2 weeks to go!

Plus or minus 2 weeks, I suppose.  Rob and I are in a waiting state now.  Everyone at work expects me to leave any day now (could it be my size?), but I expect another 2 weeks at least.  I think she will be a few days late.  Although, personally, I'd love to have her tonight.  I can't carry around this weight much longer.  My little feet have taken a beating trying to haul her around the past couple of weeks.  And her activity level hasn't slowed down yet, which means I am eating (and peeing) every couple of hours now.

The past month, we have been busy "nesting" -- getting the baby room together, buying our last minute items, installing the car seat, packing our hospital bag.  We took birthing classes and had our baby shower.  We even had one last ultrasound to check the growth.  Now we just wait.

We have quite a few pictures from the past month.  You will be amazed to see me grow.

Let's start with a reminder of what I looked like last post (at 31 weeks) - this is what I consider the "cute" stage:

33 weeks, still looking cute.  Getting out, working out still, lots of walking.  Even starting to get a little sun with our warm weather.  Life is cute:

By the baby shower, 34 weeks, it's starting to look more like a basketball.  Lots of comments again of "almost there"!  Or my favorite "you look HUGE!".  I still can stand this size, I feel like a pregnant lady, full of life and energy:

Rob thought it would be funny to put a watermelon under his shirt to compare to me, not even close:

This is when we got to see our little baby again.  She was 4 3/4 lb at this point, which puts her close to 6 1/2 lbs now.  She'll be average sized after all.  But I cannot stand how cute her little lips are:

At 36 weeks, we went to the coast for one last getaway, just the two of us.  We really did have a blast - Rob splurged on a nice condo and we lucked out on the warm, sunny weather.  A couple of great meals and some time off from work put us in the mood to get this show on the road.  The two bad parts of the trip: (1) I hit the wall in terms of exercise: I am done walking, period. (2) Someone asked me if I was having twins.  It happens to the best of us, I suppose.

And here we are today at 38 weeks.  I honestly feel like I did back at 33 weeks.  But then I get up, run errands, walk around a little bit, and I am DONE.  It hasn't slowed her down though -- she's still pushing, shoving, and rubbing her little feet against my belly 75% of the day.  She was actually kicking me during these pictures: she's either really loving it in there or getting ready for her big debut.  Only time will tell.

 Contemplating what's to come.  Or thinking about dinner.  Tough to say:

I'm most excited to get past this birthing process I keep hearing about.   Rob is really excited to have paternity leave during the World Cup. :)  We're both excited, anxious, and ready to meet our daughter! 

9 weeks left!

We're getting there.  Every week brings us closer to meeting our daughter and another week of total shock at how large I can grow.

I keep thinking I look the same, but I look back at pictures from just last week and am shocked at how fast I am growing.  Because it's happening so fast, I don't have time to mentally adjust my self-image and am constantly shocking myself in mirrors, glass doors, etc.  Who is that big girl?  Oh yeah, that's me.

I am starting to get the random comments in grocery stores and in town: "Oh, you're almost there!"  Actually, no, 2 more months.  But thanks for the encouragement.

Luckily no one has taken to rubbing or touching the belly.  Just blatant staring, which I expect in public.  But at work, my co-workers see me everyday.  It's not a surprise, but they still continue to have conversations with eyes averted to my belly.  Yes, I know, it surprises me too how big it has grown.  At least she'll be a healthy big girl?

Last week:

 Yesterday:

 It's time to say good-bye to these little guys:

But really, I'm not complaining.  I feel lucky to have such an easy pregnancy.  The worst symptom has been the blow to my self-esteem.  But I have no sickness, no heartburn, no headaches, no issues to speak of at all.  I sleep well and have relatively good energy for the amount of weight I have added.  The only thing I have started to notice is achy joints, back, and reduced lung capacity which have slowed me down quite a bit.  But we girls get by.

Here is this week's official photo:

Any guesses on birth weight yet?  

Nursery Games

From my last post, you maybe saw the most recent color of the baby room: Lemon Souffle.  Or Hello Yello!  I had in my mind this perfect little sunshiny room, with yellow walls, woodland creatures, greens/brown accents.  I never really thought what yellow looks like in person.  Rob painted the room while I was in BA and when I asked how it looked, he said "yellow".  But Rob is not the king of communication.  Ask what he ate for dinner, he'd say "food". So I figured it was the exact cuteness I was going for.  (I have gotten good at reading into the Rob one-liners... "I am sleepy" = "Be nice to me or I will have a mental breakdown" or "I want a snack" = "What do we have in the house that you will make me?  Otherwise I'm drinking beer."  Anyway, I digress.)

