34 weeks + 5 days

We're still here!  We're still pregnant!  Feeling very pregnant, in fact.  But very good.  I have had some aches & pains in my hips, and getting up off the couch or out of bed is getting a little more challenging every day, but if those are my only complaints, I'm doing great!!

We've had a busy summer - getting the nursery ready and trying to get the house more organized in between a few camping trips and some lazy days.  I'm happy with how the nursery has come together!!  In fact, I made it to a point where I was a little sad that I was mostly done with it!  That feeling was quickly replaced by the excitement we feel while new items come in to fill the space!

The registry gifts have been coming in lately.  We have amazingly generous people in our lives!!  We had a shower by my coworkers earlier this week, and we have our shower with friends & family tomorrow!  Yikes!  Now, things are going very fast!

So, I'll try to do at least one more post before the baby is here.  We just got new phones, so we'll have to practice taking pictures with them, right?

We send our love and hope all is well out there...

25 weeks + 3 days

Greetings from Sweltering Sacramento!  I am definitely feeling the heat this summer, but it's not as bad as you might think.  I've been taking it easy and keeping the A/C on.  It cooled down enough last night to be able to take the dogs to the dog park.  (They were getting cabin fever with the rain last week and now the extreme heat this week.)

Camping the weekend before last was fun.  It was rather chilly and drizzly for a few of the days, but the rain held off until the day we were leaving.  We weren't packing our tent up in the mud, thank goodness, but we did have to unpack it and dry it out when we got back.  Since we have another camping trip planned for the first week of August, I went online and made a few purchases to make it more comfortable for me.  I got a better folding lounge chair that is way easier to get in and out of, and folding platform to put the airbed on so it will be easier for me to get up from bed-height than getting up from the bed laying on the floor.  That was a challenge in the middle of the night!  I think we're ready for the next trip!  But, my brother Sterling is coming with his family in their RV, to which I will have bathroom privileges.  That'll help in the middle of the night, too!

We've made some updates in the nursery.  I painted a little end table Jerry has had as a hand-me-down since who knows how long ago.  I sanded it long ago, but painting it was always such a daunting task because it is relatively ornate, with lots of nooks & crannies.  It was definitely a labor of love, but boy does it look good now!  Last night, I made a craigslist purchase for a lovely glider & ottoman.  It's very comfortable and exactly what we were hoping for... for about a quarter of the price since it was used!!  I'm quite pleased with this new corner of the nursery:

 

I'm going to tackle putting the willow branch decals on the wall this coming weekend.  It's another daunting task, but I think I have it under control.  I'll get Jerry's help, too.  I'll be sure to post pics next week!

 

The baby has been moving around so much!  The other day, I was laying on my side, and she must have done a jumping somersault!  I felt her landing!   It's getting a little more uncomfortable for me to sleep, but it's working out.  Jerry is taking up less and less of his side of the bed as the baby and I invade.

All is very well in the Bennett Nest!  We send our love!

23 weeks + 3 days

This is where to ride starts to go really fast!  We have been working away at a few different projects.  We got a great long shelf as a hand-me-down from Jerry's brother Nick.  I painted it white and found some brackets for it and put it up in the nursery.  We also found some shallow shelves that are sold as "picture rails" that will act as the baby's library shelves - where the books face out and she can see the fronts of them.  (We realize there will be a rotation, of course.)  Here is a picture of my handiwork:

 

The other exciting idea is for the wall above the crib.  I got some wall decals that look like willow branches and I plan to hang them from the top of the wall.  I can then hang the moon-shaped wall light underneath the branches and paint stars on the wall around it.  The whole idea is to make it look like we're sitting under a willow tree at twilight.  Here's a picture of the decals I ordered:

I might get crazy and paint some clouds on the wall to look like they're in the distance, or some rocks and toadstools along the bottom of the wall...  if I can work up the nerve!  The whole plan for that wall has been shaped around the fact that I don't want to hang anything on the wall over the crib just in case it could fall onto the baby (even if I do have great faith in my picture-hanging skills).

Here is the glider we're hoping for:

The other big undertaking has been our gift registries.  It is difficult to put it together knowing that we are, in essence, "asking" for gifts.  So presumptuous!  And uncouth!  But, I know as a gift-giver it is helpful to have a guide, so we've got a good list of stuff going...  And, Jerry loves using that laser gun, zapping the labels at the store!  We have 2 registries.  We're going with our favorites:  Target and Amazon.  Hopefully, we have a good variety of stuff between the two.  Here are the links to the registries if you'd like to take a peek and share your input.  We're only acting like we know what we're doing!:

Baby Bennett’s Target Registry

Baby Bennett’s Amazon Registry

The baby is moving around quite a bit these days.  It's a beautiful feeling knowing she's in there!

We're going on a camping trip this weekend with a great group of friends.  We have group meals planned and some serious time in the river.  It's on the Russian River between Sacramento and the coast, so the climate is pretty mild and the trees thick.  We've been looking forward to it for a long time now!  We'll see how I manage as a Happy (pregnant) Camper.  We're bringing our big tent that is tall enough to stand up in.  That is a bare minimum to keep me happy.

We send our love!

 

(Belated Ultrasound Pics)

These are from the appointment on 5/28/13.  (At 20 weeks + 1 day)

(Yes, so cute already.)

 

 

 

 

22 weeks + 1 day: Announcing Our Little Girl!

We had a fantastic Baby Bennett Gender Reveal Party this past Sunday!  We had a really great time and it was all just what we had pictured. (Jerry's mom  Rhonda came and was a party project powerhouse!  Very many thanks to her!  Thank you, Gramma Rhonda!  It would not have been the same party without your help and we appreciate it so much.)  We had a great turnout.  Lots of friends came to celebrate with us and some seemed just as excited as we were!

A friend of mine from work brought his fancy camera and took lots of beautiful pictures.  He captured the moments perfectly:

Rhonda made a cute little baby/fruit bassinette...

We had a collection of Jerry's and Rhonda's baby clothes on display...

I made a few banners with the ultrasound pictures we've collected so far...

The cake was as delicious as it was pretty.  This was our design, but the cake was ordered as a gift from one of Jerry's clients, Eva.  You can imagine how grateful we are...  How generous!

We had our party guests bet on whether they thought we would be having a boy or a girl, and then indicate which one by wearing either a red felt mustache or a pink ribbon.  Mustaches seemed to be the majority at cake-cutting time...

 

  In this picture, you can also see the shoes Jerry wore as a baby, and the blankets that were made for me as a baby.  The tablecloth is the quilt my mom made for me.  It's still getting use to this day!

Of course, little Tippy was enjoying the party.

(Her original bet was for a boy, hence the collar mustache.)...

 

As always, Vesper was our loyal party monitor, she inspected every square inch of yard for dropped morsels. (Her bet all along was for a girl.  She looks so pretty in pink.)...

Our yard was full of wonderful people waiting to watch us cut the cake!

 

This part was so much fun.  The suspense was killing everyone!

 

We were obviously pleased with the result!

 

Proud Daddy - he is going to get used to pink.

 

Our sweet little baby...  is a GIRL!  How lovely...

20 weeks + 1 day

We just had our ultrasound appointment where they found out our baby's gender!  (I'll post a few pictures later - we didn't get them electronically this time.)  We're told the baby is in the 70th percentile with it's measurements, weighing approximately 13 ounces.  We have the envelope with the results in it!  I'm not sure we can be trusted!  (I just sent Jerry home with it!)  :-)  It's very exciting.  We just have to wait until not this Sunday, but the next!  Ugh!

We spent a really nice visit with my family over Memorial Day weekend.  It was so much fun!  I'm so excited to bring our baby into our family.  My nephew, Hunter, is feeling pretty outnumbered by his sister and 3 girl cousins on his mom's side of the family, so he's hoping for us to have a boy...  Lots of other people think it's a girl.  We should start taking bets.  The reveal party plans are getting very interesting!

As for the overall health of the baby, confirmed by a blood test combined with today's ultrasound, we were told we have the same chances of a normal, healthy baby as someone who is a 22-year-old mother...  So I'm taking that as a compliment!  It's a relief and a blessing for us.

I'll add a few ultrasound pics when I have a chance!

Hugs all around...

18 weeks + 5 days

Not much to report right now.  We had a doctor's appointment on Tuesday this week - just a check-in.  No sonogram this time, but they did have a hand-held ultrasound to find the baby's heartbeat, which we're told is at a rate of 155bpm, which is good and healthy!  I told the doctor I feel great and it's unnerving not really feeling pregnant yet.  Apparently, I'm starting to show quite a bit, but the only way I really feel it is in the way my clothes fit.  I've moved into some maternity clothes that are much more comfortable.  The doctor told me I'm in the most comfortable phase of pregnancy - the 2nd trimester - where you don't really feel sick like the 1st trimester (which I was lucky enough to not experience), and feeling uncomfortable because of size in the 3rd trimester.  I will enjoy it while it lasts!

The next thing we have to look forward to is feeling the baby's movement.  I haven't noticed it yet.  I guess there is still enough room in there for me to not notice the summersaults the baby's already been doing!  I'm told it's around week 20 that you start to feel it.  I'm scared and curious all at once!

We'll have a special ultrasound done on May 28th.  That's when we'll get the sex of the baby (but not told!) so we can have our reveal cake made for a BBQ Reveal Party we're planning for June 9th, so stay tuned!  We'll have another series of ultrasound pictures to share after that appointment.  I'll be sure to post them as soon as I can!

We've been out stroller shopping...  I think we've narrowed it down to a decision finally!  After we learn the sex of the baby, we can start registering!  It's getting very exciting!

Love to All...