36 Weeks...

Here's a picture of me at 36 weeks. Notice the nice new shirt Kirk bought me that covers my whole stomach! Since I'm still trying to wear my normal (non-maternity) shirts, most of them are too short and I have to keep tugging them down. This one is nice and long! :o)

We go back to the doctor tomorrow morning since we have to go every week now. It feels like we are there a lot! It's pretty uneventful when we go, but I like getting to check on her every week. Her head is still facing down and they are guessing she's between 5 1/2 and 6 pounds so hopefully she'll stay in that position and not get too much bigger! :o)

The church is throwing us a baby shower on Sunday and Kirk's parents are grandparents are coming up for the weekend so they can go to it. It's so nice of the church to do that for us and we're looking forward to it. Once that's over, we'll be able to set up the final things and be able just to wait for her to decide to come out!

We've been taking a class at the hospital and it's been really good. I feel smarter and better prepared. The nurses who are teaching it are great and it's only us and another couple so it's easy to ask all of our questions. Some of the videos they have showed us are a little traumatizing, but oh well!

Things are going well! We're so thankful for such an uneventful pregnancy. We're just hoping and praying that she is healthy and for as easy as a delivery as possible!

Moving right along...

We went to the doctor this morning and everything looks good! Her heartbeat is in the high 140's and I'm measuring a week ahead (measuring at 36 weeks when I'm actually 35 weeks along). That really doesn't mean all that much and my due date is still the same. The doctor guessed that she's about 5 1/2 - 6 pounds right now. Her head is still down, which is good and hopefully she will stay that way.

I'm still nauseous a lot and I get dizzy really easily. The doctor isn't too concerned about it. I just need to eat smaller meals more often and take it easy.

Our goal is to get the nursery finished this weekend and we also need to get our hospital bags packed and the car seat in the car. The next couple weekends are really busy so we want and need to get those things crossed off the list. The next weekend, Kirk's parent's and grandparents are coming to town because the church is throwing us a baby shower that Sunday. The first weekend in February is the big youth fundraiser at church. The baby can come any time after that fundraiser! :o)

Ugh...

It hasn't been the best week. I don't want to complain too much because, really the whole pregnancy has been pretty easy and uneventful so far. But for the past week the nausea I had during the first trimester is back. I pretty much feel nauseous all the time. The only thing that seems to help is laying down. It makes it hard to eat because nothing sounds good and when I do eat, I feel sicker afterwards. I thought that ended in the first trimester...no one told me that it could come back!

Last Sunday I had to make an unexpected trip to the doctor just to get some things checked out since I ended up passing out during church. They think my blood pressure just dropped a little too low and that the baby was pushed up against an artery which is what caused me to pass out. Thankfully, I'm fine and Baby Girl is fine. I just had to take it easy for a few days. I also now know the feeling I had before I passed out so now I can be aware if I feel like that again. It's not a big deal or anything to be worried about - more of just an inconvenience.

The good news is that I'm almost 34 weeks along, which means only 3 more weeks till I'm considered full term and 6 weeks till our due date! Not too much longer to go! We still have some things to do (finish the nursery, organize some things here, etc) but we're getting more and more excited to meet her soon! Also, we figure parents are going to be visiting once she gets here so we'll just let them finish up all the stuff we don't finish! :o)

33 Week Picture

Here's a picture...I'm 33 weeks. I'm starting to show enough where people touch my belly. Not so much a fan of that! :o) Her kicks and movements are getting more painful as she gets bigger. She really likes to move at night while I'm trying to sleep. Baby Girl is already keeping me up!

Motivation

Kirk was checking facebook this morning and saw that one of the other couples in our childbirth and parenting class who was due a week after us is at the hospital because she's in labor!!!! Needless to say, we'll be working on the nursery today :o) I'm praying that our little one doesn't decide to make an early appearance. If she's anything like Kirk or my dad - she'll be early. Hopefully she'll take after me, who likes to be on time - not early, not late.

For those of you who are harassing me about it (hi sisters!) I'll get the picture up later today. Hopefully there will be some pictures of the nursery to go a long with it!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! I hope everyone's Christmas and New Years were wonderful. Kirk and I spent them in South Carolina with his family. We had to stay for the Christmas Eve service at church here, so we didn't get to SC until about midnight on Christmas Eve. After opening presents and having breakfast with his grandparents on Christmas morning, Kirk and I cooked Christmas dinner for his family. It ended up tasting delicious and we even got several of his family members to try brussel sprouts for the first time!

The 2 days after Christmas were spent in the hospital with Kirk's mom. She was having some chest pains and we took her to the ER and she ended up having to have another stint put in one of her arteries. She's doing better now - but it was a long few days in the hospital.

We got to see Kirk's brother and sister in law and their girls as well, which is always fun! Hailey said "I'm so excited to meet my baby cousin." I'm glad that our girl will be pretty close in age to them so they can grow up together!

We came back to North Carolina on New Year's Day. The 5 hour drive home just about did me in. We are officially confined to a 2 hour radius until the baby comes because that's about all that my body can handle right now.

We started a pregnancy and parenting class at the hospital last night. We had gone back and forth about taking a class. Kirk has stuff at church several nights a week so it was hard to add another night of something to his schedule, but we decided that it couldn't hurt to take a class. I'm really glad we did. Last night's class was good and I think the next 5 weeks of it will be really helpful. It's at the hospital we'll be having the baby at and taught by nurses who work there, so it's nice to meet some people and see where it'll all be happening! There are 5 weeks left in the class and we're due in 7 weeks - so we're hoping we make it all the way thru the class before she gets here.

The goal for this week is to get the nursery finished up. My nesting instinct has not kicked in at all yet so I'm still not finding the motivation, but I know it needs to get done before she gets here! I'll post a new belly picture later today or tomorrow....it's getting bigger!