34 weeks and counting!

Oops, I didn't mean to wait so long to post again. I've been thinking about blogging, but just haven't really been in a mood to sit and write.

I am 34 weeks now! I had a doctor appt on Thursday and everything was fine. I have gained 28 pounds already. I had hoped to keep better control on my weight, but I haven't felt like exercising and I have been just eating whatever. My blood pressure continues to be good. It was 120/60 when I went on Thursday.

Last weekend we had a family reunion in North Georgia. We usually camp for the weekend, but this year I had said that I was NOT camping. Well... Tony ended up not being able to go with me because he had to be on call for work. So my options were to camp w/ my parents or do 7 hours of driving in one day w/ my sister. I ended up doing the camping. My parents do pretty plush camping though so it wasn't too bad. We had electricity, computer w/ internet and movies, inflatable mattresses and bathrooms nearby of course. We also went tubing on Saturday. It was fun, but the water was Really low and we had to push ourselves along for about a third of the 2 hour "float". I enjoyed it though. Our reunion was good as usual. I rode home with my sisters and was able to visit my youngest sister's apartment in Atlanta that I had not been to yet. I was disappointed though because she wouldn't let me see the cloth diapers that she is making for me. ;-) That's ok though cause I get to see them soon.

Anyway, my ankles started swelling Friday night and have had varying degrees of swelling everyday since then. I originally was still holding onto the idea that it was just a food issue because I ate fast food twice on Friday. I even still hoped that for the duration of the weekend because the food was hit or miss and there was a lot of activity + not much sleep. But this whole week it just hasn't really cleared up. Tony says that I still haven't been eating very well this week, but I think it is just this point in the pregnancy coupled with the heat. I am just trying to keep my feet propped up when I am at home and drinking lots of water.

Tomorrow is my first baby shower! I'm SO excited! I can't wait. My sister and mom and I have been working on getting prepared most of the week. The biggest issue we have though is that my sister works from 3pm until 10 or 11 most nights and mom and I work 9 to 5ish jobs. So when we are at work she is home and vice versa. She has to work tonight also. We went over earlier though and got a few things hashed out. We had originally debated whether to have two showers or just one. I didn't think we had enough people to have two though. So, we did the one. Once we started sending out invites though the guest list just kept growing! By the time we were done we had like 46 people including myself. Then a couple of people have called and said "I'm coming and bringing So & So also". The additional guests are people I'm happy to have, but I'm like OH BOY are we gonna have a pile of people at this thing!! My sister's house is set up well for a big crowd though, so I'm hoping it will still go fine. I can't wait to see everyone! I also ordered a special cake that is hopefully going to be Really cool! It is going to be sort of "Ace of Cakes" style. I've requested that it have blocks spelling BOY and be Winnie the Pooh themed. I haven't seen the final sketch/idea, but I've seen enough of her other work that I'm sure I'm gonna be happy with it.

I've been so excited about this weekend! I woke up at 5:30am Friday morning and was not able to go back to sleep!

I'm really glad that the shower is this weekend because I have begun to feel really big and am getting more and more uncomfortable. I feel like I've been 33/34 weeks forever now! I am beginning to be just READY for the due date to be here and I know I have a long way to go before then. I think the shower is a good diversion and then will give me stuff to do afterwards also. We can start actually setting up the room and shopping for other stuff afterward.

I'm having my work shower on Thursday, which I'm looking forward to also! I am just trying to get through the first shower before I think too much about the work one though. ;-) We are having it at Cheddar's at lunch time. That is how we generally do showers at work. I expect a decent turn out at that shower also and it should be fun!

We still have not completely settled on a name for this little boy. I have a pretty good idea of what the first name will be, but we can't decide on a middle name. We are still working on it though.

We took our hospital tour today. I mostly wanted to refresh myself and Tony on where exactly we needed to go to check in. I was pretty pleased with the tour. The lady was really nice and indicated that the hospital is very open to doing most of the things that I want and had put in my birth plan. I am planning to go natural and try not to labor flat on my back if possible. She indicated that it is best if you can be unmedicated because you can move around and get into different positions better. She was also encouraging about breastfeeding immediately and having the baby room in. Our hospital has Really tight security in the Labor and Delivery area because a few years ago a lady stole a baby from there. What I like about the extra security is that they take the persons name (make them a badge) and then call your room to ask if the person can come back. I think that it will be nice to have a heads up that people are coming and be able to head them off if it is a really bad time. The only thing that I wasn't really excited about is that the laboring bed looks REALLY uncomfortable, but I told Tony that is even more incentive for me to try to stay at home as LONG as possible. I don't want to go to the hospital too early and have to be in there with them poking and prodding me any longer than necessary!

On the one hand, I can't believe I only have 6 weeks left and on the other hand, I can't believe I still have to wait 6 more weeks!! I am so ready to meet this little one, but I know that I still have a lot of prep work to get done before he arrives. Now I just have to find the energy to do all of those things ;-)

I'll post all about my showers soon!