3 months

I'm really bad at doing these posts on time. O well better late than never.
In the last month we had thanksgiving at black butte with the Colton family. There were a few moments that I feared for dani's life as she was laying on the ground and her 3 older cousins were running all around. She remained unfazed like she usually is.
We also took a trip to Tahoe for a wedding. Dani did awesome in the car. She slept the whole way down through the night, and didn't fuss at all on the way back. While we were down there it was like she changed overnight. She turned into quite the talker. Every moment she was awake she was babbling and singing. On the other hand she also stated to get a wee bit cranky around bed time. We discovered that if we played music she would stop crying immediately.
On the same trip she had her first true giggle. Up until this point she has only made cooing noises when she was amused but while I was making faces and noises at her she turkey giggled. She has done it a few times since but not when we expect it so no video yet. Still working on it.
She also had her first trip to get the Christmas tree. She was a great sport even in the rain she was all smiles.

two months

I'm a wee bit behind, she is actually 2 1/2 months but I wanted to wait until she had her Dr. Appt

~She is 13lbs 5 oz (90%) 23.5 in (75%) and her head is 35cm (20%)

~Her little toothless smile melts my heart and I love that she recognizes me when I enter her field of vision

~She LOVES singing and she always wants to sing along.


Here are some favorite pictures

She is fascinated by her hand

Day with dad

OOOO SSSS UUUU

One month

Dani you are perfect. I know all moms say that about their babies, but you actually are:) people always go on about how relaxed and "chill" you are. The only time you cry is when you are hungry in the middle of the night.
Speaking of middle of the night, you gave your mama the best gift she could think of, you slept through the night at exactly one month old. And you have continued to sleep through the night since then.
You recognize my voice and will turn and look at me when you hear it. And the past couple days you have smiled at me when I talk or sing to you. However, to keep me from feeling too special you also smiled when Carla licked your face and when you fart.
You are also almost famous. I sent this picture to mike Riley the beavers head coach and he tweeted it out to all his followers. No one can resist your cuteness:)

First night alone

Last night Dani spent the night in her own room for the first time.
Initially we decided to have her in our room because right after she was born she would choke on her spit up. So we wanted her close by in case something happened. She is now beyond that stage and her little squeaks at night were keeping me up.
So to the crib she went. And she did wonderful:) but apparently Andrew experienced a little separation anxiety because he got up a couple times in the middle of the night and walked around to my side of the bed to check the monitor to make sure she was ok. He is such a good daddy:)

How adorable is this face?

2 weeks old

~Dani makes the best faces. Of which I love to try and take pictures. She always has her eyebrows lifted in a permanent surprised look.

~I think she is starting to get a little spoiled because she is always sleeping in someones arms and only gets put down at night

~Everyone comments on how mellow of a baby she is. She rarely cries unless you are taking to long to change her diaper.

~When she sleeps she loves to be able to have her arms and feet free so she can spread out and she does not like to be rubbed while she sleeps.

~21.5 in long, 9lbs 8oz, 35cm head circumference.

~She really did not like her hep b shot. That was the most I have ever heard her cry.

