39 weeks!

how far along? 39 weeks- when is she coming out!?

Claire’s size: roughly 7 pounds, the size of a mini watermelon & over 20 inches long           
weight gain: up 7 pounds from last week... (see below)
maternity clothes? Of course!  
stretch marks? let’s not talk about that. mmm kay, thanks!
sleep? it’s been great up until Matty’s accident a week or so ago.

best moment this week? Matt’s surgery and recovery going smoothly and Claire staying put!

food cravings: nothing.
gender: Girl!
belly button in or out? not out yet, but something goofy is def. going on!
movement? generally speaking she’s very quiet- very slow movement, though VERY strong and sometime painful. Every once in a while she becomes a WILD WOMAN in there and goes absolutely nuts. Last night was craaaazy!
what I miss?  nothing, really.

what I'm looking forward to: Claire’s arrival… any day now!

Sooo i gained 7 pounds in a week. good news is that i lost 3 pounds the week before.  

i am so incredibly ready to push this baby out. discomfort is my new best friend.
matt's doing better. he started physical therapy today and everyday is a better day. praise the lord. 
i'm off to do some more resting! i'll leave you with a photo of the pup!

he's been such a good puppy!

 

quick update.

I'm still pregnant.
Matt fell off of one of our roofs on Thursday.
He somehow managed to miraculously break his radius. He had a guardian angel with him on Thursday. He landed on our driveway. He could have cracked his head open, broke his neck or his back, or sustained so many other more serious causalities. Praise be to God.
Spent all day/evening in the ER Thursday.
Appointment made with Orthopedist Surgeon and surgery was set for Friday.
His parents arrived to help.
Thursday night was the night from hell. Pain was unbearable.
Went to appointment surgery pushed back until at least  Saturday because they didn't have all the parts for the surgery- possible replacement of the radial head.
I had my 38 week checkup. Still 1 cm dilated BUT I'm 50% effaced and Claire's at 0 station. Waahoo! At least some good news! I lost 3 pounds (my weight has been so strange this pregnancy). 
Friday night, another night from hell. Pain just won't subside- even with the help of narcotics.
Saturday rolls around, replacement part is delivered- has to be sterilized for at least 24 hours. We watched the Notre Dame football game on television- the won! Go Irish. Dr. called surgery is going to be Monday- no sooner, no later. Thank God for a definitive answer.
Saturday night is better. Finally figuring out how to manage his pain. 3 Motrin seem to help take the edge off- at least enough for him to catch some zzzz's
Sunday comes and Matt wakes up refreshed. Has some coffee and some cinnamon rolls (mmmm.. my favorite!). Spends the morning/afternoon dry heaving. Not.a.good.time. After much discussion and coaxing we get him back to the ER. The pain is too much and he's apparently dehydrated.
Long ER story short- he bitched and complained the entire time we were there, so we had him discharged. He wanted something to eat- an Arby's roast beef sandwich. He ate 2. Got home. He started feeling sick. Vomited for the next 3-4 hours. I had a mental breakdown. Went to bed at 7:30 because I couldn't calm down. Thank God his parents were here. Don't know what I would have done without them.
So yesterday was the big day. We expected the surgery to last about 2 or so hours. But we were never told exactly how long we should have expected it to last. 6.5 hours later, he was finally stitched up and heading to recovery. He went under around 3 and we didn't see him until 11. What an exhausting day.
Good news is that he has a good prognosis for the healing. The doctor who did the surgery was extremely nit-picky and very thorough.
I took today off due to a serious headache/high blood pressure, hopefully I will be able to get some rest once I go see him.
He's in a lot of pain but hopefully the hospital staff will be able to get(and keep) him pain-free. He deserves to be comfortable for a couple of days.
For now, we're all crossing our fingers that Claire will stay inside of mamma for a few more days! If we can make it to 39 weeks, I think we'll all be in the clear. In the meantime I'm going to be busy caring for my poor husband. Say a prayer for us! Lord knows we need as many as we can get.

37 weeks :)

 how far along? 37 weeks- she’s considered full term!

Claire’s size: almost 6.5 pounds, the size of a stalk of swiss chard & over 19 inches long           
weight gain: up 3 more pounds.
maternity clothes? Of course!  
stretch marks? let’s not talk about that. mmm kay, thanks!
sleep? not too shabby this past week.

best moment this week? spending time with family.

food cravings: ice cold beverages and apples
gender: Girl!
belly button in or out? not out yet, but something goofy is def. going on!
movement? she’s still moving and grooving. they are pretty painful at times
what I miss?  nothing, really.

what I'm looking forward to: Claire’s arrival.

Look at that bellah! 

I, apparently, am not wearing a maternity top so you can see the belly fabric on my shorts (that's not my actual belly). I didn't go out in public like this... don't worry ;)

I'm fairly certain that I will be doing the nursery reveal this weekend. Exciting stuff huh? 38 weeks is 2 days away so hopefully I'll get that update & photo done in a respectable amount of time. In the meantime, Matt and I are going to start going for long walks and bumpy car rides :) This baby will be born before September 21 if I have anything to do with it! 

Have a great week!

Here we go!

 Last night around 1 am I started having contractions. I don't usually get them at night so I decided to use the app on my ipod touch to keep track of them, just in case. As luck would have it, they were about 10-12 minutes apart, lasting anywhere from 45-90 seconds. They weren't really uncomfortable but I couldn't sleep because my mind was going a million miles an hour. I finally stopped keeping track of them so I could hopefully get some rest. Yeah, no that wasn't happening. So I laid there while Claire abused my insides between contractions.

Matt woke up around 4am and brought the dog downstairs to let him out. At that point, I was trying so hard to fall asleep but I wasn't even tired anymore. Adrenaline was pumping as I thought that I was going to get to meet my sweet baby today. I really want her to stay in there a little longer, but the thought of meeting Claire sent me to the moon and back and I just couldn't close my eyes long enough to fall asleep.

I got up and went upstairs and snuggled with Matty and Murphy for a few minutes and came back down and had a VERY late midnight/early morning snack. I turned on the tv and decided to watch The Change Up {with Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds} all while snacking on my jalapeno chips and nutty bars {real healthy, I know}. No good snack would be complete without the perfect marriage of a beverage, so I drank some Cherry Pepsi with my chips and sucked down a juice box with my nutty bars. Who wants water at 5 am when you've already been chugging it in hopes to stop contractions? Not this girl.

The contractions finally subsided, leaving me somewhat baffled by what had been going on for upwards of 4 hours- I thought for sure I was in early labor. After they officially stopped, I started feeling some pretty uncomfortable cramping, as well as a good amount of vaginal and rectal pressure {sorry if this is TMI, but that's the way the cookie crumbles sometimes}. I finally passed out shortly after 5:45, thank God.

My first alarm went off at 8:45 and of course I hit the snooze, twice. I scraped myself off of the couch and forced myself up the steps to get dressed for mass. While scouring my drawer for clean underwear Matt woke up and told me to go back to bed because God would understand why I wasn't at church today. I finally obliged and trotted down the steps, back to my little bed on the couch. I sacked out, thank God, once again. Matt woke me when he got home, around 11:30.

Since then, I have been an absolute zombie. I'm so incredibly exhausted that I simply cannot stand it. We laid down for 45 minutes or so before Matt had to leave for work, but I couldn't fall asleep. Something about our bed makes my legs and back move uncontrolably, keeping me from EVER getting comfortable {hence the reason I sleep downstairs on the couch}.

I took the dog for a long walk and here I am, once again, having more ridiculous Braxton Hicks contractions {i'm not going to time them this time}. I can only hope that the contractions are not in vein. HOPEFULLY they are toning the shit out of my uterus and HOPEFULLY they will help when real labor decides to start. Until then, I'm going to pray that I don't have another night like last night, unless it's the real deal, of course.

I'm officially completely tuckered out. I'm going to lay down and take a nap.

Happy Sunday!

35 Weeks

how far along? 35 weeks!
Claire’s size: around 5.25 pounds & over 18 inches long- about the size of a honeydew melon
weight gain: I gained the 3 pounds back that I lost when I was sick.
maternity clothes? Of course!
stretch marks? let’s not talk about that. mmm kay, thanks!
sleep? Miserable.
best moment this week? Getting Claire's stroller
food cravings: nothing,really. I am still enjoying a Cherry Coke here and there, Twizzlers have been a good friend of mine, and so have animal crackers.
gender: Girl!
belly button in or out? not out yet, but something goofy is def. going on!
movement? yes. very, very strong movements.
what I miss? Sleep.
what I'm looking forward to: Claire’s arrival.

 

I hit the 35/35 milestone- 35 weeks down, 35 days to go! It seems rather surreal that we are going to be meeting our little girl very very soon. Her stroller came yesterday and I had to wait allll day to open it {Matt was at work and he was just as excited to put it together as I was- so I waited until he got home}. It's so nice. I love it. We decided on a Britax B-Agile (we bought the Britax B-Safe car seat to pair it with) and this sucker drives like an absolute dream. It's super easy to fold- I can do it easily with one hand. Just when I thought I couldn't be more excited for this little girl to arrive, we put the stroller together. I am dying to plop her in her car seat and take her and Murphy for long fall walks. 

 I had a check-up yesterday-it went swimmingly. Since I have been contracting for 3+ weeks and starting to have regular cramping, my midwife wanted to check to see if my cervix was making progress. I've been really set against having cervical checks performed at weekly appointments, for more than one reason, but I was already having my Group B Strep test done and figured that it would be interesting to see how things were going. So I agreed. 

Baby Claire, I'm happy to report, is head down and starting to descend. HOORAY! {i was so afraid she was breech- just a fear of mine} Turns out, I'm 1cm dilated and softening up nicely. She was rather surprised and told me that I was making excellent progress for only being 35 weeks. Jennifer (my midwife) told me that she thinks this little one will be making her appearance sooner, rather than later. Grrrr. Don't get me wrong, I was over-the-moon excited to hear that news, but I can't help but think that getting my hopes up may be a little disappointing if I don't continue to dilate each week.  I'm so torn as to whether or not to be checked again next week.

Either way, I have decided to start taking Evening Primrose Oil. I will start it next week, probably Wednesday. EPO is said to help soften the cervix... it does not put women into labor. I've read that it will only help your cervix if it's already started softening itself. I have also read that women who take EPO, typically, have a faster labor because their cervix's will thin and dilate faster. Who wouldn't want a faster labor?! Especially since it's all natural.

Well, I think that's about all I have for today! Except that today's is our 5th wedding anniversary! We spent the morning sipping coffee, garage saling (not sure how to spell 'sale-ing'), and snuggling with Murphy in bed. Matt's at work now and Murph and I are being super lazy. Needless to say, I'm looking forward to going back to work next week :)

Okay, that's all! Have a fabulous weekend!

Grow Claire, grow.

Just for fun!

I changed my blog design today... as you can probably tell. While I was making the new banner, I decided to put together a little collage of the bump. I kind of regret not taking a weekly photo religiously, like I intended on doing. However, it is what it is and here's the progress we have made thus far :)

It's rather interesting to see how much my body has changed over the last eight+ months. The human body is incredible, especially those of pregnant women!

Happy Friday friends!

What's in the bags?

Like I mentioned in an earlier post, I have my hospital bags all packed and ready to go! I do still have a couple of last minute things that I will get together when it time comes, and I still have a few things to pick up at the store, but for the most part they're ready to rock when this baby decides to come!

Here's what we have in our bags...

This is what I call my "at hand bag". It's the bag I will have beside my bed. It houses the following on the outside:
1. A few headbands
2. Deodorant and lotion for back/foot rubs
3. Shampoo, brush, and hair ties
4. Body wash ( this and the lotion are all Bath & Body Works Sleep Aromatherapy collection, cinnamon and vanilla, I think)
5. Camera and Ipod chargers

What you cannot see are the pockets on the other side- I have some nursing pads and my Point and Shoot camera tucked in them.

The contents of my "at hand bag" include the following:
1. Wireless Ipod charger
2. (2) Copies of my birth plan
3. Ipod loaded with a slew of both inspirational and ass-kicking music
4. On the Night You Were Born book. {I have been reading this book to Claire since like February and it will be one of my points of focus during labor and I also plan on reading it to her after she's born and while we're in the hospital.} 

I will also be packing my laptop in this bag. I will be in the hospital for at least 2 days so I will need something to do during  the day, or at least that's what I think ;) I plan on bringing a couple of movies for during labor, something to try to keep my focus away from labor, I'm thinking Don't Mess With the Zohan will have to be rented/bought because it's pretty much the funniest movie ever. {i have a bad sense of humor!}

My aunt bought this for me and I absolutlely love it. I was so undecided on which diaper bag to purchase. At first, I really wanted a Petunia Pickle Bottom but I was not about to shell out $175 for a diaper bag. I passed up on a beautiful Skip Hop messenger bag at a discount store (for like $16) when I first found out I was pregnant and I spent a lot of time kicking myself in the butt for it. In the end it all worked out and I couldn't be happier. It's plenty big for everything I will need for cloth diapering and yet it's not sooo big that I will end up over-stuffing it with unnecessary items. Here's what's inside Claire's diaper bag...

1. Wipes
2. Nursing Pads
3. Pacifier- Avent Soothies
4. Disposable diapers {only for the first few days. once the meconium stage has subsided we'll move straight into her newborn cloth diapers. once that happens we will have a couple of bumgenius all-in-one newborn diapers in the place of disposables, as well as a small wetbag.}
5. Coming home outfits & hat
6. Lotion & baby powder

1. 3 month coming home outfit
2. Newborn coming home outfit
3. Hat

Since I have no idea how big this little one will be when she's born, I decided it would be wise to bring a newborn AND 3 month outfit. A hat will keep her little body warm when we leave the hospital.

{OMG, I cannot believe the professionals at the hospital let you just leave with your baby. the concept, for some reason, is so hard for me to grasp. i feel like we should be required to take some sort of common sense and parenting 101 classes before they let us take our baby out of the hospital. anyone else feel like this, or am i completely nuts?!?!}

This is the clothing bag, the name is rather self-explanatory, but if not, read on and you will get a glimpse of what it contains!

1. Tank tops, cotton long-sleeved shirt/wrap & cotton skirt
2. Sports bra
3. Underwear- brief style
4. Socks (and I even packed the pair of non-slip ones I acquired while in the hospital a few weeks ago}

Since I plan on wearing my own clothes during labor, I have a couple extra articles of clothing. The tank tops are for walking through the halls, if I end up doing so. In my mind I will labor in my sports bra and skirt. This will make it easy for me to get in and out of the tub and will allow my midwife to easily check my progress and intermittently monitor baby Claire throughout labor. If I do decide to roam the halls, I can throw a tank top on over my bra and if I get cold, I have the long-sleeved shirt thingy if, in the rare event, I get cold.

1. Nursing top and comfy/silky capris
2. Nursing nightgown

My mom got these for me when she was up because she said I would need something "nice to wear" after giving birth! haha I love her. I also have another open-front sweatshirt thingy to wear post labor.

1. Shoes for coming home :)
2. (1) cotton swaddle and (1) fleece swaddle
3. Several pairs of socks
4. Swaddle blanket (aden & anais) for coming home- to cover her in the care seat.
5. Head bands

Her gown for her hospital photo. She'll also be donning one of the headbands shown above. This was another shower gift from my aunt. I just think it's absolutely precious.

1. Sleeping gowns.
I think these will be the easiest to maneuver on a newborn and should keep her nice and toasty when paired with a pair of socks and a swaddle. I have a feeling that these will be my best friend when it comes to bedtime :)

I will also be packing a toothbrush, toothpaste, my pillow, a boppy, gatorade, snacks for both Matty and I, a goody basket for the nurses, back massager (we're still currently using this bad boy daily), Matt's things, and my Canon DSLR & lenses.

34 weeks

 

how far along? 34 weeks! oMG! roughly 6 more to go.

