30 Weeks!

A lot has happened in the past 2 weeks..I passed the second glucose test, the nursery is really coming along, and we had a shower in Marshall and a shower in Austin. Thanks to our generous and thoughtful friends and family, we now have lots of cute baby clothes, bibs, and socks and many of the necessities like the car seat, pack n play, swing, bouncer, bottles, and bath stuff! The bedding is now set up in the nursery and it's time for the fun part of adding shelves, a lamp, pictures, and all the finishing touches!
The baby weighs about 3 pounds now and still moves around a lot. I don't know what he's doing in there but sometimes my whole belly just rolls and shakes! I was telling Randy that, as excited as I am to meet Baby Smith, I will really miss being pregnant. I'm just so in awe of the whole idea of pregnancy and how this little life grows from something so small to something that weighs 7+ pounds and has a heart, brain, lungs and can see and cry and hear! It's so amazing to me and I'll really miss feeling him move around. I still have about 10 more weeks of that left but I know he'll be here before we know it!

28 Weeks...3rd trimester!

We finally painted the nursery! Well, almost. All the walls are painted but there's still some finishing up to do around the ceiling and I think I still want to do some things to the crib wall. The furniture also came in today so I can't wait to set up the bedding to see how everything looks! I'll post pictures once everything is done.

My first baby shower is this weekend in Marshall so I'm really excited about that and am looking forward to hanging out with friends and family that I don't get to see often enough.

I'm officially in the 3rd trimester now and still feeling pretty great. Below is a sonogram pic from our 28 week visit on Monday. His eyes are open now which you can see in the picture, if you can make it out. It looks like he's peeking out. You can see the whole right half of his face. Up until now the baby has been measured from crown to rump (head to butt as I explained to Randy) but now they start measuring from head to toe. The baby now measures over 15" long and weighs in at about 2 pounds 5 ounces! As he gets bigger his movements feel different too. I still feel kicks and pokes but also feel big plops in my stomach like he's just rolling over and all his weight is falling in one area. He's also big enough now where I can tell where he is. Sometimes the bottom or side of my stomach will be a big bulge and get really hard. He's still head up so I'm guessing that's either his back or his little bottom that I can see and feel. I also took the glucose test on Monday and unfortunately I failed. My doctor told me that it's not caused by diet, it's just that some placentas don't handle the balance of sugar well. I have to go for the 3-hour glucose test on Monday to see if I definitely have gestational diabetes or not. I'm hearing from more and more people that they failed the first test and passed the second test so I'm hoping, praying, holding my breath and crossing my fingers that holds true for me. It's just cruel to expect a pregnant woman to go through the holidays with NO sweets!

The wall is blue! :)

26 Weeks!

All of our furniture is in - the crib, dresser, and glider!! It wasn't scheduled to be here until December so I'm SO excited that it's already here! I finally picked out some bedding too and it's also here so now all that's left to do is paint! I think that's actually going to be harder than it sounds because I want to do stripes on the wall that the crib will be on. Every time I tell someone that they say, "oh, stripes?" But I really don't want just 2 colors in there. I really want 3 - a lighter blue, a darker blue, and a chocolate. As hard as it is for me to make decisions these days, I've finally made this one and I'm sticking to it! So, we'll see how this goes. 3 of the walls will be easy because they'll all be blue. Randy is going to get started on those this weekend. The crib wall will be the hardest. A little nervous how this will turn out but the good thing about paint is that it's easy to re-do.

There's only about one more week left of the second trimester and then it will be onto the last and final one! The baby weighs almost 2 pounds now and measures a little over 9 inches. He moves all the time, especially in the morning and at night. I was telling Randy how I don't see how women ever get tired of that. It's just the best feeling. He said he's going to remind me of this in a few weeks as the baby gets bigger and is packing a little more punch.

People keep asking me if I have any cravings but I really don't other than eating 2-3 bowls of cereal a day. Cooper and I are still going on our 2 mile walks most days and I'm still doing my pregnancy pilates and yoga videos. All of that is supposed to make things easier after having the baby so I hope that ends up being true.

Here's a 26 week belly picture, steadily putting on the pounds....


And a picture of the bedding. It's mostly blue and brown with a few orange monkeys or polka dots. The first one is a sham that will cover a pillow and go in the glider. The second is a picture of the crib skirt. Kind of hard to get the full effect but the nursery will be finished soon and then I'll post better pics.

24 Weeks!

I find it ironic that hormones cause women to be indecisive and forgetful at a time when you need to be decisive about daycares, strollers, car seats, cribs, nursery colors, etc. AND need to be remembering the stuff you're reading about feeding, sleeping, and what to do with this brand new life when you bring him home! I've always been indecisive but I can't even seem to make decisions about the smallest things lately. Randy and I spent an hour and a half at USA Baby while I migrated from chair to chair trying to figure out which one was the most comfortable, debating whether we needed a recliner, an ottoman, or neither, and trying to convince myself that I should choose the more comfortable one even though it didn't come in the fabric I really wanted (chocolate brown with white cording). Randy tried to be helpful but since I'll be spending the most time in it he wouldn't tell me which one to get. After about 80 minutes though, he told me we were leaving in 10 minutes. So of course I called my mom and she helped me make a decision. :) I went with the more comfortable one which doesn't recline and is a solid chocolate.

We also registered at Target and Babies R Us a couple of weeks ago but good luck finding our registry. I'm the 33rd Amanda Smith to register in Texas at BRU and the 31st at Target. At least you can narrow it down by the city at BRU. Luckily there's only a handful of Randy Smith's at both places though!

We had the big 24 week sonogram today which is a 25-30 minute anatomy sonogram to look at all the organs and make sure they're all measuring as they should and doing what they're supposed to do. Everything looked great and we counted 10 fingers and 10 toes! A couple of times they flipped the sonogram over to 3D mode so you can actually make out the face pics below. He weighs about 1.6 pounds now and is about 8.6 inches long. Right now he will continue to gain about 6 ounces a week. I on the other hand should be gaining about 1-1.5 pounds a week!

He has his left hand up to his face in this one. Looks like he's thinking about something. :)


This one's a little scarier. He's just getting to the point where he's starting to put on fat so he still looks a bit skeletal here:


I purposely chose a shirt that I could wear in all pictures from beginning to end, but I'm beginning to wonder if I'm going to be able to wear this for another 16 weeks.

22 Weeks!

Randy was finally able to feel the baby move last night! I've been feeling him move regularly for about a week now but he usually stopped right when I would grab Randy's hand. He was pretty active last night though and Randy felt him moving all around. He just kept grinning and saying how weird it was that there was a little person in there.

The baby weighs about 1 pound now and is about 8 inches long. His fingernails, eyelids, and eyebrows are now developed and he can tell the difference between light and dark. I read that we could shine a flashlight on my stomach and that might make him move to turn away from the light but that seems kind of cruel to me. Something to keep in mind if we get desperate for activity though I guess.

I've been trying to stock up on maternity clothes for the past week which is kind of fun since I can just sit on the couch and pick what I want from gap and old navy.com. :) On the other hand, even though I've been buying things I never feel like I have anything to wear when I'm getting ready every day so that part is not so fun.

I'm still feeling pretty great at week 22. I've noticed it's a little harder to roll over in bed and to sit up only because I get the sharp round ligament pain in my stomach. (That's the pain caused by all of the stretching that's going on in there to make room for baby.) As long as I move slowly like an old woman though, it's fine so I can't really complain.

We're planning on starting to register this weekend and ordering a glider. I also ordered a fabric swatch of bedding and am hoping it will come in and be the right colors. We want to do blue and brown but are having a hard time finding bedding that's the right shade and pattern. Hopefully it will all come together soon and you'll see the wall behind me in this picture start to change colors!

2 more weeks until the 24 week appointment which will be a 15-20 minute sonogram so we should get a new video and some good pics of the baby if he cooperates.

This is Cooper's first appearance on the blog... :)

20 Weeks!

20 weeks this week - the official halfway point! I had my 20 week appointment this morning and it's still a boy! Good thing too because I can't imagine having to come back and tell Randy it's not a boy after all! (They normally don't do a sonogram at the 20 week visit so Randy didn't come to this one but they ended up doing one anyways.) I won't post any pictures this time because I figure no one really wants to see the baby's thigh bone and the other pictures didn't turn out that great. He did yawn while we were watching him on the screen which was pretty cute. I have definitely started feel him moving around a little, especially at night after dinner when I'm laying down. It's not enough for Randy to feel yet but hopefully within the next few weeks. The baby is measuring about 14 ounces now and is about the size of a cantaloupe, right on track.

We ordered a crib and dresser last weekend so the next step is to start looking at bedding and paint colors. But that will have to wait until after our trip to Grand Cayman! We leave tomorrow and get back next Tuesday night. It's our last hoorah before we either won't have a little one with us or a little one at home to worry about and miss. Should be a lot of fun although definitely different than our previous beach vacations. :)

19 Weeks!

I just received my first batch of maternity clothes in the mail and they are SO comfortable! I don't know why I held out for so long. That belly band got me through for a while but it just became uncomfortable. It's so nice to have some stretchy clothes!

I went in to hear the baby's heartbeat last week but it was a slow day at the doctor so they offered to do a sonogram so I could see him. Of course I didn't pass that up. It was hard to get a good picture of him because he kept moving around but after a lot of pushing on him he finally looked right at us as if it say, "Okay here I am! Now leave me alone!" :) The picture didn't turn out as good as it looked on screen but if you're really good at looking at these things, maybe you can make it out. He is still facing my back for the most part. Sometimes I think maybe I feel him moving him around but I'm not sure if that's him or not so it's nice to get to see him just to know he's still okay in there.

We headed out for round 2 of crib shopping last weekend. I think we've narrowed it down to 2. The first trip was a little overwhelming for both of us but since then I've been reading this book called Baby Bargains. It's the best! It has a section for everything you'll need to buy and then within each section it tells you all the features and options, which ones you need and which ones you don't, all the brands, and then rates them based on safety, quality, and whether they're worth the price. I must say I was disappointed to read that Pottery Barn furniture got a C rating! The C rating was because it's not made of solid wood and because it should be given the price. Surprisingly, they don't have any I like anyways. We're looking for a white crib and most of theirs that I like are dark wood. Not to worry though, they still have good nursery decor and accessories to fill the room. :)

Here is a 19-week belly pic. I've gained 7 pounds so far. I'm okay sharing that right now but don't expect to see that number published once I hit double digits!