Still here

Just finished a tasty breakfast made by my husband, and looking forward to having him home for the day, relaxing, and taking it easy. I think I'm going to go make cookies soon.

Cravings

I haven't had too many weird cravings throughout the pregnancy. Lots of food aversions in the first trimester, but not many cravings, and the ones I've had I can generally redirect to something healthier. But every once in a while I give in and indulge.

Today on my way back from the library I decided to indulge and stop by McDonalds for lunch. I pulled up to the drive through and put in my standard pregnancy craving order, to which the worker replied "Oh, you want the special?"

Yup, McDonalds has once again started their Lenten Filet O Fish + french fries special. This could be very, very bad. :)

I'm begining to believe it might almost be spring. The order form for the county conservation district plants showed up today, and it's warm enough to be comfortable walking around outside without a jacket for several minutes at a time at least. The driveway is nice and slick due to the melting snowpack being covered with a layer of water - I'm hoping that maybe this warm spell will be enough to get it to finally melt all the way down to the gravel.

Right now I want another nap despite the fact that I just got up 2.5 hours ago. When a cold gets into my sinuses it tends to do that - the fuzzy feeling behind my eyes makes me feel sleepy even though it's really just irritation from the cold. I'll have to try to come up with the energy to go out for a walk and enjoy this warm weather before the rain comes.

Today is a grey, dreary day. I think I'm going to spend a little time doing some chores, and then probably spend the rest of the afternoon curled up on the couch with a book. It'll give me a chance to finish up some of those baby books I have from the library and get them returned.

Oh, and...

I got the 10% off coupon from Babies R Us, which reminded me of the fact that I get a one day discount on anything that I put on my registry before the listed due date. So I'm trying to think of anything I want to add to the registry that I might want after the baby comes. For the most part it seems that things that Target or WalMart carry that Babies R Us also carries are cheaper at those sites than they would be at Babies R Us even with the discount, so it's mainly things that I'm likely to have a hard time finding at other stores or would have to pay shipping on to order elsewhere that I'm trying to think of to add to the registry. So if anyone has any suggestions for must have stuff, I'd be happy to hear it.

CDs imported

Yesterday's weekly checkup was good - quick in and out in 10 minutes, heartbeat is strong, we'll see you in a week unless you go into labor first.

I finished importing my CD collection this morning. This had started out as a pregnancy related project as I was trying to get some of my relaxing music imported to have available on my ipod rather than having to bring CDs and CD player to the hospital if I wanted music. But since I'd gotten started, I decided to go ahead and finish the collection. Now I just need to go make some playlists since I can't quite fit EVEYRYTHING I have on the ipod in one go if I want to have my podcasts on there too.

Closing

James and I finally closed on our refinancing yesterday. That has removed a minor source of stress for me - supposedly closings usually only take about a month, but with the interest rates being as low as they had been the mortgage folks were very backed up. Which meant we were rapidly approaching our rate lock expiration date even though it was a 55 day rate lock. The reason it made me nervous is that our rate lock expiration date and my due date were the same day - I was beginning to worry that we'd end up having problems because we couldn't close because I was in labor. The attorney yesterday was joking about sending someone to the hospital to have me sign power of attorney papers between pushes. :) But it's all settled and out of the way now, so I can relax about that.

I've come down with a minor cold in the past few days - fortunately nothing that's making me miserable, unlike my last cold, but just enough chest congestion to let me know I'm definitely not up to full speed. Hopefully my body will fight this off soon!

Updated complete?

Well, I think that brings me up to date on the events of the past couple of weeks. (Several updates today, so please be sure to scroll down and catch up!) If there's anything I promised somone I'd post a picture of that I've forgotten, please feel free to poke me and remind me.

At this point I'm into the "any day now" waiting game - the little one could decide to make his appearance any time within the next 3 weeks. I have a feeling he's more likely to make his arrival after his due date than before, but we'll just have to wait and see.

At this point I'm going to try to pop on for a quick update every day to keep people from wondering if I'm just being quiet or in the hospital. But James can update the blog as well, so I'm hoping to have any important baby updates posted relatively soon after they happen.

Pictures

And some more pictures for you all....

Just to show you how I'm carrying - I'm one of those people who is definitely carrying the classic "boy" way - all out in front. From the back my waistline is thicker than it used to be, but not definitively pregnant.

However, from the side....



Those pictures were taken last weekend at the virtual baby shower - I may be even slightly more out front than I was then. I don't seem to be putting on a lot of weight at this point, but the gradual shifts in the way I'm carrying definitely change the way I look, and are putting new and interesting strains on my back.

Also, here's a shot of the assembled crib. James and his father did a wonderful job with this one!

More visitors, and a shower!

Last weekend my mother came down for a visit. The Struntz ladies had decided that since weather and travel logistics prevented us from getting together for a physical baby shower, they'd throw a virtual baby shower for me! Gifts and cards started showing up a week before, though I was under strict order not to open any of them until I was given permission. Saturday morning my mom came down to visit, and we a conference call set up with everyone who was able to call it. It was so great to hear from everyone, and to know that everyone was thinking of me!

As is to be expected with technology, there was a minor quirk - one of my aunts blocked out of the conference call for some reason. But that didn't stop us! She called my mother, so we had her on my mom's cell phone, mom and me in the room, and everyone else on my cell phone in the conference call. We put both cell phones on speakerphone and had a three way relay that had me cracking up through most of the call!
Thank you to all the wonderful ladies who were able to join me for the virtual shower, and to those who were thinking of me but couldn't get on the phone at the time. And thank you, thank you, thank you for all the lovely gifts!!!

