36 weeks

How Far Along: 36 weeks, 2 days

Size of the Baby: crenshaw melon (? Hans thinks they made this one up), 18.5 inches, ~6 lbs
Weight gain/loss: Will know at appointment Friday
Sleep:  Not going so hot. Can't stay asleep for very long, but so exhausted!! I went to bed early last night and still feel like I didn't sleep.
Best Moment of the Week: Friday night date night was so much fun - and kinda sad, as it sinks in that our spontaneous date nights are coming to an end. We went to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner, then we went to the mall to get baby clothes and buy baby's first gift from mommy and daddy - a teddy bear from Build-A-Bear! It was actually my doctor's idea... she suggested that we get the record your own sound thing, bring it in, and she'll record baby's heartbeat for us with the Doppler machine.

Movement: No change here. Still constant movement. I keep hearing that it should slow down, but that's just not true. Now it just looks like baby's constantly doing the wave... my stomach is always moving. Kick counts are averaging under 10 minutes and one this week took less than three. The bigger baby gets, the more painful the movement gets and my ribs are taking a beating. Whew.
Symptoms: Veerrrrry swollen. Mood swings. Tired. I think I had a growth spurt this week because I'm extra tired and extra hungry.
Food Cravings: Mostly thirsty, but this week all I want is S'mores! Oh, and Jimmy Johns. I miss Jimmy Johns and I think someone will have to bring me some in the hospital. Hint: I love the thinny chips.
Gender: Experiencing great doubt! Our friends Jeff and Erin were due this week with their surprise baby. Erin was convinced it was a girl and out popped their little boy. Makes me seriously doubt myself. I'd be fine either way, of course, but I'll feel like a terrible mother that I didn't even know what my child was!
Belly Button in or out: Even with the rest of my belly. It hasn't popped out, but it's definitely not in anymore. It just feels smooth (and soft, which is kinda weird!)
Anything making you queasy or sick: Nope
Labor Signs: A few Braxton Hicks, but I really don't get as many as I thought I would. And they don't hurt. They just cause a horrible urge to pee, but that goes away as soon as the contraction is over.
Wedding ring on or off: It happened. It's off. I woke up in the middle of the night last week because it hurt so stinking bad - it was just too tight! So it's off and I miss it. I worry about people giving me dirty looks (and I just *feel* weird without it) so we went to Dillards to get me something larger to wear until baby comes. I think it's a little too blingy, but Hans thought it would be fun for a few weeks :)

What I miss: Sleeeeeeeeeep.
What I am looking forward to: Baby. I'm very quickly reaching the point where I feel like I'm done with being pregnant and I just want to have that baby already. I am NOT looking forward to my first cervical check this week, or the GBS test :(
Nursery: I didn't do anything this week. Oops. I got distracted! We did, however, make Saturday a "baby prep" day and went to Babies R Us, Target, and Buy Buy Baby to pick up the things on our "baby essentials" list that we were still missing - changing pad covers, more bottles, sleep sacks, socks, mittens, hats, a few more onesies, a baby monitor, and a mattress. Whew! Thank goodness for gift cards and good sales.... I think we're all done now, as far as immediate essentials go. There's still a few items that would be nice, but I feel like we're ready to meet immediate needs. My goal for this week is to finally finish the frame gallery and do the mobile. And I need to find a stinkin' lamp! Anyone seen a cute teal/aqua table lamp anywhere? I've checked the usual suspects...
Emotions: Very moody. Short tempered. Anxious. Trying to stay positive, but having a hard time.
Stupid things I have done: As I mentioned, I think baby had a growth spurt this week and my belly grew quite a bit. I haven't adjusted to the new size and I keep bumping into things and slamming things into my belly. I was coming out of a bathroom stall while we were out shopping on Saturday and I actually yanked the door right into my belly. It hurt!

Betting now open

We are now one month out from our estimated due date! (going to be the longest month of my life....)

We've heard many guesses about Baby Sweeting so we thought we'd do a little game! Welcome to Baby Watch 2013 (as Danny D. named it).

Go to whatisinmybelly.com, Pool #527 to vote. It makes you sign in with your Facebook account so if you don't want to do that, leave your vote as a comment below and I will manually enter it. Guess gender, birth date, time, weight, length, and hair and eye color.

Yes, there will be a prize for the winner! Let the games begin.

