Oh What a Week...

Wow, so many things have happened since my last post.  It was certainly an interesting week for the Perhach household, where to even begin?

UpNate- Nate, according to BabyCenter Newsletter, should be over16 inches in length and 3.3 pounds (try carrying 4 navel organges to simulate).   His head is going into a growth spurt (woo-hoo, cause you know what makes labor easier?  A bigger head!).  He can turn his head from side to side, and the rest of his body is still plumping out.

As for me, I'm doing pretty well.  I do feel like I am getting bigger and slower with each passing day and can not stop being hungry!  I feel like a teenage boy, I could eat an entire meal at any time (even directly after just finishing one).  After my blog post last week, things got a little crazy.  It's not a big deal, but I ended up heading over to the ER in Philly for some breathing treatments.  In pregnancy, as I have found out, women with asthma fall are pretty much divided in groups of 1/3: for 1/3 asthma symptoms improve, 1/3 asthma symptoms gets worse, or 1/3 asthma symptoms stay the same...which group do you think I fell into?  Not since I was in middle school have I needed a "treatment".  No worries though, the medicine is said to have no effect on the baby whatsoever.  And, as the doctor told me, breathing is more important anyway.  BIG HUGE THANK YOU to Jessica for picking me up from work and taking me to the hospital.  You were an awesome ER buddy and the best friend a girl could have!!!  Here is a picture of me getting a treatment (Jessica couldn't resist):

Mom-cut- So, I finally made it over to the salon to get get my haircut (after about 6 motnhs).  All I asked for was a trim, "just clean up the ends"...these were my instructions.  Well the stylist took one look at my baby-bump and decided that I was in need of a "mom-cut"...and that is exactly what I got.  Notice in the picture below how unhappy I am?  I was hoping to keep my longer locks:

The Brunch-Bunch-  After 3.5 years of not being all together, my Che-na-wah girls got together in the City this past weekend for brunch.  Alexis was visiting in from the mid-west with her adorable family and Lori has moved back to NYC from LA making it the perfect storm for seeing each other.  Here are some pictures (one of them from my wedding in 2007, the last time we saw each other).  Please excuse my hair in the recent shot..I'm still trying to work that out.



Here we are in 2007 (last time we were all together)

And in 2011

Alexis and her family (with the adorable Hunter!!!)

The Girls- This past weekend Kurt and I got to spend some more time with our nieces.  My sister and brother-in-law took a trip to Vegas (baby) to watch the basketball games, and the girls got to spend some quality time with Aunt Jill and Uncle Kurt (as well as my parents).  Here they are hugging...they are too cute!

  

The Basement Saga Continues- Yes people, after a week, an enormous sum of money, and the "best water proofing system money can buy" we still have water in our basement.  And more than that, we have water flooding our yard and our neighbors yard.  Work was "completed" on our basement this past Wednesday and, lo and behold, more water was there on Thursday.  We have had all parties back to the house and everything "should be fixed" on Saturday.  Seriously considering putting flotation devices on all nursery furniture when it arrives.

The Belly Button...is still holding on!!!  So far, my beloved button does not seem to want to go anywhere, I will keep you posted on this developing situation.

I think that is all for this week (isn't that enough?!?!).  Hope you all have a great week!

xoxo, Jilly

UpNate, Belly Button, Basement, and Waiting...

UpNate:
Happy Friday!  Here is your weekely UpNate installment...As of this past Wednesday, I am officially at 30 weeks!!!!  That's 7.5 months people.  I feel HUGE, but people keep telling me that I look normal (quick shout out to all of those liars who make me feel better, you are fabulous).  Last night while out to dinner with friends, Wendy and I were remarking on how nice it was that I hadn't seen any stretchmerks yet...well lo and behold, we must have tipped off the "stretch mark fairy" to my location, because this morning I woke up to 2 shiny new red marks on my belly...seriously, how much could I have possibly eaten last night?

