Less Than A Month

Wow. 27 days until the due date. Crazy! It feels like I have been pregnant forever and that it will never end, but I also can't believe the end is so near. Life as we know it is almost over! We both are very excited but have our freak out moments. What have we gotten ourselves into??? The baby book says I'm now considered full term, I can't believe it!

I'm not quite sure where to start with this post, so I will start with pictures like I usually do. This picture was actually taken a week or two ago, I can't remember exactly when.

Here are the pictures from today, at 36 weeks 1 day with 27 days to go:

I feel absolutely enormous. Jeff took a picture of me today in my maternity swim suit and it was so bad that I can't bear to post it! I can really see it in my chin and neck, ick. Oh well, only a few more weeks then hopefully the nursing and more activity will help take it all away!

So here is a belly button update. It is still in there! It is getting pretty shallow though, as you can see below. But still in there! Maybe just maybe it will stay in there.

This stage of pregnancy is interesting. I actually feel like I have MORE energy in some ways than I did for the past several months. I have been working hard getting everything ready for the baby and cleaning up the house. Work is still pretty busy and I haven't been exercising as much as I should because I'm so tired once I get home from work that all I want to do is lay around. I'm trying to go light activity though, like swimming, slow walks and riding the bike at the gym. I think I have more energy because I gave up trying to control what and how much I eat, so now I just eat whatever I want whenever I want! I think so far I have gained around 40 pounds, not horrible but I don't think there is a 40 pound baby in there! I have started having some pretty strong Braxton Hicks contractions, and at dinner Friday night they actually hurt! Hopefully my body will start working on labor before it even starts :-) I have a doctor appointment tomorrow afternoon so we will see if I have gotten anywhere yet. I'm now going to the doctor once a week! It's getting REALLY hot out here now though, I'm not quite sure how I'm going to survive the next month. Hopefully monsoon season will start early and cool things down a bit. And it isn't even as hot as it can be, only around 100 for a high, not the 115 we had the first summer I was here! If it gets that hot before I have the baby, I'm just going to hide out in the house :-)

I think we are pretty ready for the baby now. We are done with all our baby classes at the hospital. We pretty much have everything I ** think ** we need for the baby, either already washed and in the nursery or on order. I have my hospital bags packed and ready to go, we just have to throw in random stuff, mainly for Jeff, when it is time to go. Next on the list: have the car seat installed at the fire station, sign up with the pediatrician, find a day care place for when I go back to work (I'm taking off 3 months so I'm not too worried about this yet), put together the swing... I think that is about it!

Here are some random pics from the nursery. Some more of our nursery set arrived, given to us by Wanda (Jeff's mom) at the shower. Below is the cute clothes hamper, we also have a window valence that is adorable but not up yet (I guess that needs to go on the list as well).

Here are the hospital bags, packed and ready to go!

I have the changing table stocked and ready to go.

So I realized today that in baby clothes, "newborn" and "0-3 months" are different sizes. Go figure! I had them all mixed together. So today I had to go through the drawer of clean organized clothes and re-organized them into these new categories. As you can see from the picture below, I'm pretty well stocked and ready to go. On the left are the "newborn" clothes, in the middle are my swaddlers, sleep blankets, socks and hats, and on the right are my "0-3 months" clothes. Guess this shows how clueless I am about babies!

I'm also set as far as blankets go, as you can see in the picture below. Crib sheets on the left and blankets on the right, with a whole bag of more, nicer blankets in the closet waiting for cooler weather or the need to use them.

Here is a cute onesie for the grandma's:

Well I think that is about it or now. I'm going to try to post more often now that we are in the home stretch. And just to note, once the little one is finally here, we will be posting pics on this website as soon as we can for everyone back home, the hospital has free wireless internet!

45 Days To Go

I can't believe how fast time has gone by! Although it also feels like I have been pregnant forever and that it will never end. I'm not sure which is more appealing.

Things are going well, we are both staying busy but I am starting to slow down some. It is now around 100 degrees during the day and the mesquite trees are blooming (I'm extremely allergic to them) so I try to stay inside as much as possible. I get pretty tired during the days, and if I walk too far or try cleaning the house, my low back hurts so bad that I can hardly walk sometimes. Other than that I'm great! I have pretty much given up on exercising because of the low back pain and allergies for now, going for a walk just isn't worth it. I bought new running shoes this weekend though, in preparation for running again after having the baby. I'm so excited to run again! I didn't realize how much I enjoy running and how much of a stress reliever it is until I couldn't do it anymore. I also miss weight lifting. Well, I also miss being able to comfortably reach my feet!

The baby book says the "little monster" as I call it now should be around 5 pounds by now, that is ahrd to believe. I call it my little monster because it is so big now that I can feel it rolling around in there all the time, and it LOVES sticking its feet up under my ribs. It really feels like I have a monster in my stomach, I don't think it is something anyone can understand unless they have actually been pregnant before.

Here are my pictures as of Sunday:

People at work now ask me all the time when I'm due, and when I say I still have a month and a half left, no one can believe it. I guess they feel like I have been pregnant forever too! And I'm finally looking pretty big and tired and uncomfortable, I think they feel sorry for me. Work is getting more and more difficult each week, and I'm wondering now if I will make it to the end like I was planning. I guess we will see how I feel.

Thank you to everyone for your words of encouragement and thoughts for my dad and family and especially for all the help everyone has given my mom and sister and the farm during this difficult time. He is still in the hospital and on a ventilator, but he is improving every day. They get him out of bed a few times a day to sit in a chair and breath on his own, and they have taken all but one of his drainage tubes out and have taken the neck brace off, I would call that improvement! They are still trying to get his meds right, the pain meds and sedatives seem to interact weirdly with his Parkinson's meds and he has problems waking up sometimes. Maybe that is for the best for now as his body heals. He developed a mild case of pneumonia but that doesn't seem to be too much of a problem. We are taking each day at a time for now, no idea yet when he might be able to go home but so far we haven't had any major set-backs, so that is good. It is still hard being so far from home, but there isn't much that can be done about that for now. Hopefully he will improve enough so he can still come out to visit after the baby is born!

I'm off now for baby class #2 at the hospital. Jeff has something going on at the base tonight and will probably be late, or maybe that is just the story he is giving me :-) Tonight is about newborn care, I guess I finally get to learn how to change a diaper, ha!

32 weeks 1 day

Well I know I just posted this morning, but I thought I would put up a current belly picture along with some other random stuff.

So in a post several months ago, I mentioned that my belly button was growing and I was fascinated by it. So here is a picture from today of my belly. Most belly buttons have popped out by now from what I hear, and mine is still in there, although it is getting very shallow. I think it might actually not pop out! Notice the hole where my belly button ring used to be, I took it out about 4 years ago and it is still there and growing, geez. Also notice that I do have the pregnancy line running down my belly, but it is crooked! The top part down to my belly button is straight, but for some reason the bottom part starts at the far side of the bottom of my belly button. How strange. Jeff on the other hand does not share my interest in my changing belly button, he is pretty freaked out by it :-) I have added a new poll regarding my belly button to the right under the gender poll, make sure to vote!



My 32 week 1 day pics. We went to an American Legion ceremony today thanking local law enforcement for their work, and they included the Air Force security forces. So I had a chance to put on my pretty pink dress and the pearls Jeff gave me last year for our 1 year anniversary. On that note, it is pretty crazy to think that this time last year, we were doing finishing touches for the big wedding ceremony and reception in VA! Boy a lot has happened since then, including my belly growing, oh, 15 inches or so and gaining about 30 pounds!

I found this cute Air Force bib at the BX today and had to buy it. You can't really see it well in this picture, but the hat says "Air Force".

Mom found this baby t-shirt online and got it for my sister. How cute!

Ok time to have some chicken, hope not to get heartburn, and pass out :-)

Much Needed Update

Ok I warn you: this is going to be a looooooooong post! So much has happened since the last post.



We have 2 pieces of bad news since my last posting. First, a few days before I flew home for the baby shower, Wanda's sister, "Aunt Hank", passed away from medical complications. The family night was the night I flew in, and I so wanted to make it, and I would have had there not been severe thunderstorms in the Dallas area that morning. The storms were just clearing when my flight was scheduled to leave Tucson, so we are delayed from taking off by half an hour, then flew in circles in the area and extra hour before being allowed to land. Thankfully I didn't miss my second flight in to Richmond, but sadly that flight got delayed by about 4 hours. The family night was over by the time my plane even landed in Richmond. My parents and sister made the trip to pick me up, and of course on the way home we came upon a bad accident on I-64 and had another 30-60 minute delay because of that. So after leaving my home in Tucson that morning at 6 am, we finally got to my sister's house at 12:30 am. What a day. The funeral was set for the next day at 1 pm in the Charlottesville area, an hour before we had 50 people showing up at Laura's house for the baby shower, so obviously I couldn't make that either. And Jeff was in training in Texas so he wasn't able to make it. We are both so sorry that neither of us were able to make it to any part of the funeral, but our thoughts were with everyone. Aunt Hank was such a wonderful, kind, loving woman and she will greatly be missed.

Second, my dad was in a bad farm accident on Wednesday back home in Virginia. He was struck by a broken piece of farm equipment and had to be flown to the UVA hospital. This could have had a very bad ending, but because of both some good luck and the quick actions of many people, it isn't nearly as bad as it could have been.

