The Nursery

38 weeks

It has been far too long, I apologize! There are so many things we have been trying to cram in before baby comes. Since the last post we had a fantastically amazing baby shower hosted by my mom and sister, had my maternity photo shoot with Jac, we (together with our families) put together the baby furniture and decorated the nursery, got the stroller and carseat ready to rock and went on a baby moon to Kohler, WI where we stayed at a spa and got massages, pedicures and endless rounds of tea, snacks and wine (for Ryan!). All the while, baby G has become very comfortable with resting its butt on my bladder...aka this baby is breech and it doesn't look like it's flipping anytime soon. Based on the position, I am scheduled for a c-section one week from TODAY!

I'm not thrilled about a c-section but I have had a lot of time to process the information. It will be so strange lying on the OR table being the patient instead of the one holding the suction or retracting a body part. Since we don't know the sex, I was really looking forward to that moment where I labored, pushed and had this "ahhhhhhhhhh" (angels singing) moment where the baby came out and we met our son or daughter. Oh well, that peanut has to come out one way or another.

I want to thank you for following the blog and sorry again for the delays between posts. It has been a fairly uneventful pregnancy- but full of firsts for Ryan, I and our families. As they say it takes a village to raise a child and we know all of of our loved ones will help us create a loving, creative, fun and ever-changing environment for our little one. We can not wait to share the news with you! All our love,

Niki & Ryan

Groeschl Family Baby Shower

A huge thanks to all who came and enjoyed the good food and good company at the Groeschls' a few weekends ago. Maggie was home from TN and helped plan the shower- including catchphrase "baby" style. It was pretty funny. People were acting out clues to keep it interesting. For example, Maggie acted out the phrase "nipple cream." Enough said. The shower also included (too) many gifts, pulled pork sandwiches and cake from Simma's of Milwaukee. Yum!

31 weeks

Happy New Year! All of a sudden "you have plenty of time," has turned into, "wow, that's right around the corner!" We could not be more excited. The holidays were great- we both had some time off to enjoy plenty of relaxing, laughing and my favorite, Christmas cookies, with our families. We hope all of you had an amazing holiday season as well.

Once again, very little to report in terms of the pregnancy. It takes more effort to tie my shoes, get out of bed, etc but overall, very little to complain about. The peanut is squirming and kicking constantly and it was fun to have family and friends feel the movements over the holidays. Hard to believe we just weeks away from baby's arrival.

I have to offer my thoughts and prayers to a friend and her family- one my best friends from med school, Kelly, has a sister who was due 2 days after me. Just yesterday, her water broke unexpectedly and she delivered a beautiful boy named Carter. Mom and baby are doing very well- he is stable in the NICU and had a strong cry when we entered the world. This news definitely put things into perspective for me as it truly could happen at any moment.

Thank you for your continued love and support. Going through this would only be half as fun without you!. xoxo.