Music in Utero

THIS ARTICLE just about made me cry. I've sung to Evan a few times, but I'm going to try to do it multiple times a day now. What I really need is to get Matt to start singing to Evan! He has such a beautiful voice, I'm sure our son would rather hear him anyway. :-)

Shower

First of all I want to say CONGRATS to Crysbena!!!! She received a BFP a few days ago! Go to her blog to congratulate her and "oohh" and "aaah" over her strong HPT lines! I'm so happy for her for many reasons, one of which is because she's been trying for so long and has had a difficult road. It's one more friend I can cross off my "BFP Prayer List." I'll still pray for her, but just for a healthy and safe pregnancy. Also, she got married the same day Matt and I did and had a miscarriage the same week we did. Very weird coincidence that we found each other after that. Another friend I met on The Nest is the same way, married 10/7/06 and miscarried the last week of May. She got pregnant 4 months before I did, and now here's Crysbena pregnant about 5 months after me.

I also found out the date of my baby shower! It's July 28 at 7:00. I'm so excited!! I made up the guest list, which was harder than I thought it would be. The lady who is hosting it originally mentioned that it would be a small shower, around 15 people, mainly ladies from the church I used to go to. Which was fine! Now she's saying that I can invite whoever and however many people I want, but I think she's just saying that because she now knows I'm not having another shower for my other friends. I really appreciate her doing this for me and I don't want her to have to go out of her way any more than she already is. She's really good friends with my mom and my mom keeps saying I should invite more people, but I think my current guest list is fine. It will keep me from feeling guilty and I'll be all around comfortable. I have 18 people on there, 2 from out of state who most likely won't come. The hostess mentioned that she wanted to invite the ladies from her small group (that my mom is in too) and I said that is more than fine. As long as she doesn't mind the extra people! So I'm not sure how large the actual guest list is because I can't remember how many ladies are in that small group. And if any of you are going to be in the Charlotte area that day, you are invited too. :-)

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to it and I'm actually glad that it's small. I think that some of the guys Matt works with are going to throw us a shower at the office, but it's supposed to be a surprise for me. lol Matt just couldn't help himself and told me the other night. He said he hasn't heard much about it because originally it was going to be a surprise for him too, but his co-worker needed to make sure he'd be in town, so he asked him about having it sometime in late July. So they may not even be planning it at this point or maybe they are keeping it on the down low because they still want the actual date to be a surprise from Matt as well. Either way is fine, I am just amazed that they even considered throwing us one! I'm so grateful for the people we have in our lives.

One of Matt's co-workers just gave us a gift the other day from him and his wife. They just had their first baby a couple of months ago so they gave us all the things they found to be the most useful. A very neat portable changing pad (it has mesh pockets and a plastic pocket for wet items), some sleepers, onesies, pants, and diapers (all newborn sizes!). SO nice of them. :-) I'm glad that July is going to be such a busy month for me so that the time will fly by because I'm starting to get excited about the shower and then meeting Evan! I just need to fill up my August calandar...

29 Weeks

As far as the GD goes, things are kind of sort of getting better. The other day my levels were lower and that made me feel so much better, but yesterday they were back to being up. Very discouraging! Then last night not only could we not get blood to come out (Matt helps me after dinner when he's home), we found out that the last container of test strips we were given weren't compatible with our testing machine. It was too late to go to the pharmacy to get refills (which I didn't expect to have to do until Thursday) so we used the machine Matt's co-worker gave us before we knew if our insurance would cover one. It took awhile to figure the new one out and the entire thing stressed me out so much. I know none of you "get it," I know Matt doesn't really understand why I was so upset. But the entire thing is so frustrating: the diet, the blood testing, etc.

The weirdest thing is that this new machine is giving me much lower readings. It's a nicer model, you just touch the test strip to the drop of blood and it sucks it right up and immediately starts counting up the levels instead of making me drag the strip across my blood multiple times. So I'm kind of wondering if there isn't something wrong with the machine I was given? I will have to ask the doctor about it on Friday. However, getting levels in the appropriate range is great and my lunch level was so low I was wishing I had eaten another burrito! I'm only supposed to eat one at this point because the wheat tortilla is 24 grams of carbs and there are carbs in the beans (I can have a max of 45 g at lunch). Anyway, I'm just hoping things will continue to get better.

Highlights of week 28: feeling Evan hiccup for the first time! I know I already wrote about it, but I have just a little more to add. The first time was last Wednesday night, then again on Thursday morning. I haven't felt it since then until last night. I told Matt and he put his hand on my stomach and was able to feel too! He paused the show we were watching and we just laid there on the couch and felt him hiccup and talked to him. SO CUTE!!!

Another highlight, peeing my pants a little. lol! It was the weirdest thing and came completely out of the blue. On Sunday we were over at my parents' house playing THIS game. My dad joined in, which is incredibly rare in our household. As a matter of fact, I can't even remember the last time that he played a game with us. I vaguely remember it happening once when I was in jr high... Anyway, he was hilarious and he said something that made everyone burst out laughing. Well, a little pee happened to burst out of me at the same time. I didn't have to go to the bathroom, I didn't even feel it coming! Such a weird sensation. Thankfully it wasn't much, I just kept my mouth shut about it and nobody knew. lol Believe me, I'm doing more Kegels than ever after that incident!

Let's see, what else has been going on as far as pregnancy... I'm more tired these days. As a matter of fact, I could take a nap right now. And all I've done today besides computer stuff and making lunch is vacuum the house. And I'm not even completely done with that yet! I think I have a couple of more stretch marks on my butt, but none have appeared anywhere else so far. Evan is kicking and moving around more than ever. It's uncomfortable sometimes. I find myself pressing down to absorb some of the impact of his stronger kicks and when I am laying down I tend to change positions to make it a little more comfortable. I still love feeling him kick, I still can't help but smile! I know how depressing it is when he doesn't kick as much, but that doesn't mean it doesn't still hurt/feel very uncomfortable sometimes.

I scheduled the hospital tour and 2 classes. The tour is on July 7! I'm really looking forward to it, the hospital we're delivering at has a fairly new maternity center (built in April 2008) and I've heard from several people that it's very nice. We have a breastfeeding class on July 9 and then an infant safety & CPR class on July 22. We decided to skip the childbirth class. We're going through the Bradley Method handbook and Husband Coached Childbirth, I think that will be enough. Going through the Bradley lessons and book has helped me feel more confident about labor and delivery. I'm not nervous about it at this point, I'm more nervous about just after delivery when I have a fragile infant to take care of! My next prenatal appt is July 1 and I'm eager to talk to my midwife about her thoughts on L&D, especially since I now have GD. We'll also schedule another u/s to see if my placenta has moved up and away from my cervix.

Relaxation day

Today I'm trying to relax and de-stress. It's been a bad weekend for me, I've felt so stressed and anxious the entire time. This whole GD thing is a lot harder than I thought it would be. I ate like normal Friday night and Saturday morning and was very discouraged to see that my blood sugar levels were very high after meals and even a little high in the morning before breakfast. So I figured I'd better straighten up sooner rather than later so Saturday I started my GD diet instead of waiting for Sunday like I originally planned.

The worst parts were getting high levels after some meals even after following the carb guidelines. Saturday night I had 40 carbs for dinner (I have a limit of 45) and still had a blood sugar level that was 31 points over the highest average level. The levels I'm supposed to have after meals are 90-120. Before breakfast it should be 60-90. I always have levels on the high side, but I'm not worrying if they are only a couple of digits over. Anyway, it's just stressful when my levels are just as high after eating a low carb meal as they are after eating like I normally do. However, today is the first day that my levels have been within the limit. Yay! Maybe it took a few days for the sugar to completely leave my system?? I have no clue.

The other worst part is how hard it has been to get blood to come out of my fingers. The majority of times I've pricked my fingers so far nothing has come out. However, my fingers are left with bruises and red marks where the needle goes in. I'll squeeze and squeeze and only a little blood will come out, not enough to register on the little machine. So then I have to do it again...and again... and it hurts every time. I tried on the sides of my fingers first (like I was told to do) but even tried on the pad of my finger which usually gives more blood. We made the needle a little longer to make sure it's going in far enough, but then I was getting bruises. Anyway, yesterday Matt read about this problem and said that it's recommended that you wash your hands with warm water and then massage the finger tip a little before pricking it. Sure enough, it's worked the first time every time since then! So I'm glad that it looks like that frustrating and stressful problem is at least being worked out.

