Saturday, June 28, 2008

38 weeks down...

and no progress! I saw Dr. Kambin on Wednesday (she delivered Reilly) and I think her exact comment was "I can't even find your cervix it's so high up there." Thanks! Exactly what I wanted to hear. Then she measures me and says "Wow, how big do you think this kid is?" And I tell her at my U/S 2 weeks ago I was told 6 pounds, 10 oz, and she says, I think this kid is already 8 pounds! Bear in mind that up untik literally 5 minutes before pushing out Reilly she was telling me she was 10 pounds and I might need a C. So I think her mental measuring system is a bit off. So I just laughed and said "we'll see, I'm not worried". She talked about induction at 39 weeks if my cervix is ready, but I don't really see myself progressing to readinees in a week and a half if I am zero, nilch, nada today. You never know, maybe my water will break at the pool today. But then will I know it broke??? Hmmm...

At least we made progress at home this week...today Rich will set up the nursery, at which time it will all "feel real" according to him. I hope I don't come home to him hyperventilating once the room is set up LOL! The baby's laundry is washed and folded, and I have the list of what I need in my hospital bag at least written out. I bought enough diapers for Reilly for like 2 months so I feel good about that. We really need to get to Costco and stock up. Our window washer comes today so that's a plus (I guess?). Our windows are really dirty!

Now we just need to agree on a middle name if we have a girl. I thought we were done, but apparently not. Rich is "thinking on it", so hopefully he'll let me know soon what it is. Did I mention he picked the first name too? Oh and the boy's name? Wait a second, I feel like I am getting the shaft here :)

And of course the Reilly update, she is a princess and as usual has us cracking up constantly. The energy in that little body of hers is amazing. Apparently the most fun part about the pool is not the actual pool, or the toys, or any of the little kids who want to play with her...but running around the pool, chasing all the older kids (yes you guessed it- yelling Wait Stop the whole time at them), and weaving through the tables during lunchtime while people try to eat and I try to chase her bumping my big preggo belly into all of them. I finally got her water shoes so she doesn't fall as muc (we had many boo boos this week), but it is SO tiring. Hopefully today she will just stay in the water already bc it is going to be HOT.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

The Things I forgot that stunk about being 9 months pregnant...

Number 1. INSOMNIA. I remember it from last time, but it still stinks. I cannot believe I went to bed only 4 hours ago and here I sit up again because it hurts too much to lay down. I should have listened to Rich and taken Tylenol PM again, but somehow I feel like a bad mommy if I give this kid sleeping aids 2 nights in a row. So tonight I suffer, and tomorrow back to snoozing soundly. I thought for sure all my running around today would knock me out, but nope.

Number 2. Drymouth. I am so thirsty, in the words of Alysia Lew, circa my bachelorette party, I could drink all of the water in Philadelphia. I think it's the main reason I woke up- I am parched. Constantly.

Number 3. Pain, just pain. Everything hurts, mainly at night. My sciatic nerve, which is radiating down my legs, my belly, my sinuses, my head, my neck. Just all of it. And finding a comfortable sleeping position is torture.

Number 4. Cravings. Tonight I just HAD to have brownies at 9 pm, which meant I had to make them, and I didn't have enough eggs to make the yummy "cakelike" brownies I like so I had to make the fudgy type with only 2 eggs, and I loaded in peanut butter and white chocolate chips and cream cheese and baked them at 9:30. I ate a huge brownie sundae with french silk ice cream and whipped cream at 9:30 at night. HMMMM Maybe that is why I am wide awake at 3 am???????? Did I mention Rich offered to drive to the Cheesecake factory to get me any dessert I wanted at that time of night? I swear I better start taking advantage of some of these cool things he keeps offering me :)

Number 5. Nesting. Now this I like bc they say it means labor is imminent (whatever I am sure they will drag this kid out of me again), but I spent 2 hours today cleaning out my pantry, which now seems somehow empty. And that just means I have to go shopping again. And shopping is painful. See number 3.

