Picture Day

So, I've always seen pictures of the beautiful blossoming woman in the white dress showing off the growing belly...and I decided I wanted to have some of those pics too. Plus, since it's spring, it seems pretty cool to me that I'll be bringing forth life (shortly we hope:)) while all of nature is coming alive again and so I wanted to portray that with pics of my blossoming belly and blossoming trees and flowers. That may seem cheezy...but whatever. My sister will thoroughly enjoy it, I'm sure:) So, here are some of the shots from picture day. Sandra Snyder came over and put her expertise to work in the nursery and outdoors and Danny tried his hand at a few outdoor shots as well. Since it is gorgeous here, these are all really cool! And I wanted to share with all the "devoted" readers:)

Baby Shower!

yay! heather had her baby shower at work today, and received much gifts and love :) Everything is going great at the moment, and we expect a baby any time now. Enjoy the pics

danny

Ramblings

So, the Midwife visit wasn't so informative yesterday. It was rather short and sweet. My "fundal height" (belly measurement while lying on my back) is a little over 37cm...which meant nothing to me, so I did some research. Apparently the measurement is supposed to be the same as your gestation week from 20 to 37 weeks...so now, the measurement really does nothing for me. Oh well. They also checked my iron and blood pressure which are both good...and they did my Group B Strep Culture...which I will receive the results for next week. The big thing is they told me that I am not considered pre-term any more so if I go into labor, we go with it and don't try to stop it. Good to know...although I seriously doubt that I will have the luxury of early labor :( That's okay, I'll have a great big healthy baby:) Danny keeps saying I'm going to have a 14 lb. boy and it will be a great natural childbirth story. Yes, I have left him alive for now...but if his prediction comes true, I do reserve the right to murder him.

In other news, we bought a carseat this weekend. Special thanks to Mikhail and Ted from Babies R Us for teaching us how to properly install the seat. We tried the model into both of our vehicles before purchasing it. So, now, it is in the back of the station wagon ready for Danny and Mom to install it in the hospital parking lot after the baby arrives. We have arranged that Mom will come over to drive us to the hospital so Danny can be dealing with me in the backseat...so we thought actually installing the carseat would be counterproductive at this point.

So, that's it for now. Any tips for the waiting game?

Promised Pics

I wanted to do a close up of the curtain so you can see the colors and pattern.The mobile plays the "lullaby song" that Joey's favorite animal played from when he was a baby.

The puzzle is Jesus with two children and two angels and a lamb.

So, I took some pictures of the nursery now that we have the crib. The hammock bed is back in our room on my side of the bed so I can get used to having it there. If I can manipulate around it with the kid inside me still...I should have no problems once the kid actually comes out:)

I've been having interesting dreams lately...and interesting sleeping arrangements. I've started sleeping for part of the night sometimes in the baby's room on the futon. The support on my back makes it much easier for me to fall asleep now. Naptime is coming more frequently and I'm doing that in the baby's room too. Somehow, it relaxes me to be in there. We actually had to leave church early today because I was nauseated (for the first time since the first trimester!) and exhausted. I passed out within ten minutes of walking in the door and slept for a good hour before I woke up hungry. I'm feeling like I'm on a newborn schedule already! Tomorrow is another midwife visit, so I'm sure I'll have plenty of updates when I finish with that. For now...enjoy the pics. I'm putting some on there of the puzzle that we are working on to hang up in Deather's room....and just the new cool lamby crib stuff that's in the room now:)

Fun from Tuesday

So, yesterday we got the crib delivered and set up! It is so beautiful and goes great with our room decor. That was really neat since it is a hand me down crib and we never saw it before choosing the other stuff...but it fits perfectly! Dad and Danny got it all set up in the room while Mom and I worked on the puzzle that we are putting together to hang up in Deather's room. I washed all the linens in my Dreft sample pack, so I'll be putting all the cute lamb stuff together and hanging the crib mobile when I get home today. If all goes well, there should be some pictures this week:)

Now...funny story. I was resting when Danny got home yesterday ... and I've been wearing his boxers lately because they just feel better than any underwear I've procured for this pregnancy. He was teasing me about stretching out the waist band, so I argued that they were made for 38-40 according to the tag. He said he thought I was definitely bigger than 40 ... so I of course had to measure the belly then. He was right...45.5" around!!! How scary is that!?!?! And I'm not done yet! That'll teach me to open my big mouth!

Hospital Tour

We took our hospital tour last night. It was AMAZING! The doula's who gave the tour were very knowledgable and calming. They answered all the remaining questions on our birthplan about hospital policies on things. They said almost all of the nurses in Labor and Delivery are doula trained so they handle things differently than a regular nurse. They are totally geared toward natural childbirth and will help in anyway they can to make that a reality for those who desire it. The C-section rate at Lexington is 23% (which is below the national average)...the C-section rate with a doula is 9%! :) Very encouraging. They are completely supportive of breastfeeding and instead of you having to specify NOT giving the baby a bottle or pacifier...you have to have written instructions if you want them to give that to the baby...it's not something they just routinely do. It was just a wonderful experience and has completely put me at ease about having a hospital birth. I am not worried about it anymore, I feel like I will be in good hands, and I think Danny has been able to relax too. One thing they said was to make sure they had a copy of our birthplan because then they could remind the doctor of things that were on it if the doctor forgot. That means that Danny doesn't have to worry so much about making sure that we aren't set up for failure...because it seems like everyone on our birth team is completely about setting us up for a successful natural childbirth. So, now...this baby can come whenever it wants to:) I'm calm, I'm cool and collected....for now:)

Midwife Visit

So, I had an appointment today with one of the other midwives in the practice...LOVED HER! It was a really great appointment. I still have GREAT blood pressure (104/70....and that was after dealing with having to air up the donut and go 50mph on the interstate!). She said the baby is very low into my pelvis and settled which is highly unusual for "this early" in my pregnancy. That could be good news and mean I'm farther along and will deliver before April 14th...or ... it could just be because I'm a munchkin and where the heck else is the baby going to go? :) Either way, baby is doing well....moving constantly and has a good strong heart rate in the 130s-140s. Apparently Deather is spine to spine with me, which explains some of my low back pain...and is not surprising considering my desk job. I better get to walking the stairs and doing my pelvic rocks more if I want to get him/her to flip around and be face down when it's time! But, if not, I'm told that I am allowed to give birth in whatever position I want. She said, "We can catch them however they come out. We prefer that you are on the bed instead of the floor...but whatever position is going to be easiest for you to birth in is completely up to you." Great news since Deather is face up...it's good to know hands and knees to get that pressure off my spine is actually an encouraged option! Jaime, Holly and Teresa...Have I mentioned how grateful I am to you guys for helping me ask questions and find a good place that will actually work with us to have the birth experience we want? You guys are awesome and I'm so glad you pointed me in this direction. I like knowing that I have full support for natural childbirth, with the security of a hospital in case complications do arise. It truly feels like the best of both worlds.

Big Belly Nelly strikes again

So, back by popular demand...scary big belly pics. Some days I'm feeling like a million bucks and I'm out and organizing this and doing that...then there are days when I feel like a beached whale and I just want to lie down and sleep. So, I'll give you a taste of both days, I suppose:) Go easy on me.

Deather's room pics

Deather's room is all complete... (except for a couple of minor pieces of trim hehe ) Happy viewing!

Catching Up

Sorry I've been scarce. I've been reprimanded by a few loyal readers, so I guess I better catch up on some stuff. So, I took pictures to update the blog...but I didn't like the way my hair looks in any of them, so it will be a bit before you get the "Big Belly Nelly" real picture:)
I have been to see the midwives at Lexington Women's Care twice now, and I absolutely love it. The whole atmosphere of the place is different with people who seem like they LOVE their jobs helping you do everything from check in to blood pressure to testing pee ... it's a pleasant place to be and I have not encountered one person yet who wasn't smiling or laughing. WOW!
They read my labwork differently than my other doctor and are NOT concerned about gestational diabetes with me...they also don't seem real concerned with the amount of fluid on the kidneys because they have not suggested that we do any more ultrasounds. It makes me feel so much more comfortable. When I went for my first visit I started asking questions about the things Danny and I had discussed about our birthplan. When I asked these at my other doctor's office the answer was always no...but here, it was, "Oh, of course, most definitely". That is so encouraging. They said they VERY rarely do episiotomies...they are firm believers in perineal massage and support during delivery...which totally makes me less scared about tearing and having huge issues with my downstairs. It makes me feel much more comfortable about having this baby, that's for sure.
So, about us...we are looking at the budget, organizing paperwork, closets and such to make sure that only Deather stuff is in Deather's room and that everything that can possibly be moved to the shed go out there. Danny did a fabulous job on the bedroom, so as soon as we get the closet thing taken care of (so closet things are in there instead of strewn about the room) we'll put pictures of the room up. We're so excited about how it turned out. I have little things to work on still like wall hangings and stuff, but that's a fine project for me to work on during first stage labor probably:)
I'm definitely large...but Danny and the midwife both say that I'm eating healthy things for the baby and my weight is fine, so I'm going with it even though I'm scared to death that I'll never be able to tie my shoes again. I'm sore in many joints...my fingers hurt a bunch, which is totally unexpected in my world, although again, perfectly normal for pregnant chicks. I've had a couple crying fits...which, luckily, I am logical about. It's really odd to know there's absolutely nothing wrong but feel the urge to cry and just go with it. Danny's gotten used to it and there's no trauma associated with it. It's funny...he'll ask me what's wrong and I'm like, "absolutely nothing. I'm assuming it's hormonal and I'll be over this in a few minutes." And we go about our merry way, and I'm better in a few minutes. I still feel like a freak...but at least I'm a logical and rational freak:)

Test Model

So, it's been a little while since we've posted, but that because we have been quite busy. We had a long drill in January that consisted of an Operational Readiness Exercise. Then, we had social weekend extraordinaire with farewells to Amber as she headed off to Mississippi for the next 8 months. So, finally, this weekend we got to stay home and work on finishing the room. We have panels up, all the baseboards and most of the trim...there are 3 odd shaped pieces that have to be cut due to the angle of the ceiling in Deather's room and Danny doesn't have a panel big enough to make the goofy triangle cut...so he has to go back for one last piece of panelling. Once that goes in, it will take 5 minutes to finish the molding and we will be ready to vacuum all that sawdust up and get Deather's stuff in there!!! It is so exciting.
Now, in anticipation of the room being finished this weekend, I started putting together the bed that we got. Danny had to come help after we figured out we were one panel short. It is a hammock bed called the Amby bed and it got rave reviews on all the websites. It's mobile, so it will double as a basinet in our room and portable bed for whatever room we need it in. Well, as we finished it we needed to check the angle because something didn't look right. So, Danny is trying to put weight on the spring with his hand in the bed to see if it changes the angle. Finally, he said, " I need a test model." And he starts looking around for things that might weigh about the same as a baby. Then he figures out...ahh, the dog weighs about 8 pounds and is about the size of a baby. So he calls her out of her peaceful slumber and puts her in the bed to test it. It was hilarious, she looked so skeptical about coming out there! Poor Skoshi! But the bed works great:)

Deather's almost complete room....

