T-minus one week...

...more or less.

We're due a week from today, and I'm not getting any smaller that's for sure. My belly is so tight, and it is getting less and less comfortable. Rory and I were at Cub the other night and he picked up a pumpkin. I asked that he kindly shove it under his shirt for the rest of the shopping trip just to see what it is like to have such a heavy load. He set the pumpkin down, smiled and me and told me that I am doing a great job carrying our child.

Sleep and I used to be really good friends. I remember the days when my head would hit the pillow and sleep would welcome me immediately into a deep rest. But not so, lately. I get completely out of bed about every hour just to stretch my belly and let everything settle back into place. Rory is also sleeping horribly, and we are in awe of how accurate everyone's words were that this stage is just preparation for the sleepless nights that are to come.

I am nesting in the deepest sense of the word. The past few days I have been digging out every single box we own and going through each item with not a whole lot of sentiment attached. Nothing is safe. It feels good to deep clean like this though, and thanks to my mom and my helpful husband who are carrying my loads away, I think I'll finish the basement before this baby comes.

Still amazes me that this baby could come in two days or in two weeks. I can't think of any bigger life event that is wrapped in so much mystery!

And finally, speaking of mystery, at our last doctor's appointment he asked us if we had any questions. I didn't but I commented on how I still can't get over the miracle that is happening inside of me, and how hands-off this whole process of creating a life has been. He said, "Not to get all spiritual on you or anything..." And Rory interjected, "Oh, please do." And then he did. He told us miracle after miracle of the timing of birth. How right now there is a shunt blocking the blood from flowing to my baby's lungs because it's not necessary yet. But moments after my baby is born, that shunt will close up, flow through the vein and in an instant there will be blood pumping to baby's lungs. He smiled and said, "Now you go find a group of engineers who can duplicate that."

He went on and on. The three of us were just excitedly chatting about this miracle of life and it felt so right to celebrate like that with our doctor. It was cool to see him still get so excited about something he has been practicing for decades now. The thing is, the wonder and mystery of life just never gets old. It is pure gift and by far the greatest gift we have ever been given.

things I don't want to forget

This weekend we got the nursery put together. And I love it. I love getting to dream and vision and then to see all of those ideas and creative thoughts come together. The room is happy, bright and peaceful. Look for a full picture tour at some point on this blog...

I have spurts of energy, usually timed about every other day. I will push it one day and the next my body will kindly tell me that we're not going to do that again. Thursday, Saturday and today are busy days. Friday, Sunday and probably tomorrow will be reading-in-a-glider-rocker days. I told my brother today about this cycle and he explained that even on the lay low days I am still very productive as I am producing one product at all times, even while laying on the couch. I loved that perspective.

In the last week Rory has replaced the nursery windows, painted the sills, built a dresser, built a crib, put up shelves, installed the carseat, put together the stroller, replaced a light with a ceiling fan, assembled a glider rocker and hung all sorts of things on the walls. Next are the blinds and curtains. He is really making me happy...

You should know that all of those listed items above come in large boxes with lots of packaging. When you think about how tiny a newborn's footprint is and compare it to the baby's carbon footprint, I believe the later is quite a bit larger. Sorry earth. We do recycle.

On Saturday I washed everything for the baby in Dreft detergent. Which means that I got to fold my first loads of baby clothes. Melt my heart. I have never, ever had such joy in doing the laundry in my life. Tiny, tiny, tiny.

Last week we had our last night of baby classes. Our final task was to bathe, change and swaddle our cabbage patch kid dolls. Except the mama's couldn't talk and the daddy's had to do it all. Rory was so gentle with that baby doll and I couldn't get over how mushy my heart got watching him put a diaper on cloth-dimpled doll legs. I cannot wait to watch him use this same tenderness with dimpled wiggly legs.

I'll try this again...

I am excited to put up this slide show, but Photobucket thinks I want the pictures to show backwards of their chronological order. And if Photobucket knew me at all, Photobucket would know this would drive me insane. I tried posting and reposting five times this morning, and I'm not sure what the dealio is. Then I went and took a three hour nap.

Until I figure this out, here is a link to the slide show with the pictures in their proper order. (My North Shore pictures also displayed last picture to first...anyone use Photobucket and have any tips?)
Click here to watch the Slideshow. and enjoy!

one colorful baby shower

Alright. I've got a few pictures, and I think they sort of sum up the tone of this shower. Somehow the party planners took my quirks and oddities and turned them into a really good time. The room was decorated with paper chains, in honor of my love of a good looped countdown. They were gorgeous and made sort of a tent for the celebration.

I called this the mother of all baby showers, because it was all of my worlds come together. There was Cedar Valley Church family there, Shepherd of the Valley Church family there, Bredberg, Harrington and Groves family there, friends from Mount Carmel, friends from Flathead, and even my third grade teacher, sixth grade math teacher and 10th grade English and History teacher.

Mrs. Ice (3rd grade), Mrs. Groves (10th grade), me and Mrs. Johnston (6th grade)

To have this many women together to love on and support this little life growing inside of me was fantastically overwhelming. When God set us up in community, I believe this is exactly what he had in mind. I felt so affirmed and loved and supported as we prepare to step into this new season

I'm adding these next two pictures, because they basically sum up my mood the entire evening. I was quite excited, all night long.

Sara gave a very thoughtful devotional, focusing on the different roles each member of the family brings to the whole. She referenced The Art of Family and Real Love for Real Life and I have a feeling lots of ladies there will be ordering these books real soon.

The cake is worthy of a post all of its own, but I'm dying to share this one. First of all, this was my face when I saw the cake:

And my face looked like this, because this is what I was looking at:

Remember the Scandinavian wall hanging we are going to have in the baby's nursery?

Unbelievable. I still can't get over the colors and detail that was put into this cake! And this is how the whole night felt. The thoughtful details, all of the prep that went into every part of the shower, and the special touches were perfect. Lisa, Sara, Beth and Marlene pulled together one of the best parties of my life. I can't thank them enough. And I can't believe we didn't get a picture! But we did get this one, with all of the lovely ladies who helped pull the night off.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you to Sara, Beth, Carleen, Lisa, Maddie, Melanie and Dawn! (And Mom Groves!) This baby has so much love awaiting its arrival!

The mother of all baby showers

I am imagining our neighbors just now as they looked out their window, "Hey, come look at this. Becca is very pregnant in her pajamas and taking pictures of balloons. When is that baby due again?"

***
Last night our little baby-to-be was celebrated big time by one fabulous baby shower. I have no pictures from the evening, but will get them from others so that I can show, rather than just tell.

But let me just say that the night was more fun than I could have imagined, more colorful than even I could dream, and with more considerate thought going into every detail than I could comprehend. I literally could not sleep last night. I was wired. I told Rory all about it, and at 2 in the morning I still had a grin on my face as he tried his first attempt at deep breathing exercises with me. Then I was up at 4:30, just excited to see all of the new baby things that had been generously given and I began creating a game plan for where each thing will go in the nursery.

Lisa, Sara, Beth and Mom Groves hit this one out of the park and I'm so excited to share every detail. They outdid themselves, which is saying so much, because they always are outdoing themselves.

More than anything, to be surrounded by that many women ready to support, love and help us raise the little life inside of me made me feel strong and able. Rory and I are not raising this babe alone- we've got a deep, faithful and supportive community ready to love and help shape this life right along side of us.

36 weeks

Monday marked our "one month countdown" (give or take...can't make a paper chain for a due date I'll have you know.). Went to the doctor and was told, "the baby has dropped!" I have no idea when this happened, but I do know that in the last week or so I have started walking with a bit of a waddle, and I'm thinking this might be why (?!!)

We went to our birthing class that night and toured the hospital. A whole new reality came into focus and Rory and I had a really good talk about beginning to feel how this is going to change our lives forever, while still not sure what that means. But we're excited about this change and starting to actually feel a bit more mentally prepared.

We finished our baby registry at Target and Babies R Us as well that day. Let's be honest: I have no idea what I'm scanning and for what reasons. There are parents out there with spreadsheets and consumer reports...and that's great. But Rory and I operate a bit differently. Prices were either reasonable or offensive and decisions were made accordingly. Mostly we just wandered each aisle saying things like, "I like these colors together." "Okay, good, scan it."

Last night we went to my cousin Mark and Kathy's for dinner. They are our neighbors now! Just 15 blocks away and it is a dream come true. Mark made the most amazing supper for us (the lasagna had SEVEN cheeses in it and he broiled the pears for the salad!) Then I whipped out my LeSporte Sac with crayola markers from sixth grade and made Kathy draw on my belly.

Deliverance.

