- Super Bowl Sunday -

Hello February.

Hello GINORMOUS torpedo baby.

Hello END OF FOOTBALL SEASON, HALLELUJAH!!!!!!!!!

It's Supa Bowl Sunday!  Baby was kicking around all day getting amped up for the big game and Big Momma was counting down for the foodfoodfood [and Katy Purrrrrrrrry......sort of]. 

Happy Feb! Happy ginorm baby! Happy S.B.S.! 

#winwinwin 

- Jumping through JAN -

I was juuuust thinking about how jam-packed busy January was and how fun fun fun in the [not] sun it was and how quickly the days flew by and thennnn I looked down at my iCal and...

...how the H-E-double/triple/quadruple-L is it already the end of February?!

I mean, seriously.

Dat be insane insanity right dere.

So much to attach for the archives... Ah!  Blog binging commences back at the beginning right now...

+ It's 2015! Hooray! 

+ ...And another "New Year" rolling in always means another exciting weekend at the Miss Illinois County Fair Queen State Pageant! [Whoa, that's a mouthful.]  Memories for miles!  #teammontgomery forever and ever.

+ Ringing in 2015 was alsoooo super extra special because ... the best is yet to come! Baby F's debut is only a couple months away, and some of my family put on an awesome baby shower to celebrate his/her soon arrival!  We had a little trouble settling on a date for the shower, because also on January Saturdays was...

+ Nikki and Baby JR's shower:

[...at which I got to hardcore snuggle on this little butterball, Nora!  I was her delivery nurse almost six months ago, and I can't believe how big she is now!  If all the babies in this family turn out to be this gorgeous, Nikki is gonna be one super smitten momma!] 

+ ...and Shannon and Baby Caroline's shower! 

Loved her mom's beautiful home and all the perfect party decorations crafted so lovingly for little Caroline! 

But really, I have to say [after a crazy tres-weekend extended event of three baby showers up and three baby showers down]: it has been SO fun and special to experience pregnancy at the same gestation as two of my bestest best friends!  We're all due within a week of each other + we're all labor and delivery nurses SO ... use your own imagination to dream up all the details we possibly/definitely share with one another! ;)  So excited for the weeks ahead and being able to hit a few more big pregnancy milestones together!  I hope Mercy L&D is prepared for an explosion of babes, because we're ready to meet some mid-March miracles! 

+ Well that is quite the text to wake up to...!!! [!!!!!!!!]  Our main man priest [you know, the one who married us and blessed our home and has been a forever friend and constant pillar of support through the ups and downs of life] sweetly obliged to baptize our babe in April! Can't. Even. Wait.  Super stoked for our kid to be dunked in the love of Christianity and showered in the support of great friends and family!  

+ January would never be January without a day-of-birth celebration of our pretty momma!  This year = Tony's in Alton for dinner and cake and gifts at our house afterwards! The boys in the family are...well, BOYS...which means the responsibility of baking a cake usualllllly falls on me and mah kitchen.  Last year we devoured this yum yum yummmmmy coffee cake, but this year I wanted to branch out a little bit and attempt a REAL delicacy.  From scratch.  Holy sh*t, it happened.  I found this recipe in my Taste of Home cookbook and immediately set the kitchen on fiiii-ya.  [Figuratively only, OBVIOUSLY.]  Overall, it was 96% sweet success and 4% flawed failure [the middle of the cake started slowly sinking in by the time we returned home from dinner -- what???].  But moms be loving and forgiving and the way to a man's heart is through his stomach SO...win/win/win/win and I'll collect a blue ribbon for that one.  Happy happy HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Mom!!! 

Oh, one other important lesson learned: never again will I fall flat on my face for a recipe that boasts "total prep time = 30 minutes" when I've already spent 60 minutes hand-shredding two cups of carrots.  Or maybe I'm the world's worst carrot shredder or MAYBE I should have bought those extra long carrots instead of slaving over a bag full of mini-baby carrots and simultaneously shredding off slivers of my fingernails into the bowl in the process. [Extra fiber! No panic.]  30 minutes can only be an accurate assumption for the rare Martha Stewarts out there...

