Cankles…

This may be weird, but one of the things I have been the most scared of during pregnancy is developing the cankle (you know – when your calf and your ankle are basically the same size and you look like you have a tree going down into your shoes). Travis has been most scared of stretch marks, but for me it was the cankles. I actually like my ankles – they’ve been one of my best features. I may have at times wished for a smaller rear, shapelier legs, or a tinier waist, but I’ve never had a negative thought about my ankles.

For the past couple weeks, I’ve felt like my ankles and feet were swelling by the time I’d get home at night, but then they were back to normal by the next morning when I woke up…until today. Today, I woke up with a mild case of the cankles. It’s not that bad yet, but I’m afraid it’s the beginning of the end for my ankles until after the baby is born.

Along similar lines, and to leave you with a funny Travis story (it wouldn’t be a post without a story where he puts his foot in his mouth), while we were evaluating my cankles this morning I told Travis that I can tell my joints are loosening and I think my feet are expanding too. I had to explain to Travis about how all your joints loosened as you prepare for childbirth (he thinks I’m smart, but I just read it in “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” the other day), and I told him that quite a few women wind up wearing a bigger size shoe permanently even after childbirth. This prompted him to walk in to the closet at 7:00 this morning and begin counting my shoes. Then he turned around and said, where are the winter shoes and how many do you have of them? He said that he didn’t care about other pregnant women, but we were going to find a way to fit my feet back in to all those shoes even if we had to cut off a toe to do it. Please keep my feet and my husband in your prayers the next 8 weeks.

In other news, I realize I haven’t put up a 31 week pictures, as I blaze toward 32 weeks, but I can’t seem to find the camera. We may have “cleaned” it up in the house when we were getting it ready for a showing I’m afraid. That, or in the back of my head for some reason I vaguely recall putting it away somewhere I thought I would easily remember when I needed it. Turns out pregnancy is a little bit like alzheimer’s or dementia, and I may need to start writing things down. Hopefully it will turn up tonight so that I can document the baby shower Mollie & Adrienne are throwing for me tomorrow. Pics definitely to come after that even if I have to borrow them from someone else’s camera.

Instant Gratification

Travis and I both hate surprises. It’s not the we really hate surprises, it’s just that neither of us can keep a secret. Last week, I found a new pair of Travis’s favorite loafers at the store on my lunch hour. I bought them, then proceeded to call him and tell him I’d bought him a surprise knowing that he would pester me about what it was until I told him (which was what I wanted to do all along).

The same is appearing to be true for baby gear, as a couple weeks ago when the car seat we ordered came in, Travis had it put together and sitting in the living room before the Fed Ex man was out of the driveway.

Last night, we came home to a big package on our front porch, and discovered it was what we affectionately call “Baby Jail” – the pack-n-play. My sweet Aunt Linda, Kathryn, and Mary Frances had sent me this gift even though they won’t be able to make my baby shower that’s coming up. My first thought was that I should take it to the shower and wait to open it until then. That lasted through dinner when Travis kept looking at it from the dining table. He asked if I thought maybe we could just go ahead and open it (under the guise of making sure all the parts were there and it was functioning – we didn’t want to have to take it back later to get a new one if something had been damaged in transit). Since he was so excited, and I was secretly wanting to bust into it anyways, we spent the evening assembling the pack-n-play. It’s a good thing we didn’t wait until the baby was here to open it up because it took both of us a good hour to get it up and ready. That is probably a function of Travis hates reading instructions (but he’s perfectly content to let me tell him what to do once i read them – which I think is odd) and the baby is sucking my brain cells and I’d have to read each instruction 2 or 3 times before it made sense. Pictures of the finished product are below.

While we were putting things together, we figured we might as well bring down my old changing table to see what shape it was in. Unlike the pack-n-play, we had some choice words towards the changing table, but we both finally managed to get it together. It needs a serious new coat of paint, and I’ve got to figure out what to do about the brown shelves that came with it. I don’t think painting them white will look that good. Travis piped up and suggested we get a skirt and use that to cover them up. That gave me the idea that maybe I could find some cute fabric and essentially “upholster” the shelves. When I voiced this idea, Travis said that was what he had just said. I told him he had said to put a skirt on the changing table so we wouldn’t see it – but he said what he meant was take one of my old skirts and cut it up and upholster the shelves just like I said. All my skirts are safe for now, but I am on the lookout for some cute fabric that matches the baby bedding now.

