Well I am now officially past my due date, and I do not have a baby yet...I went to the doctor on Monday, and I had not progressed any further than I was last week, which was 75% effaced and barely 1 cm - although both times the doctors had to force that 1 cm, so I'm going to say I may not even be at 1 cm. Since I do have what we are anticipating to be a "large" baby (she was already at what they thought to be 7 pounds at week 37), the doctor has recommended an induction for the end of this week - if she doesn't come on her own. While I am nervous about what an induction may mean for my goals of having a natural delivery, I think my nerves of delivering a 10+ pound baby naturally outweighs my induction nerves, haha. The good news about my doctor is that if the induction doesn't take - meaning I don't dilate or have steady contractions, she will let me go home and we can try it again next week. Although we are both pretty confident it will take since I am so far along.
TMI Alert! (Do not read this paragraph, if you don't want to know the ongoings of a woman close to delivery) I lost my mucus plug this morning, which means that cervix is pretty much fully ripened by now. The majority of women go into labor anywhere from 24-72 hours after this happens. So far I have still not felt anything more than some light menstrual like cramping (which has been going on since week 37), and I have felt my abdomen "harden" a few times, but I only notice that if I touch it, it never actually hurts or feels like a contraction has been described to me as feeling. I have been told by multiple people that I could be in early early labor, but I don't know what to think. All I know is nothing feels like it's coming and going every 4 minutes which is what I need to be feeling in order to go into the hospital.
I started to stress out quite a bit this morning wondering if I would "know" when I go into labor, since I haven't felt anything yet. It's not that I want to feel pain from contractions or anything, but I think if I had at least felt something at this point, I'd know what to look for, as opposed to my current state of wondering what every little movement and feeling in my abdomen is. I finally settled down this afternoon when I made the realization that since I am so in tuned with my body, it would be pretty hard for me to miss any obvious signs of labor. All I know for sure is that I will (hopefully, as long as the induction takes) have a baby by this weekend, and I am beyond excited to be able to say that :)
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
Counting Down the Days
My last day of work was on April 8. Since then I have been trying to get everything ready for our newest arrival. I have organized the kitchen, and gone through and tossed as much as I can. I cleaned our bedroom and bathroom, and I even started clearing out/packing our hall closet/storage room for the upcoming move. I know how little time I will have once Ellie is here so I wanted the house to be as clean and organized as could be before she got here so at least the messiness of a newborn would be starting at a clean point and not on top of our old messes.
I think we have finally purchased everything we need for baby Ellie. We didn't get everything off our registry - which we knew would happen. I went through the lists and determined what was absolutely necessary and used our giftcards that we got from returning duplicate items and from generous family members to buy the last few items. Obviously I am sure there things I don't know about yet that I will be needing, and of course there are items we will run out of fairly quickly (like diapers and baby wash) that we will have to continue to buy. But for now I think I'm finally done buying things, haha.
Since I am not working and don't need a car, Jacob has been taking my car to work everyday. His car gets terrible gas mileage and he can sometimes drive up to 300 miles in a day, so it just makes more sense that he drive the car with better mileage - especially since I am not working and therefore not making any money. Well his car is a stickshift and I have never learned to drive one, so during the days I am without a car. Last week I spent a lot of time at my parents house during the day - and I will probably do that this week, too. It has been fun to go run errands with my dad :)
One thing we have been doing is going to home building supply stores and picking out things to use in the house we will be moving into. The guy living there now made some interesting changes to the house that we will not be keeping. So far we have determined we need to replace the kitchen countertops, the kitchen sink (it's bright cherry red!!), the cabinet knobs, a few ceiling fans, and lots and lots of paint. We will not be doing all of this at once, but it makes for a nice to-do list to be working on. The guy who lives there now was given until June 30 to be out, but he has already moved most of his things out, and has turned off the utilities so we are hoping he will be out sooner. That would make the transition from our apt much easier since we want to paint at the house before moving in and we'll need paint our apt once we get furniture out...
There are so many changes coming our way, but I am SOO excited about all of them!
Below is a progression of my baby bump pictures. Jacob's cousin, Becky, made it for us.
