Week 39: Twas the ____ Before the baby was born...

Twas the _____ before Baby Fingland was born, when all through the house
Katie was barely able to sleep, which meant neither was her spouse.
The clothes were all washed and folded with care,
In hopes that Baby Fingland soon would be there.

The nursery was clean, new sheets on her bed,
While visions of rocking and reading to her danced through our head.
With Katie in her maternity clothes still, and Bryan putting together baby gear,
We waited and waited for Baby Fingland to get here....

Well that pretty much describes all we are doing now...WAITING! We had a great week here of wonderful weather which made me so happy for Spring and now even spending Summer with our new little one in tow. I had a couple contractions (I think) throughout the week, but not much else exciting. Our midwife appointment on Tuesday went really well, Jules is very reassuring and once again made us excited for the whole process. We got the copy of the on-call schedule, since there is always a doctor/midwife on call, and we will be with whoever is on call that time. Baby Fingland was (and hopefully even still) head down, heartbeat was good, and all was well. Our next appointment is this Friday, the day before her "scheduled" arrival date. We'll see how timely she wants to be.

Other than that, just requesting a few prayers/thoughts this week as we head into the final stretch. My eye is still not 100%, and I still get congested at night. My regular doc suggested taking another round of antibiotics this time in the form of ointment, but I kept asking if there is anyway to tell whether or not it is viral or bacterial (the pink eye that is), and they said no. It is fine during the day and just gets watery during the night, along with my dry nose/throat. According to WebMd (I know, but sometimes going to all these doc appointments is annoying!) my symptoms sound like the viral form, which antibiotics will do nothing for. And, since I already took 7 days worth of antibiotics, I really don't want to do a whole other round of them. So at the moment, I am just praying and keeping it clean, and seeing if I am allergic to anything in our bedroom! I figure once she comes into the world, I can try the ointment if it still isn't better and go from there. My biggest concern is that I don't want to give it to her as a welcome to the world present! Thanks for the thoughts ahead of time, and for letting me vent...I get frustrated when I don't know how to get rid of these things! Also, if you could send some positive thoughts our way that all goes well with labor, that would be much appreciated :). I think I've finally come to peace with it all and am ready for whatever happens now, rather than being ultra terrified. A good feeling!

We'll see if this is the last blog post without pictures of her! For now, enjoy some pictures of our new lighting we got for the nursery. We're off to keep the house tidy just in case. Who wants to come home from the hospital to a dirty casa? Not us! ;)
Our oxo portable night lights arrived this week...
removed from the stand and it is a portable night light
Our cute lantern/lamp find at Target today gives a warm and cozy light off for bedtime stories :)


Thanks for reading all these weeks and for sharing in our excitement. Not too much longer hopefully!

Love,
The anxiously awaiting Fingland's

Week 38: Soo sleepy......zzzzzzzzzzzzz

Well last week wrapped up what could possibly be my last "5 day" work week, since the next 2 weeks we have some four day weeks. I can tell you one thing, it wore me out! Pregnancy has caught up with me and naps aren't even an option anymore, they are standard daily protocol! I have 2 weeks worth of emergency sub plans starting today, so I am just teaching off my sub plans now :). Technically my maternity leave doesn't start until Feb. 28th, so those plans are all ready too. Kind of nice not to have to think about what to do with the kids, one thing less off my mind these days.

We had a great day Saturday and got to just do some fun things, rather than things on our "to do list". We ate at a new place for lunch downtown, then noticed a small bakery next door afterward and stopped by for dessert--my favorite as always! After getting home and taking my much needed nap, we made some homemade "cheese-its" from Bryan's whole grain baking book. I was the hole puncher, and even though they aren't as crispy as we'd like, it was still fun to make and pretty good tasting. Sunday I think I had some contractions when we took a walk around the neighborhood in this beautiful weather. After laying down though they stopped. We had a big Valentine dinner this night (steak, artichokes, and a yummy apple/raspberry crisp made by the baker in the family--Bryan.)

On the baby front Bryan cleaned out his car and got the back seat all spiffed up for her first ride home. He also got a hair cut since I was worried that we'd have the baby and he'd have a big mop on his head for all the pictures...I know, I am thinking of lots of random things to pass the time. However, if I'm going to look out of it and not having my best hair day, he's got to make up for it :). We also bought some of that plastic wrap stuff to go on her windows, since the nursery is a bit on the chilly side. My coworkers threw a shower for me Wednesday and we got some cute items and a wonderful gift card that lots of people contributed to, which was very sweet.

I had an appointment on Thursday and everything still looked good. My pink eye is better, finished the antibiotics, and my cold is less obtrusive--still have really dry sinuses. Baby Fingland was head down still and heart beat going strong. I haven't really had any braxton hicks contractions yet (or I might but just not have noticed while teaching), but they said that's fine. Our next appointment is tomorrow and I am going to ask them about the tiredness, just to make sure nothing's up with my iron levels. I will write again after if they have any enlightening news. Oh, which reminds me that my Group B Strep test was negative! Yay! Thanks for the positive thoughts and prayers, I'm glad to have one less thing to worry about.

Happy Valentine's Day! We'll be watching some KU basketball to celebrate :)
Fingland's

Week 37: Hey Colorado, where's the sun!?

Happy Super Bowl Sunday!

Well, we have made it to the month of February. Kind of crazy thinking that her due date is in this month! This week has been a rough one health wise. Not only did we get below freezing temps (-30 windchill got us 2 "cold" days off school), but I got stuck with my cold again. After going back to school on Thursday, I also got the "gift" of pink eye as a welcome back. This meant I had to take off Friday, thus working only 2 days this week...weird! I went to 2 doctors appointments Friday (our OB office and my internal med doc) to get 2 opinions on my eye. My internal med doc had more time for me and talked me through that the pink eye could have been viral from my cold, or bacterial from a student or someone else who had it. Since they couldn't determine which, and the swelling was pretty bad, they put me on some antibiotics. It is less swollen now, and the white is beginning to return today, so I'm extremely thankful for that healing. I was a little nervous about taking antibiotics, seeing as though I haven't taken anything medicine wise during my pregnancy, but they reassured me that it would be fine. Now if the cold would just finish it's course too, I'd be ready to focus on this upcoming labor!

Speaking of the labor, we had our 36.5 (we are off on the days with our weekly appointments) week midwife appointment on Wednesday. Baby Fingland's heart beat is still good, my blood pressure is still good (with all my appointments I got it checked like 5 times this week!), and she was head down still. I took my Group B Strep test, but won't see the results until this week. Our next appointment is this Thursday, at 37.5/38 weeks!

Even though this week was rough, there were a couple highlights. One, I got some more cloth diapers, different types, colors, patterns--so fun! They are finished being washed and ready for her little bum.

We also got our Target and Babies R Us shipment from fulfilling some things off our registry--lots of cute blankets, grooming kit, etc. I ordered my baby sling I finally chose--the Baby K'tan--off amazon, which I can't wait to try out and use. And finally, we went to Real Baby yesterday and got our Ergo carrier (which I'm so excited for) and her baby book! We filled out 2 pages last night and are going to keep filling some out each day. I think we are finally at a point where we don't have to buy any more baby items until after she comes and are like "whoops, we completely forgot about ______".

Hope everyone has a great week and I hope next week when I post I will be in much better health! I'm off to nap and blow my nose :)

Love,
The Fingland's and the WATERMELON (HOLY MOLY) on the way

Here are some pics of Bailey enjoying the new snow of this weekend...