My First Week as a Stay-at-Home Mom

I'm considering this week my first week as a stay-at-home-mom (SAHM) because all the students went back to school, and I love driving past schools and seeing all the cars in the parking lot and thinking to myself "It's so weird/awesome to not be there". In all seriousness, I don't know if I would be able to be any kind of effective teacher at this stage in pregnancy if I was still working. I walk really slowly, getting up and down off the floor quickly (which was pretty much a requirement for a preschool teacher) would be impossible, and I just don't think I would have the energy to manage a classroom of preschool deaf kids' behavior. I'm not saying that their behavior is necessarily worse than that of hearing kids, but their language is much lower which generally means their maturity level is lower. It's very similar to having a class full of 1-year-olds. Anyways, this post was not intended to be full of complaints, so on to the fun stuff!

So far, my first week as a SAHM has included:

1. Hanging out at the empty community pool with Michel on Monday afternoon

2. OB appointment on Tuesday, walked around Medical City for a bit looking at cute baby stuff and getting a Frulatti treat (which I haven't had since I was in college!)

3. Impromptu lunch date at Chili's on Wednesday

4. Walking 3 times this week (not too shabby at 37 weeks pregnant...though I've gone from walking 3 miles in about 50-55 minutes to walking 1-1 1/2 miles in about 30 minutes so I've slowed WAAAAY down and don't have the energy/ability/desire to go any further!)

5. Some major housecleaning (which was mainly done by Michel because he's awesome and knows that I can't move like I used to!)

6. Another impromptu lunch date at Taco Bueno today

7. Lots and lots of relaxing, Internet surfing, and TV watching! Oh, and a couple of cat naps where I've fallen asleep on the couch

Being a SAHM is so easy when there's no baby to take care of!! I am savoring my time to myself, and Michel and I are savoring our last few days as just a couple, but also anxiously awaiting the arrival of our sweet girl! If she comes on or before her due date we have 16 days left. I have already started dilating and effacing, so my OB did tell me not to be surprised if I have her this weekend! In some ways, I kind of wish she didn't say that because now I'm feeling like if I don't have her this weekend I'll feel like I'm overdue when I'm not. Oh well...it's really out of all of our hands. God will bring her into this world when the time is right!

Baby Bump Week 37!!!

How far along are you? 37 weeks

How are you measuring? At my last doctor's appointment I measured at 34 weeks (I was 36w2d at the time). I consistently measure 2 weeks small! Oh, I forgot to mention that at my 36 week appointment I was 1 cm dilated, 30% effaced, and her head is super low. Doctor doesn't think I'll make it until September 15th, and I hope I don't!! 

How big is your baby? Small! She weighs a tiny bit over 5 pounds now.

What major developments is your baby undergoing this week? She's now considered full-term! According to babycenter.com if I were to go into labor her lungs should be developed enough to be just fine outside of the womb with little, to no, additional medical intervention.

Heartbeat: 145 bpm - OB always comments that her heartbeat sounds really good which always makes her mommy and daddy feel good!

Total weight gain/loss: +27.8 according to my scale at home. I lost weight this week (2 lbs according to the doctor; 1 lb. according to my scale at home). 

Maternity clothes: 100% in maternity clothes except for a very few things that I only wear around the house. 

Stretch marks: None on my stomach!! A few on each hip, but I kind of wonder if I had those pre-pregnancy and just didn't notice as much.

Sleep: I wake up consistently every 2-3 hours to go to the bathroom. Usually I can go back to sleep, but again I'm consistently getting up for good between 5:30 and 6:30. 

Best moment this week: We've had a pretty low-key week. Part of it is just that I would rather stay inside the cool house than get out in the heat. Would it be sad if I said my best moment this week was my doctor telling me to gain more weight by drinking more milkshakes? :) One more thing that I forgot to add is that I had my first "real" contractions on Friday, so that was kind of exciting! I had them for about 5ish hours, but they were SUPER inconsistent (for an hour I timed them and it was 7 min, 15 min, 4 min, 23 min, etc). I went to bed, and at some point, they stopped altogether because I haven't felt them since. So now I'm really excited to see if I'm more dilated when I go to the OB on Tuesday!

Movement: She's definitely still a mover and she kicks the most early in the morning (usually starts between 5:30 and 6:30). Then I feel her slow down mid-morning, it picks back up in the afternoon, mid-afternoon not much, and evening is usually so-so. She's never as active as she is in the early morning though. That's when she's dancing and kicking like crazy. The rest of the day I'm feeling more stretches and wiggles. Oh, and generally after I eat dinner she gets the hiccups for about 15 minutes :) - This still holds true

Food cravings: I don't think I really had any this week.

