34 weeks! So much to be Thankful for!

Jared and I traveled to California for Thanksgiving, It was a last minute trip that was planned because we were supposed to spend Christmas with his side of the family this year but I will be too far along to travel for the Xmas holiday. It was really nice to see Jared's family, they truly out did themselves. We flew on Thanksgiving at dinnertime, which I highly recommend for those that hate airport hassles, it was great no lines maybe 20 people on our plane. We got in early because we were so light I am guessing and we got to Jared's family's house and had left overs as they had already done a smaller turkey that day. Then we got to do Turkey day all over with the family on Friday. It was great and the food was amazing.

Then on Sunday his family threw us a shower and spoiled us with more cake and tons of appetizers and goodies. Jared's Aunt made me an adorable diaper cake, we were able to catch up with some of Jared's California buddies. It was a nice getaway but I am feeling a bit of a time crunch with less than 6 weeks to go, every weekend we have been gone and now I am going back to work for 5 day shifts all 12 hours. I think my legs are going to look like the Michelin tire man by the end of the week. Still feeling pretty good but sleeping is becoming less and less with the pee trips.

33 weeks less than 50 days to go, Really?

My mom finished up her visit with a surprise ( for her) Baby Shower I took her to. She thought we were going to bunco. My work had a really nice shower for us at my friend Andi's house and they have continued to shower me all week long with gifts for Baby Girl T for those that could not be there. I got the most adorable clothes, blankets and lady bug decor items for her and feel so lucky to have so many nice things for her arrival. I have enough creams and lotions for mom and baby to get us through the first 6 months for sure!

Whats new with baby this week: big news this week is lung development—baby's respiratory system is almost completely mature. That means if your baby was born this week, odds are she'd be a healthy bouncing baby with a just a little help from her friends (aka, the NICU). Some of the specifics are: Your baby can now detect light and tell the difference between night and day His pupils will constrict and dilate in response to light. If you shine a flashlight on your belly, your baby may shy away from the light. The bones in your baby's skull are soft and are not yet fused together. This pliability allows the bones to overlap; making that trip down the tight birth canal possible (and resulting in that surprising cone head look your baby will sport for the first few days post-birth. Your baby will continue to pack on the pounds gaining around ½ pound a week from here on out.Your baby weighs about 4½ pounds, and is approximately 17.5 inches long, about the same as a collarbone-length necklace. (Did somebody say push present?)

Wrapping up this week was my Midwife appt. I am sick this week with a head cold, so not getting any sleep already with getting up to pee every 2-3 hours and now not being able to breath has not made this week go buy quickly. I did pass my 3 hour glucose screen, what a relief as I was concerned that I might not. Nothing exciting at my appointment once again I waited till 1050 am to see my midwife for my 9:45am appointment and she hung out with me for maybe 15 minutes. She thinks baby is head down and told me my cold will probably last 3 weeks. Somehow, I doubt that! There is no way I am doing three weeks like this. I am sure I will be better after the Holiday, hopefully I can avoid any bugs on the airplane since Jared and I are flying to Sacramento for Thanksgiving.

So with Thanksgiving around the corner we are so blessed and have much to be thankful for so far this year. I have had a pretty uneventful pregnancy, we have had so many friends that have blessed us with kindness and way too many baby gifts and our family has been a big help as well. Of course there is our adorable Dog Chopper that we are the most thankful for since he was born on Turkey Day! I should have known he had a little turkey in him. I am just sad that we are being bad parents and will not be here for his big day.

32 weeks

Whats going on in there: This week your baby weighs almost four pounds and could be up to 19 inches long. And though that's a head-to-toe length, your baby is actually back to a curled-up position (you try standing up in those cramped quarters!). At 32 weeks pregnant, you're likely feeling tapping and squirming instead of your baby's signature rocking and rolling. That's because, while comfy, your baby is a bit tight for exercise space right now. Your baby has also probably settled into the head-down, bottoms-up position in your pelvis in preparation for birth. That's because the fetus's head fits better at the bottom of your inverted, pear-shaped uterus. It also makes it easier during childbirth if your baby comes out head first. Fewer than five percent of babies prefer the bottom-down (or breech) position by full-term. Don't worry if your baby hasn't assumed the head-down position yet. There's still a good chance he or she will flip head-side-down before birth — even in the tight confines of your uterus.

We are at thirty two weeks now and baby is getting bigger than ever as you will see from my Pictures. My Mom came into town to help me set up the nursery and it was a crazy week of none stop stuff to do. I am really happy with how it turned out and you will be able to get an idea from the pics I will post soon. I still have to get the crib bedding and mattress and a few odds and ends, as well as the shelf and art work up but the big stuff it in and outta the way. If Jared HAD to do it himself at this point it could get done and I would be fine with everything. My mom was a huge help in getting the clothes organized and under wraps. We had all the piles of clothes that I have collected over the months and from friends who sent boxes spread all over the den and finally my house is put back together.

Since Halloween Jared and I attended one of the Madigan Prenatal classes provided by the army. It was horrible. As a nurse I was so saddened by the disservice this class offered to new parents. It was so abrupt and none informative and the only education thing about it was the video that they showed which resembled one I had seen in the 80's in my health class in High school. Anyway it was a disappointment to say the least. It was slow at work the past two weeks so I was able to go to the Madigan Breast feeding class and the Birth plan class. A lot of the info is repeat for me since I work with mom's and in the maternal child heath division but it gave me a chance to ask some questions that I may not have otherwise known the answer to. Both of these classes were good, the breast feeding class was pretty thorough and as weird as it was to go to a class with some of our units nursing students it was good information. I kind of wish Jared had come because they gave you a doll to practice with and it was quit humorous, I thought it was so fitting that they had African breast feeding babies and Caucasian BF babies how politically correct! As a nurse I remember being on OB rotation and reading some mom's birth plans, most nurses honestly just kinda laugh at them and say whatever. So I didn't think too much of this class. My only real "Plan" is to not have a C- section and hopefully get an epidural and have a healthy baby. But I too will probably fill one out and hope not to get snickered at.

Last thing about this week was I did not pass my one hour glucose, go figure with all the Halloween candy and working the night shift it just wasn't a good match. The midwife said it shouldn't matter but I had a feeling it might. So I have to fast and do my three hour glucose and hope I pass this time.

The BIG 30!

I am finally thirty weeks well into my third trimester, that is so crazy! My count down clock says 65 days to go! This pregnancy has been so nice for me it went so fast so far and I just hope it continues that way. I love being pregnant. I don't feel too horrible and the few negative effects I have had, swollen ankles, Weight gain, just not looking so cute and being tired all seem relatively minor to some of my friends who have had major symptoms. The trade off for carrying this lively little person inside is well worth any of the negatives I have experienced thus far. Hopefully I will feel the same during and after birth:) I just hope that I am doing everything right to make her strong and healthy! That being said I have to say that Halloween time was really a rough time for me, I really don't have any cravings but I just want to eat lots of candy, I could eat it all. This has been an issue for me when I am not pregnant but if I embellish I can spend a good week of working it off hard core at the gym but not so being pregnant. So the other issue is that I am a week late or so on my 1 hour glucose screen from my 28 week appt that I had to schedule this week because I was out of town and of course I need to do it now during Halloween when I am on nights, eating way more sugar than I should. Hopefully I will pass but I have to quit procrastinating!
The big topic as of late is the Flu shot, I did get my regular flu shot and I am waiting for the H1n1 to come out to the military to get it. To all my pregnant friends who are in limbo I would say yes go get both and protect you and baby, we have so many kids coming into the hospital with symptoms it really is everywhere and it will continue past the winter.
I haven't been very good about blogging as of late I missed all of October somehow. However the picture above is from Halloween I am a cat with a fishbowl in my tummy and J is a cereal Killer. We are getting closer to being baby ready. My mom comes in Novemeber to help decorate the Nursery. I am set with closthes, hopefully I have all the right things, I have been buying baby clothes like crazy, the outfits are so cute but really between the friends that have sent boxes and the baby clothes sales I am not going to have any space for all this stuff. It's all so fun, but I feel like the time is starting to go quicker as her due date arrives, With working every other weekend I really just want to be at home and get things done. I think this is called Nesting:)

Oregon dunes 7 months- 28 weeks

Things have been pretty uneventful we spent time in Oregon in October with friends camping on the Coast near the Sand Dunes. Jared talked me into renting an RV vs. a cabin it was actually worked really well. We brought the Dog, Jared had his new motorcycle/dirt bike even though he only rode his old one once last year in the dunes, I wonder what the big purchase will be next year? I brought my sewing machine and some books and my camera to get into my new photography hobby. It worked out much better than I thought the weather was nice about half the time so it was nice to enjoy the coast, the views, just have downtime with no distractions. Chopper had the best time, running the campground, chasing cats and hanging out by the fire. He ran all the way out to the dunes about 7-8 miles round trip out to the ocean played in the waves and ran back, that dog has never slept so good.

The funniest part of the trip was when we went to our friend's boat house to cook the crab and poor Chopper as curious as he is stuck his nose into the box with the live crabs and one grabbed onto his lip. The poor dog was squealing and swinging that crab all around and then when it let go he had his hair all raised and was barking at it. He stayed clear of the crabs the rest of the day, it probably hurt pretty bad but it was really funny to see.

I am really pregnancy now, my belly is so large I get a sad look from strangers when I tell them I have a few more months to go. I am feeling pretty good but dreading returning to work because I will be on nights for two weeks. Hoping this will go OK and my lil lady will let me get some zzz's during the day! She is kicking and moving a lot lately and she has figured out that being upside down isn't very fun so she is head up. Jared can see her moving a lot more and so that is nice because I think it is becoming more "real" for him now. We were supposed to come up with our top names this week in Oregon but that really did not happen. We never really got the list out. She better not come early because we will be at a loss for deciding on a name if we had to pick now. I am pretty happy though that she is getting stronger and moving so much, each week is one week closer to a safer delivery even if she were to come early which she won't because it would be right at Christmas. I am really pushing for a mid January birthday. The holidays are so hectic with all our nieces and nephew having b-days in Late Nov, Dec and then with Xmas I just would like her to have her day apart from all the hassle and bussle.