The Hawkins: July 2011

On Monday we celebrated our two year anniversary. I can't believe it has been two years since we walked down the isle. These two years have flown by and we have nothing but great memories from them. When we were engaged we never dreamed that we would be living in another country and traveling all over. We sure have been on an adventure and are about to start another one with our little baby.

I love looking back at our wedding pictures and reliving the whole day and night. I am so thankful to my parents for giving us the perfect wedding and a party to remember!

I am so happy and feel so blessed the Lord chose Zann and I for each other. We look forward to all our years to come together.

To celebrate we went out for a night in Zurich. We went to a wine bar for an appetizer and a glass of champange to celebrate and then walked across the street to a great Italian restaurant for some pasta. And we are going to Stockholm this weekend to continue the celebration :)

Happy two years!

I have totally been out of blogging for way to long. I really hope to become better at keeping up with it especially when Baby Girl is born. From here on out I will try to post at least every week and maybe do some catch up posts.

How Far Along: 29 weeks. Welcome to the third trimester!! I know these last couple weeks will fly by with summer ending and school starting but I am sure by the end things will start to seem really long.

Size of baby: Baby Girl is the size of a butternut squash this week. Since week 25 she has gone from being a rutabaga to an English Hot House Cucumber (whatever that is) to a head of cauliflower then to a head of Chinese cabbage. I thought these were very interesting food picks for size. haha Baby Girl is now 2 and a half pounds and 15 inches long.

Baby Development: The muscles and lungs are strengthening and the head is growing to make room for that big old brain :)

I have been feeling the baby move pretty regularly for a while now but all movements have been so much stronger in the past two weeks. Baby girl is very shy though and does not like to perform in front of other people. The whole time we were home everyone was trying to feel the baby move and as soon as I would feel her someone would put a hand on my stomach and she would stop. Susie, Jack, and Liz did get to feel some good kicks.

We went to the doctor last Wednesday and found out that the baby is head down (yay!!) and her feet are over on my right side. So I can now tell if it is a foot or hand moving. The movements are sometimes sudden kicks that shake my whole stomach and other times it feels like the little girl is trying to crawl out. The little stroking movements from her hands are the weirdest feeling. She mostly does that at night when I am trying to sleep on my side. Zann has felt it every night and we both agree it feels like an alien rubbing and poking inside me.

I have been sleeping pretty well besides getting up at least once a night still. It has become harder to roll over and get my pillows adjusted just right. This week I have been so tired though. I have been sleeping in until after 8 and then have taken a nap a couple days which is very unlike me. I think I have maybe taken 5 naps in the past two years and I have taken 2 already this week. So the tiredness definitely returned for the third trimester. I bet I will be exhausted after working all day soon.

I have been feeling great pretty much most of the time. I can tell moving around is slowly becoming more difficult. I now have to think about bending over and have been doing much more squatting to pick things up. I have made it to the gym twice this week and have gone on two long walks and those both felt great. My stomach does get really tight if I move too quickly or after walking for a while. Apparently those are Braxton hicks (practice contractions). When that happens my stomach gets sooo hard.

Luckily the doctor did not comment on my weight this time. He said that I gained the right amount since last time. I don't know how since I did not hold back at all during our three weeks in the US and ate out every meal for the last week we were there. But I'll take it. I loved getting some American food while we were home. We had our burger fix at Poe's no less than 3 times. I was a little behind discovering the serve yourself frozen yogurt places but when Candice and Mike took us for the first time in Charlotte, I was hooked. Our daily activities then revolved around when we could go get frozen yogurt. I so wish they had that in Switzerland! We have been having some pretty tasty Movenpick ice cream for dessert many nights though. I am so still hooked on fruit which I realized today how expensive it is becoming. Fresh fruit is not cheap to eat here and averaging 5 to 6 dollars a day on fruit alone for myself is adding up but it’s what we will do for now to keep me healthy.

Here are growing belly pictures from the past couple weeks. I tried to do everything I know how to make the pictures turn but no luck. If anyone knows how let me know : )