Just 2 little lines...

Exactly one year ago today, this:

let us know this:

was on the way.

And just a little less than 4 years ago, it took 3 of these:

to convince us this:

was going to happen.

Time flies when you're having fun--and it has been fun! :-)

Our weekend

John had some vacation time last week, so we spent a few nights at the Ginn Hammock Beach resort in Palm Coast. It's only a 30 minute drive from our house, but it really felt like we were on vacation. The resort has a nice water complex, with a water slide, a lazy river ride, and several pools. The spa is also nice--I had a pedicure and John had a massage, very relaxing. For all the pictures, check out our Shutterfly site...for the brief version, read on...

Here is a picture of the resort from our balcony:
Will and John had a lot of fun in the pool--Will heavily resisted going down the slide the first time, but afterwards kept begging for "more slide!"

One of the main resort attractions is the oceanside golf course. We weren't up for that amount of golf, but we did have fun on the putt-putt course. Will mostly just followed us around and whacked at the landscaping with his club, but we finally got him to hit the ball a few times on the last hole. I think Tiger Woods was in tournaments by the time he was Will's age, so I guess we better prepare Will for another career.

And here's my 37 week picture...I had one last ultrasound last week, and found out Anna is still a girl and is growing well. We're now under 2 weeks to go!

We wound up the weekend by watching the Discovery launch from the balcony of the Sevigny's beach condo. It was a little hazy and not quite dark when the shuttle took off, so we didn't see the same display of lights that we did with the night launch last year. However, because the sun had just set, you could see the reflection of the sun in the smoke plume from the shuttle--it was beautiful:

And one last pic--my coworkers gave me a surprise baby shower last week, which was very sweet and a lot of fun. One of our gifts was a baby carrier, and Will asked me if he could wear it and put Baby Elmo in it without me even suggesting it...I guess he's ready for baby sister!

Sew much to do, so little time...

I received a sewing machine for Christmas from John, and have had a lot of fun putting it to use. My first projects were some baby gifts for Kristen's little girl. I was inspired to do the hooter hider and burp cloths by Courtney (and used the instructions from her blog), and then used these instructions for the pillowcase dress. I also had fun using the applique stitch on my machine to do the onesies.

I was unable to find a good pattern for a gusseted Boppy cover online, so I took apart my old cover and used it as a pattern to make this new one. The minky fabric is so soft--Will loves this pillow and like to put his cheek next to it.

I'm in the middle of my first project using a real store-bought pattern--it's the Amy Butler Nappy Bag. I'm almost done with the bag, so should have some completed pictures to post soon. There's also the matching changing pad to make, and I wanted to do an appliqued onesie for Anna and a T-shirt to match for Will....I think I'm running out of time, though, before she gets here (and I'm thinking that there won't be much sewing going on after that!).

Speaking of the baby, here are the 35 week photos (taken before my OB appointment yesterday):

I've had a few people at work ask if I'm sleeping well or if I'm tired...I didn't realize why until I saw these pictures. Does my face look tired and puffy or what?!? As a matter of fact, I'm not sleeping well, but I figure I'm sleeping a lot better than I will be in 4 weeks. I've decided it's a lot easier to carry a baby breech than vertex. I am having sooooooo much more back and stomach pain with this baby than I did with Will, not just at the end of the day but pretty much all the time. Last night, though, I slept with a heating pad under the small of my back and I had the best night's sleep I've had in a month, so maybe that's the cure!

34 weeks...but blogging back to 32 weeks...

As usual, I'm a little late uploading photos. These are from a few weeks ago--we met up with Kristen, Eric, Garrett, and Averie in Orlando while they were visiting FL. It was fun seeing them and seeing how much Garrett has grown. He and Will were very funny--Garrett definitely has the edge over Will on being sociable, how cute is this picture of them:

Grandma kept Will while John and I went to a reception back in OB. I think he kept her busy. He also spotted Shawn's guitar during this visit and tried playing it:

We asked Barb about it--she said the guitar belonged to Shawn but he doesn't actually play it. Which made me think of the guitar in my parents' house--it belongs to Missy, but I don't think anyone at our house can play it (unless you count "The Ants Go Marching," which is the only song that has ever been played on it, in my recollection). And I remember playing around with a guitar at Mimi and Grandan's house--and am wondering if anyone in that household was a guitarist? (Maybe Steve or Jim??? Pretty sure it wasn't Mimi or Grandan). Kinda makes you wonder what percentage of guitars sold serve purely decorative purposes...

