32 weeks.

dear son,

we only have eight weeks to go before we meet you!  (give or take)  feel free to stay in there at least that long, we want you to be big & strong!  that being said though, we're starting to get ready for you.  this week your dad set up your crib & dresser, and we painted your room a light gray.  now momma just has to start washing all your clothes...oh my, you have a lot already.  you are going to be one well-dressed dude.  you have lots of people who have blessed us with sweet outfits...and well, your momma loves to shop for you already ;)

my baby center app says you weigh about 3.75 pounds this week and that you'll gain 1/2 pound a week from here on out, and that you are almost 17 inches long.  i can tell you're long because i feel you all over my belly, feet and hands moving and your little butt sometimes pushing against my belly.  sometimes i think you're trying to get out you're rolling around so much!  your dad & i laugh a lot at you making my belly lurch.  you are especially active when i sit on the couch with him to watch episodes of "the voice" - our new favorite show - and when i lay down in bed at night.  you also roll around lots when i have my morning cup of coffee and this morning i set my coffee cup on top of my belly and told your aunt kate, "i've been waiting to be able to do this!" :)  finally there's enough belly to make a shelf!

we have big dreams for you already, your dad & i.  we talk about you playing sports, running, going to college a long time from now.  we talk about how we'll spend our saturday mornings not too long from now on the soccer fields, or baseball diamonds, and i can't wait.  however, i also can't wait to just snuggle you in your jammies in the morning, take you on walks in your cool new stroller (we just got it!  it's awesome!), and smell your sweet skin after a bath.  it's the little things, buddy.

we are getting close to naming you - but until then, we mostly call you bubba.  sometimes peanut, or the tiny.  we hope to finalize your name soon.

pregnancy has been so easy for me.  i still feel good, even with my weight gain.  food has never tasted so good, and i don't have anything weird that i crave or that i have an aversion to.  i pretty much just love to eat ;)  don't worry, you and i will get to test that jogging stroller out lots together this summer while i try to get back to my normal size!!

i'm nervous about knowing how to raise a boy into a man, but i guess that's why God gave you a mommy & a daddy.  your dad is going to be awesome with you, rough & gentle at all the right times.  he is a good, kind, honorable man & i hope you grow up to be just like him.  i am so lucky to have two boys to love.  and i love you already, son.

can't wait to meet you & see your bright eyes look into mine for the first time.

xoxo,

momma

30 weeks.

it's hard to believe that i'm in week 30 already.  where does the time go?  i think i say that every week...but seriously.  i have ten weeks to go before we meet little man.  hard to believe.  i'm wavering between being soooo ready to see him & love him & be his mama...and holy-crap-we're-having-a-baby-and-i-have-ten-million-things-to-do-first-mode! :)  i guess this is normal!!

this week i've started to notice my hands & feet swelling some by the end of the day.  enough that my engagement ring starts to get uncomfortable and my toes look puffy.  it's worse on days that i have a bunch of meetings at work and end up sitting a lot.  yesterday we moved mom trish & sarah into their new place and after several flights up & down the stairs i expected to really be swollen by 11pm when i finally got home - but i was fine.  i guess all the movement kept the fluid at bay.  so i'm going to try to be more conscious of that and get up & walk around a lot if i'm sitting at my desk a lot.  i've been doing a new job since january which requires a lot of desk hours - but that is ending this month and i'll go back to 12 hour clinical shifts which definitely do not include a lot of sitting :)   otherwise, physically everything else seems normal.  i've been eating a LOT of ice chips - i can't help but crunch them if i have them.  is this a sign of low iron?  should probably ask my doc because it's a drastic change from my preference of room-temp, no ice water.

bubba has gotten a LOT bigger in the last few weeks i've noticed.  by him, i mean i have gotten a lot bigger :)  my belly feels massive!  thankfully i seem to have gained most of my weight in my tummy and i totally look like i have a basketball under my clothes!

here's another shot of the belly from today, after our post-lunch walk.  you can tell more the basketball shape.

i had my first real craving this week - chocolate cake with chocolate icing!!  i thought about it all week long, and held off til mom trish made a big cake for our easter luncheon.  it tasted AMAZING!!!  i had a huge piece and practically licked my plate clean.  it's really the first thing that i feel like i have craved that isn't part of my normal diet pre-pregnancy.  it was totally worth the craving-wait :)

i'm super excited for what the next week holds, i am going home to missouri for my first baby shower with family & a few close friends.  i can't wait!!  i'll make sure to take lots of pictures of course, and post details.

28 weeks.

28 weeks is here.  i can hardly believe it!

i feel like my body has changed so much in the last couple weeks.  bubba is riding low and it's starting to get hard to tie my shoes, bend over to pet sargey in the morning, or launch myself off the couch at the end of a movie.  mike calls this, "turtle on its back" :)

other than the belly just being in the way though, i still feel great.  i love being pregnant and i know not everybody experiences that blessing. i know lots of girls who feel uncomfortable throughout - but i love every second of it.  even at the end of the day when my feet are achy, i'm still so grateful for this experience.  bubba moves around SO much and in the last week i've been able to start feeling little parts moving, i can't identify whether it's a foot or a butt, but it's definitely a different feeling than just jabs & kicks.  he's most active when i lay on my side in bed at the end of the day. my tummy just rolls & rolls.  i love the little peanut already and can't wait to experience everything new with him in a few months.

no cravings really, which is funny.  i totally expected to have something weird pop up or be obsessive about some kind of food/drink - but nothing yet.  just normal likes/dislikes.  hopefully this means he'll be an easy baby HAHA!  i have gained weight kind of fast the last few weeks per my OB doctor, so i'm getting back into my exercising (have been slacking due to a few busy weeks) and trying to eat well.  i'm still well within the normal range but just don't want to continue to gain at the same rate.

mike and i went away to santa barbara this past weekend.  we had some hotel stays we won at a silent auction in january, to use up before december & figured it would be easier now than in the first six months of bubba's life with us :)  we had the BEST weekend together.  we got to see jim & amy one night for dinner, and meet their sweet new peanut henry.  we stayed in a couple of really awesome hotels, ate an amazing dinner overlooking the pacific ocean at sunset, and made a couple of day trips up to the santa ynez valley wine country.  it was cloudy & chilly in santa barbara (unusual!) but sunny & warm over the mountains - and we had a beautiful couple of days up there tasting local wines (mike, not me of course) and driving through the countryside and stopping for sandwiches on a sunny patio for lunch.  it was absolutely perfect time together & i'm so glad we made one last weekend away together before peanut comes.

i'm thrilled to be on this journey & can't believe i only have a few months left!  i feel like we still have so much to do!!  this week we're heading out to buy bubba's furniture for his room...mom & sarah move out in a couple weeks and we'll start transforming one of the rooms they're in into a nursery.  i can't wait!  pictures to come :)

26 weeks.

this week marks 26 weeks!  hooray for still feeling good, lots of energy and the return of my beloved taste for coffee :)  it's the little things!

i celebrated my 32nd birthday on sunday, the day i rolled over into 26 weeks.  i'm so excited about all that i have to look forward to in this coming year.  noa, julie & ruby are in town for my birthday weekend and it's been so much fun to share the excitement of us expecting little bubba!  and so much fun to love on ruby and look forward to those days soon.

in the meantime, not much new to report with pregnancy....of course the passing of my glucose testing was big news this week.  and the return (FINALLY) of my taste for coffee.  but other than that, no cravings.  no aversions.  just continued feeling-good-pregnant.  and i'm grateful for that!  the peanut has been rolling around like crazy in my belly and it's so much fun to watch him and to have mike feel him more consistently.  he's an active little guy - we might be in trouble ;)

glucose = 0. me = 1.

well, last friday i failed my 1 hour glucose test.  after drinking the sugar-laden concoction, i schlepped in an hour later and my sugar read 183.  that would be 43 points above acceptable :)   oops!

so i had the pleasure of participating in the three hour, fasting glucose test yesterday.  "three hour" is a misnomer.  in actuality, i fasted for 12 hours - went in at 8am for a baseline glucose reading which was 92.  then i drank a double portion of the sugar-concoction and sat around for the next three hours twiddling my thumbs at the doctor's office.  testing was done at 9am, 10am, and 11am.  thankfully (!!!!) my sugar dropped well below the accepted range at each marker and i was given a pass to continue on without gestational diabetes.  YAY!  my sister had it, so i was a little concerned about having it myself.  no offense liz, but i wasn't interested in sharing that little part of pregnancy with you :)  

at 11:30 i walked out of the doctor's office literally jittery with hunger (i mean, i don't like to go 15 hours without eating when i'm NOT pregnant!  torture!  to put it mildly, i felt a big "hangry" at that point...thanks ruthie & mike for the great term)....and naturally, my first stop was across the street, here!!!

i cannot tell you the last time i had burger king.  i'm not much of a fast-food eater anyway (i don't count chik-fil-a, people. work with me.)....and BK is usually low on my list if i am going to eat fast food.  behind taco bell & mcdonald's, naturally.  but yesterday morning, it was all that sounded good.  a big ole burger, fries and coke (thank you Lord for coca-cola) later, i was happily on my way to finish the work day.

i celebrated not counting carbs today by choosing biscuits & gravy for breakfast.  off to a good start.

24 weeks.

i can't believe i'm already at 24 weeks.  i realized and blurted out in shock this weekend, "in 12 weeks i'll be full term!"  and then i just sat there in silence.  holy crap!  it seems so close all of a sudden.  i mean sometimes i feel like june still feels a long way off, but when i think about how fast 24 weeks has gone, to know that i only have 12 weeks til baby could really come and be fine is SCARY!  i have so much left to do!

anyway, enough panicking.  but seriously.

i am feeling great.  more than great, i feel better than before i was pregnant i think :)  i have tons of energy, i like how my body is changing, i lovelovelove feeling peanut roll around in there and love watching my belly move around with him.  it's all so amazing & i'm so grateful to be enjoying pregnancy so much.  i know it's not this easy for everyone, and who knows what the next 12-16 weeks holds for me - but for now, i'm really thankful for these blessings.

i still haven't had any food aversions or cravings in particular.  chik-fil-a breakfast pretty much always sounds good to me, but i don't necessarily crave it i don't think.  i love fruit and salad bar as a meal...but that's kind of always been true of me.  my love of coffee is BACK (hallelujah!) so i currently have no food aversions or smells that bother me.  i basically don't feel any different than before i was prego!  however - the sleep monsters have taken over my nighttime and although i know it's not entirely true, i usually get up in the morning feeling like i pretty much never went to sleep.  lots of tossing & turning.  which i know just gets worse towards the end of pregnancy!  i guess that's my only complaint :)

we found out this week that baby boy will have two girlfriends coming soon...baby huntington & baby seeba are both GIRLS!  so excited for their families, and they will both have sweet older brothers to watch over them!

so here's my 24 week picture....many thanks to sarah for all her help executing these biweekly photos shoots!

and a sweet photo of my first baby boy...

 we found out on monday that he has bone cancer, osteosarcoma.  we are of course heartbroken, and are trying to navigate our short future with him.  so far he seems to just have pain in his front right leg with walking, and so he limps, but otherwise seems pretty alert & playful still.  we are soaking up our days with him and absolutely spoiling him rotten.  my hope is that he stays long enough with us to meet our peanut in june.  i would love nothing more than to be able to photograph my boys together.  we call this look "the stuffed pig" - he is obsessed with his tennis ball from the Hubs.  it squeaks & is his fave.  he carries it around like this in his mouth, almost a pacifier.  or - hence the name - like a stuffed pig with apple in mouth :)  thank you for making us laugh through our tears, puppydog.

looking forward this week to the gestational diabetes test...aka drinking the disgusting sugar drink!  fingers crossed for a good report!

hello, again.

welcome back, my LOVE!!!

