Window Fans

Ahh, window fans. They are making our life much more bearable in this humid Philly heat. Coming home after work our house is baking in the upper 80's. But once we open our windows and get those fans rolling, I don't feel as if I have to drink a gallon just to make up for all the water loss. It is crazy though how this heat has been affecting my prego body. Normally I down about 3 Nalgenes of water (each one beign 32 oz. for those not familiar with Nalgene-lingo :0) But these days I'm up to 6 at least, if not more. And I still feel constantly parched?! It's wild. All these body changes are just so nuts to me. My midwife said you gain almost 8lbs just in extra fluids...that being blood, extra water, amniotic fluid, etc...She even said you get more fluid in your eyes?! How weird is that?! Since I'm struggling to make the weight mark for 30 weeks, I'm guessing my fluids are lower, which is maybe why I'm parched all the time? Who knows.

So we're heading towards week 33, which means there are just 7 measley weeks from that point on. That is nothing! Where did the time go? Here's the latest belly shot we took this evening (can you tell it's humid in our house with that shiny face :0). The baby is definately getting bigger as my midwife exclaimed yesterday "Girl, you are all baby!" Meaning, it's just like someone stretched some skin over a baby and stuck it on my stomach. Which you can't tell very well from the picture, but in person, there's just this hard little rock stuck on my front. You can practically feel every body part - his knees, feet, butt, hands. There's just not much else there besides him these days. Because of that, I feel him moving ALL DAY LONG. Even when he's asleep I can feel him adjusting himself or rubbing a foot along my rib. It's absolutely wild how much he's grown in just the past couple weeks. I guess that's how it goes though. Wonder how much he'll pack on in the next couple of weeks. Hopefully enough to get me up to the 20lb mark!

We're settling back into our routine slowly but surely. Still trying to hang on to some of that "vacation mode" as we made mango/pineapple smoothies tonight. Mmm. This weekend we're planning out last big "outing" for just us two before the baby comes. I have my last day off on Monday for July 4th. We think we're going to go blueberry picking, maybe fly-fishing, and putter around a cute old PA town called "Peddler's Village" for their July 4th celebration. We're looking forward to being outdoors, enjoying each other, and taking an extended breather from our duties. Hope you all have a great weekend yourselves!

Beach 2005

Manly bonding...smoking stogies


Bad Dude - Papa Smith


The three sistas reunited!


Teenage sista doing her thang


Papa Hall deeply engrossed in a game of Bocce Ball

Back to PA

California trips to the Pacific, 1984

The Early Hall Beach Days...Callie & I in Hunting Island, SC 1986



Matthew and I finally made it home last night after a dead battery and one too many wrong turns. We fell into bed around 10pm and crashed...thankful for a Sunday to rest up instead of heading straight into the work week. We had a wonderful time all together as a family and incredible beach weather - low 70's with no humidity, perfect for sitting out in the sun. We played Bocce ball, boogie boarded, ate great food, watched some ridiculous movies, and just caught up on life together. I was able to read until my hearts content and do nothing but putter around all day. I felt totally spoiled for an entire week :0) ...just what the doctor ordered.

Now we're headed back into "real life". Matthew meets with World Harvest tomorrow to talk about job possibilities for the fall, which we're keeping our fingers crossed for. He would be working as a recruiter which would be SO perfect for him. The job does involve support-raising as a stateside missionary, but we're trusting that if God's opened all the doors up until that point, he'll provide for us financially as well. I'm heading back to my job and potentially hearing back from my bosses what they decided about my return from maternity leave. At this point, it's looking pretty grim that they're going to agree with my proposal to work from home a few days a week. So I may have to find a different part-time job come Novemeber when my maternity leave is up. Ugh. We're trying not to dwell too much on the "what-if's" and instead keep trusting that God will provide for us and knew he was bringing this baby into our lives and what changes that would entail.

We're both feeling a bit "vacation culture shock" heading back into our routine here, as most people do when they return from a week long break. But we're glad to see our friends again who we missed and be back in our church body who we love. We'll be hunkering down here for quite a stretch now. With just 8 weeks to go until the potential due date our travels won't take us far from home. I'm starting to feel the effects of the third trimester as my energy level is quickly declining and my sleep is growing more restless. The heat probably plays a roll in that as well, but we spend most of our time in our bedroom which has the one window a/c unit. We ate dinner in bed this evening :0)

Above are some of our vacation pics.

3 more days til FREEDOM!!

Yes, we are DEFINATELY ready for vacation. After last summer of working our booties off so we could move to Philly, we are more than eager to take a real vacation and have nothing to think about but what to eat that day and whether to boogie board or body surf...well, not me, but the rest of the fam. Hmm, I wondering if pregnant gals can boogie board? I hope we're not confined to just float on our backs in the waves :0) Matthew and I will head down to Charlottesville to meet my family this Thursday. Then we'll all load in the car and head down to Virginia Beach where a family has graciously lent us their beach home. My brother will now be able to join us as well, so it'll be the whole Hall clan. Callie, my sister, just returned from her 5 month studying-abroad in Costa Rica and has yet to see me and my slowly expanding belly. What a shocker!

