35 Weeks...Nesting Mania

Only 5 more weeks till the baby comes...actually 4 because I already done with 35 weeks. Can you believe that? Some people keep telling me I'm going to go early, some people are saying I'm going to be on time or late. But really, who knows?! I kind of feel like a ticking time bomb...could go off at any minute!! Eeek! This week I have been nesting like crazy. I don't know what happened to me but I've been organizing, cleaning, reorganizing pretty much everything in our house! I've been attaching the closets, giving away old clothes and other things we don't use. I've even organized our storage space! I think I am starting to drive Steve crazy!!

This weekend we got to spend time with family and friends and that was nice. We got to attend our good friends Julie and Matt's son, Jacob's 2nd birthday party. That was so much fun! It was nice to see all of their family and also that super cute kiddo. I cannot believe he is 2 already! It seems like just the other day, Julie was prego. Now we are prego and Jakey is 2! Crazy.

This week the baby is filling up the space in the womb. He won't be able to flip around much after this week. We are hoping he has rested in the correct position to be born and stays there! His kidneys are fully developed and his liver is now able to process waste. Here's how he's looking now:

Exciting Moment of the Week: Its been really nice getting so many things done this week. I've been cleaning/organizing/nesting like crazy and even though it drives Steve crazy it really helps with my anxiety. I am so nervous that things won't be ready when the baby comes and getting things done has really been helping with that. On that note, Steve and I have gotten most things from our registry that we still needed with the gift cards we got. We also were able to return some things to Cotton Babies and get some other things we needed. So that was very exciting!

What I am Missing this Week: My center of gravity? Ha! I've been a lot more lopsided now with this growing belly really throwing me off. It is a big adjustment to make now in the later part of the 3rd trimester. I really can't do anything without being conscious of the belly.

Symptoms this Week: Same types of things going on this week. I'm still getting tired very easily after walking around for a short period of time. I'm a lot slower than I used to be too! Besides that the itchy skin has come back with a vengence. It cooled down for a while, but now its back and worse than ever! I don't know if this counts as a symptom but my worrying and anxiety about having the baby/raising the baby/everything in general has seemed to spike this week too.

Obsessions this Week: Like I mentioned before, I've become obsessed with cleaning and organizing everything this week. Not such an awful obsession...

Message to Our Baby: Baby, we are so excited to meet you. It seems like you could be here at any minute! Even though you are making mommy worry a lot we are both so excited to have you in our lives and cannot wait till you are born!

34 Weeks

Seems crazy to be done with our 34th week of pregnancy. People are now telling me I look like I could pop! Ha ha! That is funny. They also started telling me all their labor/delivery stories and that has been interesting. Everyone seems to want to tell me their story. Most of them involve babies coming early and that is scary!! So in that spirit, I've been trying to get everything ready in case this baby does come early! I've been organizing all the clothes and things we got for the baby. I've been trying to get the bag packed for the hospital (just in case). I've even been working on transitioning my projects at work in case I go early! Its craziness!!

Steve and I have also been taking care of any last minute stuff we need to do for the baby. This week we interviewed a pediatrician, Dr. McKinney. Steve was supposed to go with me but of course he had to work, so I went alone. Steve had actually recommended Dr. McKinney from when he worked on the answer line at Children's Hospital. Steve said this doctor was always very nice and hands-on with his patients. He also said the nurses spoke highly of him so we thought we would start there. Well we ended there too because he is great! I really liked him! He was very soft spoken, gentle and really caring. He has been in practice for 25 years!! He was very sweet and answered all of my questions. The things I liked the most about him was that he was talking about how he wants to have a partnership with us and that he wants us to feel comfortable as parents and ask any and all questions we have. He said he wants us all to learn together including himself. I thought that was really nice. The office also has Saturday hours and same day sick visits. They even stay late if they have more sick kids to see that day! I thought that was amazing. So anyways, we found our pediatrician! Yay! Dr. McKinney is associated with St. Luke's, where we are delivering, so that is very convenient. It feels really good to get that checked off our "to do" list!

Another fun thing I did this week was attend a La Leche League meeting with my friend, Tiffany. That was very interesting. I wasn't sure what to expect but it was just a bunch of mom's discussing their questions, concerns and sharing advice. It was really great. I felt like I learned a lot but also gained a lot of confidence just listening to their struggles and how they overcame them and now their babies are nursing great! It was also really nice to see how supportive they are of each other, and the moms offered me tons and tons of advice and support. I was really glad I went!

This week the baby is still getting bigger and bigger. They say he is gaining about a half pound a week at this point. Maybe that's why people keep telling me I look bigger!! The baby is gaining weight in the form of protective fat layers that will help him regulate his body temperture outside the womb. His lungs and central nervous system are continuing to mature as well. Our baby is looking something like this:

Exciting Moment of the Week: There were lots of exciting things this week. Getting to meet with the pediatrician was pretty exciting. It may sound lame but being able to talk to him and feel comfortable and get all my questions answered is a huge relief. Another exciting thing was dividing up my programs at work. That really makes my maternity leave seem soon!

What I am Missing this Week: My sanity seems to be missing sometimes this week. I am going between feeling completely overwhelmed at everything I still have to do before the baby comes to super excited to meet him. I have had times where I wanted to cry and times when I'm so happy. Its a crazy feeling!

Symptoms this Week: Not too many symptoms going on now. The having to pee every 5 minutes has really increased as far as severity. Its not like you can put it off and wait anymore now that I have a huge baby in my belly. Its a feeling like I have to go...right now!! ha ha!

Obsessions this Week: For a few weeks now but especially this week I have been absolutely obsessed with the baby's clothes. It has really been stressing me out trying to figure out what sizes to get, what season, what kind of layette, how many, etc, etc, etc. It seems like there is so much to figure out and its all guessing! Its driving me crazy. This week we got a ton of awesome hand me downs from Julie and Jake and I spent hours organizing and reorganizing them. It was such a blessing to get them though and we really appreciate it!

Message to our Baby: Baby, you are getting so big in there and its crazy to think you could really come anytime now. We are not ready for you just yet and you have some more growing to do so stay in there as long as you can!

Sister Wives

I have been watching the new season of Sister Wives on TLC lately and felt the need to blog about it for a couple of reasons. One reason is that the show really interests me and I really have grown to like the wives and Kody a lot. Another reason is that on the show, the kids were upset after reading some negative things about them on blogs and that really made me sad. I very highly doubt they will ever find my blog, but if they do I want to let them know there's also people out there supporting them!


I don't know how many people watch that show or what most people think about it. Probably most people think its weird and the wives are crazy. I can totally understand, I thought that too before watching this show. I have seen a few other specials on polygamist families and also some of the coverage of the families that were recently broken up in Texas and Utah. I thought they were weird too. I thought how can women be happy with this, how can this work, what about jealousy, etc, etc, etc. So when this new series Sister Wives came out last year I was hesitant to watch it thinking I had already seen it all.

Well turns out I hadn't seen it all and this family is really different. I have really come to love this show. The more I watch it the more I really like the women in the family and can see through their eyes the benefits of choosing this life for themselves. Don't get me wrong, I still have a ton of curious questions and know that I would never be able to make a choice like that. However, its really heartwarming to see how "normal" their family is, how much love they have for their kids and for each other and really what good people they all are.

One part of their story that really warmed my heart was about Meri, the first wife. She has one daughter and really wants to have more kids, but she has been unable to. Being in the relationship she is in, she is able to have 21 kids! She's also able to have her daughter grow up with other siblings, which is something she might not have been able to do if they were in a monogomous marriage. Also, she has the support of her other sister wives, who really are her best friends, and that just seems to be a great situation for her. I think that is really neat.

In the first episode of the new season, they have started to get into some trouble with the law for being public about their choice to live this way. Watching that episode really made me sad. I really felt for them about how scared they were to have their family torn apart. It made me really wonder why is polygamy illegal? I don't care if they want to have 4 wives. I don't really understand if their religion dictates that lifestyle why does the rest of society mind it so much? What do you guys think? I'm going to keep watching this season and will be interested to see how their legal troubles play out. Are any of you watching it?? What's your opinion of the family?

