Lately

Besides me being 30 weeks pregnant, Pete is winding down a crazy and eventful month of work. Tomorrow is his first day off in 2 weeks, which is wonderful because I feel like I haven't seen him in ages. Last weekend I had 2 of my good friends from Seattle drive up for the night. We pretty much sat on the couch and chatted for 24 hours straight. It was soooo nice to have company and catch up with them. They also brought me baby gifts and a care package for the hospital which inspired me to finally get motivated to get things ready for our newest addition. (Meaning I bought a crib and Pete set it up last night... that's about it so far.)

This week we had some snow and really cold weather like the rest of the Pacific Northwest, but all in all where we live, the roads have been fine and no one got stuck anywhere. My parents are arriving this afternoon for a quick visit. Lots of hockey games are on the agenda as well as getting the house ready for baby. It will be nice to have them around for extra hands to do the things I can't do anymore... like moving furniture and maybe a little bit of painting here and there.

At 30 weeks I'm still feeling good and getting kicked in the ribs daily. According to the internet, baby should be around 3 pounds right now. Also according to the internet he/she is also about the size of a head of cabbage ;) and over 15 inches long.

Here are some pictures of what's been going on around here lately...

30 weeks! 10 to go!

Pete and his helper setting up the crib

still needs a mattress and some cute bedding....

(She did this on her own, I promise!) I decided to get ahead of
the game and pull out a suitcase to put in the things I've been given for the hospital. Looks like someone had other plans... 

Snowy walk, but why does she choose to sit in the snow?

snowy golf course

frozen pond and fountain

Third Trimester

I officially entered the third trimester this week! Our little munchkin is super active and I can tell he/she is getting stronger these days. We even had a few cases of the hiccups, which I felt for the first time about a week ago. I am feeling good despite some upper back pain and insomnia... And I'm still walking the dog almost every day for exercise. I also have a good amount of energy, although I'm finding that bending over gets less fun as the weeks roll on.

I don't see my doctor again until January 24, but after that, the visits start to get a bit more frequent. I have another diagnostic ultrasound scheduled for January 31 to check the placement of my placenta which they found to be a bit too low in the November ultrasound. If it's in the way and hasn't moved since then, we will have to recheck at 36 weeks and possibly schedule a cesarean. While that is less than ideal, I'm thinking positively and hoping for the best. However, the most important thing is a healthy baby and Mama :) so if the c-section is necessary for that outcome, I won't complain.

And finally, here's what 28 weeks looks like:

All Things Baby

Now that I'm heading into my THIRD and LAST trimester next week, we wanted to get a little game going. Pete set up an internet site where you can guess our lil baby's gender, birthdate/time and length/weight. You can have up to 2 guesses in each category... but we have yet to determine what the prize will be for the winner. There are also a few ridiculous 'poll questions' on the site that he put up just for kicks.

So if you'd like to participate in this little bit of fun, here's the instructions:

1) Click here
2) That should take you to our game page. Once you are there, it will say "Welcome to Stefanie and Peter's Game Page"
3) You will see a chart with previous guesses. On the top right, just above the chart it says "You may enter 2 guesses." Click the purple link that says "Enter Guess" and follow the prompts.
4) Don't forget the poll questions on the right hand side.

In other news, last week just before Christmas we went in for a 3D ultrasound. We heard the heartbeat, got it on video and ended up with about 40 pictures. It did feel a little like cheating but it was still a lot of fun. It was also EXTREMELY tempting to have the tech scan around its baby bits, but we decided to torture ourselves a little longer and we held out from finding out the gender. Obviously we have been thrilled this whole pregnancy, but seeing the baby in more detail made us more excited than ever. I'm hoping these last 3 months fly by.

criss-crossed feet, an ankle and toes

thumb in mouth

thumb in nose (definitely Pete's child)

who do I look like?

Our Place

I meant to take pictures of our new place and post them up here long ago... however, the house felt pretty empty until November when we bought a few more things and had it painted. It was also never clean enough for me to be willing to snap a photo. I seemed to have forgotten pictures of the 2 bathrooms (oh well) and I left out a picture of the guest bedroom because we will be transforming it into the baby's room in just a few months. So, here is our place decorated for Christmas...

looking at living area from kitchen/entry

looking at kitchen from the couch

Mantle

kitchen

kitchen

dining/kitchen

laundry/hallway to the left of the kitchen table

office/storage... looking at the picture above this one,
 it's the door on the right

photo wall in the hallway to our bedroom

Ernie's room

26 Weeks

I had my monthly check up today and everything looks good. I got the results back from my most recent blood tests and I passed the gestational diabetes portion. Which, for the record, was hellish. I had to fast for 12 hours prior to the test and then they drew my blood 3 different times after drinking the grossest sugary-est drink ever full of 75 grams of sugar. Orange flavored syrup is about the worst thing you can consume at 8am on an empty stomach. Then they make you sit there for two hours. I was a little queasy and bruised in the vein but I survived without vomiting or going crazy... luckily Pete put a movie on my iPad which helped pass the time. I am also still anemic, but there's not much I can do about that but continue taking my iron supplements and eating a normal healthy diet, which is possible now that I'm not throwing up everyday.

Tomorrow we are going in for a fun 3D Ultrasound. It's just done by a tech, doctors don't look at it and there's nothing diagnostic about it... strictly for vanity or to find out the gender. We are still not finding out the gender, but I am looking forward to seeing the baby's little sweet face in more detail, even though I was kind of against it in the beginning.

It is hard to believe I'm just 2 weeks away from my THIRD trimester! Here are the pictures of my ever growing belly.....

2011 Recap

Here we are again, just days away from the end of the year. Once again we find ourselves looking back on a year full of happy memories and life changing events. Soooo, here are the highlights, month by month.... And if you don't get through my year long ramble, I get it, plus I'll never know otherwise ;)

In January I took a quick trip to Boston to visit our friends we became close with while teaching in Korea. Three days and one wild night flew by, but it was well worth the cross country haul in the middle of winter, and I am so glad to be on the same continent as them once again. Pete couldn't make the trip because he was midseason with the Giants, but his reunion with them comes later in the year...

By February, hockey was still going strong and I was into a digital photography course that met once a week in Vancouver. I loved the class and I love being able to use our camera to its full potential (well, almost).  Pete found himself in Las Vegas for league meetings (and conveniently, the Super Bowl). It was his first trip there... which he loved every minute of, and he even came out ahead of the game. I took another lovely, yet quick trip with my 3 wonderful college roommates to Phoenix, AZ. We stayed at the beautiful Biltmore Hotel, caught a SF Giants spring training game, spent an afternoon in Sedona and even experienced Arizona rain. Go figure. We had a great time just being together now that we are spread up and down the West coast.

In March, my parents came out for a visit to see one of Dan's childhood friends star in the touring theatre production of "Legally Blonde." A whole bunch of their friends came along as well and I loved having so many people from 'home' in Vancouver all at once. By March, we were itching to move into our new place, but we still had a few months to wait while they completed the road. So we passed the time soaking in the last of the beach house, and spent the brisk (yet few sunny) spring afternoons on the beach with ErnieGirl.

April rolled around, which meant that yet again, so did my birthday. I cannot even believe how gloomy and awful it was outside that day. Luckily Pete brightened the evening by taking me and a bunch of friends out for dinner at a festive Middle Eastern restaurant. Hockey season ended, and both of us started showing the telltale signs of cabin fever, so with that, we booked flights to Singapore, Java and Bali for June.

May ended up coming and going quickly as the days warmed up and grew longer. Pete tied up loose ends at work that come with the closure of the season and the new beginnings of another. We also 'moved' (i.e. shoved boxes) into our brand new condo. I left the place a complete disaster and took a trip down to California to see my dad graduate from college and watch Dan perform in Cabaret. Both proud moments for me as a daughter and a sister. It was also a necessary trip to drop Ernestine off with my parents while Pete and I travelled. Lucky dog.

June was a blissful month, being that 3 weeks of it were spent sightseeing on the Indonesian island of Java and relaxing in beautiful Bali and the Gili Islands. We enjoyed great snorkeling, incredible ruins and jungles and delicious food. Pete spent his birthday in Bali... it was a fun day that started and ended with massages, good food and of course, beer. The vacation came and went too fast as usual and it was a long trip home just to be greeted with a pile of boxes. But the next day, which happened to be our first Anniversary, my parents arrived all smiles with ErnieGirl, helping hands and our year old wedding cake. Of course we partook in the tradition of eating it, and the cake was actually better than expected.

In July, after finally unpacking everything and celebrating Canada and the USA along with an awesome visit from my friend Annie, life did a somersault. We found out I was pregnant and Pete became the VP of Operations for the Vancouver Giants. We kept this sweet little secret from our families until I saw the doctor. It felt like an eternity not telling them right away (even though it was probably only a week after we found out), but everyone was thrilled. So were we. And we still are, obviously.

August brought home hoards of fish from Pete's annual fishing trip the the Queen Charlotte Islands. Fish that I couldn't stand to look at as I slowly got more and more nauseated by more and more things. Pete also went to Boston for a bachelor party for our friends from Korea, since he was a groomsman in their upcoming wedding.... I was also a bridesmaid, and originally planned to go as well for the bridal shower, but ended up being too sick to fly the day he left. We also had our first ultrasound in August, proving there was in fact a darling little being in my belly, around 8.5 weeks young. And despite 'morning' sickness I ended up making a shorter trip down to Portland, OR to watch my college girlfriend get married.  It was a lot of fun to reunite and see everyone again for such a happy occasion. As for the rest of August, I spent a lot of time throwing up and laying on the couch.

September was more of the same for me, and I pretty much ate only popsicles and sour dough toast with butter. I was absolutely no help to Pete who was just learning his new role and extremely busy with the start of the hockey season. September was also the month of 2 weddings. One for my dear high school friend and the other back on the east coast, which we were a part of. As weddings seem to go, both were  perfect and fun and I wish we could do it all over again. We also started telling extended family and friends in September about our news which was the best

By mid October I finally started to feel better! We celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving with Pete's family, and we did a few festive Halloween things with our friends. We had pretty decent weather for most of the month and ErnieGirl enjoyed lots of long walks with her friends in our new setting, on the golf course. I guess trading in the beach house isn't so bad for a dog when no one is allowed to play on the golf course yet.

November flew by and we had our second ultrasound. The original little tiny peanut in my belly with flippers for arms and stumps for legs finally looked like a little person in there, rather than a gummy bear. We finally settled into our new home and made it our own this month as well... We had it painted and bought some new furniture in Seattle. Pete cooked a turkey and we celebrated American Thanksgiving with his immediate family.

December kicked off with an awesome family outing to a cooking class and a day in Vancouver. Every year Sarah plans something fun for all of us to do together. Since then it's been a whirlwind of shopping, decorating, wrapping, cooking for friends and baking. Pete went to Disneyland and my parents came up for a 5 day visit since I can no longer leave Canada because of insurance reasons/being pregnant. It is hard to believe that after all these years with Pete this is my first Canadian Christmas and I'm really looking forward to it. What makes it even better is that since I can't visit for the holidays, my California family keeps sending up packages for under the tree. We are feeling very loved this Christmas season.

Wishing everyone a happy and cheery Christmas. I hope Santa brings you everything on your list and that 2012 brings nothing but the best....

24 Weeks

keep growing belly :)

Baby holding practice with Ernie