36 weeks TOMORROW!!!! :) :) :)

I know I have said this quite a few times throughout my history with this blog... but... I STILL can't it!!! And I know what you're thinking... "Honey, BELIEVE it!" Tomorrow, I'll be 36 weeks, and I'm feeling good :)

How far along: 35 weeks 6 days! :) Cervix is still high and closed, too. 

Total weight change: Last week I was up to 38lbs (eek!) and this week I actually lost a pound, so 37 (still, eek!). But, again, I haven't been lectured, and my OB has not seemed concerned with my weight. He seems pretty happy with the progress I am making :) 

Maternity clothes: Still the same. I refuse to buy anymore maternity clothes, and am getting by with what I have. With the amount of time I have left, why bother? Plus, no need to layer in South Florida for Fall... I can get away with wearing the same ol' stuff. The only thing I need to get is... nursing bras and tanks!!! Need to head to Target for that... 

Stretch Marks: I am officially a zebra. Oh well :-/ It's for a good cause. Mr. DBud doesn't seem to mind, so I guess I won't let it bother me. 

Movement: He still moves quite a bit, but has definitely slowed down a lot. When he does move, it's mostly rolling and such. Sometimes, I look at my belly and it's completely lopsided! The FUN part is when he stretches and puts pressure on the upper part of my belly AND on my bladder. Not cool! lol! I am being sent for an Ultrasound on Monday to see how big he has gotten... this will be fun, since I haven't seen him since end of June!!! Looking forward to it :)

Sleep: Sleeping like a rock! Thank GOD! I am trying to get as much rest as possible, and find myself hitting the sack a lot earlier than I used to. I think my body is trying to tell me something... get your rest while you still can! ;)

Best Moment This Past Week: Finding out that our furniture arrived (Mr. DBud is out picking it up with his friend now) and getting the nursery ALMOST finished! Once the furniture is in place, we will only be missing the mattress, which his mom is getting for us, and putting the bedding in place. I am also in the process of figuring out what I am going to do for the wall area above the crib. I want to do something with his name, but am looking for some creative ideas that will match the "Safari Sky" theme. We shall see :)   

Most Difficult Moment This Past Week: My FIRST cervix check since being pregnant. Mr. DBud and I haven't been too "active" in the intimate department lately. Mostly because it is just too uncomfortable. Truth be told, it's been quite a while. So, when I went in to the Dr. yesterday, and he had to do cultures and all that good stuff, it was SO uncomfortable. That sucked. 

Belly Button In or Out: Still in... but doesn't seem like it will be for long lol! But seriously... I'll be surprised if it completely pops.

Cravings/Aversions: Still into chewing ice when it's hot and I feel dehydrated (and it still is here in South FLA). No other major cravings, though. 

Symptoms: Heartburn comes and goes, which can really suck at times... and the cold I've been battling for 2 and a half weeks is ALMOST gone. But, I speak like I have a frog in my throat, which is annoying since I'm a singer and so MENTAL about my voice. 

I am looking forward to finishing the nursery this weekend, and getting our bags packed. My official goal was to have EVERYTHING ready by 37 weeks which is NEXT weekend, so I think we are good :) :) :) I hope to have everything done by Friday the 5th so Mr. DBud and I can have a little Date Night and go see Frankenweenie :) I am a HUGE Tim Burton fan, and have been looking forward to seeing it. Hopefully, baby stays put until AFTER the movie. So far so good ;) 

Can't wait to post pictures... and hey, before long... I may be posting my Birth Story ;) 

Until next time!!!!! <3

Oops! It's been awhile...

I've tried to be really good about posting weekly to the blog but the end of this pregnancy has me going crazy! There is so much to do to prepare for baby how can I possibly blog?

Today I am 36 weeks 3 days (I think). I had my 36 week appointment on Tuesday and got some fun news! They did the GBS swab (yuck) and since they were down there anyway I asked to be checked. Guess what? 2 centimeters dilated and 50-60% effaced, yahoo! I know it *technically* doesn't mean anything BUT ask any pregnant woman and I bet she will say she was excited about any progress she had made. I figure those are 2 less centimeters I have to be in labor for.