I've also been surprised at how hard it is to follow this diet plan. It's very depressing for me to be hungry after not eating as much as I'm used to for dinner and then not even being able to eat my favorite snacks - cold cereal, PopTarts, muffins, and chocolate milk. I didn't think I'd miss those things so much. I also dislike having to snack during the day, I've never been a big snacker, I'd rather eat 3 larger meals than small meals and several snacks. At this point I'm supposed to eat 3 snacks as well as 3 meals. It's hard to find snack food that I enjoy that complies with the diet guidelines. I feel like I'm forcing myself to eat.

The diet is also kind of confusing, I'm still figuring it out. Like, I discovered that you can subtract fiber grams from carb grams if you have more than 5 grams of fiber in a food item. Somehow I missed that part of the "orientation." I'm still confused as to whether you can subtract proteins from the carbs too. For now I'm just making sure that I don't go over the limit of carbs, I'm not even trying to subtract due to fiber. I'll ask the doctor more about it on my appointment on Friday. Did I already mention that now I have appointments every 2 weeks at the diabetes center? It's nice that they are working so closely with me, but a little annoying that I have to spend so much time driving up there and at the appointments.

Anyway, wish me luck, especially at night before bed when I usually eat my "comfort foods" that are no longer allowed. And yes, I do realize that this could be much, much worse and that a diet plan really isn't that bad, etc. It's just been a rough adjustment for ME.

On a happy note - we had a fun Father's Day! I gave Matt gifts in the morning, we went to my parents' house for lunch, and then Matt and I went out for dinner and to see the symphony's free concert in the park that night. It's cool because the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra has free outdoor concerts every weekend in June, they do it every year and even though it was hot last night, we still had a good time!

GD appointment

Tuesday's appointment was rescheduled for this afternoon. A lady from the diabetes center called yesterday and said there was a cancellation and that they would like to get me in so I said sure. She neglected to say that the appointment would be 2 hours long... nice surprise. ;-)

Anyway, I suppose it went pretty well. I still feel a little overwhelmed though, but for now I'm trying to relax and not stress about it. Hey, stress affects blood sugar too! Matt wonders if that wasn't why I failed the tests, it could have simply been stress about the tests that made my levels so high. Anyway, we went over a diet plan with the doctor. A lot of my favorites aren't on the acceptable list, notably cold cereal and muffins. There is one type of cold cereal that is okay though, so I'm hoping I will like it since that's something I am always in the mood for, plus it's easy.

She showed me how to prick my fingers and test my blood. I have to do it 4 times a day. :-P Let me tell you, I was nervous about doing that! I've never pricked my own finger before. I've had nurses do it a couple of times, but I've never done it myself. I was surprised at what a chicken I was about it. I had to brace myself and Matt said I was shaking when I was holding the needle trigger thing. lol! It wasn't bad at all though, but I think it'll take awhile before it feels even slightly natural. We tested my blood there and I had an 82, perfectly normal. Hmm...

I'm supposed to go to the diabetes center every other week. The weeks I don't go in I have to fax them my the chart with my levels for that week. I was surprised at how often I have to go in for visits...but oh well.

Matt thinks the whole thing is still fishy. He's not convinced I really have GD and honestly, I'm not completely convinced either. So, we've decided to do our own series of tests. Tonight and tomorrow I'm going to eat like normal, I'll pretend like I've never heard of GD, but still check my blood at all the right times. It will be interesting to see if any of my levels are elevated.

I think that's pretty much everything... last night we had R and his girlfriend C over and had a lot of fun. We played THIS game, which is a lot of fun. Tonight C is coming to hang out while R is at work. I'm really tired, but I think we'll go out shopping and see if I can find part 2 of my Father's Day gift for Matt.

Dreams & Hiccups

Last night I had a dream that I was at my grandparents' house and the entire family was there. In the dream I ate an entire brownie and then realized, I'm not supposed to eat high sugar foods! What was I thinking!? I was so upset that I had eaten this huge brownie without even thinking about it, especially when I have GD. I guess some of the stress of all of this is coming out in my dreams!

I've only had a few baby dreams since getting pregnant. The first few, the ones I had before I knew we were having a boy, weren't even ones about Evan. They were about babies we adopted. In one I was pregnant, but we adopted another child too and the dream concentrated on me taking care of that baby.

After finding out that we were having a boy and starting to look forward to EVAN, I had a dream that he was born and that I let my MIL and mom watch him and they lost him. I remember panicking when I realized what happened and everyone was saying I was making way too big a deal of it and that everything would be okay. My entire family (immediate and in-laws) were acting like I was really stupid for being upset that Evan was lost. In the dream I called him by name, it was definitely my baby. At the end of the dream someone brought him in and I ran over and picked him up and hugged him to me. It was an amazing feeling. :-)

The other day I had another dream specifically about Evan. I'm upset that I can't remember it now. I had meant to write it down in my journal or blog about it right away, but obviously I didn't. If I remember what it was about I'll write about it. From what I can remember it wasn't a negative dream though, not like the first one when he was lost.

The past couple of months I've also had several dreams in which I am pregnant, but they aren't specifically about pregnancy or Evan. It's all about something else, I just happen to be pregnant with my big belly.

Oh yeah, I'm almost positive I've felt Evan hiccup twice now!!! Once last night and then again this morning. It's like a very light tapping inside of me that is spaced out evenly. At first I thought it was him lightly kicking or punching, but it's not like any kicks I've felt so far and it is more consistent than any of his other movements. It's also deep inside, kind of near my pelvis bone. Which he normally doesn't kick down there.

It's actually weird, he almost always kicks on my right side or in the middle of my belly, rarely on the left. A couple of days ago I woke up and my left side was bulging a little more and was harder. Later I felt him kicking over there, but since then he's back on the right side. I will feel movements on the left side, just not as often and they aren't kicks. My stomach is slightly lopsided most of the time, it almost always bulges more on the right side than on the left. The midwife said that's okay though. Did you notice that your baby seemed to stay more on one side or the other?

28 Weeks!

I'm in the third trimester! Yay!!!! I say this every weekly post, but I can't BELIEVE how fast time has flown by! It's unreal to think that I'm almost there. And I'm glad that it looks like the next couple of months will go by just as fast. I have little things planned here and there for the rest of this month, then there's 4th of July, my trip to Arkansas, my shower, and finishing up the nursery to look forward to as well. That will help pass the time. :-)

Well, as happy as I am to reach this point, I also have bad news. I've been diagnosed with gestational diabetes. I'm not too thrilled with the fact, although I know it isn't nearly as bad as it could be. I am worried about Evan, it was discouraging to read that so many babies are high birth weight, at higher risk for childhood obesity, at higher risk for getting type 2 diabetes later in their lives, etc. I'm more worried about him than me. The one encouraging thing was that I almost passed the test. If my levels had been 3 digits lower the first hour mark test then I would have passed. The second hour my levels were 10-15 digits too high (how did they not have the exact number???) and then the third hour I passed. So very close. So I'm not too worried and hope that Evan won't experience any side effects since it seems that I'm very borderline. Matt is skeptical of the whole thing. He still wants me to follow the diet/exercise plan they give me, but he kind of doubts that I even have a problem, I wonder the same thing. We have a lot of questions to ask next week at my appointment at the diabetes center, that's for sure. So that appointment is on Tuesday, until then I'm just not supposed to eat any high sugar foods like cookies, candy, etc. Not that I usually eat that kind of stuff anyway.

So much has been going on... I feel very drained. On Saturday we had our AC unit moved to make way for our patio expansion. We were able to get friends of Matt's family to help out and it was very cheap to move it. However, yesterday I noticed that although the AC had been running all afternoon, it was getting steadily warmer. So last night Matt's dad, uncle, and his uncle's friend came over to fix it. I'm glad they were able to, because although it cooled down last night thanks to some rain coming in, it was still very humid and muggy.

Yesterday I had the 3 hour glucose test. Which we all know the results of... I was going to take a nap in the afternoon because I was so lightheaded, but my SIL and nephew came by for an unexpected visit (thankfully she called beforehand and was going to just drop something off, but I invited them in). They stayed for a long time and by the time she left I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep. That's also the point where I started getting very hot...wonder why. lol

Then today I met with my mom and sister for lunch and to go shopping. That didn't go too well. My little sister has been very messed up lately. She has a bad attitude, is moody, even malicious. She had a bad attitude about being with us today (then why did she even come!?) and then proceeded to say some very mean things about pregnancy/babies/children. There was really no reason for her to say it, but it hurt my feelings. I just left them early and went and ran the rest of my errands by myself. We (my family) don't really know what to do about her... we even kind of wonder if it's something like manic depression. It's just weird...I can't describe it. But needless to say, it was emotional for me.

I spent the afternoon on the phone with Matt and my mom and researching diabetes after I returned home from running errands. Then I went to Matt's soccer game. One of my friends is now on the team with Matt and his best friend, R. So that's fun, now I know 3 people on the team. And R's girlfriend was here from Louisiana and came so the 2 of us sat together and chatted. She's a psychology major and told me all about it, very interesting! So here it is 9:00, and I still haven't had an official dinner, just a small salad at 5:00. I'm tired and hungry, so I'm going to end this with my 28 week picture.

What a week!

I'm feeling so much better about the "failed" blood sugar test. It really helped hearing how many of you know women who failed the one hour but did okay on the 3 hour! It sucks that I have to go in again for so long, and have to have my blood drawn so many times, and be alone for all of it, but that's nothing compared to what it could be and I'm confident I'll pass it. After all, even if all 4 blood draws show that I have a level of 137, I would still pass! As long as it isn't over 140.

My little sister graduated this morning. It's weird to think about. She still seems too young. Part of it is because she is more immature than I was at her age (and Matt and my brother...she's just plain immature! lol), but it's also just because it doesn't seem like it's been all that long since I graduated high school. My grandparents and cousin left right after. I already miss them. I wish I had been able to spend more time with them while they were here, but at least I'll get to see them again in a month when I go to Arkansas!

Matt has been diagnosed with gout. Wiki describes it as "characterized by excruciating, sudden, unexpected, burning pain, as well as swelling, redness, warmth, and stiffness in the affected joint." Yep, just what poor Matt has. It's really weird because his primary physician told him it was most likely NOT gout. Stupid idiot, after we read some about it last night it's immediately obvious that it is what Matt has. Thankfully he went to the podiatrist yesterday and received a proper diagnosis. Too bad he didn't go there earlier in the week, then he'd probably be feeling better by now! He has new medicine to take that works in 3-5 days. So hopefully in a few days Matt will be completely pain free. His gout is most likely caused by the amount of lunch meat Matt eats (high in salt and protein) and the amount of time he's been spending outside sweating. The sudden combination caused the crystal build ups which is what causes the pain. Hopefully this won't happen again, I think he's going to stop eating so much lunch meat. And yes, gout can be caused by drinking high amounts of alcohol, but believe me, that isn't what caused Matt's!!

Failed

I failed my blood sugar stress test. :-( My level was 137. I've been researching the results and it looks like anything over 140 usually means you have gestational diabetes. So my results are still in the normal range, but almost over. I read that most doctors have you take the 3 hour test if your level is over 130. They will draw my blood 4 times and if at least 3 of those times are in the normal range then I will pass.

So I'm going in for the 3 hour test on Tuesday. I'm kind of worried that I'm not going to pass that either. The nurse said not to eat or drink anything besides water after midnight. But that's almost what I did last time, all I had to eat was an egg around 10:30 at night and then another in the morning an hour before the test (my instructions were to eat a protein breakfast an hour before the test, it didn't even matter what I ate the night before). But I made extra sure not to eat anything sugary the night before. *sigh*

Did any of you fail the 1 hour and then pass the 3 hour? Do you think I should try not to eat sugary foods the next few days before the test? I'm worried that I'll be harming Evan before Tuesday. I should have scheduled it for Monday, but originally I was thinking Matt would come along and Tuesday is better for him. But then I decided he's already taken off too much work this week and shouldn't come along, so I'll be going by myself anyways. Oh well..... yeah, I'm bummed, but hoping that I'll pass the 3 hour.

