The Baby's Nursery & Week 39 Pics

One week down of not working and I must say it has been pretty nice. All of my friends and family I've been talking with have been telling me to take it easy and rest. I think for the first time in my life, I don't feel guilty for not getting everything crossed off my daily to-do list. I've honestly been trying to sleep in but with going to bed when Josh goes to bed (typically between 9:30-10pm), I've been waking up at 7:30am every morning. It's not so bad really. I feel well rested and I love all of the news shows that are in the morning.

Quick update on the baby and me...the baby is estimated to be weighing 8lbs. 4oz. and as of yesterday I am 1.5 cm dilated! Next appointment is on Tuesday but of course I am praying I go into labor before then. My parents will be arriving tomorrow (Saturday). So after Josh and I have a nice date night tonight and my parents get here, I would like you to come on out, okay baby g?

I have quite a few pictures I have been meaning to post. So to start, here are three pictures of baby g's nursery. The green walls look a lot limier (not sure if that's a word) in these pictures. We have a pretty
good idea of what we think baby g's name will be (to be disclosed at his official naming ceremony...just kidding). But when it's official I will be ordering letters of his name to go above the crib.

The glider/ottoman isn't the one we had intended on getting but we found out the one we wanted was probably going to take 3-4 months (yes months) so we decided to go with the one that we could get in 7-14 days and it was actually a much better price. Not exactly the color I want but I could re-upostler the cushions (I'll just add that to my long list of other projects that I have yet to touch).

There are a few other finishing touches the nursery needs but for the most part all we
really need to complete the nursery is our son!

And here is the baby bedding that only took me my entire pregnancy to find. I am way too particular and I know it. But I just love this bedding. 

   

And here is your's truly at 39 weeks prego!

Sorry for the picture in the mirror.

Josh was working and well I was bored. 

...insert baby here...

Practice Hospital Run

Yesterday was my first official day off from work and I was super excited to start nesting. I have a very long list of things I'd like to get done before the baby arrives so I was looking forward to a very productive day. I was able to get a lot done in the morning but after a late lunch I starting have a pretty bad pain on the right side of my abdomen. Then pain didn't feel like a contraction but more like a runner's cramp. As I was waiting for the pain to pass I sat on the couch contemplating if I should call Josh or if I should call my father. (Now that Josh is on rotations, I told him I would try not to call him unless I was going into labor because I didn't want to worry him.) I managed to get into a position on the couch where I wasn't in pain and ended up falling asleep until Josh got home from working.

When he got home I tried to change positions and the pain came back right away and it didn't go away. After dinner and after speaking with my father he recommended I just go ahead and call my doctor to see if I could come in and get checked out to make sure everything was okay. So at about 7pm last night we headed towards the hospital to see what was going on. We got right in and they hooked me up to a couple of different monitors. The baby's heart rate was good, the doc checked me out, I wasn't dialated. The doc just thought the baby was in a position that was causing me the discomfort and just to be safe they wanted to keep there to monitor the baby and me. We were at the hospital for a couple of hours and after a sonogram (which everything looked great) we were able to go home at about 11:45pm.

I do feel better this morning but I'm not so sure the pain I was experiencing was the baby being in a funky position. I can feel him moving around quite a bit and I don't think he was poking and prodding my right side. Who knows? I'm just thankful I'm feeling better today and can continue my nesting projects.

Quick shout out to my amazing husband for being so wonderful last night. Josh has to be at the hospital at 6am every morning he has been going to bed between 9-9:30pm. I know it was rough for him to not get enough sleep last night. I guess we can consider it practice for not getting much sleep when the baby is here.

Last Day of Work!!!

I can't believe this day has finally arrived….it's my last day of work! Today is a bittersweet day for me. I am definitely glad to be done working (to start the job I believe God has designed me to do – be a mother); but boy am I going to miss these people. They have been nothing but wonderful to me from the moment I met them. They took me in and have become my Erie family. They had a special lunch for me today, one of my favorites, a Greek salad from Panera, and a good-bye cake. My co-workers also got me flowers, cards, and gifts. I don't feel like I deserve these gifts, I want to give them gifts for how they have blessed me. When I first started working here, I wasn't quite sure if this is where I wanted to be and I wasn't sure what the Lord had in mind. I am so thankful that even before I moved to Erie he had ordained me to have worked here. It didn't take me long to see the Lord's hand in placing me here specifically to learn new things, to minister to my co-workers, and to develop the relationships that I did. God is so good and I praise him for leading me here.

Now this isn't good-bye because I am still going to be working for them just part-part time. The office manager and I have come up with a plan for me to continue taking care of their accounts payables from home. I'll most likely come back towards the end of September/beginning of October and I'll be able to stop on in the shop about once a week with the baby to pick up what I need to pay the bills at home. It's not going to be much but at least we'll have diaper money.

Now that my last day of work has arrived (and is almost over), the baby is even closer to coming!

 

 

A Wonderful Weekend

This past weekend was absolutely wonderful! My family came on up for my last baby shower given by Brooke, Camille, and Sarah. The shower was a garden party in Camille's backyard. They hung beautiful lanterns, covered four tables with beautiful floral tablecloths, citronella candles, and the food was of course nothing but amazing! Camille contacted my mother for one of the games to ask her questions about when I was a baby. It was such a fun game and let's just say all of my girlfriends got to learn a lot about baby Bethany and probably a bit more than I would have disclosed with them. But it was all in fun and I know my mother was happy to share her fun (and not so fun) memories of me. The party was so relaxing and it was great to have one last time of hanging out with the girls before baby g is here. **Thank you girls for making the shower so much fun! You all have been an incredibly blessing to me and I am so thankful you are in my life. **Pictures of the shower to come from my favorite photographer, Brooke!

