26 Week Update

Less than 100 days to go! Its hard to believe that by the end of this week I will be entering my third trimester. I met with one of my new doctors last week and everything is growing well. It seems that I have sort of exploded over the last week or so and my appointment proved that with a real weight gain for the first time ever and my baby belly has grown 5 cm since last month. Its also more obvious since I went from having a ton of clothes that fit to not much of anything in about a weeks time. Ringo was moving around like crazy while I was visiting the doctor so it took a while to get a solid heartbeat but it was a consistent 148 bpm and this week he/she will be the size of a head of cauliflower. From now on I will have an appointment every two weeks until September then its every week until Ringo decides to appear. I still need to meet the two other doctors in the practice so by the end of this month I will have at least seen all of them so they wont be total strangers to me. I have been feeling pretty good and as long as there is air conditioning and I can put my feet up and relax at night, the heat hasn't been too hard to deal with. Ringo moves around a lot and Karl was able to feel it for the first time while we were in Florida. I still can't really distinguish the movements but it certainly makes me wonder what is going on in there!
With three months to go I feel like there is so much to be done! We just haven't had a lot of free weekends to work on the baby room but that is priority #1 now that we have some time. We have the bedding and some accessories purchased and the main furniture was ordered last week so when it all arrives we be spending a lot of time piecing it all together. Our families have both planned baby showers for us in the coming weeks so hopefully we will have everything we need by the time the little one comes. I hope to get some pictures of the baby room as we get things completed so more to come soon.

Florida Recap

Last week we traveled to Orlando for some time away from work. We had planned to kill a few birds with one stone as my annual marketing conference was back in Orlando, I'm approaching the last time I can fly and our new Hilton Grand Vacation Club just opened three weeks ago. After several flight changes thanks to AirTran, we left on Saturday afternoon from the new Indy airport and made it to our beautiful resort by about 7pm. The hotel is brand new and they only have one of the seven towers in operation. There may have only been one tower of rooms open but they made sure the bar, two pools and five hot tubs were fully functioning so we knew we were in good shape. Sunday we made plans to drive to Tampa for the Rays vs. Nationals game and to have dinner with our friend Chris. We had a tiny little box with no power doors or windows but it got us there with no problems. The game was fun and we had great seats thanks to stubhub- 7th row right behind the visiting team dugout. This was my first indoor baseball game so it was very interesting to check out all of the facility features and it was also family day so they had a ton of promotions going on. With my job its hard to enjoy any sporting event because I find myself watching the video board messages, paying attention to the announcements, and everything other than the game itself. This was our second MLB game in a week but I was happy this one was indoors as it was 90 and so humid outside. After the game we met Chris for dinner and to catch up on his new life and work since he moved from Indy last month. He drove 4 hours from his new home in Miami just to see us! The next few days we relaxed by the pool and just enjoyed some of the shopping and restaurants in the area. Since I can't ride any rides or do much of anything fun, we decided that SeaWorld was our best bet of the theme parks. Karl had never been there and its been at least 10 years since I was there last so we made a day of it on Tuesday. It was really hot but they have a lot of indoor exhibits and the shows had covered seating so not as bad as I expected. Let's just say that carrying around a big baby belly in 95 degree heat at 100% humidity is a lot harder than I expected! On Wednesday I had to go to an NCAA meeting in the afternoon so the vacation was pretty much over at that point. We picked up my boss from the airport that night and the conference started on Thursday. We decided to stay at our hotel (Hilton) since its on a point system by weeks but Karl was able to get a great deal on golf at the conference hotel (Marriott) so he stayed the full week with me and played a round every day while I was in meetings. I actually really love our marketing conference and this year I was asked to present during one of the breakout sessions. The Big Ten marketers are a close-knit bunch so anytime we get together its more fun than work and Katy from Michigan even organized a little baby shower/lunch for me during one of the breaks. The one negative about the conference this year was that I was not able to defend my title as the best women's basketball marketer in the country. I've won the past two years and this year they combined the "best attendance promotion" award categories into one. Rather than giving separate awards for football, men's basketball, women's basketball, olympic sport- they just did one overall award and I didn't make the top 3. I was disappointed that we came away empty handed but I got a few good ideas to take back with me and made some new connections. The conference wrapped up on Saturday afternoon and we were back in Indiana Sunday afternoon. Looking back, had this week been less crazy for both of us I think it would have been better to do the conference first and then vacation but with Miss Indiana week and Karl's work schedule it just couldn't work that way. I like combining business with pleasure but going right from meetings in Florida to meetings at the office makes you feel like you didn't have any time off at all. Anyway, that's the last trip that we have planned (other than going home to WI) before the baby comes so all in all, I would say the Kraebber Babymoon was a success!

