Picking a Birthday....

Having a baby is sooo different than when my mom did it. There's a billion choices of strollers, car seats, high chairs. Before Babies R Us (which can honestly be the devil, there's soooo many choices, styles, colors, blah, blah, blah). Going in that store when you're trying or excited about babies is a whole different story than when you go in there and are pregnant, can you say overwhelming. The rules they have for during pregnancy my mom hadn't even heard of before my sister was pregnant. No deli meat, no hot dogs, no certain kinds of cheeses. Well now there's another difference, picking your delivery date.

I went to the doctor again yesterday, but just for a normal 2 week visit. They said everything looks good still, I'm measuring right on track and Aubrey's heart rate was 141 which is good. It's supposed to be between 120-160 so I think I have a calm little girl, but we'll see. The nurse practitioner asked me if we'd discussed induction dates yet, and we haven't so I said no. Well we will be living about an hour and half away from the hospital, where as that would probably make me have a meltdown before, I'm actually pretty ok with it. Kyle has somehow made me a lot more laid back and not a spas. Our plan is to go into labor naturally and to not have an epidural....now that is just what that is....a plan. I am fully aware that things could go completely, completely different. She could be breech (which right now she's not, thank the Lord) and we'd do a c section. She could come late and therefore we'd be induced. Anyway she started giving me dates that we could possibly be induced. Our doctor induces on Tuesday and Thursday so if we're induced she will then most likely have a Tuesday or Thursday birthday this year. It felt like we were discussing possible hair appointments, she said well we can do the 17th, but we could also do the 22nd or 24th. I basically told her we need a baby here by the 28th, which is when Kyle starts his rotations and our lives will get a lot more busy. I felt like I was discussing "ordering" our baby.

Kyle and I are still discussing the options, but the one that makes the most sense right now is to set it for the 24th (her due date anyway) and then hope that I can go into labor on my own before then. As soon as we get moved on the 12th and unpacked, Kyle is going to start all the manipulations he knows to try and induce labor naturally. We're really just trying to throw everything in at once in June. Anybody want to hang out in June, I might have 1 free day. So as soon as we're unpacked we're doing EVERYTHING possible to get this baby out so that Kyle can get all the time in with his little girl before he starts rotations. We've already discussed walking like crazy, spicy food, standing on my head (haha, just kidding), but everything will be tried except that crazy castor oil....no thank you. Well that's our plan, but again Aubrey may wind up having a plan of her own. I guess we'll just have to wait and see, she may have already picked out her own birthday for all we know.

Only in Tennessee

Really?!?!? Who would do this to their kid? We're thinking instead of Aubrey maybe this or Jim Beam. As a teacher, I would crack up if I had a Jack Daniels on my class roster. OH, East Tennessee.

Another Look at our Little Girl

Earlier this week, we had an interesting day. I had been on my feet all morning helping with a cookout for our school and of course I don't slow down ever which isn't a huge problem, but I need to start taking it a little easier. Well when I went in from the cookout I had a few small clots of blood when I went to the bathroom (Sorry if it's too much info.) Well I called my doctor just to be sure and they wanted me to come in to make sure everything was fine, although I wasn't having any cramps. My back was hurting but again on my feet all morning I think had something to do with that. Unfortunately Kyle had a sim lab, which is where he has a pretend scenario with their patient robots. This was a big deal and he wasn't going to be able to get out of it that easy and plus I felt everything was going to be fine so I was able to get my friend Alarie who is also pregnant to make the drive down to Knoxville with me. Thanks so much Alarie!!!

When we got there they got us straight in for an ultrasound and yes I said "us", Alarie and her little baby boy who's due a few days apart from Aubrey. I was nervous to make sure everything was ok but I was pretty confident it wasn't going to be anything. Kyle was really upset he couldn't be there with me, but said he was ready to come as soon as he got done if we were still there. The lady looked at everything. The placenta looked good, the fluid is good, and she looked healthy and great. She even checked to see if she had webbed toes (webbed toes runs in my family, my dad and nephew have a few toes webbed).


I was so happy to see her again and know that she's doing fine. She was also soooo much bigger than last time we'd seen her at 18 weeks. She weighs 3 pounds 6 ounces, which is awesome. I got to see her little feet and they are just where I thought they were. She has been shoving her feet up by my ribs, which feels great...not! She was head down for right now and Kyle said good, she knows which way is the exit. So everything with the ultrasound was fine.

The nurse practitioner checked everything else and noticed some spots on my cervix that could have bled and she said there wasn't anything to worry about. They are checking for any bacteria infection, and she said stay off my feet a little more. NOOOO!!!! That's hard for me to stop. When I got home Kyle was so relieved to see that everything was fine and he got to see the ultrasound on a DVD. He made me go to bed early which I hate being "lazy", but I know right now I might just have to do that sometimes for the sake of Aubrey. Sorry if this was too much information, but don't worry the birth story will be even better (haha, just kidding).

Letters to Aubrey Lynne

I saw this on another blog, Dear Baby , I read about how a mom wrote letters on her blog to her little girl Everly before she was born and still writes now the she's had her.

I am sitting here feeling you flip all around in my belly. I can't believe that I only have about 10 more weeks or less to enjoy this amazing feeling. It's just you and me girl sitting here relaxing (ok, you aren't relaxing much) but still it's an experience that just us two get to share. I'm so excited to meet you, see what you look like. Smell that good smelling baby head of yours. Count your little toes. See if you have daddy's eyes. See if you have my nose. Hold you in my arms instead of in my belly. There's just so many things I have to look forward to but for right now I'm enjoying it just being you and me. Of course, Dad loves to feel you move around and I wish he could feel you as often as I do. But, really it's just you and me all the time. When you get here I'm going to have to accept the fact that other people will want you too (bummer, I have to share you). Just know that I've loved having these 7 months so far just being us. I love you so much already even though I haven't even met you.

Love you more than chocolate,
Mom

P.S.- The other night dad said he could literally feel your little foot push out when I was sleeping. I felt it too because I woke up yelling, OW..OW..OW. I would appreciate if you didn't do that as much anymore, haha.

30 Weeks

Well only about 10 weeks left to go. I can't believe that we'll have our little girl here in about 2 1/2 months, crazy! The sad thing that I've noticed the last couple of weeks is that my belly button is getting more shallow and more shallow every day. I HATE outie belly buttons, they creap me out. Well Kyle isn't a big fan either and any time that I've sat up funny and my belly button has started to pop out, he's said ewwwwww, put it back in, put it back in. So we both aren't excited about the possibility of my belly button becoming an outie in the next few weeks. I've decided if Aubrey has an outie I'm going to do my best to push it back in, haha. When I was born one of top of my ear stuck out like Mr. Spock (weird, I know). Well my dad kept folding it over and over and it finally went back to a normal ear. So I think pushing Aubrey's outie back into an innie will be the same. I know, I know it will be a while before the umbilical cord will fall off and we'll find out if she has an innie or outie but if it's in outie it better watch out. Me vs. an outie, I think I'm going to win, we'll see.

When Kyle takes a picture for me he always seems to take like 10 pictures of Bailey, but gripes about taking a picture of me. When he's got my camera he's all about taking Bailey pictures. I think it will be the same with Aubrey, he'll be all about taking pictures of his little girl.

Zippers

Funny things that Alarie and I have thought about this week...

So I think I may forget how to zip my pants after I'm not pregnant anymore, considering I haven't had to for the past like 5 months. (Great thing about maternity pants, no zippers just lots and lots of elastic)

While in the car, Alarie said there's a lot of Uterus in the car. I then asked would more than one uterus be uteri?

Ahhhh, Heaven