35 weeks

How Far Along: 35 weeks, 3 days

Size of the Baby: Honeydew melon, 18 inches, 5.25 lbs
Weight gain/loss: Gained two pounds since my last appointment. Not bad.
Sleep:  I am le tired. I could really use a good night's sleep.
Best Moment of the Week: I loved my baby shower. I felt so loved and spoiled :)

Movement: Still constant. Still hurts. There's a spot to the right of my belly button and another one centered right beneath my ribs that have both become so tender I can't touch them and wince when anything does. Bruised maybe?
Symptoms: Super swollen. Noticed a few stretch marks on my upper legs (I totally thought I was going to avoid those!). Heartburn. No nausea, though! (knock on wood).
Food Cravings: Milk. A blueberry muffin.
Gender: :)
Belly Button in or out: Same
Anything making you queasy or sick: Nope
Labor Signs: A couple Braxton Hicks, but not many.
Wedding ring on or off: On.... but it's tight.
What I miss: My ankles. Not having chubby bunny cheeks.
What I am looking forward to: Nothing in particular this week. Hopefully another productive weekend.
Nursery: Frame gallery is on the wall... just need to fill it. Decided to put a bumper on after all.... but not as a bumper, haha. I couldn't find a bedskirt I liked, so I put the bumper underneath the mattress in place of a skirt.
Emotions: Irritable. Everything annoys me.
Stupid things I have done: Can't think of anything notable this week.

What do you do....

... when you have an unexpected day off? I didn't realize my office was closed for MLK Day, so that was a pleasant surprise on Friday. So it became a get-stuff-done day!

First stop - Hair goes bye-bye! It's been about three years since my last haircut and thanks to prenatals, it's been growing like a weed. It's been heavy and in the way for a while now. I went in and said that as long as it still goes up in a ponytail, I didn't care what she did to it.

I was able to get two 16-inch ponytails to donate to Locks of Love (it's my fourth time!) and then she gave me a cute cut. I think in total I am ~20 inches lighter today.

It always looks the cutest the day you get it cut and the stylist makes it all purdy.

Next up - Cook. I spent most of the day in the kitchen and made 18 different meals to store in the freezer for post-baby. I've done the freezer cooking thing before... it makes for one miserable day, but hopefully we'll thank Past-Me later. Oh, and I *may* need a bigger freezer.

Once Hans got home from work, it was off to Babies R Us to pick up a Pack N Play, courtesy of my fabulous in-laws, and get it set up in our bedroom. We're one step closer to being ready for baby!

I love the little owls =)

If you're interested in what I cooked, here's the list! I haven't even tried some of them yet, so I'll have to post later about what worked and what didn't

• chicken pot pie (2) - adapted from the BHG New Cookbook
• lasagna (2) - my mom's recipe
• sausage and mozzarella stuffed peppers (3)  
• chicken enchiladas (2) 
• white bean and sausage soup (3) 
• teriyaki chicken (2) 
• beef and broccoli (2) 
• chicken and wild rice casserole (2)

Baby shower

How lucky am I? This past weekend my wonderful friends Candace and Danielle threw me the cutest baby shower! It was so much fun and I felt wonderfully spoiled and loved. They went with a giraffe theme and I loved all the orange and yellow and decorations! Thank you so much to everyone who came, especially my godparents who drove all the way from Houston. And thank you for all the wonderful goodies for Baby Sweeting! I can't wait to use them all. Thank you, thank you C + D for being some of the best friends a girl could ask for :)

LOVE how the diaper cake turned out

Hi :)

I think Hans ate half the jelly beans before the shower even started 

Ummm, these were amazing.

The "guess how big the baby belly" is game... turns out Samantha Briggs is really good at it!

And Jess knows her baby food

Malinda is so convinced it's a girl, she couldn't resist.

Mary MADE this beautiful blessing dress..... can you believe it? She's so talented! 

We got tons of books... our friends know us well! :) 

I'm so glad that so many of my beautiful young women could come :)

Mandy's mom was in town so she got to come, too - how fun! 

Beautiful Camille had to crouch down to take a picture with me, haha. 

Love my Liz!

The wonderful ladies I've been blessed to serve in Young Women's with... I miss seeing  you so much!

My wonderful hostesses... Thank you!!

Steve and Hans setting up the AWESOME stroller the Powells got us

Thank you for such a wonderful gift!! We love it and we've been pushing it around the house all weekend hahaha.

34 weeks

How Far Along: 34 weeks, 2 days

Size of the Baby: Cantaloupe, 17.75 inches, 4.75 lbs
Weight gain/loss: Appointment Thursday, but I can tell that I'm gaining.
Sleep:  I'm so tired, but not sleeping well at all. I wake up more often to go to the restroom and even more often than that because I'm just not comfortable. And I can't seem to stay awake for long periods of time - I just wake up every couple hours for no reason at all. I could use a good night's sleep, but I think those days are over.
Best Moment of the Week: My dad came to visit last week and that was really fun. He's seen me since I've been pregnant, but I was only 7 weeks then and wasn't showing any symptoms. He got to feel the baby moving a little bit and we had a nice time chatting and hanging out. Oh, and we finally picked out names (pending looking at the baby and going "oh no, that doesn't fit at all!) and we're both pretty excited about that. I think Hans is actually more stoked than I am about it. And no, we're not sharing just yet because we don't want to hear how you don't like them or what's wrong with them.

