Is this done yet?

Yes, I'm getting impatient. Very impatient. I've been out of work for two weeks now and I still have 8 weeks from tomorrow from our due date. I'm tired of not doing anything although I know its for the best.
I'm happy to report that after two weeks of having appointments twice a week my doctor (the one who's actually my primary doctor with the practice) decided yesterday since my blood pressure has been stable, although still high, that we only have to come in once a week. That was definitely a relief to hear. You would think someone on bed rest would be anxious to get out of the house for appointments twice a week but just going to pee in a cup, get your blood pressure checked, and and spend less than 5 minutes listing the same symptoms with the doctor gets old. Overall though, since my visit to the hospital two weeks ago, I do feel much better. Just getting restless.
I'm trying to post pictures in a more efficient way now. It's taking a while but eventually I hope to have a good gallery set up on here. Maybe I'll have it ready before I decide to share this page with folks. Not gonna hold my breath though.
The Enslins are having a shower for us on Sunday followed by one at work on Wednesday. I'm so excited. Organizing new stuff for Grace as well as writing thank you notes will give me something to help pass the time. Right now I'm trying not to spend so much time over-analyzing every single thing I'm feeling. I am having braxton hicks contractions every day. And there's just something in my heart that tells me that this little girl growing inside of me isn't gonna stay in there for her entire 40 weeks. I can't help but think she'll start to attempt her grand entrance into this world at the end of October/beginning of November. And that will be right around the 37 week mark so I would be okay with it. Mama is just getting a little tired of being pregnant... and I'm anxious to love on my little girl...
Thats all for now...

Nesting? Anxiety? Excitement? So much

So I have been up on and off all night. Not sure why. I think it was a combination of the excitement of yesterday and actually making a little trip out of the house for something besides a doctor's appointment, having caffeine after none for a day and a half, constant pressure on my bladder causing me to get up every half an hour or so, and even a little bit of nesting. I really think the nesting is getting me, well as much as it can to a woman on bed rest who doesn't have much experience with cooking and isn't that good about deep cleaning. But I can't seem to stay out of the kitchen just to tend to things like making my sugar free jello, hard boiling some eggs for me to have for breakfast. I'm sitting here now on the couch debating whether or not I should endure the walk up and then back down the stairs to get a basket of Grace's laundry so I can wash some more of her clothes as well as the sheets we got yesterday. I just want to sort things, fix things, prepare things. Is this nesting? And if it is, does this mean Grace is getting super close? Mom and I were talking a lot about Grace's arrival today. I'm still talking as if she's coming in November around Thanksgiving which is her due date. I'd say at the earliest she'll probably be here is the first weekend in November which will be our 37 week mark and she will actually no longer be considered preterm. Mom... well, ole "grandma" keeps talking about 34 or 35 weeks which would be between October 15 and 22nd. I guess she's mainly doing this to prepare me for the possibility of a premature baby as well as the fact we've already taken some of the precautions in case a delivery that early was necessary (steroid shots to help with lung development during my hospital stay Sept 15-17th at 30 weeks). She even got the feeling from the doctor that it definitely didn't seem likely we'd make it all the way to 40 weeks and with my blood pressure issues it might end up being safer for both Grace and me if she comes early. And of course, there's a bit of a history to mom of babies coming at 34 weeks - that was when I arrived.
I'm torn. I want her to be healthy and stay inside and "cook" all of the way through, but I don't want any toxins in my body caused by blood pressure, blood pressure meds, and my stress to have any ill effect on her. I really DON'T want to carry her all of the way to 40 weeks, I hope she gets here before Thanksgiving. I'm just still torn about her maybe coming in time for Halloween. Thank god I'm going for doctors visits twice a week now to monitor us. It sure seems early to be doing that since I just hit 31 weeks yesterday, but if its whats best for Grace and I guess even for me, then its what I want. The doctor said at the appointment this past Thursday "we're gonna take things on an appointment by appointment basis." So we'll see. For now, this mama to be needs to sleep, at least for a few more hours...

The "Official" gender ultrasound 19 weeks 5 days 7.7.11

So we went in for the anatomy scan at the doctors office at the beginning of July. We had decided ahead of time not to let on that we already knew the baby's gender and had done an in-depth screen of her anatomy. We didn't want to tell them and then maybe they kind of slack us a little on this ultrasound that insurance was actually paying for.
Beth, the ultrasound tech, asked us ahead of time "do you have a feeling on way or another? I know some moms just have that feeling in their hearts." Well yeah I did have that "feeling" before I knew so I said yes, I think it's a girl. I made sure Josh and my mother-in-law Cathy (Grace's "Omi" which is a modification of the German word Oma which means grandmother) weren't saying anything either.
The funny thing was, even though I had seen her a little under 4 weeks earlier, I still had this slight doubt "What is boy parts show up?!" In fact I was so obsessed about it I drove my mom absolutely crazy about it. "Dale said DEFINITELY! Would you just relax?" Me, relax? Calm down? Hadn't she known me from birth? Even before I got pregnant relaxing wasn't exactly something I could do on command. And now, well this was my baby we were talking about.

Beth confirms it for me again -- definitely little girly parts

Hand up by the face

Can't see my face!

Looks like she's kicking herself in the head

My little girl looking kind of scary

Dancing baby Grace in 4D at 16 weeks

This came from the ultrasound done on 6.11.11
I can't help but think she knew she was putting on a show. Looks like she's already a little show off. Let's hope her coordination and dancing skills are better than her mama's if she decides to pursue dancing, cheerleading (please god no), or gymnastics in the future.
But here it is, Dancing Gracie...

16 week ultrasound 6.11.11 It's a...

When I first found out I was pregnant of course I immediately questioned the baby's gender. I didn't want to get my hopes up one way or another. Of course I wanted a healthy baby, in the long run THAT was the important thing. But deep down I couldn't help but have a preference...
On Saturday June 11, 2011 we were given an amazing gift. My wonderful uncle is an OB/Gyn and it was arranged for us to go and have an ultrasound done just to "take a look and check things out." There were no guarantees we would find out the baby's gender. In fact, we were told "If it's a boy and the 'parts' are there, then yes you can pretty much count on it. But, if it looks like a girl, you still shouldn't necessarily paint the nursery pink." Apparently there had been a mishap in the past where, even though Dale said "but I wouldn't paint the nursery pink", a couple had done so and ended up having a boy. So with that in mind, Mom and I went in for the ultrasound (Josh had stayed up in Spartanburg and had a yard sale that weekend making quite the profit so there were no complaints out of this mama to be).
The ultrasound technician, Diane, was amazing. Just a couple days prior her granddaughter had been born and she seemed extremely giddy from the entire thing. Plus, as soon as she was finished with us on that Saturday morning (God bless her for giving up part of her weekend) she was heading to Columbia to see that grandbaby.
It was amazing when she pulled up the first images and we were able to see how much the baby had grown from the little "rice crispy" we had seen 9 weeks earlier. What was in my belly now actually resembled a human!

Waving

Little feet

So Diane decides to move forward at that point and see if we can maybe get some questions answered... or at least a better idea... Well, it was like the little one just KNEW what kind of shot we wanted because the next thing I knew there was what I had seen during ultrasound photo searches referred to as a "potty shot" with two legs and what appeared to be the little ones "privates". I held my breath because boy oh boy did I already feel that I knew what I was looking at. I look over at Dale and Diane. She turns to Dale and asks "You want to call it or should I?" I still couldn't breathe.

 

"Looks like a little girl!"
I KNEW IT!!!! I KNEW IT!!!! I KNEW IT!!!! "Yes!" I say as I finally exhale. A few shots later where we get another good "potty" shot Dale makes the comment "It's DEFINITELY a girl. You can paint the nursery pink." Diane even comments "oh you said DEFINITE?!"

Another "girl" shot

Umbilical cord and abdominal cavity

Looking kinda like an alien

Smiling and waving

Ultrasound pictures 7 weeks 2 days 4.11.11

These are from our very first ultrasound April 11, 2011. I'm kind of glad we had no idea how far along in the pregnancy we were at this point because I'm not sure we would've had an ultrasound this early. When the ultrasound tech, Beth, pulled up the pictures, she described the baby as a little "Rice Crispy." Seeing the picture it was kind of hard to believe that the little spec here would one day actually look like a human being.

Yep it's REALLY a baby

Pointing out the location of  our Rice Crispy's tiny but already strong heart

Not even quite 1 centimeter long

Good sounding heart beat 142bpm

New to this... bare with me...

So I'm not really sure what gave me the idea to get this whole thing started... maybe it's boredom, maybe I'm tired, maybe I just want something to do to help the weeks until Grace's arrival go quicker. I think what it really boils down to is that I'm constantly getting phone calls, text messages, and Facebook messages asking how I'm doing and how Grace is doing. I guess I am hoping it will be easier to keep everyone updated on here. Plus I've got pictures I want to share. I know there are family members and friends who don't use Facebook and I would still like for them to see ultrasound pictures and of course, in a few weeks, pictures of and updates on our new bundle of joy.