Over 29 weeks, hanging in there and maybe some baby names??

Hola a todos -

Well, here's a pic of me at 29 weeks, 1 day.  I am also sporting a new wedding ring, my mom loaned it to me, it's a really pretty gold and silver band with 3 little diamonds channel set in the middle.  She wears a larger ring size than I do and with this sweltering heat down here, my fingers have been swelling up! I sometimes envied just the "wedding band" women, so now I am one of them until the end of pregnancy! 

Today Travis and I went to best buy and bought a camcorder bundle that came with a tripod, a memory card and a camcorder bag.  They are 10,000 times smaller than I ever remember.  Then again, I was remembering the actual camcorders with VHS tapes, so I guess I don't get out too much.  We were going to wait a while, but Travis called his friend Mitch that works at best buy corporate and he said it was a good deal and a good camera - so did the reviews :) 

Otherwise, Travis is moving right along in his training - he biked 102 miles this morning.  I used the morning to do 2 loads of laundry, the dishes, pay the bills, do my homework for Monday night, write some role plays for my pragmatics class and prep the food for tonight.  We had pot roast with roasted potatoes and carrots... SO good!  Then we had some chocolate chip cookies and milk for dessert :)  Oh, and we watched the Back-Up Plan with Jennifer Lopez.  Pretty good movie, considering we're having a baby, but nothing amazing. 

We (yes, we) are going through cycles of anxiousness, excitement and nervousness over and over again.  I am trying to not be "bored" with pregnancy, but luckily in my book I read that you may get bored with pregnancy at times, so then I felt a little better.  The baby is definitely kicking like crazy all the time and since I'm carrying low, at times I think he just jumps up and down on my bladder.  Travis keeps telling me that the toilet seat is really getting a work out since I have to pee all the time!  But hey, that means I'm drinking a lot of fluids too, so that's a good thing I tell him. 

And we might be closing in on some baby names.  However, I really did like the name Ashton and then I looked up what Ashton meant and it meant from "ash tree town", which I realized I cared more about the baby's name meaning than I thought I did.  But I found a good book at barnes and noble and I am planning on taking Travis there to look through it with me.  I told him that Maverick meant "slow stupid one" because he seriously still acts like he wants that name, I think he just says that because he knows that I don't like it.  He argued that kids wouldn't know about Tom Cruise by the time they were old enough and I still didn't buy it.  I guess we'll be looking up Maverick for real now. 

Well, the baby is going crazy in there, so time to say chao.  I'm off to do some more homework and Travis is going to watch some tv.  If someone would have told me that grad school meant 10 million more times reading, I probably wouldn't have gone back.  Just kidding, I am actually enjoying my readings, especially in my research methods class, which must be a pregnancy side effect.  But it's a good side effect and I'll take it :)

-Travis, Holly and the baby

Hormonal Holly (& Travis) moments

Travis always compliments me about how well I handle pregnancy and tells me how thankful he is that he "doesn't have to put up with too many differences" with me.  However, we were reflecting this weekend about the whole pregnancy (we're still shocked we're in the third trimester and only have around 80 more days to go!) and we thought of a couple of incidents...

1. Holly's hair meltdown.  After looking at several pictures of friends and watching tv, I broke down because I'll never be able to grow my hair out past my shoulder (unless I do extensions).  And even though Travis says he loves short hair (thank you God for Travis and other men that like short hair), I called Travis almost in tears telling him how ugly my hair was and how much I hated my hair, etc.  Travis listened patiently at work and told me he loved my hair and that I always look good (like the nice guy he is) and then I hung up and called my mom, who could tell I was a basketcase, so she offered to get me a haircut at her salon in Billings, but I told her I would just suck it up and pay more for a real hair cut here.  And I got one and I love it and Travis loved it.  Situation solved.

