37 Weeks & Some Projects

It's official. Today we reach a milestone of James Bradford being full term. Woohoo!! I am officially 37 weeks today! His lungs should be fully developed and be able to live outside of the womb with no problems. At 37 weeks, baby center says that he should weigh approximately 6 1/3 lbs and be a little over 19 inches long.

I apologize for not updating yall on my 37 week appointment last week. It was so disappointing and felt almost like a waste of time. I was on my last Dr. rotation and so he didn't give me an internal exam to see if i had progressed any. They said that my regular Dr. would do one this week at my 38 week appt. So we just have to wait and see. (Going by the poll, we have 5 votes for this week!) The good thing about our appt. last week was that we finished our hospital registration - so are all in the computer, and all we have to do is show up and have a baby! No forms, no papers!

Cory is heading out of town to Atlanta for work this week (I can say that, because this is a private blog, right?!) But he has a conference that he is unable to miss. He is fully accessible by blackberry and can be ready to jump in the car at any time!

People often ask doesn't it bother you that Cory travels out of town so much?! Right now I can say, it doesn't bother me at all (maybe it will change after baby though!) I keep busy while he is gone. Either enjoying time catching up with friends, running errands or working on a project. Here are two recent projects I have done over the past weeks while he has been out of town.

My friend Emily helped me and inspired me for this cornice board window treatment. She is so creative and talented. One evening, when our husbands were out of town together, we had a "craft night" at her house. It was so much fun. I brought over my sewing machine and all my materials and we just played. This was the finished product from that evening. Sweet Cory hung it for me yesterday. I was really pleased with how it turned out. Its kinda hard to see in the picture - but its of the same material as his crib bedding, and has little white pom poms hanging from the bottom. And of course it had to be monogrammed!
Here is a smocked day gown I did for James Bradford another time Cory was out of town. It's the same as the other day gowns I mentioned I had made in a previous post, but this one ties at the bottom to keep him all in!

Projects may be few and far between after James Bradford comes. But I'm glad that I got these 2 done before he arrives!

A New & Improved Look

You may remember this chest of drawers (aka changing table) from the nursery pictures:

Cory decided it needed a new and improved look. I hate I didn't get pictures of all the stages of all of his hard work because it was definitely a labor of love that he poured many hours in the hot heat working on it.

Cory first stripped and sanded the entire thing. Then stained it (numerous coats) and then gave it a couple coats of polyurethane for the beautiful and shiny finish.

And then of course added the rest of the new elephant knobs. Voila - The finished product!

It looks fabulous in the nursery. (Please excuse the glare - still trying to perfect indoor manual mode on the camera!) And this piece of furniture is extra special because it was used as Cory's changing table as a baby. Thank You Cory for all your hard work! I am so thankful for a talented and hard working husband! James Bradford is going to love his new & improved chest of drawers!

Sewing Projects

Last month I took an intermediate sewing class at The Smocking Bird. I have taken several classes there in the past and this was actually my 2nd time to take intermediate! (I just can't get the grasp of perfecting sleeves and collars - if you have any hints or advice, let me know!) The smocking bird is my favorite place for sewing project material. They have the cutest fabrics and piping. Anyways, if you are interested in learning how to sew or smock, the women there are so knowledgeable and helpful.

In intermediate sewing, your project must consist of sleeves and a collar. Have you ever looked at how many cute patterns there are for projects with sleeves and collars?! Its overwhelming! I decided on this one:
Infant Daygown by Creations By Michie. I just thought it was so cute! The only available size is 0-3 months - So I thought it would be perfect to make a gown for when James Bradford was a teeny tiny baby. During the class, I decided it would be a good idea to make two daygowns - one during the class, and one alongside the class at home - in hopes I wouldn't forget how to make it! Here is how they turned out:
I know what some of you are thinking - you are going to dress your son in a dress?! It's not a dress, its a daygown, and it's only for when he is an infant! And it doesn't bother Cory in the least bit. He actually likes these!

This blue one was the one I actually did in class. Its not 100% finished. I am going to get his name monogrammed on it. The backside is closed with 3 little buttons. My hopes are that this will be one of the outfits James Bradford will wear in the hospital when he meets his family and friends!

Here is the one that I had decided to do alongside the class, but I ended up working on it alot more in class then I hoped! I made this one extra long thinking, depending on James Bradford's size, he may be able to wear it for his infant baptism.

Next project is working on one very similar to this white one. But it's going to have the drawstring in the bottom (like the picture on the front of the pattern) and have blue smocking. Hopefully I can remember how to do it all!

31 weeks & a Nursery!

