29w3d - We have a future birthday!

I finally got a surgery date today from my OB's office. We are going to meet the Bean face to face on Saturday, July 7, 2007! Yep, we got our 7/7/07 birthday for him. So excited!! This makes it seem even more real too.

Guess that means we should get the nursery finished, huh? Right now there's all the stuff that was in the guest room and office dumped in there. The crib is set up, and the dresser is still there since NSWO was using them up until very recently. But, there's still a bunch of stuff in the attic that needs to be brought down and sorted out. The swing, the carseat, the bouncy (I think that may have broken, now that I think about it), the baby tub, etc. all need to come down from storage, not to mention the rest of the baby clothes so I can get them washed and put away. I think I may have unintentionally tossed out a bunch of extra baby-sized clothes hangers too, and since NSWO's clothes still fit on them, I really DO need them still. Hoping they're just in a box in the attic too. Just gotta get Hubby to be home long enough to get up there to get the stuff down. Hmmm, I guess this is the beginning of nesting, ya think?

Got my mom's flight booked so she's all set for coming out to stay with NSWO and to help us all out and enjoy baby time with the Bean. She'll be here about 3 weeks total, I hope she's not sick of us by the end. :wink:

My SIL (Hubby's little sister) is getting married this weekend and we're all headed out to enjoy the festivities - should be a blast! NSWO is the ring bearer and I think he's getting excited about it. Everyone send sunny-vibes to South Carolina for Sunday, ok?? I think SIL would really appreciate it.

28w4d - belly pic & lab results

Here's the latest belly pic. I swear this kid has had a significant growth spurt cause the belly seems/feels soooo much bigger. I pulled together a progression of all the belly pics I've done so far and I'd say there's a pretty big jump from 26 weeks to 28 weeks. What do you think?

Sorry it won't show up any larger, can't figure out how to get it to do that.

Got a call from the OB office yesterday with my lab results from my appointment last week. The glucose came back at 88! Not sure which is more shocking - that the lab reading was so different than my glucometer reading (which was 102) or that it was just so darn low. With NSWO, my 1 hr reading was 175. That's a huge difference. Wow. My TSH is lower than the 2nd trimester which is wonderful - means my thyroid is functioning better. Turns out I'm pretty anemic though. The nurse asked me if I had been feeling tired and I really haven't been all that tired. I do get short of breath easier, but I just figured it was The Bean putting pressure on my lungs. Guess not. Anyway, started iron supplements today, hoping for even more energy once the iron kicks in.

Still haven't heard back from my OB about scheduling a date for the c-section, hoping to hear later this week. My mom will be coming out to help out with NSWO and we'd like to get flight info figured out soon.

Sleeping is getting tougher and tougher lately. Not only is it tough to roll over and get comfy thru the night, but I'm just so darn hot all night long. Hubby is like a flipping heating pad in that bed and I spend 90% of the night with no covers on at all and the ceiling fan on medium. SOOOO glad we got central air conditioning installed for when it actually gets hot outside.

28w0d - Oh Happy Day!!!!

I had another OB appointment today with a growth ultrasound as my OB wanted his office to do one so they could see just how big the Bean is getting. I'm 28w0d today and his average measurement based on head circumference, abdominal circumference, femur length and maybe one more is 30w2d. He's now over 2 weeks ahead. His head circumference measured 32w5d! Eeek, it's a damn good thing I don't have to push that out! LOL My belly is measuring 31 weeks. His estimated weight is already 3lb 4oz. I still have 11 weeks to go of the biggest growth period. I met with the NP today as the OB was out of town, I need to call on Monday to try and get him to nail down a c/s date so my mom and I can get her flight figured out soon. Blood pressure was good, urine was clear, weight gain to date is 17lbs (3lb 4oz of that is just baby!!) so I'm very happy with all of that.

The best part of the appointment though was that I did the 1hr glucose test today. I brought my glucometer from home and checked with that right before they drew my blood. They want the number to be <140 to be passing. I am so happy to report that my number on my finger prick (which shouldn't be too far off from what the lab shows) was a mere 102. I can hardly believe it, but I'm not diabetic with this pregnancy!!!!!! Oh happy day!

27w4d - Feeling more cranky, and how are you?

First off, thanks for all the kind words about the handstand. I almost didn't post it because I don't want people to think I'm trying to toot my own horn. I was just so excited about being able to do it! Ava, you're right, it IS a mind over matter thing. Once you decide that your arms are strong enough (they probably are now) then you kick up one leg and make the 2nd one follow. If that 2nd leg wimps out and doesn't follow thru, it won't happen. I still can't hang my head to look toward the center of the room because that just gives me vertigo, but apparently, according to yogajournal.com looking at the floor is the more advanced version so yippee for me! LOL

Now, on to the meat of the posting. I'm sure all you other preggos out there are getting a bit tired of the question, "How are you feeling?" No one really wants to hear all the nitty-gritty and we know that, so we don't usually tell them the full details. Usually, my answer is something like - "I feel great! Much better than I remember feeling with my son's pregnancy by this point, so that's good." And usually, that's true. Unfortunately, the last week or so, I'm feeling something other than 'great'.

