Almost 38 Weeks - YIKES!

I've been told it's time for an update. :) I would agree, I've been slacking on my blog writing. Things have been pretty uneventful on the baby front. No news is good news!

I will be 38 weeks on Saturday (crazy, right???). According to the normal pregnancy calendar that would mean I'm nearly 2 weeks away from meeting Madeline. Of course I know she'll arrive on her own time, but just the thought that there are so few days left is nuts!

I had my weekly doctors appointment today. I am measuring right on track (well, at least my belly is). Last week my doctor sort of felt her through my belly and said she might be a little on the big side. We certainly make big babies on both sides of our family, so I assume she'll be a good sized little lady. We'll see though here in the next few weeks!

The good news is she is in the right position, with her head super low in my pelvis. Last week and today the doctor said I am dilated to 1CM. Like she pointed out today, that is 1/10 of the way there! It also doesn't mean a whole lot in terms of when Maddy will arrive or not. Women can walk around dilated to a 1 for weeks, and sometimes not even go into labor on their own. Still, progress is progress, so even though I'm not reading too much into it I find it exciting!

I haven't posted pictures of my amazing shower yet, so I thought I would post them now. My Aunt's Nan and Da threw me the greatest shower ever. I was overwhelmed by the love and kindness of all of my family and friends that day. I'm so happy that there are so many wonderful people in my life who are as excited as TJ and I are to meet our baby girl. So, thank you all from the bottom of my heart for making my shower so wonderful!! Maddy's stuffed closet and dresser also thanks you all for the too-too cute clothes I have to dress her up in. ;)

Coming soon - maternity pictures!! I posted a link to the teaser pictures from Justine's blog on Facebook, but you can click above if you haven't seen them yet. I should have the full gallery of photos sometime this weekend to share! J. Shelton Photography totally rocks my socks off, I can't wait to see and share more with you all!

For now though I leave you with shower photos. I was 34 weeks the day of my shower. :)

Getting all of the lantern balls set up.

All set up and ready to go!

The table.

Props for all of the games, courtesy of Aunt Nan and Da.

One spoiled little lady (and mama)!

The best present ever. ;)

My Grandma wrapped up outfits that my other Grandma (Grandma Bessie) had made for me as a baby. My Grandma Bessie passed away when I was 2, so it was a really sentimental and emotional gift to open. The photo below is a picture of me in the exact dress I'm holding in my hands.

The beautiful dresser my Aunt Nan bought (and filled with cute outfits!!)

Proud Grandma's-to-be!!

We can't wait to me our baby girl!!

One load of laundry. . .she's gonna be super freaking cute!

29 Weeks

Can you believe I'm already 29 weeks?? I sure as hell can't! I feel like I keep saying it, but it's true: time has flown by! Things continue to go very well, I still have very little to complain about and most of the complaining is about my future soccer star and her perfected rib kicks. Or when she beats on my bladder and hips. She is super strong, and while I find it very cool, a lot of the time her kicking/hitting/rolling sort of hurts. I'm also finding that there must be no room for my stomach anymore, I can get about two meals a day in now. Anymore than that and I walk around with that uncomfortable I-ate-way-too-damn-much feeling.

I had my 28 week appointment with my doctor today. I start my bi-weekly doctors appointments now and I'm sort of in shock at that. Every two weeks. Only women who are close to their due date see their doctor every two weeks. I am now one of those women. Holy crap!! Since I'm pretty damn proud of how well my pregnancy is progressing I'll post my stats from my appointment:

29 Weeks 2 Days
Blood Pressure: 122/77
Weight Gain: 16lbs
Fundal Height (belly measurement): 28-29 CM
Madeline's Heartbeat: 150 BPM
Over All: GREAT! :)

The fundal height is right on track. I've managed to keep my weight gain down, and since I'm aiming for 25-30lbs total I'm right on track. Madeline's heart rate is right where it needs to be. My BP last appointment was a little high at first (when they took it again it was normal though), so over all I'm as healthy as a horse. I get to do the glucose test sometime before my next appointment. As someone who loved orange soda as a kid I hope that the rumors that the glucose drink tastes like Orange Crush is true. I go back to see my doctor August 5th.

