37/38 weeks and almost done!

We went in for our 37/38 week appointment today and we are making progression!  I am dilated 3cm and it looks like the baby is in good position to make her appearance sometime soon (woohoo!).  The Dr. offered to go ahead and induce in the next couple of days but I'd like to wait it out some and see if she comes on her own.  I am very uncomfortable and it would be nice to have it all done with but if I can go into labor naturally, I'd much prefer that.  :)  If she hasn't shown her pretty little face by next Monday then we'll have the induction conversation with the Dr.  We should be holding our sweet girl within the next week and a half!  

Baby Shower # 2

Here are some pictures from my second baby shower, the one the k-1 teachers threw me at work. The first picture is actually from about 3 1/2 months ago when we threw a baby shower for Melanie, one of the kinder teachers, who had her baby back in November. I remember feeling huge at that point but now look back at the picture and think...I remember when I was that small, that was when being pregnant was fun and cute. Scroll down to the present....

Melanie, looking incredible only 7 weeks after giving birth and me, now thinking...I am so over being pregnant, it's no longer cute and fun....it's large and tiring. :) I only hope I look that great a few weeks after birth!



Dance is a big topic with one of the teacher's in my grade level because she's been teaching dance for 30 some odd years and I danced most of my life. We talk all the time about my little ballerina (Mike's volleyball player) and so she got our little one her first pair of ballet slippers. Aren't they cute?! She already recognizes classical music, as soon as it comes on in the mornings (while my kids journal), she dances and dances away...she'll be dancing when she comes out!
Me with the cake. It looks like my stomach could eat the entire thing, doesn't it? I told Mike the other night that I definitely feel pregnant, not fat, but I feel VERY pregnant (aka huge) and literally ready to pop.

Close up of the cake. For Melanie's shower I had her baby's name put on the cake and the teacher's were lamenting about not knowing my baby's name to put on the cake...sorry girls, just a few more weeks!
This is the kinder and first grade team. They've been so wonderful to work with, while this job has been a challenge, they truly have made it a little more bearable. Our male vice-principal (we have two, a female and a male) was behind the camera and made a very quick exit as soon as he was done taking the picture...probably lack of adult conversation as when you get a bunch of primary (K-1) teachers together all we can talk about is vowel sounds and counting to 100. :)

Ok, this is not the name # 3:

Bertha

While this was a very strong and prominent name several decades ago, I can only imagine the "Big Bertha" jokes my little one would receive in school if we decided to go with this name. I've seen first hand how cruel children can be and just can't bear to name her anything that I could make fun of myself.

Dr. Appt. Update

Well, we had our 36/37 week appointment on Monday. We went in for an ultrasound and got to have a lot of fun watching our daughter dance around the screen. She was VERY active for quite a while. Toward the end she started to settle down and get comfy, we even got a cute profile shot of her moving her little had toward her mouth getting ready to suck her thumb...taking after her mama! Maybe that means she'll be like me and sleep through the entire night at 6 weeks...we can only hope :)

My fluid levels are still incredibly high, the baby has not started dropping at all yet (according to Dr.'s measurements), and she seems very content and comfortable in there. All that talk of no more than 3 weeks and early labor may be out the door at this point. As uncomfortable as I am and as ready as I am to have my body back (aching ribs and having to pee every 30 minutes is only fun for so long), I am wanting to work as long as I possibly can BEFORE the birth so that after my leave is over I don't have a whole lot of time left to go back before the school year is over. I prefer to just knock as much of it out now as I can and only have a few weeks left at the end.

I got a chance to talk to the Dr. about not getting the epi. He was very positive about it, which makes me very grateful that I chose a Dr. who is a little older and more old fashioned. He told me that all of the women early on in his days of Obstetrics did it with no meds and that he was sure I could do it with no meds, too, if it's what I want. I don't want to totally close my mind to the idea because I don't want to get to the point where I am so exhausted that my body has a hard time working but I really do like the idea of trying to do it without the pain meds. Mostly because I'm a control freak and hate feeling like I have no control over how the pain affects me. We'll see! :)

That's it as far as the appointment is concerned. We have another one Monday and another the following Monday but that's as far as they wanted to schedule me in advance, after that they'll schedule if I haven't gone into labor.

Ok, back to the name game. The second name that we will not be using is:

Apple

While I'm sure Gwenneth had a great reason for naming her daughter after a food, I just can't do it to my own child. Just the thinking about that name makes me hungry (as any mention of food does at this point in the game) and I just don't want people to think of food when they think of my daughter. Sorry!

Church and Family Shower

Ok, these are in no particular order but came from the shower that my mom and sister threw me. We were so blessed to receive so many of the things that we need and can't thank people enough for how generous they were. It's incredible how God just works things out. We were nervous we'd have to put a lot of our own money into some of the bare necessities but have been so abundantly showered that we're actually getting to buy some of the "cutesy" stuff that we could have only dreamt of before these showers. Above is a picture of the gifts that we got on the day of the shower. They covered the bed and then some! :) It was at this point that I kept thinking...I sure hope it's a girl because it'll be a mighty confused boy! Our Dr.'s appointment definitely confirmed she's very much a girl though, so we (and by we I mean I because cool and collected Mike doesn't worry about stuff like that- I knew God put us together for a reason :) ) are not worried anymore.






This was the table I sat at for most of the shower. From left to right, Emma (Carolyn's best friend), Rachael- my college roommate, me and baby, Lindsey- my soon to be sister in law (we are so excited!), and Carolyn- my absolute favorite sister in the world (which doesn't say much since I only have one sister, but she really is one of my best friends and I can't wait to see her with the baby).

One of the absolutely adorable center pieces. My mom (with the help of an interior decorator from the church) made them and I can't get over how much fun they are! While I'm on the topic of my mom, the party planner, she did such an incredible job on the shower. I know she put months and months of planning into it and it totally showed. It was wonderful, we had great food, great friends, great decorations and an all around wonderful time. I feel so blessed to have such an incredible family who is already so in love with our baby. Thank you!


Publix makes wonderful cakes. Yes, the cake says "Thanks heaven for little girls!" and it will be a constant reminder for our little one that she was born in Miami, aka the Latin America of the United States, because when going from Spanish to English a native Spanish speaker will usually go from "Gracias" to "Thanks" even if the "s" doesn't fit. It's a mistake I hear a good amount at school. It for sure gave the cake some character.
View from the back to the front of the room. The Christmas tree is still up and in effort to make it a little more "shower friendly" someone threw a bunch of pink yarn on it. Hmm...somehow it seemed to fit right in, though.
Talking to Lindsey, my brother's fiancee, about football I'm sure.

I have a ton of pictures opening gifts but after a while they all started to look the same so here's one of them.

Ok, since we're a little more than 2 1/2 weeks from the due date (or 3 1/2 weeks if you go by my Dr.'s due date...which I don't), I want to start giving out clues to the name. I can't give it away and I really don't want anyone to guess it, but I thought it would be fun to throw some of the names that are NOT on the list for the birth certificate so here's the first one:

Fifi Trixibelle

This will not be her name for those of you who may have been concerned. While it's a strong name, we have decided to go against it. We're sorry to those of you who may have been hoping...but we just couldn't use it. :) (insert your laughter here, I'm definitely not serious)

35/36 week appointment

Just a quick update on the appointment:

Baby is very healthy. Great heartbeat, great movement, and she's weighing in at 5 lbs 11 ounces right now so she'll probably be almost 7 lbs when she's born if she comes when they're predicting. She flipped around sometime this morning before the appointment so she's head down and the tech said she's pretty big in there so she probably won't flip back around which is a huge blessing because I had been very worried that because she had been breech for so long she would not end up turning around...but she did! :) They double checked to see if it was a girl (because I was freaking out about it all weekend as I did pink load after pink load of laundry), I asked her to check to make sure we didn't have any surprises waiting for us and we got a good picture and she is definitely female. I think that's it...it'll probably only be about another 3 weeks and then we'll have her with us. I'll upload some of our shower pictures sometime in the next week (hopefully tonight, but the internet connection is pretty slow so I may need to head somewhere with faster internet).

Last Solo Christmas

Christmas in our household was a little different this year as we spent it knowing that this would be our last Christmas together as a family of two and anticipating the years to come with new additions to our family.  We were very blessed by several family members who gave us generous gifts for the baby (Mike is holding one of them in the picture above).  With each gift that we opened that would be used by our baby girl in a few short weeks we smiled with the realization that our lives are about to change drastically.  

I think it's times like these when I realize just how selfish I am.  When Mike and I got married I got a huge slap in the face as God revealed to me my incredibly selfish nature.  I knew before we were married that I had selfish tendencies (don't we all?) but when it came to adding someone else to my life and having to work with another person and not just myself, I came to see that I really had lived a life thinking it was all about myself.  

It truly has taken a work of God to change my attitude and I look back on the last two years of our marriage and I am grateful and incredibly amazed at how much God has changed me and allowed me to let go of my selfishness and grow together with Mike.  And just when I thought I had learned all I needed to about selfishness...we'll have a baby thrown into the mix and I'm already seeing how much  more selfishness I have left in me!  :)  When I think some nights that these may be the last few that I'll sleep at all for a long time I can feel the selfishness seep into my core thinking that I don't know how I'm going to handle that.  Or when Mike and I go out on dates and I realize that these will be the last dates that we'll have when we won't have to worry about getting the baby back from a sitter and feel resentful that I won't be free to just do whatever I want anymore...I feel the selfishness, again.  I think it's incredible that we never truly stop learning about and changing our selfish nature.  It just continues to progress and as we get better and better, more and more situations are thrown at us to challenge us.  I guess it's like working out, you have to work your muscles in order for them to continue to grow and stay  healthy, it's not something that you just do for a few months and then you're done.  God continues to work on my spiritual muscles and I'm excited to see how much more things will change when our baby actually arrives.   

Updates all around

Well, this one has been a long time coming seeing as I haven't given the blog a good update in a while.  A lot has happened in the last few weeks!  

Mike and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary last weekend.  We went to Disney with my old college roommate, Rachael, and her husband, Drew.  We had a great time!  We found a great deal on the hotel room ($35 a night--hotwire!) and so we decided it would be nice to take a final trip as a family of two before little girl arrives.  We left mid-day on Friday,  and spent Friday night freezing in downtown disney...42 degrees and all I had was a sweater and some hot chocolate.  

We woke up early on Saturday and went to breakfast before hitting the parks.  Now, before I go on, there had been bets placed on how long I would last before having to get a wheel chair to wheel me around and I was NOT about to let anyone win that bet.  Being stubborn can be a pitfall but I love to prove people wrong.  :)  

We started at Magic Kingdom where the boys rode on Splash Mountain and Rach and I hung out and then we walked around there for a while.  Next was EPCOT, which I now realize is the most friendly park for the preggos of the world because there is a lot more to do and see for those in my condition.  We spent a good long while there looking at the countries and spending time in some of the shows, etc.  After EPCOT we headed to Hollywood Studios for dinner and the lights show.   I made reservations for dinner about 2 months in advance, made sure it was all set up and when we got there realized (after 5 minutes of searching) that our reservations were under a misspelled name.   Then they sat us right next to the door at a makeshift table and froze every time it opened.  This is the first unpleasant dining experience I've ever had with Disney...I may have to write a letter since I actually had made the effort to make reservations way in advance.  Anyway, then we headed to see the lights show, which made it all worth it before heading back to Magic Kingdom for the parade/palace/fireworks.  All in all it was probably about 4-5 miles of walking the entire day (12 1/2 hours) and I didn't sit in one wheel chair.  I was very sore when we left, though!

I woke up Sunday, sore again, but took it easy hoping things would get better.  Unfortunately, they have not gotten better.  I spent all week in terrible amounts of pain which I have now been informed is a bad case of sciatica and this is right around the time in pregnancy when it normally hits.  It was not caused by the walking, though that may have agitated the condition.  Most of the things I had read prior to my appointment with the Dr. on Thursday said that if you do develop the condition it pretty much just stinks because it usually doesn't go away until you give birth.  In fact, most of the stories that I read had women saying how relieved they were when they did finally go into labor because the back pain was finally about to end.  

I was hoping the Dr. would have better news but he didn't.  He said it usually sticks around and has periods of being really bad and periods where it is bearable but it's unpredictable.  It happens a lot in girls who were fairly small before they got pregnant because the body is not used to all of the extra weight and mine happens to all be in the front which makes it harder.  He went ahead and put paper work in so that if I go back to work in January and it's still unbearable (which it has been all week--I haven't been able to walk) then he'll put me on medical disability for the rest of my pregnancy.  He says the stress hormone that is released when you have this kind of pain can be harmful to the baby and can help onset conditions like preeclampsia and pre-term labor which would not be good.  Hopefully the two weeks off of work will help clear up the big time pain and I'll be able to work my last four weeks with little problems.  Keep us in your prayers!  We know God is ultimately in control and He has the plan worked out already.

Soooo, the next two weeks I'll be writing my 100 page sub manual in preparation for my leave time.  I've met my sub, and those of you who have talked to me about it know that she is far from what I'd want in my classroom.  She has no disciplinary skills, in fact, she has asked me to take kids off punishments when she's seen me at the playground in front of them.  She doesn't know how to write lesson plans, has no idea how to handle a gradebook/grade papers (all of which she's told me) and it just altogether doesn't sound like I'll come back to a good class.  So, I decided, to cover my own butt, I'll be writing a manual listing anything and everything she may need to know about how to run the classroom so that when I get back in April I can't be blamed for not leaving her prepared.  As annoying as it is, I'll have a lot less stress knowing it's there than I would otherwise.  

Phew!  I think that's about it for the update on myself and Mike.  Here's a quick baby update:

- Baby is healthy and has a great heartbeat.

- She was breach last Monday and has been that way for several weeks.  This past Thursday at the appointment she was sideways.  She has 2 weeks to turn before they go ahead and schedule a c-section so we're hoping that she listens and FLIPS!  :)

- ONLY 6 MORE WEEKS!!!!!!!!  :) :) :)

I'll post pics from our trip as soon as we have a faster Internet connection.