32 + weeks

We are back to the wacky foods. Little Evan is now roughly the size of a jicama...??

If you will recall, a few weeks ago he was compared to a rutabaga and we actually had some for dinner on Christmas Eve so that particular food mystery has been solved. I am still in the dark on the English cucumbers.

I am still feeling good. I am experiencing more shortness of breath (usually after talking too much or a stair climb) and occasional heartburn (which is a first for me).

We are still in MN and will be celebrating New Year's Eve tonight with Aunt Sara and Uncle Jim. Sara has 3 girlfriends who are expecting so they are hosting a Wii/Preggers New Year's get together. The boys will be busy battling it out on the Wii with Guitar Hero and Link Crossbow Training and I am sure the girls will be eating and watching. And eating. It should be a wild one!

We are heading back to AZ on Wednesday early morning. We have had two baby showers in MN so I know we will be coming home to lots of packages on the door step. My plans this week will include getting gifts & thank you notes squared away, putting away Christmas decorations and washing all our new baby clothes!

Pearl came down with an ear infection in MN so her vacation is going to be extended until Saturday so she can be fully recovered before flying. Lucky for her that she gets to stay at Grandma & Grandpa's an extra few days but bad for us since Brian and I will be lonely without her at home!

We have our last ultrasound on Friday so I will be sure to post after that. I am anxious to see if they will move my due date up any based on his size. Since he has been measuring big, I am wondering if maybe he will arrive a week or so earlier. Brian is convinced that I have gotten bigger in the 10 days we have been in MN which is true but I am attributing that to the Christmas cookies more than anything ;)

Have a happy and safe New Year!

31 + weeks

We are in the home stretch and as you can see, this little turkey is getting big! According to babycenter (sorry, no food reference this week) he is going into another growth spurt soon. As I mentioned last time, he is sitting very low and by the end of the day, my tail bone is killing me! I can only imagine that my waddle is about to get significantly worse...


We got to MN Friday night and it was surprisingly pleasant weather-wise. Lots of snow on the ground but temperatures were in the 30's. Saturday morning was spent decorating the Peterson Christmas tree and looking through Sara & Jim's wedding pictures (LOTS of them!).

Brian had mentioned that we may need to go meet with a client of his sometime early afternoon for a "meet and greet" to which I responded with many exaggerated eye rolls and heavy sighs. I thought to myself, "Who wants to meet with their investment guy the Saturday before Christmas?" I was looking forward to spending the day in my sweats and now I had to take a shower, put on real clothes AND put on makeup so as to not completely embarass Brian in front of a colleague. So after much whining on my part, Brian and I loaded up in the car and headed over to a coffee shop right by Ross's office to meet "Dan & Katherine". Right before we left, Ross had called and said he left a writing tablet at home and needed us to drop it off to him so we planned to swing by his office before our "date". When we got up to Ross's office, he was chatting with his acquaintance Steve, a guy who runs a jewelry business from home and helped Brian find the cushion cut diamond for my engagement ring. Brian introduced me to Steve and then things got really confusing because Brian turned to me and said (in his cheesiet voice), "Since you are going to deliver our son with sparkles in his eyes, you deserve something new and sparkly for your ears." Then all the guys were laughing and smiling at me and I was completely confused because we still had to go meet "Dan & Katherine" at the coffee shop! The joke was obviously on me because there were no clients, just some gorgeous diamonds to pick through for my new earrings! Needless to say, I felt like a total spoiled brat for all my whining and complaining that morning about having to leave the house!!

Saturday night we had "front row" seats to the Paper Airplane show (Uncle Andrew's band) which we have been so excited to get back for. In addition to the normal Peterson/May groupies, we had Brian's partner in crime Ryan along for the ride. I knew it would be an interesting night since I was was going to remain on the same level of awareness while most people around me were not...and Brian and Ryan together are always giddy and goofy. Paper Airplane rocked the house and Brian got to rock out on the cow bell for a song...

Brian is envious of Andrew's natural musical abilities and he has been hoping that lil' Evan will be blessed with those same musical talents. I think these pictures demonstrate that the musical ability isn't necessarily limited to Andrew...

I personally prefer a man who is handy on the calculator and knows his way around a spreadsheet ;)

It was a great night and lil' Evan enjoyed all the drum beats which he jumped around to for a couple hours. Once we hit about midnight, he and I both turned into pumpkins.

FYI, if anyone happens to be in Hopkins, MN on any given Thursday, we recommend stopping by Decoys to participate in the Meat Raffle and also enjoy the special of the day, the Hot Beef Sundae.

30 + weeks

We are a little past 30 weeks but I had a doctor's appointment this morning so I decided to do a lump blog.Everything went well at the doctor's appointment. I had some blood tests last time and my iron came back great (which means I am eating very well) and my glucosamine came back low. This is good because it means I am very low risk to ever develop diabetes but the doctor said low glucosamine sometimes means the baby's growth is restricted by the uterus during the last few weeks of pregnancy. But after measuring my fundal height and seeing that he is still big for his "age", she doesn't anticipate that he will have any trouble growing as much as he needs to for the next 9 1/2 weeks! Her exact words were "you are all baby". I have gained 31 pounds so far which means I am approaching Brian in the weight category. It is a sad yet interesting time...weighing almost as much as your husband is depressing but him knowing that you could PUMMEL him during a hormone induced mood swing has some perks ;)

The little man is head down, just like the picture above except that we think his back is facing out and to the right a little bit. I have more movement on the right side of my belly which we think is his little rear poking out as he moves. The doctor also said he is positioned low so I am hoping that means that when the time comes, he will just drop right down and slide right out the chute. Optimism is important during labor, right??

We have our last ultrasound on January 4th and I think it will just be a standard one instead of the hi-tech 3D ultrasounds we had for so long. This one will just make sure he is all developed and positioned correctly.

We leave for MN on Friday which will be nice to be away for 12 days. Not that I have anything to get away from but it will be nice to have Brian away from the office for so long. Plus, Gail always has lots of Christmas cookies on hand so that will be nice ;)

In other baby news, my friend Sam and his wife Amber welcomed their baby boy, Jackson Burton Correll, last Monday. Everyone is doing great in Dallas and the Corrells have a special Christmas present this year!

Happy Holidays!

29 Weeks

Yay! We are finally a normal food. According to babycenter.com, our little man is now the size of a butternut squash. A large one if I had to guess. He is over 15" long now and his head is getting bigger to accomodate his growing brain (which I will have to squeeze out in 11 weeks - yikes!). He also needs more calcium now for his bones which is interesting because I have been craving milk the last week or so. Funny how your body knows exactly what to do when you are growing a person!

I had a doctor's appointment on Monday and everything still looks good: no gestational diabetes, the fetal fiber nectin was negative (which means there is a 99.9% chance I won't go into labor in the next 2 weeks) and my cervix is still nice and closed. The little man is still measuring big which I figured out means that at 29 weeks, he is measuring 30 cm so he is only 1 cm big (phew). The doctor was feeling around my belly trying to determine if he has moved head down (we think so) and she hit a ligament on my left side that about made me jump off the table. It was VERY painful. I have been feeling a little ligament strain if I move too fast while lying down (I use the term "fast" very loosely...nothing about this body is currently fast) so I guess that means that he is still growing.

We also had our first birthing class Monday night which was way more enjoyable than the "Growing Your Baby" class that we bailed on halfway through! The teacher for this class has a fun personality and we feel like we will actually learn some stuff in this one. We watched a birthing video which was nice since I have somehow made it 29 years without ever seeing "The Miracle of Birth". What I learned from the video was, #1 We will not be asking to see the placenta and #2 I will be getting very familiar with my razor in the days before labor. It is surprising how many hairy women allow their births to be videotaped up close and personal for educational purposes! We have 2 more birthing classes so we will keep you posted on all of our new birthing knowledge.

