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.