30 weeks picture

The thirty weeks pictures are below (note that I’m standing in our newly sodded yard).

30 week check up

I had my 30-week check up yesterday, and everything looked good. The belly is measuring right at 30 weeks, and the heartbeat was strong. I apparently had a growth spurt in the 3 weeks since my last appointment because all of a sudden my total weight gain for the pregnancy is about 20 pounds. I just about fell off the scale, but the doctor said it was fine since it took me quite some time to start gaining anything at all. I also have to up my intake of red meat since my iron levels have started dropping again – bring on the steak!

The doctor tried to see if he could tell which way the baby is laying, but he had a hard time because he said my abs were so strong and hard to feel through. Did ya’ll hear that??? Before this pregnancy I had abs – that Bikini Boot Camp was working! I need to go ahead and pre-register for after the baby gets here. (Travis laughed at this by the way when I got home and told him about my abs of steel, but I don’t care – the doctor has obviously learned in his vast experience, which Travis lacks, that flattery will get you everywhere with a pregnant woman and I will be recommending Dr. Cook to anyone and everyone). However, Dr. Cook did say that he thinks the baby is head down due to where he found the heartbeat in my belly.

I also asked about travel, and the doctor was fine with me going as far as Athens he said up until the day I deliver since I could get home quickly from there. I think Dr. Cook thinks I’m still trying to get to the football games, but I was really asking because I need to make a trip or two for work in the next couple months. Travis has already put his foot down about the football games, and doesn’t seem to be willing to budge on that point.

Finally – new tentative closing date on the house is August 14th!!!

I took a 30-week picture last night, but it was without make-up and my hair in a ponytail. Needless to say, the world-wide-web won’t be seeing that one, but I’ll try to take a better one tonight.

Finally – a discount

So any of you who have built a house probably already know this, and I knew it in theory from watching my parents build two, but the general rule is that you always have to spend more than is included in the contract price on a house you’re building. Maybe some people don’t, but those of us in my extended and immediate family do because we apparently have taste that is slightly more expensive that what the builder has allowed for in his cost. Anyways…so everything we’ve gone and personally picked out (appliances, lighting, landscaping, closet shelving, mirrors, etc) has come out more that the builder “allowed” for us in the cost of the house and we’ve had to write some checks. Granted we weren’t over by ridiculous amounts, but we certainly never picked things out and had them call and tell us, “Guess what?! You’re under budget – would you like to pick something nicer or get a credit??” Until today……..

Travis called to tell me the appliance vendor called, and the double-oven we chose is backordered and won’t be here in time. Instead, we are getting about a $1000 upgrade (to the top of the line KitchenAid double oven) for free because of the ordering error!!!! It’s our lucky day – we may even buy a lottery ticket tonight!

Mid-July Update

I know my posts have been few and far between this month, but I feel like we’ve been on the go a lot this month already. We started the month celebrating my birthday and the 4th of July in St. Simons with mom. We had a good time eating seafood and being pampered. We even managed to squeeze in about 5 hours on the beach courtesy of a beach umbrella and a food vendor located right on the beach.

Mollie was asking me the other week what I got for my birthday, and I didn’t have a good answer like some fabulous piece of jewelry or a big shopping spree of clothes. This year I got a carseat, a diaper bag, and a new maternity dress for work….does that make me old and boring? Speaking of old and boring, Travis said the other night at 11:00 (long after I’d gone to bed at my new normal of 8:30), he had fallen sound asleep on the couch (he thinks he may have dozed off around 9:30) when his phone rang. It was one of his single friends, asking what he was up to and if he wanted to come over and hang out. Travis said he tried to sound all awake and cool and say he “was just hanging out at home”, but I don’t think he was very successful. I told Travis he’s definitely maturing, because just a few months ago Travis would have jumped at the opportunity to go hang out with someone. While I enjoy my down-time by myself, Travis has always been the social butterfly…the baby is already changing us and he’s not even here yet.

This past weekend, we drove to Columbia, SC to pick up the rest of our nursery furniture that came in. It feels good to have everything here and ready. Just a few little things left now I think – painting the changing table (it was mine when I was a baby), and getting any little accessories/artwork for the nursery. Now, if we can just get it in the house instead of sitting in Travis’ parents’ guest bedroom. On that note, the house is moving along ahead of schedule and they think we might be in it the 2nd or 3rd week of August. Some current developments there are that everything is painted, all the countertops are in, are fireplace has been completed, we have all the driveways done, and the lighting comes the first part of next week. After that, I think it’s a lot of outside stuff plus staining the hardwoods and laying the carpet inside and a lot of CLEANING. I’m not convinced they’ll ever get the tubs clean after the construction process, but Travis assures me they do it all the time.

We celebrated our two year anniversary last night with dinner at my favorite Japanese restaurant, and then just hung out at home. We both seem to be more exhausted and low-key lately. However, we did enjoy the night out and want to commit to still trying to do something by ourselves away from home and the baby maybe twice a month after he’s born. Anyone up for babysitting a newborn a couple hours twice a month?

As for me, I’m getting bigger by the minute it seems and I’m requiring more assistance from Travis, particularly when I get stuck sunk down in the sofa. My belly is sore a lot of the time these days, but no stretch marks yet (Travis reminds me constantly to lotion the belly – you can see where his priorities are). The baby is much more active lately and he’s added new tricks to his repertoire – in addtion to the usual kicks in a varying degree of severity he’s added squirming around which feels so weird and almost makes me squirm with him trying to help him get settled into his new position. Neither Travis nor I have been able to figure out which way he might be laying at any point in time because the movements/kicks/pushes come all over and I can’t figure out which end might be up (or sideways). Sleeping is currently my least and most favorite thing if that makes sense – I toss and turn all night so that’s not so fun, but I’m so tired that I’ve been going to bed early and not getting up until it’s absolutely necessary to not be late for work.

This was more than any of you probably wanted to hear (aside from probably my mother and grandparents), but I’ll try to keep the pictures and posts flowing more in the future.

29 Weeks

Is it hot or what?

For all of you who have asked me if I’ve been hot this summer, and I responded with “no more than any other Augusta summer”, I TAKE IT BACK!!! The past week I’ve been burning up – can’t sleep, can’t breathe outside, can’t even hardly stand to be hugged or touched because of the body heat. Travis is about to freak out with my constant requests to turn thermostat cooler – he swears we’ll have a $300 power bill this month. All I can say is it’s a good thing I work inside for a living instead of out in the heat.

In other news, I took my glucose test yesterday morning, and it was bad, but not as bad as I thought. Everyone was right, it did taste like a version of Sunkist, but it was Sunkist with a really bad aftertaste that burned. However, I did pass, and won’t be going back for any more of the stuff. The baby had a good heartbeat, and I was measuring between 27 and 28 cm which is right on track or just a tiny bit big. I had gained 2 lbs in the past 3 weeks, which was pretty good I thought. The way Travis & I think my belly is expanding I wouldn’t have been surprised if it was 5 or 6. Even people that see me on a weekly basis (like our bible study group) say they are starting to tell a difference in me from week to week. I think it really depends a lot on what I wear. While at the doctor’s office, Travis made sure to ask him about my difficulty breathing because he’s a worrier and we didn’t know if it may have something to do with my childhood/teenage asthma coming back. The doctor was very unconcerned and just told us there’s a baby in there taking up room and pushing up my lungs. He said just to relax as much as possible and reduce my stress (he must have forgotten that we told him we’re also in the process of building a house).

In house news, it’s looking more like a house every day. We went out there last night and we now having cabinets in the kitchen, bathrooms, & laundry room. We also have hardwood floors all downstairs. I’ve posted a couple pics below, plus one of the view to the backyard per a request from my co-worker, Wes.

We’re off to St. Simons tomorrow night for some sun and seafood.

Kitchen