31 weeks preggo.

This last week has gone by fast. We left last Tuesday and headed off to Iowa to visit my family for Thanksgiving. We arrived on Wednesday and I enjoyed having time with both my immediate and extended family. We left to head back to Colorado on Sunday. We ended up driving the whole drive back in one shot on Sunday and arrived back home at 2am on Monday morning. I think overall between driving to and from Iowa, driving to Madison, Wi for black Friday shopping, driving to see my grandmother and driving to Thanksgiving dinner, we drove close to 2500 miles. On the way back, I didn't think that I was going to make it in one shot and while the last 2-3 hours were pretty close to miserable, it was really nice waking up later Monday morning in my own bed. We ran some errands and had our Bradley classes later on.

I had been feeling pretty crampy since Friday and it was hit or miss depending on the time of day. Yesterday afternoon I started feeling really uncomfortable; lots of tightening, some contractions, headaches and some mild pain in my lower abdomen. I had some contractions in the night last night that kept me from sleeping. I stayed home from work today and stayed in bed all day, not even with the TV on and while I am feeling a little better, I don't think I should be feeling this uncomfortable and tight in my stomach so I will be sure to address it on Friday. I still have a headache as well. I felt a little down after class last night because I am definitely feeling more uncomfortable than anyone else in my class and that is a bit of a bummer.

My mom arrives on Friday and we have the baby shower on Saturday. I am excited for the shower and excited to celebrate the life of our soon to be born son. Janine has put a lot of work into planning for it so I cant see all her effort in action! I will be sure to post pictures.

I can't believe that we have less than 8.5 weeks left assuming we go full term. I am a little mixed on whether or not I will go through till the end. Part of me thinks that I will go by the end of the year. Guess we shall see, eh?

I bought the baby's coming home outfit today while on bed rest. It is 0-3 months so I am afraid that it will be too big for him, but it is what it is. It comes with the outfit, hat and a blanket. I wish that it came in newborn size, but it is what it is! :)

While I feel like my stomach is just growing and growing and looking very big now, I was surprised that no one commented on how "big" I was while we were back in Iowa. None of my family has seen me pregnant, so it went from seeing me before I was pregnant and then at 31 weeks. Most people said that I was small and/or had a cute belly. That made me feel better as I was expecting to freak out telling me how big I was. We were at Michael's the other day buying stuff for the shower and the cashier asked when I was due and when I told her, she felt the need to tell me that I wouldn't be making it that long. Seriously, are manners not necessary when a woman is pregnant? Ah well :)

I am sleepy and don't have much more to update about. So, I will leave it here.. sorry for the boring update!

See you next week.

xo, mommy to be.

30 weeks preggo.

Well, we're 75% of the way through, baby.

Last Friday we had our appointment with the midwife. The appointment went pretty well. My blood pressure was a little high but I had a really stressful afternoon at work so I am thinking that is why. I was also running late to my appointment and started crying on the way to the appointment because a) my afternoon at work was horrible and b) I hate being late to appointments so I started to stress even more. The midwife assumed that my blood pressure was high for the same reasons I did. I hope that is it and that it's not a sign of things to come, aka preeclampsia. The baby's heartrate was in the 140s, so that is good. Bad news is that he has turned and is no longer head down! The little brat! He was doing so good with being in the right place. Hopefully he turns again.

Speaking of which, I had another episode of contractions on Thursday evening. I felt weird in class, couldnt get comfortable in my desk (by the way, I only have about an inch of growth before my belly won't fit into the desk anymore) and just felt weird pressure throughout my tummy. I got home and had some cramping and ended up having contractions, some being stronger than last time but still nothing too extreme. I drank some water and went to bed. I woke up the next morning with only slight contractions and mild cramping. It went away throughout the day, though. I am hoping we have awhile yet before we experience another contraction episode since we are headed for the road tomorrow evening. I'd really like an uneventful weekend!

We painted the nursery again. We painted last weekend and ended up with dark spots all over the walls. So, we got another batch of paint, this time with a primer in it and went to work. It looks really good now. I just want to get it finished, one less thing to worry about and overwhelm me. I hope to finish it the weekend after our shower.. which is coming up quick, less than two weeks away (totally crazy).

Stomach and stretch marks are still growing. I looked in the mirror tonight and commented on how much I hate them. Morgan says he doesn't even notice anymore.. I do. I have a constant reminder as they are starting to be somewhat painful and they constantly itch. I really need to start walking and start eating a little better. Once we get back from vacation I am going to hit the ground running (only, not literally) and walk a little more and eat a little better. That way, I can take out my last two months (hoping I make it that long) strong and healthy.

