Like Mother, Like Son

The below photo is from the start of my 25th week....with Aiden popping out! It's a little difficult to take the picture and show the month count on both hands....not quite as graceful as holding up just one hand in the back. Oh, the things we do for kiddos. (ha! I know, there are real sacrifices to be made in the coming months, really, I do.)

I've noticed that Aiden takes after his mom in a few ways. He's a night owl (he doesn't keep me awake at night....just likes to start moving when I lay down to go to bed.) I won't complain if he likes the night hours...just as long as he isn't a fan of the morning hours. (People say that all babies are morning babies. Is it too wishful of thinking to hope I get the one baby that isn't?) I guess it's a good thing Ryan's a morning guy, if it turns out that Aiden likes all hours of the day. Another fun finding was last week when we were setting up the Christmas tree and jamming out to the Christmas tunes - Aiden was hopping along to the beat. I sure hope he loves Christmas as much as I do!

It's crazy to think that there are less than three weeks to the start of the third trimester. I can't believe how quickly the first two have passed.

I've been meaning to post a picture and congrats to the new Mr & Mrs Collin Ruth! Married now for four fabulous weeks. Cheers to a beautiful future together.

I don't know if I'll post again before Christmas so if I don't, merriest of Christmases to you and yours!

Surprise!

Surprise! has been the theme of my last week. It started last Friday when my Schweizer family threw me a surprise baby shower! It was a fabulous shower, and I didn't expect it at all. The shower was at Charlotte's Tea Room in Warwick, NY, and everything about it was adorably themed. Jillian made me a 'Mad Hatter', we drank 'Mother's Tea', and the favors were tea pot shaped timers. Seriously, so fabulous. (We also got Yankees gear galore, which delighted Ryan.)

The shower was a reminder of how blessed we are by the people in our lives. I was so surprised and overwhelmed by gratefulness when I first walked in to the shower that I almost started to cry. Thanks Schweizer fam, for a wonderful, wonderful shower.

We returned home from NY to a gift from my sis, that she hadn't been able to ship to NY in time for the shower.....the MOST wonderful, awesome, amazing diaper bag EVER. (seriously, who thought I would ever say that about a diaper bag. oh but it's true....) I don't have any pics with it yet...I'll take one soon!

The next surprise came....oh about Monday or Tuesday of this week, when Aiden decided it was time for my bump to make a grand appearance. These last few weeks people have been telling me you can just see my bump, but when I showed up at work on Tuesday my bump was commentably bigger. I'll post a 6 month pic next week....you'll see.

Finally, I was surprised to find out that Aiden is the #1 name for boys in 2011, based on the MSN list that came out today . The one thing I wanted to not pick was a top ten name....and then we gave him the most popular name in the book. Oh well. It's definitely his and I couldn't imagine calling him anything else.

Mr. Aiden James

Yup, Aiden James Schweizer will be our little guy's name. (And yes, all you James' I know out there, I named our baby after you.....The middle name has nothing to do with my fabulous father.) We figure he may go by the nickname AJ now and again.

There's lots more updating to do.....another family wedding, Thanksgiving, and my first (surprise!) shower while we were in NY....but those are for another day this week, when there's a little more time.

BUMP!

And here it is......my growing bump! A friend of mine mentioned taking pictures each month and using a count on my fingers to show how far along I am. I thought it was a cute idea so that's just what I did. Should be four more of these during the coming months....

My friend Jessica bought baby the most fabulous bear during a shopping spree for "soft things." Yup, we were looking at all the stuff you'd just love to cuddle up with, and we came across this guy. We said it could be one of those animals that our kid takes pictures with every month....until he's at least 8-years-old! Ryan was a huge fan of the bear, and I think he considered making it his own.

Most importantly, this week God me reminded to appreciate all I have, especially this new, growing life inside of me. He reminded me that whatever changes are happening to me (whether fun and exciting or more on the strange and uncomfortable side), they are all indicators of a beautiful new creation that I am blessed to be carrying. As always seems to happen when I make a God-realization, I heard my favorite Christian song, Blessed Be Your Name. "Blessed be Your name when the sun's shining down on me, when the world's 'all as it should be, blessed be Your name. Blessed be Your name on the road marked with suffering, though there's pain in the offering blessed be Your name." Amen.

Excitement during week 18

Week 18 has been a BIG one! I started feeling baby kick, people began to notice my bump and we found out the gender (see picture below). We mailed gender announcement cards to all of our fam since we couldn't do a gender reveal party with them. Lauren from http://palmpapers.com/ made the adorable announcements for me. The jury is still out on a name.....we have a few we are debating. I'll share once we settle on one.

When I said fairly up-to-date, I was aiming for something more frequent than every six weeks so hopefully I'll pick up the pace. I will say the last six weeks have been crazy. I got a cold the last two weeks of my first trimester, and that made me a sort of tired I've never known before. I came home most nights and just got in bed. Fortunately, the start of the second trimester came with more energy (that has continued) and an improved immune system, both of which were much needed for Mal's wedding (yay!)

congrats Mr & Mrs Owens!

Ryan's been hard at work on baby's room, and it looks great! At this point we are just waiting to find out the gender so that we can add fun color and finishing touches. I know it may seem a little early, but lots of people I talked to said it could take months for some of the furniture to come in so we put the room at the top of our to do list. Everything came in within a few weeks though, and Ryan is a go-getter when he has a project so he got the room in order really quickly. The only thing we have left to find is a glider/rocker.

I've included a few close-up pictures from the baby's room, including baby's first booties and the darling, sweet picture I received from my work gal pals. I am so blessed to work with such caring, thoughtful people.

On top of all that, Ryan and I celebrated our 5th anniversary this weekend (in style...at Wolfgang Puck's Five Sixty restaurant...mmm, mmm!). It's been an amazing five years, and I continually thank God for the fabulous husband he blessed me with. I'm pretty sure the next five will be a little different from these past five, but we are looking forward to them!

We will find out the gender of the baby in the next few weeks....I promise to post with news as soon as I can!

the start of schwei-town.....

I always said I would start a blog when we were going to have a baby. So that means, since you are reading this, Ryan and I are having a baby. Woo-hoo!

I am currently 11 weeks, and my due date is March 26th. In seven weeks we should be able to find out if we are having a Jack or Jill. If we got to pick, we'd choose a boy (a bit scary to think about another teenage Courtney running around in 13 years!), but everyone's bets seem to be on us having a girl, and, at the end of the day, we are happy with a healthy baby, regardless of gender (cliche but true).

I promise to try my hardest to keep this blog fairly up-to-date. We live a small distance from many of our wonderful family members and friends, but we want to share with you all that is happening in Schwei-town!