Here's Dan and me at my second cousin's wedding right before their reception at the family farm. I thought their vineyard would be a cute backdrop to the picture...I didn't take into consideration the sunlight and shadows though. Reason #18 why I'd make a bad photographer. (+1 for me for at least getting a picture of Daniel and me)
Total weight gain/loss: 23 pounds. It's so hard to gain weight with the smaller room in my stomach but I'm trying. My dad asked me how much weight I've gained over pregnancy and I said 23 and he responded, "well technically you've only gained 3 because you lost 20 pounds at the beginning." I don't want to think that way. The doctor said I'm measuring "perfectly" (yes, she used the word "perfect" so I'm going to hold on to that word to describe my child. Also, for full disclosure, I was wanting to lose a little weight before I got pregnant because grad school turned me into a chunker. I did not want to lose it the way I did though (Morning Sickness and turning into a dragon). Honestly I wanted to work it off, but fate has a horribly twisted way of doing things. The docs said my weight loss via Morning Sickness was fine, that if I would have lost any more than 20 then they would have been concerned but I was ultimately fine. Woof! Now I'm faced with the daunting task of trying to gain weight with a smaller stomach because the little man is taking up more and more room inside me each day.
Maternity clothes? UGH! Yet another reason I hate the idea of wearing maternity clothes, the only pair of maternity jeans I have (Mom bought them for me the moment she found out I was pregnant) are too short for my tall body. So not only do I have to be on a mission to find clothes that fit my sausage-like body, but they have to be long enough too...that's never going to happen.
Now I have to admit something. My name is Jackie and I no longer fit into any of my pants. There I said it. My sausage-like body is being constricted by my attempts to squeeze into my skinny jeans (It's fall! I should be able to wear skinny jeans with boots now, but apparently God is saying, "No Jackie...you look ridiculous so I'm going to make it so that you feel so uncomfortable that you are forced to come to the conclusion that everyone else knows but you don't. You need to get maternity clothes." Fine, God, you win again.). I am not looking forward to this impending shopping trip. My mind is asking me, "How many more days can I go just bumming it around the house in my sweatpants and not seeing an actual human?" The answer, less than the number of fingers on my hand. UGH!
Stretch marks? No. Just sad pale skin. I did start yelling at the mirror because I keep seeing my gross blue veins through my translucent skin. Veins are just so gross. It's like a road map on my stomach. Momma needs a tan.
Sleep: I had some good nights sleeping and I had some horrible ones. Nothing in between. Dan and I both had weird dreams though. MIne was about getting attacked by bears and learning that combining rock salt and ice will make bears blow up if they eat it. Dan's was about me giving birth to a large baby but the baby came out too fast so they had to put it back inside of me. Weird! I think my weirdness is rubbing off on Dan. He claims to never have had weird dreams until he met me. I do believe that.
Best moment this week: Putting Baby Koch's room together! Dan and I officially started "nesting". We decided that we needed to finally get all of Baby Koch's stuff out of boxes and into drawers. So Dan and I spent one evening last week going to town on his room. It's actually looking like a baby's room! Now all we need is our little man! (We can wait though...take your time son. You need to finish cooking first)
Also, Dan and I went to Iowa this past weekend for my second cousin's wedding. She looked absolutely gorgeous! The wedding took place in this adorable church and the reception was in the family farm barn. It was all decked out with wonderful evening lights, pumpkins, hay bales, beautiful orange flowers, and the girls wore boots (bride too) with their dresses. Besides seeing lots of my extended family, my favorite part might have been the fact that their wedding "cake" was scotcharoos. If you don't know what a scotcharoo is, you're missing out on life. It's a hybrid of a rice krispie treat and peanut butter/chocolate gooeyness. I might or might not have eaten my share (and my table's share) of scotcharoos that evening. I even made it to the dance floor to show off some of my moves. Unfortunately, little nugget man made sure I was feeling the 6 1/2 hour car ride we made that morning to get there so right when I wanted to be in my prime dancing mood, I was dying both physically and emotionally. We pushed it as long as we could but right around 11 I had to call it a night. I was devastated but my little man makes all the decisions about my body right now. (maybe he already knows how "good" my dance moves are and was trying to save me the embarrassment. Little does he know, I don't get embarrassed easily. I think this will come in handy as I transition into mommyhood. Good news for me, bad news for my son. ba ha!) I'm the world's worst photographer so I neglected to take pictures of my gorgeous cousin but I was insistent enough to get pictures of me with my mom and dad.
As promised, baby room pictures! Here's one side of little man's room. He's so spoiled that he received two dressers at a baby shower! And they're completely packed with clothes, diapers, and blankets! You can see that he even has more clothes that need to go in there. He still has even more clothes in his closet packed in boxes and hanging up. He's one spoiled little boy. We have a diaper genie (my mom found at a garage sale! Gosh I love garage sales! I'm so sad that garage sale season is ending) right next to his changing pad, Bobby for helping with breastfeeding, his perfect crib that will turn into a toddler bed, day bed, and full size bed!; and his swing that I'm sure he will love!
On the other size of the room we have our guest day bed for when people come and stay with us (it's actually two beds...the trundle in underneath. We've already used this bed soooo many times for when we've had guests). You can also see the beautiful bookcase with some of our little man's stuffed animals and books on it.
Here's a closer look at Little Baby K's two dressers.
Here's his wonderful crib! (Crazy story, two cribs actually arrived at our house to our surprise. I told Dan that meant we were having twins. He didn't think it was as funny as I did. But we're not having twins...just one baby. For now...)
Check out all the swag on Baby Koch's bookcase! That's right, there's Skippy John Jones, lots of other stuffed animals, an Oliver tractor (a perfect miniature replica of my Grandpa Smith's Oliver tractor), and lots of books! I can't wait to fill it up with more books for our man to read!
(I think the room needs more color so I'm going to try and convince Dan we need things like curtains, wall decor, and maybe a rug. We're both interior designed-challenged so I'm trying my best to tap into whatever interior design creativity I have and hope it comes out decent looking)
Besides the shadows being in weird places on my face, I absolutely love this picture of me and my gorgeous mommy. Words cannot describe how excited she is to be a grandma.
My ridiculous father and me. I was lucky to get this half decent looking photo of us. (Many of the previous photos of us included him sticking his sunglasses in his mouth, asking me to hold his beer "people will get a kick out of that Jackie", or trying to smoke a cigar in the photo) What an interesting father I have. All of that aside, he's pretty stoked to be a grandpa too. Finally a boy for big Jim! I did break his heart though because I told him at the wedding that we won't be using his choice of 'James James' for baby Koch's name. A baby cannot have two first names...weirdo. Still keeping his name a secret from everyone!
Also, the day after the wedding, Dan and I got to visit some friends who live in Iowa and their 1 year old baby boy. He's so precious! He's quite possibly the happiest baby I've ever seen. He's got the biggest smile on his face at all times and he's most likely the most adorable baby ever. But besides gushing over their perfect little man, it was so good to see them and catch up with them. They need to be added to the list of people who I want to move closer to us because they're too far away. (In my weird world, I think all of our friends and family need to live next door to us. I also mentioned this week that I think my mom should move in with us because who doesn't want to continue to live with their mom? Especially if their mom is my mom, then you would want your mommy to live with you). I just love seeing friends and family. What a great weekend!
Miss Anything? Not dying after a car ride. Alcohol. Ham Sandwiches. Coffee. Staying up late. Gosh I feel so old!
Movement: My sides got some major action in the car. He also spent a large portion of time in my upper abdomen making it feel like I couldn't breathe sometimes.
Food cravings: Not really that hungry this week. My stomach is shrinking due to the little man taking up more space in my body so I just don't have enough room in it for lots of food. I did crave strawberry pot tarts, milk, and ice cream shakes. But overall, I just wasn't hungry (which kinda annoyed Dan because he loves to eat...all the time).
