In the Home Stretch...

Well, I can't believe it, but we have just a little over a month left until we finally get to meet this baby.  I had an appointment with our regular doctor & the specialist on Monday.  All is well, except that he is still breech.  Stubborn baby.  The good news his foot looks great, the specialist is still confident it will only need braced & his growth looks a lot better.  He's at 4 lbs 15 oz, so we should have a healthy sized baby by when all is said and done.  If you have any tips on how to turn a breech baby, let me know... I will be doing a lot of "elephant walking".  Maybe this could be an activity with the preschoolers.  I will not be having the doctor turn him.  Ouch is all I can say.  We were told that the baby is positioned the way he is for a reason, and that more than likely if they try & turn him, he will move back to the breech position.  I go back in October 8, & if he's still breech at that point, we will be discussing scheduling a c-section.  It would be pretty awesome if they scheduled it on Halloween.  Can you say, "trick or treat"? I know some of you think I'm nuts, but what a fun birthday.  That is, if he likes Halloween as much as Chadd and I do.  Also decided that for his 5th birthday, we will be taking him to Disney World for their Halloween events.  We shall start saving now.  Also, I've never been, so it's kind of like fulfilling one of my dreams.  I guess this is the point where I start living through my child.
Anywho, the kitchen is practically done.  It's usable.  I can, and have, been cooking in it & it is awesome.  It's so nice to have counter space to prep on, to be able to fit our appliances on the counter tops, to have extra space for storage (that's right, I have cabinets that don't have anything in them right now!).  Oh and not to mention flooring that I don't feel like I have to have shoes on when I walk on it because it's so gross.  Thanks so much to KSID--the designers who helped us out.  I love everything about it.  The baby's room is also practically done.  It's painted, thanks to Chadd's dad.  That was a huge help.  The new window is installed & looks awesome.  The crib & dresser are up (pics soon) thanks to Chadd.  I feel like we are inching closer to being ready for this baby.  Still not ready yet, though.  Give me 2 more weeks to get the house in order, & then I will probably be more than ready.  The closer it gets, the more overwhelmed I'm feeling.
Our neighbors had their sweet baby this week (possibly our son's future girlfriend).  I feel like we've gone through our whole pregnancies together & now they have their little one...makes me feel like we are so close to meeting ours.  As anxious as I am to finally hold him, I'm still not ready mentally or emotionally.  Physically..I'm getting there.  My newest ailment is that my hands go numb all the time, especially when I'm in bed, & my arms throb.  Sounds dumb, but sleeping (or not sleeping, in my case) has been very painful this week.  The doc says this is pregnancy induced carpal tunnel... which doesn't sound too bad, but now I know why people have surgery to fix it.  My hands are stiff all day, and I can hardly maneuver them.  I finally caved & took some Tylenol last night which helped until about 1 am.
Things left to do: purchase the swing, mattress, baby book & pack n play, put said baby items together, pack diaper bag for hospital, finish getting the house in order, and teach Chadd how to change a diaper.  I did wash all of his clothes newborn-3/6 months, install the carseat (still need to have it checked, I'll add that to the list), & get the stroller put together.
To those of you who read this,  prayers will greatly be appreciated in this next month, as life as we have known it will change when we bring this little man into the world.  I can't tell you how blessed we are to have wonderful family & friends who take care of us, because this journey has been so much fun but scary at the same time.  We wouldn't be where we are without any of you.  I guess I'm just trying to say that nothing anyone has done for us has gone unnoticed.  Not just baby stuff people have given us, but especially the support & advice we have received and will continue to receive.  There's really no manual for any of this.

Showered

Yesterday was my baby shower, and it was awesome!  My bestie, Jenni; sister, Darci;, & sister-in-law, Mallory did an awesome job.  Thank you so much!  It was "A Very Hungry Caterpillar" theme.  Mallory made & sent out cute invites, Darci had cupcakes & a cake made in the shape of the caterpillar (pics to follow) & Jenni made these awesome lanterns using circles cut out from the pages of the book that we can hang in the baby's room.  Everything looked great.  A lot of good friends & family came and we ended up with so much great stuff for the baby--clothes, blankets, bath stuff, diapers, baby monitor, bouncy seat, rock and play sleeper, tummy time boppy, cover for his changing pad, supplies for making baby food, decor for his room, etc... I feel so blessed!  Thank you so much to everyone who made it, I had a lot of fun!  Ooh almost forgot about the "candy bar" with candy I've been craving, and there were no cheesy baby shower games :) Just some fun ones--like trying not to say "baby" the entire time.  I may have been the first one out on that one.  Anyway, I feel a bit more prepared for the baby now.  Still not ready for his debut, though.

The decorations Jenni made are hanging, (I'll have to take a better picture), & the caterpillar cake is on the left (I will  also have to get a better picture of this, sorry!)

 Meanwhile, our kitchen is getting closer & closer to being finished!  All that's left are the final touches--trim, counter top  back splash, & the bench.  In fact, I was even able to start putting some things away this morning.  It's really hard trying to figure out where to put everything, though.  So I decided to procrastinate.  That's why I'm blogging.  So far I have the pantry set up, but I had a bit of a conundrum... spices & canned goods--pantry or lazy susan?  I think I decided to put spices/baking stuff on the lazy susan & canned goods in the pantry.  I just don't know about everything else, though.  Very tough decisions.

AND most important... the baby's room is also getting close to being done.  Kind of.  Chadd's dad, Todd, has been coming over & painting for us, & it is looking awesome.  After we bought our second gallon of green paint, I think we finally got the right color.  Green is hard to pick out.  We also painted the trim white, and I do believe that was a wise decision on my part (Chadd was opposed at first).  The trim looks really nice.  In a week we are having new windows put in his room as well.  The closet is semi-organized.  I've organized & hung all of his clothes, and even already put away everything from the shower.  We are still waiting on his dresser to arrive to be able to but clothes away in it (that's a whole other fiasco-- we were shipped the wrong crib & dresser, so we had to ship them back, then we were only shipped the correct crib, but no dresser.  Now they are supposedly shipping the right dresser.  We'll see).  For the most part, it's coming together.

It looks really bright here, but it's a really nice green.  Still needs another coat of paint.  And doesn't the trim look nice?

I suppose you'd like to know how the baby is doing?  I had a check-up this week & everything looks great. And in case you'd like to know, he's moving as I type.  In fact, he moves a lot these days.  Everything I feel is in my upper stomach, close to my ribs.  I'm not going to get excited & think that he's not breech anymore, though, because last time I thought that & it turned out he was still breech and had his feet & hands up by his head, which is why I felt movement by my ribs.  He still has time move, I'm just impatient & really don't want to end up having c-section.  Also, if he could move so he's not pressing on my sciatic nerve, that would be fantastic.  It honestly feels like there's an alien in my body.  Last night I went to dinner with my family & they were all able to see & feel him move, & feel hiccups.  Pretty cool.  I can feel where certain body parts are, too.  Everyone keeps asking me if I'm ready to have him out of my belly, and the answer is no, not quite.  I just don't feel like I'm prepared yet.  Maybe once his room is complete I'll feel ready, I don't know...I guess I'm just having a lot of anxiety about it at this point.
And I almost forgot, I started back with the preschoolers last week.  They are a very fun group, and are really curious about the baby.  Several of them like to touch my belly every day.  They don't understand how exactly the baby got in my belly.  They asked me if I ate it.  I guess that would be the logical explanation, lol.