Naturally Optimistic

The ultrasound yesterday went very well - I'm relieved because I've been being a big worrywart lately - seems like I feel this baby less, haven't gained much weight, blah blah blah - it's enough to make a hormone-riddled brain more paranoid than necessary...but Baby B looks good! All the pieces are in the right places. The baby was drinking & swallowing amniotic fluid like crazy! We could see the mouth going & the tongue flapping around. A little wiggly here & there but not crazy like SOME babies I know. Weighing in at about 12oz - a little small for right now so they want to do a follow up ultrasound in 4 weeks. Thank God I have insurance! Profile pic - you can see nose, chin, etc... Pic of legs - going from left to right (feet at right)...crossed at the ankle. How modest! We are not going to find out the sex of the baby til he/she arrives. It was quite exciting last time. I admit it was a LITTLE hard when the doc was sitting there and asked me if I wanted ...

My sister-in-law and brother-in-law had their baby early this morning. Little Anders entered the world around 1:49am this morning. Born on the 4th of July! I can't wait to meet my little nephew. :) 7lbs 12oz lots of dark hair Dahlia is very excited to have another cousin!

My time in St. Cloud is coming to an end and I'm heading off to Apple Valley to meet up with my sweet daughter & sweet husband. yay! My family will be there to celebrate the triplets' first birthday! I am excited to see everyone - but a couple people in particular. I survived my alone time - it was good. I think it's necessary but it's hard sometimes. It was a real treat, in a way, to have several hours to just relax. I watched 27 DRESSES on my laptop, read my book, played on Facebook & the internet in general, sat in the hot tub and just had some me time. Now I'm ready for some Dahlia time!

Go wish Laurie & Pete a big fat CONGRATS on the arrival of their new wee one, Elizabeth Anne! I'm so excited to meet the newest member of their family!

A few photos (courtesy of my Mom) from the past weekend: Dahlia in her swing: Dahlia in her new bouncy seat: The Triplets (outfits courtesy of Auntie Carrie!):

and IT'S A GIRL!! I'll do a proper introduction later and the whole story and everything but in the meantime, we had a baby girl. 2:15pm on Friday afternoon (I posted at, what? 10;30am? You do the math!!). Her name is Dahlia Marie and she weighed in at a whopping 6lbs even. 19 1/4" long and so incredibly gorgeous (although, I might be a wee bit biased). The birth was the most amazing experience I've ever been through and my mind is still, well, blown, quite frankly. I am so tired though...time for a quick nap before we try to feed again.

Since Baby's B's room has a "jungle animal" theme going on and since we don't know the sex, Laurie chose an entirely WAY too cute shower invitation that featured a giraffe with lots of bright colors. I loved it. At the shower, there were lots of jungle animals - particularly giraffes! Gift bags, clothes, toys, stuffed animals. All so cute - giraffes on outfits, elephants on sleepers, monkeys on toys, full jungles on blankets, etc. The irony of it all is that Steve and I's collective height is about 10 1/2 feet. ha!

Yesterday was so much fun. Laurie and Sarah did an awesome job on the shower. The Chick Pea's room is sort of a "jungle theme" and the invites to the shower had a very cute giraffe on them....lots of the stuff at the shower also fit that theme - from sleepers to stuffed animals (the stuffed giraffes are SO CUTE), to jungle toys & a 'jungle chicken' - so cute! I am so grateful and so showered with love it's awesome. What a great feeling. and the BABIES!!!! Holly was there with Miss Claire, Sarah was there with Miss Aurelia, Freya was there with Mr. Johan, my cousin Lindsay was there with Gavin and of course Laurie's little one Kate was there too! It was the first time I got to meet Claire & Aurelia which was so cool! It was a lot of fun to see all the babies. They were all REALLY GOOD too. The food was fantastic. A bit too much so...my numbers were BAD yesterday. Part of me says "eh, whatever..." I'm about 99% sure I'll be on i...

I'm off to the Twin Cities today as my lovely & fabulous friends Laurie & Sarah are throwing me a baby shower! I cannot wait to see these lovely ladies and all the fabulous lovely ladies that are there (whom I haven't seen in ages!!) and some family too! I have been looking forward to this for a long time. Afterwards the "girls" in my family are going to stay at a hotel to celebrate my Mom's 60th birthday. I am so looking forward to girl time, family time, pool time, no-working-time. Eeeek. And Now...I must be off! Til tomorrow...

I'm starting to sound like that's all I think about! Well....it sort of is! So, yeah, 31 weeks today; 9 weeks to go. I think it will be less. My gut has always been "New Year's Baby" but now I just have this feeling that Baby B will be coming sooner rather than later. I don't know why I have this feeling I just do. Probably because Mama wants a big glass of wine & some chocolate cake! (just kidding....sort of...). I think I have noticed my first few stretch marks (I can't see them that well though due to the angle...). Damn that pisses me off. My Mom & sister have NONE and I'm about to cry foul!! Steve says it doesn't matter to him, but I say it matters to ME. *sigh* I continue to lather on the belly butter although I'm pretty sure that's only to make me feel better mentally. Steve's Mom bought Steve the "Christmas Snoopy" from Hallmark (it has a Charlie Brown Christmas tree on his t-shirt & lights up/plays the Pea...

I had a baby shower today! It was so much fun. Steve's Aunt threw it for me & Baby B. There were good friends & family there, lots of yummy things to eat and cute baby things too. A couple of difficult games (!) and the unsettling realization a couple times (internally) that this was a baby shower FOR ME! Weird. The Chick Pea was showered with many very useful gifts - from a diaper pail full of diapering necessities (thanks, Mom!) to a fabulous glider for rocking & nursing (thanks MIL & FIL, SIL, et al) to cute things for the nursery. I am feeling so much more in the mood to get things squared away in the baby's room now. Eeeek! My friend Sarah came up yesterday to hang out and she helped me clear out the last few things from the baby's room. Now we just need to put the molding up and remove a bookshelf. I feel like we're on the right path (lots still to be done, but the right path nonetheless). We had a good time hanging out - we talked a lot, went for ...

MMMMM! I could eat these babies right up!!

I had a doc's appt yesterday. Mostly everything is good although my doctor wants to do a follow up ultrasound because there was some size discrepancy between Baby's head and belly. She told me to "not worry" she's just anal but YUP that makes me worried. Not *too* worried but still...On the upside I get to take another peak at my little one, which is cool. 27 weeks yesterday. OH MY GOD. I did the fabulous glucose tolerance test yesterday. It wasn't bad at all. Just a lot to drink quickly which I'm not that good at. I had the orange stuff too (like Sarah ) and it was slightly chilled (unlike my sister's) so it wasn't a big deal. The hardest part was to NOT have OJ before my appointment. I also got my first Rogam shot. Whohooo! Nothing like a big needle in the behind to start my week. Fortunately I had forgotten about it so I didn't have time to get myself all worked up over it. It wasn't a big deal - anticipation for me is the worst part so ...

I should simply NOT be allowed to read " birth stories " right now (inmydelicatestate)as they leave me in puddles. *sigh* Good puddles.

Here they are - the latest & greatest belly shots. I really should "fix up" (as my mother would say) before taking these photos because MY GOD I mostly just look like ass. It also appears that the baby has usurped any territory which was once my butt! Weird. This leads people to tell me that "it's a boy" - however I'm eating sweets like crazy (mostly grapes & ice cream) and the heart rate is always about 154 which then people tell me "it's definitely a girl" so - I guess we're still clueless. 96 days and counting!!! EEEEEK!

Okay - I'm trying to wrap my head around the "baby gear" thing and I'm not getting very far. There are a few things that I know we need/want and those specifics I can figure out. There are some things we have, some things we're getting as hand-me-downs from family & friends and then there is.... THE STROLLER/CAR SEAT Neither Steve nor I are big fans of the HUGE STROLLER syndrome that sweeps the nation. We're both kind of smallish people and drive smallish cars and I can't imagine trying to get one of those monostrosities in my vehicle. Then again the stroller we think we really want is more like this: But then what to do about the car seat conundrum? Do you buy a separate car seat (which hopefully can go from infant to toddler in convertible style so you don't have to buy something new every 6 months)? Or do you bite the bullet and buy the "travel system" to have the infant car seat/carrier and THEN the convertible car seat/booster for ...

So I'm in a phase where I "don't think" the baby is moving enough. That is - it's been not as much in the previous couple of days but I still feel a few kicks and shifts throughout the day. Last night this prompted the worst pregnancy/baby nightmare I have ever had - it was awful and I woke up just stressed out and very upset...and then I would try to lay there and feel any minute action, flicker, swish, push, kick, etc only to not feel anything (probably because I was trying so hard). So I'd lay there for a couple hours and then FALL BACK INTO THE SAME DREAM! This never happens with me. Not with good dreams, not with bad ones (and I try on the good ones!). It just went on and on and on and kept getting worse and worse. I'm so freaking paranoid right now it's just not cool. Pfffft. And in other news, my in-laws have offered to throw me a family baby shower! I'm very excited about this and think it'll be fun...but due to the timing of the due da...

Johnson Triplets