Update: 38 weeks

Weight Gain: down by 1/2 pound (whoo-hoo! - maybe that cupcake yesterday was fat-free)
Dilated: 2 cm.
Effaced: 50%.
Estimated Delivery: around 39 weeks, which means another week.

Having more contractions, but we'll see if they progress. She said if I am on my feet a lot, things will go faster.
Ryan, of course with work being so busy, wants me to lay down and do nothing.
And I, on the other hand, want to nest and get everything in order for whenever this baby girls decides to come!
And Dylan just wants to play with his new toys from yesterday's birthday party!!!

Camera Love

Because of Dylan's sister's impending arrival in the next couple of weeks (or less!), we are celebrating his birthday today complete with a Lightening McQueen birthday party at the park.

Last night he opened up his first present, which was a BIG HIT!

For months now Dylan has been watching his daddy with the camera, asking to see pictures he's taken and wanting to be part of taking the weekly belly pictures of his mama's growing tummy. And now he has a camera of his very own. Imagine what a 3 year old finds picture worthy: a lego, mommy sitting on the couch, a cat, the table, the wall, ANYTHING.

He loves his camera so much he slept with it last night and woke up telling us "I need to take a picture" at 6am!

I just keep finding myself shaking my head at how much agony it would have been for my parents back in the days when all we had was film cameras... and every pointless picture of a blurry cat running by yielded a bill to develop the film! Thank goodness for digital. And thank you Tagi, for the awesome birthday present. Dylan loves it!!!

Update: 37 weeks

Another OB appointment this morning. Ryan has only missed one appointment between both Dylan and this baby's prenatal visits. But we knew that this week would include another ultrasound. So despite being uber-busy at work right now, he rushed over and arrived just as the doctor came into my room. Perfect.

Ultrasound shows her measuring just about right at around 36 weeks. Heart looks good. And fluid surrounding baby looks good.
Oh, and STILL a girl, which was nice to hear now that the closet is filled with baby girl clothes...

The doctor says she weighs approx 6# at this point, so the estimation is that she'll be around 7.5# at birth depending on when I deliver.
I've had more contractions the past two days, but nothing painful.
She said I could do more walking if I want to progress things, but I think I'll just wait until after Dylan's 3rd birthday party this weekend before I do anything like that.
Plus I have a headcold that I wouldn't mind being rid of before labor and delivery. Who wants to blow their nose during a contraction?

And that pesky office scale says that I've gained 2 more pounds in this past week. Where in the world did that come from? I know it could be water-weight, but I doubt it, as my ankles and hands aren't super swollen. And I have been eating, but no more than I did a month ago.
At least I'm near the end. How much bigger can you get with only 3 weeks to go, I think slyly stupidly to myself.

Baby Shower #2

Today my dear friend Kathy and some of my coworkers put together a baby shower at work to honor this little boxer-girl who has set up camp right under my ribs (yikes she's kicking a lot tonight, it seems!). They had about 5 different kinds of pizza and a full ice cream sundae station set up, lots of thoughtful gifts, and Kathy took lots of pictures. Since she already posted her pictures from the event, I'll send you there to see them. About 20+ people were there, which was a pretty awesome turnout for a baby shower. Maybe it was the pizza and ice cream luring them in, but I'd like to think they came at least in part to see me (and perhaps sneak a peek at how big I've gotten in the past 2 1/2 months)...

It was a fun afternoon and I feel blessed to have such sweet and supportive coworkers.

Thanks Kathy for all you did in making us feel special today (me and baby)!

Update: 36 weeks

Today was the first of my 'weekly' appointments until delivery:

-Baby is still head down
-Baby's heartrate is about 160 beats/minute
-My blood pressure: still good
-And dilation??? 1 cm.

My doctor estimated that I have about 2 more weeks till delivery. Hopefully we have a little more time than that as Dylan's Birthday party is in exactly 2 weeks!

Next week I'll have another ultrasound to check her size (deapite MY weight gain of 4# in the last two weeks, my doctor thinks that's mostly me and not the baby... I don't know if that is good news or not for me!)

Baby Shower

Back in St. Louis I remember when people had their second (or third) babies, it wasn't customary to have another baby shower. But here in Southern California, things are different. "Every baby deserves to be celebrated", as a friend of mine says.
And our baby girl was VERY celebrated today.

My friends (Anamara, Christy, Karissa, Genese, and Lisa) hosted the most awesome and carefully thought out baby shower for our family (yes, husbands and kiddos were invited as well). There were numerous games, a delicious cake (Portos!), sangria (no, I didn't have any), balloons, tons of food including fajitas, a towering diaper cake, toddler pool and sand table under a big awning for the kids, tiki torches, party favors (including a personalized cd of tunes in honor of our baby girl and bags of homemade cookies for everyone who came), and lots of VERY generous gifts.

One gift in particular was from the whole group: a new stroller!

And games? Let's see, there was the 'how big is briana's belly' game (actual size was 10 squares around), where Ryan nearly came in second to last with estimating my tummy as GIGANTIC! (Cagdas, thanks for guessing my girth to be a few toilet paper squares larger than Ryan - you saved him!)
There was another game where you guessed how many jelly beans, pretzels, and goldfish were in various baby bottles.
And the gold standard: Guess what kind of candy (smashed up in diapers, only to be guessed by smelling one by one).

And a beer drinking game for the dads. That was a sight!
Imagine 7-8 grown men, lined up in a row, fiersly drinking beer from baby bottles...

And the kids decided they needed to play too, so here they are chugging their bottles alongside the daddies. (don't worry, theirs didn't have beer!)

I am still spinning with excitement from today. I'm in awe of how much effort, careful planning, and generosity these women put into making this such a special celebration for our family. A labor of love, for sure.

Thank you so much, my dear friends!

A Wicked Afternoon

Ryan's Grandma, his Aunt Nancy, and mom all came up yesterday and took me along with them for his Grandma's birthday celebration... with tickets for the 4 of us girls to go see Wicked at the Pantages Theater.

Ryan was jealous, (as who wouldn't be?) but it was just us girls. The show was as great as I remember it from over a year ago when we went

And with Baby Girl on-board, we had 4 generations represented there, which was fun to think about.

Butterflies & 4,000 kids, oh my!

I was going to do my own post on this experience last week, but I think Kathy did it more justice on her blog. See here.
If you do, you can see a full (nearly 2-minute) video of me ranting (doesn't take much to get a 34 week pregnant woman to complain at length, it seems) about 'the bathroom incident' - which I'm sure you ALL want to hear about, don't you?
And while I do agree that Kathy got a pretty good picture of the butterflies, I got one too.
Now I just have to find some time for Ryan to upload it here for me. But if not, just take my word for it, it's AWESOME.

Update: 34 weeks

Ryan took the day off today to spend together and celebrate our 7th anniversary.
Our day started off with another OB appointment (see below). Then we went out to test-drive a couple cars we've wanted to check out and haven't had the time to do together sans toddler until today. Then we went to the mall and Ryan got himself some new sunglasses, which I must say look very good on him! And then we wrapped up our afternoon with a nice long lunch at one of our favorite restaurants. It was a good day.

Now for the OB visit update:

Another ultrasound with a nice shot of our baby girl's face, looking straight ahead. My doctor pointed out her 'chubby cheeks'.

Remember how I was fretting over her head still being up and a possible C-section? Well, she's flipped downward, ready for the big event apparently. Nice work, baby girl!

And let's see, what else? According to the office scale, I had only gained another pound in the past 2 weeks (whoo-hoo!) To be honest, my scale at home showed about 3 pounds of gain, but I'll take the doc's version this time around. And my doctor stated that my weight-gain is good, not too much, and she thinks I'm on target for a healthy weight at delivery.

Baby's weight is estimated at 5 pounds already, putting her estimated delivery weight at around 8 pounds if I go the full 40 weeks. Not bad, as Dylan was 7lb, 15oz, and most second babies are larger. If she comes a week or two early (as Dylan did), then she could be in the 7lb range. We'll have to see, won't we?

Busy Saturday

This past Saturday was a busy one for our family. It started with Dylan's last sports class (9-945am) with Coach Andy and the plethora of other aspiring confused toddlers.

Then we headed across town for Ricky's 3rd birthday party (10-noon), which I must say was a hit all the way around. I think the dads had as much fun as the kids with fooseball tables, air hockey, and basketball games. I was content sitting with my friends over by the food area with all the pizza, sodas, chips, and cake! (Hey, I'm supposed to be off my feet, right?)

Then we came home for naptime (which despite the past couple weeks of NO NAPS FOR DYLAN, we were blessed with one!)

Then we headed out again for a dinner get-together with Ryan's lab at his boss's house for a few hours (430-730pm).
Dylan and his friend, Adal, played together nicely with some cars/dumptrucks for a couple hours on the side of the house while the adults visited and I ate some more yummy food. (come on, I'm eating for two, remember?!?)

Then the boys finished off the evening with some refreshing sippy cups with 'cozies' like the adults. Cheers!

Sports!

For the past 6 weeks, Dylan has been enrolled in a sports blitz class amongst about 30 or so other toddlers between the ages of 2-3 years old. At first he refused to do the class, agreeing only to go to the nearby playground or watch the other kids play from the safety of Daddy's arms.

But then we finally figured out a routine that prepared him for his Saturday morning classes: practice in our front courtyard with daddy on Friday nights. And from then on, he participated and all were happy.

Here he is during the 'soccer' portion of the class.

Waiting to field the next ball.

Taking a swing...

then running the bases! (he seemed to like the baseball portion of the class the best)

And of course, you gotta practice throwing!

The session is over now and while at first I thought it was going to be a waste of our money when he refused to participate at all in the second class, it turned out to be a great experience for our family. Now what will we do with ourselves on Saturday mornings for the rest of the summer?

Wait! I know. How about a new baby?