GoodBye Ankles

So this last weekend at work I was a little shocked when I looked down and realized that my ankles were no longer there and had been replaced by a swollen mess. I guess I really am in my 3rd trimester now.

Baby has been moving like crazy this last week. I don't know if He is just starting to get more uncomfortable or just letting me know that he really is getting bigger and stronger.

My clothing choices seem to be getting fewer and fewer. I am down to one pair of jeans (even with the hair binder trick) and a handful of shirts (mostly maternity now). I even tried on Nate's pants the other day when working in the yard and they were even a little tight! (YIKES) I have only gained 7lbs to date, so I am happy about that. I feel that I am right on track as far as weight gain goes. I did order a few more maternity shirts from the GAP this morning that will be nice for when summer arrives, which I am hoping is sooner than later. Lately it has been typical May weather here, RAIN RAIN RAIN. Hopefully the sun will show its face again soon.

11 weeks left! I am getting so excited to meet this guy. I am so curious to see if he looks at all like me. He will probably come out with dark brown hair just like nate, but I am hoping that he bears at least a little resemblance to his mother :) I am also really curious how big he is going to be. I was 8lbs 10 ounces, and I am really hoping he is a little smaller than that. He has been measuring bigger than his gestational age at each prenatal visit though....I just hope he's not a 10 pounder. I don't know if I could handle that :) Either way I am sure he is going to be adorable and precious and I can't wait.

Sick of being Sick

Well this last weeks has been a long one. I have been sick for the last 7 days and let me just say being sick and being pregnant do not go well together! Thankfully Nate has been amazing at taking care of me and I am now finally starting for feel a little more normal.

On Friday Nate and I went to Fargo and we decided to purchase the stroller and car-seat. This is the one that we picked out. Nate made sure to try it out in the store to make sure that it handled well and could accommodate all of his daddy stroller pushing needs. This is our last big purchase that we needed to get before baby arrives, so I think we are doing pretty well.

I ordered the crib last week and it got in today, so Nate is picking it up after work :) We just need to paint the nursery now. So many little projects and so little time to do them...

Baby has been moving and kicking like crazy this last week. Sometimes I will just sit and watch my belly move. It will just ripple from one side to the other. Nate loves to feel his little butt sticking up by my diaphragm.

I was still measuring one week ahead at my dr. visit on Friday, so that's good I guess. I just hope I don't have the makings of a 10 pound kid in me. I have still been contracting which has been kinda' annoying. They are only 1-2 times an hour right now, but I've been watching to make sure they don't get any more frequent than that. I just wish they would stop. They can come back in about 10 weeks when I'm ready for them.

I must really be starting to look like a pregnant person now because at the mall on Friday One lady gave me a $10 gift card because she said she wasn't going to use it and figured I could since I was going to be a new mom, and then in the bathroom the lady in front of me let me use the only open stall first since I was pregnant and she "remembered what that was like."

Well I suppose I should do something productive like clean or cook or do laundry.

bulging at the seams...

So we have officially lived in our house 1 month! woohoo! Projects are coming along nicely. Nate is in the process of finishing up the upstairs bathroom, and then I think it will be on to baby's room. We have the paint and everything, so it's just a matter of finding the time to do it.

Baby has been moving a lot the last few weeks. He kicks and squirms all the time it seems. This is such a fun part of the pregnancy in that I feel pregnant, but I don't feel nauseated or terribly uncomfortable. The other night at work I snuck back to the room where we keep our ultrasound machine and snuck a peak at baby. I am not an ultrasound tech by any means so I was only able to make out the obvious things like the heart

and spine and head. He seems to be getting bigger though (this is also evident by my bulging belly.)

So I have the day off of work today and it is supposed to be 70 degrees today :) Yeah for spring finally arriving. I have had such spring fever lately. Summer will be here before I know it and then it's baby time! I suppose we should start discussing a name or else he will have to go by baby boy for the rest of his life. Naming a child is not an easy task, and we would gladly take any suggestions :)

6 months down.

Well we are down to the last three months! YIKES! I don't know how ready for this I really am. It has just started to hit me that in 3 months, my life will be dramatically altered. Not that I didn't know this before, but as I look around and see all the things changing/that will change, it is a little daunting. I have also started to panic as the nursery is not even close to being started and 3 months doesn't seem that far away....oh well, all in good time.

I am absolutely loving the new house. It is also nice to know that we have very concerned neighbors. This last week we had a friend come through on his way home. He got in around 11 at night and it was dark and he was having a hard time finding our house. He was driving really slowly around our neighborhood with a lawnmower, snow-blower, and bed in his truck. Apparently someone called the cops who in turn called backup because "some creepy guy was lurking around our neighborhood and it look like he might have stolen a bunch of stuff" Well the cops came to our house to investigate where they found ryan (a rather clean-cut guy). They questions his motives for being at our house and then proceeded to ask nate if his parents were home....Nate replied no. The cops then asked if he lived here with his parents. Nate then explained that he in fact owned this house and Ryan was a friend of ours kind enough to bring stuff up from his parents house for us. It gave us a good laugh, but I'm not too sure the cops believed us :)

I am starting to look and feel more pregnant. My baby bump has started to show through my scrubs at work, and I have been having trouble finding clothes in my closet that still fit my expanding waist line. I have enjoyed being woken up in the morning/afternoon by kicks and jabs to my side. Somedays it is like he is doing acrobatics in there. I can feel him move from the left side to the right and then back to the left again. He is one active child already!

One of my dearest friends had a great loss in her family this week as her sister-in-law lost her beautiful baby girl she was carrying. It has brought such grief and sadness to my heart this week as I have thought and prayed for her and her family. I can't imagine the pain and anguish. I am forced to deal with this kind of loss more often than I care to at my job, and it never gets easier, and I still find myself weeping uncontrollably. My heart breaks for them.

Well, the laundry is piling up, the bills are needing to be paid, and it is a beautiful day outside.

All moved in.

So it has been a week since closing on our house and man has it been a busy week! Saturday we moved it and it was a crazy day. We definitely could not have done it without our friends. We are truly blessed.

I love our new house. It is so amazing having our own place. I have been a laundry fiend. I have done probably 10 loads of laundry since moving in. It is so nice doing laundry when I feel like it and not having to deal with quarters and washers/dryers that don't work.

Nate finished up painting our bedroom this week. I love it. We painted it a neutral brown/greenish color it wasn't supposed to be green, but it dried that way. I still really like it. We bought some black-out curtains to accommodate my need to sleep during the day, and they are amazing.

I am loving our new furniture. We have a huge bay window in our living room and I love sitting in our new couch and basking in the sunshine during the afternoon. Our new table was definitely a great purchase as well. We weren't sure if it would fit, but I think that it works just right. It is so nice to have a place to sit and eat rather than sitting on a couch in front of a television.

The next projects are the bathroom and the baby's room. We bought the bedding for the nursery, so when that comes we will do some color matching and do some painting.

I have a baby appointment next week. He still has been moving and kicking like crazy. I have definitely noticed that he seems to like soda and chocolate. He starts moving like crazy. I have been trying to take it easy with the moving because I really don't want to risk putting myself into any pre-term labor, but it is really hard when all I want to do is clean and organize. It has started to hit me a little more lately that eventually I am going to have to actually have to give birth to this little man. Even as a labor and delivery nurse this scares me. It just goes to show it doesn't matter how much you know. Giving birth is still terrifying.

Minnesota...here we come!

So this morning Nate and I officially purchased our new, first house! We are so excited! We will move in tomorrow morning. (that is if the river decides to behave itself) It is still hard to believe. As I sit in our apartment that we have occupied for the last 2 years, I am astonished by all the memories and fondness that I have. I am, however, quite excited to start the next chapter in our lives as Minnesotans! Good by North Dakota. We will miss you. You have been a great home state.

No new baby updates, other than my belly is getting huge. Well it feels huge anyway. 21 weeks down, only 19 to go! I hope this little man decides to behave himself and stay put for the next 4 months. I feel so blessed with this pregnancy already. Everything has really gone quite smoothly so far. God has truly blessed us. I look forward to what is to come!

Boxes, Pizza Rolls, and sunshine

So almost to moving day! Saturday is the big day that we move in to the new house. Currently our apartment is in complete disarray. We have boxes on top of boxes on top of what was once furniture. Today we went to go and do the final walk through of the house. It's hard to believe that in a few short days it is going to be ours! YIKES! We realized today that there may be a little more work that we need to do in the house than we originally anticipated, but i suppose that is to be expected sometimes. I am just getting excited to move in and have it be ours. I am especially excited about having our own washer and dryer. I am so tired of using quarters in machines that work 25% of the time. I have been stock piling my laundry so that this weekend I can do it all at the new house. Needless to say I am running short on a few essential elements of one's wardrobe.

So I have discovered that the baby really seems to like pizza rolls :) Every time I eat them he seems to start doing a happy dance in my belly. I tried to have Nate feel this afternoon, but I think he was just placating me when he said he could feel the circus going on inside my belly. Baby continues to be quite active though, especially when I come home from a long, busy night at work.

The sun has somewhat started to make it's appearance. The snow is starting to melt at least. I am happy about this as moving with 10 foot drifts in one's yard is not exactly ideal :) I am also happy for the first year ever for daylight savings. I am so excited to see the sun more often! I come home in the mornings at 8:00am and I sleep until usually 4:00 in the afternoon, which was leaving me only a little over an hour of sunlight (most of the time I didn't get to enjoy it) At least now I have a little more of an opportunity to let the sun shine down on my pasty white legs. This is the first winter if probably 6 years that I haven't done at least some light tanning to keep the scary albino skin at bay. Needless to say, If I stand too close to a wall, I tend to blend in a little too well. Hopefully that will change some this summer. I am hoping to spend oodles of time outside during my maternity leave.

Well I should finish my pizza rolls and tend to the mountains of stuff that still needs to be packed.