Twenty Nine Weeks

Baby is 29 Weeks. Just in time for daddy's 29th birthday!

PHYSICAL CHANGES: Started waking up more frequently in the middle of the night. Sometimes to use the ladies room and sometimes because I'm in a desperate need of Tums. Either way, it's annoying, but I get back to sleep pretty quickly. Back pain has increased a little bit. Thankfully when we were visiting Bridgeport in June, Ash gave me this awesome rice bag that heats up in the microwave. I use that sucker every single day - brings sweet relief pretty much instantaneously. After all the things I could complain about-I do have one positive physical note : we are able to feel baby move pretty much anytime we want. She is so active that we are already constantly engaged with her. She hasn't taken any sharp jabs to my internal organs so that's nice too. When the family was in for our baby shower last weekend, I think everyone who wanted to got to feel her squirm around in my belly. It's so fun already sharing her with our family.

CRAVINGS: Watermelon and ice cold water have been the main cravings of the week (again). As the heat continues to increase, I'm sticking to those cold items to satisfy my appetite. I realize how healthy that must sound, but I must confess that fast food fries have been very hard to avoid lately :)

SWEET BABY MOMENT OF THE WEEK: We've graciously been given lots of little girl clothes from friends and family. After going through the loot and organizing it all- we finally got around to washing all the clothes this week. You should have seen how cute our laundry was! An entire washer full of pink clothes and they smelled OOOOOO soooo good. Got the 'Baby Magic' brand of laundry detergent. That stuff is like baby crack. When I pulled the load out of the dryer we both let out a sigh at how cute our laundry had become. Turns out if you add some cute baby clothes to laundry, that chore gets a little more fun!

Twenty Eight Weeks

Hello 3rd Trimester! Baby is the size of a Chinese Cabbage

Ok, I'm not that wild about this picture.When I envisioned doing these weekly pictures, I never thought I would stoop so low as to take one in workout clothes. These were supposed to be beautifully orchestrated pictures that made me look "barely" pregnant and always glowing : )  BUT It was Monday night, we were in the living room with pieces of the changing table all around us - just waiting to be assembled and we remembered it was Picture day! What's a girl to do? Hurry up, take the picture and get back to assembling baby furniture before her husband loses motivation! Thus, Week 28 is not mommy's most proud pic - but hey - the nursery now has all assembled furniture! Plus Elise might as well realize already that mommy is often in sweats and a t-shirt at home. We'll call this picture our "reality" pregnant photo.

So here we are in the 3rd trimester. What better way to start off the third trimester than with a baby shower!?!?!?!?

This Saturday we had our first baby shower. Talk about a surreal moment!  I was getting dressed in my bathroom with my sister and I just couldn't believe we were actually getting ready for my BABY shower. Weren't we just getting my wedding dress on a few weeks ago? Sheesh - time flies when you are having fun!
Our fabulous friends put on a "shower" that was different from what you usually think about as a baby shower.And I should really use that phrase lightly. It was mostly college and local friends with a few of our closest couple friends. There was beer, BOYS came, and the food was heavy and delicious. Nothing like what you usually think about when you hear the words "baby shower". AND WE LOVED IT!

I picked some of my favorite pictures to re-cap the event :

Although delicious tacos and Mexican food was our main meal, we still got indulge with some pink cupcakes and lemonade!

Check it out! Boys at a baby shower!!

Our beautiful hosts





Plenty of pink and clothes to see for miles and miles



The mastermind behind it all. My bfffffffff Crystal

The Varner girls made a special trip in, so sweet

Parents to be and the Grandparents

Twenty Seven Weeks

27 Weeks. Our little sunshine tips the scale at over 2 pounds

How far along? 27 weeks, 4 days. Some books count the third trimester starting at 27 weeks and some count it at 28 weeks. I'm officially in the middle so I say that we are in the third trimester. WHOOP!!
Wait... that means this baby is going to come out soon...

Total weight gain: A lady never tells. Especially a lady who has gained 24 lbs in 27 weeks. (hypothetically speaking of course)

Maternity clothes? 100% of the time. Is it possible to outgrow maternity clothes?

Stretch marks? No. Thank you mom for that great hereditary trait!

Sleep: I need more of it - know where I can get some?

Best moment this week: Laying on the couch with Casey and "playing" with Elise through my stomach. She responds to her daddy's voice intensely - so sweet

Miss Anything? Maybe one day I will be able to put something BESIDES beer, but I'm sticking with that for now.

Heartburn: My esophagus is constantly on fire. I think we've moved past heartburn

Food cravings: Watermelon.

Anything making you queasy or sick: None whatsoever at this point

Favorite thing about pregnancy so far: The anticipation of meeting my daughter

Least favorite thing about pregnancy so far: constantly grunting when I move :)

Belly Button in or out? In

Wedding rings on or off? On

Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy!

Looking forward to: Our shower this weekend

Twenty Five Weeks

25 Weeks. Baby Girl Rivals the weight of a Rutabaga

Big week for our baby! She gets to go on her first airplane ride :)

We're headed to San Fransisco for the weekend in honor of our 3rd Wedding Anniversary. Hello Cooler Weather! Highs are supposed to be in the 70's and Low's are a crisp 49 degrees! Feels so wierd packing jackets in my suitcase as I'm sweating through my tank top...

Twenty Four Weeks

Our Little Aggie is the size of an ear of corn

PHYSICAL CHANGES: Rib Pain on my right side is now a common companion of mine. To my husband's delight I have just stopped complaining about it as much and instead just grunt and move around when I'm trying to adjust the discomfort. My positive outlook on this situation is that when she is actually born I'll have just another thing to be thankful for. (Relief!)
Growing a little bigger every day in the belly - no major swelling yet (Thank you Jesus)
CRAVINGS: Cantaloupe, Watermelon and all things chocolate or sweet. I was convinced at the beginning of this pregnancy that we were not having a girl because I would get sick anytime I ate sweets.Even my FAVORITE sweets like Key Lime Pie. And as the old wives tales go, if you crave sweets - it's a girl. Thus, I was convinced we were having a boy because I couldn't get enough protien to satisfy me. Ladies and Gentleman, we have since done a 180 and now you can't keep me out of the cookie jar. (literally)

SWEET BABY MOMENT OF THE WEEK: There are SO Many sweet moments the further we get into this adventure. You should see the way Casey and I dote over little girls when we see them on TV, on the street, in the stores or basically anywhere in our general vicinity. We went and visited Ashley and Dustin in Bridgeport this weekend. Their daughter, Aubrey, is 20 months old and we watched her like she was a source of magic. It was like by watching her cuteness all weekend, we would somehow absorb how to be great parents and be more prepared for all things girly that our coming our way. It seems to me that parenting should be that easy, so we'll just assume we've got it all figured out and be pleasantly surprised later. : )

Our crib was delivered today so we have a fun weekend ahead of us! Wish us luck as sometimes projects like this seems to bring out the worst in us. Not to mention the pure pressure of assembling millions of small parts on a very important project that will directly affect the safety of our child! Atleast I'm not too big to get down on the ground and be helping Casey assemble parts...

Twenty Three Weeks

23 Weeks. Baby Girl is the size of a Large Mango

Found this on another mom's blog and just had to share: I think I'm currently enjoying my 27 minutes in Stage 3 : )

Stages of Pregnancy

Stage 1: You just found out you're pregnant. You're excited (or horrified) and you can't believe you're going to be a mother. You may be scared to give birth and wonder how you're going to do it. Everywhere you look you see pregnant women. You're tired. Like really tired. Every pain and twinge you wonder if it's because you're pregnant. You wonder if people can tell that you're pregnant – sort of like when you wonder if people can tell if you're drunk (hopefully, you aren't wondering this at the same time).

Stage 2: You look fat but not pregnant. You can see people kind of looking at you wondering but it seems weird to blurt out "I'm pregnant!"  You may or may not have told people by now. The people you've told ask you how you're feeling all the time. You may have bought a couple of maternity things that you think you can wear after the baby comes. You may be tired, sick, have sore boobs and have to pee constantly. It's a delicious luck of the draw.

Stage 3: You're really cute and could be an ad for a maternity store. Everyone can see that you're pregnant and congratulate you and tell you how wonderful you look. You feel great. Nothing hurts and you don't feel sick anymore. This stage usually lasts for about 27 minutes.

Stage 4: You're starting to find it hard to breathe and things are starting to swell. You're sick of people asking you if you know what you're having, when you're due and if you've decided on a name. You're tired of wearing the same maternity clothes but you don't want to buy new stuff because you're almost done. Shaving your legs and putting on shoes is becoming difficult.

Stage 5: You feel enormous and none of your maternity clothes fit. You want to crash through walls and shout "oh yeah!" like the KoolAid man. People keep saying "Haven't you had that baby yet?" You have a new appreciation for how difficult it is for the elderly and morbidly obese to get around and swear you're going to become an advocate for their rights once you catch your breath. You're no longer scared of birth you just want this kid out of you and if that means pulling it through your right nostril, so be it.

Stage 6: The baby is here. You want to burn your maternity clothes on the front lawn. You're no longer pregnant and you're looking forward to getting your body back, a full night's sleep and eating a nice, hot meal. Wait. What?

Twenty Two Weeks

22 Weeks. Our sweet baby weighs one whole pound

PHYSICAL CHANGES: Had a pain in my right hand side of my ribs set in within the last week and it has NOT been a pleasure getting used to. I (and my doctors) were originally convinced it was my gallbladder and I had an ultrasound to to rule out gallstones. But to my surprise, I am healthy and no organs are getting squished. I know I should be thankful for this news, but I now I am just even more perplexed at what could be causing this intense pressure that is centrally located. Per doctors instructions, I'm trying some stronger antacids for the next week to see if that won't help. Also, Casey and I had a heart to heart last night and I'm dealing with the fact that this just may be normal pregnancy stuff that I'm going to have to grin and bear for the remaining months. Oh how lovely.

CRAVINGS: Seems like they change every week, but there is definitely a trend for sweets that seems to be quadrupling each week. In fact, chocolate is becoming more appetising to me than it ever has. And I'm not craving something simple like a Hershey's bar.. I want something crazy delicious like a brownie that has an Oreo stuffed in it and is covered in fudge. Not going to have anything like that, but I'm just saying it sounds pretty darn good. Thankfully watermelon is still a required staple and at least it has SOME nutrition.


SWEET BABY MOMENT OF THE WEEK: Felt her hiccup for the first time this week. It actually startled me - It felt so different from her normal kicking and squirming and really shook my whole belly. It was so fun though!