Week 41

Lainey Paige finally joined us at 41 weeks, 3 days!

Week 40

How far along? 40 weeks
Size of baby? Celery Stalk (20 inches long, weighs 7.5 pounds)
Maternity clothes? Yes
Sleep? Pretty good still
Movement? Yes, although she is starting to run out of room.
Food cravings? No
Anything making you queasy or sick? No
Symptoms? Not much. She's making her way down and I'm definitely feeling more pressure. I feel better in this last week or so of pregnancy than I did a few weeks ago. I feel like I could stay pregnant for awhile, no problem. 
Gender? Girl!
Looking forward to? Having our baby girl in our arms.
Best moment this week? Feeling good and having the ability to stay active at 40 weeks pregnant!
Fun Fact about baby? The biggest part of baby's body is her head, but her skull is flexible so that it can squeeze through the birth canal.

North Carolina Baby Shower

We had a baby shower at our house on October 5 to celebrate with all of our North Carolina friends!! These friends have become more like family to us in this crazy Army life. We celebrate birthdays, Thanksgivings, football games, babies and everything in between with these friends and it makes living away from home so much easier and more enjoyable. We had about 30 adults and 15 kids running around, mostly indoors since it was unusually hot that day. It had been so nice and fall-like, but that day it decided to be sunny and a hot 80+ degrees! But that didn't stop the kids from running around the back yard and playing in the North Carolina clay! All of the kids left our house with orange stained clothes and skin haha!

Our shower was hosted by two of my best friends, Kiley and Tori! These ladies are so good to me and went above and beyond to make me feel special and loved. And you can tell how much they love little Lainey already!! They did a fantastic job on every little detail of the shower and worked so hard for months leading up to it. I can't thank them enough!! And they put up with Jimbo's shenanigans!

We did a Baby BBQ co-ed shower and it was so much fun! The menu was perfect for a BBQ and included homemade pulled pork, burgers, hot dogs, chili, macaroni and cheese, baked beans, salad, fruit, coleslaw, sweet tea and pink lemonade. The girls got pecan pie (my favorite!!) and some awesome cupcakes and cookies for dessert! Now for some pictures...

Favors! Homemade caramel popcorn! The tag read "Ready to Pop!"

My beautiful pregnant best friends, Kiley (left) and Tori (right)! Such wonderful hostesses!

Aunt Diane!

My sweet, sweet husband!

Week 39

How far along? 39 weeks
Size of baby? Watermelon (20 inches long, weighs 7 pounds)
Maternity clothes? Yes and super close to outgrowing them!
Sleep? Pretty good! It's getting harder and harder to roll out of bed to use the bathroom in the middle of the night.
Movement? Yes! All the time :)
Food cravings? No
Anything making you queasy or sick? No
Symptoms? Pressure and soreness. Baby girl is getting heavy!
Gender? Girl!
Looking forward to? Having our baby girl!
Best moment this week? Having more energy than I have had in awhile! I feel pretty great!
Fun Fact about baby? The outer layer of skin is sloughing off and there are new layers forming underneath. She can now flex her limbs (and I can feel her practicing this skill all the time!).

Week 38

How far along? 38 weeks
Size of baby? Pumpkin (19.5 inches long, weighs 6.8 pounds)
Maternity clothes? Yes
Sleep? Pretty good this week. The Marines are here on post this month practicing artillery and it wakes us up in the middle of the night all the time. It's so loud and shakes the entire house. It'll make you jump right out of bed!
Movement? Yes! We got to see either a foot or a knee this week. It was trying it's hardest to bust through my skin haha!
Food cravings? No
Anything making you queasy or sick? No
Symptoms? Pressure and a general feeling of heaviness. I can tell she dropped this week. And I had some braxton hicks that woke me up out of my sleep. I thought they were the real thing for a second there! 
Gender? Girl, Girl, Girl!
Looking forward to? I can not wait to meet our little girl!! We are both so excited for her to be here!
Best moment this week? Taking maternity photos! My amazing friend Kim took photos for us! She was so flexible and up for anything and it made the experience so enjoyable. We got a sneak peek and they are absolutely gorgeous! I am in love with every single one!!! It was so much fun and I am so glad that we were able to capture such a special time in our lives. Hopefully Lainey will love looking at them when she is older :)
Fun Fact about baby? The baby's organs are mature and ready for life outside the womb. The vernix caseosa and lanugo are shedding. Her head is about the same circumference as her abdomen.

Week 37

Full Term, Baby Girl!!!!!

How far along? 37 weeks
Size of baby? Bunch of Swiss Chard (19 inches long, weighs 6.3 pounds)
Maternity clothes? Oh ya, and feeling like I'm going to outgrow those soon.
Sleep? Still hit or miss. It seems like I rotate between good nights and bad ones. 
Movement? Yes, she loves to push her butt out. She must like to stretch those legs!
Food cravings? No cravings, but I could be mistaken for the cookie monster. Or candy...great timing since Halloween candy is everywhere!
Anything making you queasy or sick? No
Symptoms? Pressure and feeling sore. I still can't accept that I can't do everything that I used to so I tend to lift things that I shouldn't or clean things that I shouldn't and then I pay for it with pulled muscles, pinched nerves, etc. Hopefully this little babe doesn't get her stubbornness from me :) A homemade heating pad has been my best friend this week.
Gender? Girl
Looking forward to? We ordered the rest of our "must-have" items from our registry that we didn't get as gifts and I'm patiently awaiting their arrival in the mail. Then we can finish setting up her room and I'll feel ready for her arrival!
Best moment this week? We had a great week! Lots of get togethers with our friends, we installed the car seat, organized her room some more, started packing our bag for the hospital, and we made it to a full term baby!!!
Quote of the week? When taking my weekly pictures, Jimbo looked at my belly and said "That is incredible!" It was so funny to me and the look of shock (and maybe even horror) on his face was priceless.
Fun Fact about baby? If the baby were to be born right now, she would be able to live and breath on her own and would be perfectly healthy. She could possibly have hair on her head, about 1/2 inch to 1 1/2 inches long! She's gaining about half an ounce a day (and I definitely feel her getting heavier and taking up more space!). She's busy practicing blinking, sucking, gripping, inhaling and exhaling for when she is born.

Week 36

How far along? 36 weeks
Size of baby? Head of Romaine Lettuce (18 inches long, weighs 5.8 pounds)
Maternity clothes? Yes and beginning to wear the same few items over and over again...
Sleep? Hit or miss...Usually I lay there for awhile before I'm able to fall asleep and then sleep pretty good for a few hours. Then I wake up for a few hours until Jimbo leaves for work. Then I sleep like a starfish and get another hour or two of sleep. It's actually a pretty annoying cycle haha! I think I'm just preparing my body for having a newborn and being able to function on very little sleep :)
Movement? Yes!
Food cravings? No
Anything making you queasy or sick? No
Symptoms? Not much, other than just feeling sore from carrying a ton of weight in my belly ;)
Gender? Girl
Looking forward to? Doing the final preparation type of things to get ready for our baby's arrival!
Best moment this week? We've had a big week this week! We had an amazing baby shower on Saturday with all of our friends in North Carolina, who have been like family to us. It was such a great time and everyone was so generous and sweet! I can't thank Kiley and Tori enough for all of the hard work they did for the shower!!! They are the BEST friends!! The absolute best part of this week was my 36 week OB appointment. Lainey has been laying transverse this entire pregnancy and we were starting to worry about whether or not she would flip and go into the head down position to prepare for delivery. We weren't stressing it too much, but our midwife was going to start talking about our options at the 36 week appointment if she hadn't flipped yet. I was not looking forward to having to make these decisions. We did an utrasound at the appointment to see what Lainey was up to in there and was shocked to see that she has flipped on her own and is now in the head down position!!!! We were so relieved. Now we can get this party started! ;)
Fun Fact about baby? Baby is gaining about an ounce a day! She's shedding most of the downy hair that has been covering her body, as well as the vernix caseosa (waxy substance that protected her skin during the pregnancy).

Week 35

How far along? 35 weeks
Size of baby? Honeydew Melon (18 inches long, weighs 5.25 pounds)
Maternity clothes? Yes!
Sleep? Not as good anymore. Baby has learned where my ribs are and loves to punch them at night. I think she's trying to figure it all out in there and make way to the birth canal because she's constantly turning and flipping around. This results in a distorted stomach for me. It's hard to sleep when she's sticking her butt out so far that it's pushing against our mattress haha! Also, the heartburn returns every now and then so I have to remember to take something for it before bed. 
Movement? Yes!
Food cravings? No, but pizza is still something I could eat everyday. Jimbo thinks I'm crazy :)
Anything making you queasy or sick? No
Symptoms? Just feeling huge and sore!
Gender? Girl
Looking forward to? Our shower this weekend!!
Best moment this week? Jimbo and I had the best weekend together! We checked out a couple of festivals in the area and we had a great time! 
Fun Fact about baby? She will be gaining about one more pound of fat in the next 5 weeks. Her kidneys are fully developed now and her liver can process some waste products. She's pretty much finished with development and her main job from now until birth is to put on weight. We're going to have a baby soon!!!

Week 34

How far along? 34 weeks
Size of baby? Cantaloupe (18 inches long, weighs 4.75 pounds)
Maternity clothes? Yes
Sleep? Decent
Movement? Yes, she does most of her flips and kicks at night.
Food cravings? Nothing specific
Anything making you queasy or sick? No
Symptoms? I did some exercises this week (squats, leg lifts, fire hydrants) followed by a quick mile long walk, but I think it was too much at once because I was sore! I wish I could say it was my glutes or legs that were sore, but it was just my lower stomach from the weight of this little chunk-a-munk growing inside of me who is still laying transverse so it's extra heavy :)
Gender? Girl
Looking forward to? Our baby shower with all of our friends here at Bragg. We've been planning it for months so I can't wait for it to get here!
Best moment this week? We finished up the childbirth classes on post. 
Fun Fact about baby? Baby girl can now recognize simple songs and she urinates about a pint a day.

Week 33

How far along? 33 weeks
Size of baby? Acorn Squash (17.2 inches long, weighs 4.2 pounds)
Maternity clothes? Yes
Sleep? Pretty good.
Movement? Yes all the time, mostly afternoon and night time.
Food cravings? No, but all things sweet sound delicious.
Anything making you queasy or sick? No
Symptoms? Just a general feeling of being full and huge.
Gender? Girl
Looking forward to? Counting down the weeks until she comes!
Best moment this week? This was the week of all baby things. I went to a ton of free baby classes that are offered on post and Jimbo got to come to some too. But the absolute best part of this week was getting a prenatal massage. Jimbo has been trying to persuade me to get one for weeks and it was definitely worth it. It felt amazing! Thank you to the best husband!!
Fun Fact about baby? Her bones are hardening and she's starting to keep her eyes open more when she's awake. The bones in her skull aren't fused together yet, which makes it easier for her to fit through the birth canal and these bones won't completely fuse until early adulthood.

Week 32

How far along? 32 weeks
Size of baby? Spaghetti Squash (16.7 inches long, weighs 3 3/4 pounds)
Maternity clothes? Yep!
Sleep? Pretty good.
Movement? Yes
Food cravings? No, nothing specific.
Anything making you queasy or sick? No
Symptoms? Burning at the end of my breastbone and it feels like I did an intense ab workout, but I'm sure it is because this little girl is rapidly gaining weight and making all of my muscles and bones separate to make room.
Gender? Girl
Looking forward to? Continuing to organize her room and set up her pack and play so we'll be ready for whenever she decides to come out and meet us :)
Best moment this week? I did the clearing paperwork for work and I am officially finished and can start really prepping for baby. Such a great feeling!! We also got a ton of work completed on the house that has been 3 months in the making. It was a big week in our house and I feel so relieved to have it all done!
Fun Fact about baby? I'm gaining about one pound per week now and half of that goes straight to the baby (she'll gain a third to half of her birth weight in the next 7-8 weeks).

Florida!

We spent our Labor Day weekend in Florida! We had so much to celebrate in such a short weekend. On our way to my parents' house, we stopped in Jacksonville to visit with Jimbo's mom. We walked the beach and enjoyed the beautiful weather. I found my first shark tooth! I can't believe that with as much time as I have spent at the beach, it took me this many years to find a shark's tooth. But I finally did! We also took some family pictures.

Then we headed to my parents' house and got to celebrate my sister's birthday!!

Then came the prep work for our baby shower!!

The boys peeling eggs haha

And making kebabs

Blowing up balloons

Diaper cake my mom made

Cute headband holder my sister made

You can see the cute bow holder my sister made

My beautiful momma and me

We had such an amazing shower! I loved seeing all of our friends and family and appreciate the love for us and for our baby girl! I'll post more pictures as I get them! I'll leave you with a few pictures of our car that was jam packed for our trip home!!