Teaser Photos

(Adelyn squeezing my finger just before her first bath)

(I guess she likes my salty teary covered fingers)

(I finally got to hold her after the bath)

These are just a couple teaser photos. Trust me, we got plenty more to post once things slow down a bit! - Derek (The proudest Dad alive)

Mom and Baby

Mom and Adelyn finally meet face to face after 40 weeks! 1:17pm May 25, 2009. Stay tuned for many more photos and videos.

Adelyn Lindsay Zivney

I would like to announce the arrival of our new baby girl, Adelyn Lindsay Zivney! She was born on May 25, 2009 at 1:12pm weighing in at 6 lbs. 6 oz.. She has a thick, beautiful head of dark hair and blue eyes. She is 19.5" long and loves to be in her moms arms. Her eyes are constantly open and looking around the room. Her cry is very soft and innocent which makes me a little weak to hear!

Mom is doing great this evening. She has been resting all afternoon from the events that have led up to 1:12pm today. Lindsay has been an amazing trooper over the last 24 hours, which I have no idea how she did it, especially without sleeping last night. I have never felt so helpless in my life when I had to stand next to her bed and watch her go through all the painful contractions. There just wasn't anything I could do for her. I am very proud of her for what she has endured throughout the pregnancy. I give her an A+!

Today was absolutely amazing. Words don't even describe watching your baby girl breathe her first breath, cry her first cry, and open her eyes for the first time, just to be looking straight into her dad's very own eyes. Today was truly magically.

Delivery Time

Alright here we go! Mom, Dad, Mikaela and I are all sitting out in the lobby waiting to hear that baby has arrived safe and healthy. I can tell Derek and Lindsay are both so excited to finally see their little baby. Everyone thinks it will be a girl, but I am still holding on to the thought that it's a boy :) Will update again once the baby has arrived.

Water Broke!

Kim here... I guess it's my turn to write a small post. So we, the family, just got "kicked" out of the room. Her doctor came in to break her bag and she is almost ready to start pushing! She is fully dilated and after a little 30 minute rest, she will begin to deliver Baby Z!

We are all so excited to finally greet the little one and find out their name :). Lindsay is doing so great, she keeps saying she can barely feel her legs and it's a tingly pricky sensation. Hopefully within the hour we will have the little bundle of joy and can all relax, we are all so anxious!

Anyway short post, just a little update for you all, I will post again when we are out in the lobby waiting to see the baby for the first time!

Sleepin'

She is sleeping like a baby now... Lindsay that is. Everything is going well and Baby Z should be here in the afternoon today. The epidural was an amazing pain killer for her. The baby's heart rate has been doing great and relaxed. The doctor believes her delivery should go quickly since the baby is already low in the pelvis and a little on the smaller size. Who knows, Baby Z could come in the next hour or so!

Definitely Moving...

Hello all,
Mikaela here! The family and I just arrived at the hospital a few minutes ago, and poor Lindsay is just exhausted. But she's doing great, such a trooper!
She received the epidural around 10:00 am, and thank goodness for that, she says she can't imagine how some women are able to do this naturally. I can't imagine either.... phew.
Already she's moving along very quickly, at 10:45 she was at 6-7 cm! So we are definitely getting close.
We're gonna try and let her rest some, 'cause she has some hard work ahead of her.
We will keep you updated!

Moving Along Quickly

Good morning everyone. This is Derek and it looks like it's time for me to take over the posting from here on out. It is 8:30 am and the doctor started administering Pitocin around 8am . Pitocin helps boost the contractions so they are stronger and more frequent. Her contractions are just over 3 minutes apart and the epidural will be given in one hour.

She has been a trooper throughout the whole pregnancy. I just wish there was something I could do for her while she has the contractions. I can't imagine how painful they are.

I will try to keep everyone updated as it goes along.

Pics

I forgot to mention that I'm starving. Last time I ate something: 9pm last night. Current time: 7:32am. Time I next get to eat something other than ice chips: when Baby arrives. Oh man!

Ouchie. Updating the blog!

He's ready to be a Dad!!

Watching Baby's heartbeat (top row, if you can see it) and my contractions (bottom row)

It's going to be a long day!

Greetings :)

Greetings from the hospital!!!!!!!!!

I am officially in labor as of 4:45am today. I probably began labor around 11pm last night, although I had been getting contractions off and on all yesterday evening. The contractions feel like severe menstrual cramps, not fun at all. They kept me awake for most of the night, althought I think I was able to doze off in between contractions. I was getting them every 5-10 minutes so finally aroung 4:30am we decided it was time to go to the hospital. I was so worried that they would send me home because I was barely dilated or something... we got to L&D and a triage nurse did an internal exam and said I was already 3cm!!!! I WAS SO EXCITED! After being stuck at a fingertip width for the past million weeks, 3 cms sounds so great. The nurse then stripped my membranes, which I guess is supposed to help speed things up. So, I was admitted and I'm now sitting in my delivery room! The nurses drew some blood for tests and hooked me up to an IV, and the same two belts used in the NST are around my belly (one to measure contractions and one to measure Baby's heartbeat). It's funny to watch the contractions on the screen, they look like "Mount Everest" according to Derek :) We've been taking pictures, so we'll have add them soon.

The nurses are going to come in soon to administer pitocin to make my contractions harder/stronger and closer together... THAT should be a lot of fun... I'm just looking forward to the epidural!! We'll update again soon, I just wanted to let everyone know what was going on. We're going to have a Memorial Day Baby after all!!!!!!!!

Waitin'

Waiting waiting waiting.

That's all. We'll update again later with a belly shot, etc.

Yippee, the weekend!

Just sitting around, waiting for my hubby to get home this Friday night. My parents and one of my sisters are coming to town too and they'll be here until Sunday. Should be a good time. If the weather cooperates, we plan to hang out by the pool and have a nice little cookout tomorrow. Perfect for Memorial Day!

Baby updates? Well, I had a TON of contractions Wednesday night and Thursday throughout the day, and I had trouble sleeping last night because I could barely take a deep breath. It's a weird feeling, having a big watermelon squishing your organs. My entire abdomen is really sore today, so I think this Baby is going to be an athlete or something because it has got one mean kick. An athlete or a dancer! But who knows, maybe all this discomfort means we'll end up with a Memorial weekend baby???? I just have to keep an open mind and keep saying "Any day now, any day now." Because it's true! :)

My love.

According to the doc's timeline, I'm "officially" overdue. Weird.

I just want to take a minute to brag on my husband. He has been so good to me throughout this entire pregnancy. Some of the highlights include:
-he helps me up off the couch
-he rubs lotion on my ever-expanding tummy every night
-he helps me clean (after dinner, on the weekends, all the time!)
-he encourages me and makes me feel better when I'm having a bad day
-he puts up with my mood swings, random crying sessions, etc. Oh hormones...
-on his way home from work, he calls to see if I need him to pick up anything from the store
-he goes out to get whatever I'm craving. No, my cravings haven't stopped yet. They mostly include chocolate and ice-cream :)
-he talks about how much he can't wait to hold Baby
-when I was still going down to the Rice campus, he made sure my car was taken care of (up to date on oil changes, clean, tires pressures are good, etc.) because he "wanted his babies to be safe"
-he gets up around 5:30am every day to drive to work (over an hour away), but before he leaves he always kisses my belly/Baby goodbye. He kisses me goodbye too, of course!

You get the idea. I always wanted to marry a man as wonderful and as helpful as my Dad, and I'm positive that I have. Derek has been the ultimate husband, and I'm so lucky to have him. Some women complain that their husbands don't do enough for them during their pregnancy, that they just don't understand what we're going through. Derek is the opposite, so involved and considerate. I attribute this to his wonderful upbringing and him being an amazing, thoughtful person. Thanks, Dan and Nancy, for raising a wonderful son. I pray that our Baby will turn out to be as conscientious as its Daddy. I love my husband so much and I am SO THANKFUL FOR HIM!

Oh ya...

A funny little tidbit I forgot to mention when I posted about the growth ultrasound yesterday.

