Tag Archives: pregnancy

Theme for the weekend?

Walking!

Lots of walking!

Now that the due date at 40 weeks has come and gone…it was now time to give Trent a little “push” so to speak. Up until now, I have been just going about my normal routine, just being ok with whenever he wants to come. Even when people would ask if I was reedy for him to come, I would say “Whenever he’s ready!”

Ok, well now I’m ready!

It’s Sunday night and we have our appointment tomorrow morning. We basically spent the entire weekend waiting for something to happen and trying to make it happen! Some of the things I tried: I went for 3 walks around the neighborhood, went swimming, walked up and down the stairs a few times and even started taking Evening Primrose Oil capsules today.

Nothing yet…stubborn little boy.

On Friday night, after we got home from dinner, I had the worst case of swollen feet of the entire pregnancy!

Even Orion was like “WTF?!”

It was gone by the next morning, but it made me so very glad I haven’t had much swelling because it hurt quite a bit!

It was nice to spend most of the weekend outside, the weather was absolutely beautiful and it wasn’t too hot.

Look at these huge elephant ears in our yard!

I guess that’s what happens when you live in Florida and didn’t have much of a winter.

Well, both Brett’s birthday and Father’s day have passed without Trent’s arrival. Brett really wanted it to happen on one of those days, but I guess Trent had other plans. I guess we’ll just continue waiting…

 

We did it! We made it to the due date! 40 weeks baby!

I am kind of sad that the photo above is my last weekly update from my Sprout Lite app. I have immensely enjoyed looking at my weekly updates and tips, and it’s truly amazing to watch the progression from this…

{Week 6…which is when we got our positive pregnancy test (on our 5 year anniversary!)…}

to the week 40 photo above. Fascinating.

It’s quite amusing to be sitting at work and have every single person that walks by my office peek their head in to see if I am here. They’ve actually been doing that ever day this week. It will be even more interesting if I show up to work on Monday! I had planned my maternity leave assuming he’d be born on his due date (knowing full well the chances of that were slim, but I needed to assume something), working up to today and then starting my leave on Monday for 6 weeks. But if he doesn’t make his arrival by then, I really don’t see any point in not coming to work. I feel fine and I don’t have any last minute items on the agenda, so I might as well make some moolah! I’d rather save my oh-so-short time off for when he is here and I can spend my time with him, instead of alone at the house waiting for him.

I realized I never updated on my most recent appointment, which was on Monday. We were pretty much expecting my blood pressure to be high again after our last appointment, so we kept everything packed in the car and even drove together in one car, just in case we got sent to the hospital. To both of our surprise, my blood pressure was 122/80. How the heck did THAT happen? Oh well, we’ll take it!

At that point, I was 39 weeks and 3 days, so we decided we wouldn’t talk about dates or doing anything other than waiting until the next appointment, which is next Monday. My doctor did mention he was on call that Friday, the 22nd, so if we did need to schedule something, perhaps we would schedule it for then. It’s kind of weird for it to be both unknown (him coming any day now) and known (if he doesn’t come by the 22nd, that’s when things will happen) at the same time.

Brett’s birthday is tomorrow, so there will be 23 of us celebrating tonight at Cody’s Roadhouse. I hope Trent waits until after dinner if he decides today is the day. The weather looks absolutely beautiful this weekend, so perhaps I can fit in some walking followed by some lounging in the pool with a good book.

Other than that, there are no plans for this weekend. We haven’t made plans for any of the past few weekends, just winging it because we never knew if anything would happen…and it’s been nice. Some cleaning, yard work, blogging, reading and relaxing. As much as I look forward to all kinds of activities on the weekends with the family, I know I will also enjoy the do-nothing, hang out and play days just as much. Not every moment needs to be filled with something to do in order for every moment to be full.

Oh and a special shout out to my favorite shopping place, Target. As creepy as it is if you really think about it, it seems their ninja computers have tracked my recent purchases and saw that my purchase of baby items has increased over the past few months and sent me a book full of baby coupons!

Even better is that they tracked a coworkers purchase of baby items for friends’ baby showers and sent her one too. When she saw it in the mail, she thought “Does Target know something about me that I don’t?” Since she didn’t need it, she gave it to me! Thank you Target coupon fairy!

 

Congratulations! You’re having a baby! Just as quick as all the happiness and warm fuzzies came on, they can just as quickly be replaced by feelings of worry and nervousness. With all the staggering statistics on how much babies cost, no wonder new parents tend to freak out. Especially if you are a Type A, somewhat OCD, overthinking CPA like me. But fret not, you don’t have to buy everything yourself…that’s what baby showers are for! It’s time to be rewarded for all those awkward family gatherings and Thanksgiving dinner table arguments!

Here are some tips on how to make the most out of your registry.

Consider who will be throwing your shower(s) and how comfortable you are with them
If your job will be throwing you a shower and you tend to be shy about certain things, I don’t recommend putting a Breastpump Bra on your registry unless you are completely comfortable with those people picturing you wearing one. And yes, they will think about it and they won’t be able to help it. You could either make a separate, smaller registry for them or modify your existing registry depending on which shower comes first. My job asked me what I had left that we needed after I had my friends & family shower, so I chose the 5-6 things that were left of varying price range and sent them the list in an email with links to Target and Amazon. At that point, I knew no one else was going to be purchasing anything off of the registry, so I didn’t have to worry about gift duplication if my job didn’t mark it off of the registry.

Consider when your shower(s) will take place
If you aren’t going to be having your shower until very late in your pregnancy, say 36 weeks or later, I don’t recommend putting any absolute necessities on it, like the car seat. If you go into labor early with the car seat still sitting on the registry, Dad will have to make a trip to the store while you are in the hospital to get a car seat so you can bring the baby home. Although, this may not be such a bad thing if he brings you non-hospital food when he gets back. Many items can be picked up after the hospital stay or as needed, but you will not be allowed to leave the hospital without a properly installed car seat.

Not finding out the sex? Help your guests out a little
If you’re not finding out the sex of your baby and if you prefer items to be in particular colors, make sure you register for that color. Green and yellow are the main gender-neutral colors, but little girls can wear blue too, and both girls and boys can wear gray, brown, black, white, red and so on. So if you like a particular piece of clothing, go ahead and register for it if it’s in one of those colors. Most registries have spaces for comments too, so you can say something like “Would like in gray, white or red” if there are multiple colors.

Don’t freak out if your registry looks like it hasn’t been touched
It’s the morning of your shower and your impatience gets the best of you, so you take a peek at your online registry and notice only 1 item has been purchased and it’s “insert $1.99 basket filler item here”. Don’t freak out! It doesn’t mean no one has purchased anything. Some people forget to have the registry paper scanned in the store. Some people buy something very similar, but not exactly the same thing as you had registered for so they don’t know whether to claim it. Some people may even purchase items not on the registry, like diapers or some oh-so-cute bunny slippers, or they buy a bunch of clothes. Either way, enjoy your shower without spending the entire time wondering what the heck everyone bought.

Check your registry every so often leading up to the shower
This one may seem to go against the last point, and it definitely goes against gift registry etiquette I’m sure, but it’s for a very important reason. Whenever someone has a registry and tells me about it, I head to the store or website and look at what I want to get them and EVERY SINGLE TIME they have several items out of stock or without a photo and I’m left trying to navigate the store to find the one item that is available, in stock and I can figure out what it is. I’d like to argue that it has nothing to do with me shopping last minute, but let’s be honest…most people shop right before they go to the event. Heck, they probably go on their way to your shower and buy a gift bag while they are in the store and scribble in the card while driving. I recommend giving your registry a glance every once in a while just to make sure that you:

• Remove any out of stock or discontinued items and replace them with something similar, if necessary
• Check to make sure the price hasn’t shot up on any items (particularly on Amazon, where price can fluctuate drastically from day to day)

My experience with this has mostly to do with Amazon. We had a couple of items on there that went out of stock and one that the price jumped over $20 from when we put it on there! Even though I wasn’t the one buying the items, I wanted to make sure that my guests got the best price for what they were buying. Of course, they could always end up buying from somewhere else, which I have control over, but if I could help them in the price and selection department that only meant that they’d have more money to spend on an additional item if they wanted!

Consider having more than one registry
It’s always nice to give people more options. I don’t know about you, but I liked stuff from all over the interwebs and at different stores, so we had a registry at Target and Amazon. Just make sure not to duplicate items on either registry. An item should only be on one registry. It also helps to put a good mix of items on each registry with varying price ranges, so people will have options no matter which place they pick.

Allow different purchasing methods
Some people like shopping online and some prefer to go to the actual brick-and-mortar store. Again, it’s all about options and helping your friends and family. After all, they are buying you stuff!

Consider having an Amazon registry
Whether you decide to just have the Amazon Baby Registry or have it in addition to another one, I recommend it either way. For one, almost any item ever available anywhere is on Amazon to add to your registry. You can even add items from other non-Amazon web sites, from small places like Etsy to large retailers like Target or Babies R Us. That was probably my favorite part, as I was able to add items from the Disney store without having to have a “Disney registry” (if they even have that). The only downside to adding things from other sites is that Amazon does not keep up with whether that store still has the item or if the price changes. Just another reason to periodically check your registry.

Take advantage of perks and discounts
This tip is my favorite! Many places offer some sort of perk or discount for having a registry with them. For instance:

• Target will give you a baby kit when you register in store and they sometimes offer gift cards when you open a registry (these are usually sent in the mail with a baby catalog)
• Target will also send you a 10% off card to be used on any items still remaining on your registry after your shower - it can be used once in store and once online -> Double bonus! Combine with your Target Red Card to get an additional 5% off and free shipping
• Amazon gives a 10% discount after your shower beginning 30 days prior to your due date to be used one time only on items still on your registry
• Sign up for a free 3 month trial of Amazon Mom to get free shipping if you aren’t already a Prime member - just remember to cancel prior to the end of the free trial
• Babies R Us offers Registry Rewards, a program offering discounts and rewards dollars toward purchases

I wasn’t aware of these discounts, but was so glad we waited to purchase anything after our shower. I added anything else I knew we’d want to buy to the registry, then used all three discounts listed about to get 10-15% off of every item and free shipping. This helped out tremendously, as we still needed many big ticket items.

Register for now…and later
Don’t limit yourself to just the newborn essentials. Items like a high chair or Jumperoo won’t be able to be used for a few months, but that doesn’t mean you can’t register for them in order to prepare for the future.

Have fun!
Have fun registering for items and try not to stress about not registering for enough items/registering for too much. This is an exciting time for both parents. How often do you get to use a scanner gun to make a list of things for people to buy you? And most of these items were never even on your radar before now. Baby stuff is fun! You can’t control what people end up buying for you, so don’t overthink about how you wished Aunt Edna would have bought the crib instead of the swing because you need one more than other and they were the same price. Enjoy the swing dammit!

 

Some non-registry money saving baby preparation tips just for the heck of it

• You have about 8-9 months to prepare for your little one’s arrival. Why not scatter purchases along the way so you are not hit with large money outlays all at once? Whenever Costco had coupons for diapers or wipes, we would purchase a couple of boxes. We now have at least 144 newborn diapers, 240 size 1 diapers, 456 size 2 diapers (plus the ones that made up our diaper cake at our baby shower) and 1840 wipes (sooo…a week’s worth?? LOL). Now we can continue to just buy diapers when they are on sale, as opposed to running out in the middle of the night to the 24-hour drugstore to get overpriced diapers.

• Also, if we saw an item that we needed for super cheap on clearance, we would buy it. We needed plenty of baby items, so we knew buying a few random things wouldn’t affect the choices on the registry. For instance, one of the first baby items we purchased EVER was a Pack n Play for about $40 (about $75 on Amazon) and we also got a BabyBjorn carrier for $50 (50% clearance at Target). We thought these were good enough deals that we would rather purchase at that time than risk not getting them at the shower and then paying full price down the road.

• Shop online daily deal sites such as Zulily, keekoo, Groupon and Living Social. Zulily is my absolute FAVE! They have new deals starting at 9am est that last a few days on anything mostly baby related, but also on maternity, women’s, home and cooking items. We were so excited to see our stroller pop up one day for over $50 off. I also had a coupon for an additional $5 off and since I shopped through Ebates, I got an additional 3.5% cash back. We also got our video baby monitor from Groupon. Just make sure you read the fine print on purchases, so you are not stuck with anything if plans change.

• Use holidays to your advantage. I was pregnant during Christmas and my birthday. At both events I received maternity clothes and a few baby items, like picture frames. I was so very grateful for the maternity clothes since they aren’t cheap! I also got gift cards, which I used for maternity items (and maybe one or two super cute baby outfits! I couldn’t help myself!).

• Purchase clearance items before you know you need them too. I didn’t have to wear maternity clothes until about month 5, at which time I already had a few items from a prior maternity clearance at Target. Thinking ahead can save you money.

• Like baby brands on Facebook and enter giveaways and contests. I’ve gotten so many coupons, some for free items, just by liking brands on Facebook. I’ve also entered giveaways from various places, like Pregnancy & Newborn Magazine, BabyGizmo and Working Mother. The chances are slim, but someone’s gotta win, right? Brett won a Britax Stroller Organizer worth $30 and I’ve won a free pack of Gerber onesies. Companies also love to send out free samples. Following coupon blogs is helpful to find out when companies are giving away stuff. I read Hip2Save, Swaggrabber and Totally Target to get the scoop on free stuff. I have a basket full of sample diapers, formula (full-size containers too! just in case we need to supplement), wipes and other various items. It’s a good way to try out different brands and products to see what you like.

 

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We’re in the home stretch baby!

It’s so weird finally being able to answer “Next week” when the cashier at Target asks me when I’m due (they ask me every time! Well, the girls do at least…the guys avoid it at all costs.)

On Monday, we had a little excitement over at Team Svenson. I had my weekly doctor’s appointment at 4pm. My doctor wasn’t available, so I saw a different doctor from the practice that I have seen before. As nice as he is, he is definitely not my style and something always seems to go bad when I see him. The last time I saw him, he forgot to give me my Rhogam shot and talked through the baby’s heartbeat. He is also a bit more rushed/hyper than my normal carefree/relaxed doctor.

Anyway, the nurse took my blood pressure when checking me in…147/95 or something like that. Both Brett and I said “Oh” and looked at each other. We have finally learned what the blood pressure ranges are and what mine usually is. Throughout the pregnancy, mine has been towards the high average range…130-140/80-90. My doctor comments on it every time, but says that he doesn’t feel the need to do anything extraordinary since it has been in that range the entire time. Well, 147/95 is a little higher than usual, so they put me in the room and had a nurse come back to check it a few minutes later…136/88. Definitely a little better, but when the doctor came in, he still didn’t like it. He informed us that he would like to wait about 10 minutes, have it rechecked and if it was still high that he would send me over to the hospital to be monitored.

Well, if my blood pressure wasn’t high before, telling me that I may have to go to the hospital or be put on bedrest sure will do the trick!

The nurse came back in and rechecked me…145/90 something (I couldn’t see). Off to the hospital we went! Good thing my doctor’s office is attached to the hospital and we just had to repark in another garage.

At this point, we couldn’t decide how we felt about what was going on. We were excited that maybe we would get to meet our little boy soon, but nervous that I was only 38.5 weeks. I didn’t want to force him out if he wasn’t ready.

We sat in the waiting room for about an hour, during which time another girl came sloooowly walking in, crying her eyes out and bending over from pain while filling out her paper work (fill out your paperwork plenty of time before the due date!!). Way to scare the bejeezus out of me!

Other than that, we were both pretty calm. Well, I know I was…I didn’t even ask Brett! I know he was worried about the dog peeing all over the house if we didn’t get back soon to let him out, so we had our neighbor friends do it. Thanks Matt & Karey!

When we were finally brought back to triage, I got the hook up…literally!

{All non-edited hospital photos must be pardoned due to double chin and bare belly. Thanks.}

They put the blood pressure cuff on to automatically read every 15 minutes, along with a contraction monitor and a baby’s heartbeat monitor.

They also took blood work. The nurses were so nice, which is very nice to know. After about 30 minutes, maybe even less, they took off the contraction monitor and the heart beat monitor, because they said the baby was doing so well that they didn’t need to keep the monitors on me. She even called Trent an overachiever! That’s my boy!

Apparently, I was having contractions according to the monitor, but I didn’t feel them. Wouldn’t it be nice if THAT continued?

After turning over to my side, my blood pressure immediately went back down to normal and I was free to go home with no orders of bedrest.

I was relieved to go home, but frustrated at the waste of a night. Oh well, let’s call it a practice run and the Newk’s dinner on the way home as a bonus.

Luckily, we were prepared if anything had happened. We had our hospital bags and the all-important camera bag with us already. Since then, we haven’t removed the hospital bags from the trunk and Brett brings his camera bag to work with him every day. We want to be READY!

Next appointment is on Monday…I’ll let you know how it goes!

Now that I am nearing the end of this pregnancy, I thought it would be nice to look back at the items that I felt were must-haves during these past 9 months. Some may not be necessities, but sometimes it’s the luxuries that make us happy too.

In no particular order…

1. Preggie Pop Drops

Luckily, I never actually threw up from feeling nauseous (there was one incident from choking on a pill, but that was my fault), but during the first couple of months, I just had an overall queasy, yucky feeling. The only type of food that I was able to tell made me sick were frozen microwave meals. Other than that, there was no smell, food, action that I could cut out or avoid to improve it…so I just dealt with it. Brett made a trip to Earth Fare and after talking with an employee that knew from experience, he came home with these Preggie Pop Drops, which are little candies in different flavors that include certain ingredients to make you feel better.

He also brought pieces of ginger home, which I could only tolerate for about a week or two before becoming completely disgusted with them. My sister-in-law also gave me mints, which she said helped her, but I can only take so many mints. These were no Jolly Ranchers or pieces of chocolate, but helped when I needed them.

 

2. Saltines:

How’s this for a pretty picture? I would wake up in the morning knowing that it usually took about 15 or so minutes to start feeling terrible, which is about the amount of time I am in the shower. So instead of waiting until I got out of the shower, or wasting time before the shower, I kept a sleeve of Saltines in the bathroom next to the shower and I would consume 3-4 Saltines in the shower! It’s all about efficiency people! Haha, but by doing this, I prevented that nasty feeling after I got out of the shower and I was able to continue getting ready for work and not be late.

 

3. Burt’s Bees Mama Bee Belly Butter

I’ve read the debates that say lotion doesn’t prevent stretch marks and the other stories of people swearing by a particular lotion to keep the stretch marks away. This item was in my pregnancy basket from my mother-in-law and sister-in-law and I am just now getting to the bottom of the container 38 weeks later.

I didn’t use it every day, sometimes I would forget or I would use a different lotion, but for the most part I used this one. It practically has no smell to it, which is great for anyone that can’t handle smelly stuff. It has a rich creamy texture and a little goes a long way. Although I think not blowing up like a whale helped in the don’t get stretch marks quest, one will never know if the lotion helped too…at least I have a smooth belly!

 

4. Burt’s Bees Mama Bee Leg & Foot Creme

Another item from my pregnancy basket. The purpose of this lotion is to help increase circulation and reduce swelling to your feet, ankles and legs with the use of tingly peppermint. For the longest time, I didn’t think I was going to use this product since I didn’t have any swelling. But around 34 weeks, I started having random days of swelling and then it got pretty bad the day before our Disney World Maternity Photo trip.

I did not want cankles while having hundreds of photos taken of me, so I slathered this stuff on like crazy, which pretty much made the cat not want to come within 10 feet of me, but it was a small price to pay because it worked! The swelling went down after putting the lotion on about 4-5 times over a 2 day period, eating watermelon and drinking lots and lots of water. Speaking of which…

 

5. Water

Lemon water to be exact. I will be the first to admit I LOVE coffee, soda and sweet tea and I don’t always reach for the water. But for some reason, I craved lemon water and I am so thankful for that because I think it helped tremendously in the swelling department. As of this writing, I am 38.5 weeks pregnant and I am still wearing my wedding rings…on my ring finger! I can still put on heels, even though I don’t (hey, I get a free pass to wear flip-flops to work and I’m taking it! Granted, they are shiny, dressy flip-flops and I don’t recommend doing it any other time for those career minded ladies out there!). I bought jumbo containers of lemon juice at Costco and I was all set! Say no to dehydration!

 

6. Body Pillow

I really wanted a Snoogle body pillow, but I just couldn’t justify the hefty price tag. Instead, I found a nice body pillow from Target for $10! After adding a soft $5 pillowcase, I have used it every night since. It helps my comfort level when I can both put it between my knees and rest my upper arm on it at the same time. I am contemplating using it after the pregnancy, but Brett may not be too fond of that idea!

 

7. Pregnancy and Child Books

I plan to do more of a review on the individual books I’ve read regarding pregnancy and children at a later date, but for the purpose of this list, these were a favorite item for me for a few reasons. One reason was because I wanted to learn as much as possible about what was and will be going on with the pregnancy. Another reason was that being a first time mom, I was excited to finally read these types of books. Getting to read a new chapter about a new month’s progress was something I looked forward to. Towards the end of the pregnancy, I transitioned to reading books about children to learn about baby’s first year, breastfeeding, learning, playing and each new milestone to look forward to.

 

8. Pregnancy Apps

Similar to the books, the apps I downloaded helped me learn and also caused excitement with each new milestone. I looked forward to my weekly updates and would often read ahead. The two apps I stuck with are Sprout Lite and Babycenter.

 

9. My husband

Ok this may be cheating, but he really is a favorite pregnancy item! He may even be my utmost favorite He cooked every meal, brought me a thousand cups of water/milk/juice so I wouldn’t have to get off of the couch, dealt with my snoring (even though I am the one that wears earplugs at night, I wonder why…), carried the vacuum up and down the stairs, accompanied me to every doctor’s appointment so I would have company while waiting (and because he was just as excited as I was to hear the baby’s heartbeat each time), cautioned me not to do too much and supported and believed in me when I had to tackle some tough work situations. He also made me look beautiful in all my maternity progress photos and will continue capturing our lives so we will always remember these special times. I am so glad he will be able to stay home with Trent after I go back to work, which puts my heart and mind at ease.