Wrapping up 2008!

Be prepared for a mega-post here!

December was a super busy month for us...preparing for Christmas, parties, wrapping up the year at work, us both being sick for a week and trying to get Nate's room ready!

We had a great trip home for Christmas and were even surprised with a baby shower after opening presents at Joel's parents house.I was able to fulfill my craving for Crazy Fire at lunch with Nelson, Rachel and Adam and we hit a few of our favorite NC dining establishments--Smithfields BBQ and Cook Out. We also got to see Ben & Molly, Rex & Liz and Melissa...always good to catch up with our HCHS buddies.

We returned home on Sunday and have enjoyed this past week sleeping in, relaxing, working on Nate's room, and watching How I Met Your Mother on DVD (thanks Megan!) We went out to dinner on New Year's Eve to California Dreaming, one of our favorite restaurants.

This week I have also been battling a hive-like rash that has mysteriously broken out over half of my body. So, slathering Benedryl cream all over and daily oatmeal baths have been part of my routine this week. I went to the doctor on Tuesday to have her look at it and she said it is just something that can happen to some pregnant women... Thankfully I feel like it is getting better and will hopefully not have to resort to more intense medicine, since it may not go away completely until after I deliver. Here is the 30 weeks belly picture, you can see a little bit of the remaining rash on my hand.

24 Weeks and Nursery Progress

I've come to terms with the fact that I will never be as good at updating the blog as Sharla! She is right on time with the weekly updates, but I'm more of a bi-weekly girl. :-)

So here's 24 weeks! I'm really showing now...so if co-workers (that work outside of the office, but happen to come by), church members or even just people out (so far a grocery cashier, a cashier at Moe's, and a waitress at a lunch place by work) didn't know yet, they do now! I don't think I've ever been asked "how are you feeling?" so much in my entire life! I am feeling generally well and am trying not to complain too much (Joel might have a different take on this) since I know the 3rd trimester will be especially uncomfortable.


I have also told my managers that I won't be returning and they were very supportive of my decision...I really couldn't have asked for it to have gone any better. 3 months and counting until I will be working at home.

Joel is working very hard on Ace's room--He has ripped out the carpet, put up the beadboard and is now working on painting. Here are some progress shots--the beadboard will be white and the top will be blue.

We're looking forward to a mini-vacation in Highlands, NC for Thanksgiving. We are going to drive up Wednesday afternoon/evening and come back on Saturday. I'll definitely have pictures from our trip!

22 Weeks

Everything is still going well. We had a doctors appointment last week and met the other doctor in the practice. We liked her just as much as the first one, so that was good. I'll go back at 26 weeks and have the dreaded glucose test..blah!

We (by we I mean Joel) have started working on the nursery and we are going to register at Babies R Us today. We'll also mark "go to a rock concert" off of the things to do before the baby arrives checklist at the Coldplay concert tonight.

Stay tuned in the next couple of weeks for the announcement of Ace's real name...:-)

A little behind....

Here's the 20 weeks belly pic--halfway done!

Tomorrow's the day!

Tomorrow is the big ultrasound....so if you haven't already, get your votes in. It's pretty skewed to girl right now. We'll have to see if the majority is right!

Here's the 17 week belly pic!

Belly Update

I know this is long overdue....I think I officially "popped" around 15 weeks, but here it looks more like 16....

12 weeks

13 weeks

14 weeks

15 weeks

16 weeks...and my new haircut--thanks to Meredith :-)

10 and 11 Weeks

10 Weeks

11 Weeks

Getting bigger and bigger....we're excited for Sharla, Josh and Jackson to visit this weekend! Going to get Sharla to help me look at some things at Babies R Us and do some maternity clothes shopping! We're also anxious to see how Sammy does around Jackson, since he's never been around a baby before...he should know to be on his best behavior!

9 weeks

My weight is still down from where I started, but my belly lump says otherwise! I'm starting to feel better this week, although my hormones are still slightly raging. They seem to manifest in crying at something Joel did, said, etc rather than anger at my co-workers.

Ace took his/her first boat ride this week with our new friends Meredith (hereby known as Aunt Mer) & Dave. They went to church with my friend April Brown Erichsen from Meredith...and moved to GA in June--only 1 town away from us. They were fabulous hosts on the boat, and their marina had a low country boil that night that they invited us to. Joel tried wakeboarding and I just enjoyed the ride! Silly me forgot my camera...so no pictures :-(

8 Weeks

Not much going on with the belly. I cleaned out my closet and moved all the clothes that I'm not able to wear right now to the guestroom closet. It does make getting dressed a lot easier since there's not too much to choose from! I'm still losing weight since food sounds, smells and tastes so yucky...but hopefully that will ease up soon!

7 weeks

That's not my bellybutton poking out, just the streched closure on my pants...so I think these pants have about had it!

6 weeks

Here start the belly pictures! Morning sickness definitely has kicked in this week, so I've already lost the little weight that I did gain at the Ryan's megabar. We have our first ultrasound on Thursday!