Found it!

This weekend my good friend Monique came to visit us before the little guy shows up and keeps us busy for a few months. We had a great time exploring areas of the city, eating at some new places (The Bulldog in NE has GREAT burgers and Jun Bo's Dim Sum is rather overwhelming) and braving the worlds of Target and Babies R Us during the snow storm that appeared Friday afternoon. A good friend is one that will help you return and purchase new things for your baby when you aren't 100% sure what you need :)

I feel a bit more prepared now knowing that most of the items we wanted to have on hand before he comes are ready. Just a couple little things to get from generous friends or exchange and we'll then have to face the daunting task of - putting it all in his room... Pictures of the nursery you say? Yeah, not yet. Maybe in two weeks.

To kill a little time before having to go to the airport this afternoon we stopped by the Mall 'o 'Merica and found what hopefully will be his going home outfit if the timing works out:

This last week has simply flown by for us. On Tuesday we hit 30 weeks - only 10 weeks to go in theory! Yikes! Besides this lovely little cold Russ brought home for me I am still feeling good. However, a major sore throat and breathing issues as well as having a tough time getting comfortable do NOT make for easy sleeping at night. Hopefully this will run its course quickly.

I can tell that my energy levels are starting to decline again. At the end of the day I am a little toasty. However, Monkey seems to be increasing in his energy levels. On Wednesday I spent the entire day out of the office at a conference and from 5am until 5pm he was pretty much on the go. It was hilarious to watch my tummy jump around while we were discussing IMPORTANT things. Perhaps he was just as thrilled as I was to be away from work...

In the last week we have been blessed to have not one but two showers thrown for us by friends and family. Last Thursday our Minneapolis crew hosted a fantastic shindig and then on Saturday Mom and Auntie Becca hosted one in Grafton. It was really fun to see about 75% of all the people we know in a span of 3 days. Sort of like a wedding. You get to see them but maybe not talk as much as you like. Grandma Egelhoff was able to escape rehab for the afternoon and join us as well which was fantastic.


As a result of these parties kiddo is super set for clothes and toys. This weekend we are going to get some advice from an experienced mommy on what items would be good to get yet to make our lives easier and then it's time to set up the nursery. Which currently looks like a hurricane went through it. So pictures of that will be a few weeks out yet. Hope you like the ones here. This last one is our favorite of the ducks - these guys have been in the hottub a bit too long...

Monkey enjoys the sugary drinks

Just got back from the glucose stress test and we passed - just. They have you drink a really sugary sort of fruit punch thing and then wait an hour to test your blood. In the meantime you get to be measured and poked and prodded and such. Measurements all look good, kiddo's still got a good heartbeat and did an excellent job of kicking the doc's 'stethoscope' when she was listening a few times. Scared her ;) We're now at the point of visiting the doc every two weeks. Good times.

It's awfully drab and gloomy here this week.We sort of went from summer to late fall without that lovely in between time. However, this does force us to work on the house or just rest which is probably the best choice at this point. I still have energy, Russ is still inspired to make cabinets! We're making progress, so we'll post some pictures maybe next week of what we've been up to. At that point we may have the baby's room a bit organized and decorated which will make us feel really good.

Headed to Grafton this coming weekend to visit folks and have showers showered upon us - thanks ahead of time Becca and Mom. Please send healing thoughts for my Grandma E too. She had a stroke yesterday and is doing ok, but may have a long recovery road. We'll be bringing a bit of the shower to her instead.

No more balancing glassware on my tummy

It's been a fairly uneventful few weeks, hence the lack of postings. However, a few new experiences have happened in the last week to share with everyone.

Monkey is now big enough to do a few new tricks. The first one is when he gets some good kicks in, you can see my stomach move. So no more balancing the breakfast tray on my tummy. He's not super consistent with WHEN he moves around but every few days gets a good workout in. The other trick is he has managed at least once to settle all 2 1/2 pounds of himself on a major vein/artery. Last Friday night he got nice and comfy which made me get light headed and pass out. At a bar. It was super neat. Luckily it's easy to recover from that and we promptly left. Since then he hasn't sat in that spot again and hopefully won't.

