36 week check up

Went to the Doc today and good news! Everything looks "perfect," according to Dr. Byrne.  This past week I've been feeling very crampy, very similar to what the time of the month would be like.  So I knew something was up.  It's totally normally, apparently my body is preparing for this birth.  The cervix is still closed but it is closer and softened a bit.  Right on track.  When he told me that I'm not dilated, I was THRILLED! We need a little more time (I know a little selfish) but we need the time!!! Either way we will be ready for her, but it would be amazing if we were 100% ready for her.

So not only did I have great news from this morning's appointment, but I was also surprised with a beautiful brunch baby shower at work today.  It was so sweet.  For those of you who have been reading the blog, you know exactly how the Career Center is my 2nd family.  They are awesome and I have to say they really know how to put on a party.  We are all about celebrations and food! Here are some photos (courtesy of Deanna) from today's celebration.

Waiting for the party to start!

YOU GUYS ARE CRAZY!

Yay to Mani and Pedi's!

Yummy desserts! Hello Sugar!

Baskets of gifts!

Spa love!

Baby books!

Martini mixers! CAN NOT WAIT!

Delicious Cake

The best stress relief ever - a candle! Chaundra needs it in this photo apparently!

29 DAYS LEFT (maybe less, maybe more!) Who's to Say?!

Well I haven't had a chance to sit down in front a computer this past week due to the holiday.  Nelson and I had a great time during our thanksgiving break.  We ate, he drank, and we were merry with family and friends.  A few highlights:

The weather was absolutely gorgeous these past few days and even the best on Thanksgiving Day.  I ended up walking the Manchester Road Race (4.748 miles).  Previous years I jogged it, but this year I knew my limits and I walked.  I had my heart rate monitor on the whole time and even though I walked it, my HR definitely got up there, especially with the crazy hill.  Luckily, I had company on the walk:

My sister in law Sabrina and niece Skylar.  The Manchester Road Race MVP award goes to Sabrina.  Not only did she walk the race, but she also carried her daugher Skylar on her back the majority of the time.  Skylar was just too pooped out to walk the race and because of that Sabrina used her back and arm muscles for a good 3 1/2 miles (if not more).  I felt really bad because I wish I could have helped with the carrying, but I couldn't because I was carrying my own little one, not as heavy but certainly I have put on enough weight to say that I carried a toddler.  

Our crew (minus Nelson) at the end of the race.

After the race, my back was not all the best and my hips probably could have done without all those hills, but regardless I felt good to keep up with the tradition.  NEXT YEAR!!! We will be using our brand new Bob Stroller to drive our little one during the race.  So excited!

We ate a lot and of course I had my share of stuffing! So good!

We got home yesterday afternoon from CT which was actually a good idea.  We got a lot of stuff done around the house, typical chores and we got to relax a bit.  Today my parents came over.  My father helped out Nelson with the nursery and my mom helped me go through all of the baby gifts.  My friend Anna also paid a visit with more gifts! This baby is getting way too spoiled already!

We got through A LOT today, from putting together the swing to putting up our "baby" Christmas tree.

This baby cooperates very well!

My mother in law lent us this 4 ft tree, which was lent to her from her sister (hi Auntie Christine!) and now it is ours for this holiday season.  It is actually perfect for us for this time.  Of course I would love a huge smelly real tree, but to be quite honest, I can't handle it right now.  Neither can Nelson with all the other stuff he has done in this house and continues to do.  This is absolutely perfect and it fulfills our need to be in the Christmas spirit.   I also put out a few other Christmas decorations but nothing huge for this year, which I am very happy about.  I just have to wrap up the presents and we are good to go!

I also got to wash the linens, towels, other cute outfits, and TONS of baby socks. So cute!

So needless to say, I'm done for the night, but before I go, I wanted to post a pic from my 9th week of pregnancy and my 35th week (last week). I just started my 36th week! EEK!

Good night and have a great week!

Going to get off the spin bike....for now...

Tonight I believe I had my last spinning class as a pregnant lady.  The class was fine, but it's getting more difficult, especially when your bladder is jumping up and down and you are carrying a lot more forward weight than normal.  I felt fine during the class, heart rate was below the rate I needed to be at but it was just very uncomfortable.  And now I'm at home and I'm exhausted, feeling like I can't do much at all but just lay here and veg out.  I will stick with walking, swimming, and prenatal yoga for the next and FINAL month.  The weeks are just getting shorter and shorter!

Looking forward to having a 5 day break.  So looking forward to Turkey day (a pregnant woman's dream).  The only thing is "Eating for 2" is totally false.  Yes I'm hungry more often than normal, but if I stuff my face, I will be paying for it later and trust me, I already have had that stuffed/gross feeling before.  So I will definitely have to pace myself.  But the #1 thing that I'm looking forward to??? Drum roll please.....

Stuffing!!! I have been craving it for the past few weeks and even have thought about buying a box of instant stuffing to have at home one night, but no I resisted the temptation and decided to hold out until T-day! 

Ok I'm gonna go watch TV now and fall asleep.  Night night!

