32 Week Ultrasound

Finally got some decent pics... although the face shot is a little creepy - haha!  But some pretty cool detail nonetheless.  Sam has got some serious cheeks!  Size-wise, he's measuring a solid two weeks ahead.  He weighed 4lb, 12oz today and already has a a head full of hair!  They're guessing he'll be 8 or 8 1/2 lbs at 39 weeks.  We'll see! 

 

All is looking good though... the perinatologist did ask if I had passed my glucose test.  Well yeah, but barely!  Can't remember if I mentioned that - but I found out at my last OB visit that I just squeeked by.  The doctor's not at all concerned, but is mentioning to my OB that they may want to think about retesting me considering Sam's chub-a-lubness.  He also wants to see me again at 36 weeks just to monitor size.  He said on occasion, if baby is super big, they'll recommend taking him a little earlier.  I am cool with going earlier if it's planned... I just don't want to go into labor for fear of rupturing my wonky uterus.  Or should I say formerly wonky?  The wonkiness has been minimalized, but it's still "special." 

 

We bought the last bit of paint this weekend for the nursery, so hopefully all the painting projects will get wrapped up over the next week or so.  I want to get the nursery done before Sam gets here, obviously... but I'm more concerned about *me* being ready in the event he decides to come early.  So my hospital bag is pretty much packed.  There are a couple of things I'd like to add, but really I've got the essentials covered.  And it's not like my mom or whoever couldn't run out while we're in the hospital and grab whatever else we needed.  And there are just some things around the house I want to get "in order" before he comes.  Nothing major - but just some small projects to wrap up.

 

But gosh... we're down to less than 8 weeks!  That is nuts.  And I've also got some loose ends to tie up at work.  Nothing I can't handle in the next few weeks, but just want to make sure I've covered everything.  And oh yeah... Christmas?  I am usually Santa's right hand man, but this year I'm like SO unmotivated to Christmas shop.  I think my "I don't care about anything" attitude from the 1st trimester is creeping back in...  Luckily we don't have a huge list of people to buy for, but I'm usually done at this point!  Mostly anyway.  I only have a couple of small things so far... and a few ideas, but not much else!  I better get on it.  Pretty sure it's going to be an online Christmas for the most part this year though.  Amazon to the rescue?!

Baby Shower - Nov 6th

We had a double header that first weekend in November!  This second shower was put on by my best high school girlfriends and another one of my sweet girlfriends that I used to work with.  This one was a lot more intimate and girly... all the details were so sweet!  What a fun weekend, huh?!

The lovely food table with all kinds of sweet goodies - including a bike-shaped diaper cake!

Delicous cake pops made by one of my girlfriends

A watermelon baby carriage - too cute!

Sam's going to one dapper little dude!

More great gifts... Sam is really loading up!

Couples Shower - Nov 5th

Finally, some pics for you!  This incredible shower was put on by some of our very good friends.  Every detail was fabulous and we had an absolute ball.  It could not have been more perfect!  We are truly grateful to be blessed with such amazing friends and family that were so excited to celebrate with us.

The table set-up for a delicious BBQ dinner

Adorable centerpieces with baby books and rubber duckies

Favors with one of my faves... white chocolate covered pretzels!

Monogrammed petit fours

The petit fours and some delicious red velvet cupcakes

And you gotta have some chocolate!

Sam's loot!

Me and the hub... and check out the cute mason jars with tags and paper straws!

Yes, folks, there really is a baby in there!

Just Checking In

Wow... has it really been that long since I posted?  Yeah.  Sorry about that!  I've either been running around or just too darn tired to get on the 'puter.  I stare at a computer all day at work, so sometimes it's the last thing I want to do when I get home.  But I have been rather domestic lately... I'm not just plopped on the couch!  I'm really trying to keep up the habit of doing one load of laundry a day so that when I'm buried in dirty onesies, sheets, and burp cloths, it won't be such a huge adjustment.  And I'm just trying to get little projects done here and there at night and on weekends to get ready.  Like the other day I cleared out an entire kitchen cabinet to make way for bottles and baby food and other kitcheny stuff for Sam.  Not even sure what all will go in there, but we have the space now! 

 

Had another OB appointment yesterday and all is still looking good.  We have what should be our last perinatal visit next Monday.  Can't wait to see Sam on screen again - it's been forever!  He is busting at the seams, it seems.  I swear he's trying to push my belly out to make more room.  Feeling him wiggle around in there is an entirely different experience now than it was mere weeks ago.  Used to just be a jab here, a kick there.  Now it's like entire body parts shifting or rolling over - it is seriously crazy.  Sometimes it catches me out of the blue and scares me.  And he still loves to set up camp on my bladder at times.  That's always fun.  But I can't complain!  Oh and the hiccups... I've only been able to feel those fairly recently.  He gets those pretty often - it's so funny.

 

Nothing much else to report here... I will get our shower pics up sometime this week.  We still have a few more showers next week as well.  Plus we're doing a maternity photo shoot next Friday.  It's going to be a BUSY but very fun week.  So by Sunday, Sam should be sittin' pretty.  The nursery is coming along, but of course my idea of having everything 100% done by Thanksgiving is not going to happen... duh. I kinda knew that wouldn't happen, but a girl can dream.  The shelves arein the room, but not officially installed and finished yet.  But we're very close on that!  They are going to look so great - can't wait!  And they'll be very functional... pretty much all our nursery storage (aside from the closet) is in the shelving.  I did snap a few pics of the boys moving the shelving units into the room - I'll post those too in a bit. 

 

Other than the shelves, the big projects left are finishing up the paint and installing the beadboard in the nursery bath.  None of those require tons of time, but it's just finding that time that's been hard.  The holidays, while I LOVE them, just complicate things.  And of course showers, and football, and other fall goings-on... it's just a busy time of year!  But we'll get there.  I'm hoping we can get some painting in this weekend in the midst of Christmas decorating.  The biggest part left is the ceiling paint - and there's no way in hell I'm getting in the awkward positions required to paint a ceiling.  So the hub will take care of that job! 

 

A few other projects remain... building a cornice board, having the window seat cushion made, and getting other accessories in order.  But one step at a time...  we'll get there!  Just hoping to get the bulk of it done before year-end.  Not sure I'll be able to move much come January!

 

Hope you all have a fantastic Turkey Day planned... it's such a fun week!  Enjoy the time with family and friends, be grateful, and eat up!

The Hospital Bag

Y'all were so helpful with tips on nursing stuff... how about items for the hospital bag?  I've already started packing and have made mad progress.  I got some great suggestions from Facebook friends that I hadn't thought of, so I figured y'all might have some ideas as well!  We're having a scheduled c-section and will probably be in the hospital 4 nights.  So, what are your must-haves?

Hope you all have a fantastic Friday... it's 11/11/11!  And Happy Veteran's Day!  I'll be back later with shower pics from last weekend.  Haven't had time to sit in front of the 'puter all week!

Showered with Love

Wow, what a weekend!  And thank goodness we have an empty room downstairs... or had I should say.  The "empty" room has now become storage for all of Sam's loot!  And the boy racked up this weekend.  We had two lovely showers thrown by sweet friends of ours.  My dad played photographer (in addition to grandpa-to-be) at the couples' shower Saturday night and he got a lot of great shots.  And one of my sweet hostesses from Sunday got some great pics as well.  I'll be back soon with more deets and pics (still waiting on some to get sent to me), but check out these adorable cake pops that one of my girls made for Sunday's shower...

And how stinkin' cute are these monogrammed petit fours from Saturday?  I'm a sucker for a monogram... especially with sugar.

Lots of love for little Sam this weekend...  so grateful.

Shower Outfits for this Weekend

Can't believe my first showers are HERE!  I'm so, so excited.  And of course all the goodies for Sam are totally fun, but I'm also thrilled to get a lot of our friends and family together that we don't see all that often.  So fun to celebrate this special time with all of them!

Tomorrow's couples' shower is hosted by some great friends of ours.  I'm glad the hub and the grandpas get to participate in some fun!  I'm going a little more casual for this one - but fabulous nonetheless, right?!

I actually changed up this outfit last minute.... I had something entirely different in mind, but I threw this together Wednesday night to go out for our anniversary dinner and decided it was WAY cuter than my shower ensemble.  So the old outfit got the boot!  The blouse and jeans are from Old Navy.  I got the shoes off Amazon to go with the original shower outfit, but they look great with this new one!  And I'll finish it off with some chunky gold bangles.  Super cute!


Sunday's shower is hosted my several of my sweet girlfriends and will surely be a bit more "girly" so I'm of course going with a dress for that one...

I tell ya... finding cute fall and winter maternity dresses is quite the challenge.  Summer is EASY.  Fall and winter?  Not so much.  But Gap has been my savior here.  The dress is from Gap - and that necklace in the pic is not part of the dress, FYI.  It's such a flattering cut and easy to wear.  I'm pairing it with some burgundy tights and metallic pewter shoes from Target.  The tights are not maternity - just some basic ones from Target that I may have to slice the waistband on to be comfy.  But hey, for $7 tights, I don't mind breaking out the scissors.  The shoes were a mere $19.99 and look much nicer in person.  They look pretty cheap in this pic.  Well, cuz they are.  But they really do look better in real life.  The only shoe options in my closet were flats, which would make me look frumpy, or 3.5 heels, which would surely send me to the hospital in my extra-clumsy state. 

Excited!  Can't wait to tell y'all all about the showers on the other side.  TGIF and hope you all have fabulous weekends!

Nursing Stuff?

We're 28 weeks today!  Another great milestone... as I understand it, baby has about a 90% survival rate if he were to arrive today.  I remember a friend of ours being on hospitalized bed rest for weeks with twins and the big goal was for her to make it to 28 weeks before delivering (which she did and they are great!).  So that particular number has since been a big one in my head.  AND the hub and I also celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary yesterday!  Milestones all over.  Crazy how time flies...

 

Other good news - I passed my initial glucose screening!  I wasn't particularly nervous about not passing, but that first test does have a pretty high fail rate (as much as 25%).  If you fail the first test, they have you come back for a much more extensive 3-hour test to see if you do in fact have gestational diabetes.  Didn't have to go there, so that is great!  My iron levels, however, were rather low.  So they put me on extra iron supplements.  Little Sam is quite the energy sucker!  I've had to take iron before and this time we're going to have to be a lot more careful with the pills.  Did you know they can be deadly to little kids and animals?  Yeah...

 

This was years ago, but my GYN put me on iron for a while.  (Apparently my ramen noodle diet during tax season one year wasn't cutting it.)  Well, one evening we came downstairs to find the punch packs from my iron pills completely empty with little aluminum foil pieces all over the floor and two silly dogs looking up at us like they hit the jackpot.    I looked at the back of the package and of course there was this deathly warning about kids or animals consuming large of amounts of the pills.  Really?  So ALL the pills would be pretty bad, then?  The hub immediately got on the phone with poison control and they knew just what to do.  We didn't know which dog ate what - Belly or Charlie.  Charlie was more likely to be the guilty one, but we really didn't know.  The solution?  Have them drink hydrogen peroxide and it'll force them to throw the pills up.  Great!  Except that we had no hydrogen peroxide in the house.  At this point, it was about 11:30pm.  So fast forward a bit, and we find ourselves in the parking lot of the nearest 24hr Kroger, forcing hydrogen peroxide down or dogs' throats so they'll vomit.  Sure enough, it worked.  And BOTH our sillies were guilty as charged. 

 

So uh... we'll be keeping a tighter grip on those pills this time.  Anyway, on to my real point of this post!  So I'm planning on breastfeeding Sam and this of course is something, like all baby stuff, that I know nothing about.  I've registered for a good pump and all kinds of accessories and crap that I really don't understand.  We're taking a breastfeeding class next month, so hopefully that'll enlighten me on a lot of this.  But my question today is... what the heck do I really need as far as nursing bras and clothing?  I did already find a nursing bra that I really love for everyday wear - so I think I'm good there.  But what about one for sleep?  Why are those necessary?  And then there are all these nursing cami's and tops and jammies and what have you.  Is the point there just to allow you to be discreet in public?  Well here's the thing...  and I know this is one of those *controversial* topics... but I am very modest.  I'm not the mom who's gonna whip out her boob in public unless it's a flippin' emergency.  And if I do have to nurse out in the open (as opposed to a restroom or nursing area), it'll be under a cover or blanket.  I know breastfeeding is a natural thing, moms - I DO get that.   And I get that you gotta do what you gotta do when you gotta do it.  I just don't personally care for seeing a giant bare boob across the way when I'm munching on my burrito at Moe's.  We could argue to the hills whether that should or shouldn't bother me or anyone else, but that's pointless here.  Just stating that fact that I'm a modest gal... so for someone like me, what's necessary in the way of nursing attire?

 

I would like to maybe have some good options for the hospital since we'll be there for several days and people, I'm sure, are going to be in and out of our room all the time.  If I have a good nursing bra, is a regular loose-fitting top good enough?  I just have no idea!  So mommas, please share your thoughts on that.  What were your must-have bras or clothes for nursing?