Maurice and I have been furiously trying to finish the nursery. It’s one of those things that kind of just slips your mind as you spend weeks working late hours or are too tired on the weekends to do anything with it. Seeing as how we only have six weeks left, we figured this past weekend was a good a time as ever to get the major stuff done. I consider the nursery mostly complete at this point, because I fear if we add more to it, that she’ll never have room to play in there!

This first shot is of the crib area. The white blanket is from Maurice’s grandmother. The colorful blanket was handmade by our friend Jennifer.

The second shot is of the diapering area. We had heard the Ikea changing table wouldn’t fit a standard changing pad (16″x32″), but that wasn’t the case. It fits perfectly actually and leaves a little room in the back for me to stack diapers or wipes.

When we bought the monitor we realized we had no where to put it. Thankfully, we were over by the Babies-R-Us that had the Ikea not a mile from it, so we wisked ourselves away (after a very nice Starbucks trip) and picked up the bedside table that matched the rest of the nursery set. The lamp is from Target. Oh, and the monitor is great. Maurice was whispering from one end of the room and we heard it downstairs, so I think we’re good on stalking the infant once she’s here.

Certainly, I could not go through a pregnancy without doing a baby quilt for Olivia. I’m not a very good quilter. I lack the patience and perseverance to do anything other than a very simple square quilt. Regardless, I think it turned out lovely. We used a mixture of pinks and lavenders to come up with the final pattern. It is also the first time I’ve ever done a mitered corner bound quilt. I was impressed with myself actually, because I was really afraid to do this. The whole thing was machine quilted with the exception of the binding, which I hand sewed to the back of the quilt with care. It’s very nice! I am going to be hanging it somewhere in the room most likely, but we’re not sure where yet.

Last, but certainly not least, the obligatory fatty picture (Note that I only call it my “fatty” picture because the doctor keeps insisting I’m gaining weight too quickly… I think it’s hilariously stupid). I had my 34 week appointment this morning and things are moving along great. She’s growing right on schedule. My blood pressure is dropping (which apparently is “normal”). I also somehow magically dropped 2 pounds. Don’t ask. I don’t know how that happened. Two weeks ago they were giving me crap about gaining weight. This week I got a reprieve. Yay! I’m still only up 24-26 pounds with 6 weeks left to go. So long as I keep up the exercise and water drinking, I should be ok (I think… hope… you know what I mean). All in all, I’m impressed with myself. I haven’t started swelling yet… and I can still slip into my old jeans (naturally without zipping!).

A recent article on Fox News Network reveals that salmonella poisoning is being tied to uncooked tomatoes. WHA WHA WHA? There goes my cravings for tomatoes! I guess you can’t win eh? How on earth does salmonella get on a tomato anyway? No, wait… I don’t want to know. It’s too depressing.

On another note, Maurice and I shopped a lot this weekend for the rest of the baby-must-haves and stocked up the nursery really well. I should have some good pictures tomorrow. Today we only just got around to taking the trash out, so I need to go back through the room and fix up a couple of things before taking pictures. I also finished her quilt. It’s not much, since I’m not a quilter (don’t have the patience), but it is the first time I’ve ever hand-bound a quilt with mitered corners. It’s cute, and turned out much better than I had expected!

Christian, Danielle, and Rachel were kind enough to throw Miss Olivia a really nice baby shower this past weekend. I’m a little late posting about it, because I’ve been so busy at home trying to organize all of the lovely things we got from all of our friends. The kindness and generosity of people floors me! I was not expecting the girls to go all out with the decorations, food, and games the way they did. It really touched me.

I do have pictures of the event, thanks to Amber. I just haven’t posted them yet. Danielle took a ton though and has them up on her website here: http://gallery.mac.com/thestonesonline#100053

I hope to have our own up soon as well, though the shots are just as good. We don’t have any video, since we only just got the camcorder last night.

In other news, we did go check out the hospital with the scheduled tour. We had a good time and learned a lot about the hospital’s maternity ward. Many of the nurses there looked helpful and kind, which is important to me. I mean, if you’re going to poke me and prod me every hour, the least you can do is smile about it. Our baby care class is this Thursday evening. I’m looking forward to getting the brush-up on baby care and seeing Maurice fumble with a fake diaper change on a doll. I’ll be sure to bring the camera so Grandma Evy can have a good laugh this week!

We did it! We have made the leap into High Definition video. I’m sure what will follow is an endless slew of HD movies with little reason and much “Awwwww” and “Ohhhh”.

In short, we bought the Cannon HG10 High Definition camcorder.

The camera is absolutly incredible! I would most certainly suggest it if you are looking for something with a lot of storage (5 hours) and easy transfer onto your computer.

Anyway, here is our first attempt at using it: