38 weeks

How Far Along: 38 weeks! Just one week to go! Eeek!

Size of baby: an average baby at this point weighs 6.5 to 7 pounds and is approximately 19.5 inches in length! I'm hoping shes on the small side, otherwise all those newborn clothes arent going to fit!

Movement: about the same as the past few weeks.

Sleep: I've got another bad cold, so yeah. . .no sleep.

Cravings: Nothing new here.

Symptoms: This week hasnt been too bad. I've still had really bad heartburn, but I havent had as much back pain.

Best Moment this past week: Just making it to this point!

My weekly doctor appointment was yesterday. Stratton decided he wanted to go with us. He hasn't wanted to go in months but all the sudden he told me he wanted to go with us. I thought why not? I mean its our last visit. I didnt go to work and let Stratton stay home from school and we had the best morning. We didn't do anything but he was so good and we just took it easy and when Jarrod got home we left around noon. My appointment was at 2:15 and when we walked in the Dr.'s office we were surprised to see Dr. Mizell, the surgeon that did my colon surgery! He and his wife are also expecting! It was so nice to see them. Its a small world! Stratton was so good at the doctor's office. We were there for quite awhile. They were really busy, but we took the ipad so he played games and watched cartoons and was great.

I actually lost about a pound which was just probably due to the clothes I was wearing. Everything else looked good. Arden's hb was good and so was my bp.She checked me and I'm a little more dilated about a 2cm now, and about 75% effaced. So I'm making progress. I hope I can make it to Wednesday. Which we talked about. We are to be at the hospital at 6am on Wednesday the 12th! I can't believe we're just a week away!

They also called with my new MRI appointment. . .Sunday at 8am! Yikes. But at least Jarrod wont have to take off work. Dr. Smith said we should have the results back from it on Monday. I'm anxious to see what the results reveal. It will determine if I can just have a normal epidural or have to have general anesthesia (which I am really dreading) on Wednesday at delivery.

I think we will go to Searcy Saturday night so we don't have to get up so early Sunday morning! And the Stratton can stay with Terry and Margie while we are in Little Rock.

The plan for next week is Jarrod and I are going to LR Tuesday eveing and staying the night so we can just get up and head to the hospital on Wednesday morning. Stratton is going to stay with Dillon and Brandye Tuesday night and they will bring him to LR later Wednesday afternoon. Dr. Smith said that if everything goes as planned I should only have to stay in the hospital for 2 days. Which means that I could probably be discharged sometime on Friday! Wouldn't that be great! I think Stratton will stay the rest of the week and part of the weekend with Jarrod's parents. After that we are a little unsure. I guess we'll just see how things go. I'm nervous and a little worried about our first few days at home with both kids! I guess all we can do is the best we can do!

Arden's Room

Finally all complete!

The art I designed and had framed and the wall cling. . .

The lamp and glider came as a set, a craigslist score! I re-did the lamp and bought a new shade and my mom had a lady in Wynne recover the cushions.

My mom also made the valance with the same material we used on the glider. The perfect finishing touch!

I'm extremely relieved to have it completed! We've been almost there for weeks, so it feels good to have it all done!

Stratton the ham

So, I promised pictures of Stratton this week! Here are some from tonight. I was trying to take some pics of Arden's room, but guess who was right up in the middle of it?

"Mommy, take a picture of my blanket!" This boy loves his blankets! We cant go anywhere without one.

Silly boy!

We've been using the glider and reading nook! Stratton likes to sit in it and read.

37 Weeks

Pregnancy Stats:

How Far Along: 37 weeks! That’s considered “Full Term”!

Size of baby: she likely measures around 18.9 to 20.9 inches and weighs about 6 pounds. From this point on she’ll gain about 1/2 ounce each day.

Movement: It’s been much less the last couple of days

Sleep: About the same

Cravings: I think I am addicted to Lifesavers. Seriously. I might have to Join LAA- Lifesaver Addicts Anonymous.

Symptoms: Miserable. Is that a symptom?

Best Moment this past week: I got to take a nap on Saturday and Sunday!! Hooray for naps!

My weekly doctor appointment was yesterday. They went ahead and put me on the baby monitors because I haven’t been feeling her move hardly at all the last couple of days. Everything seems to be fine, though. I guess she’s just really running out of room! Dr. Smith checked me again and I haven’t made any progress in the last week, still just dilated about 1 cm.

I’ve had a lot less back pain in the past week. With the exception of Friday, which wasn’t a good day at all, the past week hasn’t been too bad. I had a really good day Monday, and even yesterday wasn’t too bad. Traveling to LR and back does take a toll on me. However I’m starting to see a pattern where I pay for that ride the following day. It just makes me so sore and gets my back all out of whack!

If nothing changes, my next appointment will be next Tuesday. It will be my last appointment before delivery! My scheduled delivery is still set for September 12th. We have to be at the hospital at 6 am.  It’s crazy to think 2 weeks from right now we could actually be holding Arden?!

Next week is my last week at work. And it will be a short one, since Labor day is Monday and then I have a Dr. Appt on Tuesday. That will be extremely strange. I try to keep my stuff in order and every night when I leave I try to leave it so that if I didn’t come back things aren’t too much of a mess. But really knowing that I won’t be back for another 10 weeks will be really, really, bizarre!

I still haven’t heard anything from the Neurology Clinic about getting an MRI scheduled. I called Monday and left a message but still never heard anything back. When I told the nurse and Dr. Smith about it yesterday they were both surprised, so the nurse called over to Neurology yesterday while we were there and talked to them and they are supposed to be working on it still. Apparently trying to get a pregnant woman setup for an MRI takes an act of congress! They are supposed to be getting back with me soon. I sure hope so!! I mean if they want to do it before I have the baby they’d better hurry! I did have an echocardiogram on Monday, and it was all good. So, at least that’s out of the way.

In other family news, I feel like such a bad mom. I can’t remember the last time I took a picture of Stratton. I tried to take one of him on Saturday with a turkey hat on his head but he wouldn’t be still. . .anyway I am really going to try and do better this week! But it’s not like there is anything interesting to take pictures of, we really haven’t been up to too much. Stratton has a new teacher at school. He seems to really like her. Last week they talked about how everyone is unique and they made a class scrapbook with pictures of all the kids. They took pictures of themselves as babies and Stratton took one of him and pops on a tractor when he was about 3 months old and he couldn’t wait to share it  with this friends. This week they are learning about the human body. I can only imagine what kind of questions he is asking his teacher! Not only is he always asking questions, he’s full of insight these days. He told me last night “Did you know dragonflies EAT mosquitos?” – No, actually I didn’t. I may have to google that!

We had such a good day on Saturday. We got up and went to eat breakfast at Sue’s before going refrigerator shopping (it’s a long story- but our fridge has been on the fritz for weeks and we needed to get something that we can depend on before Arden gets here!). Stratton was SO good! He only got a little whiney toward the end of our outing, and that’s just because it was nap time! Then we came back home and Stratton and I took a nap (it was raining and just the best afternoon for napping) and then Saturday evening (after a brief but dramatic meltdown) we went to a birthday party for Isabella (who is 11?! When did that happen??!!). Jarrod had to work Saturday night. He went in around 9pm and got home at 6am. When he got home we decided to go to early service at church since we were up. We went to church, bible class, grabbed a bite at Cracker Barrel, and were home and all back in bed by 12:30! Stratton and I both just slept a couple of hours, but Jarrod slept all day. Sunday night after church we ate with some friends at Stratton’s favorite: Firehouse. It’s also strange that we only have two more weekends before Arden’s arrival! That’s two more Saturday’s to get stuff done, two more times to be in bible class at church and just two more times for Sunday night fellowship with our friends! Crazy!

As we count down the days, we are nervous and excited- but ready! My cleaning lady is coming to do some “spring cleaning” over the next two weeks, and I’m trying to keep the laundry up! We all have bags packed and pretty much ready to go. Arden’s room is finished and ready for her! I do need to do a little grocery shopping and pantry re-stocking (especially now that we have a fridge that works properly!). We will probably try to do some of that this weekend, if the weather isn’t too bad. Hurricane Isaac is making it’s way onshore today and should impact us Friday and early Saturday.  Hopefully we won’t get too much wind and rain out of it! Not good for the crops!!  Also, college football starts this weekend! We bought ASU season tickets this year. I’m bummed that I probably won’t get to go to many, but I know Jarrod and Stratton will really enjoy getting to go! Between harvest already starting and now football starting that can only mean one thing!! It’s officially fall!! Yay!! My favorite time of year! I can’t wait for the cooler temps and it will be time to bring out the pumpkins before too long!  Stratton asked me last night if we were going to go to the pumpkin patch, and if we could take his sister. I told him that we could for sure go, but we might have to leave Arden with Gig and Pops since she will probably be too little to enjoy the pumpkin patch. He was fine with that, he told me that he’d bring her a pumpkin home. . .awww!!

Appointment with the Neurologist at UAMS

It went pretty good. We liked the Dr. and even though she was young, she seemed to really know what she was talking about, and spent about an hour and a half with us. We didn’t learn anything new really, which is what I assumed would happen. She did rule out the idea that my “episode” might have been migraine related. She said it just didn’t meet the criteria. And she also didn’t really think it was related to a blood sugar issue, either. She did a simple evaluation on me, and apparently I passed! After discussing the episode and evaluating me she didn’t really seemed too worried, she said she had actually seen 5 or 6 similar cases in pregnant women and it turned out to be nothing. But since the problems I had did sound a lot like some sort of stroke it would be negligent not to go ahead and do some further testing to make sure there isn’t anything going on. The only way they can determine if I might have had some kind of stroke or similar episode is to do an MRI. She also wants me to see a Neuro-Ophthalmologist, to make sure everything is ok in my eyes and optics. And she also ordered a echocardiogram just to check and make sure my heart functions are normal. We will have to go back to UAMS sometime for the MRI and to see the Ophthalmologist, but I am having the echocardiogram done Monday morning here in Jonesboro. I am really hoping that we can get all this done soon! I am ready to have all this over and done with and I’m already tired of driving back and forth to Little Rock! They are supposed to be calling me with the appointment times, since I am pregnant the computer wouldn’t let them schedule the MRI, they will have to call and set it up. Of course the MRI that they will do doesn’t have any of the dye and will be totally harmless to the baby, but I guess they have to be extra cautious about all that with patients. I am really hoping that we can get the scheduled on a day that we are already having to see Dr. Smith, but I realize I shouldn’t get my hopes up. 

The doctor said that she fully anticipated for the results of the tests would be fine and hopefully the episode was just a weird one time thing. But if it did show that I had some sort of stroke-like episode, since there doesn’t seem to be an lasting effects, maybe all I’d have to do would be take medicine to keep it from happening again. So, if nothing shows up on the tests, I will follow up with her in 6 months. She did recommend that if everything turns out to be ok after Arden is born to start on an aspirin regiment (she actually strongly encouraged this and said everyone should be one on?!) and have my cholesterol tested.

Stratton’s new friend

Monday night we were sitting in the Living room talking to Stratton about his day. I can’t remember how it exactly came up, but Stratton said he had a friend named “Golf”.  My first instinct was this was a make believe friend, so I started asking questions. I asked him what Golf looked liked? He said “he has white hair like me”. I asked him where Golf lived? He said “In the country”. I asked him if they played together, and what did they play? He said “yes, they played golf” –Ok, duh! Then he told us something about Golf having an attitude! We just laughed and thought how funny it was that he had this imaginary friend named Golf!

Well. I told Brandye about it so yesterday when she picked Stratton up at school he was playing with a little boy. She asked the teacher if there was any new kids, and the teacher said yes, the little boy Stratton was playing with was new and his name was Connor. When they got in the car Brandye asked Stratton if Golf was at his school today? He said “Yes!”. Then she asked what did he have on and then he described what the little boy he had been playing with had on. So she asked him if Golf had another name? He said “Yeah. His name is Connor”. Ha!  Apparently Golf is real! I just wonder how much of what he told us about him is real?? And where in the world did he come up with calling the kid Golf??

And on another note he is a walking, talking imitator these days. I need to remember to watch what I say in front of him! This morning he was flopping around in his booster seat sitting on his feet and ended up spilling his full bowl of milk and cereal. I, out of frustration, said “Ugh. Stratton! I really wish you’d be more careful. I know it was just an accident, you didn’t mean to make a mess but if you were sitting in your seat like you were supposed to be that wouldn’t have happened.” then he said “Ugh! It gets on my nerves too mommy!”. I’m not sure where he’s heard that expression, but I’m sure we say it more than we realize! Then a few minutes later he told me that he didn’t feel very good and he needed to stay home from school. Just like a big kid would say. I don’t know what to do with him!! Monday morning he told me “Mommy, I just feel awful”. Haha. Pretty sure I know where he’s heard that recently!!

He told Brandye last night that he wanted parmesan for supper. I told her that probably meant pasta, but I wasn’t sure. I asked him the other day as we drove past Olive Garden, “what do we eat at Olive Garden?” and he said “Salad, chicken and parmesan”- that’s usually true. I guess he associates parmesan with pasta? Makes sense to me! His favorite restaurants right now seem to be Firehouse or Red Lobster. If you ask him where he wants to eat it’s usually one of those 2 places that he names off first.

He is also all the sudden into Spiderman. Not sure why. Yesterday morning I asked him if there was anything he needed us to bring him back from Little Rock. His answer? “Probably, a Spiderman shirt”. Really? I have no idea where that came from either? We didn’t have any luck finding one, so maybe he’ll forget about it! I thought he’d say a truck or tractor or some kind of toy? But no. He wants a shirt. He is such a mess!

36 Weeks

Pregnancy Stats:

How Far Along: Just 3 weeks till my scheduled delivery, if I make it that long!

Size of baby: The ultrasound we had yesterday put her at 5 lbs. 6 oz.

Movement: Subtle movements still going on

Sleep: Is sporadic. One night I’ll sleep great the next hardly at all

Cravings: Still on the lifesaver kick, and I got to satisfy my Bonefish Grill craving finally, last night!

Symptoms: Crazy bad heartburn, swelling, a lot of pelvic pressure and pain, back pain, a few contractions and of course even more frequent trips to the ladies room.

Best Moment this past week: Having the ultrasound done yesterday

I had an appointment with Dr. Smith yesterday. Everything looked good. I have gained another 8 pounds!! Yikes! That brings the total to 32 pounds now! Scary! All my vitals were good. I had the group B strep test done. We will get the results at our appointment next week. If it’s positive I will just have to be put on antibiotics before delivery.  She checked me and I am dilated about 1 cm. We also had a quick ultrasound so they could determined about how big she is. The ultrasound indicated that she weighs around 5 pounds 6 ounces, give or take. However, I’m not too convinced that those measurements are accurate. . .I mean they told us a couple days before Stratton was born that he was around 5 lbs and to be prepared for how small he was going to be, and then he ended up being 6 lbs 10 oz! So who knows!

I asked her if she thought I would make it another 3 weeks since I’m already starting to dilate. She said it just depended on the frequency of these back pains and contractions I’ve been having. She encouraged me to take it easy and if the contractions become measurable, or I start noticing a pattern to let the ANGELS hotline know. She also told me to take tylenol pm if I needed to in order to get rest at night.

Dr. Smith made an appointment for me to see a neurologist at UAMS on Thursday. She thought I should go ahead and get the all clear from a neurologist since I will be having a c-section and anesthesia will be more comfortable if I have been examined and ok’d after what happened last week. She said she thought it would give us all a little peace of mind going into delivery- I agree. Plus, she had to pull some strings to get me in. When they called the first time it was going to be 3 months before there was an opening! It just so happens that the Neurologist is a patient of Dr. Smiths, so she made a personal call and told her what was going on and she agreed to see me this week! I figure if Dr. Smith went to all that trouble, I should at least go to the appointment.

After my appointment we ran to the mall to take some things back, then we made a trip to the Learning Express toy store for Arden to find a gift for Stratton, that she will give him at the hospital. And last we had an early dinner at Bonefish! I have been craving it for months, but the one in LR is only open for dinner!? Crazy, huh!! It was sooo good! We were back in Jonesboro by about 8pm. Jarrod dropped me off at home so I could put my feet up and then went to Dillon and Brandye’s to pick Stratton up. He was already asleep! Poor thing, they’d wore him smooth out! He must have had a good time, because he asked me if he could go back today!

So I guess we will be keeping the road to LR hot. Tomorrow my appointment is at 1pm, and then I start my weekly appointments with Dr. Smith, so I will go back on Tuesday to see her. The good/scary news is that we should only have to make that trip for a couple of weeks, then it will be delivery day! I am just not looking forward to all that riding. I was miserable yesterday! I have to keep reminding myself, just a few more weeks. . .