It's a Wonderful Life!

I was just thinking today how blessed I am! I have a wonderful husband who works and takes care of us, and is a joy to be around...a beautiful baby boy who is growing and learning so quickly...and a baby on the way! It is so amazing how quickly life goes. In six months I'll have a new child, and a year from now I will have as strong a bond with the new baby as I have with Seth. What a wonderful life!

My 12 week appointment was today and the baby was doing great, with a 156 heart rate. I discussed my concerns with the doctor regarding episiotomies, delayed cord clamping, etc. and was satisfied with her answers.

Milestones this week - Seth was officially weaned yesterday! He also has been taking a few steps since April 15th. He usually will walk until he realizes what he's doing and then he'll sit down. He took four or five steps today in the doctors office. I felt the new baby kick for the first time yesterday, which is a few weeks earlier then with Seth. Again today I felt the baby after meals and also when I leaned on a counter (which I remember Seth doing as well). It's really cool to have more signs of life aside from an expanding waistline and morning sickness. I also was able to stop my progesterone this week which is always a highlight as well.

On a side note, I did the first garage saleing of the year, and boy did I find some bargains! I got a Coach purse/diaper bag for $1 (the insides need to be replaced, hence the price, but the exterior was great!), a NIB johnny jump up for $5, tons of Robeez knockoff shoes for $1 or less, hooded towels for 75 cents, and a jj cole bundle me for $10. I think I officially have garage sale fever!!

You know you are pregnant when...

you get a craving for an ice cream sundae with homemade hot fudge, you stop by the store to get ice cream and by the time you get home you are too tired to make it! Then, as the baby is eating and you are checking facebook you see that Byerly's is having "free food" to celebrate their grand opening. So, all of a sudden you get your second wind and truck out to Byerly's. After circling the parking lot three times and finally finding a spot you go in to see that the "samples" are barely enough to be considered "free food". Then you trek home to be in the same spot you were in an hour ago, but even more tired. Bed time!

Belly Picts

38 weeks
36 weeks
33 weeks
30 weeks
15 weeks
10 weeks
5 weeks
I know these are SUPER late, but I thought some of you may have wanted to see my belly progression for my pregnancy.

Anxiously awaiting baby!

One week and four days left to my due date, and I'm sincerely hoping baby will be here early. I just got over a week of the nastiest flu ever and am ready to take the next step into motherhood! Baby teased us on Sunday as I was having many contractions, but it was false labor. What a bummer! I'm currently still only a fingertip dialated and 60% effaced. I forgot to ask the doc what head station baby is in, as a week ago he was a -2, but I can tell he's a lot lower now. I have a very hard time moving around now as he is so low, and it is beginning to get uncomfortable to even sit in a chair, or on a couch...or just about anything.

There are bets flying on when this baby will arrive - Luke's work even has a pool going on now. My bet is still that I'll give birth on Fri, and Luke was betting on today so we'll see what happens. I so want a February baby!

I normally wouldn't mind a week off to enjoy the last few moments of "alone time" I'll get in many years, but with how uncomfortable I am, there is not much I can do that would be productive. I'm ready to be done with all of this so I can shower baby with kisses and change poopy diapers. If baby is still incubating this weekend I hope to finally finish cleaning house, but I'd rather have a messy house and a happy baby in my arms, then a clean house and still be waiting...and waiting... Lord willing, my next post will be a birth announcement!

Oh, the stress of it all..

I heard news that one of my other belly buddies (Alicia) just gave birth last night. That means two people out of the three that had a due date within a week of me has already given birth! My pregnancy ticker says 24 days, or 3 weeks and 2 days remaining to my due date. My official predicition is Feb 27th, as that is the last day my office is open, and my coworker gave birth on the first day the office was open so I just thought it would be fitting. Anyway, I'm starting to feel the stress of it all. There is so much to do, and Luke has been really great - but at the same time really stressing about getting everything done before baby is born. We still need to do a few loads of baby laundry, put everything away in the nursery (there are just mounds of clean baby clothes everywhere), pack our hospital bags, and we still are trying to finish up the video and photos from the wedding we did a month and a half ago. On top of all that, it sounds like some people have hurt feelings over our birth plan/preferences. The whole point of telling people was to eliminate stress, not create it!!! *breathe* Yes, I know I need to chill, I just thank God I have a three day weekend starting in about an hour. I would so love to come back on Tues, with 20 days left to go and nothing on our plates. Here's hoping...