I think we will end up going bankrupt

bc how could I not spend our money on cute little clothes and accessories like these???

Slowing Down

So now I am starting to understand what all former pregnant women meant when the last few weeks are kinda brutal.  We are now at week 35 and so far I'm not in pain, BUT I can definitely say that I'm slowing down a lot more.  Yesterday, my mom and I went to Babies R Us, Buy Buy Baby, Carters, Osh Gosh B'Gosh, Bloomingdales and Macy*s.  I think my mom could have gone with more shopping but I had to blow the whistle at Macy*s.  We needed to exchange a few things and also buy a few things that we need. We got the Pack and Play to put in our bedroom to act as our bassinet for the first couple of months, and we also got a mattress for the crib.  Almost forgot about that!

And of course we HAD to look at clothes.  I wanted to get something cute for a coming home outfit.  I read online that you should get something that isn't too tight or that rubs against her belly button.  Some ideas were kimono type and easy and comfy clothes.  It's really difficult picking out something, especially since you never know if the baby will be too big for a newborn outfit.  But I took the chance I got something really adorable.  You will just have to wait and see until we take her first photo and if she is too big for the outfit, I will have a backup cute comfy onesie.

Nelson continued to work on the nursery with his friend Danny and there's some more progress.  I would say we would have a couple of more weekend's of work to get the room ready for the furniture.  The furniture is ready to be picked up and yesterday we went to take a look at it again.
Almost forgot what it looked like!  Luckily, when we pick up the furniture the only thing that needs to be assembled is the crib.  The other 2 pieces will be ready to go.

I had many plans to do a lot of other things today like: wash the baby linens for the crib, start to pack my hospital bag, take out and put together the baby swing, go for a jog/walk in the park, but honestly I was really just lagging.  I ended up: watching a dateline special, walked around the neighborhood, went to the grocery store with Nelson, and cooked some dinner.  Still that sounds productive, but my mind wanted to do much more. Oh well, the other stuff will get done and Nelson has definitely been running around doing a lot of the heavy work.  THANKS NELSON! Thank goodness for a short week! WOOOHOOO!

YIKES!

Ok was going to blog about our trip to the hospital yesterday - when we did our tour, but honestly it's nothing really all that exciting.  we just know where to go and what to bring! 

So after we went to dinner at a Thai restaurant.  Guess what Thai food has? LOTS OF SODIUM...

Today I wore a sweater to work since it's chilly and my skinny pregger jeans with boots.  Cute to start the day with, but then a bad idea towards the middle of the day.  I took off my boots and of course I don't have any flip flops, sneakers, or slippers at work.  The only shoes I have are ones that look like pilgrim shoes, so just in time for thanksgiving.  Check out the nasty swelling pic below.

 

OUCH!  All we are doing here at work is laugh.  Since the sweater is making me extra hot, I decided to put on a career center tshirt that i've had stuffed in my drawer for at least a year and a half.  Joe, the angel that he is, had sweatpants in his car.  I am now wearing them.   THANK YOU JOE! 

But I still look like a hillbilly with my crazy black shoes.  On my way home, I'm gonna have to stop at a dollar store to pick up some extra large flip flops.  GEEZ!  I have a prenatal massage at 5:30 today, maybe that will help with the swelling.  Off to the water cooler to get more water to flush it all out! 

what a noggin!

Last night after I read our Dr. Seuss book to BGC, she was moving around.  On the left side of my tummy, I felt this hard round area.  It had to be her head! Nelson felt it too and we both agreed it was her head, because what else would be so round and hard? It was like I could just grab the whole circumference with my fingers. So cool.Unless she has a really tight bum! :)

So I do hope that she decides to move her way down to my pelvis area.  She was there a few weeks ago when we did our 30 week scan, and I'm hoping she will do her switcheroo soon.  Maybe she just wanted to give her mommy a break from leaning her head on my bladder? BTW, I did not wake up that many times to go to the bathroom last night so I got a beautiful night sleep.  what a joy!

I'm heading into the city today to do a panel thing that I'm moderating and then I'm meeting with the Daddy to be so we can head back to Long Island to take a tour of the New Life Center at Winthrop Hospital.  I'm very excited.  I heard so many great things about the hospital and I really can't believe that we are so close to her coming into this world that we are taking the tour.  I will be taking notes, because if I don't my pregnancy brain will not help me remember ANYTHING!

Will let you know how it goes!  Happy Thursday, BRRR it's cold out there!

Baby Pool

So there's a Baby pool going on at the office.  Everyone puts in a dollar to guess what Date/Time BGC will decide to make her entrance.  Yesterday, Chaundra thought she may come out December 1st.  I gasped at her and said no no no.  That can not happen! We will not be ready in just 2 weeks! Yes 2 weeks we will be in December, which means the time is just FLYING! GULP.  I put down for December 18th (not sure of the time) and Nelson put down for December 31st at 9pm and to quote him "So close to new years baby, but she's too stubborn to wait."

Yes we are all excited for her arrival, but I have to say that I would like a little more time. I really hope she takes after her daddy in this case.  Everyone jokes about Nelson being late all the time, so I would be happy if she followed in his footsteps this time (sorry Nelson).

A few coworkers were eyeing my stomach yesterday and a couple have said that I dropped a little.  I think I did too because when I look in the mirror in the morning specifically, she is more of bottom bump than towards the top.  Plus I've been having the urge to pee a whole lot more.  I at least get up to go to the bathroom about 10 times a night.  In addition to that, my back and hips have been stiff throughout the night, so I turn from side to side to balance the stiffness.  Turning isn't as easy as it used to.  It's a process.  I have to shift my 3 pillows and my teddy bear to the other side and when I turn, I do it in shifts because if I turn fast, I feel a slight sharp tug in my tummy.  That's when Nelson would hear me say "ouch."  But it's all good, totally normal according to the doc.

I've been dealing with it ok so far, pretty surprising, but now I'm started to feel the sleepiness and exhaustion during the day.  Just like the dwarf -

 I'm planning on going swimming later today so hopefully that will wake me up and at the same time make me exhausted so I sleep throughout the night (without getting up to use the bathroom!)

Happy Wednesday all!

Daddy has a tummy too!

Well daddy castro has a little something in his tummy.  Today I left work early because Nelson had to get an endoscopy.  He had to go under for about 40 minutes and he never received anesthesia before.  Luckily he handled it very well.  Apparently it was the "Michael Jackson milk," you know the stuff that helped MJ go to sleep.  Nelson said that all he remembered was saying "I think I'm starting to feel it." and then he woke up in a different room.

I went to meet with him and the doc and she said that he had a little smorgasbord of things going on in there, but nothing completely terrible.  Here's what they found:
- a small hiatus hernia
- schatzki's ring
- gastritis
- mild furrowing of the esophageal mucosa

Hmmmm I don't really know what all of that is but the doctor took the time to explain everything and the biopsies should be back in a week or so.

This was Nelson's face when I saw him - looks like he was happy and just had a nice nap.  He told the nurse who removed his IV - "you know, not many people get to nap during the day. it's nice."

Afterwards, we met up with our friend Mike for dinner at a local diner.  Nelson actually didn't have any throat issues after or any side effects, just loopy Nelson and that's kind of normal :)

So hopefully Nelson will be better soon, after some medication and change in eating habits.  No more acid stuff - boooo no chili!

On another note, do you notice his mustache? He's growing it out for Movember.  He will register for his own page, but in case you didn't know what it was all about:


During November each year, Movember is responsible for the sprouting of moustaches on thousands of men’s faces, in the US and around the world. With their Mo’s, these men raise vital funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and other cancers that affect men.

To learn more about the cause - http://us.movember.com/about

Have a happy evening! We're gonna get ready for bed now (it's 7:30).  Hey, I have NO problem with that :)

More Showers with Love

So not only were we blessed to have a baby shower in CT, we also had one in NY.  There are really no words to express how grateful we are to have such generous family and friends.  My mother, sister in law, niece, and Mercedes did a fabulous job today.  My mother-in-law came down all the way from CT today too and she drove back all in one day.  Friends came from PA, NJ, and Long Island to celebrate BGC.  We are really so lucky.  Thank you to ALL of my family and friends.  Baby girl is very lucky! Love you all! Now I am tired! Here are some photos from our day.

Liam came from PA and hung out with Nelson and the men at home. 

The Career Center Staff!

The grandmothers!

My sister-in-law Kerry and niece Erin - the wonderful party helpers!

Lisa and Ducky!

Danielle and her ducky lollipops (made with love by Deanna and Danielle!)

Danielle and Deanna - fabulous friends and coworkers :)

More duckies! 

MBNA crew! Thanks to Mercedes and Kat for the baby games! Great job! BINGO!

Yummy cake!

CAUGHT ON CAMERA EATING THE CAKE!!!

My friend Yassy with her beautiful basket of baby stuff creation!!!!

Thank you again to all.  I will repay you all with the rights to babysit our baby, tehehehe :) Hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend! I'm staying put in my bed. :)

Belly touching and new craving

So we love to have fun at our office and everyone has their own little quirks... Well Joe in our office, was a little freaked out about touching the baby belly. We of course teased him and have photos to prove it, taken by Suzanne. 

No I will not touch your belly! 

 

Come on, Joe! The baby wants to know who you are!

Get your belly away from me!!! 

 Yay, he felt the baby!  

After all that, she didn't move for him, but at least he conquered his fear of pregnant bellies!

On another note, I have a new craving.  I haven't been much of a craver during pregnancy, but when we talk about food, sometimes I just need to have it.   Yesterday we got knishes in our office because Suzanne dreamt about it the other night.  It was delicious.  

 

Today during lunch I went to Trader Joe's to pick up a few things.  Of course I stopped by their free sampling table and they were giving out Corn Bread Stuffing with gravy.  OMG.  It was delicious.  I had to stop myself from going back and getting another sample.  Now I want to make stuffing and just eat it.  No meat needed, just stuffing.

 Yay for thanksgiving and stuffing!!!!