BumpDate: 35 Weeks

So... My last BumpDate was about six weeks ago... Whoops! I can't even believe how busy June was for Bryan and I. Luckily, after yesterday, I think it's slowing down - just in time for the home stretch of this pregnancy! Since it's been so long since my last update, I'll just cover the highlights:

• Since 29 weeks, I have blown past being in the double digits for weeks remaining and am now down to just FIVE! I feel like time is flying and crawling at the same time. As each week has passed, I am definitely feeling the baby's growth more and more. {In terms of the weight of my belly, the pressure on my pelvis, etc.}
• My two "complaints" {although, I'm not really complaining, just stating the symptoms} I am dealing with  are very mild carpel-tunnel syndrome in my hands due to some mild swelling in my fingers and insomnia. The carpel-tunnel isn't bad enough for braces, just annoying. My insomnia I have been combating with one-quarter tablets of Unisom {totally safe for pregnant women, thank God!}
• Baby Ripke had two baby showers thrown in his honor over the weekend of the 15th. They were both beyond perfect and our friends were incredibly generous with gifts for him. In fact, I am pretty sure we need to build a bigger house already. You can read more about my showers over on the Iowa City Mom's Blog. 

The theme of Baby R's friends & family shower.

• The Wednesday before our showers, we had some maternity pictures taken. I was on the fence about taking them, but they turned out great and I am super glad we got them taken. {I will see if I can get some up on the blog for your viewing pleasure.}
• The Sunday after my shower, my mom came over to help this overwhelmed mama organize all of our baby gear. On top of putting everything together and finding a home for everything, we also washed a TON of baby clothes... Let's just say garage sales have been good to me and this kid is never going to be able to wear everything in his closet/dresser. And - I think we are finally getting close to being done with the nursery - that's the goal for next weekend. 
• My bi-weekly doctor's appointments have been going great - my blood pressure remains on the low end of the spectrum, the protein is staying out of my urine, Baby R's heart rate continues to hover in the 140's and he is measuring right on schedule. {I am not sure HOW is measuring right on schedule because I feel like I am carrying a three month old around in my belly right now.} My next appointment will be on July 15th when I am 36 weeks and will make the start of weekly appointments from here on out!

Josie claimed all of Baby R's presents for herself following his showers...

Our Fourth of July weekend has been busy so far. On the Fourth, Bryan and I embarked on a "Baby Shopping Spree" to get the rest of the stuff we will need for Baby R. Things like an extra car seat base, baby wash and a video monitor were on the shopping list. It was a successful shopping trip topped off by a trip to Carlos O'Kelly's for a late lunch/early dinner. I have to say, this no alcohol thing has gotten A LOT tougher with summer being in full swing. Bryan's raspberry margarita looked AMAZING. Having a beer is definitely at the top of my "to-do" list as soon as we are home and settled from the hospital. 

After our shopping trip, we were both beat. I spent the evening on the couch and experienced my first {known of} round of braxton hicks contractions while Bryan spent the evening prepping out yard for sod the following day. 

On the fifth at approximately 8:45 am a large semi pulled up in front of our house and delivered 9000 square feet of sod. It was a sight that brought a tear to my eye. For those of you who don't know, we sold our old house {complete with a huge fenced-in yard} in May of 2012 and moved into a rental condo, without a fence, until March 2013. This spring has been so rainy and cool that is has been impossible for us to get our yard graded and ready for seed and then ready for a fence. With two dogs, this has been a nightmare. Especially as I have gotten larger and handling our 110lb dog has been come more challenging. Fast forward to the end of June when we received six inches of rain in a very short amount of time and we watched as our yard eroded into the street, we decided to bite the bullet and lay sod. 

Seven short hours after the sod arrived, it was all in place. {Huge thank you to our friends that helped us out!} Being as pregnant as I am, I wasn't able to do much to help, but I ran errands, made sure the coolers were always full of cold beverages, assembled lunch and held the hose as much as I could. T minus 16 days and our fence will be installed and our poor dogs will be able to run free for the first time in over a year! Let's just say July 22nd will be the third most exciting day of 2013 for me. {Third to finding out the baby's sex and of course, the day he comes into this world.}

Our new front yard!

