Babymoon

Jacob and I just returned from our lovely "Babymoon" (that's the honeymoon before the baby :o) in case you were wondering) in Clearwater Beach Florida. It was so nice to be able to just get away for a few days and RELAX...and that is exactly what we did. We had little planned and spent most of our time lounging by the pool, laying on the beach, reading, sleeping in...it was fantastic!! Some nasty weather a few of the days made it even easier to just lay around and let the stress melt away!! The only downside is Jacob was actually sick a few of the days and traveling at 29 weeks pregnant is not the most enjoyable experience ever...my feet and legs swelled up like balloons and I got my first experience with cankles, but luckily the retaining water went away and I officially am back to having separate calves and ankles...haha! Atleast for now! Other than that the babymoon was a success and we both really enjoyed one last little trip before little Autumn joins us in just over 2 months!!

I've been contemplating with the idea of having a maternity photo session done. It's strange because before I was pregnant I was like, I'll never do that...who wants to see pictures of me feeling bloated and huge, but the more I thought about it, the more the idea really grew on me. Mostly because I think it would be fun to put some of the pictures in her baby book for her to look back on. And the fact that it took us so long to get to this place, it might be a nice momentum of the journey and a reminder of just how blessed we are now. So Jacob and I tried to do our own "photo shoot" in Florida...I figured the background would be so beautiful that we could fake the rest. Jacob was a great sport and did a great job at getting some shots...of course this meant he wasn't in any of them either :o( but I think even with the lovely pictures we have (see below) we've still decided to hire a photographer to capture the three of us *grin* during the last month of our pregnancy. We had a recommendation from a coworker to go with Donna Harris and have already contracted with her to do the newborn session with Autumn. So we have decided to ask her to do a maternity session as well. Her next available date is May 18th...so I'll be pushing 38 weeks at that point. Hopefully I won't feel to much like large marge and can capture some great memories of this amazing time!





I had my first bi-weekly appointment at the OB yesterday and the fantastic news is that I passed my gestational diabetes test with flying colors! Yeah! I received a 98 and anything below 140 is considered normal, so that is wonderful! The bad news is I gained 6 pounds in the past 3 weeks! Yikes!! Considering I'd only gained 15 pounds the entire time before that, 6 seemed like a huge number. I'm going to attribute most of it to retaining water from the trip, eating out every meal for the past week while in Florida, and the fact that my co-workers took me out to lunch yesterday for my birthday and we went to Qdoba AND cold stone creamery...so it was not a health food day by any means. Hopefully the next visit that will even out some, but I'm not going to worry too much about it. He also mentioned that my iron levels were a little low. And that he wasn't concerned, but recommended I add some iron rich foods like spinach, beans, iron rich meats, or iron fortified cereals to my diet. He think that will correct the problem completely and that I don't need to take an iron supplement or anything...so that's good. And I had a good laugh during the visit...as he was using the doppler on my belly trying to get a listen to Autumn's heart she gave the wand a good swift kick that I think startled him a little...haha! He was like "oh my, you've got an active one in there" hehe He's got that right...it cracks me up to just watch my belly shake and jiggle as she moves all around in there. She was very active on the plane rides to and from Florida. I'm glad to see she's enjoying herself and stretching her legs a bit. I might change my story in a few weeks as she gets more compressed and I get more and more swift kicks to the gut, but for now it just makes me giggle :o)

You've earned a free ultrasound

Yesterday was my last monthly OB appointment...we are now moving on to the bi-weekly schedule as we enter the third trimester on Saturday!! Woohoo!! I can't believe we're 2/3 the way there and Autumn will be here in just 3 short months! It still feels forever away, but I know the time is going to fly by so I'm just trying to enjoy every little awesome moment of it that I can...rubbing my expanding belly, feeling the little kicks...and the big ones...haha...all the congratulations and friendly questions from friends and strangers about the little one growing inside of me! I love it! Oh and the sleeping in on Saturday mornings...hehe...how could I forget that...sleep is going to be a distant memory as our life is forever going to change in just three short months...it still feels surreal...and I can't wait!

So anyway, yesterday as I'm waiting paitently in my OB's waiting room the door opens and the ultrasound technician calls me in. I'm confused, but figure they're just short of help that day and she's going to take me back to the examination room. As we're walking back though she goes "our last ultrasound we didn't really get a good look at everything, did we?" I of course said no, hoping for a chance to get an unexpected peek at little Autumn. So she says, "well, I better sneak you back there then and just do a quick scan." Yeah!! My wish was coming true! :o) So we went back and did an ultrasound where we got to confirm once again that Autumn is in fact going to be an Autumn...which is probably good since Jacob informed me that morning that he had a very realistic dream that we are actually having a boy! And we also got some pictures of her sucking her thumb, looking directly at us, and of one of her little feet! The ultrasound tech informs me that she thinks she's going to be cute...haha!! It you've ever seen an ultrasound picture...where it's sometimes hard to make out the face from the rear-end...you would find this funny, but I'll totally take the compliment :o) It was great fun though and a welcome surprise for what I thought was just going to be another routine visit! Dr. Chen says everything else looks great! He also gives me my paperwork to go get my gestetional diabetes test done this week...ugh...I really hope that comes back negative! And I mention to him we're going to Florida next week and he said besides staying hydrated and watching my seafood intake that shouldn't be a problem! So I'd say my last OB appointment of the second trimester was a success!

After that I headed over to the acupuncture office. I'd mentioned a few weeks ago that I was considering doing acupuncture again to hopefully help cope with the heart palpitations. I'm still having several an hour...so definitely enough to be annoying, but not sure it's enough to warrant finding the time to go get the treatments...or to pay $60 a pop for them!! But I went yesterday anyway. The new place I'm going is called the Wellness Connection and is a chiropractic office in O'Fallon. Yesterday I was getting my acu-scan done which basically measures different pulse points on your hands and feet and is supposed to tell you where you have imbalances in your body. My scan came back saying I had an imbalance in my lung region which can cause anxiety, stress, and palpitations. So that is what she wants to treat. I give in and end up having a session done, but she can only needles 6 points total (3 on each side)...as there are many point in acupuncture used to induce labor...so obviously at this point we are staying as FAR away from those as possible. So she takes me back to a private room...thank goodness! (if you read my drinking and acupuncture story from last year you know why I'm grateful) and puts a needle in each wrislt, one in the top of my middle fingers, and one in each pinky finger...just by my nail bed. Now, if you've done acupuncture you know it doesn't normally hurt...maybe a little tiny prick, but not bad, well the finger ones are a different story! She said they call them the "sting" points because they definitely carry quite the punch!! The pain fades pretty quickly though and by the end of my 18 minute session both my hands actually feel kind of numb...not sure why, but I guess that means it's doing something. I'm supposed to go back again on Thursday and I'm still kind of teetering with whether to go or not. I mean, I'm managing ok with the palpitations, so again...just trying to decide if it's worth the money and the effort. We shall see!

Other than that everything is going quite well! I have my first baby shower coming in less than three weeks and am ecstatic…I can't wait to just soak up all of it!! It's going to be a blast!!

Nursery & bump pictures

As promised, here is a shot of my belly at 26 weeks...



And the beautiful nursery that my wonderful husband painted this weekend!! He did an awesome job!!






And a close up of the knobs I painted...



Still more to do, but it's come along wonderfully!!