Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! :)

36 weeks

Here we are at 36 1/2 weeks (the picture is me at 36w1d) ... feeling huge, but not quite ready for little Aspen to come yet. She needs to keep baking until at least 37 weeks so that she will be full term. :) That being said, I cannot believe how fast the time has gone by, nor can I believe that in less than a month, I'll be holding my little girl in my arms ... snuggling her and loving her. We'll be a family of four. It's so weird to think about. Brandon and I went to dinner tonight at a restaurant that we've eaten at a lot since we got married. He looked at me when we sat down and said, "You know ... this is probably the last time that we'll be eating here by ourselves," and he's right. Earlier today, I realized that December is next week -- December is the month that my daughter is supposed to be born in. December used to seem like it was eons away, but now it's next week.

Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans.

That being said, we had our first weekly check up on Monday. The doctor checked Aspen's position -- she's head down! Yay! I can't believe how big she is either! Geez! We haven't seen her on the ultrasound since our 20 week ultrasound, and she has grown so much! It was so amazing to see her though ... it always is. :) I don't know if we'll get to see her again before she's born, and I just have to say again ... seeing my little girl's heart beating inside me is one of the most magical things ever. To know that I literally grew her ... wow. That's a pretty cool thing if I don't say so myself. :)

Your pregnancy: 36 weeks

How your baby's growing:

Your baby is still packing on the pounds — at the rate of about an ounce a day. She now weighs almost 6 pounds (like a crenshaw melon) and is more than 18 1/2 inches long. She's shedding most of the downy covering of hair that covered her body as well as the vernix caseosa, the waxy substance that covered and protected her skin during her nine-month amniotic bath. Your baby swallows both of these substances, along with other secretions, resulting in a blackish mixture, called meconium, will form the contents of her first bowel movement.

At the end of this week, your baby will be considered full-term. (Full-term is 37 to 42 weeks; babies born before 37 weeks are pre-term and those born after 42 are post-term.) Most likely she's in a head-down position. But if she isn't, your practitioner may suggest scheduling an "external cephalic version," which is a fancy way of saying she'll try to coax your baby into a head-down position by manipulating her from the outside of your belly.

35 weeks ... only 35 more days!

Today marks yet another pregnancy milestone ... I am officially 35 weeks pregnant and 35 days from my due date. Can you believe it? It is hard to believe that in roughly one month, Brandon and I will be holding a beautiful baby girl in our arms, loving her and doing our best to teach her right from wrong. It's exciting and absolutely terrifying all at the same time!

Your pregnancy: 35 weeks

How your baby's growing:

Your baby doesn't have much room to maneuver now that he's over 18 inches long and tips the scales at 5 1/4 pounds (pick up a honeydew melon). Because it's so snug in your womb, he isn't likely to be doing somersaults anymore, but the number of times he kicks should remain about the same. His kidneys are fully developed now, and his liver can process some waste products. Most of his basic physical development is now complete — he'll spend the next few weeks putting on weight.

Dear whatever sickness has entered my body,

Don't you know that I have not only received the seasonal flu shot, but the H1N1 flu shot as well? That means I am not supposed to get sick. (I know this isn't entirely true ... but it's nice to think about.) Also, dear sickness, Tuesdays are my most productive day at work and instead of having one day this week where I feel like I am actually making a difference in the lives of my students, you have left me to lay in bed all day ... completely miserable.

If you don't mind, I would like you to leave. Now.

Sincerely,
Sam, your ungracious host

Pictures of the nursery ... well, what's been done so far.

At 23, I finally learned how to sew. :)

Brandon and I decided to make our list trip to Medford before the baby's born over Halloween weekend. It was pretty productive if I don't say so myself!

We don't have any blankets big enough to swaddle Aspen and I knew that we would need a bunch. However, swaddling blankets also cost $25 each, which is really ridiculous for a blanket! I thought it would be fun to make them myself, except I also know that I don't know how to sew. Luckily, my mom is an expert and I figured it wouldn't be too hard for her to show me how to use her sewing machine so that I could hem some fabric and make them into blankets. :)

After I made the first swaddling blanket, I had to show Sarah how to use it to make a baby burrito. :) The bear in this picture was our pretend baby.
After swaddling the bear, Sarah thought it would be hilarious to see if we could swaddle each other. Soooo... we did. Obviously this was the best choice for a Saturday afternoon. :) Luckily my parents have a big bed, so the blankets that go on their bed are big almost big enough to effectively swaddle a full grown person. haha Sarah could just roll out of the blankets ... but it was more difficult for me since I have a protruding belly!
Since mom was teaching me how to sew, I got even more ambitious and decided to make some homemade baby legs. If you don't know what they are, baby legs are pretty much leg warmers for babies. They sell for $10+ depending on where you buy them and whether or not they're a knock off brand. They're like leggings, but supposedly make changing diapers a lot easier because you don't have to pull the pants down/off. We will see!

