Weeks 25 & 26

{Yep, this is the last time I can wear this Colts shirt for awhile...!}

How big is baby: Our baby has grown from a pound and a half to a pound and two-thirds during these two weeks....or so they say. My prediction is that Baby W is going to be a big baby if he/she is anything like his/her daddy! Let's hope not too big! The baby is around 14 inches long and growing. Clearly his/her arms and legs are growing in length as well as developing muscles because I am constantly feeling the baby doing gymnastics. The other night I was looking at my belly and saw it move out in one area a couple inches from a punch or a kick! :)

What's going on with baby:  The baby is mainly continuing to add more and more baby fat to his/her body. Again, not sure that's going to be a problem for our baby. Will the baby have chubby cheeks like his/her mommy? Probably. Parts of his/her body continue to become more developed and he/she is working on learning how to breath by inhaling and exhaling the amnionic fluid. 

Symptoms: Nothing new. Broken out face. Heels hurt most afternoons. Up a couple times at night to pee. Lower back pain. Other than that, I've been SO lucky to have an easy pregnancy. With that being said, I'm ready. So ready to have reports/conference day over, celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years with Kurt and our families, and have this baby in our arms. Other than finding out if we're going to have a boy or a girl, I'm most excited to see what the baby looks like. I'm really impatient....really. 

What happend the last two weeks:

For the first time in awhile, two weeks ago was fairly low-key considering how busy things have been around here. 

-Monday I came home after school and was able to mostly relax. Tuesday I went to work out with my mom. A much needed workout! Wednesday I had my normal pilates after school. 

-Thursday I had an early morning meeting and then I rushed home after school because Kurt was at the lake all day helping to get things ready for winter. I needed to get home to let the dogs out. It was like a Friday for me because we didn't have school on Friday or Monday for Fall Break. As I was sitting on the couch relaxing, the dogs were hanging out outside. Olive somehow caught a squirrel. She was so proud and came to the door to show me her prize. Of course I freaked out and got so mad at her. At first I wouldn't let the dogs in but no one was around to come over and pick up the squirrel. I let them in and then had to give her a bath. Kurt finally got home a couple hours later and picked up the squirrel. Perfect way to begin fall break, huh? :)

-Friday was spent running errands all day. Kurt and I met my mom for lunch and then I went to the mall with my mom while Kurt went to his office to get a little work done. After the mall, I went back to the office with my mom to wait for Kurt. She didn't know that my brother was bringing a cake to the office to celebrate their 40th anniversary. I stayed there to help celebrate. When Kurt picked me up, we had a lot to get accomplished. We went to Party City to get the decorations for my parents' party, we went to the mall to look around, then we headed to dinner, and had to stop by the grocery store on the way home to pick up the cake and a few other things. We ended up not getting home until after 9 and I was exhausted. 

-Saturday we slept in a little and then headed straight to Little Flower to get the room ready for the surprise party. We were there wayyy longer than I had expected. We rushed home after decorating to get ready for the party and let the dogs out. We had about an hour to get ready and get back to Little Flower for 5:00 mass. We also had to do a couple more things before heading into church. 

The party was perfect. My parents were SO surprised and happy to see so many people there. I'm so glad we were able to throw this party for my parents to help them celebrate their anniversary. 40 years is quite an accomplishment! I was pretty disappointed because the photographer we had lined up cancelled an hour before the party started. I spent most of the night running around trying to socialize with people but take pictures. Of course, most of them turned out terrible because of the bad lighting and me trying to figure out how to best set my camera to get the best shots. 

-Sunday we had another early morning because my parents were being honored at mass again at IHM. We met everyone at church at 11:15 and then headed to brunch to celebrate one more time. After brunch, Kurt and I ran to Three Dog Bakery to pick up some treats for Cooper's birthday and then came home to watch football and relax. I went to Kurt's hockey game later that evening with plans on going to dinner with him after the game. The game was running really late which didn't leave us with many options for dinner after the game, considering it was 10:00 once he got out of the locker room. We headed to Stacked Pickle for a late dinner. When we got home, we went straight to bed. 

-Monday was an early morning because I had a dentist appointment at 9:00. I had to leave at 8:15 to get there on time. After my appointment, I went to Super Target. I. Love. Target. I was there for a long time and literally looked around the whole store. It was really nice to not feel rushed. After picking up some fun things and groceries, I headed home and took a short nap. I ran up to Buy Buy Baby to pick up a baby shower gift for Kate and then rushed to my eyebrow wax appointment. When I got home, Kurt and I cleaned up the house and I started some laundry. Kurt left for his hockey game and I got in bed early knowing we had another busy week.

