HELLO
Mom to Iris. Wife to Todd. Our little family lives at the foothills of the Ozark Mountains in Fayetteville, Arkansas. We love it here and I love sharing little bits of our life.

© 2014 sarahfortune.

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Posts Tagged: maternity series

Pregnancy Blog: 27 weeks

Pregnancy Blog: 27 weeks

As of this week, I’m officially in the third trimester! I have as many weeks of pregnancy left as I had completed when I started blogging about this madness. That puts things into perspective.

I had a busy day at the doctor’s office this past week, as it was time for the dreaded Glucose tolerance test. This is given to just about everyone nowadays to test for gestational diabetes and involves drinking a super sweet, syrupy orange drink and then waiting an hour to have your blood drawn. I should get the results in the next few days, but fingers crossed that I pass. If you fail, it doesn’t mean that you have gestational diabetes, but there’s a more intense test (and drink) that you have to take to find out for sure.

While at the doctor’s office, I also got a Rhogham shot for my negative blood type. You can read all about that here in this debbie downer post from my 17th week. They’re also testing to make sure that I haven’t built up any antibodies, which would mean the negative blood type still isn’t an issue. Besides that, I’m happy to report that everything I was concerned about in that post is no longer an issue!

Lately though, I have had a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions, which are practice contractions to help get your body get ready for labor. I asked my doctor if it is okay that I was having more than a few per day and, while she said this was normal, she tested me for pre-term labor just to be safe. Thankfully, the test came back negative, so no worries there. Even though Iris Adella could survive if she was born today, it’s certainly best to keep her cookin for a good while longer.

Now for the fun stuff…

● I’m getting excited for my baby shower, which is just a month away.

● All of our nursery furniture came in! We have it set up, but the decorating is going a bit slow. I’m loving how simple & clean the room is right now, but I think after the shower I’ll have a better idea of what should go where.

● This weekend my dad is coming to visit us, so we can’t wait for that! I’m sure he’ll make an appearance in next week’s post. He’s super excited about his little “grand flower,” as he calls her.

● I’ve been doing more Instagram-ing than Tweeting lately, so here are a few pictures from the past week or so.

First load of baby clothes.

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Everett helping.

Everett

Maternity dress from Kerri

Pregnancy Blog: 27 weeks

Lone rocking chair

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(attempting) to pick up the furniture

Pregnancy Blog: Picking up nursery furniture!

Sneak peek at the nursery (and me on the first day of my last trimester)

Pregnancy Blog: 27 weeks

The fun stuff

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The not so fun stuff

Pregnancy Blog: 27 weeks

Sweet lil vintage jumper

Vintage baby dress

My mom will love/hate this

Vintage baby dress

Sadie modeling a felt bow I made for Iris.

Baby Bear

And one last belly shot for good measure…

Pregnancy Blog: 27 weeks

Pregnancy Blog: 26 weeks

Pregnancy Blog: 26 weeks
In the nursery with Iris Adella’s new dresser & a felt baby bow I made for her.

While the classic symptoms graciously eluded me in my first six months, I’m finally getting a few fun reminders that growing a baby can be hard work.

Here are a few of my favorites.

● I seriously drop everything that I pick up. I’ve heard about the pregnancy clumsiness that takes over, but was somewhat relieved to read that dropping things is a real symptom too. When pregnant, your joints actually loosen, meaning you have a weaker grip. To make this symptom worse, it’s already dreadful bending down to pick up each little thing that I drop.

● Sleeping has become an accomplishment rather than something I look forward to. A lot of the difficulty is due to Iris kicking up a storm lately, especially when I lay down for the night. It’s hard to get upset with this one though. In fact, I usually laugh because it often tickles and startles me. Falling asleep has also gotten harder as I’ve gotten bigger. Of course the one position you’re not supposed to sleep in is what you would think is best when you have a big ol belly – on your back. Supposedly, the best way to sleep is on your left side, so thank heavens for Katie who let me borrow her Boppy pregnancy pillow. It’s helped more than I could have ever imagined.

● More sleeping woes can be attributed to yet another symptom – peeing a million times a day! I did this before getting pregnant, so now it’s probably up to one billion times a day. I think that’s pretty standard.

● I’m starting to get a little shortness of breath and I tire really easily. If I stand for too long, all I want to do is lay down and put my feet up. The heat isn’t helping with this one either. I believe today was the hottest day in Fayetteville in over 10 years. My mom was pregnant with me during a terrible heatwave in Memphis, so I guess it’s only fair.

All in all, it’s still hard to complain. These symptoms are very much expected and they mean that we’re getting even closer to meeting our baby girl. Less than 14 weeks to go….

Pregnancy Blog: 25 weeks

Pregnancy Blog: 25 weeks

Pregnancy Blog: 25 weeks

Pregnancy Blog: 25 weeks

So I’ve got 25 out of 40 weeks under my belt. Quite literally.

With the 3rd trimester right around the corner, I feel like we’re finally getting somewhere! This week in particular has been monumental for several reasons…

● As of today, the fourth of July, there are 100 days left until my due date. Typed out that seems like a long time, but time really does seem to be flying by. I’ve never wished a summer away so fast in my life.

● Iris’ nursery furniture has been ordered and should be here in a week or two. We were fortunate to get a ‘lifetime’ set, so it transitions from nursery, to toddler, to teen furniture. Setting that up will mean that we can put everything else in place and turn it into a real baby room.

● We received a few sweet gifts from Jen, including an adorable dress, the tiniest bracelet in the world, and a Medela pump (which I’m sure any nursing, working mama will know this is something to be excited about).

● I went to my last monthly pre-natal visit. From now until the last month I’ll be going about every two weeks. That means we’re getting closer, folks! This past visit was a basic one, but everything looked good – normal blood pressure, measuring right on track, healthy heartbeat, etc. The only thing that stressed me out a bit was the amount of weight I’ve gained in the last four weeks (TEN pounds!). The doctor didn’t seem concerned at all, but considering I’ve got a little over 3 months to go, uh, I’m a bit worried.

● Last but not least, we went to Stork Vision Tulsa to see Iris Adella in 3D/4D! She was being stubborn at first, turning her back towards us and putting her hands in front of her face, but the ultrasound tech was very patient and very sweet. After taking some sips of coke and blasting My Morning Jacket from Todd’s iPhone to my belly (see, I’m a great mother already), she finally woke up and showed us her pretty face. It was incredible to see her move around as I felt her kicks. She waved her tiny fingers and even smiled a couple times. A few of the 80 photos we got are below, plus a video of her fancy hand action. Check her out…

Iris Adella - 3D Ultrasound

Iris Adella - 3D Ultrasound

Iris Adella - 3D Ultrasound

Iris Adella - 3D Ultrasound

Pregnancy Blog: 24 weeks

Pregnancy Blog: 24 weeks

Ah, 24 weeks.

This is about the time where I start to regret committing to a photo of me every week. While I’m excited that baby Iris is growing strong, I can’t say the same for my backside and, well, everywhere else.

At least this week of pregnancy has been a productive one. Thanks to Todd’s hard work, the nursery ceiling is completed and the walls are painted. We actually left the room the same color as before, conveniently pink, but it needed some major touch ups and the trim color had to go. While Todd did the hard labor, I started the dreaded daycare search. I’ve always known that I would go back to work full time after having a baby, so this has been something I’ve worried about for a while. Handing over Iris every weekday will be terribly hard, plus the cost of care is literally like paying another mortgage every month.

We’re hoping to hold off on daycare until January, but I’ve heard it’s best to start the search early due to waiting lists and such. After researching online and making a ton of phone calls, my mom and I toured a few of them this week. So far my favorite daycare is one that’s only .3 miles (about a 45 second drive) from my office. Yes, I timed it. If we decide to go with this one, I’m sure there will be some comfort in knowing that she’s so close.

So yes, this week has been busy, but I managed to squeeze in some pregnant lady fun too. For one, GL found out that she’s having a GIRL! She’s only a month behind me, so I’m excited to know that Iris will have an instant best friend. Also, our friend Taylor had her baby shower this weekend. She’s having a boy this August, so it looks like Iris will have a built in boyfriend too!

A few pictures from the shower…

Taylor's Baby Shower

Taylor's Baby Shower

Taylor's Baby Shower

Taylor's Baby Shower

Taylor's Baby Shower

Taylor's Baby Shower

Taylor's Baby Shower

GL, Taylor, & me
Taylor's Baby Shower

Xoxo

Pregnancy Blog: 23 weeks

Pregnancy Blog: 23 weeks

It’s hot.
And I’m pregnant.

Summer is here and I’ve spent this week laying low and staying cool. It’s been a pretty uneventful week pregnancy-wise, which I suppose is nice.

Here’s what we’ve been up to:

+ We have a brand new roof on our house (thanks to our amazing friends)!
+ Todd and I have started working on getting the nursery ready. It’s almost time for the fun part – decorating!
+ Iris has been kicking and punching me quite a bit lately. I love it. Keep it coming, lady.
+ I’ve been putting headphones on my belly now that her ears are supposed to be almost fully formed. I swear she dances in there.
+ I’ve started looking into daycare (insert sad face here). This is one of the biggest things I dread. Not only is it incredibly expensive, but I already don’t want to hand off my baby to a stranger everyday. I know that I have to go back to work full time, but I’m hoping we won’t have to use daycare until at least January. There is an option about one minute away from my office that I’ve looked into and I’m hoping to take a tour this week.
+ Today is Todd’s first sort of Father’s Day (even though he doesn’t think it counts). My mom brought him back some fancy steaks from Kansas City, so we’re spending the evening grilling in our backyard. In fact, I’ve got some potatoes and strawberry shortcake to make.

See you next week, if not before!

Pregnancy Blog: 23 weeks

Pregnancy Blog: 23 weeks

Pregnancy Blog: 23 weeks

Pregnancy Blog: 23 weeks