Some good news... some bad news...

First the bad news...

I had a doctor's appointment this morning. Yes, the baby is fine... yes, I'm doing fine... but I was seriously hoping to hear that this baby was about ready to make a grand entrance and that is not what we heard. Our doctor did his little ehem... "exam"... and told us "I'm about 90% positive this baby's coming in September."

WOOF! September?! Holy moly I wanted to throw a shoe. Oh well, I guess little man just needs a little more time down South before gracing us with his presence.

Here's a picture of me in Week 39... I officially look like the Goodyear Blimp:

OH, and don't believe my smile for a second. I'm totally faking it :)

Now the good news (which, luckily, there is more of):

I finished my internship! Yes, it's a relief to have completed it before the baby came but I really enjoyed my time there! I'm going to miss working at the hospital, for sure. I woke up this morning and had a "whoa.... what now?" moment before realizing, "Oh, that's right... I'm having a baby. And he's so big I feel like he's going to explode out of my belly button." Operation Baby is a "GO!"

Mom gets here TOMORROW! And now that it's looking like she'll have more time with pregnant-Amy instead of momma-Amy I'm excited for her to help me pass the time until Colton's here. We're planning on going to Tara's baby shower on Saturday and I'm hoping we can all go up for Jeremy's missionary homecoming on Sunday. And despite the fact that my doctor thinks NO amount of walking, castor oil, spicy food, etc. will bring a baby here sooner than he's ready, I'm comforted by the fact that mom told me, "Walking HAS to help! Gravity alone should bring that baby down!" Yeah, it better. Because this baby has already dropped and I have been and will continue to do a TON of walking to try and make him drop even more. Seriously?! 0-stinking-% effaced?! Lame. But my mom is cool!

Okay, I'd better stop. Friends don't let friends blog frustrated.

Life really is good... I just WANT THIS BABY HERE! My next doctor's appointment is on Tuesday so I'm hoping for some miraculous news :)

Stay tuned...

Gettin' Down to Crunch Time

Oh my holy heck, I'm 38 weeks pregnant! For reals. When I finally got the energy to kick my swollen backside out of bed, this is what I ended up looking like:

I can't even get over how huge I am. This week I look like I'm going to pop and I feel like I'm going to pop. I'm finally realizing what all this talk about the last month being the hardest is all about.

• Walking is now about the only form of exercise I can handle... and I'm walking VERY slowly.
  
• Little man has learned how to hone in on my bladder like a tractor beam and he has DEADLY aim. Sorry for the over-share but I can seriously pee about once every 30 minutes.
• Pregnancy insomnia. Woof. I go to bed at 11:00 at the latest, I wake up at 6:30 in the morning, and yet I get about 2-3 hours of actual sleep every night.
• This carpal tunnel business is starting to get on my nerves (Haha, my median nerve. Get it?!). My left hand is usually fine but my right hand is perpetually numb. We're talking 24:7. It's really weird.
• The cankles have reached a new level of dangerous.
• Everyone has an opinion about where I'm puffiest, how I'm carrying my baby, my waddle, how much my baby will weigh, how early/late my baby will come, and how fast I'll drop the baby weight (according to some people, "when" I lose the baby weight should be "if" I lose the baby weight).
  
• So I'm physically exhausted, but mentally and physically, I feel fantastic!

So you want to hear why I have the best husband in the whole world? He's fully aware of how much my aches and pains have been wearing me down. After our doctor's appointment the other day he surprised me with a prenatal massage. Um, yeah. I was in heaven for that 60 minutes. My sciatic nerve pain and water retention went way down immediately afterward and I'm hoping I can fend it off a bit longer. Spencer officially gets control of the TV remote for an indefinite amount of time :)

Raylyn threw me a baby shower with all my aunts and cousins and it was so fun! She really outdid herself with the food, decorations, games, etc. and I'm grateful for all the work and effort she put into everything. It was great seeing family members that I haven't seen in years... and Becca & Paige were there!

Last night Spencer and I went on a Target/Wal-Mart run to pick up some last minute baby things that we still need before D-day. I was really glad that we went together because Spencer got a little taste of what I go through every day during my ten and a half hour shifts at IMC. A cute little Hispanic lady standing in front of us at the checkout line went ON and ON about our baby: "Oh, he will be SO BIG! Has the doctor told you how big he will be? He has to be at least 8 pounds. He is a boy? Yes, I can tell he is a boy." Spencer and I just cracked up - this woman was seriously adorable.

And after our little shopping trip the nursery is just about finished! We still don't have any drapes for our HUGE window, though. Having no drapes doesn't bother me, but lights shine straight through the blinds and keep Colton's room pretty bright through the night. I want my baby to sleep as well as possible! There are a couple of other things we still really need to get but I'm feeling a lot more prepared than I did just a week ago. Now we just need the baby!

So here are some pictures of the little man's room. Enjoy!

Welcome to treasure island :)

This is where the magic happens... AKA "thesis"

Notice the BYU jersey? Spencer just couldn't resist. See the diaper genie to the left of the changing table? That was another one of Spencer's stipulations - poopy diapers give him the willies.

The monkeys are named "Wilson" and "Friday." And I love them. The crib + bedding are definitely my favorite parts of this nursery (thanks Walkers!)

We traded our blue leather couch out for this rocker (thanks to Kellen and Char). I anticipate many sleepless nights in this chair.

You like how the window valence is laying across the dresser? Yeah... our window is WAY too big; the valence only stretches about halfway across.

So... baby watch continues! Stay tuned for any more breaking news :) 'Til next time...

Full term!

Drumroll please...

We did it! In week 37, I am officially FULL TERM. Yeah!

