October 29, 2006 – I wanted to send a very SPECIAL THANKS to Lori Spicer and Kristin Morley for hosting my baby shower. It was a wonderful day and I had such a great time. I am so lucky to have them as friends! Thank you both so very much.

October 29, 2006 – With all the crazy commotion of last week I completely forgot my weekly update. So here goes…I had a doctors appointment on Friday (10/27) and gained another pound. I am now at 17 pounds according to my doctor. The baby’s heartrate was 138 beats per minute and as always sounded so wonderful to my ears. I measured in at 32 cm. I feel wonderful but the doctor said that this time my blood pressure was higher than normal and that there was some protein in my urine. I tried to explain that I had run across the parking lot as I was running late but she said she doubted that was it. She said we will monitor me and make sure it doesn’t get worse. From what I understand, these symptoms indicate that I could get pre-eclampsia (basically pregnancy-induced hypertension). At this time, I am not changing anything and will see in two weeks if anything has changed. I’m not worried about it and the baby is fine which is all that matters. We’ll keep you posted.

The baby was putting on quite the show for Marc last night. She was extremely active and Marc was really impressed by all her movement. Usually, the sure fire way to get her to stop moving is to have Marc touch my tummy. I think she is finally getting used to him. Who knows. I just love feeling her move inside me. I can’t believe that I am going to have a baby in as little as 7 weeks.

October 26, 2006-I have to tell you all that I am a truly blessed person. I am sure you already know that this past weekend was my baby shower which came with MANY surprises. My mom came in on Thursday and we completely just chilled and got caught up. It was wonderful and sunny. We sat on the deck and enjoyed our time together. Friday, the plan was to get up, hang out and then drive to Marc’s work and go to lunch with my friend Lori and her 1 yr old daughter. All along, I was thinking this was my idea. On the drive up, we were reminiscing about the time when Meg, Dora and Jenny surprised me for my bachelorette party. I said that the only time it was okay for Marc to lie to me was if it had to do with a present or a surprise. Then, low and behold, we stop at Marc’s work to pick him up and he says “why don’t I just drive over to lunch in case you want to hang out longer”. I thought this was weird but he knew Mom and I might want to shop afterwards. Another thing I totally missed was the fact that Mom brought her camera to lunch with her. Strange but not alarming to me as she does crazy things often. So we walk into the restaurant and see Lori and Aly at this huge table way in the back. Again, I think this is strange but who knows. I get to the table, say hello to Lori and Aly and WHAMO…Joan and Erin (my 2 best friends from high school) pop out from around the corner and yell surprise. I couldn’t believe it. I was in total shock! I knew that I knew them but couldn’t figure out what was going on. It was soo great and hilarious that I had been talking about surprises on the way up with Mom. After lunch we all headed back to my house for a relaxing afternoon on the deck in the sun. It was wonderful. But wait, there’s more…
Friday night, we decided to stay in and order Chinese. I have to admit that I was freaking out about how I was going to be able to keep up with Joan and Erin and assumed we would have to go out to a bar and party. Well, we ate dinner and were just hanging out talking. Something we do very, very well and it is about 9:00pm now. Mom pops upstairs and then Marc’s cell phone rings (mom is calling him). Marc answers and has a semi-weird call and hangs up. I ask who it was and he said it was Davey. Davey’s car has broken down and he has to go pick him up. I think this is weird and Marc refuses to make eye contact with me but I really can’t be that bothered as my best friends are here. Well, Marc leaves and we continue to chat and laugh a ton. About an hour and a half later, Marc arrives home and walks through the door. I look up and see someone in front of him. My first thought is WOW, Davey sure looks like a girl. Well, it turned out to be Sybil (my other best friend from high school)!! She flew in from Vermont. Again, I couldn’t believe my eyes. My 3 best friends from high school all at my house! It was totally amazing. My favorite saying all weekend was “I can’t believe you are here”.
Saturday was the baby shower and it went so well. There were about 25 people. It was a lot of fun and you wouldn’t believe all the presents. I have posted a bunch of pictures on my blog. I was telling Mom on Friday that I was a little worried as I only had 2 outfits for the baby (one of which was a bathrobe) but by the end of the shower, we ended up with 55 outfits for our little girl. I really do pray she will be a little girl as 95% of the clothes we received are pink. So cute and PINK! I LOVE IT!

Saturday night we all just vegged out and relaxed from the crazy days events. Ordered pizza and talked. Sunday morning, I drove the girls to the airport. It was all so wonderful and fun.

I wouldn’t change one thing in my life right now. I have the most amazing husband, family and friends. Every time I think it can’t get any better, it just does. I am not sure what I have done to deserve such a wonderful life but I thank God each day it is this way.

October 17, 2006 – So I have to admit that I was completely busted eating crackers in the bed the other night at 3am. I had already been awake for an hour and was starving. I had the forethought a few nights before to put some crackers next to my bed since I keep waking up hungry. Wow, I never realized how good crackers could taste. I never would have been caught but the cracker wrappers make soooo much noise! Marc rolled over and asked if I needed anything else. Nice husband. I’m not sure he even knew what he asked me.

Maybe this is where the saying “I wouldn’t kick her out of bed for eating crackers” came from??? Just a thought.

October 13, 2006 – Friday night I had a wonderful mini baby shower with some friends from my old job. Dawn, Kim, Tracy, Nancy and Amanda met me at Buca di Beppo for dinner and it was wonderful (pictures are posted). We laughed and talked and it was really fun. They gave us a great jog stroller for the baby. My only fear is that they might expect me to start jogging again. I think I will sign Marc up for the jogging part and I will stick with the quick walking.

I love friends that don’t mind if you haven’t talked or emailed them in a long time. Friends that stay friends with you no matter what. Life is way too busy and hectic to have high maintenance friends. My friends are great!

October 13, 2006 – I know that is scary in itself but I’ve been thinking that the reason you get a body pillow while pregnant isn’t just for comfort. I think it has something to do with getting used to giving up more of your space in bed. I assume, at some times, that baby will be sleeping in bed with us, thus, the body pillow acts as a training tool. However, I only pray that I do not throw my leg up and over the baby like I do with that pillow. That would not be good.

I was also thinking that it is really scary that we are going to have a baby in a very short time. I don’t really know anything about babies. I am reading tons and learning a bunch but in reality, I haven’t really had much exposure to those cute little bundles. Yes, I love to hold them and squeeze them but as soon as it is time to feed, change or do any of that other scary stuff I typically give them back. I don’t think that tactic will work with our own baby. What if I drop her????

October 12, 2006 – Is it a good idea to get up in the middle of the night if you are hungry? Last night I woke up famished at 12:30 and really wanted a Pop Tart. I don’t even think I really like Pop Tarts very much nor do we have any on hand at our house. Instead I just lied there thinking how good they would taste. I drank some water and eventually fell back to sleep. Maybe tonight I will at least crave something we have.

October 11 – I heard from my doctor on Monday and the test results for the glucose and blood count all came back super, great! All levels were right where they are supposed to be. Not sure where they are supposed to be but who cares as long as the baby is healthy and growing. I have been sick with cold since Saturday morning and can’t decide if having a cold while pregnant is worse than when you are not pregnant. I think it just seems worse since I don’t really want to take any drugs. Usually I would just throw back a ton of cold medicine and sleep it off. I doubt that is what the doctor would order for me now. Oh well. I hope it will be gone soon.

Marc and I put the crib up on Saturday morning. (Pictures are posted). I love it. It is cute and white. It seems huge for such a small baby to sleep in. I realize it will be a while before she sleeps there but still.

We are still working on baby names. I think we have narrowed it down to 8 now. Sorry Donna, I know you want to know the name NOW! Mom will be out here in a week. I can’t wait. I am really looking forward to seeing her and to my baby shower. It will be great to see all my friends.

Is it normal to walk into your closet at night to pick out clothes for the next day and then totally break down because you can’t fit into any clothes you really want to wear? Sound familiar to anyone? I think this might be okay. I know for sure that it prompts your husband to ask if you need to go shopping. Those words are rarely heard at my house, unfortunately, I was too upset to agree. What was I thinking?? I have warned everyone I know that for the next few months they will see me in all of the same outfits over and over again. It’s hard to bring myself to spend lots of money on clothes that I can only wear for a few months. I know, things could be a lot worse.

October 5, 2006 – We had our 28 week appointment today and all went well. I measured in at 30 cm from top to bottom of my tummy (or whatever they measure). The baby’s heartbeat was 148 beats per minute and sounded wonderful to my ears. The nurse had a hard time finding the heartbeat at first but not to worry, that just means she is very active and always on the move. I have now officially gained 16 lbs. The doctor told me that the baby is very large for this stage of the pregnancy. She said she probably weighs about 3 to 3 ½ pounds already. She said we will monitor that closely so that she doesn’t get too big before my due date. With my luck, all the growth will be in her head. I had a glucose test and blood count test done yesterday as well. I won’t get those results until Monday. The glucose test is pretty gross as you have to drink this super sweet orange stuff and then wait an hour for the blood draw. It wasn’t quite as bad as I thought it was going to be but I would prefer not to have to do it again.

Okay, I was being very inpatient the other day so I went and bought the crib for the nursery. It was just something I had to do, at that very moment. Well, as Marc pointed out, I bought a crib with no way of getting it home. I just assumed it would fit in my new car. No way in a million years would that have worked. So I had to have my neighbor Don and Marc go and pick it up the other night. The box is huge. We (I really mean Marc here) are going to put it up this weekend. I would like to have the nursery pretty much done by the time Mom gets here and before the baby shower.