Storch Family Blog

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Week 40

Well today is March 6, 2009. It just happens to be the baby's official DUE DATE and so far NOTHING. I was so excited when I woke up, because I thought maybe the baby would really come on it's actual due date. Here are some pictures we took in front of the house this morning before we left for our appointment.

We went to our doctors appointment at 8:00 this morning for a Non Stress Test and an exam. Here is the update: these past couple of weeks I have been gaining weight like crazy (total weight gain is now 53 pounds), my blood pressure was 100/60, baby's heart rate is in the 140's, my cervix is about the same as it was last week, I am not dilated at all.

The NST is basically where they hook you up to a fetal monitor for 20 minutes and see how the baby's heartrate is reacting to any contractions you are having. It also makes sure the baby is moving around like it should. I don't know how it moves at all since it is so squished in there, but somehow it manages. We passed the NST and now the plan is to wait. If nothing happens this weekend we are scheduled to go into the hospital on Tuesday night and check in. I will be induced early Wednesday morning.

So I guess we are just going to try and enjoy our weekend. Today we have a hot date to get pizza and go miniature golfing. :) We will keep you updated if anything happens! Here is one last belly shot for your viewing pleasure.

Week 39

Well we are down to the final stretch!! 7 more days and the baby is due to come out!! :) Yay! I went for my doctor's appointment yesterday (Friday) and she says that the baby's head is right there. My cervix has thinned considerably, but not all the way. I am still not dilated at all. It still could be any day now. I have my next appointment on Friday, March 6th (due date!) and if the baby has not come by then I already have an induction scheduled for early Wednesday morning. Some good news...the baby is not big, blood pressure was good, blood sugars have been good. Everything is right on track so now it's a waiting game.

Here is a 39 week picture that Ed took today. Who needs a tan? This girl!

This weekend we don't have a whole lot planned. Basically we are going to clean the house, get the guest room ready, clean out the garage, and make sure everything is washed and ready for baby. I need to pack my bags too. I have a list that I made, but I think this weekend I will go ahead and have it all ready so that when the time comes we don't have to worry about it.

Here is a picture of baby's room still in progress...

My latest addition is the book shelves on either side of the crib. I needed more space for storage and they matched perfectly. We have started a book collection for baby. We got a bunch of books that we both loved to read as kids and we both agree that it is never too early to read to a child. I can't wait! Ed already read all of the books to Hope so he could practice reading out loud (how cute!). I think this weekend I might set up the pack & play downstairs so we have somewhere for the baby to sleep close by. I don't have a monitor yet and I don't think I'll be comfortable with the baby upstairs without being able to hear it cry.

Well I guess it's just a waiting game from here on out. We will keep you posted if anything happens!! :)

Week 38

Week 38! 14 days to go! Friday I had my doctor's appointment and he said the baby has definitely dropped down into the pelvis...yay! Unfortunately I'm not dilated or anything so it could still be weeks, but at least baby is doing what it can to get here. :) Either way it will be soon!

Ed and I had a nice weekend. Friday night we went over to a friends house and played a game of poker. It was a first for both of us and we didn't end up winning, but we both had a lot of fun trying. Ed held in there pretty long. Saturday Ed went iceskating with his friends Randy and Tyson. I went shopping at the mall with Randy's wife. That night another neighbor was going to have a poker game at his house but Ed and I were exhausted from the busy day so we volunteered to watch Randy and Andrea's baby Madilynn. She is so cute!

They brought her over around 7:00. She had a snack of goldfish and shared with Hope. Then she got a little fussy so we thought a bath might be fun but she started screaming and reaching for Ed. We cut the bath short, got her dressed in her pajamas, and I started warming up her bottle. She only wanted Ed to hold her (so cute!) so he gave her a bottle and she passed out in his arms. Ed and I watched a movie and passed out on the couch.

Sunday we went to church in the morning. We came home and made delicious Reuben sandwiches for lunch. Mmm! Ed watched the Penguins game and I cleaned up a little bit. For dinner we made cheese stuffed manicotti.

On to the next week...maybe the baby will make it's debut...we shall see!

Here is the start of packing the baby's bag. I have a bunch of outfits, pacifiers, diapers, wipes, blankets, etc. Hopefully we will have everything we need. The carseat is in the car ready to go!

Week 37

BELLY PIC

As of today I have 18 days to go!! CRAZINESS! We have had a good week so far. At my last appointment I had lost 1 pound from the week before (yay!) and my blood pressure was good, my sugars have been good (except when I eat yummy cake!), I'm measuring fine. They checked me and said that the baby is still WAY up there and shouldn't be here anytime soon...darn. :( I was really excited because once you hit 37 weeks in your pregnancy, the baby is considered full term.

I stopped working as of last week because I was having contractions all day long and they were starting to get uncomfortable. I really wanted to work through my whole pregnancy, but the 12 hour shifts were becoming too much and I just couldn't do it. I felt like I was sitting down for a break every 10 minutes to make the contractions stop. I guess I will take the extra time to get caught up on my cleaning, getting the nursery ready, etc. There are so many things to do around here, I don't even know where to start. I made this huge list so hopefully I can tackle everything before I go into labor.

Other than that, we are just sitting here anxious to meet our baby and find out if it's a he or a she. We're both really curious to see what baby looks like, we talk about it almost every night before we go to bed. Ed thinks baby will be blonde like he was and I think it will come out with dark hair like I did. We will see soon enough.

As soon as I get the nursery cleaned up and everything put away I will take an updated picture of what I've done so far. We still don't have a theme (we're waiting until we know what the baby will be), but we have some things in place.

Week 36

The Week of the Showers...Part 2

This is Amanda's famous diaper cake...ADORABLE!!

After my PSA shower I loaded my car with presents and drove straight to Jacksonville. My BFF Monica had planned a shower and invited all of my Wolfson girls!! I was soooo excited to see everyone, they hadn't seen me since September (see past blog "Last Night at Work"). I was a little nervous about driving by myself 9 months preggo, but I had been to the doctor's office the day before and she assured me I would be fine. So I made it to Monica's house and she was the best hostess ever. It was more like a vacation than anything. She had worked so hard to clean her house and she even had a low-carb dinner ready for me when I got there. We ate dinner and visited for awhile. Her hospitality was incredible. She even turned down my covers when it was time for bed. Here is a picture of her and Max.

The next morning we got up early and she made me coffee with cinnamon (mmm!) and breakfast. We ran a few errands, and I helped her get everything ready for everyone to get there that afternoon. It was soooo nice! Here are some pictures...

Here is a picture of the spread...DEEE-LISH!!

The girls trying to figure out the word scramble game...

Angela won that game...with some help from me! Haha!

VACCINATION!! (inside joke)

Baby Madelyn shared her birthday with me...she came straight from her party!

Opening Presents!!

Me & Jamie!

Lindsey & I...and my big baby!

Thank you Monica for hosting this baby shower!! It was so much fun to spend a weekend with you. It was nice to see everyone from the floor. I can't thank you enough for your kindness!!!

Week 36

The week of the Showers...

I had been looking forward to this week for awhile...the Week of the Showers. It started off last Friday morning at the office of PSA Healthcare, my current job. The lovely Betty had planned a beautiful baby shower for me. It was so much fun! We had a gorgeous cake, fun decorations, and delicious food! She had some neat games and activities arranged...they had to get this tape and rip off a piece long enough to fit around my belly. We also decorated little onesies with paints. They turned out amazing. Here are some pictures from the party...

Fun Cake

Fun Presents!

Decorated Onesies! Thanks everyone!

Holly & Cathy

Brooke and I

Betty working hard!

Thank you so much Betty for this beautiful shower you arranged!! :) It was amazing!

Week 35

Well Friday marked the beginning of Week 35 which means I officially have only 35 days to go!! Woooo hooo!!! :) Baby is almost here! Here are some pictures from this weekend.

Here is the latest belly pic...

People asked for pictures of me so here you go...in all of my big fat glory, but not for long. :)

We started off the weekend by going to dinner with friends at a Japanese Steak House. It was a lot of fun and the food was good. We also went to a movie (Revolutionary Road). I was disappointed in the movie b/c it wasn't at all what I expected. It was actually kind of depressing. If you know anyone who shouldn't get married anytime soon, have them watch that movie and they won't ever want to get married.

This weekend we are relaxing and getting ready to watch the Super Bowl. GO STEELERS!! Ed is very nervous about the game, but I'm sure the Steelers will come out on top. We have a doctors appointment on Wednesday, so more to come on this week...

UPDATE:

Well the Steelers won the SUPERBOWL!! Here are some pictures from our little Superbowl party. We were invited to watch the game with friends, but Ed insisted that he had to watch it in our livingroom alone so that people wouldn't be talking and interrupting his concentration.

Week 34

Well this week we had our ultrasound. The baby officially weighs in at 5 pounds 1 oz. I thought that sounded kind of big, but the doctor insisted that it is in the 50th percentile and right on target. My blood sugars are still good, same with weight, blood pressure, and fundal height. I have been having contractions every so often, but not painful ones. It feels like a tightening around my tummy and then goes away when I sit down. Everything is right where it should be so we don't have to go in for 2 weeks to be seen again. Now all we need to do is wait for baby to get here...it seems like these last few weeks are taking FOREVER. We are ready!

The changing table finally arrived and Ed was gracious enough to put it together before I got home from work and he surprised me with it. It looks great in the nursery. I want to find some baskets for the shelves though, to keep things organized and looking neat. I also bought some shelves to put on either side of the crib to hold books, pictures, a lamp, and the ipod docking station. Baby will have plenty of lullabies on his/her own ipod. Any suggestions? So far we just have the Rockabye Baby soundtracks that we've found on i-tunes (the music playing on the blog).

Other than all of that we have both been working and going about normal stuff. I'm still working 12 hour shifts which are keeping me busy and helping the time pass by. At least I get 4 days off a week to relax. It's going to be very strange not working, since I've done it ever since I can remember. I'm not sure if I know how to not work. Hopefully baby will keep me busy. Haha. Well more later. Here are a couple of pictures for this week...

Here is a blurry picture of me from the side.

Ed said he took this one to show how small Hope looks next to the big baby.

Week 33

Hello all. This week was pretty good and productive. Thursday we had a doctors appointment to check up on my sugars again. They are still within the normal limit so I don't have to go on medication...yay! :) I still have to check them 4 times a day and watch what I eat. Also my blood pressure was fine and my belly is measuring right on target. We have a follow-up appointment on Tuesday morning and the doctor ordered an ultrasound to see how big the baby has gotten since the last time they measured at 24 weeks. I am curious to see how much the baby weighs now. At 24 weeks they had estimated 1.5 pounds based on the ultrasound. According to all of the books a baby at 33 weeks should way a little over 4-4.5 pounds. I guess we will find out soon enough.

The weather has been "cold" here. Well cold meaning 60's and 70's instead of 80's. At least we can wear our jeans now and sometimes even long sleeves. I am still waiting for the changing table to get here. Stupid online shopping...very convenient except you have to wait. Today I bought a million baby hangers and my goal for this coming week is to wash all of the baby clothes that I have and get them put away. Last week I washed all of the bassinette pieces and those types of things. Our washing machine can sterilize so I used that setting. It takes forever but it makes things REALLY clean.

This past Saturday we had our big "Childbirth Class". We were very optimistic and open-minded hoping that we would learn something useful. Unfortunately, Ed and I have read all of the books there are to read on pregnancy and labor which kind of ruined the class. We could have gone up there and taught it ourselves. We had to go at least once in our lives I guess. We did a bunch of ridiculous breathing and visualization techniques. I was hoping we would at least see some good birthing movies where they showed everything (TLC always blurs it out which doesn't make sense since it is a natural/medical event and not pornographic). We were hoping to at least maybe make some new friends and compare pregnancy stuff, but most of the couples were older (I'm talking old enough to be my parents) which was surpising b/c it was everyone's first baby. We were pretty disappointed. Oh well.

Week 32

8 Months pregnant! Aughh! I can't believe it. 56 days to go! Here is a photo image of my first official pregnancy stretch marks...I can't believe I'm putting them on the internet for all to see. Oh well, I guess it's all a part of the process, sacrificing your body.

We need to get moving with preparations! Well we decided we would finally put together the white crib we bought months ago (see previous blog for picture) and what do you know, we broke it. We busted a tiny piece of wood on one of the rails that goes up and down and it pretty much made the whole thing unsafe. We attempted to fix it with Gorilla Glue and clamps...but it was a no go. We got so mad that we decided to go out and buy a brand new, solid wood crib that would last us for years and years. Here is the finished product...This one is solid wood and doesn't have a drop rail. We love it and can't wait to see what it looks like with all of the bedding on it. We still don't know how we are going to "decorate" the nursery since we don't know what the baby is going to be. We did go ahead and order a changing table though and we have a rocking chair. This weekend I'm going to wash all of the clothes and linens I have so I can put them away. Here is a picture of the changing table...it's supposed to arrive sometime this week.
When we went to buy the crib we found these really cool cd's called "Rockabye Baby". Basically it's rock bands songs turned into lullabye music. I put some on the site so you could hear them. We got Pink Floyd & NIN to add to the baby's ipod.

Next week we have Childbirth Class. We are taking the full day speed class on a Saturday. We're pretty psyched about it. Hopefully it will be worthwhile. So far everything is going great. At our doctor's appt. this past week my sugars were good, I hadn't gained anymore weight, and the baby is measuring right on target still. :) Ed starts his school this week coming up so he is pretty excited about that. More to come!!

Week 31

Here is the belly at 31 weeks...

A few days after Christmas we had more guests arrive!! Grandma and Grandpa Bullock! :) Haha! They drove down with Scarlett to visit us. They got here on Saturday afternoon and their first night we had a nice dinner at a restaurant on the water called The Chart House. It was soooooo good and I even managed to eat and still pass my blood sugar limits.

Yes I am still checking the sugars and so far I don't have to go on medication b/c it is being controlled with diet and exercise. Let me explain this b/c everyone always asks me...basically gestational diabetes isn't really like regular diabetes at all. My body still makes insulin like it normally would, but since I am pregnant the placenta is soaking it all up so that my body is unable to use it, therefore I am not breaking down sugars properly and so my blood sugar is elevated. It doesn't hurt the baby except that it puts me at risk of gaining more weight, thus the baby being bigger. So far the baby is measuring perfectly so we are good.

When you have a large baby you are more likely to either deliver earlier than normal or have a ceserean section. Some people have to go on medication to keep their sugars down, but not everyone. Basically I eat a low-carb diet and avoid sweets/white breads/rice that kind of thing. No more icecream for me! :( Oh well. Ed and I have also been walking twice a day for 1.5 miles each time, which we probably should have been doing anyways. No I don't have diabetes, when I have the baby my body will go back to normal. No, the baby doesn't have diabetes (everyone asks that). It's really not a big deal at all as long as I keep my sugars under control.

Okay back to week 31. We had a lovely dinner at the Chart House and then came back to our house and opened Christmas presents. Scarlett and Hope got to play with each other (they are BFF's). Ed got a Bose speaker for his ipod. The sound quality is insane! This was perfect b/c we had a smaller speaker and now we are going to put it in the baby's room. We loaded Ed's old ipod with baby music and so the baby already has its own ipod sound system in the nursery. I got a huge KitchenAid mixer that I can't wait to use!! I have to hold off a little while until the baby is born b/c I can't make any "fun" stuff right now. I really want to use it to make cookies. I've always wanted one.

Sunday we had brunch/lunch at the Hilton and then got ready for the Steelers game. Unfortunately it wasn't on tv so we had to find somewhere to watch it. We went to a few places and they were crowded so we finally settled at Beef O'Brady's. Here is a picture of Ed and his mom rooting for the Steelers!!

Sunday night Aunt Kathy, Uncle John and cousins Ashleigh, Alyssa, & Jonathan came over to visit. They were in FL visiting their other grandparents and were nice enough to drive up to see us and our new house!! We had a great time with them. We got to talk and even got everyone to play some Guitar Hero. Here are some pictures of that...

That Monday it was back to work after the holidays. :( Time to get ready for Happy New Year! Not much to report about that...I was in bed by 9:30 and had to work the next day. Oh well. Maybe we will get to party next year.