So, I cant have a cheeseburger!?

Last night was our last official centering class. We have one more next week but it’s a pot luck kind of a thing on the farm of our midwife (of course our hippie mid wife lives on a farm with horses) so last night was our last class at the hospital.

We rounded out the night with our midwife telling us a labor horror story. This story scared the living crap out of me, not just because of what happened to the woman but the actions in which she took throughout the evening.

Apparently this 300lb woman was at home and her baby’s leg fell out of her vagina. Yes, that actually happens. This is a big deal and an emergency and after the women called the hospital she was instructed to call 911 to get her there ASAP. As the hospital awaits her arrival they get as many doctor’s, midwives, surgeons available to help in this scary situation.

All of them are waiting in the emergency room for an ambulance to pull up with this woman and her baby leg to come in. Well, instead they see this women come in the emergency room with a Big Mac hanging out of her mouth and a McDonald’s bag in her hand. Obviously the ambulance didn’t take her through the drive through so she apparently drove herself, with a baby leg hanging out to McDonald’s and in to the hospital which was apparently very low on her “To-Do” list that evening.  

The staff rushed her in and attempted to prep her for surgery but since she was so large they couldn’t find a vein to put in the pain medication and because she had just consumed a mass quantity of very hard digestible food she was basically a ticking time bomb. If anyone has ever had a C-section, you know they don’t like you eating anything before it, let alone a big Mac, large fry and a shake to boot!!  Any who, long story short, they ended up doing the surgery regardless of her full stomach and both her and baby are now fine. Well, I’m sure that baby is not fine psychologically but I’ll digress.

After this horrific story, since now I keep looking down to make sure there are no baby legs or arms hanging out, I had an awful nightmare last night. Yes, if you know me, you know I’d rather stop being friends with someone than have to listen to their long drawn out dream stories so I’m going to spare you all the details.

Let’s just say my dream consisted of me hoovering down on a cheeseburger, then going into labor and then seeing both of Avery’s legs hanging outside of my body but they can’t do anything to get her out because of mommy’s poor nutritional choices. I woke up at this point so I’m not sure if I led a life of Avery’s legs just hanging out or if she was born safely into this world.

Needless to say, I’m all good now with hearing about labor horror stories. I thought I could handle it but I can’t. So please keep them to yourself until after Avery is born and at that time I’d love to swap stories of pooping on the bed and excruciating/mind numbing pain. Thanks!! 

I’ll have Avery when it’s snowing out????

My cousin Catie and I had a date yesterday to go to a psychic thanks to a Groupon that she had found. I’m starting to understand now why it was such a good Groupon deal.

First off, the psychic hated me because I had no real questions to ask. I don’t have much going on that I’m unsure of.  I have a job, I have a husband, I’m having a child, and we have a house. Am I supposed to ask her, now when is everything going to turn badly? As if I want to know that kind of stuff. However, I did ask her what any impatient pregnant woman would ask and that was “When will my daughter be born?” This very “special” psychic closed her eyes and said, “I’m seeing a lot of snow, yes, a lot of snow” and opens her eyes with a big smile on her face as if she just had an amazing revelation.  

My response, I said as sweetly and as un-sarcastically I could, “ummm, no, she’s due in like 2 weeks.” Thinking back maybe I should take it as a compliment that I don’t look as far along as I am but at the same time I saw the pictures from my baby shower and I know exactly what I look like and do not look like a person any less than 9 months. Not only that but my weeble wobble walk into her office should have been a clear indication as to where I am in this pregnancy. Any who, after I let the cat out of the bag about my due date, I asked again. Her response, “just be patient.” Super, thanks. How intuitive of you.

Since I’m fairly certain the psychic was inaccurate in her initial prediction and Avery will not be 3 months past her due date, I did ask my family to give their best guesses as to when they think Avery will be born, along with how big she will be. I had to make sure to get this out there ASAP as some of the guesses are tomorrow!! I’m all about bets so I need to think of a good prize to give to the person that’s closest in their predictions. I’m thinking I should let them come over and cook me supper the week after Avery is born, or maybe have a fun sleepover and they can share a room with Avery and come get me if it’s something other than a dirty diaper. So many great gift ideas that I’ll need some time to think. I'll probably come up with it mid-labor. But for now, here are their predictions…what are your thoughts???

