First Official Mother's Day :)

5.12.13

My 1st official Mother's Day!

This Mother's Day :)

Last Mother's Day :)

This time last year we were celebrating the news of our pregnancy with our family and I was celebrating my "first" Mother's Day! I posted about that day here. It was such a special weekend that I will always hold close to my heart. Even though Leah wasn't here yet David made sure to make my "first" Mother's Day a special one. However, nothing compares to actually spending Mother's Day with my little bundle of joy by my side. Leah, I love you more than you will ever know and more than I will ever understand. Being your mama is the greatest joy of my life and I feel so blessed that God chose me to be your mama. I love you, baby girl! 

I Love You Through and Through

"i love you through and through... i love your top side. i love your bottom side. i love your inside and outside. i love your happy side, your sad side

your silly side, your mad side.

i love your fingers and toes, your ears and nose. i love your hair and eyes, your giggles and cries.

i love you running and walking
silent and talking

i love you through and through... yesterday, today and tomorrow too."

Leah's First Valentine's Day

2.14.13

How could you not love a day that celebrates love? I like to think that I celebrate love every day by showing the ones closest to me how much I love them on a daily basis, but who doesn't love another reason to celebrate? Another reason to decorate the house? Do crafts? Take pictures? Dress up? Do something special for someone you love? This Valentine's Day was extra special because of the new little valentine in our lives. 

Leah's first Valentine's Day was so special and filled with love. Daddy got her the sweetest card and brought us home a dozen roses. There is nothing sweeter than seeing my husband do these special things for our daughter. I love seeing him start these traditions with her. It melts my heart. These are the things that girls cherish forever. My dad still thinks of me on Valentine's day and it still makes me feel special every year. This year he had two floral arrangements delivered to the house. One for me and one for Leah. It meant so much to us. Thank you dad/pop-pop! We love you!

Leah also received her first piece of jewelry from her Grandpa Rick. He kept telling us weeks before Valentine's Day that he was so excited to give Leah the gift he had been working on. I was in tears when we opened up her present. It was a necklace with her birthstone surrounded in little pave diamonds. He had designed it just for her. This is something she will have and cherish forever. Thank you so much, Grandpa Rick! We love you!

David also made Valentine's Day a special day for me like he does every year. At first I was just going to write about Leah's first Valentine's Day since I use this blog to serve as her scrapbook, but then I thought it was important to document the sweet and thoughtful things her daddy does for her mommy. We started the festivities a week early with the annual IUSD Valentine's Day Dance. We go every year and have such a great time! I love getting all dressed up with my hubby and having a great night with great friends. David has the best class. I have become close with many of his classmates and their wives/girlfriends, so it's always so great seeing everyone and catching up!

On actual Valentine's Day, David took the day off class/clinic to spend the day with his girls. He made us breakfast and we spent the morning hanging out with our Leahbug. Around 2 o'clock he had suggested that I spend the afternoon baby-free to go and do whatever I wanted for the day. He told me he had a surprise and to be home at 6:00. I was excited to have the afternoon to go and run some errands and do some shopping! I was also pretty excited to get home to see what he had up his sleeve! I knew he would most likely be making me a nice dinner but I was so surprised when I got home and he led me into the living room to this set-up...

He had re-arranged the living room to make this romantic set-up. I was in tears at just how perfect he had made everything. He made us bloody mary's, shrimp cocktail, filet mignon, and dessert. He thought of everything. It was perfect to have a romantic evening at home with our baby girl right next to us in her swing. It couldn't have been a better Valentine's Day with the loves of my life. 

Sunday we spent the evening with David's family celebrating Valentine's Day. They brought over take-out and we had a great night playing with Leah and hanging out. I love having such a close knit family that lives close :)

Thank you to all of our family who made Leah's first Valentine's Day so special. We love you so much!

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day with the ones you love :)

24 & 25 Week Update :)

Post written back on 9.10.12

How far along?  24 & 25 week update!
Total weight gain/loss: 16 pounds!
Maternity clothes? Yep
Stretch marks? Nope
Sleep: Sleeping through the night (except for the occasional bathroom breaks)
Best moments: Feeling her movements get stronger! There is nothing I love more than laying on the couch or bed and just feeling her move. I still smile at every movement she makes. To me it's such an amazing experience.
Miss Anything? Laying on my stomach but that's pretty much it!
Movement: Yep, lots :)
Food cravings: No strong food cravings. I do enjoy apples more than I ever have in the past.  
Anything making you queasy or sick: Overeating and the dreaded heartburn I always here about from my mama friends is starting to come late at night :/
Have you started to show yet: Yep!
Gender: GIRL :) 
Labor Signs: None
Belly Button in or out? In
Wedding rings on or off? On 
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy!!!
Looking forward to:  I'm looking forward to so much!!! Meeting her and feeling her movements get stronger! Celebrating Christmas with family and our new bundle of joy!  Cuddling next to the fire with her! 

There are also big things happening in my best friend's lives that I'm so looking forward to:
Standing next to my best friend, Jenny, at her wedding! Finding out the gender of Andria's baby! (My best friend, Andria, is also pregnant (about 6 weeks behind me) and I'm so looking forward to finding out if Leah's BFF will be a boy or a girl! It has been amazing sharing this experience with my best friend and I can't wait to see our children interact together :) Post on Andria's gender reveal party coming soon!

Over Half Way!

Today I am 22 weeks and feeling great! The best moment up to now is feeling her move! I'm starting to feel lots of movement and every time I feel something I just smile :) There really is no better feeling. I first felt her move on August 2nd, 2012. It was early in the morning and all the sudden I just felt these little movements that felt like nothing I had felt before. In that movement I knew it was her and I just couldn't stop smiling. The next day, August 3rd, David felt her move for the first time. It was so sweet to see his little face light up when he could feel her little movements. Being pregnant is the most amazing experience and I'm enjoying every minute of it with my hubby. We are both so excited to meet her but are soaking up every minute of watching her grow and preparing for her :)

How far along?  22 weeks!
Total weight gain/loss: At my 20 week appointment I had gained 9 pounds
Maternity clothes? Yep
Stretch marks? Nope
Sleep: Sleeping through the night
Best moments: Feeling her move all around, sharing this experience with our family and friends each week, and seeing all the love everyone already has for our little Leah (pics below of the sweet little packages from my sweet grandma and sweet friends) 
Miss Anything? Nope, not that I can think of!
Movement: Yep, lots :)
Food cravings: No food cravings just an increased appetite 
Anything making you queasy or sick: Overeating 
Have you started to show yet: Yep, since about week 16!
Gender: GIRL :) 
Labor Signs: None
Belly Button in or out? In
Wedding rings on or off? On 
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy!
Looking forward to:  Feeling her movements get stronger! Meeting her! Standing next to my best friend, Jenny, at her wedding! Finding out the gender of Andria's baby! (My best friend, Andria, is also pregnant (about 6 weeks behind me) and I'm so looking forward to finding out if Leah's BFF will be a boy or a girl! It has been awesome sharing this experience with my best friend and I can't wait to see our children interact together :)

I love how my grandma addressed the package to Little Miss Wood...she is the cutest! :)

The adorable gown on the left was from my sweet friend, Aly! The gown is from the super cute shop SheShe Made (www.sheshemade.com).  
The adorable headband on the right was from my best friend, Andria's, mom :)   

Thank you so much sweet friends!!!

Nursery & Baby Girl's Name!

A sneak peek into our nursery!
Can you spot our baby girl’s name? :)

If you spotted Leah you are right ;)

Leah Kimberly Wood

We have actually had this exact name picked out for years!
We love it :)

I have to give my husband credit for the hard work he put into his little girl's nursery. He spent 2 weekends turning the bottom part of the chair rail into a tufted fabric wall. He took my crazy vision and made it happen! :) A lot of people on Facebook were asking about the wallpaper. The wallpaper is a Candice Olsen design that can be found on her website. It's a textured sand particle wallpaper that shimmers!
  We are having so much fun designing and decorating our baby girl's nursery! We still have a lot more to do but I was too excited to not share our progress! The dresser and changing table will be delivered next week and we are still on the hunt for the perfect chair. We also hand painted a little piggy bank at a local pottery place for the nursery that will be done next week!  We had so much fun making a little something custom and for her and I can't wait to put it on her dresser!
I will post a full blog post once all the finishing touches are done :)


In other news, I'm so excited for a weekend full of celebrating great friends!
Saturday I'm attending a baby shower for a fellow dental school wife and friend, Lacey!
Sunday I'm attending my best friend, Jenny's, bridal shower :)
Can't wait to celebrate these girls!

Gender Reveal Party!

The Sunday after we found out we were having a baby girl, we hosted a Gender Reveal Party for our close family and friends! I got the idea from one of my best friends who had a gender reveal party with her son! I loved the idea and knew I would do the same once becoming pregnant! We had to keep the secret from everyone for two days, which was just torture, but well worth the wait! This was one of the most special days so far in my pregnancy! As if I wasn't excited enough for this day, my grandma flew in from Florida to surprise me and be at the gender reveal party! My grandma and I are extremely close so having her there meant the world to me. Talk about the most wonderful surprise :) The day was so full of love and excitement! We have the most amazing family and friends. Thank you to our family and friends for making this day so special for us :) 

Final Votes

Boy: 17

Girl: 18

 Pregnancy Cravings Table 

 We had cupcakes filled with pink icing and then had all our guests bite into them at the same time to reveal we were having a baby girl :)

We are so incredibly blessed with such an amazing family and friends!

Special thanks to my mother-in-law who helped put the party on!

Gender Reveal Video!
The day we found out the gender of Baby WoodI'm so grateful to have these short videos that perfectly capture our special and intimate moments of being pregnant with our first child. I'm so fortunate to have a creative husband that cherishes memories as much as I do. He is the one behind the magic of all our videos :)

Baby Wood's Gender Reveal!!! from Rachel Wood on Vimeo.

IT'S A....

GIRL!!!!!!

We could not be more excited!!!! :)

The hubby and I are spending the rest of the day celebrating together and purchasing our first outfits for our little GIRL :)

Gender Reveal Video Coming Soon!

1st Trimester!

The first trimester has definitely been rough! I've been battling a lot of nausea, headaches, and indigestion. My hubby, however, has been so amazing during this time. He runs to the grocery store for me daily, cooks all meals (cooking makes me extremely nauseous), and has been doing all the housework!  All while going to school full-time and he has not complained once! I'm so thankful and grateful for him!  As I hit 12 weeks the morning/all day sickness starting to slowly subside! I hope to start feeling normal again very soon! Even though I feel terrible most of the time I still can't help but smile! I'm just so excited to be pregnant and am soaking up every minute with my husband, family, and friends.  It has been such a special time in our lives and I know it's only going to get sweeter :) 

How far along? 12 weeks!
Total weight gain/loss: None, yet! I'm still patiently waiting for my baby bump!
Maternity clothes? Nope
Stretch marks? Nope
Sleep: Sleeping through the night
Best moment this week: Seeing Baby Wood kick and move all around at our 12 week ultrasound and announcing to everyone our exciting news!
Miss Anything? Being able to eat!
Movement: Not yet
Food cravings: Food cravings? I'm lucky if I get anything down
Anything making you queasy or sick:  Pretty much everything! Food, Smells, Car Rides, etc!
Have you started to show yet: Nope, but I can't wait until I do :)
Gender prediction: At first I thought boy but my entire family thinks girl, so I think it is starting to rub off on me :) (I honestly just want a healthy baby but I'm secretly hoping for a girl ;))
Labor Signs: None
Belly Button in or out? In
Wedding rings on or off? On 
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy!!
Looking forward to:  Finding out the gender of Baby Wood!

My First Mother's Day!! :)

My "first" Mother's Day weekend was a weekend I will never forget.   

The weekend started off with our first doctor appointment!  This was the appointment where we got to see our baby for the first time. It was a moment I will always cherish sharing with David.  Seeing our teeny baby on that screen and hearing the heartbeat is such an overwhelming and amazing experience.  We both teared up and couldn't stop smiling. We have wanted this for so long and now it was really real. Below is a picture of our little babe at just 8 weeks :)  The sweet ultrasound technician wrote Happy Mother's Day on the ultrasound photo for us, which I thought was such a sweet touch :)  

8 weeks :)

Excited Daddy!! :)

That night David surprised me with tickets to the Indianapolis Symphony. I grew up going to the symphony with my grandparents, so I was super excited! We started the night off with dinner at Mesh on Mass Ave. and then we headed to the show!

We had a great evening!

Saturday rolled around and the surprises kept coming from my sweet husband. Saturday was a long day for me. I had several photography sessions downtown.  I usually look forward to all my sessions but battling nausea and exhaustion while shooting is tough to do, especially in the heat.  I drove home that night exhausted and ready to relax. When I got home and walked in the door I was greeted with sparkling apple cider (poured in our wedding champagne flutes), beautiful roses, and my favorite candy!  He had also made my favorite pasta dish from Magiannos, Rigatoni D!  He had googled the recipe and made it from scratch...and boy was it amazing! He had started a fire and lit candles out on our deck and we enjoyed a nice little romantic evening together talking about all things baby :)

My hubby's yummy version of Rigatoni D!

Sparkling Apple Cider :)

We ended the night with these yummy chocolate covered strawberries!  David is always so thoughtful and made this such a special "first" Mother's Day weekend for me.

We then spent Mother's Day with our families! This was the day that we told our parents that they were going to be grandparents!!! We told our parents with custom frames that had the ultrasound photo inside :) This is the first grandchild on both sides so to say they are excited is an understatement! Seeing their reactions was priceless. We also secretly filmed telling our parents as well so be sure to look out for the announcement video on the blog :)

The video of us telling all of our loved ones :)

Pregnancy Announcement! from Rachel Wood on Vimeo.