Good Times with an Old Friend

Last week I got to spend some time with my friend Brandy who I have not seen in FOREVER! Brandy and I were interns in Memphis, TN back in the summer of 2005, and we were fast friends where people thought we had known each other forever on the first day we had met. After the internship we saw each other maybe three more times, but we hadn't gotten much of a chance to hang out and just catch up. Brandy was here in Denver for a business conference all week, and we went out to dinner two nights. It was great to catch up on life. Last time we saw each other we were both single, and now we are living the blissful married life, working, and living in totally different parts of the country.




Jonathan came along with us one night and we got yet another rare couples picture :):



Today I went for my first ever chiropractic adjustment. I was mildly terrified since the idea of bones snapping and popping makes my stomach turn a little bit. I watched Jonathan get adjusted first. They twist your neck like something in a movie where someone is being killed. When it came to my turn, I got a little case of the giggles, and every time I would hear my bones "adjust" I would just start laughing for some reason. I guess it's the emotional release of realizing something you were scared of actually feels pretty good. I'm hoping that seeing the chiropractor each week will help ease some of the discomfort that has come along with the third trimester and the growing weight of the belly.

Right now my main goal for myself is to find a birthing class since I have been told over and over I need to get on it by doulas, the obgyn, the chiropractor, etc. I've almost limited myself to the Express classes since a lot of classes are 11 weeks, and I more than likely don't have that long left on this pregnancy journey.

Only 10 more weeks!

Today we have reached the 30-week mark. It's all going by so quickly now, and there is still so much left to do in preparation. We have been able to clear everything out of what will be the baby's room that is not baby-related besides a few empty suitcases, but we still have a long way to go until we have a put together nursery. Everything's tossed throughout the room in piles. I'm thinking we may be able to put the crib up in the next week or two and maybe hang something on the wall. Here are a few Before shots of the nursery (some are kind of hard to see with the lighting):




The next photos will be when it is completed!

I had my 30-week appointment yesterday morning, and it's a fun point in the pregnancy for appointments. The baby's heart rate was normal at 150, and he measured at 30-weeks...so right on track. The heart rate was a little higher than the last appointment, but he was super active kicking around the whole time. The nurse said that would raise his heart rate a little bit. The doctor felt around my stomach and estimated his weight between 3 and 3.5 pounds, so he's getting so much bigger! He's been moving around quite a bit, and the kicks are getting harder and very noticeable from the outside. About two days ago I started getting sharp pains in my ribs when he would kick, and I have also been getting a lot of hard kicks and pressure on my pubic bone. I'm very short waisted, so he doesn't have anywhere to go besides against bone. One of my favorite things is sitting back and watching my stomach squirm around and feeling his body shift when I touch my stomach. It's probably one of the most amazing things ever, and I can see myself missing it a little bit. However, I'm more excited for him to be here in person! Here is the 30-week photo update:


I wanted to end this post with a picture of the most adorable weiner dog. Izzy has been a little bit traumatized by the move and Jonathan going back to school. Her personality has been a little bit out of whack lately, but she's still our favorite little dog. Here she stretching is out in the morning before getting out of bed:

Hello Third Trimester

This wasn't my favorite picture to post, but it was taken at around 11:30 p.m. after a whole day of work and night of packing and moving :). I'm a little behind on posting, but we are one week and one day into the third trimester! I can't believe how quickly the second trimester went after a first trimester that seemed to drag on. I hit the 28 week mark yesterday, and I went to the doctor two days ago for my appointment. Everything is going well, and I had my gestational diabetes test done...tons of fun ;)! So many people talk about how terrible that sugary drink is, and though I didn't find it good enough to be a daily refreshing beverage, it wasn't as bad as I was expecting. I was given the options of lime, orange, and coke flavor, and the woman at the desk recommended strongly against the coke flavor. I found out today that everything checks out good, and I don't have to give up sugary treats! I start going to the doctor every other week now until 36 weeks when I start going every week. Things are really picking up speed now!

Right now I am trying to find a doula for child birth as well as a prenatal chiropractor. My friend Ashley Jones had her daughter completely naturally with the help of a doula, and I am hoping to do the same. For those of you that don't know what a doula is, they provide emotional support and natural pain management techniques during child birth (help with positioning, counterpressure techniques, massage, etc.) to make the whole experience a little bit more tolerable. They aren't a doctor where they monitor your health and the baby's health, so you would still use your medical provider and go to a hospital or birthing center. Doulas are known to decrease length of labor, decrease requests for epidurals, and decrease your chance of a c-section by also helping with positioning the baby through massage. I also want to stay home as long as possible, so they can be a guide to when it's time to go to the hospital and when you can stay home since I would rush off to the hospital with the first contraction being a first timer. As far as emotional support, they are there for you as well as your husband since, from what I hear, it can be a very shocking experience. I am also looking for a prenatal chiropractor, because the doctor said my tailbone is tilted forward. I wanted to try to get that in line before labor to decrease the chance of a c-section. This is also so new to me, and when I first heard about all of this I thought it sounded a bit "granola" or hippy-ish, but it's actually quite fascinating what they can do to help nature run its course.

Yesterday and today are our big moving days into our new apartment. These two days or so will be a little chaotic trying to balance work and moving, but this weekend we may get a chance to start working on what will be the nursery. Right now the baby items we have accumulated so far are sitting in the corner of our bedroom, so it'll be great to have a space to put everything and start to organize. Jonathan is working on refinishing an armour. It'll probably take the 3 months he has left to finish it to get it done since it's a time consuming task, but I think it's going to look great and be wonderful for storage since the room does not have a closet. I feel like we are looking at our new living space with two new sets of eyes, because we are trying to figure out the best way to set everything up so it is most conducive to a new baby. We are storing a few huge furniture items to make more space for baby items and give him room to move once he's at the age to be mobile. I can't believe that this is the place we are going to bring home a baby in around 12 weeks.

Another big thing going on is that Jonathan started school on Monday. He is taking pre-reqs for either Physicians Assistant or Nursing programs. The military has a lot of great benefits for people with a medical degree, so we're hoping to take advantage of that in the future. Right now he is taking Chemistry, Anatomy & Physiology, and Sociology, and he has class 4 days a week. He definitely has some challenging classes, and he has to jump right into the groove of going to classes and studying since they don't hold off on teaching the material.

Survey Update:
How far along: 28 weeks and 1 day
Maternity clothes: Some of the tops I thought would surely fit until the end are starting to get shorter and shorter.
Best moment this week: Getting into the room that will be the nursery and starting to map out what it will look like.
Cravings: Nothing in particular actually. I'm just really missing deli sandwiches that aren't heated up in the microwave.
Gender: Boy
Labor Signs: None thankfully.
Belly Button in our out? Still hanging "in" there. It's just dying to pop out I think, but I'm hoping it holds strong :)
What I miss: I still have to say I miss sleeping on my back sooo much. My hips kill in the morning after sleeping on my side all night. I'm now surrounded by both a pregnancy body pillow and a standard body pillow on all sides trying to get comfortable. I still wake up in the middle of the night on my back, because I guess I just can't help it.
Weekly Wisdom: I've learned a lot from talking to a doula about being an advocate for yourself when dealing with doctors and getting ready for delivery. Make sure you have someone that is on the same page as you.
Milestones: Reaching the third trimester for sure. Also, I discovered this week that OJ gives the little guy the wiggles!

26 weeks and 2 days

Jonathan told me that I needed to put an updated picture on the blog since I didn't do it on my last post. Here is the latest picture at 26 weeks and 2 days just relaxing after work :).

So Much Going On...

We've had a lot going on recently. We are getting ready to move into our new apartment on August 18, and Amy has already moved out and into her new place. It's made us realize that we need to start working on packing up our own stuff so that the move is a little less stressful. It stinks that you have to pack up everything as if you were moving across town just to move within our same apartment complex, but at least it makes it easier to make smaller, more manageable trips. Seeing as I can't carry that much, my jobs will be helping pack boxes and cleaning the apartment. I get out of all the heavy furniture lifting :). We also just got back from a trip to South Carolina over a long weekend. I was so happy that I got to see some friends from college. Our first night down there we got to see Kyle, Ashley, and their daughter Skylar. It was so great getting to meet Skylar. She is such a pretty baby, and her eyes are so active watching people and just soaking everything in. After Skylar went to bed, we got the chance to catch up with Kyle and Ashley on what is going on with their lives. We also got a chance to hang out with my other best friends Jessica and Monica in Greenville. It almost makes me miss the college days a little when I got to see all of them every day and just walk into their bedrooms in our apartment to chit chat.

In baby news, we got our stroller last weekend! We haven't had a chance to put it together due to the move and space constraints at the moment, but I'm excited to give in a test drive in the next month or so. Here's a picture of it:


It's really nice, because it is both a travel system stroller and you can lock out the front wheel so that it is a jogging stroller as well. This way we don't have to purchase a bunch of different strollers. I am also pretty much done with our baby registry. Some people have been asking us if we have one, so I thought I would post here that we are registered at Babies R Us, and you can find ours under either Sarah Nichols or Jonathan Nichols. I'm sure I'll tweak it a bit as we come closer to the end of these 9 months, but most items should be on there. Here's the link: http://www.toysrus.com/shop/index.jsp?categoryId=2255957

I haven't done a survey in a while, so I thought it would be fun to do one this time.

How far along: 26 weeks and 1 day
Maternity clothes: Wearing them every day and looking forward to having a little bit more variety in wardrobe again after pregnancy.
Best moment this week: We were flying down to South Carolina, and he spent about 1 1/2 hours kicking hard while on the plane. He must not like the pressure change. It was also fun to share the whole pregnancy experience with all my best friends while down South on our trip!
Cravings: Arnold Palmers (Ice Tea and Lemonade)
Gender: BOY!
Labor Signs: None. Just the aches and pains of stretching out.
Belly Button in our out? In but weird looking. Jonathan said when I was laying down the other day and laughed, it popped out a little.
What I miss: I miss sleeping on my stomach and back. Getting used to sleeping on your side when you're not normally a side sleeper takes a lot longer than I would have thought.
Weekly Wisdom: Traveling and summer heat makes for some really swollen feet.
Milestones: I can feel his little body inside my stomach. It's weird to touch a spot on your stomach and know for certain you are touching the body of a living person. I learned from my mother-in-law that the hardest spot when you touch your stomach is his butt.

I'll try to get some pictures together for the next post.

Random Fun and Cuteness!

We have been receiving a lot of great baby items lately from my brother and sister-in-law. They have three kids, 6, 4, and 2, and they have completed their family, so we are lucky enough to get all of their hand me downs. I'll definitely post pictures of some of the stuff they've given us once we get the chance to put the nursery together next month, but Jonathan is most excited about the Baby Bjorn. It has been his most wanted item since we found out we were having a baby. Every time we see somebody in public wear one, he thinks it's so funny and cute. The other day he was over at our brother and sister-in-law's house visiting and picking up some stuff, and he decided to practice using the Baby Bjorn. I think he plans on wearing it pretty much all the time whether he's in the house or out and about running errands. What a precious daddy to be!

Someone I haven't mentioned much on this blog is our favorite miniature dachshund, Izzy. Izzy is having a fabulous summer as an only child and has no idea what is about to hit her this fall with the arrival of her new brother. We got the most adorable onsie the other day from my friend Sara Shepherd.
I told Jonathan that I wanted to get Izzy a t-shirt that says "My brother is a baby," but he thinks Izzy will be traumatized enough by having to share all of the attention without trying to dress her up too.

I was trying to upload a video of Izzy trying to swim the other day, but blogspot didn't want to cooperate. Izzy has always had a little bit of a love hate relationship with water. She hates baths, but she gets so excited when she gets in water that is up to her belly or a little bit above. She has such a huge desire to be a swimmer, but she sinks like a rock when she gets into deeper water. She's gotten herself all revved up to jump into a few rivers and lakes, but we usually have to reel her back in since we keep her on her leash in case she sinks. I'll try again to get the video up later since it's super cute. Instead I posted a few pictures of Izzy's other hobby...sleeping.



Jonathan went fly fishing with his dad, uncle, and brother up in Fairplay, CO yesterday. He needed to get a fishing license the night before, so we went to Walmart. While waiting for someone to come help us I had a little bit of fun dressing up in some of the hunting gear. Here I am sneaking up on Jonathan:


And try to find me in this one:



Good times, and more to come!!!

Summer Fun

Today marks 23 weeks and 4 days, and I can't believe that I am a mere 3 weeks away from the third trimester. It's kind of amazing how quickly things are moving along. Before we know it, our lives will be forever changed with the entrance of our baby boy. While still trying to adjust to the looks of a pregnant self, it still makes me laugh every time I see a picture of myself as time goes by. I swear I'm delusional, because I don't see in the mirror what turns up in pictures :). People at work laugh at me, because I'm always saying how I really don't feel like I'm getting that much bigger. One thing that I've really loved in the past few weeks is that people no longer look at me playing the game "Fat or pregnant?" in their minds. One woman in Kohls randomly turned around and told me that I may want the baby to come out, but it's so much less work the way that it is now. I think she was having a bad day handling her children...haha. People don't even hesitate to guess that I'm pregnant and give their unrequested advice.

We are getting ready to move into our new two bedroom apartment August 18th, and I am so excited since this means we get to set up a nursery. Slowly but surely we are starting to acquire baby items and are looking forward to having a room to set them up in. I'm getting the itch to get things ready, but we have to hold off just a little bit longer. For the time being we are trying to enjoy the summer here in Colorado. We are really wanting to go camping sometime before I get too huge, but I feel like we are running out of convenient weekends. My parents were in town the past 2 weekends, and Jonathan's parents are getting into town tonight. His mom is staying for 2 weeks, while is dad has to go back to South Carolina after a week. It'll be nice to spend a little bit of time with them since we don't get to see them all that often. It's kind of a rarity that we see both sets of parents all within the same month since we all live in different parts of the country. We are also extremely excited to be taking a trip down to South Carolina/Atlanta July 30th through August 3rd. I've been missing friends from down there, and I'm looking forward to meeting my friend Ashley's baby, Skylar, for the first time. Ashley told me she was pregnant at our wedding last year, we got to see her while she was at about the same point in her pregnancy this time last year as I am now, and now I want to meet this beautiful little girl. For those of you that know Ashley from our wedding, you can get an update on her family at www.skylarmariejones.com.

I feel like I have not included Jonathan's lovely face on this blog very much so far, so I have included a picture of us. We rarely have pictures together since it's usually just the two of us together and no one to take a picture of us. I wanted to document the event of a couples picture, because I wish we got more of them. This is a picture of us from 4th of July hiking up in the Pine, CO area with my parents.


I have this weird thing where I hate when couples dress alike, and Jonathan loves to get under my skin when possible and try to have twin day. I put on a black shirt that morning, so he had to put his on too and refused to take it off. I just wanted to make a note so people don't think we walk around as twins all the time lol :).