37 Week Appointment

We had our 37 week appointment today. Lost 2 pounds since last week - which is normal. And baby is measuring 36 weeks....which is the same as last week. So if that continues next week, we'll have to have an ultrasound. I have a feeling he/she is growing as I type this because my stomach is super tight...the little one is just squishing all my organs! Heart rate was good - 130s to 145.

So as you can imagine, we're starting to get very anxious. Ready for baby to arrive at any time!

37 Weeks

Only 3 weeks left!

This past week, I've been feeling not that great. Making me ready to have the baby! Christmas afternoon, I really wasn't feeling great. All the things I was feeling are listed under the "pre-labor" symptoms in a book I'm reading, which can occur anywhere from days to hours before birth. I must be in the days catagory because no baby yet! And I'm feeling better today - so far.

Poor Noah, with all the snow lately (he does snow removal in the winter) he's been very sleep deprived as he usually has to start the snow removal process around 2 a.m. in order to have some of it done before businesses open. Which has now led him to having a cold. So he's also feeling crummy. Makes us just want to be home, relaxing and resting.

Christmas 2008

Hard to believe how quickly Christmas came and went this year. Seems like we were behind in everything we did due to the late harvest...which only made x-mas sneak up on us. And the weather has been complicating things even more.

But we enjoyed a nice Christmas! X-mas Eve Noah and I spent the evening together. We ate dinner, opened presents and of course, watched Christmas Vacation. It just isn't Christmas without watching that movie at least once! Christmas morning we headed to Pella to see Noah's family - at his sister's house. We enjoyed spending time with them. Then late that afternoon we headed to my family's. We got there just as Dad was getting done with chores so we decided to open presents then eat later. It was a nice night. Noah and I were gifted with $ so we could purchase a video camera to capture all the baby's moments! So we'll be heading out in the next few days to purchase that! Thank you to everyone for our gifts!

The big present of the year was at the Van Maanen's house - they are now the proud owners of everything Nintendo Wii. That will make for some fun nights at the VM's...especially during winter season when the VM Aquatics Center is closed for the season.

Enjoy the photos below!

Our tree at our house, which will be coming down ASAP and replaced with a pack 'n play!

An awful attempt at taking our photo in front of our tree.

Noah with his niece Myka.

Noah's niece Bryn, drawing Earth on a magnidoodle. She's very creative!

The Van Maanen's. Russ looking overly joyed - he LOVES family photos!

Grandma and Grandpa with M&M. Grandpa doing his best not to smile. He also loves having his photo taken.

Mollie - the human present.

Max - another human present!

Max doing what he loves most - building! G&G got him an erector set...similar to what Grandpa had when he was young.

We love Uno...so we have every Uno game out there - regular Uno, Uno Spin, Uno Attack and now the latest Uno (not sure what it's called, though).

Busy Weekend

Friday night, some friends hosted a couples baby shower/game night for us. We played a variety of board games and laughed a lot. Our friends also surprised us with a John Deere tricycle - see below. It is sooo cute! Saturday was our Child Birth Education class. We spent the day learning all about child birth and a variety of other things. Following class, we finally went to purchase the stroller and car seat. It was a beautiful day on Saturday - nearly 50 degrees. So everyone and their brother was out x-mas shopping. Noah and I are not big fans of crowds...so we just had to remind ourselves we weren't in a hurry and that it would be ok! We got the stroller at Babies 'R Us and then headed across the parking lot to Toys 'R Us to buy his nieces their x-mas presents. After a few other errands we got some take out for dinner and headed home. After eating, Noah very successfully put the stroller together! I don't think I heard one swear word come out of his mouth in the process! The picture below shows he's already trying out the cup holder! Sunday, we put the car seat bases in our vehicles so we can officially bring home a baby! And we also did some cleaning around the house. I told Noah that I was not nesting...but just that the house needed cleaning. Sunday evening, we went to my parents to have an early b-day dinner for me. Below is my ice cream cake that my sister picked out. Notice the princesses on the cake - Mollie thought it was pretty neat! And this week will also be a busy week...so it should go by very quickly! To complicate it even more, there's supposed to be two very snowy days! Tuesday night is another baby class, Wednesday night a holiday party with Noah's broker, Thursday night is my b-day so I assume we'll do something and Friday night is Amy/Russ' holiday party. Friday is also our next midwife appointment...so I'll update after that appointment.

Baby Shower #2

On Saturday, two long-time family friends (Margaret Cleverley & Pat Black) threw a shower for me. I was able to invite friends and family, so it was a great time. If I was at all feeling unprepared before the shower, the generosity of all in attendance has made us entirely more prepared. We received wonderful gifts...and all things we were needing! A big thank you to Margaret and Pat for wanting to host the shower and making all the arrangements!

Some photos from the shower follow:

Noah's sister Sarah, his niece Bryn and his mom Karen.

Some friends from high school - Stacie, Tara and Molly.

Friends from when I worked at GuideOne - Steph, Melany, Shawn and her son Quinn.



My dad's aunts, my great-aunts, Betty and Bonnie.

I couldn't have a baby shower and not invite Caleb (and Steve). To my surprise he came WITH a gift! He got the baby a nice model red tractor, which says on the box suitable for ages 14 and up. And if anyone ever wondered just how tall Caleb is - this is a good illustration! He's as tall as the door way...towering over me!

Steve arrived with TWO bags of diapers for us. I think he just came for the free food. He's convinced that we should name the baby Stevie - after him.

From left, Noah's mom Karen, me, my mom Callie, Margaret and Pat. Margaret is the mom of my good friend Lori and Pat is Steve's mom.

These are friends from Wartburg. Left is Steph and Xavier Boeding. Steph is married to my good friend Jay, who was also invited to the shower - he's normally the token male at these types of things - but he had to work that day. At right is Melissa and Max Wardell. Melissa and I worked at Blank together as well.

Then of course, Amy, Mollie and Max!

Lori was missing - due to bad weather in Milwaukee and the threat of bad weather in Iowa. The weekend before she had to drive home from Iowa in the snow and it took her a good 2 hours longer than normal! Yuck.

Thanks to everyone for coming and for the wonderful gifts! We have such great friends and family.

Baby Shower #1

At work, I have two wonderful "families" of co-workers - my Blank Children's family and my Corporate Communications family. On Friday, my Coporate Communications family threw me a baby shower over lunch. They brought in food so we ate and played a game. One co-worker in particular was especially entertaining (Mr. Caleb Hegna)...so he kept us laughing. My co-workers went in on a gift for us - and purchased us the pack 'n play we registered for...in addition to a gift card to Target. It was a very nice surprise!

Green and yellow cupcakes in the spirit of John Deere Tractors! Ha!

The pack 'n play - yeah!


Some attendees - notice Corey on the right holding baby Logan! She'll be back from maternity leave just as I'm gearing up for maternity leave!

More attendees. Notice the girl in brown on the left - she's the othe pregnant one in the department. I'll be back from maternity leave just as she's going on. How did we ever plan this so well!?!?

34 Weeks

Friday was our 34 week appointment and all is well. Only gained 1/2 pound over the past 2 weeks. I was quite pleased considering that covered the Thanksgiving holiday and all the yummy food. The midwife is estimating the baby currently at 5 to 5.5 pounds...with a 1/2 pound gain each week now. That should put the little one at 8 pounds - should he/she come on time.

People ask me a lot lately how I'm feeling. The best way I can describe how I'm feeling is "crowded". The baby is pushing on lots of organs...and the one I feel the most is the stomach. I'll be starving and will eat a normal size meal...and 20 minutes later I'm wishing I had just had jello. Today, the pressure on the stomach was making me feel like I did in the 1st trimester - just kind of crummy.

Saturday is our child birth education class. I'm anxious to learn more about what to expect so I can feel even more prepared. It's an all-day class and afterwards Noah and I are going to treat ourselves to a trip to Babies 'R Us to buy the stroller/car seat and also do a little x-mas shopping.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is normally a big holiday on the farm. But this year with harvest happening so late, Thanksgiving became a low-key event. It was just our immediate family plus Caleb at Mom/Dad's. Noah, Dad, Russ and Caleb worked all morning and then came in for the main event - lunch! We ate lots of good stuff.

So what to do after eating? How about a mean game of Twister (as requested by Max and Mollie). Caleb and Noah - being kids at heart - decided they too would play. This made for several photo opps...as you can see below!

