Victory. 26

Officially 26 weeks today. Not too much to update though since I just updated a few days ago. I'll probably have my glucose test this week so I'm sure I'll update with how gross it was shortly after.

The only new thing is that I'm starting to feel Jackson a little more frequently. He's stingy though!! He'll kick and I'll put my hand there and then he'll stop. He especially likes to do that when Justin tries to feel him. He just isn't having it. SOOOOO.... with that said, if you haven't felt him move, don't take it personally. I usually don't even let people touch my stomach because there's no point. He doesn't like to be touched yet I guess. When I notice that he's more regular, and when Justin has actually had more of a chance to feel him as I think HE should have the first dibs on that one seeing as Jackson is HIS son, I'll start letting people feel. Until then, hold your horses. I'll let you know when he's ready to share! For now, this is my time to enjoy him. It's just starting to get more frequent so I haven't had much time myself to even experience it yet. And I'd like to have a little something to myself before I share... and I'd especially like to have Justin get some one on one time before the rest of the world does.

That's all for now. Maybe more later (seeing as it's only 11:48 am and I still have the whole day to go through). We are planning on finally visiting Rob, Sharon, and Baby Lucas tonight so I'll update on that as well!

FINALLY!!!

Alright! So FINALLY!!! I have had good sunlight and decent time to take some pictures. I was planning on doing this yesterday, but we worked Friday night and didn't get home until almost three am. So on Saturday morning we woke up early because justin had a harford alumni lacrosse game to play in. Justin really wanted me to go so I went (a little after him) and, despite the cold and the mist, I watched the "old" guys play like they were still in college. Well, clearly they weren't because they ended up losing to the younger old guys, but they still had a lot of fun. Here's two pictures from the game. I circled Justin.

After the game, Justin and I and a few of the other guys went to bull on the beach in Aberdeen for some lunch. It was good seeing Chris Fielder again and Justin enjoyed seeing some of the other guys. I left shortly after to go to the baby shower for Joe and Rachel. Joe works with Justin at Ramshead and Mothers and we went to their wedding two summers ago. It was a very nice shower and I got some more ideas for the registry from it. My favorite was the wee blocker...it's something you put over your little guy's wee so you don't get sprayed during diaper changes. Our friends Dustin and Sandi told us we'd be getting one from them because they thought it was hilarious.

Immediately after the shower I had to rush off to work for another LONG night with the same band from friday. My feet were still hurting, so I picked up some slippers hoping that would help. Unfortunately it didn't. I put the slippers on around 10 or so and around 10:30 I noticed that one side of each ankle was swollen. FUN!!! Well work lasted until.. oh... about 2 something in the morning and I didn't get home until well after 3!!! I was exhausted. So today.. we woke up around 8:30 and decided there was no way either of us could function, so we went back to sleep and woke up again around 11. Because we missed church and were still just drained, we decided to go to IHOP for breakfast with Emily and Danny. It was fantastic :) and very much needed. So we came home and then decided to enjoy the gorgeous weather by walking around the avenue at white marsh. This seemed like a great idea but about halfway through our ventures, I noticed BOTH sides of each ankle were swollen now. yay!! We went over to the mall and I ended up buying new, very comfortable flip flops that instantly made my feet feel better. They didnt' take down the swelling but my feet didn't hurt as much. When we got home I decided to make home-made lasagna with Julie's recipe. And now... I'm finally sitting down watching Breaking Bad with Justin.

Tomorrow starts my first day with patients at my pediatric clinical. For this part of the semester I'm at Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital working with the birth to 3 year age group. Most of the patients are less than a year old and they're all very sick. Last wednesday was the first time I've ever seen a baby with a trach! It was definitely eye opening that someone so small who's supposed to be so healthy can be so sick. So this part of the semester should definitely be interesting for me.

Anyhow, before we went to white marsh, I was able to take some pictures of the room and some 25 week belly shots that I hear people have been anxiously awaiting for. So here they are. Hopefully it was worth the wait :)

25 weeks 5 days!!

Definitely getting bigger!

Side shot (and trying to cover some new and very UN-exciting stretch marks)

Carlin wanted to give Jackson some lovin'.



The crib.



The bedding set.



A couple stuffed animals and a stuffed book of nursery rhymes that grandma made for Jackson (my mom).



And the GIANT elephant that i just HAD to have... but it didn't end up being as giant as I thought. ha ha. He's still cute though.



The armoir and the lamp and diaper stacker that match the bedding set!


... and already full of clothes and blankets.

The rocking chair!!! I LOVE it. Hanging over it is a soft mickey mouse blanket that Justin loved and wanted for Jackson. And next to the rocking chair is the rocking horse that I posted about before.

The dresser/changing table. We're starting quite the collection of toys there. A lot of them came from Gavrielle (my flower girl) who was so willing to share with Jackson :)

Oh... and the THREE containers of clothes sitting next to the dresser!

And last but not least, my two newest buys... The Tale of peter Rabbit and the cutest shoes ever :)

Happy Sunday evening!!!

EDIT: I almost forgot. We can now OFFICIALLY start counting down from 100 days as the baby widget on the blog just reminded me. YAY!!!!

more update!

Went to school.. came home to let the doggies out... went back to school.. took my exam... went to work.. just got home (at 2:45 am)... checked my email.. got an 85 on the final! THANK GOD!!!!!!!!!!

So now, full force ahead for the next half of the semester: Pediatric Nursing!

More update tomorrow.... and maybe some pictures. I'm tooo tooo tired now!

Goodnight!

update

The crib is up and the bedding set is on... but the lighting in the room is no good for pictures until it's sunny out :( I tried taking some last night but they didn't turn out great, so I'll try again tomorrow since it was cloudy out all day today. Boo for that!

But I promise.... pictures SOON!!! I've been told some people are anxiously awaiting them :)

Oh... and just three more days until I start counting down from 100 days :) Craziness.

And finally... wish me luck on my make up psychiatric nursing final tomorrow!!! YIKES!

Victory. 25

... and just 15 more weeks to go! Not too much has happened since the last visit... BESIDES turning in that 25 page group paper I've been stressing over. Today was THAT day, and I didn't sleep much at all last night because of it. I went to bed relatively early after working on the paper for 8 long hours with my group but for some reason I couldn't sleep and I kept thinking about that da-gone paper. So, after turning it in I used my break time to write two small papers that were also due today. So I've been pretty much going since 8 am, nonstop. But, today in my alternative therapy class we had a guest speaker who is a Reiki master. She also has psychic abilities and she works with energy to help heal people. Well we wondered whether or not she could determine the sex of a baby, because she mentioned that she has worked with energies to help people conceive. So, I volunteered to have her do the reiki thing on me and she didn't mention anything. But when I asked her about it, she said boy rather quickly. The skeptic in me thinks that she made a great guess because of how I'm carrying since she asked me to stand up before she answered me, but she says that while she was doing the reiki thing she heard over and over "He". So it was kind of interesting.

On my way home today, I gave Justin a call and he told me that he and Jared would be going to pick up the crib tonight instead of tomorrow. This of course made me happy. So we made our way to babies r us and now the crib is sitting in the box in the baby's room waiting for some free hands and tools to set it up :) Julie and i plan on doing that sometime this week. While we were out, though, we stopped at Walmart to return some things and I decided to look at their jewelry. We had talked about getting me a "fake" bling ring to wear in place of my engagement ring and wedding band because they're getting kind of tight and I'd hate to have a swelling incident where my rings would have to be cut off. So, I found a very pretty three stone ring for about $50 and we decided to get it. It was definitely worth it. My finger can now breathe and it still looks pretty.

Other than all of that, today makes 25 weeks. And, as of now we've had 4 babies born and doing as well as can be expected on the July 2009 birth board. It's really scary to know that women about as far along as I am are already having their babies, but it's comforting to know that these babies have a fighting chance and are indeed being little fighters. Despite this small comfort, I still pray for each day to come and go with ease and each week is still a victory. The more time Jackson has to grow right where he's at, the better for him and us. I'm eager to meet this little guy and see what exactly we've been preparing for, but I'm just as eager to make it to 30 weeks and beyond. As for being 25 weeks today, I have not yet taken a picture. I hurried to get ready today and get out of the house and I'm just too tired and look too tired to smile at the acmera today. SO, when I do take that picture, I'll post it. I'll also post pictures of the baby's room as soon as the crib is up. I can't wait, but I have to, so you will have to also :)

Happy Tuesday!

