May Week 1 Workout Recap

Happy Mother's Day yesterday! First week of May is done and over with and I'm seriously just ticking down the time till this baby arrives. I guess I am ready and have been for a few days. I have finally decided that it's ok if I don't make all the food I was planning. Or if my house isn't perfect. I feel content with how things are and how they are going. And am getting excited for baby to join us!

GMA arrives on tomorrow evening. We are excited to see her. I have Molly maids coming to my house today to do the big deep clean before baby arrives. Thanks to my hubs for his amazing Mother's Day gift!

Pregnancy Changes:  I'm huge. I feel huge. I'm tired a lot, except for when I get a kick to get something done. Then I just magically have the energy to do what I want to accomplish. Then I'm tired again. I don't have heartburn anymore as the baby has dropped. Still getting kicked in the ribs but now I just have to pee all the time! I also often forget about the size of my belly and often open the door and I am not standing back far enough and end up hitting my belly with the door or whatever.

Baby is ready to come out. Well, at least we think he is. He can survive just fine now out in the world whenever he decides to come. Doc says that he is perfectly average and at my appointment last Thursday he said he is a healthy 7 lbs based on size and such. He also said that I am just a ticking time bomb and I can go at any time. I was 1 cm dilated (not very much but he said based on my last labor I dilate easily since I relax so well during labor.) I am also 70% effaced/thinned out. And baby is finally locked and loaded in my pelvis at a -2 station. The effacement and pelvis station all changed in the last week and he was surprised by how much I had changed in the last week with that. That is why he thinks I am just going to go at any time. I could very well have had baby by the time this posts. (I'm writing this a little early, one less thing to do next week)

Prepping for Baby:  I have made a ton of food. As you have seen from my previous posts and Facebook. This past weekend I made 2 batches of bread (that's 4 loaves) putting my total to 7 frozen loaves of bread now. I still have to make a spaghetti casserole (Matt's family recipe). And put together the chili. (I will just cook 4 lbs of ground beef together and take out a pound for the chili and then assemble it and put it in the freezer bags and then in the freezer. It's a crock pot meal.) And I think that will be it with the freezer prep for me. That will mean I made all but 3 meals. Not bad!

Matt and I had "the talk". No, not that talk, silly! The talk of what if I don't make it or there is an emergency. Or something happens. He needs to know what I want and all that. We were both crying talking about my final preparations. I know we had the talk just before Mason too. My friend thinks it is totally morbid to talk about it but childbirth is still a dangerous thing that we women go through. My friend's SIL had her new baby and a couple days later died due to a complication from labor. She died 2 days before Christmas. She was a very healthy woman and mother of 2. I just think it is important for Matt to know what I want in the end and all.

Bags are packed. List is made of final things to be grabbed in a hurry. Mason's bag is packed incase I go early and he has to have a sleep over at a friends house. And Archer's food is organized. We are baby ready!

Prepping Mason For Baby: We just keep taking about baby joining our family. About how fun it will be when he arrives. Mason has seen me hold another baby more than once this past week and he didn't freak out at all. He was very good. He sat next to me and cuddled up next to me. It was very cute, but this was a baby that could go home and wasn't stuck here for days and days. He is acting like a big brother to kids that are younger. Trying to guide them and correct them. But he also is still learning his strength and learning good and bad things to do as he pushed his friends off the coffee table.

Workout Recap:
Sunday: rest

Monday: 2 mile walk

Tuesday: cleaning house

Wednesday: rest (food prep and play date)

Thursday: 1 hour 15 min prenatal yoga. (last class)

Friday: 2 mile walk

Saturday: 1 mile walk

Total Mileage: 5 miles
39 weeks pregnant

Happy Mother's Day!

This day has been one of the hardest, most special and now a little bittersweet for me. The first 8 years of our marriage I really hated this day. It was a reminder that I couldn't get pregnant. All my friends were and their families grew and expanded over the years and our was stagnant. Not matter what we did I couldn't get pregnant. I hated receiving the Pity Flower at church. (Here you go sister Allen here's a flower that is supposed to be for moms but you aren't a mom yet and we will give you one anyways because that is what we were told to do.) I know that that is not the real intent of the flower but that is how I felt at church every year. It got to the point that I stopped going to church on Mother's Day because I just couldn't take it anymore.

Then I finally got pregnant. It was amazing. I relished the day. I loved it. I earned that flower for the first time, but wait, baby wasn't here yet and something could still happen and I could end up not being a mom because something could happen. But that year I went to church and I collected my flower and was proud of it! Got an amazing Mother's Day gift from Matt that year too. He knows my feelings on that day and normally doesn't get me anything but that year, 2011, he got me a massage, facial and just a pamper day at an amazing spa! It was amazing!

Last year is when this day has become bittersweet to me. I miscarried the day before Mother's Day. (which happens to be Mother's day this year.) I was 12 weeks pregnant and knew it was coming. Matt wasn't home yet from being away at military and wasn't going to get here until the 12th. I went through the miscarriage all on my own. I was alone. Crying my eyes out, and didn't have anyone here to help me or anything. It was awful. Thankfully that day Mason was amazing and was asleep a ton on that Saturday afternoon after a playdate from that morning. I didn't go to church the next day. I just wasn't feeling well and hello I just had a miscarriage. I was thankful for Mason and the blessing he is in my life. I knew that this day would be a little harder for me from now on.

But what a miracle things have become. I get pregnant without expecting it and when is my due date, right around the time of my last miscarriage. CRAZY HUH! I am so thankful that I will have a happy memory to help shadow my sad loss of last year. And whenever baby decides to come we will be so happy to finally welcome him in our family. We are truly blessed by the graciousness of God in our lives who has blessed up with this little miracle!

