Weekly Check-In (28 weeks)

How far along? 28 weeks, 5 days
Weight gain/loss: +20 pounds, down 1 from last week. This is possibly because we're having a heat wave in NY and all I've done is sweat for the last week.
Maternity clothes? Yup, everything but sweats and the big t-shirts I sleep in.
Sleep? I'm still sleeping great! Totally jinxed the whole getting up to pee thing. I have been getting up at least once if not twice to go to the bathroom. It's really not a big deal though, I usually fall right back to sleep.
Best moment this past week? It's been a rough week but I think I figured out the whole calve cramps thing. I added another 20oz of water to my day and they seem to have disappeared. That's a good thing!
Sex: We're having a boy!
Belly button in or out? In, but it's looking very little.
Movement: Lots and lots! Now Bill, my sister, my mom, and my mother in law have felt him kick :)
What I miss? I still really want a drink.
What I'm looking forward to this week: Getting the 3 hour glucose test over with and hopefully having a better week than last week. We started looking at baby names again and we're pretty much set between two of them. Of course I like one and Bill likes the other. I think I can bring him over to my side though!
Milestones: From babygaga.com, "your little explorer's eyes are doing lots of blinking this week because they’re now responding to light and dark!And in life-critical physical developments: your champ's tiny industrious bone marrow is now a major construction site for blood cells, while their super-cute adrenal glands are actually producing androgen and estrogen — which will stimulate your body to begin milk production."
Labor Signs: Braxton Hicks here and there.
Picture: can't find my camera :( Who loses a camera. I'll try and take a decent picture with my phone later
Edit: Here's my crappy cell phone pic from 29 weeks

Glucose Screening Results

I failed :(

The doctor's office called today to tell me I scored 134 and they use the cutoff of 130. So now I have to go for the 3 hour test on Wednesday. I'm pretty bummed that I'll have to do the test and that I'll have to miss a day of work for it. I'm pretty sure that the chocolate I accidentally ate before my test (I could kick myself) is the culprit but it's best to go for the test and be sure. Ugh, more to add to my list of crappy things.

Trying not to whine

I have to say, I've been extremely lucky in my pregnancy so far. I never had traditional morning sickness, I never threw up. I had food aversions and bionic fatigue for a couple of weeks but my first trimester really wasn't that bad. Second trimester was filled with tons of energy and weight gain that is on the high end but not enough to worry doctors. I felt pretty great. Until this week.

Depending on who you ask, the third trimester either starts at week 27 or week 28. My doctor and my favorite pregnancy book (The Pregnancy Countdown Book) say that week 28 is the beginning of the third trimester and I definitely felt it on Wednesday when I hit the 28 week mark. I had a few charlie-horse type leg cramps back in the second tri and my doctor recommended upping my calcium intake. That helped and the cramps disappeared for the most part. This week though, they are back with a vengeance. I got one in my left leg Tuesday night/early Wednesday morning and the knot is still there and still painful. Last night, I got a cramp in my right leg and the cramp is still a dull pain. I can't walk normally without it hurting. I tried stretching both legs out all day yesterday and last night before bed but it doesn't seem to be doing anything. Wahhh.

Then, yesterday I went for my bridesmaids dress fitting since I'm in a wedding on June 11. I ordered the dress back in January and got it 3 sizes bigger (eek!) and when it came in a month ago, I was swimming in it. Yesterday, it was huge in the boobs, shoulders, and back but slightly tight in the belly. The back puffed out in a way that made my butt look super extra wide as well as flat.

The seamstress was slightly baffled. She said we could take out the pleats in the back to make the back more flattering and free up some fabric for the front but in order to make the front look right we need to basically lift it up to an empire waist dress which then makes the hem length too short. There is a little bit of fabric they can let out in the hem to make it longer but I'm nervous. I go back tomorrow for another fitting and will go again the week of the wedding to make sure it all fits.

Ok, whining over. It's been a rough week between finding out that my cousin and his wife used the name we had picked out, the cramps, and the dress fitting. The good news? I am healthy. The baby is healthy. I have a wonderful husband who is my strength. I have a fabulous, supportive family. And of course, we're having a baby! It will all be worth it, I just know it.

Three in one day

Ok, I've had time to reflect a little bit on my day.

1) Hopefully my brainfart doesn't mess up my 1 hour glucose screening results, they will let me know how it went in the next day or two. Good news: they think the baby is head down now!

