32 Weeks Fat

Here I am at 32 weeks and we're doing pretty well. I've put on about 27 lbs as of right now and luckily none of it has landed on my thighs so I'm feeling pretty good about that, plus I don't have any stretch marks so if I can make it 8 more weeks without that happening I'll be super stoked. The only thing is that the scar on my side has really stretched out, I'm thinking that I'll have to start telling people that I was axed instead of knifed. The doctor isn't as worried about me going into early labor anymore so that's a bit of a relief. He says there's still a threat but Reese seems to be content inside despite my small size and is growing well so we should make it pretty close to my due date. Since he said it was okay I went back to work which has proved to be very entertaining, I didn't realize how much I had missed my students. One student told me I needed to make sure I didn't go into labor during class because he didn't want to have to deliver my baby, we agreed that he would drive me to the hospital instead if anything should happen.

After three attempts at getting 3D pics we ended up with two, one of her foot and one of her eye and nose. The doctor tried his best to get some good ones but no matter what we tried he just couldn't get a shot, so we have our two pictures and I myself think they're quite cute. Luckily we only have like 8 more weeks before we get to see her, I'm starting to get scared.

A Shout Out to Beej

It's yet to be noted on here that my niece Ava is the most adorable thing ever. When I went home for Christmas and Thanksgiving she kept me entertained non stop. While I was there I started calling her Beej which is what we determined the word form of BG (baby girl) would be, it probably wouldn't have stuck if it wasn't so dang funny to hear her say Beej. She was my little buddy the whole time I was home. When I'd get up in the morning and get a bowl of cereal she would run over to her cupboard and get her bowl out and sit at the table to have some as well. She even had to have a little bit of milk in it and eat with a spoon just like I was. Of course a good portion of hers ended up going to her best friend Jaeger who was always near her thanks to Ava's generousity. It's amazing Jaeger didn't gain 50lbs while we were in the states. Also, whenever I'd be leaning against a cupboard in the kitchen she'd stand next to me and try to imitate the same position I was standing in. She's pretty much the most adorable little girl in the world.

Now that I've been back in Germany she'll talk to me on the phone when I'm talking to my parents.She'll jump on the phone and you can hear my mom or dad in the background telling her to say hi to Aunt Jesse but first she'll say "Hi yea-yea" which is what she calls Jaeger, and then "Hi Aunt Jesse" and sometimes she'll even say "Hi Uh Nate" which is how she says Uncle Nate. Then we get an I love you and a Buh-Bye. It's the same conversation every time but it's pretty cute to have a 23 month old want to talk to you on the phone when you call. I'm eager to see how much more she's learned the next time I'm home and to teach her even more things that I'm sure will eventually get her into trouble. Last trip I taught her to say "Burn" after I made a joke and "Flash" when someone told us to do something. I don't think she quite got the meaning but it was nice to have a back up shouting burn when I said it.

Anyways, this was my shout out to Beej. The pictures are from when she was only 20-21 months old but they still make me smile. Especially the ones with her and Jaeger, she really wanted her picture taken with Jaeger that day because my sister was trying to make her pose in front of the Christmas tree and she was getting tired of it. Gotta love nieces, you can spoil them, teach them whatever you want to, and never deal with the repercussions............I'm such a great aunt.

Reese Aspen Crandall

It has finally been decided that our daughter's name shall be Reese and we couldn't be happier. I've been so eager to name her so that I can start calling her something other than "baby girl" so Nate and I finally talked over the names we were thinking about and decided that Reese best fit her, it means enthusiastic which is definetly what she is.
When we went to my doctor's appointment today we found out that I was 30 weeks along and I could of swore I was only 29, either the doctor is wrong or my math is wrong and I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that it's my math. We were able to hear her heartbeat and find out that she weighs in at a hefty 3 lbs 1 oz. We were supposed to get 3D pictures today but she wasn't in a very good position so he tried but told us that we could come back next week and he would try again. Although not getting pictures was a little disappointing we did get to see her open her mouth and yawn, at least it looked like a yawn to us. She's quite cute if I do say so myself.
Also, we got other exciting news today when we found out that our request to remain in Germany for another tour of duty was approved. We won't be leaving here until February of 2012 so that gives us plenty of time to finish up all the traveling we want to do. We were feeling a little bit of a time crunch to have a baby and get all of our traveling done by February. So instead of moving back to the states we're going to be looking to move to a bigger house this fall. We already have a prospect so hopefully everything works out because our current little duplex is a little shy on space for a family of 3.

....And in Baby News

As most of you are already aware when I went to my doctor's appointment after coming back to Germany we found out that our son was actually a daughter so that was quite a shock to the system. Luckily that was way back in January and we've long since begun preparing for our little girl. I have to say that thus far I've been pretty lucky with my pregnancy, I haven't had any sickness and I don't have any stretch marks yet so that's always good and as a bonus my belly button didn't fully pop out so it's at a manageable level of sticking out. They only real problem we have is my size, the doctor wants me to gain more weight which sounds really easy but let me tell you is quite difficult. I was supposed to gain 6 lbs before my next appointment and I think I'm just barely going to make it. A steady diet of frozen pizza and Burger King to supplement the healthy stuff is to thank for the added weight.

Despite all my thoughts that I'm this giant pregnant woman and my attempts to wear clothing that accentuate my pregnancy, people still have quite a hard time believing that I'm 7 months pregnant. I'll allow you to be the judge, but the ladies at church told me that there are probably a lot of women out there that want to hurt me for being so small at 7 months. The downfall to being small is that my doctor has given up on giving me a due date and has instead said "You'll have the baby sometime between now and the end of May." Hmmmmmm, I'm not aware of what species gets the old you'll have it when you have it talk of giving birth but that's me. Silly German doctor seems to think I'm high risk for premature labor but Baby Girl and I are going to show him who's the boss by hanging on til the end of May.

Now that I've entered my 7th month of pregnancy things have gotten a lot more active inside. She pretty much moves constantly and when I lay down on my side I swear it feels like she's trying to stand up inside of me. Her favorite things to do are dance around when Nate is playing rock band or when I'm in the car listening to the radio. She also likes to kick Nate in the face when he puts his face on my stomach to talk to her, quite an attitude if you ask me. And her favorite of all things is kicking in the most inopertune of times. For example, this past Sunday I was sitting in Sunday school paying attention when all of the sudden she hauled off and kicked me so hard in just the right spot that it caused an involuntary reaction on my part. You know when you're sitting in a class or something and you start to drift off to sleep and then you catch yourself and your whole body jerks as if to let everyone in the class know that you were falling asleep? Well it was pretty much like that. It was so noticeable that the lady next to me asked if the baby was kicking, slightly embarassing I know but I think making a fool of me is Baby Girl's favorite thing in the world.

Finally the gritty stuff......naming her. We have it narrowed down to Reese Aspen Crandall or Riley Jade Crandall. Feel free to offer any opinions you may have. I've promised the family that after my next appointment, where I'm having my 3D ultrasound, I'll have decided on a name for sure. Anyways, that's baby news and in a week I'll post the super cool 3D pictures I'm supposed to be getting.

p.s. The ultrasound pics are from my 20 week appt. so they are a little outdated but whatever.

Where to Begin?

I guess I'll start with Nate coming home. After nearly 5 months in Iraq, Nate came home February 6th and I couldn't have been happier. I was definetly tired of spending time with me, myself and I, I mean I think I'm a pretty entertaining person but that last month alone in Germany before he came home was pretty killer. Luckily he had about 2 1/2 weeks off of work when he got home so we were able to get a lot of stuff done around the house that I couldn't do by myself. We got new couches and set up the baby's nursery and did all that kind of good stuff. I've included pictures of Nate's homecoming and the new couch and crib. Other than that we didn't do anything of a high level of excitement when he got home. OH well I guess I did find my new fantasy.....driving a tank!! I had to drive this huge cargo van to go pick up our new couches and whene I say huge I mean HUGE!!! It's this giant Mercedes Diesel that doesn't fit anywhere and I drove it across this gravel road and as it bounced around I realized that someday I want to drive a tank. I'm convinced that I can drive anything so a tank will be my ultimate challenge, but that's just a random thought to let you all know where I'm at mentally.