work

Well I'm done working now until next year. How weird is that?!? It felt strange this morning knowing that the next time I would be back would be in 2 days to have Olivia. Hopefully she won't be spending too much time in the NICU though! I haven't had a vacation from work since I started there in June 2008, so this will be a big change! I think I am going to miss it (well mostly my co-workers) but I know I will be busy thinking about other things very soon!

I'm glad I got tonight off. That way I can spend my last day without a baby getting a pedicure and making sure I have everything packed and a little more tidy around the house. John is working late tonight, trying to make sure he finishes a big job before Friday!

dr appt. 38 weeks

I had a dr. appointment this morning and a non stress test after that. Both went well. The dr. appt was super quick. They just weighed my and did my blood pressure. Both were good- I'm happy that I have only gained 25 lbs this pregnancy! The dr thought it should be pretty easy to take the weight off. She told me that I would get discharged from the hospital on Sunday at the earliest, but depending on me and Olivia it could be Monday. She also told me about recovery from the c-section and how I can't lift anything heavier than the baby for a while. She did say that I should be feeling good by 2 weeks though and good enough after the 1st week to not need strong pain medications. The best thing that she told me was that I could eat breakfast before 6 am the day of surgery. I was stressing because the scheduler told me nothing after midnight and I didn't know how that would be possible with a 230 section and blood sugar issues! Anyway that was my LAST dr. appt this pregnancy and I will just see her on Friday! weird! After that appointment I went over to Deaconess for another non stress test and Olivia did fine. She wasn't moving as much as she was at the previous appt (or as much as she was at 3 am this morning) but she moved plenty in the 1st 20 minutes or so and increased her heart rate each time she moved so they let me go! The weird thing was the nursing student there helping the nurse for the day was also named Olivia! Her middle name was also after her great grandmother (but it wasn't Violet)- too weird! I wasn't having any contractions this time on the monitor. Oh and the doctor felt my belly and Olivia is still way up high. I'm guessing if I were to have delivered Olivia I would have had to be induced anyway since she seems to be in no hurry on getting out of there! Anyway that's the news now. No changes, still scheduled for my section and excited to meet our little girl in 4 days!

weekend update

Well I haven't posted in a while but we have been busy! I found Olivia a lamp for her bedroom that goes nicely with the wall decals from target. It has little birds and owls on it with a toadstool pull! We also put up the wall decal I had custom made on etsy. We put it coming out of the corner of the wall and above the crib. John put it up right after work one night. I LOVE the way it turned out!! She included a bunch of extra flowers and leaves, so I may put those around the room too. The quality is SO much better than the cheap decals I got from target. It almost looks like we painted it on the wall! John got it up pretty quickly too- maybe 30 min or so.

John in action (credit card in his mouth that he used to scrape the decal onto the wall)

and the finished product! Isn't it cute!?

We did the decal before I went to work last week. Its hard to believe I only have 2 more nights of work for the rest of the year! We barely have any babies in the NICU right now so it is a good time to take maternity leave. I go back tonight and hope to get a good nap in this afternoon. I woke up around 3 am and after using the restroom Olivia was moving like crazy. I think she was going for over and hour then gave herself the hiccups. Then John got up a little after 5 so I got up with him. He said he didn't sleep very well either. He thinks he is just getting ready to what life will be like pretty soon! Anyway, this last weekend was our last weekend together as just the 2 of us. We thought it would be fun to do something special. John made reservations and took me to the Couer d'alene resort in Idaho. It was fun to get out of the house and normal routine for the night and be near the water! Here is the resort: ( I took this one while sitting on the park bench by the beach Sunday morning)

And the views from our room:

Saturday night after swimming for a little while and dipping my feet in the hot tub at the resort, we went to Beverly's. It is a super nice restaurant on the 7th floor of the resort. I think John said it is rated 5 star! We couldn't get reservations until 8 pm, but that was ok. I ate lunch a little later and we had a little snack on main street earlier in the day. The service there was AMAZING. I think they offered us 3 kinds of water, then they ask if you want lemon, lime or cucumber in your water! They also gave us a mini lobster corndog as a "bite from the chef" before dinner, and offer you sweet rolls or regular rolls. The sweet rolls looked GOOD, but I had to stay away from them! I ate a little of a regular one though. John and I both ordered salads (his was regular house and mine was a harvest salad with apples and pears- super good) and John ordered halibut and I ordered chicken. John also ordered an imported beer on the recommendation of the waiter. John said it was good, but it was big and expensive- $10!! Nothing was cheap there though. After that there was a dessert that looked SO good I just had to try it with John. Here is the description off the website.
"Chocolate Molten Cake: with Dulce De Leche ice cream, caramelized bananas, and macadamia nut brittle" It had even more than that though- the plate was really pretty with different colored sauces and kiwi and strawberry. It was the best part of the whole meal I think. I'm sure my blood sugars weren't too good with that, but I didn't think we would ever go back, and I just had to have some! The waiter took a picture of us with our dessert (and John's $10 beer!)

