Exciting weekend!

It's been an exciting (and slightly exhausting) weekend!  My baby shower was GREAT!  I have wonderful friends and family that made it as good as it could possibly be!  I got lots of goodies that I can't WAIT to get to use!  It makes things that much more real.  I'm getting more impatient for the big day to get here!  I can't wait to hold Aeryanna and watch Derek experience being a dad.

Here is my awesome cake!

I feel so loved!

One of my favorites!  I really wanted the seahorse for Aeryanna!

As my sister pointed out yesterday, I only have 8 weeks until my due date.  I can't believe it!  It really doesn't seem possible that so much time has gone by!  the first semester of school flew by, and this one is going even faster.  I look at the calendar and just can't fathom how little time is left! It makes me excited, nervous, impatient, and a little freaked out all at once!  I am at the point where I wish the next 8 weeks had already passed, and I could move on to the best part!

Good news and time marches on!

So, I had my last monthly baby check-up today.  After this I will be seeing Dr. Anderson twice a week for a while, then once a week.  I can't believe I'm only 8 weeks and 2 days from my due date!  It's mind blowing that things have moved along that fast!  Everything looked good at the visit today.  We got to listen to Aeryanna's heartbeat (one of my favorite things).  Dr. Anderson could feel that she is already head down.  That was a relief to me.  It makes it easier to make more sense out of exactly what I'm feeling when she moves around now.  He thinks things are looking great and that my concerns about having the baby a month or more early are more than likely not something we will have to worry about.  We'll start watching for that more closely after 35 weeks, so I have to make myself not worry about that until then.

I asked him about doing SOMETHING to help me get over  the respiratory crap that has been driving me crazy for 2 weeks now.  I told him azythromycin doesn't cut it for me when I have respiratory infections.  Dr. Anderson gave me a shot of rocephin!  I love, love, LOVE having a doctor who listens to me.  Hopefully a good, strong dose of antibiotics will kill this stuff once and for all!

Tired of being sick!

Getting sick during pregnancy is by far the worst part of this pregnancy.  I know I've been lucky and had it pretty easy, but I am so tired of this respiratory bug! I've had it for almost 2 weeks now.  At least the Z-pack the doctor gave me last week knocked whatever this is back enough that I can function.  The downside is I can already feel it starting to build back up in my sinuses!  If I can make it until Wednesday, I can ask Dr. Anderson for SOMETHING stronger to make it go away!  I have taken so many Z-packs in the last 6 years that they are no longer effective in fighting off infections in my system.

I've always had a hard time fighting off respiratory infections of any sort.  I know my immune system just must be really weak when it comes to my sinuses in particular.  You can bet after this round of illness I'll be seeking out an ear, nose, and throat specialist as soon as I can after Aeryanna gets here to prevent this from happening again.

At least I got my flu shot early this year.  It seems to be keeping the flu at bay.  I know way too many people around me have had it, but I seem to have missed it.

All I have to do is make it through the next 9 or so weeks....then I will at least have a FEW more options available!

Reading essentials...

One of the ways I prepare for life changing events is to read as much as I can find on the subject.  You can thank my mom for that!  So when I found out I was pregnant, I immediately started gathering books about pregnancy.  (Ok, so I don't know if you can call it gathering if you download it on a Kindle, but still...)

I found 3 books that I would call essentials for any first-time mom, or any veteran mom who hasn't read them and is interested in a good read.

The first and probably best known book was What to Expect When You're Expecting.  

This book is in it's 4th edition.  I can remember seeing it in my mom's bookshelf when my sister was born.  It really has a lot of good information and resources.    

It offers a great breakdown of the various aspects of pregnancy. The What to Expect website is excellent as well.  It even has a neat section for dads-to-be.

The next book that I think is a MUST for pregnant women is The Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy.

 It has a lot of good information.  What I really love about the book is the straightforward, sarcastic, humorous way it is written.  It's as good or better than visiting with your girlfriends about everything pregnancy!

Belly Laughs by Jenny McCarthy is another entertaining book.  It doesn't have quite as much

information as the other two, but it is a good looking life for someone famous during their pregnancy.  It's refreshing to know that even famous people have the same dramas and traumas during pregnancy as the rest of us!












I haven't read On Becoming Baby Wise, but this method of establishing a feeding and sleeping routine

has been recommended to me by a co-worker who swears by it.  I've looked at the Parent Wise website, and it sounds like a fairly common sense method.  The idea behind the method is to establish a pattern of eat, wake, sleep.  You keep the baby awake more after feedings during the day to help the baby sleep longer at night.  Amazon has used copies of the book for cheap.  I am going to be borrowing a copy of the book from the co-worker who recommended it, so I'll have more of an opinion later, but if it gives me even a few tips for helping baby sleep through the night, it would be worth a used copy!

Belly Diaries 4

28 Weeks!

Joys of pregnancy....how time flies!

Wow...80 days to go until my due date.  That's kind of a scary thought!  We are officially less than 3 months away.  That number almost made me panic a little!  How will I get everything done?  How can I make sure we are as ready as possible?  It's even scarier that 80 days is just a guess...in reality, it could be even less!  I can't believe it!!!!!

Okay, now that I've taken a moment to breathe and get past the mini-panic attack, I know that I can only do so much to be ready.  I will take one day at a time and try not to focus on how fast time is going by!

On another note, Baby Hyde has introduced me to a new joy in pregnancy.  We think it's great fun to sit on mommy's bladder and kick her in the cervix simultaneously!  SOOOO not fun when you are slightly bent over helping a student when that happens (or any other time for that matter)! Talk about OUCH!  If you've never experienced it, I can't describe it...it's just an experience unlike any other.

I've also got the worst outbreak of fever blisters that I have EVER had!  My lips felt like someone had taken micro-bubble wrap and wrapped it on my lips.  Needless to say, the last day or two has not been much fun.  Thank goodness I can still take Valtrex; it's just the pits taking two 1-gram pills at once!  It seems to be helping though, so I shouldn't complain too much.  I'm going to blame some sort of hormonal pregnancy change on the outbreak.  Usually my fever blisters come on when I am stressed or run down.  No matter what, that has been the worst thing to happen during this pregnancy to date!

 I'm just thankful I only have one class period when I can't as easily go sit down when I need to.  Even that period, if I absolutely have to, I can find things for my students to do that don't require me to be up and moving as much!  I'm also very fortunate to work with teachers who understand that when I sit down and have students come to me, it's not because I'm lazy, it's because I need a break.  I really couldn't ask for better people to work with.  I fit better with my current colleagues than I have at any other school before!