Belly and Baby Shower Pictures and a few Tidbits!

Hello! I have obviously been terrible at updating, so I am going to have to do one big post of what's been going on and all the pictures I have! Of course they are all from my phone..owell, maybe the baby will make me better about using my camera! Here we go!

 I am pretty sure that this is 30 weeks

Another 30 weeks

30 weeks bare belly!

This was at my first baby shower that my sister and friend Patty threw for me, 34 weeks and 4 days.

The next weekend my mom's "bible study" friends threw me a church shower, 35 weeks and 4 days.

The next weekend we went to Sam A. Baker for our annual family trip. All my cousins/siblings trying to have a belly like me! 36 weeks and 4 days.

This is 37 weeks and 1 day!

This is 37 weeks and 1 day bare belly!

You can't see me in this really, but this is the day after my shower. It is my bff, Ashley's shower that her mom, our friend Emily, and I threw for her while she was home from New York.

Ashley and I at my shower!! She didn't wear a very belly revealing shirt, but as you can see in the pic above she really is pregnant! :)

Ashley's cake!! The only picture I took of her whole shower. :(

Beautiful decor at my shower from my sister and Patty! There were thank you cards, cookies, and advice cards/tree at this table!

Food table- My mom did an AWESOME job on her big fruit piece!

Cute cupcakes and drink table! Love the mason jars! :)

Ashley-Me-Emily at my shower

My sister-me-my mom at my shower

**Sorry those pictures were in such a random order but it was too much work to move them all around, sorry! I felt so blessed to have two awesome showers- we got so many good things and a lot of necessities too, which makes Pete a happy man!

**My appointment's have been going smoothly for the most part. We had a little bump in the road around 34 weeks. We went in for our normal Thursday appointment and when she went to listen to the heartbeat about 10 beats in there was a little jump sound. It was so clear that Pete and I both heard it. Our doctor wasn't nervous at all, but wanted us to come back the next day to listen again and see if it was gone. Apparently, it is pretty common for a heart arrhythmia to pop up in the later part of pregnancy. Regardless, it was very scary to hear anything could be wrong and it was a rough 24 hours for us. We went back the next morning and our doctor was out doing due to a delivery so the nurse practitioner came in and listened and it was still there so we had to sit and wait for Dr. Cugini to get back and tell us what she wanted us to do. The ultrasound tech that is normally in their office was conveniently out of town for the whole weekend, so we had to go to the hospital to do an hour of external monitoring and get a biophysical profile done. Registration was a disaster, but once we got to the OB floor the nurse was very nice and informative. She said she hears them quite a bit, and usually after birth they are gone and can't even be heard by the pediatrician. After spending practically the whole day at the hospital, Dr. Cugini read the monitoring and decided that she wanted us to go see a specialist. Hearing that news made my heart hurt so bad. That weekend I had my baby shower and put on a brave face, but had a hard time telling 40 people that everything was okay because I did not want to have to explain the situation 40x and plus, we really didn't know if anything was wrong or not. Pete and I had many conversations that weekend about how crazy it that everyone tells you that you won't understand the amount of worry you will have for a child until you have one of your own. Boy, were "they" right. We prayed so much that all would be okay with our baby girl. We knew it was in the Lord's hands and HE is in control. I do not know what I would have done without Pete. He is my rock. He has such a calming spirit, positive attitude, and encouraging personality. The Lord knew exactly what he was doing when he put us in each others paths because I don't know where I would be without having him to turn to. I never, ever want to take him for granted. Okay, back to the story..the next Tuesday we had our appointment with the specialist. First off, the doctor is the one who did the ultrasound and went through every little detail with us. Stopped on everything, pointed out what each thing was, explained what he was looking for, etc. He even took a picture of the hair on her head and gave us a free 3D picture, which showed off baby girl's butt chin just like her mama. :) Although, I am very happy we didn't really know why we were there other than the fact that our baby had a heart arrhythmia and we needed to check and find out what type it was. When he got to the heart and said well I do not see any fluid around any parts of the heart, so you are clear from fetal heart failure. I looked over at Pete in shock. If I would have known that was the reason we were going there before my anxiety would have been out.of.the.roof. He thought everything looked great and said she will have the arrhythmia until she was born and maybe for a while after, but it will not affect her in any way. Praise the Lord. We left there so encouraged and thankful for the good results. We have been back to the doctor 3-4 times since then and you can still hear it for sure, but if the doctors say it is okay, then that is what we have to trust in.

**I had my 37 week appointment today and I am almost dilated to a two and pretty much all the way effaced. She said it was so much that she couldn't give me an exact percent. She all said that last week she could still push the baby's head up and it would move and this week it didn't go back up at all! All good news! We could have a baby any day now!

**I have really been feeling good. I only had a few weeks that she was high enough for it to be uncomfortable to sit or breathe. She has definitely dropped!!! My feet and hands are pretty puffy all the time now. I can't get my rings on anymore. First time I have went without them since we got married!

**Pete and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary on the 16th of this month. We just kept saying how crazy it is how important we made our 1st anniversary and this year, our lives have changed so much that November 13th is the date that has our attention now. Plus, the first year of marriage was not easy for us. Getting adjusted to living together is a hard, hard thing. Where as this past year has been so fun for us! We are adjusted to each other and have our own life together now and it feels good to look back on the past year and see how far we have came together! I can't imagine what next year is going to look like considering we are going to have a baby who is about to turn 1!! ah!

**We are still waiting until baby girl is born to decide on a name. Although I did tell Pete a few weeks ago that if I had to decide that second I knew which one I wanted to go with. My thoughts have not changed from that either, so that's pretty exciting. Thinking about her with a name is a lot more fun than without, but it will be worth the wait of a few more weeks!

**I really do not want a Halloween baby. At. All.

That is all I can think of right now. I am going to try to get a nursery reveal post finished (for real!!), a post on what/how I want my labor to go (this is the point when anyone who has had a child can go ahead and laugh, but I just want to have my thought wrote down before and after), and my sister told me I should do a post of my day now so I can do one once I have the baby and see what has changed. So I have a busy next few days! :)

xoxo,

Erin