Week 27 - the 3rd and final trimester begins!

  I canNOT believe we are starting the 3rd trimester this week.  The past 27 (actually 23 since we found out...see this post for an elongated description of the nonsense that is pregnancy timing) weeks have absolutely flown by.  While it makes me a little sad that we're getting so close so fast to the end of me being pregnant I do realize that the end of me being pregnant means meeting our little guy and starting our life as a family of 3 (FOUR....of 4...sorry Madigan).
  This week baby D is, depending on which source you use, between almost 2 pounds and over 2 pounds.  Would you believe that this week he weighs as much as a head of cauliflower?!  That's something I've actually held before!  It's a baby/vegetable miracle!  He is between 14.5 and 15 inches long and some days I'm certain, stretched out that long.  The big body part that we concluded was probably his butt has moved on from my mid-right side.  It was there for several days and a very noticeable hard spot on my somewhat squishy belly.  I had a friend pushing around trying to ID body parts on Friday night (she is pregnant with her 3rd child...an expert to say the least) and she thinks at that point his spine was up against my belly.  He's still wiggling and making tons of waves and I still love every single second of it.  I'm going to guess that will be one of the things I miss most after he's born because it's just so cool.  He supposedly has a waking/sleeping cycle now but I've noticed that sometimes I'm not paying attention and I'll think "I haven't felt him in a while!" and always within the next 5 minutes I'll feel him.  Which leads me to believe that I've already acquired the power of tuning him out ;-P  I'm assuming he wiggles throughout the night but he still isn't waking me up so I don't know.
  Just for the record I hovered at 15 pounds up between week 24 and 26.5.  I've gone up another pound or two in the past few days so around 16-17 pounds total.  On a worrisome note, I seem to fit quite perfectly in my bridesmaids dress for Jill's wedding NOW...which would be great except we're still about 4 weeks away from the wedding.  Ummmm, I'll let you know how that works out, but if I end up walking around with my dress only half zipped don't judge me - pay attention to Jill...she'll look GREAT in her dress :-)
  And finally - I have HAD IT with not having any jeans.  People, I LIVE in jeans.  It really doesn't matter how hot it is outside, I love to wear jeans.  James and I went out to dinner tonight (thank you Groupon) and were right near a Kohl's so I decided to see if they had any maternity stuff.  And wouldn't you know, they had one dark pair in my size and they were on typical Kohl's sale!  Original price: $64 ... marked sale price: $45 ... final sale price: $36!  I have no idea why they were marked down further but I didn't ask questions.  I promise to get $36 worth of wear out of these things in the next 3 (+?) months...check out how cute they are!

The only time it's even remotely acceptable to talk about boy parts....

...and I almost miss it!  I forgot to put in the week 26 post that baby D's "testicles are beginning to descend into his scrotum — a trip that will take two to three days."  I feel like I'm taking on the job of embarrassing my baby boy before he's even around for his little cheeks to turn red.  I also think there are a lot of jokes to be made around this particular milestone but I'll leave them to you.  Our boy is becoming a .... boy!!