On Sunday we were all set to put up the crib. We've had it in the box for a while now, and Sunday was the agreed day to assemble the thing, since this project has been burning on my heart for weeks now.

But then I started to second guess the crib we got. It's adorable with a curved back, but suddenly I wasn't so sure I wanted a curved back. Maybe I wanted a flat back. You know, how would pictures look hung over a curved back. Wouldn't the lines be nicer if it were a flat back? I hemmed and hawed over such life-changing decisions aloud to Rory and he said he really didn't care. He was fine either way. I continued to lay out my case to him some more and then Rory grabbed the electric hedge trimmer and went in the backyard and took out three bushes. When I went out to check on him an hour later, he was breaking a sweat, digging the roots up with a shovel and had filled five yard bags with bush parts from all over the backyard.

I had a conversation with a Groves family friend, Joanne, at church on Sunday all about how crazy it is to live with raging hormones. I don't usually deal with such mood swings and extreme indecisiveness in my not-pregnant state, and so I am very aware of how crazy-short my fuse is, and how crazy-unpredictable my actions are in this last month of pregnancy.

Joanne told me there is a reason they call it labor and delivery.

Ah, yes, deliverance. That surely must be Rory's daily prayer: ...and deliver me from this crazy lady. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory...

In the end, we still have the crib I like the best nicely boxed in the nursery. I missed my window to get the thing built on Sunday. But on the other hand, we also have a nicely manicured back yard. Give the boy one more month with me, and we may not have a single bush left back there.

grey or blue?

I have five weeks until my due date and something crazy happened in my head once this countdown began on Monday. Five weeks feels like it might go very quickly. Five weeks makes me feel like we should have a crib set up. Five weeks makes me feel like we should have the nursery windows replaced and the room painted. It feels like if this baby were to arrive sooner than five weeks, this prepared, organized mama would not be ready.

It is amazing how this sort of panic shows itself in a pregnant woman. Every bit of this anxiety seems to come out directly at my husband. And he may or may not find these worries and demands to be naggy, a bit irrational and lacking in patience. But he is kind and loving and, thankfully, has a pretty good sense of humor about my crazy ways.

For example, on Monday, Rory found me in a heap on the couch crying about how I wish I could just do these projects for the nursery on my own. I have a good track record for getting things done: I painted the entire basement by myself. I painted the porch by myself too. But being pregnant, I am just too tired, get overwhelmed so easily and probably shouldn't breathe the paint anyway. But I'm left feeling so unable and I hate that feeling. It makes me grumpy.

When Rory found me on the couch, he laughed and said, "You were so quiet up here, I knew you were either sound asleep or crying sadly to yourself." Which made me cry some more. Sadly. To myself.

But while I was crying, he got up and proceeded to empty the room that is to be the nursery, wipe down the walls, fill the nail holes, tape the windows and then loaded me into the car with him to run to Home Depot to buy the primer and paint. And yesterday his brother Troy came over and they painted the nursery!

Now I don't believe it was my tantrum that got it done. Rory had this one on the calendar, and he knew he would pull it off. I just needed something to worry about, is all. You have no idea how exhausting it is to be this emotional all the time. Because now that it is done, I walk into that room every 20 minutes, tearing up for totally different reasons, dreaming of all the memories that are soon to fill that special space. Rory has taken note of this very manic mood change and I do believe he is just bracing himself for whatever extreme emotion comes next.

We were going for a very, very light, white grey paint color. And the sample really looked like it would be that color. But it is definitely a powder blue in direct sunlight, and a more true baby blue with lamp light on it at night time. But it works. And every time Rory walks into the room he says, "yeah, it's definitely pastel blue. But it's perfect for a baby."

All this to say: 1) the nursery is painted! 2) I'm a crazy lady 3) pray for Rory. He's married to an unpredictable train wreck at the moment. But I'm pretty sure that his pleasant wife is still around here somewhere...she's bound to come back at some point.

breaking a femur

I loved all of the comments and feedback from my post on our first baby class and my realization that birthing this babe is going to hurt quite a bit.

I want to clarify that learning of the pain coming my way is not new news to me. I think we all know horror stories and have a healthy sense of what labor entails whether we've watched a baby be born or not. But something seriously changed for me when our teacher showed a picture of the mama's hips and spine and where they are in relation to the baby when the baby is being born. Suddenly that picture became very personal as I realized, "those will be my hips. and that will be my tailbone." I can't really explain this revelation and how hard it hit me, but somehow all the general talk about labor became very, very specific. Specific to me.

