Week 36

Major Developments: Baby is shedding the hair that covered his body as well as the waxy substance that protects the skin. All of this is swallowed and will be in his first poopy diaper. Gross baby Grayson! At the end of week 36, baby is considered full term

Size of Baby: Weight of Crenshaw melon and about 18.5 inches long

Week 36 is over!!! Man, things are really starting to get busy around here. It’s a little maddening.

Megan has been slaving since she got back on prep for the shower she is throwing with my Mom and Bre. On Friday the Thomas sisters got together and finished up the baked goods. Megan had already baked everything, we just had to decorate. I had left over cake from some cake pops I had made for someone’s birthday on Monday so we rolled those up and dipped them. The shower was “rain shower” themed (so cute) so the sugar cookies were in the shape of raindrops. They were frosted blue. We tried to get fancy with my icing piper on the cupcakes. Megan was much better at it than I was. We did them white with blue sparkle sprinkles. I really want to take a cake decorating class. I’m no good at the decorating part of baking; unless its cake pops, then I’m alright. I better snap to it so I can be ready for Grayson’s first birthday. Anyways, I digress.. We got all of that finished up and ready for the shower the next day. I have really been wanting to have a sugar cookie for the past week or so. I was super excited to finally have one.

Saturday the shower finally arrived. Everything was super cute. I went over early to set up and I almost died at the cuteness of everything. Megan had precious little signs for all of the food. She reused these adorable stipped straws from my Utah shower and put little rain clouds on them. So clever. Bre made white poofy things out of tissue paper which had little rain drops dangling from them.  Megan even made the cutest thank you signs and banners. I don’t have all of the pictures yet -  just two that Megan posted on Facebook. When I get the rest, I will post more pictures. It was seriously adorable! All of the food was really really healthy (just like this preggers) and then you got to the desert table and it all went down the drains. I had quite a few treats. I had held off on eating bad all week because I knew Megan was going to be baking up a storm. I guess it’s not bad to indulge once in a while right?

The shower itself went really well. We played the candy bar game & the game where everyone guesses my measurements. No one was allowed to say the word cute when I opened gifts too. At this point, Megan is going to be a professional at planning showers. She did really well! I got loaded up with lots of cute clothes, wash clothes, bath stuff, toys (one of which I kept referring to as a chew toy. LOL), diaper changing pads, and the most adorable handmade diaper bag. My friend has another friend who is having a baby and she received a bag similar to mine. She loved the bag so had the same lady make me one. It’s awesome and so comfortable. I also got 3 baby jumpers. You know the type that hangs from the doorway? It was hilarious. I couldn’t believe it. The whole registry thing has been very odd. It seems like Target is not very good at updating things that are bought. I spent a lot of time making sure that everything was always checked off to avoid getting duplicates. I guess if everyone goes shopping the same day it’s hard to control. Who knows. I think everyone had fun though. I know I did. I just get so overwhelmed with how generous people are. I feel guilty accepting so much. We have been given so many things as well as gift cards. We have hardly had to buy anything – excluding things for the room. I am very lucky to have such a great support system. Megan took me home from the shower and I just burst into tears. I’m just such an emotional wreck. I’m like “thanks for working so hard on the shower” (in a crying voice). Hahaha. Oh man…. I’m a mess!

That night, after the shower, I was seriously pooped. Making dinner did not sound like a good plan at all. Eric and I decided to go out for dinner. We are running out of time to have dinner dates before we are a family of three. We were so indecisive that it literally took us over 2 hours to decide on something. Nothing sounded good what so ever. Can you believe that? How many pregnant women can’t decide on what they want to eat. I’m a freak of nature. We went to Macaroni Grill and I ended up getting the most pregnant item on the list. A burger topped with fried mac & cheese. It was probably not the healthiest thing on the planet. When in Rome right? Just kidding. Afterwards we went to our favorite Gelato spot.  A middle aged man stopped us and was absolutely convinced that I am having a girl. They were told their son was a girl but it turned out to be a boy. He was really nice. He even said my ankles were looking good. I don’t usually heat that. I usually hear people say; wow your ankles are swollen today. I usually end up telling them, no they aren’t swollen, I just have cankles. He really freaked me out though. I mean, I know I’m not having a girl. I have several pictures and recordings with the proof. I just started freaking out thinking OMG, what would I do? How can you change your way of thinking so quickly when you end up having something that you were told you weren’t having. And all of the cute clothes people have already given you. What a mess that would be. I’ve already programmed my mind about little Grayson. I think I would have a hard time adjusting that! I would go into shock! But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. That’s not going to be happening! Little baby Grayson will be here before we know it.

My cloth diaper making process is finally off the ground. Sunday I spent a good portion of the day tracing all of my diaper patterns onto my fabric. The bolts that diaper fabric comes off are a lot larger than regular fabric. I can’t remember how wide they are but they are huge pieces of fabric. I have to lay them out on my living room floor because my sewing table is too small. I need a sewing room like my Grandman Frandsen’s. One day…. For now, I’ll just keep dreaming.  My diaper covers are going to be a one size diaper that fit through infancy through potty training, so hopefully I only have to do this once. The first one I made seemed huge. I ended up cutting down one of my patterns to make a smaller diaper. It took me a good 3 hours to trace out my pattern on 2 of my fabric cuts. You really have tot plan how to lay everything out to get the most out of the fabric. I think I did a dang good job. I was able to get 7 covers and most of its extra pieces out of a yard of fabric…if I remember right. The pieces that don’t fit on my yard I’m cutting out of a white piece of diaper fabric that I decided to use on the inside instead of the outside. My covers are going to be yellow, dinosaur print, and owl print. Poor little Grayson was getting all smooshed while I was tracing. I didn’t finish my largest piece of fabric tracing. I thought I’d give little Grayson’s head a break from being all jammed up from me bending over. I had about 14 diaper covers cut out by the end of Sunday night. Man, was my body sore the next day! Butt, legs, arms, back.. all sore; too much bending. I’m glad I’m mostly done with that part of it. I think tracing the pattern is going to be the most time consuming part.

Daycare is something that I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. Baby Grayson will not need to be in daycare until late August but I want to get a spot reserved ASAP. I like to have a plan for everything. I also didn’t want to have to choose inferior care because I waited too long to pick a provider.  Monday we had a daycare to interview. It was another home daycare, which is really what we are looking for. We don’t want to send our baby to a daycare center, like tutor time or something, because I think he needs more of the hands on personal care for now. I probably send him to a daycare center and take him out of home daycare when it is time for him to be doing preschool. Initially, I was super impressed with the couple we were interviewing. They sent us over a huge packet of information on their daycare and policies. The other thing I really was impressed with was the fact that this couple provided so many tips on home day care. They gave un biased information on what we should be looking for in a provider. The daycare is called Gee Wiz and they live right across the street from our neighborhood.  It is run by a couple who has 7 children of their own. They are fairly young – maybe 5 or 7 years older than Eric. I doubt that either of them are in their 40’s. I like that about them. They really really seem to love children. 3 or 4 of their kids are school aged so they will not be at the day care. Their license with the state allows them to take 10 kids a day, but they don’t take a full 10 kids. They take only 2 infants and the rest are older. They like to monitor the age groups they take in so that the daycare can run smoothly. One thing I liked about this daycare over the last one we interviewed is the house has an open floor plan. Each age group has its own little section and everyone has their own crib. They have a million things for the kids to do as well. The last lady we interviewed had a lot of toys but the infants were kept in her family room and all of the other ages had little bedrooms. I found it hard to understand how she’d keep an eye on everyone if they were all sectioned off into different parts of the house. Gee Wiz does not have a pool, which is a plus for me – the last lady had one. They also don’t have any cats and the last lady had one. She also had a bar in the house which made me a little nervous. I mean obviously the kids wouldn’t have access to the alcohol but it would be scary to think they might sneak off and climb on the barstools and fall or hit their head on a bottle. Who knows. The couple at Gee Wiz were super up front about everything. They seem like truly honest people. They explained everything that goes on in a day. They have even mentioned that most of the kids that come from their daycare have had the option of skipping kindergarten. They have a lot of activities throughout the day and everything is very structured. I really feel like we clicked better with the couple at Gee Wiz. I got a really good feeling about them, and so did Eric. I liked the last lady, but I didn’t walk out of her house thinking, wow, I really really like her. The only extra positive thing about the last lady is that a coworker takes her baby there. I know that she’s good at what she does but it just seems like she does it because she’s a stay at home mom and it gives her something to do. Her kids are fully grown. The people at Gee Wiz have a home daycare because it’s truly what they love to do. I’m excited to be signing up for a spot this week with Gee Wiz. That is one more thing off of the list!!

Because I met with the Daycare people on Monday and was just freaking pooped the rest of the night, I wasn’t able to start sewing my diaper covers until Tuesday. I had planned to sew a little each night because I want these bad boys finished. After they are finished, Grayson is welcome to come any time he wants. So Tuesday night I decided to make one start to finish. I had originally planned to do them in an assembly line, but I wanted to make sure everything was going to work first. Now that I have the proper elastic (which I bought a whole box of at Joann’s – The people probably thought I was crazy) I was finally able to finish a cover that actually looked professional. It took me the whole evening to get it right but it was finally done. You have no clue how ecstatic I was; partly because I was happy that I wasn’t pissed off and in a bad mood and partly because the cover was just so dang cute! I am now confident that I can get all of these covers done and sewn correctly. I also bought my diaper inserts on Monday so I was able to put the whole thing together. The insert really helped me understand what adjustments needed to be made. The cover seems so dang comfortable. Its like a little cushion for his little bum. I also got the leg gussets under control so we should not have as many leaks. I actually heard somewhere that cloth diapered babies have less blow outs than disposable. I’m starting to see why. Plastic diapers are so thin and flimsy. Cloth diapers really seem absorbent. I can’t wait to try it out. The first one I made was with the yellow fabric, which I love, but I’m dying to make the dinosaurs and owls. They are seriously going to be precious! I have one picture of the cover below but I promise I will post more of the inside and outsides of the others so you can all see how they work. They are marvelous!

Yesterday Eric and I attended our first pregnancy class. This one was a class called the Art of Breastfeeding. I found it to be extremely helpful and full of information. There was so much to learn that I would have had no clue about had I not attended the class. If you ever know anyone debating on taking the class or not, I’d say take it. You learn so much on the proper way to get your baby to latch on and how to avoid a painful mess. I know a lot of people aren’t too gung-ho on breastfeeding. It seems like if you don’t know the right way to fix a problem you are having I can see it being frustrating and easier to quit. This class gave us so much information on how to fix common problems with breastfeeding. As long as my baby figures out the whole breastfeeding thing, I would like to breastfeed him as long as my body will allow me to. Obviously, I’m not going to have a 3 year old dangling out of my shirt, but I’d like to breastfeed for at least the first year. If he starts to get too big, I’m planning on pumping and bottle feeding. To me, the important thing is that he is eating breast milk and not formula. I took an infancy class in college and learned so much about the benefits of breastmilk. I know that he will come out fine either way but my plan and goal is to breastfeed. I was not breastfed and I didn’t self-destruct. I really like the idea of breastfeeding for the bonding and personal time you get with baby.  I guess when it’s time to start the solid foods, we’ll see how things work out. I have been hearing about making baby food from home and adding a little breast milk to the food. My doctor recommended it and said it’s a really good way to make sure that your baby is getting food without all that extra crap without having to go “organic”. I’m just going to take this day by day but I’m really excited to try it out. I’m a little worried about the pump I bought. I might exchange it for the other one that I was researching. The instructor of the class didn’t know much about the one I bought but the other one I researched she knew a lot about. I guess it just varies for each person. We’ll see!

So I have a child birthing class on Saturday. I’m really excited about it because I really want to learn more about the epidural process. I have been doing a lot of thinking about that lately. Going into pregnancy, I was all for the epidural. I have noticed that a lot of my opinions have changed since getting further into my pregnancy. I have been considered going without an epidural in the last couple months. I’m not sure what my tolerance for pain is. I know I’m pretty wussy, but I would at least like to try. I am hoping to go into the labor process with an open mind. If I can’t handle it, then I’ll do the epidural. If I can, I’ll go without. I have been trying to prep myself so that I can go into this calm and peaceful. I really don’t want to be the crazy lady that scares all of the other women in delivery or the lady that kills her husband in labor. I know that a lot of people are thinking I’m crazy. Everyone I talk to is really opinionated about the epidural. It’s kind of driving me insane. I just want to experience it for myself and make that decision on my own without anyone else’s opinions. And whatever decision I make, I hope for real support not comments from the peanut gallery.  Sometimes I think that people think just because I’m a first time mom I don’t know anything and I can’t make educated decisions on my own. Some people have advised asking for the epidural as soon as the doors open to the hospital. I have even had people tell me their doctors advised them to do that. I think that is pretty sad. I really don’t want to be numb the whole time. I have heard with the epidural that you are completely numb and don’t feel your baby coming out. How are you supposed to work with your baby if you can’t feel anything? I’m looking forward to labor in some ways. I’m not looking forward to the worst pain of my life but I think it will be worth it. I just really need to research and come to a conclusion. My doctor has given us a lot of options on pain management. One Eric and I are going to look into is called the Bradley Method. This is where the husband acts as a labor coach basically and you get through it together. I think it sounds really nice and positive. I’ll let you know more about it next week. Sorry for the pregnancy rant!

So much is happening lately it’s hard to keep up with it all. My out of state family is really concerned about making it here for the birth. Unfortunately, we have no clue when baby will get here. I’m ready when baby is ready. I don’t want to rush him. He can come when he his ready. Just not the 4^th of July. My cube mate at work asked me the other day what the most annoying question I get asked it. I didn’t really have an answer for her at first. It used to to be questioning about the name situation. I think the most annoying question I get now is “So are you ready for this to be over”. I really am starting to wonder why people are always so negative about the end of pregnancy and why they are so antsy to get it over with it. My pregnancy has been one of the best things ever. I have enjoyed it thoroughly. I’m not particularly anxious about “getting it over”. That just sounds awful. I have been very fortunate to have a healthy uncomplicated pregnancy. To me, pregnancy is what you make it. Of course there will always be people that have had health problems that have made them legitimately miserable. I just feel like all of the uncomfortable things in pregnancy shouldn’t be made out to be more than they are as long as you are healthy. Of course I am uncomfortable when I’m hot and grumpy. Yes, it is difficult to bend over and get up from sitting.  And YES I’m sick and tired of peeing a thousand times a day. I try not to complain too much because those are all insignificant problems. (Eric is probably reading this and thinking, what planet is she living on? All I hear is complaints). So when people say, are you ready to get this over with I get annoyed. People should celebrate their pregnancy instead of count the days until it is over with dread.  Another pregnancy rant. I’m allowed 2 a blog entry right? I’ve hit my limit. Dang.

Health wise I’m doing well. My Braxton hicks contractions are coming more often now. They are uncomfortable but not painful more than a couple times a day. Its really freaky to see how hard and lumpy my belly gets! Very interesting.  My nails are growing like crazy. I want to get one of those long lasting manicures before the baby comes so I can have nice nails. I’m just afraid to go get it because my nails are growing like weeds. In other news, I have yet to see a stretch mark!! I keep worrying that I’ll see them all when the bump is gone. I’m keeping up with keeping the bump moisturized. It’s really cute because little baby Grayson wakes up every time I start rubbing my belly with lotion. He’s a cute little guy. I’ve been having weird dreams lately too. More stressful dreams about labor and problems with the baby’s health during labor. I think it’s just nerves about the labor process.

Any hoot. I’ve been going on for a while now. I have pictures from the maternity shoot. I’ve included them below. I didn’t post the pictures of the nursery. I’m going to post them in another blog with all of the info on where I found everything. The pictures are courtesy of Meg Brooke Photography. She did a fantastic job. I’m lucky to have a photographer for a sister.