Baby Shower

On March 21st I had the most amazing baby shower!  My wonderful family did it for me with a theme of Dr. Seuss.  A big thanks to: Aunt Marva, Aunt Jenny, Talya, Tiffany, CJ, Aunt Shalene, Megan, Kaitlyn, and Alyssa for all the hard work they put in to making the shower wonderful!

I showed up to the church where the shower was being held that day and was greeted by the above mentioned family waiting for me outside the doors.  There was a super cute sign standing out front that CJ (and Zac) made just for this

I then walked inside and got to look at all the cute decorations they had worked on and set up.  My family is so creative! Everything was super cute, fun, and so very thoughtful!

There were more cute decorations but I didn't get pictures of them :(  They had fish put up on the walls up front matching "One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish".  And the cute little twisty trees all around the room.  And notice the green eggs and ham in the food?? So cute!

The shower started and we played a few short games including a Dr. Seuss matching game and a "My water broke!" ice cube sucking game.  We then ate some food and ended by opening presents.  I got so many amazing gifts!!  Our little guy got tons of clothes in sizes newborn to 9 months, some diapers, a few things off our registry, blankets, bath stuff, a bouncer, and our pack and play.

To end the shower we had everyone there take a picture with me in this cute "Thing 1, Thing 2" design, also made by my talented sister-in-law CJ (and Zac helped).  So much fun was had and both Alan and I are so grateful for all who came and were so generous in helping us get some items for our baby!

35 Week Update

So today I had my 35 week check-up w/my dr.  All is going well!  Baby is measuring at about 5 lbs 6 oz, and all looks to be normal and healthy.  His head was down, and his back to my back, all tucked up tight with hardly any room to move. :) The cute ultrasound tech tried as hard as she could to get us a good 3D picture, but baby boy refused to move his hand away from his face!  She tried to push on him, have me lay on my side, but he is just stubborn.  He did this the last time we did an ultrasound too.  This little one already has a mind of his own.....and me and Alan know we're in for it with how stubborn both of us are :)

I am doing well at this point too.  Feeling slightly less frustrated with being sick and all....and some of it has gone away.  I had my dad and Alan's brother give me another blessing a few weeks ago, and I think that helped me.  The pink eye has gone away, the cold disappeared, and the toothache gone (as well as the tooth-but hey-no hurting).  Still fighting the congestion that has lasted the entire pregnancy, but I finally accepted that this part won't change until after baby comes.  I've also started to get my arms and hands going numb when I sleep at night if they are bent at all.......and my fingers go numb while putting on my make-up each morning now too.  Dr says this is normal.  So ya know, just living w/the swollen hands/joints and arms now too for a few more weeks. :)  Oh the joys of pregnancy.  I also went to a breastfeeding class last week and my Aunt Marva went with me since Alan had school.  I am SO very glad I went!  The class was amazing with lots of helpful information for a new mommy.  I hope I remember all the things from the class when the time comes.

Alan is doing well still too.  He is getting a bit more nervous about baby coming over the last few weeks than he has been previously.  It's crazy, scary, exciting, everything.  This little boy is coming in to our world and will be completely dependent on us.  As Alan mentioned last week, he and I can go without things if we needed.  But there are needs a baby has that we have to make sure we can always meet.  I think he feels that pressure more than I do, although I tried to reassure him it's not all on him to make sure baby boy is happy and healthy.  Alan is also super supportive and helpful to me right now in all things.  He helps me get up off the couch, rubs my feet, ankles, back and neck at any time I need (and oh yeah-my butt too when I get cramps, lol, poor guy!).  He does nearly every WalMart shopping trip with me now too as by the end of the shopping trip I'm pretty tired and he doesn't like me to carry all those bags of groceries.  Last week we did a baby shopping trip to WalMart and then to Babies R Us the next day to finish getting most of the baby items we still needed.  He did great spending all that time shopping for baby items and didn't pass out when it came time to pay, so bonus :)  Alan also took the morning off of work today to come to the dr appt with me since we would be getting an ultrasound, and both of us were glad he did.  He got to see our little guy again and hear the heartbeat which is amazing for any parent at any time.  I am so in love with my hubby :)

Finally, we did our maternity pictures yesterday up at Trolley Square.  We got a little sneak peak of some of the pics and they look pretty cute.  Although all I see is a fat me in the pictures, I'm trying to remember it's "pregnant me".  So, we'll see how I feel about them when I get them back in a few weeks :)  There WILL be picture posts coming soon, I swear!  I have baby shower pics and then maternity pics to post.  Stay tuned! :)

Frustrated!

Ok, shouldn't it be a law or something that pregnant women can't get sick during their pregnancy?  I am sooooo over my patience limit with everything I've been getting.  As if morning sickness, weight gain, swollen feet, etc isn't enough........I am now on my third cold of the season with horrible congestion.  Yeah-they all last 2 weeks.  This time now the cold is also a sinus infection.  And this just in..........eye infection today!  I am just loving the pain in my eye and cleaning crap out of the corner every 10 minutes. And oh-headed to the dentist as a follow-up to my stupid tooth having to be pulled 2 weeks ago due to that infection.  Ahhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Mental breakdown-here I come!

Baby Update

I have been slacking on blogging again-but wanted to post a quick pregnancy/baby update....so, here you go!

As of this last Sunday I was 32 weeks.  32 WEEKS!!! Holy crap!  That means 8 weeks to my due date.  And really, I doubt I make it to my due date given how big I am.  So I'm trying to be ready for baby in 5-6 weeks.  Did you just hear that? 5-6 WEEKS! I am excited to see my little man and have our family start........but I think I'm more scared than excited these days.  How will I know what to do??  How will I know how to breastfeed him?  When he cries, how will I know how to help him?  When it's the middle of the night and I'm exhausted, will I have the patience I will need?  When I'm home all alone with him for the first time, will I be ok, or will I break down and cry? (Cause I kinda think the crying thing might happen).  Will I do the right things to keep him safe and happy?  Will I be the kind of mom I hope to be?  All of these questions just scare me.  Someone asked me a few weeks ago if I was ready for baby to come out yet, and my response was no.  Haha! I am ok with him where he is right now!  But I guess like it or not, he is coming in 8 weeks or less!

Pregnancy wise I am feeling ok lately.  These last few days I think baby has turned and dropped a bit as I've had quite a bit of pressure in my lower regions.  I was nervous about this for a bit and ended up calling my aunt to see if it was normal.  Turns out-it is.  I just get so worried about everything new and wanting to make sure the timing is ok for it to be happening. 5 more weeks and I think I'll worry less as I think it will be far enough long for baby to be ok if labor happens.  I'm getting more uncomfortable in my belly now too.  Baby is getting bigger and taking up more room.  This means I have fewer positions that I find comfortable.  But-baby getting bigger also means I feel him moving around more.  I love when he is kicking and rolling around. :) It makes me forget about the other not so fun parts for a minute.

The nursery is at a standstill for a few weeks now.  Still have the crib, dresser and rocking chair up, but haven't gone much further.  I desperately need to start decorating the walls.  And more will fill the room next week after my baby shower.  Side note-WAHOO! Baby shower next week! I'm so excited! This will be it's own post when the time comes :)  I also need to finish sewing the burp clothes and few receiving blankets I have cut out.  They have been sitting there for weeks just waiting for me.  My goal is to finish them this weekend-so-fingers crossed.  I'd like to get them all finished, washed, and put away before the baby shower and all the other items that will come for me to wash and put away.

Our non-pregnancy updates are small.  Our lives are all baby right now.  But-all goes well at work for both me and Alan.  We are adjusting more each week to his schedule and being at school and finding a good happy-medium with our time together.  Alan is doing fantastic in school as usual and being a rockstar.  I love my smarty-pants :)  I'm working vigorously to train my back-ups for maternity leave and so far, so good. Outside of work-we had to get a new bed this last week.  Our old one was one I'd had for years and had seen better days.  It finally gave up and broke on us.  So last week we went looking at RCWilley and found one we could agree on.  It got delivered and set up this morning, and I'll go home to make it up and take a good look.  We upgraded from queen to king size, and it looks massive in our bedroom.  I think we will just have to get used to the frame and size is all.  We'll see how it looks in a week or so. :)  We've also been working on getting things de-cluttered for baby too.  We got rid of some things last weekend, and more to go still.  Neither of us like our home to feel cluttered, so putting in furniture for baby and rearranging some rooms for such means getting rid of other furniture.  Hopefully we have it all taken care of in the next week or so before family is in town for the baby shower.  Hopefully.  There is a lot to do.

I think that about sums up our lives right now.  Work, school, baby planning :)  More to come on the baby shower after the 21st!

What I Wish I Could Say

Sometimes I wish my manners went out the window and I could speak what I thought.  Or speak what I think moments after the conversation has ended.  If I could, lately my responses to people would have sounded something like this....

Yes, I am aware I am larger than a good portion of pregnant women.  Yes, I am aware I look like I should be delivering this baby any day now rather than 10 weeks from now.  I know I'm overweight and being pregnant just makes me even bigger. No, I don't need you to act so shocked and surprised when I tell you when my due date is.  I REALLY don't need you to look me up and down when I tell you said due date and looked surprised again. 

If you are going to ask me my due date, when I tell you, respond with congratulations and maybe even a "how exciting!".  Please don't remind me that I'm big....I know this...and also know there is not a great deal I can do about this until after this baby comes.  Yes I try to watch what I eat a good amount of the time.  Yes, I still indulge on treats when they sound good.  I am plus size and struggle many days with getting bigger during pregnancy.  Please don't look at me like I'm huge.....just smile and tell me congratulations.