30 Weeks

Weekly Check-In

30 Weeks!

This week Baby Salisbury is the size of a Cucumber

We're almost there, people! 10 weeks to go, but only 7 weeks until we're full term! 

I can't believe that I could potentially have this baby in 7 weeks...YIKES! 

We're still tinkering away in the nursery. 

I've only got one corner done...

I want to pick up the pace, but we're still waiting on the rest of our furniture. My nesting instinct is going haywire but I can't do anything! It's making me crazy...

But I really like to go in there and sit in that chair and try and imagine what life is going to be like in 2 months. I'm going to be a mom. J is going to be a dad. 

Wow...it's just mind blowing!

I love just sitting in the nursery and feeling the kiddo kick and move around. 

It's the most comforting feeling in the world. 

It's kind of funny though...whenever J puts his hand on my stomach to try and feel the baby move, even if the kid has just been doing somersaults, he'll stop immediately. I don't know what he's got against his dad, but he refuses to kick for him! It's kind of funny, but I really wish the kid would cooperate, at least part of the time. 

I want J to be able to feel him. He's only ever felt him kick like twice. 

I'm not sure how the baby knows, but it's like clockwork- 

Me: Hurry, come feel! He's kicking

(J comes over and puts his hand on my belly) 

J: I don't feel anything

(Baby stops kicking)

Thanks kid. *sigh*

Well, in other news, I didn't have any medical issues this last week, so it's been pretty boring at the Salisbury house. (Let me just say that I'm totally okay with this)

But I've got to say, this 3rd trimester is kicking my butt. 

I had a really decent 1st and 2nd trimester. Hardly any symptoms. I had some mild nausea and there was a couple weeks where my lower back was hurting me a lot, but that's really it. I was never as tired as I am now! It's like as soon as I hit 28 weeks, my body decided to give up. 

I've started taking naps. And if you know me, you'll know that I don't do naps. I hate them because I always wake up from them feeling groggy and worse than I did before. But for the past few days, I can't help but fall asleep in the afternoons. I don't wake up feeling great, but I guess my body really needs it. 

So I won't fight it. 

I hope that these next 10 weeks go by fast. I'm so excited to meet our little one! We've been waiting a long time for this and we've fought so hard to stay positive. I just want these last couple months to be over so that I can hold my son. I want to cuddle him, take care of him, have long sleepless nights because he's cranky and won't sleep. I want to be a mom. I want to experience everything that goes along with that. Even the not so fun parts. Bring it on! I can't wait! 

Oh! My baby shower is this next Saturday. I'm so excited! If I know my sisters, I know it'll be a great party! They've been working hard to make this shower happen and I'm so grateful to the both of them! 

They both win the "Best Aunt Award" that I just made up. My son is going to love them as much as I do (: 

I'll update the blog with pictures of the shower next week! 

So here's my 30 week belly- 

We're getting there! 

I hope that everyone has a wonderful week! 

-K

29 Weeks

Weekly Check-In

29 Weeks

This week Baby Salisbury is the size of an Acorn Squash!

This past week has been CRAZY. Not in a really hectic way. . . but in the way that there just seems to be one thing after another piling up. 

Last Monday, as I was in the kitchen before work, I started to feel woozy. I've passed out before, so I kind of knew what was about to happen. I tried to get down to the floor before I could fall, but I didn't make it and ended up falling and smacking my head on the floor. We called the hospital, and they said that as long as I wasn't having concussion symptoms and as long as Baby was moving around, I would probably be fine. 

I took Monday off work to try and rest up and on Tuesday I made a second attempt at going to work. 

This time, I was driving (J drove seperately that morning) and I felt the tunnel vision start. I slowed WAY down to probably 10 mph or less and that's the last thing I remember. Next thing I know, I'm waking up with my car in a ditch and the front end through a barbed wire fence. 

I was really scared because I don't remember getting there. Luckily, one of J's old work buddies recognized our vehicle and pulled over to see if I was okay. He told me that he saw about 5 cars just drive right by me before he stopped. 

Nice.

So he called J for me and when he got there, he whisked me away to the hospital where I spent a wonderful morning/afternoon in Labor & Delivery being monitored. 

They ran a lot of tests. Full blood work, blood pressure, fetal monitoring, an EKG, urinalysis. 

Everything came back fine. I didn't pass out because of low blood sugar, or low blood pressure, or high blood pressure, or because my heart went wacky. I just passed out. Apparently this sort of thing can "just happen" to pregnant women sometimes. The baby may have been sitting on a nerve, or maybe my fluctuating hormones were just more than my body could keep up with? Who knows?

All I do know, is that now I'm banned from driving. Doctors orders. I'm not exactly excited about this...but again, I'll do what I have to do for this baby. 

Hmmm...what else? What else? Oh, yes...as of today, I'm officially on insulin for my Gestational Diabetes. 

