Bubbly toes

I thought this new post title was appropriate given the title of our entire blog was inspired by Jack Johnson. Apparently it means "fat toes, " which I never even realized when listening to that song. Anyway, I have some fat toes. :)

38 weeks

and, 39 weeks.

nursery

Baby Sammy's room

It's baby-ready! Aunt Amanda is working on some wall decorations for us...we just need to get her a name and she can finish them!

14 days and counting...

Hard to believe that our due date is in two weeks. It seems like it's pretty far away, but it is most definitely not. We could meet our little one any day now! For now, we're working on getting our Christmas decorations out, doing more baby laundry, and working through some hip and back pain, cankles, and what I believe might be some braxton hicks contractions. I go to the doctor again on Wednesday, so let's hope for good news and that I can continue to work. Meanwhile, I wish I would have started counting how many times I've visited the bathroom since I've been home from work today, haha. If this was going to continue for awhile, we'd have to buy some stock in toilet paper. This baby must really have dropped, cause I'm pretty sure she's just doing a headstand on my bladder. Happy Holidays, everyone!!

Pictures update

27 weeks




35 weeks 36 weeks

Random Sunday morning thought...

Steve has been praising my lack of spending recently and I just realized that I haven't actually been shopping for clothes in about two months. Whoa. That's pretty crazy. :)

Nursery Updates

The baby's room is mostly finished! Here are some pictures throughout the process...

Baby shower

Our first baby shower was this weekend. Since I was under-the-weather, Steve and our families enjoyed the party festivities. It looked like such a beautiful shower and I was so sad to have missed it. Steve's parent's dropped off the gifts yesterday, which was wonderful of them. We've yet to open them - Steve and I are going to open them all together - that way he gets to enjoy the gift-opening too! I'm just so overwhelmed and thankful for everyone's understanding, and generosity, love and support.

what a weekend...

This weekend we went up to Portage for our first baby shower. Unfortunately, what was supposed to be an exciting, fun day turned into a bit of a miserable day. I ended up somehow picking up ANOTHER stomach bug.
Thank you...that's twice in the last six months, when I can't even remember the last time I've gotten sick like this. Steve had it about two weeks ago, and I hadn't gotten it yet, so I was very smug, thinking about how great my immune system must be. Joke was on me.
So, anyway, it hit me like a ton of bricks and I was getting sick on the hour which wasn't looking too good for the shower. I didn't want to get anyone sick there, nor did I want to get sick there, but I didn't want to miss it. So upsetting.
Long story short, the doctor said to give it 24 hours and if I didn't feel better to call him back. Fortunately at about 22 hours I stopped vomiting. Thank goodness; I really didn't want to go to the hospital, even if it would have been just for IV fluids.

Wow!

I just realized it's been over a month since my last post. We've been busy in the Samuel household (which we needed to be) getting ready for the baby. Just two more months until our due date. It's hard to believe! I'll post pictures later - but we have the nursery mostly finished. It's painted, the crib and dresser are set up and the bedding came in on Thursday!

On another note, our little nephew Jack is ONE today!! What a year - he was born at 26 weeks and has overcome quite a bit in this past year, but is definitely a strong, healthy little boy and an inspiration to us all! We love you, buddy!!

compression socks

Steve and I had quite a moment yesterday. We've been talking about compression socks lately (very interesting, I know), since they're good for recovery after running and for people who are on their feet all day (like both of us) as well as pregnant women. After being out all night with a bachelorette party, my ankles were a little swollen and Steve had run 18 miles that morning, so his legs were tired - and he decided to get us both some compression socks! What a lovely gift to ourselves! Anyway, Steve put his on and helped me put on mine (dang, they're difficult to put on) - after some laughing (at how sexy we looked), of course, we decided to have a photo shoot with our new socks. Max liked them so much, he had to be part of it as well.

re-organizing

Whoa! We've been doing a lot of cleaning and organizing around the Samuel house lately. After we decided which room would be the nursery, we figured having Steve's closet in there was not a great idea. So, we're moving Steve's clothes into the guest bedroom closet. Come to find out, years of accumlated "stuff" was in our other guest bedroom closet. Who knew? :)

So, we've been giving clothes and things to Goodwill and to Steve's school for those who may need it. Soon we'll start working on painting and putting furniture together! Here are some "before" shots...well, technically these are "during" shots. Enjoy!

We also took a 25 week picture on Wednesday...

Week 22 update

Here are some pics - as requested. ;)

I was thinking the all black outfit might have a slimming effect. hmmmm....

So, apparently there was something more exciting on the tv....

20 week update

Almost to 20 weeks! It's pretty hard to believe, that's for sure. I can remember when we first found out at 5 weeks, then going into 7-14 weeks with all the nausea...halfway through the pregnancy seemed terribly far away! I've been getting all sorts of little "love bumps" recently also. Yesterday, baby sammy was kicking (hitting or head bumping) me on the right side only. It seems she's moved over more to the middle and the left side to switch it up a bit. Apparently she's quite the spontaneous baby. ;)

We recently took a quick trip out to Connecticut to visit our new niece, Alexis. She is an absolute doll. She and baby Sammy are going to be great friends!

Now, we're in Portage for Steve's 10 year reunion and a White Sox game. We went for a fun hike this morning out to Lake Michigan. Max (and the rest of us) had so much fun playing in the water. He's now taking a nap...and I think I might join him. That was a lot of excitement for us!

Hope everyone has a good rest of the weekend!

It's a girl!!

We had our "extensive" ultrasound today...how exciting! Baby girl Sammy is a mover and a shaker. She was dancing all over the place! The nurse who completed the ultrasound and the MD who reviewed the pictures said that everything looked great! She's slightly big for her due date, but that just means she's growing well.

Needless to say, we're very excited and I've already started looking at girl clothes, bedding, etc. :) We can't wait to meet her!!

Pink or Blue?

Just a couple more days until our exciting appointment! Hopefully, we'll get to find out if Baby Sammy is a girl or a boy. I really have no feeling yet one way or the other. Steve really doesn't have a vote one way or the other either at this point. So, we'll see!
On a different note, at about 17 1/2 weeks I'm feeling pretty good as far any kind of morning sickness goes. I feel like everytime I've said something like that, starting at about 12 weeks...the next day isn't a good day. We'll just pretend I didn't say that then!?
Hope everyone has a great weekend!

A +

Baby Sammy passed his/her first test this week! We elected to do the AFP (alpha-fetoprotein) screening. It's a substance produced by the baby and if larger-than-normal amounts are found in the mother's bloodstream, it could indicate an abnormality. All bloodwork came back normal! On a different note, I woke up last night with the worst cramp in my calf that I've ever experienced! As I'm yelling, "ow, ow, ow..." poor steve is trying to figure out what's wrong and Max woke up and started whining. All I could get out was, "my leg, my leg, pull my foot back toward me." Looking back, I'm sure it was quite the funny scene, but at the time, it was a little painful. I guess I need to make sure I'm getting my potassium and calcium!

And...baby makes three!

Well, baby makes five, that is if you count opie and max as children...which we do! :) Anyway, some exciting news at the Samuel household; we're expecting a baby in December. We're very excited, nervous, elated, etc. In about three weeks we'll get to find out what we're having - so likely we'll start looking a little more intently at names and all sorts of fun baby "stuff."