Oh Golly, 39 weeks

I went for my appointment today and got the "thrilling" news that little BF is ultra cozy in the nest I made for him/her and has still not dropped! My doctor expects me to go late, real late. He tried to make me feel better by saying that 70% of first babies come late and that it is very typical... this only made me cry. He also informed me that they will only induce me after July 8th, this made me cry harder.

I am trying to stay positive, and enjoy these last fleeting moments of solitude. I am going out for a girls night, movie and dinner. I know that I will have a good time. We are going to see "Knocked Up", perhaps it will inspire labor pains if I laugh hard enough.

That's all for now.

"Red Neck Yaught Club" Party

The party was a great time for all, and pretty dang funny too! Everyone came in these ridiculous costumes, it was hilarious!

Our party's hosts, Brack, Emilee, Mike and Melissa. The entertainment! Note the lit cigarette between the guitar strings.
Cody and Me in "costume"
Emilee and Cody enjoying 'beer-ritas'...

The party got much more crowded after dark, but the pictures didn't turn out. We had a crew from Hooters show up, it was fabulous.

38 weeks

Still no Baby Fielden!

I had my 38 weeks check up this morning. It was a nice appointment with one of the newer doctors, I was a bit nervous, she has a reputation for being the "weight Nazi". She pulls no punches and will tell you exactly what she thinks of your week to week weight gain. After my appointment last week (gained 3 pounds in 6 days), I was begging the scale not to increase. Thankfully, it showed no weight had been gained since my last appointment. Phew!

She did a pelvic to check for dilation and further effacement, and became concerned that the little one had maybe flipped around and could possibly be breech. Great, I thought, not even born and already wants to be just like Daddy! She couldn't feel the top of the head, the doctor then ordered an ultrasound, saying "she didn't want us to have any surprises". The ultrasound tech was pleased to inform us that BF is indeed head down, just not as far dropped into the canal very far. A little bad news with the good news I suppose. BF was all cozy and squished up in the womb and as usual kind of shy, she tried to get a good shot of the face, but the arms and hands had it covered. She did manage to get this one:

What do you all think? Is BF more Cody or Me? I say Cody, that is a Fielden nose all the way!

Well, the doctor said we are more than likely gonna have a petite baby, s/he is measuring around 6 pounds give or take a few ounces. The heart, stomach, and kidneys were all looking beautiful and functioning great! The heart rate this time around was, 154 BPM... this is a bit higher than BF has been averaging in the last few weeks. The cord and placenta had healthy, strong circulation as well.

I am feeling a bit drained with everything. I am really ready for this thing to get started, but I am also trying to remain calm and relaxed. I have been staying busy during the day, making lunch plans with friends, taking lots of naps and watching my girl Oprah. I am waiting for the nesting instinct to kick in, but I would say that it is more like the lazy instinct right now. Everything is a bit of an effort, I want to know who these women are that go crazy and reorganize their pantries. I can barely stand up and sit down without getting out of breath!

We have a fun weekend ahead of us, a neighbor is throwing a party with the theme "Red Neck Yaugt Club"... we have to come dressed up pretty tacky I guess. It should be fun, can't wait to see what these conservative, southerns are gonna put on! Pictures to follow...

37 weeks, 5 days, 6 hours, 22 minutes, 5 seconds, 4, 3....

But hey! Who's counting?

I had my 37 week checkup today, they re-scheduled me due to my doctor having to schedule a surgery during my Friday appointment. I am glad they did, last night I was awake for hours with cramping and lower back pain that just wouldn't let up. The doctor was a bit nervous regarding my description and ordered an exam... he found that I am 70% effaced. This essentially means, BF is gearing up for the big event, and my cervix is thinning. I was happy to hear that I am making progress. As he left the room, he said, "see you next week, if not sooner".

This of course could mean nothing, I may have the little one on board for another 3 weeks. Apparently a doctor has said these things before, and women carry late. I don't mind carrying until I am due, but late, that is so not okay.

