Weekly Update: 29 weeks

How far along: 29 weeks

Total weight gain/loss: break

Maternity clothes: So bored with my current ones. I had the hardest time trying to find something cute to wear on our date night on Friday.

Stretch marks: Nope

Sleep: I sleep good, just not getting much. I get distracted at night with projects and go to bed later than I should. Ben is now giving me a bed time to start this week.

Best moment this week: We had our birthing class and hospital tour and it got me kind of excited for that part of this whole thing.

Movement: He is his usual wiggly self. I find it so funny the noises he responds to. Examples, crinkling paper, Heather and I adjusting the Velcro on his crib skirt, my toothbrush, my mixer, vacuum. I never realized how much babies can hear in there.

Food cravings: I still enjoy my coffee and milk but nothing else really.

Food aversions: Same. We grabbed something for lunch during our birthing class break and it had something in there I did not realize and I gagged after two bites. Thank goodness Ben eats anything.

Gender: My little boy, okay fine, our little boy

Labor Signs: No thank goodness

Belly Button in or out? Same innie as usual

What I miss: I still miss not worrying about how he is doing every five minutes, but I miss some of my old cute clothes and I miss not groaning every time I move. However, I had to get up off the floor quickly at our class and our teacher said I was spry. That made me giggle.

What I am looking forward to: Leaving for the beach in 5 days. We are so excited to see family for a whole week.

Weekly Wisdom: Going to our birthing class changed our minds about our “birth plan” (that term annoys me) and had a lot of good information for both of us. It also made me not as scared of an epidural as I used to be.

Milestones: He should now be at least 3 lbs and this is the last week in the 20’s.

Measurements: Chest- +.25, Waist- same, Hips- -1.5”, Circumference- same

Nursery Progress

-His name banner is complete.
-I made and we hung the mobile over his bed. I am in love with it which is really funny because so many times I thought I would scrap it.
- We hung up the lanterns on his ceiling so now there is a an overhead light in his room.
- I got the large vase for his dresser ordered and set up.
- Heather and I are done with the crib skirt except hemming up the side panels. It is beautiful!!

Just waiting on something for his wall to come so we can hang up all the pictures. That and mom is bringing 2 pillows, a fabric bird and the blanket with her this week. We are almost done!!!! Hopefully I will be posting pictures soon.

Here are a couple of pictures, because I know most people really just like to see those rather than hear me ramble on.

Ben and I on our date night.

Here is an additional bump picture of me (and a sneak peak of the nursery)

Rentervation Update: Nesting Mode- Carport

Part of getting ready for Pumpkin has been getting our house more settled in for us. I mention it in a post here from back in January. Just to reiterate, we never really planned on being in this house for this long. We always thought that we would be in a more permanent living situation after a few years but alas, the recession got us sidetracked. We decided that we need to make do with where we are, especially considering that it is a pretty nice place, without making huge changes that would not transition to a house when we do move.

So in late 2010 I decided to make a list of projects that I wanted to tackle. Most of them were more in the realm of purging and organizing and it was really overwhelming. I thought these tasks would double to make me feel more comfortable, and make the task of moving easier whenever we got to.

About two weeks after starting the first project (which I will post about later), I got pregnant and that put everything into perspective. On the one hand, it sidetracked things for a few months while I was down for the first trimester, and on the other it gave us some serious motivation to tackle things we probably never would have gotten to. It is all about making this house work for us now that we are a family and not post college graduates or young married couple.

I am going to start posting about the projects we have done but keep in mind, most of them are not huge changes to you all, but major for us. We will start at the first thing you see at our house, our carport. I know that sounds so exciting!

We have this small little area in our carport where you enter our house. I have tried for a few years to make it look nice and have plants but they always died and we got lazy. This year I was determined to make it look nicer. I started by just buying plants at Lowes but when I went to put them in pots, I saw all the other work that needed to be done. I ended up moving out all the furniture (at 20 weeks pregnant), sweeping, rearranging, repotting and then washing everything down. It took a few hours but it looked so much better. I am proud to say that 2 months later and my plants are still kicking.