After the shower, Mom stayed for a few more days so we could visit some more, and tackle some projects around the house. In her words, she could either stay home over the February vacations and clean her house, or come help me clean mine. So we were able to tackle some of the last minute things that needed doing around the house - the dresser we'd been given by James' grandfather, that was his as a child, has been cleaned and had the dresser runners rewaxed and is now stocked with baby clothes. The desk that will be serving as a changing table was emptied of papers and filled with diapers and associated items. The fridge was stocked with the ingredients need to get some meals done up ahead of time, and I know have several crockpot meals frozen and ready to go - all we'll need to do is put them in the crock pot and add the needed liquids in the morning to have a nice hot meal ready with minimal work by the end of the day. Floors and bathrooms were given a thorough scrubbing so that post baby, I'll at least know they've been done thoroughly in the not too distant past, and can keep up with just maintenance wipedowns as needed.

There's still more to do - there's always more to do, especially in a house as prone to chaos as mine is. But we made a lot of progress, and most of the things that I really wanted to get squared away have been taken care of. Thank you Mom!!!!!!!!

Visitors

A few weekends ago we got to visit with one side of the future grandparents - James' parents came down to visit for the weekend! It was nice to spend a little bit of time with both of them. Rachel had been hard at work making an absoultely beautiful quilt for her grandson. He'd better be careful - it's supposed to be his quilt, but I'm tempted to claim it for myself it's so pretty!
It's a little hard to tell in this picture, but the fabric that makes up the body of the dragon is a beautiful star field pattern, that makes it look like the dragon is made up of the night sky, and the teeth, claws, horns and spines are all three dimensional. If the little one takes after his parents at all, this is a quilt he will treasure for a very long time.

Time to catch up!

It's been a while since I've posted in here! Time to catch up, for sure. I think I'll break this up into a couple of different posts rather than one giant one.

Update one - this little boy has been very extensively "photographed", even before his birth! The last round of ultrasounds that I posted did not give a clear enough view of what the midwives wanted to see, so we went back in again a week later to try for a clearer view. I was in at 11 am a week ago Friday for the next round of ultrasounds. The good news is that once again I got to see my little boy - he had his hands crossed up in front of his face again. The tech couldn't get any clear images of anything worth printing out pictures of though, because he was all tucked up with his hands in front of his face and even his feet tucked up so she couldn't get a good image of a footprint to give me. That was fine. What was not so fine was that the image of the placenta that was the purpose of the visit was also apparently not clear enough for the midwives satisfaction, so I was back in at 3 pm that day for a second attempt with a different angle of approach.

The good news is that they were finally able to get a good, clear view of the placenta at that point, and the medical professionals involved have decided that there's no trouble signs after all - the placenta position is low, but shouldn't be low enough to cause a problem. *knock wood*

As of my last appointment last Tuesday, all was looking good on the baby front - strong heart beat, good positioning, so now it's just the waiting game to find out when the baby decides he's ready to make his appearance to the world!

Ultrasound, again

Friday I had to go in for a follow up ultrasound - the midwives had wanted to follow up on something they hadn't been able to get a clear image on in the earlier ultrasound. So while I didn't enjoy having to get up early to go in and be poked and prodded as the ultrasound tech tried to find an approach that would let them get a really good picture of the placenta, I did enjoy getting to see our baby again! When the tech was taking pictures of the face, we could actually see the baby moving his mouth. He must be getting some good practice in for all that sucking he'll need to do once he's born!

Here's the latest picture - a little bit easier to make out the face in this one I think.
Here's the labled version for those who see big grey blobs in the photo...

Registry info

Since I've had a few people asking about what I need for baby stuff, here's my registry info. In general I'm not picky about details, so if you find something similar elsewhere or in a different style, just contact me or James or one of our parents and ask them to update the registry accordingly. As a reminder, we're expecting a boy, so pretty much anything NOT PINK is acceptable color wise. :)

Babies R Us: They give me a 15% off "registry completion" coupon for a one time shopping trip after they baby is born, so there are some big ticket items (like the stroller) on there with that in mind, not with an expectation that anyone would get them for me. I figured for the big items that I didn't need right away, I'd stick them on the registry and get them later when I could get the discount.

Amazon.com: A handful of cloth diapering supplies on here, because I want to play around with a few samples of some of the different styles of new diaper stuff that's come out before I go stock up on a whole bunch of one type.

Clothes: Given how fast babies grow, if you'd like to give baby clothes please go for the larger sizes (mostly 6 months & up). I think I've been given enough stuff to have a good start on the newborn wear, and it's always easier to put a baby in an outfit that's too big for them than one that's too small, after all! :) Gift certificates to places that sell baby clothes are also great! (We're in Troy/Albany NY area if you want to check to be sure a store has a location in our area.)

Crib!

James and I (mostly James - I mostly supervised worked on the crib some more this weekend. James' father had come out last weekend and helped James with getting the crib started - they'd done a great job getting all the sides assembled. This weekend we put on the legs and hardware, and had the first trial run of putting it together. All the basic pieces fit and it seems nice and sturdy, so so far so good. We still have to give it the final sanding and staining, but it actually looks like a crib now!

Also, here's the most recent ultrasound photo. If you kind of squint, you can sort of make out a face. (I left the image upside down because I happened to scan it in that direction and personally, I can see the face easier that way.)