35 weeks

Haha, my picture cracks me up.  I had dinner at a friends house and got home a little later so I told Max to quick take my photo before I went to bed.  We whip out the camera and I realize I have no pants on so I can't just hike up my dress and I am not going to take a photo in only my bra if I were to pull the dress down.  My clothes were ALL THE WAY upstairs so I made Max give me his pants so we could take the photo.  Haha, it makes me laugh out loud even thinking of it. 

This week has been much more uncomfortable than previous weeks.  My hips are really bothering me.  I know that they are starting to spread and make themselves ready for birth.  There is a constant ache that gets really annoying to deal with.  I can't sit for very long at my desk at work without taking a "stand break" and I have to turn over so much at night, which if you have been huge pregnant before, is no easy task. 

I have been having a lot of cramps, braxtons and real contractions all week.  Nothing consistent that woudl matter but again, signs that my body is preparing for labor.  It makes me wonder if this baby really will come earlier than Dexter did. 

This heat is making my legs and feet swell up all the time.  It's really weird but my second to last toe on my right foot always gets super swollen and it feels super strange.  I like to poke at it when it gets like that.  Oh, the funny things our bodies do when we are pregnant.

Baby is still very active.  It is the strangest thing but I can literally feel the baby pushing at my hip bones trying to make more room.  I don't know that is actually what the baby is doing of course but s/he is very much pushing at my bones.  I'm sorry child but my bones will move at their own pace.  Patience! 

I've been getting sentimental as time gets closer... the other night I made Max put his hands on my belly to feel the baby move around because it won't be long and the baby will be out.  Then no more movements from inside... at least for a while.  We plan on more kids so I know I will feel it again :)  If Max has his way I will feel it again sooner rather than later.  I'm just not sure about that one! 

Maternity Photos

I am very lucky you know... I went to school for photography and in doing so, I have made some connections.  I have two very good friends I can count on to take photos for me the few times I need to actually be in them myself.  Miss Sarah took my maternity photos when I was pregnant with Dexter and yesterday, Ashley came up to take A2's maternity photos.  These aren't all of them of course but I ran through a few to be able to show you :)

I LOVE this photo!  Probably our last nice photo as a family of 3!

I knew exactly the look I was going for with this sunset light so we drove around BW until I found the perfect field with the perfect light and that we could get into without crawling through barbed wire!  I'm so, so, so glad I put up with Max's whining.  These turned out amazing!  The light!  The field!  Beautiful!

I can't decide which of the next three are my favorite!  I decided to just show you them all!

Just Momma and baby...

34 weeks

Sorry, I am late writing this.  It is has been very busy, like usual, and I went to bed early one night instead of writing this. 

I am very tired this week.  So, so, so physically tired.  This baby is wearing me out!  My belly is getting quite heavy and the baby is so low at times it honestly is like there is an invisible grapefruit between my legs.  By the time I put Dexter to bed, I have no energy for other projects.  I do them anyway, but that just makes the end of the week very hard.  Once I do get to sleep, I sleep like a rock which is fantastic.  The 3+ times I have to get up to pee?  Not fantastic but part of late pregnancy.

My ultrasound was on Wednesday.  Baby looked so healthy and wonderful.  We saw his/her heartbeat which was at 137 I believe.  Turns out, baby is running exactly on track and there is no extra fluid.  Baby A2 just likes to hang out as far as possible which is making me measure big, and look much bigger than I am.  I feel relief in knowing that I have extra time to get things done and then I feel disappointment that we won't meet who is in there early.  My guess is that Bug will come around 38 weeks like Dexter did.  So that gives us a month. 

Bug is still as active as ever and very strong.  S/he gets the hiccups often and they shake his/her body so badly that my whole belly wobbles when s/he has them.  It sort of cracks me up but I'll bet it's annoying for Bug.  Dexter had the hiccups a lot too and they were also very strong. 

