One More Thing...

I almost forgot to tell you that I started having my first nesting symptoms. I'm going crazy because there's still so much crap in the baby's room and I just want to have a clean slate when we start putting in furniture. So, I've spent the last 2-3 days cleaning out drawers, filing papers, and generally cleaning up my office space so we can hopefully find new homes for some of the crap in the baby's room. I think we're going to go ahead and put an a/c duct in the garage and try and clean it up a little so we can have a/c storage and one day turn it into a play room. I'll keep you posted! ;-)

PS- make sure you read the next blog entry... it's also from today!

26 Weeks & Feelin’ Good

All is well in my belly! Just this morning our little boy was poppin’ like popcorn and (as usual) I tell Bryan, “if you want to feel your son pop like popcorn come put your hand on my belly.” I’m thinking that if I don’t move from the position I’m laying in then he’ll keep kicking around. So, Bry puts his arm over and his hand on my belly and….. NOTHING! Yes, that’s right, the story of this pregnancy (and maybe every pregnant woman), everytime I feel a ton of kicking, Bry puts his hand on my belly just in time for nothing. What’s up with that?!?

We recently went to Orlando and met some friends to see Kathy Griffin… Hilarious! They were asking all about the baby and if we had thought of a name yet, etc. Well, “Baby ‘E’” was our abbreviation for the name Ethan (which we really liked). However, we have yet to look in a baby book of names, so we wanted to keep our options open in case we found another name we really liked. Through sharing the name Ethan we discovered that we each thought the other was not sure about the name when, in fact, we both really liked it. SOOOO, it’s settled… our little boy’s name will be Ethan (unless he delivers and we decide he doesn’t look like an Ethan - haha). We have yet to agree on a middle name, so we’ll keep you posted.

Food cravings?? Well, I still haven’t had any major weird cravings, aside by the drive by Wendy’s which makes me think, “Mmmmm, Wendys!” BUT, I didn’t stop. However, I can always eat pizza! My lunches these days have consisted of either bagel bites (pepperoni pizza) or self-made English Muffin pizzas with Kraft Singles cheese and the occasional pepperoni slices on top. Pretty ridiculous, I know. Fruit, yogurt & granola also has been a delicious snack of mine…. Yummmm! Other than that, it’s my usual picky diet. I have branched out on some things since I got prego. I’m hoping Ethan won’t be as picky as his mother and maybe enjoy all kinds of food like his daddy ;-)

Already keeping a schedule… it’s interesting because Ethan already has a pretty regular schedule. He may stay up all night, I’m not sure (I think I blogged about that before). But, he’s still kicking like crazy in the mornings, a little bit after lunch, he may make a brief appearance after dinner, but then he makes his grand exit when I lay down to bed. In fact, his most “severe” kicking happens when I’m nice and relaxed in my cozy bed…. WHAM! It’s always a pleasant surprise. This week’s excitement was feeling Ethan’s hick-ups for the first time. I wasn’t completely paying attention at first, but I finally noticed that I wasn’t feeling a single leg or hand, but instead my whole stomach just shook like a little Belly-Earthquake. Then I noticed the rhythm… ohhhhhh (I thought) I think he’s got the hick-ups! It was very cool.

Oh, my belly button is about to disappear completely and the outty belly button is looking more and more likely. Yikes! In fact, it turns into a little bit of an outty when I’m really full.

Babymoon with my Honey

When we found out we were pregnant (we being me) we decided that a babymoon was much needed. Bry and I had talked about saving up for a trip to Italy before we had kids and now we had a kid on the way, so Italy wasn’t looking like it was going to work out. So, we decided Hawaii! Hawaii would be the perfect Babymoon… so we looked at tickets and thought we had it all figured out. It was a little expensive, but hey, it’s Hawaii… it’ll be worth every penny. Well, before we could book the trip prices took a little jump and we began to worry… “is it the responsible thing to do; to spend that much money before we have our first baby???” And now the price had jumped…. Hmmmm… time for plan B… Pelican Rapids, MN! Our good friends (& neighbors for 8 months out of the year) Clark & Vi have a great lake house in MN that we’ve spent several summers visiting in the past. So, lake bound we were…

This would normally be the part where I tell you all about the fiasco we had in our travels getting to MN, but I really don’t want to talk about it cause it’ll just piss me off, and well, I’m still on vacation ;-)

For those of you that have been keeping up with the blog, you should know that my belly button is disappearing more and more everyday (slightly depressing, but I’ll be ok). Our little boy has kept a pretty consistent kicking schedule, but since our travels he’s been all confused. I was beginning to worry… cause that’s what moms do best… and everytime I started to worry he would kick me. So, he’s fine and has been kicking up a storm when I lay down at night. He’s obviously a night owl. I think he parties all night while Bry and I sleep. This is probably something we’ll need to keep an eye on in those teenage years. They start so young these days… wow! ;-)

We’ve had an amazing trip… seeing all the “sites.” I say “sites” because they’re unique, small-town kind of sites to be seen. Mostly we drive 30 minutes

in the country (BFE) in order to get to another small town in the middle of nowhere to walk around their “downtown.” If you’ve ever walked through downtown Jensen Beach… that’s about the extent of the excitement. However, it’s been very enjoyable browsing the antique stores and random mom & pop places all around. You never know what kind of treasures you’ll find. Among the 4 of us, we’ve purchased 3 different trunks (old & cool lookin’), shoes, souvenirs, and lots of great food!

Here’s a picture of us about to be killed by the very giant Prairie Chicken in Rothsay, MN.

Although these appear to be a great buy… Clark & I decided to stick to modeling these glasses and save our money for other purchases.

Oh yeah, and I almost forgot… we celebrated my 29^th birthday!!! Wow, I’m getting old and fat! Haha!

I was totally shocked when Bry got me an iPhone… definitely not a present I was expecting.

What a pleasant surprise!

Disappearing Buttons

So, one of my best friends from my childhood, Tara, is also pregnant. I should have known because our lives have always had strange parallels since we were kids. Let me give you the quick on the “big” parallels. I started dating “Bryan” in high school when she started dating “Ryan.” We dated our high school sweethearts for over a year and then broke up. Years later I got back together with Bryan and quickly after Tara was back with Ryan. Bryan and I got married, as did Tara and Ryan. And when I finally picked up the phone to surprise Tara and tell her that Bryan and I were pregnant, she beat me to the announcement, “Ryan and I are pregnant!” To which I replied… “me too!” Even stranger… we’re only a week apart on our due dates. Crazy, huh?!? All of this is just a goofy side story to lead me to a recent conversation Tara and I had about belly buttons. Tara asked me if I noticed anything weird about my belly button and indeed I had… it was slowly disappearing. My formerly tunneled, small and cute belly button that used to say “ooooooooh” is now shallow and saying “Awhhhh!” Does that make sense? My belly button ring is showing through all my shirts and people keep asking me if my in-y is now an out-y. NO! I keep wondering how long till that happens.

Anyways, as if losing my belly button isn’t enough... I also lost a button on 1 of 3 pairs of shorts that still fit. Grrrr… just a sign of “HEY! Your pants don’t fit anymore prego!” And I pull a favorite shirt of mine out of the wash and it’s missing a button. I’m losing all kinds of buttons this week! Which reminds me, I now only have 3 pairs of shorts that still fit. I’ve been wearing all maternity shorts and pants aside from those special 3 pairs of shorts. Well, breaking news… I wore a pair yesterday and was having a hard getting them buttoned and un-buttoned. SO, they’re officially retired until our baby boy arrives. So, it’s all maternity from here on out!

Our little boy has been kicking up a storm. For the first time I felt him moving in 2 places at once on my belly – about 4-5 inches apart. That was pretty crazy! He must have been doing a full body stretch or something. Bry has been able to see and feel him move almost daily, so I’m glad he can now experience some of the excitement with me. That’s all the excitement for now…