34 weeks and Travis in Minneapolis!

Well, I decided to write this post 1 day before we are 34 weeks, but I don't want to get started on my reading/lesson planning for tomorrow just yet... 

Travis was in Minneapolis last weekend and he was apart of Ian and Emilie Knox' wedding - he looked great!  Emilie and Ian also looked fantastic in every picture!

I was bummed to have to stay home, but Travis was able to stay with Mitch and Mike and hang out with a lot of his friends at night and he had a great time. 

Until he got back on Sunday and had the flu - he even ended up taking a sick day, something he never ever does, so I knew he definitely was sick.  And my evening class was cancelled on Monday night, so we got to watch a movie together that night.  Travis slept all day Sunday and most of Monday, so it was nice to at least watch the movie together.  Then of course, I ended up getting sick yesterday as well, but I rested all afternoon with my feet up and was starting to feel better.  I made it all the way until 6:15 pm at school, I had to leave my class early after I threw up during class :(  And I was having a lot of lower back cramping and sharp abdominal pains, so the doctor told me to go home and rest, but I rested at school.  I only needed to go in if the cramping/contracting was coming at regular intervals, which it was not. 

So, on to the baby update - I've been having more cramping/pain on and off lately, intermittently, but nothing regular.  I am drinking lots of water and trying to sleep through the night but it is definitely getting harder, I roll around a lot.  I need to get a new picture up, but I'll wait a little bit on that.  My total weight gain is at 22.5 lbs right now, I'm doing well in that department and trying not to stress/focus on that at all. 

At 34 weeks, the baby now weighs about 4 3/4 pounds (like your average cantaloupe) and is almost 18 inches long. His fat layers — which will help regulate body temperature once he's born — are filling her out, making him rounder. His skin is also smoother than ever. His central nervous system is maturing and his lungs are continuing to mature as well. If you've been nervous about preterm labor, you'll be happy to know that babies born between 34 and 37 weeks who have no other health problems generally do fine. They may need a short stay in the neonatal nursery and may have a few short-term health issues, but in the long run, they usually do as well as full-term babies.  So that's good to know - also, by 35 weeks, their lungs are usually fully developed.  I'm pretty sure the baby is going to stay in there for a while longer, but I have to admit, we packed our bag on Monday (with baby outfits, breast cream, pjs/gown for me, a couple of diapers and other necessities), just to be safe.  In only 2 more weeks, we'll be just where our friends John and Rebekah were and baby Zane came 4 weeks early, so you can never be too prepared/safe.

I took a couple of pictures of the baby's bassinet, which is the removable top part in our pack and play.  This is where baby will sleep for a little while (1st one canopy is down, 2nd one canopy is up):

Right now we are planning on my mom coming down after about a week and then hopefully Trav's family will be able to be here right after that if the timing works out.  Then my parents would come down the following week.  But babies come when they come, so the only thing set in stone right now is that the Riley's are coming down here November 19th and Travis' race is on November 21st. 

The girls I work with are throwing me a baby shower this Saturday, so I am very excited for that - it will be nice just to see everyone all at once, since we all have different teaching/class schedules!  We're having a brunch potluck and I love breakfast food!  Lots of fun stuff!  Hope everyone has a good rest of the week and weekend!

Dave Ramsey, baby and baby names.

These are pictures of us at 32 weeks (we took this last weekend when we got to see Mark and Deb Johnston and fam from Iowa).  It was a nice to see them, even if it was for a short time! 

Well, last night we went to see Dave Ramsey live here in Phoenix.  It was a great refresher course for us and we are almost done with our fully funded emergency fund (3 - 6 months expenses), we are just going to shoot for 3 months right now.  Then we'll be on to baby step 4.  It was also very loud in there with the speakers and the baby kicked and moved around pretty much the whole time.  Actually the baby stopped kicking for a while, but then this big lady yelled out a very loud whooping (happy) scream behind us and the baby really kicked, actually, he probably jumped, because I think it scared everyone in our row.  We didn't get home until after 10:30 last night, so we were both pretty tired this morning getting up at 5 am to take Travis to the airport.  He is in Emily and Ian's wedding this weekend, I'm bummed I couldn't go, I know it's going to be super fun!  But as my SIL Lindsey pointed out, it's good that Travis gets a fun guy weekend in before the baby comes and I know he's excited to see all of his friends up there and stay with Mitchell and friends.  I'll be happy when Travis gets back home safe and sound (I seriously never worry about him, but for some reason, I seem to be worrying more about things...)

I had my doctor's appointment this morning - everything looks perfect, I think they like to say perfect a lot with me, or they say, you're doing beautifully, lol.  It makes me giggle because it reminds me of all the birthing videos we've had to watch.  The baby and I are measuring exactly at 33 weeks, so he's about 4 1/2 pounds.  I thought the baby moved around a lot last week, but I can definitely feel him all the time now.  When the doctor was measuring my fundal height, the baby kept wiggling and pushing back and the doctor said that when there's a lot of pressure that's a good sign.  I wanted to tell him that well, then he can carry the baby around and feel lots of pressure in his abdomen all day... The doctor said I should be gaining around 1 pound per week now, 1/2 going to the baby, 1/2 going to fluid/me and that it should start to slow at 37 weeks.  I asked if there was anyway to tell how big the baby was now and he told me that I will probably deliver a 7 or 7 1/2 pound baby at most, so that didn't really answer my question, but he said they'd need to do an u/s for that and since it's not covered by insurance, we can hold out on that.  The baby will be here before we know it.  And on that note, the baby will hopefully have a name very soon.  I think it will come down to delivery day before we finally narrow it down, but we do have quite the list going, I think we have 18 names that we like, but nothing is really "calling" to us right now.  But now that we have a list I feel better and we'll figure it out soon - we still have another month until I am full term (37 weeks), so no big rush. 

The doctor also asked me to monitor the baby's movements, so I should feel ~10 movements every 1 1/2 hours he said.  I think we're doing A-okay in that department.

Have an awesome weekend! 

32 weeks and video of baby's room!

Well, the baby is growing a lot - according to babycenter: he weighs about 4 pounds now, which is almost 2 pounds more than he weighed last month.  Talk about a growth spurt (for both of us!)  He's ~16.7 inches long and is taking up a lot of space in your uterus. You're gaining about a pound a week and roughly half of that goes right to your baby. In fact, he'll gain a third to half of his birth weight during the next 7 weeks as he fattens up for survival outside the womb. He now has toenails, fingernails, and real hair (or at least respectable peach fuzz). His skin is becoming soft and smooth as he plumps up in preparation for birth.  As for me, I am still having some back pain, but it doesn't kick in until later in the day, which is good.  I am starting to lose some flexibility in my body and shaving my legs is definitely getting more difficult.  My heart burn also hasn't been as bad lately, but that may be partially due to my longer torso and the fact that I am carrying low, but I'll take it!


And we started baby classes (lamaze) last night at Chandler Regional.  We met some interesting people.  It does get a little tiring/discouraging hearing how painful labor is/will be, how it is all worth it in the end and watching graphic birth videos.  We did watch a birth video last night with the labor stages and Travis turned away at the birth part, but the baby exiting the body did out of nowhere.  Some older guy yelled out something very inappropriate, not swearing, but something that did not need to be yelled at that I am going to omit here, so that guy needs to grow up and I feel sorry for his wife...  So, if you haven't had the pleasure of watching a birth video, you can always go to babycenter.com and see one for yourself :)   We also saw pictures of how scrunched up the organs, including the stomach, get when you are pregnant.  Just crazy!

En otras noticias, we are getting more and more ready for the baby.  Step by step and little by little.  It still doesn't seem real to either of us, even though we can see that my stomach and other parts of me are growing and we see baby stuff throughout the apartment, I don't think we really "get it" just yet.  My friend, Rebekah, that lives down here and is 4 weeks ahead of me, went into labor today.  She texted me and said she was excited, but she wasn't sure what to do when baby Zane actually arrives - I think that sums up how we feel too.  We're excited to meet the baby, but actually taking the baby home sounds pretty scary.  It will be an adventure!

In awesome news, I met with my supervisor today about my maternity leave and my teaching schedule.  I will be teaching 2 courses online next semester and I will have virtual office hours and everything!!  In other words, we won't need daycare for the baby!  When I have my night classes twice a week, Travis will just plan on going to work early and coming home early to take care of the baby.  So that worked out wonderfully and we are super excited.  Also, my last day of teaching (unless the baby comes before then), will be Thursday, October 28th.  I'll start teaching online in mid January.  I know teaching all online will be a little stressful at first, trying to set up video chats with students, but I am very grateful at how supportive my supervisor is and at how flexible my teaching schedule will be!

Travis has started running again.  He's been out for almost 2 months with a foot injury.  It's made him a little more nervous for the ironman, but I think that he'll still do really well.  At least he's in shape cardiovascularly and he's really improved on the bike and the swim.  I think as long as he doesn't push it these last couple of months, that he'll do great. 

I'll end with a video of the baby's room.  We're pretty excited about it.  We have been doing good at cleaning up and making space (again, little by little). 


Baby's room from Holly Riley on Vimeo.

Videos of baby preparation!

I tested out our new camcorder this morning and was able to successfully take 3 videos!  The first one is of the living room, including our newly hung bikes, bouncer and our portable swing.  And the diaper bag is in there as well :)


Bikes on the walls from Holly Riley on Vimeo.

The 2nd video is of the baby's bathroom (the guest bathroom), but that's where the baby items are going.  Guests get to play with the toys as well, though :)

Baby's bath from Holly Riley on Vimeo.

The 3rd video is of the baby's room, which we worked a lot on this weekend, mainly me going through school items and throwing out a lot of paper.  Travis spent most of his time organizing his stuff in the living room, the bookshelf and the storage closet outside.  I'll try to upload that one later this week - I have reached my daily limit for uploading videos.

Payson, AZ weekend away and 31 week stats

We went to Payson this last weekend (it's about an hour and a half away) for some quality Travis & Holly time.  It was about 10 degrees cooler, 96 degrees, which when you're hiking around is still pretty hot!  There were a lot of people at the Tonto Natural Bridge State Park and I had to laugh a few times when people would give Travis a glare or a comment about letting me hike down to the cavern, lol.  Also, a few times people would be complaining or resting on a bench on the path and as soon as they saw me coming up (or down) they would immediately puff up their chest and stop whining or get off the bench and let me sit down.  And boy oh boy, did I ever need to sit!!  Here are some pics of what we saw:

We hiked down into the gorge.

Posing inside the cavern under the natural bridge.

One of the waterfalls with lots of greenery.

We had a really good time and tried the local pizza, which everyone raves about.  We both had a calzone, super yummy, but pretty heavy.  That didn't stop Travis from wanting to stop by DQ later, though.  I'm glad I just ordered an artic rush (mr. misty).  The only downside to the weekend was the hotel pool.  There are not a lot of options in Payson and after hiking around for a few hours, my back hurt pretty bad, so we decided to put our suits on and go swim in the indoor pool.  After being in the water for about 10 minutes and Travis insisting that there was something smelly in the pool, another guest came down there and said that there was dog crap in the pool!  SICK.  So we obviously jumped out of the pool and ran upstairs and showered and washed out our swim suits.  That ended that.  But my back felt better for a while longer.

Baby updates:

I had another appointment at the doctor today and I don't have to go back for another 2 weeks, Friday the 24th, so I am pretty excited about that!  Everything is looking great, baby is measuring at 31 weeks and his heart beat is 150.  In 2 weeks they will take blood counts to make sure the iron supplement is working and they will be doing another cervical exam as well to make sure that any signs of infection etc are all gone.  The doctor did say that they were trying to be peppy for all of the pregnant women that just made it through the hot summer sun, even though it's September and it's still not over yet, so I told her I appreciated it, but yes, it's definitely a little miserable sometimes.  She recommended trying on maternity support belts for the back pain, otherwise, she will refer me to a physical therapist.  I was almost in tears yesterday afternoon, Tuesdays are a super long day for me at school, though.  I am definitely counting down the Tuesdays, I'll say that much.  

Sleep: minimal now, so I try to rest or take a nap during the day if possible.  Travis has gotten used to me getting up.  Last night I got up 5 times (that's an exception, usually it's 2 or 3), the doctor said the baby's head is down now and I think he is lower than before because I don't have heartburn 1/2 as bad as I did before.  Big plus! 

Baby fat: baby is putting on 1/2 a pound a week and heading into a growth spurt, so I hear/read!  At 31 weeks, he weighs ~3.5 pounds and measures over 16 inches long.

Baby moves & grooves:  all the time!  Sometimes my stomach looks like an ocean wave rippling, with all of the squirming, twisting and turning.

Hope everyone is having a good work week so far!

Hospital pre-term labor scare & 30 week stats

Well, Monday I was having some problems, such as cramping and bleeding that had continued from the night before, so I ended up going into the doctor around 2 pm.  I went to the clinic, where they did several exams (some did not feel good at all, I am not a spectrum fan one bit) and hooked me up to a machine to monitor the contractions and the baby.  Well, sure enough I was having real contractions and my cervix had opened a tiny bit on the bottom side.  Luckily, the baby was 100% fine and had a heart beat of about 152.  However, because I was having cramping, they sent me over to the ob-gyn triage at Chandler Regional for pre-term labor, which are super scary words.  So off to the hospital I went and Travis left work to come and meet me. 

I was hooked up to another fetal and contraction monitor where they confirmed I was having small contractions and uterine distress - we were at the hospital for about 2 hours and then we were cleared to go home. 

I had a follow-up appointment today with my doctor and she said that she was shocked that no one had noticed that I have some sort of infection and inflammation going on and she was pretty sure that my body was cramping up and might have started bleeding in response to the infection.  We'll know the lab results in a couple of days, I'm not having any pain or urinary tract symptoms, so all we can do is wait and pray. 

I did have an ultrasound performed on Monday as well to confirm that the baby was okay, so we did get a few pictures out of that, but again, baby is 100% okay and I am cleared to continue swimming (and walking, of course).   The baby measured at 30 weeks 0 days.  I think he looks like Travis :)

Thank you to everyone for all of the positive thoughts, encouragement, support and prayers - we really appreciate it a lot.  I think God has heard a lot about our baby boy the last few days!  But that's okay - we're continuing to pray for him every day! 

Here are some 30 week stats on the baby:

Your baby's about 15.7 inches long now, and weighs almost 3 pounds (like a head of cabbage). A pint and a half of amniotic fluid surrounds him, but that volume will decrease as he gets bigger and takes up more room in your uterus. His eyesight continues to develop, though it's not very keen; even after he's born, he'll keep his eyes closed for a good part of the day. When he does open them, he'll respond to changes in light but will have 20/400 vision — which means he can only make out objects a few inches from her face. (Normal adult vision is 20/20.)