39 Weeks

I've made it to 39 weeks and past pretty much everyone's predictions on when Kaden will get here. My predictions have always been 9/15 (full moon) and 9/21 (4 year anniversary of our first date).

I went to the Baby Fair with my friend Suzanne today. The fair was disappointing - we went through the whole thing in about 20 minutes. We did go to the Newton outlet mall and all the walking around made Kaden drop a little more. Maybe he'll show up tonight? Only time will tell when my little man chooses to grace us with his presence.

40 Days and Counting!

There's only 40 days left! It really hasn't hit me yet that I'll be a mommy next month but it does feel like my pregnancy is coming to an end. I've loosely packed Kaden's diaper bag. I still need to wash the three outfits I've picked out, but at least I have them in the bag with diapers, wipes and burp clothes. Saturday was Amanda's wedding - which went off without a hitch. Check out Lori's blog for a play-by-play rundown. It also marked 34 weeks or 8.5 months. Time for another fruit!

Month 8: Baby’s senses are continuing to improve -- when light peeks in through your (extremely) stretched belly, those tiny eyelids and irises blink and dilate. And, baby can now recognize and react to simple songs… time to start practicing your lullabies! Growth (at least inside your womb) is starting to slow, and you may notice baby descend into your pelvis at the end of this month.


It did feel like Kaden dropped a bit on August 1st (at Ryan's high school reunion). Compared to a few days ago, I can tell there's a bit more breathing room. I personally think that the picture just makes me look huge and I feel much smaller (and am carrying lower) in person. I've had a contraction or two over the past week, but nothing to complain about just yet.

My next appointment is Friday - which is also Ryan's 29th birthday. He has to work, so I schedule a late afternoon appointment so we can at least squeeze in a birthday dinner and maybe ice cream from his favorite bakery Cameo Cakes (vanilla flavored cake of course!).

I'm going to drag my tired body to bed now. I can't believe there was actually a time when I could stand staying up late and getting up early. I guess I need to get all the sleep I can get while I can!

Bumps and Jungles

As promised, here's my latest bump picture! Kaden is stretching and getting bigger. I have another doctor's appointment tomorrow. We'll see how much I've gained. The other picture is his new crib that we setup on Sunday. It's starting to feel more real.

New Office, Baby Bump, Mom Update

Saturday we finally got our carpet installed in the basement bedroom!  Here's Ryan and Fez testing it out:

We (Ryan and his dad) were able to move the office downstairs right after our carpet guy left.  Even the pictures got hung up!

The hardest part of the move? Getting the couch (complete with a fold-away-bed) out of the bedroom upstairs and into the bedroom downstairs.  Let's just say that in addition to family help there were some choice words mentioned about the size of the couch and the size of the doorways.

We even went to Lowe's to get paint for the upstairs bedrooms.  Kaden's room will get a coat of "Zen Garden" green (think pastel green) and our bedroom will get a coat of "Bamboo Leaves" which Ryan described as a Grey Poupon type of yellow.  With the office fully relocated (and empty), it's finally starting to sink in that we're preparing for Kaden's arrival.

And at long last, an updated baby bump.  This was taken last night right before Ryan headed to work.  I really don't feel that big, but I only get the view from the top.  Ryan's response to "Am I really that wide/deep?" was "Well yeah, you're pregnant.  It happens."  He's so sweet!  

I think, weather permitting, that we'll try for a nice evening bike ride this week.  I've been eyeing our bikes for a while now.  We both got really nice Trek bikes two years ago and haven't had a chance to ride them yet this year.  They're hanging up in the garage on the ceiling and I'm not quite in the position to try and get them down myself.

I've saved the best news for last - mom is getting out of the hospital today!  We're not sure when she'll be release, but more news certainly to follow.

Bananas, Bumps, Floor and Roof

Here's a general update of things that have been going on this week. I'm working all 6 of WSU's graduation ceremonies this weekend so I can pretty much guarantee that I won't be up for posting this weekend. Friday's time commitment will be from 1 pm to 9 pm which means I won't get to see Ryan that evening (and that sucks). Saturday will be from 6 am (which will also suck) to 6 pm. At least I'll be able to see him for a few hours Saturday before he has to go to work.

