Exactly One Month from Today...

So today marks exactly one month until our baby's due date. I can't believe we're this close! I'm not sure we'll be making it to March 25th, but I'm preparing myself for the long haul...just in case!

Perspectives

Steff posted this on her blog. I loved her list and wanted to give it a shot!

i am: swollen
i think: way too much about way too many things
i know: I'm nervous about labor and delivery
i want: a healthy baby
i have: a fabulous life
i wish: I felt more prepared to be a Mom
i hate: Liars and Politics
i miss: my favorite Saturday jeans...the ones with holes and fit just right
i fear: losing someone I love to cancer
i feel: blessed to be where I am today
i hear: the dog barking and traffic
i smell: the familiar smell of our upstairs loft
i crave: snuggles with my husband and a good margarita
i search: for God in more places in my life.
i wonder: if I'll ever feel like I'm old enough to be doing what I'm doing in life
i regret: nothing
i ache: in my back, my front, and my feet!
i care: too much about what people think
i always: second guess myself
i am not: easy on myself
i believe: everything happens for a reason
i dance: after i've had a few drinks
i sing: everyday, but only to myself
i cry: ALL the time
i don't always: tell people how much they mean to me
i fight: when I have to
i write: when inspiration strikes
i never: give myself enough credit
i listen: as best I can, but I could be better at this
i need: more time
i am happy about: my choices and my life

New Posts

I've been a little behind on my regular posting, so I just posted 5 new posts to catch everyone up on everything! Enjoy and thanks for reading!

Awesome Co-Workers

As I have mentioned many times in our blog, Jer and I are very blessed. Everyday I go into work and I couldn't be more lucky. I work with the greatest group of people anyone could ever ask for!

Last week I was given not one, but two showers!

Shower Number 1: I am part of a leadership team that works on career development for my profession. It's been a very enriching part of my job in recent years. I've had the opportunity to travel, make presentations and work on building my resume. Not only have I enjoyed the work benefits, I've made some great friends. These girls are a great support system at work. They have all been concerned with me and how I'm doing through the entire pregnancy. And they threw me a wonderful work shower. Lots of yummy food and wonderful gifts! Thank you girls! It was so great :)

Shower Number 2: My floor is comprised of two different teams of engineers. I share the floor responsiblities with another OA. At one time or another we have both worked with each others team. This group of people couldn't be more fun to work with. We have fabulous food days and really know how to have fun! This is where I learned that White Castles qualify as breakfast food and that nerf footballs make for a fun pass/kick football contests in the office. Every year we have an awesome chili cook-off that raises money for toys for tots. It's great. But my favorite thing though is that these people really rally around each other in times of need! From weddings to family deaths to a simple bought with the flu, you can count on a handful of concerned folks stopping by to check on you! I've gotten particularly close to a few co-workers in the past almost 5 years...and I wouldn't trade them for the world. The same week as my leadership team shower, these women threw me a floor shower! The whole floor was invited and there was fabulous food and again more wonderful gifts! Thank you Cindy F, Cindy M, Larketta, Amanda and Jan for making such a special day for me :)

Here's a pic of Baby Linley's goodies from both showers!



Thank you to everyone I work with who might be reading this blog. I'm so blessed and Baby Linley is definitely all set to join us! Check back soon for update pictures of the nursery in it's final stages ;)

Belly shots

So we haven't been as good at taking these as I would have liked, but we got a 35 week picture last night as we spent some time in the nursery.

The belly is certainly getting bigger by the day! And they are not the best pictures of me...but hey. It's what I look like right now right? We're holding onto 6 or 6.5 pounds of baby now ;)

To see pics from the beginning, check out our post here.

Thank you Jer...

for helping me out of bed.

for rubbing my back at the end of the day.

for helping me take my shoes on and off.

for mopping our floors and taking out our trash and dealing with the animals and doing all the house chores without my help.

for telling me to go sit down when I've been standing for too long.

for making me dinner.

for letting me cry on your shoulder for completely random reasons.

for spending time on our nursery and enjoying the process as much as me.

for being as excited to meet our new baby as I am.

for agreeing to be a parent with me and raising a little piece of us together.

for allowing me this experience.

for telling me jokes to make me laugh at my ever growing belly.

for being wonderful, wonderful you.

The greatest best friend...

I have mentioned before how I have a great best friend. This week she's been so wonderful! Not only did she check on me throughout the week, she took off work and went to my Friday doctor's appointment with me. She took me out for first time in 4 days to Bread Co for lucnh...then sat with me for an hour in the exam room while we waited for Dr. Talsky to finally make an appearance. It was so nice to have the company and I enjoyed the day so much more b/c she was with me!

Also, on Saturday night Jer went bowling with our InterACT bible study group. I thought bowling might not be the best idea since I'm on home rest and all. But I didn't want him to miss out on the evening! It's a fun group to spend time with. You can check out more on this evening from Alison's blog here.

Rather than spend the evening alone, I talked with Steff and asked if she wanted to come join me for a movie and something to eat. She ended up texting me throughout the day and asked me if I would enjoy a pedicure. She has listened to me talk about my haggard feet and how I was needing to get a pedicure, but I obviously can't do it myself! So she came out about 6:30, we grabbed some Jimmy John's and she treated me to a pedicure. She busted out my foot spa and put some TLC into my tired feet! It was fabulous and such a wonderful gift!

She's truly is the greatest :)

Baby Linley Updates...Bed Rest!

So it's been a little while since I posted, but Baby Linley decided to give us all a good practice run at heading to the hospital! So I haven't been on the computer as much as normal! Here's what's been going on!

Last Monday, I had some pain (not what I gathered was contractions, but muscular discomfort) so I called the doctor to see if they recommended anything...and honestly just to make sure it was normal. I'm a first time mom so what do I know?? Anyway, we ended up in the hospital on Monday night with pre-term labor. I was only 34 weeks and 5 days. Not quite time for a baby just yet! After a shot of tribulene and some relaxing with Jer and Mom and Dad while we watched some stunt guy on TV try to unhinge himself in 26 degree ice water, we got let go. By the time we left I was put on bed rest and told I was having contractions every two minutes. So I spent the next few days enjoying some laziness. I watched a lot of daytime TV and tried to keep myself as relaxed as possible. I did not want to go back to the hospital if I didn't have to.

Friday I had my regularly scheduled doctor's appointment. He seemed very relaxed about the whole thing. In fact, he wasn't even aware I was at the hospital 4 days before. We talked about how to handle everything. Steff came with me to this appointment. I'm thankful I had her there to help me talk through all the questions that seemed to come up. He put me on leave until March 6th and scheduled my next appointment for March 6. I think he believes we'll have a baby before that. Part of me is comfortable with his lack of concern over needing to see me weekly, but part of me is still the nervous first-timer who wouldn't mind a little extra attention. Either way, I'm enjoying taking it easy and having some time to get everything together.

We're more ready than ever to meet Baby Linley!

What We've Been Up To...

It seems like we've been non-stop since our shower. We've had lots of fun things going on and I haven't gotten to blog everything like I wanted to. So I've put it all in one big post! Here's a quick run down of what's been going on the past few weeks.

The day after our shower Jer and I spent some time getting out all the baby's new toys. Jer and Dad put together a few of the bigger things...and we enjoyed some time together just putting out baskets and relaxing in the baby's room.





The weekend after our shower I got the chance to enjoy a "Girls Night Out" with Steff. We got tickets to Legally Blonde and hit the STL for a night on the town. The boys were at Bryan and Steff's enjoying a few beers together and we headed out out for the night! We had dinner at El Mezcal for a something yummy and quick...then we headed into the big STL and enjoyed the ambiance that is the Fox Theatre. No matter how many times I go, it never looses that wonderful feeling of historical mystery. The plush red chairs and the huge ornate halls, walls and ceilings. It's striking and beautiful. I love everything about it. I was excited to share it with Steff for one of the first times in her adult life. The place is always buzzing with excitement before the show begins. I love the low level buzz you can hear. This night because of the show, the place was packed with women all enjoying a night out so the buzz was more of a roar! The show was adorable. It followed the movie very closely, minus the dancing and singing through each scene ;) I left singing the main theme song from the musical...Oh My God...OhmyGod You guys. LOL. We didn't get home till nearly midnight, but it was such a great night! We made a pact to do more of those types of nights in the future!





The next day Jer and I were lucky enough to be invited to share in Julie and Rob's daughter Ella's first birthday! I can't believe how much she's grown since last year! I had so much fun shopping for her. We got her this fun cube that had a little bit of everything on it. It had a bead runner that lit up and played music, a play phone, some letter and number shape cut-outs on each side and a few other things to entertain her. In true 1st year fashion, she ended up plastered with cake and icing...and had a blast making a mess of herself, her high chair and the floor! It was a fun event and we enjoyed ourselves tremendously!

