{ PROGRESS! 36 Weeks! }

There is NO raining on my parade today! We had our check up this morning and I’m 1 cm dilated and 90% effaced! I know I could stay this way until the day he’s supposed to come, but it was great to hear that progress was being made! Doctor Taylor says “Wow! You’re cervix is way ahead! You can go tell all your friends how proud your doctor is of your cervix today!” – So I’m telling you all! :)

We had a little scare last week, which lead to having a lot of anxiety going in to the doctor this week.  Oliver’s heart beat was between 105 -110 last week and it worried the doctor enough to put me on a monitor for 20 minutes to watch it.  His heart rate would spike in the 140s and 150s but then drop back down in to 115 or so.  We then had to have an ultrasound to make sure Ollie got all his “points”.  They do this ultrasound to check his movement, his amniotic fluid, and his other measurements.  He passed all his tests just fine.  His measurements actually put him about a week ahead of schedule.  The head measured WAY ahead! Almost 39 weeks! When the ultra sound tech tells us his head measurements, Mister goes “sorry lady!” ha! Funny, but yet a little scary! We're so glad that everything was ok and that we got to see our little man again, but when they tell you that the heart beat is a little too slow and you need to be hooked up to a monitor instantly – puts you into a state of panic and an instant flow of tears!  Being there alone when all this was happening was scary enough!  I’m so glad my mister is close enough that he got there super-fast and was there to comfort me.  It’s crazy how much I love this kid already and worry like crazy that everything is going to be ok!

Mister was sure to come along to this appointment today and make sure everything was good to go after last week. I didn't think I really needed him there, but it was sure nice to have him there.  The “unknown” is just a little too scary at this point, and having someone there with me puts me at ease. Our doctor was impressed with our progress and said that if we had it him today everything would be just fine!  But he said “don’t have him Friday of this week through Wednesday of next week because I’ll be out of town!” -  On the way back from the appointment I told Mister that I’m going to get out and get some major walking in so we can keep this progress moving and he goes “well… maybe you wait until Wednesday of next week” ha! There’s just something comforting about having your doctor there.  I know he’s not there for most of it, other than to catch the kid as he comes out, but still.  He’s been there the entire time; I’d really like to have him there when it comes down to go time! And all Mister’s siblings will be gone that week on vacation and I’d be bummed if none of them made it to the hospital!

We had our baby shower on Saturday in St James.  It was great to see everyone and get so much stuff! There’s so much more that comes with a baby then you’d ever think! And then just when you think you've got way too much stuff, there are still things you need! 

Between the nice weather and all the neat stuff we got this weekend, it was a perfect weekend! I spent most of yesterday afternoon washing baby clothes and putting everything away. (which by the way, a basket of baby clothes, takes FOREVER to fold! Geesh! Tiny little getups!) Mister spent a lot of time outside in the yard and with the dog.  It’s hard to not be antsy now for Oliver to get here so we can all spend time outside when it’s this nice!

Here are some photos from the shower.

Me and the daddy to be :)

My Ma!

The tables with "Oliver" tractors :) Thanks to Grandpa Brad & Grandma Jill!

Diaper Cake Center Pieces

Jill found building blocks that spelled out Oliver Thomas - Super cute!

"Our Little Man" - Just a little pinterest project with a little help from Noreen :)

My favorite 1 1/2 year old :) J-Man (He told me he loved me last week!)

Opening gifts!

Laney Lou helping out 

Here's to another week and getting super excited for the little man to get here and my swelling to go away!! YAY!!

{ Mister-Must-Do's & Lady-Must-Do's - 34 Weeks }

How crazy is it that I could have a baby tomorrow, and God permitting no other health problems, he’d be totally fine and in my arms! So completely crazy and still just blows my mind.  Hard to believe that I’m going to be a mother VERY soon!

Tasks that are on the “Mister-Must-Do” list for this week/weekend and probably into the weeks to come:

1. Get the car seat and bases installed. 
2. Change the light bulbs in the nursery (I don’t like the color they give off right now :)  hehe) 
3. TV mount installed in the nursery. 
4. Get the yard & outside of the house ready for the BBQ shower. Help me finish décor for the showers.

“Lady-Must-Do” List:

1. Get hospital bag packed.  
2. I’ve got a weird feeling that we’re not going to make it to the full 40 weeks so I need to get on this “getting prepared” stuff. 
3. Call the hospital and get registered. 
4. Wash Oliver’s clothes & bedding (and pray that Tyson stays out of the crib!) Finish the decorations for the showers. 
5. GET ANOTHER MASSAGE! – PS April (the massage therapist), at Aveda, AMAZING! Go to her!

There are a million other things we’ll need to do before Ollie gets here but these are just a few that are a little bit more time pressing and probably shouldn't wait all that much longer.  It gives me a little bit of anxiety knowing that these things are finished yet. It doesn't help that I’m a “list” person and really need to start marking things off my list just to feel like I’m getting somewhere!

Yesterday, Mister and I did some running around and got some shopping done.  We picked up some things that I wanted to make some stuff for the baby shower on the 27^th.  Mister did a great job helping me roll diapers and tape ribbon.  Although, he did feel the need to take a diaper and place it on his head for a funny photo but would not let me put on the blog. Ha! He’s got standards I guess! Here are some other pics from our crafty adventures from yesterday!

Materials for Diaper Cakes

Mister put this paper plate cut out around Tyson's neck -- He didn't care one bit! :) 

Almost finished :) 

I was able to attend my friend Ashley’s baby shower on Saturday in St James.  She got lots of stuff! It was really neat to go through all her stuff and see what it all was and what it all did! Then that afternoon I was able to head over to her place and help her take off tags and scope it all out! I had lots of questions, and it was kind of fun to figure it all out with her!  Also, super fun to watch her husband Tyler putting together all the gadgets! He’s got “proud daddy” written all over his face! That little nugget of theirs is going to be one lucky little loved baby!  Watching all their families at the shower just being all smiles and over the top excited to help, makes you really take a step back and go “wow, these kids are so dang lucky!”. There are so many kids out there that get tossed to the side and don’t get shown the love and attention they need, and here Ashley & I are with a fantastic families (on both sides), that are going to just cherish these little peanuts and do anything for them.  (Emotions are running high, yes, but it’s still pretty amazing that we have the people in our lives that we do!) – k enough of that! (love you Ash!)

Oliver has definitely been doing some shifting lately.  I’ve had some more pressure in my hips and can tell that he’s getting heavier.  Which is to be expected I suppose, beings he's almost 5 lbs! I've had some mild contractions have come and gone lately as well.  Today I had one that stopped me in my tracks and I had to just let that one pass before I could move.  Nothing since, though, so I’m sure it was Braxton Hicks, but it was enough to make me a little scare of the next “bad one”. 

Sleeping at night is beginning to become more of a challenge.  Rolling over is a little painful unless I roll over slowly.  Shifting from side to side isn't Oliver’s favorite thing.  If I shift too fast, I can almost feel him slide to the other side of my tummy, and then he’s up and ready to move.  So… slow turns to keep baby sleeping! Some of my dreams are becoming a lot more vivid and strange as well! Probably doesn't help my dreams that I watch a lot of SVU or NCIS before bed – makes for lots of “cops & robber” type dreams ha! 

Beings that my last couple blogs were a little long, I’ll be sure to keep this one short.  Ollie and I are back to the doctor next week for our 35 week appointment and then it’ll be weekly visits after that until he makes his big arrival!!  Here’s to a fast week and warmer weather… eventually! What a difference 14 weeks makes eh!?  Geesh.... 

{ April Showers Bring Snow!? Really!? 33 Weeks and frustrated! }

“The end is in sight!” – I keep hearing this.  Not sure I believe it though! I thought the end of Winter was supposed to be a long time ago too and here we are, expecting more SNOW AGAIN! ENOUGH! My sandals are crying! They want to be worn! And these chicken white legs need some sun!

This last week has been another tough one for this mama! My back pain has yet to seize and all of a sudden heart burn hit me like a ton of bricks! Never have I had heart burn in my life, and then all of a sudden last week on Friday I felt really icky and almost like I had the flu and had no appetite what so ever.  Having no appetite and growing a human isn't exactly how it’s supposed to work.  I also was having some pretty good cramps last week too that kind of had me a little worried.  I had a doctor’s appointment yesterday and made sure to ask about the heartburn and the cramping. I had no change in weight since I was there the last time so the doctor asked right away if everything was alright.  I knew heart burn was normal but figured that the loss of appetite probably wasn't normal.  The doctor was sure that my heartburn/stomach acid was causing my nausea and loss of appetite.  She directed me to get Zantac and take it every 12 hours and see if that helps.  Zantac = AMAZING!  Complete 100% relief of the heart burn and now I actually want to eat! Doctor told me that little Oliver is getting big enough now where he’s got my stomach pinched up under my ribs and it makes it a lot easier for my stomach acid to creep up my esophagus.  She assured me once he’s born it’ll all go back to normal – thank goodness!  

Still hoping that Oliver decides to drop sometime soon.  Coworkers are noticing my lack of comfort and I’m feeling like I can’t walk the speed I used to and am starting the "waddle".  I have it stuck in my head that when he drops, my back pain will ease and my hips/pelvis will be the new complaint – but at this point, I’m just ready for something else to hurt and not so much of my back.

Mini mister is still VERY active and seems to be most active around 5:30am, 10:00am, 2:30pm, and 7:00pm!  He has a grand old time kicking and pushing his butt as far up into my ribs as he can get it! Makes for one heck of an odd shaped tummy! I push him back a little bit, and he gives me another good swift kick – which leads me to believe he’s got some off his Mommy in him for sure :)  He’s weighing in at around 4lbs this week and the doctor thought another 3 or 3.5 lbs would be about all he’d put on between now and go time! He’s still head down and has been for quite a while now.  Hoping he stays that way and makes labor smooth!

This past weekend Mister and I headed to Rochester to watch our nephew, Elliott, wrestle in a state tourney.  He did really well, and it was fun to watch him!  Makes me a little bit excited to get Oliver in sports and cheer him on.  It’s a lot easier to see how some parents get a little crazy now after thinking that someday it’ll be my kid out there! It was a little heart breaking to watch all the boys (they are all around the age of 7ish) come off the mat crying when they lost.  Just makes you want to run down there and give them a hug and say “Do you want me to beat him up!?” ha! Makes me think back to my softball days when my dad would get a little bit heated about a call that the umpire would make and he'd be sure to state his opinions loud and clear! ha! Gotta stick up for your kids right?!

Baby showers are coming up very soon!  I have my friend Ashley’s baby shower on Saturday and am really looking forward to seeing all the stuff she got.  She’s going to be one of those professional gun-hoe mommies and she’ll be great at it! It’ll be really fun to have a son that grows up with their little one and watch them both grow! I have my first shower on April 27^th in St James and have been working on doing some of the decorations.  Yes, I wanted to do my own decorations because I just wanted a project to keep busy during these last couple months! So here’s a little sneak peak at what I’m working on.  Thanks to Pinterest of course!

After the Twins game George received a new hat which lead to Tyson thinking it was a brand new stuffed animal in the house and he approached him very carefully!

And a cute Twins onsie I had gotten a while back for Ollie too :) Can’t wait to get him up to the game in this!

We left Tyson at a local kennel during the wrestling tourney, hoping he'd enjoy some time with other dogs and get good exercise.  I've said over and over again that since I've been pregnant Tyson has been all about me and can tell he doesn't like when we leave him. Lisa, the owner at Liberty Acres, told us he was super mopey after we left and just wasn't in the mood to do anything. When we picked him up he was super happy and excited and totally back to his normal self.  We talked with Lisa about how we were a little bit concerned with how he’d be with a baby because he is our one and only baby currently and has been for the last 4 years! She suggested that we start to get him used to us with a baby by carrying around a swaddled doll or talking to a doll like we would a baby and make sure that he knows he can’t jump up and do all his terrible bad habits he does now.  

With the help of an iPhone baby noises app, I've been carrying around a swaddled blanket with my phone in it that plays the baby noises to get Tyson used to it.  The first time he saw me holding that blanket he was not having it.  He was very jumpy and wanted to know exactly what was in that blanket and why I wasn't directing all my attention to him! Once the crying noises started he was turning his head every which way with confusion.  After a few times of doing this he’s now come to realize that as soon as he sits down when I have that swaddled bundle, he’ll get a treat.  So we've made progress already, and it’s only been a few days.  But I know there are MANY more challenges to come when having a new born that will compete with the love and affection that is currently directed towards Tyson. Totally our own fault, but we’ll deal with it and I know it’ll be fine.  I can see that Tyson and Ollie are going to be 2 peas in a pod and I can’t wait to take MANY photos of them together!

Here’s to hoping Ollie drops soon and everyone has a great week! Stay warm --- and pray for NO MORE SNOW!

{ Mister's Brrrrrrrrr-thday! 32 Weeks and 32 Degrees! }

So crazy to think we’ll have a full term baby in 5 weeks! Hoping he stays put for a little longer than that, but nice to know that it’s coming to the end and everything is still looking good and he’s a healthy little man.

Ollie had his first trip to the Twins game yesterday to help Daddy celebrate his brrrrrrrrrrr-thday!!  Although, I can almost guarantee Oliver was WAY warmer than the other 38,000 people there! 32 degrees at opening pitch with hat, mittens, winter coat, hand warmers, 5 layers and wool socks  -- not exactly my idea of the great American past time!  We had fun though and we went down in history as the coldest opening day for the Twins in the outdoor stadium! Here are a couple pics!  Auntie Su Su and Dan came along to help celebrate Mister’s birthday as well. Twins fell a couple runs short but we still had a good time and will be going back again this summer when Oliver gets here!

My luck, Oliver will come out with this same look on his face!

Uncle Dan and Auntie Su-Su

Pregnancy is still pregnancy! A good friend of mine, Ashley (who is also due the same day as I am) pointed out to me, “Now that it’s April we get to say we’re due NEXT month!” which for some reason, that’s JUST AWESOME! Ha! Another good thing about April is that we’re busy every weekend so it should make the month go by pretty fast.  If the weather would actually turn around and cooperate, I’d be a little bit happier of a mama! I also need the weather to cooperate so I can get some maternity pictures taken for Ashley and Tyler too!  Looking forward to that shoot!

I know it’s been a while since I’ve done a blog post, but I’ve got good reason.  I just didn’t want to! :) I try my best to make sure to post when I’m in a good or decent mood.  I really don’t want to look back at a blog I wrote on a “bad” day and thing “man alive! What a beotch!” so… forgive me for not being faithful to the weekly posts.  But really it’s for the best :).  

I don’t think that I’ve really had that many really bad days (Mister may disagree – but for now.. what I say goes.. ) but I had one day 2 weeks ago that hit me like a semi.  My back pain and just being uncomfortable really got to me and for some reason I just wanted to cry for no reason.  Everything upset me! My phone would ring at work, and I’m not kidding you, that phone got the most evil eye from me! If I would have had super powers that thing would have just blown up right then and there!  

On my way home for lunch that day, I got stuck behind a blue hair in a Buick and yup, so mad I started crying!  (but seriously, anyone knows getting behind a Buick and only being able to see the top of that little old ladies’ head, you know you’re in for a pokey drive!) I get home for lunch and was just really looking forward to venting to my Mister a little bit, and he had to rush out the door to get back to work and the second the door shut behind him I was a blubbering mess! Why you ask?! GOOD FLIPPIN’ QUESTION!  No reason… none at all… Hormones = EVIL! 

That night after work I went to Dani’s just to say hi and show her our DVD from our ultrasound and hang with the little J-man and that seemed to have helped.  Seeing James made me think about how much I can’t wait for my little dude to get here so I can just come home and play cars with him instead of having to drive across town and borrow someone else’s son :) hehe. 

Got home that night, thinking I was doing better, showered, ate supper, and laid down in bed to watch some TV and Tyson came in and snuggled up so tight to me and put his head on my chest and just looked at me and …. WATERWORKS… AGAIN! I swear sometimes that dog just knows when I’m a little in the dumps and just comforts me!  Love the snot outta him! My Mister knew that I was a little on edge that day (as he had gotten a few emails from me stating that) and he did a good job of letting me be and not hounding me about it but yet still coming in and rubbing my back a little bit and giving me a smooch.  Oh and he scored major bonus points, when he surprised me with a Shamrock Shake at work the next afternoon! Sometimes, he just doesn't need to say anything or even be right next to me, but just having him in the same room just makes me feel like I’m not so alone in this whole thing.  He’s still my perfect dude and I appreciate him more than he knows!

Ok so enough of that – just feel like mamas-to-be never really discuss the ups and downs of the emotional piece of pregnancy, and everyone knows, this mama ain’t scared to say it! :)

I recently got some great news in regards to work too!  After maternity leave, I get to come back to 4 day work weeks and have my Fridays off with my little mister! I’m extremely grateful and super happy that work is letting me do that!  Love my job, the people I work with, and the flexibility they are giving me to spend more time with my son while he’s still little.  Everyone knows they grow up way too fast, and if I can just get one extra day with him and still get to work and keep my sanity, then I’m absolutely going to do that!

Have my 33 week appointment next week on Monday to see if Oliver is still progressing as he should.  Which I’m sure will be fine.  This little tike is getting stronger EVERY day! His movements have slowed from jabs and punches to long slow knee rolls and long big stretches!  He’s going to be athletic, I just have a feeling :)

Here’s a pic from before the Twins game yesterday.  The Under Armour shirt I have on isn't meant for the pregnant ladies, but I wasn't really up for being a fashionista yesterday with it being so cold for the game! (PS – Tyson went to doggy daycare yesterday at the Paw so he wasn't around for his photo pose – I’m sure he was super bummed he missed it!)

Have a great week everyone!