Family Baby Shower!

Saturday was our first baby shower! It was a family and very close family friends shower.  It was so wonderful! Had lots of people come a long way driving over an hour to get there.  We are surely loved! Jeromy's Aunt Janice hosted us at her house and she is always so welcoming! The shower was hosted by Carlee, my mom, Vicki, Jamye (Carlee's mom), and Aunt Janice.  They did such a wonderful job on everything from the decorations to the food to the amazing cake pops!!

great hostesses!

 

 

After everyone showed up and mingled for a while we played one game called Itty Bitty Baby Parts, lol! There were 12 cards with a picture of a sonogram on each card, with different body parts.  We had to guess which body part went with which card.  It was so funny to see the faces people made as they looked at each card.  I didn't do very well, I only got 2 out of 12 right! After that, everyone went around introducing themselves and how they know or are related to me and Jeromy.  Then we ate food! There was salad, veggies, fruit, and spinach artichoke dip, yum! The best part of all was the cake pops that Carlee made....oh my, they were good! Everyone raved about them!

 

I didn't get a picture of it but one thing I loved was the Wisdom and Encouragement Tree.  Instead of doing a guest sign in book, everyone got a tag and wrote their name on it and a piece of advice or encourgment for me and hung it on the tree. I really enjoyed reading over those with Jeromy afterwards!

 

After the food, we opened presents.  We got SO many wonderful gifts, it was overwhelming! Jeromy came in at the end when I finished opening gifts and quickly thanked everyone for not only the gifts, but most importantly for the love and support.  I was SO proud of him and proud to be his wife! I think everyone was touched that he came to say hello and thank you, it was a great moment!

 

great gifts!

 

proud wife moment!

And that was pretty much it! After gifts, I took pictures with all our family groups before they left and then it was clean up time. It went by so fast! It was really great to see so much family in one room and to be so loved on!  Thank you again to everyone that came and to my hostesses for the wonderful shower!

my side of the family

Jeromy's side of the family

sweet ladies of my Toups family

my namesake! Tristan Womack - mom's best friend growing up

my sweetheart!! love of my life! best friend!

 

31 weeks

 

 

 

how far along? 31 weeks

how are you measuring? 32 weeks? He was measuring a week ahead last time we checked, will know again in 2 weeks.

size of baby? According to Baby Center our baby is 16 inches long, about 3.3 pounds, and like the weight of four navel oranges. 

heartbeat? 152 bpm (at our 28 week appointment)

total weight gain/loss? +30

maternity clothes? Yep! Still the same, wearing all maternity clothes and regular large tshirts and all my dresses from last summer (including the one in the picture! it's just a large from Ann Taylor Loft! that makes me feel good)

sleep? I didn't sleep quite as good this week but still getting lots of sleep in. I woke up almost every night at 3 am to use the restroom.  Some nights I would fall back to sleep easily and some nights I wouldn't.  One night I was coughing and I think it woke Jonathan up and he got the hiccups and then I got hungry so I knew I wasn't going back to sleep without a snack.  I got up and worked on my hostess gifts for my baby shower.

best moment this week? I had maternity pictures taken and we had our first baby shower! One of my favorite moments was when Jeromy came in at the end to thank everyone and he just made me so proud :)

movement? Lots of movement this week! He is moving a lot more during the day, not just at night.  It's always on the right side near the top, I feel him push there alot.

food cravings? Can't remember having any.

gender predictions? It's a BOY!

what i miss: I miss being able to turn over in the middle of the night easily. 

what i'm looking forward to: Our nursery still has a long way to go.  Looking forward to Jeromy being home all next week so we can really work on it.

how are you feeling? Feeling good. I've had some pain in the lower belly this week, ligaments stretching? Not sure. I've had a cough this past weekend which has been waking us up at night but it seems to be getting better.

Maternity Pictures

I'm a pretty last minute gal on things, ha. I thought just this past weekend it would be nice to take some maternity pictures, just a few.  I am having my first baby shower this coming Saturday and thought it would be cute to have some pictures around the house with the decorations.  My wonderful mother in law agreed to be my personal photographer last minute and we got some taken just this morning :)  special thanks to my friend Holland for the SUPER last minute scrabble tiles.  I called her like 30 minutes before I was to meet Vicki for pics and Holland was able to meet me to so I could borrow them. Whew! Life saver!