Mom and Sarah helped. Well, Mom helped and Sarah watched and did weird things like tie socks around her head. haha
Sarah also used the scraps to make ankle warmers. Like I said, she was really helpful. :)
Here is one of the pairs after I completed them! The pattern was really easy to follow, though Mom definitely helped me out. She did the first pair and then I finished all the rest. I did, however, discover that I am NOT good at pinning things -- she had to do that for me so that we didn't end up with a bunch of pairs of baby legs with holes in them! haha
And the finished products ... 8 pairs of baby legs! They were really fun and easy to make. This is the website I used: http://everythingyourmamamade.com/2008/01/21/make-your-own-baby-leg-warmers/

I used women's crew socks, and I think they'll be fine for when she is a newborn ... but they aren't as long as I would like them to be. Tube socks are a little long, but I think it's better to just cut them to the length you need. It's okay though because it will give me an excuse to make more! :) They worked out to less than $1/pair since I bought 5 pairs of socks for $5 and then Sarah gave me 3 pairs of her socks that she never wears. :)
Here are the blankets I made. One of them is fleece and the other five are flannel. They were really easy to make too. For swaddling blankets, we were told we needed 1 1/4 yard x 1 1/4 yard squares of fabric ... then I just hemmed the sides. It was pretty easy. :) They were ~$3/each. So for ~$27, I made 8 pairs of leggings and 6 blankets! Like I said, it was a very productive Saturday. :) Not to mention the fact that I am pretty proud of myself for finally learning how to use a sewing machine!

Pumpkin Patch!

In attempts to update on life as of late, this is a three week late post about our trip to the pumpkin patch and corn maze at Kruger Farms on Sauvie Island. We've been so busy that we didn't have a chance to go out there until the weekend before Halloween (and we still haven't cut open our pumpkins!!). It was, however, a gorgeous day so putting it off might have been a good choice. :)

The corn maze this year was in the shape of the Blazer's symbol, and we managed to find our way out in about 20 minutes the first time. We made sure to go through more than once though so that we could get our money's worth! It was a good thing we brought our boots though ... the maze was REALLY muddy! Brandon compared it to pig slop ... so that should give you some kind of indication about how muddy it was.
I think this is the first corn maze that Brandon and I have been to together -- who knew we had such an aptitude for it! :) We had a really good time and thankfully it wasn't raining.
After the corn maze we treked up to the pumpkin patch which seemed like a really good idea until I realized that we were going to have to carry three pumpkins back ... and I'm pregnant. haha However, there were a lot of people there so we didn't want to wait in the long line for the hay ride out there.
Brandon is really particular about his pumpkins -- they have to be perfectly round and the perfect color orange. It's cute. :) He muscled two of our three pumpkins (the heaverier two, I should add) back to the car too.
My pumpkin and me -- looks like I have another pumpkin smuggled under my shirt! haha
As I mentioned earlier, we still haven't carved our pumpkins. We went on a Saturday and this trip pretty much wore me out. Sunday was a lazy day and we never got around to carving them during the week. It's hard to get much done after work when we get home at 6 and I go to bed around 9. Halloween weekend we went to Medford and forgot the pumpkins at home, so we didn't carve them then either. Sooo ... needless to say ... we still have three pumpkins sitting at home waiting to be chopped up, boiled, and made into pumpkin bread! :)
Denali found out that he loves pumpkins. He actually thinks the pumpkins are strange ... but he loves the stems. This particular pumpkin doesn't have a stem at all anymore because the dog thought it would be a really good idea to eat the entire thing. :) He's so strange, but let's face it ... we already knew that. :)

34 weeks

34 weeks

Your pregnancy: 34 week

How your baby's growing:

Your baby now weighs about 4 3/4 pounds (like your average cantaloupe) and is almost 18 inches long. Her fat layers — which will help regulate her body temperature once she's born — are filling her out, making her rounder. Her skin is also smoother than ever. Her central nervous system is maturing and her lungs are continuing to mature as well. If you've been nervous about preterm labor, you'll be happy to know that babies born between 34 and 37 weeks who have no other health problems generally do fine. They may need a short stay in the neonatal nursery and may have a few short-term health issues, but in the long run, they usually do as well as full-term babies.

33 weeks

33 weeks

Your pregnancy: 33 weeks

How your baby's growing:

This week your baby weighs a little over 4 pounds (heft a pineapple) and has passed the 17-inch mark. He's rapidly losing that wrinkled, alien look and his skeleton is hardening. The bones in his skull aren't fused together, which allows them to move and slightly overlap, thus making it easier for him to fit through the birth canal. (The pressure on the head during birth is so intense that many babies are born with a conehead-like appearance.) These bones don't entirely fuse until early adulthood, so they can grow as his brain and other tissue expands during infancy and childhood.

32 weeks

Sooo... as always, I need to play catch up. I will try to do so tonight. :) Here's my 32 week picture.

Your pregnancy: 32 weeks

How your baby's growing:

By now, your baby weighs 3.75 pounds (pick up a large jicama) and is about 16.7 inches long, taking up a lot of space in your uterus. You're gaining about a pound a week and roughly half of that goes right to your baby. In fact, she'll gain a third to half of her birth weight during the next 7 weeks as she fattens up for survival outside the womb. She now has toenails, fingernails, and real hair (or at least respectable peach fuzz). Her skin is becoming soft and smooth as she plumps up in preparation for birth.