Bedrest continues....

I had a follow-up doctor's appt. today from the one on Tuesday. The doctor just wanted to check my blood-pressure again and make sure everything is a-ok. After checking it initially it was elevated and they had me lay on my left side (the usual procedure at this point) for a few minutes and they checked again. At that point it had gone down a bit. She said that I am responding well to bedrest, but I am to continue until the baby makes his/her appearance. The doctor also did a non-stress test and I was able to hear the baby's heartbeat for a good 15-20 minutes or so....that was great! The little one is doing just fine and my bloodwork came back good too. Overall, we are doing well! I am hoping and praying that I deliver next week for many reasons including:

-my mom will be up from MD
-my doctor is on-call
-I don't want to "waste" my leave time from work on time without my baby..I rather spend it getting to know our little one


That's it for the update! Thanks for all your emails, calls, thoughts, prayers, etc.

36 weeks

This first picture can be seen earlier in our blog! But, we wanted to show you a comparison of then and now. The second picture was taken last week (35 weeks).


We had our 36 week appt. today and I am now on full bedrest. I can no longer work and I am allowed to either be on the couch or in bed. I was also told I can do the stairs twice in one day. Not fun! I have now been on bedrest for a few hours and am wondering what else I can watch on TV (especially with the writer's strike....why now?). I do have books to read and thank-you notes to write, so at least I have some options. Also, my sister is coming up from MD for two days and my mom will come up next week. Those visits should help pass the time. As of today, the baby's head is still down but nothing is happening (no dilation). I have another appointment on Thursday in order to check my blood pressure again. We'll see what happens...I now have plenty of time to update you...don't worry :-).


This picture is my happy place :-)! It was taken on our cruise back in May and I love how it captures just how happy Jason and I are together. This is probably what our faces will look like once we meet our little one too (add some exhaustion to that I'm sure).

Getting closer....

Tomorrow marks 35 weeks for us...only 5 more weeks to go (who knows, maybe less)! Our hospital bag is packed and we have had one of our birthing classes. We have two more this week and then we're done. We're both beyond excitement and anxious to meet our little one. We had been thinking the baby was a boy the last time we posted, but then we switched to a girl and back and forth. I guess we will just have to wait and see. Everyone has their own opinion too and we have about 50% people saying boy and 50% saying girl. Good thing it's a 50/50 chance....that means some of you will be right.

We had a doctor's appointment on Friday morning and everything checked out well except my blood pressure. They checked it when I first got to the office and it was "slightly elevated". Then, they decided to check it again a few minutes later and it was the same. Finally, they had me lay on my left side for a few minutes before checking it a third time. After that my blood pressure went down a tiny bit, but not enough for them to not do anything. So, I am now on modified bedrest. I am still able to work and go places. But, when I am home I have been given orders to be a "couch potato". On one hand the past few days have been tough as I am still nesting and want to clean/organize more. However, I have taken a nap the past two days which was absolutely wonderful. I might just take one today :-)!

The baby is continuing to move around like a crazy person. The greatest was last night....I woke up constantly feeling him/her move around and kicking. Jason kept waking up too as he would either have his hand on my belly and feel the baby or I would be up against him and he could feel the baby kicking him. Maybe we should start teaching our baby manners. We watched Raising Helen last night and we both thought this quote was funny:

(Pregnant woman talking to her pregnant belly) Sweetie,



what did Mommy say about kicking when she's having a



conversation?  You need to wait until she's finished.     



Thank you very much. 







(Her sister, Helen) Did you just boss around the unborn?



     



      



(Pregnant woman) It's never too early to start learning



manners.

 Pictures of the Nursery:

Doctor's Appointment

Today I am technically 32.5 weeks pregnant! Almost there...woo hoo! The question I keep getting (even from the doctor) is "How are you feeling"? Honestly, since this is my first pregnancy I have nothing to compare it to. But, my pregnancy has been very uneventful....thank God for that! I am to the point where I try to keep going and realize that I may be pushing myself. I'll wake up in the morning feeling ok and within an hour I feel as if I haven't slept at all....crazy. If that's the worst thing in my pregnancy then I have a lot to be thankful for....which I definitely am.

