Prenatal Appointment #7 (12/26/08)

We braved the weather and went to Minot for our latest appointment. The baby's heart is beating at a rate from 135 - 145 bpm and the fundal height is right on track for almost 36 weeks. The Dr also checked my cervix, but no news there...not dialated yet. As much as I have been hoping to get things underway, it appears that the baby is quite content where he/she is at! :) At least for now.

Christmas:

My parents arrived at our home last Tuesday and my Aunt Phyllis arrived on Wednesday. We celebrated by going to church in Plaza Wednesday evening for a candlelight service. We came back home and had cheese soup and numerous appetizers. We opened gifts that night and even though the baby isn't here yet, he/she made out like a bandit! :) I can see the spoiling coming on already. Christmas morning even brought stocking gifts for the baby. Everything we got is so cute and will come in very handy once the little one arrives.

Household News:

Well - Our well has been hooked up and providing our household with H20 now for about a week and a half. I've been doing laundry like crazy in order to get everything washed for the baby and doing our own personal laundry as well. It's SO NICE to be able to do laundry in the comfort of our own home and for us to be able to take normal length showers, do dishes, etc...all without having to haul water (except for drinking water).

Painting - The painting is completed in the nursery and almost done in our bedroom as well. Yah! We had a little cleanup to do on the floor since some mud spatters ended up on the carpet in the nursery, but it cleaned up in one afternoon.

Nursery - Things are really coming together here. As soon as the painting was done, we dusted off the furniture in the room and then Jeff put together the crib. It is starting to look so nice in there and I've started organizing "baby things" in baskets and have put away all the clothes that have been washed (gender neutral ones of course). :)

All for now.

Prenatal Appointment #6 (12/16/08)

Doctor says that everything is still going good and is progressing normally. The fundal height is right on track for 34 weeks and the baby's heartrate is around 130. The baby has also gotten in a head down position, which is also normal and good at this point in pregnancy.

New for the next appointment: It will be in 2 weeks instead of a month! My next appointment is December 26th. So, I guess our Christmas guests will get to go to Minot with us. I will be checked for StrepB and to see if my cervix has dialated. It's absolutely crazy how the time has been flying by...in less than 3 weeks I will be considered full term and it would be safe to deliver!

Home Updates:

Jeff is going to start painting our room and the nursery tomorrow! I'm so excited to get in the nursery and start decorating, putting things away, assembling the crib, etc! :) It will also be great to get the "extra" furniture out of our living room.

The pipe from the well to the house has been replaced after it froze the other week. It has now been pumping water into our backyard for nearly 3 days and we plan on doing that until temps out here are above zero at least. It's been pretty cold with actual temperatures around -25 degrees. Don't want that pipe to freeze up again!

Guess that's all I know for now.

All Sorts of Things Going On

Here's our latest updates:

Rooms: As of a few days ago our rooms are now ready to prime and paint. Can't wait to pick up the supplies at Menards and get started. It will be so nice to get the nursery and our room done and everything in the house back where it is suppose to be instead of the fun game of everything in the living room. LOL :)

Well: The well is finished and we hooked it up last night, however everything seemed to go wrong all at the same time. By the time we were able to start covering up the pipe going to the house it was practically dark outside, but Jeff got right after it. I felt very bad for him being out there by himself, it was only 4 degrees outside. Brrrrr... I helped by turning on lights in the house in order to cast light on the yard, pointing a flashlight down the trench for a brief time, and offering kleenex to my hard worker. He was able to put the initial layer of loose dirt on the pipe, then turned on the bucket tractor to push the rest of the dirt in. While the tractor was warming up, Jeff came inside and while we were sitting in the living room, the power went out. After a while, Jeff decided he may as well go outside and push the dirt in. Not long after he got in the tractor it "jelled" up and quit running...not good. Now the water was already pumping through the line and we had no way of insulating the pipe to keep it from freezing. We tried to keep water running in the sink in the entryway through the night, but at some point, it stopped. When we got up in the morning there wasn't anything coming out. I tried to take a shower before going to work and we barely had any water coming out of our shower faucet either. :( So as of right now we have no idea what is wrong, could be frozen pipe, broken pump in the well or that our brand new well is dry. Obviously the last would be the most devastating, let's hope that is not the case.

Baby: We had a little scare yesterday with the baby. I noticed some spotting and hadn't felt the baby move the entire time from when I woke up until 10AM when I called Labor & Delivery at Trinity. They told me I should come in to make sure everything was okay. So I left work and kept my hands on my belly the entire way to Minot to check for movement while Jeff drove. About half way there, I finally felt the baby do a few rolls which made me feel better about the situation, but was still concerned about the spotting. After at least three hours hooked up to monitors, six tubes of blood drawn, and discussing the situation with Trinity nurses and my UND doctor, it was decided that there wasn't anything wrong with the baby or myself. The doctor said that the spotting was more than likely due to the baby wiggling around and normal pregnancy bodily changes. So, the baby taking an abnormally long "nap" and the spotting occurring at the same time was in the end just a strange coincidence. Everyone is doing well, even soon2be Dad. :)

Our next appointment is December 19th, so I will post again later. :)

Baby Shower

Today was my Baby Shower and it was awesome! There were so many people there and we received so many great things for the baby. The cake was absolutely adorbable and tasty. It was done in the Classic Pooh theme. I'll post some pictures of the shower if I happen to come across some, since I left my camera at home. Oops. :)

Jeff took my Dad to the Badlands for a ND hunting trip experience today. I'm interested in knowing what he thought of it. We (my Mom, Aunt Phyllis and I) are awaiting their arrival back home and watching the "Santa Clause".

Household Updates: The well driller showed up and dug a hole where he felt there would be a water vein, and it ended up not being enough water for a well. He moved locations and ended up in our backyard, not far from the house and thinks he has found a pretty good supply and that it is fairly clear. He won't be back until Monday, so I should know more then. Yehhhhh! Water!

The guy we hired to tape and mud our bedrooms showed up on Friday, and should be back within a few days to finish the job. It will be nice to get the walls painted and the furniture put back in the rooms and then we can begin decorating the nursery.

All sorts of projects are going on in preparation for our little one, but now I better get back to entertaining our guests!

Prenatal Appointment #5 (11/14/08)

Once again and much to my delight, everything is going good according to the doctor. I am 30 weeks today and at my appointment on Friday I was measuring almost 30cm (fundal height), the baby's heartrate sounded good at 140, and my weight (no numbers will be measured) is right on track! :)

I had my gestational diabetes glucose screening test at the appointment, and that came back negative, which is good. Since I am naturally hypoglycemic, which is low blood sugar, I've been a little concerned that I might have problems with sugars.

On Saturday we drove back to Minot in order to take a tour of the birthing facility at Trinity Hospital. It helped to make me feel more comfortable with going there. We were told where to park, enter, check in, etc. and also shown around the birthing rooms, nursery area, and visitors/waiting room. Preregistering was also part of the time we spent there, so that's good that it's already taken care of so we are ready to go when the baby is. :)

After our tour, we stopped at the Pride of Dakota sale going on at the state fairgrounds. I was able to come away with a few Christmas presents as well as some kuchen for a tasty treat.

If I remember correctly my next appointment will be on December 19th.

Household Updates:

The well driller has finally shown up at our on Friday, but will not be back until Tuesday. He was able to find some sandy water at 83 feet, but it's only 3 gallons/minute and would require a larger radius well than he is able to provide in order to get the supply we need. Could mean waiting even longer for another well driller...arrgh! When the well driller comes back on Tuesday he may try going deeper or a different spot, I guess we'll just wait and see...

So far no luck with the mudding and taping for our new sheetrock in our bedroom and the baby's room. Can't even get a call back...very disappointing. I really want this to get done so that we can start putting the nursery together and our house back to normal before the baby arrives. We are running out of options...anyone know someone that can help mud and tape?

All for now.

29 Weeks Photo

Third Trimester

I've been in the third trimester now since this past Sunday and things are going good. The baby is moving a lot more these days as I can feel it almost all the time. Sleeping has become difficult. I get so uncomfortable during the night with leg cramps, back pain, my left arm falling asleep, bathroom trips, etc. I don't know how anyone can sleep on their side full time, it's not for me, I'm going back to sleeping on my stomach after the baby is born! :)

The baby shower has been scheduled and will be on November 22nd. I'm looking forward to the day and getting to see all sorts of cute items we will need for the baby. Can't wait to get everything organized in the nursery. We are still waiting for a call back from the guy who said he would do our taping and mudding that needs to get done, so the nursery (and our room) are still in poor condition, but I remain hopeful.

