Happy Christmas and New Year

Just as quickly as the holiday season came.... it went! Because I was unable to do any traveling, we were fortunate enough to have all of my family (at least at some point) over the past couple weeks here with us. My mom and 5 youngest siblings flew in on December 20th and were later joined by my dad who flew in Christmas day. Besides my brother Jake who had to leave that day for a soccer tournament in FL, they were all here until (very early) New Year's Day. It was great having them all here. My other siblings came and went at various times, but we were able to have at least a few days with each of them. It was somewhat like a revolving door - I will say it was hectic!!! And in my current desire to clean, I believe they call it "nesting", I had to take a deep breath several times and let it go :) Primarily with cups/cans of pop and shoes - HOLY CATS!!! Good practice for the future, right?

We did A LOT of eating, and with the two doctor appointments I had over the holidays (Dec. 23rd and Dec. 30th) I was quite happy to see that I actually lost some weight at both of these appointments!!! Too bad it normally doesn't work that way.

My first doctor appointment was with the nurse practitioner because my doctor was off for Christmas. It was the first time we met her, and my first internal exam... good thing I am not so self-conscious at this point. She told me I was 50% effaced, but not dilated any cm. Overall, I felt pretty good. I did notice some increased tiredness at the end of the day and definitely increased swelling in my feet, but the contractions I did have were fairy minor, and would come and go. I was able to have off from work Dec. 21-25th. We made lots of cookies those first few days, and I am pretty sure spent at least a portion of every day until Christmas Eve shopping.

The weather hindered some planned activities, but we improvised.... bowling, movies, ice skating (indoors), games, etc.

My second doctor appointment was about the same as the first. Around 50% effaced and no significant dilation. So, despite my wishes that the little guy was going to come before the New Year (since my family was here and since Nate would have loved the tax break) no such luck!!

Besides some final touches to the nursery, I am happy to report completion of that project. We started doing all the washing of the baby clothes.... he's got a good amount of clothes, WOW! Nate and I are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our little guy, although I am not in a great deal of discomfort so I am still able to work and get stuff cleaned back up after the whole house was up for grabs for 2 weeks without any problems. Plus, we all know my mom never went early with any of her kids so I am not holding my breath. And, with the bitter cold weather we're having lately, I don't blame him for staying put!!! I see my doctor again tomorrow, so maybe we'll know more then.

Below are some pictures of the past few weeks.

Belly Picture - 38 weeks (12/29/09)

36 Weeks

Where is December going? It's been awhile since I wrote again...On Wednesday we had our 36 week visit and our last baby class :) Besides doing the strep B test, the visit was routine. As he was checking the position of the little guy to make sure he is still head down he said, "oh, you're having a contraction now." And since then, I have been having many contractions. They come and go, and are not consistant, but I like to think this little guy wants to come early so he doesn't miss out on all the Christmas Fun!!! I guess time will tell. The contractions are usually in the evening, so it makes my relaxing time pretty non existant. Not to mention, we always seem to have things to do around the house or errands to run so I don't have much down time. Especially with still working over 40 hours a week. My ankles sure are swollen at the end of the day. Its a good thing its winter or I am sure it would be 10x worse! My biggest complaint in the past couple weeks have been my lack of sleep. I have a very difficult time getting comfortable, and when I do it seems like one of my many bathroom trips is just around the corner. And secondly, because of swelling, my hands go numb quite easily. Its difficult to sleep on your side when your hands go numb from doing so. In the morning my joints feel like an 80 year old with arthritis. They are painful to open and close because of the swelling. Let's just say that I'd much rather be up with a baby than up due to swelling and peeing :)

Tonight we had a baby shower with Nate's co-workers. We got some very nice gifts and must have gotten some motivation to get the babys room finished because dare I say it, but I think the nursery is DONE!!! It has been quite the project, which Nate has spent the majority of the time on, but I think it turned out really nice. I will have to take on the project of washing everything in the next couple weeks. I started the bedding tonight. I will post some pictures of the belly and the nursery as soon as I get around to it.
We start seeing the doctor weekly, so we'll have an update on any progress next week.
Stand By.....

34 weeks, 6 days (12/7/09 - my 27th bday)

Nursery and Third Trimester Beard Pictures

As promised here are some before and after pictures from the nursery:

BEFORE

AFTER

Please forgive the spots that appear on the photos. Our soon to be replaced digital camera has seen better days and those spots, I can assure you, are due to the camera lens and not due to my craftsmanship.

Last but not least here are some before and after beard pictures:

BEFORE (at my Grandma Helen's 90th Birthday party in September)

TODAY

Sharing in the Sacrifices

The title above is not intended to be taken literally unless you consider the growth of facial hair to be a real sacrifice. It appears that more background is required sooner as opposed to later or this post may spiral into oblivion before it gets started. About the time we hit the third trimester I decided that I need to do something to share in the physical sacrifices of a pregnancy. Karyn was feeling the baby all the time and space was at a premium in there. I cannot relate even remotely to the way a mother-to-be feels both physically and emotionally during a pregnancy, let alone as they hit the home stretch. But I wanted to do something to exhibit my support in an external sense.

My idea was to grow a third trimester beard. This is akin to the playoff beards that hockey players grow as they make their run towards the Stanley Cup. Quite honestly the process started out of laziness one weekend in October and I haven't looked back since. Once again I am currently without photos to substantiate my current physical condition and I know that owe nursery room pictures as well. So I will post the evidence this evening when I get home from work. That is assuming we don't get snowed in this evening because they predict 9-12 inches of snow tonight and tomorrow.

Nursery is Done... Well almost done

If the nursery project is any indication of a hypothetical career in general carpentry I must regrettably accept the fact that I would starve. I say that not because I failed to produce a solid work product, but because it took me forever to do it. A large part of me rationalizes this by saying that it isn't my 9-5 gig so time is always limited. There is a great deal of truth to that. However, the other aspect is the number of times I simply chose to do something else, i.e. relaxing, playing video games, sleeping, etc. In the end I cannot even begin to tell you how much time I did spend in the nursery over the last month and change. Now, as the project nears completion, I can also not accurately communicate how happy I am that I did spend all that time on it.

Throughout the process I received a great deal of help from both Karyn and Eleanor. Obviously Karyn helped in a more substantive manner, but I was surprised by Eleanor's ability to paint by rubbing up against the walls. In case you were wondering, paint washes out of a dog's hair surprisingly well and Eleanor absolutely loves eating dried paint and chair rail modeling pieces.

With the project nearing the finish line we assembled the crib last night. That was easiest part of the project to far and it still took 45 minutes or so. The moral of the story is this: Every project will take longer and be more difficult than you could ever imagine. This isn't the first time I have learned that lesson. Unfortunately, it is an easy lesson to forget and that usually happens right about the time you are starting a new project.

I wish I had some pictures to post showing the finished product but I'll have to follow-up tonight when I am back at home. The room still isn't put back together because I have some touching up to do, but I'll get that done tonight.

As I mentioned above, when I looked around the room last night I was very happy to have spent the time that I did on the project. I am thankful for the opportunity to do things like this and for the opportunity to dream about baby D's first nights in his new home. It might not be the best example of high-level carpentry, but it has been completed with love and the best intentions.

Where did November Go?

This isn't news to anyone but time really does fly by. I can't believe that November is already in the rear view mirror. So hear we are on the doorstep of December and there is still so much left to do. The good news is that I am used to being up against a deadline so we should be fine.

December is going to be a big month around our house. Karyn's birthday is the 7th. My sister, Alicia's birthday is the 11th. MaryAnn and the kids come into town on the 20th. I could go on an on. We obviously don't know when the little man will grace us with his entry into our world, but I'm not foreclosing on the possibility that it will also be in the month of December.

Before looking ahead too much I'd like to look back for just a bit. The last few weeks have been pretty hectic. Karyn is working a bunch and we've been busy at the firm. It's not surprising then that time has really flown by. Karyn, Eleanor and I had a great Thanksgiving yesterday. You can see from this photo that both of them pitched in around the kitchen. What you cannot see is that Eleanor was rewarded for her efforts with a Thanksgiving dinner of her own. This year we scaled back our cooking since we couldn't find a turkey smaller than 12 lbs. So we went with a small cornish game hen and a turkey breast roast. Of course we had potatoes, stuffing, gravy, creamed corn, rolls and pumpkin pie. Not surprisingly I barely managed to make it through the desert portion of the meal before taking a nap on the couch. Also not surprising was the fact that Eleanor decided to join nap time.

Plans for Christmas in Stoughton 2009 have ramped up in recent days. I am really looking forward to having the family together again this year. You never know, we may one more mouth to feed for Christmas. I just hope I get the nursery done before then...

32 Weeks

Happy Fall! We have been blessed with fantastic weather in November. We have had plenty of 50+ degree weather and in a state where it could easily be in the 20's by this time we are fully enjoying the "heat wave" Nate even got out and golfed on November 8th and it was in the 70's. I went up to Oshkosh that day and had lunch with a friend. And then we walked through the outlet mall. She is due at the beginning of December so it was the last time we'll get together before she becomes a mom! Eleanor has been enjoying taking walks (long ones since its not too cold) and playing outside as we FINALLY finished raking all of our leaves yesterday. It was another sunny and beautiful day.

Last weekend we were in St. Charles, IL for one of my best friends Wedding. It was a lot of fun to see some of the high school girls and spend some time on the dance floor. The wedding was beautiful. I slept like a rock that night! We had to get up early to get back and pick up our puppy from the kennel. It was her first time at a kennel. I could hardly stand dropping her off before we left town - How in the world will I be able to drop our little guy off when I have to work everyday??

On Nov. 19th, Nate celebrated his 31st birthday.... Where does the time go? We both had a busy day at work and instead of going out to dinner at the restaurant I picked, Nate decided on his favorite place: Buffalo Wild Wings. There was a football game on and David and one of his friends met us there. Needless to say, it was very laid back. I had to of course get his favorite cake: Dairy Queen ice cream cake. Now we just need to have some people over to help us eat it!!! I am hoping to go get his big birthday present today.

On Friday, Nov. 20th some of my work friends had a baby shower for me. It was so nice of them and they were very sneaky and pulled off interviewing Nate prior to the shower for one of the games we played. And the cake was delicious :)

Nate and I started our 6 week long Child Birth and Prep class 3 weeks ago. We both feel like the class could be done in less than an hour, but our instructor manages to fill 2.5+ hours!!!! It's not something I would ever do again. But, the last 3 classes cover more "baby" topics so Nate is hoping to get some helpful information. Today we are taking a tour of the hospital we will be having baby D at. This whole baby thing is getting more real as each week passes. I read last night in on of my baby books that our little guy is around 4 lbs and 18 inches! And IF he were to be born now, there is nearly 100% survival rate with a healthy life expectancy... So that helps me breathe a little easier :)

Our 32 week doctor visit was non eventful. I gained about 2 lbs since my 28 week appointment. My doctor said that for now my platelet level is stable so he is not too concerned as of right now. I will start seeing him every 2 weeks now, until 36 weeks, then appointments will be weekly.

I am starting to have swelling in my feet at the end of the day - I am sure it doesn't help that I rarely sit down during the day. But, I just hope it doesn't turn into cankles! :) I sleep well but have noticed I am getting up a few more times to use the bathroom. And I do feel a bit more tired the past few weeks. Our boy is most active in the evening, followed by the morning, followed by lunch time. He is fairly quiet during the other times. It will be interesting to see if this will be his schedule once out of the womb. Right now, he and Eli wake up at about the same time in the morning... pretty convenient if that continues :) All in all though, things seem to be going just fine!

32 weeks, 5 days: (11/22/09)