any day now

probably later than sooner, but if you know me it is hard not having control of when we will have our baby. i'm having these crazy dreams. we're in the movie theater and it's time. we are stuck in an elevator and it's way beyond time. all these scenarios. i can't get a hold of mike and have to drive myself, etc. i know everything will be fine. it's only natural to have these anxieties. i wake up laughing at myself and what my head can conjure up. it's like a montage played in my dreams of all that can happen.

we have gotten most of our main stuff that we need for the baby. we just need to set it up more. but i feel really good with being somewhat prepared. and are you ever really prepared :)??? we are just so excited.

it is very exciting to have all of our friends' and cousins' advice from their experience now. everyone is doing well and healthy. we are the last of the baby booming group to go.

she is still moving quite a lot and now you can see an elbow go across my whole belly as she stretches and tries to make more room. i know she is tiny, but she makes a lot of big moves already :) she is a squirmer.

madelyn rae

my cousin's baby - madelyn's first pics. she is just precious. that means we are next in line :)

37 wks

yay full term!

How your baby's growing: Congratulations — your baby is full term! This means that if your baby arrives now, her lungs should be fully mature and ready to adjust to life outside the womb, even though your due date is still three weeks away.

Your baby weighs a little over 6 pounds and measures between 19 and 20 inches, head to heel. Many babies have a full head of hair at birth, with locks from 1/2 inch to 1 1/2 inches long. But don't be surprised if your baby's hair isn't the same color as yours. Dark-haired couples are sometimes thrown for a loop when their children come out as blonds or redheads, and fair-haired couples have been surprised by Elvis look-alikes. And then, of course, some babies sport only peach fuzz.

Your due date is so close that you could easily deliver at any time! Chances are very good that delivering from this week on, your baby will be healthy. Take a deep breath…labor, delivery and motherhood will all be amazing and wonderful experiences!

Your Baby: Baby's weight continues to increase, reaching around 6.5 pounds (3.2 kg) now. While baby is about 21 inches (53 cm) long, her limbs and tummy are all growing rounder and chubbier every day. Her skin is less wrinkly now and most of the redness has turned to a hue that reflects your baby’s ethnic heritage. By this time, most babies descend down into your pelvis, head first, getting ready for birth. In about 3% of pregnancies, babies turn in the other direction, a situation known as a breech presentation. If this is the case for your baby, don’t worry since this often changes—sometimes just hours before labor!

(our baby has stayed low the whole time)

well she doesn't weigh quite 6lbs, but we have made it to our full term. very exciting.

baby gear

baby gear and why it's so expensive

36 weeks/9 months

Well, it depends on how you count it. These days, most practitioners determine your due date by counting 40 weeks from the first day of your last menstrual period. Keep in mind that you're not actually pregnant for the first two weeks because you haven't even ovulated yet, and you don't usually find out you're pregnant until you're about 4 or 5 weeks along. But this is how most people count it. And forty weeks adds up to about nine calendar months (30 or 31 days each) or ten lunar months (28 days each). In order to make it easy to count the months, a lot of guidebooks and web sites, including this one, will count the months of pregnancy as lunar months, so that every four weeks, you're another month along. Counting this way, you will be ten lunar months pregnant by the time 40 weeks is up.

i've had some discussions with some friends and it is confusing especially for men who have not had kids and women who have not been pregnant to understand what 36 wks means.

the easiest way is to say pregnancy is 40 wks and i'm at 36 wks. the difficult part is when you discuss months. and explaining that after 37 wks it is safe to have the baby because that is considered full term.

girly time

congrats to noel (my cousin) and rachael. today they had a 7 lb healthy baby girl. yay another girl. her name is madelyn rae. i bet she is precious. she was born at noon today. i'll post pics asap when i get them. congrats! glad everyone is doing well.

i love the name madelyn. it was on our list. but we have narrowed it down. yay. can't wait.

so we have two new baby girls on my side of the fam - samara and madelyn - cousins. and we have two new baby girls on mike's side of the fam - brooke and jayden - cousin and niece. well cousins for our baby as well. lots of girls to play with. what fun.

very exciting news. we are the last ones in the line :) that means it is getting closer for us.