My midwife also gave me the go-ahead to start taking Evening Primrose Oil three times a day. This will help soften my cervix. She also told me baby is facing posterior (sunny side up) which is usually the cause for some painful back labor. Great! So she gave me a sheet with ways to sit to help baby turn to the right side. I've been living in those positions since Tuesday. Back labor? No thank you!

I think I have gained between 20 and 25 pounds. I feel like a whale. I sure hope I can lose all this weight after baby is born.

Mr. BB is getting pretty excited about baby, he is always asking me whether I think baby is a boy or a girl (no idea) but will never share what he thinks (not fair)!

We can't wait to meet Baby BB. The kids are so excited! The car seat is installed, the cosleeper is set up, diapers are prepped, and the clothes are all washed. I have been nesting badly lately so hopefully I can clean/organize the whole house before this LO arrives since I know I won't be doing much cleaning with a newborn.

The nursery is not finished and I doubt it will be before Baby BB arrives. Oh well, what can you do? He/she will be sleeping in our room anyway. I am hoping we get it finished soon after LO is here though. The dry way is (FINALLY) going up this weekend. Then it will need mudding/sanding before we can paint and tile. I am actually heading over to pick out some tile right now.

Our last Bradley class is Tuesday, woo hoo! I'll also be full term then too. My Bradley instructor thinks I'll go into labor in the next two weeks, exciting!

I *will* *(at least try) to update Tuesday.

-Buttercup Bud

Nursery Update and L&D Tour

I don't think I ever did a post here showing our nursery beyond when we first got the crib in about 10 weeks ago. A lot has changed. The nursery is now pretty much done save for a few things to be hung on the wall and and a light to be put in over the changing table for night changes.

Here the nursery is in all its glory. I tried to note what make and model things were where I could, if you have questions I'll be glad to answer as best I can.

First up is my favorite nook of the whole room. The glider is a Dutailier, the fabric is Buff Laredo. We have the matching ottoman as well. The table, lamp, basket & clock are all things we had around the house. The blanket and pillow on the glider we got from Amazon, they are from the Carter's Forest Friends collection. In addition to these pieces, and the hamper you'll see in another shot, we have the wall hangings to go with the set as well...they just aren't up yet. The toys and toy bin were gifts from our shower and the Boppy I got from a local consignment shop.

Our crib is the Graco Lauren in Espresso. The bumper we have up in the photo is a breathable one. No worries, the stuffed animal and homemade blankets will be removed before the baby goes in the crib.

The changing table is Graco Lauren in Espresso just like the crib. Hamper is Carter's Forest Friends. The diaper pail is a Diaper Genie II Elite. The changing pad was another consignment store score, it has a Carters Soft Changing Pad Cover on it. The baskets are from Babies R'Us (they have monkeys on the other side that are adorable). The rest of the items were gifts. We're still looking for a light to mount to the wall over the changing table for night changes. If anybody has suggestions for one that is bright enough that we can see what we're doing, but not so bright it wakes the baby up all the way...please let me know.

A glimpse of half his closet, the other half looks about the same. The clothes are a mix of gifts and hand-me-downs. The bathtub (up top) is the Fisher-Price Ocean Wonders tub. The rest of the items pictures are a mix of books (gifts), breastfeeding supplies, and safety gear we'll need later. Not pictured is a dresser that we already had on-hand that is full of things like itty bitty onesies, handmade sweaters, bibs, crib sheets and the like.

Moving on to other recent news...we had our Labor & Delivery tour yesterday. It was pretty much an overview of the facilities. It was about an hour long and started by showing us where to park and enter the building (good starting point, lol). I already knew where L&D was from my previous visit at 24 weeks, but this time I got to see more than just the triage rooms. It was great to see in person a couple examples of the rooms I could be delivering in. They also showed us what rooms we'd be in for the post-delivery portion of our stay, which I also liked. What I thought was funny is that my husband and I found different parts of the tour relevant. He cared about things like where to park, where the cafeteria is, what floor myself and the baby will be on at a given point. I cared about the accommodations, finding out what level NICU they have there just in case (Level III), and things like if baby will be rooming in with me and if they are breastfeeding friendly (he will, and they are). All-in-all it seems like a pretty good set up there.

28 Weeks

Belly Measurement/Weight: 28 inches and up 2 pounds.

Physical Progress: Some of my maternity shirts are getting too short.

How I am feeling about my body: I feel good about how my body looks but physically I feel crappy much of the time. My ribs are so sore! My back hurts too so I am just uncomfortable.

Energy Level: I don't have much energy anymore. I think I am tired because I am not sleeping well at night. I do a lot of tossing and turning due to pain.

Baby Movement: With all the stress I have been under, Baby BB moves a lot! As I said before I really enjoy the movement.

I had my glucose test and I haven't heard anything, no news is good news with my Midwife but then again I only took it 2 days ago. I also started my Bradley Classes on Tuesday. Mr. BB was out of town for work (boo) so my mom came with me since she will be in the room for our labor. I really liked the Bradley instructor she was very fun but also knew what she was talking about. The other couples in our class are around our age and everyone is having a girl except for 1 other couple who are Team Green like us. We have homework already which I have yet to do!

We haven't made any progress on the nursery with everything going on which makes me anxious. We have a little less than 3 months to go! Not to mention my shower is in a month, so we will have baby stuff but no where to put it. I'm honestly not sure how we are going to get it all done. I was 8 days early with DD so I am thinking this one might be early too! If that is the case we have even less time. Ahh stress, apparently I can't get enough.

Congrats to Sassy Bud, B is so beautiful! We will surely miss you on the blog, good luck with everything.

All the best,

18 Weeks and some thoughts...

First I will start with the usual updates:

Belly Measurement/Weight: I am not sure the correct way to measure but I measured in a line through my belly button around and it was 34 1/2 inches.

Physical Progress: Still a little round bump, I got asked today if I was expecting!

How I am feeling about my body: I am still feeling good about my body, I like to see the progression of my belly from my weekly pictures.

Cravings/Aversions: Yesterday it was chocolate milk and dill pickles!

Energy Level: It seems to have fallen a bit but I am not sleeping well. I wake up 1-2 times to go to the bathroom and a handful more because I keep ending up on my back! I hate not being able to sleep on my stomach or back.

Baby Movement: Baby seems MUCH more active this week than last week. He/she is rolling and moving all the time.

Thoughts/Feelings/Emotions: I am still enjoying being pregnant. I go from thinking wow, almost half way there! To oh my gosh I still have that long to go! I am excited for Mr. BB to be able to feel baby move soon, he has not felt baby yet.

Mr. BB and I decided not to find out if we are having a boy or a girl before we even got pregnant. How I wish we would not have made that decision because I SO want to know! It is driving me nuts not to know. Mr. BB will not let me give in and ask our midwife. She has known what baby is since 12 weeks when we had the CVS. I kind of hope that the u/s tech at our anatomy scan accidentally shows/tells us!

I have been reading a ton of books about pregnancy and birth.I went to the library and checked out 3 on birth alone. Right know I am reading 'Husband-Coached Childbirth' by Robert A. Bradley. Of course he is the founder of The Bradley Method of Childbirth. It is very interesting! I am planning on have a natural childbirth and want to be as prepared as possible.

I got something to theme the nursery off! I was in BRU and picked this up:



Our plan is to base the room off this so we will be painting the walls one of the colors off the turtle, probably the green. We will also get sheets and a bed skirt and a breathable bumper. Basically we are not going with a theme from a crib set. I am very excited since I couldn't find anything I wanted to use that was gender neutral. I feel like with these colors we can add some purples of baby is a girl or some darker blues if baby is a boy. Yay!

I hope all my fellow buds are doing well!

Welcome to 3rd Tri!

I can't believe I am in 3rd tri already!

I just had my 28 week appointment. I'm now going every 2 weeks. Everything was great, except she noticed that my blood pressure has been creeping up over the last few appointments so she wants me to keep an eye out for any headaches or vision issues.

I am noticing that I am much more tired in the morning, and it's getting harder to move around with this belly.

We finished Brynn's nursery! Here's a preview of her crib (minus the mattress) and name wall.

We are going on vacation to Dallas and Vegas in a few weeks and I am hoping I don't swell up or get super exhausted while we are there.

That's about all I have to report for now. Everything is going great and I really can't complain!

V-Day & GTT

Tomorrow I will be 25 weeks pregnant. I know everyone says this, but time really does fly. I think weeks 14-18 were sort of slow and boring but now that the weather is getting nicer, I'll be keeping very busy until August.


I passed the 24 week "viability" day last week, which was a huge milestone. I also had my glucose tolerance test yesterday. The glucola drink wasn't the greatest tasting thing, but it wasn't all that bad either.

Photo Credit

The worst part was sitting in the waiting room forever. So boring! My OB does a 2-hour test per the new guidelines so I got to sit there for 2 hours and 3 blood draws.

The good news is, I passed the GTT! No gestational diabetes here. I was very relieved to hear that.

Mr. Sassy Bud and I have been working on the nursery, so hopefully I'll have pics of that to share soon. We set up all the furniture and painted the walls. Things are really starting to come together!

I've Been MIA--Updates Galore!

I have to apologize for being MIA over the past few weeks. Work has been nuts, and I've been running around nonstop trying to get stuff done at home too (in between work travel and personal travel). It's been overwhelming at times. So I'll get you updated, and now that I have a new laptop, I'll be updating you far more often :)

Baby is doing great! I'm 16 weeks, 5 days today. We had our 15 week appointment two weeks ago, and talked about nutrition (I'm doing well but need to eat more veggies), the midwife answered some questions we had, and then we got to hear the heartbeat again (150's). Our anatomy scan is scheduled for April 20, at 8am. We're still team green, but are looking very forward to seeing Magnolia Bud v2.0 again. Especially because it may be our last ultrasound until we meet him or her in September if everything continues to go well. I am starting to get concerned that the ultrasound will show a shorter cervical length than we'd like, because my LEEP was still less than a year ago. But there's nothing we can do about it between now and the ultrasound, so I'm trying not to think about it and not to worry.

We've been thinking about working on our registries, so after our 15 week appointment, we went to the birth center's store and tried on some baby carriers. We both loved the Moby, and even Mr. Magnolia Bud was able to get it tied properly after one try. We also loved the Ergo, and think those two will work well for our family. We're going to be spending some serious time working on the registry this week and next week.

Around the house, Mr. MB has started painting the baby's room. We chose Sherwin Williams 6764, Swimming, as the wall color, and are leaving the trim and ceiling white. The first coat is done, and Mr. MB will finish the second coat later this week when I'm out of town. He's also going to be painting our bathroom and the guest room while I'm out of town--so all we'll have left before MB2.0 gets here is our room, the hallway, MB2.0's bathroom, and our fourth bedroom. Haha, now that it's in writing, it sure seems like a lot!

In terms of baby gear, I told you a while back that we bought our co-sleeper, right? Mr. MB set it up in our room to see how it looks, and it's become a permanent sleeping place for one of our cats. Our room is huge--stretches across the entire front of our house, and it doesn't have much in it but our bed and nightstands--so the co-sleeper isn't in the way. Knowing that, we're just going to keep it up for now. We're borrowing a crib from our best friends, and Mr. MB set that up in the baby's room to make sure all the parts were there and get it cleaned.

We set a date for one of my showers--Mr. MB's family is throwing us one on July 31, when I'll be 33 weeks. My mother in law is so excited about anything baby--it's really cute. She's already called all of her friends to tell them to save the date, and she's going to be sending out invites at the end of next month. I don't think my mom is throwing us one anymore, which is fine with us--I'd much rather her put her effort into one great one for my sister, since she's only having one.

Otherwise, I'm feeling great. I have my energy back, the weather is great (70's-80's and sunny most days), my job is overwhelming but I'm doing fairly well at it, and I can eat again. I've started gaining weight (up 5lbs from pre-pregnancy), my nutrition is on track, and we've started reading childbirth books. Our birth classes (8-week series at the birth center) start May 2, and will be every Monday night from 7:30-10pm. We also signed up for a breastfeeding class at the birth center on September 1, and a Baby Care Basics class at the Women's Hospital near our house in July.

Hope you're all doing well! I'm loving reading about all of my fellow Buds' journeys.
Lots of love, Magnolia Bud

Made it Halfway & other baby things

This Wednesday I will be 22 weeks!

