Yowza!

So although I said our unofficial ultrasound days were over, I couldn't resist taking one more peak a our "little" Nugget before she's born. Mainly we wanted to make sure that Nugget was still a Nuggette since at our last ultrasound at 20 weeks she was being ever so modest and wouldn't give up her junk...

Happy to say that all the cutesy, frilly, outfits we received at our shower will be able to be worn by our righteous babe, except for maybe the ones that are size newborn...

Why do I say that you maybe asking, well the ultrasound tech guestimated her weight at 34 weeks to be a whopping 6lbs 5oz already! I'm hoping that weight is off by the pound that they can be, because baby girl is huge already. Which is confusing to me as I don't feel huge, and every time we go to the midwife my fundus measures right on target. We're hoping this is an error, or she's born around 38 weeks because I just can't imagine an 11lb baby in our future.

The bad and the good...

The last couple weeks of this pregnancy have been less than pleasant, of course not taking into account our awesome baby shower that Ros's mom threw for us last Sunday.

It all started out last Thursday when I came down with a GI bug. I know I caught it at work as my trips to the bathroom smelled the same as a patients diarrhea diaper that I had taken care of on Tuesday. I wash my hands like a freak when I'm at work, but there must have been one little bacteria that was left behind which caused me to feel like death for the next few days. This bug also led to my first vomiting episode of this pregnancy. Good thing Ros talked me out of going into work that day, it wouldn't have been pretty. I tried to at least stay on top of the fluids for the next few days, but I think I fell short leading me to my next issue.

Who knew being dehydrated could lead to your parotid gland becoming infected? I'm a nurse and I surely didn't. This issue started Wednesday when Ros and I were at Ikea, innocently enjoying their delicious swedish meatballs. For some reason the right side of my jaw had these shooting pains everytime I would chew. I blew that off, but when we left and I looked in the mirror I noticed some swelling in the area that was painful. No big deal right, sure, until we had dinner later that night. This time when I ate, the area became extremely swollen and painful to the point that I could barely even close my jaw on the right side due to swelling. The side of my face and ear were red. It was torture, but I figured I had to eat something, I had to feed the baby. Over the course of the night, the swelling slowly went down, and by the time I woke up the next day it was gone. I thought I had a parotid gland stone and maybe I had passed it during the night. I quickly realized that wasn't the case when I ate cereal and my face blew up even more than it had the night before, and honestly the pain was excruciating. I made an appointment with my doctor who in turn gave me a referral to an ENT doctor who was thankfully able to see me that day. He said due to my previous dehydration I had developed an infection in my parotid gland and to take antibiotics. It's been 2 days and I am back to my old self, eating everything in sight. Augmentin is a miracle drug.

On a better note, we had our midwife appointment yesterday, Nugget is measuring right on target, and due to my GI distress and painful eating, I only gained 1/2 pound over the past few weeks. The only good to come out of all of that badness. The midwife let Ros feel Nuggets body parts, a foot, a butt, and her head, which is sitting snugly in my pelvis right where she should be.

On an even better note, we had our first baby shower on Sunday. It was our friends and family shower organized by Ros's mom. We had it at our house so we didn't have to lug presents all around. It was nice throwing it there as my aunt and my grandmother haven't seen our house yet. It was so wonderful to have everyone together to celebrate this little person. It was especially priceless to see my grandmother have such a great time, especially considering her health a few months ago was so poor that I never thought she'd be able to enjoy this day with us. I'm talking trying to drink the gravy out of the gravy boat on Christmas and wearing Depends to now walking around and talking like her old self again. Thank you lowered Dilantin dose, don't know why noone thought of that sooner. Anyways, we ate some yummy snacks, played some pregger games, and opened presents, an all around great day.

The nest

Nesting has been paying off. Here's a shot of the nursery before we moved in (note the faux floor and murals):

And the after... Bryan and I ripped up for floors. We had carpet installed throughout the upstairs. The whole room was repainted (thank gawd..not a fan of Pooh). The dresser and crib were given to us (thanks Jennifer!). The rocker was a Craigslist find. Sweet!

3rd trimester rant

Wow, can't believe we theoretically have only 9 weeks to go. Well I guess theoretically we could have a healthy baby here in 6, I hope we don't have any more than 9 because this torso can't handle it...

I hate to whine about my pregnancy, because so far, it's been pretty good. I'd say that I do pretty well being pregnant, but since this 3rd trimester has hit, honestly I haven't been feeling so great. I am happy to report that the Floradix iron supplement has made me feel less like death. I now feel more energetic and less like the couch is my permanent grave that I am stuck in. Although I do still enjoy napping, it's not quite the necessity that it was a couple weeks ago. As far as the non-constipating aspect, I can't say that it's worsened things, but they aren't great. I am drinking pear juice daily, which helps a bit, but I think a stick of dynamite might work better.

This past weekend was pretty rough. I started out strong on Saturday, working, felt pretty good. Then around 11pm, bam, started feeling hellish. Nausea, stabbing upper abdominal pain, vurping up of the salad I ate 4 hours earlier for dinner, pretty unpleasant things. I had hoped that things would improve after a "good" nights rest, but I woke up Sunday feeling even more cruddy. I had to call into work, there was no way I could care for people while I was feeling that bad. I never puked, but I came close a couple times. I had no appetite until today, at which time I woke up ravenous at 8am. I'm glad I'm feeling better, so I have hopes that maybe I caught a little GI bug from the tainted Boston water I came in contact with while at work on Saturday, and that it's not just general pregnancy crapiness.

As I trudge through this last trimester, I am hoping that I can fulfill my plan of working until I go into labor, or at least make it until my due date of July 6th. Not so easy when you work 12 hour shifts in a fairly busy ER, during peak hours of 3pm-3am. But my goal is to spend as much quality time with the peanut as I can before returning (even on a part time basis). So I'm trying to save as much sick time as I can since finding out that short term disability only pays 70% for 4 weeks and not the 6 that I had originally thought. The rest is on me and my earned time. If I continue to ration it (despite this Sunday's sick call), I should be OK to be paid fully for the remaining 8 weeks I will be taking off. I am so excited that 9 of those weeks will be spent with my wonderful wife.

Things about the 3rd trimester that I hate:
*feeling so full and big that it's hard to breathe
*not being able to turn over in bed without a lot of huffing and puffing and waking the wife
every time
*constant back pain
*very frequent reflux
*waddling around at work trying to be productive
*not being able to see anything past my upper abdomen without some sort of mirror
*constipation and frequent urination
*becoming very easily fatigued
*having to repeat my due date over and over again to people whom I've already told a
thousand times and explaining to them that although I seem big, I am measuring exactly
where I should be

Things aren't so terrible now although I am whining like they are. I get to feel Nugget twist and turn all the time, and so does Ros. We can see my belly move, although I haven't noticed any discernible feet or hands trying to escape. It's really nice to have strangers be so nice to me and to see traffic stop about 20 feet away when I cross the street. It's the only time in my life when I don't have to feel guilty about gaining 29 lbs in 31 weeks. It's awesome knowing that we will be meeting our daughter in a few months. I am very excited to be able to watch Ros as a parent and see what a truly awesome mom I know she'll be.

I promise to post some cute nursery pics as soon as we aren't too lazy to take them. Ros did such a nice job nesting and setting the whole thing up, I can't wait to share it.