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.