Pregnancy: weeks 16, 17, & 18

It's starting to feel more real now with my growing belly... I'm still feeling good, just tired. It's also stating to feel more real because yesterday, we found out that in less than five months, we'll be having a baby BOY! We couldn't be happier. It was so cool to see everything on the ultrasound and wonderful to hear that he is healthy and growing just as expected. He was moving around a ton at first, but then fell asleep. :) 

My belly continues to grow... Here we are at 16 weeks.

17 weeks....

and 18 weeks! I'm slowly starting to feel like I look more pregnant and less like I ate too much pizza...

Other than the one time at the doctor, I haven't felt any movement. I found out at my last ultrasound that I have an anterior placenta, so there is a cushion between my stomach and the baby. This will make it harder to feel little kicks and movements until a little later... 

My sleep has still been great- I do miss sleeping on my stomach, but I've been so busy with work at school all day, private practice in the evenings, trying to exercise, and filling etsy orders, that I fall asleep the second my head hits the pillow at 11:30. I don't even know how I stay up that late... I need to be better about going to bed earlier. If I could, I'd be in bed at 8:00!

One of the most exciting things these past weeks has been setting up our crib! My friend Lauren is two months ahead of me in her pregnancy, and I fell in love with the crib she chose. So we got the same! The feet are my favorite part. I can't wait to get a mattress and start working on making the bedding! This room is slowly changing from our office/ music room to the nursery. I have a vision for it and can't wait to really work on it!  

Lloyd and Susan bought us this little book shelf at an antique store in Asheville. I have everything "baby" thrown on it for now. Notice the giant dinosaur popup book- When Brian boxed up all of our books for storage, he kept this one out... I think he was hoping for a boy. :)

Toby likes to sleep right beside the crib. I think it's so sweet. 

And I don't know if it's in my head, but Toby has been extra sweet lately. The other night, I walked out of the bathroom into our room, and he was waiting for me like this. 

After finding out the gender, the next best part of the week was making my first clothing purchases. It helped me process that we are actually going to have a little boy around here soon. Little boy clothes are so cute these days! I love all the forest animals.. This fox sweater was my favorite. 

holiday onesies are here!

I am so happy to finally post holiday onesies! I've had ideas brewing in my head for weeks. I finally a chance to spend a whole day cranking them out. I didn't leave the house yesterday and didn't even get dressed! It was fabulous. I wish I had taken a picture of what my house looked like... It was a disaster. Here they are!

Looking at these makes me so excited for fall and the holidays! It also makes me even more excited to find out if baby P is a boy or a girl! 7 more days until we know!! Hopefully the baby will cooperate during the ultrasound. :) All onesies can be purchased at etsy.com/shop/allisonparkerdesigns.

Labor Day Weekend 2013

I have been looking forward to this weekend ever since we got Doug and Katie's save the date card months ago. Their wedding was in DC, so we decided to make it a road trip with Jeff and Ginna! As it turns out, they had just bought their first house and closed the weekend before. We were their first house guests! 

We left from Raleigh on Saturday morning and headed to the city. Jeff was a great driver. It made the trip so much more fun- we entertained ourselves with travel games and laughing to tears while playing Mad Libs. :)

 We started out afternoon out at the Eastern Market, one of our favorite spots.

Since it was the weekend, they had tons of booths open. Ginna and I both found earrings at this spot.

 We always have to visit Capitol Hill Books... The same grumpy old man still owns it. Nothing has changed.

 It was an incredibly hot day. We headed to the mall and then to a couple museums to escape the heat.

After dinner on 14th Street, we drove to Georgetown! Another favorite spot.

Our intention was to get a cupcake at Georgetown Cupcake, but when we saw that Serendipity was now open, we couldn't resist a frozen hot chocolate on a hot August night.

After Georgetown, we drove to Leesburg, VA where we stayed for the wedding. On Sunday morning, Doug arranged a group run. This was his 400 something day running straight. He hadn't missed a day ever since he and Katie got engaged. It was the perfect way to start the wedding day! A group 3 mile run. It felt like a real race!

Ginna is the best running partner. I was happy I made it through the run... For some reason, I get really bad heartburn while running pregnant, but it's not unbearable...

\We took it easy that afternoon and even took a nap! Then it was off to Bluemont Vineyards for the wedding! We took a trolley ride to get there...

The ride there was little eventful. It got pretty crowded and was  little warm. The lady behind us started to hyperventilate and we had to pull over for her to leave. It was a little dramatic for a few minutes, but ended up being okay.

 The groom and best man!

Ginna and I were beyond excited to see Kareem. It had been way too long.

I'm so glad this dress zipped! It ended up working out pretty well for being 16 weeks pregnant... It was  lot looser when I bought it three weeks ago though.

 The Neels

 And the Hays! Congrats, guys!

The reception was really pretty.

When Ginna and I lived in Maryland five years ago, these were our people. We had countless events and celebrations together and made so many memories. Even though it had been almost three years since we had seen them, it felt as if no time had passed at all.  We still keep up with a running email chain that is like 6,000 some emails long. Such a great way to keep in touch!

It was such a fun weekend! We didn't want it to end! Congratulations, Doug and Katie!! 

Pregnancy: weeks 13, 14, & 15

So it still doesn't feel real that we'll have an extra person in our family in five months... As my belly continues to grow, it becomes more and more real. I'm actually a little surprised that I've popped out this much so soon! I knew I'd regret it if I didn't document weekly baby bump pictures, so I went ahead and started with week 13.

Week 13 when I could still button my jeans! 

 Week 14

 And week 15! 

I'm still in that awkward stage where you don't really look pregnant... Flowy shirts and the bella band have been fabulous!

Overall, I really can't complain. I'm still really tired, but not as tired as weeks 5-12. I think working 12 hour days twice a week doesn't help with the exhaustion.. On the days that I'm able to come home at 4:45, I literally crash immediately on the couch for at least 30 minutes. Toby has gotten used to this routine. He doesn't even ask to go outside until I wake up. He just lays next to me and waits patiently... It's so nice.

I'm still exercising at least four times a week- I wish I could do more! Last Saturday, it was cooler and I had the best run I've had in a while. I usually run 2-4 miles... I have to walk a few paces here and there because I've been really short of breath! Apparently this is normal. If I don't run, I try to walk at least 3 miles or do yoga.

I've had some interesting cravings... Root beer and french fries have been the biggest so far. This weekend, I really wanted a grilled hot dog, so I bought all natural GF hot dogs and they were fabulous! I really wanted the last one for dinner tonight and almost had a meltdown when I discovered that Brian had eaten it yesterday. I almost cried. Peanut butter is another big one.. Every day in my lunch, I either have apple slices or a banana and peanut butter. Oranges and grapefruit too! And any time I see food on instagram, I pretty much start to crave it. It's bad. I have made it a whole week without ice cream though, so I consider that a success! The only real aversion so far has been brussel sprouts. Every time Brian makes them I want to gag. I normally LOVE them!

I had my 15 week appointment on Tuesday and heard the heartbeat again! It took a little longer to find it this time because the baby was moving around like crazy. At one point, my midwife said, "Did you feel that? It wasn't me, it was the baby!" In three weeks, we'll know if Baby Parker is a boy or a girl! Based on my cravings and the fact that I haven't been sick, I'm thinking it's a boy. It's been really fun to tell my students my news. They are all so excited! I can't wait to start buying clothes. I went into Carter's last week, and could have spent a fortune.

I'm really excited about getting the baby's room together.. That's going to be such a fun part of the process! I started making a granny square blanket for the baby too... It's so fun to make something for MY baby!