The ultimate support group

One of the things I've enjoyed so much from this pregnancy is meeting other friends who were also pregnant.  I found a Meetup Group called "Active and Happy Pregos" and we'd go walking mostly - until my back started having issues, then I couldn't join them for that, but had formed some great friendships that carried on throughout pregnancy.

The due dates of my prego friends in this group ranged from January 3rd to March 18th.  The first babies were born January 19th (Stephanie's and Danielle's).

(We all got together for a nice lunch and to watch The Happiest Baby on the Block)

Left to Right - Stephanie, Sarah, Brianne, Pooja, Stacy, Rachel

At Stephanie's baby shower (left to right - Stacy, Pooja, Danielle and Rachel)

Stephanie was due first - January 3rd.  So I have always been asking her questions about different things because she was ahead of me by two months.  I really loved getting to know her and anxiously awaiting the arrival of her son Koen.  Apparently Koen didn't really buy into the whole "due date" thing and came a couple weeks later...but oh man, what an incredibly adorable baby!!  That is him below.  Stephanie took this picture of Koen with little socks on his hands because she didn't have mittens.  My question was - why on early would you need mittens - we live in San Diego?  LOL...oh, I have much to learn!  Apparently babies are born with little fingernails already!  Ohhhhhhhhhh!!!  They can scratch themselves!  Poor Cody - mom and dad will be learning as we go...but thank God for my "due earlier" prego friends who are sharing these little experiences with me.

Little Koen (born Jan 19th in his carseat)

Stephanie's husband Ryan holding Koen in "the football hold"...OMG...I'm in love! 

I can't wait to see Jason doing that with Cody!!

Danielle is my prego friend that I got to spend the least amount of time with - she ended up moving up to Orange County, but hopefully I'll make it up there or she'll make it down here so we can see each other again.  She had her baby (Noah) the same day Stephanie had Koen: 

Baby Noah - so sweet!

Pooja had the first little girl of our group and her name is Maahi.  What a sweet, precious little face she has!

Maahi

Look at all that hair!  Pooja with Maahi and grandma...ahhhh!!

Sarah is the one girl in our group who chose to have her baby's gender be a surprise...so we were all super excited to find out, she just brought girl #2 into our group on Jan 29th.  Little Penelope (Penny)...OMG, what a sweet baby girl!!  I love this picture Sarah sent me! 

Sarah and Baby Penny.

Penny - just too dang cute!!

So, next on the roster is Rachel, then me, then Brianne.  I can't tell you how great it is to have had other prego moms to go through pregnancy with...and as we all have those babies...how great it will be to already have a network of new mom friends.  I've heard there are so many new things to learn, challenges, exhaustion, etc...how great to have a network of friends who are going through it, can truly understand and just be there for each other.

Thank you, Meetup.com!

And thank you to my awesome prego and newly non-prego friends for an awesome journey so far.  I look forward to the years in front of us!

Update

Wow...I just got a request from my Uncle Alan to re-send the link to this blog as one of my cousins is pregnant and he thought she'd enjoy it.  Ummmmm...my last post was TWO MONTHS AGO!!!!!!  Oh my!!

Well, the gist of the last two months (non-pregnancy talk) is this: I was working on this massive, gigantic grant for Morrison & Company that required me to herd over 50 PhD's from around the country together to write a proposal to create a modified bug that would help to eliminate a particular citrus disease.  The grant was due last Tuesday.  Without a doubt, the last two weeks are the most challenging work-wise I've faced in a long time!  But alas, the grant was filed with 54 minutes to spare.  My midwife was freaking out that my blood pressure was high and accused me of not eating enough protein - I explained that it was just this work project....anyway, I upped my protein anyway, the project ended.  And now all is happy in blood pressure land.  Of course, throw in all of the holiday travels in there. 

Holidays
Jason and I (and Cody in the oven) drove up to Turlock to spend the holidays with Kathleen and Sean.  We had a really nice time.  I got to see my friend Sarah, who I hadn't seen in a long time - it was great.  We left Christmas day and made the 9 hour trek to Big River to see my dad, Linda, Tina and Lily.  I hadn't seen Lily in a long time and knew I probably wouldn't see her again for a while, so that was extra great.  We had a lot of  fun and just enjoyed each others' company.  We watched Cody's 30 minute 4D ultrasound with the family - it was great!  Then Jason posted something about it on facebook and got us busted with our mid-wife who is definitely anti-ultrasounds.  It was pretty funny.  Facebook!  Busted!

This is a picture of Cody at 27 weeks - it's so weird to think we actually know what he looks like!  And he's so dang cute!  I can't wait to meet him. :)

Geez, there is so much to catch up on.  I think I'll create a couple of posts to break up the subjects - one subject - belly monster changes - another - my prego friends.

Stand by......