37 Weeks!

As of Monday's 37 week appointment, little Blake had still not flipped yet. He seems to want to stay head up. At this point, he's pretty much run out of room and there's only a 5% chance that he will flip by d-day so we have scheduled a c-section for January 20. That's just 2 weeks away!

At first I was disappointed about the c-section but there's some benefits to it and now we've decided that we're happy with whatever way he comes into the world as long as he's strong and healthy when he gets here. Apparently I'm definitely not one of those people that can tell the baby's position. When he gets the hiccups, I feel them really low so I thought oh, he must be head down, but the nurse said no, you'd really feel the hiccups from wherever his little booty is. Then Randy and I thought he was moving to a sideways position because there were 2 big bulges on both sides of my stomach, so we naturally thought one is the heiny and one is the head. It happened at Monday's appointment and we said, "See he's sideways!" The nurse said "No, you're havings a Braxton Hicks contraction." Just further proof that Randy and I have no idea what's going on in there.

We also found out that he's weighing in at just over 7 lbs now. They gain about 1/2 pound a week at this point so the doctor thinks he'll be about an 8 pounder. Yikes! And he has a rather large head apparently! This c-section may be somewhat of a blessing! I am definitely getting bigger by the day and have the backache to prove it. Sleeping is becoming more and more difficult as it's hard to get and stay comfortable and bathroom trips are getting more frequent. I know I shouldn't complain about sleep at this point though. In 2 weeks I'll wish I was getting the sleep I am now.

Here is the last sonogram of little Blake, his little face. The next time we see him will be in person! (His whole face is to the left of the word FACE. His right eye is the dark round spot and those are his big round cheeks and pouty lips below that area.)




I plan to post more frequently over the next couple of weeks and add some nursery pics but until then, here are some other recent pics:
37 weeks!


This is cooking our Christmas Eve dinner of crawfish etouffee. It was our first time not to travel over the Christmas holidays and, though we missed being with family, it was kind of nice to just stay put.

Randy thought it would be funny to balance the salt shaker on my belly at Chuy's.

This is from our Christmas day dinner with my parents. That's sparkling apple cider in the wine glass. :)

34 Weeks!

Randy and I both agree that something has happened over the past week or so and all of a sudden I'm so much bigger. He likes to say that my belly looks like a torpedo when I'm walking around and that I look like a buddha when I'm sitting down. Luckily I don't take offense to either of those. There's no doubt that little Blake is growing right along in there. He's weighing almost 5 pounds now. My 34 week appointment was on Monday and the heartbeat sounded great. I'll go in 2 more weeks at week 36 and then every week after that to see how things are progressing. Hopefully nothing will be progressing until week 40. We want him to come as close to his due date as possible so that his birthday is not too close to Christmas.

Even after our childbirth class I wasn't really that nervous about the delivery. We didn't watch any crazy videos and they told us what to expect from labor, where to go, who to call, etc. I only got one "Is she kidding? I can't do that." look from Randy when they talked about labor and how the father could watch the birth. So all was good...and then a couple of nights later I was looking through this magazine they gave us that has pictures and descriptions of each month of pregnancy. I'm flipping through, flipping through, and I get to month 9. Big mistake! There was a picture of a woman lying down, spread eagle, giving birth with just the baby's head sticking out! To hear all of these things about the birth was one thing but to get a visual was a completely different thing! I don't know what scared me more - that there was a baby coming out of her or that she was lying there exposed for everyone in the room to see! I know women do it every day and somehow I will too but still, I regret looking at that magazine. And thank God for epidurals! Oh, and I immediately told Randy not to look at that magazine.

32 Weeks!

It's now December and I can officially say that we're going to have a baby next month! Woo hoo! 32 weeks already! Time is starting to go faster, in part I think because of the holidays and just being a busier time of year. We decorated the house for Christmas this week. Randy had to put up the outside Christmas lights by himself and get all of the boxes down from the attic by himself. Definitely not easy but he never complained. Such a good husband. Well, I say that, and then there's this....I asked him what he wanted for Christmas and, in all seriousness, he told me I could get him some noise cancelling headphones so he could watch TV while the baby was crying. If you know him, you know this is a typical Randy comment - just saying whatever comes to mind and not really thinking it through...like that this might possibly imply that he wouldn't be actually trying to help calm the baby but that he'd just be sitting on the couch watching TV. So of course I give him a look and he realizes he better fix this so he grins real big and says that it would be for me too, we could trade off. I don't really know what to think of this....

The baby is weighing in at almost 4 pounds now. I can't believe his weight will still almost double in the next 8 weeks. I already feel so huge! I don't know where he's going to go! He gets the hiccups almost every day or so which is kind of funny to think about his little body pulsing in there. He's still moving a lot but they say that will slow down some as he runs out of room. I wish I knew what the bulge in my stomach was at times. Sometimes one little area will stick out and I don't know if it's an elbow, a shoulder, a foot? I'm still enjoying his little kicks and punches, although I must admit there's been a couple that have been less than fun. My doctor said no more sleeping on my back unless there's a pillow under my hip so I'm finding it harder to sleep now since I can only rotate from one side to the other. I also keep having dreams that I'm running or ice skating (where does that come from?) or that I'm back in drill team. Walks with Cooper are better than nothing but I think I just really miss a good workout on the elliptical...or even just being able to hop up out of a chair to go get something. Only 7 1/2 weeks or so left though and then he'll be here! Our all-day childbirth class is tomorrow so that should help us learn what we're in for!

30 Weeks!

A lot has happened in the past 2 weeks..I passed the second glucose test, the nursery is really coming along, and we had a shower in Marshall and a shower in Austin. Thanks to our generous and thoughtful friends and family, we now have lots of cute baby clothes, bibs, and socks and many of the necessities like the car seat, pack n play, swing, bouncer, bottles, and bath stuff! The bedding is now set up in the nursery and it's time for the fun part of adding shelves, a lamp, pictures, and all the finishing touches!
The baby weighs about 3 pounds now and still moves around a lot. I don't know what he's doing in there but sometimes my whole belly just rolls and shakes! I was telling Randy that, as excited as I am to meet Baby Smith, I will really miss being pregnant. I'm just so in awe of the whole idea of pregnancy and how this little life grows from something so small to something that weighs 7+ pounds and has a heart, brain, lungs and can see and cry and hear! It's so amazing to me and I'll really miss feeling him move around. I still have about 10 more weeks of that left but I know he'll be here before we know it!

28 Weeks...3rd trimester!

We finally painted the nursery! Well, almost. All the walls are painted but there's still some finishing up to do around the ceiling and I think I still want to do some things to the crib wall. The furniture also came in today so I can't wait to set up the bedding to see how everything looks! I'll post pictures once everything is done.

My first baby shower is this weekend in Marshall so I'm really excited about that and am looking forward to hanging out with friends and family that I don't get to see often enough.

I'm officially in the 3rd trimester now and still feeling pretty great. Below is a sonogram pic from our 28 week visit on Monday. His eyes are open now which you can see in the picture, if you can make it out. It looks like he's peeking out. You can see the whole right half of his face. Up until now the baby has been measured from crown to rump (head to butt as I explained to Randy) but now they start measuring from head to toe. The baby now measures over 15" long and weighs in at about 2 pounds 5 ounces! As he gets bigger his movements feel different too. I still feel kicks and pokes but also feel big plops in my stomach like he's just rolling over and all his weight is falling in one area. He's also big enough now where I can tell where he is. Sometimes the bottom or side of my stomach will be a big bulge and get really hard. He's still head up so I'm guessing that's either his back or his little bottom that I can see and feel. I also took the glucose test on Monday and unfortunately I failed. My doctor told me that it's not caused by diet, it's just that some placentas don't handle the balance of sugar well. I have to go for the 3-hour glucose test on Monday to see if I definitely have gestational diabetes or not. I'm hearing from more and more people that they failed the first test and passed the second test so I'm hoping, praying, holding my breath and crossing my fingers that holds true for me. It's just cruel to expect a pregnant woman to go through the holidays with NO sweets!

The wall is blue! :)

26 Weeks!

All of our furniture is in - the crib, dresser, and glider!! It wasn't scheduled to be here until December so I'm SO excited that it's already here! I finally picked out some bedding too and it's also here so now all that's left to do is paint! I think that's actually going to be harder than it sounds because I want to do stripes on the wall that the crib will be on. Every time I tell someone that they say, "oh, stripes?" But I really don't want just 2 colors in there. I really want 3 - a lighter blue, a darker blue, and a chocolate. As hard as it is for me to make decisions these days, I've finally made this one and I'm sticking to it! So, we'll see how this goes. 3 of the walls will be easy because they'll all be blue. Randy is going to get started on those this weekend. The crib wall will be the hardest. A little nervous how this will turn out but the good thing about paint is that it's easy to re-do.

There's only about one more week left of the second trimester and then it will be onto the last and final one! The baby weighs almost 2 pounds now and measures a little over 9 inches. He moves all the time, especially in the morning and at night. I was telling Randy how I don't see how women ever get tired of that. It's just the best feeling. He said he's going to remind me of this in a few weeks as the baby gets bigger and is packing a little more punch.

People keep asking me if I have any cravings but I really don't other than eating 2-3 bowls of cereal a day. Cooper and I are still going on our 2 mile walks most days and I'm still doing my pregnancy pilates and yoga videos. All of that is supposed to make things easier after having the baby so I hope that ends up being true.

Here's a 26 week belly picture, steadily putting on the pounds....


And a picture of the bedding. It's mostly blue and brown with a few orange monkeys or polka dots. The first one is a sham that will cover a pillow and go in the glider. The second is a picture of the crib skirt. Kind of hard to get the full effect but the nursery will be finished soon and then I'll post better pics.

24 Weeks!

I find it ironic that hormones cause women to be indecisive and forgetful at a time when you need to be decisive about daycares, strollers, car seats, cribs, nursery colors, etc. AND need to be remembering the stuff you're reading about feeding, sleeping, and what to do with this brand new life when you bring him home! I've always been indecisive but I can't even seem to make decisions about the smallest things lately. Randy and I spent an hour and a half at USA Baby while I migrated from chair to chair trying to figure out which one was the most comfortable, debating whether we needed a recliner, an ottoman, or neither, and trying to convince myself that I should choose the more comfortable one even though it didn't come in the fabric I really wanted (chocolate brown with white cording). Randy tried to be helpful but since I'll be spending the most time in it he wouldn't tell me which one to get. After about 80 minutes though, he told me we were leaving in 10 minutes. So of course I called my mom and she helped me make a decision. :) I went with the more comfortable one which doesn't recline and is a solid chocolate.

We also registered at Target and Babies R Us a couple of weeks ago but good luck finding our registry. I'm the 33rd Amanda Smith to register in Texas at BRU and the 31st at Target. At least you can narrow it down by the city at BRU. Luckily there's only a handful of Randy Smith's at both places though!

We had the big 24 week sonogram today which is a 25-30 minute anatomy sonogram to look at all the organs and make sure they're all measuring as they should and doing what they're supposed to do. Everything looked great and we counted 10 fingers and 10 toes! A couple of times they flipped the sonogram over to 3D mode so you can actually make out the face pics below. He weighs about 1.6 pounds now and is about 8.6 inches long. Right now he will continue to gain about 6 ounces a week. I on the other hand should be gaining about 1-1.5 pounds a week!

He has his left hand up to his face in this one. Looks like he's thinking about something. :)


This one's a little scarier. He's just getting to the point where he's starting to put on fat so he still looks a bit skeletal here:


I purposely chose a shirt that I could wear in all pictures from beginning to end, but I'm beginning to wonder if I'm going to be able to wear this for another 16 weeks.