Uggh - GBS

So, a nurse called today and I tested positive for Group B Strep, otherwise known as beta strep or GBS.  I didn't have it with Owen, so it kinda came as a shock.  It's a naturally occurring bacterium that can live in men and woman.  It's not a std and it's not strep throat, just to clear that up.  The only risk from GBS comes to your baby who comes into contact with it if you're having a vaginal birth.

It's not a HUGE deal, but I am definitely a little bummed about it.  I will have to ask my midwife lots more detail questions at our next appointment, but I know from my (not so nice nurse call) that I will have to have antibiotics every 4 hours.  That means having a hep-lock in my hand for sure (which I hope can be submerged in water!).  It also means I cannot try to stay at home as long as I can when I go into labor.  I want to be sure to get the dose in that I need before I deliver her, so they won't push for giving HER more drugs directly.  I'm just choosing not to read all the terrible things that could happen if Ellie was one of the 1 in 4000 cases where she contracts it. 

Any of you ladies out there in blog land have to deal with this?  I'm too tired to go back and track down all your birth stories. :)

36 (1/2) weeks!

Miss Ellison: Now weighs almost 6 pounds and is more than 18 1/2 inches long.  She's losing all the downy covering of hair that covered her body and by the end of this week, she's considered FULL TERM!

Appointment updates:Whew, this section may be a long one.  I'll try to summarize concisely.  Friday morning I met with Dr. Mongwa, my cardiologist.  My blood pressure was of course the highest it's ever been, but he joked about it and later I saw that he made a note in my chart that my heart was pounding from being nervous.  He was very kind and didn't make me feel like a fool for not really knowing what the midwives wanted from him.  After a few checks, he wrote a nice note in my chart saying he thought I was fine, but wanted me to do one more echo for good measure.  The nurse came in to inform me my echo would be in an hour and I got the jist that I didn't really have a choice in the matter.  Thankfully, William called his boss just to let him know he'd be late. I sat in the waiting room feeling definitely like the youngin' in the bunch.  Kola, a very large African American, did my echo and again, was very kind and helped me calm down.  You could tell he was quite nervous doing an echo on a pregnant lady. :)

Today, I called cardio several times times before my midwife appointment, but didn't hear anything back.  I met with Kristy who was great.  She said even though she couldn't read all the results from the echo, there were no things that really stood out as abnormal.  The 2 things that were marked "there was a trace of ____" she said were normal in pregnancy.

Ellison is very head down and Kristy gave me a little hope by saying she doesn't think she'll be quite as big of Owen.  Of course, I know I can't take her word for it officially, but I'll take anything a little smaller. :)  She did the beta strep test which we'll just pray is negative.  She said everything looks fabulous and I'm set for my hopeful waterbirth!!  She said I didn't even need to come back for 2 weeks.  That means 2 more appointments until D-Day!  Of course, on my way home cardi called and said everything looks great with my birth and good luck.  Thank you Lord for being so faithful with all this! 
How I'm feeling: back to feeling pretty good.  I mean, I'm tired all the time, but am feeling much better than my last update.  I'm kinda ready to not be pregnant anymore, but overall I'm really doing ok.
I'm craving: smaller meals!  My ability to chow down has drastically decreased this past week and I've basically just been craving fruit and salad.  Ok, and the occasional bag of powdered Donettes.
Things that are finally checked off the list: This weekend, with my parent's help we crossed off taking down the ceiling fan in Ellie's room and hung her new light.  Her curtains are hung most of her clothes are organized.  My mom is working on her little window seat pad and the crib skirt.  I still have quite a few craft projects to finish but I'll do separate posts about those! 
Books I've read: I've been a reading machine lately.  Even though I'm exhausted, I can't fall asleep at night sso I've been plowing through birth books mixed in with some good fiction.  I was going to write reviews, but haha, that's not going to happen.  I recommend all of the following
BIRTH
The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth
Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way
Ina May's Guide to Childbirth 
Your Best Birth  
Birth Matters: A Midwife's Manifesta   
MOTHERHOOD
I Was a Really Good Mom Before I Had Kids: Reinventing Modern Motherhood 
It Sucked and Then I Cried: How I Had a Baby, a Breakdown, and a Much Needed Margarita
GOOD FICTION
The Hunger Games
Little Did I Know
Next to Love
And this week's picture:

Happy Birthday to Me!

31 seems older than 30. Well, it is, but you know what I mean right? :) But it's been a great birthday weekend.  I officially said goodbye to the last part of my single, younger life.  On Thursday, Owen and I drove to Peoria and said goodbye to my Galant.

 

My parents helped buy this car for me after graduating college and it has been my little baby since '03!  She's been an awesome car and I wasn't totally prepared to say goodbye to her.  But my mom and dad met us at a small car dealership (who we LOVED if you're in the market) and went on a test drive with me.  Long story very short, I drove home from Peoria in this:

Hello new (to us) minivan!  It's an '06 Honda Odyssey Touring.  We've been searching, saving, and praying for this thing for well over a year.  And even my picky father said we couldn't pass up this deal.  I'm not quite sure who is more in love with it, me, William, or Owen.  William refuses to let me drive when we're all driving together because he wants a turn.  And Owen loves being up high and actually being able to look out the window.  He also loved the DVD player on the way home from Peoria.  I still have to pinch myself when I go out to the garage. :)

Friday night, my parents came to watch Owen so William and I could go out to dinner alone and then gave me a great birthday present of sleeping in while mom took care of him in the morning!  Saturday was a mad dash of getting a huge to-do list done around the house.  My mom helped me sew curtains, a new boppy pillow cover, and is also making a new crib skirt.  We installed a beautiful light in El's room and hung a few more things in Owen's room.  They worked in the yard ripping out plants that we didn't want and moving a few plants around. 

I can't wait until the rooms are a little more complete and I can show off pictures!  I'm starting to feel a little more ready for her arrival! 

God's provisions

I just had to document two little stories of how God provides, even for things that seem silly. We've been on a strict budget lately. I mean strict. I've been getting back on the couponing bandwagon and trying so hard to pass up all the cute girly things that El doesn't really need. Once while at Walmart a couple weeks ago, I saw the cutest little yellow and gray outfit. I put it in my cart because it was too adorable to not add to her wardrobe.  I could already picture the bow I would make to match it. But once I got up the cashier, I sadly handed it back to her, knowing every little outfit like that adds up and makes me way overspend on our "groceries." It wasn't too many days later I got to see my mom who of course always has something for Ellie or Owen with her. And would you believe it, the first outfit she showed me was the one I didn't buy. And she had liked it so well too that she bought it in 2 sizes! I literally almost cried. It was such a little thing, but I love how God blesses us when we're faithful with the little things.

The other cool story is from this week. I needed new contacts badly, but of course had to have another eye exam since it had been longer than a year. William was a little concerned about how the exam and new contacts would be able to be paid for this month. I told him I'd keep the exam, but beg for a cheaper version of my contacts or just go back to wearing my glasses more.

Now if you don't know this, you're actually not really supposed to get your eyes checked while your pregnant because pregnancy often changes your prescription for the worse.  I have a small prescription to begin with, just enough that I get a headache without my glasses, squint at the computer, and driving at night makes me nervous. The doctor checked my eyes multiple times and kind of laughed when she said I might not have to worry about getting cheaper contacts because I really didn't need them anymore! In my pregnancy situation, my eyesight has actually improved quite a bit. I could benefit from a super small prescription, but said within a week of not wearing anything, my eyes would probably be just fine without any corrective wear.  She recommended me "weaning off" my contacts this week and still wearing glasses for night driving or knitting, etc.  And she was so nice about the future.  She's going to recheck me in about 3 months after Ellison arrives and not re-charge me!  So at least for a few months here, we can take the contact line off our budget.  What a fun little gift from God!

our last few days

This is just going to be a random, catch up post from the last few days. :)

Thursday
Owen and I took a short road trip to Effingham to visit with Sara, Phil, and Liana for lunch.  We had an amazing lunch at Firefly Grill.  If you're ever in Effingham, you really should eat there.  Great stuff.  Of course, I felt like we started and never finished a million conversations since we're now chasing kiddos all over the restaurant.  We were luckily by the outside deck and pond which kept Owen occupied some of the time.  It was wonderful to see them and celebrate Phil's birthday.  They also had our car seat base which I figured might be a good thing to get back since we'll be needing it in about 4 weeks. :)

when did she get so big?

Friday
Holly and some others planned a great kid friendly event at church on Friday morning. Duke Otherwise is fun musician who put on a cute, interactive show for our little ones. Although Owen spent much of the time trying to crawl onto the stage, he did have a few moments of pure fun dancing with Keira, or KiKi as he calls her. He's been wanting to watch these videos over and over! Watch out Micah, do you see that look of longing in Owen's eyes? :)

Saturday
We did lots more work around the house on Saturday. William let me have a couple hours to run errands in the morning. It's amazing how much I can get done without my "helper" tagging along. I also dug through all of Owen's clothing tubs. Note to self: keep white onesies and gender neutral clothing separate this time around to save from having to go through 6 tubs!! I pulled out a few things that we can make work for Ellie and got out the baby toys to disinfect. This week I'm washing blankets and car seats. Ahh, I can't believe it's time to do this already. Owen had fun looking through some of William's tubs and trying on his hats.

