Going on 33 weeks.

It has been a crazy two weeks! Just busy with life I suppose. Last weekend my mom and I went garage sale-ing and had a great time and got quite a few finds! We only have two more big baby items that we needed...a crib and a changing station. Well, at our first stop we found a decent crib for $30 (which included a mattress!)..for another $10 we got a mattress cover, some sheets, blankets and a couple of cute outfits. JACKPOT! So we got it. Then the rest of the day was sort of a bust...until we got to a church yardsale. We got there 15 minutes before it ended and I got the steal of the century!!! A motorized litter box for $2.50. Yes, that is right, the decimal is NOT in the wrong spot!!!! It is a Litter Maid Elite with an ionizer. I googled that joker when I got home and it retails for almost $150!!! Since I have been pregnant, the litter box duties have fallen to Chris and he has been a good sport, but I definitely know he hasn't been thrilled. He thinks that they poop too much and thus we should feed them less. I already feed them less than a 1/2 cup of dry food each a day. Poor kitties...hungry bellies! So, this has been literally a God send. Because I have seen his affection for the cats diminish since he took over the poop scooping detail and I don't want him to ever resent them. He talks about how they should be allowed to go outside way more now than before. :( So, thank you God for this find!!! It works like a champ too!!! It scoops automatically several times a day and you have to empty the tray every other day...the cats were like, WHOA! What the heck? at first, but they are used to it now.

Then we had our first birthing class. Not what I thought. It was more informative than hands on at this point. We will not be taught any breathing...just relaxation techniques and massage points etc. We watched a birthing video and saw a 10 cm circle in our little book. Let me start off by sharing that this circle is MUCH larger than I had envisioned 10cm to be!!!! Lord have mercy!!! There is a reason you can't look down there and see it for yourself! haha. Holy smokes! We have some nice people in class with us and our teacher is super nice!!! Old enough to be my mom and sweet as candy. She is a country mountain girl for sure!!! haha. Sorry if you don't know what that means. Anyhow, the future classes will hold water births, c-sections, relaxation techniques, touring the birthing center, meeting pediatricians. It should be fun.

On Wed. we had our next doctor visit with an ultrasound. I got all worried and worked up because I really wanted to be a little more sure than 90% with the doctor telling us not to go crazy with pink items. I know we can't be 100% sure until we see this little person IN PERSON..but you know. So, the visit started off with my blood pressure being higher than normal. So far this pregnancy has been smooth sailing...weight gain on track, bp normal/low, all heartbeats right on, u/s images all on track developmentally. So, there was concern. The u/s tech started doing images. She can't tell us anything medically speaking, but we did see some really fun pictures of this baby. Punching, making fists, and we got the money shot! It is a girl!!! So, Delia Ann it is (unless we find out differently when this child arrives). There was one really cute shot with her little legs folded indian style and over her body (so we could see her little foot!) and one arm over her forehead (this is how Chris sleeps and rests a lot!) with her hand in a fist. She took my bp again and it was lower (my bp is super sensitive to my emotions) and left us. The doctor came in and took my bp on both arms making me relax my arm with him holding them. Then he did the u/s again. Chris asked how the baby's head looked and his response was "big". We both were quiet and Chris was like, what does this mean? Is it big in comparison to her body or is her whole body big. The doctor proceeded to tell us that she is measuring 2 weeks ahead on the developmental charts. Ok...so now I am like, hmmmm. I know I may be the ONLY pregnant woman to say this, but I do not want her to be early. This may sound selfish, but I was really looking forward to the month of June being mine. Mine to rest, finish preparing, read, etc. I know LOTS of women work right up til they go into labor, but I was counting it a serious blessing to have about a month off from working. Then he went on to tell us that at the rate she is growing, she could be big and may get as big as 9+ lbs. I of course new where this was going, his next question was "how tall are you?" I told him 4'10"-4'11". He was like, hmmm. As he continued speaking about growth rates I just jumped in and said, if she gets that big I will have to have a c-section won't I? He was like, whoa, slow down! and then he laughed bc I was cutting to the chase and skipped a bunch of the discussion. haha. But yes, that would be his recommendation. Now, let me just cut in here and say he doesn't prefer c-sections and does NOT do them unless he has to. He went on to tell me that I have to toe the line and not gain anymore weight. That we need to do whatever we can to create the best case scenario for a vaginal delivery if I don't want a c-section. Chris went on to tell him of all of the monsterous babies in his family 12 pounders and all. The doctor said, well you may just be destined for big babies then we will have to see. Then he told me he wanted labs done on me. This was because of my bp & the size of the baby (she is at about 6 lbs when she should be at about 4.5-4.75 lbs). So, I was told that I needed to collect my urine for the next 24 hours in a jug provided by the hospital & it needed to be kept on ice or in the refrigerator. I was like, uh oh...I have to work and I have to go to the bathroom like every 40 minutes! I filled that jug right to the top! Now, you know I teach middle schoolers, and I thought that they would make fun of me. They were amazed at how much an individual can pee at one time. When I told them I went 32 ounces in one sitting they were like, whoa!!!!!!!!!! But they were mostly concerned about the tests and hoped for the best. That morning I had a total meltdown. I broke into tears and felt like a failure for gaining too much weight at this point and that I might have to have a c-section. I am really concerned about how this will affect breastfeeding (which is really important to me). However, the blessing of working with so many women/moms is that they all rallied and several of them have had c-secs and have nursed and assured me that I can do it! So, I have come to terms with the fact that a c-section could be in my future and that we need to do what is best for all of us. But in the meantime I am weighing myself every day and eating wisely and walking 3x a week. I am doing everything I can to move towards a normal vaginal delivery, but am trusting God for what is best.

I am attaching a few pictures of the past couple of stages so you can see the progression. The yellow shirt is on May 6th and the orange is today, May 16th. Let me know what is new in your life!!