On another note, Matt's foot has been bothering him A LOT this past week. On Monday his big toe on his right foot started hurting a lot. It was worse the next day, so he went to his primary physician who took x-rays and has no clue what it is. He said it looks like there is a calcium deposit on the bone. They are testing his blood (he should get the results soon) and the doctor was going to consult the radiologist about the x-ray. They gave him anti-inflammatory meds. By Tuesday night his foot swelled a lot and was really hot. So yesterday he called the doctor again and they prescribed him antibiotics saying it sounds like there's an infection. So far nothing has helped and he's in constant pain, he can barely walk. He made an appointment at a podiatrist this afternoon, so hopefully they can give us better answers. He's only worked half days this entire week, but he's also worked a lot on Evan's nursery.

He sanded and painted all of the trim and put up curtain rods. We now have all of the furniture in place, it looks great! Now we're starting to think we might have to paint the walls though. There's a lot of black marks on the walls and I tried wiping some of them off with a wet sponge...bad idea on flat finish paint! The black marks are gone, but now there's weird streaks where I wiped with the sponge. So we're thinking that we might need to repaint with a satin finish paint. We'll see.

My grandparents and cousin from Arkansas are in town for my sister's graduation. They came Tuesday and are leaving tomorrow right after the ceremony (my grandma is leaving Saturday to go on a Caribbean cruise). So we've been hanging out with them every evening. Tonight we're going out to dinner to celebrate. My brother came into town last night and in a couple of hours they are all coming over to our house to check it out and see the nursery. So I have cleaning to do!!

6th appointment

Today was my 6th prenatal appointment and the blood sugar stress test. The instructions for the test were to eat a protein breakfast an hour before my appointment. When I arrived they gave me a drink that was just like orange soda, it might have been orange soda for all I know. I had 15 minutes to drink it and after that I had to wait an hour to have my blood drawn. I'll get the result in the next couple of days. While waiting I had my appointment with my midwife, Tina. She has become our main midwife. She's been our favorite so far. We really liked another one too, but she moved offices. I'm really hoping Tina will be the one to deliver Evan!

Anyway, everything looks great. Evan's heartbeat averaged in the low 140s. Once again, he was moving around a lot when she used the Doppler. I'm measuring right on schedule. My weight gain slowed a lot this past month compared to the one before. I think it will pick back up these next couple of months though.

I completely forgot to ask Tina about flying at 32 weeks. Instead I asked a bunch of stupid questions like was it okay that my stomach looks lopsided sometimes and that my pelvic area was super sore the other day (from the bones starting to separate). I guess that will teach me to write down the important questions! I am guessing it is fine though, unless something drastic happens I doubt there would be any problem.

She started talking about us signing up for birthing classes, a hospital tour, and starting a birth plan. Whoa! I guess now that I'm about in the 3rd trimester (I am in it according to some sources) we're getting down to business. Anyway, I'm trying to decide if I should take the childbirth prep classes. I'm going through the Bradley Method book and that particular class is $60 and 3 hours long. One woman I talked to who took the class at the same hospital said she thought it could be condensed into an hour and a half and that it really wasn't worth $60. So I'm not sure... At this point I'm planning on taking the infant care & CPR class (I already know infant CPR, but Matt should learn too and it doesn't hurt for me to touch up!) and possibly the breastfeeding class. I'm still not sure about that one. What do you think?

Matt and my dad installed and ceiling fan/light fixture in Evan's room yesterday. There was no light fixture at all in there...that's a 70s house for you! As a matter of fact, only 2 rooms in the house have light fixtures in the ceiling (kitchen & living room), the other rooms we just use lamps. But we wanted a fan and better lighting in the nursery. It was such hard work! They spent hours working on it. It's a good thing my dad came to help. He's done a lot of electric work in the past and we couldn't have done it without him! The final result is fabulous though. It looks and works great and I love having the bright light in there!

My grandparents and cousin are coming tomorrow for my sister's graduation. They will stay until just after the graduation on Friday. I'm looking forward to their visit, but I'm hoping to have the nursery cleaned and partially set up for when they visit. That means we need to sand down the trim and repaint it tonight! Then we can move the furniture into place and put up the valances and wall hanging. I'm so excited!

26 Weeks

And I'm huge!! And I have stretch marks. :-( On my boobs and my butt. :-( Just a few days ago I started using cocoa butter to relieve the itching and weird stretching feeling on my stomach. Yesterday I decided to go ahead and start using it on my legs and butt too to possibly prevent stretch marks. I don't know if anything can really prevent them, but I thought I'd give it a try. Then today I noticed I have them on my butt!!!! I don't think they were there yesterday. Maybe cocoa butter causes stretch marks..... hmm.... Anyway, Matt's co-worker who just had a baby a few months ago recommended cocoa butter to help stretch marks and the burning/itching/stretching feeling. But if any of you have any other suggestions, I'd love to hear them! So far I don't have any marks on my belly, hopefully it'll stay that way. The other ones I have look awful.

Evan is still in the pound and a half weight range and is about a foot long. He's still roughly the size of an eggplant. His ears are forming even more and he's getting more and more sensitive to sound. So far I haven't noticed him jumping at loud noises, but he definitely responds to noise, just like he has the past couple of weeks. His eyes are also forming and apparently soon he'll start blinking. Aww!!

On Friday and Saturday that was a very big difference in the amount he was moving. There were about 3 times that I seriously considered calling the midwife because he went about 4-5 hours without moving at all. Then when he moved it was very light fluttery feelings, no kicking. He didn't always respond to sound or me poking him that I could feel. I read that this happens to a lot of women around 25 weeks, the baby either turns or just doesn't have as much room to kick at that point. However, starting Sunday, Evan picked back up and is kicking and moving more than ever! Last night he was kicking me so hard that Matt could see my belly move through my shirt from across the room! I missed feeling him so much, now every time he moves I feel so incredibly happy, even more than I was feeling before.

And I've realized....I love being pregnant. I know I still have a ways to go and may change my mind, but so far the shin splints, round ligament pains, stretch marks, upset stomach, morning sickness, heartburn, and insomnia aren't nearly enough to make me dislike the condition I'm in. I'm lucky because I don't have those side effects constantly. The joys of feeling him move, seeing my baby bump, and having the satisfaction of knowing I've got a baby inside me overpower the negative stuff.

I feel so much more confident and complete. It's hard to explain, but I guess the past couple of years have been really rough on me. After I graduated and couldn't find a job I felt so much like a loser. I felt (and still do to a certain extent) that people look down on me for not working. I wondered what was so wrong with me that I didn't get a job in spite of the hundreds of applications (sadly, I'm not exaggerating all that much, I really did fill out about 150 applications to all sorts of different jobs) I filled out and the several interviews I had. I haven't been doing what I wanted to do, my dreams didn't come true. But now I feel like I'm where I should be, I'm doing what I really want to do. I feel more grown up and finally equal to the other adults around me.

Last night Matt and his friend R put together Evan's dresser! It matches the crib and it's beautiful! It's also a changing table, so that will save us some space in the nursery. Now the next big step we have for the nursery is to put in a ceiling fan and light. Right now we have to rely on lamps for lighting. It will be nice to have an overhead light. We are also planning on painting the trim, although I have to admit that I'm feeling pretty lazy about that and thinking that maybe we'll just leave it be. I don't know...there are a few places that could use sanding and touchups. So it might be best to just paint it all. After that I want to start organizing and putting up the decor!

Arrr - you can see the splotchy tan on my arm. Ugg! I didn't quite smooth sunscreen all over my arm at the beach and got burned in one place...you can even see the fingerprints where I got some of the sunscreen, but didn't rub it all in! Unfortunately it turned into a super dark tan.... I'm trying to even it out, but it's hard once it's there.

