Into Month 9

"Week 36: Weighing about 6 pounds and measuring somewhere around 20 inches tall, your baby is almost ready to be served up into your arms. Right now, most of baby's systems (from circulatory to musculoskeletal) are just about equipped for life on the outside. Though the digestive system is ready to roll, too, it hasn't really gotten a workout yet. Remember, up until this point, your baby's nutrition has been arriving via the umbilical cord - no digestion necessary. But that's soon to change. As soon as baby takes his or her first suckle at your breast (or suck from the bottle), that digestive system will be jump-started - and those diapers will start filling." -What to Expect

I can definitely feel Bear packing on the pounds. My pregnant belly never really felt heavy until a little over a week ago. Now it's like somebody put rocks in my stomach. I am still hoping and praying that he will be only 6 or 7 pounds at birth. Of course, lately it seems like everybody has been hinting that they think he will go past his due date, so who knows what that will put his weight at. Bear may be a September baby! Which would be cool for him because he would be one of the first kids to celebrate his birthday during the school year. And cool for us because that means we have more time to get the apartment ready before his arrival.

Speaking of which, we are moving all of our stuff from storage into our new apartment this weekend! Well, I should say that Chris, Josh, Dana, my mom, and Scott are doing the moving. I will probably be supervising. :) I have already used our copy of the floor plan to map out where all the furniture should go. If I weren't pregnant I wouldn't worry about it and just rearrange the furniture however I want after it's all there. But since I'm not really allowed to do that I had to plan ahead of time. We are really excited about our new apartment and I will try to remember to take pictures to share with everybody.

Our doctor appt. went well on Monday. My blood pressure was much lower this time around. Thanks be to God! I was worried that it would keep going up and I would be put on bed rest, which would not be fun. Bear looked like he was doing well on the ultrasound. Now that he is bigger it's harder to tell which part of him we're looking at on the screen. I think he's going to have Chris' nose (and his "wavy black lines". haha!). I say that because when we look at his profile on the ultrasound I see a straight line coming out for the nose, whereas if he had my nose his profile would look more like a ski jump. Our next appt. is on Monday, my birthday! I'm turning 25! My birthday presents are seeing Bear at the doctor's office, Chris' first day of work, and a new apartment. Woohoo! Sounds good to me. :)

This past Saturday some of the girls from the Queen of Peace prayer group at the Mission of Divine Mercy threw us a shower. It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed seeing them again. We played a few games and discovered that Sister Amapola is the queen of word scrambles and it takes 11 squares of toilet paper to go around the biggest part of my belly.

Well, I guess that is all for now, folks. Please continue to keep us in your prayers. God has answered so many of them already! Have a great weekend and talk to you again next week! God bless you!

So much to do, so little time

We are closing in on our target date! We just finished the 35th week and we are headed into month 9! Bear could literally come any day now and be just fine. This is what he's been up to this past week:

"Week 35: Your baby stands tall this week- if he or she could stand, that is- at about 20 inches, and continues to follow the 1/2-pound-a-week plan, weighing in at about 5 1/2 big ones. While growth will taper off when it comes to height (the average full-termer is born at about 20 inches), your baby will continue to pack on the pounds up until delivery day. Something else he or she will be packing on in the few weeks that remain are brain cells. Brain development continues at a mind-boggling pace, making baby a little on the top-heavy side. And speaking of tops, it's likely your baby's bottom is. Most babies have settled into a head-down, bottoms-up position in Mom's pelvis by now, or will soon. That's a good thing, since it's easier on you if baby's head (the biggest part of his or her body) exits first during delivery. Here's another plus: Baby's head may be big, but it's still soft (at least, the skull is), allowing that tight squeeze through the birth canal to be a little less tight." -What to Expect

Our little boy is growing fast! :) We are at the point where we will be having doctor appointments every week. This past Tuesday was our last appt. Apparently, I have gestational hypertension so they will be monitoring me closely from now until delivery. The good thing about this is that the doctor will do a biophysical profile through ultrasound each week to check Bear's movement, heartbeat, breathing, and all that. So we will get to see him each week until he comes! The down side, for me at least, is that during labor I will have to be continually hooked up to the fetal monitor and IV which means no walking the halls and limited movement in the room. We are still hoping to do a natural birth as much as possible. Unfortunately gestational hypertension means I am a higher risk pregnancy so there may be more of a need for intervention during labor, especially if Bear goes into distress. I am sure it will all be fine but please pray that everything goes well for his sake!

Our other news is that Chris has a new job! He will be working as a "System Engineer" for Z2Technologies which is a government contracting company out of Ft. Hood. His office is actually in Killeen but they work with Ft. Hood and other bases. We have been apartment hunting and found a place in Temple. Chris will have to drive about 25-30 minutes to work, but we really preferred to live in the Belton/Temple area over Killeen. Chris starts work August 3 so our hope is to move up there within the next week and a half so that we can have all our stuff up there when he starts work. Hopefully this way we will be at least halfway settled once Bear comes along.

Please keep us in your prayers. We will post again next week and let you know how Monday's doctor appt. went! God bless you!

Hot Summer Days

We are 34 weeks now. The doctor appointments are coming more often. We had one this past Monday and it went well. My blood pressure was high again (high for me, mine is usually low) and I've gained 5 pounds in two weeks but other than that everything was fine. I'm going to try exercising every day instead of just 5 days a week to see if that helps with the weight gain (I'm really only supposed to be putting on a pound a week). And I think my blood pressure was high because I had a lot of salty foods over the weekend, it was hot, and I mostly sat around. So I will be working on lowering that, as well. We have another appointment this coming Tuesday. We'll let you know how that one goes next week!

We have a picture to post this week. It's quite a comparison with some of those earlier pictures! Only a little more than a month to go!

"Week 34: Your baby could be as tall as 20 inches right now and weighs about 5 pounds. Got male (a male baby, that is)? If you do, then this is the week that his testicles are making their way down from his abdomen to their final destination: his scrotum. (About 3 to 4 percent of boys are born with undescended testicles, which is nothing to worry about; they usually make the trip down south before the first birthday.) And in other baby-related news, those tiny little fingernails have probably reached the tip of his or her fingers by this week, so make sure you have baby nail clippers on your shopping list!" -What to Expect

And we do have nail clippers now! My aunts and Gramma brought gifts from our Alabama side of the family and took us shopping for stuff on the registry so we were able to get a lot more of the things we need for Baby Bear. It was great! He is one blessed little boy. :) Tomorrow we are headed out to Caldwell to see Chris' side of the family. They are having a BBQ for some Czech Seminarians that are here for a visit so that will be fun. Hopefully it's not too hot!

Well, we hope that everyone is enjoying their summer and staying as cool as possible. God bless you!

Month 8 versus Month 5

Sweet Baby Boy

We are now half way through the eighth month, 33 weeks along, Bear is going to be here before we know it! Last week's doctor appt. went well. I asked Dr. Love if he could tell me how big Bear is right now, but he said that it's pretty much an educated guess due to all the varying factors. Oh well. We have another doctor appt. on Monday. We go every 2 weeks now. And I guess before too long we'll go every week. So anyway, this is what Bear has been up to this past week:

"Week 33: Baby's gaining weight almost as fast as you are these days (averaging out to about half a pound a week), which puts the grand total so far at more than 4 1/2 pounds. Still, your baby has plenty of growing up (and out) to do. He or she may grow a full inch this week alone and may come close to doubling in weight by D-day. And with that much baby inside your uterus now, your amniotic fluid level has maxed out (there's no room for more fluid now). Which explains why those pokes and kicks are sometimes extremely uncomfortable: There's less fluid to cushion the blows. Antibodies are also being passed from you to your baby as your little one continues to develop his or her own immune system. These antibodies will definitely come in handy on the outside and will protect your baby from many of those playground germs." -What to Expect

I can definitely say that Bear's movement is more pronounced these days. Although he can be kind of shy at times. His most interesting moves usually happen when no one is around or looking. Chris watched my tummy with me a little last night and it looked like an alien was about to bust out. :)

We have some company coming into town today. My Grandma Antoine, Aunt Jeannie, and Great-Aunt Mary Jane drove out from Alabama to visit their Texas relatives. The women will finally outnumber the men in this house! haha!

I hope you all have a great weekend. Please continue to keep us in your prayers. We are always in need of them! :) God bless you!

Our First Baby Shower!

These are some of the pictures from our first baby shower! Chris' side of the family put it together for us at Henrietta's house and we really enjoyed it. We received so many incredibly useful and super cute gifts. Thank you, thank you, thank you!! It's so nice to know that we'll have the things we need to take care of Bear. Speaking of which, in one of the pictures up there Lauren and I are holding the letters that Dana painted. They're adorable! And this is my plug for Dana: She paints letters and she does an amazing job! You can go to www.lovelettersbydana.com to get more info. :) The cow outfit was from Tiffany and came with some other cute animal outfits. On the backside of all the pants there is a different picture. For example, the cow outfit has a bottle of milk on the backside. So cute!! And in the last gift picture I'm holding up the John Deere boots Terri gave us. They are so precious!! (What's not precious is my face. I was experiencing a lot of puffiness in my hands, face, and feet that day). We had a lot of fun going through all the stuff again when we got home. Chris was so excited that he and Scott put the stroller together and figured out how the whole "travel system" works. He also installed the base of the carseat in the car so we're ready to go!

We are 32 weeks along now and this is what Bear has been up to this past week: "This week your baby is tipping the scales at almost 4 pounds and topping out at just about 19 inches. And growing isn't the only thing on the agenda these days. While you're busy getting everything ready for baby's arrival, baby's busy prepping for that big debut, too. In these last few weeks, it's all about practice, practice, practice, as he or she hones the skills needed to survive outside the womb, from swallowing and breathing to kicking and sucking. And speaking of sucking, your little one has been able to suck his or her thumb for a while now (okay, maybe it's not a survival skill, but it sure is cute). Another change this week: Your baby's skin is no longer see-through. as more and more fat accumulates under the skin, it's finally opaque (just like yours!)." -What to Expect

Less than two months left!!! Mom keeps teasing me saying that he's going to be late like I was and not come until September (I was due the end of July and didn't come until the 3rd of August). I guess we'll find out soon enough!

We have a doctor appt. tomorrow in Austin (and we're going to try and get our military IDs now that Chris is in the Army Reserves. I'm such a dork but I'm so excited about having a military ID again!). It should just be a normal appt. but if anything special comes up we will blog again before next Thursday. We had our last Childbirth Preparation class this week. Now all we have left is one Breastfeeding class (Chris asks "Do I really have to go?") and one Baby Care class.

Oh! And if you're looking for something to make you laugh (or think "these poor babies"), go to www.BabyToupee.com. I stumbled across it while reading baby articles. No, I would never put a toupee on my kid, but these pictures are pretty humorous.

We hope you are all doing well. We love you. God bless you!