Sweet Sunshine: Third Trimester Recap

We are nearing the end of the third trimester and counting down the days until we get to meet our sweet boy! We are almost at 37 weeks and know these last few weeks will involve a lot of patience on our part as we wait for him to arrive, and of course last minute preparations. Here is a recap of some highlights of the third trimester up to now:

• We were so excited when Tim won some Colts tickets from a work raffle! The last time we were at a Colts game was last December, very recently after my second surgery. I was not super mobile and was very uncomfortable due to my swollen belly, incisions, and all that came with being post surgery. This time I was a little less mobile and uncomfortable and my belly was much more swollen for a better reason...due to our sweet guy! I definitely think he enjoyed the game - he was very active the entire time, somersaulting, kicking, and jumping around the entire time! How could he not? We were lucky enough to be in the 9th row at almost the 50 yard line - the best seats we have ever had. While we were there we saw a couple father/son duos and sweet families enjoying the game - how we look forward to our own chance to take this boy to a Colts game some day. 

• Mama's belly grew and we think our sweet girl grew in her love for this boy as well. She is constantly by her mama's side and loves nothing (well, she might love food more) more than snuggling up to mama's belly. 

• We celebrated our sweet boy at 3 more showers! How blessed are we to be surrounded by so many people who love on us and this sweet boy so well? My family threw a shower on the west side of the city that was "camping" themed. My Aunt Renata and cousin Nicole did all of the decor and they outdid themselves - everything was so adorable and well thought out. My aunts and mom also pitched together to do a taco bar and it was delicious! 

Our next shower was thrown by Tim's family and was "You are my sunshine" themed. They had the sweetest banners and adorable decor as well. The cake was also too precious (and delicious!)! 

Our last shower was thrown by our small group and it was so wonderful to celebrate our boy with the sweet women in our group!

We loved getting to cherish this time of waiting and anticipation with so many friends and family and are so excited for him to meet everyone, many of whom prayed fervently for him to join us. 

• We had our 32 week ultrasound and got to see our sweet boy in 3D! We got a couple sweet facial profiles and continue to look at them and compare who we think he looks the most like. We commented to the tech he had gotten the hiccups a lot lately and she noted that his toes were by his face and he may have been sucking on them - Tim said he might be more flexible than his daddy if that's the case. We also got to see a sweet dimple on his right cheek - same as his mama! 

Sweet boy 

Got a dimple just like his mama!

Look at those sweet toes up by his face!

• Tim and I had to cancel our anniversary trip back in August due to expected flooding in the Gatlinburg area...but we decided to reschedule it as a late honeymoon and baby moon trip in September. We decided to camp within the park at the Elmont Campground, which came highly recommended. Unfortunately, we ended up having quite a lot of rain still on this trip. We also stayed in a primitive campground - which was more of a feat as pregnant as I was than I thought it would be..and so we ended up mostly doing easier things versus heavy hiking. I was very excited to get back to electricity (and a shower!) at the end of the week. We explored Cades Cove (a couple times), drove through the park to Newfound Gap and Clingman's Dome, explored downtown Gatlinburg, and even went into Pigeon Forge to explore the Titanic Museum and for dinner one night. We kept saying how we can't wait to bring our guy to the Smokies one day, as it is one of our favorite places to visit. 

Outside the Titanic Museum

Walking around Newfound Gap

Downtown Gatlinburg

Cades Cove

• We were lucky enough to have my sister-in-law take our maternity pictures for us while she was here. She did a wonderful job capturing our joy for this sweet life and even helped us include Ali in a few pictures. How thankful we are to have her to capture this journey for our family and all our big life moments. 

• Every year we try to take a trip to Beasley's in Danville to pick out our pumpkins and enjoy their fall festival. This year we kept us the tradition - and had some fun painting our pumpkin to match mama's belly once we got it home!

• Our poor Ali girl has a history of bad allergies and ear infections. While we have been able to avoid them for awhile, we unfortunately had to take her in due to another one cropping up (and giving her a bad hot spot on her head). We had to take her into the vet, where she got an allergy shot, had to have her head shaved, and was put on an oral and topical antibiotic regimen to treat her double ear infection and the hot spot. Though her hot spot has resolved, we are still fighting ear infections...but hopeful they will resolve before our boy arrives. We're also praying our sweet girl doesn't continue to need allergy shots.

Poor girl hiding out after they shaved her head 

• Mama has been busy with lots of crafting - both for our guy and others - as we wait for him to arrive. My goal has been to finish most of my Etsy/craft orders well prior to our guys arrival...just in case. I also moved into a consignment shop booth that I am sharing with other family members and am excited to see how it goes! This was no easy feat being very pregnant but also very exciting (and perfect timing to get it done before he arrives!). 

"Cousin crew" shirts

Black Friday Shirts

Disney Holiday Shirts - Minnie

Disney Holiday Shirts - Mickey

Sweet baby onesies

Custom cups

Company Cups

All set up at Room Swap

• These last few weeks have involved lots of time wrapping up our pre-baby "to do lists". We have been focused on finishing the nursery as well as wrapping up other last minute items like birth classes, packing our bags, and installing car seats. While we have almost checked most of our items off our list and mostly finished our nursery, we still have yet a bit to do. Mama's nesting instincts are strong right now though and that means she is pushing to finish them and welcome our guy asap...hopefully our boy thinks he wants to come sooner rather than later as well :) Our nursery has quickly become one of ours (and Ali's) favorite spots! While we didn't pick one theme, we incorporated a few of our favorite things...so there are touches of "You are my sunshine", camping, travel, Disney, faith, etc. throughout the nursery. Tim and my dad also added this awesome accent wall and we had someone install an overhead light/fan (our house is old enough this wasn't in there).

Nursery - crib and nursery chair

His quilt was handmade from his Grandma Mosier and has fabrics that mimic some of the things we tried to include in his nursery!

Changing table/dresser and collage wall

Toy baskets - the "tool box" underneath was built by his daddy when he was young and mama repainted it

Sweet Disney touches - of course!

This paddle came from my parents' first boat - eventually his name will go above it!

Up close of our collage wall 

Bookshelves (dad built and I sewed) and closet

Baby's hospital bag is ready to go! And his blanket I made

"You are my sunshine" hand made mobile

"Love" Poem written by my Grandma Graves - of course had to be part of his collage wall

So now we spend our spare time finishing these items and anxiously awaiting for our boy to join us! Counting down the days until we see your sweet face, my love. Oh, how we love you so.

Prayer requests:

• Safe delivery and healthy baby
• Mama's hips and headaches - still waxing and waning but at times can be rough
• For our sweet boy to continue to grow strong and healthy until we meet