Pregnancy 1: Week 36

36 Weeks:

Symptoms: All the pain on my right side still exists, heartburn, constant peeing, breast soreness, etc. Honestly no new symptoms to account for just most of the ones I have had throughout. Except ending this week with nausea, puking, and a fever at one point.

Weight: This week I have gained 17lbs total. Like I note each week this is well within the goal of 25 lbs max but I really have been hoping to not hit 20. We found out Patrick’s weight last week and I would say he is likely pushing me a bit higher with his own weight gain (he is already weighing 2 weeks ahead!!).

Final Packing List: Okay so people always struggle making a packing list. Do I want to pack too much? Too little? How do I find the perfect balance. Well here is what we actually packed in our bags….(add in swim trunks for hubby that wasn’t on the list and that is everything!) After talking to quite a few people I decided to pack some things that the hospital already has for me (i.e. shampoo, soap, conditioner) because despite them having these items many expressed just how great it feels to feel like yourself after a shower after labor. For me, that means having my loofah and body wash over soap and a washcloth, and using the stuff on my hair that makes it feel so great and smooth.

What we are using and NOT packing: laboring ball (exercise ball), aromatherapy oils and diffuser, hubby will use the hospital toothbrush, toothpaste, and general amenities he doesn’t have packed because he doesn’t care, a pillow & blanket for him (I am taking an extra blanket for me for in the hospital and a pillow for the car), and lastly we really backed off the snacks list (I ended up only packing mints, a couple fiber bars, & my penguin snacks) because the hospital we are delivering at has amazing food options the whole time we are there (Tomek can’t wait to get a wrap!).

Hospital Gifts: For husband, Nurses, Doula, & OB.

After a few laughs at my list saying push present for hubby let me take this chance to explain who all I am doing gifts for and why.

First of all for my husband: Tomek has been so supportive through my entire pregnancy. I am in pregnancy groups where I have seen the other end of the spectrum. I feel blessed to have a man that is so supportive of me and our future child. He works his butt off already to provide for us and still comes home and does things to help me out that I can’t do on my own. He has been very understanding about me getting behind on laundry, dishes, or just having days where all I do is lay in bed with heat/ice packs. We plan on having a completely natural labor, which I really wanted but he happily agreed to, but this means more work for him actually! He will be doing different labor positions with me, massaging me, coaching me, and doing anything he can to make me more comfortable. Then when our son is born he will be cutting the cord because it is something I really want (even though he is nervous about it). So given ALL of that I believe my husband deserves a minute of appreciation as well. I am making him a gift myself that will cost under $10, but I know it will mean far more to him than any expensive gift. Because his family and him read this I can’t tell you what it is but I will share it in Patrick’s birth story whenever that comes. :)

Nurses: I already explained this in an early post so I will keep it brief but the nurses are already being so helpful of me (when I had to spend hours in L&D the last time) and are really doing their best to give me the best possible experience every time I walk through the doors I believe it is the least I could do to make them little gift baskets (I made 8 to make sure I had enough as it sounds like 1 nurse per rotation, 4 rotations, plus 2 nurses for baby during delivery would equal 6 nurses but if we end up there for an extra rotation or something I want us to be fully covered. The gift baskets have snacks, drinks, lotions/soap/sanitizer, & thank you cards in them. If you decide to make gifts remember to only use pre-made items that are individually wrapped otherwise most hospitals won’t allow the nursing staff to have them.

Doula: I have already been messaging our doula asking random questions, getting support from her, and updating her on our baby each week. She has been very supportive and I know she will be the perfect addition to our birthing duo (Tomek & I). She has already given us a better sense of security, what to expect, and so much guidance I am very thankful that we decided to hire her and couldn’t rave about doula services enough (and I haven’t even went through labor yet!). So, as a thank you to her I bought her a special gift (again I don’t know if she will read this so I will share in the birthing blog) from us just to say thank you for her constant support. From 35 weeks all the way to the fact that she is constantly there in the labor room by my side supporting us!

OB: Lastly is a gift for my OB. Now there is a chance she won’t be the one delivering our baby, we will see but I wanted to get her a gift as she has been so supportive and helpful throughout this entire pregnancy as well. She was very understanding about my trauma history and put a note in my file to ensure we wouldn’t have to worry about it interfering with labor and delivery. She has agreed to make sure that if she has to come in when she isn’t working to ensure I don’t have to deal with my trauma history and deliver the baby she will…(seriously how many people can say that about their doctors)! I have been seeing her since I was 21 I believe and she has been the only doctor I have trusted. I got her a special gift as well (I too will share it with the other gifts) and I think doing so is just a nice way of showing appreciation for everything that I have been able to experience so smoothly throughout this pregnancy and hopefully labor & delivery as well.

