35 Weeks!

Well, I'm 35 weeks along as of yesterday - meaning just barely over a month to my due date! We had a doctor's appointment Monday and everything was great - OB said everything was looking fabulous, and as long as my diabetes stays under control then I will be treated as a normal pregnancy without any high-risk issues (that's what we want to hear!). Blood pressure has stabilized and is perfect, weight gain has leveled off (hard to gain weight when I'm not allowed to eat anything on this diabetes diet!), and she is pretty sure baby is head down (although at a slight angle right now!). I start going every week now, so that should be fun!! Here's yet another updated picture of me (late at night and feeling very tired!!):

In other news...... um, I think we bought a house! We put in an offer, it was accepted, the home inspection was Friday (7/25), and now we are just waiting to get a few things fixed before we hopefully close on Friday 8/1 or Monday 8/4!! Yep - homeowners and new parents all within the span of about 4 weeks! Craziness, insanity, fun, exciting - all rolled into one big month! We are very excited ~ we are happy to have a place to call our own for a while, and it will be nice to have our own backyard for playing with Ben, not to mention a chance to make the house what we want after so many years of living in apartments!! I have a bunch of pictures taken by Jerred's sister Camy and her husband, Jeff, when we did a walk through with them last week ~ the link is:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AaNmbRo4ctGVS

Enjoy! I tried to describe what each one is as it's not always obvious! Enjoy! The first things we want to do are to knock down a wall between the living room and kitchen/dining area, get rid of the wallpaper, paint the rooms, and then work on the kitchen this fall/winter. We'll definitely post some house updates on here as well to keep everyone in the loop as the house is hopefully transformed!

That's it for now - enough to keep us busy for quite a while! :-)

33 Weeks! 7 Weeks to Go!

So I'm 33 weeks today - insanity! How did it go so fast? I just remember being like 15 weeks along thinking that another 25 weeks was so far away - and now there are only 7 more left!

My ever-growing self:

Things are good - I'm feeling good, my gestational diabetes is staying under control with diet and exercise, and it's fairly easy to follow. Baby Ben moves around all day long and doesn't usually like to let me sleep much, but I suppose that's good practice!

Ben's room is almost done - his crib bedding and changing table supplies are all stocked and washed and ready to go! We just need the rocker to come in (not until end of August), and we need to hang the artwork on the walls. But here's what it looks like so far:

Even the living room has taken on a new decor ~ baby gear! :-) We have the pack & play set up downstairs so that Ben can nap down there without us having to run up & down all the time to check on him!

The baby to-do lists have gotten much shorter ~ a few things to pick up in the next week or two so that we can install car seats and such, have to pack the hospital bag once we take our last trip to the cabin, and otherwise we are just about ready for the little man to arrive! We have our birth class this coming weekend, so hopefully after that we'll feel even more prepared!

We have also begun the ever-so-interesting job of house hunting. Our lease isn't up until the end of December, but we would want some overlap anyway to move with a little one, and plus we don't know how long it will take for us to find a house that we really want! We are looking at our town (Woodbury) and the next few over, including Cottage Grove, Maplewood, and Oakdale. So we'll see what we can find! Keep your fingers crossed for us! It would be nice to have a little more space (and our own space) when Ben arrives!

So that's it at this point - everyone is well, our tomato plants look great and we should have tomatoes soon - green peppers too! The basil and arugula are already full grown and we'll be cooking with those this weekend! :-) Otherwise just enjoying MN summer!!!

Hope this finds everyone else well!! We love & miss you all!

32 Weeks Tomorrow!

Sorry for the lack of updates recently - I was in RI for 10 days for a wonderful trip home, and I just got back to Minnesota yesterday! I will work on a new blog update tonight/tomorrow!!!

Quick summary - trip was great, baby shower was fabulous, got lots of baby gear and clothes ~ visited lots of friends and family and places - just a great time overall. Feeling good, have follow-up appointment with diabetes clinic today so I'll keep you all posted on that too!

29 Weeks, 2 Days

So here are the updated pictures of me, ever growing! Things are good - Jerred and I had a nice date night out at the Guthrie Theater on Wednesday, a beautiful dinner at Cue inside the Guthrie, and just a fabulous night! The Celtics are NBA Champions - now if only the Bruins would catch on to the winning game in New England!!!! I still feel great - getting more and more tired, out of breath easy, etc. - but as my doctor said last week, the honeymoon is over now!

So the only hitch in this pregnancy was revealed on Wednesday - I have gestational diabetes! Despite gaining exactly as I should, not indulging in lots of sweets, and showing no warning signs, I failed my glucose tests. So I go next week to get my glucose meter and testing supplies and have a session with a nutritionist and figure this out. I started on the diet already this week just to get myself used to it. It's not horrible - but it's hard to balance sometimes. And I miss being able to have something bad every now and then, but I'm saving my cheat days for my showers and my trip to NYC! My next regular doctor's appointment is this coming Thursday the 26th, so hopefully everything still looks good at that point! Then it's only 10 weeks until due date!!!!!

