39 Weeks

Today I am 39 weeks pregnant. Only 7 days till my official due date and Greg's birthday. I really could not be more ready for Abigail to make her entrance already! Who knows maybe we'll be celebrating both of their birthdays in the hospital?!

Friday was my last day of work and now that I am officially on maternity leave I really can't wait for her to be here so I can enjoy as much time as possible with her before I have to begin working again. I am very blessed that I will be able to work from home and can keep whatever hours for me, er I mean work for her.

Over the last three or four days I have had several false starts. Lots of painful contractions and other symptoms that make labor seem like it's on the horizon. I went to the doctor yesterday and was told that I hadn't dilated much past the 3cm I was at last week. After all of the contractions and pain it was very frustrating news to hear, but it's better than being at 1cm or 0cm at the beginning of labor.

I have been drinking red raspberry leaf tea, well as much as I can stomach it. My appetite seems to come in tidal waves. For the last several days I have had zero energy to do anything! I just lounge on the couch reading and putzing around on the internet. I have been reading lots of articles that give me false hope that the onset of labor is close. One suggested that more babies are born on Tuesdays than any other day of the week. Another article suggests a correlation between the full moon and the beginning of labor. Well my friends, today is Tuesday and it's a full moon tonight so we shall soon see if there is any truth to any of this.

This morning I woke up with some energy and what I can only guess is the last burst of nesting. I have been running around the house cleaning as if the Queen of England herself were on her way over for tea. At the moment I am taking a rest, but the kitchen and bathroom still need desperate attention. I'm sure I'll still get a nap in at some point today and hope find myself on the couch folding laundry while watching a movie later this afternoon. If I feel up to it I may even get a yoga session in. I've had some contractions, but find that if I'm up moving around I dwell on them less. I figure I don't need to worry about frequency or intensity until they are strong enough that they force me to pay attention.

38 Weeks

I've really been slacking with this blog. I haven't even been writing in my pregnancy journal, which makes me feel pretty awful. There have been so many funny things that I want to remember and hope that I will be able to.

We've started and finished out child birth class. It was interesting, but more than anything I enjoyed watching Greg pay such close attention to the lessons. He was definitely a gold star student! Even in the lactation class he was very attentive to the "Dad's Role" and how he can support me. He's been really wonderful through the entire pregnancy. I really can't wait to see him hold his daughter. I can't imagine anything more precious.

Overall I have been feeling pretty good. I feel more and more pregnant every day! Backaches and heartburn are the worst of my complaints, which is pretty good! I had a long spell between 7-8 months where I couldn't sleep for more than two hours without having to get up to use the bathroom or eat a snack. I'm now back to sleeping 4-6 hours at a time, but still wake up frequently and find it difficult to get comfortable. I have had some of the most outrageous dreams. I can't even begin to describe some of them!

There have been no health complications with me or the baby, for which we are very grateful. We have interviewed one pediatrician and have nothing nice to say. I really should continue looking, but haven't fully recovered from the trauma of the first interview. It's a lot harder than I thought it would be to find a pediatrician that applauds parents being actively involved in their child's health care and making informed decisions.

On a much happier note, I have two wonderful friends that threw me a beautiful baby shower in February. They really went over the top! Jenn, one of the hostesses made this amazing cake! She and Amanda worked very hard to make it a special day for me and it most certainly was! We had lots of friends and family come and share the excitement. We got lots of adorable clothes, toys, and practical gifts we can't wait to test out!

I found a photographer who offers a great package for families with young babies. The package included a maternity photo session, which we really enjoyed. We had these pictures taken when I was about 33 weeks pregnant. We chose one to have framed and had guests at the baby shower sign the mat. It turned out very cute and now hangs in Abby's room.












Yesterday was our 38 week check-up with the OB. I am 80% effaced and 3cm dilated, which I think surprised him. Her head is down and they are guessing she's about 7lbs right now. Her heart rate is starting to slow down a little bit. She's be consistently in the 140s and yesterday was around 135. A friend of mine says this is her way of resting and preparing for the journey. It's very exciting to know that she could be here at anytime. Here is a more recent picture that Greg snapped as I was getting ready yesterday morning. I was 37 weeks 6 days pregnant!

