Stubborn Johnson Child

Sweet baby is currently in a breech position.  Frank breech, most likely.  Very frustrating.  If we stay in this position until November 27th, we may have to give up our home birth approach and go to the hospital.  I will be fighting against a Cesarean, tooth and nail.

We would love if everyone, people we know, people we don't know, would pray that our baby would turn head down before that day.  We want our baby to be born at home, naturally.  Although at the end of the day, all we want is a healthy, happy baby and a healthy, happy momma.

Techniques we are currently trying:

-Webster Technique
-Inversion
-Cold Ice Packs
-Hypnosis
-Massages
-Accupressure

Keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

Belly Pic Updates

SO....

I know I promised belly picture updates more regular than we have been supplying them.  But real life gets in the way sometimes.

Here's a quick recap of my growing bump (it's no longer hard to believe there is a baby in there as he or she is beating against my ribs and trying to come out) from 25 weeks to 31 weeks.

That's right, 31 weeks now and only 9 weeks left until our due date.

Baby, we're ready for you.

25 weeks:

28 Weeks 2 Days:

31 Weeks:

When all this is said and done, I plan to take each week's picture, and put them side by side, or ascending or something... just so you can see the crazy progression of growing bump.

But seriously, look at that!  I definitely don't feel that big, but then I look at pictures and think, "Geez!"

So, 31 weeks.  Baby weighs somewhere in the neighborhood of 3.5 pounds and is around 16 inches long.  From here until the day he/she makes the debut, 1/2 pound will be gained each week.  Which means I will gain at least 5 more pounds.  Awesome.  

FINALLY!!

For those of you who have seen previews of the nursery, you know I have been working diligently on a project since June.  A project I thought would take a couple of weeks at the most to finish.

Yeah... I kinda underestimated the amount of work I was going to have to do...

But, FINALLY, I have finished the T-Shirt Rug!!  My green shaggy rug is complete, beautiful, and gracing the middle of our nursery.

BEHOLD!!

Oh I am so proud... and I will not be starting a project like this again for awhile.  The rug is 5' x 5' and made from a green knit jersey material.  I used in total about 15 yards of fabric, all cut into 1" x 5" strips, tied to the underlying rug mat I purchased from Hobby Lobby.

Here is a picture of the rug in process:

When I started the rug, I went completely around the outside first, then filled in the middle.  I skipped every other little square, but you could definitely do every one.  The rug would just be a lot thicker (and take ages and ages to finish).

So now, hubby and I will be painting trees on the wall tonight.  And setting up a picture mobile.  More pictures to follow.

And please, feel free to congratulate me on this feat of amazingness.  I don't think I will feel this accomplished until I push little Baby Cakes out in a couple of months, or 64-ish days. 

Geez.  64 days.  Everybody better prepare themselves for cuteness overload when they meet our little baby.

Eggplant Baby

Who decided the corresponding fruits and veggies for the weeks of pregnancy?  A durian fruit is coming up.  What the heck is that, anyway?  Can I buy it at my local grocery store?  No, I cannot.

But this week, Baby Cakes is a little eggplant, somewhere between 13.5 and 14.8 inches and 1.5 to 2.2 pounds.  And he or she is kicking me like no other.  In the middle of the night, during the day, while I'm walking, while I'm sitting... pretty much all the time.  I love it.  And people can feel and SEE my stomach jerk and move.  Pretty trippy man.  Hubby and I decided to watch Prometheus and the Alien trilogy movies lately too... so familiar to me!

We are also officially in the third trimester.  With 84 days left until the due date.  Everything just seems to be flying by so quickly.  Every time I look at the calendar, it seems I have even less time to prepare for our little arrival.

And even with time flying by, it also seems to be crawling.  I visualize our birth at least once a day, and I just can't wait to see our baby, hold our baby, and just meet our baby.  I am so excited to be a mom.  And I can't believe I will be in three months or less.

95 Days and Counting...

Patrick and I both have countdown timers on our phones to Baby Cake's due date, January 4th.  As of today, we have 95 days left.  Basically three months before we get to meet our little boy or girl.

Last weekend, we went to Chattanooga for our Babymoon getaway.  The Chattanooga Choo Choo put us up in Hotel 3, with a beautiful outdoor pool that was colder than ice water, so we hit up the indoor pool at Hotel 1 when the mood hit us.

Chattanooga is one of our favorite places to getaway.  So much to do, all within trolley or walking distance.  We hit the zoo, the aquarium, Northshore shops, glass blowing, IMax, and sleeping.  I loved the sleeping in a big hotel bed with HGTV playing in the background.  We don't have cable at home, so watching television is almost a vacation in itself!  Plus, the food in Chattanooga is amazing.  Lupi's Pizza, Purple Daisy Barbecue, Good Dog Hot Dogs, Aretha Frankenstein's, Blue Plate...  the list goes on and on.  I don't recommend the food at the hotel, unless you are starving and in a pinch.

This Friday, the 6th, is the start of our 7th month and the third trimester.  Insane.  I can't believe how quickly this has all flown by.  Next week we start visiting our midwife every two weeks instead of once a month.

I really can't wait until our due date gets closer, and the baby gets here.  Then we can reveal names.  But two baby showers are coming up in a month, and that will hold me over for awhile!  Thanks to both sides of my loving family for throwing them for me.

In Which I Break Down... All The Time

Everything makes me cry.

I prided myself on my ability to hold in emotion in public.  Nothing made me cry.  I never had a heart of stone, but I was able to hold in my tears until I reached the privacy of my own home.

Now.  Pfft.

Sad movies, commercials (COMMERCIALS!), and kind words from others make my eyes leak worse than a sieve used as a roof in a hurricane.  At a wedding this past weekend, the vows the groom spoke to the bride had me sniffling and surreptitiously wiping my eyes.  It was an outside wedding so I could feign allergies.

How many other women do this during pregnancy?  Do you break down every time the old couple in the Cialis commercial smile at each other and embrace?  When the mom hugs her child after cleaning the toilet with Clorox, do you sniffle and feel your eyes get red?  

This is embarrassing.  So much so that I fear watching tv in group settings.  If you have me over soon and the television is on, don't think anything of it if I make an excuse to leave the room at each commercial break!

Things I Miss...

Picture taken at 22 Weeks, 1 Day by my lovely sister, Heather Johnson.  

I expected to miss certain things when I became pregnant.  And for the first 4 months of pregnancy, I was definitely not missing much.  Nausea and then complete excitement at being a mom kept me from thinking about sushi and bars and long nights with a glass of wine under the stars with friends.

In the last month, I have become increasingly aware of things I'm missing.  Fridays and Saturdays were once days and nights of hanging out on patios and by pools with wine or beer, talking with friends and laughing until the wee hours of the morning.  Summer was spent swimming in the lake, water skiing on the boat, traveling, and always enjoying an alcoholic beverage of some sort.

So, it's clear I miss alcohol.  And with the holidays coming up, I will be unable to drink the delectable sangria made by my mom-in-law, Sue.  Sangria so amazingly delicious, that it is usually consumed completely by everyone before dinner is even served, and we are left to suck and chew on the alcohol soaked fruit at the bottom of the jars.  But a healthy baby is more than worth giving up that buzz of contentment.

Ice cream is another treat I miss.  Too much sugar and fat to be of any use to my developing wee one.  I must admit, about once a month, Patrick does treat me to some fro-yo.  But as for the full fat, full sugar, creamy dreamy ice cream.  Nope.  None.  Sigh.

Sushi.  Oh God.  Now that is another treat entirely.  In fact, I have asked Patrick to get me sushi as soon as the baby exits my lady parts.  I want raw fish, tuna, salmon, all of it, in my mouth and in my tummy.  Speaking of raw, I also miss bloody rare steaks.  And runny eggs.  But again, food treats are nothing to give up to have a healthy baby.  

But I can still miss those things right?  I can dream about having a couple of drinks at the end of the day, enjoying a margarita with my quesadilla, eating sushi with my chopsticks, and having an ice cream sundae covered in chocolate to finish it all off.  And still be a good mama.