Some stuff...

So we purchased a bookcase from Costco Home last night. I fell in love with when I saw it, and I fell even more in love with it when we got it into Maizey's room. I've posted a picture of it, and a picture of yesterday's lunch, and one of Porter (it's not that I love him more than Lou, it's just that Lou is always in the same place--and that doesn't really make for many interesting photos).

Our cute, new bookcase with Maizey's only book (so far).

My pregnant woman lunch yesterday included (but wasn't limited to) spaghetti with cheddar cheese, yogurt, chocolate milk, and Fresca. It was preceeded by 6 chocolate donettes.

Porter is already depressed about the baby. This is him looking very sad in the baby's room.

Less than 3 months to go!

So we hit the 28 week mark! Yay! But I feel like May is still so far away. The more uncomfortable I get, the farther May seems to get. Things are definitely less comfortable with each passing day. We went to Leavenworth last weekend. Everyone, including Ryan, loved the beds in the house we stayed at. The mattress model name "Heavenly" seemed to be a good reflection of everyone's experience...except mine. Moving this big belly is hard enough, but put me to bed in a cloud-like mattress and things get even worse. It felt like I was sleeping in peanut butter. Every toss and turn was a major event. Also, what is this "round ligament" pain about? No one ever told me about it. I am here to tell anyone who is pregnant now, or will become pregnant, round ligament pain is awful. Imagine waking up in the morning and feeling like you've been riding on a horse for 12 hours straight...that is what it feels like to have RLP. It got so bad last weekend I could hardly go up stairs. But, you do look awesome when you walk, passerbys probably think you're just an accomplished equestrian.

Well, on the good side, Maizey has entered into the crazy-hiccups phase. She has the hiccups usually a couple of times a day. It's so fun to feel. Also, kicks and jabs have moved on to include rolls and turns. I can feel her rolling around in me, I think she is big enough now that I can feel just about every movement she makes. It's a little addicting. All I want to do is lay and bed and feel her move. But, I compromise, I only lay in bed for half the day instead of all day.

As I mentioned, Ryan and me and my family just got back from Leavenworth. We had such a good time. We had great food and got a lot of sleep! On Saturday we went with the whole fam to go snowshoeing/cross-country skiing (Ryan and I snowshoed so I couldn't accidentally crush the baby in a cross-country fall). It was perfect weather, and apart from the multiple in-the-wilderness-pregnancy-caused-pee-breaks, it couldn't have been a better day. All the pups came with, and needless to say Porter was in a major arthritic coma for the rest of the day. It was our last outing as a childless couple...

Ryan and I on our snowshoeing adventure

The closest thing we could get to a family picture--notice Porter barking in our faces. He's such a good boy!

The river that ran alongside the entire trail...so beautiful!

Porter in his arthritic coma on the peanut butter bed.

3rd Trimester

Bonjour friends and family! I am now into my 3rd Trimester and it feels amazing/terrible. Everything hurts, and everything is big. The only way I can think to describe how it feels when things are really uncomfortable is: it's like having a bad side ache, only it's all over your abdomen and it doesn't matter if you stop running-- it still hurts. But, it feels great to know that I only have 3 months left.

At my most recent doctor's appointment I measured exactly to where I am supposed to be at this gestation (26cm at 26wks), so that felt good. I've been feeling really large-and-in-charge and if you would have asked me I would have guessed I'd measure closer to the size of a woman with quintuplets.

My mom cut my hair short today. I figured that now that I am going to have a child, I need to have a hairstyle to keep me hip. Otherwise it would be sweats and ponytails everyday. Now it will be sweats and short hair everyday, which is slightly cuter in my opinion.

Nothing else new to report. We'll be out of town for 4 days this weekend in Washington's own little Bavaria. We'll be taking the pups, and I think this will be our last getaway before we are officially tied down (we've been unofficially tied down for about 10years already). Thanks to cousin Sarah for taking care of Allie while we are gone, I don't know what we'd do without her. My only warning to Sarah is to watch out for cooked kitty. Allie's new past time is sleeping on our cooktop while it's still hot from cooking. It's pretty bizarre. It will be so hot that I can barely touch it and Allie will be asleep on it. It reaffirms my belief that Allie is at least slightly retarded.

Allie isn't looking her best in this picture, but she sure was enjoying herself. There are so many things that are unsanitary about this I can't even think about it...

27 weeks and looking HUGE! For some reason I look WAY bigger from far away than I do close up (refer to side bar pictures).

Short hair (and no make-up).

February!

The nursery is coming along. Jan came by with the newly arrived bedding yesterday, so we had fun getting that setup. We also found the perfect rug! We've come a long way in the nursery (but still need a bookcase), and we're looking forward to finishing it up so that we can spend the next couple of months organizing all of the baby items we need! We wanted to get an early start so that we could have a leisurely pace and enjoy the process--not rush through it. We also registered this week at Babies R Us with help from my friend Ashley. All I can say about that experience is: I think we're gonna need a bigger house!

Here is how the nursery is turning out so far:

This chair was called "Porter the Puppy" so we obviously had to get it!

An up-close shot of the bedding

My chair--still "in the works," and the pillowless sham.