3 weeks

This week Vivian is going through the three week growth spurt. At least, I hope that's what it is! She eats pretty much every hour - hour and a half from 7-11 am and 3-10:30 pm. So I get about 15 minutes an hour to get things accomplished... or just run to get some water. Other than that she is still a really good baby. She sleeps fairly well and doesn't cry too much. Though, she has learned to scream which has burned my eardrums out!

36 weeks

There's no 36 week baby bump photo because the baby decided to come early! She officially arrived on the 36 week mark. Vivian Rose was born on August 1, 2011 at 10:31 a.m. She was 19 inches long and weighed 6 pounds 5 ounces.

We were down at my parents' lake house which is four hours away from the hospital I'd planned to use for delivery. On Saturday night/Sunday morning I noticed my water had broken. After determining that is actually what happened, I looked online to see if this was considered an emergency... I really did not want to go to a hospital down at the lake! It looked like the general consensus was as long as I went to the hospital within twelve hours we would be ok. We waited until 5:30 in the morning and then drove back to KC and went directly to the hospital.

Unfortunately, I had not yet packed my bag or gotten anything together in preparation of the big day! So after I was admitted Victor went to our house and packed a giant bag for me and got the house in order after being gone for three days. I was technically in labor in the hospital for 24 hours and 20 minutes before Vivian was born. Including my water breaking it was closer to 33 hours. Around 2 in the afternoon I was put on a Pitocin drip to start contractions. They started pretty quickly after that. I tried to nap as much as possible but that's kind of a joke when you are in pain! Around 4 a.m. I was given an epidural which helped quite a bit. Unfortunately, the contraction monitor had quite a bit of trouble tracking my contractions so my epidural had to be dialed back to that I could tell the nurse when I was having contractions. Around 9 Victor went to breakfast in the cafeteria with a friend and another friend sat in the room with me. Around 9:30 Victor was told to get his butt back up to the room because I needed to start pushing. And she was born about an hour later!

I feel pretty lucky that it was a relatively uneventful labor. Kind of long but I was only having contractions for part of the time. Now she is gaining weight very well and feeding like a champ. She had to be supplemented on formula and hasn't had any trouble switching between feeding types. And her clothes are finally starting to fit her!

I'm back!

Hey all,

So, like everyone knows the baby came four weeks early. She was exactly 36 weeks gestated when she came. Sometime I'll try to post the whole story. But, for now I'm going to try and start posting pictures every now and then. I probably won't post much else for awhile, but here are some pictures to get started.

34 weeks

It is H-O-T hot here! Every weekend we enjoy the pool and use it to cool down a little. But, I have to say, everyone talks about how miserable I must be because I'm pregnant and it's so hot. However, once it gets THIS hot, I don't think I'm that much more miserable than anyone else who has to be out in the heat. I have an indoor job so I'm in the air conditioning 99% of my day. I can wear sundresses and sandals at work so I don't have to worry about hose and pumps making me uncomfortable. It's not unbearable. I mean, yes, my ankles swell more than a normal person's... so I just avoid the full-length mirrors. And I'd rather be able to wear a sundress than have to bundle up in a sweater and get itchy in the winter.

A 34 week baby-to-be weighs about 4 pounds. That's approximately ten good sized Roma tomatoes. I didn't even try to hold ten tomatoes at once! I knew it would be an ugly ugly scene on my kitchen floor.

Next weekend we are going to the lake with some friends. Then our child birth classes start! Yikes. I kind of want to go into it without knowing anything... they do say ignorance is bliss. But, we already paid for the class and it's a good idea to have an idea of how these things work and what to expect. Though, she's coming out one way or another so as long as I do what my doctor says we will have a baby at the end of it. We took a baby care class last weekend. It was fairly helpful. We practiced swaddling and changing diapers. Victor is much better than I am. He can be the poo guy. Hehe

33 weeks

Sorry, no pictures this week. I meant to take one yesterday but I got distracted making dinner and hanging out with baby brother and his fiancee after dinner.

So, your homework for this week is to walk around your house finding things that are either approximately 18 inches or 4 pounds. It's harder than you think! I promise I'll have pictures next week. They may or may not have an edible item as my companion. It's getting harder and harder to find size comparisons. Even The Bump has given up on me! Now their list combines several weeks at once. I have a few more weeks as a honeydew then I move up to the stereotypical big guns... the dreaded watermelon!

If you come up with a good size comparison food I might just use it next week. Let me know by Saturday evening.

Special Treat

A friend/co-worker is leaving the office to go to law school at Boston College. Tomorrow we are having a going away happy hour for him. He has an even bigger sweet tooth than I do! Therefore, I decided to make some type of dessert.

On Tastespotting I saw a post for blue velvet cupcakes. Normally I really don't like red (or any color) velvet cupcakes. They are usually too dry and the icing is too cloying. But, I thought the blue would make a cute background for red Bs so the cupcakes look like Red Sox caps. Fortunately they actually turned out pretty tasty and I went light on the icing so hopefully the combo is a good one.

Anyway, the point of this post is, I think this is why Victor says all the other moms are going to hate me.

32 weeks

I'm officially 8 weeks away from my due date. Freaky! I downloaded an app that has a countdown and as of today I have 52 days to go. It sounds like a lot less time when you count it in days instead of weeks!!

I apologize for being lazy about my fruit of the week lately. This week she is the weight of a honeydew. I thought of buying one but the thought of an entire honeydew in my tummy was a little overwhelming. So, instead, you get to see pictures of my pretty dress. I love this dress. It's soft and comfy and was on sale. Can't beat that.

There still aren't any big complaints so far. She's pretty mellow so I'm still able to sleep (mostly) the entire night. She doesn't keep me up kicking or anything like that. She does like to rest her head on my sciatic nerve which sometimes makes walking difficult, but then it goes away so not a big deal. Her latest favorite position is with her foot in my rib so that's slightly uncomfortable. But again, nothing really worth complaining about. Hopefully this keeps up!

Goodbye feet!

I've got another check up tomorrow. Nothing major, just listening for her heartbeat and measuring my tummy. July I have two appointments then in August I move up to once a week. It's going so quickly! Happily we have everything we must have before baby arrives. But I'm sure once she is here I will find out that nothing we have is useful and need to rethink our purchases. That's the way these things tend to work.