The Dadmobile: Babe Lincoln

Well, the time came for Lieutenant Lovemuffin to sell his beloved Susan, his 1998 Dodge Ram. She was amazing while we had her... but it was time to move on to a vehicle that can safely hold a car seat for Baby Cookie.

Dan searched and searched for months (no, really - he did) in all of his spare time. We narrowed it down to a few select SUVs, and we went and test drove several.

The winner was the Ford Expedition - because the third row seats fold completely flat without having to take them out. That's a win in our book since we will be traveling a lot with a baby, a big dog, two cats, and all of our luggage. We need space.

The only problem with the Expedition was that we couldn't find one for a price we were willing to pay in our area. Since we wanted used (but new-ish), nice SUVs are hard to come buy. People buy them and then drive them forever. 

Then, Dan found a 2013 certified pre-owned Lincoln Navigator... which is the same as the Expedition. Lincoln is part of Ford, and we totally lucked out! 

The selling point for this pregnant lady? The air conditioned seats. Yeah, you heard that right. I knew some newer vehicles had heated seats, but I am always hot (even when not pregnant) and definitely not interested in that. But air conditioned seats? You guys - it's amazing. I turn that feature on every single time... even when it's not super hot outside. I just love it.

The Navigator drives just like my Ford Escape, so that's convenient for me. And being up a little higher is more fun... parking is a little tougher, but I'm getting used to it. This is Dan's daily driver, though, so I don't drive it TOO often. 

Oh, and we named her Babe... short for Baberaham... like Babe Lincoln. #nerds

Do you like SUVs? 
Did you upgrade your car when you had a baby?


    

Bumpdate: Weeks 35-36

If you missed my previous bumpdates, you can check out weeks 5-12 here, weeks 13-14 here, weeks 15-16 here, weeks 17-18 here, weeks 19-20 here, weeks 21-22 here, weeks 23-24 here, weeks 25-26 here, weeks 27-28 here, weeks 29-30 here, weeks 31-32 here, and weeks 33-34 here! I've decided that at the very end of this, I'm going to make a book out of all of my weeks so Baby Cookie can look back and read through them someday. I also hope to make one giant blog post compiling all of my weeks together to see the progress.

How far along? 36 weeks

Size of baby?

35 weeks: honeydew melon

36 weeks: head of romaine lettuce

Total weight gain? I'm finally gaining... and I hope it's all baby! I'm up 7 pounds now! 

Gender? GIRL! You can read about it here! 

Maternity clothes? Yep - all the time still except for some huge t-shirts!

Sleep? I'm getting maybe three hours a night altogether... but I am in bed for eight hours or so. Heartburn, aching hips, cramping/contractions, and needing to pee are all keeping me awake at night!

Work outs? Walking through the grocery store leaves me huffing and puffing. It'll be fun to see how I do at the baseball stadium later this week! 

Cravings? What I'm craving now is basically not cooking... which is funny, since Dan and I prepared 32 freezer meals over the weekend! So over cooking. 

Aversions? Still tomatoes and peppers because they are causing heartburn at night.

Best moment of this week? We took one last road trip to see some wonderful friends get married in KC! 

Worst moment of this week? On our road trip back to Dayton, I started cramping and having some small contractions... got checked out, though, and all is good. The midwife said she does not see the baby coming "this week" - so we'll see! Could this be my last bumpdate? I'm thinking not... but she may surprise us!

Looking forward to? Having this baby out of my body and in my arms!!! Baby Cookie, I know your timing is your timing, but we are so anxious over here!

    

Glucose Tolerance Test

Where do I even begin with this post? I guess I'll start by sharing that I officially hate my hospital and that I do NOT have gestational diabetes, thank goodness.

My experiences with these tests (yes, multiple tests) were miserable.

{image via}

At 28 weeks pregnant, my doctors sent me to the lab in the base hospital to do the one hour glucose test. No biggie, right? Wrong. I called to get my results that afternoon, and I FAILED. By a lot. Like a lot a lot. Almost enough for them to diagnose me with gestational diabetes.

I knew something wasn't right, though. I made sure to eat only protein before going in. My blood draw was in the morning, so I actually just didn't eat breakfast. There was NO WAY my blood glucose was as high as they said it was.

Get this: not only did my asthma medication (albuterol - so I can breathe and so Baby Cookie can get her oxygen too!) made it high... and no one warned me about that... but ALSO, they gave me double the grams of the liquid for the one hour test. That'll do it.

The doctors made sure I scheduled a three hour glucose tolerance test as soon as I got back in town from Kansas City for our baby shower. I scheduled it, I fasted, and I did NOT take my asthma medication (which, by the way, then screwed my breathing up for THREE WEEKS, no joke - from not taking it twice - the night before and the morning of. Ugh. Bad decision.)

After fasting and then drinking this horrible liquid, I was fine for about an hour. I sat in the main waiting area, and I went back to have my blood drawn at the one hour mark. Did I mention it was the new workers' first day on the job? No? Well, it was. And they were so nervous. The lady who was drawing my blood was SHAKING as she moved the needle toward my vein. I have NOT had the best experiences with this hospital to begin with (like that time I was admitted for kidney stones, and it took them SEVEN times to get my vein for an IV - 90 whole minutes and two VERY bruised arms). I started feeling woozy just thinking about that, and she dug that needle into my arm and STARTED MOVING IT AROUND. What?! NO! I felt myself getting flushed, and I announced that I was dizzy and hot and was going to pass out.

Luckily, I didn't pass out. But I almost did. Everyone in the room rushed over to me with water, and then they let me lay down in a bed for the other two hours I had left... and I got an experienced phlebotomist to do the remaining blood draws... thank goodness.

After leaving, I had the best meal of my life. I couldn't even wait until I got home. I went through a fast food drive-thru and ate in my car. And when I say ate, I actually mean scarfed the food down as quickly as I could. And it was glorious.

The best news? I passed the fasting blood draw and every single hour - including the first hour that I failed the first time around - with flying colors! In fact, my third hour blood draw was LOWER than it should have been... confirming my hangriness. I need food, people.

I'm SO glad that part of pregnancy is over. Here's to four-ish more weeks!


    

Bumpdate: Weeks 33-34

If you missed my previous bumpdates, you can check out weeks 5-12 here, weeks 13-14 here, weeks 15-16 here, weeks 17-18 here, weeks 19-20 here, weeks 21-22 here, weeks 23-24 here, weeks 25-26 here, weeks 27-28 here, weeks 29-30 here, and weeks 31-32 here! I've decided that at the very end of this, I'm going to make a book out of all of my weeks so Baby Cookie can look back and read through them someday. I also hope to make one giant blog post compiling all of my weeks together to see the progress.

How far along? 34 weeks

Size of baby?

33 weeks: pineapple

34 weeks: cantaloupe

Total weight gain? Between 3-5 pounds, depending on the day... I'm curious if I'll pack on more rigt before delivery, or if I'm just not meant to gain much. We'll see!

Gender? GIRL! You can read about it here! 

Maternity clothes? Always except bed - still fitting into those giant Royals shirts from T-shirt Tuesday... you know the ones... they always give XXL because it's what they have. Yep, those.

Sleep? Sleep. Ha. I'm waking nearly every hour to pee or reposition myself. My hips hurt so much that I constantly have to switch sides.

Work outs? Walking occasionally but mostly not working out at all at this point. I know I'm going to regret this afterward when it's that much harder to get back in shape, but the moment I try, my entire body feels like it's shutting down.

Cravings? It's something different every meal at this point. I don't want much... hardly anything ever sounds good... and the only thing I can stomach is what I'm craving at that instant. Talk about annoying...

Aversions? Most hot foods right now. It's so hot outside that I can't even think about it. Also, still tomatoes and now peppers too. Reflux. Ugh.

Best moment of this week? Ellie and Megan hosted a wonderful baby shower for us here in Ohio. It was small but special and fun! 

Worst moment of this week? Another couple of hospital visits... one for my breathing, in which they had to give me an IV of magnesium sulfate to relax my lungs (from my sinus infection)... and another time for rapid heartbeat. I could hear and feel my heart pounding, so I laid down for a while... 90 minutes later, Dan checked my pulse, and it was still over 100 beats per minute RESTING... so he freaked out and called L&D. They had me come in, but they didn't really do anything... they just monitored Baby Cookie and waited for my heart rate to go down before sending me home.

Looking forward to? We're heading BACK to Kansas City to see a couple good friends marry each other! PLEASE pray that the drive goes smoothly. Dan took extra leave so that we can break the drive up more.

    

Life Lately

Life lately has been hectic... we've been traveling so much, and I am just flat out exhausted.

Some may consider this post a photo dump... but I'll add commentary as well so I can remember all these events. I sure hope life decides to calm down a bit before Baby Cookie arrives... I could use some quiet days.

I sure did miss these fur-babies while we were out of town! More on that out of town part in another post or two...

I love when I'm able to get them both in the same photo. 

Hospital stay #? Who knows anymore. I was admitted for pyelonephritis, which is a kidney infection. No good. They kept me overnight and pumped lots of fluids and antibiotics into me. 

While I was stuck in the hospital, it was National Hug Your Cat Day. I was super bummed, so I told Dan to hug the kitties for me when he got home. This is the photo I got... nice try, babe. It's the thought that counts, right? :)

One night, we went out for custard... and I thought, "let's bring Smudge along"... so glad we did because they had a dogwich on their menu! It was frozen custard between two dog biscuits. He loved it. 

We went to the Strawberry Festival in Troy, OH... but the best part was taking a photo with Babe Lincoln!

Stormy climbs Mt. Janelle every day. She loves her baby.

My handsome husband ran his first half marathon! And the lucky guy wasn't even sore afterward - he even mowed our yard that day!

These two... staring at an airplane. She's such a daddy's girl.

On the 4th of July, we made patriotic French toast. It was SO delicious. 

And then we spent the rest of the holiday weekend sanding and painting furniture for Baby Cookie's room.

I wore my respirator (Walter White style, yo) because of my asthma... and so Baby Cookie didn't have to get all the fumes either.

No caption needed. :)

We celebrated Tyler's second birthday with him, and we had so much fun! He is such a little character, and we love seeing him so often. 

After flying, I was super sick... again. I had an ear and sinus infection, so I loaded up on juice since I can't take many meds right now. 

Dan and I have started (and almost finished now) a six week Lamaze class through our Air Force Base hospital... it's 2.5 hours each Wednesday night, but we're learning a lot. This is after the first class when we deserved 1/2 price shakes for having to watch a live birth on TV without any warning.

The MLB All Star Game was in Cincinnati this year, which happens to be only an hour away from us! Groupon was so nice and offered a big discount for the Fan Fest... so we went! It was a lot of fun, and we got to pose with the world's biggest baseball.

And I got to hold one of Cal Ripken Jr.'s old bats, which was pretty sweet.

Gilligan likes exactly TWO human foods: ice cream and peaches. When I had peach ice cream, the guy went nuts. I can't blame him, though. 

Stormy is always laying on her baby. She's going to be so confused when Baby Cookie doesn't have whiskers or a tail...

Smudge is the goofiest dog in the world. This is his "I'm so happy after a walk" face. 

Due to my sinus infection, I was actually admitted during a routine appointment with the pulmonologist. I was wheezing too much for their liking, so they hooked me up to an IV with some meds to open up my lungs. It worked, but I had a slight allergic reaction, so what should have taken 30 minutes actually ended up taking 2.5 hours because they had to dilute the medicine with saline and drip it super slowly into me. I'm all better now, though!

We keep catching Stormy sleeping on the changing pad. In her defense, it does look like a cat bed... and here's a tiny sneak peek at Baby Cookie's room! 

I made these cherry lemonade cupcakes for our Ohio baby shower that a couple good friends threw for us... more on that later!

Has your life been crazy lately too?

Have you done anything fun?