39w0d - Still Cookin'

What can I say? Baby girl just isn't ready to make her debut yet.

At my appointment last week I had made some more progress from 2 weeks before. Yesterday, we didn't even look. I know my cervix is thinning to about 80% effaced, but dilation is slow coming. I was only up to about 1.5-2cm so that barely even changed.

We actually talked more about what happens if she doesn't come by her due date, and just how long will they let me go over. My OB has said all along that they'll let me go to 42wks, but now that doesn't necessarily seem to be the case. Granted, if I get to 40w1d, they aren't going to rush me in, but at least I know that I'm not looking at June 25th as an end date either.

As the days go by, I'm getting more and more pressure, and feeling it lower and lower but not enough to trigger things. For the most part, I'm still fairly comfortable despite being 39wks pregnant and having a baby butt smashed up against my belly for the majority of the day!

Anyone want to start a baby pool and put your guess out there as to when YOU think baby will come? Official due date is June 11th.

38w0d - No baby yet

It's a good thing I did some research and found that just because you lose your mucus plug doesn't mean that labor is imminent. It'll be 3 weeks tomorrow since that happened. From what I read, it could happen almost immediately, or be 6 weeks for labor to start. Well, at least we're half way there. I think I'd be pretty disappointed by now if I didn't know in the back of my head that it did say it could be 6 weeks.

Oh well - each day that baby stays inside is another day to work on her furniture and get the room organized. As of last night, both dressers are done and in the room! Now for the book case. Here are some pictures, before and after alongside the crib. The finish on the dressers isn't as solid as the crib, but the colors are a great match. How could you cover up that awesome Maple detail? We still need to pick up the changing pad for the top of the shorter dresser which will become our changing station. The top drawer on the shorter dresser is a little bit lighter because of the wood grain, but due to the morning sun coming into the room, these pictures make it look a little more extreme than it really is. The top of the tower looks really light too, and that really isn't the case at all.






Tomorrow I have another OB appointment. I just hope she has some good news for me as far as progress goes. We didn't check last week, so we're looking at 2 weeks worth of time to do something. Fingers crossed that I leave with at least a little bit of news. Something. Anything? We're only a few days away from June. Maybe baby girl is waiting to get out of May so she doesn't have an Emerald birthstone. Hmmmm? Maybe.

37w0d - Full Term!

Wow! What a milestone. Definitely something HUGE that calls for a trip to our favorite Mexican restaurant tonight. The last big thing that we "celebrated" was finding out the gender. Of course we've been there since January, but today definitely needs to be called out in a special way.

Yesterday I was back to the OB, but it was just another really quick appointment. No internal exam this time, so we have no idea if there has been any additional progress made since last week. Baby girl was wide awake and making her presence known at 4:30am. (She definitely gets that from daddy's side, not me.) Finally, some really strong constant movements to report after talking about monitoring kick counts just the week before. Heck, I don't think she took a nap all day. Well, at least not a very long one. I was feeling her all throughout the day. This is quite unusual. But I love it! Hard to believe, that feeling will be gone very soon. I'm really getting anxious as I see some of the girls from the Nest who are due after me going into labor and having their babies. I know it can happen anytime now, but might not happen for five more weeks. I hope I'm not one of those girls that goes two weeks over. That would be torture!

It's a long weekend for Memorial Day. Wonder if this will be our last weekend just the two of us. I think about how far we've come in the last year. Just about this time last year was when IVF #1 was cancelled because I wasn't suppressed enough and ovulated through the pill. We had been scheduled in the days right around Memorial Day for egg retrieval and transfer. We are in a much happier place this year, that's for sure!

I just posted a new picture two weeks ago, but as the end comes closer, I want to share another one. What do you think? Does baby looks a lot lower this week? I've had this sweater on for a lot of my pictures and it's fun to see how the belly has changed over the weeks. Looking back, it would have been fun to see the changes wearing the same shirt every week. Look at that belly!


Last official update. What's happening with baby: Weeks 37-Delivery (Month 9): Watermelon 18.9-20.9in, 6.2-9.2lbs

At week 37, your pregnancy is considered full term, meaning baby is likely to thrive after birth. Baby spends these last weeks in preparation for the outside world… meaning careful refinement of the blink, suck, inhale and exhale. Meconium, which you’ll probably find in the first diaper, is accumulating in the intestines. If (okay, as) you worry about giving birth, consider what it’s like for the little one. During the journey out of your womb, baby will produce more stress hormones than any other time in life.

36w0d - 4 weeks to go!

Baby steps. That's what we're taking. Baby steps in getting the room ready, working on the furniture, running baby clothes through the laundry and making progress as far as my body getting ready for baby to arrive.

As of last weekend, we're both driving around with car seat bases installed in our cars. One more thing to check off the list! Daddy needed something to do while I was getting tags cut off of things that were going into the laundry and organizing items by sizes.

I've been trying to do a little in the room every few days. Going through stuff, putting some of it into the closet, figuring out what we'll need right away, etc. So far I've done 2 loads of baby laundry. Most of the NB to 3-6 months clothes are washed and either hung or folded and waiting for a drawer to be placed in. Today I worked on some of the blankets, boppy covers, burp cloths, pack-n-play sheet and that sort of odd stuff. These tiny little things make for a big load pretty quickly. I'm thinking it might be time to put together the baby swing and the bouncer and make a list of all the batteries that are going to be needed for these items.

The furniture is coming along nicely. It's a slow process, but through baby steps, it's getting done. Just about every night it comes along a little further. Oh well, it's a labor of love from daddy to his little girl.

Another week down, and another OB appointment. Things continue to go well. I actually managed to lose a pound this week. I think that's because I've been a lot better about making sure I get my feet up for at least a couple of hours in the evening. Last week I know I was still bloated from the day before. (Oh yeah, that's not the only thing I lost. Last Friday I lost my mucus plug. See, things are progressing!)

Since I didn't have my own doctor last week, I had another internal check today. Not much change as far as that goes. The internal exam wasn't nearly as painful as last time. Can't imagine how that's possible. Maybe it was just that I was prepared for it, and there wasn't the shock factor like last time! We talked about waiting for the 38th week to do one again. Fine by me!

I asked the doctor if she could estimate baby's weight right now, and she thinks she's about 5-5.5lbs. Knowing that babies put on about a half a pound a week, I'll be curious to see how good she is at estimating that. I'm still hoping she comes in on the slightly smaller side. I'm not that big of a girl! Now that I'm 36 weeks, if I go into labor, they won't do anything to stop it. Next week I'll be considered full-term. How's that for a milestone?

35w0d = 35 Days Left

(or something like that!)

It's happened. My first case of heartburn. It actually wasn't that bad. The worst thing was that it hit in the middle of the night. Oh well, making it beyond 34 weeks without any is a pretty good record. And it was nothing that couldn't be cured/prevented by taking a couple of Tums before bed and elevating my pillow a little bit.

Can I just say, I'm so glad baby will be here before the heat and humidity really strike. Yesterday I had my first real experience with puffy feet and hands. It was definitely uncomfortable to walk, and my ankle was not so happy. Luckily, after a few hours in the recliner with my feet up, the swelling had gone down before I went bed.

Today was another OB appointment. Since the swelling just started yesterday, I made sure to mention it. She looked at my ankle and said as long as the swelling goes down by morning, I don't really have to be concerned. I'm still not showing any protein or sugar in my urine. After the swelling, I was afraid that maybe some protein would show up this week. Nope. They also re-ran my Hemoglobin level. At 28wks it was a little low at 11.5, today it was up to 13. They like to see it at 12 in pregnancy, so it seems that the supplements are helping a bit. Today I also had my first internal exam. Yikes! I had become accustomed to the internal ultrasounds, but boy, this was intense compared to that! Why hasn't anyone mentioned how uncomfortable that was going to be? Not that it means much at this point, but I'm 1cm dilated and my cervix is thinning. Good news - baby is definitely head down! The doctor said she could feel the top of her head. Guess that also means she's pretty low. Yeah! So, the majority of the movements I'm feeling must be coming from her actually kicking around in there. The way she's positioned, her butt is right at the top of my belly and seems to be what gets in the way of my breathing and eating.

Looking back, it's been 6 weeks since I've posted an updated belly pic. Sure there were shower pics, but none that showed off the full on side view of the belly. Some days I feel like I'm still just tiny, but that's mostly when I'm looking straight down at it. I guess the side view makes me feel like I'm a little bigger, but I certainly don't feel HUGE! According to the OB, I'm measuring right on at 35wks.


I can't believe we are down to only about a month left. There is still so much to do before little one arrives. Eeeks!

34w0d - We Have Furniture!!!

Finally. After 13+ weeks, we have furniture. So glad we ordered them "early" back when I was 20wks. That was January 25th. Now the fun of finishing it begins!

These aren't the greatest pictures. It's hard to take pictures in a garage with limited space and lighting. The pieces are all a really light Maple. We'll call these the before photos.

The lingerie tower.

We'll use this one as the changing table.

And a corner bookcase for lots of storage.

It's been a pretty quiet week. I picked up some flannel material and made some burp cloths. One yard of each color and I got 8 burp cloths. I wasn't expecting to get that many, so that was a pretty good deal. And the fabric was only about $7.00.

I'm thinking it's about time to start washing some of baby's stuff. Of course we're still limited on storage space until the dressers get done, but I could at least stack things in the closet as they get washed. Besides, it'll be fun to go through the clothes that she has again and get them organized into sizes and see what kind of stuff she still needs right away. We did really good on not buying many clothes as we expected we'd get quite a few as gifts. Now I feel like I could go pick out a couple of things out for her.

Next week I'll have another OB appointment and update to follow. Hopefully there is something to update on! I don't see my regular doctor next week, I had to schedule with someone I haven't seen before. Hope I like her as much as my regular doctor!

33w2d - Generosity

Last weekend was my baby shower. It's just amazing to see the generosity of family and friends when it comes to a new baby. We got so many wonderful gifts. The time that had to go into each of the handmade gifts that we received really shows how much people love us and our baby girl. Included in the handmade gifts were several blankets, quilts, burp cloths and baby booties.

The shower was a great way to see so many friends and family that we don't get to see all that often. Here are a few pictures from the day:



We made these awesome cookies.



Lite Lunch, Minnesota style - Look at all the food! Plus two crock pots on the back counter top with the meat for hot sandwiches.



'Lil pup even got to be part of the festivities. He did pretty well with so many people and a lot of commotion going on.



Playing Baby Shower themed BINGO.



Dad was even thought about while picking out gifts.





Super cute cake copied to match the invites.



Me with my wonderful hostesses. Thanks again girls!

This week I had my 33wk OB appointment. Everything is still moving along nicely. The doctor thinks that little girl is in a head down position despite what I feel really high in my belly which feels really hard and round like it could be a head. If there is any question at the next appointment, they may send me for an ultrasound just to make sure we know what we are dealing with. Obviously a breech baby would bring a lot of different decisions. Next appointment in two weeks, then we move on to weekly appointments from there! It's so crazy to think that we could have a baby in about 6 weeks! (I'm hoping to go a little early...a girl can dream, right?)

What's happening with baby: Weeks 33-36 (Month 8): Honeydew 17.2-18.7in, 4.2-5.8lbs

Baby’s senses are continuing to improve -- when light peeks in through your (extremely) stretched belly, those tiny eyelids and irises blink and dilate. And, baby can now recognize and react to simple songs… time to start practicing your lullabies! Growth (at least inside your womb) is starting to slow, and you may notice baby descend into your pelvis at the end of this month.