29 weeks...

Yes, it's a terrible picture of me due to the shadows and the fact that I'd just gotten done walking up and down my street...twice. However, this is what I currently look like -- belly-wise. Apparently, walking helps regulate blood sugar, especially after mealtimes, so my goal over the next few weeks is to try and walk more after supper at least several times each week. I can't walk as much or as fast as I could pre-pregnancy, but it will still help with endurance and stamina when it comes time to birth this little man.

I had a doctor's appointment this week. I've gained 13 pounds, and the baby's heartbeat was 146 bpm. This is the lowest it's been so far, but not surprising at all considering that he's getting bigger and bigger every day. My doctor told me that I won't have to go on meds to regulate my blood sugar and that whatever changes I'd made to my diet were working well enough. Yay! I just have to keep telling myself that these changes are only temporary and that I will be able to drink the biggest coke I want after the baby arrives. In fact, I've already decided my post-birth first meal. Assuming the baby is not born on Thanksgiving Day, I think I'd like a big, greasy hamburger with french fries and a ginormous coke from this little grill right around the corner from the hospital. It's not too far from my office, so I was eating there every couple of weeks or so. Since my diagnosis, though, I've had to cut back on those kinds of foods, so I probably won't go back and face those temptations for a while. Anyway, due to the GD, my doctor wants to monitor the baby's growth weekly starting in a couple of weeks. I go back to see her again on the 24th and then beginning on the 30th, I'll have weekly ultrasounds. When the nurse called me to tell me that they were all scheduled from the 30th until I give birth, that was kind of a sobering moment for me as I realized, "Oh crap -- time is running out on us!"

We do have part of the nursery "put together." Scotty and Lee went last weekend to get the crib and dresser and put them together -- pics to come once the room is closer to completion. My friend Alicia is making the bedding, curtains, etc. for me, so I should have that arriving soon. My next step is to get stuff up on the walls. Enter Rachel, aka Boo, my little sister. Boo's always been quite the artist. For some time now, she's been painting canvases and such for friends having babies and giving them as gifts. Everyone loves them so much that they always end up requesting more of the same. She recently decided that she wants to do this in addition to her real estate (or totally in place of it if it takes off), so she's putting together a website (http://www.thepeekabootique.etsy.com/), where you can request specific designs, themes, whatever and she'll do it for you. In order to have more pics for her site, she's offered to do the whole baby room for me -- picture frames, growth chart, canvases, etc. I'm ecstatic! Thanks, Boo -- I will gladly be your walking advertisement. :)

As promised, here are two pics from the wedding a few weeks ago:

The Anders Family

The Anders/Randall Family

We still have our season tickets for the Saints. So Baby Rain attended his first NFL football game today. It's never rained on us for any Saints game ever. However, that was not the case today. Even though I happened to have my umbrella with me, we still got drenched. Once we made it into the game, our blue jeans were soaked to about mid-calf level, our hair was wet, and it's a good thing I wasn't wearing a white t-shirt b/c it was soaked too. I can't fit into my regular Saints attire (a child's large jersey), so I improvised with a stretchy/kinda tight black shirt with black and gold beads. This was probably going to be the only Saints game I go to this season unless we change our minds, otherwise, I would've just gotten another shirt. Anyway, here's a pic of Scotty and me from after the game: