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.

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!

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.

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:

update

Just a quick update. I spoke with a nurse from my dr. office a minute ago and she said the on-call dr last week thought the possible liver enlargement was nothing to worry about and that it was a little overkill for me to do all those labs, but good just in case. That makes me feel a little better, but I do want to hear that from my own doctor! She said she would leave a note with my doctor and get back to me about it but she didn't think it was anything to worry about. I'm not sure if she will be calling back today or tomorrow.

On another note I had a funny dream last night. Olivia was a newborn, but at the same time she was 1 or 2 years old (weird how dreams work that way!?) Anyway she was SUPER cute with pale brown hair. That's what I mostly remember was her hair, and how good John was with her in my dream. Also I just kept telling her over and over in my dream "you're so cute!" She just laughed.

past weeks update

Sorry I haven't had time to write much. I worked 2 nights, then was off last night then go back tonight! Kind of a weird schedule this week... at least it's only 1 night tonight. Then I am off for 2 and back for 3 more! Aaahh but after that is my baby shower in Seattle, so I have stuff to look forward too! Olivia is currently kicking away in my belly. John felt her a lot last night. He thinks she is big and strong now so he can feel her a lot more. Sometimes she is more wiggly than others. Last night and right now she is especially wiggly. Probably just running out of room in there! Anyway I had a work baby shower on Monday and I had a lot of good food and GREAT gifts! I was so surprised by all the great stuff I got! Here are so pictures from the shower. It was on Monday 8-17-09. Here is me and the 2 other girls, Kailub and Trisha. Trisha is on the far right, having a boy and Kailub is having a girl!

Some of the tissue pom decorations:Baby clothes on hanger for a game:all the food:and me with my gifts before I opened them: I ended up getting clothes, a book, my pack n play for our bedroom and a big toy mat for her to play on! We might be setting up the pack n play in our room today to see where it fits well. I'm so excited we got it!

All 3 of us. You can see how much higher I am carrying than the other girls!Anyway I think John and I have a lot do get done around here today so I better get going. Only 11 hours before I have to go to work! Weird!

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.

First baby shower

I had my very first baby shower at our house this Saturday. Jenny, Amanda, Rachael and Molly hosted it for me and it couldn't have been more perfect! Jenny designed the owl theme and decorated from there. She also made the cutest clothesline with clothes across the window, tissue paper poms to hang from the fan, and did a million other things! There was a great turnout, a lot of good food and wonderful gifts for Olivia! Here are a few pictures from the day:

And today I am getting ready for another dr appt. I swear when they are every 2 weeks they feel like very 2 days. Wasn't I JUST there?! I'm sure when I start going weekly it will be WAY too often! I'm hoping they at least have some of the lab results from the bloodwork I had drawn on Thursday last week. It is at 850 this morning so at least I don't have to wait all day to find out! Then I have a work baby shower at the park tonight! We are having a joint one for me and 2 other girls, I am really looking forward to it! In the past we have had it at restaurants or someones house. It works out nice to have it at the park for the girl who have young kids. They can go play in the playground and the moms don't have to worry about them breaking anything! Anyway, I'm off to get ready for this busy day!

Ultrasound 32 weeks

Sorry I didn't post these last night. Believe it or not I fell asleep at 730pm!! I slept until 530 this morning too so I guess I needed it. Anyway here are the pics I got. We didn't get as many, this ultrasound was a lot shorter since I guess the main thing was to see how big she was. Also she was stubborn and had her hand by her face so you only get to see part of it, but she does look cute from what I can see! Also they said she had a lot of hair! Crazy!

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!

15 weeks vs. 31 weeks

Amazing what a difference about 15 weeks makes!

maternity photos

My maternity photos are online now! Everyone can look at them by going to http://www.ambergphoto.com/ and the clicking on "clients" and the password is "olivia" all in lower case. I really like the majority of them! I may have to think about buying the whole cd.... We will see!

OMG

I can't believe how fast this pregnancy is going by! I will be 30 weeks tomorrow. Yikes. That means only 8-10 more weeks until she is here! I forgot to update the blog with this, but I'm sure everyone knows from me telling them- I did pass my 3 hour blood glucose test. I still am going to watch my carb intake a little more though just because I didn't pass the 1 hour and it seems like the smart thing to do. I need to eat better anyway!

Weeks 29-32 (Month 7): Squash

Baby’s energy is surging, thanks to the formation of white fat deposits beneath the skin. (Have those kicks and jabs to the ribs tipped you off yet?) Baby is also settling into sleep and waking cycles, though -- as you’ve also probably noticed -- they don’t necessarily coincide with your own. Also this month, all five senses are finally functional, and the brain and nervous system are going through major developments.

I can't say I've really noticed too much of a pattern yet with Olivia. I can feel her off and on throughout the day. Sometimes she is more active at times with harder kicks and sometimes it's more like her stretching in there. I'm sure it's getting tighter in there for her!

photos

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I guess I've been a combination of busy, and having nothing to say. In about an hour I'm heading out to take my maternity photos! I have a couple outfits and we are doing them outdoors. I'm excited to see what ideas the photographer has and how they turn out! According to her website they should be online in a couple of weeks and then people can purchase photos on there. I'm pretty sure I won't be buying the cd of these photos unless I love all of them. We will see!

Also, I found some really cute bedding online today that I am thinking of getting. Leave it to me to have 2 totally different bedding ideas. I am going to wait to show John and see what he thinks. I never saw this one before and it is pretty affordable! I will post a picture later.

Nothing much else going on here.... We measured all the windows for the blinds. Now we just have to take the big step and order them. We are just a little hesitant to order ALL of them right now since the bill will be over $2000. There are SO many things to buy with a new house and a new baby on the way! We know though once we get everything for the house it should all be good for a while!

Hope everyone is doing good!

Furniture

I ordered the crib and dresser! I'm so happy to have that over with. I have been checking jcpenny.com to see if the stuff went back on sale, and finally when I looked this morning it was! That, plus it was free shipping! I know that saved us a lot of money too. We are having it shipped to the store where it looks like we will be able to pick it up in 4-7 days! Here are links to the dresser and crib. I got them in the antique white color. They got pretty good reviews, it looks like a lot of people didn't like the dresser because of all the assembly involved, but that is what John is for! ha ha!

Also, I signed up for a childbirth class next month. It is actually a natural childbirth class, but the prepared childbirth class is 8 hours, usually split into different days. I just didn't have the time for it, plus I heard from others that most of it is a waste of time (how to care for babies, etc.) My co-worker and I got special permission to get into this class since the prepared class is a pre-requisite for the natural childbirth class.

I feel like I'm finally getting stuff done now! Oh and John and I were going to order our blinds but the color we liked is no longer online. So I ordered MORE samples so we can re-decide what color we like. I paid to have overnight shipping of the samples so we can do that this week too. The house is finally coming together!

I'm already tired

and its only 7 am and I have to stay up and work all night! John went to work SUPER early this morning to finish a job he couldn't finish last night. He went to work at 3am (after we went to bed at 11pm). Sometimes I don't know how he does it! I called him when I finally got up at 530 am. I had been awake since a little after 5 tossing and turning. Olivia would not stop kicking me, which is nice when I'm awake, not so great when I'm trying to sleep! I only wish John would've been home so he could see how crazy she was going for over 1/2 hour! So anyway, I guess Olivia had a different idea of what I should be doing at 5 am. John did say he could tell I wasn't sleeping very soundly at 3 am, so maybe I didn't sleep good most the night, who knows. I will definitely be trying to take a nap at some point this afternoon!

It feels so weird going back to work after having 8 days off. In a way I am looking forward to it, to get more social interaction and to get out of the house. I was literally going crazy I was so bored yesterday. I think I was tired too. I ended up taking a nap yesterday afternoon too. Maybe that will just be my new thing.

Well, I hope everyone has a good weekend. I will be sleeping during the whole thing! It has been nice having all these days off, I just wish I was able to spend more time with John. It's hard when he is working so much, but I know its so we can save up for him to take a little time off in October!

6 months!

Weeks 25-28 (month 6): Eggplant

Let your spouse put an ear to your belly -- he might be able to pick up baby's heartbeat (no stethoscope required). Inside the womb, the formation of tiny capillaries is giving baby a healthy pink glow. Baby's also soaking up your antibodies, getting the immune system ready for life outside the womb. Eyes are forming, and baby will soon perfect the blink -- perfect for batting those freshly grown lashes.

more kicking

Olivia only seems to kick up a storm when I am laying down either right before bed or right when I wake up. Last night she was kicking especially hard, so I had John feel. Usually when I tell him this, she stops kicking right then. This time she had a couple more kicks in her. John didn't think it was her since it was SUCH a big movement, he couldn't believe it! He also got to see the way it made my belly move. He had to keep asking if it was really her or me just moving. I had to assure him that it was all her! He was pretty excited after me actually saw her kick. He actually said it was probably the coolest thing he had seen in his life.

Oh and I don't think the picture above is really real, it has to be photoshopped.