Yes, I am HUGE

Okay, I've begun to notice a pattern here. I wake up, Luke comments "wow, you are big!" or "you are huge!". I go to work, every new customer I see says "You must be due any day now!" or "Has your water broken yet, you look like you're ready to give birth." Thanks guys. You know, it's really not that annoying, I'm just happy people realize it's a BABY and I'm not just obese. I think the waddle limp I have going on due to baby bearing down and sitting on my sciatic nerve helps people differentiate. What would annoy me is post baby, getting a comment asking how far along I am before I shed the baby weight. I guess I'll just have to hide out at home until I can fit back into my prepregnancy clothes... At this point I don't even tell people my due date, I just say "anytime now" because I really don't think I'll go the extra 3.5 weeks to my due date. It would be hard to imagine I could get much bigger then I am now, my skin already feels like it's stretched past it's capacity. Now imagine if I were carrying twins...you see, mom, why that wouldn't be a good idea???

One more down!

Baby has officially "dropped". I noticed this on one of my early morning bathroom runs, I looked down and thought "where did baby go?" He has moved about 3-4" lower then he was, so that means he's locked and ready to go! They say for first time moms, baby drops about 2-4 weeks before delivery, so that would mean baby will be coming sometime between 38-40 weeks likely. The following may be TMI, but I thought would be cool to document - here is the progress I've made towards labor from the common signs:

1) Nesting - check! I started nesting a week or so ago, cleaning and preparing the baby's room with a frenzy.
2)Baby Dropping - check!
3)Cramping/pelvic pressure - not so much, only a few times when I lay on my right side
4)Dialation/effacement - I'll find out on Thurs!
5)Lose mucus plug - check!
6)Bloody show - not yet
7)Contractions - on and off, but not with regular consistency and they rarely hurt
8)Water Breaking - not yet

So, I still have a ways to go, which is okay by me seeing as how I feel we have 1-2 weeks left of things that HAVE to be done before baby is born - such as packing our bags, doing a final thourough clean, and finishing up the wedding pictures/video for our pastor's daughter. So, I'll keep you updated!

Baby is almost here!

It's so hard to believe, but baby Seth could be in our arms in as short as 3 weeks from now! His official due date is less than 6 weeks away, and the time has just gone so fast. Some people say towards the end of pregnancy things slow down, but the opposite is true for me...though I do feel like I've been pregnant forever, at the same time I wonder how I will be able to cope with the upcoming events - labor and delivery, nursing, and taking care of a newborn. I have been blessed to have three baby showers - one from my family, one from my work, and one from my church. I got so many wonderful things to fill up the baby's nursery it is incredible. I'm now officially "nesting" and gathering up all of the things that he still needs, and hope to purchase them by nights end...then this weekend I will spend some time washing baby clothes and such and packing our hospital bags. I would rather be over prepared, then to not have anything ready when the time comes. As I read in a blog a week ago, I could go anytime now, though babies usually stay in their comfy home until around the due date. We had a friend that just gave birth at 33 weeks, and I'm at 34 weeks, so the reality does hit that it could be sooner than we expect. I'm really looking forward to the epidural after watching some of the birthing videos...I honestly can't see how people would go (or even want to go) 100% natural. No, thanks! I did a recent survey on yahoo answers posing the question what their pain level was with an epi, and all but two said a zero.

Updates on me - physically baby does feel like a huge watermelon, which is how big he is this week. He's weighing in around 5lbs, possibly more. I'm surprisingly comfortable, and haven't been overly tired however. Luke has commented more than once recently when looking at my prepregnancy photos that I was so super skinny before getting pregnant. Not that I'm fat now, but pregnancy does tend to make you look like a huge whale...large belly, face fattens up, and now I can't remove one of my rings...the great thing, though, is that within a few weeks of birth I should have my body back.

Updates on baby - He's definitely got a personality, he loves music, especially Pillar. His favorite song is "reckless youth" and if I'm ever concerned that he's not moving around like he should I'll put it on and in a matter of moments he'll start bouncing around, even if he was asleep. I can also feel more body parts, it was cool the other day we could feel his leg, where the knee was and everything. He's still transverse and mighty comfy that way, I'm just hoping he'll turn into the proper position in the next two weeks. If he doesn't, I will possibly have to have a c-section. We'll see, though.

That's pretty much what is new, at this point it's a nesting and waiting game...I have 24 days left of work (less if he comes early) and then he should be here!

45 days left!

The time sure has flown by, and before I know it, little Seth will be here! I have been blessed to have three showers, thrown by friends, family and coworkers. I had the last of these on Sunday, and now baby's nursery is almost complete.

The Miracle of Seth

I was pondering the circumstances around Seth's birth, and can see God's hand and plan at work in a mighty way. As you know, Luke and I had been trying to have a baby for the past 7 years. We had gone to multiple specialists and all said we were fine, that it was "unexplained infertility". I called it the "God factor." So, we continued to pray, that God's will be done and that things would come about in His perfect timing, not ours. We didn't feel right trying to force God's hand by taking fertility drugs or doing surgical methods to try and become pregnant so we just waited.

In our early marriage Luke and I set down with a "goals/wish" list for what we wanted in the next five to ten years of our lives. We listed things such as: buy a house, pay off our car, pay down debt, buy a new camera, and have children. We also had a list of our top five dream vacation spots, among them were: California, New York, the Carribean, and Colorado. As we waited for our little bundle of joy (impatiently at times) we slowly began to check things off of the list of desires. Our car was paid off and we had gone to Colorado and California in the first few years of marriage. By our five year anniversary we had a substantial amount of debt paid down, took a trip to NY and the Carribean, and by the end of the year - bought a house. Now, the only thing on our list left was children. Amidst my prayers for a baby, I told the Lord He could have our first child, and even (foolishly) prayed for even a miscarriage to show me we could have a baby. About January of 2007 I had a brief vision of a future son - he looked just like me as a child with curly brown hair and laughing eyes. He was so strong and beautiful, and my only thought was "this is not Gabriel." Strange thought, since Gabriel was what we had agreed to name our first son, but that was nonetheless my main thoughts about it. In March of the same year I found out I was pregnant - I awoke early one morning, at about 3 am with an urgent need to take a pregnancy test. It appeared as though it would be negative so I threw it away and went back to bed. The next morning I awoke and felt I needed to recheck the results, and to my surprise it was positive. However, I did not feel the elation I thought I would feel about getting a positive result, instead an overwhelming sadness came over me as I felt we were going to lose this child. The next day I started bleeding, and over the course of a month and a half we lost our first baby. Although we did not know the gender of the baby, I had a strong feeling it was a boy, and we decided to name him Gabriel David, our angel baby. Through it all I felt God's peace and love, He carried me through some rough months. I finally found healing on my birthday that year, November 25th, which was Gabriel's due date. I realize that even though it wasn't what I had wanted for our family, God was faithful, and He answered my prayers.

My grandma took a bad turn with her health when she had a stroke in late 2007. I felt strongly that we would have a child around the time my grandma passed away, to help my mom cope with the loss. Luke and I decided to start the adoption process, as we had been putting it off for a long time and felt the timing was right to start our family. After completing the majority of paperwork towards the adoption, and completing the first meeting of our home study, we anxiously awaited our child. My grandma passed away in June, and at the same time I took another pregnancy test and found out I was pregnant again. I felt a real peace about this child, and even though there were worries about loss again in the first trimester, Luke prayed about it and God pointed him to Psalm 113:9 "He makes a woman in a childless home a joyful mother." That has become the life verse for this pregnancy.

