Final Countdown: June 3rd: The Day to Honor Aunt Barb

Dear Monkey,

Today I want to talk to you about someone very important: your Aunt Barb. Now, don't be confused. She's not *technically* your aunt, not in the biological sense, but you should consider yourself very lucky to have her around. Not only is she very smart, and very talented, she keeps your mama at least partially sane...which I think is important for both us!

If you are a girl flavored Monkey, Aunt Barb will turn you into a fashionista by sharing her deep love for furry boots and puffy vests. If you are a boy flavored Monkey, we'll skip the boots and vests and Aunt Barb will teach you to love things like cupcakes and risotto. She'll also share her love of reading and learning and she'll probably try to sneak in some lessons about eating organic and recycling. We'll go with Aunt Barb to the farmers market this summer so you can learn all about the joys of the tomato people, and the dangers of buying flowers that might contain spiders.

Another reason you are lucky to have an Aunt Barb? Because of her, we'll probably wind up celebrating your half birthday. Aunt Barb loves a reason to celebrate! Today is actually her half birthday and we'll be celebrating with Dairy Queen later tonight. (Don't worry...I'll eat your share too!) It's probably too late for you to actually arrive on Aunt Barb's half birthday, but she did say she would be willing to share if you wanted to be born today. That Aunt Barb sure is generous.

Aunt Barb can't wait to meet you Monkey, so whenever you're ready, feel free to come on out. The bags are packed!

Love you!
Mama

Final Countdown: June 2nd: The Day of Decisions

Hello there Monkey!

Today has been a big day around here as I, your mama, finally clicked "buy now" on some items for the walls of your nursery. I'll tell you it wasn't an easy decision, even though I'm pretty sure you won't even notice anything on the walls around you for at least a couple of months. Mama felt a lot of pressure to find just the right things.

Of course, I'm fairly certain the items we finally ordered today won't arrive before you will. That's what I get for procrastinating. Here's a look at a few of the items soon to arrive on our doorstep:

Something similar to this will go above your crib. The "trend" right now seems to be to put the baby's name in letters above the crib, but your dad nixed that idea. Apparently he's a nonconformist...who knew? But the monkey will be just perfect for your room, and maybe looking at this every night will engrain in you that it would be a bad idea to try and escape from the crib!

These two prints will hang above your changing table. I hope they make you smile as much as they do for me! We're also going to hang some pictures of all of us together once you arrive. I'm sure you've figured out by now that you won't be able to escape the camera once you're on the outside!!

Now these next two prints haven't been ordered yet because we need to know the specifics on your arrival:

Don't worry, if you're a boy flavored Monkey we'll make sure it's not pink and orange!

And no, we're not going to name you Maxwell, even if you are boy flavored!

So there you have it Monkey. Maybe now there's a little more incentive for you to come out and play. I know *I* feel better now that these decisions have been made!

We can't wait to meet you!
Love,
Mama

June 1st: The Day of the False Alarm

(As we enter the "final countdown" until Monkey's arrival, I thought it would be fun to record some of my feelings in these final days as a preggo.)

Dear Monkey,

You earned a new nickname today. Drama Queen (or King as the case may be)! This morning started just like many others. Since it's June 1st, I reminded you that you couldn't be born today. Your Uncle Stephen doesn't want to share his birthday, and since he was kind enough to not come on my birthday some 24 years ago, I figured it was only fair to honor his wishes!

We made our way over to the hospital for our nonstress test appointment at 8am. It's becoming pretty routine for us. I'm even learning which channel is which on the hospital's cable system. Daddy didn't come with us this time since he had his monthly conference call at work. No big deal since the test is pretty boring for everyone involved.

Today, though, was not so boring. In addition to watching your heart rate on the monitor, I was also watching my contractions. It was kind of weird to watch them as I was feeling them and then watching what the contractions were doing to your heart rate. You did a good job of poking me plenty while the monitors were on. I was pretty sure we'd be cleared to go when the nurse came in to bring the strip to the doctor.

But today wasn't like the other days. Today the doctor who was filling in for Dr. K didn't like what she saw on your strip. She said there were some "variables" that could be nothing, or could be a sign that maybe you were getting low on amniotic fluid. I tried to act like I wasn't panicked when the nurse told me I'd need to come back in a couple of hours to get an ultrasound. I held it together until I got outside to call your Daddy. He ALMOST didn't answer his phone (he was on that conference call, remember?) but he picked up on the last ring before voicemail. When I heard his voice, I started to cry. I managed to tell him that he needed to come to the hospital with me because today might be the day to have a baby.

We met up at home and used the time before the ultrasound to get all of our bags packed and your carseat in the car. You'll learn once you get here that sometimes we tend to procrastinate. Well, the non stress test scare was just what we needed to get those last minute things done. We packed up the car and headed to the hospital all the while wondering if we would be driving back home in a couple of days with you in the car seat!

