Third Trimester?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

I am not quite sure how the third trimester has snuck up on us so fast. Nor am I quite sure how I feel about it yet! I am waivering between being super excited and super panicked! Any suggestions?

Overall, I am leaning more to the excited side! The second trimester was really good for me. The morning sickness nearly vanished and my energy level definitely went up. For the most part, I felt great, but the last few weeks I have been growing a little more uncomfortable between the oppressive heat of this summer (one of the hottest on record....aren't I lucky?!) and the fact that I have no torso and Baby is definitely pushing everything up under my ribs! This week I have had my first comments from random people about being pregnant, so I guess I must finally look like I am having a baby and not just pigging out on the donuts!

The nugget has become VERY active as of late...which also means I am up way late! Chris and I have decided that we are officially growing a night owl, which I suppose is not really all that surprising considering his/her parental (and grand-parental) background! I keep telling Chris that we are either raising the next Michael Phelps or the newest Shawn Johnson because Baby really likes to turn flips and move back and forth. The latest game is for Baby to lay horizontally and then move its arms and legs out simultaneously getting me on both sides! What fun! Chris and I are also having fun watching my belly move, as Baby is now big enough that we can sometimes see the big turns and somersaults.

We have also discovered that there is nothing wrong with Baby's hearing, and we are definitely raising a music lover. One afternoon we were watching the Jimmy Buffet Gulf relief concert and the minute Jimmy started singing, Baby started dancing. When he was just talking, Baby was really still. Hooray for Baby being a little Parrothead! Last night, Baby was also jamming out to Paul McCartney, which made Chris extremely happy to know that Baby has good taste and enjoys the Beatles!

I am amazed at how fast the summer is flying by. We survived the trip to Iowa and returned home to finish 3 weeks of summer school, and while I love my students and my summer job, I was definitely not sad to see Wednesday (the LAST day) arrive. We are now onto the next projects. Chris and I are a little over a week away from finishing classes for the summer, which means I am only a week away from becoming a master!!! I have loved my program and learned a lot, but will be extremely happy to finally be finished! In the meanwhile, my mom and dad have been here for the past week and they have been a Godsend! We have sorted, pitched, recycled, painted, and moved nearly everything in the house. Of course this means we have created an even bigger mess than we had to start with (and put the cats into an incredible state of panic and confusion), but I am sure that it will all get finished soon. I'll let Chris post more about the various projects at another time!



23 weeks



24 weeks



25 weeks



26 weeks



27 weeks (still wearing my size 0 capris--under the belly of course!)

Baby's First Visit

So, we are rapidly approaching the end of Baby’s first trip to Iowa. Whew…we have been through quite the whirlwind! Baby has become much, much, much MORE active since arriving in Iowa (I think that may be a sign, Baby likes it!). This however has meant much, much, much LESS sleep for me! I will take it though, as it has been very fun to really feel Baby moving around. Chris even got to feel Baby the other night as I got one really strong swift kick in the side. His eyes lit up and were as big as saucers, only to be followed again by comments like, “It’s a real person in there!”


We have survived some brutally hot, humid day time temps (swelter, as my brother calls it), record cool nights (freezing, as I call it) and LOTS of rain (obnoxious, as my mom calls it, all the while yelling at the meteorologist on TV on a daily basis). While all our families have escaped the flooding, I am always sad to think of the families and communities who go through year after year of uncertainty and loss in the face of mother nature. The rain definitely put a damper on all the 4th of July activities, as mother nature put on her own fireworks show throughout much of the weekend. Fortunately, Urbandale was able to squeeze in the fireworks show between rain storms on Monday, and Baby was very interested to know what all the commotion was about!


Other than dodging raindrops, we have spent lots of time visiting parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, and cousins on both sides of the family and many different friends with no obvious signs of injury or too much wear and tear. Although, I am EXHAUSTED, and will need a vacation just to recover!



A trip to the Reece Cottage Garden in New Providence, Iowa. So pretty!



The annual visit with Amber and the boys! (Thank you for all the maternity attire!!!)



The Reece/Heilskov cousins BB (Before Baby)



Uncle Chris and Micah having a little too much fun at the Science Center!

Most importantly, we have collected a disturbing amount of Hawkeye baby gear and given Baby Reece its first taste of Iowa Sweet Corn! While the crop won’t really be ready for a few weeks, it was so good to have a small taste of what is to come! Ironically enough, according to our “What to Expect” app for the two weeks we have been here, Baby has been the size of….AN EAR OF CORN!!!! He/She must have known that we were visiting the homeland. We are growing a true Midwesterner at heart!



Baby's first ear (or 2 or 3) of sweet corn! YUMM-O!



So proud (as Chris says!)

We won’t be bringing the cooler-full back with us this trip, but have no fear Florida friends, my parents are headed down at the end of the month and will supply us well!