Less than two months to go!

Yet another month has passed and I am finally getting around to another update. I am now 31 weeks pregnant and a week and a half into my 8th month. Hard to believe! Marc and I are having so much fun getting ready for our little guy's arrival. He is very active and we are able to feel some big movements now :) . We can even see my belly move! The nursery is coming along. Uncle Jeff's friend, Alpha, came down from NY at the end of October and painted the nursery..."ocean breeze"...a blue that matches the bedding which Duane and Linda so generously bought us.

I did end up getting the seasonal flu vaccine as well as the H1N1 vaccine after much hemming and hawing. I feel confident I made the right decision for me and the baby!

10/9 & 10/18-I bought my first maternity clothes...a pair of Citizens of Humanity jeans (thanks to birthday money from Grandma Jane, Aunt Anni, and Jeff) and a navy dress for my upcoming shower. I also got a few tops from Gap Maternity. Thanks to Traci Wachter's generous loan of her maternity clothes I've only had to buy a very few things. What a wonderful gift she gave! Although I am still wearing my own sweats, workout and pajama pants, I am now fully in maternity pants. They are just so much more comfortable right now!

10/22-I had a longer appointment today since I had my glucose test...I passed :)

10/23-10/25-in NY for my shower. What a wonderful girl's weekend in NY. The shower was just perfect thanks to my mom, Megan, and Becca and all their hard work. I felt so loved surrounded by family and friends. Thank you to everyone who made the effort to be there to help celebrate the exciting arrival of our baby boy!! The only thing that could have made the weekend better was having Marc, the boys (my dad, brothers...), and Aunt Kristi there too!

10/28-Bassinet arrived thanks to Grandma Sarah and Grandpa Bruce. Marc set it up. It's hard to believe our little guy will be small enough to fit in there!

10/30-Jaime and Tommy's little boy, Nathaniel Thomas, was born...our baby boy's first friend :)

11/3-celebrated Marc's 31st birthday with a week of birthday dinners. The baby even gave Daddy a birthday present...Eagles onesies which hopefully he'll get to wear if the Eagles are in the playoffs this winter!

11/5-another doctor's appointment...the baby is still growing right on track :) . The doctor measured my belly and said the baby should be about 3 pounds right now! A little girl in my class may have fifth's disease (darn germy kids!) so I had bloodwork drawn to be sure I am immune. Got a call the next week and thankfully I am immune!

11/6-My friend Lauren, who used to teach with me at Baucom, had generously offered to throw me a small NC shower. She sent the invites today for the December 5th event :) .

11/7-first of three "preparing for childbirth" classes

11/13-My LMC girlfriends sent the baby some LMC gear...so cute!

I will close, as usual, with the hope that my next entry will be sooner than the last!

After a trip to the farmer's market, we're ready for fall...baby Sidney even got his own little pumpkin this year!


Week 25 baby bump pic. And...here's the crib with the bedding (still in the package) and if you look in the mirror you can make out a bit of the changing table :) .

Oh boy!!!

