D-Day

Dear Oliver,

Today is your due date. I woke up so many times last night, and each time, I groggily though, "Why am I awake? Wait! Am I having contractions!?" And each time, I was disappointed. I cannot WAIT to meet you little baby!

Love,

OliveMama

Talk about hormotional!

So a few days ago, I realized we'd never added any bottles to our registry. I'm planning to breastfeed, but as I have to return to work after 12 weeks, I'll need bottles to feed Oliver during the daytime. It was 4 am when I had this epiphany, so of *course* it was a huge deal and had to be taken care of immediately. I pulled out my trusty laptop, opened the BRU website, and logged into our account.

And that's when I noticed that there had been quite a few items (some of them pretty pricey!) purchased. And I lost it. I started crying. Our friends and family have just been so freaking generous between our wedding and our baby. We are so damn lucky.

My sister, mom, aunt and step-mom hosted a shower for us this past weekend. It was absolutely wonderful. Not only did we get some adorable and sweet gifts, but I got to see my family and friends. My sister lives across the country, and I hardly ever get to see her. (Though surely this is the true secret to our functional relationship. ;) We CAN'T annoy each other 2000 miles apart!) I also got to see 3 of my nearest and dearest friends. I miss them like woah.

We've finished moving! Our old place is cleaned and keys have been returned to our landlord. We're still working on unpacking our new place, and the nursery is a complete disaster. Not only have we not unpacked any of the baby stuff, but we have no where to PUT the baby stuff. Why? Because we still don't have furniture for Oliver's room.

The Mr. and I are incredibly picky when it comes to furniture. We'll find a crib that we like, but the changing table won't be quite what we're looking for. Then we find a changing table that we like, and shockingly, ALSO love the crib, but the set is no longer available for purchase. Now, truthfully, I'm not particularly worried about having a crib set up because Oliver will be sleeping in our room for the first few months anyway. However, not having the changing table and a dresser set up is driving me BONKERS. I have limited time to "nest" (6ish weeks!) and I want to get crackin'!

In other news, we've written a first draft of our birth plan! We'll review it at our next appointment, but it feels good to have something done. :)

75%

Lil Oliver is 75% cooked! 30 weeks today! Which means Mr. Olive and I have 10 weeks to get the nursery together. YIKES!

Glucose test was passed with flying colors! Shibby! I'm also not anemic, so that's good too. :)

We're also in the process of moving. This will make my 12th move in 8 years. I've gotten so good at it, I should probably add it to my resume. But all whining aside, we should be in the place in two weeks, and can actually finally start putting the nursery together. Nesting can finally commence. ;)

Stretch marks and cankles

Oh yes, ladies and gents. The stretchies and cankles have arrived, in full force. The belly is getting heavy-ish. I'm hungry and full at the same time. I'm finally starting to feel like an actual pregnant chick!

(Mr. Olive is the sweetest husband ever. He's making lie down with my legs propped up, and is scolding me for calling these sweet puppies cankles. He says they're just temporarily swollen.)

I took my glucose test yesterday exactly @ 28 weeks. They said that no news is good news by day after tomorrow. :fingers crossed: that I pass!

Mr. Olive and I picked out some paint samples, and got some swatches up on the wall for the nursery. Super exciting! I can't wait to get it painted. Will post pictures once some progress has been made! :)

3rd Trimester.

(Meant to post this yesterday but we got home late and I was starving so I ate instead of blogging. So sue me!)

But yeah, so yesterday I hit 27 weeks and the beginning of the 3rd trimester. I can't believe how quickly time is flying. Thankfully, everything is going really well.

Last weekend, I had a hard time sleeping. I went to bed at 10:45, but sleep would just NOT come. And then around 1:30 or so, Oliver decided to take up kickboxing as a hobby. He kept me up like that for about another hour, the little stinker!

Mr. Olive and I have been sorting baby clothes and picking up some sweet onsies here and there. And soon, work on the nursery will commence. We're picking up some paint chips tonight. :)

Patterns!

I've been noticing over the past several days that Oliver is kinda set in his ways. He's been kicking around in the late morning, late afternoon, late evening, and then around 12:30 AM. With that last slot being the most active. So yep, definitely our kid. ;)

And so begins the search

At our last appointment, our midwife recommended we start researching pediatricians. I asked if they had recommendations, and they said they don't. Big fat dead end. Sigh.

I logged on to my company's health website, and spent a good 20 minutes trying to find where they moved the link to the provider directory. Only to find that there are over 300 listings within a 10 mile radius. Greaaaaat.

What we're looking for in a pediatrician is someone who is a little more "granola" and "crunchy" than one who is all about drugs. We want a pedi who won't force vaccines on Oliver. (There's family history behind this.)

Calling all those practices to inquire is going to be a giant pain in the ass, and incredibly time consuming. I am not looking forward to it! So wish me luck!

Oliver is making himself known. :)

I felt one Thursday night, but Mr. Olive was in the other room and by the time I moved, Oliver stopped. But last night, Mr. Olive got to feel one. The look on his face was absolutely perfect and I totally teared up. (So did he!) It was ossum.

I've been relaxing on the couch watching TV, just feeling bumps and thumps.

I also went on a shopping spree last night for cloth diapers. I picked up:

- 1 BG 4.0
- 1 Thirsties Duo
- 1 GrowVia
- 4 hemp inserts

Retail price? $84.60

What I paid? $44.11

So we're up to 5 CD's now, and slowly building.

