37 weeks

Non maternity stretchy shirt!

Weight gained: 18 lbs. Yeah sure, now it's piling on!

How I'm feeling: A little more tired. I've been more crabby and moody, but nothing crazy I think. Lots of Braxton-Hicks, my midwife says that's good because it softens the cervix. Cool. Excited to meet him, but hope he still stays in there 3 more weeks! I want my maternity leave to get me thru the holidays and I have so much maternity fall stuff to wear I didn't even get a chance! Plus healthier full-term baby :)

Prep: Made a couple big batches of soups for the freezer.

Red lentil-pumpkin

delicious vegan cookies just because

Still re-reading my Hypnobirthing book and practicing relaxation techniques with Doug. We need to be doing way more of this. Might take the hypnobirth refresher classes these next 2 weekends. The hospital bag is mostly packed and waiting.

Cravings: Sent Doug out for these addicting lemon ices.

good man

Lab results: My thyroid is within normal limits, praise God. But Group B Strep came back positive, (like 1/4 of women are colonized). Which means slight risk of transmitting and baby gets infected -> meningitis or sepsis. So I have to take antibiotics during labor and if water breaks can't hang out and labor at home, have to rush in to start them. So I'm bummed. I really wanted as little interventions as possible. So now I'm praying water doesn't break! (water breaks in 10-15% of women). Pray for me!

Nesting: Working on painting my craft desk. Lowe's is now in breach of their contract to finish our windows so that's not done. SO annoying. Doug is calling them everyday now. Otherwise nursery is mostly ready, borrowing a side-bed sleeper from a friend have to still pick that up, and picked up a couple cute things to get in the fall season:

pretty!

Days till due date: 18

Randoms: Last night went out for a dessert date with Dougie

(my cookies are SO much better)

Got to see my brother and sister-in-law last week for lunch, that was fun. Today going apple picking with my in-town visiting German brother. Looking forward to that (and the cider and donuts!)

Update: after the cider mill and a fun day walking around downtown, everyone came over for dinner and a picture :)

36 weeks

Weight gained: 16 lbs. I've been extra hungry lately! One of us (or both) are having a growth spurt.

How I'm feeling: Pretty good, same bit of back pain. Getting a little more tired again. Feeling busy with the to-do list, my online RN to BSN class, Bible study started back up, work, and staying on top of household chores.

Nesting: We have entered full blown nesting over here. This last weekend Doug and I installed the baby carseats in our cars, cleaned/organized (really just about 1/2) the garage, I started a new craft project desk makeover that I'm trying to finish before he comes. Perfect time for sanding, priming and painting furniture right!?!

Garage looks neater, at least on my side. And lightsaber within easy grabbing reach. Priorities.

Made 2 different batches of lactation cookies to keep in the freezer for future breastfeeding help. Not sure how much they will help, but super tasty :)

Speaking of, we took a breastfeeding class and it was pretty informative. Doug's co-worker and his wife were randomly sitting behind us in class, they are due the week before us. Hopefully breastfeeding will go good.

Days till due date: 25

Randoms: My brother and my German host-brother are both coming into town next week so it will be fun to see them.

And I can still reach my toenails! So Doug is off the hook at least another week or two :)

35 weeks & UP Adventures

Weight gained: same, 14 lbs

How I'm feeling: Same. Pretty good, slight backaches. Emotionally feeling a bit overwhelmed with always feeling lots to do, messy house, frustrated with projects going awry, but mostly good. Good news from the midwives: measuring on schedule and baby is head down. Please stay that way!

Belly button: still an innie, but might not stay that way until the end! My skin is looking extremely thin especially around the umbilicus.

Cravings: Nothing new here. Fruit, icecream.

This last weekend Doug and I took what probably will really be the last little trip before baby. He'd wanted to go to this bear ranch in the UP of Michigan (I veto'd it for our babymoon, so we just went for fun). I guess it started off this guy would take in cubs when the moms were killed by cars, and it grew from there. I first thought you walked around amongst the live bears, but no, they just had these big penned habitats and you walked around them. For $3 more you could feed them apples, so of course we did.

And for another $10 you could pet a cub while it obsessively licked jam off a spoon

So of course we did that too

(don't mind the fact it looks like I gained all 14 of those pounds in my face in this pic!)

Oh I forgot, on the way across the Mackinaw Bridge we found ourselves in the middle of the 9th annual tractor crossing. Which was random, but pretty cool. I guess they have a parade of 800-1000 tractors that drove over.

Reminded me of tractor rides with my grandpa.

After the bear ranch we headed over for a bit of hiking at the upper and lower Tahquamenon Falls.

