34 Week Belly Shot

 

Our little lady is roughly 5 lbs. this week. She is definitely pushing the limits of my belly and I can feel a lot more movement throughout the day. My energy levels have decreased quite a bit this last week and my clumsiness has increased!

 

Phil is mending slowly. He now has his foot casted at a 90 degree angle and can put weight on it. He has a Crocs-like shoe that give some support and keeps his cast clean. We will start with him standing on his foot at home a bit until he is comfortable putting all his weight on the foot. Only 4 weeks left of cast until we get him in a walking boot!

Ok I couldn't resist, here are some baby pictures of me my Aunt sent me

Just check out all that hair! We are anxious to find out if our little girl will have any hair. My heartburn is starting to ramp up, so maybe she could have a full head of hair. I've heard mommy myths that heartburn means your baby will have hair. I guess we will just have to wait and see.

 

 My beautiful Mommy!

 

Aunt Cindy and Uncle Bob 

 

Shower pics

My good friends Emily and Karen threw me a beautiful shower a couple weeks ago. They put on a classy French inspired shower where we got to use my Grandma Betty's china on my Grammie's dinning room set. It was wonderful to share a fancy tea and lunch with the girls.

 

 

I'm so thankful for my friends and I appreciate all the advice they gave me about birth and babies. They shared the good, the bad, and the poopy with me. Above is a pic of my girls from work or married to a work friend - Erika, Kensley, Karen, me, Emily, and Megan.

 

Stephanie from the sorority won the guess how big my belly is game! She was shy just about half an inch. Thanks, Steph!

 

I was just showered with thoughtful and useful gifts. So many wonderful things to share with baby. Erika gave me a gift that brought me to tears - she printed parts of Phil and my wedding vows where we talked about starting a family and put in a memory frame for us to fill with baby pictures and firsts. I was so touched by the thought of surrounding our wedding vows with pictures of our new baby girl and memories of her firsts.  

 

I am so happy my sorority gals came up to celebrate with me. We sure had our fun in college and I'm so glad to have these true friends still in my life. Pictured: Sara, me, Stephanie, and Bretta.

33 Weeks - Here are some sneak peaks of the nursery!

 

Here is me with my cousin, Megan. Megan and my Aunt Cindy came up for a visit and got to check out our additions to the baby room. They, of course, spoiled us and our new family addition with some amazing gifts. I think the picture above shows that Frenches can have girls!

 

Megan knitted a beautiful cardigan with little peach elephants on it. It is amazing and perfect for this fall and winter when it starts to get a little chilly. Oh, I just can't wait to have our baby girl here already!

 

 

We have the furniture in place and now we can add pictures, decorations, and some floating shelves to really complete the look.

 

 

I've been taking the chance to get down to visit with my mom and dad as often as I can these days as Mom is going through a rough patch. My dad is amazing and is doing an incredible job taking care of my mommy. Happy Anniversary to them last Tuesday! They are an amazing inspiration of love and commitment through sickness and in health.

 

Here is the weekly shot. Not much different, but don't tell her that. She is probably about 4 lbs. now and 18 inches long if she is average sized. I'm feeling stronger kicks, hiccups, and stretches. Every now and then she has me yelping in pain, but for the most part she just surprises me with her strength.

 

Phil is still on the mend and gets a new cast tomorrow. Then I think we're looking at 4 more weeks of casts before he goes into a boot. Hope all goes well at the appointment tomorrow as it will be the first time Phil stretches/moves his foot position since late March.

Week 32

 

Oh...my...goodness... I am always out of breath these days. Other than that I'm feeling pretty good considering. I can tell our little one is running out of room in there. I'm not getting as many kicks as I was before; now I'm feeling a lot more pushes and stretching and what I can only describe as a dolphin-type move. We are making headway on our nursery and are loving how it's turning out. Pictures to come.

31 weeks and we have a crib!

 

Our little pineapple should be about 3 lbs. this week and between 16 and 17 inches long. Since finishing busy season, we have done what feels like a whirlwind of errands and projects around the house making up for the last month.

 

Here is a preview of the nursery with the crib put together. There is still a lot left to do, but we are happy to be making progress.

 

Phil got an iWalk so he can finally move around the house without his crutches. It is wonderful to have help around the house and he is happy to finally be contributing. He vacuumed the whole bottom floor on his first day with the leg while I got a well deserved nap.

29 and 30 weeks!

 

We can't believe that we have made it to 30 weeks already! We finally finished up the busiest part of the year and can focus on getting ready for our baby. Our little sweetie continues to be active and her kicks are getting stronger as the weeks go by. I love watching her move and shaking my belly around. We are starting our labor and delivery classes soon to help us gear up for labor. It is just around the corner. 

 

We got a chance to meet Ryder Walker Romano last week and even our baby girl got to say hello. While I was holding Ryder, little baby girl kicked right where Ryder was resting on my belly. Can't wait until we get to have cousin play dates this summer!

Phil is working on recovery. He got a cast last week which has given him a lot of relief from the soft wrap he was in after surgery. Now he can move around and bump his cast without any pain. He still is 100% reliant on crutches and his scooter, but he is starting to feel more like himself again.

 

Phil's Surgery

Phil's surgery went off without any problems. He had done more damage to his Achilles than the doctor was hoping for, but the doctor got him all put back together. We are home now recovering and getting into a rhythm - ice, elevation, pain killers, food, bathroom break, sleep, and repeat. We like to joke that it's getting us ready for the baby arrival having to wake up every 4 hours to do the routine all night long. We are starting to work a bit more from home now. Phil's parents have been super helpful and supportive - helping me do jobs around the house and taking Porter for walks in the evening. Thank you to everyone for the well wishes, food, and support. We appreciate it so much and can't wait to get back on our feet.

Week 28 and Phil's Achilles

Another week and feeling big, alright! This week has brought lots of activity from the baby. A week ago I didn't think she could be any more active, but she continues to kick, stretch, hiccup, and roll around all day long. We just can't wait to meet her!

 

 

Another big event happened this past week. While playing soccer last Tuesday, Phil ruptured his Achilles tendon and had to go to the ER to get checked out. A couple of hours later it was confirmed, he did quite a bit of damage and needs surgery. He has been hobbling around on crutches this past week and now we have a knee wheeler for him to get around much easier. We are quite the sight to see, a 6-month pregnant and waddling wife helping her husband on crutches get around. 

 

Here is the family with Phil and his boot that he has been wearing since the injury. He is scheduled for surgery tomorrow. It should be a quick 1-hour surgery in the medical office of the surgeon and he will be able to go home not long after the procedure is over. We are making preparations today to get the house set up for him to come home, and are planning on being home for a couple days while he recovers. The total recovery is going to be about 4 months, but hopefully by the time the baby comes in 3 months, he will have some use of his right leg.

 

Although, we definitely didn't plan for this to happen, we are doing our best to get through it and we appreciate all the well wishes and support. Once we figure out what we will need for Phil's recovery, we will take people up on their offers to help, and look forward to having visitors to the house once we know what Phil's condition will be after surgery.

 

Oh yeah, and a Happy Birthday to me today :). We have postponed any kind of celebration until after we are done with the surgery and possibly done with tax season. It will be a crunch this year getting all our responsibilities in place by the time April 15th comes around!

 

Thank you for everyone that keeps up on the blog and thank you again for all your well wishes. We appreciate all of you!

Weeks 25 through 27

We can hardly believe how big I've grown this last week. Even Porter is shocked! It's hard to believe I still have 13 weeks left to go and even had to buy some more maternity clothes that will have a little more give. At this point, the baby is approximately 15 inches long and 2.5 lbs. according to my pregnancy app.

 

We are making small progress on the nursery. We finally settled on a room for the baby and have the crib and dresser to put together. We're getting there!

 

 

Our baby girl is quite the mover and shaker. It feels like she is dancing in my belly - sometimes a bit of ballet, and sometimes it feels like she's doing some hip hop (on my bladder). I started getting back into my Zumba classes again, and it feels so good to get some exercise - although, I have to modify quite a bit. I am lucky to have co-workers who like to go to class with me so it helps keep me going. I don't want to wait too long to get into shape before the birth.

 

 

 

We scheduled our birthing classes starting at the end of April and have a hospital tour scheduled for May. Don't forget to pass on any suggested names for us. We are still all over the place with names.

Weeks 22 through 24

Now it just feels like the weeks are flying by these days. We are buried in tax returns and doing our best to get rested when we can. From what we've read, she is sampling the food I eat and we are doing our best to eat as many different varieties of foods (especially veggies) in hopes it will make some difference when we start introducing her to real foods someday. Phil has been the head chef at our house these days and I am so thankful he takes the lead each day to make something yummy for our family (especially when I need a nap after work :)). That reminds me, we should probably get some Brussels sprouts and asparagus next week!

Our baby girl is VERY active these days and I can feel her moving, kicking, and changing positions all day long it feels like. She is especially active around meal times and bed time. Phil has been able to feel her kick and move around a bit. He's been making up fun little nicknames for the little one as we are still playing around with all kinds of names these days. Moving around and sleeping is starting to get a bit more uncomfortable and I've picked up a snoring habit. Phil seems to be managing OK when I ask him about it, but I have a feeling he might be sugar coating it. As I get bigger and bigger each week, it feels like I'm always squishing our little girl. Even simply sitting on the couch seems to be a challenge. Everyone says it gets harder as the months go by, so I'm taking it in stride. We are just so happy to be healthy and pregnant!

 

 

We have focused on getting registered at Babies R Us and Amazon these past weeks and there is just so much out there and so many choices, I feel like I'm updating the registries every day.   

IT'S A GIRL!!!!!

We are excited to announce that we are having a girl! Porter doesn't really know what is going on, but we know he will learn to love our little baby girl coming this June.

 

 

Here are some pictures from our video of the gender reveal. We were so excited to share our news with the family. She is the first grandbaby for my parents and the 1st granddaughter for Phil's parents.

 

"Everybody Ready? 1...2...3!"

 

"IT'S A GIRL!"

 

 

 

 

The explosion of confetti was beautiful and we were so thrilled to hear all the cheers and excitement from the family.

 

 

The French ladies - a little teary-eyed.

 

 

Phil's mom, me, and my mom celebrating the upcoming granddaughter! 

 

I'm so lucky to have this wonderful man as my husband and I am so thankful to share such an exciting future together. He melts my heart everyday with his selflessness and strength. We are both so thankful to have all of the love and support as we venture into parenthood.

21 weeks

 

We are 21 weeks and there is no better way to celebrate than to have a gender reveal party with our families. Here are a couple shots from the party, but before we post the results, we want to tell a couple more people in person. So stay tuned!

 

We had a great time hanging out with the family and hearing what everyone thought we were having. We took a vote and everyone grabbed a blue or pink leis to show what gender they thought the baby was. To reveal the gender, we popped a balloon filled with confetti and it was wonderful to see the reactions and excitement from our family.

 

 Here are the pregnant ladies in the family. Michelle due in August, Brittany due in March, and I'm due in June!



The halfway mark!

We are so excited to be 20 weeks along. We are half way there and feeling great. This week will be the week we find out the gender and we are excited to share with our families this weekend.

2nd Trimester Bliss

I kid you not, these pictures are not backwards. I continue to be amazed at how pregnancy makes your body gain and lose weight within weeks. We could attribute it to better eating habits and more activity around the busy office. Either way, the baby is doing well and I'm feeling great.

 

My second trimester has treated me very well, and I'm feeling back to my usual self. I'm more fatigued than normal, but still wonderful compared to the 1st trimester.

 

We are anxiously waiting to find out the gender of the baby. Our ultrasound is scheduled for early February. At our last appointment, we had a quick ultrasound without any pictures to take home. But it was amazing to see the baby moving and waving its hands around. It looked like the baby was waving at us.

16 weeks and Happy New Year!

 

Here is a 16 week shot. Now my energy level has increased and it's perfect timing for shopping the New Year sales for the baby room. We have been shopping for furniture for the baby room and have found almost all of what we were looking for. Phil and I hit up the Carter's outlet and picked up some cute, neutral baby clothes and jammies. He said I just lit up when we started looking at the baby clothes, so we had to leave with something! :)  Porter has been busy sniffing the new clothes and baby equipment.

 

Soon it will be time for setting up a registry...