First Day of School

Today the kids returned to school. It was good to see their smiling little faces ready to start a new year.

Hopefully I'm skinnier next August when school starts.



A few of the younger kids were very confused that I was still pregnant. They wanted to know if this was a different baby since I was pregnant when school got out for summer. I tried to convince them that this was the same baby and she has to grow bigger before she can come out. I still think some of them are convinced there are 2 babies.

I tried to wear cute shoes today but that was a bust. My feet were not having it. Around lunch time, I sweet talked Neal into bringing me my tennis shoes. We also went and bought me new tennis shoes afterschool. They're black and hopefully will blend with my dress pants since apparently cute shoes are on hiatus for a whole.

I also met a chunky little girl that is new to our school. She told me she couldn't eat breakfast because the line was as long as a snake and that she couldn't go to her class because she was a "forgetter" and didn't know where it was but she had already told her teacher to not do anything fun until she gets there. We ran into the nurse on our little tour of the school. The nurse said "hi" and chunky monkey said "I get lice a lot!"

I ran around our school all day today and had to remind myself to sit down every so often. I think it's time to start packing the hospital bag just in case.

35 Weeks

So here we are at what I've learned is referred to as 35/35. Meaning 35 WEEKS down and 35 DAYS to go.



Let's see, my hips are hurting, my feet are a little puffy, must be the end of pregnancy. Tying my shoes and bending down to pick something up off the floor are major calorie burning events.

Bonus bump and pup picture.

Back to School

It's that time of year again. Time to go back to work. I always feel rested after the summer and thank my lucky stars that I have a job that allows me a couple of months off during the summer. I was especially excited to go back this year because I know that we're a day closer to meeting Baby Girl.

Neal got a few points in the "good husband book" and hauled my school stuff from the house to the school. Meet Mr. Neal, speech husband.



The year has started off good. Lots of changes since we have all new adminstration, but change is good and just what our school needs. My leave paperwork is filed and I'll work until Baby Girl tells me otherwise.

34 Weeks

34 weeks and 6-ish weeks to go. I had a few days of being uncomfortable but it got better. I'm sure it's just a little repreive though and more is to come. The bump is getting rounder. We'll get her estimated weight in a couple of weeks.


We took the newborn care class at the hospital this week. This is the creepy dummy baby we had to take care of. Neal actually got more praises for his diaper changing skills than I did. Maybe he should be in charge of diaper changes since he's so good at it!

When we were practicing swaddling, he said he was just going to wrap her up like a Freebird's burrito and she'll be fine. Oh the Daddy wisdom!

Beaumont Baby Shower

My aunts and cousins threw the most perfect shower ever last weekend. Everything was so cute and I'm glad I was able to visit with everyone.

33 Weeks

A few days behind but here is my 33 week picture. I'm feeling bigger everyday.


Had a doctor's appointment today. Everything is measuring on track and her heartbeat is still in the 130s. It's almost time for the weekly appointments and internal checks to start to see if I'm progressing. The uncomfortableness has definetely settled in. I can only sleep about 30 minutes to an hour before having to either go to the bathroom or flip to my other side because my hips feel like they are on fire. Also feeling more minor aches and pains. Keeping my eye on the prize and know it will be worth it in the end!

Shower for Baby Girl

Saturday was our first shower for Baby Girl. She's so loved already. Since the shower was at my house, I got kicked out for a few hours so the hostesses could do their magic. I showed Mom where to park at the hospital then we walked across the skywalk to the mall to kill some time. Everything was so pretty and perfect.

Bridgeland Triathalon

Neal did the Bridgeland Triathalon on Sunday. I went with him and all I can say is it was H-O-T! I was so sweaty and achy by the time it was over. Neal finished 70 out of 160 in his age group. The heat really affected his race time too.

It's so hard to get a good picture of the swim. Let's just pretend one of these guys is Neal. He probably is actually in the group but I have no idea which one.




13 Mile bike.


3 Mile run.


...and the first place award goes to ME for surviving the heat.

Crossing the Threshold

The day I had been dreading arrived. My wedding rings no longer fit on my sausage fingers. Well the rings still technically fit but were getting pretty tight and was quite a chore to get them off. I decided to go ahead and store them away before they got stuck. So now I'm sporting a faux wedding ring. I bought it 2 sizes bigger than my normal size so hopefully I won't outgrow this one.



I've also been having a time getting a good night's sleep. Can't seem to get comfortable. I can sleep on my side, but my hips cramp up easily so I have to attempt to roll to the other side which really should be an Olympic sport. My bathroom trips are also increasing in the middle of the night. As much of a pain all of this is, it will all be worth it in the end when we get to meet Baby Girl.

32 Weeks

Wow, 8 weeks to go. Really no symptoms. Just the usual culprits: heartburn, peeing all the time, yada yada. We have our first shower this weekend and I'm excited to celebrate Baby Girl.



I've started making the list of final "to do's". Hmmmm, I think that's it. Thankful for being another week closer to the big day.

Childbirth Classes

We took childbirth classes at the hospital the last two nights. It was really everything I imagined it would be. Watching lots of videos. Us sitting on a mat practicing breathing exercises. Hee-hee-ho. Hee-hee-ho. During the breaks, I snuck down the hall during our breaks to oogle over the brand new babies in the nursery. Not to sound overconfident, but I've been reading a lot about childbirth and I felt like I already knew a lot of the information.

One of the techniques were taught was to use visualazation to take our mind off the pain. So they had us sit on a mat with Neal behind me and me leaning up against him. The instructor told the coaches to tell us a story. I asked Neal to tell me a story about the Beach. He must have misunderstood my whisper because he told me this long story about a Peach. I listened through giggles and clearly need to work on visualizing. Maybe I'll get a story for him to read me.

I feel like I'm prepared as I can be, but also realize that it might not all go down exactly how I have planned. The one consistent thing I've read is to Be Prepared for Anything. The instructor did tell us more about epidurals than I ever knew before. That's something I'm still on the fence about. I'm not opposed to having pain medication, but there's a lot that can go along with the epidural that are definite downsides. The big one being that you can't move around because everything is numb in the southern hemisphere. I think at this point I want to see how far I can go naturally and then get the goods if the pain becomes unbearable. At the end of the day, our goal is to have a safe, healthy delivery for both me and Baby Girl. Time will tell!

Wednesday Musings

Time for a blog post with pure randomness.

~~We've been getting the house ready for the shower on Saturday. I've been cleaning a little here and there because a)I get tired frequently and b)I really dislike cleaning. Neal ended up being home yesterday and completed one of my most hated tasks for me: cleaning our shower. He also cooks 90% of the time. How I ended up with a man that cooks and clean, I'll never know. All I know is that I'm very thankful for it.

~~I had a doctor's appointment on Tuesday. We were in and out in record time: 14 minutes. The appointments are pretty routine these days: Get my weight, take my blood pressure, pee in a cup, measure the belly, listen to heartbeat, answer questions. Rinse and repeat in 2 weeks.

~~We've really gotten into the Olympics this time around. That's all we watch these days. My hormones have been pretty under control but I teared up when the women's gymanstics team took the Gold last night. Their routines were flawless and you could really tell they were a team. Go Team USA!

~~Now that it's August 1, I can officially say that we're having a baby "next month."

~~Baby Girl got her first "school supply" list from Bear Boulevard yesterday. Well mainly a list of baby things that she'll need when she goes to "school" in January. We were also invited to the Meet the Teacher day in a couple of weeks. Even though we've already met all the infant room teachers, we'll probably still go.