My Prediction: I have to say I thought it would be tomorrow and I was hoping it would be because we have our last centering session so we will already be at the hospital but I don't think it's time. I'm thinking this instead....
Labor: August 30th
Born: August 31st
Weight: 7lbs 9oz
Length: 22 inches

Jon:
Labor: August 27th 5AM
Born: August 27th 2PM 
Weight: 7 pounds 1 ounce
Length: 20 inches

Aunt (Lesley Jones)

Labor: September 6^th

Born: September 7^th at 4:45pm

Weight: 61bs 2oz

Length: 20 inches

Mother in Law (Ida Levesque)

Labor: September 2^nd

Born: September 2^nd evening

Weight: 7lbs 2 oz

Length: 21 inches

Father in Law (Paul Levesque)

Labor: September 4^th

Born: September 4^th evening

Weight: 6lbs 2oz

Length: 21 inches

Dad (Chuck Mitchell)

Labor: September 3^rd

Born:  September 4^th, 3:30am

Weight: 7lbs 3oz

Length: 17.5”

Sister in Law (Amy McLean)

Labor: August 23rd
Born: August 24th, early morning
Weight 6lbs 7oz
Length: 20 inches

Mom (Ann Mitchell)

Labor: August 31 (The Blue Moon)
Born: September 1st. 1:20AM
Weight: 7lbs 14oz
Length: 19"

Sister (Nay McManus)

Labor-Aug 28th
Born- Aug 28th 10:20pm
Weight- 8lbs. 2oz
Length- 18in

Aunt (Barbara Labrecque)

Labor: Aug 30 2:00am
Born: Aug 30 8:00pm
Weight - 7lbs, 7oz
Length - 19in

Brother in Law (Phil McLean)

Labor: September 2^nd

Born: September 3^rd 2:37am

Weight: 8lbs 3 oz

Length: 20.5 inches

Soon to be brother in law (Jon Evans)

Labor: September 13th
Born: September 13th, 1:13PM
Weight: 8 lbs 13 oz
Length: 20.13"

Brother (Conor Mitchell)

Labor:  September 3^rd
Born:  September 4^th, 7:23 PM
Weight 7 lbs 15 oz
Length 20.1"

Niece (Jen McLean)

Labor: August 23
Born: August 23, 11:58pm
Weight: 8 lbs 7 oz 
Length: 21.4"

Diapers, Onesies and Wipes...Oh My!

What.A.Weekend…it was really amazing!!! My friend’s and family set up an absolutely beautiful surprise baby shower in NH! It was so perfect. My sister told me we were going to go get pedicures and I was super excited to go do that but to my surprise she took me to where she worked, at a church, and had everything set up there!! Even though I still need a pedicure, I will take a room full of my closets friends and family any day. J  Not only that but we received so many presents for Avery!! It’s actually unbelievable the amount of items we got and the fact that I will never need to do laundry due to the plethora of onesies is absolutely fabulous.

That and my sister had asked everyone to bring diapers which so helpful because I’m fairly certain we have enough to get her through at least a good part of the first few months. I couldn’t believe how many people traveled to come to it. I know that most of them came because we actually had my sister’s Bridal Shower and Bachelorette party the same day but we are talking a baby shower that started at 10am and everyone made it!!  It was a crazy and fun day for us all.

Because I’m in complete awe of the amount of onesies, diapers and wipes we received I just had to count…it is insane…

And the totals are!!

Diapers: 758 diapers and 2 diaper cakes

Wipes: 788

Onesies: 113 (not even including what was left to dry at the church or the ones she already has)

Avery is a lucky, lucky little girl to have so many people in her life that already love her. Thank you all again for such a special weekend and your generosity I truly couldn’t ask for anything more and I’ll be sure to take lots of pictures of Avery in all her adorable outfits.

The beautiful cake!!

Diaper Cake from my mom...with pink champagne in the middle for when Avery is born..for me not her...

Adorable favors from my Auntie Barb and Avery's Gaby (Great Auntie Barb)

Last but not least, the creative onesie station my sister put together!!!

Celebrating Being Full-Term with the dropping of Avery

I’ve been waiting for Avery to finally drop!! People say it happens around 35-37 weeks but my little one wanted to make an entrance and so on the official day of me being full term she had decided to drop like the New Years Eve Ball right into my pelvis.

Though I look like I have gained about 15lbs over night, I do feel A LOT better. I can breathe a little bit easier and my acid reflux has been noticeably less frequent. So, even though she was getting me nervous by staying up in my lungs for all this time, I’m ecstatic that she has finally made her way down.

