Cooper's Room

After the many weeks of waiting and waiting for the nursery furniture, we finally have everything in the room ready for our sweet little baby.  Who would have thought that ordering a crib and dresser would be so hard?  I think we went through 3 months and 3 cracked cribs before we finally have the perfect furniture.  It's a good thing we started back in October, or Cooper might have had to sleep in a dresser for a while! :)  It's so hard to believe that in 2 short weeks we will have a BABY to put in this room!

16 days and counting...

With just a little over 2 short weeks left, Cooper is continuing to grow and I'm beginning to get more uncomfortable.  At our doctor's appointment today, Cooper was weighing in at 5 pounds, 8 ounces.  On average, babies will gain about half a pound a week at this point, and our little guy was right above that at 10 ounces.  I think that weight sounds pretty good to be a couple of days short of 37 weeks, but our little munchkin is still hovering around the 25th %-ile for weight.  It looks like we may have a skinny little guy on our hands, but if he likes to eat like his momma he will definitely gain the weight quickly once he's here! :) 

*I'm going to go ahead and make a prediction that I think Cooper will weigh 6 lb., 9 oz. when he's born, and Brad is guessing 6 lb., 8 oz. 

As for being uncomfortable...I think I've hit the point where I'm ready to be done being pregnant.  I must say this has been an extremely easy pregnancy.  BUT, I am ready for the indigestion to be gone (the burning in my throat at night is not fun) and I CAN'T WAIT to sleep on my stomach again.  I'm also ready for my ribs to stop aching. The drive home from school is the worst because I'm sitting and standing all day, and my posture is not good.  Cooper's not up high in my ribs, but Brad said that what I'm feeling is my expanding uterus going under my ribs.  I'm pretty sure he spends many hours at work looking this stuff up for me! :)  The good news is that in a little over 2 weeks, my uterus will be shrinking back to normal size, and my ribs will get a break!  Thank goodness!  haha

Busy Week/Weekend

My week consisted of...

• A FULL 5-day work week
• 2 field trips in one week (with 4th graders)
• Doctor's appointment and denist appointment
• Cleaning and laundry
• An amazing day with friends filled with lunch at Federal Grove Bed and Breakfast, manicures, pedicures, and yogurt
• Bailey's near death experience with rat poisoining (thank goodness I was not around to witness the chaos...and thank goodness Bailey is alive and well)
• Grocery shopping
• My last baby shower
• A night full of unpacking gifts, organizing, and adding finishing touches to Cooper's room

Usually Monday is my favorite day of the week, but this pregnant girl needs another weekend to recooperate from the previous week and weekend!  17 more days until the "big day".  :)

23 Days

Yes, that is how long we have left until we become a family of 3 (and a half...including Bailey of course).  Cooper's estimated date of delivery is set for Thursday, March 10th.  We are scheduled to go in at 5:30 that morning, and the c-section is scheduled for 7:30.  I can't believe I'm actually typing that...23 days?!?!  That is not long AT ALL, and I feel like we still have a million things left to do.  We are sooo excited to actually have a day set that we can expect the little guy!!!  :)

My ultrasound and appointment went well today.  Cooper weighed in at 4 lbs., 14 oz.  His %-ile for weight did go down since the last time, but my doctor looked over the ultrasound pictures, and he said even though he is small, everything still looked fine.  He wants to keep a close eye on his growth though to make sure he continues growing, so we are scheduled to have an ultrasound at my remaining appointments.  He also did a non-stress test today, and he wants to continue those at my next appointments too.  I think he just wants to make sure Cooper stays healthy in the new couple of weeks, and the non-stress test today showed that things looked good.  If you're not familiar with that test, they had me lay on a bed, and they hooked me up to a monitor to listen to the baby's heartbeat.  Everytime I felt a movement, I had to push a button.  Apparently, they are looking for a movement or many movements close together, and then they watch to see if the heartrate increases. In our case, this happened several times (which was a good thing).

Did I mention how excited we are that we get to meet baby Cooper in 23 days????  

Now we've just got to work on getting this little girl as excited as we are...