TJ and I have started work on the nursery! We painted last weekend, and are waiting to buy and stain the chair rail and molding before setting up the room. Her crib and changer arrived a few weeks ago and they are still in their respective boxes. He doesn't want to take the plastic off the floor in the nursery, so we're waiting to get it all set up until after we get the chair rail up (next weekend).

I didn't think to take pictures of our progress (what little there is) until we'd already moved everything out of the room and painted two coats of primer. Originally the bedroom was painted 4 different (ugly and obnoxious!) colors - dark red, dark blue, green, and yellow. It took two coats of primer before we started painting. Below are pictures of day two, when the pink went on the walls.

Please excuse the mess, this was my craft closet before and we left my scrapbooking crap in there.

Finally here are the 29 week pictures I took on Saturday. I went back to blonde last week so I also put a new hair picture up.

11 Weeks

This week from The Bump we have a lime:

Your fetus currently enjoys a 1:1 ratio between body and head, and has skin so transparent that blood vessels show right through it. But fingers and toes are no longer webbed, and hair follicles, tooth buds, and nail beds are forming -- setting up a significantly more attractive future.

I need to apologize. I have been seriously slacking on my blogger duties! Not a lot has happened in the past two weeks to blog about though. I didn’t take pictures yesterday or today, but, imagine me from week whatever (when did I post pictures last??), and that’s me. I haven’t gained any weight, I still fit in my pants, and I feel wonderful.

With all of the feeling great you are probably thinking I’m just making this up, right? But I’m not, I swear. I had my second doctor’s appointment today. No ultrasound picture to share this time, but I did get great news. The nurse had me unbutton my jeans and lay back to try and find the heartbeat. She warned me that it still might be too early to hear anything. I lay there, expecting to hear nothing. She found my heartbeat right away, and then a second later found the baby’s. Baby McG’s heartbeat was around 160 bpm. I cried, and then wished that TJ didn’t have to work so he could have heard it too.

According to the old wives tales it is a girl. Supposedly a heartbeat over 140 is a girl, and less is a boy. And, the Chinese Gender Chart also says girl. I have a girl feeling deep down. My mom however would tell you she is 150% sure that I am having a boy. Hopefully we'll find out in the next few months for sure!

Until next time!

D Day

So today is D Day, Doctor Day that is. I had my first appointment, and it went very, very well. As you can see to the right. ;) That's my baby. Ah! Myyyyy baby! So unreal, but so much more real and tangible now that we know that things look good.

I was nervous this morning going into my appointment. Starting Wednesday I had very light, light, almost nonexistent spotting. With my history though any spotting in my mind is bad. So what did crazy, hormonal, pregnant Jen do? I cried on the couch Wednesday night. Like a big fat baby.

I told my doctor today that I've had some minor spotting, so she decided to do an mini-ultrasound at my appointment. TJ and I sat in the exam room while they went and got the little ultrasound machine. I became super nervous. The longer we waited in there, the more nervous I felt. She finally wheeled the thing into the room and got friendly with the wand. I cringed when I saw the look on her face. I just knew it was going to be bad news. Until she called TJ over from where he was sitting to look at the tiny screen.

She turned the screen so we could both see it, and there was our baby. It's tiny little heart flickering away. She measured Herme, and said she thinks I'm about 7 weeks or so. I'm sticking with my original date of 10/3 though, because I'm stubborn like that. And because how reliable is the measurement of that portable mini-ultrasound thing anyway? I mean, really! ;)

I cried, because I am a crier anyway. I think TJ's eyes welled up with tears. He isn't a very emotional guy, so the welling up was exactly what I expected. She printed out a little picture of Herme and the measurements for us and we were off, sort of. I went to the lab first and gave 6 vials of blood. Ick.

After we went out for tacos, because I was starving, we headed over to my parents house to tell them the good news. My dad was at work, so it was just my mom. When we walked in with a bag my mom asked if we brought her leftovers. I told her that we brought her dessert and pulled out her mug, still wrapped up. She unwrapped it and then cried. And then called everyone. So, the cat is out of the bag and it feels good.

Here are the pictures of the mugs that I painted a while ago for the grandparents. We are going to give TJ's mom hers this weekend. TJ took a picture of the ultrasound picture on his phone and text it to her, she called him very excited. It was a great day.

My mom's cup.

The bottom of my mom's cup.

My dad's cup.

TJ's mom's cup.