Also this past weekend, we took the fam to the Erie Arts Festival. The festival was held downtown on the bayfront at Liberty Park. I was a little nervous about finding a place to park but thankfully we found spot (thanks to Papa). I know it sounds dumb to worry about parking, but when you're 9 months pregnant not having to walk too far for parking is kind of a big deal. There were a lot of different vendors at the festival and we enjoyed walking around checking everything out. After we walked around for a bit we grabbed lunch and I must say lunch was the highlight of the festival for me. I had a super yummy grilled chicken pita with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, dried cranberries, with sweet vidalia onion sauce and a huge fresh squeezed lemonade. It was the perfect summer treat and I'm pretty sure I will be coming back to the art festival next year just to have that pita again.

This past weekend was Josh's last free weekend before he started his rotations. His first rotation is internal medicine and he said his first day (yesterday) went well. He said it will be challenging but he is so happy not be studying or be in a classroom. During this rotation they are required to volunteer for one day to take a long day of being on call and he went ahead and volunteered for his long call today. He had to be at the hospital this morning at 6am and will be there until 8pm. I'm sure he is glad he is getting this over with but boy is he going to be wiped out tonight.

What's been going on?

Since I posted last week about being one month away from my due date, quite a bit has been going on for Josh and me. Sorry, no baby yet.

First, we went to Dayton on Sunday for Josh to take his boards on Monday. Praise the Lord! Boards are over! Our entire family has been covering Josh in prayer for this major exam and we continue to pray and trust the Lord for the results (we won't hear for about 4-6 weeks). I keep telling Josh how proud I am of him for all of his hard work and I will continue to do so. Joshua - I AM SO PROUD OF YOU!!! Not only have you been working your booty off for the past two years but you have also made time for me to show me how much you love me, especially during this time of preparing for the arrival of our son. Thank you babe!

 

Second, Monday was also Josh's 25th birthday! The big 25! Now we are the same age (at least until October). It did stink that he had to take the boards on his birthday. When he woke up and I wished him happy birthday, he had forgotten it was his birthday. Poor guy, he was so consumed by the boards he didn't even remember his own birthday. We were able to celebrate his birthday and the completion of boards that evening at the Cheesecake Factory. And yes we did bring home some cheesecake. Super yummy. Josh actually prefers cheesecake over cake and we all got to benefit from that, thanks Josh.

 

And third, we had our sonogram on Wednesday to get one last look at the baby and to see how big he is. Before the sonogram, Josh and I both made our guesses at how much we thought the baby weighs. Josh guessed in the high 6lbs and I guessed low 6lbs (purely based on what one of my doctors had told me two weeks ago). Well, let's just say we were both wrong and we guessed way to low. 7lbs. 13oz. is his estimated weight! He is a big boy!

But his head is down and that was great to hear! Next week's appointment (38 weeks) they will be checking to see if I am dialated and if I am they might offer to induce me. After talking with my father and an OB friend in Dayton, they did not recommend being induced before 39 weeks unless I have any medical reason to do so. I really do want to go into labor myself but I guess we'll see what happens.

One More Month

Today is my one month mark until my due date (July 18^th)! Only four more weeks to go until our little bambino arrives. It's hard to imagine that in four weeks (or less) I will be holding our son. It is still so surreal to me. I see my big belly, I feel and see the baby moving (which weirds Josh out by the way), and my doctors have yet to tell me I'm not pregnant. Of course I know I'm not going to be pregnant forever, but to go from one day to not having a baby to having a baby is pretty wild.

This whole month we have been pretty busy with getting everything ready for our son's arrival. I think we are just about ready. I keep saying the baby has to wait until Josh is finished with his boards. Well, Josh takes his boards this coming Monday (on his 25^th birthday) and after boards the baby can come whenever he would like (just as long as it's not after his due date). Josh actually has the last two weeks of June off and would love it if the baby came then, but we'll see. Those are my last two weeks of work and I wouldn't hate to be done working early, but I'm pretty sure I have no control over when I go into labor.

Josh will actually be taking his boards in Dayton, so we'll be traveling home this weekend. At first I was really hesitant about traveling during my last month of pregnancy but my husband, father, and mother-in-law all assured me I will be okay. I actually asked my father what he thought about me traveling this close to my due date. Thinking my over-protective father was going to back me up, he told me he drove my mother out west during her last month of pregnancy and she was fine. Josh's mom told me she traveled even closer to her due date. I was clearly out numbered. No worries, I will just be super prepared. I told Josh I will be packing the car like we are planning on having the baby in Dayton. Here is what I'm thinking…if I am prepared and ready for the baby to come, he won't come. So last night I got everything ready and packed for the baby.

Call me crazy but I feel like I already posted about me traveling during my last month of pregnancy. Maybe I'm just having serious pregnancy brain today but I feel like I've already mentioned this. So if I have, I'm sorry. I'm pregnant.

Britt's First Trip to Presque Isle

When Brittany and Jason were here the first weekend of June to help with the nursery, I wanted to take Britt to Lake Erie because she said she has never been to Presque Isle. They got into town before the rest of the fam, so we took the opportunity to pick up dinner at Panera and bring it to the lake. The weather was absolutely wonderful.

Brittany kept saying, "You get to live here! This is beautiful!"

