DROP!

So, last night I was getting ready for bed and I looked in the mirror and my belly looked strange... I was thinking... what the heck?

Then, I turned sideways and realized he had dropped! Just like that! It was like all the sudden I had ribs and space under my bra and the baby was just so much lower and my belly was a completely different shape! It looked like a ski slope! I just couldn't believe how it was just like all the sudden he's not where he was anymore!

So, he has officially dropped, for all of you who may be interested! :)

progress above, progress below...

Here are a few pictures on our progress.... we're still movin' along! Thanks to Adam, (Rachel's fiance, for any of you who don't know him from Adam..... baaaahhha), Jason had the proper tools to finally finish the flooring! Once we got those tools, he banged that floor out in no time! (No pun intended). MAN, I am on a ROLL!

Floor - done!Then, we installed the ceiling fan.... and here's Jason reaching down for his screwdriver! Although, this could have been a great decoration if we decided to go with that Thriller themed nursery!

Fan - done!

No, no folks. We do NOT mess around!

Week 38

It's possible the baby may weigh close to seven pounds this week (although I'm thinking he may be under 7 lbs...) and may be measuring about 20 inches long. Fetal development is nearly complete as the baby tends to a few last-minute details like shedding the skin-protecting vernix and lanugo into the amniotic fluid (which he swallows..... eww) and some of it winds up in his intestines where it — along with other shed cells, bile, and other waste products (yum) — will turn into your baby's first bowel movement (meconium) and perhaps his first diaper change. He's also producing more surfactant, a substance that prevents the air sacs in his lungs from sticking to one another once he starts to breathe. So, at 38 weeks, all systems are (almost) a go!!! Very exciting!

Meanwhile, my body is tending to its own final touches before the big day, one of which is getting that milk machine up and running. Part of the process is producing colostrum, a thin yellowish liquid that's the precursor to breast milk.

Colostrum is full of antibodies that protect your newborn, and has more protein and less fat and milk sugar (the better to digest it) than the breast milk that arrives later. I read that many women start leaking around this time, but I haven't yet (that I know of)... This may be TMI but I thought it was REALLY cool.... what I read said that if I wasn't leaking but was curious about this miracle substance, that I could gently squeeze my areola to express a few drops... I thought about it........ and I wasn't really that curious but reading that MADE me curious so I tried it and it worked!!! I was really excited! It was so weird but really cool! It made me feel like he's going to be here REALLY soon! And when he gets here, he's ready to be fed! :)

One Week of Progress...

Alrighty, so we've been asked (by several avid blog viewers, as well as some other family & friends) to post some pictures of our progress on the room. As of 7 days ago, the spackling on this first wall was still incomplete... Jason's dad came to the rescue and that night (after sanding) we began painting... I've taken shots of all 4 angles of the room, but I'll only post two corners because it gets a little redundant (being as it is a small room...). When we complete the whole room I'll do a post with a 4-corners "before" shot and a 4-corners "after" shot, since with furniture and such it won't look as repetitive. Alas, for your viewing pleasure.......... I introduce to you our weeks worth of progress:

The walls aren't as dark as they look in these pictures... it's actually a very bright room! (especially during the day... these pictures just happened to both be shot at night with bad lighting....). If you notice, in the last shot, Jason has started laying the flooring!!! WOO HOO! (Should be done by tomorrow!).

Notice the excersize ball in the bottom right corner? That's what momma Kris has been sitting on to paint drawers and dressers and stuff! It's soft on my bum and gives me a little mobility to roll around lol. I'm sure I've been pretty funny to watch.... but unfortunately, we haven't been taping me work! :)

I'll try to post another set after tomorrow's "session"..... We should have some furniture back in the room by then!!! I didn't take before shots of the furniture... but the furniture appeared in some pictures so I'll be sure to show you (as best I can) what I've done with the furniture!

Love you, Poppy!

Norman C. Stinger

12.24.30 - 7.22.09

Some of you may know my grandfather just passed away this past week. He had been battling Parkinson's Disease for about a decade but it got really bad over the past few years. About a month ago, some tests came back that said he had cancer and it was basically everywhere so he didn't have much time. He passed early in the morning on July 22nd... so it's been a pretty rough week (and busy... preparing the service and everything).

He was quite the "free spirit".... and he always said he wanted us to have a big party when he passed. So... after the viewing and funeral and everything, that's exactly what we did. We went to the 25 club in Maple Shade, where he was a member for a LONG time! We've had tons of family parties, anniversaries, weddings, holiday parties, etc at this place so it feels a little like home for us.

