The last 9 months

A few pictures taken over the last 9 months. Tomorrow is the big day!

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:

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. :)

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!

birthday update with pictures

Well my birthday was really nice! I had a pedicure in the morning with a pumpkin spice latte (decaf of course..), took a quick nap and then had my mommy-to-be massage at 230 in the afternoon! It was SO nice. They have a special pillow with an opening in the middle for your tummy to go through so you lay on your stomach the whole time! They also use unscented oil for the smell sensitivity and some essential oils are not good to mix with pregnancy. After the massage I took a shower there at the spa and used their products. It was so nice! Once I got home John was already home and waiting for me with flowers. We ended up going to dinner early since we were both ready to go and hungry! John had a really good halibut dish and I had scallops. We finished it off by sharing a piece of black forest cake that was made with chocolate mousse! Overall I don't think I could haveasked for a better day! It was nice to just do nothing but relax! Here is me at 36 weeks exactly on my 29th birthday before dinner:

And here are a couple of the nursery. John got the shelves at home depot so we had more room to put things like picture frames and books. I had these pretty pink glass jars and nothing to do with them. We needed book ends.... so I had the idea to fill them with pebbles, and now they are great cute book ends! They aren't too easy to see in the picture, but they are very cute!

And then I found some cheap wall decals at target the other day. It has a bunch of branches birds, owls, and little forest critters. They aren't the best quality and I don't think they will stick too long, but they were just too cute to pass up! You can see a flower next to the bookshelf in the above picture. Here is my little hedgehog and some grass below!

The decals on etsy are much better quality and more expensive. I am still planning on getting one for behind Olivia's crib on the wall of a branch with birds. I have e-mailed with one decal seller who is going to make a custom one for me! I sent her a link to my bedding and a decal I liked that she already makes. It is going to be similar to this one but she said with more smaller daintier swirls like the bedding. Here is the original decal. I would have pink and green and brown though. This picture is from her shop, you can visit it with the link above!
Anyway that's about it for now. Today I have been working on cleaning the house, doing a little laundry and now I am downloading belly pictures to be sent to Walgreens. I need to get them in my belly book now that time is getting so close!

Birthday

It's my birthday today!! I can't believe how old I am getting!! Oh well, I told John he will ALWAYS be older! ha ha! Today is kind of special too since it is 9-9-09. I think I will have to go out and buy a lottery ticket- maybe it will be lucky! I don't have too much planned today yet. I think I may go get a pedicure and I am going to call and schedule my pregnancy massage for either today or tomorrow that I got from John's family! Thank you! I actually woke up kind of sore this morning, I think I might have slept funny. So a massage sounds REALLY nice. John and I are going out to dinner tonight at Luna. I don't think we've been there in a long time. It's too pricey to go there very often, but for something special it is nice- plus the food is SO good. So I don't have anything specific planned today, which is pretty nice. I didn't sleep a lot yesterday and last night just because of the ultrasound and I tried staying up for John since he had to go back to work last night. I almost made it. He got home around 11pm. He tried talking to me, but I was too tired to respond! He said I flipped over in bed and he felt Olivia move for along time in my tummy. He said it was like she was busy doing yoga in there! She is running out of space so she probably was stretching trying to get comfortable! Anyway if I can I may try and take a nap this afternoon since I am already tired at 730 this morning. Well, that's about all for today! :)

prediction

I think I've done this before, but Julie is insisting on a new blog entry since I've been lazy. Here it is: My labor prediction. It actually sounds like it could be pretty accurate- minus the eyes which should at least turn blue!

Madame Zaritska, using her mystical powers, has the following prediction: The day you deliver, outside will be overcast. Your baby will arrive in the evening. After a labor lasting approximately 10 hours, your child, a girl, will be born. Your baby will weigh about 8 pounds, 10 ounces, and will be 22-1/2 inches long. This child will have dark brown eyes and some brown hair.

The size sounds right, it would be crazy to have a baby that long though! My co-worker who was due on the 18th of this month had her baby girl last week. It feels weird to have one less of us at work now. That means it's getting closer! Anyway she and her husband are both above 5'8" and their baby girl was 17.5 inches long! It could be because she was a little early too- a little under 38 weeks. Everything was good though and now they are all at home. Lucky!

Anyway I'm just making salmon quiche for dinner tonight. John caught several Salmon when we in Seattle last week for my shower and we had some for dinner last night. There were a lot of leftovers since salmon isn't really my favorite. So I'm making 2 quiches, one to freeze and one for dinner! yum!

more updates about today

The nurse finally spoke with my OB today and she is not concerned about the possible enlarged liver either. They are thinking she is big now because I am possible borderline diabetic? I don't know, I passed all my tests but they said that I came close to failing. Ugh that would've been good to know before my 1030 pm run to Dairy queen last week with John for ice cream! And of course I find this out right in the middle of baking John some M&M cookies... none for me I guess. :( Everyone says this is when you can eat what you want, but not me! I am back to being even better about my diet. I have tried to eat healthy, but I know I can do even better than I have been (like no ice cream runs to Dairy queen!) The nurse said that the dr would like for me to have an ultrasound in 2-3 weeks then weekly after that to see how Olivia is growing. I should be excited about them, but I'm not just because that means more possibility of finding things wrong... also I'm guessing I may be induced early since she is big and they will be monitoring her. I told John that I will be 38 weeks on Sept 25 so I wonder if she will come sometime around then?

Anyway here is the pile of baby laundry I did today. I'm SO glad I've been keeping up on it. This is mostly stuff from just the showers! I have boxes of clothes for the next year that I have already washed. Now I need to get to putting these away...

And look, Olivia has blinds in her room! They are blackout blinds and the are top down bottom up so you can raise and lower them from the top and bottom. (no strings) They are the same color as we got for our room too. You can see in the pack n play pictures, no more paper window covers! We are still working on blinds for the rest of the house... need to save the $! And here is a picture of me at 33 weeks exactly:

Look what we've done today

NEGATIVE

I called the hospital AGAIN to see if my lab work was done this morning. I swear you have to hound them to find out anything. Anyway she had to go into the computer into different screens she said to find out the results so I guess that's why they never knew they were done. Good news is the CMV and the toxoplasmosis labs were both negative. Those are bad infections to have. I was pretty sure I wouldn't have the toxoplasmosis, but you never know with CMV since I do work around sick babies, some with weird viral infections. I try to stay away from those ones of course, but you don't always know what different babies may be carrying. Anyway the bad news is I had a feeling yesterday that they weren't telling me everything about the ultrasound. Something about the lab work just didn't add up. It didn't make sense to me that they would be ordering the infection labs if she were just measuring big. So I called my dr office yesterday and FINALLY found out the ultrasound report that she was measuring about 1.5 weeks ahead but it also states a possible enlarged liver. UGH. I knew there was something. I wish they would have been honest with me at the ultrasound appt. Maybe they didn't want to stress me out, but they shouldn't take me for an idiot either. Anyway I don't really know what that means. What I had seen online is that infection is usually the #1 cause of this, so I'm sure that's why this lab work was ordered. Since I don't seem to have any infection, I'm not sure what it could be. I did see somewhere that a big baby could cause this too. I'm also hopeful on the fact that it says "possible" in the report. My dr. is on vacation until Monday so I guess I will just wait and try calling her next week to see if she can maybe answer what it could be for me. Anyway that's all I know now. Pregnancy is stressful. I don't think I will calm down until she is actually here and I can see she is ok.

some lab results

I did get the results of a couple labs yesterday. They said my A1C level was normal. It was 5 when it should be under 6 to be non-diabetic. They also said my parvo lab was normal. All they are waiting on now is CMV and toxolasmosis. My nurse practitioner said that it was highly unlikely I would have toxoplasmosis since I don't have a cat or even like them. Plus, I don't play in the dirt, like ever. I'm still not entirely sure why they ordered these labs. They told me because she was measuring ahead but it seems a little odd to me. I just hope there isn't anything else that they aren't telling me. I'm going to call the hospital today and see what's up.

Nursery and craftiness

Well today is the big day of my 32 week ultrasound. I'm super excited to see how Olivia looks now! I'm sure she has more chub on her than the last look at 19.5 weeks. It is scheduled at 2 pm. Before that, Amanda is coming over so we can make a couple things for my friends at work who are having babies. We are having a joint shower on Monday. I'm really looking forward to that too! Here is what I made the girls at work so far (one is having a boy, and the other a girl)

I found these iron on patch type things at the craft store and pt them on onesies. They are SUPER cute in person, I especially love the little tie for a boy! And next are the diaper wipe cases I made. I got the idea from Amanda who made me one that I love. She showed me the directions, and they really weren't too hard once I figured out all the fabrics to buy.

