32 weeks

32 weeks and exhausted! My pregnancy has been flying by, but once I started my countdown to maternity leave it's been dragging. I'm so over getting up at 5 am and having to hurry up and get ready to just sit in traffic for 45 mins. Everyday by noon I'm sore and stiff from sitting at my desk. I have a stretch break system installed on my computer and currently have it going off every hour. Between my every half hour pee breaks and every hour stretch breaks, I'm never sitting for long, but I still get end up feeling sore. I've been trying to save up as much sick and vacation time I can before I go on leave so going home early every day isn't an option. Only 9 more working days!

Besides the exhaustion caused by getting HUGE, AJ and I have been going non-stop and I'm about out of gas. We've always had very busy summers and this year is no different. It seems that every weekend we have something going on and recently we've had multiple things per day. I've pulled the pregnancy card a few times so far, but I can't use it for everything. It's graduation season so we've had grad parties for our family members and I didn't want to skip out on any of those. When we aren't with family we find ourselves at the A's games. We were so excited to get season tickets this year, but that was before we knew we were pregnant. Going to a game is a big ordeal in itself so adding being an 8 month pregnant chick makes for an exhausting day! Our seats are close to the field which is great for watching the game, but it also means a LOT of steep stairs between my seat and the bathroom. Just making it down to my seat plus a couple of bathroom breaks leaves me pretty sore and tired by the end of the game. We're actually looking forward to our break in the season when baby Emerson arrives!

I've been looking pregnant for awhile now, but over the last two weeks my stomach has exploded! I was emailing with the bestie this week and I was telling her how afraid I am for all the growing to come in the next 8 weeks. My maternity clothes are comfortable, but everything underneath isn't. I hate wearing a bra now, but I also hate not having one on. All I want to do is sit in my underwear (the few pairs that fit comfortably still) and an over-sized t-shirt (which now just fits me perfectly). I know I'm not the only one that has noticed my expansion in the last two weeks because I'm starting to get those make-me-feel-huge comments from people I know and from strangers. I know or at least hope that no one is trying to hurt my feelings, but when I'm feeling pretty down about the way I look, their comments don't help any. When looking at my baby shower pics the bestie happened to notice how HUGE my boobs have gotten; she called them FFF size. I wore a dress this weekend and said to AJ "Look how white I am" and he said "Yeah, you need one of those wide load signs". After I punched him-HARD-I repeated myself and emphasized that I said WHITE, not wide! I've had a few people pass me in the hallways at work and they stop to tell me that I just look miserable-gee, thanks! That's about as nice as telling someone they look tired-basically you're telling me I look like crap! I just keep reminding myself that I only have 9 more working days and then I can hide out in my house and grow large and in charge in private. 

I'm very ready to have this baby, but I also know he needs a few more weeks of cooking before he is ready to come out. Once I reach the 36 week safe zone, I'm pretty sure I'll be begging for Emerson to come out! That just leaves me 4 short weeks to finish up the nursery and stock it up with all our shower goodies! We did make some progress on the changing table this week-it's sanded and primed! Hoping to have it painted and back in the room next week. The bathroom took a back seat to finishing up the nursery so no progress there. That's a very sensitive subject with AJ-he tends to instantly sweat when I bring it up. I knew we were crazy to take on such a huge project with just 2 months left before baby comes, but it had to get started eventually. Hoping we can have it at least half way done before Emerson joins us. 

This week we put together all of Emerson's things that required assembly and I loved every minute of it! Seeing his high chair in the kitchen and his rocker in the nursery gives me the warm fuzzies! We are so ready to meet our son!

Only 8 more weeks!

How Far Along: 32 Weeks

Weight gain: 41 lbs
Maternity clothes? Yes
Stretch marks? My dot has multiplied into multiple dots along my hips.
Sleep: It's getting hard to lay in one position for more than an hour and rolling over has become a chore! 
Best Moment of the Week: Spending Memorial Day weekend with our families and watching the A's beat the Giants!
Miss Anything? My boobs
Movement?: He moves non-stop now! Hoping to capture a video for you all. 

