Woo hoo!

So for the past 2 years or so, I have been bugging Zig about getting a really nice camera that had a fast shutter speed. I love to take pictures of the pups (they were our first babies you know) but found my Cannon ELPH (which I truly love) was not fast enough to capture the shot. Bodhi and Abby HATE the camera. It's like they have a camera radar and will be sitting looking all adorable, but the second I get the camera, I can't get their attention. Not like buying a super fancy camera will make it any better, but at least I can take a million pictures in a few seconds and pray for a good one. Anyway, so the bugging began again when I got pregnant. I have been reading some photography blogs for a really long time and about a year and a half ago I fell in love with the Canon Rebel XSI (Do you see a trend, I am a Canon girl). I got home last night and sitting there begging to be opened in a carefully wrapped package was my Rebel. My very sweet and thoughtful husband had been paying attention to my subtle hints (ok nothing about any of my hints is ever subtle) and he bought me what I have wanted for so long. I am so FREAKING excited. I messed around with it a little bit last night, but can't wait to really get to play with it in different lighting this weekend. I got some great shots of the pups and my sweet love, but I am really looking forward to taking tons of pictures of Emily once she arrives. Between my brother and I, (he just bought an awesome camera too), I am pretty sure Emily will grow up to loathe the camera, but it is really important to me that we take lots of pictures of all our memories. This is something that Zig and I have been terrible about during our relationship. We lack in the photo memory department, but not anymore! So thank you Sweetness, I love you so much and who knows, maybe I will find a new hobby in photography. :)

On another note, I know I have not posted pictures of the nursery yet. This is because it is missing one final touch. Zig is going to build a frame for the picture my mom bought us when she was in Seattle this weekend, and once that is hung, I promise I will post some pictures. It is really coming along and I am happy with the way it all turned out. Now we are just missing the baby!

Let's get this family started!

We had our ultrasound yesterday, and while we didn't get to see our little girls precious face, we did get really good news. She is not as small as we thought! Emily is measuring in the 42nd percentile. Everything looks great and she looks very healthy! She is measuring 7lbs 2 oz on the u/s, but the margin of error is a pound, which is a pretty big margin considering she only weighs 7. So basically she could weigh 6lbs 2 oz or she could weigh 8, however the later is very unlikely. So that is great!

We saw the doctor today and I am only 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced. That basically means nothing. I could stay 1 cm dilated up until 41 weeks, so it isn't a true sign that labor is in the near future. She did say that it appears that baby is between 0 and -1 station. Which means she is in position. She is anterior too, meaning she is not sunny side up! Whew! Doesn't really explain the back labor I am having, but whatever. She told us again this week to start timing the back pains if they don't go away by laying down, but so far, they really are not timeable. Just painful. As far as I know, I am not having any contractions and everyone I talk to says I will know, so I am just leaving it at that. She did strip my membranes, which is pretty much horrifying and something I don't want to really describe, but basically they separate the bag of water from the uterine wall and it could stimulate labor. Operative word is could. It really means nothing either. So that is where we are for now. We go back next Wednesday for our next appointment if she doesn't come before then. My doctor is the doctor on call throughout the whole holiday weekend, so it wouldn't be a bad thing if Emily came on time, because then maybe she will be there for the delivery! We love our doctor. She is seriously awesome. We did set an eviction date if Emily gets too comfortable. If she is not here by December 3rd, it will be time to induce. I pray she comes when she is ready and that it doesn't come down to an induction, but we will see.

I will never forget the look on Zig's face when she asked today about the membrane stripping and told us that it could induce labor. It was sheer panic. I think he had a little bit of anxiety as it is finally setting in that in 2 1/2 weeks at the most, we will have our little girl. My husband is going to be such an amazing father, he has nothing to worry about. I seriously got so lucky when I found him. I could not have asked for a more supportive, loving and committed person to share this experience with. I am so excited to see how we will all grow together as a family. I honestly think that he is more worried about the whole laboring process and not about actually being a father. For me, it still hasn't set in. I am not anxious about what is too come, I am not scared of labor, I am just ready. I have been preparing for well over a year and a half when we decided to embark on the crazy journey. But ask me again when the contractions start! I may tell a completely different story then!

Here are some pictures. Maybe the will be our last! I am 38 weeks 2 days in these pictures. Today I am 38 weeks 5 days! Where did the last 9 months go!

Irrational fears and a weekly update

So I went to the doctor this morning. She did not check for dilation or effacement, mainly because I think her theory is, you can be dilated for weeks and it doesn't mean the baby is going to come tomorrow. I think she would rather wait and see how things progress naturally without the constant checking. At first I was disappointed, but now that I think about it, internal exams sound like a pretty shitty thing to have to do weekly. She is going to come when she is good and ready.

Everything is still looking good. She measured me today and I am measuring at 35 weeks. Here is where I start to freak out. I know that it is very possible that I am measuring behind, because it is likely the baby dropped a little bit. It is pretty common for women to measure small after they have dropped. But I ask a lot of questions (which is not bad) which led to the big weight gain discussion. Insert irrational fear. All I can think of is that she is measuring small because I am still not gaining weight. I try and try, but nothing seems to stick. Now I know what you all are thinking, "why is she complaining about not gaining weight, she should be happy." Here is why. I am afraid that I am going to have a very small, scary small baby. And I am worried that is because of something that I did wrong. When I first got pregnant, my doctor told me that she wanted me to gain between 25 and 30 lbs. I am no where near that. But here is the thing, I was slightly over weight before baby, and ended up losing quite a bit of weight in the first trimester because I was so sick. Deep down, I wish she would calculate my weight gain from my lowest weight this pregnancy to now, instead of my pre preg weight to now, but that is not how it works. So we started discussing weight gain and she mentioned that my gain was not ideal, but it could just mean that since I am not a big person, that my baby is just small. She looked at my last u/s and said that we would just schedule another one to check on her progress for next week. She didn't seem worried and I am hoping that she is just doing it to calm me, but she could also be one of those doctors that doesn't show the concern till after it has been confirmed. That is the worry wart in me. My very supportive husband says that if she is small, then she is small and we will deal with what we need to do to get her to gain weight once she gets here, and that it is not worth worrying about it now. I know this is true, but I still worry. I just wish that she was here, so I could see that she is OK, but we know it is best if she cooks a little longer. She is full term and fully developed, but now we will just wait till she has a little more meat on her bones and we will let her come when she is ready.

My second irrational fear. That I am going to drop her. Seriously. I laugh sometimes when I think about how silly this sounds, but I keep having dreams that I dropped her, or that Zig did. It is ridiculous, I know.

I am feeling pretty good. She is moving a ton still. She seriously is her fathers daughter. She is going to be a wild child, I already know it. I am actually looking forward to the u/s so I can see how she is positioned in there. I have a little foot constantly poking out my right side. It does not feel good. I know I am going to miss having her all to myself and feeling her move inside of me, but I am not going to lie, her movements HURT. Sometimes a lot. I am still getting shooting pains up and down my back and for the most part, if I lay down, they will go away. For the most part, but not always. My doctor told me that it sounds like I am having back labor and next time they don't go away by laying down, I should start timing the pain as a contraction. She mentioned that a lot of times, you have these shooting pains when the baby is sunny side up. I love my doctor because she is pretty honest and she told me that it may not be the case, but if it was it could mean a little bit longer on the pushing because her face will have to come around my pubic bone. Insert irrational fear number 3. What if I break her little nose or mess up her face with my pushing. I know, it's stupid, but everyone say a little prayer that she is really not sunny side up.

Here are some pics from Sunday. I am definitely getting bigger, there is no denying it. Which is why I am sure everything is just fine...

Good News X 2

I completely forgot to post about this last week. We were able to get Emily into our first choice daycare last week! We are really excited because it is very close to both of our works, and once my company builds its new office, it will literally be right next door. We went there back in early August to find out that they had a waiting list of over a year. I was completely heart broken. My good friend Jess takes her son there and we were really hoping to get in. I got a call from Jess on Friday and she told me to go down there because they had a cancellation. I called the daycare center and the woman told me that yes they had a cancellation and that she thought of us because it was for February, the time we will be needing to have someone watch Emily. We technically were not the next on the list, but the timing was so perfect and she felt so bad for us that she put us down. I am so glad it worked out. We felt really comfortable there and all the teachers seem awesome. Plus Emily will get to hang out with her buddy Brayden more.

On another note, we were able to work out my leave. I will take the 2 weeks of PTO at the beginning, 4 weeks of STD, 2 weeks maternity, and finish it off with 4 more weeks of PTO. I am really glad it worked out. I don't know what I would have done, had they make me take leave early. I seriously would lose my mind waiting to go into labor at home. I am swamped at work, so it makes the days fly by and keeps my mind off of things.

Everything is falling into place!

