Happy New Year! Welcome back to my blog!

The holiday season always seems to fly by, and this year was certainly no exception. These last few weeks have felt like complete chaos, as we hustled our butts off getting everything ready for Christmas, and now I’m sad the festivities are over.  Not to worry though, this third trimester seems to have snuck up on us, and now we’re going to be crazy busy getting everything ready for our little miss!

Past updates (in case you missed them):

• Second Trimester (Weeks 21 – 24)
• Half Way There! (Weeks 14 – 20)
• Gender Reveal Party
• First Trimester Recap
• FINALLY.

25 Weeks

Baby Girl went to TWO ugly Christmas sweater parties AND met Santa this week!

My shirt is from Amazon.

My app says she’s 13 inches long this week and weighs about a pound and a half.  I started recognizing her hiccups this week, too! They feel like tiny, rhythmic movements that happen every few seconds, and last for a few minutes. Which means, she is hard at work practicing her breathing.  Her nose and nostrils are beginning to work this week – which is great, because Mama’s isn’t! I was a complete congested mess all weekend. More than once I just cried to Justin, desperate for anything to make this congestion go away.  I took Benadryl, Zyrtec, tried Afrin, saline, and put the humidifier about a foot away from my face at night. I wish I could figure out the pattern, and what exactly is irritating my sinuses so sporadically, but so far, no luck.

Thankfully, baby girl was a wiggle worm all weekend and brought my spirits up even when I felt like crap. Every miserable moment is worth it, as long as I get my beautiful, healthy baby girl in the end!

On Friday night, I felt for sure what was a hand or a foot poke my hand. Without a doubt – best part of the week! I am starting to feel much bigger movements too. I’ll suddenly feel like one spot of my belly is super hard, which I believe it either her head or her butt pressing against me.

On Sunday, we went to the Christmas party for the lodge that my Grandpa belongs to. I can’t wait to show her this photo someday. Her first visit with Santa from inside Mommy’s belly!

26 Weeks

Our miracle baby girl, conceived World Cup Finals Week, met Cincinnati legend, Rose Lavelle this week!!!!! If you didn’t already know, the US Women’s Soccer Team has been an instrumental part of our relationship. Justin proposed to me with a personalized Jersey, and they played at Nippert during the last few days of our honeymoon, so tickets to the game were Justin’s wedding gift to me.  There was no way we were missing out on an opportunity to meet the Cincinnati native, and Bronze Ball Winner!

Rose hosted a free meet & greet at the New Balance store not far from where we live, in an effort to collect toys for the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital for Christmas. We waited in line for 2 hours, with our bags of toys in hand, before we got to meet her. We made a onesie that read “World Cup Baby” and had Rose sign it. I said, “This is for our daughter, conceived World Cup Finals Week!” She was like “Awww I can’t believe a little baby bum is going to be in this!” I corrected her, “Oh no, this will be framed and hung up in her nursery!”

She asked us when we were due, “March 26th, the Reds Opening Day!” and she asked us if we had a name picked out. Yes, we told Rose even before we had told our families! LOL We only got to talk to her for a couple of minutes, but she was so, so sweet and wished us a healthy, beautiful baby.

At 26 weeks, our girl measures about 14 inches long and weighs about 2 pounds! She moves around all the time, and even her Aunt Becky got to feel her crazy moves this week.

26 Weeks + 5 Days (Christmas Eve) and 26 Weeks + 6 Days (Christmas!)

We had such a great Christmas with our families, and baby girl is already getting spoiled with gifts. The unfortunate news, however, is that I’ve figured out what my allergy (or at least one of them) is: DOGS.  Cue all the tears.

On Christmas morning, we took Rudy over to my parents house to open gifts. I held him in the car, and that’s precisely when the allergies started. Once I got to my parents and was ALSO around their dog, and my brothers dog, the allergies got increasingly worse. About an hour in, I could hardly open my eyes because they were so swollen, and I had probably gone through half a box of Kleenex.  I popped a Benadryl, went home and stripped off all my clothes covered in dog dander, and took a nap.  We arrived late to Justin’s family that evening, but they understood! Now you’re probably thinking: How in the world can a pregnant woman suddenly be allergic to something that has never bothered her? Allergic to her own dog?! Look it up, ya’ll. Pregnancy allergies are a thing. 

I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again: Pregnancy is weird.

27 Weeks

The day after Christmas, I took my dreaded gestational diabetes test. How cruel! In hindsight, scheduling it for the day after Christmas definitely helped keep me from over-indulging on holiday sweets that week.

Surprisingly, the orange drink was not nearly as bad as I expected it to be! It tasted like Orange Hi-C, for those of you who remember that.

Later that evening, we went to Buy Buy Baby and started an in-store registry.  I synced it with our Babylist registry, to keep everything in one place. If you’ve never been to Buy Buy Baby, it’s completely overwhelming. There are so many options for EVERYTHING! I think we registered for 20 different pacifiers. One of them will work, right?

At my OB appointment on Monday (12/30), we heard baby girl’s heartbeat, which is always music to my ears, and my weight and belly measurements are still perfectly on track. We also got the results of my gestational diabetes test, and HALLELUJAH! I PASSED!

My iron levels were low though, so they recommended I take a daily supplement with my prenatals. Dr. Wurzbacher also recommended we start researching pediatricians, and have one lined up before baby girl’s birth. We celebrated the appointment with breakfast at Half Day Cafe afterwards.

On Tuesday night, we decided to forgo any party plans and rung in the New Year at home in our comfies.

2020, we are so ready for you!

Wishing you all a healthy and happy New Year!