Thank you Brittany for that little reminder. I certainly need it as I tend to forget how beautiful Erie is.

Still newlyweds...their one year anniversary is coming up in one month. I can't believe how quickly the year went by.

Josh & Jason

Here are a couple pictures of me and my belly. These pictures were taken at the beginning of the month and I don't think my belly has grown too much since these were taken.

I told Josh last night, I'm having a hard time remembering what it's like to not be pregnant. To quickly roll out of bed and stand up easily from sitting on our sofa (without grunting), to bend over and pick something up off the floor without my face getting super flushed. At 3am this morning when I got up to use the restroom, I thought how I can't wait to not have to get up to pee, but then reality hit and I realized I will be getting up regardless to feed my new baby. And how will I feel after the baby is born? Will I forget what it's like to be pregnant? I'm not sure and I guess we'll see. Maybe some women do forget what it's like to be pregnant. I have heard that once they place your baby in your arms you forget about all of the pain and discomfort it took to get to that point. My pregnancy hasn't been terrible but it certainly hasn't been easy. I've already decided I would do this over again, just not any time soon.

No Water/No Work

Last Thursday we received a notice at work that our water was going to be shut off from 8-5 on Monday due to construction going on in the area. First thought in my head is, how am I supposed to use the restroom (since I'm going every hour and a half to two hours)? No worries I think, I just drive over to Panera or to a grocery store to use the restroom. But wait, the entire area around where I work is having the water shut off. Just a small problem for a young women starting her ninth month of pregnancy that every time she stands up she has to use the restroom. I told my office manager I was a bit concerned and she graceciously allowed me to take today off. Thank you Jesus.

I have really enjoyed me day off. I started my day with a little prenatal yoga, I went to Camille's house to watch an early afternoon movie (we watched "Bride Wars"...Henry loves Anne Hathaway), a few errands to find something comfortable to wear at the hospital after the baby is born. and then a wonderful late afternoon nap.

Side note.........................................................................
I was looking for a picture of my favorite sunglasses and this is the only one I could find.
The sunglasses aren’t high end by any means, I actually only paid $8.98 for them at Steve & Barry’s. They're by Amanda Bynes (a young actress with a clothing line at Steve & Barry’s) Right after I purchased them I went back to get another pair because I loved them so much and I know my track record for holding on to sunglasses isn’t the greatest (that’s why I purchase inexpensive glasses). Of course they didn’t have any left at the store, then the store went out of business and then I lost them!

Jason found the sunglasses in my car, they were actually right behind me trapped in between the seat. I am so happy they are back in my life; crazy how they were so close yet so far away. THANK YOU JASON!

Work weekend with our incredibly family…

First of all, let me start this post by saying my family is incredible and the blessings they pour out on us never seem to end. My family came up here to Erie this past weekend for a work weekend to help us get our house baby ready. There was a lot we wanted to do and knew we needed their help. Plus I'm not really good for anything anymore (other than giving orders) since I'm not really supposed to be doing any heavy lifting; Josh doesn't even let me carry the laundry basket up and down the stairs…oh darn. Extra muscle was definitely needed because we relocated the futon and treadmill to our basement, disposed of Josh's desk, and brought in the new dresser and crib for the baby's nursery (formerly Josh's study).

On top of all the heavy lifting we also painted the nursery. I am so thankful my grandmother (Gammie) came up with my family because she saved us so much money on paint and supplies. Leave it to Gammie to find coupons in the store and have a Sherwin Williams card from her contractor that we were able to use for an addition 20% off. I really wanted to get "green" paint with low-odor/no VOCs but I hated how expensive it was. Thanks to Gammie we saved $15 on the paint! I've never been so excited about buying paint and supplies as I was this past Saturday. But with all my excitement about our paint supplies, I wasn't able to participate in the painting. I was ordered to take a break and prop my swelling ankles up on the couch. I didn't argue for too long and Nola and I ended up taking a little nap together. Of course I felt incredibly guilty because my poor family was working so hard and but they insisted. And when they insist, they mean it.

EVERYONE worked very hard this entire weekend, but I would like to give a shout out to my sister and her husband. Brittany and Jason were non- stop working their little tooshies off the entire weekend, they make such a great team. You should just see how they organized our basement. I was really hesitant to set up our futon in the basement as an extra room but they made it look really nice. I used to only go in our basement to do laundry but Josh and I have even talked about maybe watching a movie down there. And…..Jason found my favorite sunglasses in my car that I thought I lost a couple months ago!!!! I thought I was going to cry. I was already having a great day but this was the icing on the cake.

Thank you again family for working so hard last weekend. Josh and I are so thankful and beyond blessed by how much you have helped us. Now that everything is almost ready, I have a huge sense of peace about the baby coming. WE LOVE YOU GUYS!

Always special...June 9th

Two years ago I married the man of my dreams. It is hard to believe that two years has already gone by.  They truly have been the most incredibly two years of my life thus far. Being married to Josh has been an incredible joy. He brings so much life to our marriage. He is truly amazing for continuing to love me unconditionally day after day, even through my most unlovable days. He is the love of my life and I am so blessed he picked me.
In celebration of our two year anniversary we went to dinner at Peppino's Italian Chop House. This was our second time at Peppino's and again we were very impressed. During dinner we were reflecting over the past two years of our marriage. One of the memories we reflected upon was on our honeymoon we talked about when we would have the "talk" about when to start a family. I believe we decided we would discuss this on our two year anniversary. Even though we are starting a family a little sooner than we had initially planned, we truly feel the Lord's timing is perfect for us to start our family and we continue to trust Him to take care of us and meet all of our needs.

