26 Weeks

How far along? 26 weeks and 6 days (whoops) 

Gender: Girl

Baby is the size of a(n)...: head of lettuce. She still weighs somewhere between 1.5-2.5 lbs. and is 13.6-14.8 inches long!  

Maternity clothes? I found out this week that I can still fit into most of my dresses, especially the flowier ones, but other than that I'm fully in maternity clothes. 

Best moment this week: Spending the weekend in Bowling Green with my family to celebrate my brother's graduation! Also, I'm starting to be able to see #ittybittysmitty move around, which is pretty cool. I've been feeling her kicks for a while now, but seeing her move inside my belly is new! 

I don't think I've mentioned this yet, and probably should have last week, but #ittybittysmitty officially has a full name! I'm not going to share it on the blog until after she enters the world, but it has been pretty great filling our parents and close friends in on the name! And luckily, nobody has given us any negative feedback yet...except for the woman at the storage facility that I made the mistake of sharing the name with. Her opinion was definitely not welcome. 

Worst Moment this week: I can't really think of a worst moment this week...I'm still missing my friends up North...but I don't think that's going to change! 

Miss Anything?: food related....I'm definitely missing eating red meat that is still RED.  

Cravings: Chicken salad, watermelon, fresh vegetables

Symptoms: Heartburn still and random pressure in my rib cage which starts if I sit for a while and goes away once I move around a bit. The ankle swelling has gone down tremendously this week though, which is great!! 

Looking forward to: Getting settled into our new life, my doctor's appointment at the new office on Tuesday, house hunting, and preparing for #ittybittysmitty 

Waving Goodbye to Weymouth

Writing that title may have made me tear up a bit. I can't believe that we've already been in Georgia for 7 days. I can't believe that we have moved out of our apartment already. I can't believe that the U-Haul has been packed, driven 1,152 miles, and unpacked into a storage unit. I can't believe that my student teaching and grad school have come to an end. I can't believe that we've left the place that we've called home for two and a half years and are starting new...with a baby on the way!

Ryan and I threw all normal routines out the window these past few weeks in favor of spending as much time as possible with our amazing friends up North. We went out to dinners and had our friends over as much as possible before we packed everything up.

Those last few weeks in Weymouth were such a whirlwind...I tried to capture as much as possible in pictures but I didn't do a very good job of documenting the things we did. To reminisce and play a bit of catch-up, I just thought I would throw the hodge-podge of pictures together in this post to look back on.

Thank you to all of our friends up North for just being our friends. We wouldn't be who we are today without you all.

Mine and Marybeth's graduation cake from the wonderful staff at Murphy! 

Ryan's last softball game with Life! This was his first home run of the night! 

Our going-away dinner at the Ale house:

Packing up the U-Haul:

...because who can really pack a U-Haul without pans of baked ziti and some Boston Lager?!?!

Acrobatics in an empty apartment...

Right before we handed our keys back in... 

WE LOVE YOU GUYS!!!

25 Weeks

You may notice that this weeks picture looks just a little bit different the pictures of the past. This picture was taken last Sunday after our entire apartment had been stuffed into a 17 foot U-Haul truck and my Jeep. If you think I had any idea where my burlap banner got placed, you're crazy! For week 25, the paper plate and sharpie worked just fine. I did have to include Rach though to class the white trash picture up a bit in front of said U-Haul. 

How far along? 25 weeks (and 5 days if we're being exact) 

Gender: Girl

Baby is the size of a(n)...: Cauliflower! Apparently she's not a fruit anymore... she weighs somewhere between 1.5-2.5 lbs. and is 13.6-14.8 inches long!  

Maternity clothes? YUP. As soon as we got to Georgia, Susan gave me bags full of maternity clothes so I'm pretty much all set at this point for summer... minus a few pairs of shorts. 

Best moment this week: Pulling up to my parents house and realizing our trek down the East Coast was finally over.... 26 hours of driving later! That same day, we met up with Brad, Susan, Brandon, Rachel, Leah, Tim, and Elise at my favorite mexican restaurant (La Parilla) for a welcome home dinner! 

Worst Moment this week: Hands down, saying goodbye to our friends up North was not only the worst moment of the week, but probably one of the worst moments of my life. All ya'll up there are very sorely missed already. 

Miss Anything?: Our friends. 

Cravings: Grilled chicken and salmon, watermelon, anything cold to help combat this heat that I'm just not used to anymore. I'm also STILL craving Trolli gummy Strawberry Puffs. Every gas station we stopped at on the way down to Georgia (we made 16 stops) was scoured for strawberry puffs but they were nowhere to be found. AGH! 

Symptoms: Heartburn, ankle swelling, and rib pressure 

Looking forward to: Getting fully unpacked before repacking to head to Kentucky tomorrow morning to celebrate my little brother's graduation!!! Go Jake! 

24 Weeks and a Moving Update

How far along? 24 weeks! 16 Weeks to go! 

Gender: Girl

Baby is the size of a(n)...: Cantaloupe! She is about 1 foot long and weighs a little over a pound! 

Maternity clothes? All day, every day. My mother-in-law has been scoring some amazing clothes from sales and what not that are all waiting for me back in Georgia! Thanks to Susan I think I'm all set on maternity wear for the rest of this pregnancy! 

Best moment this week: Yesterday, Ryan and I got to hear itty bitty Smitty's heartbeat again. Other than feeling her move around in there, that is the best part of all of this! Her heartbeat is strong and around 150 bpm. Also, I have really been reminded this past week how wonderful our friends are. We have been given so much support with packing everything up and Ryan and I are so grateful. We've also just been enjoying meals and time together with our friends up here. Kristen and Stephen came out for the weekend, so we got to spend some quality time with them! Heidi, Corey, Janelle, Sheila, and Rachel F. (and Melissa)  have all helped a ton with helping us pack and bringing us boxes!

Worst Moment this week: Living in the chaos that is our apartment right now.... Everything is getting packed slowly, but there is just STUFF everywhere. The best part about packing though is that we can go back through all of the things we've collected over the years and downsize again, getting rid of the junk we don't need anymore.

Miss Anything?: With the weather getting to be so nice our during our last week in Massachusetts, we've been grilling out and spending a lot of time outside. I'm missing cold beer this week and good medium-ish steaks. I'm also missing coming home to an organized, neat apartment!!

Cravings: I've been craving Mexican food lately... enchiladas, tacos, guacamole, salsa.... Lucky for me Cinco De Mayo was this week so this craving will hopefully be satisfied after that!

Symptoms: Heartburn, back aches, and lots of ankle swelling at the end of the day.

Looking forward to: Watching the softball team play tonight for a bit since it is Ryan's last appearance on the softball team and then heading over to Sheila's for an old LG get together! I'm also looking forward to a mini "going away" party we're having on Friday night... not because we're going away but because it's one more opportunity to spend some time with our amazing friends up here before we load up the U-haul on Saturday morning. Lots of fun times in the next few days with friends! 

While we're on the subject of moving, I thought I would give a quick update on how that process is going. Ryan and I have moved four times in the last three and a half years (From Georgia to Michigan, back to Georgia, up to New Jersey, and up to Massachusetts), so you would think we would be experts by now. However, every time we've moved we've had help from a professional moving company. And by help, I mean a group of men came into our home, packed everything up, loaded it up on to a truck, drove it to our new home, and unpacked everything for us. Needless to say, this experience has been totally different. For about a month now, Ryan and I have been driving all over the place collecting boxes from stores like Marshalls and Whole Foods. On Saturday, we sold our second bedroom set and some other odds and ends, finally clearing some space in our apartment and mini storage unit to really start packing some boxes up. We made some great progress this weekend but I still can't believe how much is left to do!! This way of moving is WAY more difficult than our past moves!

Here's our progress after a solid week of moving. 5 days to go!

Our storage unit on our floor....boxes are 3 deep and still getting piled in!  

Hope everyone has a great Thursday!!

23 Weeks + A New England Baby Shower

How far along? 23 weeks!

Total weight gain: 18 lbs.  

Gender: Girl

Baby is the size of a(n)...: Grapefruit! She is about 1 foot long and weighs a little over a pound!

Maternity clothes? Yup- basically living in maxi skirts, maxi dresses, and the most comfortable pair of maternity jeans ever (from Kohl's).

Best moment this week: Showering #ittybittysmitty with my closest friends from New England! (More on this at the bottom of the post.)

Worst Moment this week: Sleep has been pretty bad this week. Ryan and I ended up switching sides in the bed in the hopes that I might not toss and turn as much. While it may have helped a bit, I still wake up constantly and have to roll from side to side, which is quite the process these days. I'm definitely a stomach sleeper, so it's been tough to retrain my body to get comfortable in other positions.

Miss Anything? Surprisingly, not much food related. Ryan and I have been making a bigger effort to work out more frequently now that spring is upon us. Working out the way I used to is definitely something I'm starting to miss more and more.  I can barely run a quarter of a mile without huffing and puffing. Squats feel weird because my belly touches the top of my legs every time I squat down. Plus, everything just feels... heavier.

Cravings: Fruit, red meat, chopped salads, ice cream

Symptoms: My preggo symptoms haven't been too bad this week! I still have heartburn...and I'm pretty sure I will for the rest of this pregnancy. I've also been getting pains in my ribs on the right side.

Looking forward to: Spending all my free time with friends up North before we pack up and drive away in 13 days.

In other news (kind of)... last Saturday afternoon, ittybittysmitty and I had our first planned baby shower. I say planned because my wonderful coworkers threw me a surprise baby shower during a faculty senate meeting before school a couple weeks ago. Rachel G., Rachel F., and Bergie hosted a beautiful shower at Rachel G.'s house and really made me the babe feel so loved. Thank you girls so much for your friendship and generosity! And thank  you to everyone who came and spent their Saturday afternoon with me!

Love these girls SO much!