28 Weeks, 7 Months, 3rd Trimester

Woooh!!! I am now 28 weeks pregnant and in the 3rd and final trimester!!! I cannot believe that we will meet our little girl in 12 weeks (hopefully). At this point Baby H weighs about two and a quarter pounds and is 14.8 inches long.

This has been a big week for baby girl H. Her daddy and I have started educating her from inside the womb. When we got to NJ our Baby Plus Prenatal Education system was waiting for us. Yes, I know many of you will think we are crazy, but we have done a lot of research on this product and if the reviews and Dr. testimonials are even half true, it will be well worth it. The Baby Plus or "beat" as we like to call it is a series of 16 lessons that deliver naturally derived sounds that resemble the mother's heartbeat to the baby. The sounds stimulate Baby H's auditory sensory, which is supposed to strengthen her learning ability before she enters the real world. Now by no means do we think she is going to come out reciting Shakespeare, but parents and doctors swear babies who are exposed to Baby Plus are more alert, active, better sleepers and hit their developmental goals sooner. If Baby H comes out sleeping well, we feel it will be well worth the investment!!!

Twice a day for an hour I attach this little device to my belly. I usually do it as soon as I wake up and around dinner time. Baby H is usually very quiet while the "beat" is on, but as soon as it is done she starts moving around. Now many of you may be laughing at me now, but we will see a few months from now how things are going and if Chad and I are getting 8 hours of sleep a night people will be begging us to borrow it for their pregnancy's :O)

How far along? 28 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: 17 lbs
Maternity clothes? Have you seen my pictures.....what else would I be fitting into :O)
Sleep: Great....probably because we have been very busy running around, while we are home in NJ.

Best moment this week: Celebrating the holidays and seeing our friends and family.

Movement: I have been getting less jabs and more feet constantly pushing my tummy for more room.

Food cravings: Nothing really

Gender: Girl
Belly Button in or out? In..... Chad and I joke that my belly button is like the timer that pops up when a turkey is done. It will pop up when baby girl H is done cooking!!
What I miss? Nothing really, but I am sure I will miss drinking tonight....it is New Year's Eve!

What I am looking forward to: Celebrating New Year's tonight with Frannie, Ryan and Conner

Milestones: Making it to the third trimester and passing my gestational diabetes test.

The Holidays

Now that I finally have the house all decorated I have to take everything down. Since we are leaving on Tuesday for NJ I will be spending Sunday taking everything off the tree and putting all the decorations away. This makes me so sad because the house is so much more festive and cozy with all the decorations. I can't leave everything up because Chad will be gone until January 2nd and I will not be returning until the 22nd. I wanted to make sure I shared some pictures though since not many people got to see our hard work in person.

Chad putting up the outside lights for me. He was such a superstar this year!!! I was not allowed on a ladder so had it not been for Chad we would have never had outside lights or a topper for our tree. Thanks babe!!! Doesn't he look happy.

This was the result of his hard work!!!

Our Tree!!! Nutmeg really liked it. Probably because it did not fall on her this year!!

Our stockings and the sleigh my mom hand painted for us.

Chad and I celebrated the third night of Hanukkah with a lovely latke dinner!! Chad worked hard cooking the latkes, which tasted delicious!!!

Chad cooking the latkes.

Our fancy dinner!!

26 Weeks..... sorry I missed 24 and 25

Between preparing for Thanksgiving, painting the baby's room, and decorating for Christmas, I totally missed my 24 and 25 week updates.

So here we are at week 26, the sixth month of this pregnancy!! Baby girl H is now the size of an eggplant. According to Thebump.com, it is possible at this point for Chad to hear the babies heartbeat if he places his ear on my belly. We tried this twice this week and while Chad was unable to hear her heartbeat, he did get kicked in the head numerous times by our baby girl:O) She is also growing more hair this week and if we could see it we would be able to discern color and texture. Hair color is one of the biggest question marks when it comes to Baby H's features. Looking at both of our backgrounds, she has the chance to be blonde, brunette or even a red head. The blonde would come from her mommy. The brunette is both from either myself or Chad and the red hair is from Chad's side. I am not sure what color hair she will have, but I have a strong feeling she is going to come out bald or have very little hair. One of the reasons I feel his way is because I do believe she will have light hair and light haired babies are often born with little to no hair. The other reason is that people often say you have bad heartburn when your baby has a lot of hair. This has been true for many of my pregnant friends in the past. For me I have had no heartburn so far in this pregnancy (knock on wood). Like everything else we will have to wait a little more than three more months to find out.

How far along? 26 weeks

Total weight gain/loss: 14 lbs

Maternity clothes? Just ordered a couple of new tops from Old Navy.

Sleep: Not so great this week, but that is mostly due to the cold I have :O(

Best moment this week: Chad making it home from Atlanta despite the snow storm.

Movement: She doesn't seem to stop moving.

Food cravings: Anything sweet

Gender: Girl

Belly Button in or out? In..... Chad and I joke that my belly button is like the timer that pops up when a turkey is done. It will pop up when baby girl H is done cooking!!

What I miss? Exercising....I have not been feeling well enough to go to the gym

What I am looking forward to: Getting rid of my cold and feeling better!!

Milestones: Nothing to report this week!!

For some reason this week Nutmeg wanted to join me for my belly shot. As Chad was getting ready to take the picture she just walked right up and sat down in front of me. It was really cute especially considering it normally takes lots of treats to bribe her to stay put for a photo. Perhaps she knew her mommy is getting a little more self conscious about taking the pictures and this was her way of showing her support!! Chad seems to think she is just making sure everyone remembers that she is our 1st baby girl!!

The Babies Room!!!

When Chad and I ordered baby H's furniture we were told it would take 6-12 weeks for it to arrive. Two weeks later, we got the call that it was already in!!! We were in no way ready to pick up the furniture at that point. We still needed to have the chair rail installed and get the room painted. The store we got the furniture from said we could wait up to 90 days to pick it up which was great, but we knew we had to get the room done before we leave for NJ on December 23rd since neither Chad nor myself will be in Michigan in January. Chad will be traveling for 4 weeks straight for work and I will be hanging in NJ while he is away. The only free weekend we had in December was this past weekend. So after all our family left Michigan, I was fully dedicated to painting the nursery before we picked up the furniture.

It took me 5 days and eight trips to Home Depot, but I finally finished the room at 9am on Saturday morning.... one hour before we left to pick up the furniture!! Chad and I decided to go with pink and brown as the color scheme. Under the chair rail I painted pink, brown and white stripes. Above the chair rail I painted a slightly lighter shade of pink.

My tape job for the stripes.

The finished product!

Chad and I were so lucky that our friends John and Rachel offered to let us use their truck to pick up the baby furniture. The four of us set out at 10 am on Saturday for the 2 and a half hour drive to Grand Rapids. We had to take both of our cars to make sure all of the pieces fit and oh my did they fit perfectly in John and Rachel's truck. We honestly could not have planned it better. They were able to fit the crib, hutch and dresser in their truck and we took the nightstand and conversion kit in our SUV.

Once we arrived back home our friends Adam and Kate were so kind to help Chad with getting all the furniture upstairs and unpacked. All the pieces were already together except for the crib which Chad and I assembled together. Everything fit and looks perfect in our little girls room! The only thing left to do it to decorate the walls, find window treatments, and fill her shelves with diapers, books and stuffed animals:O)

Our little girls crib

Our glider

Changing table/dresser and hutch

Thanksgiving

The Thanksgiving festivities started on Tuesday evening with the arrival of the Onesto's. As soon as they arrived we headed out to grab some dinner. After dinner we all relaxed knowing that we had a lot of cooking ahead of us. Wednesday, Chad headed off to work while Lauren and her mom hit the gym. After the gym Lauren and her mom picked us some last minute ingredients before they headed home to start cooking. While Lauren and her mom were out, Fed Ex delivered their fresh turkey courtesy of the Estevez family!! Wednesday was filled with lots of cooking as Lauren and her mom worked on getting the stuffing, mashed potatoes and sweet potato casserole ready. Once Chad got home from work he was busy preparing his apple pie. The picture below is of Chad sporting one of our new aprons which were a gift from his parents.

