Baby Shower #2 and 33 week update

On Tuesday the ladies at work graciously threw me a shower over lunch! There was lots of yummy food and of course a cake, one of my co-workers even made genuine chocolate mousse it was delish. Here are a few pictures:

this is the delicious cake,

and this is the crown they made me wear that said "new mom to be"

With their generous gifts Derek and I went out last night to purchase a crib! We also picked up a mattress for the crib - those baby mattresses do not seem very comfortable at all, but since they all felt like that I know it's not just the one we picked out. We still need to put the crib together and this is not the bedding we are going to use but here's the stock photo of it.

I will also have an updated belly shot soon! Today I officially hit 33 weeks, which means I have 7-9 weeks to go, wooo hooo! I saw my mid-wife today and I am measuring right on schedule, and she has no concerns at this point in time. I think Derek said it best when he described her today, "she is what whoopie goldberg would be like if she was cool". Our Mid-Wife is great, she has a great sense of humor, personality, and she's a believer. The only day she won't be able to deliver me is on Tuesdays because of her seminary classes, so I'm crossing my fingers that the baby will cooperate and show up on any day but Tuesday. If it's up to Derek, the baby will also avoid a Saturday, so that he will still be able to watch college football :)

Shaving

I may have mentioned that I pulled my groin muscle in my left leg about 2ish weeks ago. While I can still move around there are certain things that cause me extreme pain and the top 3 are:
1. Shaving my legs
2. Lifting up my legs to step into pants
3. Rolling over at night

While I have found a minimal pain solution to #2, and there isn't anything I can do about #3, I have found a great solution for not being able to shave my legs. I may get in trouble for this post... Derek has graciously volunteered to assist me with this task. The honest truth? He does as good of a job as I do if not better. Now if only I could find a solution to painting my toes : ) Have I mentioned how awesome my husband is??

Nursery

A few weekends ago, my dad came up and helped Derek paint the baby's room. Derek and I picked out a nice sage green to go on the walls and they did a great job! Here are a few pictures of their handy work





















The door in this one on the left goes into the closet, and the rocking chair in on loan to us from my parents. That's my diaper bag on top, and there are 3 homemade blankets as well! The top picture is the view when you first walk into the room...we still use the room to store some things, we'll find a place for those later :) Of course my cat, Bebe loves being in this room (it's usually off limits to the cats) and she took advantage of the photo shoot as a chance to poke around in here! We still need to put up some things on the walls and put up a curtain to help block out sunlight, but we are getting closer to having a completed nursery one of these days!

Thankful

In light of my recent posts which have been full of complaints, frustrations, and me just being whiny, I was thinking today about things that I am thankful for. Here are the main ones:

My husband, Derek. He is racking up MAJOR brownie points these days for dealing with me while pregnant! Derek is my best friend, my rock, my consoler, my everything. If I didn't have him supporting me through all of this right now I don't think I could make it. He always makes me laugh when I'm sad, and when he knows I just need to cry he willing sacrafices his white undershirts to my mascara while holding me. It's crazy to think of how much more I love him today than yesterday.

My Family! This one doesn't include Kelsey and Caleb because they couldn't make it to our wedding, but this group of people means the world to me. We were constantly moving as little kids, and we had to depend on each other for support. It's taken us several years to get to the closeness we're at right now, and it's been amazing to develop better relationships with my siblings. My parents went through a lot of tears, stress, anxiety, etc to get all us of to the point where we're at today. My parents are amazing, and I wish I had been willing to see that in high school. I cannot wait for them to get to know their grandson, he is going to have wonderful grandparents not only from my side, but from Derek's side as well!

Yesterday, at my doctor's appointment, I only gained 1.5 lbs!!! She weighed me before they made me pee in a cup so I probably didn't gain 1.5lbs in 2 weeks, it was probably closer to 1 lb. I am still under the number on the scale that would send me into an emotional breakdown. 9 weeks to go, hopefully I will only gain 3 more pounds in the upcoming 9 weeks to stay under those dreaded 3 numbers that would make me lose it. But enough on that, I'm just happy that my weight hasn't continued to sky rocket and seems to have slown down quite a bit.

Doctor Drama Again

I had my 31 week appointment today, and when I showed up for my scheduled appointment at 8:45 they commented how I was super early. 2 seconds later I come to find out they had informed me of the wrong time and my appointment was actually at 9:45. They assured me that it wasn't a problem and I would be able to get in right away. Which I was thankful for, I was starting to have flashbacks of Alliance and how they treated me when they screwed up my appointment!

I get taken back to a different part of the office, assuming that I'm going to see Sameerah, my nurse mid-wife. I am then informed that I will be seeing one of the doctors, and when I asked if I would still be seeing Sameerah, they looked confused. I quickly explained that I'm only supposed to see her and if she's not available I'd be more than happy to see a doctor. The nurse comes back in and says that my chart has been switched from mid-wife only to doctor-only, but is unable to give me a decent explanation or reason, she says nothing on my chart would indicate why that has been changed.

After a disappointing appointment for reasons I will not delve into here, I go to schedule my next appointment. The receptionist tries to schedule me with a doctor and when I push back that I'm supossed to see Sameerah she tells me that I must have been switched because of medical conditions. I let her know that I do not have any medical conditions and would like to see Sameerah. She then tries to get ahold of my chart, which I am not ok with - she's not a nurse or doctor and has no business looking at my records!! The nurse behind her doesn't give her the chart, but they let me know they will call me to tell me why I've been switched. Apparently it was a big mistake and I'm back over to mid-wife only.

The next surprise arrived when I called to cancel my set of labs with the oncology center to see if I carry the gene for hemochromotosis. They wanted to do more labs and said they couldn't use the labs my doctor had just done to test for that. We decided that it's in my best interest to not get any more bloodwork done during this pregnancy and that we will get the baby tested when he arrives. The oncology center informs me that not only is my appointment for the hemochromotosis but it is also because I'm anemic. Come again? Me, anemic? You have got to be kidding me, I have NEVER been diagnosed with anemia and none of my labwork has ever come back indicating that I am even borderline anemic.

Why does it seem that there is not one single competent doctor's office in the Lansing area?! I sure hope we have moved out of Michigan by the time we're ready for our next child. I also am strongly considering the possibility of an at-home birth next time around. I can avoid all doctors and unnecessary bloodwork, needles, shots, etc. Oh and one last thing, apparently being pregnant does not legally entitle you to any special treatment or coverage. It's not considered an illness or disability, I'd like to blame this on the stupid women's rights movement that want equal treatment no matter what. As a pregnant woman I think we should have increased legal rights and am very upset with the women's rights activists who created those stupid laws preventing us from receiving different treatment.

And yes, it is only 10:43 am and I still have to work 9 hours today, Lord have mercy.

Bitter

I'm in a bitter mood today. I don't remember the last time I was this bitter about something, but it takes a lot to get me to this spot. My normal pregnant response would be crying, but surprisingly that's the last thing I want to do. 3 things that I want to do - don't worry I will not be doing the first two so you don't need to call or comment to talk me out of it-
1. Have a big fat cigarette (this is one of the things I will NOT do again no judging people)
2. Have a big fat alcoholic beverage or several (please see parentheses above)
3. Go outside and shout obscenities for 2 hours

Now I probably will not do the last one just because we live in a very family-friendly apartment complex and even though I have heard the f bomb dropped from a 3 year old's mouth here I will not be the reason why they learn that word.

In lighter news, I ordered a onesie for the baby as a part of his possible coming home outfit. I'm not 100% decided on which outfit he will come home in, but this is a distinct possibility. I can't show the back because it has his name on it, and to show you all ahead of time would be cheating, you'll just have to wait until he decides it's time to enter the world :)

Here are the 2 outfit choices so far:

Option 1 (this will need some pants, socks and probably a jacket or something):


Option #2 (because I'm secretly hoping for him to arrive on Halloween):

30 Weeks 4 Days - nothing new to report

I haven't posted a picture in awhile, partly because I am not using the computer that I can put my SD card into, and I do not know where the cable is to hook my camera up to the other computer. I can tell you this much, take my last belly picture and add about 500 inches to it and you will have my belly now. It seems to grow daily and I'm not so sure I like the idea of taking weekly pictures. It doesn't really help the self-esteem factor these days!

Things coming up this week:

-last week of this session of pre-natal yoga
-birthing classes start up
-bi-weekly visits to the doctor have begun and i have another appointment this week

Recent cravings:

-for it to be October

Aches/Pains:

-everything hurts these days

I will post pictures one of these days :)