Week 26

  Gooooood morning and happy Labor Day!!  I think it's great to honor those who work hard to provide for themselves and their families with a day off, but don't forget about the stay at home parent who works hard to keep the family running!  Make sure if you're off work today and home with your stay-at-home partner/spouse you help her (or him!) enjoy some time off her/his job too!  So there is my two cents....on to baby D!
  The still unnamed child flopping around my innards is 1.6-2 pounds this week and 14 inches long!  After hearing 14 inches long I'm sure you've already guessed that our veggie of the week is the English hothouse cucumber!  Could we please pick a more obscure reference?  Perhaps next week we can compare him to a unicorn's horn or Goliath's pinky finger.  Everyone knows how big those things are, right?!  Anyhow, the little guy's ears are in full swing now, picking up conversations I'm having and other noises around me.  So please, watch your language....I don't want him flying out of my uterus with a string of "potty words" to describe the rough journey (I'm sure I'll take care of that).  Sidebar - how ridiculously awesome would it be if he could talk, just for a minute after he was born?  I would LOVE to know his thoughts on uterine living.  (This is getting weird, maybe my best and most succinct blogging is done at night...)  He has also begun "breathing" - same motion we use just on a much smaller scale and he's taking in and breathing out amniotic fluid instead of oxygen.  Super great for lung development and also the reason for hiccups (which I haven't felt yet).
  The coolest/weirdest development this week (I think it started on Saturday) is that the movements are not only "fluttery" with a quick and sudden punch or kick, but now they are starting to sometimes feel like a whole body part slithering across my belly.  He's running out of room in there so I'm feeling each motion more and more and it's really cool.  James and I have a little nightly routine where after we get in bed he'll put his hand on my belly for a bit.  Last night I had him put both hands on - one on each side of my belly button - and he was feeling motion on both hands.  I am feeling great and still sleeping decently - waking up a few times to glup water (still can't get over how dry my mouth and throat get) and go to the bathroom.  One annoyance, seems like every time I cough I get a sharp (SHARP!) pain on my right side.  Unfortunately my clumsy nature extends to drinking water and I "choke" rather frequently causing a coughing fit.  I'm really working on that because owwww.  My nose has stayed stopped up for several weeks caused, I'm assuming, by the swelling membranes.  Nothing is off limits when it comes to swelling.
  On that note, I should probably wrap it up.  It promises to be a very busy laboring day off in the Driscoll household - we are in full baby preparation mode!  James plans to put the chair rail up today and my list of errands has been growing since I opened my eyes this morning.  Have a great day and a GREAT 4 day week!

The beginnings of a nursery

Mom's here!  Yay!  James worked hard at the end of this week to get the office furniture put together (pics of that tomorrow) and we cleaned out the desk upstairs.  Got all the office stuff down here just to realize that there isn't a cable outlet on the wall we put the office stuff on - the phone and internet both have to be plugged into a modem/cable outlet!  And, oops, we have Directv!  So the only outlet in the house that is still Time Warner Cable is the one in the now-baby's room.  Hummmmm.  We are going to have to call Time Warner and find out how much it will be to add another outlet.  Yuck.  Anyhow - here are a few pictures of kind of before (James was too fast last weekend and got the bookcase out of the office/baby's room before I could take real before pictures) and a few not-quite after pictures.  James will be working on the chair rail tomorrow but he did get the crib ordered today.  Baby D says,  "THANKS FOR ALL YOUR HARD WORK GIGI!"

Fuzzi Bunz

I am beyond excited about using cloth diapers.  I think they are so cool and super cute.  I've been doing SO MUCH research on all the different brands and styles and types of cloth diapers and came to one very important conclusion....they are too expensive to buy a whole start up kit without ever having held one in your hand!  I have decided that I want to use a one size diaper vs. a perfect fit diaper so that we only have to buy one size rather than needing new ones as he gets bigger.
So, I got a single diaper from Totsy a while back -from Trend Lab.  I really liked the idea of gender specific liners and as with all of the brands there were mixed reviews.  I was so excited when it arrived but that faded quickly.  It's GIANT.  The liner itself is pretty bulky and snaps in (rather than being stuffed into a pocket) - and it only snaps in the front. 

I can imagine the liner not staying in place once the baby is even a bit mobile!  There are buttons and snaps covering the front because that is the only way to adjust the size.  Overall without having actually put it ON a baby, not a fan.
That being said, I've been leaning toward Fuzzi Bunz since the beginning.  I finally won a reasonably priced Ebay auction and my "sample" arrived in the mail today.  LOVE IT!  It has the pocket for the liner and can be stuffed with more than one for extra protection.

Instead of adjusting the size by "shrinking" the front of the diaper (using all the buttons and snaps on the trend lab), there are barely noticeable elastic bands running down the size which have numbered button holes. 

You adjust there to fit the baby which I think will make for a snugger fit around the legs (less chance for leaking!).  The whole diaper is smaller and less bulky than the trend lab too. 

So, I think we're going to take the plunge (I say that like James has a say in the matter) into Fuzzi Bunz land!  Anyone out there use cloth diapers?  Thoughts on these brands or any others?

One more thing

Somehow I forgot to mention yesterday that we booked our 3D/4D ultrasound!  Before I got pregnant we didn't think getting this extra unnecessary ultrasound was an expense we cared to add to the already crazy costs of pregnancy (and infertility!).  However, now that we have had a taste of this little boy's yummy face (yes -very skeletal, but still SO cute!) at our anatomy ultrasound I WANT MORE!  My sister had it done when she was pregnant and it was very cool.  Also, we found that both clinics around Raleigh have a "mid-week special" - yes please!  So, we are booked for our viewing party on September 21st.  My family will be coming up to "watch" and we'll all get a better peek at what he'll look like when he gets here.  I'll be 28.5 weeks at that point and he will be much more newborn-like (which means much less alien-like by default).  Can't wait!

Week 25

 
  I'm sooooo excited...people we've reached the week of.....THE RUTABAGA!  At least that's the weight comparison...from what I understand he is more baby-shaped than vegetable-shaped (not going to lie, had to look up whether a rutabaga was a fruit or a vegetable).  I've (obviously) never seen one but I sure do love saying it.  He is about 13.5 inches long (from his toes to the top of his head) and weighs about 1.5 pounds.  Last week baby D had his first big concert experience.  The verdict is in and he loves Britney Spears.  I did find myself covering my stomach as much as possible essentially trying to cover his little ears I guess.  He has been jumping around allll week - I've been laying around with my shirt pulled up watching my belly twitch and bounce.  I guess it's fitting that my uterus is now the size of a SOCCER BALL considering how much he is bouncing around in there! :)  Super weird - super cool.
  In other news, we thankfully weren't really affected all that much by the hurricane this weekend.  Rain and wind overnight on Friday and quite windy on Saturday with a few more periods of rain.  We ventured out Saturday in spite of the storm to start the baby room transformation.  We went to Office Max and the first desk we saw was the one for us.  And bonus, everything we picked out was on sale!  So, new desk, lateral file, desk chair and mat for underneath the chair were purchased.  When the desk and lateral file get here mid week we'll move my office downstairs and clean the rest of that room out so it can be painted next weekend.  Sherwin Williams paint went on sale today so I went into to do the color match with the bedding.  Turns out that even though their website says, "Just bring in the item you wish to match - a rug, a pillow, fabric swatch, even a competitor's paint swatch. Now, instead of having to settle for a color that's merely "close" to what you need, you can get exactly the color you want." what they actually mean is, we can't really match anything other than another paint - definitely not fabric.  We went to Lowe's and pick out some "pre-made" colors that match quite well so we'll see how the final product looks.  We also picked out the chair rail we want to use so James will be able to go buy that once he has measured the room.  I joked with him early that his nesting instinct has seriously kicked in this weekend!  He not only cleaned out and took apart the bar to make room for the new "office" but he also cleaned out the guest bedroom closet (to store the now-in-pieces bar) and cleaned out the front closet so there would be room for the bookshelf from upstairs.  Really, it makes me tired just typing it :-)  I helped with bits and pieces but mostly I just cleaned today.  I did manage to clean out and organize the floor of the pantry last night which, trust me, was a bigger task than one might think.  Madigan is running around like a crazy person dog extremely concerned about what is going on.  All of this shiftiness makes her nervous.  I'll post before and after pictures once I actually have the after pictures of all of James' hard work.  Good job daddy - the rutabaga is wildly cheering you on while nestled comfortably inside his noisy soccer ball home.
  And finally, Madigan has discovered that mom's giant pillow is the greatest thing ever - especially once she kicks us out of bed and has the whole thing to herself: