38 Weeks - mommy intuition 1-1

I had my first vaginal exam this week. Totally not the big scary & painful event it has been described as. Honestly it is preferable to an annual with the duck bill speculum. Anywhoooo with my exam I learned that my prediction of Baby J arriving with the new moon on Sept 24th was unlikely. I was 60% effaced (how thin my cervix is), -1 station (how far into the pelvis the baby's head is, & as far as dilation, I was closed up real tight. And still had a posterior facing cervix. Baby J is still in the ideal head down-face back position. He has been there from the start and I keep telling him he must stay there! 

Oh well, the 24th and new moon have come and gone and Baby J is a happy little boy in his mommies belly. I am officially 1 for 1 on my mommy intuition. Yes, you are a boy, no you are not coming on the 24th. So now we wait! We are ready, everything is ready. I keep thinking that there must be one thing left I am missing and that is why he isn't here yet... I haven't found that "one thing" yet!

Liuzza is making me feel like he is gonna be here soon. She is freakishly more clingy than usually and must touch me. It is sweet and I love it, but it also makes me sad for her. I don't want her to be sad or left out. I know it will  be an adjustment with her and the baby, but I am just hoping for the absolutely best and that we will all adapt and change to our new life and addition!

Baby J Updates this Week:

- Bought shutters for his name above the crib! Trade days was very successful. Shutters have been painted and hung!

- Crib sheets have been washed

- The nursery is 100% ready, just needs a baby. And for me to hang his banner above his crib.

- We went to our first hospital class last night. It was a breast-feeding class. We learned a lot. Especially that in the first 10 days baby must eat every 3 hours. After that you can left them sleep through the night if they will. So that was interesting. We learned lots of other stuff as well, but that stuck with me. I was planning on letting him sleep as long as he wanted, as long as the Dr. says he is good with his weight. 

Side Note: There are currently three different guessing pools with varying prizes for Baby J's bday, weight, & name. They are as follows:

- From the shower everyone guessed his name, his weight, and his bday. Christopher and I apparently must provide champagne to the winner of each category. We have the note cards to double check once he is here!

- Immediate Janes/Demberg Siblings/Parents guessed on date and weight. The prize for this naturally gets to be Baby J's favorite person. Titine (Aunt Chi Chi) believes she is going to be his favorite. Lets see if she is right!

- Baby J Sweepstakes, very much like the Super Bowl Squares. Everyone picked random squares. Christopher and I then pulled numbers out of a hat to assign pounds and ounces to the chart. This game is the Dembergs/McPeek and Janes' as well as a few of our friends here. The winner gets a $400 pot. GO 'head winner! My Dad and cousin Ryan said we should have said Baby J should get $100 and the winner $300. We didn't think about that. Oh Well! Its all for fun!!!

fall mantle + Baby J sweepstakes 

close up

Week: 38

Sleeping: Surprisingly well! I have been doing this Apana meditation each night and I think that helps! I sleep great for most of the night, I get up to pee lots and am usually wide awake for a little after that. But I am lucky for the overall!

Weekly Highlight: My first vaginal exam and learning that I am at least in the early beginning stages of labor. 

Stretch Marks: Same ones I have! My belly button is a perfect circle... it is very weird!

Cravings/Food Things: Lots of sweets!

Labor Signs: I maybe have felt some cramps, or weird things. But I have nothing major happening! At least that I know of!

Missing Anything In Particular This Week: Nope

Weekly Mood: Excited and Happy!!! 

Whatcha Looking Forward Too: McKinney Oktoberfest and Saints v Cowboys game. We have been offered tickets, but it is an 8 o clock game, and mommy cant make it that late. I feel like the worlds worst fan, but it is a long event for us to get to At&t stadium and back home. It is exhausting when not 38 weeks preggies, soooo at a whopping 39 weeks on Sunday I am gonna lay on my couch and cuddle with my puppy and HubsMan and cheers my boys on! And cheer my baby boy out!