The doctor said I am measuring right on time and everything is going well! When I asked her if she thinks the baby is going to be huge (i.e. - around 10 lbs.) she said probably not......that caused me some relief as the last ultrasound said the baby was 2-3 weeks bigger than my due date.

This little stinker is moving a lot, which entertains Jason and I often. We keep referring to the baby as "he", which means that if we end up having a girl we'll most likely have to pay for therapy for her at some point. Although, who am I kidding...no matter what we do the child will blame us for something :-). Jason is already plotting ways to embarass our child....inlcuding (but not limited to) singing and dancing (which is quite a sight) in public, making obnoxious appearances at school, and telling embarassing stories to his/her friends. Being the therapist in the family I try to remind him how bad our child could be scarred but it seems to just add fuel to the fire.

I have definitely been nesting and Jason is wonderful at reminding me to slow down...not something to which I am accustomed. On New Year's Day we got a ton accomplished but at 9 at night when I was ironing the baby's curtains I told Jason my plans to hang the curtain rod before bed. At that point he left it up to me but strongly suggested that I relax for the rest of the night. I was thankful the next day for this, but that night I was really wanting to get more done. We are just about down in the baby's room. We have the closet doors to hang and the curtains. Hopefully we'll get those two things done this weekend and will post pictures and maybe a video next week. We'll see!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's! Let us know how you are doing...we'd love to hear from you.

29 Weeks

We are freshly back from our babymoon in the O.C. That's Ocean City, MD not The O.C.. The soundtrack was almost as good though. It was a nice weekend full of relaxing. But seriously The O.C. had some great music. Check out Mix 3. Some really great Chrismukkah music. By the way, Happy Ramahanukwanzmas



This evening we interviewed a Dr. Rozwat at Penn Care for Kids. I liked him a lot, and as such the doctors at Penn Care will likely become our pediatricians. He was very bubbly and answered all of our questions. He seemed very well read in his field, and was able to address a question I had about vacinations.


We also decorated our Christmas tree, even fatty helped us with the ornaments. No, not Heather, she's pregnant, but our cat Buddy has developed somewhat of a lard ass. I took him to the vet this week which was interesting. I had them trim his claws, which was funny to listen to, as they had to take him to the back of the office. I can only imagine they were waterboarding him, as they sounds he was making were much like I imagine coming from Club G'itmo. So Buddy came home with trimmed claws, and fatty food.


We bought a fake tree this year. I just got tired of having to clean up fallen needles before the cat eats them. Other than that life continues much like it always does.




J

Random!!!

Here are some random pictures over the past month!

They include:

• A trip to NYC to see the taping of The Rachael Ray Show (the daytime program) - which will air the day before Thanksgiving...you might see us! This trip was with my brother, Mike (his birthday gift), my friend, Jessica (from college), and my friend, Becca (from work).

• Jason's brother, Ryan, got married the end of October, so we included a picture from that event.

• Our day at Linvilla Orchards with Mike, Michelle, and Aidan.
• Jake's (Ashley's son) birthday party - a costume party!
• Our pumpkin (it's a bat in case you can't tell!)

The Nursery, now and then!

The week after Disneyworld we decided to take on the task of the Nursery. Jason and I painted the ceiling, as our friend, Karen, suggested it be the best first step. The next day, I headed to a conference in MD and Jason continued the room by painting the walls. Karen and Jason finished up a day later by finishing the trim, painting clouds on the ceiling, and putting the wall lettering up (as seen in the picture). Apparently, Buddy (our cat) enjoyed himself too as he stepped in paint on the window sill.

This upcoming weekend, Jason and Matt (friend of ours) will replace the carpet with a faux wood floor. Then we'll put the crib together, place the furniture, and also install a closet organizer. Almost there!! We'll post more pictures throughout the process!

This room was our guest room as you can see in the before pictures!