Physically, I'm still feeling quite good. Some beginnings of 3rd trimester (oh yeah, did I mention I'm in my 3rd trimester now? When in the hell did that happen???) discomforts that I know are to be expected. Mainly, I'm starting to feel my pubic bone separating. Sounds comfy, don't it? The front of the pubic bone is connected by ligaments and the relaxin that helps the hips to open up for birth can also affect the front of the pelvis. So far, it's mild and I sure hope it stays that way. It feels like I got kicked in the crotch. If it gets worse, climbing stairs is going to become very interesting. I'm hoping that my chiropractor will have some ideas on things to help keep things stable. Yoga does seem to still be helping so that's good. I did a lot of walking yesterday with a friend and that seemed to make it worse. Will know to take breaks and rest more next time.

Emotionally, I'm not doing quite as well. Part of it's hormones that just zap my patience. Part of it is that Hubby has been very busy with work lately and has also been out of town for work so I've been doing the parenting thing mostly alone for at least a couple of weeks now. Normally, this would be tiring, but not that big of a deal. Apparently, at this point in the pregnancy, however, my reserves of patience are just not that deep. Add to that, NSWO is being, well, a pretty typical 3 yr old and you've got a craaaaanky mommy. Hoping it gets better soon. Hubby gets home in a couple of days, so that should help.

Glucose test coming up on Friday - keep your fingers crossed for me, would ya?

26w5d - updated bump pic & yoga pic *edited

I'm just getting all picture happy on my blog lately aren't I?? Well, not much else going on really.

Here's the latest belly pic for 26 weeks.

I thought it might be tacky to take a picture of myself in yoga class to have something to remember this time by, but my teacher said he thought it was a great idea. So, I brought the camera in with me yesterday and got a few pics snapped while I was in handstand. 6mo+ pregnant and I can still do this. Crazy! Don't tell my chiropractor though, he was less keen on the idea of me doing it still, but I swear yesterday it felt better than ever. I was upside down for a lot longer than I usually can do and the energy boost it gives me is incredible!

Here's my Adho Mukha Vrksasana (Handstand).

Edited to add: Ok, so after posting this and noticing the differences between
the pic on yoga journal's site and my pic, I decided to focus in class today on
lengthening thru my sacrum up thru my heels. Much to my complete and utter shock my heels came off the wall and I was balancing on my hands. I was so surprised I literally said out loud, "Are my heels off the wall? Am I balancing??? Holy cow!" And that's about how long it took before I came down the rest of the way. Who knew that not only would I still be doing yoga at 6mo+ pregnant, but that I
could still do handstands and that (SHOCKER!) I would be able to make progress
with my practice? I certainly never would have expected that. By this point in
my pregnancy with NSWO, I was feeling so tired and heavy that I had pretty much
given up yoga. Now, I feel like a totally different woman. By the way, The Bean
liked the handstand today and was dancing around in there for quite some time
afterwards.

Hubby helped me get one of the storage boxes of baby clothes out of the attic to start going through them. Surprisingly, things are more stained than I recall and several items are yellowed from storage. I guess I'll try cleaning them again and maybe even sunning them to get them stain-free, but I might not have quite as much baby clothes for this one as I thought I would considering The Bean's due date is just 3 days before NSWO's due date. Oh well, I've gotten a few things already myself and I'm sure the grandmas are itching to do a little shopping. (Don't worry grandmas - if you don't want to shop, I still think I've got plenty.)

Picked up some yarn at the craft store and a pattern to do a 'simple cable knit blanket' for him too. I've been knitting a bit for a couple of years, but nothing beyond knit & purl, so now I'll try to add a cable stitch to my repertoire. Grandma Jan, I may be calling you for help!! That extra cable needle is a bit intimidating right now.

26w2d - Happy Easter

Things are going well, we had a lovely Easter this year with 2 different egg hunts for NSWO and absolutely gorgeous weather. Sorry to all of you stuck in a freaky spring freeze. It was in the 70's-low 80's here and the weather held just long enough to enjoy the hunts outside. By 3pm today, the clouds had returned, the temps dropped, and the rains began to fall yet again.

Our neighbors had us over for brunch and took some lovely photos of the entire family.

NSWO decided it would be sweet to give his brother a kiss, but unfortunately, with a dress on, it just looks - well, odd. It was the thought that counts.

25w2d - Big Boy Room is finished!

I've been slowly working on NSWO's new big boy room for a couple of weeks now. The furniture arrived this weekend, so now it's 'done' and I can post pics.

Here's a pic of the bedding - aka the inspiration for the room.

Before pic - originally, the room was all the tan color that's at the bottom, including the ceiling. I painted the ceiling white, then did the blue and the red stripe. Next, I sketched on the trains around the room. Here's a pic of the train nearly completed.
Next, I finished the trains and outlined everything in black like the bedding design.
Here's a pic of NSWO running around his new room.
And here are a couple with the new furniture in place.

I think he likes his new room.