The past week or so has brought two new "fun" pregnancy symptoms.

1. Numb fingers and hands (and occasionally arms). I was officially freaked when I woke up one morning and couldn't feel either of my arms. As the day progressed, my hands and fingers spontaneously went numb at random times. Usually a couple quick arm shakes did the trick but it was still really weird that first day. I turned to the obvious source to figure out what was wrong... good ole' Dr. Google. According to the internet, this is actually pretty common in pregnancy and is a manifestation of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS). Yeah, I was unsure at first, too. But here's what I found:

"The most common symptoms are hand pain, hand numbness, tingling sensations in the fingers, hand and thumbs and pain shooting up the forearm. It can even translate to shoulder and neck pain following the nerve path back to the brain. Often these symptoms are most intense at night and result in routine sleep disturbance. The last thing an expecting mother needs is another cause of routine sleep interruption."
Found at: http://www.mycarpaltunnel.com/pregnancy-and-carpal-tunnel-syndrome.shtml

How Pregnancy causes CTS: "Pregnant women in the final months of pregnancy are known to suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome. It is caused by swelling in the carpal tunnel that puts pressure on the median nerve (wrist-palm nerve). The reason why this happens is because of increased fluid retention in the advanced stages of pregnancy. CTS pain can affect one or both hands, though the swelling usually subsides in the months following childbirth."
Found at: http://www.slideshare.net/EasyReference/pregnancy-carpal-tunnel-syndrome-cts-how-pregnancy-causes-cts

I actually read a study about it and it turns out that 17-30% of pregger women get it. This water retention is pretty fun stuff, eh?! My doctor told me that water retention reaches its peak about a week after the baby's born. It's too bad we're scheduled to take pictures of Colton 5 days after he's born! This momma's going to look like the Goodyear Blimp.

2. The pregnancy waddle. I've seriously learned that this is a real thing. Holy moly, you should see how slow and awkwardly I walk. Every time I move (and sometimes when I don't) those around me are treated to free sideshow... and some involuntary grunts. Shuffling around 14 floors in the trauma tower at IMC was REAL fun last week, especially because each step made me want...er... HAVE to pee. Huzzah!

Speaking of work....

There was a lady with dementia/early stage Alzheimer's that we were supposed to do a bedside evaluation on this past Wednesday. I was a little worried about the fact that she was yelling to herself before we even stepped foot in the room. The second I walked through the doorframe she started screaming to high heaven that she didn't want "that little pregnant girl" to come any closer because I'd give her a blood disease. Hmmm. The screaming became more and more intense, even as my supervisor did the exam and I stood as close to the doorframe as possible to reduce her agitation. I said nothing, I touched nothing, but her personal terror ensued. I stepped out the door so she wouldn't see me anymore but her screaming actually got louder. I heard her yelling AT my supervisor that she was furious "that little pregnant girl ever stepped foot in this door" and then she continued to scream what she was going to do if I ever walked into her room again. Thank goodness for bilateral arm restraints because I think either my supervisor or I wasn't going to leave that room alive if our patient had been free to move around... not that she didn't try.

And then half an hour later I met the CUTEST couple I think I've ever seen. This cute 90-something year old man was admitted and his even cuter 90-year old wife was in the room during my evaluation. The two of them were holding hands and cracking jokes at each other the whole time. The man's wife was cruising around with her walker and her husband was saying that she was "showing off" her mobility because he was stuck in a bed and couldn't use his jazzy motorized scooter. He basically challenged her to a race once he gets discharged. She had to leave his room the same time that I did but not before my cute patient put his dentures back in so he could "give her a proper kiss goodbye." I literally melted.

Pardon the lack of segue, but... moving on! JEFF AND BECCA (& Paige) are back from England! While my mom and dad were off playing with the Cochrans in Alaska I officially fell out of the loop. I've submitted to the truth... I get all my info from mom. I literally had NO idea that Jeff and Becca were moving back to Orem (much less that it was happening THIS week). And the next thing I know my oldest brother was telling me that Tuck and Hugh are moving to San Diego for Hugh's new internship. (Hey Tuck... we need to call each other more often!) A lot happens in a week and a half. Anywho... Jeff and his fam are back and I get to see Becca tomorrow for my baby shower!

Before I forget (these posts are all unedited mental purges so sorry if they're completely unorganized), here's a picture of me at 36 weeks:

And these are from yesterday... week 37!


These were taken right before my VERY LAST zumba class of the summer! Classes officially ended this week (so students can get ready for finals) and Fall classes will start up again on August 31st. I don't exactly think I'll be in any position to groove to Latin music the day after Colton's due date so I'll just have to walk a lot of stairs between now and baby-day. Mom's coming on August 19th (yippee!) so maybe she'll go on long walks with me (long... not because of distance, but because I'm that slow).

In other news, I was able to go to part of AJ's baby shower on Tuesday. Her baby girl is due at the end of December and is going to be SO DANG CUTE! She's leaving the cohort for Texas (so the husband can go to Med. school) and our cohort's going to feel weird without her here. Here we are with our matching baby bumps:


I think MY Colton and HER baby girl should meet up in about 22 years and hit it off big-time. Seriously.

Before I go, this is becoming my new favorite (and most shocking) thing to check in blog-land. Here are the [unedited] key searches that were lucky enough to link to my blog THIS week:

huge preggers

pregnant girl

"outie" huge

+pregnant +gained +belly +butt

24 week fetus

32 weeks pregnant belly

cornett's apbt

harry potter weight gain stories

spencer ring, byu

Sheesh. People are still silly, I guess. I love you all! 'Til next week...