was that a hiccup??

so for a few weeks now i have been feeling a weird pulse in the belly sometimes, and i think it may be hiccups. i know babies can get them in the womb, but i never thought that was what it was. the other night i just all of a sudden thought maybe that was a hiccup!!! anyways, it is kinda neat if that is what it is. this squirmy wormy baby is getting bigger and bigger as we get closer and closer to the birthday. who knows when it will really come out but we are getting all ready and very excited. i know i will miss being pregnant. despite all the puking and back pain i have really enjoyed being pregnant. i am sure i will enjoy being a mom even more but i will miss this feeling.

31 week appt.

we had a baby appt. this morning. all is well with baby, the heart beat was in the high 130, still normal and good. the baby is still head down and they showed me how to feel the difference between head and butt, that was really cool. i am still measuring one week ahead but that doesn't mean much, just interesting to now.


i did find out that my iron is low and that is probably why i am so tired all the time, so brandon is picking up some iron tablets for me today and they should start to make me feel better soon. i was also told to go see my family doctor for some chest tightening i have been having lately. i am sure it is nothing but better safe then sorry so i will follow orders and go get checked out!! everything else was pretty normal. we made the next appt for two weeks from now. we are getting closer and closer!!!!

love it, love it, love it

we had our first hypnobirthing class last night and i absolutely love it. no i am not going to be hypnotized and clucking like a chicken while giving birth, it is basically a relaxation technique, with breathing exercises, visualizations, and so on. the teacher is fantastic and referenced it like teaching our brains to stay calm, and focus on something. kinda of like when you swim the 500 and are so focused on the race before you know it, it is lap 17 and almost over, or when you get in the car at work, drive home and don't remember the drive because your mind was somewhere else. if you want more info you can check it out at www.hypnobirthing.com

i am sure people are rolling there eyes because i don't want medication and i am trying something new, but please keep your negative thoughts and opinions to yourself!! brandon and i are very excited about this and with my history of reactions to pain medications there is no way i want to even try them. we are looking forward to a positive birth experience and this is how we feel we can have that. we can and will gladly answer any questions you may have if you ask.

we are looking forward to the next class to learn more about the birth process, and learn more techniques to practice before baby gets here!!!

PA baby shower

This weekend was my baby shower in PA. it was very nice, my mom worked so hard to make it great. everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. i had family and friends there i have not seen in awhile so it was great to say hi and catch up a bit. Everyone was so generous ad the baby made out like a bandit!!! i posted a few pics, i don't love how i look in any of them.



opening some presents!!!



what a cute cake!!!

this was a box of goodies my grandma made for the baby. it was a jacket, hat, booties and blanket. my aunt stell also made a blanket for the baby. these were pretty cool gifts made with love!!

over all we got a ton of great gifts, i can't pick a favorite because i am so excited about all of them. i have already started organizing everything in the house. in a few weeks i will have another shower in toledo with more friends and family. i am sure it will be great too!

sick again

yes you read that right...i am going in the wrong direction. i was feeling great and lately i have not been feeling good at all. probably the last week or so. last night was great i was heaving and puked some in my mouth...fun times. hopefully this will be short lived but that is what i said when it started so we will see. i am getting such intense chest pains too...is that normal?? of course now i have a question but not at the doctor's appt. i am worn down from lack of sleep too, i am sure all you mom's can relate. i am just preparing myself for when the baby is here, i will be able to function like a super star, i will be so used to no sleep!!! sunday is my baby shower in PA i am very excited!!! i remembered my camera so i should have a good post to put up!!!

29 week appt. and PT

we had an appt today. we are at 29 weeks and all is well. the diabetes test results were all good, so no trouble there. i had to have more blood drawn today to test my thyroid since i have had issues in the past. they just want to make sure everything is ok before something happens. the heart beat was in the 150s and the baby is still head down. that was about the whole appointment. i can never think of any questions for her so we get in and out pretty fast.

as for PT i am now an as needed patient. so if i need them i can call but i do not have any more scheduled appts. i just have to keep stretching and trying the different positions to try and find relief on my bad days.

i have had some blah days lately. i can't pin point why i don't feel great i just don't. hopefully it goes away soon, i just chop it up to the baby growing so my energy is zapped!!

breast feeding class

last night brandon and i went to our breast feeding class. it was very interesting and i am glad we went. they covered a ton of information such as, how i make milk, problems that may arise and how to solve them, positioning the baby, latching on, pumping, good and bad pumps on the market, milk storage, myths and facts, etc, etc, etc. i feel a lot more prepared now and feel like i have an idea of what to expect in the hospital and when i get home. hopefully all will go well and i will be able to figure it out without needed extra help, but i also got phone numbers to call if things are going wrong once i get home. so we will see what happens. at the end of the month we start our child birth classes which i am so excited about. we are going to try hypnobirthing, and no that is NOT hypnosis!

random

look at the ticker!!!!! we are so close to the end i can't even believe it. the baby is moving even more these days and we are both getting more and more excited. the house is coming along, nothing else finished to post, but the little bits are coming together slowly. hopefully we will have a deck soon and walls painted. brandon had a couple days off coming up and we will be working hard those days. i do what i can when i am alone, but that is not much. i just hope we get most everything done before the baby gets here!

as for the back, it is about the same. i did not get to do pool therapy last time, my therapist was not there so i had a new guys and we just did stretches and such. i am trying to do them at home everyday, but my true goal is every other day!!!! i am still sore some days and better others,i figure it will be this way for awhile. the hormones are losing my hip joints and my body will continue to release that hormone throughout breast feeding so this problem could be pretty consistent for quite some time even after the birth.

back pain and baby names

back update: the last few days i have been pretty busy and so i have been having more pain, some moments are up to 8 or 9. i even took Tylenol last night but of course it did nothing. so today i am taking it easy and trying to do nothing at all but maybe stretch. my upper back is now also cramping a lot lately.

good news though, my PT office is in network, and i am going to go to my next appointment to see what i can learn, i think i will keep going if i find some things that give me relief. my PT is great i have emailed her about 100 times already and she answers all of them, i am excited to see her again and see what she has to say after she sees me do the exercises. then i will know if i am doing them right but also if the pain level is too high or not. i am very bad at that 1- 10 scale, i hurt everyday so i think that messes up my scale.

BABY NAMES!!
ok everyone asks all the time what we are going to name the baby. first of all no name will be picked for sure until the baby born. i have always said i would take 2 girl and 2 boy names we really like and see what the baby looks like. so here are the top 3 boy and girl names in no particular order. we have lots of others hanging out on the list too i will list them at the bottom.

girls:
scarlet ann
kinsley rose
ramsey jane

boys:
bram joseph
lennox jon
ryker james

other names we like:
girls:
molly
nia
remi
brynn

and brandon would love to name her stella, but that is the cats name already, if it were his choice we would be changing the cats name and using stella for the baby!!!

boys:
leland
malcolm
barron
stone

so we will see what the final pick is after the birth!!! i don;t think much will change between now and then.

TMI

that stands for to much info...so you may not want to read on...read at your own risk!!

i am writing this more for my own memory sake then anything else.


ok, so i have been feeling the baby a lot lately, it moves like crazy all over the place. my belly jumps, and people can see and feel it now!!! super cool. but for some reason this baby keeps punching me in the butt. and i mean the anus!!! yes, it is great, not sure what is going on but just about everyday a few times a day the baby is knocking on my back door. i know this is not actually possible but it is by far the strangest feeling so far for me. just imagine getting punched in the butt on the inside. so weird!

PT Update

last week i went to see the PT for an evaluation. they gave me some exercises and stretches to start at home and i made two follow up appointments. i am hoping these will help with the pain, some days get so intense it is crazy, brandon has to actually help me move and push me up the stairs. so we will see how it goes, i need to find out how much this will all cost too!!!! i am excited for the next appointment because i get to do some pool therapy which i think will be great.
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so far the stretches are fine, but some of the exercises cause some major pain so i have emailed my therapist to find out what level of discomfort or pain i should expect. usually i just ignore the pain and do what i can till i can;t move at all, but of course that is what got me here in the first place so i am going to try to to this all right this time.

