More Belly Pictures... Wishing they were Baby Pictures!

30 weeks. I know I'm going steps backwards because I already have 34 weeks posted.... but somehow I lost these pics and just found them. It amazing how much you grow once you hit 30 weeks!

35 weeks. My face is puffy! I don't look so happy either.

I took these pictures right after Ellie's grade school graduation last Thursday. 37 weeks and 4 days. That was quite a day... my mother begged me to wear something else because I was showing too much skin and she swore I would look back at these pictures and be angry. I was hot and this was the best outfit I could come up with. I also got a spray tan that morning thinking it would give me some color. I don't look much darker in these pictures.... I think my Banana Boat tanning lotion is more effective. Maybe I will blog about the spray tan experience later because it was a doozy!

For some reason, I love this picture! My facial expression is hilarious, and the position of my hands look like I'm truly "carrying" this baby.

38 weeks!! Look at the picture on the left. Whoa.... that is one big baby belly! And the picture on the right.... if I would have zoomed in we could have had a nice shot of the swollen feet. I know everyone's feet swell during pregnancy especially when its hot, but it is the strangest thing. I look down at my feet and wonder if they're someone elses! I have NEVER had fat feet so its pretty comical.

I would love for my next post to be of baby pictures rather than belly pictures. I'm not going to hold my breath though.

Taryn's Shower

I keep giving Taryn a hard time because she won't post any belly pictures of herself on facebook. She even insisted that we only take a picture from the chest up but I wasn't having that! Might as well flaunt the swollen bodies so we can really feel good about ourselves later! She thought she looked so much bigger than me, but you can't tell it with these pictures. Taryn is due on July 24. Poor thing, the summer heat will be miserable and I don't envy her a bit! She is another one of my friends I have frequently talked to throughout the entire pregnancy process. She is having a boy also.

Here's the "chest up" picture she wanted. I think this just makes us look like fat heads. *L*

All the pretty ladies. Left to right: Rachel, me, Lora, Taryn, Courtney, and Lynn. Courtney just got engaged and her ring is gorgeous! They are having a destination wedding in August. I haven't seen Lynn since her wedding a year and half ago! It was a nice little reunion :)

This little thing was so neat. Made out of blankets, a bib, shoes, socks, and a hat. How creative!

I've seen several diaper cakes, but this one ranks close to the top. Courtney and her mother made it for Taryn's shower.... I think they should consider going into business! Nice work ladies!

Shower 2

My 2nd shower was held by Cindy, my stepmom. She's pictured above with me and my dad. The shower was held on Sunday May 17 at Cindy's house. We played lots of games which I love! I even won the mixed up words one.... she let me have a gift too (foot rub for my amazingly swollen clown feet). One of the games was to try to remember all of the baby neccessities that were found in the bath tub. There were 26 items I believe.... all for baby! They also got me a pack and play for my bedroom. After all of the stuff I received at this shower, I decided I was pretty much ready for him to arrive!

The shower participants. Left to right: Becky, Connie, Grandma Chestnut, Meredith, me, Caroline, and Julie.

I look so puffy in these pictures! Can you tell it was hot that day!? This worm cake was great.... so yum and the head of the worm was a rattle.

Me and Grandma Matson. She's very excited about this baby.... her and my grandpa venture south to Zapata, TX for the Winter. I feel like the trip south will be a bit harder this year with the baby around.

Me and my quilt! Grandma Chestnut and I started this quilt right after I graduated high school. We pieced it together in about 3 weeks. The day my grandma sat me down to show me how to actually quilt the thing, I looked at her like she was crazy. There was no way I had the patience of eyesight to make this quilt look right. 5 years down the road, she decided to take the quilt to get it quilted and surprised me with it at the shower. What a nice surprise!

Shower Time

I was informed last weekend that people do in fact look at my blog & its time for me to start updating it! This baby is running my entire life and he's not even here yet. I've been so busy in the last couple of months preparing for his arrival and lots of pictures have been taken. I apologize for all the people looking at my blog that also have facebook because there might be duplicate pictures. I will try to post more of the story on my blog though.

These pictures are from the first baby shower I had. It was held on May 3 at Cody's Restaurant in Mattoon. My fellow nurses at the hospital put it on. Cody's is such a great place to eat but we unfortunately had the worst service ever. We "expressed" our concern to the manager and he took care of our entire bill. We were all shocked because that wasn't our intentions, but we thought our poor service needed to be recognized as a problem. This shower was wonderful because its always fun to hang out with coworkers outside of scrubs. Also, they got me a lot of great stuff!! Here are some pictures from the shower.

Me and my cake. Isn't it adorable? Nikki's aunt made it for the shower and it tasted just as great as it looks.

Katie and Natosha. All three of us girls have the exact same rotation at the hospital so we are "forced" to be friends. JUST KIDDING! Katie is an OB nurse and Natosha is a Pediatrics nurse. I love working with both of them because they are definitely entertaining girls.

