36 Weeks Pregnant--1cm dialated!

Hey guys,

Had my 36 week apt. today. My blood pressure was good, I've gained 27 lbs, and the baby has dropped into my pelvis. All very exciting. The midwife checked me to ease my mind because F is leaving Friday to go on a 6 day trip and I wanted to make sure nothing was going on. To both of our surprises (the midwife and me), I was dialated 1 cm and have lost my mucus plug. She said my cervix was soft, whatever that means. So let's just hope nothing much happens until F returns home next week!

Hope everything is good with everyone else!

Quick Comment

You know when you're first pregnant you feverishly read and educate yourself on pregnancy and birth because you're so excited. Well I began following people's vlog's on youtube as well. Most of the girls don't have much in common with me, a lot of them stay at home with their kids, or are just at home pregnant.

One girl I've been watching for awhile is xxxjoelpolexxx. She's a stay at home mom from Texas with a little girl and she was pregnant with her son. I must admit, 1/2 the time, the things she says on her vlog irritate me, I often feel like actually making comments to her on her vlog, but it's not worth potentially offending her just because I don't agree with the things she says and does. In the last day or so I came across two things that really made me dissappointed in her character. It makes me not want to watch her videos anymore. One thing that I came accross was another girl who was pregnant and told facebook/youtube she was going to name her daughter Jacelyn. This happens to be the name of xxxjoelpolexxx's little girl. xxxjoelpolexxx sent all these nasty messages to her saying she was copying her daughter's name and to get a life, etc. etc. I was like whoa, how self centered is this women to think that if someone uses the same baby name as her that they are directly copying her? I mean my name is Jen, do you know how many jen's and jeniffer's and jenny's there are in this world? Hello, it was a popular name in the 80's when I was born. There were 3 other jen's in my class. That kind of urked me that xxxjoelpolexxx felt the need to be rude to this poor women because of a name. Not to mention I doubt they will ever meet each other or even live near each other. How does it hurt her if someone else has the same name? Good grief!

Then this morning I see xxxjoelpolexxx's post slandering her birth photographer. I thought wow, either this girl is ignorant as to how the world works or she really is just such a selfish self centered person, she cries and screams about anything that doesn't go her way. She is mad because her birth photographer won't give her digital rights to her birth photos or give her every photo taken. Sorry xxxjoelpolexxx, your contract didn't state you get those pictures, if you didnt' like that you should have hired another photographer. This is how photographers work. They tell you what service they will provide and the end product you will receive. You are ignorant to assume that those pictures belong to you. They don't. They belong to the photographer. That photographer is an artist, and those photos are HER work. Just cause your face is in those doesn't mean they belong to you. The photographer also has the right (unless clearly stated in your contract) to not give you all the pictures. Photographer may take 100's of photos, and only 20 may be suitable to print. They are not going to give you a photo that doesn't reflect well on them. That is their right. Sorry if this pisses you off, but you're out of luck. She goes on to tell everyone in her vlog that the women tried to steal 50 dollars from her. They had paid a deposit of 50 dollars and didn't remember to subtract that from what they owed her and paid her 250 instead of 200. First off, my first impression was wow, those are beautiful pictures, 250 is nothing for such nice photographs, especially since the lady drove to your house in the middle of the night and sat through your entire birth to take them. So was the photographer dishonest for not instantly calling them and saying "hey you overpaid me 50 bucks?" or was she considering it a tip? I mean I tipped the photographer at my wedding. Who by the way, up front told me I would get the rights to my photos! (artisticmindseye.com) And was a great photographer.

She wraps up the vlog by saying her husband was just laid off from work and now they're broke with two kids and no job. This brings me back to come of the comments I've had about her vlog in the past. MONEY. This women spends money like nothing else. From the minute she got pregnant it was crazy. She was saying how they needed to get their tax return so that they could buy nursery furniture (which what they chose was none too cheap) and move into a bigger apt. Then, she takes her daughter to a photo studio monthly for portraits! I think I actually commented on this once, saying, why go every month? She says she spends a little over a hundred a month on photos of Jacelyn, that's over 1200 a year! Why not put that into savings and only take your daughter ever few months, or better yet take nice pictures at home for your family. When you're family is tight on money and you have a limited income, you don't do frivolous things like this. How about the fact that her TV is on all day? One, is it really good to have your TV on all day with a 1 year old? Two, cable costs money, rent some movies, get a hobby or go for a walk and have your cable off and save a couple hundred a year. We turned our cable off when we bought our house to save money, we saved 1200 a year, and we actually keep our yard clean, walk our dog and have time to spend together not on the couch all night.

I'm not perfect. I'm sure if I kept a vlog, she would find things wrong with how I handle situations, how I prepare for the birth of my child, how I choose to spend (or not spend) my money, etc... I'm entitled to my own opinion on my own blog. This women should be sued by her photographer for slander/liable. The things she is stating on youtube will hurt this women's business, and unjustly.

35 and 1/2 Weeks--Lightening...OUCH!