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side note: i will be posting pics of the baby room soon, it is all done for now. furniture made, panted, organized!!!! i love it. i still want to get bubbles on the wall but that will be awhile still so i will post what we have done. stay tuned!!

MAJOR UPDATE

OK i found my camera cord so hold on tight!!!!
first are a few pics of the new house. it is a 2 story, 3 bed, 2.5 bath house. it has a great back yard, but a lot of work. we have already done a lot of renovations, i will have to do before and after pics some other time. so far we ripped out all the floors, got new tile and carpet ad have slowly begun to paint. all with help form both of our families...thanks guys!!!

this is the kitchen, it is a good size for us!



this is the back yard, we are hoping to add a deck soon!



and this is the front.

i only put a couple pics on here because the others just show crappy house really, i will post more soon as we finish projects!


ok now on to the baby pics i only have a few. these are out of order but the first is on my belly at 6 months. this was also the night brandon and i went out for our 1 year anniversary, and this is the only picture we took. we had a nice dinner out together, but really since we moved we have had a lot of those do to a major mess in the kitchen. it was still great to stop working and just sit with him at dinner and talk. we can't believe that in 3 months we will be a mommy and a daddy!!!!


this one is of the two of us at our friend Melissa's wedding. it was a fun night and we had a chance to relax and dance. this was right before we moved. i was probably about 5.5 months or so there. it was on May 24th. and again the only picture we took all night.

so there you go...i think the belly looks pretty good, i am always tired now and totally over doing it here trying to unpack, clean up, paint, and so on. i know i have to slow down but it is hard to live in a mess. i tend to go all out one day and pay the next. we do have the baby room all painted and it looks great, i absolutely love it!!! we only have a few more things to clean and then the rest of the painting can begin. i am pretty sure we will have on going projects for quite some time now. but as long as all the big stuff is done by the time baby comes it will be fine. speaking of baby, it moves a lot these days, you can see my belly jump when i get a good kick or hit in there. brandon gets very excited about it, he waited along tome to feel it. i am not getting sick like i was anymore, an occasional nauseous moment or gagging episode but other then that it has been pretty god...thank god!!! i was way over that.

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i have my next appt. on july 2nd so i will post more baby info after that. in the mean time i will try to take some after pics of the house to share.

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some other big news, my friend tonia had her 3rd baby on may 28th. a little girl named tierney. she is just beautiful, i don't have a good picture of her yet but i will post it when i get it. most of you would have met her at the wedding shower or wedding she was one of my brides maids

23 week appointment

we met our new doctor today!!! she was very nice and all went well. no much to tell about. the heartbeat was in the 140s. i did find out that i will not be able to have a water birth...that was sad for me. apparently there is a 200lb weight limit, and i am now officially over 200lbs. FABULOUS!!!!! so that made me feel like a fatty!

she gave me a referral to a PT for my back pain, it has been very intense lately, so i have been a little worried about it. i have not been in pain like this since before my surgery so i just want to be cautious. i want to be able to actually take care of my baby when it comes!

next appointment i will have an ultrasound to check my placenta and i will have to do the glucose test for gestational diabetes. that will be on july 2nd.

woohoo!!!

i am officially done teaching for now. my last day was thursday with the kids and i went in for a bit on friday to clean up the room. i am sad to leave my kids and will really miss being a teacher, but the flip side is so much more exciting to me. i have been waiting so long to be a mom and brandon and i are moving into our new house. i fell like our life together is starting now. so many exciting and stressful events right now. i will be off line for a bit until we get settled and get internet at the new house. i will be posting some pictures of a brandon and i at our friends wedding last weekend hopefully soon, by belly finally looks like a baby bump!

i jinxed it...

well i went 3 weeks without puking and made the mistake of saying the worst was over, and then yesterday we started all over again. i am hoping it was a one day deal, but today was pretty crappy too. cross your fingers!!!!

Brandon felt the baby!!!

FINALLY, brandon felt the baby move last night before we went to bed. he was very excited and said he couldn't even explain how he was feeling. i know he has been waiting to feel it for so long. it is probably even more real then before for him. we are past half way ad the excitement is building, of course we don't have much time to think about it since we are so busy fixing up the new house, packing the old house, and i am trying to finish this school year on a good note with the kids.

i think i have said it before but i can;t even believe how much i already love this baby. i am going to be a hot mess in the delivery room i am sure!

not much to update

nothing much is happening with the baby right now. we will be moving on may 31st so i am a bit stressed with packing, ending the school year, getting the new house ready, and oh ya growing this little human in me!!! i have gone about 2.5 weeks without throwing up, that is amazing to me! i still get nauseous and gaggy at times but i can handle that. i feel the baby alot and at the right time i think others could feel it on the outside. brandon is waiting anxiously to feel it, he gets so bummed when he can't, i think it is cute!

not much else to report

19 weeks

that's our baby!!!! It posed great for all the pictures the doctor needed!! during the ultrasounds it was on it's side and moving like crazy. It even scratched it's butt!!! so cute. it was so amazing to see our little baby. the femur bone is only 1 inch long to give you an idea of how tiny it still is. totally amazing though. the tech was able to see if it was a boy or girl but she did not tell us. she said some parents give in half way through, but not us. never even questioned her.

the baby's heart beat was 150, it is in the 57 percentile for growth which is right in the middle. the doctor says it is growing perfectly right now and she was very happy with the development. the only concern was with me. apparently my placenta is too low right now. it can still move but it is lower then she would like at this point. i have to get it checked again at 28 weeks. i am not to concerned. it can not hurt the baby at all it could just mean i would need to have a c-section. if it does not move to a certain distance ( i don't remember what that was) from the cervix then i can not even try a vaginal birth. we will just have to see at 28 week where we are. the baby was measuring exactly on the due date of sept 29th, i still think and have from the start that it will come in oct. but i could be wrong. that is the major reason i really want my placenta to move up, i don;t want to know when it will be coming ahead of time, i want the surprise!

other then that all is well, she was not concerned with my headaches and star sighting! she told me i could take Tylenol if i wanted, if i find that was not working there were other pills she could prescribe. this baby hates medicine though so for now i will just tough it out. my blood pressure is consistently great so she isn't worried.

all is well. it will be so hard to wait to meet this little baby now that i have seen it. i already love it so much and after seeing it even more, i can't even imagine what a mess i will be when i finally get to hold it. so crazy how pregnancy works, it is just amazing to me that i could grow this little human in there.

update

well, we bought a house...that is a big update. it is in Columbus and our families are helping us out to get it all ready to move in by may 31st. i unfortunately can't really do much, which is driving me crazy! i really want to be a part of all the work but the fumes are not good for me right now and with my energy level i would probably work for 5 min and rest for 30!!!

baby update: i am definitely feeling the baby moving. no one can feel it on the outside yet but probably not too ling till they can. i know brandon will love that, he always loves to see and feel our friends bellies when their babies are moving. i will have to get used to it i guess, we all know how much i like to be touched!

i have gained about 8-10 pounds so far. i am not totally sure, but i went off the most consistent weight i had before i got pregnant. i will ask the doctors what numbers they have when i go on wed. their scale always weighs me bigger though...not fun!

i hate to write it because i will probably jinx myself but, i am feeling better most days now. still some morning sickness and headaches but that i can handle. the all day food pukes i can not! i am going to ask about my headaches on wed. they are getting very frequent and intense and i have seen starts more then a few times now, i just want to make sure all is well with blood pressure and such. it happens so randomly i cannot pinpoint a reason. i am also experiencing lovely leg cramping and a very annoying side pain. oddly enough tonia has had the same pain for all her pregnancies, i was glad to hear i was not alone. it feels like my muscles are ripping off my ribs sometimes.

other then that not much happening. i will post after the appt. wed. we will have a good ultrasound picture to share.

was that the baby?

i think i may have felt the baby move this week. i am not 100% sure but i have felt the bubbly or fluttery feelings a few times now and i think that may be it. actually as i type this i have felt a few in a row, maybe it will be an active little guy or gal. of course with me and brandon as parents we can almost be sure it will be a busy baby!!!!

next week we get our ultrasound and i am so excited to see the baby. it should be a pretty cool picture by now.