Week 26 Pics

Week 26

Today starts week 26 and I kinda wish that instead of Thanksgiving break, we were on Christmas break!  I would love a few more days off and more time to do some relaxing shopping on the Internet or bake cookies and watch movies.  I'm also getting more and more eager to see what this little one looks like!  I know the rest of this pregnancy will go by fast, but I'm just excited to see her! 

Mom went out and bought some early gifts from the registry this weekend.  We got a high chair, a cute teddy bear blanket, a diaper caddy, and a baby sling.  Fun!  I love getting baby stuff :)  I can't wait until I have showers!

We had a nice Thanksgiving with Sean's family and my mom.  Lots of good food and my first attempt at bringing an actual dish to a family holiday meal went pretty well.  Well people said they liked it anyway and it was a little over half gone.  It was a cornbread type of dish that someone at school made and sent out the recipe for.  I thought it was quite delicious!  I can't wait for Christmas cookie baking/decorating now.  Tonight we're going to eat dinner with the family that are still in town.  Then I suppose I should come back and do some really exciting laundry and ironing.  Less than one month until Christmas so I may also look online for some gift ideas for myself and family. 

This was taken at 24 weeks... I'll have to post an updated one soon.

Week 25

This weekend we got most of the baby's room done - well, at least furniture-wise!  We finally moved the computer desk down to the basement, moved the crib, dresser, and glider where we want them, and put together the changing table.  We still need to get a 3-shelf bookshelf and then move the old light wood one downstairs, but that's easy.  We also think we will get a little toy box or something low to go under the window that we can put her toys in.  Now I look forward to getting some of the bedding and decorative stuff to add some color to the room.  We don't really want to paint the walls, but we're going to do those peel-off wall decals.  I'm thinking maybe her name above the crib with some kind of circle design will add some color to the crib wall, then above the dresser and changing table, I'm not sure yet...

We also went on Friday night to start our in-store registry at Babies R Us.  So we have a bunch of stuff on there now and I also need to get to Target to add some in-store items still.  The feeding stuff is a little overwhelming!  I mean how many bottles do you need?  And what kind of breast milk storage bags are easiest?  And what do I really need as far as washing/drying accessories for bottles?  Now I need to start asking my friends with babies about this stuff because I really am not sure and it's been a long time since I worked with infants in daycare and had my personal favorite bottles and stuff.  There's so much to think about! 

Today I tried going to a pilates class at a place where I'm taking salsa and tango lessons once a week.  I thought pilates would be good to try while pregnant and it would be a good class except that almost everything is ultimately an abdominal exercise that I cannot do!  I don't think I'll be going back to that one.  I also did a prenatal yoga DVD yesterday from Netflix and it was alright but sometimes yoga is just TOO slow and TOO easy.  It felt good, but I felt like I could do something a little more challenging for now, anyway.

Thanksgiving is in just a few days and I'm so excited for a few days off of work!  Not to mention the delicious food!  It will be so nice to not have a full work week this week :)  Then from after Thanksgiving to Christmas usually flies by, so... Baby will be here before I know it!  I start my 3rd trimester in 2 more weeks and I know that pretty much once February hits, I'll just be thinking that she could come any day!  I still want her to wait until March though :)

Week 24

Today I am 24 weeks along.  I went to the doctor this week and everything looks good.  Other than my having low levels of iron and needing to also eat more protein... everything else looked good.  The heart rate was about 153 and she was able to find it right away for once!  I guess the bigger the baby gets, the harder it is for her to hide from the doppler every time.  I get to do the lovely glucose test next time I go in December at 28 weeks, and then, after 28 weeks, I start going to the doctor every 2 weeks!  I think it's crazy how fast it's going. 
I have started registries now at both Target and Babies R Us, but I just started them online.  Target makes it hard, because there are so many things I want that are available online only.  But I know I need to go in the store and find some stuff that's there, because not all people will want to order gifts online.  We chose some bedding finally, too!  I was pretty set on having pink and black in the nursery, but I just didn't find any pink bedding that I really liked.  So instead, I came across some that's lavender and I really like it, so lavender and black it is!  Hopefully I'll like how it looks when we get it too.  It's on the registry at Target, so we'll see when someone wants to get it. 
I'm starting to think about how preparing for maternity leave at work will go... I'm a little nervous about having to write sub plans for several weeks.  In teaching, lessons have to change so much from day to day depending on what the kids are ready for, so trying to plan for several weeks will be hard!  At least we have someone planned for my long-term sub already.  She'll be great, so hopefully the timing of delivery all works out the way I hope.  I guess I'll just plan to be done teaching on March 4th and hope that Baby can wait that extra day!  That's about 14 more weeks of teaching left for the year. 
Little Miss Roly Poly Baby moves so much more now!  At least it gives me a nice little reason to smile in the middle of teaching on a difficult day.  When I'm singing loudly in the car though, she stops moving usually.  So either she's mesmerized by my voice (highly uunlikely) or she's concentrating on covering her ears and thinking about how embarrassing I am already (much more likely)!  Hopefully she can learn to self-soothe so I don't have to try singing to her too much... that may be the least soothing sound ever.  Oh who am I kidding, I'll sing to her anyway :)

23 Weeks Today!

23 weeks

22 Weeks (Halloween!)

Another Baby Dream - and Week 22

I had another quite vivid baby dream last night starring my baby and my friend Laura's baby.  Back when I had the original dream about these two babies early in my pregnancy, it was also extremely vivid.  These were definitely the same 2 babies from the previous dream - super cute and both girls :)  We were all staying in some sort of vacation home in Colorado.  Laura and I at one point wondered where the babies went and someone had put them both in a big bed in the upstair bedroom for a nap.  They were so cute napping together!  The only disturbing part of this dream was that Laura's baby was a normal 6 lb. baby and mine was, like, 25 lbs!!!  She didn't LOOK huge, she just was super heavy to carry!  Now I know that mine will be almost 2 months older, but she better not be any 25 lbs at 2 months old! 

Back in reality, this baby is pretty active right now!  Lots of flipping around and wiggling (mostly at night).  But I love it everytime I can feel her, so I always try to stop and appreciate it when I can.  Although I hope she's not this wiggly when she's born - I want her to snuggle up to me instead of try to get away!  I cannot believe it's 4 months away now and that according to What to Expect... I'm beginning month 6 this weekend.  I've been reading the next chapter each month and it's always interesting to read about what is going on with the baby and myself.  Pretty soon, i'll want to read ahead to the end in case she comes earlier than expected.  Although I'm still telling her not to come any earlier than March 5th.  If I put my mind to it, she'll stay where she is until I'm ready, right?  Well, who knows, but I'll use my mind power to keep her inside until March 5th when I'm done teaching for the year.  (And can I just tell you how lovely it is to think about having only about 16 more weeks of teaching for this year?)