What a week

This was the beginning of the week.....

And this was the end.....

The snow was beautiful, Molly had some fun for a few minutes. At least we got to use her snowsuit for a little while. Winter isn't over yet though, I'd say there is at least one good storm left.

Meanwhile, we are preparing for our beach trip to Hilton Head. Molly is just about ready to go!

We had her 4 month checkup on Friday. She grew so much! She is now 12 lb 9 oz, which is a 3 lb gain since the 2 month appointment. She also grew 2 more inches, so she's 23 3/4". She's getting so big! She had a whole bunch of shots again, but wasn't nearly as fussy as last time. She took a nice nap in the afternoon but didn't miss any feedings. She was still a little fussy on Saturday, she wasn't her normal happy self. But she was better again by Sunday and finally learned how to jump in her jumperoo.

Well, it seems like she is awake from her nap.

Molly is quite the talker

Ok, I don't have a lot of time so here is a video of Molly "talking."

She woke up and is hungry now, and we might go out to play in the snow!

SHE SLEPT IN HER CRIB!!!!

SHE SLEPT IN HER CRIB!!!! Yes, that's right. For the first time ever, Molly slept in her crib the entire night!!! We are so excited that she finally did it. She has been getting closer, sleeping in her crib for most of her naps during the day and taking some pretty long ones. Last week she took a 1.5 hour nap and a 2.5 hour nap! And after our weekend in New Hampshire co-sleeping and this past weekend she fell asleep in the big bed down at Grandma's house and then slept with us during the night.

Last night we decided to try something different since falling asleep on me and then going into the crib wasn't working. I put her in her swing and let her fall asleep there. After about 30 minutes I transferred her to the crib. She did wake up, and was awake for a few minutes but I knew she was ready for bed and sleepy so left her there with the mobile and wave machine going. After a little while she started to cry a little more so I went back to put in her pacifier which put her out immediately. We had to "re-bink" her 3 times throughout the night, but she went right back to sleep as soon as she had it in again.

So that is our exciting news :). Hopefully we are going to have a little bit more normal schedule this week. We missed Gymboree all last week because we went to visit my dad on Tuesday and then it snowed/iced on Wednesday. So we're back at it today, and then going to see if we can find a cottage to rent for the summer.

Thanks to Aunt Dawn for the pictures of Molly. They came out great!

My 2 Babies

It only took 3 months, but I think Tigger has finally accepted that Molly is here to stay. One of Tigger's favorite things is to sit on my lap or John's lap when we are using the computer. Now that Molly is here, a lot of the time my lap is taken already. Today, Tigger didn't seem to care and joined right in. The funny thing is that I can't really tell if Molly really even notices he is there. His tail was in her face and rubbing her head, but there really wasn't much reaction. Her hand touched him a few times, but it was more him rubbing her than the other way around. I think for now she thinks he is a moving stuffed animal, she's more entertained by her singing teddy bear. Soon enough she'll figure it out!

We've been busy around here. Gramma came up today to babysit (we have 3 Grandma's. Gramma=my mom, Grammy=John's mom, Grandma Jo=Joann.) So we don't get confused :). Thank goodness for Gramma's, my poor mother flew in from LA last night and was able to come this morning to watch Molly so I could go to the hospital to see my dad (Grandpa.) He is doing well, he didn't end up going in for surgery until about 5 am this morning, he went to the hospital at 10:30 am yesterday. So it was a long day, he was getting a little annoyed by the end but it seems like he was doing well. I am pretty pleased with the doctors so far, we'll see how things progress. We are hoping he can come home Sunday afternoon or Monday.

I also worked from home today, it felt good to do something other than check my message boards :).

Welcome Back from New Hampshire

We had a lovely long weekend in New Hampshire. This is me skiing at Wildcat, it was a beautiful day for skiing! Yes, it was cold. But once it gets to a certain amount of cold, does it really feel colder? I'm not sure. All I know is that when we pulled into the Balsams at 2 pm on Monday it was -4 degrees, not counting the windchill (it wasn't that cold when we were skiing, it was in the teens on Sunday.) Thank goodness for Molly's Bundleme! We put it over her and rushed her right into the lobby so she barely even noticed she was outside. She was a great baby traveling. She slept most of the way, and ate fine in the car when we took breaks. She really enjoyed sleeping with mommy and daddy, and seems to think that is going to be the norm. I think she really liked the fact that I would feed her if she made the slightest peep because I didn't want her to cry at night in the hotel. Last night everything was back to normal once she finally fell asleep.

Now that we are home, we've got some craziness ahead of us. My dad is going in for surgery on his foot, another bone infection :(. Hopefully everything is ok. He is scheduled for surgery tonight, I am heading up there this afternoon. Molly is going to get her first taste of formula it seems. I pumped a little, but not nearly enough. So hopefully that goes ok. I feel bad leaving John to deal with it, but there isn't much choice.

The other big news is that the office called and it looks like they need some help. Session is crazy, so we are going to try to work something out with me working on some stuff from home and going into the office to help Vicki on occasion since she hurt her wrist.

Well, Molly seems to have woken up from her nap, in her crib so that's it for now.

3 months!

Wow, I can't believe Molly turned 3 months old yesterday. It really seems like she was just born, and in other ways I can't imagine what life was like before her. It seems like she has always been a part of our lives. She is doing great. She is enjoying tummy time more and more, as you can see from her picture. I give Gymboree a little bit of credit for that. Maybe because it forces us to do it at least twice a week, she got more comfortable doing it. She can even roll over to her back on occasion, all depends on if her arms are in the right position. So I wouldn't say she's rolling over quite yet, but she is getting there.

We also had Molly's baptism last weekend which was a lot of fun. Melissa and Dan are the Godparents, aren't they lucky :)? Here is a great picture of Molly with all of her cousins, 9 of them in total. It was nice to have them all together. After the baptism Molly had her first party at The Playwright, the food was tasty and it was a great spot to have any kind of party. They finished the banquet room a year or two ago and it is a really nice room. Well decorated, not so banquet hallish and not too big that we felt like we were a little group in a big room. I am so happy we decided to have it there, and eliminate the stress of cleaning and cooking!

And the good news, while uploading the photos I was able to get Molly to nap in her crib. She seems to fall asleep if I am in her room doing stuff. I am also able to keep reseting the mobile. I never even thought about having an electric vs. crank. Live and learn! At least it is cute and matches her room.

Molly says "I Love You" ?

Ok, so maybe she is still as little too young for her first words, let alone her first phrase. But she is definitely responding to us, and when we say, "tell daddy I love you", we get a very distinct gurgle/coo. It is very cute, and she's done it more than once. She is growing more each day and learning so much. As you can see she is starting to hold her head up, she actually does even better than that but not for the camera, of course. We took some video yesterday and I am going to try to get a litte more today and then will post it.

That's about it from here. We had a good weekend, went over to the Hannan's for dinner on Saturday. We all have our fingers crossed that Molly has a new friend to play with soon!

The Blog Slacker is Back

Have I really not posted since the 5th? My goodness. I guess time just flies when you are having so much fun! I really am having fun most days. Molly has been such a good baby, and even her fussiness hasn't been getting to me too much lately. I think I've just learned that it's ok to put her in her swing if that's what she needs to be happy. And I should say that it's not like she is fussy often, mostly just in the late afternoons. But I think I'm also learning when I can soothe her and when I need the swing or bouncer chairs help.

It has been a little difficult getting good pictures of her lately. She either is focusing so intently on the red light on the camera that she won't smile, or she has her fingers in her mouth. But John caught the smile in the second photo the other day.

She is growing so fast. She is smiling like crazy, starting to giggle a little bit and cooing more and more. She is very cute. Wherever I go in the room, her eyes follow and when she sees John her eyes just light up. The cutest thing she did just yesterday was this eyebrow thing that John always does. For those of you who know him, he does this thing where he raises his eyebrows up and down. Well Molly started doing it yesterday and she did it again today, just like him. It's so funny! Anyway...enough about that :).

What else is going on? Still going to Gymboree although we had to skip it today because our furnace needed to be serviced, it didn't want to turn on this morning for some reason. At least I noticed it when I did. It only got down to about 65 degrees in here, but for me that's freezing. I pulled out the space heater and had it blowing full speed in the living room with us. Molly slept snug as a bug wrapped up in a couple of blankets though. Last Friday I went to the Milford Mall for a New Haven Mom's meet up. It was pretty good, hopefully I'll be able to go to another one soon.

Well that's about it from here for now. We've all been feeling pretty good, knock on lots of wood. Molly is getting nice and fat, I should take a picture of her legs now and compare them to when she was first born. She's on to her third fat roll. So cute!

Happy New Year...a few days late!

I have taken a few more pictures but haven't had time to upload them so sorry, nothing new today but I figured I would update on how things are going and what we have been up to.

