Due Dates

Even though most babies are not born on their actual due date, we have been given 3 so you would think that she would arrive on or around one of them. My doctor thought that I would go into full labor a little early, right around Christmas, since I was having very early contractions and since my husband is so tall the doctor was anticipating a big baby. 

12/27/11

Today is the earliest due date that we were given and due date #1 from our doctor. I had my heart set on this one since it is the earliest date, and in December. 

1/1/12

Is our 2nd due date that we were given from the doctor. This due date came from the 1st ultrasound at 8 weeks. January 1st is my favorite day of the year. I love a new beginning. Having the baby on this day sure would make for a great start to the year. 

1/4/12

This is our 3rd due date. This date came from the digital fertility monitor that we used to get pregnant. This is probably the most reliable due date since it pinpointed our exact day of conception. This is also my husbands birthday and I'm pretty sure that just like our dog, our baby girl is also a daddy's girl. I think it would be very special if they shared their birthday, but I hope that she does not make me suffer another week. 


   My mom was planning on driving in today, but the snow down south has made for a change of plans. So tomorrow, my mom will be driving in and my dad will be arriving from California. Hopefully their arrivals will be just what the baby has been waiting for. 


   We had an ultrasound 2 weeks ago that the doctor ordered to check on her size. On Dec. 14th they estimated that she was about 7 pounds. They said she would average about a 1/2 pound gain per additional week. So now we are looking at 8 pounds. Oh and they said give or take a pound which means that she could be 9 pounds. This was the first ultrasound that we really got a good look at her, and that they were able to say that she is definitely a girl. She looks so much like Patrick and his dad. She even seems to have his beautiful eyelashes and a whole lot of hair. Oh and apparently she is a smoker. Seriously why does she look like she is wearing an outfit and smoking?

Looking at this makes me want her in my arms right now.

FULL TERM!

I am so very excited to be so close to the arrival of our baby girl. I'm sure that this is about the time that I should start panicking about the delivery, but I really haven't yet. I think that I should so I can go ahead and get that out of the way now. I'm nervous about possibly being alone and going into labor while Patrick is downtown on a job site. This week has been eventful, just like just about every other week of my pregnancy. I have been experiencing just about every symptom that occurs as the labor process begins. My baby bump has dropped so low that it looks totally different now. The drop has been a blessing to my esophagus. I can now turn in bed without throwing up, and even almost sleep without sitting straight up. Last night I was even able to have a little sweet basil marinara sauce on my spinach ravioli. I have missed tomatoes so very much among many other foods and drinks that I have had to completely avoid.


The baby is now super low, I'm talking as low as she can go. Her movements have changed. She has always been very active, and now she has slowed her activity. When she moves it is more of a hard, heavy "get me out of here" nudge. My entire belly swings and you can see exactly where she is pocking me. Every movement feels like she is going to push herself right out. I'm pretty sure that she is not Hercules and that will not happen, but she sure is trying hard.


I have cleaned, cleaned and cleaned some more. Our house is always clean (because my husband is a clean freak and loves to clean) so there is really nothing more for me to clean. He always cleans over my work anyways. Like when I clean the counters I catch him doing it minuets after me because apparently my form left streaks in the granite. I don't see any streaks or smudges. I do however avoid the glass and stainless steal because I will make it look worse. He also rearranges the dishes in the dishwasher every day. So after cleaning and organizing the baby's clothes and cloth diapers, I have moved on to organizing everything else in the house that I can find to organize or clean out. I get aggravated when my body starts to fall apart and I have to sit down. I'm so tired of sitting around. I have never craved an intense workout so bad in my life. My legs have been so restless it's almost unbearable. I hope that after the baby is born that I still have the strong desire to exercise. I have never appreciated my pre-pregnancy body more than now.


Tomorrow there is a full moon. Some say that the full moon brings on labor. I say bring it on moon.

3rd Trimester Happenings

I still wake up every morning and say to Patrick "I can't believe our baby is almost here". I'm ridiculously pregnant at this point, and very much aware that there is a baby inside of me anxious to join the world. Still I find it unbelievable that in a sort time our baby will be here and she will be all ours.


I've started to become a bit nervous about the day that she will arrive. Even though I know that most first time pregnancies go long, I still feel like she will arrive at 38 weeks. The other day December, 19th popped into my mind so that is the day that I have picked in the baby arrival date guessing game that my mom has started. So far the dates range from December 19th - Jan. 1st. Watch her get comfy cozy after all of her attempts to escape and decide that she will stay in past 40 weeks. She may want to arrive on her daddy's birthday Jan. 4th. 


Last week my doc told me that he will be on vacation Dec. 24th - Jan. 3rd. I predicted in the long process that it took us to get pregnant that we would end up with a December baby, and I also figured that our doc would be on vacation. I know that it is not the end of the world, but I really like my doc and there is only one other at the practice who I am really not a fan of. I'm sure at the time, I will be grateful for whoever delivers our baby, but I still would like the peace of mind to know that my doc could possibly be the one to deliver her. 


