Due Date Predictions!

I'd like to first say, to those of you who have me going past my due date you are cruel and we are no longer friends.  For those of you who have me going before my due date, I love you, I love you, I love you.  Here are the current standings:
     June 6th - Alicia P.
     June 10th - Elizabeth B.
     June 12th - Kev
     June 13th - Uncle Karl R.
     June 15th - Aunt Sis R.
     June 16th - Me and Jen Z.
     June 17th - Mal M.
     June 18th - Jason R.
     June 19th - Jocelyn R., Mary Lewis P.
     June 20th - JJ K.
     June 22nd - Brandi C., Karen F.
     June 23rd - Lauren M., Sean C., Grandma F., Aunt Betsy
     June 24th - Lauren R., Kate H., Kevin (Grandpa)
     June 25th - Gina M., Aunt Peg
     June 26th - Gram
     June 27th - Aunt Moe
     June 28th - Mom

We had another regular check up on Tuesday.  Until the baby is born I now go to the doctor's twice a week to be hooked up to a stress test monitor to check Baby L's heart rate.  Gestational diabetes can put some stress on the placenta which can transfer to the baby and can cause stillbirth.  Mostly, this stress is caused by not taking care of your diabetes.  I reassure all of you I've been following my diet and checking my blood sugar as I should.  I will postpone all gorging of sweets until after he's born. The doctor said that his heart rate and movement were excellent on both Tuesday and Thursday!

I promise the unveiling of the finished room will be in the next blog.  We have officially ordered the last pieces to his room and we're waiting for them to arrive.  Once the shelf is here we can put up his Scrabble letters, baseball mitt and baseball.  I have to say, it's looking pretty awesome, however I am a bit biased being that I was the creator of it!

We successfully put together the stroller this past weekend.  If you can figure out how to put a stroller together, then I think you can raise a child.  Sweet.  Jesus.  I would love to meet the person who writes instructions, are they engineers from a different country?  I'm sure it all makes sense in their mechanical brains.  Thankfully, for the time being it's the last piece that needed to be assembled.  Kev also put the car seat in my SUV so we are ready for this babe to come home from the hospital!  That too was another task that had Kevin workin up a sweat.

Is this for me?  But I like to walk! 

Okay, these pictures were too adorable to not share.  Vedder LOVES to lay out on the porch and watch people (and dogs) walk by and bark at them.  The other day he decided the view from the table was MUCH better so jumped up and made him self comfy.  

My Fifth/First Mother's Day

I had a lovely Mother's Day but let me clarify something for poor Vedder.  I've been celebrating Mother's Day for 5 years now.  Just because our furry child was adopted does not mean that I am not a mother to him and he is offended that people just now recognize me as a mom-to-be, (although I was a tad bit more spoiled this year due to the fact that I am pregnant with his little brother.)  Kev made my first Mother's Day with a human baby (due soon) special.  He apparently was listening to me talk about a necklace that I loved from work and surprised me with it Sunday.    

Kev and I were very successful on our hunt for art for the nursery.  After struggling to find things online that we liked (and weren't a fortune) I had a brilliant idea to go to Hobby Lobby.  I was promptly scolded by Kev for never taking him there and not only did we find what we wanted in mass quantities we actually had to pick what we had room for and what we needed.  It also happened to be our lucky day and there was a 50% off all art sale!  We left feeling like we hit the lotto; now our next project is to hang all these treasures!

Alright folks, we're getting down to the final count down.  I'm taking a little poll, when do you think Baby Freaney will make his grand debut?  His official due date is June 20/21st (for some reason we've always been given two days for his due date, I just choose to go with the 20th because it was one less day I have to think about being pregnant.)  Pick a date, let me know when you think he'll be here and I'll compile a list and we can see who the big winner is.  I'll post everyone's choices on the next blog so you can keep track of who you're in competition with.

Kev has called June 12th.  

I'm calling June 16th.  

I was really hoping to not have to be one of those unlucky few whose finger no longer allow her to wear her wedding rings.  I am now officially ringless, 34 weeks pregnant, and being that I was carded to buy a lotto ticket the other day, a camera crew away from thinking I'm another knocked up teenager on 16 and Pregnant. Not only am I feeling like I have conceived a child out of wedlock, my hand feels so naked without my sparkly baubles!  I'm on a mission to now find at least a fun silver band to wear so I don't feel so naked (and reassure people I am married.)