My parents came for a visit last weekend and brought a bunch of my little toys that have been kept for lets say "years and years". If we have a girl, we'll be set! LOL Right now they are just sitting in our basement, not sure when I will be able to sort through it all. There must be some neutral stuff in there, it was like six tubs full!

My next appointment is next Friday, so I will update you all more after that.

Dad-To-Be's First Kick

Jeff was finally able to feel the baby kick for the first time on the 19th. It was pretty exciting since I get to feel it all the time and now he knows what I am talking about! :)

The baby is definately more active these days and has also started having the "hiccups". Those are sure interesting, they are constant for a couple of minutes at a time!

More Goodies...

I belong to a website called Baby Center and I joined a group for Secret Storks, which means that we were assigned other mothers-to-be and exchanged gifts. I received a Winnie the Pooh hooded towel and matching washcloth and also a kit for making an imprint of the baby's foot or hand that includes a frame. Very cute stuff!

Yesterday I got another package in the mail and this time it was from my Mom. She sent all sorts of neutral colored sleepers, a stuffed Winnie the Pooh that plays the theme song, and even a little camo cap for infants. I'm pretty sure the cap was Jeff's favorite. ;)

I guess that's all for now!

Nursery Updates

Jeff and his Dad tore out the sheetrock and insulation of the exterior walls in the baby's room earlier this week and now it has been re-insulated and sheetrocked. It should be much much warmer for the baby now. Now we just need to get someone to come over to tape and mud, then on to painting and decorating! So get ready to do some painting Mom Ide. :)

I'm really excited to get everything put together and ready for the baby. Yah!

Prenatal Appointment #4 (10/10/08)

I left work early to make sure I was able to eat lunch before going in for a blood glucose (sugar) test.

On the way up to Minot, Jeff and I noticed a strange squeal coming from his truck. When we got to Minot, we grabbed a quick bite to eat. I had a salad, which wasn't exactly what I had in mind, but that's what the nurse suggested so I wouldn't throw my sugar levels out of whack eating right before the test. When we arrived at the Dr office, Jeff decided to call about the truck noise, and they were able to take a look at it right away. So Jeff dropped me off at the Dr's and drove the truck to the shop to get fixed.

The Dr checked my fundal height which is right on target (between 24-25cm), then checked the baby's heartbeat, which was also good at 145-150bpm. He also mentioned that all the information gathered at the 20week ultrasound came back normal and that everything looked really good. They changed their mind about the glucose test, and I won't be doing that until next time when I'm closer to 28 weeks. Grrrr...salad for no reason except health! Crazy! My next appointment will be November 14th.

Back to the truck...Jeff left a message on my phone while I was meeting with the Dr and said that it was a good thing the truck went in to the shop as the tire was ready to fall off! For those of you who haven't heard the story...on the way back from a hunting trip in Montana almost two weeks ago, the other front tire fell off on the highway near his Grandmas place. At least he was close to home and no injuries were incurred! Anyways. We were able to loan a car from a friend in Minot for the afternoon, so Jeff picked me up after my appointment was over and we ran some other errands and then went back for the truck when it was done. Phew! This story got long.

24 Weeks Picture

Here is my first "belly picture" for the website!

Waiting for a new post?

Okay, so I know I haven't written much lately, but it just seems to me like not much new is happening, but I suppose that isn't really the case now that I think about it.

The baby is moving around quite a bit now and I feel it every morning when I get to work and start typing on the calculator. So I figure that the baby either really likes the noise or really hates it. Hmmm...

I was able to feel one tap on the outside of my stomach this past weekend. Jeff and I were both sitting in the living room watching TV when the baby started moving a lot, and so I put my hand on my belly just to rub it a little. I stopped moving my hand and shortly thereafter, TAP! :) I was hoping it would carry on for a while so that Jeff could feel it, but no luck with that so far.

We registered at Target a week ago. Jeff was a good sport and went along, but soon got tired and "tested" the glider in the nursery display for a while. :) He says it was a nice glider.

My belly is finally starting to look like something more than a thick waistline. I will try to remember to post some pictures later. However, my memory isn't so good lately, so we'll see!

One of Jeff's cousins and his wife are getting rid of a lot of baby items, so I have been able to get my hands on some baby clothes which is pretty exciting. Now I just need to start sorting them into tubs by age group.

We picked up our nursery set in Dickinson a few weeks ago (see pics), but are still waiting to put the crib together until the walls of the room get re-insulated, so I will update on that later. The pics are from the sellers, so the miscellaneous toys are not ours.

Guess that's all for now. Will post more after our October 10th appointment.

Ultrasound News

Just got a letter in the mail today and the Dr. said that the results from the ultrasound look perfectly normal, so that is good news. There is a little change to the due date from what I had been going by. I thought I was 20weeks as of today, but I am in fact 20W5D, which is 5 days (that's almost a week) more than I thought! Yipppeee! Due date is January 25th.

My next appointment has also been changed since I wrote last. It is now October 10th due to the Dr.'s vacation time.

Not Your Regular Lullabye!

Okay, so I couldn't resist changing the music on the webpage to something a little different! :) I thought it would be nice to show off the baby's heritage with some tunes...

Ultrasound

Today was the day we went in for the "big" ultrasound! It was really exciting, they took all sorts of measurements that will be calculated and averaged to come up with an expected due date. We also got to see some more movement. I think the funniest part for me was to see the baby's mouth opening and closing! Jeff probably has a better idea of what was seen on the ultrasound since I couldn't see the screen for almost 3/4th of the time. According to him, the baby was pretty cooperative for the pictures, then all of a sudden must've woken up and start wiggling all over the place! :)

I've posted the two pictures we were able to take home. The top picture is of the baby's abdomen on the top left, the spine along the bottom left, the neck and then the face. You can just barely make out the features on the face such as mouth, nose and eyes. The bottom picture is of one of the baby's feet. Not sure which one, but I thought it was cute! :)

Prenatal Appointment #3 (9/2/08)

The doctor explained the antibody issue with us more in detail. He said that it is called a "cold antibody", which means it is only active if my body temp should fall downwardly outside of the normal range. He also mentioned that "if we hadn't gone looking, we would have never known it existed", so it won't have an effect on the pregnancy. Strange but good news!

The doc attempted to locate the baby's heartbeat with a doppler, but was unable to find it, so he got out the office ultrasound equipment just to make sure everything was okay. :) I'm thinking the heartbeat was hard to find b/c the baby was wiggling around so much! When the doc found the baby on the ultrasound, he/she was VERY active, and you could see the heart beating...so everything was fine. I actually saw it kicking it's legs around and I couldn't feel a thing at the time, which I thought was so funny b/c it looks like he/she is trying very hard to be noticed. I actually thought it was so funny that I couldn't help but laugh, which made it harder to keep the ultrasound equipment in place on top of my "bouncing" belly.

On Friday, September 5th, I have an appointmetn at Trinity Hospital to have a "20 week ultrasound" performed. I won't be 20 weeks yet, but I guess it'll be close enough. There is some discrepency when it comes to my due date. As of today I am somewhere between 18W4D and 19W2D, so maybe we will be able to get some info on Friday that coincides with one of the dates we've received so far and we'll call that one "the date". The equipment at Trinity is suppose to be far better than that at my doctor's office, so it will be neat to see the baby in a clearer picture and have the doctor double check things to make sure that everything looks normal.

My next prenatal appointment is on September 30th.

Stay tuned... :)

Clothes

I guess I'm not done posting for the day.

Last week we received a package from my friend, Mary (Bud), which was full of little presents to open EARLY. It was really exciting to get all the little gifts, I even called Jeff while he was combining to see if it was okay to open them without him being home to help. Of course he said it would be okay...yes! The little clothes are so cute and I can't wait for the baby to wear them! :)

Labor Day Weekend

This weekend has been pretty exciting as we have been getting things ready for our baby on the way. Yesterday Jeff and I drove to Dickinson to pick up the nursery furniture set we purchased. The set includes a changing table/dresser, armoire, and crib. The changing table and armoire are already assembled, but the crib is in pieces so I am excited to get that set up and everything ready, but I guess we still have some time! :) However, we've decided that we should re-insulate the nursery since it's on the NE corner of the house, so we'll (Jeff and his Dad) be tearing out some walls and re-sheetrocking. We also need to put in new windows since the current ones are quite drafty. So, we do really need to start these projects so that the room is ready for my Mom to help paint in October when she and Dad plan to visit.

Today Jeff and I spent some time cleaning out the nursery as it has been more of a storage closet than a bedroom for quite a few years. :) Tonight Jeff's brother, Joel, came over to help move furniture to other rooms. We were able to relocate the buffet table, gun cabinet, coffee table w/tv and nintendo, as well as the futon! Phew, we have a lot of furniture! If anyone knows someone in need of a king size mattress, please let us know! We purchased a new bed at the North Dakota State Fair, one of those memory foam ones and now we need to get rid of the old mattress, which is only about 6years old, still looks brand new.

Better get going for now, will post more after my appointment on Tuesday.

Antibody

Well, I finally got impatient enough to call the doctor's office yesterday about the status of the antibody tests. The results were in, but the nurse said that my doctor was just planning on discussing them with me at the next visit...which is not what he told me.

Anyways, she did tell me that the antibody isn't anything that will affect the pregnancy or the baby so that is a huge relief! Yay! :)

Voting

I don't think that everyone that has visited our site has noticed the poll at the bottom of the page to vote for whether you think we are having a boy or a girl. So, I just thought I would throw out the info as a blog post so that everyone knows. :)

Gone Shoppin'

Yesterday we reached the 16 week/4 month mark! Yeah!

I have finally made up my mind about how I want to decorate the nursery. I'm going decorate with Pale Yellow, Sage Green, and Dark Brown. As far as the theme goes, I've chosen Classic Pooh, even though I'm not sure I want to call it a theme for fear of "over-Poohing" the room. Just enough pieces in the right places will be a nice touch. I just love the old time drawings of Pooh, but Jeff teases and calls it Naked Pooh since in the beginning he did not wear his signature little red shirt. Good grief! :)

Today I went to Minot with Jeff's Mom (Eva) to see what there was to see for baby stuff at some of the stores in town. We checked out swings, cribs, clothes, strollers, etc. It was much better to see the stuff in person rather than trying to look online for everything.

Movement

Ladies and gentlemen...we have movement! Late last night while I was sitting in my recliner, I felt a "thud" type feeling in my abdomen. It was the first time I have actually felt the baby move! It wasn't like anything I have ever felt before and very cool! :)

BOW and Upcoming Prenatal Appointment

BOW went pretty well, however I was very tired and sunburned by the time I got home. I took an hour nap with the cat (Missy) who was extremely pleased to see that I was home. She was alone for the weekend, since Jeff was in Bismarck for a state softball tournament. I'll let him comment on how that went. :)

Anyways, our next prenatal appointment is scheduled for September 2nd. I'll be a little over 18 weeks at the time, and I haven't figured out if they are going to do another ultrasound or not. Usually they do the second and final ultrasound at 20 weeks. Since I only go in once a month right now, it will either be this time or the next, when I will be at 22 weeks. So, I'll keep you posted.

BOW

Overall things are still going good with the pregnancy, but I did feel quite dizzy and nauseated this morning every time I tried to stand up/move around, so I didn't end up making it to work until 10:30AM, but have been feeling pretty good since I got here.

Tomorrow I am heading to Becoming an Outdoors Woman in Bottineau, ND for the weekend. I haven't been able to go for the last few years because of poor timing, so I'm really looking forward to this one. I only had to switch one class (Kayaking) after I found out I was pregnant, which is pretty good. I'll be taking Fly Fishing, Archery, Boating Basics and a Knot Tying Course.

This year I will have a "BOW buddy" named Heather going with me. She is Jeff's brother's girlfriend and hasn't been to BOW before. Hopefully it's as fun as I remember, so she doesn't think I made it all up!

I also hope I'm able to keep up with the schedule, since I won't be getting an afternoon nap! I know...I know...LAZY, but hey...BABY ON BOARD! :)

Antibody Update (8/4/08)

Well, the dr called and said that the hospital in Minot was unable to identify the antibody. He's guessing it's a minor one since their equipment is capable of identifying the most major ones. Hopefully that's all it is and that it won't harm the baby. He wants me to come in to offer up more samples to send out to a reference lab as soon as I can.