Monday, July 30, 2007

Updating the To-Do List (Yep! We're crossing things off!)

Updating the To-Do list... BOLD is done!

Clean out the rest of the nursery.

Rip down the shelving units.

Buy and stain and hang new moulding and doors (both bedroom and closet doors). <---we have all the moulding/trim/chair rail and bedroom door bought and stained. Still needs a couple coats of poly. Still have to buy the mirrored bifold door for the closet.

Paint the room. <---it's getting there! The ceiling is done - white with glitter :) ...the rest of the walls all have one coat of paint... still need a second coat on the colors, then we'll paint the stripes on the bottom half! It's going to be so cute in there! I can't wait to see it done :)

Buy material for my mom to make crib skirt, window valence, and teething rail.

Have mom make said things :)

Register. <---done at Target... still have to find a day to go to Baby Depot...

Also need to find a glider/rocker.

Buy NB cloth dipes. <---started this, but need more!

Wash clothes we already have.

Make meals for the freezer. <---Have 6 desserts in there already. That's a good start, right? :)
This weekend I made up 4 batches of sloppy joe for the freezer. Still would like to make: Tex Mex Potato Boats, meatballs, stuffed peppers, hamburg/barley soup, meat loaf, pie crusts, chicken/broccoli casserole and a lasagna... of course, I won't make 4 of all of these, but if I can get even a few of them done we'll have some easy prep meals done :)

Deep clean the house so it's at least at a good starting point when we get home. <---main bathroom is done, master bedroom is close enough to be called done (still should wash the window though!), master bath is 99% done

Sign up for and take birthing class.

Find daycare.

Meet with the daycare lady and discuss details. (and hope we like her as much in person as she sounds on the phone!) Otherwise, back to the drawing board! <---YAY! We liked her! We met with Lynne tonight and she's a perfect fit :)

Meet with HR rep to discuss maternity leave/disability/FMLA.

Preregister at the hospital.

Pack bags.

Make a "who needs to be called" list.

Kissaluvs

Got some more fluff mail today...
2 super small kissaluvs fitted diapers. These are different than the other ones I've posted before (those were all pockets). These fitteds, you just snap onto the baby and put a separate cover over them.
I got a pink one and a purple one...

Ack...it won't let me post a picture... here's the link though!
http://www.kissaluvs.com/fitted-diapers.html

30 week appointment

Went to my 30 week appointment today. I saw Graham again.

Current weight = 163! ... up another 6 pounds. Total weight gain = 31#

BP 140/80 when I first got there... then Graham rechecked it in the room later and it had gone down to 110/58. Of course, seeing the 6 pounds in (less than) 3 weeks, she was wondering if some of it was "water weight"... yep... she was able to squish her finger into my leg just like I can! I told her last night when I went to bed it was all the way up to my knees. I was expecting her to say that I should "relax, put my feet up, drink water"... but she didn't mention ~any~ of that. Instead, she told me to soak in a cool pool! ... hmm...doctor's orders to go swimming??? :) She also said if I can find a pool with a deep end, to do "bobs" so that the pressure down lower will help squeeze the fluid back up my legs. I'm going to call the TC3 pool and see what their hours are...
She also checked my leg reflexes to make sure they're still working (with the edema). Good news though, no headaches or vision disturbances (yet!)...

We talked a little about labor - what I want/don't want. I told her I'm not picky, but that I'm pretty wimpy when it comes to pain so I'll definitely want those options open. I did tell her I'd prefer the intrathecal vs. the epidural. I don't want to be confined to bed if I don't have to be!

Need to figure out which pediatrician we'll be using... I'll have to ask some of the mama's I know around her what their experiences have been.

Baby girl is still head down. YAY! Graham thought she'd probably stay that way now since it's getting cramped in there, but no promises.

Heart rate was 135...slowest it's been so far...but still strong and healthy :)

My belly is measuring 31 weeks...right on target!

Next appointment is on August 14th with Marie.

Saturday, July 28, 2007

The cankles are coming!

... yep, I've got that wonderful pregnancy condition known as "water retention".

My hands feel puffy about 75% of the time...even in the mornings when I wake up.

My feet and ankles though actually have that yucky pitting edema (Pitting Edema = swelling that doesn't pop back to normal shape when you push on it...it just stays sunken in and just looks yucky!) I know people say it helps to put your feet up, but I don't get why sleeping all night in bed doesn't help it even a tiny bit. I'm as puffy in the morning as I am in the evening... Today I even have it about 8 inches up my legs...
At least Megan told me today that I can wear my croc flip flops for her wedding! :)

So, for those of you who don't know what cankles are...

Cankles: Calves that become feet without taking an ankle break.
(Definition taken from http://www.urbandictionary.com/)

Monday, July 23, 2007

29 weeks!


Icky! Terrible picture... too many shadows and too much bright sun. Oh well!
Anyways - this was yesterday. 29 weeks. 11 weeks to go...hopefully. Everyone keeps telling me that I'll probably end up going early since that seems to be the trend.
Rachel had Logan 3 (or was it 4?) weeks early.
Katie had Owen 3 weeks early.
Christy had the twins a few weeks early.
Amy had Mason 5 1/2 weeks early.
The only one who has had theirs on time (ok, really she was 3 days over!) was my neighbor Melissa...but she cooked all of hers longer than needed.

So... 29 weeks. What's going on now? The web says that baby girl weighs 3 pounds and is close to 15 inches long!
I LOVE feeling her move now. It's not just subtle pokes anymore...now it feels like she's stretching and if I feel a foot on one side I feel an elbow or a hand on the opposite side. No more of this one sided movement. Richie was able to feel her a few nights ago again - he pushed (gently) on her, and she pushed right back! He enjoyed that :)

Getting more and more done around the house. I admit it...I'm already "nesting". I cleaned our whole bedroom (including doing 4 loads of laundry, sorting through a bunch of clothes, finding a box of stuff for salvation army, vacuuming, moving furniture...) and then this weekend I also cleaned out the fridge...threw out old stuff and cloroxed all the shelves and the inside.
We went to Lowe's yesterday and almost all of the stuff we'll need to finish off the nursery.
Door - check!
Baseboard - check!
Casing - check!
Chair rail - check!
And, I went to sherwin williams on Saturday and picked up the paint... JonQuil (yellow) and Great Green.

Slowly but surely we'll get it all done!

Whale Watching


Whale Watching... JUST KIDDING! But man, some days I feel huge! <---looking back just 2 weeks though, I look smaller there. This getting bigger by the day thing is just... strange! This was my 27 week picture.
(yeah, missed 25 and 26 weeks...oops!)

Picture Catch Up

Whoops! Never got around to posting these pictures... This one is from 6 weeks ago! Look how little I was...

This one is from 5 weeks ago (when I was 24 weeks along). Do you see the family resemblence with the bellies? ha ha ha!

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Registry

I went to Target today after work and started our registry. We'll also be registering at Baby Depot (inside Burlington Coat Factory)...but who knows when I'll get a chance to go there! I also started an amazon.com registry a couple months ago (to get a coupon!) but I've put some things on there that I haven't been able to find in stores... so I think I'm going to keep that one going too.

www.target.com
www.amazon.com

Monday, July 16, 2007

Happy Heiny


Oh yeah! I got fluff mail today! Added a "happy heiny" to the stash... it's SO small and cute :)

I got this one in a periwinkle color.

Cross one more thing off the list!

We took down the HUGE built in shelves from the nursery. The room looks SO much bigger now! I said "we" because I actually ~did~ help! I helped hold the thing up so it wouldn't come crashing down when the last screw came out... Then Richie spackled all the places that needed it... and now I'll get some paint (maybe tomorrow?) and then we just need to find time to paint the room.

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Updating the To-Do List

Updating the To-Do list... BOLD is done!

Clean out the rest of the nursery.

Rip down the shelving units.

Buy and stain and hang new moulding and doors (both bedroom and closet doors). Paint the room.

Buy material for my mom to make crib skirt, window valence, and teething rail.

Have mom make said things :)

Register. Of course, to be able to do this I need to research all the things that I want... haven't a clue yet on the breast pump. <---Bought a breast pump on Friday, bought a highchair this weekend at a garage sale.

Also need to find a glider/rocker... can't decide if I want a lazyboy chair though. Bought a glider/rocker and ottoman this weekend!

Buy NB cloth dipes. <---started this, but need more!

Wash clothes we already have.

Make meals for the freezer. <---Have 6 desserts in there already. That's a good start, right? :)

Deep clean the house so it's at least at a good starting point when we get home. <---main bathroom is done

Sign up for and take birthing class.

Find daycare

Meet with the daycare lady and discuss details. (and hope we like her as much in person as she sounds on the phone!) Otherwise, back to the drawing board!

Meet with HR rep to discuss maternity leave/disability/FMLA.

Preregister at the hospital.

Pack bags.

Make a "who needs to be called" list.

Friday, July 13, 2007

One more BIG thing off the list!

Just yesterday I had talked with my friend Nicole at work (used to be a nurse on maternity and has 2 kids of her own)... I was saying how I was going to register for the $300 medela pump in style and she told me not to. She said it ~could~ be a waste of money as she heard MANY moms were just as pleased with the hand pumps and could never get good suction with the expensive motorized pumps.

So, I came home last night and told Richie I would wait until after the baby is born and then see how the hand pump works (I guess they give those out at the hospital for free?) Anyways... so last night I was all set to NOT get a motorized pump.

Then, today at 3:30 Nicole comes into work and tells me there is a lawn sale 1 mile from my house that had a Medela PIS for $50 this morning! I booked it out of there (figuring most lawn sales end at 4) and just as I drove by the ladies house she was putting the garage door down. I went and knocked on the door to see if she still had it and she did!

The thing is brand new! Never used! The lady has a 2 year old and she got the pump thinking she was going to go back to work, but never did... So I got a brand new Medela PIS Traveler for $50! SCORE! It's from 2004 and it's now been discontinued, but the reviews on Amazon and everywhere else are great! It's just that they've added a few new features and discontinued the older model...That's A-OK with me!!! :)

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Feeling... Fat.

Had my 28 week appointment yesterday...

Passed the glucose test with 120! (anything under 140 is passing!)

Got the Rhogam in my right butt cheek - it was nowhere near as bad as people have told me it was!

BP good (130's/58)

No glucose or protein in my pee (Yipee!)

I'm not anemic - which is good since I've been forgetting my prenatal vitamins most days...so it's good to know my diet is sufficient!

Weight... 157#... that's another 10# gain this past 4 weeks...that puts me at a total of 25# already!!! ACK!!! They didn't say anything about it though.

Baby is head down already, but that doesn't mean she'll stay there...she's still small enough she can move around a lot!

I'm measuring 28 weeks. I'll be 28 weeks Sunday, so that's right on target!

Next appointment is in 2.5 weeks (they couldn't get me in in 2 weeks).


So yeah, I mentioned the weight gain... everyone is telling me it's all belly. I'm here to assure you, it's NOT all belly... it's arms, back, butt... And I said "everyone"...but really that's a lie. One lady at work told me on Saturday that my face is getting fat (what!?!) and yesterday another lady grabbed my upper arm and was like "whoa!"... EXCUSE ME! Why do people think they can be rude just because someone is pregnant?!?!

My back has been really sore today - so I'm going to crash on the couch soon. Haven't been sleeping the greatest because my back is sore. I'm doing the pillow-between-the-legs trick and it helps, but not enough.

I can cross one more thing off the long to-do list! We're registered to take our labor/birthing class on September 1st. :)

I do have belly pictures from 23, 24, and 27 weeks - just have to get them downloaded and posted. I didn't get pictures for weeks 25 and 26 though. :(

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Heatwave

Wow. I hope this heatwave breaks soon. Work isn't too bad since we have AC, but I've been home this evening for a couple hours already and it's really bad. I have the fans on and am drinking water, but I still have a headache from the heat... haven't had an increase in braxton hicks contractions though, so I guess that's good.