Today we are approximately just 9 weeks away from James Bradfords arrival! I can not believe it. Over the past few weeks and months I have heard several stories of babies coming as early as 6 weeks early. I hope and pray that James Bradford will bake as long as possible - but thinking "what if" he were to come in 3 weeks?? - would we be ready?! We're working on it!! I came home from work this past Friday and my sweet hubby had the crib put together and all the furniture arranged in the nursery. So of course I immediately had to put the bedding on the crib. I'm in love with the room - definitely my favorite room in the house! We are still working on it - got to do some decorating, but at least we now have a place for him to sleep, to rock, to be changed and somewhere to store all of his clothes and toys!

At 31 weeks, James Bradford is approximately 16 inches long and weighs 3.3 lbs (about the same weight as 4 Naval Oranges!) and is heading for a growth spurt! He can turn his head side to side and he is beginning to plumpen up all over. He continues to kick around a lot and we he's changing positions a lot. Cory felt him move yesterday - it was definitely not kicking - but him changing positions, maybe he was doing somersaults or practicing diving in for that football!!

Below are some pictures of the nursery. Like I said, it is still lacking some decorating.

This was the iron crib I hunted for months for and was so excited to finally find it on craigslist. And the bedding is from Javis Davis - if you are looking for custom bedding,this is a great place to order from. They are so helpful and you can match up the different materials online to visualize what it will look like. And they are fast!

We found this toy box at Junior League's Bargain Carousel. It was pink and had flowers on it. Cory painted it white and we are going to get James Bradford's monogram put on it. It's going to be great for storage.

This was Cory's changing table as a baby. (Please excuse the shoes on the floor and the mismatch of knobs.) The white knobs are the originals - we are in the process of changing them out. We found black iron elephants that we are replacing the white ones with. If you look closely at the top left hand knob, its an elephant. Had to have some type of Alabama paraphernalia in the nursery - ROLL TIDE! A top you will see a cute onsie and bib - my sweet friend Emily surprised me with these sweet monogrammed items on Saturday. They are so cute. Time for me to get to washing and putting all his cute clothes away!

Here is my dream nursery glider. Cory and I sat in several different chairs and finally decided to order this one. There were lots of fabrics to choose from but thought this one would work the best for us. It took 7 weeks for it to come in, but finally, it's here!! It is fabulous. The ottoman even glides! We are looking forward to many hours and hours of rocking with James Bradford.

And of course big sister Sabrina! - I couldn't leave her out. She loves the nursery. We think she knows life is about to change. She is going to be such a great helper though and I know she will be providing James Bradford with lots of kisses and love!

Nursery Underway

It's been a pretty exciting week at the Hall household! Lots of exciting changes in store. Cory's office / guestroom has been undergoing a makeover. The once office/guestroom/gun room/Alabama room/junk room will soon be James Bradford's nursery.
Over the past couple weeks, Cory has been working on a project of turning some of our walk out attic space into an 'office' - Pictures to come soon. Imagine this though - walking through our bedroom, into my closet ducking through a 4 ft door into attic space. That's where he will be working from, from now on! To put it in the words of Cory - he sent a text message this morning to our friend Jeff that said "Hello from my new command post aka midget purgatory!" His wife Emily called me this morning to tell me about the text this morning and she & I got a good laugh out of it! Anyways, Cory has done a great job with making use of the space- he paneled the walls (doesn't have to look or feel fiberglass insulation anymore), carpeted the floor, and has his entire office set up in there. Overall I haven't been very optimistic about the room, but now I think it just may work and I am so proud of Cory for being so confident that we would make it all work out and he did!
Yesterday we had movers come and move out the rest of the furniture in James Bradford's room. Goodbye Gun Cabinet and Goodbye guest bed. We actually had our first spend the night guests last night with no guest bed. Our friend Jeffrey and his son Price were on their way through town and stayed with us. Not having a guest bed makes me feel like the worst hostess ever!! We made do though. We set them up with some egg crates on the floor with sleeping bags and blankets. If you are planning on making a stay at the Hall household, hopefully we will figure out better accommodations for you before your arrival!
Yesterday morning mom and I ventured down to Benjamin Moore at 6:30am to pick out the paint colors for the nursery. Because the house is still for sale, I wanted to still go with something pretty neutral. So we pulled the beige color from the crib bedding and chose "Sea Urchin" (beige) walls with "White Dove" (white) trim work. I think its going to look perfect! The painter arrived this morning at 7:15 and immediately got to work. And what a nice man he seems to be! I can't wait to get home this afternoon and see the progress.
Pictures to come soon of all of our progress. Sorry for the absence of them today!