The Stud Club

You know what’s weird to think about? Life before Josh was in my life. He and I have been together for a little over 4 years (married for almost 2 years), and it really does seem like it has been longer (I mean that in a good way). Well, Josh and I were cleaning out our basement the other night and he has a few storage bins full of things from before we were together that he has yet to go through. As we were going through some of these things I kept thinking how strange it is that there was a time in both of our lives before we were together. Of course there had to be a time in our lives before we were together. That time was incredibly essential to developing the who we are today.

Well, take a look at what we discovered among all of Josh's fun memories...I'm not quite sure what to think...

 

 

Josh said he got this card on a spring break trip with his friend Adam. I know his friend Adam well and it absolutely doesn't surprise me that he and Josh spent money on this card. This card just got my mind going even more when I think about life before Josh. We got rid of a lot of junk the other night but you better believe Josh did not want to part with his Stud Club card.

Josh, I knew you were a stud from the first time I laid eyes on you. And I didn't need your Stud Club card to prove it.

Pregnancy Update

I am in the beginning of my 34^th week of pregnancy and I can't believe I am already this far along. So far things have been going (relatively) okay. I have hit the very uncomfortable stage of pregnancy and at times I'm finding this is messing with my emotions. I just about lost it the other day when my mother asked me how I was feeling and poor Josh is often a victim of not my tears but my bad attitude. I hate that how I feel affects my attitude, especially to Josh. He has been nothing but patient, considerate, and very helpful the entire pregnancy. Thank you Josh for being so supportive and I'm sorry I've been such a grouchy pants lately.

We've been going to the doctor every two weeks. Our next appointment is next Tuesday (June 9 – our two year anniversary), after this appointment we will schedule a sonogram to make sure everything looks okay and to get an idea of how much the baby weighs. I'm really anxious for this appointment because Josh thinks we're going to have a big baby. I'm trying not to worry about the baby's weight; I just want the baby to be healthy. I've been concerned with how much weight I've gained. I've asked the doctors and he said I'm textbook perfect and measuring exactly where I need to be.

We haven't settled on a name yet. We have two names that we both really like but I think we're waiting for another name to miraculously pop into our heads. Naming your baby is a tough job. Lots of factors to consider: we both need to love the name, it needs to go well with Glupker, and the meaning of the name is important to us. At least it became important to us when we thought we liked the named Flynn and discovered its meaning is "heir to the redheaded man". I'm pretty sure we will not be naming the baby before he is born but we'd like to go into the delivery room with at least three names we love.

Current Cravings: I love love love anything that is cold right now. Cold fruit, crunching on ice (I know this is bad for your teeth), and especially ice cream. I'm also craving things I can't have like sweet ice tea (Josh has me on a strict no caffeine diet) and turkey deli meat. I want a turkey sub from Wegman's or a sierra turkey sandwich from Panera so bad. I have been making a lot of strombolis for Josh and I. I'm sure there are other things that I am craving. If I see it, I usually want it.

This weekend my family is coming up from Ohio to work on the nursery. We ordered the crib and dresser from a store in Ohio and they would not deliver to PA. My parents are bringing that up and we have lots to do to get the nursery and our townhouse baby ready. I'm really looking forward to this weekend.

Other than posting a belly pic (sorry Brittany) I think that's about all that is going on with my pregnancy. I'm in the home stretch now and we are getting really excited to meet our son!

Ketchup Crisis of '09

Many of you who know my husband well know that one of his great loves is....ketchup.  Yes, ketchup. When we first got married, one of our house rules he insisted upon was that we never ever be without at least two extra bottles of ketchup in our pantry. We're coming up on our two year anniversary in a couple of weeks and I must say I've done a great job of holding to this rule of keeping extra ketchup in the house because I know how much my husband loves it and how quickly he can get through a whole bottle (even the bulk ones from Sam's). Well, let's just say it's a good thing I can blame my forgetfulness on being pregnant because we have been out of ketchup for almost a week! Sorry babe. So on my to do list weekend you can guess what is on the top of that list. Adios blogging world, I've got to get ready to head out to Sam's to stock up on ketchup.

Memorial Weekend

Josh and I had a really nice Memorial Weekend together. Josh kind of took a break from studying this weekend so we could spend some time with each other. When he was studying, I was attempting to be  productive around our townhouse. I was able to get some much needed cleaning done, laundry, and I began a project I have been looking forward to and dreading at the same time...cleaning/organizing our basement. I've been looking forward to it because usually when I'm at work, all I've been able to think about is all the work I want to do around the house before the baby arrives. And dreading because who really wants to spend their weekend cleaning and re-organizing there basement on a holiday weekend. The basement isn't finished but at least I was able to make a small dent in my project.

Super excited for a four day week at work. With the weather getting warmer work I've been busier at work making my days and weeks go by pretty quickly. And this week, the girl who will be replacing me is starting and I will begin teaching her all that I know.

I still need to post pictures from my baby shower I had a couple weekends again in Michigan. Those to come later this week. And I think I have FINALLY made a decision about the baby bedding. Choosing baby beddding has been way more stressful, more about this later.

And because my adorable hubby loves for me to post a picture with my blog post here in the picture....

Last week our friend Brooke took pictures of Josh, me, and my belly. Josh hadn't shaved in almost a month and I told him he needed to shave for the pictures. Reluctantly, Josh headed up to the bathroom to shave. To my surprise, he came out with a handle bar mustache. With my huge sunglasses he looks just like my brother's Mii we created for him. Kind of scary huh?

