Catch-up Time

Soooo.....sorry it's been 5 weeks. I only meant to take off the two weeks around Christmas, but then I lost my momentum/motivation. As you can imagine, a lot has happened though it hasn't been too crazy. Christmas was really good, having both our families in but not having all 10 of them stay with us (thank you parents!). My mom, grandma, and sister all got to feel baby boy kick, which made me really happy since they're not going to be back before he arrives. I wasn't completely uncomfortable so touring around Albuquerque/Santa Fe with them wasn't work, and though we didn't have any snow the weather was pretty nice.

Then just after New Years we went to Chicago for a wedding, which was fun but I'm glad I wasn't any more pregnant. Got to see our old coach and some friends from school, which was really nice, and the wedding was great. However, I wish I could have enjoyed it a little more. The food was so good, and luckily all safe for me to eat (though the filet mignon may have been a little extra rare), but they also had an open bar and I would have at least liked to try the mini appletinis and chocolate martinis floating around. But I did get some dancing in; I had to sit out a couple of songs every couple of songs, but the band was really good and the singer was making fun of me for using my belly as a shelf...but in a nice way. Anyway, that was also the weekend of crazy winter storm stuff in Chicago; luckily we flew out of Milwaukee so we got out basically on time, but we were definitely in the minority. Flying wasn't too bad, there were lots of cute AND quiet babies on the planes, and my feet only swelled a little. It was kind of uncomfortable sitting that long in that space, but since I had OB with me this time I could lean on him.

So we made it home safely, but apparently all the travelling was kind of taxing on my body. A few times in the last month or two I'll get these "episodes", only in the mornings and usually while I'm sitting still at my desk, where I'll really feel my heart start cruising, around 120 bpm. Never any other symptoms like light-headedness or shortness of breath or anything, just the heart racing, for about 5 minutes. Well a couple days after we got back from Chicago I was about to go to work and it happened again, so I sat down for a minute because I didn't really want to drive in case in turned in to something more...and it last for another 15 minutes, when I called the doctor. I guess it was actually a nurse, but they wanted to make sure it wasn't anything so they sent me off to the hospital to get checked out. My MIL was still here, waiting for my BIL to get back from Chicago, so she was able to take me and I didn't have to worry about driving. Long story short, little man was perfectly fine, apparently I was having some small contractions (but I didn't feel them and they weren't actually doing anything so don't worry!), and my heart rate had come back down (mostly) by the time we got there. I got to meet another of the doctors that could end up delivering baby, and he told me I need to drink crap-tons of water and completely cut out caffeine (wasn't drinking much, just about 1 pop/week), which isn't bad since I don't really drink coffee and I can/have now cut out pop. Of course, now that I'm huge AND drinking a lot more water, I have to pee all the time. Oh well, it's what people expect.

So of course we had planned on taking our tour of the maternity ward the weekend AFTER I went to the hospital, which we still did, but that would have helped a little. The tour was great, I think there was only one or two ladies that were due before me from the looks of it, and the guide was the lady who taught our class so she was asking me how I was doing. Everything we saw and heard made me feel even more comfortable with our choice in hospitals, and I'm feeling very good about having all of our birth-related desires being respected. They're very pro breastfeeding and have trained nurses on staff if you need help getting started; they do their best to let you and baby bond first, then do the necessary tests; and they really want to help you be mobile during early labor, meaning not hooking you up to tons of things unless medically necessary. Anyway, I'm obviously still a little nervous about pushing out a baby, and the aftermath, but I feel pretty good about being in good hands.

We also had our baby shower last weekend, which was a ton of fun. My mother- and sister-in-law and super-awesome-friend did an awesome job setting up everything and planning stuff. It was a nice size so I got to talk with everyone and not feel stressed about missing somebody that I appreciate for being there. We got some adorable baby clothes, and other very useful baby things that I of course played with the next day, and everyone decorated onesies and bibs and they turned out so well!

The cake was super yummy, and came with baby's first Christmas ornament, with lines on the bottom of the shoes to write birthday, weight and length.

Overall, a fun evening and I'm so thankful for our great friends, and now we're pretty much set for little guy! I still need to wash everything, especially the things that our kitties have shed all over, but I'm feeling pretty prepared. We have 37 days until he's due, and only 16 days until he's "term" (holy crap, I hadn't done that math before just now and he better not come that early!). Which means, only 3 weeks left of work! Although lately I've been hearing that the average date of arrival for first time moms is 9 days late...so hopefully he's a little more punctual.

So that's all for now, here's Tuesday's picture at 34 weeks: holy cow! I'm large and getting more and more uncomfortable, but I didn't/don't have morning sickness so I am totally not complaining.