17 weeks & May activities!!

Well I'm not doing the greatest job with getting updates and pictures on the normal monthly markers but oh well. Something's better than nothing right? So here we are nearing 17 1/2 weeks or almost 4 1/2 months!! According to the email updates I receive Baby Chewy weighs about 5 ounces or about as much as a turnip (note to self- look at a turnip the next time I'm at the grocery store as I'm pretty sure I've never bought nor eaten one). Chewy's skeleton is changing from cartilage into bone and he/she is about 5 inches long from head to bottom. He can also move his joints and his sweat glands are beginning to develop! Interesting stuff!

 As for daily life I'm still feeling really good. This week's "gotta have it" food is tomatoes... sliced with a little salt sprinkled on top.. Ah I could eat them all day long!! Protein especially red meat is still a huge favorite of this little one although I still try and get my veggies in too.

I want to give a HUGE thank you to some local ladies who greatly increased by wardrobe by lending me some maternity clothes! Jen, Josette, Ashley, Brittany, Christine, and Melissa- you ladies are awesome!! I have never had such variety or felt so stylish!!

We also started taking stock of our current baby supplies and moved some things into our third bedroom that will be Chewy's space. I sold or got rid of quite a bit of our baby stuff before our trip to Belize last year partly out of necessity (didn't have room to store it) and partly out of despair (not thinking we'd ever get pregnant again since it had been over 2 years already). So now we're starting our list of baby items and are blessed to have so many friends willing to give or lend things to us for Chewy! We still have quite a bit of time to get everything together so I can scout around for good deals!

May has been a busy month... it always is. Mother's Day, the county fair, both my and Kris' birthdays... it just seems to fly by! Jonathan and I went to the Frog Jump with my parents, sister and her boyfriend Dustin. Aaron stayed home with Daddy and had a great day- they went to the grocery store and bought ice cream (which he ate for lunch) and water guns. They also watched the Incredibles. Jonathan had a blast at the fair. He devoured nachos and a cheeseburger as well as a sno-cone and an ice cream cone. He had a blast on the rides too. We walked through the animal barns and he enjoyed them all except the pigs (they are too stinky! he said). He got to play one game- throwing darts at balloons and popped enough to win a stuffed iguana. During our evening ride session he ran into his friend MaKena from Bible Study and they had fun going on rides together.

Jonathan with Papa and Grandma

Sno-cone.. good to the last drop!

Yummy and messy ice cream!

stinky pigs!

Nice Goats

On the merry-go-round

Riding the roller coaster for the 50th time!

Down the blow up slide with MaKena!

 We also hosted our first overnight guests! We were so happy to have the Ragan family stay with us. Jesse, Melinda, Gracie & Josiah... Gracie's birthday was the 23rd so we had lots of celebrating to do! We had cupcakes and I even got a special rendition of "Hoppy Birday to Ewe"... but I didn't take one picture the whole time! Too busy having fun talking I guess!

Since Kris' and my birthdays are only 5 days apart, we usually have a family BBQ to celebrate and the actual birth days are pretty low key. But Kris shares his birthday with the son of our dear friends so we had dinner with the Moes Family and celebrated Ethan and Kris' birthdays. We enjoyed having our families over for dinner this weekend and afterwards I had Kris snap a couple belly shots. Aaron was just out of his bath and he wanted in on the action too. He's so sweet and keeps going into Chewy's room and says, "And this is where the baby will sleep."

17 weeks

Aaron gives Chewy a kiss!

Today we celebrated Memorial Day with our church family at their annual picnic. Great company, great food, and some really fun games! Me and my big belly sat out for the games, but I had fun taking lots of pictures!

Jonathan's 1st time doing the monkey bars!

Jonathan in the sack race!

Kris ready to race.

Aaron launches the Frisbee!

Our next dr. appt is June 13th... we'll be 19 1/2 weeks and it's the big ultrasound. Hopefully Chewy will cooperate and we will get to find out just who's hiding in there!! Stay tuned!!

Belly Update- 15 Weeks

Well somehow we're already in the 2nd trimester! Where is this pregnancy going? I am feeling a lot better with no nausea at all, which is GREAT! I'm still pretty tired but I know that is to be expected and I'm not sure if it's just the baby or the two older boys that run around my house all day long! :o) I still grab naps here and there and Kris is great about sending me off to rest in the afternoon. I've never been a big power napper, but it's amazing what even 45 minutes of getting off my feet can do!

We saw the Dr. on Thursday. My blood pressure was high again, which was ridiculous because I'd just taken it before we left and it was totally normal. He asked if I was rushing to get there (which I wasn't) and I brought out my log of blood pressures that I'd taken at home nearly every day for the last 3 months- all of which were normal. He took one look at my paper and said, "Oh so you're one of those White Coat Syndrome people huh?" Basically I freak out as soon as I get to the office. I told him not to take it personally b/c I really liked him. He said that after seeing all my normal readings he had no concerns about my blood pressure and that I didn't even have to continue monitoring them at home as often if I didn't want to. This was so wonderful to hear. In the past two pregnancies I'd go to my appts and my blood pressure would be high, so the nurse would ask me to lay down for a few minutes. Before she came back I'd lay there willing it to go down, trying to relax, worrying about the baby, etc. So of course she'd come back and retake it and most of the time it would still be high. This partly resulted in a diagnosis of PIH Pregnancy Induced Hypertension and large doses of a heavy muscle relaxer during labor with both boys. And this was some nasty stuff! I so deeply appreciated the Dr.'s validation that I am normal and that I'm not doing any harm to the baby. Obviously I will keep monitoring it and he will be keeping an eye on it too, but I just have so much more peace about it now!! He also checked the baby's heartbeat which was easier to find since he said he could tell that baby had been growing since my appt. two weeks ago (even though I hadn't gained any weight). The heartbeat was good and strong. He didn't recheck my placenta and said that we would check it at my big ultrasound but that there wasn't anything to worry about concerning the placenta until it neared time for delivery. Again this was a HUGE relief to me. I'd been super concerned about it. All my blood work came back normal too. Praise God!!

As for the big ultrasound... our appt is scheduled for June 13th and though I will only be 18 1/2 weeks, Dr. says that we should be able to find out if there's a boy or girl in there if baby cooperates. So I'm hoping baby is not feeling shy and I'm hoping that it's a GIRL- I love my boys but we gotta get some more estrogen in this household! :o)

So here's the belly shot taken at 14 1/2 weeks! Chewy sure is growing!