Babyshower and Beschuit met Muisjes

Visiting with cousin, and new mom, Jen and Christine.
Also makes a good bump picture I guess :) - 34 weeks.


A high chair!


Getting some more practice with Jen and Dan's little Henry!


SO many great presents!


Oohing and Aahing over little clothes is a must :)


My mom sent me a huge box with these - "Beschuit met muisjes" (Biscuits with little mice). The little mice are anise seeds with a sugar coating, served on the biscuits with butter. It is the traditional food served to celebrate the birth of a baby in the Netherlands. Blue muisjes for a boy, pink muisjes for a girl. Sure, she's not born yet, but in Holland there is no such thing as a babyshower before a birth.


I looked it up on wikipedia, and here is some more of it's history:

"The tradition of celebrating a birth with beschuit met muisjes goes back to the 17th century. At that time the muisjes were white for a boy. Later this changed to blue. It was thought that the anise was good for the mother’s milk, that it would ease the contractions in the womb, and that it would drive away evil spirits. The name ‘muisjes’ was derived from their resemblance to the shape of a mouse, with the stem of the anise seed resembling a tail, as well as the fact that the mouse was seen as a fertility symbol. Beschuit met muisjes was originally eaten only by the upper class. The lower classes would celebrate a birth by eating white bread with sugar on top."



Of course I have plenty left for my church babyshower coming up, and for after little one makes her arrival :)

More babystuff ....

I had my first babyshower on Saturday! It was so much fun - family, great food, and lots of goodies! - a high chair, baby monitor, bumbo seat, some books, clothes, grooming items, and lots of other great things. No pictures yet, but hopefully soon I will get someone to email me a couple and then I will post...
On Sunday, Ben and I went to babiesrus in FtCollins to buy more of the larger items on our registry - laundry bin, diaper pail, breast pump, bedding, etc. I was really starting to get pretty overwhelmed with how much stuff you "need" to get, even more so by the fact that that babystore has at least 10 different kinds of every item!! WOAAAH! Well, I know you technically don't need every item, but still!! Crazy.
Either way - after some deep breaths on our car ride home, I spent the rest of our sunday putting everything away - the nursery is really coming together now! I'm eagerly waiting on the changing table/dresser that Ben and Tom are working on still (it's really coming together beautifully, so I've heard!), and I cannot wait to get it all set up and stocked. So yes, go ahead, make fun of my nesting. :)

No new belly pics yet, but more are to come after the weekend, as Ben and I are taking off for our babymoon on wednesday night! Wohoo!

Meanwhile, some good ones from baby-gaga.com: :)

33 weeks

Now that the belly is actually becoming a little more worthwhile to take pictures of, I figured I post another weekly update - 33 weeks and 3 days:

Today I had another appointment with Dr. Glode - things are still looking great! My belly measured right on track this time, my weight gain is exactly according to the standards, and the baby's heartbeat sounded strong. I asked her this time if she could tell me how the baby is positioned inside - I try to feel for myself all the time, but was never sure (what's the head, what's the butt?). Turns out I was right - she is head down, with her back curled to the left, legs to the right, and butt up :) Of course she still wiggles around a lot, so it'll change, but I like the head down part!

Also exciting:

I) Ben is taking me away on a babymoon next weekend! We are so excited! That's valentines weekend too, so a double hitter :) He got a great deal on a flight and 4 nights in a hotel in San Diego, so we're off! We'll be staying at the Dana Hotel, on Mission Bay (http://thedana2-px.rtrk.com/) - warmer weather, swimming pool, walks along the marina and beach, and good food! (Ben got us the breakfast package, so we can feast on a luxury breakfast every morning!) We are also right next to Sea World, and we found out that we can get in for free now that Ben is in the military! Score!

II) A friend (Kristen) and I went over to Once upon a Child in Cheyenne on saturday, as they had their twice annual sale - stuff a bag for only 10$. We got there at 9:20 am, and there was already a huge line in front of the store. At 9:30 am they opened the doors, and all moms and moms-to-be elbowed their way in, got their bag, and started rummaging through all the racks to find clothes that had a red tag, the ones that were up for sale. We were both a little nervous going in, as crowds are NOT our thing, but both VERY proud that we did - I ended up with 95$ worth of beautiful, second hand little girl clothes for only 10$! Saved 85$ wohoo!

