Naughty Pup

Harlan spent a month wearing his cone.  While coned, we left his dog bed in the kitchen with him during the day because the cone made it impossible for him to destroy it.  We made the mistake of thinking maybe he had gotten used to his new routine of having his bed during the day and that he wouldn't eat it when we took off his cone.  We were wrong.  Soooo wrong.

Let the Nesting Begin!

When I first heard about 'nesting' at the beginning of my pregnancy, I thought it was a bunch of hokum.  But, after not being able to sit still all weekend because I was compulsively cleaning our house, rearranging closets, baking muffins and freezing them for after the baby is born, and sorting and resorting all of his little itty bitty clothes... well... I guess I buy into this whole 'nesting' thing after all.  We had a very cozy weekend and didn't leave the house today (we aren't going to try to be heroes during an ice storm, that's for sure!).  

Harlan likes to rest his head on my belly when we snuggle at night, he is already loving our little baby.  

 Awww, sweet puppy.  He loves the bump.

 Nerd Alert: We spent Saturday night proofreading papers together... yes, we are perhaps the most exciting couple in the whole entire world.  

 And what does a nerd couple do when they take a break from proofreading scientific journal articles?  They play chess... duh.  

34 days to go!

Today I am 35 weeks pregnant!  Baby is about as tall as he is going to get and is still just plumping up.  Today was a pretty funny day with the little guy, he spent the ENTIRE day from 8:00 a.m. until, well, it's still happening at 7:30 p.m., stretching and wiggling.  This made it impossible to stay in one position for more than 5 minutes.  I interviewed a candidate for my job and probably switched how I was sitting 30 times.  I hope it didn't make her uncomfortable :)

On Wednesday this week Iowa City Hospice hosted a baby shower for Ben and I.  It was a lot of fun, and below are some pictures.  Ben did very well holding his own in a room full of women :)

Not quite sure why I look so skeptical in this picture, I'm sure it has something to do with the story Ben is telling....

Playing shower games

Delicious cake... that I have been eating since Wednesday (Melinda sent us home with the leftovers... a dangerous move when the 8 months pregnant recipient cannot stop eating sugar)

Baby Announcement from Grandma

When Josiah was born he graced the cover of a Sports Illustrated magazine-- our little guy has made his own headlines.  Thank you for the announcement mom!

38 days to go!

34 and a half weeks into the pregnancy, and Ben and I are both home sick today.  Well, Ben is home with a combination of sickness and university holiday, and I'm just sick.  We are both bored sitting at home with nothing to do (it is too cold to go outside and neither of us feel well enough to actually do anything) so I am looking through old pictures on my computer.  I'll throw a few new ones in first, but then thought I'd reminisce over how Ben and I got to this point of being a few weeks away from welcoming our little boy into the world.

35th week of pregnancy... belly is full of baby

Harlan doesn't like the cold either...

Now onto some oldies but goodies-- 

Unfortunately for Ben, his dissertation defense is going to be a little bit more intense than my Masters thesis defense-- which involved a poster presentation/happy hour with our professors where we explained what our research was all about...oh and then we got presents.  I have a sneaking suspicion that Ben's committee is not going to hand him a beer, or a gift, while he defends.    

Next-- how Ben and I spent the first several months of our relationship (many states apart)

This picture is from the first night we met... I love it because it is very clear that I am already head over heels in love with him and I'd known him for about 2 hours.

3 weeks after we met Ben flew to Connecticut to visit me.  This was his first encounter with Britches.  As you can see from his smirky face, the love/hate relationship started right away.  And by 'his smirky face' I mean both Ben and B, they were not huge fans of each other from the get-go.  

This picture was taken in February, 2 months after we met and during my first visit to Iowa City.  Karen had requested that Ben send a picture of the two of us together, so this was our first awkward family portrait :)

Yay Ben!!!

Ben news:  Ben got the phone call last night with the official offer from Sandia National Labs-- so we are definitely moving to New Mexico this spring!  Ben will defend his dissertation on February 6th, and then be heading to Albuquerque sometime between his defense and our due date for orientation.   He is very excited to start his postdoctoral fellowship, and I could not be more proud of him :)

Baby news: today we are 34 weeks along and 41 days away from the due date.  Little boy is between 17-19 inches long and weighs between 4.2-5.8 pounds (I'm going on the heavy end based on how cramped for space we both are).  I thought it was cute that one of the symptoms listed for me this week was: "Blurry Vision- Caused by hormones, fluid build-up, and lack of sleep".  Isn't that the truth?  Last night Ben woke up at midnight and watched 3 movies between 1 and 6 a.m. (...I think someone was still a little excited about the job offer), and Harlan decided to wake me up at 2:30 by puking by our bed.  We were definitely a sleepless house last night. 

Weekend Showers

Thank you again to the lovely hostesses who held showers this weekend!  Ben and I felt very loved and very lucky to have so many wonderful people sharing in our excitement for our little guys arrival.

We had a second shower in Mankato on Sunday hosted by Emily and Erika, with a delicious brunch and cute circus theme.  I must say baby showers beat the pants off of bridal showers-- baby stuff is just so darn cute!

45 days to go little baby... keep on cookin' in there!

 Olson Women :)

33 Weeks

 

First and foremost-- a Harlan update.  Harlan is now on day 17 of wearing his cone.   He cannot leave his foot alone, which means it is taking a loooong time to heal.  We did finally let him go to doggy daycare (coneless) this week because he was going stir crazy and we could tell he wanted to be around his friends.  It probably set us back a few days in terms of the foot healing, but was worth it to let him get out all that pent up energy. 

 

Ben and I went to our last baby class last night, so now we are experts! (Yeah right).  Today I am 33 weeks along, which means baby boy weighs 4.2 to 5.8 pounds and is 17.2 to 18.7 inches long. He may grow up to a full inch this week -- amazing.  He is doing a lot of stretching and moving around, and I am having my fair share of Braxton Hicks contractions, so I'm sure the next 47 days until his arrival will bring a lot of excitement :)

 

 

In the 33rd week!

How big is our baby?

Our baby is approximately 16 ½ inches long and weighs between 4 ½ to 5 pounds. 

What is happening with our baby?

His skin is looking less red and less wrinkled. Fat stores are continuing to be deposited, and his bones are all beginning to harden except for the skull. 

Ben and I had our 'Caring for Your Newborn' class last night at UIHC.  It was a good class and we both learned a lot of little snippets that we are hoping help us out come March 1.  We practiced swaddling, diaper changing, and bathing (all good since neither of us has any experience with those things).  We also learned that we aren't really 'planners', so despite multiple schedule templates that were handed out, we are going to wing it in terms of who gets up with the baby at what time and who does what chores.  

We have two more baby classes in the evening this week, an OB appointment on tomorrow, and a visit from Grandma and Grandpa (and possibly Aunt Kim and Aunt Nancy!) on Wednesday.  It will be a busy week before we head to Minnesota for baby showers this weekend.