39 Weeks

Yep, you read that correctly, 39 weeks, that means 1 week until the due date and up to 3 weeks until the little one is here in our arms. We are so excited and can't wait. I am still feeling really good, even despite the heat here in MN. Yesterday Mike and I went to the Como Zoo with his brother, my sister-in-law and my niece. It was probably up to 88 degrees, with god knows how much humidity. Outside was fine, but it was inside the buildings that was tough, since those were sauna's. The MN Zoo would have been better, but since we didn't last long this worked out. Tomorrow is supposed to be 90 + degrees and with the humidity it will feel like it's in the 100's. Not sure I will make it, but we will see.

Today I had an Ultrasound scheduled to see how big the little one is - at least an estimate, since it's hard for them to tell exactly how big she is. But the tech said her head is average (thank you!!) and not too big. She also said that she is weighing between 7 1/2lbs and 8lbs. So average. If I go on time she will be about 8 to 8 1/2lbs and if I go late she could be up to 9lbs....I am thinking the diapers we bought might not fit if she is that big, but we will see :)  Below is her profile picture, she barely fits on the screen anymore. You can see her mouth, nose and her hand.

On another note my niece is a walking fool. She is 14 months and walking like crazy. Mac wasn't quite sure what to make of her, but did really well with her. I am not worrying about mac and peanut getting along at all. I figure by the time next year rolls around and Peanut is walking that Mac will be used to it and laid back.

Mac also had a great time playing with the neighbor dog yesterday evening Tucker. We haven't had Mac around bigger dogs without being through a fence (at my parents) but last night Mike thought she was ready and sure enough she was! We couldn't ask for better. Tucker and Mac sniffed and hung out right by each other and there was no barking, growling or anything. Tucker is a 3 1/2 year old German Shorthair Pointer (Jager's boyfriend). He is a lot more laid back than Jager, but it worked out. I am hoping that we can bring Mac up to the dogs up at the kennel and have them around each other more often to get her used to dogs. It will make walking a TON easier! We might even be able to leave the neighborhood. Mike and I were super excited about it! It's been a good 2 years since that's happened. We couldn't ask for a better end to a great weekend.

37 Weeks

The countdown is on, okay maybe just for me, but it's on. I am definitely feeling like something is going but it's going slowly. I have an appointment with my midwife tomorrow so we will see what progress if there is any from last Tuesday. It's getting a bit more uncomfortable when I sit for long periods of time. Sleep is getting a little harder to find at night, but it's just getting me ready for little peanut's arrival.

Tonight we went to a photography shoot at Flash Digital photographers. It was a lot of fun, we got a bunch of cool shots. When we get the CD I will post the pictures.

Mike had an awesome time in Canada and got to see all the relatives. I was really bummed I couldn't go.

Mike caught in action Kenny jumping into the lake

Bev, Rudalpho and Andrea

Mike was up in Canada for Andrea and Rudalpho's wedding celebration. They live in France and had gotten married awhile ago, so this was a fun gathering for the entire family to celebrate their marriage and meet him.

 

Is it time?

...I don't think so, but definitely can tell things are changing. I am feeling MUCH MUCH more pressure down below and had a few Braxton Hicks contractions today. Probably because yesterday I was telling my family yesterday that I haven't been having them at all. So I am just relaxing and taking it easy this afternoon. I had a lot of energy this morning and might have just over done it a bit. But I don't think it's quite time yet.

Luckily if it is coming soon, Mike will be home in like 4 hours or so, which will relieve some stress on my part.

35 Weeks

That's right 5 weeks to go, give or take a few.I had a great appointment today with my Midwife. She is really amazing. We went through the Birth Plan. She said that if everything goes well and the baby isn't measuring big then I can go through with my waterbirth, otherwise she said I can labor in the tub and then have her outside of the tub at the end. So either way I will be able to use the tub :)

She is measuring at 34 1/2cm so right on target. Jamie said that she hasn't dropped, she is head down, but not dropped into position yet. Which is fine with me, her feet are definitely what has been kicking me in the ribs the past few weeks. Her heartbeat was about 130 bpm and Jamie said that she was about 5 or 5 1/2 lbs.  Next week is my next appointment with the other midwife. It will be nice to meet her, I feel comfortable with her over the phone, so I can imagine I will be when I meet her and it will be nice to be able to meet her in case she is the one that is on call when I deliver.

We had a few full weeks which is why I haven't blogged in awhile. We had another shower - given to us by my Mother in law and two of her friends. It was a joint shower with my friend Alicia who is due a few weeks before me, also having a girl. They spoiled her so much by giving us so many things. Her nursery is filled, we have to get a few more things here and there, but 90% of what we need when she is born is here. We went and got our car seat and I think Mike is planning on putting it in tonight.


We also interviewed our first pediatrician last week. We interviewed the Pediatrician and her Nurse Practitioner. They were recommended by a friend of mine from work. I really liked both of them. Mike is holding his judgment until we meet with the next one on the 20th. They are both close and both were recommended, so we will see what happens.

We were up at the lake for the fourth of July as usual. It was a lot of fun. A little too warm for me so I was a bit uncomfortable, but still nice. We went out to the sandbar on Saturday, I floated in the water for a bit and sat in a chair that Barb brought out there. It was super nice. Mike and I took some pictures (see below) because he wanted some of me pregnant up at the lake.

The weather was pretty good. On the 4th though it rained all day, it cleared up for the fireworks, but then the fog rolled in, so it was really hard to see the fireworks through the fog, especially the white and gold ones, but we still had fun. I also finished Peanut's blanket up at the lake. My in-laws say that I cheated, but really I just made it smaller. I was getting so tired of knitting those squares, so I just made it a bit smaller, but it's still pretty large and she will get some use out of it.

Mike is turning 30 on Thursday! Happy Birthday Daddy...I am taking him to his favorite pasta bar with some friends of ours. It should be a lot of fun!!  I am also planning a special date night for the two of us for Friday night :) I will post pictures of his birthday afterwards.

Happy Fathers Day!

I just want to wish all the fathers out there a Happy Fathers Day! Especially to my Father and my Husband (Father to be).

Growing up I always looked up to my dad. According to my mom and what I remember I followed him around everywhere. Helping him with things with the dogs, work around the house and other things, it was always fun to be with him. Now things are a little different, but all the better. We have a wonderful relationship. Mike helps him more with projects around the house, but we still do a lot of things together. He will be a wonderful Grandfather in a few months.

Mike has been a wonderful husband and I know that he will be a great dad in a few months when Peanut arrives. I made him breakfast in bed this morning. My pathetic attempt at an omelet, if you saw it you would have laughed because it pretty much looked like scrambled eggs, but it's the thought that counts right? and it was my very first attempt at an omelet.

The past 5 1/2 years has been wonderful with my husband. We have had our ups and downs as any couple has and have been through some things, but are better people and a better couple for it. I appreciate his laughter that he brings to the house, his love he has for me, and Peanut (even though he hasn't met her yet) and his drive and motivation to provide for our family.

Happy Fathers Day!

22 Weeks

Another week down and another week closer to Peanuts arrival. It was a good week. We got the nursery started, we are going to put up the border later this week. I have started the search for the dresser, so far the ones we like aren't the right dimensions, so we will have to see what we can find. I am sure we will figure something out :) So any of you out there that have dressers that you use as changing tables please let me know the height of it...as right now that's the problem we are running into I have a inch dimension in my mind that I think might be right, but who knows.

We had a great weekend with the parents. Saturday was with my parents (see my post about Peanuts' first game). We had a great dinner after the game with them. Mike made some awesome ribs and Mom had made a great dessert! It was overall a great night. Yesterday we were at the in-laws for Easter dinner. It was really good to spend time with everyone. My niece Alyssa is still pretty sick, the poor thing will probably have to get tubes put in. I feel so bad for her. She had a great time though, got to have potatoes, although she didn't like the sweet potatoes much.

Also at dinner last night I felt the little one move for the what I think was the first time. I am sure she has moved before and I just didn't know it was her, but I am pretty darn sure this time.

