It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Baby

This just in: an explosion heard across the world took place in Columbia, SC on October 18th at approximately 5:00 pm EST.

Did you hear it?  It was me walking around screaming at the top of my lungs, as I am FREE of the insurmountable burden that is my sales job for the next thirteen weeks.

Being at work in the third trimester is like adding to misery.  It's like, "Oh, your foot is broken?  That's not quite bad enough.  Let's smack you in the head, too, for good measure."

I savored each second of removing every last remnant of that office from my life for the next three months.

So long, customer files!!!

Goodbye, work laptop, whose sole purpose is being a messenger of evil.

Take that, office cube.  This will hurt you way more than it hurts me.

Recording a maternity leave out of office message was quite the auspicious occasion.  I just had to figure out how to do it tactfully. Here are a few cell phone greeting messages that initially came to mind:

1) "You have reached Katharine.  If this is a customer with a crisis, call 1-800-WHO-CARE...." hmmm. That might not be a good idea.

2) "Katharine here.  If you ran out of toner for your copier, TOUGH NUGGETS.  I ain't got time fo dat."  Tempting, but no.

3) "This is Katharine.  If you're a customer please take the nearest plane to Neverland and stay there.  And delete my number before you depart."  Jackpot.

One of my favorite Alice in Wonderland quotes is: "I've had ENOUGH of this nonsense.  I'M going HOME."

Preach it, Alice.

It seems like lightyears ago on March 1st, 2013, when I found out that I would be a Mom.  Every event, every milestone, every blessing has led up to this point.  Here is a brief recap of our journey:

We surprised both sets of parents and grandparents with the news,

made an official announcement,

read all the books,

took the hospital classes,

threw gender reveal parties with our family and friends,

cluelessly registered for baby items,

had absolutely wonderful baby showers,

and the list goes on.  We are now in SINGLE digits before her due date, and we've come a long way. 

I have no shame in admitting that we had no clue about baby related things in the beginning.  And who am I kidding.  We still don't.  Just the other day I told Ryan that we needed a "climate" controlled trash can for the diapers.

"Climate??? Don't you mean odor controlled??"

It's a nice, sunny 78 degrees in here with a slight breeze from the nursery fan.

Oops.

And upon entering Buy Buy Baby to pick out the hard stuff like furniture, car seats, and strollers, we were more befuddled and horrified than Will Smith's family while watching Miley Cyrus's performance at the VMAs.

Without question I couldn't have made it this far without my beloved Snoogle pillow, which I have mentioned before.  I know, I know.  "Snoogle" sounds like something you'd sneeze into a tissue after a bad cold, but trust me.  This invention was worth every PENNY.

As the months went by and final preparations were under way there was something missing that we hadn't addressed: commemorating the expecting of our first child in pictures.

While chatting with my unbelievably talented wedding photographer back in August she asked about doing a maternity session with us.  I was all in, but convincing this guy would be no easy feat.

Maternity photos can get extremely cheesy really quickly, and I could hear Ryan's resounding, "NO," before I even asked.  I don't know what he thought I was trying to talk him into and what preconceived notions he possibly had.

Wow.  Just wow.  Do not try this at home.

I assured him that we'd be in good hands with Valerie, and after a little persuasion he agreed.  After all, we want Emmy to enjoy these photos one day!

The last time we went to Charleston together was for our engagement pictures.
There was certainly much less of me then.

We were so pleased with the finished product (Dare I tell him, "I told you so?")  

Here are a few highlights. 

I did have one personal rule regarding these pictures: no bare belly shots.  I get it.  Some people think it's beautiful, sweet, etc, but I wouldn't dare take a picture of my stomach after eating a Wendy's combo, much less during what was -at the time- month eight of pregnancy.  So enjoy it covered.  You're welcome.

Yikes.

Next up was finalizing arguably the most important baby related task: creating Emmy's room. The Katharine way.  From day one I could hardly wait to get the nursery ready.  I knew I had to put in every ounce of creativity and fabulousness that I could think of.

Every week I would add some sort of detail, work on another project, or get a new idea that I had to carry out, but I had to be careful for Ryan not to think it was clutter.  As I've been telling sweet Ryan for years about all kinds of subjects: just trust my vision.  I won't let you down.

I looked at more bedding options than there are grains of sand at the beach.  FINALLY when I saw this set at Baby Furniture Plus with the hanging ceiling animals I knew it was the one I could build a theme around.

When Jay finished hanging the ceiling decorations, I stepped back and said, "Uncle Jay hung the moon!"  Literally!!!  I absolutely adore that boy.

It was fate, I suppose, because this set was called, "Sweet Pea," my nick name in high school:

Sweet Ryan: a good sport since 2000.

Jay and Ryan's brains and strength were a necessity as far as painting and assemblies go.

Then it was time for Queen Katharine to take over and make it come to life. Our finished nursery is my pride and joy, and every single item in it has special and significant meaning.  From chandeliers to crowns to monogrammed castles, it is exactly what I envisioned.

Ryan's Mom saw these chandelier fans online and bought us one.  It is the icing on the cake!

The fabric was the absolute last set they had, and I was told I wouldn't find a match anywhere.  I took a swatch to Forest Lake Fabrics to get some curtains made that were similar, and imagine my delight when I found the EXACT match under a different name.  I was SO stoked, and a lady in Camden made these for me.  She did a phenomenal job!!!

This pink wreath and sign were given to me at two of my showers.

Welcome to your dream room, baby Emerson.

This glider chair/ ottoman combo is HEAVEN.

This castle was a little project I worked on over the summer.  I love it!!!

My grandmother joked that Emmy has enough outfits to wear a new one with every diaper change.

Dorothy and Jamie did an awesome job with these bow holders!!!

This was the nursery before, and I basically knew what I was going to put on the walls.  However, there was something else missing that I just couldn't put my finger on.

I pondered long and hard about what the finishing touch should be, and I ran into some wall decal art online and had a vision for a white tree.  It would be perfect and whimsical with a personal touch.

It turned out even better than I imagined.  Ryan, trust my vision!!!

The next task was packing my hospital bag.  Somehow my idea of what I needed to bring was vastly different than the items our hospital suggested.

Fun Dip:

Make-up case & Glam Squad:

Board games:

I'll take "Delivery Room" for $400.

Our baby girl is due in just nine days, and it dawned on me that I will soon get to meet- face to face- the miracle that is our child.  Are you praying for some ways to witness?  If you're a parent acknowledge to others how you can't believe the Lord used you to create a miraculous life to carry out His will.  Your children just may be the greatest opportunity for you to shine His light.  Remember that.

I have a special version of this song that I've been singing to my little girl for a few months now:

Jesus loves you, this I know,
For the Bible tells you so.
Emerson to Him belongs,
You are weak, but He is strong.
Yes, Jesus loves you,
Yes, Jesus loves you,
Yes, Jesus loves you,
For the Bible tells you so.

Any day now we could officially become parents, and I don't think it has hit me yet.  Quite frankly, I don't think it will.  It won't start hitting me until Emmy says her first words, takes her first steps, we're in the midst of potty training (oh, the stories that will make), until we're at her first piano or dance recital, until she asks us for homework help (and I run screaming as she pulls out a math book),  until she and I leave a mess in the kitchen after baking too many cookies, she goes hunting with Daddy much to my dismay.  Until she has spend the night parties, until the day I will be praying for when she accepts Jesus as her Savior, until she is hurt when a friend or classmate says something mean, or when a boy catches her eye (what was that part about hunting again and Daddy's weapons?).  Until those teenage years when all peace and sanity may fly out the window, until she begins applying for college, until Ryan drags me out of her dorm room while I cling relentlessly to her new monogrammed bedspread and don't want to leave, until graduations, ceremonies, her first job...  And until the day that she comes home and tells us that she has fallen in love and wants to get married.

Local streets on the day of Emmy's wedding.

And this is assuming all the while that, by the grace of God, we will get the chance to experience all of these things with her.  Don't you see?  Our loved ones are never really ours to begin with; Jesus allows us to "borrow" them for an amount of time that we do not know.  This is why things like not going to bed angry and staying focused on the big picture are so essential.  No matter what the daily challenges are my Mom always says, "Today was a good day, because we had each other."  And she is so right.

I'll go ahead and acknowledge that Ryan and I have no idea exactly what parenting will be like, but we pray together, work well together (98.5% of the time : D ), love each other with all our hearts, and promise that we will always be each other's second priority after God.  This is easier said than done and will take walking in faith and living by His word to accomplish, but we are up for the challenge and all of the incredible blessings that will result.  Our lives will never be the same.

To whom much is given much is required, and I can tell you this:  we have been given the incredibly honorable task of raising a precious, amazingly wonderful girl for whom our love is already out of this world.  And we haven't even met her yet.  Pretty incredible?  I think so.  I know so.  

So now we wait.  Every night that I'm uncomfortable, have to use all fours to turn over in the bed, have to go to the women's room for the 100th time, experience any little ache and pain I know that this season is the absolute closest that Emmy and I will be.  Once she is here I'll be "letting her go" into the world, and I will hang on to that thought if she decides to wait a little while before her arrival.  One day I may be waiting nervously for her to return home from her first drive or after her first date, but for right now I know exactly where she is...literally right under my heart.  And I don't mind it one bit, even though I wonder every day when she'll arrive.

The question remains: will she be fashionably late like her mother, or the first one to arrive at the party like her father?

The hospital guards on standby will have their work cut out for them.

Think of us, and most importantly, pray for us as we are practically in a sprint position waiting for the moment when we call our families and tell them that we're on our way to the hospital.  That the two of us are about to become three.  And that our lives are about to be consumed by a tiny baby girl who- for a short while- will fit in our arms...but will always fit in our hearts.