39 weeks 1 day

Well, I have completed my first week of no work, which was great, it was a very productive and fun week, and I loved being off because it was a holiday week and actually felt like a holiday week. NOt, "oh hey, there's a holiday tomorrow, and I get a day off", so that was fun too! I had fun baking and cooking with my mom. Also worked on some small things around the house.

Jeremy and I (well, basically Jeremy) got our Christmas decorations up this weekend. We wanted to get it done this weekend, not knowing what the next couple of weeks could look like, however I was so exhausted and lethargic almost, that I became the manager of the operation, which he didn't so much appreciate, so I would jsut fall back asleep. :) I did get ornaments on the tree today though, so I did do something. We had to rearrange our living room again, and I like how it has turned out. If I had thought about it, I would've taken pictures of the tree, but I didn't, so those will come at a later time.

WE went to my parents for dinner tonight, which was alot of fun, Robby and Kara were back from Penn (went to visit her extended family for the holiday) and Kelly was still home from break, so it was fun the whole family being up at my parents hanging out and having dinner. I have been so blessed to have such an awesome family, parents, siblings and sisters-in-law. I love hanging out with all of them! Well, here are the most recent pictures, I had JEremy take a couple pictures of me tonight, so these are as current as they get! Amazing to think that hopefully not too soon this little one will be on the outside and I will actually be able to hold him/her!!

38 wks 5 days

After three days of cooking I was exhausted - waiting at my parents house until Jeremy got home from the Shootout games. - 38 1/2 weeks

Baby shower - opening gifts

How big is Brandy game - I really don't feel this huge, but this picture makes me feel huge i think. - this is 36 weeks!

Well, i am still here and pregnant - mostly just in the uncomfortable stage and ready to meet this little one more than anything. i would be perfectly content to go into labor at any point, but also trying to not be too anxious, and still try to keep my sights set on at least another week or more, but who knows. I'm mostly just updating this post some pics from my mom's camera that we just got on the computer. Not a whole lot new to report. I am done working, which is such a wonderful feeling!! I love it! I spent Monday and Tuesday cooking and freezing meals, which i am super pleased with having gotten done. I went grocery shopping with my mom on Sunday (weekend before Thanksgiving, not a great day to go, but we made it fun!) then cooked mostly all day Mon and Tues. Then on Wed helped my mom some with Thanksgiving stuff, she did the majority of it, but I got to hang out and help some. We also went for manicures yesterday, which was so wonderful to get done! Hmmm....that's about all that I can think of for now - all of my baby to do lists are pretty well crossed off, maybe a few minor things, but the big things are done!!

35 weeks

OK, this is going to be super quick, purely for the purpose of posting pics tonight. Things are going well here, I am very anxious to meet this little one. I love all the movement, but am getting more uncomfortable day by day it seems. keeping up with walking and some pool time, btu also lots of rest. Staying at my parents house right now, and keeping up with all the animals is keeping me busy enough. (2 dogs and a cat). i went over to Laura's tonight with Natalie and we did some quilting and hung out which was fun, and all the dogs got to play, which they loved! Included is a picture of the three of us, with the dogs and our pregnant bellies! Well, here are the pictures! More later!

32 weeks!!!!

Well, I am now in the single digit weeks of the countdown! And I'm starting to feel more and more like it is a countdown! I love having a baby growing inside of me and the feeling of this baby kicking, but I'm definately starting to feel the uncomfortableness setting in. I have a hard time sitting for too long - not on the couch, I can be on the couch all day if I could, but sitting in a normal chair, for too long gets uncomfortable. The hardest has been going to church and sitting in the pews and then Sunday School after that, I get really restless. I am finding that I am so grateful for the fact that I do have a job that keeps me on my feet and not at a desk all day. Which I think has been really good for me to keep going and moving and to not get too lazy. I am definately tired at the end of the day, and Jeremy continues to be so wonderful about letting me have my lazy time at home.

32 weeks Belly

The last couple of weeks we have been trying to finish off the little projects we want finished around the house. My favorite one was getting a new kitchen sink. Which really shouldn't seem too exciting, but I was/am super excited about it. We had just a basic old stainless steel sink that I just thought was gross. So we went and picked out a new porcelain sink and even got a new faucet, the sink is much deeper and just looks prettier in my kitchen. Yep, who knew I would be so happy about a kitchen sink! Don't get me wrong, it still doesn't encourage me to do too many more dishes by hand or at all for that matter. :)

I think Jeremy took this picture as proof that I still do cook some! :)

Baby Payne is moving around alot and I can see my stomach doing crazy wave motions at times, which is really fun. We were eating dinner last night and I had my plate on my stomach and the plate was moving all over the place from the kicking, which was fun to see! I went to the Dr. this last week and baby is still growing strong, nd measuring two weeks larege, so we'll see what that means. Now I start going to the Dr. every two weeks and then every week in about a month, and then it's baby time!!

The new kitchen sink and the new shower curtain for the baby bathroom.

29 weeks gone = 11 weeks to go

baby room with crib, glider, corner of changing table, curtains




29 week and 3 day belly






the monkey bathroom







monkey bathroom - we saw this bathroom stuff and thought it was so cute so decided to do the downstairs bathroom with it - and yes realizing that the baby really won't be using this bathroom for a couple of years (esp since there isn't a bathtub, unfortunately, in there), so really it was our grown up excuse for a cute bathroom! :)







shelving and baskets

baby room - changing table, crib

Jeremy painting

WE got the baby room done this weekend! Yay! I got to help out and my job was to paint the dots on which was fun. I am so happy with how it all turned out it feels so warm and relaxing in there I'm jsut excited to have the baby in there now and to make use of the room!! Jeremy did an awesome job with the paint and was so great about doing basically all of it on his own, since I had a hard time handling the smell of the paint. THanks to his classic college football recordings that he watched! :) Baby is continuing to grow - I think I'm hititng the phase of constant desire to eat!! I am starving all the time right now! I had to do the 3 hour glucose tolerance test last Monday because I didn't pass the first one, so I was very excited to find out that I passed this one! I have to watch my concentrated sweets intake, but everything else should be good, so I was grateful to hear that! well, time to get on with dinner and rest. I've been coming down with a sore throat, so I'm going to try and get some extra rest!

28 weeks = 3rd Trimester

Jeremy complained that there weren't any pictures of him on here, so here we go! HIm being amazing and helping out with household stuff!!

Baby room, the white boards laying there are the chair railing stuff that will go around the room later this week.

Baskets with liners that I made to match the room.

Baby belly - 28 weeks

Baby belly - 28 weeks - game day ready

28 weeks!! HArd to believe that I am now in my 3rd trimester and only 12 weeks away from meeting our new addition!

Well, I wanted to show y'all some of our progress from this weekend. We (as in Jeremy), got the baby room totally painted, and are now just waiting to get up the chair railing later this week. It was not our original plan for the room, but I think that I like it alot better than what we started with. :) I also worked on sewing the liners for my baskets, fixed/shortened the bumper pads (too long to go around our round crib), hemmed the bed skirt, etc. All the little things (and some big) that I keep looking at and thinking about getting done.

I had taken Fri off from work (I worked last Sunday instead, so it worked out well), which my mom and I spent the entire day mostly shopping. We had a lot of fun. I was able to find curtains for the baby room that I really liked and also some new maternity clothes, more fallish clothing. :) And just other errands that don't always seem to happen now that I actually have real weekends off (as weird as that is, I miss shopping on weekdays, because it is less crowded, and then I'm not missing out on time with Jeremy - who doesn't always love shopping with me).

NOt alot else going on - I was excited because this last week my mom and I purchased tickets to go down and visit my grandparents and family in Wyoming in February with the baby, so it was exciting to be making plans that included the baby! Now we are looking at tickets for Jeremy and I and baby to visit his family in Colorado in March. We have some companion tickets and miles that have to be purchased by a certain date, hence the planning so far out.

Well, Jeremy informed me that I am rambling and it is time to get to bed, so I will get these pictures up of our progress and hoepfully we will have the completed room on here later this week!

27 weeks - Last week of second trimester

Just a quick update - no pics this time (for real) I don't have any current ones taken, but will hopefully soon!

Baby Payne has been doing lots of moving and I've been definately feeling the baby hiccups recently, which is sort of a weird feeling but kindof fun!! I really have loved being pregnant. There is something so amazing about carrying and growing a baby that is absolutely amazing to me! Thankfully it has been helped by the fact that I haven't been too uncomfortable or sick, and am hoping that the next few months don't bring any of that on. I do understand that you get more uncomfortable towards the end, but I'm hoping that it isn't too bad! :) The only new thing I've been experiencing recently is the joys of heartburn. But I've been narrowing down the big culprits, and unfortunately that seems to be chocolate. However I've been having the biggest cravings for chocolate recently, good thing for TUMS!

IN the last week I think we've had our first "pregnancy midnight runs" for food. One wasn't horrible, but I really wanted to make this soup that basically is a combination of chicken noodle soup, cream of chicken soup, ro-tel tomatoes, corn and cheese. I had come home from swimming and that was the only thing I could think of to eat, so I got a hold of Jeremy and on his way home from class and convinced him to go to the store for me, it was about 10:00. Not a big deal, but decided it was my first time I had my mind set on something until I had it! A couple of nights later, the big issue was the heartburn and I had a hard time getting comfortable and Jeremy went out at midnight to get me some Tums, which was great of him!

I have been doing some prenatal swim classes. I am currently going twice a week, and it has been wonderful. There is a wonderful siwm place here with a couple of pools that are at 92 degrees and it is just a small class with streching and walking and some swimming in the pools, and it feels so amazing to be in the water and to strech some of my muscles.

This week and weekend we are working on the painting of the baby room so hopefully I will post some pictures once that is all done.

I also got to go see the Lion King production this weekend which was absolutely amazing!! The costumes and puppetry and music was all so much fun to take part in and I was so glad that I was able to go!

All right, well it's time to go to bed. Pictures to be posted hopefully by the end of this week!

24 week pictures

Miles helping me blog, and me in my favorite position on my recliner. HE doesn't really care about my belly, he just tries to sit whereever he can on me, and then I have to move him around.

4-wheeler ride with my Dad.

Jeremy and Kelly on their phones, Kelly probably texting and Jeremy checking his fantasy scores.

4-wheeler ride again, you can kinda see my belly there.

25 Weeks

Well, I don't think there will be any pictures with this post, because well the camera is not in front of me, and I feel like I should try and update before too long, so this is at least something!

We made it down to Montana and back safely and had a great time with lots of family. We went down for my Aunt Mary's (my dad's aunt) 80th birthday! In addition we saw three other great aunts, all in their 80s and tons of cousins, and my aunts (Lisa and Tammy). We were in Drummond and Hall, MT, one with population of 330 something and the other 50, both near MIssoula. It was fun to see where my Grandpa grew up and even found an old high school yearbook at the local Frosty Freeze from his senior year. Also spent alot of time on the family ranch there, where the boys loved riding the four wheelers and motocycles. Dan took me for a quick ride on the motorcycle (until he decided that it didn't fit both of us very well) and then my dad and I went out on the 4-wheeeler around the property.

What I did determine was that I have no desire whatsoever to fly in an airplane pregnant again. I was so swollen and uncomfortable that I was grateful we weren't flying any further than we did (3 1/2 hr to Seattle, 1 1/2 hr to MIssoula). I woudl do it if I absolutely had to, but not just for fun.

I am still feeling pretty good and healthy. We went in for an appt last week and the baby's heartbeat is strong and always amazing to hear that. I am definately feeling tired at the end of the day, but sometimes just some rest or a good walk helps that. It deifnately is feeling like fall here (yes in the middle of August) but we still have nice weather, so I"m not complaining a bit.

This weekend we are doing our childbirth classes which is Sat and Sun from 10-3. We got to go on a tour of the hospital and the maternity area today which was really exciting to see. I was also excited to hear that the hospital believes in skin to skin contact right after baby is born, so I get to hold baby right away, so that was good to hear! :) It seems a little early to be getting the classes in, but we had to do the weekend one, and you know that Jeremy didn't want to waste a fall weekend on that. There are football games to be watched! :) So luckily we were able to get into one before then.

Jeremy is pretty sure that our child could do better at quarterback than Kyle Orton right now. It may be a long fall watching the Broncos he thinks. But my way of looking at it is once the college football season is just about over (before bowl season) we should have a baby in our arms!

22 1/2 weeks

Time for another update - nothing new really to report. Baby continues to be healthy and kicking and must be growing. :) We went camping this last weekend with my family which was alot of fun. Mostly just really relaxing and uneventful, but wonderful to be away for the weekend. However it did get quite cool overnight, definately feels like fall is coming here, sadly enough, although that does mean football season!

I have been feeling pretty good for the most part - I have been quite tired at the end of the day and feet and legs definately feel tired, but I'm able to come home and relax at night which has been wonderful. I went with my mom and Kara last night to get pedicures, which was so wonderful, I'm thinking that will become a monthly routine for me! :)

We are leaving next Wed night for a long weekend to go to Montana for my aunt's 80th birthday celebration/family reunion, getting back Mon night. It should be fun to go down there and see alot of my dad's family and to get some warm weather for a little bit before the end of the summer, although I think summer is over up here.

Well, I really don't have tons else to report on, but just wanted to say hi to anyone reading this!

20 weeks - almost 21

We went in on Monday for our 20 week ultrasound and then had the follow up appt on Wed with the Dr. The ultrasound on Mon took about 30-40 min - they did a lot of measuring and taking pictures of the baby. It is so amazing what all can be seen. WE could see the heart beating, the valves working, the blood flowing, all the organs (at least they said so, that was harder to tell). And the ultrasound tech did a good job of not letting us know the sex of the baby! I'm not sure if he even looked down there sicne he never told us to look away, or he did and we were too naive to even know what was on the screen! Either way, it's not written on our file or anything, so no chances of finding out - this baby is still a secret to all but God.

These are a couple of pics from the ultrasound that we got to take with us - so amazing the technology that they can see the baby with. Baby was very active when he was doing all the measurements, and then when he went to 4D for us to see the face and all more baby turned and buried his face into my back, and covered up their face with the arm, which was pretty cute too! HOwever, we did finally get to see the face! Definately makes me more anxious to think about holding this little one in about 20 weeks!

(this one to the left we decided is baby's Heisman pose) :)

We also found out that baby is measuring very proportionately and actually on the large size. Baby is measuring more like 22 weeks, rather than 20 weeks. So, either they dated baby wrong and I am really 22 weeks along, or they dated me right and I am 20 weeks with a large baby! So we have an average to large baby on our hands. But, they are leaning more towards the large baby and I'm 20 weeks, because that very first ultrasound they did at like 6 weeks is supposed to be the most accurate in dating. So, we'll see how big this baby gets. (does make me feel a little bit better about my weight gain, that combined with my short midriff, so the dr. really isn't concerned about any of that, which is nice).

Jeremy and I are trying to get out for a walk at least once a day with eachother and with Miles which has been great for me and I'm feeling better with that, and of course Miles loves it! We've even been waking up early in the morning to go! (early as in 6:30-7:00, early for us).

Other than those things, everything seems to be progressing very normally. Jeremy has been super great, helping with dinner in the evenings and around the house, my energy seems to come and go, so I do what I can when I'm able to, but the last few nights I've been exhausted. But, Jeremy can make tacos, pasta and hamburgers, so there's always at least something to eat and I"m not complaining! :) All right, well on to try and post these pictures, and hopefully they will come up this time!

My first collection of baby things!! :) - nope not eager or excited at all to meet this little one!! :)







These are the shelves that have been i nthe corner nook and I bought abskets to put on them and will be like the baby's dresser - since there's not room really for a dresser and i like this look better anyhow!!

The color scheme and materials that will all eventually find themselves in the nursery.




The changing table - I will still be making new colored liners for the baskets, but at least the baskets are bought.

















