36 week checkup

I had my 36 week checkup yesterday and although I was hoping to hear I was at least a couple cm dilated, I had no such luck. She said I'm not dilated at all yet! Arrgh. I could have sworn I was on my way at least a little bit, cuz sometimes I will feel some weird pains down there when I'm walking or something. I just figured it was my body getting ready and everything was stretching out. Guess not. Not yet anyway.

I told Dr C I thought I had gained quite a bit of weight since last time, and had her again look at how puffy my legs and feet are, and she wrote me a note so that I have an excuse to wear comfy clothes and shoes to work. Woot! Bring on the flippy floppies! (which I had already been wearing illegally. haha) She suggested finding a pool I can go to or at the very least, soaking in the tub as much as possible, because I guess that helps with all the swelling.

Baby's heartrate was in the 130's yesterday.

Best part of the appointment was that she decided we should do another u/s next week to see how big the baby is. Yay for ultrasounds!

Often imitated, never duplicated

Bella was over playing with her friend Landon this morning, and I was upstairs fixing my hair. I hear the doorbell ring and I go answer it and Landon's mom Jennifer says "Oh my gosh, you've GOT to see this! Bella is walking around with a ball under her shirt and pretending she's pregnant. Look out in the back yard."

Bwuah ha ha ha!!! This kid cracks me UPPPP.

Party at Alex's crib!

I FINALLY finished getting everything hung up and put away in Alex's room tonight. I can't wait for him to see it! haha. I am really excited about the "Alex" letters I made that hang above the crib. I made them all by myself from - get this - shoebox lids and scrapbook paper! Isn't that so cool? I got the idea off Pinterest. Best. Website. Ever.

Here's the new organizer we got for all of Alex's stuff. It's all stocked with diapers, bibs, burp cloths, blankies - you name it. Diaper bag is packed too. We're ready to go!

Clothes are all washed and put away in his new dresser, too. It's fun nesting :)

They had a surprise shower for me at work last week, and everyone signed this onsie for the babe. So cool!

And my fave - our lil monkey's crib! I love all the monkey stuff.

Here's a close up of the letters I made. :)

I hope baby boy likes his room!

Bad boys bad boys, whatcha gonna do?

So guess what I got for my bday present this morning? Someone broke into the Edge last night! WHOO HOO!!!  Lol. I guess technically they didn’t really “break in,” cuz my dumb butt didn’t lock the car when I got home last night. Someone did get into it though. They obviously went through it, because they had ransacked the middle console thing and left the tray sitting out on the seat, and they had opened the glove compartment and took everything out of that too. I'm sure they were probably looking for cash or any other valuables. Luckily we didn’t have diddly squat in there besides a bag of tums and some hand sanitizer. haha. Take THAT you punks!  The GPS and garage door opener were both in the Altima, and thankfully Lenny had locked that car. I kept saying, “I’m so glad they didn’t take our car seat!” (which we had just installed over the weekend) and Lenny was like, “Uhh….who’s going to take a carseat and carry that thing around? Probably not much of a resale value on that at a pawn shop."  Haha. Good point. I was just thinking of it from a money standpoint though...I mean, we paid good money for that travel system. I wouldn’t want to have to buy another one when we haven’t even gotten to use this one yet!  ANYWHO, lesson learned…I will now be making darn sure everything is all locked up at night or if we are gone from the house from now on. Happy bday to me! ;)

Bye bye ring! :(

Well, I finally had to take the wedding ring off. Guess I'm lucky that I made it to 35 weeks before this happened...I've heard of this happening to peeps way earlier than that. At any rate, I can barely get it on anymore and I was afraid it would get stuck if I jammed it on. It feels too weird to walk around with a naked finger, so I've just been wearing some cheapo silver fashion ring I have in place of it. I'm surprised how many people have noticed it to be honest with you. I miss my bling! ha.

Think I'm getting puffier all over now. My legs look like tree trunks! lol. Despite the pudgy legs, Lenny and I have been taking full advantage of the beautiful 80-degree weather we've been having and we've been walking each night when we get home from work. It's funny how quickly I get out of breath now! Still feels good to get out and do something though. I'm gonna walk as much as I can in the next few weeks - I've heard it also helps with dilation and sometimes induces labor. BRING IT!

35 weeks

Only 5 more weeks to go! (at most) WOOT!! :D

How your baby's growing:
Your baby doesn't have much room to maneuver now that he's over 18 inches long and tips the scales at 5 1/4 pounds (pick up a honeydew melon). Because it's so snug in your womb, he isn't likely to be doing somersaults anymore, but the number of times he kicks should remain about the same. His kidneys are fully developed now, and his liver can process some waste products. Most of his basic physical development is now complete — he'll spend the next few weeks putting on weight.

How your life's changing:
Your uterus — which was entirely tucked away inside your pelvis when you conceived — now reaches up under your rib cage. If you could peek inside your womb, you'd see that there's more baby than amniotic fluid in there now. Your ballooning uterus is crowding your other internal organs, too, which is why you probably have to urinate more often and may be dealing with heartburn and other gastrointestinal distress. If you're not grappling with these annoyances, you're one of the lucky few.

2nd Birthing Class

Yeah, so the 2nd birthing class wasn't much better than that first one. All we did was go over all these different positions you can do to make yourself a little more comfortable and to help the baby descend once you start having contractions. You can stand, lean forward, squat, use a birthing ball, get on all fours, use a warm birthing tub, lay on your side, blah blah blah. I mean, duh. Of course you're going to get in whatever posish feels best for you, and obviously if you're more upright and not laying down, gravity is going to help bring that baby down and get him out. Pretty much everything we've covered so far is for if you plan on having a natural, unmedicated birth. Here I am all the while thinking, "Bring on the epidural!!!" So yeah, once again, the class was not all that helpful. Think we will skip it this week and then go again the last week when they do a tour of L&D. At least that way we'll know where to go when we get to the hospital next month. (even though we already toured the hospital when we were deciding which one we were going to give birth at...but that was several months ago and we forgot where to go. It's a big hospital, OKAY???)

34 week checkup

I had my 34 week appt yesterday. I showed the doc my swollen feet and she said it wasn't anything to worry about. They are pretty much swollen all the time now, but some days are worse than others. I'm sure a lot of it depends on what I eat the day before, too. Unfortunately, it's normal to have cankles at this point in the pregnancy I think...it's just something that comes with the territory. Yipee!!! ;)  Then she did the Strep B test, which wasn't as bad as I expected. In fact, I barely felt a thing. Afterwards, I sat up and told her I was having some Braxton Hicks contractions last week. It felt like period cramps and then I was getting these shooting pains in my abdomen and back, too. I was horribly uncomfortable that day! No matter which position I sat in, something was always hurting. She had me lie back down so she could check my cervix to make sure I wasn't dilated to 5cm or something already. Guess it was normal, because she didn't say if I was dilated any yet. I will ask her about that at the next appointment. She did prescribe some muscle relaxers for the back pain and I told her it wasn't a constant thing so I didn't think I really needed an Rx for it. But she was like "Well, you may be in more pain by the time I see you 2 weeks from now, so I'll go ahead and write the script and you can get it filled whenever you feel like it." Good thinking, doc. I went ahead and picked it up last night, so I guess it's good that I have that now just in case I start getting real uncomfortable again. Other than that, everything is good! I really have had it easy all along. Can't complain. :)

A tip from Ms. Bellz

I was just upstairs cleaning out the kids room and found this note folded up in Bella's vanity, which she also uses as a desk. CRACKING UP.

Front of note

Back of note

Translation : You have to excercise every day to get your heart pumping.

Bwuah ha ha ha!!!

Birthing Class? Check!

We had our first birthing class on Sunday and it was just kinda so-so. Didn't help that we thought it was an hour long class and when we got there, we found out it was for THREE straight hours! AHHH! We didn't really learn much that we didn't already know, unfortunately. There are 6 other couples in the class and I think we're probably the oldest ones. Here are the things we covered:

- We talked a bit about the anatomy of everything going on. The instructor has a prop of a uterus with a doll inside, and it shows how the placenta and umbilical cord are attached to the uterus, which way the baby is usually laying, how their head has to turn to fit through the pelvis, etc. That was kind of neat seeing it all together.

- We learned the 511 rule, which I already knew. If you're having contractions every 5 minutes, they last for at least 1 minute each, and this has been going on for at least 1 hour, then it's time to go to the hospital. That, and a few other indications (such as your water breaking or you seeing any bright red blood), mean the baby is on his way!

- We did some relaxation excercises and the boys learned how to give us back massages to relieve some of the pressure. This was my fave part. Free back massage and I don't even have to bribe Lenny to do it? I'm in! :)

We never really got an agenda of what topics are covered in each class, but we're hoping our next one this Sunday is a little more beneficial for us. If not, we may skip the last two classes. We also signed up for a breastfeeding class at the end of the month. Now that one I know I will learn a lot from! I think I'm almost more nervous about breastfeeding than I am about actual labor and delivery if you can believe it. I just really want it to work - it's SOOO good for the baby and such a unique experience. (not to mention a heck of a lot cheaper than buying formula)

I'll let ya know how it goes this week!

Three's a charm!

We had the motherload of kids here Saturday - Bellz was here again this weekend and we had both Kendall and Carson over for a sleepover. You would think having three kids running around the house would be tiring (espesh when you are 7.5 months prego), but it really wasn't bad at all. For the most part, they entertained themselves. We are used to Bella demanding non-stop attention all weekend when she is here, but she was so busy with K and C that she barely even talked to us. I'm not sure how parents of only children do it to be honest with you. I'm thinking that 2 may be easier than one! I'm all about having at least 2 so they can play together and give us some quiet time, if only just for a few minutes here and there.

Anyway, like I said, the kids had fun together. They played outside while Lenny and I were making dinner, the girls chased Carson all around the yard, they all enjoyed taco night (I am not kidding you - those kids ate like 3 tacos each, which was more than I had!), and then they had fun playing the Scooby Doo Pop n Race Game (it's kinda like Sorry). After the girls took their bath, we had a movie night and poor Carson was subjected to watching "Barbie and the Diamond Castle" and getting his hair done in an ever so stylish ponytail. He was a good sport tho. ;)  Love those kiddos!

Oh, and check this out - pry my fave part of the weekend.... when Janine took Kendall home the next day, she was asking K about what they did while they were here. She said "Did you have popcorn at Gretchen's house?" And Kendall goes "Yeah, and we had cookies too. But they were stale. Don't tell Gretchen." HAHAHAHAH! Are you KIDDING ME? She is 3 years old! (A) How does she even know what stale means? and (B) How considerate of her to not want me to know!!! (I'm assuming she didn't want to hurt my feelings).

For the record, Stacey had brought over some choc chip cookies that we ate which were maybe a lil crunchy, but they were still good, and the only other cookie K had was a Girl Scout Cookie. We had opened the package that very same day so I know they weren't stale. Isn't that hilarious tho? Kids say the darnest things, I tell ya.