Derek wasn't allowed to come with me for some reason, so he had to stay up in the waiting room with Mom. As soon as I lay down on the stretcher in the ultrasound wing, I immediately told the u/s tech that we didn't know the sex of the Baby (and didn't want to know), so if she saw anything, not to mention it. She said that was no problem, she was good at keeping secrets. After making all the measurements, she said she couldn't have told me anyway because Baby had its legs crossed nice and tight. I guess we have a modest little one! She did show me a shot of Baby's face and you could clearly see its little lips and mouth making a sucking motion, and it had its hand up under its chin. I guess Baby is playing the waiting game too! It looked so cute, I just can't wait to see Baby in person. Ah, the waiting is killin' me!!

Home alone

My Mom headed back to Austin today to spend a few days at home since we're making no progress. She has been so helpful over the past week or so, and it was great having her here to keep me company. Now I'm going to be lonely until Derek gets home in the evenings. I guess I could keep myself occupied by working on my thesis. I'd rather just sleep though. Thanks Mom, for staying with me and taking care of me! :)

Here's a picture from last weekend when my Dad and Mikaela stopped by after moving Mikaela out of her apartment. Mikaela made a watercolor/pastel piece for us to hang in Baby's nursery and it looks amazing! We just need to frame it, and then we can hang it over Baby's crib. :) Thanks Mikaela!

Baby's non-stress test

Well, I had my weekly appointment today. Again, according to the doctor's office, my due date is tomorrow (Tues, May 19th). I've made NO progress since last week (still 90% effaced, only about fingertip width dilated). The nurse practitioner thought my fundal height has looked a bit small over the past few weeks, so she sent me up to Labor and Delivery to have a Non-stress test (NST) and growth ultrasound done on Baby, just to make sure everything was okay. Derek came home from work, and he, Mom and I went up to the hospital. The NST was interesting, they put two belts around my belly: one to monitor Baby's heartbeat, and the second to monitor any contractions I may have. I was hooked up to the machine for about 30 mins so they could see Baby's heartbeat accelerate and decelerate several times - everything looked great! This was the first time Derek has heard Baby's heartbeat in the whole pregnancy, and he thought it was very special. Then they took me down to have the growth ultrasound. Baby's measurements were about 37 weeks, 5 days and they estimate the weight to be 6 lbs 13 ozs. Doc thinks that's just perfect, so we have nothing to worry about.

So then we started discussing inductions. My doc says my progress is good and bad: good because effacement is very important early on, especially if it's your first baby. Bad because the hospital won't administer cervidil to "ripen" my cervix until at least 41 weeks, 3 days before giving me pitocin to further induce labor. This puts us right at the end of May, meaning my induction probably wouldn't even take place until May 31st or June 1st. Can you even believe it?!?!!? I can't wait that long!! That was pretty disappointing, but I guess there's just no rushing Baby.

Oh ya, one exciting piece of news: all the baby birds that were in our hanging basket have left the nest! We saw them this morning and by the time we came home from the hospital, they had all flown away. They were definitely ready, had full sets of feathers and everything. It's crazy how quickly birds develop. And here we were wondering who would arrive first - our Baby or the birdies. No contest, I guess.

Okay, that's all folks :( Disappointing Monday overall...

Week 39

39 week belly

Your baby's waiting to greet the world! He continues to build a layer of fat to help control his body temperature after birth, but it's likely he already measures about 20 inches and weighs a bit over 7 pounds, a mini watermelon. (Boys tend to be slightly heavier than girls.) The outer layers of his skin are sloughing off as new skin forms underneath.
www.babycenter.com

Mini watermelon, that's for sure! Heavy mini watermelon. Still no news... Lots of contractions and jabs in the tummy, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Hubby is so thoughtful - he went out to buy me some chocolates! However, he sent me a text message saying "The milk chocolate bars are sold out". What a heartbreak. How many pregnant ladies are there in Cypress!??!?! He still managed to find me some milk chocolate, so we're good. What a sweet husband. He's the love of my life!!!

Belly movement videos

I haven't updated the blog in a few days, so I guess it's about time.

