Entering the third trimester...

Here's a couple shots of me on Wednesday, November 18, the day that I officially turned 27 weeks, aka entering my third trimester!! Please ignore the PJs (it was right before I went to bed) and the fact that I look huge all over, not just my stomach ;)

Some more pics...

Last weekend, it was so nice here and uncharacteristically warm; mid-60s in early November is not exactly the norm in Wisconsin. So we took advantage of the warm weather and went to the farmer's market (and got some yummy squash--which Dan made an excellent soup out of--tomatoes and cheese), and while we were there, Rori wanted to play around on the capitol square. So here are some shots of her:







On Sunday, my aunt Chris and cousin Katrina came up from Chicago, so we went to breakfast with them, Tracy's family and my grandparents:


Maxine was most excited about me getting my new laptop (for when I work from home) since that meant she had a new box to play in :)


This past weekend was more of just a "stay in and do nothing" weekend, although we did get to go to a Badger basketball game; one of my co-workers had two extra tickets, so Dan and I got to go. It was not a very close game, since we beat then something like 75-43, but it was still fun to go support our alma mater! :)

Some Halloween pics

On Halloween we went over to Dan and Tracy's to see the girls in their costumes; Kirsti was an enchanted fairy and Rori was Alice in Wonderland (and so was Tracy).










The two Alices and the fairy


Dumping out her candy...


Surveying her stash...


Tracy got us these really cute clothes for the baby next year; the purple onesie is definitely for a girl (it says "Ghouls just want to have fun" so we'll save that for the next baby if this one is a boy!) but the hat could go either way :)




On Sunday, November 1, we went to the Grey Rock Mansion for brunch to celebrate my grandparents' 63rd anniversary. Here they are, with Tracy and my aunt Chris (their two kids who were there; my mom is obviously in Utah, and my uncle Alan is in California).



All of us at brunch (except for Dan Hines, who is taking the photo)


And here's Nancy and me at Old World Wisconsin (they visited October 23-25).

Our doctor's appointment

Our appointment with our midwife went well, as always. We heard the heartbeat again, and it's so crazy how much louder it is and easier to find than it was when we first started hearing it! The heart rate did go down, though, from the 160s to 146, so for those putting stock in old wives' tales, it might not be a girl as originally thought! (I, of course, still think it's a boy).

She said I'm measuring big, though, and although she didn't seem concerned at all (she just mentioned it in passing) I kind of had a mental pause at this information. Apparently, your uterus is supposed to be 2 inches either way from how many weeks you are; since I'm 24 weeks, I should be measuring anywhere from 22 to 26 inches. Apparently I'm bigger than that (she didn't say by how much, just that I was "measuring big".) Hmmmm.... I'm all for having a big, healthy baby, but I am worried about having one that's too big!

24 Weeks Today!

So I'm 24 weeks exactly as of today, and I'm really happy about this milestone, since 24 weeks is considered the viability point. I'm thrilled to have made it this far! (Not that I didn't expect to, but you just never know). We have another midwife appointment today, and hopefully everything will still be going well.

I have a feeling that this baby is going to be one contrary little bugger. Whenever I feel it kicking a lot and squirming around, I'll say to Dan, "Give me your hand," which he does, and the minute I place it on my stomach, the movement stops. Dan will have to wait five minutes or so to feel it kicking again, and even then, it'll just be one or two movements (so at least he's felt it, which is good). But the minute he takes his hand away, the baby starts moving like crazy again and is practically doing gymnastics in there. It's like the baby is purposefully being contrary and saying, "Nope, Dad, you don't get to feel me kick as much as Mom does." *sigh* (And yes, obviously I know this is beyond the cognitive ability of my child, but it just seems kind of funny :D)

Fall Fun

We had so much fun with Nancy and Jason over the weekend! They got in Friday night and we decided to go to the Essenhaus, which is this really good German restaurant. I can tell my cravings must be kicking in, since I actually wanted German food--not something I'm known for!

Saturday we went to Old World Wisconsin, which is this really neat place near Milwaukee that recreates life as it was in the nineteenth century in Wisconsin. They actually brought all these authentic cabins, barns and farmhouses from across the state and then put them together in this 576-acre park. They have separate villages for all the prominent immigrant groups, so we saw the German area, the Norwegian, Polish, Danish, Finnish, etc. (Hint: the German area was the nicest; we saw some tiny one-room cabin that the Norwegians lived in, and both Nancy and I said right away, "Uh-uh. No way would we be able to live here; we're heading back to the German part.") I was so happy the weather was nice; people had predicted that it would be so cold and icky, but it was actually sunny and beautiful (albeit a bit chilly, but since we had sweatshirts and jackets, we were fine).

Saturday night we went to Ginza of Tokyo, which is this excellent Japanese restaurant near our house. Soooo yummy; I love their hibachi chicken and shrimp. This morning we went to our new favorite breakfast/brunch spot, Marigold Kitchen (Dan and I really like to support non-chain, local restaurants), and it was sooooo good. Then we just hung out at our house for a little bit before they had to go to the airport. I got a few pictures, although not as many as I'd like to, and I'll post them tomorrow. All in all, it was a great weekend!

Some belly pictures... (and my crazy cat)

Here I am at 21 weeks, 3 days. This was the night that we went out for Dan's birthday, and before I got into bed, I figured that since I actually had my hair done and I looked halfway decent, I should take some pictures to chronicle how my body is changing. So this is me a little over halfway through my pregnancy.




ignore the fact that this picture is crooked; Dan took the shot from a weird angle lying down

And then because I'm like the crazy cat lady that you always see in sitcoms, I found this cute pharaoh hat for Maxine at Target for $5 (yes, I dress up my pet for Halloween). She looked really cute but was NOT pleased about this.




"Why must I go through this humiliation?"


Resigned to her fate


"OK, maybe I could kinda get into this pharaoh thing..."