Carla protecting her puppy

Twinsies

Love her faces

She's already curling her toes like a Colton

The first night Carla was concerned we weren't caring for her properly

Precious little angel

Andrew trying to make her laugh

o hey

sleeping soundly

My Birth Story

10:30: on Thursday August 30th I began feeling contractions. This was nothing new as I have a few false alarms, and they were really inconsistent in length and time in between. Although they were definitely more painful than anything else I had experienced. I had a feeling that this was the real deal.
11:00: Andrew got home and I tried to get him to stay awake with me since I was not getting any sleep, but he fell asleep shortly into the movie I had put on.
12:00: it felt like the contractions were going away and I was able to fall asleep.
1:00: woke up with really bad pain in my lower back. I got up and sat on my birthing ball for awhile breathing through the contractions and timing them.  Within the hour my contractions went from 8 min apart to 3 min apart.
2:00: woke up Andrew and told him I thought this was the real thing. He refused to believe me and kept trying to all back to sleep.
2:30: finally convinced Andrew that we should head to the hospital. We called ahead to let them know we were coming and then I called my mom to tell her that's where we were headed.
3:00 Arrived at the hospital. Based on what they saw while we were checking in and the answers I gave them. They determined I was in true labor and put me right into a room instead of taking me first to triage. They monitored me for a little bit while they were getting the jacuzzi ready because by this point the contractions were getting really uncomfortable. I was 4cm dilated
4:00: Hit the jacuzzi. Which felt AWESOME in between contractions, but when the next contraction hit boy did it not feel good. I was not able to find a good position in the tub in order relieve the pain.
4:30: Back to the room to try some other pain management techniques. By this point the pain in my lower back was almost unbearable during the contractions and not much better in between. I tried the birthing ball. I tried hands and knees. I tried sitting on the rocking chair and leaning on the bed. I tried having Andrew push on my lower back during a contraction. Nothing brought even the slightest bit of relief.
5:30: Asked for the epidural. But the Anesthesiologist was in a C-Section and not able to come for a while. So I got pain medication through the IV which took the edge off my contractions.At this point the nurse checked me and I was 5cm but stretching to 6 with contractions.
6:30: Anesthesiologist came in and began putting in the epidural. Honestly I thought the that they epidural would be extremely painful and you always here the horror stories of how big the needle is. All I felt was the tiny prick of them putting in the numbing  medication and then nothing else. I never saw any of the tools he was using.
7:30: Epidural is in and working. The epidural was amazing. I could not feel any pain but I still had full function of my legs and could move them around. I could feel her moving and I could feel pressure, but ZERO pain. I was feeling awesome, and the Dr. came in to check to see how I was doing. I was 6cm dilated and my water was bulging so the Dr went ahead and broke my water. For the next hour I was feeling well enough to have some visitors and watch some of the Hunger Games. I was getting hungry but that was my only complaint.
8:30: fell asleep
10:30: Awake and at 9.5 cm and they started getting the room ready and said we could meet her by lunch time. They said they would hold off calling the Dr. because I still had a couple hours of pushing ahead of me.
10:45: wanted me to do some practice pushes just so I could see what it was like. One push and I got to 10cm and the nurse could see Dani's head (she had hair!) told me to stop pushing while they called the Dr.
The Dr. came in and and a few contractions and pushes later Dani was out at 11:04.
All the Nurses and the Dr. were raving about how smoothly everything went.
Even from the get go Dani was so mellow the nurses couldn't get her to cry when they were rubbing her. She was wide awake and alert for awhile after she was born.
9lbs 4oz and 20.5 in long. She is perfect.

11:04 AM

She's here!!! Healthy!!! BEAUTIFUL!!! :)

I'll let Ang take over when she's ready and fill in all the details that I'm sure everyone wants to know.

10:45 AM

10 CM

GO TIME!!!

10:30 AM

Awake from her nap! 9.5 cm

They're preping the room for baby Dani and we should get to meet her beautiful face by lunch time.  Andrew's making plans for lunch already.

9:45 AM

Angie and Andrew are both napping (or they're suppose to be).  Her waiting room fan club is continuing to grow. 

Water has been broken.

Also.... today is a BLUE MOON!!  Perfect day to have a baby.

8:30 AM

4 AM - Angie's in the jacuzzi and feelin' good. 4cm.

7:00 AM - Back labor.  Angie's NOT feelin' good.  Called for epidural.

8:00 AM - Sister arrives from Bend.  Epidural is in.  feelin' good.  5/6cm

8:30 AM - Andrew's family arrives with donuts.  Andrew's feeling good. Angie's jealous.

LABOR DAY!!!!!!!

(this is sister Kelly posting for Angie)

I woke to a call this morning at 2:30AM.  It was my mom letting me know that:

ANGIE IS IN LABOR!!!!

I am loading the car and heading over from Bend, so the next update might not be for several hours.  I will log back on once I arrive at the hospital and get an update.

I am BEYOND excited for my sister and Andrew and can't wait to meet my new baby niece.

Please be praying for safe and healthy delivery for Angie and Dani.

40 weeks 3 days

So unless I go into labor before then I will be induced on Saturday morning at 7:00am.

Dr said that with it being the weekend, if everyone decides to go into labor i might get bumped but for now that is the plan.

YAY only 2 more days and I will get to see her!!

40 weeks 1 day

My due date has come and gone...

I had my Dr appointment today. I am 3cm dilated, and everything looks normal.

Dr does not want me going too far past 41 weeks since that is when there can be more risk to the baby.  He is on call this weekend either Friday or Saturday (he couldn't remember) so he mentioned possibly inducing me then.  He said that my cervix is ready so he thinks induction would be fairly simple, they would basically just need to jump start my contractions and he said my body would most likely take it from there.

Obviously it is always best to go into labor naturally so we are praying that happens in the next couple days. I have another appointment Thursday where we will decide about being induced. Part of what I am taking into consideration is my own mental health. I have struggled with situational depression and sitting around the house by myself most of the day being extremely uncomfortable and peeing every 5 min has not been good for me. I am not sure how much more I could handle without putting myself at risk for some serious baby blues if not postpartum depression. So having an end in sight should really help both me and Dani stay healthy.

39 weeks

Some answers to frequently asked questions:
Yes I am still pregnant
Yes I am very ready to be done
Yes I'm uncomfortable but feeling good for the most part.
No I have not had anymore contractions like I had last Sunday.

At my appointment today everything looked good. I opted to have him not check my cervix because at this point it would do nothing but give me false hope that this might happen sooner.
Labor will start when my body is ready.
So in the mean time we wait.

38 Weeks

Yesterday I woke up at 4:30 in the morning with some contractions that were still pretty mild and far apart, but I could not fall back to sleep.
So I eventually got up to go to church (I was covering for Kathy so I needed to be there early). As the morning progressed I noticed that my contractions were getting closer together and becoming harder to ignore. That coupled with some leaking that I had had the day before made me think it might be real. I was mostly concerned about my water, if it had indeed broken I didn't want to risk infection by not going in. Since the church is literally down the street from the hospital I decided to just go get checked and set my mind at ease instead of going home and seeing what happens.
They monitored me for a little while and I was indeed having contractions and the baby was responding to them. Then they checked me and my water had not broken. I was still at 2cm dilated and 50% effaced but Dani had dropped to a -1 station(which I suspected since I cold tell the day she dropped). They said I could hang out at the hospital for a couple hours and see what happens, or go home and see what happens.
Since my water had not broken I felt better just going home and waiting it out. My contractions ended up plateauing. I was having mild contractions that were uncomfortable but not too bad every 5 min for the rest of the afternoon and evening. They did not end up stopping until around 9:30. Lame.

Had a Dr. Appointment today.
Blood pressure looked good.
When they weighed me it showed that I had lost 3lbs since my appointment last week, if we are to believe the scale that was wrong. Which would mean that I gained 5lb in 5days and then lost 3 lbs in a week. Yeah right. I would think it more likely that I gained 2lbs in 2 weeks. So that is what we are going with. Bringing my total weight gain to 22lbs
He did not check my cervix since I had just been checked the day before. He did say that since I have been having so many contractions that last for so long, and that I was already pretty dilated and she was sitting so low, that he did not think I would go late. He basically said that everything was showing that I am ready to have this baby at any time and we just need labor to start.
He also said "Go home and have a beer." and I laughed and said "That's what my mom told me." He said back in the day they used to actually prescribe that but that it's not politically correct to say anymore, "but a beer once in awhile never hurt anyone."

Impatient

Here are a few verses I thought I would share with you.

**Edits made**

Matthew 24: 36-39  No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 

Matthew 24:42  "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day Dani will come."

James 5:7-9    Be patient, then, brothers, until Dani's coming...You too, be patient and stand firm, because Dani's coming is near

Hebrews 3:7    For in just a very little while, "She who is coming will come and will not delay."

1 Peter 1:13    Therefore, prepare your minds for action;  be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Dani is revealed.

2 Peter 3:8-10     But do not forget this one thing, dear friends:  With Dani a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day... But Dani will come like a thief.

If I end up making it to my due date it is going to be a very LOOOOOOng 2.5 weeks.

Week 37

Feeling a little jipped today.

Yesterday I started feeling contractions around 10am but ignored them because it was nothing new. Most of my BH contractions don't hurt or make me have to stop what I am doing. The muscles in my stomach just tighten and it's a bit uncomfortable. Then after church I realized they were still happening and much more frequently then ever before. So Andrew and I started timing them. I have having contractions every 3 min and they were lasting for about 40 sec. but were not increasing in intensity.  After about 2.5 hours of timing I called the advice nurse to see what I should do. I ended up talking with the Dr. on call and he said that unless my water breaks or they become really uncomfortable to just sit tight and wait.  So wait I did. For 12 hours yesterday I had these non progressive annoying contractions. The only thing to come from them were an increased sense of anxiousness to have this baby (we did end up getting our bags packed finally now we just need to instal the car seat) and I did notice that she seems to be sitting much lower today than she has been all pregnancy.

I also had another Dr. appointment today. My Dr. is on vacation so I saw a different Dr. today. Kind of a waste of time if you ask me.
Blood pressure was good.
Measuring normal.
According to his scale I have gained 5lbs in 5 days. Um no. I reject your measurement. Either this Dr's scale is way off from the one I usually use or I am retaining water like crazy(might explain the swollen feet). But unless Dani has doubled in size in 5 days I seriously doubt that I have gained that much.
Even after I told him I felt like she moved down he said she was still sitting pretty high. He basically dismissed everything I tried to tell him.
He said Dr. Conger will do a pelvic exam next week but he saw no need to do one at this time since I am still pretty far out. Well poo on him. I kind of want to go in to labor right now just to prove him wrong.

One month to go (maybe)

I always thought I would be really good about taking belly pictures, but apparently not. Here is week 36.

36 weeks

 Had my first of the weekly appointments today.
I have gained 2 lbs since two weeks ago making my total weight gain 20 lbs.
Blood pressure was good
Measuring well and the heart beat sounded good and strong.
Dr. checked me and said that I was about 2cm dilated and 50% effaced. He was surprised at how far along I was and how soft my cervix was. He said "now don't go getting all caught up on numbers, but you MAY be earlier than the 27th"
She is also at station -4 so she is still pretty high. So I guess we will just wait and see how things play out:)
I would really like her to drop just a bit lower so that I can actually eat without immediately getting heart burn.

Last week I had quite the break down (that I am sure was not helped by my hormones) when I realized that Andrew and I would not be able to celebrate our 2 year anniversary between his work schedule and bachelor parties and weddings and everything else that is going on in August. And then Dani would be born and our lives will forever be different.
So Andrew looked at his schedule and saw that at the end of July he had Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday off. After looking at the options we decided to go camping at champoeg state park (just a few exits down I-5 from Wilsonville. It would be cheap and we would still be close to home if anything happened.
I am so glad that we were able to get away for two full days and just hang out together and be unplugged from the rest of the world. We played 3 games of monopoly, and a round of disc golf. Which by the way, I will never give my husband a bad time again, about owning his own disc golf discs. There were some very intense disc golfers there that made us look like the amateurs we were. They were carrying back packs filled with at least 20-30 different discs for the different shots. Ridiculous.

An Ode to the Birthing ball

I started out thinking it was weird to sit on a rubber ball while you are in labor. And the fact that they had to rename a fitness ball to birthing ball just seemed like too much.

Last Sunday I was helping out on the preschool floor at church. I sat down on one of the preschool sized chairs and was shocked as too how comfortable I was. It was the most comfortable that i have been in weeks! The chair was low enough that my thighs were parallel to the floor and my knees were at a 90 degree angle, and I was able to sit with my legs apart.
** Side note: Sitting cross legged has become extremely uncomfortable, so just ignore the pregnant lady sitting spread eagle.**

Then on Wed we went and got some FroYo and they had lower stools there. I sat in them and experienced the same since of relief as my back began to feel better and my stomach was no longer squished.

I began to wonder if this is what if felt like to sit on a birthing ball while pregnant. So I dragged Andrew to Target last night and bought a 15$ fitness ball. When we got home first thing i did was blow it up and then just sat on it for about 15 min eating my fudgecicle. I am in LOVE!
If it was socially acceptable to bring my birthing ball out in public everywhere I went I would. In fact I brought it to work with me.

Birthing Class #4

Not much to say about the last birthing class. I was all about breast feeding, and we watched an incredibly awkward video on the 14 steps to successful breast feeding. I never wanted to see a close up slow motion real life shot of a baby latching. No one's boobs should be shown from that close up on a large projection screen. Weird.

At the end of the class our nurse had an activity to help you work on your birth plan. She gave you 32 statements that are common to birth plans. Then asked you to pick the 16 most important. Then asked you to pick the 8 most important. Then 4. She said that people who come in with long detailed birth plans are less likely to get everything they want. The nurses can not possibly remember and follow a 3 page list. But 4-8 statements are totally doable. It was also really good to talk it through with Andrew. Apparently her has opinions on all this. Who knew?
Our top 8:
~I want to be told about every procedure, given a chance to ask questions and participate in decision making
~Being able to rock, walk, and move about in labor, and not be confined to the bed
~To have the continuous physical, emotional, and caring presence of my chosen partner/coach
~Establishing breastfeeding within the first hour of life
~We see the nursing staff as part of our team and we'd like them to offer ideas and suggestions
~Using the shower, bath, or jacuzzi for comfort
~We have chosen certain family/friends we'd like to share our birth with
~We want to hold the baby as soon as possible.

It was good to do this as the last thing in the class because so many of the statements are already common practice within the hospital and are unnecessary to include in the plan.

Birthing Class #3

The bullets-

• Another good reason(for me and my crazy logic) to not get an epidural, you can eat things other than ice chips. Things with flavor!!!
• The hospital beds are equipped to allow you to push from pretty much any position you want. They even have this bar that gets brought up that you can rest on in a squatting position if you want to push like that (since it opens your pelvis 30% more than any other position).
• From what research I have done on the benefits of home births and birthing centers, it seems that hospitals are becoming less rigid and more and more like birthing centers. With the added benefit of having surgeons on call if something goes wrong. They let you labor any way you want, in the tub, on a birthing ball, walking around, whatever is comfortable. They allow you to push from whatever position you want and works best for you. They don't cut the cord until it stops pulsating. They do not remove the baby right after it is born to do all the measurements like they used to. After the baby is born they immediately lay the baby skin to skin on the mother to allow for bonding time. You get to call the shots at every step.
• They talked about how having skin to skin contact with the mother for at least an hour immediately following the birth helps to calm the baby and increases the success rate of breast feeding. To me though it feels weird to make Andrew wait a whole hour before he gets to hold his daughter. Since I am leaning towards not breast feeding, I probably will not stick to this 1 hour rule.
• Andrew made it through the video showing a live birth, with out passing out or losing his dinner. So that is a positive sign.

34 Weeks

The stats:

• Gained 1/2 lb
• BP 110/56
• belly measuring on schedule
• Heart beat sounded good
• Dani is head down but not dropped yet.

I love that every time my Dr. listens to the heart rate for a little while he then gets a smile on his face and looks at me and says "Amazing." After 30 years of delivering babies and listening to heart beats all day everyday, the wonder has never worn off.

He also said "Keep doing what your doing because it's working" and I said, "I'm not doing a whole a lot..."
And he started talking about how pregnancy and labor are not "The Event." So many people get focused on just that part, reading about it, talking about it. Your body is going to do what it needs to do whether you are on board or not. The real event happens when you walk out of those hospital doors with that little baby and now you have to figure out what your going to. That is the event you should be focusing on.
Wise words.

Birthing Class #2

Labor and Pain Management.

Things I learned:
~You actually produce more urine at night which is why women have to get up so frequently. During the day your kidneys are so squished they can't produce what they normally do, but when you are sleeping they make up for it.  Luckily I have only had to get up in the middle of the night twice. Otherwise the majority of the nights I sleep straight through.

~You should have someone dedicated as your personal massage guru that is at your every beckon call all through out labor. OK they did not actually say that but pretty much every comfort measure involved some sort of foot massage, back massage, neck massage. So Kelly start building up those muscles because I remember how awesome your back massages are, and don't forget the time after you ran PPP that I was there for you;)

~Apparently the nurse thinks that an ice chip is a proper reward after each contraction. Yes, she did actually say for the support person to give the mother an ice chip after each contraction as a little reward. Uh no. That is not an acceptable reward. I wanted to ask if we could bring our own supply of otter pops or fudge-cicles as a more appropriate reward, but i had already asked too many questions and was embarrassing Andrew. I am also thinking we might hit DQ once the contractions start so I can have a blizzard before the hospital cuts off my food supply:)

~They showed a video of different women going through labor and the positions that might help. They also demonstrated that making low groaning noises is instinctual and helpful, because if they are low that means you are breathing deeply. Needless to say that watching half dressed women rocking back and forth on a birthing ball while groaning made Andrew a wee bit uncomfortable. Wait until he sees next weeks video. The one on delivery.

My Birth Plan

Tentative thoughts on my "birth plan":
I will start by saying that I am not naive enough to sit here and say "This is exactly how I want everything to go down. No exceptions."
Every labor is different and everyone responds to the pain differently.
With that said, I would like to try to go as long as possible without an epidural. Partly because the epidural scares me more than labor (I know I weird). But mostly because in my head it makes sense to want to be able to feel what your body is going through so that you know more of what is going on. Let's see if I can think of a better way to explain my crazy logic...
How are you supposed to learn to golf if your arms are numb? How would you know what to do?
I know there are Doctors there and everything but nobody knows what is going on with your body better than you.
I also don't like the idea of being confined to the bed once you have the epidural. I want to be able to get up, walk around, change positions, maybe even squat on a birthing ball, who knows, but I want to be in control of what I want. That sounded a little princess-ish huh? well, they tell me I can pretty much say whatever I want while in labor and get a free pass from everyone so why not take advantage of it? :)
I am also toying with the idea of getting the epidural during the "Transition phase" of labor. (For those of you not lucky enough to have experienced the fun of birthing class, this phase it right before pushing and your contractions become WAY more intense and and close together). If I got one at this point I would want a "light epidural" where they give you enough that you are not in such pain but you can still feel what's going on.

So that is my up-in-th-air-we-will-see-how-I-handle-the-first-contraction-then-everything-might-go-out-the-window plan.

Birthing Class #1

The basics of labor and preparing to go to the hospital.

First we will start with a little history.

Andrew is currently trying to sell my Jeep,(know anyone looking for a 2004 jeep wrangler?) because of this he does not want to fill the tank for fear that he will end up selling it with a full tank of gas and will have wasted 50$ (I know, heaven forbid right?). So for the past month the most he will put in is 20$ which means I am basically always driving around on empty. I HATE going to the gas station and think it is the mans job to fill the car, it is really annoying that we have to stop at the gas station every few days.
What does this have to do with the first birthing class? I will tell you.
The instructor was going through the list of things to pack and have prepared prior to going to the hospital. The first thing on her list was to make sure that your car ALWAYS has more than half a tank of gas in it, because the last thing your laboring wife will want is to stop at the gas station on the way to the hospital.
I immediately looked at Andrew and he sunk a little lower in his seat and we both just started cracking up(Good thing we were in the back of the class).

When I go into labor this is the conversation I picture us having:
Me:Grab my bags I will get in the Jeep.
Me:Cries out in exasperation No! the Jeep has no gas! I told you to keep it filled!!
Him: Someone was coming to look at it I didn't want to sell him a car with a full tank of gas
Me: Fine we will take the truck. You will have to help me up into it since there is no step and I am in no condition to be hoisting myself into a lifted F350.
Him: Absolutely not are we taking my truck. What if we get stuck and you have the baby in it! Gross. I know! you can ride in the truck bed!
Me:Uh no. Not happening.