The last leg of the race

So I really can't believe that the time has come where I've started my weekly appointments.  At times, it seems like I've been pregnant forever, but then again it also seems like it has flown by.  When we first found out we were pregnant in July, we thought March would never get here.  The first few months we were both busy with work, and I was starting a new school year, serving on jury duty, and on bed rest for a week.  The last couple of months we were busy with the holidays, and now we've been busy with getting Cooper's room ready (yes, I know...I have not posted pictures.  I will get to that soon!) and baby
showers.  Now, it is just about March, and our little boy will be here in no time.  :)

35 WEEKS

I went to the doctor on Thursday for my first "check", and to no surprise, Cooper is still breech.  This might be too much information for the blog, but my doctor said he thought he could "feel" a foot or two.  That means that either Cooper has put his legs down (YAY!) or the doctor was feeling something else besides a foot.  Anyway, I know for a fact that his head is still in the same place...right under my right rib cage.  I feel it everyday, and it's definitely very easy to tell that it's his hard head.  The big news we did get was that at my next appointment (tomorrow), we're going to have another ultrasound to check his position again, and if he hasn't moved, then we're going to go ahead and talk about scheduling a C-section.  Even though it is possible for Cooper to still turn in the next few weeks, my doctor is pretty sure he won't because of the way he is wedged in there.  As crazy as it might sound, Brad and I are both very excited about the C-section.  The recovery period may be a little longer and maybe a little more uncomfortable, but how great is it that we can schedule the exact day and time we get to go into the hospital and I don't have to go through the hours and hours of labor?  Sounds like a plan to me! :)  Hopefully after tomorrow we'll have more information and maybe even an exact day and time that our little guy will be born.  I'll be sure to post again tomorrow night with an update.

Growing like a weed...

That phrase describes our little boy and my growing belly! :)  If you remember back to an earlier post, we went to the doctor for my 28 week appt. at the end of December, and Cooper was in the 34 %-ile for weight (2 lbs., 7 oz.).  Also at this time, my amniotic fluid level had been around 7.8 or 7.9.  My doctor had said he didn't consider this low (3 or 4 would be low), but he likes to see that number at 8 or higher. Well, when we went back to the doctor a week and a half ago for yes, you guessed it, ANOTHER ultrasound, we were very pleased to hear that Cooper was weighing in at 4 lbs., 7 oz. (59%-ile)!  And, my amniotic level had increased to 11, which my doctor said was great.  Way to go buddy!  I guess he's plumping up from all the extra food I've been eating.  Brad thought I always ate a lot before, but now it feels like I'm always hungry.  I go to bed hungry, get up hungry, am still hungry after lunch...it never stops! 

We also went back to Precious View for our very last attempt at a 3D/4D ultrasound.  The lady did say we had set a record of being there a total of 6 times (from 15 weeks-33 weeks).  She was able to get some of the best pictures we've ever gotten.  The neatest thing that we got to see during this ultrasound (besides Cooper's sweet face) was that we got to see him hiccup for several minutes.  It was so weird because I felt every one, and then on the screen, you could see his little stomach bounce up and down at the same time. So neat!!!  At the time of this ultrasound and of my doctor's appointment, Cooper's legs were still up in front of his face and he was still breech, so Brad and I have pretty much told ourselves that a C-section is definitely a strong possibility.  The more I think about it, the more I am ok with a C-section.  It would be nice to know exactly when I have to go to the hospital and what day he will be born on.  The thought of not going through the many hours of labor also sounds pretty good right about now.  BUT, I know the recovery period is a lot worse.  So, we will take it as it comes, but we just want our little guy to get here and be healthy.

Enjoy what MIGHT be our last ultrasound pictures of Cooper (I can't believe I'm saying that considering we've had over 15 ultrasounds)...

Side view of his face.  I love his lips in this one.  It looks like he's puckering up! :)

Great shot of his foot in front of his face!  He was poking himself in the eye with his big toe.

I'm pretty sure he'll come out with a flat nose since his legs have been smashed in front of his face for several weeks.  His lips look plump in this picture too.

Look at those chubby cheeks!

Profile shot

Sweet baby feet