39 Weeks

Can you believe we're here already? The past nine months went by quickly. Now it seems these last couple of weeks are slow. I'm so ready for Southern to get here and to not be pregnant anymore!

Today at the doctor's we asked about how big this baby is and will get. The doctor said babies typically gain about 1/4 to 1/2 a pound per week during this last month. So since he was 8 lbs a week and a half ago at my last sonogram, he's likely around 8.5 right now. She doesn't want wait too long and let him get over 9 lbs. But she's not worried now, and she said that I had a good pelvis. What a compliment!! ;)

So my due date is still March 30th - a week from today! I have my final appointment with her then. If I don't have the baby before then, we will induce labor. She already set up an appointment for me at the hospital for Tuesday the 31st just in case. So either way, Dustin and I will be parents in about a week!!! Wow!!! Mark your calendars, everyone!

I'm at 2 cm right now and 70% thinned. The baby's still in the correct position, and the doctor seems confident that everything will go smoothly. Hopefully he will take the initiative and come out on his own within the week, but if not at least we're not looking at a c-section. You never know what will happen, but the outlook for us is good.

Dustin and I plan on calling our parents and siblings as soon as we've headed over to the hospital either when I'm in labor or on Tuesday to induce. After we've had the baby, I will be in the hospital for 1-2 days so we'll let everyone else know about it then (after things have settled down more). Most likely, we'll just call our grandparents and have them spread the word. The visiting hours are 10am-2pm and 4pm-8pm. And of course, those who can't make it, don't worry. We'll see y'all at Easter in a couple weeks.

Here are the directions to the hospital:

From Yoakum - Take 183 through Gonzales to I-10. Head west toward San Antonio. Take exit #607 for Hwy 46 (also the TLU exit). Or you can take 90 through Seguin to Hwy 46. Head north on 46 to New Braunfels. You'll pass under I-35 and hit some stop lights. After you cross the big bridge, you'll see Sonic, Chicken Express, Wells Fargo, etc. At that stoplight (Rudy's BBQ will be on your right), you'll want to get into one of the left two lanes. You'll take a left onto Common. Follow that road down to the next stop light. You'll take a right onto Union. Follow that road til you see the hospital. There's parking to your left, and the entrance will be on your right. Once inside, take Elevator #2 or #3 to the 2nd floor and walk to the double doors ahead and ring the door bell. No one under 14 years of age will be admitted. Just let them know your name and that you're there to see us and they'll let you know our room number.

From San Antonio - Take I-35 toward Austin. Take Exit #189 for Hwy 46. You'll pass in front of Kohl's. At the stoplight, take a left onto 46. After you cross the big bridge, you'll see Sonic, Chicken Express, Wells Fargo, etc. At that stoplight (Rudy's BBQ will be on your right), you'll want to get into one of the left two lanes. You'll take a left onto Common. Follow that road down to the next stop light. You'll take a right onto Union. Follow that road til you see the hospital. There's parking to your left, and the entrance will be on your right. Once inside, take Elevator #2 or #3 to the 2nd floor and walk to the double doors ahead and ring the door bell. No one under 14 years of age will be admitted. Just let them know your name and that you're there to see us and they'll let you know our room number.

If that's a little confusing, just visit this link - http://www.christussantarosa.org/maps_main.html# You can get driving directions specifically from your starting point. See y'all soon!

38 Weeks

We had another appointment with the doctor yesterday. My tummy measured 43 cm, and the baby's heartbeat was 142. I'm 1-2 cm dilated and my cervix is 65% thinned. So it'll be awhile still. Probably close to my due date. Bummer... I'm totally ready for him to get here! We'll be going back on Monday and will hopefully have better news then.

On Thursday, we have an appointment at New Braunfels Pediatrics to meet with Southern's possible future pediatrician. My friend Tasia takes her son there, and I've heard a lot of good things about that office so it should be a good fit for us.

So it looks like we still have awhile to get things in order. We're focusing on getting my car taken care of, finishing more projects around the house, and getting as much of Dustin's grad school work out of the way as we can before he gets here.

37 Weeks: Sonogram

Today was sonogram day. We hadn't had much luck in the past getting a good shot of Southern's face, but we did this time. They don't normally do sonograms this late into the pregnancy, but my doctor wanted to see just how big Southern is getting. The sonogram tech said that he's already up to 8 pounds. Yikes! She said it looks like he's about a week away... that doesn't necessarily mean I'll go into labor then, but that's what she said after measuring all of his different body parts and looking at the statistics. I'll meet with the doctor about the results next week. Looks like Josh has a pretty good eye! (He predicted yesterday that I looked like I had about a week left.)

Here's Mr Cutie (or should we say Dustin Jr?!? He looks just like daddy.)

37 Weeks

Yesterday was eventful. Dustin and I started the day off with a visit to my doctor. I've gained 4 pounds since last month which certainly explains why my belly is sooo huge. The doctor's worried that Southern may be getting too big (she wants him to be under 9 pounds) so we have to go back in this Thursday for a sonogram to check his weight. Then I had a pelvic exam... fun, fun. I'm already a centimeter dilated and my cervix is 60% thinned. While we were there, we also got to listen to his heartbeat - they had me hooked up to a fetal heart monitor for about 15 minutes. It was so amazing... Dustin was sitting in the room with me reading our Dr Spock baby book like a good daddy. (I finished the book last week, and, quite handily, it now has a few important pages marked with post-its and has certain key points highlighted.) So I was laying out on a recliner, listening to our baby's heart beating with my husband at my side. What could get better?

Following our doctor's appointment, we ran a few errands. We mailed two packages at the post office, dropped a deposit off at the bank, and made an appointment with Southern's future pediatrician. We're going back there next Thursday for a prenatal meeting. Then we headed to San Marcos to get my car windows re-tinted at Mother's. We were there for hours since it took them so long to scrape off the old tint. It was turning purple and was so bubbly in spots that I couldn't see out of a couple of windows. So I'm excited to get that done. We also requested a new keyless entry system since mine stopped working a few years ago. I kept thinking about how exciting it would be to always manually open my car while juggling Southern, his diaper bag, my purse, etc. all the time. ;) They didn't have anyone else's car to work on that day so the owner said he'd go ahead and throw an alarm in with it since that would make more work for his guys than just a keyless entry. Yay!

The new tint looks good and the alarm doesn't have one of those annoying high-pitched beeps when you disarm it. We have to go back for the rear glass to get done though. They have to take it off and leave it out in the sun for hours so they can get the old tint off. They can't just scrape it off with a razor like the other windows because of the defrost strips running on the back window. Unfortunately, after they worked on my car, one of my backseat windows no longer rolls down and the light keeps coming on saying that my hatch is open when it's really not. So I'm hoping they'll fix that when we go back for the rear window. If not, we'll have to take it to the Honda place to get it fixed and somehow have Mother's billed for the repair since they're the ones that caused it. And hopefully we'll get all this taken care of before Southern's arrival!

36 Weeks

We took some maternity pictures with Cindy Edwards last week. She's the lady that did our wedding. Check 'em out:

*photos by CE Something Different

35 Weeks

We had another fun baby shower this past weekend. My aunts threw it for me in Yoakum at a pretty little bed and breakfast. I'm happy that so many people were able to come. Here are some pictures from Sunday:

We have almost everything we need for Southern now. I got his crib all set up and ready to go thanks to my mom (who bought us the crib), my dad (who bought the bedding), and my grandparents (who bought the mattress). Yay! :)

34 Weeks

This weekend was both good and bad. I'll start with the bad news...

Starting on Thursday, I noticed that my tummy below my belly button was starting to itch a little. The same thing was happening on Friday. By Saturday, I asked Dustin to look at it (since I haven't been able to see it for some time now) to see if it was getting red from all the scratching. He said yes and to try not to scratch. Easier said than done. I began putting lotion on it a few times a day. By Sunday it was worse, and then on Monday Dustin said he could see red bumps there. So I looked online to see what was going on.

It looks like I have PUPPP - "Approximately one percent of women will develop an itchy, raised rash in the last part of their pregnancy called PUPPP (pruritic uticarial pupules and placques of pregnancy). The cause of PUPPP is unknown. It appears to run in families and, oddly, 70 percent of women with PUPPP give birth to boys. This correlation has given rise to the hypothesis that male fetal DNA acts as a skin irritant. PUPPP usually develops during a first pregnancy and appears first on the abdomen near the belly button and then spreads to the thighs and extremities as the small, red wheals of the rash gradually merge to create larger wheals. There is no cure for PUPPP, but the irritation usually can be relieved with cortisone creams, high strength steroid creams, or oral steroids if the itching is severe. The rash and the itching usually resolve a couple of days to a week after delivery."

So I called my doctor and told her about it. She confirmed the PUPPP diagnosis, and faxed a percription for me to pick up at the pharmacy. I took one of the pills last night, and as soon as it started working, I was not itching at all! Unfortunately, it also put me right to sleep. So I'll probably only be able to take them before bedtime. Until then, I'm itching like crazy and trying not to scratch and thinking just how lucky I am to be a part of the 1% of pregnant women affected by this. ;)

Now on to the good news - Dustin had off the entire three-day weekend, and we had absolutely no plans! It was wonderful!! We went driving around, walked around at Landa Park, hung around the house, ate out a couple times, and got some work done on the house. We now have a ceiling fan up in our bedroom, the white storage cabinet for our sheets and towels is built and in our bathroom, and Southern's curtain is hanging up in his room. We also moved the small white storage cabinet that was in our bathroom to Southern's bathroom and added another towel rack. And Dustin put up a new shower head in our bathroom. It's one of those fancy ones that has two heads and feels like you're standing in the rain... he just loves it.