(Plus our diaperbag came in the mail today, which I got for $35 instead of $75. Schweet.)

And the results are in!

We had our anatomy scan on the 27th, and had the ultrasound tech put the gender results in an envelope. Mr. Olive took the envelope to our local bakery and had them bake a cake with either pink or blue frosting depending on what the envelope contained.

We had our immediate families and a few close friends over for a barbecue today, and cut into the cake:

OliveBaby is a boy!

We'd have been happy either way, but I was really starting to think it was a girl, because so many people were convinced and I figured, "They'll probably be right!"

Will post more later; exhausted from a great weekend. :)

Anatomy scan!

We went this past Tuesday for our anatomy scan. OliveBaby appears to have 2 legs, 2 arms, kidneys, a 4-chamber heart and all the rest of that necessary stuff. Of course, the little stinker wouldn't roll over and show it's face, so we know it's got OlivePapa's personality. ;) This also meant no creepy 20-week face shot. :)

Everyone is DYING to know if OliveBaby is a girl or a boy. Well, we've got that information in a sealed envelope, and we're taking it to a bakery this week and handing it over. We're going to have them do either pink or blue cake inside, with green on the outside, and we'll cut it and serve it to our family, so that everyone finds out together. :) That will happen a week from today! (Yikes, time flies!!!)

Also, I'm at work today, a Sunday, which totally suck. But OliveBaby is kickin' away and making me smile from ear to ear. :)

Houston, we have kick-off!

So I'm sitting at my desk today, having an absolutely horrible day, and I feel this light jab in my belly. Definitely an OliveBaby kick. :) S/he was all, "Hey Mom, it's okay!" I'm grinning ear to ear like a total fool.

I also ordered a baby sling today off Mamabargains.com in this pattern:

And we scheduled our BIG u/s; we go in next Tuesday at 7:45 am. Which means we officially have less than a week to make a decision about finding out the gender.

Carseat has been ordered!

We made our first real baby purchase today. We've picked up a few random clothing pieces over the past 4 months, but this makes it seem so much more real.

It's a Baby Trend Columbia seat:

I had Mr. Olive push the order button at the same time as me. And then he rubbed my belly. We're both total saps. Hah!

Apparently, OliveBaby likes sugar.

Things we have for dessert in the house right now:

- Ice cream (toppings include patriotic sprinkles, caramel, chocolate syrup, and butterscotch.)

- Ice cream sandwiches

- Lemon ice cups

- Strawberry shortcake

- Triple Chocolate Cake

- Caramel filled chocolate chip cookie dough

- Fudge frosted brownies

- Caramel frosted brownies

- Apple Pie (with or without vanilla ice cream)

- Rootbeer floats

- Orange Cow (orange soda float)

- 4 different kinds of cake mix, plus 4 different kinds of frosting.

- Home made monkey bread

- 2 different monkey bread mixes

- Oh and a whole candy bowl full of leftover Easter candy....

Hello, endless possibilities!

Luckily, the thought of most of that makes my stomach hurt. ;)

Houston, we have a heartbeat!

Mr. Olive and I went today for our 3rd prenatal appointment. It went just fine; both OliveBaby and I are doing quite well. I still haven't gained weight but I managed to eat a whole burger for lunch today without getting nauseated. So I anticipate that weight gain will start pretty soon!

But anyway, most importantly! We were able to hear the heartbeat! Our last appointment, at 13 weeks, the midwife was unable to pick it up with the doppler. This time however, she barely had the wand on my belly and the room was filled with a strong, steady "WHOMP WHOMP WHOMP!" 146 bpm. :)

My jaw dropped. I couldn't believe how strong it was! Mr. Olive, true to form, got all teared up. He also managed to snag a sound clip with his phone, which I have been listening too all afternoon. And as soon as I can figure out how to upload it, I'll be sharing it here! (If I even can!)

We also got the paperwork to schedule our BIG ultrasound. So we'll be doing that tomorrow, and we'll have to decide pretty soon if we want to find out OliveBaby's gender. My mother-in-law (MIL) says she thinks it's a boy based on the sound of the heartbeat, but wants to consult her colleagues. (aka, friends!)

Gag reflex = out of control!

I was telling a coworker a story this morning that involved boogers. And as I was thinking about the store, before the words were even out of my mouth, the thought of the boogers made me gag. Repeatedly.

I can't lie, I find this hysterical. I've never had a weak stomach, but now, apparently, the thought of boogers makes me want to vomit.

This better pass when OliveBaby gets here or poopy diapers are going to be one hell of an adventure!

The beans have been spilled!

Mr. Olive and I have officially spilled the beans. We're expecting our first baby this December. The official EDD is December 13th, but we know due dates don't really mean anything. We're just hoping the kid isn't like us, and arrives on time! :)

So far, this has been a really easy pregnancy. (KNOCK ON WOOD!) I haven't had any morning sickness or nausea. I've only had food aversions (to everything but fruit) and exhaustion. Thankfully, my energy returned when I hit the 12 week mark and my appetite is now slowly coming back.

We're currently on the house hunt, as our townhouse now is only a 2 bedroom. It'd be doable, but just a little cozier than we'd like. Hopefully we'll find something soon so we can start putting together a nursery for OliveBaby.

Hoping for a happy and healthy next 6 months!