So there are my complaints for the day...but really I have to admit I have good days and bad. Today was actually a really good day until you factor the whole sleeping (or lack thereof) thing into it. Hopefully tomorrow will be another good day. I see Dr. Kambin, who delivered Reilly, for the first time this pregnancy. She rocks, and maybe she'll strip my membranes or something to help move this thing along. She kept measuring Reilly at 10 pounds, so maybe she'll do the same tomorrow and help with some divine intervention so we can get this baby out sooner than later. Wish me luck. Sorry no pictures for this post, I'm not looking too hot right now.

Friday, June 20, 2008

What a week...

Well the weeks are counting down until Reilly's whole world gets turned upside down. The days are ticking for playdates and the pool, and of course the poor thing has to go and get sick this week. She has been sick ALL week with the exception on Tuesday pm and Wednesday am, and has been quarantined. All she wants to do is play with kids and I keep having to cancel playdates because she comes down with something else. She woke up on father's day with a fever, which lasted 2 days, then was up all night with what we think was a sore throat on Monday, then yesterday the awful cough and runny nose. can you say "misery"? If I hear "uppie uppie uppie" one more time I may fall over and die. But we are getting through it. I hope she is healthy by next week so we can get some more pool time in before this baby comes...speaking of which...

We've made some progress this week! We bought a crib (thanks Grammy :), a mattress, a double stroller, a new bathtub, another diaper champ for the nursery, some pacifiers and BPA free bottles, oh and nursing pads (very critical). I have yet to do a load of laundry, but the goal by the end of the weekend is nursery cleaned out, furniture picked up, baby clothes washed, and hospital bag packed. So I am feeling better about baby's arrival.

I had my first internal exam, and you guessed it, nothing going on. Dilated about a fingertip and he said, see you next week and probably the week after that. Poor me. So we are looking at about another 8 1/2 pounder according to the doc, so I think I am going to hold off on washing any newborn size clothes this time!! Not gonna fit! I am feeling okay, just some contractions at night and getting tougher and tougher to chase her, but I didn't gain any weight between my last appointments so that's great. Send some labor vibes please :)

Here are some pics from Father's Day, motrin allowed us enough time to go to lunch and a local dairy farm before the misery set in again :)



Sunday, June 15, 2008

Happy Father's Day!

Well Rich is sleeping soundly and it's 6:30 am...I got up at 5:30, Reilly was stirring and crying in her sleep, but can you believe he offered to get with her? I said "it's Father's Day! No way!" and he said something like "you need your sleep"...so sweet! But of course I was releived it was finally morning so I could get out of bed and move around. More importantly, I was super excited to get his Father's day gift together (well that and maybe drink my coffee in silence and have a big piece of the chocolate chip banana bread my niece Kennedy baked for me and brought this weekend- yum :). Luckily Reilly is still snoozing so I am getting to do all of these things in silence. Except for the buzzing of an annoying fly, but that's a different post!

So after much waiting and waiting I can finally reveal his Father's day gift! He told me a few things he wanted for father's day, one I got, one I didn't. I finally engraved the Tiffany money clip I bought him (probably for Father's day last year), but it's not ready yet. The watch band, not so much. Besides that his only request was to not have ANY plans to do anything, just let the day take us where we feel like going, and I am not allowed to rush him at all (something I am normally very good at). So I PROMISE to abide by all of those requests. But I did do something special and I hope he really loves it!

I had a photographer (someone in my neighborhood) come out and take pictures of Reilly and I last week. The pics turned out fantastic, and I have been hiding them all week. I just framed a bunch of them and have them laid out on the dining room table. Can't wait to show them to him, finally! I even had her do "pregnancy pics" of me (which I NEVER thought to do- but thank you Tina for convincing me), she airbrushed out my stretchmarks so it's not too embarrassing to show :) So without further ado, here are some of the shots I love. I'll post more once I can get them from the site! Enjoy! And Happy Father's Day to my wonderful husband who deserves every second of relaxation he gets today. And to my Dad, who got to spend part of the weekend with us and we had a blast. And to all of the other "fathers" in our life, we love you all (though you probably aren't reading this because probably only girls take the time to actually read blogs, but whatever). Happy Father's Day from us :)





Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Heat Wave!

WOW is it hot. Seriously I am melting- it has been over 95 degrees now for 4 days in a row. Luckily this weekend we cooled off at the pool, and Reilly and Rich had a blast in the water. Today it was literally too hot to even go outside (of course I did manage to get a little shopping in this morning though, shocker). This afternoon it was 99 degrees and then some CRAZY storms blew through. Reilly and I were reading books in her room and all of sudden this crazy sound like a train came upon us- I grabbed her and ran in the hallway to see Rich flying upstairs to check on us- pretty scary! Then the power went out and we all huddled downstairs and watched the storm trying to keep her from being scared. She is such a cutie :) Here are some pics of her in the Dora bathing suit Grammy bought her!





I am shocked that despite all the heat, I am still not swelling! By this point with Reilly I had total cankles and giant toes, swollen hands and couldn't wear my rings at all. None of that going on this time around, which is great. I had my 35 week appt this week and only gained 2 pounds in the last 2 weeks- yay! Dr. A is sending me for an Ultrasound on Friday to check if the baby is definitely head-down, check the fluid and see how big this little one is! Only 4 1/2 weeks to go :) I am feeling really good, even with the heat and a short bout of sciatica over the weekend. Sleeping is pretty much torture, but I get through it. Rich installed room darkening shades in our room so even when he leaves at 5:45 am (yes- he LEAVES at that time poor guy) I can somedays sleep in. Other days I am wide awake, in pain, and have to get out of bed. I don't like those days so much...

Friday, June 6, 2008

Kids say the darndest things...

and they really do! Every single day I am amazed by what comes out of Reilly's mouth, or the hysterical things she does. I almost cannot believe that we created this little person who now has a life and a mind of her own- and a personality! Even more amazing that in just a few short months we'll start to see the personality of this baby coming to life, I am having trouble grasping it.

Reilly has a memory that gets me every day. She gets a name in her head, that name goes with a certain type of person, and then anyone that even semi-resembles them somehow is them. Example, at the pool last week, any girl with white blonde hair was "Ellie". Now Ellie is a little girl in our neighborhood who Reilly has only played with once and met on 2 occasions. How does she remember Ellie and her white blonde hair so much? I have no clue. Neither do all the little girls at the pool with white blonde hair who Reilly chased after screaming "Ellie!!! Waaaiiitttt! Stop!!!! and holding her hand up like she expected them to stop (this is her favorite move when chasing people by the way). Then she chased a ten year old girl into the deep end of the pool thinking it was her cousin Kennedy. Yesterday, the woman in the car next to us with short blondish hair was "Grammy", luckily "Grammy" couldn't be chased, but Reilly yelled "Wait!" at her for a good 2 blocks. Then IN the mall, every guy between the age of 15 and 35 with dark hair was "Jon", also known as her Uncle Jon. I know Jon is a popular name and all, but I don't think any of these guys were named Jon, and they weren't turning around as she high-tailed it after them again screaming Wait! Stop! Jon! through half the mall. It is honestly the funniest thing I have ever seen, and I have to just laugh. Probably even funnier for the other mallgoers to watch an almost 9 month preggo woman chasing a crazy screaming toddler with her hands out through the mall. Priceless!

