Tuesday, June 21, 2005

I'm throwing out my scale...and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Okay, I've decided that I'm not going to look at another scale until I am admitted to the hospital to have this little girl! I always feel great until I go to the doctor and they tell me the number of pounds that they are going to put beside my name in my official health records!! For instance, the number that they wrote down yesterday is 6 pounds more than that they wrote just 3.5 weeks ago...and 32 pounds more than what they wrote 28 weeks ago! So, I'm done...no more looking at the scale at home or at the doctor. Let me just be ignorant - I feel good that way!

Other than the weight issue (which the doctor didn't even mention), the doctor's appointment was fine yesterday...baby's heartbeat = 154bpm, my blood pressure = 128/78 (or something like that - I'm officially not "good" with numbers anymore), and I took my 1 hour glucose test. I have no doubt that will come out fine. The doctor said they'd call if there was an issue with either my blood sugar levels or my iron levels.

One kinda weird thing about my visit yesterday is I felt like she was wrapping up my pregnancy. Like, I'm for real pregnant and we are approaching the end of said pregnancy. That was my first real feeling that I may be getting towards the end. She talked to me about pain control methods while she measured my belly, gave me instructions on what to do if I have too many Braxton Hicks, gave me pamphlets on blood cord storage and postpartum depression, and asked me if I had selected a pediatrician. We've just never talked about the "after" like that so, it's official - just 12 more weeks...time to start looking towards the end...

Today is my husband's 28th birthday (also the first day of summer and the longest day of the year - in terms of hours of sunlight). He took the day off of work, which is good because he's been working so late and so hard lately. Anyway, he still got up with me this morning and started working on the baby's room before I'd even gotten to eat breakfast. He finished the painting last night. This morning he was preparing for our baby furniture delivery which is schedule for 10am-12pm. He said he was excited about the room which, of course makes me very excited too!

We've got a few plans for his birthday which I'll elaborate on after they occur...just in case he reads this today!!! :)

Friday, June 17, 2005

Mystery Solved...

Okay, I figured out who sent the gift from our registry so early. It became clear to me on Wednesday.

My mom was bugging me about where the out-of-town guests are going to stay for my baby shower on July 23. First of all, it was her idea to even invite out-of-town guests but, now it's suddenly my responsiblity to figure out where they will stay while here. So, one particularly anal cousin has already booked her flight and has been emailing my mom about details of hotels. My mom then aggravates me about it. I got a little annoyed with the Wednesday email because my mom had a bit of an attitude in it. I basically told her to look on the Internet for hotels and leave me alone. She writes back and says that they want to stay near the shower site not near my house so they need the address for the shower. First, I tell her that the invitations will be there next week, which is plenty of time to find a hotel based on what's in the invitations. Then I have to explain to her that it makes absolutely no sense to stay near the shower site! Houston is HUGE and the shower is about 45 minutes from my house, which means I wouldn't see any of them all weekend except during the shower. My mom wrote back, asking where they should stay in Houston to be near shopping and close enough to my house and the shower site. Why must I play the city hostess when it wasn't even my idea to invite my family from the backwoods of Mississippi!?!?

So, as annoying as that was - it occurred to me that it was my anal cousin who had already purchased a gift for us! I was right - it was delivered yesterday. My husband was disappointed that I opened it before he got home from work - how cute...

Thursday, June 16, 2005

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

It's the little things...

...that get me excited! I just decided to glance at my Babies R Us registry online. I do that every now and then to avoid doing actual work while I'm at work. I apparently prefer to make up for my procrastination on Sundays. Anyway, someone purchased the first gift from our registry! I'm so excited - considering I hadn't told too many people that it's actually out there yet. Wow! This makes it feel so much more real - plus, as I was pulling up the website, I just had the horrible thought of no one buying my child anything and my husband and I having to buy everything on the registry ourselves! Yay - so, she has a Baby Einstein Discover & Play Activity Gym already...can't wait to see who actually gives it to us...I mean her...

Monday, June 13, 2005

Welcome to the third trimester!

My due date is 13 weeks from today. Today is the official start of my third trimester! I absolutely cannot believe that I am 2/3 of the way through this thing. It is absolutely FLYING by. Now, I have to say that barring any complications, I do not believe that this child will come on her own either before or on her due date of September 12. I am hoping she will come within a week of it but, trying not to get my hopes up for September 12th. I'm thinking of trying to reprogram my brain to think September 19th, instead...then I won't be dissappointed if she doesn't come on or before her official due date.

It's funny - I find now that it is alot easier to count down than to count up anymore. I kinda lost count right after 20 weeks. I think my pregnancy brain just has an easier time with smaller numbers. So, instead of being 27 weeks pregnant, I like to think of it as "13 weeks to go".

I have been very blessed throughout the first two trimesters of the pregnancy - no morning sickness to speak of in the beginning and no health complications of concern. I have had some swelling but, I think that is complicated by the heat here as it did not start until we hit the hot weather. Plus, it's not that bad now that I'm being more cognizant of my salt intake. I do have some achiness in my joints (primarily the pelvis) but, I think that's just from everything trying to relax so that I can birth this baby. I am so thankful that I am still very comfortable and active. I thought it might be tougher since I was a bigger girl to begin with. I just have nothing that I can really complain about and I pray that this continues through this last trimester.

I think I'm going to breakdown and order the BabyWise book. I've heard plenty of mixed reviews about it but, I was with a group of ladies this weekend and everyone that had a child swore by the book. So, I guess I'll try it...I'll at least thumb through it before she gets here so once she gets here, I can see if it could work for us...

Thursday, June 09, 2005

A ton of bricks = 2 pounds?

I was a chemical engineering major in college. So, we used alot of unit conversions like 1 calorie = 4.184 Joules or 1 mile = 5280 feet but, I don't remember the one about 1 ton of bricks = 2 pounds!!! How is it that something that barely weighs two pounds can feel like a ton of bricks as she constantly performs cartwheels and other tricks in my belly?? I love it though!! :)

Monday, June 06, 2005

Just For the Record...

Okay, I have had some information written on a blue sticky note on my desk for probably 6 weeks now. Ummm...I'm ready to throw it away so, I need to record this information somewhere else for keeps. Yep - my blog is it. So here goes...

My husband first felt the baby move on Saturday, May 14. We were still laying in bed that morning when he felt her. That's also the day we started our registry at Babies R Us. I think he was motivated to do things for her once he could also feel her.

At my last doctor's appointment on May 25 (24w2d), my stats were as follows:
Blood Pressure: 110/70
Baby's Heartrate: 154bpm
Fundal Height: 24 cm
Weight: +10 pounds

Okay, the weight thing was a HUGE shocker!! 3 nights before I went to the doctor I weighed the exact thing that I had weighed at my April 25th appointment. Then the night before I went to this appointment, I had shot up those 10 pounds. Amazing!! I think alot of it was swelling but, it happened so quickly and coincided with our first "hot" weekend here in Houston. So, the doctor said I needed to watch my salt intake (which in reality is TOTALLY excessive - it's just never been a problem before). So, I've been trying to monitor that a little better. I've lost about 3 pounds since that appointment but, I must admit I am still jealous of my husband's 27-inch waist right now...

Finally, the results from our second ultrasound on May 16 revealed that our baby girl is growing just fine. Praise God! She was estimated to be 1lb, 1oz - which was in the 35th percentile for her gestational age. So, it looks like she could potentially be smaller like my husband. I've always been blessed with size...starting with being born at 9lb, 11oz.

Mr. and Mrs. Productive

Upon returning from our Memorial Day trip to Memphis, it occurred to me that I am going to have a baby! Maybe it's because it was the first time that both sets of our parents (minus my dad because he's back in China for a while) were together so that's all that anyone had to talk about. Maybe it's because my father-in-law was playing loud music for four hours one night and my daughter never stopped shaking her little booty to it. Or maybe it's because my mom put her hand on my stomach and I said, "Move for Grandma" and she immediately did it! Regardless, I realized last week that I had 15 weeks to prepare for this child and in the previous 25 weeks I've done essentially nothing except go to the doctor when I was supposed to!

So, last week I went on a mission - finally decided on some of the fabrics for her room. Yes, even that took me all week after visiting every reasonably priced fabric store that I could find in Houston over the past two months. Then, I decided to order an inexpensive bedding set instead of making absolutely everything in the room!

So, Friday I decided that my weekend plans would include buying the fabric for my rocking chair cushions (I am using the chair that my mom had with me) and finding this baby some furniture!! Friday night, we went to Babies R Us and Baby Depot for the 700th time. It's amazing how you can start to talk yourself into stuff as the weeks creep by. We decided that we finally liked a Babies R Us set. Then Saturday morning we got up early and went to a place called Baby's 1st Furniture in Sugarland. We actually went to two locations of that same store just to see if one was running a "Special" when the other one wasn't. We liked the furniture there, of course, because it was one of those fancier stores with the good, solid wood stuff. Well, of course, it takes 10 - 16 weeks to order any of that furniture (and it was a little bit more $$ than we had originally planned to spend - but, so is our house, our cars, and virtually everything we buy...we aim low but have expensive tastes). So, even if we got our furniture in 10 weeks, I'd be 36 weeks pregnant and I knew I wouldn't feel comfortable waiting that long to get her room together. So, we ended up back at Babies R Us. We finally decided to purchase the Cherry Madison Crib and Combo Changing Table. I think it is one of the more popular sets at BRU but, hey - they'll only be one of them in my house! :) It'll take 7-14 days for them to come in. Maybe that'll give us time to finish getting our stuff out of her room and get it painted - ambitious, I know...

So, we basically spent the whole weekend getting this furniture but, that's a productive weekend for me and my husband. Plus, it was very tiring in this 95-degree weather! Then I worked for about 6 hours yesterday. I am exhausted - great way to start the week...but, at least I've finally got furniture...