Rays of Sunshine: 36 weeks!

Well, only 24 days to go... I cannot believe it! Last week I mentioned the wonderful maternity shoot that I had with Jackie. Well, be sure to check out the Ihnenfeld Photography Blog for a sneak peak of some of Jackie's favorite pictures :) Here are just two of my favorites, as hard as it is for me to even narrow it down that much...

Thank you again so much Jackie for the fun session and beautiful pictures!

This week our wonderful Gospel Community family threw Garrett and I a fun co-ed baby shower. We had a wonderful time and yet again were showered with some fun and practical gifts for grace. Thank you to each of you for your generosity and support! We appreciate it more than you know!! Garrett and I are so blessed to have met this wonderful group of believers this year, that we now like to call friends and family.

Saturday and Sunday Garrett and I drove down to Ft. Lauderdale to surprise my sister at her dance competition. This is the only competition before Grace is due to arrive and one that would work out for us to definitely be at. So, we decided to not tell her we were coming and just showed up to surprise her. We had such a great time and it was so nice to be able to watch my little sister perform on stage. Her solo was, yet again, unbelievable!! She never ceases to amaze me. Thank you so much to Andre and Lauren for letting us stay at their home for the weekend and for the sweet goodie bag for Grace. You both are such wonderful friends and Garrett and I are so blessed to have you in our lives.

Monday was my weekly doctor's appointment. Mama went with me since Garrett had to work and it is not really feasible to take that much time off work every week now for him. So, she got to come in and hear Grace's heartbeat and experience the joy with me. Grace was pretty active during the appointment too, so I could see my belly move while he was measuring her heartbeat... such a great feeling! I was also very happy to hear that all is going well; Dr. Bevitz had no bad news for me. Grace Lynn is growing as she should be and again, I did not gain any pounds from my last appointment! That is quite the accomplishment for me and again, I'm not going to count on that happening here on out because I am in the last few weeks and she will be doing a lot of growing... I just hope it's all her growing and not just me, lol.

Some changes/milestones include:

Yep, my belly is becoming an outie... you can see in the pictures that it is definitely sticking out. But, there is still a small portion hanging in there. I guess we'll call it an outie though since most believe that is what it looks most like, lol.
My feet look like elephant feet (at least to me they do). They have been swelling up so much lately; it is crazy. I also had to take my wedding rings off because I did not want to risk them getting stuck and Garrett would probably have a heart attack if they had to cut them off, lol. He says "better safe than sorry". I just cannot wait to put them back on after Grace arrives and all this swelling hopefully goes down. Yes, I know, does not sound very flattering... but I guess that is part of being pregnant.
Sleep is still pretty rough. I wake up on average about 5 times a night (between 9pm and 5am) with either heartburn or to use the restroom. It's not terrible; just makes for some tiring days.
The weight of the belly is finally becoming more noticeable to me. Throughout the day I don't really notice it, but when I get home and wind down, that is when my back starts to hurt some.
I've also just noticed how much my hips have stickin' grown! I tried on a pair of shorts that used to be slightly big on me and I can't even get them past my hips :( I know that I'm not going to be able to button them obviously, but was at least hoping my legs had stayed close to the same size and my hips had not gotten that wide, but no such luck. Please tell me that these massive hips I'm not used to will go back down closer to my normal size at least. I am really hoping to get back into pre-baby body shape and clothes, but right now, it's just hard to imagine.

I know all that sounds kind of negative, but please don't get me wrong, this pregnancy has been great! I would not change anything for the world. I still love very much feeling Grace move. And, I get so excited when Garrett gets excited about seeing and feeling her move. We are both very ready and anxious to be parents. He is constantly saying that she can come any day now... he's ready for her to be here. I love that he is so excited about this new journey and I know that he is going to be one heck of a father!