36 weeks!

You too, could look this awesome in your sweats and just-out-of-the-shower hair  if you spend 7 wks on bed rest!

36 weeks and off of bed rest!! Hooray! 

Rewinding a bit, at my 32 week doctor visit, it turned out that my contractions have been productive after all (so not entirely Braxton-Hicks contractions, but real "let's get ready for labor!" contractions). Since I don't think everyone wants the details, suffice to say that if there are 20 steps of 3 different things that have to happen before or during labor, I was at step 5. This is normal if you're around 36 weeks pregnant... It is not normal at 32 weeks. Bed rest became a little more important at that point. 

Today I had my 36 week appointment, and I'm still at step 5, with 1 thing going back from 2 to 0 since a month ago, and one thing going from 3 to 5. BUT-- this is normal for 36 weeks. I was so excited that I would have hugged the doctor if were on those terms, but I didn't think he would be ok with that. After 7 weeks of bed rest, I'm now off of bed rest, off of the medication, and I have the "ok" to start resuming activity as if this were a totally normal pregnancy-- because now it is! 

Juniper turned 2

Juniper turned 2, so for her birthday, I made her a sugar free carrot & oatmeal cake with peanut butter/cinnamon/honey in the filling. She also got a trip to the dog park, a new rope toy, and a seat belt to wear in the car so she doesn't go flying on us or the baby if we're in the accident now. Lucky dog.

Ready for X!

X will be term next week, but there's nothing like being at risk for pre-term labor to motivate you to prepare early for baby's arrival. Over the last 2 months, we've fixed our cars, gotten vaccines, finished packing the hospital bag, bought post-partum supplies, finished buying the "must have for the 1st month" baby things off our registries, installed car seats, and started the process to donate X's cord blood. The only things left to do are complete the cord blood donation paperwork, finish stocking the freezer with some meals for post-partum, and get an oil change (that can wait until after X is born, but why not get it out of the way so we don't have to do it after he's born). That's it-- other than that, we're ready, and X can come any time after next Monday! Which means that starting Monday, I'll be drinking teas, going for long walks, and doing pretty much every old wives tale I've heard of to get X to arrive. Because truthfully, I'm really anxious about going past my due date when this baby has a head measuring 2 weeks ahead of the rest of his body. 

Middle name?

One thing we aren't ready for is naming X. We love Xavier, so that's not changing. Our problem is the middle name. We're torn between 2 great names for his middle name. We both feel attached to the names, and we both feel like if we went with one of the names, we would later regret not giving him the other middle name. I'm ready to give him 2 middle names and avoid going without one-- why not? But after naming him Xavier, is it fair to give him 2 middle names on top of that? Plus, Kenneth isn't 100% sold on the idea of having 2 middle names. So, remember when we said we're taking bids on naming rights for his middle name? Well, that's still an option, too, if anyone's interested.