Baby Fred - 34 Weeks!

Date:
July 6, 2015

How far along:
34 Weeks!!

How many weeks to go: 
6 Weeks! Ahh!

Baby size:
Cantaloupe
(I'm not even going to put a weight here anymore because whatever is "average" and what our baby probably is, are most likely not the same thing!)
About 18 -18.7 inches

Baby milestones: 
Her layers of fat are developing so she can regulate her body temperature when she's born and her lungs are continuing to mature so she can breathe like a champ once she's born!

Maternity clothes: 
Yes - I'm constantly making my shirts are still covering the bottom of my belly... putting on clothes is probably the worst part of being pregnant right now :)

Stretch marks: 
Not that I've seen

Belly button in or out: 
I'm going to say officially out.

Symptoms: 
Same things going on... Braxton Hicks contractions occasionally (even though they don't quite feel like what I thought they would) and I have to pee quite a lot. My feet are pretty big these days and it's just an effort to move as well... But I'm not complaining :)

Movement:
I can feel the baby pretty consistently these days and when I can see or feel body parts sticking out, I always try to guess what body part it is... Who knows if my guess is right, though!
While Trent's family was here this weekend, they all got to see the baby move from the outside while I was sitting at the table. I had a shirt on with polka dots on it, so that made it easy to see when the baby was moving. Taylor and Jenna also got to feel my belly when the baby had hiccups for the first time (that I noticed). When I started feeling very consistent movements, I realized that they were probably hiccups and Taylor and Jenna came and put their hands on my belly and could feel it. Taylor's face was great when she felt it, I think she thought it was cool but it also may have been kind of strange. Jenna kept asking why the baby was kicking in there, so I'm not quite sure what she thought about the whole thing. It was pretty neat, though!

Labor signs: Nothing "real" I don't think...

Sleep: 
Not bad. I had trouble getting to sleep on Sunday again because of my whole heart beating like crazy thing, but once I get to sleep it's usually all good.

Miss anything: 
Having clothes to wear that is comfortable and not hurting/look like I'm in major pain any time I get up to walk.

Gender prediction: 
I don't know at all these days... I think that I still think it's a boy, but I'm not as strong in that thought as I once was.

Names: 
I think we have picked names!! Still have several options on middle names, and I'm sure we could still change our minds, but it's pretty fun to think that we could have a child named one of the names we picked out!

Best moment of the week: 
Trent getting back from his work trip to Florida on Wednesday! It's just so much better/easier to have him home!!

We also had a great weekend celebrating birthdays and the 4th of July with Trent's family this weekend. We didn't go anywhere, but still had a busy and fun weekend at our house. We grilled out for lunch and supper, put together a puzzle, opened gifts, and lit off some fireworks and sparklers and other fun things. And, of course, we had an abundance of birthday desserts to eat as well, one for each birthday person! 

The birthday people!

Watching fireworks!

I also spent a LOOONG time on Sunday afternoon/evening figuring out what we all needed to buy from our registry so we could officially be ready for the baby... We have gift cards and coupons to several places, so I was trying to figure out what to buy from which place in order to get the biggest discounts and things like that. It was a lot more work than I had anticipated! I got stuff ordered from Amazon and Buy Buy Baby and made one purchase from Target, but I had a little trouble with purchasing the rest of the things on Target.com, so I still need to get that worked out. Everything should start arriving this week, though, so it is going to be like Christmas each day when I get home from work to see what's arrived!! :)

Nursery Things:
I really need to get a move on in the nursery! EEE! Trent's dad, being the super helpful and giving guy that he is, helped me to hang a shelf in the nursery this weekend while he was at our house. I know I never would have gotten that hung myself, so I'm super thankful to have his help! Now I just need to get all the frames hung and figure out what's going in them!!

Looking forward to: 
Our birth class on Wednesday. We get to take our tour of the hospital that night, and I'm pretty excited about that! I am curious as to how it's going to make me feel - either really excited or possibly terrified... or both! haha
We also have our first appointment with our new doctor on Thursday. This is the doctor that will be delivering our baby. I hope everything goes well with her!!

Other things: 
This weekend, while the girls were over, they hung out in the nursery for a while when Trent's dad was hanging up the shelf. They both sat in the chair in the room and had stuffed animals that they thought would be the size of the baby and were practicing rocking them while singing "Rock-A-Bye Baby." It was pretty adorable. They both said they would hold the baby if I said it was okay :)

They also were very thoughtful with the Beanie Babies and picked out ones that they thought could be the baby's favorite toys. Taylor picked out one for if it's a girl and one for if it's a boy. Our baby is going to have very loving cousins!

