Rewind - Maternity Photos 2009.

So, kind of ironic I guess, but I never got around to sharing my maternity photos that Sara with Little Ones Rock took for me back in, oh November! I wanted to at least share a few of my favorites even though little Landon is already here and going on three months old already!!! I know, I cannot even believe that my newborn is about to be one quarter of a year old! YIKES! Before I know it I will be planning his first birthday party and getting ready for his second Christmas, big crocodile tears coming on just thinking about it. :(

Whew...okay, past the emotional stuff for now....so on with the pics! I want to frame at least one if not a couple or few, which ones are your faves?? Being the overly-analytical one, I just can't decide and always have problems making decisions especially on things like this...thus, why there's a huge stack of Aaron Brothers frames still sitting under the entertainment center in my office | the playroom because I have yet to be able to sit down and decide on which photos to have printed to frame in each one. Le sigh. I guess I need to work on that too.

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

Last Belly Pics - 39 Weeks 2 Days

Last belly pics taken on Monday, December 7th @ 39 weeks 2 days - about to head to the hospital...baby Landon was born just a few hours later!

39 Weeks

Today marks the "official" start of my 39th week of pregnancy and I am thrilled to say that in just over 36 hours from now we will be meeting our baby boy! I am scheduled to go in on Monday, December 7th for my c-section and the surgery is scheduled for the early morning hours so we will be new parents once again very, very soon! Tomorrow is our last day as a family of three and we will actually be dropping Hudson off at his Nana's house late morning before heading to the hospital mid-day for me to have blood drawn and do pre-reg stuff before having to check in @ 6 am on Monday. Hudson will be spending the night with his Nana and I won't see him again until after my surgery Monday morning. I will definitely miss him and can't wait to officially introduce him to his baby brother either! He has been much more excited and verbal this weekend about the arrival of his baby brother and I just can't wait to see them together! After our visit to the hospital tomorrow, we'll likely finish up last minute tasks, go grocery shopping to ensure the house is stocked for a while with food and other items and then make sure we've got everything packed in the car and ready to go for Monday morning. David and I are planning on going out to dinner for a "last supper" of sorts just the two of us and then will hopefully, be able to turn in early since we will likely be getting up around 4:30 am if not earlier. Right now I am just so excited, but also a wee-bit nervous and anxious for Monday to get here and to just get through surgery and onto meeting my new son. If you have a moment to spare, please pray for a quick and safe procedure, for the health of our new son and for a healthy and swift recovery for both baby and myself. 

Here's what is going on with both me and baby this week according to BabyCenter.com

How your life's changing:

At each of your now-weekly visits, your caregiver will do an abdominal exam to check your baby's growth and position. She might also do an internal exam to see whether your cervix has started ripening: softening, effacing (thinning out), and dilating (opening). But even armed with this information, there's still no way for your caregiver to predict exactly when your baby is coming. If you go past your due date, your caregiver will schedule you for fetal testing (usually a sonogram) after 40 weeks to ensure that it's safe to continue the pregnancy. If you don't go into labor on your own, most practitioners will induce labor when you're between one and two weeks overdue — or sooner if there's an indication that the risk of waiting is greater than the risks of delivering your baby without further delay.

While you're waiting, it's important to continue to pay attention to your baby's movements and let your caregiver know right away if they seem to decrease. Your baby should remain active right up to delivery, and a noticeable slowdown in activity could be a sign of a problem. Also call if you think your water may have broken. Membranes rupture before the beginning of labor in about 8 percent of term pregnancies. Sometimes there's a big gush of fluid, but sometimes there's only a small gush or a slow leak. (Don't try to make the diagnosis yourself. Call even if you only suspect you have a leak.) If you rupture your membranes and don't start contractions on your own, you'll be induced.

How your baby's growing:

Your baby's waiting to greet the world! He continues to build a layer of fat to help control his body temperature after birth, but it's likely he already measures about 20 inches and weighs a bit over 7 pounds, a mini watermelon. (Boys tend to be slightly heavier than girls.) The outer layers of his skin are sloughing off as new skin forms underneath.