I received news yesterday that the credit union I have worked for the past five and a half years decided to close my branch. I am going to be laid off on February 27th, the very day I had requested to start my maternity leave. This is significant, because it means not only do I get the money that I was planning to get when leaving for severance, but they are throwing in an additional 5 weeks of pay, plus unemployment benefits. How perfect the timing for everything was, is just incredible! We are very blessed, and I just wanted to share this brief testimony that surrounds the birth of Seth Gabriel Erickson - "Appointed/anointed strong man of God" as his name means, he was definitely appointed for this time in history, and I can't wait to see what he becomes! May God bless you and I hope this serves as a reminder that we serve a faithful God. Although we often travel through life with blinders on, if we hold out our hand and trust God to guide us, He will allow us to accomplish much more than we would have done on our own.

80 Days!!

Wow, it's crazy to look at the countdown and realize I have already gone through 200 days, with only 80 days left until baby is here! I'm getting excited. He definitely is starting to show his personality more, wiggling around, kicking and punching. I can tell loud noises scare him, because he got jumpy when Luke was scraping the windows on the car the other day and also towards the end of the movie the Incredible Hulk when the enemy gave a loud roar. I found out yesterday that babies cry in the womb, and actually cry real tears! I thought that was amazing!

I had my prenatal appt today and was shocked by the weight gain, which I will not reveal, and also by the fact that I now seem to have high blood pressure. I was a 140/80, which they are going to keep an eye on but haven't told me to do anything differently at this point. I'm now down to biweekly appointments, and then at 36 weeks will be switching to weekly. A big step today was telling my boss that I was going to start maternity leave starting March...this gives me a week before the due date to nest and get settled. So, that leaves 47 more days of work...that is if baby doesn't chose to make an early entrance!

We Have a Name!

...but we're not telling! =) We kinda learned our lesson on this one, I think it's better we keep our mouths shut until baby is born as I know some people are quite opinionated and I would prefer not to hear bad things about it....it took us 7 months to agree on something as it is! The first name is nothing we have mentioned before so guessing won't help. I'm just thrilled to know that we found the perfect name, and I love the meaning behind it. We think it's a really powerful name, and it's kinda fun having a secret.

Praise the Lord!

God has proven so faithful over these past few months and weeks. I have so much to be thankful for. It is just now hitting me, with my little one squirming away, that my life is about to change drastically. It still hasn't really felt that "real" to me, even though I'm only days away from my third tri. I guess I do have a few updates.

1) We decided to go with the Bumgenius 3.0 cloth diapers, they are the closest to disposables that we found and very highly rated. Plus, they grow with baby so we should only need the same 24 diapers I'm buying from birth to potty training. The parent reviews also said they work great at night, unlike the Kushies I had been contemplating previously.

2) Baby hadn't been kicking as hard as he was previously and I didn't feel like I felt him as much as I was supposed to so I made a call in to the doctor a few days ago. I had an ultrasound yesterday to make sure everything was still okay, and baby was perfect as always. He is now head down, ready to meet the world! His little legs were crossed like the perfect gentleman and his kicks were mainly to the back of the uterus as well as the placenta which is why I hadn't been feeling it as much. He was so huge I could barely tell what to make out on the ultrasound, his head barely fit on the screen. It was cool to see the brain and his huge hands. I told Luke that he has daddy's hands and was almost concerned with how large they were but examining other 26 week ultrasound picts I've determined they are normal sized for a baby of that term. I just didn't expect him to grow so much in just 6 weeks. Also, I passed the glucose test, which is a big answer to prayer because I was at high risk for gestational diabetes (and passing means I don't have it)

3) My company has been talking about layoffs and shutting down branches and it turns out my branch is one of the top picks. So, if that is the case they may be shutting us down around the time the baby is due. Talk about perfect timing! I mean, the baby entered existance as my grandma was exiting, to help my mom cope with the pain of losing her mom. Now it looks like he may be entering the "real" world at the time when I would be out of work anyway. God definitely has a plan, and it's so apparent just looking back at the last few months. I can't wait to see what he has in store for us!

