Baby Shower Season Has Begun

Ben, Baby, and I are blessed to have many caring and generous people in our lives. Last Saturday began a streak of baby showers planned for us by family and friends. I’m very much enjoying the intimate settings and the chance to celebrate with various groups of people – and the ability to really get to visit with everyone afforded by having a handful of smaller showers.

The season kicked off with a baby shower thrown by amazing women at Shooting Star Stables, where I have boarded Ace for the last 2.5 years. Barn owner Cathy Pastore hosted. We had a fabulous time (and some very yummy tacos, cake and strawberries), played some games, and talked babies – and of course horses! My sister Shawna was in town visiting and came along, and was impressed with what a wonderful group of women we have at my barn.

Here are a few fun pictures from our afternoon together that Shawna captured for me…

Giraffes! Ben’s favorite.

With Hannah, my special barn buddy who comes with me every Thursday and helps me feed the horses.

With my riding buddy (when I’m actually riding) Pam, and barn owner Cathy.

And especially for Grandpa John who requested updated belly shots, here are a few pictures from WinterFest a week ago that show it off pretty well.

30 weeks

My youth group girls are super excited about the baby. They are all over my belly all the time, and we have frequent long chats about baby stuff – and a bunch of babysitting offers. It’s a lot of fun to share this with them.

Next up: a busy weekend in baby world! I have a shower this Saturday with my peeps from work thrown by my boss, Sheila … and I hope to finally get the nursery painted!

Welcoming Third Trimester with a Growth Spurt

Tomorrow we hit 29 weeks, the end of our first week of the third trimester. Pregnancy has felt like a ride on the Dragster at Cedar Point (or at least what I imagine it to feel like since I won’t ride it). The whole first half of pregnancy was agonizingly slow. Then we hit 20 weeks and a few weeks later the New Year – and we are rushing towards the end at Warp 9 (shout out to my Trek-loving in-laws!).

I was a little dense in connecting the dots this week …

• experienced some minor heartburn for the first time early in the week
• have been incredibly exhausted, despite getting long and good sleep
• had a little trouble reaching my feet to tie my shoes this morning

It was only when I got on the scale this morning and discovered that I’d gained 3 pounds in a week that I realized – growth spurt!

I figure growth spurts are a good thing, because so much of baby’s weight is gained in this final third of pregnancy. I’m sure we’ll be having many more weeks like this.

Baby boy is starting to get more consistent with his movement patterns. He’s most active between 3 and 4 in the afternoon. I get to enjoy it every day because I tend to spend my afternoons on the couch in my office with my feet up and laptop on my thighs – it makes it really easy to see my entire belly jerking from side to side as he moves around. Sometime he goes to town pummeling me, and I could swear that he’s boxing with my bellybutton as his target.

I had my 28-week prenatal appointment earlier this week, and everything continues to look good. Because I’m low-risk and my blood pressure and glucola are good, I don’t have to go back for another 4 weeks. I’m glad not to be living at the doctor’s just yet!

In other fun news, we have narrowed down baby boy names to a couple of favorites. We aren’t telling what they are – and in all likelihood I think we’ll wait until we meet him to decide officially.

WinterFest with the teens is next weekend, and then we head into baby shower season with 3 in a row!