28 weeks

How far along? 28 weeks
Total weight gain: 23ish pounds

Maternity clothes? yep

Sleep: Love it, even if it is interrupted with trips to the bathroom.

Best moment this week: Spending time with family and receiving so many wonderful gifts!
Food Cravings: dessert items

Movement: Lots lately, especially around meal times and at night. This girl does not like to be hungry!

Gender: GIRL!!

Labor Signs: NONE. I hope to answer this question that way until March.

Belly Button in or out? In.
What I miss: sleeping on my stomach
What I am looking forward to: Starting our birth classes at Missouri Baptist this weekend. Two full Saturdays should be enough to teach us pretty much everything we need to know, right? :-)
Weekly Wisdom: Rejoice!

Milestones: At 28 weeks, over 90% of babies born will survive.

27 weeks

Merry Christmas! Our best present is wrapped with a bow :-)
How far along? 27 weeks
Total weight gain: 22 pounds

Maternity clothes? yep

Sleep: Love it.

Best moment this week: Nate felt her move finally!! That was such a sweet moment! Also, Dr. F called her a "superstar" at this week's appt since he could already see her practicing breathing.

Food Cravings: Food, basically.

Movement: Lots more every day. She is breech right now, so I feel a lot way up high and way down low.

Gender: GIRL!!

Labor Signs: NONE. I hope to answer this question that way until March.

Belly Button in or out? In.

What I miss: Sleeping for a stretch longer than 2 hours.
What I am looking forward to: Seeing our families for Christmas.

Weekly Wisdom: Be thankful in all things.

Milestones: Officially in the third trimester, holy moly. Also, I got to meet this little guy last week. So thankful for another healthy baby! Congratulations Megan and Ryan!!

26 weeks

(Thanks for the Ram's tickets Bill and Ginny, we had a great time!)
How far along? 26 weeks
Total weight gain: 20 pounds - it makes me feel better now that most of the weight gain is really baby girl!

Maternity clothes? yep

Sleep: Love it.

Best moment this week: My work wife Megan safely delivered baby Jacob on the 16th and mom and baby are doing great!

Food Cravings: Food, basically.

Movement: Love it! Still waiting for dad to be able to feel her from the outside, so far she's being a stinker and only letting me feel/see that, silly girl.

Gender: GIRL!!

Labor Signs: NONE. I hope to answer this question that way until March.

Belly Button in or out? In.

What I miss: Making it longer than an hour and a half without having to pee.
What I am looking forward to: Nate being able to feel her move and of course meeting my work wife's new baby Jacob Christoper!

Weekly Wisdom: Be thankful in all things.

Milestones: Every day is a milestone :-)

25 weeks

How far along? 25 weeks
Total weight gain: 19 pounds and holding steady

Maternity clothes? yep

Sleep: Love it.

Best moment this week: Feeling more serious movement and especially feeling her kick way up by my ribs during church. Maybe she's already charismatic? Also, last night I was reading a book and resting it on my belly and she was wiggling so much that my book moved a couple of times!

Food Cravings: I'm so hungry in the mornings I'll eat almost anything. But if you have a bagel, watch out.

Movement: I know now that this is definitely the best part of being pregnant. I could just sit back and feel/watch her move all day. I want everybody else to feel her too!

Gender: GIRL!!

Labor Signs: NONE. I hope to answer this question that way until March.

Belly Button in or out? In and spreading. Nate thinks it's cute, me not so much.

What I miss: Nothing I can think of.
What I am looking forward to: The whole Christmas/New Year's season.

Weekly Wisdom: Do not try to turn off the water faucet by pushing the Stop button on the microwave. No matter how many times you try, it just won't work.

Milestones: Every day is a milestone

Work Baby Shower

Yesterday was my work baby shower and it was so exciting and fun! My work friends did an amazing job and everything was so beautiful! There was a lot of pink and purple and I loved all of it. I felt so special, loved, and blessed to have great colleagues who are so generous and thoughtful.