I heard once that the only thing more painful than childbirth is breaking a femur. Which is interesting that they know this...I feel for the woman who has both had children and broken her femur to be able to make the comparison.

But I've been thinking about this comparison lately. Because if this is true, our birthing teacher is basically sitting us in a circle and saying, "ladies, in seven weeks we are going to break your femur. and it will hurt. but there are some breathing techniques we recommend. and fellas, we recommend you play soothing music during the breaking of the femur, and be ready to assist your wife in any way possible to help her through the pain."

There is a knee-jerk reaction in my heart that says, "I don't want you to break my femur!" And I think I was having a similar knee-jerk reaction when I heard the same news about the labor process. Thankfully, the rewards of childbirth are, obviously, a child. And I do want this baby more than anything. I'm just saying, it sounds like it's going to really hurt. And I'm trying my best to deal with that fact.

In other news, my sister is due TOMORROW!!! Break a leg, Annika!

Or just have a baby. I hear it won't hurt as bad.

our first day of school

Rory insisted we take a first day of school picture of me and the baby just before we left for our first night of birthing classes. I thought this was a sweet idea.

We are in a class with six other couples, and we are all having our first baby. It's a really nice group of people with everyone feeling as under prepared for this whole thing as the next person. We have a kick of a teacher who has taught this class for 20 some years, and I am hanging on her every word. There is just so much to absorb and consider.

When we walked to our car tonight I told Rory, "I got the impression in there that this is going to hurt very badly."

I've been getting more and more anxious lately about the birthing part lately and the only mantra that ever comes to my head is, "can't go over it. can't go around it. got to go through it." So, I think we'll go through with it.

the baby room

When Rory and I first started talking about the baby room, I kept envisioning my niece Ruby's room. It is so calm, decorated with white and tans and feels so peaceful. For a long time, I was eager to copy this color pallet for our own simple, calm and soothing baby room.

Then I found a picture of a baby room with powder blue walls and I got excited about adding that color into the mix.

But then I started collecting images from online, gathering together my own crafty things that I'd like to hang in the room and I realized something undeniable. And as I often do when something strikes me as true, I ran into the other room and blurted out to Rory, "I am colorful. I can't help it. I like color, and everything I am picking for this baby room is bright and bold." And Rory confirmed that yes, I am indeed colorful. I mentioned to him that the colors I like are all sort of girly which could be problematic if we have a boy and he said, "yes, but I'm pretty sure the baby won't care one way or the other and as it turns out, the baby's mom is a girl, so I think you can get away with it."

Love that boy.

So, I already posted a picture of the wall hanging from my own baby room 29 years ago, and am really excited to use it in this baby's room. Here's a few other things I have bookmarked and may try to incorporate...

(remember to right click on each link and click 'open in new tab' so you don't have to reopen this webpage every time...)
I really like this white tree decal.
But if we end up going with light, light yellow walls (current game plan) I would love this one.
I love this wall art. And might try my own knock off version.
And plan on creating some sort of clothesline of pictures.
I love this paper butterfly art and can't wait to make my own.
And may make these paper globes to fill up a corner.
I'm hopeful to enlist someone I know to help me make these hanging fabric baskets.

Basically, I am hoping to tie the whole nursery to this favorite quilt of mine and these favorite art projects of mine. Again, I'm colorful. What can I say? My hope is that with white furniture, yellow walls and trying to play up the blue and green, I can get away with a bit of hot pink...

happy labor day

Thankfully, I'm not in labor. But we are celebrating 32 weeks of being pregnant today. I thought this meant I was eight months along, because 32 divided by 4 is 8, but I still have 8 weeks before my due date, and so does that mean I am just 7 months along? This whole month and week thing has me so screwed up.

Regardless of how far along I am, here I am in all my baby-belly glory. That picture I posted yesterday from the fair was miraculous...you could hardly see my tummy. But believe me, it is there. And I am very aware of its presence. I am feeling most pregnant at night, aware of my large belly, aware of my achy hips and very aware of my tinsy tiny bladder.

I am very aware that I am just not super pleasant to be around sometimes. Rory and I were given an acronym when we first got married to use just as you're spouse is about to loose their cool on you. You think in your head, HALT. Is the other person Hungry, Angry, Lonesome or Tired? Honestly, for as cheesy the acronym, it is really, really helpful. Rory has been known to kindly blow off whatever accusation I was throwing at him and say, "hey, let's just get you into bed. You have been working so hard lately." (you'd think I'd blow up at this point, but it is completely effective...) At any rate, I told Rory that he is welcome to add Hormonal to go along with Hungry, and then things should make more sense for him.

My folks are coming over today to cut back every single growing thing planted in our yard. We've got a jungle to work through. Rory's folks were here on Friday and washed all of the windows and helped get boxes unpacked. We are so grateful for everyone's help! We've had visitors every day since we returned and it is the greatest.

Happy Labor Day, everyone. Enjoy your day off!

30 weeks!

Today I am 30 weeks pregnant and I feel like celebrating. Seems like a big milestone, a good landmark-type number and another week closer to baby.

I got to go to a baby shower yesterday for a girl at church and I realized that attending a baby shower when you are pregnant is similar to attending a wedding when you are engaged. I was so excited for every gift she opened, so interested in what was given and what it is used for, so happy for her and her baby girl.

While we were there a church friend started talking about Kelley Ryden. Kelley is a local Omaha photographer who specializes in newborns (thanks Stacy for the link!). Check out the picture above! I don't even get how this is possible...to have newborn arms support a newborn head?!! But apparently lots of babies can do it because she has lots of pictures (AMAZING pictures) on her site. Check out here site here and her blog here. Wowza.

***

Yesterday, Rory and I watched Father of the Bride 2, the one where Annie and her mom are both pregnant. At one point, Steve Martin is having all sorts of flash backs of his little girl throughout the years and realizing that she is now going to have her own little baby. Rory was looking at the screen and remarked, "this could be touching if it wasn't so cheesy." And then he looked over at me, a mess of crocodile tears, falling apart before his very eyes. I felt so busted and we laughed good and hard...and then my laughs turned back into tears. I ended up crying through the rest of the movie with Rory giggling and telling me repeatedly how he loves the pregnant Becca so much.

baby nursery

Rory and I are starting to think through what we want the nursery to look like. This was the wall hanging in my nursery growing up...and I think it was still on my wall well into elementary school. I used to stare at this picture forever, drifting off to sleep or just as I was waking up. There was always something to look at, wonder about and my imagination made up all sorts of stories to go with the different scenes.

7 months and one week

I didn't take a picture last Monday so this is a week off of my seven month picture, but here I am in all my growing glory. The shirt I'm wearing used to be my favorite maternity shirt, but after reviewing this picture I am now aware that my belly has shortened it by many inches and it may need to be retired.

I'm still feeling good. My ankles are enormous which at the moment is more amusing than annoying. Honestly, by the end of the day it is as if someone has poked a straw into my feet and inflated them just to the point of popping. Then I go to bed, and they slowly deflate so that in the morning I have normal feet, but by the next night I wonder if my feet might just fly away. And I have had a really gross cough for over three weeks now. Coughed so hard I bruised a rib or pulled a muscle or something horribly painful. But that's getting better now. Most importantly, my energy is still up and I continue to live in awe of the love we have for this little life inside of me.

My favorite memory from this month was from Mt. Carmel. Rory was holding my belly and the baby extended a foot or something for super prolonged periods of time. This was different from the quick, hard kicks I have been getting lots of lately. This was slow motion and we felt so close to our baby in these moments of contact. We were sitting on the deck at Mount Carmel and I guess I just hope that I never forget the magic we felt, feeling so connected to our little baby; feeling so much like a little family.

baby quilt

*My camp staff surprised me on Sunday morning with this baby quilt. They all pitched their money together and won this beauty for me. When Rory saw it he said, "I never saw that one! If we had seen that one, I would have chosen that one to bid on." So good pick, camp staff. It is the softest fabric in the world and has got us very excited.

*I've gotten some emails lately asking if they missed the post telling what gender our baby is. But you haven't missed the announcement. We're going to be surprised. And we're still really excited this is our choice. Some people are not excited about this choice of ours and it's amusing. The people who are bugged aren't particularly close to us...just people who groan when we tell them we're waiting to find out. Like the inconvenience is on them. Ha! I promise we are not waiting to find out the gender just to annoy people :)

*We made our first trip to Babies R Us last week and were overwhelmed and a bit dazed and confused. Rory consoled himself in a glider rocker most of the time, soothing himself back and forth. I took in some oh-so-normal conversations between husbands and wives where husbands would say things like, "I just don't see why we would spend an extra $150 because you like the headboard on that crib better than this one here that is so much cheaper"

*We have our first Minnesota doctor appointment tomorrow morning. I am eager-beaver to meet our new doctor.

*I had a dream last night that I had my baby and was telling it very matter-of-factly that it wasn't time to come out yet, that we still had 3 months to wait. And the baby (who looked much like a miniature old man) said it just wanted to see who I was. And I told him how excited I was to be his mama and held him for a long, long time and then told him he needed to go back in because the womb was the best place for him to grow strong right now. And then I put him back in the same way he came out.

you've got to try this...

diana's bananas
Here's a new find we discovered at Target: Diana's bananas. When we got in the car we broke open the box and were immediately delighted. I even said, "I'm just going to pretend like this is the food I'm craving during this pregnancy so we can eat these nonstop for the next three months." To which Rory replied that I should just make them on my own...how hard could it be to freeze a chocolate covered banana?

My mind started racing, I told him I would call my version Banana BeccaAnna and we made jokes about Speggy and Meatballs from King of the Hill. I went home and froze some bananas, and the next day melted my chocolate. I learned a lot. Like how a frozen banana will immediately harden your melted chocolate. By the end, I was scooping chunks of partly solidified chocolate onto my bananas. I put them in the freezer, and let's be honest, they didn't look at all like Diana's bananas.

A few nights later I was running around telling Rory I needed to bring something to the women's potluck at our church. He opened the freezer and said, "you could bring these frozen turds."

All this to say, I am going to leave the chocolate-dipped bananas to Diana.

sweet nothings

Had the privilege of drinking this delicious treat at 8:30 yesterday morning. It's like Fanta with five times the sugar and it is gross. At 9:30 the nurse drew my blood to test for gestational diabetes. Thankfully the test came back normal and I'm in the clear.

However, the doctor did note my weight gain. At my last appointment she told me I was a bit behind in gaining weight but now, five weeks later, she told me I had moved to the head of the class and need to start watching this number.

Funny thing is that I really believe my eating has not changed from appointment to appointment. It's just that huge things have happened in the last five weeks, and I have a large, kicking belly to prove it. Even still, I'm a girl, and her comments about weight went straight to the heart. When she left, she closed the door behind her and I bemoaned to Rory that I am gaining too much weight.

Rory looked me square in the eye and spoke without pause: "I'm not worried one bit. To say that you are gaining weight because of your eating is like blaming global warming on human activity." And then he went on to explain how the sun is heating up every planet in our solar system and that pregnancy is causing my weight gain the same way the sun is causing any rise in temperature.

I tell you what. I love Rory with my whole entire heart. I love his logic and his matter-of-fact sensibilities. I've been laughing at this comparison all day long.

the beginnings of the baby book

A while back I got a card in the mail from Rory's mom. She had included all sorts of pictures of Rory when he was a baby and when I looked through them, I could envision similar shots from my family's albums. So this weekend I started to play, scanning all of her pictures and matching them up with pictures from my babyhood.

It's so crazy to be in this place, not knowing who our little life is, but aware that when this baby arrives he or she will come with their own personality, their own temperament, and reflect bits and pieces of Rory and me. There is so much awe and wonder filling our days lately, as we talk excitedly during this season of anticipation.

for such a time as this

I remember when my hips appeared. I was probably 13, and I didn't like them. I thought they made me look fat. And I remember my mom trying to tell me that curves are beautiful and besides, one day I'll have a baby and then I'll be so happy I have hips because it will make delivery that much easier.

I think it is so funny that my mom brought up childbirth as a reason to appreciate them...an event that was still 16 years off in the future for that little 13 year old.

But you know...she was right. I am feeling healthy and strong in this pregnancy, and I suppose I've got my hips and my thighs to thank. And I'm pretty sure I've never thanked my thighs before.

***
Well, this week I am 24 weeks along, which with my own math, since I find months and weeks confusing, I am considering 6 months. A lot happened in the last four weeks. Just look at this picture at 5 months compared to the one above!

At Hyvee on Tuesday the cashier excitedly asked me when I was due, and I was so happy to tell her because she was the very first person who didn't know I was pregnant to inquire about my belly...

We've had some seriously hot days this week in Nebraska, but I'm doing well at staying hydrated, staying inside as much as possible and enjoying so, so much this growing, kicking bump on my belly that seems to stick out a bit more each day.