Moccasins from Grammie

This morning at 36 weeks, on a staurday, I was up bright and early for a maternity photo shoot. The photographer was great, I had a good time. I just wanted to capture this amazing journey, really celebrate this blessing and capture the absolute joy and love that this baby has brought into my life. I can't believe its 28 days until her due date, and though it made me cry a little to pull out the moccasins Grammie had made for me some 8 years ago (I wasnt kidding when I said she wanted this as much as I did, for as long as I have.) it was such a joy to know that she is watching over us. I could almost hear her smiling from heaven as we took different photos with moccasisns she had made for her greart-grandbaby, she must of known it would be a girl. The pendleton from Auntie Punkin was also perfect. The only thing that could have made the day better was having my mom here, but all in all a beautiful experience and I cant wait to get the photos back.

Whew...that was a much earned nap!

Today I finished cleaning out the bedroom to be Baby Earl's nursery, and did the rest of the normal weekend housework. 3+ hours of cleaning and 2.5 bottles of water and I barely had the energy to shower the sweat off of me. But, once I showered, made some lunch and took a nap in my clean house I am feeling much better.

I am ready to paint Earl's room, her stuff is all stacked up in the middle of the room and covered up. Now, I am just mustering up the energy to go grocery shopping :) So I am not as tired as I was in the first trimester, but I do get tired quickly these days. Yesterday I worked for a few hours, went shopping; my third store was Babies R Us, of course I stopped for one thing but walked the whole store....then stopped at Tracy's house and within minutes of sitting down, I was asleep on the couch for a good 20 minutes. I was beat.

I keep thinking that I just can't believe Baby Earl will be here in about 10 weeks, maybe less or maybe more, but either way it is going by so fast! So we'll see what else I can get done today, there is always tomorrow right? :) Actually I am still craving fish, so I think the craving will beat the fatigue today and I will get the shopping done too.

Mom will be here a week from Friday which makes me/us very happy! When I saw her last weekend we weren't sure if she could feel Earl kicking, but there is no doubt now that anyone can feel her moving around. She is so active that I keep doing the kick counting like the books suggest (I started early than 29 weeks of course) and most of the time I get over 10 in 15 minutes or less, and the test says you need to feel 10 in an hour! That was probably the best part of today, I mean it feels good getting stuff done, and I cant wait to finish her room, but I so love when I can just sit or lay down, all alone in the peace and quiet of my house and feel her move around. Sometimes I hold my tummy or rub it, and talk or sing to her, I so treasure this time alone with my daughter. It's such a gift, it feels so amazing to just feel her move but now to know she is almost here, and that she is mine...I just cant wait to meet her!

I read Belly Laughs by Jenny McCarthy the other day, a quick and funny read. She talks about all the stuff no one wants to talk about that you deal with during pregnancy. I still feel like I have had a wonderful pregnancy, other than some nausea but no vomiting, a few mood swings, lots of tears, tiredness and heartburn I have not had it nearly as rough as I know some women do. For this I am also very thankful, but sometimes I think that I waited so long for this, prayed so hard for it to happen that even if it was worse I could never be one of those women who hated being pregnant or complained about being miserable all the time....because this means so much to me, how could I not enjoy every moment of this amazing gift.



Anyway, enough rambling, gotta keep moving! Happy Sunday!

Feeling Very Pregnant!

After a long, long Memorial Day weekend it is now Thursday and I am finally feeling back to normal. For 3+ days I played pool, was on my feet, and tried to help and do almost everything I did to help Tracy and Jace last year - well of course one big difference was I was sober at LTC this year. LOL! And by Monday night when I got home around 11:30, my back was hurting, me feet hurt and were swollen, my belly felt tight and sore and I was wiped out. I was even 30 minutes late to work the next day bc I was moving so slow.

Now I have had a couple days to recover and have gotten a lot more sleep then I did over the weekend, but still did not want to get out of bed this morning. It is amazing to me how different my body is this week even compared to just one or two weeks ago. All weekend trying to scoot between the tight tables my belly kept bumping into people and things, and I definitely had to change my stance on several shots when shooting pool, but it went pretty well. Unfortunately the Sunday team was knocked out Sunday night, and the Tuesday team made it to semifinals on Monday - but I lost my match which should have been an easy W for the team, partially I think because I was so tired. But I tried to hide it, all weekend really, getting there early, staying late, even helping folding and hanging chairs. But Tuesday morning, I sure paid for it and it finally sank in that I cant do everything I did before I was pregnant.

I know, I know many people have been telling me to take it easy for months - especially now with Baby Earl and my belly getting bigger. But really it is only in the last week or so that I have felt this way, finding it more uncomfortable to bend over and seeing how my belly is starting to get in the way of things. I'm not complaining though. I love being pregnant, I feel good and absolutely love feeling her move. It's such a special thing and it has been nice having that to myself, though I think anytime now anyone will be able to feel her moving through my belly which will be another great milestone to share.

So here are some new belly pictures. It was funny to see peoples reactions at LTC, some who knew, some didn't and some who we rent sure - but everyone in the league now knows - bc there is no hiding this baby bump. :) Only 12 weeks until we meet Baby Earl!