Travelling, friends.

WE SPENT THE WEEKEND with my family in Maryland, and are now in the middle of a 5-day excursion in PA. Last night I got a rare treat: Girls Night Out! Dinner with some of my favorite college friends. It was great to see each of you, especially the newest addition! :) Thanks for helping me relax, my God's Girls!




Our chubby little bunny has done quite a few things for the first time this week, including meeting more relatives and friends, "jumping" on a trampoline, "swimming" in the pool, and drinking from a sippy cup, as seen here:



Did I mention that our miracle baby, at fuve months old, now weighs 17 lbs?!
AND - Aliah is also getting her first tooth as we speak! This has resulted in her first tastes of Orajel and Tylenol. She is stil as happy as ever; so far, her only complications are trouble falling asleep.

Have a good week.... we'll be back home on FRIDAY NIGHT!

Travelling

We're on vacation! We're spending the weekend with my parents in Maryland, then ten days in PA with in-laws and friends.

The girls are being totally spoiled by relatives, and Mike is trying to relax during his week off. My parents pool is calling my name - I didnt get to swim yesterday. Maybe I will, after breakfast. The water is still chilly. But Hannah wore her bathing suit all day long - she can really get around in the pool (as long as she's connected to some sort of floatation device).

Everyone else is still asleep around here - big party last night.
Hannah did NOT want to leave the party. (She has been extra-stubborn for the past two weeks.) She stayed up until 11:30pm! Most of the other people left around midnight.

The sunrise woke me up. Aliah gifted me with 6 solid hours of sleep this morning, so I dont feel quite as tired as I have during the past few days. Taking some naps this week will also help :)

Another week gone by

Many thanks to everyone who responded.
Its been one week since I started taking Zoloft, and although I dont feel any changes yet, I do feel that something is going to give soon. I keep praying that I can hold myself together, with God as my strength.

We got home late last night from a whirlwind trip to Pittsburgh. Aliah absolutely HATED sitting in her carseat for nine hours. But we got to meet our new nephew, Baby Alex, who is totally adorable, and spend a few days with Mike's family. We even saw some snow yesterday!

I will upload pictures later. Tonight our friends Matt & Laura are coming to stay with us for Easter, and the house is a wreck! I've already done 3 loads of laundry and washed the dishes, but there are still a hundred other things to finish. I just told Mike: "I refuse to change out of my pjs until I get to take a shower!" He's out buying groceries for me right now, so that I dont have to lug both cranky kids through the store. Meanwhile, Hannah is doing an excellent job of distracting the baby so that I can fold laundry and clean the bathroom.... here I go again.

Our Trip, in Pictures.

First thing on the agenda: We spent a weekend in Pittsburgh, with our favorite college friends, where Mike and I first met. It was bizzare, like a walk down memory lane - except all the buildings have changed! But it was really great to hang out with old friends - some of them we hadnt seen in four or five years!!!



Our happy little family.



We went to a pumpkin farm with Mike's family.




Hannah was kind of grumpy, can you tell?



Hannah's favorite part was pulling the cart. She picked pumpkins just so that she could pull them around in the wagon.


She was super-spoiled by her grandparents, and got plenty of attention from aunts and uncles and friends, too. We ate so much candy at Nana and PapPap's house... I felt like I gained ten pounds last week!


We also got to spend a day at Hershey Park!
Reese's pieces are my new favorite candy.

Believe it or not, Hannah took this picture



She had a great time on the kiddie rides.
The park wasn't very busy, so she got to ride everything 2 or 3 times in a row!


And last weekend, we stayed with my parents in Maryland.
Since my dad's heart attack, he has been doing AMAZINGLY well.
Last month, in September, he lost 20 pounds! He looks great, and feels fine, too.
So... My crazy father and insane husband decided to go for one more swim before they closed up the pool. I didnt eve nwant to out my hands in - the waterfelt like ice!


They let Hannah "push" them in:



It was SO COLD!!!



My mother kept feeling my stomach: "Is that a hand or a foot? Or maybe the butt?"

Ummm, How in the world should I know?! There's a baby in there! That's all you really need to know!


Everyone keeps telling me that I'm having a boy this time. All of my relatives think so. I'm trying to ignore them and keep an open mind, because really, we don't know. It will be a nice Christmas surprise.



TWO MORE MONTHS until our Miracle Baby is due! :)
That means 4 1/2 more weeks until full-term!
I've been having a lot of scary dreams lately. For the past seven months, I have dreamed about going into labor early, and delivering a preemie. First I dreamed that the baby would be born at 28 or 29 weeks, now, in my dreams, it's 32 weeks - which, in reality, is coming up really fast. As long as we make it to 36 weeks without complications, I know it will be fine... I'm just nervous. My dreams keep getting worse though. It's harder for me to sleep at night. Combine braxton-hicks contractions, abdominal cramps, and charlie horse, and you get = not much sleep.

Oh well. Pregnancy doesn't last forever. Right?!

Our Week in PA.

It's been such a busy week. First we spent 2 days in Maryland with my family. I got to see my sister's new apt. in Baltimore. She wants to have a simple wedding, but I think now that it's almost here, she's getting very stressed about preparations. Friday was VERY busy, we were out all day visiting people.I love our family vacations, but it seems like we try to cram too much activity into each day.
Still, I appreciate how quiet and calm it is out here in the woods of Western Pennsylvania.We arrived in PA on Saturday afternoon. Basically unpacked, ate dinner, and rested. Everyone else played in the hot tub after dinner; I just watched. I feel like I can't be too careful, even if they do set the temperature at 96 degrees, so that Hannah can splash in the hot tub too.
On Sunday we celebrated my FIL's birthday. There were 14 people over. For the Hummel family, thats like a HUGE party. It was nice to see everyone. Hannah wore her new Big Sister shirt, and told everybody that a new baby would be coming to our house at Christmastime!

Hannah hasnt had any accidents in 4 or 5 days.
Maybe the change of atmosphere helped?
Whatever the cause, I hope it continues!

Mike and I got away for 48 hours. We spent Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday morning in Grove City by ourselves. It was very refreshing to just be alone, we bought some fun things at the outlet stores, and had nice quiet romantic meals... but I did miss my little girl. We've never been apart that long before! She didnt seem to mind that we were gone (she was too busy having fun to talk on the phone!), but when we got back she said "I missed you lots".

Pregnancy news: Doing great! Not much nausea lately. Ive gained 4 or 5 pounds altogether. I feel like Im noticeably pregnant, not just 'getting fat;' every day, my stomach gets a little bigger. Im 15 weeks, and New Baby is about 4.5 inches long and weighs over one ounce. I've been feeling vague baby movements for about a week, and this morning I felt a definite KICK! Yay!
So amazing. I love every minute of it. It's such a gift from God.

I know that so many people are praying for me right now, and I couldn't be more grateful. Thank you so much.

Now it's our last night here. Tomorrow we travel back to the chaos of my family in Maryland. It's been a long week, and after my sister's wedding and this big family party, Im sure all three of us will be anxious to get home.

Happy July Fourth.

Nicole