24 weeks...6 months = getting worn down

Monday marked 6 months for me and Baby Girl McCann aka Hayleigh. I swear this keeps getting harder the further we get! So far, I have been keeping up with everything, but, the bigger I get, the harder it gets to keep the pace up! Allen and I got our first baby gifts from one of our registries yesterday. We had fun putting the stuff together, but, sit back and thought how much work this is going to be in the coming months.. putting stuff together, lots of stuff together.
I can just imagine what the rest is going to be like! I still have a million other things to get ready in the up coming 3 months and counting down.
I am soo ready for this weekend already! I need a break, but, that break will not be long. Saturday is already booked for yard work, and cleaning. My sister will be coming into town with her boyfriend to celebrate Easter with us, and I think we are wanting to cook outside on Saturday, since it will be sooo nice outside as well. My flowers I have planted from bulbs have sprouted and are ready to bloom, or are blooming right now in the kitchen. I absolutely love the smell from those tulips! Tulips are still my most favorite flower, even though they do not last long enough.
We have reached the point to where it is becoming a job just to go and visit with everyone anymore. To pack along Toby and Missy is a real chore, and they are just too much for me to take on by myself - so I don't even try to take them anywhere by myself anymore. We have soo much going on, that it now takes time away from what we can be getting done around the house that really needs done, besides sitting and relaxing at home, if we go anywhere to visit. I just keep thinking about what else needs to be done while we are visiting most of the time anymore.

I hate to be rude to some people, but, this is really hard for us right now, and it doesn't mean that our door is not open. Since the time change, it seems like I cannot catch up. Every Sunday, I turn around and it is already 4pm., and we have not even relaxed at home much, and supper needs to be getting started, laundry finished, before I have to get ready for bed to go to work, and try to catch up with Allen in the process.

I realize that some people do not like to leave their house to visit, but, we could really use the break right now, and have those people come to us. After all, after Hayleigh gets here, I really, really doubt if we will pack her and everything else up and take her all over creation, just so people can see her too. I hope people can understand this. We need help with this at this point in time.

On a different note, here is Baby M's developments for the week:

How your baby's growing:Your baby's growing steadily, having gained about 4 ounces since last week. That puts him at just over a pound. Since he's almost a foot long (picture an ear of corn), he cuts a pretty lean figure at this point, but his body is filling out proportionally and he'll soon start to plump up. His brain is also growing quickly now, and his taste buds are continuing to develop. His lungs are developing "branches" of the respiratory "tree" as well as cells that produce surfactant, a substance that will help his air sacs inflate once he hits the outside world. His skin is still thin and translucent, but that will start to change soon.

Wordless Wednesday... I need a clone!

So this is what my living room looks like for today... a mess! I have finished clearing out the nursery, and I have to wait for tomorrow, for Allen to be home and help me carry the stuff downstairs. At least progress is being made! I think right now I could really use 2 of me pre-pregnancy to get stuff done around here. It is really hard to get anything done, especially when Allen is home and everyone thinks we need to go to their house to visit them! I think from this point on, if some people want us to visit with them every weekend, they can take time from their day to come visit us instead. It has just been getting really hard to spend time at home and enjoy it, when we have soo much to get done, and people wanting to just sit around and visit. Not to mention, with the way things are right now, it is VERY VERY hard to pack the dogs around with us too. I hate to say the days of visiting other people are going to be put on hold for a while, until we can get caught up with everything. I am very tired right now, if you cannot tell, and I just cannot take much more of catering to everyone else right now.

