Killian's nursery &&hearts

The whole nursery (still a mess, but it's still a work in progress.)


I can't even tell you how much I LOVE this swing...


Crib and wall decor


His changing pad that I made to match his crib bedding


The crib bedding that my Mom and I lovingly made for him. (ROCKETS!!! *squee*)


His crib and another angle of the awesome rocket bedding


The wall decor... through the meshy thingy


The wall letters that I made for him

38 week belly pics

Early labor.... that sputtered out v.v

On Friday August 26th, I was woken up a few times, the first at 8:30am, the second at 11:40am, the third at 2:30pm by a sort of burning pain in my belly on the right side, from my belly button up to my ribcage. It felt a lot like the pain you get in your side from running or exercising too much. No repositioning or moving or anything made it better, in fact moving or leaning into it made it worse. The first two times it woke me up, I was able to fall back asleep, but the third time, I really thought about it and I was worried, so I got up and figured I would try a few other things to relieve the pain. As far as I could tell, the pain wasn't coming and going... it was constant. I didn't have any bleeding or anything, so I was confused. I called my midwife (Anneke) who hadn't heard of this kind of pain before, and was going to call her senior midwife to consult with her and see what she thought I should do. Shortly after getting off the phone with Anneke, my burning pain was accompanied by another pain, appearing in my left ovary region as pinchy, period like cramps that wrapped around to my back. The pains weren't constant this time though. They were coming and going in waves, and my belly was getting hard at the top through them. (ribcage to belly button again). Anneke called back and I told her about the new pain, and how now all of the pain was coming and going in waves. She said they sounded A LOT like contractions. We started timing them, and they were lasting 20-35 seconds long, and were 2-4 minutes apart. Only the upper part of my belly was getting hard. Anneke was confident that this was early labor!! But because they were VERY short, she said it was VERY early. She suggested that I drink lots of water, and take a shower or bath and see if they kept coming. I drank a ton, and took a long hot shower (while sitting on the floor lol) and they did not stop or slow down. So she suggested that I walk around a bit, and see if we could get them to last a little longer. Mom and I did A LOT of walking, and they began to space out some. Throughout the day I alternated walking with resting with my feet up/napping, and the contractions continued about every 20 minutes. Still short (roughly 40-50 seconds long) so still not active labor. Bed time rolled around and I could NOT get comfortable enough to sleep. I finally passed out around 7am, and the contractions had still been coming every 20 minutes up to this point. I slept like a rock once I fell asleep though, and when I woke up around noon, the contractions had stopped. I had maybe one or two more throughout the day, but nothing regular. Sooo I guess my birth story is TO BE CONTINUED....... *grumble grumble cuss cuss*

37 week belly pics part 2 :)

Because my pictures that I took last night were in a dress, you really couldn't see my belly very well, so I took some better ones today.





On a side note, still having insane pressure and some random sporadic contractions and diarrhea all day long...

37 week belly pics

And I just wanted to add that I lost 2 more pieces of my plug today... and I've had reasonless diarrhea starting Saturday night, all day yesterday, and so far today. I'm hoping this is the beginning of real labor....

36 week midwife appointment- home visit!!

Today was my home visit from Anneke and Ginnie!! They inspected the layout of the house and told me the best place to put the pool (Right in front of the sliding doors to the deck! It's gonna be beautiful!!) and how to set up. They also measured the distance and showed us where to run the hose from. 25ft is juuust long enough :) They looked over my birth kit and were satisfied with it, so we've got that all done. I need to put a mattress down near the pool too, to deliver the placenta on, but we can just use the futon mattress from the spare room :) Paid half of the cost for everything, so that's a load off my mind too. I signed the consent form for the vitamin K shot after he's born like the pedi requested, so that's out of the way. It looks like everything is ready, we're just waiting on the little guy! They did my exam on our couch (which was so comfy and awesome :))... My weight was better than it was at the OB, and my blood pressure was MUCH better. Weight is at 161lbs, and my blood pressure was 102/64. My pulse was 84. Fundal height is still lower than it should be, 33 instead of the 36 (almost 37) weeks I am.... He is settling into my pelvis further though. His heart is still beating away at 134bpm. I had my first internal exam done too. My cervix is 70% effaced, and a fingertip dilated, and Killian's head is at -1 station. I was so confident that losing part of my plug meant I was further than that, but I guess I'm not nearly as far as I was hoping...

36 week belly pics and OB appointment

I had my 36 week appointment with my OB today (Dr Heins). They did the usual, and then they did the GBS test. (NOT fun. They shove a qtip where it should never go.) My weight and bp aren't coming up in a happy place :( though the doc wasn't concerned. My weight was reading at 164lbs (YIKES!) and my blood pressure was at 116/82. My pulse was at 84. They asked me if I was "still" taking my blood sugars, and I just said no, and they let it go thank god. My fundal height was measuring behind again... at 34. But baby's heartbeat was at a nice 133bpm, and he's a serious wiggle worm, so he is apparantly still doing well in there :p It took a few days for the results to come back, but my GBS test was NEGATIVE!!!! YAY!!!

Progress!!!!

Early this morning (4am!) I lost two chunks of my plug when I went in to pee!!! They were brownish tinged snot wads no bigger than a dime each :) YAY!!

35 week belly pics

I got creative again this week :P

















OH THERE you are, feet!!!!! It's nice to see you again! :P

August 5th OB appointment with Smith

On August 5th I had an OB appointment, this time with Dr Smith, who is one of the ones at the practice that I'm not horribly fond of. But it was the only one they had available this week. My weight according to their scale is 158lbs (Not very far off from the midwife's scale lol). My bp was 90/60, normal :) My pulse was 80... She did my fundal height and forgot to tell me what it was, but I asked the nurse and she ran back in and got it for me before I left. We are measuring 34. Baby's heart rate was at 125bpm, and she said something about baby's heart slowing down as they get older. They decided to harass me at this appointment about the glucose screen again. I mean harass. They will NOT let it go. They sent me home with a meter and want me to monitor my sugars for the next two weeks. I tried to do it, but blood makes me faint, no matter how small the amount, and the first three times I did it, I threw up afterwards and almost passed out. SO I stopped. WHY are they pushing this SO hard when I have so little time left? At this point, tracking my sugars for 2 more weeks would mean that they wouldn't have the information til 37 weeks (my appointment is two days before I would turn 37 weeks) so if they even had to put me on insulin or anything, it would literally be 2 weeks before my due date. Which makes me feel like it's bullcrap. They also told me my GBS test will be at my next appointment. So that'll be interesting. :/

34 week Midwife appointment!

This was the last midwife appointment that I have to go out by her!!! The next one is my home visit already! I can't believe I'm so close to 36 weeks! That's my huge milestone that I've been hoping for. Anything after that, baby would be fine to be born, though I swear he HAS to wait for at least September 1st!! The midwives told me at this appointment that there is somebody due August 30th who has the pool before me... and I don't get it until she's done with it. CRAP. Baby had BETTER not come before she's done. I don't think I could survive a natural birth without the water aspect. I wish I could afford a fishy pool as backup. Anyway, I guess the ladies had been talking about me a bit, and it's been decided, I am the perfect candidate to be Anneke's first birth as the primary care midwife. No matter when I deliver, whether Ginnie is in town or not, Anneke will be delivering me!!! If Ginnie is gone, Jan will be "overseeing" and observing Anneke. I'm super excited!!! I LOVE Anneke!! And that way, if I do ever have any other babies, I can still see the same midwife! (Ginnie is retiring, she is not accepting any conceptions after October 1st of this year.)

Anyway! To get to the updates. My weight has not changed according to their scale from the last appointment, it's still at 157.6. My blood pressure is still exactly where it's supposed to be, 98/60. My pulse was 80. All normal. Killian's head is in my pelvis, but not very deep (you can still wobble it) so he isn't engaged yet. They couldn't tell which way he was facing though. His heart rate was a little low for him, 130bpm, but I didn't eat anything before my appointment, so that could've been why. My fundal height was measuring slightly behind again, 32.5-33 (1-1.5 behind) but they said that was no big deal. Nothing to worry about.

34 week belly pics