Zoo and a Stroll

Today, we went to Summerfield Zoo, a small zoo in Belvidere.  There is a variety of animals - wolves, monkeys, horses, turtles, mountain lion, camel, zebra, and some small animals.  Nothing extravagant, but still fun nonetheless.

After the zoo, Drew and I came back home and Annelise was able to do something else for the first time.

She rode in the seat part of the stroller!!  Up until now, she's always sat in her carseat that attaches to the stroller.  She has amazing head control, and since the stroller has a 5 point harness, I figured that she would enjoy being able to sit up and see things.

I just ordered the tray table that goes on the front of the stroller.  I kept saying that I felt like it was so open and she was so unprotected with her sitting like that.

Saying Hello

Hitting the Bottle

It was a big night for Annelise.  And for Drew too.  Tonight, Drew fed Annelise with a bottle for the first time!

I attached myself to the pump this morning afternoon, and pumped for the first time.  I was so proud because I was able to get about 3 ounces!

I stuck the milk in the fridge and waited until tonight to make her first bottle.  Annelise was starving while she was waiting for it to warm up, so she wasn't a very happy camper.

She wasn't very crazy about the whole bottle idea when Drew first sat down with her.  However, once she realized that she could get some milk from sucking on the nipple of the bottle, she decided to go with it.

Drew originally made her a bottle with about 2 ounces in it, and she ate that pretty quickly.  He made another bottle with the last ounce and she ate about half of that.  I'm so proud of her!

Hopefully Mama will have a full night's sleep sometime soon!

December Already?

I seriously can't believe that it's December already.  Where has the year gone?  We all say that every year, don't we?

I picked Rachel up from school on Thursday and she spent the night so we could do some baby stuff.  It was really nice to be able to have someone to hang out with.  Drew has been working INSANE hours.  He went into work at 6 PM on Tuesday night and didn't get home until about 2:30 AM Thursday morning.  Yep, that's about 32 hours!  I'm slightly lonely.  So, I was really thankful that Rachel came to keep me company.

We went to BRU and a local furniture store to look at chairs for the nursery.  We found one we liked and I took Drew there today to order it.  Yes, he liked it too. 

After we grabbed some dinner, we came home and just spent time hanging out and watching tv.  Rachel spent most of the evening trying to feel the baby move.  She wasn't as active as she usually is at night.  However, Leo enjoyed snuggling with us.

He has enjoyed snuggling on my belly sometimes.  It's weird for him because he's really not a snuggler.

Like I said earlier, Drew and I went and ordered the chair for the nursery today.  I also ordered the crib bedding.  As soon as that arrives, we'll pick out paint colors and get started on the nursery.  I am dying to get this little girl's room set up.

Remember the dilemma we had with the crib, where they were out of stock?  Well, now we have the same problem with the dresser.  We didn't order the dresser when we ordered the crib because we knew that we weren't going to be setting up the room right away and I didn't want all of the furniture taking up space in my house.  Plus, they assured us that the dresser would be available when we were ready to order.  Figures, right?  So, now we're just patiently waiting and hoping that the dresser becomes available soon.  Hopefully we won't have to wait too long.

17 Weeks: First Baby Purchase

I have a little catching up to do since I missed an update for weeks 15 and 16.  I'm not going to make any promises, but I really hope not to miss any more weeks.  The baby is the size of an onion this week.

I think that I'm beginning to sprout a little bump.  It's a little more noticeable bare belly.  My pre-pregnancy pants are starting to get uncomfortable.  I've had some minor meltdowns trying to find maternity jeans.  The smallest size that any particular store carries is sooooo long and sooooo big!  I could practically fit another person in there with me.

Drew and I went to the Huntley Outlet Mall to go to the Motherhood Maternity outlet on Sunday.  I was able to find a pair of jeans that weren't too horrible, but, of course, they didn't have my size.  I tried on a "long" pair and I really needed a "regular" pair.  They were able to order them for me and have them shipped to me.  Of course, once they got here, they were not like how they were in the store.  They feel like they are way bigger than what they were at the store.  I'm seriously at my wits end with maternity jeans!

We have made our first baby purchase!  Drew and I went to Babies R Us a few weeks ago to begin looking for cribs, and we fell in love with one.  I swear I heard choir angels sing when I saw it!  Well, apparently a ton of other people love that particular too, because were so back ordered that BRU couldn't even order it from the manufacturer.  No big deal, we thought.  I was only 10 weeks at the time.  There was still plenty of time to order a crib.  Long about week 15, we went back to the store to see if there was another crib that I could love as much.  There wasn't.  I wanted that one.  We asked about the crib again and they were still unable to order it.  The lady that we talked to let us know that I could leave my name and number and they would call me if the crib became available.  On Thursday, the 13th, BRU called me to let me know that the crib was available!  Cue "Hallelujah" chorus.  We went into the store that day to order it and now we're just waiting for it to arrive.

It was so surreal to be sitting in that store and ordering a crib.  A crib for our baby.  I would have been sobbing if I hadn't been so excited.

Physically, I'm feeling pretty good.  I've been sleeping with my Snoogle and I definitely think that it helps me sleep better.  I wake up about twice a night to go pee, which isn't too awful.  I miss sleeping all the way through the night though.  I'm basically back to my pre-pregnancy weight.  I lost 5 or 6 pounds from being so sick in the first trimester.

I'm also pretty sure that I've been feeling the baby move this past week.  It feels like bubbles popping.  So cool!