Also, here are the belly pics from 2 weeks ago, when I was about 32 weeks along. We are quite a bit bigger now, and I'm afraid I'm going to surpass my weight gain from the previous pregnancy. I added a different pregnancy ticker at the top--that's the countdown for the C-section. So exactly 5 weeks from today, baby girl will be here!!

Home Stretch! (and I do mean stretch...)

Here are the 30 week photos--warning, there's a bit of skin showing:

Will decided he wanted to show off his tummy with me--I think he might be sucking in a little in this photo, because his tummy is usually about the shape of mine!

I thought she might be breech, because I occasionally feel a little lump poking out under my left rib margin with this baby, just like I did with Will. However, John ultrasounded me yesterday and she's head down. So I guess she's already more cooperative than Will! I hope this bodes well for her first few weeks of life, too. :-)

Looks like we'll have to change "Bobby" to "Bobbie"

It's a girl! Ultrasound looked great, we have a followup to recheck the heart next month. I think Will will be pleased--the last few times we've asked him if he wanted a brother or a sister, he's said sister every time. (Although he often just says "No"--which might be closer to how he really feels!)

Here is a profile shot:

And here are some 3D images of her face--they are pretty blurry because she didn't sit still long enough for a good image, but you can still make out a nose and mouth pretty well:

Halloween and a baby update

Here are some cute pictures of Will in his Halloween costume (Pluto, or as Will says, "Mickey's dog"). Thanks to a nasty cold, I didn't get to see him dressed up, but he had a good time trick-or-treating with Daddy, Aunt Cindy, Uncle Shawn, and Grandma. According to John, it took him awhile to catch on to the concept (he tried to return his candy from the first house to the people at the second house he went to), but once he realized he got candy at EVERY house, he became very enthusiastic ("More treat! More treat!). We've been rationing out his candy one piece at a time since then--it is so funny how he savors every bite of chocolate, I guess he gets that from me. :-)

I was so depressed about missing the trick-or-treating, that I decided to go to the Florida-Georgia game with John and Shawn despite my cold--probably a bad idea, I spent a lot of the game coughing germs all over everybody around me. But it was worth it! (to me, at least, maybe not to the folks around me!) We had a great time watching the Gators lay a beat-down on the Bulldogs, nothing like a little revenge. In fact, this might be the second best game I've ever seen in person (second only to the 1997 UF-FSU game). Go Gators!!

Here's the most recent baby bump photo--this is me today, at almost 19 weeks. I can't believe we're almost halfway through this pregnancy already.

I thought this pregnancy was going to be a piece of cake after the worries we had with Will, but apparently this little baby is going to give us a few worries too! One of my prenatal screening tests came back indicating this baby is at increased risk of Down's syndrome. The test has a high false positive rate, so I'm going for an ultrasound tomorrow that may give us a better idea of whether the baby is likely to have Down's or not. We will be okay either way, but I do not handle uncertainty well, so this has been a little stressful. On a positive note, we will hopefully find out the baby's sex tomorrow as well. Despite assuming I will have nothing but sons (a la Mimi), I actually have a gut feeling that this one might be a girl. We'll see if I'm correct tomorrow, as long as the baby cooperates!

Baby #2 Photo #1

I went for an ultrasound today. I'm 11 weeks and 5 days by my dates, and the U/S said essentially the same thing (12 weeks), so I'll keep the original due date of April 2nd. Here are a few of the ultrasound pictures--we didn't get too many good ones because the baby kept flipping around (which is a sign of health, just not very convenient for catching on film). So it looks like he/she is going to be a little uncooperative, a trait shared with another munchkin at our house.

Also, since this could be the last pregnancy (depending on whether you ask me or John), and because I only have about 5 pictures of me pregnant from before (most of them towards the end when I was really big and edematous), I decided I'm going to do a better job of enjoying this pregnancy--including doing more pictures. So here's the almost-12-week shot, weighing in at 110 pounds (I might leave off the pounds in the future, depending on how high the numbers go!).

This is a little embarrassing....this is about the same size I remember being at 16 weeks with Will, so I guess my abdominal muscles are just shot from that pregnancy:


Really no excuse for the size of this pooch, given that the baby is only 5.3 cm long. (Might have more to do with the pan of marbled brownies I consumed last week, or the bag of Hershey's minis I'm currently working on.)

I sucked in a little for this shot...a little better, don't you think?