Welcome to the World - Grant Henry Kelley

Five VERY sleepless weeks later....

I thought it was high time to finally (and of course) OFFICIALLY introduce you to our newest little joy. 

It's funny that after nearly 9 months of planning, prepping, enduring the discomforts (and of course the joys of pregnancy)...when the time finally came to meet the little person taking residence inside my body...it all still felt so surreal.  

After more than a few health scares popped up throughout my pregnancy (dealing with my diabetes which came with daily insulin injections and constant sugar monitoring, finding out Grant had a two vessel cord instead of three, a heart valve issue with Grant that scared the crap out of me but ended up being ok & placenta previa that landed me in the hospital with a bleed and put me on modified bed rest) we were feeling more than a little nervous to face this day.  Thankfully, after all that, we delivered a very healthy and OH SO HANDSOME baby boy!  

Grant Henry Kelley joined our clan on August 11, 2015 at 1:01pm via c-section and we ALL couldn't be more thrilled... EVEN Everleigh!  She's been an amazing big sister and hasn't once asked to send him back to where he came from.  ;)  

So without further ado..(and because this sleep deprivation is NOT for the faint of heart and I really should be napping right now..) here's a look back at Grant's birthday. 

August 11th and our hospital stay - In Pictures

My very LAST preggo selfie..taken right before we left to the hospital. 

Because this c section was planned, we checked in at 10am and went straight to the operating "holding:" room with Chad and my parents (who would be in town for the next two weeks helping us adjust to life with a toddler and a newborn).  

All dressed and ready to go...

Nervous smiles

Then... at 1:01pm after a few tugs here and a few tugs there..

Little Man Kelley took his first breath and of course it was amazing :)

Cue the instant tears.. 

Happy Birthday Grant Henry Kelley :)

Grumpy little face and mommy 

Daddy and Grant waiting for the doctors to finish working on mommy.  

8lbs 2oz and 20" long

Big sister Everleigh meets her baby brother for the first time.. 

And she's in love :)

Be still my heart.  I love my guys.

Sleepy baby..

Definitely what an Awesome Sister Looks Like :) 

Everleigh helping Grandma Maldonado feed baby brother

 

FREEDOM! Finally got released on Friday, August 14th

And now the REAL fun began :)

Baby Boy Kelley's Nursery Room - Progress Photos

When it came time to think about Grant's nursery and how I wanted his space to look, I knew I wanted something classic, (and like Everleigh's room...nothing too "baby"), that he could grow into. I wanted something we would ALL enjoy for years to come even after he transitioned into a big boy room, (cause Lord knows this mama would surely NOT have the energy needed to try and do a whole new room makeover in a few years. ;)  

Unlike Everleigh's room though...where we just went with a color scheme that I liked and thought would be fun for her, Grant's room had a more focused, theme oriented feel to it.  Playing off a traditional "boy's room", we went with a transportation theme with a vintage twist.  Navy blue, lime-y green with pops of orange here and there.  I still have plans to incorporate orange into his crib skirt and/or rail guard, so needless to say, this room is NOT 100% done yet but I'm actually quite PROUD of where it stands today, considering we still have a little over 6 weeks til baby is due to make his arrival.  

Slowly but surely... here is where baby boy's room stands today.  :)  

Grant's Room - AFTER (in progress) 

Grant's Room - Previous Owner's Decor

Certainly has come A LOOOOOOONG way from how we saw it when we purchased our house a year and a half ago!  

Grant's Room BEFORE - How it looked a month or two ago 

A mess to say the least! Yikes :) 

For awhile there I had contemplated these orange curtains (which was actually a duvet cover that I took apart and sewed a lining onto) but I ended up liking how the solid green seemed less busy AND was a lot less work to put together...lol.  At nearly 30 weeks pregnant (at the time), I quickly found out how UN-motivated I was to work on the other panel after spending hours trying to get these stupid things to line up properly.  It probably would've been easier to work on everything on the floor but I ended up working on our very large but also very SLIPPERY dining room table.  NOT a fun process so I quickly decided that the green would win the curtain contest...for now.  I figured if I ever wanted to change the look of the room, I could easily finish up that other curtain panel later on.  

While perusing Pinterest for inspiration, we came upon this awesome shelving idea that took Ikea brackets and stained deck boards to create this awesomely industrial-ish look we were going after.  

Homegoods has definitely been the source for a lot of the decor for this space.  

The piggy bank, the silver plane, both vintage cars, the metal G, and plane stool all came from Homegoods.  The globe and dark navy basket were Ross finds.  :)  Gotta love me a great find! 

The prints over the crib were just photos I found and printed off the internet.  The frames came from Ikea.  

And this cute "not-so-little" bear pictured above found ALL of her old baby things as we were organizing and decided that she needed to baby test everything again.  ;)  

Ohhhh the entertainment this kid brings to our lives.. :) 

It was actually cute how Everleigh gave up one of her big bears for her baby brother's room.  This giant panda had been living in our playroom for the last year and when I asked Everleigh if we could put it in Grant's room, she happily agreed and even helped me move him over!  

