Tomorrow is the big day!

So our due date came and went and well...no baby.  Brooks apparently is comfortable and content with where he is...unfortunately I am not so comfortable.  This past week I've really begun to waddle and with each day the back pain only gets worse.  I'm literally walking like I'm 90 years old.  I can't complain, this has really been the only uncomfortable part so far and to only have to endure it for a week is not really that bad.
Our doctor is going to induce us tomorrow at 8:00 am (last checkup I was still 3 cm dilated, but effaced to 90%) so we are packed and ready to go!  Or maybe I should say Brooks and I are packed and ready to go.  Michael who waits until the last minute for everything (yes even packing for the birth of his own son) is currently downstairs getting his stuff together. He is also not going to put the car seat in the car until tomorrow because he doesn't see why we need to do it tonight.  Don't ask, I really think he does it because he knows it drives me CRAZY!  Oh and BTW, the car seat has been in the car (checked by fire dept and everything) for a month, but we had to take it out last week to fit everyone in the car and it just hasn't been put back in.
So what does one do the day before their life is about to change forever?  We had a very relaxed day for the most part.  We decided to go ahead and put all of our Christmas decorations up so we wouldn't have to deal with that and a newborn and mom came over and helped clean one last time.  We went to eat with four of our best friends (Mexican of course), visited with Jax, and then went to Lowes to return a light.  Tonight we've just chilled on the couch and did the norm...watched Friends reruns, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy.  I know, we are too much to handle!  Oh and it's Monday so of course I will likely fall asleep to MNF.  :)
We are sooooo excited for tomorrow and I know it's going to be a long night of trying to sleep.  I've not been sleeping well anyway and the excitement of what is to come is only going to make it harder!  I absolutely cannot wait to meet Brooks and pray what every mom prays for...a healthy happy baby!!!
 
 

Four more days, or less hopefully!

Thanksgiving was great!  Wednesday we ate with the Cultons, Thursday I worked 1/2 day and then ate with the Bradleys, and on Friday we had Thanksgiving in Nashville with the Guthries (minus Josh and John).  It was so good to see everyone!
Friday we had our 39 week check up.  I had been dilated only 1/2 cm and was 75% effaced for three weeks prior, but finally made some progress this week.  I am now 3 cm dilated and 75% effaced.  I'm sure the Kentucky loss to Indiana the Saturday before had something to do with this.  :)  We are as ready as we can be...nursery is finished (our good friend Jason painted a mural of a tree on his wall over his crib that I love), Michael's finals are over (all A's so far), the house is clean, Christmas decorations are up, and I'm caught up at work.  We are just waiting....
My doctor seems to think I will go before my next appointment which is this Thursday and his due date, but we will see.  If he's anything like his dad he will be here December 22nd (due date) at 11:59 pm.  I'm sure with my next post, Brooks will be here!  Here's hoping Christmas comes early for us!

5 weeks...35 days...one major holiday...away from our due date!

However you want to look at it we are getting close!  We had our 35 week check up today and will continue to go weekly until Brooks makes his appearance.  Everything continues to look great as far as BP, my weight, and baby HR goes.  We haven't had an US since week 21 and since we haven't had any atypical symptoms or problems we won't be seeing him until he's here.  Kind of sad, but blessed that we don't NEED another US.
We've had three baby showers and have received so many amazing gifts!  Brooks is one loved baby!  His nursery is near completed except for one kind of important item...his crib.  He will likely be sleeping in our room (NOT in our bed) for the first few months while I'm breast feeding so he won't need his crib for a while, but it sure would be nice to have it before he arrives.  I'm crossing my fingers it comes in before Thanksgiving, which is when we were told it would be here.
I've been having LOTS of Braxton Hicks contractions, as many as 6 in a 30 minute time span, but they usually taper off at some point and never consistently speed up or become painful.  Unfortunately, I hear the real contractions feel nothing like Braxton Hicks contractions.
We leave for Thanksgiving in Nashville a week from today!  I cannot wait to see all my family and my doctor reassured me that there are plenty of good hospitals in Nashville, just in case.  I also found out today that my doctor is on call the entire week of Christmas (bad for her, but great for us)!  Hopefully he's here before Christmas, but if not, I feel much better knowing that she is likely to be there rather than a doctor I've never met before.
We are overflowing with excitement and trying not to take any of these quiet days and nights for granted!  I'm trying to enjoy my sleep as much as possible because sooner rather than later it's going to be interrupted by a cute lil blue eyed baby!  BLESSED!

