12 weeks to go...

I'm 28 weeks pregnant! Here's a new picture of the growing belly:

28 weeks pregnant

I can't believe I am due in just 12 weeks. We still have so much to do! Little by little we will get there.


We had our final ultrasound on Friday afternoon. Peanut is getting so big! At 28 weeks babies on average weigh 2lb4oz. Our little guy weighed in at 2lbs13oz! I'll bet he is 3 pounds by now. Time will tell if he ends up with the Monroe Family "tiny" gene (which I obviously got, as did my sister) but I'd say at this point that all signs point to no. The woman doing the ultrasound was rushing through it and didn't take the time to get good pictures. She gave us 3 but none of them are good- just blurry close ups of his head. They aren't even worth posting, to be honest. I may not even put them in his baby book because they are that bad. That was disappointing but I have a lot of good pictures from our previous ultrasounds so we'll just hang on to those.


After the ultrasound I had an appointment with my midwife. While listening to Peanut's heart beat on the doppler we could hear him hiccuping! I also did my mandatory Glucose test last week and passed! My midwife continues to be pleased with how I'm doing. Everything looks really, really good going into this homestretch!


Peanut's lungs are developing more each day and he can now open his eyes in the womb. A week and a half ago Steven and I were on the couch. I had a blanket over me and Peanut was bouncing so much that we could see him through the blanket. I pulled the blanket back and looked at my belly to see what it looked like. Lo and behold, he stopped moving. I put the blanket back and after a few seconds the bouncing began again. We figured out it was because of the light coming in when I took off the blanket! Steven and I sat there and played "peek-a-boo" with him and laughed our heads off at how he would immediately stop moving each time the blanket was off. Sometimes when I feel him moving on one side I'll put one finger on the other side of my belly. I'll feel him scoot over and touch where my finger is. I can't believe he can see that now! It's so cool to play with him already! 


Here is the paint color we picked out for his room:

The middle shade of blue, to match the elephant on his blanket

And here's what his crib bedding looks like. 

We love it! It's like a crazy zoo animal parade in India. If you can come up with a better description for it than that I'm all ears!


That's all for now. Love to you all!

3rd Trimester!

Over the weekend I was talking to my dad and he complained mentioned that I hadn't updated the blog since August 27th. I would like to say a very public HELLO to my dad- hi Dad, love you! 


Today marked the beginning of my third trimester. Time is flying! Tomorrow I will be 27 weeks. Here's a photo of me from a week and a half ago:

25 weeks pregnant

Would you believe I am already bigger than this? This weekend I need to go shopping yet again because I am outgrowing all of my current maternity clothes. I've crossed an important threshold: total strangers now know without a doubt that I'm pregnant and not just full... or a heavy drinker... or pot-bellied. In restaurants, airports & stores strangers ask me "when are you due?" and "is this a boy or a girl?" Peanut has been roaming the world incognito for the past 6 months but now everyone knows he's around! 


On the Saturday before last Steven and I celebrated 5 years of marriage. Talk about time flying! It doesn't feel like our wedding- with the mardi gras beads and the mansion and the gorgeous twinkle light pavilion- happened 5 years ago. 

September 4, 2005

To celebrate every year we take a week and visit the beach for a nice Fall getaway. This year we decided to avoid the oil in the gulf (so Peanut wouldn't come out with 5 heads) and visited St Augustine, FL. We rented a condo on the beach and enjoyed perfect weather, empty beaches and a lot of impressive surfing! A few storms came through just before we arrived so the ocean was a little rough. I spent a lot of time cruising around on a float and trying not to get knocked over. Steven got to go windsurfing one afternoon (a new favorite activity since Hawaii) and we spent several nights strolling around the old city and enjoying the sights. St Augustine is an awesome little town with a lot of young people and things to see. It was a great trip and a perfect way to spend our anniversary!


We are making some progress on the baby's room! I sold and gave away all of the extra furniture from the room (formerly the guest room). Steven took down the bed-side tables that were attached to the wall and patched up the holes. Tonight we are picking out a paint color. We don't have any of the furniture yet but it is picked out. Despite not having the crib we do have one very important item thanks to my Nana and Papa: a Pack N Play!

Nana and Papa always give such smart and thoughtful gifts. On the top left is a changing table and the top right is a bassinet for a newborn. Once Peanut gets a little bigger we'll take those two pieces off and he'll have an awesome travel crib and play area. These things fold up into a very compact rectangle that is perfect for families who travel (and we definitely do our share!) We are so thankful for this!


We have also been working on several projects around the house. When we bought our house we purposefully bought one that would have enough room for a baby. We'll be fine as Peanut is little but he's going to get big quick so we have decided to do what we can now to get the house ready for when we need to put it on the market. One big project has been our backyard. When we bought the house it had been pretty much destroyed by 2 outdoor dogs who loved to dig and make mud. It looked like this:

Pretty plain, right?

Now it looks like this:

Steven did 99.99999% of the work all by himself. I wished I could have helped more but this summer was unbelievably hot with temperatures usually over 100. I helped spread the mulch but he did every other thing himself. Well, actually, he did have one very obedient and furry helper:

Next on the list is tearing out the carpet in our bedroom and refinishing the hardwood floors. Wish us luck!


That's everything for now. I promise it won't be 3 weeks before the next update. Love to you all.