No news... :-(

We had a very disappointing Friday.  After months of the unknown - C-section vs natural, 3-4 weeks early versus whenever baby B makes his/her arrival, and being told that our next appointment would be the deciding factor - the appointment didn't happen.

First we had our ultrasound that morning.  Baby is adorable!  Has big full lips still, and definitely is filling out and looking less alien-like and more baby-like!  Although I think we had the worst tech we've had yet (and we've had 7 ultrasounds!).  She didn't say anything, and the 40 minutes of near silence with small "Measuring the kidneys" or "Here's the profile" left me worried that something was wrong.  In the past the techs would tell me what they were measuring and say something positive about how everything looked good.  No feedback or conversation with this lady. 

After the ultrasound the Dr. on staff (not our regular one) came in to tell us the placenta hadn't moved, but she wasn't convinced it wouldn't yet.  She wanted to schedule ANOTHER ultrasound and continue to monitor it. While it's good news, it's annoying because I just want an answer.  If they've been watching it this long, and it still hasn't moved enough, I'm ready to just make the decision that it won't.  And what if it does move, but ends up not moving enough and is a risk/issue at birth?!  I know a c-section isn't most people's first choice, but now I'm worried to not have one and hurt the baby or myself in the process of going through labor.  Leaving the ultrasound, I was anxious to get our Doctor's opinion, not someones that has only viewed our chart that one time.

(Can you tell I'm still frazzled?)

So we waited the rest of the day to go to my 32 week appt with our Doctor.  Late afternoon, we check in, swing through the lab and get comfortable in the waiting room.  After a few minutes, our nurse comes out and apologizes that our Dr. had to run to the hospital for an emergency delivery, and we need to reschedule.  I was bummed, but obviously the other situation was much more important.  I was just disappointed we wouldn't get her opinion that day.  So now I wait, again. I'm going to see her tomorrow, but she's now double-booked for part of her day.  I hope she won't be too rushed to have this conversation with me.

The waiting continues....

How are we at 32 weeks already?!

How far along? 32 weeks.  

• Total weight gain: +10.5 lbs.

• Maternity clothes? This shouldn’t even be a question at this point.

• Stretch marks? Still just the teeny tiny one on the pierced belly button skin.  

• Sleep: I’ve been having the WEIRDEST dreams.  And waking up having to bolt to the bathroom!

• Best moment this week: Getting Friday off of work for our Dr. Appts. J

• Miss Anything?  Not being so large, my balance, easily being able to paint my toenails and the ease of being able to get up from sitting/laying on the couch or floor.

• Movement: ALL THE TIME.  It’s getting awfully uncomfortable at times.  I can literally feel the baby bouncing on my bladder at times, it’s such a weird sensation.   
• Food cravings: I’ve been eyeing up a recipe for homemade cinnamon rolls, just need a weekend day/morning to prepare them.

• Food aversions: Nothing specific

• Gender: Still unknown!

• Labor Signs: Nothing.

• Symptoms: Dizzyness has set in this week, along with being SUPER tired all the time. Other than that, just the typical aches and pains from standing too long.   

• Belly Button in or out? Out. 

• Wedding rings on or off? Still on, and still no signs of swelling.

• Looking forward to: Finding out what the scoop is for the c-section vs natural birth.   But I’m also stoked to get to spend an hour having an ultrasound.  Can’t wait to see our active little peanut!

It has been a rough week.  Some annoying things going on at work that makes me really excited to take a break from all of it in the next month or two.  Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE my job and most of the people I work with.  *Most* being the key term.  Drama in the workplace gets old, like really really old.  I miss the days of working almost entirely with men.  Funny that I leave a female-heavy industry to work in the construction industry, and I have more drama-driven women to work with.

With that off my chest, I’m BEYOND excited and anxious to find out what our ultrasound and appointment with our physican holds.  I’m curious if the placenta has moved, if we’ll have split opinions between Dr.’s (we are seeing two different ones for the two appointments) and what the outcome will be.  After learning a ton in just a few weeks of our birthing classes, I think I can honestly say I’ll be okay with either option.  But I JUST.WANT.TO.KNOW.  I’m totally type A, and this unknown for the last 4 months is driving me crazy.  How do you plan dates for baby showers/maternity leave/finances/wrap up work projects/school stuff/daycare/life in general when you have the strong possibility of having a c-section 3-4 weeks early?!  Eek.  So excited to know – and to spend the weekend with my husband making all these decisions on things that we’ve been having to push off “until we knew” how/when our baby could arrive.

Am I over thinking this?  Or am I just this big of a “planner?”  This is our first, so I’m sure our anxiety over this is normal, right?!

Have a fabulous weekend all!  Update with the status of our babe’s arrival and photos for next week. 

31 weeks and a gigantic belly

How far along? 31 weeks.  

• Total weight gain: +10 lbs.

• Maternity clothes? Where did this belly come from? It’s gigantic!  Pants and mostly shirts need to be maternity.

• Stretch marks? Still just the teeny tiny one on the pierced belly button skin.  

• Sleep: Some nights I’m out for the whole night, but most nights I wake up every hour or two to the peanut moving around.

• Best moment this week: Finding some time to relax and get caught up on things at home. J

• Miss Anything?  Being able to bend over and not have to hang on to something in order to put on pants!  My balance is crappy!

• Movement: ALL THE TIME.  Makes me a little worried for how over-active this kid could be. 
• Food cravings: Nothing too particular

• Food aversions: Nothing specific

• Gender: Still a surprise

• Labor Signs: Nothing.

• Symptoms: Aches and pains.  I can’t stand too much in one day without a backache.  I get totally winded doing a flight of stairs too.  I’m really not feeling too bad, but I’m not used to being so limited.

• Belly Button in or out? Totally and completely out. 

• Wedding rings on or off? On, no swelling yet! Hopefully it stays that way, since we’ve already had a ton of uber hot days too.
• Looking forward to: Seeing our custom ordered nursery chair and getting more stuff decorated/organized in the nursery!

I don’t have a huge update – since I was so late posting my 30 week post.   So just a few new pictures. J

31 weeks - and getting BIG. (Bad lighting - but oh well)

Vada has been found nearly every morning sleeping under the crib.  Tried to capture her picture today as she was creeping back out.  I wonder if she'll continue to sleep in there when baby arrives.

The crib - with the bedding, sheets, crocheted blanket and teddy bear!

75% complete - 30 weeks

How far along? 30 weeks.  
• Total weight gain: +9 lbs.

• Maternity clothes? All pants and most shirts, this belly is getting HUGE.

• Stretch marks? Boo.  This is a yes.  I found a teeny, tiny little one in the most random spot.  The little piece of skin between my old belly button piercing (all of ½ inch) has a small silver-y stretch mark.  I wonder if it’s the scar tissue under the skin?  Either way, I hope I only get that one – it’s so small that only I notice it.

• Sleep: Not great, restless with weird dreams.

• Best moment this week: Spending a few minutes just sitting in the glider in the nursery and looking around.  It’s starting to feel really REAL.J

• Miss Anything?  Having a ton of clothing options, being able to bend over, and a good cold Strongbow (I’m terrible – I know!). 

• Movement: ALL THE TIME.  Makes me a little worried for how over-active this kid could be. 
• Food cravings: Culver’s cheese curds.

• Food aversions: Nothing specific

• Gender: Who knows?

• Labor Signs: Nothing.

• Symptoms: Thankfully the heartburn has subsided.  Other than that, just aches, pains and generally being uncomfortable.

• Belly Button in or out? Totally and completely out. 

• Wedding rings on or off? On, no swelling yet!
• Looking forward to: A weekend at home, and some time spent shopping for decorations for the nursery.

Doctor’s appointment (a week and a half ago – I’m late posting this!) went well.  Heartbeat was good, my weight is still on the light side but baby is still measuring bigger than our due date.  My blood pressure is low.  I was informed that our follow up 32 week ultrasound appointment will be the final deciding factor in whether we’re doing a c-section.  The placenta had moved before, but not enough at that time.  My doctor still seemed pretty concerned about it, so we scheduled my next appointment with her for the day of the ultrasound. (They are done at two different locations).  In just over a week and half, we will know how our baby will be entering this world!  I’m okay with either option, I just really want to know if we have to do the c-section 3-4 weeks earlier than our due date.  Just the planner in me.

Here’s my list from before – with updates on where we are!

1.     Assemble the crib and changing table ~ Check! Looks great too.

2.     Hang the curtains in the nursery and get the closet organizer in – Closet organizer done, looked at curtains, but I have some more work to do on those.

3.     Start decorating the nursery (shelves, bedding, order wall decals) – Started.  Bedding is in the crib and washed – ready to go!

4.     Possibly assemble/take out of the box our car seat, stroller, high chair and bouncy chair – Check on the car seat and stroller.  The other two can wait.

5.     Finish assembling our patio set and finally sell the old one on Craigslist – Yes on the assembling, no on the selling.  Maybe this weekend…

6.     Get Aaron’s financial aid for his last semester taken care of (we’re so behind!) Check. J

7.     Start and finish our registry at Babies R Us – Check. J  And add “order custom nursery glider to that.”

8.     Finally bring all the piles of “stuff” that we’ve accumulated to goodwill – SO glad this is done – and gone!

9.     Start washing and hanging up baby’s clothes and organizing the changing table. – Nope, nothing here yet.  Maybe this weekend.

This weekend will consist of shopping for decorations for the nursery, continuing to assemble it, starting to fill in the baby book we ordered and just got in the mail, and looking for nursing bras (ugh – this last task sounds horrible).  I’m just excited to spend my Saturday shopping for the different items, and spending the rest of our weekend working on miscellaneous littler projects.

Our birthing classes started last week too.  I was REALLY not looking forward to these.  I was scared of learning things that I really didn’t want to know.  For example – what exactly your body actually does/goes through/and seeing examples in a video on labor.  But it actually has been really fun.  The other couples seem easy going and our instructor, Jane is awesome!  We laugh at some parts, but really seem to be learning a lot too.  I actually look forward to our Monday night classes. 

Yesterday we got to do a tour of the birth center at our hospital, and WOW.  What a BEAUTIFUL place.  There were women laboring in the laboring side and patients/newborn babies in the post partum rooms, and it didn’t seem as horrific as I had envisioned it.  (I know I’m dramatic, but I really don’t do well with medical stuff).  And the rooms are huge with state of the art technology for everything!  Makes me feel much better about the short time spent between being a pregnant lady and becoming a mom to a newborn baby!

A few pictures of what we've been up to:

Baby Daddy assembling the crib. 

Vada curled up with my body pillow I threw off the bed.  Couldn't resist getting a couple photos of my un-photogenic 1st baby. :-)

30 Weeks

                                                      30 weeks

I despise this photo - but I want it in here for documentation purposes.  It looks gigantic, but I still think it's smaller than Vanessa's from my prior post.  And she's only two weeks ahead of me for due dates.

IS THIS NORMAL?!

Let me preface this with that I am really happy for Nick Lachey and Vanessa Minnillo, and I think it's fun to stalk watch celebs that are also expecting.

But is it normal that this photo totally FREAKS ME OUT?!

First you have the SHINY skin, and it's HUGE.  This really has me worried.  Maybe I'm naive and think my stomach looks differently, but it's still much smaller.  And I hope my skin never looks like it's covered in plastic.  This seriously has me fretting.... am I the only one that thinks this photo is scary/weird?!

1st Baby Shower

Just a few pictures from the shower last weekend. It was so nice to spend the day with my immediate family, and spoil Baby B rotten!

Baby Cake - how adorable is this?!

My sister, Mom, me, Grandma and Aunt Dawn.

Our Play-Doh babies

Working so intently on the babies.

Gift from my sister - the best Auntie-to-be!

How frick'n cute is this chair?!

29 weeks... really, only 11 to go!?!?!

How far along? 29 weeks.  
• Total weight gain: +9 lbs.

• Maternity clothes? All pants and most shirts, this belly is getting HUGE.

• Stretch marks? Not yet, I pretty much smell like cocoa butter 24/7.
• Sleep: Not great, restless with weird dreams.

• Best moment this week: Having my Mom and Aaron notice my belly moving and grooving on it’s own. J

• Miss Anything?  Having a ton of clothing options, being able to bend over, and a good cold Strongbow. 

• Movement: ALL THE TIME.  Makes me a little worried for how over-active this kid could be. 
• Food cravings: Culver’s cheese curds.

• Food aversions: Nothing specific

• Gender: Who knows?

• Labor Signs: Had another Braxton hicks contraction – but they are extremely infrequent.

• Symptoms: Heartburn has taken control.  But lunch time it’s burning away, and Tums doesn’t help.  My favorite is waking up at night from puking in my mouth because of the heartburn.  Awesome. 

• Belly Button in or out? Totally and completely out. 

• Wedding rings on or off? On, no swelling yet!
• Looking forward to: TONS of progress in the nursery this week.

We have our routine Dr’s appointment tomorrow.  I’ll have to ask about this terrible heartburn. 

We booked our maternity photo session this week and will be taking our pictures at the same park we took our wedding photos at 4 years ago!  They have some cute areas for pictures, and we can do a few more urban looking ones in the historic downtown area too.  We also have a tentative date for our newborn session.  It’s crazy to think that this really is just around the corner.

I’m beyond excited for our weekend.  We have a huge to-do list of things we’ve been meaning to get done.

1.     Assemble the crib and changing table

2.     Hang the curtains in the nursery and get the closet organizer in

3.     Start decorating the nursery (shelves, bedding, order wall decals)

4.     Possibly assemble/take out of the box our car seat, stroller, high chair and bouncy chair

5.     Finish assembling our patio set and finally sell the old one on Craigslist

6.     Get Aaron’s financial aid for his last semester taken care of (we’re so behind!)

7.     Start and finish our registry at Babies R Us

8.     Finally bring all the piles of “stuff” that we’ve accumulated to goodwill

9.     Start washing and hanging up baby’s clothes and organizing the changing table.

And most importantly – find time for a date night!!

Can’t wait to be home this weekend and do everything at our own pace!