Third Trimester

In the final stretch! 11 weeks to go! At the same time, that seems forever far away and just around the corner. I've started to grow out of the "honeymoon" phase and well into the I feel like the size of a building. Most of the time I am fine, but I find myself with less energy and forget picking anything off the floor or the bottom drawer of the fridge. Not happening.

Ace is moving around happily in my tummy – mostly attacking … I mean resting on my right side. He's steered clear of my left set of ribs, so it's good to know when all this is done I'll at least have a few left to protect at least one of my lungs. Otherwise he is quite content these days squirming all over the place. The doctor says he's an extremely active little boy for still being on the inside. He does frequently run laps around my belly and often kicks off your hand if it displeases him. So far he loves apples and gets quite excited with movement when I consume them.

I had a doctor's appointment on Tuesday this week and I'm right on target for where everything should be. Weight, size of uterus (does anyone else find it odd that pregnancy is the flood gate to socially acceptable amounts of "too much information"?) Ace's heartbeat was faster this time around – it was 163 BPM this time, previously has been holding happily right around 150. The doctor says that it's good that he fluctuates a little, in fact even states it's probably because he's running out of room and gets frustrated. I have now entered into the appointment scheduling realm of every two weeks, previously I had been going to the doctor once a month. I am now scheduled through the end of July with every other week appointments. Loving Husband fondly refers to this stage as the greatest insurance scam ever.

The nursery is nearly complete, all the main components are in there and happily awaiting the baby. So far so good – we used our cats to test out the weight support on the changing table – combined our cats weigh close to 40lbs, so we figured not bad test subjects for the table, it passed with flying colors…. And Nickolas got a great view of the inside of the crib and thought it was so nice of us to give him a bigger bed. He leaped right in. Dang it. We pulled him out and he moseyed on his way. However, that night when I got up for one of my many middle of the night jaunts to the bathroom he was cozy and curled up in the middle of the crib, I pulled the sleepy bear out of the crib and placed him in his bed where he quietly returned to his slumber. To the best of our knowledge he hasn't returned to the crib since. Tort remains content to hide under the bedskirt of the crib as his own personal fort.

A few weeks back I had a lovely shower in SoCal. It was great to see everyone and had a lovely party hosted by Dawn and thrown by Shelley, Dawn and my mom. I got some lovely gifts and gift cards and have been able to obtain many of the necessary baby items for Ace's arrival. His car seat in fact is on the way as we speak. J I am very much looking forward to my other showers to be held up here in the great northwest in July and being able to celebrate with friends here. My dear friend Vanessa is due in 9 days, and we are all excited with anticipation to meet her little girl! So that should keep me busy for the next few passing weeks.

Ace will continue to grow and I will continue to become less and less mobile, relinquishing more and more duties – such as laundry – I'm getting to the end of the line with that chore, the bending down and getting the laundry in and out of the bins is getting difficult, in fact it already is impossible for me to get to the bottom of the dirty clothes hamper. However, Loving Husband has been wonderful – he's been very helpful and is amazed regularly by how hard and strong Ace's has been kicking me.

Thank you for your continued love and support and continue to pray as we enter into the final stretch, when our little boy finally will arrive to much excitement.