Maternity Pictures with Natalie

About a month ago, I got an email from Natalie- a girl I went to high school with- letting me know that she is a photographer who was looking to get some portfolio work done.  She offered to take some maternity pictures for us for free and we definitely obliged!  :)  These are all at about 30 weeks preggo.

Hitting the 2 week appointment mark

I know updates have been few and far between lately. We've been crazy busy trying to get stuff done for the baby and for the holidays. Toss in a little work here and there and it makes it hard to get to updating the blog. I'll try to be better about it. :)

I don't have any pictures this time but I do have a Dr.'s update!

Today we had our 30 week appointment today. Baby is measuring right on target for where we are and we're looking forward to February. We've now hit the point in the pregnancy where we no longer go in for monthly checkups but we will be going in every 2 weeks. We'll do that for 6 weeks (until Jan. 6) when we'll have one more ultrasound to check on baby girl (get her weight, etc.) and then we'll go in every week until delivery. We see the light at the end of the 40 week tunnel!

We're headed up to Ocala this weekend for Thanksgiving with my mom's family. We haven't seen my uncle/aunt/cousins in about 10 years so it's a bit of a family reunion. We'll have four generations there if we include little one, which we will, because she does exist even though she's not out yet. I'm sure we'll get pictures and then we'll update for everyone.

Baby Bedding!

We went and picked up little girl's bedding today.  We've been going back and forth between two different sets and finally made a decision this week.  As we were setting it up we kept thinking about how excited we are to be getting so close to having her here!  We're one step closer to getting this nursery finished for her.  (keep in mind that half of the room is still the guest room so what you're seeing will be her half of the room) 

I gave this "snuggle bear" to Mike my freshman year of college for our first Valentine's Day.  I told him (jokingly) that one day we could put it in our baby's crib and we had a good laugh and now here it is!  :)
Inside of the bedding.  The bedding actually came with a different sheet but I liked the look of this one a little better.  The other one has a lot more white in it so it's more likely to get dirty.  We'll switch it back and forth.
Crib and changing table.  Again, if you haven't read the earlier posts about them, we got these on craigslist.  The crib alone was originally over $800 from a little boutique and we got it gently used for under $150.  The changing table another expensive original purchase but the couple threw it in with the crib for $20.  We were so excited about these finds!

27 weeks and appointment update

Belly close up at 26 1/2 weeks.  I feel like I look bigger in person, the pictures don't do my monster belly justice (or maybe I just have a very skewed vision of myself.  :)
27 weeks right before church.  There are fewer pictures this week because I was having a "bad picture day."  We took close to 10 pictures and these were the only two that looked "good enough" for me to stick up here.
And finally a picture that I feel does the belly a bit more justice.  :) Our doodlebug is about 2 lbs this week so she is starting to run out of room in there, and I can definitely FEEL her running out of room as she seems to occupy every area of my stomach.  I can even feel her little hands or feet in my ribs sometimes (NOT fun! :) )

Appointment update:

Drank the oh-so-wonderful glucose syrup drink around 8:15am on Monday morning.  It actually wasn't as horrible as it had been described until the after taste hit and then I was not feeling good.  At 9:15am had my blood drawn and then went in to see the Dr.  Gained quite a bit more weight this month and am up 13 lbs total so far this pregnancy, which, being well over the halfway mark of the pregnancy is really good--it means a lot of my weight is just the weight associated with the baby and I'm not gaining in other places.  

The way the glucose test works is that I drink the goo and then an hour later they test my blood sugar to see how my body is processing the sugar.  If my blood tests under 139 then my body is doing it's job and I don't have to go back in, if it tests over 139 then I have to go back in for the 4 hour glucose test which would mean another day off of work (not good).  According to the Dr. most women fail the initial screening and have to come back in for the actual test (which begs the question- why not just do the big test for everyone?).  I figured they'd call with the results, regardless of what they were, because that's the way the office has always worked.  Well, here I am a week later and still haven't heard and I'm going to assume that no news is good news and that I probably passed!  :)  Yay!  I'm amazed because I was SURE they'd call me back in just because of the way the sugar made me feel.  I'm very happy though.  

I think that's about it for the update this week.  We are counting down the days until our little one should be arriving and we are so excited!

25 and 26 weeks

Here are some updated belly shots. This one is at 25 weeks. I'm still feeling bigger by the day.25 weeks. I think my belly looks smaller in pictures OR I when I look at it I just see something different than everyone else does.

More at 25 weeks. It was at this week that all of my normal shirts stopped fitting.

Top two are still 25 week front shots. The bottom two are at 26 weeks. This week we found out that the girl at church who lent me her maternity clothes is also preggo! We are so thrilled for her family, it is such a blessing! Actually, now the women in our bible study consist of three pregnant women, a woman who just had a baby 7 weeks ago and two others. So the majority of us are either getting ready to have babies or have just had a baby...must be in the water, don't drink it if you come visit unless you want a little surprise. ;)

All that to say that she needs her maternity clothes back because she's already starting to show. :( We're sad to see the clothes go because they were such a huge blessing. They really blessed us at a time when we needed it and now we're in a much better financial position where we can afford to get me some of my own clothes. I've been hunting ebay and sales online and am hoping that I'll come up with a good starter wardrobe.

Other news-

1. I have my glucose test tomorrow morning and then a normal checkup. This is the first appointment that I'm not nervous to go to, God is good!

2. We're preparing for the arrival of our doodlebug by getting the nursery ready. We're cleaning out the closet and have put the furniture we have in position. Hopefully, I'll have pictures of it soemtime this week once the clutter is off of the floor and we can move around a bit better in there.

3. We have LESS THAN 100 DAYS LEFT until my due date!!!!! :)

I'll update after the appointment tomorrow. Until then!

The time is getting near...

Only 15 weeks left!  That's 3 1/2 months or 105 days!!!  I get more excited about having her with us every single day.  Here are some new things going on in the pregnancy:

- I'm getting larger (I know, not super new but I've been told by several people that I have finally "popped")

- Baby can now kick one side of me and hit/head butt the other side of me at the same time so I can now definitely TELL she's bigger and FEEL her getting bigger.

- My stomach has started to ripple every time she kicks and when she rolls it's a sight to be seen because it looks like I've got an alien inside of me.

- She's starting to play games, when I feel her kick I press down on where she is kicking and she'll start kicking/hitting the other side of me until I put my hand there and then she goes back to the other side.

- Baby has proven to be a night owl/early morning bird.  During the day she's pretty quiet and I'm lucky to get a flutter from her but after 8:30pm she goes to town with her acrobatics.  When Mike wakes up (at 4am most mornings) she wakes right up with him and I have to BEG her to let me go back to sleep for a couple of hours.  :)  

- Kids seem to gravitate toward my belly.  I have kids in the hallway at school (mostly kindergartners) who have no idea who I am but reach out and touch my belly when they're passing me.  Strange...but interesting.

So, I think that's it as far as pregnancy updates go.  I have a Dr.'s appointment. next Monday (Oct. 20).  It's my glucose screening to test for gestational diabetes which I don't show symptoms of, so it shouldn't be an issue.  I think I mentioned it before but essentially I'll be drinking a bottle of non-carbonated orange soda with about an extra half cup of sugar in it...yum yum.  It's already in our fridge waiting for me.  I think (and will double check) that I have this appointment and then one more four weeks later and after that I start going every two weeks.  It's all surreal to me but so exciting!

That's all for now.  I'll update as soon as I can with the 25 week picture.

Growing Baby!

22 weeks and growing! When this was taken Mike and I were getting ready to go out on a date to celebrate being OVER halfway through this pregnancy! It has not been an easy one by any stretch, but I wouldn't change any of it because God has truly shown his blessing on us through it all.

The only together shot that we have together so far during this pregnancy. Mike usually is the one behind the camera so that we can get the right angle for the pictures (I usually make him take 5 pictures to every one that I post) so we'll have to find a new photographer so we can get some pictures together. We're headed to Disney for our anniversary trip and we're going with some good friends of ours so I expect we'll get quite a few of the two of us then! :)

24 weeks. We have 16 weeks left until our due date, sometimes it feels like the time is FLYING and others it just drags and drags. We are so looking forward to bringing our little one home!

Another 24 week picture.

I'm going to try to make it a point to take at least one picture a week until the end of it all from now on so that we have more of a record of how quickly I'm growing. I literally will wake up from one day to the next and notice that I've gotten progressively larger.