Workout This Week: Our walks have downgraded from 2.5/2 miles to a solid 1.5/1.7 miles. I feel bad bc I feel like Liuzza is getting the short end of the stick, but I cant go any further. I try to spend a good bit of time outside with her bc the weather has been fab. Hoping that helps!

Holy belly paw paw

Offical 9th month of pregnancy! 36 weeks!

Wowza, this is real! We have t-minus 4 weeks to go until the official "40 week" mark! Today we had our 36 week check-up! Which included a sonogram. Did not (and will not) include vaginal exams until week 38. Dr. J doesn't like to do them unless necessary to expose you to less discomfort and possible infection. Turns out I am one of those lucky broads who has tested positive for Strep B. So I get a nice antibiotic cocktail in the form of an IV when I arrive at the hospital. Good thing, Dr J reassured me, this by no means I am attached to an IV for the remainder. I will have to keep the saline lock in (which I knew) for those "just in cases" but once the antibiotic is done I can be a free mobile woman again!

Pregnancy/Appointment Updates and Tidbits:

- Baby J weighs 7lbs (give or take a pound, usually it is take a pound)

- Baby J still has quite a large amount of hair. The sono tech is still blown away at its amounts! haha!

- Baby J's head is in the 97th percentile! Holy big head! He is in the 78th percentile.

- Fluid, placenta, and all that jazz is fabulous and perfect! Yay!

- Baby J is facing in the correct position, down and anterior (face back towards spine). Lets hope this position   makes for an easy delivery of his cute and fabulous big furry head!

- I have been doing a lot of visualizations. Positive of course!! I am really a firm believer in the power of positivity! I think the mind is a huge player in birth and I hope that all of my preparation will make for an easy birth for me and Baby J!

- We traded in our oh so amazing pack n play (thank you for the generous gift Aunt Sayrah & Uncle JayRed). We ended up with so many pieces parts and extra things (bassinet, changing table, etc...) that we wouldn't use. When we originally registered it was perfect because we had nothing, but now that we are going through things we realize that we want to keep it simple. A pack n play will strictly be for travel, it wont get much use otherwise. So we (Christopher) began researching what was best for us... We were living the 4Moms, but the steep $300 bucks made it no bueno for us. SO we ended up with the Joovy Room2 Playyard. It is fabulous and a giant square of play area and sleep area. We need to order the special sheets for it of course since it is a square. But it was $120 and much more reasonably in our budget.

- We have almost booked our new born photographer! We know we are going with April Murphy, a friend of our friends Erika & Justin. She is fab and we cant wait to use her!! In case you are interested in reading about Erika, Justin, and their cutie pie twins- Keegan & Noelle, you can hop on over to her blog! Here it is: http://www.twobucklemyshoe.blogspot.com

- I made the monthly signs for Baby J's first year of life! 

We cannot even wait or wrap our minds around how close we are!!! I think everything that "needs" to be done is. I have a few things I would "like" to get done. But it is not the end of the world if they don't get done. We have a family pool going on guess for when Baby J shall arrive and how much he shall weigh. See the picture below for the votes!

I feel (and have felt) that Baby J will arrive on September 24th. It is a Wednesday and a New Moon. What better way to celebrate a New Moon than with new life! That would put us in week 38. Which I actually have been feeling he would come in before I settled on the 24th. Christopher think he will come on October 7th, the 8th is a full moon. Its crazy! We did both choose 9lbs 7oz, without knowing the other chose that! haha!

And here is the weekly fil in the blanks!

Week: 36 (wah wah... we are in the last month!)

Maternity Clothes: I have been loving Chris' basketball shorts! 

Wedding Ring On/Off: It is officially off. It was not that I needed it to be off, I just got scared they were gonna cut it off if it got too tight!!! So now I switched to my gaudy david yurman knock off.... I feel so weird without my ring!

Sleeping:  Well this is a new fun! I sleep really hard the first half of the night, then am pretty wide awake the second half. I wonder what my body is preparing me for.

Weekly Highlight: Getting to hear how amazing out sweet angel boy is!!

Stretch Marks: Sadly (but I am embracing them as part of the miracle that is happening in my body) I have gotten more. Still concentrated only on the right of my belly button. But they are there non the less. 

Cravings/Food Things: I really wanted Brothers Pizza all week, so we got it Wednesday night. Then of course my belly was hurting so much (who knows why, maybe a sign of the sore throat coming) I couldn't eat anything but the crust! 

Labor Signs: Nope! But my back def hurts more. It comes and goes and then I am good. None of my usual tricks are working though! Maybe its a start!!!! 

Missing Anything In Particular This Week: Bending over, like really big! I cant do any type of bending movement it squishes the baby and my organs... all of them rebel! 

Weekly Mood: I am have been pretty tired this week. Definitely moving slower. And I woke up with a sore throat on Thursday. I am giving my young living EOs a test this week!

Whatcha Looking Forward Too: Trade Days & possible balloon fest this weekend!!! 

Workout This Week: Walking & yoga! Fortunately I have been able to get all but one of my yoga classes this week. So fab! Walking is still going strong. Slower on some days than others, but we are still a going strong. I have been trying to do a different route each day so that the pup dog doesn't get so set on a routine. Maybe it will help with the bebe!

Week 36! It is getting pointy!

I am pretending it is fall and making pumpkin thangs! Pumpkin Chocolate Chip muffins here! 

Super pumped about our Joovy Room2!

Shows one of the monthly signs! 

Everyone's guesses! Just missing Franks!

5 weeks to go!! Week 35 update!

Not much to report this week beyond the weekly stats. I am still trying to complete last weeks "todos." Next week should be an exciting blog post though.... we have our bonus 36 week sono to see just how large this little man really is! Check back for the update!

-Chris and I did official switch vehicles... he has the SUV and I have the car (1.5 years till this lease is up!) and getting down in the car was not comfy. Not comfy at all!!

- I am officially on no travel lock down. So the month of september we are home with no trips!

- At my check up this week I was informed that we are moving on to weekly visits. Holy realness batman! And that all is well! Strong heartbeat, head down and central, blood pressure low and fab, & no alarms in my pee pee sample!!

Week: 35!

Maternity Clothes: Same ole

Wedding Ring On/Off: On, but I am seriously considering taking it off... I am scared that it is soon going to get stuck and have to be cut off. One of my friends suggested just going to Claire's or something and buying a ring to wear in the meantime. I may just do that!

Sleeping: so-so. I am pretty much in bed by 930 and get up 3-4 times a night. Certain times is a breeze to turn over and other times it is like I just ran 4 back to back marathons! 

Weekly Highlight: Getting pumpkin things! yay Fall!

Stretch Marks: I am afraid to say, I have grown a few more stretch marks. They are still very much concentrated at the right side of my belly button... so weird!

Cravings/Food Things: I have been eating wayyyy to many sweets! I need to real that in!

Labor Signs: Nope, still haven't experience Braxton Hicks or anything. I wonder what that means? Or what it predicts?

Missing Anything In Particular This Week: I am seriously having a hard time with any scrunch type position. My poor baby and organs rebel! 

Weekly Mood: You know I don't know... I have felt slower and heavier for sure. I don't know if that is the progression of the pregnancy or all the sweets!

Whatcha Looking Forward Too: Baby J getting here! I cannot wait to meet him! I am impatient and also telling him to take his time and come when he is ready. I have been so fortunate to have an amazing pregnancy so I cannot complain one bit! I cannot wait to meet and love this sweet boy! It is crazy how close we are!!

Workout This Week: Walking & Yoga

Hi gigantor belly... geezum!

The beginning of the pumpkin finds! (Milano cookies are not a good find, fyi)

bahahaha! HAD to share!