2. Tripping over Travis' training items.  I normally don't just flip out and unleash on someone, but one night I tripped over Travis' sandals, shoes and workout bag which were all leading up to the kitchen (our apartment isn't huge or anything) and then Travis started laughing at me, which obviously made me really happy, so I literally picked up all the items and threw them in the middle of the floor (which helped....) and yelled/whined at him to start picking up his things bc I could barely see my feet anymore, how am I supposed to be able to see what's in the way on the floor, etc.  Travis tripped on his things the next morning, which actually didn't make me feel too much better, but proved the point when he realized I saw him trip.  However, that was about a month and a half ago, and looking around... well...  it's gotten a little better :)

3.  Holly & Travis moment (repeated).  Travis and I have been going through shock on and off about what is going to happen after the baby.  This involves me having visions of Travis leaving me every morning with the baby while he goes and works out and trains and Travis has visions of never leaving the house again.  Also, I stress about how I will finish my schoolwork for the semester, how we'll travel in the airplane, how we'll be able to do this and that, etc.  Travis stresses about getting home at a decent time, what we'll be having for dinner and how we'll be able to workout.  We both stress about how this will all play out, etc.  So what do we do?  Pray.  Because worrying does nothing.  And it will all work out.  And for all the people that ask us, didn't you think of this before, etc, etc.  Yes, we did.  And God has been really good to us so far and he will continue to be.  And even though we have no idea what will happen or how it will all be, people have had babies for centuries and people have been in a lot more difficult situations than us.  That being said, the unknown and uncertainty are always the hardest things to deal with, but such is life - you can't plan everything.  What's the phrase?  Life happens (I think there's a 4 letter word used with that one sometimes too).  All we can do is pray that God will take away the stress and worry and be done with it.  Easier said than done.

Well, that honestly wraps up any moments that really stood out and anything that we are currently struggling with pregnancy related.  We know that it will all work out and we are very thankful for our friends and family and for all of their advice/support.  We know this baby is a blessing and we are super excited to meet him in less than 3 months!  We have lots of fun ideas and are looking forward to all the (fun and not so fun) moments of parenthood!

Happy Monday and enjoy the rest of your week!

Weekend in Montana

Hola - Well, I had a quick 3 days in Montana without Travis and I was able to see my friend, Sali, who is due 5 days after us!  And Mya, my parents' boxer puppy is now 10 months and she was a little bigger than she was in March, but just as needy.  She's a super strong dog, that's for sure.

And we even got a free ultrasound from the CareNet/LaVie place that Sali works and the baby actually looks like a real baby now (at 27 weeks, 2 days)- he has baby fat and he was opening and closing his eyes (in addition to kicking and punching).  I didn't get a cd to upload pictures, but here are some pictures that I took with my camera of the pictures we received - I couldn't get them to take too well, but I tried!  In the 2nd pic, he's even sticking out his tongue! 

Travis rode Mt. Lemmon in Tucson this past weekend and was out all day with Ryan and Jason.  It sounds like they had an awesome time and hopefully I can make it up to check out Tucson sometime soon!  He also said it was 30 miles uphill, so it was a good workout as well.

Hope everyone has a great week - we had our first back to school meeting today.  I start teaching on Thursday and I have my first class on Thursday also!

27 weeks mañana :)

Here's the most recent pic of my stomach, taken today by me (hence the really bad focus) -

I am 26 weeks, 6 days today.  I have gained 14 total pounds and the doctor isn't concerned by my 8 pound jump in the last month because she said it was due to the baby growing and my amniotic fluid coming in/filling up.  Also, the doctor did tell me that I cannot do electrical simulation on my back, it's like electrical massage pulses because at this point it can trigger contractions/labor.  She said that at 39 weeks all hospitals (at least  here) allow involuntary induction, so the race shouldn't even be a concern for us.  But we'll cross that bridge when we get there!  I really don't want to be induced, so I am praying for the baby's safety, health and on-time arrival!  Although if he's anything like his dad, he'll be late, lol.  And no laughing out there, I'm a late person too, but when one of you is late, the other person can't be the late one anymore and so I've had to adjust my ways and I am no longer the late one.  Well, Travis and I might go back and forth at times in that role...

K - I'll keep everyone posted - I leave for Montana tomorrow to squeeze in a last minute visit to my padres before school starts.  Travis is going to hang out here with some friends and go on a big, long, far-away bike ride - Mt. Lemmon.  I'll be back Sunday morning.

Iowa weekend and our first official baby shower!

Hi everyone!  We had an awesome (and very busy) weekend in Iowa - we got in super late Thursday night and left yesterday afternoon after lunch!  We had eye apptmts on Friday, then went swimming at the gym and then got ready for dinner with a family friend, Lori Eggers, who flew in from California, Friday night!  We had a lot of fun catching up at Bravo!

