39 Weeks

Apparantly, baby Abigail has no plans to make an appearance anytime soon. As of my appointment last week, my internal exam indicated that I've made absolutely no progress as of yet. My doctor even mentioned that she doesn't believe we'll be having a 2009 baby. (ENTER EXASPERATED SIGH HERE). While I realize most first-time moms don't deliver until after their due dates, I'm still feeling pretty discouraged. I just want to meet her already!

Total weight gained so far: +26.1 lbs.

From Baby Center this week, our baby is waiting to greet the world! She continues to build a layer of fat to help control her body temperature after birth, but it's likely that she already measures about 20 inches and weighs a bit over 7 pounds. The outer layers of her skin are sloughing off as new skin forms underneath.

I apologize for the lack of a picture this week. Now that I'm home all the time, I've been living in sweats and am far too embarrassed for the world to see how lazy I've become...

Merry Christmas!

38 Weeks

Yes, I'm still hanging in here.

I haven't had any more contractions, at least not like I experienced last week. I have my 38 week doctor appointment tomorrow morning where I'll get my first internal exam. While I'm slightly nervous since I've been told these exams can be painful, I'm excited (and hopeful) to find out whether or not I'm making any progress.

I've mostly just been enjoying these past few days of hanging out around the house not working. I've been too exhausted from not sleeping well at night to get much done otherwise, but it's still been heavenly to no longer wake up at the crack of dawn to get showered and dressed. I think I can easily do this for the next 3 months!

From Baby Center this week, our baby has really plumped up. She weighs about 6.8 pounds and she's over 19.5 inches long. She has a firm grasp, which we'll soon be able to test when we hold her hand for the first time! Her organs have matured and are ready for life outside the womb.

Wondering what color her eyes will be? We may not be able to tell right away. If she's born with brown eyes, they'll likely stay brown. If she's born with steel gray or dark blue eyes, they may stay gray or blue or turn green, hazel, or brown by the time she's 9 months old. That's because a child's irises (the colored part of the eye) may gain more pigment in the months after she's born, but they usually won't get lighter or more blue. (Green, hazel, and brown eyes have more pigment than gray or blue eyes.)

It's My Last Day!

The day I've been waiting for is finally here! No, not my due date - my last day of work until April! I seriously feel like a child on Christmas Eve awaiting Santa's arrival the next morning.

Luckily, because of the holidays, it's somewhat of a "party" day around here and things are pretty laid back. I haven't done much but organize my desk all day and don't plan to do anything else. My boss has even mentioned that since it's slow, she'll allow me to cut out a bit early as well at the end of the day.

Here's to enjoying the next 3+ months away from my stressful job!

Holy Contractions!

Last night started out just like any other night - Mike was at work and I had just gotten off the phone with him as his second break of the night was ending. No sooner had I sat back down on the couch to resume watching TV, did I start experiencing sharp, painful contractions. Since I wasn't able to time them as they were quite sporadic, I decided to try getting into bed and seeing if they would subside if I laid down for awhile. While I had some difficulty making it to the bedroom, the contractions eventually disappeared and everything returned to normal. I hadn't called Mike in the meantime since I didn't want to disturb him at work without initially knowing whether or not this was true labor, and since it ended up being false labor, I'm glad I didn't.

I'm just hopeful that this means I'll be told I'm making some progress at next week's appointment!

37 Weeks

Baby Abigail is now full term!

From Baby Center this week, our baby weighs 6 1/3 lbs. and measures a bit over 19 inches, head to heel. Many babies have a full head of hair at birth, with locks from 1/2 inch to 1 1/2 inches long. Dark-haired couples are sometimes thrown for a loop when their children come out as blondes or redheads, and fair-haired couples have been surprised by Elvis look-alikes. And then, of course, some babies sport only peach fuzz. Also, if our baby were to arrive now, her lungs should be fully mature and ready to adjust to life outside the womb, even though my due date is still 3 weeks away.

It's My Birthday!

Happy 26th Birthday to me! I'm now officially closer to 30 than to 20.

It's (Still) a Girl!

Whew, we're still expecting a baby Abigail! She was extremely cooperative and gave us an excellent shot at her girly parts - even I knew what I was looking at!

She's measuring at approximately 5 lbs. 4 oz. so far and everything else looks great.

My strep B test was negative and I even lost some weight since my last appointment.

All-in-all, it was a great day!

Total weight gained so far: +26.0 lbs.

36 Weeks

Countdown to maternity leave - 7 more business days!

I'm actually feeling much better this week. I've finally started sleeping again and surprisingly, I'm now sleeping very soundly at night. The back-to-back dreams have been very strange (think being strangled by tigers), but extremely interesting.

Also, we've now got the stroller assembled and the car seat is ready to be installed in the car. I was hoping to already have this done, but Mike's work schedule has been a bit crazy and he just hasn't been able to get to it yet.

Aside from that, we're just waiting patiently for my weekly appointment this coming Friday. We'll have our first ultrasound since approximately 19 weeks and we'll get to triple check on the gender of our little one. Mike's a bit on edge - he's not looking foward to re-painting the nursery if our "big" ultrasound was wrong - but I feel oddly at peace with the uncertainty. I've felt strongly from the beginning that I'm having a girl and I still feel 100% confident that she's still, in fact, a she.

From Baby Center this week, your baby is still packing on the pounds - at the rate of about an ounce a day. She now weighs almost 6 pounds and is more than 18.5 inches long. She's shedding most of the downy covering of hair that covered her body as well as the vernix caseosa, the waxy substance that covered and protected her skin during her nine-month amniotic bath. Your baby swallows both of these substances, along with other secretions, resulting in a blackish mixture, called meconium, that will form the contents of her first bowel movement.

The Nursery is Done! (Well, Almost)

Looking back at my blog over the past few weeks, I've noticed that I haven't posted any updated pictures of Abigail's nursery. Well folks, here it is!

While it's not 100% completed (we still need to change the lighting fixture and add some wall decor), it's pretty darn close. We're also contemplating installing blinds on the windows since the nursery is in the front of the house and tends to get alot of sunlight during the warmer months.

What are your thoughts?

The view from the doorway (notice the fabulous winter weather outside):

The crib minus the mobile we still need to purchase:

Another view of the crib:

My attempt at homemade wall letters:

The changing table/dresser:

One half of the closet (the other side is filled with nothing but diapers so I'll spare you the boredom of that half):

One Month and Counting

As of today, I'm officially one month out from my due date. There are so many thoughts and emotions going through my mind these days and the anticipation of finally getting to meet my baby girl is really starting to build.

I wouldn't really say that I've started nesting as of yet. Sure, there is the ever-growing list of household projects that I'd like to get done, but that isn't really anything new. I haven't had much, if any, energy lately to clean the house so I have to admit that I've been feeling pretty lazy. I've managed, with Mike's help, to keep clutter at bay, but I still don't feel like the house is really clean - there's the regular dusting, vacuuming, mopping, etc. that hasn't been done in awhile. I've been attempting to plug away at the chores doing only a little bit each night, but it still doesn't feel like I'm accomplishing much. While I'm trying to adopt the attitude that my rest is more important and that the house can wait, I find myself struggling with this concept. I chalk this up to my being a complete neat-freak. I have issues.

Secondly, I'm starting to get nervous - not about labor and delivery honestly, but about becoming a parent. Let's face it, I've never cared for a newborn. I've never been responsible for the daily 24-hour care of a child. What do I know? I find myself reading every piece of literature on parenting I can manage to get my hands on and scouring parenting boards for any last words of advice. I feel oddly comfortable about delivery, recovery, and breastfeeding but the thought of becoming a parent and all that it implies is scaring the bejeezus out of me right now. I think Mike is feeling the same (although after our preparation for labor class, I think he's a bit on edge about the delivery portion as well).

Third, I still have a feeling of being generally unprepared for the birth of our daughter. I've gone through our registry as well as our nursery several times and although we still have many items I'd like to purchase at some point for Abigail, we have honestly already purchased all of the necessities that we'll need. So the question is, why do I feel like we haven't? Why does this feeling keep nagging me?

Lastly, while I begin to get things wrapped up here at work, I find myself greatly looking foward to the start of my maternity leave in two weeks. I'm completely drained by my continually stressful job and can't wait to have a 3 month break. I'd much rather be home with a screaming baby than have to be here.

Here's hoping Miss Abbey decides to make an appearance sooner rather than later!

35 Weeks

With only 35 days left until my due date, I'm beginning to feel very unprepared for this baby to come. While I'm certainly ready for the pregnancy to be over, I feel as if there are still so many baby items that we need to purchase, we don't have the carseat installed yet (although, this is on the agenda for this week), I haven't started packing my hospital bag, and I just don't feel prepared in general to have an "outside" baby in just a few weeks.

What I do feel prepared for, however, is the start of my maternity leave. Only 12 more business days left!

From Baby Center this week, our baby doesn't have much room to maneuver now that she's over 18 inches long and tips the scales at 5 1/4 pounds. Because it's so snug in my womb, she isn't likely to be doing somersaults anymore, but the number of times she kicks should remain about the same. Her kidneys are fully developed now and her liver can process some waste products. Most of her basic physical development is now complete and she'll spend the next few weeks putting on weight.