Overtime!

Wow, I have been lazy, but I do owe an update, big time. 

Wednesday was my 40-week, and final, OB appointment. As usual, Snowflake measured right on (doc didn't say anything, so I assume this was the case) and HR was 140. Mom is doing well too. *knock wood*

A unique, aerial view of the belly. Don't know how I'm standing up anymore- the feet seem to have gone MIA!

Her Snowiness has officially been served eviction papers. If she's not out by next Thursday night, in we go to the hospital to start the eviction process. So, we're looking at no later than next Friday for her being here. EEK!

As for the home front, I got a burst of energy tonight and actually ENJOYED some of the cleaning I did today. I did the dishes (which were piled up in the sink this morning) little by little since leaning over the sink KILLS my back right now, as well as organized our kitchen table a bit. (We're horrible clutter bugs; the kitchen table is a mail drop. Gotta get that habit under control...) If it wasn't for the weather being so cold and crappy, I would have even taken some stuff (her Boppy pillow, soft carrier and some of mommy's stuff) out to the car. And with the full moon being tonight (as opposed to tomorrow as I originally thought) who knows what will happen? One of my Facebook buddies mentioned that her water broke the next day after her nesting episode. Yipes!

Yesterday was my official last day at work. I am glad I have a few days to relax (and nest!) and enjoy the quiet while I still have it. It was a little more emotional than I thought (even though the plan is for me to go back in a few weeks once Her Snowiness is here); perhaps it is/was hitting home a bit that we're THISCLOSE to having this baby in our arms?

I am feeling pretty good, overall. A little achy here and there, I get totally exhausted if I stand too long in one spot and even all the up-and-down activity in church gets me! (I can no longer even partially kneel like I usually do (bad knee doesn't allow the full-on kneel for me)- I'm too heavy!)  For the most part I can still walk ok, but I chalk that up to all the walking Keith and I did before I got pregnant. And aside from the occasional sleeplessness and the peeing every 5 minutes, I have no complaints.

It is exciting and scary at the same time that Jessica could be here any day now. It's weird, part of the day I am thrilled and excited, and other parts of the day see me totally freaking out. Can we handle this? (uhm, of course we can!) I just keep repeating my mantra- God won't give us more than we can handle. After all, He has trusted us with this little life (and hopefully will with more of them in the future) and while we are partially terrified about our impending responsibilities, we are extremely blessed to have Miss Jessica in our lives. We can't wait to meet her!

The little lady is hiccupping and squirming about right now. My days of feeling these awesome sensations are numbered and I'm going to enjoy them thoroughly. Yes, even if her moving and squirming about keeps me up at night.

I won't look like this for much longer!

My Dearest Jessica,

Your Snowiness, Miss Snowflake, Little Snowball. It's almost your due date. I know you're all cozy and comfy and warm in there, but Mommy, Daddy, Grammy and lots of aunts, uncles, cousins, second cousins and even great aunts and uncles and a great-grandpa are excited to meet you! Can't wait to get to know you in person!

Your daddy and I can already see some aspects of your personality- you're so active, you're stubborn and tempramental, like your mommy. Mommy even sees some of daddy's prankster side in you- you sure do like to moon us alot.

We're also -admittedly- nervous about becoming parents. Your arrival, will be what it will be. Raising you, on the other hand- will be a challenge, having what we bet to be absolutely ZERO dull moments.

I feel you wiggling around right now and know I will miss that once you're here. But in that experience's place lies a whole new set of experiences with you, yet to be discovered. Your first smile, your first rolling-over, your first sitting up, your first solid foods, your first teeth... ahh, the list goes on and on... many of these firsts I just don't want to think about right now!

Right now Daddy and I will focus on the biggest first yet for us- seeing your gorgeous face for the first time.
Can't wait to meet you, little diva!

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

Super Saturday

Wow. Only 10 more days (not counting today, of course) until my due date. I'm 38 1/2 weeks pregnant now, ready to pop any day now! We're working on cleaning our house up inside and out (minus the backyard, which is and always will be, completely trashed thanks to the dog) and my cousin is giving me some of her old baby gear (a swing, a seat and some misc items she came across) so we're pretty much set!

I just need a breast pump, which I need to call about b/c I can get a Medela that retails for about $300 for only $160 through my work. That will save us a chunk of $$ right there as formula is so expensive! As for childcare when I return to work, Jessica will be staying with her Grammy. We just have to work out logistics for getting her to and from there... it's an hour-long, 60-mile trip! EEK! We are entertaining a couple of ideas, though. They will be disclosed at a later date.

