Pregnancy Ticker

37 & 38 Weeks 

Monday, October 26, 2015 - Posted by Danielle at 6:23 PM
So...I'm very ready to be done being pregnant.  I'm ready for little guy to get here, and I'm ready to start feeling like me again.  Especially at 38 weeks, I have just been in some really bad moods.  I feel like I just have no patience for anything, I'm very tired, I'm having terrible pelvic pain and the Braxton Hicks contractions...yikes.  On October 25th- which was 38 weeks and 1 day, I had Braxton Hicks all day long.  They really didn't let up and it was uncomfortable for sure.  I don't know if having false contractions all day means anything or not, but if it does, he should be here any time now!

I pulled up some weekly pictures side by side of pregnancy with Adie vs. this pregnancy too:

 33 Weeks:
 
34 Weeks:
 
35 Weeks:

My mom and I finished up the quilt to go with his bedding and Mark and my dad built his bookcase.  Mark is dealing with staining it now and then really, all projects for little guy are done!  I got out today and did yard work- I trimmed down all of the flowers in the gardens, bagged them all, hauled all of the furniture from the deck to the patio, packed up everything on the porch and got it to the basement, and then Mark helped me load all of the furniture into the porch.  Mark kept telling me not to overdo, but I figure at this point, it can't hurt!  But...I'm done with it all now, laying in bed, and...no baby.  Just more pelvic pain and Braxton Hicks contractions.

Nothing really new with appointments.  She had asked that we bring our birth plan to our last appointment so we did and she looked it over.  She said, "I really like how you guys did this.  We get so many that are just 'don't give me this' and 'I don't want that', but I like that you guys are more appreciative in your plan than that and about us being a part of it with you."  We intentionally tried to come at it that way this time in hopes of gaining their respect off the get go rather than coming across just stubborn about things so that was nice to hear.  Also my strep B test was negative so don't have to worry about that which is a relief.

I had read about my contractions, etc. in my blog from being pregnant with Adie and based on that, made my own little prediction that he will be arriving Tuesday.  Then I asked Adie a few days later when baby brother was coming and she said 5 days...which at that point also meant Tuesday.  So...although it's based on absolutely nothing solid...we'll see!

We got hospital bags and the diaper bag packed now which was a weight off of my shoulders too.  Now I know we've got packed what we need and if it's not packed it's on the list of things to grab.  

We'll see how long we've got to go...the way I see it, he could come anytime from now up to like 3 weeks from now.  Who knows!

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36 Weeks 

Saturday, October 17, 2015 - Posted by Danielle at 5:50 PM
36 weeks.  This is the marker I've had in my head all along that just has said, "That's when you'll be really close!!"  And here we are.  I've felt a little different this week.  I feel like when I had 8-10 weeks to go I was so anxious and so ready to be done being pregnant and I was antsy about it because it felt like there was still so far to go.  Now at 36 weeks, I've settled into a calm with it all.  The reality is, I am still very ready to be done being pregnant, but there's a huge part of me that is just scared so not feeling as big of a rush for him to get here.  I'm of course so eager to meet him and have him here, but the reality of it all is hitting me.  This isn't just a little something new- in just one month we'll be bringing home our son.  In just one month, our lives will truly be changed forever and so will Adie's.  I know it will be an adjustment for everyone and in 6 months we'll look at life and not know what life was like before he was a part of it all, but right now in the anticipation...I'm scared.

Biggest symptom this week is just that I've been feeling extremely uncomfortable.  I've been having lots of cramping and pain way down low, lots of contractions, my stomach has felt a lot heavier this week and my back has been starting to hurt more.  Heartburn has kicked up a notch as well as lack of sleep.  I'm finding this week that when I get up to the bathroom I'm dragging I'm so tired.  By the time I'm done and climbing back into bed though, it's like I'm wired and my mind is just totally ADD jumping from one thing to the next- and nothing that even really matters!  Frustrating.

One thing that has been big this week also is that Adie had her first nap and night with just panties, no diaper.  I had no plans of tackling this right now, but Mark had put her down for nap last week, forgotten to put a diaper on her, she wet the bed, and since then has been paranoid about getting her sheets messy so we decided we better take advantage of it.  Planned or not though, it's great to know that we'll be going into this with just one in diapers!!  YAY!!!

We had another appointment this week that went really well.  Nothing to big - had the Strep B test done so we'll be finding out the results for that next week.  We also will be having our last Bradley class this coming week.  Crazy that 12 weeks has passed of classes already.  We're close!

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35 Weeks 

Posted by Danielle at 5:42 PM
This has been a VERY big week!  We had the sprinkle this week and an ultrasound/baby appointment too.

The sprinkle was wonderful.  I felt so blessed to have so many wonderful friends and family there to celebrate with us.  Sprinkles get a bad wrap sometimes for being unnecessary, but the fact remains that this baby needs to be celebrated too, and he definitely was!  We got so many wonderful things, adorable things and it was all so much fun.

Jen did an amazing job planning it all - we had a great opening game with a clever rhyme where we had to pass a wrapped present back and forth based on different clues (who's been married the longest, got there the latest, had the most kids, had the darkest hair, etc.).  In the end, the mother-to-be got the gift of course :)  We also played a game where everyone had to put a paper plate on top of their hea



d and draw a picture of baby.  My pick of best drawing won a gift.  I picked Emmy's for greatest attempt at getting all parts of baby included.  Jen also had diapers laid out for everyone to write clever little things on them for when I'm on in the night- the paper said something about "Write something on the booty to help Danielle keep her mind off the doody".  It will be fun to read those in the wee hours and get a chuckle out of them!  We had great food - dips and fruit and cake and breads, etc.  Then we got far more than a "sprinkle" of gifts- Jen and Marguerite decided it was a tsunami :)  We only have a few things left that we need to go purchase, but we're close to having everything now.


I spent the day after the shower with Adie unpacking all of the shower stuff and getting the nursery settled - so much fun!  Adie had a great time playing with all of baby brother's new toys, books, etc.  I didn't have the heart to tell her that they weren't hers and she couldn't play with them!

We also had our baby appointment/ultrasound appointment.  It had been a really hard few days leading up to it because we both were so anxious to see our little guy again, however, with how the last ultrasound went, we were also very aware of what could show up and we knew how fragile we felt going into it that we just weren't sure we were ready to deal with the emotional side of it all again.  In the end, we decided we still wanted to go through with the ultrasound.  Mom and dad came to stay with Adie so that we could give 100% of our attention to it all.  The ultrasound tech was great, got the measurements and said that he was measuring great, fluids looked great and the best part: the spots on his heart had gone away.  Praise God.  Such a HUGE answer to prayer and a HUGE weight lifted off our shoulders when we were able to make that sigh of relief.  When she told us they were gone, our relief was obvious and she said, "Yea, most times they just end up taking care of themselves and going away.  You didn't hear this from me, but everything on the ultrasound looks great - Lori would tell you the same."  That was great to hear from someone who does many ultrasounds each day.  She also told us that he weighs about 5 pounds, 7 ounces at this point.  From here on out they gain around a half pound a week so that would put him at 7 1/2-8 lbs.  We'll see!  After that we met with Lori and were able to talk with her about the spots, about a recent neurologist appointment and the follow up we'll be doing with that, and about a few other things.  All in all, it was almost a two hour appointment but it was so nice because we got answers to things we were wondering about, got a huge amount of relief from the ultrasound, and never felt rushed through any of it.  Afterwards Mark and I went to Food Dance for breakfast and had a little "breakfast date".  It was so nice to just have time together to reflect after such an amazing appointment and to be able to look at it all so thankful that God helped us through such a huge struggle and taught us through the process to wait on His timing and trust in His plans.

We just can't wait for him to get here - we're getting so close!

Oops...this is 35 weeks :)

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34 Weeks 

Monday, October 5, 2015 - Posted by Danielle at 8:20 PM
34 weeks...It's actually feeling like it's closer than what it actually is.  When I think about 6 weeks to go, it still feels like a long ways away!  This week hasn't been too eventful.  I've been dealing with faaaar more contractions than with Adie.  It's very hard to discern what is true contractions and what's just Braxton Hicks.  Some forums say they're totally different, some say that feel the same, it's just that real contractions build in intensity and form a pattern.  Well regardless, I'm having them and they are not pleasant this time around.  He's getting cramped in there I think and is letting me know it too which is making my stomach already feel hard and tight!

I went to D&W the other day to pick up a few groceries and I was standing at the checkout and the cashier looks up at me and says, "Don't take this the wrong way, but you look like you swallowed a basketball!"  Haha...hilarious.  Never tell a pregnant woman how big she is!  I almost wanted to look at her and go, "You're kidding!  Really!?!?!"  Yeah.  No fun.  I'm feeling gigantic.

On the flip side though, while the scale says I've nearly gained as much as I did with Adie, I'm carrying it all totally different this time.  I was belly, waist, butt, thighs, the whole bit with Adie.  With little man, I really am primarily belly which is a blessing.  I was retaining so much water with Adie at the end too - my face was bloated and I just looked heavier.  I had even bought a fake wedding ring to wear for the last bit.  This time, my rings still fit perfectly fine.  So weird how different this one has been!

Next week is the shower- can't wait!  I'm so excited to get all the stuff we need for the room so that we can really feel like we're ready!

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