Maternity: weeks 39 & 40

Here is a little catch up from a couple of weeks ago. Time is flying around here...

Week 39:  

This week was filled with ice, snow, and a surprise! 

Monday, I got out after having cabin fever from last week's snow fall. I took my friend, Emily's Pure Barre class, and her classes are always my favorites. Tuesday, we had more snow and ice, so I didn't leave the house again. No one wanted a falling preggo. 

Wednesday, my mom came into town. We were supposed to go to an afternoon tea but with the icy weather and being 39 weeks pregnant we decided to grab lattes closer to home. 

That night, we went out to our favorite Mexican place. Little did we know this would be our last photo as two! 

That night, we got a huge (for Raleigh) snow storm that brought trees and power lines down, and we lost power for 17 hours. On Thursday, J worked from home. Since it was freezing in our house, we huddled together around our fireplace trying to stay warm. Mom and I read and tried to stay distracted from contractions that started that morning. They lightened up throughout the day, and we finally got power back in the evening. 

J & I decided to go to bed early after such a cold, snowy day. I started watching a Parenthood in bed, and my contractions started coming more frequently and consistently. I timed them for almost two hours, and they became more intense until I woke J up around 11pm. I couldn't lay down anymore and was walking around our bedroom. I kept thinking it couldn't be the real thing and didn't want to go to the hospital and be sent home. Since they were more intense than any I'd had before and more frequent, J convinced me to call my OB. When she heard my contractions were more intense and five minutes apart for the past two hours, she said to head into the hospital. We packed the last few items in our bags and headed in around 12:30am. 

Little did I know how fast Miss CHP would come...birth story to follow! 

Week 40:
Welcome to the world CHP!

My sweet CHP was born one day before her due date. She was a tiny peanut at birth. Labor & delivery was an incredible experience, and I still cannot believe she's here. I absolutely love being CHP's mom and have fallen even more in love with my husband seeing him as a dad. I can't put into words what an amazing time this is for us.

Gender Reveal Party

Our gender reveal party was months ago, but I never got around to blogging about it until now. (I'm catching up on things thanks to maternity leave). We decided not to find out the gender until the day of the party with our family and friends. It was such an exciting moment, and I'm so glad we decided to find out this way.

At our 18 week ultrasound, we had our ultrasound lady write the gender on an index card and place it into an envelope that I dropped off at the bakers. I cannot say enough great things about The Cupcake Shoppe. They created a gorgeous, delicious cake, and even placed the mini banner that I made on top, so I wouldn't mess it up and find out the gender early. If you need a cake, cupcakes, or cookies, I highly recommend them. Plus, if you follow them on IG, you'll drool over their creations.

The Cupcake Shoppe

On the invitation, I wrote that everyone should wear pink or blue to cast their vote. It was fun to see everyone's picks, and surprisingly, it was completely even on boy or girl. Once everyone arrived, we both cut into the cake and couldn't believe it was a GIRL!

I was so excited I apparently almost threw the cake over my head while I was dancing around. I've always wanted a little girl. I want a boy too, but I'm so excited that our first will be a girl. I just couldn't believe it because I thought the whole time that our baby was a boy. We had picked a girl name at the very beginning of pregnancy but were stuck about a boy's until the week of the party. I thought that might be a sign that it was a boy since we finally found one we both liked. But it's a sweet little girl who we get to meet soon!

The details...

Honestly, I'm not a very creative person, so I turned to pinterest for all of my party inspiration. Almost everything that I made is on this board. 

We kept the food easy for this party, so we could enjoy time with our family and friends instead of stressing about timing or keeping things hot. Everything was made either the day before or the morning of the party. 

You can see from the spread, it was pretty simple. We did ham & cheese sandwiches, chicken salad croissants, veggies & dip, fruit bow ties, meatballs, drinks, and cake. 

The above mantel banner, behind me and my sister, was made out of blue and pink polka dot tissue paper. I saw straws on pinterest that were mustaches, so I copied them and cut out bow ties from felt. And I made bows out of the napkins to hold the silverware.

We had so much fun hosting this party, and I would definitely do a gender reveal party again. I loved the anticipation and excitement of finding out our baby's gender with so many loved ones.