Week 34--Oh, and 33 and 32.

I took a hiatus from blogging the past two weeks because I have been THAT busy! Last weekend my mom came on Friday to prep for my shower that was on Sunday. So we spent the weekend shopping, baking, and being your typical mother-daughter duo. Oh, did I say typical? Well, at one point I was driving us to dinner after she got in on Friday afternoon and I heard her new iPhone make that camera shutter sound, so I asked, "What are you doing over there?" Her reply? "I'm sending your dad a selfie." Yeah, we're typical I guess.

We ate fried pickles as an appetizer and enjoyed dinner and a little shopping followed by Christmas movie and an early bedtime that night. But despite being early to bed on Friday night, I awoke completely unrested do to the lack of oxygen in my lungs. I think my little long-legged babykins was stretching her gams, which left me completely wide awake at 4:45 after waking up every 2 hours to pee and try to breath. I finally had given up and decided to mop the floors and clean out my fridge. At least the rest of the weekend I slept great and haven't had such a horrible night since.

My baby shower was awesome. My sister and her family came into town at 12:45 and we had tacos for lunch then rushed off to my sweet friend, Carrie's house for the festivities. Here's something funny--Carrie put balloons up at every turn so that people would be able to find her house easily. So smart! Well, it turns out that there was another shower in her neighborhood. Same day, same time. So some poor, sweet lady showed up to the wrong party and quickly exclaimed, "I'm at the wrong party!" And silly me, I had just said "hi" to her like nothing was wrong. It wasn't until we had all laughed about her mistake that I realized, I guess this is my shower, so I should have realized that there's this random lady I've never seen before. But I just didn't want to go up to her and ask her what she was doing at my shower. I'm too nice, I guess. Yeah, that's it...

All of the décor was exactly what I wanted at my shower. I wanted it to be country chic with mason jars and lots of homemade cookies and milk and sweet tea. My friends did such a good job with everything, and even stressed themselves out over a few small details. There's something so humbling when people go out of their way to make you happy! Don't worry, I was (sarcastically) told to quit having such high expectations at one point during planning. But they definitely blew me away with how sweet and perfect everything was, all in all. Here are a few pics taken by my sweet sister.
(Disclaimer: I hate every picture of my 8.5 month pregnant self, so I'll mostly stick with ones that don't include me).

Texan's Mom and my Mom

 I drank so much milk at this thing, as you probably could've guessed.

 

 The banner says, "Welcome Baby SJ." I Hung it in her nursery.

My sister did such a good job with the cupcakes. And she even made the little toppers with the help of Mom's Crickut. (That's really how you spell it, I guess. Google it).

Here are some updates on my pregnancy:
~I have started having appointments every 2 weeks now.
~I have two new moles--yikes. My doc says increased estrogen makes them typical in pregnancy. They are normal and regular-looking. So, I can be thankful for that.
~I can no longer wear my wedding rings without fear of having to get them sawed off. I force them on when I'm leaving the house and have to use lotion to take them off. I just hate not wearing them.
~Texan has officially requested that we take a tour of the maternity ward where we will be delivering. I think he's trying to prepare. I signed us up for Thursday's tour/class. Yay!
~I have slowed down on my workouts these past two weeks due to serious cramping in my abdomen when I work out. My doctor says it's normal to have CONTRACTIONS while working out. No thanks.
~My feet swell and ache if I'm on them for more than two hours.
~My hips are killing me lately.
~I actually broke down crying because I was so overtired and my feet hurt so bad on Saturday after not sleeping the night before and shopping the whole day. Texan didn't seem amused. Ha!
~Baby's nursery is only missing wall-treatments, curtains, and a changing table. But, basically, it's ready for a little one any time now. I even washed all of her clothes and jammies.

And, finally, here are some of the things I have been doing these past two weeks that have kept me so busy!
~I volunteered as a server at our local food pantry/"soup" kitchen twice last week. I put soup in quotes because we actually serve real meals with choice of drink, salad, meat, starch, veggie, and dessert. Our church is in charge of all food and volunteers for one week every three months. It was great fun, but exhausting.
~I had to turn our guest room into a nursery, and our weight room into a guest/weight room. There were a few days where all I did was rearrange closets, fill bags for yard sale, trash, and donation. Again, exhausting.
~I am in charge (am I?) of planning our group yard sale this weekend because it was my idea (was it?) Plus, I can't remember anything anymore.
~My sister surprised me and came into town to spend the day with me a couple weeks ago, and it was so nice! She even helped me clean my house and rearranged my living room for me to give me a nice change. I love what she's done with the place!