I think we have finally purchased everything we need for baby Ellie. We didn't get everything off our registry - which we knew would happen. I went through the lists and determined what was absolutely necessary and used our giftcards that we got from returning duplicate items and from generous family members to buy the last few items. Obviously I am sure there things I don't know about yet that I will be needing, and of course there are items we will run out of fairly quickly (like diapers and baby wash) that we will have to continue to buy. But for now I think I'm finally done buying things, haha.
Since I am not working and don't need a car, Jacob has been taking my car to work everyday. His car gets terrible gas mileage and he can sometimes drive up to 300 miles in a day, so it just makes more sense that he drive the car with better mileage - especially since I am not working and therefore not making any money. Well his car is a stickshift and I have never learned to drive one, so during the days I am without a car. Last week I spent a lot of time at my parents house during the day - and I will probably do that this week, too. It has been fun to go run errands with my dad :)
One thing we have been doing is going to home building supply stores and picking out things to use in the house we will be moving into. The guy living there now made some interesting changes to the house that we will not be keeping. So far we have determined we need to replace the kitchen countertops, the kitchen sink (it's bright cherry red!!), the cabinet knobs, a few ceiling fans, and lots and lots of paint. We will not be doing all of this at once, but it makes for a nice to-do list to be working on. The guy who lives there now was given until June 30 to be out, but he has already moved most of his things out, and has turned off the utilities so we are hoping he will be out sooner. That would make the transition from our apt much easier since we want to paint at the house before moving in and we'll need paint our apt once we get furniture out...
There are so many changes coming our way, but I am SOO excited about all of them!
Below is a progression of my baby bump pictures. Jacob's cousin, Becky, made it for us.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Nursery = Done (for now)
So I have finally finished what we will be able to do with the nursery while here at the apartment. Since we are moving in July, we did not want to paint the walls, and we decided not to put up the crib as Ellie will still be in the cradle when we move. Jacob was a trooper about getting stuff done in the nursery today. He HATES hanging pictures on the wall, and that's what he spent a portion of his afternoon doing today. he's the best husband ever :)
I kind of freaked out when I realized how close my due date was and the fact that nursery hadn't been done. I feel much better about it now. I also have my hospital bag packed and ready to go. I think today was pretty productive. My doctor somewhat implied that she believes Ellie is getting pretty big so she requested a sonogram for this coming Friday. I have a pretty good feeling that we will be starting some natural induction tricks starting Friday - but we'll see. Whatever happens I'm getting really, really excited!!
This is going to be fairly short today. Below are the pictures from our nursery and my 37 week picture - I'm full term!!
I kind of freaked out when I realized how close my due date was and the fact that nursery hadn't been done. I feel much better about it now. I also have my hospital bag packed and ready to go. I think today was pretty productive. My doctor somewhat implied that she believes Ellie is getting pretty big so she requested a sonogram for this coming Friday. I have a pretty good feeling that we will be starting some natural induction tricks starting Friday - but we'll see. Whatever happens I'm getting really, really excited!!
This is going to be fairly short today. Below are the pictures from our nursery and my 37 week picture - I'm full term!!
Monday, March 28, 2011
Baby Showers
Well if I was waiting for life to slow down, it sure hasn't. I guess that's not going to happen anytime soon either. This blog is coming a few weeks late. My two showers were actually at the first and second weekends of March, and here we are at the end of the month. Oh well, at least I'm blogging now, right?
Our first shower was thrown for us by our good friend, Beka. We knew we wanted to have a shower that would not be formal, and would be a chance for Jacob and me to hang out with our friends. The shower turned out to be so much fun! Beka had the cutest decorations! She hung baby clothes throughout the room, and then had my favorite candy - M&M's in pink and brown - strewn all over the room in decorative containers. It turned out really cute. The guys pretty much just hung out all night, which is what we knew would happen. For the girls, Beka bought bibs for us to decorate. It was such a fun thing to do at a shower, and I was very appreciative to not have people measure my belly or have me sniff a "dirty" diaper to guess what candy is in it, haha.
