Happy Birthday, Declan! (our birth story)

He's finally here!! Baby boy Nunnally decided he wanted his birthday to be on Monday, July 23rd :) The weekend before he arrived Matt and I had planned to do something fun each day to keep our minds off the waiting game. Saturday afternoon we went to go see The Dark Knight Rises, and then went to visit the Hill twinsies that evening. I started having some serious cramping Saturday night while visiting the twins, which ended up being another fake out. It lasted a few hours and then faded by bedtime. Sunday morning when I got up it started again but with some low back pain as well. I assumed this would be another fake out... and I was finally wrong!

We went about our day as planned. Church in the morning, lunch at home, running errands, Tiki Hut Mini Put in the late afternoon, and ice cream (for Matt) and shaved ice (for me) as a little treat. Matt even went to go play his indoor soccer game that night. We ordered Papa John's pizza for dinner since there was a 40% off special that benefited the Children's Mercy Transport Team. I didn't feel well enough at that point for dinner so I stuck with toast instead. The cramping and back pain had been increasing in intensity as the day progressed, and by this time Matt was having to help me out by rubbing my low back and applying counter-pressure with tennis balls and a rolling pin (of all things!). I was also trying as many labor positions as I could think of to help relieve the discomfort, but nothing really helped other than being on my hands and knees. (I would spend the next several hours hanging out like that.)

Yum.... perfect pre-game snack

Lining it up for a hole-in-one!

Last outing with lil' guy all cozy inside. This was early
labor, but I didn't realize at that point. Every now and then
the cramping would get bad enough I would have to squat
down and pretend I was lining up my shot (really, who was
I kidding?)

I had a feeling that this was going to be the real thing but didn't want to say anything to Matt, afraid that I would jinx myself. We finally decided to go to bed at 11:00. Matt kept saying, "Just in case, let's get some sleep so if this happens we've had a good nights' sleep." I couldn't get comfortable in bed because the cramping and back pain was getting so bad. I finally fell asleep but woke up at midnight. I moved around for a bit and made a trip to the bathroom (TMI- I had been having loose stools all day long with the cramping/back pain) and then got back in bed. I woke up again at 12:30 and decided to try my rice sack for some heat therapy on my back. At this point, since I wasn't having any contractions, I was seriously worried about what labor held for me.

While my rice sack was heating up in the microwave, I felt the cramping and low back pain become very concentrated and pick-up in intensity again. Almost like it was centering itself in my body. This brought me to my hands and knees on the kitchen floor for about 1 1/2 minutes. I got up and grabbed my rice sack and headed back upstairs to our bedroom. I barely made it to the stairs before I had to drop to my hands and knees again. During the next 30 second break I made it to our bedroom, where Matt was sleeping, and again dropped to my hands and knees for another round. I felt the need to go to the bathroom again (really?!?) and there was blood this time. That had never happened. This was really it... and I couldn't manage it at home any longer.Things were escalating quickly. I immediately woke Matt up and told him I thought it was time to go to the hospital. To be honest, he looked a little freaked out, but he acted calm and scurried around getting things ready to go.

Unfortunately, I hadn't finished packing my last minute items for the hospital thinking I would do it during my more mild contractions. I had planned some movies to watch, had items on hand to bake Declan's birthday cake, and some other some small things to do while my labor was building. Well, that went out the window! Every since I had woke up at 12:30 my pain was still continuous but my overwhelming centering sensations were lasting 1 1/2 minutes and were only 2 minutes apart. Hence my mere 30 second painful break. I still wasn't feeling any tightening of my abdomen during this point, so I never really thought of them as contractions, but whatever. I managed to call my OB's office to speak with the doctor on-call around 12:45, and after explaining what was going on, Dr. McGee replies "Well, being a first time mom, you might be in labor so I would say you could go to the hospital and get checked." I said "okay" but was thinking "I wasn't calling to ask for your permission, I was calling to let you know that I'm coming you idiot!"

Well, since I was only getting 30 seconds to hobble around and try and grab various items, it took awhile to get out the door. Matt was getting on the floor with me during my 'contractions' to squeeze my hips together, which was the only thing besides being on my hands and knees that would ease the pain a little. It made them bearable. We finally pulled out of the driveway at 1:45am. I had previously told Matt that when we drove to the hospital not to drive like a crazy person. That I needed him to be calm or it would freak me out. Well, it ended up I was feeling A LOT of pressure down there and since my contractions were this close together I was afraid we might have a baby in the car. So I kept repeating "You're gonna have to drive faster than that" very calmly, until we were driving 90mph on the highway with our hazard lights flashing. I was admitted to the hospital at 1:58am! Record driving time for sure (yes, we had previously timed it at 15 minutes door-to-door).

I told Matt to go ahead of me so he could call inside and have them open the doors, which are locked in the middle of the night. I kept telling him the phone he needed to pick up was on his right, to which he looked helplessly everywhere and couldn't find! I kept yelling as I crept up the walkway from the car, "On your RIGHT! On your RIGHT!! Your RIGHT!!" Once I pointed, he finally saw it. We made it into L&D as I started having another contraction. I hung to the railing for fear of accumulating millions of bacteria by being on my hands and knees in the hallway. They called for a wheelchair but I could barely sit for all the pressure down there. The nurse quickly decided that my prepared room was too far and that the room right next to my wheelchair would do just fine!

Once in the room, I stripped and they checked me immediately... 6-7cm and 100%. I quickly resumed the hands and knees position on the bed while Matt kept squeezing away on my hips. I refused any other position and left the nurses to work around me. One holding my monitors, one starting an IV (again, while on my hands and knees- kudos to her!), another asking questions for paperwork, and my nurse typing vigorously at the computer and sending the 5th nurse running for supplies. Then I started vomiting uncontrollably. Vomiting + contractions + continuous other pain = ridiculous! I really felt like I was in a time warp, I had no sense of time once I realized it was time to leave for the hospital. My nurse, Megan, noted that I had specified a natural labor and delivery, and asked me if that was still my plan. I really wish it would have been, but I just couldn't imagine this going on with no breaks. I told her that was my plan, but now I didn't know if I could do it. She then asked if I wanted an epidural, to which I agreed. Again, I wish I would've thought to ask for IV pain meds to see if that would help at all, but I wasn't thinking at this point. I had my epidural in and running a little after 2:30. Whew! What relief. Once I was more myself, I thanked everyone for running around and getting us settled so quickly and gave an emphatic thanks to the anesthesiologist for the epidural (I didn't even feel it, my other pains were overwhelming any other sensations). I was checked again and now 7-8cm.

At that point, I just laid in bed and tried to come to terms with all that was going on. Baby boy was finally on his way! It felt very surreal. My nurse came in to turn me every 30 minutes and to do a cervical check every hour. One time when she turned me, I watched one of my legs fall and crash into the bedside table. Without thinking, I yelped "Oww!" and followed that with "I don't know why I said that, because I can't feel anything." Silly me. (It did sound and look painful though.) With the epidural in, my progress slowed significantly. I finally reached 10cm at 6:30 when Dr. McGee checked in on me for the first time. He was planning on breaking my water at this point, but checking me was all it took. I heard a huge gush and that was that. It was decided to let my body "labor down" (slowly push baby down the birth canal without my extra pushing). Matt made a quick trip to the cafeteria for some breakfast at this point, while my mom hung out in the room with me.

Change of shift happened, and my new nurse, Marci, came in and after checking me said that little guy was only about 1 inch from crowning so we could start pushing. It was actually pretty nice to just have me, Matt, and Marci in the room for the majority of it. We started pushing at 8:15. About 10 minutes into it my contractions really spaced out, so Marci started some Pitocin to speed things back up. At 9am, Marci decided it was time to get Dr. Piquard in the room. Dr. Piquard took a quick look at me when she came in and quickly gowned up. With my next contraction I gave 2 pushes and his head came out. There was questionable meconium when my water broke so he was immediately suctioned at this point. With my 3rd push he was born at 9:05am weighing 8lbs 8oz and 21 inches long :)

He was placed on my belly, dried, and I held him for a few moments while Matt and I stared at him, trying to place this little person in our minds. We had never actually met, but we knew him and loved him. Finally getting to put a face to Little Guy (name to come, we still hadn't decided). Then he was taken to be cleaned off some more, weighed, and assessed more thoroughly. I hadn't noticed everyone in the room until this point. Because of his previous heart issues there were a few extra people in attendance including a NICU nurse and NICU nurse practitioner, as well as a Children's Mercy Transport nurse. These people in addition to the well baby nurse, my nurse, and Dr. Piquard. Luckily, we didn't need the extras!

What an eventful morning! Holding little guy skin-to-skin was the best feeling. Know that he was finally here safe and sound gave us such peace of mind. We enjoyed the next two hours with just the 3 of us enjoying the start of our new life together :)

Epidural in and running :) Relief at last!

Little Guy is finally here!!!!!!!

Our nurse, Marci, who cheered me on as I pushed, and
helped bring lil' guy into the world :)

One happy Daddy

My favorite moment

So incredibly blessed and happy with our baby boy :)

Last Day of Work!

So Friday was my last day of work. Going into work in the morning totally sucked, but the feeling leaving was very surreal. It doesn't seem possible that we're so close to having lil guy here! Unfortunately, I got all the way home and realized that I still had my pager in my pocket... BOO!!! I figure if I have to head downtown for something before baby boy is here then I'll bring it back by, but other than that, I'll pass it off to one of my work friends to return when they come by to see baby boy. (ps- that's most likely you Megan!) We finally got another picture taken last night when I got home from work; remember the one that we were supposed to take Tuesday?

My most recent NST was Thursday at SMMC after work, and was normal as usual. Our next doctor's appointment is Monday morning, and Tuesday will be an official full 40 weeks according to the dates set by our first ultrasound. However, Matt and I are nearly certain that today, July 21st, is his actual due date. Most first babies are late though, so I won't be surprised if he comes sometime next week anyway.  So in the meantime, Matt and are enjoying our "early retirement/staycation" now that we're both done with work. We're planning something fun for the two of us to do each day to help pass the time, and to have something to look forward to until lil guy wants to join us. Today we're going to see The Dark Knight Rises! For those of you that know Matt, you can only imagine how excited he is. We're heading out to the theater to get in line here in the next hour. Tomorrow is mini-golf day! There's an indoor mini-golf course in Overland Park that we're going to, Tiki Hut Mini Put :) It's going to be supremely hot here in KC for the next week, so all of our activities are mostly limited to indoor stuff. After our doctor's appointment on Monday, we'll make more plans for the week.

If lil guy decides he's not ready to come by Monday, we'll have to discuss our options with Dr. Piquard. The perinatologists originally wanted us induced at 39 weeks. Dr. P gave us an extra week since he's doing good. I think she might give us one more week (so to 41 weeks), but I'm not certain. Matt thinks she'll only give us until the end of next week. Either way, if he's not here, I don't really want to sit at home waiting and will probably continue to work. I'll play it by ear each day, but my next work day wouldn't be until Wednesday July 25th. I just REALLY hope that he decides to come before then so we don't have to mess with the 'keep working/induction date' conundrum. Matt and I are convinced that he'll come when he's ready, and that we'd like to keep interventions to a minimum now and during labor/delivery. Of course, the end goal is ALWAYS healthy baby and healthy mom :) Now I'm off to get ready to head to the movies!

(Oh and yes, I cut my hair last week! I donated 12" to Locks of Love. Since my very first hair cut when I was a preteen, I've only cut my hair when it was long enough to donate. I've never cut it just to cut it. My hair is nice and thick right now, and I had read that a couple of months after the pregnancy hormones wear out of your system that all those extra locks will fall out, so I wanted to maximize my donation; hence cutting my hair now.)

37w5d- last picture with long hair

39w3d- first picture with short hair :) and yes, it's
no trick of the camera, my belly seems to have popped
out some more this past week. It just doesn't stop growing!
Even though all the books say I shouldn't be getting any
bigger at this point... mine is proving them wrong.

...still waiting....

We had another Dr's appointment today along with our twice weekly non-stress tests (NST). Everything is still looking good. I'm measuring on track, still 3-4cm dilated and 80-90% effaced (so not much change there), and little guy is at a "0" station (head at the starting line, a negative is higher in the uterus and a positive is moving into the birth canal). His NSTs have all been fine. He tends to just hang out around baseline unless I consume either sugar or caffeine prior to going. I usually have cherry Poptarts if my appointment is shortly after breakfast, if it's later in the day I stop at Scooter's (our local coffee shop) and get a frozen blended caramelicious (think caramel frappuccino). Today was a caramelicious sort of day and he passed with no problem :)

We pretty well got everything done a few weeks ago when I made my last post, so now the waiting game really intensifies because we have nothing else to distract us and take up our time. Anytime I get asked when he's due, I give them the count down and say something along the lines of "I'm ready to be done" or "He couldn't come soon enough". Even though I do feel this way sometimes, I'm also really trying to focus on enjoying the last few weeks of pregnancy instead of wishing them away. Enjoying the closeness baby boy and I share. Having him with me wherever I go, knowing he's safe, knowing what he's up to every second of the day, having a bond that no one else shares with him, feeling him trying to stretch in tight quarters, and the hiccups every so often. These are the things I will surely miss. Matt and I enjoyed a date night last week which was pretty fun. It's been nice to just take time to relish in our last few weeks together. It's hard to even begin to imagine how much little guy will change our world :) Looking forward to finding out though.

I've had some contractions that are stronger and feel more productive than my standard braxton hicks contractions, but they only last 2-4 hours and then dwindle out. They are just teasing us it seems :) Also, between my forgetfulness and work schedule we haven't taken any photos in awhile. So we'll take an official '39 weeks' picture tomorrow and post it soon (assuming I remember). And one last note, my last 2 days of work are this coming Thursday and Friday! I plan on working until he's here, but for scheduling purposes I'm only scheduled until his due date. If he's still not here next Tuesday, I'll be working Wednesday-Friday of next week as well. We talked a little about induction at our doctor's appointment since they originally wanted me induced at 39 weeks. Dr. Piquard will let me go a little over before inducing, but she didn't give me a specific date. She thinks we won't have to worry about it. Little guy has proven us wrong over and over these past few weeks, so we'll see...

Anxiously awaiting...

It's been awhile since I've got around to posting, so here's what has been going on with us and little guy...

1. Well, the nursery is all pretty much finished. We finally got our prints from Etsy, and they are framed and on the wall. We still have one area in the nursery that is pretty bare, so we're working on finding something to fill that space. I'm not too concerned about it right now. We'll figure it out eventually. So for the time being the nursery is done :)

Looking in 

Looking out

Changing table/dresser

Fabric bunting that I made for the gender reveal party now
decorates his window :)

Rocking chair that I finally put together, and the nightstand
off craigslist that I refinished to its current state of sunny
yellow. 

Sneak peek of what's inside the bins in his bookcase!

2. We met with both possible pediatricians and have decided to go with Dr. Kate Hartman at Shawnee Mission Pediatrics. Several people I work with take their kids there and have all had positive things to say about the office and the docs. Bonus is that Dr. Hartman can see little guy at the hospital after he's born, where as the other doctor didn't have privileges there (their office is over in Leawood).

3. My weekly visits with Dr. Piquard are going well. Everything is on track and looking good. I have been slowly dilating and effacing each week, which is encouraging being a first-time mom. Usually this  doesn't happen until actual labor sets in, which can make the whole process a little longer. As of today I'm 3cm dilated and 80% effaced (37w2d). I'm hoping this means when labor does start, it will move a little faster than the usual 12-14 hours (another first-time mom statistic that varies widely). I've been dilating a centimeter each week since Dr. Piquard starting checking. PS- the only reason we started checking anyway was some mild lower abdomen discomfort and cramping at 35 weeks, a bit early for labor to be starting. Each week we go to our appointment, she seems to be hinting that he'll be here sooner than later. However, it's been 3 weeks since my first check and still no baby... Getting my hopes up every time. It gets disappointing. I do know and realize that he could even be a week late before we'd be induced which wouldn't be until the start of August! And I also know that small pre-term babies have a harder time adjusting to life outside of mom. But just to be clear, full-term is considered 37+ weeks, which I now am! :)

4. I had my last visit with the perinatologists at 36 weeks. At 36w1d he was estimated to be 6lbs 5oz, and doing well. The morning of that appointment I noticed that he had DEFINITELY settled himself firmly into my pelvis. They call it "dropping" or "lightening". It was a big change and I was definitely uncomfortable! I've just now started to get used to it. Dr. Wickstrom (our main perinatologist that has been following us since day 1 of all the heart business) said she wanted to meet our little man and to let the staff know when we got to SMMC to deliver that she had been taking care of us so she could come by. I thought it was nice she wanted to meet little guy :)

5. On Matt's last week out of town, I had an appointment after work to get our pre-registration paperwork filled out at SMMC and get familiarized with their policies and procedures. The previous night I had some pretty strong and regular contractions that woke me about an hour after I went to bed. I called Matt to give him a head's up, and then started doing what I knew to help relax them if they weren't real labor. I ended up going back to bed about 2 hours later hoping I could sleep though them. Matt was in NJ and had no way of getting home until about 10am the next morning!!! This whole thing really got me anxious to have Matt back home for good. I couldn't imagine him not being there for the birth of our son! So I went to work as planned, had loads of contractions with back pain all day, and then on to SMMC for the paperwork. The nurse doing the paperwork suggested I get a labor check just to make sure, and if nothing else, to give me peace of mind and not to have Matt fly back early if he didn't need to (he had training in Chicago Friday and wasn't going to be home until Saturday). I was having regular contractions every 4 minutes or so, but not getting closer together or stronger over the hour they watched me with no progress in cervical dilation/effacement. The nurse suggested I say for fluids and further monitoring, and no work the following day. They felt labor would be very soon (the nurse said that weekend or beginning of the next week) and here we are a week later still pregnant. I suggested they let me go home, and I would come back if the contractions got worse. SO, they agreed to giving me Vistaril (helps relax the uterus and slow/stop contractions), Tylenol 3 for the back pain, and I drank a liter of fluid instead of an IV. The Vistaril worked wonders! I didn't have anymore contractions until Sunday :) The Tylenol 3 however, gave me some serious chest pain like I had last time I took a similar medication (something St. Luke's gave me for the kidney stones back in my second trimester). Makes me wonder if the digoxin and pain med combo is a no go. I've taken Percocet with no problems for my other stones while on digoxin, but until I had this chest pain again I totally forgot about the connection I thought they had last time I had the chest pain. Anyway, Matt took a late night flight home after training Friday evening. I felt so much better with him home to stay until 6 weeks after baby boy is here. YAY!!!!! It's the longest we'll have been in the same house in 3 years (since he travels every week). Can't even begin to explain how awesome this is going to be having him here this long!!! :)

6. And lastly, babies babies everywhere!! My friend Rachel had her sweet little girl Sunday July 1st, Courtney had her twins on Tuesday July 3rd, and Ashley will be having her baby no later than this Saturday (due to induction). That's 4 babies in 1 week! Holy moly!  This makes waiting for our little guy just that much harder, but I know he'll be worth the wait :) I'm just so stinkin' excited to meet him. We've spent some time with the twins twice, and I'll get to meet Rachel's lady tomorrow! It's really interesting to see the transformation that occurs when you talk to someone who's just had their first baby. It's like they're a whole new person in a very discreet sort of way.

36w5d

The front view!

Getting stuff set out to take to hospital! Matt has now
packed most of this since he's home :)

Get it in there snug!!

Getting the car seat in the LR3

Me and Courtney pre-babies!! The twinsies arrived July 3rd :)

Our last 4th of July with just the two of us :)

Happy 4th of July!!!!

Are we there yet?

I'm getting stuff marked off of my gianormous list of 'to do before July' at a good pace. We had our last shower back home in Joplin with family and friends this past weekend. It was such a relief to finally be able to see what all we had, and then go out and get any essentials that we didn't get. Little man's nursery is officially stocked and ready to go. Car seat bases are installed in both cars (that way we can switch cars easily), our stuff for the hospital is setting out waiting to be packed with the last minute items, clothes and blankets are washed and put away, and the nursery decorations should be complete in the next week or so. Waiting on a few prints from Etsy to arrive so I can frame them. Getting all this stuff done makes it feel like he should be here any minute! Waiting and not knowing when he's coming is really testing my patience. I'm officially ready to be done being pregnant and move on to the more fun things about having a baby in our life :)

I've started weekly appointments with my Dr now, and we see the perinatologists every 3 weeks. With our last ultrasound showing some arrhythmias reappearing, we now have non-stress tests (NST) twice a week :( Basically I sit in a recliner for 30 minutes while the external fetal monitor measures baby's heart rate and any contractions I'm having. To pass the NST his heart rate needs to have 'accelerations' where it momentarily increases in relation to his activity. He failed his first one we had, basically because he was sleeping. So I was given an orange sucker with no results, and then some apple juice with no results. They were hoping the sugar would wake him up. Since it didn't we then had a quick ultrasound to do a biophysical profile. They basically watch for certain activities that he's doing and he scores points for those things; the point range is anywhere from 0-10 with 10 being the best. He scored a 10 :)

Other than that, we are just anxiously awaiting his arrival (me more than Matt at this point!). I'm just ready to get him out, but Matt's more leveled headed and wants him to make it to full term. He's already  a protective daddy. Love it.

Me pretending that I actually like the flavor combo of orange sucker
and apple juice. Also helping hold his heart sensor in place since
it wasn't reading well.

A full 35 weeks!! We've missed our Sunday pictures
for the last 2 weeks so we snapped this one when I
got home from work on Tuesday.

Happenings

I finally got to see little man again today during our ultrasound at SMMC (we'll be doing these every 3 weeks until he's here). Unfortunately, he was head down and facing my back. Exact same position as 3 weeks ago. On the bright side, he's still head down and hopefully will stay that way for birth. On the other side, we couldn't see his sweet little face. But we did get a good look at his back, neck, ears, and all the fine floating hairs on his head. Yes I said floating. His hair is long enough to float around next to his head! The doctor said everything looked pretty good; growing well, normal development, no signs of SVT, no signs of hydrops. However, he's starting to have some irregular heart beats again, but with no significant rhythm issues. She plans on having Dr. P arrange for a NST (non-stress test). Basically I sit and relax while they monitor his heart for approximately 20 minutes, that way we have an idea of how often these little irregular beats are occurring. I was really hoping that this wouldn't be an issue anymore, but we were told that it was a possibility that as he got bigger. The bigger he is the smaller the digoxin level is to his heart. I'm trying to stay positive about thinking that this is something we won't have to deal with once he's here, but it seems like the digoxin really is still helping keep his heart in a steady rhythm. I was just hoping that he didn't need it anymore. He might be showing us otherwise. I need to call and set up my next appointment with Dr. P tomorrow, but we should know more by the end of next week.

Other than that little blip, life is great! I've been enjoying our neighborhood pool nearly every day that I'm not working, which is wonderful :) Also working on getting his room finished. My new goal is the end of June to have it completely done. Still need decorations to put on the walls, and one more coat of polyurethane to his refinished nightstand. I've got the crib linens all washed and on the crib. I think I'll wash his newborn and 0-3 month clothes at the end of this month as well. I also plan on getting my hospital bag packed by the end of the month, the basics anyway. Seems like a lot of deadlines for the end of June. Better get started soon. ALSO, come up with a small list of realistic names. A few to choose from for when he get's here. We have a big talk about names every week or two, and then just decide to keep thinking. If we're both actually thinking of names in the meantime.... probably not. I think we're both hoping to be hit square in the forehead with inspiration, and then hopefully agree that we both love it.

On a completely different note, we have officially witnessed some baby robins come to life and grow up outside our bathroom window. Several weeks ago a robin built a nest about 2 feet away from our window, then laid some eggs (we could only see the edge of 1), she sat on them for what seemed like forever, they finally hatched 2 weeks ago (2 birdies), last week one fell out of the nest and I had to put it back in with gloves and a ladder while being seriously screamed at by the mom and dad, realized there were actually 3 baby birdies (have since only seen 2, don't know what happened to #3), and today they flew the coup! I've been watching them closely, and I'm amazed at the whole process!! I'm even a bit sad that I won't have them to watch and look after every time I go to the bathroom. I'll miss them. Apparently baby birds can't fly well or far at first, so I've only managed to spot one of the in the back yard hanging out on our hill. And the only reason I spotted it was because momma bird swooped down and gave it a worn :) Makes me nervous to mow the grass though. We might have to put that off for a little bit. Here are some pictures to enjoy...

32w5d

Momma checkin' on her birdies

Outside our bathroom window (note windowsill)

1 week old- can see one bald head with beak, and a few wisps
of feathers. (pic taken 6/1)

7 days old- flew from the nest about 2 hours after this photo (taken 6/7)

Baby shower #1

I'm now 32 weeks, and baby and I are both growing. Our nurse at Dr. P's office said "Wow! Good. You're making progress. 6 pounds!" I'm thinking, excuse me?? Six pounds in two weeks?!?! What is that about?? This certainly can't keep up for another 8 weeks; that'd be 24 more pounds!! More than I've gained this entire pregnancy. Let's hope things slow back down. All is still good with baby's heart too. We talked a little about labor and delivery at this visit as well. We're planning on doing all this as intervention-free as possible, and wanted to gauge her reaction/attitude to that.

It seems like some things we won't be able to compromise on, like no eating and drinking during labor. She said it is anesthesiology's policy in case there's an emergency and general anesthesia is used (rather than an epidural for a c-section). She also feels very strongly about having an IV for emergency access as well, although I don't have to have fluids running. It can just be heplocked. And lastly, she wants continuous fetal monitoring "once I'm in the throes of labor, about 5 or 6 centimeters". Uhhh, it seems to me that that's only 1/2 way?? I was thinking continuous monitoring, like never. More like intermittent for 5 minutes during each hour for the whole process, even during pushing. We'll think more about that one, and probably politely decline (over and over and over and over again). We both agreed however, that if intervention-free is our goal (secondary to SAFE of course), that staying home and long as possible would be a good option. So that's what we're planning on.

On to more fun things, I had a great shower last weekend that my friends Courtney and Katie threw for me. Unfortunately, we all got so caught up in the shower that nobody took pictures! The shower kinda reflected baby's nursery style. Eclectic, bright, and fun. Katie handmade several items for the shower including the tablecloth and table runner, paper owls, and party favors. Courtney made all our yummy food. The punch even looked like a blue bubble bath, floating rubber duckies included! We ate some good food, played a few little games (none of which I won), and then opened gifts. Baby got some pretty sweet stuff from the girls! Two favorites: a book called Boss Baby and a Sporting KC onesie! Baby is already a fan; he's been to several games this season :)

Katie's cute owl family!

Wonderful homemade hand scrub (shower party favor)

Invitation for the shower along with the duckies
who floated in the bubble bath punch :)

Being gutsy here! We've spent a few hours by the pool
since it opened Memorial Day weekend. Good times:)
31w5d