I can't wait to see your comments (so be sure to leave some!)

So a few blogs ago I asked advice about what kind of stroller to get and I was so excited to get so many people letting me know what they thought that I decided I would come to you all again for some more motherly advice. Here are some of the things I am worried about giving birth/having a child and I would LOVE to hear from anyone who happens to look at this blog (even if I don't know you) to see what your advice is. (you can answer all of the questions, or just a few if there are too many)

1. How long did your first labor last?
2. Did you end up having to use pitocin to get it going?
3. Did the pitocin make it hurt worse?
4. How long until you felt like you were "recovered" from child birth?
5. How long did nursing hurt for?
6. Does your body go back to normal after baby #1? How long does it take?
7. How long until your baby slept through the night?
8. How long until the baby slept in his/her crib in a different room?
9. Did you feel cooped up and/or bored at home after the baby was born?
10.How many of you had emergency c-sections? (I am wondering what % of people have to have one)

I know these are a lot of questions, but these are things I have been sitting around worrying about the last little while. Trust me, I have about a million other questions besides these. I am just feeling a little anxious about the unknown and want every mom on earth to open upand tell me everything they know about having a kid. I know they say your instincts just "kick in" after you have a kid, but just in case mine take awhile to jump start, I want to know what I'm headed for.

Baby showers

Everyone in my department at work threw me a baby shower last week. Well, I don't think the guys at work would appreciate the term baby shower so let's just say they took me out to lunch and gave me a Target gift card (which was so awesome of them). We went to one of my favorite places, Vintage Pizza. Sooo delicious. It was really nice of them to do that.
Then the next day, my wonderful mother and sister in law threw me another baby shower. Here they are getting prepared for the event.


My mother-in-law Debbie made me this awesome cake. I don't know how she came up with it, but it was so cute!
I got a lot of great gifts that were much appreciated (and much needed). My face is getting bigger and bigger by the day. Perhaps that means the baby will come soon?One of my friends in my ward made me this blanket. I love stuff like this. It was so thoughtful.

And here are some shots of my ever expanding belly. 34 weeks along (I am now almost 36, I'll have to post a new picture this week sometime).Megan made a really great video of Elliot that I am going to post tonight too. He is such a wierdo.

baby pics

Last Tuesday we had our dr's visit with a specialist to make sure my fluid levels were ok. They did an ultrasound on me for about 45 minutes which was pretty cool. It was the longest that we have been able to see our baby. And they got some really cool pictures this time. All the other times we have had ultrasounds, they have never been able to get a profile shot. It makes it finally look like a real baby and not just like some blob that you have to stare at for awhile to figure out excactly what you are seeing. After the long ultrasound, the dr. told us he does not see anything wrong with me or the baby and that I am just on the higher end of the amniotic fluid spectrum. No big deal for now. They will just have to monitor to make sure it doesn't get up too high. So that is great news. They said the baby is very healthly and growing just like it should. That was good to hear too because somedays I wonder if I am growing a Shaq 2 or something. I am just getting bigger and bigger!! And for awhile I didn't think anything of it, but I can't go anywhere in public without the Walgreens employee, or the wal-mart checker, or the guy behind me in the sandwhich line trying to give me a complex about how massive I am. oh my goodness, mam, are you about to go into labor RIGHT HERE in this line? It makes me wonder if I really am this huge woman who should be banned inside her house until this animal baby comes out of me. Unfourtanetely for everyone involved, I have 5 more weeks of work which makes it difficult to avoid public appearances. So I guess I will just gear up for more comments from complete strangers about my size.
(I might as well admit that these comments from people don't really bother me very much. I would much prefer people to think I am 2 minutes from giving birth then to have them wonder if I am pregnant or just fat at 9 months. I think it would be harder to not get very big at all and always have to tell people you are pregnant.)
I wish I had something else interesting to report about my life, but I just don't. I am just getting by day to day, getting up, going to work, counting down the minutes until bedtime. I live for that blessed hour of bedtime. Which actually happens to be right now....

I'm a party animal

here's a shot of the wild party

On Friday night Megan and I went to the Breaking Dawn release party at Borders. I use the word "party" extremely loosely. When we showed up, we were literally the only people there older then 15. Lucky for me, most of the time I seem to be able to pass for a high schooler so I blended right in. Although my gigantic belly did help me stand out just a bit, along with the awesome t-shirts we made for the event.

(does everyone love that I destroyed an EFY shirt to proclaim my infidelity with a vampire?)

I realize we are total dorks. I'm pretty sure we spent more time making the shirts then we spent at the actual party they were intended for. The party ended up not being as much fun as we had thought. I thought more crazy people would show up. But we were not completely disappointed. I was able to get a shot of him:

and let's not forget about this guy:

the back is even better

We giggled for awhile over that one (we had to giggle, not laugh, since we were in a room full of young girls. We were trying to fit in you know). We didn't stay long enough to get the books because, let's be honest, midnight is a little late for pregnant ole' me. Plus, stupid me pre-ordered the book on Amazon a few weeks ago thinking I was getting such a great deal. Turns out Amazon is not able to get the book to me until next Wed! and they charged me 1 dollar more then borders would have. I learned my lesson on that one. I am pretty excited to start reading the new book so I hope it ends up coming early.
That was about the only interesting thing I did all weekend. On Saturday Elliot and I went to Target and registered for my baby shower. I had no idea what to really get so we put about a 100 onesies and a 200 dollar glider on the list. Wonder which item will actually show up at the shower? hmm. I also woke up on Saturday morning suddenly extremely pregnant. I have no idea what happened but all the sudden every part of my body is in extreme pain and I can't get off couches by myself. Most of my pregnancy hasn't been too bad but now I am dying. My back is killing me all the time, I have this sharp pain in my left rib cage that I thought was just the position of the baby, but has now been there for 48 hours without letting up one bit. It makes it painful to laugh, cough, raise my arms over my head, sleep, walk, talk, ok you get the point. I thought most of my pregnancy has been pretty good without too many complaints, but I guess my body has been saving up or something because I have a whole slew of complaints now if anyone wants to hear them. I know Elliot doesn't because that is all he has been hearing about for the last 2 days. So if someone else could lend me a willing ear, Elliot would sure appreciate it. (Chrysta, look forward to Monday afternoon's phone call :)

Dr's appt.

So I had a dr's appt. yesterday to find out how big the baby is. We got an ultrasound which was so fun to see now that the baby is almost all the way developed. The baby's cheeks are already so chubby! I would post the ultrasound pictures, but Elliot isn't here and I have no idea how to scan things in so I will try to post them later when he gets home.
So the ultrasound tech measured the baby and said it weighs 4 lbs. 7 oz. That makes it in the 55th percentile which the dr. said is good. We did find out why I am measuring so big though. The dr. said my amniotic fluid is measuring at 26 cm's and it should be measuring around 14 cm's. The dr. said she isn't really worried about it because on the ultrasound they could see that the baby's bladder and kidneys are working fine so that is good. But she is still having me go see a specialist just to have everything checked out to be on the safe side. I go in on Tuesday. I don't really know what the risks of having too much fluid in you are so I am interested to see a specialist to have them explain everything to me. I'm not that worried about it because my dr. doesn't seem worried. Hopefully everything is fine and I just have to deal with all this extra fluid. I guess that might be the reason that complete strangers keep asking me if I am about to go into labor or if I'm having twins. I don't think I look that big, but apparently the rest of the world seems to think so.

(here is another belly shot for your viewing pleasure)