A Visit from Deanna and Mason

Today, Deanna and Mason came to visit.  What a wonderful treat during these last few days before Lexi arrives.  It was such a pick me up to have a precious little baby to cuddle with.  Mason was in a great mood and chilled out, slept and swung in the baby swing during his visit.  He even gave me a bunch of big smiles after he had a diaper change.  That boy loves his clean diapers!  After that I got out the camera to take some pictures, but we couldn't get him to smile for us again.  In fact he gave me quite the grump face, which led to the picture where he looks like he's thinking "Lady, get that camera out of my face."  Isn't he so precious!  My mom enjoyed getting to have a little baby time.  She's ready for Lexi to be here and was in full "Mimi" mode with Mason.  What a great day!

This evening Nick and I had a date night (which might be our last one in a while).  We are planning to spend this last weekend before Lexi arrives enjoying some quality time together.  After this, we will forever be a mommy and daddy and have a little one here to capture our attention. 

False Alarm

Baby Alexis decided not to make her appearance into the world yesterday.  After a trip to the hospital, I was hooked up to the monitor and was having contractions that measured exactly 3 minutes apart.  I had been having contractions for 15 hours and since these contractions were textbook, starting at 20 minutes and slowly progressing to 3 minutes apart and about a minute each Nick and I were sure this was the real thing.  We were so excited to finally meet our little angel.  Nick even said "Today is my baby's birthday" in the car on the way to the hospital.  He is SO ready for her to be here!
Then the nurse came to check me for dilation.  Low and beyhold, after all those contractions, I was still closed and my cervix was not even effaced.  I would love to know how this is possible, but apparently, my contractions were not strong enough and Lexi is not low enough to help me dilate.  Now I'm praying this doesn't cause problems down the road if I end up having to be induced on September 28th.  They sent me home, still having contractions which continued pretty much for the rest of the day.  My mom went ahead and drove up from Houston, but all the other family, that was waiting anxiously to make the journey to Dallas, got called off.  Finally last night, the contractions stopped (after about 27 hours) and I was able to get some sleep.  Now I have to wait until contractions are so painful I can hardly walk or talk, or for my water to break.  I have a doctor's appointment on Thursday, so I'm hoping that I will be starting to dilate at this point.  Stubborn little Alexis is just too comfy in her cushy little home and doesn't want to make her way out just yet.  Hopefully it will be any time now!

Here's my 39 week update:

Pregnancy Highlights:

How far along are you: 39 Weeks

Total Weight Gained: 29.5 (I have actually lost a few pounds these last 3 weeks)

Maternity Clothes: YUCK!  I can't wait to wear regular clothes again.

Sleep: Not much these last few nights.  It is impossible to get comfortable, but I know that I will be getting even less sleep than this soon so I'm trying to sleep as much as possible.

Gender: A girl. Alexis Taylor will be here any time now!

Movement: She just squirms.  Her feet are up by my ribs so I do get the random kick to my ribcage.

Food Craving:  Not much of an appetite for anything in particular.  I'm still loving Caramel Frappucinos.

What I Miss: Comfortable sleep, being able to beind over to pick up things I drop.

Symptoms: Braxton-Hicks contractions and regular contractions, pressure down low, sore back, pains in my thighs, menstral cramp pain,

Best Moment this Week:  Starting maternity leave and knowing that in just a few days I will finally hold my little girl in my arms for the first time. 

Is today the day?

Alright world...I have been having contractions for the last 13 hours.   They started last night around 6:00 at 20 minutes.  I timed them for a few hours and then decided to try to get some sleep.  Around 1:45 I woke up to a contraction.  Again I started timing them, and now they were closer to 8 minutes apart.  This continued for a few hours until I finally fell asleep around 3:00.  I woke up at 4:00 and the contractions had continue, and now were about 7 minutes apart.  At this point I timed them for an hour, then woke up Nick and we went for a walk around the neighborhood. 

I had read so much online, in baby books and heard my doctor say not to call until the contractions were 5 minutes apart.  They weren't very painful, just an uncomfortable feeling starting in my lower back and wrapping around to my lower stomach, like I was having bad menstrual cramps and my uterus would tighten up.  At this point, I was convinced that I was having real contractions, not Braxton Hicks, but I wasn't quite sure what to do.  I did some picking up around the house and then decided to sit down and blog to distract myself.  I know that labor (if that's what this is) can end up going on for MANY hours, but the waiting is especially hard.  At this point, they are getting closer to 5 minutes and I have a call in to the doctor to see what to do next.  I dread going to the hospital only to be sent home after all this, but I know that's always a possibility.  Who knows...maybe little Lexi will make her appearance into the world sooner than we thought. 

A House Full of Pregnant Chicks

This weekend, Nick's sister Courtney came up from Longview to Dallas for her first baby shower.  She's 22 weeks pregnant and excepting a little boy named Cord Robert.  The shower was so beautiful and it was so fun to shower baby Cord with gifts and love.  I know he and Lexi are going to be super close cousins. 

Courtney's best friend Stephanie was one of the hostesses of the shower and she is also 28 weeks pregnant.  Saturday, after the shower ended, they came to our house to spend the night.  I know Nick was laughing with his friends about having a house full of pregnant women this weekend.  We went out to Blue Goose Mexican restaurant to eat and then walked through the Shops of Highland Village to get a Dream Bar at Potbelly.  We were getting a lot of funny looks as we all three waddled around through the shopping center in front of Nick.   I would have loved to be able to read people's minds at that very moment. 

