31 weeks

How far along: 31w2d. I am a few days behind because of the holiday and then a very busy Tuesday at work.
How big is Baby: Baby weighs approximately 3 1/2 lbs. This is growth spurt time - he is beginning to plump out now.

Maternity Clothes: Yes! My shirts are getting too short so I bought a few more maternity tops that are super long, in anticipation of more belly growth. I need to get a new bra soon since my newest one is getting snug again. I've heard how wonderful nursing bras are, so I may get one now.
Sleep: Sleep was okay this past week. I had a few great nights of sleep and a few horrible ones. 

Movement: All the time. Lots of hiccups lately. I can feel body parts now too! I think it's his bum, and when I push on it, he moves. It's so fun to think about him in there :) I can tell he is getting big and really stretching my poor skin. His movements are sometimes painful, especially down low in my pelvis {probably his head?}. He is still head down, as my OB checked at my appointment on Friday. Good job Grayson!

Food cravings: Still sweets. And I'm always hungry. I have been eating constantly throughout the day. It's much easier to eat little bits at a time since he is taking up all the room in there.
Food aversions: None.

Gender: It's a BOY!

Symptoms: Swollen ankles. Backaches. Always hungry. Exhaustion. Peeing every five two minutes. Heartburn/indigestion.
Nursery Progress: We made a lot of progress this weekend!! I am working on a separate post. I did receive some blocks I ordered off Etsy. I love them :)

Best moment this week: The three day weekend was a wonderful break.
What I am looking forward to: Our baby shower is this Saturday! I am SO excited :)

A very sad Memorial Day

We will always love you and never forget you. Rest easy, sweet Joey.

I always loved his smile :)

Thank you to everyone for your kind words and thoughts. Our hearts are broken right now.

xoxo,

Megan

Ankle Dents

I thought that would be a fun title for this post :) My ankles seem to be permanently swollen now, some days worse than others. I was showing the girls at work how you can push on the swelling and it dents in. We were all laughing about it. I try my best to put my feet up when I get home, but I am not very good at that. I am always go, go, go.

See? Ankle dents :)

My feet and ankles, at the end of the day.

The bonus of swollen feet? New, bigger shoes!

Canvas Flats from Target

xoxo,

Megan

30 weeks

How far along: 30w
How big is Baby: Baby is about the length of a cucumber, or around 16 inches long.

Maternity Clothes: Definitely. I love dresses right now - so comfy! I tried on a long non-maternity Target dress I had stored away and it fit really well with the bump, so I am going to buy some more like it. I feel better about spending money on something I can wear pregnant or not.
Sleep: Sleep is good some nights and bad other nights. I am still waking up to pee once a night on average. The newest thing is that I am waking up absolutely starving hungry between 5 and 6am. The only relief: eat immediately!

Movement: All the time. Lots of big, rolling movements now, along with the punches, kicks, stretches & hiccups.

Food cravings: Everything! My favorites: Cupcakes, waffles, cheese danishes, fruit, smoothies, Frosted Mini Wheats - do you see a trend?! All I want are sweets. Thank goodness I passed my glucose test!
Food aversions: None.

Gender: It's a BOY!

Symptoms: So emotional - Nick was out of the country for work from Monday to Monday, and by Friday I was crying because I missed him so much :( Swollen ankles. Backaches. Always hungry. Exhaustion. Lots of movement. Peeing every five two minutes. Heartburn - as long as I stay on the Prilosec, this one is gone.
Nursery Progress: The paint and baseboards are done, and Nick installed the can lights!

Best moment this week: Spending time with my best friend. I needed it and we had so much fun :)
What I am looking forward to: Nick comes home tonight, yay!!!!!!!!!!!! The three day weekend. Lots of fun stuff to work on in the nursery.

It happened. I got my first stretch mark back between 27 and 28 weeks. I didn't write about it then because it was so difficult for me to see it on the underside of my belly and because I was in denial. I have been applying belly butter since day one, twice every single day, and just recently added in Bio Oil. My Mom didn't get any stretch marks with me or my sister and I don't really know anyone who has had them. At 30 weeks, I can count around 8 of them. They are red and all low on the underside of my belly. I was upset and I'm terrified of how bad they are going to get, but then I realized there is no point in worrying. I can't stop them. It's just one of many parts to this amazing journey I am on :)

Joey

About 10 years ago, I brought a tiny Australian Cattle Dog puppy home to my parents. He was the cutest thing you had ever seen. We named him Joey because that's what they call a baby kangaroo.

{February 2002}

He stole our hearts from day one :)

{March 2002 - ears are up!}

He is so smart. The breed is known for it's intelligence, but he still amazed us with his abilities.

{April 2002}

He has the best smile :)

{September 2008}

I had a watercolor done of him, as a puppy, for my Mom for this Mother's Day. The artist did an amazing job.

We all love this crazy dog, Joe Joe, and he means everything to my parents. He has been having some bladder issues and was just diagnosed with prostate cancer. It's very rare in dogs. If you could spare a thought for him and for my family, I would greatly appreciate it. My Mom is meeting with the oncologist today to hopefully get more answers.

xoxo,

Megan

Made my day!

I came home today to a card from Grayson :) 

{assisted by my Mom}

So cute.

Nick also gave me a book on Mother's Day, to keep track of the funny things Grayson says.

 

xoxo,

Megan

29 weeks

How far along: 29w. I can't believe I'm 29 weeks already! 
How big is Baby: Baby is around 3 1/2 lbs and 15.5 inches long.

Maternity Clothes: Definitely. Dresses are my favorite right now; comfy and cool. It's getting hot.
Sleep: Sleep is good again because the exhaustion has returned. I actually slept straight through the night the last few days. I'm not even waking up to pee!

Movement: We learned at our birthing class that babies move 300 to 700 times every day! No wonder it seems like I feel him a lot :) I can feel his head {and his hiccups} down in my pelvic area and kicks up above my belly button. My favorite part of the day is the evenings because he is most active then and I fall asleep to him moving and shaking my belly.

Food cravings: Everything! I am always hungry.
Food aversions: None.

Gender: It's a BOY!

Symptoms: Heartburn/indigestion. Always hungry. Exhaustion. LOTS of movement. Peeing every five two minutes. 
Nursery Progress: The glider is done!!!!!! I love the new grayish beige fabric:

{glider & ottoman before} 

 

Best moment this week: Seeing Grayson at our 3D ultrasound. So cool!!!
What I am looking forward to: This week is going to be crazy at work, so I am looking forward to the weekend. I am going shopping for more nursery stuff and our carpenter will be done with our house on Saturday. My BFF is coming to visit for a sleepover too. We haven't done that since we were little kids :)

3D/4D Ultrasound

We had our 3D/4D ultrasound yesterday. Our parents and my sister came to watch. We had a lot of fun and got a few good images of little Grayson :)

His eyes opened a few times. You can see his pupil in this one. So crazy!

His sweet face. He definitely has Nick's nose. Love.

Live long and prosper :)

I could not be more excited to meet him!!!!

xoxo,

Megan

The Other Kids

The fur (and shell) kids are excited about Grayson's arrival too.
 

Norman is excited because he can play in the empty boxes of baby stuff.

Apollo is excited because he will have someone to throw the ball for him.

Baby Girl is excited because my belly keeps her extra warm.

Tom... well, Tom doesn't really get excited. He's a serious kinda guy at 75 years old ;) Here he is taking a long drink of water after his winter hibernation.

I am so excited to raise Grayson with our little zoo. I remember how much I loved animals growing up and how much they taught me from such a young age.

xoxo,
Megan

28 weeks

How far along: 28w or 7 months! I'm officially into the third trimester. 12 weeks to go! YAY!!! 
How big is Baby: Baby is almost 3 lbs and around 15 inches long.

Maternity Clothes: Yep. I still have a few pre-pregnancy shirts I can wear with a tank top underneath.
Sleep: Sleep? What sleep?! It hurts. That sums it up pretty well. I get up at least once every night to pee now and I usually cannot get back to sleep for at least an hour after that. Dang insomnia. And now add in the horrible heartburn... forget it.

Movement: All the time! He is very active. His movements are getting really strong and I'm feeling and seeing new movements. Sometimes it's kicks, sometimes hiccups, sometimes rolls, sometimes I have no clue what he is doing haha. I never get sick of watching my belly move :)

Food cravings: Everything! I am always hungry.
Food aversions: None.

Gender: It's a BOY!

Symptoms: Heartburn/indigestion. Absolutely starving hungry, all the time! Emotional. I started crying the other day for no apparent reason. Exhaustion and achy feet, if I do too much. LOTS of movement. A big belly. Peeing every five two minutes. 
Nursery Progress:  Nothing new this week, but the painter will be finishing up on May 19th.

Best moment this week: Seeing my family this weekend. Everyone is so excited for Grayson's arrival.
What I am looking forward to: Our 3D ultrasound on Friday with our families. I'm SO excited!!

We had a growth scan on Friday. Everything looked great and my placenta has moved like they wanted, so no placenta previa to worry about. We could see his eyes opening and closing, his lips puckering and that he has Nick's nose. He was head down, as usual. I figured so because I feel his kicks up above my belly button and I feel his head down low on either side. He weighed approximately 2 lbs 11 oz. and was in the 75th percentile for overall size. His femur was in the 95th percentile. He has long legs like his Mom :) My amniotic fluid level looked good at 18.5. The tech said that the normal range was 5 to 25. We got a few pictures:

 His profile.

 Looking at us.

Looking at us, with his hand on his face.

Oh My Heartburn

Let me start this off by saying that I rarely have heartburn normally, and I now have a serious amount of sympathy for those who do. It's awful :(

Saturday was my first real evening of indigestion/heartburn. We were eating dinner with my family and I didn't care for the pasta I ordered so I didn't eat it. I was also having some indigestion pain, so I figured something at lunch must have been the cause. We got back to the ranch and I attempted to sleep. I woke up around 3am to a lot of heartburn pain. I paced around the room, dry heaved, Googled every remedy, realized we had no medicine on us & everyone was sound asleep and then I sat in bed the rest of the night. I was exhausted in the morning and vowed to never be stuck somewhere without medicine.

Fast forward to last night... I bought four different OTC medications that my OB approved, I made sure and gave myself 3 1/2 hours from dinner to lay down in bed, took a Zantac 150 and tried to sleep. I woke up between 1 and 2am in serious pain again. I started taking Tums and propped myself into a sitting position to sleep. It was horrible. I couldn't sleep at all and if I tried to lay down just a little, the pain and discomfort became unbearable.

My OB was delivering a baby after our growth scan on Friday, so we rescheduled my appointment for tomorrow. I am going to ask her if there is a safe stronger medication she can prescribe me. This is absolutely miserable. My plan for tonight is to try and sleep upright on our couch. I hope it works!

p.s. I know it's probably just a myth, but I sure hope this means that Grayson has lots of hair :)

xoxo,
Megan

The Baby To-Do List

I love lists :) Let's see what we've done so far and what's left to do...

1. Schedule a 3D ultrasound - Done. 
2. Register for a birthing class - Done.
3. Register for a breastfeeding class -  Done.
4. Schedule my maternity massage. My Dad gave me a gift certificate for Christmas. I can't wait!
   
5. Pack the hospital bag
6. Purchase and install the car seat - It's not installed yet, but we bought the Graco Snugride 35 in Orlando.
7. Finish the nursery - As soon as the painting is completed on May 19th, we can finish everything. The crib, stroller and bins full of baby stuff are in the room now. The glider & ottoman should be finished at the end of this month. We still need to buy: the dresser/changer, Nick's chair, shelves, the ceiling fan, a new rug and various other items.
8. Wash all his clothes and blankets
   
9. Tour the last daycare on our list
   
10. Schedule our maternity photos. A friend of a friend is doing them for us. I am thinking sometime in week 32 (June 4th - 8th)
11. Buy the rest of his things after our June 2nd shower
12. Thank You notes for our shower gifts
13. Find a pediatrician

Am I forgetting anything?!?!

xoxo,
Megan