It was an exciting week - Heiser had her little guy yesterday. It has been such a great experience to have such a close friend going through this at the same time. Plus she got to do it first and tell me what to try to avoid. Thanks for that, buddy ;)

Finally got the posting up for the other half of my job at work, so hopefully they will hire someone by the end of the month and I can start showing them the ropes. I'm really looking forward to a) only working part time and b) having an actual peer in the same field as me working at the agency. It will be easier to brainstorm and get feedback about situations I think.

In theory we're headed out camping this weekend. Right now, I'm not as it's going to be 45 and raining, but if that changes we'll go. Think sunny and warm thoughts!

He likes to swim

Today was the first day I was woken up by someone kicking me in bed - and it wasn't Russ. Kiddo was having a field day about 6am so I embraced it and took him swimming. He was quiet then until the afternoon. I really like feeling him explore and poke and move around. It doesn't hurt at all which I got asked today. He has busy days and quiet days at this point. And of course as soon as Russ puts his hand on me to feel it, Monkey stays still and tries to hide. Ha!

We bought a road rug! This is something we've both wanted for a long time (our friend Katy got one a few years ago for herself) and now we had an excellent reason. Gotta love IKEA. Now we'll find some little cars and fire trucks and hours of entertainment will be in Russ's future. I mean Monkey's.

Think Labor thoughts for Heiser in the next 24 hours - time for Chompers to meet the world!

So many things to think about

In addition to the emotional, practical and physical things you have to learn and get ready for with a baby, we also have been learning a lot about the what ifs lately. We are both very blessed in that we don't have a lot of significant long term illness or disease in our family lines. However, you just never know what might happen. So we've decided to bank kiddo's cord blood in case he may ever need it, or we or other siblings might be able to use it. I think the kicker in this decision for us was, what if we didn't do it and regretted that choice in a few years?

It's not a cheap prospect, but not out of the realm of possible either so we've set up our account with a company called Cord Blood Registry that came recommended from a coworker. It's fascinating to learn about how this works too - once he shows up, the doctor collects the blood from the umbilical cord and stores it in this special package they send us and then it gets shipped medical transport to the storage facility where they process and store it for us so it's safe and usable in the future. How odd is that when you think about it? Science is amazing stuff.

So if you know anyone looking into doing this, I am full of information about it at this point and happy to share. If you are interested in helping us fund this little project, just let me know and I can direct you to our 'gift registry' with Cord Blood. So far, this has been a good and educational experience for us.

Tomorrow - picking up the crib!

Aviator perhaps

We have returned from our week in Colorado. We spent the time with Russ's family as a memorial to his dad. A good chunk of our week was in Colorado National Monument which is where Jim worked as a Park Ranger for a few summers and he and Jan met. Jim had grown up in Grand Junction which is just at the feet of the Monument.

Getting there was a bit harder than anticipated. In Denver we got on to our connecting flight and as they were removing the walkway to the door they managed to shear off a bolt on the door. This meant we had to get off the plane until they could figure out what to do. The answer? Cancel the flight. Evidently this was a rather large problem. We're glad they noticed and we didn't get up and then realize we were missing a bolt on the main door!

6 hours later we got to Grand Junction and I fell asleep immediately. What I did notice on both of our flights is that Monkey either really loves or really hates flying. Once we were up at cruising altitude he was kicking and punching and moving all about a lot more than usual. As someone who doesn't particularly like to fly, I'm hoping he liked it.

We spent a day in Aspen going up the mountain and hiking about (and a little hula hooping) . Hula Hooping is actually a bit easier now, as I just have to swing it around my rib cage and it sort of stays up for awhile by itself! That evening we spent in Glenwood soaking in the warm warm pools. We did a bunch of hiking in the Monument itself, explored Grand Junction, saw old friends of Jan and Jim's, saw a Mud Monster Truck show (really) and toured a neat little Alpaca farm. My hiking poles were AWESOME.




Today I had my 24 week appointment and all is still well. I'm measuring exactly as I should for this point of the pregnancy so perhaps Dec 22nd will be a realistic date.