Birthday Celebrations

Again this year, Trent and I got to celebrate our birthdays with each of our families. Trent celebrated his 33rd birthday and it was my 27th! On the 3rd of July, we arrived at my mom's house and had an awesome supper with some of my favorite things: Grandma's Ham Ball, Macaroni and Corn Cassarole, Oreo Salad!!

After supper, everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to us, we had cake and ice cream and, of course, we played some games!

The games of choice this time included naming all of the President in order, naming all of the NFL teams, and naming all 99 counties in Iowa. You know, fun stuff! :)

We took a little break on the 4th to head to Manilla to celebrate America's birthday. We watched the parade and spent some time with Grandma Jons before heading back to Omaha to hang out with our neighbors and watch the all the fireworks in the area.

We continued our birthday celebration weekend on Saturday when Trent's family joined us in Omaha to celebrate Trent and I's birthdays along with Trent's mom and sister who also have birthdays in the same week as us!

We all met at my work so everyone could see where I work. I gave them a tour of some of the public and shared areas of the building and then took them up to see where my group sits and where I spend a lot of my time! It was fun to have them there and the girls each colored/wrote a note for me to hang at my desk, and I love having that reminder of them hanging right above my computer monitor!

After we left my work, we grabbed a bite to eat downtown and took the girls to the big slides in the Gene Leahy Mall. They got to go down it a few times, but they couldn't go all the way down the end due to it being a little flooded at the base of the slides, but I think they still enjoyed it!

We then made a stop at the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge where we walked across the bridge and the girls got to straddle the Iowa-Nebraska state line and play in the splash pad for a little bit.

Our last stop for the day was at Lauritzen Gardens. We rode the tram around the park, getting off briefly to look at the train display. I think by this point, we were all happy to just sit around for a while and enjoy the views!

When we all got back to our house, everyone pitched in with preparing for supper. We had jalapeno poppers, broccoli and cauliflower salad, lots of different fruit, lettuce salad, and steak and chicken kabobs, among other things.

Then it was time to open presents. Of course, everyone got spoiled again with some very useful and thoughtful gifts!

Trent and I got adorable home made cards from the girls. I love mine so much!!

Trent's card from Taylor reads, "Trent. I Love you and I hope your Brthday is az spethl as you. Happe BrthDay."
I love it!!

And last, but certainly not least, we had cake and ice cream. Each of the of the birthday people got to pick out what cake they wanted once again this year. I picked chocolate cake with chocolate icing made by Melodie, Jan picked Carrot Cake with cream cheese frosting made by me, Trent picked Lemon Cake made by his mom, and Melodie picked homemade ice cream made by Trent! Of course, everyone had to have the sampler platter with some of each kind, and they were all amazing. 

To end the night, we sat around the fire in the back yard and lit off a few fireworks and sparklers. It was a beautiful evening and a great way to round out a very fun and busy birthday weekend!

4th of July

This year for the 4th of July, we spent the holiday at home. With it being on a Thursday and knowing that I had some very long work days ahead of me, we decided that was the best decision. It wasn't so bad either because there we found plenty to do around our neighborhood and there was definitely no shortage of fireworks!

 

Trent and I on the 4th

On Wednesday night after work, we went across the street to the neighbors to eat and hang out. As soon as it got dark, they put on a fireworks show for us all. They had a lot to shoot off and it was great. Our entire neighborhood is pretty crazy with fireworks, so when there was a break in ours, you could just turn your head in another direction and see fireworks somewhere else! This is one of the reasons why I love living in our neighborhood. All of our neighbors are very nice and friendly and always willing to help each other out. It's also nice to have events like this where everyone can get together and hang out for the night. I love how busy our street is with kids and families always outside. We are the only couple within the 8 or so houses surrounding us (it might be more, but we really don't know the neighbors that far away) that don't have kids, and most of them have between 2 and 4 kids per house, so that's A LOT of kids! It makes it a really fun place to live.

All the neighbors and friends across the street.

On the 4th, we slept in and and then got ready to have a few people over at our house. Two of Trent's co-workers, Ben and Joey, and Joey's husband came over in the afternoon to hang out and have supper before people got crazy with the fireworks again and it was time to watch them.

 

We hung out in the back of the house most of the afternoon and early evening. We all sat around and chatted and ate some good stuff Trent grilled up and played a few games of bags.