Inspired by several projects I had seen on Pinterest (of course) I enlisted the help of my super awesomely HANDY husband to create this pegboard station above the changing table.  It's obviously not filled up with all the decor I'm sure it'll eventually get, but I love how it looks so far.  :)  

Celebrating Grant Henry Kelley :)

It's funny how our most successful parties come with the least amount of party preparations.  

About a month ago, Chad casually mentioned in passing that he thought we should have a get together to celebrate the upcoming arrival of our baby boy before his work schedule got crazy.  Since so many of our friends had been asking if we were having a baby shower or where we were registered at, I took his casual party idea as an opportunity to start stock piling the only thing that we really, truly needed... DIAPERS!  

One problem.  It took forever to nail down a date.  With Chad's uncertain work schedule, house projects popping up almost every single weekend and unfinished projects mocking us daily, it was hard to commit to a date that we knew would work for us.  Not so convenient when party invitations needed to be sent out so our friends would be able to plan ahead.  

So once a date was set, and with practically ZERO notice, we informed our amazingly awesome friends of our plans and shifted into high gear to "prep" as much as we could with the limited time we had.  

Lo and behold...our party was a SUCCESS!  The weather actually cooperated (storms had passed the night before so we were uncertain that our outdoor BBQ idea would pan out), we had a great turn out, and the decor was actually much more coordinated than I thought it would end up being.  YEAH for last minute pachangas! :)  

And DOUBLE YEAH for AWESOMELY CREATIVE and HELPFUL friends Hollienoel, who lent us baby pools and outdoor water fun for the kiddies and Rebecka who came bearing the show stoppers of ALL show stoppers... 

Are you KIDDING ME with this?!  Chad and I are STILL FLOORED and in AWE at the amount of time, energy and LOVE that Rebecka put into not only this picture above.. BUT...

This diaper cake too!!! 

When she mentioned that she wanted to do a diaper cake for us...and asked what colors we had selected for his room, and what name we had chosen for our baby boy, I never in a MILLION years thought that she would show up at our house with THIS! 

The amount of detail is amazing...

  

AND on top of all this.. she even came bearing gifts... FOR EVERLEIGH!!  

What incredible friends we have...talk about LUCKY bears we have!!  :)   

The rest of the house was pretty simply decorated as well.  Streamers, balloons and onesies as decorations filled our living room.  :)  Easy peasy and done.  

 

      

And because who can STOP looking at that dining room table of awesome-ness.. here it is again..   

  

It turned out to be such a beautiful day. 

Not too hot for a Texas summer afternoon in June...  Whew!!

And the kiddies had a blast splashing in the sun :) 

 

Everleigh's so lucky to have made such sweet friends since starting at her new school back in February.  Love the friendship these sweet girlies have. :) 

  

   

 

Sweet baby Z! :) 

  

     

That's a WRAP and we are POOPED!  :)  

Thank you to everyone who was able to make it out to help celebrate our new bear.   

He is already so incredibly LOVED by everyone near and far.  We can't wait for his arrival.  

We're counting down the days til we meet our sweet little man.  

August 14th can't come soon enough!  

Kelley Belly 2.0 (20-27 Weeks)

I can't believe it's been so long since I've posted last.  This blog has definitely been put on the back burner lately, and for that I apologize.  So much has happened in the last several months but when I think about when and how I need to start sorting it all into blog posts, I get overwhelmed and just stop.  I figured the best excuse I could probably get away with was, oh you know.. that whole growing a tiny human thing.. ;) 

With working full time (and sleeping HALF the time), peeing ALL THE TIME, focusing what's left of the day to giving Everleigh some mommy-time, to prepping the nursery for our baby boy all of the times in between... things have definitely been nutty around our house.  On top of all that we've been adding projects that weren't even on our original "to-do" list, like buying a new TV for the living room.  Normally that wouldn't seem like a big deal to most but it required a whole new media cabinet below.  And wouldn't you know it wasn't a size you could just find and buy at any old store.  We actually had to do a little research to find what we (sorta, kinda) wanted and then had to modify it.  (Once again, a blog post on THAT coming soon too....hopefully ;) 

It's like we're opening one can of worms after another.  And that's cause the "nesting phase" hasn't even hit full force yet!  

Regardless, I'm back---ish.  No promises for consistent blogging but I've got a long list of things I want to post about, I just need to find time to GET IT DONE!  ;)  

Until then, I thought it would be fun to see how the Kelley Belly has been growing since I took my first "bumpie" 7 weeks ago.  Seems like Baby Boy Kelley has made a major jump in growth during the last 3 weeks.. swelling up not only my belly BUT my face and my hips and my thighs and yeah.. everything else.  

And to think we still have a LONG ways to go.. 

(I'm currently 27 weeks, 4 days...with a scheduled c-section tentatively set for 38 weeks) 

20 Weeks 3 Days (above)

21 Weeks 4 Days

22 Weeks 4 Days

24 Weeks 3 Days

27 Weeks 3 Days

27 Weeks 5 Days