And after all of that I am convinced that I will be showing up to the hospital on the back of Andrew's Motorcycle.

32 Weeks

32 weeks sounds a lot further along than "just starting my 8th month" so we will go with 32 weeks:)

Dr. Appointment Bullets

• I did not gain any weight since my last appointment
• Blood Pressure was 102/70 which is much closer to my usual numbers
• My belly is measuring average
• Baby is head down and heart beat is good and strong

Dani is now kicking me so hard I can feel my rip cage moving and it is not a pleasant feeling, let me tell you. It hurts.

Jo-Ann Nusery Contest

So Mom told me about a contest that Jo-Ann fabrics is hosting. They want people to take a video of their "hand crafted nursery" with commentary on all the projects they made for the nursery. The winner gets 500$ to Jo-Ann and the contest ends on the 30th with the winner announced at the end of July.
Here is my video. Please ignore the idiotic commentary. I did not prepare what I was going to say and basically just walked into the nursery and started filming.
What I didn't realize until after i had submitted my video is that even if someone else made something for you nursery you could showcase it. Had I know that, I would have shown the blanket grandma crocheted and the quilt my friend made and the doll that grandma made. O well.

http://pinterest.com/pin/240590805064017177/

You can also watch other people's videos and see how my nursery stacks up. I don't think I will win. But it's fun to try.

30 weeks

Dr. Appointment bullet list.

• I have gained 1 lb since my last appointment 2 weeks ago.
• Blood pressure was normal (although it was high for me 122/96. Normally I am a lot lower, my last appointment I was around 90/60. Thanks mom:))
• I am measuring right on track
• Dani's heart sounds good and she is moving lots.
• Dr. said that my iron count from last time was borderline. I told him that I have always been borderline. He said that that is probably why I was not showing any symptoms because my body has just adjusted to always having low iron.
• Said he would see me again in 2 weeks.

Week 29

Ok I am officially uncomfortable.
I will not be wearing socks for the rest of my pregnancy if I can avoid it. Bending over is not only a difficult task but it's uncomfortable.
Dani is taking up a lot of room. When she moved it used to be that I could only feel her in one location. Now when she moves my entire stomach twitches.
She likes to nestle herself up under my right ribs which causes sharp pains in my back and lungs. She also has a tendency to use my bladder as her pillow which creates the interesting sensation that with every step I take I feel like I have to pee.
Regardless of all of this, feeling her movements are my favorite part of this whole pregnancy! It can get a little awkward though when you are trying to carry on a normal conversation with someone and she kicks really hard. It's weird to try and keep a straight face and ignore what is going on inside of you while you continue talking.

Here are some pictures of her nursery:

28 Weeks

I am going to have to start getting used to posting more often because I now begin having appointments every 2 weeks until August, then I have them every week.

 Here is my belly picture to kick off the third trimester. I feel like I can watch it grow....

Some notes from my appointment today
~I had my Glucose screen today. I chose the lemon lime flavor and refrigerated it. When it came time to drink, it tasted like SUPER sweet flat sprite. I did not really have any side effects other than feeling a slight sugar rush. They drew my blood and will let me know later today what the results are. Update:I got the results back and my blood sugar as right in the middle, however the test showed that I have low iron. This does not really surprise me since I usually never pass that part when I try to donate blood. So I have to take iron supplements the rest of the pregnancy.
~I peed on a stick(which is done every appointment here on out). They never told me what it tests or what the results are so I am assuming it was fine.
~I got weighed. I have gained 15lbs so far. Although I feel like it is a lot more.
~The Dr came in and measured my belly. He said it looks perfect, not too big not too small.
~He used the Doppler to listen to the heart beat. He was laughing because every time he found her and would kind of poke her to listen she would roll away from where he was pressing. He said that is a very good sign that she reacts to things like that.
~He said that he wished every patient had a pregnancy like mine. Simple and uncomplicated. Such a blessing from God.
~I asked him if there was anything I should be asking or aware of and he said "Some people try and make pregnancy into a college course. People have been having babies for more than 2000 years. It does not need to be complicated" So there you have it.
~I also got my Tdap vaccine which includes pertussis (whooping cough) and am making Andrew get his as well.

Dani is VERY active. especially around 10:00am, 9:00pm and 11:00pm. I can see my belly twitching when she is flopping around and last night several people from community group were able to feel her moving around. I can usually tell where she is and if I press on her she will usually kick back or roll away. She also has a tendency to nestle right up under my ribs and cause some very uncomfortable back pain.
I also think she had the hiccups the other night.

I made this to hang on the wall above her crib. I covered the D and E in scrap book paper then glued on little embellishments made out of paper and beads and tulle. The M came white so I decided just to leave it as is. The frame I got for 3$ at a garage sale and painted it white.

On Sunday we had our community group over for dinner (all 20 of them) so Andrew and I had to rearrange our living room a little bit to get everyone seated around one table.

And of course being my mother's daughter, you can not just have a table with no pretty embellishments.

Some Little Projects

I know it has been awhile since I have posted. I have my next dr. appointment on Monday, so I will post more then. For now here are some fun little things I have done lately

This is a sun burst mirror that I made for the nursery. It cost me a whopping 2$ the mirror was a dollar and the poster board was 2 for a dollar at the Dollar Tree. I know right?

I covered all the outlets and light switches in the nursery with this pretty pink paper. It looks really nice against the light pink walls (that did not show up in the picture). Best part was, it was free. I already had the mod podge and the paper.

These are rose bud votives that I was mainly just experimenting with to see how they would turn out. The votives came with a candle in them and were $.50 each and the petals came from fake flowers sold by the bunch at... you guessed it Dollar Tree. Just took apart the petals and glued them on the votives. They look kind of cool right?

It was a bit!

Yesterday, we were at some friend's house and Andrew was looking at the Baby Shower invitation. At the bottom where Kelly wrote about Dany not needing any more clothes, Andrew looks up at me and says, "why did she spell her name like that?"
I looked at him like "you must be joking." I calmly reminded him that since the moment we began dating he had told me that ending girls names in I is the slutty way of spelling it. That we had discussed different ways to spell Dany to avoid using an i.
He responds, "Clearly you have never heard of stand up comedy. IT WAS A BIT! I want her name to be spelled Dani."

****Large exasperated sigh****

So her name will be spelled Dani.

(And he thinks I'm crazy)

Week 23.5

Lets start with the belly pictures(I crop my face out because I never know what to do so I just end up looking awkward):

When we found out

Week 17

Week 23.5

I was supposed to have my Dr. Appointment yesterday but I guess something crazy was going on at the hospital because they pulled 3 out of the 4 doctors that were in the office to help out. So they rescheduled me for today with a different Dr. than I regularly see.
Just an illustration of how laid back my regular Dr. is. Every other Doctor in the office has their patients do a urine test every time they come in starting at 8 weeks. Dr. Conger does not have his patients to that until 28 weeks.
I have gained a total of 9 pounds (6 pounds since my last appointment)(Dany weighs about 1.25lbs)
Heart sounds good and healthy
 I registered for the Birthing Class today. They asked me who my birthing coach was and when I gave the lady a blank look she asked if I had a husband because he would probably be my birthing coach. I just laughed and said don't tell him that it will probably freak him out.
Next Appointment I have to do my diabetes test and drink lemon lime "GluCola." Those doctors... they are so clever.
Fun Fact (that would probably embarrass Andrew that I am writing this, but I have never had an issue with getting embarrassed) I have always had an extremely deep belly button. We're talking deep. If I were to put my finger in my belly button I could not touch the bottom and and my finger would be covered up to the first knuckle. Well now, not only can I touch the bottom I can SEE it! I have a feeling I will have one massive done button come 40 weeks.
This is my latest craft project for the nursery. I found these two pillows and plain pink receiving blanket at good will for $5 total. I Cut up the blanket and made some fabric roses with some pearl beads I had for the center of the flowers. Then I hot glued them on.
Right now they are on the rocking chair in the nursery but I have them for sale on Etsy. Why not try and make some money right?