Joshua Thomas

Well a lot has changed in the last 2 weeks.

Joshua Thomas decided to make his way into the world early. He was due October 6th but decided to join us on September 19th.

We got to the hospital at 11 pm on Tuesday night and found out yes indeed my water had broken even though I wasn't really feeling any contractions. Unfortunately all of the labor rooms were full so we were stuck in the evaluation room until 2 AM. When we got to our room they started me on pitocen. By 9 AM I was ready for an epidural and a chance to get some rest. By 4 PM it was time to start pushing.

Photo Book

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Baby Helmkamp's Room

The baby's room is just about complete, the frames above the dresser need pictures and I want to make a valance for the window.

The hanging above the crib shows his initials but I had to blur them out to keep the secret. The artwork on the wall above the book shelf is Travis' vision, an art piece depicting the the Big 10. The most important being the red one on the far left (Go Nebraska!). 

35 Weeks

Well school has started and my belly has grown quite a bit. Our little boy is kicking quite often and he enjoys poking me on both the right (butt and feet) and left (what I can only assume is his elbow) sides.

It is definitely getting more uncomfortable to sit. I am still getting sleep though less comfortable. I have taken over both body pillows in the bed so that I don't have move the body pillow, I just roll over to the next one.

Since July we have been blessed with 3 more showers. Thank you to my Mom and Rachel for throwing me a shower in Red Bud for friends and family. Thank you also to the wonderful staff at Zion for the gifts and great food. And finally thank you to the Anger family for a wonderful afternoon at Louis and Clark restaurant in St. Charles.

28 Weeks

Alright so I am a little behind on updating this blog!

In July we enjoyed our first shower thrown by Travis' Dad's congregation, Holy Cross in Shelbyville, IL. We got lots of great gifts and got to spend some good family time together.

Here is a bump picture from later that week.

25 Weeks: Washington DC

This past weekend we enjoyed a wonderful vacation to Washington D.C. It was Travis' first time to see   our nations capitol.  We got there on Friday and headed home on Tuesday.  We hit all of the major sites spending lots of time on our feet walking! By the end of each day we were ready to crash.

Day 1: We arrived in Virginia by about 9:30 in the morning. We got a rental car for the day so that we could explore Mt. Vernon. It was really hot!

Day 2: We rode the Metro downtown.

First site, the US Capital. Before heading to the Holocaust Museum. The Holocaust Museum was wonderful but also very draining. Next we went to the Air and Space Museum and then part of the National Museum of American History before heading back on the Metro to our hotel (by this time our feet were killing us and we had our fill of museums for the day)   

Day 3:  We started off with Arlington National Cemetery before check out all of the memorials.

It is amazing to see the rows upon rows of perfectly spaced headstones of all the men and women who have served our country.

The reflecting pool is very unimpressive when there is no water in it! They are undergoing a  construction project to improve the reflecting pool.

Travis was amazed at all the people who were taking pictures like this all over DC so he decided he needed to try it out.

My favorite memorial would have to be the WWII memorial. Around the outside each state is displayed with a  wreath.

Travis wanted to show his dislike of California.

and his love of Nebraska

We ended the memorials tour by walking over to Jefferson Memorial, once again by the end of the day we were tired of all the walking and a little sunburnt after sweating off our sunscreen.

 Day 4: We started off day for by viewing the White House before continuing on to the Museum of Natural History and then finishing the Museum of American History.

One of our favorite places of the day was Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. This was a sculpture of  plastic strings that hung down that you could walk through. It was pretty cool to walk through.

 After finishing up the museums we did some souvenir shopping and we had supper downtown so that we could (I could) take pictures of some of the monuments in the dark. Travis was kind enough to suffer with his blister long enough for me to get the "artistic" pictures I wanted.

Day 5: The last day. We had a little bit of time before we had to be at the airport so we decided to go to the Pentagon to see the 9.11 Memorial.

There is a bench for each person who lost their life at the Pentagon that day. The benches are arranged by year and  as you read the names on the bench you face either the sky or the Pentagon for those who lost their life in the plane crash or in the building respectively.

Now we are back home, back and back to work. But we are very thankful we got to enjoy this vacation together especially before we have a little one to take care of!

22 Weeks

It is hard to believe how much I have grown in the last 2 weeks.

He has really started to move around a lot more although I still only feel the movement down low.

On Friday night he was moving so much that I tried to see if I could feel him on the outside instead of just inside and sure enough he is getting more powerful! Travis even got to feel him give a little knudge.

Unfortunately have I have to more careful about what and how much I eat because heartburn is not fun!

It's a....

Sonogram pictures!

Here is our beautiful baby! The technician said that the femur bone was long! Maybe we will have a tall child despite Travis' complaints about my lack of height.

The baby has a foot!

And its a BOY!

I have also started to feel him move. I can now distinguish whether it is my own body gurgling or our little boy.

20 Weeks

Up until now I was very self concious about my baby bump. To me it still looked like I was just over weight but Travis reassured me that I was looking pregnant.

We get to find out the sex of the baby in just 3 more days!