Week 33

The first week of September is here and that means that school is beginning again! We had a week of meetings and preparation and the first boarding students will be arriving Monday night. There will be a few days of registration and activities before classes begin later in the week.

We are taking advantage of this last weekend to celebrate (a few weeks early!) our 4 year anniversary by visiting Hull, MA. We will be leaving this morning to spend a day on the coast and a night in a beach side hotel! The weather looks promising and we are excited for our quick get away.

The baby continues to be *very* active. K is often woken up at night by the movement and we can now see her belly jumping around as the baby rolls and turns. Last night, we could feel the baby having the hiccups for about 5 minutes while we watched a movie!

Here are a few pictures from Kara’s baby shower in New Canaan. To view a complete slide show of all of the pictures taken by her sister, Megan, follow this link.

Kara received lots of gifts for the baby!

Molly, the hostess, and Gail, Kara's mother

The Banigan Ladies

The guests used colored blocks to take a poll about the gender of the baby!

Week 32:

It has been a big week in Pregnancy Land! We had another appointment with the doctor and things are progressing exactly on schedule. The heartbeat was in the 150’s and the baby has gone though a growth spurt in the last two weeks. Kara hadn’t gained any weight since our last appointment which means that all of the extra calories are going directly toward a hungry baby! K has redoubled her ice cream consumption in an effort to pack on a few pounds! The baby continues to be very active though the quality of movements is beginning to change. In the past there were distinct ‘punches’ and ‘kicks’ and as the baby has grown it seems to be ‘rolling’ and ‘flexing’ more.

Molly Farnsworth held a baby shower for Kara in New Canaan over the weekend. It was an afternoon luncheon with outstanding food, drinks, and homemade chocolate mousse! Kara had a fantastic time and was overwhelmed with the affection and encouragement she felt at the shower. We are truly blessed by the generosity and support of our friends and family.

Lastly, we are picking up the dresser today that will complete our baby room acquisitions. It has been a long summer of cleaning our, reorganizing, and moving things around the apartment. We now have all of the key elements and are excited to finally put the pieces in place. Soon the new space will be settled and ready to go!

Week 31

Wow… week 31! This week we had enjoyed our second birth class with the midwife group. The class is held next to the hospital in Cambridge and due to traffic, each week we have found new ways to arrive there! Greg also installed our car seat this week and we had it checked by the local police department who confirmed it was installed correctly. Little by little we are getting ourselves mentally prepared for the fall!

Taking regular walks with Cappy and doing prenatal yoga are helping me to continue to feel well despite my center of gravity being “off”! I am eating lots of fresh food that comes in every week from our farm share and am indulging myself with ice cream when ever the urge hits!

This weekend we enjoyed a visit from my high school friend, Katy, and had a nice relaxing time going on walks, eating good food, and catching up!

School will start back up for us next week so we are taking advantage of this upcoming week to rest, relax, and enjoy the final days of our summer vacation!

Week 30:

Things continue to go well… Over the last week we attended our first week of birthing classes and met with our new nurse-midwife. Both appointments went very well and we are encouraged by the supportive and collaborative environment in this new practice! The nursery is nearing completion and our little apartment seems to be bursting at the seams with baby things! We can only hope that we have more space by the time toys, stuffed animals, and play dates become a real factor!

Week 29:

Once again, we are posting from the road! We are in the Poconos area of Pennsylvania spending time with Kara’s family in the community surrounding Naomi Lake. We are enjoying relaxed days and fantastic food!

We have been a bit surprised this week by the level of activity from the baby. It is certainly growing more active- sometimes spending hours kicking, punching, and flipping around. It occasionally wakes Kara up at night but, for the most part, we are relishing our remaining full nights of sleep! In one of our baby books it pointed out that the baby is just over 16 inches and two and a quarter pounds at this stage and will more than TRIPLE in weight over then remaining weeks. I suppose that would explain Kara’s new found appetite!