Belly Update

Ok, so shenanigans got the best of me yesterday and I didn't get this up like I hoped/promised I would but here's the latest shot of my belly, taken at 33 1/2 weeks. Just when I think "How could I possibly get any bigger?" I do!

Nesting

I've been a nesting fool today! I guess I've really been a nesting fool for the last 2 days, it all started Thursday night when I came home from work and decided that I couldn't wait until Saturday to set up the baby's nursery. So I washed all her linens and got her bedding set up. Last night I came home from work and before my office holiday party, I nested some more, lined her dresser, put some newborn clothes in the hamper. But today, I went nuts! After our breastfeeding class, Marc went to Livermore wine tasting with Edwin so I stayed home and nested in her room. Before they left Edwin and Marc moved the arm chair up to her room. It was glorious! I did some laundry, organized her drawers, put some toys away. Ah I feel good. So here's a sneak peak at what her nursery is going to look like. We're still missing wall decorations, we're working on getting those together in the next few weeks and I still want to get a bookshelf because she has tons of books and then I can put some bigger toys on one of the shelves (I have a vision, which is unfortunate for Marc because that means I won't stop until I find what I am looking for). So here's the sneak peak at the little girl's room!

Her door:

The changing area (we're going to spell out her name with wood letters above the dresser/changer):

The glider:

Her crib:

Another view of her crib:

A close up of her bedding:

It's Here, It's Here, It's Here!

Today our baby furniture arrived! I am so excited, I now have somewhere for her to sleep and Marc and I love the way it looks in the nursery! I didn't have time to wash and put bedding on it yet but that's the plan for the weekend while Marc is off wine tasting with Edwin. Here's a sneak preview of it...

In other news we've now interviewed 3 orthopedic surgeons for her feet and have finally decided on one we like best! Another huge relief off of us! It's been a very stressful, time consuming process but we feel we have explored all of our options and made the decision that is in the best interest of our family, especially our daughter. I also went to my 33 week appointment today and everything is going well and my doctor is happy with the way I am progressing. I told her about my little fall on Saturday night and she wasn't too concerned, even though I was freaking out. I guess I never blogged about that incident. After our Labor & Delivery class (which totally freaked me out) I went to get the mail, our neighbor parked in front of the mailbox (which he's not supposed to do) so I had to walk on the curb to fit through to get to the mailbox. Well I lost my footing and fell, luckily my wrist and knee took most of the fall but a branch did poke me in the stomach. It did not bode well with the baby who proceeded to squirm and move around most of the evening, I think she's was pissed her peaceful little existence had been distrupted. I didn't have any contractions, bleeding, or leaking fluid and since she was moving we figured all was ok, we did get to practice our labor breathing since I was so freaked out, Marc had me practice the breathing to calm myself down. My doctor told me I wasn't the first to fall and won't be the last. She also made me feel a little bit better about delivery, cause I have been really freaking out all week about it. I can deal with the baby being here, it's getting her here that's really freaking me out. Anyway, the appointment went well today, weight gain good, blood pressure good, and baby heartbeat is good. The baby even kicked the heart monitor off of my stomach while the doctor was listening to her heartbeat, it was kind of funny. I now go every other week until January 16 when I start going weekly, crazy how things are moving along! So that's it from here!

I owe a new belly picture, I can hardly believe it's been a month already and I will post more pictures of her room when I get some stuff set up this weekend!

Family Fun Night

Marc and I decided last night that Monday is going to be our family fun night. And what do we do on family fun night you might be wondering? We have Wii Bowling Tournament night, after the baby is born we'll probably expand it out to tennis, baseball, and boxing but since I'm not so svelte these days were sticking to bowling. It's super fun and very realistic. Homer doesn't quite get why Mamma and Dadda are moving around so much and not sitting on the couch watching a DVD but he's getting the hang of it. Last night we played 3 games, Marc whooped my butt, but mark my words when I lose the bowling ball on my stomach, he better watch out!

Here are the scores of the 3 games:

Marc
Game 1: 152
Game 2: 164
Game 3: 206
Total Score: 522

Allie:
Game 1: 135
Game 2: 178
Game 3: 192 (highest score ever!)
Total Score: 505

We even have skid marks on the carpet from bowling, it looks like we have bowling lanes in our living room!

It's Official...

I have CANKLES! :(

On its Way!

After much nagging (it does work ladies) my husband finally called the furniture store where we bought the baby's furniture to find out where it was. Marc just called me to tell me that it is being delivered on Wednesday, December 17 between 10-12 and he even sported for the extra $40 to have them bring it upstairs and set it up! Yay! I can't wait to see it and start nesting in her room!

I'll post pictures next week when we have it set up! Ok back to work!

Baby Shower Part Duex

Saturday was my Bay Area Baby Shower hosted by Jill, my sister-in-law/Auntie-to-be, and Jenny, a good friend of ours (and mom-to-be!). They did the most amazing job, it was such a fun day. I should go back a few days to mention my best friend, Anne, flew in Thursday night from Houston (thanks Doug for letting me have her fora weekend). Friday I took the day off and Anne went for a run, because she's a total rock star, while I went for a waddle around the neighborhod. Then we went for some mani/pedis before picking my mom up at the airport. After getting my mom we went for lunch in Walnut Creek and then walked around a bit before heading home before dinner at a teppenyaki place.



Saturday I got another walk in (its amazing what I have energy for when I am off of work) and then we got ready for the shower. Like I said, Jill and Jenny did an amazing job setting up and planning the shower. The decorations were adorable and all of the details were amazing - notice my favorite colors - pink and brown with some polka dots, Jill made super cute and yummy finger sandwiches and Jenny made amazing cupcakes and the cutest little cookies in the shape of onesies with the baby's initials on it. I felt kind of bad eatting them because they were so cute but they also tasted delicious! I just can't get over all of the detail she went through on each cookie. She also baked snickerdoodles (one of my favorites) that were so yummy too! I don't know how she did it all, she's amazing! I'm going to need to hire her for the baby's birthday parties!. There were about 12 women at the shower. Jill and Jenny planned a few games, we had to list all the songs we could think of with the word baby in it and we also had a race to see who could drink apple juice out of a baby bottle the fastest. It was surprisingly hard, I have a whole new respect for babies drinking out of a baby bottle. It's tough work. We (well really the baby) got some great presents and it was a lot of fun. Here are some more photos from the shower:




Onesie painting station:


















Her first onesie - getting back to her roots. Her namesake before we knew she was a she:



















The spread - sandwiches, pasta salad, fruit salad, little tomatoe mozarella yummy goodness, and dessert:



















The hostesses and I:
















Anne and I:

















My mom and I:






















Lyndsay and Xavier - X made his future friend a cute onesie with his hand print!
















Jenny & Homer - Homer had fun at his sister's party! Jenny helped him view the present opening. Homer bought his sister her changing pad and other changing accessories - I wonder where he gets all of this extra money from, he must have a side job. ;)



















Beautiful quilt the Materazos gave us along with some scrapbooking supplies, yay!:




















Funny book from Diana:



















Another cute outfit, she's going to be a little mini-me:

















This picture doesn't really do her closet justice but incase there was any doubt how many clothes she has, here's a photo. You pretty much can just see the newborn stuff but her clothes fill the closet plus there are some folded on the shelf above. I actually think she has more clothes than I do right now. She currently doesn't have any where to sleep, as of press time still no crib and no pack and play - but she's going to look darn cute in all of her outfits!



















Sunday morning we went for breakfast and then to Berkeley to walk around 4th Street, I got to hit up Scrapbook Territory too and got some cute baby girl scrapbooking supplies! Now I just need to finish up some old photos so I can start the baby's scrapbook! We need to stop shenaniganning so that I can sit down and crop! And even more excitingly (if that's a word) Anne got to experience a little bit of the Zimmerman Shenanigans and got to have an abridged shenanigan day with us.

Holy Cow!

I just got my weekly baby update and we only have 9 weeks left until she's here! Holy cow, that's single digit weeks! Starting to freak out a little bit!

Crappy Day...Literally

So I took yesterday off as an occasional day, these days we have that don't count as vacation or personal days, they're just sort of there in case you have Doctors appointments or need to wait for a service guy who tells you he's going to be there in a 4 hour window but comes 2 hours after that, but I digress. Homer had a check-up at his cardiologist and I had my monthly OB appointment so I figured it was a good day for an occasional day.