Well, the room is coming along nicely. I worked on it with my brother (thanks alfred) when he was visiting last week. We made lots of progress. Here's a few pics :)

The Hospital/Doctor Saga

So, with suggestions from others (thanks Jaime and Teresa) I searched the internet and talked to Miriam and Danny and I are in the middle of Bradley classes on Sunday nights and of changing doctors so that we can change hospitals. I started asking a lot of questions at my doctor's office and it was a bit disturbing to hear the answers. People automatically assume when you are inquiring about natural childbirth that the only issue is not having drugs. While that is a major point...there's still pain involved and it has to be managed...so just because you aren't going to force me to take drugs, doesn't mean you are going to support me in natural childbirth if I am not allowed to walk around, drink water, be in a position that is comfortable ... etc. It just seems like they set you up for failure and want to force you to take drugs. That irritates me. So, I am working on switching offices so that I can birth with a midwife at Lexington Medical Center where they encourage you to walk around (a novel concept) since it helps labor progress...who knew! :) (Pardon my cynicism...but if normal practice for any number of years was to birth in a cotton field and return to picking cotton once the birth was accomplishd...I don't really think women are ill equipped by God to handle the process...I am beginning to think that "technological improvements" are ill equipping us.) Part of this I'm sure has to do with timing of a fictional book I read. I like reading biblical historical fiction...and right before I started checking into the natural childbirth stuff I was reading the book "The Red Tent" which elaborates (fictionalizes) the story of Dinah (Jacob's only daughter). Well, there was a lot of midwifery and vivid descriptions of child birth and how it was handled in Bible times and it just got me thinking a lot about the whole process and how different it was then....and how much I wanted an experience more like that than many of the birth stories that I hear about today. My mom has great a great birth story for me and I like hearing it because she remembers everything (it was based on her fear of needles not her desire for natural birth...but whatever:)).
Anyway...so yesterday I had the 3 hour glucost test...which was fine until just as I was finally starting to eat at 1pm. I was shaking uncontrollably and dizzy and weak and I just wanted to go to sleep. At that point I was terrified of what would happen if I let myself go to sleep, so I forced myself to stay awake until my food had time to affect my system and I was not weak and shaking any longer. Not a fun thing!! So, the results should come back tomorrow or Thursday. We'll see.
Also, they looked at Deather's kidneys because there was fluid on them last time...there's still fluid this time...about the same amount on one and almost double on the other, so they are planning to continue monitoring in case it becomes evident that there is a blockage. I'm not sure how I feel about this since they won't do anything about it until after birth anyway...so why not just check them after birth and figure out what needs to be done at that point? If you can't do anything about it...why all the tests just to cause worry and stress? We'll see what the midwives have to say I guess.
In other news, (well, it's been a while since I blogged) Danny's brother Alfred got to come for a visit. It was nice to have him here. He helped Danny with panelling in Deather's room (it's almost done!) and just got to spend time with Danny. It was good for them. He got to out to the base with him and watch planes take off while being in a vehicle on the runway. For someone who doesn't do that everyday...it's really cool. He is gone now and headed to Missouri to do some construction stuff, so keep in your prayers. It's so yucky there with the ice and all and he is a warm blood from the south:)
I will put up pictures from the room soon...and show you some of the stages. Danny is getting very excited as he nears completion. Can't wait to show you all his handy work! :)

And Speaking of Expansion

So, as you can see the belly is growing. Danny has a great time teasing me about my belly button. A few people have mentioned that it's like a turkey thermometer...once it pops all the way out, then we know I'm done. He's highly amused by that...I'm getting better about it now that the belly button doesn't hurt anymore.

We had a comical morning today. I woke up several times with charley horse in the calf muscle throughout the night...which has been happening for about a month now off and on. It doesn't phase me so much anymore. I just roll over and stand up and as soon as I put my heel on the ground the pain stops. Well, this morning right after Danny's alarm went off I stretched...which of course resulted in immediate charley horse. (Keep in mind he snoozes about 3 or 4 times before he is actually awake.) Well, apparently I was still groggy myself because I didn't realize there was charley horse in both calves. So, as I went to stand up and relieve my pain...my legs didn't work and I ended up on the ground. So now I'm moaning in pain and crawling around on all fours because my calf muscles won't work and he's out of the bed...."what's wrong, slow down, how can I help you". I finally communicate that I need him to help me stand up and we get both my heels on the ground and the pain stops. He of course is totally freaked out because he just woke up to his wife screaming and crawling around on all fours in the bedroom. Poor guy! Once I was fine and he understood what had happened we had a good laugh:)

It's the Year of Expansion!

Well, Christmas has come and gone and we are now in 2007, the year our Deather will join us! We had a great holiday season. It's funny how we were thinking about all the things that will be different next Christmas. We didn't travel, which was nice for me because road trips are not so pleasant right now. And an extra blessing was having everyone over to our house for Christmas! I got to cook all our favorite "traditional" dishes (Danny and I started our own traditions during our first Christmas) and share with friends and family.

An added bonus for the holiday season is that we celebrate our anniversary. As of December 3oth we have been married for 3 years. We spent the day as true expectant parents, purchasing a "new" car to replace the "dangerous" SUV that we had. So, we are now safe and ready for car seats in either vehicle:) Danny traded in the VUE for a 2001 Volvo S40. So, with my 1998 Volvo V70 we feel quite certain Deather will not be in excessive danger regardless of which vehicle we must carry him/her in:)

Also, we finally got started on Deather's room! One piece of pannelling is attached to the wall! Danny is doing some electrical work to reduce the risk of fire hazards in the room as well. I took some before pictures yesterday, so as soon as he gets them downloaded to the computer we can show you our progress!

Update

Well, things are going good here. Heather is progressing very well, getting bigger and bigger, and happier and happier. As for me, well, I couldn't be more excited. It just seems kind of 'real' now and things are seemingly falling into place. There is, of course, never enough time to get the house into order for Deather's arrival, but we are trying hard to make things live-able for the arrival.
I'll start on the paneling for Deather's room this week, so I should have pics of that soon. Still have lots of things to 'aquire' for the baby, but all will fall into place I'm sure lol. Other then that, not much new going on. Merry X-mas is just around the corner....yay!
danny

Check-Up

So, today I went in for a routing check-up. I anticipated a short visit...unfortunately the short visit only involved the time I spent with the doctor not the time I spent in the office. It all started fine...but then a mom came in (to the OB/GYN mind you) with a little boy that looked to be between 4 and 6 who was sick. He was coughing every 10 seconds and every third cough his mom would say, "cover your mouth, honey." I'm sitting there thinking ... "Do you see all of the swollen bellies sitting around you that do not need to be exposed to this illness? Not to mention the 3 newborns!" But I of course sit quietly attempting to breath as little shared air as possible with this germ infested kid. Finally a chair comes open across the room and I am able to move. But all in all I was in the waiting area for over an hour, just to have my belly measured, my weight, blood pressure and iron checked...and hear the heartbeat. All of that was easily accomplished in ten minutes. Oh well. Things are good though. Deather's heartbeat was b/w 150 and 160 and the doctor said that her increasing heartrate is indicating that his brain is developing properly:) The doctor also mentioned Bradley classes for natural childbirth. Has anyone reading this blog ever taken those? I was disappointed at my last visit because I found out that with this doctor's office, Baptist is the only option for birth...and they do not offer doulas like Lexington does. When my sister was pregnant, I remember going to tour Lexington with her and hearing all about the doula thing and really thinking that was an important part of birth. Mom and Danny have committed to being doula for me...but I need to find out how to get them the info they need to do an effective job. Any tips?

Pregnancy Pics

So, we went to get our Christmas pictures made and they ended up taking some really cool pregnancy pics. Here are a few of our favorites. This is our little family with Deather at 23 weeks:)

Here's the latest and greatest of Deather.

Big Belly Nelly

That's the nickname Heather's been given. Here's why :)