28 Weeks

Pregnancy Update September 3, 2012

How far along: 28 weeks. Hello 3rd trimester!

Size of baby: 14.8 inches, 2.25 lbs. - A "Chinese Cabbage" 

What developed this past week: Bryson can blink his eyes which now sport lashes (hopefully long, dark ones like his dad!)! His brain is developing billions of neurons and his body is adding more fat! Growing boy! :)

Weight Gain: 24.2 pounds. Not terrible for eating out every meal for 4 days (while traveling and sitting in a car for 20+ hours).

Maternity clothes: All maternity. 

Gender: IT'S A BOY! "Bryson Nicholas"

Movement: He moves all the time. I just read that he only sleeps for 20-30 minutes at a time, so that makes sense as to why I feel him often. We'll have to quickly break him of the up-every-half-hour habit! lol

Sleep: I sleep fine most nights. Sometimes I wake up and turn the heating pad on under my back for awhile to relax the ache out. That seems to help pretty well. Also, I've asked the doctor multiple times if it's ok to sleep on my back. She said it's fine since I have no blood pressure issues... so I sleep on my side or my back, rotating back and forth all night.

What I miss: Bending over "normally"... Caleb laughed at me when he saw me reaching for a kitchen towel in the bottom drawer of the cupboards the other night. My back was hurting, so I kept it as flat as I could while bending at a 90 degree angle at the waist (with feet shoulder width apart). He was so kind as to act out for me what I looked like... thanks, honey! :) lol

Cravings: Still just want whatever I see other people have - this week my coworker had crunchy peanut butter for a sandwich - looked delicious! Still haven't gotten to the store to buy my own though :(.

Best moment this week: Going on one last trip, or babymoon, with the love of my life. I have always wanted to go to Nashville, as I'm a HUGE country music fan (double entendre?? ;))!

Caleb is a very selfless person, so though we could go anywhere we wanted, he chose for me to get to take the trip I've dreamed of for years! At the risk of sounding dramatic - life.long.dream.realized. :)

Here are a few pics from all the site-seeing we did:

Caleb and I on the stage at the Grand Ole Opry! On the circle of wood cut from the original Opry - the Ryman Auditorium. Now we can say we stood where the Country Greats have stood! I may or may not have sung Patsy Cline's "I Go Out Walkin'" while standing there :). For more info: History of the Grand Ole Opry circle.

Outside the Opry in front of one of the guitars that lead you down the walkway to the auditorium.

Caleb at the ORIGINAL Grand Ole Opry - the Ryman Auditorium. AKA The "Mother Church". The history of this building is pretty cool - Sam Jones was a street preacher leading Christian revivals, and Thomas Ryman was sick of it. So Ryman took some guys out to one of Jones' meetings in order to protest. While there, Ryman heard the Word of God and was converted! He then had the [now] Ryman Auditorium built so that Sam Jones would have a building to preach in so the crowds could come and hear the gospel! As my mother would say, "Could it be God?!"
Another fun fact - this church has better acoustics than Carnegie Hall because everything from the pews to the ceilings are made of wood!

Me at the Country Music Hall of Fame. If you don't know (gasp!), this is Naomi and Wynonna Judd! LOVE! :) It was 3 stories of stars with their memorabilia, cars, records, awards, etc!

Our second day of touring started out at President Andrew Jackson's estate! Caleb especially loves history, so we thought it'd be fun to tour the historical side of Tennessee. We got to go all through his house and around the plantation. The farm was very big and had a bunch of different buildings dotting it. We made the nicest friends on our tour - they walked around with us and made lots of jokes and called Caleb the "Tour Guide" - because if you know my husband at all, you'll guess that he stole the show and talked to everyone about everything. :) Bob & Vicky asked us to come visit them whenever we're in NC again! Bob reminded me of my grandfather - it was SO fun getting to know them!

After lunch, we went to the Belle Meade Plantation, the previous home of many great race horses (or "High Horses", back before the word "Throroughbred". Hence the phrase, "Get off your high horse!"). Crazy thing about this place is that the family went broke within a few generations because gambling became prohibited in the state of Tennessee! The family business fell apart.
This picture was actually forced upon us by Bob & Vicky. But they asked us so nicely to do it, that we had to oblige :). Don't we look great in 1800's clothes?? lol

And here we are in front of the mansion.  You can't even see all of it in this picture - the kitchen is off to the right, only connected by a breezeway, as the houses built back then had the kitchens as separate buildings in case of fire, and to keep the house cooler in the summer. Pretty neat to go through as well!

 I have TONS more pictures, probably most of which I won't even remember what I'm looking at, but it was fun while we were there! :)

What I am looking forward to: The Farrell Family Baby Shower!!!! This weekend! I haven't checked my registry at all, and I know VERY little about the shower planning - will be SO fun to be surprised!

I also have a doctor's appt this week - just a normal check up. BUT CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?! I'm going every other week now! How did I get this far?? :)