Gooden Baby Shower

I had so much fun this weekend at our last baby shower thrown by my mom. She is amazing! Everything was so nice!! The food was great, the decorations were awesome and of course the cake was delicious! Steve was lucky I let him eat the leftovers ha ha! Doesn't it look delicious???

Me and my mom. She is so wonderful! I think she's pretty excited to be a Grandma again.

My Aunt Jan came to help. She's pretty great too. :)

My adorable nieces came. Can you believe how big they are getting? Its crazy!

Some of my friends came too! Julie, Tiffany, Jenny and Baby Ellie are here. Jenny also brought George. Those kids are so cute!

We played the dirty diaper sniffing game. It was gross. It was only melted chocolate but still.

Jake is helping Julie figure out what kind of candy bar that is. He looks pretty intrigued.

It was pretty yucky.

We got so many wonderful presents. We were so blessed with generous friends and family. It was amazing!

Steve's mom made some custom burb cloths for us. She also brought the mobile she has been making. It was really awesome!!

So overall it was a great, great shower!! I had so much fun and got to spend time with friends and family. Everyone was more than generous with their gifts. This baby is really going to be spoiled!! Thanks Mom for a wonderful shower!!!

33 Weeks...Gooden Baby Shower

This week was really a lot better than last week. I was feeling pretty good and had a decent amount of energy. I'm getting super excited for the baby now that we have so much stuff for him!! I had a blast at the baby shower this weekend thrown by my mom. It was so much fun!! So many people came and lots of my family was able to make it. I feel so blessed.

We also went to the doctor this week for another checkup. Everything is great! The baby is still facing downward which is awesome. That means we can try for a vaginal birth as long as he continues to stay facing down. Baby is healthy and doing great. My blood pressure and weight are great. I am measuring about 1 week ahead but the doctor said that is not a big deal. So good news!

This week the baby's skin is smoothing out and his skeleton is hardening. He is continuing to gain weight and get longer by the day! Here's how he is looking now:

Another thing we did this week is a photo shoot with my friend, Jenny. She is starting a photography business and offered to do a pregnancy photo shoot for us. It was really fun! We did it on a beautiful Sunday afternoon at Creve Coeur Park. It was a great day. We also did it at the same time as 2 friends and their babies so that was fun to see them. The pictures turned out great! Here is just one from that day:

Isn't she so talented? They really turned out great and we had no idea what we were doing? I can't wait to get the rest from her! Thanks again, Jenny!!

Exciting Moment of the Week: The baby shower at my mom's was just wonderful! It was so great to see everyone and have time to chat with them. It was really exciting to have everyone there to celebrate our new baby! We really are blessed with such amazing family and friends.

What I am Missing this Week: The weather this week has been a bit warmer and boy can I tell! I'm so glad not to be pregnant in the summer, I would be miserable! I'm missing my casual shorts that I used to be able to just throw on. Of course none of my "summer" clothes fit me but oh well.

Symptoms this Week: This week I've really started noticing that I have to pay attention to my belly when I do normal activities like getting up from sitting or sleeping or rolling over. I really have to take it slowly or my belly will put me all out of balance. Its something to get used to!

Obsessions this Week: This week we finally (finally!!) finished the nursery! I will do a separate post about that but it feels so great to have it done!

Message to the Baby: Baby, can you believe how many people love you already? So many wonderful people showed up to celebrate you coming. We are so blessed! I know you will love them all so much when you get here.

Riegerix Baby Shower

This past weekend my wonderful mother and sister in law threw me a baby shower with Steve's side of the family. Wasn't that so sweet? They are really awesome. We had such a great time. I really felt overwhelmed by how much love and generosity Steve's family had for us! I am really lucky to have married into such a caring and supportive family!!

Ok so enough of the gush fest, ha! We had a great time at the shower. There were a ton of fun decorations, lots of great food, and cake of course! A lot of our friends and family were able to be there and that was so fun. Here are some pictures from that day:

Lots of our friends and family were able to come. Here is some of the girls playing a shower game.

Sharon brought her adorable son, Nathan. It was so much fun to play with him!

The decorations and food were amazing!!!

Look at that huge diaper tree Steve's parents bought for us. We were so excited to get a ton of cloth diapers!! They are too generous.

Of course there was cake!!

