In the Home Stretch

Right now I am 36 weeks along.  I like to think I’m entering the home stretch now since we are in the last month, and from here on out I will be at the doctors every week.   Here are some pictures to update you all from last post- around 27 1/2 weeks.

At our last wedding- Around 28 Weeks I believe.  Our last wedding (with the exception of Paul’s cousin this weekend).

29.5 Weeks…..getting big for sure

Here little bear is at 29 weeks 5 days.   It was SO incredibly neat seeing him in 3d/4d.  I’m so glad we decided to do this.  The ultrasound tech who did our ultrasound worked really hard at getting this little guy to smile and look at the camera.  He wasn’t so cooperative though.    Turns out I have an anterior placenta- which basically means that my placenta attached to the front of my stomach.    She said that’s probably why I more than likely didn’t feel him kick till I was further along.  Surprisingly, I felt him pretty soon (I didn’t feel like I was always waiting to feel a movement), however, after she said that, I did notice that I never felt kicks/movements in the front of my stomach.  I only felt it very low at the beginning, and then either on the right or left of my stomach.  She said that was why.  I still to this day have only felt a few big ones right in the middle.  I don’t know what is normal or not because it’s my first go round at this…but I found that interesting.    Anyhow,  I guess that placenta is nice and warm and cozy to him because he just wanted to keep nudging and burying his head into it.   He liked being right next to it.  We tried wiggling and jiggling my belly and switching positions, but not much helped.  He gave us a few good shots (like the one above).   He also kept stretching his neck back instead of pulling away from it.  He was being funny for sure.  It was neat to see him kick and feel it at the same time too.  He looks comfortable that’s for sure but pretty soon he is getting evicted.  :)  Or he will outgrow me.

Isn’t he super cute though.  I can’t wait to see that face in person.  He looks like Paul for sure.  I think all he may have gotten from me based off this picture is his bottom lip. lol.  Both Paul and I have pretty full lips, and I would say that he got my upper lip too, but looking at all the pictures, I think the arc of the upper lip is alot more like Pauls.  You can especially see it from the side.  But I’m claiming the bottom one! haha

30 Weeks

At about 30 1/2 weeks we had a photographer take pictures of Paul and I.  You can see more of them here at this link, but here are a few favorites.

On our way home from a session one Sunday we passed by a sunflower field.  So we pulled over and got some pictures by it.  Here I am at 33 weeks.

Paul took a bunch of pictures the other day to document 35 weeks.  I’ll post those soon.  He still has them all on his computer.  This weekend we’re going to Hickory/Morganton for Paul’s cousins wedding.  We are pretty excited about that.  I’ll be 36 weeks this weekend.  A few other things that have happened recently since our last post (I have got to get better at keeping up with this)

1.  We had some pretty great showers.  One from Paul’s family, I unfortunately didn’t get pictures of it.  But here is a cute cake they had!

The other two showers you can see pictures from here.  They were bow tie themed… such cuteness.

2.  We finished up our childbirth classes.  They were a 4 class series and focused on natural childbirth.  It was good to see what to expect in labor, how to deal with pain, what our options are, etc.  I’ll prob. post more about all this later.  But that will be a whole post in its own.

3.  We finished the nursery!  We are waiting on one more thing, but for the most part it is all done.  I have before during and after pictures of this too..again that will be its own post.

4.  Right now (35+ weeks) little bear weighs about 5 1/4 pounds according to my emails.   Most of his basic physical development is complete, he is just mostly putting fat on now.    I’m not super uncomfortable yet, but I can definitely tell I’m carrying a lot more weight then my feet are use to.   My ankles start to  hurt pretty quickly when walking, although I haven’t had much swelling so that is good.  I still have pretty good amount of heartburn and acid reflux (YUCK).  Overall, it’s all been great.  Couldn’t ask for a better pregnancy.

Fast Forward- Third Trimester!

LONG time since I sat down to do a post.  So brace yourself because this will be a long one.   We’ve been so incredibly busy with Peepsake work that my time has gotten away from me.   Hopefully I can find more time to keep up with this blog now that we have stopped taking wedding clients and new clients.  My maternity leave starts in July for Peepsake and we have a few vacations planned in July as well.  So it will slow down here in a while.

After having a few people ask about when I am doing a post I decided to catch everyone up!    Somehow between everything else going on we have managed to fit in time to redo the house a little to make room for little bear.   Our spare room is going to become his nursery and right now it is no where close to being ready for him.  We have been using it as a storage room and there isn’t much room to even walk in there.  So, we are purging and organizing.  That started with the living room.  We have moved some stuff from the guest room to the living room and got new living room furniture to make it more open in there.  We have moved two pieces of furniture into the living room from the spare room and below is somewhat of a before/after of it.  I’ll post more pictures later or the nursery.  We have only cleaned it out about half way.  Although it’s not done, we do have the crib, dresser, and mattress purchased along with some decor items.  I’ll be much more relaxed when it’s all ready.  I experienced some Braxton Hicks contractions the other night and that made Paul and I realize that if little bear came early, we wouldn’t be prepared yet.

We do have a few things to look forward to in the next few weeks so hopefully there will be more post coming your way!  This week we get to do a 3d/4d ultrasound.  I’m SO excited for this.  We have maternity pictures scheduled to be taken by a photographer next Monday.   My sister will probably take some more too when I get even bigger.   We also have our baby showers in two weeks.  I’m excited for that too.  I can’t wait to see everyone and spend time with our family /friends.  I will hopefully have a post on that too once it has come and gone.  But for now, here is an update of whats been going on lately….in pictures.