baby gap

has some cute stuff. never have looked at their stuff, but we got some gift cards. i'll have to check it out more.

another doc visit

i've been eating lots of apples, but still have to see the doc every week now. ok bad joke. anyways. met the last of the docs in the practice. and we discussed the ultrasound. so my belly is measuring small not only because our baby is petite, but because she is farther down than where i should be at 36 wks. but they wanted to make sure that our baby was still healthy. so no dwarfism - she's just itty bitty. she is already below average in weight. poor girl. but i was small and then i averaged out after i was born. i'm not complaining about her being small and knowing that she is healthy. i'd be upset if she wasn't healthy and everything checked out. but small isn't bad - beats that 15 lbs baby boy. ouch. we had some more tests done today and we'll get more detailed results next week. the doc just said that i'm just a small girl and there isn't much more room for our baby to grow. but she is healthy and we can be parents as late as 3-4 weeks. pretty exciting. so i guess i should think about packing a bag and getting some nursing stuff. :)

boo

ok i was wrong. you do need a login to get to the photos no matter what on walgreens. i will just email out high light photos and if people want to see tons more and order prints - they will just have to get a login for walgreens. sorry. i will keep hunting for stuff. sites are mostly geared to pcs. that's a croc.

photos

so i started designing a site where you would easily access baby photos and order prints, but that got complicated. i think we will see how walgreens.com turns out. i started a group page where you only need to know one password and you can view and order your prints through walgreens. it should be easier than getting a log in. i'm testing it out for now. but i'll have something figured out so it will be easy to view the baby photos. :)

no new pics

but the good news is that she is healthy. good heartbeat, good kidneys, good blood flow, etc. but i now know why my main ob doesn't state or estimate her size or when she'll be born because the other two docs were off and wrong. one said i was measuring ahead of schedule and that she was average size and one said i was behind and that she was petite..so with this ultrasound we got more facts and solid info. she is measuring small, but just a bit under average. she is 5.6 lbs now and every week she stays in my belly she should gain .5 lb so she should be born just a bit below average. not bad with our short genes. :) and we are both pretty small. and i have no complaints about not having a 9 lbs baby. she will have more room to grow outside in the real world. ha. we also got more verification that yes indeed we are having a girl. so i guess the pink stuff can stay. but i'm going to buy some neutral stuff anyways to keep my sanity. :) this time it was harder to tell what was what. i just assumed you'd be able to see more clearly on an ultrasound when the baby is bigger. but now that she is more smooshed - it is actually harder to tell what is what. so they were telling us this is her hand and her leg, etc and i couldn't tell at all. so no clear pics. they did also confirm that she is already down and in position. but that she is quite a mover. she's a feisty one already. yay we can't wait. we're going to put some more stuff together tonight. we got our swing together and it is very cute.

so...

so are you getting bored reading my blog?! well soon we will start a new site with lots of baby photos so you can watch our baby grow. that will be much more fun than reading my stories :)

on my way out the door to the hospital to get an ultrasound. hopefully we will find out how big she is, that she is still a girl :) and that she is still healthy and still going to come out sometime soon. yay.

if we get photos i'll post those asap.

lots of babies

here's an update on our friends' babies - we have lots of girls in our family, but quite a few of our friends have had boys. (these babies are in order of age - starting at newborns)

jack ryan bradley - 19 days early. so cute. my friend lisa's baby. he is half asian and has blondish hair as of now. ;)


christian and his big sis. my friend ellen's new precious baby boy.


cailyn - beautiful baby girl. friend john's baby. another cute asian baby.


cooper - cute baby boy just discovering his tongue. shelly's new baby boy.


maya - getting big. cute little girl of the faiers. she'll get to play with our baby soon.


nolan - flexing his muscles. so cute. he is another shelly's baby boy. he's got her blue eyes.



mia - her first birthday. she is the daughter of my friend amber. adorable.

26 days til due date

so some sites consider us 37 wks. some say 9 mos. some say 36. i just know we are getting closer!!! yay.

You are now 37 weeks pregnant!
WHAT'S HAPPENING WITH YOU
Congratulations! Even though you are about three weeks from your due date, if your baby weighs over 5 1/2 pounds and you finish the 37th week, he or she is considered full term. In most cases, nothing will be done to stop your labor once it starts, and at this point you're probably counting the days until that's supposed to happen, according to your due date. Remember that only about 10 percent of babies are born on their due date -- including those with a one determined by ultrasound! Don't set yourself up for disappointment by concentrating heavily on the "magic" day.


WHAT'S HAPPENING WITH YOUR BABY
Gaining half an ounce to one ounce each day, your baby is growing rapidly. At this stage, most are larger than 5 pounds, 8 ounces, and have enough fat stores to keep their temperature stable in the extra uterine environment. As strong as your baby is now, she's still susceptible to infection during delivery, so your health-care provider will give you a Strep B test this week (if she hasn't already). This bacteria is harmless in adults but can be very unhealthy for your baby, so it's best if it's caught before you go into labor.

babiesrus run

so yesterday was one of probably many to come babiesrus runs. there was no parking and they just added these new spots for expecting mothers. mike was driving and he parked at the fourth expecting mothers spot. i was kind of embarrassed. i think of those spots as spots for women who are über pregnant and can't walk or move well. i don't have mike drop me off up front or pick me up all the time either. he tries. i just don't want pregnancy to feel like a handicap or disease. so we were walking in and i noticed a guy parking at the second spot and he wasn't pregnant. and mike did state that i am 36 wks pregnant. and that we were going to spend enough money to get our own spot. he had some good points. it was fun running around getting stuff. not sure mike had as much fun as i did seeing how much stuff he has to put together, but once it's together - the stuff we got will make our lives much easier as new parents.

36 wks (9 mos)

How your baby's growing: Your baby doesn't have much room to maneuver now that she's over 18 inches long and tips the scales at 5 pounds plus. Because it's so snug in your womb, she isn't likely to be doing somersaults anymore, but the number of times she kicks should remain about the same. Her kidneys are fully developed now, and her liver can process some waste products. Most of her basic physical development is now complete — she'll spend the next few weeks putting on weight.

(9mos from pampers) Start Your Engines Your baby is nearly ready for launch. All systems are fully developed and ready for startup. Your little one now weighs between six and eight pounds and measures 18 to 21 inches long. She'll continue to gain weight this month.

Your baby will likely drop further this month in preparation for her journey down the birth canal. And she's probably moving less as room at the inn gets tight. Her skin may be a bit dry and her nails ready for a trim. She may even start to lose a little weight if she's outgrowing her placenta. These are all signals your baby's nearly ready to leave her watery home.

Your Body

Well there’s no getting around it—you’re feeling like a beach ball! Driving will become more difficult, as will sitting in the front seat of a vehicle; going up and down stairs will start to feel like climbing a mountain! Even though you have a few weeks to go, your weight may stabilize around this time, so you won’t get much larger. Stay off your feet as much as possible to minimize swelling and cramping, and rest when you can.

the doctor estimated 6 - 6.5 lbs. we'll find out more on Monday from the ultrasound hopefully. she is still getting lots of hiccups and making my belly jiggle. i thought she wouldn't be moving much since she has moved down, but she is still kicking away. i still have a bit of a belly button. guess i'm not done yet - hasn't popped out. can't believe i'm 36 wks.

still working from home. it's been pretty slow off and on, but got some big pitches coming up. i'm going to try to work up til the day of labor, but the people i work with are getting nervous and i keep urging them to give me more work for more hours which means more money :) but i think they are holding back a little. they probably don't want me to leave a project midway since there is no telling when the baby can come.

mike and i are going to make a baby shopping run this weekend. get some stuff we need. i have been soooo good - i haven't bought any clothes or toys. (that is incredibly amazing if you know me - i buy everything for our friends kids it is so much fun) i knew once i started i wouldn't stop. so now we are just going to get some stuff we still need that haven't gotten yet. i've probably saved thousands by not shopping for us yet - it's taken a lot of strength for me to not go. hee he. it's so exciting to be close. one month til our due date and i'm convincing myself we have 5 wks (usually first pregnancies are late) and i don't want to think 'early' then feel like this month is supppper SLOOOW because i'm expecting to go in a few weeks or because i'm told we might go before our due date.

people keep asking if i have a bag packed. i don't - i do have some snacks set aside for mike and i to take. food is important - ha ha.

big baby

just read an article about a woman having a 14.5 baby 10 days early. talk about ouch!! 6 lbs sounds small since 7lbs is about average, but i'm sure it will seem big to me at the time. but almost 15 lbs is outrageous and sounds like no fun.

doc visit

so we went to the doc today and met another doc in the practice. just in case we don't get our doc. he was very nice. we get to have another ultrasound. yay. i'm excited. they think she might be the size i was when i was born. he thinks she will be born around 6lbs to 6.5, but wants to make sure she is the right size for where we are supposed to be. he also said that she has already moved down. probably explains why i have to pee every hour. pretty exciting at how close we are getting. nothing to worry about - just double checking. and i am excited to get to see her bigger. so hopefully this week i can go.

my cousin noel is due any day now. well his girlfriend is. i can't wait to find out if they are having a girl or boy.

my fam

grammy and me
mike, grammy me and papa (my parents)

i got a migraine after these photos and wish i had gotten more of mike's fam :( but here are a few photos of one set of our grandparents-to-be. we will have MILLIONS more pics to come after the baby arrives :)

pink - oh my

i was putting away some of our cute outfits and we got a lot of pink. i might have to go balance out some of the color by getting some more greens and yellows.

we got some cute mary jane socks that i guess are the new thing. pretty adorable.

hope everyone had a good weekend.

thank you for the baby shower

our first family shot

what a cute diaper cake. thanks pam!!

the cake was really yummy. thanks edye!!

we had some great helpers unwrapping gifts.

i want to especially thank edye and pam for hosting and all their hard work for our couples' shower. everything was great. the tables/decorations were great. food. everything. thank you so much for making today so special.

i also wanted to thank all the grandparents for coming in town and making it to the shower. we even had friends from all over - ohio, champaign, far away burbs, etc. we had a great time. hope everyone did too.

oh and how can i forget all the great presents we got for our little one. and thank you to our helpers max and jessica - you two are just adorable and we can't wait til you can play with baby cohen. thank you so much. you guys are all so wonderful. we are so lucky to have lots of great people in our lives and who want to be part of our baby's life too. thank you so much - it means a ton to us!

here are some photos. the ones of us opening gifts didn't turn out too well, but we have a new camera coming (thanks vicki and alan) and we will be sure to have clearer and better baby pics :)

we also got some of our big items from the other grandparents. we can't wait to use the high chair (thank you brian and laurie) and stroller (thank you mom and dad).

having 3 sets of grandparents is going to make our child super spoiled. it will be so fun. we can't wait.

35 wks

can you believe it? i can't. wow time flies. people keep asking me if i'm sooo ready. i have mixed emotions. i really have loved being pregnant - so part of me is sad that i won't have this special bond anymore with our baby. and part of me is anxious to hold her and see her. i'm sure that's normal. and of course mike can't wait. he hasn't had the chance to have the experience i have had. he has gotten to feel her move a lot, but i just don't think it's the same. so now the time is near that he will get to bond too. :) i'll share.

Your Baby: Well over 5 pounds (2.5 kg) and more than 20 inches (51 cm) long, your baby is continuing to grow at a rapid pace. If you were to give birth this week, your baby would probably need the warmth of an incubator to survive. That’s because she still doesn’t have enough fat cells to keep her body warm. But hopefully, she will have the warmth of your tummy for just a little while longer!

How your baby's growing: Your baby doesn't have much room to maneuver now that she's over 18 inches long and tips the scales at 5 pounds plus. Because it's so snug in your womb, she isn't likely to be doing somersaults anymore, but the number of times she kicks should remain about the same. Her kidneys are fully developed now, and her liver can process some waste products. Most of her basic physical development is now complete — she'll spend the next few weeks putting on weight.

thank you

just wanted to say thanks to those who have already sent us presents. we can't wait to use everything and everyone has been so generous. we registered for a lot of stuff. :) it was fun.

we are going to start seeing the doc every week now. whoohoo. that means we are getting close.

we are going to have a new cousin soon. my cousin, noel and his girlfriend rachael are due july 4th. we don't know if they are having a girl or boy - they wanted to be surprised. so we are super excited and can't wait to find out and see pics. lots of babies.

