Easter 2015

Better late than never, right?!?

Easter 2015 was our 2nd to last major holiday without our baby here with us!! Then we get to start dressing up a little baby all cute for each of the holidays ;) (one of the many joyous things that will come of having our baby here!)

Our Easter weekend started off on Saturday with lunch at the Manilla Bowl with the Jons Family. After lunch, we all headed up to the Manor to see Grandma and Grandpa Jons while Brady and Austin partook in the Easter Egg Hunt that they had.

Back when I *thought* I was getting bigger. HA!

After all the festivities in Manilla, our family took off for Grandma and Grandpa Kock's to celebrate Easter there. Grandma had just had her knee replaced, so we brought food out to their house and did our best to wait on Grandma while we were there! We then played games and did what we all do best when we get together - talk about weird things... like what our favorite fonts in Word are!!

On Sunday morning, we were up bright and early for Sunrise Service and then it was off to Ankeny to celebrate with Trent's family!

We had a delicious meal and the girls had an Easter Egg Hunt before getting out their new kites to try. It was a beautiful but windy day - perfect for kite flying!

Hunting for eggs!

Enjoying the contents of the eggs!

These two!!

The girls did a great job of flying their kites! There was only one or two times where they didn't cooperate and created some scary moments (and one time of one of the lines getting cut) but all was right in the end! It was so fun to see them having such a great time with it!

Told you it was windy!

Another successful holiday that we got to celebrate with our families that we love so much!

Baby Fred - 31 Weeks!

Date:
June 15, 2015

How far along:
31 Weeks!!

How many weeks to go: 
9 Weeks! SINGLE DIGITS!!

Baby size:
Coconut or a Pineapple (depending on which app you ask)
About 3 1/3 lb
Over 16 inches long

Baby milestones: 
Baby is supposedly heading into a growth spurt. She's accumulating more fat underneath her skin and moving around a lot. (Agreed)

Maternity clothes: 
You betcha! I had to go buy some more tank tops this weekend because I was afraid I wasn't going to make it through the next few months... Crazy how the weather has changed since I started wearing maternity clothes!

Stretch marks: 
Not yet

Belly button in or out: 
It's changing some more, but it's still flat and the top is sticking out

Symptoms: 
Had a little trouble breathing comfortably at night on Sunday, but it's nothing too bad. I'm not concerned that I'm not getting enough air or anything, it's just not comfortable is all. I am also still having random heart palpitations, which doesn't help with the breathing situation, but they are definitely less often than they used to be.
My belly also gets pretty heavy at times and feels like it is stretching a lot, and that's not always the most comfortable thing.
I for sure have to pee more than I used to! I can tell that the baby is squishing my bladder quite a bit these days. I'm trying to drink a lot more water to help keep the Braxton Hicks contractions and any cramping away though, so that doesn't help with the whole having to pee all the time thing... That's the way it goes, though, I guess.

Food cravings: 
Nothing really... We've been eating our fair share of DQ lately, which I'm not complaining about :)

Movement:
There are spurts where there's quite a lot of movement. Sometimes my belly gets kind of lopsided or gets lumps in it from the baby pushing on the outside. It's pretty cool, and I usually feel where the baby is pushing, but I am also afraid of pushing back too hard and bruising the baby. Is that a thing? haha

Labor signs: 
None that I know of...

Sleep: 
I've been pretty sleepy this week. I'm not sure if it's because the baby's growing or because I've been working hard or what... Other than the night that I had troubles breathing and woke up pretty often, I have been sleeping well, though. I even tried out the nursery chair this week and slept in it for a few hours one night when I couldn't sleep. Sitting up in the chair seemed to be what it took to get to sleep... the good news is that the chair is comfortable and nice to sleep in!

Dreams: 
I had a few dreams last week with some coworkers in it... I don't remember too many of the details, though. I also had one Sunday night when I had gone to lay on the couch for a while hoping that it would help me feel better with the whole breathing thing... In the two hours that I was laying there, I had a dream about some scary creature being in our room and making it so none of the lights worked and stuff. It didn't freak me out enough to keep me from going back up to bed, but it still was creepy.

Miss anything: 
Same ol'... miss having a lot of clothes that fit and I miss being able to get off the couch without it being a big ordeal!

Gender prediction: 
Still boy for the most part, but my feeling isn't as strong as it once was

Names: 
Nothing new here. I'm hoping that we have some sort of sign of what our baby's name should be or something like that :) I am pretty sure it's probably going to be a final decision that's made after the baby's here... as much as we say we'd like to have a final boy and girl name before then...

Best moment of the week: 
The weekend was pretty great. Trent and I just hung out around home, slept in, watched some Netflix, he played some games on Sunday afternoon while me and the dogs all napped, I went and did some shopping, he did some work in the hard... it was just a nice weekend.
Life is pretty good these days!

Nursery Things:
We went to Lowe's on Saturday morning and bought the shelf and rod for the baby's closet, so we will get that hung up next weekend! I put some of the stuff that we got from our baby shower away in the nursery and laid out what clothes we have so far so I can figure out what we need to get by the first few days of our baby's life before we are able to start buying clothes specific to the baby's gender!
The nursery feels like it's kind of a mess right now, but hopefully things will start coming together soon and looking more organized!

Looking forward to: 
Having Friday off of work! We're going to the Walnut Antique Show with Trent's family. It looks like it's supposed to be a nice day weather-wise, so hopefully my body can handle me walking around all day and it will all just be fabulous!
We're then going to see my family on Sunday to watch Alex play basketball and then have a birthday party at The Pizza Ranch! Woot! Should be another fun weekend!

Other things: We had an appointment last Friday. The baby's heartbeat remains in the 150s again. I measured at 34 weeks, which is 1 centimeter over what they want you to be at this point (They say they want it to be 26 and 33) so I have to go in for a growth scan before my next appointment to see how baby is developing. I always thought it was so strange how people could have so many ultrasounds during their pregnancy, as I always thought there was only two, but here I am about to see our baby for the fifth time! (To be fair, one of those times was very early in the Emergency Room because of the cyst I had on my ovary and we were checking to be sure the baby was in the right and place and then the one other "extra" time was just for like five minutes because the DVD they made at our 20 week ultrasound didn't work... but still) I'm not sure what they are going to tell us from this ultrasound other than maybe that our baby is big (SHOCKER!) but I guess we'll find out...
Our appointment next week is our last one with our current doctor. That's kind of sad because we really like her, but she is a little over a month out from having her own baby, so she won't be there in the end anyway. We're actually switching to the doctor that will be delivering her baby, so I know we'll be in good hands.
We also booked a maternity picture session with a local photographer in a few weeks. I'm not super excited about it because I'm past the point where I think I look "cute" but I did't want to regret not having them in the end, so I'm hoping she can make me look alright!

Baby Fred - Baby Shower!!

Last Sunday, my sister along with the help of some other family members, threw me and the little baby inside of me a fabulous baby shower!

Who's excited for this baby to be here?!?!
THIS girl!!

When the guests came into the shower, they chose whether they thought "Baby Fred" is a boy or a girl and then hold the respective flower and take a picture with me. Each of the pictures will then go into the guest book next to some other fun things that each guest filled out for the shower.

After taking their picture with me, each guest filled out a prediction sheet of when they thought the baby would grace us with his/her presence, what they thought their length and weight would be, and then gave a name suggestion for our little one. The dates of birth ranged from August 6 to August 22nd. (I did notice no one picked August 13th!! No Friday the 13th birthdays for our baby! haha) I'm thinking it's going to be more towards the 22nd, so we'll see who's right in the end!!

Each person also filled out a little sheet where they wrote down things that they wished for the baby and wrote down some advice for me as well! Trent and I read through them the other night and there were some really good things in there! Some very sweet, some very practical and some a little humorous!! It will be fun to go back through it from time to time over the years!

Everyone doing their "homework" and enjoying some food!

While everyone filled out their cards and ate some food, I opened some presents. Baby Fred got quite a lot of good stuff and I can't wait to actually have a baby here to use all this great stuff. We're pretty lucky to have such generous and loving people in our lives! 

The rest of the shower was spent talking and eating and imagining and telling stories about the guests' children and fun stuff like that! One of my very favorite friends, Grace, was in the area with her family as well, so she stopped by at the end of the shower with her family. This meant that I got to meet her little baby girl, Eliana, who was just born in April. Talk about a cherry on top of the already great day!!

It was such a fun day that I can't believe has already passed! Who would have already had a baby shower for this baby and in a few months he or she will be here with us!!

A HUGE thank you to my sister for making the day so great and planning the whole shower. It was amazing!

And thank you to the rest of my family members who helped my sister out with pulling off the great shower and to everyone who came to the shower and made our little growing family feel so loved! 

And now we wait for the baby's arrival!

Grandpa Kock and Uncle Nick stopped by the shower too! 

(Uncle Dan did too, but he left right as the picture taking was beginning)

Baby Fred - 30 Weeks!

Date:
June 8, 2015

How far along:
30 Weeks!! I can't believe we're in the 30s now!!

How many weeks to go: 
10 Weeks

Baby size:
Large Head of Cabbage
About 3 lbs (or a little more!)
15.2-16.7 inches long

Baby milestones: 
Our baby is now said to be strong enough to grasp a finger! (I can't wait for that!) Her eye site is continuing to develop. She can respond to changes in light when her eyes are open, but her eyesight isn't that great. It is said to be about 20/400 and will still need to develop further once she's born. 

Maternity clothes: 
Yep. I'm kind of over wearing pants these days. My coworkers are probably going to be seeing a lot of the same 3 dresses over the next few months!!

Stretch marks: Not yet that I know of

Belly button in or out: 
It's very flat. It seems like it's out because you can see the top of it through my shirts, but the actual belly button is hanging in there still.

Symptoms: 
My feet and ankles are still a little bigger than they should be, but hopefully they aren't too noticeable. (Even though my friend Kaela did tell me my ankles looked big last week... oh well!)
I had about 12 hours of having trouble breathing this weekend. I hate feeling claustrophobic and like I can't breath, and I kept saying that I felt like I had COPD and was in a submarine with an elephant. It wasn't a fun feeling. No matter how deep of breaths I took, I just couldn't get enough air to feel "normal." By Sunday afternoon, it got back to normal and I haven't felt that way since, so we'll see how long it stays away!
I can feel my belly stretching and it gets heavy at times and I have a few random tightening episodes here and there, but other than that, I just feel pregnant. :)

Food cravings: 
I have been loving watermelon lately. That's pretty much all I had at my shower on Sunday and Trent went to the store on Monday night, so I had him pick one up there for me to eat this week, too! (I'm finally getting this posted on Wednesday and I'm sure that the last of the watermelon will be gone by the end of the day!)

Movement:
She's still moving around in there - sometimes more than others, but it is quite the comforting feeling (and strange still) to feel her move around.

Labor signs: None

Sleep: 
I've been sleeping well. Just the one night this weekend that I had trouble breathing, so I'm not sure what's up with that. Not sure if it was the baby's position or something that I ate or what... I am pretty fond of sleeping in my own bed with all my pillows and stuff these days, so I'll probably try to sleep in my own bed every night if at all possible until this baby comes!

Dreams: 
I know I had a few, but the one that sticks out to me the most, I had on Saturday night. In it, I could see the baby's hand sticking up through the skin on my belly and reaching out like she was trying to get out! I had a feeling like the baby was panicking and needed to get out of there! I think I may have been transferring my claustrophobic feelings that I was having that night on to the baby in my dream!

Miss anything: 
Having my clothes fit.

Gender prediction: 
Either a boy or a girl...

Names: 
Trent and I talked a little bit about names when we went out to eat one night last week. Nothing was really decided, but I think we have the list narrowed down a little... We also got quite a few name suggestions from everyone at my shower this weekend. Trent and I haven't looked through them all together yet, so we'll see if any contenders come out of that list!

Best moment of the week: 
I got a promotion last week! For the past three years, I have been a Sr. Analyst, but now I have moved up to be a Manager. My job doesn't change, just my title. So that was a fun thing that I wasn't really expecting to happen this week!

We also started our birth class on Wednesday night and it went really well. It was even better than I thought it would be, I think! I mean, I'm not a big fan of group activities and it IS a little strange to spoon with your husband to work on relaxation techniques in a room with 7 other couples, but I can deal with that. The instructor ended up answering some of the big questions I had about the hospital's policies and standards without me having to ask the questions and calmed some of my anxieties that I had and really just made me more excited and relaxed about this whole birth thing. It was also fun to be doing it along with Trent and to actually be preparing for the birth of our child and not just preparing as far as accumulating stuff. I hope the rest of the classes go as well as the first one!
Of course, having the shower this weekend was one of the best moments of this week as well. My sister did such a good job with planning it! It was perfect and everything was great! There is just something about getting a bunch of people together that love you and having them talk about this baby that is going to be joining us in a few months and making predictions about what they are going to be like. I can't wait to see what our baby really looks like and when she actually arrives and whether the baby is a boy or a girl! Until then, it's fun to just keep imagining! (More on the shower later!)

Trent and I and the baby were also spoiled with gifts. I haven't had a chance to go through everything and show everything to Trent yet because we had company when I got home on Sunday night, so it's all still sitting in the living room, but that's on the agenda for Tuesday night! It is so crazy to actually have real baby things in our house now! I can't wait to get it all into the baby's room and organized so we can be even more ready for the baby to be here!!!

Nursery Things:
There wasn't anything big that happened in the nursery this week - just some little things. The bins that we ordered for the shelf in the closet and a few other storage/decorative bins came, so those are in the room. And we started getting a few baby things in the mail, so those things have started to gather in there as well! I'm looking forward to getting everything in its right spot and start putting things from the baby shower away where they are going to go!

Here's the closet shelf with the new bins in it!

Looking forward to: 
Getting more done in the nursery this weekend. We are planning on getting the shelf that goes in the closet on Saturday and I'll also work on getting things figured out for decorations and getting the gifts put away!

We have an appointment this week and another birth class on Wednesday night, so I'm looking forward to all that as well!!

Baby Fred - 29 Weeks!

Date:
June 1, 2015

How far along:
29 weeks

How many weeks to go: 
11 Weeks

Baby size:
Butternut Squash
2.5-3.8 lbs (let's be real, our baby is most definitely on the high end of that!)
15.2-16.7 inches long

Baby milestones: 
Her muscles and lungs are continuing to mature and her head is getting bigger (another thing that I think we can all be certain is going to be on the larger side) to accommodate her growing brain. Calcium is depositing into her skeleton to help her bones get stronger as well!

Maternity clothes: 
Yep. And I've gotta be aware of my shirt level these days because my belly will peak out the bottom if I'm not careful! And nobody wants to see that!

Stretch marks: 
Not that I've seen

Belly button in or out: 
Same ol' story here. Just the outside, top part sticking out.

Symptoms: 
I had a slight internal panic mode last week because MY ANKLES WERE DISAPPEARING!!! (My coworkers probably wouldn't categorize it as a "slight internal panic" because I think each and every one of them heard about my inflating feet and ankles) I noticed it for the first time when I got to work last Wednesday and then on Thursday my shoes were fitting tighter. It still wasn't pretty on Friday, but I tried to lay on the couch with my feet up in the air as much as I could on Friday night and tried to drink more water and it seems to have helped! The little knobs on my feet reappeared and my work shoes don't leave indents in my feet anymore, so hopefully I can keep it under control!
I've also started to walk funny when I first stand up after sitting for a while and getting up of the couch has started to become a little more labor intensive as well.
I can't be certain (since I've never done this before and all) but I think I've had a few variations of Braxton Hicks contractions in the past week. There are times when my belly gets very hard and tight in certain areas. At first I thought it was just the baby moving around, but the tightness would stay around longer and wouldn't move like it would if it were the baby. I've never had more than one at a time that I know of and it's only happened a handful of times. Just another new experience for this pregnancy!

Movement:
There have been times when she's really been moving around quite a bit in there and there are times when I can tell she's pushing on the outside of my belly because it will get hard in a certain place for a while. It's pretty cool (and only slightly creepy)!

We actually timed it right on Saturday night that Trent was touching my belly when the baby was pushing on the outside as well. I think he thought it was a little strange as well!
I don't know if it will ever not be odd to feel something moving around inside of me, but it is pretty cool to feel it more often!

Labor signs: 
None

Sleep: 
Sleeping well for the most part. Changing positions is getting more difficult and my back hurts if I lay in a "wrong" position for too long, but overall, it's good I think.

Miss anything: 
Not being sore, but it could be worse!

Gender prediction: 
I don't know!

Names: 
Nothing new. I'm getting them narrowed down in my head but Trent and I haven't had a serious discussion about it in a while.

Best moment of the week: 
Trent coming home from hiking early!!! It's not good that he didn't get to do his whole trip because it was just too wet up in Wisconsin, but Millie and I were ecstatic to have him back on Saturday afternoon!! We had a great rest of the weekend after he got home!!

I also was pretty excited that I got everything on my "to do while Trent is gone" list done by Sunday! (Except for cleaning out the refrigerator, but I'll just keep putting that off!) My list included things like cleaning out a cupboard and drawer for baby things, oiling all of our cutting boards, hanging curtain rods and curtains in the nursery and master bedroom, picking up the chair for the nursery, and vacuuming out my car (which I discovered is not a fun thing to do while pregnant!). Those were all pretty fun things to get accomplished!
Lastly, Aunt Doreen and Uncle Nick came to town on Saturday to do some shopping and they took some time to meet me for lunch at Red Robin (Yummm!) when they got here. We had some good food and sat and talked for quite a while! It was another awesome part of my week!

Nursery Things:
A lot of fun stuff happened in the nursery this week!! Jocelyn went with me on Saturday morning to pick up the chair for the nursery and help me get it upstairs. It turned out great and it's very comfy!

Millie needed to inspect the chair, too!

I also got the curtains hung in the room. I even put up the curtain rod and the curtains 100% by myself, too! It was a lot of work getting up and down off a chair a thousand times while putting it all up, but it was worth it! I love the way they turned out!

Not the best phone picture with the bright light!

Lastly, Trent got the Kallax shelf that we bought from IKEA last weekend put together on Sunday as well! The bins that go in the bottom cubbies of the shelf should be here this week, too, so it will look even more complete by the end of the week! I can't wait to put things on the shelves and fill the bins with baby stuff!

Looking forward to: 
We start our birth class this week, so I'm excited to get that started. I also have my baby shower back in Westside on Sunday afternoon!! I can't wait for the abundance of baby things that are going to be coming into our house when it's all over! Yippee! I know I am just going to want to organize it and put it all away right when I get home! 

Our 4th Anniversary!

If I could choose again, I'd still choose you!

Happy 4th Anniversary to my favorite person in the world!

Baby Fred - 28 Weeks!

Date: 
May 25, 2015

How far along:
28 weeks - Third Trimester!

How many weeks to go: 
12 Weeks

Baby size:
The size of an eggplant (2.5ish lbs and 13.6-14.8 inches long)

Baby milestones: 
She's getting fatter and developing her brain - basically just getting prepped for life out here int he real world with us!

Stretch marks: 
Not yet, but I haven't necessarily done a thorough inspection.

Belly button in or out: 
Still just the top/outside part sticking out and it can be seen through my shirts now.

Symptoms: 
Still having heart palpitations and some lower back pain. I get pretty out of breath when I go up stairs. Nothing too crazy, though.

Food cravings: 
Nothing that sticks out as a real "craving" to me. Things just come and go...

Aversions: 
None

Movement:
She still moves around in there occasionally throughout the day. It's such a strange feeling to have her tap Morse code on my bladder every so often!

Labor signs: 
None.

Sleep: 
I've started waking up more in the night, and the four nights last week that I slept without my body pillow, I woke up with back pain and had to prop up pillows and sleep sitting up more - kind of like I was in a recliner. Other than that, it's still good, just a little harder to change positions.

Miss anything: 
Nothing that's worth mentioning

Gender prediction: 
I don't know anymore...

Names: 
Not a whole lot of discussion happened on the name front this week. I don't think either of us feels a sense of urgency to narrow down the list quite yet - even though I think it'd be fun to :)

Best moment of the week: 
For sure Trent and I's little mini-vacation to Kansas City.
I finally got to go swimming!! It was one of the first things we did when we got to our hotel on Friday and we had the whole pool to ourselves! It was nice to be weightless for a while, but I'm still thinking I should try the whole swimming thing again, but have a floaty available next time so I don't have to use my abdominal muscles so much when I float! :) Trent was nice enough to hold me up and be my floaty for a little while, though, so that was nice!

I loved the time that Trent and I had to hang out together and relax while we were on our little vacation. We did some shopping at REI for his upcoming hiking trip and at IKEA to get some stuff for the nursery and other things for throughout the house. We went to see a few movies in the theater (Tomorrowland and Pitch Perfect 2) and watched some in our hotel room. We took naps and slept in and ate WAY too much!!! It was rainy and wet pretty much the whole time we were there, so that cut back on some of the activities that we probably would have done had it been nice, but I think that helped it to be an even more relaxing trip.

Oh and I passed my glucose test, so that was a great thing, too!! Woot!

Nursery Things:
We made stop (or two) at IKEA while we were in Kansas City to pick up some stuff for the nursery. We got the Kallax shelf that we are going to put in the baby's closet and some Skubb drawer organizers. We also got some frames and picture shelves and curtains to help decorate the room! I can't wait to get those drawer organizers into the dresser (and also to get stuff in the drawers, but that will come), to get the shelf put together and in the closet and get the curtains hung up. Trent is going to be gone hiking for a week, so I am going to have to be patient with the whole shelf thing, but I intend on doing as much as I can while he's gone - like install curtain rods!!! I know I am 100% capable! Haha!

Land of Nod had a Memorial Day sale on all their storage containers and they had free shipping on Monday, so I took that opportunity to order the bins that I wanted to be able to put in the cubbies in the shelf that's going into the closet as well as some other fun storage bins that are going to go in the nursery!

Our nursery chair that we ordered should also be in this week from NFM, so I need to recruit some strong friends to go with me to pick it up and get it into the baby's room because I'm far too impatient to wait another.whole.week to get it!

Looking forward to: 
Getting what we purchased this weekend organized and put away as best I can. I am also going to take advantage of all my alone time to clean out some of the cupboards and prepare for baby things to be put in them! It's going to be a good week!! (If I can keep myself from being freaked out because I'll be home alone, that is!) I've got my lists made of things I'm wanting to get done, so now I just need to do it all!

Other things: 
We had an appointment last Wednesday, the 20th (at 27 weeks and 2 days). Baby's heartbeat was in the 150s and I was measuring at 29 weeks. I drank the orange glucose drink before the appointment to have my blood tested to see if I had gestational diabetes. Besides the slight hiccup of me not reading the directions closely until AFTER I had already drank it and drinking it a half hour too early (we just went a little early to the appointment so the crisis was averted), the whole test was a non-event. And thankfully I passed!!!