Showered with Love

Here are some pics from all of the lovely baby showers that were thrown for us. The cakes were all too cute, the games were varied (and some quite hilarious), the fellowship of friends was heartening, and the gifts were great! In December, several friends at my job threw me a shower at the offices in Dallas:

How cute is this cake that matches Samuel's bedding!?

Several women from our church threw a lovely shower for us (cake by my friend Laura!):

And my mom also threw a shower for us at our home. I think her gifts lie in event planning:

When we were kids, we all had murals on our bedroom walls that mom had painted for us (she's a natural artist). My room's mural was Strawberry Shortcake, to match my pink walls and canopy bed with Strawberry's themes everywhere. So I asked my mom if she would like to grace Samuel's nursery with some of her magic. Boy did she!! See the adorable final product below. I think Samuel will just love it.

Once that mural was in, the nursery just looked ready for the little man - and Brad and I are ready for him to come, too! We have about 2 and a half weeks left until the due date, and we'll find out Tuesday if we're still looking at having to induce. I had to go to the doc unplanned on Thursday, and I had lost 7 POUNDS since Monday - all fluid from my legs!! And my blood pressure had lowered to 122/78. This is still not normal for me, but it shows the bed rest is working!! When I first put those compression hose on, I started crying. I hadn't slept well, and I was trying to get hose on with this huge belly, and I could only get them up half of my calf because of the swelling. I had Brad try to tug on them, too. They were pretty painful pressing on the fluid that first day. But when I took them off that night, Brad and I were impressed - my feet actually looked normal. The next morning, I was able to get the hose all the way to my knee (with some huffing and puffing). Now, the swelling is really being kept at bay. My legs still feel bruised, and I think I have some new varicose veins from all the swelling, but they feel SO much better than they did.

It's very hard for me to sit still, let alone ask for help (case in point, I snuck in the office to get these pictures on the blog while Brad is at a meeting. :) But I'll do it for the little guy. So we could be meeting Samuel anytime in the next month. I haven't shown any signs of my body going into labor on its own yet, so for now it's feet in the air and naps on command.