29 Weeks Photos +

it's been about a month since i last posted any pregnancy photos, so here are a couple of shots of me at 29 1/2 weeks (that's about a week shy of 7 months). i've been wearing the same t-shirt (i have two of the same shirt in different colors) so the photos will be comparable.











































in other news, deva and vanessa hosted a lovely baby shower for me on saturday, and we got TONS of great baby gifts (now i have to get copies of all the pictures from nessa). we're pretty much all set except for a few small necessities (diapers, wipes, baby powder, etc.) and a few small things that are unnecessary but that i just want (and currently have cash and gift cards for), such as a bottle drying rack, some nursery storage baskets, big wooden letters to spell MAX on on the nursery wall, etc.

after the shower, chad and his dad moved the bed out of the former guest room (now the nursery, yay!) and into the office (which is now our guest room/office/media room), which required the rearrangement of lots of furniture. then they put the crib together. yesterday i picked up the crib bedding set that i'd ordered and got that all set up (including a cute musical mobile with jungle animals). i also sorted through the millions of baby outfits that we got at the shower and came to the conclusion that we do not need anything (and by that i mean we need NOTHING) in the newborn, 0-3 month, or 3-6 month sizes. so if anyone out there has the urge to buy us baby clothes, keep it in the 9 month size and larger (we really need the larger stuff, or one day we'll realize that max can no longer wear anything we own and he'll have to go naked). oh, and don't buy warm clothes in the 6-9 month size, because that falls in the range of june to september, and it is HOT here in the summer, guys! so 6-9 month baby clothes should have short sleeves. if by some freak chance it turns a little cool then, i have one little hoodie that should do.

chad's parents generously told us to go out yesterday and buy the other couple of big ticket items on the registry (swing and high chair) and put it on their credit card (they put chad on their visa account when he was in high school, and he still has a card). so we did. we also took back a couple of things that we got two of at the shower and traded them in for a play yard, and we also bought a second car seat for chad's truck and a few general baby care items (medicine dispensers, thermometer, brush, baby nail clippers, etc. - it was all in a convenient kit), along with more baby socks (i just know that we'll end up losing a bunch of those) and a pack of cloth diapers to use as burp cloths and for general baby clean-up.

after all this gift-receiving and furniture rearranging, our house is once again a huge disaster area (it was absolutely spotless for about 6 hours on saturday, after we cleaned so our parents won't know we live like slobs and before we brought in tons of other stuff and started moving things around), so i'll post pictures of the nursery once the furniture in there is arranged to my satisfaction and it is free of empty boxes and plastic wrappings.

to conclude this post, i'd like to send out a general thank you to everyone who gave us baby gifts, as chad and i have had to spend very little money on baby things (and the money we have spent, we probably didn't have to, i just felt guilty about letting other people - read: our parents - buy everything. that same guilt led to me to buy a less expensive [but still high quality] high chair than the one we registered for - if it had been my money i would not have bought the one on the registry, either, though it is very cute).

24 weeks Photos**

i know you've all been anxiously awaiting my next installment of pregnancy photos, so here they are. i'm getting pretty gigantic.




































**update 10:15 a.m. - i just got back from my doctor's appointment, and my blood pressure was even higher than last time (the systolic pressure anyway, my diastolic pressure was down a bit) at 160/78. this appears to me to be strictly a doctor's office phenomenon, as my bp at home has been fine, but dr. g. (my ob/gyn) doesn't seem to think so for some reason (i guess a high bp 3 weeks in a row when i've never had a high bp in her office before might have something to with that). she still didn't put me on bed rest, but she has forbidden me to do anything other than sit there when i'm at the lab and lay on the couch when i'm at home. i can still shower, make lunch for myself, etc., but i am supposed to be actually laying down at home, not sitting around or cleaning or going to the mall or wal-mart or whatever. i am, however, meeting a friend for lunch today (shh, don't tell). otherwise, i will be laying on my couch reading/studying for comps. i have to see the doc again next week and the week after that and so on for a long, long time. boo. and i am having another ultrasound next week just to make sure the baby is doing ok and growing like he should and to check the level of amniotic fluid. so, on the plus side, we get to see the baby again, but the only reason for this extra ultrasound is that my bp is crazy. which sucks (though it still seems that i do not have preeclampsia, which is good). and dr. g. keeps talking about the possibility of the baby being born early, which scares me a little. he really doesn't need to be born until january (maybe even on vanessa's bday, the day he officially reaches full term, though that is three weeks before my actual due date). i really don't like all this early delivery talk. dr. g. keeps saying things like, "you really don't need to deliver at 24 weeks, and i don't think that's necessary." but she evidently thinks that i might be having this baby early. but not for ten more weeks. that's what she said today - the baby needs 10 more weeks. which means that if things keep going the way they are, it might be better for me and max if he's born the week before christmas instead of a month after christmas. that scares the crap out of me.

Halfway There!

i can see that this is rapidly morphing into a pregnancy/baby blog, but oh well. that's pretty much the biggest thing in my life right now (understandably so, i think). well, that and putting off studying for comps (which i still need to set a date for). oh well.

i know you've all been anxiously awaiting some photo documentation of my pregnancy, and i am here to oblige. to defend myself for not posting photos sooner, i am just now reaching the point where i have any sort of baby belly. chad says it's still not much of one, and he seems pretty impatient for me to look noticeably pregnant. we'll see what you guys think.

here's a front view of me halfway through my pregnancy. as the doc said, not huge yet, but that will come soon.





















and here's a side view. the pregnancy is much more obvious from this angle (umm, ignore the random piles of clothes everywhere).





















as of last wednesday, i had gained a total of 7 lbs. at my next checkup that should increase to about 11 lbs. and yes, those are my regular jeans (i love those jeans with their cute butt pockets and all). however, they are not buttoned. because the buttoning has become way uncomfortable. but thanks to motherhood maternity's maternity sleeve, i no longer have to button my pants. which i pretty much love.

tomorrow marks the 20th week of the pregnancy - the halfway point! i'm excited about that. and it only took 4 1/2 months for me to look at all pregnant. oh well. hopefully the next 4 1/2 months will pass quickly (but not too quickly) and our little guy will continue to look/sound healthy and happy. one of my biggest fears right now is that something will be wrong and i won't notice. or that i'll feel some small twinge that i should call the doctor about but think it's nothing. i mean, all the pregnancy books say that little aches and pains are commonplace during pregnancy... but they also list symptoms you should call the doc about, and sometimes they seem to contradict themselves (some abdominal achiness and occasional sharp pains and increased discharge is normal, but if you have both you should call the doctor - wtf? you just said these symptoms are normal!). oh well. i've pretty much made up my mind not freak out about anything, but i ask my doc random questions like that at my regular appointments.

ok, enough baby talk for now.