Belly Shots

I was not inclined to get any maternity photos at all.  I am not one of those people who feels attractive in my body of late and I figured if I ever really wanted to remember what I looked like pregnant, I have this blog that I can look at anytime.  On a whim when I found out that I would have some spare time before bridesmaid time kicked in on our trip to L.A., I asked my dear friend and wonderful photographer Stacy if she'd mind snapping some shots of us. 

We hadn't planned for it ahead of time so we pulled out things from our suitcase without much thought and headed down to the beach by our hotel.  In broad sunlight and with awkward subjects, Stace made her magic work.  I am so grateful to have these pictures to document this time in our lives.  I am also so grateful to our dear friend who took time from her vacation on a spur of a moment request by us. She gave us a great gift by sharing her talents with us and I am so glad that we did it.

Stacy lives in the Bay Area and does a beautiful job documenting families in a very natural way.  Her photography blog and personal blogs are linked on the right hand side of this blog. Check out her beautiful photos and darling little boy.  THANK YOU AGAIN STACE!

This little boy will be here soon!

Nursery Complete (almost)

The nursery is basically complete with the exception of his bedding (on back order from two vendors . . . . ugh!) and his big orange letter (which looks awesome behind the rocker, but won't be put up until we bring the little man home). Our rocker came last night and was really the finishing touch to his room.  Once it went in, I knew it was time to do this post.  This is our favorite room in the house now and we cannot wait to spend time in here reading, playing, cuddling and hopefully spending time with an easy baby who eats and sleeps like an angel. Wishful thinking doesn't hurt does it?

The cool marble lamp was in Chris' room growing up.  It is also one of my favorites in this baby's room.

My mom sewed the window seat cushion and big floor pillows.  After years of not sewing, it was quite the project for her and we love them!

Spoiled

I have been terrible about blogging lately, but is is because I have been busy getting spoiled beyond belief.  We were spoiled with love and so many adorable baby things this weekend as my friends threw us a baby shower and we had a birthday BBQ to celebrate Chris' 30th.

Becky, Lynsey and Cheryl hosted as amazing baby shower for me.  I am not typically much of a shower girl, but these girls went above and beyond and hosted the cutest shower ever with decadant goodies including homeade chocolates among other things and adorable decorations including pictures of me and Chris when we were babies.  They put in so much effort and I appreciated every second of it.  I was so blessed to be able to celebrate this baby in such good company.

Are these adorable girls the cutest or what!?!

I kid you not when I say that we were so spoiled. Check out all of this baby loot!  I am almost embrassed to post it, but I do want to say thank you so much to everyone for the wonderful gifts.  I have been pleasantly surprised with how cute little boy stuff has gotten.  It may never be as cute as ruffles and tutus, but it is still pretty fun.

We then took the busy day into the night by having a BBQ at our place for Chris.  I was bad with the camera and didn't take one picture.  However, Monday  morning I made Chris be in one before he even got dressed so that we at least had one picture of the birthday boy!  The best compliment ever is when he said these were my best streamers yet!   Happy 30th Huz.  30 looks good on you!

 Thanks for coming guys and for making the weekend so wonderful for Chris, me and Baby Johnson!

I am also way behind on pregnancy pics.  It has been over a month since we took the last one.  So here I am in all my glory at 35 weeks.  The NBC Olympic countdown reminds us every morning that the baby is coming very soon (my due date falls right in the middle of the Olympics).   Only 35 more days to go until my due date... we'll see if I make it that long.  It is feeling like this little man is already running out of room in there.

And for a final bit of humor, for better or worse Chris and I have been attending baby classes.  Two things that have made me laugh are 1) Chris being the biggest complainer about how uncomfortable the chairs are when there are 8-10 riducoulsy pregnant ladies sitting in the same eact chairs and 2) the teachers suggestion for comforting a woman after she's had a contraction by saying... "that is the last time you will ever feel that contraction" in a sing songy calming voice as if that makes the next one any better!  These classes have been an eye opening experience for Chris who somehow escaped taking a single biology class in his entire schooling career.   I don't know if I'd suggest others do them or that I'd ever do them over, but I figured it was time Chris learned something about biology :)

Baby J in 3D

My mom has been desperate to see an ultrasound of the baby so she signed up for a 3D ultrasound to meet her third grandson.  Although he is usually a mover and shaker, our little man was very calm the entire time with his hands by his face (much to the displeasure of my mom and the ultrasound tech). Despite the ultrasound tech jiggling my belly and my mom trying to "talk" to the baby, he was content to just chill while his semi alien-looking photos were taken.  I don't know that I would ever sign up for this on my own, but I was glad that my mom got to see what she's been waiting for.  Meet baby Johnson in 3D!

He appears to have abnormally large hands and a mischievous little grin already.

 He also expressed his boredom in the womb with this nice yawn.  Either that or he is trying to eat his giant hand.

Babymania (30 weeks)

We are in full baby mode.  Chris finished his hard work on the nursery and did an unbelievable job.  I will admit that we didn't share the same vision for the wainscoting on this room.  I just didn't understand how he could turn a bunch of 1x4s  in to a beautiful baby boy's room.  He did it though, and surprised me by doing it during my 36 hour trip to San Francisco.

Love how it turned out!

Chris' loyal assistant.

