{Almost} 39 Weeks!

How far along? Almost 39 Weeks (Close enough that I'm including it...she's almost the size of a mini watermelon)

Maternity Clothes? I mean obviously I'm in them. I'm just glad at this point that they are super comfy because I know I'll be in them for a little while after she's here. But I do look forward to being in my old clothes again...especially summer clothes!!

Weeks 7 - 12

Sleep? Oh man it was a little rough this week. Sleeping on my right side was pretty hard, but staying ONLY on my left was hard too. The kitties seem to sense the changes coming too so they love to cuddle with me and get their time in which makes finding a comfy spot even more difficult. But I remind myself it's only for a little longer!

Weeks 13 - 18

Best moments of the week:

• Knowing this is my last week (well now NIGHT at this point) before BB will be here... I'm SOOO excited to meet her it's unreal! I'm trying not to think of how high my nerves are right now about that fact.
• Seeing how excited Larry is about this! Not going to lie, I knew me experiencing this would be different than his feelings towards it (he's more of a "once I can play with them they are fun, until then I am okay not being around kids" sort of person). But I think it's getting to be more real for both of us now that we have a real date and everything!
• Getting my pedicure. It was just a simple one, but it felt good to have my feet taken care of AND I got a bunch of the ladies talking about what to expect as far as giving birth and having a baby. It was probably the most fun pedicure experience I've had.
• I also decided to use this last weekend as a beauty weekend...I want to look all fresh and glowing for BB to see when she makes her appearance :)

Miss Anything? I miss not HAVING to put lotion all over twice a day. If I skip one I become so paranoid...yes I did get some stretch marks, but I am doing what I can to keep them at bay!

Weeks 19 - 24

Movement: Yes, she's becoming more active at night. She has been for a few weeks. That's been a fun change (that was written in sarcasm font). I get some movements in during the day - she still thinks the belly button is the way out and I wasn't willing to tell her the truth for fear she'd try and come out early haha.

Weeks 25 - 30

Cravings/Aversions: Nothing big this last week...I just wanted food. We made this Beef Enchilada Bake recipe and had leftovers for a few nights that I really looked forward to eating again. But then that finished off and we had to move on to the next recipe. Although I was really wanting to make it all over again haha.

Weeks 31 - 36

Gender: We have a little lady that we'll be meeting (hopefully) tomorrow! :)

Labor Signs: Just some cramps every once in a while, back pains once in a while, and my stomach tightening once in a while...but never were those at the same time so...yeah.

Weeks 37 - 39

 

Symptoms: I got the stretch marks, exhaustion beyond belief, pregnancy brain and clumsiness. I thought I was starting to get nauseous again, but that subsided if I slept or ate. Nothing big

Moods: I'm just so tired all the time...but I'm getting excited for this next part so it's all coming at once. Very interested to see what my post partum hormones do to me haha.



Beginning and End

Looking forward to: Meeting her! That's all there is now. I'm SO hopeful that the version is successful and we can do this without a C-section, but I'll take her however I can as long as she's healthy and safe. She's been such a fighter so far so I'm sure we can do this, she's just stubborn (just like her dad!).

38 Weeks

How far along? 38 Weeks (My last full weekly update...see Best Moments for why. Also, size of a Winter Melon...eesh!)

Maternity Clothes? It's just a good thing I have my new shirts that fit. ALL my old ones are too small so they are my weekend shirts (since it exposes a few inches of the bottom of my belly)...I would be embarrassed, but I just don't care anymore and I hope no one feels they need to give me grief haha.

Sleep? Unfortunately, I'm getting used to sleeping in. This is unfortunate since I know I'm about to lose out on sleep so it just figures I'm getting used to MORE sleep now (at it hits hard at 8:30 PM...I'm a zombie after that point)! One night I went to bed on my left side and woke up 3 hours later on my right side with no recollection of turning over, so I'm obviously sleeping deeper than I used to. Fingers crossed my baby is one that sleeps a lot at night haha.

The only real negative part is sleeping on my right side is getting a bit more painful. My left hip hurts a lot when I sleep on my right side (which seems backwards) so I mostly only sleep on my left side. I can't say I'm going to miss that when this is over with haha.

