Ready for Aria's arrival

It’s official! I am full term and can have this baby any time now and she will be just fine.  And guess what?!  I feel ready for her!!  Now when I say that, I don’t mean it in an ‘I just can’t take it anymore’ type of way.  I mean I am not thinking about a million things that have to be done before she comes.  I had an intense week of nesting and my house it ready for her arrival! Hooray!!  Her room is not completely done.  I have just a few more decorative pieces to put up, but really that isn’t a super big deal.   Everything is clean and ready, so if she comes a little early, I won’t be stressed.  If she decides to take her time, I will be totally ok with it too though.

At 38 weeks, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows, but that’s to be expected.  At this point she can measure anywhere from 18.9-20.9 inches and her weight can range from 6.2-9.2 pounds.  Her size is being compared to a pumpkin.  Yikes!  Actually, at my last appointment, my Dr said he expects her to be a bigger baby.  We have known this but hearing it scared me a little.  Because she is obviously at the bigger stage and we are close to the end, I am starting to feel a bit uncomfortable now.  Pelvic pain has started and walking is not very fun because of it.  My feet have also started swelling a lot more.  Good thing fall in Houston is in the 90’s because I can still wear flip flops! And an added bonus is my job is understanding about me having to wear flip flops these last few weeks.  You heard that right… I am still working.  Some days I am grateful that I still can and other days I wish I didn’t have to make the effort to get ready to come in.  I think that’s a pre-pregnancy condition as well though. HA!  I am really lucky to work for a place that is flexible with me and is actually going to allow me to work from home starting Oct 5^th.  I want to try and work until I have the baby just so my leave can be spent entirely with Aria.  We’ll see how that actually plays out though.  You just never know how your body is going to feel and react at certain points.  In addition to the discomfort and feet swelling, I am back to being SUPER emotional.  I cry over everything these days.  It’s so weird.  Christian went away for business… cried.  Dr told me my baby was big… cried.  Dr didn’t check to see if I dilated… cried.  Axel didn’t clean his room and I had to remind him 5 times… cried.  A little ridiculous, I know.  Guess the hormones are going nuts again.

So last week, we had a full Saturday of FUN!  We took a breastfeeding class early in the morning that day.  It was so informative and I feel very prepared now.  I am full on committing to this!  And if it doesn’t work, I am full on committed to pumping!  For now anyway.  The pumping still needs a little more mental prep work.  That was hard last time!  Anyway, after the class, we hung out with my in-laws for a bit and then got ready for Axel’s birthday celebration.  Again, his real birthday is October 13^th, but we decided to celebrate it early so that he could have his own special day without the chance of Aria making an appearance and taking away his glory.  I am SO glad we decided to do that for him.  He had probably the BEST birthday he has ever had.  From the moment he woke up to the minute he fell asleep, he was smiling and laughing and getting showered with awesome gifts.  So have any of you seen the show American Ninja Warrior?  Well, if you haven’t, you should.  If you have, then you may have heard that some of the guys on the show have their own training gyms.  Well, there happens to be one really close to my house that has kid birthday parties.  We got 2 hours of full on obstacle fun and got to meet some of the guys from the show!  It was the coolest. party. EVER!!  All of the kids who went to Axel’s party had a blast.

 

Following such a busy weekend, my wonderful husband planned a few surprises for me. On Thursday, he set me up with a hair appointment.  I was able to get my hair thinned out and add a little boost of confidence for myself.  It was a much needed boost too.  I’ve been getting many comments on my growing belly and sadly some come off as a little bit rude.  For example, I was waiting at the elevator at work last week and a lady came around the corner.  She gasped when she saw my belly, stopped dead in her tracks then takes a step back and says “oh my goodness!  You must be really ready!”  Uhhh…. Really?! Did it scare you?  Ugh!  I mean I don’t mind the belly comments for the most part, but I don’t really understand how people don’t realize that they can be a little mean about it sometimes.  Anyway, after my haircut, Christian surprised me with a pre-natal massage on Friday night.  Oh man!  That 75 minute massage was UH-MAZING!  Next up, on Saturday, I got a pedicure!  My husband went all out!  He noticed I was getting more uncomfortable and wanted to do anything possible to help me out during my last couple weeks…. And he did!  He pulled out all the stops.  Between these things and my clean and ready home, I am all set.