The remainder of the weekend has "laying low" written all over it. An all-day shopping spree and helping with the sod yesterday was far more activity than I've had in months and I'm paying for it today. I think this evening we are going to run into town and grab a nice dinner and get groceries for the week. {This is what our date nights have come to already...}

Here's my 35 week belly picture... Bryan made a comment to me over the weekend that he felt like I wasn't growing as much as before. After he took this belly picture, I showed him a picture of me six weeks ago and he was able to see how much I have grown. :)

BumpDate: 29 Weeks

Yea for the last week in the 20's! It's almost like turning 30, except, this time I'm happy. As of this upcoming Sunday, we will be 3/4 of the way done and then the following week, we will be out of the double digits for weeks left! How is that even possible!?

Over the long weekend, Bryan and I made the rounds at area furniture stores to find a rocker/glider. I wanted one that looks like a traditional living room chair, but glides, but apparently those are not a popular style 'round these parts. After hitting up every major furniture store in our area, I resorted to ordering one from JC Penny's website. I am a little worried about ordering it without sitting on it, but it got really good reviews and was only $500 for the chair and ottoman. So fingers crossed that we like it and I don't have to pay a $48 restocking fee and start our search over.

Saturday we also made a trip to Babies R Us/Toys R Us to look at gliders. Proved to be a big mistake to take my husband/six-foot-tall-kid into a toy store. After perusing the action figure aisle for almost an hour, I finally convinced him that we should go. But not before I found a stuffed chocolate lab and stuffed beagle for Baby Ripke's room - how cute are they!?

Sunday, we finally tackled painting the baby's room. Here is a picture of the possible colors, but I am going to wait to reveal the final look until the nursery is finished.

While I re-taped the room and taped plastic to the new carpet, Bryan finished a few projects around the house for me before taking over the actual painting so I could take a nap. {He seriously is an awesome husband.} Following my nap {I am pretty sure he snuck one in}, we headed out to a friend's house for a rainy Memorial Day BBQ.

Monday I went shopping with my mom and finally broke down and bought some maternity shorts. Ug. I am not a huge fan of shorts on my non-pregnant legs - they're always too tight. I am even less of a fan of them on my pregnant legs. They were buy one get one half off though, so I bought a couple of versatile pairs and between those and skirts, refuse to buy any more maternity bottoms.

All in all, we ended the weekend tired, but pleased with our progress. I feel less panic about getting baby-related tasks completed now that the all the furniture is on order and the room is painted.

Physically, I am still feeling good but tired. Now that all my regular TV shows are in re-runs for the summer, my goal is to be in bed by 8:30 every night. Baby Ripke has been active as ever this past week, I am pretty sure he has his own dance party every night around 9 pm. This does not work well with my new bedtime, so we're going to have to talk about that. I got myself on my scale earlier this week and I am up about 24 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight. (Gulp!) Most of my friends say it's all belly. Hopefully they're not just being really nice friends. I am not too terribly concerned, 25-35 pounds is normal and if I end up at 40 pounds, I have the rest of my life to lose it. Aside from that, still no swelling (all the swelling I had has gone away!) and no signs of any pregnancy concerns such as preeclampsia thus far {knock on wood}.

BumpDate: 28 Weeks & THE LAST TRIMESTER!

Sunday marked the first day of the THIRD and FINAL trimester! Super-excited/terrified/anxious/freaking-out/happy about summarizes how I'm feeling about it all. So excited to meet our little guy in approximately 12-ish weeks, terrified of what we're supposed to do with him once he's here, anxious about how he's suppose to actually get out of my body and just happy to be where we are. Freaking out? Well, I am freaking out that there are less than 12 weeks to my due date and we've done about, oh, nothing to get ready for his arrival.

Yeah, yeah, all the kid needs is a roof over his head. While I appreciate everyone trying to calm me a little, well all know, that's not good enough. We've got furniture on order, at the latest it should be here early July. We finally bought some paint for the nursery this weekend and Bryan started taping off the room, working on that this next weekend is definitely a priority. I bought some materials for some decorative DIY projects for his room and his bedding is in the works thanks to a very talented seamstress in my area. I suppose that is all something, but we still need to get a closet put together for him (the closet is currently empty as in, no rod, no shelves, etc.), actually paint (as mentioned above) and find a permanent home for the items we've collected so far. (I may have gone a tiny bit crazy with the great deals at garage sales...)

Last week was my glucose test, which I was very happy to learn I passed the next day. While my sugar levels were awesome, my iron levels are low (per usual for my body), so I have to start some iron supplements, no biggie. Other than that, Baby Ripke has been moving around like crazy; mama is usually spent by about 3 pm (I totally understand the appeal of early-bird specials these days); and my swelling, to my surprise, has gotten better - not worse - as I had expected with the warmer, muggier weather. 

I had a regularly scheduled doctor's appointment today, which marks the start of bi-weekly appointments until we hit the 36 week mark. I still can't believe we are at this point already. In some aspects, it seems like it has taken forever to get to this point and that August will never be here. On the other hand, I won't even let Bryan say how many weeks/days we have left anymore because I will have a mini-anxiety attack. 

The doctor's appointment went well - BP still super low (per usual for this girl), pee tested fine (still don't know what they're testing for at every appointment), baby's heart rate in the upper 140's. He's still in the breech position, which my doctor is saying is still fine at this point. However, little man has been in said position for the past six weeks, and I think he's pretty comfortable that way. I had to have the Rhogam shot (because I am Rh negative blood type) again today. I had to have this shot around six weeks due to spotting and I knew I would need it again at 28 weeks and will probably need it once baby gets here. 

Wow - today's post is pretty long and only one picture! I need to get better about taking pics for you guys. Here's this week's belly pic!

My Husband's Favorite Dinner

Before I get to my recipe, I have to freak out for a minute. Bryan informed me this evening that over the course of the past three-ish days, he has found a total of five-ish (I think he is underestimating a bit) ticks on HIM and a few on our dogs. No sooner did he say this, that I demanded that he check Josie where he found three just tonight! Then he found one crawling on my wall!

This is by far one of my worst nightmares. I feel the need to sanitize my entire house somehow.

The current view of half of our backyard and the wooded area beyond the yard. 

The ticks are totally coming from the wooded area that lies right behind our lot line. When we bought this lot, the wooded area behind our lot was a huge selling point. (Especially because the chances of it being developed while we are living in this house are slim to none.) Now, I am rethinking it's appeal.

Josie hanging out on top of the dirt pile while Bryan works outside.

I guess the sudden increase in temps (finally) combined with Bryan working outside as much as possible to get our deck built (so we can then level our yard and put our fence in!), has brought this tick epidemic to light. Josie, being a beagle, loves to be outside, so Bryan has been taking her outside with him as much as possible.

Bleh. Meh.

On a happier note, I am happy to share with you my husband's favorite recipe. Every time I ask him what should be on the menu for the week, he immediately says "Dorito Chicken". As the name suggests, it's not the healthiest of meals, but it's quick, easy, has protein in it and tastes great. Serve it with a couple sides of vegetables and you're good to go.

(I didn't take a picture of it, so you'll have to use your imagination on it's looks.)

• 4 boneless chicken breasts (I pound mine out with a meat tenderizer to get them to cook faster)
• 2c crushed Doritos
• 1 can Rotel
• 1 can Cream of Chicken soup
• 1 can Cream of Mushroom soup
• 1 c. grated cheese(we use taco flavored cheese)

Line casserole dish with Doritos. Mix Rotel and soups. Layer chicken then mixture. Top with grated cheese and bake at 375 degrees until cheese is melted approximately 30 minutes. You can serve it on top of rice or by itself. I usually serve it with a huge side of broccoli and mix it in with the extra sauce. 

BumpDate: 26 Weeks

The past week has actually been pretty eventful for Little Man and myself. Shortly after my last BumpDate, I started noticing this weird pain near my ribs, right under my bra line on the right side. I wasn't really worried about it but it HURT! Nothing I did seemed to help, except for laying flat on my back, which all pregnant women know, you're not supposed to lay flat on your back. Sitting seemed to make it worse, which was awesome because I sit for a majority of my day. I turned to Dr. Google and found an article that described the exact pain I was having - it was like a burning mixed with a dull ache mixed with a stabbing pain. Turns out (according to Parent's magazine), that as my uterus pushes up, my lungs have less room and the expanding of the diaphragm irritates the cartilage on my ribs. Well, I was happy it wasn't serious and didn't warrant a call to my doctor, but the article also said I could be dealing with it until the baby drops - which is a ways a way! Ug.

Let's be clear, I am not complaining. I am SO beyond happy to be pregnant and to feel his every kick and movement. But man, that hurt.

Luckily, I think the baby switched positions a few days later, because the pain has subsided. Whew.

Which brings me to Saturday. Long story short, I was walking quickly for about 3.5 blocks to get out of the rain. Got into my car, drove 30 minutes home, got out of my car and could not believe how badly my back hurt. Well, me, being the smart one that I am, didn't take it easy on Sunday. Sunday night/Monday morning around 3 am I woke up and oh, man. I had a hard time even getting out of bed to go to the bathroom. I moved myself out to the couch so I could lay on my side and press ice up against it at the same time, but I had a hard time even standing to get the ice pack out.

Needless to say, I didn't make it to work Monday. Let's just say, I would be the world's worst bed-rest patient. I spent the whole day staring at my sewing machine thinking to myself "I could sit with ice on it and work on my sewing project..." Knowing full well that sitting is the worst thing for my injury. (I've been through this a time or two before.) Luckily by the end of the day, I could at least get up to move around. I made it back to work today, but my back is still pretty far from 100%.

Finally, our last event came to a head today. I'll try to avoid TMI here, but I do need to be little descriptive. The past couple of days I have noticed some clear, very watery discharge. Well, I Dr. Googled it again and every site said to call your provider if you have clear, watery discharge. So, called my doctor, got in for an appointment at 1:45 today. Turned out, everything was fine, but they did want to check me just to be sure I wasn't leaking amniotic fluid - especially because what I was experiencing had a sweet smell to it (apparently a sign) - or have an infection. Thankfully, it was no to all of the above, but not going to lie, the possibility of leaking amniotic fluid had both Bryan and I more than a little freaked out.

They say things come in threes, so hopefully the next week will be a little quieter. In other news, I am pretty sure Baby Ripke is going to be a Kung-Fu fighter based on how much he kicks anymore. He definitely is a strong little boy!

Another exciting milestone - I scheduled our maternity pictures today! I was on the fence about doing them, I have very strong opinions about poses I will NOT be doing, including no kissing of belly, no ribbons tied around belly, no bare belly and no hands forming hearts over my belly. (No offense to anyone who likes such poses, they're just not my cup of tea.) I found a reasonably priced photographer in Vinton we are going to use and her maternity pictures she has posted on her website are very tasteful and not too cliche. I figure I'll be glad I took them some day.

Finally, here is this week's belly picture!

Weekend Rewind

One thing that I love about weekends now that I did not anticipate loving, is the inability to sleep late anymore. I think if I could stay up past 10:30, I might be able to sleep a little later than 6:45/7, but why bother? I have found that it has been helping Mondays as well as I am not as tired as I used to be sine my sleep schedule it not all thrown off.

That being said, I have found myself with some extra time on Saturdays and Sundays. This Saturday morning started off a little on the weird side. Bryan called me Friday night when I was on my way home to let me know that Josie (the beagle) was peeing blood. Let me clarify - there was not just a little blood in her pee, she was straight up peeing blood. Having already put one animal down this year, my mind immediately jumped to the worst. He had already called the vet's emergency line and they said it sounded like a urinary tract infection. Now, I have had a UTI or two in my life, and I have never peed blood,so I did not think this was a good diagnosis, but whatever. They told us to bring a urine sample in the next morning. After three potty trips, we managed to extract maybe 3/4 of a tablespoon of pee/blood from her and I dropped it off on my way to garage sales with my mom. The vet called Bryan back a couple of hours later to let him know that they think it's kidney stones. So we have to bring her in Monday and they'll sedate her and take some X-rays to determine the next course of action. On the bright side, I think she may have passed them because she is no longer peeing blood and she doesn't have to go outside every five minutes. Guess we'll find out tomorrow!

My sick puppy

On to brighter points of the weekend. As I mentioned above, my mom and I hit up garage sales this weekend. Oh lord - I am SO thankful our baby is being born at the end of garage sale season - we are scoring some awesome deals! No big purchases this week, but we did spend $140 between the two of us on clothes, toys and a Tigger Halloween costume. I am talking name-brand, BARELY worn clothes.  I sorted out all of his clothes when I got home and I am feeling pretty good about his newborn and three month stash - we might need a few more fall-ish outfits for three months, but other than that, I feel good about the amount of sleepers and summery outfits. We have a good jump on six months and a small start on nine months. I am going to focus on six to 12 months for the rest of this garage sale season.

Garage sale loot this week

Saturday afternoon I met up with a friend from my fertility support group. She and her husband and have been through far more than we have been through and I admire her strength. Following coffee with her, I met up with the girls from Iowa City Moms Blog - where I am a contributor. (I can't remember if I mentioned that before or not...)  Following THAT meeting, I made my first trip to Molly's Cupcakes. All I can say is AMAZING! (I should have taken pictures of them, but they got a little jostled on the trip back when I got caught in a downpour. They still tasted amazing!)

Remnants of Molly's Cupcakes...

By the time I got home, my back was KILLING me. I have had sciatica problems since I was 14 and man oh man, Baby Ripke is making them worse. I woke up Sunday and it wasn't much better, but it was a beautiful day and I didn't want to spend it inside. I put some ice on it, popped some Tylenol (what I would give for some Advil right now) and made my way into Cedar Rapids. I added a few things to my registries, got a pedicure, picked up a paint sample for Little Man's room, picked up some sewing supplies for a project I am working on and made my way home. And then I put a lot of ice on my back. I am probably going to pay for this tomorrow, I am still in A LOT of pain. I'm not complaining, just stating a painful fact.

Sewing supplies!

Pink tooties - hello spring!

It's been a great weekend - I think the cold weather is finally behind us, Bryan is making progress on our house projects and I am in the double digits (out of the triples!) for days till due date. :) I am going to try to post more often on here, so look for a BumpDate tomorrow or Tuesday and maybe a sewing tutorial.

BumpDate 25-ish Weeks

How has it been three weeks since my last update? As of today, I am 25 weeks, four days. I’m still feeling great, but still get tired pretty easily. For instance, on Sunday, I got up around 7:30, showered, ate a couple of doughnuts (don’t judge) and then laid down for a nap around 9:30. Slept until about 11 am, unpacked some boxes, made lunch and laid back down at 3 for another two hour nap. And I was still asleep by 10:30 that night. It was kind of a disappointment after I had an incredibly productive Saturday.

Speaking of Saturday, I hit up my first garage sales of the season. The first few I went to were meh, OK. The last one – I hit the jackpot! I got a Baby Einstein bouncy thing (think excer-saucer minus the saucer), a motion detector/alarm for the crib and a TON of name brand baby boy sleepers and rompers. Pretty much cleaned them out of 0-3 month and most of their 6 month clothing.

After the garage sales, I was so pumped, I went and got groceries, came home and cleaned/unpacked and we made it into town for a movie. (We saw “42” the movie about Jackie Robinson. We went with my parents because my dad is a HUGE baseball fanatic. Great movie that isn’t really about baseball even though it is a central theme.) While that doesn’t sound like a ton, it must have been since I was so wiped on Sunday.

Aside from my busy weekend, I have noticed a few unwelcome pregnancy related things.

First – spider veins. I think I am prone to these as I had some pre-pregnancy, but I’ve noticed more of them on my ankles and calves. Not cool.

Second – that god-awful line down the middle of the belly. I refuse to post any bare belly shots on social media, so you’ll just have to take my word for it that it’s there and darkening by the day. (Admittedly, it’s still pretty light. But I know it’s there.)

Third – swollen fingers and ankles. Again, admittedly, it’s not that bad yet. I can still wear my wedding ring and most of my shoes, but with the warmer weather we’ve had recently, I think my days of both are limited. Thankfully, it’s almost sandal season so that will help with the ankle/feet swelling situation. I am also ordering a new fake ring for my ring finger as it will drive me bonkers to not have anything on that finger for three more months.

My swollen, spidery-veiny ankles

Oh jeeze – how could I forget my ultrasound last Friday?! We went in for a follow up ultrasound and long story short, Baby Ripke is doing great! He’s measuring a week early and is in the 79^th percentile for his weight. I Googled “baby birth weight 79^thpercentile” and from what I found, that would put him at around 9-ish pounds if he’s full term. Bryan was around 9 and I was 8 lbs, 14 oz, so I figured he’d be about that size. I am mentally prepared for anything in the 9’s, anything above that I may reconsider things. (Like I have a choice at this point).

Man, I really shouldn’t wait three weeks to update this. There is more to tell – we had our Birthplace Tour, bought some baby furniture and put paint samples on the wall. I am sure there is more than that, but that will be another post.

I hope you are all tolerating this change in weather (at least in the midwest) better than I am, because I am really upset by it. 

BumpDate: 23 Weeks

This week has been a good week for Little Man and myself. I am still pretty tired in the evenings after work, but I've started allowing myself more caffeine than I had previously been consuming around 2:30 every afternoon, and it seems to be helping. (Don't worry, it's still far, far below the recommended daily amount.) Other than that, Little Man has been very, very active, letting me know he is growing healthy and strong.

Starting about a week and a half ago, I started having some weird pains on (in?) my cervix. It wasn't the normal round-ligament pain that I am very familiar with, it was more of a throbbing, aching type pain. I made the mistake of Googling it Tuesday night and started to get scared that perhaps my cervix was shortening or maybe I was even experiencing pre-term labor. (I know, I know, Google is the devil when it comes to medical problems!) So I called my OB Wednesday morning. The on-call doctor thought it was probably normal cervical growing pains, but had me come in for an ultrasound just to be sure. Sure enough, the ultrasound revealed no problems - everything looked perfect! On the plus side, we got a few more 4D pictures of Little Man and you can already tell he's going to be a heartbreaker! ;)

My belly is definitely growing at a rapid pace. I reached a new milestone this week: balancing food on it. Very exciting to have a portable table for the next four months.

My belly and some delicious peanut butter pretzels from Trader Joe's.

Another milestone this week was hot flashes. When I was on Clomid, I was very familiar with hot flashes, I thought maybe I got lucky and wouldn't experience them during pregnancy. Not so much. I'll take them though as my pregnancy has been pretty easy since the first trimester concluded. 

This week I also registered! Registering for baby was so much different than registering for our wedding two years ago. With the wedding, it took hours and I analyzed every item I put on the registry. This time, I took my experienced-mama friend Cassidy with me and scanned every item she pointed at. I think we were done with Target and Babies R Us within an hour and a half this morning. I will of course probably tweak it in the weeks leading up to my shower and due date, but I definitely got a good start. 

Here's your 23 week belly picture! Still on the crappy cell-phone pictures as I haven't located my nice camera yet. (I suppose it would help if I looked for it?)

The BEST Chocolate Chip Cookies on the Face of the Earth

The title does not lie.

I was at work last Friday and my co-worker said to me "There are cookies in the break room - you should go get one before they're gone." It was 8:30 in the morning, I nodded and went back to my email and decaf coffee. 20 minutes later I went down to the break room to fill my water bottle and saw said cookies sitting on the table and I have to admit they did look good. So I took one... And then another for the baby.