2) I'm very upset about the whole baby name thing but I have no one to blame or be mad at. I'm disappointed and sad that we can't use the name anymore. Some might say to go ahead and use it but this situation is different. Probably the most significant reason is the fact that my cousin's wife and I used to be best friends. We met in 9th grade and were the best of friends for about 10 years. We had our ups and downs but we ended up growing apart and had a big falling out about 2 years ago. Shortly after our falling out she started dating my cousin. My family is big, 21 grandchildren with all but 2 living in Syracuse, but we see each other a lot. They had a quick-ish relationship and got engaged about 2 months after Bill and I did and got married this past July. Things are awkward to say the least between us. She has not earned many brownie points with my family and not many of us like her. I can't use the same name as them. I'd feel like I was trying to steal their thunder or something.

I know that we will find another name and that the important thing is that our baby is healthy. He will be our son regardless of what name we choose. We'll end up liking the name we choose better because it will be his name.

I know all this but it just hurts so bad. She and I have a major history of her screwing me over and I feel like she did it again, even though she doesn't know it.

I told my sister and my parents about this and that's it. No one else will know. I don't want to make their exciting news about me and I don't want to give her the satisfaction of knowing that she got to me again.

It's time to move on and go back to the drawing board.

Our baby is no longer, Owen.

Baby Name

My cousin Casey and his wife had their baby boy today. I'm so happy for my cousin. They used our baby name. They didn't know we had decided on it and we don't own it. I'm devastated anyway.

Glucose Screening

I'm an idiot. I have my glucose screening scheduled for 2:15 today. They office told me to eat normally all day but nothing too sugary so I had eggs for breakfast and a snack of baby carrots. So far, so good. In order to make my appointment on time, I had to take a half day from work which means leaving at 11:30. I got home around noon and Bill was doing dishes so I was standing in the kitchen talking to him and absentmindedly grabbed about 8 M&Ms from a container and popped them in my mouth. I didn't even notice until after I had swallowed them that I ate a very sugary snack! Crap! I hope this doesn't mess up my test results...

Weekly Check-In (27 weeks)

How far along? 27 weeks, 5 days
Weight gain/loss: +21 pounds, up 1 from last week. Uhg.
Maternity clothes? Yup, everything but sweats and the big t-shirts I sleep in.
Sleep? I'm still sleeping great! I don't want to jinx this but I rarely even get up to pee in the middle of the night :)
Best moment this past week? Getting the new nursery cleared out and ready to be painted. Oh and we started registering, finally!
Sex: We're having a boy!
Belly button in or out? In, but it's looking very little.
Movement: Lots and lots! Now Bill, my sister, my mom, and my mother in law have felt him kick :)
What I miss? I still really want a drink.
What I'm looking forward to this week: Getting the new baby room painted and finishing registering.
Milestones: From babygaga.com, "your child's lungs are already capable of breathing air as their vascular system can now handle oxygen/carbon exchange and their brain stem can now regulate rhythmic breathing as well as their basal body temperature!"
Labor Signs: Braxton Hicks have stopped.
Picture:

Nursery Drama

Bill and I bought our house about 2 and a half years ago, minutes from where we both grew up. We love our house but it's definitely on the small side. It's about 1100 square feet with 3 bedrooms, well it's technically only 2 bedrooms with an office because the third has no closet. When we moved in, we took the master bedroom (obviously) and made the office our, well, office. The third bedroom was the catch-all for stuff we didn't have a place for, the elliptical machine, and a couple of boxes of keepsakes from each of us (Bill's trumpet from high school, my ballet shoes, etc.). We also put the litter box in that third room since there really wasn't any other option.

When it came time to decide which room would be the baby room, we decided on the smallest room because it was in the best shape and it's right next to our room rather than across the hall. We painted the room and I love how the color turned out, Bill hates the color. He swears it's purple, I don't see purple, only gray. He decided to just deal with it. We put together the furniture, changing table (with drawers), dresser, and crib. It looks great in the room but there one major problem, that's all that fits in the room. No room for a chair even. We could use the dresser as the changer but I'm afraid that we wouldn't have enough room for storage since we there is no closet in that room either.

I was so upset when we got all the furniture in there and I realized the room is just too small. I need a chair of some sort for nighttime feedings and we don't want a room that's overly packed, especially if there is another room available! Bill is pretty bummed that we put so much work into fixing up that room and now we need to do the other room too but I think it's probably a good thing. We don't plan on staying in this house forever, probably just another 5 years or so. When we go to sell it, it would be nice to have the rooms all fixed up. This is the kick in the butt we needed to get them presentable.

I like our cat. I really do. I'm not a cat person and wasn't the one who brought him into the relationship but I do like Gizmo. I just hate his litter box. With. A. Passion. Litter boxes are disgusting. Even the fancy-shmancy automatic one that we have, you still have to change the poop bin every few days or it smells:
The thing is, logic would state that we take it out of the bedroom it's in now, and move it to the other room. But now that we've fixed up the other room, I'd really like to make it into a guest room. We have a twin sized bed we can put in there but I don't know too many of our guests that would be cool with sharing a room with our cat's excrements. Other than the bedrooms, here is a list of other rooms in our house: kitchen (I don't want to cook meals next to cat poop), bathroom (no space), living room (I don't want to hang out with friends next to cat poop), basement (best choice but you have to go through our garage to get to the basement and it's too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer to leave the door to the garage open).

Now that I've convinced Bill to fix up the other room and use that for our nursery, I'm feeling better and less stressed but of course I have to add some drama with the cat box. I think I might be SOL on this one though...

Weekly Check-In (26 weeks)

How far along? 26 weeks, 5 days
Weight gain/loss: +20 pounds, yikes. No weight gain last week, more than made up for it this week.
Maternity clothes? Yup, everything but sweats and the big t-shirts I sleep in.
Sleep? I'm still sleeping great! I don't want to jinx this but I rarely even get up to pee in the middle of the night :)
Best moment this past week? Getting everything settled with the daycare center!
Sex: We're having a boy!
Belly button in or out? In, but it's looking very little.
Movement: I'm feeling more and more every day. It's starting to get stronger too.
What I miss? This week I really wanted a drink. I haven't had a drop of alcohol since the end of Novemeber!
What I'm looking forward to this week: Nothing in particular :)
Milestones: From babygaga.com, "For the first time ever, your wee babe's eyelids have finally opened (remember: they were fused shut previously) and they’re probably having their first moments of sight as you read this (or maybe it already happened while you were brushing your teeth or browsing the internet or something). In addition to taking in their first visual impressions of their comfy amniotic-filled studio, your little human-bean recently acquired the ability to move their head around."
Labor Signs: I added this one because I'm pretty sure I've had a couple of Braxton Hicks contractions this week. No big deal though.
Picture:

Weekly Check-In (25 weeks)

How far along? 25 weeks, 5 days
Weight gain/loss: +16 pounds, no change from last week!
Maternity clothes? Yup, everything but sweats and the big t-shirts I sleep in.
Sleep? I have been sleeping great!
Best moment this past week? Seeing my belly bouncing around. Oh, and my sister offered to throw me a shower :)
Sex: We're having a boy!
Belly button in or out? In, but Bill says it looks like a crater on the moon...
Movement: I'm feeling more and more every day. It's starting to get stronger too.
What I miss? Hmmm, nothing much this week, I'm just excited!
What I'm looking forward to this week: We're going to meet with the daycare center tomorrow. I'm hoping they continue to impress me!
Milestones: From babygaga.com, "The good news is: if your child were to be born premature, they’d likely survive without much trauma as their lungs started producing “surfactant” last week, which means their tiny respiratory system is getting stronger with each passing day."
Picture:

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all of the woman out there they act as a mother in any way, shape, or form.

A big thank you to my wonderful husband who went out at 6am today to get me a card and flowers so I would be surprised when I woke up. I love you Bill!

Baby Kicking

I had a very strange sensation Sunday evening. Bill and I were lounging around watching TV and it felt like the baby kicked me in the hoohah. Now, I paid close attention in science and in health class when I was younger and I know that the cervix closes up and the baby doesn't hang out in my vagina but it totally felt like I was getting kicked down there. And it didn't stop. He was kicking so hard and about every 15 seconds. He even kicked so hard at one point that a few drops of pee came out! Talk about embarrassing! Bill and I just cracked up because it was so strange.

It happened a couple of times yesterday while I was working (the kicking not the peeing) so I decided I should probably bring it up at my appointment today. The midwife, Jane, told me it was possible that the baby was breach and kicking my cervix or he could be facing the right way could have been punching my cervix. She decided it would be nice to know and pulled out the little ultrasound machine! Yay for seeing the baby again! It turns out the baby is transverse. His head is up high on the left and his feet are down low on the left. She said he could have been completely breach Sunday and yesterday and turned since then or he could have been transverse and just really kicking around. Either way, it's totally fine and nothing to worry about. She said there is plenty of time for the baby to flip around.

