Officially Full Term - Let's Celebrate!

Today marks week 38.  Baby is now officially considered full term and is ready to be here any day.  Of course, that calls for a celebration!  So today, we went to the state fair with my parents and Michael.  Surprisingly, I did really well and didn't even get that swollen throughout the day.  We got our favorite foods and made the rounds at least once, so that was perfect.  I was really hoping that walking around all day at the fair would bring delivery on a little sooner, but so far no luck tonight.  A girl can hope!

We have our next doctors appointment on Tuesday, so we will see how things go over the next several days.  I am hoping the little guy will be here by the beginning of September, but you just never know.  If he is anything like his father and me, he will be stubborn and will come out when he is good and ready.  At least now, his room is ready, so when he decides to make his debut, he will have his own space all set.  Thank you to all of our amazing friends and family for helping us get the room ready.  It looks perfect.   Only thing left to go up is the curtains!  Check it out......

 

37 Weeks - Hanging in there

I can't believe it has already been 3 weeks since I last posted anything.  Time is flying by!  Let me fill you in on the past several weeks... 

Week 35 was chaotic.  I finished up my Medicine 2 rotation, so I was studying for the shelf exam most of the week.  I found that my motivation to study was significantly diminished compared to several months ago.  I guess stacking my rotations back-to-back makes you burn out a little easier!  I ended up with my first full weekend off in a long time, and spent it enjoying the beautiful weather and getting the house ready for baby.  It is incredible the amount of junk that piles up in every crevice over a relatively short period of time! 
On August 12th, the Schroll ladies threw us a beautiful baby shower at their house.  We spent the evening laughing with friends and talking about the significance of our names and funny baby stories.  As usual, these ladies went way above and beyond everything I could possibly expect, and the shower was amazing!  From the adorable onesies spelling out "baby boy" to the themed cookie favors, they were so thoughtful and must have worked so hard to put it all together.  Also, so many friends and family members were there to celebrate with us, which was amazing!  It is nice to get to see everyone and catch up, as time gets away from me so quickly these days, and I just feel like I don't get to see them very often.  The shower was also wonderful in the fact that it helped us completely finish off the baby's room!  Our amazing friends pitched in to buy us the most beautiful bedroom set that is all in the jungle theme!  We love it!  To top it off, we got some amazing gifts from the Brennan side of the family.  All of the Brennan ladies pitched in to buy us a rocking chair and our stroller!  We have been so blessed by everyone!  I am so grateful to everyone for going out of their way to celebrate our new little guy with us!  We are so blessed to be able to bring him into a world with family and friends who will surround him in love, as they have already without him being here yet.  Thank you to all of our incredible family and friends!

At 36 Weeks I started a new rotation in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.  Taking care of premature babies that are born at 23-24 weeks, as well as babies will all kinds of congenital malformations and other issues really makes me grateful that I have been lucky enough to carry our little guy to full term.  I cannot imagine facing the long hospital stays and the outcomes that many of these little babies will face for the rest of their lives.  It is a blessing to get to take part in the care of such fragile little lives.  It really reminds you how precious life is, and how miraculous it is that we can even grow these tiny babies from just a few cells all the way to intricate and functioning babies that will grow and flourish into children and adults someday. 
Mom and I went to our 36 week appointment on August 14th.  The doctor said that everything was going fine, and told me that I was 60% effaced but not yet dilated.  I think this was a little nerve-racking for my dad, who happened to be leaving for China for 9 days the next day! But luckily, you can walk around for weeks partially dilated without having the baby, so things were looking right on track. 
During week 37, I started taking overnight call in the NICU.  It had been a little over a month since the last time that I had to spend the night in the hospital, and yet my emotional status feels like it has changed so much.  The first day that I was supposed to be on call, I felt down all day about staying in the hospital, and ended up calling Derek to tell him that I was sad and wanted to come home.  It seemed so silly in my head, but yet I feel so home-sick.  Really, I just wanted to sleep in my own bed with my husband and kitty.  Lucky for me, I have an amazing husband who decided that he would try to make it a little easier for me by driving down the the U of M to sit and have dinner with me so that I would get to see him before I went to bed.  We enjoyed a nice little dinner at Davanni's and were able to sit and chat for a little while without my pager going off.  It was so sweet of him, and it was amazing how much it made a difference in making time go quicker for the night.  Also, Derek has been really helping me getting things done around the house.  Last night I came home to the recycling and garbage cans outside, the cats litter box cleaned, and the kitchen clean.  Its amazing what a difference it makes to have these little jobs done.  As I get larger, each little job seem to take just that much more energry!
Derek and I went to our 37 week appointment yesterday (August 22nd), and she told us that I am now mostly effaced and am dilated to 0.5-1cm.  Really minimal dilation, but things are moving in the right direction. 