36 weeks

Sorry no pictures this week, I haven't had an the chance to get one taken. Bummer, I know... everyone wants to see the marshmellowy-ness I have become right? I am up 22 pounds, but it feels like 50! I hate being short. In my next life, I better come back 5'7''... I deserve it, I have been a good Catholic, right?

Well the doctor didn't have much to say other than the baby is still head down--YEAH! The chances of BF turning until labor are slim. This is great for my ultimate plan of going natural safely. He also shared with me that I am not dialated at all. I was a bit disappointed to hear it, because I am soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo over it! But, I am aware that the longer the baby stays on the inside the better. BF's heartbeat was strong and blood pressure continues to look normal.

My next appointment isn't until Friday, I am trying to stay busy and keep my mind off of everything related to labor and delivery. Although, I have to admit, I am starting to get nervous that everything will go well and I am going to take home a healthy baby. It just seems as if every time I turn on the TV, open a newspaper or read a magazine tragedy has struck some poor family. Am I crazy?? Or is this normal? All of you mommies (and daddies) out there feel free to share in my pre-natal looneyness. Overall, I have to admit that I am feeling pretty darn good. I have had 3 nights in a row of good sleep, I only woke up 3 times to pee in the course of the night. I am not plagued (yet) by horrific heartburn so common to this portion of pregnancy. I did start to have contractions daily, a few a day, especially during and after I work out.

Well, I am off to take my afternoon snooze... Cody and I have a cocktail thingy to go to this evening. Have to get my beauty sleep, every little bit helps these days.

The Nursery is all finished!!

A few "before" pictures of the nursery... it was the storage/cat room, needless to say, Tillie has had quite the kitty-tude since her displacement. Cody working so hard to cover the brilliant purple of the room.
And, the "after" pictures! We are so happy with how it all turned out! It will be a cozy, inviting place to hang out with our new little friend.


We still need to get some art work and decorations. We want to wait until BF is born, so we can suit it to the lil' one's personality.

Happy 32nd Birthday Cody!!

We celebrated Cody's 32nd at home last night! We had Crab legs, yummy belgium beers and ice cream cake. Opening presents!
A clock with our last name on it, kinda random gift, but he doesn't have anything with his name on it. I thought it was kinda unique.
I also had his diplomas matted and framed. My boy needs to hang those bad boys up with pride in his office. I was really pleased with how they turned out.

A great weekend!

Cody and I had a really fun weekend! For being kind of "grounded" by my doctor we still managed to get out and about to do some fun stuff.

We went to 'Celebration Station' and played Putt-Putt. Cody won by 6 points, but I have to say I am quite proud of the fact that I kept up with him, seeing as he practices in his office everyday and the last time I picked up anything resembling a golf club it was on our honeymoon. Some friends from our neighborhood invited us out to their family's mountain house in Rouring Gap, NC. It is about an hour from High Point, and it is on a mountain that overlooks Winston-Salem. It was SOOOOOOOOOO much fun! We stayed the day and all the men went and played golf, and we girls hung out and read gossip mags and drank cocktails. I had water of course. It is nice to finally meet people we really like and have lots in common with.
The boys play 'birdie ball'. It is a wacky golf game that they all seem to love.
Cody and me.
Don't mind the bloat, it has just started, I am not really gaining an ton of weight just retaining a ridiculous amount of fluid. It's the 90 degree heat. Even though my arms look like sausages, I still like this picture.
And, the women from the neighborhood had a little shower for me on Sunday. It was a good time, and we have really just about completed the nursery. I will post some pictures soon.

34-35 Weeks

It safe to say now that I am down to the last few weeks that discomfort has officially set in. I am definitely maintaining an exercise ritual, but instead of weight training and cardio every morning, it is more like slow, waddle walking in the neighborhood with lots of rests and water aerobics with my granny friends. My checkup went well, it must have been a busy day in labor and delivery, I waited an hour for my doctor and then she spent 2 seconds checking my measurements and BF's heart rate and was out the door. So, I didn't get a count on what the heart rate was this time. It was a little odd. But hey, luckily I didn't have any questions this time around. I start my weekly appointments at 36 weeks, that is when the real fun begins.


Cody and I have begun to sort thru the nursery, doing wash, and putting things together. It is very exciting to think we are almost there, and soon we are going to meet our child. It is so weird to think, we will be a threesome... a family. We are getting ready for the big day, I am starting to put my suitcase together and wrote a "birth plan". A birth plan is just a few preferences written out to put in your chart at the hospital since the L&D nurses have never met you, and my OB team has five doctors. It will keep me from having to repeat myself over and over when, well, my patience may not be at its highest level. In other news... we found our Maya girl a new home. She left last Sunday to go live with Ed and Phylis, our old neighbors on Greenway. They are wonderful people, close to retirement and looking for a new pal. They lost there 13 year old golden retriever last winter to arthritis and other old dog ailments. It was sad, I really miss her. I cried.

Mother's Day

A few pictures from Mother's Day! We just chilled out in the sun all day, at Mom and Dad's after being so busy with the shower on Saturday.

Damien and Karen enjoying the beautiful day! Uncle "Dam-Dam" flying kites with lil' Dennis. It was so cute! Dennis was just enthralled by the whole event.
Sun-bathing!
Cody made a round of Margaritas for the family. It was nice to have him up for the weekend, he rarely gets to enjoy those quick trips up to Philly. But with the help of US Air and Damien, he was able to pull it off.
Relaxing with mommy before bed. We were all whooped!

The Philly baby shower

The baby shower was a HUGE success, we had alot of friends and family join us at Karen's house on the steamy Saturday last week. I felt very spoiled by all the generous gifts given to BF and our little family. I hardly think, Cody and I will need to get much more to complete the nursery. My mom and sisters threw a wonderful party with lots of goodies to eat, especially Karen! She is an expert baker....mmmm, cheesecake. I think that is all I ate that day: sweets!

These are my "girl" Stolnis cousins on my mom's side, me, Jaqueline, Jennifer, and Lyndsey. Jennifer and I grew up very close, we are only 11 months apart. We spent many holidays and summers with each other growing up. And, everyone knows that Lyndsey and I share almost the exact same DNA, she is as genetically close as I will ever have to a sister. My mom and Jenel, a long time friend... we met in junior high. She was one of my very best friends growing up. Sometime before high school ended we lost touch, but thanks to good ol' myspace we reconnected. And, people say myspace is bad. There are some great bonuses to being a member.
Opening a few gifts! There were some darling things, this is a picture of a "Moses basket", I was stoked to get it. It is like a portable bassinet. It will be perfect for those first few weeks.
All the preggos! I am due July, Jennifer is due in August, and Holly is due in September. What fun!
Auntie Karen is getting a little practice for all those new nieces and nephews on the way. She is holding baby girl, Hana, my cousin Lou and Jennifer's new baby, only 6 weeks old.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! to everyone who could make it. And, especially those who had to travel so far.

The new 32-33 week post!

We apparently had some trouble getting the pictures to show up, I redid everything, so hopefully the glitch is worked out!

A little update on what we have been up to lately, I have reached 33 weeks. I am feeling good still, more tired and slightly uncomfortable, but overall good. These pictures were taken at 32 weeks, and it is amazing, I have grown a bit more since even then.My doctors appointment was last week, and I finally got to see my real doctor, Dr. O'Keefe. He is wonderful, I really hope that I am able to have him there to deliever the baby. We share many of the same beliefs in child birth. The chances aren't good, considering there are five docs in my practice. We talked a little about the upcoming weeks, signals that I need to look for that labor might be beginning. He also informed me that at 34 weeks, the doctors won't take any measures to prevent pre-term labor. The baby isn't considered full term, until 36 weeks and isn't at his or her ideal maturity until 40 weeks. As much as I want to meet my little friend on the inside, BF needs to bake as long as possible. He also took BF's heartrate 135 bpm, and checked to make sure head was down, all I can say about that is "OUCH"!

I have another doctor's appointment next week. I will go every 2 weeks, until 36, then I start to see the doctor's every week. My appetite has slowed down again, thank goodness. I get very full, very fast... but I am hungry more often. I am trying to stick to lots of protein, calcium and iron rich foods. Although, it is sometime hard to cook because I have low energy levels in the early evening. As much as I don't want to, I also stopped exercise training with Leigh last week, I am having alot of bad nights of sleep and found that I had to cancel with her too much. We did arrange for her to lay out a plan for me to do on my own when I felt up to it. I am up 18 pounds, and I expect to gain about 1/2 to 1 pound per week until I deliever. This is great I am right at where I wanted to be, which is 22-26 pounds gained.


We have been busy with the nursery. Cody bought me this cozy and comfy glider to rock and nurse the baby in, I love it!!! It was for my birthday.
Here is big daddy putting together the crib, he looked so cute reading the instructions and struggling to make it all fit together safely. I had a baby shower with my side of thefamily this weekend, we got alot of wonderful gifts from friends and family. It doesn't look like we will have to buy to much, we still have two other showers with work friends and neighborhood friends. We have been so blessed. I will post a few pictures when I get them from people. I had to depend on everyone else, since my battery died on the camera.

restoration hard-ware

So this is my screen door project. I found the original screen door from 1926 in our basement. I stripped 3 layers of paint (about 4 hours of work). I then sanded off all remaining paint (about 3 hours of work). Then stained it to match our front door. Then 3 coats of poly-urethaine.


















I even managed to find the original hardware in a box (there is lots of random stuff in the basement). Everything looked great but the lock/latch was broken. So I tried to chemical weld it together but it kept breaking.
I finally decided to do what I do best. I drilled on it. I cut slots and cold welded a screw into place. I know you are are impressed with how low budget it looks. Also fixed up the little rotater dealer bobber.

Finally putting it up. Totally matched and looks great.

Because we are bleeding heart animal lovers, that's why.

Cody and I took a little mini-trip over to Asheville this weekend for a concert, and came back with a dog. We haven't totally lost our minds just yet, you see... we tried everything we could to find her home. I will set the scene:

Cody was driving and I was sleeping, we were on the I-40 somewhere between Rednecktown and Hillbillyville. Suddenly, I feel the car turning around, suprised that we are already home, and quickly realizing that we are in the middle of nowhere, I sit up and ask, "where are we?"
Cody answers, "I just saw a dog on the side of the freeway, if I don't turn around, I won't be able to sleep tonight."
We flip around, and go on the search. We find the little pup up in the weeds on the side of the road, just off of the exit. After standing there for a bit, trying to figure out what to do, because she has got no tags, we call a friend who is a dog rescuer in High Point. She gives us some advice on what to do, and begs us not to call animal control. She claims she can find us some placement for her on Monday. Apparently, animal control will hold a non-aggressive dog for a week, and if not claimed they will destroy it. She must be from one of the houses off the road, right? We drive around and look at what there is in the area, a few trailers, a couple delapadated homes and a country general store/bus stop. We asked a few people if anyone had come looking for a dog that day, we got two replies:

1. "There's a guy down the road and across the interstate aways who messes with them kinda dogs". Huh?
2. "Somebody came a looking for a dog awhile back, but I can't reckon what color it was". Okay.

Yeah right. By the way, did I mention it is pouring rain?

