37 Weeks

Woo Hoo!  I'm officially considered full term!  Although I'm still pretty convinced I'll still be pregnant for at least 3 more weeks, it feels good to know that if the baby would come today, he/she would be healthy.  According to babycenter.com the baby weighs about 6 1/3 pounds and measures a bit over 19 inches, head to heel (like a stalk of Swiss chard).  Thebump.com has its last fruit/vegetable comparison this week too:

 Photo Courtesy of thebump.com

Seeing as though the baby is considered full term, there is not much in the way of development going on anymore.  The lungs continue to mature and the hair and fingernail continue to grow.  I saw Dr. Bale yesterday.  He said that everything still looks good.  My cervix is continuing to efface but still no dilation yet.  Baby is growing like crazy!  Matt and I have felt the limbs and it is starting to get more and more evident as to which body parts are protruding out of my belly.  It is such a cool feeling!  I always thought that a baby moving inside me would be annoying and it has been the complete opposite!  I actually think that feeling the movements inside of me will be one of the things I actually miss about being pregnant!

Matt and I continue to keep busy getting ready for baby's arrival.  I am in full fledged nesting mode!  It's like my body and brain are at war with each other.  My body is saying, "Lay down - you have an extra 20 pounds to carry around and you are exhausted!"  But my brain is saying, "Clean the toys, the bottles, the clothes!  Put everything away.  Set everything up!  Put together all the baby stuff!"  Over the weekend my mom and I went to Babies 'R Us to exchange all the duplicates of gifts I got at my baby showers and to pick up a few things that I needed.  When I got home all I wanted to do was organize everything.  Matt made a delicious dinner - steak, potatoes, broccoli etc.  He actually had trouble pulling me away from the nursery to sit down and eat.  I'm telling you, this nesting business is no joke! 

Matt is of course helping to organize everything as well.  He and Rick fixed the bath tub on the main floor (it wasn't plugging).  He has also been putting stuff together like a good dad.  Here are a couple pictures of him putting together the swing.  He was getting a little bit frustrated at one point and I couldn't help but laugh just thinking of all the things that he will be putting together (and getting frustrated with) for our little one over the years. 

We also celebrated Matt's first Father's Day over the weekend.  It was a beautiful day!  We started the day off with the church service at the nursing home to see Matt's Grandpa.  Matt's Grandpa is going to be 92 years old in August.  He hasn't been doing great lately.  You can tell his mind is still there, but he has trouble talking and communicating what he needs.  When we got to the nursing home, he was sleeping in his wheelchair, so he didn't see us come in.  At the sign of peace I walked around (we were sitting behind him) to give him a kiss and a hug.  When he saw me his face lit up and he said clear as day, "Baby!"  It was awesome!  Later that day we had a little party in his room.  Most of his kids, grandchildren and great-grandchildren were able to come.  It was so nice and grandpa was in great spirits all day long!  Here is a picture of Matt with his grandma and grandpa on Father's Day:

After the nursing home, we went over to my parents' house to celebrate with my dad.  Matt made some really good ribs for the occasion and my dad made some barbecue.

Matt opened his Father's Day gift from the baby at my parents' house.  Here's a video of him opening (the video is poor quality - we need to get a video camera in the next couple weeks!)  Just a little background - When our nephew, Will, was a baby we got a picture of him sitting in his Bumbo with a little onesie that said, "Baby" on it.  Matt looked at the picture and said, "Seriously!  Why do babies wear outfits that say 'baby' on them?  I mean I know you are a baby.  You are tiny, you have drool running down your face and you are wearing a onesie.  I don't go around wearing shirts that say 'Adult' on them!"  So here is what baby got for his/her daddy:

Father's day was a great day for all of us this year.  We are feeling so very, very blessed!

In the midst of everything else, I also finished my sewing class this past week.  Here is the finished product:

This bag is FAR from perfect, but it is functional and I really learned a lot!  I'm hoping to get some time to practice and maybe even take another class starting this fall.  I guess we'll see how things go once the baby arrives.  But I really did enjoy the class and I hope to continue learning!

Many people have been asking me about the nursery.  It really is looking very nice lately thanks to the nesting that I mentioned above.  However I have not gotten it to a point where I can take good pictures in there yet.  Just to satisfy some people I did take a picture of the room before we put anything in it.  Unfortunately I did not get any good before pictures.  I do have something that will do for now though.  Anyway, here is the before and after of one of the corners of the empty room:

My parents' neighbor and good friend, Ginny Schweiss, is making the curtains for the room.  Those should be up sometime in the next week or two.  As soon as those are up I will take some pictures of the finished product.  (It will not quite be finished since we are waiting on purchasing some artwork etc. for the walls until after we know the baby's name - but it will be close enough!)

