34 weeks

34 weeks today.  And the belly is a'growin'!  That means that she'll be here 5 weeks from tomorrow.  EEK!  I'm starting to get nervous about everything that there is left to do before she arrives.  And I was thinking that there's no guarantee that she won't decide to come on her own before the 5th!  I hope she stays put until we're all ready.  :)  In the meantime, I need to get going on that to-do list!

Forever in our hearts

Today would have been Emma's 8th birthday......still missing her every day.  There's definitely still a hole in our lives.  Hopefully, she's getting tons of biscuits today in Heaven.  :)  Happy birthday baby girl.

They tricked me!

Had my "sono" on Friday, 1/20.  I was excited to see Baby, but still wondering why they ordered a sono.  WELL, turned out to be just a cervical length check.  They have NEVER scheduled an appt. for that.  So not only did I waste my time going to a completely separate appt (for a two minute check), but I totally had my hopes up for a real sono!  :(  Bummed.  The sono tech did agree to take a "quick peek" (and it was quick indeed).  Good to see her briefly, but once again, no good pics.  Cervix was good though - still a 4.5.  I have a "real" sono on 2/22, so guess I'll just look forward to that.  :)

1/23 was my appt. w/ Dr. Croland.  Nothing exciting to report.  Her heartbeat at both the sono and appt. was 159.  I asked him about cutting down my hours at work.  He said that as long as nothing was changing, he was ok, for now, with me working some OT, but not to push it too much.  This week is particularly bad w/ our Annual Report, but I wanted to at least make sure I wasn't harming the little one. 

Recent appointments

Realized I never posted about my recent Dr. appointments. 

12/28/11 - I already briefly mentioned my appt. w/ Dr. Teverbaugh.  I asked her if we could go ahead and schedule the c-section and she said, "How about March 5th?"  :)  I can't believe we have an official date!!  I mean, obviously we had a due date, but this just feels more real somehow!  The hospital called later that afternoon to confirm 8:30 AM on the 5th!  I'm glad that Dr. T will be the one to do it too.  So I just need to convince Miss Avery to stay put until then.  No early arrivals please!  There's too much to do before then.  Dr. T did mention that I had some protein in my urine sample.  She said that normally that means that they're going to have issues w/ my blood pressure (i.e. pre-eclampsia).  But my BP has been excellent so far.  She said we'll just have to keep an eye on it and to be sure to let them know if I start to have any swelling or flu-like symptoms.  (I've been having a lot of swelling at night lately, but as long as it goes away by morning, that's normal).  Anyway, nothing else exciting.  JUST A DATE!  :)

1/3/12 - Had maternal/fetal appt w/ Dr. Leonardi.  30w, 1d.  Sono went well.  Dr. came in briefly.  They usually spend a lot more time, but it was very quick this time.  He said he "sees no concerns w/ baby".  :)  So unless my titers change, there's no reason to see me back "until next pregnancy".  With that, Lucas told him that it's been nice knowing him.  LOL.  He's sure that we're done.  I told him that we need to wait until Avery gets here before we go scheduling that vasectomy!  I'm fine w/ being on birth control for another couple of years.  I'm pretty sure that we'll be done too.....but......  :)  Anyway, I love going to the maternal/fetal appointments, so I'm a bit sad that we don't have one more.  (We had 4 w/ Carson).  BUT, at the same time, no news is good news and I'm just grateful/relieved that everything looks good! The sono tech said again that her arms and legs are long so she's probably going to be really tall (they said the same last time).  Looks like I may be the shortest in our family!  :)   Her heartbeat was 130 and she's 4 lbs. already!!  I need to look back and see what Carson was at this stage.  She tried really hard, but we got no good pictures!  :( 

1/13/12 - 31 w, 5d.  My appointments are now every 2 weeks.  This one was w/ one of the midwives - Sue.  Heartbeat was 143.  BP still good.  No protein in urine this time.  Yay!  I think the last result must have been because I wasn't drinking enough water.  I've been having cramping on and off for the last week so I mentioned that.  She said that it's ok as long as it's not more than 4 an hour (like contractions).  They've been more like menstrual cramps - seem fairly constant for a while and then go away.  Felt better to know that it's not a big deal though.  