So, we decided to head down the freeway a couple exits to the where there was a local vet, hoping to get a chip scan or a hopefully board her. No such luck, the vet was closed and when we called the emergency number, they tolds us they don't take strays... and no vet in the area would. We left a description of the dog with the store and at the vet office with a contact number. By this point, it was 5:00 Saturday evening, even if we drove back to Asheville or kept on going to Hickory, the Humane Society would have been closed. Here we are with a dog and no owner. We brought her home.

We bathed her (twice) in some flea-tick shampoo, and pulled off quite a few very ripe and happily fed ticks. Eww.
We brushed her lots.
And, Cody fed her. He now has a third best friend.
We could not help ourselves, we named her, so meet Cinco de "Maya"-- since we found her on the 5th of May.

All in all, she is super sweet. She has been socialized with other dogs, Jack and Flower seem to have taken right to her. Tillie doesn't seem to bother either, which is good. That makes her easier to place. She is young, you tell by her teeth, she may be only a year or two old. She isn't fixed and has already had at least one litter of pups. She is super skiddish around men, and does alot of cowering. She is also really underfed. Her ribs, hips, and shoulders stick out of her skin. She has started to perk up today, after feeding her and generally getting lots of love and attention from us and the neighbors kids. Maybe, it is just us trying to make ourselves feel better, but it doesn't seem like she came from a very good place. I am taking her to the vet tomorrow, to have her scanned for a chip and have a general wellness exam. She could possibly have heart worms or other stuff. We have been keeping her outside of the deck, so she won't pass anything to our dogs or get stuff in the house. Hopefully, our friend can get her to a lab rescue this week.

Fried Green Tomatoes

Cody and I are laying low this weekend, and sticking pretty close to home. We have been so busy with traveling and company lately! The house needs some work done, I think Cody and I are both feeling a little "nesty" lately.

We went to the Farmer's Market on Friday and bought a few plants, veggies, and herbs. I started my herb garden. I did it in pots this time around, I am not a green thumb kind of girl, so I was a bit nervous sticking them in the ground. I am trying my hand at, Thyme, Parsely, Basil, and Rosemary. Wish me luck!

We also registered with the church, Immaculate Heart of Mary, and had dinner there last night after mass. It was nice, they had a welcome dinner for new members of the parish. We are turning into real live grown-ups, scary.

They had some beautiful looking tomatoes, and I bought some green ones. I tried on my southern cooking apron, and here is my first try at fried green tomatoes. I made a batter out of milk, cornmeal and flour. They were really tasty, I drizzled them with some local goat cheese. YUMMO! We also picked up some catfish, which I battered and fried too. Cody diggin' on my southern fried food.

***SIDENOTE***this was the first time I actually fried anything. It was not as scary as I thought, although, I let Cody handle all the flipping in the hot grease. Rule #1 of pregnancy, do not let otherwise normally clumsy, pregnant girl near hot grease. Bad plan, someone will definately get hurt.

30 weeks

My 30 weeks appointment was this week, everything went great. My glucose test came back false-positive, which means I am healthy and have no issues combating sugar. Yeah! I don't have to give up my cereal or ice-cream. Turns out that my sugar level were actually very low, in the 50's-60's the whole time. This must have been why I felt soooo horrible.
I also met the last doctor in the practice, Dr. White, another woman. She was wonderful, other than my own doctor, I liked her the best. She was so sincere, and she took the time with me in the appointment, she even sat down. All the other doctors barely shook my hand! If I can't have Dr. O'Keefe, I really hope she is on call when I go into labor.
The heart rate was at 140 BpM, and BF moved around the entire time making it very hard for her to get his/her heartrate. Dr. White was impressed by the movement, and asked if this was a typical day for us. I said yes indeed, you should feel the little one around midnight. I gained 1/2 pound since my last check-up, this totals me out at 15 all together. I am pretty pleased, if I stay at this pace I will have totally gained around 25. Let's keep our fingers crossed there are no growth spurts. My blood pressure was a bit higher than normal, but the doctor wasn't to concerned. I had to do some self portraits, I keep forgetting to ask Cody.