Monday, January 25, 2010

Full Term - 37 Weeks

Baby Volk is the size of Swiss chard!

Photo courtesy of BabyCenter.com
Read about how baby is developing

A couple things I would like to bring to your attention:

1) Countdown to baby is now in the teens...
2) Baby's weight is approx. 6.9 lbs...
3) Baby's room is not yet organized, but NEEDS to be...
4) The doctor gave us the official "what to do if ____" talk...
5) My to do before baby list is getting shorter...

...and you know what all that means, the end is near (or the beginning depending on how you look at things)...HOLY COW, I can't believe it!

I think the hardest thing right now is not knowing when baby is going to decide to make her debut. It makes planning very difficult! (Go figure you're hearing that from the planning queen). I know everything will be fine, she'll come in God's timing... but I just wish I had a little more insight into when that is going to be. :-)

Here are a couple new photos.

This is Ryan showing off his Dr. Finnegan shirt. (Our baby doctor always wears plaid shirts, so when Ryan ordered this new shirt I got really excited and immediately started calling it his Dr. Finnegan shirt).



Profile Shot, January 25, 2010

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Home Stretch - 36 Weeks

Baby Volk is the size of a crenshaw melon!

Photo courtesy of BabyCenter.com
Read about how the baby is developing

I'm a horrible wife and forgot to mention this in my last post, but Ryan had sinus surgery on January 8. Long story short, he was so blocked up he couldn't breath or smell or anything. When he worked out his lungs would lockup, kind of like an asthma attack. It was horrible and he has been fighting it for several years, so he finally decided that it was time to go in and have the surgery. They basically went in and cleaned everything out, so now he can breath! He feels so much better and I'm so grateful for the wonderful medical team who was able to relieve him of the discomfort that has been bothering him for so long. Now we just need to figure out what caused the blockage so that we can prevent it from coming back.

Thanks to those of you who were praying for us during the surgery. Ryan is doing great and is pretty much back to 100% again... just in time for baby! Now he'll be able to fully embrace the unique baby smells that will be entering our home in a few weeks - the good, the bad and the ugly!

I don't have too much to report on the baby front. We are definitely getting more and more excited and a little nervous about baby's arrival. I can't believe it's less than a month away now. Part of me can't wait, but another part of me is a little sad that the pregnancy is almost over. Don't get me wrong, I'm ready to be able to sleep on my stomach, go on long runs and wear normal clothes again, but being pregnant has been such an amazing experience. There is no way I can compare it to anything else that I've ever experienced before. It just takes my breath away to think about everything that has happened inside my body during the last several months. What an incredible miracle. I'm going to miss feeling her move when we talk to her or read her stories... it's just such a special time.

Here's a few photos of Ryan after his surgery. Isn't he cute?? He's my favorite!


Here's the latest profile shots, I'm definitely getting bigger (I say that every time but it just amazes me that my belly can just keep on stretching)!


Profile shots, January 5, 2010

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Shower - 35 Weeks

Baby Volk is the size of a honeydew melon!

Photo courtsey of BabyCenter.com
Read about how the baby is developing

Only 5 more weeks to go. Isn't that hard to believe? I'm still having trouble getting a handle on the fact that this whole thing is going to be reality soon.

Last weekend I had my baby shower at the Solomon's house. Regina was a fabulous hostess! I had such a good time. We got a lot of awesome gifts. My sister went crazy and got us this huge basket full of baby goodness, including two homemade blankets, homemade stuffed animals, a cute homemade baby sweater and a bunch of other fun items - she is so gosh darn talented! We also got our car seat which is a must have to bring baby home, so that's pretty cool. Thanks to everyone that was able to come and spend the afternoon with me celebrating baby. It was fun to see you all. I'm so blessed to have so many wonderful friends.

Tonight I'm taking a breastfeeding class at the hospital. A few people recommended taking one so I figured what the heck, might as well go learn how to correctly feed this child. After all, if she's anything like her parents she's going to love to eat!

I think that's all I've got for now. As soon as I track down some pictures from the shower I'll post those, but for now it's kind of a boring looking posting. Sorry about that!

Monday, January 4, 2010

The Year of Baby - 34 Weeks

Baby Volk is the size of a cantaloupe!

Photo courtesy of BabyCenter.com
Read about how the baby is developing

Well it's finally here, 2010 - the year of baby! Can you believe it, next month Ryan and I will be parents! I'm so excited.

New Years Eve was really low key this year, but a lot of fun. We spent the evening with Matt and Angela and their friends from Texas. Matt and Angela have a new ping pong table and Ryan bought Tiger Woods Golf for our Wii, so we definitely had plenty of activities to keep us busy. We all made it to midnight which was pretty impressive all things considered (Angela's friend and I are both preggers and Angela has two little ones).

On Saturday, Ryan and I ordered furniture for the baby's room. The store was crazy busy when we were there, so I was a little stressed out when we left, but everything should be ready for us to pickup in 7 to 14 days! (With the exception of the dresser which is currently out of stock so sadly we're going to have the wait a few more days to get it ordered). We also had our carpets cleaned, so we're definitely making progress on getting the house ready for baby.

Annie Walsh, my bestest friend from high school, stopped by on Sunday afternoon to visit and check out all the new baby stuff we've accumulated so far. She lives in Washington D.C. now so we don't get to see her very often. It was great to have a chance to catch up. Annie and her mom got us some of the cutest little baby things—a little newborn outfit and bath stuff—I still can't believe that my child is going to be wearing/using it all soon...crazy.

Fatigue has set in pretty intensely these last few days. Making it through the afternoon at work has proven to be extremely challenging and I can only imagine that it's going to get worse over the next six weeks. I'm really looking forward to handing off my work responsibilities and starting the process of transitioning out of the company. It's definitely good timing.

That's all I've got for now. Here are some photos:

Me and Annie

Annie feeling baby move

Ryan demonstrating baby's position (nerd!)