Taboo

This topic has been brewing with me for a good while now. One of my friends that has been going through infertility treatment has been discussing this with me for about 2 months now. What is it? The way people treat you, when you are either undergoing fertility treatment, or when you do finally get pregnant from undergoing fertility treatment. The topic was brought up one day in an email. My friend, was experiencing what I had already experienced with some of my friends. One of her close friends had quit talking to her, when she told her friend that she has having a hard time and she did not want to talk about it. After her explaining how different some of her other friends were acting to her, I told her about all of my experiences with my friends. It is unbelievable how people can act. Things that people do, not inviting you to a get together, because you don't have kids, not coming over, because you don't have kids, not talking to you because you don't have kids. Do these people really think we are soo baby hungry we would snatch their babies? We both could not believe the same reactions from people that we had both experienced. One would think that after finally getting pregnant after years of trying and fertility treatment, people would come around. Some, yes, some, no. There are either the people who snubbed you before when you were trying to get pregnant, that suddenly think now you are in the mommy to be club, you can finally get in. The other is the cheerleaders you had when you were trying to get pregnant, that are suddenly MIA when you do find out you are pregnant. I have had all kinds of comments made to me, that I don't think that the people saying them, really thought about what they were really saying. I had one person tell me that they did not like having me around, because with me being pregnant, it made things harder on them. That person and their spouse cannot agree on a final baby number, the person that made the comment does not want anymore kids, and their spouse does. And, to add injury to insult, we just happen to be having the sex of the baby that spouse wants. I don't know what these people want me to do.. wait until the stork brings her or what? I just hate tip toeing around these people. This is all really hard to understand why people act the way they do. Like we chose to have to deal with all of this? I would love for some of these people to actually have to work to even try to get pregnant. I guess some just don't get how hard this all actually really is. I just wish that people could be there and happy for you when you finally do reach the place you have been reaching for, for a long time.

I do have to say, there are the people out there that actually do get this. Not all of them have went through the same trials, but, they understand how important this is to you. I just want to say how much of a blessing these people are to have around! I don't have to feel guilty about being excited about finally being pregnant and having a baby. I realize that I tend to talk about babies a whole lot more now, but, if you were trying and trying for something that seemed soo out of reach, and you finally reached what you had been dreaming for, wouldn't you be a little excited?

23 wks... the brakes are broken! Welcome to Baby Land!

We have made it 23wks on this last Monday! Our little baby girl has been quite an acrobat lately. Last week, Hayleigh decided she would flip over to my right side, back to the left, and back again, to the right side. She finally managed to settle in the middle after flipping back and forth 4 times in one day! I have been absolutely loving all of the kicking and moving -I just wish Allen could feel some of the kicks more. Since she is still butt down, and has been kicking down on my cervix and bladder, I am mostly the only one who gets to feel everything.

Yesterday, we finally started on the nursery. I still cannot believe how fast everything is moving along. We visited my mom yesterday too, and since she had been complaining about having all of the baby loot, and running out of room, I told her that we could start taking some of it home with us. We ended up bringing the first load back with us.. 3 months worth of diapers and baby wipes. We have also finally got the parish hall at St. Joe booked for the baby shower- it is set for Saturday June 5th now, so, I can get the invites ordered and ready to send out soon. We also made headway with the bedding for the nursery. I could not find anything on Pottery Barn that I fell in love with. A few weeks ago, my mom and I stopped past the Village Stitchery in Oblong, and fell in love with some of the fabric they had. The fabric goes with the whole French Country Cottage theme we are going with for the nursery. My mom and I both enjoy hand piecing and quilting, so, this will make the room all that more special. I wanted the room to be relaxing and simple, but, timeless. I still like all of the other themes, but, I wanted the nursery to be elegant, like Father of the Bride Part II, you open the door, and Franck Eggelhoffer says "Welcome to Baby land".

Well, since this little girl has been kicking me all throughout blogging this afternoon, I had better finish up, and start looking for what I will be having for supper tonight.

So, 23 wks... Baby M

Turn on the radio and sway to the music. With her sense of movement well developed by now, your baby can feel you dance. And now that she's more than 11 inches long and weighs just over a pound (about as much as a large mango), you may be able to see her squirm underneath your clothes. Blood vessels in her lungs are developing to prepare for breathing, and the sounds that your baby's increasingly keen ears pick up are preparing her for entry into the outside world. Loud noises that become familiar now — such as your dog barking or the roar of the vacuum cleaner — probably won't faze her when she hears them outside the womb.

Wordless Wednesday- Make room for Baby!

Well, this is our upstairs spare room that we are using as the nursery for Miss Hayleigh. Allen swears the color of the walls is soo close to white, but, I disagree. I think that is the only thing we have disagreed with. I had actually painted this room a year ago, and love the room! I think it is really one of my favorite rooms in our house. It has a great view out to our front yard, with all of the flowers in bloom in the spring and summer. The maple tree out front puts out a warm yellow orange color every year too. The room is just very relaxing and peaceful in general. We still have to take down the day bed and move the dresser and sewing machine from the room. Missy and Toby had their big move last week from the room, and have been missing it ever since. The next pics I post should be showing the progress we are making!