Living Room-During the painting process

Living Room-After- Its changed more since then.  Will add updated picture soon.

Our April Wedding- My good friend Jessica got married!!

Me registering at babies r us- 22 weeks

24 Weeks

Mothers Day-25 Weeks

Painting the upstairs bathroom

Memorial Day Trip to Holden Beach

Handsome Hubby

27 Weeks- Around the time my belly button officially became an “outie”

27 Weeks 2 Day

That’s caught up for now.  I’m actually 29 weeks right now and have been in the third trimester for a week.  I need to get an updated picture soon.    He is around 2 1/2 pounds right now and developing at a much more rapid rate now.  My doctor visits have went from 1 a month to every 2 weeks.

Time/this pregnancy has went so fast!  I can’t believe it.  I have gotten emotional and sad a couple of times.  I think most of that’s just hormones from the pregnancy.  But I get a little sad thinking about how I won’t have him in my belly for much longer.  I honestly enjoy it so much.  I love feeling his kicks, and movements throughout the day.  Sure when he gets here there will be more things for me to look forward too.   We will bond in other ways and I’ll be so glad when he is here and I can look at him and hold him.  But I can be a sap sometimes too.  

Bubbles to Punches

18 Weeks Ultrasound

A good bit of exciting stuff has went on since our last post.   This will be a quick recap of it all.    We went in for an ultrasound at 18 weeks and found out were having a boy!!  We announced it on our Peepsake Page…see that post here.  We haven’t thought up of names yet, but hopefully soon we’ll have decided on something.  The Ultrasound tech said that baby Duffey was moving so much that when I got to a point to where I could feel him that I would feel him good.  Sure enough, a week later I start to feel him move alot.   It was Easter Weekend.  At first I would notice little bubble like sensations, now it feels like punches and acrobats going on in there.

Easter Weekend-19 weeks

Now I am 20 weeks and Paul can feel him move too.  I have to be laying flat, but sure enough little bears (which is what I’ve been calling him) movements are so strong you can feel it on the outside too.   Right now he is about 10 inches long!  From head to heel.   He also weighs 10 1/2 ounces.    I don’t know how much weight I’ve gained yet.  I just thought earlier how I should weigh myself and see.  I go into the doctor in the morning so I’ll find out then too.  My belly button is starting to get flat.   It will be kinda odd to me if it pops out. haha.   We also did a hospital tour this weekend.   We’ve decided to give birth at Gaston Memorial which is closest to us and the closest to Paul’s family of the other options we had.  I was impressed with the hospital which has been recently renovated.  I’ll have a full post on that later with pictures.

Paul after Hospital Tour

And here are some more pictures of the past few weeks……

Reese Likes to lay his head next to Little Bear-  I think he knows he’s in there!

Afternoon Walk

Us Having a lazy Saturday afternoon…which doesn’t happen often

Happy Birthday to Reese

Today Reese, my doggie, turned 4!  Now, in dog years that means he is 28.  I think that is pretty cool because that means this year, him and I are the same age. haha!  I decided to take a few pictures to document.  Even though I had very little time to do so.  I tell ya, it’s been BUSY here lately.     Both my jobs the past few weeks have been so busy….its exhuasting. I’m non stop busy at work during the day, then at home in the evening, and on the weekends.  I’ve managed to book myself for photography more then I originally wanted (I wanted to take one weekend a month off).    I am however not accepting any jobs after June (we have three weddings in June!), and there aren’t many free dates left up til that point.   We have our first wedding this weekend!  Im really excited and hoping that Pauls allergies don’t get too bad.  Right now he is suffering from biking and mowing today.

 

Not much new baby wise.  I am REALLY looking forward to Monday and we find out if Baby Duffey is a boy or girl.  So far I’ve had 4 dreams.   In two of them it was a boy.  With the boy dreams it was a glimpse of the future…where he was older and running around.  In the other two it was a girl.  With the girl dreams, they were both more vivid and I was holding her right after giving birth.   Im so anxious and I think that’s one reason I keep dreaming about it.

Good Luck Charm

Hope everyone had a good St. Patties day.  We didn’t do anything because we had a newborn session that morning that lasted right around  4 hours.   We did document my 16 weeks wearing a green shirt.    Our little one is our good luck charm this year.

16 weeks

Im actually right at 16 weeks 5 days now.     I went to the doctor on Monday and had some blood work done.   I also got to hear the babies heartbeat again.    It was so much louder and more prominent this time.  I don’t know if it’s because I was further along or the babies position.  I can’t help smile every time I hear it.  It was right around 147 beats a minute this time, but the doctor said that was right on track and normal.  We go back on April 2nd for the ultrasound (guess the gender).   Im really excited about that!!!  Im not one for surprises if I know it’s there to find out.

Another thing Im pretty excited about…Spring!  I really soaking up this great weather we’ve had.  I wore my new spring’ish shoes today and was pretty excited about that.  I bought these on SUPER clearance at the end of last year summer.  I hadn’t worn them until today and I love them.  So I of course took pictures of them.

This is what I see when I look down

I think every time I wake up I’m a little bit bigger.  My weekly updates told me that over the next few weeks the baby doubles it’s weight and add inches.  I believe it.  Right now he/she is the size of an avocado.   I was also  pretty intriuqed by the fact that he/she is also starting to grow toe nails now!

Until Next time…..