31w + 1d...less than 9w to go!

{I don't know what's wrong with me but I can't even seem to keep this thing updated on a weekly basis!}

Ava, according to my trusty website for her weekly updates, should be about 3.5 lb & 18" long from head to toe. The dr measured my belly in centimeters on Wednesday and she said the # of centimeters should match the # of weeks along I am in my pregnancy. My belly is
32 centimeters. The dr thinks I am 31 weeks pregnant. so we're thinking one of two things here: I am really 32 weeks along...or...the more plausable answer is that I'm a little bigger than I'm supposed to be...either way I'm not too upset by it. I can own it that I'm big.
My mom has been doing such an awesome job painting our house...but I don't have any updated pictures yet. I will though. Soon.

WE FINALLY GOT OUR CRIB & MATTRESS! Our baby girl WILL have a place to sleep after all!!! Here is what the crib looks like, but we will have different bedding, Winnie the Pooh to be exact.

I love the white color, the wide panels, and the arched back. I just love it. It wasn't the original one we registered for, but those were sold out {for good reason: they were adorable also!}.

Sunday, 9/28 marked a sad day for me. My fingers are officially too swolen to wear my wedding ring. Lucky for us Sam has a spare {thanks to our cat who hid the first from us for about 6 months...we got impatient & bought him a new one...} so that's my wedding ring until my fingers slim back down again. hopefully that day will come...

week 29

Friday, 9/12 was our 29 week check-up at the doc's office. Everything seems well, I took the gestational diabetes test and the nurse said if she doesn't call me on Monday then that's good news...and no call...so YAY!!

My dr did say though that she {Ava} must not be a huge fan of sweets. In fact, they seem to make her act almost comotose. Usually the baby's heartrate is 160-ish after drinking the gloucose drink for the diabetes test, and her's was at 135. The dr said this just means she's not a big sugar fan, and if I'm needing her to get moving for anything, she's going to take some poking & proding, not just a snickers bar to get her going. I blame my non-dessert-loving husband for that. but, it will only be better for her later on in life, so I can't complain. And you gotta know that he reminds me about every other day if I'm in the mood for something sweet that Ava probably won't like it...so this is probably for the best.

one of the nurses tried to encourage me to have the 'plaster belly' done...for those of you who don't know, click here for plenty of examples that are NOT me. I mentioned it to Sam after we left...his resonse...'yeah, that's just weird.' so, no offense to anyone who chooses to partake in that adventure, but we will pass. I don't even know what you would do with such an object after it's done. coffee table art? wall hanging? yeah, not really our style.

We are, however, having pregnancy pictures taken before delivery. My cousin is a fantastic photographer in the Independence area, owner of The Portrait Gallery. She will be taking pictures of Sam & I {hopefully in the near future since I'm continuously blooming...} and I can't wait!!! Sam is less than enthused, but he's a good sport and the best husband!

so--an update on our daughter:

• she is appx 16.7" from head to toe and weighing in at around 2.7 lbs
• statistically the average birth weight is 7 - 7.5 lbs...we can only hope and pray she is that small! I was 9lb 10 1/2 oz. Sam was smaller than that, I think between 7 - 8 lbs. so HOPEFULLY she has more of his genes come delivery time!
• this is incredible: she is still opening/closing her eyes, and can even see silhouettes and people in the right light!
• supposedly her size right now is about equal to that of a butternut squash, so that's fun
• we love you Ava Mae!

(playing catch-up...) week 28

• Ava's approximate size: 15" {head to toe} and 2.4 lbs.
• interesting fun fact: blood/nutrients/etc. travels thru the umbilical cord at nearly 4 mph!
• brain is still developing, making the folds & grooves of a fully developed brain.
• her hair is getting longer {we're hoping for a full head of dark brown hair :) }
• lots of things I've been reading about are very encouraging to do the kick-count; babies should move about 10 times w/in the hour {includes hiccups, kicks, etc.} and if she doens't move 10 times then to drink some juice, move around, lay down, just do something to get her going. so I'm trying to get better about that.

Her most active times are right before bed, around 9pm {which, I'm sad to say I had a terrible night sleep on Sunday night and was awake until about 1:30am -- I never knew she was such a night owl! she was moving like crazy!! that MUST stop when she's out of the womb} and she's usually active in the mornings around 9am, and then sometimes after lunch or around 2pm. we like to play together -- she pokes at me and I poke back. it's fun. I sure can't wait to meet her!

27w + 2d

Friday 9/5 I think I felt Ava have the hicups for the first time! I'm sure she's had them before, but this is the first time I've consciously noticed them. I was at work just sitting at my desk at the computer and felt this little pulsating feeling in my lower left part of my abdomen. It was pretty rhythmic, it felt like a pulse every 3 seconds or so, taking longer sometimes than others. It was really cool.

Sam & I had our labor and delivery class today at St. Lukes! It was sort of long, we opted for the all day class rather than the 6 or 8 week classes. There were 7 other couples with us. One couple had twin girls on the way...we're just thankful for the one girl we have coming :) The nurse talked about the hospital, about laboring at home and when you need to come to the hospital with this handy trick to remember: 5-1-1. 5 minutes apart - 1 minute long - 1 hour stright of contractions. and then always the general rule of thumb that if my water breaks to go in then no matter what. I do feel more prepared and more confident about several things...I just hope now I can remember them for 3 more months!! {that's what Sam is for though...he's my "coach"}
we practiced 3 different breathing techniques-calming, rythmic, and pattern {my favorite is just the long, slow, steady calming breathing - reminds me of yoga, which always seems peaceful}. They had the coaches participate in the breathing too, so they get used to what they're supposed to remind us to be doing once the big day gets here! Sam did very well and I am very confident we'll make a great team!

St Lukes participates in a program called BABY FIRST. this is where once the baby is delivered, they give mom, dad & baby 1 solid hour together without any visitors (assuming everything goes well with mom & baby and no medical intervention is needed right away). This gives them both a chance to bond with their new baby, a time for breast-feeding, and just in general a time for both parents to spend together with their new kiddo. They say the studies they've done with this show a lot of pro's for both the parents bonding as well as the baby's development, how quickly they latch on, how quickly they are able to stabilize their own body temperature, etc. So I'm really looking forward to that as well.

27 weeks = 3rd Trimester!

I can't believe that the 3rd trimester is already here!

here is a picture from a website I visit very frequently that I just think is adorable. though not my own baby, still precious none-the-less.

her length is now going to be measured from head to toe, not head to rump any longer...and she is over 15" long and weighing in around 2lb 3oz. I just can't wait to meet her. I am so excited and I know these next couple of months are going to fly.

I really have enjoyed being pregnant for the most part. and though it is getting increasingly more uncomfortable, it makes me almost sad that it's nearly over. I love feeling her move inside of me, punching and kicking and twirlling.

one side affect that I have NOT enjoyed however is this new onset of leg cramps in the middle of the night. For about a week solid my right calf will cramp up. Usually it's not too bad, it wakes me up enough to straighten out my foot, or pull it up to make the cramp go away. but 2 nites ago it was unbareable and I could not move! I had to wake Sam up and frantically ask him to please un-cramp my leg by quickly pulling my toes toward my knee...he did so with no complaints or arguing (I think he might have even been asleep thru the whole thing) and after some stretching it finally went away. but it continues to happen just about every night and I'm about done with the leg cramps.

and so far thru-out this whole pregnancy, I haven't had too many CRAVINGS, but I have noticed that I LOVE fruit. Just about any kind of fruit. I could eat it all day long. peaches, kiwi, apples, grapes, cantelope, pineapple, plums, you name it, I'll probably eat it.

26w

We're continuing to try to beautify the exterior of our home, and here are a few quick pics I took with my phone to try to capture what we've done...and here is the original photo just to give an idea of the changes made:

original photo (note the weeds to the left of the door & the overgrown bush to the right...)

the weeds have now been replaced with white river rock (with an underlayment of round-up & black cloth to keep those pesky weeds away for a long time)

neatly trimmed bushes (thanks to my dad) and you can see faintly in between the bushes are tall stalks of what-will-be-pink flowers, but the buds won't appear again til next year (thanks to my mom for providing & planting those)


and our mums!!! we now have two pots just like this one, one on each side of our front door on our porch. these are yellow and marroon and oh so happy!

so, aside from keeping up with the mowing, our next big venture for the outside of our home is to build a backyard fence & stairs so our pup can have room to run and run and run (and NOT bounce all crazily like in our living room...).

and regarding our sweet little Ava, she's 26 weeks today and quickly growing! 9 inches from crown to rump -- that doesn't even include the length of her legs!! I am starting to feel her more and more crouching up under my ribs...so as cool as it is to feel her, she can be mighty uncomfortable sometimes!

She should be opening her eyes any day now, and her blood vessels are starting to form in her lungs to prepare her for the outside world--which only happens to be about 14 weeks away!!

25w + 3d

We went to the dr on Friday and she said all is well with me and Ava. Her heart-rate is slowing down now from what it originally was the first few visits (starting around 160) and now it's about 130. She gave us the info we need to get signed up for our birthing classes. And we decided for sure on delivering at St. Lukes East Hospital. It's getting so much more real now!!!

One thing I've learned to be true thru-out this pregnancy, is that what they say about frequent urination is so true...Just to be sure, I counted the other day. 11. I peed 11 times in 1 day. I didn't even know that was possible.

We had to also take our pup for a vet visit yesterday, and learned the good news that he is heart-worm free! The vet also commented that Rexy is starting to mellow out (sill has miles to go, but baby steps is good enough for us!). He said that Rex will be the PERFECT pet for our little Ava, that he will be protective and loving. He said for the first couple months to be sure to give him plenty of attention, and to not scold him for just being curious with the baby. He doesn't want Rex to associate punishment with the baby. I am so relieved that the vet has this much confidence in him!!

We're finally doing cosmetic touch-ups to our house and making it feel like our own. Yesterday my mom helped with the exterior, turning our weeded front to a rock garden. and she planted some bulbs & flowers in between some existing bushes that will most likely show it's beauty next summer. We're hoping to get started painting within the month, and by October our goal is to have our backyard fence up with stairs from our deck all complete. plenty to do before the baby gets here!!!

24w + 6d continued...

and our little Ava is the size of a Rutabaga apparently...

24w + 6d

where do I begin...
My husband and I just got back from the Bahamas so that's why it's been a while since the last update.
here is a photo from our trip, and a link to see the rest of the photos at smugmug if you're interested.

We had an amazing time and I had no pregnancy complications while I was there, which I am SO thankful for. Ava was movin and groovin the whole time, so she must've loved it too!

tomorrow is 25 weeks and I go to the dr on Friday morning for our next check-up.

here are some things that I missed updating since I've been gone...

23 weeks = she is looking more and more like a little baby doll. Her skin is a little loose, since skin is producing more rapidly than fat is. but if she's anything like her mom, it won't take her long to get caught up :) she may look a little red right now, that's because her skin is loosing it's transparency and the pigment is starting to form.

24 weeks = her face is basically now complete! Her eyes are still shut, her ears are in their correct possition now, hair will continue to grow and her eyelashes are developing. Most of her features look the way they will when she is born. She is now running out of room to do cartwheels and somersaults though since she is growing so much.

25 weeks = my uterus is the size of a soccer ball! Her heartbeat can be heard with a stethoscope, a doppler, or possibly even unaided just by putting your ear to my belly! good news: if we were to for some reason have her early, she has a good chance of surviving by now, though she would have to be in the hospital for a few months possibly. we'll just let her hang out in there for a little while longer :) no need to rush things.

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