28 Weeks

I can't believe another month has passed and it was time to take the 7 month picture! How time flies. It is crazy to us that we only have two and a half months before this baby will be here! So much to do, so little time!!! Anyway, things are well, I am starting to get uncomfortable at times and my feet seem to hurt all the time, but I am not complaining. It will all be worth it in the end! We celebrated thanksgiving this past thursday and both feel exceptionally thankful for all the of the blessings we have. We are thankful for each other, our home, our friends and family and our little baby. We thank each and every one of you for being a part of our lives. We love you all.

Owwww....

We had our second birthing class last night. We practiced lots of different breathing techniques and learned about back labor. I am counting on Mike to remember this stuff because I have this feeling that in the pain of labor, which breathing I am supposed to do when may fall to the wayside in my head. We watched a video of an actual birth which was quite emotional to watch. Of course, sappy me, ends up crying when the baby is born because I have these intense emotions over the fact that we are going to go through this and have a little one of our own in such a short time. The very thought of the life growing inside me blows my mind and I can barely wrap my hands around it at times. Then we took a tour of the birthing center and saw the rooms that we will use. While we were standing in the hall they were rolling a just born infant into the nursery and again I got all emotional at just the thought that we are going to have one of those in less than three months. It is so darn exciting!!!

I had my 7 month doctor appointment this morning which was quite eventful. In addition to the normal things that happen at every appointment such as hearing the heartbeat, which never gets old, I had to do the gestational diabetes test and get the Rhogam shot. So, in case you didn't already know, I HATE shots and have been dreading this shot since the beginning of my pregnancy when I found out I had to have it at 28 weeks. Well, it didn't disappoint me too much, it did hurt, but maybe not as bad as I thought it would. I didn't realize that I was going to have to get the shot in my hip, that was not exciting. Anyway, it is over and I am sure after going through childbirth I will think that getting that shot is something quite pleasant. After that I had to go get three vials of blood taken for the diabetes test and some other tests that they do. When I left I was done with being poked and proded for today!

Calm...

So, I have no exciting pictures from the weekend to post, in fact, I haven't for a few weeks now. The best part about that is because the past few weeks we have fallen into a rather relaxing life filled with next to no plans and frankly enjoying that. Summer and fall are always so busy for us, the months seem to fly in the flash of a moment and suddenly winter is here. We suspect that perhaps the coming years will start to calm a little because we will not have only ourselves to think of. We are enjoying this next phase of our life, the phase where we can't remember the last time we were out till bar time and an exciting friday night is watching a movie and being in bed for the 10 o'clock news. I guarantee you, not that many years back we would have looked at our current life and thought "those people are boring". Oh, how life changes, it is amazing. Sometimes it feels like college was a minute ago, it is almost impossible to believe that it has been 8 years. Sometimes I'll be up reading a book at 7:30 on a saturday morning thinking, "there was a day where I would have been sleeping for at least 3-4 more hours". Now sleeping till 9am is sleeping in. Even that will soon change with a little one that will allow us much less sleep, we assume, than we are currently enjoying. So, this is my current reflection for the moment, life is good, very very good.

He He He He who... or birthing class #1

So, last night we had our first birthing class. We showed up with our pillow and blanket in hand ready to learn all the tricks of having this baby. It was only week #1 of 6, but it was quite interesting. We learned all about the different stages of labor, some relaxation techniques, and how much this is going to hurt. Mike and I agreed that it was very informative. We were only slightly embarrassed when we had to try out some of the techniques to "calm" me in the beginning stages of labor when the pain is just beginning. We had to try the slow dancing technique for a whole song that the "teacher" played. It was going well until half way through she said "Okay ladies, now lean into your husband" and Mike and I quickly realized that that works best when the husband is taller than the wife. It was quite humorous. All in all it was painless and it was actually pretty fun for the two of us to be doing together. We were even a little emotional driving there thinking that sometime in about three months we'll be driving there about to meet our little son or daughter. We simply cannot wait, we just love this little one so much already and we haven't even met him or her.

Baby or Cat?

Apparently Powder is a little confused about who or what goes in the baby carrier. We have it sitting in the den at the moment and Powder has decided it is a quite comfortable sleeping spot. Boy is she in for a rude awakening when the baby comes and the world doesn't revolve around her!

24 weeks

Wow, 6 months already! That feels like a long time that bean has been growing! Only 3 and a half months to go, we can't believe it! The carpeting is being installed today in the baby's room so it will be great to see what it looks like when it is all done! Mike's mom bought us our stroller and car seat last week and Mike put it together. It is starting to feel so real with all this baby stuff around! It will be so cool to actually have the baby to put in all the stuff soon!!!