The crib and dresser have been assembled and we're now in the process of populating all the fun baby stuff that I've been collecting, including Bella's favorite things (the cute little animals below) and the cutest pair of "Uggs" (knitted by a sweet coworker) that you've ever seen. I love coming home to see this boy's room every night. I know Chris does too because the lamp always happens to have been turned on when I get home so I know Chris goes in there and smiles each day when he gets home too.

And this little boy continues to grow (as do I!).  I am now in month 8 and expanding rapidly.  Doesn't he know that I have a bridesmaid dress to fit in to!?!?

The latest series of growth progression:

It is also babymania around here because people are having babies and announcing pregnancies all over the place.  When we found out we were expecting, we didn't know anyone other than Chris' sister who was expecting.  Much to our delight, since then  many of our friends in Boise and across the country have announced that they too are expecting.  Two of the most fun announcements came from two of my friends that I've known since I was eleven and twelve.  Katie lives in Connecticut now and is expecting her second in late August and Artesia lives in Boise and is expecting her fourth in December.  When Katie came to visit, we couldn't resist the picture opportunity!  I had to wait to post it until all the news was public.

In the final baby news, our adorable nephew Ries was born on May 18th.  He has completed the beautiful Whitfield family and we love him already.  We love that our baby will have a cousin so close in age to him and we envision the fun they'll have at the lake, on ski trips, or maybe even attending the same college one day (scary thought).  Welcome to the world Ries, the whole family is so glad that you are here! 

Ries!

27 Weeks

27 weeks and how many more to go?!? I have reached the point where I cannot imagine 3 more months of growth. I think that I am quite large right now (as does my "tell it like it is" secretary), so fathoming an additional 3 months of growth is a bit hard.

 

Everything seems to be moving along just fine.  My biggest complaint is still my swollen feet, which I think are in large part caused by many hours at my desk. I have taken to walking up the 13 flights of stairs to my office mid day to see if that helps.  I also have found a new use for my legal books, which are doubling as a footrest.  To my delight, my "pretty feet" came back this week.  I never thought of feet as being pretty until mine looked like overstuffed sausages. I've been sure to admire and point out my "pretty feet" to Chris all weekend.

How I look.

How I feel!

We have another ultrasound this week that the Dr.'s wanted to do to check up on something.  To make a longer story short, the baby looked fine in the last one, they just needed to give some more time to check something with me. I was told that since they expect this issue will self correct, this is really just a bonus ultrasound so that is how I am choosing to look at it.  I cannot wait to see our little guy again!

While I tootle around on the Internet and order all of the accessories and fun things for the baby's room (hello Etsy, I love you!), Chris has been busy painting and designing a plan for the wainscoting because he is just not interested in buying the pre-finished pieces for easy assembly.  Although we initially wanted a gray color paint, we ended up with more of a blue-gray, but I love it and think that it is very calming. 

Stage One: Paint.

 

Stage Two: Paint and prepare wainscoting pieces.
(notice Bella with her orange ball, I kid you not about that thing)

I have had a single letter, representing the possible first letter of our little boy's name, in an online shopping basket for about 7 weeks now while we tested out the name. We now think that it is official enough that I am going to bite the bullet and buy the letter tonight.  I figure the worst thing that could happen is that someone we know will end up with a beautiful new wooden letter.  The rest of the world is going to have to wait to find out the name, much to our family's dismay!

Weeks 21 and 24

When we were on vacation, several of our friends commented that it appeared that I grow by the day.  I think that they are right. This baby has certainly hit some kind of growth spurt because my baby bump is no longer a bump, it is more like a baby mound and I am now obviously pregnant to the outside world.  These last few weeks have been great.   The baby is up to a pound and more than 11 inches long now, which explains the increased force with which he kicks and jabs.  We lie in bed at night sometimes and just watch my belly moving.  It really is pretty amazing.

And to show have much my size can change based on my where this baby is sitting, look how much bigger this picture is than the the last one (even though it is a little more zoomed in).  Whooooa baby!

The only other side effect that I have these days is that some days I have feet with veins and tendons and bones.  Other days I have Pillsbury dough boy feet.  I thought it was salt intake and being on my feet that was causing their swelling.  However, I had bacon for breakfast and worked in the yard all day last Saturday and woke up to my regular feet.  So I have narrowed the lovely swelling down to being sedentary at work.  Even more of a reason to leave early each day, right? ;) 

I also got knocked out by a cold this week forcing me to breathe like Darth Vader at night, according to Chris, and forcing him for the first time in our marriage to sneak out of our bedroom to sleep somewhere else. 

The Results Are In

The results are in and it was very conclusively determined that, to my surprise, we have a little boy in there!   It took the ultrasound tech about 5 seconds to tell us that we were going to have a son and to show us the evidence.  Despite my thinking that it was a girl, we are both thrilled to be expecting a boy, the first boy in the next generation to carry on the Johnson name.

Our ultrasound tech said our baby photographed beautifully, which I am sure she tells everyone.  But we did walk out with what seems like quite the extra long strip of photos and a DVD.  The highlights (including a semi-inappropriate gender photo and the first waive to the world) are below.

The bonus of having a little boy is all of these adorable clothes from my sister.  His dresser is going to be full before he even gets here!  Thanks Auntie Erin.

  

Now it is time to turn this neutral room into a bright room fit for a little boy.  We've made the first trip to Home Depot and Chris has some painting in his near future.  Also on the list is coming up with a boy name!