I immediately had to send a text message picture to both my mom and best friend Emy to let them know of her descent. That and  I’ve been sending them the best/biggest and most unflattering pictures throughout the pregnancy so I knew they’d appreciate this little gem. To show how much I’ve gained and how much she has officially dropped I’ve added a Before and After Picture The before picture of me is at 12 weeks right before I announced I was pregnant and the after isfrom Monday when I was officially full term when I shocked the hell out of myself when I looked into the mirror.

I’m glad that I’ve officially made it full term and with minimal issues. So now I will continue stressing the remainder of this week packing the hospital bag and holding out going into labor for just one weekend as my sister’s Bridal and Bachelorette party are this weekend in NH. I already told Avery that her Auntie Nay Nay will not be pleased if my water breaks while we are out and about on the streets of Portsmouth. A woman going in to labor at a bar is not only classy but a huge buzz kill.  

Here I am at 12 weeks when I thought I was getting "FAT" !?!? ugh, to be that fat again...

Now here I am on Monday...."wow"  is all I have to say...My Yoga pants are really getting their workout..

PMS: Pre-Mother Syndrome

I think I’ve gone past “hormonal” and now have moved into a new phase coined by my dad as “PMS: Pre-Mother Syndrome.” I think the difference is that when I was hormonal I could kind of reel it in when I needed to, you know,  out in public and at perfect strangers and save it for my husband and family members. Now, I’m PMSing so much that I can’t even hold back my emotions in front of other people. This is one good reason  I work from home because I would seriously have an “Office Space” moment if anyone even looked at my stapler.

The way I found out that I transitioned from weepy hormonal pregnant woman to a raging PMS bitchy pregnant woman was today when I went to two of the most stressful places I could go to on a Saturday, David’s Bridal and Whole Foods. I can’t even get into Whole Foods right now because that is such a first world problem and I will sound like a complete and utter snob if I start a rant about how I couldn’t get my organic produce in a sufficient amount of time. So, I digress.

David’s Bridal, however, is another story. I stopped there on the way home from our 5 hour baby class. Oddly enough, kept it together during that entire baby class even sitting near the annoying girl that asks questions just to ask questions, (you know the kind)  and then doesn’t listen to the answer. Not annoying at all. I would love to be the nurse in her room during labor. This is neither here nor there. So, after three emails and two phone calls from David’s Bridal basically yelling at me to come get my dress since “they don’t like to keep dresses there for more than 14 days” I figured that I'd head on down there since I would already be in that general direction. When I get there they are re-doing the entire parking lot making me park what seemed at least a half a mile away. This was awesome, especially as I started to have Braxton Hicks contractions during my journey to the store.

When I finally got to DB and went to the desk to ask for my dress the girl at the front collected all my information about myself as well as the bride (my sister) and said “oh, sorry, you aren’t in the system.”  And then tries to help the customer behind me. Ummm, cool. That makes a lot of sense since I ordered my dress here and then it came in as stated by your obnoxious phone calls and emails. When I asked her to check again she had the nerve to give me attitude! Long story short, for most of you that know me, you know that I hate rocking the boat and I don’t normally raise my voice at perfect strangers but this was this DB’s consultant’s unlucky day. After her 3^rd attempt of trying to  find me with no success I yelled, “I am 9 months pregnant, I drove 40 minutes to get here because you told me that it came so I have no idea how I am not possibly in your system.” After scaring the living crap out of this unsuspecting girl a manager made their way over and oddly enough after 10 seconds of checking the system, found me.

I’m not saying that DB is a bad place to go for your wedding needs but this was just not my day and the consultant had the IQ of “Honey Boo-Boo.” So, I’m happy that the day ended well in the sense that I have my dress and I won’t have to put in Avery’s baby book the article of my arrest for assaulting a DB “Consultant” at 9 months pregnant.  

Avery is going to LOVE her nursery :)

I’ve been a wreck this week because now I’m having a tough time sleeping again and I’m completely and utterly hormonal. I broke down into tears yesterday on the couch for no real good reason except that I feel completely overwhelmed by the fact that we have less than month to go before Avery gets here.

Jon found me on the couch and made a great effort to soothe me and to tell me everything was going to be “OK” and then very sweetly said “I thought being hormonal was only in the first trimester.” I sweetly replied back “ you’ve been so lucky that it hasn’t been the entire time.” He knew that that was the best place to end the conversation.

He did make me feel better for that moment in time but it’s really tough not to feel  completely helpless and overwhelmed. A month before my wedding I was basically done not only planning it but having everything organized and ready to go. I had everything together and wasn’t stressed AT ALL! I have less than month before our CHILD gets here and I haven’t bought anything except for a breast pump and that’s not even here just yet. I’m not sure why I felt it necessary to plan to the “T” my wedding months in advance but am deciding to wing it with our first born child.

