16 weeks, Merry Christmas!!!

Jake celebrated 16 weeks this week and it fell on Christmas day! Of course all three of us had a pretty gross cold too, so we kept it low-key and relaxed as much as possible. Jake has vacation from daycare until 1/5/09, so he'll be at my aunt's family's house a couple of days this week and with his dad the rest. My parents will also be here next weekend so we're looking forward to celebrating the holiday with them.

For a kid who wasn't going to get any presents, he sure made out like a bandit! He got a full Lionel train set from grandma Bunny, some fun toys and outfits from Noreen and Scott, Joanne, Magic great grandma and great grandpa Paul, great grandma Gates, great aunt Ginger and aunt Jessica, a tucan puppet from Papi and Cecily, a toolbox with some starter tools (real man kind, not baby kind) from his daddy, exersaucer triple fun from mommy and daddy and Cookie and Ernie TMX from Santa. What a haul!!

Hope you had a wonderful holiday and enjoy a fantastic New Year!!

Time flies when you have deadlines...

Well, one deadline down....the product doesn't go on CD for another few weeks so there is plenty of time for tweaks if anyone finds something....it feels good to have accomplished something although being at home w/ the wee would be better :)

Speaking of the wee, he's 15 weeks old today!!! How is that even possible? They love his outfits at daycare - they say I'm always dressing him like a little man. I'm sure they have a point.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Little late on the uptake...

Ok, sorry for the delay. Both Jake and I had our first colds resulting from daycare last week, but we're over them (for the most part) now and ready to conquer the holidays!! He's been a shopping trooper and I can't wait for our first Christmas!!

Otherwise things are going pretty well. Chris' mom is into her treatments now and feeling pretty good so we're thankful for that. My parents are well - though I'm not sure what my dad is really doing with some time on his hands for shutdown, but hopefully he's being productive. Chris has his final presentations for his classes this week, so that's a relief that he'll have some down time before next semester starts. Work is still there and I'm still going, so I guess that's a plus :)

Hope you are well!! Yet again the pictures are uploading sideways, so I'll be back later to add those.

Three months old....you've got to be kidding me

I don't have an updated pic just yet, but I promise I'll get one up later this week.

Jake is loving daycare - they're wearing him out cause he's sleeping from like 9pm right through till I wake him up at 5:30am, which isn't a bad thing. They love him and he's the only baby who doesn't crawl or walk so they like holding and loving on him.

We got out the doorway jumpster today and he hand a grand time. He's grabbing and playing with the toys on the bouncy seat and in the swing and he loves to jump and bounce. He really made some big movement leaps this week and I'm sure daycare helps that along.

I'm still wishing for a lottery win so I can stay home with him and see every moment, but at least I know I'm comfortable with the care and love he's getting at Joyland!!!

12 weeks and Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, our little man is almost 3 months old. He is chatting up a storm and loves the interaction. He enjoyed his Thanksgiving with all the family and friends we spent time with. What a joy to see so many people and share him in such a short amount of time.

We start daycare tomorrow so hopefully I can make it through the day without coming to tears...I mean, I do feel good about this place but it's so hard to think of the things I'll be missing!!

Here's our little guy at Thanksgiving dinner with Chris' family...he's stuffed...who knew you could fall into a turkey coma without eating any turkey? :)

11 weeks old

My goodness! I can't believe how fast he's growing. We moved to size 1/2 this week....honestly I thought all the diapers Melissa gave us were plain old size 2's but they were the in-between size...well at least if I don't get through them all I know Noreen will take them for her soon-to-arrive little one :)

Mr. Jake is all smiles and doing well. We enrolled him in daycare yesterday only to find out the woman who heads up the center (the director) was married to Bunny's cousin (Bunny is Chris' mom) and her daughter and niece work there too, so the little guy will really be with family which is so much what I wanted....I honestly believe a relative was watching from above and helped me to make this decision as it was the only place I really ever felt warm and comfortable...funny how that works isn't it?

Remember how he used to look so small in his swing? Now I'm dreading the day he grows out of it (cause it's coming sooner rather than later)...what ever will I do for relaxing time cause he loves it so much!!??!! I'm hoping maybe he likes the johnny-jumper just as much in a different way. Anyway, look how big he's getting!!

10 weeks old...check out that smile!!

It's amazing how much faster time flies when I have to work some days in the week....bleh. Mr. Jake seems to be picking up on the fact that sleep is good and sleeping in longer segments during the night leads to a happier mommy...last night he slept from 10:30 till almost 6am....holy crazy!! I hope this just signals more sleep to come. He's also been crashing out for longer naps during the day which probably means he's transitioning to a more regular schedule...thank goodness for small miracles, right?

My job situation is in flux and discussions are being held at various places...if one of them works out I'll have a nice long holiday this year then down to the grind for some good ol' fashioned tax work...but we'll see. I have a feeling it's all gonna come down to money. Dang lottery ;)

9 weeks old and the 2 month checkup

Jake had his 2 month check up this week. He now weighs 13.5 lbs and measures 23.5 inches long. This puts him in the 95th percentile for weight and 70th percentile for length. What a healthy boy!! I was dreading the immunization shots cause I didn't think I could handle my precious son screaming in pain, but he didn't start till the third poke and once the fourth poke was done I picked him right up and told him everything was OK and let him finish his bottle so he was fine and really forgot all about it. What a good idea that was.....I can't take credit for it since really I read it online before we went there, but I can take credit for having the idea to look for suggestions online.

I'm going to have to take some naked baby pictures (with diaper of course cause Chris would be furious if I really posted naked pictures of his son) so you can see the rolls on his thighs and arms...he's just so beautiful! I also keep trying to get a picture of him smiling or laughing even but mostly when the camera comes out he just gets this look on his face like "what the H are you doing, mom?". He's definitely my son!!

Work wasn't as terrible as I thought it would be this week...and it's not work that's the problem it's being away from the little man for so long that really sucks. Chris is doing a fantastic job with him during the day (of course...he's such a good daddy) but all I want to do when I get home is plant kisses on those cheeks and hold him close to me. I'm still holding out for a lottery win before this whole going back full time and daycare crap starts....one can hope, right?

Speaking of hope, hooray for Barack!! Being a well-known bleeding heart democrat myself means of course you know I was backing him all along, but the fact he actually won is just so incredible. I was driving in to work yesterday morning and Dave and Chuck the freak (on 89X....my Canadian radio staple) were talking about how much this means for their kids and I realized when I actually get around to a baby book for Jake and mention all the things that have happened the year he was born, I can include the fact that our country elected it's first african american president and that made me start to cry. It's amazing how far this country has come in a relatively short time....now if only we can further expand the sentiment of equality to include everyone in my lifetime (yes, I mean prop 8).

How is it November already?

I'm still dreading my return to work on Monday, but thems the breaks I suppose.

Good news to report though, on Thursday night Jake slept from 10pm until 4:30am. I thought maybe it was just a fluke, but we've been working on this "becoming baby wise" schedule all week and some days it was pretty tough so part of me wanted to believe after these last few days maybe he was finally starting to get it...well I'm happy to say that last night he slept from 11pm until 6am!! Yes!! I couldn't believe it when I got up this morning...even when Chris got up for work he said "this is the first time he was up all night???". He's also been taking a 3 to 3.5 hour nap in the morning and trying to get one in the afternoon - though when we're out and about he takes a few shorter naps instead. It's been glorious and we have Carrie to thank for lending us the book to get us going on this method....I hope the streak continues!!

Also, this morning when I went to retrieve Jake from his bed (with much energy since I had so much sleep too) he had scooted all the way to the top of the matress!! Needless to say, once he got out of bed for a little while I promptly removed the bumpers...it doesn't seem like the same little baby crib anymore, but it's exciting to realize the kind of progress he's making every day!

Happy Halloween!

Well, after lunch with Tina, Claire, Kim and Henry today, we returned home and I decided we were going to do a fall photo spread. I got out the boppy and put leaves all over it and pulled the pumpkin around back so the pictures could be autumn-tastic. Jake didn't mind laying in the leaves so much but once I put his Sock Monkey costume on, he wasn't too pleased. Maybe we'll get some happier pictures this evening at my grandma's house :)

Check out my Facebook page if you would like a copy of any photo since the Smilebox slideshow won't allow you to save or copy pictures from their site.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

8 weeks old...he's getting so big!!

We don't have the 2 month appointment till next Tuesday, so I'm not entirely sure how much he weighs or how long he is at this point, but his 0-3 month sleepers are just about too short....maybe a week left trying to wear them then they'll get packed up with the newborn stuff and tucked away. He's becoming a champion of pooping out of his diaper, but that's pretty common for this age....a lot of force behind that removal (sorry for the graphic imagery). We've been working on a "becoming baby wise" schedule this week and toward the end of his naptime he starts crying for food. Chris seems to think he just starts crying at the first sign of hunger and doesn't know how to deal with it since I catered to his every whim before....but I have confidence that he'll get used to it. I was hoping this would improve his eating habits really and make him a more of an eater instead of a snacker, but I think if he could take more in he'd be much happer at the end of the cycle....in due time I'm sure.

I do go back to work on Monday and I'm not looking forward to it in the least, but there are some things in the works so maybe there's a light at the end of the tunnel.....I won't get my hopes up quite yet but I have to try and remain positive about the whole thing.

I visited a couple of daycare centers yesterday and one was kind of scary but the other was pretty nice. I really liked the people and the setup of the center but they've recently raised their prices a little making the price difference between the two places something to seriously consider. I have a couple more places to contact and figure out what our final decision will be for December. It's so hard to make a decision when none of the options are really what you want.

There are no pictures to post today as tomorrow morning we'll be conducting a photo spread outside with the fall leaves and our pumpkin and Jake's costume....I love the fall so I'm really looking forward to it :) I'll be sure to post before we head out for our tour de force of the evening.

7 weeks and a sad reality

Well, Mr. Jake is 7 weeks old now....actually 7 weeks and 5 days as of today. Sorry it took longer to post this week, but you have to know it's been a rough few days. My boss called Thursday to tell me I had to come back to work this week. What? We had discussed my being off for 12 weeks so I have the vacation time all ready to go. The problem becomes she thought maternity leave was 12 weeks and didn't realize she could tell me no and since she has final approval on all vacation time and the products aren't getting done as they need to be (which isn't my fault....again, another sign of poor management) she is making me come back to work. I even got HR involved so we "compromised" on me coming back 10 days in November. The other suck part is that I'm going to end up losing some vacation days unless I get creative with calling in during December. It's all a total bummer. Needless to say I have spent some time just cuddling with my darling son to fit in some time....since I thought I had 5 weeks left hanging out with him day in and day out and it's been rudely reduced to 1. I start back on Monday....unless we can pull a lottery win out this week.....if karma or any of the gods are listening, please....please.

At any rate, Jake is growing like a weed. He's still fitting into his 0-3 month clothes, but some are pushed to the limit. He's surely not going to make them another month, but maybe a couple of weeks so he's not quite giant to size as one might expect. He's smiling and cooing and melting my heart at every opportunity.

November is going to be very busy between my return to my stupid job and Chris' classes plus he's starting a new class that takes place Friday nights and Saturdays plus he's still got to try and work a couple of days and also study for the LEED exam he wants to take in December. By the time Christmas comes around the next 2 months will seem like a blur, I know it.

Despite the somber....or angry tone of the post, here are some great pictures of Jake in his Osh Kosh wear. He was on the floor in his newborn lounger and the dog was hanging out beside him. Sometimes you can see Yukon in the shot but other times I just captured the loving lookes Jake gives him. He's always checking to see what that big furry thing is doing and where he is. I love it.

Take care and enjoy the pictures -

6 weeks, you're kidding me??!!??

So, under old CSI policy if I had no other vacation time to take and my 6 weeks of maternity was over, I'd have to go back to work today. What? Are you freakin kidding me? There's no way I could turn this little guy over to someone else all day today. As it is I don't think it's going to be any easier in another 6 weeks when I really do have to go back, but I'm trying to stay positive about the whole thing.

Jake is now 6 weeks old. He's dictating the eating and sleeping schedule but at least I can nap during the day so it's not terrible. If I could just go to bed earlier myself it wouldn't be bad at all cause he's sleeping most of the time from like 8pm till 2am, but there's no way on this green earth I could possibly get myself to bed that early unless I was really sick. So I just deal with it...but waking up with him is just more time spent in the quiet, alone together and I can watch his darling face and he smiles at me and I melt. That's REALLY when I dread going back to work...hehehehe.

I had my 6 week follow-up this week and barring a few more tests at the hospital next week, things look all healed and good to go. I lost another 10 lbs making total weight loss since delivery 36 lbs. Nice, eh? I'm ready to do it all again if I can lose another net of 25 lbs....hahahahahah. Just kidding, I want to enjoy Jake while he's still in the cuddly cooing phase before any of that happens. Though the doc did say if I wasn't going to use any formal preventative methods, please try to space them 12 to 16 months apart and don't pull a Spears girl so I have enough time for everything to heal inside properly....hahahahha, the Spears'.

Ok, now what you've really been waiting for, more pics of our little man. These are from yesterday so exactly on his 6 week celebration. He wore a fitting t-shirt for the party time. We visited Chris at work and the Habitat ladies were all over him with love, then we went to Aunt Sue's office so the ladies there could love on him a bit and Laura even got to stop over and love on him, so he was gushed upon greatly yesterday, but of course he loved every minute.

Enjoy!!

5 weeks and a couple of days....

So I wasn't right on top of 5 weeks this week, but I did start a Facebook page with a photo album of the little man AND my parents were here again this weekend so there was a lot going on. They stayed at our house and watched Jake (and Yukon) so that Chris and I could go out and celebrate our anniversary. It was nice to go out and not have to think about all the stuff going on here. Matt and Brian came to dinner with us since Matt now lives in Dallas and Brian is working in China for a year and is only home a short while to sort out some visa stuff. It was great to see them and I think they were both happy to meet Jake.

Otherwise things are moving along. Some nights are better than others but he's definitely getting a schedule to come together, so at least his hourly cluster feedings are predictable.

Here are some updated pics, enjoy!!

4 weeks old

Well, it's been 4 weeks since the little man arrived into our life and things are trying to stabilize and become more normal. Chris returned to work this week and they were very happy to see him! Jake is still fitting into the newborn clothes, but this will probably be the last week...luckily we don't have that many and it just means the size 0 - 3 month stuff fits better.

We attended the Thomson family carnival last Friday and it was nice to get out and visit with some work peeps. Jake had a great time. Also my parents were in town for the weekend so we were quite busy.

This week's pics are Jake and Claire, Partied Out, and Tough Guy. Enjoy!!

3 weeks and uncontrollably adorable

I can't believe our little man is 3 weeks old today!! It's just crazy how the time flies....I can't imagine how fast life will be when I finally have to go back to work in December.

We had a pediatrician appointment this week on Tuesday - which was really his 2 week checkup - and he is doing wonderfully. Jake weighed in at 9 lbs 8 oz (for those keeping track that's a whole pound in 14 days) and measured at 20.75 inches. So even though I sometimes feel like nursing may not be going so well, he's obviously getting everything he needs and thriving beautifully.

Here are some updated pictures. He gets this really goofy smile when he starts to fall asleep but I haven't been able to capture it yet....we'll see if I can get it on camera sometime soon.

Enjoy!!

2 weeks old and changing every day

Jake is two weeks old today! How time is flying....I can't believe it's been that long and I can return to driving status. I had a doctor's appointment yesterday and the c-section wound is healing well and I'm losing lots of weight....all good things :)

This is Jake after falling into a post nursing food coma....hehehe....couldn't you just grab those cheeks?

Jake's umbilical cord remains fell off today. I weeped a slight little bit but then I had to take pictures of his adorable little belly button. He's definitely looking bigger and older every day. Hopefully the feeding stuff continues working itself out so that the sleep schedule gets more regular. Chris took night duty a couple of times earlier this week so I could get 2 nights of 6 hours straight sleeping and that helped a lot in returning to humanhood.

First week at home comes to a close....

We've had a good week and things are really starting to come together. I was reviewing the pictures on the camera memory card this morning and decided there were a few I just had to share. Here we see some great shots including "What up to my west side", "Bathtime friggin sucks", "I love Daddy time", and "Swinging is so good I pass out every time".

Jake met Aunt Laura, Magic great grandma, great grandpa Paul, "uncle" Erik and "aunt" Shannon these last few days. I need to be better about taking pictures when new visitors come over, but I'm sure those won't be the last opportunities since these folks will be around again soon, I'm sure!

Home is getting easier

When we got home on Sunday things were a little rough, but thankfully we've been able to work out a few kinks and things are getting smoother around here. Jake loves his swing and enjoys his nightly talks with dad about things like high definition televisions and how pepperoni is another member of the pork family. Yukon is a doting big brother and is learning the meaning of the word "enough" when it comes to licking Jake's face. I don't want him to feel like he can't do it ever so we're not saying no, just "enough" and he seems to respond pretty well.

I got my staples out on Tuesday which helped restore a bit of movement which is a nice feeling. Chris is doing a fantastic job of making sure I do things I need to do like eat, shower and get at least a couple of sleep stints throughout the day. Today he took me to Babies R Us just to get out for a bit and we ran into Carrie. That woman is everywhere!!!

At the pediatrician appointment on Tuesday we got some tricks and tools for nursing and it's become so much easier, thank heavens. By Monday night my emotional issues coupled with our inability to see eye to eye on this nursing thing left me in a heap of a mess, but we worked through it and all the family memebers are much happier and I'm just thankful nursing is finally working. Jake also measured at 20 inches and weighed 8 lbs 8 oz, so he's thriving wonderfully and gaining appropriately, which despite all the nursing woes was very nice to hear.

I'll try to get some updated pictures posted before the end of the weekend, especially since Jake's jaundice has improved sooooooo much....Chris actually tried to freak me out by saying we brought home a little oompah loompah (SCARY) but when I see the pictures of him now I have to agree he was quite orangy....hahahahaa

Stay tuned for postings soon....

Welcome Jake Elwood Kaczkowski

Well, on Wednesday 9/3 I made my way to the doctor's office for an appointment which turned out to be my last visit. I was almost 4cm dilated and 80% effaced but my blood pressure was high. I can personally attribute the bp spike to my decision to join Tonya, Therese and Anna in Ann Arbor for lunch that afternoon -- fully forgetting it was the first day of classes at the University and for some dumbass reason we met there for lunch anyway....hahahahah. So, after eating great Indian food and enjoying a nice afternoon - then nearly killing 420 stupid students walking across the street anywhere they wanted while gabbing about got knows what on their cellphones, I went to the doc. Anyway, she decided I should head over to the hospital for some bloodwork to make sure I wasn't developing toxemia or preeclampsia. So I left the office and something told me I should just stop at home and get my bags anyway, which is where I was headed. I was talking to my mom on the phone and the doc beeped in, talk about personal service!! She had spoken with the doc on call at the practice - initially to tell her I was coming over for some tests and they decided since I was only 9 days away from due date, they weren't going to bother with monitoring, they were just going to induce labor so I should stop at home and get my stuff.....its a completely jarring feeling when after weeks and weeks of telling you to not have the kid, they just one day decide hey, we're going to make you have the kid now.

So I rolled up to the house, got my stuff together and ate one last meal knowing I'd be high and dry at the hospital for at least a day, played with the dog a last time before he's not the only baby in my life then made my way to St. Joe's. I was especially not in a hurry cause of course it was Chris' first day of class for the fall semester and he was at the Livonia campus. He knew I was headed there so he was just meeting me after class cause nothing was going to happen before that time anyway.

I checked in and they took me right to my labor and delivery room. What a crazy feeling. Here is where my baby is going to be born. This is the last place I'll be as a mother-to-be and actually be a mommy. They broke my water at 8:15pm and I was 4cm and 90% effaced. They intended to start me on a pitocin drip to accelerate labor, but right as that was supposed to happen 6 other ladies came in ready to deliver and there weren't enough nurses to cover all those deliveries plus monitor my pitocin schedule every 15 minutes. Luckily I was contracting a little on my own so they could just let me sit and hang out. Many people called or got calls so I spent some time on the phones. My parents decided to make their way up here despite my insistance nothing was going to happen even if they just came in the morning, but sometimes there's no telling my mom, she was going to be here come hell, high water or Hurricaine Hannah....hehehehe. They were able to restart the pitocin just after 11pm. I really wanted to try and go through labor as far as possible without an epidural but after a couple of hours it got quite difficult. I finally asked for the meds just after 1am after trying positions and breathing and everything. I would have made out with the antesthesiologist for sure cause he was like an angel from above :) I shouldn't have waited cause the positions helped me to lose more amniotic fluid than I should have and as the night turned into morning and the contractions got stronger and closer together the little man's heartrate was dipping and having some issues. The doctor at the time (around 4am) just said to take me off the pitocin and see where it went. Labor stayed hard - which was good cause it was on my own and the baby's heart rate leveled out so things were OK for a while again.

My parents arrived so we saw them for a while before they went back out to the waiting room. Noreen arrived in case Chris wasn't going to be able to handle the pushing phase at about 7am. I am so happy she was able to make it cause the rest of the morning turned to a sort of chaos. The doctor's changed at 7am and the baby's heart rate started suffering again. The amniotic infusion they tried didn't work out so well and she didn't like what she was seeing on the monitor. This is when talks of c-section started floating around. The nurse seemed to think we could still do it and I hoped she was right cause I did not want the surgery at all. Things went along for a little while with hopes we were not having surgery and I was going to be able to deliver.

Next phase - nurse makes 1 phone call and suddenly 12 people are in my room (nurse and tech types) to unplug everything and wheel me into OR. They said if they plugged in the monitors and the baby's heartrate was back up that we'd wait 15 minutes and if it stayed up we'd go back to the labor and delivery room. No such luck. Next thing I knew they were moving me to the operating table and prepping for a c-section. Getting enough meds was tricky but I don't think I felt too much more than a planned c-section would have, but since I've never had one of those I guess I wouldn't know, right?

Anyway, we welcomed Jake into the world at 10:24 am, weighing in at 8 lbs 10 oz and measuring 19.5 inches long with a crazy head of dark soft hair. He's got big feet and these cute curly ears. Everyone that has met him so far fell in love immediately. I'm working (ok, I'm having the husband work on) a video slideshow to just post up here so you can see the pictures so far. We're expected to go home tomorrow and we're doing pretty well. Chris is even teaching him about cranes and bacon, so he's well rounded :)

Check by in a few to see the pics. Love to all and see you soon!

38 week appointment - seriously

Ok, so I walked into the doctor's office this morning knowing I've been having contractions....most likely Braxton-Hicks sort cause they're not strong enough to make me feel like death or anything, but noticeably uncomfortable from time to time...nothing huge. So they weighed me and first of all I lost the weight I had "gained" last week, so that was kind of happy. Keeps my total weight gain at this point 7.5 lbs....the doc is very, very pleased about that. Truthfully I am too cause I think that's what is keeping me as mobile as I am, otherwise I'd be bound to the couch for sure....not that I've got an entirely large amount of energy anyway, but what I do have would be sucked up indeed.

Anyway, she checked baby's heartrate and he's still in the 140's - 150's with accelerations, so that's perfect. He's still in the same spot so that's good. My BP was 120/70 which is more than excellent especially for me - good thing I waited to call HR at work till after the appointment - more on that momentarily. She checked my progress and I'm almost 3cm dilated and about 80% effaced. I know what you're thinking - hey, you were supposedly 90% effaced 3 weeks ago!!! I know, but doc explained it's harder to measure effacement when you're only 1cm dilated, which is where I was 3 weeks ago, so now that I'm a little further "opened" it's easier to measure and that's what she gave me. Now I know it sounds like not much, but any progression on my own is better than what some other folks (that poor dear) are going through right now. Let's just say hopefully Tina has that kid today....for her sake in the least cause she's having a rough road at this time.

So, although I'm making headway, they had me schedule an ultrasound for next week to check approximate weight of the baby and the fluid levels - which they have every reason to believe are fine cause of the size of this load I'm carrying around regardless of the fact I haven't put on a ton of weight - and also check the placenta function cause sometimes later in pregnancy it stops being so efficient. They also had me make my next 2 weeks of OB appointments which leads me to believe they're not convinced it's gonna happen anytime soon. So here I sit and do this thing, which is fine....having him a little late (beyond due date) wouldn't be a bad thing as long as he's not mammoth and still getting everything he needs in there.

About HR - for the THIRD pay period in a row, I did not get paid today. They tried to blame it on the short-term disability administrator the first time, but now it's just ridiculous!! Luckily I talked to the same guy I had 2 weeks ago and he's just going to overnight the check to me tomorrow. I told him this is kind of silly though, isn't it?? Now I know my company outsources our HR for these things but this company we use has given us far more headaches over the last few years.....why can't they just get it right??!!?? At this point, since my disability approval only goes till 9/15 and based on what docs think about me now, I'm probably going to have to extend it all again....what a headache. Luckily my health is good and I can get out to do some stuff during the day and in the evening so I'm not just sitting around stewing about it.

Chris is getting restless, I can tell. He's just nervous about being a Dad, but I know he'll be a super excellent dad and it's just gotta happen before he stops worrying so much. He's being very supportive of me though and everytime we go somewhere (just to walk around in someone else's air conditioning) if I stop with an "ouch" he's right on top of it...usually it's just a punch to the bladder by little one or I stepped on something that made my flip-flop cut into my foot weird or something silly, but he's always thinking it's gonna be the first big contraction :)

If there was an award for clearance shopping....

Saturday evening starting out in relaxation mode. Noreen and Scott stopped by to drop of Carrie's cake lid contraption and we hung out for a little bit before they went off to Ann Arbor to meet up with some peeps. I had kind of a long day (shopping...hehehe) so we decided to stay in for the evening and just take it easy cause it's so hot outside I was truly exhausted.

So there we sat kind of watching TV and Chris was playing into his A.D.D. by surfing the internet at the same time....a common site around here - TV on and laptop going. He came across a message board where someone posted a note that their Walgreens had marked down a whole bunch of their comfort stretch brand diapers to $5 a jumbo pack, plus the August EasySaver catalog had a coupon good for $5 off 2 packs of the house brand of diapers. Couple that with a coupon we recieved via e-mail giving us $5 off any $20 purchase (which ended at midnight) we got kind of revved up and decided to go have a look at the two 24-hr stores near us. Off to Belleville we went. Also worth noting, the new Walgreens store by our house offered a $25 gift card for new or transferred prescriptions this week and I got a new script for my folic acid supplement so I had that gift card in tow as well.

The Belleville Walgreens had zero diapers marked down but they had lots of other goodies we normally buy and once we piled those up, decided to get 2 packs of diapers anyway. They're regularly $8.99 a pack or 2 for $15.98 so we figured with the $5 off 2 packs coupon and the prorated share of the "back to school" coupon, they were still like buy one get one free. So we checked out and made our way 4 miles up the road to the Canton store.

The first thing that caught my eye was that the same diapers are actually 50 cents a pack more expensive here...interesting how demographics play into such things, isn't it? But just as we were about to cut our losses and get out of there, Chris spotted the shelf where the miracle $5 diapers were hiding. There were 9 packs - mostly sizes 2 and 3 with a random 6 in there - and we loaded them all up into the cart and made our way to the register. The cashier had the EasySaver catalog and we were apprehensive if the coupon would apply to all 9 packs. The diapers themselves didn't ring up at $5, but since they were clearly marked (I mean big orange tags for pete's sake) he didn't make a fuss at all to just change the price as each pack rang up. Then the coupon automatically applied to every pack (discount of $22.50) then we applied our $5 off coupon. Grand total for those 9 packs including tax? Just over $19.....seriously!! Not to mention we had a little bit of the giftcard left so we didn't even pay that much out of pocket.

All in all for the evening we ended up with over 450 diapers for a total cost of just under $27. Our adrenaline carried us through cause it was seriously 11:30pm at least....talk about cutting the coupons close ;)

Now one may look at this as a lame Saturday night event, right? But for parents-to-be, nothing seemed more thrilling than clearance plus coupon madness, even if we did have to go for a little drive. Mind you, we've always been clearance shopping addicts so we've honed our skills over the years. I think the funniest part of the night was driving by Meijer on the way home and Chris looked over at me to say "we could run in there and browse clearance"......I was exhausted so we skipped it, but oh what a hilarious story for bargain hunters everywhere.....

Shower pics from 8/17

Well, for all those who thought I wouldn't make it that far, thanks for making me prove you wrong...maybe this kid gets his stubborn from me and not his daddy? Who knows.....

Anyway, the shower was lovely and the ladies put a great deal of time and effort into making the afternoon absolutely wonderful. I am so lucky to have such fantastic friends - they really are like family to me and their support means the world to us!!

Check out the homemade pirate cake a la Carrie!!

36 weeks strong

Again no check this week, the doctor just giggles in amazement, checks my blood pressure (still steady and normal), the baby's heart rate (steady in the high 140's to low 150's) and measures for tummy growth. I did gain a few lbs this week but that's to be expected....between the heat and water retention and the fact the little man is putting on his weight, this wasn't a surprise and I'm still well below the allowed 15 lb threshold, so I'm doing great. Doc also pulled in the ultrasound machine just to make sure he's still head down (since he's been persnickety - to say the least) and he is indeed in the same position he's been in for at least 10 weeks....head down, butt in the air and knees and legs flailing to my left side. She said he must be really happy right there cause he's moving all the time but not away from that spot. I was thankful he's at least handling that with ablomb cause Tina's little girl keeps flipping back to breach every week and it made me slightly nervous!!