For the last few months I have been anxious about her coming before I got everything on my to-do list accomplished. I mean, really, what would I do if there were no milk in the house when I went into labor? Or heaven forbid I hadn't vacuumed!? I'm pretty well over that now! I am ready for her to come whenever she is ready. We'll send friends to the store for milk if we need to! Our child birth instructor told us to write chores on 3x5 cards and keep them in a basket by the door so that when visitors stop by and ask if there is anything they can do we can have them draw a card from the basket. The thought of this kind of cracks me up. As if I won't be able to empty the garbage myself, or change the water in the flowers. I guess every little bit does help though!

Third Trimester

Today marks the start of the home stretch. I am two-thirds done with this pregnancy. I have a hard time believing that the end is really so near. Just 90 days, give or take a few, before Abigail Mae will make her appearance on Earth.

We went in to the doctor's on December 28th for a routine check up that got a little scary when I asked about some cramping on my upper right side. The doctor was concerned that it could be a problem with my gall bladder and ordered an ultrasound to check it out. We went in for the ultrasound on December 31st and found everything to be a-ok. Not only is my gall bladder perfectly normal, but my liver and kidneys are too. While we were there the ultrasound tech let us take a peak at our little girl.

In this 3-d shot you can see most of her face and her (left?) hand. The tech said you could make out her thumbnail, which is pretty incredible. She almost has a smile in this picture. This whole experience has been pretty remarkable and I'm so grateful that Greg has been able to be at every doctor's visit!

At this visit they also ordered routine testing for gestational diabetes and anemia, both of which came back perfectly normal. We have been so blessed to have had such a healthy, normal pregnancy thus far and I pray that the Lord continues to bless our family with good health.

I had the last week and a half off work for the holidays and had anticipated lots of studying for my teaching exam. That didn't happen. Not even a little bit. Instead, I came down with a head cold on Christmas Eve and spent several days on the couch getting better. We did make a quick trip to Seattle to pick up Abby's bedroom furniture and got to visit some friends, which was nice.

Greg spent a few days building shelving in the garage and organizing his man cave. We set up the crib in our bedroom and are in the middle of finishing rearranging the office so that her changer, rocker and other loot can share a space with my home office.

A Slice of Heaven

I was given a KicthenAid Heavy Duty Professional stand mixer as a wedding gift in June of 2007. I didn't use it much, maybe once a month or so, until Christmas of 2008 when my wonderful mother in law bought me several attachments for it. One of which was a much coveted grain mill! As a young girl I remember my Aunt Debi grinding her own flour and making homemade bread that was so delicious I could eat it until I was sick to my stomach and longed to be able to replicate that deliciousness for my family. Not to mention the smell is pretty amazing too!

I made a New Year's Resolution to bake all of our family's bread for 2009. We ate some pretty bad bread in the early days, but I found a wonderful shop here in town that I just love - Wishful Kneads! The first time I went into the store the owner asked what kind of machine I was using and as I raved about my KitchenAid he just smiled and said, "Well that's a good start. Someday you'll get yourself a Bosch." They are not cheap by any means and being so new to bread baking I didn't know for sure if I'd stick with it. Jan and Rick Thornton, the store owners, were able to offer advice that not only made my bread edible, but enjoyable too! Well, most of the time.

I was keeping up with my resolution very well until August when my morning sickness hit hard and I had all I could do to make it from the bed to the toilet. We realized during that time how flavorless and bland store bought bread really is. This is probably about the time that we also realized that homemade bread baking was going to have to be a part of our lives forever. Period.

Two days before Thanksgiving, with my mother and sister visiting and a delicious Thanksgiving meal to prepare my KicthenAid Mixer broke. Thankfully my Aunt April had purchased it at Costco. I rushed down and the immediately exchanged it for a brand new one, no questions asked. Crisis averted.