I brought them both back to my office, thinking I'd save them until lunch. However, they proved to be too tempting and I sunk my teeth into one minutes later.

Oh.
My.
God.

They were amazing. I immediately emailed one of our admins to see if she knew who brought them. After asking around, she let me know the wife of another co-worker made them. I immediately emailed said co-worker and begged him to get the recipe from his wife for me. I thought the chances of that happening were slim to none - if a woman asked my husband for a recipe at his place of employment, I would not get the message for weeks, if ever. However, my co-worker proved to be a model co-worker (or maybe scared of the wrath of a hungry pregnant woman?) and minutes later I got an email from his wife with the recipe.

I told Bryan about them over the weekend and Monday night after work, he begged me to make them for him. I did and they are just as amazing out of my over.

I have to admit - one thing that is not so fun about baking when pregnant is not being able to eat the raw dough. Cookie dough is my kryptonite. Seriously. I buy the cookie dough at Papa Murphys and sit in front of my TV and eat it like ice cream. I haven't had raw cookie dough in over five months. Four more to go.

Because I believe in spreading good things in the world, here is the recipe:

The BEST Chocolate Chip Cookies on the Face of the Earth

1 cup butter flavored Crisco

1 cup brown sugar

½ cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1 teaspoon of salt

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 ½ cups flour
Chocolate chips... The person I got the recipe from sprinkled them on the top. For this batch, I mixed in a bag of mini-chocolate chips, but I think it may have been too much. I think next time I will try the sprinkling trick. 

Mix in that order, scoop onto cookie sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 -10 minutes.

BumpDate: 22 Weeks

Holy cow - it's been four weeks since I last updated the blog! It's been a crazy-busy four weeks as well - two weeks ago in particular was quite possibly the busiest and best week of my life. Not only did I reach the half way mark, but we found out the gender of Baby Ripke AND moved into our new house - within two days of each other. This mama was exhausted by the end of it all, but man, what awesome milestones.

First, an updated belly picture for you. I didn't do my fancy photoshopping to this picture like I had been doing - I had to take it on my cellphone as my nice dSLR is MIA since the move. (I also absolutely hate the look of my face in this picture, but by the third take, Bryan was tired of taking my picture.)

I took this picture on Saturday (and today is Monday) and I swear to God, my belly is bigger already - is that even possible?? The last four weeks have been good - Baby Ripke is moving around a ton and I love every minute of it. I still get tired pretty easily, but I can at least get through the work day now without feeling like I am going to pass out. 

On to the news you've been waiting for (if you don't follow me on Facebook) - our gender reveal! We found out the gender of Baby Ripke four days before Easter, so I went to Target and found a couple of cheap Easter baskets and filled them with that fake grass and plastic eggs. In each egg, I put a mini-snickers and after the ultrasound, I put one ultrasound picture in each egg - including the one that revealed the gender. 

We went over to each set of our parents house and told them they would have to open the eggs to figure out the gender. I was counting on two things:

1. I carefully thought out which color of egg to put it in and chose orange. I am fairly stereotypical when it comes to genders and both sets of our parents immediately went for the pink thinking if it was a girl, I'd put it in the pink. When that didn't work, they went straight for the blue. For both sets of parents, orange was one of the last eggs, drawing out the game. 
2. Even when they came across the gender picture, neither sets are experienced with genders and would not even know what they were looking at or for (even though the tech labeled the gender on the picture.) When this happened, our plan was to make them go back through the pictures until they figured it out. 

My plan worked on Bryan's parents, but Bryan blew the surprise on my parents. Well...

That's right - Baby Ripke is a HE! We are both so excited (as we would have been with a girl as well). I already have his nursery all planned out - all I need to do now is shop! 

Well, for nursery stuff anyway, I found some pretty cute hats at Von Maur this weekend I couldn't pass up...

Bryan loves super-heros, Star Wars and video games. He is so excited to pass these interests onto our son, so I got a jump-start for him with these - which is LOVES by the way. 

Hopefully now that I have located my computer cord, I can get back to posting regular updates for you all. Hope your week is off to a great start!