Okay - so 2 weeks seems to be my speed... sorry, it's been a while again since the last blog!
I'm trying to be real with myself, and after this weekend I decided that if I get stretch marks, I've "earned my stripes". Not that I've worked hard and they are a reward. No, more that I let myself have a weekend full of "oh, that sounds good, yes, I'll have some," and I deserve whatever I get. While I can't say the entire weekend was full of cravings, I will say I gave in a bit more than usual. Today I'm back to trying to make nutritionally based decisions, not taste based! But, if I get stretch marks, after this weekend, I deserve them! Jax has been hungry lately. I'm glad I have a very nutritious lunch on the menu all week because I may have to have more than one lunch (it's veggie soup - what could be bad about veggies and meat!? I don't feel bad about an extra indulgence in that). But I keep telling myself that hungry is good. Jax is measuring right on, but he has to keep growing and there's nothing better than meat & veggies for a growing boy!
Last week I did some more work in the nursery. While we still need some little things (crib mattress pads, etc) I decided I didn't want it to look like a drop-zone in there anymore. I dug out the mobile that I made a few months back and got that hung. I hung the framed name that Tara made for me over the crib - I may have been a bit over-zealous with my 100lb hook and my reinforcements on the wall that make it hard for even me to take down - but there's no price for peace of mind - and I feel confident that it won't ever fall from it's place right now. Brian and I finally got a curtain rod that would fit with my prized vintage truck finials and I got the curtain hung. I still need to figure out a tie-back, but in the mean time a ribbon is holding it back. I got the room cleaned up and the only things out of place are things that will live elsewhere in the house, but don't need to be making the house baby-ville in the mean time. The swing, the bouncer, the sleeper that will start out in our room... that kind of stuff. But it's looking more and more like a functional nursery. There's a sheet on the bed (and the crib isn't full of everything that I didn't know where to put anymore). The changing pad is secured to the changing table and has a cover and a protector on it. The majority of the laundry is done (don't get me wrong - there is still a lot to do). If necessary I could bring Jax home today and he'd have his own room ready for him.
Speaking of being ready to bring him home - we had our pre-admission visit with the maternity care coordinator (MCC) at St. Lukes South last week. While I think she may have been having a bad day (she left us with a bitter taste in our mouth, but not for the hospital, just for her) she did get a lot of the paperwork finished so we have that much less to do when I'm actually in labor. We got very familiar with writing Jaxxon's name. It was strange approving medical procedures for a person I've never met. But I felt like I was being proactive as well. Taking care of him before the last minute. It felt good. The MCC did look a bit shocked when we said we hadn't bought our carseat yet, so the next day Brian went over lunch and got our carseat. It's not installed, but we have it... in the garage. LOL! We'll get it out and install it soon, and make an appointment with either the hospital or a fire station or one of the other car seat check stations to make sure everything is in correctly and as safely as possible.
A little over a week ago I packed up and headed to Salina for my final baby shower. What a wonderful brunch we had! I got to see some family & friends that I hadn't seen in what feels like ages. We had a blast just looking at precious baby stuff and laughing at all of the fun things that are out now. We recieved our jogging/all-terrain stroller, a pack n play (with more little accessory functions than I could imagine), lots of precious outfits - one of which I've chosen as Jax's going-home outfit (assuming he hasn't dirtied it between putting it on him, taking hospital pics, and getting in the car seat - as my child he very likely will have it dirty before we leave the room. I'm used to it - I've always been that way). We got a precious Pestinger Heating and Air Conditioning outfit - overall's like Dave Lennox's and a PH&A shirt. There was so much fun loot - my car was filled to the brim! We also visited my dear friend Amy and she graciously allowed us to go through her stashes of baby clothes from when her two boys were infants. We got a ton of adorable clothes from them, too (Amy has some seriously good taste). I still need to go through the giant bag and box I brought home and sort them all - one day I'll dump it all on the bed and just start making piles by size. I can tell you now that I'm going to need more hangers! LOL! A lot of it will be great for summer trips to Iowa and Colorado - where it's a bit cooler than KS. The sizes from one of her sons are the wrong season for Jax, but they'll be perfect to keep him toasty warm on cool crisp evenings in the mountains and in Iowa. It will be such a blessing to have something warm in the right size when you can't find cold weather gear in stores!