Here I sit, on call again tonight, also lucky enough to have my amazing husband meet me for dinner again tonight!  The night is flying by, 2 new babies stable so far.  Im hoping for a little sleep and then anticipating a wonderful weekend with our families.  My dad gets home from China tomorrow, and he will be glad to know that the baby has not come without him here.  Vicky also gets home on Saturday, so when the are both home, I am considering it fair game for the little guy to get here.  I am feeling about ready for him to come... maybe not so excited for the after math and the fact that I will literally be tearing myself apart to bring him into this world, but I know that getting to meet him will be completely worth it!  Hopefully that moment will be soon!

34 Weeks - Back to some degree of normalcy

Hard to believe we are at 34 weeks already.  It is funny to think of being 8 months pregnant.  So far things have been going very well.  There have been a few instances of me getting sick over the past several weeks, including the cold/headache that I have right now.  But overall, I can't complain because this pregnancy has been pretty much uneventful so far (not to curse myself now!)

As for things around the house, we are finally starting to get our lives and house back together.  I have been slowly taking out the baby clothing and getting things washed.  Also, Derek took me to get the mattress for the crib, so we would actually have a bed for him at some point!  Exciting to have his room partially put together at this point.  Now it is just time to get the rest of the junk that was upstairs organized and put away where it belongs.  Not to mention the disaster zone in our basement that will just have to wait for a few months!  haha.

On another note, Derek and I bought an SUV from my parents, so that the baby would be good and safe in an SUV.  It is a lexus GX470, which is incredibly beautiful and of course amazingly taken care of by my parents.  I definitely feel safe and comfortable in it, but I have to laugh because I get so many funny looks from people while I am driving it.  I guess they must wonder how someone my age that is a medical student ended up with such a fancy, nice SUV.  Not that I blame them.... I never expected to have such a nice vehicle, and I surely didn't think that buying an SUV was a must, seeing as how tons of people drive their babies around in cars.  But, Derek wanted the baby to be safe, and it makes him feel a lot better to know that we will be driving in a bigger vehicle just in case.  Very grateful and blessed that my parents sold this to us!

So, while not much has been changing in terms of the pregnancy, I have been doing a lot of thinking lately and feeling incredibly grateful for everything that I have.  First of all, Michael just turned 15.  Crazy to think he is getting that big already and will be starting high school in a month!  He has been great lately, offering to help out with everything around our house including painting and mowing the lawn.  Also, he has been really supportive and just goes along with the plan, even if it is something he doesn't really want to do.  Dad took him to Canada fishing this weekend with his buddy, so I am excited to hear all about their adventures when they get back.  Also, Derek just turned 27.  Again, incredible to think that we are already in our late 20s.  Seems like just yesterday we were the ones that were 15 and dreaming about our futures.  Of course, this got me thinking back to when we were 15, and just had started dating.  As a teenager, I often thought about what my future would look like.  I imagined marrying prince charming, who I thought I had found at the age of 15, and starting a family in our house in the suburbs with a great back yard where our kids could grow up, and of course being close to our families.  Little did I know at the age of 15 that this would actually be what my life would look like!  There is a lot of people who criticize Disney for allowing little girls to imagine their lives with prince charming and the perfect life, but funny to think that these little dreams sometimes come true.  I am incredibly grateful to say that my life has so far gone just like a Disney movie.  I am glad to have found the man of my dreams at a much younger age than expected.  He has been everything I could hope for in a husband and has supported me in medical school even on the days that I question myself.  Also, here we are, about to celebrate our 1st anniversary, and also about to celebrate the joy of bringing our first baby into the world.   We are living in an amazing home in a safe neighborhood, close to both of our families.  Really, life is a dream come true at this point.  Sure, we both work hard at our jobs and I get exhausted by medical school somedays.  But I truly never would have expected my life to be as perfect as it is right now.  Definitely feeling blessed.  I can't wait to meet our little guy in 6 (or less) weeks, and teach him to be a wonderful little man just like his daddy.  

Thank you to my husband, our families, and our friends of making us truly blessed everyday!

