Merry Christmas!

8 months!

We hit the 8 month mark yesterday.


I'm getting bigger every day and I can feel her having less and less room in there. When she moves I feel her pushing out on different sides of me at the same time. I try to imagine what kind of gymnastics are occurring and what her little limbs are doing. I can't wait to actually see her moving after she gets here!

Once again, we had a great time visiting in San Diego. Our "Christmas" with both families was fun, and we enjoyed getting to see everyone. Here we are after our white elephant gift card exchange.


We also got to celebrate our one year anniversary on Sunday. We went out to a nice dinner, and brought with us a piece of our wedding cake that we had been freezing since last December. Believe it or not, Steven was even more exciting to eat THIS cake than the fresh stuff at the wedding! Or maybe not... At dinner they took the cake back to the kitchen and made it look nice for us. And it didn't taste bad at all!


We had been checking the weather all weekend because they had been forecasting snow for us here, and sure enough, this is what we came home to Monday evening...




Stout LOVED it, and Luca was not so sure. Although in most of the backyard, she didn't even weigh enough to step down into it, she just walked on top of it. Stout was rolling around and chasing snowballs like it was the best day of his life.



We were sad to wake up on Wednesday morning to find the rain had melted nearly ALL of it. We have been told not to worry, that it was just a taste of what is to come. We hope so!

We had our last childbirth/parenting class on Wednesday. We made plans for the reunion in March after everyone has had their babies. This is the first thing we have planned for all three of us to attend! How exciting!

So now that "Christmas" is over for us, it's time to concentrate on getting ready for our baby girl's arrival. Although we have a lot ready to go in her room already, there is still much more to do. And the things on our list seem to me like it's too early to start doing, although I keep getting told otherwise. We're wondering if doing things like washing her clothes, packing the hospital bag, and installing the car seat and getting it checked this early is just asking for trouble. Or maybe it's just being prepared?? No more early babies!

I love my husband

Me: "Is it ok to be wandering through Bed Bath and Beyond gnawing on beef jerky?"

Steven: "Yes, you're pregnant."

End of November!

OK, so what's new this week? I had a great time at my shower last week - thanks sister, it was so fun! It was great to see everybody, and we finally got some stuff to put in her room!













We also had fun spending the weekend with family. It's been too long since we have seen Haydon - he is such a little man already! Here he is giving kisses to his cousin. He knows there is a baby in there, he knows her name, and he knows that she is his cousin, but I wonder what he really thinks about the whole situation...


We got the crib all set up with the bedding - I am getting so excited! I can't believe it's almost December! Time is going by so fast! In just a couple of days I will be 30 weeks!


I was looking forward to painting the turkey on my tummy for Thanksgiving, but we didn't get around to it with all the cooking and now decorating for Christmas. Oh well, we'll just have to wait until Christmas for the next piece of artwork.

Yesterday I started feeling Braxton Hicks contractions, which was not exactly fun. They weren't exactly painful, just uncomfortable and made me nervous. I called the doctor after I felt the 3rd one, and he assured me that as far apart as they were, they were nothing to worry about. So that is the newest thing going on with me lately. Other than that, we're all doing well and moving right along! We can't wait for the second trip to SD next week for early Christmas!

7 months!!

Well, tomorrow I will be 28 weeks, which means I have made it to 7 months! There is conflicting information depending on what you read about which week starts the third trimester, but most common is 27 or 28 weeks. Either way, we're there! This is very exciting.


I have been enjoying a lot more kicks and movements. I can feel her rolling around now, which is still a weird feeling to me. When she starts, it almost feels like my stomach muscle is starting to cramp up and I quickly sit up straight to change positions before I realize it's just her stretching and rolling. I love feeling it so much, and I am already starting to think about how much I am going to miss that in a couple of months. For the most part I am feeling pretty good. I get a little uncomfortable sometimes, especially when I am trying to bend over to do laundry or put on my shoes, or anything like that, but I'm still doing well.

Tonight we have our first childbirth class. I'm a little nervous, but excited to learn more, and get things going. Then early tomorrow morning we head to the airport to go to San Diego! It feels like so long since we have been home, and we can't wait to see everyone! We are having an early Thanksgiving, since we obviously won't be back next weekend, and we have our baby shower on Saturday. If possible, I want to try to squeeze in a California burrito that has been calling my name... It should be a fun weekend. I'll try to post some pictures next week.

Not so patient...

So we couldn't wait to get the furniture in, and we did it tonight! So cute! Now we just need a mattress and some bedding...

Nursery Progress!

Finally! We got moving on the nursery! We finally finished painting today, and I love our pink room! We're going to let the paint dry really well before we take the tape off and get the furniture in. I'll put up a new picture in a few days when we get that done.


Tomorrow I will be 27 weeks and we start the third trimester!! I'm so excited - it's going by so fast now! Here's how big she is now, no wonder she's constantly moving and kicking me!


Next Wednesday night we start our parenting and childbirth class, which lasts for 5 weeks. I'm excited to get that going. The class will last almost until Christmas, and with the holidays thrown in there, too, it will be February before we know it!

Happy Halloween!

Our baby girl dressed up for her first Halloween! She was our adorable little pumpkin!




And here's a little video of her moving and shaking. I know this is probably nothing, and it's going to get a lot crazier in the next coming weeks, but for now it's really exciting! You can only really see kicks for about the first 15 seconds. After that, it's just Steven playing Bejeweled. Nothing unusual around here... :)



This past week has been a little rough for me and the baby girl. We have actually made 2 trips to Labor and Delivery due to some abdominal cramping/pain issues. They hooked me up to the monitors both times, saw a couple little "blips" as they called them, and said I have an "irritable uterus" which means that it just tenses up randomly for no apparent reason. Not real contractions, and I guess they aren't really concerned yet, because we have yet to see an actual doctor while we're there. The second time they did a test where they can screen for the presense of a certain protein that would mean I would deliver in the next 2 weeks. It came back negative, which is good since I am only 25 weeks still! But both times they said the baby looks good and happy in there, which is reassuring.

My next appointment is not until next week, so the nurse the last time suggested I try to move the appointment up to this week just so we could talk to the doctor and try to get some answers. For now my only instructions have been to drink lots of water (I already do, I don't want swine flu) and try not to be on my feet too much. It seems to me at this point that it's just the way my body is handling the pregnancy, and I'm going to have this pain until she's born. If that's really all it is, I'm fine with that and can deal with the pain, as long as she's safe and I can keep her in. I just would like to know that it is not indicative of something else to come. So we'll see what the doctor says...

Man, that was kind of a downer, huh? I should have finished off with the kicking video...

Oregon

A couple of weekends ago I went down to Portland where some friends of mine live because some other friends from San Diego had taken a road trip up and were also visiting. It was a fun little reunion, and we did some sight-seeing on the coast. Here we are at Cannon Beach, Haystack Rock. A little trivia for ya: Cannon Beach was named because after an old war ship, the Shark, sank, some cannons from the ship were washing up on the shore. Wouldn't you think cannons would sink?




Next we went to Astoria, the place where Goonies was filmed!! Very exciting. We found the house, and down at the end of the driveway was a sign that said "Goonies on foot welcome, please no cars".


From the Goonies house we heard all these seals making a lot of noise so we went to go find them. We were amazed at how many were just chillin on the docks, sunbathing, swimming, talking... We wanted to get closer, so we bypassed the sign that said something to the effect of "Boatowners only". What? We could own one of those boats.


Also in Astoria they had "The Column" which was really more of a tower. There were about 200 steps on a tiny narrow spiral staircase that was nearly the death of me. But we made it and the view was amazing!

Here we are making our way up those dreaded stairs.






It was such a fun day and so good to see friends I hadn't seen in awhile! Miss you guys!

So I went to the physical therapist this morning, and surprise! I DO have tendonitis. Shocker. He gave me some exercises to do at home and wants me to keep icing it and come back next week and then probably one more time after that the following week. He says it will go away, and is probably due to the pregnancy and my weight distribution changing and all that fun stuff. He also recommended at least through the end of the pregnancy, that I continue wearing my not cute Nike running shoes, since they actually provide a little support. He also mentioned that my ankle ligaments are very loose (also probably due to pregnancy hormones) and that I am now prone to rolling my ankles. A little scary considering how off balance I seem these days anyways. So, I will just have to be careful and try to hold on to things when I can.

Steven finally felt her kick the other night!! I was laying in bed on my side and I was really feeling her on the side I was laying on. I put his hand where I was feeling her and rolled over a little so the weight of my stomach was pressing on his hand and she cooperated and he was able to feel a few good strong kicks. During this time I was also feeling more regular smaller movements, so I wonder if maybe she had the hiccups? Would I be able to feel that this early? She has not since cooperated for Daddy, but I know he will get lots more in the next couple of months. It's so exciting! I'm feeling really good, I love feeling her move and kick, people can tell I'm pregnant and not just fat, and it's almost Halloween. :) Life is good...

22 weeks

So this morning I went to the doctor about my right foot. I have been having pain on the top of my foot for over a week now, and it is not getting any better. She thinks I have tendonitis and referred me to a physical therapist, who I am going to go see Monday morning. She didn't want to do an x-ray (for obvious reasons) and said without being able to prescribe medication, she wants the physical therapist to check it out and see what kind of treatment we can do.

On a happier note, our little girl has really stepped it up with the kicking. I have been able to feel it all throughout the day, not just when I'm sitting really still or laying down. The movements are getting stronger and more frequent, and twice since yesterday I have been able to feel them with my hand on my stomach from the outside. Last night she was moving a little so we sat with Steven's hand on my stomach but he wasn't able to feel anything. I think this early on, she would have to be in just the right position to kick strong enough to feel on the outside, so we'll keep trying! I'm sure it will be any day now. I feel selfish enjoying them all by myself, and can't wait for him to feel it, too!

This picture is at 22 weeks.


A few days ago we drove up to Mt. Baker to check it out. It was such a beautiful drive, and wasn't far at all - less than 2 hours. We ran across Nooksack Falls, which was awesome! Here are a couple of pictures...

Slow progress

I wanted to share some house pictures with you all. Here are some before the movers got here...

The kitchen


Living room


Master bedroom


And here is what we are dealing with post-movers...

The kitchen


Living room


Master bedroom

This may or may not explain the Bejeweled addiction... Ahhh, well, it will all get done eventually.

Day 3 of our adventure

The drive is going well. The dogs seem a little tripped out sometimes, especially in the evenings in the hotel rooms. But overall, they are doing very well. The first day we made it to Santa Nella, where Steven got his Pea Soup Andersen's for dinner. Day 2 we made it to Redding, and were able to start seeing some trees and greenery! It gets prettier every day. We are in Eugene, OR this evening, and plan on getting to at least Olympia, WA tomorrow. That will make for an easy last day to Bellingham. So far, we've thankfully had a basically uneventful and relaxing trip.

JUST KIDDING!!!

So, we had our ultrasound at the doctor today, after he told me I was measuring big at the last appointment. Turns out, I just apparently eat too much ice cream. Everything is fine, and the normal size for 18 weeks, 4 days. :) He looked at all sorts of stuff like the left and right ventricular output tracks, and kidneys, diaphragm, stomach, spinal cord, and cerebellum, etc etc. The big news of the day is... It's a girl! He was 100% certain. He said they probably saw the umbilical cord before and assumed it was a boy.

Steven and I couldn't do anything but laugh when he told us that. In a way, it seems right this way. I've always thought it was a girl, and Steven is excited to have his Daddy's little girl.

I had started our registry online, and filled it with all kinds of boy stuff, and now I'm hesitant to go back and change it. I almost want to wait until she's born to make sure nobody switches things on us again...

Our new house

We spent the last 10 days in Washington on our house hunting trip. We found the house we are going to rent on our first full day there, so we had 8 days to just cruise around, check out the area, and relax a little bit. Sorry I have the worst camera in the world, but here is the front of our house...

It is in the town of Birch Bay, which is a small little tourist town. Our house is 0.2 miles from the water, and along the main stretch of road along the bay there are a couple of restaurants and cafes, a candy shop, and bike and kayak rental places. Very cute. We just got a new market in town, although it's a little expensive. I think we will do most of our bulk shopping at Costco in Bellingham (about 15 minutes south) and there is also a little farmers market just down the road. Hopefully they will have good (and cheap) produce there. That way we won't have to get too much at the market in Birch Bay. We'll see how we do with small town living! Steven and I got to take a tour of his new station, which was fun to see. He's going from a several hundred man station to a 40 man station, so it was just a little different. :) His coworkers that we met all seem very nice.

We spent our last full day in Seattle, and I got to play tourist! We checked out Deception Pass...

Pike Place Market...

the Ballard Locks...

and of course, the Space Needle!

Steven really liked the areas we visited, enjoyed the coffee houses and microbrews, and we're both excited to finally be there and start living our normal lives again. September is a month of suitcases, boxes, and hotels. We're ready to stop living like gypsies!

4 months!

Just for comparison's sake, here I am at week 5...


And here's week 16...


Definitely getting bigger and bigger. Here's what our little man Steven Jude is looking like in there this week. He looks so big in there! I keep waiting to feel him move - I hope any day now...

Our little man!

Almost everyone "knew" it was a girl, myself included, and almost everyone was wrong!  We were so shocked, but our little man is on his way!  The ultrasound was so cool - we go to see him kicking his legs, trying to suck his thumb, rolling all around, and we think even hiccuping.  We were able to see the brain, spine, ribs, fingers, toes, it was so incredible!  She said he has a good strong heartbeat, and that he was very active, and I can't believe after watching him move so much, that I still haven't felt what I definitely know is him moving.  I've felt a couple little things that I assume are just gas bubbles, or digestion or whatever else goes on, but I guess could possibly be him.  But so far no definite flutters.  Soon, I think.

Here's my favorite picture...  I love his little face.  And I could be wrong, but I think he's giving us a little thumbs up.


And here is another profile where you can see little feet.


So we stole Brad and Jackie's idea of a cool way to find out, so I have to give them credit.  We had the nurse seal in an envelope that first picture that says boy or girl, went to Babies R Us, picked out a pink and blue outfit, and gave the envelope to the cashier.  Then we walked around for a few minutes while they opened the envelope and rang up the correct outfit.  Then they wrapped it for us.  We took the present down to the beach (where Steven proposed to me) and opened it to find out if it was a girl or a boy.  It was so much more fun and special than just having a stranger tell you girl or boy.





Proud papa can't wait to play golf with his son! I'll post a 16 week belly pic later this week. Definitely getting bigger...!