Third Trimester

Hello everyone! Sorry for the delay on belly shots. I was having problems posting any photos for a few days. I am 27 weeks now which marks the beginning of the third trimester. I am feeling great and could not ask for a better pregnancy so far. My belly is slowly but surely getting bigger. The baby kicks and punches out of control now and he has even hit some organs that have made me jump. My next doctor appointment is September 13th and at that visit they are going to do the glucose test. This is where I have to drink some type of liquid, wait an hour, then have my blood drawn in order to determine if I have gestational diabetes. Then after that appointment I have to go to the doctor every two weeks. The last month I will be going every week until I deliver. This weekend we are going to a wedding in Savannah for one of Jason's classmates. We are leaving early Saturday morning and staying the night there and returning home Sunday morning. Ironically, my great friend Jennifer has flown out from California this same weekend to check out spots in Savannah for her own wedding next year. So I will get to see her too. My parents are coming and staying the night at our house while we are gone so that they can practice their babysitting skills on Chopper. He is very excited about having them here because he loves them, especially my mother because she gives him treats when we visit them. Now that Leo is gone Chopper is allowed up in the house and he follows my mother where ever she goes, just like Leo did. As you can see I have a new belly ring in. Well this is one that my fabulous coworker and friend, Keona, gave me for my birthday. Its not really a pregnancy ring but it's longer than regular ones and made of plastic. I do have some pregnancy belly rings that Jason got me for my birthday but they are quite long and tend to get caught on clothing so I am holding off on those. I hope everyone has a great Labor Day weekend!!

Sue goes to Sturgis

We went on a road trip with family for nine days and had a blast. It was my parents, Jason's parents, my sister and her boyfriend Jamie, then Jason's aunt Judy and his parent's friend Peter. We flew to Denver, Colorado where my parents picked us up after they drove up in the truck and trailer with the motorcycles aboard. We headed to Sturgis, South Dakota and met up with the rest of the crew, who drove from Virginia and Ohio. In Sturgis we stayed at Buffalo Chip Campground where we camped for three nights. You heard that correct...camped out...literally in a tent! There were thousands of people there and they had concerts there every night. It was so loud at night with all the motorcycles driving by at all hours of the night. I slept like a baby except the last night when it was soooooo windy and rainy early the next morning. For the next five days we traveled by motorcycle and car through South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and back through Colorado. We saw Mt. Rushmore, Devil's Tower, Bear Tooth Pass, Red Lodge, Snake River, Yellowstone National Park, Old Faithful, Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, Dubois (thanks to Red Dog from the Outlaw Saloon), Crazy Horse and the Black Hills. Last but not least all the wildlife we got to see on our journeys, such as thousands of Deer, Antelope, Elk and huge Buffalo! The Buffalo were crossing the street in Yellowstone and would stop traffic while they all crossed the road. We had such a good time together and look forward to our next family trip.

week 23

The mark of 23 weeks pregnant has come. As you can see my belly is growing real good now. Chopper wanted to be in the picture just so you would not forget about him. There are articles that I have seen that say you need to get your animals prepared for the new baby months in advanced. He is so good with our niece and nephew that we should not have any problems. He may just feel a little sad at first with all the attention on the new baby. The baby still does not have a name. He has been kicking and moving around like crazy. At night we like to have "playtime" before going to sleep and the baby really likes to punch his daddy. Jason is able to have an experience that is all his own which is him putting his face up against my belly and gets "punched and kicked" by the baby. I have been getting more and more uncomfortable at night and trying to start sleeping on my side. They say sleeping on your left side is the best but I am a stomach sleeper so it's hard. My mother bought me a pregnancy Boppy pillow for me to snuggle up with at night. The pillow goes under my head down the front of my body and then between my legs. It feels so good to cuddle with when sleeping on my side. Thanks for a great birthday present mother!

I had to call my doctor the other day because I was experiencing Braxton Hicks contractions that were waking me up in the middle of the night. Well they told me that I probably needed to be drinking more water. I thought it could not be possible but apparently you should drink at least 96 ounces of non-caffeinated fluids. So the nurse told me to drink until I could not imagine drinking anymore and drink some more. Some contractions are brought on by dehydration so I have been chugging away since. She also told me that if they continued to wake me in the middle of the night that I would need to go straight to Labor and Delivery for them to monitor me. Thankfully they have not bothered me at night since my chugging fest has begun. I am still getting them randomly but they are not waking me. We will leave the disturbed night's sleep to the 3-4am trips to the bathroom. That's it for now...Off to chug-a-lug land I go!

Heartbeat

Today we went to the doctor and recorded the heartbeat. You will hear the heartbeat which is the fast swooshing noise. You will also hear a squeaky noise every so often and that is the sound that baby movements are making on the monitor. The doctor said that he was very active and kept raising his eyebrows with every squeaky noise. How exciting!!

Two for One

Okay, while I was online shopping for one of our friend's baby I found a onesie similar to this one but it cost $40!! There was no way I was going to pay that much. So I went to another website that has thousands of different personalized items. I found other baby clothes that had funny sayings on them but none that said "Lock up your daughters!" So, the website said that if you didn't see what you wanted to contact them and they would make it for you. I contacted them and this is what they sent back. Great!! So I ordered it and waited and tracked my order online. Well the online tracking said that it had made it to Augusta, GA five days after I ordered it but it had not moved out of the post office. At this point now it had been 12 days since I had ordered it and I was a little worried. I contacted the company and they could not figure out why I had not received it because it had made it to the main post office in Augusta. The nice gentle man stated he would put a new order in and send it next day delivery, FREE of charge!!! I asked if and when the other package came in would I need to return it. He said I could keep it. Two days later I received the new order and still had not received the first order, now 14 days after ordering it. The next day I went to the main post office in Augusta to find out where my package was. They told me that I would have to wait until the package actually made it the my local post office before trying to find it because there were too many packages to search for my package. hmmmmm......I was not happy, but okay at least I had received one of them. I went home, still no package at the door. The next day after coming home from work 16 days after ordering it, I finally got the initial order. So you know what that means...a new t-shirt for Baby Ames for free. Whatcha think??

Striped Moca Duck

Baby Ames received his very first bath duck! We got a surprise package in the mail and low and behold there he was. The cutest, coolest duck I have ever seen. His abuelita (little grandmother in spanish...for those that don't know) had bought him this. I love stripes so my mother had to buy it. Check out a link to some of the other ducks that they have by this maker http://www.moolka.com/jzv/cats/353/Bud (cool, huh?) Thank you so much Mother!! I love it and I am sure he will too.

Half Time!!

I am officially half way through my pregnancy. I really popped out in the last week and a half. The baby has really been moving a lot more and now Jason can feel him and see him move. Last night we laid in bed and watched in amazement for about five minutes while my stomach moved and jumped around. He has moved under my belly button too which is cool because it means he is really growing on track. Jason gets very excited about the baby moving and that is just so much fun for me. The dark line that most women get in the middle of the stomach called the linea nigra is really starting to show now. We still haven't come up with a name yet which I know is driving some of you crazy. It's driving us a little coo coo too! Many people have asked when I plan on taking out my belly ring and the answer is "When I get my pregnancy belly ring." That is right, they make them and I am hoping to get one for my birthday. (hint, hint...Jason) They are made of flexible material and are longer for the growing belly. If it gets too uncomfortable then I will take it out and just put it in every once in a while to keep the hole open. Going to get ready for bed now and enjoy the kicks and punches. ps...you can click on my pictures to see them in full size.