NH Visit/Fair Week

I am now 27 weeks pregnant (9/28). This means bebe is the approximate size of a sock monkey! She is now over 2 pounds and at least 12 inches. Next week we have another ultrasound, so we shall have to remember to find out how long she is. I am feeling fine, just tired from being so busy and my ankles are swelling more. Yeah. She is moving around and last night I could physically see movement as I lay down on my back to put my feet up. Very strange.
We have once again been quite busy. Last Sunday John's brother-in-law Eric came to visit and we caught a wet Red Sox game at the Royal's stadium. Unfortunately we lost. I flew out to NH early on Tuesday (9/22) and John and Eric went to the game that night. John says he just missed catching a batting practice ball. He said another man's glove got in the way.
Thursday I watched Ethan and Enola while Tiffany had an interview. We then all went apple picking. The MacIntosh were really yummy, but all the good ones were up high. Tiffany put Ethan up on a branch and held his legs while giving him directions as to which apples to pick. Enola and I kept watch for orchard workers. It was a warm 80 degree day. John was offered tickets for the last Red Sox game and went with some coworkers. They had a good time and the Sox won. All in all a good day.
Sunday was my baby shower put on by Jenn, Mom, Tiffany and Rebecca. We had it over at Tiffany's grandmother's studio. It was an afternoon tea with yummy baked goods by Jenn and Tiffany. There was local NH tea and the party favor was local NH soap slices, all very nice. We had fun. Enola was helping by pulling all the tissue paper out of the bags, sometimes even before I could get it! She also did a silly laugh which had everyone going. Thank you to everyone who put it together and those who came. It was great!
After the shower we had a 80th birthday party for my Grandma Bauer. It was nice seeing the whole Bauer family. The Hanson family came out from Chicago, which was great and Aunt Michelle driving up with all of them. Come to find out my pregnancy is going just like both of my aunts'. Nausea in the beginning and a bunch of weight gain in the end. Yeah!
Tuesday (9/29) I picked John up in Manchester and I had more movement in my belly than I had had the week before. She missed his voice! We had a busy afternoon running some errands and then heading down to Boston for the game. The day before Scott had called saying his CEO offered him his box seats and would we like them, yes! It was a great game (better if we had won) and a lot of fun to get to Fenway on a very charged night.
Wednesday we headed up to the cottage and had a nice evening with Mary and Earl and a lobstah dinner. Thursday we spent at the Fair with Tiffany and the kids seeing all the animals and trying to convince Ethan he did not want to go on the rides. We then headed over to Gonic for dinner with Drew and Becca. We had a nice time visiting and a very long day. We slept in a little on Friday before heading over to visit my Aunt Flora and Jackie. We then met up with Mary and Earl to go see Gram up at her retirement home. It is a nice facility with lots to do and many people she knows. It was good to see where she has been staying and how much she enjoys everyone there.
We then checked out the outlets for baby clothes and stopped to see Uncle Junior before heading down to Deerfield for the night.
Saturday we hung around the house in the morning with John helping Uncle and Scott working on the porch. It was a rainy day. Mary and Earl came over and we ended up grabbing Ethan and Enola and all of us going down to the Fair. The kids were good, if not hungry. We stayed until the weather started to turn then headed over to Scott's house for supper. Sunday we packed up, stopped by the Fair and then headed out getting home a bit after 7pm. A long crazy couple of weeks!

Dancing Queen

Okay, it has been too long since the last post. We have traveled a lot and therefore I had to catch up on a lot of sleep. I think I am finally getting there.
The Dancing Queen reference is to the ABBA song. I was packing to go to Chicago and listening to the song when our little one decided to start violently bouncing off the wall. Her busiest yet! We have not tried it again, but it was pretty funny.
We are now in week 25, so officially 6 months(+) along. She is usually quite active, but I cannot seem to get used to the bumps. She is especially wiggly if I am too scrunched up, sitting curled up or leaning over. She is over 1.5 pounds, around 13-14 inches and about the approximate size of a 5 pound bag of flour. I am glad she is not 5 pounds yet! She has great reflexes, can grab her toes and is even starting to show signs of her dominant hand. My uterus is around the size of a soccer ball, hence all the kicking. John can now hear her heart beat if he puts his ear on my belly. She is getting big.
John and I have had a lot going on in the past few weeks. The weekend of August 29 we headed up to Minnesota to see the Olson's, go to the Minnesota State Fair (yummy food) and see John's Grandma. Mary and Earl were also in town, so we were able to visit them as well. Labor Day weekend we drove up to Chicago to meet Eric and Jack. We caught a Red Sox/White Sox game (we lost), saw the Harry Potter Movie exhibit and checked out some museums. We went swimming where I found I am much more buoyant. If no one was splashing I would hover around eye level without moving.
Mary and Earl met us at home when we got back from Chicago and were able to stay until Saturday. It was a nice to have them visit for a few days. John and I celebrated our eighth wedding anniversary last Tuesday with a nice dinner out with Mary and Earl. It was a fun and enjoyable time. Can you believe it has been eight years!
This weekend we caught up on rest and laundry. We also finished putting plants in the ground that I had just received for my birthday from my parents. Just a word of warning, budding peony roots need to be planted in a hole 18 inches deep and 18 inches around! John did all the digging, I supervised and "ran" for tools. Today I am starting to feel rested, just in time to start packing for my trip to NH. I am very excited for cooler weather, but I need more maternity clothes. I do not have a lot of layers to wear if it is chilly. I will try to post a picture of my belly next week.

Kick Dog-base Ball

We are now in week 22. Our girl continues to grow reaching between 10-12 inches in length, about half of what she will be at birth! Her canines and molars are starting to develop as hardened tissue in her gums. Her eyes are developed, but the irises have no color. She is exploring the womb by touching everything, and I can tell you some days she is very busy! My favorite fact this week is that she now has a full set of neurons and can now process everything she learns. She now weighs a pound, that seems so big! I am feeling okay, a little sore from all the stretching going on. I still have a belly button, but it is slowly disappearing. The day it is gone will be a weird one.
It was a busy weekend here, hence the late post. We spent Saturday working on our baby registry and getting a lot of that done. When I got home the Triplett kids were over to play with the dogs. This is where the title comes in. Travis (9) was swinging and I was tossing a tennis ball at him to kick. We started to joke about needing bases and the next thing we knew we had developed a game. Milo was first base, Ally was second and Kodak was third. John was over by this point and had also joined in. Travis' mom Jana came out and his four year old sister Evie joined in whenever an extra player was needed. We did not keep score, just outs. It was really a lot of fun as our bases would run away, try to grab the ball or run towards the pitcher. I did have the unfair advantage of having Kodak and Milo follow me constantly, but that is okay because I could not run as quickly as the others. It was a lot of fun and wore us all out. Sunday was catching up on some rest and working on painting. The dogs and I did play with the kids again. I got the kids to "help" me bathe them, so we got clean dogs out of that deal. The nursery is 90% done, just need to touch up the white stripes (not the band).
Next weekend we head to Minnesota to visit the Olson's and Mary and Earl. So we will try to post from the road. Have a good week!

Colors

Wow, it is hard to believe it has only been a little over a week since we confirmed we are having a little girl. It is much easier to talk about her now and plan for things. To help our family and friends with our thoughts on girl colors John and I decided to put some info in our blog.




So, no baby pink or baby purple (unless it is a minor color). I am not into pink at all, but am okay with fuchsia/raspberry, deeper pinks in my book. I love how there are lots of variety in girl clothes right now. Chocolate or navy back grounds with stripes or flowers in fuchsia, yellow, greens, purples and all sorts of other colors. I have shared some pictures of patterns we already own to help. Hope this gives people a better idea of what we are thinking. It is not absolutely no pink, just pink as a minor detail, not the whole outfit. Ruffles are fine, no lace. We love all the nature patterns out there right now, especially birds and owls.
So baby girl has been busy this weekend. She has been bouncing around in there having a good time. She wanted to get up at 5:30 am yesterday just like we had all week. I hope this does not stick with her long! She did not want to get me up this morning thankfully, but has been flipping around quite a bit this afternoon. It is so hard to believe that she is about 10.5 ounces! That is about the size of a can of Rotel's (making chili today!). She is about 9-10 inches. I forgot to ask at the ultrasound, but I think she is good and big. Her digestive tract is working now and she is taking sips of amniotic fluid to absorb some fattening nutrients. She can even taste the fluid now! The rest of her senses are still developing, but at a fairly quick pace.
We have finally put our first coat of paint on the walls in the nursery. Still a soft yellow with white stripes on the bottom. We are looking for some black and white curtains for the two windows and John wants to go with dark brown furniture. So, things are coming together slowly there. We are trying to make a list of things we will need and what to register for. Not too busy here this weekend and I even got in a nap. Yeah!
I hope everyone has a great week!

Baby Girl Steman

Here are two of our favorite ultrasound pictures. The first if a nice profile shot with her hand up by her face and the second is her first footprint. John thinks she may sleep like him with her hands up. She was actually moving her hands and feet a lot during the appointment. I laugh to think her profile looking like one of us versus the other because we both have the straight German nose! It should be fun to see her in another 2 months.
We are now in our fifth month. Wow! It has been flying since I started to feel better. Our baby girl is about the size of a coconut now. She can use all her senses now so John tries to read out loud to her every night. Her skin is covered in vernix, a cheesy coating to protect her skin from the amniotic fluid. She may even get the hiccups now. I shall have to see if I can feel that movement. She can grab her umbilical cord if she feels it, so could be practicing some swinging in there! Very busy girl!
We had a busy week this past week. My mom came to visit and we checked out local gardens, found some plant seeds, saw the baby and looked at baby clothes and other items. I was good and only bought 2 shirts, Mom picked up some cute onesies/shirts too. I have to wait for more winter clothes come out before I can look for a going home outfit. Cold weather gear, here we come.
Hope everyone enjoys the pictures!

It's a...

Grapefruit! Well, that is the approximate size of the baby this week. It must be rolled up because bebe is almost 9 inches now!
So the news you have all been waiting for, if you have not already heard, is, wait for it...drum roll please...We are having a little girl! She was a very active baby at the ultrasound today. She moved around quite a bit throwing her hands in the air like she just does not care...Feet were moving hands waving. In a good number of the ultrasound shots she has her hands up around her face. John says she takes after him for the arms over head sleeping position.
We had a great ultrasound appointment with a technician named Carolyn. She had been doing this over 30 years and was real quick to check the sex for us when we said we wanted to know. She printed a lot of profile pictures as those are her favorites. One of the shots with bebe's hand at her head Carolyn called bebe's Drama Queen pose. We also have a foot picture and a shot of her girl parts.
The midwife told us everything looks really good. All growth seems to be moving along at the right speed and bebe shows all the signs of being a nice, very healthy baby girl. One slight concern was the placenta being attached a little low in my uterus, so we get to go back for another ultrasound in 8 weeks. There should be no problem with the placenta, but they have to check, so another free view for us!
I had a great birthday. I felt like a little kid waking up this morning expecting the ultrasound and to confirm our suspicion of a little girl. We had a good lunch and took mom to check out some baby stuff. We were good though and only bought two small shirts at Target. A yummy Italian supper and a wonderful gelato cake rounded out the evening with presents. John had called the local gelato store and talked to them about making a Carvel like cake. They nailed the cookie, but they did not let it crumble. It was delicious, but hard to get through!
So, that is all for this week. Thanks for all the birthday wishes!

Girl or boy? Boy or girl?

So in preparation for tomorrow's appointment I have some fun myths and folklore for distinguishing the sex of the baby for you.

If your fingernails are growing stronger and faster during the pregnancy it indicates boy. So, 1 for boy. Nice healthy nails here!
If my mothers hair is gray, it means boy. If it is a color (even if dyed) it if a girl. Mom has brown hair, 1 for girl.
If your bottom is gaining weight, girl. If it is maintaining its pre-pregnancy shape, boy. According to John, score 2 for boy.
If your hands stay nice and smooth, girl. If they get rough and callused, boy. My hands are still nice and smooth, so 2 for girl.
If your leg hair growth is heavier than before, boy. If it is growing at the same rate, girl. Well, I still shave the same rate here, so girl again.
If you have shortness of breath and find it harder to breath since becoming pregnant, this indicates you are carrying a boy. And I thought it was because I was more out of shape than I thought! Boy here.
It is a tie!

So, what does all this show us? I took away that you can find enough myths and folklore to indicate either and we shall just have to wait until tomorrow!