14 days....the end is almost here!

I am so ready to have this baby!  Well, ready in the aspect of not having to be pregnant anymore.  I'm not so sure I'm totally ready to be a parent yet, but I hear that comes with time and lots of practice ;)  Ernie is flying in around 5pm on Wednesday!!  Which will bring me even closer to my due date and the day that I am holding my little one in my arms :D  I went in for my 38 wk checkup yesterday and found out he's starting to drop ( I honestly can't feel or see the difference yet since I'm constantly going to the bathroom anyway) which made me happy that he's getting ready to make his grand appearance!  Hopefully next week I'll have started to slowly dilate.  Anyway, here's a couple pics of me that were taken today:

Do I look ginormous or what?  I've gained a total of 33 lbs (give or take) so far with this pregnancy.  I'm feeling pretty good too (aside from being tired all the time...which will only get worse after I have the baby...)!  I am glad that I didn't have much trouble putting on the lbs either (I was worried about that).  I hope my recovery is just as easy.

Anyway, in other news, Luke finished his ALS course on the 31st of March (YAY YAY YAY!!!) so we attended his Graduation Banquet that night.  It was fun to attend and even more exciting for us since he was given the Leadership Award (it's presented to the student who exhibited exemplary leadership, follower ship, support, interpersonal relations and professional behavior throughout the course.  Selection for the award is based on peer evaluations, instructor evaluations, and personal interviews).  One person from each classroom (there were 3) was nominated for the award and he was the winner!!  I'm so proud of him!  My only disappointment for that evening was that I had forgotten to take the camera with us, but luckily one of his classmates had theirs and was nice enough to take some photos of us.  I'm waiting to get them in an email (more like I'm waiting on Luke to check his for them ha ha) and then I'll post them.  I'm so so glad that this course is over with!  I know that Luke is even more thrilled about that fact :)  (he's been dying to play his Xbox ha ha).  Now our only major worry is playing the waiting game with this baby. 

Anyway, that's what has been happening with us this last week.  Hope all is well in your neck of the woods :)

~Nicole

37 down and only 3 more to go!

It's getting closer to when I will be holding my little one and I'm so excited and nervous for that day to come!  It's crazy to think that in less than a month I will have a baby in my house, that it won't be just Luke and I anymore...I hope the adjustment to the change will be somewhat easy for us.  He's a very active baby still (it takes him between 5-10 min for me to count 10 movements when he's most active) and he has the hiccups often.  At times when he's super wiggly it kinda hurts sometimes and he still hasn't dropped yet so the heartburn is still there as well as my issues with breathing and sleeping.  I guess this is all preparing me for when he's here since I hear you get very little sleep with a newborn.  I'm also having super strange dreams at night or when I take a nap during the day.  Not too sure I enjoy those.  Unless it's one of me holding my baby, then I'm totally happy :)  I'm looking forward to when I can do the things I used to, like sleep on my back or tummy, paint my toenails, shave my legs...things that I didn't know I'd miss until I couldn't do them anymore.  But the thing I am looking forward to most is just cuddling my guy and being a Mommy :)  And I can't wait to see Luke with him too.  He's gonna be a great Dad and I'm excited to see the relationship he will have with our son.  April 16th can't come soon enough (and that's if he feels kind enough to come by then...I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he isn't going to be overdue..)!!  Anyway here's a pic of me that was taken today:

Man do I feel huge!  Good thing it's only for 3 more weeks :)  And just 12 more days until Luke's Mom flies in!!  I'm so glad that she's coming out here to help us!  She's staying until May 3rd.  We are really grateful to her for making this trip.  It's hard for our family to be here for us since we live so far away and plane tickets are super expensive so when anyone comes out to see us it's a big deal.  Makes me wish we were back on the mainland even more. I'm really glad that we have good friends here though to help us out when family can't be there :) 

Anyway, I am going to get ready for bed now since it's almost midnight so I will talk to you later!  Goodnight!

~Nicole