And just a general thank you to everyone for their generosity for all the baby goodies we keep receiving every week! All of it is greatly appreciated and everyone is so generous! Thank you so much!

Off to start the weekend!!!! One more week until RI!!!!!

28 weeks!

So I hit 28 weeks yesterday - third trimester here we go! :-) Feeling pretty good, starting to feel pregnant in the aches/pains sort of way, but generally doing well!!! Definitely getting practice at the not-sleeping thing, since I'm awake at least every 2 hours or so.... at least when the baby is here there will be a good reason to be awake like that! Right now it's just frustrating!!! :-)

Had an appointment yesterday ~ everything was great except ..... I failed the one hour glucose test by miles!!! So now on Tuesday I have to sit at the doctor's office for 3+ hours for the second level test. Really stinks!!! So everyone keep their fingers crossed that I pass this 3 hour test, b/c I really don't want to end up with gestational diabetes! I would be miserable if they restricted what I eat!!! And for all those that are thinking it's all the ice cream - I have no sweet cravings so that's not it... eating too many carbs and going too long between meals so my blood sugar doesn't balance itself well is most likely my problem. So we'll see if I can learn to eat more like 6 small meals a day instead of 3 big ones.

Things are coming along with Ben's room - we'll hopefully hang some curtains soon and once his crib comes in (in about 2.5 weeks), we can finish with a lot of wall hangings and such!

And everyone keep your fingers crossed for my friend Gia today - she might be having her little boy today depending on test results (to see if he's fully cooked!).... so all fingers crossed that he's done and ready to make his appearance!! Wishing her the best of recovery and a beautiful healthy baby boy!!!

26 weeks!

I'm 26 weeks 5 days today - which means that this Wednesday I start my third trimester - YIKES! Time is starting to fly by!!! Here is my ever-expanding stomach - after a day of errands and painting some things for Ben's room, so not the best picture ever! But you can see how big Ben is getting (and therefore I'm getting!):

My visit with my mom was AWESOME! We shopped and shopped and shopped - little Ben actually now has some clothes to wear when he comes home from the hospital! Some very generous family members also had my mom pick up their gifts while they were here ~ I know I've spoken to them already, but thanks again!!! We had a fabulous time - shopping, eating, just hanging out together. It was a wonderful mother-daughter visit! And she felt Ben kick, so that was even better!!

Things are moving along. All of our birth/baby classes are booked, I've booked my doctor's appointments for the next 10 weeks (5 appointments in 10 weeks - sheesh! then I have 4 more to book b/c then I start going every single week!!), Ben's room is almost emptied out of our junk (it will hopefully be done this weekend)...... so we're actually getting closer to being ready for the little man to arrive! Hopefully we can relax in June and then use July to finish up all the little things we need to buy (diapers, etc.). We took some pictures of Ben's room now that it's not full of our stuff - enjoy!

We also went shopping for a glider for Ben's room and a rocker/recliner for the living room so there are comfy places to rock the little man to sleep no matter which floor of our house you're on! Here they are - the leather rocker/recliner is the actual one, the glider is the same style but not the same colors (and has a matching ottoman I didn't post). Yay to comfort!! :-)

And the best news of all - not only do I get a trip to RI (June 27-July 7 - YAY!), but I'm also going for a very brief overnight to NYC while I'm back east! I'm taking the train down the morning of Thursday July 3, and taking the train back to RI the morning of Friday July 4. I emailed a ton of people in NYC to let them know I'm coming, but if I didn't email you, consider yourself warned/notified!!! :-) Details on a gathering that Thursday night to follow! :-)

Hope this post finds everyone doing well around the country/world!!

24 weeks!

Well, 24 weeks already (as of yesterday!). Had a doctor's appointment - all is well! Measuring right at 24 weeks, Benjamin's heart rate was perfect, all seems well! My diaper bag arrived yesterday too - SOOOO exciting!

Slightly less happy, although necessary, was visiting a daycare center and putting down a deposit yesterday too. While I wish I could stay home longer, unfortunately that's not in the cards so we've got a spot for Benjamin once he's 6 weeks old (although I hope to be home for 8-10 weeks, we'll see). But we like the place, we get good vibes from it, so hopefully all will be ok! It's about 2 miles from the house, so that's convenient - on Jerred's way to work and not really out of the way for me.

That's about it from MN this week - my mom arrives tonight and I'm beyond excited to have her here for the weekend ~ I can't wait!!!!!! A little over 8 hours to go and she'll be here!!! YAY!!!