Due Date

It's our due date today! :o)

No baby yet. :o(

We'll let you know when something happens...if she ever decides to come out.

39 Weeks...

Tuesday was our 39 week mark which means we are less than one week away from our due date! We went to the doctor this morning and he said that it could be tonight, this weekend, next week or two weeks from now. Helpful, huh?! :o) We have another appointment next Thursday if I don't go into labor before then. They said they will probably schedule induction at about 41 and a half weeks, but I'm really hoping that I don't have to be induced. We are still just waiting for her to decide she's ready to come out. I am VERY ready for her to come out...I am uncomfortable and not sleeping at night. I guess the not sleeping at night is helping to prepare me for once she's here - I'm getting good at catching up on sleep during the day.

The doctor guessed that the baby is a little under 7 pounds right now, so she's not too big - which is nice! Kirk and I were both big babies so hearing that she's on the smaller end was a nice surprise!

The funny part of the appointment today was when the doctor asked me "Who bit you?" I had NO idea what he was talking about at first but realized that the huge burn I have on my hand kinda looks like a big bite mark. (I burned myself on the oven the other day and have about a 2 inch burn on my hand). I just thought it was funny that he thought that I had been bitten!

I haven't really had many pregnancy cravings during the pregnancy but they seem to be kicking in. Thankfully - lots of the things I'm craving are from places that we don't have here in Goldsboro so it helps me not become huge! If we had a Chipotle in town - I'd be gigantic by now! In the past few days I've craved mozzarella sticks (i don't even like those!), fruit roll ups, vanilla pudding with whipped cream, buffalo wings and fried chicken (another thing I don't really like). Most of these pass after a day or two. I try not to even watch the food commercials on TV because then I start to crave what I see on TV!

We'll keep you posted if anything happens!

38 Weeks...

It's been a busy couple of weeks. Most importantly, we passed the 37 week mark which means the baby is considered full term and now is welcome to come at any time! I'm still 2 weeks away from my actual due date (Feb. 22), so we may still have a little while to wait. Kirk had a huge youth fundraiser last Saturday and that was the last major youth event we were hoping to make it through before the baby comes, so now we are just waiting on her to decide she's ready.

2 Sundays ago, the church threw us a wonderful baby shower. It was fun to celebrate with them and they have been so supportive and excited for us. People were so generous and we were able to get pretty much everything we needed for her. They played a game where we gave them a sentence that contained all the letters of Baby Tate's name and they were supposed to guess what the name was. No one guessed! We wouldn't have told them anyways, but it was funny that no one got it. It's not a weird name either! I promise! :o) It's driving people CRAZY that we aren't telling the name, but I'm so glad we're keeping it a secret. It's fun to keep it between us and not have to hear any opinions about it! :o)

Kirk's parents and grandparents came up for that weekend so they could come to the shower. It was fun to have them here and of course we made a trip to the baby store at the outlet mall and stocked up on some more clothes for her. They also helped us finish up the nursery. We assembled a bookshelf, hung shelves and hung up the quilt my friend Katie made us. We still have the final few things to put away (not sure where to put everything!) but her room is ready for her. There's a picture posted below for you to see!

I'm feeling very uncomfortable and am pretty much exhausted. I pushed it a little to hard this past weekend helping with the youth event and am still paying the price for it. I have a bad hip already and it's been killing me! I also have heartburn and I get it no matter what I eat. She also hasn't dropped down yet, so my poor ribs are still taking a beating. BUT - it's all good! It's totally worth it and it's much easier to stay positive about it all when the end is in sight. Plus, I still love feeling her move around so it's totally worth the rib pain!

We see the doctor again on Thursday. I'm not having any contractions or anything so it should be just another uneventful check up. The nurses who teach our baby class at the hospital said the next full moon is February 18 and they said that they see a lot of women go into labor on the full moon. We'll see!

Here are a few pictures...

Here I am at 38 weeks ... I feel huge! :o)

Here is the nursery. Once she comes and we tell her name, I'm going to ask my friend Becky to paint cute letters of her name to go on the wall between the shelves and the quilt.

Here is a new member of our family...our awesome new camera! We have wanted one FOREVER and a bunch of people from church went in together and got us it for our baby shower! I'm excited to learn about all the neat stuff it can do!

36 Weeks...

Here's a picture of me at 36 weeks. Notice the nice new shirt Kirk bought me that covers my whole stomach! Since I'm still trying to wear my normal (non-maternity) shirts, most of them are too short and I have to keep tugging them down. This one is nice and long! :o)

We go back to the doctor tomorrow morning since we have to go every week now. It feels like we are there a lot! It's pretty uneventful when we go, but I like getting to check on her every week. Her head is still facing down and they are guessing she's between 5 1/2 and 6 pounds so hopefully she'll stay in that position and not get too much bigger! :o)

The church is throwing us a baby shower on Sunday and Kirk's parents are grandparents are coming up for the weekend so they can go to it. It's so nice of the church to do that for us and we're looking forward to it. Once that's over, we'll be able to set up the final things and be able just to wait for her to decide to come out!

We've been taking a class at the hospital and it's been really good. I feel smarter and better prepared. The nurses who are teaching it are great and it's only us and another couple so it's easy to ask all of our questions. Some of the videos they have showed us are a little traumatizing, but oh well!

Things are going well! We're so thankful for such an uneventful pregnancy. We're just hoping and praying that she is healthy and for as easy as a delivery as possible!

Moving right along...

We went to the doctor this morning and everything looks good! Her heartbeat is in the high 140's and I'm measuring a week ahead (measuring at 36 weeks when I'm actually 35 weeks along). That really doesn't mean all that much and my due date is still the same. The doctor guessed that she's about 5 1/2 - 6 pounds right now. Her head is still down, which is good and hopefully she will stay that way.

I'm still nauseous a lot and I get dizzy really easily. The doctor isn't too concerned about it. I just need to eat smaller meals more often and take it easy.

Our goal is to get the nursery finished this weekend and we also need to get our hospital bags packed and the car seat in the car. The next couple weekends are really busy so we want and need to get those things crossed off the list. The next weekend, Kirk's parent's and grandparents are coming to town because the church is throwing us a baby shower that Sunday. The first weekend in February is the big youth fundraiser at church. The baby can come any time after that fundraiser! :o)

Ugh...

It hasn't been the best week. I don't want to complain too much because, really the whole pregnancy has been pretty easy and uneventful so far. But for the past week the nausea I had during the first trimester is back. I pretty much feel nauseous all the time. The only thing that seems to help is laying down. It makes it hard to eat because nothing sounds good and when I do eat, I feel sicker afterwards. I thought that ended in the first trimester...no one told me that it could come back!

Last Sunday I had to make an unexpected trip to the doctor just to get some things checked out since I ended up passing out during church. They think my blood pressure just dropped a little too low and that the baby was pushed up against an artery which is what caused me to pass out. Thankfully, I'm fine and Baby Girl is fine. I just had to take it easy for a few days. I also now know the feeling I had before I passed out so now I can be aware if I feel like that again. It's not a big deal or anything to be worried about - more of just an inconvenience.

The good news is that I'm almost 34 weeks along, which means only 3 more weeks till I'm considered full term and 6 weeks till our due date! Not too much longer to go! We still have some things to do (finish the nursery, organize some things here, etc) but we're getting more and more excited to meet her soon! Also, we figure parents are going to be visiting once she gets here so we'll just let them finish up all the stuff we don't finish! :o)

33 Week Picture

Here's a picture...I'm 33 weeks. I'm starting to show enough where people touch my belly. Not so much a fan of that! :o) Her kicks and movements are getting more painful as she gets bigger. She really likes to move at night while I'm trying to sleep. Baby Girl is already keeping me up!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! I hope everyone's Christmas and New Years were wonderful. Kirk and I spent them in South Carolina with his family. We had to stay for the Christmas Eve service at church here, so we didn't get to SC until about midnight on Christmas Eve. After opening presents and having breakfast with his grandparents on Christmas morning, Kirk and I cooked Christmas dinner for his family. It ended up tasting delicious and we even got several of his family members to try brussel sprouts for the first time!

The 2 days after Christmas were spent in the hospital with Kirk's mom. She was having some chest pains and we took her to the ER and she ended up having to have another stint put in one of her arteries. She's doing better now - but it was a long few days in the hospital.

We got to see Kirk's brother and sister in law and their girls as well, which is always fun! Hailey said "I'm so excited to meet my baby cousin." I'm glad that our girl will be pretty close in age to them so they can grow up together!

We came back to North Carolina on New Year's Day. The 5 hour drive home just about did me in. We are officially confined to a 2 hour radius until the baby comes because that's about all that my body can handle right now.

We started a pregnancy and parenting class at the hospital last night. We had gone back and forth about taking a class. Kirk has stuff at church several nights a week so it was hard to add another night of something to his schedule, but we decided that it couldn't hurt to take a class. I'm really glad we did. Last night's class was good and I think the next 5 weeks of it will be really helpful. It's at the hospital we'll be having the baby at and taught by nurses who work there, so it's nice to meet some people and see where it'll all be happening! There are 5 weeks left in the class and we're due in 7 weeks - so we're hoping we make it all the way thru the class before she gets here.

The goal for this week is to get the nursery finished up. My nesting instinct has not kicked in at all yet so I'm still not finding the motivation, but I know it needs to get done before she gets here! I'll post a new belly picture later today or tomorrow....it's getting bigger!

30 Weeks

As of today, I am 30 weeks and 1 day pregnant! Something about hitting the 30 week mark makes it feel like the baby is coming soon! The past couple days have been a little rough with some major back pain. I've spent a lot of time on the couch with my legs propped up on pillows trying to stay still. Thankfully, it's starting to feel a little better. Here's a picture of my baby belly at 30 weeks...

One of my friends does this little survey on the bottom of each of her blog posts. Since I don't have too much to update you on, I figure it'd be an good thing to do this post.


How far along: 30 weeks, 1 day
Maternity Clothes: I always have to wear maternity pants, I can still fit into some of my normal shirts. I'm pretty close to not being able to zip up my jackets and fleeces.
Sleep: I am pretty tired all the time. Thanks to finally getting a body pillow (one of those really long pillows) I haven't been having as much hip pain from sleeping. I wake up a lot to flip to my other side, but am sleeping fairly well. I am having some crazy dreams though!
Best Moment of the Week: When she started to move when she heard Kirk's voice. (Non-pregnancy related best moment of the week...Kirk taking me to see Harry Potter (finally!) and to PF Changs for dinner!)
Movement: She's starting to be a little forceful with her kicking. There's been a couple that have hurt! I love when she's moving and get nervous when I don't feel her moving around. (I know that she's napping and not supposed to move 24 hours a day - but I still get nervous!)
Cravings: Not too many. I did go to Target to return something and came home with chips and salsa, so I guess that'd be one.
Gender: Girl (unless we get a major surprise when she's born)
Labor Signs: None, thankfully. We are SO not ready and 30 weeks is too early!
Belly Button: Still an innie
What I miss: Diet Coke and regular coffee.
What I'm looking forward to: I can't wait to meet her and see what she looks like!
Weekly Wisdom: Sometimes it's better not to read too much about labor and details of it. Also people like to share horror stories about labor/babies.
Milestones: I feel like hitting 30 weeks is a big milestone! Only about 2 months left!

25 Week Picture

Here's me at 25 Weeks. You can see that we now have a crib! Some of our friends gave us a crib, changing table/dresser, stroller and swing. The baby's room is starting to fill up! It's exciting to have baby stuff in the room finally! It's motivated me a little bit to start working on the room. I think that'll be a nice project to fill up those weeks in between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

We leave Thursday for South Carolina. It should be a great weekend and we get to see a lot of Kirk's friends and family and have our first baby shower! I'm so excited! Then we'll be home for 4 days before heading to Chicago. By the time we get back from there it'll be December! Time is flying by!

24 Weeks

We went to the doctor this morning and had a great appointment! I always get nervous before going to the doctor. I'm not sure why, I think it's just a fear of them telling me something is wrong. The baby's heartbeat was nice and strong - we both love being able to hear that! Kirk was talking about stealing the thing they use to hear the heartbeat so we could hear it whenever we want. The doctor said my dates all look good and that I'm measuring about a half week ahead of my due date. My favorite part was when he told Kirk that rubbing my back would help with my back pain, so now I can tell Kirk that it's doctors orders that he does that! We got the go ahead to drive to Chicago later this month - we just have orders to stop every hour and a half for a couple minutes for me to stretch my legs to prevent blood clots. It sounds like a lot of stopping, but with the baby kicking me in the bladder so much - we'd probably be stopping about that often anyways.

Our friends who are giving us a bunch of baby stuff are bringing the crib and some other things to us this Saturday, so we can start working on the nursery. I think getting the crib, plus knowing the baby showers are coming us is motivating me to start on the nursery. I'm getting excited to get everything ready for her! Anyone have any creative do-it-yourself nursery decoration ideas? We can't paint, so we have to be creative.

We are pretty sure we've decided on a first name for her but are still working on a middle name. We aren't telling anyone the name though...we want to keep that a secret until she comes. We truly value everyone's opinions and advice...we just don't want to hear them about the name choice! :o) Don't worry - it's a good name - nothing weird!

I know I keep saying it - but I'm so excited to go to South Carolina and Chicago this month. Because of the baby showers and Thanksgiving - we seriously get to see almost all of our friends and relatives! I can't wait!

I'll post a new belly picture once I remember to take one! I'm not so good at remembering things right now...

November

I am so excited that it's finally November. There are so many good things happening this month!

• A trip to South Carolina.
• Our first baby shower - with Kirk's family and friends.
• A trip home to Chicago! (Not excited about a 16+ hour car ride while 6 months pregnant, but we gotta get there somehow!)
• Our second baby shower - with my family and our Illinois friends
• My youngest sister's 21st birthday
• Thanksgiving! (which means all the sweet potatoes I can eat!)
• Matt and Sarah's wedding! I can't wait to celebrate with them!
• Going to see Lion King with Jen and Adrian
• eating Portillos! (you're not supposed to eat hot dogs while pregnant, but I am making the exception for a Portillos hot dog while I'm home. I haven't had Portillos since June - there is NO way I can resist!)
• Getting to go to our old church FCCC! We miss everyone there so much and can't wait to see the warehouse all finished!
• The new Harry Potter moving comes out so I get to see it with my sister Carrie!
• I can start listening to Christmas music!

Seriously - what a great (and busy) month!

The baby is growing and I am starting to show a little bit. (I'll post another belly picture later this week) I definitely don't look what I thought I would look like at 5 months pregnant, but it's ok. We go to the doctor on Thursday so hopefully we'll get another positive report on baby girl. I've been having a lot of back pain and get tired so easily, but that's ok. It's all part of it and it'll be worth it. I also am currently craving apple juice (but it has to be ice cold and a little watered down) and we should have never, ever brought home candy from the Fall Fest at church. I don't have the will power and keep taking a piece every time I walk past the bowl. I know I could move the bowl to someplace where I can't see it or reach it...but let's be honest, I don't think that will stop me!

Issues

I'm having a slight issue with clothes right now. I'm 22 weeks prego and not really showing yet. I definitely am getting bigger, I just don't have a cute baby bump. I just kinda look chubby.

But here's my issue. I don't fit in my normal pants anymore but maternity pants are too big. I was wearing my normal jeans with a rubber band around the button and thru the button hole since I couldn't button them, but that's not working anymore. So I tried using the belly band (basically an tube top that you wear around your waist to hold up pants you can't button anymore, but that's not really working since I don't have enough of a baby bump to hold my pants up. So I am trying maternity pants, but again, there's not enough of a bump to hold them up. Maybe this is just an excuse to wear my super comfortable black sweatpants everywhere :o)

I realize that no one really cares about my problems with this, but not much else is going on so I didn't have much else to write about. I can still feel Baby Tate moving around in there. I've been pretty uncomfortable as my body is adjusting to make room for baby. It gets painful at times but I guess it's all part of the deal.

I'm also hoping my nesting instinct kicks in soon since currently the baby's room looks more like a storage closet. There are suitcases everywhere, my wedding dress is in there as well as the couple of boxes we haven't unpacked yet. We should be getting the crib that some friends are giving us soon, maybe that will motivate me a little!

20 Weeks

At 20 weeks pregnant we are officially halfway there! That feels weird considering I still don't really even look pregnant! I am close to having to switch to maternity pants but not quite there yet. My normal jeans fit fine still...with the addition of a rubber band holding the button closed. Classy, huh? Thankfully I got a big box full of maternity clothes from Christina Jackson and last night at church Mary Hope filled the backseat of my car with some more. Thanks so much to both of them for giving those to me! I hate spending money on clothes and even more so on clothes I will only wear for a few months.

We went to the doctor today and everything looks good. The regular appointments are so quick. I get weighed, they check my blood pressure, sit and wait for the doctor, hear the baby's heartbeat, get measured and that's it. I think the doctor was in there for under a minute becuase the nurse had already answered the couple questions I had.

I have been feeling flutters from the baby for about a week or two. She's starting to move more and a little more powerfully! Kirk was able to feel her move for the first time the other day. She's much more active at night. Although music seems to make her move a lot. I am also starting to have more food cravings. Nothing weird, mostly sweets and everyonce in a while, buffalo chicken wings. I usually just try and wait them out and see if it'll pass. I also cry. A lot. For no reason. Poor Kirk.

We are finally feeling like it's fall here...well I guess by that it means we're finally below 90 degrees. We've even had a few cooler nights (high 40-50's). People here called that cold. That made me laugh a little. 50 degrees is not cold! :o) I really love fall. Pumpkins, hot cocoa, apple cider, pretty leaves, football, Thanksgiving and lots more. And now that it's October...I can say I'm going home next month! :o)

2 things I can't do...

There are two new things I can't do anymore.

1) button my jeans. I'm not really showing yet...no cute little round baby bump. But i know she's growing becuase I can't button my pants anymore. I use a little rubber band in the button hole and around the button, which seems to work just fine. I'll get some maternity cloths eventually, but so far the rubber band is working fine! This is also the reason there are no belly pictures of me yet. right now, I just maybe look like I've gained a little weight and I don't see any reason to post pictures of my stomach until I actually look pregnant!

2) drive for long stretches. We took the youth from church to West Virginia this past weekend for their fall retreat. (by the way - not many things are more beautiful than the WV mountains in the fall!) It was about a 6 hour drive home, the last stretch of driving was about 3 hours and my legs were killing me. I got home and took off my shoes and socks and my ankles and legs were totally swollen! I had cankles! (again - no pictures posted of that - no reason for anyone to see that!) It took a couple hours of having my feet up on pillows for them to go back to normal (thank goodness they did!). We are planning on driving to Chicago for Thanksgiving (about 15 hours or so). I'll be about 6 months pregnant then, so that should be an interesting ride.

I am so excited to go home for Thanksgiving! We get to be there for a week! I already have a list of food I want to eat up there (portillos and egg harbor to name a few) and Kirk has called Umme and given her a list of the food he wants her to cook (pancakes and pasta). Besides the good food, I'm excited for my baby shower, to celebrate Matt and Sarah's wedding, to go see Lion King downtown with Jen and Adrian, celebrate my littlest sister's 21st birthday and to go to FCCC on Sunday morning. Plus Thanksgiving = sweet potatoes which are my FAVORITE!

Baby Girl!

Here's our little girl! Sorry about the bad picture quality. We haven't set up our printer/scanner yet so I had to take a picture of the ultrasound picture with my phone and upload it. This is at 18 weeks. The doctor said everything looks great and that she is growing well. We really wanted to find out if it was a boy or girl, so I drank some coffee and ate candy before the ultrasound to hopefully get the baby to move around some. It definitely worked! She was kicking her legs and moving her arms and squirming everywhere! It was awesome! They got a nice clear shot, so they are pretty positive that it's a girl!

Two to Three

I've tried blogging before and never really felt like I had much to say. But now that we have a baby on the way, I think I'll have more to write about. Since all of our friends and family are spread out around the country, hopefully this will help us stay connected.

To catch everyone up, Kirk and I moved from Chicagoland to Goldsboro, NC at the beginning on July. Kirk is the director of student ministries at a church here in Goldsboro. About 5 days before we moved, we found out that we were pregnant! I am due on February 22nd. We found out last Tuesday that it's a girl! That was a huge surprise because almost everyone had guessed boy.

That's it in a nutshell. You can add us to your blog favorites and check back for updates!