Another week, another appointment

Yesterday we had another appointment, at 39 weeks and 4 days. Today I am 2 days away from my due date! Can't believe I've made it this far! This is us at the Anschutz Outpatient clinic (at UCH), excited to be parents soon. My Midwife checked me again and now I am 2/70%/-1....so that means I am more dilated (2 cm), more effaced or thinned out, and his head is lower. Good news! She "stripped my membranes" (for those medical or maternal people who may know what that means) so that could help push labor along. It hurt pretty bad...Nate was there to hold my hand. He was sweet. And ever since, I have had a lot more contractions and more painful. It didn't set me into labor last night, however I slept horribly and contracted on and off. Sometimes every 7 to 10 minutes regularly. I didn't know what to do about work today (cause it was my last scheduled 8 hr shift), so I got up at 4:55am and walked around in my house for 20 minutes straight to assess. Well, I was contracting too much and too painfully to appropriately take care of other patients in the hospital. So I called in "sick" today on my last day. My Mom is here with me now and will help me get through the day. We'll see if I go into labor tonight. My sisters will be here in Denver very soon. I'm getting excited to hold my baby boy in my arms for the very first time!

Pregnancy update

It's official...I have stretch marks now! They suddenly appeared at 37 weeks and I was very bummed. They are all below my bellybutton on the under part of my belly, but hopefully they will fade after the pregnancy is done.
My midwife checked my dilation yesterday and I was 1/50%/-2 (so I was 1 cm dilated). So that was pretty good and means my body is slowly getting ready for labor. I almost could have been put into labor last night because Nate & I had a midnight scare in the dark bathroom where neither of us knew the other one was in there. We both screamed and it was quite frightening (& funny later...but it did make me bawl with fear for a few minutes). I'm surprised my water didn't brake with how much we screamed. : )

Uncle Dan, Aunt Ginny, Cousin Stephen

Last night, Nate's family mentioned above came to visit us at our home. Uncle Dan is his Mom's brother...and then his wife and son. They live in Altus, OK and are on a Colorado roadtrip to visit Colorado Springs and the surrounding area. They come up to see us in Denver for one night and gave us a LOVELY baby gift basket filled with tons of wonderful things! Their daughter Tammy designed and organized it so well! It was very nice of their whole family! We showed them our new house and then went out to dinner at "The Bent Noodle". Fun time had by all.

ps. See our new coffee table that we just purchased last week! Our front room furniture is now complete! We love our little slate table.

Shorter Shifts for me

Yeah! As of July 9th, I have officially started working 8 hr shifts till the end of my pregnancy. The 12 hr shifts were getting quite difficult and exhausting...and I would have a lot more painful Braxton Hicks towards the end of my shift (sometimes couldn't take another step down the long halls or would have to wait before going in a patients room). : ) So my Midwife wrote a note to cut back to 8 hr's...I'm very happy. Don't want to have a contraction when my patient is having a contraction! : )

First Housewarming Party (Nate's lab)

We had a party with Nate's lab group to break our house in for entertaining, and so they could see it for the first time. It was a great party with great company and outstanding food. It was just after a big rain storm on July 6th that helped cool the house down perfectly. The people who came = David, Dan, Gisela, Rimas, Jessica, Brian, Mimi, and Juan. It was a lovely night sitting outside on the patio.

Our 2 Year Anniversary!

On July 3rd, '09 (because I had to work on the 4th), we had a LOVELY 2nd year Wedding Anniversary date. We spent all day together. We went to the movie "Transformers 2". And for dinner, we went to a wonderful restaurant that was recommended to us called "Rioja". It was downtown Denver at Larimer Square. I was very pregnant at 37 weeks and got full quickly. But look at my dish...there was a whole little baby squid in it! I couldn't bring myself to eat it. The restaurant bought us whatever dessert we wanted because it was our Anniversary. Very nice! We had a lovely date. Can't believe it's been 2 years already.

Joint baby shower with Sunday School group

Here's some pictures from my baby shower with my church group. It was a joint shower with Kathryn Gilmore who is due 4 days before me. It was at Karen Goldfain's house June 28th and we had a blast. Thank you so much!

Midwife appointment

I had an appointment with my Midwife today. She said everything was still great...my blood pressure is still low, my weight gain is right on, my fundal height is right on so the growth of the baby looks good. He was still head down (thank goodness) and she thought he was really low (possibly starting to be engaged?). I asked her to guess his weight right now, and she said maybe 5 and 1/2 pounds, but that she has been way wrong in the past. But if she's right, he definitely needs to cook a bit longer. Nate wants me to go all the way to 40 weeks. : ) I'm feeling good other than braxton hicks cramps down my legs when I walk longer distances. I had my 2nd prenatal massage today after the Midwife appt and it was wonderful. She works on my lower back and hips for 30 minutes. Hopefully it will help the painful leg cramps. No complaints yet! : )