Spontaneous Things- Missionaries, Baby Girl, Birthdays, Christmas

One blogger I follow does this Spontaneous Five and lists five main things that went on that week. Well, I'm going to give it a shot but change it up a bit and see how it works. I'm going to use "things" instead, so I can have as many numbers as I wish :) I want to blog more, and I have all these ideas when I'm not sitting at the computer!! Then I forget by the time I get around to writing a blog post haha. Anyways, here I go:

1) Missionaries. There are the two cutest sisters serving in our ward and I just adore them. They really remind me of home (they are both from Utah) and I can't believe how comforting it is to talk with other Americans and makes me feel at home. Not that living in Sweden and talking with Swedes is bad, it's just culture differences that I miss. A lot. It helps that one of these sisters comes from a city about 30 min away from my house. One time I was talking to her about this certain wal-mart in town she knew EXACTLY what I was talking about and it felt oh so nice. Isn't it weird how talking about Wal-mart was somehow comforting to me?... haha :) Here are some pictures to show you all how cute these two are:

My mother-in-"love" told me it is an old Swedish tradition to decorate pepparkakor (gingerbread cookies), put them on the Christmas tree, then eat them on Christmas! That is what we are going to do! I figured we'll have these two over on Christmas day, so it will work out perfectly :)

I definitely did not take this.. good thing these two won't be home for another 6 months to see this ;)

After dinner one night Joel and I had to show these two how awesome the playground is outside our apartment. We might have been out there for a good hour ;)

2) Baby girl. I feel like she is starting to run out of room. She is also starting to kick my ribs... which didn't hurt as bad as I thought it would (and maybe it will get worse haha) it is just super uncomfortable right now. Usually I notice she kicks my ribs in the morning when I'm attempting to sleep in a little bit! Ya know, taking advantage of my sleep while I can. I usually sleep pretty good!! I have also started to notice when she is awake and asleep more. Which is kind of fun, except for the fact that she is usually awake between 11 and 2 am! I heard babies sometimes keep the same sleeping patterns after their born. Is that true??
I also love that I can tell how and where she is sitting. I love that her little bum is always sticking out to the top right of my stomach, which results her feet in my ribs though. I guess I just love knowing where her cute little bum is!! I'm obsessed with bums if you didn't know..
We are preeetty sure we're going to name her Emma Elaine Herrey. Who knows though? When she comes we could change her name... but we're pretty positive as of right now :) I still like to call her baby girl just because saying Emma makes it so much more official! Maybe I should start preparing myself.. haha!!
I feel really good! Other than it is getting slightly harder to do some simple things. Like putting on shoes and picking things up. Which is getting slightly annoying because I didn't realize how often I picked stuff up!

31 weeks. Don't mind my monkey pajama's, ok? :) I also love my little bump, and that it didn't grow faster or slower than my boobs. I feel like it was all pretty even ;)

3) Birthdays!! Joel turned 26 on November 28th, and I just turned 23 on December 15th. Yes our birthdays are a couple weeks apart and then followed by Christmas. And yes it is quite an expensive month for us. I think the weirdest part for me is I met Joel when he was 23, and now I am 23!! It's really weird to think that I've only known him for 2 1/2 years, and now we've been married for 1 1/2 and having a baby in a few months. Anyways, we celebrated our birthdays by exchanging a few presents and then Joel's family came over for family dinner on my birthday!! My only request was to have my in-laws make lasagna. It is DELICIOUS. My in-laws asked if we could have the dinner at our place and I didn't mind! Sure I thought it was a little funny and inconvenient that they asked... and then I found out why! They had bought Joel and I a Christmas tree for our birthdays!!!!! I might have cried a little, that's how much it meant to me. I didn't think we would be able to have one this year!

I have LOVED being pregnant at the same time with this sweet sister-in-law of mine! Crazy we have been pregnant for so long. I feel like it was just yesterday when we were talking to each other both finding out around the same time we were both pregnant and sending each other pictures of our pregnancy tests!! What a crazy and wonderful time that was to share it together!

Our little tree!! 

4) CHRISTMAS. I have been super excited for Christmas this year because I now know what to expect with the Swedish traditions and such :) It amazes me how Joel's family has such specific traditions, especially with food! I feel like my family has one tradition on the 24th, and then just relax on Christmas. It has been fun seeing how different our families are when it comes to traditions!
One thing that is hard for me is having it so dark during the winter. I didn't realize how hard last year was until the light finally started coming back in March. I told someone the other day how I felt kinda bad that we were having a baby in February and it is still dark and cold during that month. They then said, "Well I think that's a good thing! You need something to look forward to, to get you through those months." From then on I have tried to keep that positive perspective :)  The nice part about Christmas time is all the lights in the windows, they help a lot! That's what makes January and February so hard I guess!