Didn't even check me this week

Well, doc says we've progressed far enough now that we don't even have to check progress every week. She said she could tell by looking at me that he hasn't moved down or anything so why bother since it wouldn't change the course of action anyway, right? Then of course she said for all the times this little one has been stubborn throughout, she's now envisioning induction at week 41....hahahaha, so funny. Just seems he's content to be where he is and would like to stay a while...fine by me!!

I went to a Pet Preparation course this week to make sure everything is on order to help Yukon not feel left out when the baby comes home. She had some good ideas about his jumping and she really liked the fact I'm trying to make him feel as included as possible....the teacher is an animal behaviorist and she was really great - it was a fun class...more fun than the child birth class by far!! It was reassuring to know I've done my share of dog readiness, especially since there was a couple in the class due in 4 days with 1 dog and 3 cats who had done nothing....they're ready to hire someone cause they're dog already has issues....what a tough situation, eh?

The big friend shower is this weekend and I'm getting really excited! I know Noreen and Joanne and Angie have put a lot of work into preparing for the day and Carrie is making a surprise cake, so I'm sure it'll just be spectacular. I'm so lucky to have such wonderful people in my life...the support is amazing and it really helps, especially when I'm missing my mom with her being far away!! I've always had pretty good luck with wonderful friends and even get to catch up with some peeps from way, way back from now and then. Sometimes it's mind boggling to think of all the things I've been through with these ladies and all the great times in life still to come. In case I get all wrapped up (or 500% exhausted by the day) thanks to all of you for making this something really special!!!

34 weeks, 3 days and going strong

Well, today's appointment went well. I saw Dr. Jones in the practice and there's just one more doc to meet....we'll see if I can get that far, right? Today's results were weight gain of 1lb which puts my total weight gain at 6.5lbs for the whole pregnancy, awesome eh? She did the group B strep test and figured while she was in the vacinity she would check to see if I had progressed any further from my last appointment - nope. Standing still at 90% effaced and 1cm dilated. His heartbeat was steady and normal and my blood pressure was totally in check. All in all, a positive check-up. Also turns out the doc is using 9/12 as the due date instead of 9/15. I think 9/15 probably came from the reproductive endocrinologist I had been seeing and I had kind of forgotten they didn't really agree at the very beginning. I'm still going to use 9/15 as the due date for my purposes but in consulting with Dr. Angie she said I should be sure to use 9/12 at the hospital since the records from my doc are what they'll be referring to and I don't want to cause any confusion. Due dates are so subjective anyway, right?

I peeked my head in and my doc was there so I stopped to see her and she returned with a high five and rubbed my belly to say he really is a miracle baby. She's just so happy things have turned out this way and she can put the worries of the past few months aside. Me too.

Then I talked to Dr. Angie cause I like to keep her updated and she said she's so happy I have been be this lucky cause so many people get into this situation and don't last this long and have to deal with months of observation and things if they even make it that far. I know we're blessed and every day I thank goodness he's coming along :)

Nursery pics - Thanks Carrie!!

Carrie and Alana stopped by for a visit today and I confessed to her that my camera was in the closet behind a load of stuff I couldn't move, so she took some pics for me so that I could get them posted ASAP. Of course after she left I got a little motivated and made Chris move some stuff out of the way so that I could get to my camera, so now there are lots of pics to share and enjoy.

Note a couple of the decals are just curling away from the wall at the sides and the vendor said I can use rubber cement to stop that from happening, I just haven't made the attempt yet. Maybe I should take a picture of the insides of the drawers, the shelves of the changing table and the inside of the closet so you can see exactly how full everything is....well maybe I'll save those for later. Goodness knows I'm not going to have to buy clothes or diapers for at least a couple of months :)

Of course I go through all that and for some reason I can't get any of Carrie's pics to upload....anyway, I went into the room and tried to duplicate her shots. Hopefully these give you an idea of the look anyway.

I'm told they're the cutest pirates ever....I tend to agree...well, till our little pirate arrives!!

I have my week 34 appointment tomorrow and I'm meeting another doc in the practice (in case she's the one on call when I finally deliver) so it should be an uneventful morning. I'm also going to stop by the pediatrician office next door and see what they're all about, so it should be informative to say the least.