Yesterday was my 30 week appointment with our midwife. She was listening to Brighton's heartbeat and poking him around at the same time which made his heartbeat get faster. She said it's because he gets excited when someone starts playing with him :0) Most babies turn around a lot but Brighton seems to be content to stay head down, which is awesome for us to hear, since we're still hoping to do the birth at that Birth Center and not at a hospital. She said his head is actually dropped into the pelvis already...which no, does not mean I'll deliver him any sooner...but yes, does mean he's getting ready with 10 weeks to go. His feet are nestled right under my ribs which explains the constant jabs. He's definately growing and is about the size of a loaf of bread now, she said. Although he still isn't sticking out much to the dissapointment of others :0) She showed me how my torso is just a lot longer than most (about two hand-widths as opposed to one-hand width of most gals)...so he's just growing up not out. So she said not to be disconcert by all the "You're too small!" comments...which were starting to stress me out a bit. Everything else looked good and HOPEFULLY we'll get to see him this Thursday (even though his head is hidden) during our ultrasound in C'ville.

The greatest news of the week...Matthew installed a window a/c unit in our bedroom last night thanks to my AWESOME PARENTS!!! They bought us one after staying with us last week and enduring the heat themselves. Last night it was 86 degrees in our house at 8pm. Ugh. I felt so dizzy and light-headed I couldn't do anything but sit on the bed and drink gallons of water. I slept harder than I had in weeks last night though thanks to the cool air and no birds to wake us at 4am. We had these creepy birds outside our window every night for the past few weeks that would start going berserk at 4pm and not shut up until morning. It was horrible. Either keep the window open to cool off and sleep with a pillow over your head to quiet the noise...or just shut the window and swelter. Now I told Matthew we're going to end up spending all our time our bedroom though after work. Probably we'll start eating dinner in there too...ha, ha ;0)

Well I'm not sure if we'll have internet at the beach. If we do, I'll try to update this with some pictures. Hope you all have a great week!

Meal for a friend

Just a shot from last week making a meal for one of our friends. Mom's "cherry cobbler" is always a sure-fire hit and SUPER easy! They're coming to stay with us tonight through Saturday while they're here with World Harvest. We're pumped to have them in our house staying with us together for the first time. Dad surprised us back in Colorado for Matthew's graduation last year, but Mom's never been able to stay with us yet. How weird the transition is to have your PARENTS staying at YOUR home?! Setting out sets of towels, making up a bed, cleaning the bathroom :0) It'll be fun though.

Next week we head to the BEACH! Woo-hoo! Matthew's never been on a beach vacation having grown up in the mountains of Colorado, so I think he's in for a nice surprise. All we Hall's do is eat, sleep and soak up the rays. Before that, we'll get to see Brighton again, thanks to a sweet lady in our church who is going to give us a free ultrasound. How different he'll look now at 30 weeks than he did back at 19 weeks! Probably more like a real baby! If we get some pictures, we'll be sure to post them.

So time is flyin'...we have about 10 weeks to go now. That is, until our "due date"...which doesn't mean much :0) Either way, it's getting close! You can see a better shot of my new belly on the Belly Shots page. It's still not what most would call a third trimester stomach, but it IS getting bigger, I promise!

More to come...

Back from VA

Matthew and I just got back last night from an awesome weekend visiting the Hall fam in VA. We hadn't seen them since February, so it was fun to just relax together and be able to share the "growing belly" and Brighton's kicks. We drove down early on Thursday to stay with my high school buddy and her husband in Harrisonburg. Then headed to C'ville on Friday to hang out with my little sister, Emily. Monday we took a road trip to Richmond to purchase Mom's birthday/Mother's Day/anniverary gift...an ipod AND a new Mac computer. Matthew was beside himself :0) He helped Mom learn how to get music on her new toy which she's already thoroughly enjoying. Dad said he came out this morning to find her still in bed just listening to her ipod :0) I have a feeling we won't be able to separate her from now on!

Today, we're back to the grindstone. Needless to say, we weren't too thrilled about heading back to work this morning. But another break is on the horizon. In two weeks we'll be headed to the beach with my family again. Ahhh, we are definately ready for that trip! And Matthew gets off even before then when he heads out to Arizona next weekend to visit his best friend. So I guess we can't complain now that we're headed into some serious summer vacation time.

Everything looked great at our midwife appointment last week. We're now going to start meeting with Barbara every two weeks since we've entered the third trimester. She can tell where he's laying and everything now. Next week she said he should be big enough where she can show us how to feel where he is at different points. I think I already can for the most part :0) We confirmed his feet WERE right under my ribs...explaining the sharp kicks I get when I try to bend over. He's growing like a weed these days. I feel more pressure when he pushes his head or butt around especially. Now I feel him moving pretty much all the time, even if he's asleep and just rolls over or something. A sweet lady in my church in Charlottesville who is a nurse offered to do an ultrasound for us in June when we come down to head to the beach! We are SO excited to be able to see him again!! And at 30 weeks he should look a bit different :0) And the best part is that my mom and sisters will be able to come as well to see the show! How fun.

So that's the latest from the Philly Smith's. Hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend.