He's here...

 

...and he's perfect!!!!

Hi! It's Melanie, the proud aunt who was asked and honored to hack into this blog to give you all the update you have been waiting for. =)
Hillary went in for a scheduled c-section this morning and it went perfectly---praise GOD!! She is doing great and so happy her little man is here and healthy. We all are!

Here is my newest nephew....

Griffin Burkett Mueller

6 lbs and 7 oz. 20 in.

8:30 am

Precious!!!

Daddy and Big brother checking Griffin out through the nursery window

LOVE!!!!

Proud big brother Graham!!

Griffin and his Proud Mimi(Hillary's mom)

Griffin with his proud Omi and Opi

Griffin and his proud Aunt Melanie =)

And now for my favorite moment of the day...

Ahhh...at last!!!

I know Hillary will be so glad when Griffin's other big brother Grady gets to come meet his little brother this evening! Can't wait to see those pictures!!

 Welcome to the world little Griffin!! You are such a gift from above--one that we have all prayed for!! We love you so much!!

One Day - Twas The Night Before His Birthday...

And I'm scared, nervous, and crazy excited! We head over to Labor and Delivery at 6 am for an 8 am delivery time. I can not believe that that in less than 12 hours I'll be the Momma to my third son!

The emotions that I'm feeling now are overwhelming to say the least. I feel so blessed that God has chosen me to be this new little guy's Momma. I keep trying to imagine in my head what he will look like, what his cry will sound like, how much he will weigh...

Even though this will be my 3rd C-Section I'm still nervous about how things will go. I want soo badly to be able to recover quickly to take care of my new little guy as best I can while I'm at the hospital and once I get home. I'm also a little nervous about being away from my boys for that many days. We spend so much of our days together everyday that it's going to feel very strange to be away from them.

My Momma came into town yesterday and I'm beyond grateful! She's been such a blessing just being here hanging out with me and keeping me occupied. We went out today to Kohl's and then Target and picked up some last minute baby items and then met Bobby's parents for lunch. There is nothing better than a little retail therapy followed up by some really good food! :)

Bobby and I finally got a new laptop and I'm still having some problems trying to figure out how to upload pictures! I promise to figure out how to do it and if not then my SIL will be hacking into my blog and posting for me! I'm also hopeful that the hospital has WiFi. I never checked... :/

If ya'll could pray for me to get some sleep tonight and for a safe delivery and a happy, healthy baby tomorrow I would soo appreciate it!

OMG, this is my last post until he's here...

4 Days - Another Letter To My Baby

Here is the second letter that I actually managed to write to the baby before my serious panic set in and I got too scared to continue. Silly no? A 35 year old woman too afraid to suck it up and put her heart out there for her baby "just in case". I must have told myself a million times "Just remember Hillary, if something bad was to happen you could delete everything and no harm no foul". But I didn't and now I seriously regret it. Oh well. The fact that I've plugged away here week after week will have to suffice.

On to a happier note.... Here is the second letter to the baby!

(dated February 6th 2011)

Silly Momma

My Little Love,

Well here we are! Another week closer to meeting each other. It's still so early on and yet I find still that I can't bare the wait to see you! I couldn't help myself and I took another home test just to comfort my heart and mind that you are still here with us.

I had to even laugh at myself... I had literally just barely started this test and the positive sign showed up beyond quickly! I love the reasuurance that this brings me!

When your Daddy saw me doing this all over again you could tell that he thought that I was completely crazy. Maybe I am but these little sticks are all I have until we do your very first ultrasound picture. That won't be until next Monday... which is just way too long for your Momma to wait!

So far this week I have still been really sleepy for a couple of hours every afternoon and nauseous several times a day! I was never ever sick with your brothers so I wonder if I feel different just because or if it is because you are a girl! Right now we still have at least 15 more weeks to wait to find that out. Talk about a hard wait for me!

