36 WEEKS

We just had our  first weekly check-up!! Lennon and I are both doing great! She has decided to stay head down, and though she does move around quite a bit she'll likely stay head down at this point! Speaking of moving she was being quite a little stinker (again) while Becca was trying to check her heart tones.. she seriously moved from one side of the uterus to the other to try to get away from the doppler! In other news Becca told me that she is likely not going to be a huge baby!! Which considering Eric's size at birth is very reassuring!! We are almost ready , just have a few things left to do!!

How far along? 36weeks
How big is baby? the size of a watermelon!! (my midwife estimated that she's a not even quite 6 lbs yet)
How I'm feeling? anxious
Weight Gain? about 18lbs total.
 How I'm changing? my face is very pregnant (puffy) these days!
Symptoms: aches and pains mostly 

 Highlights from the past few weeks: Lennon being "bad" and running away from Becca while she was trying to check heart tones! ;) that's my child!! 

34 weeks.

We're getting close, extremely close but I still have 6-8 weeks left and I feel like they are going to pass very slowly. Things are starting to come together!!

For starters the nursery is finally (almost) done!! It feels like took forever. We have a few finishing touches left like the crib set and curtains for that will be the closet doors! I'm in love with the room, in fact I might be a little jealous! lol So here's what it looked like before...white, all solid white. Boring, to say the least!                                                                                                                                         

But thanks to some hard work, mostly by Eric and my sister Tessa...it is looking much much better now. I can't wait to put the finishing touches on and post the final results. in the mean time , here's how it looks!

Also this past week we ordered our birth kit (a little late) and a friend let us use borrow her birth pool, we just have to gather a few more supplies and hope that Lennon doesn't want to make her arrival before 37 weeks and we are ready for a home birth!! :) We started out birth classes on Monday and Me and Lennon had an appointment with our midwives on Tuesday. Everything is looking good, I'm still having to keep an eye on my blood sugar but it's been good for the most part, as long as I eat every few hours. Which isn't hard to do, growing a baby makes you hungry.. but I have been having to wake up at night and eat, or else my blood sugar spikes pretty high after I eat breakfast. That's kind of a pain, but totally worth it to insure that both Lennon and I stay healthy. As always, my blood pressure was fantastic, Lennon's heart rate was a strong 160 bpm and she's head down! She also hit quite a growth spurt in the 2 weeks since my last check-up my uterus went from measuring at 31cm (at the last 2 appts) to 35 at this appt, and Becca mentioned while feeling for her position that she had grown quite a bit! I am a little anxious to see how big she is going to be, i've been expecting a big baby this whole pregnancy, and while that is a bit of a fear... i'm starting to think she is going to be average size! We'll see in a few months. 

How far along? 34 weeks (and 4 days)
How big is baby? the size us a butternut squash! :P
How I'm feeling? Pretty good, with the exception of a  few aches and pains. I did have a few days of being "over" being pregnant, but that passed, for now.
Weight Gain? I'm up to about 16lbs total.
 How I'm changing? As on friend I ran into at the store said, I look like i'm ready to pop!!
Symptoms: normal aches and pains. 

 Highlights from the past few weeks: Getting a lot of stuff checked off of my 'to-do/get' list.

and now for the bump pic.. excuse the yoga pants and funny face I was making... it was one of those rough days!! 

    

















Well that's it for now, I have another check-up in 2 weeks and then it's on to weekly check-ups!! EEKKKK!

33 weeks!

So I started this update last week and never got around to finishing it. So we're now on week 33!! YIKES! Time is FLYING Y'ALL! Well it's been a busy, & stressful few weeks. For starters, on Aug 2nd I got call from my mom at 5am letting me know my grandmother was being transported to the hospital, to make a long and emotional story short, she passed away shortly before midnight that same day. It was sudden and completely unexpected and I don't think it has really completely set in yet that she's gone. Probably one of the hardest parts of losing my Mimi, is knowing that she passed before getting to meet Lennon, whenever I shared the news with her, she nearly jumped up out of her chair with excitement! I wish she could have hung around a little longer so that Lennon could have know her, but I guess that's not what the universe had planned. With that said, I should also mention that Lennon got a SLIGHT name change. Despite the fact that Eric HATES the idea of 2 middle names, he knew it was not a battle worth fighting when I brought up giving Lennon a second middle name. So our little 'Sunshine' is going to be named Dena Lennon Ann Vidrine. Ann being my grandmother's middle name, as well as mine. I probably just asking for trouble naming her after several very stubborn,  hardheaded women (my mom & great-grandmother (Dena) and my Mimi (Ann) ) but let's face it, she comes from a long line of hard headed women, she had no chance to begin with! :)

On a happier note last week was one of our baby showers. It was a pretty non-traditional shower , just a get together with friend and family to celebrate Lennon's upcoming arrival. We got a lot of stuff and had a great time! I will say we have some pretty awesome friends and family and Lennon is one lucky little girl to be so loved (and spoiled) already! There's a few pics from the shower, you would think that with 3 photographers there that there would be more, but we have this issue with not taking pics of out own events!! lol

My husband sliding with our niece, he's really a kid at heart!!

 our yummy yummy cakes and cupcakes (seriously, I did not even care about my blood sugar that day!!)

oh and of course, us! :)

(should have taken a pic as soon as we got there before the humidity messed up my hair! , oh well)

Despite being exhausted, the morning after the shower I woke up at 5am and started organizing and washing things like a mad woman. Eric was put to work painting the nursery at 8am when he woke up and now thanks to him and my sister Tessa. the nursery is done! Well, done being painted. We are still waiting on the crib and changing table, we found a glider at a garage sale for $25 which we need to refinish to match the nursery and then put a few finishing touches on every thing! I'll post some pics when it's all done!!

We had a check-up with Becca on Thursday, nothing really new to update though. Lennon's heart rate was 150bpm and she is once again head down (yay for a non-breech baby!!)I was a little worried because when we attempted to do a 3D ultrasound, she was not head down, but I guess she decided to flip back around!

STATS TIME!! 

How far along? 33weeks
How big is baby? The size of a pineapple-ish
How I'm feeling? Bloated and  excited!
Weight Gain? I actually, surprisingly, lost a lb between check-ups. :/ So 12lbs up from the beginning of my pregnancy.
 How I'm changing? Getting “pregnant face” lol
Symptoms: some back pain, thank God for chiropractors.

 Highlights from the past few weeks: Getting an ultrasound ,  though we didn't get any good 3D images like we hoped, we still got to see our sweet girl!

and the bump last week, I wasnt presentable enough today to take a new pic!

30 weeks-3/4 baked!!

Well, I'm now 30 weeks, but other than that there is really nothing new. We had a check up today. Lennon is still head down (woohoo!!) and measuring perfectly! As far as things with me, I'm doing fairly well. My glucose test results were okay but not super duper great, so Becca is still having me keep an eye on my blood sugar just to be on the safe side.  We discussed birthing at home as opposed to the birth center, because after some thought and discussion Eric and I decided we would rather stay at home, in our own space, than birth elsewhere & our midwife is completely on board with it. I am so excited that as long as everything continues to go well, in 7-12 weeks we will be welcoming our little girl into the world at home (i'm guessing closer to 12 though). So the next few weeks should go by pretty quickly, we are starting on the nursery this week, my baby shower is next week, and we need to start preparing the house and gathering the list of things we need for a home birth.

Well that's about it so here's the "cliffs-notes" version.

How far along? 30w3d
How big is baby? about 18in & 3.2lbs, about the size of a head of lettuce
How I'm feeling? stressed, tired, and really excited
Weight Gain? gained 2lbs since my last check up (again, right on target!) which puts me at 13lbs total (no to bad)
 How I'm changing? Lennon really "popped out" this week, like for real, im huge!
Symptoms: Some heartburn and aches.Still nothing horrible!
 Highlights from the past few weeks: Discussing home birth with Becca at our checkup, and of course hearing Lennon's HB!

annnnd..the bump!

28 weeks already!?

Welp, i'm in the "home stretch" now, 28 weeks (and 4 days) aka the 3rd (and final) trimester!! Remember last post when I said things were starting to feel very very real? Add about 20 'verys' to that!! We have so much left to do and only about 12 weeks left to do it!! Aside from some clothes and the cloth diaper stash, we don't have anything ready and it's killing me that I can't do anything to prepare! I'm trying to wait until after the baby shower, which will be in a few weeks, before I start 'nesting' and buying more stuff..but I want to have her room and everything ready NOW! So in the mean time, I started working on a baby book/scrapbook for her!

Last week we had another ultrasound to check on her. We hadn't planned on another one unless something needed to be checked on as we approached her arrival, but on Monday I was walking out of my parents house and my foot rolled off the sidewalk. I was able to catch myself and didn't fall on or hit my stomach on anything, but I still called Becca (our midwife) just to let her know what happened. She told me to drink somw juice (to sugar Lennon up a bit ) and count Lennon's movements for 20 mins after I was done with the juice. Of course, my little tap dancer did not want to move when we needed her to (stubborn, just like her mama) so to double check to make sure she was doing okay, Becca ordered an ultrasound ASAP, which was the next morning. By that morning Lennon was moving a ton, but I decided to go to the ultrasound, just to be sure...and to see my baby girl! Everything was fine, as we had suspected it would be and our baby girl had gotten so big since the last time I got to see her! The tech said she was measuring at 28w1d (I was 27w3d at the time), and weighed around 2lbs 10oz.. so according to the ultrasound, she's a big girl already (like we're at all surprised) However, ultrasound measurements can be off by quite a bit, so i'm not too terribly concearned ! Speaking of 'girl', she was also more than happy to let us see that she is for sure a girl... she definitely was not shy like last time!! By far the best parts of the ultrasound was seeing her yawn a few times (seriously, it was adorable) and getting so see what looks to be the cutest and most kissable little lips ever..(I may also be a little bias here! ) The pic on the left is her full face and the pic on the right is the lower half (lips and nose) of her perfect little face that I just can't wait to see!

Also,she has become quite the wild child in utero! She's active most of the day and pretty much all night! The other day I decided to do a "kick count" during a particularly active time. 16 kicks in just 5 mins!

And she def didn't stop after 5 mins, she kicked and punched for probably the next 30 mins! I just love feeling her move, at least for now since she's not quite kicking my ribs yet!

Yesterday I had my 28 week check-up, Lennon is doing great and growing like she should. Becca felt for her position and she is already head down, so i'm hoping she stays that way and her heart rate was in her normal range at 150. She was also being pretty active during the appt (i'm sure partly due to the glucose drink that I had to drink for the glucose test) and as usual was kicking and squirming while the midwives were checking her heart rate, Becca commented that she is already very "social", which i'm hoping is a trait she'll keep after she's born. I'm sure she'll also be hardheaded and very opinionated , just like me and her Nena. Also like I mentioned, I took my glucose tolerance test at my appt yesterday. The drink was pretty nasty, much worse at the end when I had to chug it to get in down in the 5 mins allowed to drink it. I'm really nervous about getting the results back, since PCOS puts you at a much higher risk for gestational diabetes and I know that I haven't been eating as quite good as I should be. I should hopefully find out in the next day or two what the results are.

So that's about it for now. Well except to update my 'stats':

How far along? 28w4d

How big is baby? About the size of a large eggplant.

How I'm feeling? Nervous, excited, anxious.

Weight Gain? Up about 3lbs from my last appt (right on target!) which makes a total of about 11lbs so far.

 How I'm changing? Still just looking pregnant-er by the day.

Symptoms: Heartburn and just starting to get generally uncomfortable. But nothing too bad!

 Highlights from the past few weeks:  Getting to see her during the ultrasound, even though it was not planned or under the best of circumstances, and of course finding out everything was okay! Also, me check up yesterday with Becca, I always look foward to my appointments.

Oh and I almost forgot the bump pic:

now.. that's all! 

26 weeks!

Seriously, where has the time gone!!? I am nearly in my 3rd trimester, my baby shower is scheduled and just over a month away, i'm starting to plan my maternity pics for the end of Aug. or early Sept., and it hit me the other day that we are only 10 weeks away from being able safely be able to deliver at home (our midwife starts delivering at at home/ at the birthing center at 36 weeks)! YIKES! Things are getting REAL! 

Lennon is definitely getting strong, she is very very active and I feel her movements pretty much all day and all night. I swear this baby never sleeps! She seems to be most active in the morning when I first wake up, this is my favorite time of day, I've started staying in bed for 30 mins or so every morning and having some "Momee/Lennon time" .  She has started kicking me back sometimes when if I poke at her, and I can actually see some her big kicks or hiccups. Also, a few weeks ago,at about 24 weeks,  Eric finally got to feel her move once. But it wasn't until the other morning that he really got to see how active she was, we had both just woke up, so of course she was super active and he got to feel her move, kick, and squirm for about 15 mins!

We had another check up and Lennon is still growing good and her heartbeat is still holding at a strong 160bpm! Other than that, there wasn't much else note worthy about the appointment. I go back in a little over 2 weeks and that will be the start of my "every 2 weeks appointments"... again, things are starting to get REALLY REAL!

So now for some stats and pic update!..

How far along? 26w3d
How big is baby? about the size of a head of lettuce.                                                                    
How I'm feeling? Starting to get a little anxious!
Weight Gain? I was 238.5  at my check up , which is up about 2 lbs from last visit and 8-ish lbs from the beginning of my pregnancy.
 How I'm changing? Looking more and more pregnant every day!
Symptoms? Mostly just some aches and pains, but going to the chiropractor def helps!!              
 Highlights from the past few weeks:  having Eric get to feel her kick, and being able to see some of her kicks! I also love that her active times are getting regular, they are my favorite times of the day!

oh and I share this with great hesitance, because well .. no one really needs to see my big bare belly

but for ya'll's viewing pleasure, Lennon kicking the heck out of me a few mornings ago: 

Well that's it for now!
Peace & Love Ya'll!

Quick Update-23weeks

So I realize that I didn't update after our last check-up like I had planned, but there wasn't a whole lot to update. I got there and they were still eating lunch, so I got to enjoy some super yummy pizza as we sat around cutting up & talking about random, non-pregnancy related things for about 30 mins.

Once we made it back into the prenatal room, we discussed weight gain (which was right where it needed to be! YAY!) and results from my labs, which were also all good! Lennon was again stubborn and wanted to kick the doppler and squirm around while Becca was trying to find her heartbeat, which was still a strong 160bpm! Everything looks good, Lennon is growing and healthy and I am doing well. I'm a little nervous about the gestational diabetes test that will be coming up soon, PCOS puts you at a higher risk for GD and I know I haven't been eating as good as I should.

In other news, her movements are getting very strong. There's been  few times that they have actually startled me a little because they were so strong. Also our cloth diaper stash is , for the most part, complete!! I am ridiculously excited to see all the cute fluff on her booty! lol!

Welp, that's about it. Nothing too exciting.... well except the cloth diaper news... but i'm sure most people don't find that as exciting as I do.