And tons and tons of presents! Steve's family was so generous!! We got some adorable, homemade onesies from Jordan and Kim. They are too cute!!

My mom also bought us a ton of cloth diapers! Moms are so awesome! We got all the cloth diapers we needed at the shower. How amazing is that!?!

We also got some Rams and Colts stuff from Steve's friends. Hope this baby is a football fan!!

It was such a fun day!! We were so grateful that everyone was able to come and celebrate the arrival of our new baby. We felt so blessed and supported by our family and friends. We are very lucky.

Happy 3rd Birthday Zander!

Zander had his 3rd birthday this weekend. What a big boy! I can't believe our dogs are turning 3 this year. It seems like we haven't had them that long, but I guess we have. Here is a picture of Zander from his puppy days. So cute!

He was such a happy puppy! Always running around and sporting that really cute puppy smile. What a sweetheart. He was really timid when we first got him and didn't want to be cuddled too much. He would mostly sit on the other side of the couch or on the floor away from everyone else. But slowly he started to come out of his shell. Now he is a big cuddle bug! He loves to sit right on your lap and comes to greet you when you come in the door.

He's so sweet. Zander still loves to run around outside though, that is one of his favorite pastimes. Here he is recovering after running around like a mad man outside. Do you see his little tongue hanging out? So cute!

Here he is basking in the sun outside on a fall day. That dog loves to be outside. He will stay for hours and hours. Zander is also very fashionable. Here is one of his winter looks.

So happy birthday big guy!! We love you!

32 Weeks...Riegerix Baby Shower

This was a really hard week, but it had nothing really to do with pregnancy. Lots of things have been happening at work that have been really stressful and this week was just awful. I'm hoping things start to look up at work soon. (Even if they don't I'm going to have a few months "vacation" coming up soon and I can't wait!) I am super excited to be moving along in my pregnancy though. Can't believe we are at 32 weeks of pregnancy. I think the combination of being stressed out and crazy busy at work with me being pregnant really created an emotional situation this week. I was upset and crabby and mad and frustrated all at the same time. But my friends and family were all there to support me and listen to my complaining and that helped a lot! I also had a really fun baby shower to look forward to this weekend!!

This Saturday was the baby shower that Steve's mom, Gabby, and our sister-in-law, Meghan threw for us. It was such a blast!! I am going to put up a separate post about that but lets just say it really helped to improve my mood, lots of our family and friends came out, and both Steve and I had so much fun! We are so grateful to all the work and planning Gabby and Meghan put into the shower. They did an amazing job!

This week the baby is working hard on gaining weight. Hhe is gaining about 1/2 pound a week now! They say that during the next 7 weeks he will gain about 1/3 of his birth weight. Wow! Get big and healthy, baby! (But not too gigantic, that is scary!!) Here's what he looks like now:

Exciting Moment of the Week: Definitely the baby shower! I had so much fun and it was so great to see lots of our friends and family! We feel so blessed to have so much support.

What I am Missing this Week: I'm not really missing anything this week except maybe a little more order and tranquility at my job. I really hope this stressful time is winding down!

Symptoms this Week: This week is the first week that it has really felt cramped up high near my lungs. I have had a hard time getting a deep breath and that has been kind of frustrating. I guess the baby is growing now and really taking up all the room he can!

Obsessions this Week: I don't want to give too much away but I am totally obsessed with our cloth diapers we got at our showers! More on that later...

Message to the Baby: Baby, you would not believe all the wonderful family and friends you have in this world. Tons of people came out to see you and celebrate getting ready for you to be born. You are very lucky already!

31 Weeks..Single Digits Left!

31 weeks of pregnancy done! I cannot believe I am that far along. That means we have about 9 weeks left until my due date (and hopefully the baby comes somewhere around there). Its crazy to think I have single digit weeks left in my pregnancy. It seems like just yesterday I was excited to be out of single digits. This time has flown by so quickly!! This week I was feeling pretty good. I stayed busy and had decent amount of energy. The belly is still getting in the way and having the urge to pee is getting more frequent than it was before. I think the baby is growing and pushing down on my poor bladder. We saw the doctor this week and he says everything looks great! The baby turned! Yay! So he's not breech anymore. That is a huge blessing. I hope he stays that way.

