Doctors Appointment

We had our follow up non-stress test today. As usual, his heart rate was around 130 bpm. But after I had some apple juice and the nurse got the stimulator after him, Owen finally decided to start participating. His HR not only spiked into the 150 range, but it stayed up and even jumped to 160 a few times. I guess he finally realized that we weren't going to leave him alone until he passed the test.

37 weeks 3 days

We had another doctors appointment yesterday. This one was definitely less eventful than the last. I didn't gain any weight this time, Yeah! So my total weight gain this far is 35 pounds. My belly measured around 34 weeks and there were no cervical changes. I'm still only dilated 1-2 cm and apparently my cervix is pushed posterior due to Owen's position.

Because I've noticed a decrease in movement and Owen's heart rate was once again in the 120-130 bpm range, I was hooked up to the monitors for a non-stress test. They monitored Owen's HR for about 20 minutes with no substantial changes. But after drinking some apple juice and the nurse waking Owen up with the stimulator, his HR spiked into the 150 bpm range a few times. We have another non-stress test scheduled for tomorrow just to make sure he's still cooperating.

As of right now, we have another regular doctors appointment scheduled for next Monday...and if Owen has not made his debut, they're planning on inducing next Thursday (March 26th)!! So it looks like we'll have a baby by the end of next week!

New addition to the nursery

Well, Owen's nursery is officially complete... for now! I've been working on this project for a little while, and it's finally done! For Christmas, my dad gave Owen his "childhood chair"! It's a small wooden chair that he's had since he was a young boy and now he's passing it down to his first grandchild. How sweet! It started out as a plain white chair, and dad offered to strip it down to the wood so we could start fresh and paint it to match Owen's room. Well, dad was in for a little surprise... as he stripped paint from the chair he discovered seven layers of paint!!! But, he was determined and removed every speck of paint, the next revelation was that all the paint was playing a big role in holding the chair together! Nothing a little glue couldn't fix though. So after a lot of work prepping the chair it was turned over to me to paint.

Owen's chair primed and ready to paint

The finished product

Different parts of the chair were painted to match parts of his room...

So we'll always know who this chair belongs to...

We also completed another project I had been wanting to try. I have seen these travel wipe cases a lot and could never find one that I really loved the material on, so we decided to pick our own fabric and give it a shot. The first one took a little while, but the second went pretty quick.

36 weeks 3 days

We went for our second weekly appointment on Monday. This appointment was a little more eventful than the rest. The normal stuff...I gained another 2 lbs for a total of 35 lbs. My belly measurement was around 36 weeks. I'm dilated 1-2 cm and my cervix is softening. Dr. Birch was unable to give us a specific effacement percentage due to Owen's positioning...but I'm definitely progressing!

When Dr. Birch was listening to Owen's heartbeat, she noticed that it dropped. She had us go to another room where they hooked me up to a monitor to watch Owen's heart rate. They were looking for spikes in his heart rate when he was moving. After 30 minutes with only small increases we were sent to Triage to be hooked up to a more hi-tech monitor. After another hour of monitoring with no sustained increase in heart rate they ordered an ultrasound and we were officially admitted.

The ultrasound was to do a biophysical profile where they measure everything, then observe for 30 min looking for things such as movement in the diaphragm simulating breathing, and general movement as well as other things. Owen scored a perfect 8 out of 8 on this test and we were sent back to Triage for more monitoring. After about 15 minutes on the monitor again we were sent home and told that everything looks good, and to just make sure he keeps up his movement. Owen was moving throughout the tests, but his heart rate was not going as high as they were wanting it to. Though the final report was good, we were stressed out throughout this ordeal and sleep will not come easy until our little man is here with us and we know that he is fine!

The ultrasound also reveled that Owen is definitely growing. He now weighs 6.5 pounds and we still have 3.5 weeks to go! I think he's going to be a BIG baby!

rEcess! March edition...

rEcess, a parents night out for special needs kids, was Friday night. The theme this month was circus night. Kristy Farmer was our "ring leader"...it was quite comical for both the kids and volunteers. It was so much fun to see the kids enjoying themselves. One of the little girls was so fascinated by the bunny rabbit (one of the volunteers dressed up) that she actually got upset when large group was over. Josh and I have really enjoyed volunteering at rEcess, and couldn't imagine a better way to spend a Friday night. Next month rEcess is on my due date...so we'll have to see what little Owen has planned. Here are a few pics from the night.

Kristy "the ring leader"

Bek, Ethan, Kati, and Miah enjoying large group!

Caleb, Wes, "Bunny" and Miah
Chloe loved large group this week!
Sam and Josh watching Muzzy
Sam's little sis, Caroline giving one of her famous looks

35 week 4 day appointment

We started our weekly appointments this week. I gained another 4.5 pounds for a total of 33 pounds. Owen's heart rate was ~130 bpm and he now weighs ~ 5 lbs according to Dr. Birch. My belly measured around 34 weeks due to the fact that Owen has officially dropped into my pelvis. He is head down and causing me a lot of pressure these days. I also started the lovely exams this week....the results: no dilation, but my cervix is softening. We go back Monday to see how I'm progressing. I've told Owen that "Mommy has a few more things to get done before he arrives", so hopefully he's a good listener.

We're a little behind on our belly pics. So we just skipped the 35 week picture and posted the 36 week belly pic instead. For those of you that haven't seen me lately....my belly has changed a lot in the past few weeks. I feel like it changes daily! It's definitely getting harder to get...out of bed, up from the floor, and out of our over sized chair. Only a few more weeks to go, thank goodness!

4 weeks

30 weeks

36 weeks

Work Shower

The girls from work threw a shower for Owen Saturday morning at Kate's house. It was a beautiful day for a shower... if you didn't get enough of the cold during the ice storm! We woke up to a snow covered Fayetteville, not that I don't like snow... but by the end of February I'm over winter, bring on spring! Despite the cold, the shower was great, Owen got a bunch of really cute monogrammed burp cloths and bibs as well as blankets, clothes and toys! We also got his stroller and swing! This was the last of Owen's showers and now we are officially ready for him to arrive!

Kate and I

Ethan giving me Owen's new blanket

Super cute!!!

Owen got a lot of really cute monogrammed stuff!

The P.T. girls gave us Owen's Stroller!

The Speech girls gave us Owen's Swing!