33 Weeks! Baby boy is growing like a weed!

So we're down to 49 days til D-day! Hunter is doing GREAT, we got to see him on Thursday which was awesome (as usual) and watch him move and play in my tummy. I'm really going to miss feeling him move, but can't wait to see what he looks like and hold and kiss him! The ultrasound tech told us she could see hair on his head, so he appears to be NOT a baldie like I was! I wonder if it's blond, or brown... He's head down now so it was harder to see his face because he's in my pelvis. We got to watch him put his fist in his mouth and suck his thumb. His little cheeks moved as he sucked his tiny little thumb and he just looked so adorable! He's really gaining weight and filling out, J said he looks like he's got a little potbelly already! As of Thursday (32 weeks 5 days) his approximate weight was 4lbs, 12oz. So he's nearly 5lbs already, so much bigger than at the last u/s where he was only 1 1/3! He's right on track with how big he should be, actually 2-3 days bigger which is fine. I think he'll be between 7-8 when he comes out. J's afraid he'll be like 10!

I saw my blood Dr. as well and found out my blood thinner dose will be cut in half when I run out of my current dose, which will be the first week of September. Just a couple weeks until that happens. I can't believe it is nearly September! I'm going to Winnipeg every 2 weeks now and things are moving so fast. Anyways because a 'normal' pregnant woman at this point is usually anemic (or close to), and my iron levels are that of a normal healthy not-pregnant person, my Dr. wants to artificially bring those levels down below normal and make me a little bit anemic. So I'm going in for a phlebotomy every week until my numbers are low enough. Did the first of many yesterday and let me just say that if I have to do this every week my veins had better start cooperating better! It took 3 tries to get a good vein for the IV. The big needle in my elbow went smoothly as usual though. Just hope that yesterday's holes heal up before next Friday when I have the next one scheduled.

We're going to be pretty busy the next 7 weeks with appointments for phlebotomy, appointments for the baby, the childbirth class next month, and whatever else comes our way! Every week there's something to do and somewhere to go. Looking forward to our next appointment in Winnipeg where I find out about the hospital tour. 49 days and counting! I can't wait!

31 Weeks Today - From 9 months down to 9 weeks... Where did the time go so quickly?

It seems like October is coming so fast. It seems like we have so much left to do, so many little thinbgs we still need to get in order to be prepared for little Hunter's arrival. In reality I'm sure we're doing well and are probably a bit ahead of the game, but still... it seems like there's not much time left before he's here and we'll really find out if we have everything we need or what we might be forgetting!

The appointment on Thursday went really well. Drank up my tall glass of orange sugar water which didn't taste as bad as I'd expected, but on an empty stomach it felt really awful for the next half hour or so until it started leveling out in my system... Hunter liked it, and tried his hardest to distract Mommy throughout the appointment. We heard him punching the doppler while trying to find his heartbeat, must have been hard punches because they were pretty loud on the microphone! He must have decided during the long drive to wiggle out of my side and I feel a lot better now that his head isn't bulging out to the right of my stomach anymore. When my doctor came in she said things look great and my stomach is measuring right where it should be, but just to be sure his growth is on track she wants to see us for another ultrasound in 2 weeks. This will be our 5th one! I'm sure everything will be A-OK and am thrilled we get to see him again, I wasn't sure if we would be able to after the last one. I can't wait to see how much bigger he's gotten, and am curious about how much he weighs now... I can tell he's getting big now! When I stepped on the scale I was surprised to find out that since my last appt. 5 weeks ago I've gained 9lbs!!! Bringing the total to 17lbs so far. Hopefully it stays at a decently low amount in the next couple months because I was really hoping not to go over a 25lbs gain, but now I wouldn't be surprised if its between 25-30. Gotta keep up my motivation to stick with my bike riding because I've been slacking off with that lately... haha which might have something to do with the 9lbs in 5 weeks!

We also found out that my doctor doesn't want to induce me after all! She said that because she'd like to see as few interventions as possible, we'll just let him come on his own, and avoid a c-section at all costs. The fewer risks to me and the baby, the better. I love my doctor! I guess the only downside now is that we can't schedule J's days off, we'll just have to wait and see when Hunter decides he'd like his birthday. I hope he doesn't wait 13 days to come out on my birthday even though that would be pretty cool!

We also got our baby monitor (the motion detection one from Angelcare) and will be installing it and testing it out soon. J's mom got that for us, the last of the big items we need before Hunter is born. Now it's a short list of small things... fortunately we've got a couple months to gather up what we need!

I finally got a new updated belly shot. Last weekend (30 weeks) and you can really tell 'someone' has had a growth spurt! My belly has just exploded since the last picture I took, and you can really see where those 9lbs went to!

