Week 38

It's week 38 and we're still chugging along, happily pregnant :) Everytime I walk into a group of my classmates they all look immediately at my stomach and have this look of surprise that I'm stiiiillll pregnant ;)  But after this week I'm trying to stay pregnant for however much longer Harper wants to hang out in there! Before we get to all the doctor details we'll talk about the fun weekend we had!

It really was the best weekend! Friday night Andy and I had date night... potentially the last one before baby?? We just went out to dinner and saw Snow White and the Huntsmen :)  Saturday we got up early and went to the Farmer's market where we got some Georgia peaches, ground beef and some beautiful flowers!!  I love waking up early on the weekends and getting stuff accomplished during the day! My internal clock has me up really early these days so it would be hard for me to sleep in even if I wanted.  We met my parents and scooped Olivia Saturday afternoon and then hung out before our final baby shower!!  Paige and Candace hosted at our house and it was absolutely amazing!! Paige put a ton of pics up on her blog, natashapaigebrown.blogspot.com, so check them out if you haven't seen them on facebook.  She even did a tutorial for these cute little ruffly umbrellas she made!!  I had a great time and it was so fun to hang out with some of my bestest friends! :)  One of Andy's friends from high school and his wife stayed with us Sun-Tues. and we so enjoyed having them here!! I think we all gained about 8 lbs from our evenings of steak and shake, cookie monsters and Orange leaf :)

Monday brought around our next doctors appointment.  I was nervous about my blood pressure being high, which doesn't ever help blood pressure.  I was also scared that she would just decide to induce me if it was high and it's kind of frightening to know you may have an actual real life baby that same day!!  Plus, my appt spot was triple booked and I was the third one seen... like 1.5 hrs after my actual appt time.  Needless to say, my BP was up a bit again :(  140/82 at the first read and down to 128/80 after I had calmed down a little bit.  Due to the second week of high BP I am now labeled as having gestational hypertension which makes me sad :(  I've been chugging water, eating nothing salty, staying off my feet as much as possible and trying to chill out a bit.  My BP has been a tiny bit high when I take it at home but definitely nothing to be worried about. I take it a couple times a day though and am supposed to call her if I get a couple readings above 140.  Anyhoo, having high blood pressure has bought me twice weekly NSTs.  On the bright side I do love getting to hear her little heartbeat for 30 minutes twice a week and it's kind of nice just to sit in the recliner and watch whatever smut they have on TV that day :)  I also like seeing how many contractions I have in the 30 minutes.  At my appt on Monday I had 5.  Nothing painful, just braxton hicks I guess so they don't make a big deal of it. 

I was also supposed to have an ultrasound done for growth on Tuesday but they snuck me in on Monday since I was already there.  Guess the weight guessing game is over because they gave us an estimate and if it's accurate, everyone is very, very off with their guesses!  They estimated her to be 5lbs 12 oz.  It's not the most accurate, typically +/- 1lb.  Everything was measuring fine on her but they said her belly is tiny which is what is making her so small.  Her legs were loong and measuring ahead actually but her belly is so, so tiny.  I obviously flipped out after this and got all worked up over her being so small.  Ironic considering how terrified I've been that I will be delivering a 10lb baby.  I know she's technically in a healthy weight range but that just seems so, so small to me!  I immediately called my favorite OB and bawled about how itty bitty she is and he assured me she's probably just fine and just doesn't have a lot of fat on her.  He made me feel a lot better so I've been trying not to worry about it and just focus on taking it extremely easy for the next couple weeks to allow her to sit and plump up as long as she wants!!  The amniotic fluid levels and cord blood flow all looked perfect so that was reassuring. And on the bright side, homegirl has some HAIR!!  It looked all white and fuzzy floating around on the screen :)  The tech also took some 3D pics for us and she is looking awfullllly sweet in there :)

The plan for now is to continue twice weekly NSTs and they'll take my BP at all those visits.  I've got another appointment on Monday so we'll see how that goes! I'd prefer not to be induced but really just want whatever is going to allow Harper to be the healthiest little baby she can be.  I told Andy last night that I'd be fine with her coming tonight or her sitting in there until 42 weeks if that's what was best for her.  Say some prayers that she comes out a healthy little girl!! :)

I'm finishing up my last week of actual clinical work of 3rd year/before Harper arrives!! yay! Not sad to be finished with the ER.  It is a different crowd in there and pretty frustrating what some people come in for.  I'm hoping to take the ER test on Monday morning which would be great to get out of the way.  We are supposed to ridealong with an EMS crew and mine was scheduled for tomorrow.  Andy talked me out of doing that though... considering how hot it's supposed to be tomorrow it would be bad if I'm standing outside at a car wreck for a long time or something!

We don't have much planned for the next week. I'm honestly trying to sit as much as possible right now and I will need to study over the weekend.  We do have something else exciting going on next Monday besides doctors appointments... our 1 year anniversary!!  It's been an amazing first year of marriage and is hard to believe that it's already here!!!  I'm wondering if we are going to be hanging out with a new baby on our anniversary?? That would be prettty cool :)  Our plans will be limited since we are definitely staying in Lex but Andy did go ahead and book a hotel in Hilton Head for a few days in September so I'll just be calling that our 1 year anniversary celebration :)

Here's our update for the week!

How far along: 38

Total Weight Gain: 29

Stretchmarks:  Nope... fingers crossed

Sleep: Sleeping fine except for all the bathroom breaks :)

Best Moment This Week: seeing sweet baby girl on the ultrasound and the amazing baby shower!

Movement: yes, but it's a lot of slower rolling and stretching, not so much thrashing around

Gender: Baby girl!!

Labor Signs: more braxton hicks

Belly Button: innie :) it's pretty darn stretched out looking

What I Miss: nothing! I feel so thankful to have had such a great pregnancy and hope it continues for a little bit longer :)

What I am Looking Forward to:  1 year anniversary! doctors appts!

Milestones: 14 days from her due date!!

Week 37

Happy to report that we have a full-term baby this week!! And if you haven't heard, I was semi-worried on Monday that she might be making her debut before the 37 week marker!

My doctors appointment started out shaky when the nurse finishes taking my blood pressure and looks at me and asks if I've been taking it a lot lately, which I haven't.  I told her no, what is it?! She said she didn't want to tell me because I would only worry... ummmm... too late.  It was 140/100 which isn't crazy high but it's not ideal and mine typically runs around 110/70ish.  She told me to calm down (impossible) and she would go make sure there was no protein in my urine then recheck my BP.  She left the room and I was flipping out... I know the symptoms of preeclampsia but immediately whipped out my doctor iphone apps and started perusing.  The room was also about 1000 degrees and I start sweating which did not help my calmness.  My sweet nurse pops her head back in to let me know that there's no protein in my urine and everything was going to be fine.  I tried to calm down and when she retook the BP it was 128/90... better but not ideal.  I don't know what my deal was but I felt like I was going to cry when all this was going down? I started second guessing how much I'd been feeling her move, her size, etc. and had some serious worries going on.

The doctor came in and was asking about how much I'm exercising, how I'm feeling and all that stuff.  I told her I still feel totally fine and although we haven't had time to go walk at night we had been staying super busy every night working on house stuff.  I also told her that Harper hadn't been moving a ton that morning (she must've been feeling lazy cause she's been a busybee yesterday and today) and that I was concerned about how big my belly was measuring.  Because of the marginally high BP and possibly decreased movements she asked me to have a nonstress test done that afternoon.  The NST went fine! She looked great on the monitor and I had 7-8 contractions in the 30 minutes I was hooked up.  They weren't strong or regular or anything so nothing to be concerned about.  At the end of the appt, they did my first cervical check and the excitement continued.  After she finishes she says, wow! (not something you ever want to hear at the lady doctors office) She then told me I'm 4 cm dilated and 75% effaced and was not really expecting that at all!  I had asked her to feel my belly and make sure she's still head down but she said she wouldn't need to do that since she was able to feel the sutures of her skull during the exam... cray cray!!  She went ahead and ordered me an ultrasound to check size and fluid levels but the earliest I could get in is next Tuesday and the doctor kept alluding to the fact that there's a good chance I might not be pregnant when the ultrasound rolls around.

Andy didn't come to this appt since they had to do all the fun exam parts so I was trying to text him to keep in the loop... wish I could've seen his face.  I think we both had a minor freak out on Monday.  I immediately left that appt, went home and packed all three of our hospital bags then headed back for the NST.  I was worried my BP would be even higher or she wouldn't look good on the monitors and we'd be admitted into the hospital.  Needless to say, that didn't happen thankfully!  I really didn't ask a whole lot of questions at the end of my visit because I was just so shocked and worried but Andy had a ton... he said he wanted to schedule a conference call with Dr. Dad ;)  This has been the most motivating news ever for us - Andrew has gotten SO much stuff done around the house this week and has also put me on husband imposed bedrest. haha. Not really but he is trying to keep me from doing anything physical at all.  After I sort the laundry he even loads it as he thinks all that bending over may squeeze Harper on out ;) 

After all this excitement, I've done a lot of googling and talking to other people and have found out that this actually isn't super uncommon for people to be dilated for a while before going into labor.  Mom said she was dilated 3 cm for 3 weeks with David and same with Aunt Jennifer.  Dad said that basically all this means is the whole labor process should be a lot faster for me which will be nice.  If my BP is high again he said it's likely they would go ahead and offer induction.  It also means we aren't leaving Lexington until there is a baby in the car with us ;)

I was kind of surprised at how scared/unprepared I felt when I thought her arrival may be imminent... I'm guessing that even if she came on her due date I would still feel the same way simply because how can you ever really be prepared for something like this?!  It's calming that if she comes now she will at least be a full term baby but I know babies continue to do better the longer they are in there.  A few people have asked me now if I have a feeling of when she will come... no clue.  I do know that I am supposed to work 5 10-hour ER shifts next week and would love to get those done prebaby but all that standing around probably isn't going to encourage her to sit tight.  One of my best friends is also working in the newborn nursery the first week of July so she would be there to protect sweet Harper from any other med students who may be lurking around trying to practice their physical exams on her ;)  On Monday when I was convinced she'd come any moment I thought of all the awesome things about her being born in June... haha! I have pros to both a June or July birthday so whenever she comes will be perfect no matter what :)  Is it weird that I'm hoping my water breaks in some dramatic fashion?  Preferably something public and embarrassing that will serve as a good story in the future ;)

Last weekend we had another amazing baby shower in Meade County! Lisa and Jan did such an awesome job and everything was so cute!!  They had asked our Moms to bring baby pics of us and Andy and I were just about as opposite as you can possibly get.  He was a blonde baby with blue eyes and I had such dark hair and dark eyes.  I should've asked the doctor if she felt hair when she was touching Harper's head ;)  We really have nearly everything we need for our girl and are so thankful for everyone's gifts!  We got our pack n play set up in our room and we're just waiting for a baby to fill it.  Andy also put together our strollers and I am SO pumped to take her on walks :)

Her room is looking much more put together but is still not quite finished.  Carrie and David have ordered her a painting that will go up on one wall.  I'm also going to get canvases of her newborn pics to put above her changing table after those are taken.  Here's a couple pics of the current progress:

I've gone back and forth over whether or not I want a rug.  I've found a cute green one but just can't decide if I want it or not.  We need a few more things but we would definitely be fine if she decides she wants to come tonight!! :)  Except a July 4th outfit!! haha... I told Olivia she's in charge of bringing her an awesome July 4th outfit if we're in the hospital for her first holiday ;)

We've got one more shower this weekend that I am super excited about - the Brownie girls and OJ are hosting it here in Lexington at our house.  I'm so excited to see a bunch of my friends and see all this secretive crafting the girls have been up to!  Paige just started a blog and you all should check it out - http://www.natashapaigebrown.blogspot.com/  She's soo crafty and has posted a few of the things she has made for Miss Harper.  I told her it's officially time for her to start her Etsy business so we will see! :)

I know I am probably amusing the world with my planning... mom told me everyone is excited to see what happens when Harper doesn't follow my timeline ;)  I figure everything works out exactly like it's supposed to and although sometimes you don't understand things it all makes sense eventually!  So here's our update for the week... maybe the last?! We will see!!!

How far along: 37

Total Weight Gain: 28

Stretchmarks:  Nope... fingers crossed

Sleep: Slept great except for Monday night... everytime I woke up I thought of something else that needed to be added to my to do list

Best Moment This Week: the reassuring NST and getting exciting news that I'm basically half way through the whole labor process.. ha ha

Movement: yes, but it's a lot of slower rolling and stretching, not so much thrashing around

Gender: Baby girl!!

Labor Signs: some braxton hicks occasionally 

Belly Button: innie :)

What I Miss: nothing! I feel so thankful to have had such a great pregnancy and hope it continues for a little bit longer :)

What I am Looking Forward to:  shower this weekend! dr appt on Monday! ultrasound on Tuesday! and getting my first exam out of the way tomorrow :)

Milestones: 4cm dilated... and she's the size of a watermelon!!

Andy so sweetly reassured me that my bump looked huge tonight... thanks Andrew ;) 

Week 36

9 months pregnant! Hard to believe... unfortunately we have to get throuuugh the 9th month before she arrives but that gives us a little more time to get things settled before her debut :)

Not a lot has been going on around here in the last week... spending more time getting the house organized.  Harper's room is basically put together as much as we can right now.  Mom just texted me her bumper which is practically finished and looks SO CUTE!! I need to get more of the ribbon for the ties at the corners but then it will be finito! :)  Can't wait to get it up here and put into her crib.  I picked out just some plain pale pink sheets.  Our crib comes all the way to the ground so I opted not to do anything fancy for the dust ruffle but will just likely get a plain white one to cover up the metal below the mattress.

Mom's making us some curtains that will be the green and white polka dots mostly with the paisley print at the bottom.  She's also making us a cushion with matching fabric to use on top of the toybox David made us so it can be a little bench!! Can't wait to get it all put together :) :)

I started another craft today for her room... I found some pinterest inspiration that had three canvases hung above the crib with a monogram.  Here's my current progress:

I'm definitely not the best painter and have the worst handwriting ever but I'm pleased with how these are looking so far! My pink letters need another coat and I've got to do the R at some point but it's on pause for the rest of the evening.

I also ordered a couple cute little headbands for Harper from an Etsy shop :) I don't have a going home from the hospital outfit picked out yet but I ordered one white and one pink so I'm sure one will work with her 'fit!

I guess I need to go ahead and pack a hospital bag but for some reason I'm procrastinating on that task.  I have a limited amount of shorts/leggings that I like wearing right now and I really don't want them packed up in a bag.  Maybe I can just start with Harper's bag first ;)

My next doctors appt is Monday and that's when they'll check me for the first time to see if I'm dilated or anything yet... my fingers are crossed for no.  I really, really want to take these exams before she arrives and I'm going to feel super antsy if I'm dilated at all.  My first test is next Thursday and it's the biggest so it will be nice to get that out of the way!

I'm headed to Etown this weekend for another baby shower which I am super excited for! Aunt Lisa and Jan are hosting and it's for the King ladies :)  We have a wedding in Eastern KY Saturday evening though so unfortunately won't get to see our dads on Father's day... but happy, happy father's day to both our dads and both granddads!!  And to Andy :) :)  Who knows, he could be holding Harper on Father's day?!!

I've been in the ICU this week which has been pretty easy... and I get to wear scrubs which is great ;)  The patients are so sick that they really don't let the med students near them so I've basically been shadowing all week.  One of our patients delivered a 25 week old baby so we went up to the NICU to see the baby... it's hard to believe how tiny he was!! And how all the other babies in the NICU looked like giants compared to him... which then made me think about how much more giant the baby is inside of me.... and how it has to come out.... lol.  I may be starting to get a tiny bit nervous about all that but am more excited than anything ;)

We will be fullterm next Wednesday!! Though we would all appreciate it if she can sit tight for a few more weeks ;)

Here's our update for the week... I decided to add in a picture of me at week 6 just to compare to 36......... OMG.  I honestly don't feel huge and uncomfortable at all but when I look at the difference I seem about 3 times as big!

  

How far along: 36

Total Weight Gain: 27... hoping this slows down.. I hear it's supposed to towards the end?

Stretchmarks:  Nope... Andy thought he spotted the beginnings of the linea nigra on my belly but we think it was a false alarm

Sleep: I am seriously sleeping like a rock... I told Andy this morning that I don't know what's up with pregnancy insomnia bc it has not happened to me... he thinks I may have jinxed myself ;)

Best Moment This Week: getting Harper's room more acceptable looking :)

Movement: all the time!

Gender: Baby girl!!

Labor Signs: some braxton hicks occasionally 

Belly Button: innie :)

What I Miss: sitting with good posture... I want to recline now to give her a little more space under my ribs ;)

What I am Looking Forward to:  shower this weekend and my drs appt on monday!

Milestones:she's approximately 6 - 6.5 lbs!!

Thanks for playing along with the weight guesses!! I know a lot of you all left them on facebook so I'll copy those into the blog comments at some point so I can find them after she has arrived! :)

Week 35

We're at a milestone week... 35 weeks and 35 days to go!! And before we get to all the excitement that's been going on around here, we'll start with competition time :)  Time to guess the baby weight!  So everyone is on a level playing field, my birth weight was 10 lbs 2 oz and Andy's was 9lbs 1oz (he thinks).  I asked my OB the best predictor of baby weight and she said genetics... Dad also says that the height of your uterus can be a predictor and mine has measured almost exactly what you would expect each week.  There's going to a prize for the winner so leave a comment with your guess!  And in case we have a tie, leave your guess for Harper's birthday :)  Not sure what the prize will be yet so don't get too excited... probably a Starbucks giftcard that I'll send ya after I recover from the newborn fog :) Andy and I have already placed our guesses... he says 8lbs 4 oz. and I guess 8lbs 12 oz.  We both believe in the power of positive thinking and think anything under 10 lbs would be fabulous ;)  Apparently I was built like a little linebacker when I was born because they broke my collarbone on the way out... fingers crossed Harper does not suffer the same birth injury :(

We have been crazy busy the past few days and it's been awesome!  All went well with the house closing on Friday and Andy was able to move a ton of stuff over by himself that day.  I got my kitchen all unpacked that evening which was so nice.  The next morning Davo, Cam and Christie came and we basically got almost all of the rest of our house moved over by noon.  Andy's parents came later and helped him move over the shed stuff and get the old house all cleaned up for us :)  We were SO appreciative of everyone's help!!  I left the moving party in the afternoon to head to Granddad's for our first baby shower!  It was cohosted by Mary, Sherriann and Isabel and it was so wonderful!! It was a joint shower for my cousin Liz and I and we also got some exciting news that cousin Jenny is expecting baby numero dos in December! It's going to be a fun Christmas with all these sweet little babies to love on :)  The food at their shower was so delicious - they put so much effort into so many tiny little details!  My favorite detail was a bunch of dresses they had displayed throughout the house that my Grandmom had saved from when Aunt Pat and Mary were little girls.  They had some hanging and some displayed on little forms and also had lots of pictures of the girls actually wearing their dresses.  It was the sweetest thing I'd ever seen!  It doesn't quite seem complete without Grandmom there - I know she would be so excited to have three more great-grandbabies but being in her house with all the dresses she had saved helped make it seem extra special :)  We were spoiled with so many wonderful gifts at this shower - Harper is one loved little girl!  I do have to share one of the funniest, though - Christie (and Cam) got her a pretty sweet pacifier...

Stole this picture off of pinterest... poor little baby ;)

I came back to Lexington Saturday night and Olivia joined... she slept on an air mattress in Harper's room :)  We got a few more things done around the house Sunday morning after church before it was time to head back to Etown for our second shower.  This was hosted by my Aunt Carol and some great family friends - Becky and Rosemary Wiseman.  I was totally overwhelmed by all the cute decor they had going on! Alexis, Becky's niece, is the most crafty person ever and had made so many precious details for the party! They also had this awesome fruit display that looked like a baby in a carriage... I had never seen anything like it but it was pretty awesome!!  It was so nice to visit with so many family friends and we were spoiled again by so many wonderful gifts.  One of the most special was a dress that Rosemary had made for Harper!  It is beautiful beyond belief and it something I know will be passed down in our family for generations.  Rosemary is so, so talented and said the dress took her between 40-50 hours to make.  The details in it are absolutely unreal and I cannot wait until Harper is big enough to wear it!  We are so thankful and appreciative of everyone who was celebrating with us, from near and far!  I don't think Harper could be a more loved little girl :) :)

I have had a ton of fun unpacking her gifts and trying to get her room sorted out a bit.  Andy and I put together the crib on Monday.  It was not nearly as hard as we were expecting but we did run into a little hiccup when we misplaced some bolts ;) After the bolts were found, the project continued on smoothly and it looks great in her room! I'll take some more pictures after Mom has finished some of her little projects and the room is looking more complete.  I went ahead and washed all of Harper's clothes, towels, etc.  I was so worried that all the bright colors would bleed on each other and all her brand new clothes would be ruined so I did three small loads... they were sorted into whites, light pinks, and dark pinks. lol.  She does have a handful of blue things with all her UK and Colts gear but those were definitely not getting mixed in with her sweet little pink things :)  I am kind of stumped as how to organize her clothes.  She has a wide variety of sizes so I'm wondering if I should go ahead and hang everything up until three months and keep the bigger sizes in the drawers?  I need Olivia to come organize her closet for me (I'm embarrassed to admit Olivia organized my closet for me again this weekend... and told me it would be the last time she did it for me if I didn't keep it neater ;)).

We are loving being in our new house so far! I went to college with a girl down the street and her and her husband came by with some treats the other night which was so sweet :)  They're having us over to cookout one night next week which will be fine! Last night Andy was having some lawnmower difficulties and he moved it up to the garage to work on it... when he came into the house, our next door neighbor had pulled out his giant riding lawnmower and was mowing for him!  It kind of cracked us up as apparently a man's lawn is like a woman's purse but we were very appreciative nonetheless :)  We have been working hard every evening trying to get things settled and I can definitely tell that I get a lot more swollen after being up all day long.  I wore my dreaded compression stockings today and they were SO uncomfortable... my belly is not fitting in those things well at all anymore!  I told Andy that sometimes I catch a glimpse of my profile and don't recognize myself! ha!

Phew - sorry for such a long post... we've had so much going on around here :)  Here's our weekly update!!

That bump is getting seriously large!!

How far along: 35

Total Weight Gain: 26

Stretchmarks:  Nope... but my skin is looking kind of translucent?? :(

Sleep: awesome... seriously, I'm waiting for pregnancy insomnia to hit but I am so exhausted at night that they only time I wake up is to use the bathroom or when Andy tells me to stop sleeping on my back

Best Moment This Week: our wonderful showers and moving into our new house!!

Movement: all the time! but it's so different now... a lot of stretching and not really fast movements

Gender: Baby girl!!

Labor Signs: some braxton hicks occasionally 

Belly Button: innie :)

What I Miss: being a helpful addition around the house and carrying heavy stuff

What I am Looking Forward to:  getting more organized in the new casa

Milestones: 35 weeks and 35 days to go!

Andy just said the funniest thing that needed to be added... he's looking around the kitchen and says "I'd put this stuff away but I just don't know where it goes... I don't know where the pots go... I don't know where these cleaning supplies go... I don't know what food we have, I just know my meals have been getting made for me... I don't know how the laundry machine works and I'm wondering if that's something I ever need to learn"... hahahaha... I'll be honest, I do occasionally attempt to not learn certain tasks so that I don't have to help with them :) :)