Overdue

Baby has decided he is quiteeee comfortable. And that at 40 weeks 3 days he is very much enjoying himself! I have told him there is a LOT more space on the outside, but he continues to push around in his small little bubble.

Trying as much as I can to not stress out about it, really 3 days "late" is not that bad. Due dates are just a rough estimate, but I want him to come out before we have to induce! IF he decides he doesn't want to come out, we will be induced a week from Friday. Which would make him a June baby. I've been thinking I'm having a May baby, but maybe he's trying to keep me on my toes and keep me flexible so I'm ready when he comes out :)

Tree in our front yard

That being said I've been off work since last week and it's been MARVELOUS. I've been much less stressed, am able to sleep in on all those nights that I am up for several hours because of discomfort, and am enjoying walking in the beautiful Minnesota spring time! Cici has also appreciated the extra attention before she no longer gets any :(

Park near our house

Blackhawk Park 

Lebanon Hills Regional Park

My mom arrived on Sunday, our due date, and that has been nice to have her here and spend time with her before the baby comes. We have gotten to continue to spoil the only grandkid Henry, and be amazed that only 4 months ago HE was in a belly too!

I got some funny looks at the airport!

40 Weeks Pregnant..Holding a baby

He loves when Auntie dresses him

Yea, he wore more clothes in 1 day withe me
than in an average week :)

Loves Ame

This is what he normally wears lol

So until my baby decides he is ready to come out I'll keep trying to keep myself distracted: cooking, walking (sometimes in the rain!) hanging out with mom, and resting. Regardless.. he will be here next week and that is CRAZY to think about! Can't believe how excited Mark and I are to meet him and to see his sweet little face!

Cici was not happy with our springtime rain walk

We got soaked!

Baby is full term in 1 week!

This post will probably be full of pregnancy updates... because baby is coming so soon!  Since my last post we got to celebrate three different baby showers! The first one was at my school, and my 1st grade team put on a fun little baby shower after school. We got our crib mattress, lots of cute clothes and other things we needed for little A like diapers. The next day I got to celebrate AGAIN with Nancy (Mark's mom's) friends. Anne drove me out to Afton and we enjoyed a fun shower with all of the Afton ladies. There was a GREAT gluten free menu, complete with gluten free salads, muffins and a delicious chocolate pudding! The ladies got us our Pack-n-Play which we have in our room for when baby comes home and sleeps in the room with us, as well as the voice monitor, noise maker to put baby to sleep and lots of books to read baby before bed.

Pack-n-play

Clothes from school shower and cute monkey blanket

Gifts from the girls

The last shower I've had in the last few weeks was yesterday. It was a small group of us, just me, Susan and Julie and Anneke. We had a great time though! We started by playing with my little nephew Henry (who was definitely the star of the day) then ate some delicious food! My favorites were there just like at my school shower, tortilla chips, fruit, and Julie even went to the gluten free bakery to get me CUPCAKE :) We also spent a while decorating little oneies and for a group of girls who claimed to "not be artistic" I think we did a great job! I know Mark likes his Ninja turtle inspired one :)

Our Onesies (please note Curious George and Dino (SUSAN!) Elephant and Ninja (JULIE!) BYOB (Anneke!)

Thanks to ALL the generosity of our friends and family the nursery is finally feeling ready! We inherited BUCKETS of clothes from Mark's side of the family (being the 4th boy in the last 8 years) and any gear we have not received as gifts or purchased we are borrowing from Anne and Mike. I still have yet to finish decorating it (I have a vision) but all the key parts are there! We put tthe crib together (finally) and are just waiting for our glider to arrive next week.

Bookshelf

Closet organized Newborn and 0-3

Crib Unfinished

Crib Finished

Organizing all the clothes we inherited

As far as how I'm feeling... I'd say for being 36 weeks pregnant I'm doing pretty good. I had to stop doing most things at the gym, but I have gotten into the pool a few times. First time at 34 weeks (since had to buy a different maternity top!) and once the week after. I'm hoping to go more this week since it will be too rainy to walk. Mark and I have been trying to walk every day, and I'm still doing my daily morning yoga; but I have yet to attend a Zumba class since about 32 weeks. I find that now my body tells me when I overdo something, and I start to get cramps. Dr. said as long as they go away when I rest and drink water it's ok, so I'm just trying to listen to my body and when I feel any pains to stop and rest. I've had a lot more practice contractions, which are scary, and every time I think to myself "What if this is the beginning of the real thing?" (Granted most of these thoughts have happened in the middle of the night). Dr. says things seem good. I am now on to weekly appointments and my vitals have been great and his heartrate has been good as well. Last week he measured a little bit small so if he continues we may have to look into that, but my Dr. suspects it's because he's laying kind of sideways. (Which I know from his constant kicks to my right rib....) He is moving ALL the time and at night the movements became alien crazy!

34 Weeks pregnant about to swim

36 weeks pregnant

Jimpa getting to know Henry

This past week was a fun week in addition to the pregnancy, in that my dad was in town to visit! He came in on Good Friday, and we got to spend some time with him getting to know Henry (who he absolutely loves!) The rest of the weekend we got to spend with him and Paul, Susan and Henry. Saturday we went down to my parent's NEW HOUSE in Northfield, MN, and realized what a CUTE location they have gotten. My dad also got to see ALL the work he has ahead of him. Then on Sunday we went to Minnehaha falls (a bit warmer than the last time my dad was here!) And we did the hike along the falls to the Mississippi river. It was a BEAUTIFUL day.

Pretending to walk Henry

Laughing at Jimpa and Henry

The rest of the week my dad got to spend time with Mark and I in the evenings after work (since he was staying here) and a few days with Paul and Henry. The rest of the time he sepnt getting their new house ready: repairing a leaky roof, installing new door locks, replacing doors, changing the vents in the heating unit, checking out the plumbing, setting up utilities. Etc. He worked VERY hard while he was here! Not the most relaxing vacation! But we were glad to have him, and can't wait for him to be back in a couple months when Baby A is born!

2014...It Begins with a FREEZE

What a wonderful Winter Break I have had! Starting from the Saturday we got off school, Mark and I headed to NC to spend some time with my parents. We LOVED the warm weather (50's/60's) and got to see lots of friends and family and just relax in our final Christmas without Baby A! My mom loved having us and especially loved seeing my belly grow, which it seems to have done quite a bit over the 2 weeks!

19 weeks

Mark left to head to a wedding and I stayed in W-S and got to have some SUITIE time :) And boy was it sweet! We got to eat at Riverbirch, walk around WFU, breakfast at Mary's of Course, and lots of chatting and giggling at Anna's house. In fact, while at Anna's the ladies threw me my 1st baby shower :) And we got to exchange our SS gifts for the year. From Anna's we headed back to celebrate New Years at Andrea's house where all of our husbands (Except for my lazy husband in MN...J/K Mark) made us a gourmet meal complete with our FAVORITE appetizers! It made me realize how great we did at picking our significant others :) and Thankful to have stayed in touch with such a wonderful group of ladies, and their men.

Wait Chapel

LEK and I

Suities and Sig Others

Suitie Baby Gifts

Andrea's Pretty Tree

We brought in the new year with Champagne (Sparkling cider for me) card games, dance parties and laughing and remembering our favorite times of 2013. It was hard for me to come up with just one because I feel so thankful for everything that happened, but I would say 2 big highlights were buying a home and then starting our new family :)


January 2nd I was excited to head home but had not prepared myself for the difficult travels that lay ahead of me. I knew when I saw that Chicago was having blizzard weather my travel may be affected but told myself since I was flying out late at 6pm, I would arrive after the storm..... 2 hour delay in Charlotte, 2 hours on the runway in Charlotte, landing in Chicago and 2 hours on the runway there I soon realized I would not be spending the night in my comfy bed with my husband. After re-booking a new flight for their first time at 12:45pm the next day (hoping I would make my 2pm Ultrasound!) I finally lay down to sleep at 2 am on a lovely cot provided by Midway Airport. It looked like a storm shelter refuge. I slept so soundly....until 4 am when I was awoken by "The airport is OPEN! Make way to your gate, you need to get off the cots! Wake UP!". I didn't yet have a gate seeing as my plane was not supposed to take off for 8 hrs but I found a nice bare area of floor and fell back asleep... not easy to do as a pregnant person in a crowded airport, alone. Napping and waking off and on I realized around 8 am that my flight was cancelled... again. Thinking this was ridiculous and fearing that now would I not only miss my ultrasound today but also my brother's wedding the next day, I re-booked myself for another flight and guess what, that too was cancelled. I finally gave up on SWEST after watching them cancel EVERY flight to Minneapolis for the day, so I headed to Delta, forked up some money and FINALLY made it home.

All the flights that are blue are southwest....also cancelled or delayed

Finally leaving CHICAGO!

LONG lines to get to Customer Service

Just in time for our ULTRA SOUND! And we found out we are having a sweet, healthy baby BOY :) The only negative thing the tech could say about him is that his tummy is 2 weeks bigger than it should be compared to the rest of his body..... so I guess we are growing a chubby little dumpling! You would think at this time the stress was over, right? I had made it home, I had a healthy baby....but my parents who were coming to Minneapolis to see my brother get married had their flight cancelled as well! Exhausted, stressed out and worried Mark and I finally went to bed hoping that my parents would make it from Baltimore to Minneapolis that night, and at 1 am they finally did. Without all 4 of the bags they checked, all lost until 4 days later... Needless to say Southwest, although great with customer service....is on our bad list. They gave us vouchers and they've apologized, and I LOVE their prices but I also love to make it to my destinations :)

The next day, we got to celebrate another special occasion, My brother and new sister-in-law Susan were married! It was a small wedding at a cute place with just immediate family but it was quite beautiful! The past few days we have gotten to spend with my brother and sister-in-law, my parents (my dad's flight was cancelled would you believe it!?) and although it was chilly here, we got a lot of time together because Mark and I got both Monday and Tuesday off due to the -17 + temperatures. I'll take some bad weather for a few days off. We even braved the cold yesterday to show my dad Minnehaha falls, frozen, an amazing sight to see!

Minnehaha Falls

The boys don't look to happy to be here

Mom trying to acclimate to MN weather

Family

Now, as we are about to begin real life again and head to work tomorrow I can't help but think of HOW FAST this break went by, and how thankful I am for the time I got to spend with my family through it all. We will be sad to see my dad go tomorrow (provided his flight isn't cancelled again) but are happy to have my mom staying with us until Paul and Susan's baby is born later this month! I am enjoying watching my baby grow (even if the scale is creeping up...) and can't wait to feel him kicking and squirming around in my stomach like I saw in the ultra sound. For now, Mark and I need to begin to think of names....

22 weeks... finally in Maternity clothes. THANKS ANNE!