35 weeks!

Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin', into the futureeeeee.

Seal anyone? I love me some Seal.

3 weeks 2 days left, and exactly 13 days of work left. I can’t even begin to wrap my head around the fact that in just under a month I will be holding this little girl in my arms. I can’t wait to see what she looks like, I think that is what is going through my mind the most. I have a vague image of what her 4D pictures have looked like, now I know to imagine hair as well…. But dark/blonde/red head? Blue eyes, brown eyes, green eyes, grey eyes? I am half Hispanic and completely pride myself in it, I hope this little girl has some trace of Hispanic in her! Dark hair, dark eyes, dark skin? I’ll take it! Daniel has darker skin than me so it’s a chance she won’t be as pasty as I am. I can get a nice tan though when I’m out in the sun, the summer time is amazing on my skin and I rarely burn. (Our trip to Mexico where I refused to wear sunscreen doesn’t count.) I can’t wait… she’s going to be beautiful to matter what. I. can. not. wait.

I scored on a clearance sale at BRU on Thyme maternity this past weekend! The sale was buy one get one free on all clearance. Helloooo? I got a 3 piece pajama set to wear after delivery at the hospital and a cute maternity top that was free. I do have to go back because the top was too small, so hopefully I’ll be able to find something else. I also got 2 nursing bras that I had 20% off coupons for, I have to go back too because I got the wrong bust size, blah. Oh well, all the more reason to go back and hopefully get some more deals!

My best friend, Jenn and I went to the Carrie Underwood concert on Tuesday. Freaking girl rocked it, like usual. She is 20 weeks pregnant and the way she announced it to me back in January was talking about the Carrie Underwood concert that was coming up in march and how we should make shirts that said “Future Carrie Fans”… So we made shirts for the concert. We got a lot of comments on them! I was really surprised by all the attention it drew, we even got some random drunk girl belly rubs, lol. I can’t really blame them, the shirt was kind of like a welcome message for it.

Here is a picture of the two of us from that night.

And also of Carrie, because she is just amazing.

Jenn found out what she is having today, but I’m sworn to secrecy until the word is out! (I have no clue who reads this blog, but knowing my luck it’ll be someone I’m not supposed to tell).. Let’s just say I am SOOO happy for her!!! I love that our babies are only going to be less than 4 months apart, seriously dream come true to be able to raise kids with your BFF! So fun! 

Also, last weekend we had our friend Sarah (with her snazzy camera and super awesome photography skills) take maternity pictures of us at the same exact location that we took our wedding pictures! We have one sneak peak, and I can’t wait to see the rest!!!

Here is one sneak:

This week baby girl is the size of a coconut!!

Your Baby: Week 35

You’ve reached 35 weeks, and your uterus has grown about 1,000 times its original size, a number that might sound exaggerated to everyone else -- but to you it probably feels more like a million.

Holy hell, that's a big uterus.

Symptoms: Back pain, hip pain, peeing every hour, heartburn, pelvic pain, some constipation still...and still feeling tons and tons of movement... kidney pain...hot flashes, headaches and bloody noses like woah!

Food Cravings: Fish Taco's

What I'm most excited about: April 20th!!

Something I've done to prepare for baby: It's been a lazy week, don't judge me.

I'm not going to post a pic this week since the Carrie Underwood should count. :)

34 weeks!

We have 4 weeks and 1 day to go... as of today. INSANE! I feel like I’ve been pregnant for forever, but then again, I feel like it’s seriously flown by.

I also have a love/hate relationship with being pregnant. I love that I am assisting God in the greatest miracle of all time.. a human life is forming inside of me and I’ve done almost nothing to help it. My body has taken over preparing for this baby, helping her grow and feeding her the nutrients she needs to be healthy. On the other hand, I hurt all over! While my body has kicked into overdrive nurturing this child, it’s put my comfort on the back burner. Everything just hurts, doing the most simple task is a chore, I can’t wait to get back to normal! I know that I am going to miss being pregnant though. The thing I think I’ll miss the most is the feeling of her moving around and how it’s only between me and her, unless someone by chance looks at my belly at the right time, I love that it’s almost like our little secret. Again, unless she has a power punch/kick and it makes me wince or say “Ouch!” in the middle of a conversation, which is starting to happen more and more.

I also can’t wait until she’s out, safe in my arms, and I don’t have to worry about going into labor early anymore, or what happens if I see blood, or what happens if I have cramps that I can’t handle anymore, or what happens if I’m not packed and she decides to come early?? Of course, then I’ll have other things to worry about… but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Pregnancy is a such a wonderful thing, but SO worrisome at the same time, it’ll be a HUGE relief to have her in my arms so I can see her.

I scored on some baby clothes this past weekend and then again during the week. I went with my friend Jenn (who finds out if her baby is a boy or girl next Thursday!!) to a “mom’s club” sale at her grandma’s church. I got sooo many adorable outfits (I think about 15 to be exact)… 3 swaddle blankets…2 bassinet sheets….a new bobby pillow… and pair of maternity yoga pants.. all for a whopping $26!! Score!! Then on Tuesday I went to Once Upon A Child, they sell gently used baby gear/clothes, etc… and I got baby girl 4 pairs of jeans, 20 onesies (some long sleeve and some short sleeve), 2 bathing suits, a terry cover (for our summer family vacation in June), and 3 outfits all for $50… not as good of a deal as the garage sale, but still awesome!

Here is a snapshot of all of the clothes that I bought:

This one deserves it's own picture because it's Sleeping Beauty and it was .50... BOOM!

I also bought these off of eBay for our maternity shoot, and because she has to have a pair for every size her foot is going to be:

I also went to BBB this past weekend and bought clothing size separators for her closet, they really came in handy! Here is a pic of her closet so far… I need to get more hangers and hang the rest of the clothes up…

Also, we were never able to do those maternity pictures with my mom the morning of the shower so this Sunday a friend is coming over to snap a few shots of us at the same place that we took our wedding pictures, I can’t wait!!

This week baby girl is the size of a butternut squash… (ok these fruits are seriously getting out of control, I think they just ran out of comparison fruits??)

Your Baby: Week 34

At 34 weeks, you might breathe a little easier, since baby may descend lower into your pelvis and give your lungs some space. (Ahh!) The pitfall of this descent, of course, is even more pressure on your bladder, so be prepared to make even more trips to the ladies room over the coming weeks.

(They ARE NOT kidding)

Symptoms: Back pain, hip pain, peeing every hour, heartburn, pelvic pain, some constipation still...and still feeling tons and tons of movement... kidney pain...hot flashes, headaches and bloody noses like woah!

Food Cravings: Fish Taco's

What I'm most excited about: April 20th!!

Something I've done to prepare for baby: Last night Daniel and I washed and sterilized all her bottles, cups, pacifiers, and all of my breast pump accessories... all ready for use!!

Here is my 34 weeker:



33 weeks!

Only 5 weeks left!! I can’t believe how quickly the time has flown by…. But then again it really hasn’t. I absolutely cannot wait to meet this little girl… and kiss those feet that have been jabbing in my rib cage for the past week… and kiss those little fingers that have been punching my bladder... and kiss that little mouth that has been hiccupping at least 2-3 times a day for the past two weeks… it’s so worth it. Everything I’ve been going through, just to know that in 5 short weeks, I’ll be holding her.

Today at work we had a meeting scheduled with my boss and 5 other co-workers who are all sharing my responsibilities when I go out on maternity leave. Before the meeting my good friend/co-worker came to my cubicle to walk down with me, we both stopped by the bathroom first and then walked into the meeting room to find no one in there yet but my boss. My boss goes “I guess no one is in here yet.” So Kim was like “Let’s go into the cafeteria and kill some time.” So I’m slowing walking in behind her and she walks past this partition that’s up in the cafeteria usually used for meetings and I almost didn’t follow her because I’m like, “Someone’s having a meeting, let’s not disturb them!” And as I walk closer I see all of these “It’s a Girl!” decorations and all of these women I work with yelling “SURPRISE!” I was so floored… completely shocked!! I received a few more gifts from friends and a BRU gift card that about 26 different people chipped in for! Kim made delicious cupcakes and the decorations and balloons were adorable!!