Molly celebrated her 2 month birthday on New Year's Eve at the Kelly's house with a bunch of other babies! What fun :). She was really good and it was so much fun to see everyone. And it made it so much more comfortable knowing there were other babies and kids there so if she cried, it was no big deal...they all were crying at some point! But she only fussed during her second bottle, which she just doesn't do well. One bottle a day is fine, but if you try to do a second she says, "What the heck is this?" So off to the tv room I went to breastfeed. If that Steve Kelly would have just stopped interrupting it would have been fine...just kidding. Thanks to him I now know all the words to Dick in a Box. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbZxlEZFZCQ if you haven't seen it yet. Absolutely hysterical. Some of Justin's finest work.

Now that the holidays are over we aren't quite as busy although there is still quite a bit of clean up to do. Rather than playing on the internet I should be sorting through gifts but oh well. We also started going to Gymboree, which should be fun. We went to one class already and Molly really enjoyed it. It was right when she should have been napping and was a little fussy when we got there but once she saw all the other babies and all the other things to look at she was so alert and delayed the fussing for about 20 minutes, which is pretty amazing. By then it was just about baby massage time and the lights turned down so she was able to take a nap and relax. Hopefully I'll also meet some new people.

2 month doctor visit

Sorry no pictures today, didn't get a chance to take any and post them. But wanted to update on Molly's visit to the peditrician. She will be 2 months on Sunday so we went to the doctor yesterday. She had her first round of shots, yucky. 2 in each leg and another she took orally. Lots of stuff for a little one. The shots themselves weren't so bad, she cried a little bit when the doctor gave her the third one but when it was all done I fed her so things were good.

Then we went to Lisa's house for lunch and saw Erika, Brady and Teigue who were visiting from San Diego. I haven't seen Erika since Chicago about 6 years ago. Time goes by so fast. So that was fun having two little ones with us for lunch. After lunch, Molly got a little on the fussy side. She didn't want to eat much and just screamed her little head off. Hopefully it didn't scare Lisa from having babies! So we headed out and Molly slept most of the way home. Once we got here, she started screaming again but still had no interest in eating, which is totally not like her. So I figured it was vaccine related and put her in her swing so she would be comfy and it calmed her down immediately. She slept there for a few hours and then on my lap and John's lap until about 10 pm when she went back to the swing. She finally woke at 5:30 am and was ready to eat and has been back to normal today.

Other than the visit was good, she is up to 9 pounds 11 ounces and is still on the 25 percentile track so the doctor was happy. I thought she might be over 10 pounds but not quite yet. She is longer too, she's now 21 and 3/4 inches.

Ok, time to feed the little one, it's been 2 hours!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. We did. It was Molly's first, and even though she didn't really know what was going on she is enjoying her new toys and loves looking at all the stuff. She was a little cranky Saturday night at Uncl e Gerry's and then again Christmas Eve at Aunt Cathy and Uncle Jim's house because it was past her bedtime. We brought along a travel swing which worked a little bit but not quite as good as her regular swing. I think if it were quiet it might work, but with all the activity it was difficult for her to stay asleep. But we had a great time and everyone loved seeing little Miss Molly. She certainly is a cutey!

Now on to going through everything to figure out what we got. I need to do a serious inventory of Molly's clothing situation to figure out what we have and what we need. She's starting to grow out of some of her 0-3 stuff but isn't quiet ready for 6 months yet, so I have to find some 3-6 month clothing, which isn't easy but I think Kohl's has some.

Just when things were going well...

I woke up Tuesday morning with mastitis, which is an infection of a milk duct. Not fun at all. I woke up at about 5 am with severe pain and by 7:30 am I had a fever of 100.1, and it kept going up from there. The highest was 102.9, that didn't feel so good. The doctor put me on antibiotics which I started Tuesday at dinner time, but the fever kept up until this morning. It is finally back down to 97.9. Yeah! I am feeling so much better but I know I still need to take it easy. I just feel like I have so much to do, so many presents to wrap. But we still have a few more days, at least all the shopping was done already and my last package just arrived from UPS so no worries that things won't be here.

The excellent news of the day though is that Molly actually took a nap in her crib! Yeah!!! I was able to take a picture of her sleeping and I even videotaped it. It was a short one, about 20-25 minutes but that is fairly typical in the morning if we haven't gone out. She takes much longer naps if we take off in the car or at the mall in her carriage. So I think we are making progress. One day she won't be a swinging baby anymore.

And congratulations to Vicky on the news that she is having a little boy! Such fun!

A family photo

Well that was an adventure :). We'll try again tonight maybe, but this one came out pretty good! Molly isn't having much fun in her bouncer chair right now so this looks like its going to be a short post.

Christmas is coming quick!

Yikes I can't believe it's less than 2 weeks away and Molly is 6 weeks old! It has kept Molly and I extremely busy which is why there haven't been many posts, but check out the sweet smile I was able to capture this morning. She's such a cutie.

Last week we spent a few days shopping, Molly loves the mall. Tuesday we got her pictures taken at JC Penney. Of course she screamed as soon as it was her time for pictures, so we went for a walk around the mall and came back. I fed her, changed her, and finally she fell asleep and we got some sleeping photos. At least they aren't of her screaming, like the one I took here.

Thursday was a rough day. We went to Westfarms and visited Becky, which wasn't the tough part. Molly was a little more cranky than she normally is when she's in her carriage but I think its because it was so loud there. Much busier than Meriden. I don't think I ever noticed that before. So we got some shopping done there, and then came home. Molly ate and got dressed up so I could go to my 6 week postpartum doctor visit. I can't believe its already been that long! The doctor visit was long. We waited over 90 minutes to see the doctor. Poor Molly was hungry, I had to feed her in the room while we were waiting, which was tough since I was in one of those paper gowns. And I could tell she had a dirty diaper but with the gown on it would have been impossible to change her, and I didn't want to change it and have the doctor walk in right in the middle. Anyway, we finally saw the doctor and everything is fine. Someone remind me not to take the 3:30 appointment if I have to bring the baby with me.

We had a good weekend, fairly relaxing. Grandpa came down for a visit for his birthday and we got our Christmas tree. Hopefully we will put it up tonight, but John might go shopping at Westfarms so we'll see. I suppose its better to go shopping tonight than to wait even longer, although I'm sure any nights will be crazy up there at this point.

Not sure of our plan today, although I may attempt to return the boots I bought because they are too big. I am having serious shoe issues. My feet grew and haven't shrunk, so I have no shoes or boots to wear. I found one pair of brown shoes that fit well, but haven't found any black so I can't wear anything black. Very difficult to get dressed in the morning.

Happy 1 Month Birthday Molly!

It's kind of weird that Molly's birthday is on the 31st because some months she won't have a birthday! I guess that only matters in the first year :). I can't believe she is already a month old. At times it seems like yesterday and at times it seems like she has been with us forever (in a good way.)

Monday and Tuesday she pretty much screamed whenever she was awake, which is not typical. I could still get her to sleep but I felt so bad that all of her awake time was so miserable. We went to the lactation consultant/aprn at the pediatricians office yesterday to make sure everything was ok and it was. She now weighs 8 lb 8oz so they are happy and said we are doing great. Those days are so hard on us though more than her I think. I feel bad because John tries to soothe her and right now she prefers me to sing and sway her back and forth, which gets tiring. I can tell John feels frustrated he can't get her to stop, but its ok. Soon enough she will want nothing to do with me and I'll be the one feeling bad.

On the good side, she slept from 10 pm to 5:30 am last night. Woohoo! Sure she is still in the swing but the doctor's don't seem to mind so why should we?

I also included a picture of the coyote John saw the other morning crossing the bridge behind our house. I told Molly she can't go out to play on her own, Tigger doesn't seem to care about my warnings. Hopefully he knows to stay close and we just have to listen for him when he wants to come in so he isn't crying too much.

First Thanksgiving

Molly celebrated her first Thanksgiving! She was such a good baby, she let all the aunts hold her until dinner and then hung out un her carrier during dinner and barely made a peep. By the time we were almost done she was getting hungry again and she had her second bottle ever, it was like she's been taking them forever! Of course being the bad photgrapher that I am I didn't even get a picture with the turkey outfit on so hopefully someone else can send us one. I am a dope, maybe I should just dress her up again :). Then it was on to Grammie and Poppy's house where she slept the entire time so everyone came over the next day to see her. Cousin Nicholas is now about 8 months and looks like a giant in comparison.

Here are a few pictures. One with Aunt Mary and cousin Elizabeth, and another with cousin Katherine.

Our big excitement of the weekend was Molly had her first babysitter! It was Jenn H.'s birthday Saturday so we all went out to dinner and Molly stayed with John's parent, it was fun but I have to admit it was hard to relax. Not that I was worried about her, I knew she would be fine but I knew once we got home we probably had an hour or two minimum before sleep, and that's because she is so good. I couldn't imagine if she didn't sleep well. Anyway, it was nice to get out and I am sure I will get used to it.

Our Little Fatty

First, I am sorry I haven't been keeping up with the posts. Molly and I are still getting used to things and I know it only takes a few minutes so I will try to be better about it.

Ok, so where are we. Miss Molly is 17 days old!! Amazing, isn't it? The time is going by so fast. For Molly's first two weeks home, John stayed home with us and oh boy did that fly by. Fortunately I am feeling really good and Molly has continued sleeping really well (knocking on wood) so I was ready for him to go back. Today we are ending our first solo week and I can't believe it is over already.

This week we went for Molly's 2 week checkup and she gained 8 oz! She is up to 7 lb 2 oz, which is 4oz over her birth weight. The goal is to be back at the birth weight by 2 weeks and she passed it! She has also grown 1 1/2 inches and is now 20.5 inches.

Molly continues to be a good baby, although she has her moments. Most afternoons she prefers sleeping on me rather than the bassinet these days, and isn't such a big fan of swaddling anymore. If she is swaddled at all it has to be with one arm out so she has access to at least one hand. Yesterday we went to the mall for about 45 minutes, that was fun but she got cranky so we left. I wasn't finding any good christmas outfits for her anyway. I think I may try to go out for a bit tomorrow to see if I can find one. I am afraid if I wait much longer they will all be gone.

Ok, I think we are going to walk around the block!

6 days old!!!

Can you believe Molly is already 6 days old? The past 6 days have flown by. I could barely believe last night was Sunday and we are already into another week. Things are going very well so far. Also amazing :). We have been quite busy, we have had some visitors and everyone just loves Molly, she is so cute! And we have been very well fed by our parents and family..so much for losing that baby weight! I figure I can indulge for a little while, although not being used to all these carbs I find myself very full very fast. Still enjoying my desserts for a change though! Oh and that garlic bread was tasty!

Molly is eating well, we go to the pediatrician tomorrow so we'll find out how she is doing officially then but I can't imagine she isn't gaining weight already. She eats and eats. And she sleeps and sleeps! And would you believe she actually sleeps at night? Two nights in a row with only one feeding and she sleeps the rest of the time. I can handle this so far :)! I keep my fingers crossed though and hope everything stays the same.

Happy Birthday Molly Katherine

The big day finally came! Molly Katherine was born on Halloween, Tuesday, October 31 at 2:43 pm. She weighs 6 pounds 14 oz and is 19 inches long. She is absolutely beautiful! More to come :)

The final stretch

I'm still adjusting to the time change thing I think. It's messing up my eating schedules, and Saturday night seemed like the longest night in history! An extra hour is NOT what a woman needs when she is 39 weeks pregnant :) it only makes labor seem farther away!

So yeah, still no baby. I was pretty uncomfortable over the weekend. Saturday I was in a lot of pain, not really contraction pain although I did have a couple here and there but my inner thighs were killing me. By the end of the day I could barely open my legs. I couldn't even climb in and out of the car, I had to sit and then twist in. Ouch. But Sunday morning I was a little better and although the pressure was still there, they didn't get as bad on Sunday. Last night I had what felt more like a few real contractions and thought maybe things were really going to start, but after about an hour or two they went away and I'm obviously still here. They felt like a painful tightening in my lower abdomen that rolled down into my pelvis and made everything down there painful and swollen.

My exciting news from the weekend though is that we got a camcorder! I am so excited :). I've wanted one for a while and we decided to go get one before the baby came. Yeah! No, John is not going to tape the whole birth, yuck. Just the before and after. Sorry if there is anyone who was really interested in seeing it. So I spent yesterday afternoon figuring out how to use it. It records to mini tapes and to a memory card so I'll be able to transfer stuff right to the computer to share with everyone. And there is a way to transfer stuff from the tapes to the computer as well but I need a DV wire and I don't have one of those so I'll have to get one eventually.

So that's it from here....my next appointment with the OB isn't until Wednesday, which seems like a lifetime away but I know it really isn't. I just have to find some things to keep me occupied until then.

Still here

We're still waiting. Not too much new from here. Yesterday was my most uncomfortable day yet. We went to the stores in the morning which was good, they say walking is good. By the time we were done I had leg cramps in my calves and the inside of my thighs weren't moving much more than an inch or two as I walked. I took that as a good sign that things are progressing, I hope. By the end of last night I was having some more little cramps here and there, but again, nothing consistent. So we went to bed and woke up and not much changed over night other than my legs feel much better this morning so far, although I can still feel the pressure and know it will be back soon.

We are going to get a camcorder today, yeah! I'm excited. Hopefully I picked out a good one, I don't know much about them so I hope this one gets the job done. We are getting the Canon Elura 100. It's on sale at Circuit City, as long as it takes videos of the baby, I can put them on my computer, fix them up a bit and send them out is all I really care about. It will be good for vacations as well.

That's it from here...we'll let you know if anything more exciting happens!

12 more days

Still here...today I was extremely tired. Not sure why. I went to bed early last night and think I slept relatively well, other than getting up just about every hour to use the bathroom. I suppose that could disrupt someone's sleep. But I'm so used to it by now it doesn't even phase me. I woke up very drowsy and a little bit nauseous but forced myself up so I could go see the endocrinologist. She told my numbers were great and she didn't expect me to have any problems at all after the baby is born and I don't have to go for any more visits. Yeah. Then I had a high number after lunch. Oh well.

I also went to my OB yesterday, same old story there. Non stress test, baby moves around, heart rate goes up and down just like they want it to and I leave. They will check me next week to see if I'm dilated at all. She also told me that because I have diabetes they won't let me go too late, which I already suspected but she confirmed. My next appointment, if we need it, will be Wednesday and I'll be 5 days away from my due date. I don't know if they will schedule something then if I still haven't gone into labor. I guess we'll see.

As for signs that I'm going into labor, I really don't know. I had some contractions this morning I think, but nothing really bad. It was a little difficult walking into the doctor's office and then I stopped at the store as well. I just went really slow, and some old man kept looking at me funny. I really wanted to ask what he was looking at, hasn't he ever seen a really pregnant woman before? But who knows, maybe he is worse off than I am and wasn't even really looking at me but just staring blankly. Anyway, again, another reason why I'm better off not spending too much time in public. By the time I got home I was exhausted and took a nap. Walking around isn't as painful, and I keep just having little cramps here and there. One day these things will become regular.

Tick tock...

Yup, I'm still here in case anyone is interested :). Just watching the calendar and wondering when...I have no idea. I tend to have more cramps and contraction type things at night but during the day I have been fine. I actually feel better than I did a few weeks ago and have quite a bit of energy. Maybe that is a good sign.

These are some pictures of us on the Staten Island Ferry from last weekend. We went to my cousin Nate's wedding, it was a lot of fun. We took the ferry over to Manhattan Friday afternoon and had dinner at South Street Seaport with my friend Amanda. It would have been nice to go up to Midtown or something, but I was tired after walking just a few blocks, and we were lazy and took a cab back to the ferry.

I finished work on Thursday, which is sad but good. I'm glad I will (hopefully) have a few days to get some things done and get the house in order before the baby arrives but it is still sad leaving. I don't think it has really sunk in yet that I'm not going to be going to work anymore.

So that's it for now...I think I'm just going to take it easy for the rest of the day and make some dinner. And I'm going to try avoid going to too many more stores, people are really starting to annoy me for the littlest things. Maybe I'm just cranky today.

Happy Birthday to the soon-to-be Daddy!

Yup, that's right. Today is John's birthday! The big 38! Wow is that old...haha :). We don't have too many big plans, I think we are going to dinner. And we'll have some cupcakes. Yum. I figure I can maybe have half of one...maybe...

We have the cutest baby!

Ok, so I might be a little biased...but how cute is this baby??? The pictures are a little fuzzy, sorry...but they came out so good! And it is already 6 pounds 11 ounces! Oh my! I think at the stage they say they grow about a 1/2 pound a week so I think I'm ready to deliver anytime now. Really.

A beautiful Sunday!

Wow it is absolutely beautiful out today! What a lovely fall day. I hope next Saturday is this beautiful for Nate and Jenny's wedding. I can't believe their wedding is next weekend...this time has gone by so fast! Yes, we are still planning to go. I feel really good right now so hopefully nothing changes between now and then. I'm sure it won't and everything will be peachy.

Here are some pictures of the variety of diaper bags we now have! Yes, I got a bright pink bag. But according to my fashion conscious friends, I was told I could not pass up the deal and HAD to get it. I figure if we have a boy I can use it as a beach bag, no one would question a bright pink bag at the beach, right? Anyway, it's a Lilly Pulitzer, which is apparently trendy and VERY expensive but I got it on clearance at Marshall's. Yeah. The other is an Ima Rosenbloom, which is also supposedly very trendy and sold at Mimi and Nordstroms. Also on clearance. Yeah again. It's more purse like, which I think will be nice when I don't want to carry everything with me. The last is John's backpack from Lands End, and also for us to use when we go on longer day trips. We actually got it in Fern Green, which wouldn't save for some reason. I didn't think John wanted to carry pink or flowers. Who knows, maybe the downsizing won't work and I'll end up using this one all the time anyway. A girl can hope to be trendy, right?

We had our child birth class all day yesterday at the hospital. It was really good. The nurse was wonderful, she has been there for 44 years! John asked if she remembered delivering him..haha. But seriously, she probably was there for at least one of the Schmitz babies being born. I think if anything, it answered simple procedural questions for us...which gives us both peace of mind knowing what to expect. They have all private rooms, which will be nice but they don't do everything all in one room like some of the hospitals do now. I can definitely see a good and a bad to both. I can imagine it is nice to get settled into one place, but she made a good point that it will be nice to be in a quieter area once delivery is over. But its a pretty good set up, we have our own private birthing room, with two operating rooms at the end of the hallway for emergency or planned c-sections if necessary. John can come with me in there too, I know some hospitals don't allow that. After birth, we stay in there for about 2 hours with the baby and then they take it to the nursery to give it some meds and clean him or her up for about 3 hours while we rest and move to postpartum, which is just around the corner. Sounds good to me :). The baby will room in with us 24 hours, unless for some reason they need to do tests. All the postpartum rooms are private as well, some being significantly larger than others, hopefully we get a big one.

Today we go back for a 2 hour class on parenting...John thinks he's already an expert because of his child care class he took at Notre Dame. If it was anything like the one I took...I think I could use a refresher course :).

We have a crib!

Yeah, I'm so excited :). We went to the store yesterday to pick up the crib and the bureau. The crib is all set up, we just need to go get the mattress which I may try to do today. The bureau is still in the garage, John is going to call Bri to see if he is interested in "moving furniture" sometime this week. Hopefully he will be, although we may actually make him use those muscles this time. Then all the baby clothes will have a home and we're ready to go!

Time to get the crib!

I think John put the final coat of paint on last night, I'll have to double check that there isn't one more. I don't know much about painting. But that part is basically done, so we are getting the crib and the bureau on Sunday! I called last night to schedule pick up for the crib, and they just confirmed with me that both items are in. Woohoo! Who would have thought the nursery would actually be ready before the baby arrived? :).

Everything else is going pretty well. I have good nights and bad nights sleeping. The past few have been good nights, so I'm feeling energetic today. I'm sure that won't last long. My glucose numbers have been ok, I'm really hoping that I don't have to go on insulin for the last couple of weeks but I have a feeling I might. The nurse had me switch my timing for testing, and I'm doing ok with it, one dinner went over a little. But now my fasting numbers are a little higher than before, I'm not sure why. Maybe because I test earlier my timing is off with my after dinner snack and that affects my fasting? I don't know. At this point I can only do what I can do. I'm not excited about having to take insulin, but I can only control the numbers so much. My meals I can control what I eat, but the fasting numbers are tough...It seems silly to me to go on insulin for only a few numbers going over in a week, but the doctors are much more strict with pregnant women than they are with regular diabetics. My regular OB said she can tell I'm sticking to the diet though because I've lost 3 pounds in the past 5 weeks...which is great. 3 less to lose later...but the specialist is tough, and we'll see what she says next week.

A nursery?

Yeah, we thought that might be a good idea. So here we are at 34 weeks---42 days left and John is painting! Yeah :)!!!!! Here are some before and during pictures. Hopefully soon we'll have the after pictures! With the bathrom *almost* done we decided it was time to tackle the nursery and then go back to the bathroom once the nursery is ready. A couple coats of paint and we can go pick up the crib. Wow. Now we just have to wait for the bureau to come in so I can empty the laundry basket full of baby clothes!

46 days...but who is counting?

That's right, only 46 days left until my due date. The time has gone by so fast. And we're almost ready...yeah right.

Fortunately we have almost everything we need due to the incredible genorosity of our friends and family who gave us so much at the baby shower last Sunday. It was such a great day, and I'm still sorting to see what is really in all of these bags and boxes! Maybe I'll work on that a little bit tonight, before Grey's Anatomy is on of course. Season Premiere night!

Some of you may know that I was having more than a few cramps during the shower, I apologize for being the "slowest present opener every", or so I was told. But every time I moved there was pain. Sitting at least was better than walking around and trying to do stuff. The cramps continued a little bit Monday and Tuesday, since then I haven't had too many, just a few here and there. Sunday was probably the worst, good timing.

