Bed Rest Update

This morning I had a follow-up appointment from Tuesday. You can read about that HERE.

Good news first: My blood pressure and lab work all came back in range. My swelling is a little better finally (after two days of relaxing). I also lost four pounds!! Which I think is because of the swelling going down. My Dr. said everything else looks great! I am 33 weeks and 2 days, but I am measuring 34 weeks. Baby girls heart rate was 140, and has actually remained about the same for the last few appointments.

So here is the bad news… if my blood pressure goes back up and is elevated at my next appointment, my Dr. is going to recommend bed rest until delivery.

I think this is a wake up call to start taking it easy and listening to my body. My plan is to go to class on Monday, rest Tuesday, class on Wednesday, then take it very easy for the rest of the week. My appointments will begin being every week after the next one. I have an appointment at 35 weeks 2 days, then I will go weekly until our precious one decides to make her appearance.

I am going to find something for lunch and maybe do a little bit of laundry… Less than 7 weeks before our sweet daughter is here <3

XOXO

33 Weeks and Bed rest

I am 33 weeks today!!! Only 7 more weeks until baby girl is full term! Time sure does fly by and ready or not here she comes.

Yesterday I had one of my Dr. Appointments. Everything was going ok, except I have been having pretty bad swelling in my legs and ankles. Monday for class we met at the swine unit on campus and had class outside. Well it was pretty hot and even though I stayed well hydrated I got pretty uncomfortable.

At my Drs. appointment, my Mid-wife took my blood pressure, and it was high. Like really high! 150/79! My mid-wife wanted to play it safe and sent me to the hospital for lab work and a non-stress test. It is better to be safe then sorry, so I drove over to the hospital.

I went in and got hooked up to the machines. The non-stress test basically is a test to make sure that our baby is ok and responding ok. The nurse had a heck of a time getting the monitors to stay on my belly. Our little girl was not interested in laying there and allowing the monitors to do their job. She kept kicking the monitor and making this really loud echoing noise on the computers. They took my blood pressure every 10 minutes and kept track of our little ones heart rate. A nurse came in after about an hour and said that my labs came back ok, and my blood pressure went down a little.

I have to go back to the Drs. office on Friday for a follow-up and I have to complete a 24 Hr. urinalysis. Plus I am on “modified bed rest” until Friday at least. I am supposed to relax and keep my feet up.

It is very tough to just sit around my house not doing anything, so I would find a small project to complete and then rest. I did this a few times today and it helped the with boredom. Tomorrow is going to be another pretty boring day. I have to take a trip to the hospital to drop off my urinalysis at the lab, and then go back to relaxation. I really hope my follow-up appointment turns out ok. I don’t think I could stand being on bed rest for 7 weeks.

On a side note, because I moved my new glider into the nursery, I have been leaving the door open to air it out. Well I found a four-legged creature hiding under the stroller for our little girl.

I was actually about to leave the house and just checking to make sure all the animals were ok. I poked my head in the room and didn’t see the cat right away until I turned to leave and spotted his white face and chest. He is such a stinker!

I will post an update on Friday after my Drs. appointment.

XOXO

Old Glider turned New

We have been extremely blessed with family that are generous enough to give us furniture for the babies nursery. My husband’s grandma gave us a glider chair and footstool. Of course the nursery furniture is all in white, so naturally I wanted to paint the wood white.

We are actually lucky enough that we received 2 gliders. One from his nana, and one from his great grandma and grandpa. They are the same chair, and boy oh boy are they comfy. They both started out like the picture on the right. >>>> (Oh yea, and Zeus, the cat, likes sleeping on the footstool)

The first glider has been refinished with white paint and cushion covers. I used Krylon Dual Spray paint to cover the wood. This spray paint has a primer and paint in one. I wiped the chair down with a wet rag, and went to spraying. I applied two coats of paint and that seemed to cover the chair well enough. I think I could have applied a third coat, but two covered the chair.

My mom sewed cushion covers that just slipped over the original covers. They attach using Velcro so it makes it easy to wash if need be. I picked out a brown fabric for the main pieces, and a quilted pattern for the footstool and pillow. The quilted pattern was actually an accidental find that worked out great. It adds a little bit of color to the brown and white chair. The colors match the nursery decoration. I don’t have a tutorial of how to sew the chair cushions for this chair, but when I decide what colors to do the other chair in, I will be sure to take pictures and post about it.

The picture to the left <<< is the finished product in the nursery. We had about a 1/4 of a yard left over so we constructed a pillow. I figured it would be nice to use behind my back when I am nursing or for my arms.

This is the pattern of the footstool, pillow, and strip on the chair. It was perfect for the nursery. I really like the pink, green, and brown colors for our baby girl. The little birds add life to the furniture, and the quilting adds a nice touch as well I think.

I still have the glider in the top picture to cover. I think I will leave that one in the living room since it is so comfortable! I just have to figure out a color.

Overall this project only took a day to complete. The longest thing was waiting for the paint to dry on the wood.

Like I said above, when I get the material to cover the other chair I will write up a tutorial on it.

I cannot take credit for sewing the covers for the cushions. I do not have sewing skills, but luckily my mom is a WONDERFUL seamstress and can sew all kinds of things. When I create the tutorial of the other chair, I will not sew that one either.

Let me know what you think of the chair in the comments below.

XOXO,

Jenna

DIY Nursing Tank Tops

This link has moved to my new address: 

http://www.twoplusthekids.com/2015/05/diy-nursing-tank-top.html

Please go visit and leave a comment. 

The harder things become.

When you are training for a race, or working out, the further along in the training you get, the easier it gets. Well the further along in pregnancy that you get the harder EVERYTHING gets. Before we got pregnant I could easily do errands all day, or work in the cow pens. Not any more.

Yesterday my husband was taking his Middle School livestock judging team to competition. (He is Agriculture teacher and they have competitions throughout the state) So not really thinking about how long of a day it was going to be, I agreed to go with him. We left the house at about 5:30 that morning and met the kids at the school. 1 1/2 hours later, we arrived at the Plant City Strawberry Festival. Now during the competition we didn't do much, besides sit around. Towards the end of the competition my hubby and I went on the search for the best Strawberry Shortcake. Since we were at the Strawberry Festival, there are strawberries EVERYWHERE! I found my shortcake and thoroughly enjoyed it! We finally left the festival around 1PM. Of course we had to take the students to lunch on the way home. So we didn't get back to the school until almost 3PM.

Once we got back to the school, our day was still not done. We had to clip the hair on one of the steers (male cattle that has been castrated) for the show this week. I was exhausted by this time. A few hours later we made it home. I ate a sandwich for supper and got ready for bed. I was in bed by 8PM (although with the time change it was really kind of like 9PM).

Well the Fair has started, an today was the market animal weigh-in. I really wanted to go and help out, but the weather is supposed to be 83 degrees today, and it is going to be another very long day. When I got out of bed this morning I was still sore. It literally felt like I had just finished a half marathon. So I opted out of going to the weigh-in today.

As much as I am missing going to the fair today, I know that exhaustion is not a good idea being almost 33 weeks so I am home bound for the day. I am at that point in my pregnancy now that I am just uncomfortable. I also have some of the craziest dreams at night. Last night I had a night mare that the baby came, and we didn't have anything at all for her. Her crib wasn't ready, we didn't have a bassinet, or blankets or anything for her. I keep having dreams like this, however this was the first Night mare that I had.

Being pregnant is an amazing feeling, I just wish I could keep up with things that I used to be. Stay tuned, I am going to post about the nursery soon.

2 years later

Two years ago today I married my best friend. I became a MRS. and started my life as a wife. So much has happened in these two years of life together. Has it been easy? Absolutely NOT! We have fought about the simplest things, and looking back all we can do is laugh. I love him more each day that we are married, and couldn't be happier.

We have moved three separate times: two apartments, and one house. When we got married, my dog became part of our family, and later that year we adopted a kitten. So Bella (the dog) and Zeus (the cat) have been our kids for the past two years. We have also made our first "large" purchase of a new car since... we are adding to our growing family.

Two months from today we are expecting our first human child. Our lives will never be the same.

My husband has always supported me in everything that I wanted to do.I know that our beautiful child will make life a bit more hectic, however I know we can handle it.

 We have also had job changes and my hubby has even found a career. My husband has worked hard and graduated college with a bachelors in AG ED.

To celebrate our Anniversary we went to dinner a few nights ago. February and March is fair season in "our neck of the woods" and being married to an agriculture teacher means that the only time I get to spend with him is when I go with him to a competition, or when I help him with something. Fair season is so hectic! Every day there is something that has to be done, and it doesn't end until after our County Fair. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the fair, however it has been an awfully long time since we have been able to attend a Sunday church service, because something must get done every weekend. After the fair hopefully we can start going to church again and get back into the swing of life.

So two years, three homes, a new car, a new career, and a baby on the way... my life is just the way I want it. I will leave you with the cutest thing that I have seen in a long time...

This is NOT my picture, I do not own this picture, or the copyrights. 

I found this picture earlier today, and I just had to share it. I can only hope that our sweet daughter will want to show cattle. Showing animals takes a lot of time and dedication, not to mention TIME... but if our baby girl wants to show animals I would be more than thrilled to support her and make that happen.

Here's to another two years of happiness and love!!

This week I reached the 30 week mark of our pregnancy. It has been completely amazing! Though I am not working out as much as I would like because I have hit that exhaustion mark again. I feel like I could sleep all day and night and still be tired! My thirty week appointment was the other day, and though we won't get another ultrasound, my Midwife says that I am measuring a week bigger. Less than 10 weeks left before our sweet little girl is here, and our lives change forever!

I love feeling her move, and lately it has been more and more frequent. I registered at my hospital, and even got my hospital bag in the beginning stages of being packed.

They say that the third trimester is exhausting... Well they are right! I am in nesting mode, and I am so tired! Cleaning the house and getting the nursery read for the baby is tiring enough, but add the extra weight of a baby on board it adds to the exhaustion.

It is nice to have a helper around the house though:

The picture isn't upside down. He was laying in the basket on its side. I called his name (Zeus) and he craned his neck to look at me. I was trying to fold laundry at this moment! I guess doing house work and having a partner in crime makes the housework a little more bearable.

One more thing for tonight. Long story short: my husband used to have long hair, and slightly resembled "Thor." Well I saw this the other day on the internet and thought of him saying it to our daughter.

My Hubby talks like this sometimes to get a laugh, and it fits our situation perfectly.

Well I am going to finish cleaning the kitchen and watch Steel Magnolias.

Have a great night all of my friends. :-)