On Wednesday I will be 35 weeks. That means Jax is around 18" long and between 5 1/2 and 6 lbs! Last Thursday I was measuring 32 1/2 cm - which Doctor assured me is just fine after 32 weeks (before 32 weeks the centimeters should roughly match the number of weeks pregnant the woman is). For my own peace of mind I'm taking that as meaning Jax will be an average 7-8 lb baby - even though I know there is no direct correlation between fundal height and birth weight. It makes me feel better - let me have this one little denial! LOL! Jax is just busy in there putting on fat and growing! He's really roly poly lately - last week he was super active and I felt him move from being up and down (I don't know which end was where) to side to side - and he's been that way for a while now. I still thoroughly enjoy feeling him move around. I'm really going to miss being pregnant with him - and I can't wait to meet him... all at the same time!
3mo holding hands
Monday, October 24, 2011
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Long time coming
So sorry blog fans - it's been a crazy couple of weeks. Fall is the start of busy season at work and I've just been consumed with getting the nursery ready for baby at home - and I just haven't managed to get a post ready to go!
A little over a week ago my amazing sister Tara and fabulous friend Amy hosted a baby shower for me in Kansas City. They made the location a surprise for me, so when we ended up at one of my favorite Plaza lunch stops I couldn't have been more thrilled! Amy had set it up with an amazing space and such amazing food - I think I'm still stuffed! Of course, they decorated it so beautifully. Tara had taken pictures of parts of Grandpa Tom's cars and spelled out Jaxxon in a beautiful custom frame which hung on the back wall during the shower - I can't wait to get it hung in his room! It would already be up, but it's going to hang over the crib, so I need to make sure I use safety hangers and not juts balance it on a nail in the wall! She also put together the cutest baby truck - it was built out of diapers, blankets, dishwasher baskets, bottles, socks, wash clothes... there were a million little treasures in there! Amy had prepared some trivia games - if I hadn't won them they assured me that I'd have gotten the prizes, anyway. I'm not sure what the guests would have done with outlet covers and such! My aunts Patti & Beverly drove up from Arkansas to attend, so it was amazing getting to spend some of the weekend with them. And my friend Aubrey flew in from Kentucky to attend - just to attend the shower! It was so great to see her and I feel like I hardly got to spend enough time with anyone. I completely forgot until she reminded me the next week that we'd forgotten to take a bump picture together - she was about 21 weeks pregnant at the time and we missed the only opportunity to take a picture of our respective bumps! I'm going to kick myself forever for that one. As I've hit the waterworks phase of my pregnancy I did have to excuse myself to the bathroom once to compose myself - so many people coming together to celebrate Jax before they've even met him - I was just so touched. There I go, tearing up again! I've always been an emotional person, but it's gotten worse - and I don't anticipate it getting any better any time soon!
I was exhausted after the shower... I think that was the first time I really felt that 3rd trimester exhaustion. We'd been invited to a wedding that evening, and I'd sent Brian alone - I was bummed I didn't get to go, but when we got home I realized that I couldn't have gone if I'd wanted to - I would have collapsed and that would have not made for a happy bride! I was just too exhausted to do much of anything at that point. The next day I did some baby-shopping with my Mom and really just pushed myself. I'm so glad I did - I found some absolute treasures that I'm certain life would not be complete without, but I don't think I fully recovered until the Thursday after the shower!
Last week we had another doctors appointement - we see him every two weeks now - and we attended child birth prep class on Saturday. Everything was looking good at our appointement - my belly was measuring exactly 32 weeks along and my BP was still low and Jax had a healthy heart rate of 146 bpm. I'll see Dr. Curry again in 2 weeks, and then in November I see him every week until Jax is born.
Child birth prep was not necessarily something that either Brian or I was looking forward to. No one really wants to spend 7 hours on their Saturday watching 1970's birth videos! LOL! Or any decades birth video's for that matter! The class was from 9am-4pm with an hour lunch at noon. 1) I should have known better and packed a snack - Jax likes 2nd breakfast around 10 am and I was starving by the time we got out for lunch! 2) ... we both hesitantly admitted that we were glad we went. The class was pretty interactive - especially in the morning. There was a lot of focus techniques and how-to-help-mom suggestions that they trained us. We learned that the traditional lamaze (you know, hee hee hoo - hee hee hoo) hasn't been used in about 25-30 years because it causes mom's to hyperventalate, further complicating labor. But she did give us some breathing suggestions to get us through contractions and to help us not push when we feel the very first urge. Of course - being an epidural super-fan I probably won't ever feel that sensation to push, but if for some reason the epidural wasn't in my cards I know what to do now! Brian, being the resourceful guy he is, reminded me (while being shown good massage techniques) that Funcle Dustin is a licensed massage therapist and would be a great guy to do that job. Clever boy! I think it would be great if both of them worked on me... one at my shoulders, one massaging my feet... I might be okay with that. LOL! Dustin, of course, willinging volunteered when he was told about it his nomination. The afternoon was spent discussing the actual birth - watching videos... seeing much more of some 1970's mothers than we probably needed to... as traumatized as I felt by it at the time, I now feel like I've seen it - I can handle this. I hope that confidence sticks around!
This coming weekend I have my last shower in Salina. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone. A lot of family was invited to this one, as well as some very long time friends. I took a couple of extra days off - I'm planning on practicing my photography skills with Scott for a fall/halloween photo shoot and hopefully getting some more car pics from Grandpa Tom's garage to put up in Jax's room. There is still a lot to be done in that little room - but when it comes down to it, we could make it work right now just as it is. It's all superficial stuff - you know, decor, etc. After this last shower Brian and I will go get our final purchases. We don't need a lot to be able to take Jax home at this point. Car seat, monitor... a few little things. The rest we could pick up along the way - it's a lot of convenience type things that just makes our life easier.
I'll be 33 weeks tomorrow. Jax is a little over 4 lbs and is 17" or longer. He's gaining about 1/2 a pound a week in body fat... unfortunately, I am too! A couple of weeks ago I could feel and see movement on either side of my belly - now I don't see it as much, but if I rest my hands on top of my belly I can feel little kicks, and inside I can feel little punches way down low. I'm no doctor and I certainly can't see what an ultrasound can, but my gut says he's now head down. Dr. Curry felt for his head last time through my tummy, but said he couldn't feel anything yet. Jax is growing so quickly now that kicks and punches will slow down (they already have) and it will be more wiggles and shifts (which I'm noticing also). It's strange to have my hand on my stomach and feel him roll, lol! His hiccups are strong enough now that Brian can feel them and sometimes I can even see them. He usually gets them after I drink a glass of water. Not juice or soda or gatorade - just water. How does he know!?! LOL! He's brilliant, I tell you, already advanced! haha!
A little over a week ago my amazing sister Tara and fabulous friend Amy hosted a baby shower for me in Kansas City. They made the location a surprise for me, so when we ended up at one of my favorite Plaza lunch stops I couldn't have been more thrilled! Amy had set it up with an amazing space and such amazing food - I think I'm still stuffed! Of course, they decorated it so beautifully. Tara had taken pictures of parts of Grandpa Tom's cars and spelled out Jaxxon in a beautiful custom frame which hung on the back wall during the shower - I can't wait to get it hung in his room! It would already be up, but it's going to hang over the crib, so I need to make sure I use safety hangers and not juts balance it on a nail in the wall! She also put together the cutest baby truck - it was built out of diapers, blankets, dishwasher baskets, bottles, socks, wash clothes... there were a million little treasures in there! Amy had prepared some trivia games - if I hadn't won them they assured me that I'd have gotten the prizes, anyway. I'm not sure what the guests would have done with outlet covers and such! My aunts Patti & Beverly drove up from Arkansas to attend, so it was amazing getting to spend some of the weekend with them. And my friend Aubrey flew in from Kentucky to attend - just to attend the shower! It was so great to see her and I feel like I hardly got to spend enough time with anyone. I completely forgot until she reminded me the next week that we'd forgotten to take a bump picture together - she was about 21 weeks pregnant at the time and we missed the only opportunity to take a picture of our respective bumps! I'm going to kick myself forever for that one. As I've hit the waterworks phase of my pregnancy I did have to excuse myself to the bathroom once to compose myself - so many people coming together to celebrate Jax before they've even met him - I was just so touched. There I go, tearing up again! I've always been an emotional person, but it's gotten worse - and I don't anticipate it getting any better any time soon!