Saturday morning was the baby shower - we got so many beautiful, great and thoughtful gifts from friends and family, it was awesome and we are very blessed!  Baby Riley is already loved very much!  Here is the food set-up that Lindsey and Karen did!  I miss those cookies already!

Aunt Lindsey handmade/sewed us a lot of beautiful baby gifts for baby boy Riley (one day Travis and I will figure out a name).  She made us this beautiful blanket, I am thinking we may hang it on the wall in the nursery and when the baby is older we can use it as a blanket and a bedspread. 

And she also handmade us a little crab bib and a turtle bib, a tag blanket (pic below - the baby lays on the blanket, which is on your shoulder or the floor and plays with the little tags), and sewed on appliques to the onesies she bought!

Here are a couple of the onesies:

And then we went to a 1st bday party for Claire, which is Travis' cousin's Kory and his wife Jen's daughter.  It was very fun, Jen designed a lot of pink and green items and even had homemade lemonade in jars with cute little labels!  We had lots of family events this weekend and the little ones aren't as little as they were the last time we were there!

Sunday morning was the triathlon, Lindsey and I drove separately and got to sleep in a little bit later, I didn't get up until about 6:08 and we left at 6:30.  Rick, Karen, Travis and Cooper all did the triathlon and so did their cousin, Kyle Prendergast.  Everyone did a great job - the race was shortened due to a very high heat index and yes, it was very hot, the sun isn't as strong up there as it is in AZ, so you can still be outside, but they have sweltering heat as well!  Here are some pics from the triathlon:

Trav out of the swim

Cooper out of the swim

Karen out of the swim

Rick out of the swim

Travis starting the run

What a crazy busy, but very fun weekend!  I have my glucose testing tomorrow at my doctor's appointment to see whether or not I have developed gestational diabetes.  No sugar for me tonight or tomorrow morning! 

I'll update with how the baby's doing after the appointment - I am going to ask my doctor about feeling naseous at this point...  I even threw up yesterday morning at Rick and Karen's house!  And this baby is definitely moving like crazy - we will be 27 weeks this Thursday and officially saying "adios" to the 2nd trimester!

Hope everyone is having a good week so far!

26 weeks!

Well, I got the bedding all together and we got our mobile the other day from our friends, so the crib is looking better and better!

I am 26 weeks today!  According to babycenter, the baby is growing:  the network of nerves in your baby's ears is better developed and more sensitive than before. He may now be able to hear both your voice and your partner's as you chat with each other. He's inhaling and exhaling small amounts of amniotic fluid, which is essential for the development of his lungs. These so-called breathing movements are also good practice for when he's born and takes that first gulp of air. And he's continuing to put on baby fat. He now weighs about a pound and two-thirds and measures 14 inches (an English hothouse cucumber) from head to heel. If you're having a boy, his testicles are beginning to descend into his scrotum — a trip that will take two to three days.

Pretty exciting!  My back is definitely starting to ache a lot more, but Travis has been really good about rubbing it and when we go swimming it really helps.  I went to the gym yesterday and did the elliptical and lifted, not even anything heavy, and I definitely got a lot more tired/sore than I do with swimming.  I created a bunch of swim workouts for Trav, a lot of them from what I can remember from college or high school, so he's been having "fun" with some of them, lol.  I can't keep up anymore, so I just swim pretty easily and take breaks to drink water :)

I need to take another picture of the ever-growing belly.  Travis thought it would be funny to see if his plate would stand up on its own by putting it on my stomach and it almost worked, the plate was too big... I think I've still got plenty of growing left to do in the next 14 weeks, give or take.  Almost to the 3rd trimester, just one more week left in the 2nd!

We are leaving for Des Moines today at 3 pm, so we'll get in before 11 pm.  A 2 hour time change is a big difference in terms of eating and sleeping schedules.  We're excited to see friends and family and I am excited to get most of the Christmas presents organized (yes, true, I bought most of them in Peru) and leave them there.  Thanksgiving is with the Rileys this year and Christmas is with the Byrams, but with baby on the way, I'm sure dates of visits will change.  And I have my first official baby shower this weekend, so that will be really nice too - we've already gotten quite a few gifts here as people were nice to ship them down here beforehand.  We are very thankful, grateful and appreciative - babies have quite a lot of gear.  I would love to go back in time and see what I had as a baby.  I don't really remember anything before I was 6/7 and even then, those are pretty scattered/selective memories :)

Have an awesome weekend, I'll get a stomach picture up soon!