Baby Shower #2

My friends at work - Lori, Jana, and Chad threw me a baby shower at work last week.  It was so nice of them.  We had the party in the private dining room and everyone brought their lunch and we visited while we ate.  It was informal that way people could come and go as their schedules dictated.  After we ate, we opened presents.  Everyone was so generous and I got a wide variety of things.  There was a great turnout and I certainly felt loved (in a work appropriate way).  :)

Then, we had cake! (Jana has named the baby "George", that's why the cake says "George".  Don't worry - that's not going to be his name.)

Another co-worker Emily made these cute chocolate dipped pretzles as favors for everyone.  It's hard to see but they are either blocks spelling out "baby" or cute little feet.

More Texas Football

Texans are crazy about football.  It's a fact.  Well, just because it's over 100 degrees outside doesn't mean that the football stops.  No, there's this awesome thing call Arena Football!  It's the perfect outing for a pregnant woman who is avoiding the heat but wants some nachos.  :)

I won some tickets to a Texas Vigilantes Arena Football game at work playing "bingo for babies".  It's bingo for prizes with the proceeds going to to Children's Miracle Network.  I won the first game and I've NEVER won at bingo!  I got some good hearted teasing about the fact that I must having taken the title of the event "bingo for babies" literally.  If the baby brought me good luck, awesome!

Anyway, so we went to a game 2 weekends ago with the Mejia family.  It was a good time! Because the game is played inside and arena there are some changes to the game such as the game is played on a field half the length of a regular field.  It was a high scoring, action packed game.  Too bad the Vigilantes lost. :(

Inside the American Airlines Center.  We had great seats!

 Landen

 Brittany, Joe, and Landen (Hayden is on the seat between his parents)



Are you so ready...?

34 weeks and 2 days...

So the past couple weeks I have been getting the question, "Are you so ready to be done?" or some variation of that.  To which I respond, "No".  Now don't get confused, it's not because I love being pregnant and don't want it to be over.  I do not love being pregnant, am not one of those women who love being pregnant, and am looking forward to getting back to a non-pregnant body.  The reason I say "No" is because if I am done, then that means the baby is here.  And I am very clear that he is a lot easier to take care of right now compared to 6 weeks from now.  Right now I don't have to worry about feeding him, poopy diapers, crying etc.  When faced with that alternative, I figure that dealing with the multiple (I counted 7 times in one night last week) nightly trips to the bathroom, the tossing in bed, the weird dreams, the sore thigh muscles from the pregnancy pillow, the grunting when I try to move, the "pregnant waddle", feet in my ribs, and being uncomfortable more often that not is not so bad.  :)  (You'll notice that being tired wasn't included in either list because it's a part of life regardless of which side I'm on.)

If the question isn't "are you so ready..." then it's something about if I'm miserable because of the heat.  Today is the 20th straight day over 100 (5th longest streak since they started tracking).  Isn't it great that I get to be pregnant during such a record breaking HOT summer?! :)  AND at least for the next 10 days it's going to stay over 100.  And then you have the awesome humidity.  All it means is that Kallie avoids being outside.  I walk from buildings with A/C to cars with A/C and that's about it.  It's even keeping me from wanting to go down to the pool.  I just get wiped out so quickly from the heat.

We've been working on putting the nursery together.  2 weekends ago we went through all the desks and cleared out a bunch of furniture and boxes.  We either threw stuff away or moved it into our new storage unit here at our apt. complex.  We were able to make great progress and brought in a new long dresser (which we'll use as a changing table) and a new tall dresser.  Then, last weekend we put together the rocker/glider and crib.  So now all that's really left is shopping for the "smaller" stuff (so much left to get!) and waiting for our bedding to come in.  It's crazy how different the room is.  I'll post pics when it's done.

This past weekend Peter finally got to watch the crazy, alien way my belly moves thanks to this baby.  He has of course felt the baby move tons now (especially in the morning when I'll cuddle up to his back) but whenever I'm like "wow - the baby is going crazy, watch my belly" this little stinker must hear me because he stops moving or Peter gives up before seeing it.  It was great to see Peter's expression as he watched how odd it looks when the baby is moving.  Creepy but in a cool way.