The Holzer's arrived late Wednesday evening/early Thursday morning after being delayed in Newark. Thursday was filled with lots of food starting off with fresh pastries from Cafe Zinc and fresh orange juice courtesy of Chad's mom. Despite Chad's teasing that the Macy's Thanksgiving parade would not be televised in Midland everyone was able to enjoy the balloons, rockettes, and Santa Clause!!! After 6 hours of cooking the turkey, at 5PM we finally sat down to a wonderful meal. As you can see in the picture....everything looked great in our new dining room!! Dessert featured two of Chad's yummy creations, an apple crumb pie and gingerbread pumpkin trifle. Both we amazing!! Good job hunny!! The evening ended with some Wii bowling.

Big thanks go out to both of our families for traveling so far to spend the holiday with us!!

Our New Home

Many people have been asking me for pictures of our new home. I wanted to wait until we were settled in before I posted any pics. Luckily, having all of our visitors this week forced us to get the house nice and clean. It took a while but we are just about settled in and have unpacked all of our boxes.

Below is a slide show of our new home. We are so grateful for the job Doug Cook and his team did. Our new home is more beautiful than we could have ever imagined. It is by far the best thing about living in Michigan.

23 Weeks and 29 years old!!!

Today baby girl H turned 23 weeks old and her mommy turned 29!! At 23 weeks baby girl H has now developed her sense of movement, apparently she can even feel me dance. To bad her mommy has not been feeling the urge to get her groove on. Blood vessels in her lungs are developing to prepare for breathing, and the sounds that her ears are picking up are preparing her for her entry into the outside world. Loud noises including Nutmegs barking are becoming familiar to baby H now. I am sure baby H will be more prepared to meet her big sister than Nutmeg will be to meet her.

Today Lauren turned 29 years old.... her last b-day in her 20's! Chad did an amazing job making Lauren's b-day special. Chad started with making dinner for Lauren last night. Chad made awesome steaks!! Unfortunately, there was a slight injury while Chad was cooking as he burned his finger pretty bad. Chad and Lauren spent the rest of the night icing his finger while we watched the movie State of Play.

This morning Chad got up early and got Lauren her favorite Gingerbread Latte and flowers. Lauren also got an Ultra HD flip video camera, tickets to a Holiday Show at the Midland Arts center and an I Love my Mommy onesie (from the baby). Lauren loved all of her gifts from Chad! Chad also took Lauren to brunch at Cafe Zinc to celebrate. The rest of the day was spent getting the house ready for Thanksgiving. We will be hosting both sets of parents and Chad's sister Kelsy this year. We were so tired from cleaning we went out for a low key dinner. Neither of us deal with the thought of cooking. Overall it was an amazing day thanks to all the little special things my hubby did for me. Thanks baby for making my day so special!!!

How far along? 23 weeks

Total weight gain/loss: 10 lbs

Maternity clothes? I am in them all the time. I can still wear some regular clothes, but my maternity clothes are much more comfy.

Sleep: Pretty good, but I keep falling asleep on my side and waking up on my back.

Best moment this week: Celebrating my B-day with Chad

Movement: While we were lying in bed this week Chad got to feel the baby hiccuping.

Food cravings: Anything sweet

Gender: Girl

Belly Button in or out? In

What I miss? My friends :O(

What I am looking forward to: Thanksgiving

Milestones: Chad being able to feel the baby a lot.

22 Weeks

Starting this week, the bump.com only updates baby H's size monthly which means unfortunately we will not get our next fruit comparison for another 4 weeks. Baby H is now able to hear outside noises. I hope she likes Christmas music because I've burned a CD full of X-mas songs to listen to while we are in the car. Baby H is also settling into sleep cycles, snoozing about 12 to 14 hours a day.

I started my X-mas shopping this week and it's been hard. I always try to start with my two nieces and nephew because buying toys is fun and usually easy....well not this year. I feel like the toy manufacturers have put out all the same toys they had out last year. My favorite person to shop for, perhaps because he is the easiest, is my father. Every year he tells me what he wants, which is the greatest gift he could ever give me for the holidays. I wish more people would be honest enough to do that. This way they get exactly what they want and I do not have to go crazy!! I also did a little bit of shopping for X-mas decorations. I am really looking forward to making our new home look pretty for the holiday:O)

We received our first piece of furniture for the baby this week, our glider and ottoman. Chad put it together as soon as he got home from work and it's comfortable. This might be the best investment I ever make for the baby since Chad likes sitting in it so much I know it will help to get him to feed and rock the baby more!!! The day we got the glider Baby H also got a present from Auntie Kristy and Uncle Joe. They bought her a beautiful Caden Lane blanket to match the bedding set we finally decided on. You can see the blanket in the picture with the glider. The blanket is so pretty and soft I know our little girl will love it!!!

Now that we decided on bedding the next decision is the colors to paint the nursery. Chad and I are going to have a chair rail installed in her room and want to paint one color on the bottom and another on the top. We are debating between whether to do a combination of pink and brown or green and pink. We went to The Home Depot on Friday and bought samples of 8 different colors. Today I painted a sample of each color on the wall to compare them.

How far along? 22 weeks:)

Total weight gain/loss: 9 lbs

Maternity clothes? I purchased a bella band this week to use with my regular dress pants.

Sleep: Ugh....last night I did not fall asleep until 1:30am

Best moment this week: Our yummy dinner at Ruth Chris Steakhouse

Movement: yup, she is swimming in there

Food cravings: Anything sweet.... thank goodness I finished all the Reeses from Halloween

Gender: Girl

Belly Button in or out? IN

What I am looking forward to: My first appointment with my new OB next Monday!

Milestones: We finally picked a bedding set.

21 Weeks

Sorry for skipping week 19 & 20, but I was away visiting family and friends!

Yippy......I am now halfway through my pregnancy, just 19 more weeks to go!!! Baby girl H is now the size of a banana. According to the bump.com, baby girl H is gulping down several ounces of amniotic fluid everyday, both for nutrition and to practice swallowing and digestion. Apparently, her taste buds are already working and once she is born she will respond best to the tastes she has already had via amniotic fluid. I really better start considering what I put in my mouth or else this baby is going to be demanding Reeses Peanut Butter Cups and Starbucks gingerbread lattes when she comes out.

Chad and I made our first big purchase for Baby Girl H yesterday. We bought all the furniture for the nursery. We drove two and a half hours to Baby USA in Grand Rapids to find the brands we were interested in. We focused on brands that were highly rated in my Baby Bargains Book, otherwise known as that bible for having a child. For those of you who are not familiar with this book, it is incredible. It gives reviews and recommendations for everything you need for a child (furniture, car seats, strollers, clothes, etc.). The book also tells you the best ways to save money!

When we got to the store we were very pleased with the layout. They had a very large selection of furniture and each of the sets were on display as a mock nursery. Chad and I had two big decisions to make, color and brand/style. We focused on color first as that would narrow down the style possibilities. When we first talked about furniture we decided to go with a dark wood (cherry or espresso) so that the furniture would be gender neutral and could be used for all of our future children regardless of sex. Then when we found out baby H was a girl, Chad brought up the possibility of getting her a white set and having her keep it. The amazing thing about today's baby furniture is that many cribs convert into a full size bed so that children can continue to use it as they grow. I thought it was cute that Chad wanted to make her room more girlie so I went along with the possibility of buying white. The only problem we had was that I had already ordered a cherry colored glider. After debating back and forth we decided to go with an antique white finish figuring that she will not always have the glider in her room. Then came the tough choice of which set to purchase. Luckily not every style was available in antique white so we quickly narrowed our choices down to the Creations Summer's Eve set or the Munire Newport set. Chad being Chad said it was my choice. In the end I liked that the Munire dresser and hutch were a little larger and the set overall seemed more mature and not so baby looking.

The sales women helped us put our order in and of course took our AMEX. In the end we got the crib, changer/dresser combo, hutch and mattress. We are also hoping to get a nightstand, but she had to see if one is still available. The furniture should be available for pick up in mid-December! I know Chad can't wait to get it and put it together! Next up for us is to pick bedding for our little girl, which for us has been a nightmare. I have searched every brand of baby bedding and cannot find one I love and Chad and I agree on. I think the biggest problem is Chad would like to do our little girls room Brown and Pink and I want to do it in a light green and light pink. This debate has been going on for two weeks. Hopefully we figure it out before she gets here!!

How far along? 21 weeks

Total weight gain/loss: 7 lbs

Maternity clothes? Just started wearing them while I was in NJ. It is amazing I actually look pregnant in them.

Sleep: I was up for 4 hours on Friday night....not fun.

Best moment this week: Seeing my Chaddy after being apart for 10 days.

Movement: I feel her a lot when I am in the car with the music on. She must be a dancer although I do now know who she gets that from.

Food cravings: Reeses Peanut Butter Cups

Gender: Girl

Belly Button in or out? In

What I miss? Mojitos

What I am looking forward to: Thanksgiving

Milestones: Buying nursery furniture

I took this weeks belly pics after Chad and I returned home from our date night. I purchased this maternity dress so that I would have one for the upcoming holidays and for when Chad and I go out, which is not often in Midland.

Me in my normal workout clothes.

Trip to NJ

Right after our ultrasound on the 26th I got on a plane and headed to NJ for the week. The main reason for my going home (NJ is still home to me) was to spend Halloween with my three favorite munchkins....my two nieces and nephew. Halloween was a lot of fun! Nicolette was a vampire princess, Frankie was Batman and Ella was Tinkerball. It was an amazingly warm day on the east coast with the temperatures in the high 60's. After about a half hour Frankie looked in his basket and was so amazed by all the candy he got that he asked to go home. We trick or treated for about another half hour before we went home and the kids got to dig in to their goodies:O)

The rest of the week included visiting Natalie and her girls and Francesca and her adorable new little guy Connor. The visit was also very productive as my mom and I visited numerous baby stores in multiple states. My mom and sister-in-law helped me start my registries, which was so overwhelming. Much more so than for our wedding. I also spent days searching for bedding for our little girl....I guess I am being very picky.

Baby girl H also got her first dress and Yankee outfit curtesy of grandma Carolyn!!!

Grandma also bought her bows for her hair (hopefully she will have some) and a cup with her name on it!!!

I also did some shopping of my own and bought some maternity clothes for myself at the Gap.

As you can see from the pictures I had a lot of fun with this. The Gap has fake bumps in their dressing rooms so that you can see what size you will need for when you get further along in your pregnancy.

My mom and I both did so much running around that week (we had to fill the car up with gas three times) that we both needed a vacation at the end of it, but it was so awesome to be home :O)

It's a Girl!!!

Despite 61% of people thinking baby H was a boy we found out today she is all girl!! Here are some pictures of our baby girl from our ultrasound. I will post more details later. Congrats to those who guessed right!!

This is a 3D picture of our little girl. Here hands are up by her face and her feet are at the bottom!

Pumpkin Carving

About two weeks ago, Chad and I went pumpkin picking. Our number one goal (besides eating fresh donuts and drinking hot apple cider) was to each pick a pumpkin to carve for Halloween. In addition to buying two pumpkins, we also picked up an electric pumpkin carving knife and a kit with stencils.

We finally got around to carving the pumpkins on Sunday. Little did we know it would take more time then we imagined. Chad decided to carve a witch and I choose the Owl and bat design. It took Chad about two hours and myself two and a half to finish our carvings. My one comment to Chad once we were done is that he better light the candles in the pumpkins every night this week (I will be in NJ) because it was an arduous experience carving these things. In the end, it was definitely worth it!

Chad tracing the stencil onto the pumpkin. To do this he had to use a tiny poker to make holes through the paper and onto the pumpkin.

Chad's witch!!

Lauren using the electric carving knife. That thing was great!!

Lauren's Pumpkin

Happy Halloween!!!

