35 Weeks

How Far Along: 35 weeks

Size of baby: Baby #2 weighs around 5.25 pounds and is over 18 inches long. 

Total Weight Gain/Loss: 22 pounds

Maternity Clothes: Yes! 

Gender: It's a boy! 

Movement: Yes!! Until I lay on the table for monitoring. Then they have to use the buzzer to wake him up. He literally kicks and tumbles until I lay down in there, then stops. 

Sleep: I'm sleeping well, just having to get up once or twice to go to the bathroom. 

Cravings: Sugar. 

Symptoms: My feet ache. Underneath my right ribs is sore. But otherwise, I feel great.  

Best Moment this week: We got our maternity pictures back - I'll share those with you soon. I love them. And we got the rest of the baby stuff down from the attic.

Dr. Update: I guess I need to add this section since I'm going so often. Contractions are better. They aren't near as frequent, although a few of them have been painful, where they haven't been before. Bennett is great!! Blood pressure is great, blood sugar is great.

Build and Grow Fire Truck

Today's Build and Grow class at Lowe's was a firetruck! Avery Claire was so excited because they've been talking about fire trucks and just took the field trip to the fire station.

This one was much harder than the binoculars! Avery Claire's favorite part was putting the stickers on it.

Her friend Zoey was there, too!

She was so proud and excited that she coulc take it to school to show her friends! 

Cutest Little Ballerina You've Ever Laid Eyes On

This girl has taken a big interest in ballet lately. It all started with watching Angelina Ballerina. She got a ballet "costume" and is begging to take ballet class. She twirls around the house constantly. 

It looks like ballet is in our near future. I'm not sure I'm ready for two nights a week

Happy Birthday, Bryant!!

We got a call Saturday morning that Sarah was in labor! We had our maternity pics made and then headed that way! This big-cousin-to-be was beside herself with excitement!!

Sarah had a c-section, so we got there just a few minutes before Matt walked out with Bryant. They hadn't weighed him yet, and nurse kept talking about how big he was!! He weighed 9 lbs, 5 ounces and was 20.5 inches long. 

Avery Claire, Cohen, and Ruthie stood right by the window and took everything in...it was absolutely precious. They were so excited!

Isn't he perfect? 

It was so sweet to see how proud and excited Matt was. 

We are so excited Bryant is here and Sarah is doing good! So far, they've been great about sending us pictures regularly! I hope they keep it up...I hate that I can't be there every day to see him change and to get in a snuggle here and there! 

34 Weeks

How Far Along: 34 weeks

Size of baby: Baby #2 weighs around 4.75 pounds and is almost 18 inches long (according to the pregnancy app). 

Total Weight Gain/Loss: Around 21 pounds.

Maternity Clothes: Yes! 

Gender: It's a boy! 

Movement: Yes. He literally takes my breath sometimes. 

Sleep: I'm sleeping well, just having to get up once or twice to go to the bathroom. 

Cravings:  I have a list - literally- of things I want after Bennett is born. All of the things on my list involve sugar. 

Symptoms: Y'all, my feet. They just ache. And my ribs/back still hurt. Overall, though, I feel really good. Apparently, I'm having enough contractions to mention those here. I've felt some contractions, which I assumed were Braxton Hicks. This week, I started having to go twice a week (yes, you read that right - TWICE A WEEK) for monitoring/ non-stress tests. This is standard for gestational diabetes patients. 

So, the first day, after I'd laid there for 20-30 minutes, my dr came in and said I'd had some contractions. I told him I'd felt a couple. His response was "Just a couple?" Then when I saw the roll from the machine, I saw lots of them. And they weren't just teeny ones. So he prescribed Procardia - this is the same medicine I was on with Avery Claire for high blood pressure. I just had to laugh when he told me to keep a close check on my blood pressure. It's been so good, he was worried the meds would make it too low. He said he wanted to "check" me (I hate that term - it sounds like a cow) and would be surprised if I wasn't a 1 or 2. I was 1.5 centimeters dilated. He said since I was 34 weeks, we were past the point of a steroid shot to develop baby's lungs - there has been no evidence that it helps after this point. My cervix was still thick, which he said made him feel better, along with the fact that I'd be back again that week and twice a week for the remaining weeks. 

Best Moment this week: Grandma came to stay for the book fair!! We loved having her here. And I'm very glad that we had to do this monitoring business. Maybe that's the reason for this gestational diabetes diagnosis - it hasn't been a big problem - but it helped catch those contractions. Bennett needs to bake for a few more weeks and we need a few more weeks to get ready. The bed still isn't here...but that's another story for another day. 

Fire Station and Spring Park

Avery Claire's class took a trip today to the fire station and spring park. I was so sad I couldn't go because of the book fair, but her Daddy was excited that he got to go with her!!

He sent me a few pictures throughout the day...

'

And then this one before he brought her to meet me that afternoon...

I think they all had a ball...she had lots to tell us about her day!! 

Grandma's Visit

Grandma came Sunday to stay for the week. I seriously could not make it through Book Fair week without her. 

We all came home pretty exhausted in the afternoons. I was horrible about picture taking! I managed to get a pose before we all left Friday morning! 

Thanks, Grandma, for coming to stay with us and working so hard...for nothing!! We enjoyed you being here! We hope you'll come back and stay with us again when there is no work involved!!

Home Game, Build & Grow, Dolphin Tale 2, and Big Sister Training

The Trojans had their first home game last night. It was so nice not to have to travel anywhere!! 

Avery Claire's friend Brooke and her family told us about Lowe's Build and Grow classes, so we tried out our first one Saturday. We met Brooke and their other friend Zoey there. It took about 30 minutes, was completely free, and Avery Claire left with a cute little pair of wooden binoculars that "really, really work!!"

I'd promised since we watched the previews 25 times this summer that we'd go see Dolphin Tale 2 as soon as it came out. So, we left Lowe's and headed to the movies. The 2nd movie was just as cute and sweet as the first one!!

I left the movies with one tired girl, who napped on our way to pick up Daddy to head to our next stop. 

She had big sister class at the hospital that Bennett will be born at! Here's the whole group of kids in the class. 

The toured the labor and delivery ward and got to look in the nursery. The carried their own babies around with them. It was so sweet to see the little ones hold their babies so carefully. 

The nurse "taught" them how to feed baby, change baby's diaper, and swaddle baby. 

This girl took every bit of it in, very carefully. I just knew we'd get lots of questions about boys'/girls' differences because when she opened her baby's diaper, he was a boy! But so far, I guess she's forgotten about that!

We were all exhausted at the end of our day. We headed to the new Chick Fil A in town that just reopened last week and headed home for a lazy night in!! 

33 Weeks {and my school shower}

How Far Along: 33 weeks

Size of baby: According to my pregnancy app, Bennett weighs a little over 4 pounds and has passed the 17 inch mark. Last week, the ultrasound estimate was 4.7 pounds...

Total Weight Gain/Loss: Around 20-21 pounds. 

Maternity Clothes: Yes! 

Gender: It's a boy! 

Movement: Yes!!

Sleep: I'm sleeping well, just having to get up once or twice to go to the bathroom. 

Cravings:  Anything with sugar. 

Symptoms: My feet HURT. My ankles/feet are not swollen at all, but when I lay down at night, my feet just ache. Maybe from carrying the extra weight? And not sitting down very much during the day? 

Best Moment this week: My sweet coworkers had a baby shower for us this week. We got sweet clothes, diapers, and gift cards!! I'm posting a few pictures of it here. If you know Avery Claire, you know she LOVES a shower/party, especially where there's cake and punch involved. I had a workshop today, so I was able to pick her up on my way back to school so she could go.