35 weeks

Another week down, only 2, yes 2 weeks until Grace is full term and 5 until her due date! Okay, so I'm a day late, but I figured I'd wait to post until after the doctor's today.

As far as updates go my blood pressure was good today at the doctor's 128/88, so she said to just keep doing what I'm doing because it's working! Who would've thought that just laying around all day would actually make my bp better! We also did the lovely GBS test today so we'll get the results of that at the next appointment. Also she checked me and I'm 1-2 cm and 75% effaced, yeah for progress, I guess these cramps aren't for nothing! Now, hopefully I'll continue to make progress, but unfortunately the progress doesn't really mean anything, I could stay at 1-2cm for another 5 weeks with no change. But I've been having awful cramps the last few days that don't seem to go away, so hopefully they will continue to change my cervix.

As far as how I'm feeling, I can't move anymore! The doctor even made a comment on how I walk like I'm ready to deliver. I think Grace has dropped, because I can hardly move and my waddling has become ridiculous, and my pelvis pain is out of this world! Also my stomach has been all over the place, I haven't been able to get a handle on my "morning" sickness and I have had loose bowels (TMI) off and on for a week now. I'm just ready to meet my little girl, I'm achy and cry ALL the time now! I asked Cole last night if he thinks I'll be able to go one day without crying from now until Grace is born, and he just laughed and shook his head no.

Here's a belly pic from 34 weeks
and one from today (I didn't want to look at the camera)
and a bonus picture of Lily

Updates

So we had our ultrasound yesterday and at 34 weeks 1 day Grace is weighing in at 5 lbs 14 oz, almost 6 lbs already! Grace is measuring 2 weeks ahead, but she has been since the beginning. Unfortunately, just because she's measuring ahead doesn't mean she'll come any sooner. With 6 weeks left she will gain approximately half a pound a week, so if you take into account that an ultrasound weight guess can be off give or take a pound, she's likely to weigh between 8-10 pounds if we go 40 weeks. I'm hoping to go before 40 weeks, any time after 37 weeks is fine by me! Oh, also Grace is in the right position, head down, and ready to go!
We also had a doctor's appointment yesterday, my blood pressure was still high, just not as high, and I still have no protein in my urine, but I have started retaining A LOT of fluid. So, I'm still on bedrest and we will continue to monitor my bp weekly and take it from there. There is no talk of induction or anything, the doctor just said we'll watch it and won't do anything unless I start to get sicker or Grace starts show signs of distress.

Here's the picture from the ultrasound. It's a close up profile shot you can see her forehead, eye, nose, and pouty lips. She also has her hand on her forehead, she's already a drama queen!

I tried to trace it to give you a better idea of where everything is, mainly for Gracie's Auntie who has a very hard time seeing anything in an ultrasound picture!
As far as our other baby goes, poor Lily had to go to the vet this morning. I was woken up by her this morning around 5:30 because I heard her moving around a lot and thought it was weird, because she usually will pass out on the couch all night. When Cole got up at 6 I mentioned that Lily seemed uncomfortable, well sure enough when we tried to get her to move she was trying not to put pressure on her back left leg. Cole tried to touch her leg to look at it and she just cried. So off Cole and Lily went to the vet at 6:30. The vet checked Lily over and said it just looks like a strain or a pulled muscle, but to just watch it to make sure it doesn't get worse. So, poor Lily can't jump up on the couch or bed, so we made a bed for her on the floor with our pillows and sheets from the bed. She curled up on the sheet and pillows this morning with her toy and has been sleeping since. I feel so bad for her, but I am happy she is finally getting some rest.

Lily sleeping on her make-shift bed!

That's her old toy she found in the car and has been snuggling with it all morning, apparently she missed it a lot!

Then just a few bonus picture of Miss Lily the past few days:

Here Lily is attempting to share the couch with me.

She's not very good at sharing space!

Then, this is how Lily was sleeping the other night:

Apparently the lights were to bright for her!

One Month From Today

This little boy turns three!
Where does the time go? It seems like just yesterday we were anxiously awaiting your arrival!

Here's my attempt to put three years worth of picture and memories into a 10 minute slide show:

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

34 weeks

Can you believe it? We've made it to 34 weeks, only 3 more until Grace is term and 6 until her due date! It's also almost been 2 weeks on bedrest now, timing is just flying by.

I don't have a lot of updates today, we go to the doctor's tomorrow, so I won't know how my blood pressure is until then. We also have an ultrasound tomorrow and I can't wait! We haven't had an ultrasound since 23 weeks and she weighed 1 lbs 6 oz. then, I'm dying to know how much she weighs now! I'm secretly hoping she's a lot bigger than she's suppose to be and they'll induce me early, I really don't want to be on bedrest for another 6 weeks or even longer.

As far as my headaches go I still have them, they never really go away, but laying down and sleeping seems to help. The medicine they gave me helps take the edge off a little, but I hate to take medicine so I only take a pill if my head is really pounding and unbearable.

The last few days I've become a toddler, I don't want to get meals, I just want to eat fruit snacks and breakfast food. Yesterday morning for breakfast Cole made me chocolate chip pancakes before going to work, for lunch I had a bowl of Raisin Bran, and for dinner I had more chocolate chip pancakes. This morning I had more Raisin Bran and for lunch I had fruit snacks. Cole even went food shopping yesterday and I refused to put down real food on the list. Cole was like "what do you want for meals?" I responded my saying "I don't want meals!" Cole didn't push the issue, maybe someday I'll eat like an adult again, until then I'm probably going to have pancakes again for dinner.

Since, I've been on bedrest, Lily thinks that she is on bedrest as well. Every morning I get up before Cole leaves for work and he sets up the livingroom for me so I can lay on the couch and watch tv. Well, as soon as I get out of bed Lily goes to bed and stays there until Cole comes home from work!
Here's my photo proof, now mind you these are all taken different days.

Lily in bed
Lily snuggling with my snoogle
Yesterday morning after Cole set up the couch for me, I came back from the bathroom and found this:

Lily apparently thought Cole set-up the couch for her!

Updates

So, I thought I would update you guys on what has been going on the last few day. Since Friday I have had a massive headache, I mean massive, it feels like someone is squeezing my head. This headache never goes away, there are times when it is worse, but it never leaves. Usually 3 or 4 times a day it gets really bad, I mean I start sweating and get dizzy and usually vomit, when this happens I'm convinced my head really is going to explode. I usually cry and have to strip because I feel as though I'm overheating. Well, last night I just couldn't take it anymore so I called the on call doctor and they had me come in. I was in a lot of pain, but I was more concerned that this kind of headache meant my blood pressure was high. We got to the hospital around 7:30 -8 o'clock last night, they immediately put us in a room, had me pee in a cup, and hooked me up to monitors. It was so surreal looking around the birthing room with a baby warmer and hearing Grace's heartbeat constantly, I just kept thinking someday soon we will be here to meet Grace. Fortunately by blood pressure was fine, like 130's, and Grace looked good. They ran some blood work and it came back fine so they sent me home.

We had a pre-scheduled doctor's appointment for this morning anyways, so we went, still with my headache, but hopeful that my blood pressure would be fine, since it was good last night. Well, the nurse takes me back, weighs me (I lost the 2 pounds I had finally gained last week), has me pee in a cup, then takes me to the exam room to check my blood pressure. We talk about our trip to L+D and how my blood pressure was normal, well, she checks my blood pressure and it was 152/100, not good! So, long story short, I'm doing another 24 hour urine, more blood work, I'm still on bedrest, and she gave me some Fioricet to see if that helps my headaches. The doctor told me to call tomorrow if the medicine is not helping my headaches and she will start me on something to help lower my blood pressure, which should help the headaches.

So, long story short my blood pressure gets really high when moving around, but once I lie down it goes back down (still high, but not nearly as high), but my blood levels and protein levels still look fine which is good, so no other signs of pre-eclampsia, beside the bp. We will just continue to wait it out, hopefully my headaches will go away and my bp will normalize, until then lots of resting and doing nothing!

33 weeks

Okay, so another week has come and gone. We are officially at 33 weeks now, which means only 4 more weeks until Grace is full term and 7 more weeks until her due date.


Updates:
So, as far as updates go there are a few. We had a doctor's appointment Friday and my blood pressure was 152/98 and I've been getting awful headaches lately, so the doctor put me on moderate bed rest and ordered a bunch of urine and blood work to look for signs of pre-eclampsia. The doctor said that if the labs came back high enough I would have to go on bed rest at the hospital, yikes! Luckily my blood work and urine came back fine, but I'm still on bed rest to try to keep my blood pressure down. We now will be seeing the doctor every week to monitor my blood pressure, in fact we have an appointment tomorrow morning, I'm hoping my blood pressure has either gone down or stayed the same. The worst thing right now is the awful headaches and trying to keep myself from dying of boredom. I am not handling doing nothing and resting well, but I know it's best for Grace. Fortunately, I guess, my headaches are so awful that I can't sit up for more than a half hour at a time because it feels as though my head will explode, so they keep me from trying to do anything.

I didn't feel like taking a picture this week, so I thought I'd share pictures of Lily from this past week instead, because after all what's a post without a picture!

Lily and Cole taking a nap together
Lily passed out on the couch with Cole's pillow
Lily has decided that Grace's bouncy chair is a good place to store toys and rest her head.
Lily is not pleased that I was trying to take picture of her without her knowing.
Last week we put together Jack's birthday present, no peeking Jackson, and Lily wants one! She sulked as we put it together and than was very interested in the noises it makes.

32 Weeks

32 weeks, that means we only have 5, yes 5 more weeks until Grace is full term and 8 until her due date! I feel like the weeks are just flying by!

OK, so updates: Cole and I went to our birthing class Saturday, I didn't really learn anything new, but I think Cole did. We also got a tour of the hospital and I was very impressed and excited to see it! I was surprised with myself on Saturday, I thought for sure that I would experience belly envy big time, but I didn't. For once I didn't feel like every one's belly was so much bigger than mine. In fact, a lot of people in our class were due a lot later than us, which I'm sure helped prevent the belly envy. Also, this weekend I passed a few pieces of my mucous plug, I will spare you the details of it. I'm a little nervous about losing my mucous plug already, it seems a little early to me, but we have an appointment Friday with our Doctor, so I will ask her about it. I've been trying to get all the last minute things together. I started packing my bag, the key word is started, I'm a little afraid it's going to sit in the corner and never get done, but hopefully in the next few weeks I'll feel like packing the rest of it. We went out and bought all the other small items we'll need after delivery like pads, alcohol for the cord, lots of undies for me, breastfeeding supplies, nursing pads, etc. The next big thing we have to do is install the car seat and have it inspected, hopefully Cole will do that soon. Cole was going to do it this weekend, but it rained both days, so he couldn't. As far as how I feel, I feel...blah, that's the only word I can come up with to describe it. I'm just tired and uncomfortable and I've officially entered the awkward stage. In the past 3 days I've almost fallen or have tripped probably 4 or 5 times. Cole keeps telling me I need to be careful, but I am, I just think my balance if off now. When I go to bend forward I don't take into account the fact that my front is now a lot heavier, which causes me to tumble forward.

Now to the pictures:

Here's my view looking down at 31 weeks
and here's the full view of me at 31 weeks 6 days
This picture just makes me laugh, Cole was trying to take a picture of Lily, so I stepped out of the way, but I guess Grace wanted to be in the picture with Lily.
Speaking of Lily, her and Grace have become very aware of one another. Lily loves to snuggle with my belly now when sleeping and whenever Lily is near somehow Grace knows and goes nuts. I guess they are already playing with one another, I just wish they wouldn't choose to play at 2 in the morning!

Then just an added picture of Lily

Happy August!

Starting today I can officially say that I'm due NEXT month! Woohoo! Gracie are you listening?! You need to come out next month, please don't hang out in there until October!I really would prefer a September baby not an October baby!