33 Weeks-The Countdown Starts

Wow, it has been a while since I've updated this thing. Needless to say, we've been insanely busy getting ready for this baby. But everything is going well and little Madison (this is the name we've decided on) is very healthy. Healthy, but perhaps not the most cooperative when it comes to ultrasound pictures! After 3 visits to the 4-D ultrasound place (they were so patient with us), we finally managed to get pretty good pictures and a good DVD of her moving around during the ultrasound. The pictures still were not fantastic like the ones you see in magazines, but it was by far the best we had gotten and Kyle and I were going to give up after that 3rd visit. So, we were pretty happy with what we got. Here are some of the better pictures at 32 weeks:So, they're kinda fuzzy because she was pressed up against the placenta, but to give you an idea of what you're looking at, the 1st picture is a profile of the right side of her face with her hand under her chin. The second one is a little more face on where you can see both of her eyes, nose, and mouth completely. The third one, she is turned a little to where you see the right side of her face more and that thing next to her mouth is her foot! You can actually see her little toes. During these ultrasounds we found out she definitely likes to suck on her hands and feet, she has very chubby cheeks, and has hardly any hair! Kyle was cracking up at the last 2 because that's basically what I looked like as a baby: chubby cheeks and no hair (well, I still have the chubby cheeks). So, that's our little Madison in there growing like crazy! Actually, I think she's grown a lot just in the last week because all of a sudden, I feel like I can't breathe! And what used to be her sharp movements are slow rolling movements. So, I think it's starting to get a little cramped in there.

In related news, we have almost finished the nursery, moved our spare bedroom into the office, took a tour of the hospital, and started our birthing classes! The nursery (which used to be our spare bedroom) is all painted, new moulding up, and basically just waiting for our furniture to arrive! It's so exciting to see it all coming together. I also have washed and hung up all of the clothes and blankets she's gotten so far, and I have to say, it is definitely surreal to see little baby clothes hanging in the closet!

We also converted our old office (which we moved into our basement) into our spare bedroom. So, we've been doing a lot of painting and moving! We really couldn't have gotten it all done without the help of my mom, so thank you mom! It's kinda funny though because I left my job a few weeks ago and I have to say I've been working way harder at home than at Blue Shield; but at least it's on fun stuff!

The tour of the hospital was fantastic because it relieved a lot of our fears. Mercy Folsom seems like they're pretty up to letting you do what you need to do as long as it's not anything that would put you or the baby in harm's way. This was really important to me because I would like to have a natural birth and if taking a thousand showers or rocking back and forth on my hands an knees is the way I'm going to accomplish it, then so be it. So, it was nice to see that they are up for that. The birth classes also started last week (they last for 6 weeks) and seem like they are going to be very beneficial I have to say, I think Kyle was the best husband in the group! He was answering questions from the instructor, getting into the exercises, and practicing the breathing with me (which helped me focus more) when all the other men looked dumbfounded. It was really sweet!

That pretty much wraps up what we've been up to. We were actually able to slip away to Pismo Beach for a few nights which was nice (pictures below). We are getting very excited and can't wait to welcome little Madison Danielle into the world! One last, quick update, for those of you keeping larry (Kyle's dad) in your prayers, we just found out that he is now at the top of the liver transplant list at the Mayo Clinic!! So thank you for your prayers!