34 Week Recap

(I didn't sleep well last night, thus the "tired eyes.")

I just finished up week 34 and feel like it should be week 40! I always hear about women saying the end seems to drag on and on, and I'm starting to feel that. I'm feeling how big I am and it's getting harder to move around like I used to.
We went to the doctor yesterday and and had a great appointment! We were able to ask about Paige's kidneys and worse case scenario stuff. Basically she'll have an ultrasound when she's born, and if the fluid is still on her kidneys, then they'll just monitor it. If for some reason it doesn't resolve itself, she might have to have surgery when she's a little older and/or she might be more prone to kidney infections. The doctor isn't worried at all, which makes me feel a lot better too! And I gained less weight than I thought, so that made me extra happy!

AND, I have so much stuff I need to blog about-the baby shower, Christmas, and just general stuff.

How Far Along: 34 Weeks

Size of Baby: Large Cantaloupe-19-20 inches long (I'm expecting little Paige to be short though), 5.5 lbs

Weight Gain: 25-26 lbs

Gender: Girl-Paige Olivia

Movement: YES-she is a mover and shaker! She's been moving a lot during the day lately, so I'm hoping that means she'll be a good night sleeper :)

Sleep: It's pretty good considering....For the last few weeks, I've been getting up exactly 2 1/2 hours after I go to bed (no matter what time I go to bed) to pee. I can seriously set my watch by it.

Maternity Clothes: Yes....but i am proud to say i can still fit into a pair of my regular sweats, but my maternity shirts are starting to creep up a little and show the tum tum.

Symptoms: Really dry skin (which has been great for clearing up my acne!), left side hip pain

Aversions: None right now

Cravings: Coke, cake, ice cream

What I miss: Running

Best Moment of the Week: Having a great appointment at the doctor's and buying a few cute outfits for Paige

What I'm looking Forward to: We'll drive to Illinois on Friday to stay with my family. My nephews are staying with my parents for the week, so we'll be able to see them, AND a week from today is my birthday!!!!!!!!

I HOPE to blog again soon!!

love

laura

32-33 Week Recap

Whoa Mama!!!!!! Where has this belly come from?!?!?!?!?!?!? I think this might be the first time that I actually feel as big as I look. Most weeks I think i look much bigger than I am, but this week especially I'm feeling ALL of that baby bump :)

And just for kicks....here is a belly shot. Please be gracious.

I feel like a lot has happened since I last wrote. We went to the dr on the 14th-I got my flu and whooping cough shot, and had an ultrasound. I had them confirm (again!) that it's a girl. They actually showed a little hair on the ultrasound...no guarantee, but I'm hoping Paige will have a little bit.
So before we left Asia, our doctor told us that Paige's kidneys looked great and had improved. But on this last ultrasound, they're showing even more water on her kidneys. We go to the doctor this Friday, so I'm hoping to find out more. From everything I've read (google), it's not life threatning or very serious, but I still just want to talk to a doctor and find out more.

They also show Paige measuring a few days ahead, so I guess i'm closer to 34 weeks at this point. Which is what I'm telling myself to rationalize the big belly.

Here we go!

How Far Along: 33ish weeks

Size of Baby: Pineapple-19 inches long and about 5 lbs

Weight Gain: No clue.....I'm going to guess 25 lbs

Gender: Girl-Paige Olivia

Movement: Most of the time-this week especially I've felt her move really low in my belly and sometimes I feel her move in several different places all at once...it's so weird and fun!

Sleep: It's not too bad actually. Rolling over though has become difficult.

Maternity Clothes: Yep.....unless you count daniel's shirts I've stolen, ha!

Symptoms: My hip pain has gotten better, but I would say I've started feeling just a general uncomfortableness all over. And really dry skin.

Aversions: Not much

Cravings: Desserts, fountain drink Coke (thus the big belly, ha!)

What I miss: Bending down....Daniel put my socks on for me this morning. I can bend down, but it is not fun.

Best Moment this Week: Last Thursday nite, my MIL gave me a shower and it was so much fun! I'll post pictures very soon!!

What I'm looking Forward to: Going to the doctor on Friday.