That's all I have made for them so far. I think we may make something like burp cloths later today to finish up the present. I'm glad Amanda is helping, because I don't know how to sew!

Here is the nursery right now too. I got the bedding in the mail a couple day ago. While I was at work John washed everything and put it all on the crib, and put the mobile together. I think it looks super cute! I also included a picture of what the closet looks like right now. I have to get another couple of pink cube drawers and organize it better, but I think it will be a good thing to have for blankets and random things that are hard to find a place for. Plus we can use some of all the space in that closet!

Other than that. Not much going on today... just getting ready for my shower here on Saturday. I have a lot of cleaning and laundry to do! My first baby shower is going to be so much fun, then one in Seattle 2 weeks later! I love showers!

updates

I just woke up from sleeping for the day. I worked last night, pretty uneventful. I did have 2 of the cutest babies in the unit in my opinion! Twin boys, 3 and 4lbs each. Olivia was kicking like crazy when I woke up yesterday morning (at 6 am on a Sunday!). Will she be an early bird like me and John? After about an hour of it she gave herself the hiccups pretty hard core. John got to feel her moving and kicking a lot then he got to feel her hiccups! I don't think he had felt that yet. She didn't settle down until I got out of bed and took a shower. She was also moving a lot last night at work, and when I woke up at 3:30 pm today. It seems like me getting out of bed and walking around is the only thing that calms her down. When she was kicking yesterday I felt her on both side of my belly at the same time. I hope she isn't lying transverse. She better get into the correct position soon if she isn't already! Thursday is going to be a lot of fun!

There are so many fun things this week. My bedding is supposed to be delivered tomorrow. I think when we put that in the nursery will pretty much be complete. All I would have left is getting some sort of decal for the wall. I wanted to wait and get the bedding to make sure I loved it! We already have the closet set up and decided to just put the ikea chair in there as our "rocking" chair. Then on Thursday of course we have the 32 week ultrasound and this weekend my first baby shower here in Spokane! I'm also excited because I will get to see some family from out of town that I don't see very often. My cousin Brandon who lives in Florida just happens to be coming the same weekend!

Well, I hope everyone has a good week! I am supposed to work 4 nights in a row starting yesterday but I'm hoping to get Wednesday off since we are overstaffed. My assignment at work really isn't bad, but it is hard to work 4 12 hour night shifts in a row. Especially hard when 7 months pregnant and I swear none of the chairs are comfortable anymore!

random

Nothing new going on around here lately, but I thought I should post something... John and I decided that we are just going to order blinds for the upstairs bedrooms and bathroom for now since It will be about 1/4 the prince of all the blinds we need. Since our living room faces a hill and no other houses, it's not that critical that we get them now. The only annoying thing is when 6pm or so rolls around and the sun is right in your face when you are sitting on the couch! Oh well, we just have too many things we need and those are down on the list.

I am making my mom's chocolate cake for dessert tonight, so that smells really good. We are having Amanda and Taylor over for dinner tonight- tacos! It will be nice since Taylor and John don't see each other too often. Amanda and I try to hang out every couple weeks or so. She made me a super cute diaper wipes case that she is going to help me make for a couple of my co-workers too. She says it's easy, and it looks so cute! So I will be busy today cleaning the house and getting ready for tacos. At least I will have the cake done in the next hour or so. Me and Amanda at a concert last year:

As far as Olivia goes, she was moving like crazy last night. John commented on how much she was moving, said she was probably trying to get comfortable spinning circles. That's what she felt like anyway! This morning she was on my left side, when she is usually on my right side- so that was different. It seems like she has days where she is super active (like yesterday) and others where I don't feel her quite as much. I am 31 weeks today. The time is flying by! I told John she could be here in 7-9 weeks! Crazy! Hopefully not any sooner than that though- I would not like to have her at work with co-workers taking care of her. I know she would get good care, but I want her to be healthy!

I hope everyone has a good day. It is supposed to be much cooler here today and tomorrow than it has been. I can't say I'm too sad about it, it's a nice break from all the 90-100 degree days. I am so glad I got this dress from target, I got it in 5 colors and I pretty much live in them now!