Tampa shower and some special gifts

We're 35 weeks pregnant! 

Holy crap, is that me?! I'm HUGE!

Peanut is, for the most part, completely done with all of his developments. Right now he's just gaining weight and hanging out upside-down. Punching Mom in the legs and butt is a favorite day and night activity.


Over the weekend Steven and I completed our final trip of 2010. This has been a whirlwind year for travel! The first half of the year I felt lucky if I was anywhere for a week at a time. Here's a list of where I've been in 2010- ones with the * means Steven was with me.

• 5 trips to Atlanta (Steven went on 3 of these trips)
• 3 trips to Tampa (Steven went twice)
• 2 trips to Seattle
• San Jose
• New York
• Louisville*
• Indianapolis
• Hawaii*
• Jacksonville/St Augustine*

As I said, most of these happened between January and May... had I not gotten pregnant I probably would have been traveling much more for work. I love to travel but this year has truly taken the cake on trips!

Our last trip was to Tampa to visit family and attend our baby shower there. Dad and Cammie threw us a fantastic shower on Saturday night with all of our Tampa friends! Here are some pictures:

Cammie made a great centerpiece out of baby toys and products. The best part was I got to take all of them home!

More baby showers should serve booze, I think. Even if the mom doesn't get to participate!

During the shower everyone got to post their predictions for what the baby will be named and when he will be born. Here is Miss Corey Joe modeling it for us.

As usual Cammie made quite a spread of food for everyone. I don't expect anything less from her!

Leslie, Lindsey and me

My brother Trey and my cousin Amber, who flew in from Atlanta 

It was great to have a Jack & Jill shower so Steven could be there too! 

Aunt Judy and Uncle Rick sent Peanut this adorable outfit. He's going to have a reindeer on his butt! They also sent us "Pee-Pee Teepees" which got a great laugh out of everyone!

The Whitcombs thought it would be funny to send us a Gator teething toy, which is perfect for us Dawg fans! (Steven, you are excluded from that group!)

My dad with Cheryl and John Hodges

Cammie with my youngest brother, Keaton, who drove in from Savannah for the shower

Me, Steven, Lindsey and Amber (Trey in the way way back)

When everyone left it was family picture time! After Dad stopped making us all wear stupid hats (he has a thing about us all wearing hats in photos, I don't know why) we actually got some good ones. We decided to include the name board since Peanut isn't actually here yet.

Saturday night ended in usual Monroe Family tradition... several rounds of Uno! I'm sure as soon as Peanut can sit up we will be including him in Uno games! This was how Trey and Keaton learned their colors and numbers.

It was a really wonderful trip! Our friends and family truly "showered" us with love and it was a very memorable day for us! Thank you, Dad and Cammie, for hosting such a wonderful party, and thank you to everyone who came and supported us! We can't wait for you to meet Peanut!

Over the last few weeks some very special friends have given us some beautiful homemade gifts for Peanut. I am blown away by how talented some of you are!

Steven's co-worker Heather not only MADE this precious bunny but she also knitted this gorgeous blue blanket. Are these not just the most precious things you have ever seen? I can't bring myself to put them away- I love them so much!

My step-mom Cammie had not knitted in 25 years but returned to the needles to make this prayer blanket for Peanut. As she knitted she prayed for us and the baby. So much thought went in to this blanket, which makes it even more special to us!

This quilt was made by one of my best friends growing up, Miss Carmen Courtney! This is side one...

...and this is side two! Carmen is a very talented quilt maker. This had to have taken her forever! There is so much love in each and every stitch.

I absolutely love this quilt!

Baby is now due "next month"

Happy belated Halloween! 

Steven and I had a good time handing out candy to our, ummm.... I dunno, 10 Trick Or Treaters last night? A big difference from last year when we had so many kids Steven had to go to the store and buy more candy! We're in a recession, shouldn't more people be clamoring for free stuff?!

