Kankles

With the humidity and warmth this week, my ankles are quite swollen. Jason and I instantly noticed the change in my ankles since normally they are thin with whatever those bones are called exposed. Now I look like I have kankles. Of course the midwife today didn't think they looked bad, but to me, they are HUGE!

I had my 36 week appointment today. I gained 2 pounds since my last visit (2 weeks ago), healthy blood pressure, and strong baby heartbeat. I was hoping for some more details about labor and delivery, but again, nothing unless I ask. Luckily I was prepared with some questions from our childbirth class. I'm happy I went with the midwives over the doctors because they try everything before a C-section. Our philosophies seem to line up more than the drug happy doctors.

Even though some of my glucose numbers are high, Janine was still happy with my diet. Phew! She again stressed that they will induce me around my due date. I asked if it is ok if my acupunturist uses her tricks to induce labor. She said go for it, starting at 37 weeks is fine. I meet with my acupuncturist on Monday and will make a plan with her to get things moving. I hope to make it until May 11th, finish up work, then get this baby out!

Instead of a birth plan I told Jason I'm making a list of food I want to eat when I get the ok. #1 on the list- a Panera asiago cheese bagel with sun dried tomato cream cheese :) Off to eat my nightly dose of ice cream! I also can't wait for a Rita's treat!

And the Results Are.....

For those that voted on the gender it was a close race with a boy edging out the win. It is funny that this poll was neck and neck, where my office poll was heavly slanted towards a girl. Speaking of my office poll, I need to figure out a way to show you the presentation that was created by my boss. You will see just how big of dorks us accountants really are!

Below is the final Due Date Calender

36 Weeks!!

I am almost full term! For being 9 months preggers, I feel pretty darn good. Maybe I have my diabetes lifestyle to thank.

I'm finding it's getting harder to resist carbs, especially around Easter with everyone eating PB eggs and Starburst jelly beans in front of me. One pleasant finding is eating a 1/2 cup of ice cream at night results in an appropriate fasting glucose level in the morning. Needless to say, I've had ice cream every night for the past 2 weeks.

My ankles are starting to swell slightly, but my shoes still fit and it's perfect timing since Spring/Summer is here and I can switch to sandles/flip flops.

My body feels great for the most part. Jason and I still take a walk almost every night. The humidity is making the walking a little bit harder. I am SO GLAD I only have 4 more weeks instead of an entire Baltimore summer to survive. I swore after last summer I would not live in Baltimore for another summer. Here we are... ugh. Parker and I had fits sleeping this week with the sticky weather.

The poll and calendar are closed at this point since the first guess is this week. You snooze, you lose! (with maybe the exception of Aubrey...)

I see the midwife on Thursday and will probably have weekly appointments. The end is near!!

36 Weeks and Nursery

Last Chance to Guess

Last chance to guess Nugget's gender and due date is this Tuesday, April 26. Here is the most updated calender.

If you are guessing the sex you need to vote on the side of the blog, as we cannot add this ourselves.

A Glorious Combo

April 22nd is an important date to me: My partner's birthday and it's also Earth Day! Two things I love and care about deeply.

We will celebrate Jason's THIRTHETH birthday playing golf and drinking beer with his best buddies. (I will drive them around...)

Everyone should celebrate Earth Day by unplugging chargers when they aren't using them to save some energy. Or turn off the lights when you leave a room. Take multiple reusable shopping bags with you anywhere you shop to eliminate using plastic bags. I really want a clean world for Nugget. Do your part!

Birthing Class and Hospital Tour

It was a busy week of baby related events and no, I wasn't on Spring Break. I already had that in March, so I was juggling these events with a full time work schedule. Needless to say, I'm pretty tired!

We attended a 6 hour blitz child birth class on Sunday. While I didn't really learn anything spectacular, it gave me a little perspective to what lies ahead. I think I enjoyed watching other couples interact and react more than listening to the nurse. We watched a vaginal birth, C-section, reviewed relaxation techniques, and discussed other labor related information.

I left a little more anxious about delivery than before I took the class. It's not that I didn't know what was coming, but it's coming soon! At least I didn't gasp like the girl next to Jason when she saw the baby coming out. C'mon man! (ESPN moment...) Do you really not know what your girl parts look like?? How did you expect it to look? I will say the delivery of the placenta was nasty and I would be completely fine if I didn't see mine.

I'm still a little unsure how I feel about an epidural. I know, I'm crazy, but there is something about being numb and not knowing when you are pushing. I am not ruling it out, but I definitely want to explore other options. Go ahead, tell me I'm nuts. Keep in mind that I'm turning a little granola these days and love acupuncture :)

Yesterday we had our hospital tour. Jason and I agreed that this was probably better than the class (and free better yet!) The labor and delivery rooms at Howard County General are huge, bright, and very nice. Seeing where we will be made me more excited than anxious. I know labor and delivery is going to be painful, long, and possibly horrible, but I'm looking forward to sharing this special, emotional experience with Jason. This is our moment (hours...) and I think after everything we've been through to get pregnant, meeting our baby will be something extraordinary.

I have one request for everyone- Jason will call/text/update you as needed. I have already instructed Jason NOT to be texting and on his crackberry the entire time I am in labor. Nothing annoys me more than the world we live in now where I go out to dinner with friends and everyone is looking at their damn phone the whole time. Jason's attention is to be on me and not answering all of your "how's it going?" texts. I really appreciate your concern, but I'm old school and don't feel everyone needs to know about every contraction I have. If we don't respond to your calls or texts, don't take it personally. We will update the blog and Jason will call/text once we have some special time with our baby. Thanks :)

Right On!

My appointment yesterday was not as exciting as I hoped. Nugget is so big at this point that the sonogram was a bit of a let down. Nevertheless, we saw Nugget's face, eyes moving, tongue moving, heart beat, and his boy parts. JUST KIDDING!!! We sternly told the tech that we did not want to know the sex. She told us to look away while she checked out things around the legs.

Nugg didn't cooperate very well to get a profile shot. Jason wants to make sure Nugget gets my nose, not his. We'll have to wait and see! The two pictures we have are not clear and no one will know what it is, so we're not posting it.

I am measuring exactly 34 weeks, 3 days, which puts me right on track with my due date. Nugget is a little over 5 lbs at this point. Heartbeat has been a consistent 145 over the last few months. Don't know if that means boy or girl, but there's some extra info for your gender guess.

I gained one pound since my last visit, which is normal. I go back in two weeks. In the meantime I will start Evening Primrose Oil to get my body ready for delivery. Even though the gestational diabetes is not affecting the size of the baby and my health, they still want to deliver by 40 weeks. It's getting close!!

Sneak Peak

Yippee!! I have a sonogram tomorrow to check on Nugget's size. We cannot wait to see how Nugget is doing in there. We are sticking with the plan of NOT finding out whether Nugget has boy parts or girl parts. I hope our surprise is not spoiled at week 34!

We have our blitz child birth class on Sunday and hospital tour on Wednesday. Packing our hospital bags in on the agenda for next week as well. We want to be ready just in case Nugget decides to make an appearance in April.

Don't forget to guess Nugget's gender and birth date.

Shower #2

The second event of the weekend was my baby shower with Jason's side of the family and their friends. I really enjoyed having two showers of about 15 women instead of one huge shower. It gave me chance to talk with everyone beyond "hello and thanks for coming".

My mother-in-law and sister-in-law threw a great party. There was beaucoup food, adorable white chocolate shaped bottles as party favors, gifts galore, and games to keep the group entertained.

Springfield Shower

In true Jason and Marisa fashion, almost everything was put away by the time we went to bed on Sunday night. We only have a few duplicates to return. Nugget's room is just what I wanted; I love the animal theme, the color of the walls, and the furniture. We'll post pictures soon of the room. The thank you cards are coming... but in the meantime, thank you to everyone for a wonderful shower!

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More Milestone Birthdays

We celebrated one more milestone birthday this month, Tom's 60th, Jason's father. It's neat how we are following the pattern- he was about 30 when Jason was born and now Jason will be 30 years apart from Nugget. The good old circle of life!

We don't see the Hollencamp side often, so it was a real treat to see Jason's aunts, uncles, and cousin. As I looked around the table of family at the party, I realized we all live in different states: New Jersey, Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio, Illinois, and Georgia. No wonder we don't see everyone except at weddings!

It was great to catch up with everyone and laugh over old photos Aunt Barb & Aunt Joan put together from Grandma Hollencamp's collection. Jason was quite a cute baby. I hope Nugget gets his clear blue eyes! I was glad to see that Jason had nerdy looking outfits growing up just like I did. I always give my mom a hard time about the way she dressed me. I wonder if 20 years from now Nugget will be embarassed at the way I dress him/her.

Here's the Hollencamp crew minus a few cousins

Really Fools?

In my 8 years of teaching I've had very few April Fools jokes played on me. I don't know if that means the students like me or not. I was excited for April 1st this year because I was hoping to go out with a bang. I want to see some creativity!

4 years ago two students in my 9th grade class took silly pictures of themselves and hung them all over my room. They put them over the pictures of Parker and Jason on my desk, over my posters, and one on the projector screen. It was quite comical because the girls were obviously in the school bathrooms taking them on their cell phones (which are not allowed in school). I have a good relationship with these girls and hoped this would become a yearly tradition. Nothing happened 10th grade year. Last year they took one of the toy trinkets off my desk and put it in jello. If you watch The Office you will see the humor in this prank. I thought this one was hysterical. I had high hopes for this year.

I arrived in my classroom Friday morning to find everything normal. While I was erasing the boards for my 2nd period class Carolyn and Carley came in and hung odd family and pregnancy pictures all over my room. Really? That's all they could muster up? I was quite disappointed. AND I was in the room when they did it.

I even had my favorite two classes on Friday and still nothing... oh well.

The seniors have played some good pranks over the last two years. Since our school is in the city the juniors have to park on the street. Parking is also a hot mess with the juniors. Last year the seniors parked their cars just far enough from each other that it looked like you could get in between them, but couldn't. This year my advisee had her dad get someone from their moving company to park an 18 wheel moving truck on Roland Ave. Driving into school with a huge moving truck with its 4 ways on was priceless. The juniors were not laughing of course. I think only 3 girls got to park in front of the school.

Anyone have any good pranks happen to them or do something funny?