35 weeks

35 weeks pregnant....means that we have only 35 DAYS left!! Can you believe we're down to counting in days? Craziness. Santa brought the baby's carseat, so we're one step closer to being ready, although I think we'll wait until around week 37 to install it in the car. I spotted a graco stroller frame through the window of a kids consignment store, so we may go check that out in the next day or so to see if it works with the carseat. **Update: The basket of the frame was a little dirty and the store kind of smelled like cat pee, so we decided to hold off.

Christmas was wonderful, although it wore me out! I'm already getting spoiled by this time off from work and it's going to be really hard to get up the energy to go back after the Christmas holiday. Stewart's mom finally got to feel the baby move, after several frustrating attempts over the last couple weeks. We skyped with my family up north, and got Stewart's parents all set up so they can skype with us as well.

I'm making this a short post since we're still enjoying lots of family time, plus I don't much new to report. I hope everyone had a wonderful, love-filled Christmas!

Thoughts on Christmas

I've never been one to take fortune cookies seriously, but there's one fortune that I've saved for a loooooong time (maybe since I lived in Nashville). I've moved several times and still managed to hold onto this little strip of paper, now yellowed and brittle. Its current home is on our refrigerator, and now every time look at it I smile a little smile of agreement. It reads "Your dearest wish will come true."

All I've always wanted is to be a wife and a mom. I know that's not always a popular ambition in these times when women can be whatever they want, and there have been plenty of moments when I have worried that people would think less of me because I don't have this driving need to have a successful career. I like having the skills that allow me to support myself, and I'm certainly glad that I have my master's degree, but ultimately my job has just felt like a stepping stone to what I feel is my ultimate purpose, and that is motherhood. When Stewart and I got married, we knew it would be several years before we would start a family, and I was ok with that. In fact, I was glad that we would have a few years to be married before bringing kids into our family. Well, that feeling lasted about a year. We hit our one year anniversary, and all of the sudden the desire to have a baby hit me like a ton of bricks. And it didn't go away. The next two years were really hard...I honestly let this desire consume me. I would think about it all day, every day. I would cry on my way to work (and many other times) because it seemed like so long to wait until we'd be able to have a baby. Of course the unknown of how long it would take to actually get pregnant once we started trying made it even harder. Thankfully I have a wonderful husband who understood and never made me feel bad about what I was going through. But those last couple Christmases were always tough for some reason. All I could think about was how long it would be before we would be celebrating Christmas with our children. I remember last year that I hoped and prayed that I would be pregnant by this Christmas. I imagined how different I would feel, how my sadness would be replaced with anticipation. I imagined being surrounded with family and talking about what the following Christmas would be like, once we had a new member of the family. And the whole time I was thinking and hoping for these things, I pictured myself being maybe three or four months pregnant. I had no idea that we would be only weeks away from meeting our son.

My dearest wish is about to come true.

Merry Christmas!

Baby Boom!

It looks like 2010 is going to be the year of babies in our family! We just found out that another one of Stewart's cousins is expecting, which brings the total up to four babies due next year. Stewart's dad is one of four boys, and all four brothers will be getting a new grandchild in 2010! I'm due first, and the other due dates are May, June, and July. So far we know that the first two are boys, and apparently Granda (Stewart's grandmother) has predicted that all four are going to be boys. I'm excited that there are going to be so many little ones around the same age in the family!

There's one more baby that I'm SOOO excited about! If you've ever taken a peek at the sidebar on my blog, you've noticed the little button in support of my friend Adrienne, who has been waiting for the day when she can bring her little girl Lily to her new home in the US. Well that day is finally here!! Adrienne and Lily are arriving from South Korea today to join the rest of their family in Nashville just in time for Christmas! What a blessing! You can read more of their story and see pictures of beautiful Lily at http://www.our-journey-to-parenthood.blogspot.com/. Welcome home, Lily!

34 weeks

I'm officially on Christmas break! I have never needed the time off from school so badly! We're going to be around for a few days to do some Christmas shopping and work on making room for the baby. As I type this, Stewart is putting together a dresser so we can start putting away all the baby clothes. After Thanksgiving we brought up my cradle (the one my grandparents had made for me when I was a baby), and the glider should arrive sometime soon after Christmas. I know once I start back to school in January the time is going to fly, so I really want to get as much done as we can before then.

For a couple weeks I've been wondering about the position of the baby, since I haven't been able to tell. I asked at my doctor's appointment this week, and the doctor did a quick ultrasound to check. Sorry, no ultrasound pictures to share, but the good news is that his head is down! (Way down, according to the doctor.) He also said that he thought it was very unlikely that he would turn, so obviously I'm quite relieved. The other interesting thing the doctor told me is that I may not be feeling hiccups, but rather little rhythmic breath-like movements. He said that it was a very good sign, because it indicates that he's getting lots of oxygen.

This past week I feel like I've expanded quite a bit. The heartburn was back with a vengeance, until I gave in and started taking (pregnancy approved) Zantac. It has helped a lot. I now officially cannot see the underside of my belly, nor can I lean over to tie my sneakers and breathe at the same time. Getting up off the couch is becoming more and more difficult as well...there is usually some grunting involved. I think the solution is just to stay on the couch. :-)

Well, I think Stewart is almost done with the dresser, so I should probably go get ready for what is (hopefully) our last Christmas shopping marathon. Enjoy the picture (I've been loving this purplish color this season!)

Childhood optimism

Student quote of the week (from a 9-year-old)

L: "Mrs. G, when are you going to have your baby?"
Me: "The end of January"
L: "Well, I wish you a pain-free labor"

I swear, that's exactly how he said it.

33 weeks

33 weeks and baby has finally graduated to a new fruit size....the honeydew! My belly is definitely growing by the day, but it still doesn't seem like something so big is actually in there! He should be around four pounds, but still seems to have plenty of room to continue his crazy movements. The last couple days it's also seemed like he's had the hiccups nonstop. Friday he had them at least four different times. Even though I've read that hiccups don't bother a baby, I can't help but feel bad for the little guy. Plus it can get a little annoying for me too!

The second day of our childbirth class was, well, long. We got there at 9am, and at 10am a worker came in to inform us that the electricity was about to be shut off in the entire building. You should have seen our jaws drop. First the carpet cleaning fiasco, then this?? Thankfully there were emergency lights so we could still see (and use the bathroom, thank goodness), because the electricity stayed out from 10am until around 3pm. It was a dreary, rainy day so we didn't have much sunlight. The combination of the dim light, being in the same room all day long, and general pregnancy tiredness made for some difficult moments. I'm sure my chin hit my chest a couple times, and Stewart didn't fare much better. I'm still glad we took the class...it was a good overview of a bunch of different topics relating to late pregnancy and delivery.

The main question it raised for me is whether or not to get an epidural. Up until now I've been absolutely planning to get one, but now I'm not as sure. We were shown so many different positions and strategies for getting through labor, but the majority of them won't even be possible if the lower half of my body is numb. I'm not a big fan of feeling numb (I've been known to get a cavity filled without Novocaine because I'd rather take a little pain over hours of a numb mouth.) And I like the idea of being able to move around for as long as I feel that I can, instead of being confined to the bed because my legs can't support me. On the other hand, I also like the idea of relief from excruciating pain. So I don't really know what to do now. I may try to go as long as I can without the epidural, just keep my options open, but absolutely will still get one if I want it. I'm just surprised that I'm even considering going without, because I honestly had thought I'd be walking in the hospital ready to call for the anesthesiologist right away. And that still may happen....I guess I just won't know until I'm in the situation.

So I have one more week of work before Christmas break, and then two glorious weeks off! After the break there are four weeks left of school before my due date. I'm meeting with my supervisors tomorrow morning about how they're planning to handle my absence. From what I understand, there haven't been any applicants to fill in for me while I'm gone, so I'm a bit nervous about what tomorrow's meeting is going to bring. Honestly, the work issue is one that I'm not really ready to go into right now. It really needs its own entire post. Suffice it to say, the question of returning to work is by far the biggest stress of this pregnancy (and one that left me trying to choke down my salad in tears at Chili's tonight.) I'd just ask for your prayers as we make some big decisions about how to handle the next six months or so.

So....I guess that's about it for now. Here's the belly picture. Sorry about my appearance, I was exhausted and not in the mood for make-up or a flat-iron.


PS I know you're wondering about our pregnant anchorwoman from the childbirth class. Well, she sat next to me on Day 2, and we're BFF's now. I'm fulling expecting a shout-out on the morning news tomorrow. :-)

Childbirth Class- day 1

Well it was interesting, folks. First of all, we have a local celebrity in our midst....our morning news anchorwoman is in the class! She got married about a year ago, and I've been wondering for a couple of months whether she is pregnant (hard to tell since they hide the belly behind the news desk.) A few weeks ago I decided that yes, she definitely is pregnant, and now obviously it has been confirmed. It was funny to see her in her yoga pants, sequined-emblazoned "diva" shirt, hair & make-up a mess, etc. Since I watch her every morning, I kept feeling like she should recognize me too! Obviously she does not. Although she did offer me a chair when I looked like I was about to pass out....

Wondering why I was about to pass out? Yeah, I figured.

So the class didn't quite go as planned. It was supposed to be in the waiting room of our OB/GYN's office. We arrived a couple minutes early to find three big carpet cleaning vans out front, and a panicked-looking instructor standing out in the freezing cold. Apparently someone didn't check the calendar when they scheduled the carpet cleaning. The instructor decided that we would go ahead and do the tour of the labor and delivery wing at the hospital, which normally we would have done on day 2. So we drove over to that section of the hospital, and had to wait about 30 minutes until she was able to get everyone over there to the new location. (It was amusing to watch every single pregnant woman- starting with me- walk in the waiting room and immediately go to the bathroom. I lost count after a while, but I'm pretty sure we were at least 7 for 7 in terms of immediate bathroom visits.) Once we started the tour she took us to a labor and delivery room, which I really thought was pretty nice (bonus points for the jacuzzi tub!) Unfortunately there were about 5 chairs, and 10 pregnant women. Since most of the other women looked quite a bit more pregnant than me, I decided I could handle standing. Bad idea. After about an hour and a half of standing crammed with 20 other people in this little room, I was regretting my decision. One other girl had already given up and plopped herself onto the floor, but I just didn't feel quite right about sitting on the hospital floor (yuck.) I don't really know why I started feeling so bad, but I was starting to sweat, feel queasy and lightheaded, and basically just fighting back tears because I wanted to sit down so bad. Eventually my anchorwoman (who had been sitting but stood up to get a better view of something the instructor was showing) saw me shake my head at Stewart with a look of mild-panic in my eyes, and offered me the chair. Once I sat down I was fine. I felt like a bit wuss, because I swear some of these other women are mere days from popping out their babies, and they seemed to do much better than me. Oh well. Stewart has since advised me not to be a martyr anymore and just take a chair when I see one.

Anyway, in terms of the class itself, I'm glad we got to have the tour, and I'm expecting we'll get more in terms of actual information/education on day 2. I'd better go wake up my sleeping husband and get ready for more childbirth fun!

Hmmmm.....

We have our childbirth class this weekend. We're doing the "marathon" class, which basically means that we're there all of Friday evening and all day Saturday. (The other option was to spread it out over several weeks, and Stewart said he preferred to do it this way.) I just got a voicemail (on my new snazzy cell phone) from the teacher of the class, saying that we should bring a sack lunch on Saturday because we're "going to watch some videos while we eat lunch to so we can maximize all the time we have." Um....is this concerning to anybody else, or just me? This is a childbirth class, remember?? Are there really any videos we could possibly be watching that would be appropriate for eating lunch? This could be an interesting weekend.

32 Weeks

8 weeks to go! Can't come soon enough. I'm still feeling good but just getting impatient. It's hard to keep my heart in my job; all I want to do is come home and be a human incubator for this baby. But when I am home, there's so much to do to get ready for both Christmas and the little one's arrival. I finally got my Christmas cards ordered, and now I've got to get to work on my continuing education courses that need to be completed before the end of the year. I have a feeling that all the pre-holiday, end-of-the-year tasks are going to take up the next several weeks, and then in January we're going to be nuts trying to get everything ready for the baby!

I had my bi-monthly check-up last week; everything was fine. I wanted to know whether the doctor could tell what position the baby is in (since I can't tell), but he said that he couldn't really say at that point and would check the position at my 36 week appointment. I'm continuing to feel the rolling, pushing type of movement almost all day long. Sometimes it feels like he's got something (a foot?) wedged up in my ribs, and other times it feels like he's kicking directly at my cervix. I will say that the movements are starting to be a little less cute and a little more uncomfortable. I'm now getting up usually twice each night (sometimes three times) to pee. I am thankful that my rings still fit and my feet and ankles haven't started swelling at all. Oh, and my belly button is still an innie and looks to stay that way for a while! I must finally look pregnant to those who don't know me, because I finally got my first comment from a stranger, asking me if I'm having a boy or a girl!

Here's the weekly growth of the belly.

Students tell it like it is

I used to be intimidated by working with kids in 4th and 5th grade, but I've come to appreciate and enjoy them. Today my 5th grade boys absolutely cracked me up. We've been talking about different parts of speech, and today we were focusing on adjectives. After reviewing the fact that an adjective is a word that describes a noun, I told them to choose any noun and we would think of adjectives to describe it. Well, the noun they chose was me. So we spent the next several minutes thinking of words that describe Mrs. G. I got "nice", "funny", "helpful", etc. Both boys know I'm having a baby and they talk about it pretty frequently, so I prompted them to think of an adjective to describe me right now (while indicating my obvious belly.) One caught on and started to say "pregnant", while the other one gleefully declared the best adjective to describe Mrs. G at the moment......."BIG"!!
I literally doubled over in laughter, and then explained to this dear child that he should never, ever tell a woman that she looks 'big'.

Later in the session, one boy told me now that I'm having a baby, I need a minivan. The other insisted that only old people drive minivans.

See why I like 5th graders now?