one week ago

One week ago today, on February 5th, Steven and I were blessed with our little girl Ellie Mishelle Norris! Having her in our arms is the most amazing thing, it's so surreal sometimes. The love we feel for her goes so deep and we are beyond blessed to be her parents! 

38 weeks

(bad lighting this week-sorry)

Can you believe my due date is in a week and a half?! I can! 38 weeks and 4 days today!
And it actually feels like my due date is sooner than the 6th! I'm not trying to rush it...it just feels like time is going fast and seems like the date is later. And for the last 5 days I have experienced lots of cramping off and on all day. Plus, I am 1.5cm and 50% effaced, so that makes her arrival seem even closer. I know I could stay this way for awhile...though I could go into labor any moment! How exciting it that?!?!?! The Dr. also informed us that her estimated prediction of Ellie's size is about 7.5 pounds (yikes!). We were surprised when she said that, because she could be in there awhile still and will only be getting bigger! It is only a guess so we shall see what she actually comes out to be! My weight gain however has come to a halt thank goodness! That can happen towards the end of pregnancy, I'm not sure why, but I'm not going to question. Total weight gain so far is at 38 pounds.

This past weekend Steven and I got sick-not cool! We are trying to take care of ourselves even more because I do not want either of us to be sick when I go into labor. We did get a tour of the hospital-labor and delivery last week. Steven does work there and he knows where to go, but I on the other hand did not. It was really nice in the end, for the both of us, to see and hear how the whole process goes and what they have to offer moms, babies and dads! (I have to say when we passed the nursery there were three newborns in there and I got all choked up-they were sooooo precious!)

Sleep is quite hard these days. No matter how tired I am at night it can take awhile to fall asleep, then I get up every hour to pee and I wake up pretty much every time I need to change position. Thankfully I can nap pretty much whenever, so that's a very nice thing. This lack of sleep is kind of prep for when baby girl is here, too...those midnight feedings, changings and all! Ellie moves around fairly often still (during all hours of the day and night) and sometimes my belly is so oddly shaped-so funny looking.

I'm still nesting pretty good. I did go through her clothes in the drawer again and refolded them. I even ironed a lot of her clothes that are hanging in the closet...which may have been wrinkled a very tiny bit or a lot. Ha. My energy level goes down often though, so even if I want to clean like crazy, sometimes I get wiped out fast or I'm too lazy to do it. I see people freezing a bunch of meals before baby comes to make it easy after they come, but I personally have not gotten into that at all. I'm not a fan of cooking anyways, maybe one day-like after baby comes...I want to cook well to feed our family well! Steven and I have also been trying to get in lots of dates. Quality time is a big love language of mine anyways, but we want to relish these last days/weeks that will just be the two of us!

I've been reading a lot of birth stories. Usually by the end of them there are tears of joy running down my face. It is going to be such an amazing, special, unique experience for us and I pray for Ellie's story every day!

36 weeks

Today marks 36 weeks and 4 days! I can't believe we have 3 weeks and 3 days left until our due date! And she could come even sooner than that! Oh my goodness we are excited! I'm always thinking about when we will see her for the first time, hold her, kiss her and love on her which makes us so ecstatic!

During this last week her movements have decreased and have changed in feeling-because she's running out of room in this belly of mine (even though it's HUGE! Ha. Every day I feel like I've grown more!). I'm so curious how small or big she's going to be at birth?! They say I'm measuring good still, but I haven't asked if that means she'll be of average size, can they tell, or what? At my next appointment that will be one of my questions. And speaking of appointments, they are every week now until delivery. At this week's appointment I was checked to see if there's been any change/progress. It's the same right now and that's okay, but they will be checking each week to see if there have been any changes. After 37 weeks is when they are really okay with me going into labor, though they would like to see me go to 40 weeks. I have however still been getting Braxton Hicks ever so often and also some cramping. Plus, this last Sunday I had more pelvis pressure/discomfort/pain then I had experienced yet (not crazy bad either), though it obviously didn't do anything. I'm wondering how things will happen and feel when it's the real deal?!?!

I have my lists made for the hospital bags and now I just need to get a couple more things and actually pack them! I also need to write up my birth plan. I'm hoping to go naturally, because I'm not a fan of the possible cons many of the pain management options have, but I'm not 100% against them either if need be.

Something I am really surprised about is my belly button staying flush with the rest of my belly...for the most part. I'm curious if it will pop out more during these last few weeks. One thing I'm proud about is the amount of stretch marks I've gotten, or should I say lack there of! I've gotten a few on each of the good ol' love handles, but that's it. I've been super diligent on putting on some sort of stretch mark lotion twice a day and sometimes more if I get itchy. I can't however wear my wedding ring anymore (and haven't been able to for a couple months now) thanks to some swelling. Gaining 30+ pounds is obviously changing my body in lots of places, too! I haven't been the greatest with working out and eating amazing at every meal, so now it's totally catching up on me (I surpassed the recommended 25-35 pound gain-age by one pound and still have 3 possible weeks to go....whoops). I'm motivated to work out though and am trying to do well with what I can do at this point and to try and eat better. I'm excited to get on a good meal plan and workout regime after delivery (but we shall see how that plays out when I'm actually living out a life with a newborn!!).

My emotions have been going crazy and I've cried happy tears and some sad tears during the last few weeks. Not being with any of our family during the holidays was a bit hard for me. But then being blessed with so much by friends and family near and far around this time has made me cry those happy tears. I love our little life and am especially glad to have a great husband to share this journey with.

baby girl Norris has a name

Way before Steven and I were even trying for a baby we have talked about names for our future children. And ever since I was a sophomore in high school I loved the name Khloe. I was glad Steven loved the name too and during the first couple years of our marriage that was the name we had picked out if we had a girl. Well...that name got a bit too popular for our preference, so we started talking about different names. We weren't too worried on settling right away on one and didn't talk about it that often (we weren't trying yet and who knew if we'd have a girl anyways). In the meantime we both came across the same boy name around the same time and loved it. So we were set if we were to have a boy first.
A couple years later we did get pregnant and started talking seriously about girl names. Names I liked, Steven didn't like and vice versa. I like kind of boyish names for girls and Steven likes girly names for a girl. It was quite a process to like any names we suggested to each other to say the least. One thing we did agree on right away was using both our sisters name for the middle name; Mishelle. My sister however spells it 'Michelle' and Steven's sister, 'Mishelle'. Therefore we needed to pick which spelling we liked better and his sister got the vote (sorry sis).
A couple weeks or so before we found out what our baby's gender was, Steven had a dream about us bringing home a little girl and her name was Elsie. He liked that name, but I wasn't a fan, so he thought of the name Ellie off of that. He loved it and I did, too.
Then a couple weeks later we officially found out we were expecting a girl!! So, we started referring to baby girl as Ellie. After awhile I wasn't really feeling that name anymore and tried throwing out some other ones. Well nothing was topping the list over Ellie for Steven. I had a hard time and was putting a lot of pressure on myself on finding a name I loved and getting Steven to love it also. We tried another name for a little bit, but it was weird referring to her as that and not Ellie anymore. Yes, we could wait till she is born and see how we feel, but Ellie became her name awhile ago and we are happy to officially say that's our baby girls name!

34 weeks

During week 33

During week 34

                                         

How far along: 34 weeks and 6 days (this may as well be a 35 week post, whoops)

Baby is: around 19-22 inches and may be 4.9 pounds (all estimation as we haven't seen her in so long! Plus, she could be the length she's going to be at birth right now-crazy!)

Obsessing over: baby girls room! It has taken a little bit to get everything figured out where I want it to go, but everything is on the walls and furniture in place. Yay! I just want to hang out in there all the time...and I'll admit I'm sitting in her room right now breaking in the glider ; ). And now this weekend I will be washing her clothes and organizing those cute things!

Feeling: baby hiccups at least once a day! Hot flashes. Lovely acid reflux/heartburn in the evenings. Grateful for this pregnancy. I haven't been miserable like so many women are at this point, though I do have some weeks to go. But I don't want to be a complainer at any point.

Working on: her name. I have had such a hard time settling on one, but we are VERY close to announcing, like real close...

Thinking about: the year 2015. It is going to be a year full of so many new and exciting moments!

Anticipating: our baby girls birth-day! One more month or so!

Listening to: Steven playing Dashboard Confessional and assembling one of our office desks in the other room (I'll go help when I'm done posting).  I had been listening to Christmas music pretty much everyday, all day, but I guessed it was time to let go and move on from that Pandora station.

Craving: Soda, iced coffee (which is my fav anyways, but these hot flashes are getting me good sometimes and drinking hot stuff escalates those bad boys), ice cream cake (which I had for my birthday the other day and we are still eating on it. YUM! Dairy Queen makes the best in my book!!)

Wishing: I knew when I will go into labor. Not that I'm wanting to rush it or anything, I'm just so curious where I'll be, how it will feel and how long it will last.

32 weeks

Had my bi weekly Dr. appointment this morning; weight gain is still going as it should (but I would kind of like it to stop...haha...though I know baby girl needs to gain a few more pounds), and speaking of baby girl, she is measuring well and her heartbeat was in the 140s today (love the sound of her heart beating away!!!!). At my last appointment she was head down and butt up, getting ready for the delivery position! Today they didn't see where she was at, but she's probably in the same spot. She's been getting the hiccups more often and I can feel them down lower. I'm getting more cramps and having some contractions here and there, which is all normal. It just means my body is getting ready for the big day.

Her movements have been craazzyy strong! Sometimes her punches/kicks/elbows hit hard and my belly jerks to the side/out, hits the bed and makes it move, and bounces my book or computer near by. It cracks me up every time! I want to get a video of it but of course she stops doing it when I'm ready! One day-hopefully!

Realizing her due date is coming around the corner makes me kind of freak out with all the little things I want/need to do to get ready. Trying not to stress though because I know that doesn't help, nor is it good for me or the baby (or even Steven for that matter-he doesn't want to deal with psycho lady over here). But I want to be all set and prepped for the delivery and bringing this little girl home!

Our birthing classes are going good. We are almost done with one of them (Childbirth Prep-it's one day a week, for 4 weeks), finished one called Baby Care Basics and tonight we have one on breastfeeding. Steven has been great support, still going to everyone with me. Some of the info we already knew and some has been brand new. It has me thinking a lot more about what I would like to try and maybe try to avoid during labor and delivery. I'm in major prayer about how it will all play out for me, baby girl and also Steven. Thankfully I'm not feeling anxious or worried, but I just want to have peace towards anything that will happen (how it will feel, too) and have a good head on about the choices we make throughout it all.

I love this time of year with the Christmas trees going up, the lights, sweater and scarf weather, baked goods baking in the oven (of course I had to mention food!) and my favorite holiday; CHRISTMAS...and then my birthday shortly after! Next year we will have a little one who we will start new traditions with and share in the joy! Oh how I have so much excitement bursting within!

30 weeks

Wow, ten weeks left (give or take)! Eeeeekkkk!

This morning I had my usual check up appointment which is every two weeks. I'm still gaining weight little by little-as recommend, belly is measuring great, baby's heartbeat was at 159 beats per minute, my symptoms are still very minimal, etc! One thing that was interesting though is they changed my due date back to February 6th. Here's the story for the due date...
At my first couple appointments (at my first doctors office in Alaska) they gave me the due date February 5th, then they changed it to the 12th. Well when I moved to Idaho and got my doctor here they questioned why my previous Dr had changed the date. I wasn't sure myself because they kept saying I/baby was measuring where we should be (going off of the 5th).  So the office here said oh whatever we will just go with the last date they gave you (the12th). But then at my last couple appointments they have said February 6th. So...it's been a little confusing (and kind of weird), but I'm not too concerned with the exact date because who knows when I will actually deliver. And I won't argue with them going off of a earlier date. It just makes it all the sooner we will be holding our bundle of joy (because they won't let me go much past the 6th for delivery)!

A couple weeks ago I had to do the lovely 1 hour glucose test which screens for gestational diabetes and anemia. Well, I failed the gestational diabetes portion and needed to come back to do the 3 hour one. I felt better than I thought I would thank goodness (you can't have anything except water after midnight before the test, and I didn't eat anything after dinner really, and didn't get food in my system till lunch time the following day-that is a record for me, ha). Then the following day I was told I passed! Whew.

Baby girl is still staying active! Plus, she has gotten the hiccups a couple times and it's an interesting feeling, but I love it-any movement for that matter! Steven and I have started reading a book out loud with each other and when he reads he sits close to my belly so she can get more familiar with his voice. I have read that can help get the baby more familiar with your partner's voice; so I figured it doesn't hurt to do it!

Yesterday we started our childbirth prep classes! All together we are doing three...which may seem a little excessive, but one doesn't cover all the things I would like to go over. Plus, the teacher/leader of the class last night said the three I signed up for are the best ones to do. It makes for a busy December, but it will be great information to have! Plus, Steven is being great support, going to all of them with me!