i feel like a kid waiting for christmas...

Late at night when I'm up for the ump-teenth time, I look into the nursery waiting for Elsa to come & it is the same anxious anticipation of Santa soon to be leaving gifts under the Christmas Tree and ringing in that special holiday.  What a precious gift she is and will be and I'm so enjoying the feeling that I haven't had in so many years of the anticipation of Christmas Morning, but this time, it is so so so much more exciting.

alright little lundy girl, come soon!

you know your THAT pregnant when...

I went into Home Depot yesterday to get a set of two sawhorses for my Dad's birthday present - a quick task, I thought.  Oh, but so much faster than I could have imagined - I think I must have been in and out within 3 minutes without lifting a finger, except to sign for my credit card.  Here's what happened:

I was greeted by a friendly lady at the entrance and she quickly directed me to aisle 10 to aisle 15.  Before I turned the corner to 10, a guy asked me "sawhorses?" as if he read my mind (or, I think the lady at the front alerted him that I was probably going to need some help all before I was able to mozy down to that end of the store).  And, the sawhorses were on the top shelf and he kindly let me try to grab them, but quickly stepped in to pull them down and carry them up to the register.  Then he insisted to let him carry them to the car and put them in the trunk.  Now that's customer service!

So with me just asking where the sawhorses were at and being obviously that pregnant to the first person who saw me, the folks at Home Depot made sure I wasn't going to be doing any heavy lifting.  And, I'm quite thankful for that.  Now someone just needs to come take them out of the trunk!

our virtual shower!

What a week!  Kalin's mom flew in last Sunday evening to spend some time with us and to be here for when we celebrated our Virtual Shower for Elsa!  Kalin's wonderful Aunties came up with the idea to throw us a shower long-distance and had all the gifts arrive at a specific time then we'd open them all on a certain day.  But it was so so so much more than that!

I had been getting a little bit of work done before the shower and came out to the living room decorated in all shades of pink ~ there were even pink MnM's and Kisses in little bottles!  It was so much fun to see all the fun decorations that the Aunties sent!  We had a small little group of people over to the house - my parents, Kalin's mom, my grandma and grandpa (his first baby shower!) and my cousin Ashly.  We picked up some pizza and then started opening our piles and piles of gifts!  It was such a wonderful evening with our little virtual shower.  I have a stack of papers with great advice & fun stories about myself & Kalin and can't wait to share them with Elsa later on...plus there were some pictures of little Kalin sent too, which I just love so much!  I can't say how thankful we were for this incredible shower and we just feel so blessed to be loved by so many people and that makes us feel confident that Elsa's going to be growing up surrounded by so much love, even states away!  Thank you Aunties!!!

Here's some pictures from our celebration night

And now we have our new books put away and the first load of laundry done...we certainly are getting close!

one month...and counting!

Just a quick post to say we are exactly at one month to our December 17th due date!

WHOA!  WOW!  CRAZY!  YAY!

+1 in 888: dads are great!

Perhaps I should have called this post 'grandpas-to-be are great!'

This past weekend, Kalin's dad came out to spend some time with us and go skiing with Kalin.  We had a great time and there were even some house projects completed, including one for Elsa's room!  We'd been working to figure out how to separate the office area from the nursery and our solution was a row of curtains hanging by cable from one wall to the opposite.  No real idea how the turnout would be, but it was going to be necessary...and I couldn't be happier with the turnout...this room is starting to feel like it's about ready for a baby to live in it!

Then there's my dad, who spotted a diaper-change-area dilemma on the dresser we had with just thinking we'd use a changing pad on top (not acceptable I suppose).  Apparently, we needed a legit changing area, so dad crafted up a box to hold our changing pad with a little area for all the changing essentials.  It's securely fastened to the dresser, so this baby isn't going anywhere!

THANKS DADS!

Oh, and this momma needed something to add to the project list, so I sewed up this little swaddle blanket with a hood - pretty excited about it.  

ok, now I'm ready!

A few weeks ago, I may have been fine with leaving this little girl in for many more weeks, but oh my, let's get her here!

