23 weeks

She's a mover!! The past week has been so neat to feel this little girl dance and wiggle and punch her way around my belly. My mom was able to feel a couple of really great kicks/punches... not sure which is which yet. and bright and early this morning, Brent was finally able to feel his little girl move for the first time. she woke me up, so I woke him up, and we sat in bed for about 45 minutes feeling her wiggle and move, it was pretty neat. all day today she's been up, I think I've been on the go a little too much for her to nap, so tomorrow were taking it easy.

So, this week and next the fruit comparison is a papaya, pretty good size for our little girl. She's just over a pound now, and about a foot long, at least thats the average, I have a feeling she may be a little longer than average with Brent and I for parents. This week our baby girl's lungs are developing!! They are growing blood vessels and preparing her to be able to breath when she gets here. She's also developing awesome ears now, they are getting more and more keen, and she can probably pick things up like Abby's barks, and when Brent gets home I have noticed she starts going crazy, I think she knows his voice too. What amazing ears she has already.

Brent took a pretty cute pic on his new phone tonight, but, i'll have to update the bump shots tomorrow, it's getting a bit late here to figure out how to send that pic to here and upload it. So be sure to check back tomorrow for hopefully an update of my hugely growing belly.

A visit to Seattle and 22 weeks

Family...

This is the reason I visited Seattle this week. My cousin Kim and her husband Bob flew down from Palmer, AK for a couple of days just to visit. I was so excited to see them and spend the weekend with them, but I regret not being able to get here earlier in the week to have a couple more days with them. Brent and I will just have to take a trip up North soon to visit. On Sunday, we had our cousin Jamie and her husband Chuck, and their daughter JoAnn down for the afternoon and an early dinner before Kim and Bob had to head back home. I love this family, as I love most of my family, but this family fits, they are all around our age (for the most part) and were all going through some of the same things. Jamie and I are both pregnant, and just a few weeks apart. This is her second, her first is pictured in the above pic sitting with my parents, she's adorable and I love when she visits. 

(above) just the ladies. We had a fantastic an exhausting weekend of shopping, and spending some wonderful quality time together. I would love to be able to do this at least once a year with these ladies, I just don't know if plane tickets and our wallets would like it so much. Maybe every other year? I didn't see these cousins much as a child, so now that were grown-ups it's pretty fun to build relationships with such amazing women, I feel so blessed to have these ladies in my life now.

(below) JoAnn loves doggies, and she sat, entertained, for a good half hour with this roller and Abby. She went through probably 10 sheets of sticky roller paper, and Abby may have a bald spot on her left side (we turned her over half way through lol), but it was probably the best entertainment of the evening. 

And now for belly shots. As stated Above, Jamie is just a month behind me in her pregnancy. So we thought it would be fun to take a belly shot together this week. I am 22 weeks in this picture, and she is about 17-18 weeks. We are so cute!  JoAnn wanted to be in the pic with the babies too :) 

So here I am at 22 weeks. Our baby girl is now a full pound! She's also almost a full foot long! What a week of milestones huh!? From the email I received this weekend, it says she is about the size of a spaghetti squash... but I don't have a picture of that... The biggest thing from here until birth will be her growth. she'll start to gain weight rapidly, and i'll begin to get even more huge than I already feel like I am. This is a good thing though, we want a big healthy long baby to come out in a few months, were hoping for around 8lbs and maybe 22 inches?? we'll see. Other big things, tooth buds are now in place, she has her eyes, but no color in them yet, she's all wrinkly, until her fat layers begin to develop over the coming weeks, and her pancreas is developing, it's already producing some of her essential hormones she'll need for development. Kinda neat to know that she's already a pound and a foot long... she's looking like a mini newborn in there now! 

Working on Stage 2...

I had to share one of Lilly's favorite nap spots, she sleeps here often, but she just looked so darn cute, I had to share today. Perched up on top of one of our bathroom cabinets, thats where you can usually find her during the day, either there or snuggled on the bottom shelf of our bookcase. Wherever she chooses, she always makes it look so comfy, sometimes I wish I could just plop down anywhere to nap like she does. 

Doesn't this look like one peacefully happy kitty??

While I was working in the nursery today, Abby decided to join me, which she doesn't normally do, she liked getting up in the window to see what our neighbor dog was barking at, I managed to snap this pic really quick before she took off down the hall, begging to be let out. That thing they were barking at? a big white cat in our neighbors tree, they made a team effort attempt to get it, but the cat got away. you can also see the days hard work in the picture, I painted the bottom half of the room cocoa! yay! I love how it turned out, although it does need another coat of paint, which we might get to tonight, or tomorrow, we'll see. 

Speaking of paint, this is just part of the top of the table that we've turned into paint central. There are currently 4 cans, we've put 2 in the garage, and several small sample cans sit in the hall and under the table. 

Now for a sneak peak of some of the projects I've been working on for the nursery...

I have a ton more to do in the room, more stripes of various colors, more accents with fun fabrics, and moving stuff out, just so I can fit baby stuff in. Hopefully i'll be able to get the furniture moved in there sometime in December, not sure if i'll make that deadline but i'll sure try! Stay tuned for our nursery progress, It's slow going, but i'm doing my best to have this special room done by the time baby girl arrives in just a few short months. 

Baby Girl's Nursery-Stage 1

This weekend Brent and I finally finished painting the office, it is officially now a very, very pink little girls room. It will not stay pink, we are going to do some other big changes in the coming weeks. Stay tuned for those. In the mean time, here is a taste of the pink that covers our former office, 

The lampshade is our inspiration piece for the nursery. My mom and I found it at our downtown Market earlier this fall, and I fell in love. It's perfect, the colors are just what we want for our little girls room, fun, and whimsical, and it's the perfect inspiration piece. The green boxes are our storage, I love the wavy stripes and pop of color they bring to the room. We're loving putting the room together piece by piece, it's been so much fun finding the right colors and accents. But, we cannot wait to see the finished product, we'll keep you all posted on that progress.

21 weeks and counting

This past week our baby girl must have experienced a huge growth spurt, just look at the pictures in Belly Shots, I've grown a ton! Brent gave me a hug the other day and put his hand on my tummy, and just stared in awe at how big it is getting, and earlier tonight as I was getting ready to go to a friends birthday (Happy Birthday Annie!!!) I called him into the bathroom to show him how my belly had become lopsided! she was pushing out or fully sitting on my left side, which caused that side of my tummy to stick out further than my right. It's so neat seeing the changes she is making to my growing belly.

Some neat things going on this week, our baby girl is starting to give me some full on kicks, I keep feeling strong nudges in my low belly, these nudges will get stronger as baby girl continues to grow. I'm starting to notice she has preferred times of the day that she is active, sometimes early in the morning, and almost every evening right around 5pm. I'm getting anywhere between 5-10 kicks a night usually, which i'm not supposed to start counting for a couple more weeks, but it's hard not to pay attention to how active she is. Brent still has yet to feel anything, but her kicks are getting stronger, so hopefully he'll feel something soon. Another neat thing this week is our baby girls eyelids and eyebrows are forming, they are thin but protective, and will thicken as the weeks go on. 

From here out we may not have weekly updates. New developments are slowing down, and for the rest of this little girls time in my belly she will more or less just be growing stronger, her little features will become more developed, and her organs will continue to grow and be more useful to her body. I'll try to give brief little updates, but I don't think I get pictures weekly now, just every month. I'll still be updating belly shots though, so check back often for new pics of the growing belly.