Shower

On Saturday afternoon I had another baby shower for Hudson, this time given my sister with help from my friends. We played a few baby games, ate some good BBQ from Edley's, and I got to see some old friends and some family. Even with it being 90% humidity it was a beautiful day and once again I realized how many people this little man already has loving him. What a lucky guy! 

I have some very talented friends/family. Jennie made Hudson that chevron elephant!

I had the sweetest little helper bringing me gifts. 

But Oscar soon became much more interesting :) 

We played a game where everyone had to guess with string the size of my belly. I'm not sure what it means that everyone guessed the size being way bigger than I am! 

My Aunt Angela and cousin Lindsay and her 2 kids drove all the way from both Indiana and Memphis to come celebrate with us at the shower. I was so excited to have them both there. Thank you to you both for making the trip, I know it had to be a long day! 

The first picture of all of us together in forever! My sweet friends from high school that were some of the very firsts to know about Hudson growing in my belly and will be some awesome 'aunts' to him  

Gram and Aunt Erica :)

Although we look nothing alike she is my sister and the very best one. Thank you for such a fun shower E! 

Really though, this little guy was the entertainment for the afternoon. :) 

Be prepared for lots of upcoming blog posts because we FINALLY move in to our new house on Thursday!!! Well...technically Saturday but we will be staying in the house on Thursday so that counts! We went this past Thursday to do our walk-thru and everything is pretty much finished there's just a few odds and ends that needed fixing. Needless to say Cliff and I are both on cloud 9 this week knowing it's finally here! 

Oscar

I've had a lot of people ask me if the puppy in my Instagram pictures is mine. No! Although I would love for him to be there's no way I could talk Cliff into another one right now. Maybe one day soon though :) Elizabeth and Robert (my sister and her boyfriend) got a Great Pyrenees puppy last weekend that they named Oscar. Cliff and I got to see him last weekend but we took Missi to meet him yesterday. He's going to get rather large, probably much bigger than Missi so I wanted to see them together before he grows up too fast! He was way more in to in than Missi was. Puppies always love Missi and tend to use her as a big chew toy but she really doesn't seem to mind at all. Here are some pictures from their first meeting. 

Oscar was really into Missi. She was a little more interested in new smells and sounds to pay him a lot of attention but she did notice him a few times and got pretty excited. I'm sure the more he grows the more they'll love each other! 

 It made me a little sad looking back at pictures when we got home. I still see Missi as an Oscar sized puppy but I realized my girl is looking older these days. So to feel better I just look at pictures of when she was a baby puppy :)

32 Weeks

So this was supposed to be an every 2 week thing..oops. I'll try to keep it going but things around our household are starting to get a little crazy!

How far? 32 weeks as of 7/31

Size of baby: Head of lettuce (19in 4 lbs) again, this is just an iphone app estimate. According to my doctor she won't know truly how big he is until he arrives

Sleep: Still different from night to night. I've recently been having awful SI joint pain that's been keeping me up at night. I'm hoping with some therapy and ice it'll stop hurting so bad. Luckily we have a STAR physical therapy at work and they were kind enough to use a TENS unit on my back and give me some exercises yesterday that helped a ton.
I've also been waking up almost every night around 3 or 4 wide awake with the urge to want to start packing our apartment up. This could just be out of excitement to finally get out of here.

Strech Marks: No. Maybe if I type that small enough it'll be like I'm not actually saying it therefore not jinxing myself.

Best moment of the week: I had my first baby shower this past week and I had such a good time. It's making it feel that much closer to him arriving! Also, getting to have both of my grandmothers at the shower was very special for me. 

Movement: Still a whole lot of movement! I can tell he's getting bigger and bigger and my doctor told me this week that he seems he's rather long. Gee, I wonder why that could be! I'm pretty sure I was 23 inches when I was born.  He usually is pretty calm during the day but once I get home in the evenings he's very active. I've also noticed that when I get up in the mornings and take Missi out or when I get home after work and am talking to her he really responds. Could be because I talk to her in a really loud high pitched voice...I'm sure my neighbors love me. And, he may just be hoping to shut me up with a jab to the ribs!

Gender: Boy :)

Belly Button In or Out? In and it seems to be staying that way...for now.

Wedding rings off or on? Still on thank goodness. However, in the last 2 weeks I have noticed when I'm outside for too long my hands are starting to swell. Bleh. I have a thing about my wedding rings and really don't want to have to take them off. I wonder if Genesis will let me just borrow a bigger sized ring if I end up having to take them off? :) 

Cravings: Nope, none. And if you want to know how to get rid of a craving just eat/drink too much of it, that will do it. I had been obsessed with lemonade until I drank about 64 oz of it at once and felt like I was going to puke. Now, I'm sticking to water and an occasional raspberry sweet tea from Sonic. 
I do still crave grilled big green egg food but the good news is that in just 2 weeks I can have it!! 