6 Dates a Day:

First of all here is one of the research articles I read discussing this topic (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21280989)

The research states (in this article and a couple others) that pregnant women who eat 6 dates a day in the final 4 weeks of pregnancy (36-40) were (statistically) significantly more dilated AND more likely to 1) have intact membranes upon admission to the hospital, 2) avoid the need for Pitocin to induce labor, 3) go into labor spontaneously, 4) Greater cervical dilation comparatively 5) have a shorter first phase of labor, & 6) a more successful progression through labor.

A direct quote for those wanting more in-depth about why a date?!: “Date fruit contains saturated and unsaturated fatty acids such as oleic, linoleic, and linolenic acids, which are involved in saving and supplying energy and construction of prostaglandins. In addition, serotonin, tannin, and calcium in date fruit contribute to the contraction of smooth muscles of the uterus. Date fruit also has a laxative effect, which stimulates uterine contractions.”

Now I had heard about eating dates before my classes and talking to our doula but I questioned the real need and just didn’t really look into it so much. However, dates were suggested in our regular class, our natural birthing class, AND by our doula. Okay?! Seriously, what is up with these dates? So I read the above research and realized it seemed to have a lot of benefits, and for someone like me that is 100% natural no medications it seemed very smart to do. So this week I started eating the dates….

I initially couldn’t eat them. The texture, the appearance, just yuck! People eat these? I have to eat 6 a DAY?!? Thankfully Tomek had the idea to throw them in a breakfast shake for me. So I have 2 types of shakes I make you can try if you are interested (the goal is to mask the dates, seriously I don’t want to taste them!)

Strawberry Banana, Coconut, Pineapple smoothie mix (they are prepackaged from Walmart) add in water, 6 dates, & ice and you are good to go.

Peanut Butter (2-3 Tablespoons), Breakfast Essential drink powder (this is just something I drink regularly so I threw in it to have less to drink...and it is chocolate flavored), 12 dates (this is a double batch!), 2 bananas, honey (like 2 teaspoons--I didn’t measure), 5 ice cubes (I wanted it to make it cooler but not give me a brain freeze), and top it all off with milk (I drink lactose free milk due to my allergies but it works great making a creamy flavor over water).

Installing a car seat: We finally did it! We are officially COMPLETELY ready for Patrick. We pulled out the stroller car seat combo (Graco sungride sungfit click connect system color...GOTHAM). We bought an extra base so we installed each base in our cars, but the car seat in Tomek’s, put the stroller together and have it in a spot in the house, got our baby in the car safety magnets on the back of our cars, and the rear view mirrors set up! This is such a great feeling but also causes me so much anxiety realizing there is nothing left to do but wait! What?! How is that possible. We bought this with the jogger stroller and I can’t wait to use it. It seems to fold down super easy (literally 1 hand pulls a strap in the seat of the stroller and done...it all folds up and a kick stand pops out of the bottom for it to stand on its own! I will say the only downside is our cellphones are too big for the cellphone holder spot but it really isn’t that big of a deal (we didn’t know it was a feature to begin with).

Nursery: I did the final round of baby clothes laundry, hung up and folded all of his clothes, organized the nursery & cleaned it all up, AND to top it off Tomek put his wall art up with his name!! I am so thrilled to have it all done! So this means I can now share pictures with you all of the nursery, YAY!

As noted plenty of times we did a Gryffindor HP themed nursery

Section 1: I had floating U shelves that I decided to have us put up in here with cute HP collections including our Howler I made with his ultrasound in it for his announcement, HP quote framed, HP collectibles, a bowtruckle I made, and a tile of the actual castle that JK Rowling based Hogwarts off of the Alnwick Castle (if you go there, which I did, you can take flying lessons where they filmed the actual flying lessons in the movies!!) Ignore my wall of diapers, thank you couponing and deals at Target plus baby shower gifts!

Section 2: Rocking chair with a HP blanket on it, Gryffindor flag hung behind it, a side table that I made by modge podging old destroyed HP books (book 1 and book 7) pages on it and Tomek spray painted the drawers and legs for me (It was an upcycle that was left in the home from dziadzio), and lastly a very cute Gryffindor lamp that hubby got me for in here! We have a basket on the floor to hold breastfeeding items courtesy of our friends Gabe & Mere.

Section 3: Bookcase with all of his books, A crochet lovey I made for him with Hedwig on it, a tile on top with the train that the Hogwarts express is based off of (Jacobite train), camera that we have connected to our phones to view (we are debating mounting it in the room as well), an owl tote holds all of his toys, & a collectors quidditch mini set, & of course another wonderful HP quote framed. Above is our wand case that holds Harry, Ron, & Hermione’s wands from the movies as well as my wand from when I was chosen for the Ollivander experience. The owl sitting on the top is a really cool product that we can connect our phones to when we go out and play Pandora from, record ourselves reading books and play, or singing all through an app on our phones. We also have an echo dot in here to be able to play things in the nursery (the owl soundbub is more for on the go).

Section 4: Changing table wall has a diaper genie (gray) to the left along with a clothes hamper in the back corner. We got a changing table pre-owned locally for about $10 with the brown totes included. We added in the 2 baskets in the middle (one courtesy Crista & fam, thanks!) and are able to hold all of the essentials we need for Patrick (socks, mittens, bibs, pacifiers, diapers, samples, & the drawer is full of the diaper changing essentials). I wanted to continue the HP theme but there was no way I could afford to spend $40 on a changing table cover plus even more for a crib sheet. So I found these golden feather covers that I thought were perfect for the theme on Amazon. We also have a sign above the changing table (not HP but perfect for daddy) about changing diapers...in a hazmat suit. Heehee. To the right of the changing table is our “dresser” for clothes. We really didn’t want a full size dresser and so this brown fancy plastic drawer stand was perfect. On top is his wipe warmer, a cute little lion, and of course hand sanitizer.

Section 5: Closet. There isn’t much here to share. We put the platform HP sign above the closet doors and sorted all of his items into the closet (knowing it will probably still get shifted around again after his arrival). We have another owl bin on top of the storage cubbies and we will see how all of this stuff ends up moved around in the end. I don't have a good angle of them but we do have dividers in the closet for hanging clothes that say 0-3 months, 3-6, etc. that have HP characters on them.

Section 6: The crib wall: This wall is the reason we have been waiting to share for a while. First his play mat is in the corner for now for tummy time. The crib itself has a red skirt, the gold feather sheet, a mesh liner for safety, a HP mobile that plays the music from HP as well, currently an owl quilt that was custom made by my aunt Becky (Thank you so much!!) & a cute little lion friend. On the wall behind the crib we added Patrick’s name with stars, wand, & HP glasses! I absolutely love this wall behind his crib! Beside the crib is the second side table I made with an HP Always art on it as well. To the right is his fishers price grow with you rocker which may or may not stay there in the end, it may end up in the family room more truthfully. We hung up the record cut HP clock on the wall, The light switch says Lumos & Nox, and in the second picture you can see the custom over-sized time turner I made hanging from the light in the middle of the room. You can also see in the 2nd picture the Gryffindor rug that my hubby got me to put in the room! :)

So that is a full walk through of our cute little nursery! I am still finishing up the bathroom and will share that when I am done as well. :)

Applebee’s with friends: This weekend we got to go to Applebees with my friend Sarah and Momma Anne. It was so nice to spend some time with them, it has been a while. We updated each other on life and just had a good time chatting and chilling.

YUMS: When I got home I went to bed, napped, and Tomek made me this amazing dinner! He made honey chicken with white rice, set it all up pretty and brought in purple flowers to make the final touches. Then (not pictured because I ate it first heehee) he made me my chocolate (lactose free) ice cream with little edible green grass and a flower on top. He is such a thoughtful man and I adore him truly!

September Group Calendar Created: This week my September baby support group kept talking about when people were due and trying to share a final time so I volunteered to make us a cool calendar that showed the dates on it, which actually was really neat to see. So here is the final product of my work:

So many babies due, and actually quite a few that have already been born! I can’t wait for Patrick’s turn but also am still really hoping he waits for September! Just by the end of this week now 2 more have had their babies early, and 1 is currently in labor! heehee

Maternity Pictures: Our maternity photo shoot was such a success!! Our photographer (Carly Secrest --> www.carlysecrest.com) did a phenomenal job. We took sunrise pictures, pictures in the park, and even got a few in the lake which was so refreshing. We were so blessed to have her capture these moments with us of Patrick in the womb and our excitement of becoming first time parents! We had outfit changes, different locations, cute & adorable pictures, and also so many fun pictures! We can't wait to meet our little guy!

Movie Night: Tomek & I have been wanting to watch Ready Player One for a while but just haven't because of life and being busy but we made some movie night food (okay yes..Popcorn and Pierogi...welcome to a Polish family lol). The movie was very good (I remember reading the book when it came out the year I graduated high school...though I didn't remember enough of it to effect my movie experience--which I liked actually). The only part of the movie I could have DEFINITELY went without was the Shining movie reference as I am not a scary movie fan at all.

Sick: I have ended this week feeling like it is the 1st trimester all over again. I was really sick one day (even had a fever) and the next couple days ending the week consisted of me not able to really eat anything without feeling sick. I am stuck switching back to bland foods and even then I still end up nauseous and puking at times. I hope the next 3 weeks aren’t all like this but I remind myself that Patrick is still well worth it! I can’t wait to meet him!!