As of your appointment on 4/28, you were weighing about 7lbs 4oz which dropped you from the 98th percentile to the 95th percentile for weight. Hey, it’s a step in the right direction! But at this pace you’ll still be over 10lbs if you go 40 weeks! 🙂

Though we will continue to monitor your progress during our weekly visits, Dr. Carmichael thought it would be a good idea to go ahead and get us on the schedule to induce labor somewhere around 38 weeks. There are limited induction spots and apparently they fill up fast. Well, they called to let me know that the hospital officially has a spot reserved for you to be born on Tuesday, May 19th. That’s just a little over 2 weeks from now!

The plan is for your father and I to work Monday (5/18), then check into the hospital around 8:00pm that evening. Shortly after we check in, they will administer the drugs that will begin the dilation process. We’ll sleep there through the night and at around 4:30am the next morning (5/19) they will administer the Pitocin, the drug that will start the contraction process. If all goes as planned, you will make your big debut sometime that day….preferably earlier rather than later. 🙂

So, there you have it. Your birth day is officially scheduled….as long as you don’t decide to surprise us before then….and your father and I are more anxious, nervous, terrified, and excited than ever!

The title of this blog is two fold… 

My feet started swelling about two weeks ago and have not let up since.  Then this weekend my hands decided to join in.  They are not as bad as my feet but I am down to wearing just my engagement ring now. 

The 2^nd story… 

We had our pictures taken on Saturday and I wanted to make sure I had both rings on for that.  Shortly after the pictures, I decided it probably wasn’t safe to keep wearing both rings (might lose a digit) so I wrapped my wedding band in a Kleenex and put it in my makeup bag.  I unpacked everything from my makeup bag on Sunday but it wasn’t until I was on my way to work Monday that I realized I had thrown the Kleenex, with my ring in it, in the trash!  I frantically called Brad to ask him to dig through the trash to see if he could find it.  What I didn’t tell him then was that my biggest fear was that I had thrown the Kleenex in the toilet instead of the trash, as I sometimes do.  Luckily, after the 2^nd time through each item in the trash can, he found it!  Whew – that was a close one…and one that he won’t soon let me forget.  

This is the question I posed to your father after a particularly long day at work and some excessively swollen feet and ankles. His response:  he casually glanced over in the direction of my feet and somberly says, “No, where are they?”  To which we both cracked up!

Unfortunately, my ankles and feet have been rather swollen the past few days…without much  reprieve.  On top of that, my lower back has been hurting pretty badly…not so much all over, more like a sharp shooting pain on one side.  Still feeling pretty lucky all things considered.

We had our last two baby classes this weekend: car seat basics and breastfeeding.  We actually learned quite a bit in both classes.  We’ve even got your car seat base installed in my car now; we’ll just get the professionals to check it to make sure it’s installed correctly.  We are going to Babies R Us next weekend to have pregnancy pics made so that should be fun.  The hospital bag is pretty much packed and I even bought my first nursing bra today.  We’re getting close…

Your grandma Luli is planning to go with us to the doctor for your sonogram on April 28th.  It will be a lot of fun for her to get to see you and all the fun things you do to pass the time in my tummy.  Your movements have slowed down quite a bit over the past couple of weeks….judging from the looks of my belly button, I think it’s safe to say you are  probably running out of room to stretch out in there.

Oh, speaking of your grandparents, Tery and Sue got married!  After almost 20 years of living as a married couple without the title, they decided to make it official!  They are going to have a celebratory cookout the weekend of May 1st which should be a lot of fun.

Make no mistake about it, no one…and I mean no one…ever thought that your father and I would produce small offspring. However, I don’t think any of us anticipated you growing quite so fast in the womb either!

You weighed in at 5 lbs 8 oz last Friday (4/10) and today they estimated you to be about 6 lbs 6 oz! That’s almost a one pound gain in just five days! Granted, there is a margin for error with this, so even if you give/take a half pound, you are still one big girl!

I asked Dr. Carmichael at what point, weight wise, we would make the decision to bring you into the world (as opposed to waiting for you to decide when that would happen) and she said somewhere around 9 pounds. So, at this rate, she’ll be enducing me in about 10 days. 🙂 Just kidding! But she did say again that we should probably be prepared for your arrival closer to the middle of May. That’s only about a month away…YIKES!

I guess that explains why I feel so pregnant these days. My back has really been hurting…not so much all over, but more like a pinched nerve in one particular area. My feet/ankles are pretty much swollen on a daily basis but nothing too terribly bad like it was before…just the normal swelling stuff you’d expect. I am feeling pretty good all in all and I’ll be happy as long as we both keep getting clean bills of health from the doctor.

You were so cute on the sonogram today. You were doing all the stuff you were supposed to, attempting to breath, moving around, responding to stimulus, etc. In addition, you had a fierce case of the hiccups. It’s funny, your father and I have been wondering if any of your movements were hiccup related but none of them seemed rhythmic enough. Well, not only did I get to feel them today, I got to actually see you while you had them. It was SO cute – your little chest and belly would spasm as you did it and simultaneously I could feel you move. Pretty cool stuff!

