Anna's Baptism & 33 Weeks, 7 Weeks to Go...Maybe

Last weekend we spent 4 days up in Gig Harbor Washington, for our niece Anna's first birthday and baptismal ceremony. We lucked out and the weather was beautiful for a weekend of playing and seeing family. The first picture is the group of us (Jim, Me, John, Doug, Cindy, Anna and Jennifer) on Jim's hotel room, which was a houseboat docked at a pier in Gig Harbor.
This was my last trip too far from home, and happily everything went well.


Saturday was Anna's baptism, Doug is Anna's godfather, and I was a proxy for Jamie Caplinger, who was due with Anna's first cousin any day in Florida. Anna was all dressed up in her beautiful dress, although it didn't work so well for crawling or walking. Anna learned to walk the day before we arrived, it is amazing how she was developing new skills everyday, and gives Doug and I a picture of what our lives will be like a year from now.
Anna's first birthday was the Saturday before, so we celebrated her birthday with a big BBQ party.

We had a doctors appointment this past Friday, everything is going well, the appointments pretty much consist of the same things as they did in the beginning, but we are trying to ask a few more questions as the big day is getting closer. The baby's heart rate jumped around from the 120's to the 140's as he moved around in my stomach. I have gained 13 pounds at this point, and other than a few muscle cramps and joint popping I feel really well. Last night I had my last shower with a bunch of co-workers, friends and some of Doug's families. There were a few guys there including Doug, which put an added touch to the shower. We received a lot of nice gifts and many needed diapers. Luckily we have finally finished the bathroom project (pictures in the next blog) so we can start organizing the nursery. Time seems to be flying by as it may only be 5 or 6 weeks until we have a new member of our family, hopefully we are ready.
Sorry there isn't a new belly picture, but I promise it is still there, and I will post another one next time.

30 Weeks, 10 To Go

I apologize for taking so long to update the blog, I was hoping we would have some more exciting pictures to share, but yet again all there is is my growing belly. I would still consider myself on the small side for 30 weeks, but I am getting rounder and a little more uncomfortable moving around and sleeping. I had gained a total of 11 pounds at our last appointment, but am putting on close to a pound a week right now. We had our 30 week appointment last friday, everything is still really good, we found out that the baby's head was down into position as they say, but who knows if it will stay that way with a little time left. Grandma Cindy went with us to the appointment to hear the heart beat, which was once again sporadic and high with a lot of movement. We picked up the crib and changing table from Doug's co-workers and have set them up in the nursery/garden/junk room at this time. I would have posted pictures, but we don't have any bedding yet, so it isn't too special looking.

I had a great time at my two showers in Oregon, thank you to everyone who was able to make it and for all the greatly appreciated gifts. We also received our travel system last week, which we promptly put together and pushed around the house every once in a while. Unfortunately, our bathroom remodel project is still in the delayed mode so no finished product photos of that either. We decided to give up on that for a while, as much as I love going to the basement to use the restroom everytime :), but we started re-organizing to start preparing for the baby's arrival in about 2 months. We have finished our child birth education classes and have done our hospital tour, so some would say we are ready, but I don't feel that way quite yet. We are excited to meet our active little guy, but also a little nervous about it. It seems as though he mostly sleeps at night and active during the day, we can hope that he keeps that routine somewhat once in the real world :)

If everything continues to go well, Doug and I will be off to Seattle next week, for Anna's first birthday and baptism. I have gotten the clearance from my doctor at this point and we are looking forward to what will be my last trip for several months.