Full Term, WHAT?!?

I cannot believe it... I am 37 weeks today!! Hear that Declan, you can safely come out now!

Yesterday was a BUSY day for us. It started off with us getting ready and being out the door by 9:30am. Now if you know Donnie and I, very rarely are we out of the house before 1pm. We really enjoy our lazy mornings around here. We usually wake up around 10am and enjoy a few hours in our PJs with Liberty before we finally get ready for the day. So as you could imagine, my pregnant butt was dragging yesterday morning and we ended up rushing out the door.

Our first stop was the Coast Guard ID office to renew our IDs. There should be a rule that you don't need to have an ID renewed when you're 9 months pregnant. The pictures are always less than flattering when not pregnant, so use your  imagination to think about what they look like bloated, 30 pounds overweight, and exhausted. Lol

Then we headed to my friend Angela's house to catch up, we haven't seen her in months so she was pretty shocked to see the belly, which is huge at this point!

After our brief visit with Angela, it was off to see the midwife to see how Baby Declan and I are doing! It was also our birth plan visit where we discuss our wishes with the midwife and she tells us whether or not that is available to us and what she thinks. The appointment went great. My blood pressure still looks great, I did not gain any additional weight but that's okay, and Declan's heart beat still sounds beautiful on the doppler. All of my birth plan wishes were granted and we should have absolutely no problems getting everything the way we want it. We are so blessed to have a mama and baby friendly hospital and midwife who truly care about us. We aren't just a number, not just another patient.

After my appointment, I had to head over to the hospital for a routine non stress test (NST) because of my gestational diabetes. I heard that NSTs were boring and to bring a book, but I found it really interesting and didn't want to take my eyes off the screen. They put two monitors on me, one that recorded Declan's heart rate and one that recorded my contractions and also baby's movements. What they want to see is that Declan's heart rate stays within a specific range and that it rises when he moves around and falls when he is calm. It also measures what happens to his heart rate when I have a contraction. They want to make sure he's not having a lot of decelerations in his heart rate, especially when I am having a contraction. Declan did not have any decels during the test and he had 18+ accelerations, which is great, he needed to have 2 in order to pass the test. He had two within the first few minutes of being hooked to the monitor. It was awesome to feel his movement and then see his heart rate rise and fall at the same time. It is also reassuring to know that the gestational diabetes is not having an effect on him, he's an active healthy little baby in there!

After our NST, we went out to lunch at Longhorn and then headed out to Target to walk around for a little while. While in Target, I had two very strong time able contractions. I thought for sure I was headed right back to the hospital... but they stopped. We had a 6:30pm reservation at Not Your Average Joes back on Cape so we headed to dinner, after a quick stop to see my old coworkers at Crabtree and Evelyn. ;)

Dinner at NYAJ was amazing as usual. I got Sirloin Tips, Mashed potatoes, and green beans. Donnie got buffalo chicken pizza that looked fabulous. For dessert we got what is called Peanut Butter Thing. It is peanut butter ice cream with chocolate chips, Oreo cookies and has chocolate sauce and caramel sauce on the side. I ate a good chunk of it (with my midwife's approval). I was expecting my sugar levels to be incredibly high but I was wrong, my levels were NORMAL! Amazing. I'm totally starting to second guess whether or not I truly have GD.

Then we did some walking around the mall and headed over to Babies R Us to do some last minute shopping. Afterwards, I was done! We went home, and I took off my shoes and socks and my ankles and toes were so swollen. I should have taken a picture! The swelling is gone today, I just over did it yesterday.

I had a great birthday and Valentine's day! I'm so glad Donnie was home this year to celebrate together. This year is going to be an amazing year for me, the year I become MOMMY!

A post about Liberty

I love Liberty so much, I really do. She was our first "baby" and at one point, I thought she was the only baby we would ever have.

Liberty and I, December 2011

She means the world to me and it makes me sick to think of her being sad or hurt. So with that said, I'm sure some of you could understand why this week has been challenging for us. Liberty has decided that I cannot be out of her sight. Our normal crate trained doggy has turned into a little devil at night. She refuses to go to her crate by laying down when we tell her to go to her crate, so we have to go and pull her. She sits her butt down like a dead weight in protest. We don't let her get away with it though. We eventually get her to her crate and that's when the hard part for me begins. The whining, crying, and carrying on all.night.long. As her mommy, it KILLS me to listen to her cry. It makes everything inside of me hurt. It makes ME cry. It frustrates Donnie and eventually there's tension that can be cut with a knife. It didn't take long for Donnie to go sleep on the couch the other night, it quieted her down just enough so I could get a little more rest.

I have been consistent while Donnie has been at work this weekend, and her cries are becoming less and less at night... but when I do let her out of her crate, she is ATTACHED at the hip. She sits with me while I eat, she sits with me on the couch, lays down in the afternoons with me, lays across my legs or my belly while Declan kicks. She knows what's to come... and she doesn't want to miss a beat!

Liberty laying directly next to me

Liberty sleeping on me, feeling Declan move

Liberty in my bed during my afternoon nap

I think Liberty is going to be a great big sister. She's going to be protective and she's going to be Declan's best friend. I am so glad that they're going to grow up together. A boy and his dog....

These are the little challenges that I don't want to forget. I want to remember how attached and protective Liberty was. I want to remember that I was so annoyed at the lack of sleep but still so in love with my little puppy. She'll always be a puppy to me.

Liberty... January 2011