Happy Sunday-Go Packers!

love

laura

10 days in America

We've been in the States about 10 days now. It has really flown by! I'm shocked at how fast it has already gone.

This was our first full day-so if we look tired, it's because we are!

We both had a pretty rough time with jetlag....much more than usual. I think friday night is when I really started sleeping through the night.

Our first day back we went to Chick-fil-a, went grocery shopping (one of my favorite things!), and celebrated Daniel's birthday with his family at BJ's.

I've gone to Target and walked almost every single aisle. And actually only bought some chocolate milk-shocking I know. I also went to the mall and walked around a bit, and of course had to buy a few things for Paige. I found some great deals on a few onesies and just could not resist!

My niece, Adelyn Kate, was born last Wednesday. We've facetimed a few times and she is pretty cute! We're hoping Sarah can fly to my parents in Illinois in March for the little cousins to meet.

We're in Oklahoma and got a cold front over the weekend-which meant a fire in the fireplace! It's been so nice to sit and watch the fire and enjoy being warm indoors!

We all went to watch a Christmas light show this past Monday. It's been really fun to see the Christmas lights every night! I love that so many people decorate for Christmas.

Paige has been moving non stop these past few days....it's by far the most I've ever felt her. I'm sure she is just a fan of American food :)

We're going to Dallas this weekend and I'm reallllly excited! I'm going to be able to see one of my long time friends and her little baby girl that she just had....I am loving all the little baby girls right now! And hello, it's Dallas...I'm going to try and hit up a few baby stores while I'm there too. 

My MIL and I got pedicures this week, and even though it's winter and no one sees my feet-it was SO enjoyable and my toes were in desperate need!

Those are my tidbits from the week! I'll be posting soon about some of the culture shock moments we've had.....it's been interesting adjusting back to american culture!

Have a good Wednesday!

love

laura

31 Week Recap

Little Paige is definitely making her presence known! Everytime I think I can't possibly get any bigger... I do, ha! I cannot even imagine what I will look or feel like in 2 more months. It's weird that 2 months from today is my due date!
We've been in America a little over 5 days, and I think Monday needs to start the salad diet :) We've been enjoying realllly good food these past several days!

How Far Along: 31 Weeks

Size of Baby: Head of Cabbage-19 inches long, almost 4 lbs

Weight Gain: 20 lbs

Gender: Girl-Paige Olivia

Movement: When she moves, she moves!! It's weird/fun to feel her move from one side to the other. I can tell she's getting longer because I can feel her move on my left and right side at the same time. Sometimes I really wonder what she's doing in there....it feels like she is doing flips!

Sleep: It's not too bad

Maternity clothes: yep!

Symptoms: hip pain, dry skin,

Aversions: This week-steak

Cravings: All american food-especially chocolate!

What I miss: Not too much right now.....sleeping on my back

Best moment This Week: My niece, Adelyn Kate was born this week! She's super cute!

What I'm looking Forward to: I go to the dr next Friday-i'm pretty excited to see how prenatal appointments go here!

I'll try to do a post soon about what we've been up to this week!

love

laura

Kind of Nursery Reveal

So the nursery isn't completely perfect or finished yet.....and won't be until we return in April. We are about to take off for the States here in juts a bit.

So....I found that picking nursery bedding was way harder than I thought it would be. Especially since everything I looked at was online....made it hard to really find what i wanted and to be sure of the colors.

Anyways, I ended up getting the bedding here. It's called Babydoll, and I LOVE it! This room was Daniel's office/study room before. Now he studies and works in a large closet. It's cozy.

We originally planned for the paint to be much softer, but this is what came out. We really like it now. It's actually a lot brighter than the picture. It's almost exactly a Tiffany blue. Daniel painted the room and he did a fantastic job! 

I bought the rug on a local website here and seriously cannot believe how perfectly it matches! It's really thick too. I bought the crib online too.

We'll put little Paige in here in April!

Because we don't have closets here, I bought a massive wardrobe for her clothes. It looked much smaller in the store. 

