Blizzard

Well, it hasn't even snowed that much yet this year, and now there's a full blown blizzard out. YUCK! It's nice that we got out of school early yesterday and no school today, though :) The bad part is that I think the whole state has shut down and my doctor's appointment got cancelled. I haven't heard anything from them, I just know because the I saw that the office is closed on KWWL. So I don't know when I'll be able to go in again, which sucks because now that I'm so close to the end, I just want to know what is going on - like am I dilated more?

I was getting pretty worried last night because I has having contractions all day from noon on, and they were coming about every 15 minutes, but they never became painful, so I just went to bed and nothing came of it, thankfully. One, I don't want to go out in this weather, and two, no one else would be able to make it here. So I guess we'll see how today goes. I talked to my student teaching supervisor last week and he said that he wasn't going to make me come back if I missed 7 days (I'm only supposed to get 6) so officially I could have him today since there's no school and only 7 school days left until I'm done. So now I'm ready :D except that today's no good because of the weather. So I'm really hoping for tomorrow. The snow is supposed to stop today, but the wind is going to be really bad and that's what makes it a blizzard. I just really want him to be born before Christmas, and the more time the better.

Today is my dog Ragnar's fourth birthday - so it would have been kind of cool to have Owen today so they could have the same birthday ;)

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.

Appointment

So I had my appointment today. No ultrasound. I had a different doctor and he said that I'm measuring big, so now I'm a little confused. My doctor does have a pretty thick accent, though, so maybe I misunderstood her or she misspoke and meant that I was big, not small. I don't know.

He also checked me, which I'm going to have to get used to, but that really sucked. I'm not dilated but my cervix is thinning out. So there's pretty much nothing exciting going on yet, which I figured since he's still up pretty high. I'm "patiently" awaiting the day when he drops. And I'm starting to think I should just break down and go to the chiropractor because my back hurts, but it's only when I'm sitting down and it's always in the same spot, so I'm probably out of whack in that area. I'm just sick of going to all these appointments! And it's only going to get worse since I have to go to the OB every week now and the blood doctor every week too.

I'm excited for yummy Thanksgiving food! I've gained 30 pounds, which is still within the recommended weight gain but we'll see after tomorrow! :) This year my birthday is on Black Friday, and I've never gone shopping on it and you can bet I'm not going to start this year! I can't stand up for more than like 20 minutes without wanting to cry from misery. So yeah, I can't stand or sit without being uncomfortable. Gotta love it!

Postponed

My doctor appointment got postponed because my doctor had three women in labor and was at the hospital. I'm going Wednesday morning, but it's with a different doctor so who knows if he'll do an ultrasound when my doctor would have. So I guess we just have to wait and see.

36 Weeks

Holy cow! Only one more month! I'm officially in the 20's in my countdown - 29 days from today. I'm hoping he actually comes a little early - a couple of days at least, if not a week. I've saved those 6 days and I want to use them! :) I like being pregnant, actually, and if it weren't for my back and the fact that he's up in my ribs, I couldn't complain, but I can't sit for very long without my back killing me and I can't stand for very long either. He's still up pretty high, so he's kicking my ribs and making it a little harder to breathe. I wish he'd drop.

I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow and my doctor said she might do an ultrasound because I'm a little small, which isn't necessarily a good thing, but if she does one, at least I'll get to see the little guy! She didn't seem too concerned about it, and he's a really active baby, so hopefully he's alright in there. I've been getting my blood work done too, and my platelets are back up to where they are supposed to be, so hopefully I won't have to go to that doctor anymore.

We are going to Ryan's family's for Thanksgiving this week, and since we haven't done a baby shower with them yet, we'll get some more stuff and then we can go shopping for the essentials we didn't get and then set everything up and finalized! I think Ryan will want to get out the Christmas stuff next weekend too, since he already wanted to do that about a month ago. We haven't decorated for Christmas since the first year we lived in Cedar Falls, if you can believe that. I guess we have more of a reason to this year! :)

Well, Ryan's at the Vikings game in Minneapolis today, so I better turn the game on and see if I can see him :) I'll try to update tomorrow about the doctor's appointment, and maybe I'll put up another belly picture. If we do an ultrasound I could probably scan a new baby picture in here too ;)

34 weeks

Not much new going on. I had a doctors appointment today and everything looks good. They are just going to monitor my platelet count - I have to get blood work every other week. She also said that I'm measuring a little small, which she said I have been throughout, so when I go back in two weeks if I'm still measuring off, they might do another ultrasound.

My doctor also made the comment that in another two weeks, whenever the baby wants to come would be ok. I'm thinking he better wait until at least December 11th, because I am only allowed 6 absenses this semester from student teaching, and I'm (trying to) save them all for the end, just in case. I'm done student teaching December 18, graduation is the 19th, and he's due on the 21st. I do really hope he comes by the 21st though, so that we can hopefully make it to Elkader for Christmas. We'll see I guess. If I didn't have student teaching, and he would be healthy, I'd say he could come now. I'm sick of being pregnant. I just can't get comfortable and Ryan isn't very empathetic. He's been working quite a bit lately since I'm not making any money student teaching, so he's busy and thinks he deserves massages too :) Yeah, right! (Ok, so maybe I'm not very empathetic, either.)

Owen's room

I had my second shower this last Saturday and got lots of good stuff. I didn't take any pictures at the shower, so I don't have any to post yet, but hopefully I'll get some that others took in a few days.

Ryan went to Target and picked up our crib today, so we put it together tonight and tried to get his room ready as much as we could. Here are some pictures of it SO FAR:





We still plan on trying to put our glider in the room too, but we'll see how much room that takes up. We are going to leave it out for a while because I like to sit in it in the living room :D We still have one more shower from Ryan's family, and then after that we can finish everything up. We are getting really anxious, and we still have 7 weeks to go.

We got our stroller and car seat at the shower on Saturday and I put that together last night. I love it!



Everything is still going pretty good. I've started feeling a little more uncomfortable, though. He's already up in my ribs, kicking and poking them, and it makes breathing a little harder. My back is starting to hurt more too and sometimes my belly feels SO heavy. I'm getting ready to be done, but I shouldn't complain too much since I've had a really good pregnancy til now.

Anyway, that's all for now until I get some good Halloween baby shower pictures.