My friend Whitney (see The Evely Family blog on the left) had her baby boy Monday, January 26th at 7:36 p.m. Aidyn was 21 inches long and weighed in at 7 pounds. Tim and I got to see him briefly Monday night as the nurse held him up in front of the window of the nursery. Today we went over and got to spend quite a bit of time visiting with Ben, Whitney and Aidyn.

He is so tiny and adorable! While I was holding him he got the hiccups (something that Laurel does at least twice a day). For some reason it was so incredible to be able to hold a brand new baby who was having the hiccups, while still experiencing my little girl having the hiccups in my belly.

Luckily Whitney had a fairly quick delivery with no complications. I hope that I, too, will be that fortunate. I really enjoyed talking with her and getting all the details of her induction, labor and delivery. Although being around all those newborn babies in the maternity ward has me so anxious to meet our little girl. Hopefully it won't be too much longer. I have my next doctor's appointment Thursday, January 29th, so I'm hoping that I've made progress.

As the time for Laurel's arrival gets nearer, my waistline is continuing to expand (along with the rest of me, but we won't talk about that). Since I will be full term (37 weeks) on Monday and could potentially go into labor any time after that, I thought I would post a few more pictures of my tummy.

It is amazing to me how much my belly grew between 32 and 36 weeks. This baby better not stay in there too much longer or I won't be able to stand up straight!

But on a serious note, I'd like to say CONGRATULATIONS to my friend Meg and her husband Nick. She gave birth to their baby boy, Dominick, on Friday, Jan. 23rd! For more information, check out her blog on the left side of the page under "So much to do, so little time." Also, Whitney and Ben will have an induction on Monday, Jan. 26th, and get to meet their little boy, Aidyn. (Their blog is "The Evely Family" on the left.") I'm so excited for both Meg and Whitney and can't wait until my turn!

I came home from work yesterday to discover that our rug had arrived! So here is one more nursery picture of the chair along with the rug! I'll try to post some belly pictures later tonight or tomorrow.

Over the last week, we've gotten so much done on the nursery. I love going in there and looking at everything because this is how it will look with our sweet baby girl in it! We've got a rug that is being delivered and I've got to put a liner on the back of the window shades, but other than that, it is pretty much ready! Here are some pictures (yes, the rocker/glider is still in there, but it is in the one corner of the room that still has some unopened boxes lying on the floor, so I didn't take a picture of it).

And on the arrival front, I had my 36 week appointment on Wed., Jan 21st, and the doctor said I'm measuring 1.5 centimeters. This doesn't necessarily mean that anything is going to happen any time soon, but I think it's exciting that I'm finally at the point where they start to monitor your progress! I'll have my next appointment Thurs., Jan. 29th, and I can't wait to find out if anything has changed.

Saturday night was my last baby shower. It was at my Uncle Tony and Aunt Debbye's house in Greeneville with family from my mom's side. It was really nice; we had yummy appetizers and lots of good fellowship. One of my favorite things was that instead of playing baby shower games, everyone told their favorite baby stories. There were some really good ones (both cute and a little horrifying). I was particularly disturbed by how many members of my family were dropped on their heads as children.

Sunday was pretty snowy so church was cancelled. Tim and I headed to Babies R Us to get some of the last items that we need for Laurel's arrival. Then we went to mom and dad's house to put together the car seat and stroller system they got us. It is so awesome! We've already got the car seat installed in my car. Later, I got a lot of her things put up so that the nursery doesn't look like a storage room anymore. Right now we are just waiting on a dresser and rug to finish the nursery. I've got clothes laid out all over the room to wash, but I can't do that until I get the dresser to put them in. It's driving me crazy! Now that there's less than four weeks to go until my due date, I'm getting so anxious to have everything finished and ready.

On Friday (Jan. 16th) both Tim and I had baby showers at work. My co-worker Teresa and the women that work during Early Voting threw one for me, and Tim's co-workers had a surprise shower for him. Mine was wonderful, with lots of good food and great gifts for Laurel! Most of the offices from the courthouse were able to come, plus most of the election commissioners. Here's a picture of me with my hostesses.

Tim's boss called me about two weeks before his shower to find out if I could come. Unfortunately, it was planned for the same day as mine, so I had to pass, but I promised her that I wouldn't breath a word of it to Tim. Friday morning Tim kept calling me to tell me that there was something suspicious going on at the health department. He had been kicked out of the kitchen, and he knew that something was up because he's usually the one who coordinates parties and lunches at his work. A little while later he told me that he thought they were throwing him a surprise baby shower. I still played dumb and told him to keep me updated. Within an hour he called me back and when I answered the phone he screamed, "You knew!" I admitted that I had known for about a week, which absolutely drove him nuts. He hates not being in on things.

Here's a picture of the beautiful cake they made for him and a picture of him opening his table-full of presents. For some reason, I can't see him ohhing and ahhing over all of his presents the way I did!

And here's a picture of what happens when men are on their own to buy and wrap presents for another man's baby shower!

Friday night we brought everything home and had so much fun reopening all the gifts to show each other what Laurel had received. We are both very lucky to have such caring and generous co-workers!

Today (Sunday, Jan. 11th) was my baby shower at Love Chapel Church. I'm lucky to have a church family that is extremely generous both with their gifts and with the time they put in to host my shower. It was also my shower for Tim's side of the family. It worked well to combine the two because the church fellowship hall is definitely big enough to hold a lot of people. Here's a picture of myself and my mom April (on the left) and Tim's mom Kathy (on the right). Laurel is so lucky to have such great grandmas!

You can see by both the picture above and the one below, we had a great spread of food!

This is one of the two awesome cakes! It worked really well because it is actually made up of lots of cupcakes so no one has to worry about trying to cut the cake. There was one in chocolate and one in white.

While I loved and appreciated all the gifts I received, this gift from Tim's cousin Jake and his fiancee Misty was hilarious! Tim LOVED the TV show "The A Team" when he was little, so this onesie is definitely appropriate! Of course, one day he'll have try to explain this outfit to Laurel.