One last hurrah!

We just got back from the beach late Saturday night. It was a wonderful vacation - full of sitting on the beach, reading books, and just relaxing. The condo was beachfront, which was awesome.  In the past the condo we've stayed at is just a row or two back, which was still not bad, but our beach access at this condo was pretty much right outside our door.

We saw more wildlife on this trip than we have ever seen before. We saw dolphins every day - one day we probably saw 15 or 20. We also saw a group (school?) of stingrays, as well as a shark - a nice big five foot long shark that was a couple feet away from shore. Kind of cool, kind of scary.

We got to visit with Pop Pop and Florence - having dinner at their house one night and then crabs at our condo another night. It was great seeing them and the crabs, which are an annual tradition, were great as usual!

I managed to finish a 560 something page book, which I had gotten less than halfway through before vacation and then read two more books (Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime and Little Bee) and start another during the course of our vacation. It felt great! I can't remember the last time I got to read that much in such a short amount of time. I'm hoping to do a lot of reading this summer before the baby arrives. (Yusaku was having fun playing with his camera and taking picture of me reading on our balcony.)

 

Enjoy this last picture of the beautiful intracoastal waterway at sunset!

School's Out For Summer!

My last day of school (and teaching for awhile) was yesterday. It was very surreal. I had certain expectations of how I thought the day would go and how I would feel. I expected to be sentimental because I am sad to be leaving, but weirdly I didn't feel that sad or sentimental even at the very end of the day. Maybe it's because it just hasn't sunk in yet. Who knows? It's funny because I was kind of frustrated with myself that I wasn't more emotional about the whole thing.

Today, Yusaku and I headed out to my classroom to pack up as much as we could fit in the car. I had A LOT of books, which Yusaku single-handedly had to load into the car and unload again at home. (See pic below of all the books from my classroom unloaded at home). I still have a little bit of work left to do on Monday before I turn in my keys. Then, I am free for the summer!

Switching topics from school to our baby, last weekend Yusaku and I headed down to northern Cincinnati to a baby store called Treehouse Kids. It was really nice and the woman who helped us was very knowledgeable. We ordered both our glider and our stroller. We had originally thought of getting a travel system (carseat/carrier and stroller altogether), but Yusaku wanted a jogging stroller so we ended up getting something kind of in the middle...an all-terrain stroller. It looks like a jogging stroller (three wheels and rubber tires instead of plastic) but still has the option of putting on an adapter so you can snap the car seat into it at least for the first 6 months or so. We got the adapter so we will be able to put the car seat in it.  Pretty exciting stuff, huh? :)

Next Friday we'll be heading down to Topsail Island in North Carolina for one last little vacation. We'll get to see my PopPop, which I'm excited about and just sit on the beach, read, and relax. I will post again when we get back. I'll leave you with an updated baby bump picture!

22 weeks and counting!

Tomorrow, I will officially be 22 weeks along. I'm excited to be past the halfway mark! I just had a doctor's appointment today. Everything looked good! The doctor said the results from my ultrasound 10 days ago were "boringly normal," which sounds good to me. I asked about the size of the baby, which was 12 oz and the ultrasound tech said was right on track, and the doctor said it was "average" - 43 percentile. I hope this is good and means that come late September/early October I won't have a gigantic baby! :)

I had my first Braxton Hicks contractions yesterday - an interesting experience. My whole lower abdomen got really tight and rock hard for a minute or two and of course, I was a little concerned. I was pretty sure it was Braxton Hicks thanks to having listened to all the pregnancy stories of my friends who've already had babies, but I did a little online research and confirmed my diagnosis. Everything I read said they could be brought on by dehydration, which I'm sure was the culprit because I know I don't drink enough water. I am going to try to get much better about that.

We picked up the crib and dresser this weekend (can't even begin to tell you what a crazy hassle it turned out to be) and since the bedding had arrived earlier in the week, we started to decorate the nursery. It's definitely not done yet, but it's looking good. I had a great shower at work and got tons of blankets, towels, and clothes, which I now have a place to store.  Check out the pictures below.

Only eight more days of school until it's officially summer! I have a lot to look forward to this summer. Yusaku and I are taking one more "last hurrah" to the beach (Topsail Island) for a week in the middle of June and we've got tickets to Phantom of the Opera and childbirth preparation classes at the end of June. In between all that, we'll celebrate our 4th anniversary...hard to believe! In July, I'm looking forward to seeing family and friends for my baby shower. The rest of the summer and during the remainder of my pregnancy, I look forward to relaxing and preparing for the arrival of the baby!

It's a Girl!

