Officially in the 9th month of pregnancy!!

Me at 35 weeks:

Hudson's Closet (I think I have a shopping problem...)

The completed nursery:

Emily and Baby Carter at my work shower

The last couple weeks have been pretty busy. Last Tuesday my friend Nicole from work threw my work baby shower for me here at my house. There were only a handful of people that could make it, but we had fun playing a few games, eating some food, chatting and opening lots more presents. Baby Hudson and I were spoiled once again!! We got a few more much needed items off our registry and some other cute stuff :)

The next couple days I spent setting up and organizing the nursery as well as doing some more baby laundry. Now it's all set up and ready! I must have over done it though because I woke up Thursday and my legs and hands were REALLY swollen. I wasn't too worried about it and figured it was just a normal part of pregnancy, but Andy really wanted me to call the dr., so I did and they had me come in to check and make sure my blood pressure was still good. So I went in and everything was fine but my dr. wanted me to be on bed rest for the weekend. So I had to take my week off work and was on bed rest until this Tuesday when I went in to my appointment. Luckily the swelling had decreased by Sunday and I felt a lot better getting some much needed down time that I don't take enough of.

I had my 36 weeks appointment on Tuesday and all is going well. Since I had notice Hudson being less active the dr. did an ultrasound to check his fluid levels, so I got a bonus peek at him :) All his fluid levels looked good and his heart was beating at a nice steady rate. She also did my first internal exam, no dialation yet but the dr. said I am starting to efface (the cervix is thinning out), so at least that's a bit of progress! And, the best news I got at the dr. was that the hospital has changed their visitation guidelines!!! Due to H1N1 they had the delivery room restricted to the baby's father and 1 birth partner, they've changed it so you can have up to 3 support people and the baby's father and then after delivery we just have to "limit" the amount of visitors we have. I am SOOO excited that our friends and family will be able to visit us in the hospital and share in this special time with us!

So, now that we're officially in the 9th month of pregnancy (how did that happen already??!!) we're ready for Hudson to be here!! The nursery is all set up, we have the pack and play set up to use as a bassinet in our room and we've bought the remaining items we NEED for before Hudson arrives. Now all I need to do is finish packing my hospital bag and we're ready to go!

Hudson is one SPOILED baby!!!

The amazing cupcakes!!

"Aunt Katie" and I!

Our massive amount of gifts in the nursery!!

Sally, Katie and I

Joy (37 weeks!!) and I (34 1/2 weeks)

Katie and I with her AWESOME cupcakes!!! I'm so impressed

"Aunt" Missy and I :)

Aunt Gail, Rachel and Anna

"Grandma Stella" and I

Me with soon to be "GREAT-Grandma Patty"!

Sally's adorable diaper cake!

The WSU Cougar Mobile my mom got, it even plays the Fight song!!!

On Saturday (the 20th) we had our 2nd of 3 baby showers. This was held at Nancy's house and hosted by Nancy, Katie, Sally, Keren (and Alysha via email correspondence overseas!). They did an AMAZING job with everything. The decorations were adorable with onesies/washcloths/diapers hung in the entryways, a diaper cake and AWESOME "baby" cupcakes (great job Katie!!!). My mom and Nancy made some delcious food including several salads, wraps, sandwiches, fruit and veggies!! I was so impressed with everyone's effort and have never felt so loved in my life :)

There were probably at least 30 people who attended. It was great to see extended family and friends who I'm not able to see as often as I'd like. Andy's mom and sister even flew over for the day from Spokane!! We played a couple fun games then I started opening the MOUND of presents!! It probably took over an hour just for that. We were soooo spoiled. Some of the gifts Hudson got were: several cute outfits, a ton of blankets, a bumbo seat and tray, a WSU cougars mobile, baby monitor, extra car seat base, diapers, wipes, white noise/sound machine, homemade baby food steamer/cooker, hooded towels/washcloths, a couple adorable handmade gift baskets filled with tons of necessities and a TON more stuff!! I can't believe how spoiled we were, we got home and unloaded and the gifts filled the entire nursery! Now comes the fun of putting it all away and getting the nursery organized finally!! :)

Weeks 32 and 33 and our first Baby Shower!!

The cute favors

Overloaded with gifts, Hudson is one spoiled little guy!!

Opening presents

Me with baby Molly, isn't she too cute??!!

Katie and Molly

The weeks are just flying by. I can't believe I'm already 8 months along, how did that happen so fast?? Things are still going great. I'm feeling pretty good for the most part, still having back pain, but my weekly massages and chiropractic seem to keep that at bay for the most part. We had a Dr. appt on Thurs 2/4 and all still looks good. Dr. said I'm measuring right on track and my weight gain is on the 'low end' of her scale for normal weight gain .. I sure hope it stays that way, but who knows! This appointment also marked the first where we start seeing the dr. every 2 weeks instead of monthly! So we will be back on Thursday for another check up to make sure everything is progressing normally. :)

Friday morning Andy and I packed up the truck and headed over the mountains for a baby shower with Andy's side of the family. I had a great time with Andy's aunts, cousins and other family and friends visiting, playing a shower game and of course opening presents. We got a ton of great stuff including our pack and play/bassinet from Andy's mom, the high chair from Andy's sister along with a ton of 'feeding' items (bowls, spoons, etc.) and of course we got a ton of adorable outfits, blankets, toys and a few other things off of our registry. I am so thankful to have such wonderful people in my life to help us welcome our newest addition!!

In 'non-baby' news, this past week I took an Instructor Development class in Burien at the Criminal Justice Training Center (CJTC). It was a 40 hour class, Monday-Friday where I was bombarded with information on how to give presentations and was pushed out of my comfort zone by giving 2 15-20 minute presentations on Weds and Thursday and then a final 30-40 minute presentation on Friday. I was so nervous to even introduce myself to the group on Monday, but by Friday I felt so much better about talking in front of a group and giving a presentation. This class was a wonderful learning opportunity and will definitely help me as I further my career and start my journey at Valley Com as a CTO (Communications Training Officer).

Now it's back to work where my body is trying to re-adjust to working night shift after being up at 5 am all last week for class. So far it's not working very well, but hopefully I can get into a better sleep pattern this week so I start feeling better! :)

How far along? 33 weeks 5 days

Maternity clothes? Same ones I've had :) Although I got a few cute dresses to wear for my showers :)

Stretch marks? Still none...crossing my fingers!!

Sleep: Not the best..but that's mostly due to work not pregnancy

Best moment this week: My baby shower in Spokane!

Food cravings: nothing really

Gender: Still a boy!! :)

Pregnancy symptoms: getting full very fast now that he's taking up so much room, a lot of back pain and my feet are starting to get sore if I walk too much.

Labor Signs: None yet, thankfully!!

Belly Button in or out?BARELY in...it's gonna pop out any time now I think :)

What I miss: My body before baby ..

What I am looking forward to: getting the rest of the things we need and finishing the nursery organization

Weekly Wisdom: Don't take any moment for granted.

Milestones: Another week closer to my due date!! :)