Welcome to the Third Trimester!

Today marked the beginning of my 28th week of pregnancy! A very exciting milestone :)


As you can see both baby and I are growing. Each Thursday, which is my "turn day," or the day which marks the beginning of my new week of pregnancy I read the corresponding chapter in my "Your Pregnancy: Week by Week" book. This is what it told me about Grace/Graff today:

Baby now weighs almost 2 1/2 pounds. This is an amazing growth compared to just 11 weeks ago, when it weighed only 3 1/2 ounces at 17 weeks of pregnancy. Your baby has increased its weight more than 10 times in 11 weeks! In the last 4 weeks, from the 24th week of your pregnancy to this week, its weight has doubled. Your baby is growing rapidly. (p. 408)

Pretty amazing when they put it that way, huh? But then again it will gain at least 4 pounds in the next 12 weeks. My luck, it will gain much more than that :)

Today Mark and I went and met with the pediatrician, Dr. Emery. We had no idea what we were supposed to ask and felt a bit odd going to a pediatrician but I'm glad we did. She was great describing how the office works (who will take our late night phone calls) and what will happen right after birth. I feel much more comfortable now and think Dr. Emery will help get us through the uneasiness of being first time parents.

I've had a baby-filled week which has been fun. Tuesday I got to spend some quality time with Sydney Munz who is the daughter of one of my classmates. I babysat Sydney for a few hours on Tuesday and it was great to see exactly how much time all the feedings and diaper changings take. She was very fun to hang out with though! Then yesterday I went down to Indy to visit my friend Jill and her new baby Noah (just over 2 months). Noah already has developed a great personality. His mommy and I had fun catching up, running errands, and watching Noah make faces and noises--he's quite the talkative baby!

Enjoying a house guest and "nesting"

Since last Wednesday Mark and I have been enjoying having a house guest. Meet Harry...


Harry belongs to one of the professors from Purdue, Jane Natt. Jane is in Beijing leading a group of Purdue students who are serving as media liaisons for the Olympics. Talk about an amazing opportunity! They have been blogging about their experiences and it's pretty cool to read about what they've been able to do while over there.

Anyhow, it's been really fun to have Harry. He's much bigger than Daisy but I don't think he realizes it. As you can see, he likes to jump up and sit with us on the couch.


The other day Mark was working on a project outside and I was enjoying the pleasant weather and chatting with him as he worked. I was sitting on the grass cross legged and before I knew it, Harry had crawled onto my lap and plopped himself down. Needless to say, that didn't work out very well. He also has taken to coming up and laying his head on my ever-growing belly. I really think the dogs can sense that there's a baby in there. Daisy has been extra protective too. It's probably really good having Harry here because it makes Daisy have to share us which she definitely needs to get used to! She is cute though...isn't she!


In other news, the baby has become more and more active. Mark finally felt it kick two Saturdays ago. Since then, he's been able to feel it on an almost daily basis. It's gotten so much stronger and consistent! We even were able to see the kick (or maybe it was a punch) this weekend. It's pretty funny when I'd rather sit and watch my stomach to see if I can see the baby move rather than do anything else. I have also been fully "nesting," as my friends like to say. There's so much to do before baby arrives and so many things I want to get done because I can't see myself doing them once the baby arrives. One such project was remaking our valences in our family room. I'm posting this picture just so my mom can see :)


Other than that, I've been trying to clean out closets and organize things. School starts a week from today so I've also been doing some cooking and freezing dinners so we can have some good eats for at least the first few weeks of the semester.

Finally, we got a great surprise last Thursday. We received the first gift off of our baby registry. It was so much fun to receive it in the mail. A big thank you to Mark's Aunt Barb and cousins, Joy, Lynn, and Gloria, for the pack and play for the baby. Of course we had to set it up right away! We'll keep it in our family room but for now it's in the baby's room. It will be so useful with all of our travels.

Thank you Cincinnati Insurance...

This past weekend Mark and I were in Cincinnati for his August meetings. Each August Mark's company brings all of its field employees and their guests to Cincinnati. Mark has to sit through meetings while the company spoils me. I think it works quite nicely :)

They have a spa set up at the convention center where I was able to get a manicure and pedicure and had my make-up done by some guy who has been in "the biz" for over 20 years, has done things on Oprah and for several fashion shows, etc. He even put fake eyelashes on me! I loved the look but don't think I'll add them to my everyday routine.

On Friday I had my excursion to Jungle Jim's (the most unbelievable grocery store I've ever seen!) and to The Learning Kitchen where I had a cooking lesson. I loved it and can't wait to try out the recipes we made there. Friday night was the formal dinner and the surprise concert. This year the artists were Amy Grant and Vince Gill--not exactly our type of music but a good show nonetheless.

Saturday Mark only had meetings in the morning and then we had our joint excursion. We chose to go on the boat cruise down the Ohio River. I think we would both say that we made a fabulous choice. We were on a large yacht complete with food and drinks. The weather was perfect and Cinci looked really pretty from the river.


