What week is it?

According to our first ultrasound (at Week 9) our due date was set for May 3 which puts us at Week 29. We had another ultrasound this past Thursday and discovered that Noah is growing right on track, in fact he’s a little further along than the first ultrasound indicated. That would put us at Week 30 and a possible due date of April 24. Ryan and I can’t wait to hold him as I’m sure many of you are excited was well.

We were so excited to be able to see our little soccer star this past week. We got to see him yawn and his cute little baby face. In one shot he was stretching his legs, the next he had a foot behind his ear. It’s no joke that he is constantly on the move and that has us a little concerned as to how much he’ll be moving once he’s born. Not to mention if we’ll have to limit his sugar intake! This last Thursday Noah weighed a healthy 3.3 lbs. At that rate, the doctor said, he will be more than 8 lbs if we go to our May due date.

As promised, here are a couple 3D shots from our ultrasound.

Baby Registry Completed

Ryan and I had the privilege of taking six-month portraits of our friends' son this past weekend. Ryan did most of the work. Well, all of it in fact. I just got to enjoy the company and the joy of being around a happy baby. I am sure that little Noah will have no shortage of photos for his scrapbook!

We have finally completed our baby registry, thankfully. The internet is a wonderful tool! It took two Saturday's at the store to start and complete the process. On the first trip I went with my sister Lauren and her two-year-old son, Hayden. He was amazingly good considering how long we were hanging out at Babies R Us (about three hours). Hayden was in control of the scanner and helped me scan items we thought his new cousin might like. Afterwards we celebrated with some ice cream where Hayden proceeded to make a friends with the girl next to us. He's only two and already he knows where to go to find a girlfriend!

Ryan joined me for the second trip which was about another four hours between Target and Babies R Us. That was a long time for both of us to be on our feet, keep in mind Ryan just had knee surgery a little over a month ago. I was glad to have his input on strollers, car seats and furniture. It was a little overwhelming to have four aisles of car sets to choose from. Why do we need so many choices?

We'd like to thank everyone who left a comment on our blog or emailed us with their suggestions. It was really helpful to have that information before we started registering. Here are links to the stores we registered at:

Target Registry
Babies R Us Registry
JcPenny Registry (furniture and comforter set)

This Thursday we will celebrate week 29 of our pregnancy with a follow up Level 2 ultrasound. We can't wait to see Noah. He has certainly been a busy body!

Maybe a Little TOO Good

I'm the king of ink stains. Maybe it's because I'm a writer, maybe it's because I'm careless. Regardless, I get ink on everything. Usually it's only my hands but every now and then I see little blue stains on my sweatshirt sleeves or my jeans.

The other night I discovered a fresh stain on the back of my jeans just above the ankle. Yes, on the back. I don't have an explanation for this one. It could have happened on the train on my way home from school, but I can't be sure.

A tried and true method for removing stains of nearly any kind from nearly any fabric is Fels-Naptha soap. It's good. Really good. Maybe too good. I used it on my latest ink blurp and while it didn't do much for the ink, go figure, it stripped the blue from my blue jeans. Here's proof.

Ever wonder why the instructions on stain removers tell you to "test it in an inconspicuous spot for colorfastness?" Well, now you know why. What's crazy is these jeans are more than a year old and have been washed numerous times. That's some seriously heavy duty stain removing soap! I still have to work out that ink. Anyone have suggestions?

Week 26 Portraits

Shooting week 26 portraits was a funny experience. First off, we didn’t get to it on the weekend like our calendar said. The weekend was just so hectic that it came down to laundry or photos, and I don’t know about you, but clean socks and pants for the week comes before photos.

We finally got to shooting on Monday night and we didn’t even get fully set up before the power went out. The image above is an outtake from when we were still adjusting lighting and a few other things. Out of nowhere the lights go out and I thought I blew a fuse, but then we looked out the window and our entire neighborhood was out. Thankfully it was only for about an hour because the temperature was somewhere around 2 degrees that night.

So this is the photo we’ve got from week 26. I like it and Monica thinks she looks big. We’re just now hitting the third trimester so I don’t know if we’ve seen big yet! Noah has been moving around like crazy. We both can really tell a difference in his behavior versus Ethan’s at this same time last year. It’s so reassuring to feel and see Noah moving so much. With Ethan there would be long spans of time that we wouldn’t see or feel him, or maybe just a shutter here or there. Not with Noah. He’s throwing elbows and doing high-kicks all day long!

Next week we have our second level 2 ultrasound just to see how things are going and to make sure everything is on track. We are getting so excited to see him again. We’re hoping they’ll do a few 3D grabs so we can get a glimpse of our little boy like last time, but no promises.

Lastly, many of you know our very good friends Obi and Ashley. Well, they are also expecting—they’re exactly eight weeks behind us. Today they found out they’re having another boy! Congratulations Obi and Ashley!