38 Weeks

How far along? 38 weeks
Total weight gain: I gained a couple of pounds as of last Tuesday at the doctor...That's what I get about being excited about losing a pound :)
Maternity Clothes? At this point putting on anything but sweats and a tank top sucks.
Sleep: Still good. I am lucky.
Best moment this week: Spending the whole weekend doing nothing with Brian. We got a lot done around the house!
Food Craving: Swedish fish
Movement: He has gotten quieter. I think that he is running out of room.
Gender: Boy!
Labor Signs: On Saturday evening I had a couple of hours of lower back pain and braxton hicks that were coming 8-5 min apart. Nothing painful and nothing consistent. I also think that he really dropped. My bladder has gone to a whole new level of small.
Symptoms: Nesting, nesting, nesting...Yesterday I couldn't stop moving. I cleaned the bathroom floor on my hands and knees and did about five loads of sheets, towels, rugs, etc. and a ton of other things like organize our room. This morning we cleaned the outside of the windows and I picked up the garage while Brian fertilized the yard. It feels so good to have the energy and drive to get the stuff done that I have been wanting to get done for the last couple of weeks.
Belly button in or out: In
What I miss: My body before pregnancy.
What I am looking forward to: Having him! I am ready to get the show on the road. I am ready to meet him, have Brian's family out here, be off of work, and for summer to feel like it has started.
Milestones: Actually nesting sort of feels like a milestone. Baby dropping and some labor signs starting!

You Know You Should Be A Redneck When...

You go to check the seal in the washing machine and find this:

Nothing like finding 20 bullets 2 weeks and about 10 loads of laundry after your husband went shooting! I feel like this should only happen in Jeff Foxworthy's world!

I Lost it Yesterday

So yesterday we had a doctor's appointment and the OB checked me again. Nothing new to report. After I finally dragged myself out of bed around 11, I decided enough moping. I went out to Sushi with a friend (and ordered three whole rolls for myself, and yes I had to take leftovers home, but they were gone before I walked in the door...it is a long car ride home!) and then coffee with another friend.

Between lunch and coffee, while I was at home, I lost it. That is my mucus plug! Talk about making my day! It is amazing what a little va-jay-jay mucus can do for a pregnant lady's bad day! I am pretty sure that the doctor probably knocked it loose while she was all up in there, but I swear I have been more crampy since then, and I will take what I can get!

And now I have officially used the word va-jay-jay on my blog and told everyone things they didn't need to/want to know (not that I haven't already done that!)

A Big Sigh...

I am having one of those days. I came home from our doctor's appointment today and went back to bed. I am ready for him to be here. Mostly mentally, physically I still feel great.

My grandparents have had their house in LA on the market for the past couple of months. The house that we always visited and that I thought they would never leave. The plan has tentatively been for my mom and I to drive down to LA sometime in July or August (with Garrett of course) and pickup some furniture and things that they are getting rid of during the down sizing. Well, they sold the house and my mom and stepdad are heading down to LA the last week of June. I want to go, so bad! I want to see the house one last time, I want to road trip with my parents and I want my family and grandparents to meet Garrett.

So now of course I want him to come NOW, so that we have a couple of weeks under our belts and we can go with my parents to California. If he isn't here by the end of next week then we obviously won't go. I feel like it is so selfish and of course I want him to come when he is ready but the thought of missing the trip makes me so sad and cranky and down.

I told Brian today that I just need to accept the fact that I can't do anything about when Garrett is going to come and I should just accept the fact that we are not going to be able to go to California at the end of the month. Then I can just move on and enjoy the last couple of weeks of this pregnancy. It is hard though (and if I am honest I think I am being over emotional about the whole thing, I will blame it on hormones!) I guess it is a good lesson or reminder on how much things change after you have a baby. No more just picking up and going and things are really controlled by their schedule!

Full Term!!

A.k.a. 37 weeks. I can't believe that I get to finally say that!

