Welcome Thomas Dean Marcellino!

Welcome to the world, Thomas Dean Marcellino!   Born on National Slurpee Day, July 11, 2015 at 12:39 a.m.    6 pounds, 5 ounces and 21 inches long.

You are a little slice of heaven!  

9 Month Bumpdate {Thomas Dean}

We are officially in the home stretch of our 2nd annual pregnancy!

Bump at 38 weeks

It's pretty wild to think we'll be bringing our baby boy home so soon. In fact, we'll probably be in labor by the weekend, so please send your prayers! I had a check up yesterday and learned I am 3 cm dilated, 50% effaced. My doctor is on call all weekend so I'm going to see him on Friday morning for a little membrane stripping fun and hopefully be making our way to the hospital shortly thereafter!

Thank goodness last weekend we finally crawled into the attic and got down the Boppy lounger, Rock n' Play Sleeper and boxes of other newborn things. We also packed my hospital bag (using my list from last time), purchased an additional convertible car seat for Caroline, set up the pack n' play next to our bed for a diaper changing station, sterilized bottles and pacifiers, assembled the swing, prepared the guest room for our parents and accomplished lots of other random tasks.

WE ARE READY! 

The final update:

• Sleep: Hit or miss. The last few weeks I've been up coughing all night with Bronchitis, but thankfully Robitussin and a z-pak has helped get me through stretches of sleep. 
• Movement: Movement is constant and feels so different from my pregnancy with Caroline. My belly is SO hard, round, full and every movement completely transforms the shape of my belly. I swear it feels like I'm carrying a 12 lb baby. I've also had so many strangers look at me and say "oh! definitely a boy!" Apparently huge basketball bellies are obvious giveaways.
• Cravings: The usual - orange juice, watermelon, cookies, ice cream, pickles, turkey sandwiches, cereal and ice.
• Labor Signs: Yep.Thomas has dropped, is head down, I'm experiencing loads of pressure and I've had a few contractions each night at bedtime. I can't even begin to describe how dang excited I am about LABOR although my biggest fear is Thomas coming too quickly and missing my epidural window. I had such an amazing labor last time and hope that this time is exactly the same. Pushing a baby out of my body was one of the most incredible experiences of my life and I am counting down the DAYS to do it again! (Caroline's birth story here).
• Symptoms: Again, so different this pregnancy! I am not nearly in as much pain and discomfort as I was with Caroline. I vividly remember being confined to the couch by 35 weeks with multiple heating pads and a belly support belt, crying and complaining about the terrible shooting pains up my back, down my legs and across my ribs. This pregnancy, despite crawling around the kitchen floor several times a day cleaning up the aftermath of Caroline's meals, bending over the tub at bath time and carrying around an 18 pound toddler, I am grateful to have very tolerable (lightening, round ligament and lower back) fleeting pains.
• Best Moments: 90 minute prenatal massage,all of our June fun and celebrating Matt's birthday.
• Looking forward to: A spa pedicure at the Ritz...and going into labor.
• Weight: Up 25 lbs. 

 

9 Months Pregnant with Caroline: 36 weeks // 37 weeks // 38 weeks // 39 weeks // 40 weeks

Hair Bows, Hair Bows, Hair Bows!

I often get asked where I purchase Caroline's hair bows. Although her collection is pretty out of control, bows are the one thing I swear we can never have enough of. She wears them everyday and I am certain she'd wear them to sleep if we let her. In the mornings she knows her outfit just isn't complete until her bow is on. And I love it.

So where do all these bows come from?! Well first of all, I don't spend a lot of money on them. In fact, I usually shop sales, buy in bulk and rarely splurge on a nicer occasion bow. For the most part, her bows usually cost less than $1 each.

Caroline wore a solid color 3 inch bow until she was about one and then climbed up to a 4 inch bow. All of her bows are from Julia's Bowtique and come with an alligator clip. Since she doesn't have any hair still, I have to attach all of her bows to elastic headbands which I buy in bulk from Amazon (here).