Maternity Photos

Here’s more of our maternity photos that were  taken a few weeks ago in Cape Elizabeth, Maine.  I was 34 1/2 weeks and was pretty happy I decided to wait until this late on in my third trimester to get them taken.  My bump was definitely big enough :)  While I can totally see my weight gain in my arms and face, I’m still loving the majority of them – I think I like them even better than our engagement photos!  I know some people think maternity photos are unnecessary, but I think it’s totally worth having some done – even if it’s just a friend who takes a few.  I mean if you think about it, you’re only preggo for a very short time in your life (unless you’re the Duggar mom) – might as well document it!

All photos are courtesy of Clare Norton Photography.  Clare is amazing if you are in the Portland, Maine area – highly recommend her and can’t say enough good things about working with her from our engagement and wedding photos and now these.  I wish she was close enough so we could do newborn ones, too.   These are some of my favorites…she took 80 of them!

My outfit details…blue maxi dress is from Target (non-maternity, purchased online in my regular size).  Other outfit is a maternity top from Target (bought in-store), shrug from Old Navy and maternity jeans from Kohl’s.

37 Weeks…Full-Term!

Baby C is officially fully cooked as of today!  While I wouldn’t mind him coming early, I just don’t think he’ll be coming at for at least another couple weeks.  We’ll see, though, a lot of people keep telling me I’ll have him before my due date.

I’m getting a little more uncomfortable, but for the most part I still feel pretty good.  I am favoring sitting and laying a lot rather than walking and standing, but I’m at least trying to make myself keep up with my daily walks at the mall.  My work is close to a huge nearby mall, so I go there during my lunch break and do a couple laps.  And I don’t even window shop!

I’m definitely waddling more and having to pee alllll the time, but I’m sleeping well and my back pain has been off and on.  I had a massage on Saturday and she really worked my lower back which helped.  I scheduled another massage for the 9th, but hopefully I’ll have to cancel it or reschedule it for later this summer… :)

How far along?: 37 weeks

Baby is the size of a:  Wintermelon…whatever that is.  He’s apparently gaining a 1/2 ounce each day now. 

Total weight gain/loss:  +25-27.

The Bump:  Everyone has told me I’ve gotten even bigger in the past week.  But I haven’t really dropped yet – he’s totally still up high.

Symptoms: Peeing a lot.  Feeling more pressure in my lower pelvis.  Heartburn off and on. 

Food Cravings:  Ice cream.  I definitely haven’t been afraid to overindulge.  I’ve been trying to stick to frozen yogurt.  I’m getting some calcium, right?

Anything Making Me Queasy or Sick: Nope.

Sleep: Not too bad this past week.

What I miss: The usual stuff. 

Weddings Rings On or Off: Wedding band and engagement ring are off, anniversary band is still on since it’s sized a little bigger and still fits fine.  My rings fit some days and other days it’s too risky, so I think they’ll just be put away until he’s here.

Any Names Picked Out Yet:  I think we have picked THE one :)  It’s a secret until he’s born, though.

Movement: Lots of movement still – some of his jabs hurt now. 

Maternity Clothes: Just about all maternity. 

Labor Signs: Some BH contractions, but nothing that’s hurt.

Best Moment of the Week: When we got ice cream over the weekend, we were in line behind a mom and a little boy (probably 4 or 5 years old).  She called him Baby C’s name and I did a huge double-take.  I instantly thought “that’s OUR name!”.  Obviously other boys will have his name, but it surprised me because his name is really not that popular and I’ve never heard it in a public situation like that before.  Anyways it was still fun hearing it.  If she had said something about my bump, I probably would have told her we were planning to name our baby her son’s name.

What I’m excited about/looking forward to: Doctor’s appointment tomorrow…let’ see if I made any progress!

37 Week Pic:

And what I wore to work…top from Motherhood Maternity Outlet, maternity pants from Target.  I wore this top back in my second trimester sometime on a bump update – look at the difference:

Summer Tones

Some summer inspiration:

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36 Weeks… 9 months!

Last weekend we were out for lunch and the waitress asked me how far along I was – I replied I was almost 9 months.  But now I can officially say I am 9 months…where did the time go?!

Yesterday I had my appointment to get tested for Strep B – hopefully the results come back negative.  Basically from what I know is if they do come back positive, then if your water breaks, you need to get to the hospital ASAP to start on antibiotics.  Not sure what happens if you’re positive and your water never ends up breaking – maybe you still need to go to the hospital sooner than normal?  Since my goal is to labor at home as much as possible, that wouldn’t go well with the “plan”.  Anyways they will tell me the results next week so I’m trying not to think about it until then.

I also got checked to see if Baby C’s head is down and it is!!!!  Wooooo!  Unfortunately my cervix hasn’t changed and I haven’t made any progress, though.  I go back weekly from here on out.

How far along?: 36 weeks

Baby is the size of a:  Honeydew.  Should be about 6 pounds at this point.

Total weight gain/loss:  +25-27…ugh I’m just trying to stay under 30 now, so much for 25.  

The Bump:  Large and in charge.  

Symptoms: Back pain off and on.  I think I’m going to try to schedule a massage in the next week or so.  Luckily my swelling has gone down since last week. 

Food Cravings:  Still salads.  And this week I’ve been loving anything with fruit – I made a huge fruit salad on Sunday and I’ve been taking containers to work each day.  I guess this is my body’s way of telling me to stop eating crap and eat more fruits and veggies.

Anything Making Me Queasy or Sick: Nope.

Sleep: Okay…usually waking up just once a night.  Thanking the Snoogle for no hip pain and very little back pain.

What I miss: The usual stuff. 

Weddings Rings On or Off: On…but they’re getting tight. 

Any Names Picked Out Yet:  I think we have picked THE one :)  It’s a secret until he’s born, though.

Movement: Haha check out my post yesterday for a couple videos I was able to get of him partying.  Or Hubby likes to say he’s “swimming”. 

Maternity Clothes: Just about all maternity. 

Labor Signs: Haven’t really felt any BH contractions this week – I’m assuming I’m still having them but they probably just don’t hurt at all. 

Best Moment of the Week: Knowing he’s head down!

What I’m excited about/looking forward to: need to finish stuff up this weekend – some nursery projects, hospital bags, etc.

36 Week Pic:

And what I wore today…maternity ribbed tank from Old Navy, shrug from Old Navy, and maternity jeans from Kohl’s (I actually wore black pants to work).  The tank top and shrug/cardigan has been my staple outfit almost every day now.  Luckily those tanks are pretty cheap!

Monday Musings

 

My little alien:

 

 

Definitely the best part of pregnancy is feeling the kicks and movements…even if some of them hurt a little once in awhile.  I was asked what they feel like the other day, and I couldn’t come up with a good description.  It’s really unlike anything I’ve ever felt before.  Even though I’m ready to meet Baby C, I am going to miss his dance parties in my belly at night when I’m relaxing.

Popular Names

Did you hear that the Social Security website finally put out their list of most popular names for 2011?  I’ve been waiting and waiting and waiting for this list to be published ever since New Year came and went.  I figured they needed some time to get the stats right, but still, halfway through the list and it’s finally here?  Anyway, here’s the link to the site.

Despite the wait, it made me very happy to know that Baby C’s chosen name is even less popular than it was in 2010.  I joked with Hubby at first and said it was in the top 10 for 2011 but he didn’t really believe me.  And he said if it was in the top 10 this year, that we’re not going through the process of picking a new name and I’d have to deal.  But lucky for me, it’s not even in the top 200.  The name still fits within all of my criteria  – not in the top 100 most popular, easy to spell, easy to pronounce, something that doesn’t come with silly nicknames, and also not too gender neutral.

I’m at the point where I’m okay sharing some of our other contenders before we made the final decision.  Who knows if we’ll still like these names in the future and there’s no guarantee we’ll have another boy.  Before we found out the gender, I started making lists of my favorite boy and girl names.  I would bring a few up every so often to Hubby but he usually would end up shooting them down.  We then decided to wait until after the 20 week ultrasound so we could work on just one list, as we were both sick of having discussions that ended up in disagreements…

Once we found out Baby C was a boy, we had two lists of boys’ names to start with – my list and Hubby’s list.  My list included names like “Nolan”, “Donovan”, “Brendan” and “Ryder”, but there were a few others I liked, as well.  Hubby’s list was much shorter with only “Noah” and “Landon”.  We then came up with a new list we both liked together because we didn’t agree on anything on our own lists.  We miraculously came up with 4 names we both really liked.  I mentioned before when I was doing my San Diego recaps that one day we heard a name we really liked after a dad was calling his son it.  That did end up being one of the 4 names on our list together – it was “Cooper”.  We ultimately decided it was a little too popular – I think it’s in the top 80.   The other two I won’t share just in case the chosen name doesn’t fit when Baby C actually arrives :)

Let’s just say boys’ names were HARD to agree on.  Some boy names sound too much like dog names…and then some sound very little boy-ish, so they won’t fit well for an adult male in the future.  We would always do the “resume test” – I would ask Hubby what he would think if he was interviewing someone that came in with that name.  That’s how we narrowed down a few names haha.  I think if Baby C was a girl, we would have spent only a couple weeks discussing names.  But I’m really happy with what we’ve come up with, which is all that matters. 

Birth Announcements

Something on The Bump’s checklist of things to do is to pick out birth announcements before baby arrives.  I realize this makes sense to have something picked out ahead of time, but it’s just weird looking at these before he’s here.  I think I’m going to go with something on Shutterfly since they’re fairly easy to use and really all you have to do is add in your photos to complete the project.  I would love to design my own, but I’m being realistic in knowing that I probably wouldn’t finish them until 9 months after Baby C is here and my goal is to get these out a month after he’s born :)

Here’s some of my favs on Shutterfly:

I love the “Hello” font on this above one.

 

Cute polkadots without being too feminine.

 

Love how the picture is more “floating” with the bubbles on top.

 

Bold design  and doesn’t use the typical baby blue colors all over.

 

They do have a couple nautical-themed ones, but this is really the only one I would consider going with.  Not sure if I want to keep doing water/beachy stuff, though.

 

I also checked out Snapfish and Vistaprint, but none of their designs really popped out at me.  I guess my other option would be to design something on my own now and leave it blank for the picture(s), but then I have to print them and possibly cut them depending on the type of paper I use, and like I said before, I need to be realistic in knowing how long that could possibly take me with a newborn needing my attention.  At least I still have a few more weeks to decide…it’s a month today until his due date!

Bump & Kitties

I’m trying to take more photos on my iPhone – I mean it’s a pretty decent camera so I might as well get some use out of it.  Here’s some pics from the past few weeks…mostly of the kitties and the bump :)

Sisters cuddlin’…

And distracted by a bird:

Bump hanging out in the nursery on the glider:

And speaking of the nursery, here’s some of Baby C’s friends (don’t worry, the basket will be removed from the crib once he’s actually here):

Ellie just lounging above our bed…she loves laying in the sun in the AM:

Maggie listening to her brother:

And the bump on Mother’s Day:

 

35 Weeks

Two more weeks and we’re full-term!  WOOOO!  After this week, I’m beyond excited to get to that point.  Let’s just say the rest of Week 34 was not so fun.  My feet started to swell on Friday and by the time I got home from work, my legs felt SO heavy.  I immediately laid in bed and propped a couple pillows up underneath my legs to elevate them.  Even though I knew it was coming eventually, I was secretly hoping I’d be one of those very lucky mommas that wouldn’t swell.  Yeah, not so much.  I’ve been trying to elevate my feet as much as possible and drink more water and I think it’s been helping a little.

My Old Navy flip-flops are not fitting that well (I think my feet also have gotten longer).  I basically am stuck with flats or one pair of sandals I found a few weeks ago.  Unfortunately they don’t have any other colors at Marshall’s or else I’d buy a couple more pairs.  My bras are tight but I refuse to buy new ones until a few weeks from now when I’ll start buying nursing stuff.  My rings are getting tight, but not to the point where I need to stop wearing them completely.  Still trying to be thankful that I haven’t felt uncomfortable until this late on, but I can’t always be grateful every single day – just being real.  You can bet that as soon as I hit 37 weeks I’ll be doing everything I can to convince Baby C it’s time to make his grand entrance.

This past weekend we went to Maine to celebrate our early second anniversary and also get maternity pics done.  Our wedding photographer met up with us and I loved working with her again.  Here’s a sneak pic she posted on Facebook on Sunday – I cannot wait to see the rest of them!

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A lot of people asked where I got that top – it’s a nursing friendly maternity top from Target and the shrug is from Old Navy.  Even though I was feeling pretty whale-like, I’m still glad I did the pictures – I know I will look back and appreciate them.  And it was a good excuse to get my hair blown out…I swear I would get my hair done at least once a month if it wasn’t so freaking expensive!

 

How far along?: 35 weeks

Baby is the size of a:  coconut

Total weight gain/loss:  +23-25

The Bump:  Large and in charge.  Stretch marks are getting longggg.

Symptoms: Swollen-ness that I already mentioned.

Food Cravings:  Garden salads.  Normally I get sick of salad so fast but I’ve loved it this past week. 

Anything Making Me Queasy or Sick: Nope.

Sleep: Off and on – some nights are good, some not so good.

What I miss: Is it too early to say everything at this point?  Seriously, I miss my old clothes (while maternity stuff is comfy, I’m getting sick of the same stuff every week).  Also alcohol.  Also working out.  Also sleeping without a Snoogle.  Sigh.

Weddings Rings On or Off: On…but they’re getting tight. 

Any Names Picked Out Yet:  I think we have picked THE one :)  It’s a secret until he’s born, though.

Movement: At least his movements are keeping me smiling…they are a reminder of how close I am to meeting him! 

Maternity Clothes: Just about all maternity. 

Labor Signs: Some more BH contractions, but they’re very random at this point, never last long, and don’t really hurt.

Best Moment of the Week: Getting maternity pics done!  Oh and Hubby installed the car seat base in his car and didn’t even tell me until we got ready to leave for Maine…so cute.

What I’m excited about/looking forward to: getting my hospital bag together this weekend.

35 Week Pic…and apparently I need to clean my mirror yuck:

And what I wore to work…non-maternity maxi from Target.  I LOVE this dress and I hope it’s still flattering after the bump is gone (it may be too tent-like, though, and I will definitely need to get it shortened a little).  I wore it as my second outfit in maternity pics – so comfy and it still showed off the bump pretty well.  And it was just $20 – it’s only available online, though.

 

Two.

Two years ago…

We exchanged vows in front of our favorite people:

Shared our “first” kiss:

Took some pics with our peeps:

Relaxed for a bit:

Danced to “My Wish”:

Listened to some fabulous speeches:

Got surprised by Wally:

Ate some amazing vanilla and blueberry cake:

Danced all night:

And shared one of the best days of our lives together:

“And while you’re out there getting’ where you’re getting’ to, I hope you know somebody loves you, and wants the same things, too.  Yeah, this is my wish.”

Love you hubby – here’s to celebrating many, many more anniversaries :)