Food cravings: Fruit and Sweet Tarts

Anything making you queasy or sick: Nope
Gender: Baby Boy
Labor Signs: None

Symptoms:  A lot of pressure in my groin, restless legs, and sensitive skin (getting skin irritation very easy nowadays) 
Belly Button in or out? In-almost flat though

Wedding rings on or off? Off
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy, but tired.
Looking Forward To: Our parenting/labor class is this weekend and I'm very anxious and excited for the reality check we will be left with. 

31 weeks

I know I say this every week, but I can't believe I'm already 31 weeks pregnant and what a week this was! I've been looking forward to this week for the last couple of months; it was Baby Shower week! Before our shower, we had our second attempt at the 3D ultrasound and it was a semi-success. Our camera shy little boy let us see his tiny face for most of the appointment. Sure, it was more of a side profile view, but we were able to see more than just his cute little nose. We got two really great shots of Emerson grinning at me and his Daddy. Towards the end of the appointment he started to work on his yoga poses and ended up with his feet covering his face. When the ultrasound tech was looking at the black and white ultrasound she noticed a halo of long hair surrounding Emerson's noggin. She said she can normally see a little bit of hair on babies, but from what she was seeing Emerson already has a lot of LONG hair. Should be interesting to see how similar our 3D image is to Emerson once he's here. I just hope the long hair is all on his head and not all over his body! Here's a little snap shot of our grinning babe.

The weekend was finally here and that meant baby shower #1 was finally here! Our first shower was thrown by my mom and sister. We have a very large group of family and friends so my original guest list to my mom had 65 people on it. I thought it was already too many people to ask my mom and sister to host, but apparently I was mistaken. My mamacita ended up adding to the list and making it a grand total of 96 invites! We are so blessed to have that many wonderful people in our lives, but thank goodness not all of them were available to spend the day with us because the 60 or so people that did make it made for a very cozy afternoon. Sunday's weather was expected to be a warm 88 degrees, but thankfully the breeze was blowing so it turned out to be a nice day to sit outside. Well, it was a nice day for everyone who's not pregnant-I was a sweaty mess for most of the afternoon. 

The theme of the shower was all things lime green, blue, and mustaches! I was beyond impressed with the decor, Grandma and Auntie outdid themselves! With such a large group of people it was hard to play the typical shower games, but that didn't stop my mom and sister! They found the best shower game ever! Each table was given a nursery rhyme and told to re-write it to include me, AJ, and Emerson and I would pick which table wrote the best remix. Of the six tables, four of them remixed the nursery rhyme to include some sexual innuendos. Knowing my family and friends I was expecting to hear some naughtiness added to each song, but my mom was completely surprised. I'm not sure why she didn't see this coming, it's not like a baby shower was going to tone this group down! Every remix was amazing, but the winner ended up being the table with all the Aunts; they won because they found a proper way to include the word va-jay-jay! Here's a link to videos of each remix.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5WBoLYRj7puTGN6MHp1cV8tTTg/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5WBoLYRj7puWmtXcmxqYUZIUXc/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5WBoLYRj7puYXRoa3BvZW9ZRkE/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5WBoLYRj7puY0llTDNzOGF1OG8/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5WBoLYRj7pualVubWVFQ1U5djQ/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5WBoLYRj7puYU9hRFgweUlYcXc/edit?usp=sharing

One of the many bonuses of knowing so many incredible people is having our little man get spoiled! I can't even begin to name off all the wonderful gifts we received from everyone. I'm already getting hand cramps thinking of all those thank you notes!

This shower just blew me away and I couldn't be more thankful for my amazing Mom, sister, family and friends. We are so blessed to be surrounded by all of these fabulous people!

In other baby news, we made a few upgrades and changes to the nursery this week. Our home was built in 1956 and I'm pretty sure the windows are all original to the house. We have been wanting to replace them all, but it's too expensive so we are doing room-by-room, starting with the nursery. One of our friends was able to get us a really good deal on a window and he helped AJ install it Saturday morning. Emerson will never be too warm or too cold with this new window! 

This week AJ also finished painting our hand-me-down chifferobe and it went into the room. Once we had the chifferobe, rug, crib, glider, and changing table all in the room we realized one of these things is not like the other. As much as we love our blue changing table, we both realized that once it was all in the room it just didn't look right. A very frustrated AJ and I decided it would have to be sanded down and repainted to match the chifferobe. That is on next week's list of projects to get done. We have to make it happen because until it's done, we have an incomplete room, which prevents us from putting away all of our gifts. As you can see the gifts have found a home in our living room and we've just made trails to work around them all. 

We started putting together some of our goodies and thought I'd share a picture of what is most likely, who am I kidding, IS going to be our future.

First item in the stroller wasn't baby, but a lime-a-rita!

Next week my work is throwing me a baby shower and we have another one at the end of June thrown by AJ's dad's side of the family. Needless to say we will have a mini Babies-R-Us in our living room before Emerson gets here!

Emerson will be gracing us with his presence in just a short 9 weeks!

 

How Far Along: 31 Weeks

Weight gain: 38 lbs, but I'm sure the scale at the Dr's will say differently
Maternity clothes? Of course
Stretch marks? My dot is growing, but still pretty small
Sleep: Getting a bit more solid sleep because the frequent urination has slowed down a bit this week, but I'm pretty sure I just jinxed myself. 
Best Moment of the Week: Getting spoiled at our first baby shower!
Miss Anything? My figure
Movement?: He's starting to do a lot more stretching and a lot less punches and kicks. 

Food cravings: Jamba Juice!

Anything making you queasy or sick: Nope
Gender: Baby Boy
Labor Signs: None

Symptoms: Massive heartburn, scatter-brained, aweful groin pain, and restless legs
Belly Button in or out? In

Wedding rings on or off? Off
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy!
Looking Forward To: Starting and finishing our changing table and starting to organize all Emerson's goodies!

30 weeks

Only 10 more weeks...UGH! This week officially marked the uncomfortable phase of pregnancy. You can just refer to me as The Penguin from Batman because I'm a waddling, hot mess!

This California heat isn't helping either. WARNING, TMI coming your way. I've started to get what I'd assume is the adult equivalent of diaper rash in a couple unmentionable areas. I've been waiting for my baby shower to get some baby powder or butt paste to help me get through these summer months; it gives me an opportunity to test out the different brands to see which ones I like best ;) . It's pretty miserable.

My little man is quickly running out of womb room, which is why I'm assuming he DIDN'T cooperate AT ALL at our 3D ultrasound appointment on Friday. AJ and I were so excited to get a glimpse of what our son might look like, but all we left with was an idea of what his nose looks like-it's SO cute! I think he might have been camera shy. He must know when people are watching him because he freezes up all the time when AJ is trying to watch or feel him move. We brought all of our parents and my sister with us to the appointment so the room was very full. The ultrasound tech was trying her best to get Emerson to show his little face. She had me drinking cold water, rolling on both sides, laying on my stomach, and even had me on all fours. My sister took advantage of me being in a very awkward position and snapped this picture.  


Beached Whale Sighting

We are going back this Friday for our second and last attempt. I really hope he works with us this time, but maybe he just wants us to be surprised at the big reveal! Here's a blurry pic our little man's cute nose.

Saturday I went with my mom and sister to a friend's baby shower and it made me SOOOOOO excited for my shower this weekend! I can't wait to bring all of our gifts home and start organizing! My OCD side is so excited to organize the entire nursery! Here's a pic of the sister and me at the shower. 

Sunday I was lucky enough to spend the entire day split between my mom and my mom-in-law. I hope that all the beautiful mamas out there enjoyed their day and were hopefully spoiled! Even though Emerson isn't here yet, my hubby and family spoiled me as a Mommy-to-be. AJ bought me a massage, which is very much needed these days. I loved seeing the pics of all the Mommy's homemade gifts from their little ones; I can't wait until Emerson brings home something that he's made me! I know we're going to need a bigger house because I'm going to keep EVERYTHING related to that little boy!

I have the most amazing mother in the world! I only hope I'm half the mom that she is! 

Emerson has become quite the mover and a shaker lately. I've been trying to capture video of him making my stomach jump around, but like I said, he's camera shy. Hopefully I'll get a good video pretty soon because it's the coolest thing I've ever seen! For now, here's my bump, my bump, my lovely baby bump. 

Only 10 more weeks!

How Far Along: 30 Weeks

Weight gain: 38 lbs
Maternity clothes? Of course
Stretch marks? Still just one little dot
Sleep: If I'm lucky! I'm only getting around 5 hours.
Best Moment of the Week: Catching a glimpse of our little peanut and celebrating my first Mama's Day with the amazing mamas in my life. 
Miss Anything? Walking without waddling
Movement?: All day! 

Food cravings: Fruit and Jamba Juice

Anything making you queasy or sick: Nope
Gender: Baby Boy
Labor Signs: None yet

Symptoms: Peeing all the time, heartburn, scatter-brained, no balance, worsening pain in my groin, and all-around discomfort
Belly Button in or out? In

Wedding rings on or off? Off-really missing my ring
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy!
Looking Forward To: Our second attempt at the 3D ultrasound and our first BABY SHOWER!

Nursery News

I've been trying so hard NOT to buy anything for Emerson because I have three (spoiled) baby showers coming my way, BUT I couldn't pass up on these beauties! If it's not clear by now, I'm not into the typical pastel nursery decor so I've been keeping an eye out for fun art pieces that are nursery appropriate, but modern! These babies are shipping to me over the next few weeks and I just can't wait!

I want to find chunky white frames to put these in.  The three above are 8x10s and I'll hang them side-by-side. This last pic is 11x20 and it'll go on another wall. I can't wait to get this in the mail!

I couldn't find a larger picture so it's fuzzy.

Hoping to have updated nursery pics soon! 

29 weeks

Everywhere I look I see pregnant women and most of them look further along then me. Every time I see these women I get scared because they are SO much bigger than me, which means I have SO much more to grow! I haven't started to worry about labor or what happens next; my only fear right now is having so much more to grow in such a short amount of time! At this point you can push a bowling ball out my hoohah all day  as long as I don't have to walk around with a workout ball-sized belly begging to explode from my ever shrinking clothes! Am I crazy? I never thought I'd be more worried about being HUGE vs giving birth. 

Speaking of huge, this week offered many opportunities for me to feel, look, and fear HUGE! Started off the week with the first dreaded stretch mark showing it's ugly face on my expanding belly. It's more of a stretch dot and not a line...YET. I knew I was destined for greatness tummy destruction via stretch marks; I guess it's payback for all those lovely lines I left on my Mom. I've heard they show up towards the end, but for some reason I thought I was going to be one of those lucky beeotches because I hadn't seen any yet. I'm really hoping that I don't get a ton and if I do that they aren't very dark and will lighten after Emerson is here and my body goes back to bikini ready. I guess in order to say "back to" it means it was once there so let me rephrase-and my body gets bikini ready!

After I got over my first stretch mark, I had to start focusing on the hubby's birthday! He turned 26 this week - now it sounds like I'm not that much of a cougar. He is the pickiest person I've ever met and it's always a challenge trying to pick out the perfect gifts for him. I really pride myself in picking out gifts that mean something and really fit the person, but this year I was stumped. I finally had to ask him what he wanted for his bday and he told me a Mountain Bike or an iPad. Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize we were made of money-could you ask for anything MORE expensive. Neither of those ideas really helped at all since I was only looking to spend A hundred and not hundreds of dollars. BUT after careful thought and working the corner for some extra cash, I broke down and bought him an iPad. I figured it would be a long-term investment that would benefit the entire family and by entire family, I really mean me! We both have always talked about getting one, but it was always the last thing on our wish list. I don't he thought I'd really buy him either of those gifts so he was very surprised and happy to open his iPad. I've been a good girl and have let him play with his iPad and have held off on adding all my apps. The one app I did insist on adding was Skype so that I could chit chat with the bestie! 