The cake made by the pastry chef downstairs in Fresh Gatherings. I love the sleeping baby in the corner and all of the chocolate stars! It had a raspberry filling and was so delicious!!


Me and my work wife Megan. And our babies, of course! She described her "bump" as an accessory and I thought that was hilarious. I can't wait to meet her little guy in just a few weeks!



Katie, me, and Megan - they were great shower organizers!


Katie was doing an excellent job bartending. I loved the sparkling apple cider!


Cute table decorations and advice cards.



Clearly I was having a lot of fun!!


Baby girl got so many cute and really soft blankets. She will definitely be warm!


Opening another great gift.

Fun on the Freeway, Part 2

This weekend we braved the cold and went to the opening of the second half of Highway 40, aptly titled Fun on the Freeway. Just like Sweat 4 Pets, it was fun to think about what we did last year compared to this year.

2008:
Megan and I before the 5K run. It was so cool to run on the highway in December. Everyone was really excited and it was a fun crowd.


Here I am finishing, if you look closely. I thought I was doing horrible and the run felt miserable, but I took about 2 minutes off my previous 5K time!


A view of the new highway


Close to the Ballas Rd Exit


After I did the run, Nate rode his bike nearly the entire length of the first section to open.


2009: We walked between Hanley Rd and the Big Bend Exit. It was fun to see runners, walkers, bikers, roller bladers, skate boarders, unicyclers, and other interesting people. People also wrote in chalk all over the median and the road.


Almost to the Bellevue Exit. I realize that the weather and overcast sky actually looks exactly the same in both years.


At the Big Bend exit.

Semester Project

Quick detour from baby news to highlight what I've been working on for the last several months for my master's program. I studied the effect that MetroLink rail stations have on residential property values. Studies in other cities have found 5-20% boost in value from living within a short distance (1/4 mile or 5-minute walk) from a station. Other studies have found houses decrease in value because not many people use mass transit and because of noise and traffic. I wanted to see what the deal was along the new MetroLink extension. To keep things manageable, I looked at the two stations in Maplewood, Sunnen and Maplewood-Manchester. Thanks to the St. Louis County Planning Department for the data.

It's more complicated than it sounds because I had to play around with the data alot. It's difficult to compare different neighborhoods directly, especially since Maplewood has older, smaller, and cheaper houses than the surrounding areas of Brentwood and Webster Groves. Basically what I found was that once you control for the school district, there is a 6.3% increase (per square foot) in value for single-family homes, excluding rentals. This works out to approximately $9,000 in extra value for each house located within 1/4 mile of the station.

This project is just a start, I hope to expand it to all stations, get more updated data, and tweak my model for my thesis sometime next year. If you want all the gory geospatial details, or are looking for some delightful bedtime reading material, I will happily send you my full paper.

You can click on the map at the top to see in more detail.

24 weeks

How far along? 24 weeks

Total weight gain: 19 pounds (maybe I should have been paying closer attention to the scale, I'm trying not to be too stressed about it since we're both totally healthy)

Maternity clothes? yep

Sleep: Love it.

Best moment this week:Seeing her on another ultrasound at Monday's appointment. She's looking great and is growing right on track!

Food Cravings: Pretty much anything, I've been starving lately!! I'm trying to choose healthy foods and snacks, but how many apples can I eat a day?!?

Movement: Lots more just this week. Some so strong I can see my belly moving from the outside, which is crazy awesome.

Gender: GIRL!!

Labor Signs: NONE. I hope to answer this question that way until March.

Belly Button in or out? In and spreading

What I miss: Being more independent. I have to get help to move and carry things and I'm not used to that! I know people are happy to help, but I hate to have to ask for it.
What I am looking forward to: My first shower next week at work :-)

Weekly Wisdom: Love more, fear less.

Milestones: VIABILITY! If she were born today all possible attempts would be made for her to survive and she would have a good chance of making it. This is a HUGE milestone to me.

She has a crib

Thanks to a little extra down time over Thanksgiving and the generosity of Grandma and Grandpa Tenholder, baby girl has a crib. The room is really starting to look like a baby girl's room!