What weekend??

Wow! This past weekend flew by!

Friday afternoon Adam's parents came by and we got the new tree ring knocked out. We still need to put dirt in and get the plants in, but the structure itself is done. I'll post pictures later. :) Later that night we met up with my parents and went out to eat. I had some yummy scallops and potatoes. Well, at least I thought they were yummy at the time. I woke up in the middle of the night and got REALLY sick. Either the scallops were bad (which they didn't taste that way) or who knows what.

Saturday morning I took my time waking up. My mom came over and we got the living room cleaned and dusted and I put out some Halloween/Fall decorations. I also found some time to work on my scrapbook for Clara, as well as her baby book. Later on we went to Menards to pick up a few things we'd be needing for Sunday, as well as the remainder of the blocks for the tree ring.

Sunday morning Adam's parents came over and it was a whirlwind of activity! The kitchen and bathroom got cleaned. The carpets in the living room, hallway, and bathroom all got shampooed. Clara's door got put up. We emptied out all the pots w/the dead annuals in them. The cardboard/styrofoam that was piled up in the garage got taken care of. The drywall in the dining room got primed. Needless to say, there aren't very many big projects left on the list! There's just a few small details to take care of. By the time we were all finished for the day, I had enough time to make dinner and watch the first half of the Packer game before hitting the sack!

I'm hoping for a little quieter week this week, but we'll see what happens. The only thing I've got on my calendar is our doctor's appointment on Thursday. I'm off of work Friday so maybe we'll go get Adam some new glasses...and I'll be making my decision about whether to go to work on Monday or not. That will be dependent on what happens at our appointment on Thursday.

38 week pictures....and a bare one!

These might be one of the last pictures I'll be taking of my belly with a baby still in it!

38 week update...and full moon tonight!

First off, I'll apologize for not having a picture yet. We got home late last night and I didn't feel like taking one.

Now for the update part. :) We had our 38 week check up yesterday. Everything is still looking good: I'm up just under 4lbs from last week, my bp was great (124/72) and Clara sounded good, even though Dr. V had to chase her around with the doppler (guess I shouldn't have had those Oreos before my appointment!). I'm also still measuring 2 weeks ahead at 40 weeks. After some pretty intense cramping over the week Dr V decided to check me. I was POSITIVE that I had made some progress this time, but NOPE! None what-so-ever!! Talk about frustrating. The only nice thing about that was he asked if I would mind doing a quick ultrasound to make sure she's head-down. Uh, gee, let me think about that....YES!! I love seeing my daughter! And yes, she is in fact head down.

We discussed where we'll be going from here. Which brings me to an observation I made yesterday. I fully believe if my doctor weren't a man, he'd be a midwife. :) He's very against doing c-sections and pretty against inductions for the most part. He did say, though, that if I absolutely can't take it anymore, he'd induce me next week (at 39 weeks) but he believes that if we go that route, I'll end up with a c-section. His advice? Wait it out if I can. That being said, he's not going to let me go past 41 weeks, so we WILL have a baby in 3 weeks or less. We asked a lot of questions yesterday. We all know she's going to be a good sized baby, but as far as her fitting through my pelvis, he said the only way to know for sure is to try. Adam is convinced (and tries to keep me that way, too) that my body is going to do this all by itself. Everything with this pregnancy has gone really well...pretty much by the book. I had little morning sickness, no Group B strep, no gestational diabetes, she's been head-down for the better part of a month now, and my blood pressure has been great. Apparently I'm a great baby-maker and this is why he's going with the assumption that my body will know what to do and when to do it. I hope he's right because I really want to avoid induction and especially a c-section.

Wow, that got long. :) Anyway, there's a full moon tonight. Maybe something will happen.

As far as plans for this weekend, there's not much. Adam's parents may come over tonight to get the supplies for our final landscaping project of the year. If we can get them early enough we'll probably try to get that knocked out and then we're going to dinner with my parents for sure and possibly his. Over the weekend, since it's supposed to rain, we intend to get a lot of house cleaning done. It REALLY needs it and I'd like to get it cleaned up before Clara comes.

Pretty uneventful update, but at least there's somewhat of a plan in place. Our next appointment is October 28 at 4:50.

It's Monday once again....

...and the start of a new work week. After today I'll only have 8 work days left until my maternity leave starts.

We had a pretty uneventful weekend. Friday I had the day off of work. Adam and I went to see Dr. Tsai for his surgery follow-up. Not much news on that front; Dr. Tsai just said he'd have to find a way to deal with the pain-not the most encouraging news we've ever been told. We came home and I took a nap, which was something I did both Friday and Saturday and did it feel good! We also went out to the Vet's Club for dinner. I know I get the same thing everytime we go, but it's so freaking delicious!!

Saturday I took some time for myself and just relaxed and played video games for a while. After my nap, Adam's parents came over. Adam and his dad loaded up and took all the yard waste to the compost site. His mom & I worked in my gardens planting things for spring and cutting the dead stuff down. She also brought us some yummy home-made potato salad and brownies. Adam and I grilled up some brats and called it an early night.

Sunday we did a little grocery shopping before the Packer game and then just had a lazy day around the house watching football and doing the laundry.

This week is going to be pretty uneventful, too. Today Adam has a vocational rehab appointment and I have an appointment at the chiropractor's. I also have a few errands to run. Wednesday we're going to a local dealership. They're having free car seat inspections so we're taking both of our cars to get inspected. And Thursday we have our 38-week appointment with Dr. V. I'm really hoping not to need it, but at this point I've given up hope that I'll go before my due date.

As for this coming weekend, we've pretty much stopped making plans. We're working on more of a day-to-day basis, but it sounds like if we're not in the hospital, we'll be working on one final landscaping project of the season: building a retaining wall ring around the Maple tree in the front yard. I'm excited about it, but that's probably because I won't be doing much of the work. Normally I plan one BIG landscaping project every year, but because of being pregnant, I haven't been able to do much. I will be doing one next spring, though...even if Clara has to sit in the Pack N Play outside while I do. :)

37 Week Update.

Today we are full term! That's the good news. Well, not just that. We had a doctor's appointment today and everything still looks good. My weight was great (up only 3lbs to 173), my bp was still good (124/78), Clara sounds great (hr was 125) and I'm still measuring 2 weeks ahead (39 weeks). I got checked again with some hopes of having made progress...only to find out that I'm still closed and thick. That's the sucky part. I did ask the nurse how long he would let me go past my due date and she said 1 or 2 weeks if I want (yeah right, who wants to go that long!), but he would probably strip my membranes next week at our appointment if I wanted to go that route. I know I'll be begging for it at that point. I'm SO done being pregnant!





I took a picture of my foot today at work. Now, I'm not on my feet all day. I sit in a chair at a desk for 9 hours doing nothing more constructive than surfing the internet. After 3 hours my foot looked like this:

I only have 9 more workdays until my maternity leave starts. I'd like to try to make it through those next 9 days, but if I can't stand the pain from the swelling anymore, I'm giving up. My doctor said he'd be more than happy to write me out of work early if that's what would make me feel better. I'm also going to start trying every old wives tale in the book as far as getting labor going! I'd be really excited if something happened over the weekend. :)
So that's about all the news that's fit to print at the moment. Nothing much exciting coming up. We're meeting with Adam's surgeon tomorrow for a follow-up appointment and then this weekend is pretty much a blank slate. I'm going to try to get outside and get some gardening done. I have some things that need to get cut down and we need to take some yard waste to the recycling center, but other than that, not much going on.

So I revised the To Do List…

I decided the to-do list was getting too hard to read, and I needed to add some things to it, so I re did it. Adam put a few of these on his list this morning, but neither of us got much sleep last night and he's still recovering from surgery so I don't know how much he'll get done (nor do I want him to over-do it). We have time, though. None of this really needs to get done before Clara gets here, with the exception of maybe getting the car seat base installed and inspected. Won't be long now before she gets here! We have our next doctor's appointment on Thursday at 4pm.

To Do-Revised

Household/Misc.
-Clean kitchen
-wash floor
-take totes downstairs
-call city to see about getting a replacement recycling bin
-dust/change out decorations in living room


Projects:
-finish up drywall patching
-prime w/sand texture
-finish painting in dining room
-put trim back on
-clean up
-hang wedding pictures
-install nursery door
-install door knob on door
-finish installing trim
-clean up
-paint patches in master bedroom
-clean out/reorganize dressers in MB
-remove/store all laundry baskets for MB
-clean off top of dresser/night stands
-take compost to recycling center
-plant new plants
-dig new flower bed?
-clean out both vehicles
-vacuum
-clean out garage
-flatten/organize cardboard for recycling
-sweep
-organize tools


Baby:
-install car seat base in Adam's car (after it gets cleaned out)
-call Fire Department to schedule appointment for inspection
-wash any remaining clothes/sheets
-pack remaining packable items for hospital bag


Other things:
-get pictures printed for Clara's baby book/scrapbook
-work on Clara's baby book/scrap book
-get picture printed/framed for maternity wall

