33 weeks and counting

Just a quick update and photo of what week 33 brought this little pregnant mama! "little moms" is what the instructor at our birthing class called us...I had a hard time deciding if I liked being called that or if it was a tiny bit offensive. I guess in any case, "big moms" would have been much worse.

Josiah is doing wonderfully I am happy to report! We just had a doctor's appt. yesterday and our doc says that he is doing great. He is moving all the time! She felt around my belly this time to help me figure out where he is positioned. Finally it seems our little man has put his head down where it is suppose to go...good to see since I was beginning to think he was committed to being breech till the end. Mostly he seems to sway his little buns from one side of my belly to the other. According to my best-guess websites, Josiah is around 4-5 pounds and 19 inches long. He will gain about a half a pound a week and I will gain about a pound a week from here on out. He is filling out now and preparing to make his grand entrance. Sometimes I just take him into his room and we walk around and I talk to him about how cool it's going to be when he gets here and we can play with all his stuff! (Between the sleeping and crying of course).

I am very anxious to meet him! Every day it seems I realize how boring life has become without a baby around! What a weird thing to think before he is even here. I guess that is God's way of preparing me for this huge life change. Unfortunately I am still waiting for the nesting period to begin! I really am looking forward to an energy boost and a clean and organized house...nesting isn't just a myth, right?! it really happens?! If not, I am just going to have to manufacture the energy from somewhere because it still seems like there is so much to do!

I was a little lonely this week because Caleb was gone all week on a summer youth trip. Thankfully the weekend came and he returned. Just in the nick of time...it is a lot harder to have a traveling husband when you're 33 weeks pregnant. Must be those raging hormones again! Caleb's had 2 trips so far and 2 more to go before Josiah is born. In fact, you can all be praying for Josiah to come AT LEAST after July 27 as Caleb will be in New Orleans for a youth trip from the 22nd until the 27th. A little scary that close to my due date, but we like to think of ourselves as "adventurous". Never a dull moment! Thankfully my parents will fly in the day before Caleb leaves so at least I won't be alone if the unexpected happens...and of course we have lots of contingency plans for how to get Caleb home if I go into labor...except that if he is already in New Orleans, the plans still include a standby flight and who knows how long that will take! So pray the contingency plans are not needed!

But I am sure you will hear much more about that when the time comes. As for this last week, Caleb took a team of 30 up to the Navajo reservation for a week of VBS. They had a great time and we finally got him home and in bed around midnight last night. It was a little lonely for me. Usually I do great with his summer travels and am eternally greatful that he has a job where a few trips in the summer are all we have to deal with. However, remember the hormonal changes...I got really lonely, even though I spent time with friends at least half the nights he was gone...and then worked full time on top of that. I don't know what to make of it, but I am going to have to gear up for these last two weeks of his absense. Let's just say it is wonderful to have him home! Here are some pictures of his trip.

Caleb and the team on a hike

Some of the Navajo kids during VBS

The River is a long-held tradition for the team...

(don't you wish you were there!)

In case you have not been introduced to Caleb's Traeger...

This is it! Caleb took it to Navajo and used it to feed a ton of people this week!

He is very proud!

Quite the week 31

This week was a busy one! I am 31 weeks pregnant and we had the incredible fortune of having my great friend Carolyn come for a visit! Carolyn is expecting her second child, a little boy, about 8 weeks after Josiah is due.

This picture is entitled "Belly to Belly". I thought I had a 22 week photo, but I must not. I do remember, however, that I am pretty sure I showed more at 16 weeks than Carolyn shows now at 22... Carolyn and I have decided that although we are the exact same height, what I have in legs, she makes up in Tourso! We are pretty sure her son is standing strait up in there and creating no tummy what so ever!

She is really working here for this much tummy...I however, am not working at all to show off Josiah to the world...Josiah is all to happy to show himself off at this point!


We had a ton of fun this week shopping for maternity clothes and mostly just talking and relaxing!

We also did a project for Josiah! I know this is a pattern for me where I have friends come over to help me with projects that I am just not Martha Stewart-y enougth to handle...and this week was no exception!

Carolyn is VERY crafty and has a very cute "birdy" mobile in her daughter's room...so she volunteered to make a mobile a reality for Si as well.

I think it turned out very well! Certainly much better than if I'd been left to my own devices! It is pretty funny, we are going for this animal/noah's ark theme for his room and I had this idea to make a mobile out of thin wood animal pieces that we could paint to match his room colors...anyway, we went to the Hobby Lobby and bought each and every wooden animal they had which turned out to be a very eclectic assortment from dogs and cats to a moose, rooster, kangaroo and aligator and even a large mouth bass-or that, at least is what we think it is. So they all went on the mobile together. Thankfully we have some time to learn which sounds each of those animals make before we have to start teaching Si...What does a large mouth bass say?




From Josiah's perspective!

It was absolutely wonderful to have Carolyn here. I truly felt so refreshed after our visit! Just what I needed.
Thank you, Carolyn for taking time away from your husband and daughter to hang out with me. So fun to get to experience pregnancy with a great friend--especially one who has been pregnant before and can share all of her pearls of wisdom!

We girls were also blessed to have my wonderful husband take very good care of us. As many of you know, Caleb has a new Traeger BBQ (no, scratch that...I mean "smoker") which he used to cook us some amazing food! I had been without Caleb for the entire week before Carolyn arrived and had been pretty much a vegitarian in his absence. (in my opinion, sometimes you just need a little break from the traeger). So it was great to have him back home and he took very good care of us this week!

Carolyn left this Wednesday morning and we picked up another member of our family! Our friends Bob and Bethany left town for the weekend and left us with their 100+ pound dog, Rocky! Rocky and Shep have a very love/hate relationship, so it is always entertaining to get them together! Just a cute picture of all my boys, Caleb is taking the picture. It occured to me with stark reality how my femininity will be far, far outnumbered soon....Yikes.




To round out our hectic week; Caleb and I had our 4th wedding anniversary on Thursday which we spend at our Child Birth Preparation class. We got to meet several cool pregnant couples, learned a lot about anatomy and viewed some very disturbing videos about our almost immediate future! It was great. It was much more like Lamaz class than I was expecting, especially since I am fairly committed to receiving an epidural as soon as possible, but I am glad for all the information about breathing and relaxing anyway! Caleb was a great coach!

We did actually get to experience our anniversay in a tad more romantic way...we just waited until Friday. Here is a picture of us out to dinner to celebrate 4 years together! Pretty sure our next four years will look very different from the last four!...and we couldn't be more excited!