Baby Update

Things are still looking great. I am now going to the doctor every 2 weeks. Which is making time pass really fast- all of a sudden I look at the calender and realize I have another appointment that week! Total weight gain so far is 23 pounds. I am right on track growth wise gaining about 1 lb each week.

Just a day shy of 31 weeks
(By the time I am actually posting this I am 32 weeks)

The symptoms seem to have kicked it up a notch in these last couple of weeks. But I try not to think about them too much and look at the good side.
- I get tired pretty easily- definitely don't have the energy levels I had the 2nd trimester. So I am extremely grateful our girl's trip feel when I was still energetic!
- My back is pretty achy. I blame our uncomfortable couch. But Michael is so good about rubbing my back.
- Heartburn is getting worse. It always seems to come in spurts, it will be really bad for a couple days, and then go away for a couple, then come back, etc. But I actually don't hate the taste of tums, well except the green ones. And I already slept with a couple pillows so whats 4 or 5 extra :)
- The swelling has started. Thankfully just in my fingers and toes, and mostly just at night. I think I am nearing the end of wearing my wedding ring, but hopefully this means we can take it in for some much needed cleaning and a re-dipping to brighten up the white gold.
- I can't really stand for extended periods of time without my legs getting really achy. Making dinner or doing dishes is getting harder unless I take occasional breaks to sit down.

I love feeling little "Bruno" kick! And he is really strong! One night I jokingly said to Michael that maybe we should just pray that he is "healthy" and not "healthy and strong". Thankfully he doesn't kick my ribs...that often. Although sometimes if feels as if he is pushing against my pelvic bone. Don't really know if that is possible, but sometimes it can be a little annoying. Sometimes my stomach will get lopsided and there will be a little bulge. And other times I can feel a little foot, hand, bum, or whatever part of his body it is, I can't really decipher them. He really loves my right side. I hardly ever feel a kick on my left. We recently saw Star Trek and the musical Ragtime. Bruno was kicking and moving quite a bit during both of them- I like to think he enjoyed the music and noise. The other night Michael and I tried shining a flashlight on my belly to see what Bruno would do and he gave us a couple good kicks. We tried it again a couple days later, but he didn't react. I like to think his head was just turned so he didn't see the light and the first time wasn't just a fluke. One night Michael felt Bruno while he had the hiccups- he thought it was pretty entertaining!

Over the past few weeks we have gotten lots of baby necessities:

We found a beautiful crib at Costco. I convinced Michael to spend a little more money for a nice hard wood one that will hopefully last through all our children. I love it! I still need to make a crib skirt for it. I am thinking a red one.

We got a stroller and car seat on clearance at Target. One day I just happened to see it while shopping. It wasn't the color we had registered for, but I really wasn't picky, just wanted a neutral. And this one was $50 cheaper. Thanks Mom and Dad Coon!

I got a free Bumbo seat from a friend who got it from a random lady as she was leaving another friends house- did that even make sense? It was pink, but that problem was easily solved with a fun cover we ordered.

It has little elephants on it!

We got a dresser from Ikea. Read my last post if you want to hear the sad story about it. I am just extremely grateful to finally have one so I can start putting his many, many clothes away! Thanks to his Terry cousins he will be a very well dressed little boy!

Purchased our first box of diapers and wipes. Man they are expensive! But they were on coupon this month at Costco so I went ahead and bought them early. I will admit I can't help but smile when I see them. It just makes me so excited to know there will be a baby in our house soon!

Farewell to Budget Season!

Since the end of May/beginning of June Michael has been working SUPER long hours (like 9pm was "early" and he worked all day pretty much every Saturday) in the budget office getting ready for the 2014 budget. And I am happy to report as of last Thursday, the budget has been proposed/presented to the city council and these late nights should be done for another year. There is still the possibility of a few late nights since the city council has until mid-September to make minor changes, but it shouldn't be every night.

In celebration of the completion of the budget Michael got Friday off and came home at 3 on Thursday. Needless to say, I was a very happy wife! I just wanted to document the fun weekend we had.

Thursday-
Michael got home at 3. Since he had worked until 1 am the night before, he took a nap. But when he woke up we headed to Costco to look at dresser options for the baby's room and then enjoyed some yummy pizza, and chicken bake from the food court (I know, so romantic). Oh, and we finally added me to our Costco membership and I got my first Costco card. I know its totally silly, but I feel like such a grown-up now :)

Friday-
While I slumbered away, Michael got up early and went on a bike ride with his new best friend-his bike. (I finally consented and let him get a road bike for his birthday). We did some errands during the day. We went to the DMV and got our Texas drivers license. We are officially Texas residents. Michael picked out a new phone- it was definitely time! And then that night we went downtown for a fun date at the theater. We saw the musical Ragtime. I had never seen it before/didn't know much about the story, but I really enjoyed it. I even got a little teary eyed during the finale. And can I just say that I love that Michael enjoys musicals and going to the theater! (even if I do make him dress up for them). It wasn't over until after 11, and I can't say that downtown San Antonio is my favorite place to be that late at night (a little sketchy, thankfully there are lots of cops out and about on patrol) but I loved walking hand and hand down the street with my handsome husband. We ended the night with rostys from Wendy's. A great way to end a perfect evening!

Saturday-
While I slept in Michael went to play basketball at the church (this is our Saturday morning routine!). Had a lazy morning getting ready, and finally a little after noon started our journey to Austin to go to Ikea! On our way we stopped in San Marcos to check out the Pottery Barn outlet store. Bad idea going to the Outlets on tax free weekend in Texas. And these outlets were HUGE! Much bigger than the Camarillo ones- and those ones are pretty big. There was also a William and Sonoma outlet store connected to PB. I could have spent hours in there, but prices were still pretty high for our budget that day. :( Eventually we found our way to Ikea (it was a little farther away than we realized) Our main reason to go to Ikea was to check out a dresser for the baby's room. And of course pick up a few other Ikea treasures, and eat some yummy meatballs. We found the dresser, liked the price, liked the style, and of course I fell in love with the red one! And of course when we get to the marketplace and the end they were all out of it :(  In the end we settled on the black-brown one since we weren't willing to pay $100 to have it shipped to us, and Ikea is too far away to come back again so soon. Total let down, and I will admit that I was really grumpy about it. I blame it on the hormones. The cinnamon rolls with lots of icing that I bought as we were leaving helped a little and finally near the end of our 1+ hour drive home I was finally out of the worst of my rut. But I still can't stop thinking about the beautiful red dresser! Michael keeps reminding me that "Bruno" won't care what color the dresser is.

Sunday-
Nothing too special. Went to church. Taught the sunbeams. Michael got a super long nap that afternoon. And together we made one of our favorite desserts- peach crumb bars! We have been enjoying the leftovers all week. I am actually surprised they have lasted so long.

Despite my sad dresser story it was a really good weekend and I loved all the Michael time I got! And despite the super long hours, we both really love Michael's job, and the people he gets to work with. He has already learned so much in the short time he has been there and I love to hear about the great things Michael's supervisors have to say about him and the work he is doing. Thanks honey for working so hard!