Also this week, Steve and I went to a breastfeeding class at St. Luke's. It was really informative! It was only for a few hours on a Saturday morning but I feel like I really learned a lot. The teacher was really great and answered all the questions we could think of. I feel a bit more comfortable with the idea of breastfeeding now. She is also one of 3 lactation consultants at the hospital so she may just be helping me get started breastfeeding after the baby is born!

This week the baby is starting to be able to turn his head from side to side. He is accumulating some fat on his body, arms and legs. The baby is also moving a ton this week (is he ever!) He looks something like this now:

Exciting Moment of the Week: Finding out the baby had moved to the right position was really exciting this week! At the last appointment our doctor said if the baby doesn't move we will have to schedule a C section. I was really bummed about that so I was so glad to see the baby had cooperated and moved into the right position.

What I am Missing this Week: Still missing a good night's sleep this week due to lots of kicks and more frequent (and urgent) having to pee at night. I'm thinking those days of a solid night's sleep are probably over though...

Symptoms this Week: This week the only thing that has really been bothering me is when the baby kicks consistently in one spot. Oh that is so painful. As well as the usual tiredness stuff but other than that we are doing great!

Obsessions this Week: This week I am totally obsessed with organizing the gifts we received at our shower. We finally got the pack n play assembled and I am getting everything else washed and put away and ready for this baby.

Message to the Baby: We are so excited to meet you in less than 10 weeks! Can't believe how fast this pregnancy has gone. We love you so much! Keep facing downward in there please!

Girls Night Baby Shower

On Saturday night I had my first baby shower given by my awesome friends, Carrie and Amanda. It was so much fun. We decided to do a girl's night/baby shower to make it more fun. We all had a great time! They had such fun decorations and games and lots and lots of good food. I was so glad my friends could make it. Here are some pictures from that night:

These are my friends Erin, Amanda, and Carrie. They are wives of people Steve works with and they are some awesome girls!

These are some of my other good friends that came. Cherie, Carrie and Erica are girls I work with and Jen in the back is my friend through Carrie.
Of course everyone brought awesome presents! My friends were so generous. I got lots of great stuff for the baby. A bunch of the girls I work with went in and bought us our pack n play! How nice was that!

Here's one of the crazy games we played. It was so much fun!

Steve was there with the husbands but they stayed in the basement.

Look at how big I am! Craziness!!

And of course there was yummy, and super cute, cake. It was really a great baby shower and I'm so grateful to Amanda and Carrie. They are awesome friends!!

30 Weeks...First Baby Shower

Can.Not.Believe it is only 10 weeks till this pregnancy is over! It seems like such a short amount of time left! As its getting warmer this week, I'm very glad I wasn't pregnant in the summer because I'm not sure I could have handled it! It was 72 one day this week and I was so hot and miserable! Good thing we are having a spring baby!

This week was so exciting! We had our 2nd day of childbirth class. Steve and I both agreed that we learned a lot in the class and we were really glad we took it. I also had my first baby shower given by my amazing and beautiful friends, Carrie and Amanda. It was a blast! More on that in another post.

This week the baby is continuing to develop his eyesight. He is also growing bigger and longer by the day! He is almost 3 lbs and about 16 inches long! Here's how he looks now:

Exciting Moment of the Week: Having my first baby shower was very exciting! A lot of my awesome friends were able to come and we had a great time! We also got some very cute and necessary stuff for the baby so that was great too!

What I am Missing this Week: This week I am missing being able to sleep like I used to. The baby is kicking all the time now, especially in the evenings when I lay down. He is kicking so hard now that my stomach moves all the time. When I lay down to go to sleep he kicks super hard and its so hard to fall asleep like that. He even wakes me up at night with his kicks!

Symptoms this Week: The baby's extra hard and frequent kicks have really started more this week. Also, I'm getting to the point where I'm uncomfortable most of the time. Its hard to stand or sit for too long.

Obsessions this Week: We received some great gifts at the baby shower and I am having so much fun finding places for them in the nursery. I hope we can put together our big gift this weekend!

Message to the Baby: Baby, we love you so much! We learned so much about you at our class and we can't wait to see what new challenges you give us when you get here. Hopefully we are prepared!!