Progress!

So we had our Dr appointment today and progress has been made. Not much, and the Dr was sure to point out that Lily could still take several weeks to make her appearance, but it feels really good to hear that some progress has been made. I am 1cm dilated and 60% effaced. She has not dropped yet but is in the head down position.

37 weeks/full term

I am officially full term today. Hopefully Lily will come in the next few weeks and not make me wait too much longer to hold her in my arms.

I decided that in honor of this milestone I will post pictures from 7, 17, 27 and 37 weeks. It is amazing to see the difference 30 weeks makes
.
7 weeks: Basically my before picture as nothing had really happened yet.

17 weeks: Starting to show! I remember thinking that I was looking so huge at the time...little did I know.

27 weeks: Bigger but feeling better. I remember that I actually had energy and was no longer getting sick. I still felt huge.

37 weeks: It kinda looks like I just stuck a basketball up my shirt like I did when I was a little girl playing "house" and pretending to be pregnant. I am starting to think I may need something to prop my belly up with as it is starting to get heavy and uncomfortable.

Tomorrow is the start of my weekly Dr appointments. While I will always love getting to hear her heart beat I am getting tired of going to the Dr. I don't like having to sit and wait in the uncomfortable exam room (I do not think they had pregnant women in mind when they design those exam tables), I mind having my blood pressure taken, and I really don't like getting weighed every time. Now I am also getting internal exams to tell me how much progress I have made and I really don't like that part. As of right now, no progress. I may feel differently about this part once there has been some progress but as of right now it is just uncomfortable and kinda discouraging. If there was something I could do to help things progress then that might be fine, but right now I just feel as though I'm not getting any where but there is nothing to do about it.

Eviction Notice

Dear Lilian Marie Penner,

While I have enjoyed giving you a place to live for the past 37 weeks and have worked very hard to make it comfortable for you, I have also been working on a wonderful place for you to live outside of me. I know that you are running out of room in there and think you will find it much more spacious out here. There are many people out here that are looking forward to holding you and they can't do that if you stay in Mommy's belly. You have 3 weeks to vacate your current living situation.

Sincerely,

Your ever increasingly uncomfortable mom.

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I can't believe all the things I am thankful for this year.

Warning: This list is probably very mushy (remember I am an emotional pregnant lady right now)

- Of course I am thankful for this wonderful life that is growing inside me (even if she does wake me up at 6am with a nice kick to the ribs).

- I am thankful for my wonderful husband. He is my best friend and support. I know I wouldn't be who I am today without him. He has been amazing throughout this pregnancy and I can't wait for him to get to hold our daughter too.

- Our family. We have so much support and guidance from all of our family members. I can't wait for Lily to meet everyone that has loved her so much for the last few months.

- I have some of the best friends I could ever ask for. They are always there for me

- We have an amazing house (although it could probably use a little redecorating).

- Sean and I both have jobs. I know that sometimes we get frustrated with them, and feel that we could do so much more with our skills and talents, but in this economy I am just thankful that we are both able to hold a job.

- I am also thankful for Selene. She definitely still acts like a puppy at times and needs lots of guidance and can get on my nerves, but then she comes and just puts her head on my leg or tries to lay on my lap if I'm sitting on the floor, and everything seems to disappear.

Cleaning

So here it is the night before Thanksgiving and all I'm doing is cleaning and organizing. I think some of it has to do with the fact that I am finally nesting (hopefully this feeling will continue throughout my 5 day weekend) and part of it is because both of my grandmas are coming to see our house tomorrow. We moved in a little over a year ago and neither of them have been here. My parents are hosting dinner, but when we all leave my grandmas are coming over to see the place. I don't know why, but I feel like everything has to be perfect for them to come see it. This is really hard because our house has been far from perfectly clean since I have been pregnant because I just don't have the energy to do anything. I wish I would have decided before the night before to start cleaning.

Lily and I have made it to a really big milestone today. While Sunday is 37 weeks (which is considered full term) , today is the day that my doctor told me she wouldn't do anything to stop labor if it started on its own. It is an amazing feeling to know that I'm far enough along that my doctor would let Lily make an appearance if she decided to. There is no reason to think that she is going to come anytime soon, but it is a very big relief to have gotten to this point. When my doctor told me 36 weeks and a few days I didn't realize that would be before my birthday. I always thought we would have the chance of having her on my dad's birthday (the day before her due date), but never did I think there was the chance of having her on mine. I hope she decides to come on her own special day instead of sharing a birthday with someone else in the family.

The last few times that I have dreamed about her birth it has always happened on the same day. I am not going to say when that day is, but I do wonder if it is sign or if it is just something my subconscious wants. I'm not saying what day it is because I don't want people hounding me about whether she has come or not around that date.

Well, I think the break from cleaning is over. Hopefully I will stop at some point tonight and decide it is clean enough so I can get some sleep before a wonderful day with family and good food.

4 more weeks

Only 4 more weeks until my due date. This weekend I have been having different contractions than I had been having before. They still aren't painful, but they are definitely more intense than before. I am hoping that means something is happening and my body is getting ready to make Lily an outside baby. I am ready to let other people hold her too. I know that she still has another week till she is considered full term so I'm hoping she waits a little bit longer, but as soon as next Sunday comes she is getting her eviction notice. She will have 3 weeks or less to be on her merry way out of me.

There are still somethings that need to be done before she comes, but they are mostly just small things. I have tied up most everything at work, but another week of training the new girl would probably be helpful to her. The nursery is still kinda messy and unorganized, but so is the rest of our house. I don't think I can expect that room to be perfect. Plus, we probably won't use the nursery much when we first come home because she will be sleeping in our room. We will probably just change her diapers and dress her in there and spend the rest of the time on the couch and glider in the family room, or in bed with her in the bassinet. The bassinet does need to be picked up from my parents' house though. This is something that we will need our first night home. If we don't get it before we have to go to the hospital though I'm sure my parents will bring it over, or we always have to pass their house to get home from the hospital.

This weekend has been a lot of fun. Yesterday the family threw a surprise birthday party for my 95 year old grandma. I loved getting to see her face when she walked in and everyone. It wasn't just her kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids, but also her nieces and nephews and their families. It was great to see some of my cousins especially since I probably won't see them for Christmas.

We also had company from out of town this weekend. Our friends from Toledo came to visit which always makes for an interesting and entertaining weekend. I hope these weekends will be able to continue once Lily is here.

35 week picture

I really don't like this picture, but it definitely shows how big I have gotten. It was taken Sunday afternoon before we went to hang out with some friends to eat and watch football before the guys had the volleyball game. Well the girls surprised me with a baby shower. It was great because us girls got to eat and talk about baby stuff while the guys ate and watched football. We did get some gifts and they were all practical things that we really need.

Yesterday was a busy day off from work for both Sean and me. We went to meet with a pediatrician. We liked him except he just finished with all of his school and residency in June and is working on starting his own practice. I think both Sean and I would be a bit more comfortable with someone that has had a bit more experience. After that appointment we ran some more errands, ate, and went to my OB appointment. She is still not concerned with my swelling legs because I have no other symptoms that it could mean something. My blood pressure was actually lower this visit than the one 3 weeks ago. She did check for progress and there is none yet. I know that no progress at this point means nothing as to when I will deliver, but I will admit that I was slightly disappointed because I am starting to get to the point where I am done being pregnant. After the OB appointment we did some more errands including going to Target and Babies r us and getting a lot more for Lily. We then came home and Sean moved a whole bunch of furniture around and set up the dresser/changing table and the glider. I tried to spend sometime organizing the nursery last night, but it is so overwhelming what all has to be done that I don't know where to start. Hopefully this week and weekend I will be able to get some stuff done. I know once I get started it will be easy, it is just the actually getting started part that is hard.

35/35

Today is my 35/35. That means I am 35 weeks pregnant and only have 35 days left until my due date. While this milestone is not important at all it is still kind of cool. Things are really coming along. We are going either today or tomorrow and getting a few more things for the baby because I have some coupons that expire soon and some gift cards. We are also going one of these two days because Sean and I both actually have both days off. There are some weeks where we don't have any days off together and this week we have two! Too bad we have a long list of things that need to get done so we can't just spend time together doing fun stuff, but at least we can spend time together.

Yesterday mom and I put some stuff in an arts and craft show. I have never done one before with my own stuff (I helped mom when I was younger and she did them) so I really didn't know what to expect. Since I had zero expectations I was quite please with how I did. I found Christmas gifts for a bunch of people and still made more money than I spent. Hopefully I will get to do it again next year, but we will see how that goes with an almost 1 year old.

