July 27, 2010 - Bump & Nursery Update

Here are the latest baby bump pictures. Jenn is a little over 28 weeks along right now. We also got around to hanging a few things in the nursery over the past weekend so we included a picture of that to share. Enjoy!

27 Weeks, 4 days

Hey all,

Yesterday we had another doctor's appointment and follow-up ultrasound. Sterling's mom Tammy and his grandmother Eva Jo came down to go to both of them with us :) It was great to visit with family for the day and to be able to show them our little baby in 4D real time :)

The doctor's appointment was just a routine appointment - checking the baby's heart rate, my blood pressure, weight gain, fundal measurements, etc. Dr. Swaim said my gestational diabetes glucose tolerance test came back normal so that was good news and she also recommended a pediatrician for us to check out, as you have to have your pediatrician picked out a month before delivery. The baby's heart rate was ~146 bpm and sounded nice and strong. As far as weight gain goes, I've packed on 25 pounds so far. On my home scale, I started at 134 and now I'm at 159 lbs. At the doctor's office, I started at 138 and now I'm at 163. I obviously like the smaller numbers of my home scale better but either way, I'm up 25 pounds which is still on track for where my doctor wants me to be. It's the largest I've ever been in my life so it's pretty alarming seeing myself so big but I keep trying to remind myself it's temporary and it's healthy for me and healthy for Baby Cummings :)

After the doctor's appointment, we headed over to the Maternal/Fetal Center for our ultrasound, which went really well! The two smaller subchorionic hematomas have resorbed and are gone :) And the larger hematoma is located within the placenta (rather than behind the placenta) so it is not as big of an issue anymore and isn't interfering with the baby's growth and development :) The specialist didn't see any reason to order another follow-up ultrasound so unless Dr. Swaim orders another one for whatever reason, this was our last ultrasound before our little girl makes her debut :) So all of that was great news and relieving to hear that our little one is doing well! I'll be glad to be able to get out and about a little more, still a little bummed about not being able to exercise and having to "ease" around (anyone who knows me knows it's not in my nature!! lol) , but it's only for a little while longer...soon we will have our little baby and I'll be able to work on getting all this weight off and fitting into normal clothes again :)

Right now, the baby weighs 2 pounds and 12 ounces. Last month she was 1 pound and 7 ounces so she has close to DOUBLED her weight in just four short weeks! No wonder I've been so hungry!! They didn't tell us where she was height wise (and we forgot to ask), but for weight she is in the 70th percentile so she is growing nicely :) It had been a while since I had eaten when we got the ultrasound done so she was napping and wasn't moving around a ton. She was curled up with her arms around her head/face. We got to see her blink several times and she was also practicing breathing and opening/closing her mouth - that was pretty cute to see :) We still can't really tell who she looks most like yet, we'll have to wait till she arrives before making those assertions- but she definitely has her daddy's feet! :) My sister Janna thinks she has my lips - but I think she might be a little biased, haha. Regardless, Sterling and I think she is already perfect and she will be a beautiful baby. All of the women of the family are going to have a fun time playing dress up with her. Tammy bought us a lot of cute little baby dresses from the Polo baby outlet - I can't wait to see her in all of them :) :) :) And Eva Jo bought us our big crib set so the nursery is coming together! I will take some pictures of those things once I get the sheets washed and everything put on the bed :)

After our appointment, we all grabbed dinner at Lupe Tortilla off of Southwest Freeway and that was really good. Then we went home and scrutinized the latest episode of the Bachelorette and I ended up falling asleep on Sterling on the couch. All in all, it was a great day and visit! Always good to see family and have visitors :)

Here are some pictures of our little love from her ultrasound:

teeny tiny foot

opening her little mouth

I'll post some pictures of my belly and of the nursery and clothing soon. Hope all is well with everyone!

- J & S

Fourth of July Holiday

Happy 23rd Birthday to my sister Janna, Happy Birthday to America and Happy Fourth of July everyone! We hope everyone enjoyed lots of family time and fireworks and good food!

My mom made a last minute trip to come visit us. Continental.com occasionally has last minute round trip flight specials that come out on Tuesday before the weekend that the flight is available for - they do this whenever they don't fill up flights all the way so mom was able to get a round trip flight from Knoxville to Houston for $179 - a ton cheaper than it normally is!

Sterling had to work from home over the weekend but it was good to spend time with my mom and give him time to catch up on all of his work and have my mom there to help us with meals and baby prep stuff. Mom and I saved up our Babies R Us coupons and waited for the weekend sale and were able to get the crib and changer/dresser that we registered for at 30% off :) Mom and I like our deals and I'm lucky because likes to spoil me and her future grandbaby :) Sterling got a truck from home depot and brought home the furniture and then our neighbors helped him move them from the truck into our house. We also got a pack and play from Target. The one that we ended up choosing was blue and brown and owl-themed. There were a ton of cute pink ones that we liked but we figured it would be better to be practical and get something gender neutral since this is our first baby and eventually down the road we might choose to have more kids. Later in the day, Sterling put our crib together and I helped with the hardware and to stabilize the pieces :) And then mom and I worked on the pack and play, though it was pretty much already assembled except for the mobile and changer attachment. Here are some pictures:

Little Owls :)

Mom and her grandpups :)

Mom sitting and holding part of the crib

Sterling hard at work :) I love him.

Such a great husband and already shaping up to be a great daddy!

Dresser/Changer

Crib :)

On Tuesday, I had another doctor appointment. I had to do my gestational diabetes 1-hour test which basically just entailed not eating for an hour before the appointment, then drinking this sugary drink that had 75 grams of carbs in it, and then an hour later they drew some blood to measure my sugar and insulin levels. I'll get the results of that test back later in the week. Other than that, the nurse took my vitals and listened to fetal heart tones (her heart rate was 145 bpm today) and then Dr. Swaim talked with me about pain management options during labor. I already knew what all was available to me and safe for baby but it definitely made everything a little more real - almost like it just now really hit me that I'm going to be going into labor and have to deliver a baby in 3 or so months. Kind of scary, kind of exciting, mostly just craziness to me! So hard for me to be able to wrap my head around it all. Sterling's stance on everything is kind of like "Yep in three more months I'll be driving us to the hospital and you'll deliver us a little baby and it will be fun" and meanwhile - even though I completely agree that it will be a beautiful happy day and we will finally get to meet her and she'll to meet all of our family and I get to see Sterling holding her, and I can't wait for all of that - I also get all of these fleeting panicky thoughts of "MAN I wish he were having the baby instead!!!!! He's so calm about all of this!!!! AHHH!!" lol. And the reality and excitement of it all sinks in a little more each day as I see the numbers on the scale go up and the inches of my belly increasing :) Here are some recent bump pictures:

How all of my pre-pregnancy tank tops are fitting these days, haha

So incredibly ROUND!!!!

25 weeks, 4 days

- J&S