The cankles have returned

Haha...I was hoping the days after our flights to and from Florida was really the only time I would have to deal with the lovely combined calf-ankle experience, but they have definnitely returned. I first noticed yesterday morning that my feet were looking a little puffy, but when I tried to put on my sandals (yes, I said sandals...you know, fairly open style shoes....which you would think would allow from some expansion) they were quite tight…almost to the point of not being able to squish my foot in! And not very comfortable. I think this happened because typically when I'm at my desk working I have my feet propped up on a chair, but I've been in the classroom 3 days this week and thus no foot propping...so I think that caused the swelling. So I am hopeful that they will return to normal once I get a few good days of feet proppage again. I'm considering going for a pedicure this weekend too...which probably won't help, but definitley can't hurt right :o)

So as of tomorrow I will be 34 weeks...only 6 short weeks to go! The nursery is about complete, I have started buying a few necessities for the hospital bag, and am planning on investing in some diapers this weekend. We visited a day care last week that just opened right around the corner from our house...and feel pretty confident that that is where we will be sending Autumn when it's time for me to return to work...hopefully it survives the small business start up phase though so we don't have to start over at square one! So, I'm definitley feeling a little better about everything as we head in to the home stretch. I'm sure you can never be totally prepared...and even when you are stuff always comes up...but the more I can check off the list early the better I feel!! Next on the list...the very important task of creating a birthing playlist for my i-pod...haha! Jacob and I had talked about doing this a while back...just because I love music and it really does have a calming effect on me...so I figured it would be nice to have some of our favorite songs playing while we're in the hospital. Well, last night we were watching the show Accidentally on Purpose and Billy "the pregnant one" was looking for her i-pod to pack in her hospital bag when she found out Zack "the father" had accidentally smashed it. She got all upset and exclaimed that she was really looking forward to the song "Push it" by Salt N Pepa playing during the pushing phase...haha...Jacob and I both agreed we need to download that and add it to our list :o)

Other than that, back to the doctor on Monday...and then two weeks after that, at 36 weeks, the weekly appointments start and they do an ultrasound to check her weight, see if she is head down, etc. I believe that is when they begin doing cervix checks too so they know when I begin dilating, etc. Exciting weeks ahead!!! Oh my!

Let the countdown begin!!

8 weeks...can you believe it...only 8 short weeks till Autumn is scheduled to make her arrival into our world. I feel so ready and so not ready all at the same time...haha!! I can't wait to meet her and become a family...and to see Jacob with her...and find out if she got my hair color or his tiny ears *grin* I can't wait to hold her and kiss her and just fall head over heels in love with her!! I can't even imagine the emotions that will come along with welcoming her into our lives...we've been waiting so long for this, I know it's going to be amazing!! At the same time there's also the anxiety of the labor and delivery, the unfamiliarity of taking care of something so important and so dependent on me...it's scary...I just want to be a good Mom...it's the most important job I've ever had...and as the time gets closer I just pray that I can be the Mom she deserves to have!

So 32 weeks...the past few weeks have flown by...we had my first shower on March 27th and it was awesome! My cousins went all out...they made a cake that looked like a stroller, had cute little socks and clothes hanging from a clothes line, they even made a flower bouquet out of a bib, onsie, and socks...they are so creative! It was great...the best shower I ever could have expected!! And the best part was just having all my family around celebrating Autumn's life with me. It's crazy to think how far we've come! Last year this time we were still struggling through the minefields of infertily...uncertain really if we would ever make it to the place we are now. Unsure if we were ever going to be able to hold our biological child in our arms...or pass along my creative gene and Jacob's athletisism. Praying that God had a plan for us that was beyond what we could hope or imagine...and looking back I think it's these scars that make this moment and the next few weeks all the more exciting!!

I'm going to leave you with some of the awesome pictures Donna Harris captured during our maternity session last week. Jacob was such a great sport...neither one of us are fans of having our pictures taken, but he played along really well...and maybe even enjoyed himself a little! Donna was great too...she had lots of creative ideas...and I think she did an awesome job capturing some memories of this amazing time in our lives. And she's going to be taking Autumn's newborn pictures too...so I can't wait to see how those turn out!!

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)