35 1/2 weeks

yep...that's right! can't hardly believe it myself. the crazy thing is that according to our ultrasounds, cooper is due one month from today!
last week was a little rough. for the first time in 8 1/2 months, i was ready to be done. these last couple of days have been better though. let me just fill you in on a few crazy things:
* forget about sleeping through the night. in fact, forget about sleeping for more than a 3 hour stretch! i am so happy when i get up to rotate and it's been more than an hour!
* you think that you pee a lot early on...hah! that's nothing compared to what your bladder starts going through this late. i think he might be using mine as a punching bag.
* i've gotten VERY familiar with every public restroom in every store in what seems like the entire sacramento area.
* you can no longer be picky when selecting a restroom or you will have a mess to clean up...not a pretty sight!
* if you were regular before pregnancy and had no idea what it felt like to not go to the bathroom for numerous days on end...get pregnant. you will learn that you had it so good at one time (and you will wonder if it will ever go back to normal).
* to find yourself crying because your husband asks you a perfectly normal question, but you don't like the tone of his voice...normal! scary, but normal.
* up until this last month, i was doing pretty well with the number of pillows that i slept with. not anymore...there are now 4 on my side. 3 to prop me up and keep me on my side and one between my legs. i can't tell you how glad i am that we got a california king bed...there would have been no room for gabe!
* i thought i was tired in the first trimester; well that is nothing compared to what i feel now (and i am sure, what i will feel in the near future).
* i officially have a difficult time standing up and putting pants on. and i am not sure that i could put tennis shoes on. i think gabe would have to tie them for me ;)
all of these things and i wouldn't trade it for the world! it is a pretty amazing experience to grow a person. and i really have been pretty lucky.

the peanut shell

so, this contraption is called the peanut shell. i got it at my shower and am really excited to use it. it should come in handy when i need both hands and still have him close to me. so, coco and i decided to try it out while i was doing laundry one night. as you can see...she loved it!

32 weeks & a baby shower to boot!

i had my first baby shower on the 24th of august and it was great! my sister and denise threw it for me and it was beautiful. so many cute decorations and clever baby games...and great food! i had a great time and got so much great stuff! who knew you needed all of this for one little tiny person. it was so exciting to take it all home and start putting it away. he will be all ready when he decides to head south and make his appearance into the world.

i will post more pics of the event when i get them off of my sisters camera.

Dairy Queen Madness

one of my first real cravings hit a couple of weeks ago...a dairy queen blizzard. and for those of you who know me, this is pretty big. i don't like ice cream and not a big fan of chocolate, but this particular night i had to have a butterfinger blizzard. we were over at the leonelli's and she usually has some sort of candy around and was hoping that was going to satisfy the craving. however, she didn't have any, so i made the suggestion we find the closest dairy queen. thankfully, she was in and of we went. little did we realize, until we were there, that this was a pretty stereotypical scene...2 pregnant ladies in line at the d.q. and it's not like this was a drive thru...it was an old drive in style. so, we had a cute little man take a picture of us! and the blizzard was worth the drive and the comments from the crowd.

what the...

can we talk about how scary labor and delivery classes are! what the hell....

i mean, i really did know what i was getting myself into; i watched my best friend deliver her beautiful daughter. these people just want to scare the crap out of you. it's not like this is high school health class anymore...we aren't trying to discourage pregnancy at this point...we're a little past that. shouldn't we be trying to reassure the mother that yes, she can get through this and you will want to do it again, most likely. nope, not in this class. we are seeing mutant babies being born, watching women deliver at home(who the hell does that anyway), and letting you know anything and everything that could possibly go wrong! maybe i'm just a little extra sensitive to these things right now, since there really isn't that much time left in this pregnancy.

gabe and i just had our second class last night, so it is all a little fresh in the memory. the lady that teaches it is nice enough, a little long winded and looses her train of thought pretty easily, but nice. and i understand that you can't sugar-coat this, but just give me the real version. i'm not looking for the story of the lady that coughed and had her baby, but i am also not looking to hear about the lady that was in labor for 36 hours and her husband stopped talking to her towards the end, or the woman that delivers her own baby in the living room of her home. i want the drugs, just show me the video of the ladies that are doing this in the same fashion that i would like, and then we can talk.

gabe, on the other hand doesn't seem to be worried about the labor so much (why would he be), but more of how the process goes. he wants the video on what to do when the water breaks or i tell him it's time to go. he wants to see where exactly he goes when we get to the hospital, who we talk to, how long it takes to check in, how long before i get some pain relief and become nice again ;) so, i guess between the two of us, we have all of the worrying down that we will ever need.

i'll let you know how next week goes.

30 down, 10 to go!

gabe's uncle mike and aunt michele's houseboat
this is what 30 weeks looks like!
enjoying the last of our freedom...
with our great hosts!

gabe and i took off last weekend after i got off work and trekked it up to bullards bar for a bit of sun and water. we also figured it was a short trip and it would probably be the last time that i would want to spend the night somewhere else before cooper's arrival. mike and michele were gracious enough to invite us a while ago and we are so glad that we got to get out of town, even if it was for only one night.

oops!

sorry everyone! i have been a total slacker and have some catching up to do.
since posting last i will try and update you week by week.
silver lake was the first mini trip that we took on july 26 &27th. for those of you that don't know, silver lake is up on the back side of kirkwood ski resort by tahoe. gabe's family has a cabin up there that they have been going to forever! thinking about it this year, it was my 9th year up there! the last seven in a row. it's very relaxing and calming and you literally are removed from everything. no cell service, no tv, no electricity in fact. lots of time on the rocks by the lake, games in the cabin and swinging in the hammock out back. it was a very quick trip for us this year, but always enjoyable!

us with grandma karen and grandpa tim on their 28th anniversary.

earlier that week was busy for us as well. it was karen's birthday on the 21st and alexi's on the 22nd. alexi turned 15, which as most of you know was the age that i was when she was born. so, i feel a little old! very strange to think that she could possibly be driving in a year!

one more exciting thing to share. my boss, barb, and her husband left for china sometime around there to pick up their little girl that they have been waiting to adopt for 2 years! you can all check out their exciting adventures at journeytomilly.com

they have since come home and have a beautiful little one! such a personality.