And since it was just our immediate family, Amy asked if she could wear sweats. (This is one of my sister's vices - sweat pants. At least she no longer wears the sweat pants with elastic around the ankle!) Of course, I told her no...but she decided to wear sweats anyway. Russ also partook in the casual nature of the day and wore his long underwear. See the casual couple below.

To all our family we didn't get to see this year, hope you had a great Thanksgiving....we missed having you at the farm!

Festival of Trees

At Blank Children's Hospital, our largest fundraiser each year is the Festival of Trees and Lights. It raises money for our Child Life and Outreach departments. This year was the 25th anniversary of the event. While I do not necessarily plan the event, my job is to promote the event...and one way we do that is thru media partnerships.

So the CBS affiliate in town supports us and broadcasts live their 5 p.m. new program from Festival on opening day. For one of the segments, the producer wanted to do a "demonstration" of some sort...so I decided we should promote the children's activities at the event. That required some children to do the demonstration. So what does a PR girl do when she does not have children of her own to do the segment? She recruits her niece and nephew...who coincidentally have been attending Festival for a number of years and love the children's activities. Unfortunately, Max was not feeling well that day so I recruited a co-worker's son to fill in. Below is Mollie and Griffin getting pumped up to be on TV. And below is Mollie and Griffin starting the demonstration just before the segment went live on TV. I also recruited my co-worker Julie to do the interview since I was feeling quite round and didn't exactly want to be 8 months pregnant and on the highest rated TV station's news in the market. Thanks Julie!

Another funny from that night...our first segment was an interview with our main fundraiser and the VP of marketing from our presenting sponsor. Well, their interview was at 5:03 p.m. At 5 p.m., our sponsor was no where to be seen. We had just talked to him the night before confirming he'd be there. At 5:01, still no sign. At 5:02, I see him walk in - across the convention complex. So I literally run over to him and tell him he needs to run with me in order to make the interview. Together we run back to the broadcast site...and within 10 seconds he was on air. Ah, the joys of live TV! He did his best to not sound out of breath during his interview. And after the interview, we all had a good laugh.

Harvest Party

Every year after the orchard season is done, Steve throws a Harvest Party for all his staff. That party was Saturday night. Above is almost all the staff from the 2008 season. Steve put together a fun video/slide show of photos from the year. It was a fun party.

Some highlights from this orchard season:
- 15,000 Paid Admissions (doesn't count visitors who just came to shop, pick apples/pumpkins)
- 6,500 Kids who went on the school tours
- 1,500 pounds of fudge sold (that's 5oo more than last year!)

I'm a little sad that next year I'm not sure I'll be able to work at the orchard like I did this year considering I'll have a baby! I know Steve still wants me involved...so hopefully we'll find a way to make it all work!

Saturday's Snow

I shouldn't have been shocked that it was snowing on Saturday considering it was Nov. 22! None the less, it did shut down the guys about mid-day. As you can see above, there was a little bit of accumulation. If you're wondering who the guy in the middle is, that's Noah's brother Seth. He came down for the weekend to help out.

Even though the prospect of having a Saturday afternoon off had the guys thinkings "let's go drink some beer" there was other work to get done. They needed to set up their 100 ft. auger in order to unload corn to the 60 ft. harvestore. So that's what they did. Keep in mind, manuevering a 100 ft. auger is a challenge in itself...so much so, Caleb had to back it down a road 1.5 miles long otherwise it wouldn't have made the narrow turn into the farm. This thing is huge - as you can see below. Notice how small the skidloader and Seth look in the photo. That'll give you some perspective.

And of course, someone had to go up top to get it all lined up, etc. That was Noah. Below is a photo of him making the climb to the top. After I took this photo, I had to leave. I couldn't fatham the thought of watching him fall off the top of that thing. So I went home and tried not to think about him being 60 ft. up on top of the harvestore.

Friday's Farming Fun

I've been updating on the harvest season this year - as it's been an unusual year. But as with every season, there comes some "break downs". And they usually always come at once. This year would be no exception.

Case in point. My dad had 4 breakdowns on Friday. Surprisingly, when I saw him Friday night he was still in good spirits! Probably because he only had about a 1/2 day of combining left. Of the 4 breakdowns, 2 he could fix himself and the other 2 required the repair guy from Marshalltown to drive down to the farm.