Onto this week's belly pictures.  This week we did not discuss much as we took the pictures.  We pretty much were just in awe that I'm already 37 weeks.  I can't believe we will only be doing this 3 more times!  (Well 4 at the most according to Dr. Bale).  Here I am at 37 weeks:

There is no doubt that my belly has dropped based on both the photos and the fact that I have had to use the bathroom a LOT more often lately!  We'll get yet another update as to where I am from Dr. Bale next week, but as I said earlier, I still really feel like I'm going to go at least 40 full weeks.  I'll let you know more as soon as I know it.

36 Weeks

One more month to go!  According to babycenter.com, the baby is about 6 pounds now and over 18.5 inches long.  This is the size of a crenshaw melon.  If you are wondering what a crenshaw melon is, so were we!  Here is what Matt said when I forwarded him the email:

I am intrigued by this crenshaw melon action. Almost every week I think, "Our baby sounds tasty!" Let's hope the DCS is not monitoring our emails!

So we still are not quite sure what it is, but we both agree that it sounds delicious!  Right now the baby is shedding most of the hair and vernix that has protected its skin while in utero.  I saw Dr. Bale yesterday and he confirmed that the baby is indeed in a head down position.  Let's hope he/she stays that way!  I'm not dilated yet but my cervix is starting to soften and efface.  So that's exciting!  I see Dr. Bale once a week from now until the baby is born so I will have an update from him with each post now!

I had 2 more baby showers over the weekend.  They were both wonderful!  I have to say, these ladies know what to focus on to keep the preggo happy . . . dessert.  Both showers had AMAZING desserts!  The one on Saturday was thrown by Matt's Aunt Marilyn and sisters Elizabeth and Debbie.  They got cupcakes from Dear Diva Desserts.  It was very cute how they did it.  They had Strawberry cupcakes with pink frosting, Chocolate cupcakes with blue icing and then Hummingbird cupcakes (basically a carrot cake with pineapple in it) with green frosting.  They were amazing!  The shower on Sunday was thrown by my sister, Erin and my sister-in-law, Ann.  They had white, chocolate and carrot cake balls from The Sugar Shack.  Amazing!

As I said, both showers were just lovely and we got a lot of nice things for the baby.  Unfortunately we had a slight issue with Babies 'R Us not taking items off the registry after they were bought, so I got a lot of duplicates.  Luckily though Babies 'R Us has a really good return policy, so mom and I are heading out there tomorrow with all my duplicates to exchange it for some of the things we did not get.  So we are pretty well set for the baby to come!  Just a bit of organizing and some loads of laundry to do and we will be in really good shape!

Here are a few pictures from the shower on Sunday.  It was at Ann's house.  I'm hoping people will send me some more pictures from this shower as well as some people sending me some from the one on Saturday.  Sabrina just sent me some pictures from my first shower as well, so as soon as I get some more I'll put together a post with all the pictures from my wonderful showers!  We are so lucky to have such wonderful family and friends!!!!

In addition to the showers, we have also been spending out time trying to catch up with friends.  Last Friday we had Adam and Katie over to celebrate Adam's 30th birthday.  Matt made some yummy steaks and some broccoli and potatoes and Katie made a delicious cookie cake.  It was a really fun night catching up with them and celebrating.  We even broke out the fine china and the crystal stemware.  Matt always love it when we do that!

We also met up with Anna and Matt on Wednesday.  Each year we go to the Shakespeare Festival with them in Forest Park.  We figured out that this was our 6th year going!  We were shocked to have such a lovely evening for this event this year.  We were actually a tiny bit chilly by the end of the night.  This is just unprecedented in June in St. Louis, but with these pregnancy hormones, I welcomed it!  This year's performance was The Taming of the Shrew.  It was a very cute show and we really enjoyed it.  Here's a picture of Anna and me during intermission.  Per usual with our camera we had a little trouble with the very bright flash, but were able to get one picture with our eyes mostly open.

I have also continued on with my sewing class on Tuesdays.  I am making a bag.  This coming Tuesday is the last class, so I should be able to post some pictures of my work in my next blog post.  The sewing is going okay.  I mean there are some crooked lines as well as some jumbled stitches, but for my first time it's not too bad.  The bag will not be perfect, but it will be functional.

So that was our busy week last week.  This week should be a little more low key, but I guess something always seems to come up.  I know we still have some little tasks to do here and there to get ready for the baby so that will add up I'm sure.  We are looking forward to celebrating Matt's first Father's Day on Sunday.  I have a fun gift that I can't wait to give him!

On to this week's belly photos.  As I was getting into position for this week's pictures, Matt said to me, "You look skinny!"  I really don't know where he was going with that one since I feel the TOTAL opposite of skinny, but I guess I'll take all the compliments I can get!  Here I am at 36 weeks:

Four(ish) weeks to go!  Not too much longer and we will be posting pictures of our baby's sweet face!

35 Weeks

In Bump world, today is known as 35/35.  This means that I am 35 weeks pregnant with 35 days to go.  This is getting quite exciting!  According to babycenter.com, the baby is about 18 inches long and weighs about 5.25 pounds.  This is about the size of a honeydew melon.  Baby's kidneys are fully developed now, and the liver can process some waste products.  Most of the basic physical development is now complete – baby will spend the next few weeks putting on weight.

