23 Weeks & More Nursery Planning

I'm about halfway through my 23rd week, and with each week I get more and more uncomfortable.  Not all the time, usually after I eat or trying to get to sleep.  But I'm loving every second.  Writing in my baby book has been something I've really loved doing.  I want to make sure I remember every little thing from this amazing experience, and it will be fun for her to read when she gets older!

How far along?: 23 weeks 3 days.
Total weight gain: About 13 pounds.  Thank God it's mostly just my belly:)
How much does baby weigh?: Just over 1 pound.
Maternity clothes?: I have 1 pair of maternity jeans, and a few other maternity items that I wear.  But I wear a lot of my normal clothing too.  I still have 2 pairs of jeans I can squeeze into with my bella band.  I'm hoping spring comes quick!  I want skirts, dresses, and flip flops... definitely will be more comfy.
Stretch marks?:  Nope.
Sleep?:  It's ok.  I do have a hard time getting comfortable.  And I've been having some really weird dreams.. not cool.
Best moment this week?: Seeing her stick her little butt up... it makes one side of my belly bigger than the other.  Looks so crazy, I love it.
Movement?: Tons.  She's a very active baby.  Day and night.  She doesn't seem to have a 'schedule' yet.
Food cravings?: I don't think I have any, really.  My husband would say sugar.  lol.
Labor signs?: No & I would like to keep it that way for a while!
Belly button in or out?: Still in a little bit.  Starting to get flat.
What I miss: Wine.  Sleeping on my stomach.
What I'm looking forward to:  Buying the rest of the baby items on our list, working on the many projects for her nursery, and having a maternity photo shoot!

That's the kind of color scheme I'd like to use for her nursery.  I've been trying to get a hold of the housing office so we can start painting, but they haven't answered the phone the past two days.  Ummm?  Looks like I'll just have to go in there tomorrow.. I want to get a move on things.  I plan on painting with a color similar to the light blue.  If we can't start painting this weekend, then I'm going to start working on the bed skirt and curtains instead... but hopefully we can paint first!

Spring Fever!

It was an absolutely beautiful day out on Saturday.  My husband and I decided to take a walk downtown for a breath of fresh air and to see what was happenin'.  It's been a while since we just went for a walk outside - I mean, who wants to go outside when the weather is in the single digits?  Definitely not this gal!  I've been needing some warmth, and the past few days have been just gorgeous.  Spring, please come soon!!

We walked around the open air market and there were lots street food vendors out cooking up goodies.  The thing I love about Korean street food is that it's so cheap, so I'm more willing to try it out and if I end up not liking it then I don't really feel bad.

There was some fresh bread out that were either deep fried or cooked on a griddle.  We tried a couple different kinds... the one was deep fried and ended up being a tad too greasy for my taste, but the other one was delicious!  There was also a bun filled with red bean paste, which they use to fill a lot of their 'sweets'... I didn't try that one.  Red bean paste?  I don't think that would've sat well with this pregnant lady...

 

 And then a few days ago we went up to Itaewon in Seoul to just walk around since it was, once again, gorgeous out.  And they have this one street food there that I haven't been able to find closer to where we live.  Unfortunately.  :(  It's called Hoddeok.  It's sort of a yeasty pancake and it's filled with cinnamon and sugar, then pressed onto a hot griddle.  It is DELICIOUS.  Right up my alley.  It's flat and crunchy on the outside, and the cinnamon and sugar turn into a gooey syrup.  It's a special treat, and only costs ₩1000 (which is equal to like.. .80 cents).

 Tomorrow I have my 23 week checkup... I'm excited to know how our little girl is doing!  Baby update tomorrow!  Hooray!

Project: Command Center Organization, Pt. 2

I like calling it a 'command center'.  It makes my little office area sound really important.  So, from the last post, the first thing I did was go through all of our documents and sort what needs to be shredded and then put the rest of the papers in their respective file folders... ta-da..

I love the that the folders are so colorful and pretty.. it makes me happy.

The next day it was time for me to organize some things on top of my desk.  I found a pretty green box I had sitting in my closet to help me keep everything together and looking clean.

