35 weeks

So I am at 35 weeks and have 5 weeks to go! I am large and in charge. There are many days that I don't feel THAT big and then there are days where I feel huge. Then there are days when people tell me how BIG I am and I just want to punch them. I am sooooo done being pregnant. I hit that point around 1 1/2 weeks ago, which is not good. I am so uncomfortable and not sleeping. I have SPD, which means I have to much of the relaxin hormone in my body and my muscles are not holding my pelvis in place and bones are trying to separate. The best way to describe it is as if you are walking, standing and sitting on a broken pubic bone. So I am supposed to be resting at night and not doing much. Yeah, for those of you who know me well, know that I am not very good at resting. But I did ask for help!!! Huge step for me. My family is all pitching in to help, even my chicago family which is great! So it started with Kiki helping clean my house this weekend, which was huge. I got home from taking my silly principal liscensure test and walking in to a clean house. All I could do was say THANKS! It was a huge relief and I am trying to relax. Needless to say this pregnancy has been different in every aspect. I am in a lot more pain this time and sometimes when she moves I twinge. I have a lot of braxton hicks. I can tell when I have been running around at work, because they come a lot more often. Monday, September 26th I have my last ultrasound and then start weekly appointments. I will give an update after that.

1st Day of Preschool

Nora started Preschool today! I cannot believe it. Time does fly by. She was really excited this morning and was up at normal time. It was not a normal morning though because she was not going to Rebecca's, instead Peter was taking her to school. I could not take off so he got to do this first. She is going to school Monday, Wednesday and Friday's from 9-11:30. Our awesome babysitter will normally be taking her and picking her up. We are so lucky that she is doing this for us! Anyway, she is going to St. Lucas Preschool and our neighbor's daughter, Allison, and Nora are in the same class. They play so well together. Our little girl is growing up! And yes, in case you are wondering, I did cry this morning!

Allison and Nora at school!

1st day of school picture

outside of school

Grizzlies Game

Grandma and Grandpa came into town for the long weekend. We hadn't seen them in 7 weeks, which is a long time for us. We won't see them again until baby girl gets here. On Saturday we went to the Mills Mall and did some shopping and then BBQ'd on Saturday evening. We took them to our new favorite spot, Yogurtland!!! On Sunday we hung out and then went to the Gateway Grizzlies game. We met up with the Lovegreens and Beffa's as well. It was the Grizzlies last game of the season and it was really crowded. We sat in the lawn, which was perfect for the little ones to play and play. They gave away attendance prizes and Bob won free tickets to a Mizzou football game. Peter finally tried one of the krispy kreme bacon cheeseburgers. Yes, it is a bacon cheeseburger with a donut for the bun!! After the game ended they let you toilet paper the stadium and they had a great 20 min. firework show! All around it was a great long weekend!

Mitchell and Nora

Daddy and Nora

Playing with Grandpa-her big jungle gym

Nora in her Cardinals jacket

some of the gang

Sleeping Beauty

So Nora has a big girl bed and she loves it. She totally cracks us up though because of some of the ways we find her sleeping in her big girl bed. And maybe we are mean parents for taking pictures of her sleeping and laughing before we wake her up, but I just can't help myself. So I thought I would share.

 So this is how Peter found her one morning last week. Totally covered up with her blanket from head to toe. He didn't wake her up and called me into the room and we started taking pics! I guess it is a good thing that I know she can breathe through that blanket! That is definately a Reid thing, because I cannot sleep with anything over my head.

This pic was taken yesterday at naptime. I went in to wake her up and she was laying the wrong way with another pillow over her body. She just makes me laugh. And yes we do have a lot of pillows in her bed, but normally she refuses to lay on anything, but the princess pillow shams.

Warrensburg Trip

This weekend Nora and I took the train to see my friend Valerie and her little girl Allison. Valerie's husband is away until December and so it is just her and Allison all the time and she is pregnant to boot. I decided we should take the train because driving is getting really uncomfortable and having to deal with Nora as well would not have made a good combination. Peter dropped us off at the train station Friday after school and Nora was so excited to be riding the train. For those of you who don't know she really likes the TV show 'Dinosaur Train' and so to be going on a train was really neat! She kept asking about the Mr. Conductor and if we would be going through any time tunnels. It made me laugh! As always she did great on the train. The two Mr. Conductor's that we met on the way there were not very nice ones and didn't humor Nora at all. But the ride wasn't too bad. On the way home the two Mr. Conductor's that we met were great and Nora asked one of them if we would go through a time tunnel and he said, "we sure will"! She got all excited. We are so lucky that we have a good little traveler.

Valerie and Allison picked us up at the train station and we headed back to their house. We didn't stay up much longer after we were there because it was getting pretty late. The next day we headed to the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia. It was a pretty warm day and I made the mistake of saying no to the umbrella stroller. You think I would have learned by now, but I haven't. Oh well. I got my exercise that day and more because I ended up carrying Nora alot. We had a good time and we got to see lots of animals. We saw pigs, cows, chickens, mules, horses, ducks, and turkey's. When we were in the pig building there were pigs walking around and Nora didn't know what to do. One girl let her in the pen with the pigs to let Nora pet them. She got a big kick out of that. She also got to pet a cow and a mule. She loves animals. We were at the fair for around 3 hours and then called it quits. Nora had her first fair corndog and cotton candy!

On Sunday we went to the park and played for a little bit and then played outside at Valerie's house. We had a great weekend. Nora liked to lead Allison around. She even tried to pick Allison up once by her shoulder and neck. Allison was a good sport for being 15 months and not understanding everything Nora wanted her to do. In the car they just cracked us up because one would start laughing and then the other would laugh and it would just keep going. They played well together, which is always nice.

pigs just walking around!

OINK!

petting the pig

so cool!

Big tractor

so funny

eating a corndog

moo

let's play

29 weeks

Wow! I cannot believe that I am already 29 weeks. In 11 weeks this baby is going to be here and that is really hard to believe. It doesn't seem like this pregnancy has gone by super fast, but 11 weeks left isn't very long. This pregnancy has been so different in good ways and bad. The beginning was a lot harder and way more hormonal than I ever was with Nora. Good is that I have been able to work out for 29 weeks!!! I really wanted to make it to 30 weeks, but I have had some pain after working out and so I think it is time to stop. So here I am, belly and all! I have had some nice compliments in the last week or so. I have had look how little you are, pregnancy suits you, and you look great. I can definately tell that I am carrying this little girl differently, she is a lot lower and I feel a little more round looking. We are still working on a name. We cannot decide and when we decide we are not sharing when we do. We have had some mixed reactions when we mention names and so that is why we are not sharing and really because we haven't decided.

Trip to D.C.

We did our first family vacation this year. We took a trip to Washington D.C. to visit my family. They live in Burke, VA, which is about 30 min. from the city. This was Nora's second time on a plan, she doesn't remember the first time. She loved it! She couldn't wait to get back on the plane. We left on Saturday and stayed until Wednesday. We had a great time and did some good site seeing. It was awesome to spend time with my family as well. We miss them so much!!!  It was also great that they got to spend time with Nora. When they come here it is all of us hanging out together and this time it was just us and them. Here are some pics with some stories!

Uncle John and Aunt Sally

On the boat tour

It was so hot on the boat tour!

So the above pictures were taken on the second day that we were there. We went swimming in the morning and then relaxed and went on a boat tour. It was a very interesting tour to say the least and our tour guide was the reason it was interesting. He wasn't the greatest, but we got to see some sites. It was so flipping hot! There was no breeze on the boat the first 20 minutes, once the boat turned around the breeze returned. After the boat tour we went and had dinner at Capitol City Brewing Company. Poor Joe, the waitress spilled our soda's on him!!! We drove around a little after dinner and called it a night!

Jenny and Nora

 On Monday we went swimming again and chilled out. Then we went and met Peter's cousin Jenny at Maggiano's for dinner, which was excellent. Jenny met Nora for the first time, can you see a family resemblance there?! We then walked around the very expensive mall that the restaurant was attached to. This is when the whole 'push present' jokes began. Annie asked me earlier in that day if I had ever heard of a push present. This is when your husband gives you a nice gift for being pregnant and having the baby. I had told her yes, but I did not get a push present with Nora. So we went into the coach store and I found a really cute diaper bag and the push present joking began.

Aunt Sally and Nora playing with Ben

 My aunt has an iPad and has an app called talking Ben. Nora thought it was a hoot and wanted to play with Ben a lot. He eats and answers the phone and mimics you. It was pretty darn funny to watch her play with it and it was a great bribe as well!

Annie, Peter, Joe

 
On Tuesday we went to the Smithsonian Museums of Natural History and American History. They are really neat places to visit. After that we had lunch at a famous place called 'Ben's Chili Bowl'. It was really good and has been featured on Oprah, Food Network, and Man vs. Food. It was cool.

 After lunch we went to see the White House and had some pictures taken in the back of it. We saw the first lady's garden and that was about it.

 Emma is their dog and followed Nora around the entire time we were there. She kept trying to herd Nora. It was pretty funny. Nora is sad that Staley doesn't follow her like Emma did. I bet Emma was sad when Nora left.

The last place that we went on our last day was the Air and Space Museum. It was really cool and they had lots of neat planes and stuff at it. We had a great time with the Mernah Clan and can't wait to make another trip back to D.C.