Time flies

Has it really been two months since my last blog?  Okay, so I admit I'm not the best blogger in the world.  Time has been flying and I'm not complaining!  We are almost 7 months along and my doctor said we would definitely meet our baby boy no later than December 29th.  I had to know whether or not she would induce me by that point due to insurance reasons.  I haven't braved up enough to ask her what her Christmas plans are yet...here's to hoping her family is staying close for the holidays.  She's the only doctor I have seen the entire time and I really want her to be there when Brooks decides to come into this crazy world.

Quick two month recap...A few friends and myself hosted a couples wedding shower for our good friends Lucy and Shane, Amy and I took a trip to Illinois to visit the Maxam family, Lucy Martin became Lucy Jenkins (such a FUN wedding), I found out my cousin Alicia and her amazing husband are pregnant again, and somewhere in all of that our anticipation for our new arrival grew even more!

Looking forward to...I hate to jump the gun, but is it Thanksgiving yet?  Not only is it one of my favorite holidays, but this year we are going to Nashville to celebrate with the Guthrie side of the family and I am sooo excited to see everyone!  I also have my ten year high school reunion this Saturday followed by two baby showers the next day and another baby shower in early November.  I cannot wait and have so many things to be thankful for!  I'm hoping the next two months fly by as fast as the last two months did.  I've been feeling really good, minus not being able to breathe when I lye down and the insomnia.  I wake up around 3:30 at least three nights a week and lye awake in bed for about two hours before falling asleep for 30 minutes before my alarm goes off.  All while Michael is snoozing away.  I've decided the only thing I crave is chocolate and well what's new?  I love chocolate!!!  Brooks is a maniac at basically all hours of the day and night.  Seriously, I don't think he ever sits still.

Well if I don't get better at this blogging thing, it is likely that the next time I update we will have a third member of the family.  I'll work on it, promise!  :)     

Five months down...four more to go

The last US tech was sweet enough to do a 3D picture for us.  I think he has Michael's lips and that is his arm up beside his face.  :)  We've received nothing but good news every time we go to the doctor and we continue to be thankful!  We ordered almost all of his furniture (minus the most important piece...his crib...still waiting on Babies R Us to get it in the warehouse) and his bedding is in!  Michael painted his room this weekend so we are getting close!  A few pieces of the nursery take a while to come in, but I will post pictures as soon as it looks somewhat complete.

HR at US (21 weeks): 125 BPM
HR at doctor (22 weeks): 140 BPM (he must have been exercising)
# of times Michael asks the US tech to look at the babies heart and make sure it is beating correctly and blah blah blah: 7...at least.

22 weeks

 

Brooks Michael Bradley

We finally decided on a name and the more we talk to him and call him by name the more it seems so fitting.  He's constantly moving and kicking and reminding me he is there.  If I'm having a bad day all it takes is a swift kick or upper cut to make me smile!  We are so blessed and I know I've said it a million times, but I cannot wait to meet our lil guy!  Is it Christmas yet!!!

Cravings: Nothing!  I still eat cereal every night of the week though!  :)
Dreams: I've had a lot more nightmares in the past five months, so I welcome any kind of dream that doesn't wake me up sweating.  Last night I dreamed I was holding Brooks and he had a pony tail on the top of his head.  Who knows?!?
Funny Symptoms: Sometimes I laugh for no reason, absolutely no reason at all!  And when I say laugh, I mean tears rolling down my face, cannot breath laughter.  It's hilarious...I don't know what IT is, but for some reason I think it's funny.

It's a BOY!

July has been a very busy month to say the least!  We returned home from Baltimore this past Sunday, where we celebrated one of Michael's friend's weddings and were in Chicago the weekend before that celebrating Michael's cousin's wedding.  Wish we could have stayed longer, but we made the most of our short time in both places!  In between we found out we are going to have a BOY!  I was shocked to say the least!  We decided to have the US tech put the boy or girl verdict in an envelope (without telling us what it was) and I gave the envelope to a co-worker who baked us a cake using blue or pink food coloring, depending on what was in the envelope.  Michael and I had seen the picture of the US, and were fairly certain it was a boy, but it was nice to have a little bit of a surprise left when we (Aniston and Harrison) cut into the cake.  Our family had no clue so it was a fun surprise for everyone!

The boy news took a day or two to sink in, but I couldn't be happier!  I have always wanted boys!!!  Now onto decorating the nursery...Michael's next task on his to do list.  :)

When we came home from Baltimore, we had a surprise in our living room!  Three of my friends, Amy, Ashley, and Lucy had bought outfits for baby Bradley (still no name) and put them up on our fireplace along with balloons and other decorations!  I absolutely loved it and was so surprised!!!  I go into his room all the time just to look at the clothes family and friends, and even patients have gotten him.  Such a lucky lil boy to have people that care and love for him so much already!
He loves to kick, especially at night, and Michael has even gotten to feel him a few times!  My favorite part of the pregnancy so far!  Cannot wait to meet him!  21 weeks and 2 days to go!

HR: 143 bpm
First kick: 17 weeks

18 weeks

 She was so excited to find out, but definitely disappointed it wasn't a pink cake.

 Celebrating at Bone Fish

 We demolished the cake

Baby Bradley's first gift from his Peppy and the Culton clan.  :)

                                                                      

 SURPRISE!

 UK fan in the making!

 BOY!!!

Wait, I think I feel something!

July 14 (17 weeks)
I think I felt the baby move yesterday for the first time! It's hard to know for sure, but it felt like a very light tap or thud. No butterfly flutters for me or maybe I'm crazy and all I was feeling was gas. Very likely, but I've felt it ever since so I think it was Baby Bradley! I was actually doing balance exercises with one of my patients and made her stop so I could take it all in. She's one of my favorites and was a good sport about it. Looking frwd to more kicks and punches, however this behavior will not be tolerated outside the womb!  Ironically yesterday was also one of my most uncomfortable days. I had lots of back pain, but considering I managed to squeeze five work days into four this week and have worked the past three weekends I think my body was just telling me to take a day off and that I am doing! Michael and I arrived in Chicago last night for his cousins wedding. Love this place and I CANNOT wait to eat some Chicago style pizza!!! Makes me hungry just thinking about it and it's only 6:40 in the morning. Only I would wake up at 5:36 on my first day off in three weeks. Sheesh!

Cravings: I could eat cereal everyday of my life even when I wasn't pregnant so I don't consider this a craving just a trait I inherited from the Guthrie side of the family. I have been wanting tomatoes more lately so maybe that is my first true craving.
Next appt: July 20th (5 days!!!!) Boy or Girl?

Latest doctor appointment (original, I know)

We went to the doctor last Wednesday the 22nd and she confirmed that everything looked great and healthy!  We also got a nice surprise when we were able to move our "Is it a boy or girl?" US up by three weeks.  I have to thank Michael for that one since he is the one that asked the receptionist if we could get in any earlier.  I knew I brought him to those appts. for a reason.  ;)  We find out July 20th!  I think it's a girl, Michael thinks it's a boy.  One of us is right.  :)
I've been feeling much better, however I still have very little desire to eat Mexican food.  What is wrong with this child?!?

HR: 150 BPM
Cravings: I wouldn't say I truly have any "gotta have this right NOW" kind of cravings, but I sure do eat a lot of triscuits with pepperjack cheese and cereal.

13 weeks

"You are getting fatter."

Yesterday, Aniston asked Michael how I was going to have a baby since I was so skinny...today Aniston came up to me as I was sitting in mom's car (just finished eating by the way) and with a smile on her face said, "you are getting fatter."  Yesterday I was skinny, today I'm fat.  :)  Then she asked, "so there's a baby in there?"  Harrison giggled and lifted my shirt up as if he was going to see something, then with a puzzled look put my shirt back down quickly and said, "Let's play freeze tag."  Haha, gotta love em!  

Stubborn Lil Thing

We had another US today (this one was optional and screens for the three most common genetic abnormalities).  I decided to do it because I'm a planner and would rather know one way or the other, good or bad.  Plus, why wouldn't we want to see our lil dude or dudette again?  Our US tech was great, however after 20 minutes of unsuccessful attempts to move this bull headed baby (it moved every way except the correct way), she had me try a few things.  I got up and walked around for five minutes, I coughed, I laid on my left side, and still nothing except a jumping baby.  Even the doctor came in, but we couldn't get a good picture.  He/she did show us it's foot and wave hello though!  The jumping up on my uterus was also very entertaining.  Literally at one point it turned it's back to us and jumped three times in a row.  We have a video, but it's through an iphone in a dark room so it's not the clearest of videos, but you can at least get a glimpse of baby Bradley.  The doctor thought everything looked great and said she didn't expect there to be any problems.  They set me up for another US next week to try again just to make sure though.  Darn, we have to look at our little guy or gal again.  :)
We are going to start telling more people soon since I will be 12 weeks tomorrow!  Woohoo!  Cannot wait to let this bottled up anticipation out!

 8 WEEKS "cruising along"...literally we were in our cabin cruising the Carribean

10 WEEKS

Three due dates later we have a winner! :)

We've had two different doctor appointments recently and we were lucky enough to be able to see our baby both times on an ultrasound.  They were planning on doing our first US Friday so Michael didn't go to the Tuesday appt since we thought they would just be doing routine stuff...we unfortunately were wrong.  The nurse decided to do an US herself just to get an idea of how far along we were.  It was bittersweet to be able to see the heart beat without Michael.  I felt guilty and dreaded even telling him.  He was of course a good sport!  The nurse told me at that appt I was about 8 weeks, which came as a surprise seeing as though the first due date had me past 10 weeks.  It was a little disappointing, but everything looked "normal" and healthy so I was ecstatic! Listening to the heart beat was neat, but the US machine was not that clear so when we saw it on Friday it was a whole new experience and one that Michael and I both got to share.  I didn't have a lot of emotion when she first showed us the baby on the screen.  I have no idea why, I just remember thinking, 'there's our baby and it has a heart beat and why am I not crying or something???'.  After all, I'm the one who cries when I see the Volkswagen commercial they played during the superbowl.  Anyway, it was strange and then suddenly... it started kicking and moving and did this little hiccup thing and it was A-MAZ-ING!  It was the cutest, sweetest thing I had ever seen and my breath was literally taken away!  It was so neat!   I didn't know they moved so much that early.  After given a due date of December 10th, then December 25th, we were given a third and official due date of December 22nd.  I am 10 wks 4 days today!  So ready to be done with the first trimester and the nausea that comes with it!!!
Things I Crave: nothing; oh, except a turkey sandwich because I know I can't have it.  PB and J is getting old fast!
Things that repulse me: large amounts of food...as you can imagine this was a slight set back on our cruise.
Things I find strange: my friend Amy made these yummy brownies and left them at my house for a week.  That is not the strange part.  :) A week later they were still there, minus the half that Michael ate.  It's like I have supernatural powers now that allow me to turn down chocolate.  ;)
Things I'm thankful for: too many to list, #1 being that baby Bradley is healthy!  Also thankful for all the maternity clothes my good friend Ashley brought me this weekend!  Thank you!

Due date...

Baby Bradley expected to arrive December 10, 2011! We went to the doctor last Tuesday...it's strange how such an uneventful appointment (they basically just took my personal and family history) can still be so exciting. We are scheduled to have our first US May 20th. We can't wait to hear our lil guy or gals heart beat! As far as I go, I am feeling pretty good...besides that constant feeling of stepping off of a county fair ride that lingers all day and night. Hopefully just four more weeks til I'm back to my Mexican craving old self again! :)

A faint line, but positively a line

Let's just say that EPT will never go out of business because of mom wanna be's like me!  After what had to be the 20 something test I had taken I finally got what my intuition told me was a positive test.  Intuition had to come in because the "positive" line was as faint as faint could be, but it was there!  Michael  wasn't so sure, so to prove to him I was right I bought a digital test the next time.  Our first doctor's appointment is April 26th, my birthday!  Hoping all goes well til then and hoping for a good report!  Cautiously optimistic...