Baby Update - 37 Weeks

I went to the doctors this morning and everything is going great! I'm still down about 8 lbs since I first saw her in February. I'm managing my BP really well... today it was 118/76. The baby's heartbeat is good and strong. Measuring right on schedule.

Since I have had high BP before, she wants me to start going to the hospital for NST's (Non-Stress Tests). So I get to go and do one of those this afternoon, and then I get to continue doing them twice a week until baby's here.

The Doc will be out of the office next week, so I've got an apt with the physician's assistant (who is great!) (If anyone needs a girly dr. I would totally recommend Dr. Tu and her staff... they are WONDERFUL!) and then in two weeks I've got and apt with the Doc for another ultrasound and we'll see how I'm doing..... she doesn't want me to go over my due date, so depending on how things are going we might schedule an induction.... we'll see though. Hopefully baby will just want to pop out sooner than later!

Seattle

Marco and I had to go down to Seattle yesterday to take care of some business.... so while we were there we decided that we'd make a little trip to the Space Needle! I've never really spent a lot of time in Seattle... we live an hour and a half away, and that is enough of a distance to deter us from spending too much time there. But yesterday was really fun and I think that we're going to have to make the trip a little more frequently. I was worried that it was going to be all rainy and no fun, but it turned out to be a beautiful day! It was just cloudy enough that we couldn't see Mt Rainer, but that just means we'll have to go back another day to check it all out.

I wasn't a huge fan of the elevator ride going up.... i was all chicken and had to hold on to Marco, and then i had to take a little breather to get accustomed to the height. But I was proud of myself because on the way down in the elevator i was able to keep my eyes open and not freak out so much!!

Here we are at the top !Here we both are at the base.

and lastly here's Marco with the Seattle skyline....

we took a BUNCH of pictures... I'll have to take a little more time and go thru them.... Next time we're down there we're going to have to check out more of what Seattle Center has to offer. (Let us know of any suggestions if you've been there before!!)

gossip.... it's horrible, but...

sometimes it's also rather amusing. I don't put any faith in the gossip columns, when I do peruse them I think of them as a little story. This one I thought was funny.....

It was on Blake Lively... she mentioned that she's nothing like the "Gossip Girl" character she plays... in fact....
"I've kissed just three people in my life, other than stuff that I've done for TV or movies," she reveals to the mag, which features her on the cover surrounded by such headlines as "100 Sex Truths," "The Sex Position They Lust For" and "What He Thinks When You're Butt Naked." "I know-- I'm weird! I hope Brad Pitt doesn't hear this. He's never going to want to marry me!" (here is the article)

I just thought that there were numerous funny things about that paragraph.... firstly i think it's cool that she's only kissed 3 peeps for real. first funny thing is that she (who has only kissed 3) is surrounded by those article titles... but I think the funniest thing is the Brad Pitt comment... total knee slapper!!

Baby Update...

Ok.. went to the doctor this morning and everything is great!! Weight is great, blood pressure is great, no swelling, baby's a good size (between 5 1/2 & 6 lbs)!! We're right on schedule!! The Doc said that she doesn't want me going over my due date too much (one week max) so that gives us between 4 and 5 weeks until our little girl is here!!

My mom was talking to me yesterday about the little widget on the side, the baby countdown one. She said that she doesn't think that the baby is floating around like that any more.... and I have to agree... especially with the kick in the ribs that I get every-so-often!

I FINISHED!!

I thought it was much better than the first three... it's nice that Bella has grown up.

The Map

This is a map that I "made" a few years ago... I've gotten a couple of comments on it, so I thought I'd share. I saw something similar to this in a pottery barn magazine. I believe it was framed under glass, but I wanted mine on corkboard so that I could put pins in places I've been, and places I want to go (blue and green for where I've been, and pink and purple for where I want to go). So I believe I was at Target one day and I saw these framed corkboards.... picked up a map... did the math.... cut and glued.... added colorful push pins. I found that this worked great for apartment living because i didn't put so many holes in the wall. I also like the fact that there is corkboard space leftover... I want to use that to put travel brocures, tickets, pictures, etc. of places that I've been, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. I think it would have been really cool if I could have found an antique looking modern map... but alas, i didn't.

Larrabee State Park

Saturday Marco and I ventured down to Larrabee State Park south of Bellingham. As soon as we started driving down Chuckanut it started POURING!! But that's ok... it happens here all the time, and you just go on with your plans anyway. So we got to the park and met up with my friend Angela and her two kids, Madeline and Kenny. We didn't stay long, but we did head down to the water for a little bit. We're going to have to go back on a sunny (or even overcast) day when the tide is out so we can play more.

I was a total "tourist" and had my umbrella... FYI people not from here... people hardly ever use umbrellas. We just tough it out and get our hair wet. But I felt like being a pansy and using my umbrella.... Marco was tough though...


Here's a pic of Marco and I at one of the "lookout" places It is really a pretty park.
Here's Marco walking with Kenny in the rain.... when the tide is out there are all sorts of tide pools that you can explore... or at least that is how i remember it.

Living area pics

I said that I would post pics of changes we've made to downstairs when I got cleaned up a little bit more.... so here it is cleaned up a little more.... the first one is of the living room area...It's kind of dark, sorry 'bout that. but you get the general idea. One of my next projects is to make curtains for that window.

and when you turn around there is this wall....my bookshelves are still unorganized, but that's ok.... there are more important things to life than an organized bookshelf.

Chicken Coop

So here is the new chicken coop.... it's not completely done yet, but it's getting there!! We've got easy access to gather the eggs, and the little gals even have a window for ventilation. I believe all they have left to do is.... make a gate, make a door, stain/paint, make a cover for the food, and then cover the whole thing with net so that the hawks don't bother the hens. I think it's so pretty that its a shame to put chickens in it, they're just going to make a mess out of it.here you can see some of the rocks that my mom put in there so that they can play king of the hill...

Update

Marco had a birthday!! He didn't really want to celebrate it, but I'm so happy that he's here that I just had to. Nothing big or anything, but had to do something. He loves these old black and white spanish movies with the actor Mario Moreno (aka Cantinflas). They're pretty funny. I got him two of those (one of which he already had so we'll be returning that and getting a different one). He's getting quite the collection. We (Mom, Dad, Marco and I) also went out to dinner at Anthony's! It was so nummy. It was really busy though, so we got seats at the bar that looks into the kitchen (which was so neat). We got to watch the cooks cook... made some new friends. The only downside was that we were so far apart that conversation between the four of us was difficult.

We're getting our area fixed up!! We've painted 7 out of the 10 walls. I went and got some Oops! paint from Walmart the other day (a smoky blue, a dusty rust, and a tan-ish color) and started painting. I'll post pictures when it's all done and cleaned up a bit. I also got a bunch of fabric off the $1 shelf at Walmart to make a curtain/room divider. I've got that all sewn together, now we just need to work on getting it put up. I'm also putting up pictures and organizing my bookshelves and getting the baby area ready!!

Only 5 more weeks to go!! I'm well into my 3rd trimester and things are going great! I get heartburn occasionally but not every day which is nice. I'm actually doing better with sleep now then I did in the 2nd trimester. I had some pain about a month ago... it was pretty bad, but we got that resolved and I haven't had any since (we can't know what it was exactly, but I'm pretty sure it was muscle cramps in my back... I started eating more banana's and drinking more milk... taking my pre-natal vitamin more regularly, and it went away!!) I haven't gained any weight, which I'm totally stoked about! I'm down about 5 or so lbs since I saw the Dr. at 11 weeks the end of February. I haven't had to buy any maternity clothes which has been nice.... and I can actually fit into jeans that I hadn't worn in about a year which is even nicer! I feel the baby moving all the time.... and it seems like she wants to move most when I'm eating, which is rather annoying. But what something I think is cool is when I'm lying in bed (actually it can be anywhere, but i pay most attention when I'm lying in bed) and I feel this pressure (generally on my side).... I push on it a little, she pushes back and then I feel her move across my stomach. It's pretty neat.

My mom has a chicken coop!! Well, it's not completely finished yet, but my dad and marco have been working on it, and it's so sad to think that the chickens will live in there and make it all dirty.... right now it's so pretty!! It just needs a couple of things... a door, a roof, a gate, and upper netting to keep the hawks out. plus the finishing little touches here and there.... food, hay for nesting, etc.

New Blog. I moved my book reviews to another blog, it's called "Bookie". I wanted to do reviews of all the books I've read, more for my personal gain. Remember the books I've read and what I thought about them... I've started a bunch of them, but I need to finish them. So my Summer Reading Thing Reviews will be over there. I've also thought about starting a recipe blog... but we'll see.

Randomness- Other things that are going on.... I'm working on a quilt. I'm really excited about it. I'm almost 1/2 way done putting the front together... then I just have to figure out what goes on the back, assemble it, and then I get to start on the daunting task of hand quilting it. (I think I've pretty much decided to hand quilt it....) I'm currently reading "The Lovely Bones"... It's interesting, not solid thoughts as to whether I like it or not yet.... Mom and I picked up "Breaking Dawn" at Costco on Saturday (along with peaches and grapes!!) I'm pretty sure that we're going to go blueberry picking this week! It looks like today is going to be a scortcher (in washington terms that is) This week I'm going to try and make some curtains for our window... paint 2 more walls (i have to wait for the window to get in to paint the 3rd wall)... organize the baby's area more... paint fun stuff on her walls (butterfly's, dragonfly's, honeybee's... etc) Ok on that note.... I'm going to get to work so I can fund some of the things I'd like to do....

Harry Potter

So, I'm so excited, even though it looks a little scary...