Movement: This hurts. The movement is still pretty constant and just plain hurts. A lot. It's to the point where I feel like the baby has bruised the muscles in my mid-section - the whole thing is tender to the touch and every movement feels like kicking a bruise. Hiccups have gotten a lot more frequent and I think I feel them pretty much at least once a day, sometimes more. There's a lot of movement going on in my ribcage and that's no party either.
Symptoms: I am so swollen it's ridiculous. I went pretty far without this symptom so I guess I can't complain, but I'm making up for it now. My legs, ankles and face look huge. Awesome. Lots of heartburn, lots of shortness of breath, some back pain. All very normal things for this stage.
Food Cravings: So thirsty. I can't get enough to drink. I just want water all the time. I did really want some vanilla bean Bluebell this weekend and that was glorious. I wanted eggs on Friday (go figure) but we were out. It was a sad day.
Gender: :)
Belly Button in or out: Same
Anything making you queasy or sick: Actually, I've been doing better this week! (knock on wood...)
Labor Signs: Do Braxton Hicks count? Turns out, I HAVE been having a few of these... but they don't hurt and compared to the painful movements going on, I barely notice them. My stomach just gets hard as a rock for about 30 seconds. I had a big one in home depot one night last week and scared the pants off a high school-age employee. It wasn't hurting me, it just made me double over and grab onto a shelf for support - my stomach was locked up too tight to stand up straight. I stayed like that for 30 seconds or so, breathing through it while it passed, then I was up and walking around like nothing happened. I'm sure the poor boy was very confused and convinced that this lady was going to drop a kid in the middle of the store!
Wedding ring on or off: On.... but I'm not sure for much longer :-\
What I miss: My ankles.
What I am looking forward to: My baby shower is Saturday and I'm so excited!! The wonderful ladies throwing it for me showed me some of the plans this weekend and it's going to be so cute - they're doing such an amazing job and I'm so grateful to have such good friends. My godparents are driving in from Houston for the shower and I can't wait to see them :)
Nursery: Made some progress! I just finished a penant banner for the wall (post soon!) and I also have just two more frames to make and then I'll be ready to hang the frame gallery on the wall.
Emotions: Pretty freaked out. I didn't do so well at our first birthing class. I've always avoided the actually birthing videos - I don't do great with graphic imagery or blood. But they showed one in class last week - the actually here's-a-close-up-of-a-baby-coming-out variety - and I almost passed out. It was pretty horrible and after watching it, I fail to understand how our species continues to exist. Everything's becoming very, very real and I'm acutely aware that in about six weeks, I have to do this. There's got to be another way...
Stupid things I have done: Yesterday on my lunch break I made muffins. And then went back to work. And then couldn't remember if I turned off the oven.... Thanks, Jess, for checking for me!! (it was off... if you're wondering...)

Baby bathroom makeover

We haven't touched the second bathroom since.... well, ever. But certainly not since the boys moved out. Really, I just kept the door shut and pretended that room didn't exist.

But with baby on the way, it was in dire need of a makeover. Check out the before pics:

This project took me a while - there was a lot to do! And I'm proud to say that I did most of it myself (at 8 months pregnant) because Hans had his hands full with some problems in the garage and with our heating unit. So I tackled the list:

• sanded down the dried up wallpaper glue and puttied up a bunch of holes
• repainted with Glidden Water Chestnut - I wanted something nice and neutral since I planned on putting a lot of cutesy, colorful things in it
• replaced towel bar with towel hooks (just plain, brushed steel ones for now... I'm looking for some cutesier ones)
• replaced curtain rod with a rounded, brushed nickel rod for extra room
• replaced gold, exposed bulb light with brushed nickel fixture
• scrubbed like it's never been scrubbed. no offense boys, we love ya, but that room was DIRTY. I know Parker tried to clean it a couple times, but it needed some intensive treatment. I really expected to have to try several products and make several attempts on the black nastiness growing in the shower.... but to my great surprise and pleasure, I used a Clorox bleach pen on the grout and caulking, left for half an hour, came back and wiped it off and it was gone! I'm huge a fun of those pens now.
• added all the baby stuff! I actually saw this whale collection at Target two years ago and fell in love with it. we'd always planned on not finding out the gender, so I knew gender neutral would be happening and I figured... why not just get it now? It's been sitting in our linen closet for two years and I finally got to pull it out and put up the cute shower curtain, towels, rug, trash can and other bathroom accessories. Only thing is that I discovered I'm missing the matching hand towel and now I can't find it anywhere :(
• and the painting! I saw it on Pinterest and thought it'd be easy enough to re-create. I don't really have a tutorial necessarily (sorry, Laura!) but I do have some details about how I made it if you want to give it a go.  I used 8x10 canvases from Michaels - they were sold in packs of two and the packs were buy one get one free (total cost: ~$5). Picked up three cheap acrylic paints for about a buck each - a navy, a turquoise, and a baby blue. I printed the picture (greyscale, fast draft, cropped to match an 8x10 canvas) and then used leftover graphite paper from another project to trace. Then it was just painting! Since it's going in the bathroom, I did top it with a coat of polyurethane for extra protection.

I think the only other thing we want to do in here is some sort of shelves or medicine cabinet above the toilet for extra storage and maybe frame the mirror, but otherwise it's cute and clean and ready for baby!