I have no excuse for not posting earlier except that this first month of school has been crazy. Weak excuse I know...with just 3 1/2 months to go before we meet the baby (can you believe it?!!) my goal is to get a little better about my blog posts...Marc's working on another belly shot and will post it soon!
Since only our family and close friends check out this blog I will most likely be repeating myself as I try to re-cap the last month and a 1/2 but for posterity sake I will go ahead and repeat anyway... I had been feeling little flutters and movements for a few weeks but on August 25th Marc felt the first "big kick" and the next night I felt one. It made me pull my hand back a little...wow!!! When I came home from school that day, Marc said he actually thought my belly had grown since that morning :) ...I think I have officially "popped"! On August 27th Marc and I got to see some amazing ultra sound pictures (I wish we could have one done every doctor's visit!) and found out that our little one is...a boy!!!! Instantly, things become "more real" as we started to get ready for our baby boy's arrival (so fun to say!)...Marc and I went to dinner to celebrate at the same Italian restaurant we had gone to the night we first found out we were expecting. Afterwards we went and bought our crib, changing table, and dresser thanks to Great Grandma Dorothy :) . We had been looking for a few weeks but were waiting to find out the baby's sex before we made the big purchase. On August 31st we got our first little boy gift from Aunt Megan...she sent 2 board books and lots of adorable boy clothes from the Polo outlet :) . September 7th Marc and I decided it was time to take the plunge and register...we went to Babies R' Us and Pottery Barn Kids...overwhelming but very fun! We ordered a glider and ottoman for the nursery at a boutique in Ralegh thanks for Grandma Sarah & Grandpa Bruce and Great Grandma Dorothy. We also got a beautiful baby stroller thanks to Grandma Debbie. Uncle Jeff went to a Yankee game and came home with a Mets sweatsuit for his little nephew. We can tell he loves his nephew to buy him something Mets :) . September 12-13- Flicker and I went up to CT for Jaime's surprise baby shower. We stayed with Aunt Anni, Uncle Paul, and Emily and also got to see Aunt Becca and Molly while were there. A quick but wonderful trip! September 24th I had another doctor's appointment...got to hear the baby's heartbeat. The doctor said the baby's still on track to arrive the second week in January. Everything looked good with the baby and me :) . September 26th we picked up the dresser. Marc, Uncle Jeff, and I did lots of moving of furniture (of course I was more the "oversee-er :) ) as we're moving "stuff" to our spare room on the first floor to make room for the nursery furniture on the third floor. It's really starting to come together! Thanks to Grandpa Duane and Linda we got a beautiful crib set from the boutique in Raleigh (it has quickly become our favorite store :) ) . We feel so thankful to have our wonderful family and friends to share this exciting time in our lives with!!!
Hope this re-cap brought everyone "up-to-speed" :) .

week 17 belly shot

July FLEW by!!

We had a WONDERFUL 12 day trip to NY visiting friends and family. It was exciting to share our news in person with the Le Moyne girls and friends from Herkimer & Albany!!

We had another doctor's appointment on July 30th. Everything went well :) . They just checked my iron, took my blood pressure, weight etc. And we got to listen to the baby's heartbeat :) . The baby's heart rate was 144, down from 152 last appointment. Marc asked the doctor about the theory that the higher the baby's heart rate, the more likely it is to be a girl. She said it's really an old wive's tale...so we'll just have to wait until our next appointment to find out the baby's sex...can you tell we're excited to find out?!

Last weekend we enjoyed a trip to Myrtle Beach with Jeff and Stacie. Marc thinks that my belly has gotten bigger even since we were at the lake 2 weeks ago...we'll try to post a picture soon...just for Aunt Kristi! We got home Sunday and are planning on staying put for the next few weeks...hoping that will make the rest of my summer vacation seem to last longer...

Another stamp in baby Sidney's passport!

Thursday morning we got a call from the nurse at my OBGYN's office. She said that our "first trimester screenings" came back (the tests they completed in order for us to get our last ultrasound) and that everything is "normal". Although it wasn't something we were worried about it was still nice to get the call!

I know everyone is getting anxious to share our news with their friends and we thank you for honoring our wishes and waiting until I am in my second trimester. I will start my second trimester this Wednesday...so please feel free to start sharing then :) . Just keep in mind...we have many friends still to tell that we would like to tell ourselves...and we certainly won't get to everyone on Wednesday (more likely in the next few weeks) so if you could wait a few weeks to talk to one of our friend's sister/brother/mom/dad...THANK YOU!!! We promise it will all be out in the open soon :) !!

Wednesday we headed to Charlotte for the night (stayed with Marc's college roommate, Mark, and his wife, Melissa) and were "scheduled" (or so I thought) to go to the beach in SC with them Thursday-Sunday. Thursday morning we woke up and Marc said "We're not going to the beach. We need to catch a flight". I had just woken up so I was very confused but finally got it together and started to realize there was no beach trip with Mark and Melissa. We got to the Charlotte airport and I found out we were going to Bermuda :) !! We arrived in Bermuda and Marc seemed to be stalling going through customs. He was enthralled with some fishing brochures and then sat down and said he needed to sit for a minute. Suspicious, yes... I knew Jaime (one of my very best friends...we went to high school together) and Tommy (her husband) were going on a surprise trip that Tommy had been planning for months...though until then I hadn't thought much about it. About an hour after we arrived who should walk through the airport but Jaime and Tommy! Marc and Tommy had been planning this trip together since JANUARY to celebrate our 30th birthdays!!! We had said once years and years ago the perfect 30th would be spent together on a beach in Bermuda and the boys remembered!! What a wonderfully perfect, relaxing vacation we had thanks to our amazing husbands!! Baby Sidney has become quite the world traveller...another stamp in his passport!!