Nursery Complete!

I can't believe our nursery is ready! About a month ago, I seriously did not think we'd actually have it ready in time, but it all came together. I wish I could show you a before picture to see just how far it came...from a storage room to a cozy spot for our little guy. We're are feeling as ready as we can be for his arrival....even Sam likes the room. Our cat seems to think that we have finally put together a room for HIM! Ever since we put up the crib, this has been his new favorite spot. (Maybe he thinks the crib is bunk beds??)

The above picture was taken when things weren't quite ready, but now they are. So, here are some pictures of our little (and I am not exaggerating when I say little!) nursery. First I'm putting a few shots to give you an idea of how the room fits together, and then I"ll zoom in on the details.


View 1

Looking a little to the left, view 2

And a little to the left of that, view 3....I told you it was tiny! We had to be creative to make it all work.

So now, the details. The crib: My mother-in-law came over and sewed the skirt for the crib and a mosquito net (no malaria for our baby!) which we'll close up around the crib when he's in there.

Labor is super cheap here, so I had someone put together these bumpers for us, since the Brazilian style ones are BIG puffy pillows, which I didn't like. Later on I was reading that now no bumpers are recommended, but I put them on anyway until he can start moving around. You can also see our Brazilian style bobby in the crib for safekeeping. I loved the way the bumpers turned out. It makes me want to have another boy in the future just to reuse them :)

And probably my favorite feature of all (which I already showed on the blog but can't resist putting up again) is this adorable tree my sister-in-law painted for us. Talk about some serious talent!

And a special rocking chair which was a special present from my parents. They don't make wooden rocking chairs here, but we knew a store which can order them from the southern part of Brazil. It is handmade from beautiful wood and will last a lifetime! The monkey was the very first present Baby Braun got and the camel pillow was actually made by Jeyson in 4th grade! Jeyson's mom saved it (Jeyson didn't know) and I stuffed/finished it and I love having it in the room.

Jeyson's mom also helped us make these curtains. I couldn't find anything I liked in the stores here (probably because I already had in mind exactly what I wanted....don't you hate when that happens???) so I bought the material and Jeyson's mom patiently put it together exactly as I had imagined.

Here's the bottom

And the top.

I also wanted blackout curtains but couldn't find any, so again I bought the material and made my own. I bought these rings that you put on shower curtains and put it together. Super easy and will hopefully buy me hours of our baby napping :) One can dream right?? The blackout curtain hides behind the real curtain easily too.

Here's our dresser/changing area. The baskets on top have extra supplies

After MUCH hunting I found out they don't sell the type of changing pads that have raised edges like in the States....they are completely flat. Since we don't want our guy rolling onto the floor, the same lady who sewed our bumpers put this together for us. I love the plastic around it too...so much easier to wipe down!

A cute little giraffe diaper holder

And our rug made from jean type material.

And I know I showed it before, but once again here is our bunch of lamps hanging from the ceiling.

I was inspired from a blog I saw and Jeyson put it all together for me - I found the lamps at the dollar store!

Now the only thing I still want to change about this nursery is this:

Yes, I would like for this view to change! I can't wait to have this guy out of my belly and in our arms! Come on Mr. Braun....we are waiting for you! 39 weeks on Saturday!

Song Confusion

Yesterday was my last day teaching at the missionary kid's school. The threw me a little surprise going away party, which was so sweet!
The funny part was that when I came into the room the kids got all confused about what we were celebrating and started singing Happy Birthday :) In a way though, it was appropriate because we are celebrating the upcoming birth day of our little one.

I really enjoyed teaching these guys and will miss seeing them so often, but I'm 38 weeks now and it's time to start winding down with some of my weekly responsibilities. The coolest part though is seeing God's timing. Unknown to me when I told the parents that this would be my last week, God had JUST provided a visa for the long term teacher and she is coming down today! Perfect! I'm so glad God works in the details.

36 Weeks - Let the Countdown Begin!

36 weeks! I seriously can't believe it is time to really start getting ready for our little man's arrival! It's so surreal and lots of emotions as we check things off our to-do list. Up until this weekend we still had A LOT of things to do - including buying a carseat, crib sheets, a bathtub and other such important things. We worked hard this weekend and got a lot done and I'm feeling much more ready. The nest is almost ready and momma bird is much happier! One big project has been washing all of the baby clothes we have gotten (hand-me-downs and new too). This has been especially tricky in rainy season since the clothes have literally taken 4 days to dry! So cute though, hanging up....I can't believe we're really going to have someone this tiny around here!

Jeyson made a screen for the nursery window (they don't sell them around here and we didn't bother having one before since it was just our storage room.)

