Where has the time gone?

I can't believe that it is already June! We get to meet our little girl sometime this month! I apologize for not keeping this updated as much as I should.

Okay so to catch up I have had quite a few doctors appointments since my last post. Going to the doctor twice a week has gotten old really fast! I have passed all of my non-stress tests with flying colors, although they are taking a while because the baby is so active and doesn't want to stay near the heartbeat monitor.

I had a sono at my doctors office on May 17th when I was 33 weeks 3 days along and she weighed 5lbs 11oz. My fluids that day were 12.8 which was great to hear! Then, I had a couple non-stress tests that I passed without a problem, however, I was measuring bigger than I should be.

On May 27th I had an appointment up at OSF. I was 34 weeks 6 days along and the baby weighed 6lbs 7oz. I didn't think this was too bad, until my mom informed me that I weighed 6lbs 8oz when born. Kinda freaky that there is something that big living inside of me. My fluids were still okay at 10 something and I was measuring two weeks ahead. My doctor had told me to ask my OSF doctor for a delivery plan, as he just follows their reccomendations. She said that I will be induced it is just a matter of when. Our options are just go to 39 weeks and hope she fits or have an amnio sometime before then and see if her lungs are developed and then deliver. We still haven't decided what we are going to do and tomorrow I have an appointment with my doctor that will be delivering so we will talk our options over with him. The size of the baby and the fluid levels are the main concern. Normal babies put on a half pound a week at this point, but since I have gestational diabetes they are predicting more like 3/4 to a pound a week for our little one.

We had an awesome sono tech and she even took some 3d/4d pictures for us. I was bummed because I didn't really get to see that part. My diabetes lady walked in when she was doing it and was asking me questions, so I felt like I had to look at her to answer her and she was on the opposite side of the room from the monitor. Devin really thought the 3d/4d stuff was cool! She would just take a picture and then rotate it so the head was in front and cut out pieces around it until the face showed up! Here are a few of the pictures.

Not the best picture...her hand was in front of her face.

She looks a little mad here, but I would be too being pushed all around when I was trying to sleep!

Chubby cheeks!

This baby is really inside me...so freaky!

Shying away from the camera a bit.

I think this is the best picture we have! Technology is so cool!

I never thought I would enjoy the 3d/4d but it was neat! I am glad that we got the opportunity to experience it. It gives us a sneak peak as to what our little one will look like! I'm not sure that I would pay for one, but thank to you our sono tech for playing around a little with us!

The diabetes nurse, Leslie said that I am one of their star patients and that I am doing great with the eating plan. It is always nice to hear that, but man am I ready for it to be over! I need some chocolate and pink lemonade, not neccessarily at the same time though.

This was my last appointment at OSF unless some other problem arises where my doctor wants me to go back. Their sono machines are more high tech than Pekin's so if they need to look at anything closely I will go back. Feels great to cut back on my doctors appointments a bit. I still have to call once a week with my sugar levels though.

I will try to be better about updating this. Tomorrow my appointment isn't until 4 and should last an hour or two (the office is open til 8) and then Devin has a game so I probably won't get around to updating tomorrow. Hopefully, Thursday or Friday though. I plan to also post some pictures of the nursery! I know people are anxious to see it!

Thanks for checking in!

Baby Showers!

Baby Burks is blessed to have so many wonderful people in her life and she isn't even here yet! I hope she knows how lucky she is! She had two more baby showers this past week! On Wednesday, May 12th Kat that I work with at the quilt shop organized a baby shower there for co-workers and on Saturday, May 15th we had a co-ed shower at Avanti's hosted by Brittany and my mom. Both were a great time! It is hard to get pictures when the shower is for you, but here are a few decent ones that I managed to get. Brittany took the ones at the shower at the quilt shop!

Some of the fabulous ladies I work with and the table decor!

Some more of my awesome co-workers!

The grandma's to be enjoying the party! Brittany was also there but was behind the camera. Sneaky!

The yummy ice cream cake that Peggy M. brought to the shower. I was even able to eat a piece and it tasted amazing! Can't wait to be able to eat sweets again!

The cool "diaper cake" that Pam made for the baby! Instead of diapers she used hooded towels, receiving blankets, washcloths, and a swaddle me. It is still somewhat put together on the baby's dresser because I think it is too cool to take apart!

Okay now onto the couples shower....Devin was a little unsure about having a couples shower, but he enjoyed it! The reason behind it is that we are good friends with both men and women and we didn't think it was fair to exclude the single men. I think most the men were a little scared to go, but we promised no lame games and fed them pizza and beer so they were pretty happy!

The cake table. Our friend Shawnae made the awesome cake and used the book "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" as her inspiration.

Close up of the cake. The front said Baby Burks and the back said ABC 123. The top layer was fun fetti cake and the bottom was chocolate! Thanks again Shawnae! You rock!

So we may have lied to the guys, there was only one game and it involved beer so we figured they wouldn't object and they didn't! Devin was able to get six of our friends to participate. They had to chug 6oz of beer using a baby bottle! Of course they couldn't take the lids off, they had to suck it through the nipple. It took quite a while. The participants from left to right are: Mark, Cory, Maurice, Karneboge, DeJaynes, and Patrick.

Go boys go!

Annnnnnnnnnnd the old man of the group Cory is out. He couldn't handle the pressure. Mark also gave up after a bit, when he realized everyone was beating him.

Mark applauding the three winners, Maurice, Patrick and DeJaynes as they choose their prize: a six pack of beer!

When the shower was over Mike and Stacy were nice enough to load their car with the gifts and bring them over to our house.

This is what her room looked like after they unloaded. Everything in the corner was already there from the other showers, but the rest was all new gifts.

This is what her closet looks like before unloading the stuff from the couples shower...I think shes already pretty spoiled!

Also after the shower my mom helped my grandma bring over the cradle. This cradle has been in my family since my brother was born in 1983. My grandparents had it made by a family friend. The babies that have been in this cradle include my brother, me, my cousin Greg, and my second cousins, Chloe, Kelsie, and Carleigh which makes Baby Burks will be the seventh baby to use the cradle! I went with my grandparents and my mom to pick out the cradle bedding on Friday, it is a really pretty white bedding set. My grandma got us some receiving blankets, sheets, and two outfits to match.

The plaque on the cradle that tells who it is from.

There are plaques for each baby that uses the cradle. These are the ones for my brother and I.

I can't wait to move the cradle into our room! I just need to clean our room and do a little rearranging so it can fit. It is so neat to have a family tradition like this! I hope that the cradle is usable when I have grandkids! It is in great shape so it should be!

That is all I have for today. I meant for this post to be shorter, but at least it has alot of pictures. I will try to update again sometime this week. I have my sono tomorrow and the chair for the baby's room gets delivered on Wednesday! If you didn't check out my post below from yesterday, you may want to it updates everyone on what is going on medically with me.

Thanks for checking in!

Catching up...

It has been a long time since I have updated, so I'm going to make this a boring post about what is medically going on and then tomorrow I will try to do a fun post with shower pictures and details! I've had two showers this week, one at work and a co-ed one with our friends!

We went to the specialist on May 5th and we found out that I have "low" fluids which isn't good. That doctor just told me to rest alot, but kinda freaked us out. At the time of the sono our little girl weighed 4lbs 4oz, which is right on target! As of now, she isn't too big for her age so that is good with the gestational diabetes. It means the diet plan is working. Devin knew that I wanted to hear that I was doing a good job so he made sure to ask, and they said I was doing great with the diet and that all my numbers were good. They showed us how she is already practicing how to breathe which they said was awesome for her age. It was cool to see. Here are some sono pics from that appointment.

This picture confirms that we are having a girl! I'm not sure why she had to wait this long to show us, but at least we are sure now!

This is a profile shot of her face. Shes already really low and head down so her forehead is at the bottom, then nose, and chin at the top. They actually had to lay me down so far that my feet were higher than my head to get shots of her face! It was very uncomfortable!

I go back to the specialist on May 27th for another sono. We started to realize how serious the low fluids are when they said they wouldn't schedule me for a Friday because my doctors office is closed then so if they needed to get ahold of them if there was a problem they wouldn't be able too! Eeeek! The specialist agreed with the twice weekly non-stress tests and wanted sonos done every 10 days to check fluid levels, size, and lung development.

The day after my appointment at the specialist the nurse from my doctors office called to tell me that the specialist had called them and wanted the sono to be scheduled. So, we scheduled that for Monday the 17th and she went on to tell me to rest. She made it sound like the baby was going to come early too, which did nothing to calm be down! In fact I was so worried the next day I went out and got the carseat so if she did come early we could at least get her home! I felt better knowing that we had it!

On the 10th I had my first non-stress test and since it was Devin's birthday he took the day off and was able to go with me! I was happy because we had alot of questions regarding the low fluids. The stress test was boring as expected. They just hooked me up to two different monitors, one to monitor contractions and one for the baby's heartbeat. I also got a little buzzer thing to push anytime I felt her move! She was kind of uncooperative and kept moving. We had to get the nurse because she kept moving away from the heartbeat monitor. The nurse ended up coming in and holding the monitor on me. Dr. Reinerston told us that from the NST that our little girl looks very healthy and strong for her age which was a relief to hear! As a result of the low fluids he asked me where I worked and I tried to play it cool by saying I worked part-time as an office assistant. Then he asked if I couldn't work if I'd lose my job and I kinda chuckled and explained that I worked for my mom, so he said no more work and to be a couch potato.

I know that he wouldn't be able to answer our questions about if she will be arriving before July 2nd, but I was so worried that she would be arriving alot sooner I had to ask! His response was that we will take it appointment by appointment and that on that day I wasn't going to the hospital to deliver but later that week at my next appointment I could be. He said that they would try to get me to 37 weeks as that is considered a fairly safe time, but would prefer 38 weeks because it is safer. Also, said that I wouldn't go to 39 weeks, so she will be here at least one week early and hopefully not too much earlier than that! My brother and sister-in-law will be up here between 37 and 38 weeks and I would LOVE it if they could meet her then!

I had my second NST on Thursday the 13th and passed that one with flying colors too! He was a little concerned because I had lost close to a pound since Monday, but when he felt my belly he said he felt fluid so we would just see what the sono says on Monday the 17th. I am hoping that my resting (yes, I know I haven't been the best at it, especially the past two days) and drinking fluids will help bring my levels back up to normal. I'm praying that after Monday that I will not be on strict bedrest. I can barely handle couch potato status!

I think that should bring everyone up to date on what is medically going on with me! If anyone has any good books to recommend I would appreciate it! Reading makes it easier to stay on the couch! I will try to post pictures and details from the two most recent showers tomorrow!

Thanks for checking in! Time to go be a couch potato! :)

'Family' Baby Shower

I'm going to attempt to keep this post short and picture filled but we shall see!

This past Saturday Brittany hosted a family baby shower for me and her niece to be! She did a great job with all the planning, organizing and decorating! I truly appreciate all of her hard work! She is a great sister-in-law to have! Thank you to everyone who attended! It was great seeing everyone again and we appreciate all the nice gifts!

I loved all the bright colors at the shower. Devin and I had originally decided to go with a Dr. Seuss theme in the baby's room since we couldn't find out what we were having, and Britt decided it'd make a great shower theme and she was right!

Since I don't like being the center of attention, Brittany was nice enough to let me get through the shower without having to be the focus of any games! The only "game" that we did was to have all of the guests guess the date, time of birth, length and weight of the baby. The prize is a Bath & Body Works basket. She set up this table for peoples guesses with the one fish, two fish theme, colored goldfish for snacks, and a fishbowl to people to put their guesses in.

The tables were very colorful! Britt decorated with some Dr. Seuss books and some little squishy balls and little boa things that the kids had a blast playing with. The boxes contained cupcakes that Britt and Stacy made. Each box had a Dr. Seuss quote on it. The thought behind the cupcakes was that since it was a brunch cake didn't necessarily go with it, so we chose to do cupcakes in take out boxes and if people wanted to they could eat it there or they could take it home!

The banks crazy colored chairs matched the bright decorations!

This is one of the cupcakes. There were also some with pink, purple, and green icing. As a sidenote, since I had extremely low blood sugar I got to eat half of this one with my afternoon snack! It was soooooooo yummy! Thanks to Stacy and Britt (and Mike at the end) for decorating them and to Stacy for baking them.

Food table! Thank you to everyone who brought food! I wish I would have been able to eat more. It all smelled and looked so good!

And what would a Dr. Seuss themed brunch be without green eggs and ham? I heard that Ella loved these green eggs and I know Britt was happy to send some home with her!

I'm terrible at remembering to take pictures, we had already put away quite a few gifts when I remembered I didn't have a picture of them! This is what the room looked like after we put some away. I know Devin doesn't look very enthused, but I know that he was. He came to the tail end of the shower and videotaped it and helped put everything away! He's too good to me and I know hes gunna make a great daddy!

I didn't want Mocha to feel left out so we got her a new bone that she got to enjoy while we put stuff away!

Swarley didn't get any new toys so he entertained himself by climbing all over the gifts. It was hillarous to watch!

After we put most of everything away. The desk chair is in there so we could see how much room we had to spare for a chair and because it is nice to have somewhere to sit! The green basket that the Rankin girls gave us packed full of goodies, matches the room perfectly!

The wall with the dresser on it! I should have taken a picture of the stuff in the dresser because there is quite a bit!

The "angled wall" with stuff we have to build/find somewhere for. I am hoping to find some type of bookshelf or toy box to fit here. It looks pretty small in this picture, but there is a decent amount of room there.

The changing table after I organized it! Ignore the target bag, it is just garbage and I didn't think about removing it from the picture. Each basket holds different things for the time being from diaper bag stuff to medical stuff, to future eating stuff, and I don't remember the fourth one! I need to get some baskets to match the room, but am having a hard time finding what I want! I know I will find it if I hold out long enough!

Our little girl's closet! Thank you Toni for all the hangers, they are going to be a lifesaver and a money-saver for sure! She has more clothes in our computer room closet that I still need to move over. When we got them we didn't have this closet organizer up, so I stored them in the computer room. Our little girl isn't even here and already has things in two closests, what is she going to overtake as a teenager?

I told myself that I wasn't going to be one of the pregnant ladies that is always taking pictures of herself, but I know that I have friends and family that are out of state that want to see me pregnant and can't so I decided to give them a profile shot. This was taken at 31 weeks and 1 day, the day of the shower.

Okay, so much for keeping the post short, but I hope you enjoyed it! I hope to update again on either Thursday or Friday with the results of my doctors appointment on Wednesday.

Thanks for checking in and thank you again to everyone who attended the shower. We are truly blessed to have such caring, thoughtful, and generous friends and family members!

Did she really say that?

We have accomplished quite a bit since my last update! The baby's room is painted and all of her furniture is built! We have everything that we have for her put away, well it is at least in drawers or about where I think I want it, but we all know I will move things about 20 times before I decide where I want everything!

I am really looking forward to the 'family' shower on Saturday. Brittany has done an amazing job planning it and I can't wait to see how it all turns out! It is going to be great to catch up with everyone. Oh, and very excited about the food, but bummed I can't eat it all, stupid gestational diabetes! Oh well, I will eat what I can!

Speaking of gestational diabetes, I am doing awesome with it. I admit that I cheated once, but my results still came out okay. When we were in St. Louis for the Cardinal game with the family, it was an all you can eat buffet with amazing food and I stuck to my eating plan, except that I stole a little bite of Jason's brownie. It was seriously the best brownie ever, and I'm sure that anyone that was there with us would agree, or maybe it was just the fact that I hadn't had one in a long time! Anyways I have to test my blood sugar four times a day and I started on a medicine a week ago because my body was still producing too much insulin and my hormones were going crazy. Since I've started the medicine, my numbers have been great, and maybe even a little on the low side! My average is supposed to be around 110 and its now at 104. I have an appointment up there Wednesday afternoon for a sono, but I have to talk to the diabetes educator twice a week so I'm getting to know her pretty well!

Speaking of getting to know people pretty well, it looks like by the end of this pregnancy I will know everyone at my regular doctor's office pretty well. I had a routine checkup on Tuesday and everything went well. Gained the appropriate amount of wait, good blood pressure, no sugar in my urine, and her heartbeat was 150 beats per minute. However, Dr. Brinkman told me that starting on May 10th I will be seeing them twice a week for non-stress tests which take at least an hour. Needless to say, I'm not too thrilled about this, but this is routine for women with gestational diabetes and I would rather be safe than sorry. On my way home from the doctors appointment I called my mom and Brittany to tell them what she said and they were both shocked as I will only be just over 32 weeks on the 10th and 'normal' women with 'normal' pregnancies start seeing the doctor weekly at 36 weeks. When I got home, I asked Devin as soon as I got out of the car, "So, did she really say twice a week or was I just hearing things?" he said she definitely said that. I'm still hoping that we both heard wrong, but I'm pretty sure thats not the case! I guess I will just have to find some good books to read during these tests. The tests themselves aren't bad. They have a room with some nice recliners and they put a monitor on your belly to monitor the babies heartbeat and if you are having any contractions. The tests take at least an hour and that is if the baby cooperates! Then after the tests I will probably have to see the doctor to get the results. So, I'm just planning on reading during the tests or I may start a crocheting project or something. My favorite author just released a new book so that is the first thing I plan on doing during the tests!

I hope to be able to take some pictures at the baby shower, or have someone take some for me and I will try and update again this weekend with both pictures of the shower and pictures of the nursery!

Thanks for checking in!

Picture time...

I've been slacking on uploading pictures so I hope this post makes up for it! I had another doctors appointment this past Tuesday, April 13th. Nothing new, it was just a regular, boring appointment at my regular doctors office. Her heartbeat was 156 beats per minute. I start seeing my regular doctor now every two weeks since I am high risk, and the every week visits will start before I know it. I think I was told 32 weeks at some point. Oh joy! So now I go back to my regular doctor April 27th and the specialist for another sono on May 5th if not before. My blood sugars are a smidge higher than they should be so I called today. I may have to go in next week. They are thinking of starting me on a medicine to help regulate. I am eating everything I should and avoiding things that I should, but after the first week my body apparently has gotten used to this and is smarter than I am, so therefore my placenta is making extra insulin, resulting in the higher tests. As I understand it they are concerned about both the baby and the placenta getting to big, so the medicine is suppossed to tell the placenta to not make insulin. We shall see! The diabetes lady is calling me again Monday.

The first few pictures are from my most recent sono on April 6th. I was 27 weeks and 4 days along. Not really sure what body parts are in some of the pictures sorry!

This is the face.

I think this may also be the face, but am not really sure!

I have absolutely no clue on this one!

Finally a good profile picture! She is sucking on her hand/thumb it looks like.

This is the outfit I bought after I found out we are having a little girl!

On Sunday, Mike and Stacy came over and helped Devin tape and prime the room, to prepare for painting it. The bedding was supposed to arrive on Tuesday, but didn't show up until Thursday. So, they came over tonight along with Patrick and my mom to help paint!

This is the bedding set as shown at babiesrus.com.

And the painting begins...I was worried that it looked blue at this point.

Then I looked at the can, and it is definitely teal!

Half the wall is done!

The big wall and angled wall are done! Looks so awesome with the dark furniture. The cirb is going to be centered on the big wall and we hope to do a stencil with her name, or wooden letters in either lime or yellow after she is here.

Closet is painted! We had to paint it because the old closet organizer left some big holes!

Close up of the paisley on the bedding! Even though I work at a quilt shop I would have never thought to put teal and lime together, but it works!

Bedding next to the painted wall.

I supervised Romeo (Patrick's dog) and Mocha while everyone was busy painting.

Swarley was on bug duty! He had fun chasing a little moth around! I couldn't leave him out of the pictures!

Tomorrow we are heading down to St. Louis for a Cardinals game. I can't wait to get back and get the tape off and start putting things where they should be! We still have to get the closet organizer up and build the dresser. I've been waiting weeks to put baby stuff away and the time is getting closer!

Thanks for checking in and sorry again it took me so long to post all these pictures!

Drum Roll Please.....

As many of you probably already know, yesterday we were told that we are having a little girl! We couldn't be more excited, although we had a sneaking suspicion that it was a girl from the first sono! It is great to finally know, so that we can start planning. Since, I am two days shy of 28 weeks all of the planning and preparing is going to happen in a short time!

Yesterday was my third appointment up at the specialists office and my fourth sono. The sono was great, despite having the tech that we had last time and didn't like. She seemed a little more lively yesterday which was good. She told us she was unable to see what the baby was and she looked a few different times and had me lay on my side and everything. At the end of the sono up there the tech leaves the room, confers with the doctor, nurse, and whoever else you are seeing up there and then they all come in for the last minutes of your sono where the doctor is looking around. So yesterday at the end, we had the nurse, the tech, the doctor, and the gestational diabetes educator all in the room. The doctor started up the sono machine again and said "I vote for girl" and the other three were asking where and she started pointed stuff out. None of them were convinced, so I finally asked the doctor how sure she was that it was a girl and she responded with "I'm 97.9% sure its a girl!". These are good odds, but with the others not being convinced it made me a little uneasy. By the time we left the room I think everyone was convinced. We learned that she weighs 2 pounds 11 oz, had a heartbeat rate of 155, and is measuring about a week ahead. This was a relief to me because with gestational diabetes it becomes a concern that the baby will get too big. I wasn't any further ahead than I was last month so that was awesome! She gave us four pictures and when she gave them to me, I couldn't even tell what they are. I will try to scan them in later tonight. I also will post a picture of the cute outfit I bought our little girl yesterday!

After the sono we met with the gestational diabetes educator. For those of you who don't know, yes I have it, but its a mild case, that should be able to be monitored just with dieting. The educator Lesley, sat down with us and explained what all gestatational diabetes is, what it means, etc. I admit I wasn't paying too much attention. I don't care to know exactly what my body does and why, just tell me how to fix it. Towards the end of the hour with her she gave me my meter and explained how to use it. Thats all I wanted to know! Then, she had me use it and I had totally psyched myself out thinking it was going to hurt way more than it did! After I stuck myself I was like really thats it and she laughed. Then we were done with the educator and were on to Jeri, the dietican.

Jeri explained to us that I need to eat more frequently to keep my levels from spiking and then told us exactly what I should eat. So now I have to eat breakfast, a morning snack, lunch, an afternoon snack, dinner, and a bedtime snack. It seems like alot to me. Yesterday, was my first day on it and I picked up at lunch and went with it. Out of the three blood sugars I've tested here at home, the first one was high and the last two have been right on target! Only about 12 more weeks to go! The diet is a consistent carb diet, which is hard, even though I love carbs. I have to have 18 servings of carbs a day. She broke it down into what time to eat a serving of what and then I get to choose what to eat from that list. It's really not to bad because I can pretty much have whatever I want, except fried foods. It's just all about making a spot for the food in my plan. I know that I will get used to it, but for the time being it seems like I'm constantly eating! The snacks are going to be the hardest thing to get used to!

I go back to the specialist on May 5th for another sono and they will download my meter to make sure that I'm not lying about my blood sugar readings. In the meantime, once a week I have to call them with my readings and for this first week I have to send in exactly what I ate, how much, and when.

On Tuesday, April 13th I go back to my regular doctors office just for a routine visit. It shouldn't be anything major.

Now on to the fun stuff! Last night, Mike and Stacy came over and Mike helped Devin hang the brackets for the closet organizer. This weekend they are coming over again to paint, finish up the closet organizer, and build the dresser. From there I will finally be able to put away the baby items that I received at the surprise shower almost two weeks ago! It's been driving me crazy! I also plan on finalizing the baby registeries so Britt can send out the invites to the family baby shower. Its all becoming real now!

Alright, time for me to get busy! Gotta start organizing the registery and getting rid of the boy stuff on it! Britt and I and maybe Stacy are going to go this afternoon to both Babiesrus and Baby Depot and sort through it all!

Have a great day and thanks for checking in! Sorry it took so long to post, but I was a busy girl yesterday trying to get all the food organized and ready for this diet!