We went out for Sushi on his actual birthday with my family and his Mom. Of course I drooled over all the yummy sushi AJ was eating, while I enjoyed my everything cooked roll - BOO! I can't wait to have me some spicy tuna rolls once this baby is outty 5000! On Saturday more of his family and our friends went out to Buffalo Bills, a very yummy brewery in Hayward. They didn't take reservations so we anticipated waiting for a bit and were happy to hear it was only going to be a 30-45 min wait. Luckily for me, they had empty bar stools so I didn't have to stand all that time. While everyone else enjoyed their delicious beers and ciders, I sat there sipping my water, waiting. An hour later we still hadn't been seated so AJ asked the hostess what the deal was. She told us that they only have one table where they can seat 10 people and that party had finished their dinner, but three ladies were still sitting around the table talking. We waited around another 20 mins and asked the hostess for another update. She apologized 1000x and told us that she couldn't say anything to the ladies, but we could ask them to leave. WTF?! Who does that?? If someone approached me and asked me to leave so that they could sit down I'd probably say eff off and sit there longer. By this point we were all very frustrated and I was SO uncomfortable and starving! AJ (who was a little tipsy at this point) decided to approach the ladies and nicely ask if they would move to another table for us. We all thought he was crazy, but we were so desperate to eat. He comes back with a scared smile on his face and tells us that the ladies were actually hard-core biker bitches and they were coming our way. HELP! The Sergeant at Arms approached us and AJ said "see, I told you my wife was pregnant." After a brief pause she laughed and said it wasn't a problem. She chit chatted with us for a bit and said the minute AJ pulled the pregnancy card she was happy to move. Like me, she said she was about to tell AJ to eff off and continue to drink her beer, but she had a heart and would move for me. THANK GOODNESS! We finally sat down an hour and half later and enjoyed our dinner. After dinner we took some pictures in front of the restaurant and this is that moment where I LOOKED huge.

It was a busy weekend for AJ, me, and baby! After a great Saturday night we had an even better Sunday day! My step-dad works for AT&T and was given 5 tickets to the Giants vs Dodgers game. He just assumed he was getting normal seats, but turns out it was 5 tickets to the AT&T Presidential Suite! Now AJ and I are sooooo NOT Giants fans, but who can say no to a Presidential Suite?! The suite was absolutely amazing! It happened to be the final game of the series and a potential sweep for the Giants so needless to say the fans were excited. I tried my hardest to get into the game, but my heart just doesn't beat for the Giants. We had a blast and loved the royal treatment, but just wished it could have been associated with the A's.  

Sister time

To finish week 29 we took our first class! I signed up for a breastfeeding class and it was optional for husbands so I left it up to AJ and he was all about it. I'm so happy he came because we learned so much information! He was one of two hubbys that stuck it out with their preggers. There were only a handful of pregnant women there and one of them looked like she was going to POP! I just kept staring at her stomach and thinking that I have so much growing left to do. I don't know why I can't get this fear out of my head! 

Week 29 flew by so quickly that I again forgot to take a belly picture. I'm just going to keep blaming these missed photos on my pregnancy brain!

Only 11 more weeks!


How Far Along: 29 Weeks

Weight gain: 33 lbs, but seeing the Dr next week 
Maternity clothes? Just bought some more maxis!
Stretch marks? Yes, so sad. Just one little dot for now.
Sleep: Not really happening because this little guy only sleeps on my bladder and I can't get comfortable in any position. 
Best Moment of the Week: Celebrating my husband's birthday with him!
Miss Anything? NOT peeing every 10 minutes.
Movement?: All day! 

Food cravings: Fruit and yogurt covered raisins

Anything making you queasy or sick: Nope
Gender: Baby Boy
Labor Signs: None yet

Symptoms: Peeing ALL the time, heartburn, scatter-brained, no balance, and continued pain in my hoohah.
Belly Button in or out? In

Wedding rings on or off? Off
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy!
Looking Forward To: Our 3D Ultrasound on Friday!!!!!