Our Baby Boy Adventure: 35 weeks!

Wow! It is unbelievable! We are 35 weeks today! Only 5 weeks left to go until our due date! In 2 weeks he will be considered full term so he could come at any time! This week officially marked the beginning of my feelings of nervousness and anxiousness! I am so ready for him to be here, but at the same time feel there is still so much left to do. I guess you can never be fully prepared for the birth of your first baby, but I hope to feel a little more prepared in a few days. Justin is handling everything great and being fully supportive, but I can tell he is feeling there is no time to waste either! We are both trying to finalize everything and checking things off our To Do lists. We did order his Playard and High Chair this week. But we still need to get his car sear, stroller and extra car seat base, along with a some smaller items like Halo Sleepsacks!

I think my feelings of anxiousness are taking over even more because I can feel he has dropped. My Doctor could feel his head very low into my pelvis this week. This could mean he will be on his way very soon!

A lot has happened in the past 3 weeks, I am not even sure where to begin!

About 3 weeks ago on November 16th, I had an appointment where my doctor measured my Fundal Height (where you measure in centimeters the top of the uterus to the top pubic bone to make sure the size correlates with the week of pregnancy you are in). She had measured it once before at a prior appointment and it was totally off, but assumed it was because it was too early. Although, fundal height measuring is not an accurate way to determine the size of the fetus, it is a good general procedure done at most visits. So when I went in for my 32 week appointment I was only measuring at 27 weeks, clearly measuring small compared to most women. The doctor reassured me that is most likely the way I am built and not anything wrong with the baby, however she wanted to do a Sonogram to make sure. The doctor said my weight gain had been ideal throughout the pregnancy and along with a strong heartbeat and consistent movements from Ethan, she was not concerned anything was wrong but wanted a more accurate way to measure the baby. My heart instantly dropped when I heard we needed the Sono. We had not needed an unplanned Sono at all before and even though it was just a safety precaution, I was extremely worried something was wrong with Ethan. The worst part was, we had to wait 2 weeks before we could get into an appointment. The doctor tried to explain again that if she were that concerned, then I would be in the emergency Sono right then or would send me to another hospital, but she said there is no reason to worry. So I scheduled my appointment for 2 weeks out and did exactly what she told me not to do....worry. I was very upset for the rest of the day and the next. Knowing I had to wait so long to make sure my baby was doing well made me very emotional.

I was at the appointment alone so I instantly called Justin to tell him that I was measuring small and we needed a Sono. I was clearly in tears so Justin felt the need to call the doctor later that afternoon. Once he was able to get the full story from the nurse he immediately felt better, which made me feel better. Over the next few days I was feeling Ethan move more than ever before, almost like he was telling me, "Mom, I am fine there is nothing to worry about!" My motherly instincts were also telling me that he was just fine as well. So I eventually started to trust my body more and I stopped worrying. We didn't tell our family because we both knew deep down everything was fine and didn't want to cause any unnecessary scares.

Finally, November 29th rolled around and it was time for the Sonogram! I was so excited for this appointment, but at the same time I felt a sense of calmness because I knew the Tech was going to tell me he was on target. She looked at everything and she measured him 3 different time to make sure it was accurate and she determined he was indeed measuring perfect! He was weighing in at 5 lb. 4 oz which was perfect for week 34!

I met with my doctor the next day and she was very happy with the results and just reiterated that due to my build and being long waisted I will just look smaller that other women pregnant. She once again said my weight gain has been perfect and that I should be very proud of myself for taking care of my body and most importantly, Ethan. Just like our Birthing Instructor said the other night, "if there is ever a time to eat healthy in your whole life, it is when you are pregnant." I definitely cannot say that I have eaten perfectly this whole pregnancy (sweets do get the best of me), but I am cautious of the amount of "bad foods" I put in my mouth as it not only effects me, but Ethan as well.

So all that to say, we had our first obstacle in this pregnancy, but everything turned out great in the end!

Not only did we have a great Thanksgiving, but we also had 2 baby showers in the past couple of weeks!

First was a smaller family shower on my side of the family! My cousin Kristin, Aunt Florence and Mom all hosted the shower and they did a great job! We got a lot of great essentials! Here are some of the highlights: