30 Weeks

Michael and I are excited to officially share the name of our daughter - Adalee Rose Bell. And let's be honest...we didn't do a great job of keeping it a secret in the first place! We decided pretty early on that her name would be Adalee, and have been calling her by her name ever since. Adalee was a name I had heard in passing many years ago, and for some reason it stuck with me. Luckily, Michael loves the name as much as I do - otherwise a battle may have ensued! Rose is a family name on my mother's side. My great grandmother's name was Rosa and my mom's middle name is Rose after her. We only hope that Miss Adalee will love her name as much as we do!

Now, on to our 30 Week update... This week...

Baby Bell is the size of a... cucumber? Where do they get this stuff?!? A cucumber to me seems small, but maybe they are talking about a species of giant cucumber only found in New Zealand. Anyways...Adalee is weighing in right around three pounds, and measures between 15 and 17 inches. Her skin is smoothing out, while her brain and lungs are continuing to develop. And goodness gracious, can she pack a punch (and a kick!) when she wants to... :)

My bump is... big. There is really no other word to describe it. And we are still 10 weeks out. Which means my bump has the capacity to stretch even bigger. Joy. Pure Joy. She still has some room to move in there, which she takes advantage of all day, every day. It is awesome to not only feel her moving all the time, but we actually get to see a lot of the movements as well - especially at night before going to bed, which is when Miss Adalee is her most active self! I am still waiting to see her hand print or foot print through my stomach - but I feel like it will be coming in the next month or so!

I have been feeling... like I need to get back to being busy. I have taken some time off from preparing for her arrival over the last few weeks. Mostly because we have been out of town so much, but also because I just needed a break! But now a little bit of stress is starting to come back and I feel like it is time to start checking things off the to-do list again. Ten weeks feels like nothing at this point - and there is still a lot to buy, a lot to organized, and a lot to get done! I guess we should get to it...

I have been craving... Mug Root Beer. And lots of it. Throughout the pregnancy, I had been doing a fairly good job not drinking soda - mostly to avoid the large amounts of caffeine. But now that I have discovered caffeine-free Mug Root Beer, I am in big trouble! The stuff is just so good! I still need to control my intake a little bit, because it has a lot of sugar...but one mini-can a day seems okay to me! One craving that I have not given into is having Caramel White Mochas from Starbucks. With the weather turning colder, this is what I want most mornings as a pick-me-up, but thus far I have had the willpower to not stop on my way to work. Let's hope this continues... :)

Our favorite thing has been... simply talking about our daughter and picking out items for her and the nursery. With the main furniture delivered and a rocker on the way (finally pulled the trigger on that one!), it has been fun to start buying some of the little decor items that will make her room special and uniquely hers. We have still been reading books most evenings, and just spending time talking about all the things we want to teach her, and things we can't wait to do as a family of three!

We are looking forward to... so many things! Our first baby shower is this weekend in Manhattan! It will be great to catch up and celebrate with our families! Then, the following weekend we are taking our maternity photos with Erica from Anecdotally Yours, who handled the videography for our wedding celebration! Also, we are starting our childbirth classes the week after that! I feel like we are a little late to the game on this one, but I didn't want to take the classes so early that I would forget the information! My memory seems to be fading a little more everyday as it is...Here's hoping that we learn a lot of helpful information, and that some of the anxiety associated with labor is mitigated!