Cole's Room

I think Cole's room is finished... hah! A little rug or some curtains could be added, but I think I am content.  It has been so fun to take his empty room and transform it into probably my favorite room in the house. Which is a good thing, because rumor has it that I will be spending quite a bit of time in there...

The Details:
Chair, Crib and Dresser: Babies R Us
Bookshelf: Bed Bath and Beyond
Baskets: Michaels
Bedding: Target
Lamp: Target (added some ribbon to the lamp shade)
Canvas over Dresser: Hobby Lobby
Canvases over Crib: I made those! Designed them on Microsoft Word and then had them printed on canvas.
Blankets on Chair: Made by Tom's mom and Tom's cousin.  Can't buy those anywhere!
Changing Pad Cover: Amazon

The Last Trimester, Part I

Now that I am up to date on these posts, and the fact that the third trimester is when all the crazy happens, I will start this post and then add to it as things change... We are in the home stretch!


Growing Belly:
So far, I feel like my growing belly has stalled out temporarily...I am very aware that this will change soon!! But from even the 28 week picture until now, I don't see or feel much change.  But Tom did tell me the other day that I "grew out" of one of my maternity tops!! HA! The stripes were a little toooo stretched out... Thankful for my honest husband.

The Fun Stuff:
The last month has been busy.  We went to Austin to hang out with Jean and Travis for Memorial Day, I had my third shower in Plano, we went to Houston to see Morgan and a friend, go to Katherine's wedding and spend the night with Jean and Travis! Busy! This weekend we have our 8 hour birthing class at the hospital.  Tom is overjoyed.  haha!!

Memorial Day Fun

Pretty Bride Katherine

The Pregnancy Side Effects:
 (I am sure I will need to update these as we get closer. Eight weeks left for things to get crazy!)


Stretch Marks - nope. I think (and hope) my great genes will pull through for me! My mom and sister are stretch mark free, so I have some hope in this elastic skin.

Blood Pressure - It has been around 60/110 or 70/110 the whole pregnancy.  Which I think is healthy.  This could definitely change toward the end as well.

Weight Gain - I have gained weight.  hahaha!  No avoiding that. I have gained 25 pounds, and am hoping to stay under 35 pounds.  I gained the most rapidly the first trimester, and very little the second trimester. So far, a pound a week is the pattern for this trimester.

Swelling - Not yet! Cross your fingers for me!!!! I can still wear my wedding ring, and my toes still have their long, gangly look.  I am fairly confident this will change soon.  Really soon.

Sleeping - With summer coinciding with my third trimester, the pressure to get a good night of sleep is off.  I can always sleep in a little or nap if needed.  Which, in my opinion,  is super! I usually wake up once to pee, and then have no trouble falling back asleep.  Dreams have been rather vivid, but nothing scary or weird.

Back Pain - I had have had tight joints and back pain occasionally throughout the pregnancy.  The back/hip pain usually bothers me at night, and is typically after working out later in the day or doing lunges! I have tried to stretch more and do more prenatal yoga to help in this arena.

Leg Cramps - I have had one charlie horse the whole pregnancy.  That was terrible, and I hope to not experience that again!

Gestational Diabetes - Nope... I passed the orange soda test.  That was a yucky feeling.  My blood work showed that my iron was low, so now I take an additional mega vitamin, which I think gives me a little more energy.

Veins - No varicose veins.  I have had spider veins since high school, so those might look a little darker, but nothing worth complaining about.

Heartburn - Ugh! Yes! Just at night, and Tums do the trick.  If I eat light, I have no issues. Last week, HEB had a meal deal and we got some free chili cheese fritos...the flames of fire that shot through my esophagus were unreal.  Fritos, I will see you again soon, I promise!

Belly Button - Well........it definitely looks different.  Its not sticking out, but you can see it through my clothes.  And when Mister Cole is rolling around in that area, it is really funny to watch my belly button stick out and go back in.  SO WEIRD.. my own personal turkey timer.

The Second Trimester

Wow...where to begin?! The 2nd trimester had so many huge and exciting events... I felt great, my belly officially "popped", we had lots of fun stuff going on, registering and showers began, we named our baby...I loved weeks 14 - 28!


The Physical Changes:

There is definitely an energy that reappears the 2nd trimester.  The nausea for me did continue, but only for maybe 15-45 minutes a few random mornings.  You will be able to tell the huge growth spurts our baby had in the pictures of my belly.  I think when baby and belly are rapidly growing, it is super tough on your body! This trimester was clearly the change from, maybe gaining weight to definitely pregnant! It was definitely weird while it is happening to your body, but fun to look back at the pictures.

My contacts continued to be an issue, maybe until week 22.  I toughed it out and just carried drops with me everywhere I went.  I would rather see out of cloudy contacts then wear my glasses.  So vain!

Exercising was great in this trimester.  It was SPRING, which made it so easy to get outside and go for a walk.  I also swam at the gym, did prenatal yoga, and weights/toning videos.

Sleeping was off and on.  I had to officially stop sleeping on my back, which was so hard to adjust too.  I am so particular with my sleeping positions! My friend let me borrow her snoogle, which was mostly obstructive annoying until a few weeks ago (30 weeks now). My hips would cramp up and I had a few rather vivid dreams.  All typical, just odd to experience yourself.  Peeing in the middle of the night was no issue.  I think I have a warrior bladder from being a teacher.

Gender Reveal!

At our 20 week appointment, we got to meet our SON, Cole Henry Heinemann!!!!! He made his gender known very clearly, and we were so so so pumped to start calling our baby by name! We knew that we wanted the middle name to be Henry, after Tom's grandfather.  He was such a great man, and we will be so honored if our son takes after him.  After that, the hunt was on for a short name that sounded great with Henry and Heinemann! (Not an easy task!!!) Aunt Jean came to the rescue with Cole Henry.  We both loved it! What is the meaning? We don't know.  We just love the name! Thanks Jean :)

It's a Boy! Cole Henry Heinemann

Registering and Baby Showers:

Now that we knew Cole was on his way and my showers were quickly approaching, my procrastination to do research and register had to end.  Luckily I have the best friends and family in the world, and they compiled their "can't live without" lists for me.  SO THANKFUL! This was such a lifesaver, so I must pass them on to my future mom friends
.

 Registry List #1                   Registry List #2

Passing the Time:
The second trimester had TONS of fun stuff going on! We went skiing in Colorado with Tom's family, Jean and Travis came to visit in San Antonio, for Easter we went to Austin to see my parents and my sister's family, Morgan came to town, then Tom's parents, girls weekend in New Braunfels with Rach and Emily, Grant's first birthday, my first baby shower with my girlfriends in San Antonio, and then my second baby shower/breakfast with my coworkers, and then school was out for summer! Crazy busy.  Crazy fun. 

The First Trimester

Time to start documenting my pregnancy experience!

On December 15, 2011...the little stick revealed that we were pregnant! It was definitely a swirl of emotions, mostly disbelief and a good amount of shock and fear...the excitement and joy came soon after... There is definitely a reason the Lord gives us 9 months to prepare for this addition!

With Christmas right around the corner, we wanted to give gifts that would reveal our big news.  For my parents, we made a photo album for my niece Brooke that gave away our big secret towards the end. We FaceTimed with them to show them the book, so they wouldn't have to wait until our family gathering over New Years.

For Tom's family, we put together a picture frame revealing our "bun in the oven." Jill was the first one to guess what we were trying to tell them!!!

We had to wait until 8 weeks to first visit the doctor, but they did confirm, P-R-E-G-N-A-N-T and showed us some cute pictures of our little peanut.  We went back at 11 weeks, and then had our special needs test at 13 weeks.  I was not expecting our baby to be moving around this early in the game, but at the 11 week and 13 week sonograms, there was kicking and spinning and rolling like crazy. It definitely made it more real to us that there was a human inside of me and that it was our child.  CRAZY!

Here comes the ridiculous part...I felt so bloated and huge probably from week 9 and on.  Now looking back, you cannot even tell I was pregnant!!! Ha! I can't believe how big I thought I was.  Ridiculous.  It is all in self-perception, and mine was way off. I do think that the gas and bloating are no joke.  There was plenty of discomfort and pants really did feel snug. But still.

My overall first trimester experience was a good one.  I only felt a consistent nausea for weeks 6-8, and that was during the holidays when I wasn't working.  I did move slower in the mornings and tried my best to snack and not have an empty stomach to avoid nausea.

My biggest issue was probably my contacts! My hair, skin and eyes were so dry for the first half of this pregnancy.  I hated wearing my glasses to work, especially when you already feel bloated, washed out and yucky.  I will never forget one student telling me he knew my secret!! He told me I was touching my stomach a lot, and had less energy.  He was so confident that I was pregnant....I lied and told him he was crazy.

I did keep running and doing yoga during the first trimester.  My energy level was pretty low, but I wanted to commit to being active throughout the whole pregnancy.  I do not regret that decision!

That is pretty much all there was to the first third of this pregnancy! We kept busy and had a great time with family over the holidays, moving into our town home and going to the high school retreat with our church youth group.

 

Grocery List Creation!

Going to the grocery is definitely not my favorite thing.  To make it a little more tolerable, I found this cute list on pinterest the other day, tried it out and wanted to make some adjustments to match the HEB we normally shop at.

I matched the list categories to the way we normally walk through the store, and the categories are the ones I usually write out on paper.  Let me know if you want the Microsoft Word file to edit your own!

Printable File