Gender: A sweet girl! Audrey Grace Zoutendam :) 

What I miss: Not having issues with food. My OB prescribed me medicine for my acid reflux which helped A LOT! However, this week I started having issues eating! It's always something....if I eat a normal portion that I used to it makes me sick (literally...I had another issue keeping my food down this week), so now I have to eat smaller portions every few hours to avoid getting sick.

What I'm looking forward to: Holding my sweet baby in my arms! I've enjoyed pregnancy, but now I'm ready to be a mommy :)

How are you feeling: Pretty good once I figured out my new eating pattern! I also learned that my leg cramps are due to baby being positioned in such a way that from time-to-time she cuts off blood flow to one of my veins in my leg!! She and I are both running out of room :)

Showering Audrey With Love

This past Saturday my aunt, cousin (technically my cousin's wife), mom, sister, and mother-in-law were sweet enough to throw a beautiful baby shower for me. Everything about it turned out precious, and I am so thankful for everything they did to make it such a special day!

Our beautiful tablescape with all our snacks

Owl cupcakes made and decorated by my sister

Erica and my Aunt Becca came up with activities for the guests to do upon arrival, as well as fun shower games! Upon arrival the guests were asked to guess which date I'll actually have Audrey (I should have taken a close-up). My 5-year-old niece, Karys, played, too, and I hope she wins this game because she guessed the earliest date :) The guests were also asked to write a message, or something funny, on diapers, so that I have something to read when I'm up in the middle of the night changing diapers! Can't wait to see what they say!

During the shower we played a game where we had to come up with baby-related things from A to Z. I didn't do too well on this game. Maybe after I have a baby I'll fill this out as quickly as the friends who won! The first two to finish both have babies at home.

After games were presents! A couple of weeks ago I had told Karys she was going to be my present helper at the shower, so once they arrived at my house she kept telling me "Aunt Julie, I'm gonna be your present helper" and I would tell her that yes, that was correct, and then she would ask, "Is it time to open presents yet?" Waiting is so hard at that age! She did a great job bringing me presents, and even helping me open them when I needed her to (due to not being able to bend over my big belly!). I won't post pictures of me opening the presents because we were so blessed to receive so much! They're all on Facebook, though, if you want to go check them out there!

After the shower I took pictures with my wonderful hostesses. I'm so appreciative of everything they did for me (and Audrey) to show how much they love us. Audrey really is lucky to have such a big group of family who love her so much already!

My cousin ('s wife), Erica and Aunt Becca

My mother-in-law, Carol

My present helper :)

My sister, present helper again, me, and my mom

Thank you to everyone who came and made the shower so special to me!!

Baby Bump Week 36 = 9 MONTHS PREGNANT!!!

How far along are you? 36 weeks

How are you measuring? When I got my last sonogram I was 35w1d and Audrey measured around 33 weeks. We have a tiny baby on the way!

How big is your baby? Small! She weighs a tiny bit over 5 pounds now.

What major developments is your baby undergoing this week? Mainly she's just adding fat to her tiny body

Heartbeat: 145 bpm

Total weight gain/loss: +28.8 according to my scale at home....I didn't gain an ounce this week! According to my book What to Expect When You're Expecting it's normal for Mom's weight gain to slow down, or even stop altogether in the last few weeks. 

Maternity clothes: 100% in maternity clothes except for a very few things that I only wear around the house. 

Stretch marks: Yup, but it really just means that I was lucky enough to carry a healthy baby, so I don't mind :) When my OB pulled my shirt up to put the Doppler on my belly, she actually said my skin looked great to her and I had very minimal stretch marks! That made my day!

Sleep: I wake up consistently every 2 hours to go to the bathroom. Usually I can go back to sleep, but again I'm consistently getting up for good between 5:30 and 6:30. 

Best moment this week: My family (aunt, cousin, MIL, mom, and sister) threw me a beautiful baby shower yesterday. I had an amazing turnout of great friends and we were so blessed by everyone's generosity and showing love for little Audrey!

Movement: She's definitely still a mover and she kicks the most early in the morning (usually starts between 5:30 and 6:30). Then I feel her slow down mid-morning, it picks back up in the afternoon, mid-afternoon not much, and evening is usually so-so. She's never as active as she is in the early morning though. That's when she's dancing and kicking like crazy. The rest of the day I'm feeling more stretches and wiggles. Oh, and generally after I eat dinner she gets the hiccups for about 15 minutes :)

Food cravings: I don't think I had any this week...maybe because of acid reflux that decided to start up this week :(

Gender: A sweet girl! Audrey Grace Zoutendam :) 

What I miss: Not having issues with food. This week I've had such awful acid reflux. Last night, I actually threw up like 5 times because of it. It is not fun!

