About to enter a new chapter of our lives...

As of tomorrow I'll be 39 weeks pregnant. I can't believe it. After all the waiting, we will finally hold our baby boy soon. I feel emotional remembering Father's Day 2008. That's the day I told Larry he was going to be a dad. Little did I know it would be nearly three years later. But now, the time has come.  We are so excited to meet our precious little boy! It really is such a sacred experience having a perfect baby entrusted to us. It's a bit surreal that we are probably going to meet him in just a few days. I'm starting to get nervous about the whole giving birth scenario ;) But I'm also so excited. I mean, this is MY baby boy. He'll always be mine. It's all just so amazing to me. I'm so grateful for our Heavenly Father's plan of happiness that is centered on having our own families.

Next time we post on here, we'll be announcing the birth of our baby boy and his name (once it's official) We'll post tons of pictures I'm sure. Yay! FYI, I've been 3 cm and 80% effaced for a couple weeks plus contractions on and off. We thought he was coming a week or two ago (once full term) but he decided to wait a little longer. Contractions are getting going mildly now. I *may* or *may not* be getting induced next week...I think I know but we'll see how things have progressed and decide for absolute sure. We want him to come on his own but I really think it might be a little mix of both that happens, if that makes any sense whatsoever. Alright, in the meantime let's look at some pics of the nursery shall we?

A happy place for our baby boy

We're all organized and everything

This is my cloth diaper stash ;) And a few disposables for early on.

I just got a much needed haircut...sorry about the myspace type "took a picture of myself" photo ;)

Going back a little bit....Baby Shower!

Thank you mom and sistas for throwing a shower for me and baby boy on Feb 5th!
We held it at Kaylynn's house and Amy put the show on.
And of course thank you to all our friends and family who came.
It was lots of fun. Now I just can't wait to meet the little boy we're celebrating! 

We really appreciated all the gifts...(plus my work threw me a baby shower the week before so I got even more gifts and lots of gift cards. It all helps so much!)

It was fun not knowing when someone was taking pictures ;)

We played fun games too...okay we all know I'm a cloth diaper nerd. I thoroughly enjoyed pinning flat diapers on teddy bears. It was quite amusing to see what people came up with in one minute...like teddy bear togas!

I think pregnancy is running in my family right now. Me and my sister Kaylynn (She's having a boy in May!)

My ridiculously talented sister Emily made this awesome diaper cake!

Don't you think I'm just glowing in all my pregnant glory?! Okay, really I just haven't seen sun in quite some time.

I got lots of cute squishy stuff for my baby.

But I realized I'm looking rather chubby these days ;)

  I always thought it was funny how people try stuff on their stomach...I mean really? Hehe. Here I am "trying on" a onesie from baby's grandma Kathi. (Thank you! I'm sorry you guys couldn't be here, we missed you)

There was really good food (thanks mom!) Though that may be attributing to my chubby cheeks...

32 Week Ultrasound!

Today I had a follow up ultrasound at St. Marks. The tech was really nice, she's the one that told us we're having a boy back at our week 18 ultrasound. She spent some time trying to get pictures of his sweet little face even when he didn't seem to want to cooperate. He kept putting his hands by his face. She left the room for a few minutes and he started bouncing around like crazy. Then she came in and got these 3d pictures of his face! Larry was happy that I finally got my 3d/4d ultrasound (Now I can't beg him for one anymore). I didn't know they were going to do that. Baby boy looks so much like Larry. He has big lips and a handsome chin. He's a little chubster. I just love him! He currently weighs about four and half pounds. We're getting close!

 It was hard to get a clear shot of his face but you can kinda see it here. That's the umbilical floating around by his face.

 Sleepy baby boy

Look at those cute toes! He has big fat feet like me :) His poor little club feet are so sweet. These pictures were helpful though. We're going to bring them to my consultation with the orthopedic surgeon at Primary Children's next week.
Anyway, baby was very active during the ultrasound. It was so fun to see him. The doctor said that everything seems to be going well but he's concerned that the amniotic fluid level is a little high. That, plus the club feet and echogenic focus are still a concern for chromosomal or neurological abnormalities. But he sounded hopeful that they're just isolated issues. I hope so. I worry so much. The doctor wants to do a follow up ultrasound every week until he's born to keep an eye on him. We love this little boy so much and we're so excited to meet him! Oh and just fyi, our little daddy look alike is probably going to be named Larry "Allen" Balsmeier III. We'll see...next month! Yay!

We're not in Kansas anymore

But we were! Okay I know that is SO old. Anyway, we had a good time visiting family for two weeks. We split the 16 hour drive into two 8 hour drives...that's each way. So 16 total going there and another 16 coming back. So we stayed in a hotel in Denver for the night on each drive. Not sure why I'm going so far into detail on that matter. Moving on. It was a little rough between my back pain (8 months pregnant now people) and Larry's post surgery pain. Oh and the ileostomy bags were not cooperating but that's not a subject Larry would want me to go into detail on! ;) We really had a good time out there. We stayed at Larry's mom's house. It seems we spent a lot of time just relaxing. And by relaxing I mean, I had to lay down a lot cuz I hurt and Larry seemed to enjoy playing Halo. I don't get what the big deal is about that game. Larry turned 27 on Christmas Eve. Check out this "Sushi" cake that Jordan made him. It was really good! Don't worry, it was chocolate and french vanilla I think...nothing fishy.

Christmas was nice. I thoroughly enjoyed presents for our baby boy, courtesy of my sisters in law. Larry got me Willow Trees, which I LOVE. He also got me a digital picture frame. So excited to fill it with pictures of our little baby boy! Of course, the best part of Christmas was being together :)

Hmmm...my back is really starting to hurt so I'm going to wrap this up. Basically we had a great time visiting family. I befriended Konan the rambunctious dog, sat on Sparky the "burrows under blankets" dog...oops. And got to know my little niece Rori better. We also spent some time with the Bidwells (Jennifer "JJ" and Rob plus 6 kids...oh and we got to see our guinea pigs Hershey and Kit Kat) and hung out with the "other" Balsmeier's (John & Clara plus kids) at the Topeka mall. Midway in the trip I got sick with a lousy cold and cough. New Years Eve we struggled to stay awake long enough to say happy new year. Overall it was my favorite time in Kansas. Next time we visit them we'll have our little boy! 2010 was a year of progression, healing, and answers to prayers. Here's to 2011!

Family Photos

My sister in law, Jordan, arranged for us to have family photos done in Kansas. Thanks to family friend Anna Freeby for doing a great job for us. We went to a beautiful Kansas field and got some nice shots...it was sooo cold though.  Oh and maybe I have confidence issues but I didn't realize my face had gotten so chubby...and my hair is messed up but hey it was pretty windy. Larry looks a bit freezing too. It was great to get some pics though!

Third Trimester! Counting down...

I've been enjoying my third trimester so far. Granted, I've had some pretty severe back pain and I still have a bit of morning sickness. Mostly the back pain though. But I'm so happy and excited to have our little boy in like 2 1/2 months!

I just love feeling him kick and wiggle...he does a lot of that. He means the world to us and after all the waiting and everything we've been through, we appreciate him so much. I feel so blessed I can't even explain it.

I've been getting a lot bigger recently. I guess our baby is doing some serious growing :) At my last check up I'd gained at least 25 lbs since my first appointment and 10 of those were in the past four weeks. Here are a couple of pictures for ya. (Taken yesterday at 28 weeks. Only 83 days to go!)