The Baby Room Looks Like a Baby's Room And Not a Tool Room!

These are the things I love about being pregnant:

1. Maternity pants. I love them1 Maybe I will keep wearing them even after the baby is born. They are awesome.

2. The cute things my kids say at school about it. They are almost constantly rubbing my belly and saying "Baby sleep" or "Gentle with baby" or "Where's your baby?" And now they go up to other people and  try to look under their shirts to find babies. (For the record, they do not look under my shirt.) They
also tell me I have babies inside my arms. I'm not sure why, but they think that's a good spot for a
baby.

3. Hearing my baby's heart beating at all my doctor's appointments :-)

4. Feeling him move around and kicking me like a maniac!

5. Getting all of his cute little baby things ready!

Things I do not like about being pregnant:
    
1. Thinking about actually having the baby. Baby class was  not fun on Saturday. I used to think I wanted an epidural the first possible second that I could. Now even getting the pain medication scares me. I mean really, getting my blood pressure taken makes me nervous enough to actually raise it and getting a shot or having blood drawn is always a traumatic experience. So I just don't think about that part and I love everything else about being pregnant.

In addition to spending about 12 hours at childbirth classes this weekend, we also kind of finished the baby room. It's not actually done yet - we have to get a new light, hang some things on the wall and buy the mattress and bedding. And we're looking for a glider and a bookshelf or something. But it's painted and the crib and dresser are up! It's kind of a small room, so it's hard to get a good picture, but here are a couple so you can get the idea. I'll put better ones up later when it's really done.

After the room was set up I was really excited to wash the baby clothes we have so far and get them put away. So I spent Sunday night doing a load of laundry for five hours. Yes, five hours. I ran the load through and when it was done half of the clothes were still dry! So I switched it to a bigger load and washed them again. Half way through my washing maching started dancing - it was literally banging up against the wall. It sounded like people were trying to break my doors down. So I opened it and closed it again and it was still banging around. After a couple of times of doing that it just shut off. And  a lot of the clothes were still dry. Then Carl came home and ran an empty load and worked absolutely fine for him. So I put the baby clothes back in and five minutes later it shut off again while it was full of water. Carl got it started again and at midnight we finally put the baby clothes in the dryer and they are now happily put away in the closet and dresser. But we may need a new washing machine! I'm kind of scared to try washing a load our laundry tonight, but hopefully it will work!

Baby Shower!

First of all, my Bible Study is awesome. Last night the other girls threw a joint couples shower for Carl and I and our friends Mike and Brie. And they did such a great job! Awesome food, great friends, funny games and adorable baby gifts. :-) I just have to put up the pictures because everything was so cute! Thank you girls - you know how to throw a great shower!

Such cute diaper cakes! And check out the little tiny diapers all around them :-)



This is how boys entertain themselves at baby showers. They use baby bows to dress like ninjas.

Some time in the next few days I will put up some pictures of our baby room! It's almost done. We just have to get the dresser put together. (Our project for tonight)

Tomorrow and Sunday we have our baby class! People keep asking me if I'm excited. Is it bad that I'm not? I've enjoyed living blissfully unaware of all that goes on during labor and delivery. Tomorrow I have to face the reality of what's actually going to happen in two months. I'm not worried about the actual bringing the baby home and being a mom part. Just the part that happens right before that. You know, the part where a baby who is currently the size of a huge squash and is still supposed to gain 4 - 5 pounds has to get out! Yikes!

My Little Karate Kid

I've been told it's time to post more pictures. But for the record, I don't like any of these! I may stop posting them after this...  We'll see.

24 Weeks? Or somewhere around there.

29 Weeks

Sometimes I look at myself in the mirror and I'm pretty convinced that I swallowed a tiny little beach ball that is gradually inflating itself. There can't possibly be a person in there. But then the little guy promptly shows off one of his Kung Fu moves to remind me that he really is alive moving. I had yet another doctor's appointment where we could hardly hear the heart beat between karate kicks! The doctor was like, "Wow, is he always that active?" Yep. He is! He's awesome. And Crazy.

And now, for the latest quote from people who don't think before they speak. I was at the doctor last week and I walked into the waiting room. A seemingly nice lady said, "Congratulations!" So I thanked her and then put on my coat. And she said, "With your coat on you just look a little chubby." Thank you nice lady. Chubby is always a compliment. :-)

The kids at work are definitely noticing the growing bump, but until last week I really hadn't said anything to them about it because they're just so little. But now they always touch my stomach or poke at it because they are noticing that it's different. So I told a couple of them last week that there was a baby in there. And they spent the next 10 minutes looking in the pockets of my shirt and trying to unzip it to find the baby. So cute! And now a couple of them have started to come up to me and rub my tummy, saying, "Baby boy" and giggling. I love those kids!

Christmas Catch-up

For my whole life I have celebrated Christmas in quite a few places in just a couple of days. We usually traveled all over the place for extended family Christmases and had our own a day or two before or after Christmas. When I got married, it added even more traveling and at least one extra Christmas. So it's always been a very busy few days. This year was completely different because of my parent's move to Kansas. We really didn't do much on Christmas Eve. We did some cleaning and a little last minute shopping. Carl even worked for part of the day. Then we had our Christmas together that night, which of course included our Christmas "Thin Pancake" tradition. We argue about what they're called everytime. They're crepes, people. But Carl insists that our kids will like calling them thin pancakes better. So thin pancakes they are I guess. :-)

Carl is a very skilled thin pancake flipper. I am not as skilled at catching it on camera.

The next day we hosted our first Christmas with some of Carl's family. His parents, grandparents and unlce came for a big turkey dinner. And I successfully cooked it all disaster free.

Then, the day after Christmas we headed to Kansas for Christmas with my family. We spent the week playing lots and lots of games and eating lots and lots of food. And I fell in love with a new ice cream place. I would almost drive to Kansas just to go there. Orange Leaf, you are awesome.

I can't believe that next year that little person who is making me look like a balloon will be celebrating his first Christmas with us!

I Survived

So last week I had my monthly prenatal appointment and I was NOT looking forward to it. This one was my glucose test. If you don't know, that means I had to drink a nasty orange, sugary drink, then wait for an hour and get my blood drawn to check my sugar levels and see if I have Gestational Diabetes. I was dreading that test because I hate getting my blood taken and I was pretty sure I was going to fail it and have to do the longer test. And of course I was right. I failed by 2 points. Just barely over the line. So today I took the day off work to go in and take the 3 hour glucose test, which means fasting and then drinking one nasty orange drink and getting 4 blood draws in 3 hours. Yuck!

Last week I kept asking Carl, "They wouldn't really tell a pregnant lady she can't have sugar 4 days before Christmas would they?" That would be the cruelest form of punishment. So for the last week I have been going back and forth between trying not to eat anything sugary (which is hard in a week full of Christmas parties) just in case I did have it, and wanting to eat all the sugar in sight because I knew I might not be able to for the next three months! 

This morning finally came and I went in for the dreaded test. They took my blood as soon as I got there and I passed part one right away. Then they made me drink the nasty drink, which was much nastier this time - I think I had a different kind because this one was making me cringe and gag and the last one didn't bother me at all. Then I sat in the lobby for an hour and went in for the 2nd blood draw. Passed it! Another hour in the waiting room and the 3rd blood draw. By this time I was starting to feel sick and  like I might pass out. I was out of arms to poke for this one so they tried to take it from the first one, but my arm was all swollen and bruised so they had to take it from the same one as last time. But I passed it! And since I passed the first three with flying colors, I got to go home and skip the last hour and the 4th blood draw. Merry Christmas Me!

Now I would do anything for this baby, so if I hadn't passed I would have gladly gone on the low sugar and low carb diet they would have given me. And I probably only would have complained when everyone else was enjoying all my Christmas baking while I watched. But thankfully, he loves his Mommy, and I don't have too. He just made me fail the first one to toughen my up a little and get me more used to needles.

I celebrated my good news by going home and eating a truffle.

Surviving A Blizzard Hagen Style

I started the weekend by joining thousands of other people at the grocery store Friday after work so that I wouldn't have to go anywhere Saturday. I don't know if I have ever seen a grocery store that crowded - it was ridiculous. But I got everything I needed and didn't have to leave my house during the crazy snowstorm. Mission accomplished. We also went to Dave and Buster's to do something different for a date night. If you know us very well at all you know that I lose almost every game I play against Carl. But I'm usually pretty good at Air Hockey! Not this time. I have now added it to the list of things I can't win at. It's getting to be a very long list. I blame it on being pregnant.

On Saturday we woke up to the realization that not only was there already almost a foot of snow outside, but it was supposed to keep snowing all day and our snowblower was at the shop getting fixed! So my poor, but wonderful husband spent over 5 hours outside in the freezing cold. He spent 3 hours shoveling half of our driveway and then a snowplow came by and immediately covered the end of it up again, which added another hour. And then, because he's a rock star and super awesome, he spent at least another hour helping the old man across the street with his driveway. And I stood inside taking pictures of him through the window. (I know. It was a rough day for me.)

This is Carl staring down the snowplow driver before he hurled snow at him and his freshly cleaned driveway.

The driver was not intimidated. This is Carl running away from the 15 foot wall of snow coming his way.

From inside my cozy warm house, where I was not allowed to help shovel, I thought it was a beautiful day and I loved the snow. We celebrated having half of a cleared driveway with a pot roast, homemade bread and our favorite sweet potatoe casserole. See, I did a little more than just take pictures that day.

And then we watched a movie by the fireplace. I thought many times that day about how thankful I was for a warm house, warm blankets and a warm fireplace. And also warm hot chocolate. What a blessing to have a safe, warm house to live in!

And the good news is, we got our snowblower back today and it only took Carl 35 minutes to do the rest of the driveway and the sidewalk to our front door!

It Broke!

My baby ticker is broken. According to the fruit chart he has been the size of a papaya for three weeks now. And I can gaurantee he has grown in the last three weeks. Or at least I have. I'm trying to fix it, but apparently my internet is also broken and only lets me do certain things, like complain about it. But it doesn't let me fix it. I want to know what fruits I've been missing!