I felt so overwhelmed and so special. I have lots of thank you cards to write this weekend!

My mom and dad have both booked their trips to come and see the baby when she’s born! I’m so glad they’re both going to be here for her arrival… She is going to have both sets of grandparents with her after she’s born! That is going to be a VERY rare occasion seeing as how we live across the state from my family. I’m so blessed to have an amazing family!

This week Daniel finally got to FEEL and SEE her hiccups! I don’t know why I was so excited for him to feel them and see them, normally it’s too much of a subtle movement for someone else to see, but he was able to the other night. He was also able to see her rolling around, he got a little creeped out. Hahah, it was funny!

My body is really starting to feel this pregnancy too. I have been feeling pretty uncomfortable sleeping in our bed at night and it seems like I wake Daniel up at least 4-5 times when I’m switching positions, getting up to pee or just laying awake because of how uncomfortable I am. So we were in CT this weekend visiting family, I slept on an air mattress thinking it would be the death of me. It was SO comfortable!!! When we got back it was followed by the two worst nights I’ve had in our bed, just nonstop tossing and turning which leads to a 1pm crash at my desk. So last night I buckled and decided to try the air mattress again. We blew it up and set up all my blankets on the floor to our bedroom and we slept in separate beds last night… we both hated to admit in the morning that we both slept AMAZINGLY… so we (currently) are officially one of those couples that sleep in separate beds. I am not ashamed. It felt amazing to wake up not stiff and sore!

This week baby girl is the size of the fruit that I posted last week… oops. Last week she was the size of a squash… this week she’s a durian fruit. I don’t know how I screwed that up.

Symptoms: Back pain, hip pain, peeing every hour, heartburn, pelvic pain, some constipation still...and still feeling tons and tons of movement...hot flashes are now added to the mix.

Food Cravings: Fish Taco's

What I'm most excited about: April 20th!!

Something I've done to prepare for baby: Make sure I get some good sleep by switching to the air mattress... I know those nights are going to be few and far between once she's here!

Well, here is my 33 week bump:

32 weeks!!

 So now we're down to only 6 weeks, 1 day... my c-section date was changed from the 22nd to the 20th... ahhh!! So 6 weeks from tomorrow our beautiful baby will be born, it’s so surreal!

My baby shower was this weekend, it was an absolute blast! I loved to see everyone that came to celebrate with me, my mom threw one awesome party! The décor, the food, the games, everything was so planned out and just turned out so well. I shouldn’t have expected anything less from my mom though, if I thought I was a planner, my mom takes the cake! I get my organization skills from her… or what I have of them.

Here are some pictures from the day. I am kind of bummed that I again forgot to take pictures WITH people and not just of things… my sweet neighbor Missy took pictures of me opening gifts. I would post more, but I seriously look like I just ate all the presents and then posed for pictures, I look GI-NOR-MOUS. So I’ll spare you most of the pictures.

This is me with my "Canadian Dad"... our friends Jennifer and Steven that we met on our honeymoon came down from Canada to visit for the weekend and come to my shower, her parents drove down for the day! I felt so blessed to have them there... Everyone was laughing at our stomachs saying we were due the same day. :)  

We played the game called "My Water Broke!" where each guest got an ice cube with a baby in it and when your baby breaks free from the ice, you yell "My water broke!" and first one to yell it gets a prize... Super fun!

And just because of how in love with this gift I was.... this is from Daniel's best friend's wife and their two little girls... They know how much I love Sleeping Beauty... I saw this first and started to tear up a little...

Then I pulled this out and completely lost it....

I cannot wait to put our little girl in these!!! I'm going to keep buying different sizes so she never grows out! Lol....

Also, after the shower was all said and done and I was able to put everything away, I put baby girl’s nursery together! I had started the process a while ago, but now that we have everything we need, I was able to set everything up. I am absolutely in love. It turned out better than I had pictured in my head! I loved that I was able to use the Sleeping Beauty things that I had saved specifically for if I ever had a daughter… I wanted her room to have some Disney in it… even though I promised Daniel I wouldn’t go overboard with the whole “Disney Princess” theme… I think I kept my word. You be the judge.

                                            Door sign made by my neighbor, Missy... so adorable!

Sleeping Beauty cut outs I made...

 More on the other side of the window

      (Daniel and I made this... well he made it, I stained it... Daniel also made the bookends and I painted them)

Now all we need is our little girl in the room to enjoy it!

I’ve started to get a hospital bag together as well… so far the only thing in it is a sleep nursing bra that I bought from Motherhood Maternity, a folder with my FMLA and disability paperwork, the paperwork for Emma’s social security number and birth certificate that I received already, and a bunch of other paperwork… it also has my Medela nipped shield that I got in case she has trouble latching, and a few other things… I made a HUGE list of the things that I will need to pack for the day of, but I won’t start that until a few days before the 20^th… I’m planning on packing some clothes that I wear ALL the time so I’ll need them out for now. I did buy an extra pair of yoga pants (cause those are what I live in these days) and I have a nursing shirt and I’m planning on putting my robe in there in case we have an emergency situation and we don’t make it to the 20^th, this way at least I have a partial bag going and I’m not scrambling at the last minute.

I’m excited for this weekend! We’re driving down to CT to visit my BIL and SIL and our new baby nephew, Simon! It will be good to spend time with them and see the new addition… also maybe learn some tips from her about delivery and hospital stay. We’re driving down with my in-laws too, I’m looking forward to the road trip. Time in the car is always so relaxing. I’ve got my iPod and my Nook all charged up and ready to go and fresh new batteries in my book light!

I went to the Dr. (twice) this week… once for an ultrasound and once for a check up. At the ultrasound, the tech told us that Emma weighs 4 pounds 12 ounces! She’s in the 75^th percentile for weight and she is head down now!! Although that doesn’t really do us any good since the placenta is still completely covering my cervix so we’ll still have to have the c-section. My Dr. said she is very pleased with the way the pregnancy has been going. I have only gained 12 lbs so far and the baby takes up almost 5 of that… my blood pressure and my growth are right on track and she also said that even though Placenta Previa is considered high risk, I’m a pretty low risk patient because I haven’t had any bleeding during the pregnancy that was caused by the Previa. That makes me a little more relaxed knowing that. She is pretty confident that I can make it to 39 weeks without any issues… which is also awesome because if they have to take her out any earlier than 39 weeks, we’ll have to have an amnio done to determine the maturity of her lungs and I really don’t want to have that done…. So I’m glad she’s letting her bake in there as long as possible.

Currently she is the size of a Durian fruit…. WTF is that?? Oh and PS… the tech said these whole “fruit comparisons” are bogus.. lol. She said “Nothing irks me more than when people come in and ask me if their little lime or lemon is the right size.” Haha kind of funny… especially as I see these fruits get smaller and larger each week, this Durian fruit or whatever certainly looks smaller than a freaking squash.. where are they getting their information from??

Your Baby: Week 33

Baby's keeping her eyes open while awake. She's also starting to coordinate breathing with sucking and swallowing.

Symptoms: Back pain, hip pain, peeing every hour, heartburn, pelvic pain, some constipation still...and still feeling tons and tons of movement!

Food Cravings: Taco Bell...bean burritos more specifically..

What I'm most excited about: getting things ready for her arrival!

Something I've done to prepare for baby: Her room is all set up, I need to wash some of the clothes still and blankets and towels... I also need to open up her bottles and the Tommee Tippee set we got and sterilize it all to get ready for use... installing the car seat is also on the list.... we put together the travel system we got for the shower, I love it!!

 

Here is my 32 week bump: