26th Week of Pregnancy! NURSERY PICTURES!!!

Here we are in our 26th week! YEAH!

It has been a rollercoaster of a week, though.

We lost a good friend of ours, Sam McNeill, and had his memorial service on Saturday. Also, this past week, we lost my mom's dog Max - he crossed over the rainbow bridge on Thursday after suffering from heart failure. This is the week that we celebrate the life of our Boxer, Rocky, who passed away two years ago and also this is the one year anniversary of Sandy's vicious dog attack. Thank goodness that she is doing wonderful! Finally, this is also the 4th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina......but that brought me back to Dallas and into the arms of my wonderful husband!

This time of the year seems to always be a difficult time, but I must say that without loss and grief, we would not be where we are today, nor the people that we have become. For this we give great thanks!

On to happier news - JONATHAN FINISHED THE BABY'S ROOM!!!! When I say finish the baby's room...this is what he did this weekend: Finished laying the hardwood floors, laid the Quarter Round around the perimeter of the room, Removed the old blinds, Hung the plantation shutters, hung the valance, removed the old fan, put up the new fan, replaced the lightswitch, hung the lightswitch cover, replaced all of the outlet covers!!!!! That's my man!

The ceiling fan was absolutely the most difficult thing to do in the room! Good teamwork got that bad boy up.

Here are some pictures of his hard work!!!! The before to after is just incredible! Now its just time to fill it up with all of his things! Well.....after the showers that is.

#1) HARDWOOD FLOORS ARE FINISHED

#2) THE YUCKY METAL BLINDS - BEFORE.....

#2b) THE PLANTATION SHUTTERS - AFTER

#3) THE AWFUL FAN BEFORE

#3b) THE TORMENT OF HANGING THE FAN (Jonathan is up in the attic just above that little bitty hole)

#3c) THE NEW FAN - AFTER - LLLLLLLAHHHHHHHHH!

#4) THE NEW LIGHTSWITCH AND LIGHTSWITCH COVER

#5) THE NEW OUTLET COVERS

AND FINALLY...........THE MAN THAT I LOVE SHOWING OFF HIS HANDIWORK!!!!

In addition to the upgrades to the room, Labor Day was fun! Papa Juan was to buy our crib, so we turned in an old carseat for a 20% coupon on selected items at Babies R Us (Our baby furniture was included!). When we got there, the price was more expensive than online, so we found out that there was a 10% discount on the entire line because it was being discontinued! NOOOOOOOO!!!! If you remember, this happened with our bedding and we had to buy all of our own bedding in order to insure that we got what we wanted. So, today, we had to buy the crib and the dresser (a little more than we expected), but got the 10% off, plus the 20% for our old carseat trade - in.......

We didn't expect to have to buy so much before the showers, but I am sure glad that we have it all now!

In addition, we took the time to review the registries, updated and changed where needed and uploaded it all to our AMAZINGREGISTRY.COM registry compilation. Man I love that site! Mushing together all of your registries into one easy spot to look and buy from :)

What's going on with our little man this week:

* Air sacks are developing, which means he just might be possible for him to take a breath at the end of this week.

* The retina completes the development of its normal layers this week

* Brainwaves for the auditory and visual systems are detectable, which means he is registering things like sound and light.

* He is about 1 2/3 pounds and is 14 inches long head-to-heel, or about the length of a burp cloth

Or an English Hothouse Cucumber

* And, then, most importantly for our little boy, his testes are beginning to descend

Jonathan, like I say over and over, is the most amazing man I have ever met. As a friend and as a partner, he just overwhelms me with his love each day. How did I ever become so lucky? I can't wait to see him as a father.

And speaking of that....he has requested that he post some blogs so that everyone can get a sense of what he is experiencing throughout this pregnancy. So, keep your eyes peeled for posts a la Jonathan :)

Everyone have a great week! Hope Labor Day weekend was terrific.

Melanie & Jonathan +1

26 Week Tummy - Exactly 37" around