Monday, September 30, 2013

Count Down to Baby {36 Weeks}

It seems so crazy that we're at the tail end of the pregnancy (36 weeks, 4 weeks to go until due date!), in one week it is considered full term & perfectly acceptable for us to have Baby Girl! I'm just really struggling to wrap my mind around the fact that we're between one and five weeks from meeting her! (And then I struggle to accept that there is roughly a 5 week window there, making it difficult to plan life and the changes we're about to have!)

We had our last shower this past weekend so now we're just putting everything away and deciding what we "have to have" that's left on the registries verses "nice to have". It's all a little daunting, particularly since we've come full circle to face my fear of the "bottle wall" again. (I mean how can there be so many different options that all claim to be the best??)

I'm also beginning to slightly panic about the fact that I don't know everything (duh). I've just always considered myself to be well informed and I do my research, so things I don't already know I make it a point to learn. Then my world came crashing down the other day when John and I were hanging and folding clothes for Baby Girl and he asked how he should know if it was pajamas to fold for the drawer or clothes to hang in the closet?  I calmly replied "if it has footies on it, it's pajamas" - how foolish of me! 

There are these lovely adorable garments that have footies that are clearly not pajamas but not obviously an outfit. Now I'm terribly paranoid that I will dress my child in pajamas to go out of the house without realizing it and everyone else in the world will know what I've done because they have somehow deciphered the pajama verses outfit code and stand there and judge my poor parenting. Oh, and how the heck am I supposed to pair back up these adorable 3 piece sets with the pants, jackets & onsies after they have to be washed in 3 seperate loads due to their colors and mixed in with the 50 bazillion other outfits we've been gifted? I'm grateful I tell you, but it's stressing me out!! 

Now that I'm doubting my ability to dress my child, I'm sure I'll fail as a parent in every other aspect and will have some catastrophic "oh you didn't know that?" incident that will involve CPS by 6 weeks old. Anyone else have this fear? Nope? Just me? Yup - I know I'm loosin' it!


Weight Gain: 1 pound for the pregnancy!

Maternity Clothes: A very sore subject! I'm so disappointed in my maternity shirts! None, not one of them is long enough on me now! So I either wear a dress (but all of my dresses are summer dresses and it's beginning to actually get cool around here) or I wear my too-short shirts with my pants and just deal with the tacky stretch belly band showing. :(  No way can I justify spending more money on clothes now that we're in the final stretch... Grrr.....

Stretch Marks: Have bred like a bunch of gerbils and now mar my previously porcelain skin all across my belly.

Belly Button In or Out: Out & quite the entertainment for my shower guests when Baby Girl moves and makes it stick out further or suddenly jut back in. It's hard to hide it behind clothes when you're as round as I am these days.

Wedding Ring on or off: On, but I think I may finally have to take it off - I'm swelling slightly all the time now and I'm worried I'll have a bad water retention day and not be able to get it off.

Symptoms:I'm throwing up again, not sure why that joyful symptom reappeared.

Cravings:  Food is pretty revolting to me to be honest.

Aversions: None!

Sleep:It could be better, but it has certainly been worse!

I am loving:That her nursery is almost finished & our house is showing obvious signs that we're about to have a little baby in it!

I miss: Sushi, cold cut sandwiches, pina coladas, & Monster energy drinks.


Best moment this week: The last 2 weeks we have been so blessed by our friends & family with our baby showers! "Thank you" just doesn't seem adequate to the wonderful ladies that have hosted them for us & Baby Girl!

Milestones: We have made it to the weekly OB appointment mark! She could come at any time, but no later than 11/5 (since they won't let me go past 42 weeks)!


Exercise: We live about 6 blocks from my Dad's house, so I've started leaving my car there & walking from our house to his in the mornings. It's always my intention to walk home when I park the car there in the evenings but it's either been too hot (which shouldn't be an issue anymore!), or I'm just far too exhausted to even contemplate the walk so I con a brother into driving me the 6 blocks home.

Goals for the upcoming week:Finish out my to-do lists! I've already re-classified some items as unnecessary for before her birth though it would have been nice to get them done.

Nursery: It's almost finished!! I need to hang curtains & find a home for some of the clothes living in our crib right now. We do have a section of wall that could use some wall art, but I'm planning on hanging some pictures of Baby girl once she comes & some of our Maternity pictures, but we don't have those back yet. It may just have to remain blank until after she comes.

Bump watch:
It doesn't depict the actual size of my baby bump very well, but I thought it was fun - we took this on our nightly walks in a local park. (What it does show, is how large I feel!!)

Monday, September 16, 2013

Bumpdate {34 Weeks}

Date: 9/9/13

Due Date: 10/22/13

How far along?:  33 weeks, 6 days - so basically 34 weeks. About 5 weeks to go!!

Weight Gain: I've lost 3 pounds since our last doctors visit, so no weight gain for the pregnancy.

My baby is the size of a: Very large, bladder crushing, pelvic bone bruising Pineapple.

Maternity Clothes: I can't seem to find shirts that are long enough to cover my belly & the stretchy part of my pants anymore. :(

Wedding Ring on or off: On - but there are days I take it off depending on how badly my hands are swelling.

Symptoms: The last week or so I've started experiencing really painful Pelvic pain. She is head down and sitting quite low (the one + from our L&D visit was getting an unexpected sonogram!) which explains a lot of the pain - it just doesn't alleviate it. Other than not being able to sleep between the pelvic pain & round ligament pain - I'm doing pretty good!

Cravings:  Snow Cones & Key Lime Pie.

Sleep:Stress (from work) + Very large whale like belly + Pelvic pain (and the cold ice pack I try to use on it at night) = No sleep for me!

I am looking forward to: Our Baby showers this weekend & next! Getting the last of the stuff for her nursery & getting that all set up and finalized!


Best moment this week: John and I had a stay-cation in Fort Worth this weekend. It was great and exactly what we needed with all the stress & changes that are coming!

Worst moment this week: The worlds most expensive hospital visit to L&D that included an hour and a half wait in the ER waiting room because L&D was full ((though we did call ahead!) and there were 3 other laboring moms waiting with me). Turns out my water didn't break -  I apparently peed my pants (oh joy!) and was experiencing Braxton Hicks.

Emotions: Not really pregnancy related, but work and my ever-growing to do list plus recent car problems really has me quite stressed. 

Milestones: Nothing in particular, but we're in the home stretch!!
Oh! We just scheduled our last bi-monthly OB visit, next we go weekly!!

Movement: Tons! Though poor baby girl is quickly running out of room!


Exercise: Not any scheduled or routine exercise. We've been walking a lot on the weekends! I think that greatly contributed to the weight loss since the last visit two weeks ago.


Goals for the upcoming week:We've officially hit the point that I knew was coming - busy season at work! It will 100% be a miracle if some of these things get done at this point because I sure don't have the time/energy.
Install a Doorbell, Hospital Paperwork (& call and fight about their inability to properly file my insurance resulting in their delusional idea of how much we are "estimated" to owe and want paid before Baby Girl comes), Mail those darn thank-yous I keep forgetting about!, Finish packing Hospital Bags, Hang Pegboard in the nursery & figure out the art for it, install the carseats & attempt some of the junk on my Nesting List ...
.... Whew! (Cue Panic!)

Nursery: It's really coming together! I'm very happy with it and hope that after our showers I will have time to take pictures of the finished room & post them!

Bump watch: I don't have a belly picture for this week, I kept meaning to take one but realize that if I wait until I have time to take a picture at a mirror or con John into it I'll never make this post... SO, I'm big and pregnant, much like last week and much like I will be next week. ;)

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

The beginning of the end

As we draw to the end of our pregnancy we're very aware of the fact that this is the end of life being just the two of us.  I think I'm more worried about this than John is, but I also saw what life was like in a house full of kiddos - granted that was from a child's perspective but I'm still nervous about what this will mean for us as a couple when little-one comes along. 

So, in the last few weeks of life as Two, I'm trying to do as much as I physically can and make the most of each day!

This past weekend was a crazy one!!

Friday we left work early and headed to Dallas for the SMU vs. Tech game! We had a great time cheering our team on, even in the miserable heat!

(On another note about Friday, President George W. Bush did the coin toss... I think I may be the only person in the whole stadium that didn't get a picture because my *brand new* dumb phone decided to freeze up right then!)



Saturday was a busy day! We had Maternity pictures that morning! Then the afternoon was spent with a friend in town from the football game. We met up back in Dallas and toured the new George W. Bush Library & Museum. I loved the Library! It was so interactive and really family friendly! I was surprised to see so many pregnant ladies, new mommas and families with little ones there!




I'm not thinking she will adjust well to not being the only baby...





Sunday we kind of took the day to relax. We were entertaining house guests so we didn't make it to church. It was a day of errands, necessary to-dos (like the grocery store) and loving on our fur-babies!


Monday (Happy Labor Day!) was spent with family! Probably the last holiday family gathering until Baby Girl arrives!
It was requested that I make my Moms Banana Pudding - It isn't difficult, but it is laborious. It was so yummy. Just the way I remember her making it! I love making things from recipes in her handwriting!



I'm so excited for this upcoming weekend! It is the only weekend in the month of September that we didn't have something scheduled; so, we're going to do a BabyMoon/Stay-cation. 
We decided that going on a big trip wasn't a wise decision budget wise, especially since we moved and bought a vehicle this summer; but now that we're nearing the end of the "Two of Us" days we really feel the need for a little get-away. (The only one we will have had since our Anniversary/Birthday extravaganza back in January) We're going to Fort Worth (just an hour down the road) and we plan to tour the Botanical Gardens and the Water Gardens (neither of us have seen either) and then that evening go on one of our favorite outtings as a couple - the Drive in Theater (one of the things we miss most about Lubbock!)!! 
Any other fun activity recommendations for Fort Worth??

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Budgeting for the Busy

Budgeting is a huge part of our lives. John and I embody those statistics that randomly pop up about how much a marriage discusses/revolves etc around money. Today alone we have exchanged 16 texts about finances and our budget. Thankfully we are on the same page about how we should manage our money so we aren't (usually) in the statistical group that fights about finances.

My very favorite budgeting tool is YNAB - but just as I said in my YNAB post, "it takes dedication and work" to log each and every transaction into the program. Getting behind even one day can throw off our budget by quite a bit.

Life has been really busy here of late. We've gotten moved and are working on settling in and setting up house, but I'm also ginormous pregnant! If I'm struggling to keep up with recording our finances now, I doubt it will get much better come October when we have a little-one in tow. So, we have regressed to our old days of budgeting and I'm so happy!

Before our days of YNAB and now that I need to take a step back, we are using Mint.com to manage our finances. 

Unlike other programs and softwares, Mint automatically updates your transactions and codes them for you. The most I ever have to do to manually enter information is occasionally correct where an item was applied (ie a haircut being applied to the grocery budget) or split a transaction between more than one category. 

Safety?  While I'm not an expert in computer stuff, I feel perfectly safe giving my information to Mint to compile my finances in their program. I know several other people who use this program and none of them have ever had issues either. You can't actually move or touch your money through the program - all you can do is see what you have done with it.

This is different than other budgeting ideas in terms of you are only seeing what you've already done with your money. SO, if you go a bit crazy on a weekend shopping spree Mint is only useful as a tool to tell you where your money went, you're not telling it where to go or giving it a "job". BUT, Mint does have a budgeting tool! You lay out how much you will spend in each category & you can get email alerts as you are nearing (or exceeding) the allotted amount in that line item on your budget.



Privacy: A feature that I really like is the log in - for YNAB you can just click on the icon & there's all your account balances and information from the past however long. It doesn't show account numbers, but someone can see how much money you have & where it is. With Mint you have a username and password to access your account. Much like your bank website or other financial institution, if you're inactive for a certain period of time it logs you out.
(Handy if you're at work and get distracted & walk off from your desk!)

OH - and did I mention that this is FREE?!? Mint.com is 100% free! I am a firm believer that everyone should have a budget! Even if you make way above your cost of living - you need to have a plan for that money honey! The only way to make your money work for you is to plan out where & how you spend it! So, if you're new to budgeting and just want to get your feet wet, this is a great way to do so! 

(All of these images are screenshots from Mint.com not my actual account information)