I have been battling a cold for the past 2 weeks, which is extra annoying. Colds are an inconvenience as it is, but being 33 weeks pregnant with a cold is really awful. It has been the worst cold ever and it will just not go away. I have been sneezing so hard that I'm sure the baby is traumatized. She has resorted to kicking me in the ribs which is an extra bonus right now. I have basically been home bound other than a few small trips out with Patrick to run some baby errands. I get a little stir crazy being home so much, but simple things like getting in and out of the car and grocery shopping have become so uncomfortable. 


Last week when my doc told me about his vacation, he also told me that I am anemic, I have sciatica and the pressure that the baby is putting on my pelvis is only going to get worse. Oh and that my cold may just last forever and that throwing up in your sleep happens sometimes at this stage due to my gigantic uterus. I just keep telling myself that the end is near and this is all so very worth it. 


On an up note, we had a maternity photo shoot booked for the beginning of October. I was hoping that we would have a beautiful fall day, and that I would not yet be enormously pregnant. Well, our photo shoot ended up getting rained out multiple times and we ended up having our photos at the end of October. Each day that passed, my baby bump and basically every other part of my body was growing by the minuet. Needless to say, I was enormously pregnant for the photo shoot. We still had a fantastic day. We love our photographer Gina Christine, and we had so much fun styling the photo shoot. I was able to get Patrick excited about it by incorporating his hot rod. We don't have the disk yet, but we did get a sneak peek.

It's a big deal! Our baby's crib!

We bought our baby girl's CRIB!

This is a very big deal. I have put a whole lot of thought, time and energy into making a final decision on what crib to purchase. Many people might not think that it's that big of a deal. To me it was. 

I was very unimpressed with the cribs that we saw at your standard Babies R Us and Buy Buy Baby. I was even surprisingly unimpressed with the selection available at Pottery Barn Kids and The Land of Nod. Through searching sights like Project Nursery and On the go baby, I came to the realization that the types of cribs that caught my eye were Designer Cribs. Designer Cribs = Ridiculously Expensive Cribs. 

I found a store called From Cribs to College, that carried all designer cribs at what they marketed to be discounted prices. I don't know about you, but I don't think of a $1,000+ crib as being a discounted price. 

On our 1st trip to From Cribs to College, I found a crib and dresser that really caught my eye for the bargain price of $3,000 for just the crib and dresser. 

Pretty amazing right! I'm not one to make an impulse buy, especially while having pregnancy brain, so we left the store and I gave myself time to think about it. Patrick wasn't wild about the crib or the price. If we got the crib, we had to have the dresser also. Separating the two just didn't seem right. After more research and another trip to see the crib, I decided against it and moved on to another designer. 

Meet my next idea. This is the Young America brand. On my 2nd trip to From Cribs to College, we met. There were 2 different styles of cribs that I debated over, and I had to have the dresser and most importantly the armoire. This line comes in multiple designs, I love the Ma Maria and the Isabella, and over 20 colors and finishes. Patrick was not with me on trip 2, so a 3rd trip was in order. So on our 3rd trip, I'm 30 weeks pregnant at this point, we spent 2hrs. walking the store and finally making a decision. It was a done deal. The sales associate started to write up our order and guess what, my dresser, which was Ma Maria, and my Crib which was Isabella, did not come in the same shade of white! Are you kidding me! The armoire came in both shades. This is just wrong. Then she tried to convince us to pick a neutral color like lime green or yellow. Really! My feet were swollen, my face was burning up and my constant indigestion was about to come up on the showroom floor. Trip #3, a disaster, and our final trip. At this point, I'm so over crib shopping. Also, these crib's take 9-12 weeks to come in and guess what, this baby is coming in less than 9 weeks. 

Now I'm ready to buy any crib I'm so frustrated. We went back to babies r us and buy buy baby and I was so close to going with a floor model, plain, boring, white crib that was on sale for $250. I couldn't do it, and I'll explain why.

Baby #1 is a girl! As much as she acts like Patrick while in my belly, I like to think that she will have some of my personality. I'm emotional, maybe sometimes overly, but certain things mean a lot to me. I come from a small family, and I do not have many family heirlooms or traditions. I still drive past my childhood home on a regular basis and tell myself if I ever see a for sale sign that it's mine. As challenging as this pregnancy has been at times, I still want to have 4 babies. I want to build family traditions and have family heirlooms to pass down through the generations. I want to have a timeless, elegant and well made crib that all of our babies will be in and maybe even someday our grandchildren will sleep in also. 

So the other day I just happened to come across a posting on the On The Go Baby Blog http://www.ontobaby.com/2011/10/feminine-sophisticated-pink-nursery/ (thank you Jessica). It was a beautiful nursery that had a similar look and feel as ours. Her Wrought Iron Crib really caught my eye. It's timeless, elegant and made of Wrought Iron which will hold up much better than wood. I didn't have to worry about baby teething bite marks, or Ellie-Mae's nails destroying the crib. 

Now I was on a mission to find the perfect wrought iron crib. I found a designer, Bratt Decor, that I loved and contacted them about stores in the area where I could find their cribs. As soon as Patrick got home from work, we were out the door and on our way to Beautiful Beginnings, a super fancy baby boutique in Oakbrook to see the crib. It was freezing cold and pouring rain, not ideal for Oakbrook. We were able to find a great parking spot, but had to walk 3 flights of stairs to get to the store unless we wanted to get soaked walking to the elevator. I was so excited that 3 flights of stairs at 31 weeks pregnant in the pouring, freezing rain seemed perfectly fine. I was wrong! 1st flight, not to bad, just a little winded, 2nd flight, "wait I can't catch my breath", 3rd flight " why can't I lift my own legs anymore". Patrick and I both found this all very entertaining, but seriously it was ridiculous that I could no longer walk 3 flight of stairs. We made it to the top and the store was in our sight. I tried my best to get myself together so I wasn't a total mess when we walked in the door. 

Patrick opened the door and there it was, OUR CRIB! It was love at first sight. The easiest decision that we had ever made. Who cares what the price tag says. 

3rd Trimester

Oh my ... trimester 3!!!! I'm so excited! I feel like I am in the home stretch. Trimester 3 has not greeted me very nicely, but either did trimester 1 or 2. I'm so very sleepy. I felt this way in the first trimester. The kind of tired that you never thought was possible. I have been sleeping in and taking naps daily. I feel like a bear in hibernation. I want so much to have tons of energy and be able to get everything in order for the baby's arrival. The baby's room is still under construction, so the things that I can do like decorate and organize are currently on hold. I'm stressed out about that because I just want to be as prepared as possible, but I'm trying my best to be patient with my hard working husband. The old floor has been removed and the new hardwood floors have been put in. Construction on the bay window seat has begun and is almost complete. There have been many, many trips to home depot and Lowe's. We have picked out a paint color and purchased the paint and painting supplies. I think it is very sweet to see Patrick building his baby girl a beautiful nursery. He is not enjoying all of the extra work very much, but I know when it is complete he will be so proud of the special room he built his baby girl.


I'm working on my wife and motherly skills. I am lucky to have a husband who grocery shops and cooks, but I'm sure that he would also enjoy having his wife do those things for him. Lately I have been meal planning, grocery shopping, preparing dinner and even doing some baking. Yesterday I actually looked up recipes and went grocery shopping with a list. While Patrick worked on the baby's room, I made Cesar salad, spinach and ricotta ravioli and banana bread. Everything turned out really good and I was so excited and exhausted. I love that my house still smells like fresh baking banana bread.


After dinner we watched Lincoln Lawyer which is a fantastic movie.


Today is officially my last day of work. A couple of weeks ago my Dr. told me that it was time to call it quits, but my plan was to make it to October 1st and I had some clients pre-booked for their final massages before I went on leave. I did follow Dr.'s orders and close up any of my available time that was still open. I have been taking it pretty easy since my body is not allowing me much energy to do too much. 


As my due date gets a bit closer, I am getting slightly nervous that I am going to go into labor and I am going to be home alone. I really don't want to drive myself to the hospital while in labor in the middle of a snow storm. Hopefully that will not be the case and this little girl will give us some notice. She's a little trickster though so I'm sure it will be an eventful day.

Playing with her big foot!

Our Anniversary!

As our anniversary was approaching, we started talking about ideas of how we would celebrate. We are both craving a vacation, but flying is not an option for us right now with the early contractions. We thought about taking a little road trip for a weekend getaway, but we just got back from a road trip down south that my body is still sore from. So we decided to stay in town, enjoy a weekend home together and go out to dinner at Ditka's. 

We had a lovely weekend at home together and a fantastic date night out on Saturday. On Saturday morning Patrick made us a fantastic breakfast, and I returned the favor on Sunday morning. Patrick spoiled me big time with an AMAZING anniversary gift, and I surprised him with a gift that he was really excited about also. I've already been told not to expect gifts like this every year.

 We are so blessed to have such a wonderful marriage full of so much love. I'm so excited for everyday that we have together and for all of the blessings that our future holds.

XOXO

A little bit of pregnancy humor: Soccer balls & Eggplants

As I was reading about my 25th week of pregnancy, I found out that my uterus is now the size of a soccer ball, and my baby is now the size of an eggplant. Along with the two melons that I have been carrying around most of my life, I've got a whole lot of business going on up front.


I have a feeling that this pregnancy is going to be going from cute to freakish real fast.


As I was walking up the stairs over the weekend, my husband was standing at the top and said "why are you so out of breath"? Gee I don't know maybe it's the soccer ball uterus, eggplant baby and melons that I'm carrying around all day!