The wall opposite the crib is a massive window seat. My plan is to put a cushion and pillows on it eventually.
The wall opposite the wardrobe has a small bookcase right now, but my plan is to buy a small dresser to use as a changing table and have extra storage.

Well...we're off to the airport! Pray for comfortable and smooth flights!

love

laura

Thanksgiving, Shower, Birthday

I completely forgot to post about Thanksgiving!

We spent the day with some other American friends who live close by. We all brought stuff, and you'd hardly even know that we weren't in America. We ate turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, rolls, veggies, dip, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and pies!

My friend made these placecards for us. Mine has a little turkey on it for Paige, isn't that adorable?!

Just a few days after Thanksgiving, my friends hosted a cupcake shower for Paige!

(it says "Welcome Paige")

I love these lanterns-they match the nursery perfectly!

These cupcakes were amazing!

Me with the hostesses!!

Jut two days later, we celebrated Daniels' 33rd birthday!!! I insist on putting a candle in everything the day of your birthday....and singing....it just never really gets old. 

We had homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast. 

Daniel's fave is cookie cake. I added mint chocolate chips this time too.

I am going to try to post pictures of the nursery before we leave tomorrow....but no promises. We're packing now and getting everything ready to go. We'll be in the States tomorrow!! 

love

laura

30 Week Recap

I finished 30 weeks! It sounds so weird to say I'm 30 weeks pregnant, it always sounds so far along, ha! This week has been pretty busy....getting ready to go to the States on Sunday and lots of other things have just taken up a good bit of our time.
My friends gave Paige a baby shower on Tuesday nite. It was a cupcake theme and beyond cute....i'll try to post pics tomorrow. The nursery is a good way done...we have the crib, bedding and wardrobe ready. We'll get the changing table and baskets and things like that when we get back in April.
We also celebrated Daniel's birthday yesterday! It was a pretty busy day, but we had fun and managed to squeeze in Starbucks and have friends over for dessert :)

Here ya go!

How Far Along: 30 Weeks

Size of Baby: As long as a cucumber: 15-17 inches long and a little over 3 lbs

Weight Gain: 19 lbs

Gender: Girl-Paige Olivia

Movement: It was a little scary this week. There were a few days that Paige wasn't moving at all like she had been. She moved everyday, but not like she used to. But starting yesterday morning she got her groove back and has been moving non stop. She is currently turning my belly into all sorts of shapes!

Sleep: It's okay.

Maternity Clothes: Yes.

Symptoms: Really sensitive lips, dry skin, back/hip pain

Aversions: I guess hamburgers.....not much else

Cravings: Chocolate, Coke

What I miss: Running. I've really missed it this week.

Best Moment of the week: Having a baby shower for Paige and feeling her move like normal again yesterday.

What i'm looking Forward to: Eating some Chick fil a this week! And showing off my belly bump to the fam!

I'll try to post nursery and shower pics tomorrow!

love

laura

29 Week Recap

So sorry I am just now posting!! There has been some serious drama in the blogging world. I got a message saying that all my space was full so I couldn't post any pictures. I ended up just resizing this so it would let me post it. But I need to figure out how to add space without paying every month. If anyone has any ideas or tips, PLEASE PLEASE let me know!

Okay.... so I'm practically 30 weeks by now, but this was taken when I was 29. And yes, I am wearing the exact same sweater as my last photo.....I'm running out of things that are long enough. I have plenty of shirts that are still too big (width wise), but are about 3 inches too short. I'm convinced I have a very long torso for someone who is only 5 feet. 

This week we put up the crib and it's starting to look like a nursery! If blogger will cooperate, I'll post pics in the next few days!

And random, but I went to the dr on Friday-the day after thanksgiving and also right after I ate mcdonalds. Probably the WORST time to ever be weighed! So before i even stepped on the scale, the dr said "So are you still like carbohydrates?" I was like ummm, you know......

I'm pretty sure my dr believes in only eating meat and veggies and that carbs are from the devil. But seriously, I believe in a well rounded diet and that includes bread :)

Also, we were with some friends this past weekend and my friend was nursing her almost 3 month old. He started making some really loud, kind of coughing noises. My other friends son, who is 5 looked at my belly and asked if that was my baby making that noise! Ha!