Please don't feel sad for me on this post. It is a post of growth and learning and it is apart of me. Here is a little picture roundup on how my life is with Mason.

~Allen Family Est. 2002. Best Day Ever!~

~Next Best Day of my life just over 8 years later~

~There's always lots of snuggle time in this house. Just too cute a kid not to snuggle with!~

~Cute little boy!~

~There's plenty of play and fun in our house everyday!~

~There's also a lot of this in our house. He is a little bit of a drama King!~

 ~But at the end of the day, he's my little man and we will always love each other!~

 ~Love my squeezes!

 Thank you Mason for making me a Mommy and loving it everyday! I love you son!

~I am so excited to be a mommy of 2 sons! See you real soon Baby!~

39 Weeks 2 Days

This is the furthest pregnant I have ever been. I was induced at 39.1 weeks with Mason since Daddy was leaving for Iraq just 3 days after he was born. At 39 weeks exactly with Mason I remember going to church that day and being miserable. I could not get comfy. I was huge. My feet hurt. My back hurt. It was stifling hot in the building. Sitting in church for 3 hours was so hard. Plus I was super excited to meet this little man that was kicking at me so much.

~39 weeks with Baby #2~

~39.1 Weeks Pregnant with Mason (day of induction)~

(my hair is about the same length, funny! I love my hair when pregnant because it is actually thick instead of super fine and thin!)

At 39 weeks this time, (Wednesday) I had way too much energy. Made a batch of bread (2 loaves), taco soup for freezer meal, lemon squares. Had a play date at my house and went out with friends for dinner. I did take a little nap when Mason napped so that is how I guess I keep up good energy during the day but man what a difference this pregnancy has been compared to Mason. I will end this pregnancy at the same weight I did with Mason but less baggage on me. I feel like my butt hasn't gotten as big this time around or my thighs for that matter considering I could still fit in my black performance pants at the end of this pregnancy. My face isn't as fat or swollen as it was with Mason. And my belly just seems more compact this time around. I just feel so much better. Thanks to all all the exercise I did while pregnant is what I am chalking it up to at this point. Yea for a fit pregnancy!

Walk, Walk, Walk

Here I am in my final week(s) of pregnancy. One of the best ways to get a kid out is to WALK! So I am walking about 2 miles almost everyday. It has been so beautiful outside that we can't help but get out and have fun.

But also, I have had an amazing kick in energy lately. (Finally got that nesting feeling.) I haven't been wearing my pedometer around the house but I can tell you I am doing a lot of walking up and down my stairs, bending, and squating getting things ready for baby to arrive. By the end of the day I feel spent, my back hurts and I just pass out almost immediately when my head hits the pillow (even thought I still read a little before falling asleep and often get wacked in the face by my Paperwhite or Matt takes the Kindle away because I am out for the count.)

Whether I walk outside for my 2 miles or do stuff around the house, I feel like I am getting the same amount of walking done or at least the same amount of effort goes into either. So lesson learned. Cleaning your house is super good for you if you can't get out and go on a walk. Just clean your house, or keep it clean in my case because I don't want to have to do a massive pickup clean before Monday (that's when the big clean gets done by MOLLY MAIDS!)

Exactly 1 Week Till My Due Date

(source)

Well here I am. 7 days away from my "estimated due date" for this baby. Sunday I started to get that, I feel awful feeling that many momma's get at the end of their pregnancy. (maybe I was excited about the prospect of yummy Mexican food) But Monday I felt like I had a good kick of energy for most of the day. I got a lot more organized and cleaned up in my house which feels amazing to get things progressing to cleaning up the clutter. I even organized the garage a little better. (don't really want to fall down from all the clutter in the garage when carrying baby.) Here are some things that I have done to get ready for baby:

Food prep:
I have been cooking like a mad woman building up our stock pile of frozen meals so that I won't have to "cook" after baby for awhile. It's a lot of food and I am basically making one meal a day at this point.

In the last week I have made: 
16 breakfast burritos (1 batch makes 10 burritos)
4 pans of chicken enchiladas (one batch makes 4 8x8 pans)
2 pans of chicken tetrazzini (one batch makes 2 8x8 pans)
Large pot of taco soup (makes about 12 servings).
1 frozen loaf of bread (we ate the other loaf for last week) I just need to stock pile them now

I still have to make:
Red sauce enchiladas (2 8x8 pans)
pasta fagoli soup (12 servings)
spaghetti casserole (4 8x8 pans)
quiche (2 pie pans)
chicken pot pie (2 pie pans)
Pot of chili soup (12 servings)
6 loaves of bread

All this food is for some while guests are here and we are hoping to have some even after the family leaves so that I still don't have to cook while I am adjusting to being a mom of 2. That is the plan let's see if it actually works.

Organizing/Cleaning:

I am cleaning and organizing all the rooms of the house it feels like. I believe this is called nesting. I have some boxes that have to be moved down to the basement to get them out of the main part of the house or hidden in closets. It just feels good to finally get things moving and cleaned up even more so.

Also I am scheduled to have Molly maids come out Monday to put the spick and span touch on my house for me. I just don't have the energy to vacuum and mop all in one day the whole house, plus they will deep clean the bathrooms and dust the whole house and just make my house sparkle before our guests arrive. My goal is though to clean the carpet in the main level living room since that has the most stains thanks to Mason and not wanting to keep his food in the kitchen area.

Still need to finish up with the baby clothing too. All of this has to be done by Saturday the 10! I refuse to clean on mother's day and the cleaning ladies will be here early Monday.