Baby Update

We had another appointment with Debbie on Wednesday, and all is well. I had gained 3 lbs since the last appointment, and she said I was right on track in terms of weight. Yay! I also had the awful glucose test on Tuesday, and the results came back normal. For anyone who hasn't gone through this yet, let me fill you in. You start off by not being able to eat anything before the test, so obviously you have to do it first thing in the morning. Well given complications with our car, this is how Tuesday morning looked. 7am - get up and throw on a few decent clothes. 7:15am - drive my car to the repair shop to leave it there, and ride to Sheila's house with Scott. Borrow Sheila's car and drive back home. 7:45am - shower, get ready. 8:30am - arrive at the lab. Drink a bottle full of this orange drink that takes like Sunkist. Very sicky sweet - not fun on an empty tummy. Although at that point I needed something or else I felt like I would pass out. 8:35am - sit for AN HOUR doing nothing. I read a magazine and tried to ignore the hunger pains. 9:35am - go in and have the nurse shove a needle in my arm (actually, she was quite gentle about it - I just hate getting blood drawn) and draw 2 tubes of blood from me. 9:45am - DUNKIN DONUTS!!! Then go to work.

Ok, anyway, let's just say I'm glad the results were normal. Next time, I might decline the test anyway because I've heard it can give false positives often and it really is more necessary in high-risk pregnancies or if you've gained a lot of weight, etc. Anyway, the only thing that Debbie said from the blood draw was that my iron levels are a little low, so I'm looking to try and increase my iron through my food intake. I may also take an iron supplement if needed.

As for other things, I am looking forward to August, but it's also going to be super-busy. We are planning a day-trip for the youth group next weekend, then we're planning to go camping the following weekend. Then the next week we are on vacation and will be going to Salt Lake City for 4 days, which I am super-excited about! Then the following week my sister will be here to visit, and she and my mom are throwing me a baby shower. Plus, the last weekend of the month we're planning to go camping with my sister and her husband. And they're all going rafting, which I can't do thanks to begin prego. Man, you miss out on so much fun stuff when you're pregnant! But there's lots of other fun stuff that you get to experience, like feeling the baby move around inside. That's pretty cool.

Well here's an updated photo of me at 25 weeks.

Squatting and other fun pregnancy stuff

So I've been doing a lot of reading lately, being that I am now 25 weeks pregnant (!). I have been trying to read up on things I can do to best prepare for childbirth. I'm also deciding what "method" of childbirth I want to use. One that I am leaning towards is called Husband-Coached Childbirth or The Bradley Method. It focuses on a natural birth, and having the husband be the primary coach before and during labor. So in that book, along with a few others that I have, they recommend doing squatting exercises to prepare your body for labor. I've been trying this lately, and let me tell you, it's harder than it looks!!

The idea is to keep your feet flat on the floor, about 12" apart, and then to bend your knees and squat down. They say you can start out just holding the position for a few seconds, but they recommend that you work up to being able to squat for several minutes at a time. Well, let me tell you, the most I've done so far is about 30 seconds. I've been going down lower than the people in this photo, but anyway you do it, it still hurts. So ladies, whether you are preggo or not, I recommend doing this exercise to help tone your legs and butt. It will also stretch you and use muscles you're not used to using.

Hopefully doing some squats tonight will make up for the fact that I had pizza for dinner and I'm now headed to Starbucks to hang with some of the youth group girls...

General Update

Well I realize I've been a slacker and haven't posted an update for over a week. Bad me! Anyway, this past week was quite a whirlwind with lots going on. But it was mostly good. The bad, however, was that we found out my car needs the transmission fixed which is going to be a bunch of money. Thankfully, we will have the cash to cover it, but my plans of having extra in savings before the baby arrives have been set back a bit. We should still have time to replenish, but that just makes other things tighter for a bit.

Anyway, today was a good day as we finally got a lot of the trim up! Yay! I am so excited to see the room coming together. I will post pictures as soon as I can. After a day being on my feet helping Scott and doing dishes and cleaning, I was feeling rather exhausted and decided to lay down for a bit... well, I ended up taking a little 45 minute nap which was just what I needed.

Throughout the day I had some business calls as well, and so my voice is feeling a bit tired. So tonight our friends Steve and Jess suggested going to Gifford's for ice cream, and I was quite excited about that. It was just a nice little treat after a busy day.

Now I am back home and ready to relax and then head to bed.

Baby Update

I am starting to actually feel more pregnant. Part of that is because I'm starting to get big! Here are some photos to prove it - taken at 23 weeks (actually almost 24 weeks).
Another reason I feel more pregnant is because I now feel the baby moving pretty regularly. Sometimes it's just little movements, and other times it's really strong. I've actually seen my belly move a couple times, and Scott even saw it once too. That was so cool!

Things are still going quite well in terms of my pregnancy. I am hoping that I am staying on track weight wise - I haven't really been keeping close track, just when we go to see our midwife.

On another note, we did find a doula. Her name is Janel, and I am excited to have her. She is really nice, and both Scott and I connected with her. We're meeting with her next Wednesday to go over the birth plan, etc. Yay!

As for being prepared in the house, we are not even close! We need to finish the trim in the living room and dining room. Then we can focus on the baby room. I want to do it sooner rather than later, just in case the baby comes early or anything like that. I'd really like to have the crib in the baby room instead of the kitchen (where it is right now)!!

Well I guess that's all for now. There has been lots more happening, but I need to get back to working on other stuff.

Quick Update

Well I'm posting a quick update even though I should be showering and heading out the door. Yesterday was crazy at work. I just simply do not understand the things that the DHHS does and it drives me crazy. I can't give details obviously, but I am very sick about what has happened with one of my cases. I am trying not to think about it, because there is literally nothing I can do. But I just pray that this does not have serious long-term effects on the kids... although I believe it will.

So it was a long day. I was so glad to come home and have Scott already here - he had spent the day with Steve scouting out the campsite they will be using for "Man Camp", and he decided to just stay home once they got here rather than going to the church for one hour. So we then began madly cleaning downstairs. It was SUCH a mess, and although I'm not a total clean freak like a few others I know (Amy... Sarah... : ) I still like to have things in somewhat of a clean and organized fashion. It makes me feel calmer and like I can actually accomplish stuff. So we cleaned and organized and threw stuff away, etc. We also threw dinner on the stove and had it ready right when the doula came to meet with us. So our timing was a little off, but she was fine with us eating in front of her. (I felt bad - but baby needed food!) This time our meeting with the doula went great. Scott liked her, and I did too. She is not as experienced as the other one we talked to, but she is really nice and I think she will fit with what we want. So we haven't made the final decision to use her, but we probably will by Monday.

After that, I knew that I had a lot of other things that I could do, but I just needed to relax. So I played around on the computer a bit and then went and laid on the couch watching "Wife Swap" and "Supernanny" all night. Ah, bliss. It felt good to rest and to just let my brain think about nothing for a while. Of course, I did read a little bit of some pregnancy books, but that was for fun as well. Let's just say I hope we never have to call Supernanny! Scott watched part of it and he was horrified at what he was seeing. This family had 5 kids and they were absolutely crazy. Scott looked at me and said, "One's good, right?"

Well I went to bed at a decent time but somehow slept in later than I planned... I guess my body needed it. I still don't feel like going to work because I have lots of paperwork to do and it's hard to do that when I'm thinking about the horrible situation. But today, I must do it. So, I'm off to hurry around and get my butt in gear. Later today, I hope to have a friend from waaaaaaaaaay back in high school over for dinner with her 2 little kids - yay!