40 Weeks

Here I am, 40 weeks pregnant. Ding! My thermometer timer has popped up! Or is that my belly button that's popped out? Yes I know, a due date is nothing more than a guess date and this baby seems pretty content to stay in there through week 41 and 42! But it looks like she won't have the chance as we are scheduled to be induced on Thursday should she not make an appearance before then. That's really not the way I wanted to go but according to my exam this morning, I think that might be so. After putting me on a fetal monitor to confirm baby is moving good and heart rate looks good, then doing another ultrasound to make sure baby's been growing since the last ultrasound 2 weeks ago and finding everything normal, it's just my body that doesn't seem to be moving along with only 2 cm dilated and a stubborn cervix. (Sorry for a bit of TMI).

Looks like our little one is destined to be a Christmas baby! I just wanted to have the exciting story of how I went into labor. Looks like it will be less exciting of a labor story but more exciting of a when she finally came story :)

Well, here's hoping that either way she does come, it goes smoothly without complications. And of course with a very Merry Christmas!

30 Years Old

Well in the last week I've reached one big milestone! I'm now 30 years old! Kinda scary, I don't feel 30 and I don't think I look 30, but that could be me just being in denial :) But today is also my due date! And guess what? No baby yet. She's just chilling in the womb saying "peace mom, like I wanna join the crazy train". Well, I'm hoping she'll come pretty soon as I would like to spend as much time with her as I can before I have to go back to work :P And also, it's not like I'm sleeping good anyway, bring on the sleep deprivation! Just kidding, I know I won't be saying that once she's here! And that's a part I'm not really looking forward too (I mean what parent is?) because as my husband would say, I'm slightly irritable anyway :) But, just like all parents, we will earn to cope with that. I just can't wait until she gets here! I've been walking and walking yet she seems content in her one room suite. Guess I try spicy food next! Hopefully she'll be here before the weekend is out! We shall see!

Maternity Leave

Well, today is my first day of maternity leave! I will actually get to have some time to relax before baby girl gets here. This surprising turn of events occurred due to a round of flu cases going around at my work. The powers that be offered to pay me for five days, that doesn't include the time that I have to use for my actual maternity leave so that I wouldn't get sick! Heck yeah! So here I am. I actually slept in today and have been bumming around the house. I did take the dog for a walk so I haven't been a total lump :) I also have to run to the grocery store and get some things. It's hard to believe baby bun is going to be here so soon. I'm excited and nervous! But I know that we have so much love and support around us. It will be a new adventure in this life. I know it will take some getting used to with the pup. He's used to being the spoiled one around here :)

Oh! On another note, I knit her a hat and a pair of booties! They're adorable! They will make a cute keepsake for her as both homemade and made by mommy!

37 Weeks and Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving has come and gone but I give thanks everyday for the blessings that I have in this life. I have a wonderful family that loves and supports me in anyway that they can and that is the most important part of life.

The Thanksgiving meal was absolutely wonderful with delicious food and great time spent with loved ones. It also marked 37 weeks for me!

37 weeks!

Baby bun is now considered to be ready to greet the world, that is, whenever she decides she wants to make an appearance. I, unfortunately feel that she may be a little late because it seems like she's quite comfortable in there. Hopefully I'm mistaken.

We've accomplished more in the past week. Marc and I bought a light that will go in the area where my glider will sit and the playpen will be for night time feedings. (He still has to put it up though). Mom was here yesterday and helped me get all of the baby's clothes into the dresser and organized the closet space more. Now there are no longer bags of clothes all over her floor. We did get three more bags of clothes from my sister-in-law but mom's going to wash and see what sizes they are.

I think the main things left now are to organize our bedroom/bathroom and finish organizing the extra bedroom upstairs. We'll see if I can get that done today! If so, then we'll be better off than before!

Nesting

So Hubby tells me that I'm nesting. He might be right in that I've been trying to organize everything and last night I spent the evening vacuuming downstairs and upstairs, straightening the workout area, reoganizing the living room and making 3 freezer meals. However, I haven't had the "burst of energy" that the books and websites say is often the impetus for nesting. I wish I did! I do however feel more accomplished after my post last week. Checked off of the list:

Completed: Mom painted the dresser this weekend and looks wonderful! Although I still have to paint the drawer knobs purple and put the baby's clothes in it.