I spent quite a bit of time researching what I could have done wrong to make my old mixer break. In my reading I found that several other people have had problems with their mixers holding up to the beating that the grain mill and subsequent bread kneading give the mixer. One site suggested grinding the wheat at a coarse setting and then grinding it again at a finer setting. I decided to baby my new mixer by grinding smaller amounts of flour at a time and letting it "rest" more between heavy jobs. On my third use the bowl broke. Yes, the stainless steel bowl broke. Actually, to be fair the weld that holds the part on the side of the bowl that you use to mount it to the mixer broke off. I was pretty upset and didn't really know what I wanted to do about it.

I called KicthenAid, I'm not really sure why, I guess to express my frustration with their product. I was told that because it was still under waranty they'd be glad to send me a new bowl, but that they couldn't get it to me before Christmas. I agreed, but Greg wasn't satisfied. "How will you make cookies for Santa?" he asked me with a very worried look on his face.

A few days before Christmas I went into Wishful Kneads to pick up some wheat berries and began looking more seriously at the Bosch Universal mixers. They happened to be on sale that day, a bundle package that included the mixer and it's grain mill counterpart for about $200 less than the going rate to purchase them separately. The sale was only on until the 31st on in stock merchandise only. And wouldn't you know they only had one mixer left?

I thought about it. I thought about it very hard and then decided it would make a nice anniversary gift for our 5 year anniversary, still two and a half years away, but that there was no way we could get it now. I collected the few small things I needed and Greg and I left to finish our errands. Having run out of homemade bread from the freezer, I was perusing the bread aisle at Costco while Greg stood back and watched me like a crazy woman. I made my selection and was putting it in the basket when he looked at me and said, "Uh uh. I don't think so. I'm not eating that." I asked him what other option I had, my mixer was broken and we were out of bread. He said, "We're going back to Wishful Kneads and we're buying that mixer and mill."

So, that's what we did and I am so happy that we did!

The Nutrimill grinds flour much finer than my KitchenAid did. The finest setting on the KitchenAid is more like cornmeal in comparison to the flour I am getting now. The combination of the finer flour and the more powerful mixer is resulting in lighter, more flavorful, more tender loaves of bread with no giant air holes in the middle!!

I have made several batches of bread with it and get perfect results every time! Last night I tried out the new bread pans that Greg bought me for Christmas and am very pleased with them. They produce the perfect shaped loaf! It's really amazing what a difference having the right tools for the job can do!

The milk & honey whole wheat bread that has been our daily bread for nearly a year is so amazing! Toast it and slather it with butter and some homemade (OK... it's from Costco) raspberry jam and it's like a slice of heaven! In fact, I have had several people ask if they can buy my bread so I'm beginning to think of how to go about this as some extra income once Abby gets here. Maybe I'll call it that: Slice of Heaven Bread Bakery!

Since Christmas I have made Cinnamon Raisin Walnut, Garlic Herb & Parmesan, Apple Cinnamon and Pumpernickel. I'm excited to try Rye bread and will probably fiddle with the Apple Cinnamon recipe some... it didn't taste Apple-y enough for me. The Pumpernickel didn't rise as much as I'd have liked, but it was my first try with Rye flour, so I'm sure next time will be better.

Getting Excited

Tomorrow I will be 24 weeks pregnant. That's six months. I cannot believe that time has flown by so quickly! I am by no means ready for Christmas and feel like I have miles to go before I am even remotely organized enough to know what needs to be done before Abby's arrival.

Hopefully that will change soon. I have the week after Christmas off and Greg will be done with school after tomorrow. I'm hoping that the shelving in the garage will get done before he goes back to school in January so that I can clean out the office and make room for Abby's things. In that week we'll also be making a trip over to Washington's west coast to purchase a nursery set from a former co-worker of mine. I know I'll feel better once we have a dresser and bed for her. I'll be able to start washing clothes and cloth diapers, folding them and putting them in drawers. I know I will be calmer then.

