Another goodbye

Yet another one of our couple friends are moving to Texas...boo...so we had a little going away party for them at our house last night. The Mexican Fiesta was a hit with good food, fellowship, and a pinata. I mean, who wouldn't have fun at a party with a pinata?

We're going to miss you guys!

The girls

The guys

Love this pic!

Doctors appointment

I had a doctors appointment on Wednesday which of course I was super excited about. I love updates. Even if they're not super exciting updates, it just makes me feel like we are making progress. Maybe it's just a weird quirk of mine.

So here is our weekly update. Her heart rate was 130 and it sounded so loud! I thought maybe because she is getting so big...or maybe just because they had the monitor turned up, not quite sure. :) I like to think it's because she is getting big. I am still measuring small, like usual. This did make me kind of nervous for a while, but I actually had a growth ultrasound several weeks ago, and she was measuring 5 days ahead of schedule. I guess it must just be the way she's situated in there. My doctor checked me and said I'm dilated to a "good 1." That was exciting, even though I know we have a long way to go. Then he said the beautiful words, "I'm going to be out of town from August 2nd to the 8th...had I mentioned that to you before?" No, he had definitely NOT mentioned it, and it was definitely not what I wanted to hear him say since our due date is the 14th. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure OB doctors of all doctors need vacations, I just didn't want that vacation to be around the time I was scheduled to deliver. Oh well, I guess we'll just have to see when she decides it's a good time to come, and it might be when he is out of town.

I'm still feeling relatively good. Even though I am officially scheduled out of clinic, I am still going in to clinic and still assisting in surgery. At this point, I figure maybe it will help me go into labor if I stand on my feet for 8 hours in surgery. I am still trying to work out but it's pretty pitiful. Let's just say I have to walk slow enough on the treadmill that it doesn't make my heart rate go up much and I don't even break a sweat. A workout without sweating seems like a waste to me. Pilates makes me sweat, but as of Wednesday, I could no longer do a roll-up. It was a sad day. I feel very blessed that I have not had any real swelling yet (unless I'm outside in the heat), but I'm waiting for it to happen any day. I still have not had any reflux to speak of (so if the old wive's tale is true, we are going to have a really bald baby girl), and I think she must have dropped some because I feel like I am able to eat more again (which is not necessarily a good thing).

I'm looking forward to meeting our pediatrician tomorrow. We scheduled a meet and greet so we don't have to meet him/her in the hospital for the first time. We are also celebrating Kev's birthday tomorrow night, which I'm super excited about. His actually birthday is August 15th and my due date is the 14th, so we figured it might be a good idea to do something now while life is still relatively uncomplicated. Can't wait!

Kev in Colorado

First of all, thanks for all of your super sweet comments about the nursery and my pregnant belly...you make a girl feel good. I especially loved the comment that I was petite (thanks Vicki), because I don't think anyone has ever told me I was petite in my life, and I definitely don't feel petite at this moment, but I'll take it.

To update you on the weekend, I feel like we got a lot accomplished. We had our car seat installed at the fire department (they do it for free...amazing!), which was so exciting! I did have a little bit of difficulty getting the seat off the base, which you think should be pretty straightforward...guess I need to practice a little more before Baby E comes. So we haven't decided on the car situation, and all the good deals we were finding were in Dallas, which I thought it probably wasn't the best idea to travel to Dallas to look at cars when I am this far along, so we decided to keep the Camry a little longer, and then after she comes, renew our search. Even though it's an old car, it still runs really well, and we have had relatively few problems with it. The one thing I don't like is our middle seatbelt is not functional. Why? Well, when our darling dog was a puppy, he thought it was a good idea to chew through the middle seatbelt on a trip to Texas. It has never really bothered us before, but now I feel like a negligent parent since Baby Girl will have to be on a side and not in the middle. I guess one perk of our dilemma is it will be easier to take her in and out of the car. We also purchased our breast pump (who would have thought I would ever be excited about this), made a list of what our hospital bag needs to include, purchased snacks for while we're there, and even had time to hang out with friends. It has been a fabulous weekend!

I thought I'd include some pics of Kev on his trip with his dad and brother as well.

Before the white water rafting. The guy next to Kev is their guide.

The cabin they stayed at the first night.

Gotta love those Colorado skies.

At the Royal Gorge before the swing.

Hanging out at their campsite. I told Kev he looked like a goofy camper, which he did not appreciate.

The river at their campsite.

They had a great time but I'm really glad he's back on Oklahoma soil now.

36 weeks

36 weeks...wow! Where has the time gone? This last trimester is definitely going faster, and I am not complaining. In my head, 36 weeks was the earliest I wanted to go into labor (if I could choose that is). Now baby girl can come any day!

I can definitely tell she's growing...the necessity of wearing a maternity tank top under my shirt shows that. I went to the doctor on Wednesday to do my Group B strep (so fun), but he also checked me which was exciting. He said my cervix is still posterior but it is softening and I am dilated to a fingertip. Made me so excited! I will be exciting to go back this Wednesday, and now I get to go in weekly.

Here are some pictures of our nursery...finally...sorry Jen. We still have a couple of things to do, but I think it's starting to come together.

We love our decal from Etsy and our fabulous new chair!

Better picture of the chair.

Paper lanterns on the opposite side.

Definitely NOT as easy to hang up as you would think.

Dresser/changing table. We've had the dresser forever (I think we got it at a garage sale), but Kev made the little box to go on the top. We were also very proud of our pictures we made to go above it. We're so crafty but not really.

Our goals this weekend are to pack our hospital bag (so exciting!), install baby girl's car seat, and do some last touches to our nursery. I love this kind of stuff. It's hard to believe we're getting down to the final details, and it makes me SO excited!

The weekend!

Wow, I have been such a pitiful blogger this past week. No good excuse...well maybe one good excuse. We had a great weekend, although we have no pictures to document it (yet).

Kev decided to take a guys trip to Colorado with his dad and brother (kind of a late Father's Day gift). Much to my dismay, they decided they wanted to go white water rafting and on the swing/bungie over the Royal Gorge. I asked him, "Is this really a good time to risk your life...right before we have our first child?" His response, "Is there ever a good time to risk your life?" I guess I see his point, but don't get me wrong, I was still a bit nervous for him. Maybe it has to do with the fact that there is not one iota of me that thinks it sounds fun to swing over the Royal Gorge...I'm definitely NOT a thrill seeker except in seeking to avoid it. Now the white water rafting sounds fun, but probably not when I'm 35 weeks pregnant. In case you were wondering, they survived and he should be home tonight which I'm oh so thankful for. Not that there was a huge chance I would go into labor this early, but you never know. I'll post pics of his trip when he gets home.

While he was gone, my mom decided to come stay the weekend with me which was so much fun. We went into serious preparation mode, cleaning, cooking and freezing meals, organizing the nursery. It was fabulous! It was so nice to have her here and she helped so much! I wish my house could just stay this clean, but I think Truman is trying to sabotage the cleanness...he has already tracked in dirt twice! In his defense it has been rainy but it's so hard not to get frustrated at him (even though he has absolutely no idea what he's doing). She also got to go to my work shower on Saturday which was also so much fun! I'm supposed to be getting the pics from the shower from someone who actually took pictures (I definitely didn't).

I'm excited about this week, because after this week, I am scheduled out of clinic and there is a surgeon who can cover me in surgery if I go into labor. I still plan on still going to work (I really don't want to be just sitting at home waiting for baby girl to make her entry), but I won't have my own patients scheduled but just help...love it. Takes a lot of pressure off. Patients are really starting to exhaust me, especially when it comes to the whole pregnancy thing. I actually had a patient last week that after patting my belly multiple times literally leaned down and kissed my stomach. What?! Why would you ever think that was appropriate?! I hadn't seen her in like 8 months either (so it's not like we were that close). Then, in a moment of complete insanity (I can only blame pregnancy brain), I told her the name we have chosen. She immediately responded with, "That's terrible" with a look of total disgust on her face. Note to self, do not share personal information with patients.

Baby shower

Okay, finally getting around to posting pictures from our baby shower last weekend. Wow, it feels like it has been a crazy week for some reason.

So the shower was absolutely AMAZING...everything I could have wanted and I felt so unbelievably blessed! We are truly blessed by such great friends and family, and I was just reminded of that fact this past weekend. Of course it was so much to receive gifts for our sweet baby girl, but it was incredible to have everyone there showing us their support.

The decorations were perfect, and the food was delicious. I have been and planned many baby showers in my day, and I decided a while back when it was my turn, I did not want cake or cupcakes, but SUGAR COOKIES. I LOVE sugar cookies, and they are such a special treat that you get so rarely. So one of my hostesses and her mom made incredible cookies, and they were soo cute too!

They also wrote sweet notes of things they were praying for Baby Girl.

My amazing hostesses (minus my good friend Anna who was out of town) did such a great job!

Some of the girls who came. All of these ladies go to church with me and I am so very blessed by their friendships!

Couldn't resist posting the cute hugging picture!

My sisters and my mom made the trip for the shower. It was so fun to have them there!

There were so many more cute pictures, but I am way to impatient to put them on the blog because it takes forever to download them...okay, maybe not forever but a while. The only downer to the day is I felt so incredibly hot. Like I've mentioned before, pregnancy has definitely turned me into a little furnace which is not helped by the fact that it's in the 90s and incredibly humid. Add to that the fact that I sweat even more when I am the center of attention or talking to lots of people. It was a perfect combination of events to make me sweat like I'm running a marathon. I was oh so thankful that my dress did not show the sweat running down me...pretty disgusting. I did not think about this when I found the dress, but will probably consider this fact in the near future when choosing clothes.