Things coming up… the baby of course!  She can literally come at any moment.  J  I am very excited to share the birth story with you all and introduce this little girl to all our friends and family.

Work showers and getting hospital ready

Only 4 more weeks to go!!  Told you this was going by too fast.  As of right now, I still feel great and still love being pregnant.  My belly is getting big and it’s starting to be a pain to bend down to get things.  Every time I drop something, I stare at it for a long while debating if it’s worth picking up or not. Haha!  Shaving my legs is also quite the process these days.  It’s like doing acrobatics while huffing and puffing because I can’t breathe.  It’s pretty entertaining.

Since my last post, we have been thrown work showers!  First, I will start out with mine.  It was a total surprise to me.  Because it was a surprise, it was pretty funny.  One afternoon, I was making copies.  When I went to go turn those copies in to someone else, the office was empty.  Literally NO ONE was at their desk.  I started walking around the office wondering where the heck everyone took off too.  Did I miss a meeting?  It was a Friday… did they tell us we could leave early and I missed the email?  After a couple mins, I ran into my manager and I asked where everyone was… he said he didn’t know but needed me to look at something in the file room.  Right before getting to the file room, he opened a conference room door and SURPRISE!!  The entire office was in there and it was all decorated in pink.  J  It was so sweet!  We all got to eat delicious cookies and cake made by one of my co-workers and mingle for a while.  Then… we all got to go home early!  What a gift!  Woo hoo!!  2 of my co-workers made an adorable diaper cake FULL of amazing gifts for Aria from the office staff.  It was seriously so great.

Last Thursday, Christian’s job had their shower for us.   They (the learning and development team) invited me to join them and I was more than happy to.  Since, this was my first time at his job, I got there and immediately was given the tour of their office space.  They get an entire floor to themselves!  We ended up in a decorated conference room space and Christian’s team was waiting for us.  So, this group does training and development for a living.  Meaning… they facilitate meetings almost every day and know how to make one flow flawlessly from start to finish.  That being said, this shower was NO exception.  They catered in some food so we started by eating fajitas and playing a game of mad libs as sort of the “ice breaker”.   After eating, we broke off into teams for a Nursery Rhyme game.  Both Christian and I were made team captains.  We picked our teams and headed to the back of the room where we had flip charts waiting for us.  I had never played the game before and it was really fun.  We had to write the next line of a nursery rhyme that was read to us or shown to us on a projector screen.  A lot harder than you would think.  Following this game, we went right into another.  His team paired up into teams of 2 and only using one hand each, they had to put a cloth diaper onto a stuffed animal within a set time (Christian and I got to judge).  The timer was of course on a projector ready to go.  Once we finished that game, we enjoyed cupcakes and chocolates.  We talked and had lots of laughs.  We closed the shower by opening gifts.  This was seriously one of the cutest and most organized showers ever.  This group is a group of talented individuals that clearly love what they do and would never plan something halfway.  I absolutely loved it and appreciate the time and thought and planning they took to put into it.

 

As you can tell by the title of the post, we are also now “Hospital Ready”.  Because I am only a month away, it was time to get my hospital bag ready to go.  Pinterest has honestly been a big help for this.  I read tons of posts on what is important to take and what really isn’t necessary.  I am usually an over-packer so I am sure I still packed too much, but I really tried not to.  In my bag I have all of my needs as well as clothes, snacks and toiletries for Christian.  Can’t forget that dad is also gearing up for a hospital stay right?  I won’t be able to eat during labor, but that certainly doesn’t mean I expect him to suffer as well. Lol.  We got him plenty of things to snack on and even remembered change for vending machine drinks. J  Yeah… remember I told you I am a little organization freak?  It’s coming out during this process a lot. Haha!  I also have a mini bag ready to go for a work emergency.  I doubt I will need it, but it’s better to be safe.  That bag is more like copies of insurance info and a change of clothes in the event that the emergency is my water broke.  The only bag I now need to get ready is a little one for Axel.  That should be done within the next few days.

In addition to my hospital bags, I decided that I wanted to make thank you gifts for the nurse and hospital staff that will be helping us.  If you are familiar and have ever heard about “love languages”, you will understand when I say that my love language is ‘Acts of Service’.  I love serving others and showing others that I appreciate them.  I can’t tell you how much fun I have creating little crafty things for other people to let them know I was thinking of them.  I in no way am trying to show off or one up anyone by doing these type of things… I just truly enjoy it!  Axel has learned this from me and loves to help me with these little projects.  So, I went on Pinterest to look up ideas on hospital thank you gifts.  I found a blog a lady had posted that showed little bags full of treats and it even had a free printable label.  SOLD!  I give this brilliant lady 100% of the credit.  If you want a link to her blog post, I am happy to send it to you.  Anyway, I printed the labels, bought chap stick, candy, hand sanitizer, gum and pens to make the bags.  Axel jumped on board immediately to help and here are the finished products.  We can’t wait to hand these out to all the nurses that will be helping us at the hospital.

 

Starting this week, I go to the Dr weekly.  I can’t believe in just a month she is due to arrive.  I have people telling me that she will be early and some saying that she will be late.  I don’t know when she plans on making her arrival but I at least know I need her to bake a couple more weeks so I can finish up her room.  I FINALLY got the inspiration needed.  My mother-in-law, Patty, gave me brilliant advice last week.  She told me to just hang something up… anything and it might spark something to keep me going.  I did just that.  We put up a corner shelf and got some things on it and BAM… I was like… ‘ok, I just need to hang this over there, put this here, change this around and buy a few things.’  Just like that, my plan was put in place.  I should have her room ready to go soon.  I am going to go very simple but pretty.  Once I get that done, I will start to post pictures for you to see.  Until then, here is a little video of the little gymnast (I believe you have to be on a computer to view it.  Doesn't work on phone).  She moves a lot and it’s always so funny to see my belly moving on its own. 

It's the Final Countdown

Before you start reading the post, I have to ask... did the title make you sing the song?  If so, success!! It's stuck in my head too.  You're welcome.

6 more week to go!  Yep, that’s right.  This little princess is ready to make her debut pretty soon.  She is currently in the range to measure anywhere from 17.2-18.7 inches and weigh about 4.2-5.8 pounds.  Her bones are hardening, central nervous system is maturing and she is plumping up.  She is also listening to us and loves when her daddy sings to her.  I am still doing great and for the most part sleeping great! I did have a rough day last week where I truly ‘felt pregnant’.  I had massive back pain and could barely walk, my belly felt like it was going to pop from pressure, crazy heartburn and couldn’t get comfortable at all.  It was an off day for sure but the next morning, it was all gone and I was good to go again.  Guess my body just needed a night to catch up with Aria’s growing.  Speaking of… my belly has gotten pretty big now.  Some shirts are getting a little extra snug around the middle. J 

 

I am getting into the nesting phase right now.  My house is definitely in need of cleaning but I realized the other day that I wasn’t just picking up as I usually do.  I was going through drawers and re-arranging and being a little extreme.  Isn’t it so weird how our bodies know what to do and when to do it?  I mean even down to prepping our home is programmed into us.  Nuts!

As far as the nursery goes, I STILL haven’t gotten around to decorating.  I did put most of the bedding on her bed though.

We made our next big purchase too!  DIAPERS!  Can you believe we didn’t have any? Like at all?  So weird.  I decided to go with Pampers swaddlers.  I remember liking them a lot when I had Axel and so I went with that again.  Plus I happened to stumble upon some coupons for pampers so that definitely sealed the deal.  We got a couple boxes to start with and figured once we see how she grows and how big she is, we can add to the stash.  I know there are a lot of people that are partial to cloth diapers and I am not opposed to them at all, but I am just not educated enough on them to feel comfortable jumping into that right from the start.  I am thinking I may test it out a few times and get a feel for what I like more and go from there.  I hear they are a huge money saver in the end so it’s worth at least a consideration.  In addition to diapers, we went ahead and stocked up on wipes and diaper rash ointment.  Next on the list: baby monitors and a pack n play.  My insurance actually covers a breast pump so I am THRILLED about that! They told me to call 30 days before my due date and they will ship it to me.  You bet I have that marked on my calendar already. 

