Currently 6.25.2015

I've been considering doing one of these posts for quite some time and after reading Jenn's from Going the Distance, I finally convinced myself to do it. I've been doing a lot of reflecting lately so it seems like an appropriate post.

 

Currently...

Dreaming ...
of having our new babe in our arms.

A picture from this week's ultrasound at 37 weeks

Planning ...
long-term maternity sub plans. These are so time consuming! It's hard to wrap my brain around not starting the school year with my new group of students and it's even more difficult to pass the torch temporarily to my sub. I'm fortunate to have an amazing sub that I can completely count on for all things and thanks to her, I know I'll be able to enjoy my maternity leave...it's a control thing. I just keep thinking about the routine and structure and what it will be like to come in 8 weeks into the school year. It will basically be like having them start all over again...any suggestions for how to make this transition easier are appreciated.

Drinking ...
coffee...don't judge. A small one every now and then is a treat and my Keurig was feeling really neglected.

Reading ...
positive, encouraging birth stories and lesson plans from the beginning of last year

Wanting ...
to get the show on the road. I've been having contractions on and off for the last week now...with some good ones early Wednesday morning. I am getting to the point that I either want them to really take off and get things moving or just stall out and give me some solid rest. I did find out, to our surprise, that I am now 3cm and 50% effaced so at least we're heading in the right direction.
Looking ... 
for pictures to use in G's 2nd year photo book (free offer from Shutterfly! Woohoo!)

Enjoying ...
down time in the evenings with my hubby. He's been off this week and our nights have been filled with lots of laughter as we watch Big Bang reruns.

We did get one last date night out...we went and watched Jurassic World.

 Watching ...
our ultrasound DVD from Wednesday. I am so in love!

Playing ...
lots of Tickle Monster, bubbles and play dough with G

Wasting ...
time worrying over "what ifs"

Loving ...
the pre-baby progress we've made. We pretty much have everything in order for his arrival!

The Nursery

Needing ...
a massage...desperately.

Wearing ...
a tie-dye t-shirt and athletic shorts...oh so comfy!

Following ... upcoming local events for the family...

We took G to a local carnival this week...she had a blast!
 

...and so did Daddy

Thinking ... 
about my blood pressure and how I really hope it stabilizes.

Feeling ...
so blessed. I am in awe of all that God has been doing in my life and as I feel a little overwhelmed about our upcoming year and the difficulties we'll be facing, I am so grateful to know that my God will provide.

What are you up to currently?

 

 

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The Waiting Game

According to my pregnancy ticker I'm officially down to 20 days. 20 days of suspenseful waiting (and of course this number has the probability of varying). I personally believe we won't make our due date but one never knows for sure. Everyday I wake up and every night I go to bed with the same three words:

::via::

As the days count down we've been trying to wrap up odds and ends. We have a short cleaning to do list and will add things as we finish it up. We've really prioritized. I'm pretty pleased with what we've accomplished so far...
-Multiple freezer meals and breakfast items
-The nursery is complete (minus repainting the ceiling)
-Our hospital bags are packed
-G's overnight bag is packed
-Arrangements with G's sitter for while we're at the hospital have been made
-My new breast pump has been ordered and received  (via my insurance)
-The baby's car seat has been installed
-Maternity pictures have been taken (I'll share more on those later)

Overall I feel pretty good about our little man's arrival. I've been praying over his birth and my ability to have a successful labor and delivery. I've been having a hard time with the fact that it may not go the way I hope. Just a disclaimer...I don't have a written up, "we must adhere to", birth plan. My goal is to have our baby as naturally as possible. I know what my body is capable of and I know I was made for this. There is no right or wrong when it comes to how a woman chooses to deliver, I just have my preferences. As the what ifs swirl in my brain, my sweet friend reminded me of something very important the other day. She said that no matter how he enters this world, it will be his special birth story. Amen. That helped put my heart at ease. God not only has a plan for my life but He is just as actively writing our son's story...

Thus, as the moments pass on and the contractions come and go, I'm focusing on savoring the moments we have left as a family of three.

Courtesy of Shay White Photography 

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Big Sister's Hospital Gift Bag

::via::

The time of our little boy's arrival is drawing closer and I have a fun filled day ahead concerning him. We'll begin with maternity pictures done by my dear and talented friend from Shay White Photography. She captured our maternity pictures with G and it only seemed fitting that she do these as well.

Just a couple of my favorites...





2013

 

2013

Afterwards I'll head to my OB for this week's appointment. I'm still having occasional contractions and he's setting very low. We're all getting super excited about his arrival...

This is going to be a big change for our two year old daughter and I want to make it as positive of an experience as possible. We've been trying to prepare her and we have most of the details taken care of for when it's head to the hospital to deliver.

We want her time at the hospital with us to be just as special. Meeting her brother for the first time will be a big deal, at least for me. I want her to know that she is still loved and thought of despite all the newness. With that in mind, I put together a Big Sister bag for her for when she visits us at the hospital.

Here are the items that she'll discover upon opening her bag...

-Bubbles
-That's When I Knew by Claire Alexander
-A coloring book
-Crayons
-This Big Sister shirt
-Dessert Flavored Skittles
-A puzzle

I picked up the cute bag from the Dollar Tree of all places!

I had fun piecing the gift together and I look forward to her opening it. I also stuck a picture of all of us and a note inside her bedtime book that she'll take with her to spend the night at her sitter's house. I don't know who this will be harder on, me or her...but either way, we're all in good hands.



 

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A Room made for Two

Our dreams of having our forever home built before baby #2 were short lived. While they can still be found in our 5 year plan, we knew we'd have to work with what we have to make our space work for our soon to be little one while also accommodating his sister.

This was a bit of a challlenge. I wanted something gender neutral since they'd be sharing a room for a bit but I also wanted it to be soft and sweet. Thus, after what was probably hours scanning the Web for ideas, we finally decided on a simple woodland theme for the room.

We began by repainting. While I still occasionally miss the Spring Green that was on the walls, the khaki color is much more subtle.  This color was perfect for the material that I chose to make the curtains from.

Thanks to Happily Ever After and her adorable woodland animal cllipart, I was able to create some simple wall art and drawer labels for the room. I love the adorable sweetness they add to the room. The wall art was created on my computer and then framed in some inexpensive white frames.

One of my favorite parts was setting up the second crib. Once the walls were painted, my hubby put up the crib and I was able to add a few finishing touches...one of which was the beautiful woodland themed quilt that my wonderful friend from Creating Our Family Tree made for us.

G appears to have gotten used to the changes in her room. The real test will be how she responds when her little brother is also in it. Not much longer now!

Linking up with While I'm Waiting

Bump to Birth: 9 Months

It's hard to believe that this will be my last pregnancy update prior to our little man's arrival. Time has flown! I know they say that pregnant women never say that, but seriously, where has the time gone?

Size:  Honeydew Melon

Gender: Beautiful Baby Boy

Name: Loved and ready to be announced at his birth!

Symptoms: sinus pressure, fatigued, strained muscles, lots of low pressure, nausea, back pain, contractions

Emotions: excited, anxious, slightly overwhelmed

Doctor’s Visit: 

May 22nd-BP was excellent and the baby performed beautifully.

May 26th- Eye appointment: one of my goals upon hitting 30 this year was to take intentionally better care of myself. I have not had an eye checkup since maybe high school (embarrassing). After my eye exam, it was determined that I have a very slight astigmatism in my left eye. It's so minor at this time that she said any type of corrective lens would be too aggressive. I'll have it reassessed at my next appointment.

June 5th- My BP was slightly elevated. The baby performed very well on the NST and had a beautiful heart rate of 130.

June 12th- Ultrasound: The high risk doctor checked the current position of my placenta and PRAISE JESUS it has moved more than enough! I am no longer at such a high risk for hemorrhaging or C-section. This was music to my ears. He is weighing in at approximately 6lbs 2oz and has detectable hair on his head. He's measuring in the 50% percentile and at this rate, will probably weigh close to what his sister did. His heart rate was 134.

June 12th- Yes, I had two appointments in one day. My OB appointment was not nearly as fun. They performed the Strep B test and I'll get the results back soon. My BP was elevated again. Because of continued concerns regarding my BP, my doctor mentioned induction. This is not surprising based on my numbers. I am very confident that they will make the right decision. They are a practice that are adamantly against induction unless it is medically necessary. I'll be discussing this  more with the doctor at my next visit. If this happens, we'll definitely be having this baby in the next 2-3 weeks. I was also on the NST for over an hour because he was being lazy. Not cool. I'm sipping some orange juice before my next visit. Good news...I've only gained 17lbs with no weight gain in the last week!

Movement: He moves regularly. His movement primarily consists of him pushing out and down...and the down can be quite uncomfortable. I've been having contractions on and off as well...a lot is going on.

Cravings: pizza, donuts (until last week), chili dogs and fruit

Aversions:  Mexican food and donuts

According to Big Sister: She gets so excited with every piece of baby gear we pull out. She has laid claim on the car seat for Bella and has attempted to get in his swing and bouncer. She's learning that these things are for the baby. She has been super helpful with sorting baby clothes and seems to be grasping that change is coming.

Practicing being a big sister

Memories:

 

-Movie Night with the girls. I got together with two of my gal pals for a night of movie watching. We enjoyed watching The Fault in Our Stars and Divergent.

 

-My mother-in-law and husband painted the nursery. (I hope to post on the transformation soon.)

 

-I had to endure a horrible sleep study...fortunately my results were normal.

 

-I was treated to a sweet baby shower to celebrate our little boy.

Our Shower Cake

 

-I've been trying to soak up some extra time with G. We've been playing outside a lot.

Park time

Lots o' Bubbles

 

Sunshine Sweetie

-I took G out for her first movie theater experience. We watched Home. It's an adorable movie and she did great!

 

-We've got G's bag and the baby's bag packed for go time. Our bag is almost together.

 

-I had a date day with my hubby...it was wonderful!

 

-I put together a Big Sister bag for G from the baby for when she comes to the hospital.

 

-I scheduled a prenatal massage for the 16th.

 

-Our maternity pictures are scheduled for the 18th.

 

There is still a lot to do. I have maternity sub plans to complete, a house to finish cleaning and a nursery to put back together. Not to mention the car seat needs to be installed asap. I can't wait to meet our sweet miracle!

 

Bump to Birth Back Posts

 

 

 

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Life Lately (Pardon the picture overload)

It has been ages since I last posted...primarily because life has been moving at warp speed. I'll try to play a little catch up in the following lines...

Everything lately has been about "End of Year" in the work world and "Baby" everywhere else. School finished for me on the 5th. Since then I've been trying to complete all of my maternity leave paper work and prepare maternity plans for the beginning of the year. Maternity leave has been a much larger challenge this time around. I'm not going to be able to take the amount of time I had hoped, which completely breaks my heart (I cry just about every time I think about it) and I am not allowed to set up my room for the start of the year, which poses its own challenges. Things are just not going according to plan. Regardless, I'm grateful for the time I will have at home with our new baby and our daughter. I'm looking forward to it...just not the extremely tight months ahead.

We recently had a 3D/4D ultrasound done and I am smitten. The cheeks on our sweet boy melt my heart. I can't believe how much he already looks like his sister!

 

 

 

 

We have a doctor's appointment tomorrow, along with another ultrasound to check on him and my placenta. I had a small amount of movement and we're hoping to see even more this time around. I've been having a ton...and that is not an exaggeration, of pressure and I've been having contractions on and off. Of course I know that these things could be nothing or something so we'll see what the doctor says. The results from my sleep study came back normal as I assumed they would, although I'm grateful for proactive doctors. Otherwise, we've just been monitoring my blood pressure and trying to maintain my steady weight-gain. I'm super proud that as of two weeks ago, at about 34 weeks, I was at 17lbs. I was stoked! Hopefully I can keep this trend going.

I've been busy trying to clean the house and transition G's room into the room that she and her brother will share for as long as we are in this house. More to come on that later, but I am making some progress.

Last weekend our sweet friend threw us a darling baby shower. It was so fun to celebrate the coming of this new little life.

 

Otherwise, I've been trying to soak up this extra time I have with G. I've shed some tears as I think about how things with her are changing. She is growing up so quickly and I don't want to miss a thing.

 

 

Bump to Birth: 8 Months

I'm a couple days behind getting this up since I turned 32 weeks on Sunday. We've had a lot go on in the pregnancy world as of late, which just reminds me that we are that much closer to meeting our sweet little miracle.

Size:  Jicama

Gender: Sweet Baby Boy

Name: Picked and ready to be announced at his birth!

Symptoms: tired, cramping, sinus pressure, Braxton hicks contractions, headaches, tingling in my face (which according to my doctor has most likely been caused by the amount of pressure I've been having from my sinuses), peeing A Lot more often, a lot of low bearing pressure (and as I'm typing this I have experienced several sporadic contractions today, most of them being small but noticeable...but one good one that took me out of my chair today.)

Emotions: eager to make progress, excited about all of the things we have coming up, overwhelmed, anxious, excited

Doctor’s Visit: 

 May 8th-my BP was slightly elevated, urinalysis (came back negative for proteins and glucose), require a screening for sleep apnea

May 15th-Ultrasound to check placenta...it has moved 2cm! This is good and lowers my risk of hemorrhaging a great deal but it will be up to my doctor as to whether or not this is sufficient to forgo a C-section.  The baby was measuring right on and weighing in at about 4lbs (50% percentile).        

May 19th- preliminary sleep screening...recently there have been a couple cases in the area where people have died after not coming back from anesthesia. It was apparently discovered that they were at a higher risk for sleep apnea. I had no idea what this was and/or what it had to do with me delivering a baby until this appointment. There is a rating scale that my practice now uses to determine if you are at a higher risk for sleep apnea. I have just enough (and I mean barely) to put me on the low end of the higher risk end. Should I need to be put under for an emergency C-section or any other procedure, they want to ensure that they are providing the best care based on possible conditions. The NP that I spoke with said that if I had anything it all, it would be very benign. She did not appear worried and ensured me that if there was any diagnosis, no matter how mild, I would be well cared for should anesthesia be necessary. While the thought is a little terrifying, I trust my doctors and I am scheduled for my sleep study on May 31st.

*Super pleased that I've only gained 13lbs so far!

Movement: He may be little but he packs a punch. He has his more active times of day, especially at G's bedtime. Story time is always interesting. He is directly pressed up against my bladder and with his almost constant downward pressure these days, I'm always feeling the urge to go.

Cravings: pizza, breakfast foods, hamburgers with pickles and ketchup, chicken finger wraps

Aversions:  mayo and Mexican food

According to Big Sister: She may be coming around...she picks up some of his things as we're going through them and lovingly holds them saying "Baby ****'s" She loves to rock her babies and she likes to tell people that Mommy has a baby in her belly. We may just be okay.

Memories:

-Celebrated G's 2nd Birthday!

-Made a nice little chunk of change at a local consignment sale...well worth the effort.

-G's 2 year check up went really well.

-We found out two of our dearest friends will be expecting in December!

-We had a our baby shower at work.

-We celebrated Mother's Day (the last one as a Mommy of 1 (I really count both babes but for dramatic purposes...)

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