20 Weeks {It's a...}

How Far Along: 20 Weeks

Size of baby: the length of a banana

Total Weight Gain/Loss: + 11 lbs

Maternity Clothes: a few, but I am happy to say I can still wear several pairs of regular pants/shorts!

Gender: It's a BOY!

Movement: Feeling the baby move a lot. It’s always when I am laying down and about 15 minutes after I eat!

Sleep: I’m just not a good pregnancy sleeper. I change positions about a thousand times and am usually wide awake at some point in the middle of the night. I also have crazy dreams! I don't know why I keep forgetting to write about it, but I NEVER have dreams except during pregnancy. And WOW they are wild!

What I miss: Sleeping on my stomach.

Cravings: FOOD! I feel like a hungry hungry hippo! And I've just been so thirsty! I cannot drink enough!

Symptoms: Big ole bump and lots of crazy dreams. 

Best Moment this week: Well over the past 2 weeks we have found out that it was a boy and heard his heartbeat again today! I love that sound!

We were really excited to find out whether it was a boy or a girl! We had names picked for each and at our gender party let everyone guess! We decided to stick with another H name so picking a girl name was pretty easy (even though I'd be happy with any of the other choices on the board). However our choices for H boys names seemed more limited. I love Hudson's name a lot and Ryan did a great job picking it out. So finding another boy's name we liked just as much was a challenge! After some debate we decided on Hayden.  All of the middle name choices that we had are family names from either side of our family. We really like to pick fun/cute first names and then give them some history in the middle name. 

My grandmother's maiden name was Greer. I think it makes for a really cool name and it has some great history behind it. This was the family's tomato canning business (cool history right?)! 

Okay enough about names! We are overjoyed to be blessed with another sweet baby!

Swimming

This is going to be super quick! I just wanted to take a minute to note that H finally decided to be a swimmer this summer. Each summer (of his little life so far) it has taken him a long time to warm up to the pool! He is SO his mother's child! He is this way about a lot of things, not just water, and so was/am I. Thankfully on Monday he decided that he was really happy in the water. He especially loves being in this Mickey Mouse toy. He likes to "drive" or "ride Mickey" around the pool! I actually had to bribe convince him to get out! I love when we get to this point in the summer because we can have more pool days that are much more enjoyable for everyone!

It will look a lot less like this (unhappy face)...

and a LOT more like this! SMILES! A big step for my little man! Happy swimming everyone!

Gender Party: The Photo booth

Photo booths are all the rage these days at parties and weddings and since we were going with a bow & mustache theme I thought it would be a great idea use them as photo booth props!

I printed some bows and mustaches, cut them out and glued them to wooden skewers. Stick them in a mason jar with shredded paper and there you have it! Everything you need!

I also made a little instruction sign.

I took an old suitcase I had and a crate of my sisters and we set it all up in the backyard for pictures! We borrowed the other props from a friend who had them from another photo booth!

This banner was also borrowed, but I thought it was perfect since it has blues & pinks in it!

There are over a hundred outtakes but here are a few of my favorites!

Gender Party: The Details

Pinterest is all the rage these days and it’s a great place to find ideas or get really motivated to throw a cute party. So after lots of pinteresting (is that a word?) I decided to throw a gender party for our new little one!

I started with the invites and then all of the inspiration came from there! I thought it would be fun to base everything off of bows & mustaches!

Blurred for safety purposes!

The great thing about this party is that it didn’t cost much! I did all of the designs myself so all I needed to do was print! Throw in some balloons, scrapbook paper, ribbon and tissue paper and you have yourself a party!

We had each guest sign their name for team pink or blue. This is a great keepsake to have for the baby book!

I filled jars with candy to create a little party favor!

 

Thankfully my mom owns a cupcake shop so it was really easy to decide that I wanted to do cupcakes filled with pink or blue! I cut wrappers out of scrapbook paper to add some color to the cupcakes.

The baker also made us these cute Pinterest inspired cookies!

I also filled mason jars with shredded paper and put up little signs around with information or directions.

I kept the food simple with sandwiches, fruit, pasta salad, chips and veggies. I wanted it to be all about the cupcakes!

I thought it would be fun to let everyone guess their names. So I put out pink & blue paper and the guests could write down their guesses and put them in the cones!

I wanted to incorporate a little something for Hudson too. I want to be sure he is included in all of this new baby business and feels important and special. I know it will be a BIG adjustment for him. So for the party it was as simple as putting out some bubbles for he & his friends! Besides trains his next favorite thing is bubbles so it’s a simple way for him to feel included!

18 Weeks

How Far Along: 18 Weeks

Size of baby: the length of a bell pepper

Total Weight Gain/Loss: +5lbs (haven’t weighed in a few weeks, it could be different)

Maternity Clothes: a few, but I still wear a lot of my regular clothes.

Gender: Don’t know! We will find out on Saturday with all of our friends and family!

Movement: Feeling the baby move a lot. It’s always when I am laying down!

Sleep: I’m just not a good pregnancy sleeper. I change positions about a thousand times and am usually wide awake at some point in the middle of the night.

What I miss: Sleeping on my stomach.

Cravings: FOOD! I feel like a hungry hungry hippo!

Symptoms: Mostly tiredness, a few headaches lately.

Best Moment this week: Seeing our baby on the ultrasound for a good 45minutes to an hour! It was so fun to watch the baby squirm all around!

On Monday we had our “20 week” ultrasound. The technician checks for all of the baby’s limbs, looks at the four chambers of the heart, measures the head, and looks at blood flow. The baby measured just one day bigger than my due date so we are pretty close! The heartbeat was 150 bpm! The gender was determined and we will find out on Saturday with the family!

One more picture of the baby bump and my cute guys. Hudson always ask to get his picture taken with daddy after mommy does. I want to make him feel special during all of this too so we are doing a lot of talking about baby and how he’s going to be a good big brother. He is really excited for the “baby’s party” on Saturday!

What’s Going On

I feel like I haven’t posted much except for baby updates lately so here is a little bit about what the rest of us have been up to!

I feel like things haven’t slowed down much since summer started. We’ve been busy with so many things. I have needed to work in my classroom, had some meetings and sat in on interviews. So I don’t really feel like I’m away from school too long (but that’s ok). Huds has gotten to go to school a few times and he LOVES it. He loves to visit the office, play in mommy’s centers, eat my snacks, color, etc. He always says “mommy’s school far away” So true little man!

We’ve also been watching the Thunder games. Hud loves to lay on the couch with daddy and watch basketball. We were also fortunate to get to attend a game thanks to my sweet father-in-law! Thunder up!

We’re still working on swimming. The water is still a little cool and it takes H a while to warm up to the pool. I’m sure in a few weeks he will be begging to go constantly! (We did this exact thing last summer).

Blowing bubbles! This boy is a bubble blowing machine. ALL.DAY.LONG! No lie.

We’ve also been to the Library (we have to go weekly for new Thomas books) and it’s one of Hud’s favorite places.

And the Zoo! Of course the most important thing at the zoo is the choo choo train. Was anyone else aware? It comes in right above the baby giraffe.

More than doing “things” we are all loving more time together. I am cherishing all of these moments with our little man. Before we know it we will be chasing two of them around and begging for more one on one time with each of them. I am so thankful for family (and summer)!