Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Tired

I am tired. I don't know what is going on, but I thought people said you get a burst of energy towards the end. Not me. I am exhausted. I even took a nap yesterday and still was tired last night. It might be that I really don't sleep much at all when I am sleeping. It is a toss and turn type of thing. And now it seems like the littlest things wear me out, like watering the plants, or running errands.

It is crazy to see that little ticker be in the teens now. I keep having dreams that she is here already and I keep telling myself that I think she will be here sooner than those 18 days. My sister on the other hand says that her and Ethan think BZ will be arriving late. I told her that she better not curse me! And last night EZ said he still thinks I have a while because I don't act like I am in the "get this baby out of me" stage. Maybe I just do a pretty good job of not complaining that much! :)

I did find myself thinking about people who deliver super early. While they have to worry about preemies and all that come with that, they definitely miss out on the level of uncomfortableness that comes with getting close to the end. Even if I deliver tomorrow, I still would miss out (thankfully avoid) the extreme end of feeling huge and not happy, and probably be way past the get this baby out stage. I found it interesting just to think about the differences in what people experience based on how long they carry.

It is still ridiculously hot here. I can't even go outside during the middle of the day and not be tired and sweating from the heat. I think yesterday they said it felt like 105 outside. However, our heat wave ends today as tomorrow we are suppose to be at 80 and in the low 80's throughout the rest of the week. I am super excited about this-to go outside and walk and not want to pass out at 7am. I even told EZ we should take advantage and eat out side starting tomorrow evening.

I have been extremely productive in the making freezer meals front. I have almost 3 weeks worth of freezer meals now which I think is where I might stop. Here is what I have manage to make so far:
1. Chicken Enchilada Casserole (this should feed us for maybe 4 days)
2. Baked Ziti Casserole (this should feed us at least 4 days)
3. Vegi Chili-split into different bags for just eating or putting on potatoes, or putting on nachos (have about 4 days worth)
4. Vegi Stir fry (basically all the veggies cut up and ready to stir fry up). This will feed us for 2 days and I plan on making one more bag of these maybe at the end of the week.
5. Quiche-this was yesterdays meal. I have a recipe for a double quiche so we have one that we are eating now while I put the other in the freezer.

If I am still preggers in another week and a half I might make another meal or two just to have. But I definitely know that all of this will be super handy once BZ is here and I don't have the energy to really make dinner.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Full Term

I made it to 37 weeks, so according to the books and websites, I am officially full term. BZ can choose to come out at any time now and should be good to go! And even the full moon last night did not persuade her in the slightest.

I am still not sleeping well and things are a bit uncomfortable, but really no change in the last week in that department. Maybe this is as bad as it will get until she decides for it to be her birth day.

We are still getting lots done around the house and yesterday was EZ's first day where he really didn't have things to do! So we actually went out to a movie (Toy Story 3) and picked up some stuff for the yard. We have had some bird issues. Now that we have this nice deck and new furniture for it, the birds seem to like to sit on it and poop all over the chairs and deck railing. We bought some owl at Lowes that was suppose to scare them away...it did nothing. Then EZ tied some string up on the chairs since we read if you put up things that move they don't like that...but that didn't work either.

Our newest attempt today is going to be to put up a metal rod to hand a flower basket off one side and we have a hummingbird feeder for the other. Now, you might think that this would attract more birds right...a bird feeder...but humming birds don't land and crap all over the stuff, it is the bigger birds. So we think that maybe this moving basket and metal feeder will shy off some of the birds. We'll see.

It is a bit of a shame that we finally got our deck furniture and everything and it is really too hot to use it. We have had a ridiculously hot June, about 10 degrees above average for much of the month which puts us in the mid to upper 90's...then of course add the humidity and we can be up at 100+, and we get the afternoon sun all the way to sunset on the deck, so sitting out there at night is just not possible. Even with the umbrella up. Oh well. I think next week we are suppose to "cool" back down in the mid 80's and that should be nice...if BZ hasn't arrived.

On a last note...the Tour starts on Sat. We watched a preview for it last night and I am getting quite excited (not to say that the arrival of BZ won't be exciting). What will be more exciting is that when BZ is born, we will both be at home for the first couple weeks, pretty much in zombie land mode and can veg out and have the tour on all day! :)

Oh, and Congrats to the Kalhorns on the birth of their second son on Friday! Can't wait for our two little ones to meet! :)

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Pain Tolerance

Yesterday I had my whatever week appointment. I am not to the point where I go every week. I have had some off things/feelings over the past few days so I talked to my doctor about them. One was that I thought BZ wasn't moving as much as she had been. She still moves around but she has been extremely active and just over the past couple days has slowed down.

So my doctor said she wanted to put me on the fetal monitor to see if BZ was doing ok. I really haven't had anything done at the doctors the entire pregnancy. I haven't had any issues/complications. The last ultrasound I had was at week 18 when we found out BZ was going to be a she. And it wasn't until this last week that things have started to feel off. I am having more pain-almost like I have been horseback riding-sore pelvic muscles/bones. But I just keep on keeping on.

So it was interesting to sit in the chair, watch a little HGTV and listen to BZ's heartbeat for awhile. I was suppose to press a button each time I felt her move while one monitor tracked her heartbeat and the other monitored contractions. I felt one contraction while I was sitting there right after the nurse came in. I tell her and she says "Yup, that was a good one" after looking at the little readout sheet.

I ended up sitting there for about 40 min...quite a while, but whatever. I was enjoying the TV and reading a magazine. Then the nurse came back in and asked me if I had felt any of the other contractions. I say no. She says really? I was like, "no, just hanging out here." Apparently I had a bunch of them, and some of them strong. She and the doctor come in and tell me that I must have a high pain tolerance since I didn't feel them. :) By the way...all is good with the baby and me...the doctor said just to pay more attention to the contractions and the level of "pain" that is there.

Of course I already knew I have a somewhat high pain tolerance, I have been told that many times. I think most athletes do. Something about a certain level of what I think of as just uncomfortableness. I mean, after training all week, you typically are tired/sore/uncomfortable...but after years of doing it, I think it becomes a somewhat normal feeling. So then you really only feel pain, when that pain is extremely bad. So maybe I have been "feeling" the contractions and maybe not, to me, it really just is some amount of uncomfortableness, that I expect to have because I am 36+ weeks pregnant. I am not suppose to feel great, just like when you are training you don't either.

I am not saying that I have this fairy tale vision that labor isn't going to go beyond some level of uncomfortableness...because I know it is. Just like racing, you know it is going to hurt, but there is a good hurt about it right. But I am trying hard to keep an extremely positive and calming attitude about the process and about how I have gone through a lot of pain in different areas of life before and that this is just one more of those things. I know I am capable of going through this being comfortable and without meds and just like with training know that it will be a good hurt, with a rewarding finish line.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

36 Weeks and Counting

Yesterday I hit 36 weeks...I am now less than a month away from BZ guesstimated arrival. However, I have a feeling that she will come early. Things are starting to get uncomfortable, things meaning parts of me and the sleep is still come and go but not too bad. I also think that she has "dropped" because I definitely feel lots of lower pressure now too. Even with walking. I did manage to have a few good walk/runs this week. But I told EZ this morning after my 5 miles (maybe 2-2.5 of it was slow running/jogging) that it is a different level of uncomfortableness when I run. So I am not sure how many more run/walk days I will have from here on out. They might turn more into just walk days. I would be perfectly fine with this if it wasn't so hot here. This morning I went out from 7-8 and it was already almost 80 with 90% humidity. I might have to start going for walks in the middle of the night!

I am still swimming 2-3 times per week. Only a mile each time, which feel like enough for me. I started with only able to do 50's straight and now I am up to 150's straight for almost the whole mile, so I feel like I am getting stronger in the water but it is still difficult to drag my large belly through the water.

I think we have gotten all things together for BZ's arrival. The bag is all packed with a list of things that need to be grabbed when we leave (phone charger for one). I put together my bead necklace for strength from the baby showers. I will not be wearing said necklace as it is rather heavy but I will be bringing in and hanging it up in the room for support. Basically, at two of my showers, everyone that came brought a bead that either they thought symbolized me or reminded them of me or they just liked. I then put them together so that everyone could be with me at the hospital during birth. Here is a picture of the necklace:




I also spent this morning figuring out the breast pump. It was the last thing I had wanted to do before heading to the hospital and I got it all working and whatnot and actually tried on the hands free pumping wrap JF gave me and tried it out. Everything works good...or so I think. Who knows...I don't know if I know what I am doing. I freaked out yesterday and emailed my sister about diapers. :) I think that no one really KNOWS what they are doing in the beginning with their first, so all you can do is figure out as you go, right?

Alright...here is a picture of me at 36 weeks. Please ignore the fact that I did not bother to get nicely dressed while taking this photo:

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Dates

There are tons of dates out there...birthdays, anniversaries, due dates, holidays, mothers day, fathers day, flag day, whatever...that we all remember in our head and now I have one more. The 17th. Two months ago today my mom passed away. It is also exactly one more month until BZ is suppose to be here.

It has been a roller coaster couple months. Since the service I have been up and down, but most days do pretty good. There are other days where I think about her and really miss her and then start crying.

While I was talking to my sister the other day, she mentioned how she had had a bad day and wanted to call her and talk to her about it. I think about those days too. My sister and I use to call her a lot. For me, most weeks it was anywhere from 2-5 times per week, just to talk, to say hi and tell her what was going on, what was bothering me, what some word meant in a recipe, all sorts of random stuff. I told my sister that she could always call me now. Not that I could answer all sorts of questions for her, but I could surely be there for her to vent or whatever.

I seem to call my sister now all the time...asking a new baby question each time I call and she has been more than happy to help out.

These past two months have been difficult, some days are great while others are not. I can only imagine that as time passes you have fewer and fewer not so great days and more and more better ones.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Weight Gain

I have begun eating everything in sight. For the first x number of weeks I was pretty good, gained a good amount of weight but not too much either. The last two weeks have been ridiculous and I seem to eat just about anything and everything all day long. I think I am constantly hungry. I am scared to go to the doctor tomorrow to see my weight and how much I have gained from two weeks ago. Total I know it is now above +30. EZ tells me I only look like I have gained weight in my belly. That can't be true though because my belly isn't THAT big. And it surely isn't in my boobs because they haven't grown that much either.

So where is the added weight...my thighs and butt. I can't look at them anymore it is ridiculous. When I was an athlete and gained weight it always went to my stomach. But my legs have become fat and cheesy which is disgusting. Obviously my squats and lunges and run/walking isn't helping at all.

I sure hope this is somewhat normal and it will be somewhat easy to get rid of all this weight when I am done so that my thighs and butt will go back to being toned. :)

Friday, June 11, 2010

Sleep

The sleeping is becoming less and less frequent. Some nights I get up to go to the bathroom 5 times in a 7 hour period. If that is the case...you do the math at how much I could possibly be sleeping during this time. There are even nights where I get up 30 min after I have laid down.

Surprisingly though, I function fairly well on little sleep. I am able to not be too grumpy during the day, but I am definitely get tired at night super early. People keep saying I need to take naps during the day but for some reason that is hard for me. Hopefully it won't be once baby is here.

Yesterday I was up at 5:?? and laid there for a little bit thinking about what I wanted to do. It was my swim day and I didn't feel like going out for my swim then when I had all day and could go with the sun is out and liven up my tan. So I got up and cleaned the porch. Like scrubbed down the porch rockers and all the disgusting dirt/cobwebs that had collected on the siding from the house to the rockers and hosed down the porch, not to mention two little wasps nests I came across (which I had EZ spray for when he got up). And now it looks great, so clean and nice. And if it wasn't 95 degrees out with 100% humidity, it might be nice to sit out there!

My plan today-sand down the porch railing so that this weekend when I wake up at 5:?? I can start repainting it. Not a new color or anything, just needs a new coat of paint. And what better things do I have to do than paint a railing.

EZ is worried that BZ will be here early, like super early and told me to pack my hospital bag already. We took another tour of the hospital yesterday since we took the first one bag in November when we knew absolutely nothing about what we were doing. Now after reading a bunch of baby books there are lots of questions to ask about lots of things. But I still feel good about the decision to go with the hospital versus the birthing center. Depending on how it goes though, if we ever have a BZ#2, I think I would like to go to the birthing center instead.

I think that the hypnobabies stuff is working to an extent. I feel calmer about things that is for sure. I am not sure how great I do at actually putting myself under hypnosis and how that will be hold up for when BZ decides to come. But I know that mentally, the whole thing keeps me extremely relaxed and pretty confident about the whole experience. What is interesting is all the suggestions of visualizing and I listen to positive affirmations about childbirth and those are all things as athletes we do as well. So if it works in athletics, why shouldn't it work for childbirth. Time will tell.

Tuesday, June 08, 2010

Random Updates

A few updates on what has been going on:

First up...Baby Zack is still in my belly.

