Final touches on the nursery

Over the weekend, Jason and I put the final touches on the nursery. I should clarify - Jason put the final touches on the nursery while I supervised. I just draw the pretty pictures of my vision, buy stuff then he puts it together and actually brings things to life!

The only thing missing is a black rocking chair that my brother and his fiancee, Katie, are loaning us. It was her grandmother's antique chair, so it will fit nicely with the nostalgic ambience of the rest of the nursery.

If you didn't already know the background to the items in our nursery created for our wild child, here is a run-down:
Chest of drawers: Larry & Kathy's first piece of furniture purchased after they were married; stained in cherry and replaced hardware to modernize
Toy chest: handcrafted by my Uncle Paul, with poplar logs cut from my parents' property; was Celeste's toy box as a kid
Diaper changing table: antique from Celeste's maternal grandmother's estate
Portrait above chest of drawers: photo of Carole ("Nana") as a teenager sitting on porch holding a kitten

I am really pleased with the way the nursery turned out, especially considering we spent less than $1,000 total on the whole room. The biggest ticket items were the crib (which converts from a toddler bed all the way to a head/foot board for a double), crib comforter set, rug, crown moulding and chair rail.

Now we just need a baby to come and truly bring it to life!

So what's in a middle name?

You've heard how we selected Caroline - from the song "Sweet Caroline" by Neil Diamond. Neil recently confessed he wrote the song for Caroline Kennedy. Inspired by her innocence and elegance, he wrote the song on a napkin after he saw a photo of her ride horses in a magazine. He recorded it years later, but didn't reveal his secret to JFK's daughter until he performed via satellite for her 50th birthday in 2007. You can learn more here: http://www.boston.com/ae/celebrity/articles/2007/11/21/sweet_caroline_revealed/

So - that's the story behind our future daughter's first name. That left us perplexed to determine a middle name. Supposedly, if you don't select a middle name for your child, the birth certificate will read "NMI" for no middle initial. Well, we didn't want to plague her for life with some freakish acronym instead of a middle name.

My middle name is Alaine, making my initials C.A.S. My mother's initials are also C.A.S. for Carole Ann Sutton. In keeping with the tradition, we brainstormed middle names for Caroline.

Following much contemplation, we arrived at "Aurelia" after a character in one of our favorite movies, Love Actually. To see a clip, go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCldiADPDEM

With a little research, we learned Aurelia is quite a historically rich name. She was the mother of Julius Caesar. There is a crater on the planet Venus called Aurelia. Apparently there is a story of Princess Aurelia that perhaps we can read together sometime about a royal heiress who just wants to be like the commonfolk to roam and learn without the hype of being the center of attention.

Plus, we also learned that my mom wanted to name me "Aralia," pronounced the same way as "Aurelia," which is a flower. But my dad liked "Celeste" better. That pretty much sealed the deal. Aurelia it is...

Since Aurelia means means "golden," when combined with Caroline, which means "song of joy," I suppose our daugher's full name means "golden song of joy." Sounds beautiful to me. I hope she likes it. And I hope it prevents her from getting beat up on the playground! And if it's a boy, we always have Calvin Alexander as our fallback!

We're ready...Come on, Caroline!

It's been 38 weeks now. The nursery is ready, the thank you notes for shower gifts are written and mailed, the house is clean, the freezer is packed with frozen dishes and casseroles and there are take-out menus printed, our bags are packed, we're pre-registered at the hospital and ready to go...Now let's get this show on the road!

Apparently my cervix is thinned (or effaced) as of last week's visit. Tomorrow we find out if we're dilated at all. I'm still having Braxton-Hicks contractions, but those are just what is termed "false labor" (what a tease). Supposedly as every woman has told me, "you'll know when it's real." OK, I believe you! I just wish I knew when it was going to happen. I am an impatient person! But at the same time, I don't want to be induced and I don't want to have a C-section if I can avoid it. Some people think I'm crazy, but I really want to try to make this birthing process as natural as possible. We'll see how well my plan pans out. I realize certain circumstances demand drugs, so I'm keeping an open mind.

Emma Elizabeth, Caroline's first cousin, was born last week on Tuesday, June 17 at 3:45 a.m. She weighed in at a whopping 9 lb. 12 oz.! She is a beautiful, healthy little chunkster whom I have dubbed "Emma Jo" because she looks like her daddy, Jason's brother Joe. Jason said it's weird that his little brother is a father before him. It's funny, because for the first time Joe is experiencing something before Jason. Unlike other life experiences like getting your license, having a girlfriend, going to college, getting married...Jason has to defer to Joe on this one!

And just down the street, Caroline's future friend, Lily, was born on Sunday, June 15. We can't wait to watch the girls grow up together. Lily has two older brothers, Will, 4, and Drew, 2, who I'm sure will protect both Lily and Caroline.

Jason and I took time last weekend to have a couple "dates." On Friday, we went to a new restaurant called Meridian. The food was delicious, but probably way more carbs than we were used to. The highlight was the smoked corn puree soup, if you go! On Saturday, we went to Jason's cousin's wedding in Marion. It was a gorgeous wedding, I just wish I didn't look like such a freak so I could've danced!

Hopefully the next blog post will feature "Sweet Caroline." We are so excited to meet her. I have been looking at our baby pictures trying to get a mental image of what she will look like. She moves a lot when you play music, and she also seems to really like our pastor at church, Steve Rennick's voice. What will she be? A dancer, singer or musician? A teacher, doctor or politician? Hmmm...

Showering Caroline with Love

On April 19, my mother-in-law, Kathy, hosted a joint baby shower for us and my sister-in-law, Brooke, who is due 3.5 weeks before us! Brooke and Joe are also having a little girl, Emma Elizabeth. It is amazing how close the cousins will be in age!

We are really thankful to have such a supportive extended family. Jason has living grandparents who are still independent. They are all very loving and are anxious to see the next generation thrive.

On April 26, friends Jenny and Janelle hosted a shower for Caroline at Jenny's house. In this picture Janelle is just a few weeks ahead of me in her pregnancy.

It was so special to share this joyous time with friends I've known since childhood to those I met in college and beyond. My two best friends from Avon traveled so far to visit and celebrate Caroline's pending arrival. Courtney drove 6+ hours from Iowa City and Angie flew in from Tampa. We feel so blessed to have so many wonderful, caring friends who will teach Caroline about the world.

On May 31, client and friend Karen hosted a shower for my professional colleagues from PRSA, former employment and the MBA program as well as neighbors from our old and new neighborhood. It was an eclectic mix of brilliant, successful women who have helped me along my journey! Each provided sage advice for parenting, which was extremely valuable. We also received a lot of books, which will come in handy as we read to Caroline each night.

On June 1, my four female Sutton cousins hosted a shower for my family. From left to right - Kelly (30), Jenny (36), Melanie (35) and Robyn (32) - each is blessed with her own individual talents she can share with Caroline!

Here is a picture of me with my mom, whom we have decided to call "Nana." I was feeling pretty enormous this day - it was humid and I had walked around Broad Ripple in heels after church. My hands and feet started to swell pretty profusely! But staying hydrated, using massages and keeping my feet elevated has been helpful in alleviating that.

To see more shower pictures, visit http://carolinestanley.shutterfly.com/.

Yep - we're preggers

Jason and I really weren't trying to get pregnant. But I also wasn't doing a good job of "preventing" pregnancy either! Last summer we switched to organic food, I began exercising vigorously, we watched The Secret numerous times, we used mostly organic skin care products from Arbonne and we both felt great. To me, it seemed silly to be so healthy and then be altering my chemical makeup with birth control.

So when we went on a trip to celebrate our 5-year anniversary, I didn't think anything of it. Ironically, we did always say we were on the "5-year plan." Who knew that we would stick to that plan with absolute certainty! We conceived on Oct. 19, 2007 - exactly five years after we were wed.

This is me at 22 weeks on March 6. At this point, we were told it was a girl, but we didn't want to completely feminize the nursery in case technology failed us.

Another thing that surprised us slightly about it being a girl was that I had previously

dreampt about our son, whom we had already named Calvin. We hadn't really settled on a girl's name yet. I liked Corrinne, Caroline and Catalina. Jason liked Jasmine. I couldn't disassociate Jasmine from the Aladdin character. And someone said Catalina made them think of the Spanish maid on My Name is Earl. So when Jason put "Sweet Caroline" on and made me sing karaoke, it was decided. Her name would be Caroline. Now the challenge was finding a middle name that repeated my initials - C.A.S.

Any suggestions?