This last weekend I had a prenatal massage. It was really nice. The only downfall was the soreness I experienced afterwards. I think there was a major release of lactic acid. I am still feeling a little sore tonight. I plan on getting another one when we get back from Iowa.

Well, it is late and I have to get up early so I can get in and out of work early so I must sleep.

Wish us luck on our journey of 800 miles each way. Please be good to us, baby. We need this last trip together and to enjoy ourselves.

See you next week.

xo, mommy to be.

29 weeks preggo.

Well we've had quite an eventful week; but mostly weekend.

I dont remember if I felt rib kicks last week or not, but I am definitely starting to feel random rib kicks here and there now. My stomach is getting much bigger which also means the stretch marks are stretching. I remember when they first appeared and they were very short and I was wishing I didnt have them. Now, I just wish they would stop growing. I feel like they're going to be like 8-9 inches long at the rate I am going! It's pretty depressing, I won't lie. It seems like every day they are longer than the day before.

Yesterday was our most eventful day of the week. We went to go look into buying a new car. I don't really feel like telling the whole story again but it ended up with the sales person yelling at me, Morgan yelling at him, them cussing eachother out, me being afraid Morgan was going to get punched in the face by this sales person. Both Morgan and I were not surprisingly worked up. My hands were shaking and I could feel my heart racing. I laughed on the way home saying that I was surprised the situation did not put me in labor. 5 minutes later, I had menstrual cramps.

We got home I went to the bathroom and noticed a little bit of blood. So, I went to lay in bed and drink some water because I felt like my cramps were getting worse and my back was starting to hurt. While laying down, I noticed that I was starting ot have contractions. I just sort of shrugged them off at first because I've had them off and on throughout the last couple months. Well, after drinking a lot of water and laying on my left side, they weren't going away. I started to time them and realized they were coming every 3 minutes. This started to worry me. I knew that it was normal to get contractions here and there but knew it wasn't a good thing to have them forming a pattern, and they were doing just that.

So, I called my midwife and told her my symptoms; that I had a little blood, had been contracting every 3-4 minutes for the last 45 minutes and had some cramping both in my abdomen and lower back. She suggested that I drink more water and take a warm bath and then come in. I took a quick bath and felt better while I was in the water. I thought that my contractions were going away and was ready to call her and tell her I was not going to come in, as I was better. I got out of the bath and started to get dressed and had another contraction. I figured it was better safe than sorry, that I was probably just dehydrated but I should go in.

We got to the hospital and they hooked me up to the monitors. I asked Morgan to look at the printout to see if I was having contractions and I was - so the waterworks started. They were getting worse; the pain, the pressure and the frequency. The midwife came in after about 35-40 minutes of being monitored and the first thing she said was, well you're definitely contracting. I started crying again. She told me that they were going to check my cervical length and if it was short I would be moving floors because I was going to have a baby, if it was medium length they would run some labwork to see if I was going to go in labor within the next 2 weeks and if it was still long, that was the best case scenario and would mean I was not in labor.

Immediately I started thinking about him being born at 29 weeks; how little his body would be, what difficulties he could have, if he would even survive, whether I would be able to stay in the hospital with him for awhile, how we would afford me being out of work if either I was put on bed rest or he was born early, how backed up at work I am and how I need to get caught up before I leave for my maternity leave, whether or not we were ready to be parents just yet, how we didnt even have a diaper at home, how I wasn't ready to be in labor, wouldn't be able to finish my birthing classes, whether Morgan was ready both to be a dad and a support system during labor and delivery, and about every other thought that one could imagine.

So, they did an exam and took a sample to run through the lab if my cervix ended up being of medium length. It was a little painful but wasn't too bad. After that, they called in an ultrasound machine and checked my cervix. The length was 3.2 and both the woman measuring me and the midwife said this was very promising. The midwife told me that I could go home and basically diagnosed me with an "irritable uterus" and that nothing I did or could have done, could've caused this. She said that I may continue to have contractions throughout the rest of my pregnancy and as long as they're not getting more painful, my waters do not break or I do not start bleeding, I am OK. She said it is tricky for me because I was experiencing all pre-term labor symptoms so if I do experience pre-term labor, I will have to distinguish the differences between what I was feeling on Saturday and the new feelings I am experiencing. She said that I can continue on with my activity and do not need to be on any kind of bed rest, which is nice.

I worry now that I won't make it full term, but having an irritable uterus only really increases my chances of having preterm labor about 8 percent more than a non high risk pregnant woman, so that is promising.

