Ikea Date

This week, Wil and I went on an Ikea lunch date :) I'm a cheap date. lol. We of course had the swedish meatballs lunch and finished it off with $1 icecream cones - what beats that?

We decided to get baby's dresser from here. There are a lot of dresser sets that come with cribs - but we decided the dresser was where we could cut some costs. Yes, longevity is not as good, but for now, it will do. I think by getting an ikea dresser we saved about $200. We decided on this 3 drawer dresser, the Hemnes. It was $149 last year and we got it for $129 - not bad. We got it in the black/brown color to match baby's crib.

This is the crib, we finally decided on for baby. Wil's parents were nice enough for order this for us!!!It should be coming in next week. I think that's when it'll really hit me, when i see baby's crib all set up. Then it'll really feel like a nursey.

We got the StorkCraft Monique crib in black. I usually look for the color espresso but some reason in this line, the espresso looked so light!

That was a beautiful day to head to Ikea. We went to the the one at Atlantic Station so we got to see more of Atlanta as we made our way there. Here are some of the things we spotted:

Atlanta's version of the Arc de Triumph! I'm sure there's a name - but not sure what its called.

A new meaning to the word "Drive through."Beautiful skyline of the City of AtlantaIt was a hot day, but luckily my feet weren't as swollen so i didn't feel the need to cover them up in jeans or a maxi dress. Here I am at 33 weeks wearing:

HM peach cotton top with flutter sleeves with tonal embroidery

Target maternity khaki shorts (not really my cup of tea- but you really need shorts here in Atlanta)

Louis Vuitton Bag

Banana Republic resin/gold accent/crystlal bangle in white

Steve Madden, white and gold sandals (not pictured)

We'll be heading to Home Depot/Lowe's to look at paint chips/border ideas for baby's room. I think the baby blue walls with brown furniture will look sooo adorable. Stay tuned for that!

Papa-Paparazzi

I used to tease that baby would dance in my belly to Lady Gaga's song - Paparazzi - but after all the teasing, i realized, its true. I swear, the minute she would sing, "ra-ra-oo-la-la" he would move around. So, that's his lullaby - that's the song that he will remember when he's out of the womb - i'm sure of it. lol.

Speaking of Paparazzi, there are a lot of belly shots that i saved in my "pregnant pics" folder, that i was hoping to recreate for this pregnancy . Not that i would have a place for these pics - but i just didn't want to regret NOT taking pics. I regretted not taking any before my wedding and i didn't want to feel that again. But, in light of my numerous stretch marks (and weight gain that i haven't mentioned) i just don't know if i have to confidence to pull these off. But here are the samples i'd like to recreate. Enjoy! I'll keep you posted if i gather the courage to take these.

Uninvited guests

So, they finally came - the infamous, never welcome stretch marks!!!! They started showing up 2 weeks ago, i just saw them on my sides where my hips were. Then last week my underbelly was soooo itchy - i didn't think anything of it, until i tried to take a cute pic with my belly showing - and let me tell you - that camera did not do me justice at ALL. Stretch marks under my belly were screaming out at me - it was really bad. So here are samples of belly shots that i was hoping to copy that i found on photographer's websites- but forget it. either i needed like 5 bottles of concealer or my pics would be perfect for nightmare on elm street movies.

Then, to top it off, today, i found a stretch mark on my arm right above my underarm! Yikes. They're taking over!!

I've been using Palmer's Cocoa butter just because it has been tried and true, but i have to say, it hasn't done anything for me - maybe my marks would've been worse if i hadn't used it, but who knows - i still religiously rub it all over my belly and body. Lets hope these ugly red marks slow down their visits.