Where we are now

My hubby isn't going on that almost month long business trip - thank goodness! I feel much better now :) I know lots of women have it far worse - especially those married to military men, who can be deployed for a year. I just totally freaked that he would be 1800 miles away, with no way to get home quickly if need be, and I'd be here and all alone. I was terrified I'd get put on bed rest and have nobody to help, or the baby would arrive early and my hubby wouldn't be here. 

Pregnancy:
Gestation: 31 weeks 5 days
Weight gained: 12.4 pounds*
Belly button: Still in (yay!)
Symptoms: Just tired mostly
Days to go until due date: 58 (whoa!)
Appointments: Every 2 weeks. Had one today, everything is good! Baby's heartbeat is nice and strong. One more appointment in 2 weeks and then my appointments will be weekly.
Movement: Lots of big movements these days. Think baby may be head down now.
Blood pressure: Normal at home, high at the OB's office. White coat syndrome! OB is happy because I've been keeping a log of my BP, and checking it at least twice a day. She keeps reminding me of the symptoms I need to watch out for, but so far so good.

* My weight has actually dropped by 1.4 pounds since my last appointment (2 weeks ago). Pretty sure it's because we were eating out a lot when my mom and stepdad were here, and things are back to normal now. My OB is happy with my gain so there are no concerns there. :)

Here's a belly photo from 31 weeks 1 day:

Another late update

OK so last time I wrote was almost 2 weeks ago. Oops.

March 3rd was my baby shower - it went very well, and a good time was had by all. We didn't have any cheesy games, either! :) There was a onesie decorating station, and people had fun with that. Since pretty much all the people at the shower are pug people, we got quite a few onesies decorated with pug things. One that stands out: "My sisters are hairy bitches". LMAO!

We were very lucky with all the amazing gifts people gave us. The big ticket items were the baby monitor and travel system. We didn't expect anyone to buy those! We got lots of very useful things, including a baby/toddler bath, loads of bath accessories, a baby grooming kit, books, lots of cute clothes (and in bigger sizes, too) and toys. We have a huge stash of washcloths and towels, too! Everybody was so generous and we were really touched by that. It was great to see everyone and celebrate our new arrival! :)

The onesie decorating station

Lots of gifts

Gifts again

The decorated onesies

Here are some of the 3D ultrasound pics we got at our second scan; baby boy was still not particularly cooperative but he was better the second time around than the first!

Rubbing his eye

Looks like he's sleeping (he wasn't!)

Resting his chin on his hand. This one was from the first 3D scan I think.

My mom and stepdad had a good vacation here. It actually went by pretty quickly - unlike when my dad was last here, LOL. They had a rental car so they were off doing things a lot of the time, which made it much easier to have houseguests. I really don't like it when people come and expect to be constantly entertained!!

They left very early Saturday morning, and we had our childbirth class and hospital tour that day. The class was much better than I'd expected it to be. It was a lot of information (a 10 hour class condensed into 5 hours), but it was presented really well and we both got a lot out of it. Birth partners and their roles were discussed, and techniques for helping during labor and delivery were taught. I know my hubby found that very helpful, because he didn't really know beforehand what he could do when the time comes.

The hospital tour was good, too. It was nice to see the L&D rooms and all that stuff. The hospital seems as nice as it can be, and the staff seem lovely too. I'm glad we chose that one to deliver at! :)

I'm 31 weeks pregnant tomorrow - time is really flying! Baby is still very active, which I love. He should weigh around 3 pounds now. In about 5 weeks I'll be having another ultrasound to check his growth and position. Hopefully he'll be head down by that point. I think he might be lying across my tummy now (transverse). I guess that's a little better than being breech - as long as he turns head down before delivery!

My hubby found out a couple of days ago that his manager wants him to go a couple of thousand miles away for almost a month of training - starting in 2 weeks. Um, no. First of all, I'm heavily pregnant and he doesn't want to leave me (and honestly, the thought of him being gone for that long at this point in our lives scares the crap out of me). Secondly, we have friends coming from England at the end of this month, for 2 weeks. If he went on this trip he wouldn't even see them once. Their trip has been planned for absolutely ages, too. He told his co-workers that the dates don't work at all for him, and I'm hoping they're going to accept that. I don't want him being in trouble with work or anything, but it just won't work. If it was for one week it would be OK, but almost a month? He'd have to leave March 24th (a day we have volunteer commitments) and he wouldn't be back until at least April 17th. I'm scared that if he were to go, I'd get put on bed rest and be totally screwed as far as having any help. I know it's probably unlikely that the baby will be born early, but you just never know. Things can happen. I feel pretty stressed over this whole thing, honestly. Ugh. Hopefully this will be the end of it, and that will be that.

I'm a terrible blogger

I hardly update this blog at all these days. Sorry about that! I don't even have a good excuse, it just slips my mind and before I know it another couple of weeks have passed.

I'm now 25 weeks 1 day pregnant. Baby boy is very, very active. I find it incredibly reassuring to feel him do his acrobatics in there!

Here's a bump pic from Sunday, when I was 24 weeks 3 days along:

I had another prenatal appointment last Monday (1/21) when I was 23+4. My BP was fine and so was everything else. I don't know if I mentioned previously (I probably did) that at a few appointments my BP was kind of high. Well, on the way to my last appointment I told my hubby that I thought it would be normal this time because I'm no longer anxious about them being able to find the baby's heartbeat. I was right! :) Feeling him move a lot erases the worry I used to have, you know?

I found out I gained 11.2 pounds since the start of my pregnancy. Not too bad - at least it can't be terrible, because my OB hasn't said anything about it.

I asked my OB lots of questions:

• Should I write a (flexible) birth plan? --- She's happy to do whatever I want, as long as things are progressing normally. 
• How far past my due date will she let me go? --- She said if I get to 41 weeks she'd be really nervous... would start talking about induction a little after 40 weeks. Yikes.
• Is it really necessary to go to birthing classes? --- She said because I thrive on information, I would definitely benefit from the classes. I was hoping she'd say they're not necessary, haha, but we'll sign up for one soon.
• Other questions I can't remember now --- pregnancy brain is a real thing, seriously!

My next appointment is 2/18, and I'll be doing the 1 hour glucose test and also getting a Rhogam shot because I'm Rh negative. Nothing to worry about, at least we know. Hopefully I'll pass the glucose test, otherwise I'll have to do the 3 hour test. I did a 2 hour glucose test back in June, as part of the testing my OB did for "infertility". My results were perfect then, but of course pregnancy can wreak havoc on your body. Hopefully I won't have gestational diabetes, anyway. After the next appointment I'll be seeing my OB every 2 weeks instead of every 4. Delivery day is getting closer!

My mom and stepdad are coming from England to visit us from 2/22 until 3/9. It's almost 2 years since we've seen them; they visited in May 2011, and we haven't been to England at all since I moved here. We won't be going any time soon, either. One of my best friends is getting married, she got engaged in August maybe a week before I got my BFP. Anyway they set their wedding date a week or so ago, for August 24th. Prior to that they were saying "June, July, August or September". Quite a range of dates! Anyway, as much as I would like to be there for her wedding, it's just not going to be practical to travel so far (more than 5,000 miles) with a 3 month old baby. The sheer amount of stuff we'd have to take with us is staggering, and we just really couldn't do it. The direct flight from Phoenix to London is about 10 hours, and then we'd either have about a 4 hour drive to my "home" city or we'd have to take 2 trains - which would also take almost 4 hours in total. Not to mention the huge expense of traveling so far, and we'd have to go for at least 7-10 days to make it worthwhile really. It just isn't going to happen.

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Our long-term foster pugs, Lilly & Milo, left for their amazing new home on 1/19! They're doing really well and they're very happy. We've had lots of photo updates and we really couldn't be happier for them! Here they are (both on the right) with their French bulldog sisters!

Unfortunately, the pug I wrote about in my last post ended up declining and had to be put to sleep. We only had him for 4 days but it absolutely broke my heart. We bought him a yummy bacon cheeseburger before we had to take him to the vet, and he really enjoyed eating that! We stayed with him the entire time, from when the vet gave him his sedative which took about 15 minutes to take effect, to when they injected the final stuff. We gave him tons of love and lots of kisses and cuddles. It was very peaceful but so so sad. His name was Chester, he was about 10 years old and he was the sweetest little guy.

A few days after he passed away, I went and got a name tag made up for him. I have it on my key chain. I just felt as though it would be some kind of small tribute to him. I felt bad that whoever owned him wasn't there for him when he needed them most, and he didn't have a tag of his own.

I miss that little guy so much. It's crazy how 4 days can mean so much.

Sorry to end on a depressing note; as sad as the whole thing is, it's part of being involved in rescue. Sometimes we're just not able to do enough for the dogs who come to us. This was the best we could do for Chester, and he's not suffering now. We'll never forget him, but he's in a better place now.