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Dear Zoey,

Tomorrow you will turn 34 Gestational Weeks old! I can’t believe we are in the home stretch now. It seems so unreal to me sometimes. I can’t wait to see what you look like and smell your sweet smell. You sure do move around in mama’s belly a lot and you really like when I eat.

We had two NSTs at the hospital again this week and they both went beautifully. So far all is great with you. We went to see the Perinatalogist on Monday to have our 33 week ultrasound and it went GREAT! They measured you at about 4lb 9oz and right on track for 33 weeks. The doctor even let us look at the blood traveling through the umbilical cord and all looked great there. They looked at your bladder, kidneys, liver, stomach, heart, etc. It is amazing to think that you are a little person in there! He said you had a lot of hair on your head and we were able to see you open/close your mouth a couple of times on the ultrasound. The only problem right now is that you are laying sideways and we really need you to get into the head down position! Mama wants to have you as naturally and safely as possibly. So sweet precious little girl, please for the love of all that is holy, TURN! Go towards the light!! :D

Daddy and I got all of your clothes, blankets, towels, hats, wash cloths, mittens, etc. washed up and put away this weekend. Right now I am washing the cloth diapers. They are only on their 2nd cycle and I need to wash them about 4-6 times to prepare them. We want to do what is best for you, the environment and our pocket book so we are going to cloth diaper you, hopefully, until potty training. Right now Daddy is setting up the speakers and mp3 player in your nursery so that we can listen to lullabyes and other music. I’m sure you already know all about your Daddy’s love of music by now :)

Mommy has been really sick with sinus stuff. Tuesday I came down with a bad sore throat and ever since I have been congested, feverish and just not feeling well at all. Luckily you are safe in there and don’t have to be exposed to all of these germs yet. I’m really ready to get better so I don’t have to feel tired on top of being sick every day.

This pregnancy is going great so far! I really can’t complain at all. By the end of the day my ankles truly ARE cankles! Sometimes I can’t even believe that they are able to swell to the proportions that they are swelling to. Amazing! But when I wake up in the morning, I have the skinniest, sexiest ankles out there. One other MAJOR discomfort that is starting to show up is lower pelvic pain. When I get up in the morning or stand up after sitting too long, the pain is sometimes really awful. All of the weight from my uterus pushes down on my pelvic bones and it just hurts really bad for a few minutes.

But I guess the main point is that you are SO worth it!! We are so in love with you and we haven’t even seen your face. We love you more than we thought possible. Only 5-6 more weeks until we get to meet you. Keep growing sweet baby and stay healthy for us.

Love Forever,
Mommy & Daddy

P.S. Your baby shower was last Saturday and we had such a wonderful time! I can’t wait to show you pictures whenever you get older. So many friends and family came to celebrate the expected arrival of you and I can already tell you are loved by so many.

Candy :: Mar.29.2009 :: Baby, Letters, Pregnancy, Zoey :: 3 Comments »

Dear Zoey,

On Tuesday, Mama & Daddy went to the hospital to have an NST done. An NST is a Non-Stress Test. They hooked Mama up to a belt that monitors contractions, a belt that monitors your heart rate, a blood pressure cuff and a rubber finger-thing-a-majig that monitors Mama’s heart rate as well. We laid around and your heart rate stayed at a steady 135 BPM. The reason they do this test is they want to see if your heart rate is “reactive” (goes up & down) whenever you move around in your little cave.

You weren’t moving much because it was 8 PM and you had just done most of your movement between 4 and 6 PM. I told Daddy to talk to you and so he began talking so quietly and sweetly to you and what do you know? You started wigglin’ around in there. It was so fun to hear/watch your heart rate go up whenever he would talk to you. Your heart rate would go up into the high 150s or low 160s whenever you would move a lot. I found it really neat to feel your movements and see your heart rate fluctuate at the same time. Sometimes when you would move a lot or push up into my right side, we could hear little blips on the heart monitor that indicated your movement. What a beautiful moment it was laying there with your Daddy and experiencing this. We were there for about an hour and it was wonderfully reassuring.