On Wednesday we had our hospital tour so we know where to go to check in, where I will be laboring and delivering, recovering, etc. Everyone has told us how nice the hospital birthing suites are so Brian was a little disappointed when he saw the it wasn't actually the Four Seasons. Neither of us has much experience with hospitals (thank goodness) so we didn't know what to expect but it is very nice for a hospital! The nicest part is that I will labor and deliver in the same room and the baby will stay with us in that room for his exam, etc. The nurse was very excited with all the technology they offer in the suites (dvd players, room service ordering via tv remote, movie ordering, cd players) but as we all know, Brian is a bit of a technology snob so the only thing that would have impressed him was surround sound and a 50" plasma. They did have this cool remote that controls two spot lights in the ceiling so when you are delivering, the doctor just holds the remote where she needs the lights to go and brrrrrp spot light on your you-know-what! I must say the scariest part was when the nurse pulled out the leg stirrups on the bed. Holy moly. If you thought the stirrups in the gyno's office were intimidating...these are some serious stirrups! A couple hours after delivery, we will all move to a post partum room and Evan will be in a bassinet in the room with us the whole time which will be nice. We also have the option of putting him in a nursery for a couple hours if I need to sleep but I figure if I need to sleep then his dad will be taking care of him!

We have another doctor's appointment on the 17th and then we are off to MN for two weeks for X-mas. Time is flying and I can hardly believe that by the time we get back in January, we will be less than 8 weeks from being parents!!

28 weeks

We are officially in our third trimester!

Again per babycenter, our little man is about the size of a chinese cabbage. Or he is about 2 1/4 lbs. and 15" long. That seems to be the standard for 28 weeks but since our doctor told us at our last visit that he is measuring big, he could be larger than the aforementioned chinese cabbage.

With regard to him measuring big, when I told my naturopath this news, his comment was: "Your hips...you'll be fine." Comforting yet disheartening at the same time!

Lil' Evan also has eyelashes now and will react more to light that he can see through the womb. I am getting a kick out of sitting on the couch and watching my belly change shape. I think he had the hiccups the other night, too. Lots of movement from down below!

27 weeks - late edition

Sorry for the delayed posting! I have been busy being retired...

Here is what the little man is up to this week:

Here is what he will be up to in 30 years:

Brian "wrassling" an alligator in SC.

Brian dressed up to go "hunting" in SC.

Needless to say, Brian had a great time with Uncle Evan in SC getting to do all sorts of really manly things like throwing the football, changing tires, shooting pumpkins, etc. I can hardly wait until I have two of him... ;)

More on Friday when we hit 28 weeks!

The life of a retired 29 year old

My first day of retirement is moving right along! We had a doctor's appointment this morning which included 1 1/2 hours of waiting and 10 minutes of actual appointment. The good news is that everything still looks good! The doctor did ask if either of us were big babies. Brian = no. Elisabeth = YES. Apparently our little man is measuring big for this point in the pregnancy. Good news for Aunt Jennifer, not so good news for me since I am going to try to deliver him naturally!! Keep your fingers crossed that he just went through a growth spurt and actually isn't going to come out the size of a linebacker.
After my doctor's appointment I picked up a cup of tea and ran an errand before I went and got my nails done (I know, retirement is TOUGH!). Then I stopped by Petco for some Pearl essentials and went over to Bed Bath & Beyond for drawer organizers & an electric mixer. Yes, I know that this day is sounding like a line from "Old School".
I got home and have been doing fun house stuff like unloading the dishwasher and folding onesies to put in my new drawer organizers. Next up is writing thank you notes and putting dinner in the crock pot before I head to my personal trainer this afternoon.
I plan to be showered and in my pjs when Brian gets home. Don't worry, I will throw an apron on over my jammies so it is more of the Donna Reed feel for him. At least dinner will be cooked!
Other good news is that there have been no soap operas OR home shopping channels on the tv, just CNN. Wow, I wonder if retirement is speeding up my transition into my mother.
Have a great Turkey Day! Gobble Gobble!

26 weeks

I have decided that the writers at babycenter.com eat really random foods. This week our little man is comparable in size to an English hothouse cucumber. What the??
The update is that his ears are developing more so he is responding more to sounds he hears. I am hoping that he will get really used to his big sister's barking so that he will sleep right through it!
His testicles are also descending into his scrotum. I am only mentioning that for Brian's sake.

Today is my last day of work and I am officially retired (or retarded for the Petersons). It feels so strange to be going through my desk and clearing stuff out. Don't get me wrong, it feels good! But strange considering I have been here 3 1/2 years and can't imagine not coming here Monday morning. Brian and I have so much going on from now until January that time will fly and before we know it, we will have our little man to take care of. Then wood will be all but a distant memory ;)