Tomorrow's the big day!!

I can't believe that tomorrow is the big day! I am scheduled to come to the hospital at 8:30 in the morning (but I call in at 7am to see if they are busy; they might have me come in a bit later if there is a mommy traffic jam or something).  Then it is baby time!

I think I have everything here at the house as prepared as I can get, but at the same time I feel like I'm still not ready! It's exciting and scary all at the same time. I can hardly get my head around the idea that when we leave the house tomorrow morning, we will be coming home as parents!

I had my last doctor's appointment today, and it looks like Hannah is already working on getting ready to make her appearance. I am 70% effaced and 1 1/2 cm dilated. Won't be long now before we get to finally see her!  I was told not to eat breakfast tomorrow morning =(  but at least I got a big yummy dinner tonight - Mom and Dad took Josh and I out to Lime in downtown for our last dinner out. It was delicious and I am stuffed silly now! Good thing, since that will have to last me a while...

Now it's just time for a good night's sleep.... and the very last belly picture!

Mark your calendars for June 15th!

Now it really is countdown time, because at my doctor's appointment this week, I got scheduled for induction on Wednesday, June 15th! It is completely crazy to already know Hannah's birthday! [Provided she doesn't decide to come earlier than that, of course...] Given my super-short labor history and distance from the hospital, it made sense to try to prevent me getting stuck somewhere! My body is already starting to get ready, though. At that doctor's appointment, it was time to start checking me - and I am already 50% effaced & half a centimeter dilated!

It's really started to hit me that she is coming very soon & I still don't feel like I'm totally ready yet. However, the nursery is totally ready now.... so here's the pics!

 (The TV is still there from when Josh & I were hanging everything on the walls... that still needs to come out!)

And since I just took a nice couch nap while Josh is working an event, my next tasks are packing hospital bags & getting the baby book started! =)

School ending means baby time is rapidly approaching!

Today was my last day of final exams, so one more school year comes to an end. I have to say that it kind of snuck up on me; this year has gone by so quickly - and that means baby time is coming up so very quickly too! For quite a while now, I've been thinking that I have lots of time left because the school year isn't even over yet.... and now suddenly that's no longer true. Yikes! I still feel like I am nowhere near ready. On the other hand, there are moments when I am about ready to not get kicked hard in same spot on my right side all the time! Hannah is certainly an active baby =)

We had another ultrasound appointment to check on this active baby's growth. She is still sticking to the low end of the growth curve, but she is growing - so that's all that matters. It looks like Hannah is going to be a petite baby! Otherwise, everything looks perfect. We got a pretty good profile pic on the normal ultrasound view.

 But even better, we got to see some 3-D ultrasound pics! The doctor had a hard time getting a good angle since apparently there is a lot of umbilical cord in her face, but eventually we got a couple of good pictures of her face! She has such cute chubby cheeks =)

It's hard to believe that we will get to meet her in a month or less!

The nursery is getting closer to being finished. We still need to get a bookcase, but otherwise all the furniture is in place and we are starting to get things up on the wall. Hopefully this weekend we will be able to get it completely finished. Here's where we are at the moment:

And last of course is.... belly picture time!

Hannah's growing!

So much to say about the last few weeks! With lots of paint, wainscoting, and molding we finally finished prepping the nursery. [The second picture shows the color better] Still haven't decided how exactly to arrange the furniture, and haven't put anything on the walls yet, but the major work is done. I am so pleased with my purple room. =) Time to start organizing & putting away all the wonderful things we got on our baby shower weekend!

We've also had a bit of an adventure with ultrasounds lately. Three weeks ago was the follow-up ultrasound to see if my placenta had moved out of the way yet. The good news was that it had - so a previa is no longer a concern. The less-than-perfect news was that Hannah was very small.... only at the 10th percentile for size. Everything else looked fine, and the Dr. said that his gut told him she was just a small baby. But, he wanted us to come back in three weeks for another ultrasound to make sure that she was growing properly. I hate trading in one concern for another. Here's the ultrasound pics:

Today was that follow-up ultrasound, and great news! She's at the 25-35th percentile for size now, so she is definitely growing. Still on the small side, but that is no problem at all =) Here's today's pics - a little harder to see her face here [pic on the right, facing the camera], since she is head-down and sitting really low. But in the other picture [pic on the left] she was showing off her girly parts; no shyness here! (And nice to have one more confirmation that the purple room is still appropriate.)

For the last two Sundays, we also took our childbirth class at the hospital we'll be delivering at - St. Joseph's in Denver. The class was so much better that what I remember from the first time around; much more than just breathing techniques! I liked that the teacher made sure that all possible options were covered with risks and benefits. She clearly tried to give everyone confidence that they were capable of having a birth without medical interventions, but also be clear that there are no judgments for women who chose pain relief =) The class also included our hospital tour. I was really happy with what I saw at our hospital. Every labor/delivery room is private & has a huge bathroom with a jacuzzi tub. The recovery/postpartum rooms are all private too, and have double beds so that Daddy has a comfortable place to stay the night with Mom & baby. Even more importantly, the hospital (according to our teacher, who teaches at lots of different hospitals) says that St. Joe's is one of the best hospitals around for promoting bonding & breastfeeding. And from what I've seen so far, it certainly seems that way. Their policy is to protect the first hour and a half after delivery for immediate skin-to-skin contact between Mom & baby & initiation of breastfeeding. Unless there is a pressing medical issue, baby is not taken to the nursery or anything else until after that first hour and a half. They also promote "rooming in" so that baby stays with us in recovery the whole time unless we ask otherwise. I'm really pleased that my hospital is set up to support nursing so well!

And yet, being prepared for birth is soooo different than being prepared for baby! I don't know that I'm there yet. It's all so exciting and terrifying at the same time. Ah well, no one is ever really ready, right?

And now...the latest belly pic. Making progress!

Building the nursery

It's been a busy week! Last Thursday, Josh and I went to the Just Between Friends consignment sale - which was awesome! We got a whole bunch of stuff, and I was amazed at how cheap everything was. Josh was a little bit obsessed with cute little dresses =)

Then this past weekend we finally got started on the nursery. Of course this is my chance for a purple room and I am totally excited about it! It's still in progress, but it's definitely starting to take shape. We've got the purple paint on the walls, as well as the wainscoting installed and painted. All that is left is a few molding pieces for the corners, and the chair rail on top. Then cleanup and furniture! Here are pictures of the progress so far.

Bailey of course knows that something is up, and has never been the biggest fan of change. So she has been guarding the nursery pretty much anytime one of us is doing something in there.

Throughout these last few weeks, the future occupant of this awesome nursery has certainly been making her presence known more and more. She's been kicking harder and harder - to the point where Josh can actually see my belly move from the other side of the couch sometimes! We might have a future soccer player on our hands. =) The dogs have been kicked multiple times when they are on my lap (Jack doesn't exactly fit on my lap, but he tries...) However, they have not seemed to notice at all. It's kind of surprised me actually, since they've been kicked fairly hard. I have certainly noticed, but not them!

Now it's almost time to head to the airport to come home to Cali! I am so excited for baby shower weekend =)

Baby's on the Move!

This weekend, baby Hannah [still no middle name yet] decided to make her presence known! For the last couple of weeks, I have been feeling a little bit of a flutter here and here. It had only been slight, and difficult to tell if it was just my imagination. But on Saturday morning (2/12), I woke up feeling a real kick! It's like she woke on that morning and decided to announce herself. She was even kicking hard enough that Josh got to feel her, which was wonderful. Ever since then, she has been kicking away. The next day, when we were driving around, she kept kicking the seatbelt!

Tuesday (2/14) was another routine doctor's appointment. Everything was fine, although it was hard to listen to the heartbeat for long since baby kept kicking it! So what we heard was more like *heartbeatheartbeatTHUDheartbeathearbeatWHACK. But as they say, an active baby is a healthy baby, so it's a good thing =)  The other part of the appointment that amused me was my weight. [There's a sentence you don't see every day.....] Apparently I have gained ZERO weight in the last month! At the Jan. 11th appointment, the doctor had said that my weight gain was just a tiny bit "brisk", but now I haven't quite gained enough weight. Good grief! I'm guessing that I managed to lose holiday fat while gaining baby weight at the same time. But I will say that being told that I'm now a little behind on the weight gain made me want to go get a milkshake!! Soooooo, that's what we did - went out for burgers & a milkshake for dinner =)

I leave you now with the latest belly pic....

Halfway point

It's hard to believe that this week I hit the halfway point - 20 weeks!

Yesterday we had our second ultrasound, and things are still looking good! The doctor was able to get a better view of the entire heart this time; the structure and function all looked good. He did notice a little calcium deposit on the heart muscle (saw it last ultrasound too), but said that it wasn't anything to worry about. Placenta is still low, but it is still early in the game. And now for the latest pictures...

In other news, I've finally started feeling movement! For the past couple of weeks, I have thought that I felt a flutter here or there, but nothing consistent and nothing I was sure wasn't my imagination [or gas...]. But yesterday and today I am sure I felt her rolling around in there! Part of it could be that I've spent a lot of time on the couch not doing too much since yesterday and today were snow days. So without the distraction of running around all day at school, it's been much easier to notice the movement. It's still not dramatic movement yet, since she's still so little. Though I can feel her moving from the inside, Josh & I haven't yet been able to feel her with a hand on the belly yet. I'm sure that will come soon!

Speaking of the belly - I don't think my size has changed much since the last pic, but here is a new one anyway:

The next doctor's appointment is in a couple of weeks. Hopefully my weight gain won't still be "brisk" =)