Week 25

Happy week 25 baby girl! :)  My iphone app countdown says we are 105 days away from our due date... we're approximately 85 away from the new house says Andy!  It's all going to be here before we know it!

I started my internal medicine rotation this week which will last for the next 16 weeks (my final exam is two days after her due date) but we've just been in lectures so it's been a pretty great, non-stressful few days.  The first day we had to share something cool about ourselves so of course I shared that we've got a baby on the way!  And since then, I've been getting to hear all my male classmates stories of their wives delivery... specifically which anesthesia resident at UK does an awful job ;)  And how to keep med students away from me and the baby!  I got the schedule I was hoping for with ER at the end - we only have to work 5 shifts in a two week period so I'm planning on doing my 5 days in a row and then I'll be finished except exams for about 2.5 weeks before she is set to come.  Or I will work myself into early labor and get to spend those 2 weeks with a baby which would be fine as well :)

I had an embarrassing pregnancy moment this week which has kind of scarred me for life I think.  I pulled into a parking spot in our garage that was a little small but plenty big enough... or so I thought.  The driver in the car next to me was still sitting in her car for some reason which I noticed when I opened my door wide enough to tap her sideview mirror.  Then I started to climb out and I got stuck.  Seriously, my belly would not fit out the door.  I guess I thought I'd be able to suck in my stomach enough to squeeze out but that was definitely not happening.  Not to mention I had my hands totally full and then had trouble getting back into my own car, while continuing to tap her sideview mirror with my door :(  So, rather than readjusting my parking job, I fled the scene and found another spot far, far away from that lady.

We had a fun weekend! Got lots of stuff moved out of our house to store with the padres in Etown... might have had contractions after moving a desk so I'm pretty sure I'm out of commission for the heavy lifting.  Olivia's team lost unfortunately but they played hard and she did a good job!  We got to have lunch to celebrate Christie's birthday and then ran a few more errands. I still have not picked out a glider but am working on it.  Andy's parents had a short but nice visit on Sunday and very generously offered to purchase us a crib!  We went to buy buy baby and actually found one that we liked immediately!  It's also a cherry finish, like her dresser.  She now officially has her dresser, crib and toybox! With a glider as soon as her indecisive momma makes up her mind ;)

Luckily I have the weekend off entirely so we're heading up to Bloomington to visit some of our favorite friends!  It's been forever since we've seen Evan, Brooke, Teshia and Joey so we're excited and looking forward to relaxing with them!  They did promise to watch the UK game with us... but they didn't say who they will be cheering for ;)  What I am probably the MOST excited about, though, is an adult only easter egg hunt on Friday!!!  It's at some local park in Bloomington and starts after dark - you hunt with a flashlight.  The spots were all full but Brooke talked to the lady running it and we have our fingers crossed that someone doesn't show.  And if we can't participate, I'm going to do my best to find all the eggs I can from afar so Brooke and Evan can scoop them up :)

Here's my update for the week! She's growing a bit more but fortunately I've gotten to wear yoga pants to school this week so I haven't noticed how tight my pants are probably getting ;)

How far along: 25

Total Weight Gain: 14.5

Stretchmarks: Nope

Sleep: like a rock

Best Moment This Week: beating Andy in tennis... ;)

Movement: All the time!

Gender: Baby girl!!

Labor Signs: some braxton hicks occasionally
Belly Button: innie
What I Miss: running more than 2 miles without feeling like i might die
What I am Looking Forward to:  Adult easter egg hunt!! and seeing some good friends :)

Milestones: size of a rutabaga (I don't know what that looks like) and somewhere between 1.5 and 2 lbs!  She's starting opening her eyes and blinking this week too supposedly! :)

