41 weeks prego

Pics above are 1)chad and I after a day of moving. 2)Chads 30th bday party with my bro and Chad. 3) Kelly and I at Chads bday.

Still pregnant............the good news is, he is safe and warm and happy in there. The hard part is that Chad and I and all of Dutch's soon to be family and friends are so ready to meet him! Not to mention I am really ready to not be pregnant anymore. My belly is so freakin big, it is really frusterating to move around and carry this boy in my belly! My friend Kelly picked up one of my 8 lb. weights and said, "Casey-this is in your tummy." I lifted up the weight and realized how hard core 8 lbs. is! I have done it all. Acupuncture to induce labor, pineapple, black licorice, "frolicking" with my husband, walking stairs, walking hills, moving into a new home! This boy is not ready- I guess. We are thankful that we were able to move into our new place before Dutch's arrival. We are pretty much all settled in which is amazing. We love it so much and we are so so so lucky to have such awesome friends. We had Casey Myers, Grant, Sandra, Cortney, Kelly, Kellie, and Cody. We could not have done it without all of those awesome peeps.
I think the hardest part about the last few weeks of pregnancy is thinking it would be like in books and movies. Your due date comes, your water breaks, you wake up your husband and he is so happy and nervous. He drives like a maniac to the hospital and out comes your beautiful baby. I guess its not always like that. Pregnancies really can go to 42 weeks and the water might never break. We might have to induce labor and we are scheduled to do so on Tuesday. We need to call the hospital and see when we can come in that day to get things started. Our midwife said there is a chance it can get bumped to Wednesday if they are a full house. I still have hope that he will come out on his own before then. That hope goes away a bit each day when I wake up still pregnant.

I know we will meet him soon enough. We love him so much and just want to bring him into the world. After more than 10 months of imagining what it will be like, we want to hug and kiss and hold him!

Time for me to go get a decaf americano and try to walk Vader.

week 39, just woke up and realized my time to blog was running out!

Chad turns 30 today and Dutch turns 39 weeks! Aren't my belly pics amazing!? It looks so much bigger than it feels in the pictures. Well, sometimes that is not true, it can feel pretty darn huge at times. Like when I am putting on shoes and socks, picking up something that my clumsy self has dropped, trying to get out of bed, or walking with Chad and Vader and asking them to slow down. I have had two weekdays of my maternity leave so far and it is the best thing ever. I am glad I started it before my due date because Chad, Vader and I are getting some serious quality time. Not to mention the fact that it was getting physically difficult to keep up with work. I am going to miss them, which is a good feeling and I am excited that I am going to go back. I get to be with my family until the end of April! I have been having major braxton hicks contractions the last two days and they can even be painful at times. They are very random and not intensifying with any regularity so I know they are not going to send me into labor. I do feel they are pushing Dutch down into the right place because my belly looks crazy and deformed with his little body at the end. If I touch my belly it is rock hard at the bottom where he is hanging out. So exciting! I have been so so so hungry lately and frosted mini wheats have been my craving. Something about carbs and pregnancy, I am not sure why. I actually lost a pound at my last appt which is beyond my comprehension. I read in my book that is supposed to happen right before I give birth. yay! (Chad and I have some very good news! I keep thinking about my dads speech at my wedding and how he said "I am a do er.") Chad and I signed a lease on a town home in Redmond near my work and we are going to be able to move out whenever we want to after Jan 18! It is AWESOME and so big! We are going to have two bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. Dutch will actually have his own room and I am getting so excited to think about decorating it with Star Wars! Vader is going to love it because there is carpet so he wont have to be afraid of the floors. I will have a short bus ride to work. Its going to be great. Who knows how or when we will actually move but luckily, it is up to us completely. We will even have a view of the Cascade mountains! I am so happy Dutch will be in that home eventually, it has taken a huge weight off of my shoulders, even though I know its not going to be easy to move with a baby. We are definately going to wait to move until after he is born and after we feel ready to make things happen. Chad is again, the calm one in all of this and his attitude always reassures me when I start to panic or feel overwhelmed. I hope the next blog post is welcoming Dutch into the world! I am so so so so excited and I love him so much and cant wait to meet him! Wish us luck!

week 38 hair cut

Still waiting patiently. I always seem to chop my hair off before life changing events. Makes me feel powerful. Doc appt last week was great. Blood pressure went up just a bit but he is measuring perfectly and although it went up, the blood pressure is still healthy and great. If he is not here next week it will be castor oil cocktails. I am totally kidding. I could not drink that stuff no matter how badly I want my little boy to be here.

36.5 weeks Swimming and acupuncture

Month 9 is pretty tiring, I must admit. Chad and I have had fun feeling Dutch move around like a maniac, that is the positive. I have had such cabin fever and I feel so lazy resting all the time so I bit the bullet and went swimming. It was FAN FREAKING TASTIC. I felt so weightless and it felt so good on my body. It was funny because I could feel him kicking while I was swimming and my sister and I decided that was Dutch swimming. I was so stoked that my sister wanted to swim with me. Especially because it is winter and freezing outside. She wouldnt let me go off the diving board. Probably for the best.
I have been going to acupuncture to help with pregnancy symptoms and it has been incredible. I have found an amazing lady who has improved my back and my swollen cankles with massage, cupping and acupuncture. It blows my mind how less swollen I am now. I had my group B strep test last week and do not know the results yet. I was way wrong to assume he is ready to pop out any minute and our midwife assurred me I had a few more weeks to go. I think I was in denial that he could grow for another few weeks. He already feels so HUGE! My blood pressure is still great and he is measuring correctly so we are all good. I am going to see the midwives every week now. I start my maternity leave Jan 7. I feel wierd about not working for four months but work is being so supportive and wonderful. I am very lucky. I am able to be with Dutch until the end of April. I know it will fly by.....

week 33 and week 35 pics.......puffy and patient.......Dutch's dad at the Lakewood service

I will start with the photo of Chad. His mom saw him on tv and took a pic with her phone and sent it out. Pretty amazing. He was in the procession (not sure if I am saying this all correctly) for the Lakewood police officers that were killed recenly. So amazing that he was able to go to the service and support the law enforcement community. I feel that everything that has been happening in WA regarding cops being killed is really affecting most people. Even those who just read about it. Between the 4 officers, they left behind 9 children. Chad said there was a part of the service when the kids all got up there and some of them spoke and he really lost it. He came home and told me how much he wants to meet Dutch and be a dad and its hard to think about that being taken away. I am so thankful for Chad and everyone in my life and I am greatful for every night and day he comes home safe.

As for the belly pics above, week 33 is on the bottom and week 35 which starts today are the one's in black. As you can clearly see, the water retention is ridiculous. I am having trouble finding shoes that will fit the tops of my feet because they are so huge. I managed to paint my toe nails last night but it was not easy. I had to roll around and basically practice lamaze breathing with each toe. I had to put some polish on though because my feet look like they belong to Frodo. They are huge and Chad cant even look at them without cracking up. I do still have my wedding ring on but I think at this point it would not come off anyways. I think for the most part I am feeling pretty good. I am excited that Dutch is almost here and we are pretty much ready for him. Bag was packed yesterday and his clothes are all washed, etc. The only other big complaint is back aches. I really feel it by the end of the day in my back because of how huge my belly is. I have kept up my walking daily but today I decided it is not helping me at this point. By the time I get home from a walk- my back and feet are killing me. My friend Kelly suggested swimming but there is no way I am going to a public place in a swim suit for many reasons.

