Our latest midwife appointment...

went fairly well, although she couldn't tell if the baby was breech or not, so now we have to have an ultrasound to make sure. It's weird; we've always been so hands-off and really not into any interventions (unless necessary, of course) and now, in the final stretch of the pregnancy, we have to have an ultrasound. Even though that wasn't my first choice, I am a little bit anxious to get a sneak peek at my baby! So then the question remains; since we have to have an ultrasound anyway, should we find out the gender? On the one hand, we've made it this far without knowing (and, aside from a few minor temptations, I haven't even wanted to know) but yet, it would be kind of nice to be able to say "he" or "she" specifically. Hmmm....

The reason she was concerned is because she heard the heartbeat so high up that she didn't think it could possibly be head down; plus, I said that the baby was kicking so much that I felt like I was getting bruised in my left ribs, and she said that was a common complaint among those people with breech babies; yikes! So they have to schedule the ultrasound at another clinic or hospital, since the birth center doesn't have an ultrasound machine, so we'll probably be doing that shortly.

If it is breech, they have a variety of techniques they can try to get the baby to turn; otherwise, I'll have to have a c-section, which I'd REALLY prefer not to! The upside to a c-section, though, is that I would know when I would be having it, so my mom could fly out and be there! That'd be nice :) But hopefully I'm just getting ahead of myself, and the ultrasound will show that either a) the baby is not breech or b) we can get it to turn very soon!

Updates

So, last week we suffered the big snow storm, as you can see from my previous pictures! The next day we went to our midwife appointment, which was just an absolute joy getting to in all that snow. Everything is going well, though; she said I'm measuring right on schedule (no more measuring big) and the baby's heartbeat is still going strong. It's dropped down to the 130s, though (I think she said 132?) which is normal for babies as they approach full-term. I'm 31 weeks tomorrow, so it's getting close!

This weekend, we had a bunch of fun holiday get-togethers, which is always nice. I got together with friends on Friday night for our annual Christmas party, while Dan went to his company's work party (I was going to join him there, but the party ended before I could even leave Meghan's house!) Then on Saturday we went and saw the Princess and the Frog movie with Tracy and the girls; it was so cute! I really liked the music, and it's a good film for all ages. That night, we went to my company's Christmas party, and they picked us up in limos (which they do every year; it's very nice!) before heading over to the owner's house for dinner.

Sunday we just kind of lazed around (well, I did--Dan actually had to go into work since he has a big project due soon) and then we went to see A Christmas Carol that night. It was a really good movie; I was surprised I liked it so much.

Other than that, not too much going on this week. We have our next midwife appointment on Monday the 21st (I can't believe I'm already to the point where I need to be seen every other week!) and we start our first childbirth class on Saturday. I'm really excited for that--can't wait!

Is it any wonder that my office said we could work from home today?

Dan's car....



My car...

Yeah, it's no wonder we have a snow day today! Dan's working from home, too; I told him yesterday (since we knew this big blizzard was coming) that he better bring everything he has in order to work from home, since he has to drive 40 minutes in good weather; I don't even want to think how long it would take him (or how dangerous it would be!) to drive in this. Plus, there's all those warnings on weather.com saying, "Absolutely do not travel. Travel is extremely dangerous," etc. etc. So here we are working from home, and I love it! It's so much more productive!

Oh, and here's a shot after the plows came; this drift would be so much fun to play in if one was little!

Our weekend

We got quite a bit accomplished this weekend, which is always nice (although my living room is still a mess from getting the tree up--boxes and tree needles are everywhere!) We picked out our people for the Angel Tree; we got a nine-year-old girl and a 14-year-old girl, and we had SO much fun shopping for them. (Well, I did anyway; Dan just dutifully tagged along and only said, "Can we go now?" once or twice.) I like shopping for the older kids, because I feel like everyone wants to buy for the 2-5 year olds, so the older ones kind of get left out. So we've always tried to pick out older kids, and it's just as much fun shopping for them as it is for toddlers!

We were also able to pick out an eight-year-old boy, because on Friday I had mentioned to some co-workers that we were going to go shopping for our giving tree/angel tree (people call it different things) this weekend, and they both asked, "What's the giving tree?" I explained it to them, and they both said they would participate if it wasn't for the fact that they wouldn't have time to go shopping. I just said, "Hey, give me your money, and I'll go shopping for you!" I was surprised (but so happy!) that they said, "Sure!" So we picked out an eight-year-old boy who likes Legos, and Dan was having SUCH a good time finding just the right Legos for him. So that's how we spent our Saturday night...

Yesterday we went over to Tracy's house, since it was her birthday. That was a lot of fun, too; we just hung out and ordered pizza and chatted. Then we woke up this morning to a couple inches of snow; not much, but enough for me to get excited! I love the way our Christmas lights look with snow!

Our Christmas Decorations

We finally got our tree up and decorated; I'm so excited!






This is this beautiful Irish nativity set my mom got us. We're not even religious, but I love nativities; they seem so traditional! And this one is especially beautiful; I love the way the green and white looks.

Our Thanksgiving weekend

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend. My mom was here, which was awesome!! I love having her around for the holidays :) On Wednesday night, we got off work and went to my grandma's house in Deerfield to pick up my mom and grandma (my grandpa doesn't travel a lot, so he was staying behind and was going to spend Thanksgiving at Tracy's). We headed down to Long Grove, where we had dinner at Lou Malnati's (this excellent deep dish pizza place). So yummy.

Thursday was, obviously, Thanksgiving, and we had a good time just hanging out, watching movies (I think we got through Elf, The Holiday, and The Grinch) and, of course, eating. Here's a shot of us at the Thanksgiving table:


From left-right: my cousins Katrina, Karissa, my aunt Christine, me, Dan, my mom, my grandma, my cousin Matthew. My uncle Mike was the one taking the pic.

On Friday, we slept in; no Black Friday shopping at 4 am for us! But we did go shopping at around 11, and I got some great clothes at Motherhood Maternity; two really cute tops and some super comfy maternity jeans (that I'm contemplating wearing after the birth, since they're so comfortable and they don't have some stupid snaps or buttons poking into my stomach!) We also got some great deals at Victoria's Secret; I was able to stock up on lotion for only $4.50 a bottle, when normally it's $9.50 or more.

That afternoon, we went and saw Hairspray at the Lincolnshire Theatre. It was SO good; seriously Broadway material. Dan even really liked it, and he is not really into musicals. But this was excellent; the singing and the choreography blew us away. Here's a shot of us at the theatre (I am wearing one of my new maternity sweaters and my jeans, although I don't think you can see those):



We came back late Friday night, and on Saturday went to breakfast with my grandparents, Tracy and the girls. My mom's flight had to leave around three, so we took her to the airport around two and then just spent the rest of the day lounging around at the Hines' house. Today I think Dan's going to finish putting up the outside lights and we'll get our tree up as well. I'll post pics when done :)

My doctor's appt.

I'm so excited that my mom is here for Thanksgiving! She flew in yesterday, so I picked her up from the airport (good thing I work so close!) and then we went to my midwife appointment. I was glad I could show my mom around the place where the baby will be born, since she won't be here for the actual birth.

I had to do the glucose test (ick, needles!) to check for gestational diabetes, so I'm hoping everything will turn out ok with that. I'm no longer measuring big, either, which is good! She said I'm 29 cm, which is perfect, since I'm 28 weeks. My mom got to hear the heartbeat, which was nice, and the baby was hiccuping a lot, which was funny.

Now I'm just looking forward to Thanksgiving!