35 weeks ...

WOW - two more weeks and I can be considered "full term." I'm hoping this baby comes at 38 weeks! SO if that really does happen, I have less than a month to go! OH MY!

This week wasn't that eventful - just trying to finish a few projects for the baby, clean up and organize her room as much as possible, packed the bag for the hospital (wow, surreal!), and just getting bigger and bigger and bigger! I am so excited to meet her. It's overwhelming!

I got new shoes this week! Jesse, thankgoodness!, came along on my worse shopping experience EVER. I usually LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to shop - especially for clothes and shoes! yay! BUT definitely not when no shoe wants to fit your hugely swollen feet! yuck! I went to the mall and stopped in every old-lady type shoe place to find something that was not too tacky looking, but super comfy. I need better shoes at work, I'm hoping my feet wont be so sore! Anyway, even with going at least a size up or more AND getting the "wides" - still nothing was fitting!! It was a little ridiculous! Seriously! Finally, in the FINAL shoe store in the entire mall (about the 8th one we went into) I found Crocs. I don't think the regular Crocs are nice enough to wear to work, but I found semi-cute ballet flat ones that are the most comfy thing on the planet! They fit my swollen feet and have super comfy soles. I'm looking forward to wearing them to work and seeing how they work out! Yippy!

One super exciting thing we did this week was got our maternity pictures done! Our AMAZING friend from high school, Chelsea, took our photos. It was a lot of fun to hang out with her for a few hours, check out a brand new pretty cool place, and act cheesy taking lots of pictures! We went to the Clark County Museum, a place Jesse and I have never been to before - it's a really cool place. Lots of "run down" old things - buildings, cars, trains, homes, etc. All of these old things from when Clark County was just starting out. The backgrounds these things made were so very cool! Because we took so many pictures, and I just can't narrow my favorites down enough ... I'm making a whole post out of the maternity pictures!

Our baby girl:

This little girl isn't so little anymore and is having a harder time maneuvering now that she's over 18 inches long and 5.5 pounds! Her kidneys and fully developed now, and her liver and process some waste products now. Most of her basic physical developments are now complete, so she'll be spending the next month just putting on lots of baby fat! :)

-babycenter.com

34 weeks...

Wow. I can't believe how close I am already! When people ask me how far I am - I'm almost to the point of just saying how far I have left, instead of how far I am. I'm so excited, but also super nervous! AhhHh!

This week was my first full week back to work, so far so good. My feet hurt sooooo bad by the end of the day, but really it's not been that bad. My back and legs and everything else still feel okay, and even though I'm pretty exhausted (more than usual) at the end of the day, I still feel pretty good while I'm at work. So I think, for the most part, it's going okay. I was worried I wouldn't be able to handle being on my feet all day and dealing with 30 nine-year-olds all day ... but my class is pretty amazing and I am really going to enjoy these next few weeks I have with them before I get to be home with my baby :)

Speaking of my feet hurting though - I wish I could wear more comfortable shoes, BUT my feet decided to start swelling like crazy starting last week! I hate the look and feel of it, it's so gross, not to mention super uncomfortable! I can only wear my sandals, which have basically flat, cardboard, soles! Not the most comfortable thing to be walking around in for 8 hours! Oh well, I'll live! I'm just trying to watch the sodium (I haven't bought pickles. bummer) and drink lots and lots of water!

This week we also SOLD OUR HOUSE. Nothing really to do with the baby, but I'm excited this has happened. That means she'll be born here, but we're planning on being out of here by the beginning of December - so I'll have about a month left of my maternity to get things ready at the new place. I am so happy to be out from under this house, BUT nervous for the next step of looking for a new place to live. I'm sure it will be a much better place - more room for this little girl :)

Oh and I have to mention - I am an emotional wreck! I cry, but usually can control myself. Unfortunately, right now I definitely can not. I cry at nothing and everything! Even while I'm crying I know it's nothing and I can't stop it - I just feel sad and feel like crying. What the heck? This makes me worried about postpartum depression, which I never really even thought about before. I'm not a depressed person, so why would it happen to me? But now I realize I basically have no control over my emotions, so anything is possible! I'm hoping this goes away soon - at least after the birth. Right now I can handle it, so as long as it doesn't get worse!

Our little baby girl:

She weighs about 5 pounds now (according to the ultrasound we got) and is almost 18 inches long. She continues to put on fat - to help her regulate her body temperature once she's born. Her central nervous system is maturing and her lungs continue to mature as well. Luckily, if she was to be born between 34-37 weeks, although she'd be considered premature, she'd do fine with usually only a few days in the hospital (that's a relief, just in case!).

Doctor's Appointments (32 & 34 weeks)

Within these last few weeks I've had three doctor's appointments...

1. August 20th - 32 weeks - with my OB/GYN. Just a regular appointment, nothing fancy. She switched my antibiotics to half the dosage now, since we're getting to the end of the pregnancy and it's not as safe to take these antibiotics. I will stop taking them altogether at 36 weeks.

2. August 30th - 34 weeks - with the Ultrasound Office. This is our last appointment with this office. They said if everything looks fine still, she won't need to check on her anymore and we'll just wait for birth (in just a few short weeks)!! Of course we got some pictures of our cute baby girl ... but she's so big and so crammed in there now they weren't really that great. This one is hard to make out ... it's her profile with her arm on top of her face.

3. September 1st - 34 weeks - with my OB/GYN. Just another regular appointment. I go every two weeks now. Next time though I will start going every week. Wow, it's really getting close!! Nothing really happened at this appointment - EXCEPT I noticed I gained waaay too much weight. I'm supposed to be gaining like 1.5 pounds a week right now, WELL since 32 weeks I gained SIX pounds, instead of three!!! I'm so disappointed in myself and definitely need to do a better job of laying off of the sugar and walking more. I think my two weeks of "summer vacation" messed me up too. So I'm looking forward to my next two week appointment when hopefully I gain a little less than I'm supposed to - to make up for this time! We'll see. I'm just sooo hungry all of the time; I just have to make better food choices. Dang it!

33 weeks ...

This week has been a really nice week, despite going back to work - meetings and trainings are not always my favorite, especially 3 whole days of it!

I bought lots of cotton material to make sheets! I didn't think I was going to make fitted sheets for the crib, but after seeing how expensive they are (even for plain solid colored ones) I decided to check it out. I am glad I did, because they are about the easiest thing I've made so far!

Here are some of the cute prints I bought ...

We went to Utah again this weekend, for Jesse's grandma's 80th birthday bash! Even though I didn't enjoy going up twice in a row (the car ride is too much for my poor body right now), I'm really glad we got to go. Here's Jesse and I at the cabin, you can't see the beautiful lake in the background, oh well...

Jesse has been extra cute lately. He talks to the baby more and more. It's funny, because I get privacy when I want to talk to her - so I can say whatever I want to her and it's probably super embarrassing if I did it in front of anyone, but Jesse HAS to do it in front of me, since she's kind of stuck with me. haha. So I love that I get to here the sweet things he says.

This little girl has been so very active this week. It's weird how much her movements have changed. Before it was hard fast kicks and punches and things like that, but now it's more of rolling or gliding movements. I love to feel her feet or whatever sticking out and moving around the side of my belly. The only time it starts to get painful is when she shoves herself really really low, it stretches out those muscles holding her up and it is very uncomfortable and painful. As long as she's not doing that, I LOVE the movements!!

Cravings are back. Is this weird or what? I feel like I'm back in the first trimester again - peeing every 5 minutes and craving foods. Luckily it's minus the nausea! Everyday is something different, like the first trimester too, one day I'll REALLY want a certain restaurant's food and I just HAVE to go there for dinner. Or SWEETS, especially sweets! I'll think or something, or see it, and not be able to get it off of my mind. My stomach will hurt for it until I get it. I'm hoping this goes away soon, so I have some self control! ha.

Our little girl:

She weighs over 4 pounds now and has grown to over 17 inches long! She is losing the wrinkled, alien look and gaining lots of body fat. Her skeleton is hardening, although her skull isn't fused together - which allows it to overlap and distort itself to fit through the birthing canal.

- babycenter.com

32 weeks...

This week has been pretty eventful, since I have this week and next week off from work (my "summer vacation").

First, I had to switch out my wedding band set for my promise rings. Luckily, they are a little bigger, because my wedding band set was getting a little snug. I didn't want to do it, but Jesse insisted. I guess it's a good idea. I just miss them already!

I have been feeling more and more and more uncomfortable! It's no fun at all! She's gaining about half a pound a week right now and also half an inch! So she's getting pretty big in there and I am also getting bigger and more cramped! It's uncomfortable to sit, stand, lay, walk, ... do anything right now. I'm only expecting this to get worse, which scares me! Oh well, at least I know I am almost there - almost time to meet our little girl!!

I have also been crafty this week - getting some projects done that were on my mental "list" for her nursery ...

I made this mobile:

It is made from the gift bags I received at my shower. It was super tedious, but I love how it turned out! [idea from here]

I also made sewed these blankets:

A HUGE task I completed this week was washing all of the clothes we have for her!! I am so happy this is finally done, but wow this took forever! Luckily I even had some help - thank you Michelle and Roxanne for coming over for a few days and washing, folding, and sorting baby clothes with me!! I figured out I have a million 0-3 month and 3-6 month clothes. I also have a LOT of 6-9 month clothes, and a little 9-18 month clothes. I got four pretty large storage tubs (pink) to hold the clothes larger than 3 months, and bought this temporary "dresser" to store her 0-3 month clothes (since we're moving in three-ish months, I wanted to wait and buy a dresser that will fit into her new room once we are there).

Seriously, all of her clothes don't even fit into here! There top drawer is only PJs! the middle drawer is onsies, and the bottom drawer is pants and shirts and outfits. On the top is her blanket "sleeper" thingies. We also have jackets and dresses hanging in the closet! ALL 0-3 month! This girl is never wearing an outfit twice! haha.

I was also able to get her room a little put together, which is a relief ... here are some preliminary pictures, of course not everything is done - oh yeah and we're not changing out the paint on the wall, because what's the point since we're moving soon!

This is when you first walk in ...

This is on the wall that you can't see...

Notice the amazing paintings on the wall in the last photo? My friend Rhonda painted those. Aren't they absolutely perfect? I love them!!!

Here is a more up-close photo of them all ...

I just need to get a few more things done in her room, and we are almost there! Unfortunately of course, it won't really matter since she'll be sleeping in our room in a bassinet for a while. haha. Oh well, it's nice to have something almost complete!

AND we also got some new 3D photos of our gorgeous little girl. Thanks Whitnie for letting us come in! It's so exciting to have your friend do the scan for you - it makes it that much more special! Of course she was being super stubborn and wouldn't move her little hands away from her face, but we got come cute ones anyway ...

I love this one, because she is smiling! She kept smiling every time she heard her daddy's voice. Is that not the cutest thing ever?!

Her hands, covering her face. What a stinker!

I love this picture too. She is so precious. I can't wait to meet her!!

She's sucking on her lower lip. How cute!

This is so cool - you can see her opening her mouth and "breathing" in the fluid.

You can see her tongue and top gums!

Our baby girl:

She's about 4 pounds now and 16 3/4 inches long! It's crazy to think she'll about double her weight from now until she's born (about 7 more weeks)! She now has hardened toenails and fingernails and real hair!

-babycenter.com

31 weeks...

We are starting to put the nursery together. We weren't sure if we were going to do it - because we are hoping to sell our house and move. But it looks like we'll definitely be here until the end of the year at least, SO we started putting some things together.
We put together the crib on Sunday. That was exciting. I need to fix up the changing table a little and then we'll put that together. Since we are using our "guest room" as her room - we had a bed in there that I was planning to take out and get rid of, BUT my sister pointed out that I wanted her to some stay with me for a week or so when the baby got here and she would still need a bed! SO we seriously are SHOVING this bed, the crib, the changing table and other stuff into this little room. It's crammed and making me crazy, but our little girl won't even be sleeping in the room for a few months or so - since I want to be breastfeeding and how much easier is it to just wake up and grab her out of the bassinet by the bed - instead of walking down the hall?! So once my sister leaves after the first week, we'll move that bed out of there and it will be much nicer!

What I really can't wait to do is wash all of her 0-3 month clothes and get them sorted and hung up/put into drawers and stuff. I plan on doing this all at once after the shower - and I need to get my special cloth diaper laundry detergent (really it's just eco friendly and with no dyes, scents, etc. So it's good for babies' sensitive skin). That will definitely be a relief once the clothes are done!

When Jesse was going to take my weekly picture - he snapped this of me. I think I'm telling the baby to be nice, since I remember she was acting crazy in there! :) I thought it was sweet; I had no idea he was taking it.

Something not so fun I did this week was slice my thumb open. If you look closely in the picture you can see my band-aid on. It doesn't do it justice! I was making the quilt for her bed (which I will post once it's all complete) and was using a rotary cutter. The blade was too tight in the cutter and it was sticking to the mat. I should have stopped and fixed it, but didn't. It got stuck, popped up, and f course I continued to press down like I was still cutting and sliced my thumb from the bottom straight to the top towards my nail. It wouldn't stop bleeding and it was bleeding a LOT - straight through about four layers of a wash cloth! I went banging on neighbors' doors and finally found someone to drive me to the ER. Unfortunately that cost me 300 dollars :( I was really upset about wasting so much money! But I'm glad I went, I had to get four nice big stitches down the front of my thumb. Exciting stuff. The neighbor that took me was such a sweet guy, I'm really glad he drove me and even stayed with me. Luckily there is no permanent damage - except I'm hoping a pretty cool scar :)

Our baby girl has been busy getting bigger and bigger:

She measures a little over 16 inches long and weighs over 3.5 pounds (at least she should, but she has been measuring a little bigger)! She has also been having hiccups a LOT lately. At least two or three times a day. Sometimes more! They are the only movements I can't stand. It's so rhythmic and repetitious. I hate noises and movements and everything like that! But I read about the hiccups, and they don't hurt her and they are perfectly normal - so I'm not worried - just a little annoyed! ha.

30 weeks ...

Wow! I'm already in the "thirties" how exciting!

This week I am continuing to be "crafty." I figured out how to crochet a beanie, now I just need to figure out how to change sizes (because it's for a toddler, but I want to make newborn-3 month ones). We'll see how well I do with that!

Here is the finished thing though - I made some crochet flowers to go on it (with clips on the back so you can change them out to match outfits!) AND even clipped some of my regular headband flowers I made a few months ago. I think it's adorable! I can't wait to see it on a little girl!

I'm also going to try to make other patterns - ones with bills in the front and multicolors. Again, we'll see how they turn out. More than anything I need to make them the right size!

This little girl has been hurting me lately with her "jabs." It hurts pretty bad, enough to make me stop talking and make a face until she's done. I think it's her elbow or something - because it feels sharp and pointy. Ouch! Luckily it doesn't happen every day - but the days it does happens it happens a lot. Be nice baby! :)
This week I can definitely feel the start of the third-trimester-uncomfortable-days! Ugh. As she gets bigger and I get bigger it is waaay more uncomfortable. It's hard to sleep, lay down, or even sit. Usually she stays waaaay low (which kind of makes my belly odd shaped), but lately she stays down there but curls up towards my chest and sticks her feet waaay up there. When she does this I can't bend the top half of my body. She's in the way! Luckily though, she hasn't gotten under ribs or anything - the bad things I hear about! So I'm keeping my fingers crossed. With 10 weeks to go still, I'm sure she'll manage to do that too! ha.

We accomplished two exciting things this week: 1. decided which hospital we'll deliver the baby at AND 2. went to our Child Birth Classes.
Wednesday night we went to Mountain View Hospital and took a tour. It was about an hour long, and the lady giving the tour did a great job. All of the questions I had were answered - and more importantly they were answers I was hoping to hear! So even though we planned on checking out another hospital before we made our choice, we decided on this one. I'm excited to have that out of the way - and we know where to go once we get into the hospital, we know where everything is in the maternity ward, etc.
Saturday, ALL day, we had our Child Birthing Class. We took this class at Sunrise Hospital, because they offered a better class (more involved) than the one at Mountain View. The class was from 8:30-4:30, but luckily we got out an hour early! Woo! The ladies teaching the class were great, not shy at all about explaining everything and answering all questions. We learned about labor, birth, breathing techniques, diapering, swaddling, breastfeeding, etc. etc. etc. Jesse says he feels so much more excited now. Me, I feel so much more freaked out! I'm really going to be giving birth to a baby. Holy cow! BUT I am also so ready and excited. I can't wait! :)

Now I just have a huge list of things we need to get done BEFORE the baby gets here - like for one, really finally change my last name over to Bonzo officially on my Social Security card...so the baby can take Bonzo as her name in the hospital. AND get together a hospital bag to take with us, and choose a NAME?, and choose a pediatrician, and, and, and.... a ton of stuff!

Our little baby girl:

She should be about 15.7 inches long and weigh about 3 pounds (although considering last week she weighed 3.5 pounds, I am sure she is much larger than this). A pint and a half of amniotic fluid surrounds her, but that volume will decrease as she gets bigger and takes up more room in the uterus. Her eyesight continues to develop, though ts not very keep; even after she's born, she'll keep her eyes closed for a good part of the day. When she does open them, she'll respond to changes in light but will have 20/400 vision - she will only be able to make out objects a few inches from her face.

-via babycenter.com