35 Weeks

Hi there. Things continue to go well for us. We bought trim for the entire upstairs and Garrett is going to start putting it up soon in the baby's room. We hadn't really cleaned up from the work we've done on the office room and baby's room so we started cleaning things up last night and will do more of the same tonight. We will shuffle a few things around so we can get at least the crib and changing table put together in her room. I'm also going to put up the wonderful wall hangings we've received. I will post pictures on facebook as soon as the room is ready.

My co-workers had a baby shower for me last week. 32 people came and they presented me with a generous gift card to Target. The girls I first worked with when I started at the company 4 years ago chipped in together and bought us a pack n' play. It will be very nice to have that on our main floor of the house so I won't have to go up and down the stairs to let the baby rest away from the pets. The cats may still be able to get in with her but at least she'll be out of reach from Huntley's tongue. It also has an attached changing station that hangs over the inside of the "crib". I've had a few people say they think I've dropped in the past week. Garrett just says I'm getting ginormous. Lol! I for sure feel quite large all over. Not just the belly.

I seem to be getting more and more sleepy and hungry. Chocolate milk is still fabulous and I have to keep limiting myself to only one glass each day since the calories are quite a bit more than plain milk. Don't worry, I get plenty of calcium between the plain milk, chocolate milk and my Tums. Ugh, the heartburn. Oh, I also get calcium from the ice cream, of which we have very little left. Perhaps we can talk someone into bringing us some Central when coming to visit us. My hips continue to be painful at night, then achy during the day. I've also developed carpal tunnel. I wake up in the night from moving my hands as they are sore and stiff. My hands have also been going numb when I haven't been laying on that arm. I called the doctor's office after looking it up and they said the same thing as what I read, that it's caused by the extra fluid in my body and should go away after delivery. They offered to refer me to a physical therapist to get fitted for a brace but I said I'd rather just deal with it for the last few weeks. It isn't severe right now and knowing that it's only temporary, I can get through it. The swelling in my feet are still an annoyance so I continue to take breaks and put my feet up every chance I get. Work has been busy so it's been a challenge some days but I make sure to do it anyway. I got my hair cut 4 inches off last week as you can see in my profile photo. I intended it to be about an inch longer with more layering towards the bottom but my hairdresser had a different idea. I showed her a photo I had of the back of my head from a cut I had a few years ago that I really liked but she wasn't able to cut it the same way. It took a couple of days for me to start liking it and I know it will grow. I think it's cute now and takes less time to dry and less shampoo. When I went to work the next day one of the girls in the lab said "Aw, you got a Mom cut." I didn't realize there was a "Mom" cut but apparently that's what I have. I just wanted something different and a little shorter since I've had my hair long for about a year.

At my appointment last week the doc said everything looks great and that I'm "textbook." My belly measurements have been right where they should be, Baby's heart rate is perfect, my BP is great and my weight is fine. He's now thinking she'll be 7-7.5lbs, IF she's on time. I sure hope so. I have my hospital bag packed when the time comes. He was impressed at my lack of stretch marks. Thank you Mom! Everyone at work thinks she'll come 1-2 weeks early. I'd be ok with that. She is still head down and growing, growing, growing. I can almost make out the outline of a foot that she's been stretching out the left side of my abdomen. My appointments have become about a week off due to scheduling so my next appointment is 3 weeks from my last one, so two more weeks from today. At that appointment they will do the normal measurements and weight check and also test me for Strep B and check to see if I'm beginning to dilate. Doesn't sound fun, especially the Strep B check. Oh well. After that appointment I go in weekly. I'm really getting excited and I think Garrett is, too. I plan to cook up some more food for freezing in the next few days and possibly make more applesauce now that our red apple tree's apples are more ripe. The farmers have been harvesting all over our countryside and the landscape is looking quite bare. It was such a great season and not too wet like last year that everything is being harvested sooner. They harvested the corn next to our house last week. Last year it wasn't harvested until the week before Thanksgiving. I'm sure the farmers will be happy to have more completed before the holidays. I have the house decorated for Fall and I just love it. Now if the weather could stay in the Fall temperature range that would be great. These couple of 90 degree days need to head south.

I'm sure there's more I wanted to post but I can't seem to remember at the moment. I hope everyones week is going well.

Catch up to you soon!