3 pieces down, 1 to go

So we picked up three out of four of our furniture pieces today. It took two trips and taking stuff out of one of the boxes to bring it all home. Wayne and Justin did all the lifting and carrying and it wasn't easy!!! When they got the two big boxes in, they realized that the boxes were too big to take up the steps, so we decided to open them and carry the pieces up to the baby's room. Well, when they ripped the boxes open, the dresser and the armoir were both already put together inside the boxes!!! Craziness. This didn't make their job easier, but gave me a lot less to do!!! Once we got those two pieces upstairs, and two boxes, a lot of styrofoam, and 6 trash bags later, all I had to do was put a few pieces together for the rocking chair. So now, with the dresser, armoir, and rocking chair ready, all we need is the crib (which is currently sitting at babies r us waiting for us to show up with a pick up truck). I will have to put that together, but I hear it's really easy! Yay for that.

The 3 pieces that we do have together look great and I can't wait to organize it all. Thanks a bunch to Justin and Wayne for working so hard today (and to Justin's dad for getting some things to the dump for us today). What a productive... tiring day.

On the school front, my group is ALMOST done our group paper (14 pages later). We're still waiting on a small part from each person, but now the light at the end of the tunnel (for just THIS paper) is visible. I still have two minor papers to do by tuesday, but they shouldn't take too long... maybe the better part of Sunday afternoon! I'm sooooo ready for the middle of may to get here, and FAST!!!

I am glad, however, that Spring is finally here. Now if only we had Spring temperatures. :) Oh boy I can't wait!!

And to end the weekend, we plan to maybe visit Sharon, Rob, and Baby Lucas tomorrow after church. We're both healthy again (although I still have a cough that made me sick a little today, but I think that's here to stay for awhile, no virus attached) so we won't be spreading our germs to the family. We're very excited to meet him and to congratulate the new parents in person.

Well.. that's all for now... I'm pooped. So maybe a quick nap before lunch/dinner and work (Booo work!!!) Enjoy the weekend.

24 week doc visit

Today was my 24 week, monthly check up. More of the same really: pee in a cup, weight check (144.2), blood pressure (110/68), heart beat...

At this point of the visit, the doctor usually checks fundal height by pressing on my expanding belly. This time he whipped out the measuring tape though, which was a little exciting. Usually around 22 weeks or so, they can start measuring you with tape. The distance in cm from your pubic bone to the top of the uterus should correspond to how far along you are, so at 24 weeks I should measure 24 cm. The doc didn't give me a number, which I assume means I'm right on.

I don't go back for another month, but I did get my lab form to take my 1 hour glucose test, which means I get to not eat all morning, go in and drink some really sweet, nasty orange stuff and wait an hour to have my blood drawn to see if I have gestational diabetes. YUM!!! I will probably go in two weeks to do that. When I go back to see the doctor, it will be for my 28 week visit and will be more of the usual. After that, I don't think I go back until I'm 32 weeks and then I start to go every two weeks until I think I'm 37 weeks maybe, and then I believe I go once a week.

Now, while it seems like things are going pretty quickly, it doesn't feel that way at all. In fact, all day I've been extremely irritated, seemingly for no reason at all. I think it's mostly due to the crappy weather that we've had... makes for a heck of a spring break. It's also due to the school work I have to do. I'm beyond irritated with this, because of this stupid stupid group paper I have that is going NOWHERE and is due tuesday. I'm so tired of stupid busy work that takes up way too much time and causes way too much stress.. and for what.. TWO lousy credits. It's complete BS and I'm so irritated that I can barely focus on the paper. I've gotten nothing done all day. And when I have school work that's NOT getting done, that means I have house work that is ALSO NOT getting done. Laundry piling up, hair balls growing in the corners. I can't possibly do that when I have school work, so I get nowhere at all!!! ARGH!!!

Seeing how irritated I've been today, it has made me completely bored/tired of being pregnant. Sounds bad, I know!!! But it's been six months.. nothing really goes on for another 2 months... I can't really do anything until we get our furniture in and by that time I probably won't have time to because of school! There's a lot of things I can't do and things just seem to be drawing out!! I know this is common, but it still makes me feel bad that I feel this way. I'm PRAYING for a sunny day tomorrow so I can get back to normal! It really makes me miss going tanning. It used to be that if I was having a crappy, rainy, gloomy day I would go tanning and it would make me feel A LOT better. But of course I haven't been able to do that! That would make me feel a ton better.

Really.. I just need a spring break that's really a break. No school work, sunny warm weather!!! But, for me spring break is over. Group project tomorrow, work saturday and sunday and back to school on monday. AND I still have to make up my final. I wish school would just end already. I'm so so tired of it!!!! I feel like I've been going to school forever (because I have). I have no clue how I'm going to make it through another 2 months of this crap!

That was my vent for today.

Babycenter Birth

So I'm up at 6 am because my acid reflux is TERRIBLE this morning. I woke up to potty around 5 and the acidy, bubbly grossness just won't let me get back to sleep. So I ventured down to the kitchen for some tortilla chips (which tend to make me feel better) and to check our mega millions tickets! Sorry.. we didn't win.

But I happened to stroll over to babycenter.com onto my July birth board to find that the first of our July mommies-to-be had her baby this morning! She was 24 weeks 5 days (so, now, just 4 days past me) and she had been told around 21 weeks that she had almost no amniotic fluid left. She's been in and out of the hospital for weeks and the doctors told her they wouldn't be able to do anything until she was 24 weeks. Maybe a week or two ago they told her she had absolutely NO fluid left and the baby's chances were slim to none! Well this past friday marked her 24 week day and she started steroids to help the baby develop... and she held on until this morning. But... this morning she had her baby boy Christian via C-section. He weighed 1 lb 5 oz! AND... he's got a 70% chance of survival!!! He's currently in the NICU and doing well!

Just a little miracle I thought was worth sharing!

Victory. 24: Let the Countdown Begin!!!

Today, 3/17/09 marks my OFFICIAL 24 week day!!! Happy St. Patrick's Day to that. It's great to be able to breathe a bit knowing that if something were to happen at this point and Jackson decided to make his debut early, his chances of survival are much better and the doctor's will make attempts to actually keep him alive. YAY!!!

Last night was my first night that I went back to work since being sick. And, when I got home at 1:30 am I was ready for bed. BUT.. Jackson had other plans. This was the first night he actually kept me awake with his kicking (more because I enjoyed feeling it). Then, as soon as I woke up this morning, he started kicking some more. AND he's been going crazy in there all day! I think he's rested MAYBE 1 straight hour today. And this is all perfectly okay by me. It's really nice to be able to feel him move so I'm hoping this continues to be a daily thing.

Also today my brother and his wife brought home their new puppy, Bailey (well, maybe Bailey). They bought a little girl Puggle and she is the cutest little thing. She LOVES Justin already as she took a nap with him on the couch while we were visiting. It definitely made me want another puppy, mainly because Puggles are so darn cute, and it made Justin miss his old Pug, Spike Dietz. But no puppies for us anytime soon. They still haven't really named her yet. They're stuck between Scrappy, Lucy, and Bailey. I said they should definitely name her Bailey seeing as Bailey's is an Irish Cream and today IS St. Patrick's Day. Wenke and Justin agreed, so now we just wait for Wayne's consensus.

Other than that, it's been pretty low key today. I was planning on running some errands today, but this tail end of the flu made my stomach feel pretty crappy for a better part of the day, so I stayed on the couch watching Law & Order SVU and NCIS all day! Oh well!!!

To celebrate our 24 week victory, I took plenty of pictures. The first two were taken yesterday and the last three were taken this afternoon. Enjoy!