We had tons of food and had the slideshow Jason & I made playing for most of the event, but my uncles (Kurt on the red keyboard, Mark on the microphone) sang a few songs and played some of my poppy's favorites; all dedicated to him, of course. It was really cool.

My cousins are goofy...
My mom & her siblings got to see some of their cousins from out-of-state... which was really nice.
I am the first grand-baby on my mom's side of the family... and following me was alllll girls! He didn't have any grandsons! So, you can imagine how thrilled he was to learn that he was having a great-grandson!!! Every time we saw him, he kept telling Jason "good job... I'm finally going to have a grandson!"
Sucks that he didn't get to meet him, but... I think I might call him peanut every once in a while since that was my poppy's nickname for me!

Love you Pop!

The Last Shower (I promise)!

So, as most of you know, my bridal shower was ENORMOUS! There were something like 88 women there and it was awesome but I felt like I didn't have time to do anything but open gifts and I felt like such a spoiled brat! lol. So, imagining myself 8 or 9 months pregnant in the middle of the summer, I requested that if any showers were going to be thrown, could we do a few small ones instead of another huge one? Well, I really liked having the time to hang out with people at each shower this time! But I STILL feel like such a spoiled brat! At least now, I know these gifts really aren't for me! They're for the baby... but it's still overwhelming to be "showered" with so much love!

Candace & Steph planned this shower... and they got a bunch of help from awesome friends like the Minter clan (which still includes you, Shannon...) and Bernie and Alicia and Beck and I'm sure many other people I'm forgetting. Thank you everyone!

Steph drew this sign behind me in this picture! So cute! Look at all the monkey paraphrenalia surrounding me in this picture! I sure hope this kid doesn't grow to HATE monkeys!

Christin was my very special helper all day! She brought me gifts, took away trash and made sure I didn't miss any extremely important photo ops! :) She kept me on track!

Shannon made this AWESOME cake! I really really really didn't want to cut it, but I think everyone appreciated that I finally made myself, because even better than the decoration was the taste! WOW! Everyone was raving about it!

This is me "trying on" the baby's clothes at Nana minter's request... (corrected by Shannon to hold the onesie upside-down because that's most likely how he's positioned). I think they'll fit...
Just a shot with me & bester...
Here's the typical Messiah friends picture.... Amy wins the prize for traveling the farthest distance to attend! She came from a REAL jungle to the jungle themed party... and back to Africa she goes!What a pathetic "camp friends" picture..... WHERE THE HECK IS EVERYONE!!! lol.And one with my high-school girls! Jenna, Mandy, Rachel, & Kristen... can you tell we were all at the beach together the day before the shower? lol.
And Leeshie-poo....
And the baby kicking Alicia.... this was totally her idea............ :)
And while we have our bellies out, might as well compare to Aunt Candace..... who is not expecting.... so this makes no sense but it doesn't have to because it's Candace! I'm re-thinking this shot now that I see how stinkin skinny she is and how HUGE she makes me look! lol. I'm like 3 times her width!!!
And what would a baby shower be without a disgusting poopy-diaper game!

SPECIAL THANKS TO EVERYONE! Karson can't WAIT to see his new room decorated with all the fun things everyone bought and I don't know if he'll even be able to WEAR all the clothes he's been given!!! Again, Jason and I feel so spoiled and blessed! Thanks to everyone who worked so hard to bring it all together!

Week 37

The baby is officially considered "full-term" this week! Of course, that doesn't mean he's finished growing — in fact, he's still packing on about a half pound a week (at this age, the average fetus weighs about 6.5 pounds). Right now, he is busy rehearsing for his big debut, inhaling and exhaling amniotic fluid (to get the lungs ready for that first breath), sucking his thumb (to prepare for that first suckle of milk), blinking, and turning from side to side, which Aunt Kacy got to feel the other night!

There's not much else to report this week... as he's pretty much just packing on the pounds over the next few weeks. One thing I just read was that mother's carrying boys tend to eat more than mother's carrying girls.... and since I really haven't been eating much more than normal (even less, actually since there's no room in my belly!) Jason and I just started cracking up thinking about how ridiculous it would be if the anatomy ultrasound was wrong and he's actually a she........ oh well, she'd be dressed like a boy for about a year or so! lol. Let's just hope that's not the case!