We have had many generous gifts purchased off of our registry but they just haven’t made it to us yet so I’m at a little bit of a stand still. I’m so grateful people have been buying us things for Avery because we definitely need the help. So I’m patiently waiting and hoping that Babies R Us will get a move on it.

I am happy that I did go to the BetterCT show (I know I’ve said this before and Jon just loves that I keep bringing this up) but it’s so true. We at least have a bassinet to put Avery in so she doesn’t have to sleep in our sock drawer for the first few months of her life. So I think between the Bassinet, a few bibs and diapers she should be good to go. At least I’m hoping that should suffice since that’s all she’s going to be getting if she comes earlier than expected.

With that being said, I thought I’d share her nursery so you can really see what I’m talking about and how evil of a mother that I am for not having her name in letters on the wall or decals of trees with leaves blowing in the wind..

 I think kids these days have way too much stuff anyway…J

Celebrating the start of my 9th month with Mr. Braxton Hicks

I can’t believe that I’m 9 months pregnant. I never really thought the day would come but it has been a surprisingly speedy pregnancy with all things considering.

I’ve felt pretty well the past week or so. I’m very tired but I’m sleeping a lot better thanks to ice cream, one glass of milk and a piece of my chocolate calcium supplement right before bed. With this wonderful cocktail of dairy products I’m finding that I’m only getting up once in the middle of the night to use the restroom and then back to bed I go. So, I know I’m a complainer but in retrospect it hasn’t been too bad.

Even today I’ve had my first run in with some Braxton Hicks Contractions. I’ve never had these before but knew what they were right away from my obsessive checking of mommy blogs and Google searches. These again weren’t as bad as originally anticipated. My stomach just seemed to tighten up and then that was it. After about an hour or so of random spurts of tightness it kind of faded off leaving me feeling as though I did some ab workouts (at least I think I remember ab workouts feeling that way) and that’s really it. I think the reason for the contractions may have to do with me starting to drink some Red Raspberry Leaf Tea. This was something that I read on the mommy blogs and it turns out that a lot of people have heard of this before. I think people are keeping this little gem a secret because it was the first I heard about it.  Apparently if you drink this tea in your third trimester it helps strengthen your uterus and make contractions a lot easier. I’m all about a strong uterus and easier contractions so I’m drinking this about twice a day as I’m up for anything that can help assist with my plans of a “natural birth.” 

Besides the small trials and tribulations I’m very excited that things are going well still and I only have 4 weeks left until we meet our little girl. I know these 4 weeks will be the most difficult but as long as Gifford’s Ice Cream doesn’t go out of business I think I can do it.

So I give to you my 9^th month (36 week) photo. Hubby is out mowing the lawn so please excuse the creepy self photo and empty closet as I put most of my clothing in storage since I’ve outgrown the majority of my pre-pregnancy clothes the day I found out I was pregnant. 

Woah, Nelly...

I know I’m not “FAT” just “Pregnant” which is what everyone says to me when I start complaining about how big I have gotten. And even though I don’t look like it, I feel like the mother in “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape” and if the house started to burn down you may as well just keep me in it or rent a fork lift to attempt to get me out. At least that is how I’m feeling at this moment in time.

I think what adds to this is the fact that I’m almost the same weight as my husband. Usually, he has a good 35-45lbs on me but not at this moment. Only a mere 9lbs separates my weight from his. I didn’t realize this until he jumped on the scale this morning and he was happy with the number that appeared. I almost fainted slash cried seeing this. He has been really good throughout this pregnancy and has not gained any weight which I know some guys do. I have mixed emotions about this now. Originally I was proud of him and happy that he did not jump on the ice cream train as much as I did. However, it would be nice of him to gain maybe 5lbs so at least we are out of the same range!

Even though I have 4 weeks left to go and thought that I don’t have too much more weight to gain, my loving brother in law told me that this is just the beginning and I should expect my body to change drastically in the next 4 weeks. He did follow up by saying that I looked as though I was only 6 months pregnant currently but continued to tell me how my belly will drop even more within the next few weeks. Perfect. I didn’t feel like having shaved legs for the month of August anyway.

I know this will all be worth it in the end but I am so, so ready to be able to bend down without being winded and feeling as though the acid in my belly is about to shoot through my nose. A girl can dream cant she?