We
hit the thirty-week mark over Thanksgiving break!
Before we left, I quickly snapped a few photos of our Thanksgiving décor including the embroidered bread cover from my mom, our new apothecary jars (Andrew is a big fan of the easy access to candy), and the S'mores Thanksgiving ornaments from my mom.
For
Thanksgiving this year, we drove out to Indiana to visit with my family for a
week. It was a long, back-straining
10-hour drive for me and Baby Girl. She
just couldn’t find a comfortable spot and moved around the entire tire. And my back began protesting at about the
seven-hour mark. I brought along a heated
back wrap that I wore and I think it helped but the ride was just TOO LONG for
a pregnant woman, I’ve decided.
It
was fun to be with Mom and Dad for the holidays. Everyone was able to make it into town except
for Sarah’s family and we missed them TREMENDOUSLY. I was convinced they were going to show up
and surprise us all up until we got Instagram photos of them the night before
in New Mexico. Curt and Vanessa are
already in West Lafayette while Curt gets his MBA. Lisa is living with Mom and Dad right now as
she gets settled in her teaching job.
Cole and Emily made it into town from Murfreesboro about fifteen minutes
after we did late Friday night. And Kyle
and Ashley’s family drove up from Florida late Thanksgiving night.
Andrew
found us cheap tickets to the Notre Dame vs. BYU football game in South Bend
the day after we arrived. We met our
friends, Dan and Alicia Ditto, up there and had a great time catching up with
them and walking around the campus.
Notre
Dame is a great campus to visit! They
have a little brochure that they pass out with all of their tailgating
activities and we were able to tour some of the most popular spots, listen to a
group of bagpipers, see the team on their way in to the stadium, listen to the
marching band, etc. at different locations around campus. We had a great time!
The
game was freezing cold! Andrew and I
wore long johns and bundled up in all of our heavy duty gear to combat the
9-degree weather complete with blowing snow.
It helped that they packed us into the stands tightly. We had grabbed several blankets from my
parents’ house and wrapped up in those as well which turned out to be the
difference-maker between enjoying the game and freezing our butts off.
The
game was frustrating with BYU losing 13-23.
The offensive play-calling had me hollering for Robert Anae’s job (what
game this season hasn’t?!) But the Notre
Dame fans were very gracious and friendly both at the stadium and around
town. So we had a great time despite it
all.
It
was awesome to be in the house with four preggos. There was a lot of baby talk as we compared
symptoms, shared birth plans, talked baby gear, etc. Vanessa wasn’t getting a lot of consistent
movement from her little baby at that point (she felt the baby move for the
first time the day of our baby shower) but Emily and I have little movers &
shakers on our hands and it was fun for me to see that our babies were usually
active around the same times.
Andrew
took me shopping for maternity clothes during the week. Up to this point I had resisted because I
wanted to wait until I really needed
to spend the money. Here are my tricks
to getting by without maternity clothes until week 30:
·
Knit
leggings—I had a ton of these from last winter and they are working great. I gave up on jeans altogether about 8 weeks
ago.
·
Belly
Bandz—I have four of these and they elongate my normal shirts so I wear them
all the time.
·
Wonder
Tees from Downeast Basics—I love that these shirts are so stretchy and so
long. I had these pre-pregnancy and I am
so happy that I can still wear them. The
white ones are a little thin so I have to layer a tank top underneath but the
black and beige ones are perfect!
·
Sperrys—Andrew
bought me a pair of gold top-siders this summer and they are my most comfy,
slip-on shoes! And so far, my feet
haven’t gotten too wide for them.
Hopefully, my feet don’t grow!!!!
·
Long
cardigans—these are the perfect layering item and they give my shapely shape a
little more definition.
·
Maxi
dresses—I really stocked up on these before I knew I was expecting hoping that
I could wear them for the first half of my pregnancy without anyone getting
suspicious. As it is, I don’t think I
will have to buy any new dresses for my pregnancy.
I
had bought two maternity t-shirts from H&M on a trip to DC this summer and
one of my co-workers had given me a brand-new maternity top that her daughter
had never worn (it still had the tags on it!) and so those were also in
rotation as well. But after our little
shopping spree, I have plenty of sweaters and tops to see me through the last
quarter (!) of my pregnancy.
And
while I am at it, let me just brag on how great my husband is. I love him so much! I know it was hard for him to be away from
his family for the holidays—especially since we won’t be seeing them when they
all get together for Christmas. But he
has been such a trooper and so happy just to be with OUR FAMILY as he likes to
say.
He
was always willing to go pick up Pooma and bring her over to the house, sit
down and play with nieces and nephews (LEGOS, read books, etc.), stay up late
to determine the Texas Hold ‘Em Champion, and after the pregnant wives turned
in, he was game for a few rounds of old school Nintendo 64. One morning, my mom woke up and he had gotten
all of the bread ready for her turkey dressing sometime during the night. I am glad that he is my husband and that we
are a forever family, but this vacation made me realize how thankful I am that
he is part of my family’s forever as well.
We
had a great Thanksgiving holiday. It’s
so nice to be surrounded by family and watch football and eat such good
food! Andrew made a homemade pumpkin pie
with real pumpkin that was the first dessert to go. I was rather proud of him for that
accomplishment. He said he couldn’t have
done it without Mom’s pie crust so thanks for making the crust, Mom! He also made his family’s holiday Jell-O and
I made Pooma’s baked corn casserole and a cranberry relish that is an awesome
recipe but for some reason, it didn’t quite turn out.
Such
good food but no room in my shrinking tummy to pack it in so I did end up
throwing up after dinner. TMI and really
sad! But generally my nausea has
subsided and I only have trouble about once or twice a week now. And I am getting better about staying up
later without getting sick. Hallelujah.
We
missed Grandma Martin who was recovering from a bronchoscopy and Sarah’s family
as they were in New Mexico.
The
next day was the big baby shower for “The Quads” as we are calling these four
cousins. It started out as “The
Triplets” (especially since they were all girls) but we had to upgrade the name
with Curt and Vanessa’s announcement. We
had a fairy tale theme and Mom, Lisa, Aunt Jenny, and Emily’s mom, Judy, did
all of the work. It was so much
fun! It felt like Christmas with all of
the fun gifts that we received. We were
overwhelmed by the generosity of so many and so many at once especially. I know it isn’t cheap to buy for four!
Our
gift to the other girl cousins was matching newborn bracelets that I fell in
love with on Pinterest. I contacted the
seller and she made three and shipped them to me very quickly. I think they are darling but, unfortunately, we didn't get a photo of the bracelets together.
After
the baby shower, the four of us moms-to-be went downtown for a maternity photo
shoot. Emily’s sister, Cathy, took the
photos and Vanessa posed us. We had a
blast! I am so glad that we captured
this moment in time with all of us pregnant together. We stopped at a café for hot cocoa afterwards
to just relax together.
(As soon as the photos are edited by Vanessa, I will post them. I tried to coax one or two out of here a little early to no avail!)
All
in all, it was a terrific visit! We were so happy to be in Indiana and to have
such a nice, long visit. It is such a
blessing when we can all get together like that!