All of the sudden, I'm ready to be without heartburn, not feeling uber heavy and to not have to endure being sick and being pregnant at that same time.  Last week I caught some sort of flu and I don't even know the last time I had the flu, but simply to say, it was terrible.  Ugh.  Thankfully Kalin is super wonderful and got me Gatorade, saltines and noodle soup once my stomach let me keep something in and put up with my miserableness.  And my little Mochi dog made sure he was by my side all the time while I was restlessly trying to kick this thing.  Snacking on ice chips got me through the worst of it and I believe I'm just about 90% now with a big side of nausea (huh?  I thought I was done with that in the 1st trimester?), so on to the 6 weeks-to-go countdown and hopefully less sicky-ness!

This girl must be growing because she is taking over!  Her movements are that more pronounced and her energy is undeniable!

In more fun news, here's a few shots of my nursery projects...a few more things to hang and organize, but we're almost there.

a little project in the works

These little letters will soon be cut out to go on some bunting that will hang near Elsa's crib!  I have some free time this week from work so I have a few projects that I'd love to get done for our little lundy.  8 more weeks!

elsa update: 31 weeks

It's amazing that we are now in the single-digit week countdown until we get to meet Elsa!  We're at 60 days away!

We had an appointment this week and everything is looking great.  Elsa's big accomplishment was that she flipped over, so now she's head down (a huge relief!!).  For now, we just keep checking in knowing that her arrival is quickly approaching.

She's definitely more active since she flipped over and it's crazy to see her roll around on my stomach!  Mochi doesn't seem to mind snuggling up with Elsa & me, I'm sure he's been kicked a few times.

probably the only belly shot you'll see!

weekend warriors

We've been busy most weekends trying to complete our new living arrangements, which are just about finalized!  I'll post pictures when I have a few more things together...those last few piles are still looking for a home!  But, we're pleased with our progress and are happy the paint fumes have dissipated and we're enjoying our smaller room and thankful that everything fit in there.

This weekend we are learning all things about labor and delivery in in our Childbirth Class at the hospital we'll be delivering at.  Whoa.  Super Whoa.  So much information & so much we both had no idea about.  One of my take aways for day 1 is that yes, your body is meant to grow babies and deliver them and that for the 9 months of work that your body has already done to nurture baby's growth from a teeny tiny cell it is just a day of "pain" to finally meet this little new person.  The relaxation techniques are probably the best parts of the class for me...as there are most definitely times that I need to use them now (just ask Kalin!).

on to day 2 tomorrow...

oh and apparently it's an old wives tale that mom's with bad heartburn have babies with lots of hair of their head...the woman teaching our class mentioned that her doula experience has been pretty spot on for the truth of this tale...hmmm...well, let's hope Elsa's extra hair will help keep her warm this Winter!

elsa update

I just got back from the doctors for my 28 week check up and all is well with Elsa!  My first question was if we could please verify that she is a girl...and, yes, she is still very much a girl.  She's growing great and her heartbeat is strong - and it looks like someone has some long legs too.

until 31 weeks...

third trimester!

Well, it seems for-ev-er ago we found out that we would be having a baby.  And it also seems like time speeds up somewhere in the second trimester.  Looking back to my earlier posts, time could not go any slower as I waited not very patiently for sickness to go away, ultrasounds to come, time to pass.  Now, it's like the weeks are flying by.

But, we've made it to the third trimester.  I swear somedays I still can't believe this is all happening, but it's a fun reminder that yes, it is.  The belly is growing and can feel heavy - the thought of riding my road bike sounds truly uncomfortable.  I'm slow on walks where anyone who knows me (or just Kalin, really), knows I set the pace, except for walking with my sister - she's always at least 30 paces ahead.  Mochi doesn't seem to mind when I have to give in to my bouts of tiredness and is always up for a nap. But it's all worth it for those moments throughout the day when I feel Elsa's kicks, punches, hiccups or whatever else she seems to be up to.

The Fall is definitely making it's presence known here and it's exciting to think that at the end of this season (I know, I feel like my December due date is in the dead of Winter...but just close to the start) we'll be having a new little person around and be able to share the holiday's with to kick things off!

+1 in 888: upheaval

Thanks to Momma & Popster Lundquist, we have a crib!  Elsa has a nice little place to lay her head.  We have been working away at switching our rooms and Kalin successfully moved our closets & the majority of our storage into the other room.

It will be a bit of a dance in moving out one room's items into another, so our whole house will be quite chaotic as we use our living room to house transitioning furniture.  But as soon as I saw that crib, I am so ready to get things moving and prep the little nursery!  Last night Kalin put the crib together just to make sure it survived it's shipment...only to realize that it wouldn't fit through our room doors, so we also learned how easy it was to disassemble it too!  Here he is with some of his first daddy duties:

what's new?

