32 weeks!

I am so grateful to have officially made it to 32 weeks - only 5 - 6 more to have a full term baby! (some say 37, some say 38?) None the less, I hope and pray Baby Dean will stay put for at least 6 more; considering my uterus has been handling a 38 week belly for over a month now!


It is pretty amazing to me how big my belly has gotten - I certainly don't feel THAT big, but I suppose that is because I have somewhat become accustomed to it? :-) I have noticed that I outgrow maternity shirts in a matter of 3 weeks; that being the reason I have only been buying one or two at a time! ;-) haha

I have two doctor's appointments this week; unfortunately Nolan will miss both because he is out in California for his ground job (which he happens to be awesome at, so I am glad he was able to go, and he was able to go home one last time before Baby Dean makes his grand entrance! YAY!).

The specialist appointment is on Wednesday and my "every 2 weeks" OB doctor appointment is on Friday. I really have no expectations for either appointment... just to see and hear that Baby Dean is continuing to thrive and that I am doing well! :-) An Aggie friend, Laura, is going with me to see the ultrasound at the specialist appointment, so that should be pretty cool - especially for her, as she doesn't have any children yet!

At the end of the week, Nolan will be back! WHOOP! and on Saturday, we will be taking maternity photos...

A while back I attended an Officer Spouses Club event; I don't attend too many base wide spouse's events, I mainly stick with the squadron ladies... but I was killing time so I went! The "tea"/membership drive itself was nothing to write home about, however the raffle was! Nolan's squadron's CO's (Commanding Officer) wife purchased 4 tickets for each of the wives that were present from our squadron, and obviously let us choose what we wanted to try to win... Well, I put 2 in a photo shoot drawing and the other 2 in different ones, that I can't recall. And... believe it or not, I won! a photo shoot (and so did the CO's wife). I think we were the last ones to drop our tickets in and they didn't do a lot of mixing them up I suppose; hey whatever works! The best part about winning this photo shoot was that come to find out, it is with the girl I was planning to use for my maternity and newborn photos! WHOOP! :-) My good friend, Inga, whose daughter was born in July used this photographer and the photos are too cute. So, by "winning" the photo shoot we are saving $50 off of the package.

This is a link to her website.

The photographer, Megan, recommended doing the photos at 32 - 34 weeks, so we planned accordingly and now here we are at 32 weeks and I am at least 38 weeks big! LOL There will be no doubt that they are maternity photos!

I am a little nervous since A) I have no fashion sense to begin with and have even less clothes to choose from being that I am pregnant in Jacksonville, NC (a city with no vision, but that is another post) and B) I don't really feel like Nolan and I are incredibly photogenic/know how to take pictures and maybe that is simply because we have never had formal pictures taken, aside from at a our wedding, but I am sure Megan will get some great shots of the 3 of us! ;-) And when we get home, I might try to get our neighbor to snap a few shots of us with Sandi...

You might wonder how Nolan's Bell's Palsy is doing... it is still, slowly but surely improving... his smile is almost all there and his eye is getting better and better at shutting on it's own!
As long as he doesn't blink (with his left eye) the pictures will be great! I only mention that because I took ONE (you should always take 2 right?) picture of him on his birthday last week, with his DQ Ice Cream Cake and he must have blinked because one eye is open and the other is closed! Rats!

Have a great week!!

Specialist Visit

Although it was very last minute (the OB doctor I saw on Thursday didn't put my referral in :-( ) so Nolan wasn't able to go, I was able to see a maternal fetal specialist out in town yesterday! Yay for an office employee over in OB at the Naval Hospital who got the referral in the system and scheduled me a same day appointment! :-)

Overall, the appointment was very reassuring to me to see that he is growing and all seems to be going along just fine in there... I didn't get any pictures - boo! (I totally forgot to ask!), but he is looking great at 4 lbs. 4 oz., meaning he gained a full pound in a little less than 2 weeks.

They looked at so many different parts - his brain, his umbilical cord (the blood is flowing well), his hands (which do appear normal - something about his knuckles - that do not lead them to believe he has Down Syndrome), his feet (his toes were so cute and tiny), his legs, his kidneys, his stomach (he has a stomach bubble, so they do believe he is swallowing okay) his spine, his face (although he still likes keep his hands up by his face) and a lot of time was spent trying to get good pictures of all of the parts of his heart.... Being that I have so much extra amniotic fluid it can sometimes be a positive for doing ultrasounds, while other times it can be a negative. For one part of his heart, the way that he was positioned (he is now head down) and because of the fluid and the shadows created by his lungs/fluid, they weren't able to be certain of what they were seeing.... soooo... to be on the safe side (more so to know for sure if he has any heart defects, so that he can be delivered in a place where there are pediatric cardiologists to take care of his heart) they are sending us to have a pediatric echo-cardiogram in Raleigh on the 12th of November. There doesn't seem to be a huge concern about his heart; all looks good, but not being able to see to be certain seems to be the reason for the cardio specialist visit.

I had hoped that the specialist would make a tentative plan for us, but it seems at 31 weeks, there is still quite a bit of time for things to change, so we are holding our plans loosely I suppose. There is always a possibility that the fluid could peak/stabilize or even begin to decrease, which either would be great!

However, at this point, with so much extra fluid, she reiterated the high risk of preterm labor - and that if my water breaks I will definitely know and to go immediately to an ER... since there is no telling what the baby or the cord will do if and when it breaks... the worst being the cord coming out first, thus cutting off the baby's supply of oxygen, when his head comes after it. The specialist is glad that I am not currently working and will be seeing me again next week, Wednesday, to keep an eye on my amniotic fluid levels. Until then I am trying to slow myself down a little bit, just to be on the safe side. They were surprised I don't often feel short of breath, with all of this fluid, but I suppose that is a good thing. :-)

Until next time... :-)

Baby Shower with Friends

Although at times it may be a bummer to live so far away from both of our families, it is times like last Saturday mid-morning/afternoon that remind us that we are surrounded by a different kind of family that is incredibly amazing!

My two girl friends, Amy and Inga, whom we met while living in Corpus Christi (December '08 I believe) threw the most amazing baby shower for Baby Dean and me! :-) Inga was a Kindergarten teacher (so much more fun and creative than a middle school teacher like myself) in Illinois for 3 years and Amy is a practicing RN who loves to and is always such a generous host! What a great duo, right?!

Hosts Inga and Amy! :-)

I quickly discovered they were going above and beyond when this is the invite that we got in the mail....

As Dr. Seuss was the theme, Amy handmade each of these Cat in the Hat hats and she and her husband, Kevin, made the green PVC/very Dr. Seuss-ish tree to hang them on!

The "brunch" spread of food - YUM!

Dessert
Homemade creme filled cupcakes made by Inga

Meagan, Jen, and Angela
All are VMM-263 wives, but Nolan and I have known most throughout flight school...

Current neighbor, Hilary (L), Old neighbor, Shana, (back), Sherri (front right)
Sherri is a fellow Texan and also a 263 spouse

Marley, 263 C.O.'s wife, and Carol, a friend from the base chapel that we attend on Sundays

A few Bible Study friends...
Ryanne, Erika, Sarah

A few more Bible Study ladies...
Laura (fellow Aggie, met in Corpus), Anna (fellow 263 spouse)

Gifts for Baby Dean!

Myself and Nolan as babies...

Opening gifts...

More gifts...

Nolan opens all the gifts that come to our house now, since I opened so many at my shower!

One of the many hand/home made gifts (my friends are super crafty!)
This one says Vote for Pedro (since Nolan looks like Napoleon Dynamite...)

Personalized Aggie jersey...

The sign Amy made... was EXACTLY at the same height as my Baby Dean belly! haha

One word:
Blessed! :-)
Our counter top full of gifts!

And gifts keep coming via mail!

What a wonderful day of celebrating the upcoming arrival of Baby Dean! :-) We look forward to meeting him and using all of said gifts - maybe in only 7 more weeks! Whoop!