But, having contractions that ended up being only a minute to a minute and a half apart was quite a scary experience. I am glad everything is okay and that this little guy is going to continue to bake.

Today I am feeling pretty good and we decided to pain the nursery. We dont have a light in the nursery so I will probably have to wait awhile before I can see how it turned out since it is always dark out when I get home from work! Total bummer.

Anyhow, time to eat and then study my eyes out.

See you next week.

xo, mommy to be.

28 weeks preggo.

Hello, again.

This week we had two appointments. On Wednesday, we had our growth scan to see how well he is growing. I was a little nervous since at our 3d scan he was saying that the baby was big/chubby/perhaps further along than I thought I was. Well, the scan went well! They predicted that he weighs 2pounds 7ounces, so basically 2.5lbs! Big boy! They can't predict how long he is since they curl up so much inside. But, according to what measurements they did, he falls in at the 41st percentile, which is great! Not only is he not a huge baby like the guy said at our ultrasound, but he is also growing properly and they were worried that he wouldn't. Hopefully he keeps it up so that at our 32 week growth scan, he is where he should be. My fluid levels were great and they said everything looked great! He was head down at the appointment with his butt near my navel on the right side.

On Friday we had our first real appointment with the new midwives. We both really, really liked the midwife that we met with. Her name was Anne and she was just great. She was so warm and just seemed to really take an interest in our lives, story and baby. We had to do the glucose test. Luckily I didn't have to fast during the day, I just couldn't have any sugar. So, we got there and I drank the orange drink they had, we had a one hour meet with the midwife and then they drew my blood. I was laying down on the table when they drew my blood and afterwards I felt a little dizzy. I told her that I felt a little dizzy and next thing I knew, I "woke up" on my side with cold washcloths on my forehead and neck. Morgan said they were talking to me and I was unresponsive and my lips turned blue and I lost all color in my face. Pretty crazy! I am hoping that this meant going into the test my blood sugar was a little low and after drinking the glucola, I had a huge spike and then drop in blood sugar level which made me go unconscious for 10 seconds. Im not sure that I would have passed out of my levels were high, but I guess we will see when I find out this week how I did on the test. I've never passed out from having my blood drawn before, so it was a little bizarre. The midwife told Morgan that he was going to be good at labor and delivery since he remained so calm! I know he'll be great. He's my rock.

Tomorrow I have to call to make my next appointment as well as all my remaining appointments. From here on out, I go every two weeks until about 36 weeks and then I go every week until 41 weeks. Hopefully I go in labor before 41 weeks, though! I am excited to get all of my appointments scheduled!! It's coming up quickly!

The great part of my appointment is that our midwife gave us the definite okay to drive to Iowa for Thanksgiving. It almost seemed like she was encouraging us to go. She just said that we need to stop every 2-3 hours to walk around and make sure that I drink a lot of water. That made me happy. I was scared that she would say no and I would be devastated.

We picked out a paint color today for the nursery. We bought a sample and painted a small section in the nursery. We are going to paint the rest tomorrow. I'd really like to get a move on the nursery so that we are prepared in the case that he decides to come early! Hopefully not too early, though. While I'd love the tax break of him coming before the end of the year, I know that it is best for him to bake until at least January 14th or so. But, I would prefer him to stay in there until he is due.

Physically and emotionally I have been pretty good. I have the same back and hip pain that I've been having the whole time but other than that, doing pretty well. I've been pretty well emotionally lately, which is great. I am concerned about post-partum depression but we will cross that bridge when we get there :) My midwife suggested that I start taking a calcium/magnesium supplement to help alleviate/prevent the leg cramps that I have been having. They're pretty horrible when I get them.

Other than that, not much new to report! Banana bread is baking and it sure does smell great :)

See you next week.

xo, mommy to be.

27 weeks preggo.

Hello 3rd and last trimester!

So, it's Halloween and it is also our 6 year wedding anniversary! We also got married on a Sunday so this is the first anniversary we've had where it fell on the same day of the week when we wed! Crazy that it has been 6 years already. Makes me realize that time sure does fly by and before we know it, this little guy inside will be in kindergarten and then graduating high school!

This week was kind of emotional for me. I think I just had a really stressful week both at work and school so it took its toll on me. I think even if I wasn't pregnant, this week would have been rough for me.

We had a good class on Monday. Morgan had to wear the empathy belly and he basically broke out a sweat, haha. He had the pregnancy waddle and swears that he wasn't doing it on purpose, that it really threw off his balance that much. It was pretty funny to see and nice to have him feel my pain, even if it was only for 4 minutes!