Anything making you queasy or sick? Not really. Although I have noticed a touch of nausea here and there that is quite similar from my first trimester. And, I did come face to face with some quinoa this week and turned a little green. 

What I miss: Still pretty much all of the same stuff. This week was pretty rough with this sudden SI joint pain that arose and for a few days I let that really get me down but I know no matter how uncomfortable I am in just 8 (hopefully sooner) short weeks it will all be more than worth it. 

What I'm looking forward to: I have a shower next weekend given by my sister that I'm really excited for! Also, in just a week and a half we'll finally be living in our new house!!! I am SO excited and can't wait to get things in there and all set up. Unfortunately I don't think I'm going to be as much of a help as I'd hoped to be but fortunately for us all of our family is close and are willing to help us!
I've also recently gotten so anxious to finally meet him. It's crazy how you can know someone better than anyone else and love them so much but never have met them before. I just can't wait for him to finally be here. 

Labor Signs: I've had braxton hicks now handful of times. The first time it happened was last Friday at work. I was sure I was in labor and was in the process of trying to rally a co-worker to walk to across to the hospital when it went away. It never did happen again that day but it has happened randomly since. 

Nursery: Still non existent.

Emotions: Pretty good. No crazy melt downs or rages this month :) At our house the outdoor living space was still left to be completed and as I was seeing other houses around us go up I realized any of the ones that had a fireplace like ours were being built with the frame. So, i've been panicking about this over the last month or so because our outdoor living space had yet to be touched even with the rest of the house almost done. Our builder assured us of timelines on it that never seemed to be met. So, when we went to see the house last Friday I told Cliff, if the outdoor living space is not done or at least worked on I was going to loose it. Luckily for everyone involved the fireplace was built and you could actually walk out on to it. I think Cliff was a little nervous though since we were meeting my grandparents there and I'm sure he didn't want a Kathryn sized melt down to happen in front of them :) 

Baby Shower

This weekend I had my first baby shower for Hudson given by my sweet sister-in-law, Erica. Hudson's room is going to be grey, yellow, with some splashes of navy and I'm incorporating elephants where ever I can because I think they're so cute! She did such a good job of adding those details to her decorations.

We got a good start on things for Hudson! In just 2 weeks we'll finally be able to start putting his nursery (and the rest of our house) together! 

I took lots of pictures yesterday so I'll let them do the rest of the talking :) 

 

This is mine and Cliff's baby pictures. I'm on the left Cliff is on the right. I think we can all pretty much guess what Hudson will look like!

Cliff's mom is a very talented seamstress. She made the cutest little smocked bubble outfit but she also made him a quilt that matches his room perfectly!  

Hudson's grandmothers 

Two of his great-grandmother's 

It was such a nice day and I feel so blessed to have had everyone come celebrate with us. Also, I feel incredibly lucky to have had two of Hudson's great-grandmothers come in town to celebrate him with us. Thank you Mom-mom and Mimi! 

And a huge thank you to Erica (and Barbara!) who put this shower together for me. 

What's on your plate?

Two blog posts in one day? Don't get used to it! 

I love finding new recipes especially when they actually turn out the way the pictures look and taste delicious too and I thought i'd share any I find. I am all about some  Pinterest and have found many recipes on there; some good, some would probably be considered a pinterest fail. I used to just pin a bunch of food that I would never actually try. Most of which was super healthy like an avocado pizza or a quinoa (gross that word again) burger which I would have never even dream of cooking let alone eating. So, I deleted my food board and now only pin recipes that I've actually made and have been successful. Which leads me to tonight's dinner; Mexican Stuffed Shells. Ah-ma-zing! When it comes to Cliff I could tell him we're having mexican stuffed broccoli and he would automatically like it but I'm a little more picky and this was definitely pin-worthy.

Anyway, I thought I'd share this delish recipe with you all incase you like mexican as much as we do and are in to cooking pretty simple recipes! I didn't follow the recipe exactly how it's written. I added black beans and corn to the beef mixture and instead of ground beef I used ground turkey because for some reason ground beef grosses me out these days. 
Recipe

Try it out, I'll bet you'll like it! 

Closing Time

Finally, after what's felt like an eternity we have a closing date! We have our walk thru scheduled for Aug 8th and our closing on Aug 15th. Unfortunately, the timing is not going to be ideal with work and other things going on that week but with the 4 weeks we have to plan it out I'm sure, knowing my husband it will be planned to the T. Complete with lists, multiple lists! 

We go by the house once a week and this past weekend it finally felt like a house which was so exciting! It is however, a little depressing to go back to our apartment after leaving the house. As bad as I've talked about our Player's Club apartment and believe me, I've complained about it to family, friends and the lady at Dunkin Donuts (we go there WAY too much) the apartment hasn't really been that bad and it's served it's purpose. Cliff and I will be able to tell Hudson one day about those 6 months we stayed here while he was growing in my belly. Missi she has enjoyed our walking trail behind the apartments that she's mistaken for her own personal backyard, and is in for a rude awakening once we get to our new house that does not have a creek running through it. 

I've added a few picture I took over the weekend. A lot will be happening this week though so I'll have many more next week. 

28 weeks :)

It's here, I'm finally in the 3rd trimester!

 

I've seen this little thing on a couple of different blogs and I wish I had started it much sooner but I decided to go ahead and start now, better late than never! I just think it's such a neat way to look back on your pregnancy and see what you were feeling when. Also, you're supposed to put a belly shot on here but I'm not really in to sharing those on social media so..sorry! Last weeks picture by the creek was basically 28 weeks so there ya go!

 

 

 

How far? 28 weeks as of 7/3/13

 

Size of baby: Baby is the size of a small cabbage. Measuring approximately 17 in and weighing about 3 lbs (all of these are based off my whattoexpect app on my phone so obviously just a guesstimate)

 

Sleep: Sleep changes for me every night. Some nights I get up once to pee some nights its upwards of 10 times, no joke. My back will hurt some nights and sometimes it's not that bad. Over the last month or so I've started waking up by 5:30 with no signs of being able to fall back asleep. Missi has picked up on that so now most mornings by the time I open my eyes there's big brown eyes already staring at me.

 

Strech Marks: I wanted to delete this question but I decided to keep it and stick to the original questionnaire. No. No strech marks as of yet. I am one of the most supersticious peolpe though so I figure after typing this I'll find strech marks all over me tonight. I've been using Palmer's Cocoa Lotion and Bio Oil, not religiously, just as I remember.

 

Best moment of the week: Seeing our cabinets put in our house and it painted. I'm SO ready to be in the house and start the whole 'nesting' process it's about to drive me crazy. Also, any time Cliff gets to feel Hudson really kick is the best feeling. He's been hard for others to feel but he's finally getting big enough that Cliff can feel and know it's him kicking. It makes my heart smile. I can't wait to see him hold him.

 

Movement: Oh yeah, tons of it! Usually during the day if I'm up and moving around I don't feel him as much but once I sit down or settle in for the night he throws his own little dance party in my belly. I love it :)

 

Gender: All boy!

 

Belly Button In or Out? In and I hope it stays that way! Something about your belly button turning inside out freaks me out

 

Wedding rings off or on? On and they're still pretty loose so hopefully that's a good sign. However, when we go on walks my hands will swell and they get a little tight then. I just walk with my hands straight up in the air..Cliff loves it.

 

Cravings: Lemonade. I absolutely love lemonade these days. I found that Minute Maid makes a much lighter version of pink lemonade and regular that's only 15 calories with 2 grams of sugar so I feel better about the gallons I go through. The only other cravings have been sparatic and not constant. Just a milkshake here, or a brownie there. I craved grilled food for a long time but I think that was mainly because we don't have our grill to be able to grill out and let me tell you Cliff is a grill master. He has a Big Green Egg and makes the BEST anything on that thing! Now I'm hungry.

 

Anything making you queasy or sick?  Nope. Nothing really ever has except quinoa. BLEH! I can't even type, say, or look at that word still. It's going to erk me just knowing its on this post. Some smells make me nauseated but I only know them when I get around them not off the top of my head. I had to type the last sentence elsewhere and cut and paste it here because of that horrible word above. Grossgrossgross.

 

What I miss: Being able to just hop up from the couch/bed, putting my clothes on without almost falling over. Being able to paint my toenails comfortably. I can still reach them but if he's kicking me it's very uncomfortable. So, yesterday Cliff painted them for me. We almost didn't make it through the first toe we were both laughing so hard. I wish I had gotten a picture but he would have killed me. I've always thought it comical when men do things a woman normally would. Also, SUSHI! I have never wanted sushi so bad in all my life. I've already told Cliff I want Peter's Sushi in the hospital after he's born.

 

What I'm looking forward to: Getting into our house and getting his nursery in order. Although it doesn't look like this will be happening for at least another month, most likely longer.

 

Labor Signs: No, not at all.

 

Nursery: Currently non existent.

 

Emotions: Ha! This question should probably have a double side where you can see Cliff's response. I feel like my mood has been pretty stable but if something small happens like Chick Fil A forgetting my polynesian sauce then forget it. Prepare for water works. I've noticed I get annoyed with people much easier than I used to and since 4 days a week I'm answering our office phones I have to control that and try not to hang up on people. It's quite hard sometimes. Also, I've stopped weighing myself at home because really there's no need so when I went to my doctors appointment this past week I cried. She assured me she's really happy with my weight but I just wasn't feeling it that day I guess.