C'mon Jackson!

February 15th was my 39 week appointment. Weight and blood pressure were fantastic. I complained about the head cold that I had for over 2 weeks. Becca prescribed a round of antibiotics and I pray they work. When given the option of being checked to see if I was dilated I hoped right on it. Up until that point I had a few nights of pretty strong braxton hicks contractions but nothing that I thought would have dilated me. When she checked and said I was 1, almost 2 centimeters I was shocked. She assured me that she felt his head down and she stripped my membranes. I was pretty hopeful leaving the office that I would be feeling some contractions. I was right. Contractions all night until around 1am when I fell asleep. Now here I sit 2 days till my due date and still pregnant. Apparently he's not ready to come and meet us yet. I'm so excited to see his little face and take in all the baby goodness.

38 Weeks

January 21, 2012- 35 weeks 5 days pregnant
What I look at all day long. Good-bye tootsies!

January 22, 2012- 35 weeks 6 days pregnant
They always want to feel him moving

Kisses for baby brother

Cuddles for "bay-bee"

January 28, 2012- 36 weeks 5 days pregnant

Tick! Tock! Tick! Tock! Now we play the waiting game. I'm ready for him to come any time now. Our house has become officially re-baby-fied. We have the swing set up in the living room, the pack and play/bassinet/changer set up in the dining room fully stocked with newborn diapers, wipes, binkies, bumbo, blankets and burp clothes. We have a bouncy seat in the kitchen, the cosleeper in my bedroom, and a hospital bag full of goodies. On the agenda for tomorrow is installing the carseat base in the van. This is really happening!

My 38 week appointment with the midwives was very uneventful. Burt mentioned our mini scare Saturday night when I realized I hadn't felt any movement in a long while. We told her how I drank some OJ and laid on my side. She reassured us that we did everything right. Burt continued on to tell her about how nervous he is now about something going wrong. She again reassured us that that is a completely normal feeling and that as the time gets closer parents realize just how much they love this little baby already and that feelings of vulnerability often take over. We again listened to the munchkins heartbeat. She couldn't decide exactly how he was laying in there. She did say that he is for sure head down. My next appointment is Feb 15th and I'll be 39 weeks 2 days. Perhaps maybe then we can talk about induction. I'm so ready to see this little man!

Trip to L&D but not in labor

On the 30th I turned 37 weeks pregnant. We "celebrated" with a midwives appointment. I'm going once a week now. My bp was excellent and I had lost a 1/2 lb. We did a quick check of his heartbeat and Becca wasn't happy. This was the 2nd week in a row that it was beating very fast. She wrapped up the appointment very quickly and sent us to L&D. Luckily Amanda had a midwives appointment at the same time so she was with us. We left Alexa with her in the waiting room and headed back. They hooked me up to the monitor and right away the nurse could tell his heartbeat sounded normal. They gave me a cup of apple juice and some peanut butter crackers and told me to push the handheld button everytime I felt some movement. After about an hour of monitoring we were sent home with a clean bill of health. Fast forward 1 day to my birthday and I was battling a headcold. Bummer.

Another one of those "can't fall back to sleep nights"

Now that I have the Blogger app on my phone I can update at 4am when I'm up from one of many trips to the bathroom and can't fall back asleep. Lucky me!

Not too much going on around here these days. Spent the day out shopping on Saturday. A super crowded trip to IKEA and we walked away with a new trashcan and a pack of chalk for the kiddos. We shopped for some new clothes for Abby and Burt at Burlington coat factory (super cute tween stuff there btw). And a pretty stressful dinner out. By 6pm Alexa had had enough with that thing called good behavior. She was tired and cranky and didn't much care for sitting nicely in the high chair. We tried crayons, flavor sticks, her me-me, and even some mini M&M's. Nothing much worked so we just gritted our teeth and smiled. Luckily the big kids were on their best behavior! For a brief second I imagined us trying to do this with a newborn in the mix but still couldn't quite picture it. Am I really going to have another baby in a couple weeks? Nuts!

Today I decided to take the safer route and did some online shopping. I ordered the double stroller, jackson's swing, a new bumbo, the kid's new comforter and a few things to fancy up the nursery. I'm getting so excited to be able to decorate it. The woman who is making the crib and toddler bedding said it won't be finished until the week of March 12th so until then I just have to fatasize about the whole thing being put together.

I give up!

I've resigned to the fact that I'm never going to make the time to go back and catch up on posts. I just downloaded Blogger for my phone so it should be much easier to keep up.

Today was my 36 week appointment with the midwives. My blood pressure was great and I lost a pound. Becca talked about what my birth plan was looking like. I only stressed how wonderful the epidural was and told her I NEED one of those again. Other then that she checked the baby's heart rate. This week his heart rate was pretty high. She didn't give me an exact number but she did insist on listening for a little while to see if it slowed down. He was moving around a lot so she wasn't too worried but she did offer to send me to L&D for monitoring if that would make me feel better. I wasn't too concerned because I knew he was being quite the acrobat. If next week it's high again I will definitely go for monitoring. For now we just continue counting down the days.

A quick trip to Walmart also turned into a few great scores for Baby Jackson: 10 pairs of socks, an exersaucer, and a new matress.

Alexa of course was a champ the whole day. She of course played super shy with Becca, but flirted with tons of people in Denny's. She is so funny when she gets fries to eat. I could've sworn that today she "dip it". She loves to dip! Now I'm done homeworks and off to girl scouts with Abby. What a long day!

Some of Jackson's new things

It's driving me crazy that I can't do any work on the nursery. For now we're keeping Alexa in the back bedroom. Once the baby is out of the co-sleeper we'll be moving him into Alexa's crib, Alexa into a toddler bed, and switching the nursery to the bigger front bedroom. For now, since Jackson won't go right into the crib I prefer to keep Alexa in it. It just bugs me because I've been bitten by the nesting bug. Instead of decorating I've taken up shopping. The 1st picture is a picture of the onesie stickers for his monthly photos. I love looking back on Alexa's and think it will make an adorable collage once I get my act together. I love the colors in his stickers. I've always been a big fan of bright colors on babies and kids. The 2nd picture is of his new handmade hat I ordered from etsy to match his snowsuit. Not a bad match if I do say so myself. The 3rd picture is of an outfit I bought from Carters. It's his very first "Mommy" outfit. Right now I have my friend Cindy finding an embroidery design with his name and monogram so she can embroider a white gown for him to wear in the hospital. I'm going to order a white knotted hat to match it. Who says boys can't accessorize?!

Playing catch up....again.

I don't know if I'll ever be good with keeping things up to date here. There are many times that I want to sit down and update but then I remember how much catching up I have to do first and I put it off again. I guess it doesn't help that December is THE busiest month of the year around here.

PREGNANCY UPDATES!!

On December 6th I woke up and got ready for my 29 week appointment and glucose test with the midwives. I was feeling very proud of myself as I chugged down the nasty orange drink with plenty of time to spare. I hate being late to appointments (but usually am). Alexa and I pulled up with 5 minutes to spare. Go me! As I walked up to the door I noticed the lights were out. Had I written down my appointment time wrong? Did I miss a call from them trying to reschedule me for a different day? No. Turns out being pregnant has just turned my brain to mush. This was a Tuesday. The midwives don't open until noon. Here I was reading the sign on the door at 10:50am. Ugh!! I checked my phone calendar again. Sure enough my appointment was scheduled for Wednesday December 7th! This normally wouldn't have been a problem had I not just downed the entire yucky bottle of sugar...the one I was supposed to drink on Wednesday morning! I called the midwives and they just suggested I come in a bit early tomorrow for my appointment and drink another bottle. Ok. Sounds fair.

Wednesday December 7th I woke up and got the kids ready for school. As I walked by the dining room table I saw 3 peppermint patties sitting on the table. Not the best breakfast but it would definitely hold me over until I got back from the school. Mmmmmm. Minty. No sooner did I swallow that I remembered today was my glucose test and I was to have nothing to eat after midnight. Ugh x 2! When I got home I canceled and rescheduled the appointment for December 13th at 6pm.

Tuesday night at 6pm I finally had my glucose test. No drama. No forgetting. And I passed with an 82. That night I also scheduled the rest of my ob appointments. Starting at 30 weeks they like appointments every 2 weeks. Am I really that far along?

December 30th- 32 week appointment
BP-Good
Weight-Stayed the same
Instructed to schedule a growth scan with perinatology
I was in and out in no more then 10 minutes. I can't wait for my appointments with Becka again. She's amazing and I miss chatting with her!

January 5th- Growth Scan and other drama
5am I wake up on the couch. I must've fallen asleep watching Tori & Dean. I sat up and rubbed my eyes for awhile trying to wake up a bit. Suddenly I noticed that my pants were wet. Had I peed myself? Had I broken my water? I frantically felt around on the couch and blankets to see if they were wet. Dry as a bone. Then I headed upstairs to wake up Burt. Surprisingly he woke up very quickly. He told me to smell my pants to see if it smelled like pee. I know! Yuck! But at least if I knew I had peed myself I could stop my heart from pounding out of my chest. It didn't smell like pee. Uh oh! I put in a call to the midwives. It took a bit of phone tag but I finally heard back from Misty. She instructed me to put a pad on and call back in an hour to let her know whether or not it was wet. I did and tried to lay in bed to catch a few more zzz's. Finally about 10 minutes before my alarm was set to wake up, check and call them back I felt myself drifting off. I did a quick check and I was dry. Thank God!!!

10:45-growth scan
Pretty short and sweet. Little man is getting quite big now. They estimated him to be 6lbs 4 oz. I find that to be nuts and so do the midwives. They calmed my fears a bit when they told me that ultrasounds at this gestational age can be up to 1 lb off. The tech took her measurements and checked my fluid level and then explored a bit. We got to see his little ear and even a bunch of hair on the back of his head. It was amazing. He is now head down with his arms and legs facing the right side of my body. His face was turned toward my back so we didn't get any looks at his face and his legs were closed pretty tight so we couldn't get another look at his package. It's always so comforting to watch his little heart beating on the screen. I'm getting so excited now to see him. Now that it's January I can say next month we'll have a newborn! Only 6 weeks and 3 days until my due date. Insane!!