See what your baby looks like this week.

Note: Every baby develops a little differently — even in the womb. Our information is designed to give you a general idea of your baby's development.

Holy Indigestion!

Yep, it's striking yet again....that horrible, unGodly bout of indigestion that is not only keeping me from my precious sleep, it's also very painful and persistent to the point of being a complete and total annoyance. Most of you are probably thinking that as a woman who is nearly full-term in what is not her first pregnancy that I should be very familiar and used to this common pregnancy symptom, but no, not so much for me. I'm known to have an iron stomach and am one to eat jalapeños like candy, so although I have previously had the occassional bout with heartburn / indigestion, it's certainly not something that I've had to deal with very often or on such an acute level. I mean, this pain is unreal and feels like my entire chest, throat and esophogus is burning...it really hurts and has the tendency to pop up in the most inopportune if times, like when I am trying to go to sleep. Ugh.....I guess the bright side is that is should be gone after I have the baby so hopefully I will be forever rid of it very soon! If it doesn't go away then I have to admit that we are going to have a real problem on our hands since I am anti-bland food and very much like to "spice it up" when it comes to what I eat. I've already had to become much more docile in my eating habits lately already because of these recent cases and would hate to even think that they might not go away...for my sake, let's hope that they are indeed pregnancy related and vanish from my system (and my memories) very, very soon!

Pregnancy Week 38 Appointment

Monday was my weekly OB appointment and thankfully, everything went fantastic and it was an overall positive appointment. I finished my last week at work last week, so my appointment was actually a little later in the morning on Monday and I had asked my mom to watch Hudson while I went to my appointment and ran a couple of errands since David was working. So that way I wouldn't have to worry about those couple of things later in the week. I'm just relieved that the appointment went so well and that we are still set to meet our baby boy next week!

HIGHLIGHTS

• My blood pressure was good again which was a relief since I had that recent scare when it went up and had to be admitted into L&D, but it's back to normal and I haven't really had any measurable swelling in a while so that's good too.
  
• Baby was active and heartbeat sounded good at 152.
  
• Dr. P. gave me the results from the blood draw I had taken about a week and a half ago and those were excellent as well. My blood count had gone from a 7 to 30! So, it seems as if the iron supplements I have been taking have been working and my body is actually absorbing the iron, so I won't have to have a blood transfusion prior to my c-section after all. I will still have to go in the day before to have another blood draw done so that the hospital can begin sourcing blood in case I need it for after my surgery, but I won't have to stay overnight before my scheduled c-section to get a transfusion like we thought might happen. (I haven't had time to document my second visit to the L&D at the hospital, but basically I was sent in by my OB for high blood-pressure, that actually corrected itself while I was there, but my blood count came back dangerously low and I ended up having to be admitted and even stay overnight in order to have a transfusion and receive 2 units of blood. It was a scary mess combined with the possibility that I could be borderline of developing preeclampsia too, which after doing a 24 hour urine catch and my blood pressure recouping, it was discovered that I was not at risk for preeclampsia after all which was an absolute relief because I was NOT ready to be having my baby boy at 34 weeks!)
  
• Most importantly ----DRUMROLL!!! ----- my c-section date and time is confirmed for next Monday, December 7th and I am scheduled for surgery early that morning, so I have to arrive at the hospital by 9 am.
  

CONCERNS

• None really....besides for me to continue taking 2 iron pill supplements daily up until my surgery date in the hopes that it will continue to improve my blood count and decrease the chances of me having to have a blood transfusion after the c-section. Which of course, I would absolutely love to avoid as much as possible.

That's about it really, so we are officially set to meet our baby boy this upcoming Monday and we cannot be any more thrilled! I'm a bit nervous too, understandably so I guess, but trying to remain positive and calm that all will go well with the surgery, that we will be blessed with a beautiful, healthy new baby boy and without complication allowing us to leave the hospital after the minimum stay requirement so that we can return home and begin our life as a family of FOUR! I know I've said it before, but I'm going to most certainly have to say it again, and that's that I absolutely cannot wait!