37 weeks

Full term! Today at my appointment the little guy had a strong heartbeat around 150, was wiggling and head down! I am 1cm dialated and 70% effaced. My prediction is that he arrives close to the due date but maybe a few days before.

Just a few days prior we had to go through quite a few hoops to get home. I figured that in order to fly at almost 37 weeks pregnant that I would need a doctor's note. My midwife was totally fine with me flying and readily gave me my note along with my medical records. Just to make sure I decided to call the airline to double check their policy for flying while pregnant. Its a good thing I called becasue United requires a doctor's note dated within 1-3 days of the flight if you are in your last month of pregnancy. I thought of just saying that I was 8 months pregnant instead of 9, but I'm a horrible liar. I also thought of getting my midwife to fax over a note, but it would have Bozeman OBGYN right at the top and might raise some red flags that I really hadn't seen a doctor in the last few days. So I called the practice that Hannah had gone to and hoped that I could see the midwife that delivered Lilly Geanne. Unfortunately they wouldn't see me just for one visit and told me I would have to go to the ER to get my doctor's note! The thought of spending 1/2 a day in the ER right after Christmas was really not appealing. Christmas day I called into the ER to see if there would be an OB scheduled that I could see.  Fortunately the ER manager thought that it would make more sense to send me to Labor and Delivery instead of going into the ER. So instead of shopping the post Christmas deals we headed to L & D at St Vincent which was the hospital that I was born at! They monitored Easton's hearbeat for about 30 minutes and my mom got to hear his strong hearbeat for the first time! The OB checked me and I was 1cm dialated but my cervix was still pretty far back. She gave me a clean bill of health to fly!

Armed with my doctor's note and my medical records I had no worries about my ability to get home to have this baby. Irronically enough, no one even asked me how far along I was in the Portland airport or Denver!

37 Week Belly!

An Oregon Christmas

Isabel and I spent almost the whole month of December in Oregon. The highlight of our trip was getting to meet our sweet little Lilly Geanne! Isabel wanted to hold her, and tickle her, and touch her, and snuggle with her... Some of the snuggles were a little too smothery but it was just so cute to see her interact so well with a newborn. I hope she does just as well when her baby brother arrives! 

Isabel got tons of quality time with both sets of grandparents and all of her aunts and uncles. Uncle Andy was definintly a favorite because he would let her watch as much Dora as she wanted, give her cookies and just all around spoil her rotten! While in Portland we went to the zoo to see the zoo lights and rode the train. She loved all the animal lights, but definitely didn't like the raindeer character! I think Disney Land is still a few years out. We also got to hear Tia Rosa sing at the Grotto. Nothing makes the season feel like Christmas like that serene peacful place. Rosa's choir sounded like angels, and almost everyone heard her yell "yay Rosa" when they were done singing! 

We also went up to Seattle for a night to visit the Crow family and see their new home in the heart of Seattle. She adored little Banks (who at almost 6 months old really wasn't little). She would get down on the floor with him and give him toys and try to tickle his belly. A couple times she actually tried to pick him up and take him away from me so that she could hold him! She sure does love babies!

As is our tradition, we spent Christmas Eve with the Brinkers, and Christmas Day with the Fraleys. This little girl was pretty spoiled! She picked up on opening presents pretty fast!

Reading this book was Isabel's nightly routine with Poppa!

"Big hug!" for Uncle Luc!

Our baby boy has a name!

We got our Christmas presents for next year early! 

Ma's creative way to gift some cash

A Fraley Christmas!

Tim's wrapping included personalized artwork - apperently I'm having 7 kids!

Wizzard Isabel defending her cave from he evil cow (she was afraid of a little toy cow that mooed)

Dave as the "Great White Hunter"

The name Easton Antonio brought my mom to tears

My cuddle buddy Lilly Geanne

I'm sure this is going to taste really good after a day of cooking, cleaning, changing diapers, nursing...

WWe were spoiled with the love of our families, and miss everyone terribly already. I really feel that this trip helped Isabel to bond and connect with her family and vice versa. It had been 4 months since she had seen the Fraleys and everyone was pretty amazed at how much she had changed and developed. Next time we go back to Oregon to see the fam we will have a whole new little person to introduce to them!

Pregnancy Photoshoot

While in Oregon, Isabel, the BabyBoyBump and I took a little road trip up to Seattle to visit the Crows in their new city home! While there I was going to do a pregnancy shoot with our favorite photographer, Clane Gessel who did our wedding and Fraley Family photos. He ended up not being able to make it so Sara did the photos instead! We walked down to Green Lake with the kiddos on a drissly morning, and Sara worked her magic.

 I'm thrilled that we have these beautiful photos of Isabel and I, and our little Easton in the last month of his womb home. They are treasures!

32 Weeks

32 weeks down, and only 8 to go! Our prenatal appointment today went great as usual. Our little man has a strong heartbeat, and the midwife even got kicked when she was listening to the little guy. She was pretty sure that his head is down which is awesome! I've been so worried that he would take after his daddy and decide to be breach! Beside being tired, I've been feeling good. My amazing chiropractor has helped my back pain immensely! At my last appointment my hips were finally in alignment - which is a good sign and is important for a smooth delivery.

