More December Fun! 30 + 31 Weeks

We have been keeping this baby busy over the past couple of weeks! Both of us wrapped up school on Friday, and Jason turned in his last projects and papers for the quarter. Phew! All three of us are ready for the time off! We went to the midwife yesterday, and everything with baby is right on track (she said we are doing a great job! yay!). We met Shana for our 31 week appointment, the last midwife we hadn't met, and she was great. She said the midwives have been able to attend 2/3 of their births, and the moms who have delivered with OBs have been very happy with their experience. That made us feel much better about our decision to stay at Evergreen. Phew! So far, so good. She also reassured us about some birth plan-type things (all routine tasks are delayed with baby for the first hour of her life so that we can bond with her! We knew we picked Evergreen for a reason!). She also said baby is head down, and was able to help us poke some body parts. No wonder I've been feeling her a lot on my right side, because that is where her feet are! There is still room for her to move around, but we're hopeful that she is cooperative and stays in the chute ready for take off for the next 2 months. She has been especially active for the last week or so. Pretty soon she will be too big to move around (she's probably about 3.3 pounds right now!). We're at the point now where we start going to the midwives every 3 weeks...that means we are getting close!

Here are some things we've been up to:

Aunt Becky came for a visit! We took her to check out the Bellevue Botanical Garden lights and Snowflake Lane at Bellevue Square. Jack is the perfect age (5) for this stuff, and it's super fun for us to see how excited he gets! We had to find every single animal at BBG!

Last Saturday we went to Greenlake for the annual Luminary Walk. We were happy that it wasn't pouring like last year! All 2.8 miles of the path are lined with candles, musicians, and people decked out in light-up holiday attire.

Then Jason and I headed to his cohort's Ugly Christmas Sweater party. We were kinda deficient in the ugly Christmas sweaters, so we had to make do. Yes, my belly shakes like a bowl full of jelly.

On Sunday we headed to the T's for a pre-holiday get together. They just got back from Kauai, luckeeeee. Mark made a delicious lunch, and then we all headed to the theater to see Arthur Christmas, which was super cute!

Maggie and I...she's off to high school next year, yikes!

30 Weeks

Our new carseat! Thanks, T's! We immediately had to try out every single feature and read the manual cover to cover. Luckily they have a few babies around their house. :) We love the "cowmooflage" pattern!

This weekend, Mom, Rachel, Kenley and I zipped to Orinda for a quick visit. We were very thankful to go down and see everyone, especially Grandma who was recently home from a visit to the hospital. We were sure anxious to give her some love! Kenley is becoming an experienced flyer. She loves to go on the airplane (mostly because she knows it means ipad and snacks!!). We mostly relaxed around the house with Grandma, ran errands, and did Christmas preparations. KK was a big help in decorating the tree, and was very interested in Grandma's ornaments! She also liked to sing her 3 Christmas carols that she has memorized (loudly), and move all the gifts around the house!

We also made time for a family tradition that is now 3-generations old...riding the Carousel at Tilden Park! Rachel and I remember riding when we were little, and especially eating pink popcorn with Mom. At Christmas, they have a special display of lights and trees, so we headed up to check it out. Kenley loved the carousel and got to go for 2 rides! Another surprise: Mom learned that a best friend from high school is now the manager of the carousel, and we found her! We spent some time catching up, and are excited to now be reconnected.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas! - 29 Weeks

We are busily getting ready for Christmas...it's our last Christmas as a family of two! We have lots and lots of fun things planned for December. This weekend, we went to welcome Santa to Mill Creek at the Town Center parade! It was the teeniest, most adorable parade of all time. The whole neighborhood was very festive. We even had visiting reindeer!

Here we are getting ready for the parade. Lots of families turned out to see Santa's arrival!
We took advantage of today's gorgeous weather to decorate the house. And by we I mean Jason decorated and I provided moral support.
We put up our tree last weekend! It's fun to come home to a festive house. :)

We're looking forward to a busy couple of weeks ahead! We have our last Hypnobirthing class this week, and we are both wrapping up school and classes over the next two weeks. We are looking forward to two weeks off for both of us!

We are registered!

Sooooo much baby stuff to navigate!! Yikes!

We are registered for Baby at:

Pottery Barn Kids

and

Amazon

Thanksgiving - Kicking off the Third Trimester!

On Thanksgiving we are thankful for our healthy baby and our amazing growing families!

Rachel posted some of our pics on Kenley's blog. You can also see a video of us telling KK about the baby!

Here's me and baby on Thanksgiving - 28 weeks and full of turkey!

We decorated for Christmas this weekend, including putting up our tree. It's looking festive around here for Baby's -1 Christmas! We also spent time with Nan and Ron on Saturday, and watched the Apple Cup with some husky buddies. Baby must be good luck, the Huskies are 1-0 when she watches the Apple Cup! We also went to our last Seahawk game on Sunday (we've sold the rest of the season). Our seatmates are anxious to meet our little bundle next season!

