28 weeks +

I went in at 28 weeks for another growth check ultrasound and check up. Baby girl was being very co operative and cute. When we turned on the 4D ultrasound on her face she was so sweet and looked a little like Elizabeth, I started to laugh and it made her eyes pop open!! She is weighing around 2 and 3/4 lbs and is doing well, just a few little things happened at this appointment.

First of all there was a lot of amniotic fluid, I was at the high end of normal but she is fine. What it would mean if it was worse is that she was having problems with her kidneys (since amniotic fluid is just the baby's pee, yes she lives in her own pee, sterile pee though!) but her kidneys appear to be just fine. It could also be contributing to the reason of why I am so HUGE, and I mean HUGE! They do think she may be a big baby also but at 28 weeks I measured 32 weeks, yes 32...the Dr. even showed me on the measuring tape because I couldn't believe it! All I could say for the rest of the day was 32, really, 32?!

I had a few small signs of preeclampsia but since I have been down that road before I know what to look for, so they sent me home to just monitor it myself. So far nothing alarming has come up and I really, really hope that it doesn't get worse....I can not be on bed rest and I can not have a preemie, do you hear me?! Not going down that road again! I was a little freaked out that this was happening at my 28 week appointment because it was at 28 weeks with the twins that I was put into the hospital on bed rest for preeclampsia. That was the hardest 4 weeks of my life, always knowing that I could be forced to deliver the babies at any second was beyond stressful!

The 3rd issue was that my glucose test came back negative. I had to go the next week for a 3 hour test that I had to fast for. It was basically torture but I didn't throw up and I didn't pass out so it was all good! And I found out yesterday that I passed!!!! So no gestational diabetes for me, thank goodness!!

Here is our baby girl at 28 weeks:

And for some reason I am dedicated to posting these awful pics of myself! This picture was actually taken last night before I went to bed at 30 weeks pregnant:

So far I am not feeling too bad but I do know that it is going to get harder and harder as each week goes by. Luckily Mark and Elizabeth are wonderful and patient babies most of the time and are really great at playing by themselves or each other if I am paralyzed by a growing pain or exhausted from a terrible night's sleep! I am one blessed Mama!!

Down time

The best part of the trip was all the down time we had to just hang out. Here is Grandpa B with all the kids:

Elizabeth and Grandpa B were buddies all weekend long and bonded over the Ipad (or Iphone) the whole time. I love this picture of these two!

We are so thankful that everyone took the time to come and visit us. I have said it before but I really do have the best mother in law in the whole world! Every time she comes she cooks, cleans, runs errands (which usually involves several trips to the grocery store, my new thing I hate to do since having kids!), takes out the garbage and the dirty diapers (Mark was in heaven being relieved of this duty!), cleans bottles, plays with the kids, gets up at 3, 4, 5 or 6 am to sing teething babies back to sleep and feed them, babysits, changes dirty diapers, reads to them....I could go on and on!!! And Grandpa B is the BEST at taking them for walks! They love being outside!

We don't get to see just Katie and her family very often and we can't wait until they move back to California so that we can go visit them!!

We are now gearing up for family to come again tomorrow.....Aunt Meagan, Grandma T and more uncles, aunts and cousins will be here to help me celebrate turning the big 31!! Well, actually my sister Meagan is the only one that is coming for that specific occasion but we are all excited to see everyone else too!!! Fingers crossed for some decent weather, or at least a break from the constant rain!

New favorite places!

While we had family here we visited the following restaurants for the 1st time and they were all DELICIOUS!!!!!

Boom Noodle: A mostly Japanese inspired noodle place with yummy food and a cool atmosphere.

Tokyo Sweets: This is right next to Boom and they make what looked like delicious crepes....sadly we never got to try them because our kids melted down before that happened! However, all of our family members tried something from there and loved it!

Trophy Cupcakes: A famous little cupcake shop that was so good! We got there late at night so we didn't have all the crazy choices of cupcakes, but my vanilla frosted chocolate cupcake was still great!

The Ram: A fun place with great burgers and a ton of other things too. We went Saturday night and they had basketball games on every tv, it was like a sports bar but bigger and family oriented....does that make sense?! I tried ice cream cupcakes for the 1st time and they were awesome!!

We forgot our camera at every place but maybe I can get Katie to send me a few, we had a great time going out to eat!!

Our 1st zoo trip!!!!

We went to the zoo last Friday with everyone when it was supposed to be a little less rainy....well it ended up being the rainiest day of all! We saw a total of 3 animals, a gorilla, a jaguar and an ocelot. They loved looking at all 3 but it was lunch and nap time soon after. Luckily we got a 1 year pass so we can go back any time we want (preferably when it's not pouring and they no longer need a morning nap:). So they looked like this for most of the morning:

Until we got some food in them and took them to the play area at Zoomazium! They got a second wind!

We got there during music time so they were having a blast shaking the maracas!

Then Elizabeth decided to try and climb up and into a rock thing. She had to inspect the rock 1st:

Then take a seat:

Then keep climbing!

These two were checking to see if the rain had stopped perhaps? No luck! Mark had fun playing with the kids while I got to sit back and watch from one of the cozy chairs, it was nice but I really wanted to be in the play area playing!

Needless to say they were exausted and Mark was asleep before we even left the parking lot! You would think that all that fun would result in a big long nap....but no, they slept for an hour and they got colds the next night, which I'm sure are courtesy of Zoomazium or the cold rain:( Owell, it was a good time all around and we are so excited to go back on a nice sunny day!

Family Fun!

Last week Grandma and Grandpa B, Aunt Katie, Uncle Reuben and cousins Ariana and Corben came for a visit!!!!! Reuben was here for a medical conference so he only got to participate in a little fun, haha!

We love it when any family comes to visit, we get so lonely here without any family close by! The only bad part was that it was rainy and cold the ENTIRE time!!! I am so sick of seeing, hearing and looking at rain and I can't wait for some sunshine to finally come back! We tried to not let it stop us though:

These two were happy to be up high on the playground!

2nd cousins got to play with each other and bond, like seriously bond, like no other 4 yr olds have bonded before!!

And I bonded with this little bundle of baby boy:

While holding my cousins baby, my baby girl was kicking like crazy! Not sure if she was saying hi, getting jealous or just responding to the yummy food I had just eaten!