God Takes Care of Us

I just want to praise and thank God for what He has done in our lives. It is so exciting after all the years of waiting to finally be expecting a healthy baby. He has taken care of us in the recent weeks, here are a few examples:
1) At my 24 week appt I passed the glucose test, so I don't have gestational diabetes which I was at high risk of getting
2) Baby was less active in the past couple of days so I called in the nurseline and they had me come in today for an ultrasound. I didn't get any pictures, but my he has grown! His head barely fit on the screen. He is now head down, in the birthing position, waiting for his entrance into the world. We also saw his legs and feet crossed like the perfect gentleman, though it appeared that his little kicks were cushioned by the placenta as well as the back wall of my uterus (thus my not feeling him kick as much). It was great to see him alert and awake, and I even felt him kicking as they did the scan so I could see him move while we watched his little body. I can't believe we only have 13 weeks left!
3) My work has been seriously talking about shutting down branches next year and my branch is a top contender. If we do close it would likely be in March, right around the time my bundle of joy enters this world. Does that seem perfectly planned, or what? Yes, everything about this baby points to the evidence of God and His plan for us - from baby's conception around the time of my grandma's passing, to his entrance to the world possibly around the time I would have been out of work anyway.

Praise the Lord!

Nursery is Completed!

Today I put the finishing touches on the nursery. Special thanks to mom and Luke for all your help in decorating, sewing, painting, carpentry work, etc. It was a lot of work, but I think it paid off in a big way! I can't wait for our baby to enjoy this!

Baby Name Poll

Since Luke and I are still undecided, please help us out by voting in our naming poll:

http://www.babycenter.com/403_completely-undecided_8746765_165128177986.bc

Baby Hiccups

Today was another first! I felt the first baby hiccups today. It was so cute, I first thought they were little kicks, though they felt a little stronger then normal. However, it was very rythmic and continued for longer than normal (about 1-2 minutes) in the same spot. That's when I realized what they were. So darn cute. I can't wait to see the little baby, I know I'm going to coo over every little hiccup and sneeze when he's born. Only 18 weeks, two days, and ten hours to go... =)

It's a Boy!

Sorry about the delay in posting, I was pretty exhausted after all of the running around we did yesterday. I will post picts later, but it is a boy! My mommy instincts were right! I was asking the ultrasonographer about something on the screen and referred to "is that his.." and she said, "Have you been calling it a him the whole time?" I said "yes" and she said "well, you are right!" Baby was sleeping at the appointment (he was up at around 9 am and the appt was at 10)and had his little legs crossed. The nurse had to prod the area to get him to kick and show his goods. =) She said he was a perfect baby, and I was really happy to hear that. The picts aren't the traditional profile shots as baby was facing the camera the whole time, but we luckily got to video the whole thing so we can replay those moments. He kicked a little bit (when she was poking) and also opened and closed his mouth a few times (that was Luke's favorite part).

19 Weeks

Hard to believe I'm almost half way done! It is so very fun to feel baby move throughout the day. This morning at around 5:45 am baby was up and squiggling around and it was the first time I could feel distinct body parts. Usually it's a kick or punch here or there, but hard to determine which. Well, I felt a kick, then I felt the baby's head graze my tummy, and then a soft punch after that. I could tell baby was upside down! I have been having fun "playing" with baby when (s)he is awake. They say baby has a favorite sleep position by now, so I was on my right side and could feel the baby moving around trying to get comfy and when it settled down I flipped to my left side. Sure enough, baby squiggled around trying to get comfy again. Actually, baby has been very active since I ate two killer Oatmeal Caramel Chocolate bars that I made last night. They were soo good. Baby has been on a sugar high ever since. Baby is still awake right now and it's only 8 am, whereas (s)he usually sleeps until around 8:30am. Next week I get to find out the gender of the baby! I can't wait, and just hope baby participates so we can know for certain.

Adorable little baby

The above picture is how a 17 week old fetus looks in the womb. Very cute and looks just like a baby! I have now had the pleasure of feeling baby for almost a week. This morning the baby did the first somersault that I could identify and it was also kicking away. I heard the baby's "schedule" isn't fixed until next week, but so far it seems (s)he is most active at night. From about 6pm to 9pm I feel constant wiggles and kicks. Also, I feel them in the middle of the night visits to the restroom, so I have a feeling we are in for some long nights ahead of us!