And some random photos from our walk Sunday morning after breakfast at the Dockside.

and lastly here is my belly sitting on the bench next to the beach:

4 more nights

I had a mandatory night off work last night because we are so slow. I wasn't unhappy about it because I was actually dreading working 3 nights in a row this week. It seems like I've been really lucky the last month and have been working 2 night stretches (though still full time mostly). Those are a lot easier to do when you are 8 months pregnant and not sleeping the greatest! So I called into work last night to make sure I wasn't on call and the night nurse manager asked if I wanted to be taken off the schedule next Wednesday night too. Patrice must have told her about my scheduled section on Friday. I of course said I would love it, because I am also scheduled to work Mon and Tues next week. This way I can actually have all of Thursday to catch up on little things before Olivia comes instead of sleeping the day away. Most importantly I want to get a pedicure! :)

So I go back to work tonight for 2 nights, then 2 off then 2 more on and I am done for several months. How weird is that? It is also a little weird that I told John I think I am going to miss work a little. I'm sure that will quickly fade once Olivia is here.

new camcorder

I forgot to tell everyone that John went out and bought us a camcorder last week! We had agreed that it would be our anniversary present to each other, and then somehow it ended up being my birthday present.... anyway I am just so glad we have one now! It is a sony handycam and we tested one out at bestbuy, and it was one they recommended. It has a 60x zoom and is nice and small. It seems easy to use but I haven't played around with it too much. John ended up getting it at costco because they had a better deal than bestbuy along with some additional things like a case. Here is what it looks like:

Anyway now we have something to use to record Olivia doing anything! I'm sure we will bring it to the hospital too for fun. :)

Time

Looks like the c-section is scheduled for 2:30 pm on October 2nd with a check-in time for me at 12:30. Hopefully she will be in this world by 3:30!! (if they are on time)

pictures of what we've done

John installing the carseat and mirror so we can see her when driving!

The finished seat!

Some of the great clothes from a co-worker and a full closet! (this 1st outfit on the left is the Nordstrom one I mentioned previously- shirt and pants)

Here is the changing area. Julie gave me the lamp, but I went with different bedding so I am going to have to get a new one, but I really like the size. I may also add a couple bird decals or something on the wall.

Bath time!

And some of the decals around the nursery

That's all for now. I need to get some cleaning done around the house and have a lot of laundry to wash for Olivia!

It's Fall!

I just realized that it is fall starting today! Fall is my favorite time of year and I know it's John's too. (for different reasons though- his obviously for hunting!) I love all the pumpkins and apples and the weather. Now I love it because it is the time of year Olivia will be born. I think everyone has heard by now, but it looks like her birthday is going to be October 2nd. I will be just over 39 weeks and a coworker I want to be there is working that day. I can't believe how quickly that is coming up now! I looked at I have 6 more nights of work and John and I just have this weekend together with just the 2 of us. I told this to John and he suggested to do something special (but not too far from home) He thought maybe we should go to the resort in Idaho for the night, but I looked at the prices, and I'm not sure we'll be doing that. We'll see what happens- it would be nice to spend some last minute time together!

Anyway I had my dr. appt yesterday and she did say she really didn't think it would be a good idea for me to try pushing Olivia out. That's why we scheduled the section. It is scary since it is major surgery, but like I said before, I want Olivia to come out the best way that will keep her healthy. We went to childbirth class last night (our last one) and they did go over c-sections briefly. They showed a cartoon like demonstration of a section and it was a little scary to see how they cut you open and spread apart your abdominal muscles. It's weird because I've been to a lot of sections now at work and don't think much about it. It is different when you think about it happening to yourself! Well overall the childbirth class was good for introductory information, but after I found out I probably needed a c-section, I felt like it didn't apply as much to me personally. Oh well. I think John like learning the breathing exercises. He was always very helpful in class.

Well I went off on a tangent, during my dr appointment she said they are just going to call me gestational diabetic since I did have the high sugar and Olivia has a big belly. For that reason, she sent me across the street to the hospital for a non-stress test. I hadn't had one of those done, and it was kind of interesting! It was just like I was in labor and delivery, and they hooked 2 monitors around my belly. One measured Olivia's heartrate and one measured if my uterus was contracting. I was also given a button to push every time Olivia moved. When I pushed the button it put a little arrow on the monitor strip. When she first put the monitor on Olivia was moving, but after that she settled down of course and was sleeping for a few minutes. I thought it was going to be a LONG test. The nurse brought me a bottle of water and that sure woke her up! She was moving like crazy and the monitor showed it. The nurse said her heart rate had to stay up for 15 seconds when she moved to show she is healthy. Her HR jumped every time she moved, and it showed I was having contractions! The nurse asked if I felt them, and I didn't at all. It just felt like Olivia was pushing outward. Anyway Olivia did great and I was probably in and out of there in 20 minutes. I have another one next Monday afternoon after my dr. appointment. It looks like only 1 more appointment until she is born! Weird!

Well I was going to add picture to this post of what we have done around the house, but for some reason my laptop won't open the pictures. I will try for it to work on my regular computer but it's acting weird too!

accomplishments

Well John and I got a few things done this weekend. I will have to put up pictures when I have time, but I'm just about out the door to go to work! We finished the changing table area- John secured her changing pad to the dresser and we hung the sparkly "O" above it on the wall (you can see it from my Seattle shower pictures, Julie bought it!) I also put up some more small decals around the room, a few toadstools, a squirrel, and two owls looking at each other above the closet! My overnight bag is pretty much packed and we installed the car seat in the car! It feels weird driving around with a car seat now! (oph and we put in the car mirror so we can see her when we are driving!) We should get the big wall decal to go above the crib in the next few days and we will put that up. Also, someone from work gave me a ton of great clothes that her baby girl recently grew out of. I was so excited since one of the outfits was an outfit I'd been admiring from Nordstrom but couldn't bring myself to buy (too much $!) Now I got it for free!! So I think Olivia officially has more clothes than John and I, but that's ok. I'm sure she will get changed a lot and they grow so fast!

On another note, we went to a neighborhood potluck tonight at the park. We met a few neighbors, so that was nice. I found out there are already 2 other Olivia's in the development- crazy! The smallest one is 3. Her dad is actually an OBGYN out here, so that was interesting to meet them. I thought we would meet more people, but it is hard to go around to strangers and start talking. Also, I don't think a lot of neighbors actually came- but it was nice! I'm sure once I get out and about with Olivia I will have more reasons to start talking to the other moms!

Well I have to go to work, then I have a BUSY day tomorrow. Dr. appt at 1:30, then a dentist appt. at 3:30, then childbirth class at 6! At least I can sleep until 1230 or so... oh well!

ultrasound 37 weeks

I just wanted to post a quick update for everyone before I went to sleep. I worked all night so it is hard to stay up longer than usual! Really there is nothing new. Her belly is still measuring big (40 weeks) and the rest of her is right around 37 weeks. The perinatologist isn't in on Fridays I guess so we have no recommendations at this point. I had plenty of fluid and she was showing a lot of breathing patterns and even was practicing sucking- that was cute! Anyway They are thinking something around 7.5 lbs now. She is growing fast! She is STILL a girl and has lots of hair. She likes to keep her hand up by her face and was grabbing at her toes at one point. She is also still head down and her butt is WAY high up into my ribs. Probably why I look like I am carrying her so high! She wasn't moving too much and the ultrasound tech waited for her to wiggle, and then she moved enough. She was moving a lot last night and just in the waiting room (and now) so I'm not worried about that. She said she scored a perfect 8/8 on her biophysical profile- with whatever they test her on. Again I forgot to bring a cd, but it probably wouldn't have mattered. This tech wasn't used to the machine, so who knows if she would've been able to figure it out! Also the pictures are getting less great as time goes on. She keeps her hands up so it is STILL hard to see her whole face in the 3-d shots. She does have chubby legs and arms though. (which you can guess since they have been saying how chubby she is!) Anyway I have a dr appointment on Monday so I am curious to see what she says. At that point I will be 37 4/7 weeks. My other pregnant co-worker got induced yesterday and should be having her baby sometime today at 37 5/7 due to low fluid. I'm officially the last pregnant one at work- weird!

Anyway on another note, the etsy seller designed my vinyl for me to match my bedding. Look at her blog and see how cute it is! It will be almost identical but I want just plain bright green leaves. Isn't it awesome? I'm excited to see how it looks on the wall!

Well I'm off to bed- good night!

blood sugars

So I went out and bought blood sugar testing materials after my dr. appointment yesterday. After dinner last night my sugars were good. I think they were about as high as they would like to see them, but still acceptable. Anyway, I had a bowl of ice cream last night with John then went to bed. This morning my fasting blood sugar and sugars after eating breakfast were too high. I called the dr. office immediately and just heard back from them. They are referring me to a gestational diabetes education class. I can't help but feel bad that I have probably had uncontrolled sugars this whole time and that is probably why Olivia is measuring big. I'm also kind of angry. I've taken so many lab test, you would think they would've caught it. Now I am nervous that it is too late to reverse any damage done. We have babies in the NICU from diabetic mothers and on top of being large, they usually have difficulty feeding and have blood sugar issues of their own. This is because they are so used to being in a high sugar state that they over produce insulin. When they come out of their mother, they continue to produce all that insulin and their blood sugar drops. This usually requires them to be on some IV fluids until they stabilize.

Anyway now I am waiting for a call back from the nurse who is setting up the class. I guess they usually have one tomorrow, but I work tomorrow night. I hope it is at a time I can attend. It should be helpful in telling me what to eat. That is something I have a bit of difficulty with. I know you can't eat a lot of sugar, but it gets more complicated with carbs and things. Anyway the last couple days haven't been fun but I guess it is good to find this out late rather than never.

Apparently I'm "impressive"

Well that's what the dr. said about the swelling in my feet. At least I am impressive at something I guess! I know my feet have been swollen off and on for he last couple weeks depending on if I've been walking a lot or able to relax. Well John, Jenny, Nick and I went to the fair last night and did a lot of walking, so I don't think that helped the swelling!

Anyway the dr. didn't have great news. She is concerned about me giving birth because Olivia has a large belly, not a large head (normal size head) and going through the birth canal would be an issue. She is also concerned because she checked me and said I have a very narrow pelvis and doesn't think I would be able to give birth to much over a 7lb baby (actually she may have said 6..). So that really sucks to think about. I just want what's best for her though, ad I don't want her getting in distress because I'm set on delivering her. So she didn't say a date for delivery or anything, but I think she just wanted me to start thinking about a section. The recovery time is also much longer since it is major surgery, so I'm hoping that John could stay home for a week. I guess we will have to see what his schedule is like when the time comes. I guess on the plus side sections are scheduled so John will be happy with that. He has been stressing a little over what he is going to do about work when she comes I think, so this would work well for him! She also had me do some blood work since I am so swollen for pre-eclampsia. Even though my BP has been fine the whole time (including this appt) the swelling isn't good- so they measure different things in your blood to test for it. She also examined me and I'm totally closed so not going to go into labor any time soon. The last thing she said was she wants me to start checking my blood sugars. Even though all my lab work is normal Olivia is showing signs of me having gestational diabetes with her belly being large like this. I just went to Walgreen's and got testing stuff. I had eaten 3.5 hours before and my sugar was 55. She wants it under 140 1 hr after eating and under 120 2 hours after eating. So I am eating lunch now and will see what it says. So not the best appointment in the world, but I guess things could always be worse.

The fair last night was really fun. I LOVE the fair. I have to go every year! I haven't missed it once. Usually I go a couple times while it's here, but I'm not sure if I'll be back this year. We went around dinner time so it wouldn't be too hot out and left after dark. I love to see all the rides lit up in the dark. John and I shared some teriyaki chicken, and I had some really good lemonade and a shaved ice later. It was SUPER good. We saw most of the animal and different exhibits. Jenny and I played the horse racing game where you roll the balls up into the holes. She beat me! We were the only 2 players so one of us was guaranteed to win! It was a fun 60 seconds or so! We also saw some cute little kids riding bucking sheep and heard a guy on stage that sounded EXACTLY like Kenny Chesney. Weird. Anyway here are some pictures from the night!

about time... shower photos

Alright here are the photos I said I would put on here a while back. A bunch of random shower photos from the Seattle shower on 8-29-09. Whew that took along time to put up on here! They are a combination of pictures my mom took and John's family took. I have a lot more, but I figured we did not need to see pictures of me opening every.single. present. Because I bet I pretty much have a picture of it! ha ha Oh and some very unattractive ones of me halfway talking. Not gonna post those either! :)