I figure also since it's a pretty big day, I'll update with what babycenter says about this week:

How your baby's growing:Your baby's growing steadily, having gained about 4 ounces since last week. That puts him at just over a pound. Since he's almost a foot long (picture an ear of corn), he cuts a pretty lean figure at this point, but his body is filling out proportionally and he'll soon start to plump up. His brain is also growing quickly now, and his taste buds are continuing to develop. His lungs are developing "branches" of the respiratory "tree" as well as cells that produce surfactant, a substance that will help his air sacs inflate once he hits the outside world. His skin is still thin and translucent, but that will start to change soon.See what your baby looks like this week. (Or see what fraternal twins look like in the womb this week.)Note: Every baby develops a little differently — even in the womb. Our information is designed to give you a general idea of your baby's development.
How your life's changing:In the past few weeks, the top of your uterus has risen above your belly button and is now about the size of a soccer ball.Most women have a glucose screening test (also called a glucose challenge test or GCT) between now and 28 weeks. This test checks for gestational diabetes, a pregnancy-related high-blood-sugar condition. Untreated diabetes increases your risk of having a difficult vaginal delivery or needing a cesarean section because it causes your baby to grow too large, especially in his upper body. It also raises your baby's odds for other complications like low blood sugar right after birth. A positive result on your GCT doesn't mean you have gestational diabetes, but it does mean that you'll need to take the glucose tolerance test (GTT) to find out for sure.Finally, if you don't already know how to spot the signs of preterm labor, now's the time to learn. Contact your caregiver immediately if you notice any of the signs mentioned below.

And here's a picture of what babycenter says our little guy looks like this week:

That's all for this week! Hopefully soon I'll be able to update with a pool table sale and the delivery and set-up of our nursery furniture. Stay tuned.

Baby Buys

The other day we were searching Craigslist and came across the cutest rocking horse being sold for just $20. I emailed the seller and it was still available. So today we took a trip to Jarrettsville (a good hour drive) to pick it up... and I LOVE it. It's just as adorable as I hoped.

As we were pulling out of the driveway, the couple came out and told us they were getting rid of a bunch of other things and asked if we wanted them. So we ended up bringing home a car seat and a pack-n-play which they wouldn't take money for. The car seat will end up being a travel seat for grandmas (if it checks out) and the pack-n-play will be our travel one when we go anywhere. We're still keeping the one we had on our registry as it has the built in bassinet and changing loft and will be awesome to keep downstairs rather than running up and down the steps all day.

All in all, it was a great day and we're glad we made the trip!

Money Saving Deals: furniture

So during one of my many babycenter.com browsings since I've been sick, I came across a post of somebody talking about babies r us coupons. She wasn't using them, so she was going to give them away, but then another woman commented that the coupons could be found on the babies r us website. So I went on and I found some coupons. Three that were of particular interest were the ones that said save $75 or $150 or $250 dollars on nursery furniture. I decided to print them out just in case, and since they didn't cover the glider and ottoman we wanted, I cut out the 15% off any item coupon that I got from a babies r us catalog.

Well the coupons expire in a week or so, so Justin and I decided to go to the store today to order our furniture (despite me hacking up a lung). We picked out the furniture and sat down to order and it came to a whopping $1700 plus some odd amount. YIKES!!! Because it was so much, however, it made us elligible to use the $250 off coupon for the furniture. So we applie for the credit card which would give us another 10% off and then made our way to the register. When we got there, she rung up the furniture, took our two coupons and then did our 10 % off from the credit card application and.... ba ba ba ba.... we ended up paying $1300 something instead, saving a total of $528 I think. CRAZINESS!!!

Justin high fived me a couple of times for that :)

So, without further adeu, here are pics of what our furniture will look like:

The wonderful Babi Italia 4 in one convertible crib

The dresser/changing table

The armoir

And the glider and ottoman (but I believe we ordered the one with a dark green fabric)

I am extremely extremely excited about all of this and I can't wait until it gets here in 7-14 days :)

And I finally took my 23 week pictures. They're not the best, but considering I've signed my life over the flu temporarily, you'll have to forgive me.

update: new babies

Sometime last night I checked facebook again and saw the posts that Sharon and Rob had their baby boy. They named him Lucas Ryan Taylor, which was exciting to hear because they were keeping the name a secret until he was born.

He looks perfect from the pictures, and we can't wait to meet him (when we're not flu-ridden of course).

Congratulations Rob and Sharon, and welcome baby Lucas!!!!

New Babies!!!

I just read the blog of our friend's Bert and Laura (who are also expecting) to find that a couple at church had their baby girl this week.

AND, I just checked facebook to find that Rob and Sharon are having their baby boy TODAY!!! How exciting. I wish we weren't so sick so we could actually go visit. But we'll wait for pictures instead.

