Nursing Class

After our OB appointment last Thursday, Stephen & I got to experience nursing class. I would say it was interesting and informative. I will admit I was a little thrown by the fake boob she used to explain things and the anatomically correct baby dolls. I think it was great to have Stephen there so he could get a better understanding of the whole process as well. I will also admit that at times I was embarrassed,-Stephen ...of course, as cool as a cucumber.

TURN BABY TURN...

Last Thursday we had our 34 week appointment (I am a little late at posting this). Not much longer to go! After our doctor was listened to her heartbeat I asked her if she felt Baby Girl had flipped yet. She got excited and kind of got us excited b/c she was hearing her heartbeat a little lower than usual. To double check we hurried in to the ultrasound room with anticipation that she was a studious & intelligent little girl that obeyed her parents….well, she is obviously doing this her way (probably just as her mom or dad would). Right where we thought was a hard little bottom….. was still her big ole noggin!
It was good to be able to see her and to know she had gained a pound since the 32 week ultrasound.

IF SHE DOES NOT FLIP….
This then led to the discussion of our delivery plan. She has until our next appointment to flip (Jan. 2nd), if she does not flip we are headed for a c-section. At one point Dr. Deed said she would just use my old scar from all of my previous abdominal surgeries. After having 9 months to think about this… and knowing this particular incision had been opened up 5 times, I questioned why she planned on going that route. (Remembering how long it took me to recover from all of those surgeries and a newborn on top of that, not cool. Not to mention the whole short-term disability nazi’s.) Her answer was simply “so I wouldn’t have to put another scar on your belly.”
Well, well, well… My poor stomach already has enough scars at this point – seriously, what is one more in all reality? Does it bum me out? Extremely. Just like every other surgery before- if I don’t have a choice, then I don’t have a choice – if it is for the best then it is for the best. As our pastor reiterated this weekend “God’s grace is sufficient!” Look at what all it has pulled me & Stephen through. So we left it with me thinking it over if I wanted her to do the typical cesarean incision or use my old scar.

IF SHE DOES FLIP….
Dr. Deed wants to take her early, more around the 38 week mark. She felt that because she is a small baby the longer she cooks the more stress it could put on her the further along we get. Even though we won’t get the “Honey, its time…” moment I would much rather go this road.

I am getting more apprehensive but it is peaceful to know that we will soon be able to meet our little angel. Either way, she will be making her arrival either the week of January 12th or January 19th. No February baby after all.

Now that we are at 35 weeks, our fruit comparison is the size of a honeydew! HA!

(Pictures are from my company's christmas party... as you can tell, I was exhausted by the end of it... and still had to be responsible for making sure the bill was paid - sorry no real good belly shots.)

33 weeks - starting to get uncomfortable

I think I have ventured in to the physically uncomfortable portion of pregnancy. Here are a few of the issues:
- Usually by the end of the day my ribs are sore from slouching... she is teaching me a thing or to a/b my posture while at my desk.
- Shall we talk about my swollen foot? It is only my bum foot that swells really bad. I think I am going to just have to shift to tennis shoes only and work will have to get over it... and so will my wardrobe.
- No more regular size meals. If I eat like a normal human being I feel sick afterward, so it is short frequent meals all day.
- It's official, I have reached the "I feel like a cow" part of pregnancy.

Overall we are doing good and I know these are issues everyone deals with, which makes them a little more bearable.

At my 32 week doc appointment she said that ultrasound reported that she was measuring a tiny bit smaller than average. However, she is not real worried about it because I was such a small baby. She is still breach, so we are hoping she will flip in the next couple of weeks. She is moving around frequently and it is getting to where you can see my whole abdomen warp at times. Wierd but amazing.

Over the weekend I accomplished the one goal I wanted to do for the holiday season... just to get the tree up... which took help from mom and Stephen. The rest of the house won't be decorated but o-well. I just know I will not feel like packing it all up in January.

It is neat to imagine that this time next year I will have a 10 month old on my hands during the holiday season. I can't wait. It will be so much fun!

It is the time of the year for holiday parties and Stephen & I wish for everyone to have fun and be careful.

Late thanksgiving wish

I meant to post this last week... sorry.