30 Weeks! Hunter will be here soon, and I can't wait!

Well the title pretty much sums it up! I can't wait until baby Hunter is here, and time is going fast and he'll be here before we know it!

I'm hoping that this Thursday we might get our induction date and then we'll know just how soon to expect him. But either way, he should be here in 8-10 weeks at the very most! Unbelievable! We better get a move on buying the last little bits of what we need for him, like the newborn size diapers, baby monitor, and enough little baby clothes to last through however often he spits up and poops... I can't wait!

Hunter's cousin-to-be is a...

GIRL!

Finally today J's younger brother and his wife went for their 3D ultrasound. They had told us that they weren't sure whether they wanted to find out the gender, and that if they did, they likely would keep it to themselves. Fortunately for me, they decided to spill th beans! So I just got off the phone and they're expecting a little girl! The first girl in the family. J's mom had just the 3 boys, and so far J's older brother had 4 boys and we're of course having a boy. So J's mom must be thrilled to finally be getting her first granddaughter! I know they had been 'hoping' for a boy first, to be the big brother and protector of any future siblings, and we had been 'hoping' for a girl first; funny how it ended up being the reverse. Well I'm super happy that we're getting a boy first, I think it will be easier, and I know they're thrilled to get a girl first! She told me a couple weeks ago that if this was a girl, she might not have any more just because this pregnancy has been hard on her. But I think she'll change her mind. After finding out she's got her little princess, I bet all the morning sickness and misery has been worth it!

As for me, Hunter is 29 weeks old today and getting big and strong! I can actually feel his little head pressed up against my right side. It makes my belly bulge a bit on that side, and can get pretty uncomfortable if I sit up or stand for too long. Apparantly he should be about 15 1/2 inches tall and weigh around 2 1/2 lbs already, and I'm feeling it. I can't imagine how huge I'll be in another 2 months. He has to gain like 5 more lbs before coming out and I will be gigantic. Hopefully on the 5th we will find out when to expect to have him out, I'm thinking either the last week of Sept or first week of Oct, which is only 9-10 weeks from now. Really feeling the time crunch now! Fortunately we don't have much to do in preparation for him, just need to pick up a few things like the baby monitor and miscellaneous things like thermometer, baby tylenol, burp cloths, etc. At least we've got the basics covered!

Now I can't wait to see the DVD of the 3D ultrasound this weekend, how exciting! And I will put up some new belly pics as well, it's gotten huge since the last ones I added over a month ago!

An awesome feature in our new house

So since moving in a few weeks ago we are still getting used to the differences this house has compared to the rental. The best one so far is that the washing machine & dryer in the basement are directly under the main floor bathroom, and so you can hear perfectly if you're in either area. I was downstairs doing some laundry a couple days ago and (thanks, little Hunter!) let out the biggest, loudest fart! I finished loading the dryer and came upstairs, and asked J if he had heard me. He said yeah, clear as anything, because I was just in the bathroom when I did it, right? Nope honey, I was in the basement and you were sitting in the living room and heard the grossest fart clear as day from all the way across the house. Awesome!... Well at least now I know that can happen. Haha!

27 weeks, 3 days - Busier every day!

So I now realize it's been about a month since my last update... Eeek! Things have been so busy lately the summer is slipping past really quickly! We are now comfortably moved into our new house... Yay! Actually there's more unpacking to be done but that will happen sooner or later. We kept pretty busy painting the bedroom, nursery, and living room, finished up cleaning before moving all our things and furniture in, and I am extremely pleased with how everything turned out. The nursery was the first thing we finished, and now has a Winnie the Pooh bouncer and swing just waiting for Hunter to try them out! We're keeping the baby stuff all in there for now, so I'm glad it is a big room!

Our bedroom was next and we did the walls in a chocolate-ice-cream brown which looks incredible, installed a nice ceiling fan instead of that awful fluorescent light, and our wardrobe and dresser fit nicely (thank goodness)! I was happy that the room is big enough to fit the King bed and still allow us to open the closet door no problem!

The living room looks cozy painted a pink-beige that really warms up the room. I have it set up so our couches square off the living room and I have room behind them for my bike and to do laundry. Bike has been doing well, and getting used. Laundry on the other hand... well it's clean, and why put it away when we'll just need to take it out to wear anyways!?! LOL, kidding. I do need to put those 2 baskets of clean laundry away sometime. Some of it is baby clothes; we need to pick up those small hangers for his closet so we can put them away too.

The bathroom, hallway, and kitchen are things we will work on later on. I'm just glad we were able to get the 3 main rooms done by the time we moved in. The basement looks a lot better now too since we took all of the old scrap wood out and cleaned it up down there, J's weight machine is set up and I can't wait to finish the basement with walls, ceiling, and floors eventually. It feels good to be done with renting and in our own place!

We had some difficulties with the mortgage in the last week of June, because it turns out the bank had it as a 35-year and we had signed and agreed on the 20-year. So it took a few days to sort all of that out, but thankfully June 30 we got everything signed off and finalized under the 20-year agreement and took posession the next day! I'm so happy to be out of the rental, which had actually flooded a couple weeks back because of massive rainfall and the landlord got to deal with that mess. We were already out of the basement and just finishing cleaning upstairs at that point. Done with that, and now it's just J, me, and the baby-to-be in our own little place!

We had gotten tons of rain the last few weeks, it was awful. I had the truck one day and went to pick J up from work in the rain and the streets were filling up fast. I turned down the street to the store and it turns out there was a good 6 inches of rain sitting in the entire street. I just shook my head... arggghhhh... and kept going. I was happy we don't have a car because that would never have made it down the street.

Anyways in other news, baby is doing great! He's getting bigger and I can feel and see it happen. I need to update my tummy pics... it's gotten much bigger from the last one I put up! He's kicking a lot more consistantly and a LOT stronger now, and he still likes to keep me up around 11:30pm while he kicks and plays. It's pretty constant now, I feel him at least a few times an hour, especially after eating or lying down, and J gets to feel him all the time. He saw my belly move from the kicking one night! I am happy that we haven't had to make a trip into the city for a couple weeks now for appointments. Making that drive every 2-3 weeks was getting tiring. My next appt. is August 5, which is still another 3 weeks away, and it will be nice to have a few weekends at home without having to go anywhere! I will be a day under 31 weeks then and get to enjoy the diabetes testing. I'm doing it later than usual, which is between 24-28 weeks. I am hoping to get an induction date at that appointment as well, so we know when to expect our little boy! I can't believe how fast the big day's coming, less than 3 months until we meet him! It seems like we have almost everything ready for his arrival, hopefully I'm not forgetting anything!

23 Weeks, 3 Days - It's been a busy month!

Well it's been a couple weeks since my last update. We have been super busy! Finally we found out we got the house, and the posession date is July 1. Fortunately we have the keys already so we've been going in and working on the bedrooms and living room, and cleaning up everywhere else. Things are looking great so far! We're done the nursery already, and just need to move stuff into our bedroom and the living room to finish those off. Here's my pictures so far...

So our little boy has his room all set up and waiting for him to get here! Still 3 1/2 - 4 months to go until he's here... Man does that seem fast!

Finally 2 weeks ago I started feeling him kicking. It wasn't much at first but has been getting stronger all the time. J can feel him when he kicks hard enough. A couple mornings ago I was woken up by the little guy's kicking and I snuggled up behind J and let the baby kick him a little bit, what a fun way to wake up! It's been pretty consistant the last few days, I feel a few kicks each hour, and it gets really crazy after supper, he's just in there kicking and punching away to his heart's content! He's even woken me up a few times each night, he kicks so hard. I think it's awesome!

We also had another ultrasound yesterday morning. 8:30am we got in and H was moving around, not kicking hard enough for me to feel it, but we could see his movements. He was playing with his face, and then pulling on his feet. We saw him wiggle his fingers and toes. He even managed to touch his foot to his forehead, pretty flexible! We got a picture of him yawning. He's looking so much bigger, and he's looking pretty cute! The ultrasound tech said he's got long legs, and weighs 600g, or 1lb 5oz. Right on track with what he should weigh. We couldn't get a measurement on how tall he is, because of his legs being folded up by his head! The tech also confirmed for us, he is most definitely a little boy! I am so happy and excited to meet him... these next few months will just fly by I'm sure!

The big yawn!Our cute little guy is smiling at us!

After the ultrasound, I got my bloodwork done and was expecting to have to get a phlebotomy this week sometime. So imagine my surprise when the nurse walks out and tells me, this pregnancy is doing great things for me, and my counts actually came down since last time! That was awesome news, I am not sure why my counts would come down when they normally go up until I get blood taken out, but apparantly I just need to do another blood test in 2 weeks to see where the #'s are at and I think I won't need blood out for another month yet. It's been 8 weeks so far, and by the time I get my next bloodwork done it will have been 10 weeks. That's wonderful! J said if pregnancy makes my blood counts easier to manage, we'll just have to keep me pregnant. What a goof. It's pretty awesome that I still don't need anything done though! Yay!