32 WEEKS?? Can you believe it??

Its been a while, I know. 3 Weeks actually. Boy time has been flying. I was waiting for something and I forgot what now, but thats why its been so long. Oh, plus, Im huge and uncomfortable and lazy nowadays.

So I am starting week 32 now. I can hardly even fathom that in just 4 weeks I could deliver a baby that will be term. So strange. So exciting!

I have done my weekly reading and it seems that I am right in line with whats supposed to be happening. I can hardly breathe, baby is quite active, and I am exhausted and constantly heading for the bathroom!! I am also having plenty of Braxton-Hicks contractions, especially when I go walking or sit for more than 10 minutes in my computer/desk chair. But theyre no problem. The problem is that when I dont stop what Im doing, they get more intense and like real contractions. Therefore I am on a strict time limit and pace restriction when walking. That's not as easy as it sounds. But when you get a contraction, you seem to know its time to rest. Hehe.

I have been so happy these past 2 weeks because I feel like I can finally enjoy the pregnancy. All of the amazing changes my body has been going through are finally nice. I have always looked forward to this time in my life, and in NO way expected it to be such a nightmare. Now that I am off bed rest and no longer sick 24/7, and have learned to deal with the SPD pain for the most part, I am happy!! And I am really getting more and more excited to see my baby. I sometimes feel like she already has a personality in there. Moving to certain things, responding when Marcus or I touch my belly. Sometimes when I get laughing really hard it feels like she is laughing too. I know, I know, she isn't. But it feels like it and I love it!

Marcus and I went to Stockholm last week to celebrate our 3rd anniversary. It was so much fun! I am completely exhausted, still. But I am so happy I did it and i carefully exerted myself to do fun things. We saw the old town which was mostly just shopping but has really old buildings, the castle museum, The Skansen open air museum and two aquariums/zoo, took a boat tour of the canals of Stockholm which had a great narration with a vast amount of history, and did a boat tour to this island called Birka. It involved a lot of walking, but we followed the rules and Marcus got me some Ecco shoes to make it easier on the feet. Our hotel was lovely and we managed to find free parking right next to the train station when we went into the city. Oh, PLUS, we ate at 3 American restaurants and it was SO delicious. (There are none in Kalmar) It was truly great! We even got lucky with the weather. It was fore casted to be rainy, but it didn't rain once until we were on the road for home Friday. I actually got a little sunburn from the unexpected sunshine!! I definitely recommend Stockholm to anyone who wants a fun, reasonably priced vacation in Scandinavia!

We are moving into our house in 3 short weeks and cannot wait! I have all of these ideas about the baby's room. I cant decide on the so many choices I have. Like how to do the walls and what type of rug/curtains we want. I can go more pretty and clean or more wild and baby. I think we will go the more calm/pretty route, just to make sure she can rest in there. Its so fun looking at stuff. We have found this wallpaper place that has sort of murals in wall paper and they re so pretty so we think we will do one. We just have to choose between 2 we love. One is fairies in a forest type setting, and one is light colored wild animals(cartooney). Both match the bedding, since its just green, so we just have to decide. Arg! Here they both are!




I have my next midwife appointment tomorrow and the next ultrasound is scheduled for Tuesday Aug 7th. Im really excited to get a confirmation that we are indeed having a little girl. The first one was great, but I didn't have a quite full bladder, so she said it was a little unclear and could only say 90%. But we both have felt this is a girl from day one. Im pretty sure she is a girl, but if "she" turns out to be a he, Im totally fine with that too! I just cant wait to know for sure. I will definitely be updating next Tuesday!! And sharing the adorable ultrasound pics we get.

Thanks for being patient. I know its been a long time, but no news is usually good news, and this time it definitely was!!

Another one bites the dust....week that is. 28 Down!!

Ok, so I'm starting week 29 now!! Its so exciting I can hardly, well, breathe!
Before I share the exciting details of my last two weeks, you have to read some info about week 29 of pregnancy.

Fetal Development:
The baby's head is in proportion to the rest of the body. Fat continues to accumulate under the skin. The brain can control primitive breathing and body temperature control, and the eyes can move in the sockets. The baby is becoming sensitive to light, sound, taste and smell. Now, I wonder how experts know a baby can smell in utero?



OK, so that's what the baby is doing. And me? Well, I'm doing pretty much nothing. I haven't been writing because of some complications, but I'm better now and back at it! Still resting as much as possible, to avoid further problems, but not forced to stay in bed all the time.

I saw my midwife yesterday and everything is going as it should. I am measuring right, which I was nervous about. And the baby's heartbeat was perfect!!

Many of you know that I am a member of an expecting in September pregnancy board. I get to read some really great advice and some really scary stories. The scary ones are SO not good for me. I read about one girl whose baby is afflicted with left ventricle something. Basically her left side of her heart doesn't work. She will either die soon after birth or have a lifelong struggle with surgeries and medications. This is detected when the heart beats funny. So, I was/am very grateful to hear a healthy heart every time we go.

Also, from that board is a woman who had triplets 3 months early. All the women are due in September, so its scary that she already has them! Well, the babies are adorable and seem pretty healthy. The babies were born a little over 2 weeks ago, and in the picture, they are as old as my baby is now. Its just so hard to imagine that my little one looks like that already. I try to picture it, and just cant. I see her more as a kind of blob of flesh with poky limbs. Nice, huh?
Here are those triplets at 2 weeks.

I hope my baby waits, but its nice to know that if she must make her debut early, she will be OK.

I am starting really think about everything to come. Its only 8 weeks to full term, ya know. That's scary!! And whats even scarier is that I have had this weird feeling, that I hope is not true, that she will be coming around 35 weeks. Its not super early, but still earlier than I would like. I do think that my due date is off by about 6 days, but it still doesn't make up for that. I don't know why I have had this feeling, but I just cant deny it. I wonder if anyone else has had premonitions of early or late delivery and they came true. I also had a feeling it was a girl and that turned out to be true. Marcus has shared both of these feelings, too. Maybe its just because I'm so excited. I guess time will tell.

Speaking of time, its getting close to when we move into our house!! YAY! We move on August 18Th and I cant wait. It may be weird, since I cant do anything, and I like to do everything. Hopefully I can relax and take my pointing and telling duties well. I can also choose paint and wall papers... exciting stuff!

Hopefully next week I will have pics to share. Of me, that is.

hospital beds and morning sickness.... oh my

Hey everyone. Well, its Friday and I am mid week 27. Just as things were going super duper great, there was a turn for the worse. I just cant seem to have one of those TV fun and happy pregnancies. I know they exist, because I watch alot of TV. Its what you do on partial or full bed rest.

I started the week out with a slight cold, but that was nothing and it went away pretty quickly. I am starting to believe in cursing yourself, though. Monday I was a little nauseous, which brought to mind how I had been morning sickness free for almost 3 weeks. And I was so happy for that. This was about midnight. I fell asleep and woke up about 2am from something, either a kick or Neko whining or my hips. I lose track. I couldn't get back to sleep, which is becoming the standard, so I was playing on the internet. About 5am my stomach starts to really hurt. I know I am alot hungrier than usual lately so I ate a little fruit and had a small glass of milk. I then attempted to go back to bed. Well, about 8 I woke up throwing up. Just like before. But I didnt think it was morning sickness, maybe just a weird stomach. It has continued since and I am back on my medicine. Poooooooo!

So, I have come to terms with my morning sickness coming back, and I am really trying to take care of myself better. I have started using my exercise stuff again and feeling really good about it. I have learned to go to the bathroom before, or I will have to stop to pee and never go back. SO thats what I did on Wednesday. Thats when I saw I was bleeding. This is absolutely NOT what you want to see when youre pregnant, not to mention this late in the game. (not late enough, but late) SO I tried to call the hospital and Marcus at work, but apparently in Sweden there is some stupid magical combination of dialing you have to know or it wont go through. And when it finally did, I get a busy signal. SO I throw on some clothes and rush to Marcus' job so he can call. They want me to take an ambulance, but that seems like overkill, so we drive. I am crying and shaking and very close to vomiting at this point.

We get to the hospital and they have a bed waiting to roll me into a delivery room just in case. Oh my god I was scared! They start to do an examination with the ultrasound. Baby is fine. Moving, above the median size by 11%, and heartbeat is perfect. Thank goodness. But they still dont know WHY I am bleeding. SO they want to do an internal examination. I have to pee first, and give them a sample while Im at it. They find blood in it, but it turns out to be just from me bleeding. Whew!
Doctor gets to the internal exam and sees the blood, but finds no reason. Still, they decide its best to keep me overnight in case things get worse and I need emergency surgery. NOT what I wanted to hear. Its so difficult for me not to know why something is happening. Its just not my nature to accept these things and walk on. Its also difficult enough to sleep at home on my special mattress, but the hospital beds are like rocks. So it was a sleepless night for me. I wasnt worried, just incredibly uncomfortable. And my neighbor was snoring soooo loudly all night. I cant believe that she just had a baby and it slept through that. Maybe it got used to it inutero.


Marcus is turning 30 on Monday, so I have a big party to finish prepping for. I wont be doing as much as I had planned, though. Im not risking anything!! The doctor didnt technically put me on bed rest, but I kind of am. Since I bleed when I move alot, and I have been reading stories online about women who had unexplained bleeding and were allowed to exercise, did, and lost their babies even past 26 weeks. I just cant take the chance. Anyways, hopefully we will get some good pics from the party and I can share them next time.

SO that has been my very eventful week. Probably boring to read, but I had to share. Its almost becoming funny how horrible my pregnancy has been. And in a way, I guess I do have a TV pregnancy. Can we say soap opera?? Geez!!

And PS, for those pics of Marcus Vila wanted, here is one from two weeks ago.

Cant breathe... must slow down.

Tomorrow I start WEEK 27!! Woo Hoo!! I can hardly believe its gotten this far. And I know I say that every week, and still mean it. I remember what feels like two days ago being so nervous about making it to the 2nd trimester... and now I'm about to start the 3rd!! Final phase. Its really sinking in and getting real. Morning sickness should have maybe made it so, but that was just like being extremely sick for 24 weeks. LOL. Now I can eat and can feel my baby eating after I do. Its very strange and amazing.
I met with my midwife last week and everything was good. She did the Doppler thing to hear the heartbeat and we actually got to hear umbilical cord sounds. That means we could hear the baby eating!! It was AWESOME. And every time we hear that little heart chugging away it makes me cry a little. Its so relieving.
I had to go back the nest day for some blood work just to recheck y levels and all, and found out why I have been so utterly exhausted. I had pretty low iron counts. I vaguely recall being put on iron when I was about 22, but only stayed on it for like a week because I didn't believe it was anything serious. Now, however, I believe it. I have been dragging around like half dead for a few weeks. We didn't get to buy the pills until Thursday, so this is day 4, but it seems like I have a slight increase in energy. Though I also have a stupid cold and cough, so that's dragging me down a little. As long as I can rest, I don't mind too much. Baby does like to wake me up at all hours of the night, though. So, real rest is tricky. Good thing I have nothing to do but lie around resting! I'm SO lucky!!
Below is information about week 27 that I got from StorkNet.

Fetal Development: During this week, the brain continues its rapid growth, and the lungs continue to grow. Eyelids begin to open, and the retinas begin to form. The baby will grow over 1/2 inch this week and will be about 1 1/3 feet long (from crown of head to the toes or 9.6 inches from crown to rump)!

Maternal Changes:
Congratulations! At the end of this week, you will have finished the second trimester already!

You may be experiencing some shortness of breath. Your uterus is close to your rib cage now, and your lungs may not be able to fully expand. Don't worry though. Your baby isn't lacking oxygen and your circulatory system is actually working more efficiently thanks to those pregnancy hormones that have caused you so much discomfort.


Well, seems like baby is really growing! And I feel it too. I took some pics last week and just haven't had the energy to post anything. SO I will post them now. Seems like the iron supplements are really starting to help. Still tired, but not scarily so.

Shopping Trip!

We have been getting really frustrated looking for a home here. It seems every time we find one we like, it gets too expensive or something fishy shows up in the inspection. Last week we pretty much decided on buying an apartment and paying the ridiculous assessment fees each month just to have a place of our own. Even then we faced fierce competition. Needless to say, I was starting to get pretty down about it and wondering if we were even going to have a place to put our baby in September.
This morning, while I was sleeping off a long night of hip pains waking me up every 15 minutes, Marcus was looking at the realty site just in case anything new had come on the scene. He saw a house we had really liked, in the neighborhood we LOVE, but had been far too much for us. The price had been reduced and he decided to calculate the costs of the house, though we still thought it was out of our budget. After looking carefully, we decided we could afford it. So on a whim we called the realtor to see if we could look at it sometime. Shockingly he said "How about today?". Of course we said yes.
We met up with him and started falling in love immediately. Its a color we had both decided we didn't care for, but somehow it was very nice on this home. Kind of a mustard/golden yellow. And freshly painted! When we walked in I immediately felt at home. It has a large welcoming entrance with a walk thru kitchen just to the right of the entrance and hallway to a bath and two bedrooms to the left. Directly in front, at the end of the room, are the stairs. To the right of that, on the other side of the kitchen, is the living room. It is quite nicely laid out. Off the living room is a brand new covered deck and a lovely little yard that has been very well cared for.
Up stairs you first enter into a big area that is being used as a second living room now, and probably should be in the future. It has big windows and a Juliet Balcony, which I am sure Neko would LOVE. The master suite is off of that room. It is a good size with a full bath and a walk in closet. That's a real rarity in Sweden. The ceilings are wooden, but can be painted or stained. All of the walls have been freshly painted except the bathroom, but that wall needs attention anyways. There is even a skylight in the master bath!! Overall, we got a good feeling. We saw a few things that needed changing, but they were cosmetic. We decided we loved it and would put an offer in. We have done this many times before, and had no expectations since we had always lost. But we felt a little better knowing the owners had already bought a much more expensive home and really needed to unload this one.
After a few phone calls back and forth, we got it! We are SO excited and nervous about the whole experience. I still cant believe our offer was accepted at all. Its near the asking price, but they will be making almost nothing on the deal. I feel a little bad about that aspect, but pretty great about the overall experience. I am starting to wonder if destiny intervened for us. It is everything we wanted and a price we can afford.
Now we just need to wait until we get to move in. Due to a law in Sweden that you must provide 3 months notice to break a contract on an apartment, September first is our proposed moving date. We know the apartment company will have NO trouble finding new tenants for our great apartment. We have really loved it, and modernised it for the next occupant.
I will try to add the link to our new house at the end, but keep an open mind. For some reason the current owner would not allow many pictures, and even for us while viewing it to take pics that show personal spaces or items. We will however be barraging you with pictures when we take ownership mid August. Probably some before/afters of the things that we will be changing.

Well, that's basically all I have for today. I think its pretty big news, and I am SO happy to share my "shopping trip" with you all!!

Also I would like to take this time to say Happy Fathers Day to all of my brothers, my dad, and my step-dad. I love you all and you are all on my mind today.

Sorry!! The link to the house doesn't work anymore!! I will take pics as soon as we get in!

where did that sun go??

Well, I'm now in the middle of week 25 and things are going well. I have been able to go off my morning sickness medicine for the past 5 days, and I am very happy about that!! I also haven't been getting headaches as much. Hopefully Lil brain is nearly healed, or even fully.
We did have a little scare yesterday. Obviously its my first baby, so I don't know what to expect, but I have grown comfortable and happy with baby's movement patterns. Other than the party she threw last Saturday, she has been VERY regular. Until Wednesday. I hardly felt any movement at all. I chalked it up to me having a slight cold and maybe she was resting. I did try all the tricks to get her moving, and got zero response. I think I had like 4 glasses of ice water in a span of two hours..LOL. So I went to bed hoping to be woken up by her little kicks at 7 as usual Thursday. This didn't happen. I tried the tricks again and got nothing. In that 36 or so hours, I think I felt her 3 times. So Marcus called the OB and they told him to bring me in. He took the day off and we went to labor and delivery to check things out. They put the heart monitor on and the first nurse couldn't find the heartbeat. I could see a slight panic in her face, and definitely felt myself panicking. And she said to NOT freak us out she was getting the midwife, who usually finds things quicker. After she found the heartbeat we waited. After about 6 minutes I felt a movement. Then things got very funny and relieving. She started moving ALOT. And it seems she hated the monitor because you could hear her kick at it! It sounded like someone blowing into a microphone. She got very agitated..and even kicked/moved 7 times in one minute! I cannot describe how happy I was to feel that! And she has moved back on her regular schedule since. Whew!

It seems the sun has decided to disappear on us this week. But that's OK since it was WAY too hot last weekend. Monday was the last warm day and the thermometer we have read 100F in the sun!! That NEVER happens here in Sweden. And since home a/c is nearly non existent, it was rather smarmy in here. Having a summer cold and being so hot you feel yourself melting is not a good combo, so the cooler weather is OK for now. I just hope the sun comes back soon...

As for our house hunt, its going. down the tubes that is. Every house we look at has some problem that we don't want to pay to fix, or the price gets WAY too high for us. We looked at an apartment to buy yesterday and it was already far out of our budget by the end of today. I'm getting really frustrated and depressed. I would imagine this happens in LA or NYC but not here. Its just sad. Too sad to talk about. But I thought I would update since everyone keeps asking.

Hopefully something of consequence will happen this weekend and I will post again with better news!

I think its one of those duplexes on the beach....

Ok, so I am nearing the end of week 24! Yay. ALot of changes happened literally overnight. Today i woke up huger than ever, and with part of my belly button finally starting to almost come to the surface. Marcus and I were just talking about how odd it was that my belly button hadnt changed at all in the pregnancy. Especially compared with other member of the iVillage pregnancy club I like to look at and obsess over (lol). Then this morning I had a very weird feeling in my belly button, like baby was pushing it out from the inside... and she was! I put my finger in it and part of it pops in and out now. Its really funny.

Another interesting change is how active she has been this morning. Im pretty sure she knows we are having a hard time finding a house to buy, so she is building us one in there. I think its one of those duplexes on the beach I love so much. LOL. Its so funny...she woke me up at about 7 after keeping me up until about 2, with her big movements, and then I guess she wore herself out and fell asleep. She then woke me back up a few times before I finally got up. Obviously I have a little anxiety about why she has been SO active, hoping she isnt suffocating or anything... but Im thinking its just the duplex building.

I went to the doctor yesterday for my hip and back pain. Quite humiliating, I must say. She made me take off my skirt and walk for her. I felt compelled to tell her that as an American, I was very uncomfortable with this. She didnt really care. She needed to see it anyways. I felt sort of like I imagine those girl who get tricked by "photographers" do when they realize it isnt just an innocent picture of a natural woman... Anywho. I have a slight case of SPD, but more worrying is that my hip muscles or joints or something are inflamed and usually need steroids, which I refused, and my old back injury seems to be back. I will be starting physical therapy soon. She also got me very excited about a warm pool they had at the hospital. I was to start asap. Apparently she was not informed that that no longer exists. POO. I want to join the swimming facility here in Kalmar so I can work out my back but its like 70 bucks for ten visits and I cant afford it. I suppose fixing our car was a necessity... but I wanna go swim...double poo! LOL.

In related news, I am now taking ideas for ways to make money from home. Any tips or thoughts would be awesome!!

Oh yeah, PLEASE email me if you try to leave a comment and this silly thing wont take it. I have reset the settings like 6 times now and fear I have to actually write an email asking why no one can leave comments. If it continues I will, though. Dont think I wont. Oh I will. (totally cracking myself up at this point)

I will post some pics maybe tomorrow. We are off to enjoy the beautiful day that Sweden has finally agreed to lend us... ah sunshine.