What I'm looking forward to: Holding my sweet baby in my arms! I've enjoyed pregnancy, but now I'm ready to be a mommy :)

How are you feeling: Honestly, this week I have felt very uncomfortable. I'm really swollen most of the time, and I can't wear my wedding rings which makes me sad. I've developed acid reflux which is just about the worst feeling in the world and I hope that it goes away after baby comes! I also get AWFUL leg cramps in my upper left inner thigh. I'll be walking and it will just cramp up to the point I can't move my leg and it makes me want to cry. I feel like such a Debbie Downer this week! Sorry you have to read my whiny post this week!

Pre-Baby Date Night Ideas

Michel and I are planning on going on a big date before little Audrey comes along. The problem is...we don't know what to do! Michel will work his last shift on September 3rd, (and doesn't have to go back to work until October 6th!), so we will probably wait until he's off work to do our date which gives us plenty of time to plan. We can always do dinner and a movie, but that just doesn't seem as special. Anybody have any fun ideas that we need to do? It doesn't have to be evening things, either. We may make an entire day of it! Any and all suggestions are welcome :)

CVS Savings!

The more I shop at CVS, the more I love it! Their ExtraBucks program is easy to use and easy for me to understand. I was with my mom yesterday and she had gotten a coupon for $2/$10 purchase at Walgreens and I was trying to find her a good deal to get the most bang for her buck, and I realized that I don't understand the Walgreens points system. If anyone wants to explain it to me, go for it, but I really do like CVS. Their Magic Coupon Machine is awesome!! I'm a coupon nerd....

I did 2 transactions today to cut down on my out of pocket (OOP) cost.

Transaction #1:

1 Bausch + Lomb eyedrops

Transaction #2:

3 packages Huggies diapers, 1 package Huggies wipes (184 ct.)

Here is how I did my shopping:

Transaction #1:
Buy Bausch + Lomb eye drops on sale for $7.99 and get back $5 in Extra Care Bucks (ECB)
Bausch + Lomb eye drops $7.99
-Use $2.50 off any artificial tear/eye drop CVS coupon
Pay $5.49 out of pocket (OOP)
Earn $5 ECB (why I didn't use last week's $5 ECB to make my OOP cost $0.49 I don't know - pregnancy brain maybe??)

Transaction #2:
Spend $30 on Select Huggies products (and other products) and get back $10 in ECB
Buy 3 pkgs Huggies diapers on sale for $8.99 each
Buy 1 pkg Huggies wipes on sale for $5.99
= $32.96
- Use 2 $2/1 Huggies diapers
- Use $1.50/1 Huggies diapers
- Use $0.50/1 Huggies wipes
- Use $5/$25 CVS coupon from e-mail
- Use $15 ECB from previous transactions
Pay $9.01 OOP!!
Earn $10 ECB for next week's shopping trip!

Altogether, I paid $14.50 for eye drops, 3 packages of diapers, and 1 package of wipes. Without coupons, and just shopping on the sales ad I should have paid $40.95. That's a savings of 65%!! Not too shabby if I do say so myself :)

Baby Bump Week 35 - UPDATED!!

How far along are you? 34 weeks

How are you measuring? Small...but not worrisome-small :)

How big is your baby? LOL...she's very small! She's only in the 15th%ile and doctor guesstimated her weight today at 4 lbs 15 oz. and said that by birth he's predicting she'll weigh about 6.5-7.5 lbs! To put it in perspective better, babies who fall in the 50th%ile weigh about 5 1/4 lbs by now. She's still growing and she is putting on weight between each appointment (which is what the doctor said they look for) she just doesn't grow much or gain a lot of weight. I'm not worried, though...small babies run on my side of the family

What major developments is your baby undergoing this week? Her kidneys are fully developed and her liver can process some waste. Basically she's fully developed, but she'll spend her remaining time inside of me accumulating fat! 

Heartbeat: 145 bpm

Total weight gain/loss: +28.8 according to my scale at home. 

Maternity clothes: 100% in maternity clothes except for a very few things that I only wear around the house. 

Stretch marks: Yup, but it really just means that I was lucky enough to carry a healthy baby, so I don't mind :) When my OB pulled my shirt up to put the Doppler on my belly, she actually said my skin looked great to her and I had very minimal stretch marks! That made my day!

Sleep: Ehhh....this week it seems like no matter what I'm getting up between 6:00 and 6:30. Isn't this when I'm supposed to catch up on my sleep? This morning I woke up at 5:30 to her kicking like crazy and really couldn't go back to sleep. I love feeling her move, but sometimes I wish she'd hold off a few hours. Does this mean she'll wake up at 5:30 ready to play after she's born??

Best moment this week: Michel had to work a 48-hour shift mid-week, so I went to Longview for the last time for this pregnancy and hung out with my sister and her family. The best time was when we went to their city pool (it's really nice) and I got to witness my 2 1/2-year-old nephew lose his fear of water and basically taught himself how to swim from watching others do it. He's a smart little thing!

