Baby Sprinkle

Last weekend, my friends Val and Tara and my sister-in-law Jessica threw me an awesome baby sprinkle! A little different than a baby shower, the focus was mostly on people helping me out by loading me up with diapers since this is my second boy and I already have most baby necessities. :)

The gals did such an amazing job. Val made this paper airplane banner that will hang in Baby's nursery.

Lots of baby Dr Pepper to drink.

Val made some yummy cupcakes.

The prizes for winning the game we played:

Jessica made this super cute banner on the gift table and I hope to find a place for it in Baby's nursery too.

We played a fun little game where we tried to list a baby item beginning with each letter of the alphabet in a short amount of time. My MIL Janet and friend Jaclyn won.

Then it was time for gifts. Baby D ended up getting waaaaay more than just diapers and wipes! We got so many cute little outfits and lovies and swaddle blankets. I have such great friends and family!

After most people had left, we took a few photos outside Janet's house where the shower was held. Here's me with Baby D's grandmas: Adam's mom on the left and my mom Nancy on the right.

My beautiful shower hosts, Val, Tara, and Jessica.

My bestie Rachael came into town from KC and stayed with us for the whole weekend with her hubby and daughter, which was a treat in itself. She also helped decorate for the shower and we took all these photos on her camera since I'm so great at remembering to bring my camera to stuff like this (not).

My dad was there to pick up my mom, so we got a photo with my parents and their "two daughters."

…and another with their only biological daughter, ha.

Baby D and I feel so blessed by everyone who came and planned and put on this awesome baby sprinkle for us. We're a little more prepared for his arrival now, and I have a closet FULL of diapers. Let's do this thing! :)

36 Weeks

How far along? 36 weeks

Weight gain: 50 pounds

Baby is the size of a(n): Honeydew…but I found out yesterday he weighs 7 pounds 4 ounces already

Food cravings/aversions: Milk and ice still. Water, surprisingly.

Sleeping: Adam has left the building bed. He's started sleeping on the couch because I'm just too loud with my snoring and breathing. :( I'm getting up 2-3 times per night to use the bathroom, but am usually able to go right back to bed. Still lots of crazy dreams.

Milestones: I'm 9 months pregnant! Also, if I were to go into labor now, I could go straight to the BirthCare Center at Wesley, and not have to go to the hospital.

How I'm Feeling: Lots of pressure down low. Most of yesterday it was hard to even walk, but I seem to be doing better so far today. I'm still in shock that I've gained so much weight and it's hard to swallow. I'm trying to keep telling myself that I only have 3 more weeks of this and then it's over forever…but 3 more weeks of feeling this huge and heavy seems like a lifetime. I'm getting so excited to meet this baby. I know that there will be struggles (breastfeeding, lack of sleep, transition to 2 kids), and while those things still scare me a lot, I'm just very ready for him to be here.

Interesting things that happened this past week/anticdotes: This may be a bit long, but my doctor's appointment yesterday was very interesting. I went in for a sonogram to check his size, and much to my surprise, Baby D was breech. That wasn't even something that had crossed my mind as a possibility since he'd been head down at my last sono. My only worry thus far had been his size possibly forcing me into c-section, but I thought I'd have options when it came to that. When your baby is breech, I know you generally can't deliver vaginally. So I left the sono a little unsure about what to think/how to feel.

My appointment with my doctor was next and he confirmed that this baby was very big…weighing 7 pounds 4 ounces at just shy of 36 weeks. But he said based on that, he thought this baby would be around the size Sutton was at birth - just over 9 pounds. Big, but do-able for a vaginal birth. I said, "But what about him being breech?" My doctor double-checked his notes and said "Oh. Yeah…that's a problem." I started trying to decide if I was going to cry at this point. I'd just gotten the good news that I could likely deliver him vaginally based on size, which had been my worry up til this point, but then I hadn't yet been told exactly what all being breech meant.

Doctor started feeling around on my belly. He went to demonstrate the movement that he would use later on to try to turn the baby if Baby hadn't turned on his own and all of a sudden, he took his hands off my belly, looked at me in disbelief, and said "Well…he just turned! Whoa! That's never happened to me before." Apparently the slight jarring he'd used to demonstrate what they'd do later on had coaxed Baby D to turn around and he was now head down. My doctor couldn't get over it. The nurse in there was in disbelief too. Doctor said that no one would believe him when he told them that had just happened. And after my appointment was over and he left the room, I heard him telling the other nurses and doctors what had just happened and him asking his nurse "You saw that, right?"

So…in conclusion :) baby is head down for now, but as easily as he turned yesterday, it makes me think that he could turn back the other way as well. My doctor said he'd do a quick sono himself next week to check positioning. I'm not dilated or effaced at all at this point either, but they'll check that again next week as well.

During my sonogram, the technician was super friendly and laughing at how smushed Baby D seemed. So she switched the view over to 3D at one point, which we'd never had done with any of our pregnancies. So neat to see the little dude in 3D! I could definitely get a feel more for what he's going to look like. Here's a 3D photo of him all smushed in there:

And his crazy brother...

35 Weeks

How far along? 35 weeks

Weight gain: Not sure

Baby is the size of a(n): Coconut or honeydew…this baby is probably somewhere in the 5-6.5 pound range.

Food cravings/aversions: Milk and ice still. Cereal. Cranberry apple juice.

Sleeping: It's been harder to nap lately…which is maybe a good thing because then I have more time to get all my final sessions edited and other business stuff taken care of. LOTS of dreams. One dream I had this week, I gave birth and it was triplets. Two girls and a boy…I remember that because I had an even amount of both gender. In the dream, I gave birth in a barn and couldn't come up with names since I wasn't expecting more than one baby.

Milestones: Next week, I'll officially be 9 months pregnant. Woohoo!

How I'm Feeling: I'm slowing down a lot. Lots more aches and pains when moving positions. I just scheduled a newborn session for next week (maybe I'm a glutton for punishment), so hopefully I can get through the 2 photo sessions I have next week and then I'm officially DONE shooting until my baby comes! Can't wait to take his photos. I still have moments where it's hard to breathe, but then I feel a lot of pressure on my bladder lately, so I really have no idea if he's dropped or not. Still lots of heartburn…Sutton likes to get my "medicine" (Tums) for me. He's such a good helper.

Interesting things that happened this past week/anticdotes: Sutton and I finally made a calendar to countdown til baby. I explained to him that it's like his advent calendar but without the candy. :) I don't know if he really gets it…maybe I should've made it a little easier to understand.

                  

Kansas City {Christmas Trip}

We decided to take a little mini vacation in the days after Christmas, so on the 26th, we loaded up and headed to Kansas City. After checking in at our hotel, we drove over to Crown Center where there were lots of fun wood cars and trucks for Sutton to play on.

Then we went and walked around the shops inside Crown Center. We went into this chocolate shop to get Adam a caramel apple and they were making fudge.

We checked out a neat walkway that went over the street.

And looked at the big gingerbread town they had on display.

Then it was time for dinner at Fritz's. This is a really neat restaurant where your order is delivered to you by toy train car.

You call in your order using a phone at your booth.

Sutton had lots of fun watching the trains deliver food to all the tables and trying to guess if they would stop at ours.

Sutton LOVED staying in a hotel and continues to ask me when we will get to do it again. This was his little sleeping set-up.

The next day, we ate breakfast at the hotel and then after we were all showered and ready, we headed over to a nearby arcade/play place. We ended up staying almost 3 hours and Sutton had a lot of fun. There was a big play area (like think Chic-fil-a on steroids), and even little kid rides.

The arcade games were relatively cheap, so Adam got to play a lot of games too. I mostly just walked around with them and sat down whenever I had the chance. :)

We taught Sutton how to play air hockey, which he loves now. He even beat Daddy! ;)

The arcade had a pizza buffet as part of their package we bought. So we stopped for lunch. It was actually really good and they had way more than just pizza. Chicken wings, tacos, a dessert bar, a salad bar, slushy machines…it was so good.

We went back to the hotel for nap time. Afterwards, we went to Union Station to see what there was to see. There were neat lights and a really cool toy train track and several villages, but a lot of the Christmas stuff wasn't operating any more.

We stopped in the gift shop where I saw this scorpion lollipop and Adam bought a little RC car.

After dinner, we went back to the hotel and checked out the pool. There wasn't a hot tub for me to put my feet in, so I just watched. The boys said the water was a little cold.

Then Sutton got a bath and we had to scrounge for bath toys since I hadn't brought any. A tractor, a coffee cup, and a slinky did the trick.

The next morning we had to go back to Union Station because Adam's RC car he'd bought didn't work so he exchanged it. While he was doing that, Sutton and I went and looked at the trains.

We ate an early lunch at Crown Center and then it was time to go to the SeaLife aquarium. It was so cool!! We saw all kinds of sea creatures and even got to pet some starfish.

There was even a little play place at the end for Sutton to burn off some energy. We ended our adventure at the gift shop, where Sutton found an amazing pirate sword that he just had to have. It was pink. And bejeweled. But we got it for him, and it's still one of his favorite toys. :)

We went back to the hotel and napped. That was one great thing about this trip…all three of us got a good nap in every day because our hotel room had blackout curtains and got really dark. After naps, we went to Old Navy to buy me some maternity jeans in a larger size. While there, Adam pointed behind me and said "I think that little girl is lost." I turned around and it was our little buddy Rowan! Then Rachael came around the corner and Matt too. I was surprised to see them. Adam had been secretly texting them and had planned dinner for us all that night.

We went to Chili's for dinner and then over to their house for chocolate chip milkshakes and to play and catch up. We even took this photo on a timer, and it only took 3 tries.

The next morning, we loaded up and headed home. It was a fun little getaway.