What a crazy few weeks.

At week 39, baby was measuring 9lbs and 6oz via u/s.  Dr. Placede reassured us that everything would be fine and people deliver large babies every day.  The next few appointments were just to measure dilation/effacement, etc... Finally, my first post date appointment was with Dr. Gaines (40wk4d).  He scared the heck out of me!  He kept saying "Why would you want to deliver a 10lb baby and tear into your rectum?  Why would you risk he health of you and the baby just for a natural birth?  There is no reason."  He made me cry and scared me half to death. I went to another practice for a confirmation ultrasound to estimate the baby's weight and they said she was 10lbs 2oz.  I was up almost all night worrying about it.  He called me the next morning to reiterate his C-section preference and I asked him if I could talk to the doctor that is on call for when I was scheduled to be induced (Thurs).  It makes sense to discuss this with the doctor who will be working with us.  He said, "If you want to get another opinion, I'll give your chart to him and wash my hands of you and your husband.  I have already spent plenty of time discussing this with you."  Seriously?  How rude.  I guess people should believe the bad reviews on this guy for poor bedside manner.  Yes, this doctor has some horrible reviews online for this same type of thing.

Shortly after, I called to make an appointment with Dr. Gunter (40wk5d).   I didn't have much experience with him as a doctor because I had only met him once or twice but he was the doctor on call when I was scheduled to be induced.  He had no appointments available but when he heard my situation, he fit me in.  When we finally met with him, he was very calming.  He went over pros/cons with us for the decision c/s vs. natural.  He didn't push anything on us or use scare tactics.  He stepped out and let us discuss and make the decision.  I was very impressed with him.  When he came back into the office, we told him that we would do the c/s but only if he could be our doctor (and it could be scheduled the next day.)  I really didn't want Dr. Gaines to do it - he was the doctor at the hospital for Friday.  He had already scared/intimidated me enough, and I didn't feel like I would want to deal with it.  I'm sure they are both very good doctors - I just get more anxiety around Dr. Gaines.  I'm happy with our decision.

We get to meet our baby girl tomorrow!!!  7:15AM for prep and 10:15AM for surgery.  Please pray for all of us! :)

First trip to labor and delivery

I called the doctor tonight to let him know that I haven't felt as many kicks as usual but the heartbeat sounded fine.  He told me to go to the hospital (labor and delivery) anyway.  So we went!  We were hooked up to some monitors for about a half hour and everything sounded fine.  :)

  Hopefully next time I go to the hospital it is for contractions and labor!

Big Baby!!!

39 week appointment:

Baby is measuring 9  lbs 6 oz (plus or minus 8 oz).  She's a big girl!!! Fluid level is perfect.  I gained 4 lbs between Tuesday and Friday and my blood pressure was high at the appointment.  They said they will monitor the BP and see how things go.  I was negative again for preE.  He said he's not really concerned about the BP since baby is measuring big ... unless it goes up to like 160/110.  It was around 150/90 on Fri.   Every other appointment i've been around 115/70 - what a crazy jump!!!    I'm going to reduce any salt/prepared foods this weekend and hopefully Monday will be better.  :)

Poor Paul was late for the doc appt  by only a few minutes and missed the u/s.  Hopefully he'll learn to be on time from now on.  :)  I couldn't ask them to hold up their schedule for us...  He is sometimes a workaholic.

Because I was measuring at the 98th percentile for baby girl's size, they squeezed me in to see a doc.  (There wasn't any appts available).  The doc checked me again and I have not progressed - still 2 cm/50%/-2. He said he still doesn't think we'll need to induce because people deliver 10lb  babies just fine.  He said if I was diabetic, he would induce.  Ugh, I'm going to end up with a C-section after laboring b/c this baby isn't going to fit out of me.  He said on Monday if my bp is still high, they'll send me to the hospital for some monitoring of some sort.

Work Baby Shower

In late April, my friends at work were very kind and threw us a baby shower.  It was nice to visit with everyone and eat yummy foods!  The cake was SO GOOD!  I liked taking home the leftovers... :)

We got a ton of cool gifts from our registry including a convertible car seat, the bumpo seat, lots of baby dishes and clothes and diapers, etc...  It was a great time!  Here are a few photos:

Easter Weekend

I was having beach withdrawl on Easter weekend, so Paul and I headed to Wilmington Beach for fun.  We stayed at a hilton and spent time relaxing and on the beach.  Next year on Easter the Easter bunny will come for our little girl!  How exciting!! :)

No pictures from this trip - we forgot the camera!  We did go to a nice restaurant downtown in Wilmington... I had some big fish prepared Oscar style (hollandaise/asaparagus).  It was yummy!!!

Tornado Weekend!

In mid-April, Paul's parents came to visit.  They dropped all of the baby shower stuff off (how nice!)  We went on Sat afternoon to a movie and a bunch of tornados hit.  It was quite scary!!!  We had a piece of a gutter pulled down, a piece of siding blew off, and part of our fence disconnected.  We were very blessed because houses near us were demolished.   We still had a nice time visiting even though we didn't have power.  We were thankful that it wasn't too hot out yet!

Myrtle Beach Babymoon

As spring approached, Paul and I decided to go to myrtle beach for a weekend.  We stayed at a Hampton Inn and Suites hotel which was very nice!  We had an ocean front balcony.  We spent time lounging on the beach and taking walks on the beach, sleeping in, reading, watching the news, etc... We went and played a lot of mini-golf and ate at good restaurants.   Overall it was a beautiful weekend, and we made lots of good memories.  I love the beach!

Feb 25th - Trip to da UP!

On Feb 25th, I flew to Detroit on a trip.  There were a few showers planned for us in Michigan and Wisconsin.  It was the perfect week to go because Paul was already in Detroit for work the week prior.  So we only had to buy one flight!  Friday night, Paul picked me up from the airport.  We couldn't find eachother at first because he went to one terminal to pick me up, but I was at the other.  Eventually we figured out that we were in different areas, whoops:)   After we found eachother, we grabbed some Wendy's and headed up to Da UP.  When we hit the bridge, we were both too tired to drive, so we grabbed a hotel room. On Saturday we finished the trip to Escanaba/Gladstone and visited with family.

Sunday was our first baby shower thrown by my sister and mom.  Lots of people came and it was so nice to see friends and family in the area.  The theme was Winnie the Pooh - which is also our nursery theme.  It was very cute and was held at the Irish Oaks. 

Mon-Thurs I spent the days with my mom and most evenings with dad.  Paul worked during the day from home, so he could save some vacation for when baby arrived.  It worked out pretty well.  It snowed and snowed in da UP.  It amazed me how clear the roads were - definitely not like that in Raleigh!!!

On Friday we drove to Wisconsin to see family and go to another shower at my Aunt Mary's house.  First we met Grandpa for lunch (mmm cheese curds), then he took us to a butcher shop and bought us some cheese and sausage.  mmmm  We still have a bit of that in the freezer.  Then we met some of the family at a hotel bar and played some card games.  Finally around 4pm we had the shower (or family gathering).  It was great to see family again because we live so far away!  That night we drove to Milwaukee for the night.

Saturday morning we woke up at 4am to head back through Chicago and to Michigan.  We arrived in Kalamazoo around 11am which was perfect timing to get lunch at my favorite pizza place (Upper Crust Pizza).  After lunch we headed to another baby shower in a suburb of Detroit given to us by Katie and Ryan.  We had a great time visiting with everyone and the food was awesome!  They are GREAT cooks.  We stayed the night at Katie's mom's house and then Sunday went to mass and flew back to Raleigh.  All of the gifts were given to Paul's parents who were planning a trip to Raleigh to visit and they drove them down to us.  How nice, right?  :)

Anyway, that's all for now.  Next I'll have to write about our Myrtle Beach babymoon!!!

SO MUCH FOOD! :)

I have eaten soo much.  Baby stopped kicking - I'm guessing that I filled up the tummy so much with food that she can't budge.  HEHE :)  She's swaddled by my tummy!

Craving PIZZA!

Paul is at a Happy Hour with his work buddies, so I ORDERED PIZZA! HEHEHE :) 
I ordered Domino's Hawaiian specialty pizza!  It's my fave!! :)

BIG DAY on SUNDAY!!!  Superbowl party at our house. Baby is kicking like crazy!  Usually like every 2 hours or so I get about a half hour of kicks. :)  Definitely 15 minutes after I eat anything, haha.  I love it!

This is not baby related....

Paul has been a sweetie and has been taking care of Denali's litter box.  He takes the box outside to clean it.  Well, he cleaned it yesterday afternoon and forgot to bring the litter box back inside!  I just noticed it today after I got home from work (over 24 hours later). POOR DENALI!!!!!   So Paul and I searched the entire house for cat pee or poop and couldn't find anything.  Paul rewarded her with some deli turkey!  Hopefully she really held her bladder for 24 hours and didn't just 'hide it good'.  :)

It's a girl! :)

We had our ultrasound today!  Everything was perfect.  We're having a baby girl.  There were no issues with measurements, all of our blood tests came back perfect, and baby was upside down ready to show her goodies to the world!  One thing I noticed was that the girl has a HUGE head!  Big German heads!! :)

After the ultrasound, we had a quick lunch and went to the Kid's Exchange.  That is the event where everyone brings their gently used baby stuff to try to sell.  We bought a few cute pink outfits.  :)  Now we're at home and Paul is watching a movie.  I'm not really interested... I just want to look at more baby stuff!!!!!

Prenatal yoga!

I had my second prenatal yoga class today.  It was better than the first.  :)  I might get a prenatal pilates DVD.  I'm sure there are some used ones on amazon that people never used!  Or maybe I can find a wii game!!!  Either way, it's good to stretch.  I totally need it.  I also need to do anything that gets me moving a bit, because I feel like I'm gaining so much weight so quickly!!!!


Friday is the BIG GENDER DAY!!!  I find out if baby is a boy or a girl and I also find out how much weight I have gained.  YIKES!! :)

Date Night

Paul and I went to Maggiano's for dinner and then to the Lion King.  It was a really nice show!  We had some free time between the Buy Buy Baby store.  We only had 45 minutes but I LOVED IT!!! GREAT STORE!

I had some funny stories about the trip, but I can't remember them.  Must be pregnancy brain!

Oh, maybe it was Paul registering for 127 random items... because he likes the scanner.  Or maybe it was when he lost the scanner in a Pack n' Play!  :)  Maybe he should get a job in inventory since he likes playing with that scanner!