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And he shall be called.....

well I'm almost into the third trimester (only a few more days) yay!!!  I've been feeling great overall!  starting to feel a little tired again but nothing like the first trimester!  I've also started to have more back pain and difficulty getting comfortable.  Thank goodness for my wonderful husband who bought be a snoogle pillow from babies r us a couple months ago in anticipation of this time period.  It is like a body pillow but curved into a C shape so that it curves under my head and between my knees and it has been AMAZING!  If we go anywhere for the night....the snoogle goes too!  Thanks to this genius invention I have been able to actually get some good sleep!  Dearest hubby likes to make fun of me as I prepare my "nest" each night to get into bed....but hey, I'm sleeping like a rock so go ahead and tease away!  :)

Right now baby D is about the size of a head of cauliflower and weighs in at about 2 pounds....here's what he looks like according to baby center:

and here's what he looks like according to the baby....in my center....  :)

ya know what....who cares if my Dr. says I "don't have to eat anything else for the rest of my pregnancy"(based on my weight gain)  to me....this looks like all baby!  hope he isn't too much of a haus!

And now what you've been waiting for.....we have had a name for a while now and have been calling him by this name.  We've shared it with family and close friends who have also been calling him by name.  I thought we probably needed to think of some other options and make sure we really like this one best, but every attempt to think of new names.....we kept coming back to the same things and couldn't get past it.  So I guess we should just stick with what we know we like.  So.....sweet baby D shall be called.........

Cooper Ryan Dahmer

daddy is very excited that they will have the same initials and that he shares his middle name.

That's all for now....thanks for letting me share!

26 weeks and a little nursery preview

sorry it's been a while since I've posted....time has a way of slipping away from me these days!  The pregnancy is still going really well.....just growing as much as ever.   We go back to the Dr. this week so hopefully everything is still going well (and judging by the power of his kicks....I'd say he's doing JUST fine!)  I really hope that my increased water drinking and cutting out white bread and limiting my sweets (a little bit more ;))  have paid off this visit...we shall see!   next week will be the big glucose screening....I am NOT looking forward to that!  Here are some recent pictures of what's been going on....enjoy!

Ran into Amber and Adam while shopping for maternity clothes this weekend (she's due 5 days before me) and mom insisted that we needed to have our picture taken in the maternity section together

26 weeks and 3 days (got a little behind on taking the picture this week!)

A baby shower gift I made for a girl that my mom works with.  Bassinet made of diapers, a couple baby wash cloths inside, and a burp cloth over the canopy

A little nursery preview.....

Some of the nursery "crew"  :)  we still have a few more forest friends to find

The fabric for the nursery (or most of it anyway....)

Short post this time.....I'm exhausted!  :)  thanks for stopping by!

Baby Rutabaga

So apparently little man is about the size of a rutabaga now....but I don't know what that is!!!

there ya go....now we all know  :)  He also weighs about a pound and a half and is about 13.5 inches long....I think I can feel those 13.5 inches when he shifts positions at night!

Here's the 25 week bump watch.....

You know you're pregnant when.....

Over the course of the last 24 weeks I've come to learn a LOT about my body and have experienced a myriad of changes in it.  It's amazing to think that this tiny 1 pound, foot long, ear of corn sized little boy is causing all of these changes and is growing bigger and bigger inside of me every day!  So I thought I would compile a list of "you know you're pregnant when..." here goes!

You really know you're pregnant when....

• Your every waking thought revolves around food and what you're going to eat next.
• Every food that goes into your mouth is either AMAZINGLY delicious or so revolting that you'll "never do that again"....until the next time you're "starving" :)
• Eating those oh-so-scrumptious foods often gives you major heartburn, but it doesn't matter....it tasted SO good!
• You make a slight grunting noise when attempting to get off your ever so cushiony couch
• you begin resting your hands on top of your belly because it just seems like a natural resting place
• Questions like "how far along are you?" and "boy or girl?" become commonplace while grocery shopping (for that AMAZINGLY delicious food!)
• The Pampers commercial (you know the one....with all the babies and the whole premise being that pampers doesn't care how they enter the world, they all matter....) makes you teary eyed
• you can't remember ANYTHING unless it's written down....and even then, there's no guarantee
• you spend your free time perusing the web looking at various nursery design ideas (and pin them on your pintrest board so you don't forget that great idea tomorrow) and reading reviews of baby equipment
• A former student approaches you with her book bag on the front of her body and says "look!  we match!  I can't see my feet either!"  oh boy....

So there you have it.....just SOME of the ways that you really know you are indeed pregnant!  What about you....anything to add to that list?


And now for the bump watch.....I know I'm a little behind on these posts....I try to keep up, it's just so hard!  :) 



23 weeks




24 weeks and growing all the time!

 Can you tell that school has started back.....I think I look more tired and I've given up on fixing my hair.... pony tail it is....  :)

Thanks for stopping by!

A little behind

Sorry I've been so behind on my posts lately!  It feels like it's been a very busy couple of weeks!  We started back to school this past week (just teacher workdays so far) and Monday was a really rough day!  I've felt like I've had more energy lately but I guess I've also been able to slow down and rest when I needed to.   Going back to working a full day and going non-stop all day was a LOT harder than I thought it would be!  The fact that I was out of my Zyrtec probably didn't help either!  Maybe it's just me, but my allergies are 1000X worse this year than ever and I can tell a huge difference when I don't take something!  Anyway....here is a recap of the last couple weeks...and the 21 and 22 week editions of "bump watch."  Thanks for stopping by!


Week 21:

This week was my last week of vacation before heading back to work  :(  Saturday we spent the morning with some good friends at a baby shower.  Sweet little Mason will be making an appearance sometime around September 19th and he doesn't know it yet, but he's going to be baby D's BFF!  here are some pictures from that day.....
 

Diaper cake and shower favors

the guests of honor with the painting I made for sweet little Mason's room

mamas to be!  :)

the hostesses, guest of honor, and I

all the mama's to be!  :-D

 And now for the bump watch....

21 weeks.

Week 22:
Not much to report here....I started back to work (workdays) this past week and it was a lot harder than I thought it would be! Like I said, Monday was rough...I think my body just wasn't quite ready/used to going all day and not being able to sit and put my feet up when I felt like it!  It didn't take long before I was able to get back in the routine though.  We'll see how that changes once the kids arrive on Wednesday....
Not many pictures this week....just the bump watch....

22 weeks:  Is it just me or does it look like my belly DOUBLED in size this week?!?!  (maybe we had just eaten a big meal....haha)

Bump watch: 20 weeks

We're halfway there!  woohoo!!!!  Now for the bump....and some more vacation pictures.

Baby D has loved the beach, he's been wiggling all over the place!  :)

My Kenny Chesney clone  :)

Our sand/shell creations

Our elaborately detailed sand castle  :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Birthdays and sunsets and dolphins....oh my!

This has been a busy, but most relaxing, week here on Sanibel Island!  today the rain has settled in and I don't think we'll be making it out to the beach (which is probably best...I needed something to MAKE me stay out of the sun for a day....getting a little bit pink---or a lot bit pink!)  Here are some pictures from the week so far....Be warned, there are a lot!

Saturday was my sister's birthday...she racked up on shoes this year!

getting ready to blow out all 17 candles!

So proud of his flounder catch of the day!

a little 4th of July parade....it was dinky but it was really fun! and HOT!

The hole where the lightning struck, knocking out the internet for a couple days and busting  a water line, leaving us with no water for a day!  If you look closely you can see the fried wires and part of the light that used to shine up into the tree.

Sunset at Captiva (and the baby bump!)

Another shot of the sunset on Captiva

The GIANT hermit crab I spotted crawling out from under the pier!

Emerging from his shell and heading back out to sea saying "get me out of here!"

One of the 2 dolphins that put on a show for us....I think they were "playing"  *wink wink*

Beautiful colors at sunset by the pier on Sanibel

Carrington's catch, finally cooking it up

Hope you enjoyed!  Thanks for stopping by!

snips and snails.....

We're having a boy!   

Whew!  what a whirlwind few days it has been!  I will try to catch you up as concisely as possible!  :)    On Thursday C and I had our appointment where we THOUGHT we were scheduled to have an anatomy scan and find out the gender of our sweet baby.  WELL...when we got there we were told we weren't scheduled and that next week would be the week to do it (since I'll be exactly 20 weeks then) and would that work.  I now realize that the look I gave her was probably a bit rude, but I promptle responded "no that won't work.  We will be gone all week."  To make a long story short she squeezed us in right then and there!  We were so glad that it all worked out (especially since we had a big gender reveal party planned for that night!).  The ultrasound went perfectly, our little boy looks to be developing perfectly at this point and actually looks like a human now, compared to the grey dot we saw on the screen last time we had an ultrasound. 

Thursday night we had our big party to reveal the gender.  We had a house FULL of wonderful family and close friends.  It was so great to have those we love gathered together.  I had SO much fun planning for the evening--everything was pink and blue.....right down to the drink choices!  Our guests were instructed to wear pink or blue (depending on what "team" they were on) to the party.  I totally thought that team pink would be the larger team, but BOY was I wrong!  There were FAR more blue than pink.....maybe they knew something we didn't!  :)  The evening went well and when it was time to cut the cake (which would reveal the gender) we decided that my mom and C's mom should be to first to find out, so they were the ones to cut the cake.  As they were discussing how to go about this I said "you just both cut from opposite sides."  Well, that's all it took for them to dive right in!  My sweet mother-in-law was so anxious to find out that she just hacked right in....it was rather hard to cut the cake into slices from her side!  There were cheers and shocked reactions from those who KNEW they were right and that we were "positively" having a girl  :)  I'm so glad that we chose to reveal the genderto our familes this way.  While it was extrememly difficult not spilling the beans all day it was kinda fun for C and I to have this "secret" that no one else knew for a little while!  :) 

I intended to have this post up for you by yesterday afternoon, when we would be relaxing in Sanibel FL with my dad's family.  At that point everyone in our family would know and it would be public knowledge.  I'm quickly learning that the best laid plans are OFTEN ruined!  I suppose that's something I'll constantly have to keep in mind with a little one running the show!  :)  Since my dad works for Delta we fly super cheap but at the expense of flying stand-by.  Being that it was a holiday weekend we tried to get the earliest flight possible to Sanibel (hoping that it would be too early for most and that the seats would be wide open) which meant getting up to leave our house at 3AM..... WRONG!  we got bumped from 3 flights for the first leg and finally made it to Atlanta where we were bumped from about 4 more flights before we gave up and rented a car to drive the 10 hours from Atlanta to Sanibel.  I'll save all the details for a late post when I can unravel exactly what happened on our journey....looking back it's quite comical, but at the time we weren't laughing one bit!  Needless to say, we arrived at the condo in Saibel some time around 2AM this morning....for a grand total of 23 hours of traveling!  All that, to say that our family here found out later than expected--which meant I couldn't post the news for you yet either!  :)  As soon as we've recuperated from the long trip I'll upload some pictures from the party as well as the first edition of "bump watch"

Thanks for stopping by!

**update.....so to add to the adventure....yesterday afternoon there was the storm of all storms here in Sanibel....lightning struck near the pool at our condo and knocked out the routers on the property as well as striking a water main, which resulted in the water being turned off most of the day today while they fixed it--NOT a convenient thing when you're at the beach and covered in salt and sand!  anyway, couldn't get this posted for you then, so you get pictures now as well!  bonus!  :)  enjoy!

it's blue!

the hacked into cake....blue inside!

Bump watch: 19 weeks

so apparently my camera was on the wrong setting when taking pictures of the party so the photos are really dark and you can't really see anything.....I'm going to work on getting them lighter with the program on my computer and I'll post those later....sheesh! maybe I'll get everything together at some point!  :)

sneak peek....

here's a sneak peek of preparations for our Gender Reveal Party next week....  :) 

I'm so excited!  can't wait for the 30th to get here!
Thanks for stopping by!

boys will be boys.....

Poor pooped puppy!

and play in the mud!

On Saturday my dear husband joined with some co-workers to run in the USMC Mud Run in pinnacle.  It was a beautiful morning but quickly got hot!  we decided to take Arnold with us and, poor guy, he was pooped by the time we left!  We arrived around 7:30 to watch some friends run in the individual race before the team events....

Our friend Nathan is the one in the bright blue shirt (that was the last time it looked bright blue!)

 

Go Anna!  She did awesome!

And here comes John, emerging from the mud pit!

a quick before shot....

The hubby right after the race...He even had mud on his teeth! ewww!

The team of guys trudging their way through the mud pit

 

 

 

 

The local Fire Department set up showers for all the muddy runners to rinse off (thank goodness!)