The room was in fact yellow.  I thought it would grow on me.  At 7am, when it's still dawn, without lights, sure, I could see it working.  Night time in full incandescent lighting, ow, it hurts to open my eyes.  In fact, we probably could have removed the lighting and just lived off the brilliance of the yellow.

So we googled "yellow baby rooms" just to get an idea of other nurseries that made it work.  You know what comes up?  Yellow = bad!!  Babies hate yellow!  Parents who paint the room yellow should expect months of uncontrollable crying, fear, rage, aggression!  DO NOT PAINT THE BABY ROOM YELLOW!!  Apparently, the color is too stimulating for little ones.  Who would've thought?

Granted, I did not paint the room, but I already felt exhausted by the work put into painting.  We tried to talk ourselves into it: "surely, our baby will not be this crazy", "who reads the internet anyway?", "pinterest has pictures of yellow nurseries, it must not be that bad", "it's really not that bad".  But really, it was.  You saw it.  After two more days of contemplating, we decided to change the color.

This time I looked up nice colors for babies.  What soothes them?  What do I like?  What would not look so ridiculous 5 years from now?  You know, the questions that should have been asked pre-yellow.

Turns out, green is where it's at.  And because we are having a little girl (despite my hesitation and fear of all things girly), we decided to include some pink.

This is what we came up with:

(Don't mind the plumber)

(The new crib)

 (The big girls)

12 more weeks until we find out if babies like green!

Family of Three

While it's not new news to most, I finally am getting around to posting a few pictures of the soon-to-be addition to our new family.

For those who don't know: Rob and I are welcoming our daughter to our lives this June!  We are both really excited to meet this little girl and have been working to make room for her in our home and hearts.

So far, the pregnancy has been easy for everyone, especially me. :)  As my doctor likes to say: I'm boring.  No sickness, no symptoms (besides my bulging belly), and very little sleep effects.  It took awhile to actually show, but once it started, it POPPED!  The past few weeks, I have started to slow down in physical activity and am a little slower to get up.  15 more weeks to go, and I hope I can maintain a good attitude and energy level!

I wish I had more stories to share about this little girl, but it's really been pretty uneventful so far.  She has been kicking a lot lately, especially when yogurt is involved. :)  We do have a few names picked out but will wait to reveal it once we meet her in person.  Overall, I am thankful she has taken it so easy on my body and hope her easiness continues after birth.

Before I post the pictures, I have to mention that I haven't looked back through these until now and am shocked at how thin I was at the beginning.  I will be that thin again, right?  Right??

This first pic was probably at 8 weeks:

The first sign of a bump on our honeymoon:

 (How did that sneak in there?)

(Picking out paint colors for the baby room)

(My photographer likes the hair twirl...)

(Hello! Yellow! We should've gone for the color on the right)

And a few pictures of what we know so far about Miss Hall:

She has feet.

She has a nose.

She likes to flex.

I hope I can keep you updated as we go!  We are finally getting into the stage where we are actively doing things to prepare (besides me just talking a lot and Rob nodding).  Wish us luck!

Honeymoon!

It's been awhile.

Rob and I have had a pretty busy Fall and have lots to share. We just got back from our belated honeymoon to Costa Rica.  It was a two-week vacation away from work, cold, and chores.  The weather was warm/humid/wet and we enjoyed every minute of it. 

Finca Rosa Blanca: coffee plantation in central valley.  It rained every afternoon we were there, but the greenery and villa we stayed in made up for any dreary weather.  Lots of gallo pinto and coffee. 

Arenal: After a couple days, we moved up north to Arenal volcano national park.  We had intentions to do lots of activities, but it poured nonstop for 3 days while we were there.  We did go on a scenic rafting tour to see animals -- instead it poured.  Our last minute REI stop to pick up rain jackets was by far the best investment of the trip.  Out of all the hotels to get stuck at for a few days, we lucked out.  Just soaked it up in the hot spring fed pools and sipped fruit juice all day.  I didn't take many pictures because there wasn't a lot of dry moments:

I mean who else can rock the rain jacket like this?

Final destination: Tamarindo Bay for a week at the beach.  It was all sun all the time.  Surfing, kayaking, snorkeling, daily beach walks, cocktails at sunset, laying out at the pool.  The stuff vacations are made of.  As much fun as we had, the constant sweat/sunscreen/sand all over our bodies started to wear us down.  I arrived with a white sundress and left with a nice yellow one. 

We had a blast, read three books each, and got back just in time for a subzero degree winter back in Bend.

Hope everyone is enjoying the holidays and has a great Christmas next week!