Excitement is in the air

Little Sommerfeldt has been excited of late, bouncing around and kicking and waving his fists in glee almost every half hour.

And although I can probably attribute it to the nonstop Christmas music at our house, I think this is the real reason for his excitement:

We got this all set up last night! Ready and waiting for a baby to sleep in it :)
Thank you to my wonderful mom for getting it for us :)

And this comforter/bumper/sheet/crib skirt set is coming in the mail sometime soon!
It will match perfectly with the fleece blanket I made and the quilt Lisa made and our jungle-themed nursery room, although I think it'll look nicer with our white crib than the brown one in the picture.

Not to mention the fabulous baby shower held in Little Sommerfeldt's honor on Saturday with all the long-time friends from the ward and complete with Daddy's favorite: eclairs! Now what baby wouldn't be excited about that? (It would seem he's even excited about me writing this post - mainly this boy is just excited these days!)

Nesting

My whole life of late suddenly can be explained in one word: Nesting.

http://www.parentingweekly.com/pregnancy/pregnancy-symptoms/nesting-instinct.htm

While I am happy to say I have not been irrationally throwing away sheets and towels or scrubbing knob screws, I have spent the last couple of weeks arranging furniture, watching Ryan arrange furniture, bursting into tears when said furniture arrangement doesn't work out as pictured in my head, bursting into tears again when Ryan comes up with a perfect solution and makes the whole room look perfect, scrubbing hard water off the shower, the tub, the shower walls, the bathroom sink, the counters, scrubbing miniscule yellow spots off the walls, scraping age-old burned food out of the recess under the stove burners, soaking stove burner trays in vinegar and water to remove burned stains, even though we cover them with aluminum foil, sweeping the kitchen floor, scrubbing the table and chairs with Pine Sol, scrubbing the kitchen linoleum on hands and knees twice to remove all stains, feeling an irrational need to climb up a ladder and scrub the windows and only barely being able to restrain myself (does anyone know where I can get a long-handled sponge/squeegee for scrubbing windows? It's my only hope...)....... and the list goes on.....

This is what happens when I only work part-time for five months before the baby is due to arrive... Up next: spot cleaning carpets, vacuuming couches, scrubbing walls throughout the house, vacuuming out closets and cupboards and window tracks, cleaning the furnace closet, the refrigerator, the microwave, the oven (without toxic cleaners, of course) and of course the shoe-shaped spot on the ceiling where Ryan smashed a spider once....

Can't wait for Baby Sommerfeldt to get here and restore rational living habits and normal behavior... as if going on low sleep for weeks on end is going to restore normal behavior... but we absolutely can't wait!

Projects

I've found that one of the things that makes me most excited is having projects to work on for when the baby comes. (Plus they keep me busy and doing something productive.) I've already made a couple little flannel blankets, plus the fleece jungle blanket from the last post. Next up: a car seat carrier cover and nursing cover. I found patterns online that had the fabric measurements and I picked out fabric today. Can't wait to welcome this little boy into our family (although he's already pretty much a part of it!)

Car seat carrier cover fabric

Nursing cover fabrics - I wanted it to be thick, reversible, and a pattern that I liked, not just cute baby fabric. I got some terrycloth to put in the corners, and it's going to have an adjustable neck strap and hopefully a couple of flap-top pockets, too. 

Bonding Time

My wonderful mom got a new chair this last weekend and donated this one to us. It was my favorite chair all growing up - and it will have a permanent home at our place, as long as I live and it doesn't fall apart. It's just right. So this morning me and little Sommerfeldt spent a few minute just rocking and enjoying each other's company... as if we don't spend enough time together already... like... 24 hours a day :) Based on all the kicking and wiggling and squirming I think he enjoyed it. 

Last week we had a second ultrasound with a specialist at the hospital. We were excited because we heard that the hospital ultrasound machine makes even better pictures than the one at the clinic. That is true only when your little boy is not "active and uncooperative." He did his best to hide from the ultrasound machine and move as much as possible so as to blur all the pictures. That's our boy :) Everything is still looking great and as far as they can tell at this stage, he's perfectly healthy and developing normally.

