{Baby3} Big Sibling Hospital Gifts

Someone told me about the idea of having a few "big sibling" gifts ready for the kiddos when they come to visit the new baby at the hospital and I knew I had to put something together for A&T. 

4th of July 2019

Happy 4th of July!

I'll admit: we're all in bed and it's not even 9pm.

We are in a season right now where fireworks are just too late for our family (not to mention that our kiddos I'm sure would be absolutely terrified by the noise), and I'm okay with that...mostly. Ha! 

I can't wait until the kiddos are old enough to enjoy them (because really, fireworks are spectacular!), but for now I'm totally happy with how we celebrated America's birthday, which involved time at the splash pad with our cousins & a big 'ole family lunch complete with grilled chicken, corn on the cob, plenty of watermelon, and of course, apple pie.

Turner's 2nd Birthday: Construction Party!

Our TurnerBear turned two (what the what!!!) & we celebrated with a construction truck-themed birthday party! The party was at an imagination play place called PlayQ Studio & it was the perfect location for this age. 

A few months out when I started planning this party, my main goal was to keep it pretty simple. I usually tend to pinterest and craft the heck out of parties like this one (and really enjoy doing so!), but I knew that with being pregnant, I needed to keep it as easy as possible. 

I did use pinterest to come up with some decorating ideas, but overall kept it pretty simple!

{Baby3} Maternity Pictures

About a month ago we did a short session with our favorite photographer and we just got our pictures back! As usual, they turned out great! I decided this set of pictures was going to serve as our "maternity session" too so we made sure to get a few specifically highlighting baby E :)

{Baby3} Bumpdate: 28 & 29 weeks

28/29 Weeks! 

Hello 3rd trimester!

BABY’S GROWTH/PREPPING FOR BABY
We're in-between doc appointments right now so the only thing I can note on baby3's growth is that my belly keeps getting bigger, ha!!

All of a sudden, as soon as 3rd trimester hit, I've gotten the urge to start nesting. Taylor and I spent some time talking through the nursery and now I think we have a clear idea of what our plan is. I've also been starting to order a few things here and there for her room. I'll do a better update next week!

Another fun "prepping for baby" thing is that we took some maternity photos! We originally signed up for a mini session with our favorite photographer and I realized the timing would be perfect to get some good belly shots so we turned it into a little maternity session. Arden and I went to Dry Bar before the pictures to get our hair done! I can't wait to get all the pictures back!

MOMMA UPDATE/HOW I'VE BEEN FEELING

Unfortunately, I feel like crossing into the 3rd trimester has just made me feel like I'm falling apart! Over the past few weeks I've been getting lots of leg/foot cramps in the middle of the night. My OB & doula recommended I try magnesium supplements, as well as trying to make sure I'm drinking lots of water and eating enough potassium (yay bananas!). I also had some random foot pain (that's thankfully gone away now), and am still having a bit of pelvic pain when I go from sitting for a while to standing. An adjustment at my chiro definitely helped though so I think I'm going to switch to weekly visits from now until the end of this pregnancy. I also started on iron supplements after my last OB appointment determined that I'm slightly anemic. 

Weight gain at 28 weeks: 13.3 lbs total

Weight gain at 29 weeks: 13.1 lbs total

For the past few weeks I've been hovering around the same weight. I think in 3rd trimester the baby grows about 1/2 lb a week so that's maybe another 6 lbs I have to look forward to? Who knows!

WHAT THE FAM HAS BEEN UP TO

Oh boy have things been speeding up lately! 

I was nominated for an award at work and Taylor got to come with me to the Gala:

...and I won!!!

We celebrated Easter weekend with family!
Full post here!

We celebrated Turner's 2nd birthday!
Due to a lovely case of hand/foot/mouth, we had to postpone his birthday party, but we still took our little guy out for ice cream:

We've done lots of playing in the backyard (with cool new birthday toys to boot!):

I took down our Easter book-nook and set up our spring theme!
I follow this blogger who posts themed/holiday book lists - they are awesome!
I'm now a big fan of trying books out from the library before buying new, so that's what I did for most of our spring books. As we read them I just make a note of which ones we actually really liked and then I add them to our Amazon wishlist.

Isn't this little butterfly banner cute? It's from an Etsy shop called Pearl & Jane. I love their banners!

We checked out a cool market with Gigi in Rockwall one weekend:

The kiddos were thrilled to get some popcorn:

Dad is hilarious:

Arden found a coconut at the grocery store & we had to get it and try it.
Sadly it wasn't actually very good, but it was a cool experience!

And lastly, this little guy had his 2-year well-check.
He's all of a sudden 70th% for weight and like 90th% for height!

We are in the final countdown!!!

I've had at least 3 people come up to me and say something like "whoa you're ready pop" lately and every time it just cracks me up because sure, my belly is big, but I really do have basically 3 months to go!

28 & 29 Weeks with Arden

28 & 29 Weeks with Turner