OH!  We went to our child birthing class!  Here are 5 things that we learned:

1.       I NEVER EVER want to watch a birthing video again… like EVER.  It was not pleasant and I have a weak stomach.  Sure, I have gone through it and will again but that doesn’t mean I want to watch it.  It’s like when the hospital offers “would you like a mirror?”  Ummm… NO!  No, I don’t.  Christian handled it better than I did but it wasn’t pleasant.  He has strict instructions to stay at the head of my bed for delivery.

2.       Our hospital is BIG on breastfeeding.  I LOVE that.  I have every intention on breastfeeding and know that it will sometimes be a struggle, but totally worth it.  Now Axel didn’t latch so I had to pump with him.  I am praying Aria is different because pumping all the time was not very fun to have to do.  Luckily, our hospital also has what’s called the “golden hour” after birth.  They put the baby on mom skin to skin right after birth for an hour or until the first feeding.  When that is done, babies typically do a “breast crawl”.  Pretty much, they find their way to the nipple and will feed.  It’s a super natural process that apparently makes breastfeeding more successful.

3.       There are only 3 people allowed in the delivery room.  Since my mom most likely won’t be able to make the birth, it looks like it will just be Christian and me and the entourage of nurses that will be helping.

4.       Apparently, it is expected for women to yell and be ugly and nasty to people while laboring.  I feel strongly about this one so get ready for a mini rant.  I was mad when the instructor was prepping the dad’s for all the horrid things they would probably hear and endure.  I get it ladies, you’re in pain and it’s hard… but why is it an expectation to turn into a gremlin?  Because of that many women use that as an excuse just to be that way during labor.  I may be a little grumpy but that in no way gives me the green light to yell at Christian and be rude to him.  It’s not his fault I am in pain. (ugh! Don’t even get me started on how I feel about women saying that during labor) It’s nature and if you think about it, doesn’t being angry and crazy lead to stress and anxiety and make the experience worse?  I told Christian I would be irritable so jokes may not be appreciated as much but that I would absolutely 100% try my hardest to be a normal person during that process.  I will just need a little extra love and tenderness to get me through a tough time.  If I happen to slip and get a little ruder than I would like, you better believe my husband will get a well-deserved apology for it after.

5.       We need to plan a little more.  What for? Timing… who will get called, updated, watch Axel.  See, when there are little ones already around it throws a little hiccup in things.  During our class we played a game where we rolled dice to see what time we went into labor.  We had to think… it’s __ o’clock and active labor has started… what do you do?  Well, who do we call for Axel?  What if he is in school?  Where will he stay and how will he get to school?  Do we even send him to school? Should we have a bag for Axel ready? Haha! I know… it just sparked many questions and scenarios that we need to think about.  Christian’s family lives about 45 mins from us so they are on the call list, but it’s time to officially ask some of those wonderful friends of ours to be on our list too.

We definitely learned good things in the class.  Breathing and relaxation techniques were fun.  CPR and lots of other useful things, but I just gave you the most memorable moments I had.  OH wait… the hospital also has amazing cookies.  That was a highlight I remember too.  We got them all day long and apparently they are delivered to the postpartum area every day at 3pm.  So, that’s yet another thing to look forward to! Bonus!

So, I had my 34 week appointment today and it looks like Aria is head down and ready to go.  My next one is on the 15^th for my 36 week appointment and then guess what?  The appointments are every week after that!  Woo Hoo!! It’s so close to her arrival day.  I am getting so excited to get to hold her and meet her!

We have a few things we are going to be doing over the last stretch. Most of which will keep me busy.  Aria is due right around Axel’s birthday so we have moved his party up a month to make sure he still gets his celebration. We don’t want his little sister stealing his thunder starting them off on the wrong foot on day 1.  We will be partying up Ninja Warrior style for his birthday in just a few weeks.  Once we have that party, it’s the final stretch.  We should have the room ready, items purchased and another class (on breastfeeding) checked off of our list.  My parents are most likely starting new jobs in the very near future so they won’t be able to be here to help as originally planned.  (Boo!) That being said, we are working on testing/eating many crock pot meals and testing out some freezer meal recipes.  If you have any good ones that you have tried and liked, please send them my way.  We will be prepping in any way we can for me to take it easy and focus on baby once she arrives.  Also, my lovely Utah, Michigan, Massachusetts, Puerto Rico family members… if you want to take a trip here in October… please do! But know you will be assigned a helper task upon arrival. J