Still no name.  Nothing seems to be the perfect fit.

32 Weeks and 2 days

Time is speeding by now.  2 months left - serious yikes.  It feels like we have so much to do...

Here, I'll make you a list:
- Set up the nursery
- Clean out the office so we can set up the nursery
- Take all the childbirth, etc classes
- Find a pediatrician
- Get better about doing my kiegels
- Find a name for our son
- Get the carpets cleaned
- Buy a second car
- Put together my transition plan at work for whoever is going to step in while I'm out on maternity leave
- Go through my benefit package and figure out what I need to do in order to go out on maternity leave
- Decide whose insurance this baby is going to go on
- Buy a video camera
That's enough, I'm going to stop listing stuff, it's stressing me out :)

Update on the pregnancy
I've been waiting forever to feel this baby have the hiccups.  And it just hasn't happened...until yesterday.  I'm pretty sure that yesterday, this baby finally had the hiccups.  Fun.  :)  I am still really tired all the time.  I'm not getting good sleep at night.  Moving is awkward, especially getting up from a sitting position whether in a chair or on the couch.  I've had a couple hormonal breakdowns in the last couple weeks.  Turn on the tears.  Poor Peter has to deal with me.  I really enjoy being in a pool because all the aches and pains disappear, it's not awkward to move, and I feel "normal" for a short while.  If only I could enjoy the pool without having to put on the swimming suit and deal with the heat.

Just the two of us...

Ah...life is so simple when there's just the two of us.  Here's an example from a couple weekends ago of  "A day in the life - DINK style".  (DINK = Dual Income No Kids)

We slept in until we were ready to get up, then just had a lazy morning.  Spent some time on the laptops, had some breakfast, and got ready for the day.  We then headed to the mall for a little shopping.  Today just happened to be clearance rack shopping at Baby Gap (13 items of darling clothing for 92.00 - thank you!) but it could have just as easily been non-baby shopping.

After shopping, we headed down to the Fair Park and watched a matinee performance of the musical "Monty Python's Spamalot".  We have seen this musical before in Vegas but both enjoyed it then and both enjoyed seeing it again.  It's a silly, fun musical that leaves you laughing, smiling, and happy. 

After the musical we hit a couple baby stores trying to decided what baby bedding we wanted to get (see - that baby is already trying to control our time!) and enjoyed an ice cream cone at McDonalds.  Then we headed to Studio Movie Grill for an evening showing of the new X-Men movie (it was really GOOD!) while we enjoyed a dinner of pizza, popcorn and fruit.

It was a really fun day with a few unplanned activities thrown in and we ended up being out of the house for like 10 hours.  I'm not saying that I think days like this are completely unthinkable once this baby arrives, however... I'm just not kidding myself that they are going to be common anymore, for many reasons.  I love my current life with Peter.  We are blessed to be able to do so many fun things PLUS to have a best friend to do them with.  I really like hanging out with my husband.  I've been told that our new life will be good too, but will just be different.  Honestly, I'm nervous about that and what it will be like and if I will really be happy with the new life.  I think that's normal.

He Has Peter's Nose

 About a week and a half ago, Peter and I went to get a 3-D ultrasound done.  We've had a few family and friends recommend it and decided to give it a try.  In the waiting room, we were looking through the business's "photo album" at some of the pictures they've taken.  I must say, it's a good thing we went when I was 31 weeks because babies at less than 29 weeks still look so creepy/skeletal/alien like.  I'm glad that the baby we saw on the ultrasound actually looks like a baby.

So we had a whole 1/2 hour session which gave us lots of time to watch the baby move.  It was interested how the technician would start with a traditional ultrasound and then when she thought the picture would be good, would focus on an area and switch it into 3-D mode.  The first 15 minutes of the session, the baby was moving like crazy so it was hard to get a good shot plus he basically had his face right against the placenta which doesn't make for very good 3-D pictures.  The technician was nice enough to give us a break so that we could walk around for 10-15 minutes and hopefully during the walk he would quiet down and move enough that we could get some good shots.

The second 15 minutes went much better.  He had moved his face and calmed down quite a bit.  The umbilical cord was in front of his mouth a lot of the time but it was still much better than before.  It was amazing to actually be able to see what our son looks like!!!  And with a 30 minute session we got to see lots of different things, like a huge yawn (tongue movement, too), him holding his ear, his foot all the way up by his face, etc.  He is still a boy and his heartbeat is strong.  It was a totally fascinating experience that I am glad we did plus now when I think of the baby, I can picture his face.  That makes me more excited to see him in a few months.

We've decided he's got Peter's nose because that certainly isn't mine!

We can't decide whose lips he has.  In some pictures they look like Peter's lips and in some they look like mine.

He's got his hand up by his ear in this one but the 3-D imaging doesn't focus well across different depths.

I love that he's already got some chub on those cheeks!

He's got his foot up by his face on this one but again, due to the different depths we couldn't get the picture focused on both his face and his foot.  What would it be like to be that flexible again?!

We left with 8 black and white pictures, a CD of all 15 images she took plus a DVD of the whole session.  I only wish the DVD came with the sound of the technician explaining everything.  We can remember right now since it was only about a week ago but in a few years I'm sure we'll watch the DVD and go, HUH? :)  I know he still has some time to cook but I'm thinking he's going to be a pretty cute baby!

Other Fun in SLC

The trip to SLC wasn't very long but we sure worked hard to fit in as much as possible.  It stinks to be in SLC and not have enough time to see everyone we want for as long as we want.

After everything was cleaned up from the shower, we headed back to our hotel so our neices and nephews could go swimming.

P-dawg and his Dr. P

The kids had a lot of fun swimming.  The Amos family - Kimberly, Tyler, and Kaitlyn along with the Millars - Alex, Tawny, Payton, Jaxton, and Lola all got to enjoy the pool plus my mom! 

Here's Peter helping Lola swim.

 Tyler!  (I wish I had more pics of everyone but it's hard to get a good picture of people when you are at an indoor pool.)

The big kids hanging out by the pool.  Casen and Shannon came over and hung out for awhile too!

 It was a full, fun Saturday - that's for sure!

 SUNDAY...Happy Father's Day! - We got up and headed over to Grandma and Grandpa Blank's for another visit with them, my mom, and the Amos.  Then we went with the Amos's to do a little last minute Father's Day shopping.  After the shopping, I was able to finally able to quench one of my cravings - Old Spaghetti Factory.  It was so yummy!  Here's Peter, Ty, and Kimberly at the restaurant.

 Kaity and Ty outside by the fireplace.  It was chilly and rainy. (A refreshing break from HOT Dallas)

 After lunch we headed over for a visit with Peter's Grandma and Korben.  Then we went back to the hotel and fed the ducks outside with Alex and his family.  I haven't fed ducks forever - it was a lot of fun for all of us - even Peter.  I've got to remember this for a family activity idea...  Peter found the duck that was talented enough to catch the bread mid-air!

 Payton was brave and got up close with this goose and fed him out of his hand.

 Alex with the proof that he can catch a duck if he wants.

 The whole group - Alex, Jaxton, Lola, Payton, Tawny, and Peter

 After the ducks we went over to Grandma and Grandpa Blanks to celebrate Father's Day.  It was great to visit with the aunts/uncles/cousins on that side.

Monday - we didn't have long until we needed to head to the airport but we made the best of it.  We went to breakfast with Alex and his family and then headed to a park for some short fun on a playground.

Peter and Lola at breakfast

 Uncle Peter was a lot of fun at the park - here he is pushing Payton on the swings.

 Jaxton

 It was harder to leave SLC this time than it's been in a long time.  This trip was a reminder of how many people there are in that city that we love and are important parts of our lives.  Now we just need to figure out how to make sure this baby gets to know these special people too even though we live so far away.