At my last doctors appointment, I was prescribed a medication called Metformin to help lower my blood sugar, but it wasn't doing anything. My numbers were still high after almost 2 weeks of taking that stuff so my doctor decided that insulin is the way to go. 

I kind of knew it was coming, so it wasn't a shock. But I'll tell you what was a shock...the freaking price of insulin! Holy COW! 

We had to pay about $200 out of pocket for that stuff, even with insurance!

 I really hope that it lasts me until the end of this pregnancy. Because we just cannot afford that on a regular basis. 

Just add this to the list of things I'm not really excited about...

J had to give me my first shot because I'm a weenie and I can't stand the thought of sticking myself with a needle (even though it's tiny). I know I'll have to get over it soon...but not today. 

I've got to do 4 injections every day. 2 when I wake up before breakfast, 1 right before dinner and the last one right before bed. 

*sigh* 

It's not the end of the world. 

Not even close, but it just seems like one thing after the other these days. 

It's wearing on me a little bit. 

But hopefully this will be the last big surprise and I sincerely hope that this diabetes goes away after I give birth. *fingers crossed*

Anyway...in other news, J is wonderful! 

Look what he did for the baby's nursery!

I wish we had taken a 'before' picture because this thing was UGLY. It was painted a yucky brown color and it just looked worn down. 

J spent his last 4 weekends in my dad's shed working on it. He stripped off all the old paint and re-finished the natural wood. It's beautiful (and comfortable!) and I can't wait to rock our son to sleep in it. 

Love, love, love it. 

So, here's the belly...

We're getting there. Less than 3 months now! 

If I can just make it 8 more weeks, we'll be considered full-term and that would be good enough for me! 

Here's to hoping that next week will be better! 

-K

I should be on HGTV or something...

Okay, so a couple weeks ago, I posted that I was re-finishing an end table for the baby's nursery. 

I bought the end table in question at a yard sale for $15. We (AKA my husband) sanded the whole thing down and then I painted it. 

I picked 2 colors from the same paint chip palette. The lighter color is called Grand Hotel Mackinac Blue and the second, darker color is called Nautical. I would have loved to have my husband's input on the colors, but J can't see color. He's color deficient. So, basically, he views the world like a black and white movie. 

(This chart helps me understand what he sees) 

J would be roman numeral V. 

But, even though he can't see color, he loves that I chose the Grand Hotel Mackinac Blue color. The Grand Hotel Mackinac is on Mackinac Island in Michigan. J is from Michigan, so picking that color was like bringing a little bit of Michigan into our Utah nursery.

I like the symbolic-ness of it. 

Anyway, here is the 'before' picture of the end table. 

Blah. Plain. Boring

And here are the 'after' pictures! 

Isn't it just adorable? I love it! 

And yes, that's a Yellow Submarine sitting on top. I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but we're doing a Beatles theme for the nursery. Nothing over the top, just cute little touches here and there. 

It's going to be amazing. 

So...there you have it. An adorable little end table for my son's room. 

HGTV, I'll be expecting your call with an offer for a TV show any day now. 

-K 

28 Weeks

Weekly Check-In

28 weeks

This week, Baby Salisbury is the size of an Eggplant. 

You know, sometimes I hate these food comparisons. 

Because now I REALLY want 

Eggplant Parmesan...

And it feels a little creepy to be consuming something that is the size of your child.

It's a weird mental block to have. But, in all honesty, if someone were to set a dish of delicious, gooey, melty Eggplant Parmesan in front of me *hint hint*, it would be gone in a flash. 

Well, people, this is it. The final countdown until we get to meet/hold/kiss/snuggle/love our son.

3 months = 12 weeks = 84 days = 2016 hours =120,960 minutes. 

Sorry, I'm obviously a little excited. 

As some of you may have already seen, we got our 3D Ultrasound done last week. 

I just love being able to see him from a new perspective. Black and white profile shots can get pretty boring after a while, so seeing his little "grumpy" face (that's what I like to call it) was so much fun for us. 

Grumpy Face

You guys should have seen J during the ultrasound. As soon as the technician started getting (identifiable) images of his face, J was up off the chair and inches away from the screen so that he could get a better look. It was the sweetest thing to witness. 

He likes to pretend that he's calm and cool, but I know that he'll go nuts for this kid once he sees him. It was sort of like getting a preview of our son making his arrival. I can't wait to see the look on J's face when he meets the baby for the first time. And I can't wait for him to fall as completely in love with this baby as I am already. 

(So I have to interrupt this post for a second)

J just came into the bedroom, where I'm typing this up, and he laid down next to me and put his head on my belly. I said "talk to him, so he recognizes your voice".

J put his head back down and mumbled something to the baby and after a minute he said "Rude! This is a one sided conversation. We've already failed as parents because we haven't taught our kid manners". 

That just cracked me up, so I had to share! 

(Now- back to your regularly scheduled blog post)

So today just so happens to be Mother's Day. I called and chatted with my mom today, but I hope that she reads this too. 

I love you mom! I know that I'm awful at phone calls, and I'm awful at remembering dates. But I just want you to know that no matter what, I love you. You were there for me when I was fighting my fight with cancer. You taught me so much and had faith in me no matter the circumstance. I cannot wait for this baby to meet you and have you as a grandmother. 

And to all my other mothers out there! I'm looking at you Sharon and Teri! We love you both so much. You've both been there for both J and I when we needed it the most. You're wonderful mothers and we love you to the moon and back. 

Baby Salisbury will be so spoiled in the grandma department when he gets here. We're so fortunate to have you all in our lives. 

I also want to give a shout out to everyone else who is reading this who is a mother. 

Sisters, friends, acquaintances, total strangers...

Happy Mother's Day to you all! 

Each and every one of you is wonderful and you do the hardest, most rewarding job on Earth. 

Well, I think that about sums it up. I'm going to go check on dinner (RIBS!). 

Here's a shot of my bump at 28 weeks! 

I don't even want to know how big I'm going to be in another 3 months.

Hope to catch you next week! 

-K

3D Ultrasound!

I'm gonna be honest...I've never really been a fan of 3D ultrasounds. I always thought they looked a little weird, like melted candle wax. 

But then I saw a 3D ultrasound of my son and I loved getting to see his facial features. I know that all babies sort of look alike at this point, but I think we've got one handsome boy in there. (:

He was curled up and had either his hands or his feet in front of his face the whole time.

 In most of these, he had his foot in his face. 

I thought it was so cute.

Arm in front of his face

Look at those chubby cheeks!

There's that foot again...

His little grouchy face.

Again with the foot! What a little contortionist. 

Holding his nose. 

I had a lot of fun getting to see our little guy from such a new perspective. 

Hope you enjoy the pictures! 

-K

27 Weeks

Weekly Check-In

27 Weeks! 

This week, Baby Salisbury is the size of a Rutabaga? 

(I'm going to be honest...I have zero idea what a rutabaga is. I'll be googling it after I post this)

Well folks...looks like we made it to the 3rd Trimester! *fist pump*

I'm 2/3 of the way there. 13 more weeks! A little over 3 months. That's insane to me. 

I honestly never thought that I'd make it this far. I feel like every day is a blessing. I'm not a religious person, but I feel like there's someone watching out for us out there. Every day that I feel my son wiggle around in there is a gift. And while I sometimes feel miserable (swollen ankles, huge stomach, always hot, gestational diabetes etc...), I regret nothing. I'd do anything for this kid. He's going to be so worth it. 

So this week I've decided to take on some "projects"

I decided that instead of registering for OUTRAGEOUSLY expensive nursery furniture, I would find/hit up family for gently used furniture then re-finish/paint everything to match each other. 

So far, we have a crib coming from J's sister (Thanks so much for that, BTW!) and I found a super cute little end table at one of the yard sales my friend and I went to this weekend. J's sister is going to paint the crib white for us (another HUGE thank you!) and the end table is going to be painted "Grand Hotel Mackinac Blue" and the top and legs will be "Nautical". We'll probably use these colors throughout the nursery so that the furniture compliments each other even though it will not match. 

                                       

                                     Grand Hotel Mackinac Blue                                                 Nautical 

Oh, and here's the end table. I didn't think to take a picture before J disassembled it for me...but you can kind of get the idea? I'll definitely post an update as soon as it's all painted and pretty. Hopefully I'll be able to muster up the energy to finish it by this next weekend. 

*wishful thinking*

I'm still on the hunt for a long dresser. You know the kind that are about waist height, 5ish feet long and have something like 6-8 drawers? Yeah...those things are freaking rare. 

I've been perusing my local Facebook yard sale sites and there is NOTHING. 

All anybody has for sale are tall dressers. 

And then when you do find a long dresser, it's beat to hell. Or ugly as hell. Or expensive as hell. 

I just can't win. There wasn't even anything at the six or seven yard sales that we hit up this weekend. 

Kind of a bummer. But I'm not going to quit looking...not until like July. Then I may have to give in and buy a new dresser so that I have a place to put my son's clothes...

This week we also have our 3D ultrasound. Honestly, I wasn't all that interested in getting one, but apparently, at my hospital, they're complimentary.

So...after I heard it was free, I sort of changed my tune. I feel like one of those extreme couponer ladies. 

Do they need all of that stuff? No. But it's FREE. 

I'm just saying that I understand where they're coming from. 

I'll also be posting a picture of our little dude once we get that done. I'm actually pretty excited about it now. I don't exactly love the way 3D ultrasounds look (kind of like melted candle wax) but I'm really curious to see my son's features more clearly. Up until now it's been all profile and wiener shots. Might be a nice change of scenery. (:

Speaking of a change of scenery, here's a shot of my 27 week bump (more like mountain). I'm feeling pretty ginormous these days. 

You all have a great week! I'll update after our 3D ultrasound! 

-K