Best moments of the week:

• Finally getting a picture of me balancing food on my belly. It's been my shelf for a while, but I finally got a shot of it!
• How motivated I am to make sure I eat healthy and get healthy once this little miss is out of me! I swear it's taken over my "nesting" phase haha.
• Getting my meal plan prepared for after she's here. I've got a few more things to work on with it, but I'm glad I've got a plan going. Which leads us to our next point...
• We got most of our May Food List stuff done...just need a few more items and then it's just stuff (like produce or dairy) that we have to wait until we NEED it to get it. It's so nice to have a super full pantry and fridge and know it should last us until June (we even had to plug in our outside fridge for extra meat!)
• I started reading my "What To Expect - the First Year" book, just the first month, to get a good start on what I need to know. It was pretty overwhelming, but I'm glad I've started it. I like learning and preparing as much as possible.
• I'm trying so hard not to plan anything for when I'm on Maternity Leave (since I have NO idea what that time will be like), but Larry and I were talking about going on walks when we could, a possible Bees game, just different things that gets us out of the house. I'm getting excited for those!
• Getting our good news at our last appointment...she's breech (which isn't the good part), but we've officially got a birthday scheduled...May 1st! She's going to be a "first of the month birthday" like her dad. It's nice being able to give our work the notice and get things ready and set up too.
• Finally getting my hair done! I went last night and I feel SO much better about it. I know I won't look so blah in hospital pictures (at least my hair won't). PLUS the lady I found was SO nice, they were reasonably priced, and she was so easy to talk to (no awkward silences is great for me!)

Miss Anything? Just how much I used to be able to do. I told Larry being pregnant is like walking through a pool, you can move, but it's VERY slowed down. I'm to the point where going grocery shopping is getting to be difficult. I can't wait till I'm feeling up to doing Saturday errands again.

Movement: Yes, but they are slower movements most of the time. She'll get a good kick in once in a while, but everything else is much slower, which makes sense since she's definitely running out of room in there. Luckily at my appointment they told me I still have good fluid levels in there.

Cravings/Aversions: I think just chocolate milk. The ice cream I got for the actual last ice cream run wasn't as good as I thought so now I think I'd rather have frozen yogurt. But I still would much rather have chocolate milk over all of it these days. It's going to be hard to give that up.

Gender: We have a little lady swimming through goop in there (I know how she feels!) :)

Labor Signs: Friday and Sunday night I was getting REALLY crampy and I had some lower back pains. I thought it might be some contractions, but they went away after a while. It might have just been gas, who knows these days? haha But then Monday I was driving home (after having back pain on and off all day) and all of a sudden my stomach tightened SO hard and I got really crampy, so I'm pretty sure I had a contraction then. At my appointment they said my cervix was "a 1", but I'm not sure what that means...I'm assuming it means dilated, but they didn't say anymore than that.

Symptoms: Lots of heartburn! I finished off my ice cream Saturday night so that it would be out of the house (I'm trying to de-junk the house so that there isn't anything tempting me after she's here and I can focus on eating better)...boy was that a mistake. The heartburn is really tough some days. Oh and I still get major pregnancy brain and clumsiness these days!

Moods: I'm too tired to argue or care about things for the most part so I think people think I'm friendlier-ish haha. One night I asked Larry to close the blinds and he did it different than I would've liked. I started to argue it, but he told me why his way was better and I just told him ok...I didn't really care to go into it. I just cared that they were closed.

Looking forward to: Officially getting her out of me. I am trying my hardest to enjoy these last moments and soak them in, but Larry wants to be doing stuff all the time and it's getting harder for me to be motivated or feel up to getting off the couch. The good news is I feel like I have soaked up a lot of this pregnancy in the moment. I've spent a lot of time sitting and paying attention to how she was moving or how I was feeling, so I don't feel like I rushed through any of it to get to the next phase. Hopefully I can keep that up once she's out.

We Have A Fence!!

Hey there! Another home update here :) We finally have our yard fenced off!! This is a big one for us for a couple reasons. One being that we had a year to either put up a fence or get our landscaping done. Both seemed like big, expensive tasks, but in the end we realized putting our yard together would require a lot more work to get what we want so fencing would be a quicker thing to have done. The second reason being that how much this cost us was going to effect if we were going to be able to do Hawaii later this year. We were convinced a fence would be in the tens of thousands of dollars so we didn't want to spend that and try and make a vacation work with a baby on the way.

About a month ago we started the process by calling a few companies to come give us an estimate and I was surprised to see that they all were about 1/2 to 1/3 of what we expected it to cost. Especially when Larry was telling me all the "extras" they could include if we wanted them to help against the winds we get here. Needless to say I was very pleased that this was going to be VERY budget friendly. After comparing the three companies we contacted Vinyl Industries to come out (I was very persistent that this be done before BB is born as I didn't want a lot of workers around while we were figuring out the newborn thing). Luckily they were able to come out last week to install the posts. They mentioned to Larry that they would make the tops all level so we'd probably have to put dirt underneath it to level things out that way, which was perfect and worked for us.

4/12: we have our posts in!

 

They came out today and finished up with the paneling and I have to say it looks SO nice having the yard all fenced in now. We can finally see the space we're working with and what we want to put where. We're still drawing up our plans on what we'd like to do with our backyard, but we know we would like to make as much of it as drought tolerant as possible, we'd like a tree or two in the back. I'd love at least one flower bed and a vegetable/fruit garden area. If we could, I'd like to find a way to fit a small green house, a space for a trampoline/playground for kids, and maybe a grassy area for if we get a dog. Yeah, I know, we want a lot for such a small area, but I believe we can make it work...hopefully!

 

 

The best part about this is now that it's done and didn't cost NEARLY as much as we thought we just need to wait for BB to be born and make sure she's healthy and we can book our Hawaii trip. I'm so excited to go back and be able to take her to the beach and get a real vacation again (it's been far too long). Anyways, our house is really coming together and much quicker than I thought it would. It's been so fun so far getting all the things in! Larry is convinced we're selling the house in a year and building again, he's silly like that. I'm loving all that we're doing I doubt I'll be able to just leave it behind haha.

37 Weeks

How far along? 37 Weeks (Romaine Lettuce - although she feels 10x heavier haha)

Maternity Clothes? Going better than last week. I also found an older shirt that Stace gave me that fits perfectly for the weekends that I decided is going in our hospital bag since it's a looser maternity shirt. Plus that way I don't have to wait until the last minute to grab an outfit for that...it was really bugging Larry how much I couldn't pack now.

Sleep? This week was way better. I slept in quite a bit on Saturday. Larry and I even woke up together, which is VERY rare for the weekends. I didn't get up at 4 either morning so I'm considering that a win! Haha.

Best moments of the week:

• Getting our car seat and stroller combo. It was such a good night because it was so confusing how it all fit together and we figured it out all on our own.
• Installing the car seat bases in the cars so that we are ready to go once she makes her appearance
• Getting our last date night in on Saturday. It was SUCH a good day. See the date night post for those details.
• Sunday we finally cleaned out BBs room and got things more organized. There's more we have to figure out where to go, but at least it looks like a more organized mess.
• Our glider! It's all put together and looks SO good in the nursery.
• Getting the hospital bag MOSTLY packed. We still have last minute items, but if BB were to come today I'd feel pretty ready.
• Going out to dinner with Will and Grandma on Tuesday...BB has officially "met" all grandparents now!

Miss Anything? I'm definitely getting to the more uncomfortable stage of pregnancy. I'm pretty sure little miss has dropped so she's MUCH heavier than before, so I'm definitely missing just a few weeks ago when it seemed like it was easier haha. But still nothing huge to complain about.

Movement: Oh boy, yes! I think she's ready to be out so much haha. There are days where I swear she's fighting being so cramped in there. A lot of the time she pushes out (like by my belly button) and it's like "there's no more 'out' left...you've got it all!" haha.

First two pics I was really sick, the last two, not so much
I feel like you can tell with this comparison haha

Cravings/Aversions: Ice cream all the time. The frozen yogurt I got on Saturday was the best! Unfortunately BB is still breech so it was probably our last "ice cream" run. I'm planning on doing sugar free during maternity leave so I'd like one more night to get ice cream while I can without making it a pattern (which is why we're not keeping it in the house anymore)

Gender: We have a little lady trying to break out in there:)

Labor Signs: Nada. Sometimes I wonder if I really will feel it, but then I remind myself it's still pretty early (I think because I have all my next appointments scheduled I feel like I'm closer to the end than I am). So I think we're good here.

Symptoms: Apparently 36 weeks is when I get ALL the heartburn! Oh man, this past weekend I swear it went from Friday all through Sunday night. It was SO painful, felt like an acid bubble was just sitting in my chest. Eating, drinking, not eating, nothing helped! I don't even know why they call it heartburn when it doesn't burn and cold doesn't make it go away!

Moods: Still been pretty good. Even the though of possibly having her early or having a C-section is really a possibility, it hasn't really stressed me out. I'm to the point where what needs to happen will happen and I just need to accept it. As long as she's healthy and safe, that's all that matters.

Looking forward to: Just enjoying what could be the last week or two of being pregnant and having our time together (Larry and me). Now that the hospital bag is (mostly) packed I'm just working on craft projects until it's decided she's coming. We're officially on the countdown (which is good because 37 weeks marks full term so she could come at any point now and be okay, for the most part).

Things About Pregnancy

I decided I wanted to make a list of things about (my) pregnancy that were totally new information for me...or just felt like documenting (warning, some of this will be TMI, so read at your own risk).

• Booger, Gas, and Nausea: Holy crap! Like why did no one tell me about these things? I heard you get gas in the first trimester, which I never really did, but by the third one...there were times it surprised me. There were times it HURT like nothing else! And there were times that I thought "how could I still be doing this? I just ate a banana!!" Also, the boogers, if I didn't blow my nose eight thousand times in the morning, I was stuck with mucus in my throat ALL day long! Now the sickness, that is a whole other story almost completely (but it's still included in this lovely first part). I think it was just really awful for me because I'm NEVER sick (maybe a stuffy nose once in a while, a cough that won't go away so I have a constant tickle in my throat, but that's about it and even that was only like once every other year), but man oh man, the nausea and throwing up was just awful. I had no idea what to expect and so when I got it, it hit hard! I'm glad I wasn't so bad I needed an IV for fluids or was sick for the whole pregnancy, but it was REALLY rough. I remember it being just like the movies where I'd feel completely fine and then all of a sudden it was a race to the bathroom! I'm SO glad it never hit too bad at work (I kept PLENTY of things around me to keep it down), but once I got home it was everything I could do to eat and stay on the couch. I had to make sure I took my prenatals RIGHT before bed so that they didn't come back up and my body could actually absorb the good parts. Also, did you know motion sickness was a thing during pregnancy? That's what made it so bad, if anything gave me the feeling of motion my body would immediately want to rid itself of breakfast! Radio, TV, even people talking around me was a no go for a while there.

• Pregnancy Arthritis: What?? Again, no one told me about this! Maybe no one I knew experienced it, but apparently when you swell a lot, you get the arthritis and it HURTS as well! I'm the jar opener of the house, so when I couldn't even open apple juice one day I knew I was in trouble. Luckily I read this goes away once you have the baby and swelling goes down, I hope that's true!

• Finding out the gender: This one may not be true for everyone, but I realized when we found out we were having a girl the reason I kept crying is because this suddenly felt like a huge load on my shoulders. I was going to be the role model, I needed to show her how to be, and I needed to be a good example of the lessons I was going to teach her. I want her to have the confidence I never had and to not be shy when making friends, but how do you teach something you have such issues with? Larry made me feel better when I was talking to him about this when he reminded me whenever girls end up in bad places it's always "daddy issues" so really HE'S still the most influential. I still feel pressure that I'm going to be the one she looks to for advice and how to handle situations. Hopefully I don't screw that up.

• Speaking of finding out the gender. Because I figured this was on my shoulders to show her how to have confidence and everything, it really made me realize the important issues in my life. It made me not want to dwell on tiny things and to be the person I want her to be. I feel like I've turned into a really good version of myself; it's still a work in progress, but I really hope she can see the person I feel I am now. Even though I say the point of raising a child is to help make them be better than you so I hope I can accomplish this (this may sound like I expect more than I should, but I don't think so).

 

• Movements: movements are so insanely crazy (which everyone knows). One thing I wish I had known is that it's perfectly normal for you to have 2-3 days of insane movements and then a day or two of slowed down movements. The first few times that happened I freaked out, but then I noticed it was usually related to a growth spurt because she'd be insane the day following the slowed down parts. Larry had to remind me on several occasions that as long as she's still moving it's okay if it's slower or less because she still needs to sleep and growing can take a lot out of you (also, it was nice when the nurse in L&D told me you don't have to worry about the whole "10 movements in an hour" thing if she's been moving throughout the day so I never had to worry about that part). Also, into the third trimester the movements can hurt. Not in a scary way, but in a "she's digging her elbow into my side" or "she's using nails or bones to scratch me somehow in there" sort of pain. Not to mention they are stretching skin so that doesn't always feel the best. But aside from all that, the movements were easily my favorite parts! I got used to them so I'd forget it was a tiny human making them sometimes, but then she'd do something new (like when I swear I could feel her actual fingers moving in there or one time I SWEAR she was kneading my belly) and I'd realize that's my child! She's doing that in there and I'd try and imagine what she was trying to tell me with that. Oh except cervix kicks/punches...those ones I could've passed on. ESPECIALLY when we were out in public and I'd almost double over because they'd surprise me.

• The comments/questions: Yes I know I have a belly, no I don't know what's going on with my face in pictures - it just does that now!, yes I'm sure I'm not having twins. No I'm not miserable because I'm so big, I'm actually enjoying it. Don't get me wrong, I knew about the comments, but I didn't realize how bugged I could be by them. I'm sure people mean so very well, but man oh man were there times I had to try so hard to just laugh it off and move on. Luckily I never had to deal with the strangers touching my belly. I guess I give off a "don't touch this" vibe haha.

• Bathroom Breaks: Yes, I knew you go to the bathroom a lot, I wasn't surprised by this at all. But did you know the baby can make you pee your pants even after you've gone to the bathroom...like how is that possible? Maybe it's just because BB was breech so she was kicking my bladder more than bumping her head into it, but that one through me through a loop! One time I swear my water broke during a Costco run, I was freaking out!

• Aches and Pains. I mistakenly made a statement to Larry one day during my second trimester...something along the lines of "if I'm comfortable I feel like something is wrong, shouldn't this be uncomfortable?" Uh, yeah, past Jodi, the third trimester will hit and you will never be comfortable again! Sure you'll have good days where it's tolerable, but then there are days that you slept maybe 3 solid hours, you have to go to the bathroom in some form all freaking day (and an office chair SUCKS on those days), everything you eat just feels so heavy and makes you feel more bloated, and you could slap someone just for looking at you the wrong way (even though they really aren't, you're just sure you need a reason to slap someone). Enjoy the 2nd trimester, as long as things are going smoothly and you don't have any issues, just freaking enjoy the best part of this whole process! 

• Pregnancy Brain and Clumsiness (I'm totally bulking this into one point because I'm pretty sure they are related). So I knew pregnancy brain was a thing, I've seen it with friends, I knew it had to do with being forgetful. But for me, it involved making up words that didn't exist (how about when I asked one of my midwife's about "inducement"...what?!). I also got to the point where I literally had to write things down or within a minute they'd be gone. I never got to the "put the milk in the pantry and the cereal in the fridge" part, but I didn't realize there were other levels to it! Also, I swear I've never dropped things more in my life! And it just figures it would mostly happen as I got bigger and couldn't bend over as easily to pick them up. Maybe I only noticed it when it became a problem, but I was the biggest butterfingers there could be!

• Myths: Don't believe that whole "if your mom didn't get stretch marks you won't". That isn't hereditary, it's about how moisturized you keep your skin and how you carry. I think I carried larger than my mom did (or so it seemed with how surprised she always was to see my bump haha) so obviously I got them! It wasn't my favorite part, but they aren't as bad as other ones I've seen on people. Also, all gender predictors are basically a myth. Sometimes they apply, sometimes they don't. Heck, if you see my weekly updates I was 50/50 on the myths. I think it just has to do with your body and how you respond to pregnancy (for example, I don't normally break out, which is supposed to happen when you're pregnant with a girl. So if I got a zit every now and then maybe that was pregnancy related, but I didn't get anything crazy...probably just how my skin works).

• This really is one of the most amazing experiences! I used to be SO convinced that parents wanted non-parents to have kids because "misery loves company." I thought with all the complaints I heard that there is just no way people could be THAT enthused about someone else having a kid when they still had their freedom. It was one of the reasons I was okay if we didn't have kids before all of this. But when I heard of other people being pregnant after I found out about us, I was genuinely excited for them! It's not that this is miserable, it's just that there are adjustments with it since it is a huge change. There are good and bad parts, although I don't feel I got too much of the bad parts...or at least nothing that was a complete deal breaker. Plus seeing how excited people were for us and how happy they were, it made it even better!

Last Date Night

So realizing that our "15th of the month" date nights might be coming to an end (not for forever, but definitely for a while, at least without BB coming along to them) we decided to make our last date night a good one. Well it was Larry's choice so I kind of nudged him about making it a good one, and boy did he deliver!

Let me just say the whole day today has been a great one! We had to run some errands in the morning:

• Smith's to pick up a prescription and ask them about "ordering" a breast pump (turns out they don't do it, but I CAN fill that at the hospital pharmacy so we'll just do it that way - makes it easier for Larry to pick up since we can't get it until after she's born)
• Buy Buy Baby to get our adorable glider and ottoman
• Home to build the glider and put it in the nursery (and clear out trunk space in Larry's car)
• Home Depot to get a replacement pipe since the fencers busted a sprinkler pipe when they put the posts in. We also had to get some more salt for our water softener and a rake since we're getting crazy winds lately and it blew all our wood chips into our lawn.
• Costco to load up on some non-food goods and where a worker there was going crazy over how young Larry and I looked. Let me tell ya, when you haven't put on makeup, you're overdue for a shower, and you feel super swollen hearing that you look young from someone sure makes you feel like a million bucks! I used to hate hearing that, but now it's great!

After all that we went back home to unload everything and relax for a bit before going out. We put on a movie (Alien...so fitting since I keep saying when BB wiggles a lot it reminds me of the alien that shoots out of the guy's torso in that movie) and half napped/half just sat there like zombies haha. Finally we were both pretty hungry so Larry looked up restaurants nearby and decided on Bona Vita (one I've been DYING to try for years now!). Luckily it had a casual attire rating on Yelp so I didn't feel pressure to change (not that I have any "nice" clothes that fit me anymore haha. But I did put on some makeup so I looked mostly presentable).

When we got there the lady who sat us made an "oh my, look how cute you are!" comment and I realized she's definitely learned how to talk to pregnant people. I can't tell you how much I've gotten sick of the "wow! You're so huge!" comment...I get it people, I'm growing something entirely too big for my frame apparently! This lady started our night out on such a good note.

Dinner was so yummy and Larry ordered this Italian Soda that was SO delicious I almost wanted to trade my root beer for his drink haha. I ended up with tons of leftovers (which works for lunches part of this next week) and then we went out to get some frozen yogurt...something I've been dying to get for a few months now.

We ended the night watching our Netflix movie (Now You See Me 2...it's all right) and eating our froyo, I made mine PERFECTLY! It had the perfect combination of all the ingredients and I didn't overdo it with the toppings!

Overall, I don't think I could've asked for a better "last date night for a while" night, even the day really rocked! I still have to work more on BB's room and hopefully get a craft project in before she comes, but for the most part we're really getting things done these days.

36 Weeks

How far along? 36 Weeks (Papaya)

Maternity Clothes? The clothes are still very comfy, my shoes are starting to get tight, but I REFUSE to buy anything with only 4 weeks left to go haha. I'm thinking I might buy ONE more shirt so I have something to pack in the hospital bag...but I think I'll be okay without it.

Sleep? I can sleep on my left side great, but my right side gets pains that aren't my favorite. Unfortunately, I do need to switch sides throughout the night so I try and do short spurts of my right side (if I can control it). But still, once I'm asleep, I sleep SO well! I even slept until 9:30 AM on Saturday morning...this is VERY rare, I'm usually up between 5-6 during the week and then like 4 on the weekends (pregnancy insomnia is a real thing apparently and ONLY on days I don't have an alarm)

Best moments of the week:

• Getting the last of our baby items from our registry. We went on some extreme shopping sprees! I had to order some stuff online so I can't wait for that to get in and say we're officially done and can just wait for her to make her lovely appearance!
• We watched a series on Netflix called "9 Months That Made You". At first it seemed like it just went over what can go wrong during pregnancy (nothing death related, just abnormalities) and I was freaked out. But then got into it because it was crazy to see how much can be altered throughout these 9 months. It's only 3 hour long episodes so if you're interested, I'd recommend watching it (just maybe NOT until midnight because I almost fell asleep during the last episode which covered the weeks I'm in now).
• Finding out BB LOVES the "I Can Make Your Hands Clap" song. She woke up one morning just to dance to it real quick and then fell back asleep after it was over. That was probably my favorite moment this week haha.