while on our babymoon, i had my first sip of coffee since week 5 when my tummy first turned at the smell.  and over the last couple weeks i have slowly rekindled my love affair with coffee.  thank goodness, it has been my only real aversion since being pregnant.  but it was hard to hate the smell of it so much, i think i had more of an emotional attachment than a physical dependence on the caffeine.  i just missed sipping a cup in the morning - and tea wasn't cutting it!

so glad i'm back to being myself...well, at least in this one area ;)

babymoon deets.

a babymoon was something i'd obscurely heard of in the past with prego friends.  just a little getaway with the hubs before the baby comes; to be alone, celebrate such a sweet time in your life together, and relax while mama still feels good ;)   what's not to love right? 

i am so grateful that mike and i were able to take a babymoon.

we just started talking about it a couple months before, once i started realizing how limited our time together "just us" was getting.  how fast pregnancy was going & how desperately i wanted to hold onto the just me & him feeling even while being thrilled about adding to our family.  so he got to planning - he's SO good at this, oh my gosh - and i got to anticipating.  he gave me little hints every day for a week before announcing where we were going.  i knew the dates but nothing else.  my excitement was overwhelming when i put the puzzle pieces of his hints together and realized we were going to CABO SAN LUCAS!!!

we had an amazing long weekend together on the beaches of mexico.  to date, our best vacation ever.  by a long shot.  every bit of our time together there, the resort, the food, the atmosphere, the serenity - was perfect.

here are the pics to prove it ;)

this is the view from our balcony.  uninterrupted private beach for three miles in front of the resort.  cabana beds for free reservation (oh yes we booked one!).  and what we called "our personal cactus" - loved the xeroscaped grounds and simple decor.

best part of relaxing by one of the beautiful pools: food & drink service to the lounge chairs!  i enjoyed several (virgin) pina coladas.  it was mexico, afterall!

the pools were heated and were amazing.  they felt like bathwater!  good news for a girl who gets cold easily :)  mike and i had a wonderful time just floating around in the water together all day.  my pedi matched the turquoise waters perfectly!

the ocean here is too rough to swim in but was so beautiful.  we had several walks along the water each morning - love this first picture of our footprints.  it was serene and isolated and absolutely perfect.

the sunsets were so beautiful as well.  the first night we got there we saw several whales breaching in the sunset.  kind of ridiculous how perfect it was.   we actually saw whales every day several times, they migrate north in february towards alaska where they spawn and then head south again for warmer waters by july.  very cool to see so many of them from the beach!

our awesome patio loungers, where we had breakfast delivered to the porch every morning.  and i successfully tried my first cup of coffee again since getting pregnant!  it was awesome to discover my love for it coming back!!

view from the lounger.

looking up at our little room/patio.

mike of course had to take a few pregnancy pics for me :)

i loved wearing a bikini and not having to suck it in :)

we reserved one of these beds our last full day there, and absolutely loved lounging out there all day.  we had lunch delivered, took a nap, and witnessed a huge whale breach really close to the shore.  it was surreal.  the most relaxing day together ever.

and my favorite pic together from the trip.

love of my life: so happy to be on this adventure with you.  thank you for planning & taking me on the most special vacation ever and for celebrating over & above this time in our lives together.  i love you!

22 weeks. and a babymoon!

just got back from the best vacation mike & i have ever taken: cabo san lucas, mexico!!  we had four days off together & my sweets planned a surprise "babymoon" for us.  a time to get away just me & him.  and toast to all the love & adventure that's to come in this next chapter of our lives.

it was extra special too because mike felt baby boy move for the first time!  we had just laid down for the night and as usual, the peanut started his acrobatics, and let his daddy in on the fun:)  best part of it, the big day fell on the 12th of the month - it seems to be our day for all things special!

this vacation was RIPE with good conversation, belly-aching laughter, and quiet sweet moments together.  not to mention the amazing scenery of a little resort on the sea.  it was perfect, and just what we needed.

welcome, 22 weeks!

it's a BOY!

i can NOT believe we're having a son!!

everything looked great on the ultrasound today, for which we are so grateful.  and seeing that he was clearly a HE was a very exciting moment for us ;)

let the pinterest-ing, shopping & overall obsessing about all things BOY begin!