Nursery Part 1

Mike and I picked out the paint colors for the Nursery - Lion Mane for the bottom 1/2 and Grape Leaves for the top 1/2. We got the bottom 1/2 painted today. It took 2 coats, but it really only took us 1 hour to paint the entire bottom 1/2 of the room, so 2 hours total which isn't too bad. We are going to sand the top 1/2 tomorrow and then put the 1st coat of green on - I am assuming it will take two coats as well.

Here are a few pictures of the room

Before:

After the 2nd coat of paint:

The border that we got will go right over the light switch. We bought a cover for the light switch that you can put wallpaper in, so we can put some of the border in it and have it continue. Will post more pictures tomorrow or Tuesday.

1/2 Way there! 20 Weeks

Well I am officially 20 weeks - at least according to my due date. This week has been a rough week, probably the roughest of the entire pregnancy...I haven't been feeling all that great, but not bad - nothing really to complain about at least. Mike has been in DC since last Thursday. We are hoping he can come home tomorrow - so cross your fingers. I am definitely feeling pregnant, especially since we found out that Peanut is a little girl.

We are super excited about it and have started gathering paint samples to pick out the paint color for Peanuts' room. When Mike gets home we should be able to pick it out and go buy the paint next week hopefully. I am hoping week 21 will be better than week 20...I haven't been sleeping great, but I think that's mostly just because of my schedule change this week with Mike being gone and being up so late for the wedding we went to last Saturday.

19 Weeks

I am a little behind, okay a lot behind on this post, but it's been a crazy week.....We had the Ultrasound Monday...and saw our sweet little girl....Tuesday we had the Wild Game - Our one game this year and it was a great night!! They won! GO WILD! Wednesday we had our dinner with our parents and then Thursday Mike had to fly out to Washington DC. So needless to say I haven't had a lot of time this week.

I have been feeling very good lately. Not too tired and sleeping a lot better. Last Saturday we moved our bed. I had made Mike switch sides, but it wasn't working, so we moved it so I would have a clear shot to the bathroom since I am still getting up once or twice in the night and also so I could sleep facing out on my left side, which is our normal sleeping arrangement and since we have done that I am sleeping SO SO SO much better!

We went to Home Depot on Sunday and scanned in a few colors from Peanut's border and matched the paint...we got a few different colors on each side of the spectrum and will pick them out this week. Since Peanut is a girl, Mike wants to go more pastely or light colors than darker "boy" colors as he says...in a week or two depending on when Mike get's back we will hopefully be painting the room....I can't wait for it.

I am so excited to meet our little girl. I can't believe that in a few short months I will have a little angel in my arms! I picked up Return to the Hundred Acre Wood tonight at Target. I am planning on reading to peanut a few nights a week until she is born. I figured this way I can read her this and I won't be bored of the same book over and over again. It's something when she is born that Mike and I can keep reading to her and when she gets older she can read it to us! So I am going to start that tonight, since I have read they can start to hear things now.

I keep hoping I can feel her kick, but since my placenta is anterior (not sure I mentioned it earlier) my MW said I probably won't feel her for a few weeks, or if I do feel her move it could be more in my back. I just can't wait..Hopefully soon.

Crib is together and in the Room

Dad putting the crib together

Mac helping and what I mean by helping is sleeping!

 

Finished Product - Only took us a 1/2 hour :) Super easy. Mama is getting it all cleaned up for Peanut.

And finally done! and in the spot it's going in permanently

 

And if you look closely you can see a monkey in there :)

Nursery

Its finally starting to come together..I know what a lot of you are thinking, you are only 16 weeks you have PLENTY of time...Well for those that don't know me I am a planner and when I say I am a planner, I mean I plan EVERYTHING! I had a plan for my entire life. I knew that I would date a guy for awhile (2 to 3 years) then get married (1 to 2 years later) then get a house and have kids and do this all before I was 30.....Okay, so I am a bit of a control freak and I have been working on that. I got all but the kids before 30 and I have let go of a lot of planning, but the nursery is one thing that I will have done and soon. You never know how early you will go right? My SIL(Sister-in-law) went three weeks early and if we had had the shower when we first planned it, she wouldn't have been there because she was giving birth to Alyssa...so you just never know.


So anyway Wednesday night I was online looking for decals for the wall hangings we got and I found some that match exactly...I couldn't believe it. Not only did I find decals but also the border to go with it.


I told Mike about it and we decided to order it. They should be here on Tuesday so then we can start picking out the paint color. We are going to do one or two walls with accent colors of Brown and Green, or we thought maybe doing the bottom 1/2 of the wall as a light brown and the top 1/2 a light green and use the border to go in the middle like a chair rail....We decided to wait and see what the border looks like and how wide and where on the wall we are going to put it. I am super excited and can't wait for it to get here.

15 Weeks

Here we are at 15 1/2 weeks....I was a little late this week getting the picture taken because Mike had the camera, and then every time I thought of it I was in my jammies and I wasn't taking the pic :) Yes I know I am vain, but whatever.

Every morning I lay so still and hope that I can feel Peanut moving around, but nothing...I think in a couple of weeks I will be able to feel the little one moving around though and I can't wait! When I was trying to get out of bed this morning and waiting for the little one to move - which I know they are doing....I was thinking about how amazing it is that (and slightly scary) this little person is inside of me growing and getting ready to come out in 6 months...I know it's the miracle of birth and all but seriously I never really thought about it until these past few months. that I am actually growing a human inside of me. I am so excited to become a mother and I can't wait to meet the little one and even more so I can't wait to see Mike with our little one. He is going to be such an amazing father!! He is going to teach Peanut so much stuff! and he isn't scared of things like Skiing, Waterskiing, Rides at Valleyfair, so he can take our kids through all that stuff since I HATE all those things....and I can teach them all the other stuff I like to do....

I was thinking yesterday too about how nice it will be to take the little one out with the dog for walks in the fall when I am on Maternity leave..hopefully we will have a nice fall. Can't wait for August!!

It's Happened....

I feel and look pregnant! When I sit on the couch, or in a chair or actually when I sit anywhere, my hand rests on my stomach because its' just there. My pants aren't fitting and I had to buy some new pj's because tying and untying the string was bugging me ;) but I bought a pair of maternity pj's and they are great. So comfy....I need to get some maternity jeans, the be band isn't working the greatest but oh well. But I am really liking the look. I have gotten complimented a few times on how great I look (I don't think I do) which is awesome. and today when I was driving, I looked over as this red truck drove by and this guy smiled and waved at me :) Made me feel good. So Thanks Red Truck Guy!!

I was at target just wandering around tonight and was looking at their art section and spotted a few pieces that I think would be great for the babies room and it should match with the set that we want to use the decals from and get the sheets and stuff!! I am super excited. When Mike called tonight I told him about it and he said we might want to go get them when he gets back :)

Here are all four of the artwork.

 

 

 

The Bradley Method

Many of you know that I am considering a Waterbirth and that I want to have as natural of a childbirth as I possibly can. My Chiropractor and some other people recommended the Husband Coached Childbirth book. I tried finding it at Borders last night, but they didn't have it. So I ordered it from Amazon today. Plus I think it will be cheaper than Amazon. This was a method developed by Robert Bradley that helps with:

•Build better, deeper, and more trusting communication skills with your partner in preparation for a drug-free childbirth

•Learn the physical, emotional, and mental relaxation techniques essential to a natural childbirth

•Discover how you and your doctor can work together toward your natural delivery

•Monitor your weight, nutrition, and your overall well-being during pregnancy

•Use natural prevention methods for the most common pregnancy problems

•Get the most out of the bonding experience you will share with your baby and your partner

Its supposed to be good to help prevent C-Sections, medications that can be harmful to the baby and a few other things. I don't know a lot about it, but will be posting more about it as I read more on it when I get the book. Mike and I talked about having a Doula but he said he wants to be my coach (sweet huh?)...So I thought this would be a good idea to have this which will help him. My Chiropractor said the book is written towards the husband's point of view so I am sure that will help him. We will see - he doesn't like to read books, so I might have to mark sections here and there for him. :)

11 Weeks

Can you believe I am 11 weeks already. Seriously where did this time go. I still remember just finding out I was pregnant and now here I am, almost at the end of my 1st Trimester.

I want to put a disclaimer on this entry: I am not complaining about being pregnant. I am enjoying the fact that I am pregnant, I just am having a bit of a funk....

A couple of my friends are going through some struggles with their marriages. They are people that have been married for 10+ years and have hit some problems in their marriages and some of them are on their way to a divorce and I am truly saddened for them. I have only known a few people that have gotten a divorce and maybe because some of the problems they have had are ones that Mike and I have had and we worked through them. We were one of the lucky couples that became healthier for ourselves and thus it made our relationship and our marriage healthier. A year ago we were almost them and I am so Grateful today that we aren't. That Mike and I are together and are looking forward to a WONDERFUL life together.

Okay, enough about that....I struggled getting the motivation today to work out. My back has been hurting all day - and I want to Thank all of you who have suggested things to do....People keep telling me to go to the Chiropractor but I just can't do it. I didn't have a good experience at one and I felt worse when I left. and I really don't think that this is the time to "chance" that it will work this time. Yes I could have gone to a bad chiropractor and my parents who used to say they don't do any good, now go to one, at least my mom and it's totally helped her.  I think it's one of those things where when you get sick people give you all this advice on how to get better, and while somethings worked for one person it may not work for me. I don't want people to think I am not grateful - Again see above, I think I am in a funk....

But I have to say that I am SUPER excited about being a mommy...I look pregnant even more so then the picture above. I feel pregnant, I feel like people are seeing me as pregnant now and it's a good feeling. Mike leaned over last night in bed and put his hand on my tummy and said "goodnight peanut" and it made me feel so good and really excited about becoming a parent. I know that we can do this. I know that it will be scary, and crazy and we will lose a TON of sleep but it will all be worth it when we see our little peanut for the first time and when peanut grabs our finger for the first time or says Mommy or Daddy...

I am hoping my funk will be gone tomorrow. I am sure it's just the gloom that has been over our state for the past couple of days and things with my friends. On the plus side I get to share my pregnancy experience with 3 of my good friends and my aunt. Who could ask for better companions~

I'm Grateful for....

I was driving to work the other day - Tuesday and there was fresh ice on all the trees and it was gorgeous! I wish I had my camera so I could have stopped to take a picture of it. But this morning it was sort of the same, except just foggy. But for some reason I got this grateful feeling that came over me. I am not sure what it was, but it made me want to write some things down.

I am Grateful for....

   My husband! Who cleans up the tuna pan from last night's dinner because it was going to make me yack if I did it....Who loves me even though I feel like crap right now and feel that I look like crap right now...Who tells me I am beautiful despite the ever growing acne on my face and funny walk I have when I sit on the couch too long because my back hurts :)

   My wonderful Puppy! Who drives me crazy when she only has to go outside once during the day, but 7 times within 4 hours at night (Because she wants to find the mouse living outside our house). Who almost got away this morning because she wanted to chase a squirrel in our neighbors yard in a tree. Who sits next to me at night and keeps me warm when Mike is working. Who tries to eat my yarn from the project I am working on for peanut.

   My awesome group of Friends and Family! Who are super excited for us for this little life we are bringing into the world. For my Cousin Jenny who is excited for us, even though she is going through her own struggles right now (I LOVE YOU!).

   My Job..which I am lucky to have, although sometimes I wish I could just become a stay at home Mom.

   My Little Peanut - Who although he/she is only the size of a quarter right now has already filled my heart with so much love that I am not sure if it can fit anymore. And who I am super excited to meet and while I am super nervous about becoming a mom, I can't wait for the next 7 months to get over with so I can meet this little one.

There is plenty more - I am grateful for my relationship with my husband and how over the past few years it's only gotten stronger...and we are better people and have a better relationship and right now I am the happiest in my life that I have ever been.

What is everyone else grateful for?

P.S. I didn't take this picture, this was taken in St. Paul by someone on the internet :)