big ol' belly

My goodness, things have gotten busy around here! We're ever-growing these days!

31 weeks:

32 weeks:

33 weeks:

34 weeks (this is at the very end of the day after our PR shower... I was a bit tired!):

35 weeks:

heritage shower

We had a lovely shower at my parents' church on Sunday, December 4th. It's such a blessing to feel so loved!

It was such a surreal day... I just couldn't believe that we were the ones who were opening baby stuff! Such a blessing and dream come true for us.

Can you tell we're happy? :)

her name

Our baby girl will be...

Avery Jordan Parrish

Jordan is both Lance's middle name and my mom's maiden name... and we both just loved the name Avery. Anyway, we love the name, and we love her.

tying up some loose ends

I’ve mentioned several things in passing but haven’t circled back to address them, so here is my attempt at tying up some loose ends:

• I think we’re settled on our baby’s name… we just need to make sure there are no major familial objections, and then we’ll be 100% sure. I’m excited to start calling her by her name. Maybe. Sometimes I get choked up when I say her name, so maybe calling her by name is not a great idea...
• My glucose test came back great—in fact, in the nurse’s words, I passed “with flying colors.” I was so thankful to hear that! I even told the nurse on the phone that she made my day. Ha. Oh well… I’m sure she’s used to talking to crazy pregnant folk.
• We had a very busy December (with several wonderful Christmas celebrations) and are facing an equally busy January, but we are way too blessed to be cranky about that.
• We went to our birthing class, which was very informative. We didn’t stay to watch the delivery videos, as we had both seen them before at some point in life… plus the class ran long, and we had plans that night, so we had to head out. One cool thing is that one of the nurses who taught the class is one of my doctor’s nurses, so it was neat to hear her go on and on about my doctor and how wonderful he is.
• Sweet Lance painted the nursery (and the once-yellow closet!), and we set up the crib yesterday. We are hoping to get Baby’s room all set up this weekend! I feel 100% certain that I will cry. However, I am so excited to have a space for her… plus I think it will help me feel less panicked about how close we are getting to her arrival… and just to help me process a little bit more that she will actually come live with us and have a room and her own stuff. I hope to have pictures to post soon!
• We had a shower at my parents’ church on December 4^th and felt SO blessed by the love we received there. My sister got some great pictures, so I will post those soon. It was surreal to actually be the one opening stuff for a baby though (after hostessing more baby showers that I can count on my fingers… and maybe toes). I kept getting a big lump in my throat as I opened things. It kind of feels like a dream…
• On a more serious note, I had mentioned my sweet friend Erin and her baby, Emma, in a previous post. Things are not looking great for little Emma right now… and after three rounds of genetic amniocentesis testing, they have not yet been able to diagnose the root of Emma’s problems, and it is EXTREMELY rare to go that many rounds without any answers. We are still praying fervently for a miracle for baby Emma. I ask that you take a moment whenever you think of it to lift her up as well.

gender reveal

These are about 10 weeks late... but I wanted to share some of the pictures of us sharing with our families that we are having a little princess. We went to eat at a restaurant that has been my family's favorite since Terra and I were little. I bought pink onesies and put them in gift bags and had everyone open at the same time. Everyone had thought we were having a boy, so everyone was so shocked. It wasn't any big party, but it was such a special night for us.

catching up on the bump

I fell a little bit behind with all of my belly pictures (with Christmas and all of that), but we have continued to document the growth of my belly (which means the growth of our little baby).

25 weeks:

26 weeks:

27 weeks:

This week was the shower at my parents' church, so this is me and Baby Girl in front of my parents' Christmas tree.

28 weeks:

For this Sunday, we were actually on the high school retreat and forgot to take the weekly picture... so this is me on a Tuesday morning before work... looking sleepy and kind of puffy. Ha.

29 weeks:

30 weeks:

I cannot begin to express how thankful I am every single day. I love feeling Baby move, and I love the aches that remind me that I'm carrying somebody around with me, and I love that every doctor's appointment has gone so great, and I love seeing Lance's face light up when he feels her move, and I love that I cry every time I try to pray for her by name. I'm humbled and grateful and blessed.

oh... the comments

For posterity's sake, I wanted to record some of the comments I've gotten lately:

An older lady at my office told me I looked really small for 6 months pregnant. I told her I appreciated hearing that I look small because I always feel huge. She replied with, "But your doctor seems to be okay with the size you are? He's not worried?"

This was quickly countered by...

A brand new attorney who is a couple of years younger than I am asked me how far along I was. I answered that I was about 6 months. She stared at my stomach and said, "Oh wow! You're that big and you still have THAT far to go?!"

Then today, another older lady at my office told me that the baby had dropped. I said no, I've just been carrying her pretty low--low enough that I still have a waistline because she's down so low. She just raised her eyebrows and shook her head and said, "I think that baby looks REALLY low," as if I should be concerned.

I was also told over Christmas by an extended family member that I needed to remember that I'm not REALLY eating for two since I'm pregnant... And then this same family member commented on our picture from Vegas (the one where I'm wearing a white shirt and a colorful scarf and standing out in front of some waterfalls and such), "I didn't know you were already wearing maternity clothes at that point." Umm... that's just my shirt. A normal shirt. A size XS shirt, actually.

And I was told by an individual from church that she never remembered being as big as I am right now. Awesome.

But lately, people at church have stuck with the, "You look great!" which I love. Why can't everyone just tell me how awesome I am and how jealous they are of my smokin' bod? Clearly that's the best choice!