Week 24

Week 24 has arrived and we are moving along swimmingly!! The coolest thing ever happened this week... I saw baby girl move!! I read on one of my iphone apps that I may be able to see her moving a bit so that night I was doing some studying and felt her moving around a bit and decided to take a peek! Olivia was next to me and I immediately ran and got Mom to check it out too.  For some reason I was so surprised that I would be able to actually see her moving so quickly... especially when it was only a month ago that I was worried about not feeling any movement yet.  I spent at least an hour that night with my phone trying to video a movement that was obvious enough to show Andy... and I finally got one!  The movement I caught on tape isn't really a kick but more of a roll or something? I'm guessing head or butt was sliding around in there.  I then proceeded to text the video out to numerous people who probably thought it was the weirdest thing ever and if it wasn't my baby, I might agree ;) If I can figure out how to put videos on here, I may put it up.

Needless to say, she has been my most favorite distraction this week while I've been finishing up my family medicine rotation and studying for my exam (that starts in 3 hours, yet here I am...).  I was reading with a book propped on my belly last night and the book started bouncing up and down with her little kicks!  She definitely has a little routine and certain times she's awake/sleeping.  I am positive she will be awake every night from 10:30-11:30... fortunately for me I am a pretty heavy sleeper and she hasn't woken me up any at night.  This also means I don't know her next waking time or how many there are during one night ;)  I know she's usually pretty busy around 7 and again around 10 or so in the morning... When I get bored and she's moving around sometimes I will push on my belly to see if she pushes back... I think we're playing a game although that does sound kind of mean ;)  I may be imagining it but I definitely think she's playing with me :)

Our doctors appointment was great this week! For one we were out in under 45 minutes which is definitely a record!  The other good news was that I passed my Glucola test :) It wasn't great tasting but not horrible... they did advise me to refrigerate it and then drink it with a straw which I think helped.  I took it technically 2 days before you normally do that with pregnant people but I was well below an abnormal glucose so I'm feeling pretty confident that I'll be okay... not to mention we had breakfast for dinner the night before which including pancakes.... and then got ice cream too ;)

The meeting with the builder last week went well... we had more things to decide on that I had originally thought about and it's really hard for me to just make a decision without knowing my options.  So, we have a few things to think about still.  We're going to the cabinet store Friday afternoon or Saturday morning and will hopefully get those squared away.  I felt like I couldn't pick a hardwood color until I knew for sure what color the cabinets will be so that decision awaits me.  The other issue we've run into is the fact that the main floor has rounded corners everywhere, including in multiple archways between rooms.  This means that there's not a very good place to stop and start different colors.  I have seriously wanted a green kitchen ever since Andy bought our current house so I'm racking my brain trying to figure out ways to make this work without the entire first floor/entryway being green.  Mom and Olivia will be up this weekend for a soccer game and can go into the model home so I'm hoping they will have some ideas for us. 

We are starting to pack up some of the stuff in our townhouse to make it look less personalized to potential buyers... as well as to make our closets look not quite so jam packed.  Our house is not big at all but it's amazing how much stuff we have everywhere!  Fortunately, my parents have offered to keep some of our furniture for a few months in order to make our bedrooms look a little bit bigger.  I guess you could say I'm a little OCD at times so I'm not really excited about having to depend on so many people to help us move in June but at the same time I am so, so appreciative of all the help we have been offered! It's going to be such a huge weight off Andy.  I'm going to do my best to start packing up stuff well in advance before I get too big and hopefully it won't be such a huge task that weekend.

We picked out which room will be Harper's and have started thinking about where her furniture will go.  We bought a beautiful dresser we found at Homegoods last weekend!  It's a big 6 drawer cherry dresser with two little sliding drawers at the top... perfect for hairbows and headbands ;)  I also got a peek of her toybox that David built and it's going to be beautiful!!  We've narrowed down the glider options to a couple and will hopefully choose that this weekend... I'm still between a creamy white color or green.  If we do green, I guess I would want pink walls? and I'm not sure I want pink walls...  I think ultimately I will choose white and then paint the walls green.  I also have this craft that is number one of my list of priorities for her room.  I used to have two belts that hung on my doors with all of my bows when I was little and I loved it! I found this on Pinterest and thought it was the cutest thing ever and there is a perfect wall for it in her room.

I'm back in Lexington for good! It was so nice being at home for a while but so weird not seeing Andrew! My last rotation will go until July 13th (or whenever Harper makes her debut) and I'm positive the rest of this school year will fly by.  I came up last weekend and we had a few people over for the UK game and Paige brought me the sweetest gift!! She had made Harper a blue and white tutu!!! Apparently she hand ties the tulle over the elastic so I cannot imagine how long it must have taken her.  Harper will be sporting this with her UK jersey and any Colts gear she has.  I'm going to be on the lookout for some blue/white leg warmers to keep it from itching her legs... I'm pretty sure she will probably be the cutest baby at Commonwealth this fall!!

Anyhoo, here's my picture and update for the week!

How far along: 24

Total Weight Gain: 13.5

Stretchmarks: Nope... although I had a nightmare that I had them starting above my knees and running all the way up to my hips

Sleep: like a rock

Best Moment This Week: seeing her moving!!!

Movement: All the time!

Gender: Baby girl!!

Labor Signs: Confirmed with the dr. that I likely have had a few Braxton Hicks contractions whenever I start running but she said it's not a big deal as long as they go away
Belly Button: it's staying tucked :) but my belly is getting soo tight
What I Miss: nothing
What I am Looking Forward to:  Fun weekend! Moving more furniture home, Olivia's soccer game, picking out a glider and showing the girls the house, and Andy's parents are coming down Sunday!

Milestones: she is the size of an eggplant and weighs about 1.5 lbs!! on my iphone app today it said that you may be able to hear her heartbeat if you put your ear on my stomach... Andy's going to test it out tonight :)

Week 23

Hello, hello!  Baby girl is 23 weeks old with 17 more to go! :) She is doing some serious growing as is my belly!  I purchased a belly band in Lexington last week and it's probably the best thing ever.  I told one of my friends that it's probably going to extend the life of my regular dress pants for another 2 months!! That may be an exaggeration but it seriously has made my clothes so much more comfortable.  It's basically a big elastic band that covers the top of my pants and belly and looks like a long cami hanging out underneath my shirts.  I bought it in black as that's what most of my dress clothes are but I definitely think I'm going to purchase a white one next time I'm in Lexington as well.  As I was getting dressed this morning I was amazed thinking that my pants buttoned last week... I think I could've injured little Harper if I managed to get them buttoned this morning.

I also think I'm now officially in that weird in between stage where strangers would probably think I'm just getting plump rather than pregnant.  I definitely have not had any patients or anything ask if I'm pregnant so until they start asking, I'll just assume they think I'm "letting myself go" ;) 

Andy and I are meeting with the builder this weekend to pick out a few things for the house so that will be fun! We're picking out floor colors and potentially different cabinet/hardware/light fixtures.  I was reading my favorite interior designer blog, the Decorologist, and she was explaining that white cabinets never go out of style or appear dated whereas different shades of wood go in and out of style.  I had never thought of it like that but I do think it's true! I found a kitchen on pinterest that I really like and am thinking about going with it... the wood floor color is very similar to what we've already seen but with white cabinets and a dark island.  My parents kitchen has white, black and brown cabinets which sounds awful but it looks great together and gives you a ton of flexibility for decorating.  But, if anyone thinks this looks weird you should definitely comment and tell me ;)  We're planning on green for paint color but the look of this kitchen is kind of similar to ours!

I spent about 3 years going through Targets website to start a baby registry... I feel like it was way harder than wedding registry because I just don't know what all she's going to need! I did finally find some super cute bedding that I really like but it's out of stock for now... hoping that comes back soon or else I'll have to find something different.  I'm kind of torn between a pink or green nursery.  It's going to have a beige color carpet and I'm going to get either a white/creamy glider from Mom as Andy/Laura's bday presents :)  Davo has made us a toybox and is planning on making a crib but I'm not sure what color those are/will be?  I originally thought green so it would later work for a boy nursery too but the pink rooms are awfully sweet looking too. 

I was walking with Kelsie the other night and I'm pretty confident I could feel my pelvis spreading apart... seriously. lol.  The hormone relaxin is coursing through my body and making my joints feel super weird when I'm working out!  I was lamenting to mom tonight about how much bigger my belly has gotten and how it feels tight and she just laaughed... and said just wait... you think this is big and tight. lol 

On another note, Harper is definitely going to have the best little aunt ever! Olivia got her report card this week and totally dominated the past 9 weeks.  All A's, the lowest of which was a 95.  She is going to be the perfect little role model to Harper and is looking forward to waking up with her throughout the night whenever we come stay in Etown. ;)

Here's our update for the week!! You will definitely notice the bump getting bigger!! :)

How far along: 23

Total Weight Gain: 12.5

Stretchmarks: Nope

Sleep: like a rock

Best Moment This Week: escaping another day without doing another prostate exam at the office, ha, yes I'm for real.

Movement: All the time!

Gender: Baby girl!!

Labor Signs: Nope
Belly Button: it's staying tucked :) but my belly is getting soo tight
What I Miss: nothing
What I am Looking Forward to:  UK game tomorrow night at Gdads!

Milestones:baby girl is the size of a papaya and weighs a little over a pound!

You all should google a "wombie."  Mom just found it on ideeli.. it looks kind of like infant torture in the form of a straight jacket.  I know babies love to be swaddled up all tight but this thing looks weird!

Week 22

Week 22 is complete and we are officially thru 5 months! We are just starting into month #6 which is crazy to think about!  This is definitely passing so quickly.  I find myself thinking of time in little 4 week blocks since that's how most my rotations are broken down and I think that makes it fly by even faster!

We had a good week :) I'm feeling baby Harper move all the time now!  I was Zumba'ing with Mom and Olivia today and have a feeling she may be quite the little dancer.  Mom got to feel a little kick from her during our little workout.  I don't think she's much of a morning person... definitely feeling more movement in the evening.  I was able to get lots of little peeks of her this week.  The doctor I'm working with has an ultrasound machine so I spent a few minutes looking at my insides the other day and then he had an ultrasound tech come in to show us some things! The tech was nice enough to look at baby girl for a bit.  I went to dad's office today to have something checked out and also got a bunch of great pictures! She is head down and has been been everytime I have looked this week... I guess that's why I'm feeling all the little kicks up top.

I have officially worn unbuttoned pants to work once this week... soo much more comfortable.  I broke down and wore my maternity pants for the first time on Tuesday since I thought it would be kind of embarrassing during the ultrasound to have unbuttoned pants on... They were seriously the most comfortable things ever.  I only have one pair of dress maternity pants so I think I will likely be investing in more soon.  My attempt to buy a belly band this weekend was a fail... Not much maternity shopping in Etown.  Although, one of the nurses in Dad's office mentioned a "mommy superstore" on the other side of Etown so I may check that out tomorrow!

We had a fun shower for Carrie this past weekend!! She got so many cute little monogrammed things... it's hard to believe their big day is so soon but it will be here before we know it!!  I am feeling a little more confident these days that my dress should definitely fit... fingers will remain crossed though :) My belly is definitely getting bigger these days.

Thanks again to my professional photographer, Olivia for another weekly picture :)

 

How far along: 22

Total Weight Gain: 11... only going to keep this for Paige's entertainment ;)

Stretchmarks: Nope

Sleep: like a rock

Best Moment This Week: seeing everything looking nice and healthy at our ultrasound today

Movement: Yes!

Gender: Baby girl!!

Labor Signs: Nope
Belly Button: it's staying tucked :)
What I Miss: Andrew!
What I am Looking Forward to:  heading to Lex this weekend

Milestones:baby girl is the size of a spaghetti squash and officially weighs 1lb! (i'm not sure what the other 10 are from ;))