Family Pics - August 2011

Jim set up our living room to be a home studio and got some awesome family pictures! I really wanted some family pictures with me pregnant (35 weeks here) and was starting to get worried that Cash wasn't going to cooperate! Whew, we got 'em! Good timing too because Walgreens had a promo running for discounts off of poster sized pictures -- got ourselves a new picture to update the scene over our engagement photo!
Lovin' from my Bug!

Belly shot

Proud Papa and Momma -- almost a 5 year anniversary picture, too!!!

Weekend Pics

Finally caught a picture of James giving his brother kisses!!!
All dressed up and ready to get his bug spray (these mosquitoes are ginormous this year! Of course, the village took spraying for them out of the budget)!

Helping Daddy mow the lawn

James loves to climb up and lay with "my Daddy" -- going through a phase where he's very protective of his Mommy and Daddy

Splash Park

We visited a splash park on one of James' days off school. The neighbors and a friend of Jim's from elementary school and her daughter met us there. What a great, enclosed space...and cheap! Only $3 per person! James loved all the aqueducts and trying to figure them out.
He was also ecstatic to pretend to be a firefighter!!! Here, the only picture I could get of him and Jillian "playing together" :-) She's in the green, and, believe it or not, 2 months younger than James! I'm going to start teaching her volleyball now!

Our Fireman!

Water war with Abby

Both Mommas with version 2.0 on the way! Katy is due about a month ahead of us (although at time of this posting, she has yet to deliver and we're probably being moved up, so they may only be just over a week apart)!

Swimming with the Grandparents

GG and Pops were able to go swimming with us at Gma Chele's house before they left to head back home. I have been trying to get this to happen for 3 summers now as one of my dad's wishes for getting his kidney transplant was to be able to go swimming with his grandchildren. FINALLY :: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!

Even Cash got to go swimming :-)

My Momma and I

Silly James had to put on the goggles like his Daddy :-D

Great picture with Uncle John

Getting water dumped on his head....could have been a disaster....

...but he was a good sport about it (considering he was dumping it on every one else before this)

Giving GG kisses before she left -- we love when they visit!
Some loving for Pops to take home with him -- we'll see them again soon though to meet their newest grandbaby!

Brunch for Cash

Laura S. was kind enough to want to celebrate Cash coming to join our world. She thought he needed some of his own things that weren't hand-me-downs from James -- what a great idea!

The Group of Celebrators :-) Even Aunt Lu made it....and it may have been Sofia's first party!

Grandmas

Laura, Dani and Jamie

Got the hook up for some new Illini gear!!! He'll be here just in time for football season!

James came to hang out with Uncle Ed and keep him out of trouble ;-) Daddy and Pops were working in the basement re-doing the closet where we had the flood, which wasn't exactly a James-safe environment

After eating some Goldfish (during which he needed to watch "Nemo") and playing in the basement, James and Uncle Ed went on a fly hunt outside -- better watch out, bugs, you're no match for these two!

James wanted to hold Fia, then said "Take Picture!" when he knew just how cute they were together :-)

I couldn't help but post this picture of Sofia -- LOVE her facial expression and the tongue out

July Randoms

Above :: light vs. dark colors
Below :: 1st drawing described to me by James as "Our Family" -- used the Doodle Bug app on my iTouch (I feel this one is a huge milestone, very proud)!

Practicing those fine motor skills with some stacking at school

Daddy making a James burrito with my yoga mat -- James thought it was a riot!

Trying to get a picture of him and Brother -- of course, kept missing the extra cute photo ops. I think I was about 34 weeks pregnant here.

"No pictures, Mommy"

Playing around with Dad

Cash -- 36 weeks Appt 1

Cash Update :: wasn't there as long this time, thank goodness! Got on NST machine and, of course, Cash decided it was a good time to go to sleep! He had just been moving around a ton in the car on the way there, too, what a stinker! So I had to try eating my banana, drinking really cold water and, finally, rolling onto my side with the midwife holding the sensor worked. Every time he'd move, he'd kick the sensor off so it didn't record his heart rate while moving (which is one of the things they're looking for during this test) -- it was like he had a reverse magnet attached :-) During the time she was holding it, the midwife noticed a tightening in the top right section of my belly -- usually where his butt is stationed -- and said I was having a contraction. I was certain that they were happening, but they have always been more one-sided, which is not an indication of a true contraction (more Braxton-Hicks-ish). She said it was probably happening throughout the uterus, but since a lot of fluid is over my top left, it is deeper and I wouldn't be able to feel the tightening with my hand). They tend to happen most when I stand up from sitting or from bending to pick something up off the floor....either way, definitely need to breath through the uncomfortableness sometimes. His fluid was back down a little to 20.4cm, good stuff. She said if it gets too full, big babies tend to break the bag of waters -- don't need to worry about cleaning up that mess right now, I've got things to do before he comes still!!! Went to physical therapy afterwards (it had felt like someone took a baseball bat to the top of my pelvis in the back). She said there is a ligament going from your uterus to your sacrum and mine is fully stretched with a big kid pressing it to its max, so it's then pulling to cause muscle spasms. She did some soft tissue massage and some point-release stuff that took some of the tension off -- just going to have to deal with the rest -- for now, ice and heat rotation.
James keeps telling me to "show more Brother" :: I showed him the video of the NST test from the last post and he thought it was so cool. Made me make my belly button available to him so he could put his finger in it and "talk" to Brother while he kept asking for more of the video :-) He continues to love every baby we see -- loves to honk their noses though, gonna have to squish that tendency early -- but when asked what we should name the baby, his answer is still : "Sister!" haha, reminds me of the Johnny Cash song "Boy Named Sue." More to come later this week -- a final ultrasound for growth along with another NST! Hopefully I will get a chance to back track through the past few weeks and update the other things that have been happening in the Montalbano household!

Cash -- 35 weeks

Hey there, Kiddo! The ultrasound tech was able to get some actual face pictures this time -- last time was only his leg. Here is a profile of his face and one of his arms. I find it easiest to locate his nose first and go from there -- it's pointing up and then you can see his mouth and eyes from there. Just to the left of his chin is one of his hands.
Back for another NST -- was there for +3 hours! Got back to the NST room late, was hooked up to it for almost 45 minutes, talked with physician assistant (PA) for my appointment while hooked up....then had to wait for quick ultrasound for fluid check. He was moving around a ton and had good accelerations of his heart rate when moving on the NST. We could see him moving on the ultrasound and all looked good except they couldn't find his stomach "bubble" -- stinker had probably just peed and flattened out, so I had to go in waiting room and wait for another 45 minutes to go check again! They had already seen his stomach before but needed to make sure it was still filling up properly to indicate he was eating and using his lungs fully. Fluid was up to 24cm!!! Big babies tend to have more because they need to inhale more and, thus, excrete more; and one of the quadrants was completely all fluid, he had crammed himself totally in the other 3 (HELLO, uncomfortable, child)!
The PA also explained to me the medical reasons for having a possible amniocentesis test run on Cash to determine if his lungs are mature enough to deliver him a bit earlier than scheduled. We've already seen that he's a larger baby (the ultrasound had me measuring almost 2 weeks ahead last time) and larger babies tend to: a) pass meconium (poop) earlier, which is not preferred by physicians because they inhale it and are likely candidates for pneumonia at birth (also a reason why a lot of people trying to go natural have to have c-sections) and b) tend to use up the life and nutrients of the placenta earlier (and Mom gets no indication that it is happening). So, with both of these situations being ones we'd like to avoid, and since they have to do a c-section anyway, we are scheduled for an amniocentesis on Aug 29th and if it's all cleared and goes as planned, Cash's birthday will be August 30th!!! Of course, he could always try to throw his own wrench in the plans, these kiddos don't come with contracts or manuals, ya know (which would be helpful sometimes) :-)

Cash -- 34 weeks

34 weeks of pregnancy update :: I did my first non-stress test (NST) this week for this pregnancy. You are hooked up to two monitors; one measures if you are having contractions (nope) and the other keeps track of the baby's heart rate (Cash was usually around 154bpm as he usually is, and it increased when he kicked/punched/zumba-ed me, which it's supposed to do also). I was hooked up for about 25 minutes, which meant I could barely walk afterwards because the position you sit in was right on my SI joint, but it's kind of neat to hear him for that long. It makes you very aware of your child and how much they move because it's just you in the otherwise quiet room -- I couldn't even read a magazine this time because he was moving so much, so I had to push his monitor the whole time :-) They did a quick ultrasound to make sure I still had enough amniotic fluid for him (normal is 10-25cm). I was down from 18cm last week to 12cm this week. Still in the normal range and it's completely normal for the amount to change weekly because the baby moves how they are chilling in there and you can't count a quadrant into the calculation if too much baby or umbilical cord is in it. Not worried about it, but will keep checking since I got really low with James. Dr said you usually run low on fluid about the same time, so she's thinking we may have a good shot at an August baby! That's only 3 weeks!!!! Ahhhh! Not ready, not ready! One more week with just one visit, then up to bi-weekly visits! Get ready for your world to be rocked, JamesE!!!

Cash -- 33 weeks

33 week update :: going weekly now to check in on Cash. They did an ultrasound to check for his growth -- WHAT A BIG BOY!!! They use the length of their femur to estimate their size. Cash is estimated at being 5lbs, 15oz right now -- that puts him in the 89th percentile!!! Quite the opposite from Mr. James -- he was always around the 20th percentile. You can't put too much faith in these estimates (James was predicted at 7lb 11oz but was only 7lb 2 oz when he arrived) but if Cash keeps up at the 0.5lb per week rate (and goes full term), he'll be in the 8lb range and if he puts on more than that, he could be closer to 10lbs! (I'm not too worried about that though). I measured at 35 weeks, 5 days from the ultrasound and at 36 weeks from the tape measurement (top of pelvis to the top of the fundus - which is the top of the uterus) -- you can measure +/- 3 weeks in the 3rd trimester. Cash has finally situated himself to be head down, which has given me some occasional breathing relief, but he isn't always in there straight, so the pelvic pain has gotten crazy intense -- pushing my SI (sacro-iliac) joints (where the sacrum and pelvis meet in the back) out of whack. Pretty much feels as un-awesome as it sounds :-) We are getting close to meet this (big) little guy! Can't wait for our linebacker to make his appearance!