36 Week Appointment

I had my 36 week appointment yesterday afternoon. I was so nervous about it since it was at 36 weeks when I found out Lydia was breech and everything started going down hill really fast. I went in and waited about a half hour to be seen since I came a bit early. Dr. Hill, who I was suppose to see was in delivering a baby so I wasn't able to see her, which I was bummed about too.

Instead there was a nurse who I had never met before to preform all the routine procedures...oh great.. They went in and weighed me first and according to that scale I had gained a whopping 12 lbs in 3 weeks!! I about died. So they get me right into my room and then take my blood pressure, which was 140/80. The fill in nurse didn't like that much at all. They had me get undressed so they could do the group b swab and the cervical check. Every time I had had these procedures done before they were pretty painless by my doctors but this really was painful this time. I don't know if that nurse had short fingers or what but I thought she was trying to grab a rib. She told me I was 1cm and 50% effaced. Immediately after she finished she had me dress and have another nurse come take my blood pressure again. I wasn't surprised when it was 142/82... Since I developed pre-eclamsia with my last pregnancy they wanted to take every precaution so they sent me to lab to get a blood draw and also sent me home to do a 24 hour urine test. I am doing that today and have to bring it in to the hospital here in Gillette tomorrow for them to test it as well as take my blood again.

I bought a nice blood pressure machine at the beginning of this pregnancy but haven't use it yet so I thought I would break it out. I took my bp this morning and it was 117/72. I also weighed myself and I was 5 lbs down today (my scale and doctors have been pretty much the same). I have been having trouble being regular (#2) and I think part of it may have been from that, as I had a bowel movement this morning but hadn't went in almost 2 days.

In any case, yesterday and today and for the remainder of the pregnancy I plan on cutting out sweets and anything unhealthy. I have done pretty well with a healthy diet this far but in the last few weeks I have just felt ravenously hungry and have craved ice cream and sweets like crazy.. no more for me. I know they say that there isn't anything at all you can do to prevent pre-eclamsia (diet, exercise and limited weight gain I guess don't make a difference at all) but I just feel better making sure I am doing everything I can to stay healthy, and hopefully the scales won't go up much more.

I go in again next Tuesday at 3:45pm for my 37 week appointment. I will be seeing Dr. Brewer.

35 Weeks

We are 35 weeks pregnant today, and also have 35 days left until our due date. I think baby is running out of room since I don't feel a whole lot of kicks anymore its more big rolling movements and him pushing out or down. We think we have decided on the name Jack Ryan. It is Ryan's pick and I am just trying to get myself used to it. I am very glad we finally have somewhat decided on something. It's getting to close to him being born for him to be without a name! I was suppose to have a 35 week appointment this Wednesday but we rescheduled for next Monday the 29th due to Ryan's work schedule, so it will actually be a 36 week appointment instead. I am going in every week now. At this appointment they will do the group b strep test and check my cervix. I am hoping I will show some progress! I am excited to see what they will say. I'm getting a little uncomfortable now at night with sleeping. My hands start to get tingly a lot during sleep and my hips and crotch ache and I am up about 3-4 times to go pee. Other than that I feel pretty good. Some days I feel like I have a ton of energy and others I just feel heavy and tired. I try to take advantage of those good days and get a lot of house work done. I recently shampooed all the carpets in the house and I was so glad to have that all finished. Our baby boy likes to push down quite a bit and sometimes it can get a little painful. I wonder what station he is at now if at all. It really feels like he is so low. Here are some new pictures taken today for this week.

Lydia is doing great. She says "baby Jack" and feels his kicks and says "baby kick". She is such a good girl and I love how loving she is. She just starting calling some of her aunts and uncles by name. She says Uncle Sean perfectly and calls Uncle Ryan, "Whino" and Aunt Christine "Steener" and she loves to say Baby Shelby. She LOVES to go places and is always asking me to "go". She asks to "go get Papa's mail". (The business & personal mail for Matheson Drilling) and she has gotten into asking Daddy to go "get apple pies!" She is always talking about apple pie since she read a book that mentions it even though she never really eats it when we have them. We went to Rapid City this last Sunday and she had a blast. She absolutely loved it and was such a good girl the whole time, even the car ride there and back she was quite and patient. I was so proud of her. She is doing great with potty training and will go every time by herself if she is naked. She will go to the bathroom, do her business, wipe and dump it in the toilet, flush and put her potty bucket back. However if she has panties, a diaper or a pull up on she will not go every time. I think she just gets lazy and thinks she can just go if she has something on.. Leaving her in wet or dirty panties or diapers doesn't work for her. She doesn't care if she has a dirty diaper and would sit in it for hours if I let her. I am not sure where to go from here or how to break her of that habit. Any suggestions? We spent an hour at the park on one of the nice days we had last week and she absolutely loved it. She couldn't get enough and got along great with all the kids there. It was during school hours so all the children were under 5. She had a great time making conversation and chasing each other around the park.

33 Weeks Pregnant

My scheduled appointment was today at 4:00pm. I had got a call this morning from the clinic saying they had an opening today at 11:45am and that they thought they would let me know since they were expecting to get a winter storm starting tonight. I called Ryan and he was able to take off early so we could make it to the earlier appointment.

They got us right in when we got there and everything went really smoothly and Lydia did great. She was so patient this time, I think she is getting used to it. We listened to the baby's heart beat and she measured me again and I was (surprise!) 3 weeks ahead. :) Same as I have been for the last 2.5 months. She said lets go ahead and do a quick ultrasound to check the baby's size so we got to get a quick look at baby again. She said he is not measuring big at all. In fact he is just a little smaller than average. My fluid levels are great as well, I just have a bigger measuring uterus. He is head down. I asked her "is it still a boy?" and she showed us his testicles on the screen. lol so we got our 3rd "boy" confirmation. :)

My next appointment is the 24th at 4:30pm. It will be my 35 week appointment and she let me know they would be doing the group b test and giving me a cervical exam to check for any progress.

I have been feeling good besides a quick 24hr stomach bug this last week. I am still walking at least 3-5 days a week and I really enjoy it. I am sleeping great except for getting up at least twice to go pee.

After this next appointment I will start going in every week until our baby boy comes. We are getting so close!

Here is a picture of me at 33weeks with Lydia and 33weeks with our son. I thought it would be fun to see how they compared so I put on the same shirt.

NOW:



THEN:






I took a few other photos in a brown shirt today which was also an old one from my last pregnancy. This one is kind of far away but if you click on the picture it makes it more easily viewable.



Also a few new cute photos of Lydia. -- Today

Some from Last Night