Double digits!

Wow, I can't believe that the countdown to Evan's due date has reached double digits! Only 99 more days to go! It's weird to look at the ticker and only see 2 numbers instead of 3. Weird, but very exciting!

Also, I'm excited that I won THIS giveaway. If you haven't visited Dee's blog, then you should check it out. She's amazing, she hosts so many giveaways and writes so many reviews, but also has time to make her blog personal and post pictures of her adorable little boy who shares a name with my son. :-) Now I just have to decide if I'm going to hang on to the toy until Evan is old enough to play with it or if I'm going to give it to someone.

Last night Matt and I talked to some neighbors that live across the street from the people next door to us. So kind of caddy corner to us. We've only talked to them once before, I can't even remember their names! We found out that they have a 24 year old daughter who has a 6 month old girl. And their oldest daughter is in the process of adopting, they are hoping to adopt a newborn by this Fall. Both of the daughters live nearby, Matt and I told the couple who lives across to road to bring them over to introduce them to us sometime (they visit every weekend). It would be great to meet some other young couples who have/are about to have kids!

Speaking of meeting other young mothers, are any of you involved in any sort of social group like MOPS or Le Leche League that meets on a regular basis? If so, what are you involved in and what do you think? I really want to meet some people with babies. I'm thinking about attending a local LLL meeting next month to check it out. As for MOPS, I think I will try a meeting out after Evan comes. A group meets at my old church and I was invited by their leader to come to their last meeting of the semester (they don't meet over the summer) to get to know everyone before Evan comes, but I don't want to go to that group for multiple reasons. There are 2 other groups that meet within 10 minutes of our house, so I guess I'd go to one of them.

Flying & Crying

I'm flying to Arkansas in mid-July for my grandparents' 50th anniversary party. I'll be flying to Little Rock alone, meeting my dad there, and then we'll drive to Fort Smith. I'll be 32 weeks then. I sure hope it's okay for me to fly then! I looked up some message board posts on the subject and it seems like a lot of women fly at that point. I didn't check with any of the midwives before my dad got the ticket, but I'm guessing they will be okay with it since I've had a smooth pregnancy so far and am not high risk.

This whole thing has been really spur of the moment. My dad had purchased a ticket for himself, then a week later found out he's going to be in Little Rock on business the same day he was going to be flying there himself! So he wanted to transfer the ticket to my name (since it's non-refundable), but it's also non-transferable. So he decided to use some of his frequent flier miles to get me a ticket. He sounded excited about me coming along and it would be nice to see my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins and most likely even more of my extended family from Texas. This will be my last chance to travel on a whim. After Evan comes, any trips I make will have to be well planned. I probably won't do much, if any, traveling alone after Evan comes. So Dad asked if I wanted to come on Saturday night and by yesterday afternoon he got the ticket. Matt is excited I'm going, the only problem I have with going without him is that he'll be on a business trip the 4 days before I leave. He'll get back the day I leave so we won't see each other for an entire week. But I've gone that long without seeing him before, so I think I can manage this time. ;-)

Did you fly that late in pregnancy? Would you? Just after I hung up the phone after telling my dad to go ahead and get the ticket I had a mini panic attack. What if you aren't supposed to fly that late!? What if something horrible happens to Evan on the plane!? But after researching it some and seeing other women discuss their travel experiences at 32 weeks or later I feel much better about it!

Speaking of panic attacks, I've been much more emotional the past few days. Weepy and more stressed than normal. Poor Matt! I have to say, he's been very supportive although I haven't been the nicest person to be around the past couple of days. All of our yard projects are weighing on me and he's the one who has to do the work, so I keep nagging him and getting upset that things aren't moving along faster. I have no clue why it seems so important to get it done quickly, but it is. I really am ready to have the front flower bed and the back patio finished. I think my life will be easier after they are finished. I can tell myself it's no big deal and not to stress all I want, but it doesn't help! I think it's pregnancy hormones. I haven't been very emotional since getting pregnant, at least not any more than I used to be. But the past couple of days I can't seem to help myself, so pregnancy hormones are the only thing I can attribute it to.