Huck's hat...

His new hat makes him very sleepy!!

Multi Tasking

See! Doug can rock the baby AND throw the ball for buddy... :)

A few photos from the first week.

Huckleberry Parks Zander (we call him "Huck" or "The Huckster").
Born May 28th, 2009
Weight: 7 lb 3 oz
Length (height?): 19.5"

Do i need to tell you my height and weight also??
Weight before labor: 152.2. Weight after labor: 140.8.
Height before labor: 5'6". Height after labor: 5'6" (it didn't change).

Here are a few pics from the first week.... if you're interested, you can find more here:
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AcN3Lhi3cNWKz

Can't write much... he just woke up :)

The Crib is Here!

Photos of the crib! We're washing the sheets (hence the stacks of laundry in the doorway) and getting everything prepped.

24 days to go...

Only 24 days left to go... Don't be fooled - this shirt makes me appear much smaller than i really am.

I'm officially up almost 25 lbs, but have almost completely lost my appetite because i'm so unfomfortable. My stomach is stretched so tight at this point that i can actually feel his little feet sometimes (and we can feel most of his carcass the rest of the time!).

Things are great here - business has been phenomenal - and we're almost done with the nursery. The crib should arrive next tuesday (the 12th) and we're also waiting on one more roll of the border. Thanks again to both of our parents for buying the crib. we're so excited to see it in person!


A few days ago, we made 1 more trip to Babies R Us and picked up the last few things we think we'll need for the first few weeks (diapers, sheets, formula, etc...). It's too bad they don't sell Sleep there - i have a feeling that we're both going to need some of that.

I can't believe that we're getting so close - and that our life is about to change FOREVER. It's SCARY!! But it's also going to be a relief to be able to sleep on my stomach - and to bend over to tie my shoes. I have completely forgotten what it feels like to not have a belly (especially one that is rock hard and has the outline of hands, feet, and a butt).

Border Is Up

Here's a pic of the room with the border up... :) We ran out of border (they were backordered and could only send us 1 set of it), but will put more behind the changing table as soon as it arrives.

The Painting is Done!

Buddy and Doug spent yesterday afternoon and evening getting his room painted and cleaned out.
While the guys painted, I emptied the closets and did some reorganizing.... we needed it!

In the next day or two, we'll put the border up where the blue and brown meet. and then we can decorate with decals, baskets and more.

Nursery Photos - the Before

My friend Allison asked me to take some photos of our guest room before, during, and after the nursery conversion... so here are some of the "before" photos!

Yes, that is a painting of England's Prince Charles on the right in the first photo. My grandpa painted it!


We've gotten most of the bedding - and got the paint for his room last weekend - we're going to paint his room chocolate brown on the bottom and light blue on the top... the colors will be separated by a border of monkeys, giraffes and other wild animals (not unlike the wild animals pictured below... )
We'll probably take down those 3 shelf things and put the crib against that wall, but we're not positive right now. And you can see the changing table in the last photo (with the wild animals).

Each basket has a blue and chocolate basket liner - one of the liners is personalized with his name on it ... it just arrived yesterday and i put it on the basket this morning. It's still a secret, though!!

31 Weeks (7 3/4 Months). Only 9 Weeks to Go!

Here is the latest batch of photos. I've gained 19.5-20 lbs so far and only have 9 weeks left to go (well, 8 weeks and 6 days...). I'm right on track. Doug is looking pretty good, too! It's Friday morning and he's dressed to go skiing for a few hours before we head to reno for work.


I finally ordered some of the baby furniture yesterday (thanks Dad & Gene/Diane for the Crib!) and we should be getting some of the bedding in a few days. Here's a link to the bedding. Once we get some of the bedding, we'll start to paint his room... brown and blue is what we're thinking (either 1 wall brown/3 walls blue OR the top part blue and the bottom part brown - with the border in between the 2 colors)
The crib should arrive in 4-6 weeks and can later be converted into a toddler bed and then a full bed. We're hoping it lasts for many, many years.

After months of deliberation, we finally settled on a 2nd piece of furniture: the changing table. We went ahead and got the matching baskets and even had one of them personalized with his name (thank goodness for credit card rewards - USBank paid for everything!). I'm thinking the changing table can double as a nice Bar Cart sometime down the road, but doug thinks that might be kinda gross (butts and booze don't always mix). We could also use it to store his books & toys once he's out of diapers (in malaysia they are trained at 12 mos!!), so hopefully this piece will also last for many, many years.

Finally, I ordered a big basket that will be personalized with his name... we'll use it for toys, etc. in the beginning and then for laundry as he gets older. That's the idea, anyway!

28 Weeks... (7 Months) and Counting!

Yep, i'm definitely getting bigger -i'm trying to suck my stomach in, but it's obviously not working anymore... Here's me (and the kid) at 28 weeks and about 16 pounds... It's getting harder and harder to tie my shoes - and doug is now responsible for buckling my snowshoes each day.

Can you believe that I actually used to fit in this sweater?? Haha. Actually, this baby sweater was just arrived a few days ago - Beth from Lorna's Laces knit it for Baby Z... it's soooo small - i can't imagine how anything bigger than a hamster will be able to fit in it!


We were having fun with the photos this morning & thought that you might like to see how doug is progressing... He looks about the same - and doesn't seem to have any trouble tying his shoes!

Wiley likes the new sweater - and is pretty excited to have a new person to protect (even if he is a bit sleepy). And Buddy is calling dibs on the sweater - once the kid has outgrown it. :)

P.s. here's doug washing the truck this past weekend in the snow... he's so weird - but really likes a clean truck! (Ok, ok... we were about to sell the truck, so he had to wash it - and was SO embarrassed that people would see him washing our truck during a big snowstorm. i had to laugh).

Here's how we're progressing at 24 weeks (6 Months) & 12-13 lbs.

The kid weighs over 1 lb now... !

Only 16 weeks to go!

Most Recent Ultrasounds

Here are the ultrasound pictures from Dec 31st... from when we found out that "it" was actually a boy (see "guy gear" below).

Yep, it's a boy! And look at the size of his thighs! They look like frog legs at this point, but that's good - maybe he'll have quite a vertical :) And he's going to need those big thighs for landing double backflips on skis, right? Doug is already building jumps behind the house...

Um, this 3d photo is a bit creepy, but it does show that he's starting look less like a fish and more like a human. And it's good to see that all of the facial features are in the right places!

We call this one the "skeletor" photo... Looks like he's yelling to the camera "Hey! Get me out of here!! Do you realize how incredibly bored I am???" And can you see that he's clawing at the inside of my stomach, trying to get out?

Not much longer, little guy... that's what doug and I keep telling him!

First Baby Blanket

Yep - I'm making him a blanket... (with doug's supervision, of course). I do a couple of rows each day - i should be done in about 17 weeks... what a coincidence!!
This is Mission Falls 1824 Cotton - and should be sturdy enough to withstand plenty of puke, dirt, and dog hair. And it should get softer with time!

Baby Wardrobe

Well, we haven't done a lot of shopping yet, but here's what the Rock's wardrobe looks like so far... (we'll just call him the Rock for now, since he sits like a rock at the bottom of my stomach!). My best friend Eileen sent him the Jim Morrison onesie, while Beth from Lorna's Laces (a friend of ours) sent us the "I might barf" onesie... funny that it arrived on the one day that I actually did barf! (when we opened the package, we thought the shirt was for me!).
The AC/DC shirt was the 1st purchased - about 2 months ago... and holds the most sentimental value - we'll likely keep it til the kid turns 60.

21 weeks....

here's me at 21 weeks (and 9-10 pounds). My pants still fit, as long i wear them unbuttoned!

and here's Doug at 21 weeks... he looks pretty good, i think!

17 weeks...

And here's my "gut" at 17 weeks....right before Christmas in Wisconsin and too many of Diane's cookies. (Of course, i felt so sick the whole time, i didn't have much of an appetite for cookies or anything else.