30 weeks

30 weeks down, 10 weeks to go!! We are down to 69 days-- which seems unreal! In some respects, it seems like too long to have to wait for our little guy to arrive, but then I look at my to-do list and realize, HOLY COW! How will I get it all done in just 69 days?!? And that's IF he arrives on time...

I had my doctor's appointment on Friday, and it went well. My doctor was just heading out to the hospital to perform an unscheduled surgery, so he popped his head out in the waiting room and asked if everything was okay-- no problems? I had nothing of significance to report, so I saw the med student who was there that day. My BP was 121/76 which is fairly normal for me, Colton's heartrate was 150, which again, is pretty typical. I talked to the nurse about my frequent Braxton Hicks contractions and she suggested we monitor me for a few minutes if we had time. They hooked me up to the machine, which monitors the baby's HB and also contractions. Of course, for the 15 minutes I sat there, I didn't have a single contraction!! Isn't that the way it goes... Within 5 minutes of leaving the office, I had one! She said she would talk to the doc about it. They can give you a medication to stop/slow the contractions, but I am not really keen on getting on anything unless it's necessary. I just told her that if it was normal, then I'd roll with it for the next 10 weeks, but if it's not, then of course, tell me what to do. She said to let them know if they change in frequency, duration, pain or otherwise. My next appointment is in 2.5 weeks (we'll be on a mini-vacation 2 weeks from Friday), so I am paying attention to them more. I've been monitoring them today, just to see how many I'm actually having... The trend is about 2 per hour since I woke up this morning. We did learn about timing contractions (and a lot more!) at our birthing class this past Saturday. So, I am all prepared when the real ones come! Well, prepared to time them at least. :0)

Speaking of class, it was pretty interesting. There were 13 couples, some due as early as the end of July and 3 couples including us who were due in September. We met at Cox South from 10-noon and 1pm-4pm. It was pretty informational, and the highlight was walking over to Labor and Delivery to see where our little man will be born! They have nice birthing suites-- where you labor, deliver and recover all in one room, before heading up to the postpartum floor for the duration of your stay. It felt really "real" that we'll be doing this whole thing sometime soon, when we were walking the halls of the hospital! Some days, even though Colton kicks, punches, rolls and hiccups a lot each day, it still seems surreal. It's hard to imagine actually having him home with us... Can't wait!

I have a dear friend who has a 12 month old son and she offered to let us borrow several big baby items, as they don't need them anymore. She came over last week and brought us tons of stuff: bouncy seat, exersaucer, johnny jump up, diaper genie, an extra snap-n-go stroller, bottles, a breast pump (the Cadillac of Medela's line), a shopping cart seat/cover, swaddling blankies and I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting! I'll just have to get a few replacement parts for the pump. Some of this is stuff we have registered for, but as Jen reminded me, it can't hurt to have 2 of some things, especially since we have 2 floors at our house. It's so fun to see these items in Colton's room and know that eventually he'll be in there to use them! I am so thankful and blessed to have wonderful friends!!
We are going to meet with a physician this Friday who we are "interviewing" to be Colton's doctor. He comes highly recommended to us, and he's a preferred provider for our insurance, to boot! We are hoping to get the "find a pediatrician" task checked off the list.... I also have to schedule our epidural interview with the hospital, so we are good to go when the time comes. Those are a few of the big, important things on my to-do list right now. Then there's finishing our registries and getting some decor up in Colton's room, scheduling maternity photos, getting the carpets cleaned, etc. And the list goes on!!
The big kids are at camp this week in Elkland, MO with their mom's church. We had some severe thunderstorms last night, so I'm hoping they did okay! It's much nicer today, so they should be able to do plenty of outdoor activities. We will keep the boys this weekend, and Mason is going to participate in a youth triathlon with the Nixa center. Then we'll have all 3 kids back for 2 weeks on July 19. We're looking forward to our mini-vacation to St. Louis the 23-26 of July. Here's hoping it's not 100 degrees that weekend!

Gearing up for a busy work week. We are closed on Friday, so that is my saving grace. I've joked that I'm moving my bedtime to 8pm this week, but honestly, I don't think that's such a bad idea! I've had a little more trouble sleeping, but know that it's just prep for when baby is here. Not a lot else to report on the pregnancy symptom front-- it's basically the same as past weeks... Weight continues to climb and baby moves a lot! He's probably around 3 pounds now, and 16 inches long. I'll have one more ultrasound in about 6-8 weeks to guesstimate his size and to check his position. It will be interesting to see if what they predict is accurate!

Here are this week's belly shots:


That's all for now! Love to all.