The patio is done! Yeah!! And EZ just finished the stairs from the patio to the deck. And his biggest fear that the day he finished I would go into labor hasn't happened. :) Here are a few pictures of the patio:





We got a fire pit and made smores out there the other night...yum yum! It was nice to sit out there and relax. We have a few more things that we can do out there in the yard. A lot of landscaping type things that we will have to do in the fall.

In other news, I planted blackberry and raspberry bushes last year and while the raspberry bushes look great, they have no berries on them. :( On the flip side, the blackberry bushes look great! I picked the first ones the other day:





And then somehow we have a tomato plant. I don't know how it got there since we didn't plant any tomato plants at all. It is quite small right now, but we will have tomatoes sometime this year, even if it is just a couple of them!

Saturday, June 05, 2010

Being Ready

The pirate sail is getting closer to the treasure chest up there and it is 6 weeks until baby zack is suppose to be here. But we all know that babies can arrive whenever they choose. More on my mind is the fact that two of my friends in the past few months had their babies at 35 weeks...hmmmm...that is 1 more week from now. So are we ready??? Are you ever really ready for the first one to get here?

I think we are doing pretty good. We have everything we really NEED (I think) so I guess you could say we are ready. I am not scared or nervous or anything, but actually pretty excited. I do feel like to could use these last few weeks to read some books that I have been wanting to read. (Baby books that is).

I have started to complain more to EZ...something I told him to stop me from doing if I did it to much. I really don't have much to complain about except the sleeping. Sleeping is a come and go thing. Some nights it is ok and others I can hardly sleep at all-I just can't get comfortable. Those nights are usually the nights that I have some sort of restless leg syndrome thing too. And the pretty regular punches and jabs are much harder and sometimes painful. So all in all it isn't that bad.

As for me and EZ...we are hoping BZ stays in the belly and at least has a July birthday.

Just for my sister...she said she wanted me to post a picture of the belly. So here I am at 34 weeks:


Tuesday, June 01, 2010

Back from TX

I spent the last week and a half traveling but most of my time was spent in Austin, TX at an IBL (Inquiry Based Learning) teaching workshop. It was quite informative and motivating and I hope to teach a class IBL style in the near future. Austin was HOT and HUMID! I did manage to get out almost every morning and walk and run a little. Not much running though and BZ just doesn't want to let me anymore. The most I ran at any given time was 3/4 of a mile.

EZ cam up to meet me in MI on Friday and we then drove over to Mayville for a baby shower on Sunday with EZ's family. It was nice to see everyone again and hang out in the beautiful weather up there right now. We had a nice time and drove home yesterday.

I was on the lookout for a swim suit to start swimming laps in since the running is getting more difficult...and I had ordered a 2 piece sports racing suit from Splish. Ummm, yeah...was one of the worst things I have put on. :) EZ took one look at me and said I needed to find something else, that it was just too skimpy and that basically it looked like I didn't have any bottoms on at all! So I went out to try on some more suits over the weekend. I managed to buy a maternity suit (2 piece) but not really swimming laps type of suit. My sister and EZ suggested I just put a sports bra on with the bottoms so this morning I gave that a try.

I haven't swam in a long time...I think I might have swam a couple times last summer, but not a lot, maybe 1000-2000 a few times. This morning I headed up to our pool which is not open to the public during the morning but you can sign a waiver to gain access when it is closed. Thankfully, no one was there, and I braved swimming for the first time preggers. Holy cow. First, I started up and did 100 straight and thought I might die. Then had to limit my swimming to just 50's. My arm strength is shot out the window and pulling my large pregnant self through the water was tough.

Flip turns are tricky when pregnant too. And maybe it is better to just do open turns in the future...you just can't curl up into a ball with a baby in the way.

I definitely felt that I got a good workout in, a mile total which isn't bad. I did some kicking in there and boy my legs are really weak too. I thought the running was keeping them someone fit but I guess my running/waddling isn't. Oh well. I will keep at it and try to run/walk a couple times a week too.

I had a doctors appt this morning. They say all is good, to keep doing what I am doing. Swim, run, eat, whatever. :) I was shocked at my weight gain over the last few weeks. It has been 3 weeks since I was at the doctor and I was doing really good and when I stepped on the scaled today and saw I had gained another 5 lbs in 3 weeks I thought it was messed up! I guess that week+ in Texas and everywhere really packed on the lbs. Oh well. It is what it is.