Mattie DOES.NOT like the sound of fireworks (or thunder or the vacuum or anything like that) so she stayed close to Trent on the deck for a while. Now, seriously, in our neighborhood for the whole week or so leading up to the 4th, there are people almost constantly setting some sort of explosive off, whether it be an actual firework or just something that makes noise or whatever else people blow up these days for fun... And when it gets dark, it's like constant gunfire outside. It's a miracle that Mattie didn't have some sort of physical symptom like a seizure or a stroke or something because she was under a large amount of stress for about a week straight. Poor dog! I'm glad to say we made it through seizure-free though!

 

 

When it started to get dark, we all went out the front of the house to watch all the fireworks that people were starting to set off. One good thing with the battle-like atmosphere that's going on in our neighborhood around the 4th is that we get to watch a lot of fireworks and not spend any money! There's no doubt that there's A LOT of money going to those fireworks stands from our neighborhood alone!

 

Trent, Ben, Kyle and Joey

We stayed out until things kind of started to die down. Our guests headed home and I headed to bed because I knew I had a few long days of work ahead of me and I was already up later than I should have been. (I ended up working about 30 hours from Friday-Sunday that weekend...)

 

This year, the 4th was great because we were able to relax a bit and be at home but still have fun with some friends and neighbors. I'm looking forward to next year when the 4th falls on a Friday again and creates a long weekend again for those of us who work in Finance and have to work a lot at the beginning of July because of quarter close. ;)

 

As I was getting ready for bed I saw flashes of light outside the window by my bed. I looked through the blinds and saw what I think was probably some of the best fireworks in our area that day. It may have been since they were so close to us, but, nevertheless, they were good!

I hope you all had a good 4th of July holiday and enjoy this video taken from my bedroom window! :)

 

(If you get this in an email click here to see the video on my blog or click here to see it on YouTube)



Fourth of July

I was very happy to be able to spend the 4th of July holiday with a lot of my family this year. It did kind of stink that the 4th was right smack dab in the middle of the week this year, but it was also kind of nice to be able to have a little mini-weekend before finishing out the week, too. Thursday began our busy time of the quarter at work, so it was kind of like the calm before the storm of 10-12 hour work days plus having to work on Saturday. So I guess I'd take having Wednesday off rather than nothing!

Tuesday after work, I headed straight home. I had to leave Trent and Mattie at home because Trent was on duty for work and couldn't leave the area, but I think they had a nice little vacation as well (except that Mattie doesn't particularly like all the fireworks - which were pretty unmerciful to her).

When I got home, I was greeted by my parents and my sister and we made our way over to Grandma and Grandpa Kock's house. My Uncle Dan was there already. Grandma made us a scrumptious meal of hamburgers and hash browns and we all had a fun time solving some number and word puzzles together and chatting. One thing that I love about hanging out with my family and especially my Uncle Dan is you can bet that he'll come up with some really good trivia for us all. The fun of the evening was Grandma getting out these old placemats out that we used to use when we were younger and they each have different things on them like all the Presidents (up to Clinton is all, though), the states, and all the planets (with Pluto still included). Then, Dan was quizzing us on the Presidents and different fun facts about them followed by things such as what states are the New England states, what points of the U.S. are the most Northern, Southern, etc, and what the longest rivers in the U.S. are. We also got to enjoy some of Grandma's Rhubarb Sauce and ice cream before we headed home.

On Wednesday, we slept in until it was time to get ready to head to Manilla for the 4th of July parade and get-together with my mom's side of the family. My parents are owners of the newspaper in Manilla, The Manilla Times, and my mom is the editor/publisher, so they had an entrance in the 4th of July parade. We brought my uncles golf cart to town and covered it in papers and drove it in the parade boasting the slogan, "The Manilla Times, We've Got You Covered." My dad and I drove the golf cart while my mom and one of her employees walked the route handing out fliers with $10 off a new subscription. It was definitely a warm one, but we all made it to the end just fine :)

After the parade, we all gathered at my Aunt Barb and Uncle Pat's to hang out, escape the heat, and have a few bites to eat. My Grandpa Jons' birthday is on the 4th of July, so we celebrated with two different kinds of cake. (You do know that the reason for all the celebrations and fireworks on the 4th every year is because everyone is celebrating with my Grandpa, right?!? Haha!) 

And, as expected, he showed up with his patriotic socks on again this year!

After all the celebrating, it was time for us to all head toward our homes. It was a great 4th of July holiday and it really was nice to have a little break in the middle of the work week to hang out with so many family members!

Here are a few more pictures from the day!

With Grandma and Grandpa

Our family with Grandma and Grandpa

Haha Kellsey :)

The "original" family :)

Grandma and Grandpa with their three daughters.