Feb Update Already?

I feel like January went by really fast. But in a good way, because the faster it goes, the faster this baby comes and I don't have to be preggers anymore. Bwahaha.

33 weeks~!

Anyway, in order of what we've been up to lately...

I got my hair cut and colored...

Anyway, trying to avoid my mistake of post-partum hair craziness like after Preston was born...

I hated that hair cut and seriously was depressed for months until it finally grew out longer.

I was trying to get a good shot of the dark red she put in there...

Taylor has been Will's little sidekick lately. He gets so excited when Will comes home from work, waits for him at the door and opens it for him. Also just snuggles and follows him around like a puppy dog.

The boys enjoy wrestling.

Or I should say Taylor enjoys piling on top of Preston and tackling him, and Preston giggles through it.

Last Saturday (Feb 1st), my mom and friend Catherine, and I made 19 freezer meals! So now we will be uber-prepared with food after the baby is born and I'm recovering the Csection.  

(This isn't a pic of our freezer meals by the way, just one off of Pinterest)

I will say that it did take a lot of preparation, and you really should only do it when you have the budget to do so. I think we spent about $350 on all of the food - but most of that was due to a lot of meat from Costco.  

My lovely awesome husband Will did the shopping for this adventure, and so glad he did.  It took him about 5 hours to do it all, poor guy! I guess he wasn't used to grocery shopping alone and didn't know his way around the store very well - even though I organized his list into categories of sections of the store.  He said he kept asking employees where things were and they would look at his list and say "Whoa, that is the longest honey-do list I've ever seen!"

Haha, whoops! Sorry about that Will, but so thankful for you doing the shopping and getting everything.

Will has been amazing the past week I have to say. He has been so helpful, made me fires in the fireplace, made some dinners for the boys, grocery shopped for me, watched the boys so I could relax, given me backrubs and more.  I sure love and appreciate him. It's hard to be super pregnant with 2 little children to take care, and he knows how hard my pregnancies are for me - so I'm so grateful he is a good man and helps out.

Preston and Taylor made an "airplane" out of a box and squished into it :)

Do these stripes make me look pregnant? Haha.

This was at my 32 week doctor appointment, in the bathroom mirror at the doc's office.

This was me in the 32nd week just barely able to get my workout shoes on so I could go to the gym. It's getting so hard to put on and lace up my socks and shoes! Ha!

Just please take a 10 lb watermelon and put it under your shirt and try to bend over and put your shoes on.  Uh huh...hard right?

Here are some of Will's recent adventures over the past month...

His friend Doug....

This is one of my favorite photos that he's taken.

Prego Stuff

Well, it is now Feb 3rd, and my C-section is tentatively scheduled for Sunday, March 16th. So I have slightly less than 6 weeks to go!

30 week picture

Also 30 weeks...

32 weeks

Bumpdate:

This baby boy is very active, kicking, rolling, punching? Either way I feel like the crud is getting beat out of me.  BUT it's all good evidence that he is doing well. He has been doing great at all of my doctor appointments - measuring right on, heartbeat great and all of that.

I had pre-eclampsia last time with Taylor and so every time I have a doctor appointment I make sure to find out if my blood pressure is doing okay and it has been so far.  So that is good.  But the weird thing is I didn't get the pre-eclampsia until 10 days AFTER I had Taylor.  Weird. Usually giving birth is the cure for it, so it was just a weird odd situation all around.

My goal was (and still is) to keep going to the gym up until Valentine's Day which is my 35th week.  Then that gives me 4 weeks off.  BUT...if I am still feeling good, I will keep going.

This is the first time in my life that I have been working out NOT for weight loss.  In the past my fitness goals have always been to get into shape, to lose weight, etc.  And so I would work VERY hard at the gym to burn the most calories as I could, and lift weights and get as strong as I could.

But this time is different.

4 weeks pregnant

33 weeks pregnant

It's been kind of weird, but also kind of relaxing in a way to go to the gym and not have to worry about how many minutes I was at level 15 incline, or how many minutes my cardio was.  My only real goal with my workouts, especially in the 3rd trimester, have been 1) To keep some sort of fitness level up, 2) To ensure that my muscles won't atrophy, 3) To hopefully have a faster recovery from pregnancy this time, and 4) To help with aches and pains.

At this point though, I do go and wonder "Will today be my last workout during this pregnancy?". There are some days when I go and honestly don't feel like working out.  Baby usually likes to kick me (hard!) during my cardio sessions, and I find myself bending over and leaning on the handles of the stairmaster to handle the kicking pain - haha!  Sometimes it takes everything to walk from one side of the gym to the other because my hips hurt, or baby is sitting on my urethra pinching it.  

But I know I am doing my body good, and I hope to keep going as long as I'm able.  

Lately I have been feeling the final-weeks-weight-gain coming on and it's gotten me down a bit.  I've noticed the chub piling on and sometimes I feel like a failure, like why have I been trying so hard when I will just end up as heavy as before?  I know that is not the truth though.  I know from past photos (so glad I've been taking photos of myself along the way), that my body shape is different this time and I am more fit - even if that "fit" is underneath some fat right now :) It's still there.

And it does help to have a hubby who tells me he thinks I have a cute butt - even when I certainly do NOT think so whatsoever. :)

Anyway.  That is the update from us lately.

Upcoming stuff:

- This week I've given my Piano Guys tix away to my friend Noelle, so she is surprising her son and coming to Seattle to the concert in our place. Sad, because I really wanted to go, but didn't feel like going when so pregnant.

- My friend Kimberly is coming to visit me from Oregon this weekend and so excited about that. She is a musician/composer/pianist as well and we have only been internet friends at this point - but have a huge connection and are so excited to finally meet!  Woohoo for meeting great friends!

- My ward is throwing me a baby shower this Saturday (the 8th). I didn't really think we would need one, but when they offered and started asking me if we needed anything, I did realize all of our current baby boy clothes are out of season (newborn clothes are summer, and 6 months are winter sweaters....and this baby will be a newborn in the winter, and a 6 month old in the summer).

- Will is giving a talk in church this Sunday. Woohoo.