Here I am 38 weeks pregnant.  I feel like a beluga whale.  

Pregnancy Highlights:
How far along are you: 38 Weeks

Total Weight Gained: 30

Maternity Clothes: I am trying to wear ANYTHING non maternity that I own.  I am SO done with maternity clothes.

Sleep: I am up going to the bathroom all night.  With that, on top of TONS of Braxton Hicks contractions, it's hit or miss.

Gender: A girl.  Lexi will be here any time now!

Movement: Just squirms.  She's head down and getting in position, so she's too big to move much.
When she decides to have a random dance party in my belly though it HURTS.

Food Craving:  Random things.  I can't eat Cinnamon Toast Crunch anymore (one of my pregnancy staples) because of indigestion so I miss that at lot.

What I Miss: Being skinny, seeing my feet, being able to paint my toenails, not having to struggle to pick something up off the ground when I drop it.

Symptoms: Braxton-Hicks contractions during the day, pressure down low, sore back, pains in my thighs and rib pain. 

Best Moment this Week:  Finishing up school and getting ready for maternity leave.

Freezer Meal Frenzy

This last week, I decided it was time to have a make cook fest and stock up on some meals in the freezer for when Lexi arrives. I know as new parents, we will probably be sleep deprived and the last thing we are going to want to do in the evening is go grocery shopping and put together recipes. Instead of resorting to drive thru and take out, I decided we should get some meals prepared ahead of time, so that we can just thaw something delicious in the fridge and heat it up in the oven in the evening. I got together a list of some freezer meals I have tried before, looked up a few new ones, put together a monster grocery list and spent Friday afternoon shopping. BAGS of groceries later, we were ready.   I got freezer container 2 for $1 at Dollar Tree, and stocked up on freezer Ziplocs and saran wrap.  All the necessities of freezer meal planning.  I also printed labels with the recipe title and directions for reheating to stick on each recipe.  This saved me time later, because I could just stick them on the meals instead of having to write things a million times with Sharpie.

Here was my freezer meal plan:
1. Chicken Enchiladas
2. Chicken Spaghetti
3. Hamburger Patties
4. Pulled Pork
5. Chicken Packets
6. Chicken and Black Bean Chili
7. Mom's Goulash (a take on Baked Ziti)
8. Stuffed Green Pepper Filling
9. Bacon Lover's Mac n Cheese
10. Mushroom and Herb Mac n Cheese
11. Beef and Bean Burritos
12. Breakfast Burritos
13. Pizza Crust
14. Lemon Poppyseed Muffins
15. Pineapple Passion Fruit Muffins
16. Pumpkin Cinnamon Chip Muffins
17. All-Spice Crumb Muffins
I had written out a plan so that we could get all the ingredients ready for the recipes, then I assemble everything at the end. On Friday evening, I trimmed all the chicken (7 packs of 4 breasts from Sprouts, which was on sale this week for $1.77 a pound). Then I put half in chicken packets for grilled chicken, which we eat all the time. The rest went into the crockpot overnight to shred in the morning to add to recipes. I also made a spice rub for the pork shoulder and wrapped it in saran wrap to marinade overnight. I also had 5 small pizza crusts that I placed in press and seal wrap, ready for the freezer.

11 chicken packets

On Saturday, we started prepping.  I shredded the chicken first (which feel apart from a long night a slow cooking) and then unwrapped the pork and put it in the slow cooker to cook throughout the day. Nick was a HUGE help.  He chopped up all the veggies and seperated them into bowls so they were easy to grab when I was putting the recipes together.  Then he cooked up all the ground beef and sausage, some of the veggies, helped with any lifting and CLEANED!  Anytime I needed the sink cleaned out or dishes rinsed he was there to help.  I couldn't have made it all day without him. My sister, Meagan, came over and shredded all the cheese (I'd bought blocks) and organized it into a large baking dish by type. 

I cooked all the pasta, spent time making burger buns that didn't turn out well, and assembled recipes as the ingredients were ready.  Some recipes required some individual cooking, but having most things prepared ahead of time helped us out so much.  I decided to save the muffins to bake on Sunday, so we just did all the main meal recipes on Saturday.
Here is a little picture tour of our Saturday of cooking!  It was a long day, but I felt so good by the time we were done.  And we had a freezer full of meals to help carry us through that first month with Lexi.  Now we can spend time focusing all our attention on her!

Burgers (8)

Prep Station (check out all those bowls of ingredients)

Pastas and Cheese (and freezer container off to the right)

The big blue bowl is where I mixes recipes to seperate into containers.  It was washed TONS during the day.

The cheese tray...YUM!

Stuffed Green Pepper Filling (4 bags, enough for 9 peppers)

Chicken and Black Bean Chili-frozen flat (4 bags)

Chicken Spaghetti (4 trays)

Mmm...pulled pork.  I made 2 bags of BBQ Pulled Pork for sandwiches and kept 2 bag plain.

Mom's Goulash (4 trays)

Bacon Lover's Mac -n- Cheese

Mushroom and Herb Mac -n- cheese

Chicken Enchiladas (I'll add the sauce on these before they bake)

Beef and Bean Burritos (14)

Breakfast Burrito filling (with sausage, egg, green onion, pepper, cilantro)

Breakfast Burritos (16)

Yummy!!  What a busy day :)