Almost 33 weeks

Holy HUGE right?

I had another Doctor's appointment today and here's what's up!

-I have now gained 21 lbs throughout the entire pregnancy! Yikes! I still have almost 7 weeks to go! They told me I should try to gain about 25-30, though, so I guess I am on track. It's still weird when you step on the scale... I told Cliff that if it starts to look like I am going to catch up to him, then he has to start gaining some weight too. We're not there yet...

- My glucose test came back fine.

- My blood pressure is still low and I have not experienced any swelling.

- Lilia's heart rate was good. She kicked the doctor again while she was checking.

- My placenta has NOT moved so I will be having another ultrasound. Again, worst case scenario with a low lying placenta, they just schedule a c-section.

- Nausea and vomiting have returned, so I basically got a two month break from that. This time around it's due to heartburn and the fact that my stomach is in my ribs. Evey time I lay down I feel like puking. It's fun!

- Apparently I am carrying pretty high? (Again, another reason why eating is not so much fun.)

- I haven't gotten any stretch marks.... yet. Although I did confuse my ribs for stretch marks the other day :) Cliff was like "Jill, have you ever even seen stretch marks??"

- I had a pregnant moment at the Cherry Blossom festival. Cliff went to get something out of my purse and said, "Jill?" while holding up our cordless house phone. For some unbeknown reason I had brought it in my purse to the flight line...

- Sleeping is such a pain. My back hurts so much no matter which side I am on and I have to pee like 5 times a night.

- We got our stroller and car seat!! I am so excited about them!

Dressin' up the Dining Room Area - Thai Style

Well... sorta Thai style... or not really. I did get some place mats and a table runner while we were there. I think that they go really well with my color scheme!
There is definitely something Asian going on in here... with the bamboo mat on the floor and now the place mats. I love it! (The flowers are from the baby shower on Saturday.)
There are elephants in both patterns!

I also got a table cloth and some prints that I hope to get framed soon. Don't you just love that pink and gold combination!!?
It was so much fun to shop at the night markets in Thailand. There are no set prices so you just go into it with a price in mind and DON'T BACK DOWN! I walked away a few times and the vendor chased me down and gave me what I wanted :) It reminded me a lot of haggling with the Gypsies in Spain. Wouldn't it be great if we could all walk into a department store and haggle a bit?

Baby Shower With the OSC Girls!

My good friends Chrissy and Kristin threw me a baby shower on Saturday! They did such a fantastic job! I am truly grateful to have such good friends over here in Japan.
They picked these flowers out themselves!
The color scheme was green and PINK of course.
Lilia's nursery is going to be pink and green too... except for the blue carpet... whoops!
Delicious food!
Mother- to - be tiara
Ashley, Erin, and Mari!
Yum!
Lee, Robyn, and Amelia! (Amelia just had her own little bundle of joy in January!)
My friend Angela. She was kind enough to take pictures along with my friend Mari during the shower. Angela also visited Thailand recently and was a big help in planning our trip!
This is Aaron our "Mouse!" (Male spouse) He braved all of this estrogen to come support me and Cliff!
Yay for pink!!
A beautiful print for Lilia's room from Mari! She also got us a kokeshi doll :)
Yay for books! I LOVE children's books. I am so excited to read to my children. My mom read to us every night and I think that is a big reason that I still love to read so much today!
ADORABLE sleeper in a Japanese print. Soooo cute! Erin got us a couple of these and they come with matching hats!
Pink!!
Snuzzle!
I've heard this pack will last me about.... a day :)
Gorgeous smocked dress and bonnet that my mom sent for me to open at this shower. Isn't she talented??
Chrissy, (who along with Kristin organized the shower) surprised me with this fabulous teddy bear quilt that she MADE. We were laughing because she tricked me!! She had been consulting me about the fabrics and techniques for making this quilt for months! and I had no idea that she was making it for me.
Isn't it darling! It's so soft too. I love all of the different prints she chose. (That's her in the background)

Growin' and growin'

I still have two more months to go?? Here's the belly at about 31 weeks.

In updates....
- We made it to Thailand and back with no baby so that's a big plus! I really had a blast on our vacation but I'm not sure that I would travel that far again this far along in a pregnancy. I had to get up and move around ALL of the time on the plane and I had trouble sleeping at night even in the WONDERFUL bed at the hotel. I wasn't able to go snorkeling at the reefs either for fear of scraping my stomach on the coral (it's very shallow.) We were able to do just about everything else I wanted to do, though. I still got to enjoy lots of fabulous food and fruits and SUN!

- Lilia is still a kicking machine - but there is a lot more rolling around and jabs to the ribs now.
- I have to pee all of the time. Sorry if that's TMI. It's the truth.
- I don't even want to SEE a scale now. I feel like I am eating everything in sight. Being sick the first 5 months has definitely not set me back at all in the weight gaining department! My doctor wasn't worried, though. Just me.
- Cliff and I went to a prepared child birth class together and I am officially terrified of labor. Can I just skip it? :)
- We bought our car seat and stroller! Crib is next on the list! Our options are slightly limited over here with shipping weights and allowances but if anyone has any suggestions, we would like to keep it under $200 and safety is the biggest priority. Cliff has been doing some research and we have a few models in mind, but if you mothers out there have any tips or suggestions, please share! Shopping for baby items is incredibly overwhelming to me.

Thailand 6 (Phuket FantaSea... or Bizarro World.)

We were recommended by both our friends and many brochures to check out "Phuket FantaSea." We knew that a night here involved a dinner buffet and an evening show... what we didn't bargain for was everything in between! It was like a mini Thai theme park or carnival with strange games and lots of shops and a weird theme song that played throughout the park. Cliff and I still sing it to each other. It was rather catchy. It was incredibly kitschy and beyond bizarre in some places, but overall I am really glad we experienced this. We will laugh about it for years to come!
Entrance to the park
There are mermaids in Thailand too, in case you didn't know.
Siamese twins anyone?




This was where the show took place. It was actually pretty cool.


The restaurant.
Apparently this place can seat thousands of people.
Elephant ride?

White crow?
White tiger. There were a couple of them.
I don't even know how to describe this.... It was a little mini show on a stage outside of the real theater.

Thailand 5 (More Phi Phi Islands)

I might try to paint this picture. I love it.
There were lots of beautiful fish swimming right by the shore here. Cliff and I did a little snorkeling right off the beach!
I had SOOO much sun block on... it didn't help much.
Long boats. We got to know these really well.
Long Beach on Phi Phi Don
Phi Phi Ley in the background
A moment of shade...
The Viking Cave where swallows nests are harvested for "bird's nest soup"
They don't allow tourists inside anymore for fear of disrupting the birds or something.
I just think this is beautiful.
So I took a lot of pictures...