34 weeks

Your baby now weighs about 4 3/4 pounds (like your average cantaloupe) and is almost 18 inches long. Her fat layers — which will help regulate her body temperature once she's born — are filling her out, making her rounder. Her skin is also smoother than ever. Her central nervous system is maturing and her lungs are continuing to mature as well. If you've been nervous about preterm labor, you'll be happy to know that babies born between 34 and 37 weeks who have no other health problems generally do fine. They may need a short stay in the neonatal nursery and may have a few short-term health issues, but in the long run, they usually do as well as full-term babies.

Next appointment is December 28th.  They will check out how I am progressing then.  I wonder if she's in this for the long haul or if she plans on arriving sooner.  Either way, just to be safe, we're starting to get things ready now.

I have been watching these birthing class, breast feeding and infant care DVDs and I laugh so hard because Eliana really responds to her voice.  Lol.  I think it's the east coast accent the lady has.  She starts moving around all crazy.  

The house is slowly but surely being taken over by little miss.  she's taking over my closet already, too.  I don't remember signing up for this.  If she were on house hunters on HGTV, she'd probably makes some lame joke right about now, about how the closets are all hers. 

I can really feel how she is laying now.  One side of my stomach will move and get extremely firm.  It is where her butt is poking out.  Lol.

Not too much else to report at the moment.  I still need to go through and get some photos of the cute little outfits and things we got.  Getting really excited and I feel like the time is going to drag on, but we'll see.  Work Christmas party is coming up and we have to go to Bakersfield for Christmas.  I am sure before we know it, it will be January.  :)  

Baby Shower #2

I work with some amazing people.  We received so much stuff at tonight's shower, including a bunch of people chipping in together at work to purchase us both our stroller/car seat combo and the swing thing we wanted.  I just feel so incredibly thankful.  I'll post some more photos later of some of the cute things we received, but here are a few from the beautiful shower.  :)

Belly Comparison

 If I remember correctly, the smaller belly photo was one of the first pictures I took.  The second, I am wearing the same shirt but am 33 weeks.  Lol.  Just funny to see the difference.

I believe she recently got in to place, which explains why I've felt so much larger this past week.  Doctor confirmed today that she is head down and her bum is sticking right out in to my stomach.  Essentially, she's mooning you all.  

Week 33, yo!

Baby update: 

This week your baby weighs a little over 4 pounds (heft a pineapple) and has passed the 17-inch mark. He's rapidly losing that wrinkled, alien look and his skeleton is hardening. The bones in his skull aren't fused together, which allows them to move and slightly overlap, thus making it easier for him to fit through the birth canal. (The pressure on the head during birth is so intense that many babies are born with a conehead-like appearance.) These bones don't entirely fuse until early adulthood, so they can grow as his brain and other tissue expands during infancy and childhood.

This weekend, Ryan and I took some time to start organizing our place and getting rid of the clutter.  I hung some of her baby clothes in my closet on the tiniest little baby hangers.  Ryan had to do a lot of organizing due to his massive amounts of books he has for school.  Basically, just lots of boring cleaning that took a lot longer than I thought it would, and we still have more to go.  

In other news, we recently decided we liked the name Abigail for Eliana's middle name.  As of right now, that is the only one I really like.  So I suppose unless something else comes along and blow my mind, that's what we'll use.  :)

Well, the weeks seem like they might start dragging, though as they are passing, it goes by fast.  I am sure that doesn't make a damn bit of sense, but it's how I feel.  I am wanting to already get the bags packed and a car seat all in place.  I feel like by the time I am on maternity leave, I am not going to have anything left to do.  

Nothing much to report.  Second baby shower this Friday and  I am looking forward to that! :) Also, meeting with the midwife for my next appointment and I think we're going to see if she's available to deliver Eliana.  I sure hope so!  We really liked her.   

Weird dream!

I had an odd dream that I had my hand resting on my stomach, and Eliana's hand (through my skin) grabbed my finger and held on to it. Not that he broke through my skin, but that my skin was so stretchy, it wrapped around her hand and allowed her to grab my finger. Weirdest thing ever. Haha.

week 32

Baby center update: 

By now, your baby weighs 3.75 pounds (pick up a large jicama) and is about 16.7 inches long, taking up a lot of space in your uterus. You're gaining about a pound a week and roughly half of that goes right to your baby. In fact, she'll gain a third to half of her birth weight during the next 7 weeks as she fattens up for survival outside the womb. She now has toenails, fingernails, and real hair (or at least respectable peach fuzz). Her skin is becoming soft and smooth as she plumps up in preparation for birth.

Baby girl seems to be kicking me in the middle of my chest, so I think she may have (hopefully!) flipped.  I'll see if the midwife can tell me at our next appointment, but I am sure it's hard for them, too.  

We went to Bakersfield this weekend and Angel threw us a lovely shower.  It was nice and quiet and I was happy to kick off baby celebrations.  My coworkers are also throwing a shower for me, so I am spoiled.  :)  :)  

I really like seeing Eliana's things around.  Makes me happy and remember that pretty soon, she'll be here hanging with us.  Though, I am sure I'll be less excited for her things being all over the place eventually.  I am started to try and figure out what we are going to do for organizing all of her little, itty bitty things.

I am grateful to those that came to the shower to support us and grateful for their help with Eliana's things.  Here are a few pictures from the shower, mainly the food, that I took.  

A special thank you to Angel for hosting this and making it so lovely.,

Organizing

Decided to organize some of baby girls things, which means throw them all in her nifty sleeper we receive at our shower. ;).

Also, look at that super sweet Snow White costume Aunt Angel purchased for her.