 

In there I keep a binder for all my 'inspiration' findings.  I read a lot of magazines, but hate when they start to pile up around the house.  So after I'm done reading it, I usually clip out what I want to keep and stick them in this tabbed binder under their rightful category... holidays, home decor, recipes, etc.  After I try a recipe in here, I will either write in on a recipe card and stick it in my recipe box if it's good, or toss it.

I also keep a greeting card organizer (the cover was ugly, so I made a new one).  It has each month in it to write down birthdays, anniversaries, etc, and little pockets to store random thank you cards and other greeting cards.  Then I have a small notebook to keep track of  monthly bills, as well as my address book.

And that's about it for this part.  Two days of working on this project and it's coming along quite well!!  It's already making me feel better.  Oh yeah.. I also keep my little grocery list/weekly menu pinned up there for easy access!! :)

How does everyone else organize their office space?  I'd love to know!

Project: Command Center Organization, Pt. 1

As I said in my previous post, my first organization project was going to be to get all of my paper things in order.  It's something I think I should have done a long time ago, but now with baby coming I think it's even more important to get our things in order.

Are you ready for this?  It's pretty bad.  Actually, it's not that bad... because it's been worse.  Sad, but true.  Anyway, our little office space needed some serious lovin'.  Things tend to just get thrown on the desk, and it gets a little worse every day.  And that plastic tote?  Who knows what was in there.. random papers.. pay stubs from 2006............. receipts of clothes purchases from when I was a senior in high school..

The first thing I did was go through the mounds of papers we had built up.  I went through and decided what we needed to file and what we needed to shred.  This Consumer Reports website might help you decide when it's okay to toss your documents.  Then I split the papers up into different categories, so I knew where to place them in my hanging file folders.  At this point I have 10 folders.

Auto/Renters Insurance - Personal Property Insurance - Automobiles - Medical/Dental - Banking - Credit - Manuals - Warrenties - Military/Housing (for my husbands work papers) - Dental Assisting (my resumes, continuing education, etc)

Now when we get mail, or important documents, I either file them or shred them right away.  Speaking of shredding... this is my lovely 'to shred' pile.. (it felt good to get all that junk out of our home!)..

That kept me busy for most of one night.  This is definitely a project I can't complete in one day - I would get too overwhelmed!  But it's a start.  I can't wait to show you what my desk space looks like after I'm done.  :)

Project: Organization Before Baby Arrival

I have this crazy idea in my head that I need to have everything organized and perfect before our baby arrives in 4 months.  A nice idea, but not much of a feasible one for me.  But I will try.  There are just so many things I want to get done.  I tend to get all these different ideas in my head and then instead of taking the time to do one before I start another, I just try to do them all at once.  Do you know how well that works out?  It doesn't.  I usually end up scatter-brained and with a big mess on my hands when I could have had more things done if I would have just taken it one thing at a time.

For instance-- I will start a crochet project, and then in the middle of it I will see another super cute crochet project that I just can't wait to do.  So I stop the other one, and start the new one.  Then I think.. man, I really want to sew something.  So I start sewing some placemats and napkins.  Then in the middle of that, I get up to go to the bathroom.  On the way out of the bathroom I pass the laundry room and think how bad I need to organize it.  So I start organizing that.  See?  I end up with multiple unfinished projects really fast.  It's horrible... a very bad habit of mine.

Because I'm a tad blog-obsessed, I've found a few blogs that deal with organization.  So I've taken ideas from each of them and kind of mashed them together.  From here on out, I'm going to try to take one thing at a time... we'll see how that goes..

My first organization project is an important one, I believe.  Getting all of our papers organized.  You know-- legal documents, financial papers, receipts, coupons, etc.. and figuring out a good way to easily maintain it throughout the year.  Check back to see how our mess gets cleaned up!

Do you know why Koreans don't really have dessert?

Ok-- they have dessert, just not good dessert, imo.  Their sweets aren't very sweet.  Even their sodas taste different.  It's quite odd.  Although they do love their ice cream, I will give them that (I will share more about this amazing ice cream joint we went to later).  But honestly, they don't need all the sweets because their fruit is so dang good!

My husband and I have been obsessed with the mandarin oranges and the strawberries lately.  Just a little.

That's pretty much what our fridge looks like at all times.  My husband had about 6 of them in one sitting tonight.  Is too much of a good thing bad?