I also got my bottle of glucola and scheduled my glucose tolerance test for 3 weeks for today. Fingers crossed for no Gestational Diabetes.

Daycare

I'm not sure if I've written about our daycare options before. If I give birth around my due date, I'll be taking the first month of school off and going back sometime in October which means we need childcare for our very tiny infant. It's not ideal but next school year is my tenure year and while I don't totally believe in tenure (a story for a different day) I do believe in doing what I can to keep my job! They can't deny me tenure because I had a baby but they can push back my tenure date if I stay out too long.

So anyway, we had a couple of options for daycare.

1. A friend of the family sits for kids out of her house. Pros: Least expensive, someone we trust because we really know them. Cons: I love this woman but she's a liver and pancreas transplant survivor and because of that, gets sick and needs to go to the doctor quite often. I worry about her being able to take care of the baby regularly enough. We don't have a backup, one of us would have to call in if she couldn't take the baby and Bill doesn't have sick time, he doesn't get paid if he doesn't go in.
   
2. A daycare center by my work. Pros: Highly recommended by several coworkers, close to work, clean and the staff seemed very competent. Cons: Most expensive option (both in weekly cost and we would have to pay for the summer even though I'd be home), long wait list, close to work but not home.
3. A daycare center for employees of my school district. Pros: Recommended by my cousin who takes his kids there, clean and the staff seemed very competent, more inexpensive than option 2 (same weekly cost but because it's for school district employees it's not open when school is not so we only pay for the days we're in session), small - the director knows all of the children and parents by name, very close to our house and convenient for us, my parents, and Bill's mom if they ever needed to pick up the baby for us. Cons: Only take 8 infants a year, somewhat long wait list that only lets kids in at the beginning of the school year.

So as you can probably see, option #3 is our top choice. I applied back in February and the director told us that she wasn't sure about the availability because parents who currently have children enrolled get top priority and she knew that at least one family was expecting and possibly one other. She said she'd get back to me in April or May. In the meantime, we applied to the other center as well as a couple of other centers that I didn't list because they would only be temporary until one of the top 3 options opened up.

Yesterday I got the call from the director, WE GOT IN!!! I'm still pretty hesitant about putting my 6-8 week old infant in the care of anyone other than myself or my mom but we knew when we got pregnant that this was going to happen. We knew that we couldn't really afford for either of us to stop working and our young parents all still work. The next best option would be to find a center that really works for us and I think this is it! We go to sign paperwork and tour again on Tuesday. It feels like a huge weight has been lifted!

Weekly Check-In (24 weeks)

How far along? 24 weeks, 5 days
Weight gain/loss: +16lbs. (if you compare this week's picture to last week, I definitely went through a growth spurt!)
Maternity clothes? Yup, everything but sweats and the big t-shirts I sleep in.
Sleep? I have been sleeping great!
Best moment this past week? Finding the perfect bedding set for baby boy!
Sex: We're having a boy!
Belly button in or out? In, but getting more shallow.
Movement: I'm feeling more and more every day. It's starting to get stronger too.
What I miss? Hmmm, nothing much this week, I'm just excited!
What I'm looking forward to this week: I'm going to prenatal yoga tonight with my cousin who is also pregnant and due in September.
Milestones: From babygaga.com, "Just take a look at the checklist for this week: 1) ears: done; 2) fingernails: done; 3) (if you have a boy) testicles: taking their 3-4 day trip from the abdominal wall to the scrotum; and 4) lungs walls: secreting 'surfactant'”.
Picture (from yesterday):

Baby Bedding

As soon as I found out I was pregnant I began searching for the perfect baby bedding. I found a couple of sets on the Babies R Us website that I like but wasn't crazy about. I want something that is more pattern based and less cutesy baby but Bill want's something that "let's you know it's a baby room." I finally found a set that I'm totally in love with! Bill loves it too which is always a plus. I just want to buy it but I was told by many family members that I should not buy anything other than the furniture for the room because they need options for gifts (we won't tell them about the ERGO). I've been able to resist so far but hopefully I'll hear about a shower soon because this whole, not having a shower planned thing is making me very restless. I just want to buy stuff when I have coupons and it's on sale if there isn't going to be a shower (I know my family, there will be a shower, it just will be very late).

So anyway, here it is!

It's Nantucket by Bananafish.
Isn't the mobile adorable?!

Now I just have to see how patient I am! I can keep myself under control for now but I have gift cards to Amazon from swagbucks burning a hole in my pocket and this set is available on there!