**There is more of the blog after the first round of pictures - Warning: There are a lot of pictures...
My formal baby shower was given by my Mother-in-Law, Teresa, my Sister-in-Law, rachel, and my best friend, Alex. It was the traditional shower where all family members and family friends were invited. It was so beautiful! The theme was sugar and spice so the food set up had a candy bar (sugar) and a salsa bar (spice). It was super cute! Rachel's friend, Autumn, made cake balls for the party and they were the best cake balls I have ever eaten! Autumn is a fantastic baker - I wish I was talented, haha. It was really nice being able to hang out with all of Jacob's family that I don't get to see as often, and with my family, too :)
For the "game" part of the shower, it was decided we would skip over doing traditional games and instead everyone would decorate a scrapbook page for Ellie's first year. The scrapbook pages turned out sooo cute! And the best part was that everyone signed their page so I will always know who decorated each page.
Baby Ellie was really spoiled between my two showers. My MIL alone had 19 gift bags for me to open at the shower, haha. We were blessed to have all of the major items purchased for us, so now it's just little stuff like baby shampoo and lotion to buy when the first bottles start running out. If you came to one of my showers, thank you so much!! It was wonderful being able to spend time with you :)
Our first shower was thrown for us by our good friend, Beka. We knew we wanted to have a shower that would not be formal, and would be a chance for Jacob and me to hang out with our friends. The shower turned out to be so much fun! Beka had the cutest decorations! She hung baby clothes throughout the room, and then had my favorite candy - M&M's in pink and brown - strewn all over the room in decorative containers. It turned out really cute. The guys pretty much just hung out all night, which is what we knew would happen. For the girls, Beka bought bibs for us to decorate. It was such a fun thing to do at a shower, and I was very appreciative to not have people measure my belly or have me sniff a "dirty" diaper to guess what candy is in it, haha.
**There is more of the blog after the first round of pictures - Warning: There are a lot of pictures...
The invitation to our co-ed shower
Jimpaw hanging out
Me with my homemade bib
I love this picture of Jacob with the baby shoes :)
My formal baby shower was given by my Mother-in-Law, Teresa, my Sister-in-Law, rachel, and my best friend, Alex. It was the traditional shower where all family members and family friends were invited. It was so beautiful! The theme was sugar and spice so the food set up had a candy bar (sugar) and a salsa bar (spice). It was super cute! Rachel's friend, Autumn, made cake balls for the party and they were the best cake balls I have ever eaten! Autumn is a fantastic baker - I wish I was talented, haha. It was really nice being able to hang out with all of Jacob's family that I don't get to see as often, and with my family, too :)
For the "game" part of the shower, it was decided we would skip over doing traditional games and instead everyone would decorate a scrapbook page for Ellie's first year. The scrapbook pages turned out sooo cute! And the best part was that everyone signed their page so I will always know who decorated each page.
Baby Ellie was really spoiled between my two showers. My MIL alone had 19 gift bags for me to open at the shower, haha. We were blessed to have all of the major items purchased for us, so now it's just little stuff like baby shampoo and lotion to buy when the first bottles start running out. If you came to one of my showers, thank you so much!! It was wonderful being able to spend time with you :)
The invitation to my "formal" shower
There are 4 babies due on Jacob's side of the family ranging in due date from April to Sept - Clearly I am due first ;)
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
1st Baby Shower
Well there has been a lot going on since my last blog! I'll start with the title of this blog. Our "friend" baby shower was on Saturday. My friend, Beka, was kind enough to put this together for us, and it was an absolute blast!! It was more along the lines of a gathering of friends hanging out than an actual shower, but who really cares? The main reason we wanted to have this "shower" was so Jacob could have a good time at an actual baby oriented event :)
We decided it would be best to have the shower at our house, even though that's pretty unconventional, because we are the most centrally located. Beka lives in Greenville, and we didn't want to ask anyone else to "host" the event. Since it was going to be here, I felt the need to try and get my nursery put together. It's by no means even close to being done, but you can see below in the pictures that I at least have my furniture put together. We still have so much to get for the room, but obviously I want to wait until my showers are over to go buy anything. Our baby bedding, and accessories are being made by a family friend, and it's not ready yet so I have that coming, as well. But at least you can get an idea of what it will look like soon enough - I'll be posting more pictures as we get more done!
