Bumpdate: Weeks 25-26

If you missed my previous bumpdates, you can check out weeks 5-12 here, weeks 13-14 here, weeks 15-16 here, weeks 17-18 here, weeks 19-20 here, weeks 21-22 here, and weeks 23-24 here! I've decided that at the very end of this, I'm going to make a book out of all of my weeks so Baby Cookie can look back and read through them someday. I also hope to make one giant blog post compiling all of my weeks together to see the progress.

How far along? 26 weeks

Size of baby?

25 weeks: acorn squash / rutabaga

26 weeks: zucchini / scallions

Total weight gain? I weigh exactly what I did when I found out I was pregnant. I'm not sure how... but since the doctors aren't worried, neither am I. 

Gender? GIRL! You can read about it here! 

Maternity clothes? Jeans, jean shorts, t-shirts, and maxi dresses! Yep! Oh, and workout pants... because I don't want to stretch my good Nike running pants. 

Sleep? I am exhausted. Plain and simple. I did spend a couple days in the hospital during week 26 for a kidney infection, and I got about four hours of sleep total during that time because doctors and nurses were CONSTANTLY checking my vitals, Baby Cookie's heartrate, monitoring if I was having contractions or not (I wasn't), taking blood or urine for testing, changing out fluids and antibiotics in my IV... you get the picture. It sucked, but I'm okay, and Baby Cookie is GREAT!

Work outs? I went with Dan to take Smudge for a nice, long walk after I got out of the hospital, and that felt great, but I was shot afterward. Couldn't have gone any further. We also walked around a festival for a couple hours, and that was tiring, but I'm glad I got some activity in after laying in a hospital bed for a couple days.

Cravings? Chocolate. Cheeseburgers. Pickles. Ice cream. Not all together. Luckily, Dan is husband of the year and obliges me way too often.

Aversions? Still chicken. And cucumbers and tomatoes. 

Best moment of this week? Celebrating one year of marriage with my handsome husband!

Worst moment of this week? Being admitted to the hospital again... hands down! Ugh. 

Looking forward to? I'm looking forward to going to Kansas City for our baby shower soon! It will be nice to spend time with friends and family and celebrate our little girl!

How on EARTH do you sleep comfortably and for long periods of time while pregnant? HELP ME!

    

Anniversary Trip: Lynchburg, Tennessee

After we left Nashville on Saturday morning, Dan and I made the hour-long trek to Lynchburg, TN. It's a super small town, but I bet each and every one of you has heard of it before. Why? It's home of the world famous Jack Daniel's Whiskey Distillery. Even if you're not a whiskey drinker, I'm sure you've seen their notorious black label with white writing that proclaims Lynchburg as its home.

Anyway, the tour was a lot of fun. We went on the tasting tour, but of course, I didn't taste anything... for two reasons. 1) I'm six months pregnant, so that would be an obvious no-no... and 2) I hate whiskey. You see, I used to love it... until I played bar-golf in college with my (co-ed) fraternity. I had a VERY rough break-up with Mr. Jack that night, and let's just say that it's the only time I've EVER gotten sick from drinking. Bad memories right there.

But Dan loves the stuff, and we couldn't pass up the opportunity to see where it's made! We had a lot of fun, and Dan got a little buzz going because he got all of my samples too.

This area is what made Jack Daniel purchase the location for his distillery in the first place. All of the whiskey made by the company comes from water found in this very spot. Crazy, huh?

Our tour guide told us that Jack Daniel was only 5'2", and I personally think that's why he never got married. This statue is called "Jack on the rocks" - get it? 

This is the actual safe that Mr. Jack used... and it's what killed him. One morning, he got to his office super early, and he couldn't get the safe open. He kicked it really hard, and what do you know? He broke his toe. It eventually became gangrenous, and doctors amputated it. He was still infected, so they took off his foot too. And then the bottom part of his leg. Ultimately, they removed his entire leg, but he ended up dying of blood poisoning anyway. 

This is how many bottles of whiskey come from each barrel - I'm impressed! 

Have you ever been to Lynchburg or toured the JD distillery?
Do you like whiskey?


    

Anniversary Trip: Nashville, Tennessee

The weekend before our anniversary was Memorial Day Weekend, and Dan had Friday AND Monday off from classes. Because of that, we decided to take our trip one weekend too soon, and it worked out really well having those extra two days!

We were able to leave Dayton at 5:00 on Thursday, and we made it to Nashville that night! It was a long night of driving (especially with traffic through Cincinnati - yuck!), but we're glad we had all day Friday to explore the city.

We started off by checking out the Country Music Hall of Fame, of course! We had a lot of fun wandering around, and it definitely took us a few hours to get through the entire place.

It was really cool seeing the whole Alan Jackson display. He was my very first concert. My dad picked me up from Kindergarten and took me, and I have wonderful memories from that night. I even had a t-shirt with the same picture of Alan water-skiing! So fun!

My mom told me to be on the lookout for Luke Bryan... so when I saw this big sign, I knew I had to take a selfie for her! She thinks I'm way too much of a smart-ass, but I wonder if she ever wonders where I got it...

After the Country Music Hall of Fame, we needed some lunch! We found a Tennessee BBQ place that would really good - though, I wouldn't say it's better than the best KC BBQ! I loved that they had banana pudding for a side dish option, though - you don't see that where I come from, and it was DELICIOUS!

After lunch, we met up with our friend Megan from college. She lives in Nashville with her boyfriend now, and it was great to hang out for a day! The bad news? The only picture we all took was a Snapchat to another friend... so I don't actually have photographic proof that we saw each other. The good news? She won free tickets to the Grand Ole Opry that night and couldn't go... so she gave them to Dan and me! Woohoo!

So off we went to the Grand Ole Opry... something I had only seen on TV with my great grandparents when I was much, much younger. It didn't disappoint, though - we had a BLAST! Our seats were AMAZING, and the announcer for the commercials in between acts was just as entertaining as the music. I would DEFINITELY go back if we had the opportunity!

On Saturday morning, we got up, ate breakfast, and headed toward Lynchburg... but that's a post for another day! 

Have you ever been to Nashville?

What's your favorite thing to do there?

    

Paper Anniversary - The Gifts

Dan and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary on Saturday.

We like the idea of traditional gifts... and the first year is paper. We were both stumped and perplexed for a little while... and then my creative side came out.

I ended up typing out our wedding vows to each other on Photoshop and printed them out in 5x7 size. I trimmed off the excess white border, and put them in opposite sides of a three window frame. For the middle window, I had to include a wedding photo, of course! I chose one of my favorites, made it black and white, printed it to 5x7, and trimmed the white border.

I made sure to print all three on cardstock to play it safe... that counts as paper, right?

Dan went with concert tickets for me. Tickets = paper... I'm convinced. We're going to see The Rolling Stones play in what is probably their last tour ever... at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City (where the Chiefs play)! This is seriously my dream concert in my dream venue. I'm a little nervous about being 29 weeks pregnant at the time, but... Baby Cookie will just end up loving classic rock 'n roll, right? It's the same day as our baby shower, so we'll be going after that, and I'm stoked! (He technically didn't buy the tickets yet because he's been monitoring them online at other locations, and the prices are dropping significantly shortly before the concerts... so we're going to do that!)

How did you celebrate your first anniversary?
What's your favorite anniversary gift yet?