Babymoon Babybump

One of the things we did on our babymoon was to take babybump photos on the beach. Here's a sneak peek at one of our favorites.

Babymoon dinner

Brent wrote a little review of the place we had our babymoon dinner:
http://www.bradenton.com/2010/04/22/2224278/a-night-to-remember-at-euphemia.html

He even got a Twitter and Facebook shout out from the restaurant:
http://twitter.com/euphemiahaye
http://www.facebook.com/EuphemiaHaye/posts/120915031256835

The countdown

As if we needed any reminders, this is our little message chalkboard out in the garage. This picture was taken Thursday. So, today, Friday, we're 25 days away from expected induction!

Another step in the process

Today we hit another big point in Jen's pregnancy -- the start of weekly ultrasounds and twice-a-week nonstress tests.

She'll do one NST each Monday and Thursday, and one ultrasound each Monday from here on out.

On the NSTs, they're looking for a pair of good baby heartbeat accelerations in a 20-minute span. With the ultrasounds, they're doing a quick bio-physical profile; one of the things they measure is femur length.

Babymoon

We spent a wonderful two days and one night this weekend at the Longboat Key Hilton. The idea was to just "get away" one last time before the arrival of Baby AnnahLilly.

The weather on Sunday wasn't so cooperative; it rained pretty much the entire day. But it wasn't a complete loss. We took some baby bump pictures on the beach. Then napped with the balcony doors open; the sounds of the birds, Gulf water and rain rocked us to sleep for a few hours.

For dinner, we splurged for a wonderful experience at Euphemia Haye. It's one of the most respected restaurants in our area. The setting is actually an old home, and the food is great. We just loved it.

We woke up Monday morning to partly cloudy skies, so we hit the beach for a short while, then took a dip in the pool; the Gulf was just a bit too nippy. After that, we took off around 2 to make it to an OB appointment.

A hearty thanks go out to Jennifer Bartolone. She's the associate director of sales at the Hilton, and also the wife of one of our co-workers. She rigged us up with a great rate, that Gulf-view room and a pair of complementary desserts (key lime pie and chocolate souffle). So go stay there; it's great. And say hi to Jen.

Oh, almost forgot to mention. Jen slept through the night for the first time in three months. Now that's a relaxing babymoon!

Jen's favorite part of the day

Jen has come to love her lunch time naps. I usually swing by the office, pick her up and we go park on the riverfront so she can catch 20-30 minutes of zzz's.

Infant CPR

We had our 90 minute infant CPR class last night at the hospital. Hopefully we will never have to use the skills we learned, but if we do, we're prepared. Here's a little sample of the video we watched.

AnnahLilly's birthday

Monday was another big day in our journey with little AnnahLilly.

Today (31 weeks, 2 days) was our latest ultrasound appointment, and it went great. She registered 4 pounds, 6 ounces; that is the 68th percentile for this point in development. So she's actually sped up her growth pace. Two ultrasounds ago she was in the 49th percentile, and last time she was 57th.

It's so exciting to hear (and see) her progressing so wonderfully. It calms our fears somewhat to know that everything is going great; and that pretty soon we'll be able to snuggle her in our yearning arms.

We also scheduled our amnio to check lung development for 9:30 a.m. on Monday, May 17. If that's good to go, and if we find out later on that same day, we're expected to go in for inducement on Tuesday, May 18. With her growth being ahead of the curve, we're pretty confident that will be the day. So, just a little more than a month!

Weight gain

So here I am at 31 weeks and average weight gain for this point is 21 to 27 pounds. Where am I at? Nine pounds.

Doctor says everything is fine and that AnnahLilly is simply taking what she needs from me. Her growth was in the 57th percentile at our last appointment.

What I think is funny is that my tummy seems SOOOO BIG! It looks like it weighs more than 9 pounds on its own. :) We'll need to get a photo on here soon.

COMING MONDAY: We should have a day set for our amnio which will in turn give us a more solid plan on when AnnahLilly will be here. Yay! Can't wait to meet her.

Car seat check

We passed our car seat base installation with flying colors. We actually had them installed behind the passenger's side seat, but the lady said, ideally, with just one car seat, it should be in the middle. So we moved them in both cars, and we're ready to go. Here are some pictures from the checkup.

Baby room tour

What a deal!

In search of second car seat base, we recently hit Craigslist. Jen's been a hawk on that site, finding some amazing bargains in the past. Well, this time she found someone selling our exact car seat and two bases for $90. I had to drive up to Largo to get them, but it was worth it. So we shelled out the $90, then Jen posted the car seat and one of the bases on Craigslist for $90. Within hours, a mother in our same community of Creekwood e-mailed us to make the purchase. So we ended up getting the car seat base we wanted for free. Love it!

Jen's new favorite bed

Mom has had quite a hard time of late getting comfortable in our bed. On her left side -- no. Right side -- not any better. And she's not supposed to sleep on her back.

So, what to do? Sleep in the car, of course. At times, that seems to be the only place she's been able to get comfortable enough to catch some ZZZs.

So the entire family heads into the garage. Last night it was around 1:30 a.m. Jen in the passenger side, with the seat all the way back. Herald in the backseat with his bed. And Brent in the driver's side seat, reading aloud his latest Dad book. Apparently, the sound of his voice reading has the uncanny knack of being able to put Jen asleep.

Last night, after Jen feel asleep, Brent put the book down, shut off the interior light, and we all got a few hours of sleep in the car. Then Jen woke up and we all transferred back to the bed, where Jen was able to get back to sleep.

Oh, the trials of pregnancy.

If only there was a way to take out the passenger-side seat and put it in the house. Then Jen would be golden!

Just six more weeks.