We checked into our cheap motel and went to downtown Newberry for some dinner, window shopping, and later we went to their one option movie theater. They were showing Bad Moms, which looked funny, but was the most raunchy crass movie that we left midway. Ok, it was funny at times, but not a movie you feel good about watching. So back to the motel for some real good stuff: HGTV and an episode of Fixer Upper! :)

The next day we headed back down to the lower peninsula. Doug had wanted to stop at this other zoo but it was too rainy. Bummer. So instead we met up with some of his friends for lunch in Traverse City before going over to my relatives house. We had dinner with them, and slept over. The next day went to church with them and then my uncle took some maternity photos of us.

the penalty for blinking during a shot ;)

We headed over to another aunt and uncle's to visit them and my Grandparents (94 yrs old and about to fly out on a trip of their own!), and finally to the 3rd set of aunt and uncles that live up there to visit and see their new addition they put on their house. Then we headed home, got home late, and had to wake up early for work.

But it was a great trip and we had a fun time together just the 2 of us :)

Spicy Vegan Potato Curry recipe

This recipe is too good not to share!

They said my hemoglobin was low at one of my doctor's appointments so I was searching for iron rich foods and recipes and came upon this gem.

Yes, it will make your house smell like curry for 3 days at least, but it is super tasty.

70% the daily iron requirement!

I make it with frozen (not canned) peas. This time I added a zucchini from a friend's garden, but think I preferred it without actually. We had it with a side of beans from mom's garden and it was wonderful.

34 weeks

(just me or looks like a beer belly??)

Weight gained: 14 lbs

How I'm feeling: Mostly good, a little more tired. I have 2 scrubs left I can wear to work, otherwise I need to switch to my maternity ones. I unfortunately found this out during my 3 days working in a row this weekend and I was so squeezed I just wanted to cut myself out of them. My co-workers keep asking when I'm going to cave and I said soon as I was super uncomfortable and she said "we don't care about you, give that baby some space to grow!" haha. He's definitely moving a lot. Big movements, feels so crazy. I've had a few of those Braxton Hicks things too. I ran down the hall the other day at work to a CPR code and I think pulled a little something in my back because sometimes it hurts now :( bummer. Also at work a nurse had to come help me with an IV and she was using a portable ultrasound machine to see my patient's veins, I asked if we could look at my baby. So we tried it. I was so excited thinking I'd see his little face and hands waving at me, but no, I couldn't tell what anything at all was. It was super confusing, just squiggles. The only thing I can think is that ultrasound machine only is superficial because it's meant to find veins just under the skin not see into the body deeper? Anyway, it was a disappointment. I won't see him until birth day and I'm getting curious!

Cravings: I saw a commercial for Wendy's frostys last night and tried to send Doug out on a run. He was seeming reluctant so I made the next best thing:

This may look like a bowl of you know what, but it is actually delicious and healthy Vegan Banana soft serve. (I actually do mine with the frozen bananas, splash of almond milk, 1 spoon pb, and another spoon cocoa powder) Mmmm, hit the spot!

So my weekend was all spent at work, but Friday Doug and I went to get some cider and donuts and it was so nice. A beautiful "fall" day. Aaaand today it's 90 again, but that day was lovely.

dodging the ever present cider mill bees

I'm excited for fall, my favorite season, and closer to little boy!

Days until due date: 39

Around the house

One thing about being in a small house with no basement has been a problem with storage space. Our garage rafters are pretty crowded with stuff, it's nice we have that area, but everything is dusty and hard to get to without a big ladder. I wanted some indoor storage and hired my dad to build me some custom laundry room shelves.

My dad builds pipe organs so he is an amazing woodworker, but is not a cabinetmaker and doesn't like making cabinet doors. So we had the doors custom made from a place in CA. Which was actually more expensive than I was initially thinking, but I think worth it in the end. And then he build the storage unit part.

I guess there is no true "before" picture, but imagine a laundry room with, I don't know, a bunch of empty space above the washer/dryer.

Dad whipped it together and when Elizabeth was in town for my shower weekend they all were over and we lifted it into place. Heavy! And awkward as the cabinets are about 1.75 ft high and 7 feet long.

storage spot for food containers, canning jars, tablecloths, and baby stuff not needed yet

putting on the doors

I made these signs and now the laundry room is a much more organized space!

One other thing Dad was hired to do was fix our garden window. When we got the windows quote a new garden window was about $3k alone. Um, no thanks. Our other option was to just turn it into a regular double-hung. Boring! The garden window had a cracked seal on the top pane, and it is drafty in the winter, but I love the character. So Dad to the rescue.

before:

Dad removed it and had it replaced by some glass guy he knows. Then replaced the new panel.

So much brighter, and the new glass panel only $80. Nice.

Today Doug and I went to the movies, Ben Hur, good. I'm doing some homework while he's off at his new class, and just readying myself for a long 3 day weekend at work. Happy Labor day to everyone else!