On Saturday night we carved our pumpkins. As usual, Steven got ambitious and created what I believe is his best pumpkin yet: Linus, from Peanuts, coming out of a pumpkin! My pumpkin replicated the skull face on the back of Peanut's Motorcycle jacket. Of course we had to make a peanut pumpkin for our little peanut:

Flash on

Flash off

I love having 3 pumpkins now! 

The weekend before last my friends Jamie, Kristin and I drove up to Indianapolis for Sarah's baby shower. Here are some pictures from that:

Belmont girls! Tamara, Kristin, Sarah, me and Jamie

32 weeks pregnant with Baby Girl Snyder and Baby Boy Boone

Best buds already

I love that last one. We only had a few hours together but I think we made the most of it! Sarah and I are both blessed to have such amazing friends!


Now that it's November Steven and I can say that our baby is due "next month." This is exciting and terrifying! We're getting it done though. We're hoping our correct dresser/changing table arrives this week so we can finally get that assembled. Once that's ready we can arrange the room. On Friday we take our last trip before baby! My dad and Cammie are throwing us a baby shower Saturday night with all of our Florida friends. I'm really excited about this trip because all of my siblings are coming in town for the party! The four of us live in four different cities (3 different states!) so it's always special and fun when we are all together.


Back to work- love you all!

33 weeks... 7 to go

I have a few minutes to come up for air from work, so I figured I would do a post. Life is SO busy lately! Part of me wants to hurry and get to December so this can all be "over" and the other half wants to scream "I NEED MORE TIME!!!"


Work is insane. We're going full speed ahead in Bon Jovi land. We announced our 2011 tour dates on Wednesday (which meant I was up by 2:30AM to assist with the European announcement... and I was back up at 6 when we announced North America). Today our Greatest Hits album had it's first release (Germany) and we have 5 more release dates to go. Then there's all of the events, concerts, pre-sales, promotions, contests, TV appearances and award shows between now and the end of November. It's a wild, crazy profession but it's so rewarding and I love it! Even if I am exhausted and running on caffeine and Butterfinger bars.


Steven's been really busy himself. He has several major design projects at work and last night (I really need to brag about this one) he found out he's been hired to produce a full length album of Flaming Lips songs as lullabies. He's been working on getting this gig for several months... turning in sample demos and corresponding with the label that puts out these very fun and exciting rock albums for babies. I'm looking forward to putting Peanut to sleep to some of his daddy's lullabies. He has already made some amazing lullabies of my favorite Hanson and Muse songs so these new tracks will add to Peanut's Sleepy Time Playlist. Congratulations babe, I am so proud of you!


I promised pictures from my baby shower here in Nashville, so here they are!


On October 9th my sister, Lindsey, and Steven's cousin, Jessica, hosted a baby shower for me at Steven's parents house. It was a really beautiful day and as I thanked the room of women for coming I almost choked up from being so grateful they are each in my life.

Kristin, Jamie and 'Little" Shay- friends from Belmont!

Me and Sarah, both 30 weeks pregnant!

The hostesses and me: Jessica, Me, Lindsey

Peanut's great-grandmothers! Mama Joyce and Nana

Peanut's cousins: Jessica, Leslie (who is due in February with Peanut's newest cousin) holding Kennedy, and Brooke

From left: Andrea, me, Jenn

From left: Steven's Great-Aunt Joyce, my sister Lindsey, Liz, Brooke, and Joy

Me with the little booties Aunt Joyce made for Peanut. He's going to be so cute in these!

Me and Brooke, Nashville's best kept jazz singing secret!

Looking around a room filled with my family, Steven's family, industry friends, college friends, new friends, music friends..... I felt so loved. I am so thankful that our son gets to grow up with all of these amazing women in his life!


Last week Steven and I began our "Baby Classes." We have taken an Infant Care class, a Breastfeeding class and the first of 6 Childbirth classes. We also have the "Vanderbilt New Beginnings" class in November, which tells us what to expect when we are at the hospital and gives us a tour of the floor we'll be on. Yes we are indeed learning a lot, as there is a lot to learn.


Also last week Peanut's nursery furniture came in. Steven successfully assembled the crib and rocking chair. On Wednesday of this week he set out to conquer the dresser/changing table. He got all of the pieces out of the box then realized they sent us the wrong one!!! What a pain. I'm really looking forward to getting the room completely set up and putting all of Peanut's tiny clothes away in drawers (right now they are stuffed in a Rubbermaid container... you've never seen so many clothes!) The dining room will continue to look like a war zone until we get that room organized... bleh. Until then here are some cute pics of the process so far:

Steven assembling the crib

Deep in thought...

All done! He did a great job!

Crash's baby doll is modeling how the crib will look with a baby in it!

I'll end the post with one last picture. This is my dad and me at Babies R Us when we bought Peanut's (or "Ex Mo" as Dad calls him) motorcycle jacket!

Note to self: horizontal stripes and pregnancy don't work well together

Photo-Rama!

Sorry for the delay in posts! I have been putting off the next post until I could get all of the pictures from the past two weekends. I want to put photos from my Nashville baby shower and family visits all together in one post. In the meantime, here are some photos of what we've been doing lately.

Steven and I found this little motorcycle jacket several months ago while shopping. At the time the store only had ones for 3 year olds. While shopping with my dad this weekend we found out they come in infant sizes! We bought one sized 12 months, so be prepared to see little Peanut rocking this amazing jacket next Winter! I mean, really- is there anything cuter than this?! He'll look just like Daddy. It will be a LONG time before I let him get near Steven's motorcycle though!

This is the swing that Grandmommy and Papa B (Steven's parents) gave to Peanut. Precious!

On Sunday after my dad and Cammie hit the road we went to Lowe's. Here's what our cart looked like. Can you guess what we planned to do?!

Here is the room before ("The Guest Room")

Last night Steven set to work transforming the green walls into baby blue!

We still need to do some touch ups and the trim, but here's how the room looked this morning. I love how the color turned out! It matches the crib bedding we picked out. Soon "The Guest Room" will be fully transformed to "nursery." Amazing!

Our nursery furniture was ordered this weekend and they called today to say it is in. We'll have the room completed before too long. Sometimes I still can't believe this is really happening! We feel so blessed. God is so good!


This weekend I am headed to Indianapolis for my friend Sarah's baby shower. She was here two weeks ago for my shower so now it's time to celebrate her and her soon-to-be born baby girl! Sarah and I are due the same week (I'm Dec 15th and she is the 19th) so this has been a very special time for us to share together! I'm looking forward to showering her with love, just as she did to me two weeks ago!

Sarah and me at 30 weeks

Love, love, love.

Home improvements

Yesterday was the 30 week mark! In just 10 weeks Steven and I should have our little bundle in our arms, rather than where he currently resides- in my belly, snuggled up again one side in a tight little ball. According to our emails from BabyCenter.com Baby Peanut is coming along in his lung development and eyesight. Of course he's growing like a weed as well. He continues to be highly active and bouncy!

As for me, I'm still feeling good but I'm definitely feeling more stiff and it's hard to sit for more than an hour at a time. My lower back hurts and I can't sleep without a pillow propping up my baby belly. I kind of roll out of bed, rather than sit straight up and have to be careful about doing too much physical activity in a day. It's fine though, nothing that I can't handle! This makes for an excellent segway into how we've been spending our days lately....

Instead of taking things down a few notches we've decided to go from 50 to 1000 in one week's time. Smart, right? Let's begin with the unpredictable.

Right after my last post Steven and Colin asked to drive my car to Chicago so they could go see Roger Waters. The show was amazing (maybe I can get Steven to do a blog about the show....) but while in Chicago a hotel valet decided it would be fun to drive my black car down a white concrete pole in the hotel parking garage. Somehow neither of the guys noticed the damage and drove my car back to Nashville without a clue. Once they were home I noticed the damage immediately even in the pitch black night because, well, it's my car and I know how it's supposed to look! After getting nothing but nasty attitudes from the valet company and cluelessness from the hotel I decided to turn the situation over to insurance. Isn't that what I pay them for each month? Apparently not. Last Monday I spent hours on the phone with Progressive and they fought me each step of the way. 

Agent: well did you see where they parked the car?

Me: Noooo, it's valet. They drive it away and park it for you (duh)

Agent: well how do you KNOW they parked it by a pole?

Me: Because of the dent and 2 foot scrape down the side of my car!!!!!

Long story short, they ended up telling me that I needed to take the car to get fixed FIRST and at that time they would "try" to go after the valet company.  I said, "look, I don't have the money for this. I have a baby coming in a few weeks and I can't just go drop a thousand bucks to fix damages I didn't even do for the off-beat chance you guys might actually help me out and do something. So please just cancel my claim."

Well, there it was. "The B-Word." Apparently mentioning you are having a baby means something to the stubborn and often unfair world of car insurance. Suddenly the tone changed and it was "oh when are you due? Is it a boy or a girl?" Then it became "let me speak with my manager and see what we can do."

They called back and told me to take my car for an estimate and they'd send me a check for the damages. They also promised not to raise my premium. Then they congratulated me again on my pregnancy and closed out my claim. Ummm... what just happened here? I was left feeling somewhat dumbfounded but I won't ask questions. I can't say this makes me feel warm and fuzzy about Progressive Insurance but it is a lesson to all of you out there: when facing insurance companies, just tell them you're pregnant!

So after the car fiasco, we decided to tackle house project #2: getting rid of our bedroom carpet. The carpet in our room has never been lovely but after Crash had a freak out in 2009 over 4th of July fireworks and tore it to shreds we started saving money to get it replaced.

Bad dog!

We thought we coud just refinish the hardwood floors underneath but once the furniture was all moved and we could actually take a real look we realized there was only about 80% hardwoods and the remaining 20% was sub-flooring.

The Great Destroyer, some nasty carpet and some sub-flooring

FAIL!

We were in a bit of a time crunch so we decided to install new carpet in that room. I love what we picked out! It's called Lemon Custard and looks beautiful.

The bed was still being put back together, which explains it's messiness

While waiting for the new carpet we figured, what the heck? Let's go ahead and tackle house project #3: new appliances in the kitchen. Since moving in to our house 4 years ago I have hated our stove with the fire of a thousand suns. Only 2 of the burners worked and the oven consistently heated far beyond what we set it for. Since we are looking to move sometime next year we decided a while back that when we replaced the stove we'd buy a new refrigerator so they would match. So we did! And here they are.

My smart husband had the brilliant idea of putting the old fridge in our garage so now we have extra fridge and freezer space for storage. Can anyone here say "boiled peanuts all year 'round??"

So yeah, we have been very, very busy. But all three of our home improvement projects are now complete! This will make it much easier to put the house on the market next year in the event that the perfect house shows up and we need to sell quickly.

That's all for now- love to you all!

12 weeks to go...

I'm 28 weeks pregnant! Here's a new picture of the growing belly:

28 weeks pregnant

I can't believe I am due in just 12 weeks. We still have so much to do! Little by little we will get there.


We had our final ultrasound on Friday afternoon. Peanut is getting so big! At 28 weeks babies on average weigh 2lb4oz. Our little guy weighed in at 2lbs13oz! I'll bet he is 3 pounds by now. Time will tell if he ends up with the Monroe Family "tiny" gene (which I obviously got, as did my sister) but I'd say at this point that all signs point to no. The woman doing the ultrasound was rushing through it and didn't take the time to get good pictures. She gave us 3 but none of them are good- just blurry close ups of his head. They aren't even worth posting, to be honest. I may not even put them in his baby book because they are that bad. That was disappointing but I have a lot of good pictures from our previous ultrasounds so we'll just hang on to those.


After the ultrasound I had an appointment with my midwife. While listening to Peanut's heart beat on the doppler we could hear him hiccuping! I also did my mandatory Glucose test last week and passed! My midwife continues to be pleased with how I'm doing. Everything looks really, really good going into this homestretch!


