Reese Katherine Ybarra

These last few weeks have been filled with excitement with the reality that our little girl will be arriving in a little over 4 months. We've made a lot of decisions in the past few weeks and it feels good to start checking things off our giant to-do list. Most importantly, we've decided on a name (see blog title)! We've also painted her room (see picture below), installed new closet doors (picture coming soon), decided on fabrics for the room (bedding, curtains, etc), purchased a crib and dresser, and bought tons of clothes, bows, and a few packs of diapers. I'm feeling really good about the progress we have made, since half of the process is making the decisions. We still need to buy the bedding, make the curtains (thank you mom), find a glider (I'm picky) and of course assemble all the furniture we bought, but we've got the next 4 months to do all that. ;-)

No more blue! We're going WHITE!

Here's a sneak peek at the curtain fabric. :-)

We spent all summer looking through books and thinking about baby names. Elliott and I both loved the name Reese for a girl, so finding out she was a girl made it an easy decision. We hadn't decided on any boy names...so phew! I loved Katherine as a first name, but Elliott thought it was too old fashioned. It sounded great as a middle name and I'm happy we'll get to use it after all. 

One of the most exciting things that has happened in the last couple weeks is that I've been able to feel her kick! How amazing!!! Actually the first time I felt her kick was about 2 weeks ago. Elliott and I were sitting on the couch and I told him to feel my stomach where I thought I was feeling it. He looked up at me with huge eyes and confirmed my thoughts. It was an exciting night for both of us and I'm glad we got to experience it together. Since then, I notice her kicking every day. Usually when I first wake up in the morning I can feel her and then when I go to bed at night I can too. I think those are the times I'm most focused on it. It's fun to feel her kick in the middle of my day too, like when I'm driving or teaching or just out and about running errands. I forget what I'm doing for a second and catch myself just smiling. It's such a cool feeling to know that she's alive and well kicking around in there. 

She supposedly can hear now as well. So, I've been trying to play her all of my favorite songs, so that she'll learn to love them too. Elliott told me the other day that he hopes she gets his music taste, not mine. We'll see!

19 weeks

19 weeks

20 weeks! Halfway there!

Yowsers! 20 weeks!

Biggest Cravings: Candy and Chicken Fried Chicken with mashed potatoes.

Clothes/Body: There is no question there's a baby in there! I think most people off the street would be able to tell I'm pregnant, which makes being fat a lot more fun. A few people (people I know, not random people) have wanted to touch my stomach which I thought would be weird and uncomfortable, but it's actually kind of neat. It doesn't really feel like my stomach anymore, so it's not as personal and uncomfortable.

Energy/Mood: My mood has been fabulous (most days)! My energy has been great too. I've been working long hours at school and I am completely exhausted when I get home, but I am able to get everything done. My feet are the only things that have been sore. Since I started back at school, they have been killing me when I get home at night. I think it's because I stand almost all day long on hardwood floors. Lucky for me, I have a wonderful husband who has been rubbing my feet every night. I hope I don't get too used to that! :-) Sometimes I think I might be overdoing it a little. I forget that I'm not as flexible and agile as I usually am. I've finally given up trying to do some of my normal lifting and let Elliott do it for me, like carrying in bags of groceries and hauling the laundry down to the basement. I'm sure I can still do it, but I figure I need to get used to him doing it anyway. It's weird to feel kind of helpless in that way. I'm used to being more independent. 

When we finish up the room, I will post pictures! The only other big thing on our list is to start our baby registries. I think we're going to hold off until mid to late September, so that the winter stuff will be out. 

Lots of Love,


Erin, Elliott, and baby Reese