First, we want to start off by letting everyone know we hope you and your family had a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving. We are so thankful for and blessed with the wonderful friends and family we have in our lives.

We were able to have a nice quaint thanksgiving at our house this year with the Lasseigne family… and Stephen’s cousin Michael was in town for the LSU game (which we won by the way!!! Barely.) – so it was such a treat to have him over to our house.

Stephen fried his first turkey and did an awesome job (I will add a pic soon). I attempted my mom’s famous mashed potatoes for the first time… by myself (while she was visiting Mickey & Minnie in Orlando). That was the only thing I was real nervous about turning out okay. She has no real recipe, so I only called her about 20 times and they still ended up a tad runny.

The next day he got a wild hair to make turkey gumbo from the carcass (that just sounds so icky!) like Jessie Mae & Josie Mae used to do. You can tell he does not cook on real regular basis b/c he did not realize that gumbo takes 6-8 hours to make; it was good and even I ate it!

We spent most of the weekend trying to relax as I enter week 32, the start of the eighth month. Thanksgiving wore me out. I really started to recognize my limits this past weekend. Running errands won’t be the same for the next few months.

JT (the boxer) has started to really recognize that something is about to change. We catch him walking in and out of her room often. I have to wonder why he’s doing it. If only I could speak dog….

Baby Girl is doing great. She is moving around like crazy in my belly. She usually gets the hiccups the same time everyday, around 4:00. I hope she is trying to turn b/c I am starting to feel a lot more movement on my left side. I can’t figure out if is a foot or elbow, more than likely a foot. Also around bedtime, she has been doing (what feels like) rolls. It is weird b/c it seems like I can almost anticipate them coming. I think she takes a nap from about 8am-9:30 am and then again from around 3:00-4:00. Other than that I feel her on a regular basis. There have been a few nights she has woken me up, but not many.

Could she be a February baby?

Just maybe.

We had the ultrasound today to check her size. I have been a little worried that I am not as big as I should be this far along in the game. We have not received the final results from the doctor, however, according to what we could see with our own eyes and the technician everything looks good. She is measuring a week and 2 days behind the original ultrasound. If it is anything like last time the doctor hardly blinks when they hear that. She was kicking up a storm too!

Don't ask me how they measure it, but she weighs exactly 3.6 lbs right now. It was really neat to see her. We were anxious to see if she would show us her face; all she would give us is half to a 3/4th view- we got to an eye socket, half of a nose, a cheek (chubby by the way), lip line and chin. The technician mentioned that she might have long legs. Stephen & I couldn't really figure which side that would have come from, his grandfather had long legs but not much of my family really did. Her heart looks great, you could see all four chambers, it no longer looks like a fluttering butterfly. (I was a little bummed but they didn't give us any pictures to share this time around.)

Currently she is breach. Her head is just to my right of my belly button, you can often see it poke out more and it is as hard as a rock! (If she is as stubborn as her mom and dad then we are in trouble....) Her back curls around to my left side and all of her feet and hands are on more toward my right side of my belly. She has really liked the right side of my body, she was hanging out there at the 20-week ultrasound. We need lots and lots of prayers that she will flip between now and the time she decides to make her arrival. If she does not, we all know what that means.... c-section. In which this will be Amy's 6th abdominal surgery. The doctor has already said she will use my old incision, which is vertical - instead of the normal horizontal bikini incision. With all of the scar tissue that may be going on in my abdomen, for my safety and hers we REALLY do not want a c-section.
We would appreciate lots of prayers for her to flip.

Stephen, myself, JT & Baby Girl hopes every one has a blessed and stuffed Thanksgiving. I think it is going to be unseasonably warm here... and Stephen is going to fry a turkey for the first time. I love fried turkey.

Always an adventure

It is always an adventure at the Lasseigne house. This past week we celebrated Stephen's birthday on Monday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY HONEY!)... he surprised me and brought home our glider that came arrived at the store. Here is a picture of it in the nursery. I love it!! It is so comfy, I could just rock in it allllllllllllllll day long.