Noah and Caleb also had a breakdown on Friday. Because it's so late in the season, the corn has become very brittle and a lot of the ears are now hanging lower to the ground. In order capture them with the combine, the corn head has to be set a little lower. Usually not an issue...unless the ground is frozen! If the elevation of the field is not perfectly level, the different points on the corn head actually dig into the ground. So if the ground is frozen, that can cause some problems. See below!

Being the Mr. Fix It that Caleb is - he had a plan to get it fixed so they could keep combining. Notice his wonderful attitude above. It was Noah taking the photo otherwise I'm sure he wouldn't have given me the bird! Ha!

32 Weeks

We had our 32 week appointment on Friday. All is well....baby and me are measuring right on. I'm starting to think more and more about the labor and delivery thing. Lots of questions in my head...but we have our child birth class on Dec. 13 - so I'll wait til then and see how many questions I have left. Then our second class is a baby care class on Dec. 16. After that, I hope we'll be ready!

Baby's room is almost ready. Artwork should arrive this week...and then it'll be complete. Wish I could show some photos - but it would give away the surprise. People keep asking me what the "theme" is - and I'm not one to do all matchy-matchy with every element...but the over-arching theme is farm. Only appropriate since we live on a farm, right?

Sleeping has become more challenging. It's really hard to get comfortable. Pregnant women are very limited in their sleeping positions. So there's lots of tossing and turning for me...and the occasional sleeping on the couch. Noah surprised me Friday and bought me a body pillow....so hopefully that will help me get more comfortable!

Weather & Work

The weather turned crummy last Friday/Saturday with snow flurries. No accumulations, but it caused more delays in harvest! Noah and Caleb were able to combine Monday, and now it rained all day today. I suspect they will still be working come Thanksgiving. Crazy!

Since Noah gets a little stir-crazy if he's not working or in the field, he decided to tackle a couple odd jobs on Sunday - in the bitter cold (29 degrees). One of which was building some doors for a shed they use. I offered to help, to the extent I was able...which meant I handed him screws! Tough work! Ha! Below is Noah working on those doors.

Speaking of work, my job is pretty busy right now. We're gearing up for our big fundraiser in 2 weeks...so lots to do. Makes the days, and weeks, fly by! January 17 will be here before we know it.

29 Weeks

Here I am at 29 weeks. Our next midwife appointment is tomorrow. It's just a regular check-up, but frequency has increased. We go every 2 weeks now until the last month. Wow, it's going fast!

On Sunday, Amy, mom and I went to Target to register for baby stuff. Noah and I are clueless when it comes to this stuff. And since he was busy combining, we made it a girls' outing. Thank goodness too - Amy and Mom were a big help. The only thing I couldn't decide on was a stroller. So Noah and I went to Babie R Us last night - he was a big help and together we made a decisoin! Yeah! After that, we celebrated our decison with dinner out...and during dinner we discussed baby names. I think we're getting closer to deciding on what we like!

Day Trip to Vala's

While Orchard season is pretty much over, Steve has Amy and I brainstorming for next year. He had a GREAT year...we couldn't be happier for him and his awesome family ag-entertainment business! So to help us get ideas/vision for the years to come, Steve sent us (Max & Mollie too) on a day trip to Omaha to Vala's Pumpkin Patch. Vala's is a place where Steve gets some good ideas. It's also a family-run business - but this place has more than 100,000 visitors in 2 months. It's huge! We went on the last day they were open, and it was pumpkin destruction day. We had fun as the place was not crowded with people.

This is Amy/Mollie towards the back of the train - as you can see, it wasn't busy...which made it more enjoyable for us so we could really experience all the different activites. Max and I sat towards the front of the train - away from his mom and sister! Ha!

Here's Mollie on the Jumpy Pillow - Steve also has a jumpy pillow...a new attraction he added this year which has turned out to be a HUGE hit!

Max doing the apple sling shot - he really put his whole body into it! Steve also has an apple sling shot!

Mollie, patiently waiting her turn at the apple sling shot. And just generally being cute...

This was a neat thing....while Vala's has numerous eating establishments on their grounds, one we enjoyed was the Snow Cones. (Sidebar: It was Nov. 1 and we were eating snowcones as it was 70+ degrees outside.) You purchase your snowcone, then go to this "shed" where they have spickets of probably 30+ different flavors...so you get to create your own flavor combination. It was really cool.