Hey all,

I have no good pictures to update you all with. I look/feel like a beached whale. It was 95 degrees today and F and I went to a 1st birthday party for our friend's daughter (Dahlia). It was so hot, we all looked like sweaty people. Luckily it was in the shade and they had lots of cold drinks.

I had my 35 week apt. last Wednesday. Nothing very exciting to report. I have been having some nausea for the last few weeks, all "normal" according to the midwife. Last night, in one of the three or four times I got up to pee, I felt like i had a bowling ball in my pelvis. Oh my god, talk about an uncomfortable feeling. I hope this feeling subsides as my pelvis stretches or widens or something. It is so uncomfortable to walk or sit or lay or anything. And....I thought I had to pee a lot before this--not I swear to got i wish i could wear a catheter, I have to pee like very 10 minutes, and it's so hot, I've been trying to keep my fluids up, which makes me pee even more! Can anyone day Depends? lol

Well I hope all these "signs" are normal signs that this baby is getting ready to make an appearance. The house is almost tidy, the room is pretty much done, the bassinet sheets are washed...we are ready to go. In light of the contractions i've had off and on the last few days and this "lightening" (ie bowling ball feeling in pelvis), I think I may pack my hospital bag today.

F and his buddies are outside in the heat working on Manny's car. I have to laugh at them, it is hot as balls outside, they must be so hot in the sun. If it had been me, I would have done it early in the morning. But that would have been logical. lol

Well I will post a picture with a beautiful expression I have on my face. I dont' know what I was saying as F snapped this photo.

I hope the baby just waits to come until F is back from his business trip July 1st!

34 Weeks Pregnant-Key Largo Trip

Every year I travel to the Florida Lake Management Society meeting (me being a limnologist and all) which is usually in early June. This year it was in Key Largo, Florida. It was really nice, the weather was beautiful, the hotel was lovely, etc etc. The trip really made me tired. It's getting hard to sit in any one position too long. It as about a 7 hour car ride. Fortunately my friend Julie drove, I just got to relax and get milkshakes at fast food restaurants where F never lets me eat! I did gain quite a few pounds on my trip sucking down those milkshakes and snacks at the breaks during the conference. Not to mention the excellent seafood we ate every night. It made me feel a bit guilty to eat 30 dollar seafood dinners each night when I normally only spend about 60 or 70 bucks a week on groceries for the entire house!! But,....how often are you in the FLorida keys surrounding by fresh fish!?

34 weeks pregnant. Holy crap. I could have this baby anytime in the next month or so. Just my luck i'll go over 40 weeks and F and I won't have any time with the baby before we're invaded by family. Both of our families want to come and stay when the baby is born, so we compromised and asked if they could wait atleast one week after my due date before booking tickets. But.....since they live in CA and NY, and have most likely already booked tickets, If I go overdue, we lose that nice quiet week and we're out of luck!!! I'm trying to be appreciative that they want to help and not get upset at the idea of houseguests sleeping in my living room for weeks at a time.

Today I'm going to pick up the changing table and finish the babies room. The cleaning lady is here not cleaning around me which feels AWESOME, because I'm so tired and F trashed the house while I was gone in Key Largo. So I'll go to Toys R Us and come back to a clean house. This lady is worth EVERY PENNY I pay her, which isn't much, she only charges 15/hour and does an awesome jOb.

I'll update after my 35 week apt late this week.

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.

31.5 Weeks Pregnant-Painting the Nursery

Well this weekend I decided to start to conquer the "junk room" soon to be "baby's room." The rather small but adequate 3rd bedroom in our house (8*9 ft plus closet), was full of things like our old desk, my wedding dress, piles of my clothes, a baby swing, carseats and various baby items I've been given or have been collecting off of ebay. I emptied the room so I could clean and paint it---but where to put the stuff? So I put everything in our bedroom (also not a large room) piles up around our bed. Then I put a giant pile of clothes on our desk chair in our office. F and I went to Home Depot and tried to compromise on a paint choice. F likes bright vibrant colors, I like more subdued earth tones. I really didn't feel as though I needed to compromise because I'm the pregnant one who has been doing all the work for the room anyway, and I was going to be the one painting! Why should he even get a choice? Ah, but it technically is his house and 1/2 his baby, so my sagy green and his chartruice compromised to a nice "key lime." Then we realized that we had lent all of our painting supplies to my friend Grace, including roller handles, pans, extension, they happen to be painting too. So we bought all new stuff.

I painted the ceiling, trim, and door, now I am moving on to masking off the white from what will soon be KEY LIME! I was supposed to wait until Friday when my mother comes to visit and help me paint, but part of me wants to finish it because I can't stand all the displaced crap piled around our tiny house and the other part of me in controlling and wants to get it done my way without having to argue with my mother!

So it's coming along, I'm trying to not let the clutter around the house get to me while I paint at a leisurely pace, considering my feet have been swollen for 3 days now. I need to learn to take it easy now that it is so late in my pregnancy, my poor body is just having to bear a little too much.

Our shower is this weekend, I'm really excited to see everyone and have a good time. After that I think time will fly until we have the baby---or not, who knows.

Have a great week, hopefully I will too.

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.