38 Weeks

We are just under 2 weeks! As much as I would love to say that time has flown by, it seems like this last month is taking forever! It's okay, I'm sure we need every minute we have to get totally prepared! We have been very blessed to have had 4 beautiful showers! The first was thrown by my high school friends for Kara and I at the Wrought Iron grill in Owosso on Feb 6th. Then on the 7th we had another thrown by the Aunt's on my mom's side of the family for Alisa and I at Baker College. The car was loaded to the top on our way back to Kalamazoo! We got sooo many nice things! Then, one of my girlfriends, Jeanine, threw me a shower for our friends here in Kalamazoo on February 18th and then on the 21st the Aunt's on the Skok side of the family threw Kara and I a beautiful shower back in Owosso. We are now all set for this baby to arrive! I'm not sure there really is anything else we will need!

I went to the Doctor yesterday and they said that I am dilated 2 cm now and still measuring right on for March 10th. They did say that my blood pressure has been high, so they hooked me up to a fetal monitor for about 20 minutes to make sure the baby wasn't in distress, and he is doing perfectly fine! They want me to come back on Friday to check it again. In the meantime, the Doctor took me off of work until we get my labs back and check my blood pressure again. I guess it's good because it gives me time to update things like this-which I have been lacking! I've been having some contractions, and Ryan loves to hear that because he is hoping that it means we are getting closer! For some reason I think we will have him next week, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see!

We completed all of our baby classes last week and are as ready as we can be to become parents! Hopefully the next time I update this blog, it will have pictures of our new little baby! Thank you to everyone for your generosity and prayers!

34 Weeks

January is almost over and the clock is ticking! We are now only 6 weeks away from our due date! I've been feeling pretty good lately, but it is getting harder to keep up with my normal schedule because I get so tired! The baby should be close to 5 lbs. and almost 18 inches long! He's definitely been growing, each week I have noticed a difference in the way my clothes fit! I've been trying to workout at least 3 times a week still and I think when I'm at the gym I make some people a little nervous (those who aren't used to seeing a REALLY pregnant women workout) and other people give me that sympathy smile like "Oh, honey, doing those lungs aren't going to help you now!" It's probably the only time in my life that I don't mind having a belly at the gym :)

We have been working on the nursery and other than hanging stuff on the wall, we are done! We have been keeping the door shut because Ryan is worried about the cats getting in the crib and he has heard so many horror stories that we don't want to take any chances. We are both so excited for our little baby's arrival, but I can see that Ryan is especially excited! We were out on Saturday and I turned around to show him something and I saw his head in the stroller of a lady and her 2 month old baby! He notices every baby and especially the boys! It's so cute! He's going to be a great dad!

We are looking forward to a very busy February, but hopefully it will help pass the time quickly! We have a few more classes and 4 showers to attend so it should be fun!

BabyJanko: Week 32

BabyJanko: Week 32

Week 32

We are in the home stretch. Only 8 weeks remain until the baby is due! It seems like it has gone so fast! We have been busy attending baby classes, putting together baby furniture and reading up on our books to make sure we are ready for his arrival. Ryan and I put together his 2 dressers and crib this past weekend and all that's left in the nursery to do is paint and decorate. We weren't going to repaint the room but our bedding doesn't quite go with the color already on the wall....minor details!

I am still feeling good, except the baby has discovered my right rib which makes driving long distances a lot of fun! It's okay, it just startles me sometimes! We learned all kinds of important things this last weekend at one of our Baby classes and one of the things we learned is how to swaddle. As you can see I practiced on Kali....she's such a good sport! I tried it on Moxie and she was having no part of cooperating with me!

Ryan is getting ready for his last long overnight travel for work this week and then he will be done until the baby comes. It's nice having him around on the weekends, we seem to get a lot accomplished!!

Week 30

I can't believe we are already to week 30! We made it through the holidays and the baby is doing well and I am too. I feel good...I am getting tired throughout the day, but if I push through it, it's not so bad. We had a lot of fun seeing friends and family over Christmas. We got some really nice things, but so did our little guy. He got a blanket made for him by Grandma Slingerland, a lot of cute clothes from cousins and aunts!

We are working on the nursery. It should be done mid January so we can start getting other stuff organized for his arrival. We ordered all the furniture and it should be here sometime next week as well as his bedding. We are doing a brown and green theme with elephants in his room. I am still on a search for a good chair I can use to feed him in, but I am pretty confident that we will find it soon. We are in the process of finishing the basement so he will have lots of room to play with his trucks, toys, and a special place to watch sports with his dad.

We are looking forward to having Jay, Alisa, Kara and Steven down on the 16th of January for Daddy boot camp at Bronson hospital. The class teaches first time dads how to change diapers, bath the baby, feed them and swaddle. The instructor is a dad and brings in his baby to the class so the dads can actually see what it is like on a real baby! I would love to be a fly on the wall in that class! Kara, Alisa and I are going to get pregnancy massages while the guys are in class....it should be fun! We recently found out that Kara and Steven are having a girl as well...so hopefully he learns to be nice and play well with his girl cousins!

The baby is doing really well. His heartbeat has maintained in the high 140's for the last few appointments. I recently had my glucose test for gestational diabetes and everything came out normal. He is now measuring right on target, so hopefully I won't have to worry about having a whopper baby, but compared to Alisa, he looks bigger than his baby girl cousin!! We are now going every 2 weeks to the doctors for check ups and then in 6 weeks we go every week. It's hard to believe that he is due in less than 10 weeks, but we can't wait for his arrival!

Week 25

We recently got back from London and it was a great trip. Other than the fact I swelled up a little while I was there (probably due to the flight and all the walking we did) it was great! I felt great and it was a lot of fun for our last vacation before the baby comes! He was good the whole time! I hope he remembers how much fun he had, because I have a feeling we aren't taking another trip to the UK for some time. I was able to find a few cute things for him while we were over there. I got him a little Paddington Bear, some Football PJ's (soccer), and a little hat and mittens for when he's a newborn. While we were there, we discovered that we both really liked English Mustard! It's spicy and delicious! It went great with just about everything-so I brought home a few containers of it! I was also able to find a pair of maternity pants over there that came in a size long! They are great for work and I've already worn them a few times!

He seems to be moving a lot and growing quickly...before you know it, I won't be able to see my feet! I think I am carrying relatively high because when I lay down, it is hard to catch my breath. I've been walking a lot lately and just got back into a strength training class at my gym...it is nice to feel good and have energy to do those sorts of things. Plus, its been so nice outside lately, I've really taken advantage of my long walks. We have another Dr.'s appointment on Wednesday. Hope all goes well! So far he's maintained a heartbeat of 138, so we'll see what the Dr. says on Wednesday.

Week 21

We had our ultrasound with our Doctor today and they did a lot of measurements to make sure the baby was developing and he looks to be perfect! All of the chambers to his heart were showing clearly, as well as his brain, abdomen, legs and arms and we were able to see all 10 fingers and 10 toes! The ultrasound tech confirmed that it is a boy, and gave us pictures of the proof, but I don't think we need to publish those! Use your imagination! The Doctor did say that he was measuring about a week ahead (15 ounces) when at this stage he should be right around 10 ounces. I guess that doesn't surprise me because my due was moved around...but they said they weren't going to change my due date but that they would monitor the baby so I don't have a whopper (anything over 9 lbs)! I told her that would be much appreciated!

It was Halloween this week and we had the Sumrack's over to carve pumpkins, pass out candy, and watch football. It was great seeing them! We had fun dressing up! Even the baby had his first costume...we called him our "Janko-Lantern"! haha! I think it's not good for a pregnant lady to be around all that candy.....I felt like I had a hangover the next day! I can only imagine what our little guy felt like, he probably didn't sleep at all that night! The next day Ryan and I decided to rake leaves. I thought it would be good for me to get some fresh air and exercise. Little did I know that it would take us 5 hours to rake the yard and then we had to start bagging them up. We were both so tired when we got inside that it was a struggle for who was going to warm up the leftover pizza! Let's just say, we decided that we are only planting pine trees from now on and are NEVER doing all the leaves by hand again!