The countdown is on!

Lots to catch up on! The previous post was done nearly 10 weeks ago! In pregnancy time, that means a lot has changed. We'll go ahead and get pregnancy updates out of the way..

-Glucose test came back fine, or at least I assume so since I never heard anything about it or the results.
-I had my last four week apart appointment, then went through two two-week apart appointments, and now I'm on the weekly ones. Which I secretly love because I get out of work and I get to hear the baby's heartbeat!
-Weight gain is going on a staggering 35 (closer to 40) lbs I'm ashamed to admit. BUT I did read that women carrying boys tend to eat more than those carrying girls ... for the time being I'll take comfort in that fact. Our baby boy is just really growing and I can't seem to ever get full!
-Belly circumference is somewhere between 44-45 inches.
-As of this past Monday, the baby is measuring at 37 cm, so 37 weeks, which is a little ahead of schedule (yes baby, please come early!) And I'm not sure if this is too much to share but I'm 80% effaced and 1cm dilated. Time to start the power-waddle walks and stair climbing!
-We (me and baby) had two wonderful showers thrown in baby's honor. We are so grateful for the generosity of our friends and family! It has made the 'getting-ready-for-baby' process much easier.
-While my parents were out at the end of April we pretty much finished up the nursery. I had the valance still to make and the chair to buy but those things are done and the nursery is as ready as I think it will be. (pics below!)
-I have the rest of this week and next week left for work then it is time to really get ready for baby. If baby is on time I'll have two weeks between work and due date. We'll see how that time goes. Right now it sounds wonderful because waking up at 6:30am has become a nearly impossible task and trying to look semi-decent for work has seriously become an impossible task. (Imagine trying to fit a king-size down comforter in a pillow case and that is a good indication of how it is trying to fit into any clothes)

We are getting more and more excited every day to meet our little guy! Well you can look at these pictures and decide whether or not he qualifies as 'little'. :-)
(Sorry for the self-taken pictures! My photographer has school tonight :-) )
And our sweet one's humble abode:
(dark picture, sorry!)

Other happenings in our lives over the last ten weeks...

We celebrated our 3 year anniversary! It was on a Monday, we just had dinner at the house and exchanged cards. This weekend we are headed up to Park City for a night to have some R&R and shopping. We love our 3-day weekends!

Justin went to Brazil (Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro) for a staggering 10 days for his required MBA international trip. Thankfully my parents were out here and stayed at our place. I also had a couple days off work to spend with them. We we kind of able to chat through Skype every night... with long internet connection interruptions. I wish I could have gone with him, some of the beaches he went to look beautiful! But most of the time they spent touring businesses so it was definitely a trip more than it was a vacation. He got some good pictures but I'll let him blog about the trip. Justin finished up his 2nd spring block of classes and now is 3 weeks into his 7 wk long summer classes. Right after the baby is due he finishes up classes for the summer and we get to enjoy a school-free Justin until the beginning of September! Wahoo! Which works out great because I don't think our summer (weather-wise) is really going to begin until mid-June.

I think that is a good enough catch-up for now :-) Baby wants to lay down and watch some Design Inc. ...

Where is the time going??

Thankfully each week seems to be flying by. While my bulging belly is making life more difficult I am mainly just ready to meet our sweet little boy! Staying busy has been a good thing for us, granted Justin's busy life is borderline insane. I am ready for him to get a break from school...which will coincidentally come a week after our baby is due to arrive! Perfect timing!

Not much to update on other than I actually found the perfect bedding! There are a few different patterns and colors and it is a nice mix between modern and baby. Its by Lambs & Ivy, called Jumbo. I took the honorary belly picture in front of it so you can get a glimpse of it. I am very excited to get the rest of the nursery ready.

I am 28 weeks, soon to be 29! Ready to be out of the 20's. Had my 28 wk doctor appointment today, fundus and heartbeat are right on track. Successfully completed the glucose test, fingers crossed for healthy, normal results. I had pretty severe Braxton Hicks contractions at work on Friday. They were coming at 5 minutes apart! I went home early and laid down and they thankfully went away, whew! Since then they have been infrequent and inconsistent. I have one more appt 4 weeks away then two 2 week-apart appointments then on to the weekly appointments...yay!

PG Cupcakes & Other Birthday necessities

This past week I geared up for Justin's birthday by doing something I find to be quite fun...clothes shopping (for Justin, it isn't fun when I'm shopping for myself) and baking. Justin said he didn't have much to wear these days so one evening and two stores later I had quite the stockpile of clothes to help supplement his wardrobe. Granted, he doesn't find receiving clothes all that exciting :-(.

After the gifts were bought I started attacking a pretty hefty load of baking. First it was lemon cupcakes with strawberry cream cheese icing and chocolate ganache-filled cupcakes with vanilla icing (hence the title...PG Cupcakes.. :). Thanks Mom for the strawberry cream cheese icing and chocolate ganache cupcake recipes! Whenever I attempt domestic things (cooking, sewing, baking, etc) I go in with the best intentions but it often times turns into a scrambled mess. I was so pleasantly surprised and thankful that all the baking went so smoothly! (Thank goodness for that too, I'm sure I would have had a total meltdown had things gone awry)

The cupcakes were meant to be a surprise for Justin and our coworkers for celebrating his birthday on Friday (his birthday was on the 19th though). Thursday night, despite Justin's lack of curiosity, I caved and told him what they were for. He really doesn't like having any attention at work regarding his birthday... which explains why the decorations I put up in his office came down in a record 1 minute after he arrived to work Friday morning! Anyway I think the cupcakes were yummy and hopefully no one got sick from them!


