you DO get a baby after all this!

My boss had her baby a day before her due date on May 26th. Little Henry is the cutest, it was so fun to go to the hospital and talk to her about the experience. At one point she told me that pushing was "fun"...she was also equipped with an epidural and I will not be. I told her I'd keep her posted on how much fun I have in July :)
The hospital is brand new, opened last August, so it was great to get a peek at what the rooms look like while in use. They have a twin bed next to the window for dads, all rooms are private and have a giant bathroom. It's like a freakin' hotel!
Here's a picture of me holding her brand new baby boy...settled right on top of my baby bump.



At one point my little guy nudged him with his feet- we all thought that was hilarious.
Now I'm getting really anxious to meet my baby boy...

Memorial Day Weekend

Last weekend we had a three day weekend for Memorial Day. Ben and I house sat for my parents, they went away to the coast for their anniversary and we stayed with my siblings at their house.
I spent a lot of time out by their pool and tanned pretty quickly. On Monday I was outside from 11:30am to almost 4pm and got a sunburn! The worst part is that I burned my belly! It's healing now, but it's so itchy I can barely stand it. Thank goodness for mary kay's after sun gel...it's awesome stuff.
I'll be out by the pool again this weekend for a family get together...I need a maternity tankini to protect my belly, any recommendations?
Here's a picture of Ben and I by the pool and that 32 week belly of mine before the burn.


and here I am with my mom's maltese- Bella. She LOVES to sit by my belly.

32 weeks

How far along?32 weeks 4 days
Total weight gain/loss: Doc says I'm on track to stay between the 25-35 suggested weight gain...I think I had already gained weight before the first weight she has on my chart though!
Maternity clothes? I hate clothes in general. Mostly because I got a sunburn yesterday and it hurts to wear anything...
Stretch marks? found my first one but I am NOT telling where it is...so obvs it's not my belly...
Sleep: was amazing while house sitting at my parents' place this memorial day weekend, they have a featherbed mattress thing.
Best moment this week: My dad stopped being so shy and finally felt his grandson move, he giggled and it was so sweet.
Movement: always, and it speeds up with music. Daddy's a musician so he LOVES that.
Food cravings: I craved BBQ'd hot dogs yesterday...which was interesting since I HATE hot dogs and they usually give me a headache, but I had two and it was great.
Gender: boy. It's weird to answer this question every week...it ain't changin'!
Labor Signs:none

Belly Button in or out? still a little bit of both, out on the top and flat on the bottom.
What I miss: people asking "how are you doing?" instead of "how are you feeling?"
What I am looking forward to:meeting my boss' little boy. She's due tomorrow and went in to the hospital at 8am...have been waiting for an update ever since. I really can't wait to hear her birth story.
Weekly Wisdom: Buy "The Birth Partner" it's so interesting, I can barely put it down but need Ben to catch up with me so we can talk about it together.
Milestones: swelling has become a constant companion...the heat we've been having and my sunburn probably don't help matters.

We Have a CRIB!!!

My back pain faded and Ben and I put the crib and changer chest together on Saturday. We set up the video camera and Ben sped it up for fun :)
More photos and my 31 week survey/photo to come soon.
Enjoy!

31 week update

How far along? 31 weeks, 3 days
Total weight gain/loss: I don't even know anymore, but have an appointment on Thursday.
Maternity clothes? I need some shorts for this freaky heat wave we've been having.
Stretch marks? nope!
Sleep: minimal
Best moment this week: Putting things together for the nursery. I cried when I put up the mobile and it played Rock a Bye Baby.
Movement: kicking me in the ribs as I type.
Food cravings: fettucini alfredo
Gender: boy
Labor Signs:none

Belly Button in or out? on it's way out still... it's taking longer than I thought
What I miss: clothing options. all these teeny little girls in their new summer outfits is making me feel like a whale.
What I am looking forward to:birthing class- we have our first one tonight. I'm sort of nervous too, but I'm not sure why.
Weekly Wisdom: drink ridiculous amounts of water when spending time in the sun.
Milestones: crib is up!

aches and pains please don't ruin my weekend!

Since the shower last week, I've been thinking about our plans to put together the crib this weekend nonstop. So of course, now that the magical time is here, I don't think I'll be able to help.
Thursday a nasty migraine creeped up on me, no doubt it was made worse by the 10am insurance meeting at work where we found out that the deductible is going up to $3,000 and it starts July 1st...so looks like we'll be paying for all the expenses related to the birth of this child unless he decides to come two weeks early.
Friday, my headache felt better but I started to get a tightening pain to the left of my spine around my ribs. I just figured it was a normal ache and tried to adjust my posture to keep it from getting worse. By lunch time, I tried to bend to the side to pick up my purse and yelled out in pain. It hasn't let up since.
I thought going to sleep last night would help and that maybe I'd wake up feeling better. But by then the pain wasn't just brought on by certain movements, it was nagging constantly. Even after my attempts at icing it during the day and then a hot bath just before bed.
I decided to try to sleep in the recliner on our love seat, Ben insisted on coming with me. He really is the sweetest creature, I'm so blessed. I did fall asleep, mostly due to the help of Tylenol PM...but I couldn't stay asleep. I'm not sure if it was the pain or the partying college students next door. We went back to our bedroom around midnight where the party couldn't be heard so well and I slept okay most of the night.
I felt better when I woke up, but as soon as I moved the pain came back. ARGH! I'm wondering if it's deeper than muscle, like a popped-out rib or something. If it's still bothering me by Monday I'll be making a call to the chiropractor.
Right now it's 9am and Ben is mowing the backyard, right next to aforementioned party house and we're both getting a kick out of the thought that we're ruining their sleep...enjoy that hangover kids!