Two nights ago I was woken up out of a dead sleep by a very intense contraction.  I can't remember too much of it because I was still out of it from sleeping but I woke Max up with my gripping on him and he said it lasted about 20 seconds.  He thought I was going into labor but it was just the one and then they went away and we went back to sleep.  It's funny how you obviously remember how painful giving birth is but then you are physically reminded and you end up cringing thinking about it.  OUCH. 

Coke is the craving of the week.  I love my coke.  I used to be a die hard Pepsi fan but after Dexter's pregnancy, I really don't like the stuff and much prefer Coke.  I have a cup of it right next to me as we speak and I won't feel guilty about it!

Goodbye's are the hardest thing...

At the beginning of this beautiful warm weather we started having, Max and I noticed that Dexter was getting a rash.  Everywhere.  Nothing I did would make it go away or alleviate Dex's itching.  Poor fellow.  It's so hard to see your baby deal with this.  Finally, I made a doctor appointment for him.  I couldn't handle seeing him like that.  We suspected allergies and right away his doctor ordered up an allergy panel along with several medications to help out with his rash. 

Coincidentally, that same night we went over to our friends house and they have a large dog and a small dog and the large one got one big lick right across Dexter's face and he blew up like a balloon.  Hives, swelling, itchy watery eyes (what was showing of his eyes anyway).  It was very bad.  Lucky I had some allergy meds on me so I dosed him up and within an hour the swelling had gone down.  It took a couple days for the redness around his eyes to go away though. 

You know what that means, Dexter is allergic to dogs.  The next day his allergy panel came back negative for everything except positive, and highly so, to dogs.  Well, we figured out that much.  Thankfully, we had gotten a new home for Clyde back around Thanksgiving.  Luca is a yorkie which is considered a "hypoallergenic" breed so perhaps we would be safe there.

So these past couple weeks we have been watching Dex to see how he does around Luca.  It seemed like he was doing fine but I was starting to get suspicious.  After getting done with some of his meds and after Luca had a 5 day stint outside (he had the poops and he had them bad!) Dexter was obviously still having some issues.  Itchy skin, red eyes.  I figured Luca was the cause.  Max was unwilling to believe it but finally last night, he did a little test.  He rubbed Dexter's hand, just his hand, in Luca's fur and not two minutes later it was all red and Dex started itching at it.  Well, that did it for Max.  He finally acknowledged that Luca was the cause.

Sadly, now we need to find a new home for our Luca.  When we re-homed Clyde, it felt different because we made the decision that a new home would be better for him and we were prepared.  This is a forced act.  Obviously not one that we draw out or are angry about.  Our son's comfort is much more important than having Luca around but we love Luca and this will be very hard. 

We have had problems with Luca in the past especially with his peeing in the house, but ever since we crate trained him a year or so ago, he has been so good.  Rarely any problems.  I hope that we can find him a good home that will keep in contact with us like Clyde's new owners do.  It will be so strange to have no Luca.  I will miss the little bugger.

Now the work will come finding him a new home and preferably, for Dexter's sake, as fast as we can. 

33 weeks- update

I had my doc appt on Friday.  Baby is healthy as a horse and heart rate was at 137 until we started talking about the differences between this baby and Dex then the heart rate jumped up to 156 :)  Baby knew we were talking about him/her.  Of course, I am still measuring quite large.  I was there for my 33 week appt and I was measuring 36 1/2 weeks.  The doc decided we would do an ultrasound to see if it is baby or if I just have a lot of fluid.  That is scheduled for this Wednesday so we will get to see baby again!

I really, really, REALLY hope he doesn't screw this up and tell us the sex of the baby.  I am going to go in there and just demand that he call the baby a he no matter what and we will look at the screen as little as possible because if it is a boy, you can't miss seeing his mister on that screen.  We don't want that! 

I'll let you know how it goes when I do my 34 week blog :)  I'm so excited to finally figure out what's going on!

We are almost to the finish line!

33 weeks

Why does my mind always blank when I get to the computer?  I always think of lots of things but then blank when it's time to write.

This week:  heartburn... LOTS.  Swelling has started (see below... my poor feet and legs).  Very hormonal although I try to keep it in check.  I am easily angry, easily frustrated and easily overwhelmed.  Makes for lovely time spent with wifey, huh Max?  Lots of cravings such as ice cream cake, garlic mashed potatoes, potato salad, apple danish, and bubble gum.  I have only had the bubble gum.  Tomorrow I will get ice cream cake though :)

I'm exhausted all the time.  It feels like I have spent a hard days work of physical labor by 8:00pm.  If I don't get at least 10 hours of sleep (which I never do) the following day is spent in attempting to keep myself awake by eating.  This encourages weight gain which I don't enjoy.  I think the bubble gum is helping with that though... if I have something to chew in my mouth I can't eat right?

I'm overwhelmed with how much I need to do for baby.  Max and I said we would be completely prepared by July 1 and that is only 2 weeks away.  I have a lot to do but I'm too tired to do it.  I need sleepy!

Baby is absolutely wonderful.  S/he seems to be keeping to a schedule and is very active as always and very strong.  My poor ribs... my poor pelvis.  I now have so much pressure on my pelvis that sometimes it is painful but mostly just uncomfortable.  I have reached the extreme waddling phase and walk very slowly.  If I walk too fast then I have to pee.  If I stand up, I have to pee.  If I sit down, I have to pee.  Lot's of peeing happening.  Unfortunately the bathrooms at work are downstairs.  After I get back up the stairs when I'm finished I have to pee again.  Is this TMI?  Oh well, don't read this then.

I have a doctor appt today that was rescheduled from last week.  I'm excited to see if we will have an ultrasound and see if baby is still running huge.  News from that won't be until next week though :)  If I remember that is. 

I like how the swelling surrounds where my sandal straps are, haha. 

Full of crap- a vent session.

Sometimes it seems like motherhood is just full of poop.  Literally.  I hopped on board this cloth diaper train and I am completely fine with it.  I got this dog 4 years ago, fine.

Yesterday I had to wash out Dex's diapers from the day.  No big deal.  Other than I have been doing it all the time and somehow the few diapers that Max changes he never gets a poop diaper.  Whatever.  Then I threw all of his diapers in the wash.  Again, no biggie but it smelled bad. 

Then, the freaking dog has had the craps so he is covered in poop as was his cage.  Seriously.  So I had to give the dog a bath (which was disgusting and yes, a biggie) and then clean out his cage. 

I spent about 30 min to 45 min essentially cleaning up poop.  That's a lot of poop.  To make things better the freaking dog was still sick this morning and crapped all over himself and his cage again. 

*sigh*  My hormones are getting to me. 

32 weeks

The thing I can report about this week is major pregnant brain.  I can't remember anything for the life of me.  I know I had some things tucked away for this week but I really can't remember.  Pregnant brain is not so much fun. 

I am so excited for this weekend, pending the finished installation of the carpet.  If that all goes smoothly and is finished tomorrow, then I will be able to set up the furniture in bug's room and put away all of baby's things.  I can get the diapers washed and ready, I can go through both boy & girl newborn clothes and get them washed and ready.  I will be able to assess what we need to get for little one still and I will be able to see what my nursery looks like all together!  I LOVE how the stripes turned out and I have the changing table painted and ready to go with the color scheme and I can't wait to see them together.  It will feel so much more real once the nursery is up and ready to go.

I was going to have a doc appt tomorrow but it got moved to next week.  No doctor news to relate.

Baby is very active still and loves to kick around.  I have noticed a trend in baby's schedule.  Bug likes to be very active around 830/9 am and again at 9/10pm.  Obviously s/he kicks more than just those times but it's a pretty much guarantee that s/he's moving at that time.  Last night when I went to bed, Bug was laying as far out as possible and you could feel his/her whole back on the left side of my belly.  I grabbed Max's hand so he could feel.  Funny how this baby likes that sensation... I wonder if that means a sling will be a good idea?

