26 weeks- Maternity tour at St. Lukes

<--This is what my little munchkin supposedly looks like right now. This weekend we had our Maternity Ward tour at St. Lukes in the Medical Center. We got a tour of the labor and delivery room and then the nursery and postpartum recovery room. I thought the rooms were pretty tiny but the accomodations were really nice. Once the baby is born the baby rooms in with you which I didn't know. I thought they whisked them off to the nursery and only brought them in for feedings. For some reason I didn't realize that hospitals don't do that anymore. I'm really glad the baby will room with us! That will be so great. We both got a little emotional when we passed the nursery. There was one baby JUST born in there waiting on her mom to get out of the recovery room. We were just in awe thinking about how in 3 months Steve will be in there with the baby and she'll be our baby, 1/2 of each of us with little hands and little feet. It was such a reality and we were so happy. I started tearing up right there on the tour. I couldn't help it.

We have our choice between St. Lukes and Methodist so we are going to do the Methodist tour in a couple of weeks. I hear the rooms are bigger and that you stay in the same room the entire time. Then we start our classes at whichever hospital we pick.

Right after the tour we went to a store called doodles in the village where I picked up the rug for her nursery. Steve couldn't resist this soft fluffy bunny rabbit with big floppy ears and a pink ribbon. He bought it for her and put it in her crib when we got home. We imagine that bunny will be tattered, dirty and missing an ear in a few years.

As for me my feet are swelling again and my ribs are very sore. I'm not sure what she's doing to my ribs but they hurt!

25 weeks

Not much new to report on me and baby this week. I feel great and she is about 1.5 lbs and a little over a foot long. Dancing away in there as usual. Steve had to take me on an emergency run to Marble Slab on Sunday when I almost had a meltdown at Kroger because the freezer section was taped off and I couldn't get to the Ben and Jerrys! Also I can no longer bend over like a normal person, so when I put my pants on I have to do this strange maneuver where I stick my knees out to the side and lift my legs up like I'm doing the chicken dance. Steve laughs at me every time because I look so ridiculous, but hey whatever works!

Now I need to take a few lines to brag about my wonderful husband. Without a word from me he has now taken on most of the household chores like cleaning the house, making dinner, shampooing the carpets, and going to the grocery store. This is all in addition to the things he already does around the house like feed the animals, take care of the yard (which he does a great job at I might add) and take out the trash. One day I got home from work and he had already mowed the grass, walked the dogs, cleaned the house and made dinner. Superman I tell ya!!! Little munchkin and I are some lucky girls.

Speaking of lucky girl..little munchkin says thank you to Granpa Calvin and Grandma Irene, Aunt Sara, Uncle Justin and Aunt Marcella for the sweet gifts.

We have a new niece!

My sister Kristi delivered our new baby niece Ali last Thursday! She of course got my sisters hair color and the chin that me and my sisters all have :) Being the proud aunt that I am I have to post pictures.



Here is my beautiful sister with my cutie nephew Avery


24 week update
Okay so I went to the OB last week and all still looked great so I'm now able to go for my evening walks. Low impact exercise was approved so at least I'll be getting SOME exercise. Our little munchkin was moving so much during the appointment they had a hard time getting her to sit still long enough to get the heart rate. When they finally got it was beating away at a healthy 146bpm. You can now see her little movements on the outside of my belly. Steve could not believe how hard she kicks when he saw it this week! My aunt Bonnie said maybe she'll wear herself out in there and sleep a lot when she gets here. haha!

I am officially a small house. This weekend I was not and by Monday night I was. Funny how that works. Bending over is now a challenge so getting dressed in the mornings has been a little work. Lucky for me I have had no more swelling. I quickly realized that eating frozen dinners and processed foods causes my feet to swell so I stopped eating them. Too MUCH sodium in those things!

Baby Biscuit is Jealous

Well the jealousy has started. Biscuit has been acting a little strange for the last couple of weeks. She's a pretty sensitive little dog and any kind of change stresses her out. Now that we have the baby's room all set up she has started taking what Steve likes to call "monster dumps" in the middle of the floor of the baby's room. This dog NEVER potties in the house so she must know something is up. This same thing happened with my friend Michelle's dog when she was pregnant. Once they set up the nursery her dog started going potty in the room.

Last night she would not let either one of us out of her sight. She wanted to be in our laps or at our feet all night long. If we got up and moved she was right behind us and soon as we sat down she was in our laps. Isn't it strange how animals sense these things??

In other news Steve and I had our 2nd daycare tour at a place in the Heights. I really liked it and thought it was very homey and personable. It also has come with rave reviews from other parents of friends I know. Steve is skeptical but I think he will be of any place we look at. So now it's between this place and St. Lukes. I guess it will depend on which one we can get into. The place we looked at today is a little more expensive than St. Lukes but more convenient location wise for both of us.

In even more exciting news my sister Kristi is going to deliver our new baby niece on Thursday! Her name is going to be Ali and she's already measuring 8lbs so she will be delivering a little early.

23 Weeks

At exactly 23 weeks we had another scare when the spotting returned. I went in to my OB immediately and this time she's concerned. She said that spotting at this stage is "not normal" and I am completely restricted from any exercise at all. That means no walking the dogs, no vacumming the house or any of that stuff. Everything on my exam looked fine and by looking at baby girl on the ultrasound she wasn't phased a bit. She is all balled up in there just as happy as can be kicking her legs and flailing her arms. My doc says as long as I can sit at my desk most of the day at work I can still come to work. I go back this Thursday for a follow up visit. Of course I cried in my car all the way home. It's so scary and to be at the this stage and have any kind of issues just breaks my heart. Luckily just like last time the spotting stopped as soon as it started. So because I'm restricted Steve had a VERY busy weekend.

Friday night he shampooed the carpet in the babies room. He went and picked up our nursery furniture on saturday, brought it in by himself (not that I would have helped anyway), and then put the crib together. The furniture looks amazing and it felt so good thinking that we bought this for a little person that's going to be living with us in just 3-4 months! Then he removed all of the mounts (ie. animal heads) he had hanging in the room. My father in law graciously agreed to take a few of them to his house (thanks Irene for allowing him to do so! haha) Steve and I agreed he could keep two of his favorites mounted in the house and the other two he mounted in closets.

So our little munchkin's room is in progress! I'm so excited to start decorating it. We've picked out the bedding and we still need to get our glider. I've already recruited Sara to help with the decorating since that is her all time favorite thing to do.

Last night I thought it would be fun to see the pups reactions to a baby cry so I found a wav file on the internet and played it. Biscuit was laying on the couch and Magnum was on the floor playing with a toy. As soon as the baby cry started Magnum jumped up dropped his toy on the floor and ran to the sound tilting his head back and forth. Then Biscuit jumped off the couch ran to the sound barking and tilting her head back and forth. They had no idea what to make of this sound! It was too cute.

22 weeks

Well I've just entered my 6th month and still feel great. Despite a little back pain and some minor swelling in my feet all is well. Steve said my feet looked like two loaves of bread baking in my shoes the other night. Today wasn't much better but I guess that comes with the territory. Good thing the warm weather is here and I can get away with flip flops.

We purchased our nursery furniture on Saturday. What a stressful event that was. After 3 stores and hours of debate over espresso or antique white we finally decided on a set and made the purchase. It should be delivered this weekend so I've got to shampoo the carpets sometime this week before it arrives. No pictures until the nursery is complete! I can't wait to get started in there.

As requested here is my 22 week belly shot:

21 Weeks

First I want to say thank you to everyone for all of your thoughts, prayers, flowers and support with my Memaw's passing. The services were beautiful and we all feel good knowing she is where she wants to be despite our sadness and loss. I take comfort in knowing that Memaw is watching over me. I'm sure she is laughing her head off just waiting for me to have a little girl to cause me as much trouble as I probably caused her at times. I just hope I can bring as much joy and happines to our little girls life as Memaw brought to mine.

21 weeks now and I finally had my first premature deformed baby nightmare. I dreamed that she was born a few months early but that she was the size of a 2 month old already. She had blonde hair, blue eyes and a dimple in her chin, but the rest of her body had skin deformities covering her and we had no idea what to do! The doctors told us they were cosmetic and could be taken care of when she got older, but nothing could be done now. Also she was born so early that we had no crib, clothes or baby essentials and I was freaking out and totally unprepared. Then Steve and I ran out to buy baby stuff and forgot the baby at home! It was so nice to wake up and realize it was all just a dream!

Steve and I have been taking the dogs on daily walks around the neighborhood and Magnum still needs a little bit of leash training. He darts at cars that drive by and other dogs he sees. Monday we were walking and a lady ran by with her two dogs so naturally Magnum freaked out and had to run over and check them out immediately. When he did he wrapped his leash around my ankles and tripped me so I ended up eating pavement and laid out in the middle of the street (of course it happened in front of 4 other people standing in their yard). I don't know how I landed but both knees are bruised, one hand, one elbow is scraped up and my lower back and right foot are both sore. The good news is that baby is fine and didn't seem to have a clue what had just happened. Steve was positive I'd just "flattened" the baby and that something terrible was going to happen. She's been kicking me all week and it gets stronger as time goes by so I know she's doing just fine in there.

In other news, we sold our guest room furniture yesterday so the babies room will soon be under way...

p.s. Little Munchkin wants to thank Memaw Carlile, GiGi & Gramps, Aunt Melissa and Uncle Justin for her wonderful new clothes. She can't wait to get here and be big enough to wow everyone with her cuteness and great sense of style.