesline. There was a definite theme of pink in all of her outfits!

This cake was so delicious. It's from Kathy's Icing on the Cake in Arlington. She made Alicia's shower cake and Bryson's birthday cakes. It's made me start thinking about Ramona's 1st Birthday cake already! I know it will be here so quick I won't even be able to believe it!

Nick sent a gift to the shower. I really didn't know what it was. I knew how much it costs (thank you mint.com), but I kept thinking it must be something for the nursery which wouldn't make sense because I'm "not allowed" to see certain items for the nursery. Basically I didn't know what to expect. It was a Kate Spade diaper bag! The pattern is one that I love and have loved for a while. I didn't really know what I was going to do for a diaper bag. I think it's like a purse in that you will want it set up a certain way once you really know what you like. At least I'll look like a trendy momma!