one month till you are in my arms!

baby girl,

it’s getting real up in here. you are due one month from today. i am pretty sure i’ve felt each and every one of your sweet body parts in my ribs at one point or another now. you are so stinking strong, my word. and a flipping gymnast too. sometimes when i am sitting at meetings at work i feel like i should apologize for how much my stomach is bouncing around…it’s a bit awkward. but you’re a little bouncing bambina, and you are going to do what you are going to do. and if you want to do back handsprings in there, go for it. whatever it takes to stay healthy and happy.

sometimes i complain to your papa about how you hurt me and make me uncomfortable and keep me from sleeping. and how i am not ready or old enough to be a mom and how i don’t know what i am doing…i hope you don’t hear those things. they are just your mamma having a pity party. and being a scaredy cat. most days i talk about how i can’t wait another day to meet you and how much i love you and how excited i am to get to know you and have you in our family…i hope you do hear those things and know that i couldn’t be more excited to be your mamma.

by they way, you are due on my birthday. i don’t know if i’ve mentioned that to you before. can you believe that God would give me such a precious birthday present? shoot, forget those anthro bags i usually look for. this year my favorite birthday present really got kicked up a notch. or a zillion notches. i hope for your sake that you come on your own day. i don’t want you to have to share with me for your whole life. but i think it’s pretty darn special that you are due when you are. you little mamma's girl, you...

we are getting your nursery all ready. it's almost done. we were lying on the floor in the there the other night thinking about how your little presence will make the room complete, and perfect. we sit in there a lot and think about you. it's by far our favorite room in the house these days. thanks for taking so many ordinary thoughts and days in our lives and making them something so beautiful, already. God only knows what you'll do to our hearts once you are actually in our arms...

we can't wait to meet you. 
one month sweet thing, one month.

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mamma, papa, bambina.

while we were in richmond this weekend, my sister and her friend Christine kindly took some photos of our little growing family, which we had neglected to do up to this point (34.5 weeks!). adam and i always feel awkward in front of cameras, and the rainy weather didn't help. but there is quite some joy that thinking about meeting this baby girl brings us...and i think it came through. :)

by christine...

and some by laura too...

we are ready for her sweet face to be in some of these family shots before long. :) thanks again laura and christine for snapping these. we will treasure them for so long!

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the end of the showers, now for a baby girl.

my sister posted such a lovely blog about the last shower for the little girl, so i’ll direct you there for most of the details and lovely photos. she and two of my other best friends hosted the shower and they did the most lovely job imaginable! we spent all afternoon sipping yummy beverages, eating good food, and crafting with some of my very best friends. and the bambina came out of it with a bazillion adorable headbands and barrettes thanks to the creative minds and hands of my friends. even those who were unsure, had some crazy hidden creativity! i mean, i was amazed!  i loved every minute of the day. and all four of the precious babies in attendance. the fall weather outside somehow made her arrival seem really near too. which i am realizing, it really is.

every new little dress, headband, or swaddle makes me that much more eager to meet the one who will be wearing them. the waiting is starting to get sweeter and somehow more tender the closer it gets.

man, have we nelson girls been spoiled. and man are we behind on thank you notes…

but we are thankful. and they are coming. :)

(all photos courtesy of my lovely sister).

ps, it was so sweet of my sister and her friend Christine to take some bump photos to capture this sweet season for us. excited to share some soon!

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i pulled off a surprise, for once.

this weekend i pulled off a little surprise for adam’s birthday. i am usually terrible at keeping my own surprises, but i worked extra hard to keep my yapper shut about it this time. for the most part...

if you don’t know this, my hubby loves to sail. while we were home in september we got in a quick sail, but it was definitely more of a tease for him than anything. we had really hoped to get away for a night on the boat, but with all the people to see and other things to do, it just didn't happen. and it made poor hubby very sad.

so i put my rear into gear to find someone in nc that would let us take their boat out for a little over-nighter to celebrate adam’s birthday/our anniversary/have a last "babymoon" of sorts. i finally found a nice fellow who runs a sailing school who agreed to let us take one of his 25-footers overnight. hooray! we left on Saturday morning, sailed all day, found a perfect anchorage, got rocked to sleep by the ocean, and woke up to the most beautiful morning on the water that has ever been (proof below).

it felt like the most fitting over-nighter our little family could have taken, 33 weeks pregnant and all. i am sure it won't be long before the little bambina is learning to sail too. maybe she'll learn to swim first. or walk. maybe not.

it was the perfect adventure-full weekend. and now we are shifting mental gears to our next big adventure...coming in about 6.5 weeks!


Adam was totally in his element. :)

We found the perfect anchorage...yep, this is where we spent the night. Can you tell this is a happy man? Because this is a very happy man. And a happy baby. And a happy couple. It was an all around happy evening.

Oh sunset...

And this, is what we woke up to. I mean, can you even? Please don't mind my morning hair. But seriously, I was morning person this morning. Have you ever woken up on a sail boat in the middle of a sunrise this beautiful? You should try it. I think you'd be a morning person too.

ps, on the subject of surprises...here is one of adam's and my favorite videos. yes, we've watched it at least 50 times. and yes, we still die. i die just copying the link to this post. enjoy. :)

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i’ve been growing a human for 33 weeks!

tomorrow  i’ll be 33 weeks. yes, i know, it shocks me too. pregnancy, you are freaking me out with how fast you are flying by. please, slow down, let me catch up.

on second thought, don’t. i am so stinking ready to meet my little bff (for life) bambina pal sweetie-heart. oh my goodness, have you ever seen this video? i just thought of it for some reason. it sums up everything i want to say to her right now. maybe one day she’ll be precious like this little girl and sing it to me too…?

yes i am still here, and i have some coherent thoughts, i think. lately, my mind is just a string of bizarre thoughts and forgetful moments. did this happen to anyone else in third trimester? anyone? my boss told me the other day that when she was pregnant she once declared to her husband that she was, “so hungry i just want to eat a notebook!” she meant to say pasta. notebook came out. how do things like that happen? i felt so much better after her confession. pregnancy brain is a real thing people!! for instance, yesterday morning i was so tired that i went downstairs, bought a coffee, brought it back up to my office and immediately forgot i had it. until i was still SO tired an hour later, thought to myself, "i could really use some coffee," and then caught a glimpse of the cup. still full, and cold. boo. (i still drank it though because...caffeine!!).

at 33 weeks i am so aware of her presence every minute of the day. and i love it. she never sits still, for one. she is constantly moving, kicking, flipping, and generally having a grand old time in there. or so it seems. i talk to her a lot throughout the day because it almost seems rude not to. every day i wonder what she’ll look like, what she’ll be like, and what it will feel like to suddenly be a family of three. i go lay in her nursery and just stare at everything and pray and pray and pray for her until i start to get little tears in my eyes thinking about how much i already feel in love with her. i am at that point where i’ve stopped questioning or apologizing for any emotions, and i just run with them, assuming they must be normal. that is what much of the past 33 weeks has consisted of: trusting that my body was made to do this, not being consumed by fear, and allowing myself to ride the ride that is pregnancy without worrying too much about whether i'm doing it right or wrong or feeling crazy things.

you are only pregnant for the first time once, you know?

i feel like God is preparing my heart for motherhood in all of this, and it's kind of a miraculous thing.

  

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