Dresser Before

Dresser After (minus knobs)

Completed: On Sunday I also made three pork chop freezer meals which yielded 2 each so a total of 6 meals! 

Completed: Mom will also be picking up the cushions for the glider/ottoman that she had restuffed to fit the covers that the lady we purchased the glider from had made by a friend. I can't wait to see it!! :)

Completed: A very important completion was we got our hospital bag packed and ready to go!

As of right now, the main things I still have left to do are to finish organizing the extra bedroom and our bedroom and bathroom. Other than that... just enjoy the time I have left with it being just me and Hubby and of course Drake. That and enjoy the Thanksgiving Holiday with the family.

A few words on "Pregnancy Brain"

Whether or not there is such a thing as “Pregnancy Brain” or “Momnesia” is a matter of debate. According to WebMD there are of course several factors that can contribute to memory issues that some say can occur during pregnancy. For one, you’re not getting the best sleep which can always contribute to forgetfulness. Other factors include the additional hormones that can affect brain function in weird ways. Now, I will admit that at times I feel forgetful, but I don’t think it’s anymore noticeable than when I wasn’t carrying this little bundle of hormones. So I have to say, it irritates me when people at work just attribute any mistake to my pregnancy. Now, the main culprit, I had already been aware of his thoughts on pregnant women as when I first started there, one of the clients was pregnant and a mistake had been noted on her file. Well Mr. Perfect said “What do you expect? She’s pregnant”. I was offended back then! Well, he hadn’t said anything like that to me… that is until yesterday. I had mistakenly drafted some documents to the wrong person and when I handed him back the corrected documents I had apologized for the mistake and he said “That’s ok. You’re pregnant” Really!!? I hadn’t noticed! I really wanted to say… “That’s ok. You’re a…. Okay, I won’t finish that sentence because I’m the bigger person, but I’m sure you can use your imagination. Then today, we received some documents that I had inadvertently mailed to the wrong attorney’s office. This was on a file for a female attorney that I don’t mind working for as she is always polite and considerate. I explained that I must have grabbed the wrong envelope when I mailed it. She smiled and said “it must be that pregnancy brain”. Her too!? Ok… everyone makes mistakes but it irritates me when people want to attribute it to my pregnancy! True, there are some preggo’s out there that will use the “Pregnancy Brain” as an excuse, and I guess that’s fine for them, but I don’t think it should be an assumption from others. Okay, maybe I’m overreacting a little… but only a little! And I won’t attribute that to pregnancy either! :) That I do anyway, without the help of hormonal interference.

So much to do!

Time is going by so quickly and there is still so much to do! My mission this week is to get on top of the freezer meals and start making them to pack away for baby's arrival. I have printed several recipes out from the very informative and helpful blog Once A Month Mom. If you are thinking about starting to do freezer meals, this is a great resource as it has tips for the beginner and helpful hints from other readers. Plus a boatload of recipes each month! The best part is, it's free! I don't think I'll have one big day of cooking for my first attempts. I think this week I'm going to make a few of the meals for our dinner during the week and just make double so I can freeze the other half. That will at least get me started.

We still have to finish organizing the second bedroom where we have just thrown stuff in there since finishing the baby's room. I know if it doesn't get done before baby, it will probably remain a mess for the foreseeable future, that is until we have gotten into a routine with the baby. We still have to organize our bedroom and put the bassinet down there so the baby has a place to sleep! And I have to get filling for the seat and foot rest on my glider so that I have a place to nurse in the middle of the night! And lastly, we have to sand and paint the dresser so that it matches the crib and so that I can finally have a place to put all of the baby clothes!

That doesn't sound like too much in 5 weeks does it!? Sigh... I thought I was doing so well! :)


On a side note, I can't believe it's the holiday season already! Thanksgiving is just over a week away! Eeek! I haven't done any Christmas shopping which I probably should do because I doubt I'll have the time or the energy/will to go with a newborn!


