30 week update

Moto decided he wanted to be in the 30 week update pic. too!

I’m a couple days late posting my update, but sometimes during the week all I want to do is eat dinner & go to sleep. This has been one of those weeks!

How far along? 30 weeks!
Total weight gain/loss: +/- 0 last week; 26.3 overall
Maternity clothes: Yup
Stretch marks? Not yet…
Sleep: So tired I conk out and sleep most of the night
Best moment this week: Not fully baby related, but progressing on our house – we’re almost there!
Movement: Lots of it! Today she got the hiccups and was jumping for about 10 minutes.
Food cravings: Hmmm…not much, really. My appetite seems to have decreased the last week due to bigger uterus and baby pressing on my stomach.
Gender: It’s a girl!
Labor signs: Nope, just those Braxton Hicks contractions.
Belly button in or out? In.
What I miss: Being able to help Ryan with household tasks and not feeling so sore that I did two triathlons back-to-back. I am taking it easy from this point out – I learned my lesson. Also…sometimes I miss just being able to go out in public without my belly becoming a conversation topic with strangers, but from what I hear, this must be preparation for having a baby.
What I am looking forward to: The house being done; my baby shower.
Weekly Wisdom: Don’t look at your registry; that way you’ll be surprised!
Milestones: I can countdown – 10, 9, 8….weeks to go!

I feel like my belly has gotten ginormous in the last week! I wonder if I will find out from the doctor that we had another little growth spurt when I go in next week. I’m finding I’ve become more interactive with the baby as her movements get stronger & I can see more. I also learned that she can now recognize music, so I’ve started to play some soothing songs in my car on the way home and sing to her. I like Plumb’s album Blink. It’s lullabies, but not the classic ones. She’s got some really cool remakes of hymns and such on there. I can’t believe how quickly time goes. It truly feels like it was just a month or so ago when I took that positive test, and now we are only 10 weeks or so from bringing her home. I pray every day that the Lord will prepare us for this next step in our marital journey, that we’ll be the kind of parents He wants us to be and much more for her life.

Our first childbirth class (1 of 2) is tomorrow. Although I love kids and have wanted my own my whole life, I have still had massive fear of labor & delivery since I was about the age of thirteen. I’m hoping the classes will give me enough information to keep me informed and calm my fears. I’ve heard the nurses don’t really like patients who freak out, so I’m going to do my best to not be one of them. Updates of that to follow… :)

73 days!

73 days may seem like a lot, but when I think of how fast time goes, it's really not. I am getting so excited to meet our baby! I stopped at Babies R Us on Friday after work to pick up a maternity back support thingy, and I decided to just browse the store. I picked up a cute baby book to record memories in for our daughter. It meant a lot to me that my mom did such a good job at this when I was little; I want to be able to share this with my daughter, too. I also made our first clothing purchase for Baby. This is the outfit I'm planning on taking to the hospital to bring her home in:
It says "apple of Daddy's eye." Awww!! So sweet. So impossibly small. Sigh. I just cannot wait!

Paint & Swollen Ankles

Ryan stayed up until after 1:00 putting primer on my living room walls. He also had to work today from at least 9-6, so I'm very appreciative. :) I do believe our nesting instinct is in full swing, don't you? :) My mom came over today to help me paint and also to help my grandma with some things. We started painting at about 10:45 and kept going, with a short break for lunch, until 4:25. Here are the results so far. Other results include sciatic nerve pain, swollen ankles and expectation of a very good night of sleep. The hardwood floor people are coming to finish our floors this week; they should be done by Wednesday or Thursday, and what you will see is a nice oak color, which is a little lighter than the color you see now. Hard work pays off, because I am proud of the results so far.

29 week update

How far along? 29 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: Up 26.3 overall (+.6 last week)
Maternity clothes: Yes, and even my maternity shirts seem to be getting shorter!
Stretch marks? Nope.
Sleep: Pretty good this week. I’m having more and more dreams about the baby – especially of us together in the nursery, like me singing her to sleep.
Best moment this week: Finishing the nursery!
Movement: She makes me laugh sometimes, because she gets so wild in there. Her most active times are right after work, around 6:00, and before bed, around 9:30. She just goes crazy. I even have to wait for her to settle down sometimes to go to sleep. I love it though; it is truly the most amazing thing to see her moving around.
Food cravings: Hot & Spicy Chicken sandwich from McD’s – I had been craving this since Monday, so I got one today (my unhealthy splurge of the week); marshmallows; watermelon
Gender: It’s a girl!
Labor signs: Nope.
Belly button in or out? Still in (Thank you, God!)
What I miss: Nothing really, this week. I’ve just been enamored by the babe so much and am really enjoying being pregnant this week.
What I am looking forward to: My childbirth classes that begin next weekend and my shower.
Weekly Wisdom: I think Baby Wise is just a good book all around – this week I’ve been reading a lot about breastfeeding, and this book has a lot about it. Also, today someone told me they’d highly recommend taking the laptop to the hospital. It was a “lifesaver” for her husband, plus you can send out an e-mail to everyone at once and include a picture.
Milestones: Baby was big enough for the doctor to tell what position she’s in, but we’re told she’s still small enough to flip if she decides to. She’s currently head down, with her back on the right and butt up kind of by my ribs. She’s kind of in a “C” shape and her feet are either up by my ribs or lower, if her knees are curled in.

You'll notice in my picture that our living room looks pretty bare. We ripped up the carpet and are refinishing the original hardwood floors (when I say "we" I mean Ryan & some hired help). :) My very gracious and generous mother has agreed to come help me start painting on Saturday; Ryan & I will finish on Sunday. By next week, our living room will have a new look to it, including some new comfy furniture that will be delivered next weekend. I'm super excited! I know I especially will be spending a lot of time at home in the near future, and I'm so thankful that my sweet grandma has let us do with our living room whatever we desire to make it homey for us. Here are some "before" pictures; I will post some pictures once our project is complete.

Cheers to Jenni!

Driving in to work this morning, I was thinking about how last year at around this time, Jenni & I did the MS150 in Colorado. The MS150 is 150 mile bike ride over two days; the first day I think we did 80 and the second day we did the rest. Jenni & I tend to, to put it mildly, have slight anxiety the night before a race. And the day of a race, too, I might add. Aw heck, it's more than slight anxiety - it's outright hysteria. But after the race, it always makes us laugh. I have so many great memories of our friendship, and I am so thankful she is in my life! Cheers to Jenni and some of the great memories we've made. :)

The Nursery Is Finished!

Well, first of all, Ryan is awesome! He began painting the nursery about two weeks ago. He was in there in the evenings and on his day off, on the weekends, just making sure that the paint job was perfect. I am so pleased with the way it turned out! Then, last Thursday, my sweet husband stayed up until about 11:00 - after cleaning ALL of our carpet and clearing off a bookshelf AND helping me move things from the old-office-now-nursery closet - to set up a bookshelf and move the glider into the nursery. Friday night, after he worked a 10.5 hour day, he came home and assembled the crib. Wait, it gets even better. I went to bed at 11:00 only to wake up the next morning to find he stayed up until 1:30 moving the crib into the nursery, putting the bedding on the crib and setting up the hamper, lamp and diaper hanger. WOW! Am I a lucky lady, or what? :) I appreciate all his hard work so much, and I think our nursery is beautiful! I can't wait to welcome our beautiful little girl into the world and tuck her sweetly into bed.

Psalm 139

13-16 Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother's womb.
I thank you, High God—you're breathtaking!
Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
I worship in adoration—what a creation!
You know me inside and out,
you know every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
The days of my life all prepared
before I'd even lived one day.

Thank you, Lord, for your careful watch over my life, and thank you for the careful watch over our growing baby's life. You amaze me.

...and hello double chin, the thing I have in my pre-pregnancy photos but which pregnancy has accentuated. But I'm so excited about being 28 weeks pregnant and only 12 weeks from my due date that I'm choosing not to care. :) I seriously CANNOT WAIT to meet our baby girl!

28 week update

How far along? 28 weeks T

Total weight gain/loss: +.9 lbs. last week/25.7 lbs. overall

Maternity clothes: Nothin’ but

Stretch marks? Nope

Sleep: Interrupted by frequent bathroom breaks, but pretty good overall. CRAZY dreams! Last night I dreamt that creatures from Lord of the Rings were trying to chase the humans out of their land, and I was trying to rescue my glasses. Weird.

Best moment this week: Finding out I don’t need surgery! I never thought I’d be thanking the Lord that all I have is hemorrhoids (sorry, I know it’s TMI, but this is my “journal” of sorts, too!). Also finding out my glucose levels are normal from the glucose test. YAY! Movement: Like crazy. She likes to lodge herself up against my ribs or stretch out sometimes real hard into me, and I have to coerce her down with a nice, cold can of Ryan’s Pepsi.

Food cravings: Salad & V8…I think this could be related to the fact that my OB called with my lab results and said my iron’s really low. I have to start taking a supplement.

Gender: It’s a girl!

Labor signs: Braxton Hicks contractions.

Belly button in or out? In.

What I miss: Making it through my workday without a heating pad for my back.

What I am looking forward to: My baby shower.

Weekly Wisdom: I started reading “Baby Wise,” and the best advice I’ve read so far is (1) children look at how you and your spouse relate to each other and seeing your love and commitment are one of their deepest emotional needs, so it’s important to continue to make time for one another 1-on-1, be affectionate and have date nights. (2) Child-centered parenting is setting your children up for big disappointment when they learn later in life that (paraphrasing here) the world doesn’t revolve around them – it’s not our job to be our child’s friend but parents. Friendship with our children should be an ultimate goal when they are adults and our job as parents are done.

Blessings

I was hit with a realization of how blessed we are.

To carry one of God's children
To have had health protection throughout my pregnancy
To have health insurance
To live in a nice home in a safe neighborhood
To be surrounded by family
To have a car to drive
To have money to buy food and pay our bills
To have air conditioning (thank God for that!)
To have caring friends
To have been called as God's children

There are many more, but sometimes I just love to reflect on the blessings, big and small, that He gives us. "He is tender and compassionate to those who fear Him, like a Father is to His children."

Another blessing to note this week is that Ryan has a job. Not with TSA (yet), but he will be going to sell cars on Monday and eventually to probably do finance for them. This car dealership has been very busy, and I feel that this job is truly an answer to prayer. The employer was even understandint when Ryan told him about the TSA job he's waiting to hear back from and when he explained that we would have a hard time paying health insurance out of pocket. We continue to pray that God will allow and enable me to stay home once the baby is born if that is His will for me. Right now, we are looking at that as our only option and trusting God to take care of the rest. God is so good to His children, and I am so thankful to be at the hand of His grace.

27 week update

How far along? 27 weeks, 3 days – 88 days to go!
Total weight gain/loss: I don’t want to talk about it…OK I’m up 1.9 since 26 weeks.
Maternity clothes: Yes.
Stretch marks? No.
Sleep: Bizarre dreams and back pain, but still sleeping most of the night.
Best moment this week:
Movement: Tons!
Food cravings: still hot chocolate, V8
Gender: Girl
Labor signs: Braxton Hicks contractions
Belly button in or out? In
What I miss: Sushi!
What I am looking forward to: My shower
Weekly Wisdom: You’ll probably get a lot of stuff (most of what you registered for) at the shower. Shop afterward for things like bigger size clothes and things the baby will need later on.
Milestones: Baby can hear, cry and hiccup. Started on the nursery!

26 week update

How far along? 26 weeks, 3 days
Total weight gain/loss: +1.1 last week; 22.9 overall
Maternity clothes: Yup, I even had to buy some more shirts yesterday – mine are getting too short.
Stretch marks? No.
Sleep: Starting to get a little more uncomfortable at night with back pain and having to get up to pee.
Best moment this week: Seeing a little body part move across my belly.
Movement: A lot! She’s starting to get a little cramped in there, so sometimes the movement actually hurts. I think she’s stretching her limbs out or trying to change positions. I’ve found laying on my side helps; she usually moves. At my 25 week appointment I learned that my uterus is way up by my ribs. I can feel her moving up there now.
Food cravings: Hot chocolate with marshmallows, salad, peaches
Gender: Girl.
Labor signs: None.
Belly button in or out? In.
What I miss: Running and biking.
What I am looking forward to: My shower, bringing her home.
Weekly Wisdom: Apparently they make nursing pads that have Vaseline in them – I was told to get some, and they’ll help a lot.
Milestones: I read that if she was born this week, she’d have 70% chance of survival in today’s hospitals. I think being pregnant, you never really completely stop worrying about viability until you actually get to hold them in your arms. As of Tuesday, I’ll have officially 3 months left until my due date.

So much to do

Pretty sure the ‘ol nesting instinct has kicked in. There is so much – SO MUCH – that needs to be done before the babe comes into the world. And there is not a whole lot time left (96 days to be exact). It seems like even when my ticker said “103 days left” I was ok, but now that it’s under 100, it feels like time is just running out. In two weeks I will be in my third trimester! I look back over my blog, and I truly can’t believe it was 6 months ago when I took that positive test.

I know this weekend is a holiday, but this weekend or next, I think we are going to kick our planning into gear. Ryan rented a storage unit for some of the stuff in our garage, and while I was holding onto some of our stuff (dishes, etc…) out there, I think I’m just going to have a garage sale to get rid of a bunch of stuff we don’t need. Once the garage is cleaned out, we can clean out the nursery the rest of the way, because there’s some stuff that needs to be stored (and a lot that needs to be tossed!). By the end of July, I want to have the nursery cleaned completely, painted and have the furniture set up. In August, we start our classes, so that will take up some of our time. I am also going to cook and freeze meals each weekend in August, and possibly September, too. I want to have enough meals to last us six weeks. I was browsing the internet and actually found some pretty good sounding Weight Watchers recipes that are freezable. (side note: WW and triathlon training is how I’m planning to lose my baby weight – I’m already in the process of picking out a tri with Jenni for next June/July :) ) The other thing I’d really like to try to get done is ripping the carpet up in our living room and hallway and going with the hardwood underneath, like we have in our room. Oh, and of course, disinfecting our whole house before Baby comes home. :) We’ll also need to find a place for the stuff we receive at my shower and wash all her clothes and stuff like that. Here on “paper,” it doesn’t seem like this is a lot to do, but spaced out on my calendar, the whole process will take a good month or two. I want it all done by September, in case she comes early and also to give my (at that point) gigantic pregnant self time to rest.

I’m praying so hard that Ryan will hear back from TSA soon and for God to confirm with great clarity whether or not this is the job for him. I was really stressing out about this yesterday, because he read online that one person had to wait six months to hear back from their background check! No matter what, though, I know God will provide for our family and it will be ok. The verse I got today when I got to work was Romans 12:12 – “Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying.” Yes, Lord, that is what we will continue to do.