No Longer Private

Yep. All that work of getting people's emails all the time was a hassle, and I'm not really up for that soooo yep. Also, the reason I made this blog is so everyone could be updated about our lives with me living in a different country than my family and such. Thus resulting in me not wanting it private anymore. :)

Clueless

All this time I thought heart burn had to do with my chest actually burning. Like, on fire. Little did I know that I have had heart burn for MONTHS and didn't know. And, I also didn't know that heart burn doesn't deal with my heart actually burning. Nope. I wouldn't say I feel dumb... but kinda close. 

My love language (or one of the five main ways I feel most loved) is physical touch. Cuddling with Joel makes me so incredibly happy. Or when he kisses me on the cheek. You get the point :) When it came to watching movies and I wanted to cuddle, I couldn't because my chest was feeling weird and I felt like I had to sit up. Which really annoyed me because I wanted to cuddle dang it!! I told my mom how I was feeling, and she said, "Oh your baby is just growing and taking up more space. Good luck!" So that's what I thought it was, not actual heart burn!

Other than that, pregnancy is still good. I can't believe how more tired I am becoming. I guess I am making a little human! It's got to take some energy right??

Bumpdate: Week 28 THIRD TRIMESTER!

I am officially two-thirds of the way done with this pregnancy folks!! How crazy is that??! I LOVED the second trimester. I feel like whenever I read blogs everyone says that, and now I understand why! I felt great 98% of the time. this week I started to get a little nervous though! Last trimester I kept on thinking, "oh labor is so far away. she's not coming for a while! I have plenty of time." Then poof! All of the sudden I was in the third trimester and I feel like she is "just around the river bend!" (I have that song from Pocahontas in my head all the time now since the due date is getting closer!) you can say it really hit me this week that it is getting closer! I'm not to the point of freaking out... yet ;)

How far along? 28 weeks. Two thirds of the way done!!

Size of the baby? 38cm or 15 inches. How does all that baby fit in there?? The female body amazes me how it can grow and stretch!

Weight gain/loss? I think i've gained around 13 lbs, according to my last appointment. Which isn't too bad I guess! My midwife was really happy about it, and she kept on asking me if I was eating haha (she was joking, btw..). I thought it was going to be a lot worse actually!

Sleep? Really good! The other night wasn't too fun though, because she was awake. At 2am. I felt like there were 9 ninjas and a circus in ma belly, that's how crazy she was going. Finally I gave up on trying to sleep and texted my mom for a little bit. There are perks of being 8 hours ahead and living in Sweden right?? ;) previously the first couple of times she woke me up were kinda cute! I didn't mind too much and was able to go back to sleep. THIS time was the most I have ever felt her probably! It was ridiculous how much she was moving!!

Symptoms? My back started aching this past week! I have been dreading this part. It only hurt on and off before, but now it is pretty much every time I walk! It isn't too bad, more of an annoying pain than a super strong pain. Something kind of funny happened... at my last appointment I was talking to my midwife and she asked me how I was feeling. I told her I had started getting back pain and she jokingly said, "well, you've got to start feeling pregnant sometime!!" I thought that was funny...

Food cravings/aversions? Last Friday we had a Thanksgiving party with a bunch of Americans here living in Sweden! Of course it isn't the same, but we do what we can! Joel and I were present at the one last year too, so I knew what food to expect. Lets just say my friend Mary made rolls last year, and when I knew she would make them again I couldn't stop thinking about them for weeks! Fiiiinally I got to indulge in the deliciousness on Friday and it felt wonderful! I think that is the closest thing to craving I have had.

Labor signs? None yet that I know of! Thank goodness :)

What I miss? I miss feeling skinny. I mean, I know I am carrying a baby but that's what I miss! Thankfully being pregnant has brought its own form of "cuteness". Like people wanting to touch my belly, I think that's funny haha! (depends on the person though! There have been some people I know of (that I don't really know) that run up to me and just grab my belly and I start thinking, "I don't really know you and you are grabbing my belly. hmmm") I am really glad that the weight I have gained is going just on my belly though making it nice and round! And not making anything else round haha ;)

What I am looking forward to? I am dying to see what she looks like and how she will change and grow out of the newborn stage. I guess I have always looked forward to that! Something more recent that I am looking forward to is getting her bed and nursery more set up! I have some ideas with how I want to decorate her corner of the room. The hard part is going out and finding my supplies! I should probably get started before I have less energy right?? ;)

Emotions? Still kind of the same. I do reeeeally good for a while, and then break down (pretty rare). And usually it is over dumb stuff that I know is just my hormones messing with me! Usually I have to go sit in some kind of corner and try to calm myself down. Ridiculous I know!!! I feel like I have to put myself in time-out to calm down! Usually if I feel my emotions heightening I give Joel a good warning, just to prepare him. I am comforted and glad that he saw me "normal" for a year before I got pregnant with all these wonderful emotions. Now he knows it is just me being pregnant ;) (Joel also said that this doesn't happen too often, so it's not as bad as I make it sound ;))

I don't feel huge (yet), just round. Everywhere haha!

Also, I think these are hilarious. Enjoy :)