37 Weeks

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 37 Weeks-- he is considered full term now!

Size of Baby: He should be about 6 1/3 pounds (haha, I'm SURE he's bigger) and a little bit over 19 inches. He is approximately the size of a stalk of Swiss chard.

Total Weight Gain/Loss: OH MY WORD. At my appointment on Tuesday, I about fell off the scale because I'd actually LOST THREE POUNDS. This puts me back into a weight gain that is in the 20 pound range. I don't know how that happened or why, but they didn't say it was bad. Who am I to question a doctor?

Maternity Clothes: All maternity pants (other than yoga/sweat pants) and a mix of maternity/ non-maternity shirts. I'll be honest, I've exhausted my options of maternity clothes. I feel like I'm wearing the same thing all the time and I've lost my will to care. 

Gender: Boy! People ask me his name all the time, but since he truly doesn't have one yet, it's easy not to tell.

Movement: I love it when he moves! He picks different times of the day to go crazy. Last night, I tried to get a video on my phone but of course he stopped as soon as I tried to capture the moment.

Sleep: Most of the time, I sleep very, very well. Third trimester pregnancy insomnia hasn't really been an issue.

What I Miss: Sleeping on my back? I have really been enjoying pregnancy, other than the hellish morning sickness that I had. If not for that, I'd have had a picture perfect pregnancy. I will miss the closeness and just the whole experience.

Cravings: I crave something sweet after every meal. I have always loved the mini Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs and thankfully, the stores have put them out very early this year. I'm not going to tell you how many bags we've (I've) gone through in the last few weeks.

Symptoms: Still some pelvic pain and some back pain, but my doctor taught me some good ways to manage the pain. It's definitely helped. My hips crack and pop a lot which is semi-comical but mostly painful. I feel like I need a hip transplant at the tender age of 25.

Best Moment This Week: Some of my very favorite people in Cincinnati threw me a gorgeous shower this weekend! It was such a sweet time with friends who have made this city another home for me. Every detail was absolutely perfect and I got to celebrate the baby with so many people that I love. My mom and MIL got to come as well, which worked out so well! It was fun to sort through tons of baby clothes with them on Saturday evening. I am telling you-- friends have been SO generous in giving me baby clothes. This baby is set for a really long time in the clothes department and he has some really beautiful, quality items! On Sunday, my mom, Tyler, and I finally got the nursery into shape. Nothing like your mom to light a fire under your rear end! Everything in his room is pretty close to being ready for his arrival and we are now just putting things away that he won't need anymore! I was so, so thankful for the time with my mom in his nursery. I always dreamed of my momma helping me get ready for my little one and it has been a blessing to see how much she's enjoyed it, too!

Date Nights

I thought it might be fun to document a few date nights that Tyler and I have had recently. We've been really making a point to spend a lot of intentional time together before the baby comes in hopes that after he is born we will continue to do so. I have loved every minute of it! To be honest, the grand majority of our quality time happens at home, but there is truly nothing like spending the evening in your pajamas with your man. I absolutely love it.

I wrote briefly that a few weekends ago, Tyler and I took a little one night "babymoon" to our favorite bed and breakfast in the area. I have become overly paranoid about being too far from my doctor and the hospital, so we thought we'd stay local. Luckily, we have a B&B that we love that is only about 30 minutes away. We checked in late afternoon, spent some time talking to the couple that owns the place, then set out for a super classy dinner at Texas Roadhouse. Try not to be too jealous. I know that our refined taste is a stumbling block for some because they wish they could roll like us, but we like what we like.

Please do not be fooled into thinking that I only ate that salad. That was only one of my sides with my main course (Chicken Critters, if you must know). However, this picture of myself makes me painfully aware that I indeed have "pregnancy head", a term coined by Jenny McCarthy in her book Belly Laughs. My nose has taken on a life of it's own. OY. Expectant moms, you HAVE TO read this book, though. I laughed through the whole thing and every single word, including pregnancy head, is painfully true.

After we ate, we headed back and enjoyed some homemade cupcakes, a delicious beverage (water), and a movie in front of the fireplace. We had a great time being together but not at home. I find that when we're at home, even if we're just relaxing, I can always get distracted by all I have to do. I'm working on it! It was wonderful to have a little getaway!

Last night, we had a Valentine's Day date. Honestly, I can really take or leave Valentine's Day. It is fun for me because I have an awesome husband and many people in my life that I love. It's also really fun as an elementary school teacher because you really get into the excitement of tiny paper valentines and a ton of candy. I had Toy Story valentines this year and they were a big hit. I also love Valentine's Day in elementary school because you get an abundance of these:

I'm not ashamed to say that pregnant or not, I love Nerds. Do they make them with crack? They are so addicting. I. Love. Nerds.

Back to Valentine's Day with my husband... the important part of this post, not the Nerds.

We enjoyed an amazing dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. That is one perk to living in Cincinnati: we can go whenever we want! Except we don't... ever. It was a fun treat. Tyler had steak, this amazing salmon, and mashed potatoes that I finished for him. And when I say finished, I mean that I ate more than half of them. I enjoyed some of my favorite pasta and will be destroying the rest at lunch today. We saved room for dessert and split a piece of White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake. Everything was incredible and we sat there for almost 2 hours just talking. It was so wonderful. I'm really thankful that not only do Tyler and I love each other, but that we truly enjoy each other's company! Cheesy? Yes. True? Yes.

My least favorite part was when we told our waiter that this was our last childless Valentine's Day and he actually said, "Oh, yeah? That was the case for my wife and I last year. Get ready for having a baby. I'm not going to lie-- it's AWFUL. My son is 8 months old and he's just now starting to get fun." I honestly had no idea what to say. First of all, WHY WOULD YOU TELL ME THAT. And second of all, how sad for your wife and baby! Yes, I know that having an infant is not all peaches and cream, but seriously? That's all you could say!? It blew my mind. It would absolutely kill me if I ever heard Tyler talking like that about our son (which he never would). I would understand a little realistic advice; I mean, I know it won't be easy, but to say all of that? He honestly rendered me speechless, which is something that has never happened before. After we ate, we went to the Apple store and played/ lusted over the iPads. I changed my mind; I don't need a Kindle, I'll just take an iPad with the Kindle app. After hitting up a few more stores in the mall to finish some baby related tasks, we went home and relaxed. Great, great evening with my best bud.

While we've prepared our lives and house for this baby, we've really been working on preparing our marriage for him, too. Something that I am trying to constantly meditate on is that when the baby comes, I will need to keep this order straight: #1-- God, #2-- Tyler, #3-- Baby. I know that I will be tending to the baby's needs 24/7 for quite sometime, so I know it's going to be super hard on many days. I'm sure that I will fail on a daily basis, but thankfully, I have a very gracious God and a very gracious husband. I know it will be quite the learning curve!

Happy Tuesday!

36 Weeks

Please excuse my seemingly malformed stomach. The cardigan I was wearing had large buttons and makes it look like I'm going to birth a baby made of Legos. I'm going to need to think twice before wearing it again.

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 36 Weeks

Size of Baby: He is gaining about an ounce per day and should be around 6 pounds. He is more than 18 1/2 inches long and is the approximate size of a crenshaw melon.

Total Weight Gain/Loss: I've not lost any weight. Can I just stick with that? I definitely gained between my 35-36 week appointments, but the doctor still swears that I'm on track and measuring well. Who am I to question a doctor? 

Maternity Clothes: All maternity pants (other than yoga/sweat pants) and a mix of maternity/ non-maternity shirts. I have two pairs of work maternity pants and I obviously wear them a lot. On Tuesday, one of my sweet, sweet children said, "Ooooh, Mrs. Haney! You worse those pants yesterday!" Lovely of you to notice, sweetheart. You can't for the life of you remember where your Math paper goes, but you can remember what pants I wore yesterday. Children... God bless them.

 Gender: Boy. The Boy Without a Name. That will be the Lifetime movie that they will someday make about my son because he still has no name.

Movement: Still moving like crazy! Boy child HATES the doppler at the doctor's office. Have I said that already? He moves away from it every single time they try to find his heartbeat. My doctor said that's a good sign. I don't know why, but he said it.

Sleep: Eh, depends on the night. I only get up once to go to the bathroom, but sometimes I will wake up and my mind will just start racing with all I have to do before he gets here.

What I Miss: Clear skin. Pregnancy acne has not been good to me.

Cravings: I truly just crave food at this point, but sometimes, I'm just not hungry at all. Last night I ate a salad and Triscuits and cheese for dinner. Don't worry, I ate plenty and my baby did not go hungry. I actually could eat Triscuits and cheese at any point in the day.  

Symptoms: Lots of pain due to the fact that he is head down, but I'm not complaining! My back also hurts periodically due to my pinched nerve. It's all completely worth it, though.

Best Moment This Week: Tyler and I went on a little "babymoon" on Saturday night. We didn't want to go too far from home (just in case), so we headed out to our favorite bed and breakfast which is about 30 minutes from our house. We dropped our stuff off, went to dinner, and then came back and watched a movie. The next morning, we enjoyed an amazing breakfast, packed up and came home for a nice quiet afternoon. It was so nice to be with just my husband somewhere other than our house. When we are home, I am always doing something, cleaning something, getting ready for the baby, etc. It was great to just take some time to relax and talk. I really love that guy. He is going to be an incredible dad!

Maternity Pictures

Pregnancy: the only time in your life where you actually want to document how fat you're getting.

You've been seeing my (attempted) weekly updates and photos. Other than that, I've stayed away from cameras for the most part. I do have to say, I'm very glad we've done the weekly pictures. It has been (mostly) fun to see how much I grow from week to week and month to month. We've also done belly shots each week, but that is just for our personal viewing pleasure. I would not subject anyone to that on this blog. I just am not into that, but no hard feelings if you are. One thing I've learned about pregnancy is that everyone is different and you just have to roll with it.

Back to pictures.

I knew when I got pregnant that I'd want to do a maternity shoot at some point. I doubt we'll do this again with any of our other pregnancies, but since this was the first, I wanted to remember it in a special way. We know a lot of amazing photographers, but I knew that I wanted my sweet friend Jenn to do them. She is a fantastic photographer and does an incredible job of capturing really sweet times in peoples lives. She is also a lovely woman who just has the most precious heart. I have known her for well over 10 years and she is a peach!

A few weekends ago, we had her take our maternity pictures in Michigan. She is a Speedy Gonzalez because she already has a preview up on her blog! I am so thrilled with the pictures and cannot wait to see more! I'm excited to pick one to frame for Baby Boy's room. Jenn, we just love them so far. Thank you for documenting this special time in our lives!

I can't wait to hear what you all think!

34 and 35 Weeks

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 34 and 35 Weeks

Size of Baby: At 34 weeks, he weighed approximately 4 and 3/4 pounds, which is the size of your average cantaloupe. He was around 18 inches long. At 35 weeks, he is over 18 inches long and should weigh about 5 and 1/4 pounds, which is the size of a honeydew melon. I thought a cantaloupe was big, but now we're talking about a huge melon baby. I have this fear that I am going to birth a toddler sized baby and that fear has suddenly been made very real by the fact that I look a TON bigger in my 35 week picture.

Total Weight Gain/Loss: 26 pounds. If I'm having a honeydew baby, shouldn't I only have gained about 6-7 pounds? Sounds fair to me!

Maternity Clothes: All maternity pants (other than yoga/sweat pants) and a mix of maternity/ non-maternity shirts. I live in my black GAP work pants and all sweat pants. I don't even care anymore!

Gender: Boy! My mom asked me if he had a name last night. Sorry, Mom. Nope. She did give me some good advice in that whatever we name him, he will become that name and we will love that. I need to stop stressing about the name.

Movement: I still love to feel him move! He is moving more slowly, but has been getting the hiccups a lot lately. I love when he gets them! Tyler got to feel his hiccups the other day and just laughed and laughed. It was great. :)

Sleep: My 3,000 pillows and I are having a great time at night. I've figured out that if I go to bed a little later (read: 10:00 as opposed to 9:00), I sleep better. What a concept!

What I Miss: I miss the days before I got pregnant when I thought I was fat but I actually wasn't.

Cravings: I do NOT like lunch meat. Not at all. However, last week I could have killed someone for a lunch meat sandwich. Didn't care what kind, I wanted it. I pacified myself by getting a chicken teriyaki sub for lunch instead. The man behind me was very sweet and was asking me about the baby and asked if I was craving anything specific. Bless his heart, I don't think he knew what to say when I told him I was craving FOOD. That was a great lunch because I got a free cookie for being 8 months pregnant. It was awesome. 

Symptoms: I'm having a lot of pain in certain areas. I am also dealing with a BEAST of a pinched nerve, which makes it hard to work but not impossible.

Best Moment This Week: During week 34, my in-laws came and my FIL painted the nursery! I love it soooo much. I can't wait to show you all the finished product. While he painted, my MIL and I did some projects around the house that I've been wanting to get down and Tyler's brother built us these amazing shelves in the basement. We had a wonderful time with them! They also brought their new schnoodle puppy, Gracie. She was DARLING. It was great to have them and we got so much accomplished. I am so lucky to have wonderful in-laws! During week 35, one of my best friends, Kate, threw me another beautiful shower in Michigan. She is such an amazing planner and great with details-- it was so beautiful and so fun to be with so many of my sweet friends from home! A few days later, I had my work shower and so many of my colleagues came to celebrate the baby. It was incredible and overwhelming in such a lovely way. I work with some amazing women who are so excited for us and to meet this baby. I will blog about the showers-- I WILL! I just have to gather some pictures. It might be after the baby is born, but I promise, it will get done! Thank you to all of you who attended and made me (and baby) feel so loved!