Also.......my nephew made Paige her own ornament that says Paige, and My first christmas! SOOOO sweet!!!

How Far Along: 29 Weeks

Size of Baby: Butternut squash-about 15-16 inches long, 3 lbs

Weight Gain: 17

Gender: Girl-Paige Olivia

Movement: She moves a lot!!!! It's starting to feel really weird the bigger she gets. She moves so much and it feels so weird, i'm wondering what she is doing in there!

Sleep: It's been better.

Maternity Clothes: All pants and most shirts-even though the sweater in the pic is a normal sweater. crazy!

Symptoms: Dry, sensitive skin. Back and hip pain.

Aversions: not really anything

Cravings: Hot water, chocolate

What I miss: Sleeping on my back

Best moment of the Week: We went to the dr this past Friday and had an ultrasound. He said the separation in her kidney's has shrunk and is barely even there!! And she is back on track for her size! We are so thankful she is doing well and everything looks really good!

What I'm looking Forward to: I have a baby shower tonight!!! My friends here are giving us a cupcake theme shower and I am beyond excited!!! If blogger doesn't hate me, I'll try to post pics tomorrow.

hope to be posting again soon!

love

laura

A little news

Life here has been a little crazy. 

We were originally planning on delivering Paige in a nearby country, not too far from us. But through a lot of different circumstances, we found ourselves deciding to go to the States.

We'll be in Oklahoma in a little less than 2 weeks! We'll spend some time in the Oklahoma/Texas area and spend Christmas with Daniel's family. The first part of January we'll travel to my parents who live in Illinois.

We'll deliver Paige there, then make our way back here by April.

We of all people are probably the most surprised that we're going to the states for almost 4 months. We bought our tickets a little over a week ago, and almost every day since then we say something like "can you believe in XX days we'll be in america?" It's pretty surreal. We didn't take the decision lightly. We prayed about it and really sought the Father's wisdom. We know this is where He is leading us right now and we have great peace about the decision. But still....a little weird. 

So I'm in a little bit of panic mode trying to get the nursery ready. I know I won't be able to get it completely set up, but I'm trying to get as much done so when we return it's one less thing I have to worry about. 

Daniel painted last week.....let's just say it looks great, but the color is WAY brighter than we thought it would be! We also bought a wardrobe (since closets are nonexistent here). I just ordered the crib and a rug, and hope they get here soon. 

That's our news......if I don't post in a while it's because i'm making our 100th to-do list!  :)

love

laura

Random Photo Post

I was travelling last week and have just random photos I want to share.

First, Sarah sent us a Christmas package/baby Paige package. We were allowed to open our Christmas presents early (separate post). This is my new mug!

Daniel and I had a date night at a Turkish restaurant two Saturdays ago.

This was the tub at the hotel where I stayed. It was really big and deep and I was pretty careful getting in and out.

I was at a womens training last week, which meant lots of girl talk and lots of Starbucks!

Back in my city, I took some friends to the Toys R Us here. I saw this. It was near the baby bathtubs. 

There really are no words.

Our city just got a GAP....like a reallllll GAP!!! It even has a baby and kids section, and totally felt like being in America. This was the babyGap.

I was away for our 3 year wedding anniversary, but these greeted me when I came home!

We went out for dinner this past Saturday nite to celebrate. There is this amazing italian restaurant in our city that is our fave. But we got there and it was a special reservation only wine tasting set dinner. We ended up going to a restaurant near our house instead. But we plan to re-celebrate in a couple of weeks.

love

laura

28 Week Recap

Wow, can we say big mama?! The last couple of weeks I would say I/Paige are going thru a growth spurt! What's shocking, is this my regular sweater, that still fits. I fee like i'm already running out of things that cover the belly. I'm afraid to be walking down the street one day with my belly showing and not even know it. But I already get tons of stares here, so might as well make it interesting right? ha

How far Along: 28 weeks

Size of Baby: Small Cabbage-around 16 inches long, 2.5-3 lbs

Weight Gain: 16 lbs

Gender: Girl-Paige Olivia!

