Mama needs some gripe water

Things I know:
-This baby is a blessing
-This baby will come when ready
-This baby is easier to take care of on the inside than the outside

Other things I know:
-I am READY!

People say the first three among other things like "sleep while you can" or "enjoy your sanity"...blah blah blah - I'm willing to take the adventure of not knowing my sanity! I can't sleep, and when I do and I move, I either wake up to having to pee or serious ligament pain while trying to get from one side to the other. My legs and feet are so crampy and swollen - as are my hands and wrists...not to mention my swollen sinuses and my newfound chainsaw snoring that forced Jason out to the living room 2 nights this past weekend.

It will all be worth it, I know - and it's not easy for anyone. I will do this again in the future, which I'm not thrilled about, but maybe I'll be too exhausted and tired from already having 1 kid that time will fly by with #2!

Good thing for the Holidays though, at least they are a good distraction. Only thing that worries me is that there's a lot to do for the holidays and I'm already not feeling up to it!

Oh well, I'll do what I can and shrug and accept what I can't.

33 days!!!!!!

Under 5 weeks to go!

Well, nothing too exciting about baby except that within a month (give or take a week - hopefully take), it will be here! I had a check-in with the nurse today and the baby is still head down, as it has been the whole time! Hopefully it won't flip up where for others they usually have the baby flip down. Other than that - the heartbeat was above 15o so I either ate a sugary breakfast or it was in the middle of its morning calesthenics! Everything else seemed normal though. I go back in 2 weeks when my actual Dr comes back from her maternity leave and do some more, ahem, tests (not fun ones from what I've heard) and then we'll see if we're making any progress yet. I did ask about when they start looking at if I can/will go earlier than later...she said the 4th of January! That was NOT the answer I was looking for, but I guess things can change at any time. I'll remain hopeful.

This past weekend was so fun, Saturday Jason and I spent almost the entire day together which was nice. He came with me to do some early exchanges, returns, quick gift stuff and then we were able to hang at the house...minus my pumpkin pie incident and the 1-2 hour lull in our activities where he had to take apart the oven door to clean out pumpkin goo. Oh well, there was another one and we were able to salvage some of the pie - pumpkin pie is precious in our house, we do what we can to prevent any waste of it!
Saturday night we had our first Thanksgiving (of the week) over at my parents. Mandy and Jason came in town that evening as well as my Dad being in town over the weekend. Chris made delicious food and we ate, laughed...and I was able to hold back tears as my Dad gave me a letter making it very clear that "the kid" will ski - and he knows a really good instructor who can teach it! He also gave me two hand knit (by the lady that cuts his hair, not him) ski hats, one for a boy and one for a girl. Seriously, my Dad is tall and loud, but he's a total softy and one certain look from him and I'm mush. I also received a photo collage that my Mom had made of ski pictures from the past. So cute!!!
Sunday we woke to the metro area and then some, covered in ice so the day got a late start, but I was perfectly content in my jammy pants and cup of half-caf coffee! My sister Jen threw me my family baby shower which was so nice. She cooked all the food, an amazing carrot cake, had a sit down brunch/lunch and then we enjoyed some games and gift opening with Jason family, and my "family" - actual relatives aside from my sisters and Mom were not present, but my extended family (God-Mother & sister, close friends of my Mom) and then gifts sent from the blood relatives. A good time was had by all and Jason and I had so much fun going through the gifts that night. It is becoming more and more real that the room filling up with all that baby stuff will soon be occupied...by a baby!

39 more days according to my iPhone app...but who's counting?!?

Names AHHHH!

Okay, so most of my adult life I have been set on boy and girl names - Jason put the kabosh on a few, which I was fine with, but now I'm having second thoughts on my own! I know we'll just wait to meet the baby and then pick from there, but really what is a fitting name for me to call my child? A Jenny, Mandy and Kate perfectly fit my parents - they would have three girls named Jen, Mandy and Kate. What names fit me?!?!?
For a boy - Jensen - that probably won't change, not for the first one at least. Ode to my Dad for not having any boys to carry on the legacy.
For a girl, I am obsessed with Julia, I always have been. As a rendition of Allen (because we can't do Alyn like I wanted - my Dad and one of Jason's brothers share the same name and that would just create too much explaning time to clear that one of our children was not named after only one of Jason's siblings) we were thinking Allison. That is growing more and more on me, but then lately Anna keeps popping in and out of my likings - and now Taylor. Jason loves Taylor, but was thinking for a boy. I still love Hannah, but he thinks it is too close to the Hannah Montana craze - yeah, and Taylor doesn't have a connection with Swift or Lautner these days?!?!?
I feel like Allison is a stronger 1st child name than Julia, but then the baby may come out and have Taylor written all over it and take out both of the "planned" names! Then there is Barrett that waits quietly in the wings - virtually unspoken of to this point, but is my middle name and I was almost named this as well. Berit for a girl I would think.
So, instead of assuming that I'll have an Allison, Julia, Jensen, Hannah and Taylor - because that would be Jason's thought process (oh we'll just have more so we can use all the names we like!), I'll just sit on edge waiting to see what this baby is and what he/she looks like!!!

