37 Weeks

Full term! Full disclosure!  Here are some belly pics in the flesh.  Stretch marks and lopsided and all.

Random confessions of a pregnant woman: I have always had a deep innie belly button.  I think the below picture shows as outie as it's going to get.  And how excited am I to finally have an outie!  I can now fully clean the inside of my belly button to my hearts content.  Thank you to my mother for instilling the idea to clean my belly button from a very young age.  Mission finally accomplished. 

In more serious news, this week has been a roller coaster ride for so many reasons.

To name a select few I found out my platelets dropped to 74.  And they found something in my blood that might indicate I am having some issues with my bone marrow.  Hopefully I will get more answers about this soon.  And this past weekend I thought I was going to have a baby.  Turns out I experienced some false labor.  I got Ryan up at 4am and was so excited thinking that things had started.  Regular contractions! But then they stopped around 11am.  And that was that.  Nothing since.  And the highest point of the roller coaster ride was my one year anniversary being married to Ryan.  I love him so much.  And with all the stress this week has brought I cannot think of a better person to share it with!

Here is the onsie we bought for Baby B on our honeymoon in Spain when we were dreaming up our life together.  I can't wait to see her in it!

Even though I am looking very pregnant I have been feeling less pregnant.  I am hoping this means Baby B has dropped!

Baby B's Nursery

We have been working hard to make an optimal environment for our favorite little girl.  I think I mentioned in an earlier post that Ryan wanted to make a Death Star nursery.  Well, we settled on a solar system themed nursery and I love it!  We still need a few finishing touches such as hanging the rest of the wall art and we are getting another special mobile for over the changing table.  But for the most part it is complete!  Other goals we had for the nursery were to make it as soothing and comforting a place as possible.  I went with montessori principals in terms of less clutter and creating defined spaces.  Here are a few of my favorite things about the nursery:

The softest and most comfortable chair thanks to Ryan's mom.  We are planning on spending a lot of time in this thing.  In fact, I have already found Ryan sitting in it on several occasions.  The blanket on the chair was made by Ryan's grandma. 

What a cool starry light!  Thanks to some of our favorite New Yorkers we have some magical ambiance.  

Movement mirror and star play mat.  Lots of tummy time to be had here!

Montessori inspired toy shelf.  

People have been giving us books galore.  And we love that  Baby's book shelf is almost full!

Space mobile over crib. 

My favorit blanket.  SO SOFT that I cannot keep my hands off of it.  If baby girl is anything like her mother she will be in love.

Baby B's favorite stuffed animal is waiting for her!  Again, SO SOFT Ahhhhh...can't even handle it! :)

The same bed sheets my little sister slept on 20 something years ago.  How cool is that?

One of our wall art pieces.  

I didn't like the closet doors in this room so we replaced them to match the floor to ceiling curtains on the windows.  

Bumgenius cloth diapering! 

The diapers are so cute and little!  I'm obsessed.  I might become less obsessed when they are filled with poop....but maybe not!

Drawers are packed with little clothes and ready for Baby B to start modeling some of them!


More favorite things coming soon......

36 Weeks

They say mamas are supposed to start nesting right around now.  I think I have done a few uncharacteristic things--like dust in places I have never thought about before, and scrubbed off our front door (I always thought it was off-white......).  This being said, I think the nesting fever has affected Ryan way more than me.  He has been on some type of mission lately.  First, he made an excel spreadsheet shopping list of all of the groceries we need.  This included things like 18 onions, 30 carrots, 16 pounds of lamb, etc. He then set to work on making huge crock pot meals big enough to feed an army.  Our house has been filled with delicious smells and while he will give me a little bite here and there the majority of the food is being frozen for after Baby B.  I seriously think he believes he must cook and freeze enough food or we will starve once the little girl is here!  He stayed up until 1:30am on a work night cooking away.  I am so excited to eat some good food.  Baby B better get here soon!

The Blood Doctor

I went to my hematologist appointment today and I love her for so many reasons.  Now that I have been deemed as having a "high-risk" pregnancy I have a whole crew of people that I have to meet with and she just might be my favorite one.  She is very direct and tell-it-like-it-is which I appreciate.  She also seems very smart. And so calm.  And the best part is how complimentary she is because I always walk out of her office on a compliment high.

I learned today the following things:

1. My platelet count is now at 77.
2. If my low platelets is caused by pregnancy it should stop dropping soon--it would be unlikely to drop below 70.
3. If my platelets drop below 70 it might mean it's not due to pregnancy.  I could have an autoimmune disorder that was triggered by the pregnancy.
2. Getting a cesarean would be dumb and she will tell the other doctors this too.
3.  An epidural is now officially off the table with a platelet count below 80.  She offered to pump me up on steroids starting now to raise my platelets but they have side-effects that are not so great.  I declined and there is no going back now.
4. If my platelets continue to drop it could affect the baby's platelets too.
5. Induction is not completely off the table if my platelets continue to drop.
6. There should be no reason why I cannot continue to have a water birth and she will let them know that the hospital policy that says I cannot is dumb too.

That about sums it up.  They took a WHOLE bunch more blood from me (not my favorite part) and I should get more test results soon.  I will continue to meet with my hematologist throughout the end of my pregnancy and she might even be at my birth (or close by to consult with at least).

While all of the other doctors made it seem like getting the baby out of me would be an impossible and dangerous task she made me feel like there is hope (obviously there is hope, I am being dramatic).  But you get what I am saying....right?  When your medical professionals seem to freak out it can be oh so very scary.  I am thankful to have her!  We are meeting with a whole other team of specialists on Tuesday so more updates will be coming!

35 Weeks

We got some bad news this week.  My platelets have dropped down to 84.  The 70-range seems to be when people start to freak out--so people seem to be preparing to freak out now, which freaked me out. My midwife called and asked that I start getting my platelets counted every week instead of every other week.  I also will have another appointment with the hematologist.  She has been consulting with an OB and thinks that I should start meeting with the OB too....just in case.  We have a lot of unanswered questions.  Hopefully we will find out more information soon.

I have been in a lot of pain this past week.  No position is comfortable for more than a few minutes.  I also gained a lot of weight in a short period of time--10 Ibs in 3 weeks!  I am blaming all of the cake I have been eating from baby showers, birthdays, and weddings.  No more cake is needed!  In fact, I went to a wedding last night and we left before the cake even came out to risk temptation.  Along with the rapid weight gain I developed my first stretch marks.  Three of them right next to one another on my right side of my tummy.  They aren't horrible.  And it's not like I had a model bikini body before.  But man.

I hope she is early.  I am huge and don't know how much longer I can stand being pregnant.  Thoughts of going running, painting my own toenails, and not struggling to put on my shoes enter my mind daily.    

I'm SO ready to meet you babygirl!

34 Weeks

Baby answered my wish and moved the feet out of the right ribs.  I can't help but wonder if baby dropped.....or if baby flipped......hopefully dropped and not flipped!  The car seat is in the car!  We are all ready to go just in case little girl decides to show up early.  I've been having more heartburn lately.Tums have become an important item to carry in my purse.  Also, I have been getting regular nosebleeds.  I am hoping that this is not a sign my platelets have dropped further.  My next blood test is on Tuesday.

My mom, sister, and neighborhood gave us on awesome baby shower.  We even got "flocked"--which is where a company shows up and covers your yard with festive flamingos during the night.  The food was amazing and Baby B got so many wonderful things.  I am all ready to start nesting....whenever I get that extra energy burst!

Do I really have another month+ to go?!?!?

33 Weeks

The temperatures have been reaching the 100s!  Even my eyeballs have been hot.  And all I want is ice cream for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  Luckily, babygirl has a daddy that cares about our nutrition so ice cream has been limited to a somewhat reasonable amount.

The exciting news from this week:  We have a carseat!  This means we can officially take our little babe home.

We are also getting quite the collection of special gifts for the little lady.  I am describing them all to her but I cannot wait to show her everything in person!

Babygirl has been super hyper lately.  Almost agitated.  I am guessing it's the heat.  And she is feeling antsy waiting to finish cooking.  It makes sense and I don't blame her.  BUT can she please drop out of my ribs already?  That is her mama's one wish.  We did a long car ride (3+ hours to Redmond and back in one day) for our friend's wedding.  I could not get comfortable.  I am pretty sure one of my ribs is not in the correct position anymore and I wouldn't be surprised if some of my stomach muscles have torn in the process.  And my back.  I won't even go there.  Babygirl got a lot of love from all of our friends though.  And she did a good job of kicking for everyone when instructed.