Week 37

Unbelievably, I'm posting again! Can you believe it? I can't! I’ve got quite a few pictures to post this time too. I’ve been super busy over the last 2-3 weeks, trying to get things in order. I’m not giving George any of the credit either. J I’ve been busting my butt organizing, doing laundry, taking inventory, writing thank you cards, etc. I never would have guessed we would have been given so much stuff by our generous friends. This kid is set for quite a while and we haven’t had to do much about it. It’s been absolutely unbelievable!

But, to return to the more fun stuff. George and I had our final ultrasound last week. The tech got some good pics and those are what I posted already, but the doctor got some even better images. I was delayed in getting those up because we didn’t have digital copies, so we had to scan them, but then when we did, we realized the format wouldn’t work for the blog, so we had to rescan. But, here are some great face shots.

Is it just me, or does this poor little girl look like she has jowls? I’m hoping that’s just a shadow. Granted, if she’s built like I was as a baby, she’ll be nothing but rolls, but still, jowls? Yikes! Let’s just hope for shadows. But hey, I guess we’ll see in about 3 weeks’ time!

The nursery and spare room are both looking good. We still need some stuff on the walls, as they are absolutely bare and we need some nightstands in the nursery, but for now, things are organized. I’m sure we’ll rearrange a million times, but it’s coming along for now. Laundry is done and put away. Gifts are inventoried. Bath stuff is stashed.

This is the spare room's "before" picture when it was my work room. Also, you'll see the "during" pictures when we were deluged with gifts.

And finally, an "after" shot. Some things still don't have a home, but at least things are picked up!

















These are the scary "before" shots of the nursery. The crib was put together pretty early on, but as you can see, it just served as a dumping ground for the bedding for the double bed that had to be broken down while I was working on the chairs. It had turned into such a pig stye for awhile that I literally hated walking into this room.





This is the "during" of the nursery. The bed was made, you just couldn't see it while I was trying to sort clothes out.













And finally, it's come together! Yes, the pictures have to be hung, I know. But hey, at this point, I'll take what I can get!

We'll move the glider and ottoman in once she's here, but for now, it still resides in the living room.

All in all, I’m feeling good about everything. I’ve still got a ton of thank you cards to write (a good problem to have, I know!) but everything else is falling into place. We need to pack our bags, as technically she could arrive any time. It seems we’re tempting fate by not having it ready. Same goes for the car seat and stroller. We waited around until this last weekend to purchase the car seat and it turns out, Babies R Us was out at the store. We had to order it and we’re keeping our fingers crossed that it really does come in within the 7 day window they gave us.

So, I’ve still got shower pictures to post. I don’t want anyone to think that I’m overlooking those. We need to appropriately express our gratitude and appreciation for both our church family and our colleagues at work. Now that I’m feeling a little bit caught up—for now—I should now have time to post next about our 2 great showers.

For now, we’ve got our final night of our breastfeeding class to attend tonight. A breastfeeding class on my birthday. Ah, life really is all about the baby, isn’t it?!

Week 36

Holy cow! I haven't posted anything since the 4th?? This is terrible. I've got to make it a priority to get caught up this weekend. I plan to post shower pictures and nursery pictures. The showers were amazing--wow, do we have generous, wonderful friends!--and the nursery is actually looking like a nursery. The before, during, and after pictures are quite humorous. Or scary, depending on your point of view.

I'm officially 36 weeks along and we're now on the weekly schedule to visit the ob/gyn. My guess is that when we visit tomorrow, we'll get the pros and cons of induction, if the due date will change, etc. I'm still not sure I'm set on induction. I'm one of the biggest planners I know so while it seems so great to know when Abagail should arrive, know my doc can deliver her, know the hospital is fully staffed, etc, but it seems rather unnecessary to schedule the birth. If my body and the baby isn't ready, why do we need medical intervention if there aren't any complications? We'll see. I'm trying to keep an open mind.

According to the scale at the house, I've only clocked in 20 pounds in weight gain. I am extremely happy about that! I'm still feeling surprisingly good, but am getting increasingly uncomfortable. I'm just feeling big, bulky, and belly-rific. My tailbone hurts all the time now. My feel are almost always swollen. I'm starting to wake up quite a few times through the night, which for someone whose always been a heavy sleeper, this is quite an adjustment. But, all in all, if my last 4-5 weeks can only be called "uncomfortable" then I'll shut up and count my blessings for what a breeze this pregnancy truly has been.

I try to describe her movement to George, but I know I do a terrible job. It's intriguing and downright cool to know that's my baby with all that movement in there, but right now, her kicks are so strong that I would really just like to tell her to knock it off occasionally. She is head down (and has been for several weeks) and seems to have developed a passion for punching my bladder. So, while I'm still not sure I'm ready for her to be here, I have reached that point where I'm pretty sure I'm ready for the pregnancy to come to an end.

But, for the good stuff: more pictures! We had our 5th and final ultrasound today. The accessory lobe on the placenta is still present and the ultrasound doc says that while it's possible it will deliver with the rest of the placenta, it's one of those things that you just can't guarantee. That's why we "got" to have all the ultrasounds. He's been trying to monitor just how connected the main part of the placenta is with this accessory lobe. It's tenuous enough he can't even say if it's truly connected or not. But again, this isn't posing a problem to Abagail or to me. The delivery staff just has to be very aware of it when the placenta delivers, otherwise I risk unnecessary bleeding and/or infection.

Abagail's heartbeat was a strong 148 beats per minute. To see that heart beating is just an amazing thing. Her approximated weight is 6 pounds, 11 ounces. She's got some of the chubbiest cheeks I've ever seen-except for when I look at my own baby pictures anyway . . . Check her out!

We've got more and better ones, but we've got formatting issues. As soon as we can figure that out, I'll post those too. The doc got surprisingly good images for so late in the pregnancy. Typically this far along, good images are hard to come by, just because she's running out of space and is so squished.

So, that's all I've got for now. I still have lots of pictures to post, so while I don't want to promise anything, I will work steading towards doing that this weekend.

Night, everyone!

I’ve managed to fall way behind yet again and have a lot to say. But, it’s late and I won’t get into too much detail about ALL of it. On Wednesday, the 22nd, we got to see little miss again. Abagail is looking great—her heartbeat was 139 beats per minute and her weight was estimated at 4 ½ pounds. By now, it’s entirely possible that she’s packed on another pound or so. And a good thing too—I’d hate for her to suffer like her diminutive mother has all her life. Ha!

It's like she's waving hello to us.


She strikes me as deep in thought here.



Sweet little foot (that likes to kick me in the ribs.)

And another great shot of her sweet face. Aren't those lips cute?!

At last week’s check up, Dr. Waterman gave me another green light for the heartbeat, blood pressure, fundal height, and—get this—I lost a pound! She said it wasn’t unusual. I suppose if it were to happen at every checkup, she’d have to be concerned, but this time around, didn’t seem at all worried about either of us. She recommended that we go and see Dr. Mirabile, the doctor doing the ultrasounds, again on the 20th. It’ll be interesting to see how big she’s gotten by then. There are no doctors' appointments this week, but after we've seen her next week, we'll start on the weekly rotation of appointments.

We met with Dr. Fox, our prospective pediatrician. We really liked her and feel confident in using her as Abagail’s doctor when she arrives. She’s been doing this for more than 20 years, so we can feel good about how long she’s been in the business. We’ve yet to find anyone who has taken or does take their children to her, but if she’s been around that long, I’m sure it won’t take long to find folks. We have had glowing recommendations about the PAs and nurses in the office from some friends who take their kids to Dr. Fields, Dr. Fox’s office partner. Oh my heavens there are just so many things I need to learn. Dr. Fox gave us a summary of when regular checks are needed and what goes on with them. Never would have guessed!

We are taking a "well baby" class, starting this Thursday. Evidently between the 3 hours this Thursday and 3 hours next Thursday, we'll be taught how to be parents. We'll see. We've also got a nutrition class coming up. It's about nutrition during pregnancy and breastfeeding. Guess I don't have to drag George to that one, but why not? And what will I be doing on my 31st birthday? The first of 2 nights of a breastfeeding class. If she arrives on time (the due date hasn't changed yet from 09/15) we'll have had time to do all of our classes except for the infant CPR class. We're signed up for that later in September. Hey, nobody can accuse us of not trying to educate ourselves.

Those cursed chairs I’ve been working on are done, the nursery is coming along and we’ve had two amazing showers. We've got pictures of all of that, however, that’s going to have to wait until another day. I’m exhausted (and it’s only 10:30!) but it’s bedtime!