More pic updates...baby "news" to follow...

Alright - I'm almost caught up on the pics...just as I got more over the weekend! (forgive the formatting - blogger does not excell at their photo posting and layout abilities!)

Alright - is this Max or Bebo?!?! I didn't realize it when I took this picture of Max that he looked so much like his cousin Albert, but he sure does in this picture at least! Max is getting so big, he's pulling himself up on just about anything and I got a video from his Mama this weekend of him walking behind a cart! Not long before that little guy is all over the place!

I did get to see Emma and Max for a short while in CO - not long enough of course! We hung out at Mamie and Nick's for a little while and Max got to fall in love with Shelby (the Woods' puggle that loved to lick Max's ears clean!) and then we went to (wait for it....) eat! I did a lot of eating that weekend. It was all so yummy though.

Here we are at the restaurant where Max was so well behaved. He just ate his snacks and goo and enjoyed all the cool colors and decorations in the restaurant.

Alright now anyone with kids...or a dog...knows how restless they can get when the weather isn't ideal for playing outside. A week or so ago it was raining and blowing so we didn't want to have Massey out in the mud and rain - this is how badly she wanted to go out!

Now, you wouldn't believe, but that rain changed to 70's...and then days later this is what we woke up to find!!!

Massey LOVES the snow, although it did take her a few tries outside to remember what it was - and that it was fun to run through and stick her nose into and fling snow up in the air then chase after it.

And when boring (cold prego) Mama made her come inside, this is pretty much what she did the entire time!

Now on to updates on baby and the pregnancy. Let's start with my lovely feet! Remember about my new swelling issues? These are my feet AFTER the swelling goes down. Don't think they look bad? I have cute feet - for as cute as feet can get at least. I have nice small ankles (to offset what have become huge calves and thighs) that I have often appreciated all too little until experiencing cankles!!!! You can see here that the mush of swell in my right foot still hadn't gotten rid of the sock mark and although I see things much worse than anyone else, it looked like I sprained my left ankle, minus the bruising!

What happens when you put tight socks on feet that never had the swelling go down from the day before - then jam them into shoes only to sit under a desk pooling water retention all day???

Still not bruised, just the marks from what my largest pair of shoes does to me! You can see here that the swelling runs up my legs a bit here too. Ahhh the joys.

Baby is doing well - better than Mom at least! Lots of lots of movement. Less kicks and punches, now more large movement waving across the belly. We have the hiccups a lot - A LOT!

With all the miracle of life, creating life, blah blah blah - I will be ungrateful only for just a moment (knowing full well that once this baby is out, there will be times I'd pay to experience this again...) - I want my body back! Baby movements are cool at first, then the baby gets really big and sleeps quite often...but then it wakes up and moves and scrapes and kicks and rolls and hiccups, which all are not all that pleasant! Not to mention the horrible sweats I get when I have low blood sugar and need to eat. Literally had to change my shirt because I was dripping sweat from my forehead all the way down my back and stomach - sweat glands were in full force. But then once I ate just a little bit, all was fine.

Okay - I'll try and stop the complaining for now. I have less than 7 weeks left and am hoping baby doesn't take it's own sweet time coming out! I want a healthy baby, but I also want to be abe to walk normally vs. penguin style even just from the living room to the kitchen-all of 10 feet!

We are down to our official count-down after Thanksgiving which is next week already (?!?!?!?!).

The family shower is next Sunday, then we have Thanksgiving...and we're down to 5 weeks!!!! So excited - this past weekend, while snowed in for most of Saturday, I got a ton of baby stuff washed, hung, organized - gone through, etc.... I'm ready to add some pink or blue to the plethora of yellow, green and white!

Pictures from the weekend...

As you can see, these aren't all from this past weekend, but I haven't posted pictures from the actual camera in a while so...here's a few updates on the Cavanaugh household from Oct and Nov!

Our waaayyyy too spoiled of a dog makes her way into our bed all too often - all by herself usually. I get out of the shower in the morning and here she is (above) literally sleeping like a human on my pillow. For this time, she decided to push the blankets down and just lay on the pillow.

As you can see below, she opted for the warmer option of digging under the blankets and making her way on to my pillow again. Now, at night, she will lay on jason's pillow, but in the morning, she's all Mommy! (oh and the big lump in the middle of the bed is not her being a giant dog, it is my pillow I "snuggle" with at night in order to sleep on my side)

I state time and time again, naughty puppy = cutest puppy in the world!

Sorry for this being sideways, but I don't know how to edit these pictures once they're in the blog. Scott has always said, since the day Jason bought his house, that he wanted to help destroy the basement when it came time to do so - well, two weekends ago was the time! The moldy wall(s)...gone, everything is gone as a matter of fact, especially the wall between the bathroom and the bedroom (including the window out to the whole neighborhood). The toilet and sink are still in tact so you can imagine the view Jason has out during the day when he's using that bathroom...or better yet, the view the neighbors have in the morning when the light is on in the bathroom, but dark outside! None the less, the mess is at a minimum, but the destruction was good and dirty! Massey even supervised for a while. We now have to rebuild, but I guess we (what I am saying) HE is going to start in the other bedroom so that we have a place to put guests come next spring!

At the end of October, I had a wonderful baby shower with a few close girlfriends at my house. Christy flew into town and everything! Here I am with one of my wonderful gifts - a rocking horse! It neighs and gallops and the mouth moves! Jason played with it for a while and found that when you press on both ears, each provides you minute after minute of entertaining noises! I thought only one ear made noise!

Amanda made me this diaper cake all by herself! It is so cute I don't want to dismantle it!

Amanda & Nora, I hope you're reading this part - I left a very needed thank you out of your card that I sent out regarding this diaper cake. I love it and truly cannot wait for you to help me learn all about how to use the fun stuff in it!!! haha - that's what you get for being a friend with a kid already!

just kidding - sorta. Nora will be a huge help with Baby C too, she can teach "it" all about fun ways to sleep through the night, eat well and be a super cute baby!...right?

Alright, so here is a picture of me and the girls out to lunch (whoops, sorry, the girls and Jacob and Noah) while in CO. Was a lunch full of laughs and jokes - all too short though!

And Mr. Noah Nicholas - the newest cutest boy on Earth!!!

Noah had fun sitting on Baby C. He actually prior to this picture was laying over to my side with his hand draped over my tummy. Baby C totally high fived Noah!!! It was so funny. Mamie says that was Baby C making friends with HIS new buddy already...although she did slip once over the weekend and call Baby C her niece:).

Here we are having some tummy time...literally!
Noah got some neck workout as well as lower back with this challenge!

And of course the beautiful new Momma and her little Noah.

So much in so little time!

The past week has been a total whirlwind! I may have to do a few entries in case I forget anything.
I flew to CO to visit Mamie and Noah (and Daddy Nick too) on Friday and I was a little bit nervous about the flight for multiple reasons, but all went well.
To rewind a bit, I dropped Massey off at the Wildman's for her weekend slumber party with Blue. As I sat reclined on the couch with my feet up on the ottoman, my pants fell up my leg just enough to see my ankles...or where my ankles used to be! Why my ankles dissapeared the night before I had to get on a plane to higher elevation I don't know, but now I had even more reason to use those fancy compression socks I went to the "elder" store for!
So, I got on the plane in row 7 which I thought was pretty darn nice and got up to bulk head due to some nice older people getting bumped to first class! The flight was great, I got a little snooze in and Nick picked me up no problem.
Friday night we just visited and snuggled (me and Noah, not Mamie) and the same for Saturday morning. I had lunch with Mamie, Noah, Brooke, James, Christy, Angela and Jacob (Ang's nephew)! It was so great to catch up and get to laugh in person with some of the best people in my life, but honestly - it made me even more sad in hindsight - if only MN and CO were neighbors!
Mamie and I went to Castle Rock for an ambitious shopping trip only to get through a few baby clothese stores...and a not needed but very much enjoyed splurge at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory!!! We decided that the rest of the day would consist of taco pizza, TV and good company.
Sunday came all too quickly with a great breakfast out and then Emma and Max came to pick me up. We went and ate lunch (yes, a lot of eating this trip!) at Park Meadows and then had to get to the airport...where I didn't get my socks back on over my cankles, but did just fine all the same.
The flight home was fine, only in row 9 - home too late, but a well justified trip and time away.

To be continued with photos and more updates from the week....

On the road to becoming well informed...

Jason and I had our first baby class last night and I must say, I thought it would invoke extra anxiety, but it did just the opposite! Of course we were imagining an older lady trying to tell us that heavy breathing would alleviate some pain while showing videos from the 1970's with women not minding the graphic nature of where the camera is focusing! Not at all. The videos were very up to date, not overly graphic - and the animations were very very helpful actually! I never wondered about what a contraction was or what caused them and what they caused the baby to do, but I found out, and was thankful for that! Jason did just fine, there was a modest amount of blood and no needles shown so bonus for him in that aspect.
So, we did have a few giggle attacks, especially when we were supposed to be focusing on our breathing and holding our bellies (Dad's too) to feel where we were expanding and relaxing. I sat on my pillow and breathed in and out to the instructors' counts...and then I look back at jason who is sitting behind me to my left. He is leaned against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest not quite understanding why we were doing what we were doing...or if he did his face was hilarious. I couldn't contain myself after that. I'd get the deep 4-count breath in, but the breath out was interrupted by trying not to laugh too loudly. The only other time was when we practiced using our husbands as support while standing as though we were going through a contraction with back pain. First he started laughing because my chin dug into his shoulder and it was just downhill from there...

Anyway, so we are excited to get through Thanksgiving because that is when we can officially start the count down!

Baby is big - I'm pretty sure that over the weekend we were growing because I literally had no energy - like, I sat down in the shoe section of Macy's just to rest after about 10 minutes of shopping. Of course that means the past few days have been anything but comfortable. Growth = needing more room and the round ligament pain I felt defintely was in line with that!

So, this weekend I'll be in CO visiting Noah. I'm sure I'll have plenty of fun stories about the flying adventures while 32 weeks pregnant as well as pictures of my new little friend!