Tummy Update!

I know It’s been a while since I’ve posted tummy news, and lots has changed in the last few weeks! Here are a few recent pictures.

31 weeks:

32 weeks:

33 weeks in the nursery:

33 weeks up close:

And here’s where the punkin is this week: A pineapple!She should weigh about 4 pounds now, or maybe a little bit more. Only 7 weeks left to go!!

We have been doing LOTS of work in the nursery lately, and really we only have a few things left to do before we’re all ready to go!

Yesterday my mom, may aunt and I all went to the mall to get curtains for the nursery and a few other things. It was fun! But after about an hour or so of walking the mall, I was POOPED!! Gone are the days of all day shopping- at least for now. I was more than ready to come home and take a nap!

The nesting fairy has come and showered me with her magic nesting dust BIG TIME. It’s all I can do to sit still and rest these days; it seems like there’s always something else that I need to do, or clean, or re-organize! Poor Rob, he gets caught in the tornado sometimes, but he’s been a pretty good sport so far. We even got into an argument about how I’ve been keeping the house too clean. Yep. TOO CLEAN! But, he finally gave in, the smart man that he is, and no one was injured in the battle. But it was close.

Speaking of nesting, I should be going now. Time to clean out the kitchen cabinets! Or wait, should I re-organize our closet first? Or maybe I should re-do all the fabric on the shelves in my sewing room… 

Warning: Spring cleaning and nesting are a nasty combo! :)

Baby Shower!

As promised, here are a few pictures from the baby shower at Mom’s house last weekend. She has most of the good ones on her camera, and I’ll add those when I can.

We had a wonderful time! Good food, pretty cake, fun games, and friends! What more could anyone want!? :)

The gift table. My mom made a whole set for the baby’s room- a quilt, diaper stacker, burp cloths, and receiving blankets, and then she framed some of the matching fabric for decorations on the wall. We love it!!

A close-up of the pictures. So cute!

The quilt and receiving blankets.

The food table (before half the food was out, hehe)!

The cake! “Welcome to the World, Little One”

Mom in the kitchen, still preparing. :)

The theme was Sweet Pea. I loved it!

Napkins

Me with the diaper bag my sister Rachel got for me. It’s the one I’d wanted FOREVER, but gave up on because we’re trying to pinch our pennies right now. I LOVE IT!!! Thanks again, Rach. :)

All the gifts we got are very much appreciated! We have lots of clothes now, and diapers and a changing table and mattress for the crib. What great friends and family we have! We are truly blessed. My mom, sister, and Aunt Darlene put a lot of work and time into making this perfect for me, and it couldn’t have turned out better. Thank you all very much!!!

And now, I’m off to finish putting things away in the nursery! Yay! :)

Yes and No

Yes! - We had a great time at the shower yesterday! Lots of good food, friends and fun.

No - I don't have pictures loaded up to post yet, but...

Yes - I'll do that soon. Hopefully. :)

No - I'm not working anymore until after the baby gets here!

YES YES YES - I am grateful to have the opportunity to relax and prepare for her arrival! The nursery is coming along pretty well. I can't believe we have less than 8 weeks until her due date! (Yes, I'm freaking out a little!)

No - I'm not on bedrest or anything, just having a hard time working because of all the pressure the baby is putting on my lungs. It makes it really hard to breathe while I talk on the phone all day, so the doctor decided it was time to be done.

Yes - We also switched hospitals from Sacred Heart to Deaconess! It seems to be more in tune with what we want our first baby's birth to be like, and we took a (personal!) tour the other day and loved it. We're excited about the switch!

No - We haven't heard anything more about Rob's potential new job, but now there's actually another one we're looking into. So, twice the anxiety! Ha ha.

Yes - PLEASE PRAY FOR US!!! We need all the strength and guidance we can get right now. This is definitely a turning point in our lives and we're both a little nervous about the possible outcomes.

No - I didn't forget to post weekly pictures of the baby belly. I have a few weeks stored up on my camera, and when they make their way to the computer, I promise to share!

Yes - It's time to go eat lunch! Leftovers from the shower yesterday!

No - I don't have extra to share with you. Sorry. :)

Pictures pictures pictures coming soon!!!

Bradley Birth Class

Every Monday night for the past 6 weeks (and for the next 7 or 8, also) Rob and I have been attending a Bradley Birth class. It's all about natural birth and how to stay relaxed and in control during labor. I have every confidence that we'll be able to have this baby without drugs (barring any major medical complications, of course) and this class is a huge part of that. We love it!

This week the author of the Bloom Spokane website attended the class and wrote an article about it. I feel like she captured the class very well! Click here to read her article. But please, no comments about the less-than-flattering pictures! :)

Cardboard Testimony

I found this on Kelly's blog, and I'd never heard of it before but I think it's a great idea! Watching the video brought me to tears, and I just had to repost this and share with you. Maybe someday our church will do something like this!

Just Say No.

First of all, I want to say that we aren’t anti-doctors, anti-hospitals or anti-modern medicine. We are still planning to deliver at Sacred Heart. However, our recent experience at the emergency room there completely solidified our belief that choosing natural birth for this baby is the right thing for us, and there is no one out there that knows what we want (and need) better than we do.

So, last week I got a chest cold. I have asthma so of course the first thing that happens is that it goes to my chest and I get that horrible cough that makes people look at you like you’re going to kill them just by being in the same room with them. Needless to say, it was pretty hard to breathe with the cold and with the baby squishing things in there! Friday morning I woke up and it was bad enough that Rob decided we needed to head to the ER.

We arrived at about 9 am, and waited for a while after checking in. We told them about the asthma and of course the pregnancy, and the first thing they did was to give me a breathing treatment. I’ve had these in the past for chest congestion and they really work for me! That day was no different and after the treatment I was starting to feel better already. At this point I thought we’d be able to get me an inhaler and be on our way… Not so.

The ER doc decides that because I’m pregnant, and therefore more vulnerable to infection, I need to have a chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia. Hesitantly we agree, after checking (from Rob’s phone) the safety of those for pregnant women. It seems to be ok to do, so we proceed. That test comes back normal. We head back to my little room and wait to be released, but no such luck.

The doctor then says we need to do a blood draw to check my D-dimer levels, and she wants to give me an IV. At this point we’re seriously wondering why we’re still here, but she is the doctor, so we go ahead with the blood draw but decline the IV. I am NOT a fan of those, and I didn’t want to be there all day. She says I “look dehydrated” and brings a quart of water for me to drink instead of the IV fluids. I drink it (and have to pee every 10 minutes from there on out).

Of course, the D-dimer results come back very high, and she tells us the next thing to do is to inject dye into my veins and do a CT scan to rule out a blood clot in my lung. Ok, seriously? I was ready to just walk out of there. We ask for a few minutes to talk about it, because, as she put it, it “does have a significant amount of radiation that gets to the baby”. First of all, my mom literally DIED when they injected her with dye for the same kind of thing (years and years ago) so I don’t ever do the dye thing just in case the same thing could happen to me. And second, radiate my baby? REALLY?? I think not. I have asthma, people! You already gave me the medicine that helped me breathe better!! What more do you need to see?!?!

We declined the test, and she made us sign a form that said we were leaving against her medical advice, but not before she called our OB-GYN and told him what was going on. He apparently agreed with her that the test was necessary, and she even said that I was doing harm to the baby by skipping the test. Awesome, thanks doc. We signed the form and left. It was after 1 PM by the time we got out of there, and I have to say that it felt like we had narrowly escaped their evil clutches! That is not a good feeling. But it was the first time we’d ever turned down medical help or advice to make our own decisions like that. THAT was a good feeling!

So, all of that to say this: I realized that day that doctors aren’t evil, horrible people, they just have a different view of things than we do, especially for the birth of a baby. They NEED to find a solid, undisputable reason for a symptom, and sometimes the easiest answer doesn’t seem to be good enough. We’re planning to go without an IV, or epidural, or constant monitoring, or being stuck in the hospital bed the whole time for the labor and delivery. I don’t want to be drugged or have the baby be drugged if I can help it. Medical emergencies aside, childbirth is not something that a doctor even needs to be involved in, if you ask me! But, that’s a topic for another day and I could go on for HOURS, so I’ll just leave it at that. :)

We hired a doula this week also and she’s great! She’ll definitely help us do this the way we want to, and not be to pressured by nurses and doctors that are just used to doing things the same way each time. Our Bradley Birth Class is really helping with that, too! Both Rob and I have learned SO MUCH it’s amazing, and we both feel much more empowered to be able to do this! First time parents that we are, we want to be as prepared as possible. We’re getting there, slowly but surely!

OK! Enough of that. How about some pictures of the last few weeks! Baby girl is getting BIG!! Unfortunately so is my rear… but it’s for a good cause. :)

Here I am at 29 weeks:

And at 30 weeks:

And here’s the punkin at 30 weeks! I can’t believe we’re 75% of the way there!

30 weeks: a cabbage. She weighs about three pounds!

The baby shower is coming up in a few weeks, and I’m very excited! Friends and family will be there that I haven’t seen in a long time. My mom and sissy are throwing it for me, and it’s all a surprise! I can’t wait! :)

I hope everyone has a good weekend, and stay healthy! You don’t want to end up in the ER… Heh heh.

Home Sweet Home

Now that the dust has settled and our bags are unpacked, I've finally found a chance to write about our week last week. We didn't take the camera, but came home with much more than pictures could ever have captured.

On Monday, January 18th, Rob's grandmother Elanor, a.k.a Grambo, passed into God's arms at the glorious age of (almost) 95. While it wasn't completely unexpected, it was still sort of a shock to most of her family and friends. She was Grambo! She didn't give up! Her 80th birthday present to herself was to go heli-hiking in the Alps. She wasn't one to take life lying down, she was a wonderful person to all who knew her, and I heard her described more than once as a "firecracker!" Even though I only met her one time, her memory will be lasting, and we won't miss a chance to tell our children about her.

Tuesday morning we headed to the airport (early) and after three flights we landed in Cleveland, OH, around midnight. During one of our layovers Rob got a call from a company he applied with and was able to do a phone interview before our next plane left. Perfect timing! :) Hopefully he'll get to do a second interview in person at the beginning of next month, but more on that later.

The rest of the week was full of family time, good food, fond memories of Elanor, and exploring the city. Even though there was some sadness, it was a great way to spend the week and we know we won't soon forget our time there. It was nice to get a chance to meet (and catch up with) more of the Shankland family!

Friday morning we got up at 5:00 am, which is really 2:00 am for us west-coasters, and headed again to the airport. Flying at 6 months pregnant is uncomfortable enough, but being that tired didn't help things! We made it though, thanks to Rob. He's a wonderful daddy already!

Papa moose flew with us to Chicago, and from there he went home to Denver, and we flew to San Francisco. After 2 delays and a gate-change, it was getting late and we almost decided to just rent a car and drive home! It's only about 15 hours, we can do that, right? Yeah... Um, I'm pretty sure someone would have ended up walking home if we'd tried that... I was *a bit* cranky by this time. I'd like to take this opportunity to again thank my wonderful husband for not leaving me at the airport and continuing home without me. It wasn't the most friendly day I've ever had. Sorry, honey. :)

At long last we made it home, and I think I lasted about 20 minutes before falling dead-asleep on the couch. But what a week it was! We are so blessed to be a part of a family that loves each other so much. It was more than obvious that Elanor was a driving force in the family, someone that helped to mold and shape many of the kids that came through her home (Rob being one of them!) and she will be greatly missed. I think Rob said it best: We're sad for ourselves but happy that she's home now with God.

Thank you, Elanor, for all that you were to all of us. You'll be in our hearts forever.

Sunday Update

So, not much to report over the last few weeks, but I do have a few pictures to share!

26 Weeks:

27 Weeks:

It feels like I’m getting bigger by the minute! Here’s where the baby is at 27 weeks:

27 weeks: a cauliflower!

I’m feeling pretty good lately! We’ve started taking Bradley Birth classes, and we LOVE them. I’m really learning a lot about why so many people have complications during birth, and how to (hopefully) avoid those complications. We’re going to try and bring this baby into the world without drugs, and this class is really helping to prepare us for that.

On Tuesday we have an appointment with our doctor and we plan to discuss how they feel about natural birth. Last week we toured the hospital where we plan to deliver, and they seemed very open and willing to work with us there; I hope the doctor feels the same way. Because it’s a whole “practice” that we go to and not just one specific doctor, it’s been hard to get a feel for that kind of thing at each of our 5-minute doctor visits when we’ve gone in. So this time we’re just going to ask a ton of questions and see what we get! So many people have scoffed at us for our choice of having a natural birth, be it friends or acquaintances, unfortunately I’m kind of getting used to it. If the doctor turns out to be the same way we have no problem finding a midwife or different doctor more in tune with our expectations. I just hope we don’t have to go through that!! Wish us luck, I’m not really looking forward to that part of the appointment.

Also, I took the glucose test for gestational diabetes last week and passed with flying colors. I am SO GLAD I don’t have to do that again- whoever decided that making an already dizzy pregnant lady drink some overly-sweet, syrupy, sugar-high-inducing drink and then drawing her blood, was a cruel, evil person. Oh, and did I forget to mention that they don’t want you to eat anything other than toast before the test?? It was awful! I thought I might pass out in the lab as we were leaving, and I think I scared another pregnant mom walking in after me… oops! But at least she knew what she was in for! YUCK, I don’t look forward to doing that again for the next baby. But, lets not get ahead of ourselves there… :)

In other news, we started the Dave Ramsey envelope system for our money this month, and so far it’s working pretty well. It will take another month or so to get used to it, and get out of the habit of just handing over the plastic card all the time. Even with debit cards it’s too easy to just spend and not think about it, so this cash-only system seems like it will help us immensely. So far so good! My sis-in-law Katrina sent me a link to a really neat site that has templates to make your own envelopes to use (go here to check it out!), and I got out my craft stuff and went to work! I’ll post pictures of how it turned out later, but I’m pretty impressed!

And now, I would like to highly recommend you all go out and get a new bed. Not just any bed, THIS bed. We were blessed with it as a Christmas gift (THANK YOU MAMA AND POP SHANKLAND!!) and until we slept on it for a few nights I really had no idea how bad our other mattress had gotten. So go. Now. Go out and get one! It will change your life. I promise. :)

100 Days!

I'm sort of having a freak-out moment here. 100 days left until baby Shankland is due. Really? Wait, where did the time go?!? I can remember sitting on the couch with Rob talking and planning our wedding, and then there was the entire year after we got married that I nagged him about starting our family and having our first baby... and now there are only 100 days left until she's here!? HOLY COW!!!

It seems like the waiting and waiting and waiting is really, finally, getting close to being over!! I can't wait to meet our baby girl!!

I am so excited I can hardly stand it! Migraines, swollen feet, heartburn, I can take it.

Only 100 days to go. :)

Happy New Year! It's 2010!!

This week marks 25 weeks pregnant! HOLY COW time is flying!! I’m not very good at marking our progress with the weekly pictures anymore because it seems like the pages are just flying off the calendar faster than I can keep up with them! But, here I am at 25 weeks, in the nursery that we’ve been working on!

And here’s the punkin at 25 weeks, too!

25 weeks- a rutabaga!

She’s been kicking up a storm these last few weeks, and Rob’s had the chance to feel her quite a bit! I’m also noticing fun things like pinched nerves, swollen ankles, and that oh-so-fun heartburn, none of which are too bad, but all are still VERY annoying!

So, we’ve been spending a little time in the baby’s room getting things put together. We don’t really have a theme, but we are going with mostly pink and green. I did find some cute bedding that has pink elephants on it, though! Rob painted the walls and hung the blinds and the curtain rod, and we got a beautiful baby quilt from mom and a few cute pink outfits for Christmas. I think it’s starting to come together!

Here is the room so far. (Hooray for Other Mothers, they have great stuff for a good price! We got the crib, stroller, pack-n-play, and a bouncer there. I’m sure we’ll be back!)

A close-up of the quilt my mom made. It’s so soft, and just the right colors! I can’t wait to wrap our baby girl in it!!

We found a dresser on Craigslist the other day too, we just need to paint it. It’s cream and pink, but the rest of the furniture will be white, so the poor dresser looks like it’s yellow. So, Rob’s going to paint it white for me.

We still have a lot to do, but I feel like we’ve come a long way! All we need furniture-wise is a changing table and a glider. So far so good!

As it IS New Years Day, I think I’d be remiss if I didn’t tell you about some of our plans for 2010. Can you believe another decade has passed? I’m starting to feel like the older I get, the faster the time goes! I guess my folks were right. :)

Of course, the biggest part of this next year for Rob and I will be the arrival of our baby girl. We can’t wait!!

And on that note, we’ve both decided that it’s time for a “money makeover” if you will, and I’ve started reading Dave Ramsey’s book Financial Peace. We hope to be able to be a one-income family when the baby arrives, and we need some help to get to that position financially between now and then so I can stay at home with her if at all possible.

I gotta say, after reading only the first few chapters of his book, I can really see why so many people rave about Dave Ramsey and his money strategy. It’s not gimicky, or schemey, or complicated, or anything like that. It’s just common sense tools to use to help you better manage your money. If you haven’t read the book yet, I highly recommend it.

(Sheesh, I sound like he’s paying me to advertize! I promise he’s not, I’m just a big believer already. I’m excited about getting back in control of our money!)

I also hope to start sewing a little more, at least as much as possible with a new little one in the house, and Rob wants to find a more stable job. He has a few feelers out there, wish us luck! If we can we’d also like to take a trip to Seattle to see my brother and his family, and our friends there. We have a wedding to go to on the East coast in October (yay Andy and Alex!) and want to make a stop in Denver somewhere in there too. I guess I’ll learn what it’s like to travel with a baby! :)

No matter what the year brings, we' both feel very blessed to be where we are, and hope to be able to spend lots of time with family and friends. Here’s to a great 2009, and an even better 2010! Cheers!!