34 weeks 2 days

I'm so anxious for my appointment this week to see what the doctor has to say and see how I am measuring.

Last night I was using Craig as a body pillow with my stomach pressed up against his side (he was laying on his stomach facing the other direction), and I was almost asleep when he said, "Is that him kicking?" I'm so used to that feeling that I didn't realize the future soccer player was hammering against Craig's side. I said, "Yes, do you want me to roll over? Is it keeping you awake?" And he said no. Normally, when I tell Craig to feel him kicking, Brantley stops. That might go down as one of my favorite memories through this pregnancy. It gave Craig a small taste of what I get to experience everyday.

Getting Closer

31 weeks

32 weeks

Being pregnant has been the most amazing experience ever. I say this not even knowing what it is like to have one child yet, BUT I could totally see why people have more than one kid. And I say this for a lot of reasons, all of which are based solely on my pregnancy. The first trimester was not easy. I was pretty much throwing up for the majority of it and at the most inopportune times. But honestly, everything that has come after those first 14 or 15 weeks has totally overshadowed that miserable feeling.

People are so nice when you are pregnant. They make conversation with you. They hold the door for you. Cater isn't the word I want to use, but I can't think of anything better to describe it. People tend to shift towards you when you're pregnant. And let me just say that I all in all I don't think I'm an approachable person. But I guess you put a belly and a waddle on me and I appear to be approachable. I feel like this pregnancy has made me a nicer person. Not to mention all of the compliments - "You're cute as a button." " You're beautiful." "You're all belly." And my favorite one from my husband on Saturday night out to eat dinner, "I think you've gotten prettier since you've been pregnant." Because trust me, there are plenty of days when I can't find anything to wear and I'm looking at how much my body has changed and I don't feel the slightest bit "pretty".

The way my body has changed is a completely different topic. I think everyone has a number in the back of their head that they don't want to hit. I hit mine last week at my doctor's visit and I don't think I freaked out as much as I thought I would. Now, I may be singing a different tune once he is here and I'm trying to get that weight off. But it just seems so minor in compairson to feeling his kicks and getting to know him the way I feel I have. I have welcomed the changes. Everyday, sitting at my desk at work, I can expect for his feet to get up so high it feels like they might reach my throat. And at night when I'm going to bed and I roll over to my left side to fall asleep, I can expect for some sort of temper tantrum that occurs on my right side as he get situated. And in the morning when I wake up, I can feel him snuggled up on my left side. I can't wait to get to know him more once he is here. The closer it gets the more anxious I feel to meet him.

Doing Fine!

This picture was taken last Friday - at 30 weeks. Only 10 more to go!

We had a check up today and everything is looking great. I now start going every 2 weeks since we are getting closer. Which is just crazy to think about. They checked his size and even though I continue to measure bigger (today I measured 34 weeks), they saw in the ultrasound that it's just that I have extra fluid in my uterus. They believe he will be a bigger baby that "average", but the due date is staying the same. I'm feeling really good!

Getting excited about my upcoming baby showers that Anna and her mom are throwing and also the one we are having at work!

I put together a Waffle House softball team. We play on Wednesday nights. When I say "we" I mean the team plays and I act as "team mom". Craig is playing and a couple of the other spouses of people in my department are also. I seriously love my co workers (if I haven't said that enough). Everyone gets along really well. I guess I'm just not used to that. And to everyone's surprise we didn't get slaughtered at our last game. This week will be more of a test. We'll see how it goes! I'll be armed with my team mom responsibilities of Capri Suns and Cracker Jacks.

Welcome to the Third Trimester!

I really had better intentions of keeping up with this blog. But dang, my pregnancy feels like its going by faster than I can keep up with it! My birthday, yesterday, marked the 28th week. Only 12 more weeks to go.