Happy 1st Anniversary to my incredible husband on August 6th!

Baby Johnson will be joining us shortly, due September 9th, 2012!

32 Weeks - Under Construction!

So much has happened in the past 4 weeks!

Derek and I had the windows and upstairs carpet replaced about a month ago.  Little did we know, that along with the windows and carpet would come a TON of work to go along with it.  So we have spent the last 4 weeks crazy busy with house projects.  First of all, the windows that were all replaced needed to be stained and varnished, which is a time-consuming project!  My parents came to help and and did a  TON of work to get things done, which was incredibly sweet!  I think my mom must have realized that there is a ton to do and that I just don't have the time or energy to get it done, so they rallied and did a lot to get things moving.  Along with the windows came pulling up the carpet to get rid of and painting all of the rooms upstairs around the windows and in the closets.  This was another huge ongoing project.  Luckily my mom and Michael helped get all of the painting done, and Michael, Matt, and dad helped get the carpet pulled and all of the staples out.  As a last-minute add-on, Derek decided that while we were going to have the rest of the upstairs done except the bathroom time (which we have hated), we might as well replace the bathroom time also!  I am glad he decided to do that, as it looks fabulous!  While it seems so short to write down in this paragraph, this work has been the ongoing accumulation of what we have been doing for the past month.  I am not sure there has been one day that we have come back from work and sat down to eat dinner or watch a movie!  It is work work work all the time.

Needless to say, since we have the entire upstairs under construction, there is no baby room yet!  I am glad to say that he has not come early enough yet for me to panic, but I am starting to get that panicked feeling for sure.  There is definitely something about having a baby room all set up and getting nested in, and I have not been able to do that yet.  Luckily, once the carpet comes in this week,  we will be able to set up the baby room.  Our parents have decided to buy us a crib and dresser for the baby room, which was incredibly sweet of all of them!  They always do wonderful things like that for us, and we are very very lucky!  The crib and dresser are now here in the boxes, and I am super excited to get them set up this week!

Also, The Johnson ladies (Vicky, Tracy, Amy, and Krissy) threw me a baby shower two weeks ago.  It was so wonderful to see everyone and spend time with some of Vicky's family that I do not get to see very often!  People got us just fabulous gifts.  It was overwhelming to sit there opening such beautiful gifts.  Thank you Thank you to all of our friends and family who came to celebrate with us!  It was so great!  I can't wait to get the baby room set up and start getting his new clothes and gear all set for when he gets here.  Its very exciting to start feeling like there is baby stuff in the house now!

And how am I feeling?  Well, truthfully, I am exhausted!  I have never really felt like calling in sick to work just to sleep, but it has definitely crossed my mind lately.  I am working in the medical ICU right now, so things are crazy busy and I am up at 5 every morning.  While I really enjoy the ICU, I don't enjoy having to stand for 5 hours while we do rounds.  This is the first time that I have really started to feel like I am swelling.  I am pretty sure that I am currently losing my ankles and getting cankels!  Yuck!  My doc told me that it was no big deal that I work all day as long as I go home and put my feet up at night..... yeah, like that is ever going to happen with the construction projects going on at our house!  haha!  I guess I will just have to deal with having no ankles and big swollen legs!  Also, baby seems to be growing so fast now.  My belly feels like it gets bigger by the day!  According to the doc, I am growing right on schedule.  It is hard to believe that there is only 8 more weeks to go before he gets here.  I am so excited and yet also nervous!  I want things to go right and I just hope that he is healthy and doing well.  He sure moves around a lot, so at least I knew he is still doing okay in there for now.  I am currently hoping for a bit more sleep and some peace and quiet around here once the construction is done, seeing as how I won't be sleeping once the baby is born!  Wish me luck!

28 Weeks and very busy

It has been a whirl-wind past several weeks.  It feels like we just did our 24 week visit and here we are already at 28 weeks.  There have been lots of events in the meantime.

Over Memorial Day Weekend we traveled to Manitowoc, WI where my mom's family lives and where our cabin is.  Because it had been so long since I had see my grandparents, we figured I better get over there soon to see them.  Also, my grandma had wanted to see me pregnant, and this was probably the only weekend that was going to work, so off we went.   I was pleasantly surprised at how well the 6 hour car ride went.  I thought that I would be terribly uncomfortable, since I spend a lot of my time every day readjusting in my chair trying to get comfortable, but actually I was very comfortable and even cuddled with Journey most of the way there!  We stayed at our cabin, and arrived late at night on Friday.  Unfortunately it was chilly that weekend, but we got to see some of my favorite people, so that was very exciting!  My aunts and uncles came to visit with us at the cottage and we spent time visiting, playing spoons, fishing, grilling out, and even had a bonfire.  Some of my favorite things to do.  It was so nice to just kick back and relax for the weekend.  Also, we went to see my grandparents at their house.  It was actually somewhat difficult for me, because I have memories of how our trips always went previously....we would arrive friday night and stop in to visit with them until 10pm and then see them the next day when they came to the cabin.... but this time was different because they were tired and sleeping and then went to the casino one of the days we were there.  It was just a tough adjustment I guess.  But I was very glad to see them!  Grandma, mom and I sat out on their porch and looked at the wedding book while the boys threw a football around. This was also the first time I felt pregnant in pictures.... My whole body ( + my face) looks puffy in pictures!  haha!  Overall a great weekend!


The next weekend was the annual Dance Recital/Baseball Tournament weekend with Russ, Krissy, Trevor, and Gwen.  Gwen was adorable in her dance recital.  She looked so adorable in her little pink and white dress and she did a great job remembering her routine.  The next day we went to Trevor's baseball game.  It turns out he has improved incredibly over the past year.  He has quite the arm and is a great hitter.  Both days were a blast!  We always enjoy this weekend each year.


Next up on the list was Michael's 8th Grade graduation.  It is crazy to think that when I was in his place, he was 2 years old.  Geesh how time flies.  He has become quite the young man.  Seems like just a few days ago he was crab-crawling around the kitchen grinning and banging pots and pans.  So he is now considered a high-schooler.   I hope that he continues to keep his sweet, caring personality.  Also, if he gets any taller, he is going to surpass me.  I am not quite sure I am ready for that.  Must be odd for him to be expecting his first nephew at the age of 15.  It will definitely be interesting to see how things change by the time he is a 9th grader.  He will be an uncle by then, and we will be doing lots of football, hockey, and lacrosse games in small adorable Red-Knight outfits.  
The next weekend, we spent the day with Trevor and Gwen playing at the park, running through the slip n' slide, and playing in the sprinkler.  It was the perfect relaxing day, and wonderful for me to be in the water keeping cool.  Hopefully we will get many more summer days like this the rest of the summer.

And finally, our 28 week appointment was this week.  Things are still going great.  Baby continues to have a strong heartbeat and lots of movement.  I am measuring right on for size, and Dr. Johnson says I am "all baby"!  Not sure if that's a compliment or not.  I have gained another 4 lbs. weighing in now at 157.4.  My mom said she delivered at 166lbs, so I am probably right on for that.  The good news is that if my pregnancy is like hers (which so far it is), I will not get stretch marks and hopefully will have a relatively short deliver.  Hey, a girl can hope.    Also, my glucose test came back normal, so no gestational diabetes for me.  So far, so good!  Here is to hoping for the best for the next 12 weeks!

24 weeks

Today was a big day!  Not only did I deliver my first babies, but we also had our 24 week appointment.

In terms of the appointment, Dr. Johnson says baby boy is doing wonderful!  His heart rate is in the 140s and uterine measurements were right where they should be!  Way to go baby!  The only unfortunate part of this appointment is that I found out I have gained 10 lbs in the last month!  In not gonna lie, I panicked a little bit when I found that out.  Apparently it is not a problem since I only gained 4 lbs in the first 5 months of the pregnancy.... but still, makes me a bit nervous.  Looks like I will be trying to cut out the junk food more.  No more cheetos for this girl (quite sad about this, as I have quite enjoyed these as an afternoon snack over the past week or so).  Anyway, glad to hear baby is growing well and things are right on track.

In terms of life outside of baby brain, I am on my first week on by obstetrics and gynecology rotation.  Today I delivered my first baby, twins actually, by C-section.  It was incredible!  I actually considered crying for a second, before I regained composure and realized that was off-limits, or they would for sure see that the pregnancy hormones were getting to me.  I now realize why ob-gyn's love their jobs.  Bringing life into this world is miraculous, and being a part of it was a huge honor! I can't wait for the day we bring our own little miracle into the world!

20 Week Appointment

It's a Boy!

