29 weeks

Week 29 was a pretty busy one for us. We started the week out by being blessed with our first baby shower for Maddox. A group of my wonderful sweet friends through Maddox and Noah (a friend of mine's soon to be son---who is due here any day now) a shower.  Everything was perfect and we were incredibly spoiled with goodies to help us prepare for these little boys.  

 

Garrett and I had our second class at the hospital which was breastfeeding.  This class wasn't nearly as informative as the first one but I'm sure we got some information in there that will be useful at some point. 

We also had our doctor's appointment for my sonogram and glucose test.  The results from the glucose test should be here any day now. The sonogram went really well! My placenta has moved to where it needs to be and everything else looks good.  Praise God! Maddox is measuring a little over three pounds which is a little bigger than average. We got several pictures of our little boy and he's already a thumb sucker.  Now I will begin seeing the doctor every 2 weeks. 

The little blob above his nose is his fist...he's sucking his thumb.

Maddox's foot

Front view of the face

His arm and hand. Again, you can see him sucking his thumb here.

27 and 28 Weeks

Well 27 and 28 weeks are getting written together because quite honestly I can't tell you what happened in either week and as I write this I am hours away from 29. I have found that this "pregnancy brain" thing really does exist.  I've never claimed to have the best memory but the things I've forgotten in the past 2 weeks are getting progressively worse. Maddox is moving around what seems like non-stop now and some of these movements are pretty uncomfortable.  I have less energy. I have one speed...slow. I have a hard time moving around and bending over to pick things up.  This week at school I was sitting in a chair and reached down to pick up a paper from the floor and came back up out of breath. The child I was working with looked at me like I was crazy and asked why I was out of breath. I told her it was because I have a big belly and it's hard to move sometimes.  She assured me that it was okay because my belly is only big because there's a baby in there.

Last week Garrett and I took our first parenting class at the hospital "baby care basics." They covered pretty much that...just the basics. It was a relief that I knew quite a bit of the information already but there was still a great deal that was overwhelming.  We took about three pages of notes and the Type A personality in me wants to memorize every note we took.  Thank God I have close to zero energy or I may actually try it.  

Last weekend Mom and Dad also got Maddox's first official full outfit complete with a shirt and bottoms. He has several onesies and shirts but I don't count those as outfits. I am in love with these yellow pants.  Today one of my precious students gave me 2 adorable monkey outfits because I have sent her home with monkey books this week so she naturally assumed that must mean I love monkeys.  Absolutely adorable! 

Next Thursday I go in for my glucose test and sonogram. This is the test where they should be able to tell if my placenta has moved or not. As much as I would love for it to be in "the right spot" I've come to terms with the fact that it may not have moved. It's not the end of the world if it hasn't moved and I will just deal with the complications that may or may not come along with it. I know that I have no control over this and it is yet another thing that God is control of...still prayers would be appreciated next Thursday! :)

 

I knew my stomach has gotten bigger but I didn't realize how much bigger (and pointer) until I looked at these pictures side by side!

26 Weeks

Thank the Lord for 3 day weekends. It was so nice to have a nice long weekend to have to recover from the first week of school. Who ever decided that the work week should be 5 days and the weekend be 2? That just doesn't make any sense! This week has been pretty uneventful in the baby world.  Maddox is moving like crazy, maybe he's reacting to hearing me talk non-stop all day, probably telling me to be quiet already. I came home from the gym one day this week and went upstairs to lay down for a few minutes before starting dinner and he was moving all over the place.  I grabbed my phone to try to get a video not really expecting to capture anything. (He has a tendency to stop moving around every time I grab my phone or try to let Garrett feel...I'm not sure if he's being stubborn or shy. :) Well this time he was showing off, if you watch closely you can see him rolling around. (Please excuse the big belly and unmade bed.) I think I've watched the video over a dozen times now.  I'm fully aware that I am pregnant every time I try to fit into an old outfit, feel pain in my swollen feet, and am ready for bed at 2pm, but it's moments like this that make me feel in complete awe of the miracles that God has created.

25 Weeks

I spent several days trying to find out more information about the woman we interviewed for childcare.  To be quite honest I was trying to find out the "bad stuff" so I could decide if it was bad enough to not let Maddox go there. Since I know several people who have had her watch their children that was extremely helpful in getting a lot of information...none of it bad.  Every person I asked recommended her so highly it was almost too good to believe.  I even asked a few people specifically what they didn't like and the little things that they were able to come up with weren't even what I would call problems.  After much thought and prayer Garrett and I decided to use her as child care for Maddox. As stressed as I was before about making a decision I feel very at peace with this decision and am so thankful that we found someone who people rave about!

This week the kids started school and is has been exhausting. My body isn't quite used to working so hard for 9 hours out of the day. I can't imagine people that have to work for a while 9 month pregnancy. I am so thankful I have had the past three months off. I just pray that I can quickly adjust to being back to work.  The first week is always stressful but it's multiplied by the exhaustion that comes with being pregnant. 

This week we had another doctor's appointment and we got to hear Maddox's heartbeat again.  At my next doctor's appointment I will do my glucose testing and we will have another sonogram to see if my placenta has moved.  Continuing to appreciate prayers. :)

24 Weeks

This week I started back to school.  Thankfully this week was just for staff development...no kiddos so I had a week to get adjusted to getting up early and being at work all day. Monday and Tuesday were pretty easy but Wednesday I was already hitting snooze on the alarm clock. Friday night all I wanted to do was crawl in bed and sleep. Hopefully this week will prepare me for next week and the first graders will be easy on this old preggo.

Also new this week...I no longer own a single pair of jeans that I can button, so I sported the maternity pants for the first time at school.

I've been looking for child care for a few weeks now and getting recommendations wherever I could.  I want something small preferably an in home child care as opposed to a day care.  Several of the recommendations I've gotten won't take children until 7am which is too late since school starts at 7:30 and I'd have to drop Maddox off and get to school before then.  Several teachers I have worked with have had one woman watch their child and she has been highly recommended.  Garrett and I interviewed her on Thursday and it went really well.  She was really friendly and great with the children that were there.  I haven't really been too stressed about child care until the day before we met with her.  I feel like regardless of who it is I won't trust anyone as much as I do myself or Garrett.  However, I know it's the norm for children to be in some kind of child care and the exposure to other children is really a good thing. We've decided that we will just continue to pray over it this week and possibly look for somewhere else to interview.

23 Weeks

After finding out that baby G was a he the spending started pretty quickly. I ordered his bedding right away, we went and got the other furniture we needed and began working on his room. This week all of the furniture came together and the longhorn orange wall changed to a blue. I absolutely love his bedding but for the next few months we'll keep it in the closet. As much as I'd love to have it sitting out there's no point in it gathering dust.  (I'll get pictures up next week.)

We also signed up for some prenatal classes that the hospital offers and will begin taking those in September.  Lord knows we'll need as much information as we can get. 

This week we registered at Babies R Us and Target. I expected this to be a ton of fun...it wasn't. When we registered for the wedding I registered for so much stuff simply because it was "pretty." You can't exactly do that with baby stuff. There's so much to think about...what do I need, what are the product ratings, is this safe for the baby, will I actually use this, which product is best. It was overwhelming to say the least. If only if I could've just registered for the pretty monitor and pretty carseat. Luckily I have some amazing friends that were extremely helpful by telling me which things I did and didn't need and which brands were best. 

We also came up for a name for baby G...so we can stop calling him baby G or it. :) We decided on Maddox Thomas Giles.  Now it seems like all we need to do is await his arrival. 

Week 22

It's a boy!!! We had our gender reveal party last weekend and found out our sweet baby is a boy. We were so blessed to be able to share this time with friends and family. When we started thinking about having this party we wanted to keep it small and just those that were closest to be in attendance since it was going to be such a personal moment. In the end it didn't seem small at all, but what an amazing problem to have. We are so blessed to have so many people that we are close to to be able to share this and other special moments with us! The party turned out wonderful...and since pictures are supposedly worth a thousand words I'll let them do the talking! 

Waiting for Dad and Tyler's surprise

Before the party...waiting to see...he or she?

 

The people who thought Baby G would be a he...

And the people who thought Baby G would be a she...

Ready, Set...

Shoot!

Wait...is that blue or pink?

It's BLUE!

Making sure it's really a boy!

Three Generations of Giles'