36 Week Baby Clara Update!

36 weeks! I can't believe it. In a little under a month Clara will be here. We had our 36 week doctor's appointment this past Wednesday. Adam didn't get to come along this time because he was sick. This was the only appointment he's missed so far, and he was sad he couldn't come. Everything looked good, though. My blood pressure was good (124/78) and my weight was good (170). Clara's heart rate was also good, coming in at around 140. I was also tested for Group B strep, which just involved a little swabbing down south. And since my pants were already off and he was down there anyway, he did an internal exam to see if I've dilated yet (unfortunately, no). He informed that she is, indeed head down, but when he tapped on her head she floated back up, so she's not quite locked and loaded, but she's at least headed in the right direction. So our next appointment is scheduled for this coming Thursday.

In other health news, Adam had knee surgery again this last Thursday at the Kennedy Center on Oshkosh. It was a quick surgery and they did some cleaning up. We meet with Dr. Tsai again this coming Friday to discuss the results and what the next step might be.

The other exciting thing that happened this weekend? We got a new stove!! Ours was on its way out. The burners weren't working real well anymore. We went to Lowe's and they ended up being able to deliver the new stove the next day, along with taking our old one! The new stove rocks! We cooked breakfast on it already. J

Other than that, not much is new. Most of our baby stuff is done, we just need to get the carseat inspected. Our bags are packed and we have everything else we need for Clara; we're just waiting on her. J

Lots of things checked off! Baby stuff-DONE! Well, almost.

Household/Misc.:
-laundry
-clean kitchen
-clean the floor in Clara's room
-make grocery list for freezer meals cooking session part 2

Projects:
-Finish painting in dining room-should be done by the end of the week
-Finish tiling in foyer-should be done by the end of the day today, grouting to follow
-clean garage
-stain door for nursery-stain is being put on tonight; polyurethane goes on when that's dry
-install door for nursery
Stain is done and dry. Polyurethane should go on tonight.
-weed front flower bed
-plant new plants-they're not here yet, but should be soon
-take compost to recycling center
-paint over patches in master bedroom
-clean master bedroom-empty and remove all clothes baskets, clean out/reorganize dressers
-clean out vehicles-vacuum & detail
-hang wedding pictures
-shop for art for dining room

Baby:
*We just finished purchasing the last of our baby needs last night. We're waiting on them to come in the mail so some things won't be able to get done until they arrive. Things we are waiting for: dresser, swing, bottle sterilizer, book shelf, car seat base for Adam's car
-*sterilize bottles/nipples
-*organize dresser/put away clothes
-*change sheets on crib mattress-sterilize breastpump parts-put cover on changing pad
-*put changing pad on dresser
-*install car seat bases-mine can get done, but Adam's is coming in the mail from Target, hopefully by MondaySo due to some contractions last night, my base got installed in my truck; Adam's base arrived on our doorstep yesterday. We still need to get them inspected, though.
-*get car seat bases inspected
*We have a glider; Adam's mom found it at a rummage sale for $10. The cushions need to be re-covered, but she said the wood is the same color as our nursery furniture, so it works out. I expect the cushions will probably be done by the weekend.
*I'd also like to find a rug for in the nursery, but it's not something that NEEDS to be done right away. I'm picky and it's hard to find something I like that doesn't cost a fortune. :)


The only 2 baby-related things not done yet are getting the base installed in Adam's car, and getting both of the bases inspected. Now all we have to do is wait for Clara!!

The (Mostly) Finished Nursery!!

Adam’s parents came over last night and brought the glider with them. That was pretty much the last piece of furniture that we needed to complete the nursery! It’s pretty much finished! We still have to re-hang the Dr. Seuss decals. We ended up having to take them off of the walls and put them on foam board because they would not stick. They’re on the foam board, they just need to be put up and we need to get some trim to put around the edges. Adam is also working on getting the new oak door finished and then that will go up. Here are some pictures: The one on the left is taken from the closet and the one on the right is taken from the door way.

Here’s a picture of the glider that Adam’s mom found for us at a rummage sale for $10! All she had to do was re-cover the cushions. It looks great and it’s super comfy!!

And this is a picture of the dresser that my family chipped in and got for us. It’s the matching one to our crib and it holds a LOT of clothes! This will also be her changing table until she’s potty trained

Tonight we have nothing on the calendar. Adam’s a little under the weather so I’m hoping he takes time to rest today so he’ll be good to go for his surgery on Thursday morning. Other than that, we just have our 36 week doctor’s appointment tomorrow (Wednesday). Pretty quiet week, overall. Probably one of the last few we’ll have before the baby comes!