Super fast update!!!!

I've been admonished for not updating recently!  I'm sorry!!!!!

I decided the best and fastest way to update everyone on what we've been doing is to post a ton of pics out here and show you.  :)  Sorry I've been missing in action lately, we've had a lot going on not related to the pregnancy that's kept us pretty busy and distracted.  However, no excuse....  I'll do better!

ENJOY!

We babysat the cutest and sweetest kids on the planet.  I even found the girls playing "Shae Shae" and cannot express to you how much I absolutely adore this photo.  Mallory (L) and Reaghan (R) lumbering around the house acting like me.....too precious. 

We've been cramming as much information as we possible can into our brains about labor, delivery, pregnancy and being a new parent.  Hugemongous thanks to Oak over at Acorn Chronicles for sending me these wonderful books to help me through this crazy process.  These books have been a Godsend for certain!  I'm feeling more and more prepared by the day! (Amazing how unprepared I will still be come show time though!) 

We registered!  Rik picked out his diaper bag and we went ahead and bought the little guy his first stuffed animal.  It's a curly-furred puppy dog that is currently sitting in his new crib (more on that later)!  We registered in stages so that we didn't get overwhelmed and I think that made it so much easier.  We still have the bath and safety stuff to register for but are mostly finished. 

This is me at about 26 weeks.  I'm really loving having a baby bump.  I may even be slightly obsessed with the fact that I have one now.  I waited a looong time for this!  

We got the crib!  The original delivery date of August 1st was pushed back b/c the boutique we bought it from had a snafu and sold our crib to another couple b/c they thought we didn't need ours until September 1st.  Needless to say, I was not a happy camper since I took the day off to be here when it was delivered and was over-the-moon excited to just have it HERE.  Oh well, two weeks later, it made it.  Obviously, there was some assembly required.  Rik and I got right to work that night and obviously, Rik had NO problems figuring out which piece went where and with which screws. 

I got in on the action and worked my allen wrench like it was nobody's business....and it wasn't!  Those screws had another thing coming once I got started!

We had a little help from our Quality Control Team.  Tess, the Director of Operations, gave us the "Ok to go" when she deemed everything safe and secure enough for the baby to sleep in.  So, we proceeded.

Here is the finished product!  Quality Control was doing their last inspection, but we got the green light.  This was me at 26 weeks 5 days.  The walls will NOT be this green color for much longer.  We just hadn't yet gotten around to picking out which color we wanted to go with!  

We bought our bedding a few weeks ago and went through what felt like 200 paint swatches before narrowing it down!  I love the bedding and I love the color we chose.  We're actually painting today (once I get off here and help Rik tape off the trim!) so wish us luck!

We also went car shopping on the hottest day of the year.  It was a balmy 104 degrees this day and as you can tell by Reaghan's cheeks, it was a scorcher!  Uncle Rik reallllly loves this little girl, can you tell?  She helped us make the final decision on the car we ended up with!

We ended up with this!  A Honda Fit.  The color is what Rik has taken to calling Olympic Bronze.  It works.  The car needed to get great gas mileage, be roomy enough for his 6"4 frame, easy to get a carseat in and out of, have enough room in the back for all of his baseball equipment and have less than a certain number of miles.  This is the only car we found that fit every need and they took $2k off the asking price b/c Rik's dad has been such a good customer at the Audi retailer. 

We made room for the baby in the front room of our house which will be his temporary home the first few months and eventually, his playroom.  Thank goodness Matthew (blonde) and Owen (brown) were here to help Rik move this couch!  It's friggin heavy!

We snuggled and spent time getting used to our new belly.

 We played in the rain.  (her life is a stage)

 We took our Olympic Swim Team to show off their skills in the natural spring beside our house.

We had our huge backyard fenced in for the dogs to enjoy a good romp around out there and to have a place to stash them once the baby gets here!  We've been planning this since we moved in 4 years ago and just haven't gotten around to it or wanted to spend the money on it (either way).  The dogs are LOVING it.

I made a few things for a friend of mine who is due a few weeks before me.  Emily had a baby shower last weekend.  It was the sweetest couples shower and everything was so beautiful.  I'm waiting on her to send me a belly shot we had taken together so I can share it with all of you.  She is so adorable and we are so excited for her to have Madelyn!

I had my glucose testing this past Tuesday.  Just looking at this picture makes me slightly queazy.  It didn't go so well.  I had an early dinner the night before and fasted that morning so obviously, I was completely starving by the time this got started at 8:45. I drank it down in 5 mins as required and then went to meet with the doc.  Scrip Scrap's heartbeat was 150 and strong.  I gained 2 lbs since my previous monthly visit and she said I was looking great.  I have gone through a serious growth spurt the past two weeks and my belly is really going places these days so I was anxious about weight gain and his size.  The tech that measured my belly said the baby was measuring 29 weeks but she measured a little higher than where my uterus actually ends so I think that's a little bit off.  I asked the doc why I would be measuring 2 weeks ahead and she said that it could be either a chunky baby or a long baby.  I laughed.  Rik wasn't with me so I had to tell her how tall he is.  She said, "Well, there ya go! I'd rather you deliver a tall baby than a really chunky baby!"  She said it's likely though that next visit, he'll be back on target and it could just be that he went through a growth spurt the two weeks before our appointment.

After I met with her, I went back to the lab and waited to have my blood drawn for the testing. Thank your lucky stars I don't have a photo to post of this!  I started getting woozy.  That's NEVER a good sign with me.  I have low blood sugar on a regular basis AND I used to faint with needles.  I wasn't sure what was going on but I was cursing Rik for not being there right at that moment.  He is my security blanket.  I never pass out when he is with me.  NEVER.  It's been years!  Dealing with infertility has made a huge difference too, so I never even worry about it.  

Anyway, you can guess what happened.  The nurse drew my blood, I keeled over and proceeded to throw up what seemed like 2 gallons of fruit punch glucose "beverage" (it should NOT be referred to as a beverage, for the record).  When I woke up, I was sitting in the same chair, surrounded by four or five nurses with wet towels, dry towels, water, ice packs, etc.  And I had fruit punch coming out of my nose.  Fantastic.  I threw up all over myself.  It was NOT pretty.  Sitting in a puddle, my clothes were ruined, my dignity pooled in the floor at my feet and filled my shoes.  It was horrible.  I had to borrow scrub pants (they brought me a SMALL!!!!!  I barely got them up over this rear end people!) to wear out of there (who cares if you have vomit on your shirt right?) and had to go home for the rest of the day b/c I was so sick.  Once I got on the road, I had to throw up again in a cup at a red light because it was lunchtime traffic and I couldn't go anywhere from the turning lane I was in and then pull over on the interstate on ramp to finally rid myself of the last of the fruit punch.  It was a day I will NEVER forget.  Absolute mortification.  I thought I'd never show my face there again until they told me I had to come back Friday (yesterday) to get a Rhogam shot.  Ugh.  I survived.

So that's what we've been doing the past few weeks.  I hope this update has been informative.  :)  I guess the last piece of news to share with you all is that we finally picked a name for our sweet boy.  I'll be sure to update you with his name in my next post.  I mean, I have to keep you coming back for more, right?  Love you all!

Shannon