32 Weeks!

I'm 32 weeks today! Can you believe I only have eight more weeks to go? I surely can't. For the longest time I figured that I'd have to make it through Halloween, then Thanksgiving, then Christmas before I could really focus on baby time. Then Halloween past. Thanksgiving ran by. Now Christmas is over. It's baby time!

Here are the pros and cons of pregnancy at this point:

Pros
* I feel baby move all the time now. In fact, it's almost every two hours that I feel at least some movement if not downright dancing in my tummy.
* I got to feel the baby having hiccups!
* Passed my glucose tolerance test so no gestational diabetes for me!
* I've started having Braxton Hicks - a cool milestone towards delivery

Cons
* Sleep is a distant memory
* Baby has learned how to kick my ribs
* Started having sciatic nerve pain
* Braxton Hicks make it hard to breathe at times

Overall, still feeling pretty good. Slow, but good. I can definitely say that even though the exhaustion factor is increasing the excitement faster is increasing at a greater pace. I can't wait to get the house ready for the baby. I can't wait to hold this baby in my arms. And I can't wait to see Nate with our little one. Eight more weeks!

32 week belly photo. I'm also showing off the new night attire that Nate bought me for Christmas. (I forgot I wanted to take a picture until I'd already changed out of my real clothes.) The picture is minus the coordinating robe (white with red paisley print) as, frankly, it makes me look as big as a house but it's oh so comfy. Nate did a great job on this Christmas present!

Christmas

This year Nate and I spent Christmas Eve morning with my family before heading down to Portland to spend Christmas day with Nate's family. I was a little apprehensive on how Christmas would go as last year I, well, couldn't wait for Christmas to be over. Between some family stresses, wedding planning stress, and last minute rushing around it just didn't feel like "the most wonderful time of the year". So this year I was adament that I would have a fabulous Christmas! First part of the plan meant planning a little more in advance so there wasn't the bazillion items to do last minute. Secondly, I tried to let any stresses that might come up just roll off of me. Finally, I went back to what this season is all about and tried to focus more on that. These three things helped me have a great Christmas this year! It was full of family laughter, yummie treats, and an overall relaxful few days. I can't wait until Christmas next year when I get to introduce this little one to all the wonder and joy of the season.

Before the madness of opening presents

The joy that a young child at Christmas. Pure excitement over a toothbrush!

Nate's parents Christmas tree. It's HUGE!

The aftermath of opening presents at the Carstens

I wish I had a copy of the family portrait that my family took, but it's still on my mom's camera. As soon as I can get it I'll post it here. 

You Know You're Pregnant When...

You know you're pregnant when:

* You are only half-way through wrapping Christmas presents and have already had to stop twice to take breathing breaks
* Your shoelaces are now tied on the side of your shoes as opposed to the middle
* Your husband is supporting your back to help you get out of bed, and when he takes that support away you fall back down :-)
* You shut the bathroom door on your stomach because you forgot how big you were
* You can't help but grunt when bending over - no matter how hard you try not to
* Getting up to pee twice in the night is considered a decent night of sleep
* No matter how stressed you get, no matter what may go wrong in the day, a big kick from your baby can make your heart smile and all the yuckiness of the world fall away.

Can't wait to meet my little one. Nine more weeks!

The Digital Story of the Nativity

This video is a great retelling of Jesus' birth via our current social media. I was laughing out loud at work. Great way to retell the Nativity Story!

Living Christmas Tree

This weekend Nate and I joined his family in seeing a production called The Living Christmas Tree at First Baptist Church. The premise is a pretty neat one. Basically it's a two-hour Christmas carol extravaganze, but the Living Christmas Tree part comes from the second act where a huge man-made Christmas tree has people standing on platforms and singing as the Christmas tree. Hmm - that really doesn't do it justice. I guess you'll just have to look at the pictures below to see what I mean.

It was extra special because, while we were in the audience with Nate's Grandparents and cousins (Heather, Melany, and Melany's husband Ryan) Nate's Aunt and Uncle were singing. Everyone did a really great job with both the acapella songs and the songs sung to music. It was a little different than I expected in that, while a few traditional songs were song, most of the songs were what I'd call a rephrasing of their original version. So instead of singing "Joy to the World" like we all know the song focused more on the "Repeast the Sounding Joy" chorus with different verses.

Finally, I found out that this production changes each year with the Living Christmas Tree version only happening every three years. So next year, which I fully plan to go to, there will be some other type of Christmas performance. It's nice finding out all the options that our town has for entertainment when you really start looking for it. :-)

This is what I meant by people in the Christmas tree. You can see their faces here, but not their bodies. The other interesting thing is that while everyone looks like same height on each row, they are actually standing on steps to get them that way.

Hopefully this gives you a good view of what the lighted tree looked like. It was almost like a technicolor show with the tree blinking and flashing and twinkling with all the lights in time to the music. Very pretty!

28 Weeks

I am officially 28 weeks pregnant this week. How in the world am I 28 weeks? I only have 12 weeks left! I remember when I hit 12 weeks and was so excited to be that far along (the all-day nausea was not something I was celebrating, however). Now, here I am on the flip-side and looking down a very short tunnel to the birth of my first baby. I'm going to be a MOM! Can you believe it! I mean, I know I'm already a mom in the sense that everything I do affects this baby so I have to take care of myself, but I'm so looking forward to the moment where this little person currently inside of me gets placed into my arms. Oh, how I look forward to that day.

Let's see...the positives and negatives at this point are:

Positives
* Baby is REALLY moving. I feel little and big jabs and kicks all the time now.
* My stomach actually moves with some of these kicks. If I'm sitting in a somewhat lounge position (like on a couch) I can literally see my stomach jump a few centimeters as baby says hello.
* This last week I've gotten at least six hours of straight sleep each night. SIX!!!! Oh, how glorious is that. I never understood the value of a deep night's sleep until night after night I was getting up every 2-3 hours. Now, I understand that this will probably go away again but I'm loving the time while it's here. Thank you baby (and bladder!) for not waking me up!
* Nate can feel the baby if they kick or punch really, really hard. Seeing Nate's face when he feels the baby is just...well, undescribeable. I LOVE how invested in the pregnancy he is.
* Another ultrasound appointment! Baby was NOT cooperative, though as s/he kept their hands around their face the ENTIRE time. So no ultrasound pics to post. The ones were got are so hard to interpret, but I'll still scrapbook them!

Negatives
* I'm starting to feel the tiredness of the first trimester. Many nights I'm wanting to go to bed by 8pm.
* Starting to feel a little anxious about all that needs to be done between now and baby. I want to buy, organize, and do but feeling so tired makes this difficult.

Huh - that's all the negatives I can think of right now so things must be pretty good still. :-)

The last fun thing about hitting this milestone is that Nate and I have started to take our prenatal classes. Only one so far, but we both learned some things and felt that it was worth our time. Looking forward to the next one this upcoming week!

Thought I'd show my injury. These rugburn like marks were made when I bumped my stomach into one of our counter stools. I literally bumped my stomach so lightly that when I noticed these marks hours later it took me a LONG time to figure out what I'd bumped into to cause the marks. My skin doesn't have a lot of room to give any more!

28 Week belly shot with the Christmas tree

A bit closer of a belly shot to show how big I am.