New belly pic! 37 weeks. Will it be the last?

Ok, so I look a little tired after working all day on Wednesday until around 6:30pm, but I thought I'd share the whole pic with you anyway!

Notice the beautiful blue walls that Tom and his Mom painted for Nicky this past weekend. Ahh, soothing aren't they. And there's Nicky's crib waiting for him! Lot's more to do in the Nursery, but since he won't be in there for a while (he'll be in our room in the bassinet/pack and play) I'm not too worried about it.

No progress yet. I'm told I'll definitely know when Nicky drops, but I'm not so sure. I have had to go to the bathroom a LOT yesterday (both kinds) in the evening, and that's supposed to be a sign. But maybe it's just a sign that I had to go to the bathroom a lot. Who knows. I did have some cramps a little bit last night, but they could have been bowel related and not uterus related. I just don't know. But I hope somethings going on down there.

Today I'm going over to JM's house to finish up the maternity pictures. I can't wait to share those! There are already a few I really like that Tom and I did outside, but you can't see the belly much. But man, she made US look good! :) Now we'll do some real belly shots of me and Nicky today at noon. I'm supposed to be rested, but I woke up at 5am this morning and just had to get up. So I'm sitting here on the birth ball at the computer. I will probably take a little nap in a while and then get a shower and fix up my hair or something. You know, something I NEVER do! Ha! I don't even have a curling iron or my curlers here! They're still in Micanopy somewhere. We'll see what I can do with a dryer and a brush.

After pictures maybe I'll walk home from JM's. It's not very far. And maybe Nicky will get the message to settle downwards a bit. I wanna have him on Tuesday! I see Liz can't make it on Friday, so hopefully I'll go before that. I'm still excited about labor. Not scared at all! I am wondering how well I'll be able to focus while having all the people there that I want in the room. Hopefully I'll be fine. I am an extrovert (like you didn't know right?) and so theoretically I gather energy from being in contact with people. So it might be good to have them there. But I figure if it gets to be too much everyone will just have to take a break and go to the waiting room or the cafeteria for a while. We'll just have to see.

Still, I'm looking forward to it! The birthing experience is the next big thing I've wanted to experience for so long! AND then after that we get to try breastfeeding! YAY! I even dreamed about that Thursday night. Of course in my dream it was stressful because I had the baby (which was a girl) and then had to go back to work the same day and didn't see her for 3 days! When I finally got to breastfeed her though it was great! And so relaxing to finally have time to sit and bond with her. Hopefully it will go great with Nicky in real life. (AND I won't be going back to work the same day, just for the record! LOL!)

Things are moving right along!

Well, we had an excellent BPP today. No new measurement, but he scored an 8/8 again, another A+! He was a little wiggle worm and did all his breathing too. Fluid levels are good and the placenta is still rated a 2, which means that although it's older it's still in good shape.

Then we went to the OB appointment. My iron was even lower by a tad, which seems funky since I've been on 300mg iron/day thing for about a month! Whatever. My weight hasn't changed at all. Still 298.5 so at 23.5 pounds gained total. Blood pressure was excellent at 118/70. I showed the OB my blood sugars. They're still high in the morning, but I showed him how they're low around 2-4am and then get higher by themselves by 8am. So he doesn't want to risk the insulin now since I could go too low at night. So yay for me for keeping good data!

I got another internal and am now 50% effaced and soft. Still no dilation yet, and the baby isn't yet engaged either. But the really exciting thing is the doctor wants to see me on Monday (our next appointment was going to be next Wednesday) and check for dilation and station. If the baby is engaged he'll go ahead and induce me! We could be having Nicky early next week! The latest he wants me to go is 39 weeks because of Nicky's size, so the latest I'll go is week after next! I'm so excited!

So Tom and I went right away to the store and bought some Red Raspberry Leaf tea and Evening Primrose Oil. We're also going to walk every evening for as long as I can stand it. And I'll do a LOT of sitting on my birthing ball too. We want Nicky engaged by Monday! I'm really ready to take some time off work and spend some time with my baby OUTSIDE my body! :) I'm really not miserable yet although everyone says I will get that way soon. I'm happy having him in there, and I know I'll miss it when he's out, but I still can't wait to see him. So stay tuned, watch the blog and stay by your phones!

A few pictures from the shower

Here are a few little pictures from the baby shower. It's hard to upload from home with just dial-up internet, so I'm trying to just pic a few.

Here's one of Tom and I opening gifts.



And one of my mother and sisters.



And one of Tom writing furiously to record all the wonderful gifts we received!



It was a lot of fun!

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Right now Tom and his mom are in Nicky's room painting up a storm! The painting of the walls should be done today and then I just have to pick a glossy white for the trim, closet and doors. Then Tom will paint those and put in the flooring. Progress is being made! I can't wait to show you pictures of his room all finished!

Ok, this may be gross, so stop here if you haven't had dinner...

Just have to give everyone all the news. Hope you're not squeamish!

Last night at about 7:30 I lost my mucous plug! How cool is that?! Of course I had to call Tom in to see it and we both marveled at this proof that things are progressing!

Now that doesn't mean labor is emminent, or even necessarily near, but when I called the OB's office today the nurse said it was a sign of progress and that it could still be 2 weeks. HA! 2 weeks! That would be so cool to go within 2 weeks!

Today Tom's mom came back to visit. We're having a birthday thing for Tom tomorrow. His birthday was on Wednesday. Tom and his mom picked me up from work and then we went out to dinner and then to Lowe's where she bought the flooring for Nicky's room. I also finally picked a color blue for the walls and we went ahead and bought that too. So Tom will be painting the room and then pulling out the carpet and putting in the wood laminate interlocking floor. It's a honey oak color and should look great when it's all done in there! I'll have to put up pics.

Speaking of which I am woefully behind in posting pictures! I have two or three from the shower and a new belly picture too. I'll try to get them up this weekend. Promise!

New measurement today!

Ok, I have a lot to catch up on since the last post.

First the shower went beautifully. I should have pictures soon from JM. I know my Dad's wife, Gwen, also took some good photos and will be sending those to me soon too. Lots of people came, I think about 18 all together, and we got tons of stuff for the baby!

We're set on clothes I think until Nicholas turns two! We also got some toys, books, a cradle my dad refinished, a crib, and the travel system. We have a few things left on the registry that are "important" but Im'm nt too worried about it at this point. I do have to go buy the breast pump ASAP, and the bathtub and the diaper pail at some point, but the swing can either wait or be skipped all together if need be. So all in all I think everyone set us up very nicely for our first year with Nicky!

Oh, and the cake was divine! Bad, bad Angela for eating so much of it on Saturday! But I've been good since!

Now, on to my new news!

We went to the BPP today and got a new measurement! Ready for this?

Head Circumference= 33.26cm (37 weeks 3 days)
Abdominal Circumference= 33.41cm (37 weeks 4 days)
Femur Length= 7.29cm (37 weeks 2 days)
Estimated weight= 7 pounds 4 ounces (40 weeks 2 days)
Estimated due date based on his measurements= 3/19/06
He's in the 80th percentile in weight right now. Whew! What a big boy!

My blood pressure was excellent at 120/70. Iron is still low at 32. Weight holding steady at 299 now, up only one pound over the last two weeks, and heck, that's how much Nicky grew! I had my first internal exam. Fun stuff. And the doctor doesn't think I'll have any trouble with an 8-8.5 pounder. Past that we'll just have to see. No dialation or effacement happening yet. And I'm positive for Group B strep, so I'll have antibiotics via IV during labor. More fun stuff.

We shared our birth plan with the doctor and he thought it was all fine. My sugars have been good except for the fasting ones that run around 104-109. He's upping my Metformin in the evenings to two pills at night and still one pill in the morning to see if we can get those down. If not then we'll have to consider insulin at night.

That's about it I think! The OB said he's very proud of us for doing so wonderfully this pregnancy. So we must be doing well. I like hearing things like that. :)