Cousins: Bella and Chase laying on the floor with their blankets
One cool dude with Daddy's hat and sunglasses on
Daddy and Chase taking goofy pictures with Tim's camera phone
Our "Happy Feet"
Sporting my 33-week baby bump with a heart around it...we love you, Gabe!As I type this blog entry, I have just 7 weeks to go before the due date. Some of you may think that I look like I’m about to pop now and that 7 weeks seems like a long way off; but for me, time is undoubtedly ticking and Gabriel is growing at a healthy and normal rate. He’s approximately 4 pounds right now and I’m anxious to see how big he’ll be when he arrives. Chase was a whopping 8 pounds, 1 oz, so I wonder if Gabe will be even bigger. I sure feel bigger with this pregnancy than I did with Chase, but part of that may be due to fluid retention (I’m sure it has nothing to do with the milkshake fetish I’ve had since the 2nd trimester, ha, ha). I’m not swelling to the point where I need compression pantyhose (ooh, la, la!), but I’m definitely noticing a little more swelling in my ankles and fingers with this pregnancy than I did with Chase; some days I hardly swell at all whereas my ankles disappear on other days. I was fortunate to only gain 25 pounds with Chase, and I’m already at that gain now with Gabriel, so I’m guessing I’ll easily reach a 30-35 pound weight gain overall—but, that’s ok and still in normal limits! The doctors and nurse practitioners at Peninsula Women’s Care haven’t barked at me at all over weight with the exception of one visit after Thanksgiving (but, that’s not fair, because we all tend to gain weight over Thanksgiving). The important thing is that I’m still healthy and so is Gabriel. I’m not on bed rest and still able to go about life as normal, with the exception of having a rough time shaving, painting my toenails (yay for pedicures at the salon!), being comfortable while sleeping (although I still manage to get in about 7 hours of snooze time on most nights) and putting on my socks and shoes. Blood pressure is great, fetal heartbeat is strong, and no other issues as of now that are of any concern. Fetal movement has reached its peak even though it seemed like it got off to a slow start. I remember feeling Chase at the very beginning of the 2nd trimester and I didn’t really start feeling Gabriel until towards the end of the 2nd trimester—just goes to show every pregnancy and every baby is so different.
Tim and I took a hospital tour at Mary Immaculate on 2/23. Most of the tour consisted of the nurse/tourguide going into great detail about the delivery process itself (which we didn’t need to know since we’ve been there and done that before), but it was nice to see the hospital. The labor and delivery rooms are much smaller than those at Riverside, but all that matters is that the staff and facility get the job done so that we have a healthy baby to bring home in the end. So, we’re pre-registered and ready to go whenever the big day comes!
As for Chase, he hasn’t been all that curious about my growing belly, but I make it a point to tell him quite frequently that he’s going to be a big brother and there’s a baby growing inside of my belly. Chase is in the process of getting a “new room,” so Tim and me are also trying to emphasize that he’ll have a cool new room to sleep in soon. Tim’s Mom is painting a mural in the front bedroom that will soon be Chase’s; we’re reusing Chase’s current room for Gabriel since it’s already a complete nursery and we’re “graduating” Chase into another bedroom with bunk-beds. As with the rest of the house, we’re still sticking to a nautical theme. Chase’s current room is an “under the sea” theme, and his new room will be more of a beach theme with some sand, the ocean, a sunset, and a pier with a boat tied to it. It looks very cool so far—as always, Grammie Pam does a great job displaying her artistic talents!
What else is going on with Chase? He’s 32 pounds and just over 3 feet tall. He’s been healthy with the exception of some minor allergy and acid reflux issues. Potty training is still far from being mastered, but we’re still working at it. I’ve accepted the fact that it probably won’t happen until this summer when I can strip him down to “big boy underwear” in warmer weather. One thing’s for sure, he’s a smart kid, just stubborn with certain things and potty training is one of them. I will say he’s getting plenty of interaction with other kids through going to church 2-3 days out of the week and hanging out with his cousin Bella—hopefully interaction with other children will help spur him to learn new things and conquer more milestones. He’s also learning to self-entertain, which is wonderful given the fact that Gabe is on the way and our attention will be spread out more in the future. Overall, he’s still our “Happy Feet;” he’s got quite a sense of humor for not even being 3 years old yet and there’s not a day that goes by that he doesn’t make me laugh.
Now that the weather is warming up and the days are getting longer, we’re enjoying playing outside more often. I’m making an adamant effort to walk more to keep healthy. Chase loves riding his John Deere Gater around the yard and he even got to ride with Tim on the John Deere lawn mower for the first time this season a few days ago. I always get showered with dandelions from Chase when he’s outside—what a sweet boy; he knows how to win over a girl’s heart!
In conclusion, life is busy, tiring, and stressful at times, but God has been good to my family and I feel blessed as I type this update. My gut instinct tells me Gabe will come before his due date since all ultrasounds have indicated a late April due date rather than May 2nd (May 2nd is based on counting from the first day of my last period). I’m not sure how many more (if any) blog updates I’ll get in before Gabe’s arrival, but Tim and I will surely keep everyone in the loop through Facebook, email, phone calls, and pictures. We have a few key events to look forward to in the meantime. One is a family (co-ed) baby shower/luncheon my sister and awesome friend Liz are throwing me at the County Grill in York County on March 31st. I requested not to have a traditional baby shower this time around since I’m having another baby boy and able to reuse most of Chase’s baby items, so this is more of just a family celebration, but I’m so looking forward to it! The next key event is Chase’s 3rd birthday party at Chuck-E-Cheese’s on April 14th. Again, this is just a family affair since I wanted to keep things simple since that will be so close to the due date. And, in the meantime, I’m still working full time and trying to cram as much “nesting” in on the weekends as possible. Things are coming together slowly, but surely—one thing I’ve learned since being a mom is that life doesn’t always go as planned and life will still go on non-catastrophically if things aren’t perfectly in order. God has taught me to focus on one day at a time—so, thanks for sharing this journey with me as we make it through one day at a time.
Tim and I took a hospital tour at Mary Immaculate on 2/23. Most of the tour consisted of the nurse/tourguide going into great detail about the delivery process itself (which we didn’t need to know since we’ve been there and done that before), but it was nice to see the hospital. The labor and delivery rooms are much smaller than those at Riverside, but all that matters is that the staff and facility get the job done so that we have a healthy baby to bring home in the end. So, we’re pre-registered and ready to go whenever the big day comes!
As for Chase, he hasn’t been all that curious about my growing belly, but I make it a point to tell him quite frequently that he’s going to be a big brother and there’s a baby growing inside of my belly. Chase is in the process of getting a “new room,” so Tim and me are also trying to emphasize that he’ll have a cool new room to sleep in soon. Tim’s Mom is painting a mural in the front bedroom that will soon be Chase’s; we’re reusing Chase’s current room for Gabriel since it’s already a complete nursery and we’re “graduating” Chase into another bedroom with bunk-beds. As with the rest of the house, we’re still sticking to a nautical theme. Chase’s current room is an “under the sea” theme, and his new room will be more of a beach theme with some sand, the ocean, a sunset, and a pier with a boat tied to it. It looks very cool so far—as always, Grammie Pam does a great job displaying her artistic talents!
What else is going on with Chase? He’s 32 pounds and just over 3 feet tall. He’s been healthy with the exception of some minor allergy and acid reflux issues. Potty training is still far from being mastered, but we’re still working at it. I’ve accepted the fact that it probably won’t happen until this summer when I can strip him down to “big boy underwear” in warmer weather. One thing’s for sure, he’s a smart kid, just stubborn with certain things and potty training is one of them. I will say he’s getting plenty of interaction with other kids through going to church 2-3 days out of the week and hanging out with his cousin Bella—hopefully interaction with other children will help spur him to learn new things and conquer more milestones. He’s also learning to self-entertain, which is wonderful given the fact that Gabe is on the way and our attention will be spread out more in the future. Overall, he’s still our “Happy Feet;” he’s got quite a sense of humor for not even being 3 years old yet and there’s not a day that goes by that he doesn’t make me laugh.
Now that the weather is warming up and the days are getting longer, we’re enjoying playing outside more often. I’m making an adamant effort to walk more to keep healthy. Chase loves riding his John Deere Gater around the yard and he even got to ride with Tim on the John Deere lawn mower for the first time this season a few days ago. I always get showered with dandelions from Chase when he’s outside—what a sweet boy; he knows how to win over a girl’s heart!
In conclusion, life is busy, tiring, and stressful at times, but God has been good to my family and I feel blessed as I type this update. My gut instinct tells me Gabe will come before his due date since all ultrasounds have indicated a late April due date rather than May 2nd (May 2nd is based on counting from the first day of my last period). I’m not sure how many more (if any) blog updates I’ll get in before Gabe’s arrival, but Tim and I will surely keep everyone in the loop through Facebook, email, phone calls, and pictures. We have a few key events to look forward to in the meantime. One is a family (co-ed) baby shower/luncheon my sister and awesome friend Liz are throwing me at the County Grill in York County on March 31st. I requested not to have a traditional baby shower this time around since I’m having another baby boy and able to reuse most of Chase’s baby items, so this is more of just a family celebration, but I’m so looking forward to it! The next key event is Chase’s 3rd birthday party at Chuck-E-Cheese’s on April 14th. Again, this is just a family affair since I wanted to keep things simple since that will be so close to the due date. And, in the meantime, I’m still working full time and trying to cram as much “nesting” in on the weekends as possible. Things are coming together slowly, but surely—one thing I’ve learned since being a mom is that life doesn’t always go as planned and life will still go on non-catastrophically if things aren’t perfectly in order. God has taught me to focus on one day at a time—so, thanks for sharing this journey with me as we make it through one day at a time.
