What's new around here?

I have to start out and say I'm disappointed that I won't be able to post any pictures in this post. I went to send pictures I've taken on my cellphone to my email and since I had to download the new operating system on my iPhone, there isn't an option to email - just text and twitter. I'm sure there is a way but I didn't have the patience to figure it out. Maybe I'll have Ryan figure it out later tonight :)

Two weekends ago, I was on call and Ryan was in Florida with a friend just hanging out. They had a free place to stay so only had to pay for airfare. Sounds like they had a good time. He has pictures on his phone that I'll have to get and post here. He tells me he took some cool video of Shamu at SeaWorld, but I haven't watched it yet ;)

On the baby front, this kiddo is a night owl! He is a mover and shaker whenever I lay down to sleep. Definitely have a baby bump going on now. I'd post my first bump photo if I could figure out how to get it off my phone :/ It's fun now because Ryan is able to feel him move whenever he wants. {We're still struggling on the baby name front...} It's so weird to feel this kiddo moving in my belly - almost alien-like. Can't describe it but I'm guessing those who have ever been pregnant know what I'm talking about. Made a little video of listening to the babe's heart beat which I'd like to eventually post on here. I passed by glucola which means that I don't have gestational diabetes - woo hoo! I'm such a worry wart about things and knowing a thing or two about obstetrics, I tend to worry and dwell on things that could potentially go wrong. But no gestational diabetes here so that's good :)

I had this past weekend off and oh....my....word.... can someone say nesting!?! It was crazy. Literally deep cleaned and organized for over two days straight. I've never done anything like that before. Torn apart the guest room, went through things in that closet that have been sitting there for the past two years since we've been in Omaha untouched and either pitched things or donated it to Good Will. We now have a nearly empty guest bedroom closet and guest bedroom so there is space to put baby things. We decided to make the nursery in the guest room since that room is used way way way less than our office which was the only other potential nursery room. Anyways, we still have a few things left to do in that room before we're able to transition it to the nursery/guest room but we made HUGE progress this weekend. Also gave the two bathrooms a deep cleaning including even the base boards. Ugh, bathrooms - I hate cleaning them but they're clean now. Installed a new garbage thing in our kitchen that fits in one of the cupboards - not sure the exact name - but we no longer have our garbage can just sitting next to the counter. Harvested the carrots from our garden and pulled all the weeds/grass that had claimed the garden as their home. Also pulled some of the other bigger weeds in the back yard. Everything from the garden and backyard that I pulled filled our entire yard waste kirby! Lucky for Ryan, because the kirby was full, he had an excuse to not mow the lawn as we had no where to put all the clippings (I not only filled the yard waste kirby but also our regular kirby to the brim! I love cleaning and getting rid of junk!). Let's see, I feel like I'm forgetting something else. Oh yeah, I clean our basement literally from top to bottom - ufta! Seriously, it was so dusty down there! But not anymore. Cleaned up our storage shelves down there and everything and then filled them up with a bunch of paper towels, toilet paper, and kleenex that we just bought for a big discount on Amazon last week. Gotta love two-day free shipping with Amazon Prime!! I think we are set on TP until I finish residency in 1.5 years and we're good on paper towels for likely at least another year! ha! Ryan told me I can no longer give him crap for buying things bulk at Sam's Club - hehehe. We also did a bajillion loads of laundry this weekend and even managed to put it all away!

I think the reason why I started nesting is because I work this weekend and start a month of night float on Monday night :( I'm sort of dreading this night float month - ugh! I think my July night float, on the heals of June which was quite possibly the worse month of residency to date, kind of burned me out on the whole situation. Oh well, no going to get out of it so chin up and power through. But I'll finish my month of night float and then will have less than 2 months until my due date. It's going to be here before I know it! I also have to give a presentation for our diagnostics conference in October (almost done with the presentation) and then grand rounds in November (have yet to start - I have a topic which I guess is a start - ha!). Lots to due and I'm feeling the time crunch! There is never a shortage of things to fill my time.

Anyways, things are good here. We've had absolutely beautiful weather for the past two weeks. We've been able to have the air conditioner off and the windows open. Fall is definitely in the air. I love it!

~Ashley

Baby Kicks

This past Saturday, Ryan and I were getting ready for bed and our little fella was moving around like crazy. As Ryan and I were talking, I said to him 'I can't wait until you can actually feel this!' Ryan then put his hand on my belly but I told him the movements were still pretty subtle and he likely wasn't going to feel them. But then I got to thinking and figured if we cramped the kids style, aka put some pressure on him, that maybe Ryan would be able to feel something. Cramping this kids style really gets him going and the reason I know this is because I'm normally a stomach sleeper and I'm trying to milk the last few minutes of stomach time while I can. The few times I've laid on my stomach recently {with the assistance of my body pillow because otherwise it's just too uncomfortable} this kiddo's kicks seem to become stronger. {Sorry for squishing you little guy!} Anyways, so I had Ryan press towards the top of my belly. I'd ask Ryan 'Did you feel that?!' every time I felt him move. Ryan would always reply something along the lines of 'yeah, I think I felt that.' So then I figured I was going to stop telling him and see if he would tell me when if felt movement. Well just when I decided to do that, our kiddo totally karate kicked Ryan's hand! Ryan said "oh my gosh, was that him!!?!!" And it totally was. It was awesome. I will never forget the look and smile on Ryan's face after feeling that. Twenty four weeks down. We're over half way there!! {yikes, we've got so much to do :/}

~Ashley

Vacation Video

On vacation, we had to navigator our big houseboat through some tight spaces. This one was really narrow, only having a few feet of clearance on each side. I was able to capture it on video. It not only shows the tight squeeze but also just how beautiful it was up there on this trip.

~Ashley

We're having a BOY!

The week before leaving for vacation, we had out baby's anatomy scan. I left it up to Ryan whether or not to find out if this little fetus was a boy or girl and he immediately said he wanted to know. So gender reveal it is! One of my co-residents took our gender reveal photos and made cupcakes with gender specific frosting on the inside for us to take on vacation. There wasn't a lot of time between the ultrasound and us leaving for vacation so when she volunteered to make cupcakes for us, I was more than grateful!

Ryan and I had stopped at Ryan's parent's house to pick up their boat and eat lunch on our way up north for vacation. For dessert, we busted out the cupcakes. There's no pictures but we let Ryan take the first bite, and he got this huge smile on his face and turned the center of the cupcake towards me so I could see. Blue frosting, so... IT'S A BOY!!

Both Ryan and I thought we were having a girl. Ha. We were wrong but we are more than thrilled with having a boy. Ryan promises to have him in skates at an early age :)

We then brought the remaining cupcakes all the way up north with us so we could do a little gender reveal celebrating with my side of the family. Ryan decided to take some pictures of everyone eating their cupcakes. We ate the cupcakes for dessert after our first dinner on the houseboat. First we took a poll and it was Girl 2 vs Boy 3. I believe Kirstin, Hillary and my mom all said boy and my dad and Ryan C said girl.

Everybody getting ready to cut into their cupcakes.

It's a BOY!!

I like how Ryan C is checking out my dad's cupcake to make sure it's the same color as his.

The proof that the frosting was in fact blue :)

~Ashley