The Next Step...

Hello all!

I know, I haven't written in a while. For those of you passing through, or follow but don't personally know me, I had the baby. Jacob Thomas Kestner was born June 24 at 10:16pm weighing 6 pounds, 4.3 ounces! I had to be induced because my blood pressure was getting high as well as Jake's movements were starting to slow down. They induced me at about 10:30 the night before, so almost 24 hours of labor...but I only pushed for 5 minutes! Our little family is doing wonderfully...Mike was off for two weeks, but he started work again last night (much to his chagrin). I'm still off for about four more weeks and then (unfortunately) I, too, must rejoin the living, working world.

As for the blog...as of right now I'm still going to keep up with it, going back to it's original purpose of tracking my weight loss. Hopefully, I'll keep going, and not slack off as I had been towards the end. I don't have my gym membership anymore, but I'm thinking I may go to mom and dad's after work on some days, seeing as they have some exercise equipment. Not to mention, maybe by going there I'll have someone to nag me into doing it! (sorry, Mom!)

I'm not going to "officially" start until I go back to work, which is when the posts will start. But I will leave you with this...My highest weight when I was pregnant was 283. I weighed myself a couple days ago (just for curiosity's sake) and I had dropped down to 257. Not too shabby!

Week 37

I had my appointment yesterday. Not very much happened. The doctor checked my belly size and listened to the baby's heartbeat and sent me on my way. I'm a little surprised...I had thought he would have checked to see if I was dialated, but maybe they do that later. When asked if I had any questions or concerns, I told him that Jake hasn't been moving around nearly as much as he used to. I mean, this kid used to have knock-down, drag-out parties in my abdomen and now there's next to nothing! He said that he wouldn't be too concerned, that there's very little room in there to move around too much and also because he had heard the heartbeat, but to do fetal kick counts. For those that don't know, basically I give myself a starting time (perhaps after I eat or something) and then start counting all the little flutters and flickers (hiccups don't count because they're involuntary). If there are less than 10 within two hours I was to go to the hospital where they'd put me on a monitor for a bit. Well, apparently my kid just needed some sugar, because I had a glass of kool-aid and he started jumping around quite well. Still not as much as he used to, but a decent amount.
I'm hoping it won't be too much longer until he makes his grand entrance (however un-grand for me!). However, I have a kinda funny story...
I love my clients. Everyone has been informed of my pregnancy and I have had so many well-wishes and presents given to me. This morning at work, two of our really great clients came in. While they were in there, they asked how I was doing and we started talking about the pregnancy. Then they made their prediction...I will not have the baby for another four weeks (aka two weeks late). According to them, because there was a full moon this week, that will end up pushing back my due date, and therefore the date will be around the 14th of July. They said they've been pretty accurate with determining friends' due dates. All I could think to myself was, "Noooooooo!" Of course, people also say women can go off of how their mother's pregnancy. If that's true, then their prediction really is accurate. My pregnancy has gone pretty much like all of my mom's, which isn't comforting considering all five of us were late...the younger four being two weeks late and my oldest brother being around five weeks late! Don't get me wrong, I like being pregnant. It hasn't really been so bad, other than some discomfort and shortness of breath in the past couple weeks. But I'm ready for him to be out now!

Week 35

Howdy, folks!
I went to the doctor again today. I had actually gone three weeks ago, but forgot to post about it. That one wasn't all that special anyway, just a quick heartbeat check. Mike and I went to a prenatal class a few weekends ago, which I thought was really great (Mike started falling asleep during the first part!). It taught how to breathe, what to expect during labor, breastfeeding, and a little about after taking the baby home. They showed examples of natural labor, which didn't scare me as much as some people might think (not sure how Mike felt about that).

I'm up to 282 this week (I know...eight pounds in a month...ugh). I'm kinda hoping that's mostly baby weight as I haven't changed my eating habits any. If that is baby, then I'm gonna have a bigg'n! :-/

I worked on the nursery today. We didn't have enough money to go get paint and such, but the walls were already blue and we had leftover off-white paint from a previous project, as well as brushes, so I went online and found how to paint clouds and that's just what I did. It was really easy to do and only took me about half an hour to forty-five minutes to do. I only did the top half of the walls because I figured furniture will be covering the bottom half. Hopefully, Mike'll pick up the crib this weekend from his sister and the room will be set! I can't wait to get it all together!
Before...

After...

Week 30

Hello, friends!
Well, as my body has gone through changes, I've been trying to adjust my lifestyle and routine around what it's able to do. That being said as a preface, apparently I'm not adjust enough. The past week or so, I've come home from work and after I've gotten my shower and eaten and such, I would occasionally start getting really bad cramping. Think menstrual (sorry, guys!), only a little sharper. Jake's also been riding low, bad enough at times that it feels as though I have...well, I won't go into details. He's just been very low, we'll put it at that. I've been very tired and out of breath, but that doesn't surprise me much, between general pregnancy and added weight to my already overweight self. But the cramping worried me some, especially since my aunt told me that she was actually a little dialated about two months before her second child was born.
I had my doctor's appointment today and got to hear the heartbeat again (I can never stop smiling at that sound!). He told me that I have a happy, healthy baby. When I told him about what was happening, he checked first to be sure I wasn't dialated, which thankfully I wasn't. He told me that it was my body and my baby's way of telling me that I need to take it easy. Of course, he tells me this the day before I have two over-100 pound grooms! I had thought that I was taking it easy...well, as easy as my job will let me. The girls at work have been helping a lot, what with not scheduling me a bunch of big dogs in one day (like they normally would), just in general not scheduling me a bunch of animals (like this time of year normally calls for), and helping with the heavy lifting. Now I have to do even less? You might as well put me on bedrest the next two months! (*sigh*) I'll try. It's hard, especially when I'm so used to lifting large dogs in the tub and doing 8, 9, sometimes even 10 grooms in one day.
As far as my weight, I've only gained one pound this past month, making me 274. That's not bad, in the sense of myself, but I hope that's okay for having a child in me. My next appointment is in two weeks, and then I think I go weekly after that. It's getting down to the wire!

Week 26

I'm a little late posting, but hopefully you guys will forgive me... I had my latest appointment for the baby...Baby Jacob, that is! It's weird when I talk about him like he's here. I'll just be talking along and say something like, "Oh, yeah, and Jake'll do this," and blah blah. It's just so...WEIRD!!! Anyhoo...I had my glucose test done which meant more blood had to be drawn. Yuck! I don't really like needles. I'm okay with them, I guess, I don't totally freak or anything, but I just reeeeeeally don't like them (which is just one of the many reasons I don't want an epidural). For one, I have rolly veins like my mom, so it's not always easy for them to find it. Also, the last time I had to get blood drawn at the beginning of my pregnancy, I was a little dehydrated and they kept having to stick me. Finally, I had to come back another day after hydrating myself well, and even then they still had trouble. Well, this time they got it on the first try. Yay! And the results are equally happy...well, maybe not equally, but I don't have gestational diabetes, which I was totally dreading. I do, however, have low iron levels, which means I'm probably going to need supplements for. I haven't gotten ahold of the doctor yet. They, of course, also took my weight while I was there. This is another dread of mine. I know I'm supposed to gain weight, but I just cringe every time I get on the scale. I'm now up to 273. So, total I've gained 23 pounds. Which, I guess isn't completely terrible, but I still don't like being that heavy, even if it is due to having an alien inside me!

Serenading the Baby

I don't normally post lyrics, but I heard this on the radio the other day and almost started crying (stupid hormones).

Six pounds and nine ounces lookin' up at me
Like I have all the answers
I hope I have the ones you need
I've never really done this, now I know what scared is

Sometimes I'll protect you from everything that's wrong
Other times I'll let you just find out on your own
But that's when you'll be growin',
And the whole time I'll be knowin'

CHORUS:
You're gonna fly with every dream you chase
You're gonna cry, but know that that's okay
Sometimes life's not fair, but if you hang in there
You're gonna see that sometimes bad is good
We just have to believe things work out like they should
Life has no guarantees, but always loved by me
You're gonna be

I'm afraid you'll have to suffer through some of my mistakes
Lord knows I'll be trying to give you what it takes
What it takes to know the difference
Between getting by and livin'

'Cause anything worth doing is worth doing all the way
Just know you'll have to live with all the choices that you make
So make sure you're always givin'
Way more than you're takin'

REPEAT CHORUS

Someone's everything
You're gonna see
Just what you are to me

You're gonna fly with every dream you chase
We just have to believe things work out like they should
Life has no guarantees, but always loved by me
You're gonna be
Always loved by me

22 Weeks...THE ULTRASOUND

Hello, all!
Not that there's a lot of you, as the welcome implies...
Mike and I just got back from our 22 week prenatal appointment. There's good news, and some not entirely good news. I'll start with the latter first.
Well, this is still partly a weight blog. When I went around the corner to check my weight, I wasn't thinking too much about it. I'd been pretty good thus far (plus we had already found out the baby's gender moments before so I was needless to say elsewhere!). I stepped on the scale and saw the numbers...268. Yuck! I gained 11 pounds from the last time, making it 18 pounds total that I've gained. It's not entirely terrible, I don't think, but I know I need to be careful, not just for me but for the baby. Which brings me to another point...
We're having a BOY!!!! I've always wanted a boy, even had the name picked out since, like, elementary school! I grew up with four of the greatest older brothers on the planet, and I've always kinda gravitated towards boy friends (not to be confused with "boyfriends") in school, so I figured a boy would be great!
So, all that said, I have my glucose test in four weeks. I'm a little worried about that, just because gestational diabetes is a little more common than I'd like. I'll try to be better about what I eat (I haven't been eating as many salads as I had at first). And I'll look forward to decorating the nursery and waiting for Jacob Thomas to arrive!