My other mission this week is to make sure we have our hospital bag packed. Really, anything can happen from this point on so want to not wait until the last minute for that!

Assembly Required

I know, I've been a delinquent blogger again. For those of you keeping track, this is my first post of November and we're already 8 days into it! Well the big news thus far is that the crib is in place! First of all, we had put the crib in "layaway" at Babies R Us. It's sort of layaway because they don't really have the item in the store but once you pay it off they will order it from where ever it was being held captive and call you for pick up "within 7-14 days". They should tell you more likely between 13 and 14 days. Seven days had passed and I was thinking, it should be any day now. Then it just so happened I was checking Babies R Us online for the color of our crib because we were still searching for a dresser to go with the crib and it turned out the crib was $100 cheaper! So I went in to the physical store to ask them if we'll be able to get that sale price. They told me I would be able to once the merchandise was in the store and we were picking it up. This was a big fiasco because nobody, not even the online customer service representative on their 800 number, could tell me when this sale might end. So that whole week I kept checking to make sure the crib was still on sale online. As the end of the week approached and day 14 loomed on the horizon I got a call on day 13 that the crib was in! We headed over that night to pick it up. The funny thing was that we took the old Subaru because I thought it would fit fine in the back. Well, the box was like twice the size of the crib inside. Our solution was for Marc to go next door to Pep Boys to get some straps so we could strap it to the hood of the car. Luckily, an employee suggested... why not just take it out of the box? GENIUS! So that's what we did, got all the pieces home safely and this weekend mom and sister helped me put it together (with Marc's blessing of course, as he was off hunting).

Of course, I have had prior experience helping assemble the crib mom purchased for brother which we twice assembled. (Once at his apartment and once at mom's house.) Both times the instructions were ridiculous to follow. Seriously! Whoever writes instructions for assembly must speak a different language called Confus-ish. It's like trying to follow a joke told by someone who doesn't remember how to get to the punch line. Then there are the pictures you're supposed to follow. In big letters on each page it says "Models may vary". What the heck is the point of looking at the picture if it's of a different model?! The finally frustration comes with the use of the allen wrench. I know it's supposed to be a simple tool that anyone can use and they even include it in the hardware, it's just a pain in the butt! Anyway... we really only made one boo boo that we had to disassemble and reassemble when we had the mattress frame on upside down. Luckily that was noticed right away so we weren't too far into that step. But we assembled the crib and it looks lovely in the room.

Sara and mom using the allen wrench.

 

Mom working, Sara posing.

Completed Crib!

I may be posting more pictures but these were the only ones on my phone. Sara took others with her phone and I took an especially cute one of her butt as she fit between the bottom crib rail and the mattress frame to finish screwing in the final screws on the bottom that I'd like to add. We'll see if she deleted that one!

Our next project will be to sand and stain the dresser we found on craigslist this past weekend! Also coming up this weekend, a tour of the maternity/delivery unit at Swedish. It's getting closer!

32 1/2 Weeks

It just keeps getting closer!! Here I am at 32 1/2 weeks.

32 1/2 weeks

 This picture was taken yesterday. The only full length mirror I really have access to is the one in the bathroom at work so please forgive the ugly tile that lines the floor, it is obviously, not my choice :) So yesterday I had my check up and my poor midwife Jayne had come down with pneumonia on Friday and was hospitalized over the weekend! So I ended up seeing the NP Tammy. I really like Tammy and very much wish she was a CNM. But alas, it is not so. But she says baby is in good position with her little bum/back on my left side, she's head down and I'm measuring on schedule. Well, Tammy says I'm measuring "small" at 32.5 weeks, which is the calculation I have but their computers were down yesterday and they calculated me at 33.5 weeks with a due date of December 15 so I don't know how they do they're math. It's kinda funny how things go wonky if they don't have access to their computer files! It's really a good thing my pregnancy has been uneventful and normal as she didn't have any of my information to go by. Which makes me wonder... where's the paper chart Jayne has with her every time I'm in? They right down my weight, blood pressure and measurements... it's in a chart-like folder... is it only a figment of my imagination? Also, I can see their file room when I check in. Are those files merely for looks?! Well anyway, she said baby sounds good and healthy. I even told her she has the hiccups a lot and she said that's a sign of a healthy baby! :) Good to know because me, being my paranoid self, was kind of worried about how often a baby should have hiccups in utero!

