19 Weeks

How Far Along:  19 weeks, 3 days

Size of Baby:  6 inches long and weighs roughly 8 1/2 ounces (about the size of a large heirloom tomato)

Total Weight Gain/Loss:  +1 pound (as of last appointment on Nov. 1)  Everyday Leah tells me that my tummy is growing and she measures it with her hands to show me how much I've grown so I know I've gained something!

Blood Pressure:  So far so good!  At my first appointment on Oct. 4 it was 100/62 and on Nov. 1 it was 110/60!

Heartbeat:  151 at my Nov. 1 appt. (17 weeks)

Maternity Clothes:  Still in non-maternity clothes but pants are unbuttoned and held together with a rubber band and a belly band.  I wear tank tops under all shirts to add a little extra length to them!  I got all of my old maternity clothes down from the attic, and OH MY WORD most of it went straight to the Goodwill pile!  I can't believe I ever wore some of it!  I'm basically having to start from scratch with this pregnancy because I've never been big and pregnant in the winter.  Most of what I already have is for the summer!  I stocked up at Gap, Target and Nordstrom!  Maternity jeans are just hideous!  I ordered two pair from Gap and they're going straight back!  Hello MOM jeans!  I found a pair I like (as much as you can love a pair of maternity paneled jeans) at Nordstrom and will probably just order several more pairs of those.

Gender:  ?????  Daddy and Lane think boy, Mommy and Leah think girl!  Leah always says "she" in reference to the baby and I told her we should just say "it" because we don't know if it's a he or a she.  She told me that we just need to find out what it is so we know what to call it!  Or she said we could call it "GirlsNameBoysName" (insert our girl's name and our boy's name)!

Movement:  Starting to feel more little kicks here and there.  I can only feel them when I'm laying still, nothing at all when I'm up moving about.

Sleep:  I sleep great and then wake up having to pee bright and early in the morning (much earlier than I usually like to rise)!

What I Miss:  Going to bed without heartburn!

Cravings:  Roasted turkey sandwiches from Karen's Bakery in Folsom!  I've had 3 in the last 10 days...totally worth the hour round-trip!  Turkey (fresh off the bird, not deli turkey), cranberries, black pepper cream cheese all on a homemade sweet potato biscuit...WOW!!!!!!  For breakfast I wake up every morning looking forward to the same breakfast as the kiddos...a waffle sandwich with peanut butter and Nutella ("tella" as Lane calls it) and a big glass of apple juice with lots of ice!

Symptoms:  Heartburn at night.  Ugh!!!

Best Moment This Week:  Date night tonight!  In March we began having date night every other Saturday.  We're keeping this up as long as we can because we know that this will come to a halt once the baby is here.  I nursed Lane for 15 months and needed to be home at night to nurse him before bed so we didn't get out much then.  I'm expecting the same this time, so we're taking advantage while we can!  Plus the kiddos LOVE having a babysitter!  Leah was NOT happy when we got home tonight (as she greeted us at the door in a pink ballet outfit)!  Also, I have had the BEST two days with the kiddos!  They are at such fun ages where they are starting to play together.  They get along so so well.  I've actually been able to get some things done around the house (clean out my closet, shop online, BLOG) while they're both awake!  They'll sit and do "ply-dough" for hours!  We ran to Target yesterday and they were both PERFECT!  Lane hasn't been the best little shopper in the past so I always get nervous taking him places!  Yesterday though he blew me away.  He didn't try to get out of the cart once and just sat eating his popcorn and drinking his ICEE from start to finish!  And thank you to the very kind lady checking out behind us who informed me that my kids were going to be out of control and take advantage of me in Junior High because I give them an ICEE and popcorn while shopping!  Instead, she said, I should make them place their hands on the cart and not move or otherwise stick their noses in the corner for five minutes.  Whatever lady, your thirty-something-year-old son who you said was "still afraid of you" is talking on a walkie talkie in Target.  No, he wasn't a cop.  He looked more like a squirrel hunter!  I'll continue with my ICEE and popcorn treats thank you very much!

Looking Forward To:  My 20 week ultrasound next Wednesday (Nov. 20) and my OB appointment next Thursday (Nov. 21)!  The munchkins will both be at daycare on Wednesday (Leah's joining Lane) so Luke and I will get to spend the entire day together!

Grandpoo

(Leah drew this picture for Grandpoo for Father's Day.)

Early in the morning on Friday, August 2nd, we got a very sad phone call.  Luke's dad, Grandpoo, had passed away.  We already had a flight booked to Iowa on Saturday, August 3rd, so we were sad that we were just one day too late to say our final goodbyes.  Grammy and Grandpoo had planned to come to California to celebrate Leah's 5th birthday with us, but a couple weeks before we knew that it would be best if we took the party to Grandpoo instead.  He was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer last October and tried his best to fight it.

Cancer is a terrible terrible thing, but for Luke living so far away from his family I honestly think it was a blessing in disguise.  It gave him nine months to spend lots of time with his dad.  We spent last 4th of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years and Grandpoo's 69th birthday (Jan. 1) all in Iowa with him.  Luke made two additional trips by himself...one in April and then he surprised him for Father's Day.  He would have never gotten to spend so much time with his dad this past year if it hadn't been for his diagnosis.

Leah never ever knew that Grandpoo was sick and she never ever saw him at his weakest.  Her memories will forever be of him playing with her, eating cereal with her for breakfast, letting her eat the bow off of his birthday cake, picking out Super Hero plates for his birthday party and a pinata too and singing Happy Birthday to him on the microphone.  This is exactly how we wanted it to be.....happy memories!  She's already asked if we can get a pinata this year on Grandpoo's birthday!

Thank you to everyone who sent flowers, cards, called and texted.  This all meant more to Luke than you'll ever know!  And a very very special thank you to Nana, Papaw and Aunt Kelley who drove to Iowa from Texas to make sure the kids were well taken care of, entertained, fed, where they needed to be when they needed to be there dressed and hair fixed, and having fun despite the circumstances.  We didn't have to worry about them one bit which made it so much easier for Luke to say his goodbyes.  We can never thank you enough for this!

The Hillebrands Are Here

The Hillebrands came to visit us at the beginning of September!  We were so excited to see them!  We had lots of fun!  They flew into town on Thursday, August 29th, and were here until Saturday, Sept. 7th!  We loved having them visit!

The first night of their visit we all stayed in a hotel.  Our house was still a construction zone so we had already been living at the Hilton Garden Inn for the week.  We just booked them a room down the hall from ours.  It was like we were all on vacation!  We walked over to BJ's for dinner next door to the hotel and then came back and swam.

Friday we loaded up and headed to the beach in Santa Cruz for Labor Day Weekend and came back to our house on Monday.  We spend the rest of the week just hanging out!  Leah had school so we couldn't do too much, but it was nice just to relax and hang out!

There's a food truck round-up the first Wednesday of every month in our little town so we were lucky enough to get to take them to that while they were here!  It's always so good and a good time!

I obviously did a horrible job of taking pictures while they were here because I have hardly any!  This was when I found out I was pregnant so I'm using that as my excuse!  We were lucky enough to get to go out to a nice dinner (just the four grown-ups) on Thursday night and Brandon and Micayla babysat the three littles!  Yay for date night!!!  Thanks for coming to visit Hillebrands!!!  We loved having you here!!!

Labor Day Weekend in Santa Cruz

The Hillebrands came to visit us for ten days in September.  Their visit fell over Labor Day weekend so this called for a fun little getaway to the beach!  We're slowly trying to check things off of our California Bucket List so we wanted to go somewhere beachy that we really hadn't ever been.....Santa Cruz/Capitola it was!  We rented a condo right on the beach that was big enough for all of us, and it was perfect!

Our view for the weekend!

My babies love the beach and sand!

Our condo was the second one from the left!

Capitola is known for a yummy little pizza place called Pizza My Heart.  Our friends Mitch and Christina have been talking about it for years so we were excited to finally get the chance to try it!  It was some of the best pizza I've ever had EVER!  It's just a little counter where you order pizza (whole or by the slice) and take it elsewhere to eat!  Saturday afternoon Luke, Lane and I went to grab pizza for everyone for lunch to bring back to the condo.  Lane fell asleep so Luke and I pulled over and ate our slices by the beach!  So so good!

 Sunday we planned to eat lunch and stroll around Capitola.  It's a cute little beachy town.  Turns out the rest of the state of California had the same plan so we didn't stay long and didn't even end up eating lunch there.  It took forever and a day just to find a space to park!  The Hillebrands stayed for a little while but the Hendricks' headed out of town for some Mexican food.  I was STARVING and all that really sounded good right then was enchiladas (and alot less people)!  Little did I know I was pregnant!  And no, the lady in green was not with us!

Saturday night Luke grilled out ribeyes and cheesy hash browns and Sunday night it was brats and hotdogs!

Monday morning we packed up and headed back to our house!  Just a fun quick little getaway!

Fun In Chicago

My brother (Uncle Chris) had a work gig in Chicago so my parents had planned a trip with Chris, Kylie and Caroline.  Although it sounded like lots of fun, we had no plans on going with them.  However, things changed, and we were able to join them for a couple of days.  It was a fun little last minute vacation just before school started!  The three little amigos got along GREAT so it was lots of fun!

We were already in Iowa with Nana and Papaw so we made the four hour drive on Wednesday afternoon (August 7th) arriving at our hotel around 5:00 pm, just about the same time that Chris, Kylie and Caroline landed at the airport.  We did get stuck in traffic along the way, but not Chicago rush hour.  Nope.  We got stuck for forever on an Iowa country road behind a tractor that would NOT pull over for the line of five million cars behind it.  Never fear, after about 45 minutes of that, Luke took us all on a little magical mystery tour through some dirt road corn fields to get in front of it!  Both rental cars survived without a single rock chip to the windshield.  How?  I'm still not sure!

While we were waiting for Chris, Kylie and Caroline to get in from the airport, Luke took the kiddos down for a drink.....Shirley Temples!  It was love at first sight for Leah!

Lane couldn't wait for Caroline to get there!  He hugged on her right away once she arrived!

Three little monkeys jumping on the bed!

The fam already had reservations at the Marriott Renaissance Chicago Downtown Hotel right on the Chicago River so we booked a room there as well!  The location was perfect, and a river view was a MUST!

Uncle Chris treated the guys to a fancy dinner at Ditka's Wednesday night while the girls and the kiddos held the fort down back at the hotel.  Kelley and I went out in search of food for us girlies that night (Kylie had Caroline and Nana had Lane) and ended up with Chick-fil-A, one of my favs, although something a little more Chicago-ish would have been nice on vacation!  It was still good though!

Thursday morning we were up bright and early to make the short walk to the Magnificent Mile (Michigan Avenue) for the birthday party at American Girl!

Right after the party and our shopping spree we high tailed it back to the hotel to drop off all of the princesses packages.  The it was time to board the subway/train to Wrigley Field for our 3:00 pm tour that Nana and Papaw took us all on!

Being from the Midwest, Luke is a Cubs fan.  He and I went to a game YEARS ago.....back when we were skinny and tan and had no gray hair and had different last names!  It was fun to get to go behind the scenes, although I really could have gone for one of their famous hot dogs that they were NOT serving that day.  They were serving nothing, in fact, since it wasn't a game day.  The tour guide thought I was nuts when I asked if food was going to be available in the stadium.  Never fear, we all snacked on Linda's awesome ranch snack mix that she made for Leah's Luau!  The tour was lots of fun and we all got lots of exercise with all the walking!  I know Luke looks forward to taking the kiddos back to game there one day!

Caroline was so sweet to share her pink sippy cup (along with her blankies) with Lane the entire trip.  Her parents packed a little better than his did!

The kiddos made a quick call to their agents from the press box.

The Cubs locker room.  It smelled much better in here than it did in the visitors locker room.  Baseball players must SWEAT!!!!!

In the State Farm sponsored dug out!  Uncle Chris needs this picture hanging up in his office!  Just a little bit of trivia for you.....ever wonder what baseball players do if they have to go to the bathroom during a game?  I've got the answer for ya!  Immediately behind the dugout is a TINY little closet (if you can even call it that, no lights, no door) with a TINY little urinal.  Gross, gross, gross!!!!!

Already being followed by the paparazzi!

On the field (although we didn't get to run the bases)!

Headed back to the hotel on the train!

That night (Thursday) the grown-ups went out to dinner at Smith and Wollensky while Nana watched Caroline and Papaw had my munchkins.  We could see our hotel from our table at dinner so Papaw and the kiddos waved down to us!  Our rooms weren't on the same floor so come bedtime they had to split up the troops.  It was a fun night out!

Friday morning before our flight we all rode the train over to the Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower) and rode the elevator to the 103rd floor!

One of Leah's absolute favorite things about being in Chicago was the revolving doors on all of the buildings!

Just before our family of 4 had to head to the airport, we all went out for Chicago-style pizza at Giordano's!  It was so much better than I thought it would be!  Yumm!

It was such a fun quick little trip to Chicago but we sure packed it in!  We already can't wait to go back!