I was exhausted after the shower... I think that was the first time I really felt that 3rd trimester exhaustion. We'd been invited to a wedding that evening, and I'd sent Brian alone - I was bummed I didn't get to go, but when we got home I realized that I couldn't have gone if I'd wanted to - I would have collapsed and that would have not made for a happy bride! I was just too exhausted to do much of anything at that point. The next day I did some baby-shopping with my Mom and really just pushed myself. I'm so glad I did - I found some absolute treasures that I'm certain life would not be complete without, but I don't think I fully recovered until the Thursday after the shower!
Last week we had another doctors appointement - we see him every two weeks now - and we attended child birth prep class on Saturday. Everything was looking good at our appointement - my belly was measuring exactly 32 weeks along and my BP was still low and Jax had a healthy heart rate of 146 bpm. I'll see Dr. Curry again in 2 weeks, and then in November I see him every week until Jax is born.
Child birth prep was not necessarily something that either Brian or I was looking forward to. No one really wants to spend 7 hours on their Saturday watching 1970's birth videos! LOL! Or any decades birth video's for that matter! The class was from 9am-4pm with an hour lunch at noon. 1) I should have known better and packed a snack - Jax likes 2nd breakfast around 10 am and I was starving by the time we got out for lunch! 2) ... we both hesitantly admitted that we were glad we went. The class was pretty interactive - especially in the morning. There was a lot of focus techniques and how-to-help-mom suggestions that they trained us. We learned that the traditional lamaze (you know, hee hee hoo - hee hee hoo) hasn't been used in about 25-30 years because it causes mom's to hyperventalate, further complicating labor. But she did give us some breathing suggestions to get us through contractions and to help us not push when we feel the very first urge. Of course - being an epidural super-fan I probably won't ever feel that sensation to push, but if for some reason the epidural wasn't in my cards I know what to do now! Brian, being the resourceful guy he is, reminded me (while being shown good massage techniques) that Funcle Dustin is a licensed massage therapist and would be a great guy to do that job. Clever boy! I think it would be great if both of them worked on me... one at my shoulders, one massaging my feet... I might be okay with that. LOL! Dustin, of course, willinging volunteered when he was told about it his nomination. The afternoon was spent discussing the actual birth - watching videos... seeing much more of some 1970's mothers than we probably needed to... as traumatized as I felt by it at the time, I now feel like I've seen it - I can handle this. I hope that confidence sticks around!
This coming weekend I have my last shower in Salina. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone. A lot of family was invited to this one, as well as some very long time friends. I took a couple of extra days off - I'm planning on practicing my photography skills with Scott for a fall/halloween photo shoot and hopefully getting some more car pics from Grandpa Tom's garage to put up in Jax's room. There is still a lot to be done in that little room - but when it comes down to it, we could make it work right now just as it is. It's all superficial stuff - you know, decor, etc. After this last shower Brian and I will go get our final purchases. We don't need a lot to be able to take Jax home at this point. Car seat, monitor... a few little things. The rest we could pick up along the way - it's a lot of convenience type things that just makes our life easier.
I'll be 33 weeks tomorrow. Jax is a little over 4 lbs and is 17" or longer. He's gaining about 1/2 a pound a week in body fat... unfortunately, I am too! A couple of weeks ago I could feel and see movement on either side of my belly - now I don't see it as much, but if I rest my hands on top of my belly I can feel little kicks, and inside I can feel little punches way down low. I'm no doctor and I certainly can't see what an ultrasound can, but my gut says he's now head down. Dr. Curry felt for his head last time through my tummy, but said he couldn't feel anything yet. Jax is growing so quickly now that kicks and punches will slow down (they already have) and it will be more wiggles and shifts (which I'm noticing also). It's strange to have my hand on my stomach and feel him roll, lol! His hiccups are strong enough now that Brian can feel them and sometimes I can even see them. He usually gets them after I drink a glass of water. Not juice or soda or gatorade - just water. How does he know!?! LOL! He's brilliant, I tell you, already advanced! haha!
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