Movement: Not 24/7, she is definitely more of a night mover. But when she moves, my belly moves too!

Sleep: It's a little better. Still not great, but it's better.

Maternity Clothes: All pants, and most shirts

Symptoms: Back and hip pain, realllly dry skin

Aversions: None really

Cravings: Chocolate, hot water

What I miss: Not too much.....maybe eating lunch meat

Best Moment of the week: Sharing her name with everyone!

What I'm looking forward to: We were supposed to do the follow up ultrasound last Friday, but the dr changed it to this week. So i'm excited to see how much she's grown and how her kidneys are doing.

love

laura

What's in a Name?

Announcing.................................................................

Paige Olivia

Whenever we would talk about baby names, Daniel focused on the meaning of the name. If a name sounded great but didn't have a strong meaning, it went out the window. You can imagine how productive and fun our 'what should we name the baby' conversations went, ha!

For years, I have loved the name Paige for a little girl. Ever since we found out we were having a girl, we've called her Paige. But we had a hard time with the middle name. I am very thankful that Daniel was pretty quick to like the name Paige. It probably didn't hurt that I would refer to our baby as Paige all the time....slowly winning him over :)

So I forced suggested to Daniel (several weeks back), that we should go to Starbucks, take the baby name book, and get serious about naming our little girl. After throwing out a few random names, we found Olivia. We loved the way it sounded and felt like it really was the perfect completion for our little girls name.  

Here's why:

Paige-a servant, assistant, or one who brings a message

Olivia-Olive or olive tree, which symbolizes peace

So together, our hope is that our daughter will be

 "a messenger of peace, or one who brings peace."

We absolutely love her name and can't wait for her to get here!!!!!!

I have SOOO much to post, i'll try to get my weekly recap up later today, along with tons of other stuff that is happening.

love

laura

27 Week Recap

I can't believe i'm in my third trimester!! I'm starting to really feel pregnant. That might sound weird, but today I told Daniel I've never felt more pregnant than I do right now, ha! Since i'm only 5 feet, there isn't a lot of room for this baby to hang out, and I'm feeling that more this week than I have before. I look back at some pictures when i thought i was really 'showing' and have to laugh....it's nothing compared to what i look like now, and i'm sure in another month I'll look back to now and realize how much bigger I could actually get!

How Far Along: 27 weeks

Size of Baby: Head of cauliflower-about 15-16 inches long and 2-2.5 lbs

Weight Gain: 14 lbs

Gender: Girl (we officially know the name and if I have time to blog this week, i'll announce it!)

Movement: All. The. Time. She is so active, and I love feeling her.

Sleep: It's okay.....some nights are better than others. I'm sleeping on the couch most nights.

Maternity Clothes: All pants and most shirts. I did find some of my old sweaters this week that i can still wear. I'm quickly learning that what fit this week doesn't mean it will fit next week!

Symptoms: Back and hip pain, hunger

Aversions: hamburgers

Cravings: chocolate, hot water

What I miss: Sleeping

Best Moment this Week: Deciding on her name! Feeling her kicks get stronger and more often. We also picked out the paint.....we tested a part of the wall tonight and it's a lot brighter than it looked in the store. So it might take some getting used to. Also getting a package from my sister with the sweetest note to our baby and several cute cute things!!

What I'm looking forward to: Having another ultrasound on Friday. We're hoping she's gained some weight and her kidneys will be perfect!

I fly out tomorrow to a nearby city for a few days. I'm excited to see some friends and for a good time of refreshment. I feel like I have so much to blog, but not sure what this week will look like, so no promises on when I'll get to post.

love

laura

Weekend Rewind

I haven't done a weekend post in a while!

Last year, Daniel and I did an 8 week intensive language class together. We had the same teacher, and quickly became friends. Our teacher has the same personality and Myers Briggs as Daniel. They are a lot alike., minus the whole Asian thing. 

A few months later, his girlfriend (our teacher's, clearly not Daniels) tutored me. 

We have enjoyed getting to know this couple over the past year, and really enjoy them. 

This past weekend, they were married! We were so excited for our friends! Except, here most of the weddings are always in the morning. So Daniel wasn't going to be able to go because he teaches Saturday mornings. One thing I might take for granted being married, is  always have a wedding date. It was very weird to get ready and go to the wedding by myself. Luckily we have a lot of mutual friends with the couple, so I had people to hang with.

Here's the groom getting ready to walk down the aisle:

Bride with her Dad (i don't think the usual custom is for the dad to walk her down the aisle)

Our friends met while teaching at a language center. The same place I take all of my classes, so my current and past teachers were all there too.

These girls are so sweet and special to me!

Daniel ended up having time to bike over to the reception. He wasn't planning on having time to come, so that's why he's not super dressed up. 

My fave face of the groom!

Us with the lovely couple!!

love

laura

26 Week Recap

Sorry this wasn't up on  Friday. I didn't like any of the pictures we took and then yesterday we were without power, so I couldn't post.
I went to a wedding yesterday so that's why i'm  more dressed up than normal. We also had a cold front come in, so it's time to get the sweaters and long sleeves out.
I just finished Week 26 and am almost in the last trimester. So. Weird.

How Far Along: 26 Weeks

Size of Baby: Head of Lettuce-about 14 inches long, 2 lbs

Weight Gain: 13 lbs

Gender: Girl

Movement: Some days she moves non stop, then others she will only move a little. But most of the time she is moving!

Sleep: I've been sleeping on the couch and that has helped my hip pain. I wake up a lot during the night though.

Maternity Clothes: ummm yes.

Symptoms: Dry skin, achy hips and back

Aversions: hamburgers

Cravings: Chocolate, ice cream, cake

What I miss: Sleeping

Best Moment this week: Not really sure.... just continuing to feel her probably.

What i'm looking Forward to: There is a GAP opening in our city this week, and it has a Baby Gap. I've already told Daniel he's saving A LOT of of money since I'm pregnant and can't buy anything for me. But we might need to start eating ramen noodles to make up for what I might buy for our baby.  :)

Here's a front view:

love

laura

Preggo Ramblings

Last week, when I had my glucose test we were at the dr's for over 4 hours. We had a lot of time on our hands, so Daniel took pictures of me drinking the glucose.

I tried to prepare myself for it to taste really gross. I don't have a really strong gag reflex, but I had prepared myself to drink something completely disgusting.

I'm not sure what it is like in the States (where I hear there are actually flavors), but here it wasn't that bad. I saw the white glucose powder in the bottom of the glass, then they mixed it with lukewarm water. I know what you're thinking...lukewarm....yum. 

It tasted okay. The first 2/3 wasn't bad at all. The last 1/3 was apparently where all of the glucose was, because the last few sips were a little of a struggle. 

So here's the story on the 4D ultrasound. Again, this is my first pregnancy, so I'm not sure how things are different than in the States. But, when I had my 20 week gender ultrasound, that's pretty much all they did....told me the gender (girl in case you missed that).

So I went in last week for the 4D and to do the congenital defect check. I heard that they would do the normal ultrasound to do all the checks, then go to 4D so we could look at our little sweet pea.

So for about 30 minutes they looked at EVERYTHING!! We struggled a little thru the language to ask what we were looking at sometimes. Shocking, but there are certain organ names like kidney that I haven't learned in class yet.

Then they went to 4D for about 2 seconds, turned off the machine, then told me I was done. I was pretty surprised and asked why, and they said her hand was in front of her face, so they couldn't get any good shots. I tried to explain to them I would be happy with a picture of her foot, I just wanted to see her in 4D. But they would not have it, so they cleaned me up, I had my blood drawn for the glucose test, and then we waited for the dr. I was really disappointed!

After an hour, he told us the ultrasound technician suggested we walk around to get my heart rate up and drink a lot of water to get her to move so they could try the ultrasound again. Had we known that for the last hour we'd been waiting, the information would have been helpful. So I had about 5 minutes, so i jogged in place while guzzling water.

They tried again, and we saw our little baby!!!! We have pictures of her face, arm, and feet. In one picture you can see her little arm is raised next to her head. We were also given a disc with several short videos showing her movement.

I keep trying to figure out who she looks like, but Daniel keeps telling me it's impossible to tell. My teacher however thinks she has Daniel's nose. 

The doctor did tell us that her kidneys have a slight separation to them, and she may not be passing urine correctly. He said we'll just watch it for now, and see if it heals up or continues to separate. From everything I've read, it doesn't sound too serious and I'm not too worried about it. We are praying that Father will completely heal her kidneys and it won't be a concern at all. We go back for another ultrasound in 2 weeks. 

Random, but as I've been getting bigger Daniel gets more and more protective. Walking is our main mode of transportation, so whenever we're near an intersection or even close to a motorcycle or car, Daniel reaches his arm out to keep me safe and tried to build a barricade around me.  I joked yesterday that maybe he should just put me on a leash, and instantly he said "are you kidding, leashes have way too much give to them." I laughed so hard! It's sweet how protective it is, he takes it very seriously! 

I've never had a contraction (as far as I know), but Sarah has them all the time, and I know it's not too uncommon to feel them every so often. So if I do get a random pain or anything in my stomach and Daniel asks me what's wrong, I just say 'oh don't worry, it's just a contraction.' I mostly say this because he can't handle it and it's fun to mess with him. He gets really uncomfortable if I even say the word contraction. I probably shouldn't tease him about it as much as I do, ha!

Also random, I have one teacher who continues to bring me food and wants me to eat it during class. I do let myself eat chocolate and sweets, but I also try to control when and how much I eat. But my teacher continues to bring candy and snacks for me to eat. Today she gave me 2 Snickers and told me I should eat them right then because it was a healthy snack with protein. I ate half then said i would save the rest for later. It's still a shocker to me that i haven't gained more weight.

What is also ironic, is both my teachers daily tell me my belly is getting big. They're convinced my stomach grows everyday...but they also continue to feed me non stop. I'm trying to see this as a compliment, that they really do just care about me. :)

And just to keep the randomness going....I've slept on the couch for the last 3 nights. I wasn't sleeping at all in our bed, and the hip pain was just becoming unbearable. I have several pillows I use for my head, back, legs, and stomach. I get in position with all of my pillows and Daniel tucks me in. I've also started doing some hip stretches at night to help. Something is working, cos the last two mornings are the first ones I've woken up without any hip pain. Today everything else hurts, but my hips don't, so that's something. 

Bless you for reading this far! Tomorrow is week 26 recap!

love

laura

25 Week Recap

I just finished week 25! We had our 4D ultrasound yesterday, that is a story and process in itself. But we did get a few good pictures of HER (yes we confirmed) face, legs, and arms. We have a disc of video, but i'm having a hard time turning that into a picture, so I'll have to have Daniel help me and post it later. But she is adorable!!

Yesterday I had my glucose test and found out today that I passed. We were both actually shocked, Daniel especially. But we're so grateful I did!

Our little girl is measuring further behind that she should be and I was told to eat more and to increase my protein. So even though my tummy already looks big, I'm doing what I can to make it even bigger! I'll go back to the dr's in 3 weeks.

How Far Along: 25 weeks

Size of Baby: Cauliflower. About 13-14 inches long, and 1.4 lbs. She is supposed to be about 2 lbs right now. We're hoping she'll put on some weight pretty quick.

Weight Gain: 12 lbs

Gender: Girl

Movement: All the time. There are some days that she doesn't stop moving, then some days where I just feel her every so often.

Sleep: Up until last night, it's been pretty rough. I wake up with my hips and legs in a lot of pain....it kind of feels like when I had growing pains as a kid. But last night was the first night in a while I slept really good. i'm hoping that continues!

Maternity Clothes: All pants and most shirts.

Symptoms: A little heartburn, achy hips and back

Aversions: Hamburgers

Cravings: Chocolate, cake, sugar.....basically the bad things

What I miss: Sleeping on my back

Best Moment of the Week: Seeing our little girl and knowing she is doing okay

What I'm looking forward to: Fully embracing the pink! Up until now i was holding back some because I really wanted to know for sure she was really a girl. So I'm ready to completely dive in to the pink polka dotted world!

love

laura