this weekend our parents are going to be in town and it will be fun to catch up and for them to see me big :) i'll try to take pics and post them. there have been some requests of pics. i can't wait til i can take pics of our baby and post them every where instead of me. ha ha

34 wks

How your baby's growing: Your baby now weighs about 4 3/4 pounds and is probably almost 18 inches long. Her fat layers — which she'll need to regulate her body temperature once she's born — are filling her out, making her rounder. Her central nervous system is still maturing and her lungs are well developed by now. If you've been nervous about going into preterm labor, you'll be happy to know that 99 percent of babies this age can survive outside the womb — and most have no major long-term problems related to prematurity.

she gets hiccups after i eat. but it's supposed to not bother her. it feels like her whole body is moving. she is also quite the elbower. it is fun to watch an elbow go across my belly.

3 wks til full term. 6 wks til due date. 7 wks til i will ask to be induced :)

next week is the baby shower. we are excited to have so many family members and friends join us.

still feeling pretty good. a little more tired than usual, but that's normal. i've been pretty lucky. and i actually love being pregnant. :)

CPR class

tonight we took an infant/child cpr class. i had taken a class a long long time ago to get certified to be a counselor and babysitter type of thing. but never learned how to do cpr and choking for babies. it was good to learn and i hope i don't have to use my new skills. i don't really like breathing into the dummies and it is so sad to do it on an infant. but i feel a bit more confident knowing how to do cpr for babies now and how to deal with a choking infant.

so i recommend the class. can you believe it - we are 34 wks pregnant. whoohoo.

looking good

went to the doc again today. and things are going well. measuring well. no more tests for a few more weeks. and heart beat is good. yay. it is always reassuring to go to the doc and have everything okayed. meeting the other doctors in the practice in case i go on a day my doc isn't assigned. they all seem nice so far. they are really there to just catch. and we really liked the nursing staff we met at our hospital. so i think we'll be in good hands. it is much easier to say that now and not when i'm having contractions and grumpy :) pretty soon i'll have to go every week to the doc. won't that be fun. i'm getting good at peeing in those little tiny pixie cups. ha ha. now there's a untapped talent i have discovered during pregnancy. ha ha

thanks mckee

ok so i gave mckee a lot of crap for not coming to our shower in a few weeks. and now i feel bad. he bought our baby a personalized onesie. awww. poor kid has a nickname and isn't born yet. just an innocent fetus. hopefully it won't stick too long because i don't want her in therapy at the age of 2. thanks mckee even though it has her nickname on it - it's still funny and a nice thought. it made me laugh. she might not think it's very funny when she's older though.

explanation about why 'slider' - well some how i got the nickname, cheeseburger, in the first few months i worked at horizon from mckee. we were watching crappy movies and one of the lines in the movie was that all people from nebraska were cheeseburgers. clog your hearts and kill ya. anyways - the guys thought it was hilarious because i'm from nebraska. so i tried to not let it stick, but now three years later - i'm still cheeseburger. (mike's nickname is shark hunter - he gets a cooler one - that's a story for another day)...and since we are about to have a little one - mcke thought slider was perfect. since that's what you call mini cheeseburgers. and mini cheeseburger is quite long. so it does fit and it's hilarious. but not sure if i'll let it stick too long.

33 wks

How your baby's growing:This week your baby weighs a little over 4 pounds and measures 17.2 inches from the top of his head to his heels. Her skin is becoming less red and wrinkled, and while most of her bones are hardening, her skull is quite pliable and not completely joined. This will help her ease out of your relatively narrow birth canal.

As delivery day draws closer, your excitement will grow right along with your tummy. At the same time don’t be surprised if you are starting to feel as if you will be pregnant forever!

Your Baby: Gaining about half a pound (0.23 kg) each week, your baby probably weights over 4 pounds (2 kg) and measures over 19 inches (48 cm) long—what a little bundle of love! Her knees will curl up towards her tiny chest as she begins to assume the classic “fetal” position. Because there is a little less room to move around in, your baby is a bit quieter now, storing up energy and getting ready for her grand entrance.

she has really pointy elbows and knees. it is fun to watch them move across my tummy. she is still moving lots, but as she gets bigger she will probably slow down some.

as you can see i'm still waking up at 4amish.