Still waiting...

Still waiting on the room. The hospital will call when a room opens up. Apparently people who spontaneously go into labor have priority. Pshah! Whatever. Anyway, I'm supposed to relax and try and get some rest while I wait patiently for the phone to ring sometime during the night. Easier said then done. So we wait...

Baby update

I was supposed to be admitted tonight at 8:00 to get things rolling, but they are trying to get patients out, so my room is not ready yet. I will call again at 10:30 and see if I have a room by then. I sure hope I do! Will try to keep this updated as best as we can. Stay tuned!

The New Ride

FINALLY! Lauri and I finally went out and got a car for our family to be! The new ride seats 4 (2 adults, and 2 GI Joe action figures).... Seriously, I finally got my new Camaro!!

I've been saving up for a 2010 Camaro SS for a long time, and my day finally came on Friday! Lauri and I took a spin over to the Chevy dealership and picked up a new 2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS/RS. I was able to get the price I was working towards, so we didn't have to break the bank. While the timing with the baby coming may make some wonder if we should visit a psych ward instead of a delivery room on Wednesday night, we had this in the plans for some time. My Dad got his Camaro at the same time I was being born into this world, so I made it a tradition and did the same for my son. I had a blast riding in my Dad's Camaro growing up, and I hope my son has a blast in both of them! This is actually my dream car, and I've been tracking it's development since before we got pregnant. I'm telling you, this purchase has been in the works for a long time...

The car is a rocket. Tons of fun to drive (6 speed manual transmission with 427 horsepower has a lot to do with it)!

And hey, it even has the latch hookups in the backseat to setup a car seat for the kid...

3rd and final baby shower

Last Sunday I had my 3rd and final baby shower here in League City. It was given by my friends, Dee Ann, Amanda, Heidi and Benedicte. We had a great time and got lots of great presents. :) Dee Ann was kind enough to take pictures. Enjoy!

Maternity pictures-Updated to add 3 more pictures (and make the other ones bigger.)

A couple of weekends ago, Jeff and I went to Austin so my friend Shea could take some maternity pictures of me. We had a great time and she took a ton of great pictures. She sent me some of them so I thought I would share them with you. I think they turned out awesome and can't wait to see the rest. Let me know what you think.

36 weeks=1 week and counting

Had my appointments with high risk and regular OBs today. Got to see the baby one more time before next week. Everything looks good still, head down and in the correct position. Measuring in at a whopping 6 pounds 10 ounces! I am dilated about the same, but a little more effaced, so we are making some progress. I will see my regular OB one more time next Wed before I go in that night just to get checked and see where we will start from. I'm starting to feel the effects of being 9 months pregnant at this point. Lots of Braxton Hicks (like practice contractions), hard time sleeping at night and feeling every little movement he makes. We have almost everything ready, just a few loose ends to tie up, then we will be set. Can't wait!

OB update

Just got back from the OB. Everything is looking great. I gained about 2 pounds since last week. My group beta strep test came back negative, so that means I do not have to have antibiotics before delivery. Yay! I'm a teensy bit dilated and halfway effaced at this point, so my body is getting prepared. We have cancelled the amnio for next week, but I will still see the high risk doctor for a scan. We are going to go ahead with the induction at 37 weeks, which will be the night of Sept. 30. Baby will hopefully make his appearance on Oct. 1. That's in 2 weeks! Lots to do before then, but we will be ready!

MD Anderson Update

I had my 6 week follow up CT scan yesterday and today Jeff and I met with my oncologist for the results. The good news is there is still only the one tumor. Nothing new that they can see so far. The other news is that is slightly bigger than before, but still manageable with surgery. So the plan is (according to us and oncologist) to induce at 37 weeks (which would be Sept 30, with the assumption that I would have him on Oct. 1) and then have surgery sometime following that. We are waiting on the surgeon's team to schedule my pulmonary function tests (which are required before each surgery) and a surgery date based on delivery date of Oct. 1. So we are guessing sometime in mid-October that I would be having surgery. That's about all the news we have so far. I meet with my regular OB tomorrow afternoon and we'll discuss this plan with her and see if she is on board with it. I currently have an amniocentesis scheduled for next Wednesday to check for the baby's lung maturity, (with the assumption that if his lungs were ready, we would induce that day-36 weeks) but not sure if that's still necessary if we are going to wait an additional week to induce. I will find out tomorrow. I did get my steroid shots at 33 weeks to boost his lung maturity, so I feel confident that his lungs will be ready for an induction at 37 weeks. Oncologist and Jeff and I are thinking a week more inside will do a lot more for baby, then getting me a week closer to surgery. So that's the game plan so far. Will update when we know more.

Louisiana Baby Shower

Labor Day weekend, I made the trip back home to Louisiana (by myself) for the baby shower that my sister threw for me. Jeff didn't get to make the trip because he was working the mission, but I survived the drive on my own. I had a great time getting to see all my family and friends and we got lots of great things.

Here are the pictures

Nielson Family...sort of

In November 2007, we got a knock on our door from a guy that worked for a company called Arbitron. They are sorta like Nielson with ratings and things like that. He asked if we wanted to carry around some meters, earn money and be part of the ratings for tv and radio. This sounded like my dream job. Getting paid to watch tv! And maybe helping the shows that I like stay on the air. Sold! Sign us up. So we got set up with these nifty "meters" which we renamed beepers, cause that's what they looked like.

Meters:


All we had to do was wear them from the time we woke up to the time we went to bed. Then we put them in some chargers over night so they could recharge the battery and then download the info.

Meters in their overnight chargers:



Easy right? Well, it was pretty easy, but kinda got to be a pain to have to wear these beepers everywhere. You couldn't set them down, they always had to be in motion, otherwise they would shut down and wouldn't record anything. And the longer you had it on, the more points you earned, which dictated how much money you would get for the month. Now, it wasn't a ton of money, but we did get little bonuses here and there and we each got our own checks, so it did add up. All in all, it was a fun experience. Only a few people knew about it, because you were supposed to keep it a secret that you had them so no one could take advantage of the fact that you had these and use it to their benefit. IE if you knew someone that worked for a radio station, they could try to get their radio station around you as much as possible so they could get more ratings. Whatever. We didn't know anyone that works for a tv or radio station, so we really didn't see that as a big deal. But anyway, you can do this for up to 2 years. We were coming up on our 2 year mark in November, but I got a call around the beginning of September saying that they are leaving the Houston Market, so we are done. So I packed up the meters and the chargers and sent them back. All in all it was a fun experience and not one many people get to do. We like to think that some of the shows that were in danger of being cancelled, were not because of us!