Baby Sassy Bud is the size of a banana this week.

Photo Credit

I have been feeling movement regularly for a while now. I think I can feel it from the outside but Mr. Sassy Bud hasn't gotten his hand there in time to feel it yet. Her kicks are definitely getting stronger now.

We have also made some baby purchases over the past few weeks. We got our nursery set. It's the Nursery Smart Chelsea collection:

Photo Credit

We got a great deal on it from cribs.com. I have also started my cloth diaper stash. I'll save that for another later post but I got a ton of hand me downs along with some great sales on a few different CD sites.

Things have been crazy lately due to my law school semester ending (finals!!) and tax season but I'm sure I'll have lots of fun stuff to share in the near future. Stay tuned!

Halfway there!!!

*breathes* 20 weeks!!! FINALLY!! I swear time has been dragging by. Hopefully, it will speed up a bit more now.

Baby has been very active at nighttime now, kicking up a storm and doing all kinds of somersaults and stretching himself out as straight as he can go. The only person who has felt it so far has been the cat who was irritated at being kicked while she was laying on my belly and ran away.

We've been very busy in the nursery! I'm so proud of how it's coming together so far.

We got it all painted the solid color so far (Gecko Green) but still need to work on the wide navy stripe this weekend. Curtains hung!

Bedding is all washed and put on the crib now.


This weekend, Mr. Sunflower gets to tackle this fun job:

Those boxes are the glider/ottoman, dresser and travel system. Dresser is priority so I can start getting all of the clothes out of the closet and organized into the dresser.

My mom bought us the travel system (our car seat from Little Sunflower Bud was pink so that just wouldn't do and Mr Sunflower Bud doesn't love our JEEP jogging stroller as much as I do) and I'm so excited about the stroller. It's the Graco Quattro Tour Reverse and the seat flips to face both forward and backward!


There is a little slide latch on the top of the seat that you slide and push down and it flips the seat to face like this:
~ Sunflower Bud ~

"Big" Ultrasound!!!

Hellllloooo 19 weeks!!! I feel like time is dragging by so slowly!! Speed up already, I'm ready to meet this kiddo!

We had our anatomy ultrasound this morning. Baby is still a beautiful boy and healthy as can be!! He was incredibly active, moving all around and rarely stopping. Everything looked absolutely perfect. Heart looked great, brain looked great, spine, kidneys, etc. He's a big boy, already in the 62nd percentile at 11oz. Heartbeat was steady in the 150's.

We loved watching him move around in there. He was constantly touching his face and putting his hands in his mouth. And stretching his super long legs out as straight as he could get them! That's not going to feel very good in a few weeks...

Dr. M said that we should start feeling him on the outside in around 3 weeks. That will be so awesome!

A little concern about the Braxton Hicks I was having yesterday. I was averaging around 4 an hour all day long. They weren't painful, but they weren't very comfortable either. She said it was a little early for that to happen that often so she wants me upping my water intake to make sure I'm as hydrated as possible. If they still continue, I'm to call.

There is also some concern about my pelvis being too narrow for a VBAC so when I go back in 4 weeks, they want to do some exams/tests to measure it. And Dr. M said they will also be monitoring baby boy's head size towards the end of the pregnancy since Little Sunflower Bud's head size was the reason I ended up with an emergency c-section.

For someone who was initially upset when finding out it was a boy 3 weeks ago, I was panicked at the thought that it might be wrong and be a girl after all. I couldn't love this little boy more and I'm so proud of be the mother of a son.

We decided against the bedding we used with Little SB and I instantly fell in love with the Giggling Turtles set from Baby Gap... only to discover it was discontinued!! But a very dear friend from high school found it at a local consignment shop in perfect condition!!!

I'm so excited. My mom is coming up this weekend to paint the nursery. We're going to do green walls and I ordered navy and dark green turtle decals from Etsy.

We ordered our dresser and glider as well and they should both be here by Monday. My mom is taking me shopping this weekend and she's going to buy us a new travel system. Our infant carseat is pink so we need a new one and Mr. Sunflower Bud doesn't love our Jeep stroller as much as I do so he wants a new stroller.

~ Sunflower Bud ~

Time is going sooooooooo slow.