Sunday
Last night, I would just like to document that Owen went to sleep in his big boy bed with no crying and slept from 7pm-5am with no assistance.  Umm, this is the first time this has EVER happened.  This was probably largely due to the lack of a good nap and that William took him to the park and ran him hard in the hot weather.  But I will take it.  We've been having to go in around 2am and either sleeping on the floor or laying in bed with him for awhile.  Not ideal for my large belly right now, but we're excited that he's been out of our bedroom for 5 days now!  Just in time for baby 2 to take his spot. :)

big boy bed

We've been really busy getting Owen's room done. I want him to have awhile in there without his rocking chair before Ellie gets there. He's done so great "helping" us do things in there and has seemed so excited about his room. He was jumping around when William put his big boy bed together on Sunday.  His pictures aren't up on the walls yet, so I'm not going to give you the complete tour, but here's a little video of him 'painting.'
I was thinking we would wait until after she arrived to transition him to the big boy bed. He's still so small! And he moves around so much at night. But then on Monday I found a great deal on a bed railing on Craigslist (thanks Anne for the offer though).  When I put his new sheets on, he crawled right up.  He's sleeping so terrible anyways, might as well start the sleep training in the new bed instead of doing it twice right?  So we piled the pillows around the bed where he could still possibly fall out and I read him twice as many books, sang a ton more songs, and laid with him for way past when I normally do.  And then I prayed and prayed and cried and cried.  But he is officially asleep in his new bed.  How is this possible that he's ready for this?! 

right after getting the bed together

getting ready to read tonight

park time

Is it really March? We have been soaking up the amazing sunshine and have been outside as much as possible! Whew, it's a workout chasing a toddler with this belly. And I've quickly realized how not-ready his wardrobe is for summer! But we're having a blast all the same.  I'm really trying to treasure every second that it's just O and mommy all day.

He was loving the Escalade (it had leather seats - no joke).  Guess car envy starts early.

looking cool in his shades

I was shocked how long he kept them on

Dinner with Owen

This may be the longest video I've posted. But I just couldn't cut any of those precious 3 minutes of rambling about who knows what. Something about the high chair brings out the preacher in my boy I guess. Posted mainly for grandparents and Avery. :)

34 weeks!

Ellie: She's a little over 4 3/4 pounds now and as big as a cantaloupe.  She had the hiccups for the first time this week. Well, I'm sure she's had them before but this was the first time I noticed them. They were quite hard to miss at 2am as I was trying to get back to sleep.  She loves to jam her leg or arm or something in the same spot on my right side over and over.
How I'm feeling:  So remember when I wrote that I was feeling great and not feeling as big as I did with Owen?  Well, that sure changed this week.  I think I overdid it painting El and Owen's rooms and was pretty helpless at the beginning of the week.  I thought pains down there were reserved for after birth. :)  Poor Owen has been a  trooper as I haven't been able to pick him up nearly as much. Getting a full breath is now nearly impossible and am feeling oh so very sleepy all the time.  Oh well, the joys of nearing the end!  I will say I'm excited that I haven't gained nearly the weight I did with O, although that could still change and might be due to the fact of all the puking I did at the start of all this.
What I'm craving: we gave up pop for part of what we're fasting for Lent so I've been craving a sweet drink.  I found a great "recipe" for sweet tea on Pinterest, and made a big batch of decaf.  Probably defeats the whole purpose of fasting, but mmmmm, it was good.  Strawberry prices have also been dropping which is awesome because I could eat one whole quart in a single sitting. 
What I'm reading: finally putting the fiction away and digging out some of my baby books.  Reading a couple on natural childbirth (ahhh, what am I doing? :) and re-reading Babywise.  A few more on my list to get through in the next couple weeks.
What I'm getting done: Finally moving on some baby things.  Ellie's room is almost done paint wise.  The painting project we undertook was supposed to be easy, but its definitely going to deserve it's own post.  The fabric is here for her curtains that my mom is going to help me sew next weekend (along with a huge other list of things for her to help with).  I'm getting busy this week making a few things for her wall and still waiting for styrofoam to go on sale for her flower balls above the crib.  May have to just buy one at a time with my 40% off coupon.  This weekend, we focused on getting O's room put back together so he can get out of the pack and play in the guest room.  We put together all his new furniture and the painting is almost done.  I'm going to have to save for a few new prints I want for one of his walls, but I'm basically reusing most of his nursery decor.    

Really, I can’t believe how fast the time has flown by.  Now that we’re in March, I can officially say that next month – I’ll have a baby girl.  And a large glass of wine.

34 week picture before our date tonight: