28 Weeks!

So I'm definitely in nesting mode. This past weekend I decided it was time to do our laundry room. Since we remodeled the babies room and started putting stuff in there, we moved the cat box out of the room. With the paint and cleaning and so forth I'm sure it has caused a change in the smell to the room, so I wanted a nice clean break for the cats. I'm kind of worried about jealousy issues with them, I figured as of now they know it doesn't smell like their room anymore, so I figured we'd keep it that way. unfortunately that didn't leave a lot of area's to move it to. Originally we put it in the bathtub in the guest bath...but it just didn't work very well, especially with us still using that bathroom to house a lot of our remodeling supplies. So now its sitting in the little nook right outside the babies room (the door to the room is officially closed at all times), which means its in the hall and not exactly "nice" looking.

So all of that meant we needed to find a better solution. And our long term solution was to move it to the laundry room - that's why we stacked the washer dryer. Oh wait...you haven't been updated. okay, surprise, we got a new washer and dryer! LOL. A couple months ago our dryer died on us so we had to replace them. We got new high efficiency front loaders, and stacked them in the laundry room - that gave us room where the dryer once stood to be able to put in a counter and place the litter box under it. I'll post a whole blog about it soon when everything is complete. But the end result is for the past couple months its just an empty space...and with our new needs to move the cat box somewhere else, it was time to fix that.

I had a plan in my head, but was having some difficulties making it work. So on Saturday my Dad, Howard, came over and helped me finalize my plan. Then on Sunday Jeremy and I went to Home Depot and picked up all the supplies we needed, brought them over to Mom & Howard's house and Jeremy and Howard spent 4 hours in the garage cutting all the pieces and getting everything ready for installation. Unfortunately that was till 7pm...so this weekend I get to paint all the unfinished wood parts so that on Sunday we can hopefully install. Wish us luck!

Aside from crazy home renovations...I've been spending time with friends this week. Monday I went with my coworker Courtney to get a mani and a pedi! ooohhh la la! She's due April 6th but had her last baby was 2 weeks early, so we suspect she could have this 2nd one any time! so exciting. And then last night spent some time with Cari & her daughter Laurel. She's a single mom and handling it great, but it definitely made me come home, kiss my husband and remind him how much I appreciate him. Oh the little things...



How far along?: 28 weeks

Total weight gain: 17 lbs - And I got a lecture last week from my doctor because I'm gaining more than a pound a week :(....so apparently I need to slow it down. And here I thought I was doing so well! Bummer...

How big is baby?: about 14 3/4 inches, 2 1/4 pounds - about the weight of a chinese cabbage

Maternity clothes?: Definitely

Stretch marks?: No more than before. Still lotioning up 2x or more per day!

Sleep?: This week has been great, I've only gotten up once a night each night and am feeling much better. Jeremy on the other hand is tired...I'm thinking this up at 8 think is a shock to his system!

Best moment this week?: Sunday with my parents. Lots of bonding time and just good family time.

Movement?: All the time. She has decided that she loves to stick her feet (or something) right under the bottom of my ribs on the right side. Yesterday afternoon at a meeting she was doing it so much I just started pushing on that spot to keep her out, it hurts! Apparently she just wasn't going to have that cause she started kicking my hand! lol...it was the funniest thing, I think I received about 10 kicks before she just decided to give up.

Food cravings?: None this week, but I've started getting heartburn really bad, which means I'm having to cut out spicy things, tomato sauce type stuff, vinegary things and other things that aggravate it. It really limits my food intake.

Labor signs?: Still nothing, thank god!

Belly button in or out?: In.

What I miss: Being able to eat what I want without fear of a burning sensation.

What I'm looking forward to this week: LOL - well, last week I was looking forward to getting the office cleaned and in some sort of order....I guess that still needs to be done. But I'm definitely looking forward to finishing the laundry room. I guess getting the house in order is a long term look forward to all around.

Weekly Wisdom: Enjoy your 2nd trimester...I already see where this trimester is leading, ugh.

Milestone: Interaction with the baby inside of me. She kicked me back!

27 Weeks!

So we're past the 6 month mark and we're officially in our 3rd Trimester! I can't believe I'm already 2/3rds of the way done. Its gone by so fast.

These past two weeks we've just been trying to get the house organized. Jeremy started his job this past Tuesday, so that is super exciting!

I went to a friends baby shower on Sunday. Lots of girlie stuff. I'll have to say the funnest part of it was the hour drive there and back with my friend Heather. I really enjoyed out talks and just hanging out. And our adventure getting lost in Auburn...that was funny! I think the funniest part was her laughing at how high stress I was that we didn't know where we were going. ya, ya I'm super type A personality!

Oh, and Saturday I did a little shopping - and I finally had the first stranger mention my belly to me. I think she kind of had the advantage since I was buying baby stuff but it was pretty cool to get some sort of reaction. I also went and got my eyebrows waxed yesterday and the lady there mentioned it as well. So FINALLY I'm starting to get questions rather than that awkward look of "Is she pregnant or fat" lol...



How far along?: 27 weeks

Total weight gain: 15 lbs

How big is baby?: Around 14.5 inches & 2 pounds. The size of a head of cauliflower!

Maternity clothes?: Definitely

Stretch marks?: No more than before. Still lotioning up 2x or more per day!

Sleep?: I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think I'm getting used to not sleeping lol. Still wake up 3-4 times to pee, and lately I'm even finding I'm waking up a few times due to CRAZY dreams. But I'm functioning okay and don't feel any more tired than usual. I have to say its helped that Jeremy went back to work this week, he's now going to bed earlier and with me which makes my need to stay up later go away, its great!

Best moment this week?: Tuesday! Overall it was a great day. Jeremy started his job, my work day was wonderful, very productive and great meetings. Had my review that day as well and that went really well and then we finished off the day by celebrating at the Outback! It could not have been more perfect.

Movement?: All the time.

Food cravings?: None this week.

Labor signs?: Still nothing, thank god!

Belly button in or out?: In.

What I miss: Sushi. It is seriously going to be one of my first meals....

What I'm looking forward to this week: Getting the office cleaned and in some sort of order.

Weekly Wisdom: Stay away from high heels. I randomly decided to wear my 4" boots yesterday, boy was that a bad idea - I felt like a bobble head on top of stilts.

Milestone: 3rd Trimester!!!

2D - 3D - We all love 4D!!!

Our baby girl...in the womb!

Calm so unlike her:



Slowly waking up:



And a little more movement:

Back to the Basic's

So for the past 2 weeks Jeremy and I have been working on the baby's room...and oh what we have accomplished!

First we started by picking a new paint color. (Its the one on the right!)



Then Jeremy took a couple days and got down and dirty....



But when he was done the room had nice smooth ceilings



We then pooled our resources and painted the whole room together! Including the closet! And afterwards we started building things!



But when we were done...we had all the furniture put together and placed in their final homes. Well...almost all done, we still have the rocker to work on, as you can see you can't exactly sit in it right now...







An itty bitty room for an itty bitty tenant!

25 Weeks!

Almost at 6 months...CRAZY!

This week has been amazing. Jeremy took down the popcorn ceilings, painted the ceiling and together we painted the baby's room. Afterwards we put together the crib, its crazy to think that in 3 months or so we'll have a little baby to put in there. Every time I walk by the room I can't help but peek in and smile.

In addition Jeremy accepted a job offer as a contractor for AT&T. He'll be starting March 5th, and we are super excited! The timing could not be more perfect.

Overall this week has been a great week...and I hope to see that continuing. Tomorrow Wendy and I are going to take a trip to Ikea and pick up the dresser parts for the room and by this weekend we should have most of the furniture in the room and I can start thinking about how we're going to decorate. I'll post pictures when we get all of that up!

In the meantime...my belly is getting big! Here is a pic from tonight:



So far the pregnancy has gone amazingly, however the last week has thrown some of those bad pregnancy symptoms my way. I've been getting heartburn on a regular basis, yesterday I noticed my legs were slightly swollen, and last night I had a pretty bad leg cramp. I guess I was due to have some eventually....

On a side note, I'm still waiting for that random stranger to mention my pregnancy. You know, make some sort of comment, ask when I'm due...NOTHING! I mean, if you look at the picture above, I look pretty pregnant right? I have yet to have anyone I didn't know say anything to me. Weird...



How far along?: 25 weeks

Total weight gain: 13 lbs

How big is baby?: 13.5 inches from head to heal, 1.5 lbs! The size of a rutabaga.

Maternity clothes?: Definitely

Stretch marks?: Same ones from last week - lotioning up 2x per day now! (or more if I go to the gym!)

Sleep?: Horrible. The last two nights I have not gotten much sleep. Last night I felt fine all day, but then when I laid down to go to bed the heart burn I started feeling this week came on in exponential force. It felt like I had lava in my throat and I was about to ignite into flames. I took medicine, walked around but nothing helped, finally drank some milk around 2am and was able to fall asleep for a little while...only to be woken up at 4am with the worst cramp in my leg that I've ever felt! Even in the morning I could still feel the remnants of it. Horrible. Needless to say, I hope I can get some sleep tonight.

Best moment this week?: Finding out Jeremy got the job! *happy dance*

Movement?: All the time.

Food cravings?: None this week.

Labor signs?: Still nothing, thank god!

Belly button in or out?: In.

What I miss: SLEEP.

What I'm looking forward to this week: Going to Ikea and getting the remaining furniture for the room and working with Heather this weekend to make curtains!

Weekly Wisdom: When your waiting so desperately for something and it just doesn't seem to want to happen, it really does mean that something better is on its way.

Milestone: Got the room painted!

24 Weeks!

So its been two weeks, and we had a lot going on - you know, with Lincoln's birthday and everything...

No seriously, we went to a comedy club with my parents and had a blast. We also went and watched the superbowl at Worm & Heathers house, a good time as always. Last Friday we celebrated Travis's birthday with a bit of karaoke. And in between those fun events Jeremy and I made 3 trips to Babies R Us. Oh ya...you heard me right THREE trips. I think my husband wanted to murder me.

The good news? We finally picked a stroller system. But lets take a step back, I have been obsessing over strollers for WEEKS. I have researched them to DEATH. I have talked to every parent I know and have gotten all the advice I could get, but in the end it always came back to one thing "its personal preference". How the heck does that help a new mom? I don't know what my preference is yet!?!

Some say get a stroller system (stroller and car seat that clip together and generally come in a set) they couldn't have lived without theirs. Some say don't do that, you'll hate the stroller afterwards. Then others say, it doesn't matter you'll end up with 4 strollers anyway. And so on comes the conflicting messages. So after weeks of researching I basically narrowed it down to 2 strollers that would work for us. And I brought Jeremy in to see them and to try the car seat in our car. The result - he HATED the one I picked out. *cue the duh duh duh music...

The guy at the store was super helpful, showed us lots of other options. Now we "thought" we were set on getting a set. We went home researched and said to ourselves, yep, good deal. Lets just make sure it fits in the scion....I'm guessing you can assume where I'm going with this. *duh duh duh....no dice.

So, we decided, lets toss the "set" idea out the window, and lets pick the best stroller we can find - and then, if it happens to have a set, its win win, but we'll figure that out once we find the "right" stroller...no easy task.

Also, let me express how much in general I HATE strollers, they are sooo difficult. By the end of our 2nd trip there we were no closer to figuring out this stroller car seat dilemma. They were either too difficult to collapse, or too heavy, or to big when they collapsed. And we were feeling VERY discouraged. Until the wandering sales person finally came and helped us...we explained our issue, space and ease apparently being our major factors and he introduced us to the City Mini and the Britax B-Agile. Now, the funny part was we had already dismissed all 3 wheel strollers cause they were to big when folded. Also the few we had tried Jeremy didn't like and thought they were to tippy. So his recommendation threw us...and the fact that we'd been there for 2 hours were tired and hungry and just plain irritable didn't help. But "Wow" does not explain how i felt when he just grabbed hold of a handle in the seat and it collapsed into something smaller than I had so far seen...and with no trouble at all. Not to mention it was only 16 pounds! I was in love....but of course I had to go home and research it first. Which I did. And I'm still in love...

Both strollers are pretty much the same, but being that the B-Agile came out after the City Mini they basically improved upon it, plus it came with a car seat that attached easily. WIN WIN. And it comes in stylish (and neutral) black!



Isn't she pretty? Yep, super stoked to find her. And really happy to have the decision behind us. Now onto picking out the nursery color! :) tehehe...no don't worry, that decision was actually made this week too! In fact Jeremy took down the popcorn ceilings today! I'm hoping by the end of the weekend the room will be nice and freshly painted and ready for us to start moving stuff in. I am VERY excited!




How far along?: 24 weeks

Total weight gain: 12 lbs

How big is baby?: 12 inches from head to heal - the length of an ear of corn.

Maternity clothes?: Yep!

Stretch marks?: YES! *cry* ...I noticed them earlier this week, they're just small little marks, barely noticeable, right on my hips. Jeremy had to squint to see them...but they're there!!!! SAD :( ...I've upped my lotion routine and added in vitamin E oil and Shea butter...lets hope to prevent anymore.

Sleep?: Same...up 2x a night or so

Best moment this week?: Valentines Day! Jeremy got me a bear with flowers, and then we went out to dinner, it was a great night with my hubby and I loved it!

Movement?: All the time.

Food cravings?: Made Jeremy run with me to the store a week or so back for mint chocolate chip ice cream.

Labor signs?: Still nothing, thank god!

Belly button in or out?: In.

What I miss: My girlfriend mentioned her stuffy nose on her blog a week or so ago...and that reminded me, I too miss being able to breath through my nose and not have it feel like its full of dirt all the time!

What I'm looking forward to this week: Getting the baby's room painted!

Weekly Wisdom: Don't settle, keep looking and researching and you'll find what is right for you. And you'll feel much better about it!

Milestone: Completed my glucose test...3 hours of yuck!

22 Weeks!

This last week was super busy. But I feel like we got a lot done, so it was fairly productive.

Friday we went up to Northgate to spend the evening with my good friend Curtis. I'd probably say it was one of the best nights out I've had in a long time, lots of fun, lots of laughter and an overall good time.

Saturday my mom and I went to register at Babies R Us. I was a bit disappointed with Bellevue's selection, had I known better we would have gone to Lynnwood, but we were able to get most of the stuff we needed registered for, with a few things to do research on by the time we left. And by the end of the weekend I had done my research and was fully finished. The bulk of our items are registered at Babies R Us, but there were a handful of items I had to register at Amazon for since Babies R Us either didn't have the right color, or the item I wanted at all. Either way I'm glad that's behind me :). We stopped at Pacific fabrics afterwards and I was super excited to find the fabric I wanted for the nursery curtains (gray chevron baby!). And they even had a great fuzzy gray upholstery fabric that matched for me to redo the rocker for that room. Now I just need to get the correct hue of gray for the room and we can start painting. I'm hoping by the end of February the room will be painted and awaiting my decorating skills....lol, not that they are the best but we will try!

Saturday night I met Jeremy up at his friends Drew and Diana's house, we had a great time drinking (water for me), laughing and chatting. And then Sunday I met Cari for brunch and then Wendy for a movie. Overall I was all over the Puget Sound region this weekend.

And then we're not slowing down...this coming weekend we're going to a comedy show with my parents on Saturday night and a Super Bowl party at Worm and Heathers house on Sunday. Should be another great time, I can't wait!



How far along?: 22 weeks

Total weight gain: 10 lbs...I knew I was in for a growth spurt soon!

How big is baby?: 11 inches from head to heal - the length of a spaghetti squash.

Maternity clothes?: Yep, and loving them!

Stretch marks?: Not yet.

Sleep?: The night before last I got MAYBE 3 hours of sleep. The only hours I don't remember seeing on the clock was 2 & 3am. Otherwise I saw some version of all the others...I was exhausted yesterday. On the plus side, I slept like a baby last night and feel great today!

Best moment this week?: Curtis's impromptu birthday party. So much fun!

Movement?: Every day all the time. I discovered if I drink orange juice she'll be doing somersaults in my belly about 5 minutes later. And she's gotten so strong Jeremy can feel her now on a regular basis, its awesome!

Food cravings?: Anything sweet.

Labor signs?: Still nothing, thank god!

Belly button in or out?: In.

What I miss: Not having to be the designated driver every time we go out. Not that I miss drinking, cause I don't...I just hate driving!

What I'm looking forward to this week: Picking out paint colors for the babies room.

Weekly Wisdom: The later you stay up, the harder it is to get up...exponentially so when your pregnant.

Milestone: Done registering! Yay!