Cravings......

Lately everyone has been asking me if I am having any cravings. For the most part, my answer is I don't really crave any certain thing all the time, just food in general! Except for......watermelon.

Watermelon has been the one thing that I have craved since the very beginning of my pregnancy. When I was really sick the first 3 months, all I wanted was watermelon. But because this was in the late fall, watermelon wasn't in season, so I kept splurging on a little cup of watermelon cubes for $3.50......I didn't care though! Fresh sweet fruit was all I wanted.

Now that summer is here, I have made sure that I always have watermelon at home ( I think I have bought 3 so far). My parents even gave me a watermelon for my birthday!!!! :)

So if you want to make my day, show up at my doorstep with a big bowl of WATERMELON! :)

.......this is going to sound weird, but this morning I am really wanting some fried mushrooms (my husband would gag)!!!! LOL I used to eat them all the time at a little deli in Iowa with my parents.......ahhh this little baby is getting her nutrients! LOL!!!

30 Weeks!!!!!

Wow, I am so so excited to reach 30 weeks with this little one - she is such a joy already! Only 10 more weeks(maybe less?) to go before we get to see her lovely face. Sam and I always talk about what we think she will look like.....will she have curly or straight hair, no hair at all....... :) Any way she comes will be just perfect! I can't wait to hold her and take care of her.

I keep looking at my calendar and all the things I have planned up until the baby comes. There really aren't that many weekends left! :) We have already rearranged our bedroom and closets to make room for the stuff that she has already accumulated from everyone's generosity. We have the beautiful crib(still in box) in the front room waiting to be set up. We moved out a chair and coffee table to make room, and have started getting rid of stuff that we don't need to make more room.

In other news, we are still deciding on a name(much to our families dismay LOL just kidding). There are so many beautiful names out there, and we just want to pick the one that fits her. My wonderful Mom always has a new name suggestion for us too. The latest one is Diana....I think this is in part because the late Princess Diana's son William is getting married this week. :)

I also had a birthday last week YAAAA!!!! I turned 24, but still don't feel old! LOL Maybe that's because Sam and I are both the 'babies' of the family, so all the other siblings are quite a bit older than us. I love being 24!!! I just can't believe that it has already been 6  YEARS since I graduated high school.......and 2 years since I got married.......time really does fly. Anywho, I got some great loot for my birthday, like a shirt, 2 purses, shoes, camelbak(from my AWESOME husband) and cupcake stuff which I ADORE!!!!(also from my amazing husband!!!) Then our little girl got 2 new outfits, a bouncy chair thing, and I think something else for my birthday too - she is making out like a bandit!!!! :) My wish when I blew out my candles - a healthy and safe labor and delivery, either right on time or early. I am still holding out for July 4th!

I had my 30 week glucose test and O.B. appointment today, which all went smooth. She measured my belly and said everything looked great. Again we listened to the heartbeat, and she started out pretty fast(170), then dropped to about 160 and then to 148. The doctor said that is all normal, and I later read that they like to see a variation in heartrate because it means that they are active/turning/moving around. She always passes with flying colors!!! I found out that in about a month, we will have another ultrasound - YAAA!!!

How your baby's growing:

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. (Normal adult vision is 20/20.)

We love you, littlest love!!! <3

29 Weeks!!!

Ahhh, I'm so excited!!! I can't believe that our little baby girl will be here so soon(11 weeks away). Daddy and I are really starting to amp up our cleaning and sorting of our stuff to make room for her. I have been plotting out how we are going to make everything fit, and I think we have come up with solution! LOL It's going to be tight, but we can definitely manage, and are so thankful for such a wonderful place to live.

Last night we tackled the task of cleaning our our bedroom/closets. It was a big job to say the least. We had a huge pile of stuff to give to our church garage sale and threw away a bunch of junk that I don't know why we were holding onto. Some stuff was hard to let go of(LOL) but I know we need the space more, and just knowing that we are clutter free feels SOOOOO GOOD!!!! We have a little closet space for our daughter, and it looks so cute with some little clothes and shoes already stored there........SIGH!!! :) :) God is so good.

Speaking of our daughter, she has been very active the last couple weeks. She is definitely growing bigger every day, as I feel every movement, not just kicks anymore. When she moves, my tummy moves everywhere with her, and Sam loves to watch and feel her movements! The other night, I was sitting on the couch, and all of a sudden, my stomach got really hard to the right/middle and she didn't move from that positon for a long time - we even pushed on it, and she didn't budge. We couldn't figure out what part of her it was, but it was so cool how she just kept pushing out for so long, and SO HARD! :) I can't wait to see what kind of personality she is going to have.

Things are really starting to fall into place for this little one. We have a hospital tour coming up, then a 3 night prenatal birthing class at the hospital, which I think will give us both a lot of good perspective. Sam's parents have graciously bought us a crib(which is already here) and are going to give us the crib bedding as well. We picked it out last week and it is JUST PERFECT! We have searched and searched, but we couldn't really agree on which one we liked. Then we saw this one, with baby birds, owls, and a little tree and flowers all over. It is quilted and fits her so perfectly.....everyone knows I am in love with baby owls!!! I already have a copy of "Owl Babies" (one of my favorite children's books) to read to the baby.

As far as weight gain goes, well it's going - up! LOL I don't have too many strong cravings, except for my love of watermelon, which is all the time, and general love of pickles. I am also very excited because of Easter candy season, which mean Starburst jellybeans!!!!! They only come out this time of year, and they are the best tasting jellybeans in my opinion. Sam bought me a bag yesterday, and I put a HUGE dent in it already. :) I think the big sugar rush is what triggered the baby to start moving a lot last night - she loves jellybeans too. :) Awww, my little jellybean!

What's Developing: Baby's now the size of a squash!Baby's energy is surging, thanks to white fat depositing beneath her skin. And since she's growing so fast (weight will triple by birth), things are getting kind of cramped in the womb. What all this means for you: Get ready for some more kicks and jabs to the ribs!