Still no stretch marks!  Yay for me!  Yay for my toosh!  I haven't weighed myself lately and don't plan to so I don't know where I'm sitting there.  I don't get enough sleep but hopefully that will change soon.  Probably not though as we are moving Dexter to a big boy bed this weekend (again, pending carpet installation).  It scares me to think of what he will be able to do with that freedom! 

I honestly don't care when this baby comes but I will say, it freaks me out a bit to think that Dexter was running perfectly on schedule and he came at 38 weeks.  This baby is running 3 weeks ahead (so I measure 35 weeks)... does this mean that in terms of comparing this pregnancy with Dexter's that the baby could come in 3 weeks?  THAT freaks me out!  I remind myself though that no two pregnancies are alike.  Just because Dex came at 38 weeks doesn't mean this baby will. 

Song of June 6th

I found this little gem today :)

Love will take you- Angus & Julie Stone

31 weeks

We have had a very busy week.  Sorry to say it has been enormously stressful as well.  My hubby has been working so hard at getting the trim all put in and finished.  I feel so horrible that I am just as tired and worn out as him and I have been doing nothing but growing a baby.  He is working all the time and the little time at home he has, he is doing the trim.  I am happy to say we are very close to finishing and the carpet is being installed next Wednesday and Friday.  Apparently our stairs are very difficult and require a full day to themselves.  I don't stinking care, I have a deadline as to when this stuff will be done.  I can come home in one week from today and I will finally be able to put furniture in the right places, I will be able to get the daycare area set up and ready for home visits from parents, I will have the nursery put together and have places to put the baby's things that are now currently in the daycare area and most importantly, my house will stay clean :)  Oh what a wonderful feeling.  I'm sure Max is excited to not have so much crap to do as well.  He really has been a trooper.

As far as baby goes, s/he is doing wonderful.  We had our 30 week appointment.  Heartbeat was at 141 and baby is still measuring 3 weeks ahead.  They won't be moving my due date but said to expect something more along the lines of July 15th.  We will have an ultrasound to determine how big baby is but not until we are a bit closer.  Max and I didn't pay close enough attention to see if that would be my next appt at 32 weeks (which is what I thought he said) or a couple weeks after that (which is what Max thought he said).  Either way, I have stopped worrying about it.  I know for sure that we have a big baby in there that probably has a due date that is a little off and I can probably expect to meet him/her in roughly 6/7 weeks.  As long as baby is healthy, I don't care anymore. 

I have also decided to stop stressing about my projects that need to get done.  Once the carpet is in and the house is back to normal, I will then get the rest of baby's projects finished.  I don't have anywhere to put stuff right now anyway.  So, I need to get a twin mattress for Mr. Dexter since we will be switching him over to a big boy bed next week (I don't want to dissemble the crib for the carpet installation, re-put it back together in his room and then dissemble it again in a couple months to put in the new nursery.  Might as well just dissemble once and put in new nursery right away.)  I also need to figure out a dresser for baby.  I was going to buy one at IKEA but the dog gone one I wanted was out of stock and no shipment date was in sight.  Crap.  I'll figure it out.  I won't stress about it.  (Repeat over and over.)

I am starting to feel very large.  This baby really likes to lay at the edge of my belly... basically so s/he is laying as far out as possible.  I suppose if I am measuring 34 weeks at this point instead of 31, it makes since I am feeling so big.  I am so HAPPY to say I have no stretch marks yet from this little one.  I have been paying very close attention.  According to the doc, my weight gain has been pretty on par to what it's supposed to be.  Yay!  I don't think we will hit that 60 lb mark that we did with Dex's pregnancy.  Yikes.  Let's hope not anyway.  I am loving raisins this week.  Raisin and spice oatmeal, Raisin Bran Crunch, chocolate cake with raisins.  All of it, YUM.  Cereal, as always, is a fan favorite.