Matt and I had quite an eventful week!  As I mentioned briefly in the last post, Matt went on a fishing trip with his dad in Minnesota last week.  According to Matt and Rick, the weather was awful most of the time they were up there, but they still had a good time.  Matt even caught a 32 inch fish on the first day.  Conveniently they did not bring the camera that day, so there is no proof of this . . . I'm still a little skeptical (just kidding!)  It really sounded like they had a really nice time and it was some good father son bonding. 

On Friday, I left for Washington D.C. for Katie and Patrick's Wedding.  Since nobody's husbands/fiances were able to join us, we had a really fun girls weekend!  We spent Friday night at Katie and Patrick's welcome picnic just catching up enjoying each other.  On Saturday, the wedding didn't start till 4pm, so we (Jackie, Sabrina, Kerri and I) decided to take a walk around the memorials.  We started at the White House.  I posted the following picture on Facebook and my favorite comment made on in was by Staci.  She said, "Were you showing your daughter (that's my guess) her future home?!?!"

After showing the baby his/her future home, we walked past the Washington Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial (no pictures) and the Lincoln Memorial.

Despite what it looks like, all these locations were actually quite a far distance from each other and I was absolutely exhausted!  Luckily it was about time to head back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding.  

The wedding was absolutely gorgeous!  Katie was such a beautiful bride and both she and Patrick looked so happy!

 

(the "Strack Pack" minus Bridget - We missed you Bridge!)

The trip was so wonderful and it was so good to see so many of my friends!  Congrats to Katie and Patrick!

When I got home on Sunday I was absolutely exhausted!  It took a couple days to get feeling back to normal, but I now I'm feeling as back to normal as I'm going to get at 35 weeks pregnant.

Here are this week's photos.  Matt was pretty quiet during this photo session, but at the very end he did say, "Your belly is hanging over your pants!"  That made me laugh a little - and made me give him a glare as well!  As I was looking over the pictures I questioned him as to why they are so far away this time.  He said, "I had to fit everything in!"  HAHA, okay, enough with the fat jokes.  Here are the pictures of me at 35 weeks pregnant:

Well that's it for 35 weeks.  This week will be busy as well as I have 2 more showers coming up!  I can't say it enough, this baby is very loved!  Sabrina said she would send me a few more pictures from the first shower as well, so hopefully I'll be able to post a bit more about that one!  Oh and our nursery furniture is coming tomorrow, so I may be able to post nursery pictures soon!  Exciting stuff is coming up!

34 Weeks

Whew!  I have been BUSY lately!  So this was supposed to be posted on Thursday, but here it is Monday and I am just now getting to it.  So anyway, as of Thursday I am 34 weeks along!  According to babycenter.com the baby is about is about 18 inches long and weighs about 4.75 pounds - about the size of a cantaloupe.  Pretty much the same development has been going on this week - gaining fat and lungs are maturing. 

Matt and I had our first baby shower last Saturday.  Sabrina, Jackie and Staci threw this shower for me.  It was WONDERFUL!  We had a ladder golf tournament, lots of delicious food and a couple fun baby shower guessing games.  Here are a couple pictures from the festivities:

Everyone seemed to have a nice time and we got a lot of very nice gifts for the baby.  I feel like a broken record, but it is true - our baby is already so loved.  We are very lucky to have such wonderful friends and family!

Right after the shower, Matt left for his fishing trip with his dad.  He was gone all week, but I kept myself very busy while he was away.  That night Sabrina, Jackie and I met Erin and some of her friends at Pi for dinner and then we went to Ted Drewes.  This past week, I also started a sewing class with Anna on Tuesday nights.  Hopefully I'll actually be good at sewing and be able to make the baby some good stuff in time.  On Wednesday I used one of my gift certificates to get a prenatal massage.  It was really nice!  I have one more gift certificate to use so I am very happy about that!  Thursday I went out with my mom, Aunt Patty, Aunt Tammy, Aunt Lisa, cousins Heather and Mandy and my sister Erin to dinner and to see the movie Bridesmaids.  It was hilarious!  Then on Friday I packed up and headed out to Washington DC for Katie Mac's Wedding.  (More on that in my next post).

The paragraph above shows the reason why this post is so late.  I was just crazy busy all week long!  I am so tired right now and I'm sure as a result this post is a tiny bit incoherent, but I wanted to get it out there before it was too late.  Since Matt was out of town, my mom graciously came over to take this week's belly pictures.  Being a nurse, when I asked if she could come over to take this week's belly shots, she automatically assumed I needed some sort of injection in my belly.  HAHA!  Anyway eventually she understood what I meant.  Here I am at 34 weeks pregnant:

Okay, that's about all I have for last week.  I will update again later this week to catch up on everything.