38 Weeks-The Finale

Can you say uncomfortable?

Well, That was a short countdown. It's looking like we will be saying hello to Violet very soon.  The high risk doctor says her amniotic fluid levels are low and thinks we should go ahead and induce labor. I've got my regular OB appointment tomorrow morning to find out what day.  It could be sometime this week or possibly even tomorrow after the appointment.

On that note, I went ahead and got one more picture of me before the big day and thought it would be cool to wear the same clothes from the first photo we took of the pregnancy. Let's do a comparison:

It's pretty obvious the differences here. The one thing I find very interesting is that I look older. There is a level of maturity there that I feel is missing in the my earlier photograph.  I'll be very curious to see how my body changes once again after the baby.

Before we move onto sharing the birth story and beyond, I want to share with you some photos of the baby shower my lovely co-workers gave for Violet. I had such a nice time, and everything was so absolutely pretty.  The food was fabulous, and the company was great, even when the weather was posing a threat to our festivities.  I'm so grateful to have such caring and supportive co-workers.

So now I must reflect back on my pregnancy. The beginning was bad, the middle was great, the end was exhausting. All in all, it could have been so much worse and for that I'm grateful it wasn't. In the beginning, I hated the nausea and not being able to tell people how bad I felt and why.  Later, I loved getting my appetite back and eating everything in site and it all tasting amazing. Now, I can't stand my lack of mobility, the back pain, the waking up in the middle of the night, the swollen feet, and the heartburn. I know this sounds so stereotypical of a pregnancy, BUT IT'S SO TRUE!

The next time I'll be sharing anything will be Violet with the world. As much as I've disliked the crazy uncomfortable symptoms of pregnancy, it's been lovely to have her to myself all this time. But I think she's ready to meet all of you and I'm sure everyone is more than ready to meet her, too.

37 weeks- And the Countdown Begins

So I posed for my mandatory "holding the stuffed animal" portrait. Do you like it?  Sweet Bunny looks like he's giving my tummy a hug, aaawwww!   Ok, so enough of that.  Let's talk about all the stuff we've been doing this past month and how crazy I feel.

This month has just flown by with activities. My co-workers hosted a baby shower for Violet, Spencer and I posed for some professional maternity photos, and every minute of our weekends have been crammed with nursery and home improvement projects.

I'm proud to say the nursery is complete, YEAY!  We're very happy with the end result.  I love the wall color, the decals went up with little or no headaches, the colors all coordinate, and the bamboo shades I ordered for the window went up without a hitch and block the daylight better than I expected.  And without further ado, here are my photos:

The two diaper wreaths you see were made by my wonderful sister for Violet's first baby shower, but I missed getting any pictures of them during the party. They were so cute and well made I had to document them before I tore them apart. (I'm using those diapers, by golly!) The paper lanterns hanging in the corners of the room were from our wedding.  They were hanging in the arbor behind us during the ceremony.  And the smocked gown and name banner were made by Spencer's Aunt Sandra.  Plus, all the stuffed animals and dolls you see in the room were given by our friends and family.  I think all these great things add a lot of personal touches to the room.

We are so excited to have had our maternity pictures taken by my good friend and co-worker Kamin Williams.  We took a drive out to her neck of the woods in Vincent, Al to have the pictures taken, with fabulous results.  Here are some of our favorites she posted on her own blog:

If you want to see all of the photos from the shoot and order prints you can go here.

 Besides getting the nursery decorated and having our pictures taken we've also been washing Violet's clothes, bottles, and pacifiers. We've installed the car seats and packed the hospital bags (except those last minute things) and made those last few purchases for baby. I'd say we are just about ready to have Violet here with us.  Of course, there are still a million things I could try to do around the house like clean out the office closet and garage, and paint the garage door, and repair our doorbells, but let's be honest, they have nothing to do with Violet and aren't mandatory chores before she gets here. At this point, having that last bit of "just the two of us" time is moving to the top of our list. I'm not sure what we're gonna do though, it's been so long since we've tried to do anything "fun" I'm not sure if I remember how to have it, and a few things we used to do in the past are out of the question right now like bowling, bars, and hiking. Lifting heavy objects and drinking alcohol are big no no's and I can barely walk around the grocery store these days let alone through the woods . Hhhmmm.