I am sitting here in your rocker/glider in your room typing this blog while your father hangs your curtains. He’s very manly right now with his laser level and power drill (the one I got him for Xmas). He’s only cussed twice now…but we’re only on the first curtain. Maddison keeps poking her head in here to see what’s going on….not sure she knows what to think of all this!

Oh, I had a dream the other night that you had brown hair and blue eyes. We’ll see if either (or maybe both) of those come true?!

We have the last of our classes this weekend: car seat basics and breastfeeding. Once those are done we just have the little things left like picking out announcements and creating the email that we’ll send out to let everyone know that you’ve arrived.

It won’t be long now….

You have been moving like crazy in my tummy lately.  I LOVE IT!  Sometimes it’s so big that I can even see my tummy moving!  It usually happens pretty fast but even your dad was lucky enough to catch a glimpse last Saturday (4/4).  You were weighing in at about 5 pounds on Tuesday (4/7) so I would imagine space is getting tight in there for you.  But I must say, every time you move it makes me smile – that’s definitely one of the things I will miss most about being pregnant.  It’s amazing how much joy you are already bringing to our lives and you’re not even here yet! 

Holy Moly! We are officially 32 1/2 weeks along on this 40 (probably for us, closer to 38) week journey! It’s just soooo hard to believe that you’ll be here in just a few short weeks!

We had our last baby shower (a coed shower hosted by all of our Uline friends) last Saturday. It was soooo much fun to be on the receiving end of such an awesome party for a change. It’s quite different than being the hosts. We’ve pretty much received all the necessities off our registry so we are all set. The only major things left are a high chair, pack-n-play, and an extra car seat base for your dad’s car.

Now we need to focus on all the other things we still need to do, like: making cabinet space for your things in the kitchen and linen closets, finding a daycare, solidifying a pediatrician, replacing the bald tires on my car, packing our hospital/diaper bags, laundering all of your clothes and blankets, deciding how we want to organize your dresser drawers/closet, etc. Maybe this is the “nesting” part they refered to in the baby class?!?!

Speaking of classes, we are taking CPR and Basic Baby Care this weekend. I think they are going to teach us things like how to bathe you, how to change your diapers, how to swaddle you, how to hold you, etc. I tell you what, I don’t know how our parents did it without all this guidance….this is a whole new world to us!

Well, I guess I should get busy working on that to do list. Wish me luck….

We are just over 31 weeks along and you’re doing great!  You weighed in at 4 lbs 11 oz today so you’ve gained about 10 ounces in the last week!  You were just as active as ever in there, so much so that you’ve turned completely the opposite way now.  You are back to being head up whereas last week you were head down.  And you went from being face up to face down just in the short time it took to do the sonogram!  No wonder I can feel you moving off and on throughout the day….you stay pretty busy in there.

Of course you had your feet completely above your head and were keeping your little hands busy with them.  You are developing just as you should be – your little tummy was rising then falling then rising then falling.  She said that means you are practicing how to breath which is a great sign for your age!  Keep up the good work!

There were also more comments on just how much hair you have….even I can see it on the sonongram!  Your father and I are getting anxious for your arrival….remind me of that when I am so exhausted I can barely function.  🙂

Our 2 day baby class was a little neve racking, but fairly informative.  We now know how to count contractions, when to go to the hospital/when not to, what the birthing beds look like, and the difference between a spinal and an epidural….along with a few other things.

It was a very eye-opening experience an that made your father and I just a little bit nervous.  We have faith that we’ve chosen a great doctor and hospital though so we feel confident that we will all 3 be in good hands.  It won’t be long now….

It’s about 9am Saturday morning; in about 3 hours your father and I will report to the hospital for our “Learn How to Have Babies” classes.  They’re scheduled from 12 – 5 today and 1 – 5 tomorrow.  After spending all weekend there we better be well versed on how this whole thing is going to go down!  :-}  We’ll report back with our learnings!

We went for our checkup and sonogram today.  You were just as active as ever in there and still have an affinity for your feet.  We got a couple of good sonogram pics of you playing with your feet and toes and she even got one pic of just your foot and calf.  She measured your foot at my request and it was just over 6mm long….they’re growing fast!  You’ve also turned over since the last time we saw you – are are now head down – just one step closer to making your arrival!  She said it also looks like you are sporting a full head of hair in there.  Given my hair situation at birth (see pics) this did not surprise me much…I just hope you have lighter hair like your father.  This being a girl with super dark and thick body hair is not always so much fun.  🙂  Oh, and she did a 3-D image – even though you weren’t exactly cooperating (your hands and feet are always up around your face) it seemed to me that you had a cute little button nose…we’ll see if that holds true once you get here.

After the sonogram we met with Dr. Carmichael.  Looks like you are running about a week big right now and given the fact that neither your father or I are small people she seems to think it’s more realistic to expect you to arrive somewhere between 38 & 40 weeks.  That means you could be here as early as mid-May!  That’s only a little over 7 weeks away!!!  Good thing your father and I are planners as we’ve got most everything ready to go. Now we just need to focus on packing a hospital bag, finalizing everything in the nursery, and finding a daycare!  Everyone is SUPER anxious to meet you!

Mommy at 2 months

Mommy at 6 months