No real news over here, we're still anxiously awaiting for things to get started. My Mom is in town to keep me company while Derek is at work (and potentially drive me to the hospital, should I go into labor very suddenly...although at this point, we're thinking that may not happen). We've been going for walks, hanging out by the pool, getting last minute things accomplished. My next Dr.'s appointment is on Monday, and at that point we'll be discussing inductions. If nothing happens soon, we're guessing I will be induced by the end of next week... which means this is probably our last weekend as just Derek and myself!

Since I'm so far along and room is definitely sparse in my belly, Derek took some video of Baby moving around and trying to stretch out. It's great to watch, so I hope you enjoy!!




Profile shot of Baby moving.

Boo.

Barely any progress.
90% effaced (yay!), Baby is very low (-1 station!), but still less than 2 fingers dilated. What the heck.

Picture I found showing what the stations mean. Station: how far the baby is "down" in the pelvis. -5 is a floating baby, 0 station is engaged in the pelvis, +5 is crowning.

Feeling kinda funny today, sort of queasy. Doctor said it could be early labor, so let's keep our fingers crossed! Lots of contractions (no surprise there, since the doc did an internal exam), so I'm going to go lie down and see if they go away. If not, maybe we'll have Baby joining us soon. Only time will tell.

Our "nursery"

Today, our "nursery" is finally finished! To recap, we had ordered a dresser from Target and they ended up shipping us the wrong one, so we sent it back and they were going to ship us the correct piece. Well, that never happened. They kept delaying our order, pushing it back and pushing it back. The revised order (read: AFTER they delivered the wrong piece) was placed April 21, and they said we would receive the correct piece between April 26-28th, then May 5th-7th, then May 14-16th). We decided "enough is enough" and cancelled the order, and ordered a different dresser from J.C. Penney. Seriously, it was here in no time - I ordered it 5 days ago and Derek picked it up today. We got free shipping to the store 2 miles from our house, and it came pre-assembled (except for the knobs, which we put on ourselves). It is BEAUTIFUL, I'm so happy things worked out this way because I actually prefer this dresser to the one from Target :)

So now everything is set up! Of course, it's all in our bedroom, that's why I said "nursery". Baby won't get its own nursery until we move into our own house (August, hopefully!). I'm just thrilled with the crib and dresser and now I officially feel prepared to have this little one join us.

Derek putting the knobs on Baby's dresser!

Ta Da! Putting away the few articles of clothing we have.

LOVE IT!!!!

Proud Pappa

Our "nursery", all we need is Baby!

Due date?

Our little peanut, all the way back in November. What a difference 6+ months makes!



According to our doctor, my due date is in fact May 19th (not May 24th like I previously thought). My mistake or theirs? Either way...

That means Baby Z is due in 1 week!!! 7 DAYS!!!! I know babies often don't get the memo though, so let's see if Baby will be on time to his/her own party.

Crazy!

Baby birds.

I've been meaning to post pictures for awhile now.

So I mentioned we have purple finches that come by to eat the bird seed we have on our patio, and they've made a nest in our hanging plant. They laid 5 little eggs and the eggs hatched last week, and so we've been watching the babies grow from tiny, closed-eyed puffs into tweeting fluttering mini birds. It's amazing how quickly they grow! They're starting to make a lot of noise now whenever their momma and daddy come back to feed them. They're so funny to watch... although they're not exactly the cutest things in the world right now :)

One of the baby birds, taken May 9th. Nice mohawk baby!!

One of the first pics we have of a baby bird, taken May 3rd (his beak is the yellow part, pointing straight up, eye is still closed)

Video of one of the babies when they were really little, looking for his momma to come feed him. Well, "looking" is relative... listening is more like it. Around 6 seconds in, you can see his head, beak and close-eyes pop up :)

Week 38

Big belly (red markings around my waist are from the skirt I was wearing yesterday... I guess the elastic waist band is tight!).

Your baby has really plumped up. She weighs about 6.8 pounds and she's over 19 1/2 inches long (like a leek). She has a firm grasp, which you'll soon be able to test when you hold her hand for the first time! Her organs have matured and are ready for life outside the womb. Wondering what color your baby's eyes will be? You may not be able to tell right away. If she's born with brown eyes, they'll likely stay brown. If she's born with steel gray or dark blue eyes, they may stay gray or blue or turn green, hazel, or brown by the time she's 9 months old. That's because a child's irises (the colored part of the eye) may gain more pigment in the months after she's born, but they usually won't get "lighter" or more blue. (Green, hazel, and brown eyes have more pigment than gray or blue eyes.)

(www.babycenter.com)

So as you can see (and I mentioned yesterday), Baby Z is still cooking. Every night as Derek and I go to bed, we say "Our baby could arrive tomorrow!" and it is such a crazy thought... but it's true. Any day now, any moment. I need to head out and go for a walk, but it's just getting to be so darn hot out that I don't want to leave the house. I wonder if dancing around the house would have the same effect? Goodness knows I did a lot of dancing at Mike and Darla's wedding and I was definitely getting Braxton Hicks contractions later that night/next day. Hmm... maybe I should crank up the tunes.

My body has been feeling really tired and I've been getting headaches the past few days, so I'm anxiously awaiting that rumored burst of energy that comes when delivery is right around the corner. My Grandma was telling me that near the end of her first pregnancy she decided to cook spare ribs for dinner, spent all day preparing them and then went into labor with my uncle that very night, before she could even get to taste her hard work, haha! I've been trying to get more sleep since I've been feeling run down and I know I'll be lacking in the sleep department soon enough, but I feel like I've wasted most of my day if I get up late. I guess I could always go to bed really early, or wake up early and take naps throughout the day...

The weekends go by way too quickly. It was super hot here, so we spent part of Saturday by the pool (funny story included below), then we went to see "Star Trek" in the early evening. Good movie!! On Sunday, Derek was so sweet and gave me a card and flowers for my first mother's day. Even if Baby hasn't reached the outside world yet, there's definitely a large baby in my belly that is planning to arrive soon, so that counts! Then later in the day, we had our friend Marshall over for dinner. It was great to see him again, it's been quite awhile since we last got together (he and I were both Geophysics majors and graduated from Texas A&M together). Shout out to him: Thanks for the VERY generous baby gift Marshall!! Can't wait to use it to buy Baby some gender specific clothes... no more of this yellow, green or white stuff, we want blues or pinks! :) Two other shoutouts I can't recall if I made: one to my sissy Kim and one to my sis-in-law Lindsay. Thanks, Kim, for the Aggie onesie for Baby (perfect for football season) and Thanks, Lindsay, for the diaper genie and baby bath tub!! Our friends and family have been so wonderful, and so generous!

Pics below and the pool story I promised:
This is our cat Nova aka. Lazy bones Jones. That's her favorite toy lying next to her. Yes, it's a hair tie :) She throws it, carries it around, stretches it... we don't have to do anything, she can play by herself! We just love her. She is our fur-baby.

So the "funny" pool story... As I mentioned, we went swimming on Saturday because it was a beautiful, HOT day. We floated around in the water for a while, then I decided I wanted to get out and lay on our chairs for a bit. We were on the opposite side of the pool from our stuff and the pool was fairly crowded with people, so I climbed out of the pool to walk around on the deck back to our chairs (otherwise the large, slow-moving pregnant lady probably would have caused some collisions in the water). Derek, on the other hand, decided to swim back over to our side of the pool to get his sunglasses, which we had left sitting on the deck. I reached our sunglasses before he did and was bending down to pick them up just was he was arriving, swimming underwater. I watched as he swam head first into the side of the pool! My poor baby was so stunned, he came up from the water and immediately the top of his nose started bleeding. He'd peeled away a couple layers of skin and the wound puffed up right away, so I made him get out of the water. It looked so painful, but he said what hurt more were his knuckles (he also punched the wall when he arrived). Luckily his knuckles were fine, but his poor nose. It still looks like he got in a fight. When we went to the movie later that night, Derek felt like everyone was staring at him. It was pretty gross looking, I will say that! Now, the reason he swam into the wall was not because he had his eyes closed, but because he was trying to avoid swimming into a little girl next to him. After he passed by the girl, he turned his head to see how far away from the wall he was and... well, let's just say he was closer than he thought.

Wounded Derek after he got in a fight with the pool wall. Derek got off easy, you should see the wall ;) By the end of the day, the wound was really red and gross looking.

Derek's nose as of last night. Not nearly as red as it was on Saturday.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all Grandmothers, Mothers and Mothers-to-be :)

We'll post our weekly belly shot, etc. later tonight. Yes, this means Baby is still in my belly. I guess the full moon wasn't enough to get things moving!

Sooooo....

There's a full moon on Saturday, May 9th. This Saturday. Hmmm...

The Moon's Effect on Natural Childbirth

Did you know that some maternity units actually have more staff available during periods of full moon?

I've always been fascinated by the moon's effect on nature, so when a friend's wife conveyed to me what her midwife had told her during the birth of their daughter, I decided to find out more about childbirth, full moon and a possible link.

On speaking to various medical staff involved in natural childbirth, the first thing I learned was that expectant mothers often experience false signs of labor during full moon.

Contractions known as "Braxton Hicks" -- sometimes noticeable to the mother and sometimes not -- become more pronounced and many travel to the maternity unit in the belief that "it's time". Disappointed -- or perhaps relieved -- they return home, the pains having subsided and with no dilation of the cervix.

While these expectant mothers visiting the clinic with their mistaken signs of labor are part of the reason why extra staff are needed, the major difference is found in the number of women whose amniotic sac -- the water -- breaks.

Just as some women experience false labor pains, in cases where the water breaking marks the start of childbirth, full moon is the time when it's most likely to happen.

In order to discover for myself whether this could be true, I asked several female friends how their births had started. Those who responded with "the water breaking" were then asked the date of the birth. On checking this against a moon phase chart, I discovered that almost all had given birth on, or very close to, a full moon.

The theory is that the moon's gravitational pull effects the amniotic fluid in much the same way as it effects the water in the sea, rivers and even the water that's otherwise found in our bodies.

As a woman's body prepares for natural childbirth, the amniotic sac becomes distended to the point where it will easily burst if put under pressure. Under normal circumstances, the pressure of labor contractions bursts the sac. During a full moon, the pressure caused by the moon's effect on the water inside the sac can cause the same things to happen, but without the accompanying contractions.

When this happens, natural childbirth doesn't always move forward and with no other signs of labor present, the obstetrician may decide to induce the birth. During my own study of this phenomenon I found that of 8 women whose births started with the water breaking at full moon, 5 of them had no accompanying contractions.

A coincidence? Perhaps. But surely midwives wouldn't prepare themselves for an increase in natural childbirth activity if there wasn't some truth in this?

One midwife told me that when it comes to planning childbirth, full moons should always be looked for around the time of the expected delivery. If there's one within a few days either side, the chances are your baby will be born on that day.

(http://www.firsttimepregnancy.com/176.html)


Interesting. Derek was born on a full moon... Seriously!

Could this be one of the last posts on the blog before Baby comes????? :)

Dr.'s appointment today. Any progress?

None. Zip. Rien. Nada. How depressing is that? I thought for sure I'd be dilated a bit more or something. I was having contractions every 10-20 mins yesterday, cramping, etc. but it all went away overnight.

When I got to my appointment today, the waiting room was full of pregnant ladies, all waiting their turn. I overheard one lady say that she had been waiting for 1.5 hrs... I was not looking forward to that. Amazingly, I sat there for only 30 mins before I was called back. I was even taken ahead of 3 or 4 other women who had been waiting there for awhile. Maybe it's because I'm pretty far along in my pregnancy? Who knows, but I definitely appreciated it. Especially because the receptionist and one other pregnant lady were hacking and coughing like they had the flu. I better not catch anything! But seriously, the receptionist should know better than to come to work sick when 99% of your patients are pregnant. Just my opinion.