My maternity leave will likely start when Jessica arrives. Since I haven't been at my job for even 90 days let alone a year, I get pretty much nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. My understanding, though is that I can get 6, 8, or 12 weeks out. But it will be without pay. I'd love to have 12 weeks but I don't know that we can afford it. On the other hand, if we can handle working out our finances and my girls do well enough feeding Miss Jessica, it would give us a little more breathing time, time to work out our crazy logistics and ideas.

Now for the fun stuff. I had my 38-week appointment on Wednesday and everything looked good! BP was good, weight- ick, Jessy's HR- 156, cervix- still high but dilated to 1 (WOOT!). The doc floored us by mentioning eviction of our little girl. I didn't schedule anything but probably will at our next appointment, this coming Wed. I guess it's one pitfall of giving birth at a big hospital. The schedule fills up fast. lol It is definitely better to schedule us in then cross us off if we go into labor. If not (worst case scenario) we have, um, three weeks left of baking at most. EEK! (And 3 weeks from today would put us at 41w3d, but with the way she measured ahead early on, in the accurate-u/s-dating days, I would be very surprised if we made it this far.

JessyNicole will be here before we know it!! With that, I leave you with my 38w1d belly pic. Folks, you're welcome to post B-Day/Weight predictions!

Overwhelmed: My confession

Wow.

I have a confession: I have been working on a project lately to see about all this making-money-off-your-blog business. There are three websites I am going with (for now): http://inpostlinks.com/, http://socialspark.com/, and https://payperpost.com/. I find http://inpostlinks.com/ the most intriguing because all I apparently would have to do would be to slip a link into my blog entry about a particular subject. Hmmm... I was logged into my homepage on one of these sites (I think it was the inpostlinks one) and there is a "top earners" box, showing who earned the most $$ last year- one of them was $27k and some change. $27k... off of blogging?? I could do that. I know it will take alot of work but it's work I'm willing to do, especially if it eliminates my childcare dilemma I would have upon returning to the rat race.

Second, I set up Google's Webmaster Tools (I was finally able to make it work!) to (hopefully) improve traffic- now if I can figure out how to actually do that.. LOL And by the way, I certainly wouldn't mind a comment or two if anyone has experience/tips/tricks with this stuff! ;)

Twitch

Twitch. Thump. Thump. Thump. Wiggle wiggle. Squirm. Thump.

For the last couple of days, Jessica has (of course!) been slowly but surely running out of room in her little space. Her moves have trasformed over the past couple of weeks from firm kicks to more weiggly-like squirms and well, wiggles. Add the numb fingertips on the right hand to the mix and we're good to go! LOL At my appointment last Monday the PA said it's the lovely Carpal-Tunnel Syndrome which can often be experienced in pregnancy. Fortunately, right now, it's pretty mild, but if it gets too bad there's always these.

I have been periodically experiencing the tricky Braxton-Hicks contractions off and on. While my next comment owes a picture post, I'll go ahead and say it- I've dropped! I don't have a pic of me since I've dropped but I promise I'll get one up here so you guys can see :)

Since JessyNicole is apparently packing her bags and getting ready to join us here soon, her mommy and daddy must do the same. We started working on cleaning the house today; got most of the clutter out of the living room and cleared out the kitchen sink and cleaned off the countertops. It sounds like alot, but trust me, it's not!

We still have:
The Office (a Disaster Zone- the capitalized letters are so for a reason)
The Carpet (after we vacuum I shall try the new carpet gadget Keith got me for christmas)
The Bathrooms
Our Bedroom
To take down our Christmas stuff (so much for getting it done today.. lol at the rate we're going we'll be bringing Jessica home to a house with a Christmas tree still up in it!)
Pack bags for myself, Keith and Jessica, for the big day. Who knows how many more tick marks she's going to make on the walls in there? It could be one for all I know.

Get some last-minute goodies for the snowflake. She could probably use a few more receiving blankets, a few (WIDE-NIPPLE, please!) bottles (just in case they're needed. Mommy would like to breastfeed but what good is a stressed-out, sleep-deprived mommy if she ends up that way?), a Boppy pillow with a few slipcovers, and of course, diapers! She already has a stack at her grammy's house of the newborn size, but I have a funny feeling she'll outgrow them reeeeeally quickly. Grammy says she's getting close to a 10%-off sale day with Target, and combine that with my 10%-off coupon (okay, maybe not necessarily combine) I have to complete my Target registry, we should be ok! WOOT! Oh, yeah- we need some slipcovers for her changing pad.

We have quite a to-do list here and what am I doing but writing about it... lol my full-time job is making me lazy! lol But we're attacking this LIST, little by little... wish me luck!