Dutch is due on Jan 17 but Chad and I are both hoping he comes early. Chad is convinced he will come on Jan 10 because that is Chad's bday. I just hope he comes before the 12th because Cortney will be home until then. Otherwise she wont meet him for months and that is not cool! Our next appt is Dec 21st and they are going to do the Group B strep test. Hopefully they will be able to tell me an estimate on when he will come out. I honestly never thought I would be excited for him to come out. You always hear that at the end of a woman's pregnancy she is "ready" and feels huge and is uncomfortable. I never really understood that until I am now feeling all of those things. I remember seeing Chad's sister Rachel when she was about 9 months prego and I thought she looked great and I did not understand the frusteration on her face. I now understand. :) It is heavy and SO frusterating to not be able to move around like you want to. I have days when I am afraid of labor and days when I think.....I can do this and it is going to be amazing. I really do think excitement is the main emotion at this point. I think if you asked Chad what he thought my main emotion would be, he would say "irritated or exhausted." He is the one who really gets to hear all of my complaints and he handles it so well. I am very very lucky to have him and I cant wait to see him as a dad.

8 months.....baby showers, crib set up and a happy placenta

Time is going by so quickly. I am so excited to meet Dutch but at the same time, this is the only time in my life that he will be in my tummy. I get to take him to work with me everyday right now. He goes with me to run errands, walk Vader, watch my favorite shows and entertain me with his karate kicks. Chad put the crib together a few weeks ago. There must be some MAN emotion that makes them very sensitive to the crib. Chad was so into this project. He wanted to do this for Dutch so badly and it was not awesome when the crib became hard to put together. Chad was losing his mind and I could hear him yelling things Dutch should not hear, from the bedroom. The good news is, he did it, and its perfect, and it FIT! As soon as Chad was done and he knew he did it, he was so happy and proud of himself.

I have had four baby showers in the last 3 weeks. I LOVE baby showers, especially when they are for my baby! Chad's sister Shauna threw me a baby shower and she is pregnant too! She is awesome and I could not believe she still wanted to do that. Chad decided at the last minute that he wanted to come too because it was all of his family. He had a blast! He did end up getting the swine flu after the shower but dont worry, I am protected because I got the H1N1 shot. It was rough, so so so rough, but he and we survived. The next shower was at my bff, Kelly's house. It was a small group of close girlfriends and some of Kellys friends who have become my friends over the years. It was so fun! Last week my work threw me a surprise shower. I had NO IDEA and it was so nice. They made me a book and everyone made a page for Dutch with either a poem or words of wisdom. I went home and read it to Chad and started bawling and laughing because I was bawling and I knew it was because I was pregnant. Chad thought I was crazy which made me laugh even harder. It was "awkward." haha :) The last shower was by my bff, Kelly again! She threw me two showers and she has just been amazing. It was my family, some of chads family (who basically is my family) and family friends and more friends from WSU and two of my co workers. It was so much fun! Dutch is so spoiled with love and presents already.

We really dont have to buy anything else besides bottles, burp rags and diapers. I just feel so happy and totally lucky to have such caring people in my life.

We had our 32 week appt yesterday and at this appt, they wanted to check my placenta to see if it has moved away from my cervix. That would mean that I would be able to deliver regularly rather than having to plan ahead for a C section. They also checked Dutch out to see how he was doing. He is GORGEOUS! His feet were crossed in front of his face so it was kind of hard to really see him. We saw his foot, which had five toes. They checked his spine and head and his heart and all the important stuff. He is beautiful. He weighs 4lbs and 8 oz so far. I am measuring at 32.8 weeks which is .6 ahead of schedule. Our midwife said it looks like he is going to have some really long legs! She also did tell us the fabulous news that my placenta has moved! Everything is all good and he is head down and all that, my placenta is out of the way, so this baby will be coming out of my...............body. OH LORD. that is scary. BUT EXCELLENT! I go through these waves of fear and then acceptance with the whole, baby is coming out of me somehow thoughts. I was talking to Chad about it last night and I said, "Chad, I am scared." He said, "well, Case....the good news is, he is coming out no matter what so there ya go."

oh boy............................in about 6 weeks..............oh boy...........................................................

good friday

I passed the three hour!!!!!!!!!!!!! YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No more worry but definately alot of eating healthy.