cheeks

ends up all of my cheeks are getting bigger now. my little face is starting to look a bit round. oh man!

chris and i had our first birthing class on saturday. i really enjoyed it and am so glad chris is getting to attend a few classes before he leaves. i'm also grateful that i get to connect with my doula on a weekly basis. on sunday we went to balboa hospital to fill out all of my admissions paperwork. It was pretty cool to write down belle's name. we got a chance to check out one of the labor/delivery rooms as well as one of the room in the mommy/infant ward. is there a reason they put both on the 3rd floor?

we are still doing our research on setting up a video teleconference to connect with chris from the hospital. we're really hoping that works out.

dear baby - i can definitely tell you are growing. i think you might be pushing on a nerve because the last couple days i've had a numb spot around my upper right ribs. seems like it's not affecting you so i think we're good.
are you still enjoying your daddy's reading at night time? he's working on a special picture book for you - all pictures of him to try to help you get to know him before december. we are falling in love with you more everyday and are really getting excited to meet you and see what you look like!

31

saturday was my 31st birthday and i had the best time! not sure where 30 went, but that's ok. met up with sally, tristan, seraphina, and mrs. allain for breakfast at parkhouse - enjoying cream cheese stuffed raisin bread french toast isn't a bad way to start the day. then we all enjoyed some sun in balboa park.

later we did a little shopping and i found an awesome dress and preggo skinny jeans. thanks mom & dad! i love them both.

baby is surely growing and i think might be recognizing chris' voice. she seemed to be doing a lot of stretching today. life continues to be amazing!

3rd trimester

wait. how did we get here so quickly? this is week 27 and i'm feeling really good. seems i grow a little more everyday. baby is moving around a lot more and sometimes we can even see my belly jump. if i rest anything on my stomach, she'll often push back against it. it's pretty fascinating.

we got the opportunity to have belly pics taken by my fabulous photog friend, helene. she's a busy lady with her amazing talent and was able to fit us in before her shoot with rob zombie and a wedding in the dominican. true story! we are so excited to see how they turned out.

i've been meaning to post a pic of the perfect anniversay card chris made for me this year. so, here it is. impressed? i love it! he's the best.

we found out yesterday that we pick our own pediatrician so that is going to be one of the next items on our list. i had my glucose test and we heard her heartbeat. all seems just right.

we have all of belle's furniture now. it just needs assembled. chris hung curtains and mounted a shelf already. i'll post a collage of the process when it's all done.

here is our attempt at taking a picture before going out with friends last friday.

back to work

we had a fabulous weekend with suzie & mia! it was so great to watch chris interact with mia, figure out how to collapse a BOB stroller, and deal with spit up - he even changed his first diaper, ever. their visit also help baby anabelle's arrival seem more real. that will be us soon!! thanks for everything, suz. i'll see you in a few months.

i'm still feeling good, definitely growing and feeling new movements inside. deidre and i went to see 'legally blonde' the musical and baby sure seemed to enjoy it.

i'm back to work today after 5 days off with chris. we both needed that. now this week is busy with an acupuncture appt, pre-deployment brief, a super diamond concert with chris, and then our maternity photo shoot with helene (can't wait to see how those turn out!).

time off with chris

i've gotten a bit behind on my blog post but we did take the pic on time. it's getting a little harder to decide on what to wear for work so this week i just took my pic in my pj's. figured i hadn't taken any of chris lately, so here is one of him too with his breakfast.

we've been keeping busy again - just went on a little stay-cation to pacific beach (an anniversary treat), suzie & mia are in town for the weekend, working on our wills (not nearly as fun as the previous two items mentioned), and are excited about the arrival of our BOB stroller on sunday. thanks mom, dad, & grandma!!

chris did a lot of work on anabelle's room and moved some things into a nearby storage unit to make more space.

week 25 is feeling really good. chris and i had a great workout yesterday which seemed to wear baby out. i've put on a few more pounds but am still pretty comfortable - could use some new pants though. baby should be about 1 1/2 pounds and over 13" long now. i'm so amazed by this whole process.

dear baby - i can feel you shifiting around a lot more now. hope you rested up for my workout yesterday. chris is having some back pain today - do you think it's sympathy pains? we spent the evening with mia, seraphina, and tristan so hopefully we picked up a good parenting tip or two.