Greg and I went to a couple's retreat this last weekend with the National Guard. We had a wonderful time. The classes left much to be desired, but having meals provided and a cozy room with a view of the lake was well worth it. I especially liked the fact that I could leave my wet towels on the floor and someone came and replaced them with fresh folded ones for me. The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of having a wife.

Saturday night the husbands were given the assignment of planning a date. Greg took my to the library where we searched and found each of our favorite children's books. We got cozy by the fire in our hotel room and Greg read Madeline and The Bad Hat, The Bearnstine Bears & Too Much Junk Food, and Where The Wild Things Are to Abby. Then he started reading James & The Giant Peach, which he has continued to do for the last few nights. I'm really glad that he's starting to get so excited. I always knew he would make a great father. Abby is going to be one lucky girl.

We still have not decided on a spelling for her name. Abigail is in the lead for now, but Abigayle is still in the running. There are pros and cons to each. Greg and I like them both pretty equally, so we may end up drawing straws or something like that.

House Guests, Thanksgiving & 22 Week Update

My mom and sister visited for Thanksgiving and we had a nice time. It snowed the first night my mom was here, but my sister missed it because she flew in a day later. We spent most of the week hanging out at home by the fire, watching movies, baking, painting our toenails, and playing with Copper. We did venture out to Cabela's to sample fudge, try out my sister's aim, and pose next to the animal exhibits. And of course, I couldn't let them leave without a trip to Dockside for a Gooey, which my sister (nearly) devoured by herself! We had a very nice Thanksgiving dinner. The turkey and pumpkin pie both came out exceptionally better than I anticipated! I have some pretty funny pictures of my mom prepping the turkey.

She was saying that it's going to be just like this when the doctor delivers the baby. I think my facial expression says it all... "God I hope not!"

Dinner turned out great! Poor Greg has been working nights for the last week and a half and had to be woken up for dinner.

On the pregnancy front, Greg and I went to the doctor yesterday for a routine check up. They seem to be a bigger waste of time than anything. We waited in the waiting room for 20-30 minutes. The nurse took my weight, blood pressure and urine sample before putting us in an exam room where we waited for another 15-20 minutes for the doctor to arrive. He asked how I was feeling, if I had any questions, poked around in my belly, and listened to Abby's heartbeat with the Doppler - 156bmp. "Everything looks good. See you in four weeks." And he was gone. I'm very grateful to be healthy and have a healthy baby, but it seems like they could maybe stretch them to every 6 weeks for low-risk pregnancies.

My belly is getting noticeably bigger, finally. Greg knows how much I hate it when people call me Prego (I'm not a spaghetti sauce, thank you very much, nor am I "knocked up"), so he's taken to calling me "saucy". This morning he said I am looking very saucy today, so I'll have to take a picture later and post that. For now, here's a picture of me at 20 weeks:

It's a ....

Last night we were joined by a houseful of friends and family members to reveal the sex of our baby. Super1 made a beautiful cake for us and did an excellent job of keeping the secret, despite our friends' best efforts to get the info early!


Greg wasn't able to get the night off work, but was able to come home for an extended lunch break. First, we had to get the Grandma's in California on the phone so they could hear the news with everyone else.


Then, we cut open the cake and it was PINK! (I knew it all along!)


Our pastor was on hand and scolded us for not praying before serving the cake.


So we invited him to offer a blessing. He led us in a beautiful and heartfelt prayer for our family that brought tears to my eyes. We are so truly blessed to have been led by God to our church. The genuine fellowship is like none other I have ever experienced before and thought not possible outside of the gates of Heaven.


The cake was delicious and we have more than enough leftover! If you'd like a slice of baby girl cake come on over!


For those of you wondering - her name is Abigail (or Abigayle, we haven't decided on a spelling yet) Mae after two courageous and faithful Christian women - Abigail (1 Samuel 25) and my great-grandmother, Ethel Mae. I pray that our Abby will have even a sliver of the greatness that was in each of these inspiring women.

Thank you to all of you that were able to join us in celebrating! We look forward to sharing many more happy moments with you in the months and years to come!