That night Jer and I headed over to Baby's R Us to make some returns from the shower. We got a few duplicates and we wanted to get them returned before the store decided to change their return policy. We ended up ordering our rocker for the baby's room...which I am oh so excited about! And we scored a killer deal. We ended up doing some shopping for a few things. We got mom and dad their carseat base, bought our changing pad, some crib mattress pads and new hamper for the nursery. We couldn't stop putting things in our cart! It was a blast...and our nursery looks even more ready for the baby than ever. I'm getting very anxious.

Since drafting up this post our rocker came in at Babies R Us and is now in our nursery!! This past weekend was Valentine's Day. We spent our day shopping for last minute baby needs and enjoying a lazy day together. We picked up two of the most adorable outfits from Old Navy for our baby's going-home outfit. We also picked up bottles, binks and our glider/rocker from Babies R Us! Our V-day evening was capped off by a trip to Target for more baby stuff. I concocked this plan for hanging some paper lanterns in the nursery and Jer is trying his hardest to make my vision a reality! Stay tuned for pics - the nursery is coming along so well!! When we got home from Target, we had some yummy crab pasta compliments of my fabulous husband who takes such good care of me, for dinner and enjoyed some much needed couch time!

Things appear to be slowing down a little at a time. Our milestone is looming out there now...getting ever closer. I'm looking forward to some lazy weekends coming up and some time spent with Jer enjoying our last few times as "Jess and Jer the young married, free birds" as we prepare to become "Jess and Jer - the exstatic parents of a healthy new baby!"

Baby University Graduates!

Jer and I officially graduated! Baby Classes are completed!! And this Monday marks the first Monday in 6 weeks that Jer and I have a free Monday evening! This week is also the start of my 35th week of pregnancy! We've tried to keep everyone posted as we've gone along...so this will be our final post about our classes. That fact in itself is a little scary and oh so exciting all at the same time!

Last Monday covered our last and final class. The class covered everything to expect about epidurals, pain medicine and c-sections. I feel less nervous about the epidural procedure and now more scared at the thought of a c-section. We watched videos on both procedures, and don't let anyone fool you into thinking the labor and natural delivery videos are the worst thing you'll see. For us, the c-section video was a little more graphic than anything we'd seen!! Regardless, I think we both have a much better understanding of how everything works and what to expect from all the possible scenarios.

In looking back, we would recommend the classes to anyone. We took away so much great information. Sure parts of it are cheesy and sometimes embarassing, but the truth of the matter is, we both feel so much more prepared for everything. From the delivery and all the details surrounding it, to bringing the baby home and helpful tips on what to do for things like collic. For us being first-time parents, we've gotten great advice from everyone, but the classes have been the most straight-forward and objective information we've received!

Soooo we're armed and ready...at least we think so ;)

33 Week Appointment - still a big baby!

I attended my first appointment alone last Friday. I had to wait for nearly an hour in the exam room to see him. Luckily between texting with Steff and reading a Parenting magazine, I learned that Steff has a hilarious group of karoke-er's at work and got some tips on how to buy groceries for less and how to parents those emotional teenagers!

When he came in we got right to business. He measured my belly and I measured a wopping 39 weeks. After he freaked out a little, he had me empty my bladder and then re-measured me. This helped a little bit...now I was only measuring 37 weeks. Oh just 4 weeks ahead. He seemed relieved by this...I'm not sure I was? But this was much more acceptable to him. After measuring me, he did his inspection of the baby. Baby was head down and 5 pounds. Baby hasn't dropped yet, but we are getting close!

I got the all clear from Dr. Talsky to come again in two more weeks. Everything looks great and I'm looking good. I was instructed to keep up the good work and the biggest thing I took from the appointment was "You just gotta make it 3 more weeks without any labor ok?" Um...I'll try my best ;)

We go again on Friday, February 20th...I can't believe how close we are getting!

“I remember when I put together Jessie’s crib. Before I was finished, I considered turning the whole thing into kindling.” - quoted by my Dad

After a few weeks of research and a few shopping trips to look at cribs,
Jer and I finally fell in love with a set from Baby's R Us. We were so patient. We researched, shopped, researched some more. Finally we picked it out, waited a few weeks, talked about our options, once again and decided after the holidays would be the ideal time.

The day we made the purchase it was super easy! We filled out the order. They had the crib in stock. Our dresser would be in, in 7 to 14 business days. We were off to a great start.

We thought we did our homework by making sure the box would fit, because we had the following conversation with Baby's R Us:

Us: We have a Nissan Exterra. So if we come back tomorrow, do you
think that will work, or should we bring a truck?

Babys R Us: Oh the box is as big as the headboard...so your SUV should
be perfectly fine.

Us: Great. We'll come get it tomorrow!

Well I bet you can guess what happened next. It was the size of our garage door and there was no way it would fit in our Exterra. They made the suggestion to unbox the crib. In my excitement I said...Ok...let's do it! Jer quickly determined it was a bad idea because we'd come home missing the left half of the crib and have no recourse. Thank God one of us was thinking! Anyway, we made a second trip back over on Sunday with Pap's truck and had no problems whatsoever. So minor crisis
averted, thank goodness!

Now all that was left was construction. I was completely sure we were going to be up till 1am, missing some randomly required piece of hardware, and one or the other of us would get so crabby we'd decide giving up until another day was our only option. My Dad's famous quote about kindling kept creeping into the back of my mind. But this my friends, is where I was completely wrong! As is our usual custom, we started on this little project at the least convenient time. It was 9:30pm on a Sunday. It was the last full day of my break from work and I wasn't exactly dreading going back, but I wasn't exactly thrilled either! So the stars weren't aligning in our favor at that point. But we were too excited to wait for another day. We put together furniture before...this couldn't be that hard. And to be honest? It wasn't! Jer and I tag-teamed the whole entire process. In under an hour our crib was sitting like the beautiful little picture I had in my head, mattress and everything. It was amazing!

Aside from a few minor snafoos, the crib purchasing process was very smooth! So the moral of the story...crib construction has come a long way since the day's when my Dad was putting together my crib 26 years ago! Check out the pic below for a shot of the first additions to our nursery! Since writing this post, our dresser/changer combo has come in and we constructed a shelf for storage. Below you will find pics of the nursery - in progress! We still have lots of reorganizing and rearranging to do, but it's getting there!! Enjoy :-)

One Long Week . . .

To be honest, I'd say that Jer and I have had better weeks than the one ahead of us. So, I wanted to share what's on our minds as part of our blog because it's been a good outlet for sharing.

This Friday saw the passing of Jer's great grandmother - Alice Linley. She was a matriarch of the family, and an extraordinary woman. She was 92-years old and lived on her own for much of elder years. She survived a bought with Polio when she was in her thirties, and rather than let it stop her from living a normal life, she continued on by getting around on her knees until she was into her eighties. She was sharp as a tack, and always remembered us when we visited, even the things that were going on in all our lives. I'm blessed to have gotten the opportunity to know her, and am so sorry that our baby will not have the same pleasure. Especially since Jeremy's grandfather, Bob, was so looking forward to a five generation picture with his mother (Alice), son (Mike), grandson (Jeremy), great grandchild (TBA), and himself. Though we will be without that great picture, she will live on in our hearts and our stories. Unfortunately, I'm also struggling with this coming week because the 7-hour trip by car to and from Wisconsin isn't something that my 8 & 1/2 month pregnant body could/should handle. And even though I've contemplated going anyway - I know it's not the smart thing to do. So I have to sit the wake and funeral out. I'm also going to be husbandless for a few days this week. And while I know it has been done before, we haven't spent very much time apart since we've gotten pregnant. So, I'm hoping I handle this ok. I have just come to rely on Jer for so much the past few weeks, that not having him home will be a true test of what I'm made of. On top of that, my entire Linley family will be crammed into two cars and heading on a 14 hour road trip over a 48 hour period. So, I know I will also spend most of both days worrying until they return home again.

So if you have a chance, prayers for me, Jer and Baby Linley would be great. Also, and more importantly, for his family. Deaths at any age or stage of life are difficult to deal with.

Thanks for reading.

Child Birth Classes Catch Up

So we're kind of behind the curve with our childbirth class updates. Here's what happened the past two weeks...

Last week Jer and I were happily surprised to have the class go only one hour. The class was nice because with the snowy weather, there were only 6 of us in the room. So it was intimate and there were more Q&A opportunities than in our other classes. There isn't much to share here on the blog because the class was full of after delivery details...what to expect the rest of your hospital stay...and all the fun after baby stuff that moms go through. It was great info, just not all that interesting to anyone who won't be going through it. So...I'll spare details here and just say we learned a lot and I now have a great idea of what I'll go through after delivery. And I was pleased to find out that the nurses have standing orders of 3 different pain killers! That's comforting!