Now that I'm nearing the end of this pregnancy I wanted to give someone very deserving a very special shout out in the blog.  I am incredibly lucky to not only have married my best friend, but someone who is kind, caring and considerate.  I can only hope that Baby Freaney turns out to be half as wonderful as his father.  As you've probably picked up throughout the blog I don't particularly love being pregnant and having a husband who has been so patient and will listen to me moan and groan without ever getting annoyed, always puts me and my needs first, and will go out of his way to not only make me feel beautiful (in my giant state) but like I'm the most special person in the world has made all the difference.  Although I won't miss being pregnant, I will miss this special treatment I have been getting.

I find that my new Mother's Day necklace detracts attention from my other accessory, the ever growing baby bump. 

We clearly had to test the Baby Bjorn out with the dog.  Up next: the stroller.  

Club Uterus

I had my follow up appointment for my gestational diabetes this past Friday, and I got two thumbs up.  What was supposed to be a 30 minute appointment, was only 5 minutes.  The front desk lady said she's never seen anyone come out of there so fast! All of my blood sugar readings were well below what they could be and because of that I can continue on the original diet and meal plan!  I've got the diet portion down pat, but the weekend eating is still proving to be difficult, especially when going to parties where I can't control what's going to be served.  It's a lot of planning ahead and being prepared, which thankfully is one of my strengths!

My regular doctor's appointment was on Tuesday and I got two thumbs up.  The doctor said that everything looked great, my blood pressure, the baby's heart beat and my fundal measurement.   And thanks to my diabetes diet, I am down a pound from the last visit.  My first question, of course was is it okay that I'm loosing weight at this point and not gaining?  And he said absolutely!  Maybe I've changed my mind about this diabeetus.  I'll pop this babe out and be ready for the runway!  I think I hear Victoria's Secret calling my phone right now...  

Kev and I were able to cross another thing off our dwindling to do list.  We visited the hospital where in a few short weeks Baby Freaney will be born!  It was definitely a good idea to visit it before we went into labor and had NO earthly idea of where the hell to go and what to do.  Not that we couldn't figure it out, but when you're in full on panic mode because someone is ready to make his grand appearance the last thing you want to do is wonder where to park the car and check in.  We also got to see a delivery room and a room where we'd be staying after the delivery.  We even got to see some newborns in the nursery all wrapped up like burritos, which made the two of us even more anxious to meet our little guy!

I went today to have another ultrasound to see if Baby Freaney has flipped.  Thankfully he is head down and in position to make his entrance!  The doctor said everything looked incredibly healthy and now because of the diet the baby's weight is starting to even out with where it should be.  No more 15 pound baby for this lady!  We'll go back one more time for an ultrasound in 3 weeks to just check his weight and position.

I'm still feeling good.  This babe is becoming VERY active in "Club Uterus."  He and his little dance parties need to take it down a level. I'm experiencing the usual blahs of the third trimester.  It's getting harder and harder to bend over, get out of bed, sit up, and by the end of the day I'm usually worn out from caring this free loader around.  But other than that all is well!  

This weekend's goal is to find some art for this babe's bedroom.  All we have thus far is the scrabble letters, which if I were a baby, would find quite boring to look at.  We're not trying to go super baby in his room, we're thinking more vintage so that once again he can grow into what's already there.  Until of course he's in middle school and too cool for what we picked out and he's hanging band posters in his room (like his father did in college, of creepy looking bands.)  We have some places in mind to check out, fingers crossed we find something!

This getting ready for a baby is exhausting.  

Getting ready to head out to a Derby party.  Looking ever so stylish in our hats.  

I'll be here before you know it!  

Diabeetus

I'm a few days into my gestational diabetes diet and so far, this is how I currently feel about it...

(Thank you Ashley for this amazing picture.) 

I'm not normally someone who pines after cake, cookies and sweets.  Kevin is the one with the sweet tooth in our family.  However, it's the age old "You want what you can't have."  So in lieu of sending flowers to the delivery room, I request you send cakes, cookies, and pastries.  Normally, when you're bummed about something you pour yourself a nice glass of wine and the world is magically a better place.  I can't have that.  My second choice to wine would be a little retail therapy, but I don't want to buy another maternity item and I just want to fit into normal clothes again so that cancels that out.  I think I will simply have to resort to manicures, pedicures and massages for the next 8 weeks to ease the pain of being on this diet.  In all truthfulness, the diet part is not what's terrible.  The charts they gave me in my class break down everything so it's super easy to know the portion sizes of what to eat.  The weekends are where things get difficult, when you want to get out of the house and go out to dinner but it's a lot harder to control the portion sizes and find items on the menu that are both appealing and fit within the restraints.  The other pain is trying to map out the mandatory snacks and meals so that nothing is within two hours of each other (or more than four hours apart.)  So now I have to know what time I'll be eating dinner every night and then map out the rest of my day's worth of food.

A very special pup had his 6th birthday on Friday and he was in hog heaven.  He was quite spoiled with lots of presents of treats and toys (one toy which has already bit the dust) and I even made him his very own birthday cake.  Yes, I baked the pup a birthday cake and yes, it's healthy for pups.

Just like his dad, going straight for the icing. 

The correct dresser was delivered on Saturday and it makes the room seem complete.  I'm so glad that the whole dresser drama is over and we can start organizing and putting things away in it!  I'll be considered full term at 37 weeks, which would be May 31st, so our goal is to have things complete before then!

Finally, a matching set!

Kev and I have been waiting for months to go to the Inman Park Art Festival so that we could scout out some cute things for his walls.  Unfortunately because of the forecast for rain on Sunday it was jam packed on Saturday.  It made it a bit difficult to see everything, but we did score one super cute piece for his room.  It's Scrabble letters that spell out the babe's name, so I'm sorry to say I cannot share the full picture of it until after he's born!  Butttt, here's a little sneak peak...

For the most part I've been feeling good!  I'm growing more and more uncomfortable as one would expect.  Since Baby Freaney is running out of room in his loft apartment, his movements can be borderline painful.  I just keep reminding myself that his lease is about to run out, and this landlord will be evicting him soon enough!

Next Tuesday we go back for a regular doctor's appointment, and then on next Thursday we go to the ultrasound doctor to see if this babe has switched positions and is facing downward and to see how much he's grown.  From the movements and how it feels, I'd say he's still in a transverse breech position.  He's just a little too comfy in there!

The giant belly!  

A Meltdown, a Breakdown and a Hero...

I must toot my own horn and say, as far as the pregnancy hormones and being emotional goes I think I've dodged a bullet... until Thursday.

As I had mentioned before, we were waiting for our dresser to arrive when we received a phone call from the delivery service, telling us that the dresser was delivered in the wrong color.  After talking to Restoration Hardware we were informed that they were not expecting another shipment of these dressers until the beginning of June, so we wouldn't receive ours until mid to late June.  They were kind enough to offer to lend us the wrong colored dresser until the correct one arrived.  That way we'd have something to use in the mean time.  The loaner dresser was delivered this past Thursday and after the delivery men left, I promptly had a meltdown and burst into tears.  No, nothing ever is perfect and there are always wrenches thrown into even the best laid out plans, but when you think of bringing your baby home from the hospital you dream of his room being perfect.

This, is not perfection.  I call this ugly.  The topper is the correct color, obviously the dresser is not.    

I did what any gal would do when they're upset, I called Kevin sobbing.  My own personal Clark Kent went into that phone booth and threw on his superhero garb and after going to Twitter, sending emails, and finally putting in a phone call, my handsome husband landed a sweet gal who was willing to help him.  After explaining to the woman our nightmare and how upset I was about the situation she set to work and hunted down the elusive dresser.  I know not only have the correct dresser in route, due to arrive next week, I also have a gift card from Restoration Hardware as an apology for the whole situation.  I classify that handy work as something only a superhero could do.

Kev and I have waffled back and forth regarding the paint in the nursery.  Some days we like it, other days we hate it.  Kev wasn't a fan of the semigloss paint we used, being that it showed every one of our paint imperfections.  I on the other hand wasn't a huge fan of the color as it turned out a bit darker than I would have wanted.  I could have lived with the paint, but Kev decided we needed to just breakdown and call in reinforcements.  According to the reaction of the man who repainted the nursery, we did a worse job that we thought.  That was an ego killer if I do say so myself but at least the room has been repainted in a color I love, and looks much more uniform with the rest of the house's paint.    

The new paint color.  

Besides having the nursery painted we also got to work on the rest of his room!  We snipped every last tag off of all of this babes clothes, PJ's, blankets, bath towels, etc., etc., etc.  Exactly one trash bag later, and about a million loads of laundry, I have successfully washed, folded and hung up all this babes belongings.  We still have a long way to go, but progress is progress!  

The before... Vedder being the spoiled pup that he is, searched each bag to see if there was anything in there for him.  

Part of the after...

We had our Baby Basic's class this Saturday.  I have to say that Kev doesn't give himself enough credit when it comes to baby things.  He was quite the pro at changing the diapers, holding the baby and swaddling!  I think he's going to be better off than he thought.  I'm glad we were able to do the class to ease his mind!  

I had my regular check up at the doctor's today.  The babe's heart beat is where it should be, and everything looks good!  I  did receive the results to my three hour glucose screening test.  I unfortunately did not pass the test and I have gestational diabetes.  Here is a little bit of information about gestation diabetes for those of you who aren't familiar with it:  

"We don't know what causes gestational diabetes, but we have some clues. The placenta supports the baby as it grows. Hormones from the placenta help the baby develop. But these hormones also block the action of the mother's insulin in her body. This problem is called insulin resistance. Insulin resistance makes it hard for the mother's body to use insulin. She may need up to three times as much insulin.

Gestational diabetes starts when your body is not able to make and use all the insulin it needs for pregnancy. Without enough insulin, glucose cannot leave the blood and be changed to energy. Glucose builds up in the blood to high levels. This is called hyperglycemia"

Here's the good, the bad, and the ugly of the situation.  The bad is that I now have to go on a special diet until the baby is born, and will have to check and monitor my blood sugar for the next 8 weeks.  Worst case, if the diet doesn't completely put my insulin back to where it needs to be, then I will have to orally take medication to help regulate it.  The ugly is, all I can think of is the fat man on TV that promoted eating Quaker Oats and calling it "diabeetus" and how that's me now.  The good is, that once I have this babe the "diabeetus" goes away, and I can resume eating (and drinking) like normal.  The "diet" isn't that far off from how I was already eating, I'm just going to have to clean up my weekend eating.  I think another push present is in order for all of this...      

I promise I'll take a picture later this week of the giant bump!  

Snuggling his brother! 

          

Our Little Chunky Monkey...

I had my glucose test today. I was dreading it for days, I even had a nightmare about it last night.  I don't do well when I'm hungry (I could be on a snicker's commercial), and I don't do well with having my blood drawn so I thought combining the two would be an epic nightmare. I felt a bit woozy off and on from the blood and lack of food, but I survived!  I went well prepared with things to keep me from being bored, although the Cooking Light magazine probably wasn't a good choice.  Pictures of delicious food while hungry was pure self torture, and made those rumbles in my stomach even worse.  I should find out the results of the test in a couple days, so both my and Baby Freaney's fingers and toes are crossed that I pass!

We went to the ultra sound doctor this past Thursday and got to see Baby Freaney! At this point babies are practicing breathing so that when they're born their lungs are strong enough to take breathes. So we got to see him taking his practice breathes and his little body move up and down.  We also got a great view of the front of his face and we watched him blink and open his mouth!  Getting to see him do all those things made his arrival seem so real!  The doctor said he is a happy, healthy baby and maybe that has something to do with the fact that he's currently measuring at 3 pounds and 13 ounces. A whopping 13 ounces over what he should be.  I would be happy if I could be plump and it didn't matter!  Although someone needs to lay off the chow, because I'm not pushing out a 12 pound babe!

We traveled to Ohio this past weekend for my baby shower. My sister, and family did a wonderful job, and I had a great time. It's always nice to see people you don't get to see often.  Baby Freaney has some very generous family and is going to be a well dressed stud now!  Watch out ladies!  We ended up packing all of his clothes in a carry on and those tiny little outfits filled the whole thing!  I was seriously worried that if TSA opened either of our carry ons, clothes were going to fly all over the airport.  

Since Kev refuses to hold a baby and knows only how to care for a furry child with four legs, we will be attending a baby basics class at the hospital this Saturday.  It's a 3 hour class that teaches you things like how to bathe a baby, change a diaper, and hold him.  All of which seem pretty important for Kev to know before someone makes their grand arrival!  

We also are going to buckle down this weekend and get working on this babes room!  Being that we haven't done much, we have a quite a bit to do! Ill keep you posted with pictures once we get moving on it!  

Future Cleveland Brown linebacker.

Front view of Baby's face, you can see his open eyes! 

The ADORABLE cake my sister made for "The Mom to Bee."

Me, Baby, and Grandmas! 

How do I get one of those balls off that hanging thing???  

10 Weeks To Go!

So many things have happened in the Freaney household in the past week.  Where to even begin!

We went to the doctor today to get our regular check up.  The good news was baby Freaney's heartbeat is where it should be and my blood pressure was good!  The bad news was I failed the one hour glucose test and I have to go back and do the three hour test next week.  I was pretty upset, but I know I'm not the only one to fail the first test!  Fingers crossed that everything goes ok next week!

My wonderful boss threw me a shower on Sunday and it was far more than I could have ever asked for.  Everything was absolutely perfect, she went above and beyond.  I feel so lucky to have someone like her in my life, who thinks so fondly of me that she'd throw such an amazing party in my honor.  Kev and I were both overwhelmed with emotions at the level of generosity and kindness our friends and family showed us with their amazing, thoughtful gifts.  Baby Freaney is seriously one lucky babe, and will be coming into this world well loved.  Below is a link to see more pictures from the shower, my lovely friend Gina was kind enough to be the photographer for the day!

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0EbtWLRw4Zs3UA

I've been growing increasing uncomfortable.  Pregnancy is not fun, I really think reptiles and birds have figured it out, laying eggs and all.  I wish I could lay an egg and give Kevin half the responsibility of helping incubating this babe of ours.  So I will now take this time to complain and get it out of my system.  My restless leg syndrome is still a nightly occurrence and no matter what I try or do to help alleviate the discomfort nothing seems to work.  No matter how tired I am my legs are ready to go run the Boston marathon (and at the rate they're twitching and moving I think we'd win.)  Ingestion has began to rear it's ugly head.  Fortunately it's not a nightly occurrence.  Unfortunately when I do have it, it's really bad acid reflux, to the point where I can't sleep I'm so uncomfortable (don't forget to add in that restless leg syndrome!!) Apparently, just like his father, Baby Freaney sits up very high and because of that the top part of my stomach is in so much pain.  If someone could send this child a memo to move his tush down to the spacious midsection of my uterus I'd be grateful.  My back is still throbbing by the end of the night, I'm thinking I should self prescribe more often massages.

I think I'm beginning to get that "nesting" feeling. At least I think that's what the constant feeling of needing to do something is. I can't sit down and watch TV without feeling like I should be doing approximately one million things.  (Exactly what those things are I'm not sure...)  Maybe it's nesting or maybe it's the fact that Kev and I really need to get our tushes moving on the nursery and getting this house prepped for this babe, who could be here in about two months!  Eekkkk.

The another piece of the furniture has arrived.  The big comfy chair came on Thursday, and it was promptly tested out by Baby Freaney's big brother.  I am happy to report Vedder gave it two paws up.  The dresser/changing table was supposed to be delivered but unfortunately they sent the wrong color to the delivery service.  It's turning into quite the nightmare, being that they don't expect another shipment of these dressers in until the end of May, making our estimated delivery time mid-June.  We are trying to plead our case to Restoration Hardware to do what they need to do to get this piece of furniture to us before June.  

There is lots of excitement coming up in the world of babe!  We go to the ultrasound doctor on Thursday to see what position Baby Freaney is in and get an estimate on what he's currently weighing in at.  Then we're off to Ohio on Friday for the baby shower my beautiful sister is throwing me!!

And baby makes 4. 

Well of course Vedder got a present! 

 

Two paws up mom!