hey, i have feelings, too!

the other day, i was at the grocery store buying some things to make dinner. it is a rare occasion that i go to any store alone these days (for a multitude of reasons, a main one being our cars have been acting up and i'm too afraid i'll get stuck somewhere to venture out! another reason being this silly fear that i will go into labor at some strange place with no one but strangers around the gawk at me!), but this particular day, i had made it out all by myself. i made a list hoping that i could avoid the sudden, random cravings i get when i see something tasty, so that i wouldn't go home with a bunch of junk. i made my way around the store and bought only like two things that were not on my list (and one was for ryan even!). when i finished picking up everything i needed, i headed to the shortest check out line and proceeded to empty my buggy onto the little belt thing. the cashier was a young guy, likely still in high school, but possibly in his first year of college...and he wasn't super friendly. i think he might have asked how my day was, but didn't even listen to my reply, as he was focused on his friend who was working a few registers behind him. there were a couple of ladies (at least my age, likely a few years older) checking out at his friend's register and my cashier was busy checking them out..he hollered out to his friend in a whiny voice, "how come you always get the hot girls in your line?" i know i'm an old, married woman who happens to be 9 months pregnant, but hello! can't i be "hot", too?!?

37 weeks

it is wonderfully amazing and completely terrifying that i now could go into labor at any time and have a "full-term" baby. in fact, not only could i go into labor at any time, but my doctor told me yesterday that she really is hoping i will go into labor this very week. noah is continuing his steady little growth pattern which means he is getting bigger and bigger. i had to laugh at our doctor yesterday when she measured me and her only response was, "woooo...he certainly still is growing!" yay for noah-he might even exceed the 87th percentile size if he continues to stay in me the next couple of weeks!
surprisingly, i'm not ridiculously uncomfortable yet... only pretty uncomfortable. i have this terrible itch-thing going on with my skin that is driving me nuts! it's especially bad on the soles of my feet and the palms of my hands, but at night, travels up and down my legs. there's no rash or anything, so we are assuming it's just the swelling/fluid build up around my nerves (quite common, says my doc). it's irritating, but i keep thinking that i could be much worse off pain-wise.
in other news, ryan started an additional job this week. he is such a trooper. i think he'd work just about any job just so that he could take care of noah and i...this new job is far from his dream job, but already, he is working hard and getting comments from co-workers about what a great job he's doing. i'm so proud! :) it's odd, though, that he is working more or less full time now (20 hours at the new job, 20-25 hours training)...we don't get to spend as much time together. but, such is life, i suppose...welcome to the real world, right? :)

am i in labor?? part 1

i have been terrified of not really knowing when THE moment will happen, and just as equally as scared of having to call the doctor/nurse and tell them i think it might be happening. knowing that many, many women have struggled with this issue hasn't helped me in the least.. in fact, it has made me even more terrified as i had hoped not to be THAT patient. but, alas, i became her yesterday evening. it all really started early yesterday morning, though. i woke up with a terrible lower back ache. while waking up with weird aches is the norm these days, lower back pain has not been something i've had to deal with. but, no big deal, i just thought to myself, "stupid pillows" and went on with my day. i spent a good deal of time on my feet, still trying to get everything ready for noah's arrival. my back hurt a little more and a little more, until eventually i decided maybe i should rest for a bit. putting my feet up really helped, so i figured it really was not a big deal. i got up and went on with the rest of my day...doing some more work aorund the house, a little baking, and trying to finish the edging on the little blanket i'm making for noah's bassinet. well, not surprisingly, my back started hurting again in the midst of all of that. it was a pretty terrible pain, but still the word "labor" was far from my mind. i told ryan about it and asked if he'd help me stretch my legs-thinking maybe it was the infamous "i.t." band he is always talking about. so, he helped me to the floor to lay down and started stretching my legs out-which hurt like nobodies business! and unfortunately, did very little to help my back. in fact, when he had me laying flat on my back, i was in unspeakable pain (for all of like 30 seconds, when i informed him that i would not be lying like that and he'd have to stretch me another way). well, he got me up (which was the feat of the day!)...and we went into the kitchen to sit for a while. my mom came in and i was telling her that my back was hurting, you know, just making conversation...and she was like, "oh my! call the doctor you might be going in to labor." me, being the ever wise one (okay, actually the aforementioned terrified one), said that surely i was not going in to labor and by no means would i be calling the doctor. however, she, being the one who actually has been in labor before...6 times...talked me in to calling, just to check. so, i called and reached the after hours line, which i thought was my ticket out of this whole silly thing, but no way...they have a different number on the answering service for pregnant patients to call, so...i called. i left a message for a nurse/doctor to get back with me, letting them know what i was feeling. they quickly called me back and asked me again to explain my pain...and after deliberation, decided i was probably not going in to labor. thank the Lord! she said take some tylenol, a warm shower and drink lots of water=probably just muscular because of this big baby pulling on me. i felt better after doing this, so i'm assuming she was right...no labor for me just yet.
but, it did make us all that more ready for D-day. my mom was stoked and ryan, well, i think ryan might have been freaking out a little. he refused to leave my side for a while and kept watching me for the next hour or so, just to make sure. and, he asked me like fifty times if i was okay, how my back was, was i feeling better, etc. what a guy! :)
so...all that to say, the moment wasn't nearly as bad as i thought...and for all you preggers out there, don't be ashamed if you find yourself in a similar boat...that's what those nurses and doctors are there for. she didn't even laugh at me...

