Week 37

Last Wednesday was the 37 week appointment. The doctor was a little late showing up for the appointment because she was in delivering a baby. She was a little frazzled and trying to get her day back on track. Everything with Shelly and the baby checked out great again. Shelly's 2 cm dialated and the cervix was 70% thinned out. Baby rogers was resting while we were there and the heart rate was down to 131. That was it for the excitement of the week 37 appointment.

Now on to today's excitement. Kari and Aaron had their first baby this morning at 3:30 a.m. Shelly and I got to meet Nolan Aaron tonight. He's a healthy little boy weighing in at a little over 8 pounds. It was exciting and a little scary realizing that it will be us in one of those rooms very soon! It may be sooner than we're expecting. Shelly hasn't been feeling well today and wasn't feeling as much movement from the baby so we were advised to have her get checked out, which was convenient since we were already at the hospital. Our nerves were eased when everything checked out good. They hooked two monitors around Shelly's belly. One measured the baby's heart rate and one measured to see if Shelly was having contractions. The baby's heart rate ranged from 133 -172, and to Shelly's surprise the other monitor was picking up "tightening" in her stomach about every 3 minutes. The nurse didn't call them contractions and didn't seem too worried about it. They did check the cervix again and it's 90-100% thinned so it really could be any day now. They were prepared to keep us there for a few hours to monitor everything but the doctor on call let us go home. So tonight was an exciting one! We'll be back at the regular weekly doctors appointment on Wednesday.

Shelly's Belly!

Two post's in one night! I'm on a roll. Here's another picture of Shelly's Belly. The baby is growing great and her belly is filling out. I've also just posted a quick poll on the right to get everyone's predictions.

Shelly was back at the doctor again today. Everything keeps checking out normal which is great. She's having some problems with her feet and legs swelling up. The swelling just doesn't go down overnight anymore. The doctor doesn't seem to concerned about it yet, so Shelly is still working and just taking it easy when she's home after work.

The baby is still very active and had a great time last night. Shelly thinks the baby flipped into postion and the head is down. I think the hot wings she ate last night for dinner did the trick! At her appointment today the doctor did say that the head is now down and in the right position. Shelly also think that the baby has "dropped". By looking at the picture it sure seems like something has changed.

If we have the baby anytime after next Tuesday it will be considered full term and with it finally heating up outside Shelly is ready!

Time is Flying!

It's been a long time since I've had a chance to update the blog. I'll try and remember back to our previous doctors appointments. I believe we've had 3 since the last post. All has been well. The week 33 doctors appointment was a simple checkup. The heart beat was back down in the 140's and everything else checked out good with Shelly. That was our last bi-weekly appointment and now we go every week until the baby is born.

Last weeks appointment they checked to see if Shelly is dialated and she is already dialated to 1.5 cm. They'll check this every week now until that baby is here. The only other thing they did was check the heart beat measure Shelly's Belly and check her blood pressure. The heart beat is in the low 150's. Shelly's Belly is measuring at 33 inches. The doctor also had a little fun with us before the appointment was over. She performed a very un-scientific test to tell the sex of the baby. She has a string with nail attached to one end of it. Once she settles the string if it rotates in a circle the baby is a girl and if it just swings back and forth it's a boy. She say's it's been fairly accurate for her so we'll have to wait and see if it works. I suppose you all want to know what the string did? We'll be posting a little poll to see what everyone's opinion is, then maybe we'll give up the inside information!

Week 31 appointment

We had another doctors appointment last Wednesday. Everything keeps checking out the way it's suppose to. The baby's heart beat went back up to 156 bpm and Shelly's belly is up to 30 inches! The baby had an extremely active weekend kicking Shelly in the ribs and punching her bladder. She's still getting swollen feet after long days at work or trying to do to much around the house. She's loving her sexy new compression socks, they're nice and cool for the summer! She'll go back to the doctor again next Wednesday. She'll be 33 weeks along and just 7 weeks until the baby arrives.

We had our second baby class last Saturday. They went through all sorts of different labor positions that we can try ans see what works best for Shelly. Then they took us on a tour of the hospital and showed us where they'll take us when we get to the hospital, then the type of room we'll be transferred to after we're checked in and they've done a few check ups on Shelly and the baby. After the initial check in we'll be moved to a labor and delivery room. The best thing about these rooms was the lights they had pointing down at the bed. They had a little "remote" with a light at the end of it. The nurse will click it and the lights adjust themselves and point at the remote! No need for Shelly to be in the exact right spot on the table, the lights will adjust themselves. After the baby is delivered we'll stay in that room for a couple hours then be transferred to another room where we'll stay until they send us home. I think they said we'll only be there for 24 hours before they send us home to fend for ourselves!

Shelly's Belly Part 5!

Here's the fifth installment of Shelly's Belly! Her belly button has been stressing lately, threatening to pop out with any sudden movement. Every sneeze is an adventure.

Shelly's last doctors appointment was a couple weeks ago. Everything continues to check out good. The baby's heart beat was down to 146 bpm. At this appointment she had to do a glucose screening to test for gestational diabetes and have a RhoGam shot because of her blood type. She "passed" the glucose screening with no problems. Now that we're down to just two months before the baby is born Shelly has to go to the doctor every two weeks then in the last month every week.

Saturday was our first labor preparation class. We'll have another this Saturday with a newborn baby care class right after that. We did have to watch a semi-nasty video of a baby being born. They taught us a little about the labor process, when we need to go to the doctor, how to time the contractions. The mother in the video was the calmest lady I've ever seen. I don't think she screemed or grunted or made any noise throughout the entire delivery. At next weeks class we get to tour the hospital which should be interesting.

We're down to 54 days left! We have to count them manually now. The countdown clock on the blog kept defaulting to New Years Eve so we removed it.

Nursery

So I'm finally back on here and posting pictures of the Nursery. We've had it painted and all the furniture up for a couple weeks now. The crib couldn't have been easier to put together, the hardest part was getting the boxes in the house. I think the only thing we need to get yet is a rocker and then more clothes for the baby.

Last Monday we went to a child and infant CPR class. It was interesting and much different from what I learned in 7th grade health class. Next Saturday is RibFest in town so we have that weekend off then the following two Saturdays we have baby classes. The first two sessions are labor classes and Shelly is really looking forward to those!

Shelly's been busy "nesting". She washed a load of baby clothes, then spent this morning sweeping and mopping the basement floor. She's been feeling good but has started to swell up a little if she has to long of a day or if she over does it. Other than that it's been a pretty smooth month and we're going back to the doctor this Friday.

Shelly's Belly Part 4!

It's been a busy month for us and we've been slacking on posting to the blog. The Stanley Cup Playoffs started so I've been glued to the TV watching the hockey games every night.

A couple weeks back Shelly was out of town so I painted the nursery, we're putting the finishing touches on it tonight. We'll post pictures of the finished paint job later this week or next. This past weekend we were up in the cities shopping for the nursery furniture. We found the crib and dresser/changing table but won't have it for another couple weeks. Then I get to experience the babies first present that has "some assembly required".

Shelly's last doctors appointment was last Tuesday. Everything checked out great. They still measure the heartbeat everytime Shelly goes in it was at 157 bpm. This time they had an intern "helping" and he didn't get off to a great start. He was trying to fing the heart beat and was having a tough time so Shelly started to get a little freaked out. Then the pro took over and found the heart beat right away. We've got one more monthly appointment then we start going every two weeks. The baby loves it when we lay down for the night. Last night we were sitting on opposite sides of the couch and I could still see the baby moving around! We'll be back on soon with pictures of the painted nursery.