Saturday, October 25, 2008

Shopaholic Mommy...and Daddy

I am addicted to buying baby stuff! Especially clothes. And our little girl isn't even here yet. I don't know her size and how long or what time of year she'll be able to wear the clothes, but I can't stop. I estimate based on the average baby size and keep moving my little happy self through each aisle.

Last week Sheldon and I went to Target to get some last minute baby stuff and we ended up buying three more packages of really cute onesies. When shopping for another baby shower, I ended up spending more money on my little girl than for the other baby. And today, I went to JCPenney for a specific purpose (not to buy baby clothes) and we ended up spending more money on the most adorable clothes! In my defense, everything was 40% to 55% off! How could anyone resist?

Here are some pictures of today's purchases:





I think the little green dress is the most adorable Christmas dress ever. And it looks very "Sophie" to me. She'll be so cute in it! Both little Christmas sleepers are fleece and look so soft. All she needs now is a little red bow to match.

Sheldon picked out the white tennis-skirt-like dress. He's been looking for something that looks kindof sporty for Sophie. He wants her to look sporty when she goes to the gym with him. She'll be in the daycare, but she'll look ready to play on the court! I would give him a hard time, but I'm just as bad. I already bought Sophie a Halloween onesie and I don't even know if she'll be here by then. Again, in my defense, it was only three dollars.

I decided to throw in a few pictures of updates in Sophie's room. We finally found a glider that we liked and it was less expensive than most traditional gliders! We found it at a local furniture store. It's a leather glider/recliner and we can use it in other places in our house in future. I love it!



We also bought a little shelf to go next to the changing table to hold the wipe warmer and some breakable stuff, which I'm sure will be moved to higher ground when Sophie becomes a crawler.



I think we're officially done with the baby room. Sure, there are still things that I would like to have, but we have all the essentials. At least I think we do. I'm avoiding all stores now until Sophie's born so I don't spend anymore money until I need to. I hope she's born soon!

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Less than a week!!

It's Thursday morning and everything is still quiet at the Anderson household. Sophie has been a little jumping bean in my belly, which tells me she's still healthy but not much else. I had contractions again last night - these were definitely stronger, but nothing came of them. Or at least from what I can see.

Today is our normal appointment day, but the doctor's office couldn't get us in until Monday. I'm still hoping we'll have a little girl before then.

Though false labor is frustrating, it does serve a purpose. It's not like my body is just playing tricks on me for no apparent reason. The contractions I've been having are supposed to be helping me to dilate and making my cervix thin out or efface. This is a good thing. With all the contractions I've been having, I should be able to go into the hospital dilated to about a four and order my epidural right away. That's my wishful thinking anyway...it gets me through random contractions every day.

I've created a few projects to work on at home too to keep my mind off the "what day will be the day" topic. Yesterday I printed 176 photos of mine and Sheldon's trip to Cancun in 2007. I have all the scrapbook supplies ready to go and I have at least today (as far as I know) to work on it. And if I have longer than today, that's ok because I have 176 pictures to go through!

Even if Sophie holds on past her due date, I know there's an end in sight. Dr. B said he would schedule me to be induced no later than November 7. So at the most, I have two weeks before I get to meet our little girl! That's exciting!

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Taking a Breather

While I’m in great anticipation of our daughter to make her debut, these past two days have been nice. I officially started my maternity leave Monday, October 20. I’ve been able to sleep in, make breakfast, finish my thank you cards, and go to the grocery store without the mad rushing crowd of five o’clock. I also watched some favorite movies of mine and finished laundry.

I’m trying to keep myself busy to keep my mind off the reason why I’m not working in the first place. Since last Wednesday, Sheldon and I have been sittin’ on go. Wait…I didn’t post about last Wednesday. Let’s wind back the clock a little.

Wednesday, October 15
I woke up with some back pain and by 7:30 a.m., I was having contractions. Or at least what I thought were contractions. According to the book descriptions, that’s what I was having. We began timing them and they were about 10 minutes apart, but not really consistent yet. I also thought my water could possibly have sprung a leak. It wasn’t a steady flow, but I thought it was dripping.

So we call the doc. He says to come on in. We get there and all the normal pregnancy appointment procedures are done. Then the doc does a more “aggressive” check of my cervix to see how far up the baby is positioned, if my water did in fact break, and how dilated I was. Ouch! I know it had to be done, but ouch.

Once that was over, Dr. B said the baby was still quite high, my water hadn’t broken, and I was dilated to between a 2 and 3. He decided to put me on the contraction monitor to see if I was in fact having regular contractions.

The nurse concluded that Sophie was salsa dancing in my belly because once she got Sophie’s heart rate Sophie would do a little jig and escape from the monitor. It took about twenty minutes and three different positions to catch her.

The heart rate and contraction monitors were strapped to my belly for about thirty minutes. It did prove that I was having contractions, but they weren’t really strong and they were still about eight minutes apart.

Dr. B wanted to do an ultrasound to get an estimate of Sophie’s weight and measurements. I was excited to get to see her again even if it was in 2D. The ultrasound estimated that she was about 6 lbs. 11 oz., but the doc thought it may be underestimating a little. That’s still do-able for me! As long as she’s not on the brink of nine or ten pounds, I’m good.

So after all that, Dr. B told us to wait until the contractions were about four to five minutes apart and to make our way back to the hospital. He said to go eat some lunch, take a walk around town and he’d possibly see us that night.

That’s what we did. Sheldon wanted our little girl here so bad he had me eating spicy food and walking around Waco until about 7 p.m. that night. The contractions never increased in intensity and they stayed at about 7 to 8 minutes apart. When we got home that night, they abruptly stopped. Sigh…

The next day, Thursday, was our regular appointment. The doc checked my progress again, but this time not as aggressively (thank goodness). I had made progress. He said the contractions had caused me to dilate to a full 3 and I was 50% effaced. He last words were, “If I were a bettin’ man, I’d say she’ll be born before I see you again.”

Fast forward to today. It’s Tuesday, October 21, no baby. Dr. B has two more days to be right, otherwise, it’s a good thing he’s not a bettin’ man. I know Sophie will come when she’s meant to come, but I’m just so stinkin’ anxious after last week’s ordeal.

Sophie’s room is finished. All her newborn and 0-3 month clothes are washed. Blankets, burp cloths, receiving blankets, and sheets are washed. All furniture is together and in place. The guest room is ready for guests. Our dog Jack even got a new dog house so he doesn’t feel left out. We’re just waiting on our much anticipated new arrival.

I started having contractions again this afternoon. They’re about 10-15 minutes apart. We’ll see if they lead to anything or if I’m writing again tomorrow telling everyone my story about false labor and how much it stinks. Fingers crossed that it’s real!

Monday, October 6, 2008

Baby Needs

After an inventory of our nursery stock and our registries, there are a few things we’re still lacking for Sophie’s arrival. We have about $100 in gift certificates to spend, but I’m not sure what we’ll really need out of our list of remaining items to purchase. So I’m enlisting the help of the moms and experienced aunts and “nini’s” in the blogger world!

Out of the following list, what should our top priorities be? As a note, I am planning to nurse. For how long – I’m not sure yet.

1. Breast pump
2. Newborn starter kit (bottles, nipples, storage bags)
3. Bath center (little bathtub for baby)
4. Sleep positioner
5. Baby health & grooming kit
6. Baby monitor
7. Diaper Genie
8. Wipe warmer
9. Glider/rocker and ottoman (this will probably just be an out-of-pocket expense).

Thanks for your help!

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Quick Sophie Update

Our doctor’s appointment was today. I pretty much expected the outcome, which is that I’m still dilated to one centimeter…sigh. I’m only 36 ½ weeks, but it would have been nice to get some exciting news about possibly having this little girl early.

Dr. B was in a bit of a hurry to get to labor and delivery, so our appointment was pretty quick. Here are the stats in Dr. B’s words:

Heartbeat: “Normal” (Sophie’s normal range is between 152 and 158)

Belly Measurement: “Right on target” (Probably 37 centimeters)

Cervix: “Long and dilated to one centimeter” (Dangit)

Good News: “Strep B test came back negative”

Bad News (for me): “I’d say she’s about 6.5 to 7 lbs.” (Eeek! At this rate she’ll be 9 pounds by Oct. 28!)

Sheldon’s response to the “bad news”: “Well, stop feeding her so much.” (Yah, like that’s an option).

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Pikasso Masterpiece

As mentioned on a previous post, one of my showers was held at Practically Pikasso. If you’re not familiar with the place, it’s a ceramic painting workshop. It’s a lot of fun to pick out what figure, tile, dish, or ornament you want to paint and slowly create your work of art. The staff there are really helpful and it’s a relaxing environment. A perfect place for a baby shower!

A couple of my brilliant friends came up with the great idea that we should paint Sophie’s name on tiles and hang them in her nursery. Each person at the shower would have a tile to paint and select what letter of Sophie’s name they’d like to paint. I selected the colors that would be used on the tiles and let everyone design their tile however their heart desired.

They turned out so great! Here are the before and after pictures of the tiles. Practically Pikasso fires the tiles after they’re painted in a kiln, so they look completely different as a finished product.







Here’s a few more shower pictures. Thanks everyone! We’ll have a keepsake that we’ll treasure forever!