38 Weeks

Well yesterday was my 38 week! I had my midwife apt and was a lot happier leaving their office this week than I was last week. I got to see one of my favorite midwives. She lectured me a little on my lung wheezing and how I don't use my inhalers properly, but then she offered to check me to see if I had made any progress from 36 weeks (where I was 1cm dilated and "soft"). She said I was 2cm dilated and had one of the most favorable cervixes she had seen all day (her words exactly). I don't really know what this means, lol, but it sounded good and she said it with excitement. She said to make an apt. for next week and she wanted me to have an ultrasound beforehand to make sure the baby was not too large. She said she didn't think the baby would be too big, my fundus measures right on each week and I haven't put on godly amounts of weight (29 lbs so far), but she said its standard for patients who were HERE COMES THE TAG...Overweight when they became pregnant. Why do they "tag" people, just lie to me and tell me you make all women get an ultrasound at 39 weeks, lol.

Anyway...so my blood pressure was good, i've gained 20 lbs, and I am ready to have this baby. It appears I have a tear in my upper abdominal muscles, which she says occurs often, but it is really painfal to cough or laugh or hit my belly on a table or anything. She said "try not to have another baby for a few years" and I said "no problem!"

We had the carseat installed in F's subaru, when it is "correctly" installed as done by the nice technician, my knees hit the dashboard if I ride in the front, lol. So I guess we'll be taking road trips with me in the back seat! She said when we switch to a convertable front facing seat after 1 year there will be plenty more space.

Hope everything is well with anyone else. I am going to continue my mission to have this baby. My friend Nicole is doing accupuncture on me tomorrow, and I've been walking 2-3 miles a day with Grace. So wish me luck, better yet, wish that I have my baby soon! lol

Baby Shower

Hey all

It has been a crazy week! This past week my mom visited, my friends had a shower for me and we got the nursery half done. My mom arrived on Thursday in the evening, since we were given a new prepared birth class instrustor, they scheduled an extra class Thursday night. My mom went with me because F has Kung Fo class on Thurs. It wasn't too bad. I was afraid she'd be kind of a martyr, you know the whole "I had two kids with no drugs...blah blah blah...." She behaved though. Friday my mom and I went to Toys R Us and we ordered the changing table and bought some sheets for the pack and play. She wanted to buy us more but I really just wanted to wait until after the shower, also I didn't want my mom breaking the bank on baby stuff that she thinks we need. Friday night we just relaxed and F made us pizza on the grill.

Saturday was my shower. It was beautiful. I didn't want anything girly so 4 of my friends planned a great pot luck picnic for us at a local park. It was really nice, we had 36 people come and the food was great! Everyone just relaxed and chatted and ate a nice lunch. We had cake and then they wanted us to open presents. It kind of makes both Franco and I uncomfortable opening presents in front of people, but I guess that's what people wanted. Everyone was so generous. We did get a lot of duplicates from the registry, but that wasn't a problem. The next day my mom and I returned the duplicates to Target and Toys R Us and we were able to get almost everything else on the registry. The only thing I think we have left to buy is the stroller frame that the carseat snaps into.

Sunday my mom finished painting the nursery and she put together our crib. It was so surreal to see the crib actually set up in the room. I'm getting really excited about finishing it up. We have some things to pick up at Ikea when we go in a week or two.

I dropped my mom off at the aiport at 4:30 this morning! It was so hard to go back to sleep when I got home, but it was okay.

Right now the pregancy is good, my asthma has been really bad. The midwife is sending me to the OB this week to make sure it's not affecting the baby negatively. Hopefully everthing is fine. I've been packing on pounds these last two weeks! It's all the cake and treats from the visiters and parties! Hopefully I won't get lectured too sternly. Other than that, the soon-to-be grandparents on both sides are making me feel a little pressured to have them all come and stay with us when we have the baby. I know they just want to be helpful and see the baby but I just want F and I to have a week by ourselves with the baby at home before we have houseguests, you know? How do you delicately tell people they need to wait without sounding ungrateful? hmmm will have to think of how to handle this and soon.

We Have a Crib!

Hey everyone,

Hopefully everyone is doing well. Yesterday I picked up the crib from the lady I babysit for. She worked for potterybarn and william and sonoma when she was pregnant for her daughter a few years ago and had purchased all here baby furniture from potterybarn kids. She had saved the crib after he daughter outgrew it and decided to give it to me as a gift. I'm really thrilled. It's a $700 dollar crib! I don't care if it's used either, for one it's made of wood and there a clean nice family. I feel so lucky to be acquainted with such giving people. This really helps F and I out with getting our nursery together. I know our friends and parents will want to buy some things, but I never expected them to buy us expensive furniture or anything. I want to put it together now because i'm so excited but I am going to wait until my Mom is here in two weeks and we get the nursery painted and cleaned. I also have to buy a mattress. I'll wait until after my shower to by anything.