Nate should be about 15.7 inches this week and weigh approximately 3 pounds (like the head of a cabbage, though apparently a non-chinese cabbage which was last week's produce item).  Nate's eyesight should still be developing, though when he is born he will probably only have 20/400 vision (which is about as bad as Kurt's was before he had Lasik...really, did anyone get into a car with Kurt before his eyes were fixed?  SCARY!).  As a result, babies like Nate tend to keep their eyes closed for most of the day.

The internet update reports that I might be having more trouble sleeping these days, this is actually true.  Can some side-sleeper please explain to me how you can accomplish sleeping on your side without one of your arms falling asleep?  Why can't I do it?!?!  Additionally, clumsiness should be on the rise (oh joy) and my moodiness, as a result of the lack of sleep and hormonal changes, might be making a comeback...perfect!

Belly Button:
Dear Belly Button,
The day we have been dreading is almost upon us.  You have served me well over the past 31+ years, but it appears that you might have to go away for a little while (hopefully you will come back).  I will miss you especially in the morning as I must come up with a new shower routine that does not include cleaning you out and a new bath routine which does not include filling you up with water and seeing how long I can keep it in there without spilling.  I know I have mostly kept you in the dark all these years, not really being a bikini person or wearing belly baring shirts, I hope you understand now that this was all in preparation for your "dark period" over the next several months.  I will think of you fondly and miss you dearly.
Yours always, Jill

Basement:
Well after spening a ridiculous sum of money to have the "best" water proofing team ever come into our home and rid our basement of water, we went down stairs to survey our new concrete floor and what did we find...more water?!?!?!  Apparently our furnace is leaking water all over our basement floor  and this is probably what contributed to the water in the basement (along with the flooded backyard, etc).  Will it never stop?!?!  Is there any end to the water?!?!

Waiting:
Now Kurt and I are playing the waiting game.  Though, over the past few weeks, we have been slowly trying to go through the house and clean out as much stuff as possible, we are basically in a holding pattern.  We are waiting for all of the furniture and baby gear to arrive, we are waiting to be home for a little bit, and (oh yeah) we are waiting for the baby!  We took our childbirth class this past Sunday and feel as prepared as we are going to be for what is about to come.  As a side note, the class instructor "recommended" that we bring popsicles to the labor...POPSICLES!!!  She is one smart lady!

Hope you all have a great week!
xoxo, Jilly

UpNate, Under Water, Toy Story Marathon

UpNate:
Happy Friday everyone!!!!  We are a couple of days into my 29th week and I am feeling somewhat the same as I on my 29th birthday (anxious, nervous, and excited).  This week Nate should be weighing in around 2.5 pounds (like a butternut squash) and measure a little over 15 inches.  His head is growing bigger to make room for his developing brain.

As for me, this are good...I felt myself slowing down a little bit, but I am looking forward to the weekend to catch up on sleep and finish cleaning out all of the rooms in our house to make room for the little guy (funny they are so small and yet command so much commotion).  This week we go for our Childbirth Class, so I'm sure we will have some interesting information for you in our next post (hey, if we have to suffer through a 6 hour class, you have to get some information too)!

Under Water:
Unfortunately last Saturday we were alerted to the fact that we a bit of standing water in our basement, that one of our sump pumps had completely quit, and that our backyard was flooded (which probably cause the sump pump failure, which caused the basement to take on water).  This means we will be having an unscheduled update to our entire basement water management system this week in order to protect our foundation and somlve the problem.  This is certainly not something that we were expecting to do anytime soon (especially so close to when Nate is scheduled to arrive).  Oh well, we'll make sure to teach him how to swim as soon as possible!

Toy Story Marathon:
This past weekend we got the chance to hang out with our 2 nieces Kate and Anna for a movie day!  The movies they selected were Toy Story 2 and 3.  We camped out on the couches in the family room, ate a bunch of junk food, and watched as Woody and his friends navigated growing older and being loved for several hours.  The girls were very well behaved (Anna pretty much only wanting to be on Kurt's shoulders the entire time and Kate wanting to watch the entire movie from my lap).  We can't wait to share days like these with the girls and Nate who, if he is anything like his mother, will love nothing more than spending a Sunday in his jammies with his cousins!!!