Violet has been monitored constantly this past month.  She's had a consistently healthy heartbeat, her blood flow is active, and she has a decent amount of fluid to cushion her tiny little body.  At 36 weeks she was estimated to weigh about 5.5 lbs. So things are going smoothly right now. She dropped into position a while back though and I'm already dilating a little, so we are curious if she's wanting to come a bit early.  Having said that,  let me mention my nervousness this week.

I was nervous this week that I was going to go into labor early. The factors that led me to think this way:
1. Monday marked the beginning of my 37th week. Technically, that made Violet full term. So she could be delivered at any time unlikely to have any health issues. 
2. I also saw my OB on Monday, and at the end of my visit she just happen to mention that she was "on call" on Thursday. Didn't think much of the comment when I was there, but later wondered if she was suggesting that I might not make it through the week.
3. So then Monday night Spencer and I had dinner plans with his dad and step-mom and I was having Braxton-Hicks contractions, which is nothing new, but my stomach hurt at the same time. I could not concentrate on anything else during dinner except what my body was doing. Of course, the pain eventually subsided, but I was seriously close to stopping off at the hospital when we finished dinner out.
4. After Monday's events, I couldn't help but get nervous when Spencer had to be out of town on Wednesday night.  I really tried to take it easy and drink plenty of water to avoid as many Braxton-Hicks as possible, but I about had a breakdown after work and almost guilted Spencer in driving all the way back that evening so he wouldn't be gone the whole night.

Now that Spencer's back home and we're pretty much just working on cleaning around the house, I feel better about her coming whenever now. But when I  REALLY think about Violet being born, it seems so unbelievable. To even think we would have a child together, in our home, growing up and eventually going to school.  That's just crazy to me. It's hard to think that in a very short time our lives are going to change dramatically.  Our day to day will be completely different. We are going to hate it and love it more than anything else in this world.  NOW, I'm getting excited!

32 Weeks

Spencer and I had a fun weekend recently celebrating our niece and nephew's birthday at our house.  There was lots of yummy pizza, cake and ice cream, and lots and lots of presents to play with.  The next day was Violet's first baby shower.  My mom (Jeneane), sister (Robyn), and sister-in-law (Haylee) hosted the shower with lots of help from Mary (haylee's mom) and Joanne (long time family friend). I was so impressed with all they had done to make the baby shower so beautiful and perfectly executed.  I had such a good time seeing and talking with everyone as well as unwrapping all the wonderful gifts that Violet will get to wear and use.  here are a few highlights from the shower.

Violet has one more shower in a couple of weeks hosted by my coworkers. I'm really looking forward to this one too.  They are all extremely talented artists, stylists, and chefs so I know it will be fabulous.  Still, it doesn't take much to get me excited. Give me some chicken salad and a Publix cupcake anytime. Yum, I'm getting hungry.

Spencer and I are STILL working on Violet's room putting up decals. It took all of Saturday to place the alphabet decals above the changing table. A lot of math and measuring was involved in order to get them placed just right.  I was half tempted to get Chris Bisset on the scene to take over knowing he would get this precisely placed, but between our two brains, I think Spencer and I had pretty good luck.  Sunday started the next phase of decal placement: the forest scene. No math was involved, just alot of eyeballing things (well, maybe a bit of measuring). Unfortunately, I was not able to finish by the end of the weekend, so it's not quite done.  After all the decals are in place, all we have to do is get some picture frames hung on the wall, get a mattress for the bedding so it can be set, and get the last of our gifts washed and placed in the closet and drawers.  Here are some pictures of the room as it was Sunday afternoon.

The pregnancy is going pretty smoothly considering how far along I am now.  I get up multiple times in the night to go to the bathroom and switch positions in the bed to get comfortable.  Back pains rear their ugly head pretty often now, even sitting down can sometimes be uncomfortable.  My boss has even given me the pillow that he had been using as back support after breaking his neck and having surgery last year. And i can't even tell you how many Tums I eat everyday. Violet is so long now she nestles here feet in my ribs sometimes, and at my last doctor's appointment it was confirmed she had already descended her head down into my pelvis. That's right ladies and gents, we just might have an early delivery.

30 weeks - 3/4 of the way thru. What?!!

With my magical powers,  I will make this baby appear... in ten weeks! 

What have we been up to the past couple of weeks?  I went to my breastfeeding class (by myself) and enjoyed it much more than the CPR class.  You wonder, how difficult would breastfeeding be that someone would have to take a class? Well, I hear it can be very difficult to figure out.  It's all about technique apparently, and I think I picked up on a thing or two.  Hopefully I'll be able to execute these skills I've learned with ease.

Spencer and I then attended an all day Saturday childbirth class. I think I pretty much knew everything childcare wise already. I was mainly interested in what was going to happen at the hospital: when I could show up, when I could get the epidural, and was it true the hospital has a menu I could order from.  I suspect Spencer found the class much more enlightening.  When we met up at the hospital for a tour of the facilities toward the end of the class, I reminded Spencer to memorize the hallways because he would be by himself getting from the parking deck to L&D. He would also need to be able to instruct relatives on how to get there. I think the first thing he memorized was where the Starbucks and cafeteria were located.

Seriously though, Spencer has been hugely supportive.  I couldn't ask for a better father-to-be.  He's up and at-'em when I need or ask for anything.  He has had his nose in the few fatherhood books we've bought.  He has massaged my aching back even when I haven't asked. He has emptied that litter box exclusively without complaint since the beginning of all this.  He has loaded and unloaded my photo equipment in and out of the car when needed.  He has offered to drive to wherever to pick up whatever I might have been craving at that moment (although, I haven't taken him up on it). He has even been eager to decorate the nursery.  My favorite thing I have noticed him starting to do is quickly ask me if I'm OK when I let out my uncomfortable groans. Poor guy, since the weeks are starting to whittle away, I think his nervousness is beginning to form. I'll have to keep my moans and groans in check.

Speaking of nursery, we're still getting things organized and decorated, and I promise I'll share photos of the room once we are finished. For now you can check out a couple of wall decals we ordered:

 

I 'm looking forward to the baby shower my sisters and mom are hosting this weekend. It will be so nice having our families get together along with family friends. Spencer and I are especially excited my sister Robyn and our nephew Gavin will be here to visit.  We will also be having a joint birthday celebration for him and niece Lynlee. We've got so much to celebrate this weekend. It's going to be so much fun.

But wait, there's even more to celebrate! Our step-sister Christie and her husband Clark have just found out their also having a girl.  What's that saying: Girls rule and Boys drool.  Our babies are only 3 months apart. How wonderful to have the two girls so close in age. We just can't wait for cousins Simpson and Werner to play together!

28 Weeks

So we went to CPR class last week. It was both lame and educational, which pretty much describes all classes ever.  We realized it was the first time we had ever sat in a class room together.  Hard to believe but true.  We are so old, we could know each other for 7yrs. now and never have known each other from class or at least been taking classes while dating one another.  Anyway, the class consisted of us following along to a video while blowing on the mouths and pushing on the chests of adult and baby dummies. The instructor's job pretty much entailed pushing the remote buttons, and looking to see if we were doing the method correctly.  Any questions asked to the instructor were then relayed to another woman in the next room who proceeded to answer the questions for us.  The whole thing was a little weird, like maybe our instructor was doing this for the first time or something.  We spent much of the evening going over adult CPR, then infant CPR, then quickly covered adult choking and infant choking.  All in all, we were disappointed that we did not go over the infant heimlich more, given that this would be the situation most likely to present itself to us and more often than say, declaring "the scene is safe" (which apparently you have do a lot before administering CPR). Instead, it was the last thing covered in the class and seemed almost an after thought.

Marcy had her 28 week appointment at the doctor.  At this point she has gained 22 lbs. and Violet measures in at an appropriate size (or at least the uterus does).  The glucose screening test was performed at this visit, so Marcy had to go without eating any sugar for about 12hrs.  The syrupy juice the nurse gave her to drink didn't taste as bad as she thought it would. Kinda like a thick, flat, and sweet orange Crush.  The lab drew blood after that and then gave her a shot of RhoGAM in her backside because of her Rh negative status.  The doctor's appointment was pretty uneventful. If we hear back from the lab soon, it means Marcy has got the dreaded gestational diabetes.  Let's all hope not or we'll all be dealing with an unhappy Marcy for then next few months.  Speaking of Marcy's love of sugar, before her doctor's appointment, she made a half joking- half serious comment on facebook about requesting a dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts afterwards. If you didn't see it, she was willing to give away all the money in her purse if someone brought them to the hospital waiting for her. Well, low and behold she got her doughnuts. A kind and generous co-worker of hers had them for her when Marcy arrived at her photo shoot that morning.  It made for a very happy Marcy, except when Spencer ate the last one without telling her.

The nursery is still coming along.  We bought a lavender side table and bedside lamp with a floral shade from Target. Marcy found a couple of silver picture frames from a consignment store, and a  handful of stuff from the Trussville Methodist Consignment sale.  It was her first experience at a church consignment sale, and an eye opening one at that. Jeneane, Marcy's mom, had advised Marcy to arrive at the door a few minutes before it opened the first night, but because of leaving late from work and having to eat supper first before going anywhere, she showed up about 30min. late.  The parking lot was full when she got there, and women were already taking arms full of clothes and misc. items to their cars. Inside, women were dragging around laundry hampers full of stuff, and baby gear was claimed already with "property of..." notes taped to them. It was all so overwhelming. After picking out about 6 outfits, some socks,  and a couple of other little items, Marcy was ready to checkout, but first had to stand in a line that rapped around the perimeter of the gymnasium.

Our more recent trips to Babies-R-Us have been more pleasant.  We went ahead and ordered the crib conversion kits with the gift card we received form our bedroom set purchase.  This time, the employee knew how to use the computer to place the order, and we lucked out again by receiving more coupons at checkout.  We then used those coupons this past weekend to order the upholstered glider Marcy wanted.  All in all, we think we saved about $650 on Babies-R-Us coupons and promotions.  It might just have been worth the bit of frustration we had dealing with the store staff and delivery man. Now let's just hope the chair will fit in the back of the CR-V.

Marcy is officially in her third trimester now.  Less than 12 weeks to go.  Her need to get things done before Violet gets here is growing along with her belly.  She now recognizes Braxton-Hicks contractions and it makes her a little nervous. She also has begun to pile her pillows up behind her when she tries to sleep. Sleeping propped up is a bit less painful than sleeping down lower.  Poor Spencer tries his best, but there are not enough back massages to alleviate that pain. Marcy's energy level is still pretty good and constant most days, but occasionally it will drop suddenly and drasticly to quickly put her in a crabby mood.  The only remedy lately has been doughnuts and ice cream.  If none are available Spencer has resorted to this for defense:

CAT ATTACK!

26 weeks

So February is down and all that is left is a March, an April, and a May!  February finished with some furniture, a painted room, a 32-year-old husband, and a case of some very uncomfortable feet.
We saved some serious bank when we ordered our furniture a couple of weeks ago. Of course that made Marcy very happy.  We went through Babies R Us (not sure what keyboard shortcut does the backwards "R", so you'll just have to use your imagination), but that was not without its issues.  First, we had quite a few instances of under-trained store employees.  No one knew much about the furniture, no one knew how to order properly, and no one knew how to have something shipped.  At one point we had four employees helping us at the same time, all of them not quite sure how to use the computer, but on the upside, they were very insistent on several coupons and promotions.  So we ended up with some gift cards and a hefty percentage of the price tag reduced... the delivery is another story, one that took place the following Friday.

That evening, a Saturday, and we were late for it due to the ordering brouhaha, was Spencer's celebratory birthday dinner (the actual day was Sunday) and we had some sushi.  it was actually birthday dinner number three of four for the 32-year-old dad-to-be.  One thing Violet won't be light on will be plenty of loving family members (and gramma's and grandpa's), so we had to visit and catch up with all of them.

The following Friday was the awful delivery day.  It started with a 2 to 4 dropoff time that ended up being 730.  The driver was not the most courteous individual with regards to our property or our bodies.  it was just one guy and a truck (and there was a woman in the passenger seat, we assume was his wife) and he had a handtruck and thank goodness Spencer was there or we never would have gotten the stuff in the house.  He proceeded to nearly take out a chunk of the wall on several occasions, and rammed Spencer in the heel with his handtruck at one point out of sheer clumsiness or on account of rushing to get out of our house.  Speaking of rushing, as he drove off, backing down the driveway, he took out half of our crepe myrtle, leaving a mud flap from his truck as a souvenir.  On the plus side, our furniture is great:

It's still for the most part covered up in sheets of thin Styrofoam and the crib isn't even constructed yet.  Marcy's mom has been diligently painting the nursery and finishing up this weekend.  Here's a pic of the room with a coat of our gorgeous new wall color, the covered furniture, and the much appreciated free labor:

We are actually a week and a half behind posting this blog entry because we ran out of time uploading the 26th week photo before Marcy headed off to Fairhope for work, and also out of sheer laziness.  While out of town, she experienced her first case of swollen feet, a major downside of pregnancy.  Long days of working on her feet will do this to a pregnant Marcy:

Still at this point in the pregnancy, it's not all bad.  Violet gives us little kicks to the tummy that can been seen even under a sweater, so it's exciting to know how much bigger and stronger she is, meaning how much closer we are to meeting the little girl we're both already so madly in love with.

24 Weeks

Wow, this month has gone by fast.  I can't even tell you what we've done this month.  Let's see, I met one of the other doctors in the office at this months visit. He was an older gentleman that seemed very nice.  Think I'd be perfectly fine with him delivering Violet if he's the one on call.  Again, I was told Violet's heartbeat was "perfect!"  I start to suspect the doctors, nurses, and techs are trained to say that.  If they are, I don't care.  If the word is used to ease any anxieties or eliminate any questions about the strength of the baby's heart, it works.  They can say it every time because I love hearing it.

Sausage biscuits are still my favorite food.  I drink a mini can of coca-cola everyday, and there have been a number of trips to Cold Stone Creamery lately.  A Like It is not enough these days, I've moved up to Love It. I won't be surprised if I eventually get a Gotta Have It in a waffle cone.  Ok, getting sad I can't have some right now. Let's move on.

Spencer and I checked out about 5 daycares around Trussville a few weekends ago. We are hoping that we won't have to have Violet in full time daycare, but at least we have an idea of what there is in Trussville just in case. 
I've got 6 paint samples up on the walls in the nursery right now.  I think I've decided on the shade of gray, but now I've been thinking of painting one of the walls a deep plum.  I can't commit quite yet though. After putting the plum samples on the wall, I've been thinking "Is it too dark?" or " Is this just going to look weird with the gray?" 
We did our taxes this weekend, so we have a good idea of what are money situation will be like in the coming months and what we might be able to afford as far as baby furniture is concerned and if we can still get some other repairs done to the house before baby gets here. 
I just finished reading Girlfriends Guide to Surviving the First Year of Motherhood, now I'm reading What to Expect the First Year. I think I'm on book number 6, including one Spencer got at Christmas that I read in one night. It's funny, I read all of these books trying to educate myself on anything and everything, and can't help but get the feeling I'm still going to be crying for momma asking for help and advice. 
All in all, everything is going smoothly.  Violet makes herself known on and off throughout the days, and I've still got a fair amount of energy right now.  The third trimester doesn't start for a few more weeks I think.  Although, I have been dozing off on the couch at night again lately. My only physical complaints right now are waking up with back pain,  occasional round ligament pains, not being able to bend over or lift my legs as easily, and getting a little sad when I've finished eating and run out of food.