Call me stubborn but I'm still planning on helping with the nursery, not to mention all the other items on my long weekend to-do list. It would kill me to stand by and let Ben do all the work- plus I'm sure it's more than a one person job. The question is, will he LET me help?

the messy nursery

Here are some pictures of the "progress" of our nursery. I use the term progress very loosely as it still has a very long way to go, but I'm enjoying the transformation.
This first picture is what it looked like when we had re-painted it last summer and started putting things on the walls as our guest room.

There's a Queen bed on the left, and Ben's gigantic desk of course. The closet is behind where he is sitting in this photo. The bed got moved to a spare room at his parents' place and the desk is now in a nook of our living room.

Here's what it looks like mostly empty.



The pile of gifts was after our work shower. The contents of the closet is still a source of stress for me. We have a lot of clothing and miscellaneous items hiding in there.

Here is what it looks like currently after shower number two. I couldn't resist taking pictures of Ben when he wasn't paying attention. He had just opened all the gifts to see what we got and was looking through a baby book :)

Family Shower

This past weekend was super busy and really fun.
On Saturday my mom, sister, MIL & SIL threw me a baby shower that included all the women on both mine and Ben's sides of the family. It was 1pm-3pm at my in-laws house. The weather was perfect-sunny and warm!
I arrived a bit early to eat and hang out with my sisters and the moms before everyone arrived. I was shocked at the cake my mom had made- it was so beautiful and matched the CoCaLo Turtle Bay nursery theme that we chose! Check this out...

I mean, seriously impressive, right?

My mother in law went out of her way with decorations- the pretty greens as the main color with blue accents here and there. The favors were little rattles with mints in them.



I put together something modest for the hostess gifts. The lotion smells SO good!



The tradition on my side of the family is to have the bassinet at the shower to fill/surround with gifts. This bassinet will be on it's 4th generation with our little guy. My mom sanded it and repainted it. I think it's adorable! It's now in our bedroom with a pretty green sheet and some stuffed turtle friends, awaiting our son's arrival.


Here I am posing with Ben's mom and my mom

With my sister in law and my sister


Ben's mom made this quilt for her first grandson. It's a pattern she has made for all her nieces and nephews, but changed to match our green turtle theme.


My parents bought us our crib!



Ben showed up at the end to help load things. We're storing our guest bed at their house and he came with my dad to get the crib and gifts.
My aunt Sarah painted this awesome picture for the boy's nursery- how did the artistic gene miss me by so much?


Here are some photos of me with my girls.



It was a great day- I felt literally showered with gifts and love by all our family.

30 week photos

Our usual photo spot in the nursery was blocked by gifts from the shower earlier this week, and since we were in a hurry this morning we just did these in our room. Usually there isn't a striped beach towel of gigantic proportions on the window- but it has been really sunny in the mornings and our curtain is thin...so we improvised. cute, huh?
Anyway, here's the extra small non-maternity outfit that I was so proud of this morning...30 weeks and not wearing one piece of maternity clothing! not bad, huh?
This one was me not realizing Ben was taking the picture....I was making a face at how long I was posing, waiting for the camera.

I had some fun editing these on picnik.com- check it out. You can edit photos for free and it's hours of time wasting fun!

30 weeks!

So we had time to take the picture this morning, but not to get it uploaded from the camera. I'm about to head off to our 30 week appointment, here's the survey portion for now.

How far along? 30 weeks already!
Total weight gain/loss: still wavering between 20-25 pounds. I don't really trust my scale anymore though.
Maternity clothes? I'm getting sick of maternity clothes already. I'm wearing an xs NON-maternity dress today...it makes me feel happy inside :)
Stretch marks? nope!
Sleep: painful...I had a charlie horse so bad the other night, I woke up yelling and freaked out Ben. I couldn't talk for a few minutes to tell him what was wrong!
Best moment this week: Ben getting me flowers just because.
Movement: he didn't do his usual morning wiggle and I started to worry. After some cold water he started to perk up. Thank God!
Food cravings: too many sweets! cakes, brownies, cookies, ice cream. It's terrible!
Gender: sweet boy.
Labor Signs:none

Belly Button in or out? on it's way out still
What I miss: having energy
What I am looking forward to: the big family baby shower tomorrow and setting up the nursery
Weekly Wisdom: not feeling all that wise this week
Milestones: first baby shower!

