33 Weeks

7 weeks (give or take) to go! Oh the excitement!

Oh lovely, Cletus is a smelly fruit this week! He's definitely a little prickly with his sharp kicks and jabs all over the place. Still a mover and a shaker in there!

Last week was a week full of wearing dresses to work - with only one pair of maternity work pants, I'm having to get creative with the wardrobe! Thankfully warmer weather will make skirts and dresses preferable anyway.

Hump Day Bump Day - 32w + 3d

We did our 7th Bradley class on Tuesday and discussed birth plans. We did an activity where we had about 20 cards with different aspects of birth printed with options on each side (like "epidural vs. no epidural" or "no induction vs. Pitocin"). Starting out you laid out all the cards with the choices you'd make in an ideal situation, and then in various stages the instructor would say "OK, now turn over 4 cards" and we'd have to make a decision on which aspects of our "ideal" plan we'd be willing to give up, obviously with the ultimate goal of having a healthy baby. We went through several rounds of "giving up" certain things, which was to help us figure out what parts of the birth plan were the most important to us. It was a tough exercise and really made us think, but definitely good to have the conversation and consider all of the options & scenarios.

On Friday, we had a wonderful shower hosted by some of our work friends - it was so great! The decorations were adorable, the food was amazing, and we were just so thrilled to have the love and support of so many of our colleagues. 

Chocolate chip peanut butter cookies, shortbreads, and red wine chocolate cupcakes! YUM!

Making our grand entrance 

Diapers!

So much to be thankful for!!!

That kicked off a great weekend that included watching some of the US National Cycling Championships in downtown Greenville on Saturday. Despite the questionable forecast, we had great weather and enjoyed a nice day downtown. We even participated in the "Townie Crit" - a bike race for us amateurs that was really just for fun, involving doing laps around a few blocks on Main Street while in costume!

Pre-race photo at the start/finish line!

Sunday was a rainy day, but we still managed to get to church and run some errands, then hung out with the 4-legged kids for the afternoon. :)

Leo has started standing on Shiner and giving him a massage. Not sure Shiner enjoys it.

Leo snuggling on my lap with the Cletus bump. Leo occasionally gets kicked in the head.

Lazy Harley - yawn!

And here we are trucking along in week 33. Hoping for less rain this week!

Monday morning bump at 33 weeks + 1 day

Shower Photos!

Forgot to add these to this morning's post... some photos from the baby shower in Charlotte last weekend!

"What's in there?!"

Link to full Photo Album: Baby Shower - Charlotte

32 weeks

8 weeks to go!

Definitely feeling more cramped - I think Cletus has grown OUT as much as possible for now, so has been growing UP into my rib cage, making it difficult to do things like breathe and bend over.

Last week was fairly uneventful. We did have our breastfeeding class at the hospital which was informative and helped to ease some of my concerns. Lots of things to remember and to work through in the first few days/weeks of little baby's life, but we'll manage! We also took some time to organize some of the things we got at the shower last weekend, so the nursery is slowly filling up with sweet, small things!

Hump Day Bump Day photo from last Wednesday

Thankfully all the rain that was predicted never really came about, so we had beautiful sunshine all week and weekend! Hooray, spring is here!

Our Dogwood tree in bloom - tulips are a little behind!

This weekend was excellent, though not all went as planned. Originally I'd hoped to walk the Furman 5k on Saturday morning, but some complications with Friday night's plans ended up making it so that I decided to sleep in instead and then had to bike to downtown to retrieve my car from the parking garage. Made for a nice Saturday morning bike ride, though, and the weather was beautiful! We had our neighbors (next door and across the street) over for dinner that evening which was lots of fun.

On Sunday, Scott and I went for a short (but steep!) hike to Falls Creek Falls near Jones Gap State Park. There were lots of beautiful wildflowers, including a wild Dwarf Iris which I'd never seen before. The waterfall was really impressive, too!

Dwarf Iris - the flower is about the size of a silver dollar

Small cascade of Little Falls Creek

Crossing Little Falls Creek

Climbing steep hills (see me at the top??)

View of the falls in the distance

We reached the falls!

Creatures!

The hike back down was much easier than the hike up, but overall it was well worth the effort. Love to be out in the woods in springtime!

Waterfall makes a nice backdrop for the 32 week photo! :)

Closer view

2 Months to go!

2 months from today is my due date... how has the time flown by so quickly?! I feel like there's still so much to do!

We had such a wonderful weekend with the baby shower in Charlotte and long Easter holiday weekend. Plus, some beautiful (though at times chilly) weather!

First was a group hike on Friday - we hiked along the Chattooga River with the destination of Ellicott Rock - the point at which NC, SC, and GA meet (or were thought to meet some hundred or so years ago). The weather was perfect and it was so nice to just be out in the woods!

First views of the Chattooga

Hiking along the trail

Lunch break by the river

Spoonauger Falls

Waterfall selfie

Yay we made it to the falls!

Spoonauger Falls was towards the end of the hike. A short but steep spur trail - totally worth it, though! It was a challenging day, total almost 9 miles of hiking, and boy was I pooped by the end.

Saturday we headed up to Charlotte for my first baby shower, hosted by my BFF Amanda and her mom & sisters. It was such a wonderful day, although sadly my mom was ill and couldn't make it. We still got to visit for a bit before and after the shower, but I hate that she wasn't able to be part of the festivities. My dad and others took lots of photos, though I didn't take any myself so I have none to post here! I'll post when I get them. It was a fantastic afternoon, though, and was so great to visit with friends and family! We got some time after the party to just hang out and visit as well, which was so much fun.

Sunday was Easter, and we went to church then had a nice afternoon bike ride.

Dressed up for Easter service

It was an active and busy weekend for sure! And now we're into the single-digit countdown... less than 9 weeks to go!

Appointment Update

Had a check-up with the midwives yesterday (met with Susan) and once again all was as it should be. I've officially topped the +20 lb. mark, which is about where I should be at this point considering I expect to start gaining about 1 lb per week from now on. With a bit under 10 weeks to go until EDD (estimate due date), that would put me at right around a total of +30, which I'm definitely OK with considering the original estimate of 40+ (eek!).

Heard Cletus' little heartbeat, right in the 130s, though he got excited and started kicking the doppler probe and got his heartrate up. Susan was also able to tell that he's in a good position - head down, back on my left-hand side, feet and arms stretched to the right. Hopefully he stays in that good position! Even so, Susan said not to worry because he's still got room to flip around. They won't worry about that until around 36 weeks.

She also told me that my glucose results were even lower than they'd told me over the phone - level was 67 (not 77) - wowza! She said, "You must have felt terrible with blood sugar that low!" Eh, just a little hungry (like usual). ;)

Hump Day Bump Day - 30w+3d - spring colors!

I also got a photo from Angelina from chorus competition this past weekend...

The costumer really camouflaged the bump pretty well, unless you got a good side-view of me! Such a great weekend and awesome to catch up with my running & singing buddy! :)

Looking forward to a nice Easter weekend coming up!