Week 26 Updates

Yep, this picture is an upward view because I took it myself. Haha, and yes, I was watching Friends at this time. And yes, our tree is coming down tonight. Haha, so many explanations.

There’s no letter to Cohen this week. It’s been busy and I’ve been off of my normal routine so the letter will have to wait until next week!

Weekly Questions

How far along? 26 weeks!

How Big Is The Baby? According to the website he’s 14 inches and close to 1 2/3 pounds.

Total weight gain: Today I’m at 147.8. I’m now 6.8 lb past my pre-pregnancy weight.

Maternity Clothes: I’m more comfortable in maternity and actually bought a few new ones this week, but I can still pass non-maternity shirts.

Sleep: Great this week!

Food cravings: Eh, no real cravings.

What I miss: Not having indigestion after every meal haha.

What I am looking forward to: Hitting THIRD trimester this Saturday. That’s pretty huge. Also, I have another appointment tomorrow to do my GD test (not looking forward to that) and hear my little boys heartbeat again.

Milestones: Close to third trimester. Getting LOTS of presents from his family, thank you to EVERYONE for the cute little gifts at Christmas. Auntie Kenda gave him a ton of clothes that his cousin, Texas, used to wear.

Week 25 Updates

I've definitely started popping out more this week! I did have some super cute tights on with this dress, but they tore so obviously I'm not wearing them. And I look a little tired here, but this was after a very, very long weekend!

Weekly Questions

How far along? 25 weeks! Oh man…Only 15 to go. Scary.

How Big Is The Baby? According to the website he’s 13 ½ inches and close to 1 ½ pounds.

Total weight gain: Today I’m at 146.4. I’m now 5.4 lb past my pre-pregnancy weight. This pound a week thing is totally freaking me out.

Maternity Clothes: I can still pass a lot of non-maternity shirts—thankfully I bought a lot of non-fitted shirts prior to the pregnancy. However, I did order some maternity clothes online because they’re more comfortable and longer.

Sleep: Good, just a couple of vivid dreams this week that make me restless.

Food cravings: Nothing really. I just eat whatever I want right now.

What I miss: I’m pretty good this week. Only weird thing now is the indigestion practically after every meal. I carry a HUGE bottle of Tums around to keep that problem solved.

What I am looking forward to: Tyrel and Kenda and the babies are here this week! Next week is the last week of my 2nd trimester, which is INSANE, but really cool. Meeting Cohen’s newest cousin, Casey

Milestones: He moves A LOT know and I love it. My belly button is getting flatter and flatter. My rings are feeling tighter (not that it’s a good milestone, but seriously a milestone) and I cannot stand for a super long time in heels without my toes swelling. It’s beautiful haha.

Letter To My Little Bun

Dear Baby Cohen-

How are you doing my little baby boy?

This week you’re 13 ½ inches long and weigh over a pound and a half! You’re a big little boy now. My goodness, practically a toddler already.

You’re also starting to get baby fat under your skin. Can you do me a favor? Can you make sure you get a lot in your cheeks? Growing up your Mommy and all of your “Butler” family had these giant saggy cheeks. I hated them then, but my goodness, they are just so cute. Your cousins Jayda and Texas have them too and they make me just want to kiss their little faces. That’s the only thing I ask, that you carry on the Butler Cheek Tradition.

You have a new cousin now! His name is Casey Brant and he’s just a little older than you! You’ll see him a lot because he only lives 5 hours away. He’s very, very cute!

I had a dream this week that I lost you and then found you under the couch! Isn’t that funny? Don’t go under the couch, okay? It’s pretty dark, and not usually vacuumed very well. Stay where I can see you so I don’t get scared that I lost you! But in the dream you were super cute and very small. It made me so excited to hold you. Only 15 more weeks till we get to meet you little one.

My letter this week is a little short because it’s the holidays and that means it’s a pretty busy time of the year (don’t worry, you’ll figure that out later in life) so I don’t have a lot of time to write to you today. But still know that I love you dearly.

You’re already the sweetest boy ever!

Love, Mommy

Week 24 Updates

Weekly Questions

How far along? 24 weeks! We hit Viability Day—which basically means at this point if something were to happen and I went into early labor (which obviously I’m praying doesn’t happen) my little boy has a 50-75% chance of survival and NICU will do everything they can to save our baby. I want him to wait until week 37 at least before he tries to make an entrance, but still, it’s nice hitting a big milestone.

How Big Is The Baby? He is a little over a pound and is just about a foot long. I have this huge baby in me! Weird.

Total weight gain: Today I’m at 145.6. I’m now 4.6 lb past my pre-pregnancy weight.

Maternity Clothes: Same as last week: only maternity bottoms, but a lot of non-maternity tops still. The dress in the picture is maternity though.

Sleep: Still good, just a little worn out this week.

Food cravings: Green bean casserole and red meat. Haha, weird combination. I don’t want them together, just I would like to eat it every night. But I don’t.

What I miss: I’m good this week! I’m not missing too much, I’m happily pregnant.

What I am looking forward to: This week my papa is here, and next week Tyrel, Kenda and the babies will be here! I’m also looking forward to Baby Casey being born on Friday! It’s a good month for us, plus it’s the last holiday season as a childless family--they’ll be so different from here on out.

Milestones: This week we picked up a few more things for the nursery and it’s slowly coming together. I also felt him hiccupping this week, crazy but wonderful feeling to wake up to!

Letter To My Little Bun

Dear Baby Cohen-

Hey my sweet little itty bitty baby boy!

You’re almost a foot long!! That’s crazy big to me. We’ve come a long, long way from the poppy seed stage. And I’m sure you’ve heard me talk about Viability Day, but I don’t want you getting any crazy ideas. You need to stay in there, okay?

This week your brain is growing quickly and your taste buds are still developing. Also, you the website says that you will soon plump up! How adorable are you?

Last week Mommy found out she had a UTI so we had to go to the doctor to get it checked out. It was making me cramp, and they had to make sure it was the infection, and not you! Nana went with me since Daddy had to teach and I didn’t want to go alone. We listened to your heartbeat for over an hour and a half and watched it on the little screen. You would calm down and it would go down just a little bit. Then, it would go up high again and you’d start squirming and moving around like crazy. You were too cute—you kept kicking as hard as you possibly could against the monitors. It would make me laugh and then I’d get heartsick thinking about how insanely cute you’re going to be.

I cannot wait. Your Mommy (and everyone else) loves you so much that it literally hurts sometime. I told a girl at work this week that it’s hard to believe that I can be so in love with this little person that I haven’t even seen yet. I don’t know how, but it’s true.

You never, ever, have to doubt or question that I love you. And don’t worry, I’m going to tell you so much that you’ll never wonder.

I love you little Cohen Paul.

So, so much.

Love, Mommy

Week 23 Updates

Weekly Questions

How far along? 23 weeks…

How Big Is The Baby? The baby is just over 11 inches and weighs a little over a pound.Total weight gain: Today I’m at 144.0. I’m now 3 lb past my pre-pregnancy weight. My doctor doesn’t take into count my weight loss, they only count what I’ve gained past my pre-pregnancy weight (so while I was saying I’ve gained an overall 11 pounds since I lost 8 originally, they only see my weight gain as 3 lbs). So I’m done counting that bigger number too. From now on, it’s only what I’ve gained past my pre-pregnancy weight (141.0). 3 lbs and counting…

Maternity Clothes: I’m wearing maternity bottoms and non-maternity shirts and dresses. I’ll probably get a couple more skirts, but as for shirts, I’m making my non-maternity ones work as long as possible. The sweater in this week’s picture isn’t maternity.

Sleep: A good week of sleep (especially once I learned I can still sleep on my back for a few more weeks!! Back on my back I go…and great sleep has returned!). First-trimester fatigue did return this week and I’m fighting sleep at 7 pm again. I sure hope that it’s just temporary.

Food cravings: This week I craved a pina colada (non-alcoholic of course) and green bean casserole. I’ve actually been craving green bean casserole for about 3 weeks now.

What I miss: Non-maternity skirts. I went through my clothes to pull out some sweaters and looked at my dozens of cute skirts I have that I can’t wear right now. I was a little heartsick for them. Wearing the same 4 for 23 weeks has gotten really old, really fast. I’m seriously going to have to get at least 2 more!

What I am looking forward to: This week is just a regular week for us. My papa is coming into town on Monday so he’ll get to meet his great grandson as an inside baby this trip!

Milestones: Our appointment went well this week. Cohen’s heartbeat was great, and my stomach is popping out just enough. I scheduled my glucose test (who knew it would come this fast??). Nana bought Cohen his coming home outfit that I picked out for him (a little dinosaur sleeper with a snap shirt, of course I cried). Tyler bought a card for me from Cohen that said “Mommy” on it, and I teared up again. Cohen kicks a lot during worship service, so I’m assuming he loves the music and loves hearing us sing to Jesus!

Letter To My Little Bun

Dear Baby Cohen

Hey sweet boy!!

Well first, let me say, you did awesome at your appointment last week. It was funny because when she put the Doppler on my belly to listen to your heartbeat, you let her listen for a few seconds and then swam away from it. It’s okay, she’s just our temporary doctor, and I didn’t like her either. Our regular one will be back in January (so just one more appointment with the temporary doctor).

Well, supposedly, I should start dancing. According to the updates you have a sense of movement developed now and you can feel me move around. That being said, I apologize, because Mommy is very hyper and can’t sit still too long. I’m sure you hate the fact that I'm constantly moving. But based off the way you kick and move around, neither do you!! You’re a lot like your Mommy already!

They say you are the size of a mango now and your blood vessels in your lungs are developing now. You’re also getting used to more noises and you’re getting used to loud noises.

In church on Sunday you kicked around while Mommy was singing on the Praise Team. It was during “How Great Is Our God.” It made me get all teary eyed thinking about you one day praising Jesus in church with us!

Mommy has been pretty emotional this week though. Everything that has to do with you makes my heart happy and I get teary eyed. I was out with Nana while she was getting you some of your stocking stuffers and the little toys were just so cute and sweet. And then I found the little outfit I want to bring you home from the hospital in and realized how small it was and I welled up again. She bought it to put in your stocking and I can’t stop looking at it when I go over there. And then Mimi bought you some of the sweetest clothes as a “just-because” present and they are so sweet and tiny! And then last night Daddy was late coming home from the store and it was because he was picking out a cute little card from you, to me. It said “Mommy” on it (plus more, but the word “mommy” got me) along with Miracle on 34th Street (my favorite holiday movie) and my eyes were misting over.

We’ve still got 17 weeks until we meet you baby and I’m going to be an emotional mess apparently. But I suppose it’s because I’m so happy and so blessed that I get to carry you and feel you move and kick and it’s the best feeling ever.

Well little Mister, I think that recaps this week.

 I love you so much that it sometimes makes my heart hurt.

I can’t wait to kiss you right on the face.

I love you lots baby boy.

Love,
Mommy

Week 22 Updates

So this picture was taken after driving 5 hours and then going to help my family finish their tree. So ignore the far away picture, the car drive hair, and the fact that I’m up on a chair. You get the idea. You can still see the small belly.

Weekly Questions

How far along? 22 weeks!

How Big Is The Baby? The baby is about 11 inches and weighs almost a pound.

Total weight gain: Today I’m at 142.8. I’m now 1.8 lb past my pre-pregnancy weight with an overall weight gain of 9.8 lbs.

Maternity Clothes: Yep, they’re what fits best. But again, I am still wearing non-maternity tops as long as they have the length I need. Desiree is letting me borrow a couple of cute sweaters and dresses and I can’t wait to wear them!

Sleep: So far, it’s been great this week.

Food cravings: Again, no real food cravings. Just drinking lots of apple juice and actually eating real food again.

What I miss: Cohen is sitting on my bladder so I do have to go to the bathroom all of the time. I guess I miss drinking without wondering where the closest bathroom is just in case I have to go 10 minutes later.

What I am looking forward to: My appointment tomorrow. I get to hear his little heartbeat again!

Milestones: Cohen kicked for his Gigi and wiggled for his Aunt Des so that was pretty cool. I can also feel more of his body now when he moves. Nana and Mimi felt his little body this week too! Cohen moves a lot so most of the time Tyler and I sit around feeling him. Also, his changing table from his Papa and Gigi came in the mail! Now his nursery has all of the furniture. Time to start decorating!

Letter To My Little Bun

Dear Baby Cohen-

Hey sweet boy!!

So, you have been moving like crazy lately!! I love every little kick, every little squirm, and every little push against my stomach that you do. Of course, the bladder kicks are a little crazy, but I know that’s not your fault. You can’t help that you landed there and for some reason aren’t moving up off of it. I’m hoping that you do that soon though. Mommy hates having to go to the bathroom every single hour!

This week your eyebrows and eyelids are becoming more distinct! That makes me wonder if you’re going to have Mommy’s barely there eyebrows or Daddy’s thick dark eyebrows. I guess that’s going to depend on your hair color. Man little guy, I cannot wait to see your little face! Your eyes have formed, but your irises are still colorless. You’re just growing so much already!

This week we went to visit your Papa and Gigi for Thanksgiving! The drive there was a little hard for Mommy since you’re right there on my bladder, but we made it with only 2 stops! You kicked really hard for your Gigi and gave your Auntie Des a little squirm. It’s fun that you move so much now.

Also, you have a changing table in your room now! Papa and Gigi sent it for you. Your little room has all of its furniture now. We can start decorating your cute nursery!

Your Auntie WaWa from church gave you a bag full of very sweet presents. You got a beautiful blanket, a wipes holder, little socks that have Paul Frank on them and then other little booties that have little laces! She also gave you a sweet elephant lovie! It was very, very nice of her and I know you’ll be excited to see all of those one day.

Well baby, that’s really all that’s been going on with us this week. We have an appointment tomorrow to hear your heartbeat so make sure it’s beating very hard tomorrow!

I love you little baby boy!!

You’re my sweet little bun.

Love,

Mommy