Baby Asher: 32 Weeks

 

How far along: 32 weeks
Gender: Boy, Asher James
Baby's heartbeat: 140's
Weight gain: 16lbs
Maternity clothes: Still rotating the few items I have
Stretch marks: No new ones over the past 2 weeks
Belly button in or out: Pretty much out at this point, and it grosses me out

Sleep: Sleep? What's that? Between Asher moving constantly and back pain I'm lucky if I get a few hours total. I try to nap during the day but I'm also wanting to use Chase's nap time as a chance to get things done around the house 

Best moment this week: I did a little online shopping for Asher this week and the packages are arriving. It's so exciting seeing stuff arrive for him. Also we toured Paoli hospital this week. It's such a nice maternity ward and it has me so anxious to meet him.

Miss anything: Not having to go to the bathroom every 5 mins would be nice

Movement: If his movement inside is any inclination as to what he will be like once he is here, we are in big trouble.

Cravings: Fruit and bagels, back to the basics

Queasy or sick: The nausea has stopped these past two weeks. I'll take any break I can get

Looking forward to: Decorating his room. James is currently putting together his dresser. Next is to get Uncle Dave to paint :)

Welcome to the Prendergast Homestead

After what feels like years (because it has been) of moving from place to place, renting and waiting for the right time to buy a house, we took the plunge and are officially homeowners! We moved to Phoenixville, PA back in February 2013 and fell in love with the general area, we knew that we wanted to create a home here. We rented a townhouse in a great development where we have made some great friends but decided we really wanted to own a house. We want stability for our children (and us), a backyard for the boys to run around in and lets face it, it gets old really quickly having to keep packing and unpacking as we move from rental to rental.

We found a beautiful home that we can see ourselves in for a long time. It has a beautiful backyard ( that is screaming add a pool) and it backs to woods so it's very private. I can just see both boys spending day after day out there, kicking a ball around. The house is completely turn key which is a huge plus seeing I'm 7 months pregnant. James even has his man cave ready and waiting for him and he certainly deserves it! Without him and his crazy drive and ambition we would wouldn't be buying this house.

 

 

 Family Room

 

 Dining Room aka the Playroom

 

 Kitchen

 

 Formal Living Room aka Dining Room

 

 Eat in Kitchen

 

 The Nursery

 

 Chase's Room

Master Bedroom

 

 Basement

 

 James Office

 

 First day of being homeowners

 

 Poppin' bottles

 

 

We have been in the house exactly a week and we have gotten so much accomplished. All of the necessary items are unpacked and I'm starting to hang pictures and add a little home décor. James has already mowed the lawn once and purchased a basketball hoop for the driveway. Our next project is getting the boys room's ready. My brother is coming to paint Chase's room this next week and we will move in a new dresser and add some finishing touches like a baseball decal a few other finishing touches. The nursery is pretty much set up and we will decorate that over the fall (owl themed). Asher will be in our room for a while so there isn't a rush to get it done. I did get all of Chase's baby clothes washed and so they are all put away ready for his arrival. We are currently getting quotes for fencing and are hoping we can get that installed some time over the next year.

 

We are all settling into the house nicely. Chase has made himself right at home playing in his playroom and is making great use of the big back yard. We had 3 butterflies that visit each afternoon and he loves to hangout on the porch and watch them.

 

I'll update in a few weeks with some photos of the house furnished.

Baby Asher: 30 Weeks

How far along: 30 weeks
Gender: Boy, Asher James
Baby's heartbeat: 130 to 140bpm
Weight gain: 15lbs
Maternity clothes: I really could use a few more items in my wardrobe but I'm so close to the end now that I really don't feel like spending money on more maternity clothes
Stretch marks: Yes :( I got them with Chase so I knew it would be a matter of time until I got more with this pregnancy. Fortunately they are in the same spot as the old ones.

Belly button in or out: Kinda in, kinda out

Sleep: Sleep has been great recently. I've hit that wall of exhaustion like the first trimester so as soon as my head hits the pillow I'm out.

Best moment this week: Chase trying to find the baby by lifting up my shirt lol

Miss anything: energy for sure, and being able to pick things up off of the floor. Thankfully Chase is my helper ;)

Movement: Asher is all kinds of crazy in there. It literally feels like he is beating me up

Cravings: Anything sweet

Queasy or sick: If I don't get into bed before I'm completely exhausted I get really nauseous

Looking forward to: meeting this little guy, I'm getting very antsy for his arrival

Vacation: Myrtle Beach

To say we were ready for a vacation is an understatement. This years destination; Myrtle Beach. We have heard so many positive reviews about this town that we had to check it out. We rented a condo right on the ocean in South Myrtle Beach with Sharif, Suzanne, Zack and Maegan. What a great week we had. The 10 hour drive was totally worth it; clear water, beautiful sandy beaches and the endless smile on our son's face.

We had planned on doing quite a few of the attractions (water park, aquarium, etc) but Chase was so content splitting his time between the beach and the pool that we weren't going to disrupt that and it lent itself to a very relaxing week for everyone involved. Our daily routine went something like this: waking up around 8:30/9am (Chase included), hit the beach and pool from 10am to 1pm, bathe, eat lunch and put Chase down for his nap by 2:30pm (he would sleep until 5:30pm), then it was either eat in and go back to the beach or head out for the evening. Chase was usually in bed for 10pm and then we got to enjoy a couple of child free hours with our friends.

As I said previously, Chase was a huge fan of the beach. We would load him and all the beach belongings into our wagon, roll out of the building elevator and be on the sand. We have said we are only staying ocean front in the future as it makes it so much easier while we have little ones (and all of their stuff). As soon as the wagon would stop Chase would toss out all of his beach toys, climb out and get to work, aka digging. While he thoroughly enjoyed making sandcastles, his favorite beach activity was running in knee deep ocean water. It was quite possibly the cutest thing ever as while he was running he was talking and giggling the entire time. Being a beach bum myself, it melted my heart seeing him enjoy the sun, sand and surf so much. Our condo had a pool overlooking the ocean which was quite handy for my pregnant self and I would hop in to cool down. Chase got brave enough to start jumping into the pool (holding our hands of course), but he much preferred chasing the lone bug or two he saw on the poolside.

One night we went to Medieval Times for dinner and it was so much fun. The food was surprisingly tasty and Chase was kept well entertained between the jousting and fighting and his light up sword. Every boy needs a sword in my opinion! We really liked the area Broadway at the Beach; lots of restaurants and stores to browse around. It's here where Chase and James built their first (toy) car together. It you haven't ever heard of it check out the store RideMakerz, think Build a Bear concept but toy cars, it was awesome. Another evening we bought Chase a kite and we spent some time on the beach flying it, until a storm rolled through and we figured flying a kite while there is fork lightening around us wasn't the smartest idea.

I was surprised at how well Chase behaved on this vacation. I fully expected him to not want to sleep in his pack n play (was never an issue), be fussy about eating (ate everything in site) and just a little 'off' seeing we weren't at home in our normal routine. Besides the one morning he decided to slap me across my face, he did really well. His laid back mood made it a very enjoyable vacation for all 3 of us. I can speak for everyone when I say we were really sad when it was time to head back home. Of course the beach, and beautiful weather are hard to leave but more importantly it was so nice spending 8 days back to back the 3 of us. Nobody had to rush off to work or run errands etc, we could just be. Bring on vacation 2015...except it will be the 4 of us :)

Baby Asher: 24 Weeks

How far along: 24 weeks
Gender: Boy, Asher James
Baby's heartbeat: 134bpm
Weight gain: 15lbs
Maternity clothes: Maternity shorts all the time and I wear both maternity and non maternity tops. Could use a few more maternity ones though

Stretch marks: No new ones

Belly button in or out: In but I think it might pop this pregnancy

Sleep: Ugh not good. Between the hip and back pain, being overly hot and having to pee every hour sleep is not happening currently

Best moment this week: Seeing my belly move, this guy is constantly kicking, punching and rolling 

Miss anything: sleep and energy

Movement: Asher is constantly moving. Chase was active but no where close to this. I think I'm going to have my hands full!

Cravings: French fries

Queasy or sick: The nausea hasn't been too bad lately, though last night I randomly threw up my entire dinner :(

Looking forward to: getting Chase's baby clothes washed and ready for Asher

Fathers Day Beachside

I am so fortunate to have the world's best husband, on top of that he is the greatest father to our son. He works endless hours to make sure Chase has everything he will ever need and has every opportunity available to him. He doesn't sleep in on weekends, but instead is up when Chase and I get up so he doesn't miss a single second of his days off with his family. He even shares his food with Chase, which if you know James, enough said :)

Chase gave James two presents this year; he slept in until 8:30am ( a gift for both of us really) and he gave James a bloody nose! Yup that's our boy! (more on that later)

After feeling rested we loaded up the car with a picnic and all of our beach gear and headed to Ocean City, NJ for the day. As soon as Chase saw the ocean a huge smile appeared on his face and couldn't get down onto the sand fast enough. As soon as his feet the sand, he found his shovel and started "gigin" away. Unfortunately for us that meant sand was flung on our lunch, Chase's included but he didn't care less about the extra flavor lol. Onto James' bloody nose - James and Chase were rough housing, as father and son do and Chase decided to show James who was boss, by shoving his finger up James nose, digging his nail in and then the blood began. Of course Chase thought the blood was really cool!

We spent most of our time at the edge of the water jumping waves, building sandcastles and playing with Chase's new friend a hermit crab that he found. He really didn't want to leave his new buddy behind but I don't fancy having a crab on the loose at home.

We ended the day with dinner at Red Lobster and chocolate cake might have been eaten :)

Strawberry Picker

Our friends invited Chase and I to go strawberry picking with them and of course we said yes! It was a beautiful day and many strawberries were enjoyed by all :)

On the way to the fields... 

First time picking strawberries and he did a great job...

Until he realized he could just eat them right there instead!