In light of such a bad and scary accident, we have many things to be grateful for. Our farm helper Chuck was with dad when it happened and was able to get him free immediately, call 911 and go get my mom. The paramedics arrived very quickly and took dad straight to the local airport and flew him directly to the UVA trauma center rather than taking him to the local hospital that probably would have just flown him to UVA anyway with a much longer delay. The trauma doctors and nurses at UVA are top notch and have provided him with the best care and keep my mom and sister informed. It turns out that him injuries aren't nearly as bad as they could have been, he has some broken ribs which will be painful but will heal, a fractured vertebra in his lower thoracic spine (T11) that hasn't affected his spinal cord or nerves (what I was most worried about), only one small bone broken in his hand, and some internal bleeding that was repairable, although they did have to remove his spleen. So at this point, as long as he doesn't develop an infection or pneumonia, it looks like everything should heal!!! I really think my job has helped me deal with this, because I think about cases of severe injuries every day and I see how bad it can be and how well people can heal. As scary as this accident and the injuries are, he didn't die, he didn't lose a limb, no head injury, he isn't paralyzed, and any permanent impairment should be minor. Considering what happened, what more could we ask for? We truly are blessed, especially considering he has been farming his whole life and this is his first major accident. Finally, we are truly grateful for all the love and support everyone has shown us. It really is true that when something like this happens, you find out who your friends are. It looks like half the east side of Virginia is our friends! Several people have asked what they can do to help, I would say for now what is needed the most is the continued emotional support of everyone, especially for my mom and sister, and continued help on the farm to keep things going until dad is well enough to start working again ( I think this would help dad recover faster, if he knows trustworthy people are looking after things for him). Now we are waiting for dad to wake up completely from the sedation and to be able to breath on his own so they can remove his breathing tube (hopefully today). They are talking about trying to have him standing by tomorrow! What a miracle that would be. Please keep us in your thoughts.

The rest of this post will be more happy, I think we all need something happy to think about during this time! Here are pictures from the baby shower on April 18 at my sister's house. We all had a great time, and it was so nice to see everyone!

Mom loves her grandma shirt!

We played a game where people guessed how big my belly was and cut string to match the size they guessed. This is a very amusing game as most guesses were way too big!

We then played an amusing "dirty diaper" game. We melted different kinds of chocolate in baby diapers and made people guess what kind of candy it was. Here are my girlfriends inspecting some of the diapers:

Laura took one diaper outside to show the men.

The end result of the game:

The shower cake was adorable, and very tasty!!! Can you even guess that the theme was rubber duckies?

The men sat outside while we had the shower inside the basement. They cooked up some really tasty lamb bbq!

Me, mom and Laura.

Gift station.

We received many very very nice and thoughtful gifts, thank you to everyone! One amazing gift was this handmade quilt, made by my "Grandma" Edith. It is the perfect size for a toddler bed or for playing on the living room floor. And no, I'm not magically holding the quilt up by myself, Laura is hiding behind it for some reason.

Wanda (Jeff's mom) was able to make it before the end of the shower with our nephew Evan, who really didn't think being at a baby shower was very cool :-) I'm so glad I was able to see her while I was home, unfortunately the baby was sleeping while she was there and didn't get to feel it moving. (as I write this, I'm getting poked under my right rib).

We had 2 daddy tool belts at the shower, one from Aunt Sharon and Laci, and one from my mom, so one turned into the granddaddy tool belt! Here is dad modelling his, note his grandpa shirt.

Laura and I in her kitchen the morning I left. Yep, I have gotten bigger! Eating cake 3 times a day while there probably didn't help much :-)

A family picture the morning I left.

Jeff got home from training 3 days after I got home, and the next weekend we got busy on the nursery. Here is daddy putting together the crib:

Here is daddy putting together the changing table (what a cute husband I have):

The finished crib! Isn't the baby fawn bedding adorable? Unfortunately, the fitted sheet shrunk (I had it on low heat so I have no idea what happened) so I don't know if I will actually be able to use it for the baby, but I managed to get 3.25 corners on. As for the bumpers, I think they are adorable but they make changing the sheet really really hard, and I know some doctors say they pose a suffocation hazard and shouldn't be used. So for now they are on there but they may come off. I found the mobile at a used clothing store for $17, it retails for quite a bit more than that and it's the same one I registered for, it works great and I'm happy with my bargain!

I washed all the baby clothes, blankets, bedding and towels (dye free fragrance free detergent and no fabric softener) and put them away, what a chore! They are all so adorable though. And I actually have quite a bit of newborn clothing and plenty of blankets, so I don't think I really need to buy more clothes until it is born and we find out if it is a boy or girl and an start buying something in colors other than yellow, white and green! I also put together the bouncy seat. Is it just me, or are the critters on the cover kind of creepy looking?

Here is the finished changing table with the new diaper bag, organizer and diapers. I figure I will get it all arranged once the time gets closer and I figure out what needs to be on the changing table.

We have taken some time off from nursery arranging since then so I need to start working on it again. I think my next post may be an inventory of what I have so everyone can help me figure out what I still need! I know that for a lot of stuff, I won't really know what I need or what the baby will like until it is here, but I feel like shopping will be so much easier before the baby comes so I want to be as prepared as I can be.

Work is still going well but I'm starting to slow down. Jeff is doing well also, staying busy with work. We had an all-day baby class yesterday at the hospital and we learned a little bit, although most of it I have read before. We have 4 more classes to go to: caring for the newborn, infant cpr, breastfeeding techniques, and labor comfort measures. Hopefully we will learn a lot in those, we will be done with them by the end of May, then we just get to wait for the little one to get here and put everything to use!

Here is a picture Jeff took of me last weekend. We had just gotten back from the gym and grocery store and I was TIRED and trying to get the chicken in the oven. This is my "put the damn camera down and help me with the chicken" face. I'm glad I have such a loving and understanding husband!

56 days left!!!!!!!!!! Are we really ready for this???