29 weeks

I kinda freaked out the other day when I realized I only have 11 weeks left - what???  Where did this time go!?  Regardless, here I am, 29 weeks!  She is the size of a butternut squash and I'm thinking maybe my squash is on growth hormones ;) haha.  I'm sooo excited to see this little girl, but really enjoying seeing her hang out in my belly.  However, my back is not so excited.  I immediately regretted not taking the pregnancy pillow on our Thanksgiving travels!  It is so neat to be able to feel her so well against my skin, moving around, and it's fun guessing how she is positioned in there.  I've been guessing right according to my last ultrasound!!  To the left of my belly button is her head, facing down - she sometimes puts her hands on either side and punches up in that area.  I know for sure now because during the ultrasound she kept her hands by her face the WHOLE time.   Her feet are still in my right ribs and her little booty at the top right of my belly.  My belly is still super tight.  Maybe at this point we'll slow down this growth spurt in the 3rd trimester!?  Oh, and I forgot to mention that a few weeks ago my hair stopped falling out - like, at all!  Pretty neat to see my nails grow strong as well (I'm usually a nail bitter, but I've stopped, for now ;)  Nasty habit, I know, so just slap me on the hand if you see me start back!  Here's Miss Toot's growth:

Dr. Appointment Update:
Everything looks great - blood pressure was good, gained 4 lbs this time instead of 8, so that's slowed down a bit!  I took the gestational diabetes test and I haven't heard anything back from them, so I'm assuming no news is good yippee!!  Here I am making friends with the glucose drink an hour before the visit.  I only had 5 minutes to chug that fruit punch.

Luke came with me to the appointment :)

We had our last ultrasound and it was 3D!  So neat :)  We got another DVD of the whole thing just like our 16 week appointment when we found out the gender of Miss Toot.  The ultrasound confirmed we are indeed having a baby girl and that she is in the 70th percentile - already 3 lbs. 9 oz. and I am carrying lots of fluid.  There is some range up to 25 on fluid count and I'm at 24 - makes me feel better that this weight comes from a big baby and lots of fluid!  The ultrasound tech laughed at my reaction and said I may have to have another ultrasound since I have a bigger baby - I guess that's to check whether or not she'll be able to come out!?  Eek.  I must say I was a little disappointed with this ultrasound because she was asleep the entire time.  I mean, the only movement we saw was her precious heart beating - the heart rate was 150 as usual.  She usually moves when I'm hungry and mostly in the afternoon and at night, so maybe she was just in a comatose state after that sugary drink and the fact that it was morning time.  Even after the tech heavily prodded my belly (ouch on the sore belly button) and had me lay on my side, we still couldn't get her to budge her little hands from her eyes or get a good angle on her face to be able to see her clearly.  I'll forgive you Miss Toot ;)  So, these pictures have her hands somehow edited out so we could somewhat see those cute cheeks, nose, and lips...but those little dots are remnants of her fingers.  Oh well!  Just maybe...MAYBE, we'll get another ultrasound if I keep measuring big.

Thanksgiving was a blast!  But boy was I tired and ready to get home by the end of it all...I was really ready to get the Christmas cheer and advent season going in the house!  On Wednesday before Thanksgiving I got off work early and hopped on over to the dog park, which has been less frequented due to the darkness - then we jetted to Nashville!  On Thanksgiving Day my mom always hosts the Kee/Love family party at 10:30, every year, never fails, and I love it!  The food was soooo good this year.  Isn't my mom so cute!?

After that shindig, Luke and I (and Pip) went to dad's house for his first turkey EVER - success!  He cooked it on his rotisserie attachment on his big A$$ grill ;)  He loves that thing.  Susan made fabulous dressing and sides...what a day of eating!!  I had 2 servings of fudge pie...shew.

Friday was not so black for me, but I did rack up some gifts at my family baby shower!!  It was good to be around family a little longer and celebrate with them.  My aunts were so sweet to throw me such a wonderful shower!  They bought me my video monitor and my mom bought me the Bob Revolution stroller - so pumped!!  My dad got me a lot of the practical items on my registry as well as an activity mat - he knows me well!!  I also got lots of other cute little girl things - they are so fun to buy for!!  I loved the prayers they had the guests write for me and it was fun to hear everyone guess how much they think Miss Toot will weigh and how long she will be.  Let's just say not many people guessed below 8 lbs and 19 inches ;)
Aunt Grace, Aunt Ellen, mom, me, Cuz Liz, Aunt Gayle & Aunt Linda!

Those petifores were delish

I made 2 8x10 collages of some baby pictures I had of me and Luke and brought them to the shower

That night, I came back to Luke and my dad working around the house - doing manly chores and slow cooking ribs.  Again, the big A$$ grill = success!  The food doesn't stop there...

Saturday  morning we woke up and drove to Jackson and spent time with Luke's immediate family.  Pippet once again loved playing on the farm with her frisbee - totally committed to the frisbee that she could care less about the treats I brought along!  Luke and I spent some time 4 wheel riding on the farm.  Every time we go walk or ride on the farm I feel like they are little mini dates where we get to spend some alone time together out in the middle of nothing.  Even if we don't say much, they are such sweet times to me :)  And again, we ate more delish food.
Sunday we stuck around Jackson for a bit to visit grandparents and then finally arrived back home to Memphis...ahhh.

Luke surprised me one night this week and had the lights on the tree and the blinds open so I could see them through the window when I drove up from bible study - so sweet!  It feels good to have it decorated and all the wrapped presents to put under the tree.  I'm loving Christmas this year!!  More than just the gifts and decorations...I think I'm feeling pretty sentimental, which is not super like me.  I look forward to following an advent season workbook that our church produced. 

I really want to do a Christmas card, but we are getting maternity photos done by our friend David Desso (Desso Photography) next weekend and I'd like to use one of those photos, so I may do an email Christmas card this year.  I think I did that last year or the year before that...cannot remember, but I think that's all I will have time for!  I also hope we can wrap up little things this weekend like painting a square on the wall to hang the abacus in front of, hang the pendant ball jar light, hang the full length mirror, etc.  Oh, and hang that 4th outdoor shutter ;)

I am hosting a Pampered Chef party next Thursday, so it would feel good to have the house semi put together for that.  Feel free to come drop by!  It all starts at 6PM Thursday, December 9th.  Or you can visit the website and buy some Christmas goodies: http://www.pamperedchef.biz/wesleyh.  My favorite Pampered Chef product has been this set of 3 stainless steel mixing bowls with pourers, rubber bottoms, measuring labels inside the bowls, and lids that we got for a wedding gift.

This weekend we have are going to a prepared childbirth class at Methodist Germantown hospital.  It's an all day Saturday class from 8:00 until 4:30.  I'm SO excited to deliver here because it was just built nice and new and seems like a really neat facility.  Plus, I've heard their nurses are super nice, which I hear is the key to a good birthing experience.  So, cheers to graphic videos of live births!