Pregnancy: Week 36-37 in Review

Or rather what this post should be titled: "Pity Party For One."

Well, I'm reporting live from my living room couch - essentially the same place I've been since last Thursday. I've been sick and finally went to the doctor today and have an upper respiratory infection. NOT fun for this about-to-be 38 weeks pregnant lady. I'm taking some medication that my doctor OK'd and hope to be better in the next couple of days. In the meantime, you might consider avoiding me altogether until I get over this bout of sickness and accompanying pity party.
Feeling? Terrible, but I think 90% of it is related to my sickness.

Sleeping? Normally, I sleep alright. My cough is definitely keeping me up at night, which is really interrupting all the sleep/rest that people keep telling me I should be trying to get. 

Weight Gain? A little over 25 pounds.

Baby Size? No idea... They should give us an estimate at our appointment tomorrow, though! My guess is that he will be an 8 lb baby, though, by the time he arrives. Just a hunch! :-)

Maternity Clothes? I kind of don't even want to talk about it. But please don't judge if you see me wearing the same thing multiple times in the next two weeks. All I care about is being comfy and looking (relatively) presentable.

Cravings? Same as before... but I'm on a bit of a kick with sweets. I just got some Girl Scout Cookies last weekend and ummm, they are rocking my world. And my hubby picked me up a sugar cookie from Potbelly the other day and it literally made my entire day. Granted, I'd been home sick, alone all day, so it was a rather lame day, but still. (It's the little things.)

Baby Position? I'm pretty sure he's still breech. He's had some pretty violent movement over the past week or so, but don't think he's flipped. So we're scheduling a c-section.

What I Miss? Honestly, the only thing I really miss is just feeling good. Which I expect to return as soon as I get rid of this sickness.

What I'm Looking Forward To? We're putting a few finishing touches on the nursery and doing some major organization, so we're excited to get that done so I can begin to wait impatiently for our little one to arrive.

Best Moment? We've made a ton of progress on the nursery. I called in reinforcements (i.e. a few friends to help me with the gallery wall and my Mom to help me with some projects) and things are starting to look really good!

Belly Button Status? Outie. And it doesn't even bother me anymore!

Breaking my cardinal rule of "No cell phone pics in the bathroom mirror" but the hubby has been working late so had to get creative...

Pregnancy: Week 34-35 in Review

There have been lots of changes over the past two weeks. My sweet little baby kicks have turned into moments of "Excuse me, can you just stop what you're saying for a minute as my baby is moving my insides around and it's rather hard to concentrate." Nothing painful, just errrr...uncomfortable? Distracting? I originally had a feeling this would be an easy, low-key, laid-back baby, but now I'm not so sure. What do you know? He's not even here yet and I already can't control my own child. ;-) But on to the recap...


Feeling? I feel alright. I really do. Things are getting a little harder. I get tired more quickly, my ankles swell at the end of the day and I just don't have the energy or motivation to exercise like I did before (Sorry, Summer Sanders pregnancy DVD. Not today!) But overall, I'm still relatively comfortable.

Sleeping? Normally, I sleep alright. I wake up several times a night to go to the bathroom or flip over (which is a task in itself), but I think the real loser on the sleeping end is my poor hubby. I have what I'm just going to call "pregnancy congestion," which means I've started snoring. I've given him full permission to move to the guest bedroom on nights where it gets too bad.

Weight Gain? I've gained nearly 25 pounds. Whatevs. I'm growing a human.

Baby Size? At of the end of week 35, he was 6 lbs (or so they say). There's really no way for them to tell the exact weight

Maternity Clothes? My maternity wardrobe is quite narrow now as I've outgrown a few items... But aside from one tunic I bought from Target, I refuse to buy anything else!

Cravings? Same as before... Sweet pickles, chips, pineapples, apples. But I'm into a new thing where I let myself indulge in one naughty craving a week. Week 34 was chili dogs (no judging) and Week 35 was a ginormous box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch... because, I mean really... how great is that cereal?!

What I Miss? Being able to lean over and easily get on and off of our big chair in our living room.

What I'm Looking Forward To? Now that all of our showers are done, I'm just ready to finish the nursery and hang out with my hubby the last few weeks before baby arrives.

Best Moment? Getting to visit friends and family at our baby showers! Also, pretty much anytime anyone says, "You look so great! I can't even tell your pregnant until I see your belly." What people don't realize is that no matter how small or not swollen you still are, you definitely don't FEEL that way. So it's such a self-esteem booster!

Belly Button Status? Outie. And. Owning. It.

Baby Position? {new category} He's still breech (head up). But by the time it's time for me to have this baby (one way or another), I will literally have tried every (safe) option to get him to flip. So, if he decides not to flip, I think I'll be at peace. :-)

Other fun happenings:

We got to see our littlest love on Valentine's Day!

Fun with trying to flip the baby - this is my ironing board "breech tilt"

Nursery Decor (Planning & Progress)

So, we've been working on the nursery quite a bit. Mainly just organizing and putting gifts away from our showers, but we're getting ready to start really pulling the room together.

What we've done:
- Put together the crib

- Finished the changing table (full post to come on this, but wanted to show you the finished product!)

Greg spent so much time and energy on this changing table and it's perfect. :-)

- Replace lighting fixture with drum light (see in below photo)
- Add a neutral rug (see above and below)
- Add side table for next to glider (see in below photo)


So, here's just a little sneak peek (excuse all the stuff all over the room!)

What we have left to do:
- Add glider - It should come in as early as this week... Or as late as mid-March. We're waiting on you, little glider!

Ours will be navy with white piping - it's from Buy Buy Baby

- Add book shelves (We bought a bunch of white photo ledges from Ikea that will serve as bookshelves. We'll add them right above the glider and are hoping to make this corner of the room our little reading nook where we can do bedtime stories.)

- Add curtains - something similar to these, but a few tweaks and in different colors:

I'm sending in for help (from my Mom) on this one!

- Do gallery wall above changing table - this will be a mix of photos and cute framed art that I've either DIY'd on Photoshop or will be ordering from Etsy.
- Add toy box - my stepdad is building Connor a toy box, which we think will live along the wall next to the crib. We may hang a small mirror and potentially a shelf and a hook above that, which can hold the diaper bag. Still figuring this one out.
- Hang pennant that says baby's name over his crib that my Mom made.

This is the pennant (picture from my baby shower)

So we're hoping to wrap up everything in the next two weeks... Can't wait to show you the finished product!

Operation: Flip That Baby

A trip to the doctor last week (baby is totally fine!) and a sonogram gave us some news that we were not anticipating. Apparently, our little baby is breech as of right now. This means that instead of being head-down, his head is hanging out near my right rib cage and his spine on my side and his legs and arms are folded up in front of him. And note that when I say "little baby," I mean "ginormous baby." OK, not necessarily ginormous, but according to my all-knowing BabyCenter app, our little guy should weigh in around 4 3/4 lb. Nope, according to our sonogram technician, he's weighing around 5 lb, 5 oz. It's just a matter of time before I start having nightmares that my baby will come out this size:

But back to the whole breech baby sitch... Basically, my doctor and nurse (and 8-10 other not-necessarily-qualified-to-answer people) I asked seem to think the baby still has a few weeks to flip. If he doesn't, it's scheduled c-section city for me and I'm not a happy camper about it. And note that when I say "not a happy camper," I mean "I cried at the doctor's office, then cried at lunch after the doctor appointment, then cried some more at home." It's one thing to go through labor and for one reason or another, things don't work out and you have to have a c-section, but as a first-time mommy-to-be, I feel like a scheduled c-section is sort of robbing me of the experience. (Healthy baby is obviously the #1 priority!)

So, enter Operation: Flip That Baby (said like how they say "Spin That Wheel" on The Price is Right or is it Wheel of Fortune?). My yoga instructor has been talking about this pose you can do that helps to balance out your uterus (TMI?) and can help in flipping a breech baby. It involves kneeling on the edge of a couch with your forearms on the ground, head-tucked for 30 seconds. So, I've been doing those religiously. I'm also currently blogging live from my living room with my rear up in the air. (again, TMI?) I even entered the dangerous, but very informational Internet vortex of home remedies for flipping a breech baby. So far, we've tried almost every (perfectly safe) option:

• Inversions (yoga poses as noted above)
  
• Talking to the baby, being encouraging, asking him to flip, if he can. I'm pretty sure the hubby looked at me like this when I explained this one to him:

  
But bless his heart, he's trying to be supportive of my craziness, so he even got down at the bottom of my tummy and talked to the baby. I'm pretty sure it started out something like, "Connor, this is your father speaking..." :-)

• Putting a cold pack up by where the baby's head is (apparently babies don't like this) and something warm down at the bottom of my tummy. I think this pissed him off quite a bit as there was quite a bit of movement. No telling if he flipped, though.
  
• Playing music at the bottom of my belly (It's like a "go toward the sound" idea). I've set up a pretty awesome Baby Lullaby Pandora station. Hopefully, he's not all like "Ugh, Mom, turn that shiz off..."
• Shining a flashlight at the bottom of my belly (similar to the above craziness, babies are supposed to "go toward the light.") Thirty seconds after starting this, we felt bad and worried he might get scared so we stopped this one.
  
• Peppermint oil - I haven't tried this one yet, but apparently you rub it at the top of your belly and babies don't like the smell, so it makes them want to flip.

I go back to the doctor on Thursday, but won't have another sonogram until next week, but we're hoping he flips before then. If you can, please send your prayers, good vibes and whatnot that he flips. Or if you know of any other tips or have experience with this issue, I'm definitely open to them!