Belly...

So my belly has obviously been growing and growing these past 9 months! Maybe not at first so much but definitely the last 4-5!! I thought it would be fun to see how much it has grown. I'm always the one with the camera so I don't really have any pictures from before May but that's about when it started to REALLY grow!

May...little belly!

June...little bigger!

July...getting even bigger!!

August...ready to POP!!

We'll see what it looks like next month! I'll have to do a picture the day before I go in. We'll see how much bigger I am then...hopefully not TOO much bigger!

3 WEEKS TO GO!!

36 weeks! BIG BELLY!

Holy Crud!! I cannot believe we only have 3 weeks left until this baby comes!! Believe me, I'm SO ready for this baby to come out! I love the feeling of being pregnant...feeling that baby move and kick is unreal and I always miss that feeling after the baby does come. HOWEVER, I've never been more ready for "delivery"! Maybe you are right Becki, I have a big belly and small baby!! Whatever the reason...this baby will not give me a break with the kicking and punching and stretching and whatever else it's doing in there. Maybe its trying to be like its big brother Eric...watched the Olympics and is now trying to be a gymnast!! Sure feels that way!! :) I haven't been sleeping at all the last week or so...either have heartburn, the baby has hiccups or it just wont settle down. I'm left feeling wide awake and HUNGRY. I've been so good at not getting up at night to eat...its something I've refused to do. I caved this morning at like 5:30...I'd been awake for almost 3 hours thinking about how hungry I was and the baby was just going crazy. So I finally gave in and had a bowl of cereal. Baby settled down, I crashed for a half hour and then the stupid alarm went off. You'd think after being awake ALL night crashing for a half hour would be like power nap...wake up with lots of energy...not even close! It was so hard crawling out of bed!! But I guess its helping me get used to being up all night with a baby again. (I'm trying to find the positive in it!)

I should post the pictures of our fun vacation but really have no desire to. I think I just figure the only two people on my friends list went on the same vacation and have the same pictures so whats the point?!?!?!? I know there are other people who read this blog too...I just can't figure out how to add them onto the friends list...that's Andy's job! So at some point I will blog about our trip for you guys! ...Just not today!

Doing a little better!

Besides my amazing husband...this girl right here is my soul mate!! She is perfect in almost every way. Again, besides my husband...she is my best friend. I'm not including Andy in this because I'm "supposed to"...he really is my soul mate and best friend. Before he came along this was the girl that knew everything about me and loved me anyway. He came along and she moved away...this is called life. He is my absolute everything and knows me better than anyone and in some amazing superhero way is able to be everything and more than I ever hoped for and NEEDED. I have so much emotion when I think about him...I just might break out into a country song!! He really is my everything. But she still knows so much about me and loves me unconditionally and is able to tell me when I'm wrong and/or being ridiculous! She is kind and beautiful and spiritually she is a ROCK. She is hilarious and there is never a dull moment when she is around. I had the best time with her this last weekend and am so so sad that our fun is over and I don't get to see her until Christmas. I cannot wait till Christmas! Hopefully someday we live closer and we won't have to go through the rough goodbyes. She truly is an amazing girl and I'm so lucky to have her for a sister.

Venting...

I'm using this blog to vent right now. I know no one else cares but I need to get this out.
I AM SO FREAKIN' SAD RIGHT NOW. This poor boy I watch just stares at me as I'm crying my head off. I'm trying so hard to keep it in but that just makes it worse and I cry harder. I hate the fact that my sister is in the state of MN and I am not with her. She is an hour away and I'm stuck here. I'm grateful that I get to watch this boy and for the income it gives us but I am not loving sitting here knowing my sister is here until Thursday and I don't get so see her anymore than I already have. She came Friday morning and stayed until Saturday. We drove to Aitkin Saturday morning and stayed until Sunday night. I haven't seen her in forever and my time with her went by so fast. I'm so glad for the time I had with her and don't mean to sound ungrateful but she's still in MN and I'm not able to be there with her. Being a grown up really sucks some days.
And so do hormones.

What the heck??

So here I sit...on the computer...at 4:30 in the MORNING. I don't have my extra little guy today so I should be sleeping in until at least 7 or 7:30. ...This is not what I consider sleeping in! Who on earth wakes up sneezing?? It was the most bizarre thing I've ever done and it really scared me! I went from dreaming to sneezing! Does that mean I wasn't 100% asleep?? Can you really be sleeping and start sneezing?? Unfortunately that's not the end of my story... So I'm tossing and turning and unable to go back to sleep. I try to fight with my bladder because I hate getting up and going downstairs so early...so I'm fighting with that... Finally give in and go downstairs...and I end up getting the hiccups. Surprisingly they don't last too crazy long but then the heartburn begins. Are you kidding me?? It wasn't even 4 AM yet!! Hope this isn't the start to a really bad day!
Just so you don't think I'm entirely crazy...I have been fighting with allergies pretty bad the last couple of weeks. I usually wake up during the night (having to pee, of course!) and fight with an itchy throat or itchy eyes. I'm usually able to go back to sleep though.
Here I am...wide awake...and now my tummy is rumbling! BEAUTIFUL!

Long blog update...

I don't really care for pop but once in a while it tastes good. I'm not really good at drinking a whole one myself...it either gets dumped out or the kids eventually drink it for me. I started a pop this afternoon and left it on the stove so the kids wouldn't get it or spill it. Andy came home from work and the boy I watch went home so I was relaxing on the couch, celebrating that I don't have that little boy tomorrow (yahoo!!) when I hear Alex go into the kitchen. I asked her what she was doing and she responds "drink...daddy...pop". She's our climber so I put two and two together that she was trying to get my pop. Too exhausted to really care I just let her go for it. Then a couple minutes later we hear chatter and giggles in the kitchen and this is what we found:

Apparently the stove isn't the best place to "put things up"! I don't know how many pictures we have of Alex sitting on the counter eating something that was "put up". Usually its cookies out of the cupboard. Maybe I should start putting everything in the lower cupboards when they aren't looking! They are monsters and I love them to pieces!!

I had a checkup yesterday. It was a good one...still just weighing in, getting measurements and listening to the heartbeat. I can hardly wait for the fun appointments when they "check" you.

I go again in 3 weeks and then I'll go once a week. Those will be the fun appointments. :( I gained another 4 lbs. I'm starting to not really care...I haven't been eating the greatest foods but I haven't been so bad either and I've been walking almost every day so I figure the baby is growing and I'm just going to gain weight no matter what. My doctor said I'm the exact same weight now as I was with Alex at this time (33 weeks). I thought that was interesting. He also said I'm the same weight now as I was with Eric at 23 weeks!! hahaha I was so huge with him!! I was 186 lbs when I had Eric and 165 lbs when I had Alex. So crazy!! I asked him again about going to South Dakota. He didn't say yes and he didn't say no. He said if I were to try to fly to SD they wouldn't let me board the plane and that driving puts me at higher risks of things. But he also said that if something were to go wrong he's sure there are hospitals on the way to and in SD and if I do decide to go that I have to stop often and walk around. I'm sure everything will be fine!!

Anyway...I'm absolutely out of my mind exhausted tonight. I'm getting more and more tired. Can't wait for that energy boost I read about in my baby books that is supposed to be coming??? The kids are so good to me...they get the lotion out and rub my legs and my feet. Usually without my even asking! They are so beautiful and sweet! Eric told me today at nap time that he can't wait for the baby to come! I'm glad they are excited!! I'm just a little excited too! ;)

6 weeks and 2 days!!...

...Not that I'm counting or anything!! 6 weeks until this baby comes!! I CANNOT wait!! I have so many exciting things coming in the next 6 weeks and all i get to do is WAIT, WAIT, WAIT!! Lisa is FINALLY coming HOME where she BELONGS but not until next week. We FINALLY get to see BECKI, RYAN and KLOUS plus Danny and Andrea and Andrea's tiny little belly!! :)...but not for 2 WHOLE WEEKS. (Becki, you have NO idea how excited I am for our trip!! We are going to have SO much fun!! But we have to WAIT!!) And in that time I turn 26...not so excited about turning another year older but hey, its a birthday and birthdays are always exciting! And while on our trip to South Dakota me and Andy will celebrate our 5 year anniversary!! THAT'S exciting!! 5 YEARS!! WOW!! I'm glad there are so many awesome things going on to help pass the time until this baby comes. I think I would just go crazy if I had to do the same thing day in and day out until he/she arrives!!
So I know its a little early but I set up the cradle where the baby will sleep in our room. I rearranged our entire bedroom. EVERYTHING has a new spot!! That was some heavy moving (the bed, the dresser with the t.v on it)!! Eric helped me and had so much fun screwing in the screws to the cradle. He kept saying he hopes the baby is a boy! He changes his mind every day though...some days he wants a brother and others he wants two sisters so???!! Guess he'll be happy either way! I get so frustrated thinking about all the things I need to do before we have the baby but then decide i can only do so much without knowing the sex of the baby. And that frustrates me even more!! I would like to have the dresser all set with the clothes but all the clothes are in boxes in the garage and basement. Since I'm having a c-section I don't really think I'm going to be up to digging through clothes in the garage and basement and washing them after the baby comes and we finally find out the sex!!... So I guess I'll just pick out the onesies, sleepers and blankets that could go either way boy or girl?? SO MUCH TO DO!!
Guess this is what I'll be doing while I'm WAITING for all of our excitement to happen!!

SHE'S COMING HOME!!!

My sister Lisa is finally coming home!! I cannot wait!! She goes to school at BYU-Idaho so obviously I don't get to see her very often. When she does come home its only for like a week so its never long enough. That's what she's doing this time...only staying a week so I'm going to make the most of our time together!! She is flying in on Thursday and will come to my house Friday (its my birthday!). Then since Andy has softball tournaments in Duluth all weekend me, Lisa and the kids will drive to Aitkin on Saturday and spend the rest of the weekend there. Unfortunately that's all I will get to see Lisa. :( But we have big plans of eating birthday cake all night Friday night and having our usual crazy fun all weekend!! She is such a blast and I love her SOOOO much!! I'm pretty sure she will be all finished with school before Christmas so hopefully she'll get to come home and stay longer then. She doesn't want to live in MN but maybe we can convince her its a rockin' state now that she's been gone so long?!?!? Have to find her a nice LDS MN boy! She can't seriously live so far away forever!!
I CAN'T WAIT FOR NEXT THURSDAY TO COME!!!