Kalin & I celebrated our 5th Anniversary two weeks ago!  Ca-razy how time goes by so quickly, but I suppose we've been up to a lot since then...in a nutshell: married, quit jobs in Seattle, move to Denver, get jobs in Denver, buy a house, get a dog, both start grad school, finish grad school, Kara quits her job, Kalin gets a new job, oh and now we're pregnant.

Kalin's been working like a boss and I've picked up a new part-time gig working for the Makerie on top of working for the Horseshoe Market.  I'm super excited to work for the Makerie and there's quite a few exciting things coming up for both the Market & the Makerie which hopefully can be announced shortly!  So I'm busy again and it's good for me & am very thankful that both these jobs can be done from home on my time.  Mochi likes to sit behind me on my chair or next to me on his bed while I get things done - he's a great co-worker!

We just planted our Fall garden and I'm eager to see sprouts soon - I'm a bit impatient for things to grow - 9 months or two weeks, babies/plants...doesn't matter...  I'm just hoping for the pumpkins to grow to decorate our house with.

So there's a little update as we near the third trimester - one week away!  Weekends must now be dedicated to Elsa's arrival!

24 weeks...

We had a doctor's appointment yesterday and for the first time, there was no ultrasound...but we did get to hear Elsa's heartbeat and were very reassured through this that she is super active and very wiggly.  Everything else seems to be good and we'll find out on Friday about the gestational diabetes test I took yesterday.  I had to slam some pretty sugary/nasty glu-cola that made me a little nauseous for this lovely test - yummy!

In other news, the Tums have been moved to my nightstand for heartburn relief.  Welcome to the almost third-trimester!  I'm once again trying to kick a cold which hasn't been as terrible as the one that I had back in May and now I can actually take some medicine for it.  Oh the little things...

We've got some paint samples on the table and I'm doing plenty of fabric shopping online for this little lady's room so one of these weekends we can get to work.  It's going to be quite the ordeal.  Who wants to help?

+1 in 888: cheerful dresser

We just purchased this wonderful revamped dresser from Vibrant Vintage, a Horseshoe Market Vendor, and I couldn't be happier!  This will hold all the tiny little clothes, socks and changing area for Elsa.   

Now for a place to put the baby...

little lundy get's a name!

This may not be news to some, but our little lundy has a name!  Elsa Mae Lundquist!  During our road trip back from Canada, as we crossed the border into Montana, we had a not-so-serious discussion on potential names.  We went through our two options' potential for childhood ridicule (if you know some...um, keep them to yourself!) and just came back to our one boy and one girl option.  We never accumulated a list - I just loved this one.  I like that it's Swedish and works with our last name and our estimated combined 12.4962% Swede background.  Mae is a name I've always loved and it's also my Grandma Quinlan's middle name.

So, there you have it. 

handmade beginnings: quilt for baby

I fell in love with this quilt pattern the moment I spotted it on Pinterest.  I love the simplicity, the colors and that it was from one of my favorite crafty ladies, Rashida Coleman-Hale.  Although I'm in debt a quilt to Liz & Kaushik and some embroidered pillows to Karen & Pat as IOU wedding gifts, I'm excited to get started on this quilt.  The color scheme is just ideal - so I'll play off of this one.

it's a...

20 weeks to go and we've got a little girl to join our family in December!  She looks great and was quite the wiggler at the doctor's appointment today!  We couldn't be happier!

+1 in 888: graph paper, ruler, pen, tape measure

I L-O-V-E graph paper.  Any opportunity to use it makes me very happy.  I remember using my dad's business graph paper quite frequently growing up.  There is something completely satisfying about basic drafting.

Ok, enough of me and my complete infatuation with straight lines, floorplans and room design.  We finally measured out the room to be shared with the nursery and our office.  I drafted it up and then cut out our furniture to scale plus an estimate for a crib.  I'm still missing a dresser/changing table and a possible extra bookcase, but I believe that this floorplan can help guide us into purchasing the right sized pieces.  We'll be on the hunt for some vintage pieces or maybe a lucky find at my beloved Horseshoe Craft & Flea Market.  The basic answer from my arrange/rearrange of the paper furniture pieces is that everything should fit...without wall-to-wall-to-wall furniture everywhere (my huge pet peeve).  We'll section off the office from the nursery with a curtain that will give us an extra faux wall and the opportunity to let some late-night workers section off from a hopefully sleepy baby.

