Ready to Roll!

I know this is probably a pretty boring post to most, but I was excited nonetheless. I was able to order our traveling system (car seat and stroller) using several Target gift cards I received at my baby shower. It arrived yesterday and I am proud to say that I assembled it all by myself. Baby is ready to roll! I'm so pleased with it. I'm the geeky mom-to-be that read and researched to find one with good reviews and easy enough to use. I'd decided on this Chicco Key Fit 30 Cortina. We're now equipped with this stroller, car seat, and 2 bases so that we can each have one in our car. It's exciting to begin to see all the essential items make their way here and get set up. It's still so hard to believe that there will actually be a baby in this thing before long!

I Heart Craig!

I don't exactly know who Craig of Craig's List is, but I think I love him! I am becoming a Craig's List junkie. My relentless searching for gliders finally paid off yesterday. I had been checking it twice daily for new postings and when an occasional nice glider was posted I was either too late in responding or the color/style wasn't quite right. Yesterday morning though I found one I really liked the looks of and I was early enough to be the first person to respond. We drove out to Wesley Chapel last night to look at it, test it out, etc. and it was a perfect match! I'm so stoked. I didn't spend a crazy amount of money like the $700 one from Babies R Us that I liked, and I still got something good quality, nice color, and comfy. It was a small fraction of that price and I really look forward to rocking my son in it one day soon. Right now it's sitting in the living room because hubby decided it was his man chair for football last night, but it will be making it's way to the nursery tonight.

3rd Trimester?!?

Today marks the beginning of the 3rd trimester. I can hardly believe it. Seriously, where did the 2nd trimester go? The 1st dragged by, but the 2nd seemed super speedy. I just feel so blessed to have made it this far and had no complications! Not that I'm not tired as usual, and have the occasional cramp or frustration as I toss and turn, but in all honesty it's not that bad! Not yet anyways. I don't know if it's just because I'm so insanely happy to be pregnant or not, but so far I'm managing to stay pretty comfortable! I know this trimester is when those aches and pains are supposed to kick in so I'm trying to brace myself for the ride and do as much as I can now. So far though this little guy is taking it pretty easy on me.

Another positive....I got my glucose test results back today and it was normal! Yeaaaaaa! I don't know why but I just really had this feeling they weren't going to come back normal. One more thing to check off and take a sigh of relief......okay, okay and maybe eat a bowl of ice cream to celebrate. :)

The Doctor Will See You Now

Today was a little longer than normal, but we were just happy to get in to see the doctor...eventually. When we arrived we were told he was in a delivery and should return in about 10-15 minutes. Didn't seem like a big deal. I chugged my sugar drink and then we were told to go ahead and walk over the hospital to register. I never even knew you registered ahead of time. When I asked, "Register for.....????" I quickly realized, OH! for labor and delivery. Who knew?! So, we're now officially all registered so that when the big day does come, we just go straight to the L&D floor. Pretty cool!

After that we walked back over to the doctor's office and by that time, almost an hour had passed so my blood draw was near. Before that though, they announced that the doctor was going to have to do a c-section, so it would be at least another hour. We decided to go eat dinner and hope that maybe we'd get lucky and he'd return sooner, which is exactly what happened! Before we even got out of the car to go eat, they called and we returned back to the office.

When we got to see the doctor he had just delivered 4 babies in a little over an hour....wow, busy man! I love that he still makes us feel like he has time for us though. No big news really. I think the sugar concoction must have revved the little guy up, because his heartbeat was in the 150's this time. My blood pressure was nice and low still, weight seems to be on track, and baby appears to be well. The rash I have seems to be a heat rash, so really there are no remedies except to stay cool I guess, which doesn't seem to be too easy for me lately. After explaining the sensations I'd been feeling last Friday (and then on the way home tonight) he said it sounds like Braxton Hicks. I didn't really know enough about them and thought it happened much later in the pregnancy, but apparently it's normal now and is of no concern unless I start to notice more than 6 in an hour. They just feel really weird!!! Mat asked what the survival rate is right now if the baby were to be born.....not that we're at all anticipating it, but just curious....and he said 70%. Pretty amazing! He guessed that the baby is a little less than 3 pounds. Now we start going for visits every 2 weeks. Our next appointment is on Christmas Eve! Mat gets off work early that day. He has managed to make it to every appointment so far, so we were excited to schedule another one at a time he'd be available. Plus, my parents will be in town visiting and I knew my mom would love to come meet the doctor and hear her grandson's heartbeat! Should be a fun visit.

The glucose test results should come back Monday. I'm crossing my fingers and toes that all comes back okie dokie. I'd been pretty lucky with blood draws at this office.....I think I got a little worn out from being poked while going through IVF....but today it took a couple tries as my veins kept rolling. Darn suckers!

I just can't believe that we're this far along in the process. To think that the frequency of our appointments is picking up, childbirth classes start soon, we're registered at the hospital, and that my womb is starting to have little contractions to prepare for the big dance is just MIND BLOWING! I keep thinking this will all seem more real any day now, but sometimes I just have a really hard time believing this is actually happening to us! I am just in awe of this whole process.

27 Weeks

Little boy is now 27 weeks along. He's about 2 pounds and 15 inches long. I guess that explains why I can feel movements above my belly button and way down south all at the same time. He's getting long! He is sleeping and waking at regular intervals now. He's definitely more active at night and after I eat. We're wrapping up our 2nd trimester this week, which absolutely blows my mind. I'm counting down the days until our appointment on Thursday. I'm getting very excited to find out the latest and listen in on his heartbeat again!

Boy, how things have changed!

Boy, how things have changed....both recently and within the last year. The picture on the right side bar of our blog was taken almost exactly one year ago. We were headed to Mat's company Christmas party. Now, one year later here's me right before heading to the same party. How far we've come in a year! This time last year our hearts were longing and hoping for a family in the near future and this holiday season seems to be even more special than normal, thanks to our growing blessing.

Besides that change though, the baby belly sure does seem to be changing! I feel like I've doubled in size in the last month. Each day there is something a little different. Yesterday I felt him on the move nearly ALL day. It was very unusual. And my stomach was feeling hard as a rock and so tight. It was a day of feeling pretty uncomfortable. Today now he's been really quiet and my stomach feels a little mushy again. Weird how quickly things seem to change. I guess he's moving around attempting to get comfortable in there.

I've developed this itchy red rash on my chest. Not fun! I've tried an oatmeal bath, calamine lotion, and Aveeno cream all today and nothing seems to offer much relief. My fair skin is so sensitive normally, that I'm sure it's just something that is causing me to be even more sensitive than normal right now, but I'm sure hoping it goes away soon. It's making me a little nutty trying to get some relief!

More Minutes!

I guess it's par for the course this time of year, but it seems like there are just not enough minutes in the day. Since returning from St. Louis it feels as though it's been non stop either running errands, working on projects, catching up on laundry, grocery shopping, Christmas decorating, etc. etc. Whew! I'm ready for the weekend. It will be a busy one too, but I'm looking forward to squeezing in a little time to curl up with a good book and take a NAP. Oh, how I love my sleep right now (okay, well....all the time!).

Last year we traveled to St. Louis for Christmas so we didn't bother putting up any of our Christmas decorations. It seemed like too much work for something we wouldn't be around to fully appreciate. But this year we're staying here, and my parents are coming to visit, so it's actually been fun and exciting to decorate! Things seem new again after you haven't taken them out of the box in 2 years!!

The baby's bedding arrived and we picked it up this week. The color is a little lighter than I'd expected and for lack of a better word it's very "organic-ish" looking. Wasn't quite what I expected, and I debated about it a bit but I think it's here to stay. I know the material will be nice for the baby and I'm hopeful that once we get some color on the walls and some artwork in place, it will really brighten up the room. Right now with the white walls, and brown bedding it's looking rather blah. It's a work in progress though and I'm feeling like we're making good progress in order to be ready on time, if not early. We even have our eye on a glider that we're going to check out this weekend.

One week from today we'll have our 27 week check up. It will have been almost a 5 week stretch since going, so I am really looking forward to it this time! I'll have the glucose screening at that time as well. As big as my belly has gotten in the last 2 weeks, I'm a little nervous about it but hoping for the best. I just really want to avoid that 3 hour test you have to take if you don't pass the first one!

Well, off to work for another busy day. I think a nice bath is calling my name tonight! ;)