Hospital Bound

Due to unforeseen complications, the doctors decided to induce Megan early (her due date is 10/29/2011).  We are supposed to go to the hospital tonight so they can start the whole induction process.  Megan's mom and my mom came up, and we decided to snap some quick pictures before we went to the hospital.  Here's a good profile of the bump:

And here I am playing the congas:

Nursery is Ready!

I was not prepared for how difficult it was to put together baby furniture.  I guess I have always been spoiled by pre-assembled furniture from Nebraska Furniture Mart.  There were so many pieces to the furniture set, and  every bolt required an awkward angle and an Allen wrench.  I feel like the space they save to package it in such small pieces is not worth the time it takes to put it together.  Anyways, here's Megan taking a picture of me putting together the dresser:

After the furniture was put together, Megan got the sheets on the crib and all of her clothing washed and put up.  Her mom also helped with some of the finishing touches.  Below are some shots with all of the furniture up.  Here's the crib in the corner with the pink curtains Megan picked out:

Megan got some letters to spell Stella's name and added some flower stickers.  I hung them up above the changing table (the clock that matches the bedding is also up on the other wall):

We put the glider and ottoman in the corner next to the dresser:

Sneak Peek

Megan has been having some issues with shortness of breath, so the doctor wanted to do a level II sonogram on the baby to make sure everything was OK.  The amount of detail that we could see was pretty amazing.  We were really happy to hear the doctor indicate that Stella looked perfectly healthy.  The picture doesn't do the actual live sonogram justice, but here is one of the better stills of a profile of her perfect head:

Baby Shower in OP

Our good friends Molly and Tina threw a baby shower at our house in Overland Park for our local friends.  Sounds like they had a really good time.  Here is Megan opening one of my favorite toys when I was a kid (rock-a-stack):  

The hosts got us a cool ocean themed activity mat:

Brooke made Stella a stool with her name on it:

One of the games they played was to pass around a foam board and add different features based on what they think Stella will look like.  I really hope our daughter doesn't look like this:

To get out of the house, Marsh and I went to the Tour de BBQ and did the 15 mile ride.  It was a great experience, and we plan on going next year and taking it to the next level with the 35 mile ride.

Nursery Update

So, the walls in the nursery were a much bigger job than I was anticipating.  The previous home owner had who knows how many layers of wallpaper and at least a couple of coats of paint on top of that in this room.  The only thing I could see in this room was wallpaper seams and I couldn't live with keeping it that way for the nursery.  Rather than re-sheet rocking the entire room, we opted for a technique that involves skim coating the walls to hide the seams.  One hallucinating inducing coat of oil-based primer, a skim coat, a round of sanding, another skim coat, another road of sanding, one more oil-based primer coat, and a coat of water-based primer for good measure later, I've got a blank canvas with no visible wallpaper seams:

Note the blue tape about a foot from the ceiling.  This is a marker for what will be what I call the chair rail (technically, I think it's a plate rail).  We chose scented valentine for the color above the chair rail and eggnog below.  Here is the final product with white semi-gloss on the trim and chair rail:

The final touches before actually loading the room up with baby stuff was a couple of coats of textured paint on the ceiling, a new ceiling fan, new air diffuser, new light switch, and all new outlets and switch/outlet covers.

Did I mention that I applied five coats of paint in the closet?

Baby Shower in Wichita

Today was Megan's second baby shower in Wichita, KS (technically it was in Derby).  Soon-to-be-Grandma Sara, soon-to-be-Aunt Megan, and soon-to-be-Aunt Morgan hosted the shower at my parent's home.  It was very nice with a great turn out of family and friends.  Just like our first shower, we barely had enough room in the Pathfinder to haul back all of the generous gifts.  Some select pictures below.

My Mom gave us a copy of my favorite book when I was a kid, Pat the Bunny:

And Megan's Mom got her Goodnight Moon which was her favorite book when she was little:

The grandmothers and soon-to-be mother:

The aunts:

Melon Carriage and Cupcakes

In preparation for the baby shower in Wichita, my Dad and I "engineered" a baby carriage fruit salad manufactured from a watermelon the night before:

Sister Megan and cousin Sophie graciously decorated the cupcakes that Mom baked.  Megan decorates so fast that the camera couldn't accurately track her hand:

Sophie concentrating very hard (again, notice Megan's blurry hand):