On the design front, I have a few ideas in mind and am often on the virtual hunt for exactly what I'm looking for.  We'll have a few base colors, but all-in-all, I want to have a lot of color, different fabrics, and plenty of wall art.

+1 in 888: eames, please!

The Eames Rocker.  I like.  I like a lot.  There is something timeless, clean, simple and completely aesthetically pleasing about this design.  Little Lundy will be sharing a space with our office area and this rocker should fit in nicely with our tight quarters.  I'm also picturing making a quilt and pillow to add some coziness while spending some quality snug time with the little one.

life and times of the pregnant bridesmaid

whew!

I'm thinking my impromptu 11am naps are reason enough to believe I'm worn out...from traveling, watching friends and family tie the knot and dancing the night away, of course!

I had the extreme honor to be in two weddings happening back-to-back weekends, the first for my sister and the second for my lovely friend Liz.  One hitch, although these two ladies both reside in Seattle, my sister was getting married in Canada!  Off Kalin & I went on a two day road trip up to Banff, Alberta for Kayla's wedding.  It was a busy few days filled with family, decorating, a wee bit of hiking, too many mosquitos and a lot of love!

I was checking into my flight to Seattle for Liz's wedding while we were still on our road trip back from Canada - somewhere in Wyoming with luckily enough 3G reception.  I got home, threw in some wash, repacked my suitcases, snuggled my pup and by noon the next day, I was at DIA catching my flight to Seattle!  I arrive on Wednesday to get henna for Liz & Kaushik's Indian ceremony happening a few days before the other ceremony & reception.  It was so great to be with my friends that I miss dearly, have Kalin join us later in the week, watch some great dance rehearsal and celebrate the beautiful love of Liz & Kaushik!

After a barely-made-it-on-the-plane and stuck-on-the-runway return trip home, I was very happy to be back home and looking forward to the coming months where we've got to really start prepping everything for this little one.

Speaking of the little one, we will be able to stop calling it "it" come next week!  I'm very excited to see the baby again and too know boy or girl.  I say girl, Kalin says boy...at the end of the day, we don't know until the doctor tells us!  

r & r ... handmade beginnings

rest & relaxation

A recent week-long trip to California did amazing things for my pregnant self.  I slept SO well with cool breezes!  An escape from our 90s-100s here in Colorado were just what I needed.  On top of it all weeks 14/15 are proving wonderful on the energy front and I'm feeling like I'm actually getting things done.

Before we left for California, I went on a purge- and organization-spree that was quite amazing.  I've got a load of Goodwill to get out and I'm feeling like we are making a lot of progress.  Our last Dr. visit was great and Kalin was able to come for the first time to see this little one moving and shaking!  Baby didn't let us know what gender it was quite yet, so we're waiting until the end of the month until we find out - once we know, time to go to town on that nursery.

Back to CA - I had such a lovely trip and was able to spend a lot of precious time with Kalin's family!  Our little one is going to be so blessed with wonderful grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts and uncles - on both sides!  Lots of love that only grows.  My time in CA finished with a 2nd annual Lundquist girl's Stitch-a-roo, where we get together, stitch, sew, shop, eat and enjoy each other's company.  We were all quite successful with our projects and I got one in for the little one:

These little hoops will hang in the nursery and they have some of my favorite Dave Matthew's lyrics from the song "Oh".  We had this song at our wedding ceremony and I just absolutely love this simple little endearment.  

dear week 13...

I'm very, very happy with you.  I have been blessed with surges of energy throughout my day for the past few days and I am thrilled at this renewal!  Nausea has subsided and I'm just waiting for my full appetite to return.  Please, please, please can this trend continue?

With this newfound energy, I've taken on our big project of starting to make room for our Little Lundy. I've just about filled up our large recycle bin with tons of old magazines, papers, boxes.  I've got a growing pile of Goodwill items and then all sorts of other things that need to be sorted and decided on.  Oh, and lots of shredding.  Why, oh, why do we tote these papers, trinkets, all sorts of odds and ends around with us from home to home?  I think this is my most thorough purge yet.  It's just time for things to go.  Our space is valuable around here and I'm not giving too many things a second chance at collecting more dust.  I do have to admit, I'm on a maniacal mission to find some of our larger printed wedding pictures that I've never framed...somehow they are just not showing up.  I'm a wee bit afraid that we've lost them (sigh...)

