37 weeks

I had my appointment with my OB today and blood work yesterday. Lots of good news! My platelets are up to 178 which is good because they are supposed to be above 150 and they are going up. Last time I went they were 160, I think. Also, at my OB appt today she told me that I'm 2.5 cm dilated! Yea! I'm getting closer! She said that next week she may do an ultrasound to double check where his head is. I don't think he's really dropped at all yet, he still seems pretty high. I've been having more and more of those random contractions, which I didn't even realize until last week that that's what they were. I kept thinking he was just sitting in a funny position for a little while, but nope, those were Braxton Hicks. And he's still as active as ever, which I don't mind too much because it's reassuring, but sometimes I wish he'd calm down a little!

My countdown is now in the teens! 19 days until my due date! My mom is coming this weekend to "help me nest". I haven't gotten the urge to nest yet, which doesn't surprise me (or my mom, probably), so she's coming to do some major cleaning one last time before Owen gets here. Sounds pretty boring to me, but I appreciate the help, that's for sure! I shouldn't even say "help" because if anything, she'll be doing all the work, as usual.

So anyway, now I just need to get through the next couple of weeks of school and hope that the weather is cooperative for when he's ready to come out. We live about 10-15 minutes from the hospital in good conditions and light traffic, but from Elkader it would take about 1 hr 15 in good conditions and Ryan's family from Muscatine at least 2 hours.

We put our tree up this past Monday for the first time in about four years. It looks pretty good, but there's nothing under it. I hope Owen comes before Christmas so we can get a family picture in front of our tree!

I decided to take another bare belly picture, but first, this is a reminder of when I was 32 weeks and 4 days:


And this is me today, 37 weeks and 2 days:


I'm definitely bigger, but I think it's more of an all over roundness. I expected that my belly would be OUT farther, which it is, but not as much as I thought it would be.

28 weeks

Well, I figured since Ryan and I finally bought a new camera, this would be the perfect time to start my baby blog to keep people updated. I am now 28 weeks (the first week of my 7th month and last trimester!), and so far everything has been going great. We found out about two months ago that we are expecting a boy and are very excited to have a future Vikings football player in our family. :) We decided even before we knew what we were having that if it was a boy, his name would be Owen William Burke. Ryan's favorite boy name was Owen, which just happens to be my dad's real first name, so it works out pretty well. William is Ryan's middle name.

The doctor says everything has been looking good and everything is right on schedule, and hopefully he stays on schedule because I am doing my student teaching right now and won't be done until 3 days before my due date, which is December 21, 2009. He'll be the perfect Christmas present. On Tuesday I went in and had blood drawn to check for anemia and high glucose, and I haven't heard anything from the nurse about my results so far, and she said no news is good news. I've had a really easy pregnancy so far - no morning sickness, my back is fine most of the time, and no swollen feet (yet - knock on wood). The worst part for me is 2-3 leg cramps a night and having to pee all the time. I've always gotten night leg cramps, but they were always more random and no where NEAR as painful. They aren't just in my calves either. Sometimes they are along the outside of my lower leg, which is really weird and are harder to get rid of, and in the arches of my foot. The other day at school I had cramps near the balls of my feet and had to walk around on my tiptoes during class. I wonder what my students thought.

Student teaching, by the way, is going great. Right now I am at Peet Junior High in Cedar Falls, doing 9th grade Spanish (the high school here is only big enough to accommodate grades 10-12). I'll be done at Peet on October 16th, and then I start at Hudson High School on October 26th, teaching 9th and 10th grade Spanish. I like it so far, but can't wait to get my OWN classroom.

Ok, well, I was able to take a few pictures with my webcam of my growing belly, so I'll post those. My head is cut off because I had to take them myself, and it was kind of hard. Our new camera has video on it, so the video is just a real quick shot of Owen giving me a pretty big kick. 22 weeks 

25 weeks 

28 weeks