It is not even 10am yet and I have been awake for about 4.5 hours. Last night before going to bed I purposely turned off my alarm clock because I had nothing to do this morning and wanted to sleep in (I had to be at the art show by 7am yesterday and it was 40 minutes away from my house so sleeping in today sounded great). I figured I would wake up whenever my internal clock told me too. Unfortunately my "internal" clock, ie Lily, decided that 5:15 was a good time to be awake. She rolled, kicked, flipped, punched, danced, jumped, and whatever else she does in there, till I finally got up around 7.

countdown animation and rib kicks

On the side of my blog I got a new thing that counts down the days left until my due date. While I think the idea of this is great, I really don't like the animation on it. There is no way that Lily is just floating and bouncing around like that. She is squished. She is pushing on both my ribs and my bladder at the same time. She does not have that much room. I'm not completely complaining that she doesn't have that much room because the less room she has the sooner she is to being here for me to hold in my arms instead of my belly. I am more complaining that the animation is so inaccurate. I guess a little baby squished into that sphere probably wouldn't be as cute as the floating one, but it might make me feel a little better about all the kicks to the ribs I have been getting today.

34 weeks, cooking, dreams, and baby showers

34 weeks yesterday! I can't believe that in just 3 weeks she will be considered full term, or that in just over 2 weeks my doctor wouldn't do anything to stop me if I went into labor. The realization that we are going to be having this baby very soon is really starting to hit. I went on an online shopping spree last night at Babiesrus and got a lot of things we still needed. They were having a big sale on clearance items plus I had a bunch of coupons. There are still some coupons that I can only use in the store (which is fine because some of the stuff I want can't be bought online anyway) and I have some gift cards to use so I'm planning on making a trip to the store sometime this week or next too. The nursery is really getting full, but right now it just looks like a warehouse instead of an actual room. I really need to find the time to organize and clean it, but have been super busy with the arts and craft show this coming weekend. Hopefully after Saturday I will have more time to get stuff done around the house.

This weekend I was going to do a bunch of cooking. I wanted to make a bunch of meals and freeze them so that when Lily comes and we are just too tired to cook we can just pull one of them out instead of ordering pizza. I did end up making about 8 meals (all of which are big enough to actually be 2 nights worth of food for us, or at least one dinner and lunch the next day). I still have 6 more recipes that I want to do, but I ran out of chicken and was too worn out to go get any more. The 8 meals I did make only took me about 2 hours to do. Hopefully we like them because I'm hoping this is something I will continue in the future just so we have some already made meals handy. If we do like them I will post some of the recipes on here in case other people would like to try them as well.

One night late last week was littered with dream, both for me and the dog. Selene kept making noises in her sleep and moving her paws like she was running. It was quite adorable, but did keep me up. My dreams weren't quite so adorable. I had my first labor dream. It really wasn't a bad dream, but I can't believe how vivid it was for something that I have never actually experienced. I wonder how true it will become. The second dream I had was actually kinda cool. I was walking around a neighborhood and there were a bunch of people sitting out in their front yards and garages. At first I thought I was just going to garage sales, but then realized that I wasn't actually buying things, but that the people were giving me baby things. There were other pregnant women walking around to each house too. It was kinda like Trick-or-Treat for pregnant women.

This past week my co workers threw me a shower. It was great to spend time with all of them, eating wonderful food, celebrating Lily. They were all very thoughtful and got us the Exersaucer that we registered for and a gift certificate. I feel very special to be a part of such a wonderful group of people.

33 weeks

Baby's now the size of a honeydew!
Things are heating up inside as well: Baby may grow up to a full inch this week alone, and his brain is developing like crazy. Pretty soon, he'll be able to coordinate breathing with sucking and swallowing. Also, his bones are hardening, and he's started to keep his eyes open when he's awake.


Yesterday was Halloween. I was an angel and Sean was a devil. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of us. One of his coworkers took one so hopefully I can get it from her. Handing out candy last night was a lot of fun and got me really excited to get to dress Lily up next year.

Last night was also when you set your clocks back. Unfortunately you cannot set back the internal clocks of pets and babies. Lily started kicking extra early this morning and Selene decided that she needed to be fed at 7am. I had been looking forward to the extra hour of sleep since I definitely overdid myself yesterday. I went shopping in the morning at the outlets with Nicole and Michelle. It was a lot of fun, but I'm sore today from all the walking. Then I handed out candy and met some more of our neighbors. Then the Halloween party at some friends' house followed by a quick appearance at a party thrown by one of Sean's coworkers. Today is now being spent doing laundry and laying on the couch watching tv and sleeping (but mostly sleeping).

This week my coworkers are throwing me a baby shower. I feel so special that they would think to do that. I love how everyone there tries very hard to make it feel like a family.