I can't breathe.

Ugh, the baby is now making it tough for me to breathe during the day. And night. And my remedy is to drink lots of water, juice, milk, and other because, I don't know? Liquids make me feel like I can breathe better? So now I have to pee a lot more often. Fun. I think I got up forty times last night. Large child, time to get your feet out of my diaphragm!

So here's a photo of Buster in the river on Tuesday for your viewing pleasure:

I love this dog.

It's freakin' HOT man!!

OK, so note to self: Self, don't go get completely sunburned while drinking beer the day before you compete in a triathlon. Got it? Good.

So, I competed in my second triathlon of 2008 yesterday. I did fairly well, but we don't have any pictures to show for it, which is okay. Luckily, the course was mostly shaded because it was a really hot day. I improved over my previous time and was able to push myself a bit more in each event.

Usually, we can escape the heat in our downstairs room, but yesterday even that didn't work. This isn't so bad for me, but Amelia (being 6 months pregnant) is really miserable. As if the heat wasn't enough, she has also been experiencing excruiciating back pain most of this week, which peaked yesterday. Apparently, this kid is determined to be an extreme pain in the butt to his/her mother even before reaching the teenage years. I'm not going to become too concerned unless he/she starts talking back from the womb:).

I am happy to say that the back pain is relatively less today than yesterday, but that is only in relative terms. Oh, and Amelia is feeling better too. I am somewhat looking forward to the rain in this week's weather forecast. I know our lawn is too.

Exhausting Ourselves

What did we do this weekend? Besides a long bike ride (Tony) and a beautiful blueberry pie (Amelia), we hiked a HUGE mountain, thankyouverymuch! Actually, not so huge, but a mountain at least in name. Yesterday, we met in Burlington, drove out past Concrete (east on Highway 20) to the trailhead at Sauk Mountain and began a 4.5 mile hike. And! I wasn't even the slowest of the group!

The hike was beautiful, and Buster had a grand time playing with the other two dogs on the trip. At the summit, there was snow and there were marmots for him to chase. Yum, marmot!

I let myself get talked into a bit of rock climbing at the top, but wisely declined to go further when it became apparent that my six-months-pregnant butt was not going to make it any higher. I had a lot of help getting as far as I did on the climbing part from my friend Jamie and from Tony. Yeah, it took one person ahead of me and one person behind to get me up!

As you can see, the only outdoor gear that fits me at this point is Tony's raingear! It worked wonderfully, and allowed me the fun of sliding down the snowbank on my butt and not getting wet. Definitely a better idea than trying to walk down!

Our friends Jeremy and Jamie brought their daughter, Avery! She made it up the rocks all bundled up.

The walk down, of course, was the easy part. On both the walk up and the walk down, since Tony and I mostly brought up the rear, Buster would race ahead with the other dogs, playing and having a good time, then race back to check on us. It was very cute.

And, finally, we made it back to the trailhead. I suppose doing a hike like this as large as I am is somewhat of a feat, because the others cheered for me and took photos. I was beat, and fell asleep on the way home!

Proof I was big ol' preggers!

I think even Buster was impressed! As for exhausted, the dog definitely wins the prize... he is still sleeping!

Health Report

Well, I just had another doctor's visit, at which I saw the scale jump past the highest it has ever been before, even in my post-France, beer-guzzling, pastry-noshing days. Ugh.

But, the good news is that the baby is super healthy, kicking and squirming up a storm. Still head-down, still a strong heartbeat of 140, and my belly is measuring 29 instead of 26 weeks. Oh, but I am a large girl with a large baby. And, I am starting to hit what I understand to be the 3rd-trimester fatigue, which makes me cranky, which in turn makes me extra sensitive to those awesome comments about how large I am. I am just repeating the mantra, "my baby is healthy, I will lose the weight." Sometime in the next week I do my glucose screen and blood workup, but so far all my vitals appear great and the doctor is quite enthusiastic about my progress.

I just thought you all might want to know that things are progressing swimmingly, and there are a mere 3 months (3 months!) and change left to go until we welcome a new baby to the world! Hooray!

Photos Galore!

We have had a photo-fantastic week, people! Well, actually, we'll start out with one from a couple of weeks ago, when I could still crouch without extreme discomfort in the belly region:

This was taken at a WSCPA event where Tony had a water balloon fight with other accountants. Who says they're no fun? Note that the only indication of my pregnant status is the giant boobs-that-will-not-be-contained-by-conventional-methods.

So, we are now at the 24/25 week mark. It totally depends, you see, on which dates you go by: original due date or the two-day-earlier due date established by our very first ultrasound. Although my doc said that our child was measuring in the 93rd percentile based on the 19-week ultrasound, he didn't say anything about changing dates. Then again, at my last appointment, my belly was measuring a week ahead. Sigh, so confusing. The baby will come when he or she wants to, I suppose. I am hoping for the beginning of November. All that to prep you for what are the most amazing belly shots yet:

Yes, folks, it's quite scary. Actually, what's scary is that I am a mere two weeks away from being in the 3rd trimester! And what's more scary is that my belly will only get bigger...

Last night we had the great pleasure to witness our friend Kelly Balzer get married. She was so pretty, and we had a great time at the wedding. Now having met her family, we understand where she gets her boisterous personality!

I bet you can guess which one Kelly is, but the other gal in the photo is our friend Morgan.

Tony and I took some nice photos there, too, since we hadn't been so dressed up since my cousin's wedding, and we didn't take any photos together there (yes, I am wearing the same dress... clothing options are a bit limited for preggos!).

So there you have it! Weekend Update with Amelia & Tony. Until next time... stay classy, Mount Vernon!