Now onto the pregnancy side of the blog ;) I can definitely tell I've entered my third trimester. I am getting soooo tired at just the slightest excursions! At school, I can really feel the difference - this is probably because I teach on the third floor. Those stairs are killing me!! I have also started to notice that I'm having some Braxton Hicks contractions, but so far they haven't been painful, so that's a plus (I'm sure the pain is coming). The baby is very active, and I I love feeling her move all around. She has stopped kicking as much, and now it just feels like she is stretching. She will push against the uterine wall and then push her way down the side, just like she is stretching with a yawn. She does this pretty much all day long :)
Finally, Jacob and I have been attending our childbirth preparation classes, and I am learning soo much. It's amazing all the things a woman's body does to prepare for childbirth. I am planning to go completely natural during delivery. I had originally planned to do this because I knew it was better for the baby, and I just wanted to prove to myself I was capable of doing that - I mean it is what my body was designed to do. However, after going to these classes, I am even more determined to go through with a natural birth. At our class this week, we found out that epidurals are actually capable of preventing the infant from latching on during breastfeeding the first day, and can cause difficulty with breastfeeding during the first few weeks because of that. Also, any medication you take while in labor - epidurals included - can stay in a baby's system as long as 6 weeks! Now I'm not saying I won't crumble under the pain of contractions and demand an epidural (especially if I end up with a ridiculously difficult labor) but I really feel like I am prepared to go through my labor and delivery naturally. Wish me luck!!
Below are pictures of the nursery :)
Are these shoes not precious??
The girls decorated baby bibs for Ellie. They all turned out soo cute!!
We decided it would be best to have the shower at our house, even though that's pretty unconventional, because we are the most centrally located. Beka lives in Greenville, and we didn't want to ask anyone else to "host" the event. Since it was going to be here, I felt the need to try and get my nursery put together. It's by no means even close to being done, but you can see below in the pictures that I at least have my furniture put together. We still have so much to get for the room, but obviously I want to wait until my showers are over to go buy anything. Our baby bedding, and accessories are being made by a family friend, and it's not ready yet so I have that coming, as well. But at least you can get an idea of what it will look like soon enough - I'll be posting more pictures as we get more done!
Now onto the pregnancy side of the blog ;) I can definitely tell I've entered my third trimester. I am getting soooo tired at just the slightest excursions! At school, I can really feel the difference - this is probably because I teach on the third floor. Those stairs are killing me!! I have also started to notice that I'm having some Braxton Hicks contractions, but so far they haven't been painful, so that's a plus (I'm sure the pain is coming). The baby is very active, and I I love feeling her move all around. She has stopped kicking as much, and now it just feels like she is stretching. She will push against the uterine wall and then push her way down the side, just like she is stretching with a yawn. She does this pretty much all day long :)
Finally, Jacob and I have been attending our childbirth preparation classes, and I am learning soo much. It's amazing all the things a woman's body does to prepare for childbirth. I am planning to go completely natural during delivery. I had originally planned to do this because I knew it was better for the baby, and I just wanted to prove to myself I was capable of doing that - I mean it is what my body was designed to do. However, after going to these classes, I am even more determined to go through with a natural birth. At our class this week, we found out that epidurals are actually capable of preventing the infant from latching on during breastfeeding the first day, and can cause difficulty with breastfeeding during the first few weeks because of that. Also, any medication you take while in labor - epidurals included - can stay in a baby's system as long as 6 weeks! Now I'm not saying I won't crumble under the pain of contractions and demand an epidural (especially if I end up with a ridiculously difficult labor) but I really feel like I am prepared to go through my labor and delivery naturally. Wish me luck!!
Below are pictures of the nursery :)
Are these shoes not precious??
The girls decorated baby bibs for Ellie. They all turned out soo cute!!
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Nursery Decorations
I have been recently motivated to finally get my nursery started. It's not that I didn't want to do it before, I just didn't have the space to work with and I hadn't purchased the furniture yet. Now that the bedroom is open and my furniture can be assembled I have found more motivation. We are planning to move in the beginning of July, so I will not be painting the apt. We also will not be going all out in the decorating here, since we'll just be taking it all down in a few months - but I had to decorate something!
I have recently discovered the greatness of Etsy, and the stuff on this website is amazing! I am having custom bedding made based on light pink and chocolate brown. The main fabric is a pink and brown damask. I do plan to paint the nursery walls in the house we are moving to in July. We want to do a two tone paint job with light pink on top, and a dark stained wainscoting on the bottom. With these colors in mind, I have found lots of stuff to go with that on Etsy. Below are several of the things I'm considering purchasing for Ellie's nursery.
As far as my pregnancy goes, I am starting to reach the uncomfortable stage :( I am currently waking up about once an hour at night to use the restroom - fun! I am also becoming winded at the slightest exertions. Stairs are currently my most un-favorite activity, too bad I live on the second floor of an apt and work on the third floor of the school, haha.
There is one cool thing to Ellie continuing to grow inside me. I can feel her move around more and more everyday. She is also starting to poke up against me and I can actually push back on her. It's been a pretty neat experience :)
Anyway, that's about all that's going on with us right now. I'm sure I'll find more to write about later...
I have recently discovered the greatness of Etsy, and the stuff on this website is amazing! I am having custom bedding made based on light pink and chocolate brown. The main fabric is a pink and brown damask. I do plan to paint the nursery walls in the house we are moving to in July. We want to do a two tone paint job with light pink on top, and a dark stained wainscoting on the bottom. With these colors in mind, I have found lots of stuff to go with that on Etsy. Below are several of the things I'm considering purchasing for Ellie's nursery.
As far as my pregnancy goes, I am starting to reach the uncomfortable stage :( I am currently waking up about once an hour at night to use the restroom - fun! I am also becoming winded at the slightest exertions. Stairs are currently my most un-favorite activity, too bad I live on the second floor of an apt and work on the third floor of the school, haha.
There is one cool thing to Ellie continuing to grow inside me. I can feel her move around more and more everyday. She is also starting to poke up against me and I can actually push back on her. It's been a pretty neat experience :)
Anyway, that's about all that's going on with us right now. I'm sure I'll find more to write about later...
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Snow day #??
Wow, so we got our 5th snow day in two weeks today! I can't believe this is happening. I was really bummed last year when Texas got snow on Christmas Eve and then got that foot of snow in February, all while I was stuck in hot Florida. Don't get me wrong, there were some great things about living in Florida - like going to beach year round - but I LOVE snow, and that was something that never happened in south Florida. I just knew this winter Texas wouldn't see any snow since it snowed so much last year. Well, I couldn't haven't been more wrong, and I couldn't be happier about that!
I know a lot of my teacher friends are stressing about missing so much instructional time with their students, but luckily I teach a fairly easy subject to get my students caught up on. Thank goodness I don't teach math, then I would be stressing. My kids are in the middle of a novel so we'll just take a little bit longer reading it than I had hoped. I know they won't mind missing a few stories I had planned to teach out of their literature book - and I know they won't miss the grammar I'll probably have to eliminate, haha.
The further along I get into this pregnancy, the less I can sleep at one time. I generally wake up about 3-4 times a night, and I usually don't sleep past about 7:30. I don't really feel tired during the day, I just go to sleep earlier at night. Well anyway, I was up this morning about 7 despite the fact that I didn't have to wake up for school. I had my first kick of "nesting" so I started going through my closet, then I hit the hallway closet and organized it. I ended up taking out 4 bags of trash! Finally, I did 3 loads of laundry, and started getting the baby clothing we have already accumulated ready to wash. All before noon! Then I got tired, sat down, and I haven't been up since then :) I guess my "nesting" kick is over for now...
I hope everyone stays warm on this cold day, and here's to wishful thinking that we'll have one more day off tomorrow!!
The snow/sleet view from our balcony - not nearly as pretty as last week's snow :(
My little laundry helper
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