Weeks 33-34

Advice Request

Since this blog is for 2 weeks, I have two pieces of advice that I would like.  PLEASE either comment on the blog, facebook or tell me your advice because I really want it J

1) I want to breast feed.  Is there anything I can do to prepare myself ahead of time so I can have the best chance of success? 

2) What are things we should pack for the hospital that we might not think of?  A friend who just had her baby told me to bring our Boppy pillow, which I would not have thought of, so it made me think, I bet there are other things I wouldn’t think of as well!  Send them my way.

How I am feeling 

I am feeling busy!  J  That is why I am combining weeks 33 and 34 on this blog.  We have been very busy getting Lilly’s nursery ready, hanging out with out of town guests, working on shows we are in (or directing in my case), getting back into the swing of things at work and working our second jobs.  Don’t get me wrong, we love it and wouldn’t trade all of the things we do, but it gets hard to sit down and write a blog!

Other than busy I am feeling great!  I am so thankful that I have had such a great pregnancy so far (knock on wood).  I really hope that I can say this every week.  I really like being pregnant, especially when people use the word “cute” to describe me more than any other time in my entire life!  People are so sweet.  I just hope “cute” is not code for gigantic and I am just oblivious! 

Here is what I look like at 33 weeks, including a picture of Darren and I at our baby shower:

Here is what I look like at 34 weeks including a picture of me after our Murder Mystery performance:

Baby movement:

I think she has dropped a little because I am feeling her much lower than I used to.  But then again, I am feeling her higher too!  I guess she is just bigger J  According to all the books she is almost 5 pounds at this point, and I think it shows.  Her movements are definitely much more defined at this point and easily visible.  My ribs are definitely a target, especially when I am sitting. 

The midwife that I saw on Monday was able to tell me that her feet are on my left side right now.  This makes a lot of sense because I am constantly feeling movement on that side and you can see little bulges pretty frequently.  I love to picture her stretching her little legs out and making herself comfy.  I watched her for almost 15 minutes straight the other night.  My belly was just swirling around and she was swimming or dancing or whatever she was doing.  I felt so connected to Lilly at that time.  It’s also great when Darren can see her and connect with her that way as well. 

Shout Outs

Big shout out to Kelly D. for loaning me the mother load (haha – pun completely intended) of maternity clothes!  You are so wonderful!

Also, a shout out to Matt and Antonia H. who welcomed their new baby boy Joseph last week!  We are so happy for them!

I don’t think the term shout out is enough to express how appreciative Darren and I are to the following people. 

First to my mom, Kathy, my sister, Susan, and my niece, Brianna, for driving all the way from New York just to see us and be here with us for our baby shower.  We love   you all so much and Lilly, Darren and I are so lucky to have you in our lives.  It truly meant the world to me that you came. 

Next to my best friend, Jess L, for flying in from Boston for the weekend to celebrate with us.  You are always there for me and I love you for it.  Lilly is going to love her Aunt Jekka! 

Also, to Kelly L for making her absolutely amazing cupcakes for our baby shower.  You have truly not lived until you have tried one (or four) of these!  Thank you for making our shower that much sweeter J

Last, but certainly not least to our amazing North Carolina family: Michelle, Chad, Carissa and Jared S. for organizing and hosting our baby shower.  We are so thankful to have you in our lives.  We know Lilly will be so loved by all of you!

Overall, we are just so thankful to everyone who came to celebrate with us at our shower and to those who could not make it but were still thinking of us.  We could not ask for better family and friends!  Here are some pictures from the shower:

Nursery:

Drum roll please…the nursery decorating is DONE!  Yay!  I know we are still missing a crib mattress, but the decorations are done!   Hehe.  We had so much fun doing it and creating Lilly’s cozy little space.  It’s amazing to walk in there now and think that in just 6 weeks we will have a baby girl to go with this room!  I sit in the glider sometimes and just imagine what it will be like to hold her and cuddle her.  

   

Labor and Birth:

I spoke with one of the midwives at our practice about the placenta encapsulation and she told me that she actually did this herself when she had her baby and she is a huge advocate of this practice.  This made me feel really good about this idea.  I am still not positive, but I think I am going to do it.  I know it’s very odd to most, and I am ok with people thinking I am odd.  J  Maybe other women reading this blog will research this and decide to do it themselves, the word will spread and this practice will become much more mainstream and acceptable in time.

   

Week 32

How I am feeling 

I had my first bout of heartburn the other night.  I actually wasn’t sure what it was at first because I have (thankfully) never had heartburn before.  Lucky for me it didn’t last too long and chewing a couple of Tums seemed to do the trick.  Other than that I have felt very good.  I am still exercising regularly so I have had solid energy and Darren and I have also been taking walks every day so I think staying active might be helping. 

I had a doctor’s appointment on Tuesday and I met the other OB at the practice I am working with.  I loved her too!  She was wonderful and very receptive to my questions and my thoughts about the birth.  I am measuring 32 cm, which is right on target, and Lilly’s heartbeat was 135, which is also right on target.  It’s nice to know she is growing well and seems to be healthy.  I just wish I could see her again!

Here is what I look like at 32 weeks:

Baby movement:

The other day I was trying to let Michelle and Chad’s daughter, Allie, feel Lilly move, but she wasn’t cooperating.  That seems to be a pattern.  Whenever I want her to move for someone or she is moving, as soon as they put their hand on my belly, she stops!  Michelle was able to feel her move a little bit later that evening, but even that was just some light thumps.  The cutest thing was when their son, Ryan, said goodbye to me and he kissed my belly to say goodbye to Lilly as well.  It was so cute it almost made me cry!

I am supposed to be counting kicks right now for the doctor.  I am supposed to count how many times she moves for an hour, twice a day.  It’s hard to count when she is moving a lot!  Last night I was actually confused because I could feel this weird slow pulsing that almost felt like a strong heartbeat, but it was far too slow to be hers.  I had Darren feel my belly to see if he could feel it, but he couldn’t at first.  I decided it must have been Lilly’s first hiccups!  It was crazy!  If I pressed Darren’s hand on my belly he could feel it a little.  She had them for about 10 minutes and I didn’t pay attention to anything else during that time.  It was so neat to know what was going on with her for once that I was entranced.  I asked the doctor if she could tell how Lilly was laying yet, but she said it was a little too early, so I am still always guessing if I feel a hand or foot.   

Shout Outs

There are a lot of shout outs this week!  First, thanks to Cindy V. for lending me some fabric scissors and hot glue guns for one of my DIY projects (more on that below).

We have started receiving early shower gifts from friends and family who are out of town, so it’s been a very exciting week! 

Huge thank you to my mom for getting us the Britax convertible carseat!

Huge thank you to Darren’s mom for getting us the Medela breast pump!

Huge thank you to my friend, Allie C, for getting us the changing pad and cover! 

We have such amazing friends and family J

Nursery:

Ok, sooooo the nursery is not quite done.  Boo!  I really wanted it done by the end of our track out.  However, it’s almost done!  We are just waiting to get some of the artwork we are going to put on the walls (see Week 28 post to see a few samples) and the frames for them so we can put everything up all at once and make sure everything fits and flows.  For now I will just post pictures of the different pieces we have completed and then next post will hopefully be of a finished nursery (at least the décor). 

First, we have the finished tree decal!  I was skeptical about this at first (and almost wanted to return it), but I am so glad we didn’t!  It only took about 30 minutes to put the entire thing up and that is including putting up each individual flower.  I thought it was going to be a nightmare, but it was kind of fun!  I absolutely love the way it turned out!  We saw similar decals on Etsy for anywhere from $70-$100.  We got this one from Babies R Us for only $17 (after using a $10 gift card we received for registering there).  What a great deal!

I made this hair bow holder/decoration from an old frame I got from goodwill for $8 that Darren re-stained, some hot glue and pink ribbon ($2 from Joann Fabric).  I can’t wait to get more cute clips for Lilly to add to this!

Darren’s big project was staining these solid wood shelves that we got from Michaels for $9 each.  These will be perfect for small stuffed animals, picture frames or other display items we get for Lilly. 

A big trend right now is displaying baby’s initials in the nursery.  Originally we were going to do this on a mirror, but after a small mishap with an old mirror we had, we decided to instead paint the letters pink and frame them with dark wood frames.  It will look much nicer on the green walls, but here is a preview.  The letters were $2.50 each at Michaels, the paint was $1 at Walmart and the frames were $3 each at Roses. 

Now onto my DIY version of Mount Everest…the pom poms.  I saw these online and loved them and I found a DIY blog post that made them seem very easy to make.  This is not untrue, because they are actually quite easy in terms of how they are made, but the process and the time involved was far more than I anticipated.  Tracing and cutting circles out of fabric is definitely not something I enjoy doing, and it’s not something Darren enjoys doing, but we powered through and traced and cut out literally thousands of them!  Thank goodness my husband is so wonderful and helped me (he is so amazing!)  Then I had to hot glue each circle on the paper lanterns, which again, is not difficult, but was very time consuming.  In hindsight, this is a DIY project that I might have been better off just buying, but I will always look at these pom poms and know how much love and effort went into them for Lilly…who will have no idea what they are and will not care what her rooms looks like for a long time, but oh well!  I think they turned out great and it was nice to have a big project for track out! 

Labor and Birth:

We met with Kalan, our new doula today.  She was adorable and so sweet!  She is actually pregnant herself with her third child (due in August) and Darren and I felt very comfortable with her right away.  She shared some of her experiences and made us feel really good about our birthing choices, especially our choice to work with Triangle OBGYN and deliver at WakeMed Cary.  She is also a great advocate for breast feeding and offered her support for as long as well need after Lilly is born, which is amazing since I know breast feeding can be a challenge and having a trained professional to help me will be so great. 

She also brought up an idea that we had never thought about or even heard about: placenta encapsulation.  Hold on, keep an open mind!  I first thought this was some sort of preservation of the placenta, but after she explained, it’s much different.  Placenta encapsulation is taking the placenta, dehydrating it, grinding it into powder form and then putting it into capsules (pills) to be ingested by mom.  I know this sounds odd and strange, but when I did some research there is a lot out there that supports this practice.  One of the main benefits is helping to ward off the very common “baby blues” that can sometimes lead to post partum depression.  Doing this helps balance hormone levels, enhance milk supply, increase energy and also increase iron levels.  What’s also important is that there is absolutely no evidence that there can be any harm to mom (or baby).  I know this sounds very odd, but I think we might try it.  The doula we are working with offered to encapsulate the placenta for us, so the “icky” part would be done and I would then just be taking another pill, similarly to how I take my prenatal vitamin.  If you are grossed out, I understand.  I was grossed out too when I thought about it.  But after doing some research, I think it might be something we try.  I am not definite yet, but when something has quite a few benefits and no risks or side effects, it kind of seems like a no-brainer, even if it’s taboo in society.  Let’s remember, breast feeding was considered taboo at one point too!

Week 31

How I am feeling 

Only two more months!  I really don’t have many complaints about being pregnant, but I am definitely excited for Lilly to arrive and to start the next big adventure in our lives.

I am sleeping so much better after speaking to Carissa about putting a body pillow behind me when I sleep to keep me from rolling into to my back, which inadvertently wakes me up (sometimes in a slight panic).  It’s funny to see me get ready for bed though because I have a big body pillow stuffed behind me (I am sleeping on my left side), a pillow between my knees, a small pillow propping my belly up and a pillow that I am hugging between my arms.  Darren calls it my “nest” and has been very supportive and accommodating J

Here is what I look like at 31 weeks:

Baby movement:

So according to my books, Lilly weighs about 3 ½ pounds right now and she is packing quite a punch!  I love that her movements are so prominent, but it can be very distracting and almost startling at times!  She seems like a little prankster right now too because every time she is moving and shaking like crazy, I grab Darren’s hand to let him feel and then she stops!  She takes after her daddy in that respect, who also loves to make jokes and play pranks. 

It’s also so crazy to actually feel her on the outside and the inside!  Sometimes there is just a big lump sticking out of my belly and if I push on it, it pushes back!  That sounds weird, but I hope you get what I mean.  I can’t imagine how much more active she is going to get, but I am very anxious to find out!

Shout Outs

A huge thank you to my mom for buying us our infant car seat (below) as well as our convertible car seat (which is on its way)!  You are awesome, mom, and we love you!

A big shout out to Jared and Carissa S. for taking a mini vacation with us to the coast.  We had a great time, as always!

Nursery:

We moved some of the furniture around in the nursery and have finally decided on the final décor!  This blog will be a lot of “before” shots of the nursery and the materials we are using to decorate, but by next week, I hope to have a completed (or almost completed) nursery!  Well…we are still missing some essentials, as you can see (i.e. crib mattress and bedding, changing pad…etc) but hopefully those things will be coming in the next few weeks. 

Here is the nursery now:

These are the shelves we bought that Darren is currently staining:

This is an old picture frame I found that I am going to make into a hair bow holder/decoration:

This is a mirror we had in our house that we are going to re-stain and mark with Lilly’s initials:

And lastly, this is the fabric I am going to use to create three “pom poms” to hang on the ceiling:

  

We ordered paper lanterns and will be hot gluing small pieces of fabric onto the lanterns to create the pom poms.  I am not normally very crafty, but I really love the idea of making things for Lilly.

Labor and Birth:

We received some bad news this week: our Doula, Helene, is moving to Dallas because her husband got a new job.  I am surprisingly not as stressed about it as I thought I would be.  I think it’s because we have educated ourselves so much about labor and birth, so I feel pretty confident.  However, Helene’s backup is another option for us, so we are not without a doula completely.  We have not met with her back up (I don’t even know her name because I am waiting to hear from her), so we are not positive if she will work out, but I am confident that things will work out.  Sometimes things happen for a reason. 

We also went on a tour of Wake Med Cary, which is where we will be delivering.  I was absolutely thrilled with the hospital and their progressive policies regarding labor and birth.  It was refreshing to see that they talked a lot about using different positions, utilizing a squat bar, bathtub or birthing ball and that they are advocates for healthy women and healthy babies, not a one-size-fits-all birth.  I came “armed” with a long list of questions to make sure that all the things we want in our birth plan would be able to be done, but I only had to ask a few because the majority were already addressed in the tour!  I was thrilled to know that the staff supports immediate skin-to-skin contact and breast feeding after baby is born and that all tests and treatments can and will be held off for an hour or more to provide adequate bonding time.  I was also thrilled to see that there was not a nursery full of babies because the hospital supports “rooming in” with baby so that there is minimal separation.  There are also long visiting hours (11 a.m.-8 p.m.) so we can have lots of friends come and visit us (hint, hint!)   

Oh, I almost forgot something really funny!  As we were on the tour, the tour guide brought us to the nurse’s station and announced “there are some of the nurses who might even be taking care of you when you come!”  We all waved and smiled and I realized that one of the nurses was my ex-boyfriend’s mom!  I don’t know that she saw me or recognized me, but it definitely made me laugh.  I told Darren this and he thought it was hilarious.  I know she would be an amazing nurse but I think if she happened to be there, I might have to request a switch.  It might be a little awkward to have her there and doing exams…etc.  Crazy small world!