We went to Rock Creek neighborhood on Grant Rd. where we took our pictures for our Christmas card/pregnancy annoucement.  Such a beautiful neighborhood and I see people taking pictures out there all the time. The weather was pretty good this morning and it all just worked out....very last minute! Here are my favorite pictures:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

30 weeks...10 to go!

12 weeks/20 weeks/30 weeks....10 more!

I wish I had a 10 week picture but this is the only one I took that early.  I took it to show my friend Lea how far along I was :)  She's in Uganda so she hasn't seen me pregnant in person.

 

 

how far along? 30 weeks

how are you measuring? At my last appointment, he was measuring a week ahead and I was measuring two weeks ahead.  Won't know how he's measuring again until my next appt in 3 weeks.

size of baby? According to Baby Center our baby is 15.7 inches long, almost 3 pounds, like a head of cabbage. 

heartbeat? 152 bpm (at our 28 week appointment)

total weight gain/loss? +29

maternity clothes? I am wearing all maternity pants, mostly maternity tops, and maternity dresses. I can wear regular large t-shirts and all of the dresses I wore last summer. I've probably said it before but I'm so glad I lost some weight beforehand because I can now use all the clothes that were getting big for maternity. 
sleep? I am still sleeping well.  I woke up a few times this past week in the middle of the night to use the restroom but usually its almost morning by the time I wake up.  I don't really have a hard time getting back to sleep unless I'm hungry.

best moment this week? I felt Jonathan have the hiccups for the first time so that was pretty exciting! There was constant movement in my stomach for a few minutes so I figured that had to be it. It was so cool :) Usually, he just moves here and there but this was ongoing for awhile.  Also, we got more worked on in his room.  My amazing husband painted the nursery and it's starting to come together!!

movement? Feeling a lot better about his movement lately! He moves around mostly in the evening still but sometimes he will move during the day like he did this morning in church. He moves a lot at night when I'm laying down and he's even kicking hard enough to startle me. It hasn't hurt yet but he's definitely caught me off guard a time or two!

food cravings? Lately I just want ice cream every night but that's not really any different than any other time in my life, haha!

gender predictions? It's a BOY!

what i miss: After making this picture collage, I am missing my body before I was pregnant! That 12 week body is looking pretty good now!! Can't wait to get that back afterwards (and better)...and I will!!

what i'm looking forward to: My first baby shower is next Saturday so I am looking forward to that!

how are you feeling? I'm feeling good! By the end of the day, my right side rib cage feels really cramped and the right side of my back aches but I can usually lay down or find a position that relieves some of the pain.  Other than that, still feel very healthy and well!

Pregnancy rant

Writing this because I want to remember this...

I recently posted a "rant" on Facebook about the unnecessary and negative things people say to pregnant women.  I typiclly don't post negative things on Facebook but I guess my hormones got the best of me :) I also posted this cartoon and now I get a lot of comments about how radiant I look....haha.  Even this morning at church, someone told me I was radiant! I felt bad about my rant after I did it.

As I've gotten further along in my pregnancy (and bigger) I am hearing a lot of comments about my size and pregnancy in general.  It's very interesting to me that at the beginning of one's pregnancy, everyone is so happy for you, congratulating you, asking how you are feeling, etc. Closer to the end is when some of the more negative comments occur.  The comments didn't really get to me, it was the fact that people feel they are ok to say at all! I just don't get it!  The morning of the rant I was on facebook and saw that Jeromy's cousin Melissa was very tired from all that she's been up to and she is also pregnant.  Someone commented on her post "sounds like my pregnancy....jussssttt wait!!" Like just wait its only going to get worse. Oh man I was so mad for her!  Clearly she needed a more encouraging word than that...telling her or me or any pregnant woman to "just wait" drives me insane.  That's kinda what got the rant started that morning.  So then I had people posting this article Joy or "Just Wait?" on my facebook page, hehe.  Again, I felt bad that I had ranted but oh well.  It felt good to get it out. The article is great and I appreciated the thoughtfulness by these friends.  I just went back and reread all the comments posted from my rant and everyone was so nice.  I have a great support system and feel so loved.  That's something to remember.

I decided not to write out the things that have been said to me because I'd rather not remember those when I'm looking back on this post in the future.  A week or so after the rant, God reminded me of how nice people can be to pregnant women.  I had four people in one day open a door for me.  Might seem like a small gesture but I really appreciated it and it was a small reminder of how nice people actually can be.  And then at work the other day, a lady was leaving and said congratulations out of no where and seemed really happy for me.  That's sweet.  So now, I'm just trying to focus on the positive things people say and do rather than get upset every time someone tells me how big I am.  I know all women probably go through this during pregnancy but this is my blog and I want to remember it all :)

28 weeks

3rd Trimester!!

 

 

 

 

 

how far along? 28 weeks

how are you measuring?  He's measuring 29 weeks, I'm measuring 30 weeks.

size of baby? 14.8 inches long from the top of the head to the heels, 2 1/4 pounds and about the weight of a Chinese Cabbage

heartbeat? 152 bpm (at our 28 week appointment)

total weight gain/loss? +23-25? Depends on the scale and praise God I've stopped stressing about it!

maternity clothes? Almost all of the time! The benefit of losing 50lbs before becoming pregnant is that I have a lot of clothes that were starting to get too big on me, now I can wear those as maternity clothes (mostly dresses).
sleep? Sleeping pretty good still.  Wake up on my back a lot which worries me and then I just turn over. I get up almost every morning now at 6-6:30 to use the restroom and then I go back to sleep  :)  getting all that sleep that every one keeps telling me to enjoy now!! 

best moment this week? Seeing Jonathan on ultrasound again! Had to wait an HOUR before being called back but it was worth the wait.  The gender ultrasound was pretty quick and the tech wouldn't tell us anything but this time we had a different tech.  She was so sweet and said she even gets in trouble for taking too long because she loves to look at the babies.  It was a long ultrasound, about 30 minutes.  She measured everything and showed us so much! Got to see real close up to his head and brain which she said looked really good.  Saw very close up to his heart and could see all four chambers defined really well.  She just kept saying how great he looked so that was a definite praise to God! I loved when he hid his face with his hand, he's shy ;)

movement? He's moving a little more again lately. I was concerned for a week or two. Last night, we saw his whole body move for the first time! Usually, we just see a kick here and there but different parts of my stomach were moving at the same time so thats was weird but cool!! 

food cravings?  I've wanted a blizzard from Dairy Queen lately.  Of course I never get them because I was always trying to lose weight so it feels weird to have one! I was so annoyed after my dr. appt because it took SO long so I went to DQ and got a blizzard...soooo good!!

gender predictions? It's a BOY!

what i miss: Can't think of anything this week.

what i'm looking forward to: Getting excited about our first baby shower in less than two weeks!

how are you feeling? I'm feeling pretty good still! No swelling, no braxton hicks, no nothing! I still can't believe it.  Please just keep praying everything continues to go well without complication!! Rib cage is still a bit sore at the end of the day.

27 weeks

 

 

 

 

how far along? 27 weeks

how are you measuring?  Not sure, doctor will tell me at my next appt.

size of baby? 14 1/2 inches long, almost 2 pounds, and about the weight of a head of cauliflower

heartbeat? 155 bpm (at our 25 week appointment)

total weight gain/loss? +23.5

maternity clothes? Yep...glad I can still wear a large size T-shirt though!
sleep? I got a lot of sleep this week...I was under the weather or worn out, still can't figure that out. I had Jeromy put the guard rail up so I could prop pillows up against it, that works pretty well! No way I can fall out of bed :) Getting up maybe once a night.

best moment this week? Finally purchasing something for Jonathan's room! I feel like we are a bit behind now but then I think there are still three months (hopefully) left so I think I'm ok.

movement? I have been a bit worried about this lately, it's been on my mind a lot.  He hasn't been moving as much and that worries me.  He started up again though so I'm thankful for that.

food cravings? Still not craving anything in particular.  I'll see a commerical for a restaurant or hear about someone going somewhere and think "oh that sounds good!" and then might go for it but nothing just pops up on its own.

gender predictions? It's a BOY!

what i miss:  I miss being able to use my core. Ha! You never realize how much you use your core until you can't use it! It's so hard to get up from laying down but Jeromy is great and always helps me! 

what i'm looking forward to: I'm looking forward to getting the rest of his nursery ordered and to finally get working on it.

how are you feeling?  I'm starting to get a bit uncomfortable.  It's not bad but my rib cage often feels squished and I feel pressure on the bottom of my belly after working all day.  I'm starting to get much more tired after just one days work standing up most of the day. Other than that, everything is still going very well and there have been no complications. I passed my gestational diabetes test so praise the Lord for that!!!