Nursery Progress

There hasn't been a lot done, but enough to show some progress.  While we were in Lousiana, we ordered the nursery furniture and decided on a glider --- and knowing that we'd like to have as much of the room done before the deployment, the hubby was hard at work!  I'd really love to give myself some credit, but I didn't do much.....except congratulate him on each accomplishment from behind my camera.  Here is what we have so far.  :)

The room before -- our second guest room right
outside the master bedroom.

Cleared out and painted while I was back in Kansas.  It is
supposed to be a grey color, but in some lights it looks blue.
Good thing its a boy!

The crib assembly wasn't the happiest of moments....but look
at that smile I caught....

Crib complete....now on to getting our mattress and
choosing some bedding.

Dresser/changer combo minus the galley rail to hold in
the changing pad.

What Zach says is the most important feature of the entire room.
This is the kid sized hockey net we got at a local sports store.
Its miniature, but Z has already practiced playing with it.  :)

We've had fun looking at boy stuff in stores --- but the progress will be put on hold for a bit until our family is back together again.  :)

24 Weeks - November 19, 2011

More to come soon...but I wanted to get the much overdue 24 week picture up before I posted the 25 week.  Not too many updates other than he is kicking like crazy!  More to come....hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving weekend.

24 Weeks - November 19, 2011

23 Weeks

Over the family celebration weekend, I was 23 weeks.  Here are a few pictures we took before leaving Kansas.

How Far Along:  23 weeks on November 12th
Total Weight Gain: At my last appointment, I had gained about 7 pounds.  Yikes!
Maternity Clothes:  I think I'm in them for good now.
Stretch Marks:  None yet, but I am starting the lotion because I really don't want them.
Sleep:  Great!
Best Moment This Week:  Getting to spend some time with the uncles and great grandma to be!
Movement: I'm having quite a bit now.  Z is able to put his hand on my stomach and get a few good kicks.  Most of the time, it just feels like the baby is doing forward rolls.
Food Cravings:  I've lost my cheese craving and haven't really moved on to anything else.
Food Aversions:  I gave peanut butter a try again, and it went well.  Looks like PB&J is back on the menu list for this kiddo.
Gender: BOY BOY BOY!!!
What I Miss: Feeling fit.  I want to do a bunch of sit ups, but I know it isn't going to do much.
Milestones:  Finding out we're having a boy and starting on the nursery.  :)

A Family Celebration

One of the reasons the gender news post below was late was because I was in Kansas just a few days after we got the news.  My grandma (dad's mom) turned 90 years old on November 12th!  It was a great weekend of celebration with almost the entire family.  My cousin Rebecca and her husband Nathan are expecting a baby boy sometime around Thanksgiving, so she wasn't able to travel. 

My brothers and I flew into Kansas City --- Tim, Alan, and I were on Thursday.  Jeff was supposed to be, too, but his flight from New York was cancelled.  It was true bummer because we were planning to celebrate his birthday that night at dinner with just our fam.  He was able to get on another flight the next morning, so we drove in to get him and then headed southwest to grandma's place.

The plan was to hang out with the family and have a nice dinner on Saturday evening -- and that is just what we did.  Here are some photos from the weekend.

My brothers wanted to hear Baby Boy Franklin's
heartbeat....they weren't able to....but it was
entertaining for everyone.

I wasn't so sure about the whole situation!

We got Jeff from the airport and were on our way!  Packed
in a car like little kids.

She had a cake on her birthday, but my mom
had these delicious cookies made as another
dessert.  They were delicious.

Grandma gave me a little lamb for Baby Franklin, so we
brought that in our picture.   We are dressed up for her birthday dinner.

Jeff turned 31 on November 13th, so we celebrated before
we left for the airport that day with a birthday breakfast.

It was a good weekend!

Its a Boy!!!

It has been a busy couple of weeks!  Most people know by now that we found out that we are having a BOY, and we are very excited!!!

Z was able to come to the appointment that day (Tuesday Nov. 8), which was really fun.  It was the first time he would meet our doctor, and hear the heartbeat of the baby.  He had to come straight from base, but he made it with plenty of time.  We had talked about it, and we decided that we wanted to find out the sex of the baby during the appointment so that we could have the doctor show us what she saw (or didn't see!).  I was nervous.  I know, weird.

We are still laughing a little bit about how the big news came to us --- it wasn't at all like we expected! You'd think the doctor would do a grand announcement, but that isn't quite what we got.  She started the sonogram and noticed right away that the baby was moving around like crazy.  I was told by a friend to drink some orange juice before we went so the baby would move into various positions.  Well...I drank a LOT of orange juice.  Oops.  Anyway --- the doctor was having a hard time taking still shots or even seeing anything because of the dance party that the baby was having.  She finally managed to show us the heart, the spine and ribs, brain, legs, and we even got a picture of a hand (five fingers!).  As she was scanning over all of this, she was able to get up underneath and show us the two legs.   She said "okay....well, there are some legs...and there is the scrotum and the penis....and lets see some feet.....".  That was it!  I immediately said, "whoa whoa whoa, what did you say?  So it's a boy?"  and she said "Yep."    She is very quiet in her normal conversation anyway, but when she gave us this major news, it was almost like she was telling it to herself!  Z and I were still super excited, but it just cracked us up that we had to ask to make sure.

The news made my mouth drop open.  There is a myth that pilots rarely have boys because the radiation from the jet burns up the "boy makers."  I've had that in the back of my mind, so I truly thought we would have a girl.   I had no preference either way....but Z was so excited that he started laughing.  It was really, really fun!!  We got to see the evidence twice, so we feel pretty confident.  It is great!

Since the appointment, Z has been daydreaming about all of the things he'll be able to do.  Most of it revolves around coaching the kid's hockey team.   :)

We went out to the car and made phone calls to our parents and siblings, but then Z had to go back to base.  I went to a friend's house where a few ladies were waiting to hear the news.  It was a fun day.   Sonogram pics to come!

22 Weeks

I know I missed the 21 week mark, but for good reason.....we are back HOME!  We got the word that Z was going to finish up his training mid-week, so we immediately got wrapped up in packing and getting out of there --- by the time I remembered that we needed to take a bump picture, it was just not worth it.

We got out of Louisiana on Wednesday afternoon and made it to Kansas by that evening.  We were able to spend the night at my parents' house, and the next day we traveled to Lawrence for a walk down Mass. Street and lunch at Jefferson's.  We ate there a few times when Z would come visit while I was at KU, so it was a sentimental stop....and Z loves the hot wings.  They make him sweat.   :)    

Hot Wings!

A beautiful day in Lawrence

This past Saturday I was 22 weeks, and I have been feeling great!  It seems strange to me to have so much energy, but I'll take it.  I've been experiencing more kicks from Baby Franklin, but they are still pretty small.  Luckily, the biggest one I had occurred while Z was around, so he was able to feel it, too.  Now that we are back home, we have really focused on getting the nursery done.  We started to clear out our upstairs guest room (soon to be nursery) by moving out the queen size bed --- due to a lack of storage space, we had to "deflate" and box up our Sleep Number bed that we've enjoyed in the master bedroom and put the guest room bed in there.  We're liking it so far though, so it was an okay swap.  We bought some No VOC paint at Menards --- a grey color --- and will soon know if we'll be accenting with blue or pink.  :)  The furniture should arrive next week, and our glider is on its way as well.  We're hoping to have the basics in place before Z is deployed.

Here is the most recent picture.  I had a sweatshirt on and was told that it hid the bump.  This may be my most unflattering photo yet, so I apologize. 

22 Weeks + 2 days

We find out the gender this week, so we'll be posting again soon!   For now, we are so excited to be home.

Even though we know she loved her 8 weeks in Kansas,
we're so happy to have our pretty pup back with us, too.