Policy Schmolicy

So the managing partner of my firm came up to me when I was in the middle of discussing financials with a co worker and asked when I was done if I could go to his office. My first thought, was "great, what did I do now?" but shrugged that off thinking, things have never been better and the only thing they really had against me was telling me I am a cranky pregnant lady. I actually was thinking, "Hey maybe since I won't be here when they give out bonuses (or promotions :) ) this year, that they decided to let me know early." WRONG. Instead, I was told that HR was running some numbers (they should leave that to us accountants) and have found that the way my leave is falling, I will not be in compliance with our "annual leave carry forward policy" and therefore I may have to start my leave early, so that I am in "compliance." My work is very generous and allows us to carryforward 200 hours or 5 weeks. If Emily comes on time, the first 2 weeks of my leave will be paid maternity, the next 4 short term disability, then I would take 6 weeks of PTO. What this means is my PTO won't start until January and because of this, I will be carrying forward around 250 hours, 50 hours over policy. So they want me to take those 50 hours before my due date. That would mean that next Monday would be my last day of work. Dear HR, um thanks for the freaking forwarning! I was already stressed out about my deadlines and now you are telling me I have to leave a week and half earlier than anticipated. That sucks! I want all the time after the baby. I mean what if she is late! That could mean I would only get 9-10 weeks and not the full 12 I have been saving for. Boo, HR, boo. How come no one did "the math" a month and a half ago when I met with HR to tell them my plan? I am hoping that they will still let me work up to my due date and take 2 weeks of vacation at the beginning and bill the Maternity leave at the end. I mean, it's 6 to 1, 1/2 dozen to the other. Does it really matter? I am not asking to carry forward more hours so I can go on a vacation next year. By the time I come back I will have drained my PTO to about 2 days! I am already missing out on all the holidays (which if she does come before Thanksgiving, that totals to almost a week of missed holiday pay)! I find out tomorrow what they figured out after they run some more "numbers." Hey, maybe it won't be a big deal. Maybe miss Emily will come a few days early and it won't matter. :) Say a prayer for my sanity. If I have to sit at home waiting for her, I may go crazy! ::VENT OVER::

Officially uncomfortable

This is pretty much the latest I have been so far, aside from skipping posting a week all together. I am not going to lie, I am officially very uncomfortable. I am technically 37 weeks today (and full term by the way!), but here is to looking back to week 36. My work threw me a shower last Friday and it was awesome. We literally got everything on our registry, minus a few items that are pretty much luxury, unnecessary items any way. I have one more load of baby laundry and we are set! Everything, for the most part is put away. We knew babies needed a lot of stuff, but never did we imagine that our once open storage space would dwindle to nothing. We are packed and busting at the seams, but mostly because we could probably use to part with some of the crap that is still in our closets. The pellet stove installed and working (for the most part). We are still trying to get the hang of the thermostat and it has been in the upper 60's so the only time it really kicks on, is in the middle of the night when we are asleep.

Zig's friend Brent also threw him a diaper party last weekend and we ended up with a pretty good size assortment, which is great! We really have great friends and family. Let's be honest, our friends are our family.

As for me, I have been a big baby this last week. My hips hurts, I can no longer roll over un assisted and when she moves and kicks, it hurts. There is no room, but Emily doesn't care. She moves and stretches like she is living in a 1500 sq foot apartment, when in reality, she is in a tiny room. There is one position she is quite fond of, that when she is in it, I have shooting pains up and down my spine that literally take my breath away. Maybe they are braxton hicks contractions, I don't know, but it kills and I have to lay down for them to go away. I don't think I have any "real" contractions that I know of. Everyone tells me I will know when I do, so I will keep you posted. I am starting to get tired, but really looking forward to whats to come. Our little Emily is in the drivers seat now. She has control, let's just hope she isn't too comfortable in there. I am ready to meet my little girl!

How far along?: Technically 37 weeks today

Total weight gain: 8-9. It is still fluctuating.

Stretch marks?:Just the lonesome two some on my side. I am praying that they don't all decide to join the part right when I have this kid. It would be sad to go full term with only 2 and end up with dozens

Sleep?: Meh, I have found ways to stay confortable for a few hours on each side, but I feel bad because when I roll over, it takes a ton of effort and I end up waking everyone.
Best moment this week?:Getting all Emily's laundry done and everything put away.
Food cravings?: Nothing really. Geez, how boring.
Labor signs?: Just the back pain. I did call my doctor last week and she told me just to make sure that it goes away after I change positions. She said she would worry if it became a constant pain.

Belly button in or out?:It is in, but really shallow. I have this weird thing above my belly button though (I call it a tumor and Zig gets mad) and sometimes it sticks out depending on where is is in my tummy. It grosses me out. I pray my innie goes back to normal when this is all said and done.

What I miss: Walking without waddling. And I am counting down till I can have just one delicious dirty gin martini. And maybe a bud light while watching football on Sunday's

What I'm looking forward to: Finally meeting Emily!

These were taken last Sunday