While getting quilt fabric at JoAnn's, I saw this fleece and simply couldn't resist. We are doing a jungle theme in the baby's room (as much as you can in a small apartment where baby's room has to double as office and storage, too) and so this fabric was absolutely perfect. I can't wait to lay him down in the middle.

Last of all, I borrowed some of Ryan's homework time and we hit a few yard sales on Saturday. We bought a few outfits in all different sizes and I don't really plan to buy much more because I really don't know what I'll need or how much - we definitely still need pants and probably more of everything but I really have no idea. These outfits here my mom got for us - complete with both elephants and turtles on them :) but my absolute favorite is the polar bear sleeper. Ryan has polar bear pajamas too and they can match :) I got size 0-3 month since I don't know how big he'll be - and I sure hope he grows into them fast so I don't have to wait too long! 

20 week ultrasound!

The long-awaited and much-anticipated day finally arrived, and we got to see our little baby in ultrasound format!

Baby looks a lot different than the little blob we saw at 9 weeks! He has a nice symmetrical brain, a strong-looking four-chambered heart, two kidneys, a stomach, a bladder, a nice even spine, a rib cage, two arms, two legs, two hands, two feet, and a nose. He also has eye sockets that make him look a little halloween-ish on the ultrasound, since it only picks up bone and such and not cute skin features. We'll have to wait for delivery to see him in person. And we absolutely cannot wait!

And, in case you couldn't guess from the pronoun usage in this post, little Sommerfeldt is also a boy! We are overjoyed. Someone should have been there taking pictures of the look on our faces because I think it's a moment neither of us will ever forget. We can't wait to meet our little son in person and watch him grow up and see the person he turns out to be. Right now, we couldn't possibly be happier!

Almost halfway...

Today I spent a few minutes looking at these and feeling excited :) Only one more week until we have our ultrasound to hopefully see a happy, healthy baby and find out if it's a boy or a girl! I can hardly wait. I don't have any idea if it's going to be a boy or girl - and I honestly don't have a preference. I'm just excited to see the new little person who's going to join our family. 

Becoming a Mother

I read this quote on a friend's blog today and had to share - because it spoke to me, too.

"The most difficult part of birth is the first year afterwards. It is the year of travail - when the soul of a woman must birth the mother inside her. The emotional labour pains of becoming a mother are far greater than the physical pangs of birth; these are the growing surges of your heart as it pushes out selfishness and fear and makes room for sacrifice and love. It is a private and silent birth of the soul, but it is no less holy than the event of childbirth, perhaps it is even more sacred."

For me, becoming a mother is the most exciting and frightening thing that I have ever done. It's a life-changing event that in my life can be compared only to marriage in the scope of its impact - but with marriage, I already knew Ryan. I got to date him, be friends with him, "practice" if you will, before the actual change.

With parenting, there is no "practice" phase. There is only real life. From the moment that I knew this baby was coming to our family, our lives changed. My life changed. My whole perspective and plan changed, because now it is real. It's no longer hypothetical or hoped for; it's real, and there is no going back, and we would never ever want to. I am a mother now, even though our child hasn't even been born yet. I will always be a mother, forever, because that child is a part of our family now.

I worry all the time that something will happen to our little one, and I suppose that's the first step in my transformation into a mother, because I've been told you never really stop worrying. For the first time there is someone who is completely and totally relying on me. Our hearts are already beginning to connect in a way that only mothers can truly understand, and I am only beginning to understand it myself.

I am excited and scared and anxious and so, so happy all at the same time to be able to experience this new phase of life, to share it with Ryan, to meet our little one, to watch him or her grow and learn and become someone and to learn to love more than ever before because of this new experience. To love is truly the greatest joy and greatest pain that someone can ever experience. I am learning every day how great and encompassing the love of our heavenly parents for us must be. Someday I will be able to fully comprehend it - but for now, my transformation is still in process.

We love you, little Sommerfeldt!