Our room with a view of one of the pools complete with water slide!













Rays game at Tropicana Field














Happy family at SeaWorld with Shamu

Happy Birthday Princess

While we were in Florida, we missed our baby's birthday! Princess Ella turned 3 on June 15 and celebrated the day with grandma, grandpa and her best friend Bob. I am sure she was showered with treats and we brought her a few new toys and treats when we got back. After a week playing with Bob, this is what she looks like for the next 24 hours.... dead tired! Its hard to believe that we have had Ella for almost 3 years. She is a great dog and we hope she will adjust well when shes not the baby in the family any more.

Almost 24 Weeks

It is now officially wedding season! Karl and I have been to a wedding the past two Saturdays and have many more to go this summer and fall. As the baby grows its getting harder to find dress clothes that fit so I might be wearing the same thing to every wedding I go to until after Ringo is born. This weekend we enjoyed a quick trip to Nick and Megan's wedding in Cincinnati (Covington, KY actually but its basically Cincinnati). Nick was Karl's roommate freshman year in the dorms and they became fraternity brothers, he was also in our wedding. The wedding was in the evening so we just drive down Saturday afternoon and had fun visiting with friends and the wedding was beautiful. The weather was great and Sunday we had plans to go to the Cubs-Reds game at Great American Ballpark with the Benders. Its a nice park but we were surrounded by all Cubs fans and I swear they are the most annoying sports fans in the world! It was really hot and sunny so the baby was cooking in the sun but with a nice breeze it wasn't too bad. The game ended up going into extra innings but we left after 9 so we could get home and pick up Ella from her grandparents. We listened to the game and it finished up about the time we got to Indianapolis after 14 innings.

This week we are approaching week 24 and Ringo is the size of an ear of corn. Only 4 more weeks to go and I will be in the homestretch- the third trimester. I am feeling great and am able to eat more and enjoy it. The bump looks like a nice round soccer ball and is getting noticeably bigger each week. We have started to get things moved around the house to make room for baby and both sides of the family are busy planning showers so we will be prepared when he/she decides to arrive...right now we have nothing. Next week we are off to Florida for our final vacation before the baby comes. My marketing conference is in Orlando late next week so we are heading out Saturday for a few extra days of sun and relaxation together. I plan to take full advantage of the pregnant lady swimsuit I bought! We also have plans to go to the Rays game on Sunday in Tampa and visit SeaWorld before I have to do work things on Thursday. We can't wait!

Happy Anniversary

Karl and I were married 3 years ago today! Again, 3 years isn't that much time but if you consider all that has happened for us since then it does seem like a lot. Last year I made a list of all the changes in our life after marriage which included jobs for both of us, house, dog and now we get to add a baby to the list. We say that it feels like we've been married a lot longer but we think thats a good thing! Since its the middle of the week, we don't have much in the works for a celebration other than maybe out for dinner after Karl's golf league. We went to the Elton John/Billy Joel concert last week and are going to see Wicked (again) in Indy next week so we are counting those expenses as gifts to each other for the occasion. I had to add a photo from one of our favorite memories from our wedding celebration... the grand march. We had the best wedding party ever and they made our entrance great, complete with batons and aviator sunglasses. We just can't hear our favorite Journey song (Any Way You Want It) without thinking back to this moment. So... so lets dance!

Another anniversary that is passing this week is Karl's first year of work. He got a fancy new name tag to commemorate the occasion! A raise and title change didn't come with it like he was promised when he was hired but I guess that is to be expected in this economy. We know.... we should just be happy we have jobs these days!

No news on the baby front other than he/she has grown to the size of a spaghetti squash and his/her movements are getting more frequent and noticeable. I can feel them but nothing enough for Karl to feel from the outside but I expect that will change soon. I had an appointment today with a new OB group but I'm not really sure what I think of them yet. Its been a frustrating process and I had hoped for today to ease some of the stress but it really hasn't and I don't know how I feel about it. I might have more to add on this topic after we talk more tonight and I research some apparent insurance issues we might be facing now. Its always something!