The Adventures of BB: 30 Week Update

Wow how time has flown! Tomorrow I will be 30 weeks along. Only 10 more weeks to go! Lots has happened in the life of Baby Blakely since I last wrote.

BB Goes to School:
I spent ten days at Virginia Wesleyan College completing licensing school at the end of May. This is required for all clergy in the Virginia Conference of The United Methodist Church. Basically it's a ten day crash course in theology and practice of ministry that serves as a re-fresher for those of us with an M.Div. and a as training for those who will be licensed as local pastors (typically those not working toward full ordination). It was great to fellowship with others in the conference who will be licensed or commissioned this weekend at Annual Conference, but it was a very long and tiring week. Sitting for the majority of the day for several hours at a time was really rough on my already easily swelling feet and ankles. Then sleeping in a twin bed in the residence halls made for an interesting week when you are 27 weeks pregnant! What was most rough about it was that Josh had just been gone for 10 days on his Yellowstone trip, and we only had one evening together before I left for my 10 days of licensing school. Our worship throughout the week, however, was meaningful and passionate and God was truly present in that place!

The whole licensing school group on the Eastern Shore.

BB Goes to the Doctor:
On June 4th, we had a doctor's appointment. I had been anxious for a while about this appointment because it was the one where I was scheduled to take the glucose tolerance test to determine if I have gestational diabetes. Having several family members with diabetes means I am at a higher risk to contract gestational diabetes (for most women this means you only have diabetes while pregnant...there are a handful, though, that it ends up sticking around even after baby is born). For the test, they make you drink this horribly sweet liquid, wait an hour without eating or drinking anything, then get your blood drawn to test your blood sugar level. Mine was fruit punch flavored. And when I say this stuff is horribly sweet, I mean it's so full of sugar that I got a massive headache within about 10 minutes of drinking it. It's crazy. BUT, I am SOOOOO happy to announce that my test came back normal! No gestational diabetes for me! Hooray! This was also our last appointment at the Health Center for Women and Families. Our next appointment will be across the street at the hospital with one of the possible two doctors that will "catch" BB when the time comes. Yes, you heard correctly. There are a total of 2 doctors in Farmville that deliver all the babies. It's a small town :) At least we know we will have met all the options before the big day!

BB's First Plane Ride:
On June 8th we flew to St. Louis for my good friend Lindsey Otto's (now Brown's) wedding! Don't worry...I got the okay from the doc that I'd be alright to fly. Our flights were very full and my feet had a blast swelling, but other than that the plan rides were fine. Thankfully one of the styles of bridesmaid dresses Lindsey chose fit over my 6 month baby bump! I was pretty exhausted after the weekend simply because it was busy, but it was really wonderful to be able to celebrate with Lindsey and see friends I hadn't seen in a while!

The Bride and her maids at the photo booth at the reception!

BB Goes to Vacation Bible School:
This last week was VBS at church! I serve as director, and it is always a big undertaking at Farmville UMC. We usually have close to 100 kids come for the week and this year wasn't much different. We had around 80 children throughout the week, and the volunteers did an amazing job in leading them in an underwater adventure called Operation Overboard where the kids learned to go deeper in their faith in God! It was quite an exhausting week, but it's so wonderful to see the outreach made to the kids in our community.

BB Goes to a Baseball Game:
Last Saturday I took the youth to a Richmond Flying Squirrels baseball game. We had a lot of fun, and the squirrels won!!

BB Gets a New Room:
We moved!! Josh has received a promotion and as a result we are/have moved to a new apartment. For the last two years we have lived on Longwood's campus in an apartment inside of Cox Residence Hall. We are now living in an apartment in one of Longwood's off-campus apartment communities known as Longwood Village. It's about 2 miles down the road from campus which means we now have a commute instead of being able to easily walk to work. However, it also means we went from 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom to 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. We are so thankful to be able to still have a guest room, especially with BB on the way! Family will have a place to stay when they come to visit...including their own bathroom! It also means we are gaining access to an outdoor pool because the apartment complex has one. This has been and will continue to be wonderful for me as my back continues to hurt and my feet continue to swell through the hot summer. The cool water and relief of pressure are amazing. We are also hoping the pool will still be open when BB is old enough to take a dip this season, but that all depends on when BB decides to make a grand entrance into this world.

We have almost completely moved everything over from our old place, and are continuing to set up the new place. We plan to have everything moved over in the next day or two and hopefully have everything just about set up by the end of this week. Josh is so amazing and doing the majority of the work since I can't lift very heavy things and get tired pretty quickly. I may be growing a kid, but he's doing some mighty hard work as well! I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful husband! We've gotten the changing table and crib put together for the nursery so far. I will take more pictures once the whole house is looking more put together and less like a storage unit full of boxes! Here are some pictures of Josh, "Uncle Larry" and "Uncle Zack" putting together the changing table and crib! Oh and the color we picked out for the walls is grey like I explained in my last post. However, once on the walls, it looks more like a slate grey which is why they have a blueish tint to them in the pictures. But no, this does not automatically mean we are having a boy! These cultural norms drive me crazy!!!