Picture at 27.5 weeks

I had the glucose testing this past week for gestational diabetes. My levels were a little higher than they like to see so they want me to come back this upcoming Friday to do the three hour test. They measure you in centimeters from your pelvic bone to the top of your uterus and the measurement they take should correspond with the number of weeks you are at by plus or minus 2cm. I was measure at 31cm when I was there for my 27 week appointment. So we get to have an ultrasound in three weeks to check his size. The big baby thing scares me but the fact that I get to see him again makes up for it.

He is moving around like crazy and it is such an amazing feeling. There was one night I laid in bed watching my stomach bounce up and down for probably about an hour.

Craig's family threw us a shower at his grandmother's house for Memorial Day weekend and completely spoiled us. It was so nice of them to do that for us. We got loaded up with diapers, LSU onesies, camo gear, lotions, medicine bottles, bottles. Craig's mom spruced up his old rocking chair when he was a kid and painted Brantley's name on it. It looks so great!

Pic from our Louisiana trip - after pigging out on some crawfish.

Speaking of rocking chairs and LSU gear, our kid is already set when it comes to the college football team he will support. Mom had them make this kid's rocker over at Leather Creations. It looks great and I'm sure Brantley will get a lot of use out of it in the next few years!

Today we're off to get as much done on the nursery as possible. Craig and my mom worked their butts off painting it yesterday so I'm ready to hang things up and get everything in place. This talk of a bigger baby or my due date possibly being sooner than August 28th totally has me motivated to get things done.

Hanging out at Dad and June's for my birthday.

Progress on Brantley's room.

24 Weeks.

Brantley is the size of an eggplant this week! About 9 inches long and 1.7 lbs!

The past few weeks I have really felt him kicking. Yesterday morning I was laying in my bed reading my book and I felt him kick against the book that was resting on my stomach. I never would have been able to imagine how cool that feeling would be. I love it. Can't get enough of it.

We celebrated Mother's Day with my family today. We had a good time. And then when Craig and I got home we took a few pictures to mark the 24th week!

Happy Mother's Day, Mama! Love you!

Working at the WaHo

Conversation between me and a co-worker today...


Kristen: John, can you help me look up this invoice and give me a better description of what it was for?
John: (After spacing out on me a few times mid-invoice-look-up.) Sorry about that. I'm operating at like 80% today due to my blood loss.
Kristen: John, you gave blood a week ago. I'm pretty sure you should be back to your old self.
John: I know. But you should know what I'm talking about. I mean, I'm sure you have less energy with all that extra weight you are carrying around.


Ha! If anyone else had said this, I would have totally been offended. But you'd have to know John to understand how innocent it was. I couldn't help but bust out laughing (probably to keep from crying)!

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Another funny work story. Today was our controllers birthday celebration. It's tradition to have a dessert for every birthday or anniversary in our department. A cake was ordered from the Great American Cookie Company. In past experiences, you never know what the cake is actually going to say. One time we ordered a cake that was supposed to say, "Happy Birthday Jenny! Sorry Carissa!" (Because Carissa has a hard time turning down cookie cake and she was trying to be good.) When the cake was picked up it said, "Happy Birthday Jenny! Sorry Pariffa." Except "sorry" looked like "sexy". So now Sexy Pariffa is referred to a lot.


The cake today was supposed to say, "Happy Birthday. Here's to 50 more years." (But he's not 50 yet.) This is what came out:

Good times. I love my job. Seriously.

21 weeks

We had a busy week. We picked up and put the little man's furniture together earlier this week. We put on music, grabbed the tools, and had so much fun spending time hanging out and putting our son's furniture together. It was cool to spend time in the room as "Brantley's room" and not the "scrapbook room".

I started fading out at about 10 o'clock when Craig had just started on the dresser. At 12:30 when I heard him finishing up and getting ready to come to bed, I got out of bed to go check it out. He had it set up with the fire truck decorations on top of it. It looks so great. We are still going to paint the walls and there are a lot of other plans I have, but I'm loving it so far!

Today we went and did some serious people watching at the Renaissance Festival. The people watching alone provided enough entertainment to justify the ticket price. It was a good time. I am 21 weeks today and from this point forward we are going to try to be regular about taking pictures. So here are a few we took tonight when we got home...