How far along? 37 weeks
Total weight gain: I lost 1lb between 35 and 36 weeks! Haha eat that! First time in 36 + weeks that I have lost weight.
Maternity Clothes? Are starting to get tight.
Sleep: I need a lot of it. It depends on the night, but I haven't actually felt like I am losing sleep yet, which is nice.
Best moment this week: The doctor's appointment, see labor signs below!
Food Craving: Nothing really
Movement: Lots of rolls and pushing out.
Gender: Boy!
Labor Signs: Well, I am 1 cm dilated and 80% effaced. As hard as I am trying to not let it happen, at this point everything is a possible labor sign. Headache and nausea last night before bed, possibly. Feeling crampy and a lot of pressure this morning, of course it's labor, and no it doesn't matter that it only lasted for 20 minutes. And yes I am a wipe watcher. I check the TP and toilet every time I go to the bathroom (which is a lot), just in case I am having those kinds of labor signs.
Symptoms: I really do feel pretty good. I know that I am lucky. A little swelling and heartburn isn't that bad.
Belly button in or out: In and it is not coming out. Ha, Amy!
What I miss: My energy
What I am looking forward to: Baby being here, going camping next weekend, date night with Brian on Sunday.
Milestones: 37 Weeks!!!

I Caved!

We had our doctor's appointment this morning. My sister came to hear the heartbeat and hangout. The doctor said that I am "full term," which I knew I was close, but thought it was 37 weeks.

I didn't think that I was going to have the doctor do internals until at least until 40 weeks if at all. I know that the results don't necessarily mean anything. You can walk around 2 cm dilated and 60% effaced for weeks without going into labor. Also, sometimes they can cause infections and irritate your cervix and all that stuff.

Since, I had the Group B Strep test and since I already had my pants off and since she was already down there doing her thing...I caved. I let her check me, honestly I was curious of course! She said that the baby's head is all the way down but that the cervix is up around the side of his head. She really had to "reach for it." Ali was horrified and was like "OMG! It looked like she was up to her elbow!" The good news is that my cervix is soft, I am like 80% effaced and like 1 cm dilated! Yay exciting! Now I just have to figure how to not get to excited and make myself miserable and cranky waiting for it. Let me know if you have any suggestions!

36 Weeks

How far along? 36 weeks
Total weight gain: Nothing like a little more extra padding!!
Maternity Clothes? Yup
Sleep: It is slowly getting worse, but I only have a couple bad nights a week. It definitely could be worse!
Best moment this week: Rachel's Wedding! Every moment I get to watch him wiggle around in me!
Food Craving: Swedish Fish
Movement: He is definitely moving, and I can tell space is getting tight in there.
Gender: Boy!
Labor Signs: None really, and apparently kidney stones aren't labor either, could have fooled me!
Symptoms: Heart burn daily. I am swelling in my feet and legs, it isn't pretty. I also think "we" have been growing this week. I have had a couple of days of feeling very uncomfortable and full and stretched out in the belly area.
Belly button in or out: In, in, in.
What I miss: Sleeping on my back.
What I am looking forward to: Baby being here (I can't believe that I am close enough to say that!) Feeling like we have everything ready for baby to be here. Maybe going camping in the next couple of weeks :)
Milestones: As of today I am 36 weeks with only 28 days left, it is weird to see more weeks less days!

Lists

I feel like it is getting down to crunch time, which is exciting! We definitely have a lot left to do. I am not really a list person but I definitely pull them out when I start to get overwhelmed. I started a list like a month ago for things that we needed to buy before baby comes. We have purchased the necessary items but I keep on adding to it. The list isn't any shorter than when I started.

Then their is the "To Do List." It is long and it looks something like this:
1. Pack Hospital Bag
2. Pack diaper bag
3. Make fabric bins
4. Make Valence
5. Set up pack n play
6. Talk to Pediatrician
8. Remove all spider webs
9. Move living room furniture an clean underneath
10. Move fridge, oven, washer, and dryer and clean behind
11. Wash windows
12. Organize crawl space
13. Fix living room floor and bedroom carpet
14. Put batteries in everything
15. Birth announcements
16. Update Ipod
17. Birth Plan
18. Install Carseat
19.Call insurance company about Breast Pump
20. Take hospital registration packet to L&D
21. Change oil in car
22. Get car detailed

And this is the edited list. Some of these items have sub lists. I was telling Brian that we have so much to do before Garrett comes and he was like "what are you talking about?" I said, " oh...you haven't seen the LIST!"

I am working the night shift Saturday and Sunday but then have Monday-Wednesday off. I am hoping to get a lot of this done in that time!

Maternity Pictures!

I know a lot of you have already seen these by Facebook or e-mail but I thought that I would post the link here in case you missed it!

Our Maternity Photos!

Meghan was our wedding photographer and I was really excited when she said that she would do our Maternity and also Newborn photos. I can't wait to see her a month or so!!

35 Weeks and So Much More

On Friday baby turned 35 weeks which is very exciting. Less than 35 days left now! Because we had such a fun and busy weekend I am not going to do a full survey, just a small update.

I am fully recovered from our L&D fun last week, and have been feeling great. Sleep is getting more and more uncomfortable. My legs go numb and/or my hands fall asleep so I am rolling around/going to the bathroom every two hours or so. I also really only get heartburn in the middle of the night which is helpful. I officially tried sleeping sitting up in the papasan last night (which was even more uncomfortable than the bed), and ended up on the couch. Brian woke me up this morning when my alarm went off in the bedroom, asking me if he was snoring to loud :) I was nice and told him no, but that I was really uncomfortable. Other than not sleeping as well I really am feeling amazing!

On to more exciting things. I had the privilege of being a bridesmaid in the wedding of a friend from college this past weekend. We headed up to Kalispell, Montana on Wednesday night and stayed until Sunday morning. It was nice to get away with Brian for a long weekend, we were busy but managed to spend some great quality time together. This was hands down the best wedding that I have been in/attended. It was very low key and I really got to spend some quality time with the bride and her family and some great friends from college. Brian was such a trooper and spent quite a lot of time in the hotel room while I did things like get my nails done, run errands and attend a bridal shower. The wedding was beautiful and the reception was so nice. I am happy for Rachel and Jake and wish them a lifetime filled with love.

The rest of the weekend was pretty low key. We took our time driving home and went through the Seeley/Swan area. It was gorgeous and brought back a lot of memories from the days before Brian. A friend from high school was in town yesterday so we had lunch and then I ran some errands with them before they headed out of town.

We had a great couple of days and it made us realize how important the close friends in your life can be. I wish that we all lived closer together so we could enjoy each other more often!

Labor and Delivery Visit Numero Dos

The Spanish is in honor of Cinco de Mayo, and yes I had to google the spelling, Spanish class was a LONG time ago!

Anyway, ya, so we ended up in L&D again on Monday afternoon. I thought it was preterm labor, I really did! I got up feeling all achy and crampy and it was coming and going, this included lower back pain. I headed to work and it just got worse. So I went home, called the doctor and laid around. Finally the doctor called me back and told me to come in. At this point I was thinking that there was a good chance we might be staying at L&D for awhile. When Brian came home from work to get me I asked him if he thought we should pack anything or bring anything, you know like a toothbrush and a CARSEAT!

If I haven't mentioned it before Brian is VERY cool headed in these kind of situations and takes a "your fine, lets go, I have seen worse" kind of approach. He was like, let's just see what they say. Which was actually reassuring at this point, even though I was like, "No really this might be it, it HURTS!"

So off we went with us...and my purse. It ended up being a kidney stone. Yup, if you are counting that is three hospital visits and two kidney stones for the Nickolay's in like ten weeks. They sent us home that same night and everything has been good since then. I was glad that everything was fine with the little man and he is going to stay in me for a couple more weeks.

Oh, and for the record I was way more calm and less...uh "verbal" then Brian was when he had his kidney stone, just thought I would throw that out there!

34 Weeks 1 Day

34 Weeks 1 Day....Just kidding! This one is from week 19. I thought that the comparisson was kind of fun!

34 Weeks 1 Day

How far along? 34 Weeks 1 Day
Total weight gain: another two pounds out on between doctor appointments.
Maternity Clothes? Yup
Sleep: Sometimes good sometimes not.
Best moment this week: Getting more baby stuff in the mail. Our carseat came! Organizing Garrett's room. Gary Allan Concert.
Food Craving: My Grandma's creamy chicken and rice soup. We had it for dinner tonight. It was good.
Movement: He likes my ribs, a lot.
Gender: Boy!
Labor Signs: Braxton hicks are getting more frequent. Brian told me that when we got closer, he was going to make me use a trash bag like a sleeping bag in case my water broke while I was sleeping in bed. He's crazy.
Symptoms: Heart burn is picking back up, so is the nausea.
Belly button in or out: In. I don't think it is going to pop.
What I miss: Spending money on something other than baby stuff!
What I am looking forward to: Rachel's wedding and seeing all of the girls from college! Meeting him!
Milestones: Baby weighs 4.5 ish lbs now!