He is faithful

At this very moment I feel like there is no possible way for my belly to get any bigger. Eating a bowl of chocolate ice cream with bananas probably doesn't help how I feel either (hey, I skipped the chocolate syrup tonight, thank you very much. Oh, remind me later to tell you about the time when I talked my father into letting me have ice cream sundaes for breakfast when I was about 11 years old). As I was preparing dinner I felt like the baby was trying to kick his way out of my belly through my belly button. I think we're going through a growth spurt over here. It's still hard for me to believe my belly is going to get even bigger, but I still have two months to go. How about his realization....this entire pregnancy I've been looking down at my growing belly. The view looking down is a whole lot different than when you look at yourself in the mirror from the side. Holy cow! (No pun intended here folks.)

Well, things have been a bit crazy here in the Glupker household. We had a lot of trials last week and we were really challenged to put all of our faith and trust in the Lord. We praise the Lord for always being faithful to us. We trust in his faithfulness even when things don't look the way we thought they were going to look. But he is faithful and we cling to him to get us through this season.

James 1:2-8
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.

Romans 8:28
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Week 31 & the Snoogle

Week 31

Can you believe I'm already in my 31st week of pregnancy? I know it's pretty crazy to think I only have 9 weeks left. This time has been flying by. I still have a long list of things I want to get done before our son arrives, so hopefully I'll use this time productively to get most of those things accomplished.

In other pregnancy news, I got myself a Snoogle. I was very reluctant to buy this pillow but my girlfriends up here had been encouraging me to make the investment since I still have a couple of months left of my pregnancy. They were probably just sick of hearing me complain about my nerve pain around my ribs. Anyways, the Snoogle is a pregnancy pillow designed to give extra support to your head, back, hips, and of course your baby bump, all in one pillow!

I am still having the nerve pain but I am sleeping much better. Before the snoogle I was using 3 pillows - a normal size, a king size, and a body pillow. They all had to be in a specific position in order for me to get comfortable to fall asleep and that was a task in itself. Josh would still say it is a process for me to get comfortable in bed but he has hated every single pillow that comes between us in bed. He should know that he could never be replaced by the Snoogle.  

Special Mothers

She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue...Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also and he praises her: Many women do noble things but you surpass them all. Charm is deceptive, beauty is fleeting but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

Words cannot express how much we appreciate EVERYTHING you have done for us. Thank you for all of your love, support and the many ways bless us. Happy Mother's Day!

Horror Stories

If there is one thing I have learned during my pregnancy it's that every single woman's body is different and all of our pregnancy experiences are going to be different. And when it comes to pregnancy horror stories, I try my best not to listen to the women around me because I certainly do not want to hear them. This is my first baby and I don't want to go into labor thinking the worst. After we've all had our babies then we can talk. But for now I don't want to hear it!

I was standing in the check-out line at Wegman's the other day and the cashier lady saw I was pregnant and so did the girl behind me (who also happened to work at Wegman's). The girl behind me started talking about her first pregnancy and how she gained over 50 pounds and the cashier said she had twins and gained almost 100. At this point I'm just nodding my head and smiling at these girls but then the conversation took quite a different turn. The girl behind actually asked me if I wanted to know how long she had to push during labor. In the most polite way I could I told her I'd rather not know. Turns out her labor wasn't so bad except her boyfriend or doctor tricked her into thinking she was getting an epidural when she actually didn't. And the cashier lady followed her story by informing me she had her twins naturally also and pushed for a very long time. When she started going into more detail about her labor, I stated very clearly to both girls to stop talking. Not sure where this courage came from but I'm glad I said something. I told them this is my first baby and I don't want to hear about all of the bad things that could happen. Clearly they should have known to stop talking when my eyeballs about jumped out of their sockets in shear horror of their stories.

Can you tell I'm a little worried about actually having this baby? So women of Erie, if you see me coming, please keep your pregnancy horror stories to yourself. Like I said above, we can dish about it after I've had my baby.

One more story.....a guy at work looked at me today and said, "So, are you due any day now?" I kindly informed him I have about 10 more weeks until my due date. "Really?" He says. "Yep." I reply and walk back to my desk to give myself a quick pitty party.

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Josh asked me to make sure I post a picture with my blog post but since I haven't taken a recent pregnancy picture yet (sorry Brittany), I figured I'd post a cute picture of Nola. But I came across this one first and Marcky you are the lucky winner! Josh I bet you love this picture since you and Marcky share something very special. Very special as in you would probably be okay without me as long as you had Marcky. That's okay, I've learned to accept it.

A Worried Father/Grandfather

On Saturday morning I was trying to call my parents while Josh and I were driving down to Grove City to do a little shopping at the outlet mall. No particular reason I needed to call them, just wanting to say hello and see how they were doing. I am their daughter, do I need a reason to call them? Anyways, I tried to reach my parents at their house and on both of their cell phones but no answer. No worries, I figured I'd talk to them sometime later during the weekend. A couple minutes after I tried to reach them my mother sends me a text and asks if I am okay and says she can't talk she's at the grand opening of the new neonatal intensive care unit (where my father is the director). I completely forgot about the grand opening of the NICU, I have Josh text back (since I was driving - safety first) we are fine.

Yesterday, my sister calls to chat and during our convo she mentions I gave Papa a pretty big scare this weekend. What? Oh, with the phone call on Saturday. I guess my mother told Brittany that I called right before Papa was about to speak and when he saw my call he got a worried look on his face. Brittany also mentioned Papa has been a little on edge ever since my 23rd week.

I called my father today after work today to tell him not to worry about me. He told me he was on stage about to give his speech when he looked into his pocket and saw my missed call. He got my mother's attention, mouthed "Call Bethany" and that's when I received her text. Boy am I glad I called before his speech and not during. I told him he has to stop worrying about me because now I feel like I can't even call them without them worrying about me. He said he will try to not worry so much.

I'm sure when our son is born I will be worrying and fretting over ever little thing too. I guess I can't blame my papa for worrying.

Thanks for loving and caring for me so much Papa!

Happy Birthday Nola!

Today my sweet Nola turns 3 years old and since she lives with her grandparents in Ohio, Josh and I aren't able to be there to celebrate her birthday. We got Nola when she was only three months old and she only weighed 3 pounds. She has currently doubled her weight since and has easily made her way into all of our hearts. You can't help but love her!

Studying with Josh

Hey folks, me here and just checking in while Josh is studying. It's been a pretty busy week and I can't believe tomorrow is already Thursday. Praise the Lord my days at work have been going by much quicker, all thanks to the warmer weather up here in Erie. Which is another praise because I was getting pretty anxious for spring-like temperatures.

I'm enjoying a nice evening on our couch with my feet elevated above my heart (ankles are a bit swollen), attempting to finish some thank you cards while Josh is studying for boards. He is officially done with his second year of med-school!!! He took his last final today and in exactly one month he will be taking Step 1 of his boards. Even though he has completed all of his classes he is still going to be very busy preparing for the boards. I am so incredibly proud of how hard he has been working. He has dedicated so much time and energy into med-school, I pray the Lord continues to show his faithfulness to Josh. He is going to be a great doctor!

Josh just told me to post a picture with this blog. He said it's better to have a picture with a blog post. So here is kind of a random picture taken a couple of weeks ago. I'm not sure if I've already posted it so I apologize if you've already seen this.

Baby's first Chipotle

Whenever we're in Dayton we try to get pizza from our favorite pizza place, Donato's Pizza, or Chipotle (or sometimes both, just being honest). When I lived in Dayton and ate at Chipotle regularly, I would get a chicken fajita bowl. But since I rarely have Chipotle I splurged for their barbaquoa fajita burrito. Oh boy was it yummy and now I feel like driving to Cleveland for some Chipotle. Anybody with me?

Okay, back to the thank you cards.

28 Weeks

Well, this picture is coming to you at the end of my 28th week. I had Josh take this picture of me last Sunday and I had really good intentions of posting it early in the week. But I didn’t have the best week of being pregnant so I wasn’t up for blogging much. I am still loving being pregnant but this week was a little rough. Sleeping has been almost impossible with this crazy nerve pain I have been experiencing around my ribs and of course the pain is worse when I am lying down. My mother likes to remind me of the 48 hour labor I put her through, I wonder if this will be my thing I remind my son of when he is older. I have a bit to go left of my pregnancy, I’m sure I’ll continue to be experiencing a few more aches and pains, I just hope this is the worst of it. Oh, and I still have labor to look forward to! I do love being pregnant but this has been one crazy ride!

Yesterday was my gestational diabetes test. I haven’t heard back from the doctor yet so I am praying that means I passed. The “glucola”, (that’s what they call the sugary drink –do they think by adding ‘cola’ at the end of it makes it sound better?) well it wasn’t terrible to drink but I did feel a little sick after drinking it. Drinking the glucola ended up being the easy part of my doctor’s appointment. I will spare you all of the details and just tell you we were there for a couple of hours, I had to have blood drawn twice, was told I am Rh negative, and because of that I had to have a shot in my toosh. Early in my pregnancy I read a little bit about being Rh negative but I didn’t think that concerned me. Well it does and Josh had to keep assuring me that our baby was going to be okay. For those who aren’t familiar with what it means to be Rh negative this is from babycenter.com and they give a clear explanation of what it means to be Rh negative during your pregnancy:

Early in your pregnancy your blood will be tested to determine your blood type and your Rh status — that is, whether you have the Rh (Rhesus) factor, a protein that most people have on the surface of their red blood cells. If you do have the Rh factor, as most people do, your status is Rh-positive. (About 85 percent of Caucasians are Rh-positive, as are 90 to 95 percent of African Americans and 98 to 99 percent of Asian Americans.) If you don't have it, you're Rh-negative, and you'll need to take certain precautions during your pregnancy. If you're Rh-negative, there's a good chance that your blood is incompatible with your baby's blood, which is likely to be Rh-positive. You probably won't know this for sure until the baby is born, but in most cases you have to assume it, just to be safe. Being "Rh-incompatible" isn't likely to harm you or your baby during this pregnancy, if it's your first. But if your baby's blood leaks into yours (as it can at certain times during pregnancy and at birth), your immune system will start to produce antibodies against this Rh-positive blood. If that happens, you'll become "Rh-sensitized" — and the next time you're pregnant with an Rh-positive baby, those antibodies may attack your baby's blood. Fortunately, you can avoid becoming Rh-sensitized by getting an injection of a drug called Rh immune globulin whenever there's a chance that your blood has been exposed to your baby's blood.

All is well, I was just being a bit dramatic yesterday. Most likely all of my crazy hormones and if I had known I was going to get a shot, especially one in the location it was in and I could have prepared myself, I would have been okay. So thanks for letting me rant. I feel better now. I'll have Josh take another picture soon (not too much change from last week) and I'll post all of the things I love about being pregnant.

