38 weeks...well, tomorrow

38 weeks tomorrow.

Thursday's appt was great fun. Still swelling, BP okay and the internal exam revealed...nothing.

Nothing happening. Oh well. Technically, I still have two weeks to go, so maybe by next week, something will have started. I've been feeling more pressure and oddness down there the past couple of days and a little more crampy than usual, but that's pretty much it.

We had a fake shower with my mom and dad and my mom's friend Kathy, since she couldn't make the real shower due to tax season. But, she got us our monitor, which was really, really nice of her to do! So, we just have the swing left to purchase and that will pretty much do it.

Nothing else fun to report. Here's a new picture of me looking as big as a house:

And again...nothing going on

GAH!

Nothing happening.

At least it was painful this time. bleech.

I feel like he moved farther back up after my check too. Not fun.

The weather changing a million times a day keeps giving me headaches and I can't sleep very well now.

My knee started hurting last night, for some unknown reason. It was pretty hard going up and down the stairs. It's not too bad right now though.

I hope something changes this week. I really do.

My BP is good, despite my water retention. I was up 2 more pounds over this week. I wish I would have anticipated gaining water weight at the end here -- I wouldn't have gone on such an eating bender in March...okay, well, I guess I don't really have control over that.

Anyway, I'm cranky. The end. :) Sorry it's not more exciting. This is the hard part. One more week of work and then I am done-zo until July! WOO!

Perhaps I should stop overdoing it

I may have overdone it a bit this weekend and today. Well, Saturday = ok. Sat around mostly.

Sunday, we ran TONS of errands and I may have been a little swell-y at the end of day. We went to Babies R Us, to buy a few remaining items with our gift card, to the new Menards in Waukesha, which has an IKEA style escalator in the middle and it totally sweet, back to Dairy Queen for lunch and Pick N Save for groceries, over to Motherhood Maternity, for me to spend another $100 on clothes that I will only wear temporarily. Meh.

But, I was pretty tired and my legs were a bit swollen when I got home. Yuck.

Today, I may have done too much at work and stood too long at the post office. My face is pretty puffy right now. I keep having headaches too, but, I hope those are just stress/tension and not something bad. My BP was good on Thursday and I haven't had a problem, but I'm just concerned, especially since I'm so close to the end. I don't want anything to happen to him while he's in there, when he could probably survive on the outside just as well too.

So, I think that I just get to sit around a work more and try not to walk around so much. I'm turning over a lot of my work tomorrow to the other girls, so that will leave more free time -- I think that I am probably going to end up assisting the CDC, since they seem to be backed up right now and I'm probably going to have free time.

Actually, and while I wouldn't TOTALLY mind this, I am concerned that I might get pulled off work Thursday, due to my puffing up. BUT, since the BP has been ok and the pee tests have been ok, I think that I will make my last week ok.

Anyway, I have a basket of baby clothes to fold now, so I'm going to get to it. :)

No changes

Doc appt today.

Nothing going on downstairs. Too bad. Everything is closed up.

Ryan is head down right now, so that's probably a good thing. And it's in the correct place, although I think that it tends to gravitate toward my left hip, causing me pain.

BP is good, but I have some swelling today, the first that I have had. But, I can see it in my legs and face a bit.

So, I'm under orders to take it easy and keep my legs elevated. Which I have been trying to do tonight. Hopefully, it's better overnight.

I knew something was amiss when I gained a pound and a half from one day to the next. I'm up 30 pounds now, but I'm guessing that 3-4 pounds right now is fluid retention. I'm really hoping I can leave the hospital at 215. That would be sweet.

I'm not sure how much swelling is because I am moving around during the day and how much is because I sit on my butt all day too. I would think that both would contribute. But, I'll have to watch it and see.

I still have a few more things to purchase for Ryan, but for the most part, I think that we're done. What I REALLY need to do is finish my thank you notes! Saturday, I think, while Jake is at his gig. Mail them Monday and I'll be good. I need to email everyone at work tomorrow to thank them for the shower I had last Thursday. I was going to bring a card, but I'm worried that I'll never finish them!

So, I go back to the doc next week -- hopefully, something will happen and I'll progress a bit more. I just want to make it past Wednesday, to meet the pedi first. I wouldn't want the first time we meet to be at the hospital when he's born, you know?

36 weeks and 1 day

I am just totally out of room here.

Seriously.

Jake is putting the changing table together as I sit on my butt and type this. This is the last piece of furniture that we needed to have a functional room. So, basically, he can come anytime now. Maybe wait until after we meet the pediatrician a week from Wednesday, but really...I'm done.

I'm tired of the following:

1. Being kicked or having various body parts shoved into my ribs and/or left hip.
2. Not being able to sleep on my stomach
3. Back pain in weird areas
4. A stomach I can't see around
5. Feeling like I gained 5 pounds during the day

I could go on, but I won't. *and there was much rejoicing*

Best I can figure, he's laying head down, with head pointed at my left hip (because I feel pressure there occassionally) and butt pointed toward my right ribs. Hopefully, he's facing rear, so he can be born correctly. And when he hiccups, which has been a couple of times, I can feel it way down low, so I assume that he is head down. Maybe not though. I plan on asking on Thursday to see if the doctor can tell which way he's pointing.

I have a doc appt every week now until he's here. I'm actually looking forward to seeing if I'm effaced/dilated/whatever at the next appt. I'm sure that I'm not, BUT, it will be interesting. Not that I want to have a hand up in my business.

OH, speaking of being up in my lady business, my mom finally asked me about being in the room at the birth, because someone asked her and we both agreed that it would probably just be Jake in there with me. Because, you need someone to curse and swear at during the process. We'll probably just call them and have them wait in the waiting room -- they can see him once he's a little cleaner and prettier. Same for me.

I did start to gather things for my bag to take to the hospital, but some of it is hard to pack now -- it's stuff that I would grab at the last minute (like camera, lappy, etc.). But, I got some travel size items to take with me, so I can shower and feel human post birth. I have to go check out Target this week (or weekend) for some nursing tanks and a light weight robe. And some giant undies for the hospital. Because, let's face it: birth is just gross.

Jake did say the magic words to me over the weekend: You don't have to breastfeed, if you don't want to. I mean, I'll give it a shot, because a) it's free and b) it really is supposed to be better for the baby. But, one of my friends has formula fed her little girl and she's totally fine. I'm just not sure if I really am committed to it or not. And if you're not committed, I bet it makes it harder. Plus, I didn't plan on going that long -- only 3 months or so. I just don't know. Formula is SUPER expensive. IDK. I'm torn. Mostly for "selfish" reasons. Like, I don't want to get up every two hours. I'd prefer if Jake could do a feeding or two. I've heard of parents doing shifts of like 9p - 2a and 2a - 7a, so each parent can get some decent sleep. And I want to drink again.

Finally, I purchased a t shirt and yoga pants from Vicky's Secret recently -- they gave out these gift cards that could be 10, 50, 100 or 500 bucks. So, I picked a couple of items and used it -- and mine was FIFTY!!! So, my shirt and pants cost me $16.52! I was stoked. So, basically, this will be my "not fat" anymore outfit -- when it looks decent on me again (besides being able to fit into my old jeans again), I will consider myself back to pre-preggo status. I'd just like to be back to 200 at this point.

I did order a bridesmaids dress in a size that will need to be taken in hardcore, but it made me feel good. Actually, I could have ordered an 18, I think, but I didn't want to take the chance that my ribs were really too big for the size.

I think after my appt on Thursday, when I find out where he is and where we are, I am going to start walking at night after work, if the weather is nice. At least around the block or something. The geneticist said the the best way to get the baby to come was to exercise. I won't go CRAZY, but I should start walking anyway, because I have turned into a big blob.

The Shower!

I think that it's going to take me a week (or more!) to decompress from this weekend. As you may know, I am not much of a people person (except when drinking!) and it takes a LOT out of me to be at a large party like that. And it was a LARGE party!

It was really a fun time though. The Qdoba was really good and so was the cake. I think the margaritas were good, because we went through both tubs and some back up margarita mix that Dad purchased. I had sodas.

If we were in a slightly warmer state, it would have been really great to have the party outside, but it's still WI and it's early April, so inside it was. The only thing that I would have changed was to use the upstairs big room, just for more room to spread out, but it worked out okay. I think the custodian was a little ticked because we were "over capacity" for the room (which was 48 and there were probably 55 people there); but they didn't say that was a fire code thing or anything. Plus, there were two doors out of the room, so it wasn't a big deal. That guy was just a fuss.

We got a TON of nice stuff. Lots of clothes, some bed stuff and books and things. I did get my diaper bag, which was sweet! and Josh and Kristine got us a bunch of cloth diapers. My godparents and family got us cloth diapers too, but they didn't come in time. The part I felt bad about was I opened their card and I totally never read it for some reason and I don't know why. I feel like I opened it and set it aside or something. So, I missed the part where it said that their gift didn't arrive in time and they would get it to me when it did show up. (and the moral of that story is don't use Kelly's Closet basically -- I'm sure that the store is fine, but Kristine ran into trouble with them and so did my godparents, so it's not that I don't think they have a good thing going, they just have sort of crummy CS -- Kristine said that they were out of green bG's and they wanted to sub, but they subbed white and blue, instead of asking what colors she wanted.)

But, I was just totally overwhelmed at that point, so I never even noticed that I had opened the card and not read it, essentially. We opened gifts at 3:45 or 4, so I was really burnt out by then. By 5:15, I was dying. I spent most of the time on my feet, which left me with achy legs and sore foot bottoms. I don't have swelling issues, so that wasn't a problem.

The big problem is that I have NO PICTURES! Oops. I took two pics with my camera and Dad misplaced his at some point and I could just get him to use mine to take some. He's such a fuss sometimes.

Now, we begin the task of deciding what we REALLY REALLY need and what stuff I just wanted to have, you know? My parents still have to buy us something, and I think that they will probably buy us our travel system (maybe...), but we'll see. I'll probably go to BRU this Saturday with Mom to spend the couple of cash/GC pressies I got and maybe we can buy it. If they would buy that, it would be really cool. :)

I'm going to go after I'm done here and print out my registry as it is currently and figure out what we are def going to buy and maybe find out where it is the cheapest, instead of just purchasing from BRU. I can always edit my registry.


But, I had a really good time and it really was a great idea to have the boy/girl shower thing. I think that everyone said what I good time it was. The last thing that I have left is to write my thank you notes! I'd take them to work, but I have time to make up the next three days, so I have no lunch until Thursday and I'd really like to have them done by this Saturday, to get them in the mail.


In other weekend news, I met Brookie's fiance and he's okay. She likes him and that's the part that really really matters. We also went and picked out the sizes for our bridesmaids (matrons?) dresses. I got a size 20, mostly because it's the one that fit my rib cage decently at this point. I have NO idea how much weight I will have lost by then, so if they really have to take the dress in, then they do. I have a picture of it, but I feel like a giant preggo lady in it, so I pass on posting it. I have a feeling they will be taking the dress in hardcore by August, but we shall see. I hope it doesn't come down too the fact that I should have gone down a size and then had it altered. That would really suck if they wouldn't been able to take it in enough to fit me. I'd be pist.

Only 5 weeks left to go now. I can't believe how fast it has gone. Soon, he'll be here, which is just crazy to me. I don't know if I am ready, but I don't know if I'll ever be ready. So, it's now or never. :)