Week 29

Ryan and I are homeowners! Whew! What a long two weeks!

On August 20th, we closed on our home in West De Pere, WI. The same afternoon, we moved a large load to our house and set off to work cleaning the new place. For a solid seven hours we cleaned before crashing on our makeshift bedroom (a mattress set up in the living room). The next day, Friday, Ashley and JJ came over to help us move all our crap our of our apartment. Thank God we had their help cause Ryan would have been hurting trying to move all that heavy stuff by himself. JJ also was invaluable in his installation of our new water heater. Saturday took Ryan up to Minocqua with his dad to pick up furniture from my parents house.

After attending a wedding with Penny and JJ (Ashley was standing up in it), the whole gang (plus some of Ashley's friends) were our first house guests...good thing the guys got that water heater working :) Early Sunday morning took Ryan away again, this time to Wisconsin Rapids to run a hockey seminar thing; John & Penny stayed for a while to help assemble furniture, kill the weeds in our driveway, put stuff away, and carry heavy stuff I couldn't lift. I am so useless!

Alas, that was not the end of the new house saga. Tuesday morning I headed over to the apartment where I was later joined by my mom and Ryan to get the dump cleaned up. After a long, long day of cleaning the apartment, we were finally rid of apartment life. We celebrated my mom's birthday...yes, she cleaned our old apartment on her birthday, by going out to a nice dinner. By this point, we hadn't cooked a meal in about a week and a half...living on take-out is no glamourous thing. Not very nutritous for Wombat either. Wednesday and Thursday meant more unpacking and cleaning (with Mom's help again) and finally Friday afternoon we headed up to Merrill to celebrate Penny's birthday.

Saturday was spent in Minocqua where Ryan ran a seminar and I worked on getting my classes finalized. Sunday (yesterday), we drove back to De Pere where I attended the Mass of the Holy Spirit @ Old St. Joes...the start of the SNC semester. Then this morning, I headed back to work for the first day of classes at SNC. Ryan goes back to school tomorrow, but instead of relaxing, like a normal person, he cut the grass, recaulked the patio door, painted the hall closet, hung pictures, pulled weeds, reorganized the garage, etc., etc.

In baby news, I feel huge! My stomach has never stuck out so much or been so incredibly rigid. It's definitely starting to get tight and uncomfortable. Let's just say that it's hard to shave my legs and it won't be long till I need help tying my shoes. Anyone who didn't know I was pregnant definitely knows now. There was that period of time where people at work gave me a once over...they obviously were wondering but didn't want to say anything for fear I wasn't actually pregnant, but that is no longer the case. I met two new colleagues today and they flat out asked when I was due. My students got a kick out of the annoucement today that they have, potentially, winter break coming a few weeks early for them depending on when Wombat decides to make an appearance.

There's a lot of movement, but it's much different than those first intense exciting kicks. Now it's as though the baby is stretching out and I can feel limbs dragging along the inside of my belly. Sounds creepy and kind of gross to anyone who doesn't know what I'm talking about, but it's still pretty cool. Heartburn sucks and my feel KILL, but other than that, I feel pretty good. Very hungry most of the time.

Thursday I head to the doctor's for my glucose screening and the same night Ryan and I start lamaze. Hopefully there aren't a bunch of weirdos in the class...all my friends have horror stories about their lamaze experiences.

That's all for now; I am absolutely wiped from work today. More to report very soon.

Love, Katie & Ryan

Week 27

Aaaaaaarrrrgghhh. That pretty much sums up the last week for Ryan and I as we prepare to move from our apartment to our first home. Why is it that when you want time to slow down it speeds up and when you want it to speed up, it moves like molasses in January? Next week, when we're finally moved in, unpacked, and settled, I'll be in a much better mood.

Wombat is the size of a head of cauliflower...and now blinks. That's the big developmental feat accomplished this week. I'm definitely going to have to get weekly updates once this baby is born so that I know what is and isn't normal. At the last doctor's appt., Wombat's heartbeat was nice and strong. His/her movements, while still strong, are becoming less frequent as space continues to get tighter and tighter. Next week we go in for the glucose test to check for gestational diabetes.

We're officially in trimester 3. T-minus 13 weeks, (+/-) 2 weeks. If we're lucky, I might almost make it to the end of the fall semester. I have at least one more week of prep time before classes begin, so I am really working hard to get everything ready on the work side of things. Ryan too is preparing to head back to school so we can hit the ground running. We still need to get all the nursery, prenatal classes, and house-prep ready for this kid.

Heartburn, sleeplessness, and backaches continue to plague...poor Ryan is suffering sleeplessness with me. The last week was extremely hot and humid, so that was pretty miserable--thank God the rest of the summer has been so mild. The belly is getting bigger and bigger, as I found out when looking for bridesmaids dresses with Ashley last weekend. I literally got stuck in a dress. It was good for a laugh though!

We'll post some more pictures soon once we're in the house; then you'll see our new place and how big we're getting!

Lots of love,

Katie & Ryan

Week 25

There's no hiding it now. The 'bump' is more like a mountain than a mere 'bump'.

Last week baby Wombat was about the size of an ear of corn; this week...a rutabaga. I wish I knew who picked the comparison fruit/vegetables. I have no idea what a rutabaga looks like. Whatever it is, it must be big because I swear when this kid turns over, it feels like someone is inflating a balloon inside my stomach.

Speaking of movement, the baby's movement is visible from outside the belly. It's fun to wake up in the morning and wait to see if we'll see movement. Aunt Ashley has seen it and felt it move and last weekend Grandma Penny got to feel it as well. Nighttime brings a lot of moving around too...especially as I am ready to relax. Go figure. Nights are starting to get a little difficult. Between multiple trips to the bathroom and having to sleep on my side, I feel like I'm not getting quite as much sleep and thus, feel more tired than usual. My back is also starting to get sore from my belly pulling my hips forward and standing for long stretches gets uncomfortable as well. Heartburn is also a new development in the last few weeks as space is tighter and tighter in my belly. However, as any of my good friends will tell you, heartburn is an old friend and I have been known to carry tums/rolaids/pepto bismal around with me everywhere for years and years.

Two weekends ago we took the baby to its first concert when we went to see Coldplay at Alpine Valley. While we had a great time, it was such a long day! Standing on the hill at Alpine definitely gave my legs a workout too. I finished up summer school this last week and we enjoyed the weekend with family. Thursday night a big group of us on the Ourada side met up for dinner in St. Anna with the guys returning from the Brewer game. On Saturday the Ourada side got together again to celebrate the Rabideau family visiting from Texas. It was a blast, especially since I had my pregnant girls Kelly and Linsdey to be sober with :)

Today, our first full day off together for the summer, we took tremendous steps toward packing up our apartment. In less than three weeks, we'll be in our first home. We can't wait to have somewhere to bring home baby! This week we're heading up north for what we expect to be our final hurrah for the summer. We'll hopefully have nice weather to enjoy some biking and boating with my parents for a few days. After this weekend we're going to crank it into high gear in terms of packing and prepping for school. I can't believe the summer has gone by so fast. I suppose when you have something every weekend, time tends to get away from you. Tomorrow we head back to the doctors for our monthly appointment. We'll have more to report soon.

Love,

Katie & Ryan