Month 7, almost 8...WOW that came fast! And a few updates about school and work.

Well we are almost 12 weeks past since the last update and have gotten use to the 3rd trimester. We are 30  weeks, 5 days and growing, which I guess is a good thing because that means he's growing! He is gaining a half a pound a week at this point and mom has felt a little pressure in her ribs, but overall movements have remained around my belly button. Many times my whole belly moves, the first time John saw that was pretty funny. He was amazed and laughing. Baby Klein has gone as far to wake his dad up in the middle of the night by kicking him in the back or pushing his hand off of my belly lol. He definitely recognizes John because he starts movin a bunch when he reads to him and when John puts his hand on my belly. I tell John that's Baby Klein saying hi :)

We've had a very easy pregnancy, especially throughout most of the second trimester. I've been lucky enough to avoid most symptoms...knock on wood. I just tapped the wood in the picture :) The last few weeks I have been experiencing a little bit of indigestion and heartburn, but not bad and not every day which is really nice. I've had a few weird things come up, but nothing too scary and they went away quickly. They are probably not scary at all to most people, just a little nerve wrecking for me. We are having checkups every two weeks now, which is fun to me because I get to hear him, see him move a bunch and know that everyone is healthy! At my most recent 29 week check up, My midwife told me that his heart rate and mine were great and I've gained just the right amount of weight. I'm measuring right where she expects me to and my blood pressure is great. I have been walking the dogs almost daily, stretching and/or doing yoga regularly, and going to water aerobics or swimming laps 3-4 times a week. I can still swim a mile continuously which not only makes me feel mentally and emotionally great, but feels great physically too :)

Now that we're getting so close we've really been trying to make room for baby Klein. We've been so occupied with getting out of the storage unit and moving things out from the condo, that we haven't spent a lot of time putting baby stuff up yet. We are being a bit more creative than the average bear, because of our small space. John's current project is to build a changing table that will go on top of the crib. Today we got some fun fabric for it. Any guesses on what it is? John has been so encouraging and cute throughout our whole pregnancy. He has been very helpful in keeping the house cleaner and even folding my clothes for me just to be nice. He's surprised us with a few books and constantly says I love you to the baby and rubs my belly. The other night I was trying to take a bath, but had run out of hot water from washing the dishes and John came up with this bright idea to boil some water just warm enough and let me take one. I'm such a lucky lady.

Between reading for Baby Klein and reading for school, I have been very busy reading and writing. I've learned a lot from my early childhood classes, but I must say that I have struggled to keep up the motivation and been slitely irritated with my courses. They are not as organized or interesting as my previous classes, but they're ok. Not to mention we did not have any break from classes over Thanksgiving. After next week I'll be done with one of my classes and after the following I'll be done with both. Once I'm done I'll have enough credits to teach early childhood special education in Alaska, so that's nice. I didn't get a Thanksgiving break, but I will be done sooner and have a couple of weeks to work on Christmas cards and enjoy the season without course work.

Work has been good, I enjoy the people I work with and the students are great. Everyone has been very supportive and helpful as I have gotten bigger and some of the students are pretty intrigued by my growing belly as well. We recently finished a 5 week movement challenge and our team won 3 maybe 4 of the weeks. I won two gift cards, a really nice water bottle, and something else I think, but I can't remember :)

It's been a while since our cruise in September, but that'll be a big enough post on its own. I'll post about that later. We had a great Thanksgiving with John's boss over the weekend where we were graciously served some delicious food. We did a fun run/walk with the dogs in the morning that helped out a local lady with cancer. We couldn't have asked for better weather, it was sunny and beautiful. John made his first attempt at a pecan pie and it turned out great. He even made the pie crust from scratch. Yesterday we worked all day at the shop for black Friday and today we finally went to see Mocking Jay part II, the finale of the Hunger Games trilogy. It was an excellent movie and I loved it, but I'm sad that it's over. We have the first two movies, we'll have to get the final two as well so I can re-watch them over and over again :) I may just have to re-read the books too.

Besides these updates, everything else has been about the same from last time. Since daylight savings it's been getting dark soon after I get off work at 3 and we've had some snow. Em's hoping to make it up snowshoeing before Christmas, because it'll probably be too late by then. Let it snow! The dogs have adjusted to the season better than we have (as long as they get outside to play) and they as well as TJ have continued to love on mama's belly. John and I have enjoyed many nights of catching up on Dr. House recently. We hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and are enjoying your fall/winter season.

Love the Klein's!