Saturday night was the theme night party. The theme for the meetings was "Setting the Golden Standard" which was a play on the Olympics. The party was a lot of fun with various games, performers, and activities.

Overall, the company did another great job putting on a fun weekend for the employees and their spouses. One of our favorite things they had were artists who would write your name in Chinese figures. We had a few of these done when we traveled to Beijing in 2000 but this time it was much more fun since we had some special names to get done. Now the only question is which of these paintings will we get to hang come November?

100 Days to Go!

At the beginning of every President's term of office everyone talks about what they can accomplish in their first 100 days. I've always wondered how a President could even begin to be judged on what they do in a mere 100 days--it's never seemed like enough time to actually get things going.

Well, in less than 100 days we'll know who our next President will be AND exactly 100 days from today Grace/Graff is scheduled to make their appearance into this world! Yes, I am well aware that babies often come early or late and that a due date is just a guesstimate. However, that being said, the 100 day mark seems like quite the milestone. I don't feel as if I have been pregnant for very long, yet I'm well over half way (almost 2/3!) through my pregnancy. To think that in 100 days Mark and I may be meeting this little one who is so active in my belly right now--it's unbelievable and incredibly exciting. It also makes it seem as if we're in "crunch time." There is so much left to do before the baby arrives. I'm not sure if I'll ever really feel "ready." I definitely feel the pressure to get a lot done before he/she gets here. I can't imagine how the next President will feel about his first 100 days. At least we won't have the whole nation watching what we do in the in that same period of time!

Even though I just said that we're in "crunch time," I must admit that there are times when it feels like it will be forever until he/she gets here. So, we're finding ways to fill our time. Last weekend we had a cookout with some friends. We haven't been able to have many bonfires this summer so it was nice to have everyone together. We absolutely love the friends we've made in West Lafayette!


And then last week we had one of my good friends from Purdue, Jennifer Linvill, and her husband, Mark, over for dinner. They are expecting their first child, Porter, in just a few days. I'm so anxious to meet him--I cannot imagine how excited they are (or for that matter how excited Mark and I will be when we're that close!). Jennifer and I have long talked about our desire to have kids and I'm so thankful that Porter and Grace/Graff will be so close in age. We'll consider this their first photo together :)

Being Pregnant

Yesterday marked 24 weeks. I cannot believe how the time has flown. Pregnancy has proven to be such a surreal experience. From the unexpected to the simply amazing, I'm really enjoying this time and trying to cherish every moment.

Perhaps the most unexpected part of pregnancy is just how different my body feels. First my belly button popped out really quickly. It's so weird to be able to see it poking out from under my shirts. Mark has taken to trying to push it back in. I'm also amazed at how sore I get--my hips hurt, my back hurts, I'm having difficulty bending over to pick things up--I'm just not very comfortable. Mark teases that he has no idea how I'll make it through the next 4 months with all my aches and pains.

Besides the physical though, I find myself simply excited whenever I feel a punch or a kick in my abdomen. These nudges from Grace/Graff are getting more consistent and much stronger. I'm still waiting for Mark to be able to feel him/her but I know that will come soon. Right now it seems as if every time he place his hand on my stomach the baby becomes very still. I told him last night that I really hope his calming effect on the baby continues after his/her birth!

In addition to the excitement I experience with each little movement that our baby makes, I also find myself constantly thinking about what the baby might need and how our lives will change so drastically once he/she arrives. I find myself peering into the nursery each time I pass and can't help myself from oooing and ahhhing over every child I see (not that I didn't do this before but I feel like I'm a bit over the top now!). I also have the most vivid dreams now. Some have us at the hospital getting ready for labor, some are caring for the baby (the one in my dream is so cute!), some are about Daisy and her reaction to the baby. Whatever the topic of the evening, they are vivid dreams that stick with me after I wake up.

Needless to say, I'm obsessed. Perhaps since I wrote this today, it will be out of my system for a bit and Mark can have a day without me incessantly talking about the baby :)

24 weeks

Someone is excited about baby!

New to the world of blogging

With a baby on the way it appears as if the thing to do is start a blog. Baby Williams is due to be arriving on November 13, 2008--a mere 115 days away! We are busy preparing for his/her arrival (we're nesting as our friends have taken to saying). These are shots of the nursery. We painted back in June with the help of my mom and ordered our furniture last week. We have to wait 3/4 months for it to arrive (www.munirefurniture.com, urban collection in white). I made the paintings which we'll hang once we have the furniture. They're replicas of ones that have been discontinued at Babies R Us (yes, probably against copyright!) so I couldn't get them any longer and wanted to use the greens and yellows that I knew would match the room. we're still waiting on curtains--soon hopefully!







In the meantime, Daisy is still considered our baby (won't she always be!). She turned 4 years old last Wednesday and was lucky enough to have her cousins, Cubby and Vincent, here with us for a week. The puppies celebrated Daisy's birthday with a dogssert, which is a beef flavored ice cream cup especially for dogs (tasty, huh?). We split one cup up between the three of them and they loved it!