What a Day!

June 17, 2011 was a crazy day with a crazy beginning...

*Max Jay Lundberg Erickson*Born at 6:40pm*7 lb 15 oz*21.5 inches*

And a really good ending.

Welcome to our family Baby Max... I am so glad you are here.

Maternity pics? NEVER!

Maternity Pics?  Never! 

That was what I have said for each of my pregnancies but as this one draws closer to the end and I feel fairly positive that this will be the last one, the nostalgic side of me decided that it would be totally appropriate for me to document this pregnancy and get some maternity photos done.

This was not taken lightly, I might add... I did lots of research to decided what I really

wanted out of my session and what I absolutely DID NOT want.

I have seen some pretty embarassing prego pics of people in the past and definitely was not about to humiliate myself by showing waaaaaaaaaay too much of me.  I did get a little brave and showed some extremely tasteful and airbrushed belly but that was the extent of it.  For the rest of them I was just going for the traditional, relaxed and totally comfortable look (which I definitely was not, but you get it).

So here is me, 36 weeks pregnant with our last son, Max Jay Erickson.

 

The Baby Shower

The Spread

The Junk

The Exhaustion

The most comfy seat in the house

The "Super"  Onsie

The Loot

The Display

The onsies and me

The Belly

The Darling Onsies

The Sistas!

The Girls

Adios to my favorite calories...for now.

I am now 30 weeks pregnant (3/4 of the way, 75% done, mostly baked, however you want to put it)!  Its reason to celebrate for sure as I am on the "homeward stretch" as they say. 

How am I feeling, you ask?  Do you want the truth or the watered-down version of the truth that I feed every person that asks me with a big smile on my face.  "Feeling good!", "Taking a day at a time.", "Slowly but surely", and so on and so forth.  I try so hard to appear positive and upbeat and grateful for the miracle that is occurring in my womb, but they know I am lying.  I cant hide it.

The truth is I am so glad to almost be done.  I need to be done.  I feel icky, not myself, cranky, tired, swollen, annoyed, stressed, and so on an so forth.  Dang, if only there were another way to get them here,  I might have 8 kids!  I love babies, just don't love having them invade my body.  I need my personal SPACE!

SO ANYWAYS...last week I had to take a 3 hour glucose tolerance test since my 1 hour test was elevated.  If you aren't familiar with the 3 hour GTT let me elaborate:

You fast for 8-12 hours, get you blood drawn, drink a solution that contains 100 gms of glucose.  If you want to know what that tastes like, put 2 cups of sugar in a Sunkist Orange Soda and then gulp the entire thing down in 1 minute.  Ugh!  Then wait and hour, get your blood drawn, wait an hour, get your blood drawn, wait another hour, get your blood drawn.  So in the end, you get 4 needle sticks, have to starve and sit there and try not to vomit up the orange death or you will have to START OVER!  No way.  A migraine and near black-out were on the menu for that day.

That was last week.  I got the results online this week and saw that they were a bit elevated so now that's all my nurse brain can think about.  I have been avoiding all sugar, watching carbs and trying to be a bit more active after having scoured the Internet to find all the effects of Gestational Diabetes. I am not sure these hips can birth a 12 lb baby.

This time of year it is especially torturous when my FAVORITE candies are readily available and staring at me from all corners. Never mind the fat and calories that these little babies contain that would, under usual circumstances, cost me 7 miles on the treadmill. These will cause a certain glucose spike!

 

Oh how I love Cadbury Mini Eggs....and you may be surprised to know that I am a candy snob.  I don't waste calories on just any candy.  It has to be WORTH IT and these little beauties are worth it by the handful!


MMMMMM.  Doesn't  that look good?



There is an upside:  I don't have to feel bad or weird about about the fact that I think I am the only person in the world that hates these:

I HATE PEEPS!  These might possibly be the vilest things ever made.  I shudder at the thought.



You get what you get and you don't throw a fit!

We are scheduled in 1 week to have an ultrasound with my doctor but, as luck would have it, we were in the mall today and walked past Fetal Studios (like Fetal Fotos).  Eric and I both looked at eachother and knew what the next step was going to be.  We couldnt wait any longer to find out the gender of our baby. 

We were both pretty sure we knew what we were having and needless to say...

Face

Profile

Spine (baby was curled in a little ball when we first disturbed the slumber).

We were both wrong. 

Its 100%, without a doubt, a boy.

You get what you get and you dont throw a fit. We both also knew that no matter what it was we are so excited to have another baby. Paige pouted for a few minutes at the news that she wasn't going to have a sister but then I told her that she would be the Princess forever and her brothers would be her protectors, and she was fine.

Now we just have to think of a name.



16 weeks and counting....

Week 16 from http://www.babystrology.com/:

What is going on with your baby during week 16?


"Your baby is swimming in a tiny pool of amniotic fluid (about a cup of fluid has accumulated inside of you at this stage). This fluid plays an important role in the development of your baby's pulmonary system. The amniotic fluid allows your baby to breathe in the utero as the fluid moves in and out of baby's lungs. The fluid also provides protection to baby as it contains antibiotic agents to inhibit bacterial growth hence your baby is protected prior to its birth. The umbilical cord is attached to the lower part of baby's body. Legs are longer than arms and both limbs move; this can be captured on the ultrasound screen. Some women may also start to feel their baby move at this point of pregnancy; these feelings have been compared to gas bubbles. Many women do not recognize the feeling and may attribute it to being gas bubbles when actually it is their baby moving. Your baby measures at about 4½ inches (11.5 cm) and weighs close to 2¾ oz (80g). "

Well, I figured that, while this time of year there isn't much going on and most people are winding down from the holidays and making New Year's Resolutions to get skinny, I may as well blog about something other than the fact that I am getting anything BUT skinny....

I am pregnant with my 4th and likely, my last baby.  I knew after having Cameron that I wasn't done but it took me a good 3+ years to convince myself to get pregnant again as I am one of those that loves having a new baby but really despises what we women have to go through to get them here.  Don't get me wrong... I am so grateful for the power to procreate and boy, was I ever blessed with fertility, but I don't really love all the icky parts of being pregnant.  That being said, here I am again, 16 weeks along, finally just over the sick stage and getting my will to live back.

I will be honest...I want a girl. Everyone says this, "I will just be happy if its healthy"  but, although I WILL be happy to just have a healthy baby, I am definitely seeing pink.  Paige and I are outnumbered.  We need some strength in estrogen around here.  So I find out what we are having in 3 weeks.  Cant wait.  Cross your fingers for me.  I have been somewhat tempted to run to Fetal Photos but...nah, I can wait 3 weeks.