My week has been made....

Pumpkin Spice Frapps are BACK! Or will be on September 3rd!

Birth Plans

This week I am suppose to be writing out my birth plan. I feel like I could go two very different directions with this, so I decided to research a bit about birth plans. Birth plans (for those of you who don't know) are like general guide lines about what you want or what you don't want when it comes to delivery.

My understand it is best to break your birth plan up into sections: Labor, Delivery, Post Delivery, Baby care. These seem to be the main sections. It also seems that it would be best to keep your birth plan short and sweet. If a nurse is going to read your birth plan, she should probably be able to skim it and get the general idea. So lets break this up:

Labor: What would be my priorities when it comes to labor? Well, I want a natural birth so that is a starting point.
-I do not want to be offered drugs.
-I do not want an IV (hemlock only)
-prefer intermittent monitoring.
-prefer having free range of movement

Delivery/Post Delivery:
-Avoid an episiotomy at all cost
- I would like immediate skin to skin contact with my son
-Delayed cord clamping until the cord is done pulsing. My husband to cut the cord
-Immediate breast feeding
- I would like to keep my son as long as possible before sending him to the nursery

Baby Care:
-I am going to breast feed, please no formula or bottles
-We would like our son circumcised under whatever medication is possible
-We are choosing to selectively vaccinate our son. Please discuss any vaccinations with us before administering.  

From my research, I can tell that the nurses don't really care about the fact that I want music playing or dim lights. They want to know about the medical facts. No fancy fonts, no pretty graphics just plan Jane black and white ink letting them know the immediate wants of the mother and baby.

I also know from my research that birth plans, are only plans. In the event of a Cesarean this will be thrown out the window, the most important thing is that my son and I are healthy in the end.

Other momma's out there. Did you do a birth plan? Did it work out for you? Any suggestions?

Friday Letters

Dear work, thank you for the last few months of exhaustion. I will take my fond memories of the little monsters I have worked with and go be a stay at home mom now. Dear legs, tomorrow is the Glow Run. Work with me on this one okay? Dear car, we are going on two weeks of having you clean. I am starting to feel mighty proud of this accomplishment. Dear nursery, I always thought I would love decorating and I did, for a little while. I am so ready to be done with you. Dear husband, you have been fantastic this past week. Thank you for being amazing. Dear Walker, I adore watching you move around inside my belly. Please stay little, never grow up on me. Dear Friday, I have missed you. 

31 weeks, Mommy time, and update

This week marks a single digit countdown until baby Walker arrives! I feel so unprepared for him, yet at the same time I know that physically I have everything he really needs. 

This week I have been struck with this thought of "I will never be alone again". Not only is that terrifying, it's also a crazy thought. How will I make time for myself? To think this through I went to my mommy friends to discuss how they unwind everyday and find time to still be good wives. Here is what I have found. 

-Establish a bed time. Make your child keep to that bed time everyday (obviously the first few weeks, this isn't going to work) so that you and your husband can have at least an hour of just you time. 

-Wine. It is your friend. So are bubble baths, make sure you take them as often as possible.

-Date night at least once a week. Ben and I have talked about this. I think we will aim for coffee dates or even walks once a week while his parents watch Walker. It give everyone a little bit of time. 

-Read a book. This is important if you are me. I am a book nerd. I want to be sure that I don't lose this passion when I become a mom. This is also my "me" time everyday. 

I am terrified that becoming a mom means that I can't be me anymore, but I know that fear is exactly that. A fear. It isn't true, and even if it is I will love my little man so much, it won't even matter. I am so ready to love and hold him, yet I don't want him to come out because of how protected he is inside me. I love watching my belly move, and knowing that my son is located right below my heart. There really is no safer place. 

As for our week, we have the Glow Run on Saturday and a baby shower on Sunday. Next Friday is my last day of work and then I will begin my career as a stay at home mom (SO excited). I am now having bi-weekly doctor appointments and will switch to every week at 36 weeks. 

Here is my weekly bump photo

29 weeks, Taylor Swift, and 3D ultrasound

I have been so busy (and tired!) that I haven't had a chance to really update this week!  This week was my glucose test which I passed with flying colors! It wasn't terrible, but it also wasn't something I would want to do again anytime soon. We also start two week appointments now. Walker will be here is about 10 weeks! 

Wednesday I went to the Taylor Swift concert! She is an absolutely amazing performer! If you haven't been to her concert before, you have to go. Red has been, by far, my favorite album of hers ever. I'm so glad I had the opportunity to go!

We also had our 3D ultrasound this weekend! I can't believe how much little man looks like me. He had his hands up during the majority of the ultrasound (little stinker), but he did allow us a few good shots. He even pulled his feet up to his face at one point! I can't believe how perfect he is. Come on October! I am ready to cuddle this little boy.

He has his daddy's nose. Thats for sure :)

What I miss...

about being a normal human being. *warning there maybe some TMI from here on out*

Because lets face it. Pregnancy is not all rainbows and sunshine like everyone says it is. I will be the first to admit that I have had an easy pregnancy. No morning sickness, nothing that would make me turn away from pregnancy forever (because I know women who have sworn off ever getting pregnancy again). 

But, I want to vent about the hormones. These hormones are not something to be played with nor are they your average "it's time for aunt flo to come to town" hormones. One minute I love my husband and then he says something silly and I literally want to freak out. One minute I am watching a normal movie, the next the mom and daughter get in a fight and I start bawling (honestly, I don't there has been a single day so far this week where I didn't cry). I have a billion things I can blame on these hormones: the awkward sex dream (about people I don't know!), the gross things my body has begun to produce, my temper, ugh the list goes on. 

I feel bad for those around me. Even I know I am acting crazy sometimes. As much as I love pregnancy, the hormones so far have been the worst. I know it will all be worth it in just a few more months. 

Which leads me to labor. When we decided to TTC and the day I got that positive pregnancy test labor was the last thing on my mind. In fact, I just recently even began to give it any thought at all. In our Bradley Method class we watched a few films of actual births. Let me insert this here: 

HOLY COW! Heck, I even attended a live birth and these video made me seriously question my sanity about wanting a natural birth. Nothing about those videos screamed "a miracle" to me. I still fully intend to have a natural birth, but I would love for some motherly support from those of you who have gone through this. I need to know that the other side exists and that labor won't in fact kill me (because the ladies in the videos aren't very reassuring)               

(Who doesn't love Jenna Marbles? If you don't know who she is PLEASE watch a few of her Youtube videos.)        

Birth "plan"

So being 28 weeks pregnant it was drawn to my attention that I need to come up with a birth plan. 

Now, I have heard of these so called birth "plans", but I also know that you can not plan for something as chaotic as birth. I will however give a general overview of how we plan on going about this whole labor business. 

I think I have mentioned it here before, but we are currently taking birthing classes in the Bradley Method (read about the Bradley Method here). Yes, this means I am choosing to have a drug free birthing experience. I have many reasons for this and if you would like to chat about it please email me! 

Aside from that, I am choosing to have my husband, sister, and best friend in the delivery room with me. I know they will be the perfect support system for me. I am the type of person who wants people around. 

I want to delay cord clamping meaning I want to wait to clamp the umbilical cord for roughly 5 minutes. There are great benefits to delaying cord clamping, I will probably write a whole post about it in the future.

I want instant skin to skin contact after birth and the ability to breastfeed immediately. 

Obviously these things are all subject to Walker's health. If he is healthy enough I want to keep him from the nursery for as long as possible. He will be strictly breast fed, no bottles what so ever. I pray that our birth "plan" will be met to the best of hospital's ability, but in the end getting Walker here and healthy is the most important. Again, I know we can not plan for everything when it comes to giving birth.

I am hoping in the future to discuss each of our decisions independently. The amount of research I have conducted in making these decisions may help someone else. :)

Nesting

Well well well, hello there nesting period. It's midnight and I just spent the last two hours cleaning my house. As great as it is to have a clean house, I know I will regret that decision later (heck I'm already regretting it. All that moving kicked my acid reflux into high gear).

However, it did allow me a few minutes to stop and read to Walker. Even though he is still snug inside me, I can tell he loves story time. He always starts kicking up a storm inside there. Even now it's hard to find time to read to him as often as I would like. Hopefully, once he is born we can make it more of a priority.

Nesting is also to blame for my current organizational obsession. I have never been one to mind clutter. In fact, I really don't mind it. As long as I know where everything is, it doesn't bother me. Well with a baby on the way, I have begun to organize everything and it's making me see just how out of hand I let everything get. Whoops. So let the nesting period begin!

28 weeks

How far along? 28 weeks, 3rd tri!
Size of baby? the size of an egg plant
Maternity clothes? Yes! They are so comfortable
Stretch marks? Yes I have two now.
Sleep: I wake up every few hours either to pee or because I can't sleep. It's a bit annoying 
Best moment this week: Having little man make kick counts. I was one worried momma
Miss Anything? Laying on my belly, and the ability to breath. 
Movement: Oh, yes. I love it.
Food cravings: Still on a chicken kick
Anything making you queasy or sick: Over that luckily.
Symptoms: Heartburn.  
Happy or Moody most of the time: Very happy, most of the time 
Gender: A little mister
Labor Signs: None and hopefully it stays that way for 10ish more weeks.
Belly Button in or out? In, but very shallow
Wedding rings on or off? On
Looking forward to: A lot. 3D ultrasound, Taylor Swift concert next week, and Dr. appointment to see how he is growing.