39 Week Doctor Notes

I had my 39 week doctor appointment last Monday. It was rather uneventful. I am 60-75 percent effaced, but not dialated at all. My contractions have actually slowed down in the past week or two. I am beginning to think baby girl is just too comfortable!

Friday was my last day of work for at least three months. I can't wait to be able to spend a few months with our little one. Other than some nerve pain, I feel pretty good. Actually, I think I have been lucky with my pregnancy.

Luke has kept his travel close to home for the past couple weeks. It is really nice to have him home most nights. I will be a little sad when he has to return to his regular travel schedule.

Tomorrow is my 40 week appointment. Hopefully my doctor will be able to give us a better idea as to when he thinks baby girl will arrive.

37 Weeks and Baby Musselman's Nursery

The past couple weeks have been rather slow at the Musselman household. We have tried to spend a lot of time relaxing and enjoying each other's company before our little one makes her big debut! I am currently 37 weeks pregnant so baby girl could theoretically arrive any time. On Monday, I had my weekly doctor's appointment and am not dialated at all. This is a good thing because my doctor will be out of town next week. He said he expects to see me still pregnant the following week. Other than extreme exhaustion and aches and pains from the extra weight on my belly, I feel pretty good.

Luke and I finally finished setting up baby Musselman's nursery. My dad and Luke painted it back in January and we have been slowly putting the rest of the nursery together. We are pleased with the results and hope baby girl enjoys her new room.

Our one-year anniversary is this weekend. I can't believe how quickly the past year has gone by. I am so happy to have Luke as my husband. I couldn't ask for a more kind, caring and supportive husband.

36 Weeks.

37 Weeks. I think the pregnant bikini scared a lot of people!

I Miss Sleep

I didn't think it was possible to sleep less than I currently do and still function. Seriously, I get between four and five hours of sleep a night. Unfortunately, I am also incapable of taking naps so I just deal. Luckily, I will be ready for early mornings and late nights when Baby Girl arrives! Her due date is getting so close. We have just over five weeks.

Luke and I have spent much of our free time the past few weeks working in the yard. We tend to redo the landscaping beds every year. I'm really hoping we got it right this time! On my birthday, Luke also surprised me with a vegetable garden. He spent all day building the garden so it would be ready when I got home from work. It was perfect!

As I write this, Luke is racing his bike in Rolla, MO. It is a 70-mile road race. To me, that sounds like torture, but he loves it. I decided to stay home this time to relax and catch up on all the things I keep putting off. Of course I spent the first couple hours washing baby clothes and working on the nursery.

34 Weeks.

Busy, Busy...

I can't believe it has been well over a month since my last posting. I am beginning to think that if I am this bad at updating the blog now, it will only get worse after baby Musselman is born. I might have to resort to simply posting pictures. Part of the problem is the fact that our lives are relatively boring. Luke and I have been crazy busy the past few months, but haven't done anything too terribly exciting. Work, yard work, bike races and getting ready for baby have occupied most of our time. In fact, I am sitting at a bike race as I type this. Unfortunately, I SHOULD be catching up on work instead. Oh, well!

We have about eight weeks until baby Musselman arrives. I can't wait! Lately, I feel like I get bigger everyday. It has gotten to the point where sleep is virtually impossible. Luckily, Luke does a good job of putting up with my tossing and turning, bathroom breaks every ten minutes and inevitable crabbiness after a night of no sleep.

We are slowly getting ready for baby. The nursery is virtually complete. We just have to get some pictures to hang on the walls. I am much better at clothes shopping than getting the things we really need. Unfortunately, baby girl clothes are just way too cute! Because of my coat addiction, Luke thinks we will really be in trouble when fall and winter come. Oh, well!

Luke is in the red and blue toward the front.
28 Weeks. Growth & Fluid Ultrasound. 2 lbs, 9 oz. 50th percentile.

30 Weeks.

It's A Girl!

Last month, we found out that Baby Musselman is a girl. While I couldn't be more excited, I have decided that Luke and I will probably go broke buying baby girl clothes! They are just so much fun!

I had my monthly check-up today. Baby girl is doing well. I am finally starting to gain weight; I gained four pounds this past month.


Lately, things have been going really well. I feel great and have started to actually look pregnant. I also found out that I survived Merck's layoffs and still have a job. It was such a relief!

25 Weeks.

The Unexpected "Joys" of Pregnancy

As my pregnancy progresses, I quickly learn that I don't have the best luck. I have had a lot of cramping lately, but started having terrible cramping around midnight last night. It made me feel like I couldn't breathe at times. I thought maybe stress and other factors were getting to me so I waited to call my doctor until this morning. Of course, Dr. Jones wanted me to get to the office immediately. When I got to the office, he did a full exam along with blood work and a urinalysis. It turns out that I have kidney stones. While they will not be fun to pass, it is one of the better things that could have caused the cramping. (I'm trying to look on the bright side!) I was running a slight fever so there is still the fear of appendicitis, but it seems unlikely since the urinalysis came back signaling kidney stones. Now I simply have to drink a lot of water and wait this thing out. I'm hoping for a quick passing!

On a positive note, baby celly started kicking this past week. At first it felt like little air bubbles, but the real kicks began last night. I was able to feel the kicks with my hand on the outside of my belly. While this is a really neat experience and it's fun to finally have confirmation that the baby is moving around, I'm not sure how I feel about it. Honestly, it feels like an alien is taking over my body. I think baby Musselman is practicing kickboxing in my belly! He/she is very active.

I Blame Everything On Pregnancy...

As the title of this blog entry denotes, I blame everything on pregnancy. Seriously, every part of my body is involved in this pregnancy! For starters, I seem to be losing mass quantities of brain cells on a daily basis. Not only do I seem to get dumber everyday, but my memory is shot as well! Second, I am breaking out like a teenager. It is even more frustrating that there simply isn't anything I can do about it. My eating habits have gotten even worse than they were pre-pregnancy. I now have trouble eating ANY form of meat. As a result, I average two to three peanut butter sandwiches a day. On the plus side, I doubt baby Musselman will have peanut butter allergies! Finally, no matter how much sunscreen I applied while on vacation, my skin still got terrible sunburns. The worst part was that the sunburns looked like strange rashes. I love pregnancy!

The good news is that I am starting to actually look pregnant. It is really exciting! I love my newly round belly and look forward to the continued growth. It makes the pregnancy seem so much more real. Here are a couple bump pictures at 18 weeks.

16 Weeks

Tomorrow marks the beginning of my 16th week of pregnancy. So far, my pregnancy has been progressing fairly smoothly. The sickness has finally subsided and the hunger has kicked in. I get especially hungry at night. Honestly, it is fairly annoying because I usually have to eat a second dinner around midnight. Hopefully this doesn't have any reflection on the baby's sleeping patterns! I still haven't gained much weight. Since I started this pregnancy, I have gained two pounds. I finally have a slight baby bump. For me, this is incredibly exciting. I am really looking forward to the continued growth of my belly!

Decorating the Christmas tree. It was the best deal of the year. $20 for any tree on the lot!

13 Week Ultrasound