I can already start to feel my shirts starting to stretch and pants to not fit well so you must be growing really well! I can't wait to start taking pictures every week for you to look back on and see your development (if only from the outside :) ).

Snuggle in well my little love!

Love,

Momma

5 Days - A Letter To My Little One

In talking yesterday about my private blog for my baby I decided that I'd share the couple of post with ya'll that I did manage to write! I went back briefly yesterday and re-read what I'd written as I hadn't done it in months. Its funny to see that not much has changed with me (emotionally speaking) from this past January until now. I was a nervous nelly back then and still am now! Of course at the time I had very general worries. I worried about only being around 4-5 weeks along and how the risk of miscarriage still lingered. How funny that now looking back there were soo many scary events in his and my future were in store for us.

Even though there is only 5 days left before I meet my little guy I am still the same worried Momma that I was all those months ago. I hope that he is able to read back through all my posts about this time and see it was all because I loved him soo much and he was soo wanted and needed!

Without further ado...

February 1, 2011

My Little Love,


Your Daddy and I are so excited that you are finally on your way to joining our family and we can not wait for you to be here already! It has only been 2 weeks since we discovered that we were expecting you and already we dream of the day that we hold you in our arms! I suspected long before any home test or doctor could tell me that we were pregnant with you. I started feeling very sick really really early in my pregnancy. The first morning that it happened I was talking to Daddy on his way to work and all of a sudden it struck me that I felt really nauseous! Normally I don't ever feel this way so in the back of my head I already knew...


It was a week later that I decided to take a home pregnancy test to confirm my suspicions. The testing box stated that you could test "6 days sooner". I think I must have tested 7-8 days sooner :). I just couldn't wait any longer! I told myself that I would not be upset with any negative results, I would just wait an extra couple of days and try again. Here is what Daddy and I saw that Saturday night!

I hope that these come out clear enough that you can see the faint little lines that made both Daddy's and my heart stop!

The next morning when I woke up, I took another one...

This one is just a little bit more obvious with the response! PREGNANT!

At six weeks I will take a picture of what Momma looks like with you in my tummy. We are also excited because the first time that Daddy and I get to see you will be at the doctor on February 14th! How perfect is that gift on Valentines Day! You are truly our little gift from God and we are ever thankful for Him!

Love you!

Momma

1 Week And 0 days and 6 Days - Almost There

I can NOT believe that this time next week I will have a baby in my arms.   Technically I'm still hoping that it will be sooner. I go back to my OB to get checked again tomorrow. I'm hoping and thinking that I will have made some BIG changes. I have been having quite a bit of pain and pressure there so I'm hoping to roll out of Dr. W's office with at least being at 4 cm. I really should be hoping and praying for more dilation than that because being "only" 4 cm gets me no where closer to the hospital than I already am right now! :)

Update to include countdown day 6!

I had my appointment this morning! I got to take Grady in with me this morning as my MIL was sick with a stomach bug (yech). He did soo good and I was one proud Momma. He pretty much stayed strapped in his stroller most of the time and didn't complain once about it! Thank goodness for small blessings because with him you just never know...

So onto the nitty gritty of the appointment! The nurse started out by telling me that I didn't need to undress from the waist down since I was scheduled for a c-section. I told her politely that I really wanted to get checked "just in case". Thankfully she laughed and understood perfectly. When Dr. W. checked me the first thing she said was "Well its not good that I have to reach so far back." Not the phrase that I wanted to hear...

Dr. W. said that I was dilated to 3 cm now and still at 80%. This obviously is not enough to get me a trip to L&D. So I sit here, whine on my blog, continue to eat more than is necessary, and dream of next Wednesday!

On a random sidenote: I started a private blog that was supposed to capture everything about this pregnancy, daily letters to the baby, and other things that was going to be my gift to the baby as a printed out book. Lets just say that I blogged all of twice and then got scared and stopped. Stupid right?? I'm thinking of just copying and pasting over all pregnancy related things from this blog to my other. Can anyone think of a simpler way than searching through all 191 posts I have to move them from one blog to another? Also I'd like the comments to move as well. Do ya'll know if thats possible or have I shot myself in the foot by not keeping up like I had intend??

1 Week And 1 Day - "I Don't Know Nothin' 'Bout Birthin' No Babies"

This quote pretty much sums up my child birth experience. (Coincidentally this happens to be my most favorite part of my most favorite movie! I just never.ever.imagined that it would suit me so well.)

I forgot to mention that at last weeks appointment Dr. W. said gently to me "I'm not judging you, but have you considered getting your tubes tied after this baby?" I think that she must have quickly looked over my chart and saw:

Baby #1 - Live Birth

Baby #2 - Miscarriage

Baby #3- Live Birth

Baby #4 - Still Birth

Baby #5 - ? (crazy early infections from Strep B, incompetent cervix, heart calcifications in the baby, advanced maternal age etc.)

She really was nice about it all. She told me of how she had made that choice after having two babies herself and had crazy high blood pressure with both that required bed rest and the premature births for both her kiddos. It's super nice to have a doctor that you can relate to but the recommendation still stung. Bobby and I are 100% sure that this is our last baby but it was always fun to joke around with each other of "what if we went crazy one day and decided we needed one more...". We never wanted to have that choice taken away from us. It just seems soo scarily permanent and I hate hate hate the thought of losing that kind of control, especially over my own body.

I told Dr. W. that no I didn't want to have my tubes tied. (Don't worry about me, we choose another method that is just as reliable but is reversible.) I ended up being very disheartened that day about my ability to carry my children to term. So much of who I am, what I am, and my self-worth is wrapped up in my ability to be a mother great mother (and by that I mean the complete mothering experience from conception to college)! To be told that I don't do it so well was really hard to hear. I know that there are soo many women out there who crave to have just one child much less three and I feel horrible sometimes about my self-pitying bad attitude. But, it's where I am right now. 

1 Week and 2 Days - Blogging Catchup... (aka No Baby Yet)

So you know how I had said that I wanted to blog each.and.every.day. until my son is born? HAHA. Fail. I meant to blog over the weekend. I truly did. I even have the blog post titles to prove it! Saturdays was going to be "Pop Pop Trickle Trickle" and Sunday's was going to be "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes". I might as well go ahead and post now what I had meant to post then! (don't you just love how I managed to turn 2 days of blogging now into 3 :)

Saturday - "Pop, Pop, Trickle, Trickle"

This past Saturday was fairly uneventful for our family. We are still in the mood to just hang around the house, do a little playing outside, and a little cleaning inside. Bobby was awesome and helped me out soo much with the floors! He vacuumed the stairs for me and holy moly! I swear, just the dirt from the stairs filled up almost the entire container on our vacuum! Our house stayed fairly sparkling until the next morning and by now its back again to how it normally looks... ;)

Around lunchtime Bobby took off to help out with our church rummage sale for just an hour. Wouldn't you know it, 10 minutes after he left and I was sitting at our computer I felt 2 little pops "down there" and then a funny trickle. (sorry for the TMI). I was super excited for all of 2 minutes until nothing else seemed to be coming out. I called a friend of mine who is a nurse and another who I know had broken her water with both of her kids to see what they thought. It was discussed at length and decided that I should just wait and see. Ugh. I knew that this was a good idea though as I didn't really want to go all the way over to L&D triage just to be sent home right away. We went on to a small birthday party later that night where I still had high hopes but alas, nothing!

Sunday - "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes"

I know that as babies get bigger and have less room to move around they do more twisting and turning, but OH MY WORD. This child of mine has no concept of that most of the time. He is either sleeping like crazy or moving like crazy! Most nights the TV in our house is barely watched. :) If I pull up my shirt when the baby is doing his acrobatics, Bobby and the boys will literally pull up a chair and just stare at my stomach! He is all sharp angles these days. He pushes his little feet up and outward and pokes out his elbows and knees. The first couple of minutes its entertainment for me too and I'm super excited to have such a strong, big, healthy boy. But, after that couple of minutes it just starts to get painful! The boys (including Bobby) also love to talk to him through my stomach. It's soo cute because now the baby will respond with a kick or a punch usually!  

I will be very thankful when it's next Wednesday and I'm holding my little squirmy wormy in my arms! I'm not sure that I'll ever be able to swaddle this baby tight enough that he won't be able to fight his way out of! I can't wait to find out if I'm right!

1 Week And 5 Days - Bring On The Hormones

I swear that these last couple of weeks until Baby is here are moving at a snails pace!! I have felt that the rest of this pregnancy moved pretty quickly for me. I never spent a whole lot of time staring at my calender counting down days (unless there was a super big delay between doctor appointments). Holy Cow. Each day now seems like an entire week. I am soo not a fan of this being as impatient as I am.

To make matters worse I have had some crazy surge of pregnancy hormones kick in at the very last second. I was a tad bit weepy at the beginning, ok through the middle, but now here at the tail end I have turned into a crying nut job that has both my kids and my hubby looking at me funny.

Today alone I swear I have cried 9 different times. Some of the times they were for very valid reasons (worrying about how Graham is doing in school and then about finances) and others were just plain silly. Today on the way to the grocery store Grady asked to hear "Church Songs". To my 3 year old this means he wants to hear his CD of songs from Vacation Bible School from this past summer. I had to wait to dry up to go shopping because he was singing "How Great Thou Art" and it was soo precious to hear his little voice sing the words... (OH NO, NOW I'M CRYING AGAIN). When we got home from the store and Grady had lunch and I laid him down I started to cry because I was tired. Really?? I gave myself a very stern talking to because only little kids cry when they are tired and need a nap.

I'm sure that I'll cry when Bobby makes it home from work tonight because I'll be soo glad to see him. I'm pretty sure once he gets a load of me he won't be thinking the same thing... :)

Hope that everyone has a great weekend!

1 Week And 6 Days - 37 Week Checkup

Yay for another easy-peasy, boring doctors visit! To sum things up briefly (and well because the visit was brief) my blood pressure was awesome at 103/70, I gained a crappy 6 pounds this week, the baby's heart beat was stellar (I'm an awesome mother and I forgot to ask what it was), and the best most exciting part of all.......

 I'm 2 cm dilated and 80% effaced!!

I asked her what this meant for me and yeah, pretty much nothing. She said that to deliver this little guy early I'd still have to go into labor with either very regular contractions or my water breaking. I asked if there was any amount of dilation that I could stroll in at that would send me over to Labor and Delivery and she smiled and said that she had plenty of patients that walked around 4 cm for a while and weren't sent over. In my head all I could think was "Oh, so 5 cm is the magic number!". Don't you just love the way that my brain jumps to all sorts of conclusions! :) I have very high hopes of walking in there next Thursday and her being all "OH MY GOODNESS HILLARY, YOU ARE 7 CM AND ITS TIME TO HAVE A BABY!" Bwhahahahah. Like that will happen...

As a side note for me to remember later, Grady and my MIL came with me to the doctor today. She kept him in the waiting room while I was getting checked. When I came back out to them he was soo upset that he didn't "get to go back there" with me. He's so stinkin cute. I asked my MIL if she was brave enough to come back again next week and this time we'd take him into the exam room with us. I'm pretty sure that neither will be scared for life if they can just stay up by my head! :) He was even sadder when we got into the car and he realized that we didn't have a baby to take home with us. All I could tell him was "You and me both Buddy."

2 Weeks And 0 Days - Still Hanging In There

I'm still here gestating away. I had such high high hopes that the second the cerclage came out so would this child. No such luck so far. Maybe my doctor was right when she laughed and said "You'll be one of those moms that goes past her due date." I know that this won't happen but the thought that it could have makes me shiver. Thinking back on my first pregnancy with Graham I laugh at myself. I cheerfully and with almost no worries made it all the way to 41 weeks. Now that thought is almost incomprehensible. All I can think about these days is "lets get this baby outta here!".

For posterity's sake some of the things I'm feeling today are crazy hand and feet swelling, the inability to fit behind my steering wheel with out scooching my seat way back, and the sensation that this little guy has dropped way low. It could be just my imagination but my baby bump seems to be much lower...

I go for my first cervical check tomorrow morning at 10:15. I'm super curious as to how far I'm dilated! Anyone care to make any fun guesses!! I'm going to say that I'm at least one centimeter.

2 Weeks and 1 day - Bye Bye Cerclage

Bye Bye cerclage. You kicked butt while you were here and I'm excited to now see you gone. It means that I am now one step closer to my dream of a complete family. Soon it will be 5 of us and I can not wait!

We had a call time of 7 am for the cerclage removal so that meant getting to hospital at 5 am. Somehow, despite the excitement Bobby and I were both able to sleep really good last night. When the alarm went off at 3:45 neither of us really batted an eye. Bobby's Mom got here around 4:30 and we headed off into the cool darkness of the early morning.

You will think that this is kinda funny but both of us were really enjoying ourselves! It almost had the feeling of a "date night". Bobby works out of town and really long hours to boot so the time that we have together always feels special. Throw in a quiet car ride with zero children and it was pure bliss!

We got to the hospital in plenty of time and checked ourselves into Labor and Delivery. I wasn't quite sure what all to expect other than it would take only a minute or so to complete. To my surprise we were taken behind a set of double doors that led to L&D's OR and pre-op/recovery rooms. I had been imagining just a regular L&D room for our mornings stay. After changing into a gown, answering an hours worth of questions and getting an IV started we sat and waited for me to be called back. The anesthesiologist came and talked to me which just ended up confusing both of us. I told her that I shouldn't need anything for the pain as my Dr. had said that she had only ever had 1 patient that needed a spinal for this particular procedure. (Plus I knew that I would spend more time getting the spinal placed than the actual procedure itself...) I really was willing to tough it out. She double checked with my OB and they decided that I really shouldn't need anything.

The removal of the cerclage itself wasn't bad at all. It was very intimidating being in the OR by myself (I had been anticipating Bobby being able to hold my hand and talk to me while having it done). The worst part of the entire process was (***TMI WARNING***) having the speculum placed. She had told me that it shouldn't be too much more painful than having regular pelvic exam. Umm, she was WRONG! I am not afraid to admit that I pulled the warming blanket up to my face and covered my eyes in there. I was totally about to start crying. Thankfully she was right about how long it took (only a minute) and I never really felt her remove the cerclage. Once the speculum was out and gone I felt sooo much better! I have had no bleeding and feel the same as when I left the house this morning! 

I did feel a little bit bad for the baby. I think that I totally stressed him out with my stress. Before the procedure his heart rate was hovering between the 120's and 130's. It was much higher when I got done. I asked about it and they said that he would be just fine. I need to remember from now on to take things (emotionally)much easier. It's not just me that is feeling what I feel anymore. I only had to stay to be observed for a little over an hour. As it became apparent that I was not going to be going into to labor anytime soon they discharged me right away.

Today with my hubby at home with me has literally felt like a mini-vacation! We got to get out and have lunch together and then meet Graham at the bus stop after he got done at school. I can't wait to have a relaxing evening with just me and my boys! My next checkup with her in two days and I can't wait to see if my cervix has made any changes!

T-Minus 2 Weeks And 2 Days.... Let The Countdown Begin!

I figure that since I really am in the home stretch now I really should be blogging everyday until he's here. That's my plan at least. No promises though since irregular blogging has pretty much been my M.O. lately. I figure if I'm busy suffering right now with this big 'ole baby then one day he might want to read about it when he gets older.

(I know, who am I kidding. Neither he nor any of his other brothers will ever give two craps that their beloved mother tried to blog multiple times a week for years just so they would always have memories of their childhood. I fully undertook this blogging endeavor for my three future daughter-in-laws knowing that they will care about their hubby's life as little kids. Hi Ladies!)

Since September 28th looms in only 2 weeks and 2 days I've been trying to accomplish all the stuff around the house that I've avoided for the past 9 months. In my happy head Bobby and I will head off to the hospital leaving behind 2 well behaved little boys (HA), a sparkling clean house (Double HA), and a well stocked fridge so that no one goes hungry because they can't find something to eat because Momma is gone for 4 days (Triple HA).

But, who am I kidding? Mostly what I spend my days doing is eating for 2 (or 200), laying on my couch watching more Netflix (aka "Mad Men") than is good for me, and on occasion tossing a dirty dish into the dishwasher then patting myself on the back for being such a great Mom.

On happier notes of getting things done, we did take the boys to Build-A-Bear yesterday. Grady made one for himself because the 900 stuffed animals he has are.not.enough. Graham made one for the baby though and it was beyond cute watching him do it. I seriously almost cried in the middle of the store. When we got to the portion of it where you get to dress them I handed Graham the little outfit that was pale blue and said something about a baby. He promptly looked at me like I had a roach crawling across my face and dressed it in army fatigues and a little camo hard hat. I truly am a mother of all boys.

Quickly on to how I'm feeling today symptom-wise... If it weren't for this darn cerclage that is still in I'd swear that I was going into labor soon. I've had low back pains, nausea, no appetite, another un-mentionable symptom, and what I would swear was my mucus plug starting to come out (I'm not even sure that this one is possible considering how I'm all stitched together...).

I'm hoping that by tomorrow I'll have much more to report! I'll update after we get back from the hospital from the cerclage removed. Here's to hoping that my water randomly breaks while we're there and this little guy is born soon!

Week 36 (and 1 day) And MIA

Sorry I have been MIA for almost a week now! Our computer completely died :(. I took it in to B.est B.uy to try and see if their G.eek S.quad could fix it again and the second they opened our tower they said that it was fried. They said that they could fix it but that it would really be cheaper to just get a whole new one. Gag. Just the expense we need right before the baby comes... Bobby thinks that he can fix it himself so we will see...

For right now we are surviving on an old laptop of Bobby's parents. At least it's something though and for that we are grateful! I kept having images of the baby coming early and having no way to email or blog! Panic inducing! It's a little on the slow side so I'm trying to catch up on commenting and reading blogs! I also haven't been able to check my email in DAYS. I'm going to try and hack my way in later today when I have had a nap and gained some more patience with all the slowness.

On to better things! I had my 36 week checkup yesterday with my OB. All went great! My blood pressure was good, I didn't gain any weight again (who can eat when the baby is taking up all the room!), and the baby's heartbeat was right on track at 135 bpm. I did have a small crying meltdown with Dr. W. during the appointment though :(. The baby had decided to nap most of yesterday morning and so was barely passing his kick counts (she likes at least 4 an hour). He had been very active for the past couple of weeks all the time so it was really alarming to me that he changed all of a sudden. Everything I have read on Dr. Google says to watch out for these kinds of changes. When the doctor went to check his heartbeat it took her a minute to find it and I started to have a panic attack. She usually puts the Doppler on my stomach and its right where she's guessing it is. By the time she finally found it I was just soo relieved that I lost it completely. She said that she would get him to move for me so she gently rubbed along his back for a minute until she got several good kicks out of him. She was very reassuring to me and later on in the afternoon after a good lunch and lots of water he got back to his usual thumping and bumping self :).

Thank God I only have 2 weeks and 5 days left until he's here!

We Have Dates!

I hadn't heard back from my OB's office yet by lunchtime today so I decided that I really should go ahead and call them. Bobby really needs to know as far ahead of time as possible so they can make arrangements for him to take off.
Here is the gist of it!

Cerclage removal : Tuesday September 13th 7:00 am

C-Section date: Wednesday September 28th 8:00 am

(I'm being silly and putting specific times just in case anyone would like to say a quick prayer for us then.)

The dates are farther back than I would like (but that's just me being picky). The cerclage will come out at 36 weeks and 5 days and the C-Section will be 38 weeks and 6 days. I know that my doctor knows exactly what she is doing but I was still hoping for both of them to happen at least a week sooner.

I'm still waiting to hear back from the actual surgical coordinator for my OB practice to make sure that I have all the arrival times correct and figure out when I need to run in for the pre-op blood work. Other than that it seems that things are pretty set!

Oh my gosh... Am I in the home stretch??!!

Week 35 (and 1 Day) !

I know that I say this every week (but I don't care, I'll say it again) I can't believe I've made it this far! I have one more week under my belt and not many more left to go. I am now more than ready to hand this little boy an eviction notice! :) I had my checkup yesterday at my regular OB office and it was fairly uneventful.

They started out by asking me to "undress from the waist-down please" so they could do the Strep B test. I gleefully told the nurse that my underpants would get to stay exactly where they were as I had already tested positive for Beta Strep waaaay back at Week 6 of pregnancy. Everything else checked out great. Great blood pressure, good weight check, good baby heartbeat and fundal measurement. We spent time talking about when to have the cerclage removed and when to set the date for the scheduled C-Section. Dr. W. offered once again to remove the cerclage at the same time as the C-Section but I'm still a bit scared about the weight of the baby tearing the cerclage out early and I'd still like the chance to maybe have this guy arrive a little bit earlier than expected :). She said that she still though I'd go past my due date even with the cerclage removed if it weren't for the C-Section.

Dr. W. said that she'd have her scheduling nurse call me yesterday with both dates but I haven't heard from them yet. I figure if I haven't heard anything by noon today I'm calling them! I promise that I'll do a small updater post later in the day with the dates if I get some answers. I know that you are all just dying to know what dates to add to your calender! HAHA :) They did get me scheduled for my last 3 appointments with Dr. W. The next one is next Thursday!

Sorry for no picture again this week of the two of us. Most days I am barely able to drag a brush through my hair and I refuse to post any pictures of my swollen, pregnant self looking all crappy... I feel like he has really "fallen out" though. It's funny, I think I look like I've shoved a giant balloon under my shirt!

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 35 weeks and 1 day!

Size of Baby: Probably around 5-1/2 pounds by now I'd guess. No more fun ultrasounds for growth scans for us :(.

Total Weight Gain/Loss: I stayed the same weight these past two weeks. But who really knows. This was the same office where I had the funky weigh in two weeks ago and I forgot to ask to be weighed on a different scale.

Maternity Clothes: Getting very very small. Most maternity tops are too small for me. I either squeeze into a maternity top if I have to leave the house or when I'm just at home I wear one of Bobby's t-shirts!

Gender: Still a little BOY!

Movement: Sometimes he kicks so hard that it's starting to hurt! Other times I can tell that the poor little guy is running out of room and he just twists and turns.

Sleep: It's been hit or miss this week. Some nights I sleep like a baby (haha) all night and don't even wake up to use the bathroom and other nights I'm up and down all night long!

What I Miss: Nothing this week!

Cravings: Okra and red meat.

Symptoms: Just the usual for this stage of pregnancy : heartburn, swelling, tiredness, anxiety :)

Best Moment This Week: My doctors appointment yesterday! I love hearing the baby's heartbeat and getting the reassurance that everything is still going good!

I hope that everyone has a great weekend!