Sweet Home Chicago

A week ago, we got back from our 10 day trip back home to Chicagoland. It was a wonderful visit! We drove (a 15 1/2 hour car ride at 6 1/2 months pregnant...not the most comfortable day of my life!) and it was a long ride. The first couple days of the trip were spent visiting family and friends and indulging in some of the home cooking and restaurants we missed! It was great just to have time to hang out with people. We stayed at our friends, Jonathan and Christina Jackson's house, which was really fun and it was so nice of them to let us crash there for the week!

Once Wednesday hit, the week got really busy! Wednesday afternoon we met up with our friends Jen and Adrian to go see Lion King downtown Chicago. It was a rude reminder of Chicago traffic as it took us 3 and a half hours to go about 40 miles. We were getting a little worried that we'd miss the show! But we made it with about 10 minutes to spare. Lion King was awesome! It was so good! It was also great to hang out with Jen and Adrian. We both miss them a lot and I'm so glad we got to see them.

Thursday was Thanksgiving and we spent the day at my mom's house. There was TONS of great food (of course) and my sister Carrie, Kirk and I kept our tradition of watching the dog show and White Christmas on Thanksgiving day. We also celebrated my youngest sister Christy's 21st birthday.

Friday we had Thanksgiving with my Dad at Jill's house. It was a fun afternoon. I think our baby likes Thanksgiving food because she was moving around like crazy!

Saturday was a really fun day. Our friends Matt and Sarah got married! It was a beautiful wedding! The ceremony was really sweet and the reception was fun and a great party! There were tons of people we knew there so it was fun to see everyone and celebrate Matt and Sarah. I've know both of them since about 4th grade and we all went through youth group together. We took a picture of all the old youth group people that were at the wedding.

Matt, Kate, Me, Sarah, Erin, Lauren. Ben, Kelly & Sherri

Sunday was our baby shower. My mom, aunts, grandma and sisters hosted it. It was so special to have so many friends and family together. The decorations were so pretty (we kept them to use in the baby's room) and the food was delicious! People were so generous and so excited for us. It was so nice to see so many people after being gone for 6 months. Here are some pictures from the shower.

The sweet quilt Katie made

The cute mobile my sister Christy made

**see the next blog post for more shower pictures...I'm having some formatting issues! :o) ***

We left to come back to North Carolina really early Monday morning. It was a looonnnngggg drive back. We had no extra room in the car because of all the baby gifts as well as our Christmas presents. It was hard to leave Illinois and I would have loved to have some more time there. It was strange to realize that the next time we're back there, we'll have a 3 month old baby! (We're going back in May for my sister Stacy's wedding).

Since we've been back, I've been fighting a cold that I can't seem to get rid of. I'm also hoping to really start working on the nursery this next week. I'd like to get everything from the showers put away and start figuring out what we still need and getting it all set up. I think we're going to come back from Christmas and realize we only have about 7 weeks until our due date and I don't want to be scrambling at the end!

We went to the doctor last Tuesday and everything looks good still. The nurse was using the wand thing to hear the heartbeat and baby girl kept kicking it off! It took her 4 tries to get the heartbeat recorded since the baby wouldn't cooperate! Apparently she's feisty! :o) Since we are now in the third trimester, we start going to the doctor every two weeks now! That's a sign that we're getting close to the end!

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!

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!