23 weeks, 4 days

Week 23 was a busy one! We flew to Los Angeles early Monday morning to meet up with Laura and her family (Paolo, Geiner, Marcela, Gabriel, Andrea, Zulay, and Geiner). Mom also met us there. From the airport, we went directly to Universal Studios. It was a fun day...but I only got to go on two rides. #expectantmothersshouldnotride

Drinking butterbeer in Hogsmeade

Tuesday, the whole group went to Disneyland. This was the day I was looking forward to the most and it lived up to my expectations. The group only went on one ride I couldn't ride, the Indiana Jones Adventure. I especially loved the Disneyland Forever fireworks and the Paint the Night parade. It was a long day but an awesome one!

The whole group!

I met the Genie while the rest of them were riding the Indiana Jones Adventure.

Gotta have Mickey Mouse Ice Cream Bars!

Laura, Andrea, Paolo, me and John

Paint the Night Electrical Parade

Wednesday, John, Mom, Geiner, Marcela and I went back to Disneyland/Disney California Adventure. It was another great day but a bit more relaxed than Tuesday. We got to ride the new Soarin', Soarin' Around the World, and see Frozen: Live at the Hyperion. They all also got to ride the Matterhorn. The World of Color: Celebrate! nighttime show was amazing at Disney California Adventure.

Paradise Pier at California Adventure

Cars Land at California Adventure

Marcela and I after dinner at Café Orleans in Disneyland

I missed the Mickey picture. :(

World of Color: Celebrate! at California Adventure

Thursday, John, Mom, Laura, Paolo, Andrea and I went to Huntington Beach. It was gorgeous but the water was pretty chilly. John was the only one who went all the way in. We met the rest of the group for lunch at Olive Garden and then just hung out at the hotel until the Costa Ricans left for the airport. Saying goodbye to Laura is always so hard!

 

 

Friday, John, Mom, Geiner, Marcela, and I had lunch with Erica and then headed back to the airport. John and I got home about 1am. It was another long day! But, despite all the long days, the trip was wonderful. It's really amazing to me how much Laura and her family are truly family to us.

Lunch with Erica at Portillo's!

Baby Girl's gifts from Tía Lala y Tío Paolo

Tía Marcela and Tío Geiner picked out this adorable outfit for Baby Girl.

The perfect hair accessories from Abuela Zulay

Baby Girl is moving much more now. She even moved enough for John to feel her on the flight to LA! I'm still feeling really good though I started having some swelling in my feet and ankles after the long days in the parks and the long flight. John and I have finally started comparing our name lists...but we have a long way to go before actually picking one!

Our souvenir for Baby Girl, the Disneyland 60th Minnie Mouse

This week starts Month Six in the Mothering Spirit Prayers for Pregnancy. Only three more prayers left after this one...wow!

22 weeks

22 weeks! This is my halfway point: halfway between when we found out we were pregnant and Baby Girl's due date. Woohoo!

We had a pretty uneventful week. Since the Fourth of July was a Monday, I ended up with a 5 day weekend. I got a lot of cleaning and other things done around the apartment. We also had friends over for dinner which was really fun.

I'm feeling Baby Girl move a lot more now. Her movements are still very gentle so John can't feel them yet...but hopefully soon! She's particularly active in the evenings. I also usually feel her before I go to sleep as I can still lay on my stomach. It's such a cool feeling!

There was lots of sad news in our country this week. Two black men died at the hands of police, one in Baton Rouge and one in Minnesota, and 5 police officers were killed and 7 more were injured in Dallas. There's lots of negativity and ignorance floating around on social media. It's upsetting. But, I know so many good people who are doing what they can to help change our country for the better.

At least we get to spend this coming week with some of my very favorite people. Monday morning we fly to LA to meet Laura and her family. I can't wait!

21 weeks

We did a lot this week! John and Keith set up the crib last weekend. I announced that Baby Girl is coming on social media. We celebrated John's birthday. And today, John and I went to Buy Buy Baby to check out strollers and carriers. It was a pretty productive week!

Crib + social media announcement

John's 33rd birthday was on Wednesday. We went out to dinner to celebrate. I also made scotcheroos, John's requested dessert. They're so yummy and so easy. I should make them more often...

I also ran 4 times this week! I've modified my running to do 3-4 minute run intervals with 1-2 minute walk intervals which feels great. I'm hoping I can keep this up!

20 weeks

20 weeks! The halfway mark! Though, really, calling 20 weeks the halfway mark is a little deceiving since you don't really know you're pregnant until you're at least 4 weeks...

Today we had our 20 week ultrasound, the full anatomy ultrasound. I think we were with the ultrasound student and tech for about an hour and a half total. Baby Girl was not being particularly cooperative in giving us a good view of her face so they kept trying to get her to move her hands. Everything looks great! I was especially impressed that we could see her heart beating, even the valves opening and closing! It was amazing! She's measuring exactly where she should be and is currently around 10 ounces which is the 51st percentile. Her brain is measuring a little ahead...smarty pants already! As our midwife said, she has all the parts she's supposed to have and none that she shouldn't.