I need to hem the bed skirt still, but thought I would at least take a picture so y'all could see the colors.

Baby Belly

OK, sorry I didn't get it rotated, but it's a picture!!

19 weeks

Ok, so I'm even worse at this than I thought I would be!! But, after talking to Rachel last night I was reminded that I haven't been updating, nor have I posted a belly pic, so it is time for that!! And we made a deal, that we would each post, and she followed through like right away, so here I am.

I am 19 weeks tomorrow. I go in for for 20 week ultrasound next Monday, hard to believe we are almost half way there! People ask me how baby is doing and all I can tell is that our baby is definately growing and must be healthy! I have definately been feeling more movements in the last week which has been so exciting! We have also had record setting temperatures up here this last week, making life somewhat miserable, I had a couple of nights of getting home from work, eating dinner, showering and then plopping on the recliner, just because movement made it that much warmer. Granted, we were only up to 80 or so, but we aren't prepared for that here!! (no A/C) After a couple of nights of little to no sleep the temperatures dropped, thank goodness!! Jeremy of course comtinued to be supportive and got me cold washcloths for my head and my feet (which were wanting to swell) which all helped alot!!

I haven't gotten a lot more done on the baby room, we are looking at paint colors right now and probably won't start that until the end of August and into September. Other than that we have continued to be busy with work and also trying to enjoy our summer up here. Last Sunday Jeremy and my brothers and some of their friends played a "scrimmage" baseball game against my youngest brother's (Ben's) baseball team (they are getting ready for the all-stars tournament). So my mom and I sat outside in the bleachers all afternoon which was wonderful I even ended up with a decent sunburn which is now more tan. :) BUt it was fun to watch them all play. I will probably be at the ball fields this weekend again, as Jeremy has to work tomorrow, so hopefully we will have more nice weather!!

NOt a lot else going on here, but just wanted to write and post some new pictures!!

OK, I'm going to try and put the pictures in another post, thsi doesn't seem to be working...grrrr....

First Post

Well, I've been wanting to start this for a while now to keep the family in touch with our growing baby up here and what is going on in our lives. And so here we are at 17 weeks and I am starting it!! Yep, 17 weeks!! I have gotten over the morning sickness part for the most part (never was horrible, but even a little isn't great). My aversion to some smells seems to have gone done some over the last two weeks, but this nose still can't handle much. Including smells of fruit gum, (ugh, the worst), salmon and the worst was the trash!! WE bought a new trash can, and I'm sure I make JEremy empty it at least every day, whether it's full or not! There have been others, but those seem to stick out at the moment.

Jeremy and I are doing well, this last week has been busy, some of my aunts and uncles were in town for Robby's wedding last weekend, which was so much fun to have them all around, and JEremy has been busy finishing up summer school class, don't love the summer school classes, but love that they get done quickly.

I have also started working on the baby room. I have all of the bedding made, dust ruffle, crib sheet and valance, and bumper pads (those I bought). Now I'm working on a cover for what will be our changing tables. The colors for the room are an aqua/teal blue color and brown, and I even found a material with those colors and some red mixed in, so there will be red in the room!! Jeremy isn't convinced that it is enough, but if it is a girl, I don't think she needs a complete Nebraska room (yes, I"m sure the majority of his family will disagree with this). :) We are not going to find out the sex of the baby and let it be a surprise, which means that I can go ahead and work on the room, especially while I've had the energy and my grandma was up for the wedding and we got to spend time together shopping for the material together with my mom, so it was a fun outing.

Baby continues to be growing, also meaning I am growing, but appears to be completely healthy at this point, no issues, which is a blessing. I think that I am starting to feel baby move, just little flutters occasstionally, so that has been fun!! Well, off to the rest of my Sunday, but thought I should get this started! :) And maybe I'll even figure out how to post pictures! NO guarantees, but that is the goal! -- oh yay - I got the pictures on, not that hard I guess!! SO, those are the 10 1/2 week ultrasound pictures, we haven't had one since then, but did hear the heartbeat at the last appt about 1 1/2 weeks ago!