33 Weeks

What a great weekend. My parents came in town on Friday evening to spend a few days with us. We played cribbage, watched movies, ate good food and just enjoyed being together. It was really great to see them.

On Saturday, the ladies at church threw me a baby shower. It was wonderful and we were so blessed. I'm really glad my mom was here to share that with me. I think our little boy will be the best looking kid in town with all the cute outfits we received. Then afterward, mom and I washed all the clothes and started to organize the nursery. It's starting to look more put together and I actually enjoy spending time in there. It's not finished yet, but I feel good about the progress we made. We have all the furniture we need except a crib, which I'm anxious to buy since we received the cutest bedding at the shower. I can't wait to set it all up.

As Chris and I are going through our prenatal class, we're starting to think more about the labor and delivery of this little boy. We're sifting through all of our options and trying to put together a birth plan. There is so much to having a baby! I never would have guessed. All I can say is that I'm so glad for our team of midwives at the hospital. (I say "team" because my particular midwife is due with a baby in just a few weeks, and most likely will not be around for the birth of ours. So we're seeing the other two ladies she practices with as well.) They all have very similar beliefs and philosophies as us so I know we won't have to fight for many things. That reduces a lot of stress right there. Each day I grow more and more anxious to meet our precious baby boy. I can't wait to meet him.

32 weeks

Well, I definitely starting feeling the joys of the 3rd trimester this week. For about 3 days straight, the baby took up residence in my ribs. Every way I sat at my desk was uncomfortable with little (or perhaps not so little) feet jabbed up in my ribs all day long. (sigh) He's getting so much bigger and running out of room. It may be an interesting 8 weeks to come.

I also discovered today that the small rhythmic movements I've been feeling in my tummy is the baby with hiccups. I guess I never thought about it, but I just read that lots of baby's have hiccups. And here I thought he had a future as a drummer, with that steady rhythm and all.

This weekend I'm hoping to get the baby's room a little more set up. The last several weeks have been consumed by getting the daycare ready at church, so the room organizing has been put on hold. But seeing as that project is mostly completed, we'll have more time to devote to getting ready for Baby Anderson. (still no name decided)

This afternoon I visited a family from our church who just had a baby boy on Friday. That's one of my favorite things of being a pastor. He was so tiny and wonderful. When I picked him up to hold him, he started to fuss, but then I found my "mom sway" and he was content and went back to sleep. I think I'm going to be ok as a mom. (on a side note: While visiting this family I was able to see the birthing wing at the hospital where our little guy will be born and it's beautiful!! I'm really glad we chose Avera.)

31 weeks

Well, we're down to single digits now. Only 9 weeks left until baby arrives (give or take a few days). It seems so close and yet so far away at the same time. We're getting anxious to meet our little guy. And it seems the bigger I get, the clumsier I become. I drop stuff all the time. The bummer part is that it's also increasingly more difficult to reach things down low. For instance, this morning I found myself on all fours trying to reach something on the bottom shelf of the fridge. The bend and reach doesn't work anymore. Oh well. I still love being pregnant.

I've also noticed the baby's movements have changed. He used to kick with quick little jabs and punches. Now that he's running out of room, the movements are a lot slower. It seems like he's just stretching and reaching more. There are random little body parts sticking out all over the place ... feet, hands, butt, elbows ... who knows what. He makes me laugh. It's amazing to feel him wiggle and move around. Chris loves it too.

On a non-baby note, we had a great Easter weekend. At church, the kids did a huge egg hunt during the service. Almost 1000 eggs were hidden throughout the campus. A little crazy, but lots of fun. Then we had some friends over for a big lunch. We made wild turkey, which was a nice change from the traditional ham and then relaxed for the afternoon.

Today I'm enjoying a quiet day off before another week of crazy begins. Open houses are scheduled for the daycare next week and all the toys & equipment need to be moved and arranged in the next few days. Then next Sunday all our early childhood classes are moving to their new rooms in the daycare wing. Whew! It will be a busy week, but it's going to be good.

30 weeks

Sorry I'm a few days late in writing this week's post. The weekend just slipped right by. I went to a water class on Saturday morning and then to church for the daycare work day. Chris joined me after Men's Breakfast. We relaxed some in the afternoon and hunkered down as we watched the biggest snow storm of the year hit Sioux Falls. We even lost power for a while (during the NCAA final four games of course). Fortunately, it was still light enough out that we weren't totally dependant on candle light.

