Rocking Out in Richmond

We had a blast in Richmond this weekend. It was soooo great to leave our annoying rental house with all of its issues and have Aubrey's parents take care of us for an entire weekend. His mom was so sweet and once she saw my feet, she refused to let me do anything but keep them up. Awwwww.....

We left Annapolis around 4 on Friday and got to their house around 7 p.m. I made sure to get out and walk around at exactly one and a half hours of traveling to prevent blood clots. I ended up sitting in the back seat of Aubrey's truck so I could keep my feet up on the front seat center console the entire time. They were still super swollen when I got there but I figure they might have been worse...

Good times.

On Saturday we had lunch with Sam and Ashley Bennett (Sam is Aubrey's childhood best friend and one of the members of the band we were there to see) the parents of Baby Swinson's future best friend, Emory. Ashley had their first little boy in October so they had TONS of great information to share with us about the first couple of months.

After lunch we took Molly over to one of Aubrey's parents friends' houses so she could run around in their backyard with their dog. It was great for Molly to get some exercise and even better for Rick and Debbie because she would most likely be calmer while we were downtown that evening.

Here's a pic of us before the show. I'd like to think I looked better than this photo shows- silly iPhone. I had on skinny jeans and a top but all you can see here is the top and I kind of look like I'm wearing a tent. I guess I was actually. And, of course, my black Reef flip flops. I can't think of the last time I wore flip flops out. At least in the summer, I wear Jack Rogers or something KIND of cute. DISgusting.

Ok, for the life of me, I CANNOT get this stupid thing to rotate and save. So, pretend you can see us right side up.

After about an hour of standing up before the band went on, Aubrey found me a bar stool that we dragged to the middle of the bar so I could sit and watch and be comfortable. I'm sure people were super annoyed but hopefully they then saw my 9 month pregnant belly and forgave me??

Sam is the one in the middle here rocking out his saxophone....

It was a great show and so good to see all of Aubrey's friends and family before the big day arrives. Three weeks and three days away (if not sooner...).

Car Seat Safety

Ok, I'm climbing up on my soapbox. I REALLY try not to do this because we're already a culture that's overwhelmed with information but here goes.

We're less than a month out until we have this baby of ours. Since there's a possibility every day that my medical team could induce me earlier than expected, I'm constantly making sure that everything is ready for his arrival. It's why I wanted the nursery "done" in December and the house unpacked. Some call it nesting, I call it thriving.

Aubrey and I decided we would go ahead and install the car seat in my car (hospital transport vehicle of choice since it requires the least climbing in and out of) a couple of weeks ago to avoid frantically reading the manual on the way to the hospital right before an emergency induction. How hard could it be? I’ve been around kids all my life and even baby-sat and nanny-ed all through college so I’ve buckled about 3000 kids in about 3000 different car seats.

So I’m reading the manual aloud to Aubrey as he’s in my backseat grunting and buckling. Keep in mind, we just got a regular infant seat. Nothing super fancy. Duh. You buckle the base in, tighten and then put the infant carrier thing on top. NO engineering degree required.

Or, so we thought. For the life of us we could not get the base buckled in tight enough. So if you pushed the base, it moved back and forth. I thought for sure if we were in a serious wreck, the whole thing would slide across the entire backseat. My middle seat in my backseat has an automatic latch thingy meaning you can’t pull it to make it tighter- you have to let it catch and then tighten. Stupid British car. We researched all the entire car seat manual, the car's owner's manual and even tried to read stupid Land Rover blogs to figure out how to make this thing tighten around the base. No such luck.

Because of my amazing time at Hughes Agency doing events and public relations for the Bradshaw Automotive Group, I knew there were people that were certified in car seat safety. I called the Annapolis Fire Department who referred me to the Fitzgerald Auto Mall (think Bradshaw Superstore but for Mitsubishi and not nearly as nice). I made an appointment and a nice man inspected our seat last night.

Here's a picture of the car seat check Hughes Agency did for Bradshaw Automotive (courtesy of Debbie Wallace):

Just as I thought, the base was not tight enough. He showed me this little tool that came with the car seat that would help tighten the seat belt more so than any human could possibly do. Funny thing is, NO where in the car seat manual or on their website does it talk about this little tool. I mean, how many people out there know about this little tool or know how to even use it??

The tool I'm referring to is the flat, metal thing right above the buckle. It was fastened to the inside of the base...

Isn't it sad that two grown adults with three college degrees between them couldn't figure it out. Can you even imagine how many babies are riding around in a base that's too loose.

People. Run, don't walk, to your phones. Call your local fire department and ask for a recommendation on who can check your children's car seats. It's a free service and takes 15 minutes of your time.

He even showed me how to easily loosen the straps and walked me through exactly how to use all the features. I already knew how due to my practicing with a doll (yes, I did) but it was great to have an expert reassure me that I knew how to get Baby Swinson in and out safely and when I would need to adjust the straps.

All set and ready to bring him home!

Silly Symptoms!

Not sure if people care or not, but I thought I would share my most recent symptoms. For all you newly pregnant readers, consider these something to look forward to.

I'll start at the very top.

Hair: During the second and third trimesters, it's been really dry. Now, I have dry-ish hair anyway, but now I have to glob on the conditioner and Moroccan oil. It could have something to do with the harder water in Annapolis, but this is ridiculous. At least I don't have to wash my hair as frequently...



Brain: I have lost my vocabulary. It's not like I was some profound speaker/writer to begin with but now i have the hardest time remembering the simplest words- hospital, pizza, guacamole, you name it.



Skin: Besides being a little dry, it seems that my skin is definitely clearer than ever. So that's wonderful and because I work from home, I don't wear make-up every day so I can definitely slather on the moisturizer!



One weird skin thing (sorry if this is TMI) is the stretching. Knock on wood, I don't have any stretch marks yet but my insulin pump sites are healing weirdly because my stomach is stretching. So normally when I change a site the area is red for a about a week or two and then it heals and is completely gone within a month. Every once in a while, a site will bruise but it typically heals fine.



But now, the sites seem to be bruising and stretching out like long purple eraser marks. They're not stretch marks because they originate from the site locations. So, needless to say, I've starting putting my insulin pump sites up really high on my abdomen away from all of the stretching. I'm thinking about trying Bio-Oil to see if that will help the purple marks heal - has anyone tried that before?



And now, for the piece de resistance...

Can you say cankle???????????

I can't believe I'm posting a picture of my nasty, swollen foot on the Internet, but I've told you all- I'm not holding anything back.

This picture was taken yesterday after I had my feet elevated all day long under my desk. I even sleep with the foot of our bed elevated. I STILL wake up with swollen feet and ankles. Plus they fall asleep all the time because I have them up constantly.

I haven't worked out in about two weeks due to a nasty cold I got. Then I finally started feeling better but was afraid to work out for fear that my feet might explode. Well, I got permission to walk briskly and some say it might even help the swelling. Hallelujah! I'll try anything. I took Molly for a long, brisk walk this morning but it was pretty uncomfortable wearing shoes with laces and bending my feet to walk.

Oh well.

I wish it was summer so I could swim. And by swim, I mean flop around behind a kick board or something. I read that's great exercise for swollen pregnant people.

Guhross.

Worst part of the feet situation is that we're going to Richmond this weekend to see a friend's band play and I've picked out a "cute, rock and roll maternity" outfit complete with comfortable heels. I don't want my feet to muffin top out over my shoes!!!!!!! What's a girl to do?? I guess I might have to wear flip flops. To a bar. In January. WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

35 Weeks

If anyone is feeling bloated or having negative body image issues, I hope this helps:Haha. I think I look a lot bigger in the picture than I really am or maybe I have some distorted body image issues. Oh well.

We had our first non-stress test (NST) of the week yesterday. The goal of this test is for his heartbeat to increase at least 15 times within 20 minutes. Think of it as if you're sitting at your desk working calmly and then you reach for the phone or scratch your leg- anything to increase your heart rate. They want to ensure that he's not just base lining at 140 beats per minute and that he's still getting his heart rate elevated.

I had two of these last week and we passed the first one with flying colors. Then on Friday, he wasn't cooperating and I had to lie there for 40 minutes (two 20 minute sessions) to see if he would behave. Of course not.

They decided to do a sonogram for a bio-physical. This entails recording his diaphragm movements- they want him to "practice breathing" for at least 30 seconds in a 30 minute session and they check my fluid levels. Of course he was fine. He was just being high maintenance. Wonder where he gets that from?

Needless to say, a nurse told me that if I ate 30 minutes before my test, it might convince him to cooperate more. So, as I'm pulling up to the hospital yesterday, I'm devouring an orange. I figure natural sugars have to help.

Not so much. I laid there for 40 minutes and then had to have another sonogram. Now, I know most moms-to-be would LOVE to have two sonograms a week. I'm not really complaining except it takes another 45 minutes to do one and I'm expecting to pay about $75 out of pocket for each one based on the cost of my first...

Like Manna From Heaven

Hooray!

Our baby stuff has started arriving from Buy Buy Baby!! See what poor Aubrey had to lug inside the house the other day?

He built the larger items while I organized the smaller stuff (changing table pad, burp cloths, etc.).

All done! Now Baby Swinson has somewhere to "sit" downstairs while I'm eating bon bons on the sofa. Just kidding...

