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...

17 weeks + 1 day

Well, Jerry passed his exam!  My husband and baby's daddy is now officially a Physical Therapist!  It's amazing to think of how this will change our lives!  Now comes the job-hunting process...  and paychecks!!

We decided on a crib!  There are a lot of them out there, but we found a good one.  Jerry's mom and Jim ordered the crib and a matching changing table/cabinet as a wonderfully generous gift.  It all arrived last week and I came home that night to find Jerry putting it together in the nursery.  It was a sweet moment.  Now that it's all put together, we realize how big the crib is!  (And how small the room is!)  I didn't realize cribs were so big!!  So, now we have to get clever with the furniture layout.

Last weekend, before the new furniture arrive, my wonderful friend Monda came over to help me get that room cleared out.  Being the empty room of the house for a while, it had soon become the parking lot for all of the stuff awaiting projects going on in other areas of the house.  She really helped me!!  We moved old furniture into the garage, moved the various project materials to the appropriate areas of the house, and finally found the floor in that room!  Thank you, Monda!!!  Now, I'm ready to putty some holes in the walls and touch up the room for some nursery decor!

The decor is going to be moon & stars.  It's a nice, gender-neutral theme with lots of fun potential!  I foresee a lot of yellows and whites and blues.  The walls are already a dusky twighlight blue color, so we'll just be using that as our base.

We'll be finding out the sex of the baby at the end of May.  Actually, that's when the appointment will be.  The plan is to have a "gender reveal party" in the first part of June so we can share the nice surprise with our loved ones.  The concept:  have the tech/doctor conducting the ultrasound not tell us while we're there, but put the result in an envelope.  We'll take the envelope to a baker and tell them that if what's in the envelope says girl, make a pink cake.  If it's a boy, a blue cake.  Then, frost it so we won't know until we cut the cake!  It should be fun for all of us!  We're too practical to wait until the baby is born to find out, but we figure this is a fun way to still be surprised ahead of time.

So, if you're not able to come to the party, we'll be sure to post a pic of our "cake color" for you to share in the celebration!

I send my love!

15 weeks + 3 days: To My Baby's Daddy

Jerry takes his licensing exam next Tuesday!

We're both nervous, but I think it's just because it's the culmination of what we've been working towards for almost 3 years!  He's been studying really hard - to the point that I'm amazed his eyes haven't fallen out of his head...  And he's taken some practice exams with good results.  He's pushing himself through this last week before his exam, and I've been doing my best to not be a distraction or a time-thief.  He's still been taking care of me and the house...  so...

My husband really CAN do it all and I admire him for all he does.  He's going to be such a wonderful daddy.

Send your good thoughts and prayers his way to get through this final push before his test.  We're almost to our goal!  (This is the home-stretch of the home-stretch of the home-stretch.)

Otherwise, all is very good.  I've been taking the dogs out to the levee several times a week for our 3-mile walk.  The weather is absolutely beautiful!  The walk is one of my favorite things to do and I spend a lot of time out there meditating on what the next phase or our lives has in store for us.  I am feeling a little overwhelmed by what needs to take place in our house (physically) to get ready, but I feel very content and at peace with what's going on inside me and with what Jerry and I are sharing.  I really could not ask for more or better.

14 weeks + 0 days

We're back to the real world after our lovely vacation!  It was a very beautiful, serene, rejuvenating trip with lots to explore and experience.  It took a little while for me to get over the expectations that were unfairly set by my visits to Hawaii.  The country of Costa Rica is much more rugged and raw; and the area we visited is the "dry" area of the country, so it was not as lush as you would think.  Once we got to the beach, it was just gorgeous!!  We stayed at Playa Samara, which was touristy in spots, but much more low-key and easy-going than a few other beach areas we visited.  The restaurants were awesome and the view was always a treat.  Our favorite spots were on the beach with the tables in the sand.  People/horse/dog/hermit crab/surfer-watching was always a fun passtime anywhere we went.  (There were horses roaming around the grounds of the resort where we stayed.  It was always so beautiful!  And the cause for that song "Wild Horses" to be stuck in my head the whole trip!)

 

 

 

 

As you would expect, the weather was beautiful every single day... if hot and humid.  We were able to retreat to our villa and had the AC cranked for a break from the heat outside when it got to be too much.  (A dip in the ocean or pool was always a lovely option, too.)

 

 

 

We each got a touch of a headcold while we were there. (Actually, I sill don't know if what I had was a mild headcold, or severe allergies.) During the worst of my allergycold, we took a road trip to Mt. Arenal volcano (by way of a trip around Lake Arenal). It was a very long drive and we were a little overly-optimistic about the estimates of time. Jerry did his ziplining adventure at the trip's destination, and it was probably the best place for that, so I'm glad we made the trip... But boy we were ready to be back to our place at the end of that long day!!

 

A few days after that trip, we dared to take another little drive to a place called El Viejo Wetlands.  It was a much shorter trip and much more fruitful in terms of the wildlife we were able to see.  Part of the visit was a boat tour, so we saw crocodiles, monkeys, all kinds of birds and lizards...  and I'll mention iguanas separately because they were so abundant!!

 

 

 

 

 

We enjoyed the food anywhere we tried it.  The fruit was delicious, and the produce I bought at the market was amazing.  I supposed it's growing season year-round there, so the fruit is always fresh!

 

I was very grateful during the whole trip that I haven't been sick with the pregnancy.  I told Jerry that if I had been, the trip would probably be remembered quite differently!  I'm glad we were able to enjoy the trip without that concern - and it seems like the baby enjoyed the trip as well!

 

So, we're back safe and sound.  Everything is good!  We send our love!

12 weeks + 3 days

Today, I bring great news and more pictures!!  We had our first trimester screening done with what they call the NT ultrasound.  It measures the fluid in the baby's spine & looks very closely at all of the organs.  Everything looked very good and the baby has grown very big!  It measures a week taller/longer than the statistics say it should be, so we might have a big one on our hands!  (Considering the genes in my family, I'm really not surprised!)

(Don't worry if you can't make heads or tails (or butts) of the pictures. We're just excited to see there is a quickly growing baby in there. It was so cute seeing it move around with it's hands and feet.  We're in love!)

We are off to Costa Rica tonight!!  We're actually in the airport as I write this!  We are relieved to be in through our 1st trimester and happily into the 2nd.  We figure a vacation in paradise will suit the celebration quite nicely!

We send our love!

 

 

 

11 weeks + 0 days

I just wanted to check in.  No news is good news, but I wanted to be sure to let everyone know that!  I'm feeling really good.  Haven't been sick.  I know I'm very lucky for that!

We've been overwhelmed by the statistical information we're dealing with.  Because I'm turning 35 during my pregnancy, we are now in a general category considered "at risk".  It's frustrating and irritating, but we're trying to keep perspective.  The statistics, after all, take the entire world into account, regardless of family history, personal health, etc.  I know that Jerry and I have many big, healthy branches on our beautiful family trees.  We're trying to remember that when we're battered by the statistics, about which we understand the medical industry is legally obligated to inform us.  So - with all of that in perspective, we're feeling really great!

Last week, I learned that the baby is now officially considered a "fetus".  It has now developed all of it's organs and from now on, will just continue to grow!  It's so amazing what our bodies are capable of doing!

We're off to our Costa Rica vacation next week!  We'll be sure to take lots of pictures and update you as we can.  (Don't worry, our doctor said the trip is a great idea!  I just have to be sure to move around on the plane and drink safe water.)  It is going to be a well-timed beautiful getaway before the next phase of our lives starts!  (Quite the birthday celebration, I must say!  But, this will be the last birthday before I'm a Mom...  Yikes!)

We have a wonderful village of people looking after us.  We love you all very dearly and are excited to share our little one with all of you.  We are very blessed and are so grateful to have you in our lives.

9 weeks + 0 days

Well, this is a fun update!!  We bought ourselves a new car this weekend!  Well, new to us.  It's a 2011 Toyota with only 7000 miles on it!  We've been going back & forth on ideas for how to replace Jerry's truck, which was starting to act up pretty dramatically in the past few months.  We honestly didn't want to travel together in it in case it broke down and needed rescue!  So, this weekend we found what seemed like a deal we couldn't refuse.  It was at Carmax, where I've been checking their website and keeping an eye on price range for what we were interested in.  We wanted a 4Runner, but we didn't want the car payment it would have required...  And a smaller wagon like mine just doesn't have enough space.  (On a camping trip last year, with just the two of us and our dog, Vesper, my little wagon was so packed we had to use the roof rack for some of the cargo!  Imagine how much more space we'll need when we add a baby, baby stuff, and our new puppy!)
So - a minivan it is.  But I've always told Jerry that if I had to drive a minivan, it would have to be cool.  And, that is what we found.  A cool (very cool) minivan with great mileage, quality, and bells & whistles.  I'm more than happy to drive it!

I have been saying I married a great man, who traded his truck in for a minivan.  I'm very grateful!  He's going to be such a good daddy!  He looks pretty good driving it, too!

I've attached some pics to show it off.  Watch for us cruising comfortably to a town near you!