Ready to Go

I started feeling some cramps last night, and after they didn't go away for an hour or so, I started looking into symptoms of labour and false labour (Braxton-Hicks contractions), cramping can be a symptom of both, although B-H contractions are not supposed to be painful (mine weren't).  In any case, I managed to sleep until 3, when I had to get up to pee.  

I still had the cramps at that point and was so paranoid that I might be in labour with my birth bag STILL not packed, that I couldn't get back to sleep until around 5am.

Needless to say, Ryan helped me pack the bag tonight, so we're pretty much ready to go!

Exciting!! :-)

It's been a while... (37 weeks)

This blog post is well overdue, so here goes...

On Sunday the 17th, my friends Jacquie and Anndrea hosted my friends' baby shower (and first shower ever, I might add!).  We had a wonderful time with some good friends and great food, including a magnificent cake that the hosts made (seriously!).

Here is a link to some pics from that shower.  I got some great gifts from the baby that day, including a baby carrier, some clothes (and Robeez shoes!), a few receiving and swaddling blankets and some baby toys.  Ryan and I are thrilled with everything!

Then, on Sunday the 24th, my aunt Christine hosted my family baby shower.  Another fantastic time with great people and food.

I was bombarded with gifts at this shower too.  I got so many baby clothes at this shower that I don't know where to put them all!  I need some time to sort through the clothes by size and put as much as I can into the baby's dresser, but I'm happy to have it all. We also received a play yard, a nursing pillow, some cute little boots, a hamper, some more receiving and swaddling blankets, some baby books, a diaper genie and a little lamb sound machine.  That, of course, is on top of the car seat and baby swing that we had been given from Ryan's sister and parents, respectively, a few months ago.  ** note: I have way more pics of this shower, but I reached my Flickr upload limit for the month :(

I feel spoiled and we don't even have the baby yet! We're so grateful for everything and truly appreciate it. What a great bunch of family and friends! :)

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As for me, I've been feeling a little rough as the time passes.  Between back aches, heartburn, lack of sleep and less room in my lungs to breathe, I now have the lovely experience of edema, or swelling.  My feet are balloons and run right into my legs (bye, ankles!).  I've also had to take off my wedding ring, as some of the swelling went into my hands too.


I'm very anxious to be done work, just so I can relax, get my feet up, and try to sleep more.
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I had my last bi-weekly midwife appointment this morning (from this point on I have weekly appointments).  I found out that, at 35 weeks 5 days, the baby weighed 3257g or just shy of 7lbs 3oz, which puts him in the 89th percentile in terms of weight.  That means that he dropped from the 95th percentile, which I'm totally fine with :)

My BP is still on the low normal side: 90/60 and my fundal height is 38cm.  The baby's heart rate is strong, between 130 and 140 bpm.  I tested negative for that Group B Streptococcus test, and my iron levels increased a bit, which means I don't have to up my iron supplement. Yay!

One interesting thing I found out today is that the baby's head is engaged in my pelvis, which is why he looks so low I guess.  Min can still move his head a bit, but it's not "floating", so that's a good sign.  She said this is really good for a first-time mom; many women don't have that happen until much later.

Min recommended drinking raspberry leaf tea now (which I've been doing for a week and a half - oops!) and taking Evening Primrose caplets.  She also gave me a bundle of post-partum information, which means we're really close now!

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Only 2 more days of work left to go, then technically I'm on vacation for 2 weeks before my due date!

35 Week Ultrasound

As expected, the ultrasound technician wouldn't give me details on the baby's weight. I'll have to wait a week and a half until I can find it out :-(

On a lighter note, I narrowly avoided having to have an internal probe to view the bottom part of my uterus.  Luckily the u/s tech was able to get whatever information she needed from the ultrasound alone.  *whew*

As for the baby, he has tons more fat on him, so when I got to see his face, it was SO chubby!  I got to see the chubby little face do the sucking motions in the womb.  So cute!  The angle of the shot she got for the picture is a little strange, but you can see how chubby he is!  LOL

I got another photo too, but I can't for the life of me tell what it is.  Hehehe... maybe you can figure it out?  Legs?  Arms?  Who knows :-P

35 Week Midwife Appointment

35 weeks, 2 days today for the appointment with my midwife.  Min is on vacation, so I had my appointment with my backup Ann and another very nice lady who is training in midwifery (but I can't remember her name).

I've officially gained 40lbs now, which has me tipping the scales in an unfavourable direction... They say anywhere between 25 and 40lbs is ok, but seeing as I have 5 weeks left, I find it a little doubtful that I won't gain any more.

Anyway, my BP is 96/58, which is the lowest yet, but they say it's still within my normal since my BP has always been on the low side.

Baby's heartbeat is 135, which is very good.  He's moving a lot still, which is also good. 

One GREAT thing is that my fundal height didn't grow this time!  It stayed at 36cm, which is now only 1cm ahead of that 1:1 ratio of # of weeks:cm.  Hopefully this means he's slowing down his growth a little bit, considering he's already in the 95-97th percentile in the size department. 

That was it for today.  Ultrasound Friday!

I'm waffling on the baby's name...

So don't go and buy anything with Owen on it just yet.  We've always liked another name, but an old friend from high school had given that name to his son.  At first I cared, but I'm caring less and less.  So there might be a name change on the horizon.

This baby naming business is hard.  This is his FOREVER name...

New long-sleeved onesies :)

My mom and I were looking for some baby clothes that said Daddy on it the one day we went shopping, but we didn't have any luck.  I guess my mom told this my sister-in-law Melissa because yesterday she came over and gave us these!  Too cute.

I guess she's really excited to have a little one around too, considering the baby shower's only 3 weeks away! LOL