Oh Baby!!

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Pregnancy is a strange and amazing thing. It does crazy things to an otherwise FAIRLY normal body. I haven't taken hardly any photos with this baby, but I want to make a little pregnancy journal with the ones I have. It gets a little scary toward the end. Here goes.

Here I am at the hospital at 13 weeks along. Jay did an ultrasound and we found out we were having another little boy. Only 13 weeks, can you believe it!

This is literally the only picture I have of myself the whole first two trimesters. We were at Greenbluff sharing a pumpkin donut. If you haven't tried them they're SOOO good. I was about 24 weeks.

Here are a bunch of pictures of my sister Angi and I at Thanksgiving. She's due 2 weeks before me with a little girl. She lives in Kansas City, MO. I wish we lived closer, it would be so fun to be pregnant together, and for the little cousins to grow up together. My little sister was actually pregnant at the same time too, but had her baby it September. She lives in Maine of all places. We all miss each other a ton, but atleast we have each other, even if we are so far away. (I was between 29 & 30 weeks somewhere in these pics.)

Her little belly fits just perfectly underneath mine. (She's my short sister)

I actually think pregnant bellies are pretty cute.

We thought we'd do a little Yoga.

Here's baby's first picture with Santa.

About 32 wks.

Here I am impersonating Santa.

35.5 weeks along

I have a ton of energy still. We spent the day out snowshoeing and running around with the kids. We also took them all snow skiing at Schweitzer and I chased Alec up and down the bunny hill all day. The cabin has been the best remedy for a long cold winter. It really gives us something to look forward too.

36 wks.

I finally bought crib bedding for this baby. I haven't had any for my other kids, I just never wanted to spend the money I guess, it's not cheap. But this time I wanted to have a cute little nursury, and actually have the crib made up. I found this cute set at Target and it was a great price. Chad and I bought two new dressers from Unfinished Furniture and painted them blue. You can see them on either side of the crib. The baby will be in Reese and Alec's room. There just happens to be this nook on one side that the crib fits into perfectly. It looks really cute. Their two twin beds are on the opposite wall.

Now isn't this lovely. I know it's a horrifc picture, but oh my goodness, is it just me, or do anyone else's feet and legs swell up like this? The sock lines, Yikes!

Almost 37 wks.

Here I am at 37 weeks. I had to start cropping the faces out of my pictures at this point. I think 1/3 of my weight gain is in my cheeks!! I'm starting to feel awfully big and awkward now. I've been really fortunate to have a fairly easy and eventless pregnancy so far. Pretty much textbook.

I'm feeling a bit torn though. Part of me just can't hardly wait to have this over with. To see the baby, and hold him and just get started getting to know him and making him a part of our family. Not to mention being able to bend over, watch the scales going down instead of up, wear normal clothes, be able to roll over at night etc.

But another side of me is kind of sad to see it end. We think this might be our last baby, and I might not ever be pregnant again. I know it's got to be those darn hormones, but I actually get a little teary thinking of it being over. I really don't mind being pregnant. I love the anticipation of it all. I love feeling the baby move, thinking of names, wondering what he'll be like, watching the baby shows on TLC, my midwives, ultrasounds, maternity clothes, it's all so exciting and miraculous. I feel like I've spent my whole life looking forward to having babies, it feels too soon to have it all over already. I feel like I should be just beginning. But truely, this could be the end of an era for me. The fact that I feel so unready to be done makes me think there's a good chance we'll have one more. But we might not! This could be the end and I don't know why, but I'm kind of sad about it. It makes me want to kind of hold on to these last couple of weeks, as strange as that sounds.

I thought we were making some progress on names for this little guy. I've liked Luke the whole time. I fact Alec was down to Alec or Luke. This baby was going to be either Andrew, Luke, or something else I can't remember now. But now I'm really liking Ryan and Micah too. So it's between Ryan Spencer Roland, Luke Spencer Roland, or Micah Spencer Roland. Any opinions, actually don't give them too me, it just confuses me more. The other choice for a middle name is Stratton which I love and is my mom's maiden name. But my dad's name is Spencer and I really want to name one after him, so that will probably be it.

Here I am at 39 weeks and one day. By this time I was over being sad to have my pregnancy end. I was just ready to be done! I think everyone reaches that point sooner or later. Little did I know the baby would be born the next day.