I talked to my doctor about my cramping and he said that it sounds like BH contractions and that is normal. He said I had one contraction while I was hooked up to the machine today while having my non stress test, which he said I may or may not have felt. I asked if it was normal to have BH down low and he said that contractions can be felt anywhere on the stomach, and said that you really can't describe it any particular way to describe everyone. A lot of what I have read says they start on top and go down and he said, nope its very normal for them to be down low and stay there. Everyone is different. So that was very reassuring. He also mentioned back sleeping, and said there is nothing wrong with it as long as it is comfortable, which isn't anymore for me...but he was using it as another example of things you can read about how damaging it could be and it just isn't true.

I also asked him about the levels that my doctor is requiring me to meet for my blood sugar, and he said he thought they were a little conservative and that he didn't think a few numbers here and there would warrant insulin but he also said things can change as the pregnancy progresses so not to be surprised if it is harder to keep numbers in check. She called me Tuesday and told me if I had too many more high numbers after dinner we may have to consider insulin. Yuck. He also said that if all my other numbers were fine I probably would only have to take it for dinner time, which makes me feel a little bit better about it. I go to the specialist Monday morning so hopefully I can stay off the insulin...I've been doing pretty well this week.

So overall it was a good appointment, I didn't gain any weight again. Woohoo! I am now measuring 34 cm for 33 weeks...so it looks like I jumped a little in the past week. And baby was moving around just the way its supposed to be.

Checking in

Sorry I haven't been around much. Time is going by so fast and there is so much to do! Everything is going well. I continue to take my blood sugar levels 4 times a day and have been able to manage everything with diet and a little bit of exercise, emphasis on a little bit. I am hoping that if everything goes well again this week, the doctor will reduce the number of times I have to test each day. I would probably still want to test at night since dinner is what can throw me off a little, mostly because it's hard to eat the same things over and over again for dinner and I need a little variety. Variety can cause trouble, but so far so good.

I had my first non stress test yesterday and that went well. I have to go weekly from now on. Basically they strap you to a machine which measures the babies heartbeat and movement. The doctor I went to yesterday was happy with the results after about 15 minutes, but I've heard one of the other docs will likely keep me there for an hour. Ugh. Fortunately, I only have one appointment with her. Everything is still measuring well, and I didn't gain any weight this week. Yeah :)!

Sunday is my baby shower, more yeah! I am very excited. It's going to be fun, although a bit crowded at the house but we'll manage. I'm just happy so many people are able to come. And, although some might argue that I shouldn't have to clean for my own shower, I've been quite content getting lots of organizing and cleaning done. I guess it's putting those nesting instincts to good use and I don't just look crazy since there is a reason for it. John has made great progress on the second bathroom, I think everyone will be rather impressed. And some how I think we're actually going to be able to go to the football game on Saturday. Talk about good time management.

In honor of Britney's new baby, I thought this would be the appropriate Baby song of the week.

I passed!

I had to send my blood sugar levels for the past week to the nurse and I passed! I got a call from the nurse's aide this afternoon and she told me my numbers looked good and I don't need to make any changes. Woohoo! So for now what that means is that I stick to the diet that I am on, which is ok, and keep trying to fit in some exercise. I have to admit that is the hardest part. My inner thighs have been hurting a bit, and I get tired. I know exercise might help, but its so hard to motivate if I'm already tired and hurting. At least I have to walk to get my lunch most days so that is better than nothing.

Only 9 more weeks to go and we are slowly progressing. John is getting a lot of work done in the bathroom, he finished tiling the floor this weekend and is going to work on getting the walls up this week. Then the toilet and and sink can go in next weekend. It will be so nice when it is all done. After the shower, we will put our focus on the nursery. I am sure I've said this before, but it is mostly cleaned out. We decided to keep one of the older bureaus, I think it the color will be close enough to the crib and bureau we bought. We just need to get some new handles on it but home depot didn't have any for some reason. I think John's parents are coming over to get the mattress to the bed this weekend, and then we will be all set to paint.

Tomorrow I am going to meet with a pediatrician, I'm not even sure which doctor it is but it is the practice that my OB recommended. John isn't able to come, he had a meeting scheduled so hopefully they seem good and I don't have too many doubts about them. I guess I should come up with a list of questions to ask just in case. Then I have a check up with my OB. Should be routine...but I wonder when I'll start getting ultrasounds to check on the size of the baby.