39th Week Check Up

I'll spare ya'll the pic this time. Picture me, stomach growing and stretching...

I have to be quite honest, today's appointment was a little disappointing. I saw the Nurse Practitioner, Tara, at today's appointment (who I must say, totally rocks). Although she was quite perky, there was virtually nothing new going on that I didn't already know about.

After telling me that I'm still 2cm dilated (which makes two weeks at that point now), and 70% effaced, her next comment was 'don't worry, we won't let you go longer than a week.' A week!?! A whole week?!? Whoa, I don't know if I can take any more clock watching, and going to the bathroom every 5 minutes.

Anyhow, we are definitely trying to enjoy the last few days by just spending some quality time together. Too bad I'm so exhausted, or else, we would be doing a lot more active things. Instead, movies, TV and books seem to be the norm lately :)

And the wait continues...

Nesting...

Sean is nesting. See the photos below for proof:

In the past week he has cut down TWO trees in our front yard. Yes, these would be the same two trees that I have been bugging him to chop since we moved in a year ago. He not only chopped the trees, but he managed to get the roots out as well. (A huge task in itself). And, just this morning, he was out at it again, but just trimming this tree that you see in the above pics. I'm not exactly sure what has gotten into him, and thus, my only explanation leads me to believe that he is also nesting. It's kind of fun to see him fulfill all the honey do's.

This past week Sean also called our Treddyfrin Township Police Department to schedule a one-on-one car seat inspection. It was awesome. The cop spent an hour with us reviewing the correct way to install our car seat for each of our cars. He gave us the laundry list of do's and don'ts when it comes to babies in car seats. I would highly recommend it for anyone that has young kids-- as there was so much we didn't realize we didn't know. Even though Sean had the car seats installed correctly the officer pointed out other specific things to think about when the child is in the seat. We definitely feel more informed and confident about our car seat and its installation.

Now all we need is a baby...

The 38th Week

This week was actually pretty busy, especially considering I'm officially on 'Short Term Disability' (STD) leave until I return in November. My company allows us two weeks prior to your due date--it's a take it or leave it benefit, thus one cannot add it to the end of your leave. If all goes as planned I officially return to work on November 1st, which gives me exactly eight weeks with Cobra, that is, if he decides to debut on time. (I'm definitely hoping for an early delivery, mainly for Sean's sanity because I'm probably going to drive him up the wall until then.)

Anyhow, I survived the 38th week. It was a great week, starting out with a few close Cephalon colleagues coming over to see the nursery, followed by dinner at a trendy Asian Fusion restaurant nearby. It was awesome for everyone to make the effort to come over and to see them outside of the daily Cephalon environment--we had such a fun/relaxing/enjoyable time. We received some wonderful gifts from them--

Our AWESOME stroller-- notice how it matches the car seat. (See an older post for car seat pics) Sean did a great job of assembly!

Our new bouncy seat! Yay! Of course Sean has to put Rudy in everything! Our current baby needs attention too :)

Our awesome, and so cute sports mobile that will go above our crib. It's already there. Stay tuned for the whole nursery debut on this blog...

These were just a few gifts we received this week. Sean and I feel so blessed to have such wonderful and generous friends up here. It makes getting ready for a baby so much easier with the type of people we know and have met here in the last year and a half.

Another big event for us (or really, me) was our first outing to Del Frisco's in Philly. We frequented this restaurant back in Cowtown, and we certainly enjoyed stuffing ourselves full of Del Frisco's comfort food. Ahh, the lemon cake rocked! Here's the before pics--I might have gained five pounds in one sitting after this dinner :)

Finally, today, Sean and I went for a three mile walk (trying to work off the huge dinner). Just to give our TX fans some perspective, the high was 82 degrees today with very low humidity. Paradise in comparison to the crazy, sweltering TX heat.

We thought we would take a couple more pics, just for comparison purposes...

Stay tuned on Cobra's debut...hopefully he'll make his way here sooner rather than later!

Are You For Real!?!?

And yet another episode of 'I CANNOT BELIEVE WHAT PEOPLE SAY OUT LOUD TO PREGNANT WOMEN!'.

Friday morning I was at the gym (as per usual) getting my workout in before work. Although the workout regimin is much slower and not as intense, I still feel better physically when I make it to the gym. The first trimester I definitely exercised the least, as I spent most of my mornings thinking that I was not going to make it through several more months of this whole pregnancy thing. And, to add more misery to that first trimester, only a very select few of people new my situation at work, and thus anyone feeling sorry for me was out of the question.

As soon as second trimester hit however, the energy slowly came back, and I was able to go back to the gym and get a decent sweat in. Anyhow, I digress...

So, I'm walking out of the gym on Friday morning, starting to rush because it's already 6:30am, when some lady I see across the parking lot yells out to me, "Wow! Holy Cow! Are you having twins?!?!' My first thought was, "Are you for real lady?!?!", but I, unlike this lady, can control my thoughts, and rather I answer back to her with a laugh and smile and say 'Um, no. No way.' As if that wasn't enough, she yells again, 'Well that baby is ready to come on out then!' All I can do is laugh. I mean, seriously!?!? The things people say...

At 37.5 weeks, do these pics this look like someone who is having twins?

Just to clear up any confusion people-- there is ONE heartbeat besides mine in this growing stomach. And even though I may start to look like I am having twins, I am definitely not. This is not to say that I don't LOVE the idea of having twins because, how great is it to get two for the price of one pregnancy?!? Anyhow, no twins this time around.

Another fun event Sean and I went to was a birthday party last night for a friend we have made here in PA. Sean plays golf with him pretty regularly. It was really fun with many people giving us lots of advice, which we have both gotten used to by now. (Well, I have gotten used to by now anyway, Sean couldn't believe how many people just wanted to talk about how to help make our lives easier.) One of my most favorite words of advice for Sean was that 'in the delivery room, just stay above the equator. This way you just see the same thing she does when that kid pops out.' I laughed so hard at this! I know Sean is just so excited, but we'll see how well he does in the delivery room :)

Car Seat!!!

The new car seat!!! Love the teal!!

Our current baby-- Rudy. He's going to need some adjusting to this kid thing.

Today we received a car seat (we are doing a happy dance) Yay! My Sales Training colleagues at Cephalon were so thoughtful and sent us our car seat from our registry. I think they realized that little Cobra didn't have a safe ride home yet from the hospital. (This at least saves us a Brittany Spears incident of driving with the kid in our front seat with no car seat...)

We were really excited to see it on our doorstep when we got home today. Notice the pics of Sean? He's still learning how to hold it correctly. Then he decided to put Rudy in it-- and I think he was scared more than anything else!

In all seriousness, it's definitely setting in that we will soon have a new member of our little family. We are going to have so much fun with him.

And for those of you who haven't seen me in awhile, the weight is starting to pile on in the belly! I think the people at the gym think I'm crazy for showing up!

No shame in this photo!

And the real 37.5 week prego girl. My 37 week check up is tomorrow. I'm anticipating another significant needle move on that scale.

Mom and baby carrier. Just missing the baby.

The Nursery Saga (Part 1)

So last weekend, Sean and I started to get serious about our little guy's place to live. We had already cleaned out the room a couple of months ago, and had already bought some of our furniture, but as far as bedding and anything needed for actually having a child (i.e. diapers, wipes, changing pad, etc.) was bought between last weekend and this one. There's nothing like nesting...

So I first wanted to show you how the previous owners decorated their girl's nursery:

As for our room, you will first notice that the room is now blue. We actually painted this room this color right when we moved in to the house last August. Our guest room was blue and white, so we lucked out that we didn't have to re-paint the room!

I'm saving the big debut until it's all finished to give you all the final pics as it's coming along really nicely. Sean has put up several shelves, and we officially have all the pieces of furniture we wanted to give. Proudly, we bought all the pieces from Craigslist-- all Pottery Barn furniture but one piece! Super cool!!!

So below is a sneak peak:

The magazine rack-- Super cute and full of books already!!!!

The inside of the crib, with the sports theme bedding.

The crib and bedding. It's hard to tell this from this photo but it's a cute sports bedding.

Stay tuned this week for more fun photos!

Wow, 30 Days Left (But Who's Counting?)

Can you believe it? I certainly can.

It's August 6th and I am literally counting down the days. I cannot even express in words how excited I am to have my own body back, and of course, meet little Cobra-- that's important too. I'm ready for my ribs to stop hurting-- as that seems to be his most favorite spot to kick. Imagine a moderate tap on the inside of your ribs, over, and over (and over). I think I may have the biggest bruise on the inside of my right rib cage. And, although I haven't noticed any stretch marks, my skin is definitely a nice shade of reddish pink on that right rib. The good news is, that he has started to drop just a bit as I'm definitely feeling more pressure and the bathroom is being frequented more and more often.

I can also definitely tell you that I am SO over my maternity wardrobe. I'm going to do everything in my power not to visit the local Pea in the Pod anymore before Cobra's debut. Although, going to the King of Prussia mall is completely purposeless unless I visit this store. So, I think I need to find a new hobby-- non mall related-- in my last four weeks here... I'm sure Sean would agree.

Although I'm pretty sick of being pregnant, it's still kind of fun to anticipate the little face and body (and hair if any). We haven't had an ultrasound since week 20 (see pic below), and if he continues to develop the way he looked at that point, this kid will be a spitting image of Sean. It's also fun to think about his little personality-- hopefully he'll have the best of both of us. :)

The Trend: Hospital Gowns

So, as I have been researching 'what to expect' when in labor, I have decided that having my own hospital gown is a must do. So yes, I ordered a hospital gown from amazon.com-- two of them. One for labor and delivery and one for after all the mess (i.e. recovery). The reason I even ordered one for labor and delivery was because I figure that immediately after I have the child, he'll be put on my chest (skin to skin contact), and I have to have the cute gown on then for any pics that Sean will be taking-- that is, pending on him not fainting during the whole dramatic event.

So the hospital gown I ordered is from Amazon.com, and it's pretty cute-- and yes, I ordered the exact same gown twice. If you know me, I'm a plain and simple fashionista opting for the blue polka dots. So when you see the (awful, sweaty) pics of me immediately after Cobra is born, just know that the hospital gown I have is picked out by Kate.

In other news, we toured the Bryn Mawr hospital this week-- which although nice, I must say it is a far older hospital than those in Fort Worth or Plano (Texas, that is). I guess I expected more lavish rooms with HD TVs and computers for Facebooking, etc., but not here. The TVs are probably from 1990, and I'm hoping that they at least have the MTV channel so I can keep up with 'The Situation' on the Jersey Shore.

No pics this week people-- just keep imagining a basketball stomach getting bigger and bigger. And the basketball likes to kick me in the ribs, not allowing for any sleep-- I thought this no sleep thing was supposed to happen after the kid was born.