37 Weeks- Full Term! Where is my baby?!

Ok, so I totally know where my baby is...he is kicking me as I write this.  I was just HOPING that the minute we officially had a full-term baby, he would magically pop out and we would begin the next phase of our lives.  Obviously, this has not happened.  One of the funny things about pregnancy is that they provide you with a due date that is 40 weeks, but the baby is actually considered full term beginning at 37 weeks.  Yes, it is better for him to stay put for another week so that his little brain develops a bit more and he gets a chance to fatten up but developmentally speaking he would be fine if I went into labor right now!

Speaking of going into labor, we did have an interesting doctors appointment today.  Dr. Ono is really pleased with my progress and actually said as we left his office today, "See you next Wednesday if you don't go into labor before then."  During my exam he discovered that I am ready to go, we are just waiting on Emmett to make his move.  I am 85% effaced and dialated to almost 2 centimeters.  Dr. Ono actually touched Emmett's little head during the exam today!  Of course, none of this is a guarantee that I will go into labor before 40 weeks...but please keep your fingers crossed for me.

Other exciting news from the last week, is that we got our full set of maternity photos back from our fabulous photographer, Kristen Honeycutt.  She did an incredible job (as always) but I do have to admit to having a bit of a melt down when I first saw them.  I am just not used to seeing myself look so large! Aside from vanity, pregnancy hormones also were largely to blame for my bursting into tears...It wasn't just seeing my ginormous belly (which I obviously expected when I got pregnant) but the overall bloating, weight gain and widening throughout my entire body, from my face to my feet that upset me.   I always thought that I would be able to keep exercising throughout my pregnancy and conquer these issues.  In the end I realized two things:  one, once he is born none of these trivial thoughts will matter to me and two, when you are 5 ft 2 and you gain 30+ pounds there really isn't a way to gracefully distribute that pregnancy weight. All of that said, there are 15-20 photos that I LOVE and despite me not looking like the me that I recognize, I am definitely glad that we will have these photos to look back on.  If you want to peruse the entire gallery, click on the link below:

http://www.kristenhoneycutt.com/RedCart/index.php?gnum=284&iid=68721

Also, here we are at 37 weeks.  Think I can get any bigger???

36 Weeks- Thank You Portland!

I want to thank my fabulous girlfriends- Erin, Allison, Jennifer and Canyon for a fabulous baby shower this past week! It was so great to have a girls night out and I really appreciate all the effort you guys put into throwing me a wonderful and relaxing shower here in Portland!  You guys are the best!  I couldn't ask for a better group of friends or support system.  It really has been a blessing to be able to share this experience with such wonderful women.

Thanks to my continued insomnia, we have gotten A LOT done in the last week.  The nursery is pretty much ready- we are just waiting on the glider to arrive from Pottery Barn.   Since I don't sleep anymore, all of Emmett's little clothes, bedding, bottles, and pacifiers are cleaned and ready to go.  The diaper basket is stocked with newborn diapers, wipes and various ointments and lotions that we might need.  The pack n play with our bassinet is set up in our bedroom.  We have finished reading the baby books.  Theoretically, we are ready to go!

I continue to be bone tired, but at the same time I am just wired.  As much as my body wants me to stay in bed and rest for labor my mind simply will not stop and let this happen.  Hence, all the progress we have made in the last week.  Poor Todd has woken up more than once to find that I haven't slept the night before and have instead opted to go downstairs to do laundry or clean or organize some closet or cabinet in our house.  (For those of you who don't know, Todd gets up for work at 4 am.)  I think it's safe to say that I am in hardcore nesting mode!

We had our appointment with Dr. Ono today and his examination seemed to match my current state of mind.  Emmett continues to grow and be healthy and is measuring just a little bit bigger than a typical 36 week baby.  My body is starting to progress into delivering him.  As of today, Emmett had dropped and engaged in my pelvis, I am 70% effaced and beginning to dialate.  We asked Dr. Ono what this meant and he explained that it doesn't mean Emmett is going to make an appearance anytime in the next week, but it could.  There is really no way to predict this. We all agreed that we hope he will stay put for another 2 weeks or so.

Here we are at 36 weeks.  If you go to the "Bump Alert" page of the blog, you can compare the last couple of weeks of photos and see how much bigger we have gotten and note how much my belly is starting to move/point downwards.

35 Weeks- Winding Down...

We are 2 weeks from being "full term" and 5 from our due date and I think both Todd and I are feeling very ready to meet our baby.  I am completely and totally just out of energy.  Part of this is because I don't sleep very well- it's really more like I get quick naps between trips to the ladies room. Some of it is just this phase of pregnancy and the rest is because I am carting around an extra 30+ pounds that my body is not used to.  I am not going to whine or complain about it- this is just where I am at.  Per Dr. Ono this is totally normal and to be expected during this last part of pregnancy.  His advise was that it's time for me to just rest and take it easy, try to remain patient and let nature take its course.

We did a lot of little things this last week for the baby, including a 2 hour marathon trip to Babys R Us, which left Todd and I both feeling like neither one of us has any idea what we are doing!  As someone who was in marketing for 10 years, I've always felt that I know how to decipher the code and see through the packaging and advertising but apparently I am losing my touch.  Seriously, why are there 5 different brands of pacifiers and bottles to chose from? And how can every diaper pale option be "#1 selling" or "the choice more mothers prefer to the competition"?  Is it me or do all the baby monitors seem to do exactly the same thing?  Even though we went there feeling like we had done a ton of research and knew what we wanted, we left sort of just hoping that we had made the best selections.   That said, I think we just have a few more items before we have crossed everything off of our baby checklist.

We began our weekly doctor's appointments today.  It was all pretty much good news!  Emmett is starting to move down in my pelvis and even though I didn't gain any weight over the last two weeks, he grew still grew and is measuring just a little bit over 35 weeks. Even though Mommy doesn't have a lot of energy, Emmett showed Dr. Ono just how much he has by wiggling all around and kicking our entire appointment.  Here we are at 35 weeks, looking like it's not possible for us to get any bigger!

34 Weeks- All About Us (Mostly...)

The focus in our house has been our pregnancy and getting ready for the baby for the last few months.  I think this is perfectly natural for two first time parents.  That said, within a month or so it will no longer be just the two of us making up the Oregon branch of the DeCook family and our entire focus will shift to learning how to take care of our little baby boy.  Last week, we took our focus off of getting ready for the baby and focused on being Todd and Heather for a few days.

We had our fabulous wedding photographer, Kristen Honeycutt, come down from Seattle and shoot our "baby bump" photo session last Thursday. (She will also do Emmett's baby photos!) She is so easy to work with and made me feel comfortable in front of the camera for the first time in a LONG time.  The photo session was so much fun, despite it raining on us!  Here are a few of the teasers we have received from her so far:

On Sunday it was our one year wedding anniversary.  It seems so unreal that a year ago at this time Todd and I were on our honeymoon.  In some ways it feels like we just got married yesterday and in other ways seems like a lifetime ago!  Either way, it feels like this is exactly how things were meant to be.  Although, I don't think either of us envisioned spending our one year anniversary with me being 8.5 months pregnant we still took the weekend to spend focusing on each other and not doing anything baby related.  Overall we just relaxed and enjoyed spending time together just the two of us- we went for a nice long drive to  Hood River, stopping at Bonneville Dam and Multnomah Falls.  Then Sunday night, we had dinner at Paley's Place, one of the nicer restaurants in Portland.  Here are a few photos of what will probably be our last non-baby focused weekend for a LONG time:

I want to thank Todd for being the world's most wonderful husband.  A year ago, I knew I was marrying one of the most special people I had ever met and my best friend, but this experience has brought out so many other remarkable qualities in him that I am constantly amazed by him.  He has been the most supportive, nurturing and strong husband that I could ask for and I am grateful every day that I married him!  He goes out of his way to always make me feel special and let me know how important Emmett and I are to him.  

As for Emmett, he is still stretching and kicking like a growing 34 week old baby in utero.  He is getting increasingly heavy and is definitely trying to make more room, when I really don't think there is any to be had.  These are all good things, though.  Here we are at 34 weeks:

33 Weeks- Progress!

Last week was a very productive week in the DeCook house!  Granted most of this productivity came out of Todd, but we are a team, right?  I grow the baby, and he does the manual labor. The nursery is painted, has a fun shag rug, a new ceiling fan, bedding for the crib and brand new blinds!  We still need the glider, ottoman, drapes, to hang everything on the walls and actual mattress in the crib for it to be complete, but it's looking really good.  (And everything is ordered and on it's way to us...) Todd did a fabulous job painting and I think we are both feeling really good now that Emmett's room finally looks like a place you would want to bring a baby home to.

Vivian LOVES the shag rug...apparently we got her a fuzzy white friend!

We also were able to pick up the stroller that Todd was so anxious about receiving.  Right now it lives in the nursery, but this isn't where it belongs in the long term...Todd is just VERY excited that it has finally arrived and wants to keep it warm and dry. :)

Our Nursing and Babycare Class was last weekend.  It was a great class, with lots of information on both subjects and just like the birthing class opened up the discussion for Todd and I.  Many people have asked why Todd had to attend the nursing class, given that he can't actually NURSE the baby.  The answer is pretty simple- they ask the partner to attend so that they understand the process the mother and baby have to go through and how they can help support it.

Today we had a doctor's appointment, which was honestly pretty status quo.  Emmett is still measuring a week ahead and appears to be big and healthy.  Mommy feels exhausted, HUGE and is retaining water, but beyond that is healthy and happy that everything appears to be as it should be!