We’re going back to the hospital tonight to do this all over again. It may or may not take as long tonight if they aren’t too busy. I am really excited to hear your little heart beat again. The sound of it is something that I can’t really put into words. It’s beautiful, amazing, miraculous. It is a symphony to a Mother’s ears.

Well sweet baby, we cannot wait to meet you. We’ve got your room all ready to go. It is a precious room for a precious baby. We love you so much and cannot wait to see your sweet face and hear your lovely cries. Daddy likes to talk to you and whenever he does, you almost always wiggle around a few minutes later. Tomorrow we are going to a baby shower that Mama’s very good friend is throwing for you. We’re going to see a lot of friends and family that are coming to celebrate your life. You are such a lucky little lady to already be loved and cared for by so many.

Happy 32 Week Gestational Birthday my little girl. You’ll be 33 weeks on Monday. We’ll get to see you again on Ultrasound Monday morning and I absolutely cannot wait. It’s like looking through a little window to my soul whenever you pop up on the big screen TV in the ultrasound room. Something runs through my veins that is just unexplainable. A love that runs deeper than anything I ever thought imaginable.

Love Forever,
Mama

P.S. I know how much you like cake so I just wanted to say that I promise I will eat some cake on Saturday. I would do anything in the world to make you happy, even if that means indulging in some sweet, delicious dessert ;)

Candy :: Mar.20.2009 :: Baby, Letters, Pregnancy :: 1 Comment »

I am ready for this pregnancy to be over with. Not because I’m extremely uncomfortable or just unhappy being pregnant. Mainly because I am sick of worrying constantly about this Gestational Diabetes thing. I’m tired of the way the doctor treats me and I’m tired of constantly wondering if my baby is even going to survive. I’m not constantly in a really negative frame of mind. It comes and goes. I’ve actually been in a really positive frame of mind for the last month or two and it has been wonderful.

My doctor has scheduled me to go for Non Stress Tests twice weekly until I deliver. I’m a little annoyed by this because as of my last ultrasound nothing was wrong with the baby so I don’t understand why I have to go this often. Also, these things are going to cost us out the wazoo! Yes, I have insurance but insurance will only cover so much. And going twice a week adds up fast! Now, don’t get me wrong, I have no problem spending money if it is going to affect the well being of our child but what I do have a problem is going to do these tests without knowing why. It makes me feel like my doctor is just trying to make some money.

Either way, after talking to my OBGYN’s office today I’ve felt really down in the dumps. I’ve tried to cheer myself up but all I can do is worry. Constant worrying about whether my baby is going to be okay. I guess I am finally to the point where I just want her out of me and in my arms so that I know she is okay. So that I can see her and feel her and know for sure that she is okay. Only then will I truly feel like everything has worked out and all is well.

A lot of women really like my OBGYN. We’ve looked her up online and found great reviews about her. I’m wondering if maybe I’m just having a bad experience because I am overweight and I have GD. No one has EVER explained to us why we need to have these NST tests done and why so frequently. No one has discussed the possibility of an early induction, though today when talking to her nurse she mentioned I would be induced between 38 and 39 weeks? Oh really? Why was this NEVER discussed with me but somehow they already have a plan? This is the kind of crap that just annoys me.

Anyway, so today I am really grumpy. My mom took me and my sister out to lunch and it was really nice. It was good to see them and just be us girls. I thought that would do the trick but it hasn’t. I just want to go home and go on a walk with Gene. And I want to clean my house. And that’s all. I may even try to upload some nursery pictures this evening. I want to feel productive and like I have something to be happy about. I know I have a LOT to be thankful for but when you start feeling down in the dumps, it is really easy to overlook those things.

All this boils down to me worrying about little Zoey. I just want her to be okay and healthy.

Candy :: Mar.16.2009 :: Pregnancy :: 5 Comments »

Gene was nose deep in baby name books for most of the months of December and January. He had a good list of 30 names or so and add that to my list of 5 or so names and we started out with 35 possible contenders. I slowly began eliminating names that I knew I couldn’t see naming my child. Most names that were eliminated right away were names that current friends or family had already used or names that I thought were very charming but couldn’t see my own child being named that.

After slowly elminating names each week and doing a lot of role playing with a brown stuffed bear named Nick, it came down to a tight race between the names Skye and Zoey. Skye began to grow on me but Zoey was always sticking out in my head from day one. On my morning drive to work and my evening drive home, I would call the baby Skye or Zoey as I talked to her and Zoey just seemed to come naturally to me after a while.

So Zoey it is! This sweet little baby girl’s name will be Zoey Elise. I can’t even express how much of a huge relief it is to have that little (uh, major?) detail out of the way. It also feels good to call her by a name instead of just baby now.

This weekend we shampood the carpet in the nursery (with our new Hoover SteamVac that is AWESOME, by the way!) and then put the crib together and moved all of the baby furniture in there. I washed up all of the bedding (bumper, comforter, sheets, mattress protectors) and got the crib set up and the mobile put on. It is PRECIOUS beyond words!!

At Target on Saturday I found some Classic Pooh appliques for the walls I snatched those. We got a curtain rod but it is the wrong size. I’m gonna get a new one this week and I’m hoping to have the appliques and curtain rod up before the end of the week. I also need to get a bed skirt for the twin sized bed that is in that room as well. Oooh we are getting so close to having that room done and it feels fantastic! I will try to take a lot of pictures later this week or this weekend.

All is going swimmingly (he he, are you proud of me Gene?) with the pregnancy. Baby moves a lot more than before. Still waiting for that great day when Gene will be able to finally feel her move from the outside. I have felt it a couple times but it is sooo hard to catch it at the right time.

Only about 9 more weeks until my due date! I keep telling this little munchkin that she can come sometime after April 20th when I am considering “full term” hee hee :) My sister graduates high school on May 16th and I am worried that I’m going to miss it and I really don’t want to! But I guess right now is a good time to start learning how to let go of all control I have over my life and the events that happen in it because sometime in the next 9 weeks or so, there is going to be a little boogerface that will be controlling my life!

Candy :: Mar.09.2009 :: Pregnancy :: 4 Comments »

I can’t believe…

• That it’s MARCH! Where in the world did February go??
• That I am now 30 weeks pregnant. It feels like I can finally “see” the finish line. Like it is within’ reach.
• That we got the nursery painted! This is real!
• That my little sister is going to turn 18 in 8 days!
• That my little sister is graduating HIGH SCHOOL in May!
• That Gene and I are going to be parents soon. And my parents are going to be GRANDPARENTS.
• That we are quickly approaching our FIRST wedding anniversary! Has it already been a year?
• So many people are having babies this year. I’ve been to 3 baby showers since January and I know of a few people who are currently pregnant as well. Is the water tainted or what??
• That my Aunt (Mom’s sister) is due the day before me with her 3rd!
• That it has been almost 7 months since my Grandma passed away :( I miss her so much. And I am so sad she will never get to meet her great granddaughter.
• I only have about 2 1/2 months left of working! I am soo excited to be a stay at home mommy to take care of our little munchkin.
• We have our baby name list down to 3! We’re getting there.

Tonight we are going to Mom’s house for dinner and then going on a walk. After that? Who knows. Gene and I ordered a Hoover SteamVac online and I’m waiting for that to come in so I can shampoo the carpet in the nursery really well. I am going to wash down the baseboards and we need to put window film over the window in there (that window has awful insulation!). After that we can take these humongous boxes out of our living room and move the furniture in. I am sooo excited, I can’t wait to see all of that put together in her room!

Listen to me, “Her Room” ? This really is real, isn’t it? Sometimes I feel like I need to be pinched to even realize how real this is. And then the baby moves and I stop and wonder if it’s gas. And then I realize that it isn’t gas, it is in fact the baby moving. And yep, it is pretty darn real!

Candy :: Mar.03.2009 :: Daily, Lists, Pregnancy :: 2 Comments »