Today I walked 3.3 miles with Grace, boy was it HOT! Holy cow, I made it the entire way though. I had to stop a few times to take a drink in the shade and catch my breath. I hope to be able to run again after I have the baby. I miss the runners high! I have kept off 3 of the 4 lbs I lost this week, so i'm still at about 17 or 18 lbs gained so far. Not bad for almost 31 weeks! I have an appointment this Wednesday to see the midwives, hopefully they will say "good job on not packing on the lbs!" Everything else feels great! F and I are getting really excited, we only have 2 months left!

I'm really enjoying my prenatal yoga and swim classes. I've met some really nice ladies with some really helpful information on pediatricians, insurance, etc. I don't know if I can stomach another prepared childbirth class (see previous post about that), but we paid for it, so we might as well go. I'll post later.

TERRIBLE Prepared Childbirth Class

Today is 30 weeks! Congrats to me. I took a picture yesterday but I hated it. I am feeling gigantic these days. I had gotten up to 21 lbs gained on Sunday, but by today I've lost 4 of those, now I'm only at 17 lbs gained. Is it strange to lose 4 lbs in 5 days? I have been eating upwards of 2000 calories and drinking at least 70-90 fl oz of water a day. The only thing I have changed is that I started drinking 1 espresso shot in the morning again with my husband. I tried to call the midwife to ask her, but she's out of the office today and I don't think it's any kind of emergency. I have an apt. next Wednesday also, if I don't lose anymore I'll ask then, if I lose more weight before then I think I'll call. The baby seems fine, plenty of movement and kicking and I haven't' been losing fluid or anything.

We took our first prepared childbirth class last night. IT WAS AWFUL. This women said "like" and "um" so many times I wanted to shake her. It was so distracting listening to her talk because all I could concentrate on were like and um. She really didn't answer anyone's question, she was all over the place in topics, and she kept having to ask the other Doula in the back for answers to questions, which I find very unprofessional. We paid 60 dollars for the 4 week course, but on the ride home we seriously considered no even going back, that's how bad it was! It's 2.5 hours for the next 3 Wednesday evenings, I think I knew more about stuff than this crack pot lady. Anyway...I guess we'll go because I hate to waste the 60 bucks. F says he wasn't disappointed like me because it was exactly as bad as he expected! lol. I was really disappointed, because everyone says, even if you read all the pregnancy books, go to the class because it's helpful and you will learn something. I highly doubt it, but I guess we'll see. I don't really feel like meeting other preggos either from the class, I already meet so many at the prenatal yoga and mothers in motion swim class. I almost dread telling Grace how bad it was, she'll probably say I told you so, her OB told her that birth classes are a waste of time because things never go as you expect anyway.

I'll post a new picture soon, I hate the ones I took yesterday.

28 Weeks Pregnant

Finally into my third trimester. Things seem to be going better. I've gained 15 lbs, which the midwife seemed pleased with. After failing my first glucose screen I passed the dreaded 4 hour glucose tolerance test! Yeah! No Gestational diabetes! My Asthma is not improving, but not holding me back or hurting the baby, so I just tell myself it could be so much worse!

I've been trying to walk 4 night a week (or more if we're ambitious) with my friend Grace. When I walk with her consistently and watch my sugar sweet intake I consistently maintain or lose weight. The longer 3-mile walks are a little difficult, I get this tight feeling in my stomach like cramps that are just irritating, no really painful, but bad enough I have to stop and breath a little. I finally got some maternity clothes I like, after returning some hideous flowery things I had bought earlier that never quite fit. I got some nursing tanks and a nursing bra from gap maternity, after trying on like 10 nursing bras at the fancy maternity store her in town.

My friends are throwing me a shower at the end of May and all the invites just went out so I'm excited for that too. I finished TA'ing today and now the summer is mine! Hopefully I will get lots of work done with no teaching/grading etc to do.

Franco and I signed up for a birthing class that's 4 evenings in May. He isn't very happy about it, and I know parts of it will be boring, but I'm excited to ask questions and hopefully get more comfortable with the whole hospital thing.

We bought a new camera this weekend at Super Walmart, we got a Canon EOS Digital SLR camera. F has been playing with it nonstop, he'll be the official daddy photographer I guess! Hope everything is good!