36 weeks and progress is made

So even though I'm a day and a half away from 36 weeks I'm going to call this my 36 week post. It just makes it easier.

Things are going well here in very big and pregnant land. My belly size is starting to even surprise pregnant women. I had dinner last week with a friend who is 2 weeks behind me in her pregnancy and she was shocked at the size of my belly when she saw me. Apparently I'm carrying this girl very much out in front of me and and not in my torso at all. In some sense this is nice because literally I'm all belly and haven't gained too much weight in other body parts, but this also makes getting up, bending over and most mobility almost impossible. I simply do not know how woman carry more than 1 child in their bellies!

I had a check up yesterday and I'm slightly dilated - about 1 cm, but still very thick. I've been having occasional contractions the last week so things are starting to progress. She's still breech so we'll see how that goes. Next week I get an ultrasound to see her size, position, and to make sure she's ready for the world. If she is still breech then we'll be talking to the doc about our game plan.

This last weekend we had a fabulous weekend in Atlanta. We wanted to have a get away before the baby came but could not go that far away. Atlanta is only an hour and a half from us so off we went. Friday night we checked into our fabulous hotel and chilled for a little while. We took a short walk to a restaurant that a friend recommending and had a wonderful dinner. I splurged and had dessert too. :) Then Saturday we had room service and headed out to Atlantic Station around 11. There was an art show type thing in the park area of AS which was cool - I got some jewelry and we had yummy Italian Ice Cream. We went to a few shops there and then went over to Ikea. Ikea was cool but we didn't find anything we couldn't live without. Oh, except some ribbon... I found some really nice ribbon that I got. Then we headed back to the hotel because I wanted to go to the pool. Lots of people have been telling me how wonderful it is to swim when you are pregnant so I really wanted to do this while we had a pool. Upon check in Friday they told us the pool was closed Saturday but they were running a shuttle to there other location to use that pool. I was disappointed, but figured it was no big deal. Well when it was our time to take the shuttle it was on an extended trip so they paid for a cab to take us to the other hotel. Again - not as planned but fine. We got to the hotel and I almost started crying when we saw the pool. It was so small and packed with people. It looked like a big hot tub with a bunch of skinny, tan, 20 somethings all drinking their beers and margaritas... not really a place for a giant pregnant lady to have a nice swim. But considering the work it took to get to this pool we decided to make the best of it and found a small corner and hung out it. It did feel very nice and luckily the people close to us were a little older and more understanding of how I felt. We were there for about an hour and half when we decided it was time to try to head back and get ready for dinner. Then the real trouble began. This hotel was not going to pay a cab to send us back to the other hotel and again the "shuttle" was on an extended trip and could not take us back. So we were told to tell the cab driver that the hotel would pay them when we got to our destination. Cab driver #1 was not interested in this game plan and really ticked me off. We waited forever because we thought a cab was called specifically for us despite the line of cabs that was waiting for anyone who needed a ride. After more waiting we found cab that agreed to the arrangement and later told us that the other driver was not suppose to have denied us a ride. That paying upon destination was perfectly acceptable. Anyway, this cab driver was hilarious and helped me forgot about how upset I was. At this point I was in tears. I was huge, my makeup was off because we were swimming. I was in clothes but wet underneath since my swimsuit was under them, I was tired, hungry, and I just wanted to go back to our room.

Finally we got there with only 20 minutes to get ready for our very nice dinner that we had reservations for. Amazingly I managed to shower, blow dry my hair, style it, do my make up and get all dressed up in 20 minutes. Luckily the dress fit that I packed but had never tried on and got to wear some of my new jewelry I had bought.

Dinner at The Melting Pot by the way, was incredible. It is simply one of my favorite restaurants and we had such a wonderful meal and evening. I felt more full than I ever have in my life afterwards, but it was so worth it.

Sunday was also a bit of an adventure. We again had room service but just a simple coffee and croissant breakfast - with our favorite Pain au chocolate... yum! Then we checked out and headed to "The Underground" Atlanta. I had been here once before but it was a long time ago. We were so disappointed. We walked from one end to the other and decided it was time to leave. It was nothing but cheap kiosks that sold junk, and nothing interesting. We did stop by the dairy queen there and I got a blizzard though... :)

So we talked about options, did some research online and decided to head to Little Five Points atlanta. Another shopping artsy area that I had been to when I was back in school. Again, we drove through the area and knew it was not what we wanted to do. Maybe this was all cool and fun when we were in school but it just looked like a bunch of junk to us now.

So we talked about options, did some research online and decided to go to our old standard The Lenox Mall in atlanta. We knew we would not be disappointed by the Apple store, Banana republic, Crate and Barrel, and a few other favorites... and we were so right. It was wonderful. G got some clothes and BR, I got some jewelry, a cool (and non-maternity) t-shirt at jcrew, a lamp for our patio and a few other odds and ends. It was fabulous! We stayed at the mall until it closed and then headed home.

It was a wonderful weekend and I avoided going into labor (which was the goal). :)

Since I'm not wanting to do posts without photos anymore here is a picture of some earrings that I got at BR.

And in case you missed my tiny little post below... Ella Grey is my little girls name. :)

Ella Grey that is... :)

Her name is Ella.

We decided the name of our daughter at 33 weeks and 1 day of pregnancy.

We love you little girl!

(Middle name to be announced soon - still finalizing but it's a good one! :))

33 weeks doctor visit

I am so happy to report that I measured right at 33 weeks this time! I also gained 2 lbs. which is perfect at this stage. This does not mean I can go back to my old eating ways, but confirms that my diet changes are right on. I'm getting enough food but not too much of the wrong kind that makes her get big.

To celebrate I had a Dairy Queen Blizzard and it was wonderful! :)

We also talked to our doctor about the breech issue and I was so happy to hear his normal procedure on breech babies. He likes to wait until about 39 weeks and schedules the procedure that turns them and then immediately breaks my water inducing labor. He said the breaking of the water pulls their head down further and going into labor right away usually prevents them from turning back to breech. I've read a lot about how woman have their babies turned and then they turn back and still have to have a cesarean. I know a cesarean is always a possibility but I feel much more like our changes are a lot higher now of me being able to deliver her.

After we had the ice cream we did some shopping. We got a circle mirror for the nursery and also ordered the pleather glider/rocker/recliner for the nursery pictured below. Then we went and saw the move UP. It was a little sad, but still a great movie.

Here's the chair - I know not the traditional glider for the nursery - but I love this chair!

That's all folks!

Work Shower and Birthing Class

So a lot happened between week 31 and week 33. Last week we had my work shower that I wanted to write a little about here, and then we had our birthing class the Saturday afterwards.

My shower was so very nice. The people throwing it know how I feel about pink and know my personality enough that it was perfect for my non-traditional having a (girl) baby ways. First of all - check out this invitation...

Is that simply not the coolest baby shower invitation you've ever seen!!! I almost cried when I saw it... probably more from hormones but still. In case you didn't notice the circle pattern on the left hand side is my bedding. The lady that did this had seen my bedding online but like 3 months ago so I was shocked she remembered the pattern.

I also loved the decor of the shower - like the one we had here it was circle themed and nothing had little pictures of babies or ducks on it. :) The third best and probably most important thing was the cupcakes. We had the same cupcakes that we ordered for my other shower and there's no way to put how incredible these things are. Even though I've been watching my sugar I thought it very important to enjoy my shower and eat the cupcakes!! Yum.

Everyone was so very generous. I would say we probably had about 40 people come at one point or another and I got everything from my pack n' play to diapers. This little girl is definitely well provided for!

It was a nice change of pace at work and it was so nice that for a few hours we could sit, talk, eat and just have a good time. I don't think anyone from works reads this blog but if they do or do in the future - thank you for everything!!

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So a week ago we had our birthing class. It was suppose to be a week FROM today, but we ended up getting a small job that day and making money is a priority so we rescheduled it. (No this is a job I do not have to work - only G). :) But changing the date was a little sad because it was suppose to be our first Saturday that we did not have a wedding or anything and we could have slept in. Oh well. We slept in today and it was wonderful!

Anyway, the class was interesting. We took the one that was a crash course - 9 to 5 on a Saturday and learned it all at once as oppose to regular classes. This made for a very long day and even though we had snacks and took lots of breaks - it was exhausting! There were probably 7 couples there, all having their first kids and it was nice to be with people that are going through a lot of the same things we are. I was happy to see that at least when it came to girls - no one in the group had picked a name yet. I think that says something about how hard it is to pick names these days. I think with all of the books and websites on names it's actually harder. Before you could think of a name and like it and go with it. These days people (or at least us) feel like they have to a big process to pick the best name. I know we probably extended this process more than others but still - it's hard!

The class covered everything thing from basic pregnancy stuff, to how the baby comes out and then went in to what to do when the baby comes and all that could be involved with delivery. It was nice to hear about cesareans and I also found out that our doctor is one of the best for cesareans. The lady doing the class also talked about how they turn breech babies so it gave us some hope. The girl who was sitting next to me said she was breech too but her baby's cord is around her neck so chances are they will not turn that baby and only do a cesarean. Speaking of the girl next to me... I've been clumsy lately always dropping things and I managed to drop my open bottle of water right on her foot. That is a great way to get to know a stranger - spill water on them!! I felt so horrible. I don't think she cared very much since she was in sandals and it was just water - but I felt like an idiot.

Anyway, after class we went to the hospital and got a tour of it. It's very nice and both the old rooms and the new rooms are roomy and nice. This is a hospital that they do everything in the room so the baby is born there, stays there and there's a couch for dad. They only go to the nursery if something goes wrong or if you really want a break then they can go to the nursery.

The class made the whole thing more real. Now that we've gotten ourselves into this - she has to come out. I hope things continue to go well so that we can deliver at this hospital (if you are high risk you can not) and that everything goes okay in general.

Sorry for the long post - but I wanted to get caught up!

33 weeks and all is well

So I've been meaning to post a lot lately, but have not taken the time and now this post is going to have to address a number of things because so much has happened!

First of all. Here are some belly shots taken at 31 weeks.

The real Caslon does still exist all though she's having a hard time with the transition of getting a sister.

We had an ultrasound right at 31 weeks to check a few things and it was nice to be able to see her as a bigger baby. She was pretty lazy during the ultrasound, not wanting to move her feet from her face. I can see how that position is comforting and you wouldn't want to move?!!? She's in a ball and seems to like things that way. She's also breech which isn't an issue yet, but I have a feeling will be considering she's been that on every ultrasound we've had and now that I know it's her head that keeps sticking out on my upper stomach I know that she's like this most of the time. I had thought it was her bottom, but no, she likes to be head up. So much in fact that I've noticed when I lay down, she turns so that she's side to side in my belly - again so she's head up. We'll see how things play out. If given the option I think I'd like to try turning her because I'd like to deliver her, but if we don't have that option or if we turn her and she goes back - I'm totally fine with a cesarean.

Interesting fact #2 from this ultrasound is her size. She is big. They measured her at 4 lbs. 5 oz. Now my nephew was born at 31 weeks and he weighed 2 lbs. 14 oz. so when the lady doing the ultrasound told us her size our jaws fell to the floor. She measured almost 2 weeks big.

We met with the doctor afterwards who was very happy to see that my fluid levels were so good and that everything looked so good and when he got to her size you could tell he was surprised and doing some calculations in his head... and the laugh that came out was not comforting to me. He put it diplomatically by saying "that would put her bigger than normal". He looked back at my sugar numbers and I guess I was 2 points away from coming back for the second level gestational diabetes test and was pretty much borderline on that. Considering that along with her size we talked a little bit about my diet and how I could watch my sugar and carbs more to try to slow her growth some. All I can think about now when I see ice cream is 10 lb. baby and that's enough to keep me away. I would not be surprised at all if like the first couple weeks after she's here I have a huge calorie feast before I worry about losing weight because I'm missing the simple pleasures of pregnancy now (ice cream, brownies, ice cream on top of brownies, Dairy Queen blizzards, chocolate at work) I could go on and on.

So I have a big breech baby who is still untitled. G's starting to like Untitled as a name, I have to encourage him that it is not a suitable name. I'd consider Lorem as a name (Lorem Ipsum is what placeholder copy is called in the design world) but if she went into the design industry, she would never live it down.

So we'll see how things play out. She needs to turn and not get too big for me to be able to deliver her the way I'd like to, other wise it's a cesarean for us and that's totally fine.

I think I'll leave this post as is and do another one for some of the other events the last 2 weeks. I'm getting tired! :)

Pictures from the Shower!

I finally have some pictures to put on here! I was looking back and old posts and realize how I used to always have photos when I posted. Somehow I got out of the habit... how boring! Anyway. I'm going to do much better about that!

Here's a preview of our houseful last weekend when everyone came for the shower.

Since the whole family was able to come on both my side and G's - we had lots of kids! Here's M putting rings on my head. I think this is actually the day before the shower.

M & A playing ball together. M is our niece on my side and A is our nephew on G's side. I'm not sure if this makes them second cousins?
Oh the cupcakes!!! These are simply the best cupcakes on earth.
Here's what our living room looked like for the weekend. A holding sister R and E (niece on other side of family) hard at work on the wii.
L did a great job with the decorations. I loved the circles and bright colors!
Our living room before all of the people showed up.
Our living room taken over by family, friends and presents!
Some of the kids found out it was fun to hang things from the balcony.
What is a party without a pinata?
Of course some adults can't help themselves from a pinanta either!
And another picture of the cupcakes, well because they simply are the best cupcakes on earth.