why, oh why?!

why in the world is it that when you go to the salon to get your haircut, and you get an incredibly cute new doo...that it is impossible to ever style it like they styled it?? impossible to ever get the same wonderful look until next time you visit the salon?? it's such a bummer, in some ways, to even get a great haircut because, while you can enjoy it for the day, there's that thought ever present in the back of your mind "it will never look this great again!"

sleep-shmleep

a quick recap of my night last night:
11:30 pm-finally decided to call it a night
12:16 am-had to go to the potty
1:34 am-had to go to the potty again
1:40 am-after being so rudely awaken by my bladder, my stomach starts rumbling
1:46 am-roll out of bed and into the kitchen to have a little snack-1/2 a zone bar, Mmmmm! get back in bed only to have some kind of crazy allergy attack in my sinuses. something was super irritated and i couldn't seem to get away from it...
2:15ish am-finally fall back asleep
4:30 am-wake up to ryan's alarm and run to the potty before he can get in there
5:00 am-wake up to ryan's kiss as he leaves...lay in bed away for a good half hour, maybe longer...debating about whether or not i should have another snack because once again-STARVING!
7:40 am-awoken by the sound of little dogs yapping right outside. i go to the potty, and then open our back door and yell at them to "shut up now!" which, miraculously, actually worked. i didn't hear another peep from them! (those dogs bring out the worst in my whole family! it's terrible)
9:30 am-decided to get up and have some breakfast, which turned out to be suprisingly tasty. my mom took hopie to try to get her permit this morning and brought sausage biscuits home for the whole crew and a few breakfast potatoes (which were AMAZING). sure, not the healthiest meal, but i DID have a zone bar earlier this morning! ;)

a good reminder

since moving back to alabama, we have gotten to visit several different churches in addition to going back to our home church. this has been a neat experience for us...i think before we moved, we didn't really feel the freedom to visit elsewhere, nor did we really even have a desire to anyway. but after being a part of a different church tradition in colorado, we have felt the Lord stretching us and leading us in different ways now that we are back home. not to say that we are leaving our home church, but we have enjoyed being a part of some different types of services here in birmingham.

one of the churches we have visited a few times now is an anglican church. it is the same denomination as the church we attended in colorado, which is on of the things that drew us to it. plus, we just kept hearing about it from here and there, and decided that maybe the Lord was leading us to visit. and so, we have. one of the big questions for us in visiting different churches has to do with titheing. should we only tithe at our home church? since ryan gets paid bi-monthly, if we aren't at Southcrest that sunday, should we wait until the next time we are there to tithe? or should we tithe wherever we are. after giving this subject much thought, we decided that a tithe is really unto the Lord, not necessarily unto a church...and since we are following his leading as we visit here and there (or we think we are, at least), then maybe it'd be okay to tithe wherever we are. this decision was affirmed for me when i was writing out our tithe check this last week. we were visiting the anglican church...which is named Christ the King, so in the "pay to the order" box, i wrote "Christ the King." i smiled to myself as i thought about how strange that looked, me writing a check out, seemingly straight to the Lord. but it was a good reminder that He is really the one we give our offerings to...the church is merely the handler of the funds. :)

35 weeks

Well, every day, we are getting closer and closer to the big day! I went in for my check-up yesterday and all is still well. I told my doctor that I had been having some pressure-type feelings in my lower abdomen, but feelings that didn't seem to be contractions (because my stomach doesn't get tight)...after checking things out, she said, "Well that doesn't surprise me since you are 1 cm dilated and his head is right down there pressing on you!" Well, there you go.. I was surprised to hear that things are already on there way, but not too freaked out because she said it's not a fast process from here. Which, really, is a good thing since he needs a few more weeks in the oven to for his little lungs to develop fully. All the same, it was comforting to know that my body is preparing for labor even now (because there was always this little fear in the back of my mind "What if I never go into labor?! What if Noah decides to stay in me forever?)!

On top of getting things checked out by my doctor, I got a Group B Strep test-lemme tell ya, fun stuff ladies....and an ultrasound-which actually is fun stuff. I did not know that an ultrasound was in the plans when I went in, but was thrilled when they sent me that way. The tech did some measuring of Noah and, not suprisingly, we learned that he is already around 6 lbs 12 oz! (Of course, that is an estimate and could be off a pound or so either way, they say) He is in the 87 percentile for size, so we are proud to say that Noah is already ahead of his peers! We just knew he'd be a smart one! ;) Anyway, it is a little scary to know that he's only going to get bigger from here...especially if the bigger starts to be 9 lbs or more. That's a big baby, I'm just saying. I mean, a friend of my mom's recently had a baby-carried her just about 40 weeks and she weighed 6 1/2 lbs at birth! So...yeah... our little over-achiever! ;) So, all in all, we are hoping that I will go into labor before he gets too big, but not before! Which, speaking of, I am pretty sure I had a couple of contractions yesterday afternoon...not a pleasant feeling, which is a bummer because they (the books) say that pre-labor contractions (aka Braxton Hicks) are not painful, but this was not the case for me. :/ Oh well, back to what I said before, it is good to know my body is getting itself ready for labor...

nothing like waiting until the last minute

yesterday, we were finally able to go and get the rest of the fabric for the nursery. i'm glad that we weren't able to get it until now, because they had some new fabrics out that were really great! so, we picked out some new things and came home ready to start sewing. under my mom's suggestion, i bought a pattern a few weeks back and have been trying to study it...but unfortunately i have no idea how to even start reading one and it's much more difficult that i thoguht it would be. so, i just looked at the pattern for a bit yesterday, then ventured off on my own-envisioning exactly what i wanted to do. a lot of times that produces a not quite perfect result, but i'm quite delighted with what i've done so far. project #1: a bumper for the bassinet-don't want noah bumping his little head! and a blanket/quilt for the bassinet. here are a few pictures of the fabric (sorry the lighting is so terrible!):

and then here is a picture of what i've done so far with the bumper...obviously still a work in progress:

even though it will take time to get everything done, i'm super excited about the process. i love love love making things, and this is especially fun! i'm stoked about having a sewing machine at my disposal again (sadly, both my mom and i had lost the power cords to our sewing machines, so we've had nothing to use for quite a while. thankfully, she sent me out last weekend to buy a new sewing machine!). well, i'm off to work now!! :)

i've got cleaning fever!

actually, i think the technical preggo term for this is "nesting." good thing i'm not quite far enough along to be going in to labor, because i might be questioning things a little more then (i've heard that it tends to get really bad right around when you go into the labor.."if you're on your hands and knees scrubbing the kitchen floor, you just might want to think about heading to the hospital because you are probably in labor.." i heard from a nurse). anyway, we got home last night from "church" (which was more a fellowship dinner than actual church) and i went crazy cleaning the apartment. i haven't really felt like cleaning, well, ever in life...but especially not lately, so i figured i better take advantage of my mood and get some things done. i have a dear, sweet husband who doesn't like to see me cleaning alone, so he jumped in and we finally got a lot done around our little place. as we prepare for noah's arrival, we are going to have to move quite a few things around...and before things can be moved around they need to be clean and organized...and they certainly are getting there! i even scrubbed the sink and toilet clean, which is a pretty big deal around these parts! there's a few more things on the cleaning agenda, and i'm still kind of feeling it, so i'm going to hop to it! later!

34 weeks

It's hard to believe that in a mere 6 weeks time, we will have little Noah in our arms! We went to the doctor today and measured right at 36.5, which is still a little ahead of where we actually are. My doctor said, "Ohhh yeah-he's definitely getting bigger!" We start going to the doctor once a week now, and next week we'll get a estimate on how much he is weighing. It's definitely setting in that our baby is coming SOON! 6 weeks is not that long at all...

We had our baby shower yesterday, thrown by some sweet ladies from church. We got a ton of great things, including all of our big things (a car seat and stroller, a pack n play, a swing, a jumped, a vibrating little chair, and even two high chairs-a stationary one and a packable one) and a ton of the other little necessities! I was blown away at all of the people who love us and will certainly love little Noah. What a blessing!! Here's just a few pics from the shower:

the sweet group of ladies who hosted the party:ryan and i: a few of the fun gifts we got:just being silly:

The shower was great! It was fun to catch up with people I hadn't seen in a while and to talk more with people I see often... :) Plus, I'll be honest, getting presents is always fun! I think this shower was actually a little more fun than my wedding shower because of all the sweet little gifts for Noah. He's going to be one spoiled little boy! :)

kickfest (33.6 weeks)

one of THE most amazing things ever, i think, in my life, is feeling this little one inside of me moving about inside of me. kicking around, somersaulting about, and having huge hiccups at least once a day-it's incredible! i love to put my hand over my stomach and feel him push against me, and i think about he might be a hard headed little boy some days-pushing and demanding his way. but once he is old enough, he will learn... i also think he might be a shy little one, because everytime i call across the room for daddy or grammy or cece or aunt mollie to come over and feel him moving about, he stops as soon as their hand hits my belly. it may be a little more than shyness, perhaps some sillyness-which surely he gets from his mommy and his pop. i was visiting with his pop (my dad) yesterday and was reminded again why i love being around him so (okay, there's a multitude of reasons, mainly simply because he's my dear old dad). but we always laugh at each other. even when no one else gets our jokes, or no one thinks it's funny, i know i can always be sure that he will laugh, and not pityingly, but because he actually thinks i'm funny. humor is one of my favorite things! and it's sure to be one of noah's, too!