The Waiting Game

Nope, the baby is still baking in there! Lol! Just a short little post to take my mind off of the waiting game :)

I love all the love family and friends are showing with their excitement over little Evelyn's imminent arrival! We've gotten a number of calls/texts/emails checking in on how we are doing and holding up with the wait. Evelyn is being a little diva though and staying put in there it seems as long as she possibly can.

Can you blame her though? Aside from the very cramped quarters, it's got to be a pretty awesome living arrangement going on in there for her. We just cranked on the heat here in CA,  so I can see her wanting to stay inside where it's nice and warm. Well, I can name a few people - grammy, G, me, her daddy, tita, grandma, the list goes on - who are extremely anxious and excited to meet her, however cozy she is inside me!! She does still has a few more days to bake before her official due date. Guess we can't rush her out too much yet. Our bag is packed and waiting by the door if she wants to come on along now though!

Reaching the Finish Line

I am officially full term, 38 weeks to be exact!

I was technically full term last week but as you can see by my lack of posts I haven't been too diligent about updating things on here. I know things will only be getting crazier in our lives very soon so I wanted to take the time to give a recap of what's been going on since the last time. One last (maybe) post before we have a new little one stealing all of our attentions!

So what's been going on in the lives of the Gibbs? Well, at the end of October I had some awesome friends of mine here in California throw me a great shower! It was a High Tea theme, complete with tea, cakes, and finger foods. Such a cute and novel idea! They put so much work into it and it came out perfectly. Here are a few shots of the day below. Oh! And you may notice some non-Cali folks in attendance. My mom flew in from Ohio and my aunt from Georgia for the weekend fun. Aren't they great?

All the yummy goodies

Belly rubs! Evelyn was not showing off and kicking for anyone, lol!

Here are most of the guests. Some had to leave before we got to photo time, and the boys showed up and the end to help clean so we let them stand in too :)

All but one of my lovely hosts! These ladies can put together a great shower!

The out of town VIPs! Thanks for coming Mom and Autumn!

I meant to write a longer recap of the shower but the 'fun' of the 3rd trimester caught up to me and I fell far behind with my updating intentions. What is this 'fun' you ask? Well let me tell you.

• The swelling officially kicked in. It started with just removing my rings to wear on my necklace, but I've started sporting some awesome cankles too! Joy.
• There is also the hip, back, everything aches and pains. Forget gracefully getting out of the bed for my n^th run of the night to the bathroom. Poor Mark's gotten used to me waking him up every time I even try to roll over. 
• Mostly it's the twice a week NST (non-stress test) appointments which began shortly after the shower that have really sucked my time and energy. These appointments can last 25-60+ mins depending on how cooperative baby girl wants to be. They basically just want to listen to her heart rate and make sure she's active enough in there. Most times she never stops being active, but this little diva I swear can tell when the monitor's on because she immediately decides nap it should be time. Le sigh.
• But there has also been some real fun of course - the nursery is ALL FINISHED. The house is as ready as it can be for Evelyn to arrive!

As I said up top, we are near the finish line! All birth classes are done. Mark and I are as prepped for this natural (read as med free) birth as we can possibly be. Now all we need is this little one to make her entrance into the world!! Every twitch and tingle has me wondering if this is it, the beginning of labor. Lol! I'm positive I'll know once it is the real thing. Now it is just the waiting game. 

Coming up...Grammy and Papa (or Papa-G, or just 'G' he hasn't chosen yet) arrive next week to (hopefully) meet their granddaughter! They'll be here for a few weeks so as long as she doesn't decide to stay in there until christmas they should have plenty of time to visit with her before heading home. 

Keep us in your thoughts and prayers! Not just that she comes before my parents have to leave, but that everything goes smoothly as our baby girl comes into the world <3

No Pulling Punches

Our baby girl hasn't been one of those chill babies. We were given a Kick Count Card to fill out daily. We are supposed to track the time it takes Evelyn to kick 10 times, the goal being that this take no longer than 2 hours. If so, we are supposed to call into a hotline. The options start at 10 mins and go up in 10-15 min increments from there. Ninety percent of the time, Evelyn gives me her kicks in bursts that won't even make it to the first 10 min marker.

I'm not complaining by any means! I love this reassurance that she is happily moving and grooving in there. Even if some of those moves have made me jump, wince, or even cry out in pain or just surprise. What I am complaining about is that for some reason whenever Mark goes to feel his baby girl trying to kung fu her way out of me, she immediately quiets down...that is until the second he removes his hand and looks away. *Grumble*

Well, today was a milestone in two ways. The first - I got Mark to leave the house to go buy one of my cravings!! It was chips ahoy chocolate chip cookies in case you were curious. This is a big one as until this point, my cravings have come at odd hours of the night and for very odd things that just aren't available right then, so he's gotten out of one of the quintessential roles of the husband to the crazy pregnant woman.

The second milestone is that due to said cookie craving, and my devouring way too many, little Evelyn is on a very big squirming, kicking, and punching spree. This means that Mark has finally gotten to feel how strong our little one is getting! And see that I'm not crazily overreacting to her 'love taps'. His face was somewhere between amazement and creeped out. Amazed that this is his little girl in there rolling under his hand and punching him, and creeped out because all he can think of is that scene in Aliens, lol!

I swear, I am falling in love with him more and more with each new step in this pregnancy! I can't wait until our baby girl makes her arrival and to see how he interacts with her for real. Soon soon!!

Pee Alerts

This post is at the suggestion of my lovely husband, who I think may be trying to give me another venting outlet for my latest pregnancy woes. He's dubbed the most recent as - The Pee Alert!

It's reached all sorts of new heights since we've crossed into the third trimester. Also, after my latest ultrasound this past week I was (mildly) reprimanded for not drinking enough water, so that doesn't help things.

Take today for instance. I was woken up way before I was ready by a bladder shot from our dear little one. Then, shortly after breakfast, another pee alert. I'm trying to stay active, so despite this new near constant need to run upstairs to the bathroom, I decided to make time for an actual workout - not just doing one flight of stairs every hour - and go for a swim at the university pool. NO, I did not plan on just tinkling in the water during my laps. :p

I finally get to the pool - it was very warm today to it took a bit to muster the energy to leave the a/c unit - and go figure, 45mins in the pool and no Pee Alert!! I was stoked! But as soon as my feet hit the hot pool deck - Pee Alert. :/ Ah well. I "go", then go home to shower off. This is where it got ridiculous. I hop in the shower, Pee Alert. Start to soap up, Pee Alert! Think there's time for a shampoo? Nope, PEE ALERT!! Seriously kid?!? I think she thinks my bladder is a trampoline/punching bag!

I've been warned to just get used to it, welcome to the final stretch of the pregnancy. Meh, I'm not a fan of this bit.

Baby Showers, Advice and Learning the Lingo

This past weekend I flew back to Ohio for my 'hometown' baby shower. It was a blast! My sister, Maya, and my mom outdid themselves putting this day together for me. There were awesome games, there was great food, and best of all, there were all of the family and friends I haven't seen in over a year -  it's been even longer than that for some of them!

It was a BaByQ theme...

 

...with great food...

...highly competitive games with awesome prizes...

...and excited family and friends...

...there to celebrate new arrivals...

 

...plus amazing and adorable gifts like this! 

It wasn't just fun, games, and socializing, though. I learned some great things at the shower, too. Among the game station tables, there was an 'Advice for the New Parents' table where we got A LOT of funny and useful tips. Some of my favorites are below:

• "Get sleep now while you can!" or "Sleep when the baby sleeps." (Almost every card had some variation of this.)
• "Enjoy every second as time flies!" (Lots of these too.)
• "Be sure to smell the baby's head - they smell so sweet! It doesn't last long, only newborns!"
• "You got this! Trust your instincts. Parent with ABSOLUTE courage!"
• "Babies cry. This doesn't mean you're doing anything wrong or that you aren't enough. She's a baby. Remember that!"
• "If you need to poop in the delivery room, POOP!" (I nearly fell out of my chair laughing on this one.)
• "Babies like to get into stuff. That's what they do. So if you got any cool stuff you don't want broken, give it to your cousins!" (Gotta love it right?)
• "Quit jumping while pregnant! You're scaring your mom!!" (My absolute favorite one, lol)

When it came time to open presents, in addition to being overwhelmed with the amount of cuteness I am going to be bringing home for baby Evelyn, I learned that I am no longer up to date on the baby lingo. At one point after opening a teething key-ring, I held it up to show everyone and referred to it as a chew toy. Oops! Apparently I still have a bit of transitioning to do from being a furbaby momma! Some other flubs were calling:

• leggings > pants (now really aren't those the same thing? But the moms in the crowd made sure I knew I was saying it wrong.)
• bibs > well actually I had a pregnancy brain moment and couldn't for the life of my remember what these were called at all! 

I knew what onsies were though so I guess I can't be too bad :)

I didn't get a chance to overly embarrass myself as most people gave gift cards instead of baby gadgets since I will only be able to take home what fits in my suitcase. I do have another shower planned for me back home in California come October, so it may be a good idea for me to do some research before people bring any newfangled gadgets to that one. *Said like the old lady I sometimes channel* Back in my babysitting day all babies needed were a blanket, a bottle, and a chew toy! Err, I mean teething ring.

Seriously though, this weekend has shown me how blessed I am to have such great family and friends in my life. My mother-in-law, sister-in-law and our friend who we chose to be the godmother even drove 5 hours to make it for the day! Everyone is so excited for our new addition and I really don't believe this baby will ever be able to fully understand how much she is already loved!

The Dreaded First Post!!

Here it is, the hardest post when starting a blog, the first. I have a host of firsts in my very near future so this is as good a way as any to get ready, right!

I am starting the blog to chronicle my journey into motherhood. My husband, Mark, and I are excepting our first baby in just 15 weeks. Eek!! We are excited and nervous, impatient to meet our little girl and glad we still have time to get ready. I usually just tell people we are an 8-ball of emotions!

I grew up in a very large family, so have been around babies and babysitting for as long as I can remember. But that doesn't mean I know the first thing about labor, newborns, or raising a kid! I typically didn't start babysitting until the kids were at least mobile. Now Mark, well I think he can count on one hand the number of babies he's even held. Needless to say this should be an interesting and steep learning curve for the both of us. So far I've been reading everything I can get my hands on for a natural birth, breastfeeding, baby essentials to buy, and the merits of baby wearing.

I hope you join me as I learn the parenting ropes of everything from breastfeeding to baby wearing, and  as I struggle through sleep deprivation and eventually get to that moment when I get used to being called mommy.