Baby Shower #2

Ok, so I just remembered I still haven't posted Baby Shower #1 pictures, let's chalk that one up to pregnancy brain and add it to my to-do list!

On Saturday, June 26th my bestie Tracy Ahlstrom-Layton through a wonderful shower for Baby Earl. Tracy, like all of my family and close friends knows what a miracle and blessing this baby is. And beyond the shower she has been supportive from day one, she even kept it a secret the first few days from Jace until I told my parents! :) We are very lucky to have her in our lives! Thanks Trac' for a great party!

Many great friends - all wonderful women - and family gathered to celebrate Baby Earl:









Shawnie made the cutest diaper cake!


We had lots of food, cake and played games...Everyone but Kim had such very nice things to say when they introduced themselves and talked about how they know me...(Some stories just don't need to be shared!)
















And the presents, oh my goodness. Everything I opened had multiple gifts. Kim was forgiven at this point for making me blush... :) Yes I did cry opening gifts, and no it was not over ducks. What can I say I was moved by a card from my beautiful cousin Ashley, and if you know me at all crying was something that came easy before the pregnancy...and this trimester the waterworks have been on full blast! All the clothes were so beautiful, such nice cards, amazing gifts every single one!









Alexa besides being so adorable, is such a good girl...she just watched me open all the presents and told us which clothes, books and toys she liked or had. :)




What ever could this be? :)



Oh my gosh! A crib mattress!


And what is this? A crib too?! Baby Earl is so set!





Well it's definitely not news, but this day was a testament to the fact that I have amazing friends and family. I have such a great support group, from going to doctor's appointments with me, to years and years (and years) of listening to me talk about how much I wanted this, to believing that I can do this on my own and not ever once questioning me or judging me, to loving my daughter from day one. It was so nice to share this amazing miracle, something I waited my whole life for with these great women who are all so supportive, loving, caring and who I am lucky to have in my life.

Thank you all so much for the gifts, for coming to the shower and for sharing in my joy!

30 Weeks!

Baby Earl this week: lots to report. A pint and a half of amniotic fluid surrounds her, but that volume will decrease as she gets bigger and takes up more room in my uterus. Her eyesight continues to develop, though it's not very keen; even after she's born, she'll keep her eyes closed for a good part of the day. When she does open them, she'll respond to changes in light but will have 20/400 vision — which means she can only make out objects a few inches from her face. (Normal adult vision is 20/20.) Baby Earl's brain is taking on characteristic grooves and indentations. In addition, her bone marrow has taken over production of red blood cells (before, tissue groups and then the spleen took care of producing the blood cells). This is an important step for Baby Earl, because it means she is better able to thrive on her own once born. Much of the lanugo — the soft, downy hair covering Baby Earl's body — is beginning to disappear now because both fat and the brain are regulating her body temperature.

Baby Earl is still moving a lot. The last several nights she's been making moves that feel like something out of "The Matrix." I wish I could see inside my stomach to see what she's doing. It's funny. And with the cold I have had since Friday, she is the only thing I have been enjoying…cant breath though my nose, can’t sleep well, so extra tired on this Monday but hanging in there. I am super excited about mom being here on Friday, a whole weekend together! (My incredible shrinking mom hit the 60lb lost mark today, so proud of her!)

Baby Earl is about 15.7 inches long now, and she weighs just over 3 pounds (as much as a head of cabbage):



So other than the runny/stuffy red nose and being tired, I am super excited yet it is so hard to believe I am in my 30th week! I was chatting with Finney last night, and we were talking about how it has just gone by so fast…10 weeks or less to go! Exciting, and a little nerve-racking – so much to do before she is here, but mostly I just can’t wait to meet her!

Thursday we see Dr. Brown for the first time…Mom is in on Friday, Saturday is 31 weeks and the baby shower, Sunday I get to see Niki, so needless to say gotta kick this cold and quick!

Almost 24 weeks!

Oops, guess I have gotten a little behind… well almost at 24 weeks now… which means just about 16 weeks until Baby Earl is here!



I had a wonderful baby shower at Mom’s on April 24th. Many family members and close friends came, no silly games, just visiting and oh the presents… 2 diaper cakes – different sized diapers, clothes, a monitor, books, a Pendleton, gift cards and more. It was so fun and exciting to open all the presents and think about the sweet little baby that would soon be wearing them. (Pictures to come soon!) That trip to Spokane was also eventful as mom had her gastric bypass surgery, though there was a scare due to a latex exposure after the surgery, the operation itself went perfectly and mom was home in resting in 24 hours. And Baby Earl made her debut in my tummy as far as movement that weekend, and has not stopped moving since! Here is a video of dad falling asleep in the chair as mom recovers after surgery, I couldn’t help but record it!



The feeling of her moving inside me is indescribable to anyone who hasn’t felt it. It started out that weekend at 22 weeks as light flutters maybe once or twice a day and in the last couple of weeks is already more noticeable and more frequent. According to the book she is about 8.5” from head to bum and about 1.5 lbs. So she does account for at least some of my weight gain the last 2 weeks, though I know I can’t blame her for all of it. I am hungry all the time, and continuing to work on making good food choices and stay moving so that I don’t balloon up, but some days it is hard to pass up Taco Time or McD’s for lunch. As far as my body goes, in the last week I have definitely felt some changes and there is no hiding that there is a baby under there. So with my mom’s encouragement I continue to focus on keeping me and baby girl healthy, and not so much on what the scale says.

I have been thinking a lot about not only how much my life has changed in the last 23 weeks, but how much it will change once baby is here. Especially after seeing that silly rom-com, The Back-up Plan. Being a single mom is not going to be easy but I have such a great family, all of whom support me in so many ways, I am not scared. I have had good and bad relationships in the past, and dated for years but never met someone I really could see spending my life with and I am okay with that. If it happens great, but if not, how could I complain when I have the one thing I always wanted more than anything in life – a baby. Sure as girl growing up I thought about getting married and what my wedding would look like, but it wasn’t ever a must for me, not in the way having a baby was. And as I got older, it wasn’t a wedding that I could imagine in detail or what I longed for, it was being a mom. The idea of not being married was never really something I was concerned about, it was the not being able to have children that I could never really come to terms with or accept…. For years just thinking of it would send me into a depression, and in the last year or so I really had started to think adoption would be my answer and was just learning to accept that solution when Baby Earl came along. So yeah, it is kinda scary to get something so huge that you wanted so badly for so long, and I think that is why it is still hard sometimes to accept that it is finally here. I am just so looking forward to raising this little girl, to our life together, and for me I just couldn’t ask for more.

Tomorrow, Friday 5/7, is another ultrasound and this time – Mom and Dad get to come! They are bringing all the gifts from the baby shower, including a changing table Uncle Johnny is loaning us, so next weekend I am working on Baby Earl’s room. Also Papa and Auntie Punkin fly in tomorrow and Saturday we get to go to Alexa’s graduation from Northwestern University. It is going to be an awesome weekend!


Thank you, thank you, thank you to mom and dad for the shower and to everyone who came!