In the midst of making/decorating the cupcakes I also made Justin's birthday cake layers. I made them Thursday night then wrapped them up well and froze them to be put together Saturday. (First time I have froze the layers in advance and it made things so much easier when leveling the layers and assembling them!). Friday night I made the cream cheese icing for the inside and top of the cake. Saturday I made the Chocolate Ecstasy icing for the sides of the cake. Put these all together and ta-da! You get a very yummy (but rich) Chocolate Birthday cake!



Whew last week was so intensely busy but great. We had a great Saturday celebrating Justin's birthday. Thanks for all the birthday cards and wishes that we sent his way. Another year older and another year wiser!

PS If anyone wants the recipes for the cupcakes, icing or cake just let me know! They are easy recipes I promise!

Baby bump!

I am 24 weeks along! Tomorrow I go in the for the dreaded (at least that is what my friends say about it) glucose test. Let's hope everything is right on track! Feeling the baby kick every day now, as is Justin, and anyone else who is brave enough to put their hand on my belly (haha). It's so wonderful having Justin help out with simple little things that I used to be able to do by myself... put my shoes and socks on...tie my shoes...zip up my boots..okay anything basically that has to do with me bending over requires help! And I have gotten more clumsy lately, so Justin is constantly bending down to pick something up it seems like! No sign of kidney stones (thank goodness), just having to deal with sore hips/loose ligaments. Happy to almost be down to the double digit countdown! Whew!

P.S. I am going crazy trying to find a suitable travel system, bedding, rocker, & diaper bag. Any suggestions...especially with the travel system and diaper bag?! I would really like to make my own bedding but who knows if I'll find the time to do that.

A rolling stone gathers..

Lots of pain! We got quite a surprise this week, granted not the good kind of surprise one would hope for! Tuesday morning Justin went to work early to play basketball and left his phone at home (he never does that!). I was working till 6pm that day so I was going to go in a little later than usual. I started getting ready for work when my lower abdominal area became very sore and uncomfortable. I thought I was having some type of cramps so I called over to my doctor's office when they opened (8:30am). I described the type of pain I was having, to which the front desk lady said "I'll have a nurse call you back and we can maybe get you in to see the doctor tomorrow." There was no way I was waiting! I told her with the type of pain I was in I couldn't wait another minute so they had me come in to see the doctor. The nurse thought I was having a bladder infection, which didn't seem far-fetched to me. After having a urine culture done, (and sorry for the graphic nature of this post).. they found blood in my urine.

By the time they put me in one of the patient rooms at the doctor's office I was in so much pain! It now had spread to my lower back and my upper right back. The doctor came in and explained what they thought it might be...kidney stones! So he sent me to the hospital (AF hospital) which is thankfully just next door. I had to wait for the nurse to get an ultrasound scheduled at the hospital so I sat in another nurse's chair behind the front desk, sobbing my eyes out! Side note: Definitely not my proudest moment looking back on it, but at the time I had zero self-awareness or any awareness for that matter. I called Justin at work and told him the situation and that he could meet me at the AF hospital. In the meantime, the sweetest nurse was helping me try and walk over to the hospital. We didn't get very far before my breathing had taken a turn for the worse so she drove us, in our highlander, over to the hospital. My sweetheart was waiting for me there, it was so wonderful to see him finally!

I'll skip over some of the more embarrassing details ... basically they did an ultrasound and found hydro (?)/inflammation on my right kidney. So the ultrasound tech said to go back to the doc's office. After driving back there and waiting for 15 minutes to see the doc, he said to go right back to AF hospital to Labor & Delivery. We got settled in a room on the labor & delivery floor (after waiting for what seemed like forever), the nurses came in with liquid relief. Another side note: I have always dreaded IVs, I hate the idea of a needle being in my hand and staying there. After the nurse tried putting the IV in my hand she announced that my veins were too small. I offered her my trustworthy-blood-drawing spot, the inside of my left elbow. (Again, I hate having blood drawn but with events in the past couple years I've gotten used to it-I just squinch my eyes and look away). That area worked and I was pumped with IV fluids and Morphin within no time. That took most of the edge off the pain but my right upper back was still hurting quite a bit. They gave me another drug (Tordal) which dilates the tubes within the urinary tract system and once that hit I was feeling pretty much back to normal. The latter drug was to help the stone pass more easily through the small confines it is in. After about 4 hours of resting in the hospital the doctor came in and said that I could go home. They were going to give me 4 different medications to help with infection and pain.

Kidney stones, really? I never had an inkling of what type of pain they create. I've heard that it is the closest thing to labor a person can feel but I don't think that ever hit home. Apparently the stones really hurt the most when they are on the move, but once they enter the bladder the worst pain is behind you. I am not sure if the stone has passed yet but thankfully the pain has. (Knock on wood!!). The nurses said that kidney stones can be super tiny, smaller than a grain (then why do they hurt so much?!) so sometimes it passed but you just can't see it. I sure hope that is what has happened, I definitely don't want a repeat of this week-especially when I'm pregnant!

The great things I learned from this experience:
-First of all, I have no desire now to try and have a natural birth! Bring on the epidural. I learned that I'm in enough pain it doesn't matter what needles go where, as long as they bring relief, I can stand the momentary discomfort.
-The AF Labor & Delivery floor is very nice! Our room was spacious and the nurses were super sweet and helpful.
-We got to hear our baby's heartbeat as they monitored him for about 30 minutes when I was on the initial doses of drugs. Little boy sounded so great they said, his heartbeat was wonderful! It was so comforting as I was lying there in pain that I could hear his sweet heartbeat in the background...wished they would have left that monitor on longer. He was pretty funny though, once they put the monitor on my belly he started kicking and punching right at it it seemed like. So amidst the constant heartbeat you would hear a loud thud from his karate kick. I like to think he was trying to cheer his mom up, and it sure did work!
-I really am grateful for modern day medicine. I can't stand being on medications constantly but through this experience they have been such a blessing!
-I have so many friends and family that are so loving and concerned! From the calls to texts about how I was doing, I was so grateful to have their support and love through it all. Their prayers too, as I'm sure that is why I'm feeling so great now!

Sorry for all the antics and drama of this post! You would think I was in a much worse situation by how I have been going on and on about it lol.

For a happier note!

Justin felt Baby Blackham kick last Sunday night for the first time. I grabbed Justin's hand (as I have countless times in the past) once I felt a strong kick. Every time in the past Justin had waited patiently but our baby was done with his exercising. But not last Sunday! Justin had looked away for a moment, but when he felt the kick his head jerked back at me and his eyes were big with surprise! It was so cute! Since then Baby (Carter?) has been kicking and punching and squirming around nonstop. They say you are supposed to feel 6-10 movements per hour... so sometimes randomly when I get a quiet moment I will feel for those movements. Within about 5 minutes I have felt probably twice that amount of movement. He makes it so I don't have to worry about him too much thank goodness! :-) I am so excited to meet this little guy!

20 week ultrasound

We had Baby Blackham's 20 week picture-palooza today! Well not really, it was more like a super quick scan of every part of his body to make sure he was growing as healthy and normal as can be. Good news! He looks cute as a button from head to toe. During the visit his long legs went from curled up to stretched out and we got to see how long his legs are! I think even the shape of them looks like Justin's legs. We also got a cute picture of his feet pressed up against my side. Those feet I felt kick (from the outside) a couple of weeks ago. Since then its mostly just been him squirming around and little soft kicks that I feel.


Here is a pic of me yesterday...notice the stretchy shirt and sweatpants, I would wear this all the time if I didn't have to go to work:
It's hard to believe we are halfway there! Justin and I were talking the other day about how we wish there were more time (and we had more energy) each day. We get home from work (and we even get off earlier than most, at 4pm), come home, have dinner and by then he is either headed up to class or starting on homework... then there is me ... once I hit the couch I have a hard time doing anything but sitting there! I have been meaning to blog forever now but can't muster up the energy (or desire) to sit at upright and type on a computer for any time at length (besides, I do that 8 hours of my day at work!). I want to read things to get ready for the baby or clean up the nursery a little bit better in preparation for us buying things for the nursery.. but the couch still tempts me more than any of these other things. I've heard the 2nd trimester is the golden time where I'm supposed to feel great enough to do things... I can't imagine how I'm going to be in the 3rd trimester!

I did manage to buy some baby bedding (online, via laptop, on the couch :-)). I got it from Target.com, after MUCH hesitation and uncertainty. I am not really into themes, i.e. sports, transportation, animals etc. But I wanted something that had all the colors that the themed bedding offers. It arrived last Friday and after checking it out I think it might be a keeper! Here is a link to it.
And if you have a magnifying glass you might be able to see the picture of it above, sorry I couldn't find a way to make it any bigger! It has green, orange, blue, yellow, & brown so now I have some colors to start decorating the rest of the room. That is unless I find some bedding I like better... I literally poured over every internet baby bedding site though so I feel like I made an informed decision haha.

That's all for now..hopefully I'll get another post or two in before we have our little one!

Well, well, well...

So much for gut instinct! We had an ultrasound done today (17 weeks) and it looks like (actually there is no denying it)....we're having a ....

BOY!!

We weren't sure if the baby would be willing to share this personal information with us today but there was no playing bashful with this ultrasound! I am totally in shock but completely thrilled at the same time. Our babe seemed so cramped in its tiny living quarters and vvverrry active! (Which I think I'm starting to recognize those feelings in my stomach now as being the babe) Justin is going to make such a great dad to this little man....he's a lucky son that's for sure! Now we just need to come up with some boy names we both love! (Easier said than done!!)



Here I am tonight, 17 weeks: