Wiggle Wiggle

Everything went well at the doctor today. I gained MORE weight....He says now I'm going to gain 50 pounds by the end of the pregnancy, but he's not worried about it because I was slim before and I still look slim (other than my big belly). I hate that I am gaining so much weight but I exericse 3 times a day most days (30 minutes on the elliptical, followed by pre-natal yoga, then 30 minutes of walking when Tim gets home) and I don't eat much different than I did before pregnancy, so I guess it's just going to happen.

My belly was measuring 29 cm - so a little ahead of where I am today (28 weeks 4 days), which goes along with measuring 3 days ahead at the ultrasound at 20 weeks, but it doesn't necessarily mean that. Heartbeat was 146 - Dr. had a hard time getting a reading because Toots was moving around like crazy! The doctor even said "wow!" haha. The doctor happened to have 7 H1N1 vaccines, without thimerisol (sp possibly), and so he offered one of them to me. I know some people are iffy about this vaccine but I'm not one of those people that generally worries about vaccines and I feel like the benefits outweigh the risks in this situation. My OB is a conservative guy and he strongly recommended I get it, so I trust him. Thimerisol is the additive that some people believe causes autism and other problems in kids, so that's why it's nice it wasn't in the vaccine I got. The doctor said he would still recommend me getting it even if it did have thimerisol because it has never been proven to be the cause of any problems, but luckily I didn't have to deal with that issue.

I have another appointment in four weeks and then it will go to every two weeks, then every week. It's starting to go by quickly! I'm excited!

Oh - I noticed a I have a new follower or two, so 'hi!' and I'm glad you're here!

Prayers Please

I'd like to ask that all of you that read this please keep a couple that we know in your thoughts and/or prayers. I don't want to give a lot of personal information about them, but they got married the same day as us and we met them on our honeymoon (I'll call them M and J). We have kept in touch with them through facebook since the honeymoon. M and J were about 3 weeks behind us in their pregnancy and found out that their daughter (I'll call her A) had triploidy (a genetic disorder - you can google it and find info if you want). They had been praying and hoping for the best but A went to heaven tonight. They are very religious and put a lot of faith in God but I know this has to be terribly difficult and cannot imagine what they are going through.

Please think of them.

Third Trimester

According to all sources now, I am in the 3rd trimester! Less than 12 weeks until Brendan should be here :)

I had a wonderful shower this weekend in Beaumont. I don't have pictures to post, yet, because my mom has them and I haven't gotten them from her. The food was pregnancy cravings that the hostesses, my mom, and Tim's mom had when they were pregnant - it was really cute! They also had the food table decorated with a Peter Rabbit stuff animal, a Peter Rabbit book, carrots, radishes, and lettuce. It was just adorable. The Peter Rabbit is because that's how the nursery is going to be decorated. I spent the other part of the weekend in Boerne and that was also a great time. I got to eat Los Barrios enchiladas again (I think I mentioned them in a post awhile back). I seriously think about those enchiladas EVERY DAY - they are soooo good!

I'm posting late this week because I kept forgetting to take a belly picture. I was absolutely exhausted after this weekend so I didn't take one until last night. We have a doctor's appointment tomorrow morning, so I'll try to update again after that and let y'all know how it went. We are going tonight to get a crib mattress from Babies 'R Us. Tim's dad and stepmom are buying it for us. I have two more showers coming up. Some of my friends are giving me one in Frisco next weekend (November 7th) and then Tim's work was so sweet and offered to have one for me at their office on November 12th. This weekend, we are taking maternity pictures on Saturday as well as participating in the Trunk or Treat at our church.

Here's the belly picture for the week. I could tell a noticeable difference in how much my belly is sticking out in front from last week to this week. I have a hard time getting my socks on now, especially if I am wearing longer ones, like when I wear boots. I have to get Tim to help me when that happens!


And here's what's going on with baby this week. I am using the update from What to Expect When You're Expecting because Baby Center is behind all the other sources I use this week.

Your baby is settling into the proper position for birth, with his head facing downward (toward your body's nearest exit!). Your little work in progress is now about 2.5 pounds and almost 16 inches long. He's busy adding new skills such as blinking to an already impressive repertoire of tricks like coughing, sucking, hiccuping, and taking practice breaths. Your baby's sleep now includes the REM (rapid eye movement) phase — and that means he could be dreaming already (what do you suppose he's dreaming about?). Though his lungs are nearly fully mature (so both of you might breathe a little easier if he were born now), your baby still has plenty of growing to do.

Toots also LOVES to stick his head/back/butt out to where my belly pops out in one area. One girl online said her baby does this and she thinks it's because she will always rub that area that the baby sticks out. I think that might be the case with Toots, too, because I also rub his little head (or whatever area it is) whenever he does that. It's pretty cute! I just started feeling hiccups in the past several days - cute but sometimes a little annoying. He also really likes it when I take a bath. I take a bath everynight unless I have to wash my hair (which, honestly, isn't too often!) and he just starts kicking and kicking whenever my belly gets in the tub. Before you wonder, I know the water isn't too hot or anything, so that's not the reason why. Iread that babies often like it when the mom goes swimming because they can feel the weightlessness as well, so I think that might be why. He seems to be having a good time in there!

And here's a picture:

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Let me know if you have any suggestions for me for the last trimester of pregnancy!

Better Than Average

Not much to tell y'all about this week. Now I definitely won't many comments from you! :(

I finished the Baby Sleeping bunny I was cross stitching for the door to Toot's nursery and brought it to the store to get made into the little pillow that hangs from the door. I should have it in two to three weeks and I'll post some pictures.

Friday, Tim and I went and ate pizza and went to Wal-Mart and Target to get some Halloween stuff. We are participating in "Trunk or Treat" at our church and so we have to decorate the back end of my car for it. We're going to do a graveyard so we bought three tombstones, some fabric to cover the back with, some spiders, a skull, a bat, and some black roses. I think we're going to have the gate of the back of my car covered in black and make a moon to hang from it and have the bat hanging by the moon. Hopefully it will turn out cute.

Saturday, we hung out at the house and exercised and then went to Cafe Italia in Grapevine for dinner with Tim's friend, Stephen, and his fiancee, Kelly. I've mentioned hanging out with them before but they recently got engaged! After Cafe Italia, which was really good by the way, we went to the AMC theatre at the Grapevine Mills mall to see Paranormal Activity. We had heard a lot of scary things about it and were anxious to see it. It was very suspenseful - not gory at all. I wasn't as scared as I thought I would be, but it was a good movie. Unfortunately, there were a TON of kids that were definitely not old enough to be in a rated R movie and they acted kind of stupid (screaming at really dumb things). But it was still a good time.

We went to church today and to the grocery store. We watched some football and I took a nap while Tim did some work he needed to do. I went on a walk and he went on a run and then we had breakfast for dinner (yum) and here we are :)

Not too eventful but, as the post title says, I think things are better than average in life right now.

This week, I'm going to Waco on Wednesday to finally pick up my wedding album and for my little sister, Emily's, 13th birthday. Friday, we are headed to Boerne. Tim is going to stay in Boerne with my stepdad and play in a poker tournament on Saturday and my mom and I are headed first to Beaumont for a baby shower that Tim's mom's friend is having for me and then we are going to go to Houston to spend the night to celebrate her birthday. Should be a fun week and weekend. I'm super excited about the shower!

Toots has been kicking up a storm lately. I definitely like it, though, and get nervous if I don't feel him a lot. He seems to like the afternoon and night times the best. Tim reads to him everynight before we go to bed.

Here's the belly picture of the week. I think I look bigger on top of my belly this week.


And here's what's going on with baby this week:

This week, your baby weighs almost 2 pounds (like a head of cauliflower) and is about 14 1/2 inches long with her legs extended. She's sleeping and waking at regular intervals, opening and closing her eyes, and perhaps even sucking her fingers. With more brain tissue developing, your baby's brain is very active now. While her lungs are still immature, they would be capable of functioning — with a lot of medical help — if she were to be born now. Chalk up any tiny rhythmic movements you may be feeling to a case of baby hiccups, which may be common from now on. Each episode usually lasts only a few moments, and they don't bother her, so just relax and enjoy the tickle.

Several books said he is more like 15 1/4 inches rather than 14 1/2, so somewhere around there.

Here's a picture:

Hope everyone had a nice and relaxing weekend!

Rain, Rain Go Away

Is it EVER going to stop raining? When we left Fort Worth for Red River, it was raining. When we came back to Fort Worth from Red River, it was raining. It's dreary today. Supposedly it's going to stop tomorrow.

So, we left last Thursday around 2:00 for Red River. We got there at midnight after lots of stops so I could go to the bathroom and we could eat. We got up the next morning, ate lunch, and decided to go on a little hike. Tim picked out a trail that was supposed to be easy. It was fun but I got out of breath pretty easily, so we didn't go the whole way.

Here's a picture on the hike of some scenery.

We got done with the hike and went to the local Octoberfest for awhile. Tim got to taste some local beers, I ate some roasted corn, and he ate a bratwurst. The next day, we went to Taos for part of the day (about 45 minutes from Red River). We ate lunch and got Toots two books, some baby moccassins (sp?), and a little bike license plate. Obviously, he won't be needing a license plate for his bike for awhile but we got so excited when we saw his name on one that we had to buy it :) Sunday we took my grandparent's jeep on the trail we hiked on but we didn't get much further than we did walking because the river cut across the road and it was really bumpy. Monday, we got up about 7:00 Texas time and hit the road. We made really good timing and got back by 5:30 PM. We had a great time and were sad to leave. I told Tim that was the last trip we would take without having a bunch of baby stuff to unload!

One more scenery picture:

I'm 26 weeks this week (well, 26 weeks 3 days now). I've been trying to get in a little more exercise. The doctor still says it's okay the weight I'm gaining because I was so slim when I got pregnant (Practice Court will do that to you!) but I'm definitely going to be on the high-end of gaiing at this point, so I really want to keep it under control. I got my haircut last week, but it looks terrible in this picture because we had just gotten back from a walk in the drizzle. I got my side-swoop bangs back, though.

I'm pretty sure the Baby Center update on baby this week is wrong because I know I've read it before and it says different stuff than every other update, so I'm using a different website this week - babygaga.com.

At long last, your little swimmer can see the womb! Your miracle’s little eyelids have finally separated (they were fused closed previously) and they’re probably having their first moments of sight as you read this (or maybe it already happened while you were brushing your teeth or watching Oprah or something). In addition to seeing their little studio in your belly, they’ve recently acquired the ability to say “yes” and “no” in rudimentary sign language as they can now move their head back and forth. This is also the time where your little super star’s head hair is starting to grow! A cute little cowlick or two may be springing into position right now, getting ready for years of cute-but-stubborn bed-head. Also, their toenails have grown in and you little raisin continues to slowly pile up fat beneath their still-loose skin. Most importantly, brain tissue and neurons are all developing at a rapid pace, increasing their (genius-level?) brain activity and will continue to function at accelerated levels for the first seven to eight years of childhood! He weighs about 2 pounds and is approximately 14 inches long.

I can see my belly bump around when he kicks me now, so that's pretty funny.

I hope everyone had a nice weekend and beginning of the week!

Red River is great and the weather is beautiful! We are going to Taos for the day. Today is 99 days until my due date! Double digits!

Have a great weekend!

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree*

*I'm editing this post because Jennifer let me know I didn't have one of the ornaments. It is flat and so I didn't noticed it wrapped in some of the paper. Luckily, I hadn't taken the garbage out yet so I got it out! I added a picture of it below the other two...It's so pretty!

Last year, I participated in an ornament exchange on my local DFW board on The Nest. I am participating again this year and the first exchange was this week. I got my ornaments in the mail today and they are PERFECT for our tree! It gets me excited for Christmas!! Jennifer (jenn4 on The Nest) sent them to me. Here's a picture - it's not the best, but I want to show them off :)

Tucker got his teeth cleaned today and he had to get a BUNCH of teeth pulled :( Mostly the tiny ones in the front and his very back molars. Other than that, just two on one side. I feel so bad for him. He's only 5 and already has had to have so many teeth pulled. We've had problems with his teeth from the beginning. This is the third time they've been cleaned and when he was a puppy he had to have all his baby teeth pulled because they didn't fall out when the adult teeth came in. He seems to be feeling pretty good though and we've already played with his toy once since he got home, so hopefully he won't be too scarred from it.

We're leaving for Red River tomorrow around 3:00 so I'll post when I get back. Y'all have a great weekend!

I'm Starving Here!

Tucker (our Yorkie) is given food at-will. I leave food out for him 24/7 and he eats when he wants to. Tomorrow, he's getting his teeth cleaned so he isn't allowed to eat past 8:00 tonight. He was eating the rest of the food in his bowl at about 8:15 so I went ahead and let him finish. Just now, I looked over and he was licking his empty bowl.

Apparently, he's still hungry. I wish I had a video of it. I laughed for five minutes - he's never done that before! Poor Tucker.

"I'm Alive, And Well"*

*That's the song Tim was just singing on the couch next to me...it's a new Kenny Chesney/Dave Matthews song that's out right now.

I had my last three days of work this past week. They took me to lunch on Wednesday at Babe's Chicken Dinner House in Burleson. It is SO good! If you have never been there, you should go. They have several locations in the DFW area. I think I'm going to go back up to the courthouse this week, though, to watch one day of a murder trial they are doing this week. I'm going to miss the excitement of the Gang Unit. Only about one month until bar results come out - eek!

Thursday and Friday I spent the days cleaning and running some errands. I'm not going to be able to start this week, but I am hoping to get in a routine of getting all my errands done one day of the week and not getting out the other days. That way, I won't be using as much gas by going out to do things everyday and, hopefully, I'll limit my exposure to getting sick a little bit. I was planning on starting this week but then I remembered I'm getting my haircut on Tuesday, Wednesday is when I was planning on going to the courthouse, and I have a manicure/pedicure and prenatal massage on Thursday (gift certificate from my mom from my birthday). So, I will be out several days this week. We're also leaving Thursday after Tim gets off work to go to Red River, NM where my Nanny and Papa have a house to have a little "babymoon." We're really excited about it!

Friday, we went to a Roger Creager concert at the ballpark in Arlington with my friend, Kaitlin, and her boyfriend, Beau. It was the All Aggie Hullabaloo for the A&M v. Arkansas game in Arlington this weekend. Roger Creager is one of my favorite Texas country artists so I was excited to see him again. It was Toot's first concert ;) We also went to dinner at On the Border.

Saturday, I got up and met Jen at her house and we went to Christmas in Cowtown. It's a big Christmas bazaar by the Junior League of Fort Worth with a bunch of different businesses having booths. It was pretty cool and I got Toots this really cute rabbit with his name embroidered on the ear. The rabbit is really soft and big-stuffed and it is chocolate brown with pale green nose, tail, and inside of ears. She also took me to this neat spice store called Pendrey's where I got some yummy spices. I can't wait to try them. Tim went to Dallas to watch football with some of his friends. He came back around 6:00 and we went to his friend, Wes' house to watch the A&M game. We had a really good time even though A&M got absolutely killed by Arkansas.

This morning, we got up and went to church and then drove out to Aledo to look at houses. We are thinking about there as one of the places to buy a house whenever we do that because they have outstanding schools. We saw a couple that we liked but we have awhile before our lease is up here so we are going to keep looking. After that we came back here and Tim took a nap and I finished the "Baby Sleeping" bunny I was cross-stitching for Toot's nursery door. I have to take it to the cross-stitch place this week so they can turn it into the pillow to hang from the door. I just went to the grocery store and now we're just watching football.

Here's the belly picture for this week:

I feel like I got a little bigger this week but I don't know if it really shows up in this picture. We also had a doctor's appointment on Thursday where I had to do the glucose test for gestational diabetes. I had the orange drink and it tasted, to me, like drinking cough syrup. I gagged a little while I was drinking it because it is SO sweet. Toot's heartbeat was 156 and my belly is measuring on track. It was 25 cm and the doctor said it grows about a centimeter a week. That was three days before 25 weeks, according to my due date, so that would kind of be on track with how I was measuring 3 days ahead at the ultrasound, but I don't know if it totally equates to that or not. My next appointment is at the end of this month and I'll be in my 3rd trimester then! It's actually starting to go by pretty fast now. At that appointment, he's going to start getting me to do a daily kick count.

Here's what's new with baby this week:

Head to heels, your baby now measures about 13 1/2 inches. Her weight — a pound and a half — isn't much more than an average rutabaga, but she's beginning to exchange her long, lean look for some baby fat. As she does, her wrinkled skin will begin to smooth out and she'll start to look more and more like a newborn. She's also growing more hair — and if you could see it, you'd now be able to discern its color and texture.

We are anxious to see what color hair baby has when he is born. I had jet black hair and very dark skin when I was born (I think it was that Jewish blood in me) but Tim and my mom both had white blonde hair when they were born, so I guess it could go either way. I think we can safely assume he will have blue eyes since Tim and I both have blue eyes and it's apparently genetically impossible for him to have a different color eyes unless there was some funny business going on (which, I assure you, there wasn't!).

Here's a picture of what he might look like this week:

Hope everyone had a great weekend! I will try to post once more this week before we go to Red River because we won't be back until Monday (October 12th), so I won't be able to post until then. I'll make sure to take some pictures!