Paint fumes, maternity pictures, and ultrasound drama

Fun mix of subjects, right? But that's just what's going on in my life these days. :)

So...paint fumes. We painted our little guy's dresser over the weekend but it turns out that the paint is flimsy and chips crazy easy. DH and I bought a topcoat last night and I decided to paint on my own. I figured, hey, I'll wear a mask and open the window and it won't be so bad. WRONG. The whole house reeks right now. I've got the bedroom window open with a fan running and towels stuffed under the door to try and contain the stank. I also have my back door open and my spiced pumpkin candle burning. I called DH and told him that he will definitely be finishing the dresser on his own. I feel fine, no lightheaded feelings or headaches or anything, but I probably don't need to be breathing in fumes.

We got our maternity pictures back this weekend. I can't even begin to pretend that they were worth the drama or the crazy expense, but they do look nice. It still astounds me how huge my belly is these days...it just seems impossible that everything could stretch that far!

Just a couple of them that I particularly like. :)

And the ultrasound drama. Ugh. My midwife's office ordered four more weeks of BPPs without telling me why. I was a mess wondering if something was wrong with our little guy and they just hadn't informed me. I finally got a half-decent answer from one of the NPs yesterday. She told me she thinks that the scheduling was actually an error, said that the baby looks TOTALLY fine, and that they're still waiting to hear from my midwife whether or not she's actually wanting to do the BPPs or if she's just wanting a repeat growth scan to check up on him. I adore my midwife, but oh my goodness, you cannot keep a pregnant woman waiting like that.

Four weeks left until our due date. Insanity. Once this dresser is done, we'll be pretty much ready for little guy to get here. I can't wait to meet him!

Rawwwr.

Translation: stay out of my way today.

I am in the worst mood EVER, and I don't even know why. I feel tired and grumpy and extremely irritable. I think it's a combination of many things: hormones, discomfort, and things not going as planned. Let's start with this weekend, shall we?

Our plan was to finish painting Little Boy's dresser this weekend, let it sit for a couple days, and then load it up with all his clothes and whatnot. Hah. We used a paint sprayer and air compressor, and apparently the compressor wasn't quite strong enough because the paint flow was a little flaky. (At least the paint color is gorgeous, though.) After all of it was dry, we discovered that it chips off EXTREMELY easy...what the heck? We primed, sanded, and painted two coats, and yet I can scratch paint off with my finger nail. So all that hard work was pretty useless. I told DH that if we can find some kind of low-VOC varnish to topcoat it with, I can do that myself while he's at work. I'm just grumpy that it needs more work at all...we have put SO many hours into that stupid freaking dresser and I feel like it'll never be done.

I'm also sick of waiting for my midwife's office to get back to me and let me know what the crud is going on with my ultrasounds. I was told that if little boy got up to the 11th percentile, we'd be in the clear. At my last growth scan, they told me that he was at the 15th percentile and that there was "no medical reason" to continue the ultrasounds. I got a call on Friday saying that they were sorry I had missed my appointment, so I asked what appointment and the scheduler said, "Oh, you had an ultrasound on the 21st that you didn't show up for." ...I did? No one ever told me I had another ultrasound. In fact, they told me the exact opposite. So I'm still waiting to find out WHY I'm being scheduled for more ultrasounds, because at this point all I know is that they want me to have at least one BPP a week for the next four weeks. Did I mention that I'm due in 4 weeks? Again...rawr.

I am not having a good day.

One happy momma!

This pregnancy has been full of fun little ups and downs, but I am so excited that it looks like things are going to be more "up" from here on out!

For the last three weeks, I've been going for weekly biophysical profiles for our little guy. (BPPs are ultrasounds that look at things like movement, breathing practice, etc.) He was measuring in the 8th percentile, and they were worried that he may be experiencing some form of growth restriction. They gave him until the 14th (yesterday) to get up to the 11th percentile, or else I'd be switched from my midwife to a high-risk OB and probably be induced between 37-39 weeks.

I was a little anxious going into the ultrasound, which I'm guessing isn't all that surprising. I could tell my belly felt a tiny bit bigger, but was it enough? Was he going to hit the 11th percentile? As someone who is desperately wanting as natural of a birth as possible, the idea of induction was terrifying to me. I had the best ultrasound tech named Monica, who really helped put me at ease. (My mom also got to go with me...her first time seeing Wee Laddie since he was about 7 weeks along! Quite the change since then, haha.) Monica took all the measurements, and reassured me that things like fluid levels and all that jazz looked good. Our final percentile? 15th!!!! We are now out of the "worry zone" and back up into normal numbers. Still small, but totally healthy. I am beyond thrilled!

The best part of the ultrasound was toward the end when we noticed his eyes moving a little. (Which, to be honest, looks a little weird!) We were all laughing at how funny it looked when I realized he seemed like he was responding a little more to my voice. So I started talking to him. His eyes immediately looked up towards my voice and he started blinking and really seemed like he was paying attention. Even the tech thought it was really cool! Little guy knows his momma already. :)

In other baby-related news, DH and I have my maternity photo shoot this weekend. My mom got me an awesome maxi dress from Old Navy that actually fits. I'm only about 5'1", so normally anything that's meant to be long is comically oversized on me, but this actually hits at the perfect length. I can't wait! DH and I have never had professional pictures done, so I'm looking forward to having some frame-worthy shots to put up in our house. Also on the agenda this weekend is painting baby boy's dresser so that we can finally get all his clothing and stuff put away in his room. I am so ready for that part...it feels like we're rapidly running out of time, and I want to just be DONE with the nursery.

Hope my slew of dedicated readers are all doing well. All five of you. ;)

I should probably be more surprised by this.

Today, Jesse took the day off work and we had a great day together. We went to the dentist this morning for a cleaning, and we both got a perfect score. :) No cavities for either of us, thus maintaining our records of dental soundness. (Neither of us have ever had a cavity.) I was told by a dentist long ago that my saliva causes tartar to calcify quickly on my teeth, which in turn is actually protecting my teeth a little bit from acid erosion and whatnot. Whoda thunk? :)

We followed the dentist with a trip to the ophtamologist for me. I haven't had my eyes checked since my freshman year of college, which was 2007. Yes, I am ashamed. While the opthamologist was checking my eyes, I asked him what my vision was in terms of 20/20 and whatnot. So he checked it. My left eye is 20/80. I thought, "Eeesh, that's pretty bad!" My right eye? 20/400.

I am legally blind in my right eye.

Is it weird that my reaction was to laugh my butt off? For some reason I just find it so funny. (Hysterics? Who knows.) Thank goodness that we live in a time where contacts and glasses are trendy, easy to come by, and relatively affordable. I couldn't decide on a set of frames so I'm going to go back next week for a follow-up and decide then. They had such awesome options, and I really liked a few different styles. I need to bring a friend and have them analyze me in each pair, because Jesse is not much help, bless him. He thinks I look good in all of them.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. Got home, made some good dinner. Pork chops with Cavender's Greek Seasoning on them, mashed potatoes, and I cooked myself some mixed veggies in the skillet that I did the pork chops in. (Don't judge me. The oils made them taste amazing.) After that, we went to the church building to help paint the classrooms. I may have gotten in a small paint fight with the preacher's brother. I intentionally got some on his shirt with a brush. He later snuck up behind me and smacked my rear with a paint-sodden stir stick. Yep, I was wearing black pants. Yep, it was white paint. I gave him a hard time about it, but I had already gotten paint on them and wore them with the knowledge that I would get more on there somehow. All in good fun, and we made good progress. :) It was a good day.