Claire’s size: almost 5 pounds, the size of a cantaloupe & 18 inches long           
weight gain: not sure. we’ll find out on Friday
maternity clothes? Of course!  
stretch marks? let’s not talk about that. mmm kay, thanks!
sleep? Miserable.

best moment this week? Pretty much finishing the nursery, the dresser is being made and should be arriving around labor day!

food cravings: cherry coke? weird, I know.
gender: Girl!
belly button in or out? not out yet, but something goofy is def. going on!
movement? yes. very, very strong movements.
what I miss?  Sleep.

what I'm looking forward to: Meeting Claire in a few short weeks.

I am completely at peace when I think forward labor. Complete peace. I'm not nervous or anxious. I'm actually excited about it. You're probably thinking I'm nuts and not thinking properly, but I promise, I am thinking clearly.  Between the braxton hicks contractions, the cramps, and the awful kidney stone experience, I think God has more than prepared me for labor. If not, we'll have to wait and see what happens. I did make 2 labor playlists- one fast and one slow. The 'fast' playlist is compliled of lots of hip hop, pop, and some rock. The 'slow' playlist has a lot of church hymns, some christian artists, and classical music. I dont know what I will want to listen to, but I figured I would be prepared. 

I packed our bags this past week. I'll share what I'm taking with me but that will come a little later. I have a strange feeling she's going to come sooner rather than later, but we'll just have to wait and see :) Her car seat base is already installed in my car, I'm placing my order for the stroller this week (thanks gramma and grampa henretta), and Sophie the giraffe is being lovingly gifted by my gracious aunt annie! hooray for a sophie teether!!!

My mom stayed with us and it was wonderful. She helped us tremendously from morning until night. She also helped my fix up the nursery, and even helped find and purchase some pretty awesome antique furniture pieces for her nursery. Thanks a million for everything you did mom. You're the best! 

I cannot wait to share her room with you! It's everything I could have dreamed of. Seriously, I love it :)

I hope you all are having a wonderful week!

33 Weeks :)

 how far along? 33 weeks

Claire’s size: about 4 pounds, 17 inches long, the size of a honeydew           
weight gain: down 3 pounds
maternity clothes? Of course!  
stretch marks? of course.
sleep? better. much better :)

best moment this week? feeling better.

food cravings: none, really.
gender: Girl!
belly button in or out? In, though it’s starting to flatten out.
movement? Tons! Sometimes it hurts when she moves but it’s so incredible to feel how strong she’s getting.
what I miss?  nothing this week.

what I'm looking forward to: enjoying the rest of my pregnancy and meeting my sweet angel very soon.

I've been feeling wonderful lately. Even better than before I got sick, actually. Praise God. My mom came to stay with Matt and I and will be here for about a week. Her mission is to give Matt and I some rest after last week. She insists on cooking, cleaning, laundry, and waiting on me. Pretty much doing everything Matt did for me last week :) She says that we both need some down time before Claire gets here. Needless to say we GREATLY appreciate all that she's doing for us.

For dinner today she made cheddar and bacon stuffed burgers and homemade french fries. I like my burger plain but she and Matty sure did enjoy those burgers. She also made me the most delicious homemade cinnamon rolls and homemade bread for french toast tomorrow morning. I could really get used to this. Actually, I've been getting up and trying to help because I feel so bad because I'm 100% able to do anything/everything that she's doing and every time she shoos me away, telling me to sit back down. It's safe to say that she loves taking care of her family.

I am getting anxious for Claire's nursery to be done so I can share it with you! We're so close to being done, yet so far away. Things to do: find and hang floating shelves, find window treatments, iron crib skirt, get dresser, purchase wicker hamper, and decorate.

So, while my mamma cooks and cleans my fanny has been sitting on my couch eating and watching the Olympics. Speaking of Olympics, how about those USA athletes? From swimming to gymnastics, archery to volleyball, we have some super talented peps on our team!  Go teams USA!

Well loverlies, I'm off to curl up in my crib (a.k.a. my bed) with my puppy. Matt's working midnight shift so it's just me and my sweet fuzzy face, Murphy.

Have a beautiful weekend!

Grow Claire, grow!