I turned 15 weeks on Friday. Waiting so impatiently for the elective gender scan we scheduled for the 12th. I cannot wait to find out what we are having. I will be thrilled with either but have a slight preference for a girl so we can re-use all of the girl clothes that we already have. Not to mention that sisters are just awesome!

After the recommendation of many of my friends, I purchased the Fisher Price Rock N Play Newborn Sleeper. I'm very excited about this because we can keep it in our room next to the bed which will make for easy middle of the night feedings for the first few months. I love that it has an incline just in case this baby has reflux like our daughter did.
I'm torn right now on breastfeeding. I had a difficult time with my daughter and my milk never fully came in. It was a very stressful time and the colic made it very difficult as well. I am determined to try harder this time but I'm just so unsure if I want to breastfeed or just pump and bottle feed. I didn't particularly enjoy breastfeeding for the short duration that I did it. I have a few more months to ponder the subject.

We did go a different route this time with bottles. We used Dr. Brown's last time but the ones we had weren't BPA free since that whole fiasco wasn't out at the time we were using bottles. So we threw those away and we decided to try Playtex Drop Ins this time. After having to wash so many parts with Dr. Brown's for so long, we liked the idea of having much fewer pieces to wash. Strangely, I'm actually very excited about bottle washing again. I enjoyed it.

I'm building my cloth diaper stash back up again. I only had mostly larges and some one sizes left over from my daughter and they were all girly colors. So I've started purchasing some smalls and mediums in gender neutral colors. BumGenius 3.0's, Fuzzibunz, and Beeber's Butts (Have to support my friend on her business!). Again, I'm strangely excited to start washing diapers again too. Little Sunflower Bud enjoys when new diapers come in the mail. She loves how small and soft they are and she knows right where they go in the baby's room and wants to put them there herself.

She is still very insistent that she's having a baby sister. Only a few more days until we know for sure!

I've started to relax quite a bit finally about the pregnancy. Though, unfortunately, the pregnancy hasn't started to relax for me. I still have some pretty major bouts of morning sickness for about 5 out of 7 days a week and I'm still very exhausted a lot of the time. Still hoping it gets better and lets up a bit.

Time is dragging!

Happy 14 weeks to me!

I gave up on Team Green and decided that I really wanted to know the gender. I have an elective gender scan scheduled for 16w2d on February 12th and I can't wait!!!!

Still haven't morning sickness on and off, some days worse than others. Slowly getting my 2nd tri burst of energy.

In my impatience to get things started, I went ahead and put the bassinet together with the help of Little Sunflower Bud. She had a great time helping and is really excited for baby sister (she refuses to accept that it might be a brother) to get here.


To start off the trend that we had with DD, we got baby their very first Wubbanub!


The crib is in but still needs to be picked up. Hoping to get it put together at the end of February when Mr. Sunflower Bud's brother is visiting and can help him move the guest bed down to what is currently the office.

NT scan

We had our NT scan this past week and baby is PERFECT. And apparently, extremely active. He/she never once stopped moving. The tech had a hard time getting measurements because of how much the baby was moving around. We were all laughing because it was just amazing to watch.

And it brought tears to my eyes to see that the baby really looks like a baby now:



Baby is measuring one day ahead and has a wonderfully strong heartbeat of 178.

Morning sickness is hit or miss now. Some days I have it, some I don't. Some days I think are going to be good and then I get hit with it later in the evening.

I was allowed to stop the progesterone suppositories and it was AWESOME. I do not miss them at all!!! 2 1/2 months on those and I am so thankful to have my vagina back to myself. :)

There's no hiding it anymore either.... I'm definitely showing:


After the NT scan and being reassured once again that everything is fine, the placenta is there and baby looks wonderful, I am finally really relaxing now and we even bought our crib yesterday!!!

We just went with a simple black crib with simple lines. Since this is most likely our last baby, we weren't interested in spending hundreds of dollars on it. But this one looks nice and got great reviews and several of my friends have it.
We'll be using the Wendy B Honey Bee bedding:


I found the perfect glider for it at BRU and I'm going to be stalking it to go on sale or looking for a coupon.

Still keeping the rest of my Buds in my prayers and hoping to see great news from everyone soon!

Here at 37 weeks, I'm like the post office....

... delivering the post in the rain, sleet, snow and now even in the face of a completely dysfunctional laptop.

My mother used my laptop the other day. She was waiting for the crib delivery for me while I had an appointment. I thought I was being nice by leaving it all internet ready for her. Ugh. That night it was all over. Thankfully, Mr DB is an IT manager and got right on trying to figure out what was wrong. Initially, my virus scanner found two cookie trackers and a virus, which it scrubbed... but later, a more advanced scanner found traces of a "rootkit", which apparently has some positive connotations, but not in this case.

So, i've now been without my laptop for 2 days. Hopefully I'll have it back by tomorrow morning, because I really need to do some school work.

Anyway, so here's me - on my husbands MacBook. I have no idea how to use this thing, so bear with me!

I know I said I'm like the post office - but in this case, the only thing I'm delivering at this time IS this post. As of my weekly appointment yesterday, my cervix is still closed, but softening. I am taking evening primrose oil twice a day to help that process, but like many of the "wives tales", they're not going to work until your body is ready for them too. And I'm only 37 weeks 1 day. I'm not in a big hurry. Smudge will come when s/he's ready. I've been taking my vitamin C though, to help make sure that my membranes don't rupture before i go into labor. The last thing I want to do is be watching a clock, and be given a limit on how long they'll let my labor go. As long as they stay intact, i'm good to go. Smudge is dropping though. The head is closer to my cervix than last week, so that's a bonus.

Last week was a really disappointing moment for me, when for the first time in my pregnancy, I had an uncontrollable weight gain. In 2 weeks I had gained 4 pounds, which I was horrified about. Until that point, I had been doing REALLY well. I'm blaming it on a number of things.

1. I had finally given in to some cravings, which I hadn't before at all. Oh bread - how I missed thee.
2. I wasn't as good about my water intake.
3. I was drinking a LOT of orange juice.
4. I was eating a bit too much salt.

All of those things combined did not do me any favors on the scale. But I'm THRILLED to report that although I didn't lose weight this week, I also didn't gain anything. So, i'm at 21 pounds for 37 weeks. Not horrible, I don't think. Yes, it's over my initial goal of 20 pounds for the pregnancy, but I think at this point, if I don't go over 25 i've done a really good job.

37 weeks and counting!

Meanwhile, we've been busy trying to get everything ready for the baby in the house.

The nursery is just about done. Auntie DB is coming by on sunday to help me get everything ready while Mr DB finishes a couple of projects that I would like done before the baby comes. But this is where we are right now! I still have a couple of diapers to prep, but I'm going to wait another week. A VERY generous online friend is sending me some diapers, and I'm just going to wait to wash them all together. Check out our nursery so far... we're almost done!!

Story Corner

places to hang out in the living room

diaper central

oodles of prepped diapers

our crib

So, i know this isn't a very exciting update. 37 weeks pregnant. Nothing exciting to report. Taking the EPO to try to help things along. Drinking my Red Raspberry Leaf tea to strengthen my uterus for labor. And waiting.

Waiting.

Waiting.

Waiting.

I'll leave you with this. It made my day yesterday when we got home from the doctor. In the middle of November, when everything else around it is dead and dying.... the morning after a horrid thunderstorm with damaging winds... this little guy refuses to give up and go. Sticking it out, knowing only the strongest will survive.

Stubborn Dandelion

There's a full moon this sunday.... i'm not saying anything, and I certainly won't be surprised to be just a little more pregnant on monday than I am today. But i'm a big believer in the full moon. So, I guess we'll see!

34 Week Update

8 1/2 months pregnant and trucking along.....

We had a great 34 week appointment with Dr Loh. The best news is that after finally finding and making an appointment with a Webster trained chiropractor and then trying some inversion exercises on Spinning Babies, tuesday night Smudge flipped! We now have a head down, LOA baby!! I know at 34 weeks, anything can still happen - but I'm just so happy right now. I made Dr Loh pull out the u/s to prove to me that the baby was head down. It was awesome. We didn't get more than a peak at Smudge's skull - but it was in the right spot and that's all that matters.

Mr DB keeps laughing at me now... especially when Smudge has a foot in my ribs, which has pretty much been consistent since s/he flipped. My favorites are when I have a foot in my rib and a hand on my cervix at the same time. SO comfortable. He says that Smudge is saying, "how do you like me, NOW, Momma?" Eh - i wanted the flip - so I'm not going to complain. I am, however, going to keep trying to move this foot!

Other good news from the OB's office... at 34 weeks I've gained a total of 17 pounds. At 32 weeks, it was 16. If I can keep this up - i might actually be able to stay at my goal of 20-25 pounds for the pregnancy, which would make me VERY happy.


Mr DB has been doing a great job in the nursery. He built a closet organizer last weekend:

ready for doors!

and hopefully after this weekend, the room will be done and ready for furniture (which is coming next monday). We just ordered some decals for the walls, and I can't wait to start decorating. We have 3 pictures that match the bedding, decals that match the bedding and I found a dandelion decal that I just got permission to order as well - and we're going to get it in a light green called "celadon". At first Mr DB was anti-dandelion decal, saying it's too girly and what if Smudge is a boy. But I think he figured out pretty quickly that I really wanted it! Yay! We're going to put it up in the space to the right of the closet above the wainscoting and have the seeds blowing out up and over the closet to the left (you can order the decal with the seeds blowing in either direction).

we'll have the dandelion facing the other direction and the seeds blowing the other way

So - that's it for now... our next appointment is with the perinatologist next friday. Hopefully we'll get a good look at Smudge then. I can't wait to get a weight estimate.

I can't believe it's almost time to meet this baby that it took us so long to make!

32 week update and baby shower pictures!

I'm sitting here trying to think of something eloquent to type - but I'm too tired and too sick to be creative this morning. Sorry readers! I have a killer sinus thing going on, and add that to Smudge waking me up at 3:30am, my creativity is quashed today.

So - i'll just stick to the facts, ma'am.

And the fact is, I'm 32 weeks pregnant? Um, what? When did that happen? That's just crazy. We had a very uneventful visit this morning with Dr Loh. I'm up a total of 16 pounds for 32 weeks, so that's not too terrible. I'm not happy that the last 2 of them are in the last 2 weeks... but i'm just going to keep eating healthy, like i have been and not sweat it. I'm too freakin' tired to really exercise, so cest la vie. Smudge is finally headed, well, head down! I'm not getting too excited about it though. It wouldn't be the first time Smudge has decided to hang out on a diagonal. So, only time will tell.

It was funny when she was trying to find the heartbeat again - she said "he really wants me to chase him, doesn't he?" I just laughed. S/he kept moving and she would ask me if I felt the movements. You better believe it, sister. This kid HATES the doppler. It cracks me up. Smudge just kept rolling over every time she would focus in on the heart beat. Silly baby.

serious amounts of loot

This past sunday, my mom and sister threw a baby shower for us! We got a ton of loot. We only had 3 major things left to get afterwards: our carseat, the pack and play and the video monitor. Well, the next day I found a 20% off coupon for ALL monitors at BRU, so we went through the stuff that we wanted to return from the shower, and found about $100 worth of things we hadn't registered for. Between that and the coupon, the Slim and Secure Video Monitor only cost us $60. That's not too bad. We also got enough in gift cards that with using a coupon, we'll be able to get the Chicco KeyFit 30 car seat. So, really the only thing left is the Chicco Lullaby LX Discovery Pack and Play... and we're hoping we'll find it cheaper somewhere online.

My (I mean Smudge's) PBK Lambie - plays a heartbeat, nature, rain and whale ssounds. And it's SO soft. And, check out the belly - there's no doubt where the 2 pounds came from now, is there?

Gratuitous picture of me with Smudge's Papagayo Monkey. {{{LOVE}}}

Our awesome Papagayo bedding set (click on the link to see a better picture)

The baby's room is coming along really nicely. Mr DB finished laying the laminate floor, the walls are painted and the wainscoting and chair rail are up. We have to paint the molding and get that on, and then paint the wainscoting and chair rail, and then we'll be pretty much ready for furniture. Awesome. Here's a sneak peek at how hard my wonderful husband has been working:

That's it for now. Hope you're all doing well. Smudge and I are going to sit here, drink our tea and try to get some rest.