Miss Anything? I can't wait to not be so darn swollen! Holy crap I thought I got off scott free on this one since I didn't swell up for the longest time...but now I'm wondering if my feet can actually explode from being so swollen haha...as far as I know that hasn't happened to anyone.

Movement: Yes! She's starting to move more at night too. I love feeling her feet (maybe hands or elbows...not sure exactly) move across my belly. I know I'm going to miss those moments the most when she's out. I'm trying to soak them all up while I can.

Cravings/Aversions: Ice cream, chocolate milk, the usual. Root Beer doesn't sound as good as it used to, I'll drink it, but I'd rather have chocolate milk now. My ice cream that I was gloating about last time is all gone...so much for it lasting (blame Larry though, he ate a good bunch of it!)

Gender: We have a little lady swimming around :)

Labor Signs: Nothing that I've noticed. I get crampy a tiny bit lately, but other than that nothing that screams "this could be labor related"...mostly it's just "ouch side ache...I have to slow it down" or "my back has a kink in it, that needs to go away...I'll go sit for 3 hours that should solve it!" haha. At my appointment they said I'm thinning out, but no dialation yet. Which is good, because she's still breech so we may be making appointments to turn her/get induced/have a C-Section soon.

Symptoms: Mostly just the stretch marks around my belly button...I've never been so pro tattoo to cover those up...but we'll see what it looks like once she's out and my skin kind of goes back. I still lather up in lotion to help them out, but she just LOVES pushing my belly button out so there's not a whole lot I can do.

Moods: It's been pretty good for a while so I'm loving that. I really hope it stays so I can do everything to enjoy these last few weeks (I'm trying not to rush or get too excited for her to be here because I know I'll miss this so much).

Looking forward to: Getting the absolute last stuff for BB, being at weekly appointments to see if she's flipped around. Just getting the last items done. Including moments for Larry and I to just enjoy it being the two of us (planning our last date night this weekend and do non-baby related stuff since it'll probably be all about her for a little while after she's here). Based on how my appointments have been, we may have an End of April baby rather than a May baby...eesh!

35 Weeks

How far along? 35 Weeks (Pineapple)

Maternity Clothes? Like normal, Motherhood Maternity items are amazing! The pants are great for now. I caved and got some more Motherhood Maternity shirts because they are long and oh so comfy. That store is the best ever! They gave me tons of coupons/gift cards, a bottle, and a 2 year subscription to two magazines for $3 total (not per month!)

Sleep? Very well still. Although she's starting to get more active at nights...that's hard to sleep through sometimes. But I love it still.

Best moments of the week:

• Got our hospital packing list typed up (I was going to save that for this weekend, but Larry thought we should have it ready earlier just in case haha)
• We might be planning a fun Hawaiian trip to take BB on and I got the PTO approved for that. We aren't going to book anything until after she's here (to make sure she's healthy and doesn't have any issues that we'll need to focus on instead of a vacation), but if everything goes according to plan it should be a fun trip. Of course we don't expect her to remember it, but until she does remember vacations they are going to be things we want to do.
• My shower! It was an amazing day and I couldn't have asked for it to be any better!

How perfect would this be if
We do go to Hawaii??

Miss Anything? Nothing of importance, I can't wait to have deli meat and sushi again, but I can at the same time.

Movement: Oh yes! I'm convinced she really will be a swimmer, she seems to do laps in there somehow. She loves to just turn and turn...hopefully she's not getting things tangled in there!

Cravings/Aversions: Nothing new, but I got tons of ice cream at the house now so I'm a super happy camper.

Gender: We have a little lady swimming around :)

Labor Signs: Nothing and with how things went last week I'm thinking she's definitely not going to be anytime soon.

Symptoms: I'm calling it this week, my belly button is officially an outie! She loves pushing on it so much I'm not surprised in the slightest haha. Also I'm getting to the point where I overheat very easily! But of course because she likes doing that I'm starting to get stretch marks (boo!) around that area...I'm not looking forward to those becoming worse.

Moods: Mostly good still. As long as I'm comfortable it's easy to stay positive. So I guess I can't complain too much.

Looking forward to: Getting all the last of our stuff this weekend and then starting on fun crafts for her room. I didn't think I'd want to do crafts, but I found some simple ones to test my hand at (I want to do a table runner for her dresser since it's all very white and then make a string art thing). Hopefully I can get them done before she arrives since I tend to slack with crafts.

BB Shower

Today could NOT have been a more perfect day! I'm SO happy with how the shower turned out, but let me go back a tiny bit.

My mom flew in on Thursday (after a MUCH delayed flight and awful travel conditions, but she made it in one piece is the important part). It was nice because we actually got to pick her up, this was the first time she was seeing the bump in person and I was so excited. I was on a mission for her to feel BB wiggles since it's really the only part she misses out on being far away. Unfortunately, she got in so late we only had time to catch up in the car. Once we got home she was exhausted (and it was pretty much past her bed time) that she passed out, not that I could blame her, air travel can really take it out of you. Plus we had a busy day ahead of us for Friday, so she went to bed while Larry and I watched a show to wind ourselves down before bed.

After spending Friday running errands and picking up last minute things (as well as scoring a decent deal on some magazine subscriptions while getting maternity shirts) I was officially ready to get the shower started this morning! I woke up nice and early so that I could shower and have time to make my hair look decent for everyone, plus I had gotten a shirt specifically for the shower that I was excited to wear.

We got all decorations hung, Larry was a gem and went out to get balloons and a couple things we had to wait till today to get, and my brother, his girlfriend, my mom, and I all built the high chair my mom got us (cutest chair that converts to a booster and toddler chair) so we could put her gifts on that to show off a little bit. We got decorations hung and fruit cut up and food set out to get everything ready. I'm so happy we my mom had the help she did because there was a lot to get done and I was getting tired really quickly.

People started showing up around 1:45 and we had a full house before I knew anything else. It was so great to see everyone who wanted to be there and were all excited for BB and us. Larry and Andy had plans to go shooting during the shower, but ended up leaving so early that they got it all done and were back as everything was getting started. Larry (the cutest hubby and soon-to-be daddy ever) ended up playing with all the kids on the floof in the front room. I wish I had gotten pictures of that because it was so sweet!

We let everyone get some food and eat for a bit and then started playing the games. Marie did so well getting those printed off and making them entertaining for everyone. We played "Newborn Know How" (which is like newborn trivia) and Baby Bingo (which we ended up playing like 4 games of to get prizes out). We also had everyone put on clothes pins and they couldn't say "Baby" or they lost their pin, the one with the most at the end got a prize and a diaper raffle - if they brought diapers to the shower they got entered into the raffle and I picked a name for a prize for that one. My mom picked out some amazing gifts and even got one for a kid so when they won they'd have a fun thing to have (things like those mini fridge notepads, a frame, a candle, and a jelly bean candy machine thing).

There was A LOT more food than this
But this is all I could find for now

After games we got to the gifts, I was most nervous about this because I had a feeling I'd go all red having everyone stare at me, but my mom was brilliant and told Larry he should be up there with me so it was both of us getting the attention (she even had him change into his "Man Behind the Bump" shirt for pictures haha). He did well collecting the garbage while I opened gifts and even let me borrow his lap when I couldn't fit the gift on mine haha. We got SO many gifts and awesome stuff. I don't think we really got any duplicate items (except for a couple things mom bought us that Cindy had already given us). It's hard to pick favorites, but we got some great teethers, lots of clothes (including ruffle butt pants that I'm so obsessed with), some good bath items, lots of diapers, socks (some even with adorable hair bands and bows!), great homemade blankets, and lots of books!

Luckily by the time we were done opening gifts it was the end of the shower so we did the clothes pin and diaper raffle prizes real quick and then said good bye to everyone. I felt like the shower went off without any hitches and everything went so well! I loved everything we got, I loved seeing everyone there and how many people seemed so excited for Larry and me and I couldn't be more excited about all that. Now we have to go through all that we got to find out what we still need to get. I know we need to get our big items (like the car seat, stroller, owelet, etc.) and then some smaller items (the only ones I can think of off the top of my head are the Velcro swaddle blankets), but I'll make a list this week for the weekend shopping we've got ahead of us.

Now that the shower is over things are feeling like we're really on the countdown, we are almost to the month mark now! Mom keeps mentioning how she'll be back in a couple months and to think when we see her next we'll have a little baby in our arms is SO exciting! I'm getting to antsy to see what little BB looks like and to just soak up all the moments with her that I can!