-Tuesday after school I came home quickly, changed, and freshened up before Kurt and I went up to IU North for our first childbirth class. We stopped at McDonald's on the way to grab a quick 'snack' before our 3 1/2 hour class. It went pretty quickly because we had fun with Kate and Mike being there with us. Kurt and I went to dinner after our class because we didn't have enough time to eat before. We ended up going to Granite City. I wished I could partake in the awesome pitcher deal they were having that night... 

-Wednesday I had pilates after school. I was absolutely exhausted when I got home and not feeling great. I feel asleep on the couch for a little bit while Kurt was playing a game. I spent the night in pain because I tweaked my arm somehow and it killed me! The only thing that helped was lying in bed with my arm stretched out. I slept horribly that night. 

-Thursday my arm still hurt when I bent it or grasped anything. It was good to be at school because it kept my mind off my arm. I think that being on the go all day helped it loosen up and feel better. Kurt met me at school at 3:45 because we had a meeting with our HR person to talk about my maternity leave and our benefits. It made me even more excited for January to be here. :) I've decided that unless Baby W comes early, my last day at school will be Tuesday, January 22. That will give me a couple days before my due date to be at home and relax/clean before the baby decides to come. We had a couple errands to run, so we dropped my car off at my parent's house. After Target, Qudoba {OMG we need to stop eating out!}, Jos. A. Banks, and Nordstrom, we went back to my parents to get my car. They were home so we ended up staying and chatting for awhile. By the time we got home, it was kinda late and I went straight to bed. 

-Friday after school was Kate's baby shower. It was so fun to see all of the things she got for their baby boy! I'm so excited to start adding toys, clothes, etc to our baby's closet! When I got home, I freshened up so Kurt, Josh, Mer, and I could go to dinner in Fountain Square. After dinner, we went to Radio, Radio with Yoder to see Mason Jennings. It was a fun, chill night listening to some good live music. 

-Saturday Kurt and I headed to Chicago to see Bradd, Courtney, and Ben. It has been SOO long since we've seen them. I'm so glad we were able to visit, even though it was a really short trip. 

-We didn't get home from Chicago until after 7 last night...WAYYY later than planned. Kurt immediately left for hockey. I got ready for bed and tried to work on reports for a little while. I didn't get much accomplished before I went to bed. 

This week is going to be another busy one...shocking! Add reports on top of everything going on and I'm about to loose my mind. I have pictures I'd like to upload to the blog from the surprise party and some other things that have been going on but that'll have to wait. I need to write reports. Like last week. Why do I have to procrastinate? 

Happy Birthday, Cooper!!

He's the best doggie ever! I can't believe that in January we'll have had Coop for 7 years. We'll hopefully get to celebrate many more birthdays with you!!

Nursery Updates...Finally!

We finally got around to picking paint and painting the baby's room as well as the guest bathroom upstairs {we've had that paint for months...}! I didn't like the paint colors in either of these rooms from the time we moved in, but we didn't feel like changing them because we rarely used either of these rooms. The guest bathroom has never been showered in and we've used the cabinet under the sink for extra storage. As you can see, the guest room was used for all of our junk that didn't fit anywhere else in our house. Kurt uses the closet for overflow because we can't quite fit everything in our closet {yes, we still need to clean out the closet}. We are still trying to find a spot for everything that was in the guest bathroom and bedroom...our house is too small! :) We're planning to add more shelving to the closet after we clean it out and before we get a bunch of baby stuff. That's a project for another weekend...!

Before we painted, the guest room was green. It wasn't horrible and actually looked okay with our furniture and duvet cover. I just didn't love it. Even though we aren't finding out the sex of Baby W, I've said from the beginning that I do not want to do everything in the traditional gender neutral green and yellow. The color could have worked for a boy or girl, but that green reminded me too much of that gender neutral green!

Here's what the room looked like before we painted after we moved out the furniture....this really was pretty clean compared to what it looked like before!!! 

I'm really indecisive when it comes to paint colors. I feel like I have a vision for how I want something to look and can never find the perfect paint color. It also seems like such a big decision that can't be changed if you don't like it, probably since it takes so long to paint a room. We definitely had been putting off buying paint for the baby's room until the last minute...right before the furniture needed to be picked up. The paint color we actually ended up using is called Beach Glass. I saw it on one of the blogs I read and thought it was a good mix of gray, green, and blue. All of the bedding in the room is going to be gray, but we couldn't paint the walls gray because that's what color our bedroom is. I think the color is really pretty. I would definitely use it again when we need to paint. However, it is a little more blue than I thought it was going to be. Oh well, the baby won't mind! :)

{It was difficult to get a picture of what the true color looks like. The color also looks different during different times of the day.}

Here's a before and after of the paint color. Again, it's hard to tell a huge difference, but we really can! I'm so much happier with the room color now. 

{That is one of the dressers that we bought. The changing pad cover is a bit darker gray than the bedding will be. We definitely need to find some things to hang on the wall!}

Here's what the other side of the room looks like. We finally found a furniture set-up we like. The room does look a lot smaller with furniture in it and we're a little worried about how the glider/ottoman is going to fit! I love the crib because of the curve in the front. I'm so short it's always difficult for me to reach in and grab babies from cribs, especially when the mattress is lowered down. The way this crib curves seems like it will be much easier for me to lean down to reach in. 

I'm really excited to get the bedding, glider, ottoman, and some decorations in the room. I know that won't be complete for awhile, but I'm feeling much better having a large part of the room complete. Next on the list is to work on the closet! We need to look around and find some accessories to put in the room, too. 

I thought you might like to see the before and after paint in the guest bathroom while we're talking about paint. The paint in their was definitely not going to stay. We both disliked the purple. We picked out the paint color and bought the paint months ago. We just never got around to painting. Kurt painted both of these rooms in one weekend...thanks, babe! The blue color is one I knew I already loved because it's the color in our half-bath downstairs. See what you think...

Weeks 23 & 24

I've been terrible about blogging lately and there has been so much going on around here! Baby W has been rockin' and rollin' in my belly and other people are able to feel the movements quite often now! Last night the baby wasn't moving around at all. Kurt put his hand on my belly and the baby immediately started moving around and kicking his hand! It was really funny and cute until everyone else fell asleep and I was awake with a wide awake baby kicking around in my belly! :)

{You probably don't notice any difference in the background color, but this picture was actually taken in the baby's room after Kurt painted it {instead of in our room}! We love the new paint color!}

How big is baby: Our baby has grown from a large mango to the length to a large ear of corn. He or she is weighing in just over a pound. The baby is growing pretty quickly these days!

What's going on with baby: The baby's ears continue to develop and sounds are becoming even more noticeable for him/her. Blood vessels in his/her lungs are developing so that he/she will be able to breathe after being born. The brain is quickly developing as well. 

Symptoms: I'm still feeling great and really lucky because I do feel so great. Nothing is swollen {and I hope it stays that way!} but my heels do tend to hurt after the long days on my feet...probably because I don't wear the best shoes. Beauty is pain, right? I'd say the biggest problem is sleep. The issue -- I'm so tired early in the evening and end up falling asleep early {think 9:30ish}. Then by 3 or 4 in the morning, I'm wide awake because I went to bed so early. Napping helps keep me up later, but I can't really nap during the week because I get home from school too late. 

What happened the past two weeks:

-Two weeks ago was another busy week around here. I suppose that's a pretty normal thing. Monday night Kurt and I went to the baptism class at IHM. Surprisingly, I was the only one there that is pregnant. Everyone else already had their babies. I'm glad that we took their advice and got the class done before the baby arrives. It was pretty quick and painless but it feels good to have one more thing checked off the list. Kurt had a hockey game that night, so I came home after the class and got in bed early. I have so many shows recorded that I need to catch up on but haven't had much time. I'm hoping to have a lot of shows still recorded for when the baby arrives so I can have some semi-decent things to watch while I'm awake in the middle of the night!

-Tuesday was another photography class. On Wednesday, I had pilates and then headed to Binkley's to meet Lauren for dinner. It was great seeing her and catching up. We really don't live that far away from each other but don't get to hang out as much as we'd like!! 

-Thursday I had a meeting with a parent after school {that was an hour and a half long} and then I rushed to 5 Seasons to work out with my mom. 

-Friday the weather was gross. It was rainy and cold all day long. Kurt and I decided to go out to grab some dinner. After we ate, we headed to Buy Buy Baby to finish up our registry and check the dimensions of the furniture we were planning to pick up on Saturday. After leaving Buy Buy Baby, we stopped at Orange Leaf for some much needed yogurt. On the way home, we stopped at a Red Box to pick up a movie. As we were walking into Marsh {where the Red Box was}, we saw a bunch of college kids walking out after buying beer and snacks, clearly on the way to a party. As we were picking out a movie, I asked Kurt how we got so old so quickly. It really doesn't feel like that long ago that we were in college all dressed up buying beer at 10 on a Friday ready to go party. Now we're renting a movie on a Friday night and getting ready for a baby to join our family. Why does life move so quickly!?!?!? 

