Anyone who read our last set of “bumpdates” knows that we received some news from our ultrasound technician that we might be further along in this pregnancy than we thought. We had to wait until mid-week to meet with our midwife to see what she thought about the results. When we did finally meet with her, she agreed that my due date should be moved up to November 1! She said that they will rarely move a due date from a late ultrasound, but because baby boy was measuring almost three weeks ahead, she said that it was significant enough to warrant a change. She looked at all of my fundal measurements from the all the past appointments I’ve had with her, and I measured about two weeks ahead each time, so she said that the ultrasound measurements mesh with her own. Our technician is also very experienced (over 30 years) and has a reputation for being within one or two ounces in predicting baby’s weight. SO… it looks like we are going to do a little “Time Hop” with our “Bumpdate” weeks.

Week 35 (would be week 32):
Since we didn’t know for sure yet whether we were ahead or right on schedule according to our own calculations, we stuck with the week 32 veggie. This week baby would have been the size of a large jicama (weight wise)- 3.75 pounds and about 16.7 inches long. But we already know that baby boy weighs at least 5 pounds so, in hindsight, this is not so accurate. Since we skipped ahead a few weeks, we missed the cantaloupe and honeydew stage. The major developments right now and over these few weeks that we’re skipping are that his skeleton is hardening, he is becoming less wrinkled and more “filled-out” with fat, he is rapidly gaining weight, his central nervous system is maturing and his lungs are preparing for the outside world.

On a side note, I wore this shirt to church and to HEB (our local grocery store), and I got so many comments on it. EVERYONE loved it! It was a total hit!

This week we celebrated two very special birthdays- Trent’s and our friend Amanda’s. Trent had his 36th birthday (Gosh, he’s old ;)). I went up to his school and brought him some cookies to share with his kids and co-workers. We had our birthing class that night, but there were treats there too! We celebrated on Saturday night with dinner and cake at his mom and dad’s. We spent a relaxing evening watching the Aggie game and hanging out with family.

Amanda was celebrating her 30th birthday, and she loves the TV show “Friends” so she had a themed party on Sunday afternoon. We played “Friends” charades and took pics together. Her cake was “Central Perk” themed and they had birthday episodes of Friends playing during the party. It was a fun time and we were glad to be able to celebrate with our friend!

We had the chance to celebrate another friend’s birthday, a bit early, on Saturday. We went over to the Steele’s house for some BBQ and cookies and delicious ice cream cake in honor of Richard’s birthday. We had a great time chatting and catching up with these friends. And I got to finally hold their little one-month old, Declan! It’s kind of strange being this pregnant and holding a little newborn. He sat right on top of my bump, like a little shelf. He is still so tiny- weighing just over 8 pounds. I couldn’t help but to think that this will likely be the size of our son when he is born! It was so much fun to hold him… it was good practice for this mommy-to-be!

Some other fun things that happened this week… we got a package from Jedidiah’s uncle Derek! He knows me so well. He got me a bib with this now infamous quote from…

anyone know? Allen Iverson. Yeah, yeah, people are probably thinking that that would not be someone you would want your kid to know about. He’s not a great example or leader, BUT for me, he made me fall in LOVE with basketball! I absolutely loved watching him play, so this made me laugh. I put him next to my A.I. bobblehead and took a snapshot. Thanks Derek! Oh yeah, the tag made me laugh too… for el sessibito (the little sessibo).

In other exciting news, we got ourselves a birthday present with a little help from Best Buy and from my parents and grandparents. We put all of our birthday money (and our refund from our other camera) towards a new, NICE camera. Thankfully it was already on sale- 200 dollars off the normal price, and we were able to use a 10% off coupon for the accident coverage (which in the past, has been well worth it). We bought a Nikon D3200. For me it was an absolute MUST to have a camera by the time Jedidiah came, and now that that date was sooner, it was time to buckle down and order it. Now we have a new toy to play with!

Symptoms this week: well, the dark vertical line that starts to show up late in pregnancy has arrived. It doesn’t go the entire length of my belly, but you can see it on the underside up to my belly button now.
I think I might have forgotten to say this one in past “bumpdates,” but my belly button has officially “popped.”
My pastor this week pointed out that I was walking with a bit more of a “waddle” which could be because I (and several others) think that I’ve “dropped” a bit.
My belly is getting bigger, and now serves as a shelf (classy, right?) for beverages or whatever I’d like to hold (See? multi-purpose…).

Week 36:
Baby boy is the size of a head of romaine lettuce today (length), measuring about 6 pounds and more than 18 and a half inches long! Space is getting tight in there! He’s losing some of the vernix and the downy hair that covered most of his body during pregnancy (to protect him from pickling in the amniotic fluid). He is now considered “early term” and we only have a few more weeks to go until he’s “full term!” This week we decided to unveil the change in weeks in picture form, using the pineapple that would have represented 33 weeks and the romaine lettuce which more accurately depicts where I am at 36 weeks.

We had all sorts of things going on this week. Our poor kitty got a big wound that we noticed on Saturday, but not until the vet had already closed. It was about the size of a dime but by Sunday, it had not closed up and in fact had stretched to more the size of a quarter. We decided to keep a close eye on him to make sure that he didn’t start showing any signs of infection and waited until the vet opened on Monday to set up an appointment to take him in (emergency clinics are hella expensive!!!).

Our kitty was feral when he was born and is now pretty good with humans, but he sure doesn’t like being caught and contained in the cat carrier. I was nervous about catching him by myself (only because I really only had one shot to get him in before he would have been pretty wary of my intentions), but that part went smoothly. I hated driving to the clinic listening to him cry (I guess this is preparation for motherhood). I kept telling him that I wasn’t being a “mean mommy” but that I was only taking him in for his own good… I don’t think he understood me. Anyways, the vet said what we expected, that he would need stitches to close up the wound. So we left him there overnight for them to clean it that evening and then sedate and stitch him up the next morning. The result… Franken-kitty… just in time for Halloween!

Poor guy had to get a lot of stitches and then had to stay in the house all night so that we could make sure he didn’t eat or drink anything, per the vet’s orders. At first he was freaked out and kept trying to get outside, but then it was like he remembered how much he likes to be inside and have constant attention from either Trent or I. He chilled out and just hung out with us for the rest of the evening.

Tuesday night Trent and I made our way out to our neighbor’s house for National Night Out. It was nice to reconnect with people living on our block after being away for two years. Most of the people haven’t changed and the new ones didn’t come out, but even though we didn’t meet anyone new, it was still a nice time to catch up.

Thursday night we always have our birthing class. This one was on breastfeeding. It is incredible all the stuff we learned about how our bodies interact with our babies’ bodies to give them what they need. It was some really cool stuff!

This weekend was quite eventful. One of Trent’s best friends got married! Beau was one of the groomsmen in our wedding a few years back and this time around Trent got to return the favor and be a groomsman in his. Friday night was the rehearsal. They had their wedding at the small chapel in La Villita in historic downtown San Antonio. Although Trent and I had been to La Villita before, we’d never seen the church. It was very quaint and I loved the feel of it!

After a short rehearsal, we headed to The Cove for some delicious food and time to catch up with Beau and his soon-to-be-wife Karrin. We’d both been to The Cove before but not since they expanded… now it’s huge! The food is just as good though, and we really enjoyed the atmosphere and fellowship.

Saturday was a busy day. We had some friends come in from out of town for another San Antonio wedding. My college roommate Sheena (who was also in our wedding) and her husband Nick were in town from Houston and came to our house for a pre-baby visit. We hadn’t been able to see them last summer when we were back visiting from China, and Sheena doesn’t have Facebook, so we had a LOT to catch up on… China and all the other places we went, baby stuff… LOTS. We had such a great time talking and laughing together and it was so refreshing to my soul to see them! It was such a blessing that they visited. They also brought Jedi some cute gifts.

After Sheena and Nick left, we got ready for the wedding and drove downtown to La Villita. I brought the camera (I did for the groom’s dinner too) to play around with and snapped a bunch of photos while Trent did his thing with the boys. The wedding was beautiful and we were blessed to be a part of such a special day in our friends’ lives!

The reception was nearby at The Vault. Our delicious dinner began with a goat cheese salad, then Trent got the steak dinner and I got the chicken. We always share so we get the best of both worlds! For dessert, there was the most delicious bread pudding!

After dinner, we danced the night away (the DJ had a great mix of 90’s and early 2000’s hip-hop). We were very thankful to be a part of such a wonderful night!

These weeks have been very full, but very blessed. We’re trying to live in the moment as we’re waiting to meet our little guy and enjoy every stage of pregnancy, especially these last few weeks of “just us” time!

Symptoms this week: I’ve been having annoying night sweats most of this week… not sure why, but it hasn’t contributed to me sleeping very well. I’ve been congested with some allergy stuff (although not too bad), and I’ve had some pains down low in my pelvis. Hopefully that means my hips and pelvis are preparing for this sweet baby boy to vacate his current premises! 🙂