The ultrasound went more quickly than any other ultrasound we've had before. After causing problems during the non stress test, you were a rockstar for the biophyiscal profile ultrasound. The tech was making sure you were doing important things like practicing breathing and moving. She also checked to make sure your fluid was okay. Everything looked great and you scored an 8 out of 8 in ten minutes. We got to see your little face once again and this time you didn't have your hands blocking our view! My favorite part though was seeing your foot on the ultrasound as we watched it poke my belly on the outside! The tech was amazed by how hard you were pushing on my belly!! I told her you do it all the time! They sent us home with a clean bill of health just a few minutes later.

So Monkey, June 1st will now be known as the day of our false alarm. I guess we're kind of lucky, since many women have their false alarm in the middle of the night. At least we got to have ours while we were already awake.

Our bags are still in the car by the way...just in case you decide to come before June 11th!

Love you,
Mama

Our Little Gemini

S/he's not even here yet, but Monkey is already showing two sides of his her personality.

Behold:

Sweet, smiling Monkey
and..Tongue sticking out Sassy Monkey!

Both of these images came from our 36 week growth scan this morning. According to Dr. Larmon, Monkey now weighs in at a whopping 6lbs 11oz. That means he/she is measuring about 8 days ahead of schedule, which is good news and means the gestational diabetes isn't turning Monkey into Gargantuan Baby! Babies gain an average of 1/2 lb a week at this point, meaning if I went all the way to 40 weeks, Monkey would weigh around 8.5-9lbs. But because of the gestational diabetes, Dr. Larmon doesn't want me to go past 39 weeks, so if I haven't gone into labor on my own, we'll be looking at an induction around June 11th.

But...Dr Larmon is pretty confident that I'll go into labor on my own before then. My first internal check this week showed I'm currently dialated 1cm, 50% effaced, and Monkey is at -2 station. Since we're already making progress, Dr Larmon believes I won't make it to 39 weeks, which is good for me. I've heard nasty things about inductions...

So that's the story from here. The doctor gave us the all clear to go up to the U.P. for the weekend, so Karl and I will get to visit with the Homburgs for a couple of days. I have been quite clear with Monkey that I don't plan to deliver a Yooper, so there will be NO BABY this weekend!

It's May....

Also known as the month before we have a baby. Or, maybe even the month we HAVE the baby. I know the norm is for first babies to be late, but well....I don't tend to be normal. You know those "rare side effects" they talk about with drugs? They could be replaced with a blinking billboard that says "Hey Steph...this is what's going to happen to you!" I should have known back in 2006 when my surgeon told me that within his practice only one gall bladder patient needs to be operated on without laproscopy every year. Of course that patient would be me. So yeah, I would totally not be shocked if Monkey decided he/she wanted to share a birth month with Mom. We'll reach 36 weeks right before my 30th birthday.

It's been a busy couple of weeks around here as we prepare for Monkey's arrival and the start of the 2009 wedding season. As Monkey's due date fast approaches we're spending a lot more time at the doctors office! Last Tuesday I had my first NST...that's dr speak for Non Stress Test. I quickly learned that NSTs really are nothing to stress about. Basically, it's my excuse to spend 30 minutes in a cushy chair with my feet up chilling with the monkey. Of course that "chilling" involves a contraction monitor for me and a heart rate monitor for the Monkey. I also get to hold one of those cool Jeopardy style buzzers and I have to press the button every time Monkey moves which makes a note on his/her heart rate tracings. The doctors want to see Monkey's heart rate go up every time he/she moves. It's actually really cool to watch. Our first NST was a great success because Monkey didn't like the heart rate monitor on my belly and spent a good 20 minutes trying to kick it off. The doctors got all the movements they needed to see and we were sent home with a gold star and instructions to come back in a week. The NSTs will be done weekly from here on out to make sure things are still going well in there while we deal with my gestational diabetes out here.

Thursday we had yet another ultrasound to check on Monkey's size. Gestational Diabetes babies can get too big, so we want to keep an eye on that. In typical Monkey fashion, we have very little in the way of cool pictures to share from the ultrasound. Not even having his grandpa present for the ultrasound could lure Monkey to show off his/her face! In fact, Monkey was so curled up and comfy it was tough for the tech to get some of the measurements she needed.

Here is what we did find out:

• At 32 weeks Monkey was measuring 4lbs 12oz. That puts him/her in the 66th percentile for weight. Based on overall size, Monkey is about 10 days ahead of his/her due date.
  
• Heart rate was once again in the 140s.
  
• Monkey is still head down and expected to stay that way for the duration of the pregnancy since there's not a lot of room to move in there anymore.
• Monkey's head circumfrence measured 2 weeks ahead. I told the tech she must be doing it wrong because that wasn't possible. She just laughed.

While we didn't get any face pictures (Monkey had his/her hands AND umbillical cord blocking his/her face) we do have a couple ultrasound images to share:

Pretty cool 3d view of Monkey's hand and foot. He/she is quite skilled in using those hands and feet to cause me some discomfort!

See those fuzzy lines in the middle? That's hair!! Monkey actually has hair already! I was bald until kindergarten practically, so this must be a Homburg family trait.

Now, Monkey and I are off to finish prepping for tomorrow's wedding. We're planning to pack lots of snacks for the long day and I've threatened to oink at anyone who gets in my personal space. Gotta keep the swine flu away!

A Break from the Gender Neutral

Since we don't know whether Monkey will be boy flavored or girl flavored, there's a whole lot of green, yellow, and orange floating around our house these days. All three are great colors, and will make things easier when Monkey has to share his/her stuff with a sibling or two, but sometimes it is really fun to shop for a specific gender.

So with that in mind, we decided to purchase a boy outfit and a girl outfit to bring to the hospital for Monkey to come home in. Obviously only one of those outfits will get put to use in our family, but since we know SO many other mamas to be, someone else will happily take the unused outfit off our hands!

You know the package will be filled with goodness when it comes wrapped like this. Janie and Jack is normally out of our price range for baby clothes, but avid web stalkers can sometimes find a great deal. And really, you only get *one* going home outfit, so it's okay to splurge a little!

Here are the two options hanging side by side on Monkey's dresser. Which outfit will you wear little one??
A boy flavored Monkey will come home in this! Love the stripes and the little polo shirt collar...and the easy diaper change access snaps on the legs! But my favorite part is this...
There's a little frog prince! For those that don't remember, Karl proposed to me while I was wearing frog prince flannel pajamas.
And here's the girl flavored option, in a shade of my favorite color green.
And a closer look reveals another little frog prince in the girl pattern! Maybe we should be calling Monkey "Frogger" instead. :)

Showered

I'll admit it. It's currently Wednesday evening and my living room looks like this...

Behold, the aftermath of shower weekend. And that isn't even all of it! We've continued to receive presents all week from folks who weren't able to make it to the shower on Saturday. Karl and I are amazed by the generosity (and in some cases sneakiness) of our friends and family.

For those who couldn't be with us, here's a pictorial recap of Monkey's shower...

Truth: I have the most creative friends. Trish made everyone these adorable place cards featuring my signature lime green, and the cutest little monkeys!

And because the place cards apparently weren't crafty enough, Trish also made these BANANA flavored monkey cupcakes. Almost too cute to eat!

Barb stumped the guests with a hardcore baby shower game. See those bags? Each one contained a baby item starting with the letters that spell out Monkey. I think the most anyone got right was 3. As for the mom to be, well we're trying not to read too much into the fact that I only guessed ONE of the bags correctly.

After the games were over, I was given a huge and emotional surprise. My friends from WBIR in Knoxville put together a video for me since they couldn't come to the shower. I wish I could share the video here, but apparently I am not tech savvy enough to learn the uploading process. Hopefully I'll rectify that before Monkey gets here. But suffice it to say, the tears started almost instantly. Even though it's been nearly 5 years since I left my Knoxville home, I still consider those people some of my closest friends. I can't wait to introduce Monkey to everyone in November when we make a pit stop enroute to the farm for Thanksgiving.

Now, while there are no pictures of the video from the CH 10 folks, you will notice something in the following pictures. I am NOT a pretty crier. For the rest of the evening my face was blotchy and my eyes were bloodshot. Such is life for the fair skinned blue eyed girl.

Who knew I would come dressed to match our new travel system from my dad and Adele? Monkey is going to learn to love lime green too!

In addition to the amazing gifts they brought, the guests also made onesies and bibs for Monkey. I have such crafty friends!


Here I am with the girls who made the whole evening possible. I am so thankful for their friendship and support. I may not have sisters, but I know Monkey will have some pretty amazing aunties!

Karl avoided the shower mayhem until the end of the evening when he was called in to help haul the gifts home. We had too much for just my Escape.
We also had help in the gift hauling from Karl's mom. We were so lucky she was able to spend the weekend with us, even if most of the weekend involved me propping my feet up to get rid of my horrible cankles.

So here we are 4 days later and our living room looks like baby central. My goal is to have everything put away before Karl returns from trip #356 to Minneapolis tomorrow evening. But for now I'm enjoying admiring all of the neat little things we have for our baby....

including beautiful handmade blankets from Angie's mom (green quilt) and my Aunt Lorri (white blanket with matching hat and mittens)

THE coolest print for Monkey's room from my friend Emily, who couldn't join us because she was busy taking care of her brand new baby (and Monkey's future BFF) Mirielle
and Karl's favorite three gifts...the "manly" diaper bag from Trish and the gang, the super cool baby playmat from the Channel 10 folks (I think he wants one in grown up size), and the crib soother that plays nature sounds and has swinging monkeys.

So that wraps up the big shower recap. It's hard to believe that I'll be 30 weeks tomorrow. Since we're pretty sure the gestational diabetes will mean Monkey makes an early appearance, that means we could be showing him/her all of this cool stuff in just 2 months!