11 Days To Go

OMG. 11 Days. As my good friend Rachel Zoe would say, "that is bananas." Ok, I've never actually met her but I do love her show.

Here's a photo from me from Friday night at a little over 37 weeks.

Has anyone else noticed how Molly is in almost every shot. She is ALWAYS under my feet. This is why I have to lock her in the mudroom during the day while I work. She doesn't understand "working from home."

We were just about to head out the door for our infant CPR class so I look super tired. Check out my hot outfit- jeans AND tennis shoes. Yep, besides my one pair of black Reef flip flops, these are the only shoes that fit and they're barely tied. When it gets lower that 40 degrees, I declare it too cold for flip flops (even in my condition) and attempt to put on my tennis shoes.

Saturday morning we woke up and it was FREEZING in the house. The thermostats were set to 64 (yes, I'm cheap) but the thermometers were showing that it was only 52 degrees. Turns to find out we ran out of heating oil. Now, excuse me while I tease Aubrey for a moment here. I asked him to check the oil levels BEFORE he went to Arizona in case I went into labor and we had no heat to bring our baby home to. He got really busy and forgot. At least it didn't go off that week but it sure did this weekend.

He called the oil company who couldn't bring the oil until Monday morning so we braved the frigid temperatures all weekend. Luckily we had one space heater already and Aubrey had one at his office so we just kept them near us and wore extra layers. It wasn't too bad. It was super cold but not too bad. If the baby had been home, we would have had to go to Richmond (to Aubrey's parents) for the weekend, but for the two of us and the dogs, it was kind of like an adventure albeit a cold one.

This fun adventure finally made us go out and buy a fireplace screen and tools and some wood. However, based on our luck with this house, we were nervous the whole place would burn to the ground so we took some preventive measures...

That was us checking that the chimney would appropriately draw the smoke out instead of into the den. Poor paper towels.... I kept lighting them and Aubrey would run out the front door to watch.

And that's Aubrey checking to make sure the chimney is opened enough and there's not a ton of build-up from past tenants.

They came this morning to put some oil in the tank. Their minimum delivery is 1o0 gallons. That set us back $384 and might last us a month. WHAT??????????????????????? Get me out of this house. I am starting to look for a new house with forced heat and city water for us to move into this December. I am so over this.

Anyway, the moving company also sent their appraiser/repair guy over to inspect the damage from the move (broken glass in our wedding invitation frame, missing lamp harps and finials, broken cake plate, oh, and a huge hole in our Pottery Barn wooden sleigh bed).

He was able to fix the bed but didn't tell us that he would be using chemicals and we couldn't sleep on the bed for 24 hours!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't even go upstairs right now because it's making me so nauseous. Oh well, at least it's fixed.

Current temperature downstairs: 60 degrees. Hoping to make it to 64 by nighttime.

Random Ramblings

So I finally bought some Bio-Oil. This stuff is super expensive so I hope it works. I paid $19.99 for a tiny bottle. Its website claims "Bio‐Oil is a specialist moisturizing oil that smooths and tones scars, stretch marks and uneven skin tone. It is also effective for aging and dehydrated skin. Bio‐Oil has won 80 skincare awards since its global launch in 2002. It is America’s No.1 selling skincare oil (IRI Total US FDMx for the year ending 4 September 2011)."

We'll see. If you will recall, I don't have stretch marks YET but I am experiencing some weird scarring around my insulin pump infusion sites since they're all on my abdomen and it is quite large now. I'm also rubbing it into my dry, cracked hands before bed. I'd really like to use it more frequently on my hands but it is super expensive and I wash my hands about 300 times a day because I use the bathroom so much. I wonder if I could successfully type with those cotton gloves on? You know, the ones that you're supposed to slather lotion onto your hands and then put the gloves on and it helps the lotion soak in? Only problem would be the every 30-minute bathroom breaks...hmmm.

Next, check out what Aubrey brought me back from Arizona!!

No, it's not the quilted clutch I've been dreaming of, it's a bunch of make-up his company gave to the wives at the spouses' luncheon. They sent a sweet note saying that they usually don't give the gifts to the wives not in attendance but felt that since I was about to be a new mom, I deserved it and much more! Soooooo nice!

The best part is that they purchased the items at Nordstrom's (they provide the neat little return stickers on each item), so I can exchange everything for different colors, brands, or maybe put towards some shoes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hooray!

Seriously, it's the little things.

37 weeks

We're two weeks out. Do you realize how short two weeks is??? That's like nothing. I am seriously freaking out.

Not as much about the baby but more so about the pain and lack of sleep heading my way. Aubrey was out of town Wednesday through Monday late night and I've been miserable because the dogs are requiring me to get up earlier and I'm only sleeping about 6 or 7 hours a night. I know this seems ridiculous because when the baby comes home I'll be lucky to sleep that long but it honestly has me really nervous because I'm barely coping. I'm a BIG sleeper and normally sleep at least 9 hours a night.

If only they were this "good" more often:

Mom flew up to help me get last minute stuff ready for the baby but because the dogs sleep in my room on the third floor she can't hear them in the basement when they're ready to go out in the morning. Plus, Molly is a bit of a monster and I won't let Mom walk her because she's really bad at pulling. So, it's all up to me. Totally fine for a couple of days or a week when I'm not ready to pop at any point. But, right now, I'm so over it and so exhausted.

Because I'm so tired, Molly isn't getting the exercise she needs which means she's not going to sleep when she needs to or for as long as she should. Vicious cycle.

I took Molly to the dog park last night and threw a tennis ball for her for about 45 minutes. She and I both loved it although I can't take her when it's wet (happens a lot up here). Mom has also researched some doggie day cares to help when the baby arrives. I'm really not sure I'll be able to handle everything once he gets here since I'm at my breaking point right now already....

Mom and I have been going constantly since she got here. We went to childbirthing class, baby care class and she even accompanied me to one of my non-stress tests. She made six different casseroles to freeze for us to eat for dinner when the baby comes while I worked on Thursday and has been busy finishing the baby's laundry and running to Target for me.

This weekend we ventured to Costco and Buy Buy Baby.

Note to all of you- never go to Costco while nine months pregnant and hungry.... hence the popcorn and brownie mix!!! Ridiculous.

We had every intention of watching the Super Bowl (for the commercials, duh!) but got so sidetracked shopping that we didn't make it home until almost halftime. Oh well, at least I saw Madonna.

No pic of me in this post. I'll aim to put one up later this week!

36 Weeks

Here I am at 36 weeks! Yikes. Nine months!! Three weeks to go effective tomorrow (Thursday). Yep. They officially scheduled my c-section for Thursday, February 23 at 8 a.m. IF we make it that long. The doctors are nervous to let me try a natural delivery and feel that the surgical option will be best for me and the baby. So, we're gonna go that route. I'm a little nervous about having my insides cut open but more nervous about something worse happening to the baby or me if I have to labor for 12+ hours.

We had our last growth ultrasound yesterday at the hospital. The baby looks great and is already measuring at approximately 6 pounds 13 ounces. Umm, does anyone else think that is HUGE??????? Keep in mind that the sonograms can vary up to a pound either way. So Baby Swinson is anywhere from 5 pounds 13 ounces to 7 pounds 13 ounces- great. Monster baby either way since I still have potentially three weeks to go.

I think I read somewhere that babies gain an ounce a week the last month and mom gains a pound a week??? That puts him at 7 lbs (plus or minus one pound) at birth IF this were a normal pregnancy. Because of my diabetes, he could gain a lot more. So, needless to say, I'm increasing the length of my morning walks and trying to move as much as possible which is kind of hard with swollen feet and calves.

Oh well, at least he's healthy.

Mom flew in last night to baby-sit me while Aubrey is traveling for work this week. He has to attend a mandatory conference in Arizona at a spa. Where spouses were invited to attend. For free.

Right.

So Mom is here doing honey-dos and running errands for me while I work. SOOOO nice. We even have a huge trip planned to Costco and Buy Buy Baby this weekend. I'm taking Friday off from work so we can run a bunch of errands while she's here. I'm soooo excited!

Check out what she brought me to help with the swelling...Hot, right?? Heck, I'll try anything! I'm nervous about walking around on them all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We have a lot to do and I am already outgrowing my flip flops... they're the only "shoes" that fit right now....

Wish me luck that I can wear shoes tonight to childbirthing class! And, yes, mom is going with me. Hahaha!

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.