 

 

Last Saturday we celebrated Cade and Blake's 4th birthday which was great fun! Then, we headed up to Cochrane to celebrate Father's Day with Dad. It was a short trip but really good to be home. We had breakfast with Grandma on Sunday, a delicious turkey dinner, and then John and Mom golfed while I walked along. Dad is doing really well and has graduated from both outpatient PT and OT so he's on his own now until his 10 pound weight restriction gets lifted (hopefully in August).

Cade and Blake (with a cousin and great-grandpa)

Wisconsin Basketball jerseys!

Dad and me in 1984

We also celebrated John's first Father's Day. I gave him a card and a couple of gifts on Friday night. He also got cards from his sister and brother-in-law and my parents. It's so exciting!

I bought the book and the calculus Tiny Toms so long ago...when we first started trying to get pregnant.

We went out to dinner at a new-to-us restaurant, Doc B's Fresh Kitchen, with our friend Lori on Monday. Then Lori and I met up again Tuesday evening. Both nights we walked a lot after dinner...about 3 miles, I think! Whew! Last night I met another friend for dinner which was great. Christie was so excited to hear about the baby...and super helpful too!

19 weeks

We're almost halfway! I'm so excited for my ultrasound and appointment next week! I can't wait to see her!!

This week was pretty uneventful. Last Saturday, we went to a birthday party for our friends' boys who turned 5 and 3 last week. Beforehand Keith and his parents came over to watch the Louis Vuitton America's Cup World Series Chicago sailing races. Unfortunately, there wasn't much wind so they only got one race in...but we could see almost the whole thing from the comfort of our living room! It was pretty awesome...especially since Keith and his parents know a lot about sailing and actually sail themselves so they could explain some stuff to us. Sunday was actually really good sailing weather and John and I saw 4 races!

John and I went to The Sound of Music musical last night. John thought it was good but that the music was kind of boring...but I absolutely loved it! I've never seen it live before and thought it was just great!

Oh, I was featured in a blog post...pretty exciting stuff! Thanks, Sarah Mac!

We're off to Wisconsin for the weekend...woohoo!

18 weeks

I definitely think my bump is noticeable this week! Though probably not to a stranger...

I'm feeling really good. I think I'm starting to feel baby girl moving sometimes which is really cool. I can't wait until her movements are noticeable enough for John to feel too.

This week I started working on our registry and thinking about what we all need. It's a little overwhelming. We did get a free crib though. Our friends were looking to give theirs away and gave it to us for nothing...mattress included!

Hmm...what else?!? We went to the USA v Costa Rica Copa America match at Soldier Field on Tuesday. Geiner and Marcela met us at our apartment and we walked to Soldier Field together. Keith, Meg, and Geoff met us there. The US won 4-0 so while it was an exciting game with lots of goals, it wasn't a close one. Geiner and Marcela were disappointed.

It was the first time we saw Geiner and Marcela since telling them the news! Tía Marcela brought baby's first gift:

John and I went to see The SpongeBob Musical last night. It was part of our Broadway in Chicago subscription series. While it definitely wasn't a show I would have paid for by itself, it was better than I expected it to be. The performers and staging were really great.

Week 18 also marks a new prayer: Month 5!

17 weeks, 4 days

I'm a few days late in posting this...oops! The American College Health Association Annual Meeting in San Francisco last week was as great as usual. I forgot how busy of a week it is though! I was up earlier than usual and stayed up later than usual trying to catch up on personal emails, Facebook, etc.

As you can probably see in the picture, my belly popped this week! There's definitely a visible baby bump now. Woo!

John and I arrived in San Francisco late Saturday evening so we had Sunday and Monday to explore before I started the conference on Tuesday afternoon. Sunday we didn't really have a plan. We walked up the famous part of Lombard Street, found a cute little place to have brunch, walked through the Presidio and stumbled upon a public picnic there, then had pizza, and walked to Pier 39.

Lombard Street

John with the Yoda Fountain at Lucasfilm (Presidio)

Golden Gate Bridge

Carmel Pizza Co

Monday we had scheduled a 5 hour whale watching tour for the morning. It was awesome! Our guide was great and we saw 9 humpback whales. I really wanted to see one of them breech (jump completely out of the water) but that didn't happen. Instead we saw lots of them lunge feeding which was pretty cool in itself. After the tour, we grabbed lunch on Pier 39, walked to Ghirardelli for dessert, and then headed to the conference hotel.

Brr!

Golden Gate Bridge from the water

The summary of our tour

As I said, the conference was great. I heard a lot of engaging speakers and learned quite a bit. It was also fun to spend some extra time with Megan and Donna, my fellow SAIC nurse practitioners, outside of work.

The view from our hotel room

SAIC nurse practitioners on school spirit day

 All that said, it feels great to be back home!