37.5 weeks

So, I have actual news to report from my appointment today! If you don't want all the gory details then I suggest you stop reading now, because I have no idea how much info is too much info for some of you. I'm just going to share it all...

Dr Porter checked me today and here's the down low—I'm 60-70% effaced and dilated 2 centimeters and the baby's head is in a -2 position (whatever that means!). He also stripped my membranes, which wasn't the most comfortable of experiences for me. At one point Dr Porter had a hand on each end of the baby and was jostling him around, and Li'l Cleatus tried to fight back. He was moving and kicking all over the place. That's my boy! He'd don't take no crap from nobody. Anyway, things are apparently looking good for this baby to come on his own, but if he chooses not to, he'll be forced out sometime after next Friday the 27th. I'm wanting to give him up to the 3rd to make an appearance, but we'll have to wait and see what fits the schedule. 

In other fun news, my feets are ridiculously puffy all the time now. The heat is not my friend. I gained like 7 pounds this last week, and I'm hoping most of that is water retention because if it's not I might have to kill myself. I'm really looking forward to being less large in a couple of weeks. Really really. 

I don't think there's much else to say. These days I go to work, come home, make dinner, sometimes wash dishes, and then collapse on the couch until bedtime. Nothing too exciting. It looks like our garden is surviving for the time being, but it could probably turn on us at any moment. I'll see if I have the guts to take a picture of my elephant feet and post it here, but I can't guarantee anything. You probably wouldn't want to see them anyway...

25 days or less...

I went to the doctor today. I waited for an hour. I saw the doctor for about 3 minutes. The baby still has a heartbeat. Nothing else happened. The end.

31 days to go!

So, no big news to report from my doctor's appointment. I asked about being induced/going overdue, and Dr Porter said he wouldn't let me go over. So I guess you can all plan on a new baby right around July 4th! Li'l Cleatus still likes to move around when the doctor is trying to hear his heartbeat. This time he turned all the way over so I had to get that cold goop on both sides of my tummy. When that boy decides to move he really moves. I told Nate the other day that I think our son has a future in the water ballet, and Nate said, "You take that back right now." But Cleatus is the one doing all the fancy tricks, not me. 

According to the interweb, Li'l Cleatus is about 5.5 pounds and around 19 inches long. From now on he's supposed to get fatter, but not much taller. I guess we'll just have to wait and see how he turns out. 

And speaking of how he'll turn out, here's a picture I put together at work today to help you imagine what he might look like—it's a combination of one of Nate's baby pictures, my hair, and Nate's stubble. I think all he needs now is a can of Coke sitting in the chair with him. 

Okay, I'll post the other one too. Nate already sent this one out to some of you. It's pretty scary. This one adds my eyes and Nate's nose into the mix. Keep in mind that both of these took me about 5 minutes to do, so they're not professional quality. :)

I think the luscious blonde locks are my favorite part. 

And for those of you who get your kicks out of seeing how large I am, here's a picture of my nearly 36 weeks along belly. Pay no attention to the face. I wasn't feeling my best today.

That's my boy—sticking out for all the world to see. He must really want people to know that he's coming, because he's thrust himself right out front there. 

In other news, Nate and I finally got our garden planted. Now we just have to wait and see if we kill everything or not. I also read a really interesting (and by interesting I mean the biggest piece of crap waste of time worthless nonsense shoot me now so it ends) book this weekend. It's about Hannah and Japanese organized and being possessed by the devil and Hannah. If you want all the juicy details you'll have to read it for yourself. Or ask me. Or ask Hannah. I tried to save her the experience of actually reading the words on the page, so she just got the summary. The house is still coming along, but now that Tia's party is over we're not in as big of a rush as once we were. Although I guess we should try to finish things before the baby comes....hmmmm....

If I remember to I'll try to post some pictures and video from Tia's surprise party. I'm sure other family members will, but I'll try to chip in my two cents. 

Puffy

That's how I'm feeling these days. It seems like every part of me is swelling up in this heat. I was really whiney yesterday (ask Nate) because my legs and feets and toes and fingers were all puffed up. It was gross. I didn't like it much. I still don't. 

Anyway, I went to see Dr Porter today and this appointment was pretty much like all the others. I was weighed and measured, and then we listened to Li'l Cleatus's heartbeat. Everything is good and normal. And it appears that the baby's head is down where it's supposed to be and "pretty well engaged." Sounds like good news to me. 

Here are some pictures to help you visualize Li'l Cleatus's size. His weight is somewhere between a pineapple and a cantaloupe. (About 4.5 pounds.) His length is somewhere around 18 inches. 

I have another appointment in 2 weeks, and then after that I'll have an appointment every week. 

In project news Nate and I have been busy working on the house. We're getting the hall bathroom put back together tonight. We've got the baby's room mostly cleaned out and ready (there's a bit of a problem with the closet doors still). And we've been working on getting our garden ready to plant. Caleb came over on Saturday and helped Nate with the weed whacking and tilling. Ethan is putting in the sprinkler system sometime this week, and then we're good to sew some seeds. I'm really looking forward to that part. It looks like this holiday weekend is going to be filled with projects for us. We still have tons of baseboard, door casing, and chair rail to prep and install, along with all the other minor things we want to get done before the baby comes...

Cafe Rio Pork (kinda)

So, we make some spicy pork, but it's way more simple and probably less authentic. Here's how I make it:

2 or so cans pork chunks from the family cannery

1 can spicy mexican style tomato sauce

1 can regular tomato sauce (these are small cans by the way. like little half cans)

brown sugar

Combine in a saucepan and simmer for a while until it looks done.

I know, this is a really detailed recipe, but I honestly don't have any more specifics. I just dump stuff in until it looks/tastes right. I guess I'll have to talk to my mom and see if she can be more specific. We like to eat this stuff in quesadillas with rice. It's tasty!

Our baby boy!

Here are a couple of my ultrasound pictures from about 12 weeks ago. I know that now they're a little outdated, but still, he's quite a looker, isn't he?

If I had other pictures of him I would post them, but I'm afraid you'll have to make due with these until he decides to show himself to the world in the flesh.

32 weeks for realsies

Here are some pictures. Enjoy!

The first is me at 27 weeks, the second is me last week at 31 weeks.

I agree, that shirt totally adds like 10 pounds.

Here's our front room where we keep the piano. Those are my temple pictures.

And here is the railing in all its majesty!



And here is my marine brother Grant on the day he came home (a week ago). A couple of fire trucks and a police car met him at the highway and drove him through town, sirens blaring. The neighbors lined the street and our front yard with flags. It was pretty neat. And we were all glad to see Grant all in one piece.

That's all for now. But I'm kind of on a posting roll, so stay tuned for more!

32 weeks-ish

Okay, here's the scoop. I wanted to post some pictures of the things we've been doing around the house, but I haven't put the pictures on the computer yet, so I haven't posted yet. My bad. Sorry I was a liar Brad. 

So here's what's been going on: I went to the doctor on Monday and everything is fine. Li'l Cleatus still likes to kick a lot, especially when Dr Porter is trying to listen to his heartbeat. It makes me laugh to watch the doppler thingy bounce when he kicks at it. That's the biggest highlight of the appointment these days.

Other big news (thanks for the spoiler comment Sam) is that our railing around the stairs is finally up! Huzzah! It still needs one more coat of paint, but it's up and our house is at least 70% safer. Originally we were going to stain the top part to match the floor, but life got complicated and so in order to get it up before the Second Coming we decided to just paint the entire thing white. Pictures to come.

We bought a crib and a recliner this last week, and now both of them are in our house! We haven't put the crib together yet because my aunt and uncle are sleeping in the baby's room so there's no room for the crib yet. But we'll get it up soon so I can go in there and stare at it in all its majesty. The recliner isn't anything special. I think it was the cheapest one at RC Willey. Not that that's the reason we bought it—it just worked out that way. It's comfy and meets our needs so we're satisfied. Here's a picture of the crib I found online. 

Now that we've finished painting the last of the walls, we've started hanging things up. It makes our house look more like a home. I like it. I'm excited to have family pictures taken this summer (both with my family and with Nate's) so I'll have new pictures to hang up. Pictures of what the walls look like now to come.

I had Nate take a picture of me last week so that you all can see how large in stature I am, and I promise I'll post it when I post the rest of the pictures. It seems like it's harder to get Nate to take a picture of me than for me to let my picture be taken. I have to coax him into taking pictures. Maybe it's because I'm a little picky and make him keeping taking pictures until I'm happy with how I look. BabyCenter.com isn't cooperating right now, so I can't post a picture of what food item the baby most resembles. All I know is that he's almost 4 pounds and almost 17 inches (give or take) and weighs about the same as a large jicama. Hooray for obscure vegetables!

I guess that's all for now. If I think of anything else that's cool I'll post it sooner rather than later. And maybe I'll get to the pictures tonight when I get home from work.

Bigger and Better

Today I had another doctor's appointment. It was nothing special—just 7 minutes of yep, everything looks good. So that's the update. Everything looks good. The baby and I are both getting bigger. See you again in 2 weeks.

It's been a long day and I'm tired. So I'll write a real post tomorrow with pictures and stuff. Tonight I just want to sleep.

29 weeks 3 days

Another month, another doctor's appointment. Sometimes I feel like these things are a waste of time because nothing really happens. And yet I look forward to them all the same. From now on I'll be seeing Dr Porter once every two weeks instead of once a month. That means I'll have a reason to post twice as often now! 

Today I weighed in at a hefty . . . not going to say. But I have gained more weight. I think I'm up about 22 pounds total so far, but there's still plenty of time to go. Li'l Cleatus still has a good strong heartbeat. As Dr Porter was trying to listen to it, he asked if the baby has been moving well, and in response he got kicked. It made the doppler thingy bounce on my tummy. Needless to say, I think Cleatus is going to be a soccer player. Or a dancer. I tease Nate by telling him that the baby is dancing around inside me. He doesn't like it much, but that's what all those crazy movements feel like. Occasionally the baby pokes his foot out so far that you can see the protuberance sticking out there, and I kind of shove it back in. 

Li'l Cleatus is about 15 inches long and weighs about 2.5 pounds at this point. In length he compares to a butternut squash. (See picture below.) From now on he won't get too much longer, but he'll continue to pack on the pounds (just like his mama).

Dr Porter gave me some samples to try of this heartburn medication stuff. We'll see if it helps. I've been chewing Tums-like calcium tablets on a regular basis for about 3 months now just so I can sleep. I don't really want to take any more medications, but I'll probably use up the samples and then go back to my regularly scheduled programs. 

The best part of the visit was when I asked Dr Porter for a note that I could take to work. See, at PDC one of the only dress code rules is no flip flops. That's fine in the winter (well, maybe not fine, but at least tolerable), but it's not so much fun in the summer. Especially when my poor feetsies have already started swelling up in the afternoons. I asked HR if they gave special permission to pregnant women to wear whatever shoes they wanted (I knew they had done it in the past) and they told me I needed a note from my doctor saying that it is medically necessary for me to wear flip flops before they'd be okay with it. So I asked Dr Porter for a note and he complied. It says, "To Whom it May Concern, Kirsta is experiencing swelling and may need to wear flip flops to work in for the remainder of the pregnancy." Nice. I dropped it off with HR and look forward to having happier feet in the weeks to come. 

So, to sum up, everything seems to be going well. I have a few aches and pains to go along with the usual nausea, but nothing to complain about. (At least nothing to complain about to anyone but Nate who gets to hear it whether he likes it or not.) I'm doing great. The baby's doing great. Nate's doing great. Our house is coming together slowly but surely.  I only have 10 weeks left until I get at least a 6 week vacation from work. Everything is great.