+ In light of birthdays, I got this sewing machine for my birthday last year and have been my mom's little blooming seamstress apprentice ever since!  Ha, I suppose "blooming" is a generous word considering all I've mastered so far is burp cloths [aka -- puke rags -- something that I show off to no one/nothing except a baby's stomach juices].  But after NOT ruining a few scrap rags, I braved some cheap-o cloth diaper projects and ...wow, cloth diapers are so much cuter with baby flannel sewed on them!  Officially obsessed with making these!  And as you can see about 50 paragraphs up ^^, there have been a few baby showers this month and these gifted rags were a huge hit at both! 

+ Remember the nursery furniture that wasn't supposed to arrive until mid-Februrary?  IT'S HERE!  End of January, three weeks early, boooooo-yah! We picked it up at Buy Buy Baby and went straight to work the next morning [and by we, I mean "Brian"].  More more MORE pics to come of the finished room. [I know, you poor tortured souls just can't escape me! Muahahah.] 

And I think that leads us to...

...can it be?

...Yes...

FEBRUARY! 

:-*

- State Pageant -

It's the most wonderful time of the year again......

STATE PAGEANT TIME!!! 

Shayla rocked the stage and stole the show last June, and now just seven months later she's basicallllly kicked it up one hundred notches and is doing the same thing on the state stage!  

#teammontgomery all the way!

Besides having a chance to cheer on our county fair queen, the weekend is always .the.best.ever. because ALL the people I love from ALL over the state of Illinois come "home."  So fun! So perfect.   

Top 15 finalist!!! You go, girl! We are so proud of you!!! 

Pageant love, hugs, and kissessss...

...until fair season starts in a few months! :-* 

- Registering 'den Showering -

It's shower timeee! 

But first, prepping for the shower...

Backpedal to:

18w4d -- Breaking open a brand new registry at Buy Buy Baby!  We weren't really set on doing this so early; I actually didn't want to look in ANY baby stores or buy a single thing for Fetus Fleming until we passed viability at 24w.  BUT -- one of our friends kindly mentioned how ordering/shipping/getting nursery furniture can be a looooonnnnngggg drawn out process, so we went to get the 4-1-1 at 18w.  And she was right! The crib and dresser we ended up picking was backordered and can't be delivered to the store for 12-18 weeks [which potentially puts us right at the end of February soooooo...sh*t.  But babies only needs boobs and blankets for the first few weeks anyway, right?  Just let me think I have it all figured out.].

So whilst looking at all these cribs, we fell in love with all the other cute baby gadgets and opened a registry that same day and scanned a whole bunch of stuff onto it...  

And I mean a WHOLE BUNCH of stuff, because ... consider who's holding the scanner.  Why is it that men have this fascination??!  

Can you get me dat one up dere?  Love this diaper bag... How's it look?!

PS -- Have you ever been to Buy Buy Baby? It's like Bed Bath & Beyond turned baby.  Everything IMAGINABLE is stocked in this store; it easily puts Target and Babies 'R Us and all other baby outlets/depots to shame.  I can only imagine how hideous we seemed the second we stepped foot inside looking utterly clueless with jaws dropped.

But anyway...

Forward-pedal to:

30w3d -- Waking up from night shift coma to a porch full of registry gifts!  Christmas in January!!! It's baby shower eve and the love is pouring in!  [Disregard zero makeup and bedhead and whale robe.]  

30w4d -- Shower day!!! Many many many MANY thanks to Baby Fleming's GREAT Aunts Margy and Joanie for throwing an incredible fiesta + Grandma Ann and Aunt Lisa for helping with food and drinks + Grandma Resa for helping me clean our house + lots of others who pitched in here and there to make it all come together!  We are very spoiled!

Baby F. and his/her four anxious grandmas!

 

Loving this gorgggggeous quilt from "Great" Aunt Mary!  [She says it's for tummy time and to throw out on the floor for the baby to play on........but I'll definitely be devastated the first time he/she voms on it! Ahh! Too pretty.] 

Handmade blanket knitted with love!...and it matches the nursery perfectly!

Current BFFs + future BFFs!  Love this lady more than words.  We're due one week apart, and I can't wait to find out if Baby F. will be JR's best friend or girlfriend! ;)  Come onnnn, March!

And lastly, getting through pregnancy = impossible .....without a little help from these labor and delivery chicas!  [What do I mean, you ask?  Just a few tiny examples:  They took care of my patients during 1st/2nd trimesters when I would run off puking.  They showered the fetus with love and gifts and fellowship.  And I knowww they'll be there in the wild time of labor to hold my hand ... and remind Brian his [[once]] sweet wife is somewhere deep inside that screaming monster ... and coach us both through a beautiful delivery!]  Did I mention I have the BEST [not to mention most BEAUTIFUL] work family and I'm a lucky lucky girl? Yeah.

Thank you, thank youuuu, THANK YOU to everyone who made this day so special!  It was so fun to open all the gifts and realize that this whole "baby" thing is getting real.  

Can we have a shower again next week?! ;) 

Fetus Fleming is so loved!!! 

- Happy New Year! -

Blow the whistles and toot the horns...

...IT'S 2015...

...and the best is yet to come!!!

Happy New Year to you and yours! 

- Hey-ooo, THIRD TRI! -

Third trimester is HERE! 

2/3 of the way through pregnancy...

...which I'm rullllll excited about! 

Hallelujah hallelujah AMEN!!! 

[And a sickening amount of belly bumpdates to celebrate the blooming blossoming bebe!]

+ There's only one week a year we get to wear holiday scrubs at work, so you better believe I indulged real good.  Bathroom selfie and all.

+ Holiday baking with Grandma Resa and the babe!  [GDM - I'm runnin' to ya fastly and furiously.] 

+ Christmas party at Eileen's! So much love for the bump[s]!

+ Helloooo, sweet relief! Christmas came early for the jelly belly...

A highlight of week 29?  Oh, ok... 

+ Two Mormon carolers knocked on the door LITERALLY 30 seconds after I threw on some PJs and let the sisters out for the night.  Blustery winter weather + pregnancy nips on the loose = needless to say, they only managed to squeak out one carol. #scarredforlife because...#largeandincharge BUT...#wewishyouamerrychristmas!  Fa-la-la-la-la...la-la-la-laaaaaaaaa.

[No photo for obvious reasons.]

+ Da bunny wants out.  [33w2d] 

+ Shower day!!! 

+ Last night on night shift with this crazyyy woman!  Dayshift is getting a kick@$$ nurse next week, and night shift is gonna have an un-fillable hole for lyfeee. Gonna miss you, J! Good luck in the daylight! ;)

+ Nom nom nom, someone make me stop.  But I dubbed myself worthy of this filthy 8am snack after administering the best soapsuds enema of my nursing career to date.  [Woman rode an ambulance to hospital because ...no poopy. I feel your pain sister, but next time just know these only cost $1 at Wal-Mart!!] So anyway.......... #justified.

+ Annnnd a little roadtrip to indulge in one of the most exciting weekends of the year:  STATE PAGEANT! Thankfully no one lit a match near us; we don't use hairspray sparingly this weekend! 

Ok that be enough.

[[For now.]]

But don't think you're off the hook from 31w4d -----> 40w slash DELIVERY! 

Muahahah bye now.

- Buncha Bellies -

We're lining the bebes right up here!  Just mentioned in the last post that Brian's cousin Emma is due 4 weeks after us, but ALSO...his sister Sarah is expecting and due 2.5 weeks before us!!!

One is a boy and one is a girl and ours is hopefully just one or the other...

Belly bumpsssss!

Hope Brian's family is ready for the BABY BOOM of 2015!

- Gender REVEAL! -

...But not OUR gender reveal. ;) 

I can't remember if I've mentioned this in a post before or not, but Brian's cousin/BFF/best man and his wife are expecting a nugget, too! And she's due one month after me! So so fun.  Their gender reveal party was just as adorable as they are!

All those who voted for GIRL:

...And then those who guessed BOY:

We thought it was a boy fo sho! 

Annnnnnd the moment everyone was waiting for:

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

IT'S A GIRL!!!!!  Congratulations, Marko and Emma!  This baby girl is already so lucky and loved! 

So excited for these little cousins to grow up together! Now we just have to wait and see if Baby F. will be another little girly girl causing trouble with Baby D. or a big buff boy that will protect her for the rest of her life! ;)