essentials I wish were currently in my closet

Old Navy fleece wrap front sweater

Old Navy long Maxi dress

Old Navy Layering tank

Old navy full panel leggings

Oh those darn platelets

I had my monthly prenatal appointment yesterday. Baby is doing great! Head down, heartrate in the 140's and kicking the doctor. My body however is being a little annoying. While my weight gain isn't out of control, I'm definitly heading towards my highest gain in pregnancy yet. Oh well. Then there's my platelets. Are you tired yet of hearing about my blood? At last months appointment my Dr. was very pleased that my platelets had gone up from 98 to 101. Not so this month. They have dropped down to 86. Still high enough to not overly worry or do anything yet but I could tell my Dr is none the less concerned about it. So i'm now getting my bloodwork done every two weeks instead of monthly. Luckily i'm used to needles by now. I'm not sure how low she'll let my count get before she wants to try intervention methods. With Lily they got as low as 50 but luckily they went back up a few days after that. I know that its below 50 that it gets dangerous. I looked over my pregnancy journal from when I was pregnant with Lily and my count didn't get this low until after 30 weeks. Hmmm. I'm mostly not worried about it, but i do have my moments where I think..."what if?" I'm really examining how I feel about blood transfusions and being on steroids? Time for some googling I think.

Otherwise things are good. I'm loving feeling this little one moving around all the time. Baby is so far really nice and sleeps all night and doesn't start kicking me until i wake up in the morning. My ribs are starting to feel a little cramped but its actually helping me to have better posture! I was thinking numbers last night, if i had this baby when i had Noah (36 weeks) then I would have only 10 weeks left!! Getting excited!!!

Almost to the third and Final!!!

In just over 2 weeks I will be in my third and final trimester of this pregnancy! I was feeling like its all going by very slowly (i think due in large part to the fact that Fin was just born and i have two friends here that are due any day) but thinking about being in my last trimester puts it all in a new light!! I'm still feeling pretty good. I'm tired but dealing with it fine. My back pain has been minimal to non-exsistant, and my pelvic pain has been better the last few weeks so thats really nice! Baby is moving like crazy all the time and it can get uncomfortable at times (though i still love it). Early this morning (about 3am) I had trouble getting back to sleep after my second trip to the bathroom because baby was kicking so hard, lol.

I've been thinking alot about labor this past week. While Ruth was delivering their little miracle i kept thinking about all she must be going through. I forced myself to think not only about the warm fuzzy moments of labor and delivery but of the.....not so heartwarming moments. Even remembering my worst moments in labor (yes i have been known to scream out "NO NO, OUT OUT!!") I still just cannot wait for it!! The sound of the baby's heartrate monitor, the nurses in and out chatting quietly, changing positions, the excitment of finally being able to push, and especially that moment of overwhelming relief when your baby joins your world and you hear that first cry!! Other moments that have always been favorites of mine are the first time you nurse your little one, and oh! The first time your alone with baby and you just have to take off their sleeper and look at their tiny toes, fingers, legs, and just marvel at how absolutely perfect they are! Another great moment for me has always been the first meal I have after labor! I'm always starving (even despite my ridiculously short labors) and know exactly what I want! With Lily, I was walking the hospital halls after having my water broken and I suddenly smelled chinese food! Christy and Ruth thought I was crazy and the smell was gone a second later but I told lawrence right there that as soon as Lily was born and he could get away, I needed chinese food! He dutifully ran out of the hospital and barely made it to Polly's before they closed and brought me chinese food at 10pm. I could barely stay awake to finish my meal but to this day I'm sure it was the best meal I have ever had!!

I'm trying not to think to hard about how different it will be having a baby so far away from all or our family and friends from Terrace! Even when in the hospital, it will be odd not seeing all the nurses that I know roaming the halls and giving me encouraging words (though i'm sure the nurses here will be wonderful). I'm sad that most of family and friends will not even get to meet this baby until its closer to 4 months old. At the same time, i'm so grateful for the amazing friends we have made here in Fort Mcmurray! God really has brought some amazing people into our lives!

On and totally different note; I'm so so so excited to be able to fly to Terrace next month for Ruths baby shower! My wonderful husband is taking a couple days off work to stay home with the kids so i can fly over by myself!! What a gift!!! I just can't wait to meet Finley!!!