My friend

So, my friend Anna Brown from Atlanta has started her own design company that is over the web. So, even though she is in Atlanta, she does everything by email so you can easily access proofs of what she will do for you, etc. She can do Christmas cards, wedding and baby announcements, invitations, programs, photography and much, much more. Please check out her website, www.annabrowndesigns.com, to see some of what she has done and for information on pricing and how it works. It is really beautiful stuff and the pricing is very reasonable. You can also email her with any questions at anna@annabrowndesigns.com. Enjoy!

Go Pack!

Well, we were fortunate enough to witness a winning game of the Packers this season. We went to the game today with Lindsay and her boyfriend, Todd, and it was much fun. Bean got to experience he/she's first game and the only time that it will be free for him or her to go! Perhaps our favorite part was watching Brett Favre run a touchdown in and then proceed to Lambeau Leap for the first time ever, it was great to see him having fun again.

Baby bedding

A lot of people have been asking me what we are doing for baby bedding. I found this picture on the internet of the bedding we registered for. We just love it, the turtles are so cute and it matches the room great!

Registering

So Mike and I both had some time off of work yesterday and decided to dedicate most of that time to accomplishing some baby tasks. Our first stop was to Target to finish the registry that I had gotten us started on. I thought that we would be there about 45 minutes picking out things such as pack and plays and exersaucers, but was I mistaken. It seems as though Mike has a lot of interest in making sure that each and every item is perfect for our first child. It was very cute to see him look intensely into each item to make sure that it made the most sense to register for. He wanted to make sure that our child would benefit developmentally and educationally from anything that it could. So, after a couple hours of debating which high chair would be best or which playmat has the most bells and whistles, we finished our registry. The next stop was USA Baby to register for our bedding and look at cribs. They were having a sale so we wanted to see if we could find anything to our liking. I was secretly praying we would come home with one so I could check another thing off of my list of things to purchase prior to the baby's arrival. So, we start off by registering for the bedding and again I am surprised to see how much Mike has invested in this process. He decides that he can't simply live without the mobile for the bedding set, because "it's just so cute Jill!" It was simply adorable. Anyway, then we were on to the crib selection. Luckily we were both pretty much on the same page and had it narrowed down to two pretty quickly. After several laps back and forth between the two of them, we picked one. We bought it and brought it home and we love it. We are so excited. I am especially excited because I am just so happy to have accomplished so much!!!

One year

Okay, so this isn't the best picture. We don't have a scanner and our pictures from our wedding aren't digital. So this is my attempt at taking a digital picture of a framed picture. If nothing else, you get the idea. (:

It has been one year today since Mike and I said I do. We woke up this morning and couldn't believe that a year had passed since we were married, sometimes it feels like yesterday, sometimes it feels like a lifetime ago. So much has happened in that year. We have continued to grow closer, our love has grown deeper, we've laughed, we've cried, and we've been there each and every day for each other.

We were talking about our favorite moments of the past year as a married couple. Our two favorites were the amazing honeymoon we had and the moment we found out we were going to have a baby. In just a year we've become a married couple and now we are going to become parents, it is the most amazing feeling ever. We both said that we literally could not be more blessed in our lives, we are very thankful each and every day for the wonderful life we have and for how lucky we are. We look forward to many many many more years celebrating our marriage.

We also talked today of the friends we met, Josh and Anna, a year ago when we arrived in Antigua. They also are married one year today and we wish them the happiest of anniversaries. Thank you for the friendship we gained and the year of a long distance friendship, we love you.

So, to all of our friends, thank you to you too for continuing to stand beside us, support us and love us, we are eternally grateful to you all.

The Dump

So, yesterday, Saturday, I am trying to get things done around the house. I am all proud of myself because I am going to attempt to go and find the city dump and get rid of the three bags of yard waste that have been sitting in the garage since I cut them down about two or three weeks ago. So there I am, I have found the dump and am rather proud of myself. I get out the bags and realize that I have to open them up and dump them out onto "the pile" of yard waste because you can't just throw the garbage bags on it. So, I tear open the first bag and realize that leaving that stuff tied up in a trash bag in the garage wasn't the best idea. Bean apparently agreed because I immediately started gagging. That is my new pregnancy issue, a terrible gag reflex. So, I am on to bag number two and bean says, enough of this, and there I go, throwing up at the dump in between two other Port Washington residents who are trying to innocently dump their yard waste. How embarrasing! Anyway, I was telling this story to my friend Becky last night and she told me that I must blog it because it was hilarious. Hope you all enjoy!!!

20 Weeks

The halfway mark! We can't believe it, here we are, halfway to the baby being born. I still feel like a complete idiot taking these side view pictures, but I think our child will someday appreciate them and maybe even I will after the baby is born! Not much is new since the post about the ultrasound, we look at the pictures a couple times a day and are still shocked that that little person is in my stomach! The baby is moving lots and that is still my favorite part. We started to look at bedding for the crib and found a couple that we like. We are going to bring a paint sample to put next to them and see what works best. Mike is painting the baby's room today and that is very exciting. Other than that, it's the same ole same ole!

Our baby!

We had our ultrasound appointment today for the halfway mark. It was seriously the coolest thing we have ever experienced. Seeing that baby was amazing. We got to literally see every organ, each hand and foot. The heart beating, the brain. It was awesome. We attached some pictures for you all to see. The first one is a profile shot and the second is a picture of the spine which is really neat. The baby helped us out, when we told the tech that we didn't want to know if it was a boy or a girl she told us that was a good thing because there was no way that she could have told us, those legs were closed up tight! The tech said that everything is measuring exactly perfect, everything that needs to be there is there and the baby looks just like it should. It is just an amazing relief hearing that.

Lake Geneva

This past weekend we went to Lake Geneva with my dad and step mom and sister. It was a nice relaxing trip. We took a boat tour, read, ate and relaxed. It was really nice. I meant to post some pictures, but since I left our camera at home, I have none to post!!! Other than that, not too much is new. Bean moves at some point every day and I look so forward to that each time. It is definately the best part of the pregnancy. It is just beyond words how cool it is to feel the baby moving. On our way home from Lake Geneva on Sunday we stopped at Babies R Us to begin the process of picking out a crib. We were totally overwhelmed. There are so many! We decided to think some more about it and revisit that topic another day. The most exciting part of that trip was that we found a stroller that has an adjustable handle that is super high! Finally, they make something that will fit me! I was really worried about the fact that all of the strollers are too low for me, but this one is perfect. It took all the decision making out of it, there is only one that does it and it is in one color. Decision made! Next week we have our ultrasound, we can't wait to see the little one!!!

Bean kicked!

Okay, so I am sitting at my desk right now, dealing with a hundred different job related issues and all of the sudden I feel this unmistakable, fleeting movement in my stomach. I can't believe it, I think the baby just kicked me for the first time that I could feel. It was the coolest feeling ever. Although it went quickly and of course now I feel nothing even though I keep staring at my stomach hoping for more! (: Anyway, just had to share that!!!!

16 Weeks!

Okay, although I am not so fond of the pictures of myself staring at the camera, it really is much more fun to have a visual! So, here we are, me and bean, at 16 weeks and 4 days! I just got home from the doctor, it was a good visit. I got to hear the heartbeat beating strong. It was so different from the last visit 4 weeks ago. At that visit it felt like it took her forever to find the heartbeat and then once she did we only got to hear it for a short time before she lost it. This time, the minute she put the little doppler thing on my stomach we heard it beating strong. It was awesome. She said that it sounds perfect. She showed me on my stomach right where the baby is and that was cool too. Other than that, not too much exciting happened. I got to schedule our ultrasound, that will be in three weeks. We can't wait for that! Outside of that she said that everything looks great! We can't believe that we are over 4 months along already, time just flies!!!

29 Years...

The picture is of the gorgeous flowers that my wonderful husband gave me for my birthday on Monday. They were very sweet and it was a great birthday. We went out to dinner on Sunday night and Monday night I went out to dinner with some girlfriends and Lindsay, my sister. My favorite part was the card that Mike gave me from the baby with the cutest note inside, from the baby of course. I started crying, of course. (: It is so crazy to think next year on my birthday I'll be a mom!

The Bean

So, I have this little calendar on my desk that is essentially a calendar of this pregnancy. It is a message from the baby everyday of what is going on with him/her. Some of the posts are just so amazing to me. Here is today's, "If you could touch my lips, I would begin to suck your finger." I just can't believe what is happening in my stomach, it never ceases to amaze me everyday. It's so crazy to think that the baby would begin to suck my finger if I touched its lips, how cool is that. I just can't wait to meet this little one...

Up North...

So, we just got back yesterday from some time up north. It was really fun. We had lots of relaxation and got to spend some time with good friends. Mike's best man from our wedding, also Mike, was in town with his wife, Jen, visiting family. We headed up to meet them for a few days and got to catch up. The boys enjoyed one of their favorite things to do together, water skiing and I read an entire book, one of my favorite things to do! We had good food, good conversation and an all around good time. Below are a bunch of pictures of our time "up north".