We had our 20 week ultrasound today and as the title of the post points out, IT'S A GIRL!  We are very excited! The ultrasound tech looked at everything - the head, the stomach, the arms, the legs - all the while keeping us in suspense. Clearly I didn't know what I was looking at because at one point I said, "Oh, is that the head?" and she said "No, that's the stomach."  Finally we got a nice little butt and leg shot and she announced that it was a girl!  (See the picture below.) Now we can start deciding on a name and decorating the nursery. Lots of fun to come!

Enjoy the rest of the pictures!

18 week update

It's been about two weeks since I last updated the blog so I thought I would write something and post another picture of my bigger bump. I was 18 weeks on Tuesday and had a doctor's appointment on Friday. It was just a regular checkup. We got to hear the baby's heartbeat, which was in the high 150's - always fun to hear! Just two more weeks until the ultrasound...we are both really excited for that!  

I've started registering online at Babies R' Us for at least the basics. Today Yusaku and I went to Babies R' Us and looked at car seats, strollers, cribs, etc. We found stuff we liked but aren't ready to buy it just yet. We need to clear the existing furniture out of the soon-to-be baby's room and would like to paint before bringing home the crib and any other furniture. Hopefully next month sometime, once we find out the sex, we will get started on painting and setting up the nursery.

Our current project is making the basement a more finished space that we can use it as a place to hang out as well as a play room/ guest room. We had the basement re-carpeted a few weeks ago and got bookshelves, a storage cubby, and a sofa bed at Ikea yesterday. It's starting to look good. Yusaku built everything pretty much by himself and did a great job!  All we have left to do is to fill up the shelves with everything that got pushed into the laundry and boiler rooms when we had the carpeting done. So, whenever you want to come visit, you'll have a nice place to stay!  Who wants to be the first guest? :)

Baby Bump!

Well, as you can see in the picture above, I've started to pop out. The kids and teachers at school have been commenting on how they can finally see that there's a baby growing in there. It is nice to see some outward proof! :)

Next Friday we have our 18 week appointment and just 3 weeks from Friday is the big 20 week ultrasound/gender reveal! I've been feeling pretty good lately, although I've started having round ligament pains (sharp pains in my lower abdomen when I change positions, sneeze, etc.) and really itchy skin (a weird but true pregnancy symptom I had never heard of before). I can deal with it though - it's not so bad. :)

San Francisco

Yusaku and I just spent the past week in San Francisco for my Spring Break. I wanted to record all the details of our trip on the blog so I can have it /remember it in the future. We flew out early in the morning Easter Sunday and with the time difference, got into San Francisco around 11:00 a.m. Unfortunately, it was cold, rainy, and windy on Sunday. Once we got to the hotel, we headed out to grab some lunch and checked out a few shops around Union Square, but the crummy weather kind of forced us back to the hotel to sit around for the rest of the day. I must admit I was little disappointed that this was how our trip started out. Even though thing didn't work out exactly how I hoped, the forecast for the rest of the week was much better.

 

We got an early start Monday morning and rode a cable car down to Fisherman's Wharf. Not long after we got down there, it started to rain. Luckily, we had bought an umbrella the day before and the rain was not as heavy so we kept walking around. We walked down to Pier 39 where we got to see the sea lions. As excited as I was to see them, I was equally excited to find a public restroom (those were few and far between, which is kind of an issue when you're pregnant!).  

 

We hopped back on a cable car and hopped off at the top of Lombard Street and walked down. We finished off the day by taking a bus to the California Academy of Sciences Museum, which was very interesting but extremely crowded. There we saw a rainforest exhibit and a show at the planetarium among other things.

 

Tuesday was probably my favorite day. We decided to rent a car for a day and headed across the Golden Gate Bridge to Muir Woods. We caught a free guided tour when got there and after the tour was over continued walking on our own for a while. It was beautiful! After we left there, we headed to Sausalito and had lunch. We ate at a restaurant on the water and took a nice rest in the sun by the water afterward. After our rest, we checked out the shops. It was a very cute little town.

On Wednesday, we saw Japantown, Alamo Square/the Painted Ladies (brought back great childhood memories of Full House!), and the Japanese Tea Garden. This was probably the warmest day we had, which was great.

Thursday we took a very steep hike up to Coit Tower and then rode the elevator to the top of the tower for a great view of the whole city. We also got to see some of the wild parrots that live on Telegraph Hill. We headed to the Embarcadero area and ate lunch outside of the ferry building. We finished off the day with a night tour of Alcatraz. We got a nice tour of the bay on our way there. It was interesting and less creepy than I thought it would be with the exception of the hospital.

Friday we went to the Botanical Garden and rode the bus to the beach. We went to Japantown for lunch and after a little rest, went to Ghiradelli Square for some ice cream and souvenirs before calling it a night. All in all, it was a fun, busy trip, but by the end my tired legs and I were ready to come back home.