And here are a few pregnancy shots. I am seriously huge these days! I have to say though, all things considered, I'm feeling great! I get up 3 or so times at night to use the bathroom, but 3 out of 4 nights I sleep really well and don't even bother with extra pillows, etc. I have had some pretty uncomfortable leg/feet swelling, but it has gone down a lot in the past few days, which I'm super happy about. Of course that doesn't mean I fit in normal shoes or anything, it just means that I can fit the strap of my flip-flop over my foot again...I"ll take what I can get!

We're just about finishing up our Bradley birth course too and I'm feeling as prepared as one can feel. It sort of feels like when you have a final exam and you study, study study, to the point that there is no point in looking at your book anymore. It's time to just bring it on :) But not too soon! At our 36 week appointment, we found out that our doctor is getting married and traveling from this coming Saturday through Nov 5th on his honeymoon! That will put me at 38 weeks! I confess it makes me a bit nervous, but we have a backup doctor's info, and are just trusting the Lord for His timing. I am not dilated at all so the doctor feels there is a good chance our guy will stay put until after the honeymoon. Who knows though!

At 36 weeks, here's a list of some things we still have to do:

Put up shelf in nursery

Build bookshelf for nursery

Sew curtains and a crib skirt

Make freezer meals

Pack for hospital

We're also just soaking up the last moments as just the two of us before life changes forever. We're SO excited, but not wanting to wish away the phase we're in. Last night we had some friends over for games. Of course we still plan to have friends over in the future, but this was one of the last times to do this with no little guy to take care of. It was lots of fun! I have a few other things like that on my list, so we're not wishing away the coming weeks....just enjoying every moment God has us in. But the suspense is killing me...what will he look like? how will the birth go? what will it be like being a mom? And so much more....there's an adventure ahead!!!

Here's Some Advice....

When you're 8 months pregnant and wake up at 2am because you can't sleep...read a book, pray, count sheep, and do whatever else you can think of. But DON'T do what I did last night....I checked my email....
And found out the most exciting news! My parents bought their tickets to come visit us in Brazil in February! I know it's a long way off still....

But it got me SO SO SOOOO SUPER excited that I couldn't fall asleep until 5 am!!!

We CAN'T wait to have our first official visitors here and for it to be Dad and Mom!!! YAY! SO FUN! But next time I'll wait till the morning to find out :)

Baby Tea

A baby tea, that's what it's called in Portuguese. In English? A baby shower...that's what some ladies threw for me last week. And it wasn't just any baby shower. It was the sweetest, most thoughtful, and fun shower ever...but I might be a little biased :) Here's some pictures of the fun evening.

Me with my popping belly
My mother-in-law came and made the most perfect chocolates and sweets

My super talented friend (and the host of the party) made this adorable onesie cake

And this diaper cake too. These diaper cakes are the cutest invention - getting one really made me feel like a mom-to-be! I LOVED it!

There was a great turn out of women from the mission, as well as some other friends from the community.

My friend, Joy, was nice enough to play along with this goofy fun game/drama part

And one of the most fun parts was a game where I had to answer questions about our baby/being a parent and predict how Jeyson would answer the question. Then, they played Jeyson's actual response that had been videoed. We did pretty well...though there were a few surprise answers as you can see from my shocked expression!

And the BEST surprise of all was my family coming to the shower via video clips that they had made and sent to one of my friends.

And although my family couldn't be there, I was so happy to have my mother-in-law and sister-in-law there in person.

My friend Michawn, who is a mom of 4 and is going to be our doula for the birth, shared an encouraging word on being a mom.

Thank you so much to these sweet friends, Vanessa and Kris, for planning and working so hard to make this shower so wonderful and memorable. It meant so much to me to feel loved and encouraged by these friends God as brought into my life!

"One Room" School House

I've had quite a fun and different experience over the past two months helping out at a missionary kid's school. The teacher has not been able to get a visa to come to Brazil, so the parents of these kids set up a little school in a church and are sharing the job. I have been helping out two mornings a week teaching reading and social studies. It's my first time teaching without the subject being English as a foreign language!
The kids are really fun and I'm glad to be a small part of allowing their parents to serve in their ministry with the Brazilian branch of Wycliffe. When I was telling one of my sisters about this one room school house type setup, she said "So it's sort of like Christie (the old t.v. show you might remember) without the horses". I guess it is! ...although there is more than one room for us to use :)

As you can see, the belly is growing by the day! The other day, the kids were all doing an independent reading assignment and Baby Braun was VERY active, kicking and squirming all around. I looked up to see one of the boys with his eyes FIXED on my moving belly in confusion and amazement. So cute!

Quick Pics of Jeyson

Here's a few pictures of what Jeyson has been up to lately at work since it's been a while since posting just day to day pictures of Jeyson working.

It's no secret that Jeyson LOVES welding. Here he was recently working on repairing a tool that is used around the hangar.
Very intense....

Successfully repaired.

And working on an engine. Here Jeyson and Christian (right) were getting some instructions on how to work on the engine from Valmir (middle) a very experienced mechanic.

All in a day's work...