In other news, I decided to purchase the hypnobabies home study course. It was half the cost of the hypnobirthing classes so I figured I would try it out. I probably should have bought it a little bit earlier so I would have more time to practice but here I am. So we started it on Saturday night. Our assignment this week is to listen to the two tracks on Disc 1 and alternate the two each night for the week. I have found that my mind has yet to learn how to cooperate on being aware of everything around me and not letting it distract me! Let's hope I can learn to be less mentally nosey. :)

That's it for today! We're supposed to get a big snow storm tonight/tomorrow so batten down the hatches!! We'll see if it actually accumulates to anything.

Certificate of Completion!

So our last childbirth preparation class was this past Tuesday. We watched two videos, one on the procedures that will be done on the newborn just after birth, e.g. weight, measure, first bath,Vitamin K shot, goo in the eyes (goo = antibiotic ointment), and more tests to ensure baby's health. This video was kind of funny to me because it discusses what the baby might look like for those with romanticized visions of the baby coming out all cute and cuddly... the truth is, newborns can look pretty weird! In a good way though, but the video warns the unsuspecting soul of what you might encounter. For example, baby may have a cone shaped head from it's tight squeeze through the birth canal leaving it looking more like an alien baby than you would have imagined. Also, the baby will be covered in something called lanugo and vernix... i.e. the soft hair and goo that protected baby from pruning up in the amniotic fluid while in the womb for 40 weeks. These, along with various other characteristics that might make those already less inclined to have children make a clear check mark in the "No" category.

The second video was on the postpartum period and what to expect. You know... emotional changes, lifestyle changes, sleep loss, basically a bye bye to your previous life but a hello to a new, yet sleepless life with a beautiful baby. One very serious topic this video covered was postpartum depression. When going over the symptoms of postpartum depression including: excessive worrying and anxiety, irritability to name a couple, Marc looked at me with a smirk and said, "I think you already have it" Har har... very funny. I think excessive worry and anxiety and irritability can be expected from almost every pregnant woman... smart aleck!

The end of the class came and our instructor shared the very first word a baby says in baby language as taught in the Dunstan Baby Language which was "neh" meaning "I'm hungry". She said this "baby language" is used in baby's first 3 months of life. It seemed interesting and I may check it out. 

Upon completion of our classes we got this nice little certificate

Our certificate of Completion of Childbirth Preparation Class

 Basically this means... we showed up! The jury will be out on whether or not what we learned will take! Hopefully Marc learned a thing or two! I asked him if he learned anything and he said "Hold your breath, count to ten, and it will all be over soon" My husband the comedian. He added, "these classes can scare the... poop out of you at times and other times leave you laughing". (Poop obviously was not Marc's choice of wording but I edited it for family friendly content.) Well, we'll see what the future shall bring when D-Day comes!

Drake's 3rd Birthday

 It was my puppers 3rd Birthday yesterday!! Yes, I know in dog years he's something like drinking age, but he's still my little pup!! Because he's our first (furry) child we have to make it a special day! It actually started on Wednesday.  Last year I made him a pupcake but this year I didn't have time to make one. So we went to Wag N Wash to get a bath, some new toys and a birthday treat. The pupcakes they had were miniscule and the larger birthday cake was $18 and totally not worth that price! So we got him a beef loaf and they piped "Happy Birthday" for us on it.

Birthday Beef Loaf

So last night we got home and sang him happy birthday. I even put a little paper birthday hat on him that Marc kept on his head while we sang. Then as soon as Marc let it go, batted it off of his head and tried to chew it... classic Drake.

Birthday pup!

So he got a bit of his birthday beef loaf in his dinner and he also got to play with one of his new toys, a super tough stuffed saber tooth tiger. He loved it!

Drake at 8 weeks old.

Drake at 3 years old!

They grow up so fast!! Happy Birthday Drake! To many more!!