OB Update...

So we had our first third trimester visit today. I still am in shock that we're in the third...why is it that time flies like crazy when you're an adult and crawls when you're a kid? Anyhoo...

Everything seems to be going well. We have "graduated" to every two weeks visits again so that should be fun to fit in with my increased hours at work. I've been pulling about 52 to 53 a week lately which is pretty good given that I wasn't sure I could even pull 50 off! The only problem is that I have a very bad habit of not stretching and going on my walks like I should, but given the fact that the whole labor process is looming before me, I am committing myself once more to not being a slug. I must get myself into better than good shape by the time my "marathon," as Mark calls it, comes. I want quick and speedy...or as quick and speedy as I can get!

So, the plan is that Mark and I will start getting ourselves up a bit earlier (like 15 minutes) to do some body weight bearing excercises in the morning and then I will go on at least a half hour (and preferably an hour) walk every day for the next however many days until it's time to greet our little sonshine. :)

I discussed my whole trepidation with Mark's test being right around when I'm supposed to deliver and the doctor said he would be fine with inducing me a few days to a week before our scheduled due date. We're going to talk about that one. It sounds like it isn't a bad process these days. They basically just give you a little something "up there" that dissolves your cervix and then nature takes over. If it doesn't do the trick, you aren't stuck at the hospital forever since they don't break your water and what have you.

And, in the spirit of labor and delivery, I am experiencing my first real bout of Braxton Hicks contractions today. To put it mildly, they aren't much fun...and I'm ready for them to be over after about 3 hours of this. I can honestly say that I've had worse cramps due to another natural process, but these, even though I know they're normal and just my body's way of practicing, have the added effect of making me nervous because, well, it's too early for the sprout to come out. I'm just trying to take it easy and wait for them to subside...feel free to subside anytime now...

Let's see, other than that, Mark has been looking into chiropractic practices to either join or purchase or something. He's found a few, but mainly in Denver. I have to admit that I'm just not a big fan of Denver as a place to live (no offense, Jenny). It's just waaaaaay too big for the small town girl in me (I know, I know...like Colorado Springs is small, but it feels small due to the way it's laid out, I guess). I could probably handle something in the "outskirts" toward the south like Highlands Ranch or Cenntenial or something, but anything much further in and I'm not so sure it wouldn't be something to make me growl. Of course, the alternative he came up with to go to a practice Burlington isn't much better...more for him than me. I lived on the Eastern Plains for the first 2/3 of my life...I'm cool with prairie and not much going on. My dear Mark, though, goes through torture every time we visit my home town and so I can definitively say that one isn't going to happen. I'm glad he's looking now...hopefully he'll find something that will work before we move back.

And, I guess that is it for tonight. I just wanted to let you all in on what we learned today. I hope you all have a fabulous weekend.

The Home Stretch...

Huh. Well, would you look at that...27 weeks gone by, 91 days to go...where has the time gone? It really seems like it wasn't that long ago that I was dealing with feeling awful and yet being so happy to feel awful. I think only pregnancy can make a person enjoy being sick. And, yet here I am in trimester #3 looking at a little more than 3 months until I will be holding a bouncing baby boy in my arms. Whoa. This is heavy...

I will admit I am a wee bit nervous about being a mom. I inherently know I'll do fine, but I do have those moments when I think about how I really don't feel old enough to be a mom. I'm not sure I can explain that, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who's had that feeling. And, then, of course, there are the musings running through my mind about how I'm going to manage to get everything I already need to do with the increase in responsibility that comes with a new little baby and then a toddler and then a young child...you get the idea. No doubt I'll find a way...I always seem to manage somehow, but it is a little scary to think about. I think part of the pressure comes from knowing that I will be responsible for raising a responsible adult...a contributing member to society. That is the ultimate goal of child rearing as I see it and it's one heck of a responsibility to have and there are countless examples of how even the best of intentions can fail at producing a good end result. No pressure...

So now that you're in the know about the things running through my psyche with respect to baby, how about a little update on the past week? To be honest, there isn't much to relay that's exciting. First up - Mark is one step closer to graduating! He passed his clinic mids. One more test down. Now all he has to do is get enough adjustments to take his clinic exit exam. And, of course those two big board exams which are approaching...

Of course, there always has to be uncertainty to make things more interesting and we have some with respect to Mark's last board exam. Guess when it is? May 18, 19, and 20....the weekend before the sprout is due to join us. He assures me he'll not miss our son's birth, but we're both hoping that sprout will be patient and be maybe a bit late. :)

Otherwise, I had my second (though much shorter, thankfully) bout of stomach flu, bought more baby clothes at rock bottom prices and felt pretty spiffy. :) I also bought us a little s'mores making set when I returned the maternity clothes I didn't like from JC Penney. It was 75% off and I thought it would be a good alternative to our typical marshmallow roasting ritual which involves the fireplace...something I just don't really want to pass along as a good idea to the sprout. Fireplaces and little fingers are not a good match if you ask me!

And, that is about it. I pretty much spend most of my time doing taxes. I am actually enjoying it. I'm even contemplating ditching the wedding business to go back to my original plan in college of doing taxes out of our home or maybe doing bookkeeping....we shall see what transpires. If nothing else, it's going to be a heck of a lot easier to get business and make money with an accounting gig...and if I'm doing it on my schedule it might be quite enjoyable indeed.

So that's it for tonight. I'm finally feeling a bit hungry and am going to go partake of a little dinner that Mark made. I hope you all have a fabulous week!

One Hundred Days?!?

Wow! That counter over there on the side bar says that it's only 100 more days until Baby Rocco, the Sprout, the Sweet Pea, Rocky, ********, will be here! (How you like them stars? I'm just sort of taunting you now, aren't I?). It's pretty hard to believe that we're so far along here...

That said it has been a somewhat eventful week here in Roccoland. We started our progress off last week with our usual trip to Sweet Tomatoes for lunch. This has become tradition with us...and it's a good one on several levels. It's healthy (well, for the most part if you don't count the whole ice cream fest at the end of the meal), it isn't terribly expensive and it helps keep me feeling fine on several levels. During this particular lunch we actually accomplished something aside from feeding our faces, though. It is decided...the baby has a first name. Go us! :) Of course, I don't actually plan to tell you what it is until he is here with us, but at least you can rest easy that he won't be signing his checks as "The Sprout" when he's 30-something...and hating us every minute of every day. ;)

As for the middle name, we're still contemplating. We have four names that we like. Two of which seem to be the front runners since Mark technically gets more weight when it comes to choosing this one since it will be of Hawaiian origin. I like one of the names better than the other, buuuuuut I have a hang up with the one name we both kind of like...I don't particularly like writing the first letter of this name. Yep, you've contemplated it for some time and now you know it to be true...I'm a wee bit eccentric. :) I have a feeling that the favorite name will win out despite my "issues" since in all honesty the most frequent use of our little one's middle name will be the whole you are so in trouble first, middle and last name at once use. Yeah, you know what I'm talking about...more to come on the name game when we have made more progress.

Another thing we accomplished this week was that we ordered the sprout's crib. We decided ultimately to go with an inexpensive but highly rated model (per our Baby Bargains book which is based upon parent reviews primarily). We ordered it from Sears because we figured that the extra money we'd spend to get it from there was worth the time and money we'd save if we needed to return it. since we could return it to the store. I have sent Sear's a little email to see if maybe we can get a little money back as a result of their price matching policy since we could have ordered it cheaper from Target (but no in store returns there). It's a simple crib in white which does, I believe, convert to a day bed. Now we just have to get a mattress and maybe some bedding...

Speaking of bedding, I do really like the set I found, but I am mulling whether we'll actually go that route. I go through stages. Sometimes it seems a little more logical and financially savvy to just buy separates in solid colors. I guess we'll see where we ultimately go.

We've hit another milestone with respect to my whole pregnancy experience as well....I have a cold. Thankfully, it seems to be rather mild and the ear ache that I was having yesterday seems to have been abated, but nevertheless, I have one. It seems that every pregnant woman I've know or know has had a cold at some point during their pregnancy so I guess it's just one of those rights of passage. I just hope mine stays manageable since most colds I've had result in my hacking and coughing the night away until the doctor dopes me up with codeine cough syrup...which isn't really an option right now.

The last development for the week in the world of baby madness is that my office threw a lovely baby shower for me. I was very appreciative since I wasn't sure I'd really have one otherwise. They gave us some great gifts including a nice china setting made especially for kids for special occasions. It has a luncheon sized plate, a bowl and a little cup with a barn yard animal theme...so terribly cute. We also were given the full set of Beatrix Potter books that came out recently and that I thought were so awesome when I saw them on Martha Stewart's show. I'm sure the sprout, daddy and I will all have a blast reading these cute stories. The two partners in my firm pitched in for a nice Babies R Us gift card and my supervisor and a co-worker picked up some great necessities at Target for us including an adorable layette set that I can't wait to put baby in. :) One final gift came from an intern at our office whom I've given a ride home to a couple of times. It is the cutest little outfit with a pair of pants and a zip-up cardigan. I love it. I definitely appreciate how sweet they were to me!

In non-baby news, tax season is going well for me and school seems to be going well for Mark. I've already worked about 20 hours worth of overtime. I have opted to bank my first 80 hours so that if I return to work I'll have some time off for if baby's sick or what have you. I, of course, would prefer not to return to work, but I don't want to close any doors so I'm keeping my options open on that one. I just may see if we can go down to 2 days per week...

And, that is about it for us. I hope you all enjoy a great week!

The Week in Review

So this week's activities can be summed up in a few words/phrases - shopping, baby shopping, pizza eating and, of course, taxes. We'll even throw a little wedding in there for you just to spice things up. So, yeah, in general, not a very exciting week per se in the lives of "normal" people, but since when have Mark and I ever fit that category? Don't answer that. ;)





So, because all girls love shopping (well, okay, I'll admit I'm not the biggest fan unless I have something I'm trying to find), we'll begin there. I bought more maternity clothes this week. Because the whole tax thing pretty much saps all my time, I did it online at Penney's. I'm usually not a big fan of ordering things off the internet, but I've usually had good luck with Penney's catalog and online offerings and they make it easy to give things back if they don't work for you so I figured it was a good place to go to see if they had anything I'd like at a price that I'd like because afterall I'd rather spend more money on the sprout (or Rocky as my mother has recently taken to calling him since we're still not spilling the beans on the little tyke's name...which we technically can't because we haven't officially decided, but there is a front runner).





At any rate, all the name stuff aside, I was pleasantly surprised to find that not only did they have a pretty decent sale going on, they had some pretty cute looking stuff that was on sale. And, not only that, but I happened upon a page where I found a coupon for 25% off...and wouldn't you know a lot of things I ordered actually qualified for it. I think I figured out that I saved about $175 with the selections I made. Another reason I chose Penneys was my height. I wanted to invest in talls size clothing since as my little guy grows, my typical buy a size up and they'll ride lower and look longer method doesn't seem to work so well...my hips are somewhat altered. :) Oh, and lest I neglect to mention it, the impetus for my going shopping was that I've had two pairs of maternity pants sustain "injuries" which I simply do not have the time nor motivation to deal with and another pair has just become downright uncomofortable at this point because I'm not into even remotely "hugging" pants right now. So, I'm kind of down to about 3 pairs of pants that I actually can/will wear. Not so good...and a bit of a pain when it comes to doing laundry.





Anyhoo...I'm on a tangent roll today, but I bought 6 pairs of pants (2 each of 3 different types in my current size and a size larger in case I outgrow my current offerings which definitely isn't the plan, but you never know), 6 camisole tops (which I needed because my regular ones are starting to not fit so good at all), 2 cute sweater cardigans and some pantyhose that should, I hope, fit me even as I continue to grow so that I can wear some of the cute maternity skirts and dresses I bought. I've never been able to get out of the pantyhose wearing thing. I can't stand it when my shoes stick to my feet... So, that was the shopping for me.





As far as shopping for the sprout, I spent a good chunk of time yesterday (because at the last minute it was determined that there wasn't enough work for me to bother coming into the office - yea!) looking at bedding sets. I have finally found the one I think we'll go with. Here's a sneak peek:



It's called "Bubbles" and is made by Lambs and Ivy. We've both been going a bit gaga over sea-themed items and this bedding set is the cutest - not too girly, lots of colors to play upon and lots of neat little accessories to add to the mix. The only regret I have? That I don't really have a nursery to set up. Baby will be staying with us in our room. In a way, I guess it is a good thing since it will keep me from going to crazy buying stuff to decorate with...curbing the whole nesting thing is probably not a bad thing in its entirety. ;)

Other than this shopping, I have been checking out some clothing sites that a book we bought called Baby Bargains suggested. I found a couple that seem to have excellent merchandise at pretty affordable prices and I also found the cutest baby shoes that won't cause any problems with baby's feet since they're soft leather. Perhaps I'll post a picture of some of the ones I like at a later date.

And, then there's the pizza experience which I know has you all on the edge of your seats if you've been following my allergy journey at all. I think, my dear friends and family, my exile from the land of pizza is over. We tried the crust mix that I purchased from the Gluten Free Mall place and it worked fabulously...well, other than the fact that I didn't grease the pan enough and was sort of chiseling off the pieces last night. Hee hee...that amused Mark immensely and scared the cat to death! I'll be a little more careful next time I imagine! So, yes, I can have my pizza and eat it too without feeling like I have been hit by a mack truck afterward. This is defintiely a good thing...especially since pizza cravings have been running rampant as of late...I better go order some more crusts!

As for the other foods I purchased from the mall, we've had some great ones and we've had some duds. A caramel apple snack bar I got to try was in the pretty darn near a dud category...it's texture, it's flavor, etc...just not something I would get excited about. The worst so far has been the shortbread cookies I tried. I've decided that maybe if I crushed them up and made a pie crust out of them or something of the sort, they would be more palatable. The two winners so far have been the snickerdoodle cookies I bought which have a little weird texture but taste fabulous and the boxed macaroni and cheese stuff. I had that for lunch yesterday and was totally psyched that it only took 3 minutes to cook the pasta...well, I think it took 4 to get it to where I wanted it, but still...less than 5 minutes and you have mac 'n cheese. It was pretty tasty, too...all things considered (meaning you don't really expect gourmet mac 'n cheese out of a box, but then if I wanted gourmet, I would have made it from scratch!).

And, now, finally the wedding thing. I got a call at work on Friday about coordination. I seriously don't think the lady will email me as I suggested a location to meet on Tuesday. She could surprise me, but I just don't see it happening. I was so totally not in a customer service mindset...but that's because I was in the middle of a tax return and that tends to turn me into a drone. Whatever. At any rate, it was exciting since it was the first call I've received from someone based upon one of the print ads I paid for. So there you go. :)

And, with that,I think I will go jump in the shower (I've been taking it easy this morning) because my dear Mark and I are going to go to lunch, I think, this afternoon and then maybe we'll go see a movie...we'll see on this last one. Lunch will be our weekly Sweet Tomatoes run and I'm naturally looking quite forward to it. There's nothing like a big plate of salad followed by a big dish of ice cream with strawberry and caramel sauce to make you a happy pregnant lady. ;)

Hope you all have a great week!