27 weeks

Our sweet little boy is 14.5" long and weighs about 2 pounds. He is moving around and kicking me so much now. Especially when I sit down to eat and when I lay down at night. 

I've had some serious ankle swelling this week. Looks a little scary sometimes when I get home. I guess that's what happens when you're on your feet all day. I've been trying to drink more water and sleep with my feet elevated and that has helped some! 

We had family in town this weekend to celebrate Ian's birthday. It was so nice to have them all here! We bought an air mattress since we now only technically have one guest room, if you don't include the nursery. They said they slept well... I hope that's the truth! With their arrival came another huge box of goodies for Cason! A handmade blanket and sweater and bootie set. A handmade Dallas cowboys hat, a pair of socks. And so many precious little outfits and accessories for his room. This child needs a bigger closet already!!! We are so thankful for all of it but know that those handmade pieces will be so special to us forever! 

          Ian blowing out his candles. 

We stopped by the fire station on the way to dinner. 

               A shot with the house. 

We also finished the mantle!!!!!! Finally!!!! I'll make a separate post for that one. 

26 weeks

This week, Cason measures about 14 inches - the size of a scallion! I feel like he's getting so big!!! 

And as you can see from these pictures, I am starting to feel sooo sleepy. Especially at the end of the day. Just being on my feet all day and having enough energy to work with kids has been wearing me out! 

We had another doctors appointment this week and got to hear his sweet little heartbeat! From now on, we will be going to the doctor every 2 weeks. That means we're getting closer... 

25 weeks

25 weeks-- Cason measures about 13.5" and is as heavy as a rutabaga! 

I've continued to be in nesting mode, trying to finish up projects and the nursery! We are still working on the mantle... it became a much more complicated task than originally planned. Of course! 

24 weeks

24 weeks! Baby is the size of an ear of corn! We made it to the point where if, God forbid, Cason decided to make an entrance into this world now... he would have an okay chance of surviving- although he would be teeny teeny tiny and spend a LOT of time in the NICU. So let's just silently praise that we made it this far but hope it doesn't happen. 

This past week, we ordered and received Cason's crib mattress for the nursery. The crib looks so much better just having a mattress in it! Speaking of the nursery, I left the door open to the nursery for an entire night and day... didn't notice it until I got home from work! I was scared to go in and look around because the dogs had been out all day and night! And I just knew Benni went in there and ate the baby's stuffed animals and shoes!! He tries to do that right in front of me, so I figured there was a pretty good chance he'd take advantage of us not being there! But, to my surprise, I don't think the dogs even noticed that the door was open! Everything was safe and sound :) Regardless, I won't test that out again, if I can help it. 

At work and home, it is getting harder to bend down and pick things up! I have to side bend. Or really contemplate how badly I want what I dropped. Or ask Ian to get it. Or let the dogs get it if it's food ;) 

At work, I have become a little crazy about germs. If you could record my sessions with my students, you'd probably hear WAY MORE of these types of things coming out of my mouth than usual: 

"Please keep my pencil out of your mouth."

"Go wash your hands."

"These are my toys and I do not want them in your mouth."

"I know you have a loose tooth but please keep your fingers out of your mouth." 

"Go wash your hands."

"If you have to cough, please cough the other way and cover your mouth."

"I do not want your germs." 

"Go wipe your nose with a tissue... now sanitize your hands."

"Seriously... you have got to stop picking at that scab. I don't want to see your hands touching it again." 

"No really, go wash your hands."

"Oh you have a doctors appointment today? What is it for?" (As I scoot away a little and make a mental note to go wash MY hands)

KIDS ARE SO GROSS!!!!!!! And my patience is wearing thin!!!! I have a baby to protect!! My poor speech therapist friend, who also happens to be pregnant, is much more patient than I am. The other day, a student of ours noticed that the therapist had a pen mark on her hand. So the student took it upon herself to lick her finger and try to wipe the mark off of the therapist. I would have died. 

So I am trying my best to keep myself healthy but man, they make it so difficult!!! 

This past week and weekend, some serious nesting kicked in. I want to finish as many projects that we had planned as we can before a) the baby comes and b) I get too big to participate/assist. Although Ian doesn't let me help much anyway! We finally bought some new cushions for our front porch chairs... before this they had no cushions at all. 

We also got back to work restoring this old mantle for our "faux fireplace". You may have seen this picture a long time ago... 

I just really want somewhere to hang our stockings this year!!! We will have an extra one to add to the collection after all! So this project has been put on fast forward and will hopefully be finished by this weekend thanks to Ian's hard work! We've re-filled the holes and sanded it back down. Caulked, primed, and painted it and added a sort of frame to it. We will be mounting the TV above it. But right now we are working on building the actual mantle for the top because it was missing that piece when we got it. It will probably look similar to our kitchen shelves, because I love them so much and want to put them everywhere. It will be white with a wood mantle like this:

 I haven't quite figured out what I want to do for the inside of it because we will need to hide our plugs, but that will come in time. Here are a few ideas: 

Wood?

Art?

Mirror?

Wood slices?? 

We shall see... I'm SOOOO excited! 

Oh, and here's my 24 week picture!