We come home with a box of oranges almost every time we go to the grocery store.  Sorry, no pictures of the strawberries... we ran out before I got the chance to snap a shot (imagine that).  But I'm sure you all know what a strawberry looks like.  Now just imagine them twice the normal size... and much sweeter.  To me, their fruit just has more of a sweetness to them.

I can't wait until summer rolls around.  Mulberries, Korean grapes, and Korean melon.  I don't know what it is, but Korean fruit just tastes so fresh and sweet... and it's a decent price too!

Jewelry Organization... it's about time.

I'm slowly, but surely, redecorating our bedroom.  There are a ton of things I want to do around the house, but I find it most important to start with the bedroom.  It's my favorite room.  It's our space.  It should be beautiful and relaxing - and it's well on it's way!

One of the things on my list was to organize my jewelry!  We have a beautiful bedroom set and all of my jewelry and things were just scattered across my long dresser.  Something had to be done.

That was just part of it.  It was pretty much a nightmare every time I wanted to find something.  I needed a simple way to organize my jewelry.  So this is what I came up with...

I bought three little wooden boxes at a local store for about $2.  They had some super weird designs on them, so I painted over it with some acrylic paints so they match the rest of our bedroom - blues, tans, whites, and accents of yellow.  They work perfectly.  The top one holds my rings, the middle one holds bracelets, and the bottom one holds stud earrings and other miscellaneous things.

And then there were the necklaces.  Oh, the necklaces!  For these, I took two wooden frames and spray painted them white.  Then I bought some screw hooks and, with the help of my lovely husband, screwed them into the top of the frame.  Ta-da!  It doubles as some pretty neat "wall art", as well.  I made two of those for my necklaces.

Then I made a small one for all my fancy dangling earrings, which I don't own too many of.  So the small one was just perfect.  I strung two pieces of twine across the frame and my husband nailed them in for me.

And now I have a pretty cute little jewelry corner!  I might do a couple things to spruce up the frames, but I'm not sure yet.  I'll keep you posted.

Next up I'm re-working a lamp for my bedside table.  Things are coming along in our bedroom and I'm getting pretty excited about it!

20 Weeks... the nursery planning begins!

Halfway there already!  Time really does fly by.  My husband and I had the pleasure of seeing our little one for a full hour during my 20 week ultrasound.  Oh ya, and we found out we're having a GIRL!  She's healthy and very active... we couldn't be happier.  :)  We were able to see her little fingers moving, her opening and closing her mouth, and sucking her thumb.  She was kicking like crazy and just completely all over the place.  It's so amazing that all that is going on in my tummy!  I feel her kick every day now, especially at night time.  It has to be one of the most incredible feelings in the world.  My belly just keeps growing and growing and it's become extremely difficult to wear normal clothes now.  There are a few people who are generously going to give me their old maternity jeans, etc, so I don't have to pay $30+ for a pair of jeans.  I mean, within the next few months I'll be wearing summer dresses all the time anyway, I'd hate to waste my money on maternity jeans to only wear them for a few weeks!

 

Hooray for baby bumps!  I just love it.  Until it's time to go to sleep at night and I can't get comfortable and my husband gets annoyed because I'm flopping around the bed all frustrated.  :)~

Now that we know we're going to have a beautiful, bouncing baby girl it's time to really get started on the nursery.  A couple weekends ago my darling husband put together the crib, changing table, and the glider.  I love them - they're very classic and simple.  And I'm really excited about the glider... I can't wait to be able to rock my baby girl to sleep.  

Our options were very limited being over here in South Korea.  There were only a hand full of choices at the BX, and I was still having a hard time choosing!  With much deliberation, we decided to go with the Graco Lauren Classic Crib Collection, the crib mattress is a Sealy Perfect Rest, and the Graco Avalon Glider & Ottoman (which I don't have pictured) in cherry and it matches the espresso crib & changing table perfectly!

The past few days I've been searching for the perfect bedding set.  I'm having a harder time picking this one out than I did my own!  I put together this little inspiration board...

I'm really loving these colors right now.  But I'm having a hard time finding a bedding that I like that matches what I like.  All these color ideas may change... but for right now..... I am just loving the deep yellows, pinks, and creams with the dark furniture.

Well, it's movie and ice cream time here in my house.. hope everyone has a good week!