34 WEEKS

Well, I am now 34 weeks (and two days)!!!  How weird is that?!  Time is seriously flying by...especially because in a few short weeks, I will be considered full term.  Wow.  Where has the time gone?

The last time I posted I was 30 weeks.  A few new things have happened with us and our little one since then.

We were able to have another ultrasound at 31 weeks and 2 days.  (On April 24th).  It was so great, and so reassuring to be able to see his cute little body.  Everything looked great.  He is measuring correctly and right on with his due date.  We were able to get a better picture of what his face looks like.  Although, he was being quite shy and he was smashing the right side of his face into my placenta, and covering up the left side of his face with his hand, so we couldn't see it as well as we were hoping to.  But we got to see a little preview.  The ultrasound tech was able to see a little bit of hair on the back of his head also.  That was fun to see!  From what she explained, I picture him to have a little bit of a grandpa hairstyle with a bald spot on the top of his head, and a u-shaped hairline in the back.  Make sense?  Haha, we can't wait to see what he looks like!

Also sometime during my 31st week, I felt him hiccup for the first time.  I'm sure he had been doing it previously to that, but I didn't know what it was supposed to be like.  A nurse at my work explained to me what it felt like, and sure enough a couple days later I felt the hiccups!  He gets them just about every day, if not twice a day.  Haha they are so funny!  Sometimes, Scott gets worried that he gets them because he swallows him wrong.  He is such a worry wart :)

Sometime in between weeks 32 and 33 is where I started to feel uncomfortable.  Up until that point, I had been thinking that this pregnancy has gone by so fast, and that it needed to slow down.  Well, I still believe that to an extent.  However, physically I feel different.  My body is getting bigger by the second, I swear!  Physically, I could be content having this little boy ASAP.  Mentally, i'm still so unprepared.

Least favorite picture.

At 33 weeks, I had my baby shower, which I just posted about...

This week is week 34 and the week that I threw up for the first time during my entire pregnancy.  And the second, and the third, and the fourth, and so on...  I ended up catching a bad case of the flu.  Yuck.  That was definitely not fun.  Throwing up so hard, multiple times with a 34-week belly is DEFINITELY not fun.    I was nervous that by throwing up so hard, my cramps would turn into contractions and I was going to go into preterm labor.  Luckily that didn't happen.

Geesh.. Can I grow any more??

I can tell he is getting bigger and wanting more space to move.  He is moving up into my ribs and more on my sides.  I still find it very reassuring every time he wiggles around because at least I know that he is doing okay.  Sometimes we like to lay down, and watch how active he is.  He make my whole belly move.  Either from side to side, or up and down.  We still can't tell for sure if the bumps are his bum, head, or limbs.  But I can usually make a guess between head/bum and limbs. 

With the baby coming soon, we are getting slightly more stressed at how we will be as parents, and providers.  It is scary to think about how much responsibility is going to come into our lives.  I still don't know how it will all work out, but I know that somehow it will.

Baby Shower!!

The first weekend in May was a great weekend for our family.  Toni came down from Seattle, Cody walked at his graduation, and I had my baby shower given to me by my Chelsea and Toni.  

Cody graduated back in December, but walked on Saturday May 4th.  It was fun to all be together to watch him accomplish something so great!  Good job Codes!

Monday May 6th was the day that Toni and Chelsea threw me a baby shower!  I am such a lucky gal to have these two be so willing to go through all that planning and effort.  The shower turned out better than I ever imagined!

The decorations were super cute and the food was tasty...

The atmosphere was great--it started out outside, but after the lightning/thunder/dark clouds came in we decided to move it inside

So many family and family friends came to show their support--it was great!

We definitely got spoiled to say the least!  So many clothes, blankets, bath stuff, a bumbo, a humidifier, a bouncer, medical stuff, accessories, the list goes on...

One of my favorite things from the shower were the "Baby Wishes for Baby Perkes" that Chelsea came up with.  I loved reading them to my little boy after, and I even shed a tear or two while doing so.  It was so fun to hear what hopes everyone had for our sweet little one.

All in all--great, family-filled weekend!  Thanks to my great sisters for all they did to make my shower wonderful!  I love them!

Our new headboard

A few months ago, I was reading my cousin Kelsie's blog and she had a post of when she and my aunt Pam got together and made headboards for their beds out of pallets.  I was in love with how theirs turned out that I wanted to make one for our bed.

The last weekend in April, my mom and I went up to Preston to meet my Aunt Pam and make my headboard.  She gets free pallets from her work, and my Uncle Terry has any and every tool you could imagine, so we were all set!  

We took apart 4 pallets...

Tried to get the nails out of the boards...

I arranged the pallet boards together how I wanted them to look...

We used saws and a nail gun to put it all together...

And finally, I decided to white wash it for a different color...

Voila!  Doesn't it look so great?!

It was seriously so much fun to make!  And I am amazed at the fact that I have a nice sturdy headboard now and all I had to pay was $5 for the paint and brushes.  One of the most fun projects i've ever made...  And I will admit, I am rather proud of myself :)

One down....

That's right, Scott officially became a private pilot on April 12, 2013!

He has worked extremely hard for the past 6 months to obtain this.  Earning this license entailed him going to countless hours of ground school and studying, clocking around 60 hours (10 of which were solo hours) of flight time in the helicopter, 3 stage checks, an FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) written exam, and an FAA check ride.

Just to clarify..

*Each of the 3 stage checks consisted of:  a 2-hour oral exam, and 2-hour practical flight exam (which was basically a drivers test, but in the air).

*The FAA written exam was a written test, which Scott got 100% on.  (Nobody at Mountain Ridge has ever got that high of a score!)

*The FAA check ride was a 2-hour oral test with an FAA examiner, and a 2-hour practical flight exam with an FAA examiner.

He makes a hot pilot, right?

One down, 4 licenses to go--Instrument rating, commercial certificate, Certified Flight Instructor (CFI), and Certified Flight Instrument Instructor (CFII).

He is now allowed to legally fly any helicopter under 12,500 pounds.  The red helicopter behind him is a Robinson-22 (R-22).  They are dinky helicopters, but that makes them very difficult to fly because they are so light and squirly in the air.  This is what he has been training in up to this point.

He's amazing.  I'm proud of him and all he is accomplishing.  Even though everything about being a helicopter pilot is scary, he enjoys it and is learning new things and improving every day.