We had our 20 week appointment 2 weeks ago and decided to find out the sex of the baby.  I had originally not wanted to find out at all, thinking it would be much more fin to find out once the baby was born.  Derek has wanted to find out the entire time.  So the week before our 20 week ultrasound, I was starting to change my mind.  I had a significant "inkling" that the baby was a boy.  This was based on the fact that I was getting punched/kicked ALL THE TIME! Even to the point where I was waking up in the middle of the night with the baby kicking me.  I figured this was pretty significant for only being 19 weeks pregnant, so I guess I just assumed it was a boy.  I had already been slipping up a few times and saying "he" instead of "the baby" or "it".  So I decided it was time to find out for sure.  Again, my original thought was that we should have the ultrasound tech put the sex of the baby in an envelope that we would take to the bakery or something to make a cake or dessert in the color pink or blue and have everyone over so that we would all find out together.   Of course, the day of the ultrasound, I changed my mind yet again.  Knowing that I would not be able to pull my eyes away from the screen to not find out, I decided we might as well know right awake as soon as the ultrasound tech knew.  Derek was excited about this, as I had finally agreed with his original thought of wanting to find out! As an aside, I must say Derek was very understanding throughout this whole ordeal and said that even though he wanted to know, he would completely go with whatever I wanted to do, even it if meant not finding out the sex of the baby until it was born.  I really appreciated him being so flexible and understanding.  I really am quite the lucky lady!

Anyway, so we were sitting in the ultrasound room, watching the absolutely incredible technology that lets us see our baby developing, both enjoying seeing that absolutely EVERYTHING was perfect.  No cleft lip, no spina bifida, brain development right on track, normal heart without problems,  arms and legs developed correctly with all fingers and toes.... PERFECT.  Everything I wanted to see was showing up right as it was supposed to be.  So then we get to finding out the sex and she goes down by the legs and pauses briefly.... there it was, very clearly on the screen.... it was without a doubt a baby BOY!  Derek got a huge smile on his face and I started to cry.  Both of us very excited that we would be having a boy.  While neither of us had a preference for a girl or boy, I think there has always been a thought that it is so nice for families to have a big brother around.  Lucky for Derek, he experienced that with Russ, but I never had a big brother and always wished that I had so I was glad that the rest out or kids would have a big brother to look up to.  Also, I think that there is always a secret hope in the back of every man's mind that his first child will be a boy, who he can take fishing and teach to play baseball and hockey and all of the fun boy bonding things.  So needless to say, we were both very excited!  It was incredible to see our baby develop right on the screen.

The other thing that I found to be funny was that I had been saying the baby kept moving around all the time.  I don't think that Derek really understood what I meant by that, or maybe he thought I was bluffing and just being dramatic.  So I was happy to prove to him that I was serious when the baby kept moving during the ultrasound.  We were all laughing so hard because the ultrasound tech was trying to get certain measurements and she would get so close to getting the measurement and then the baby would move around.  She was really having a hard time getting him to stay in one place!  She even called him a "little monkey" at one point!  Again, I was glad to finally show Derek that he is moving around and kicking me ALL THE TIME! haha.  Not that I mind.  I quite enjoy getting to feel him moving around as long as its not the big kicks that hurt.

So on to life surrounding the ultrasound in the past two weeks since we found out we are having a boy.  Since he is kicking and moving around a lot, I have become ultra aware of the fact that there is a little life inside of me who can now hear my heart beating and hear us talking or the music playing in the car.  I have noticed that he becomes more active with music and that his heart rate goes up anytime I start talking.  It has been really fun!  I am thinking I should start reading my medical textbooks aloud so that I can educate him early on.... :-) Just kidding!  (but I really did think about it!  haha)  I now find myself talking to him occasionally when I feel him moving around.   Last friday I had a 3 hour exam as the final of my medicine rotation.  In the car on the way to the exam, he was moving around in there like crazy, so I found myself talking to him and telling him that he would have to help me out and be really good and not move around so much during the test so that I could concentrate.  I doubt that he understood me, but sure enough he was a little more calm during the exam, thank goodness.    Other times I find myself saying good morning or just telling him that yes, i can feel him moving around in there and I know he's in there.  I dunno, its silly, but fun at the same time!

We are very excited to see what life brings in the coming weeks and months.  Our windows are being replaced in 2 weeks and hopefully the carpet will be replaced soon after, so then we will start getting the nursery set up.  In the mean time, my mom and I continue to check the clearance at Gap and find fun little things for the baby.  It sure is fun getting to look around.  If I am not careful, he will have a full wardrobe before he is even born! :-)