31 weeks

This week has been a good week. The weather has been great! Friday we had a really awesome thunderstorm that lasted about an hour. We saw three rainbows. Friday Aleanor at work threw me a baby shower. Ava got some really great things! Mostly cute little outfits! It was fun! There were quite a few people who showed up.

Phil has been fantastic! He is super supportive. This morning he even helped me paint my toe nails because I can't bend over to paint them anymore. He helps me up from the couch. He gets me drinks and snacks. He has been wonderful!

I don't have any weird cravings. In fact I am not really hungry much, but I try and eat three meals a day. I still like sweets. I get heartburn once in a while. Mostly from peanut butter and butter and sometimes heartburn just happens.

I still feel pretty good. My skin has cleared up, my hair is fuller. I'm a little bigger, so some of my maternity shirts don't fit anymore.

I've had a lot of energy. Saturday morning I got up at 5:30am I swept the kitchen, did dishes, swept the entry way in the house, swept the front porch, fixed the fountain in front of our house, and washed out the recycle bins. I also did almost all of our laundry.I also vacuumed the house. Ava's things are completely re-arranged and put away and hung up. Our bags are packed for the hospital. I've been pretty motivated to get things done. I feel so much better when everything is cleaned.

Tomorrow is Memorial Day. Phil and I have the day off. We don't have anything planned but maybe we'll do something fun in town. We also have Brendan's birthday party tomorrow night. We hope to enjoy the day together.

30 weeks

Well I've made it to week 30! I'm pretty excited! This week has gone pretty well so far. I've made it through each day at work. I've been able to go and walk around during the day. Instead of calling students to my office, I get to hand deliver papers to them in class. Saturday I spent the day with Phil. We had a pretty good day. We had breakfast together then we went shopping for plants for our backyard and then after the sun went down a little we went out in the backyard and worked on the yard a little bit. Sunday Phil went out to his Uncle's house and rode dirt bikes so I was able to get a lot done around the house....which was probably a mistake. I decided to go and look for some shirts...since some of my shirts don't fit anymore. But it was hot, and I didn't really feel like shopping so I went home. I vacuumed, I was able to steam clean some stains out of the carpet (which I was really excited about), and I got almost all of our laundry done and I got our room cleaned and ready for Ava. But during all of this activity...I started getting contractions. I don't really know how to time them...so I didn't time them. I probably should have sat down and watched a movie or something, but I was so determined to get everything done before Phil got home, and I wanted to get all of our laundry done and everything ready for Ava that I just kept going.
Today was pretty good. I was kind of tired, maybe from all that I did over the weekend. I didn't get much done at work today because the students I needed to talk to weren't in class. We had a pretty quiet day today at work.
Ava seems to be doing well. She becomes active at certain times during the day. She sleeps or has quiet times too. She's getting bigger, I can see her feet sticking out of my side sometimes. She is facing down already. I can tell because her feet and legs poke out of the top side of my stomach. And I can feel her arms flailing just below my waist line.

29 weeks continued

Besides the baby shower this has been a pretty busy week (my 29th week I mean).

Last week we had Steve's Birthday Party, then there was a Corp. Challenge event every night of the week. My company was involved in challenging events, such as darts, bowling, softball, track and field, pictionary, basketball, and some other fun events. I tried to get to as many events as I could to take pictures but because I had some complications last week I didn't get to as many events as I would have liked. So Sunday was Steve's Birthday like I said, then Tuesday was my big day at the hospital, Friday I was scheduled to go and take a couple of pictures for the bowling event for work, shopping for the baby shower with Nicolette and dinner in Fernley with Phil and his Uncle. I was able to make it for about 15 minutes to take pictures of the bowling event, then Nicolette was nice and called and told me that I didn't need to go shopping. So I was able to go to Fernley after trying to go for about a month and visit with Phil and his Uncle which was pretty fun.

Saturday was spent running around, it was so much fun! I haven't been that busy in a long time! Running errands in the morning, then in the afternoon going to help set up for the baby shower, having the baby shower which was really fun. Nicolette did a wonderful job setting up, planning and doing the entire event! It was great! Then after the shower I took the presents home, changed and went to the crab feed with Cheryl and her husband Dave. It was a lot of fun.

This past week I've decided to take as many pictures as I can. Not that I want to remember how big I've gotten with Ava but because I am in my 7th month, Ava could decide at anytime that she wants to come out into the world. So I want to have pictures to show her. I also don't feel that big. I know that I am getting bigger. Its hard to get in and out of chairs, sometimes I waddle. But I am loving every minute. I love taking my daughter to work with me everyday. I love feeling her move around. It makes me feel good to know that she's alive and kicking (literally).

Today was a very exciting day! I had a doctors appointment. I got some stuff situated with my insurance and billing, which makes me feel so much better! Today is the first time in about 3 months that I gone to my doctors appointment without crying. I had a really good appointment. My doctor actually took her time. She remembered that she saw me at the hospital and asked me if I was feeling better or had anymore complications since she saw me last week at the hospital. It was nice. It was a pretty short appointment. I've gained weight (I guess that's good...) my blood pressure went up just a little bit but everything looks good. I got to hear Ava's heart beat which was great. I even heard her move around.

This afternoon I got more exciting news! My sister in law is also pregnant, and today she got to find out what she's having. Its a GIRL!!!! I'm going to have a niece! I'm sooo excited! I still love Luka. He's a great little boy. I'm just excited that we are going to have another little girl in the family!

Its been a good day and a good week so far.

28 weeks

This has been a great week so far. It has been beautiful this week. Saturday May 9th was my baby shower. It was great! Nicolette did a wonderful job setting up and planning the shower. We had muffins, and fruit. She did a beautiful job cutting up the watermelon and using it as a bowl. She also made a cake and decorated it. It was a chocolate cake with white frosting and pink dragonflies. It was beautiful! We played games and talked and then I got to open presents. It was fun!
Later that night was invited to a crab crawl with Cheryl and Dave. It was fun! We ate lots of crab and watched people dance.
I feel huge this week! I can't imagine going through 2 more months of this! I'm not hot or completely uncomfortable. I don't get heart burn too bad. Its been a pretty good pregnancy so far. I just feel really big. I finally started getting bigger in my hips and legs and arms. I hope that I'll be able to lose the weight after baby Ava is born. I guess I shouldn't even be concerned about that at this point. I should just be concerned with having a healthy happy baby.
I'm looking forward to my doctors appointment tomorrow morning. My sister in law also has a doctors appointment tomorrow and she'll get to find out the sex of her baby! I'm sooo excited! I'm betting its a girl. Phil thinks its a boy. I'm looking forward to what the week brings!
HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!!

Week 28 Scare

I had a pretty big scare today. I thought I was leaking amnioic fluid. I ignored it for a while and continued on with my day and went to work and proceeded with meetings. I finally decided I should at least call my doctor so I called, and left a message and within 5 minutes I received a call back from the nurse saying I needed to immediately go to to the hospital. I'm not a big fan of hospitals and in fact I'm not a huge fan of going to the doctor. I'm a huge baby and I cry when I go to the doctor. I'm not sure if I'm afraid of finding out if something is wrong, or I'm scared about having a baby. I'm not sure what it is. Maybe its just a mixture of hormones.
So I tell my boss whats going on. I felt bad because our department was short a person today. But she was sympathetic and told me I needed to go. I didn't want to go but my doctor said I needed to go.
I drove to the hospital, parked and walked inside. I lost it. I had done pretty well up until this point. But I started to cry. I seriously don't know what it is about hospitals. So I got checked in, which took a little while. I finally noticed that sitting behind the scheduler checking me my doctor! She was there. She came over and asked me what was wrong. Finally I was shown to my room.
I dressed in one of those fun hospital gowns and then I was hooked up to some monitors. One was to hear the baby's heart beat and the second was to monitor contractions (which I totally thought was unnecessary because I didn't think I was having any). The baby's heart beat was good, about 145 bpm. I did find out that I was having contractions. I was given an exam to find out if I was leaking amnoic fluid and during the exam, they found out that I was bleeding.
So they sent samples in for testing. The entire process took about 4 hours. My test results came back negative. I had a shot (very unpleasant) to stop the contractions. They don't know what the bleeding was about. But the nurse got the go ahead and I was discharged from the hospital.
That was my day...it was scary. It was comforting to hear baby Ava's heart beat for four hours. I could hear her move and turn. She didn't really like the belts that held the monitors on my stomach so she squirmed and wiggled and pushed herself out to one side or the other. It was nice to have some bonding time with Ava. Even thought it was at the hospital.

28 weeks

I finally made it to the third trimester!! Baby Ava is now about 14 or 15 inches long and weighs a little over 2 and a half pounds. Her eyes now open and close. This week I had a doctors appointment. I will start going to the doctor every two weeks. My doctors appointment went really well. I have gained 21 pounds (which seems to me like a lot) but my doctor said that's good. I won't have any more ultrasounds unless there is something abnormal at one of my appointments. So far everything looks really good. She is moving a lot. She moves more during the week than she does on the weekend. My theory is that she likes to be still and quiet to hear Phil. I am pretty sure she's going to be a daddy's girl. My only complaints are I now get charlie horses in the middle of the night. They are very painful and my legs ache from getting them (almost every day now), heart burn, and I now have some minor form of morning sickness, but its brief and doesn't last very long.
Everything is going pretty well. The weather has improved. We haven't had snow for a while, our weather even got up in the 80's several times.
Last week was a little hectic. We had an assessment (or audit) last week at work. It was a pretty big audit. It was an audit by the company that manages our center. In August we have another audit by the Department of Labor.
On Friday my Aunt Marion came to town to visit. She was able to see my parents home and stay with them for several days. It was great to see her and it was so nice that she was able to come and visit all of us.
I haven't done too much since the cradle. I have washed all the clothes I have received. I have put them in drawers but I will probably rearrange them again before Ava is born when I get more room. My shower is next weekend (May 9th). I'm excited, and I can't wait! Then I found out I'm having one at work too at the end of May! I feel so lucky to get two showers.