Of course I was running late because I can't move so fast these days and it takes me about 10 minutes to put on my granny stockings for my varicose veins (pregnancy rocks!). As I am coming down the stairs I notice a little brown, smelly present for me on the landing, compliments of Homer. It's something we refer to in our house as "a little something to remember him by." So I clean up his little present, spray the carpet to get the stain out and try to move Homer along. By this time it's about 8:30 and he has a 9AM appointment and it's foggy out which means parking lot on the freeway in California. I knew I had to take him for a walk before we got in the car, so I get him all geared up and drag him about 2 blocks, Homer wanted nothing to do with a walk and was more interested in his ride. I threw him in the front seat of my car, where he always sits and tell him how late we are going to be and head out. The freeway is about a mile from our house, keep this in mind as I get to the meat of my story. They just put in metering lights at all of our freeway entrances which is a royal pain in the you know what. So imagine me, over 7 months pregnant, merging into bumper to bumper traffic in the fog. As I am trying to get over I get hit with a smell. At first I thought Homer just passed gas, he's been pretty gassy lately, especially since his surgery and since he's been on his antibiotics for it. But this smell is much, much worse then any poof of air that could ever escape him. So there is my dog, on the front seat of my car, less than 2 miles from my house, less then 10 minutes since his walk/drag, squatting on the front seat of my company car...POOPING! I flipped out, I had no idea how I was going to clean it, what to do, it was all over his leash, ended up all over him, thank you stop and go traffic, and I was gagging from the smell. Not to mention what my front seat looked like! I drove the rest of the way with the windows down, mind you it was in the low 40s yesterday morning. I finally realized about 3/4 of the way there that I had poop bags attached to his leash, which yes is covered in poop, so while extracting one from his leash (in stop and go traffic again) I stuck my finger in a big chunk, yes I know this is getting gross. I finally, in traffic am able to bag up most of the little treasure he has left and then I bag it again just to make sure the scent is nice and sealed up. I get to the vet 40 minutes later, 10 minutes late and walk in with both a dog and a leash covered in poop, virtually in tears. They let me use a sink to at least clean up the leash and Homer a bit. Imagine a 7 month pregnant lady paper towel washing her dog in the middle of the lobby of a Cancer/Cardiology Vet Clinic. Yes, and on top of it my acid reflux was hitting me with fury.

The good news is, Homer's heart checked out perfectly, although we are now ex-friends. His heart actually shrunk more than it already had in October so his cardiologist was extremely happy with the results. The medicine he's on just got FDA approval so they don't have a lot of long term success stories or expectations so he was really happy with his progress. I of course was so flustered that I couldn't remember what 10 medications he was on. The vet also took him off of his antibiotics after hearing my story about our car ride and looking at his incision. We drove home, Homer on the floor so as not to get near the poop stained seat and further spread the love all over my car. I got home and spent about an hour scrubbing the front seat with Woolite Carpet and Upholstery Cleaner - good stuff by the way. Fortunately, it looks like I got all the poop stains out. Homer, on the other hand had to have another towel bath since I don't think he can have a bath until his stitches come out, of course in a week.

My day got better from there. I had my monthly doctor appointment and everything is going as it should. All my aches and pains are normal, the baby is growing and I am definitely gaining weight (like I should be). I now start going every 2 weeks until I am 35 weeks and then I go every week. Marc also set up my Wii last night and I played that for about an hour. So much FUN! I was running around the living room playing tennis with my left hand holding the controller and holding my belly with my right hand. Marc wants me to stick to bowling until the baby comes. :) I can't wait to go home and play again tonight!

Kickin It Old Skool Part Deux

Today we kicked it old skool shenanigan style. So I have to preface today's shenanigans with a little background. I've wanted a Wii for some time now and I finally convinced Marc that I wanted it for my Hanukkah/birthday present. Normally I would ask for some True Religion jeans or something but since I don't fit into much these days other than sweats I figured this was a good time to ask for the Wii, that and it's a big birthday - the big 3-0. So Marc agreed to getting me the Wii. Yesterday we were at Wal-Mart and they had some but we hadn't done much research so we didn't buy it. BIG mistake! Then we headed to Costco later in the day because they had a bundle pack but alas, they were sold out, go figure, the day after Black Friday. While we were there Marc found a "smokin' deal" on a Blu-Ray DVD player ($189 for a Sony - anyone who is in the market) and he somehow convinced me that it should be his Hanukkah present. I then negotiated the Wii plus the Wii Fit for my combo present. After our negotiation was over we were looking at watches and I found a Movado watch that I loved (also a "smokin' deal") that I convinced him would be perfect for a push present. So we went to pay for everything and we come to find out the watch on display was all that they had, so we returned it (I didn't want my push present to be something everyone tried on). So that is how today's shenanigans began, I guess they really started last night. :)

Sunday, 8:00AM - we wake up, take care of Homer, shower and head to McD's for some breakfast burritos that I was craving, we were out the door by 9:30. While at McD's we discuss whether we should go back to our Costco to get the watch because after doing some research we realize it's a really good deal. We decide to go to the Danville Costco because we want to go there anyway for the Wii, so we head up there and end up finding a different Movado watch that we like more. We buy the watch but naturally they are out of the Wii. I will also add that I peed at every single stop we made with the exception of Wal-Mart and Toys R Us. Yes, pregnancy and shenanigans are fun! After we leave Danville Costco we decide to go to the Concord Costco, we drive up there to see if they have Wii and take a peak at the Movado watches again. Good thing we didn't like them as much as the one we bought. No Wii. From the parking lot we look up all the Costcos in the area on our GPS system and call around, no Wiis. Do you see a theme here?

After giving up on Costcos we head to the Pleasant Hill Best Buy and they have Wiis, 4 or 5 of them, but do we buy them? Noooo! Don't ask me why, but Marc convinced me that we shouldn't buy it because there wasn't really a deal. So we get in the car, me pouting, and head back to the Dublin area. We stop at Daphne's for some lunch. Then we go into Loehmann's so Marc can look around. Then back in the car and on the way to Dublin Best Buy. At which point we realize Circuit City is going out of business and they might have some and for some percentage off. Yeah, we realize this as does everyone else and their mother and being out of luck at Circuit City. We stop at Babies R Us to check out some wall decorations for the baby's room, get her some more Giants outfits. Then to our Best Buy to check to see if they have Wiis, nope they don't. Then to Wal-Mart because remember they had them yesterday. Nope all sold out. So now I am getting really sad! I call the Pleasant Hill Best Buy to see if they still have some, nope sold the last one 10 minutes ago. I call Target and they don't even transfer me to the electronics department, the operator tells me if I am calling about a Wii or a Wii Fit, they are all out of them. So then I call Toys R Us and they have Wiis! So we jet to TRU and I get in line and I get the second to last Wii and third to last Wii Fit! Yippee! I was like a kid in a toy store, literally, I ran to the electronics department and they couldn't move fast enough for me there! Waiting in line seemed to take forever but I finally got up there and Marc got me my Wii and Wii Fit. Then to the mall to return our back massager that broke. We checked out a few other stores, naturally. Then a coffee for some energy, I was fading fast. Then to Sports Chalet to return some of yesterday's shenanigans. Then back to Best Buy to buy their special extra Wii controlleer that came with 9 extra games for $10 more and an extra nunchuck. Then to Blockbuster for our first Blu-Ray DVD. For those of you counting, that was 15 stops. Shenanigans!

Whew! I am exhausted. Shenanigans are hard work!

And that my friends is what they call Zimmerman Shenanigans!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wow, I can't believe it's already Thanksgiving, or more accurately that Thanksgiving is already behind us for the year. It's funny how June-July-August went so slowly and now the fall/winter seems to be flying by. I remember in my first trimester saying that once I got to the holidays the time would fly by and it would be time for the baby to be here. And here we are, at the holidays and time sure seems to be flying by!

Marc's been off all week so I have been dragging him to Day Care centers to try to lock down day care for when I go back to work in June and I am happy to report we have secured a spot at a day care place about a mile from our house and about a mile from my office. We are both pretty excited about it, they are very nice there, told me whenever I want to come at lunch and spend time with the baby I am welcome to, and the infant teacher's son had clubfoot so she is familiar with the treatment. We saw 2 other places and almost right away we knew that this was the place for her so I feel much better about leaving her when I go back to work, though I am sure I will be crazy the first day I have to leave her. So now all we need to do is find and orthopedic doctor and we are all set to go. My parents drove up with all of my big baby stuff on Tuesday, they got here early evening, we unloaded the car and the Marc and ran to get Homer who had his tumor removed from his tooshie that day. After we got home we had a good laugh at the drugged up Homer had some dinner and then called it a night. Homer did well during surgery, they just doped him up because they didn't want to intubate him and put the stress on his heart. Unfortunately he had a rough night, the rest of us did as well, I think he woke up from his anesthesia around midnight and was confused and barked for an hour. But he seems to be doing really well now.

Wednesday I worked in the morning from home and then we ran some errands. We ended up at Babies R Us with my parents so my mom could buy us our baby shower gift for next week and not have to lug it up from San Diego. She also saw the baby's closet and decided she needed some more newborn outfits so she got us a few outfits. My dad also picked out a ton of outfits for her, I've never seen him so interested in clothing! It was very cute and of course this little girl made out like a bandit. I didn't get a darn thing but that's ok because she got a ton and that's all that counts, plus her clothes are little and cute and mine are all big and prego still! My mom bought me a new maternity shirt that had buttons on it and I was already popping the buttons, it was quite sad since it was the day before Thanksgiving!

We had Thanksgiving at our house this year. I cooked turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing, apple pie, basically the works. Jill and Edwin came down for dinner. I've decided turkeys are pretty gross and was very happy not to be in my first trimester for the preparation of the turkey. It's hard to believe that this is our last Thanksgiving without a little one, next year she might even be eating table food.

So things I am thankful for this year:

• My husband - who even though he constantly makes fun of my ever increasing size, I know loves me and I know loves our soon-to-be daughter even more (he keeps asking if she can just be born yet)
• Our Daughter-to-Be who I can only hope will be a healthy, strong, happy little girl and who her daddy and I can't wait to cradle in our arms
• Of course my Homer, whom I still can't believe is still alive but is doing better than ever and gets sweeter and sweeter as the days go by
• Our family who has been such a great support system during the difficult times of our pregnancy and who continues to be overly excited about the upcoming birth of our daughter
• Our house and that we can still pay the mortgage while so many people in the country suffer
• Our jobs which seem stable at the current time and allow us to be challenged
• Our life, which while it doesn't always seem fair or seems like it gives us more bumps in the road than other people experience is ours and makes us who we are

So without further adieu, pictures from the evening.

The lovely table setting that Marc did:

A close up of a place setting, I was really excited to use my china for the first time ever:

Homer likes having company - it's fun!:

Jill and the Mort checking out his "Mort" Bjorn:

Dinner is served!

Marc and I, just cause we haven't had one of us taken in a while, I wore black because I thought it would be slimming but clearly I am beyond that point.:

Open, Open, Open - Mort really wants some turkey!

Homer had food coma too after his serving of turkey:

It's Belly Time!

As promised here's the latest picture of my belly, it was taken today at 29 weeks 2 days. As you can see from my expanding belly, she's baking quite nicely in there. We ran into some friends we saw last week at the Cal game today and they said I look like I got bigger since last Sunday when we saw them last. I guess it's true that you do massive bulk up in the last trimester. I go a week from Monday for my 7 month check up, then I start going every other week until mid-January and then I go every week until her arrival! I can hardly believe it's almost time to finally meet our little girl, we are getting very excited! Other than fighting a cold (yes, again - I've now had one each trimester), I am feeling pretty good.

In other news, today we went to the Cal-Stanford game at Cal with my work. Every year they do the Healthy Choice Challenge at major college rivalries so Marc and I got to tag along with the group. They always do the Cal-Stanford game in NorCal and we take people from Safeway to the game. It was a fun time and made me reminisce about my times at Indiana, though there's nothing like being 7 months pregnant at a college football game to make you realize you are now a million miles away from that carefree life. It was a good time though and definitely brought back a lot of great memories of hitting up sporting events in college, mostly basketball, since when I was at IU, our football team could hardly be classified as a college football team. It was a long day, especially for a pregnant girl, we started at 8:15 when we loaded buses at Safeway and headed to Berkeley for a tailgate that went until about noon, then over to the game for a 12:30 kickoff, then sitting in bleacher seats for over 3 hours and home around 5. Fortunately they gave us all stadium chairs but I was getting a bit uncomfortable by the end of the game because my precious little girl was stretching most of the game and was not making life comfortable for her mommy, of course now, she's comfortable and sleeping! I won't even get started on the port-a-potties which I have always made a point of not using but again, being 7 months pregnant makes you do things you never thought you would do! It was a fun day, you have to love college sports!

Here's some pictures of the day - the band and cheerleaders came to our tailgate area for a little performance. I'm kind of far away because I am not so quick these days.

Cal football team taking the field - we were up kind of high but you get the idea:

The Healthy Choice Challenge - the guy had to throw the football from 25 yards and if he made it through the hole he won $500,000. He missed his first try but got the second try and won free grocerys for a year (not a bad deal considering price increases on food these days!)

Fastest Procurement Ever!

Most of you who know Marc know that he doesn't make purchases all that quickly. Well, we've been looking for gliders/rockers for the baby's room for some time now and we just haven't had any luck finding anything we liked - too nurseryish, too expensive, not comfortable, just no luck at all. We wanted to get something that was comfortable, since we'll be spending many late night/early mornings in the chair feeding her, but also something that we can use in the living room after we are past the baby phase of our lives. We searchd the baby stores and Internet and no luck. So a few weeks ago, we went to Macy's to see if they had any leather arm chair rockers. We walked in, told the lady what we were looking for and bam, we bought the first chair she showed us. (It helped it was on a killer sale.) Yes, I kid you not, it literally happened like that. I sat in the chair (mostly because my back was killing me) and Marc said "this is a done." I was like "Don't you want to sit in it before they run the card?" He sat in it and there we were, chair procured. We had blocked like 3 hours off that afternoon to shop for it so since we bought it in like 15 minutes we got into a few shenanigans afterwards. Right now we have it in the living room and are fighting over who gets to sit on it each night. When we move it to the nursery we plan on either putting a slip cover on it to protect it or putting a blanket on it to make it a little more "nurseryish" but it certainly will be comfortable during those 2AM feedings!

What a Difference

I've been on iron supplements for a little over a week now and oh my gosh, what a difference they make! I feel like a human again. I can function at work, I have energy, it's amazing. I even cleaned out all of my kitchen cabinets, freezer, refrigerator, reorganized them all on Saturday and then cleaned the tile (no chemicals involved - no worries). I went major prego on my kitchen! My Doctor is my new hero. We went shopping in the city yesterday and walked around all over Union Square in San Francisco and other than having a sore back I felt great!

Other than that I've been feeling great, my vericose veins have also been getting better thanks to my granny stockings! Yes between, my granny stockings, Raisin Bran, and PlumSmart, I'm feeling pretty hot these days. Pregnancy is a beautiful thing. Just when I think I can't get any bigger, I expand some more. And I have a lot more expanding to do, 2 1/2 more months, lots of growing going on. I can tell she's getting cramped too because I rarely get solid kicks anymore, I get more of the wiggling and stretching these days.

Look out for a new belly picture coming this weekend to a blog near you!

In Love (well more in love)

Today we had our recheck at the perinatal clinic. I must admit I was very nervous to go today, especially since a mere six weeks ago, it was not the most pleasant experience. I had nightmares last night that they would find something else wrong with our daughter. But as my doctor told me last week, "she didn't grow another head," so I was trying, very unsuccessfully to relax. I was still a wreck! We got to our appointment and we had a very cool ultrasound technician, she was young and very friendly. I was so tense but she started off my just looking at my anatomy, cervix, placenta, etc and the moved to the baby's anatomy, focusing on her face. She was in great position for profiles so she spent a lot of time on her face, even commenting on how beautiful her profile was. I must say, I can agree with that but I am a little biased. The tech even switched to 4D real time ultrasound which was so cool, we got some great pictures of her face. And since she's at that phase where fat is depositing, she's looking less alien and more human these days. She has the sweetest little cheeks and cutest little Buddah belly. I can't wait to pinch and kiss her cheeks and zerbert her little belly! After about a half hour or so of pictures and looking at her face and measuring her body she went to the get the doctor. We requested the same Doctor who did my amnio six weeks ago and also diagnosed her, we're ones for continuity with our doctors. It's just nice to see the same doctor multiple times and not get different theories. (Just to note: to date they still don't know why she has clubfeet, I guess it will remain one of life's great mysteries for us. I'm ok with that now that I know she's ok.)

So now for the important stuff. She was very active, as usual, so we had a hard time seeing her feet but we got a picture of each foot and they are definitely clubfeet. The doctor couldn't see her pinkies because she had her hand closed (except for her ginormous thumb - see pictures below - it's really an abnormally long thumb. She must take after me with my very long fingers). But other than her feet he said everything else looks fantastic on her and she's grown perfectly. Her heart appears perfect and her limbs and head and everything are growing as they would hope. They estimate her weight to be at about 2 pounds 1 ounce which is where she should be for just over 27 weeks. He's giving us a two referals for Doctors to treat her clubfeet and I've also been doing some research and have a Doctor who I want to interview so we have three options. We go back at 36 weeks for one more look and at that point he will give us an idea of when he thinks I will deliver and hopefully about how big she will be. So the day before my 30th birthday we get to see her one last time before we meet our little princess in person about four weeks later.

I feel much better after today's appointment. I knew she was growing (based on my appointment last week) but it was nice to hear his positive reassurance she was all good after our last appointment. And most importantly we are totally in love with the little cutie.

I also got my glucose test results back today and I passed so no gestational diabetes - thank goodness, we didn't need to worry about that as well. I did come back anemic, which would explain why I have been so darn tired (I fell asleep while fast forwarding through a DVR commercial the other night and lost remote privelages) so I have to take some Iron supplements in addition to my prenatals. They said it was totally normal for pregnancy and my Doctor wasn't concerned. We also interviewed a peditrician today whom we both liked. She's right down the street from us, on a nice day I can even walk down to her office, and since we both liked her and she's so close we will go with her. She's pretty young and lives in Dublin also, has 2 kids so we feel comfortable taking our daughter to her.

So now here's what you've been really waiting for, some of the photos from today (you can click on them to enlarge them - they're small because I had to change them to jpegs in Photoshop):

Her classic profile picture:

Thumbs up - notice the freakishly large thumb:

One of my favorites of the day - her face is so sweet - I think she's gonna look like her daddy

Her sweet face again with her mouth open:

If she's giving us the "Loser" sign in utero, what's she going to do when she's a teenager?

And just because I was flipping through all of my ultrasound pictures - It's so hard to believe she went from this (remember the oval in the right corner?):

To this, in 20 weeks - truly an amazing miracle:

Favorite Time of The Day

Lately I have been trying to figure out why I have been having such a darn hard time getting out of bed in the morning. Homer's been sleeping down in the kitchen for the last few weeks and it is going beautifully, he gets to play, eat, sleep, drink, pee to his heart's content and Marc and I get to sleep through the night while we still can (other than my 3 bathroom runs a night). It hasn't been too cold in the mornings yet either so I that can't be the cause. So I can't for the life of me figure out why I can't get out of bed.

This morning it occurred to me why I can't get bring myself to get up, it's my favorite time of the day. Early in the morning right after the alarm goes off the baby starts to move around as I wake up. This morning my alarm went off at 5:30 and I had every intention of getting up then and doing some work before my 4 hour off-site meeting but as I was waking up, I just couldn't get myself up because if I got up the baby would stop moving around. I love the times when she is moving around, it's like our own secret language to each other. So I just laid there and said to heck with work and enjoyed the half hour while she kicked, squirmed, and got back into her comfortable position. I might have to work a little later tonight but I have no regrets because I got to enjoy my favorite time of the day (with my favorite girl)!

Update

Just a quick update on where we are at on everything. Yesterday Marc and I went to our hospital tour. Nothing too fancy they just walk you through Labor & Delivery and the process that you go through when you have a baby at the hospital we're delivering at. We saw the Labor and Delivery room (which are really nice) and then they took us to see a postpartum room (which are very small but private which is a good thing!) as well as the nursery. While we were there a baby was born so they played the Brahms Lullaby throughout the whole hospital. Everytime a baby is born they play it so the hospital is reminded of happy things. It gave me goosebumps. When we got upstairs we actually saw the baby being bathed in the nursery which was cool. It made the whole baby coming thing seem very real all of a sudden!

Friday I had my 6 month checkup and everything is going fine. Her heartbeat was normal and as my Doctor said, I have definitely sprouted since the last time I saw her. In previous months I was measuring about a week behind where I actually was in the pregnancy and this month I measured at week ahead of where I am in the pregnancy. So she essentially grew 6 weeks work in 4 weeks and I am now measuring at 27 weeks - such a relieft because I have been so worried she is too small. My Doctor also told us we need to find a peditrician so we are interviewing one on Friday, it all is getting very real, I had a bit of a freak out when she talked to me about preterm labor, all I could think is "I have no where for her to sleep if she's born!" Hopefully our furniture will arrive soon and I will feel much better!

That's the update from here. Friday we go back for an ultrasound with the perinatologist and then next Saturday we take our Baby Basics class. We'll finally learn how to change a diaper and swaddle a baby!

Holy Schmoley!

I just looked at our blog and saw the ticker and realized we are now under 100 days until Baby Girl is here! Holy Schmoley! I just had a bit of a freak out! Time seems to be going to quickly now!

San Diego Baby Shower

Friday night, I headed down to San Diego for my first baby shower! I was super excited. My mom’s girlfriends plus my sister-in-law, Lauren hosted it for me. Friday night I got into town and my mom and my Aunt Shelley picked me up from the airport. My Aunt flew in from Florida for the weekend so she could attend the shower. The spoiling began Friday night – not me being spoiled but the baby (as it should be)! My parents went to the Baby Gap Outlet a few weekends ago and went a little crazy with super cute outfits. My Aunt also brought her a cute outfit. This is going to be one well dressed baby girl, that’s for sure!

Saturday morning I went for a quick pedicure before my shower, I needed a bit of a clean up even though it’s getting harder and harder to see my toes! The pedi felt great and after it was over we headed to my shower. The girls held it at Gordon Biersch, one of my favorites. Kind of ironic since it was a baby shower and Gordon Biersch is known for beer but I just love that place. They decorated the room so cute. They did it in pink and green (also the baby’s room colors) and the centerpieces were books, which I had never seen. It was so cute! I was very happy to get so many books because I want our daughter to have a ton of books and read rather than watch a lot of TV. The party favors were M&Ms (my favorite) in different shades of pink. Baby Girl got tons of great presents. She made out with a ton of Sleep Sacks, so she will be super cozy at bed time, and they will be perfect over her casts and braces. We also got a lot of gear and fun toys. Her Nana bought her some of her bedding and Homer even got her a little gift – a basket full of goodies. He’s such a thoughtful dog and big brother! We got some cute outfits and some blankets. There were about 32 women there, including my friend Shannon who had her daughter, Sophie, about 2 weeks ago. Sophie was 6 weeks early so I was very touched that Shannon came to my shower when she could have been at the hospital spending time with her new daughter. Marc, Baby Girl and I are so very lucky to have such generous, loving people in our life. It was a great day! Here are some pictures from the day!

Her loot:

Her bedding - a gift from her Nana! This was the first time I saw it in real life (I picked it out online) and I was more than pleased!

The cake - it was super yum!

One of the outfits Homer got for his sister, it was wrapped up with some onesies, books, and toys in his basket of goodies to her!

It says "Grandma Spoils Me" - Very appropriate! I still can't believe a person fits in that, and that's a 6-12 month onesie!

The beautiful quilt my parent's neighbor, Sharon, made for our daughter. It rivals anything you would see in a boutique.

The gift from the Hostesses - our Exersaucer!

My Aunt and I:

2 of the pregnant ladies (Lori wasn't feeling well so she left earlier) - Dayna's son is due 10 weeks before our daughter and Lori's baby is due 8 weeks before our daughter. Lots of friends for her!

After the shower we went to dinner with my brother and Lauren - here's a picture of Ed, Lauren and I:

It was a great weekend. Sunday I headed home with two big suitcases full of stuff. And that was just blankets, clothes and soft stuff. My parents have to bring the rest of the larger stuff up to our house when they drive up for Thanksgiving. As fun as a weekend as it was, Baby Girl and I were very happy to get home to our boys - Daddy and Homer. We spent part of the afternoon putting stuff away in Baby Girl's room and then we got to meet Ryan. Our neighbors, Alex and Shari's new son. He was born last Wednesday and he is quite the cutie. Before we know it he and our daughter will be outside playing!