-Saturday was filled with getting things complete in the baby's room. After we slept in a bit, we headed up north to pick up Stephen's car. After we got the car, we both drove to Buy Buy Baby. Before picking up the furniture, we wanted to order a glider/ottoman for the baby's room and buy the mattress for the crib. We were a little worried about all the furniture fitting in the Avalanche and my Jeep, but we managed to fit it all in one trip...phew! Josh and Mer came down when we got home to help us get all the furniture up in the room. We had to leave quickly after getting the furniture upstairs to make sure we had Stephen's car back to him in time for him to get off work. When we got home, we put the crib together. It looks great! We moved the furniture around the room 3 or 4 different times before we decided on the set up. The room looks a lot smaller with all the furniture in it and I'm a little worried about the glider and ottoman fitting....oh well! 

-Sunday we went to church and then picked up breakfast at Einstein's. We came back home and changed into some comfy clothes and then headed down to Josh and Mer's to watch the Colts game. We came home before the game was over because we needed to get some laundry done and Kurt needed to start packing for his trip to Utah. He left for his hockey game and I watched some TV before getting in bed at a fairly decent time. 

-Monday morning was a bit hectic. We both had to wake up early. Kurt was leaving for a couple days to go to Utah early that morning and we needed to both get ready, as well as get the dogs fed and let them out. Our dogs do not do well early in the morning and it's like pulling teeth trying to get them to do things before 9 or 10 am! Kurt is normally in and out of the house during the day to let them out and feed them so it's normally not an issue for me to be gone for long periods of time. I ran home to let the dogs out at the end of the day so Jan and I could meet after school and then I had pilates at 5:30. I didn't end up getting home until close to 7. I ate dinner and was in bed pretty early that night. 

-Tuesday was another early morning because I needed to get the dogs up early and fed. I left as late as I could in the morning and left school right after the kids were all gone. I still felt bad leaving the dogs for so long. I ate dinner before heading off to my final photography class. When I got home, I was ready for bed. 

-Wednesday was the last morning I had to get up early for the dogs. They were not happy to be getting up early for the third day in a row and Olive wouldn't even eat breakfast! I left school right away again to get home ASAP. Andy, Julia, and Lauren came over to drop off a hat I asked Andy to buy for Kurt's birthday. When they walked in, Lauren said, "Hi Kiki". That was the first time I've heard her say my name! :) After they left, I got the dogs in my car and we drove to the airport to pick up Kurt. Later that evening, we decided to head downtown to grab a quick dinner. 

-Thursday I worked out with my mom after school. Then we went to my parents house because Quinn and my mom were hosting a cooking party. We put together a bunch of meals that are made to go in the freezer. We're planning on saving these meals for when the baby arrives in January. I ended up being at my parents until close to 10 before heading home and getting in bed. 

-Friday Kurt picked me up from school right at pick-up and we headed up to IU North for my 24 week appointment. We had a follow up ultrasound since they couldn't get all the pictures of the heart they needed last time. The ultrasound was much quicker this time and they were able to get the pictures they needed right away. Then we headed over to the doctor's office for my appointment. The worst part was having to get the flu shot...ugh. My arm was sore, but knock on wood I haven't felt sick at all from the shot. I was worried it was going to make me get sick since I never get it! After our appointment at the beginning of November, I'll start going to the doctor every other week because I'll be in the third trimester...crazy! When we left the hospital, we ran over to Kurt's doctor's office to pick up a prescription and then headed to Target to get it filled. Of course, when we got to Target the pharmacist told us they had not filled out the RX properly so we couldn't fill it. After buying a few things {because let's get real...you can never leave Target without buying a bunch of stuff!}, we headed over to my parent's house to celebrate Kurt and Andy's birthdays. We ate WAY too much food and hung out for a bit before heading home. I was so exhausted from the week and ended up falling asleep so early. Of course I was up at 4:30 in the morning wide awake and ended up coming downstairs to watch TV and sleep a little more on the couch. 

-Saturday we woke up early to run errands before heading home to clean the house. I took a little nap before getting in the shower and getting ready for people to come over. Kurt wanted to have a party for his birthday. We ended up having quite a few people over and partying late that night. It was good to see everyone and it was a perfect evening to watch some football, grill, and sit by the fire! It was a great celebration for Kurt! 

-Yesterday we went to a late breakfast to celebrate his birthday a little more. We headed home to watch the Colts game and I ended up taking a three hour nap...it was clearly much needed! We had such a lazy Sunday and ended up not getting much done. Kurt left for his hockey game. After his game, I met him and Josh and Mer at La Hacienda for a late dinner. We came home after stuffing our faces, got ready for bed, and watched a little football before going to sleep pretty early. Thank goodness this week isn't going to be nearly as crazy as the last two were...and it's a 4 day week because we don't have school Friday! :)

Nursery Sneak Peak

I haven't had a chance to photograph the whole nursery updates and upload pictures to my computer. However, I did take some pictures of things while we were working this past weekend. Take a look. See what you think.

Promise I'll get around to taking pictures of the nursery and post them soon. I'm feeling like my life is crazy right now...