Anyway, I saw the nurse practitioner today. After looking at my fundal height and everything else, she guesses that Baby will be about 6.5-7 lbs. That's what I guess too since Derek and I were both under 7 lbs when we were born. She suggested bringing at least 1 premie outfit to the hospital because even though they look small, the newborn sized outfits are in fact pretty big on newborn babies... that is, unless you have a 9lb kid (which we doubt we will).

I guess that's about it for now! I will leave you with a list because I like lists.

Things I want/need to do before Baby gets here:
- buy a Baby Book so we can start writing down memories right away
- get a pedicure (or have Derek do my toes... :) My feet and hands have been pretty swollen, so it would feel great to have them pampered)
- stock up on books and movies (so I have something to watch/read while nursing)
- make sure the fridge/pantry is filled with food so we don't have to go grocery shopping right after Baby is born
- sleep
and, most importantly,
- spend some quality one-on-one time with my husband before we become a family of three :)

Week 37 aka. Full Term!

37 week belly. It looks like it's sagging, doesn't it?

Congratulations - your baby is full term! This means that if your baby arrives now, his lungs should be fully mature and ready to adjust to life outside the womb, even though your due date is still three weeks away. Your baby weighs 6 1/3 pounds and measures a bit over 19 inches, head to heel (like a stalk of Swiss chard). Many babies have a full head of hair at birth, with locks from 1/2 inch to 1 1/2 inches long. But don't be surprised if your baby's hair isn't the same color as yours. Dark-haired couples are sometimes thrown for a loop when their children come out as blondes or redheads, and fair-haired couples have been surprised by Elvis look-alikes. And then, of course, some babies sport only peach fuzz.
(www.babycenter.com)

At week 37, your pregnancy is considered full term, meaning baby is likely to thrive after birth. Baby spends these last weeks in preparation for the outside world... meaning careful refinement of the blink, suck, inhale and exhale. Meconium, which you'll probably find in the first diaper, is accumulating in the intestines. If (okay, as) you worry about giving birth, consider what it's like for the little one. During the journey out of your womb, baby will produce more stress hormones than any other time in life.
(www.thebump.com)

Haha, I have a watermelon in my tummy :) I am so exited to be full term! Man, when we first found out we were pregnant and that we were due in May, it seemed like it was SO far away and it would never get here. I just can't believe how quickly time has flown by. Now I'm torn - I want time to hurry up so I can finally hold Baby, but I also want time to slow down so I can enjoy having Baby safe and sound in my belly.

This was the first weekend Derek and I spent at home, by ourselves, with no plans, in over a month. It was very relaxing :) We went for a walk yesterday morning, installed the car seat base in my car (next we have to do Derek's truck) and spent a few hours by the pool. This time we actually got in the water and I think Baby liked it! I know I did - it was nice to have my belly "float" for a bit, taking the pressure off my body. It's crazy how heavy your belly gets near the end of the pregnancy.

Sad thing: I had to remove my wedding rings :( My hands have been getting so swollen that I decided I'd better take them off before I have to have them CUT off... It was a chore removing them, that's for sure. I sprayed windex all over my finger and pulled and twisted and finally they came off. I did all that on Friday and my finger still looks funny - you can clearly seen the indention (and white skin) where my rings used to sit. I'm bummed I can't wear them, but I plan to put them on a necklace and wear them around my neck. It'll just be for a few weeks, anyway. Yay, a few weeks! AH!!

Another fun bit of news: we have a hanging plant on our patio, and a few weeks ago a pair of purple finches made a nest in there and laid 5 little eggs. Well, those eggs hatched yesterday and now we have little, tiny, baby birds! They are so precious. Their heads are about the size of green peas, their eyes are still closed and their little beaks are open waiting for Momma and Poppa to feed them some food. So cute. We took some photos and videos of them, so I'll post them tomorrow (too late to do it tonight).

That's all for now, it's definitely time for bed. Hope everyone had a restful weekend. Good luck to those who have finals coming up!

It's May 1st.

That means that I'm going to be a Mommy and Derek's going to be a Daddy THIS MONTH!!!!!

:) :) :)