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!

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. ;)