Baby Shower Number 2 and 8 Month Photos!

Wow, I can't believe it has been almost a month since I've posted anything!  Things have been a little crazy with the holidays and I have definitely been lagging with my blog posting.  So we have to go back a few weeks to my second baby shower that people at work threw for me.  It was held at Top of the Hill in Chapel Hill and it was such a great time!  There were 10 people there and I got some amazing gifts for our baby girl..... including our travel system stroller!!!  I COULD NOT believe that my co-workers got that incredible gift for me!  To say that I was blown away is a complete understatement!  Here are some pics from the night.

The girl who coordinated it all...while pregnant herself!  Thanks Regina!

Red velvet cake...yum!

Not the most flattering pics of myself that I've ever seen, but it's all I have.  I loved the balloons that Regina got me and the little Mom to Be pin that I wore all night!  Would you believe that those balloons are STILL inflated...almost a month later?  They are hanging out in the nursery, much to Mike's dismay.  He and my sister told me to get rid of them, but I refuse to throw them away until they are deflated!

So my work shower was a success, and I'll tell ya, my co-workers sure are generous.  So far I have received baby gifts from 34 people that I work with!  That's right....34!!  Mike and I are almost completely set for Addy's arrival, thanks in large part to the amazing people that I work with.  We really didn't have to buy much at all!

Onto some 8 month pics!

Don't know why I keep taking the belly down shots since they aren't changing now.  Still obviously can't see my feet, but oh well.  I've taken them every month so far, so I might as well finish it off.  And my belly button still takes over the pics.  Talk about an outie!

Here are my 8 month stats: December 15th, 2010

Weight: 156 lbs          Weight gain to date: 28.2 lbs

Waist: 38 1/2 inches    Waist gain to date: 9 1/2 inches

Breast: 37 inches         Breast gain to date: 3 inches

I cannot believe that I've gained almost 30 pounds already!  Crazy.  So let's see, this past month I felt pretty darn good.  Can't complain much really.  My back hasn't been hurting as much, and although I still pee a lot in the middle of the night, I have been sleeping better.  I got a humidifier and some saline spray and that has definitely been helping with the nosebleeds.  They still come every once in awhile, but not daily like they were.

The one thing that has been making me nervous is that TONS of people have been telling me that I've "dropped" or that I'm all of the sudden carrying much lower than before.  I agree that I look lower than some of the other pregnant people, but I haven't noticed a huge change in myself or anything.  I wonder if it's because I'm taller, so I have a longer torso, which makes it look like I'm carrying lower.  People just have me nervous that I'm about to pop this baby out at any moment!  I hope she hangs in there until January, because I really don't want her birthday to be lumped in with Christmas for the rest of her life.  We'll see.

Otherwise, my doctor's appointments have gone well over this past month (I guess I've only had one).  BP 110/67.  Adilyn's HR 144.  They told me that it's time to start doing kick counts, which means that after dinner every night I am supposed to lay down for an hour and make sure she moves at least 6-10 times in that hour.  Do I do that every night? ...ummmm, not really.  But that is because I am hyper-aware of her movements.  She has been moving a lot lately, and it's totally visible to the naked eye, which is awesome.  I'd realize if she wasn't moving as much as normal.  There was one night after dinner when I didn't notice any movement for awhile and I got kind of nervous.  I layed on one side...then the other....then sat up...nothing.  I'll admit I was nervous that night.  So I asked Mike to grab me a ginger ale, and low and behold...she woke up!  She loves ginger ale!

Hmm, what else has been going on over the past month?  Mike and I went up to my Dad's new cabin in PA for Thanksgiving, which was a lot of fun.  There were 19 people there, so it was a little bit crowded, but we all had a great time.  Tina, J, Mike, and I all shared a room with 2 single beds, which was interesting.  It started out with the boys on the hardwood floor and ended up with them sharing the single beds with us.  Yes, at 7 1/2 months pregnant I was sharing a single bed with my husband.  Comfy?  Not so much.  But it's comical looking back on it.  Tina did a maternity shoot for me while we were up there and those pics came out great!  I'll post some as soon as she sends me a CD.

We went to the PSU vs. Michigan State game while we were up in PA for the weekend, and that was a lot of fun, albeit pretty darn cold.  It was funny though, because Mike was the bigger baby about being cold, which is totally opposite of normal.  Maybe it's because I'm pregnant, maybe it was the 2 cups of hot chocolate...maybe both.  But I really was not too cold.  I would have stayed for the whole game, no problem.  But poor little Mike...he couldn't hang.  We left at the end of the third quarter, and we would have left even earlier if he had any say in it!  Living in the south has made him wimpy when it comes to the cold weather.  He tried to blame me, saying we left early because his pregnant wife was cold, but I didn't let him get away with that one. 

Then last weekend Tina came down for 5 days to help us get the nursery in order, and boy were we busy!  I had no idea that it would take as long as it did, but I loved the process and I love the end result!  She also took more maternity pics when she came down (including some with Daisy dog and her Christmas sweater!).  More on all of that in my next post!