Peanut's lungs are developing more each day and he can now open his eyes in the womb. A week and a half ago Steven and I were on the couch. I had a blanket over me and Peanut was bouncing so much that we could see him through the blanket. I pulled the blanket back and looked at my belly to see what it looked like. Lo and behold, he stopped moving. I put the blanket back and after a few seconds the bouncing began again. We figured out it was because of the light coming in when I took off the blanket! Steven and I sat there and played "peek-a-boo" with him and laughed our heads off at how he would immediately stop moving each time the blanket was off. Sometimes when I feel him moving on one side I'll put one finger on the other side of my belly. I'll feel him scoot over and touch where my finger is. I can't believe he can see that now! It's so cool to play with him already! 


Here is the paint color we picked out for his room:

The middle shade of blue, to match the elephant on his blanket

And here's what his crib bedding looks like. 

We love it! It's like a crazy zoo animal parade in India. If you can come up with a better description for it than that I'm all ears!


That's all for now. Love to you all!

3rd Trimester!

Over the weekend I was talking to my dad and he complained mentioned that I hadn't updated the blog since August 27th. I would like to say a very public HELLO to my dad- hi Dad, love you! 


Today marked the beginning of my third trimester. Time is flying! Tomorrow I will be 27 weeks. Here's a photo of me from a week and a half ago:

25 weeks pregnant

Would you believe I am already bigger than this? This weekend I need to go shopping yet again because I am outgrowing all of my current maternity clothes. I've crossed an important threshold: total strangers now know without a doubt that I'm pregnant and not just full... or a heavy drinker... or pot-bellied. In restaurants, airports & stores strangers ask me "when are you due?" and "is this a boy or a girl?" Peanut has been roaming the world incognito for the past 6 months but now everyone knows he's around! 


On the Saturday before last Steven and I celebrated 5 years of marriage. Talk about time flying! It doesn't feel like our wedding- with the mardi gras beads and the mansion and the gorgeous twinkle light pavilion- happened 5 years ago. 

September 4, 2005

To celebrate every year we take a week and visit the beach for a nice Fall getaway. This year we decided to avoid the oil in the gulf (so Peanut wouldn't come out with 5 heads) and visited St Augustine, FL. We rented a condo on the beach and enjoyed perfect weather, empty beaches and a lot of impressive surfing! A few storms came through just before we arrived so the ocean was a little rough. I spent a lot of time cruising around on a float and trying not to get knocked over. Steven got to go windsurfing one afternoon (a new favorite activity since Hawaii) and we spent several nights strolling around the old city and enjoying the sights. St Augustine is an awesome little town with a lot of young people and things to see. It was a great trip and a perfect way to spend our anniversary!


We are making some progress on the baby's room! I sold and gave away all of the extra furniture from the room (formerly the guest room). Steven took down the bed-side tables that were attached to the wall and patched up the holes. Tonight we are picking out a paint color. We don't have any of the furniture yet but it is picked out. Despite not having the crib we do have one very important item thanks to my Nana and Papa: a Pack N Play!

Nana and Papa always give such smart and thoughtful gifts. On the top left is a changing table and the top right is a bassinet for a newborn. Once Peanut gets a little bigger we'll take those two pieces off and he'll have an awesome travel crib and play area. These things fold up into a very compact rectangle that is perfect for families who travel (and we definitely do our share!) We are so thankful for this!


We have also been working on several projects around the house. When we bought our house we purposefully bought one that would have enough room for a baby. We'll be fine as Peanut is little but he's going to get big quick so we have decided to do what we can now to get the house ready for when we need to put it on the market. One big project has been our backyard. When we bought the house it had been pretty much destroyed by 2 outdoor dogs who loved to dig and make mud. It looked like this:

Pretty plain, right?

Now it looks like this:

Steven did 99.99999% of the work all by himself. I wished I could have helped more but this summer was unbelievably hot with temperatures usually over 100. I helped spread the mulch but he did every other thing himself. Well, actually, he did have one very obedient and furry helper:

Next on the list is tearing out the carpet in our bedroom and refinishing the hardwood floors. Wish us luck!


That's everything for now. I promise it won't be 3 weeks before the next update. Love to you all.