18 Weeks

Baby H is now the size of a sweet potato measuring about 5.6 inches long and weighing about 6.7 ounces. According to babycenter.com, Baby H is busy flexing his or her arms and legs — this is something I started to notice last week. While I was sitting on the couch, I started to feel tapping on the inside of my belly. It was the most incredible feeling ever! For the first time I really felt that there was a baby growing inside me. Now don't get me wrong, the morning sickness, constant trips to the bathroom, and hearing my little ones heartbeat all made it very real, but the tapping was almost as if our little one was saying "woohoo hello I am in here"!! Since last week each day I feel the baby more and more especially at night when lying in bed. Chad was even able to put his hand on my belly and feel a kick, which totally freaked him out :O)

I decided to add a questionnaire to each of the weekly updates. Hopefully you enjoy it.

How far along? 18 weeks:)

Total weight gain/loss: 4 lbs

Maternity clothes? I have some, but haven't worn them yet.

Sleep: I sleep a lot except for the nights when I get up to pee and can't fall back to sleep.

Best moment this week: Having someone mistake me for a college student!

Movement: Started feeling it last week. This baby seems very active!

Food cravings: Frozen pretzels

Gender: We find out Monday!!

Belly Button in or out? In and I do not see it going anywhere yet.

What I miss? SUSHI!

What I am looking forward to: Our big ultrasound on Monday and going to NJ for a week!!!

Milestones: Feeling our little on move.

This week I had to take my own belly shots (Chad was in Atlanta). I set the self-timer on the camera and they came out pretty good, except for the fact that I cut my head off in one.

Boy or Girl???

So our big ultrasound is next week, Monday October 26th at 10:15 AM. This ultrasound is referred to as the fetal anatomy survey. During this ultrasound they will measure baby H to make sure he or she is growing appropriately(and that his or her gestational age is still appropriate). A survey of the organs will include the heart, kidneys, bladder, brain, stomach and sex organs!!!! While our biggest hope is that the ultrasound reveals a healthy, happy baby growing in there we are so excited to possibly find out the sex of the baby (fingers crossed he or she cooperates and is not shy).

We thought it would be fun to take a poll to see what everyone thinks we are having. I honestly do not have a feeling one way or another so it will be nice to see what everyone else thinks!! Voting will be available for the next week. Hopefully I will be able to post the correct guess Monday afternoon!!!

The Best Honeymoon Souvenier

Chad and I are expecting! That's right, we are almost 18 weeks pregnant (for those who didn't already know). As if having a baby does not come with enough responsibilities, my girlfriends (Kristy and Erica) are insisting that we start a blog. According to them, blogging is just an additional responsibility for moms to be. Since Chad and I are in lovely Midland, Michigan and most of our friends and family at least 700 miles away, I figured maybe they were right and blogging would be a great way to keep everyone updated about our life and our upcoming bundle of joy!!!

How we found out!

Chad and I returned from our honeymoon and 5 days later we packed up our car and made the 12 hour trip to Midland, Michigan. The first weekend we were in Midland something inside me felt as though I might be pregnant so Chad and I went to Walmart (I am sure it will be mentioned in a lot of my posts despite the fact that Chad cringes every time he shops there) and picked up a three pack of pregnancy tests. (Apparently the testing companies love to offer buy 1 test get 2 free.) I couldn't wait to take the test despite the fact that the directions said the best time was early AM and we had picked it up the test mid-afternoon. The first test came back negative and I could not help but feel a little disappointed.

Two days later I couldn't sleep and was up at 5 am. I still felt something was up so I took another test. This time there was a very faint blue line, but I did not know what to think. Chad was still asleep and I did not want to wake him since it was his first day of work. I left the test on the bathroom counter and anxiously waited for him to wake up. Poor Chad walks into the bathroom already nervous about his first day of work and was surprised by the line. I told him, "Have a great first day of work honey!!!"

3 weeks later the test was confirmed by our midwife who told us our little one's estimated due date was March 21, 2010. By that point I was already 8 weeks and had been experiencing some pretty bad morning/all day sickness since week 6. This lasted until just about week twelve. Since then I have been feeling great.

It took a little bit of persuasion (thanks Erica), but I have decided to include pictures from my various weeks of pregnancy. I was not very good about taking the pictures every week in the beginning, but I promise I will try to update them each week!

Where I started:

5 Weeks!!!

10 Weeks!!

16 Weeks!!

17 Weeks!!