Baby update--
◦Is over five pounds now, although these weight guesstimates will start getting very useless very quickly over the next few weeks.
◦Since most of your baby’s organs are fully functional and major developmental milestones behind him or her, the next month is all about weight gain. And since “normal” weights for newborns these days can be anything between six and 10 pounds, it’s hard to predict how big YOUR baby will be from here on in.

Total weight gain: I actually lost 3 lbs according to the scale at my drs. office on Monday....not sure how that has happened...but ok. Total gain 24lbs.
Maternity clothes? very definitely
Sleep: yes....I would enjoy more of it though
Best moment this week: This moment right now laying on my couch with a 3 year old cuddling on me. Or maybe it was yesterday on the car ride home when she sang me the donkey song :)
Stretch Marks: same ole, same ole
Movement: Yep, still way more than I ever had with Emily.
Food Cravings/Aversions: ice cream...ninja loves ice cream! Fortunately the girls at work humor me so I get it a lot at lunch time :)
Gender: girl
Belly Button in or out? still in--but I'm not sure it's going to stay there
What I miss: a good night's sleep
Weekly Wisdom: Things may not always go as planned, but there is always a silver lining.
Milestones:35/35 today! 35 weeks and 35 days left :)

And in other news--some new belly pics!




I think I've officially had to retire the Ninja in Training shirt. I had several requests back when we announced the gender to see the Girl Ninja shirt in action, so I figured this would be a good shirt to move to!

Zoo!!

Last weekend it was finally warm enough to take Em to the zoo! All winter long, whenever we have driven by the zoo she asks if it is warm enough to go see the animals. When I tell her no she will tell me, "animals sleeping inside to keep warm". So she was very excited that it was warm enough and the animals would be out. As soon as we got there we had to ride the train, I am pretty sure it is her favorite part of the day. We got there close to closing time, so after the train we hit the highlights (elephants, giraffes, and big cats) and picked up some other animals along the way. She was especially fascinated by the goats this trip and spent about 5 minutes looking at them and talking to them. Here are some pics from our day! And a bonus I found when getting the zoo pictures--Emily doing the chicken dance--you just have to smile :)

Belly pics...

It has been a while since I've posted belly shots..and I happened to pull my ninja in training shirt out today...so I figured I might as well do them. I am pretty sure today will be the last time I wear the ninja shirt...it is definitely getting to be on the short side! So here it is---33w2d-




P.S. Ignore the mess on the floor--Em was in the room this morning, and we had company today, which means only the "company" rooms got cleaned! Maybe tomorrow!

Our own personal highway clean-up crew

Emily decided that she and Grandma needed to go for a walk this morning. They got out the door and headed up the hill of 1200E for a change of scenery. Shortly after going around the corner Emily sees a bottle in the grass. She picks it up and tell gma, "garbage, you carry it". So gma takes the bottle and they continue on their way. A few more steps and another bottle. Em picks it up and repeats "garbage, you carry it". Gma realizes where this is going so she tells Emily that they don't have a garbage bag, but if they leave the garbage by the side of the road they can pick it up on another walk. So Emily very carefully continues down the ditch, picking up all of the garbage and placing it on the side of the road. Once they get to the top of the hill gma decides to see if she can find a garbage bag. She finds a house with someone home, rings the doorbell, and explains to the lady that her granddaughter would like to pick up garbage, but doesn't have a garbage bag to put it in. The very nice lady gives them a bag, and back down the road they go. By the time they get to the house the garbage bag is overflowing!! Em and gma put it in the trash can, just in time to see the garbage truck come to empty it!
She was quite the proud little girl :) I'm guessing this story can be attributed to wonderful training by gpa....he is known for picking up trash when he sees it. Now he has a helper :)

32w4d

Another boring update--sorry for no excitement, but I'm thinking that is probably a good thing.
Highlights from today's midwife appt.
** Apparently my belly is measuring ahead of schedule as it was last appt. She said if it is again next appt they will send me for an u/s to check baby's size. She said baby doesn't feel abnormally large, so it could just be the position she is in is making me measure larger. As much as I'd love another u/s, I really don't want to try and birth a large baby!
**I asked about getting written out of work before my due date, she said they will write me out any time after 36 weeks..all I have to do is tell them when :) Right now I have 2 goals..the 1st is May 6th--because that is my student teacher's last day, and it just doesn't seem nice to abandon here. My 2nd goal is May 13th, to have a week to transition my kids from student teacher to long term sub. At this point I am pretty comfortable going out at that point..we'll see how I feel in a few weeks!

Baby update--
◦Is about three pounds, 11 ounces and 16 inches long.
◦Is starting to get pretty crowded in there, so you may feel more subtle, rolling-type movements instead of sharp pointy kicks.
*This is also my favorite baby center week....baby is a jicama :)

Total weight gain: do I really need to continue reporting this?? I think I will take a pass this week.
Maternity clothes? very definitely
Sleep: not nearly enough...last night I think I was awake more than I was asleep!
Best moment this week: I went to the fitness center and walked 2 miles--it was nice to see I was still capable of it..even if my time left something to be desired
Stretch Marks: same ole, same ole
Movement: When she wants to...I think she is already working on messing with mommy!
Food Cravings/Aversions: cereal--still...in fact I'm thinking about getting some right now!
Gender: girl
Belly Button in or out? still in--but I'm not sure it's going to stay there
What I miss: having energy
Weekly Wisdom: 7 weeks is so long....yet so short at the same time!
Milestones: hmmm...not sure on this one...maybe something will come to me??

Big Sister!

Last night we took Em to the big sibling class our hospital offers. Of the 5 kids there, Emily was the youngest by several years, so I was a little concerned with how she would do, but she did great! They had a baby doll that the kids go to practice holding and changing the diaper on, we got to tour the floor and they learned about how the baby grows in mommy's belly. I'm not sure how much Em learned about baby growing, but she sat front and center and listened to the whole thing...so maybe she absorbed something in there? She loved the baby doll part....she was pretty much a pro at holding and changing diapers :) And made herself quite at home on the tour of the rooms. When we left we talked about how her new baby sister would come from the hospital and she seemed pretty good with it...we will see come May how that actually plays out :)

She also told Martha and I that she will feed the baby cheeseburgers when she comes :)

Here are some pictures from our class....

Boring update :)

Your Baby:

◦Weighs about three pounds and is 17 inches long. Since most full-term babies are between 20 and 22 inches long at 40 weeks’ gestation, your baby will pack on more pounds than inches in the 10 weeks or so.
◦Is starting to get a little crowded in there, but still has room to wiggle and roll and punch and kick.
◦Despite all the movement, it’s still damn near impossible to tell what position your baby is in for sure (head down, breech, transverse, etc.), but it’s also still too early to be worrying about it. MOST babies settle into a head-down position around 36 weeks, and some still manage to flip themselves around after that.

Your baby's about 15.7 inches long now, and she weighs almost 3 pounds (like a head of cabbage). A pint and a half of amniotic fluid surrounds her, but that volume will decrease as she gets bigger and takes up more room in your uterus. Her eyesight continues to develop, though it's not very keen; even after she's born, she'll keep her eyes closed for a good part of the day. When she does open them, she'll respond to changes in light but will have 20/400 vision — which means she can only make out objects a few inches from her face. (Normal adult vision is 20/20.)


How far along? 30weeks 4days
Total weight gain: as of today 22 lbs total... I am very close to surpassing my weight gain with Emily...but am ok with it...hopefully it comes off easily!
Maternity clothes? Yes--and thanks to a wonderful friend I have oodles of spring tops now, so not nearly as much shopping will need to be done!
Sleep: Not too bad...not great...I've started having really weird dreams at night that I'm not really sure what to think about
Best moment this week: Watching Em at the big Sibling class...it almost brought tears to my eyes watching her hold the baby doll and talk about her baby coming home.
Stretch Marks: same ole, same ole
Movement: All the time! I told the midwife that it feels like there has to be at least 3 in there with as quickly as she can poke and prod all over my stomach! I should probably regret posting this last week, cause since then, baby girl has been messing with me and giving me all sorts of lack of movements scares!
Food Cravings/Aversions: cereal--anything sweet...and oddly...chocolate milk...this is odd because I don't usually like milk at all!
Gender: girl
Belly Button in or out? still in--but I'm not sure it's going to stay there
What I miss: being able to move with ease, it's definitely getting more difficult.
Weekly Wisdom: It is going to be over before I know it!
Milestones: single digit week count down has begun :)