Have a great weekend everyone, the weather is supposed to be amazing here in Erie!!!!

Our baby's soon-to-be best friend

Yesterday, our friends Adam and Camille had their first baby boy and I got to meet him today! My heart just melted when I first laid eyes on him. He is absolutely adorable.

Henry James Jennings
April 21, 2009 at 12:44PM
8lbs. 14oz. & 21" long

Finger on the lip, already in deep thought.

Camille found these leg warmers called "baby legs" on Etsy.com.

Henry, you are looking good stud.

And the beautiful mother doing wonderfully. Camille and Adam are already amazing parents.

Camille, I am so proud of you! Many congratulations and blessings to you guys and the new addition to your family. Looking forward to Henry and our little guy's first play date!

Dayton Baby Shower

Sorry folks, I forgot to post pictures from my baby shower in Dayton. So two weeks late...here are some pictures from my baby shower.

I think I mentioned it before but I will say it again. My sister, mother, and grandmother all worked so hard on this baby shower for me and it was wonderful! Every party put together by my mother and grandmother is pretty much fabulous. I was incredibly honored by what they did for me in the celebration of my first baby.

Because we invited a lot of family and friends (I think over 60), the girls came up with the idea of having the games set up as different stations in different rooms of my mother's house. This allowed the guests to walk around and play the games at their leisure. After we ate lunch and cake, my mother and sister announced the answers to each game and passed out prizes to the winners. The stations idea worked out really well. It allowed the guest lots of visiting time with each other and I was able to walk around and talk with friends and family I had not seen in a while.

The first game....a baby shower must. We had two ladies who were both dead on! And I'm still trying to get over how long my Aunt Paula made hers.

The second game was my favorite. We had ten paper bags on a table and sealed inside each one was a baby item the guests had to guess what the item was.

My creative mother made answer cards for each guest to write down their answers to each game.


Another shower favorite. This game was probably the most fun to watch. My mother melted 10 different candy bars in 10 different diapers and our guests had to guess the candy bar by smelling it.

I'll spare you the photos of the melted candy bars. Just a reminded of what I have to look forward to in a couple of months.


I think I spent most of my time around this table. It had almost all of my recent cravings: fruit, fresh veggies and dip, and chocolate.

Every party in Dayton needs a cake from The Cakery. Mine and my sister's wedding cakes were from this bakery and their cakes are delicious. I highly recommend their cakes.

Salad of greens with vanilla chardonnay poached pears and almonds with ginger-lemon vinaigrette. They tasted even more amazing than they sound. And they were too cute!
All of the food was excellent. Especially the crab cakes with roasted corn. Yummo!

The bib says "What happens at grandma's stays at grandma's." And the onsie says "Vroom vroom off to grandpa's."
Josh and I received a lot of really nice gifts at the shower. We both are touched by everyone's love and generosity. We are truly blessed.

And my friend Michael got me a Wii Fit. Not sure if he's trying to tell me something, but I was pleasantly surprised to open this gift.

-sorry this picture is blurry-
The grandmothers (minus three great-grandmothers and one great-great grandmother).
From left to right: Gammie, my mother, and Josh's mother.

Thank you again Brittany, mommy, & Gammie for making this shower incredibly special for me. I truly enjoyed myself and felt blessed and loved the entire time. You girls sure know how to throw a party. Love you girls!

Easter Weekend

I have always loved the Easter holiday. It is a wonderful reminder of what Christ did for us on the cross. I continue to be blown away by what He did for me even though I am so unworthy of His incredible sacrifice. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)


Josh and I weren't able to go home (to Dayton or Grand Rapids) for the weekend. So we celebrated Easter with our close friends up here in Erie. We went over to the Lee's house for a potluck lunch. She and her husband provided a ham and potatoes and everyone else brought sides and desserts. The food was beyond great and the fellowship with close friends was refreshing. We are truly blessed to have such great friends up here in Erie who are all going through (or have already gone through) this season of being in med-school. I don't know what I would do if I didn't have these friends here. I know my relationships with them have a lot to do with my thriving here in Erie rather than just surviving.


Also this week…..I finally finished the Harry Potter series! All seven books complete! Whew, this has been a long journey and I am kind of sad it's over. I probably became too emotionally connected to the characters in the story but you really can't help it. I think I want to re-read them again but I'll probably wait a while. I have a few other books on my reading list I hope to get through before the baby comes. You know, really fun and exciting books about breast feeding and giving your baby the gift of sleep. I know those aren't that exciting but I'm all about learning as much info I can on these subjects now before the baby is here.

Always good to be home

I am home (Erie) from my trip back home (Dayton). Did that make sense? Even though Erie is my new home now, my house in Dayton will always be home to me. Anyways, I have returned home from a wonderful weekend with my family. My mother, sister, and grandmother threw me a wonderful baby shower on Saturday. I had such a great time and I really enjoyed myself. Josh and I have been incredibly blessed by our friends and family and their thoughtfulness. Pictures of the shower to come.

I had anticipated on returning home on Sunday evening, but due to that nasty flu bug going around, I was unable to travel on Sunday. Brittany and I both got really sick on Sunday, she got hit with it harder than I did. So instead of driving 5 hours from Dayton to Erie, she and I spent the day resting and letting our mother take care of us. I was pretty nervous for the baby being in so much discomfort and pain. But even through the pain, he was kicking away…all day. Knowing he was moving around so much was very reassuring me. And either Nola was really tuckered out from the party or knew I wasn't feeling too good, she spent her entire Sunday resting with me on my lap. I of course loved it and didn't mind one bit. She seemed to be pretty content when she discovered she can rest her head on my belly, it was pretty cute.

I am home, back to work, and our kitchen is packed with all of the gifts we received this weekend. Also, it's been snowing in Erie ever since I got home. I've heard we're supposed to get a couple more inches of snow tonight. Erie might just beat the record for snowiest winter after all.

Chick-fil-A Deal!!!

Special Announcement….

I don't know why I am so excited about this today but I am. I've come to love the little things in my life that make me excited and give me something to look forward to. Like when we first moved to Erie summer 2007 and I saw a Chick-fil-A being built and the sign said "coming fall 2007". I immediately sent my mother a text message and told her… "Josh and I are going to be okay here in Erie, we're getting a Chick-fil-A!"

Sorry, I got a little side-tracked (that's happening a lot lately), back to the special announcement…

If you enjoy a meal today (April 2^nd) at Chick-fil-A, SAVE YOUR RECEIPT because you can go back to Chick-fil-A with your receipt and receive the same thing you ordered for FREE! You can't go back today and get your meal for free, but starting tomorrow the deal is good until the end of May. This applies to anything on their menu. Party trays, desserts, their fabulous waffle French fries, anything! When I saw a commercial for this I was a little skeptical. So I called our local Chick-fil-A and sure enough this deal is going on all day long!

Thankfully my sister is in town today and she and Josh are going to be bringing me Chick-fil-A for lunch. I'm so excited!

Not sure if this is going on at all Chick-fil-A stores. I would call your local store to see if they're having this special. If they aren't, tell them we are here in Erie and they should get on the ball.

Brittany is coming!

Today my little sister Brittany is coming up to Erie to visit me! Like Josh, my sister is in her second year of med-school at Ohio State. Ohio State gives their med-students a week long spring break, lucky ducks. But we're not bitter about that. Who needs spring break anyways? It doesn't quite feel like spring here in Erie even though it is officially spring. Hey, it still snowed on Monday. I guess that's why people don't spring break in Erie. Except for my sister!

I am really looking forward to spending some quality time with Brittany. We don't have too much planned while she is here in Erie but on Friday she and I are going to drive to Dayton for my first baby shower. I love road trips with Brittany! When we were younger and I got my driver's license, our "road trips" were hour and a half drives from Dayton to Columbus to go shopping and visit our grandparents. We always had great music and great conversations with each other. And now that we're both married, we have so much more to talk about.

 

Also…

Happy first day of APRIL!!!

Camille's Surprise Shower

A couple of weeks ago (March 15th to be exact), Brooke, Sarah L., and I threw Camille a surprise baby shower. Everything was wonderful. Camille was definitely pleasantly surprised - thank you Adam (Camille's hubby) for keeping the shower a secret for us and helping us pull off the surprise for her. I am so glad we were able to honor Camille and the upcoming birth of her son.

If you know me, you know I love planning parties. I loved planning this shower with Brooke and Sarah. These girls are incredibly creative and I was blown away by all of their amazing ideas for games and decorations. The party was held at Sarah's house and of course it looked great (thank you Sarah). I felt like the party went by too quickly and by the time it was over and we had cleaned up, Brooke and I were ready to do it all over again.

Of course I took quite a few pictures of the shower for my own iphoto library, but those aren't the pictures to see. THESE are the pictures to see, courtesy of my dear friend Brooke, master photographer/party planner extraordinare.

Kick Kick!

Yesterday marked a very monumental day in my pregnancy. Josh was able to feel our baby kicking! For the past couple of weeks I have been feeling him in there but we haven't been able to feel him kick from the outside.

I was sitting at work when all of a sudden a felt a little something strange near my belly button. When I put my hand on my belly, he kicked again. I can't even fully describe the feelings that I felt at that moment, other than to say it was amazing. I continue to be in awe of how the Lord is knitting him together inside of me and making him stronger day by day to kick hard enough for Josh and me to feel him. I was so excited to get home from work to share this with Josh. To see Josh's face light up when he felt him kicking, was also a priceless moment of my pregnancy.

As of this morning, Josh said the baby is kicking in morse code of things the baby wants to eat.
....
g-
i-
v-
e-
-

m-
e-
-

w-
i-
n-
g-
s-
!-
-

Very interesting, huh? Crazy how our baby already knows morse code. I know our son will have a very special connection with his father, I just didn't think it was going to be this specific so soon.

3x the Nola

Josh and I had a great weekend in Ohio with our family. I had really been missing my family and Josh could tell I was homesick. I appreciate him recognizing that and making the time for us to travel down there for the weekend. This time of year for school is pretty crazy with only a month left and boards studies on top of his regular school work. Thank you Josh for coming with me and for doing most of the driving!

Weekends home are usually a little hectic as we try to pack a lot in in only a couple days but it's always worth it. We ordered our crib and a dresser for the baby! It's going to be about 4-6 weeks until we get it in. I can't wait!

On Saturday afternoon we drove up to Columbus to have dinner with family at my aunt's house. We even had an early surprise celebration for my mother's birthday. Thanks Aunt Paula for a wonderful dinner and getting everything together for my mother's birthday surprise.

Unfortunately, I didn't take very many pictures this past weekend. The pictures I did take (like of my mother's bithday celebration) didn't turn out so well. But the pictures that did turn out were of course of Nola! 

  

 

This last picture is my favorite. I know I am completely biased, but she is the cutest dog.