I also have to say that at one point I believe she was yelling Wait! and Stop! in spanish. The problem is I don't speak spanish, so I can't be sure. She definitely learned this move on Dora the Explorer (the addiction that rules her world), as she does everything not to taught to her by us or family/friends. We were in a shop, I took my bag and said "thank you" to the cashier, Reilly looked at her and said "Gracias! Bye bye!". I just lost it, as did the cashier. I know we don't look like spanish would be our "2nd language", so it was comical. I learned of her spanish speaking skills a few weeks ago when I caught her roaming around counting in spanish. She only knew a few numbers, but she and Daddy practice counting every night in English and Spanish so now she can count to ten. She also knows the word for Grandma in spanish, Abuela (no clue now to spell it), and since she has a current "Grandma" obsession that word is used alot. I think she loves the Grandma on Caillou, and any woman who looks like the Grandma on Calliou MUST be called Grandma. It is very embarassing when she chases after 35 year old women who may look a bit older and calling them Grandma, when clearly they are not. But luckily they don't know what she is saying ;) It is adorable when my neighbors Mom drives up the street, she knows their car, and she really IS a Grandma, so she loves it that Reilly is already yelling Grandma at her before she even gets out of the car.

But really the best part of the day is just watching her learn. She walked around that mall, pointing to every single thing she knew the word for and saying it "tree", "light", "baby owen (every baby is baby owen)", etc...I am constantly astounded that she knows the words for things I had no idea she knew. And then when we come home and she looks at me and says "bed"..."lamby, piggy, giraffe, fan (hahaha she has a fan in her room now), and then goes right to sleep without a fuss, it just makes my heart melt. I am so proud of this kid and the one hundred times a day she says "thank you" or "welcome", or "bless you". And watching her little face light up when she sees Daddy come home is just about the sweetest thing on earth.

But really the sweetest sweetest thing on earth was after putting her to bed last night while Rich was mowing the lawn and cleaning up the toyfest out front, seeing him bent over the driveway, with a big pink chalk and drawing her a picture and writing her name so she would see it today. :) I have no pictures downloaded today so I'll just share one of daddy and Reilly that I love...

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

We Love Cherries!

Pregnancy craving of the week - cherries and rice pudding! Cherries in season and sale is a beautiful thing, and Reilly just discovered she loves them as much as the baby and I do ;) I don't know where the rice pudding kick came from, but Rich was not feeling the big bowl topped with fresh strawberries and whipped cream I ate for dessert 2 nights ago. A girl can only eat so much ice cream.

I can't believe it's Wednesday already, 35 1/2 weeks to go! This weekend was my cousin Laura's wedding- I had a great time, Rich unfortunately got very sick and only made it over for dinner (luckily the reception was 1 mile from the hotel). Here are some pics of from the big day- Erin and Ted got a night out- and Pat (who always gets a night out) had a great time too. I was jealous of the martini's but the food was great and I even got some dancing in- who can pass up Usher? But Erin & Ted owned the dance floor ;) I have video to prove it...






It was so nice to catch up with my aunts, uncles, and cousins and it was a gorgeous wedding! Reilly got to spend the night at Nana's house and she had a blast! She went to Emma's recital and hung with her other cousins Chase and Jonathan (who she cannot stop talking about) and she got to see Grandpa :) She was exhausted after all the excitement but she napped for 3 1/2 hours on Sunday! Thanks Nana!! That means Mommy got to nap too ;)

Overall I'm still feeling good- we tested out the double stroller today at Babies R Us- love it!

http://www.gracobaby.com/catalog/product.aspx?modelNumber=6K00SOH3&CategoryID=2

Here's the link if you want to check it out- it's the Graco Quattro Tour Duo Glider in Espresso Roast. It gets great reviews and all the other Mom's I have chased down in the stores asking for their opinions seem to love it :) I also think I found a crib for Reilly, (the new baby is getting her current one) so I think we'll work on getting those in the next few weekends. Not much time left huh? Maybe I should think about getting my bag packed for the hospital soon ;) My next appointment in next Monday, and then I start going every week! It is moving really fast...

Last but not least- GO PENGUINS! Game six of the Stanley Cup is tonight and Rich and I are psyched for the game- Game 5 was AMAZING. Let's hope they survive to game 7!!!