Congratulations Kristen and Tim and good luck Rob and Sharon!!!

Still sick..

And not getting ANY better. Actually, now I'm battling a fever, horrible cough, sore throat, and sore ears. :( I feel so crappy I can't even study. All of my words kind of just blur together and no energy to write.

Now we're just hoping this doesn't lead to an emergency room/labor and delivery visit. The only thing I can take is extra strength tylenol, robitussin, my ear drops, and throat lozenges. The doc said there's nothing else he can do besides that (since I can't take real meds) but if my temp goes up and won't break I'll have to go to the hospital. :::sigh::: What a fun week of exams!

Justin is still sick as well. He went to the doc today and the doc said no work for the rest of the week OR weekend for him. Justin got the flu shot a while back so he wasn't sure how he got the flu, but the doc said he got a mutated version of it and has since developed a sinus infection. Justin is now wondering what the point of the flu shot is and I tried to explain that they create the vaccine based on the strain that starts in other countries and makes it's way around to us. Unfortunately, going through so many people and places, there's always a chance that the virus can mutate enough to still get people sick, even if they were vaccinated. Yet another reason I don't get the flu shot.

Hopefully this will start to taper off tomorrow so I can study and be ready for my final on Friday. Please oh please!!!!

Victory. 23

Today marks the victory of week 23! Just one more week to go until the countdown to D-day begins AND just 19 more days to go until we start counting down from 100 :) I can't wait.

In this weeks news (that I haven't already updated): my poor hubby has been sick with what we're thinking is the flu. He'll have a fever of 100 one minute and then like an hour later his temp will be normal at like 98.5 or so. It's definitely frustrating, seeing as he's had to stay home for 2 days already and another day tomorrow so he can go to the doc.

We've been faithfully using hand sanitizer and washed all of our couch blankets today to keep me from getting sick. I even studied at Julie's ALL DAY yesterday partially to stay out of the house... but to no avail! I ended up starting to come down with something today. I have a cough and a sore throat from the cough. And anytime my throat bothers me, my ears start and that's the worst. Unfortunately I also started with some ligament pain in my side late last night that continued into today. So instead of taking robitussin (the only thing I can really take) I opted for ear drops and pain pills that I got the last time I had bone and ligament pain.

In other news, I'm one exam down and three more to go this week. Then 3 papers over spring break. What a JOY. I'm hoping to make it to the ocean at some point over spring break just to relax for a day.

In Jackson news. Julie made lasagna last night and he loved it. He was moving all around and even gave me a painful kick (he kicked me in my sore ligament). AND in the BIG Jackson news. While we were pitifully resting on the couch tonight he started moving around. Usually when Justin tries to feel he stops. BUT this time Justin actually got to feel him :) I was so super excited. It was great. And he's been moving ever since. Unfortunately most of his movements are right on top of my bladder, but I suppose I can deal with that.

This Saturday we will hopefully order our furniture for the room which I'm also excited about.

Beyond that, it's business as usual around here. Work, school, no sleep, lol. But I'm still making it! I haven't taken a picture yet this week, but hopefully I'll feel well enough to do so tomorrow. Until then, happy 23 weeks. Thanks for all thoughts, prayers, and following up until this point and in advance for the next 17 weeks. :)

Interesting Week

This week has been pretty interesting. This past Thursday I found out my grandmother's sister passed away. It was expected but changed the week a little bit. I had to work Thursday night and Friday night and then my sister in law was coming Friday night to paint the baby's room. Justin was also supposed to work Friday night but on the way to work his battery light came on so he called out for the night. When I got home we had a completely painted baby's room, which was super exciting (especially since instead of napping that day, I spent my free time cleaning and packing things up). The bottom was red and the top was tan and we had plans of putting a white trim up between the two colors. Well when we took the tape off from between the colors Saturday morning, there was a perfect white line all the way around the room, and it completely rid the need for trim. My sister in law still thinks we need the trim but we'll have to decide that later. All in all the room looks great.

This Saturday was our 1 year anniversary of when we tied the knot at the court house. We had planned to have lunch with my parents and dinner with Justin's but we weren't sure when my Aunt Bertha would be laid out. We ended up having lunch with my parents and then Justin seemed really sick so we came home and spent the night in. It definitely seemed like he was getting the flu so he spent the night on the couch with a 101.5 temperature. That's not very fun considering I could possibly get the flu too and that's no good for me and baby.

Anyhow, we found out that my aunt will be laid out today (Sunday) and buried tomorrow, so that changes my studying schedule a bit (as I have an exam tomorrow and tuesday and wednesday and friday, ugh). Justin will be staying home to keep my grandmother from getting sick and I'll be joining my brother for the viewing after I study for exams with some girls from the nursing program.

I'll end with some pictures of the room and of me at 22 weeks 3 days. Enjoy!

Victory. 22

So today is victory 22. I'm officially 22 weeks and just 2 more weeks til I can start counting down til D day. (If you've read in a previous post I'll start counting down at 24 weeks, which is the legal age of viability and the point at which doctors will try to save a baby if preterm labor happens). So I'm still holding my breath until then.

This past weekend celebrated Justin's grandmother's 80th birthday. It was quite the celebration with people comng and going all day and my absolute favorite part was when Mom Mom said "The secret to a long life is a clean life; no smoking, no drinking, and hard sex". I could have crapped myself when she blurted that out. She cracks me up. The cake was also pretty amazing. It was one made by the Ace of Cakes guy and it was made to look like the game of life gameboard. It was pretty darn cool. Here's a picture that Maggie took of it.

On Saturday we also celebrated our friend Sharon's baby shower. It was very nice and she got a lot of great gifts. One of my favorites was the book Mandy gave her of the pictures she took at the bare bellies shoot. I loved it so much I decided that we would order one of our pictures too. I can't wait.

This friday my sister in law is going to start painting the spare room to officially make it the baby's room. We can't wait! We've decided that the room will be two colors. The bottom half of the walls will be a dark red color and the top half will be a tan color. And eventually we'll put a trim up in between the colors. We've also decided on some furniture. We have a crib and changing table that was given to us, which is really awesome, but the crib does not have multiple mattress settings which depending on how things go, I may need (if for somereason I can't do too much bending, etc.) Justin also really wanted dark furniture. So we decided to get a crib, armoir, and dresser (that doubles as a changing table) in a few weeks. The current crib and changing table will go to either my mom's or his mom's house for when they have the baby. Also, the crib we are getting has the 4 mattress settings and also turns into a toddler bed AND a full size bed, so we're pretty excited about that. We also finally finished updating the registry (I think, lol).

This Saturday is a big day for us as it marks our 1 year anniversary as an official married couple. (We were married at the court house last year on March 7th). This is a great day for us and I've very excited for it.

In other excitement, when I got home from school tonight I wanted to listen to the baby, so I did. When i was done, I laid in bed for a few minutes and actually felt, with my hands, the baby kicking. It was the coolest thing EVER!!! I was so excited I tried to video tape it with my phone but it didn't work because the lighting in our room isn't so great. So, I grabbed the video camera real quick which has a light on it and started to video tape it! Unfortunately the baby didn't like the light so he wouldn't kick when the light was on my belly. So I grabbed the doppler and tried that hoping that pressing down with it would get him to move. The baby still didn't like the light but I did get three minor kicks recorded. I'm not sure if it's really obvious to anyone else who watches it, but we'll see. I really wanted Justin to see it, so hopefully it worked. AND I really hope he can feel it himself when he gets home from work tonight! Hopefully the baby's not too sleepy. Ever since i felt him kick with my hand, I've been feeling him kick from the inside too. It's weird though, because it doesn't feel like a kick at all. It justs feels like my stomach is rumbling. If you can imagine your intestines right up against your skin, it feels like a gas bubble passing through. But it's definitely the baby! FINALLY!!! Hopefully he keeps it up.

And to end the post, here are some 22 week pictures (taken this morning) and a few other random pictures. Enjoy!

The first three are my 22 week pictures.

This is a picture of Carlin and I taking a nap and Carlin using Jackson as a pillow :)

And this is a picture of Jackson's finished letters. My sister in law Wenke painted them this past weekend with the same colors will be using in the room :)

This is another 21 week 5 days picture. This was taken at Mom Mom Waicker's 80th birthday. It's of Maggie showing Jackson some cousin love!