It's also surprising with the little bit left over of things we actually need. I'm trying to keep these odds and ends organized into bins.  No more old moving boxes collecting our things that we never see again.

On the baby front, I'm definitely seeing a little bump action happening and the pants are starting to snug up.  Looks like a summer full of dresses for me!

planning ahead

I took our other child, Mochi the dog, into the vet today for a check-up and to get some vaccinations.  While I was in I asked our Vet about how best to prepare for bringing a baby home with our dog.  A special thing to note is that we L-O-V-E our crazy little 9 lb yorkie and well, he gets a whole lot of our attention.  When he's met babies, he quite curious and and wants to lick their toes.  2-3 year old kids asking to pet him make him a bit nervous and uncomfortable.  I'm just hoping there won't be any sort of huge issue that pops up.

Anywho, the Vet recommended we might need to bring in Mochi for a teeth cleaning before the baby comes and that I might get the year-long heart worm than the normal 6 month because that would run out right about the time that baby comes.  For the first time I felt like oh, we have 6 months until the little one arrives, so there may be some important things that we'll need to take care of.

Proactive.  Seriously, the first time this idea dawned on me.  I suppose through the haze of nauseousness, feeling weird, most likely acting weird for the past two months, I haven't truly thought ahead.  There are items for the baby that we'll of course need and then there's life after baby that I haven't even thought about.  I think this may be because as much as I imagine what motherhood will be like, I know I don't have the darndest clue - so me, kalin, baby and mochi will all get to learn together.

is it odd that the first pic up on this blog is of our dog?  who cares, I just love him!

11 weeks

So close to that second trimester!  It's going to be a huge milestone - I'm so looking forward to it!

Had an appointment last week and all things are looking good.  Ultrasounds are kind of amazing.  I saw the little one squirming and moving and that just made this all more real.  It's simply incredible.

Things are also getting more real in that this little one is already receiving a few items and we're starting a little stack that I'm sure will grow and grow.  I mean we have Buttpaste!  Essential for baby we're told.

Kalin took the initative this weekend while I was gone to Texas for my cousin's graduation to start the purging of closets and beginning the process of switching rooms.  Baby and office will share our current room and we'll hope our bed and dresser fit into the smaller room!  Things are starting to change!

this isn't glamourous.

Kalin & I both caught a pretty nasty cold.  I'm about 5 days into this thing and feeling like I'm never going to see the end to it.  More than anything it's the fact that I can't. do. a. darn. thing. about. it.  Just Tylenol, water, rest and waiting.

Waiting. Patience. 31 more weeks?

We've got ourselves a Christmas baby and knowing me, waiting for Christmas is about one of the most painstaking things.  We're talking a childhood full out countdowns.

Health & Patience.  It's worth the wait.

a little one on the way

In what seems to be a countless amount of days, weeks, months, we will have a very new member of our family!  I can hardly believe it's real, but I suppose the nausea, fatigue, food aversion and a few ultrasounds are proof enough.

We feel incredibly blessed by this little person now just the size of a bean.  Oh, how everything will change, but change for the absolute best.

Now, the wait seems to be the hardest obstacle and also arriving at that next doctors appointment so he can reassure me that everything is just fine.  Such an interesting time in life that feels like I would have never expected.  It definitely seems like a preparation period, learning to trust, to have more faith than you thought you would need, to understand God's plan for you and your family, to pay attention to health, to being well and to not forget that you are still living life all the while.  It's a beautiful process even through the moments where I'm feeling queasy over seeing melted cheese!

I'm about 4 weeks away from hitting that 2nd trimester and I have to admit, I'm greatly looking forward to some more energy, feeling better and starting this whole nesting thing.  I think I'll start a few blog posts that will be called "+1 in 888" as we only live in 888 sq. feet and well, at the moment, we have that amount of space pretty much packed full of our stuff.  It's a challenge, but one I'm up for since I love me some interior design.  And, babies are small, right...they don't take up too much space?!?

I hope this blog will be a great way for our family and friends that don't live nearby will be able to keep up with us & the little lundy.  I realize that we have very important people in our lives that want an update and I think this might be the way to do it.  Feel free to follow us by email or check back here for some more news!

Oh, and p.s. Happy Mother's Day!  I can't wait for this day next year with a little one to celebrate with!