35 Weeks (11.23)

So this week I went to a regular doctor about my ear, my normal 34 week appointment, and my last birth class.

On Tuesday, I went for a regular doctor appointment because my ear is still bothering me from the flight.  I have fluid behind my ear drum. It will take 2-3 weeks to leave if it even leaves. If it doesn't, then I have to go to an ear, nose, throat doctor to suck it out. I was prescribed 3 medicines to help drain it. My ear stopped hurting over the weekend but I'm pretty hard of hearing now in my left ear. I have to crank up the volume on the TV and I can never hear people when they try to talk to me. I had a few phone interviews and had to ask them to repeat things not because I needed clarification but because I just couldn't hear them.

current location of baby head

On Thursday, I had my 34 week appointment. The OB always does an ultrasound at 34 weeks. She likes to know the baby's position. Well mine is breech. I was given a postural exercise to get her to turn.  I'm supposed to lie down with my pelvis raised by pillows to a level 9-12 inches above my head.  Do this twice a day on an empty stomach. 10 minutes never seems long enough so I've done it for about a half hour. She moves a bit but always moves back. I'm not worried about her flipping yet. I feel like there is plenty of time.  I've also watched a few youtube videos of some other things to try. One thing that was suggested is to put ice up by your ribs because they said the baby will try to move away from that. But this baby moved her head toward the ice.

Also on Thursday but in the evening, we had our final birth class. We talked about c-sections and then toured the hospital. The hospital has 33% c-sections. We got some stats on why but they are in the other room. I feel like there are way more elective c-sections than their should people. People want to schedule a birth or not go through labor and then they get a c-section. I think 33% is close to the national average too.  The hospital tour was interesting to see what to expect. The chair that turns into a bed for the dads isn't very good at all. The instructor mentioned that it's long enough for most people but if you are 6'4" you will have a problem. Maybe one other guy in the class is close to 6 ft tall (slightly shorter) and the rest were about my height or shorter. I'm always amazed at class how the instructor can say something then immediately after someone asks a question where the answer is what she just said and then 5 minutes later someone else asks the same question.

Our rocking chair arrived this week but I already posted about that.  I prewashed some baby clothes and sheets so I should be ready to go. Our car seat arrived too so we can set that up whenever we want. Almost everything we ordered from Amazon arrived. It was like Christmas opening the boxes. Then I was trying to organize everything but mainly boxes are still in the reading room.  Some of the boxes were in boxes just slightly larger so now I also have those boxes in the reading room.  We spent a little bit of time organizing and cleaning out the garage today. It was very poorly organized and gave the appearance of no room. Now there will be room for our strollers in there once we put them in there. 

Size of baby: Honeydew, 18.2 inches long from head to heel. My app on my phone says the baby weighs about 5.5 pounds.

Total Weight Gain/Loss:  31.5. lb gain overall. I gained 2.5 in the past week. In one day I gained 2 lbs then the rest of the week the other .5 got tacked on. It gets dark so early so I never go for walks with Dave in the evening. I won't go at night. The sidewalks are too uneven. 

Maternity Clothes:  Same as previous weeks: Mostly. Some t-shirts and hoodies aren't maternity. I also sleep in my yoga pants that aren't maternity. 

Movement: There has been even more movement but also since I started to do some of the postural exercise, there is even more crazy movement. She always moves back to where she was though. I've noticed hiccups this week and last week but barely at all. People often ask about them. 

Sleep:  It was alright. Sometimes I get hot and wake up. Sometimes my arm is sore from being around Poly in bed. I'm probably getting close to 8:30 of sleep a night. 

What I miss: somewhat the same: Exercising and running. Being able to stand for a long period of time without having to interrupt what I'm doing to go sit. Going many many hours in a row without going to the bathroom. 

Other angles from today

Symptoms: I had to stand a lot waiting for a seat at BJ's and thought I might pass out.  My back has been sore too. Some days worse than others. 

Best moment this week: Setting up the rocking chair/glider and using it. Man is it comfortable. I've been reading in it.

Looking forward to:  making some more onesies later today

Exercise:  Shopping? Cleaning? I forget. 

I've removed a few categories that are the same every single week. 