27 Weeks - What is Hypnobirthing??

27 Weeks

I found this handy chart at Babycenter.com. Even though I know what week we are, I couldn't figure out how to convert that into months or trimesters! Problem solved. We are wrapping up the second trimester this week. We can't believe that she is almost 2 lbs already, but even more unbelievable is that she will gain 4-6 more pounds!! 27 weeks is a big milestone. Baby would now be likely to survive on her own (with LOTS of medical interventions!). I had a minor set back this week with lots of lower back pain and early morning leg cramps...that slowed us down a little early in the week! Hopefully it isn't a sign of what's to come. Now I'm back to feeling great! We have an appointment with our midwives on Tuesday, so we get to check in on baby!

This week we are going to session 3 out of 5 of Hypnobirthing! We are really liking the class so far, and feel like Hypnobirthing is a good match for us. The basic idea is using self-hypnosis to remove the fear and tension from birth in order to let your body do its thing. It feels very familiar to yoga, and is a perfect compliment with some of the things we have been working on in my prenatal yoga class. Jason has been a great birth partner, and is excited about knowing how to help me and the baby "work together" during labor. This video tells about some more of the advantages of Hypnobirthing. Last week we continued to work on relaxation methods, birth breathing, and "prenatal parenting." We are supposed to be working on bonding with the baby. Luckily, I've been reading to my baby every day...and teaching her math and phonics and science...she listens to me talk and sing all day long! We also think she will come out knowing "Bow Down to Washington" and "Tequila!" That's just as good as classical music, right? Jason talks to her a lot, and we both work hard to make sure she is safe and healthy and feels secure in her little world.

She has also been working on bonding with her cousins. Jack (after trying to jump on her), talked to her and sang her a song. We finally spilled the beans to Kenley, and she gave the baby and me a big hug. Also, she's decided the baby should be named either Kenley or Sugar. Add those to the list! We are looking forward to introducing the belly to the BIG Brehm family this weekend at Thanksgiving!

Early November - 26 weeks

Rachel, 26 weeks, May 2009

Michal, 25 weeks, Nov 2011

Ever wonder if we're identical???

We have had a busy week!! I had Parent-Teacher conferences over the last two weeks which made for some extra hours at school, but luckily we had a 4-day weekend to recover (Thank you, Vets!). Jason and I took the opportunity to get out of town and enjoy one of our last long weekends as a family of 2. Jason rented a little cabin in La Conner for 2 nights, where we read books (listening to the pounding rain), lit a roaring fire, watched movies, ate at our favorite bakery, did some work on our homework for birth class, and relaxed.

It finally stopped raining long enough for us to hit the beach!

On the way home, we stopped in Marysville to watch the Huskies and spend some time with Nan, Ron, and Jack (who got to stay over the whole weekend!).
When we got home, we had some gifts on our porch!! A box of goodies from Grandma, Grandpa, Cathie, and Chuck! Adorable bank, teeny tiny shoes, and a cozy cupcake outfit! Thank you!!

We've been spoiled with some adorable gifts lately. This adorable tutu outfit was a gift from a school family this week. One of my kiddos picked it out all by herself! I love the striped leggings.

Grandma Nan is getting the hang out this granddaughter thing (baby is the first girl in the family!). She knew this outfit was for baby when she spotted the purple! So adorable!

This week we also had our first birth class! We're very excited about learning all about "the big day." When we told our midwives that we were committed to a natural birth, they recommended Hynobirthing to us. We have class for 5 Tuesdays, 2 1/2 hours each! After the first class, and the first couple chapters of the book, we are very excited about the philosophy of Hypnobirthing (birth is something your body naturally is able to do safely if you just relax, remove fear, and basically get out of your body's own way!), and the tools it can offer us during labor. I'll tell you more about it as we learn more over the next couple weeks!

On Monday night, Rachel, Michael, and Kenley came to meet us and start our registry at Pottery Barn Kids! We had so much fun checking out all the adorable items, and KK loved playing with the kitchens, babies, strollers, etc. (Side note: Jason, Dawn and I went to UW to see a screening of the new movie, American Teacher, after shopping. It is supposed to be the anti-Waiting for Superman. Pretty interesting, but mostly about teachers' long hours for little pay. Pretty uplifting for a room full of teacher candidates. Ha!) We are working on some final tweaks to our registries, and we'll let you know when they are live and ready for viewing! Here's a sneak peak: This is Jason last Spring when we went to this adorable children's shop in Edmonds, Kinderbritches, where they let us try out all the baby carriers. Doesn't Jason look like such a trendy, babywearing Dad-on-the-go?? :)

April 2011

Halloween and Huskies - 24-25 weeks

Happy Halloween!! We packed in the fun last weekend, with my class party on Friday, Huskies and parties on Saturday, Seahawks on Sunday, and the whole fam over for dinner on Sunday night. I was exhausted on Monday, but we had a great time!

Yesterday was the last game at Husky Stadium before they start the renovation, and the last home game of the season. We don't know what will happen with the Alumni Band in the new stadium. Read more about that, plus our favorite 95 year old, on the front page of the Seattle Times here! We had a huge band yesterday, and we even got to sit on the track one last time. It only would have been better if we'd been able to beat Oregon!

25 weeks

I'm happy that I was able to make it through the season in Alumni Band! The belly definitely put a damper on my dancing moves, and I'm looking forward to next season when I can jump again!

Here a last picture of us in Husky Stadium!

First home game of the season: 9/4/11 - 16 weeks

Last home game of the season: 11/5/11 - 25 weeks