Nursery pictures!!!

We absolutely LOVE the nursery. The girls did such a good job; it looks like it came straight out of a magazine!! The pictures don't even do it justice, so you will all have to come down to see it for yourself in person :) Happy New Year!

Picture of when you first walk in the door of the nursery

Ryder's Crib

Crib and toy shelf

Another Crib shot with the circle rug

Rocker chair (the cushions aren't on yet, but they'll be recovered in an off-white fabric)

Changing table/dresser and picture shelves (and the rocker cow in bottom L corner!)

27 weeks

Hi all! 27 weeks and officially in the THIRD trimester this week. Crazy talk! I'm feeling like I'm stretching in every direction at an alarmingly fast pace. Scary. Fun fact from our baby book: right now Ryder has the most taste buds he will ever have in his life and he can taste things well through the amniotic fluid. Hope he liked the meatloaf I made tonight :) Also sometime between this week and next week his eye lids, which have been fused together since conception, should be opening up! Not much to see in there I'm sure.

Tomorrow the girls are coming to decorate/paint the nursery. I'll post some pictures by Thursday or Friday this week. Next week: look forward to the 7th month baby bump shot!

Less than 100 days!!!!!!!!!!

Merry Christmas, everyone :)

6 1/2 months (26 weeks)

6 1/2 months has arrived. I know I say it all the time, but I feel like time is flying and this pregnancy is going so fast. (ask me this again in the last month...I may not feel the same!).

This week our pregnancy books said that hearing is fully developed and I will probably be able to feel Ryder jump/startle if there are any sudden loud noises. So to test this, Joe and I are going to take pots and pans and bang them near my belly and see if we can scare the crap out of him. (I'm totally kidding). He continues to move more and more everyday. He's almost 2lbs now and getting bigger by the day. Literally. Just look at my expanding gut and you'll know. This past weekend I got together with some of my girlfriends and they decided that my belly button and old belly buttom piercing looks like a star fish. Lovely.

Anyways, here are just a couple beach shots of my prego belly for those of you who wanted to see them:

Week 25

After finally getting home at almost 2am from the airport last night, I woke up bright and early for my 8am drs appointment for round two testing for gestational diabetes--the dreaded THREE HOUR test that I had to sit in the waiting room the whole time! Luckily I have the best mom ever and she came down for almost two hours to sit with me in the waiting room so I'd have company :) As for the test, I passed with flying colors..no gestational diabetes! So to celebrate...I went and ate Taco Bell afterwards!!

Our vacation was fun, I rocked the bikini...I didn't care what people thought. Although it was funny...one older lady on the beach one day said, "you must be pregnant! ...Or just really chubby." yes, yes that is what she said. Nice manners, huh? She's lucky I am pregnant otherwise I might have had to beat up a lady on the beach...haha. I also noticed this past week while lying on the beach (I had to add that in there...) that now when he kicks, he's gotten strong enough and big enough where we can actually SEE my belly move. Pretty cool!

This week is week 25. The books say that Ryder is about 13 inches long and weighs just over 1 1/2 pounds. My uterus is the size of a soccer ball now!! (and growing). Fun fact: up until now, Ryder's nostrils have been "plugged" shut and this week they are open and he will start to do some "practice breaths" through those little nostrils :)

Baby bump-6 months

I had my 6 month appointment today where I did my glucose testing. Unfortunately I missed the mark by 5 points and I have to go back next Thursday and do the THREE HOUR glucose test. The dr said I shouldn't worry too much. I barely missed the cutoff point and it's just standard protocol that I have to come back to do it. I am bummed, but hopefully it works out okay. The Dr. said that only 5-7% of all pregnant women actually get gestational diabetes. So I'm hoping I'm not in that small percentage!

Tonight we're just finishing packing. We are leaving for the Cayman Islands tomorrow. We get up at 4am and our flight leaves at 7am. We're staying till next wednesday. It will be Ryder's first trip out of the country :) Don't expect too many pictures of my big belly walking down the beach...

6 months!

This week we hit 6 months now. I can't believe how fast it's gone. Ryder is moving like crazy, infact, I think he might have even switched positions. I feel him kicking in a completely different area than I used to feel him. Joe and I read in our baby books that the area in the inner ear that senses balance is developed and the baby can tell if they are upside down etc. He was facing down at our 5 month ultrasound, so maybe he turned because he was tired of hanging upside down!?!?!! Or it could be that he's just getting bigger I suppose. He is about the length of a ruler now and weighs about 1 1/4 lbs.

I have my 6 month appointment on Thursday, and I'll do the glucose testing to check for gestational diabetes. They apparently make me drink this super sugary/nasty drink and then check my blood sugar an hour later or something. I'll keep you updated on how that goes. I really hope I'm don't have gestational diabetes because then I would have to change my eating habits (like not eating three sugar cookies after dinner tonight...)

And also, you can look forward to the six month baby bump shot!! Coming soon....

23 weeks

This week starts the 23rd week. I swear I wake up every day and am bigger than the day before. In the next month, Ryder is supposed to double his weight....thank God I won't (hopefully...haha).

When Joe was reading me the weekly pregnancy book chapter, we read that IF he was born this week, he could survive outside of the womb! Of course, there would be problems, but he would survive nonetheless, which makes us feel better now.

Baby Furniture

So we got the crib and dresser delivered today. And also our rocking chair was picked up by a "local" Mayer guy who restores furniture and he's re-finishing the rocker to match the color of the new furniture below. We're pretty excited!

The sleigh crib!

(and the delivery guys set it up for us so Joe and I got to bypass all the hassle)

The cute Ryder blanket over the side of the crib


The dresser
(it looks a LOT lighter than the crib in this picture...must be the lighting because it actually looks like the same color as the crib above)

A couple of the cute clothes we have so far

(how could you not LOVE the overalls??)

This is the cute little table Great Grandma Bartlett set up for Ryder at Thanksgiving. She even had a little name card for him :)

22 weeks/ 5 1/2 months

In a couple days I will be officially at the 5 and 1/2 months mark. Joe and I were reading in our books that this week Ryder has finally hit one pound and is about 8-9 inches long!

I also got a call this AM and the crib and dresser will be delivered Wednesday morning. I can't wait to put the crib together and see what it looks like in person finally! Joe said he would put it together, but I informed him that even though he normally doesn't read directions and bulldozes his way through putting things together, this time we had to follow directions because the safety of little Ryder depended on it... He then asked me if I would just read it and make sure he was putting it together right. (why is it that boys just can't read/follow someone else's directions?!? haha) But once it's up and together, I will post some pictures of the finished product for everyone.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

Belly Bump pics!

16 weeks/ 4 months and barely showing

20 weeks/5 months and starting to get a bit of a bump

Joe felt Ryder for the first time :)

While at the movie "The Blind Side" tonight (the one with Sandra Bullock...good movie!!), Ryder was moving like crazy but usually if you press your hand against my belly he will stop moving. But I quick put Joe's hand on my belly and he got to feel Ryder give me a little kick for the first time! It was very exciting for both of us. Exciting for me because I finally get to share that with him and exciting for him because he finally gets to be part of the action :)

Today I also finished up most of the baby registry. We are registered at Babies R Us. I really think you could wander around that warehouse of a place forever and never get out of there! Too many cute things...

Yesterday we moved all the rooms upstairs around to get the nursery ready. We worked for about 4 hours moving, cleaning, etc. It was a LOT of work, but it's done now and we're ready for the furniture to arrive and for the girls to come down and do the nursery. Yes, yes we are prepared slightly in advance. Would you expect anything less from me??

The bedding set is here!!!!!!

The bedding arrived today!!! The crib and dresser are on the way....I was so excited I almost peed my pants :)

I also talked to Jenna's sister, Megan tonight. Megan and Jenna's other sister, Nikki, are coming down to paint and decorate the nursery the Wednesday after Xmas. I'll post pictures later.

Some ultrasound pictures

Side picture of Ryder with his hand by his face.A picture from below that shows his manhood. AKA: "the turtle"

A full body side shot. They said he has really long legs. You know that's not from mommy...

And my favorite pic of them all: the 3D pic of Ryder!

21 weeks and counting

This is my first attempt at a blog. I thought it would be nice so family and friends can see pictures/hear new updates easily.

Joe and I had a really fun week last week. We found out we are having a little baby boy! We decided on the name Ryder. As for a middle name, MY choice would be Francis. It's Joe's middle name, my dad's middle name, my grandpa's first name and his grandpa's name. So since it's coming down both sides of the family, that's the name. Joe says it's sissy and the middle name should be james instead...I like it. But it's not in the family! Who will win?? hehe.

I'm very excited as this week I'm finally starting to "pop". I had someone ask me how far along I was at Lifetime Fitness last night. That was the first time someone I didn't know mentioned me being pregnant. Which means I must be actually starting to look like I dont just have a beer gut anymore!! I have one pair of jeans that I can wear still and anytime I sit down I have to unbutton my pants. I refuse to buy a pair of maternity jeans yet. I'm holding off as long as possible!!

We also ordered bedding, a crib, and a dresser. That should be here in 2-3 weeks and I'll post pictures when I get it set up. Jenna's sisters (Megan and Nikki) are going to come down and paint the nursery and decorate it for us....because if you know me at all you know that I a)have no decorating sense and b)have zero patience for painting and all that it entails. So I can't wait to have them down. They should be doing the nursery end of Dec/first week in January.

Interesting fact from the baby book for the week: This week Ryder's tastebuds are working and the baby can taste the foods I eat. I think his favorite two foods will be pizza and hashbrowns....