Before- We had dead plants, pine needles that landscape people always blow into our carport, and everything was covered in dust and pollen from the spring.



After- Swept out the whole carport, reorganized old containers, got the hose out for the first time in years to wash everything off, and repotted the new plants.


Like I said, it does not look like much in pictures but it really make us feel happier when we come home to pretty flowers everyday.

Weekly Update: 28 weeks

Had a little growth spurt this week. Ben and I kept laughing at how my belly rounded a bit and looks like I have a beach ball under my clothes.

How far along: 28 weeks (third trimester!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Total weight gain/loss: 28 lbs which my doctor said was fine because it is all belly

Maternity clothes: I am getting so bored with my same old clothes, but on the other hand, I rarely need anything fancy with my job. Still needing to find things for my showers and maternity pics

Stretch marks: Still no

Sleep: I have been sleeping really hard. I think it has something to do with everyday, working my butt off doing stuff for the nursery and my body hating me for it so it is needing more rest.

Best moment this week: I had my 28 week OB appointment and everything went great. Pumpkin has a strong heartbeat, I am not showing any risk for preterm labor, my weight is fine and the best news, I passed my one hour glucose test. Yay!!!

Movement: My doctor wanted to me start doing kick counts if I have not felt him for a couple of hours Well Wednesday and Thursday it was like he was showing off, then Friday he decided to torture mommy and move just once an hour. He has been back to his normal activity the past few days now.

Food cravings: My iced coffee and milk

Food aversions: Bell peppers still bother me apparently. I had some spaghetti sauce we had frozen months ago and while I just tried to ignore them, I could tell if they were more prominent, I would not be able to eat it.

Gender: BOY (which lately I am getting more and more excited about)

Labor Signs: Nope and that was confirmed by my doctor

Belly Button in or out? It is not going to budge

What I miss: There are a couple of pregnancy side effects that I could really do without right now, but they are totally worth it.

What I am looking forward to: On the baby front, we have our hospital tour and childbirth class this week and I cannot wait to get them over with. Other than that, my mom is coming down in a week and a half and I cannot wait until she sees the nursery and then we are all heading to the beach for the Miller Family vacation.

Weekly Wisdom: I started reading one of my baby books and already in the first chapter it addresses a part of parenting that I feel like is super important to us. It made me feel better.

Milestones: Being in the third trimester is huge! The second trimester flew by, especially compared to the first which was torture. Now just to wait another 10-12 weeks (hopefully) to meet our little guy. I am so excited but trying to enjoy the next few months and all they bring.

Measurements: Chest- +.5, Waist- +1”, Hips- +1.5”, Circumference- +1”


Nursery Progress Update

-All the furniture is built and in place.
-We have a new, neutral cover on the futon and I made a skirt to go along the front so you can not see the stuff we stored underneath it.
-I made the tree wall decal and we put it up. (That took so much longer than I thought it would, and it was too much physical activity for this girl. Lots of moving around on my hands and knees for hours on end).
-We put up his name banner over his bed.
-We got some space saver bags to help us store some things and they are awesome.

We are waiting on few things to be delivered but we should be all done, except for the few things we expect to get from showers, by the end of next week.

Weekly Update: 27 weeks

Belly grew a bit around the middle but other than that, we have hit a little plateau (thanks goodness).

How far along: 27 weeks

Total weight gain/loss: Break (I will probably update this next week)

Maternity clothes: Nothing new, but I have a cousin who will be passing some of her maternity clothes down to me soon and I cannot wait to see what cute things she has. I would like some new things in my rotation.

Stretch marks: Nope

Sleep: Minus not being able to get my brain from obsessing about my todo list right as I am going to sleep, fine. Oh, and the fact that someone likes to dedicate that time to practicing his gymnastics.

Best moment this week: My dad and stepmom came down and we got a lot done on the nursery. It is painted, the furniture was bought and setup, and they hauled some things back to TN for us.

Movement: Still has his lazy days but every morning and every night I get a show so I know he is fine. Today has been a very active day. I had my shirt lifted up, watching him move. So cool but so weird!

Food cravings: I realized the other day, all through my first trimester, I was always craving some kind of comfort drink. Now that I am having iced coffee almost every day, I never have it. That must have been it.

Food aversions: Still nothing that will make my heartburn flare up

Gender: All boy

Labor Signs: No way Jose

Belly Button in or out? Stagnant

What I miss: I miss not having simple things wear me out.

What I am looking forward to: Now that the nursery has the big things done, I am super excited to start working on getting it all pulled together. That and getting my doctors appointment on Wednesday over with (see Milestones below).

Weekly Wisdom: I have been having some blues about how things are changing (I know for the good) and getting a little nostalgic but my great friend Heather assured me that we will still have time to be us, it might just take a bit.

Milestones: I have my 28 week appointment (yes at 27 weeks) and I have to do my one hour glucose test and check me for preterm labor. I got the lab results back from our life insurance physical and my glucose was good so I am hoping that bodes well for me on Wednesday. I am just worried since I have insulin resistance and during pregnancy my doctor took me off my meds for it.

Measurements: Chest- same, Waist- -1”, Hips- same, Circumference- +.5”

Nursery Progress Update

I am going to be mean and not post all over pictures until the whole thing is done. Here are some teasers though. My dad and stepmom came down on Saturday and we started with getting the room painted.

Here is a before pic with the green walls that were here when we moved in.

We went to Ikea and got all our furniture and picked up our crib on the way back home. For a day my house was in shambles. Old stuff was going out, new furniture was coming in, things were in transition, packing material was lying around waiting to go to recycling. I was so stressed and on the verge of tears.

Ben started building stuff that night but I did not want to wake our neighbors so we waited until Sunday. I thought it would take Ben working off and on this week to finish it all. Nope, my lego building husband was able to finish it all by Sunday afternoon.

Here is Ben building the crib. I wanted to document it and Ben did not get that it is a big deal when a man builds a crib for his future child.

I told Ben that I was in baby jail.

Today is our 4 year engagement anniversary and Ben brought me flowers. We like to celebrate the small things when we can.

Have a good week everyone!

Weekly Update: 26 weeks

From this view it actually looks like my belly is not as big this week and according to my measurements, Ben thinks that he just moved up.

How far along: 26 weeks

Total weight gain/loss: Out of town/ taking a break from this one.

Maternity clothes: I realized that I have only bought 3 maternity items and have survived thus far with some stretchy tank tops, dresses and the belly bands my mom made for me

Stretch marks: Same, thank goodness

Sleep: I miss being able to not wake up to change positions but pretty good overall

Best moment this week: We had an ultrasound and I am amazed at just how big Pumpkin has gotten in the past 5 weeks since the last one. I know he will get so much bigger but you can tell he has plumped up and grown.

Movement: He had a couple of lazy days this week but made up for it this weekend. My mom and aunt Jennifer even got to feel him, and he kicked Ben one morning.

Food cravings: No real cravings

Food aversions: The heartburn is killer which makes some things very unappealing

Gender: Definitely saw boy parts at the ultrasound

Labor Signs: Nope

Belly Button in or out? How about, I will report when it does anything.

What I miss: I miss not thinking about every bite that I put in my mouth

What I am looking forward to: Looking forward to my dad, stepmom and sister visiting this weekend and getting the nursery painted and the furniture bought.

Weekly Wisdom: Had many conversations with my aunts about parenthood and new babies. Although there is so much I cannot prepare for, I feel like I can handle this. I am nervous about getting used to all the changes but knowing that all new moms go through that stuff and I have them there for support is comforting.

Milestones: Nothing major this week

Measurements: Chest- -.25”, Waist- +1.5”, Hips- -.5”, Circumference- +.25”

His hand on his head. Either he is very dramatic, or sleeps like his mommy

His leg all stretched out and his wiggly toes. So cute here but not so cute when it kicks me in the ribs.

Another angle of his hand on his head. His arms have gotten so much plumper!