From Behind

I've been told that I don't look pregnant from behind. I've been told this recently but more so a month or more ago. I can tell that I am from behind.  I decided to dig through some weekly photos to try to find some that I took of myself form behind.  Granted I never thought I'd share these so my shirt will be messed up or my  hair or I'm slightly moving.

If you look at 11-17 by itself, I almost don't look pregnant. I just don't look like I have much of a waist. But compare that to 4-26 and you can see a big difference.

This is probably a weird post to share. It's almost like "look at a billion pictures of my butt."  My butt is also bigger but I was mainly analyzing my waist area.

Now I'm wishing I took better weekly photos from behind.  I also kind of wish I took a single measurement around the largest part of my belly so I had some sort of numbers to compare.

I keep analyzing these pictures. You can see my legs are bigger too. I'm not so sure about my arms. I can't tell.

Would you ever share something like this? Have you?

Rocking Chair - Finally

Dave and I were looking for a rocking chair back when we ordered the crib but we didn't look too hard. I wish we had because more recently we were told that they take 12 weeks to come in just like we were told on the crib.  Last weekend we were looking at rockers and found one we liked. We were told it'd take 12 weeks to come in. I took a picture of the rocker and the tag but figured we'd have to keep looking. Then after I looked and looked I decided to do a little online search based on the tag of the rocker. Sure enough, I found it online.

The only trouble was there were 130 fabrics to choose from. I don't like so many options. I probably spent 2 hours looking and hating every moment of it. There were a ton of wood choices too but we knew we like dark wood so we picked the darkest one.

We got the Dutailier Great Value Modern Grand XL Glider from Nurture Center.  We splurged a bit but really you need a comfortable rocking chair. A requirement was the the back was high enough to support my shoulders and head. Most didn't even support my shoulders.  Another requirement was that the rocker couldn't be practically on the ground. So many were far too low that getting up out of them sucked. Also if  you weren't using a foot rest too much of your weight was on your butt and not your leg because your leg was too high in the air.

I was testing it out earlier with Poly. I was using my tripod. These aren't even all the pictures. Poly seemed to like it.

This is the chair we saw at BuyBuy Baby. It might be slightly wider/taller. I also don't remember the one at BuyBuy Baby having XL in the title but the tag could have been shortened anyway. There weren't any UPC codes or anything on their tag.

We asked about ordering it at the store and they said it would take 12 weeks to come in so we said to forget about it. Then I did some googling and found Nurture Center. I spent a few hours trying to figure out what fabric to pick. 130 fabrics is far too many.  The wood was easier even though there were a lot of choices. We like the darkest wood possible so that was easy.  I had picked a fabric. Then at the last second picked a different one.  The site said they ship things out right away but elsewhere they said with Dutailier they take longer.  Well I ordered the chair on Sunday. On Monday, someone from Nurture Center called me to say the fabric I chose wouldn't arrive until mid January but that a super similar fabric was ready to ship out right away. The super similar fabric was the original one I was going to order so I knew it and thought that was good enough. The one I ordered initially had a fabric grade of CD and the one we got has a grade of AB but otherwise they are basically the same and both microfiber.  Then Tuesday night the box arrived. After my Stampin' Up party, we put it together. Two days was a lot nicer than waiting two months.

The nursery is set up poorly because of half a wall taken up by a closet, part of another wall taken up by a closet door, part of a wall taken up by the entry door, and then an entire wall taken up by built-ins. There just isn't much to do so we're blocking the one closet a bit with this chair.

Pregnancy Collages: October

I posted July, August, and September so why not October. (Well and prior to July)

I'm always shocked how pregnant I look each day compared to before but all these look so similar. Comparing 1 day to the next looks too similar. Depending on the outfit or the day sometimes I look bigger or smaller.  I actually got dressed more days than are shown here but didn't have side profile shots or didn't have a daily picture at all. (Both pictures from 10/15 are from Blessed Moments Blissful Hearts but I cropped them to my standard size.) Each month I think that I look so pregnant but after the next month happens and I look back I think how I wasn't pregnant at all.

