September Update

It's been awhile since our last update, but I'll try and keep this short. We are now 27 weeks pregnant, which brings a close to the second trimester, and puts us in the "home stretch". It's hard to believe that we're only 3 months away from welcoming home our little boy! We found out at our 25 week appointment that the baby is "measuring big", so I guess I should slow down on the ice cream :)

The last month has been full of baby prepping (ie., spending hours at BabiesRUs looking at strollers!) and we finally got our baby furniture ordered. Most Moms probably already have their nurseries ready to go by this point, but those who know me know that I'm not very... punctual. Hopefully the crib will be here before Lil E!

What else have we been up to?! We caught up with old friends, went to a Maroon 5 concert (got to go backstage and meet James Valentine and Adam Levine), I got to meet the Backstreet Boys at work, and we took a trip to St. Louis to visit family and friends. Here are a few pictures...

The DGS girls "poolside" at Natalie's

Maroon 5 concert

Delney and I meeting Adam Levine

Meeting the Backstreet Boys

Baby Drew (The Bailey family)

Sam & Kathy is STL

Kathy, Courtney and I in STL

25 Weeks and growing... and growing...

We have our 28 week doctor's appointment tomorrow, so we'll keep you posted if anything (due date?) changes. The boys (Matt, Steve and Justin) are heading to Jackson Hole next weekend to go fishing and camping, so I'm sure Matt will have some fun photos to share when he returns.

What a week!

You would have thought there was a full moon, but there wasn't. Just something in the water, I guess... From Tues., Aug. 12 through Thurs., Aug. 14, we welcomed 3 new babies into the world. Well, not "we", but our close friends. Halle Madelyn was born first, to Cortney & Jonas. Then Andrew Gerard to Valerie & Jim, and finally (2 weeks early!), Daniel Ryan born to Sue & Dan. All moms and babies are doing well! We look forward to meeting Halle and Andrew in the coming weeks, but caught our first glimpse of Danny tonight. What a beautiful boy!

Daniel Ryan Durkin

Uncle Matt getting some practice!

We also brought our 5th month of pregnancy to a close this week by finishing our 22nd week. Baby Boy Eatherton is getting quite active, letting Mom know that her pants are getting a little tight and he'd like more room to move! We even had our first case of the hiccups this week; Matt got a "kick" out of seeing my stomach move with each hiccup.

Here is a not so pretty picture to mark the occasion!

Look at me grow!

It's A Boy!!

After returning from paradise, we had our 20 week ultrasound yesterday and got to see our little peanut up close and personal. And speaking of personal (no "hide the weenie" for our little man), we got to see that "it" was a "he"!! We're so excited that we're having a little boy! On our way to the doctor's appointment, the hot topic was, "what color White Sox jersey will we be getting?!" and now we know that it's blue! Here are a couple of shots from the big day...

"Oh Mom, have some class!"

20 weeks photo

Bambi & Brian get married in Turks & Caicos!

What a crazy two weeks it has been. Last week, Matt and I had an amazing time in Providenciales, Turks and Caicos, attending our friends Bambi and Brian's wedding (congrats to Mr. & Mrs. Flaherty!) As if attending their wedding wasn't enough, we were lucky to be on the island for the Turks & Caicos Music Festival and spent our last evening rocking out to Lionel Ritchie..."all night long!!" (literally; Lionel didn't come on stage until 1am!) Below are a couple of pics from the trip and a video from the concert. We had a great time hanging out with everyone and thank the Coopers and Flahertys for asking us to be a part of their special day.

Matt & I


Look at the gorgeous water! He's not bad either...

Lindsay & Jason Get Married!

On June 28th, Matt's sister Lindsay married her longtime love Jason Ellerman. The wedding was in their hometown of Park Ridge and the reception at the Hotel Orrington in Evanston. Everything about the day was perfect and the bride couldn't have been more beautiful. We had a great time all weekend long-- it was great to spend time with Matt's family who all live out-of-state. Here are a couple more photos from the day...

Jason joins the family!

Megan & Justin

Matt & I

Preview

Tinley's Vacation in Plainfield

We spent the bulk of the 4th of July weekend in Florida (we mean Plainfield) at the Hyatt (we mean Stetzers) to give Tinley a bit of a vacation from the concrete jungle. Yet another fun car ride...


...and some cocktails by the pool...



...and some quality relaxation with Molly...

Heather @ 16 Weeks

Our 16 week doctor's appointment was on July 1 and we heard the peanut's heartbeat yet again. It dropped a bit to 155 bpm, from the previous 170 bpm at the 12 week mark. The doctor said that this is normal and it will continue to drop until the baby enters the "real world". We were talking about how crazy it is that a little baby's resting heartbeat starts off at 170 bpm+, then drops to ~110bpm when born, lowers again to 60-90 bpm as a toddler/young adult....and then slowly rises again well into his/her elder years. Crazy.

Anyway, Heather is definitely showing a bit more and has a few more pounds on the scale. The doctor says she looks great and is right on schedule.



Heather insists that she has felt the baby move a couple times, which is conceivable. The doctor said that it's often very subtle and increases in magnitude as she approaches the 20 week mark. December 18 is still the due date as of right now. We find out the sex in just under 4 weeks!