Anything making you queasy or sick: Since my stomach is shrinking, I can't fit as much food as I want to in it. Also, our active little man likes to take jabs not only to my ribs and sides but also my bladder and stomach. I did have a huge dose of nausea this week because of little man taking jabs at my stomach and unfortunately even heaved once because of it. Little man wasn't happy when I threw up my dinner but I told him that he's the one that made me do it. I went to the doctor to make sure that everything was normal with this symptom and they said it was normal to have the nausea return (ugh! just great!) but they also put me on some meds to help me cope and make sure I'm getting food in me and keeping it in me.
Have you started to show yet: Getting bigger! (But not as big as I would like to be) We gained 2 more ladies at my aqua aerobics class this week and they all questioned me about how far along I was because I didn't look like I was very far along. They're both in their 20's (weeks along that is) and they're bigger than me so I was very envious of their adorable bellies.
Gender: Can't wait to meet our little man! His name is still a secret. Dan and I might or might not have decided on a name though! hehe secrets secrets!
Labor Signs: No
Symptoms: As Dan and I were driving in the car to Iowa, I decided to read our trusty "What to Expect When You're Expecting" book on the 8th month chapter. I got to the part about the symptoms I may be experiencing and read them out loud to Dan and they were as follows: Strong, regular fetal activity; heartburn, indigestion, flatulence; increased constipation; occasional headaches, faintness, or dizziness; nasal congestion and occasional nosebleeds; bleeding gums; leg cramps; backache; pelvic pressure and/or achiness; itchy abdomen; protruding navel; increasing shortness of breath as uterus crowds the lungs; difficulty sleeping; increasing clumsiness; enlarged breasts; increasing eagerness for the pregnancy to be over; apprehension about the baby's health, about labor and delivery; increasing absentmindedness; and excitement--along with a little anxiety--at the realization that it won't be long now. Dan said, "So...a check mark to all of them?" I said, "yepp...sounds about right."
Belly Button in or out? In.
Wedding rings on or off? On.
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy! So happy that everything is coming together so nicely and that our little man is growing and that we're getting so close to being able to hold him! I was very happy this week except when I chundered my dinner the other night. Dan and I made delicious meaty lasagna and I savored every bite of its cheesy and tomatoey goodness until our little man said, "This is taking up too much room in here. I will kick your stomach because I am mad." and up came my dinner. It wasn't a nice throw-up either. It was back to the dragon phase that makes one's entire body shake and hurt tremendously. This brought along the tears and the fetal position I stayed in for the rest of the night while Dan rubbed my back, ensuring me that it won't last and that the baby is still getting food. Throwing up makes me cry these days.
Looking forward to: Relaxing with Dan this weekend. Our only firms plans include the Chili and Beer festival in downtown Urbana. Well just chili for me (you'd better not disappoint me chili! I expect a lot from my chili so it better be good!). Dan gets a DD for the event. But overall, we have a relaxing weekend in our future and I couldn't be more excited for just a low-key, laid-back weekend with my hubs.
Anything Else?: We're hoping to cross off some of the million things on my ever expanding to-do list before the end of the weekend. Hopefully we'll be able to cross off some of the following:
Anything Else?: We're hoping to cross off some of the million things on my ever expanding to-do list before the end of the weekend. Hopefully we'll be able to cross off some of the following:
- Getting our hospital bags packed
- Finish purchasing our registry items/little items like wipes, shampoo, diaper cream, etc.
- Continue nesting by cleaning the heck out of our place (I'll probably be the one doing this since my definition of clean is a little different than Daniel's)
- Prepare 1 million casseroles to freeze for when our man comes (again, I'll probably be in charge of this one mainly because I love to cook so much)
- Pre-register at the hospital
- Continue some home yoga
- Continue washing and sorting baby clothes
- Make a birth plan (do I really need one?)
- Watch Dan try to perfect his own chili recipe (serve as chief taste tester)
- Convince Dan that we need decorations in the baby's room (this might involve baking a pecan pie for bribery)
- Give Dan a well-deserved back massage for putting up with me and my nonsense (We pay each other in back massages. Currently I'm in debt up to my ears in the amount of back massages I owe Dan but he lets me pay them off whenever it's convenient for me.)
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