This week our subject was infant care. The class started with two students from the dental school giving us some tips on when to take our child to the dentist and how to care for baby's gums before they have teeth. We then got an hour lecture from a labor and delivery nurse about all the do's and don'ts with our baby. At first I thought her approach was more of a scare tactic approach. You CAN'T do this because this horrible thing could happen. And you WON'T do this because this horrible thing could happen. However, after hearing a few of her stories about babies and children brought into the ER, I realized why she used that method. She actually told us about people who said because their baby wouldn't stop crying, they put vodka in their bottle. That is no joke people. Vodka in the bottle. Her approach softened as the night went on and she showed us her sense of humor. My favorite part of the night was when she took us upstairs for a sponge bath demonstration on a baby in the nursery! The baby was sound asleep and she did not like being woke up for a bath. But man was she a cutey!

All in all, the class was great because there is so much information out there. Use a crib bumper, don't use a crib bumper. No water in their bottles till they are a year. Breast feeding vs. bottle feeding. It's hard to feel confident you are making the right choices. But when we left, Jer and I both felt like we had a good handle on things to expect, and things we want to make sure we do once our baby has arrived.

One more class to go and we'll official graduate from Baby University! Stay tuned. Next week is all about epidurals!

A Wonderful Amazing Fabulous Party in Our Honor

Saturday, January 24th Jer and I got to attend our long anticipated Baby Shower!! This day was better than we could have ever imagined!! Steff and Bryan lovingly opened their home to our family and friends. We got ready and were at their house around 3pm. When we got there they had a beautiful fire going in the fireplace, the house was spotless, warm and inviting, and Steff then showed me the way to the garage where they had decorated the whole place with the cutest jungle themed decorations EVER! Steff made us an adorable sign for everyone to sign and leave us advice. We placed our scrapbook and pictures around the sign for people to enjoy. It was beautiful…and just more than I’d ever pictured!





Our guests started arriving around 3:40 and it was pretty much craziness from that point on. The shower flew by. Jer and I got to spend a lot of time catching up with friends and family. Having everyone together in one place was chaotic, but we wouldn’t have had it any other way!

Around 5pm we all headed to the garage to eat! The food was amazing and delicious. They know how to keep a pregnant girl happy :) After eating Alison helped entertain the crowd with a game. The game involved me and Jer only. She had a series of questions to ask us. Each of had a dry erase board and would fill in the answers without consulting each other. Then after a few seconds we would compare answers to see how similarly we answered. We only missed 2 of the questions…and both of us were trying to think of what the other person would put. My favorite answer was the one where we were asked, “If you had one wish for your child, what would it be?” Both of us answered happiness! It was fun and everyone seemed to really enjoy it!



After the game we opened gifts. We were so spoiled!! Our nursery is now packed with all kinds of wonderful things for Baby Linley! It was a little crazy opening gifts from nearly 40 people, but oh so much fun! I tried to make sure we read each card and thanked each person as we opened. Hopefully we did ok with this!





After the gift opening Pastor Brad gave us a Lay of Hands. It’s an ancient Christian tradition. It’s a way of blessing the baby and the baby’s family. It was by far the neatest thing Jer and I have had done. Jer and I both placed a hand on my belly. Then everyone gathered around us and touched our head or shoulders. Brad said a prayer over us. I felt an overwhelming sense of peace and ease about everything that’s in store for me and Jer.



Jer and I owe so many thank you’s it’s hard to know where to start. And the bottom line is that there are hardly any words that will express how much it truly meant to us to be surrounded by those who were there. Thank you Bryan and Steff for being our best friends. We’ve talked about this many times, but God knew what he was doing when Steff and I met that day at Hickey College. Words can’t express our gratitude for everything. Steff you were the most gracious and caring host ever! You get the “Hostess with the Mostess” award that Brad often likes to give out! Alison and Julie, thank you so much for everything you both did. Having you there and knowing Jer and I have your support means so much! Mom, Robin, Stacey, Jackie, April and Missy…you girls are all awesome! There wasn’t a food I didn’t go back for more of!! Finally…to our guests who might be reading this…THANK YOU! Jer and I would not be the people we are today without the love and support of everyone who took part in our day. We are truly truly blessed. God has seen fit to fill our lives with more love than we know what to do with!

I know, I know, I know!

Long time no post...and I promise several are coming soon!

Stay tuned for info about our AWESOME, amazing, most wonderful baby shower, nursery progress (photos included), child birth class updates and a few other random ramblings from me!