On July 1, I weighed 133.3.
On July 13, I weighed 136.
On July 31, I weighed 138.
On August 1, I weighed 138.
On August 13, I weighed 139.6.
On August 31, I weighed 142.3. (Well and 142.4 and 142.1)
On September 15, I weighed 147.
On September 30, I weighed 155.1.   (includes weight of super swollen ankles from the blood pooling. pic at end of post)
On October 31, I weighed 163.6.   (includes weight of super swollen ankles from the blood pooling. pic at end of post)

34 Weeks (11.16)

We had our second birth class. I feel like I didn't really learn anything because I had read about labor already. But people in class sure ask a lot of questions.  I did like hearing some stats from the hospital. I'm surprised 80% of pregnant women get an epidural. That seemed really high to me based on all the blogs I read.

Dave and I went to Babies R Us and bought the rest of our registry. Well almost all of it. A few things weren't available in store so we said to forget about it. We got 10% off everything because of the deal that Babies R Us has to finish a registry. We did remove a few things before we went to the store if we got something super similar. We thought of buying some clothes but they weren't on the registry so we figured we'd wait. We have $22 left of gift cards so we can go back.  We also went to Buy Buy Baby and added items to a registry. Then later we can "close" it out and get 10% off. There were a few things we never added and figured we should end up getting. We were also looking for a rocking chair. We finally found one there that would work but it takes 12 weeks to come in. BUT if we were shorter and skinnier they keep those stupid rockers in stock. Everyone is so short around here that people want the stupid rockers that are far too low to the ground.  Dave and I also went to Lazboy and the guy there commented how I'm tall and pointed out a few recliners that are set higher off the ground. I'm not sure if he heard me complaining about something being too low to the ground or not but he pointed it out after he asked if the recliner would be for me or Dave. (I answered both of us.)  I was looking into recliners or rockers but recliners take up far too much room so we can't actually get one in the baby room anyway.   Dave also went on amazon and added everything from our registry to a cart but I told him not to order it yet until we bought the items from Babies R Us in case they didn't have something in store so we wanted to add it to the other registry.  All the registry places have 1 time deals for discounts so you can't get a discount later for more things on a registry.

We still need to buy some newborn clothes. We also need to get some things like hangers so we can hang up these clothes.

I bought some nursing bras. I figure I need some new bras now but why buy new bras again later when I need nursing ones.  Sizing is so weird. Trying bras on at a store is required. I tried to order online based on measurements but that did not work.  I probably bought too many since sizing will change again. There was a deal buy 3 get 1 free so I got 4. I fear they won't work well because I already wore one and the stupid underwire left a mark right near my arm pit after maybe 6 hours of wearing it. I've never had a problem with an underwire before unless the bra was many years old and the fabric was worn away and the wire actually popped out.

Note last week I took my pictures a day early and then this week I took them a day late!

Size of baby: Cantaloupe, 17.7 inches long from head to heel. My app on my phone says the baby weighs about 5 pounds.  The app always spelled cantaloupe wrong so now I don't like it as much.

Total Weight Gain/Loss:  29 lb gain overall. I gained 4.2 in the past week.  The week is actually an extra day. I'm 1 lb above the recommended weight gain range that the app on my phone tells me.  Apparently I should be between 19 and 28. 

Maternity Clothes:  Pretty much the same. If I get dressed, I'm in maternity clothes. If I'm in my PJs I'm in yoga pants and a T-shirt.  I like the t-shirt my brother gave me. If I sleep in some of my maternity shirts that I hate, they are too short and my back and belly get exposed. (These ones that I hate I bought from someone on fb for cheap but still not worth it because they are too short to actually wear for real clothes.)

Gender: Girl

Movement: There is a lot more movement and now seeing my belly move is a lot more visible. 


Sleep:  It seems like I'm sleeping just fine now that I'm not sick. I am not waking up before my alarm unless I change my alarm to an hour later. I did have a little trouble sleeping in Philadelphia at first because the bedroom was so bright and I'm not used to windows anymore.

What I miss: Same as last week: Exercising and running. Being able to stand for a long period of time without having to interrupt what I'm doing to go sit. Going many many hours in a row without going to the bathroom. The ability to have my legs crossed and slouch a lot. I know you aren't supposed to slouch in general but I always like to. I also miss being able to reach things off the floor while I'm seated. You just can't reach with a belly in the way. 

Cravings: Nothing yet.

Aversions: Nothing really.

Symptoms: My back hurts when I sleep in our bed. It doesn't hurt when I slept on the couch when I was sick. It didn't hurt when I slept on the bed at Dave's dad's house.  I've gotten lightheaded when I was shopping a lot.  I feel like I had another symptom this week and now I can't remember it. 

Best moment this week: Making onesies in Philadelphia.  I also really enjoyed the wedding in Philly but I probably should have mentioned that last week. 

Looking forward to:  Finding a rocking chair that doesn't suck.

Exercise:  I'm pretty sure the only "exercise" I had was walking around at the airport.

11.6 Sick

So when I was sick last week I had to get dressed to go to the doctors. Here's what happened to my daily pictures. Looks like a lot of fun doesn't it.

33 Weeks (11.9)

Sorry this is late. I took my picture a day early and then traveled.  I didn't have time to add my 33 week picture to the collage so it is separate. I have a few but we'll just put one here. At least I got some cropped before I left.   For a few weeks I was able to look down and tell I was getting bigger now but it all seems the same until I take look at pictures.

I had a doctor appointment and the fundal height measurement was right on target.  I also lost 2 lbs since my last dr visit. I was sick and actually lost 4 but I had put on some before losing weight. The doctor didn't mention a thing about the weight. Between my previous 2 appointments I had a lot of weight gain too. I'm back to being in the normal range for weight gain versus having gained too much.

We had our first birthing class. Dave said he knew labor would suck for me but now he learned it will suck for him too. He also didn't realize it was as long as they are saying.  For the last 10 min of class, we were supposed to practice breathing techniques but I couldn't or I would cough up a storm.  For birthing classes we signed up for the 3 week 3 hour class. By the end I guess we'll learn 9 hours of fun. Well our last class we get done early and that includes the tour of the hospital. 

Size of baby: Pineapple, 17.2 inches long from head to heel. My app on my phone says the baby weighs about 4.5 pounds.

Total Weight Gain/Loss:  24.8 lb gain overall. I lost 2 in the past week. I was quite sick. The weight measurement is also a day early but I don't have one from the correct day.

Maternity Clothes:  Same as previous weeks but I didn't really get dressed much so I was in yoga pants and a t-shirt or maternity shirt most of the time: Mostly. Some t-shirts and hoodies aren't maternity. I also sleep in my yoga pants that aren't maternity. I still wear some non maternity cami's because some maternity shirts are too see through and you can see that seams don't alone. I'm probably really stretching out those cami's

Gender: Girl!

Movement: Same write-up as the past 2 weeks  but with even more movement: The amount of movement is crazy. My entire belly will move too. But she only moves for a few seconds so by the time I tell people to watch my belly move, there is nothing for them to see.  

Sleep:  Sleeping was awful all week. My sore throat would wake me up. My back would be sore and I'd wake up and Poly would be on me. I did sleep on the couch since I was waking up so much to cough and Dave was still trying to sleep through the night. My back did hurt less with the couch than the bed. I also tried to make Poly sleep against my arm and body versus being on me. I'd nap throughout the day. I did have one night I only slept maximum 30 minutes at a time. 

What I miss: Exercising and running. Being able to stand for a long period of time without having to interrupt what I'm doing to go sit. Going many many hours in a row without going to the bathroom. The ability to have my legs crossed and slouch a lot. I know you aren't supposed to slouch in general but I always like to.

Cravings: Nothing yet.

Aversions: Nothing really.

Symptoms: My back has been sore during the day and night wasn't much of a recovery. I sit in a desk chair that doesn't recline and have a cat who tries to use my belly as a shelf and rubs her head on mine so I have to slouch but with no back support. I can't think of other symptoms. I haven't had heartburn which is what people have asked me about.

Best moment this week: I'm not sure. I was so sick. It was basically awful. 

Looking forward to:  Same as last week: Getting a rocking chair or recliner. Buying items remaining on the registry so we can finish getting ready.

Exercise:  I'm pretty sure the only "exercise" I had was walking around at the airport.

Baby Preparation

Well it's not really baby preparation but every other title I came up with made it seem like we already had the baby versus what this post will actually be about.

Over the past few years but more recently I've heard a lot from others parents. I thought it'd be cool to summarize a little bit of what sticks out in my head now. I thought it'd be really cool to read later to see how everything measured up.  I don't think any single thing I've mentioned was told me me just by 1 person.

Based on all the "advice" I will have the toughest time adjusting to a new baby and taking care of a new baby.  It will be quite interesting to figure out what can be done to calm the baby and get her to sleep.   Breast feeding will be tough at first.  It will be challenging. They have lactation groups that might be helpful and I should look into them. The first few weeks will be extremely tough getting used to a new baby.  People are shocked that family isn't coming out to help in that time. It's not just getting used to a new baby that makes it difficult but I will be in a lot of pain and my hormones will be crazy.

Granted there is also conflicting advice that I'm hearing.  I get comments from people too about what clothes I'll like or a baby will like.  I haven't even thought too much about clothes. I don't know what I'm currently missing for a newborn. I'm waiting until we get the Amazon discount for what wasn't purchased on the registry which is 30 days prior to the due date and then go from there.  Some have loved the things that swaddle your baby and some have not. It's also interesting talking to new parents versus parents of kids 20+ years ago. With so many regulation changes and inventions it's just a different thing to hear about. I'm not sure how every new thing can be the dumbest thing ever though.

Overall I think my main perception is that I can't predict a thing besides not getting sleep for awhile.  I don't try to make specific plans because nothing will work out whatever way the plan is.  Even though I'm mentally preparing myself for the adjustment to be hard based on everything I've heard, I think it'll still end up being worse because everyone else heard what I heard and they still said they were in for a shock.

I probably didn't type about a lot but figured I might as well post this instead of having the above sit in my draft folder for months.

Bloopers

Many times when I'm taking my daily picture, I end up with some weird pictures. I thought I'd share a few.  This is in no way all of them.

10-5

Now I have an awful lot where I have 1 leg in the air like this one. I won't show them all. Weird thing is I can't ever remember taking a picture in that position. Most of the other ones seem to be during DBC when I was taking my picture at 6:30 in the morning.

10-9

10-27

10-30

So what do you think?  Should I share more of these. Maybe I should post them instead of the same ol' ones I've been posting.

Sick Update

At the doctor's office if you have a fever or sore throat or flu like symptoms or something else you have to ask for a mask. OK I didn't actually read the entire sign.  But I stopped when I knew I needed a mask.  I hated it. I was already ready to die I was so so hot.

I finally didn't have a fever today. I also learned I should only take Tylenol if my fever is over 101. It was every time I took it.  I always assumed a fever over 100 should get some medicine but I guess not.

My nose isn't running much at all anymore. I'm barely sneezing. I no longer have a headache. My chest no longer hurts. My back also hasn't hurt. (I have slept on the couch and wouldn't let Poly sleep on me.)

My throat still hurts and I'm still coughing. My nose is still raw but hopefully it can start looking better soon. My lips are also so dry that they are cracking and bleeding.

I've slept on the couch because our bed kind of hurts my back in general. But also if I wake up in the night for a bit, it's easier to turn on the TV when I'm already on the couch. Also Dave is waking up a bit in the night coughing too and now that is less likely to wake me up if I'm in the other room. Also my hacking is now less likely to wake him up.

Overall I think I'm a lot better but I'm still far far from being healthy.  I moved another phone screen since I still have no voice.

Maternity Photos

On October 15, Dave and I had some maternity photos taken. Amy of Blessed Moments Blissful Hearts.  Originally I thought the timing would be too early for maternity photos but then I did some research and learned new moms prefer pictures just about the timing I had to a few weeks later because they start to not feel as well and thus not look as happy in pictures. I'm paraphrasing all the research I did to just what I remember. I did notice my face started looking fuller and in the weeks since I'm looking heavier all over and not just a pregnant belly so I'm glad I got some pictures when I did.  I created an album (photos link) with almost all the pictures she took but I'm limiting the ones I post below.

Dave met me there. He was coming from work. We got started without him so there were quite a few pictures without him.

This picture was the one idea I had and asked Amy to do.

I tried really hard to narrow it down to 10 pitures and as you can see I failed. I just liked too many. What are your favorites? Do you like other ones in the album that I didn't share here? 

All photos: Blessed Moments Blissful Hearts

Sick

I have a bunch of things to post about but my mind is not with it enough to do them. I figured I'd share. I've been sick for 2 days. I feel like I'm going to die.

Last night I slept maybe 30 minute stretches max. Then I'd be up over an hour trying to fall back to sleep. I have a runny nose and am constantly sneezing. I had that yesterday too. In the night my throat started hurting. My chest started hurting too. My head started hurting after I got out of bed. I also had a fever of 101.6. I'm able to take Tylenol for that but my fever only went down to 99.6 or so.

I kind of threw up/hacked up all over the floor/couch but that at least made my chest stop hurting so much.

Poly doesn't make it easy. She's constantly trying to sleep on me and making my back hurt worse.  That picture was from early yesterday so I don't even look too sick.

Dave was going to stay home from work to take care of me. But then he remembered someone was visiting from Israel to meet with him so he went in. He came home and lunch and brought some food and medicine. I called the doctor to see what I could take.

Baby Shower (10-27-13)

My first baby shower was on October 12 back in PA. This one was my second one.

One of Dave's coworkers around here offered many months ago to throw a baby shower. She has never been to one in the US so would have to look things up.  As time went on planning started. Another friend offered to help plan too. Then I think Dave recruited a third person to help that had actually been to a baby shower before. So Sachi, Hilary, and Brenna planned the baby shower.   Dave wanted it at our house even though Brenna offered her house. At first I said we should have it at Brenna's but then I caved to letting him have it here. I initially didn't want it here because I shouldn't have to clean for my own shower.  But then I gave in.  Now that it's over I think spending a full day before and the morning of the shower cleaning made me a bit too exhausted.

I don't have many friends around here and ones I do have from Dev Bootcamp are in the city or moved back to where they were originally from.  I was worried nobody would come. I was also getting worried that the people who could potentially come, wouldn't be able to because the invite but went out late.  We ended up with about 15 people.

The shower wasn't the standard all female shower. It was coed. We didn't play a bunch of normal shower games but had board games and played those. There was so much food. Well there were about 10x too many desserts and about 10x too many appetizers. Then the real food seemed to be only about 5x too much food.  I didn't get pictures of the crock pots or pizza. I don't even know if the appetizer and dessert tables had everything on them at the time of the pictures.  A few people complimented the use of labeling. We had a few vegetarians so it was good to label some stuff and then why not just label it all. Sachi did the labeling with her nice handwriting.

I did have 3 or so plates of food. I had full plates of food in different areas so I'm not sure everyone was on to how much I actually ate.

Brenna played games with Nikita while I was socializing.  I didn't want to play games myself right away. I thought some people who don't like games would leave and also I tend to not like games.

People worked on making their onesies throughout the event.

I so love the finished onesies. I wish everyone would have made one. They are so amazing. I'm so glad I suggested it and Hilary listened in getting everything for them. Since not everyone made a onesie a few offered to come again for another onesie making session. As soon as I can coordinate a date, I'm going to try to have another session.  I've also made a few on my own. I did order more onesies too.  I'll have a separate post about how we did it. Some things worked and some didn't so I thought making a post might be helpful.

We squished into the dining room table and had 2 different games going on. Dave played 7 Wonders with a few other people.  I played Cards Against Humanity. There were 3 of us playing and I had 4 cards. Then 2 more joined in and at the tend of the game I had 7 and someone who had joined in after I had 4 ended up with 9. We were just playing until the 7 Wonders game was over.   I like Cards Against Humanity because you can talk about things not game related during the game.

At 5 most people left. I wished they would have stayed longer. I always want people to stay longer.

We watched some youtube videos and I forget what else we did on apple TV.  I showed our maternity photos too.

We "opened" gifts. Most weren't wrapped at our request. One was in a Macy's bag but no card on who it was from but I think I figured it out based on who told me Amazon orders would be arriving at our house after the shower.

Brenna made a diaper baby. I have never heard of one before. I googled diaper babies just to see what other ones look like. There were hidden items in the diaper baby just like in the diaper cake. It's crazy. (That cat is not Poly.)

I just went and took a picture of everything from the diaper baby but forgot the hat and pacifier.  Just look at all that. There were many more diapers but I just put a few in the picture.

I'm so thankful for everyone that was able to make it out. We had such a fun time or at least I did and they pretended to. But I also wish some people we invited didn't have other obligations so they could have shared in the day with us.  I'm really thankful for the three people throwing the shower.