Another Week

Another week has gone by. I'll be 25 weeks tomorrow! Just 13-14 weeks left of pregnancy :-) I can't wait to meet our Grace.

James definitely felt Grace kick this week. She kicked him hard, twice. It was so exciting! I'm glad he was able to finally feel her. I pretty much feel her throughout the day, every day. I do get a little nervous sometimes when I haven't felt her in a long time. But, I'm working on my non-nervous side and try not to give into that.

James's parents have ordered our crib and changing table (so generous of them)--and I'm so excited for it to get to our house. I think once the room is painted (which should be done the 2nd week of August while we are both on vacation) and the crib gets set up--this is going to feel so real! I also can't wait for our showers--the first one is August 28th and then we have another Labor Day weekend in Maryland. So much to look forward to :-)

This weekend the weather is supposed to be more manageable. The plan is to finish working in our back yard. It kind of got away from us with all the summer heat and pregnancy things. We would like to maybe have a cook out or something this summer, but our yard has been less than attractive. We finally tore out most of the crazy plantings the old owners had...and we had to cut down half of our poor tree.

As you can see, I think more was on the ground than left on the tree. Plus that tree left thousands of tiny hard apples all over our yard when those branches came down. So it's like walking on marbles in our yard--safe! So much of our time has been to picking up apples. So, maybe after this weekend our yard will be presentable and we can have people over eventually :-)

Baby Basics

We attended our first class at the hospital we will be giving birth at. We attended Baby Basics. It was 3 hours long, and it went over everything from what tests and procedures the baby will go through at the hospital to some basics on feeding, bathing, SIDS, car seats, etc...

Here is James practicing how to put a diaper on a baby without hurting the belly button scab.

I think there were about 14 couples there. For the first 1/2 of the class (so for an hour and a half) one of us had to be holding the baby in a "safe" position the entire time. James actually held the baby for much longer than I did.

Here is James's swaddle.

So, Gracie still kicks away unless James is trying to feel her. It's gotten to the point where my whole stomach moves sometimes when I'm at work....and I can feel her when I put my hand where she is kicking. But when James tries to feel she either stops kicking or won't kick hard enough for him to feel. I took this photo a couple of nights ago. But I was laying propped up in bed and James was sitting in front of me with both of his hands on my stomach just waiting for her. His head was turned watching tv...

24 Weeks (well...23w6d)

Here's the newest baby bump. And, I'm wearing my first pair of maternity pants! I've been living in yoga pants and the rubber band trick on my regular pants thus far.

Nothing is too new with the pregnancy. I'm starting to get some lower back pain if I'm on my feet for a while....and my hips have been hurting the past couple of days...probaby round ligament pain.

Tonight is our first class at the hospital :-) It's a baby basics class. So, we get to play with dolls. Hopefully it won't be weird if I take photos...who doesn't want to see a photo of James putting a diaper on a doll!

Our first growth ultra sound is scheduled for Monday August 9th...I'll be 26 weeks. James and I have that week off of work. So, we'll go to the ultra sound in the morning and then we are driving up to Oglebay for 2 nights. We'll do some swimming...probably get a couples massage. Then the rest of the week we will work on Gracie's room.

We've also made plans to visit James's family in Maryland for Lab0r Day weekend. They are kind enough to throw us a baby shower while we are there. That will also be a nice time to see many people we haven't seen in a couple of years (it's been 2 years since our last visit). We are also getting a 3D ultra sound while we are there. They don't offer them here as part of regular ultra sound screening...so we are going to a for-entertainment-only type place while we are there. It will be nice to share that experience with James's mom and dad too.

Tis the Season...of Appointments

As I'm headed into my 3rd trimester shortly (feels crazy to say that), it feels like there are so many doctor appointments to remember.

I have another ob appt, 4 weeks from today--then I start going every other week. In 3 weeks, I need to schedule a growth ultrasound (for the gestational diabetes) and then I'll have ultra sounds every 3-4 weeks from them on. The around 32 weeks I will need a non-stress test on the baby. This is to make sure Grace is handling everything ok as we get closer to labor and delivery...also due to my gestational diabetes. I also have to go in for some blood work soon to check my iron levels.

The 2nd week of August, James and I are both taking the week off of work. We'll go up to Obglebay in WV for 2 nights...this will be our mini babymoon. I didn't know how to traveling I'd feel...so I wanted somewhere with a pool and a spa. Then we'll take the rest of the week to do some room prep for Grace (because my shower is Aug. 28th and we'll need to have the room ready to take on her stuff). We'll probably also do some Pittsburghy things that week like go to the museums or something.

Also, on a very fun note. I FELT GRACE ON THE OUTSIDE OF MY STOMACH FOR THE FIRST TIME TODAY!!!! She's been getting some pretty good kicks in for the last 3-4 days or so...I've been feeling her pretty much all throughout the day. So I kept feeling her pretty hard right next to my belly button. I placed my hand there for a minute and of course she stopped...then I started to watch my stomach because I really thought I saw it move once. Then a couple of minutes later she started up again and I placed my hand there and so felt her kick my hand! I started laughing and crying. I'm glad I don't share my office...people would have thought I was nuts.

22.5 weeks

The 2nd trimester is going faster than the 1st I think...but overall, I'd like time to go a bit faster. I can't wait to meet our Grace!!





Here I am at 22.5 weeks. Still looking about the same.

We had a bit of a scare over the weekend and we spent a couple of hours in labor in delivery...from 2am to 4am on Friday night. But Gracie is doing fine. Her heart rate was 130 bpm (the doctor said between 110-170 is fine). Cervix is still closed...so life is good. I'm feeling better as well.

Next ob appointment is this Wednesday. Then I'll just have one more monthly one before we move to every 2 weeks. Maybe time will go quicker then?

Happy Indepence Day!

We had a pretty tame weekend actually. Friday night we watched our nephew. We took him to the park and let him run around in the sprinkler there. The neighborhood park is about a 3-4 minute walk from our house. That will be amazing for when Grace is park age :-)

Here is looking cute :-) I was sitting in the grass while Uncle James followed him around the park. He walked up to me and gave this smile :-)

At first he wouldn't go near the sprinkler...then we couldn't get him out of it. He was running so fast through it!
This photo should seriously be on a poster for this park. Have you every seen a more excited kid!

Then on Saturday we worked/volunteered at our church's first community outreach picnic. It was a great turn out from the neighborhood. I more chased the nephew around and James was the one "working" but it was a good time. I got a bit sunburned. My nephew did not agree with my plan to hang out in the shade during the picnic.

Then on Sunday, we did a Target diaper run with some Target coupons I had. We are trying to stock up our diaper supply while we still have disposable income. Those little diapers add up! But I just don't see myself as a cloth diaper person...sorry.

Then we pretty much lounged around and did some housework...the only fireworks for us were watched on tv. This pregnant lady was not willing to brave the 90 degree heat and lack of bathroom facilities to watch the amazing down town fireworks this year.

Then on Monday, 2 old friends came over for lunch. One has 2 kiddos...James had fun entertaining them. And then other is pregnant with twins due just few weeks after me. We've come a long way since our 3rd grade playground days :-)

The Nursery

We've started to prepare the room for our Grace. This is the fun part of being pregnant...and much more exciting than worrying about all of the things that may go wrong.

We are painting the room 2 shades of blue. There is a very high chair rail going around the room...below the rail will be a darker blue and above will be a lighter blue. We are going to go with a sky/nature theme with the main focus being birds and branches. I'm ordering the following 2 wall decals. I just need to decide on color. I'm thinking of doing dark brown and white.

Both of these sets come with more birds than our pictures...so I'll have some bird decals to place around the room too. They are both from http://www.dalidecals.com/ . They have so many neat decals, I may just do my whole house in them :-)

Those decals will obviously be on the top half of the room...and the bottom half will be more meadow-ish. The bedding set we registers for from Babies R Us is called bunny meadow...below is a photo of the blanket.

So, I think our room colors are brown, green,and pink on a blue background... I'm as curious as anyone on how this will all come together :-)