I haven't had trouble sleeping because of the heat ... yet... we'll see how tonight goes though. Hopefully once the sun goes down it'll cool off a little and we can open the windows and maybe there'll be a breeze? My car thermometer today said it was 97 degrees...that was at about 3pm.

Had my glucose tolerance tests yesterday. Drank the lemon/lime sugary drink at 7:20 then off to the office an hour later for the blood draw. Tomorrow I'll get the results of that when I go for my midwife appointment. I'm seeing Graham again. I'm a little nervous about the weigh in. I don't want to see another 8 pound jump! ... but, I'm guessing that's close to what it'll be. Everyone tells me "it's all baby" and it's all weight gain in my belly... but I'm here to tell you that it's not just my belly... I can see it on my back, and all the way around my middle...

Sunday, July 8, 2007

More Nursery Decor

I'm also going to make some of these wooden letters to hang on the wall. I'll spell out her name and hang them each with a ribbon. I'll probably go to ACMoore/Michael's and get pink patterned papers to make these with... Oooh...and I could pick up a few extra little butterflies to tack onto a couple of them! ---mom--- save the fabric scraps as you go since I don't know what else I'll want to do with it :)

Saturday, July 7, 2007

Nursery Decor

Mom and I went shopping! We had a great time and we had success at Joann Fabrics finding material that is just perfect for the nursery. The crib skirt, padded teething rail for the crib, and a window valence will be made with the green pond theme fabric...


The pink will be used as a backing to the valence. And we found 5 of the little nylon/metal butterflies to be used at the top where the bows are in the picture.



And I was thinking we could get a few of these butterflies and dragonflies to hang from the ceiling. The walls in the room will be a green color from the fabric.

I tried to copy/paste the actual picture in here, but the site doesn't allow that... bummer.

http://www.butterflycraze.com/Products/RoomDecor.html I do not so much like the BRIGHT colored ones, but I'm thinking the painted blue/yellow butterfly and some of the more toned down colors of the sequined butterflies are cool (yellow, light pink).

Sunday, July 1, 2007

1 more week...

One more week until I'm officially in my THIRD trimester! Where is the time going? I made a list of the things I have left to do... although, I'm sure there's stuff I've forgotten about...

Clean out the rest of the nursery (there is stuff on all the built in shelving units).

Rip down the shelving units.

Buy and stain and hang new moulding and doors (both bedroom and closet doors).

Paint the room.

Buy material for crib skirt, window valence, and teething rail.

Have mom make said things. (Thanks mom!) :)

Register.

Of course, to be able to do this I need to research all the baby gear that's out there... haven't a clue yet on the breast pump.

Also need to find a glider/rocker... can't decide if I want a lazyboy chair though.

Buy newborn cloth dipes. <---started this, but need more!

Wash clothes we already have.

Make meals for the freezer.

Deep clean the house so it's at least at a good starting point when we get home.

Sign up for and take birthing class.

Find daycare <---have a few leads...waiting on some phone calls.

Meet with HR rep to discuss maternity leave/disability/FMLA.

Preregister at the hospital.

Pack bags.

Make a "who needs to be called" list.

Today's web update for 26 weeks...
Your baby's skin is very wrinkled from floating in water. This will stay this way until a few weeks after birth as your newborn fills out into a baby. Although take heart in the fact that your baby's looks are assuming the looks that they will have at birth! Baby has also hit the 2 pound mark.

This past week I had my first braxton hicks contractions. Had one on Thursday and one of Friday. Didn't hurt, but made my belly all hard! Just getting ready for the real contractions in another 3 months I guess. I also have been plagued with frequent heartburn. Will this baby girl have lots of hair? We'll have to wait and see! I went strawberry picking on Thursday, but only got 1.5 pounds before I had to call it quits. Bending over in the rows just wasn't agreeing with my belly! I ate some of the strawberries fresh, and the rest got packaged up with some rhubarb for some mid-winter strawberry rhubarb crisp :) I guess you can say that's the first thing in the freezer for post baby.