Up next: waiting on the crib bed skirt and shelves to arrive so I can finally take pictures and do a finished nursery post before he arrives.

The Fit Keeps Hitting the Shan

As you all know, we've had to make some HUGE financial adjustments in our lives to afford rent and utilities in Annapolis (super expensive- like three times what we paid in Charlotte) and the mortgage in Charlotte (still waiting for rent to start coming in- should be soon!!). So that means no more dinners out, no more nail appointments, no random Target trips, etc. Now add in child care costs.

Right.

Now, do you know why I want a margarita so bad or an ENTIRE bottle of wine?

Basically, we've sucked the fun out of life. Just kidding.

Kind of.

We've gotten really good at finding cheaper ways to have fun. Let's look at New Year's Eve for example. In the past, we've gone to a super fun dinner with friends and lots of alcohol (around $200 once you add in cabs, etc.). This year, we ordered take-out Thai food ($23, thank you very much) and ate it in the bed of Aubrey's truck which was parked in a retail parking lot (for free) to watch the children's fireworks show in downtown Annapolis. I even brought a bottle of sparkling grape juice. It worked just fine. I was asleep by 10 p.m. and no hangover!

Now, I did really miss champagne and friends but there was no way I could have either this year so a girl's got to do what a girl's got to do....

Just as we start to get used to our new lives, I feel like we keep getting punched in the gut... On Sunday evening, we ran to Babies R' Us to pick up a random item we kept meaning to buy and since there's no Buy Buy Baby here we had to settle for BRU. We got home around 8 p.m. and I climbed out of the truck on the passenger side (DUH). Yes, I can still climb in and out of Aubrey's truck. Aren't you proud of me?

On Monday morning, Aubrey gets to work and goes around to the passenger side to get his briefcase out and cannot open the front or back door because the side rails have been bent up so far that the doors won't open.

It appears that someone tried to either steal his tires (of course, he has fancy truck something or others because of his job), wheels or something called a catalytic converter??? I have no idea what the third item is but apparently it's a hot commodity and people have been stealing them all over up here.

Now, keep in mind that his truck was parked behind our house and our two useless dogs heard nothing. Those of you that have had the pleasure of meeting Max, the little one, know that being quiet is not something he excels at.

So, OMG. We had robbers behind our house. Even weirder, both of our GPS devices were sitting on the dashboards of our cars. So, they must have really wanted something on or under his truck.

The cost of fixing his side rails is estimated at $500 - $1000.

Perfect timing.

Let's just say he took the bent ones off his truck and they're patiently sitting inside our shed until we win the lottery.

It is, however, a LOT harder for me to actually get in the truck now.

Oh well.

Stressed Out By The Non Stress Test

Today was our appointment with the Maternal Fetal Medicine Specialist (i.e. super high risk obstetrician) for our birthing plan consultation and first amniotic fluid check and non-stress test.

Aubrey worked from home this morning with me and we headed up to Towson together. We left the house super early in case of traffic and even had time for a decaf latte' (me) and a white chocolate mocha (Aubrey). Such a nice change of pace because we're usually rushing into these appointments because they're so far away!

Dr. Koklanaris is thrilled with my progress and said she is still optimistic that I can carry Baby Swinson until 39 weeks. Hooray! So we've scheduled the induction for Thursday, February 23. Now, don't start booking flights today. There's still a chance they could want to take him earlier.

My blood pressure was a little elevated this morning and I've been having increased swelling, especially in my feet. EWWWW. So, I'm still at high risk for pre-eclampsyia (pregnancy induced high blood pressure). That can be even riskier for diabetics so they'll be monitoring us VERY closely over the next month.

The non-stress test was pretty boring. I worked from the hospital bed while Aubrey watched TV. I'll be doing these every Tuesday and Friday until I deliver so please think of fun things to send me to read via smartphone around 10:30 on these days. Then we had the amniotic fluid check which scared me because I immediately thought BIG NEEDLES!! But, no, it was a sonogram. No pain at all. Fluid levels look perfect for my gestational age so hooray. They did confirm that he is head down and just hanging out waiting on D-day...

After a quick picnic in the car (yes, I'm that cheap), we headed over to my regular OB's (the one that will be delivering the baby) for our two-week check-up. It was nice that Aubrey was there since he usually misses these fun times.

After measuring my fundal height (we're measuring 37 weeks!!!!!!!) and listening to the baby's heartbeat (140 beats), she did some scary culture tests and then checked to see if I was dilated. Let me just tell you this. After today's appointment, there is no way in the entire universe that I will attempt to deliver this baby without heavy medication. No way Jose'.

Five weeks and counting....