UPDATE on Sweet Pea

WOW, I've been really busy. I've been meaning to blog for a long while and it just hasn't happened, but I have been checking things off of my To-Do list! Since I last blogged we've had 3 baby showers, I've almost finished the nursery and we've passed the "full-term" mark where our little Sweet Pea can come any time and be just FINE!!

I made a To-Do list about a month ago of all the things that needed to be done before Sweet Pea arrives. I am proud to say that I'm almost finished, and hope to be completely finished by the end of this coming weekend (when I hit 38 weeks!). The list is at home, but it looked something like this:

1. Return and exchange gifts, finish purchasing necessities CHECK
2. Make cloth wipes (3 dozen!) CHECK
3. Finish nursery sewing - still left are the twin bed skirt, pillow sham, and a pillow for the rocker
4. Tour hospital and pre-register CHECK
5. Clean out cars CHECK
6. Install car seat bases and have them inspected - Matt's is in, mine is still en route, appointments made for inspections
7. Make room in kitchen for bottles CHECK
8. Cook and freeze meals - really don't think this one will get done!
9. Prep cloth diapers - prefolds are almost finished, pockets and AIOs left to go
10. Pack hospital bag CHECK (it's not my problem Matt's stuff isn't packed!)
11. Finish buying stuff for and packing labor bag CHECK
12. Wash and put away all baby stuff, take things out of packaging and put away, assemble and wash all baby gear CHECK
13. Baby-proof house CHECK
14. Finish birth plan, get approved by Meg, pack all paperwork in hospital bag CHECK
15. Print and pack signs for hospital room in labor bag (such as "Natural Childbirth in Progress, Please Enter Quietly) CHECK
16. Write Thank You notes - working on it... I need to set a nightly goal or something!

So, as you can see, I've been a little busy! Matt's list is much more involved with projects around the house, and he's done a great job helping me nest. We sat down last night after dinner and he looked at me and said, "What's on our nesting list tonight?" like he was eager and willing! I appreciate him so much. We took Fat Tuesday off from nesting for the most part ;)

Our sweet friends Debbie & Griffin and Melanie & Brian gave us a fabulous couples' shower at the beginning of February. It was a Storybook themed party where folks brought their favorite children's book for Sweet Pea's library! It was wonderful because we got to include "the guys" in the celebration, since we are all such great friends. It was also a way to invite folks to more than one shower (so that we could include the guys) without people having to spend a ton of money on two gifts. Sweet Pea got LOTS of great books, and Daddy is slated to build us a bookshelf... eventually. Unfortunately, we got ZERO pictures of this shower. Everything was so cute, there were books up everywhere. Our friends were able to sign a picture matte for Sweet Pea, which is in the nursery waiting for a picture. I'm so disappointed it isn't documented!

My aunts and cousins gave us a couples' shower in Knoxville for family and friends. It was Rubber Ducky themed and all the decorations were just precious!! Unfortunately, my sweet Aunt Donna (whose house was the location for the party) came down with an awful stomach thing on Saturday afternoon before the shower on Sunday. So while we were partying away, she was locked upstairs in her bedroom. :( We got some lovely and sentimental gifts from our family. Matt's Aunt Meredith, or Dedo as we call her, special ordered the most ADORABLE newborn photo prop I've ever seen! It's a cap and "pod" that looks like a pea! So we can dress our little Sweet Pea as a sweet pea! Matt's mother, Lisa, gave us a blanket made by her aunt that Grandy and GP brought her home from the hospital in. She, in turn, brought Matt home from the hospital in it. And of course, it will escort our Sweet Pea home as well. My mother made 2 going home outfits for Sweet Pea, 1 for a girl and 1 for a boy. We also got tons of practical and useful things as well, which was wonderful. Fun was had by all... except Donna :(

Our little sweet pea pod for Sweet Pea!! You can't see it, but the hat has a little "stem" on it!

Opening the blanket from Lisa, even Matt got a little teary

I'm holding the boy outfit from G-Mom and Matt is holding the girl dress, because I think Sweet Pea is a boy and he thinks s/he is a girl! Mom used some left-over fabric from my wedding dress (which is ecru silk) to make the collars of the outfits (which are white silk)

Matt and I with all the Trousdale ladies (minus Donna of course) and Lisa

Alana and I got the kids together to play at the shower... she's due in May with little Luke!

Sweet Hilary came ALL the way from Indianapolis!!

I had my baby shower at work the Monday after our Knoxville shower. It was a lovely small gathering, and again I got ZERO pictures. My work colleagues were SO SWEET in their thoughtfulness. They all pitched in to order lots of goodies from our cloth diaper registry (which were on my list to purchase if we didn't receive them). We are so appreciative of their support of our endeavor in cloth diapering! I work with some amazing people.

I never know whether full-term is 36 or 37 weeks, but we've been taking my picture every 4 weeks. Below is my 36 week picture. 2 days after this picture was taken, the baby dropped... LOW. Meg, our midwife, said that the baby being low and the cervix thinning is much more important for the progress of labor than dilation. As of this week, the baby is still very low and I'm 75% effaced. This tells us nothing about WHEN I might go into labor. But when it does happen, things should progress nicely. This is wonderful to hear since up until this week I've been terrified of the 40hr first-time mom labor!

BIG OLE BELLY at 36 weeks

Here are the most recent pics of the nursery. I got the curtains and the twin duvet done in the middle of my frantic sewing of 3 dozen cloth wipes. There are still a few things left that I hope to finish this weekend... IF I'm not otherwise occupied!!! ;)

Full nursery view. The bed was my mother's when she was little, the toy box (under the tree) was mine when I was little, the quilt on the bed is from Auntie Meghan, and the blanket on the crib was lovingly crocheted by my mother (Sweet Pea's G-Mom)

Curtains from my favorite fabric in the room, it's burnt orange if you can't tell

Matt's dresser from when he was little, my silver bank from when I was little, our little sweet peas, the frame from our friends, and a rubber ducky (a few souvenirs from our showers)

Well, we are ready just ANYTIME that Sweet Pea would like to make an appearance!! We will post pics of Sweet Pea and the winner of the $20 wager between Mommy and Daddy when s/he arrives!

Baby Shower Weekend

Well, I just thoroughly enjoyed having Lamm and Cecily here for the weekend. And we had a blast at my baby shower on Sunday! I am so blessed to have so many wonderful friends!

While Lamm and Cecily visited, Matt got in lots of good practice.

We didn't get a picture of the funniest part, Matt practicing swaddling and shushing with 6 month old Cecily! It was hilarious. First of all, he was shushing her when she wasn't even upset. She looked at Lamm and me like, "why is he doing that?" But apparently, Cecily loves to be HOT when she sleeps and she loves being swaddled. Matt got her down for a nap in no time flat. I just wish we had taken pictures.

We also got to see how the animals might react to the baby. Isis could care less, Einstein is cautiously curious and a little scared as we expected (he's scared of everything), and Hurley is VERY protective (she kept using her body to block Einie from getting to the baby)!

Look at this sweet face! I had so much fun having them here.

My sweet friend Lara did the table decorations (little Sweet Peas in their pods!) which were a huge hit. All the Sweet Pea themed stuff was so precious.

We got lots of great stuff! As you can see, we are truly blessed with wonderful friends.

Autie Meghan made Sweet Pea a gorgeous quilt that coordinates so well with the nursery. Meghan and I are both only children, so we get to be "Aunties" to our friends kids. I'm Auntie Jill to lots of babies and I love it. Meghan is really excited to be an Auntie to Sweet Pea!

I love this one of me, my moms and Grandy (now G-G for great-grandmother).

Here is one of most of the party-goers. Lamm had to leave early because of snow and Lara was in the bathroom the whole time we were taking pictures and no one knew it!

Then after our wonderful shower, we got snowed in for a week! My mom wasn't able to leave until Wednesday, nor was she able to use her time here to look for apartments because we were snowed in! I boycotted taking pics of the snow. I'm not a fan. I like to look at it through a window from inside a warm house and that is about it. I'm kind of a Scrooge that way.

Lara's baby shower

Our women's small group (Bible study group) has been excited for a very long time to help Lara and Bryan welcome a baby into their family. We just had no idea (nor did they) that God would work in their lives the way He has. We are all truly amazed by the great blessing He has given to them.

Lara and Bryan are our friends who had just finished filling out their adoption paperwork when she found out she was pregnant, that I mentioned here. They have decided to adopt after little Hayden is born! They may have TWO BABIES by Christmas!! She is so amazing and dedicated to healthy living and treading lightly on this great Earth that she is going to cloth diaper both babies!

Well, it was finally time for us to plan Lara's baby shower. Since Lara has her very own organic garden, and her nursery is garden themed, we thought it the logical theme for her baby shower. So we got to work on the plans, and OF COURSE I called Lamm to design the invitations!!

Of course, last names, addresses and phone numbers have been removed.

Aren't they ADORABLE??? I was quite proud of coming up with the rhyme!! We wanted to make sure and acknowledge that Lara and Bryan are awaiting the arrival of their birth daughter, Hayden and an adopted sibling.

Anywho, this was the best shower I've ever co-hosted! We just did "everyone bring a dish" so no one person was overwhelmed (except maybe Merrell, she had to clean her house!). I signed up to bring the dessert, sugar cookies. My MIL gave me her/Grandy's coveted recipe and all the fun stuff to make them for Christmas and I've been DYING to try it out!

Well, I grossly underestimated the time it would take to roll out, cut, bake, ice and decorate 24 large cookies. But all the effort was worth it. They turned out so CUTE! I even found a cookie cutter at my favorite craft store that was a large flower with a small cookie bumble bee to stack on top, perfectly matching the invitations! SEE?!?!?!

Note to self: do not stack bees onto flowers until you've arrived at the destination (carry separately), some poor little bee faces got smushed :(

Here are all the ladies from small group (except Meghan who had a little trouble finding Merrell's house) that attended the shower.

Note to self: do not wear this outfit again until you have lost 10 lbs.

And here is Lara with her sister-in-law, neice, nana and mom.



Lara got tons of cool stuff for both babies. Her mom made a little sweater and booties (so cute); her nana made a blanket, and Meghan embroidered some onsies, a blanket and some bloomers.

Yep, Lara is cracking up because the onsie says "organically grown"

I think Lara's favorite gift was a few items of clothes worn by Bryan's favorite cousin that they are so close to. They were very special!


Fun was had by all (except Bryan waiting back at home). Bryan promptly got some horrible flu while we were at the shower and is now in quarantine at his mother's house for a week. Bryan needs prayers of healing, Lara needs to not get sick, and baby Hayden needs to stay in Mommy's belly until Daddy is well enough to welcome her into this world!!

We can wait a week to meet you Hayden!! Stay in Mommy's belly!

babies, babies, babies...

Well, this post is all about BABIES!! No, none for Matt and Jill yet. C'mon folks we haven't even been married 6 months! Anywho, Matt and I have lots of friends that are either new parents or expecting babies!

The first in this round of baby season is none other than our pastor, Rev. Brian Davis and his wife Melanie. Yes, Brian is the same pastor that encouraged Matt to ask me out, and the same pastor who married us! Brian and Melanie welcomed Caleb Gray Davis on Friday the 13th (February 13, 2009)!!! I am proud to say that his middle name was totally my idea, in honor of Melanie's grandparents! :D Isn't he just SO CUTE??



Betsy, my BFF since 5th grade, and her husband Bradley are expecting their first baby in late March or early April. I am SO excited because this is the first of my friends to have a little GIRL!!! I think I may have gone overboard sewing for little Rubye Kate, what do you think?? I made her wall hanging with painted letters from the accent fabric she is using in the nursery. It was definitely my favorite project! Although, the gown is pretty stinkin' cute too! I've been told I need to start a "cottage industry" business. I don't know, it would be lots of time and not lots of $$!


























In other FABULOUS news, our friends Lara and Bryan, who have been going through the adoption process for about a year now have completed all the paperwork and background check. The final step is a home visit by the social worker, then they will have a complete profile that will be available to birth mothers for viewing. Oh, and in the midst of finalizing the adoption paperwork, Lara found out that she is PREGNANT!!!!!!!!!!! She is due at the end of August. They still plan to go through with the adoption, and will possibly have 2 infants within 6 months or less of each other! It's like having twins! This is a huge praise for them, what a wonderful blessing to be able to experience pregnancy and adopt. They will be phenominal parents to the most beautiful blended family!

Bridal Brunch in Muscle Shoals

Well, we had my hometown Bridal Brunch this past Saturday in Muscle Shoals, AL at my Aunt Pam's house. Everything was just lovely, and so many friends and family members traveled a long way to attend. I really felt special. Aunt Pam and Aunt Donna put so much work into everything (the food was FABULOUS), thank you both so much!!

The spread of wonderful brunch food

Me with the hostesses, Donna on the left and Pam on the right

A photo of all the Trousdale ladies (minus Erika who couldn't come). We are such a goodlooking family!!

Mom's 3rd cousin, Trudy and her mother Celestine came from Anniston, AL.

There was a tissue paper bride contest. Rachel and Jennifer volunteered to be the models and I was the judge. Rachel won for her fabulous ensamble of butt bows!!

Jennifer is lovely though...

Betsy, me and Christie

Ann (who I've known since I was 7), Betsy, me, Christie

Mom and Donna didn't want to waste any of the mimosas after the party was over!!!

Matt and I received some wonderful gifts and it was so great to see everyone. We are truly blessed with amazing friends and families. We are looking forward to our wedding ONE MONTH FROM TODAY!!!!

Beautiful Bridal Tea and Fabulous Friends!!!

I promised to post some pictures of the fabulous bridal tea hosted by Brenda (my godmother), Ashley (bridesmaid), and Meredith (one of two maids of honor). It was hosted at Meredith's house and everything they put together was just beautiful. Matt and I received lots of lovely gifts from our registry, and a couple of really special sentimental ones too. Here are some pictures from the shower.

The spread!! The champagne punch was fabulous!!!

The lovely hostesses and me (R-L: Ashley, Meredith, Jill, and Brenda)

This is Sweetpea; she was a "behind the scenes" hostess (so was her Mommy Lauren)

This is Tatum (Tater-bug, Tater-tot); she was also a "behind the scenes" hostess. Even though she is quite the nervous pooch, she was very well behaved!!

Mom and me, isn't this a good picture???

Mother of the Bride Jan, bride Jill, Future-Mother-in-Law Lisa

Mom, me, and Brenda

Lamm (Ashley), Meredith, and me

The girls from First-Centenary UMC

After the party was all over, Matt came by to help load up the loot!! Thanks hunny!!