28 Weeks

How Far Along:  28 weeks, 5 days

Size of Baby:  weighs 2 1/4 pounds and measures 14.8 inches from head to heels (about the size of an eggplant)

Total Weight Gain/Loss:  +4 since last dr appt three weeks ago (based on today's dr appt), +15 overall.....started at 114 so now up to 129

Blood Pressure:  Oct. 4 - 100/62, Nov. 1 - 110/60, Nov. 21 - 112/78, Dec. 30 - 120/78, Jan. 20 - 122/78

Heartbeat:  142 at today's appt.

Maternity Clothes:  Maternity everything for the most part!  I do wear a few non-maternity shirts still, but a long maternity tank is required underneath for added length.  Don't know how much longer I can get away with this!  Long sleeve maternity tees with cute cardigans (non-maternity) are my go-to outfits!

Gender:  Baby SISTER.....Lauren Kelley Hendricks.  Lane loves saying "Law-ren" when we ask him who's in Mommy's tummy.  He'll even get Sissy's dolls and call them "Law-ren".  So sweet!  Lane loves to name off all of the people in our family when we talk about doing something and he always includes "Law-ren".  He doesn't want anyone to be left out!  He also loves to lift my shirt to check on her!

Movement:  YES, YES, YES!!!  She's gotten lots of hiccups here lately which is lots of fun.  I feel them at the very bottom of my stomach.  The dr felt around on my belly today and said that she is head down right now and said the hiccups down low confirms that she's in this position!

Sleep:  I haven't been sleeping that great this week.  It's a combination of Lane currently sleeping with us, Luke snoring like a grizzly bear and having bouts of heartburn in the middle of the night.  I don't know if it's Luke's snoring waking me up and then I realize my chest is on fire or if the heartburn is waking me up and then I realize how loud Luke is snoring.  Either way, it's a lose lose situation in the sleep department.

What I Miss:  I miss not having heartburn!  I can't go to bed without two Tums ready to go on the nightstand.  I talked to the dr about it today because it's so so bad so she told me to try Pepcid.  I went to the store immediately to grab some!

Cravings:  Sweets!  Ice cream, cookies, brownies, pecan pie.....  I have to have dessert every night (and afternoon and morning)!  I told Luke that I don't want flowers of any kind for Valentine's day!  All I want are sweets from all of my favorite places!  The kids are loving Mommy's sweet tooth because we have dessert nightly now.....not something that we always do!

Symptoms:  heartburn, heartburn, HEARTBURN!  I've offically lost sight of anything below the belly unless I kick my legs out in front of me.  Bending down is out of the question and by the end of the day I'm a waddling duck.  My sciatic also bothers me at the end of the day.

Best Moment This Week:  Office was painted on Saturday and that room is now complete as our guest room/office.  It turned out really nice!  We're now officially ready for Nana and Papaw when they come to meet Lauren and help out with Big Sister and Big Brother!  We were fortunate enough to get in TWO dates this week!  Saturday night we went out to dinner at Ruth's Chris and then today we got a sitter and went to lunch at Centro (one of our fav's) and then hit up two baby boutiques.  Lauren came away with LOTS of cute outfits!  Luke then dropped me off at the dr while he ran a quick errand!  It was a fun, successful date day!  Today when we got home there were two big boxes on the porch.....all of Lauren's bedding is here!!!  Her furniture has shipped and should be here next week with her glider/ottoman soon to follow in February!  All I need to do now is start ordering things for her walls!  We'll get her room painted in the next couple of weeks!

Looking Forward To:  Having Daddy home for the next three days before he's off to Vegas for market!  Hopefully we can squeeze in another afternoon date on Thursday!

Jammies On

The terrible twos are in full force in the Hendricks house!  One of the battles I didn't have the energy (or the flexibility) to fight last Thursday morning (Jan. 9) was getting Lane dressed before taking Leah to school.  "Jammies on, jammies on, jammies on" he kept kicking and screaming as I tried getting him dressed.  He then wanted to wear his boots.  His nice winter hat has gone missing so this is the only one we could find.  He thought he was stylin' and I was just a wee bit mortified!

"Jammies on" was heard over and over again (along with lots of kicking and screaming) this Tuesday morning as well.  Unfortunately on this day I had to go to Hobby Lobby where he knew he could get a "treat" if he was a good boy.  We sat in the Hobby Lobby parking lot until he decided to put his "clothes on" so he could go inside and get a "treat".  I refused to take the orphan looking boy inside in his jammies!

Ears Pierced

Leah's been thinking about and asking lots of questions about getting her ears pierced for a few months now.  Last Friday she officially decided that she wanted to get it done.  We set a date for Saturday!  Unfortunately, she had a little trouble with her attitude on Friday night and into Saturday so we had to delay the plan.  Sunday was the day!  Honestly, I thought she'd chicken out over the thought of pain (I didn't tell her it would be pleasant), but she never did!  We ran a few errands, went out to lunch (we needed to test out her attitude for the day) and then headed straight to Claire's!  There was an older girl getting multiple holes pierced in her ears so Leah got to watch her and she still never changed her mind!

She and I had looked online at all of the earring options earlier that morning and Leah still insisted on the big gigantic sparkly blue stars.  We told her that one only came as one so you could only get that one if you were only getting one ear pierced.  (I had to think of something to kabash that idea!)  

It was actually a boy who did the piercing which made me a little nervous as I didn't think he would be as calm and gentle as a girl might be, but he was fantastic with Leah and did an excellent job!  He had me sign my life away, marked purple dots on her ears and then pierced them one at a time.  I was hoping they would do them both at the same time just in case she decided to back out after the first, but my big girl didn't even flinch!  I stood by her and offered her my hand to hold but she just kept her hands in her lap and sat like an independent little lady the whole time!  I'm so proud of my baby-going-on-big-girl!  We love her new pretty ears!  We've been doing an awesome job of cleaning them three times a day!  I do the cleaning and she marks it off on a little chart that Claire's gave us.  Her ears have done great and haven't shown the least little bit of any kind of problem!  She gets nervous when I twist them, but after I'm done she excitedly tells me that she couldn't even feel anything!

And not that it matters to anyone but me.....I asked Leah to grab her bow before we left the house.  It was on the ground for some reason and bending down is now out of the question for me.  Obviously, the bow didn't get picked up and put back in her hair.  I didn't realize it until we were long gone from home.  Of course it was a day full of pictures!

Picking out a new choice of earrings since Mommy and Daddy wouldn't budge on the big blue sparkly stars!

BEFORE

AFTER

27 Weeks

How Far Along:  27 weeks, 4 days  (Sunday, Jan. 12)

Size of Baby:  weighs almost 2 pounds and is roughly 14 1/2 inches long (about the size of a head of cauliflower)

Total Weight Gain/Loss:  (based on Dec. 30 appt.) +7 this month (there were over 5 weeks in between my appts due to the holidays so this was Thanksgiving and Christmas weight combined), +11 overall.....started at 114 so now up to 125

Blood Pressure:  Oct. 4 - 100/62, Nov. 1 - 110/60, Nov. 21 - 112/78, Dec. 30 - 120/78

Heartbeat:  148/150 at Dec. 30 appt.

Maternity Clothes:  Maternity everything for the most part!  I do wear a few non-maternity shirts still, but a long maternity tank is required underneath for added length (as in picture above).  Don't know how much longer I can get away with this!

Gender:  Baby SISTER.....Lauren Kelley Hendricks.  Lane loves saying "Law-ren" when we ask him who's in Mommy's tummy.  He'll even get Sissy's dolls and call them "Law-ren".  So sweet!  Lane loves to name off all of the people in our family when we talk about doing something and he always includes "Law-ren".  He doesn't want anyone to be left out!  He also loves to lift my shirt to check on her!

Movement:  YES, YES, YES!!!  She's definitely my most active of the three in utero!  Both kids love to feel her kick and get a good laugh watching my tummy move in all sorts of directions!  My placenta was in the front with both Leah and Lane and it's in the back with Lauren so I'm thinking maybe that's why she seems to be the most active!  The doctor said this would definitely make a difference as far as feeling movements.  I'm telling myself this anyways in hopes that she's not this wild once she arrives!

Sleep:  I haven't been sleeping that great this week.  It's a combination of Lane currently sleeping with us, Luke snoring like a grizzly bear and having bouts of heartburn in the middle of the night.  I don't know if it's Luke's snoring waking me up and then I realize my chest is on fire or if the heartburn is waking me up and then I realize how loud Luke is snoring.  Either way, it's a lose lose situation in the sleep department.

What I Miss:  I miss not having heartburn!  I can't go to bed without two Tums ready to go on the nightstand.

Cravings:  Sweets!  Ice cream, cookies, brownies, pecan pie.....  I have to have dessert every night (and afternoon and morning)!  I told Luke that I don't want flowers of any kind for Valentine's day!  All I want are sweets from all of my favorite places!

Symptoms:  heartburn, heartburn, HEARTBURN!  I've offically lost sight of anything below the belly unless I kick my legs out in front of me.  Bending down is out of the question and by the end of the day I'm a waddling duck.  My sciatic also bothers me at the end of the day.

Best Moment This Week:  Lauren's gotten lots of fun things in the mail this week!  Her bedding will be here next week!  Nursery furniture and glider are all ordered and will be here in 4-6 weeks!  Time to pick out paint colors and get going on her room.  The office is getting painted this weekend and will be turned into the office/guest room.  Then we can focus on her room!

Looking Forward To:  Date night Saturday night, Date day/drs appt/Leah out of school on Monday and getting the office/guest room completed this weekend!

Christmas Eve

My family always celebrates Christmas on Christmas Eve so I always feel like I should be doing something big and special on this day.  This year we did quite the opposite, however.  Our plans A, B and C (and almost D) fell through, but Luke and I kept reminding each other that we were together, we were healthy and happy and that's all that mattered!  This was probably the last day that Lane took a nap too because I certainly don't recall him taking one since then (I take that back.....he's taken 3 since then on his sleeping bag on the couch while watching Home Alone or Toy Story, his two new favorite movies)!

We didn't do much of anything until 5:00 pm when we headed to church!

After church we went out to dinner at Brick House, one of our favorite local Italian restaurants.  We had called earlier in the day when plan A fell through and were told they weren't taking reservations for parties of less than 6.  When we arrived we were told there was a 40 minute wait, not good with starving children.  This is when plan D almost fell through!  We decided to sit at the bar instead!  It worked out just fine.  Our waitress was wonderful, the kids got soup right and garlic bread right away and we really had a wonderful relaxing dinner!

After dinner we rushed home to put out our reindeer food, put on our matching Christmas jammies and read our two special books for the night (one about the reindeer food that Christelle sent the kiddos this year and another book that became extra special to us this year).  Grammy and Grandpoo read "The Night Before Christmas" to us with a book they recorded for Leah a few years ago.  This is definitely a book that we will treasure for a very long time!

Just as we finished reading the book about the reindeer food and were getting ready to listen to "The Night Before Christmas" there was a knock at our door!  Santa stopped by letting us know that he had made it to California and told us that he would be back with presents as soon as Leah and Lane were fast asleep!  We were all in shock!

We finished our last book, put out cookies and sparkling lemonade for Santa and fell fast asleep!  Hahahahahahahahaha!!!  The kids couldn't sleep so we all hung out on the couch watching Christmas movies for a very long time.....until almost midnight!  (This was an AFTER pic of Santa's treat!)

Santa's Secret Adventure

This year we added a fun new adventure to our Christmas festivities.....Santa's Secret Adventure!  I've heard about this fun place over the past few years, but we've never been able to fit it into our December because we're usually traveling during the holidays.  This year we made it a priority since we were staying home!

It was freezing cold, but we bundled up and had a BLAST!  There were so many fun things for the kids to do.....carriage rides, pony rides, decorate Christmas cookies, drink hot chocolate and eat chocolate chip cookies by the fire, a Christmas craft, Christmas games, a petting zoo, a train ride, an outdoor Christmas movie, face painting and of course a visit with Santa and Mrs. Clause!  The entire place is covered in beautiful Christmas lights!  This place is a MUST for anyone in our area!  This definitely won't be our last visit to Santa's Secret Adventure!

The owners and workers (all dressed as elves) were all so very nice!  Luke still must be new at this whole "Santa" thing because he told one of the elves working that he "liked her outfit" in front of our five-year-old (along with about ten more).  I had to quickly remind him that she was an ELF and that we were visiting SANTA.  She WAS NOT in costume, Daddy!  She was a real live ELF as far as the children are concerned and we were visiting Santa at his "California house" as I told Leah!

Cookie decorating!

 Enjoying our cookies by the fire!  They were YUMMY!

Reindeer games!

 Crafts!

Carriage ride!

Petting zoo!  I couldn't believe Leah pet the bunny much less even stepped foot inside the petting zoo itself!

Time to visit Santa!  I didn't know how Lane would react to Santa but he was excited to sit and tell him that he wanted "ply-dough" for Christmas!  Leah told him that she wanted a "blue slug bug for her American Girl doll"!

More cookies!

Face painting!  Any guesses as to what they both chose?  I made sure we saved the face painting for AFTER our visit with Santa!

Pony rides!  My fingers were numb by this point but the kids were still having a blast so I toughened up!

We ended our night with a train ride...a very LONG train ride!  I huddled by the fire as the train went around and around and around!  Lane held on to the steering wheel for the entire duration of the ride!

And in true Hendricks fashion, we were one of the last cars in the parking lot!