Happy Friday!

We had our weekly midwife appointment yesterday and we started the weekly non-stress tests.  They hooked me up to the monitor and of course baby girl was napping.  They gave me a glass of water to drink to try to wake her up, but that didn't faze her, she kept right on sleeping.  So the next step was to use the "baby alarm clock" to wake her.  Wow did it make her jump!  The nurse was happy with her movement and increased heart rate so we moved on to our midwife appointment.  Nothing too exciting there, no dilation or effacement yet.  And the waiting continues!

A Toast To RockStar

Happy 28 weeks to Josey, Charlie, and baby RockStar! 

When Oak emailed me and asked me to take part in this special "blog shower" for Josey, I thought to myself...only in this awesome blogging community would something like this happen...heck yes- I'm in!

Josey,
I'm so glad I "met" you through blogging.  You were one of the first IF blogs I found and it was great to feel a little less alone in everything I was going through.  I feel like I know you in real life and maybe one day the hubby and I will come out to beautiful CO and visit! 

I remember keeping my fingers crossed for you the day of your IUI and I just knew when I saw that picture of the blowing, snow covered roads that nothing was going to stop baby rockstar from being conceived!

I am very happy for you and I can't wait for your baby to be born! You and Charlie are going to be great parents!

And finally, here is the onesie I am sending you....

We wish you all the best from Illinois!!

37 weeks.....Full term

As I anxiously wait to meet our baby, I've been thinking a lot about our journey and the next monumental step we are about to take in our lives.  We are going to be parents.  It seems like yesterday I wrote this post, and I was terrified that Steve and I wouldn't get the chance to be parents.  And now, we are almost there. 

After our losses and struggles to get here, I am more thankful for this gift than I could ever imagine. I will always remember the first ultrasound, the first time we heard her heart beat, the first time we felt her move, and how scary, emotional, and thrilling it has been to get to where we are today.

I don't know when she'll come, I don't know who she'll look like, I don't know what color her hair or eyes will be, but I do know that I already love her more than words can describe.

I am full-term this week and I couldn't be happier.  I can't wait to meet our daughter.

Another weekend down....

First off- thanks to everyone who had advice on my last post, you guys are the best!

We had our weekly midwife appointment on Friday and everything went well.  Baby is head down but I'm not effaced or dilated yet.  Her heart rate is in the 140's and my blood pressure is perfect. We go back again on Thursday.

I had so many things I wanted to get done this weekend but I'm so damn tired lately that we didn't get much accomplished.

I wish I would have taken a video of Steve and I trying to install the car seat base....blind leading the blind is the best way to describe it.  This is how it went down....we decided to go to the grocery store on Saturday to get a few things and on our way home we see a bright orange sign that says- CAR SEAT INSPECTION TODAY! This is awesome since it's something we really need to get done.  Then we see they are only there for another half hour.  So we run home- grab the car seat and base- and try to put it in without reading the directions.....yep.  Steve says- "this looks good enough, we'll just explain that we have no idea what we're doing."  ok- good plan! And off to the fire station we go. 

A very nice lady took pity on us helped us with our car seat and explained exactly what we needed to know.  We discovered that with the car seat installed (in our mid-sized SUV) the passenger pretty much has to eat the dashboard.  Now I see why so many people choose minivans.

The rest of the weekend consisted of me trying different laying/sitting/standing positions to get comfortable and watching the Steelers win!!

24 days to go!

What do I need to know?

Ok, it's no secret that I'm having a baby. 

It shouldn't be a surprise to me that in four weeks or less I will have a baby to take care of....but, I'm starting to feel a tad overwhelmed with this fact.

I know I've done pretty much all I can to be "prepared" but I keep hearing things like...."you have no idea what you're in for" and "nothing can prepare you for being a mom". 

So I'm bringing the question to my blog friends---

What do you wish someone would have told you about labor, breastfeeding, the first days as a parent, how your life changes, anything at all. 

Spill it ladies!!

36 weeks!

I've been pregnant for 252 days, can you believe it? 28 days left! 

This isn't going to be the most exciting post. Sorry in advance...I have a cold and I'm feeling a bit sluggish.

Size of Baby: Baby is still packing on the pounds — at the rate of about an ounce a day. She now weighs almost 6 pounds (like a crenshaw melon) and is more than 18 1/2 inches long. At the end of this week, she will be considered full-term. What is a crenshaw melon?

Movement:  She's still moving and I'm still loving every minute of it. Some of her kicks are powerful and take my breath away!

Cravings: Nothing this week.  Mainly because the baby is taking up the space that used to be occupied by my stomach.

Symptoms: The swelling has mostly gone down with the cooler weather (hooray!) so all that's left is heartburn, indigestion, and back pain.


Best moment of the week: Being 36 weeks pregnant and one week closer to our little one. And, we bought baby girl the cutest outfit to wear to my brother's wedding at the end of October!

What I am looking forward to: Besides the obvious (meeting our little girl), our midwife appointment tomorrow and breastfeeding class next week.

Weekly wisdom:  I'm drawing a blank here....


Belly Pictures: with a comparison from 26 weeks

26 weeks

36 weeks

Crossing things off the list

The weekend went by too quickly....it seems they get shorter and shorter the closer we get to our baby girl.  I feel like we have so much to do and not enough time (is it really September 19th??).

This weekend we got enough groceries to make double portions of all of our meals for the week so that we would have food frozen and ready to go when we bring baby girl home....a weeks worth of dinners is better than nothing, right?

We also packed our hospital bag and put some more of baby girl's things away in her room.  I just kept saying...can you believe we are doing this??

I start maternity leave on October 17th so that means I have 4 weeks left of work, unless she makes an early appearance!

So the big thing left on the list is getting the car seat bases put in our cars and checked out.  Oh, and if anyone wants to come over and deep clean my house from top to bottom I would be forever grateful.... joking.....kind of.

35 weeks & Steve's birthday!

I'll start this post by saying happy birthday to Steve- the best husband, friend and soon to be dad in the world!  We celebrated his birthday last night since he has class tonight. I have been waiting and waiting to give him his present (I am terrible at waiting for things like this) so when he got home from work I asked him if he was ready for his present.  He of course, (knowing I couldn't possibly wait any longer) said yes.  So I made him play a little game of "hot or cold"  I'm not sure if all of you know this game, but it was one of my favorite things my mom did when I was little.  She would hide a present somewhere in the house and I would have to look for it while she told me if I was hot (close to the present) or cold (not close to the present).  I mean...I couldn't just hand him the best present ever, right??

searching...

Steelers cookie basket

and inside- Steelers tickets!!

Needless to say, Steve was very excited about his tickets and I was so excited to give them!

Now for the baby update...

35 weeks pregnant and holy emotions.  I have been crying over everything in the last week.  I know it's pregnancy related and we even talked about how it is normal to be overly emotional in the last month of pregnancy at our child birth class, but the tears just come out of nowhere!  The tears and the....moodiness.  Poor Steve.  One minute I'm laughing, the next I'm crying and then out of nowhere I've turned into the grumpiest woman alive.  Good thing he loves me.

Size of Baby: baby girl is over 18 inches long and tips the scales at 5 1/4 pounds (the size of a honeydew melon). Her kidneys are fully developed now, and her liver can process some waste products. Most of her basic physical development is now complete — she'll spend the next few weeks putting on weight.

Movement:  She is still very busy in there but she definitely has her nap times too.  I love feeling her little feet poke out, it is the best feeling in the world!

Cravings: Sweets, sweets, sweets!

Symptoms: Back pain...not fun.  Still having quite a few braxton hicks, heart burn, and swollen feet.  It will all be worth it in a few short weeks!! 

Best moment of the week: Celebrating Steve's birthday and finishing our childbirth class.  

What I am looking forward to: Our next midwife appointment and finishing up all the little odds and ends before she comes!

Weekly wisdom:  I don't have much this week but I will say throughout this pregnancy I have tried really hard to take it one day at a time.  I remember how scared I was in the beginning- worrying if we would make it this far- and even though I'm still scared, I feel better when I look at things a little bit at a time instead of trying to figure it all out at once. 


Belly Pictures:

34 weeks!?

Well folks we have 6 weeks left!!  Does this sound like a super short period of time to anyone else??  So exciting......(and scary)!

Size of Baby: Baby girl now weighs about 4 3/4 pounds (like your average cantaloupe or honeydew) and is almost 18 inches long. Her fat layers are filling her out, making her rounder. Her skin is also smoother than ever. Her central nervous system is maturing and her lungs are continuing to mature as well.

Not a lot has changed in sleep, movement, and symptoms....good sleep is still hard to come by, she is still moving like crazy (she even kicked my dad while we were getting a picture taken over the weekend!), and my symptoms are the same with the addition of being pretty emotional the past couple of days- all in all, not too bad.

Best moment of the week: Getting our maternity pictures taken was so fun!  We had a great photographer and it was a beautiful day.  We also had another midwife appointment that went well.  Everything looks good- blood pressure is normal and no protein in my urine (yay!). Baby girl is head down with her back and butt on my right side and her arms and legs on my left side.  Our midwife told me to spend some time on my hands and knees a couple of times a day to turn her so that her back is facing out.

What I am looking forward to: My wonderful husband's birthday next week (I got him the best present and I have been dying to give it to him!) other than that, I can't think of anything besides meeting our sweet girl, it seems to be the only thing I can think about lately. 

Weekly wisdom:  After asking my dear friend Melissa what to pack in my hospital bag she said- "NIPPLE CREAM, NIPPLE CREAM, NIPPLE CREAM (medela makes it)!"   This made me laugh so hard, love her!!

Pictures: Here are a few more maternity pics...

Sneak Peek

We had our maternity pictures taken today at my dad's farm.  Here are just a few.... Ashley did such an amazing job! Happy Labor Day to you all!

33 weeks

Holy crap, is it already September??  I'm not even sure where August went.  We have about 48 days (give or take) until we meet our little girl and I couldn't be happier!! 

Size of Baby: Depending which source you look at, baby girl is the size of a pineapple or a honeydew melon- wow. She weighs a little over 4 pounds and has passed the 17-inch mark.

Sleep: Sleep is the same, some nights are better than others.  I usually only have to get up once during the night for the bathroom, but the rest of the night is spent trying to get comfortable.  I'm sure Steve and Sadie are ready to throw my body pillow out and take back their portion of the bed!


Movement: Still a lot of movement!  She is most active on my left side and up by my ribs.  I love trying to figure out what body parts are poking out- was that a foot, hand, elbow....? 

Symptoms: Nothing new in this department heart burn and swelling are the only symptoms I really have right now and they aren't that bad.  I've also had a couple of hot flashes lately.

Best moment of the week: Getting her room organized and working on our birth plan.

What I am looking forward to: Maternity pictures, finishing up child birth class, starting breast feeding class and of course meeting this little girl!

Weekly wisdom:  Our childbirth teacher told us one of the hardest things about pregnancy and birth is that no one can tell you how long you'll be pregnant or how long your labor will be....I think this is so true- especially for a type A planner like me!