However, I now think I have enough 0-3 month clothes to help triplets through their first months of life haha.

Which brings me to the following - My first babyshower is coming up this saturday! It's with Ben's side of the family in Denver! Can't wait!

We are registered at http://www.walmart.com/ and at http://www.babiesrus.com/ - lots of stuff there still! As for clothes, we would like items for 6 months and up.

Baby Update - 32 weeks!

I'm 32 weeks now! On Tuesday, I had an appointment with Dr. Glode, a (fairly) new doctor at the clinic. Our girl is doing great - her heartbeat was a little over 130 bpm, and although I measured a little small (1 or 2 weeks behind) Dr. Glode said that that is perfectly fine, as she felt big enough, and she was stretched out more to my sides then out front (which seems to be her preferred position these days).

The traditional shot


Double view of my white bump.


Testing ...

Not quite basket ball size yet :)

My belly button is also healing nicely, and feels TONS better already. Slightly embarrassing perhaps, but how often do you hear about a true "gut busting dinner", so here we go: For those that didn't hear, a delicious dinner of Mom Marilyn's smothered burritos with green chili was apparently a little too spicy for my pregnant self, causing my belly to expand SO much in one evening that I stretched/tore some ab muscles and my belly button - PAINFUL!! Definately not eating that type of stuff for another two months or so :)
Last night we had our 3rd baby class - it was ok - they informed us about pain medication, and we did some more hokey relaxation exercises.

Oh - check this out - An online Quiz: "Can you afford a baby?"
http://www.usnews.com/blogs/alpha-consumer/2008/6/12/can-you-afford-a-baby.html
I scored a 4 - who is ever ready, right?

Wyoming Army National Guard

Last week, friday night, this stunning man made his appearance as I was watching TV:

SPC Bryan.

That's right! Ben joined the Wyoming Army National Guard, and had his first drill last weekend. They issued him this sharp looking uniform, however did miss spell our last name, so for the time being he will be the unknown soldier :)

Handsome and happy :)

30 Weeks!

30 weeks today! Wow!

From babycenter.com: "Your baby's about 15.7 inches long now, and she weighs almost 3 pounds (like a head of cabbage). A pint and a half of amniotic fluid surrounds her, but that volume will decrease as she gets bigger and takes up more room in your uterus. Her eyesight continues to develop, though it's not very keen; even after she's born, she'll keep her eyes closed for a good part of the day. When she does open them, she'll respond to changes in light but will have 20/400 vision — which means she can only make out objects a few inches from her face."

My belly has grown a LOT over the last 3 weeks or so, and I know that's only the beginning :)
She's been moving around a lot more too, and I've had one or two very good kicks in the gut, that almost made me jump up from my chair. I'm still feeling very comfortable, and though I miss being able to go out for a nice cold, long, hard run sometimes, a quiet walk with Sage is nice too. This week, Ben and I went to our first baby class at the hospital - it was pretty entertaining (especially the "relaxation" exercises at the end - not really our style: "Your arm is getting warm and heavy, your arm is getting warm and heavy, feel how your arm is getting warmer and heaver, until it is completely relaxed" - and so on for every limb - Ben and I were like the little school kids giggling in the back haha), and on top of getting a whole hospital tour and getting registered, I'm sure we'll learn some new things.
Other than that, I'm so happy for Debbie that we truly did have our last belly picture together - Weston is a handsome little man!
Also, Ben starts his first drill with the National Guard this weekend! Very excited, and curious as to how things will go!

[Edit to add: My previous professor just walked in, and said: "You have gone to extraordinary lengths to get out of teaching this semester" :) LOL. Apparently the department had planned that I would be teaching the ATSC2000 lab this spring. This is obviously not happening, and they were having a little hard time finding someone else :) - I guess it's my turn next fall.]

Them apples ...

Shiny round belly apples :)
On Sunday afternoon we had a fun time with the Ennists and Watsons, relaxing and watching football. I had to take my chance to take a (hopefully for Debbie) last belly picture together:
FUN!

Debbie at 40 weeks + 1 day (past the nine months, but still looking radiant!), and me at 29 weeks + 3 days.


Luckily for Sage, Cedar came over for a play date as well :)