I've had a lot of stretch marks pop up lately. Its like daisies in the spring time, just popping up left and right.. I won't lie, its a little depressing and discouraging to get that many within a small window of time. I was hoping I would be one of the lucky ones and go through my whole pregnancy without getting them, but nope! I just hope that at some point they kind of come to a stop. I am worried with having 12 1/2 weeks left, how bad they will get.

On Friday night I was laying in bed going to sleep and think that I felt an arm or leg move across my stomach for the first time! It was a weird pressure/movement that spread out about 2-3 inches on my lower abdomen. It was pretty neat :) Also, I borrowed a home doppler from Janine so that we can hear the little guy's heartbeat.. I think that I finally heard it for a few seconds.. haven't been able to find it since, though!

Our excitement for the week was doing our 3d/4d ultrasound on Saturday. I was pretty nervous that the pictures would be horrible or that he would have his hand, foot or umbilical cord in his face the entire time blocking his face. Well, both were semi-true. He had his hand and umbilical cord across his face for the start of the session and by the end, he had both feet, an elbow and the umbilical cord in his face! Thanks for the cooperation, baby! It was still pretty amazing to see. At one point he held up the metal horns with his fingers, at another he opened one eye and he also kind of smirked at one point, moving his lips back and forth. The guy doing the ultrasound said that he is a big chubby baby for 27 weeks and asked if they have my due date correct. Made me a little nervous!! He said that he looks more like a 30 week baby rather than 27 weeks. One of my first thoughts was worrying that I have gestational diabetes and that is why he is a big boy. I surely hope not - mostly for his health and baking time, not for my inconvenience of not being able to eat what I want. Granted, I'd like to continue eating as I'd like, but I don't think it would be hard for me to give up xyz foods if it turns out I do have it. I just want the best for him, so I'll do what it takes if that is the case! Anyhow, he guesstimated that he was about 13-14 inches and about 2.75lbs.

We have a growth ultrasound on Wednesday so we'll find out how accurate his estimation is. I hope that the ultrasound goes well and they don't see anything alarming. I hope that they look at his whole body and make sure everything looks normal. Sometimes I freak out because I opted out of the last test which looked for tube defects including spina bifida. I am excited for the ultrasound but being the freak that I am, I am always nervous for things like this. Also on Friday, I have my first appointment with the new clinic. I will be doing my gestational diabetes test on Friday as well.. fingers crossed that comes back normal. For some reason I feel like it will come back bad and I will have to take the 3 hour test. I feel like since I have been gaining a bit of weight lately and the baby seems "large" all signs are pointing to me having it. Guess we shall see! If so, it's not the end of the world and like I said, I'll do what I need to do to ensure the best health for the baby (and well, me too).

Not much else to report. He has been alarmingly quiet today. I feel like with all of the sugar I have had today (thank you Halloween candy and anniversary breakfast) that he should be pretty active, but he is not. He was really active all day yesterday and pretty active on Friday so I am hoping that he is just tired and sleeping today. It worries me, though. Hopefully he is active tomorrow to make me feel better. I've felt a few movements here and there, but nothing like it has been lately. Perhaps he is pissed off because the ultrasound guy kept shaking him to try to get him to move... oops!

I will try to figure out how to take a few clips off of the DVD we have to upload to my blog for you all to see, but I am not sure that I will be able to figure it out. Till then, enjoy the pictures :)

Time to rest before more rest - bed time.

See you next week.

xo, mommy to be.

26 weeks preggo.

I'm pretty tired so this is likely going to be short!

So, I mentioned wanting to change hospitals/midwives. We decided to go tour the hospital last Wednesday and we were really impressed! The birthing rooms are huge and the recovery rooms are nice as well. The whole hospital just has a lot more of a welcoming feeling than the last. It did not feel as hospital-ish to me. So, we left feeling pretty good but knew that we had yet to meet any of the midwives from the clinic that would be delivering there. I had my appointment on Friday and it went really well. One of their statistics that really impressed me was their episiotomy rates - 2 in the last year. That is really impressive considering the statistics I've read of other hospitals in the area, including the one I was going to. I was really impressed with the midwife that I met with. I liked her a lot. She was very warm and said all the things I was hoping that she would. So, with that said, I made the switch! I feel very good about it and all of my nerves about switching are gone. I've also been researching a little more on water births as the hospital offers them and it is something that I am interested in.

One big exciting thing that happened this week was I helped deliver a baby! Rather than telling her birth story for her, I will make it short and say that I got a call from her at 5:50am-ish on Monday morning saying that I needed to get ready and come out to get her. Her husband was out of town so I was on baby catching duty while he was gone. She was actually due the 29th but the little one decided to come early! We got to the hospital around 7:00 a.m., checked-in at labor/delivery at 7:30 and little Delaney was born at 10:28a.m. It was super exciting. I thought the whole experience would scare me but it did the opposite.. it made me feel very excited about my birthing experience. I am super grateful that I was able to be a special part of her labor and delivery.

Monday night, we had our first Bradley method class. We both enjoyed it. We've been trying to remember to do our "exercises" but sometimes forget. It usually comes down to us being so tired when we go upstairs to go to bed that we just go to sleep rather than completing our exercises. I do think that as long as we make the classes worth our time and money, we will benefit from them - and that's the point, right? I'm looking forward to tomorrow's class.

Next Saturday we are doing our 3d scan. I am pretty excited about it! Hopefully we get some really great shots and get a semi-decent idea of what our little one looks like! Then, we are going out to dinner to celebrate our 6 year anniversary. :)

We went pumpkin picking this weekend so I posted a picture that Morgan took that I really like above. We've been going pumpkin picking every year for the last 7 years. It's weird to think that next time we go, we will have a 10 month old son with us! Very exciting.

We finished up our registry today. While doing so, I felt super light headed, dizzy and sweaty. I had to sit down in the aisle to make sure I did not pass out. I felt better after I rested. I have felt good through most of the week. I went a good portion of the week without any pain in my back. I sat on the floor this evening doing some stuff from work I brought home and I think that it flared up my sore spots because I am hurting.

On that note, I am off to bed to get my beauty rest.

See you next week.

xo, mommy to be.

25 weeks preggo.

Driving home from the grocery store tonight I thought back to living at our old house blogging on the back patio about this pregnancy. I remember thinking I was so far into the pregnancy, but couldn't have been more than 13 or 14 weeks preggo at the time. It's funny how our perspective on the progress of pregnancy changes. I am sure at 38 weeks I will look back to now and laugh at how big I thought I was getting and how much progress I was making.

So, I've been considering changing hospitals lately and am still unsure on what to do. When I started going to my midwifery clinic, I really liked all of the midwives I was meeting with. The clinic has a total of 12 midwives and you rotate meeting them so you've met them all by the end of your pregnancy. Initially, I thought this was a great thing. However, throughout time, the meeting midwife after midwife and liking them less and less each time, I began to question if this is the situation I really want. As well, when I go, I never feel as though they really care to know me. I guess I dont know what I really expect; I just thought appointments would be more thorough and want to get to know me better rather than just be a patient, or a number. Then, we did our hospital tour this last week and I was less than impressed. The labor and delivery floor is under construction so it seems a little hectic and fell short of feeling warm and welcoming for me. Im not really sure what I am expecting, maybe 4-star hotel-ish? In addition to both of those factors, I've read some less than positive reviews of the midwifery clinic and their competency.

I've considered some other options, one being a birthing center. While I wish I was ready for that, I'm just not. I feel like maybe after the birthing classes I will be comfortable with that idea, right now I am not, and cannot take the risk of choosing another place and then ultimately feeling uncomfortable in the end. I am scheduled to meet with a midwife from another midwifery clinic, they only have 4 midwives and they also have birthing tubs so if all went well, I could have a water birth. It makes me a little nervous switching but there's a part of me saying that I need to switch, while the other part of me says to stay where I am. I'm still pretty confused. :(

I had an appointment on Friday with one of the midwives. I liked her but she seemed a little less than supportive of a natural birth. While she said it was great that we are preparing through classes, she said not to set myself up for failure. It almost seemed as though she was like, while it is great you want one, dont get your hopes up. Otherwise, things were good at the appointment. I measured at 24cm, so just a little under where I should be, my blood pressure was good, and I gained a decent amount of weight. They scheduled my 28 week growth check ultrasound for November 5... which is also the date of my appointment with the new clinic.. I need to figure things out. When she went to listen for the heartbeat on the doppler, she stated that she thinks he is way far back near my back with his knees and feet out front.. may explain both the low kicks and the back pain I have been having!

We start our Bradley method classes tomorrow. For some reason, I am nervous for them. Hopefully we benefit from them. I really don't know what to expect. I think it is the unknown that makes me uneasy.

Other than that, not much else to update. I have been feeling pretty good other than the typical back and hip pain that I've been experiencing from the very start. I feel like the further along I get, the more emotional and needy I become.. but I think that is to be expected :)

See you next week.

xo, mommy to be.