On Tuesday, I had the pleasure of meeting one of my best friends new baby girl, Simone, she was born in September. She is such a beautiful baby and I can not wait to watch her grow up in to a wonderful little lady. Unfortunately they live in NOLA, but I still have high hopes that Simone and Baby Girl will become good friends. Her mom & I grew up together since high school, so it is a little interesting watching both of us step in to motherhood.

On Thursday we went to see the OB and start our bi-weekly appointments. Everything is going great. They are going to do an ultrasound this coming Tuesday to ease my anxiety a/b my belly seeming so small for 30 weeks. I will keep everyone update, of course. Afterwards we went to Babies R Us and got a few things for her nursery. Here is the progression, if you can't tell we are accenting with red.

Saturday we sat around, watched movies and put together some of Baby Girls toys (bouncy seat, jumparoo and swing). Sunday we started cleaning house and Stephen decided to re-caulk my shower doors and just kept going... to then discover that the tile was placed on top of wood (the joys of being in a home that is 40+ yrs old)... in a shower... so the wood was rotten and moldy. Here is a picture of the progress. We have been debating on making over that bathroom for a while know - but a few things have come up... i wonder what.

Baby Girl should weigh around 3.5lbs by now and be a little over 15.5 inches long. I am feeling good. I feel her move at least twice and hour. It is beginning to get progressively harder to bend over or getting up from sitting low or on the floor. It is pretty interesting feeling something "in the way" when i try to slouch over. It is a different "in the way" - almost feels like something is pushing in to your stomach as you bend forward. I am hungry all the time and Stephen often gets left out when it comes to cooking. There used to be a day that when i fixed something for myself i would fix him something. These days, i have a one track mind and that is "get me food and get me food now."

Yea!!! Showers & Furniture

The past two weekends have been great at the Lasseigne household. We had baby showers and arrival of baby furniture.
The showers were wonderful and I can not thank my hostesses enough!!! All of you did such a wonderful job (Erin, Keri, Kathryn, Emily, Lana, Kelly & Gina) and Stephen & I are so thankful to have you in our lives. Also, thank you so much to all of you that were able to come! It means so much to me and I really appreicate it! My mom took all of the pictures, so when she hands those over I will post them. We got a lot of great gifts and can not wait to share them with our baby girl.

I promised I would post pictures of the wall and then Stephen got the furniture in before I had a chance to snap a picture. This morning I took a few around the furniture, hopefully you can vaguely see the leaves. The idea was for them to be an accent at different light angles. So here is the wall.




















Here are a few pictures of the baby furniture.






I found out this past week that the main fabric I have based the whole nursery around is back ordered for another 6-8 weeks. I am REALLY hoping it is just 6 weeks, I only have 11 weeks to go until I am full term. I have become okay with the fact that I probably will not have her bedding by the time she gets here, it is still nerve racking. She will be in the bassinet for the first few weeks, so it is not real crucial. I think the part that makes me so anxious about it is the nesting that I am going through. For some people it is not a big deal, to me, I am bringing home my angel to an incomplete project/room. God has taught me a lot about patience over the years, so I think now we are on to “Learning How to Roll With The Punches, Lesson 1.”

I can officially no longer watch Extreme Makeover: Home Edition until after she is born. I just sit there and cry at every little thing and if anyone on the show cries, I’m done. I have my opinions on the election results but will keep most of them to myself. The history making aspect was neat; the moral aspect is what bothers me. I caught myself in the shower the next morning worrying about what type of country she is going to be raised in – which led me to start praying earnestly that we will raise her with a great Christian foundation and leadership. It is not just my angel I worry about it- it’s our parents and their financial/retirement plans that have had to be altered because of the economy, or the people that now have to put their dreams on hold.

So not to be “Debbie Downer” I will leave you with a 29-week baby update. She should now be around 2 ½ pounds and about15” long. The fruit/vegetable they compare her to this week is a butternut squash. (Those really crack me up for some reason) I have really been able to feel her hiccup lately and sometimes you can feel it from the outside as well. She still likes to kick or punch me in the bladder a lot, which her daddy finds amusing. My glucose test came back fine, however, I am anemic. I’ve been trying to take my iron but it is tough on my system so I am going to explore other means of getting iron as well. I may have to live off of spinach dip, since that is the only way I will eat something green unless it is peas.