third trimester!

I've just started my 3rd trimester and have officially moved to having OB visits every other week.  I also passed my gestational diabetes test last week, so no carb cutting for me (!), which would be torture since I've been eating 2-3 bowls of cereal a day (no judging please, I learned it from Ben). 

Now that I'm in my 28th week, baby t is over 2lbs and the size of a roast (not sure what kind of roast, but I guess you get the idea) or eggplant, depending on who you ask.  He has started to open and close his eyes and is sucking his thumb.  He also gets hiccups from time to time, which feels odd and cute all at the same time.  Apparently baby t has GIANT feet as you can see from the 26 week u/s picture below.  He's too big to get all in one shot, so the tech got his enormous foot.

While looking at my calendar yesterday, I realized that Christmas is only 11 weeks away (yay!) and I only have 8 weeks left of work (double yay!).  My plan is to take off the 3 weeks before his due date so I can use all of my vacation before starting maternity leave.  I will also take all 12 weeks of maternity leave, so I'm looking at almost 4 months away from work, which sounds like heaven.  Now, don't get me wrong, I like my job more than most people, but who doesn't love a break?  I am imagining those 3 weeks in December before he arrives to involve a lot of the following:

1. Christmas Decorating
2. Christmas Shopping
3. Daytime TV (GMA, Ellen, HGTV, FoodNetwork, etc.)
4. Other TV (knowing that most of my usual shows might take breaks in December, I am planning to catch up on old seasons of shows people keep suggesting, including Downton Abby, Girls, Dexter, Homeland, etc. Please feel free to suggest your favs!)
5. Reading 'good' books and a few tween novels that most likely involve vampires or other supernatural creatures (please feel free to suggest books as well)
6. Baking and Eating - I figure by December I'll be past the point of trying to look cute, so I'll bake recipes I find on pinterest, like salted caramel cookie bars and pumpkin cream chesses muffins and eat them. 
7. Sleeping (if I can get comfortable)
8. Playing with Ben, George and Nibby

In addition to daydream about my upcoming vacation, I recently had a mini panic attack about the nursery not being ready, so Ben and I have made a good amount of progress, which included welcoming the new additions pictured below into our family.  We will share final nursery pics once everything is ready, but based on these pics it is no secret that we have an animal/jungle theme going on (it all started with elephants and we've expanded to include a few other animals as well).

Can you tell which animal is real?

George has not welcomed the new recruits with open arms.  In fact, we have videos to prove it - he spent the first hour they were home alternatively barking at them and sniffing them to confirm their identities.

One not-so-successful venture we've had is assembling baby t's crib.  Ben picked it up a few weekends ago only to find that a part was missing.  The company then shipped us the 'missing part', which turned out to be a duplicate of a part we already have.  Last Friday we finally got the piece we need, so this weekend we were able to put it together along with the changing table.  We got a fully assembled dresser (I figure Ben needed a break) a few weeks ago, so now we're just waiting on the bookcase and glider.  Our other big ongoing task is picking fabric for the curtains, and after 4 trips to the nearby fabric stores, we've narrows it down from 20+ fabrics to 2.  Hopefully we can make a decision this week so they'll be ready sometime before Thanksgiving...

Aside from prepping the nursery, I had a fun weekend away a few weekends ago in Charleston for my friend Eve's bachelorette party.  We were lucky enough to get 2 gorgeous days, so we had a lot of pool time at our rental house.  We also ate at an amazing restaurant, Cypress, that I recommend to anyone visiting Charleston.  Sadly I will not be able to make Eve's wedding because it's 3 weeks before baby t's due date.  This is especially disappointing because it's at the Carolina Inn where Ben and I got married, and I was really looking forward to staying there again and having another reunion with everyone going. 

This past weekend, Ben and I were finally home together, so in addition to assembling furniture, we got to see a lot of our friends (thanks to the Kidds for feeding us and letting Ben take over your TV), meet Kyle and Julia's daughter Swift, attend an adorable 1 year old birthday party for Josh and Melissa's son Henry, watch NC State beat Florida and go to Taste of Atlanta.  Taste of Atlanta is a food and wine festival where restaurants from all over the city set up booths and offer small tastings from their menu.  Both this year and last year we got VIP tickets, which provided access to the wine and beer tent that offered as much free wine and beer tastings as you can handle.  Sadly, I think that was somewhat of a waste on me because last year I tasted 20+ wines, and this year I tasted a whopping 0 (after the stares I got from carrying an empty, unused glass, I can't imagine the stares I'd have gotten with a full glass).  Next year we'll bring baby t and make up for it.

In other news, our friends Ben and Kelley had their baby girl last Saturday, and Cam and Leni's little girl Annabelle came home from the NICU last Tuesday and is doing great.  Baby t can't wait to meet them both next year.

Oh and I FINALLY got around to making Ben take a real picture of me so you can see how big I've gotten.  This was right at 28 weeks (and yes, I did get a haircut for those of you who've seen me recently, it was a long time coming).