Nothing To Talk About

So I had another midwife appointment on Tuesday night. There isn't a whole lot to say about it. Even my midwife commented that we have nothing left to talk about and it's just time to have the baby. I think it was our shortest ever we were only there for about 15 minutes. Most of that was spent with her telling us a story about how she had been up all night delivering a baby. Then yesterday I went to see an acupuncturist who specializes in pregnancy. She was very nice and spent a lot of time doing stuff I hadn't had done previously. She used some tuning forks to cause vibrations on the points in my back, and gave me a massage. She also sent me home with some herb which are super nasty!! I have only taken them twice so far. I'm supposed to take them 3 times a day. After my appointment she said I could come back Friday if I was really interested in getting things started or wait a week. So now I don't know what to do. I don't want to end up going 6 or 7 times it isn't covered by either of our insurance. So as of tonight I'm still undecided if I will call her in the morning or not.

It's Done!!

I am finally completely finished with the nursery. Here are some pictures.

My art from the fair. I'm not thrilled with the frame and may change it later, but I love the picture.

My other elephant picture. Dare says I have too many elephants in the room, but I don't care. They are my favorite animal.

A view of the corner with both pictures, the shelf, and the glider (notice the cute blanket).

One of the wall letter. We have these hanging above the crib with cute little jungle animals. Since the name is not being revealed this is all you get for now. I will post a full picture later.

Storage bins.

The mobile and crib bedding.

The dresser/changing table.

A better shot of the crib bedding. I had doubts about ordering this towards the end, but I'm glad I didn't change my mind. I really like it.

One Year Ago Today

38 Weeks

I am done with work. Saturday was my last day. It seems so weird that I'm now just sitting at home waiting. I do still have some stuff to do, but we made a lot of progress over the last week. I am almost done with the nursery I just have a couple of things I need to hang on the wall. I should have pictures up in the next couple of days. I have a midwife appointment tomorrow, although it will probably be pretty uneventful. I see the acupuncturist on Wednesday morning so we will see.

Hair For A Cause

So I went to get my hair done today. It was good to see Anna she has been doing my hair for 4 years now, and we've actually become really good friends. When she first saw me she commented on how I couldn't be ready to have the baby yet because my belly button isn't sticking out. I assured her I am indeed ready it's just that I have the black hole of belly buttons. Yes, it is true. Even being 41.5 weeks pregnant twice my belly button never stuck out. It is just abnormally deep. Anyway while I was at the salon I noticed they were offering pink hair extensions to raise money for breast cancer research. For a $10 donation you could get one. So I did.

I'm Not Ready Yet

I had a midwife appointment yesterday. Everything is still looking good. She took blood to check my iron level again, hopefully it has improved from last time. I have been pretty consistent in taking my 6 iron pills per day. I asked about starting acupuncture for labor induction. I figured she would tell me to wait another week or two, but she said I could start now. I was really surprised by that, and I'm not ready right now. Just for a little background on this ALL of my kids were born past their due dates. Being 10 days, 7 days, 10 days, and 4 days late respectively with two medical inductions in there. So with my son who was 4 days late my midwives suggested acupuncture as a way to move things along. I went in for an appointment on my due date, and then another one two days later I went into labor the next day. I will never know for sure if that's what did it or not, but I figured it couldn't hurt to try again. I also found it to be the most relaxing thing I've ever done. That alone is worth the money. So I called today and spoke with an acupuncturist who specializes in pregnancy. I decided to wait until next week to go because it will give me more time to get ready, and the more ready your body is the more likely it is to be successful. So wish me luck.

4 Days and Counting

Unfortunately, my new boss has made my last few weeks of work worse than I could have imagined. The only good thing is he's gone the next two days, and then I only have two days left. I barely made it through the day today he had me so stressed out. I'm already dreading going back in January.

There was a bright side to my day though. Kailyn came last night around 9:30, because she had an orthodontist appointment this morning. When I got home from work we went to lunch at the Cheesecake Factory, and then went to the mall. She left around 2:30, but it was nice to at least to get a couple of hours together. Especially since it was so unexpected.

37 Weeks

Only 3 weeks until my due date. That is full term!! I can't believe it I still feel so unprepared. My mom and I went on a marathon shopping trip on Thursday. We shopped for about 7 hours straight. I was able to get almost all of my last minute items, and Dare was thrilled that my mom was the one to go with me. He never would have survived. I should also have the UPS man at my house almost every day this week because I did a lot of shopping online as well. I hope to be ready by the end of this week so I can start complaining about how ready I am to be done with this pregnancy. I don't feel like I can now I have too much on my to do list.

It's going to be busy week. It's my last week of work I hope to finish it off without getting too stressed about it. I am just glad to be done I started the count down at 15 weeks so I've been looking forward to this for awhile. I also have a midwife appointment I start going every week now. I have a chiropractor appt, a hair appt, and an appt to get the carpets cleaned. Oh and Kailyn is coming over tonight. I just found out today, and I'm excited to see her!!

36 Weeks

This week was a fairly productive one for me. I managed to get a lot of cleaning done. I cleaned the upstairs family room, Kailyn's room, her bathroom, and the downstairs living room they are all spotless. I also put together the glider, and arranged the furniture in the babies room. Dare cleaned up the backyard, and mowed for hopefully the last time this year (yay fall). He also put together the stroller and car seat. I don't have too much going on this week. One chiropractor appointment, and dinner and shopping with my mom. I do still have a pretty big list of stuff to do around the house that should keep me busy though. I'm counting down my last 10 days of work!! I'm even more looking forward to it since our new manager started last week. I just really don't like him. Usually I give people more of a chance so I thought maybe it was just the pregnancy hormones causing my extreme annoyance and dislike. It turns out after talking to some coworkers I'm not the only one feeling this way.

Here is a picture of our crib. I will take more pictures of the room after I get it finished. I plan to get the rest of the stuff later this week.

Getting So Close

I had another midwife appointment yesterday. It was kind of scary because she scheduled the rest of my appointments up to my due date. It made me realize how close it is getting, and I still feel so unprepared. I am hoping to find the motivation this weekend to get some stuff done, because the next two weekends we want to get out and do some stuff. Anyway, the appointment went good. Everything is still normal. I asked a couple of questions just out of curiosity like how their on call schedule works. She said they rotate weeks starting every Wednesday, but it can be hard to predict who will be on call because they often change weeks. I also asked what happens when they have more than one person go into labor at the same time because the birth center only has one room. She said it doesn't happen very often, only once that she can remember in the last year. When it does happen she said usually one person will decide to do a home birth or deliver at the other birth center in the area. So I go back again in two weeks, and I will have my iron level tested again then. I will also be 37 weeks...full term. Scary!!

Ummm....That's Not My Dog

Let me start by telling you a little bit about my dog. We got him last year around Halloween. It took a lot of convincing on my part because Dare was not at all thrilled with the idea of having a pet. After talking him into it we took a long drive to pick up the cutest little ball of black fur you could imagine. We had some rough times in the beginning, but a year later you could say we really like our dog. Dare would probably not readily admit that, but I know deep down it's true. I actually find I like Shadow more than any pet I've had since my childhood dog Peaches. Shadow definitely has a unique personality. First of all he has a small dog complex (he is a shih tzu) and must try to prove to all other dogs and humans that he is tough. He likes to do this from the comfort of our living room by barking at everyone who walks by. Out in the real world he isn't so tough, and has been known to actually turn and try and run back home at the sight of another dog. Another thing is he just has random people that he really doesn't like. When Dare's sister visited a couple of months ago he growled, and barked at her the entire time. He always does the same thing to Lindsey's friend Karli when she is here. So we shouldn't have been surprised when we went to get him groomed a couple of months ago and it didn't work. The lady said in her 15 years of dog grooming she had never had a dog she couldn't cut. She suggested we have him tranquilized before we try again. So I had been putting off trying again for months as Shadow got scruffier, and scruffier. I finally broke down last week, and called one of those mobile grooming places. The lady came and picked him up, and the kids and I waited anxiously by the window for them to come back out. About 45 minutes later she emerged with what appeared to be a completely different dog. Shadow immediately went to hide under the bed. The first few days he acted so different the kids started calling him "Robot Shadow". They were convinced the lady had stolen Shadow and replaced him with a robot. It must have been really traumatic for him because it took about 5 days for him to start acting more like himself again. Just for a laugh here are some before and after photos.


Before


After, and yes he really is that small without all of the fur.

35 Weeks

First of all I apologize for being a bad blogger. I hate when people don't update their blogs enough, and here I am going a whole week. I do have excuses. It was the kids last week here so we were pretty busy. Also my keyboard on my laptop is all messed up which makes typing a pita. I did try to make up for it by adding my 34 week picture below as promised, and I have many half written posts I plan to finish this week.

In baby news a lot has happened in the last few days. We made the first of many trips to Babies R Us to get a few things we needed with the gift cards I got from my shower. I put together the crib, and dresser. Dare put together the swing. I also called and made an appointment to have the carpets cleaned in a couple weeks, it is long overdue. I only have one chiropractor appointment this week, and I also have a midwife appointment. I was successful in cutting back at work last week, but now I am stressing about all I want to get done in the next 3 weeks. I'm going to try hard not to worry about it too much as it won't change the disaster I am sure to come back to.