First Baby Shower

Last night was our first baby shower, hosted by my wonderful co-workers. It was a co-ed shower with a mix of students and staff from the University that we work at. It was fun to have some of Ben's work friends there too.
We had snacks and cake and they decorated in blues and greens which are the colors of our nursery. I'm not big on games, so they did the baby shower bingo where everyone fills it in and crosses things out as we opened gifts. I loved that because it took the attention off of our opening and on to what was inside each gift!
Here are a few pictures, they aren't my fave. I realized how unflattering my pregnant belly looks while sitting and I'm noticing the weight gain in my face for the first time...

first stranger belly rub...

In my line of work, College Admissions, I meet new and interesting people every day. For the past 3 years I worked with first-time freshman which mostly consists of High School Seniors. They're sweet and often shy or super excited about checking out colleges.
This year I work with transfer students. They are all ages, all walks of life, and it's never a dull moment. It seems that transfer students each have a special case/interest/need of their own and the personality types to go along with.
Transfer students also tend to just drop in at any given moment instead of setting up advising appointments.
Today a lady came in guided to us by our choir director, Melissa. She had a lot of questions and her answers to mine didn't line up with each other very well, so I was doing a lot of smiling and nodding as I tried to figure out what she was looking for.
Our conference room was in use so we were chatting over the tall counter in the front office and as the conversation came to a close she asked me the loaded "how are you feeling?" with her eyes fixed on my belly.
I began to tell her that I'm feeling fine and the she blurted out "I just have to" and reached out to rub my belly! I looked up Melissa who widened her eyes at me and my friend Krista who works at the front desk. It got increasingly awkward when she left her hand there as she asked when I'm due...
When I told her, she said "oh, 2 more months...you're going to be as big as a house!" I said "gee thanks a lot" and she replied "I'm allowed to say that because I had twins".
Melissa gave me an "I'm so sorry look" and we politely ended the conversation and parted ways.
I looked over at Krista who was almost as mortified as I was.
Later, Melissa called and told Krista to apologize for the belly rubbing that I got.

I guess I'm lucky to not have had this experience until now- but it was quite the morning getting both the stranger belly rub and rude size comment back to back like that!

Lucky for said stranger that it happened while I was at work and in "professional mode" I have no idea how I would have responded otherwise!

flowers from Ben!

I have the most fantastic husband on the planet!
I just came out of staff meeting this morning and he walked into the office with a giant bouquet of stunning flowers, including my favorites, stargazer lilies.
He said that he got them just because and also because I'm carrying our boy.



I'm just giddy- I can't stop looking at them :)

29 weeks 1 day- photos

lazy

mmm, so I remembered that I wanted to take a picture after I was already in my comfy clothes for the evening. Guess it'll have to wait until tomorrow!

29 weeks- once again, picture to come later

We haven't been taking pictures right on with the change in our weeks like I'd prefer...mostly because I have such a hard time getting out of bed in the morning that we are rushing out the door once dressed.
Today was one of those days, plus my dad (also our landlord) came over to make repairs. He's quite the talker- last week he came over at the same time and sat on the bed chatting at me while I put my makeup on...
This time I asked Ben to shut the bedroom door so I could get ready quickly. So Dad followed Ben around while he was getting ready. He was talking to him about repairs and things while he was shaving and brushing his teeth. It just cracks me up. My sweet dad :)
Anyway, I'd like to get a picture today- but I always feel so "blah" looking after work. We'll see.

How far along? 29 weeks...the last few have just been FLYING by!
Total weight gain/loss: I've been holding steady at 25 pounds for the past few weeks. But baby sure feels like he's running out of room already.
Maternity clothes? I'm getting a new dress this weekend for my showers. My lovely aunt Sarah is coming with. I'm so excited! :)
Stretch marks? I'm actually REALLY surprised that I don't have any new ones yet.
Sleep: naps and falling back asleep in the mornings seem to be the most restful times. It's maddening really.
Best moment this week:my dad said goodbye to my belly this morning...he hasn't done that yet. Pretty darn cute.
Movement: he kicks my ribs a ton, but it doesn't hurt. I like to push my hand down on his feet and have him respond. It's so much fun to "play" with him.
Food cravings: I've been drinking coffee more lately. It's bad that Ben runs a cafe...but I never go overboard.
Gender: bouncing baby boy.
Labor Signs: none this week.

Belly Button in or out? still flat with a hint of an outie at the top. My piercing is stretching weird and was hurting so bad after dinner last night.
What I miss: my little waist line. It's funny- cause pre-pregnancy I would have never considered it little.
What I am looking forward to: getting the guest room furniture out and the baby furniture in. Also, our birthing classes and learning more about our options.
Weekly Wisdom: I find that I haven't been taking the time to educate myself enough. We are taking a natural birthing class later this month- but I want to read more and know my options. This was inspired by reading my labor buddy's birth plan on the bump last night. Ciria- I may be among those asking you tons of questions soon!
Milestones: this week went by so fast and my brain has been such mush that I barely remember it. I don't think anything has happened that I'd consider a pregnancy or baby "milestone".