Sunday and Monday were just as busy with church, spending time with friends, a kids ministry network meeting, a toddler meeting, grocery shopping ... this is the first chance I've had to sit down for quite some time.

This morning marked the end of my 2 1/2 year run at Caribou Coffee. I worked there full time before moving to SF, and have worked 1 shift a week since coming here. I love the people I work with and love making coffee. I really enjoyed getting outside the church walls and meeting new people. But now that I'm well into my third trimester, it just became too hard to be lifting, bending, cleaning, standing, etc. for 5 hours. So this morning was my last shift. It was sad and I will miss working there. But seeing as I'm a full Caribou addict, I certainly will be visiting quite often (just without my 30% discount ... bummer).

The only exciting baby news is that we started our prenatal birthing classes tonight. We're taking the Bradley classes, which deals with relaxation techniques, eliminating unnecessary stress and preparing to birth your child naturally. I believe that God made my body to birth children and the more prepared I/we can be to do that the better. The Bradley method emphasizes the husband's role in labor and delivery as well. So Chris also has some learning to do over the next 10 weeks. Overall, it was a really good class. Our instructor is very bubbly and slightly dramatic, which makes the evening much more entertaining. I'm looking forward to next week.

29 weeks

Well, the baby's room is coming along. Sort of. His room still looks like a storage unit, but now we have a dresser. We'd been looking on Craigs List to find a good deal and came across an entire bedroom set (2 dressers, mirror, queen head/foot board & frame, and 2 end tables) for $350!! We couldn't pass it up. So we picked up the set this week and put it in our room and we're moving our old dresser into the baby's room. Works out nicely I think. Maybe now I can start going through the clothes we have and start organizing them! That's way more exciting to me than it should be, but I don't care.

I've also been doing some hard core research into stroller travel systems. We registered for one at Wal-Mart this week and then later looked at the reviews and found it was a terrible choice. So I've been scouring through customer reviews and ratings of what seemed like hundreds of strollers to find the best one for a reasonable price. Today I finally decided on a travel system. I haven't seen it in person, but from what other people say, it's a good one. I hope it works for us too.

We had a great weekend because yesterday was Chris' birthday! We slept in (need to take advantage of that before baby comes), had a big breakfast, opened presents, watched NCAA basketball, saw a movie, played skeet ball, went shopping (for boy things) and went to dinner. It was a packed day, but boy it was fun. And since Chris received the drum kit to Guitar Hero for his birthday, he has plenty to keep him busy while I'm doing my baby research.

Registered

On Tuesday night, Chris and I registered for baby stuff. Slightly overwhelming (who knew there were so many bottles to choose from) but really fun. The many toys listed on the registries are a result of my husband running down the toy aisle with the scanner clicking all the fun things he saw. I tried to catch him, but no one wants to see a pregnant lady run. We had fun. Clearly the baby will too with all those toys! You can find our registries here.

Wal-Mart

Toys R Us

28 Weeks

Well, the 3rd trimester is officially here. The last 6/7 months have gone by so fast, and yet so slow at the same time. I hear that's normal. The reality of actually being parents is starting to hit us and I'm trying to prepare myself for the yuck along with the fun. And by yuck I mean the no sleep, the crying, the sick baby, the smelly diapers. But it's all worth it, right? Honestly, I am so anxious to meet this little guy. I LOVE feeling him move around inside me and I already feel like he has his own personality.

On Saturday, Chris and I moved all the office furniture to it's new location. Now we have a great new looking office and a really empty room that needs baby furniture. I am definitely in nesting mode and it's hard for me to wait to do the baby's room. But I suppose until we have furniture and a cleared out space in the closet to put clothes, there's not much I can do.

Along with preparing for baby, we're starting to consider names a little more seriously now. It's a lot of pressure to choose a name that this person will have for the rest of their life. It has to be fit for a child ("Frank" probably won't work), but can't be too babyish for when he's an adult ("Buddy" may not cut it either). So we've made a list. We add names to it. We take some off. Eventually we'll come up with just the right one. But for those curious to know, you'll have to wait. Baby boy's name will be a secret until he makes his grand entrance in June.