31 weeks and belly pics!

The belly at 31 weeks

View of my belly looking down while sitting at dinner with friends. Thought this angle was funny...2 days shy of 31 weeks in this pic

I can't believe that I am only 1 week shy of being 8 months prego! This past weekend, we went out to dinner with some friends at Market Common. It was really nice to have a night out with everyone, since those might be few and far between pretty soon!

Monday - I had my 31 week checkup. My blood pressure was a little high (135/75) but I expected that. It has been a stressful few weeks at work. The attorney that I am the paralegal for has been out for about 3 weeks with health problems, and just last week had to have a brain tumor removed. Unfortunately, we have found out that she will be battling cancer for the 3rd time. She has had 2 bouts with breast cancer, and has been cancer free for almost 2 years. Her pathology showed that the breast cancer has metastasized to her brain. Thankfully the surgeons were able to remove all except for a small sliver too close to her spinal cord. She will undergo 10 radiation treatments over a 2 week period and will then have monthly scans to check for cancer popping up anywhere else. We have been very busy so it was shock to suddenly not have her here, plus now it looks like she will be out of work until I start my maternity leave. So....lots of pressure at work!

Colten's heartbeat was great, and then came the news that my uterus was measuring 4 weeks ahead! At my 28 week checkup, my uterus measured 29 cm. At this checkup (31 wks) it measured 35 cm! She felt my belly and said she thought Colten was heads down with his butt up on one side, and his feet on the other side (at least he isn't kicking me in the ribs!). She said he could just be in a position that is pushing my uterus up higher than normal, or he could be having a growth spurt and will even out. Either way, she scheduled me to come back in 2 weeks for a growth ultrasound to have him measured. If he is measuring larger than average, she said they will start checkin my cervix sooner for signs of thinning/dilation. If he measures normal, they will start checking my cervix at 36 weeks. Either way - they definitely won't let me go past 40 weeks, but may not want me to go past 38 or 39 if he is large.

Apparently my father in law was a 10 lb baby (thanks Teresa for never telling me this til now! haha) and Corey was almost 8lbs, but being born in Colorado with the altitude difference apparently may have been closer to 9 lbs had he been born here. The men in my family are of a large stature, not overweight just big boned and built like professional baseball and football players. So...we may have a big boy on our hands! I am just hoping that if I need to go earlier because of his size that my body is ready to go into labor on its own or be induced so that I can still deliver naturally and not have to have a c-section. Our plan is to try and get through as much of the early/mid labor as possible without pain medication (or possibly only Stadol) so that I can walk around and use the birthing ball to let gravity help him move down. If I can get through it completely great, but if not I would just like to labor as much as possible before getting the epidural. But - I have never been through anything like this, so if I go in and get the epidural at 2 cm I will feel no shame! :)

I go back August 2nd for my 33 week check up and the growth ultrasound.

Baby Burns has a name!

On July 10th, Corey and I took our childbirth class at Grand Strand Hospital. It was about 5 hours long. We watched many videos about going into labor, laboring without pain medication, laboring with pain medication/epidural, C-sections, after-birth, etc. After all of the videos, the nurse showed us the labor and delivery section in the hospital and explained their procedures and security. I thought the videos would freak us out, but they actually made Corey more excited. He kept telling me I would be superwoman after giving birth! Once we were in the delivery area, he kept saying "Lets just have him now while we are in the hospital."

It has been nice to see Corey get more and more excited about the impending arrival of our baby boy. I think the bigger I get, and the more Corey sees my belly being kicked around the more real everything seems. I think his turning point was definitely the 4D ultrasound and getting to see our sweet boy's face :)

After the class, we decided to take a shopping trip to Bass Pro. For the last week or so, we had been trying out using our top 3 baby names to see if any of them clicked. Well, we only did this with one name actually! When we arrived at Bass Pro, I asked Corey if he wanted to try out one of the other names for the day. He said not really, that he thought the other name was it. We just kind of dropped the conversation for the time being.

That evening, we went to Applebee's for dinner. Again, I asked Corey about using one of the other names, and he said he just felt like we had already named him. Surprisingly, we both agreed that we had finally picked his name without any arguing or compromising.

So....drumroll please....we are naming our son Colten Thomas Burns! Corey wanted a "C" name like him and we originally thought about using his middle name Allen because Corey liked the idea of him having the same initials. I really liked how Thomas sounde with Colten, and we both think he will be a lot like my dad (whose name is Thomas) so we felt like that fit better. Colten was just a name we both really liked.

We announced to my parents and sister the next day at lunch what his name would be, and then Corey called his family that evening to let them know. It feels great to finally have a name for the little guy constantly moving around inside of me!

4D Ultrasound

Corey and I had a great July 4th weekend. On Saturday the 3rd, our families joined us at Special Delivery Prenatal Imaging for our 3D/4D Ultrasound. Baby Burns cooperated and showed us his sweet face! He still likes his hands by his face but after jiggling my belly around we got him to move them. It was funny to watch him would I would jiggle my belly because he would grin. He likes to suck on his hands and his thumb and even opened his eyes once for us. We also double checked to make sure he was still a boy - and yes he is! That night, we had a cookout at my Grandmothers house for a bunch of family birthdays. My cousin Laura and her husband Brad were in town with their baby boy Camden. He is just a month old and so sweet! Our cousin Wendy, who is 3 weeks behind me in her pregnancy with a girl, was also there with her husband. It was great to spend time with our family. My mom even found some pictures of me right after I was born, and looks like our little boy has my nose and mouth. We will have to wait and see whether or not it stays that way!

Cysts are gone!

Things have been pretty busy lately so sorry for the lack of updates! Corey and I had our follow up ultrasound on June 28. When we arrived I drank the cherry flavored glucola mix for the 1 hr diabetes test and then went in for the U/S. Praise God that our baby's cysts had completely gone away on their own! Next I went back to the lab for the blood draw after letting the glucola sit for an hour and also had my antibodies tested again. Afterwards we had our check up and everything was normal. I had to go back 2 days later for my Rhogam shot since I am A-. I am assuming that my glucose test was normal since I was never called back to come back in.

Holy Baby Bump!

The bump at 27 weeks 3 days

This picture makes me feel huge! :) 3 days shy of 7 months prego in this pic

This weekend starts my baby showers...I am really excited :) Saturday evening, my boss is having a couple's shower/BBQ at her house for Corey and I and all of my co-workers. Sunday afternoon, Corey's family is throwing me a shower at his cousin Denise's beach house.

I am really excited to see everyone now that my bump is really showing. I am really glad we got the nursery setup so I have an empty room to start organizing and storing everything as we receive it.

Monday, we go back to the Dr. for my 28 week/7th month checkup. I will have to take the 1 hour glucose tolerance test while I am there and we are also having our follow up ultrasound done to see if the cysts that were in our baby's brain have dissolved (keep the prayers coming!).

I will keep everyone posted as to how our appt goes.

Love to all :)

Beginning of the nursery

Corey starting on the changing table

Izzie wants to help with her Bubba's room :)

Corey's dad measuring for the chair rail. Before view of room from door Another before view

Another before view

Corey found this wall hanging he made when he was little. He may repaint it, but either way we are going to put in the nursery.

Changing table

Corey helping put up the chair rail

Corey and his dad working on the crib

Corey working on the drawers for the dresser

Finished crib...we haven't decided on the room setup yet so the furniture isn't where it will be permanently

Finished dresser...missing middle drawer knobs

Finished changing table.

I am exhausted! Today we worked all day on getting the nursery and spare bedroom organized and setup. While Corey and his dad put up a chair rail and put the furniture together, I boxed and organized items for our attic and took a huge pile of stuff to good will. We donated some furniture to a needy family and finally got the spare room cleaned out so its not just a junk room anymore. Still needs some final touches and cleaning but is much better.

Corey and his dad worked really hard in Baby Burns room. The chair rail and furniture turned out great. We still have to decide how we want everything arranged in the room. Corey is also going to do some touch up painting tomorrow. I am just glad the room is in much better shape for me to start piling baby stuff in it as it arrives. I need to wash the bedding and put it in the crib, hang the curtains, add stuff to the walls, etc. At least the big items are done, so I can take my time with the little stuff.

I am still fighting off this cold or sinus problems I've had this week. My congestion is moving into my chest so its been a rough few nights with little sleep due to not being able to breathe and coughing. Hopefully I will feel better in the next few days.

Looking forward to Father's Day tomorrow :)

26 weeks and down and out with a cold!

Hit the 26 week mark on Monday. I had some pretty bad reflux going on Monday, kept feeling like my food was coming back up. That night my throat was a little dry and then BOOM all night I kept waking up feeling like I was coming down with Strep throat :( I normally would have just waited it out a couple of days, but figured I should head to the dr since I'm prego and had a busy work week ahead of me. Thankfully, the strep test came back negative, but unfortunately being prego that means having to just tough it out! I am glad I didn't have to risk taking antibiotics but it sucks not even being able to take cold medicine or dayquil. I am sticking with my allergy pill and picked up some cough drops to keep my throat numb.

I have been used to the stuffiness as apparently thats just part of being prego, but I just have had a bad scratchy throat and it hurts to swallow. I've been living off of Chick Fil A's chicken soup for a couple of days now. Today you can actually hear that I'm sick as apparently I have some draining going on. It must be in my throat or getting into my chest as I have been coughing a bit today. Last night was rough as I kept trying to prop myself up so I could breathe but then my neck would start hurting. Thankfully Vapo Rub is working for the most part.

This past weekend Corey and I discovered that Baby Burns kicks and punches can now be seen. I was laying on the couch and Corey and I were laughing as my belly looked like it was dancing at times. Even if I am not looking I can feel my belly moving, and the kicks don't feel so "internal". He must be getting big and strong now :) I am definitely feeling him a lot more throughout the whole day now, instead of just when I am laying down at night. Corey's mom got to see the show in my belly too on Sunday so I am glad other people can now enjoy his movements. Corey still hasn't been able to feel him, but thats only because he is either to slow to come over to feel or Baby Burns gets shy as soon as anyone besides me touches my belly!

We go back for my next dr appt on the 28th and then we have our 3d/4d ultrasound on July 3rd. My 7th month/3rd trimester starts next week - craziness! Hard to believe that on June 20th we will only have 3 more months till our little one will be here :) We still haven't decided on a name but have definitely narrowed it down. We figure if nothing else, once we see the 4d ultrasound and can see his face that might help us out.

Corey and his dad are going to be working on the nursery this weekend. They will be touching up the paint on the walls, and trim, and adding a white chair rail to the room. They will also be setting up all of the furniture. I will be working on organizing our other spare room and taking things to goodwill or boxing things up to go in the attic. I am glad the nursery will finally be setup as we have our first 2 showers next weekend and will soon be bringing home baby stuff and will need a place to put it! I am looking forward to getting the clothes hung up and put away in the drawers and getting the crib bedding on and decorations up.

I am definitely feeling that my 2nd trimester is coming to an end. I am starting to get some lower back achiness and my feet start hurting by the end of the day. Thankfully no swelling yet! I can also feel that my energy level is backing off some. I think a lot of it has to do with the heat too. I am already missing my nightly walks with Izzie but the heat and humidity have made it too hard to get a good walk in without me getting really out of breath and even sometimes sick once I get back home. I am hoping I will have the motivation to start doing my prenatal yoga dvd at home and I have been trying to get some walking done inside places with AC...but most of the time I am window shopping too much to get any real exercise!

This past Saturday my mom and I went to Florence. Mom bought us a crib mattress from Target so that's one less thing we have to get. We had a great time looking at baby stuff and I was really proud of myself for not spending any money on anything all day :) Mom also got me a really cute cotton sundress that I will probably end up wearing to one of my showers.

Wells thats all for now. I will try to take some more belly pics soon and post photos from our next ultrasound and showers.

Thank you for all of the continued prayers and support. Love to all!