It COULD be any day now...

Baby News...

Yesterday we hit the 34 week marker! If need be, the baby could be delivered at any point now. We've been told that it's realistic to expect the baby no later than 38 weeks. Sooo if we can make it two or three more weeks, that'd be awesome for the baby. I'm of course ready for the baby to come. I am soooo excited! I can't wait to see my lil one for the first time. I'm not gonna lie, I'm nervous about actually having the baby. I think I'm more scared of having a c-section than going through a regular delivery. I don't want surgery and I don't want to stay in the hospital any longer than absolutely necessary. This week's fetal monitoring went well. Monday the baby was sleepy and didn't feel like doing jack squat, but today the baby was moving around a lot and having heart rate accelerations like they want to see. I'm still having tons of braxton hicks contractions. Monday they measured my amniotic fluid levels and it has dropped to 13 - still in the normal range, but getting on the lower end. As you can see, my belly is still growing and I think it looks like it grew a lot since last week. On Monday, the 24th, I go in for an in depth ultrasound where they'll do a "growth scan" aka check the baby's growth, do some blood flow studies of the intestines to see how they're doing, and hopefully give us a better idea of when we can expect the baby to be here. I need to know when I will have to stop working so I can try to tie up loose ends with customers and figure out who will handle my customers while I'm on leave.

"Making it OUR
place...."

On Monday I had the day off and began to paint our living room. I painted all the walls a light blue/green and tomorrow I'll finish it off by doing horizontal stripes in just a shade darker than the color it is now. You gotta love my belly hanging out the bottom of my shirt. How attractive. So hopefully I'll be able to finish the painting tomorrow. On Saturday, a guy in Sam's academy is coming to pick up our sectional for his apartment that he's moving into. Our new sofa, chair, and ottoman will be delivered on Monday. Woo Hoo!!! I'm so flippin excited. I haven't seen it yet, but I should get to see it on Sunday when they get everything out that's being delivered on Monday. Next on our list of home furnishings is a rug for the living room and then probably a TV console. Right now we're using a dresser that Kristin found on the curb when I moved here in September of last year. It's not a bad piece, but I'd like something that has better storage options. Dresser drawers aren't exactly made to store DVD players and videogame systems. We'll make do for now. If we continue to order stuff from Willis while I'm working here, we can get it for cost plus 15%...so it's quite the deal for how awesome the quality is. The rugs I've been looking at will cost us about $500 for an 8x11 and that's about what the TV console would cost too. After all that....we'd really like to get a TV. We have Kristin and Mark's old TV and it fulfills its purpose, but sometimes it just starts doing this high pitch ringing sound. It's unbearable. Lol.

Family Ties...

Last Sunday we celebrated Tyler's 10th bday...which was really on Saturday. We had wonderfully yummy cake that Kristin made. MMM!!! We gave Tyler the 4th Harry Potter book and he can't wait to start reading it. Seriously though...look at that cake. It was the funfetti with chocolate frosting. I'm about to start drooling just by looking at the picture. Oh man. I wonder what kind of cake we'll be having for Connor's bday. Muahahahah!

I'm getting pretty darn excited. Jac and Andy come this Saturday and get to stay til the day after Thanksgiving. I'll actually have 3 days off work completely while they're here...and that never happens. What's more? Jac will be able to come to my Monday doctor appointment. Super duper.

Well folks, I think that's about all I've got for now. I'll update again after Monday's big doctor appointment. If they put me on bed rest, Lord knows I'll have plenty of time to blog! :)

Busy little worker bees...

Greetings everyone! This is our first blog on here. I was inspired by how awesome Chelsea's blogspot is, and thought this would be a great way to reach all you non-facebookers and non-myspacers.

In case you weren't aware - I'm pregnant...not just getting fat, but getting fat for a reason! Haha. I'm 32 and a half weeks now. I love going back and looking at the pictures of my belly, week by week. It's amazing how much it's grown and changed, and how skinny I used to be...even though I never thought I was. I've gained weight in my face, my arms, my legs, and my butt - all places I wish I wouldn't have, but hey, not like I can channel it all towards my belly. It'll be nice to be able to start working out again after the baby is here. I miss feeling "fit." I miss being able to put my shoes on without grunting. I miss being able to lay around however I wanted. I miss a lot of pre-pregnancy things, but I do love so many things about being pregnant. I love that I can feel every little kick, movement, and even the annoying hiccups. I love being able to hear the baby's heart beat when I go in twice a week for fetal monitoring. I love seeing the baby when we have ultrasounds. I love how protective Sam has become of me, and of our baby. I love the excitement that pregnancy brings, all the anticipation. I cannot wait to see our little one!

In the meantime, I go to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital twice a week to the Fetal Diagnostics Unit. During the non-stress tests, two monitors are placed on my belly. One monitors the baby's heart rate and the other contractions. The baby's heart rate needs to accelerate 15 beats per minute everytime the baby moves. The baby's heart rate also needs to stay put when I have a contraction. If the heart rate were to speed up during a contraction, that means the baby isn't handling the stress of the contraction very well. So far, everything has been going great. Once a week they do an ultrasound to check my amniotic fluid levels to make sure they stay between 10 and 22. It was 15 last time, so we're good to go on that. Along with these twice weekly appointments, I go to EVMS' division of maternal and fetal medicine to have thorough ultrasounds done. There they look at the baby's growth and the blood flow to the bowels and brain. They will do this again on November 24th. After that, I'll need to have the ultrasound done every week.

Since finding out the baby has gastroschisis, it's been quite a journey. Initially we were scared because we didn't know anything about the condition. Then we were concerned with the process of treating the gastroschisis. We wanted to know the timeline of how long it would take for the baby to recover, how the baby would be delivered, how surgery would go, if we'd be able to breastfeed when the baby was well, etc. Now I think we just want to know WHEN this baby will be getting here.

I've been busy at work with projects and it's so hard not knowing when I will have to stop working here. It's difficult to work on projects when I don't know if I'll be around to help the customers complete them. I think the plan right now is to try to work part time while the baby is still in the hospital and then start my maternity leave when the baby can come home....provided that my boss approves that plan.

Sam, being the awesome husband he is, has been working his patoot off in the academy. I give him a lot of credit for what he does. He gets up each morning, usually before 6 and doesn't get home til about 5 or 6. The academy is physically demanding - and mentally. He has been doing well with all his physical tests and academic tests too. This past week was "hell" week. It was a lot of military style discipline and they worked on their shooting skills at the gun range. This was also Sam's final week of having the music minister responsibilities. Sunday will be his last service to lead. It'll be nice for him to have a break from it because we'll be able to spend more time with each other on weeknights. We currently have no days off that coincide, and we won't until after the baby is here - or they put me on bed rest.