33 weeks

Wow! It's hard to believe 29 weeks have passed since I first found out I was pregnant. I am so thankful for the 33 weeks God has given me to carry our sweet baby girl...such a blessing!

I'm trying to think of interesting things to update. Hmmm...I'm still feeling okay but progressively a little more uncomfortable and slow. I think I had my first experience with sciatic pain last week during surgery, and wow, was that painful. Thankfully it got better after a couple of days. I literally felt like I could not stand on my leg, and I had to walk with a limp...pretty humorous. I still haven't had much reflux to speak of although I can definitely tell I can't eat as much at 1 sitting. Oh, and did I mention I'm still incredibly hot? I definitely sweat like it's going out of style...really attractive.

Other than that, I feel baby girl move pretty often and it is actually painful at times. It definitely never gets old. My whole family was in town this past weekend for our first baby shower (yay) which was so much fun! It was all around a fabulous weekend. So I feel like this is a really boring post, but I promise there will be better ones to come. Get excited about the posts to come: first baby shower and nursery pics.

My shirts still hanging in there!

Truman

We had quite a night with Truman last night. Truman usually sleeps in "his place," which is his cage across the house in our laundry room every night. He actually loves to go to his place at night, and goes there during the day just to nap. He is typically a very good sleeper unless: 1. we have visitors (of course, worse possible time for him to start whining in the middle of the night), 2. he hears us up (he ALWAYS wants to be part of the family). In preparation for the baby, Kev thought it might work better if we left his cage open so he could come into our room or the baby's room if we were awake. Last night was the first (and LAST) night for this experiment. I think I woke up about every 30 minutes...who would have thought the dog would make so much noise. He couldn't get settled because he was totally out of his element, licking himself, itching himself, shaking his head and collar, and every time I woke up to go to the bathroom (twice), he would go with me and it would wake Kev up. Then of course, when our alarm went off this morning (which we usually snooze), he just whined at my side and kept licking my face.

Needless to say, we were all 3 exhausted this morning. He was the only one that got to nap all day. So I think we are just going to take our chances and let him whine in the middle of the night and hopefully he'll get used to the noise.

31 weeks, 4 days

So we didn't take the 31 week pictures right on Saturday, but better late than never. Baby E seems to be really growing which is exciting! I've always wondered if certain aches and pains I've had were round ligament pain...this past week that all changed. I realized I have not experienced them before but am now. Basically every time I stand up, start walking, etc I have sharp pains in my groin. Very interesting. I feel like I am having to do life a little slower...walk slower, get up slower.

Besides that, I've been feeling pretty good! I have my first shower in 1 week and I am so excited! I'm excited because my mom and sisters are all driving down to come to it. I saw my doctor on Wednesday and Baby Girl's heart rate was 154, I'm still measuring 1 week small, and he said everything looks great! I feel like I am getting more and more excited and yet more anxious wondering how big and uncomfortable I will get. Did I mention that I am unbelievably hot all of the time. That's definitely the best part. :) I guess we'll see what the summer holds!

Soccer Saturday

First of all, thanks for all the great responses about our car dilemma! It was really helpful hearing different peoples' opinions and experiences. I'll let ya know what we decide (whenever that may be).

So for those of you who aren't really into soccer, the World Cup started last week and the first USA game was on Saturday. I actually never really grew up watching or playing soccer, and I think the first game I ever watched was 4 years ago at the last World Cup. Then Kev played in an outdoor league for awhile (which after my initial exposure to the World Cup fell short in comparison), so I started learning the rules and appreciating the game more. Kev, on the other hand, started playing soccer when he was 4, and although he doesn't watch tons of soccer during the year, is a huge fan of the World Cup...he has been absolutely giddy with excitement. There are very few things that make him this excited...actually, we had to change the date of our planned childbirth class because it fell on Saturday, the big game.

For those of you who didn't get to watch the game, it ended in a tie. This is one thing I don't like about soccer. A tie is so anticlimatic. I guess it's better than losing, but then there is no clear winner. I can't think of another sport (I could definitely be wrong on this bold assumption) that allows the outcome to be a draw. I guess we were expected to lose so maybe you could consider that a win for USA, but I still think it's a pretty sorry ending.

After the game, Kev had an indoor soccer game, and he was definitely pumped up to play. You'll be happy to know they won 6-5 and it was a nail-biter. He also scored a goal...makes me feel like a proud parent. Needless to say, we spent a good chunk of Saturday watching soccer. I hope that our kids will want to play soccer because I have really grown to enjoy the sport...I guess will see what Baby Girl wants to do.

Decisons

So the big decision we are wrestling with now (or should I say NEED to start wrestling with) is buying a car. I'll preface this by saying I am not really a car person. Don't get me wrong, I don't want a total junker, but it's really hard for me to spend that much money on a car. However, if we are going to buy a new car, I want it to be nice since we plan on keeping it for a while. Such a dilemma. I know some people enjoy the prospect of looking for a car...I dread it.

I have always had decent cars...never new but decent. My parents got me a blue Sundance when I turned 16. This was my least favorite car, but after a small accident in a parking lot (not my fault, but who would have thought the guy could get out of paying for the repair by just disappearing), my parents bought me a gold Saturn. I really liked my Saturn, but unfortunately, my sister totaled it while I was studying abroad in France (love ya sis). Then they got me a gray Camry which I still drive today. It has been such a fabulous car in that it has needed very few repairs (I think I've taken it to the shop maybe twice), it has almost 189,000 miles on it, and it gets me from A to B. Granted, it is missing it's Toyota symbol in the front (makes it look a little ghetto), the paint is starting to peel off the top, and the middle seat belt in the back seat is gnawed in half due to a bored puppy on a long car ride (we still love you Truman).

Even though the car is still functioning, with the thought of our growing family, we feel like maybe we should get a little bigger car. Also, we've been able to save up money for a car, and who knows how easy it will be to do that in the future. So the question turns to, what car is the best? We are looking at the Toyota RAV and Honda CRV. We like foreign cars (thanks to my parents' influence), they are mid size but more room than what we have. Then I start to think, is it silly to get a "bigger" car that still only has 3 seats in the back? Will we just have to upgrade in several years once we have 1 or 2 more kiddoes? Oh the decisions. I'm sure I'm over-thinking all of this, and Kev does not act concerned, but it's a lot of money to spend (even though we are looking at used cars). Any opinions are welcome.

Appointment

I saw my doctor on Wednesday so I thought I would give a quick update. Baby Girl is measuring right on track and her heart beat was 140. Never get tired of that sound! He said I "really failed" my 1 hour glucose tolerance test and if my glucose was 11 points higher, they would have automatically diagnosed me with gestational diabetes, regardless of my 3 hour test results. Awesome. Thankfully, I wasn't 11 points higher and I passed my 3 hour. Thank you Lord!

He then proceeded to ask me questions about the contractions I've been having (do they start from the bottom or top of your uterus, how long do they last, etc), which I couldn't answer. I think I try to ignore them because I think maybe it will make them go away. They have still been mucho better since starting calcium. I mentioned in passing surgery was getting more difficult (we had a 4 hour case on Monday and I could NOT cool down...ended up having to put on a vest that ice cold water circulates through, sweet relief). He said I should not be doing 4 hour cases, and that at the most I should be doing 1 &1/2 hour cases and resting in between. He said it is too much pressure on my cervix and would make me go into labor early or need to be put on bedrest. Both bad options in my books. Hopefully we can avoid both.

I see him in 2 more weeks, and in the meantime, I'm going to be doing lots of sitting...

It's summer!

There's nothing that says summer like sand volleyball...in my opinion. We got to play volleyball with some friends last week, and although Baby E and I had to sit it out, it was still lots of fun to watch. I was actually the "official" action photo person. I'm not sure how good of a job I did, but it was still fun. I can't wait for more fun summer activities!

Love the face Rachel!

Kev's got mad skills!