Happy Birthday Sadie

Sadie and Sophie enjoying the calm before the storm.

We threw a party for Sadie's 8th b-day on Saturday. Here she is waiting to eat her birthday steak. Sorry, Sophie not for you! This is the third year as far as I can remember that we've had a party for Sadie's birthday. I think our little girl will have to learn how to share her birthday shindigs with the family dog, just like her mom!

We had a great time hanging out with our friends and the Baby Train that started running this past year. Kudos to the non-babytoting friends who put up with all of us! For more pictures of the party, visit our flickr page at http://www.flickr.com/photos/thewetzels.

Two more weeks until our due date. Doc says the baby's heartbeat is strong and healthy and mom is doing great. Now we just wait.

We're Not the Only Nesters

A family of robins decided that one of our gutters was THE spot to build a home. After first knocking down the nest in various stages of being built, only to find it rebuilt the next day, Mike and I have decided to allow our new tenants. In fact we've been enjoying watching them fly back and forth, and now that the eggs have been hatched, we are getting a kick out of seeing their little beaks poking out for dinner time. Our only hope is that first attempts to fly are successful. Otherwise, Sadie or Sophie will find a little snack some afternoon.

If you look closely in the picture below, you can see some beaks peaking out to be fed by Mom or Dad Robin. We are assuming these are robins (right Grandma and A. Lois?).

On an unrelated note, Baby Wetzel wishes a big congratulations to her Grandpa Kruse for 30 years of service to Christ as an educator. She (and the rest of the family) is very very proud!

Practice

Sophie has been practicing being good around babies. As you can see, she is doing pretty well. Of course this baby doesn't move or cry...

In all honesty, Mike and I have both noticed that Sophie has mellowed out a bit the last couple of weeks. She will be 3 years old this summer, which is about when Weims outgrow the puppy stage--perfect timing.

3 weeks 4 days until our due date, but who's counting?

Blurry Pictures

I had my 35 week ultrasound yesterday to check the baby's position and size. Now that the baby is bigger and pretty much crammed in there, it was much harder for our untrained eyes to discern what was what. So here are the photos and what the ultrasound technician said they are of. I had to just take her word for it.

Foot (top) and fist (bottom):

At top: knee (left), shin and foot (right); At bottom: baby's face with a scary frown

Oh, and the baby is in the proper head down position and at this point weighs approximately 6 lbs. 14oz.

Nursery in Shape

We are almost done with the nursery now that the furniture is in, clothes are put away, and a couple of things are on the walls. The interior shutters for the windows are painted but being defumed for a couple more weeks before we put put them back up.

I'm now 35 weeks along, with five weeks to go until my due date. My mother-in-law's friends threw us a wonderful shower last weekend, and now Mike and I definitely feel like we have all we need to welcome our baby home.

Playing With Boxes

Our furniture finally arrived this week. It's so nice to walk past the nursery now, glance in and see the dressers and crib. We haven't decided quite how we'll arrange the furniture, but the room's small enough to not give us too many options, which I'm sure Mike is happy about since he has to do all the "heavy lifting."

Thanks Corky and Linda for coming up last night to help put together the crib and vacuum up the endless amounts of styrofoam from the boxes.

Speaking of boxes, the dressers came in huge boxes that made us wish our nephews lived close by. They were the perfect size for a toddler's fort. The dogs were less interested, no matter how hard Mike tried.

Family Shower

I had a great time visiting with my sisters, aunts, mom and grandma on Sunday for a family shower thrown by Kelly (thanks so much!) at Grandma Bouman and A. Lois' condo. Our baby is blessed to have so many people who have shown so much love for her already. I loved all the handmade items, darling baby clothes, bedding and feeding items. The cake was awesome too!

Me with Baby Wetzel's pretty aunts.

I am now 8 months along and starting to feel it. Next dr. appointment they will do another ultrasound to check the baby's size and position. Four weeks until the baby is officially full-term and seven weeks until our due date. It's coming fast!

First load of laundry

So we decided to do the first load of baby laundry. It is crazy I always thought babies actually smelled amazing. Turns out that it is just the detergent. At any rate we couldn't sit around and stare at the clothes any longer so we decided something had to be done. Shannon is full on nesting as when I got home tonight she was organizing the babies clothes in a room with no furniture to put them in. We thought washing them was the best option from there. We are now praying that all the pink clothes do not bleed. Fingers crossed!!!! The bottom picture is Shan and I on our 2 year anniversary. I will not go into the details of how much I ate,but I will say that what Shannon ordered was also delicious. What a pretty lady!!

First Baby Shower

My best girl friends Melissa, Kristy and Annie threw a baby a shower for us on Saturday. The food was fantastic and plentiful, and it was great catching up with the girls. Thank you to everyone who carved out a few hours to celebrate the baby and help Mike and I welcome her in comfort and style!

Among the many great gifts was this awesome quilt Kristy's mom Sandy made for the baby.
Still waiting on the furniture to arrive....

The Difference of 5 Weeks

As promised, I'm posting a couple of pictures from the first 3d ultrasound, taken at about 25 weeks. At the time, we thought--wow, she already has chubby cheeks! But comparing the 25 weeks to 30 weeks, certainly shows we didn't realize how much more our baby had to grow.

Warning--because these are from a little earlier on, they are a little creepier than the 30 week pictures.

Check out those fingers.

Whose Cheeks Are Those?

Saturday was a "baby day" for Mike and I. We attended our first childbirth prep class at the hospital. Four hours long, but all good information and our teacher is very engaging. Still, Mike couldn't resist leaning over to me at one point to say that ever since we got engaged it's been one class after another (pre-marriage class; church membership class and now this). During class Mike was eager to volunteer to wear the empathy belly. I only wish I had brought our camera. After wearing it for 40 minutes, he admitted it did kinda suck.



Then, later that day we had another 3d ultrasound thanks to a great Christmas gift from Shawn and Jessica. So introducing Baby Wetzel at 30 weeks:

It was cool to see how much she has changed since the last ultrasound a month ago. I will be posting a photo from then in a couple of days for comparison, once the ultrasound place sends it in the mail. We also got a DVD of the whole experience so I can see her squirming around and kicking my insides whenever I want! The ultrasound technician was great--she really made us feel like our baby was something special.

Nursery Getting Started

With 10 weeks to go until our due date, our nursery for Baby Wetzel is starting to take shape. I though I would never have a pink room, but it's not the first time I've proved myself wrong.

Mike did a wonderful job of painting the nursery. The same week, he also painted our hallway, living room and bathroom (not all pink!). I've heard of husbands of pregnant women gaining sympathy weight or experiencing sympathy aches and pains, but I think Mike is experiencing sympathy nesting and am thankful for it!

The doll in the picture was made for me when I was a little girl by my Grandma Bouman--she also made the quilt hanging on the rocking chair (which is from her house).

Now we just need our furniture to arrive. The once empty closet is starting to get full of clothes and blankets waiting for a dresser drawer.