39 weeks: last pregnancy post!!

yes, you read that right. i am 100% sure this is my last pregnancy post! sh and i went to the doctor yesterday. i am 2cm dilated (active labor starts at 4cm) but have not really felt much in terms of real contractions (just what seems to be a lot of braxton hicks, which is maddening because it's such a tease this late in the game!).

the doc said that based on the baby's estimated weight of 6 pounds 10 oz 2.5 weeks ago, the baby could very well be 8 pounds already, or even bigger. my jaw dropped when she told me this. considering my size, she doesn't want lana getting much bigger because then it'll make it harder for me to deliver her naturally. so...if i don't go into labor on my own by tomorrow night, i'm scheduled to go to the hospital thurs morning at 6am to be induced. it's not ideal to be induced, but i'd rather be induced and deliver naturally than let lana go way overdue and get huge and then have to get a c-section. i was holding out hope that i'd go into labor today (so we could share birthdays) but that ship has sailed. i'm still hoping i'll go into labor naturally between now and thursday morning though. anyway, it's just such a relief to know that regardless of how it happens, after what feels like years of being pregnant lana will be here by the end of this week!

thanks everyone for all your encouragement and support! please pray for a quick and easy labor and delivery (well, as quick and easy as l&d can get!). oh, and pray that she is long and lean (and in particular, has a nice and small head). :D hopefully the next blog post will have pictures of a very tired but happy mommy and daddy with lana pants. :)

last bump!

38 weeks (+1 day): no baby yet.

note: i wrote this on tuesday morning, thinking it'd be ready to go tuesday night (after sh took my bump picture) but i'm just putting it up now because i seriously thought i was going into labor last night! i had back pain coming and going so i thought it was the beginning of contractions but nope. oh well.
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a girl can dream, but alas, lana is not here yet. although there was one day last week where i really thought i was going into labor and my heart started racing at the prospect that the day was finally here...but no. not yet. i had my weekly dr appt yesterday. i am now 131 pounds. no dilation yet. -_-

the silver lining of lana's no-show is that it allowed sh and me to go on a little getaway to the poconos last weekend - our last hurrah, if you will. today is our 3rd year anniversary (which i just realized a few days ago because i am so preoccupied with getting baby out of me) so it also doubled as an anniversary getaway. we went fri evening to sun morning and it was such a great time to unwind and relax. i think in this day and age, esp. as new yorkers (or living-in-nj-but-still-acting-like-new-yorkers), we don't know how to rest. it's hard to just...be. and now, esp. because we live with family, it's pretty much impossible to get rest living with my 10 year old cousin who never leaves us alone. so we ran away (from my cousin) to the poconos to a little b&b called the nest.

we highly recommend it! the owners have lived in the house for a long time but only recently renovated it to be a b&b. they are great hosts, great cooks and great to just sit and chat with. it's a modern b&b so no doilies/smell of mothballs and/or feeling like you're staying in someone else's grandma's house (unlike every single b&b i researched at the jersey shore). there's a pool, a hot tub and a basement with a game room, but otherwise, it's really a retreat - it's in the middle of nowhere and there's nothing but nature surrounding you. on sat it poured all day so i didn't get to go swimming but sh and i did relax in the hot tub for a long time which was sooo nice, even with the rain.

this pic is of our room at the b&b. sh is obsessed with the game of thrones series so his goal for the weekend was to be able to read it in peace.

anyway, i'm really excited to finally show some nursery pics! we aren't done yet but this is what we have so far.

this is a pic of the nursery from the doorway. sh did such an awesome job painting the room and fulfilling his wife's dreams of having a striped accent wall.

this is the room and board crib, with the bird mobile i made hanging above.

close-up of bird mobile.

some of lana's friends-to-be, hanging out in her crib (eagerly awaiting her arrival).

this is the before pic of the dresser i bought for $40 on craigslist.

this is the after pic - i sanded, primed and painted it and then added new drawer knobs from anthropologie.

we still need to get a bookcase for lana's toys/books as well as a floating shelf to put her name blocks, but at this point it's not a rush so we'll get to it sometime after she's born.

my full-time job these days is googling "ways to naturally induce labor." -_-

bump! i am hoping this is my last bump picture!

37 weeks: FULL TERM!!!

ok lana, you've been baking long enough to come out now! i'm full term today. i feel full term. women sometimes talk about how they didn't even realize they were starting to have contractions because the contractions were really mild in the beginning or they felt pain only in their back or they felt no pain, just pressure. every time i have an ache in my back or pressure in my lower abdomen i get excited and hope it's a contraction but alas it just eventually goes away and then that's that.

i was supposed to have a dr appt yesterday but she got called in for FIVE deliveries so it got rescheduled to today. stats: 130 pounds. didn't gain since last week. fundal height (size of uterus) is 36 cm. i unfortunately have not dilated at all yet. dr is going on vacation aug 29, so i said to her, "i hope she comes before you go on vacation!" and she said "i really don't think you'll go 6 days past." i'm not sure why she thinks that but i was glad to hear it. we had an ultrasound last thursday and the baby's estimated weight is 6lbs 10oz which sounds nice and small, so hopefully they're right! it was so awesome to see her on the screen again, even though she was so big it was hard to make out what was what. when the tech tried to get a profile pic of her face it was pretty impossible because, as usual, our little lana was putting on a little number and constantly moving around. at one point we could make out that one arm was on top of her forehead and the other one was curled up next to her cheek. so cute.

i'm done with work now. it was glorious to sleep till 9am this morning. and while i feel like i might get cabin fever sitting at home until lana comes out, i also really appreciate this time off to take care of random stuff and also prepare for lana. sh and i finished the last coat of paint on the dresser finally, and i ordered really pretty drawer knobs from anthropologie. i hope to be able to post somewhat finished pictures of the nursery soon.

i'm gonna be a mom soon! holy crap!

bump!