Hopefully the next blog will include pictures of a nursery. I'm no sure if we'll have the changing table yet, since we are still waiting for Amazon to refund the money for the one they sent that was the wrong color. It was a mess, but hopefully we can get a WHITE one soon enough. But, hey! The next blog should include some pictures of my Thanksgiving preparations since Thanksgiving will be my 35 week anniversary (?) I don't know. I feel like 35 weeks is A LOT. I have to be more diligent about blogging, because my days are limited now. To state the obvious, every day is closer and closer to delivery.

Captain Obvious out!

Week 31

Ok, so there's been a lot of activity in the comment section about what I have written on my belly pic board this week. (Just kidding, no one comments on my blog. And no one reads what's on my board. But let me pretend my blog gets a lot of traffic, k?) On my board this week is written: Baby will start making memories this week. Say what? Yeah, I read it in my What to Expect When You're Expecting book. Apparently, this is the week where baby starts retaining things heard in the womb and can recognize things by accessing memory. Could be a load of cat manure, but if it's in the book, I accept it.

My favorite thing to do at night when I am trying to fall asleep is to imagine being with my baby. ~Nursing her in her nursery by the soft glow of the lamp I registered for at Target, ahem, Mom, ahem.
~Dressing her for her first trip to church--outfit courtesy of Grammy and Grampy.
~Starting a bedtime ritual as she starts sleeping through the nights. Hooded towel, lavender baby lotion, footie pajamas, a story.
~And most of all I love to imagine rocking her while I sing to her. As I've written before, I love to sing. In the shower, in a car, in a karaoke bar...ok not anymore. Mostly just at church and around the house. I like to think of songs that will be fun to sing to her while I change her or sooth her cries. When my niece, Gabby was a baby, I visited a lot and got to spend a ton of time with her at that adorable age. She was always so cheery and delightful. I used to sing Stevie Wonder's "Isn't She Lovely" to her while I got her ready for bed or changed her diapers. I have fond memories of singing to all of my nieces and nephews when they were small, especially the older ones who were babies when I was in college and spent all of my money on plane tickets to visit my sisters. Lately I've had this  song stuck in my head. It has such a beautiful melody, plus it's Disney, so I can't go wrong. I know it's sad, but she won't understand the words, so sue me.

Are you worried that I'm romanticizing the idea of motherhood? Because I'm not. I have plenty of daydreams about poop explosions, my sweet baby throwing a fit during bath time (which I'm SURE she'll love) or changings or any time I try to take a picture of her. She'll have things that she likes and dislikes, I know. Or maybe she'll be really chill and never cry and always smile. Maybe.

My appointment on Tuesday is my last monthly checkup. The following one or two will be bi-monthly and then weekly. I'm so glad, because I have so many things to ask my doc this week. All of my uncomfortable symptoms seemed amplified this weekend by the fact that Texan went on a 4-day and 3-night hunting excursion. My lack of sleep and feeling of vulnerability left me freaking out when my fingers started to tingle and feel numb at 2 a.m. Then my whole left hand. I'M HAVING A HEART ATTACK! Ok, no. Calm down.

The prize in the cracker jack box that was THE WEEKEND FROM HADIES was the fact that my parents came for a visit. Friday night they got in around 9 and then Saturday we spent the day shopping. We went to the military installation to shop for Thanksgiving groceries, which sounds boring but is so much fun! My mom stocked up on fixings for green been casserole and stuffing. We priced turkeys but were unimpressed by the prices...$1.20/lb...not so good. Then we went to the mall where my mom went WILD in bed, bath and beyond. This is the swag I scored on Saturday. It was like Christmas, but then again it's always Christmas when my parents come to town. Disclaimer: This picture does not include the jammies and socks that my mom bought for SJ. Nor does it show the awesome breakfast, Starbucks, and dinner my parents treated me to. They are way too good to me!

I got my British cookies, my favorite Christmas cookie mix, some caffeine-free Shasta, plenty of smell-goods from B&B Works, and oh, laundry detergent they were practically GIVING AWAY for baby SJ's sensitive baby skin.

Here I am at the end of a long day of hauling in loot all about town. My mom gave me a quick re-teach on a double stitch in my crocheting before they left, and that was the end of their visit. It was too quick! I spent the whole evening missing Texan and crocheting a throw for the living room couch.

 Here's something for all of you who swore I was having a girl. At a checkout line this week the cashier was a mid-50's lady who said, "You're having a little girl, aren't you? You're carrying her good and high. That's how I know." Weird how people have their ways of guessing. I've also been getting, "You're almost 8 months? She's going to be small!" Hmm. Healthy Healthy Healthy. That's all that matters. Don't be too small, SJ. You don't have to prove anything to anyone.