Daddy's Prediction

According to Dave our little man will be born on January 23rd, and will weigh 7lbs and 9oz.

28 Weeks

Today marks our entrance into the third and last trimester! We're in the home stretch, and I can't believe that we only have three short months until we meet this little guy. The last 6 months have raced by, and with the Holidays coming up I know that this last little stretch will go by even faster!

At our appointment today we met with Cassie, the other midwife that works with our midwife Lori. They trade weeks on-call so depending on when our little man makes his entrance into the world, we will have one or the other of these knowledgeable and supportive women. His heartbeat was good and strong, and everything is right on track!

I've been feeling surprisingly well. This pregnancy, and Isabel's are almost exactly flip-flopped. I felt great for the first half of Isabel's pregnancy, but this this little guy I was sick and miserable. With Isabel I started to have back pain starting around 20 weeks which only got worse as the pregnancy progressed. Around 20 weeks my back and hip pain went away this time and I've been feeling great! I hope that this feeling good thing lasts the rest of the way! Sleeping at night is a bit sketchy of course, but that is to be expected. I'll take some tossing and turning at night, if I feel pretty good during the day.

The countdown begins!

The Simple Things

Although it is mid September the weather is still absolutely beautiful. It has been cool in the mornings and evenings, and in the mid to high 70's during the day. This is the weather that my Pacific North West soul lives for! Isabel has been loving it too! She had a blast playing with a pot of water in the back yard. A little

 H2O + some little containers from the kitchen = almost an hour of entertainment! I loved watching her intent little face focus on pouring the water in the big bowl, out of the bowl and eventually onto my plants. This age is so much fun because its is just the simple things that can be so hugely entertaining. 

Visible Movement

This little guy is moving around in a visible way now! I've had an inkling the last few days that I could probably see this little one moving around, but he is the most active at night when I just want to go to sleep (of course!). This evening though, I got to see him wiggling around for the first time! Its a pretty big feat considering that he has 3cm of extra padding to kick through as the placenta is right in front. I'm excited to see my little man grow and get stronger even though I knew it is going to mean more sleepless nights! Just like his big sister, he is already turning out to be a little night owl (its the Fraley in him!).

And the gender is...

We decided to find out this baby's gender instead of doing the ultimate surprise like we did with Isabel. While I would totally have gone for The Big Surprise again, Dave really wanted to find out. We agreed that since we did it my way last time we would do it his way this time!

When we were at our ultrasound we had the ultrasound tech write the gender on a piece of paper. She also had us look away from the screen so she could get a couple of good genitalia pictures which she put in an envelope with the gender written down.With a wrapped box in hand, I then went to Target and picked out an adorable girl outfit and a cute little boy outfit. At the cash register I gave the clerk instructions to open the envelope, read the gender, then ring up the coordinating outfit and put it in the box with the receipt. The whole time my back was turned and Isabel and I had a nice conversation about nothing much. I made sure to ask him if he put the ultrasound pictures in the box too and he said that they should be there!

That night we had the Spositos, Awes and Frankie over for dinner (homemade pesto with basil from my garden, homemade pasta, caesar salad and french bread), to witness the Big Reveal. After a bit of battling with technology we finally got the Fraley's, Brinkers and Luc on Skype and Jenna on speakerphone so that they could participate in the Big Surprise too!

I've got to say that I was totally surprised to open up the present and find the cute little boy's outfit inside! The whole day since we had had the ultrasound that morning, I just knew my baby was a boy. Before that I had no inclination. Even with that strong gut feeling all day, I was still blown away and thrilled!

20 Weeks

20 weeks of pregnancy means that we are half way there! This pregnancy seems like it has gone by way faster than Isabel's did. Now that I'm (finally!) feeling better and starting to feel our little one move around, I'm realizing that I need to take time each and every day to savor this time while I have it. I truly do love being pregnant - well this stage of pregnancy! I wasn't exactly loving life for a couple months there... I'm just coming to the realization that this precious time with my baby inside my belly is going by so swiftly! Yet at the same time I am so excited to meet this new little Brinker Baby!

Today we had our 20 week appointment which started out with an ultrasound! It was our first, and probably only ultrasound we'll have for this baby. This little one moves around way more than I can feel! I was thinking that maybe this baby is just really mellow. I also had the inkling that my placenta might be in the front, because I first felt the baby move a week or so after I first felt Isabel, and they say that you feel your second baby earlier than the first. Also unlike Isabel, I never felt little flutters first, but actual kicks instead! Dave told me that I was crazy and that there was no way that I could know where my placenta was. Sure enough, the ultrasound confirmed my prediction!  This little one is pretty active, I just have an extra layer of protection for the little kicks and jabs! Probably a good thing!

The ultrasound showed a healthy and active little baby in the 23rd percentile. That is well within the average range, so our midwife wasn't worried. With babies its probably better to be on the lower end of average than the higher end anyway! I have a feeling this one might be a little smaller than Isabel. Perhaps because it was so hard for me to gain weight for the first 18 weeks.

The best profile shot we could get!

A little foot!

Fraley Family Photos

While in Oregon we did some family photos for my mom's Mother's Day present. We were fortunate enough to get Clane Gessel to do the photo shoot. He did our wedding and is just the best there is!