This is Cassie and her baby Owen. Owen was born at 29 weeks back in October! Despite being born early, he has managed to have little health problems. Cassie has been a nurse for a long time and she used to be a workaholic, picking up shifts all over the place. All of that changed after baby Owen came into her life :)

Here is Susan and her children Jade and Lance. Lance was born in January. He was part of the baby boom on our unit of the hospital. (We had 9 nurses pregnant at the same time!) Everyone has delivered their babies but ME! Also, everyone seemed to have their babies early.... I have 9 days to go and I don't see this happening anytime soon. Guess I'm breaking the trend.

The last two pregnant ladies left. Nikki was due 10 days before me so it has been so interesting to swap pregnancy stories and complaints with her. She had a baby girl named Addison Claire on Monday May 25 at 6:34 PM. She weighed 8 lbs. 10 oz and is so beautiful. She looks a lot like her daddy Adam. I guess Nikki yelled several times during her labor that she couldn't wait to tell me just how bad this hurts and that its the worst pain I will ever experience. I believe she said it about 10 times! Glad she thought of me through her labor. Haha. She found out she was having a girl two weeks before I found out I was having a boy. The minute I told her I was having a boy she said our children will definitely have to date. Well, if my kid would just get here to meet Addison....

Group picture. Left to right.... Kathy, Cassie, Owen, Natosha, Katie. Kathy is a Pediatrics nurse. She has more energy than all of us combined. One of her worst habits is to follow all of her statements with "You know what I mean?" We give her so much grief about it. She has four children and she refers to her crazy life as taking care of her 50 million children. Good thing she has lots of energy because I don't know how she does it.

Terrible posture. I look exhausted in this picture too. But I had to post a pic of the guest of honor.

Look at him grow!

34 Weeks!!

Notice the sweat pants. Old Navy special.... I wish I had them in 7 different colors so I could wear them everyday. I'm so over the discomfort of jeans.

I can't wait to see how much bigger my stomach gets in the next 6 weeks because look at the difference between week 29 and now! (And I thought I was getting big then!) I must say I've still had an amazing pregnancy so far with little complaints. Last week I swear he grew at least a pound or more because I could feel myself getting bigger by the minute. And my mood reflected how I felt. (Many apologies to the girls at work for having to put up with me last weekend when I really felt miserable.) I have a doctor's appointment this Thursday so I will have good news to report hopefully. So far I have gained 16 pounds!

Other baby news. He just started getting the hiccups at 31.5 weeks. At first it was cute. Now, it's not so cute because he gets them all the time. They hooked me up to the fetal monitors at work a couple of weeks ago. He had been sleeping so soundly, but once those monitors were on my belly he was ticked off. He kept trying to kick it out of the way and it felt like he was having a bit of a tantrum. Next thing I know, he gave himself the hiccups because he was all stirred up! You could even see it on the fetal monitor. Haha. What a personality he has already!

I definitely have noticed a major case of the pregnant brain lately too. I cannot think straight or talk correctly because I've got "baby on the brain". For example, last weekend I went to my parents and realized I had left my cell phone at my apartment. I went back to the apartment to get the phone and got distracted. I grabbed my sunglasses and a book and headed out the door. A few miles down the road I realized..... oh my gosh, I had managed to forget the cell phone AGAIN! So the last time I ventured back to my place I ended up successfully getting my phone. A few days before that, my stepdad came over and I said, "Hey did you notice the new picture of the family I put on my fridge?" He looked over and noticed I have absolutely nothing on my fridge. I just looked at him and laughed and said, "Um, yeah, I meant the TV." All of the pregnancy books weren't lying about "frequent urination" either. I swear I spend at least half of my day in the restroom! Last night I went to wash my hands after using the restroom. I turned on the water, put soap on my hands, then turned the water off. I was like, 'so how am I going to rinse this off?'.... preggo brain! I'm sure its only going to get worse.

Flashbacks and the Latest

Tyler decided to go to Georgia to visit his Army friends for spring break. He left on Friday and won't be back until Wednesday. We've been spending so much time together lately that I'm a little bored with him not around. Saying goodbye to him reminded me of when I used to have to say bye to him every Sunday when he was active in the army and he would go back to Chicago for a week. Times like these make me realize that sometimes I take my time with him for granted. But.... I do hope he is having a good vacation. Maybe I'm just a little jealous he gets to take a trip.

Other news: I've had so many problems with my cell phone lately and I finally got a new one. I have a great talent for breaking them. My new phone is an EnV 2 and I kinda love it. I sent a text message to one of my friends yesterday and my phone actually spoke to me and said, "You have received a message from so and so..." Way creepy, but neat. And I'm not sure how to turn that function off so I'm getting used to it.

Last night I took a trip to Terre Haute with my family. We stopped in Hobby Lobby to get materials to make baby shower invites. There's so much to do in the next two months before the little one gets here! Hopefully I can get some stuff accomplished while Tyler is out of town :)

Look at all the baby stuff

Lots and Lots of clothes from Grandmas, Rachel, and Me of course. Grandma Short has already started stocking up on diapers!

Already a St. Louis Cardinal fan

I couldn't decide if I wanted to make him a quilt or crochet an afghan. I chose to do both