Movement: She's definitely still a mover and she kicks the most early in the morning (usually starts between 5:30 and 6:30). Then I feel her slow down mid-morning, it picks back up in the afternoon, mid-afternoon not much, and evening is usually so-so. She's never as active as she is in the early morning though. That's when she's dancing and kicking like crazy. The rest of the day I'm feeling more stretches and wiggles. Oh, and generally after I eat dinner she gets the hiccups for about 15 minutes :)

Food cravings: Last weekend when we were with my in-laws we had hamburgers and they bought the BEST pickle chips ever! I've always liked pickles, but I don't eat them on stuff - just by themselves, and I've never eaten them enough to care about keeping them around the house. While I was at the store on Friday, pickles were right next to the deli meats that I was buying, and I ended up tossing a jar of pickles into my buggy!

Gender: A sweet girl! Audrey Grace Zoutendam :) 

What I miss: This week, I've really been missing wearing normal clothes! I never thought I would dislike stretchy clothes, but I'm ready to wear cute clothes again! I've also been missing my pre-pregnancy figure, but mainly because I miss wearing normal clothes. OK. My pity party is over :)

What I'm looking forward to: Tomorrow's busy with fun baby stuff and I'm going to register for MOPS!! I'm so excited to be able to do MOPS at the Heights this year! Also, on Saturday, my family is throwing me a baby shower and I'm really excited about that! This week will be busy, busy! 

How are you feeling: Swollen. My feet swell so easily because of the heat. They start out at a normal size, but pretty much by the time I've showered, done my hair, and put on make-up they're swollen again. And when I woke up this morning my hands were swollen, too. I've been able to wear my rings as long as I wasn't doing physical exercise, but when I went to take them off before I took a shower I could barely pull them off my finger. Luckily, my wedding ring is a half size bigger than my engagement ring, so I can still wear my wedding ring, but my beautiful engagement ring will have to stay in my jewelry box until the swelling goes down. Also, I really don't feel like I'm going to make it to the 15th. I don't know why. For some reason, I just have a feeling she's going to come early. Seriously, I have nothing to base this on, though. I could just be psyching myself up for disappointment if Sept. 15th comes and goes and we still have no baby :)

Baby Bump 34 Weeks!

How far along are you? 34 weeks

How are you measuring? Exactly where I should be

How big is your baby? Our last sonogram showed that she was about 14 inches long and weighed about 3.5 pounds (but that was at 31 weeks). According to babybump.com she's about the size of a cantaloupe - about 18 inches long and 4 3/4 pounds. She's always measured on the small side, and 3 weeks ago she was only 14 inches long, so who knows what she really measures now. 

What major developments is your baby undergoing this week? She continues to accumulate fat which will help her regulate her body temperature once she's born. Her lungs and nervous system are continuing to mature as well. 

Heartbeat: 150 bpm

Total weight gain/loss: +27.1 according to my scale at home. 

Maternity clothes: 100% in maternity clothes except for a very few things that I only wear around the house. 

Stretch marks: Yup, but it really just means that I was lucky enough to carry a healthy baby, so I don't mind :)

Sleep: Lately I've been sleeping fairly well. I get up about 4 times a night to go to the bathroom (crazy, huh?), but I've been able to fall asleep again pretty quickly. 7:15-7:30 seems to be my normal wake-up time, though due to hip pain. It seems no matter how I adjust my pillows I still have hip pain after laying down for 8-9 hours.

Best moment this week: Celebrating our niece's 5th birthday; going back to Longview to spend a couple of days with my in-laws, and surprising Michel's grandfather while we were down there.

Movement: She's become a constant mover! When I'm not moving, she is. It's really hilarious to just watch my belly move like crazy when she's at her most active. I don't know if her movement has just picked up, or if it has anything to do with the fact that she has always measured small and maybe she was still small enough that I didn't feel every movement. Now I feel every movement! I love it!

Food cravings: This week I really craved a vanilla iced coffee from McDonalds. I bought one 3 days this week! I also craved some fried catfish....I've never liked fried catfish. But I ate some on Friday night!

Gender: A sweet girl! Audrey Grace Zoutendam :) 

What I miss: Sleeping on my stomach, sleeping comfortably, not having heartburn or indigestion. This is the first week I experienced indigestion, and it's not anything like heartburn, but equally awful to deal with. I've discovered if I eat less at one time, and most importantly don't eat late at night, it's better. 

What I'm looking forward to: Michel has to work a double shift on Tuesday and Wednesday, so I'm taking my last trip to Longview before Audrey arrives!

How are you feeling: Big and hot!! This is the first week the temperatures have really risen over 100 (which I'm thankful that the weather waited until August to heat up), but I have been SOOOO hot!!