That's all for this week, hope you all have a great one!!!

xoxo, Jilly

UpNate, Shayla, Commuting, Another girl!

Good Morning!  Hope everyone is having a good week!

UpNate:
Well people, we've made it into the 3rd and final trimester!!!  As of wednesday, I am 7 months pregnant and in disbelief that it is already March, according to our newsletter I have 82 days to go until my due date!  It's somewhat crazy for me to be this far along because I remember in September (when we found out we were expecting) thinking that to to be 7 months pregnant would be when things got serious...it appears we are about to get serious.  This week Nate should be weighing about 2 and 1/4 pounds (like a Head of Chinese Cabbage, for those of you keeping track with your grocery visits), and measures an estimated 14.8 inches from top of head to heels.  Nate can blink his eyes, which this week should have lashes (long like Mommy or short like Daddy?).  Additionally he may be able to see filtered light through the womb...Kurt and I will be putting on a puppet show for him tonight, hahaha.  Finally, Nate is building neurons in his brain and adding more body fat.

As for me, life is good.  I can't complain about really any of the things I've been reading about as possibilities for pregnant women, in that way I feel extremely lucky (and I know it is something that can change at any moment and for subsequent pregnancies...but for now I am enjoying it).  I will say that turning over in the middle of the night is becoming a bit of a challenge (I now have to employ serious upper body strength to accomplish it) and get up from the floor or any lying position is taking quite a bit longer than it used to.  Other wise, life is good!  Recently people have been asking me if Kurt and I are going on a "babymoon".  For those of you unfamiliar with the term, it's when a pregnant couple takes their last trip without children (or the worry of leaving children) before a baby arrives.  While we would have loved to have travelled to beachy places and spent days laying out in the sun, we felt our money was better spent getting things ready at the house and have, just this week, ordered an additional 8 new windows!  In conclusion, we will spend our babymoon on our couch at home not freezing to death in the winter or burning up in the summer.

Shayla:

This past Saturday Kurt and I got to practice our parenting skills when we had the pleasure of babysitting our niece Shayla.  She was amazinging cute and really well behaved.  We think Nate liked being around her too because he was kicking all day!  Hopefully he will pick up on her good manners (and her nap schedule) when he arrives.  We took some pictures on Kurt's phone which I will post as soon (she is ridiculously adorable)!!!

Commuting:
The one real struggle during my pregnancy is the 2 hour commute I must make (each way...that's 4 total commuting hours a day) to get into work.  I am lucky that the type of job I have is one I can continue with until the baby is born, however the commute is really getting to me.  I'm not trying to make anyone feel sorry for me, I feel really lucky to have a job, but this is how my morning goes: 3:45am wake up, shower and out of the house by 4:30am, draive to the train station and arrive by 5:15am, train into Philly which arrives at 6:15 at which time my workday "officially" begins (2.5 hours after it has actually begun).  To add insult to injury, over the past few days there has been some interesting "situations" involving me and the train, they are as follows:

-Yesterday a woman, sharing the 2 seater with me, fell asleep on me for 20 minutes
-This morning another woman sharing a 2 seater with me, farted (I'm serious..I could feel as well as smell it...I'm still not sure why someone would chose to do that on the crowded train)
-The other day I was stuck in the middle of a 3-seater when the woman next to me took out and ate the smelliest and messiest assortment of foods ever
-and finally, there is a 4th woman who frequently listens to Whitney Houston's "Greatest Love of All"  on repeat at top volume at 5:30 in the morning so that I, and everyone else on the train, thinks Whitney is giving a concert in our car

Needless to say, I am consdiering changing my schedule, driving in some days, and seeing if telecommuting is a possibility.

Another Girl!
Just wanted to add an addition to the "February Girls" post from last week, one of my best friends from college Rae (or Sarah as it says on her birth certificate), became an Aunt when her borther and his wife had a baby on my birthday!!!  Here she is (cuteness!):

Anabelle Carroll

Hope you all have a fantastic week!

xoxo, Jilly