Hitting the Home Stretch

We're almost there!
I am definitely starting to feel like we are getting close to meeting our sweet baby Avery.  I'm mostly focusing on prep work for my maternity leave at my job, the showers have started which make me feel SO much more prepared for her to arrive, and my belly seems to be growing daily.  Jacob and I are also making the most of every day left, having fun with friends or quality alone time.  The sun is finally coming out lately too, which makes it feel exciting overall in general.  Oh, and I had another fellow pregnant friend have her baby yesterday (Congrats Mattie!!!) which means it's one step closer to being my turn.
Here's a couple pics from our walks this week:

I put up pictures from my Tobiason Family (Jacob's side) shower last week on Facebook, and I have another one with friends tomorrow at my sister's house.  Even after just one shower I came home feeling so much more relaxed and prepared for Avery's arrival-I appreciate the love and support I get from friends and family so much!!

Update on Avery's position: she's still head down, which is great, but her head is slightly to the side, sort of in my right hip.  She needs to move it to center sometime in the next few weeks, and my chiropractor is convinced he can get her to do that.  I've also been doing some inversions & pelvic tilts to help give Avery some room to move (stretching and yoga has proved to feel SO good on my achey body) which look super funny and dorky.  She's also getting stronger than ever and still moving a ton-the other night she was kicking the outside of my belly so hard I was on the verge of tearing up from how strong her kicks were!  I've now started week 36, which means we're just one week away from being considered 'full-term'!

Maternity photos!

We had a great time doing our maternity photos (which also doubled as our anniversary photos) with Kristal of Kristal Joy Photography!  The CD with our photos arrived in the mail today so I thought I'd post a few highlights (Kristal took so many beautiful pics, it's hard to choose!).  I'm very excited for Avery to see these someday and know how much we were thrilled for her arrival.  Inspired by my fellow pregnant friend Katie, I opted to do some of them bare-belly to really remember what this pregnancy journey felt like.

 

And now for the full belly shots...or as my mom said, the ones where I'm "less inhibited, like a European", haha!  These are the ones that I love to have, but may stick to posting them on my blog (more personal) instead of on my Facebook profile.

Successful Ultrasound

Since I have been measuring a couple weeks behind, my doctor had me do an ultrasound today just to be sure baby Avery is growing on track. 
Best news: Normal weight for this point is 4 lbs. 10 oz. and Avery is measuring at 4 lb. 15 oz. (girl is growing along just fine, looks like we may have another big Bodine baby on our hands)
Good news: She was in perfect position this morning for delivery & has been for a week or two (head down, spine facing outward)
Bad news: Because of her great positioning, it was impossible to sneak a peek at her face or get a fun photo of any type.  Her face is tucked in by her arms and facing my spine.  It was so interesting to me and Jacob to see how big she was on the ultrasound though-last time, at 20 weeks, we could see her whole baby body in one shot while now, we can only see part of her leg, just her head, or small bits and pieces of her in every shot since she's so big!

Taking Baby International

Jacob and I had a most fabulous (early) anniversary getaway this weekend to Victoria, BC.
The adventure started on Friday when I realized moments before leaving town that I hadn't actually checked the ferry schedules for our trips.  Understand that normally I am all over pre-planning for trips and events, but I will chalk this one up to pregnancy brain causing me to overlook a major detail.  Anyway, we rushed out of town and ended up going clear to Vancouver and taking the BC Ferry to Victoria from there.  It all worked out just fine in the end, but made for an interesting couple hours hoping we'd end up making it.
Our hotel for the weekend was the British Inn & Resort which was amazing! It was about 5 minutes from downtown and the grounds are gorgeous.  Naturally we had to have a little photoshoot while there :)
We spent the weekend relaxing, exploring the city, dining out at great restaurants we discovered, getting massages (laying on my stomach with the special pregnancy pillow setup was such  a treat!), and loving quality time together!  Though we are more excited than ever to have Avery join our wonderful Washburn family, we absolutely have a blast when we get time away with just the two of us!  We also can't wait for all the adventures and trips we'll get to take Avery on in years to come.

Canadian Cheetos :)

On our way to Victoria

Gotta love the Euro feel to Victoria

Barely fit in the door to our suite! It was much higher ceilings inside, don't worry

33 week photo

Getaway

My baby girl's daddy is the most amazing man there is, and I'm SO happy to have him as my husband and best friend. I'm even MORE happy to be getting ready for a getaway with him (our last one pre-baby!) to Victoria this weekend to celebrate our 2 year anniversary coming up on April 17th. Quality time with Jacob is pretty much my favorite thing in the world. Next week we have another ultrasound, and next weekend we have maternity pictures, and the following FOUR weekends I'm getting spoiled with baby showers, so I should have plenty to post from all these activities in the weeks to come!
Only 57 days until Avery's expected arrival!!

Baby Fever

Baby Fever, literally.
I returned from a few wonderful days in Hawaii, and brought with me the cold that I had caught while there. I even did have a slight fever on my last day in Hawaii. Never has a common cold knocked me out so bad. Normally something like this would be an inconvenience as I pushed past it and went on with life. Instead, my weak pregnant immune system had me beyond exhausted, incapable of sleeping almost altogether, and even brought on more prego puking from the exhaustion. Whew! Finally, a week and a half later, I'm feeling much better and almost back at 100%.

Baby Fever, figuratively.
Also last week is when our good friends the Thompsons had their precious baby girl Elsea 3 weeks early. Karen Thompson has been one of my fellow pregnant buddies so it is wild that she is now no longer pregnant but is a full on mama. After meeting Elsea, Jacob and I both confessed to each other that more than ever we CANNOT WAIT to meet Avery now and have 'baby fever' for our little girl so bad. We are so excited to start the adventure of being Avery's parents.

Here's me with sweet baby Elsea.

Jacob getting some practice with Elsea.

A recent photo with me and Jill both holding our baby girls on our laps.

Quick pic from 'Baby Bump Lunch', where I got together with some other pregnant mamas from church. I'm the closest to my due date of the group (yikes!). Fun to get together and talk about nothing but baby stuff!