On to the review:

Week 21: Baby gulps down several ounces of amniotic fluid every day, both for hydration and nutrition and to practice swallowing and digesting. And, these days, those taste buds actually work! Studies show that after birth, babies are most interested in tastes they've already experienced through amniotic fluid. Meaning, think about what you want your future child to eat as you prepare your own lunch. Average size: 10.5 in, 12.7 oz

From here out, unfortunately, we only get one fruit per month instead of weekly (5 - 9 months). That means there's only 5 more fruits till Kaden's here!

Bumps! It feels like my belly has popped sometime during the past week. Kaden is still moving around and the day after I felt him move from the outside Ryan was able to feel him move too. It was so wild to have Ryan feel Kaden and I think it just makes it feel that much more real for him.

Floors. Troy, our firefighter friend, has started work on the bathroom floor. He's going to do concrete stain on the floor and it will be etched to look like tile. The cool part about the floor is that he etched the tile with wider grooves so we'll actually have to grout the floor. It'll make the floor look more like tile. I'm looking forward to getting it done since that will put us so much closer to moving the office downstairs.

And now for the (sarcastic) best part of this week's blog. Remember my blog about wind damage? If you think that sucked, look at this:



We have 3 spots on the front of our roof that have shingles that are "waving" at us and three or four spots on the back of our roof that have missing shingles. We called the roof guy on Wednesday around noon or 1 pm and he didn't call back until 7 pm Thursday. He said he would come over sometime Monday since he lives just right around the corner from us. Well, it's 10 pm and no sign of the roof guy. A naked roof does not look very cool. I'm hoping the rain will stay away!

Baby Bump, No Laundry

Here's a picture Ryan took on 3/31.  This is the most recent baby bump picture I have, but certainly not the last.  I was 15 weeks and I think this was just after we ate, so some of that bump is food :)

I officially am off the hook for doing laundry right now!  We have some people coming over in the evenings mudding and taping the walls so we can paint them later.  They might (?) be done by Sunday, if not, don't be surprised if you live in Wichita and I show up at your front door with a laundry basket full of dirty clothes.

After the guys finish in the basement, Ryan will kill then paint the walls.  (Kills is a primer that will cover up any mud or tape marks. It just sounds fun to say that he's killing inanimate objects.)  After that's done, we'll have Troy back to concrete stain the bathroom floor and Jesse to install the carpet in the hall, closets and bedroom.

After that's all said and done, we'll be able move the office downstairs.  Then comes the most exciting part of all this planning - we'll get to paint Baby Snyder's room!  I'm looking forward to that.  We have carpet literally sitting in the garage to re-carpet the upstairs so Baby will have a brand new room to move into in September.

Reminder - We get to find out if a little boy or girl will be joining our family on April 23rd.  If you haven't voted on what I'm having (which all 8 people who ever read my blog probably already have once, if not twice) vote over on the right under our picture!

1/4 Pregant

Yesterday was the 10th week of my pregnancy. It's a little exciting/strange to think that I'm already one quarter done. My energy level is starting to go up a little bit, not by much though. So far I haven't gained anything (yay!). My diet has pretty much consisted of fresh fruits and veggies so my healthy eating habits has probably helped.

I haven't had to start wearing maternity pants yet, but I'm in that odd limbo in-between time when my pants are a little too tight and maternity pants are a bit too big. I bought a Bella Band at a maternity store called Marshmallow Kisses last week. It's awesome. It's like a light weight tube top that you wear over your too big or too small pants and it keeps the pants from falling down.

I'm getting more excited about our basement bathroom. We looked at sink cabinents at Lowes this weekend and tile at Star Lumber. I think we may check in to having the bathroom floor concrete stained just like we had the area around the bar stained. The floor area is only 5 foot by 5 foot, so it would be quite a bit faster to stain it instead of putting tile down.

We picked up cat food this weekend too. We buy the huge 15 or 20 pound bag of food and then put it in smaller cat food jugs that we bought when Fez was little. The food has been sitting on one of the chairs in the kitchen for about 24 hours, but apparently Fez was a little anxious to get to the food. We don't starve our cats - they have an automatic food despenser that gives them access to food at all hours of the day. I think Fez just likes really fresh food (even if he has to open the bag himself).