She asked me if I was still working.  Um, yes.  Then she asked how many hours.  I told her that it's a busy time so more than I normally do.  She again asked how many hours and I said 6 days a week.  She said, "absolutely not".  I just laughed but she said she wasn't joking.  :)  She told me (and then again like 4 more times) that I need to cut back on my hours.  She said she really doesn't want me working over 40 hours a week and no more than 8 hours a day.   Not really sure if that's feasible right now, but I would never want to risk anything either.  She said that I need to remember that I'm high-risk and just because things have been going well doesn't mean that I should overdo things.  I guess I just don't know where it was coming from.  It really was even before we discussed the cramping or anything.  I'm not sure if she  pushed because of that or if it's just a normal "you shouldn't push it" at this stage of pregnancy??  She said that 40 hours was better than 0 hours and she didn't want to put me on bedrest.  Again, I'm not sure WHY they would even suggest that since nothing is happening.  Maybe they're just being cautious.  I am exhausted and would LOVE to not work over 40 hours, but it's such a busy time at work.  I know that shouldn't come first, and it doesn't, but it's important too.  I'll just do my best to cut back maybe during the week and see if I can stay caught up.  We'll just have to figure it out.  And I'll just pay close attention to how I'm feeling and try not to push it too much.  When I checked out, they told me that she ordered a sono for my next visit.  Not sure why on that one either, but I'll always take another chance to peek at baby Avery!  :)

Expanding belly

The belly continues to grow.....

Big Boy Bed!

I had an appointment with Dr. T on 12/28.  Nothing exciting to report, other than WE HAVE A DATE!  We went ahead and scheduled my c-section for March 5th at 8 AM!  That made everything more real!  It's going to be here before we know it.  I have to admit, as exciting as it is to have an official date, it kind of sent Lucas and I into a panic.  There's SO much to do to prepare for her arrival!  So, New Year's weekend, we got to work! 

We painted Avery's room, we moved Carson's furniture into her room, we assembled his new furniture and introduced him to his new big boy room!!  I was so nervous that he was going to be upset seeing his stuff moved into her room....but he was SO EXCITED to see his new furniture.  He still cannot stop talking about his big boy bed.  Almost every morning, he wakes up and tells us that he "slept in his big boy bed!"  We put him in it the first night (1/2) and he did great!!  He slept ALL night.  I think we just got lucky w/ a great sleeper.  Since then, we've only had one night where he woke up.  I ended up having to lie down with him for a bit.  But every other night has been a total success. I'm so proud of him!  :)  We still have finishing touches to make to his room (shelves, etc.) and we still have quite a bit to do to her room, but we've made progress and we feel so relieved!!

Avery's new room:

Before

After - paint

The color ended up not being the exact gray that we wanted, but I think it will work.  As Lucas said, it has to work because we're not repainting.  Haha.  I'm hoping that once we get everything else in the room, I'll like it more.  But it's okay.  ;) 

Carson's new room:

 

Sound asleep!

Avery's bedding:

Will definitely have more pictures as her room (hopefully) comes together!  :)

Merry Christmas!

Christmas was so fun this year!  Carson was so excited for Santa to come.  He loved seeing all the lights, decorations, tree.  He couldn't wait to open presents.  He made the whole holiday season so much more fun.  :)

On Christmas Eve, Grandma Margaret came over.  We "made" cookies together.  (Note that Mommy currently makes cookies by opening the package and putting the premade/cut cookies on the cookie sheet.  Haha.  It's still baking, right??)  We watched a video that Santa sent Mommy for Carson.  He was fascinated by that!  He looked at me and said, "Santa's talking to me!!"  So cute.

Nana and Papa came over on Christmas Day.  Carson had a great time with both sides of the family.  It was a wonderful day and he got so many great presents.  He's a very lucky little boy!

Our tree - Christmas Eve

Cookies with Mommy

Opening presents with Grandma

 

 

Carson LOVED his Woody doll!

Carson loved playing with Grandma's "finger lights"

Christmas morning - Santa didn't finish his cookies!

So Carson finished for him!!

Christmas morning

 Carson LOVED his bicycle!  He still keeps talking about how Santa brought him a bike.  So cute!  He needs to learn to pedal, but for now, he loves being pushed around the house on it.  :)  Not so great on Mom's back, but worth it to see how excited he gets. 

Presents!!  Finally!

Double fisting on Christmas morning!