The Last Days of Childless Bliss

I know my title sounds like I'm am dreading the birth of our girl but I'm not! The last few days I've been thinking about how it won't be just me and Brad anymore. I know I'm trading up for something far better but I have loved the time that Brad and I have had together as just us. I don't think we would be able to have the kind of family we want if we hadn't spent time enjoying each other and learning how to be a married couple. Now we can start another part of our lives together with a strong relationship. We are both so excited to meet our baby and I think one of the reasons is that it will be another great memory to share and adventure to experience together. So let the childless days come to an end and bring on The Days of Child Filled Bliss!

Just some pics to keep it fun: Brad took me to Krispy Kream for fresh donuts! They were just what a pregnant couple needed! Yummy!

Those of you who have been pregnant understand how the last few weeks are. I have felt very large and slow. It seems that getting off the couch or out of bed has become a work out. This watermelon sized belly is really starting to cramp my style, yes I mean that literally. I have about 3 outfits that I can go out in public in that still fit, my legs are covered in stubble because I can't reach them and my toe nails have been sorely neglected because the thought of even trying to reach that far is painful!

Thus, I've been thinking about all of the things I can't wait to be able to do again after Bethany is born. I realize that some of these won't happen right away but I can still dream about them! Here are just a few:

Wearing jeans without elastic!
Drinking a nice glass of wine!
Walking up a flight of stairs without breaking a sweat.
Eating sushi!
Being able to stay in one position comfortably for more than 15 minutes.
Having a smaller waist size than my husband!

What Happened This Last Week

Here are the latest events of the week:
Saturday I took a quick trip to Colorado Springs to Say HI to all the Pikes Peak runners. They did great! Dad and I got to hang out with Maddy. You can see in this picture that Dad and Maddy had lots of fun together. Dad was laying down to take a quick nap but Maddy wanted to play!

Here are the first tomatoes from our garden! I can't wait to try them! We have a ton of green ones so maybe we'll get enough to make some salsa or pasta sauce!

This is me at 38 weeks. The Midwife at my last appointment said to expect to be pregnant till the middle of September. I already feel like popping so it's hard for me to imagine being pregnant for 3 more weeks. I think I've felt a few practice contractions(Braxton Hicks) the last two weeks so that is a little encouraging. To make this more fun I thought that all of you who wanted to could make your prediction on what date Bethany will arrive. Just post your prediction as a comment. Maybe one of you will be right and get all the bragging rights! My official prediction is Sept 7th!

Family Reunion and More

Here are a few things that happened at the family Reunion this year:

One of the great things about family is that they are so generous! Thank you to all who put together the baby shower and loaded Bethany up! This was just one of the many activities we all enjoyed at the reunion.
I think my favorite thing to do is to sit on the porch and talk. Here are the Skidmore girls and Chrissy chatting it up!

Dad and Uncle Paul seem to have a lot to say as well. ;)

David and Maddy getting to know each other.

Jennifer, Jan , and, Janet in the kitchen.

Grandma and her famous enchiladas!

Today Dexter Fowler (outfielder for the Rockies) came to the Sports Authority by our house so I went over and got a baseball signed! While I was in line a took this picture. He was very nice and seemed to be pretty normal. I don't know what I was expecting. Maybe more of a rock star attitude.... It was fun to get to meet a Rockies in person!

Here is the last bit of news. I'm starting week number 37 for this pregnancy. Wow! It's amazing how fast this whole thing has gone by. I'm so thankful that it has been an easy time. Brad and I are nesting like crazy right now. I feel like I still have a hundred things to do before Bethany arrives! Today is make dinners and freeze them day! Brad has cleaned and rearranged the house. Pets and furniture have been moved. I could give birth any day now but I have a feeling it won't be for another 2 or 3 weeks. Let's see if this first time Mom really knows anything about her body! HA!

Baby Shower and Home Improvement Project

This is our latest home improvement project! The siding on the sun room was not painted and so looked pretty ghetto. We decided to spruce it up a bit with some paint! Not bad huh? I tried to find a "before" photo but was unsuccessful. Those of you who know what it looked like before will get the WOW effect! Sorry to the rest of you. Trust me, it looks 100% better!

The other big event this week was the baby shower that my old coworkers gave me! Here is the cake. It was a really yummy carrot cake.

And these are some of the really nice ladies that I worked with at CLA. The blond on the far right(Donna Davis) was the one who hosted. They gave us lots of great stuff for Bethany. Thank you girls! You are the best!

The last big event for the week is that Tammy is moving in today! Brad and I are both excited to have her here and help her out any way we can!

Garden

Brad and I decided to try growing a garden this year. You saw the pictures of the fence Dad and Mom helped us put up. Now its time so check out what's growing! This is our squash. It is doing the best at this point. There are 3 plants so it looks really big. We should be getting some soon because there are lots of blooms!

This is the beans and peas. Some of them got eaten by ants. Hopefully they can make enough for us to enjoy.

Our tomatoes are doing pretty good. This one has a few tiny green tomatoes on it!

Finally the lettuce. It is still very small so it may be too hot for us to get anything. We shall see.
And that is our garden! We also have grapes, peppers and flowers but I'm waiting till they get bigger to show you them. It has been so fun to have enough room to try this out. I loved getting stuff out of our garden growing up and can't wait to enjoy what we get now!

More Baby Stuff

Well, We made it through our first childbirth class. The lady who ran it seemed pretty down to earth. If you remember our last experience with the Nutrition class the teacher was all hippie and very much against anything not organic. I think this will be much more beneficial, especially since we are new to having kids. They had a lot of practical advise and we even got homework. We are supposed to try and figure out what position Bethany is in and mark it down. They want her to be head down in the next couple of weeks. I think she already is so no worries there. We also got these questions to answer about what we expect childbirth to be like. We are supposed to answer them separately and then talk about the different ideas we might have. We will have three more classes this month and 2 more different ones before the first of Sept. I have a feeling I might start to feel like I live at the birthing center.

I remember when Holly was pregnant and how she talked about her belly bumping into things and getting in the way. I think I can now understand what she was talking about. Tying my shoes is starting to get a little tricky. Also, I have noticed that the shirts I wear have more stains by the belly region than normal. I have already teased Brad about how I'm going to make him shave my legs pretty soon!

Here's the latest picture of me. From what they tell me I should be gaining a pound a week so by the next time I post I might be way bigger! It's grow time!

Fast Forward!

A lot has happened this week! We spent a couple of days trying to get caught up from vacation. Mainly laundry and yard work. Then I had a baby appointment. They decided to move our due date up to the 4th of Sept! It was originally set for Sept 22nd but they said because the ultrasound showed her to be so big they didn't want to risk me going to far over my original due date. This way if I am late they won't be as worried. So, I guess now we can expect Bethany to possibly come 2 and a half weeks earlier! I was a little freaked when they first told me this because in my mind I instantly lost a month to get ready! Now I had to fast forward everything and plus we barely will get through all of our child birth/prep classes. I guess it will all be very fresh in our minds. Ha! SO... here is the latest picture of my growing belly. Do I look 31 weeks along? Remember, that means I only have 9 weeks left!