Nine months and counting: Long time, no blog!

Again it has come down to the fact that I am totally slacking on my blog, and as a result I am not getting the precious documentation of this pregnancy! My new goal is to at least blog twice a week, that way I won't be missing a thing!

So here is a quick update on everything! I guess I will start with all the dates. I have my next Dr's appointment on the 7th of December, I will be 24 weeks pregnant! I have an echocardiogram on the 1oth of December to make sure baby has a nice, strong, and anatomically correct heart! Keep your fingers crossed that it is a-okay! On January 5th I have my birth class, it is a prepared childbirth class that will last most of the day and I am really looking forward to doing this with Matt. On January 8th I have follow-up appointment at the Gyn-Oncologist to make sure that the spot on my cervix hasn't changed. Finally, on January 17th I have my second childbirth class, Advanced Comfort Measures, to learn about the use of massage, heat, pressure, and other methods of comfort during labor. I am motivated to have a drug-free birth so I want to learn about every and any other methods of pain relief to make this goal a reality. I believe my shower will also be in January, but the date is yet to be determined, but I am certainly excited about that!

As for baby, he is doing very well. And yes I did say he! For those that don't know yet, our little baby is going to be a boy!!! We had our "big" ultrasound on November 2nd and our little guy is looking great!! His heartrate was 161 and he looked to weigh about 11 oz! That is a very big boy for being 19 weeks and 3 days pregnant. Both the tech and the doctor said he was looking great!

Meet Chase Alpha Kalesh!

A lot of other great things have been going on too. Chase has gotten super active over the last week and has been kicking up a storm. He is active a good 4-5 times a day and last week, on Saturday, Matt felt Chase move for the first time! It was a wonderful thing! I really think Matt is ecstatic for our little guy. He is looking forward to teaching him about baseball, taking him to the lake, and all of the other stuff that dads like to do with their sons!

I did have a little scare though on Thursday. I was having too many braxton hicks contractions and they were uncomfortable. On top of that I was having some nausea and low back pain. I put in a call to my doctor and he told me to go home and put my feet up. He also told me to drink plenty of water. If they didn't slow down then I would have to go to labor and delivery. Luckily they stopped and everything was okay, I figure it was related to exhaustion, over-activity and dehydration. As long as Chase is okay, than I am okay!

I have also been thinking a lot about our impending labor and delivery and have decided that I will be going with the VBAC as long as the conditions are okay (i.e. baby is in the right position, there is no medical need for a cesarean, etc.) I have also decided to go without an epidural. I have been reading a lot about epidurals and feel it isn't for me. My mom delivered me and my sister drug free and I can do the same. Epidurals can have some adverse affects on the baby and I don't want to take that risk. They can lower my blood pressure, decreasing the baby's heartrate; they can make it more difficult to push effectively; and the epidural meds can get into the baby's system as well, just to name a few. I don't want to take those risks and I KNOW that I am strong enough mentally and physically to do it the way women have been doing it since as long as baby's have been born. I want to focus on meditation, breathing, and the use of heat/cold, massage, and pressure to assist in my labor relief. I guess we will see how it goes!

School has been good as well. Clinicals have been pretty interesting and so far this semester I have been able to give a flu shot and a catheter, pretty neat if you ask me!! I am just glad that I am doing well in both the lecture and the clinical portion, I like to do awesome and I like to do better than the others in my class. Sounds silly, but I want to prove myself as a hardworker. There aren't many other kids (if any) in my class that can say that they work full time, go to school full time, are pregnant, and kick ass in class!! If it sounds like I have a big head about this than I apologize, but I hate hearing the other kids in my class complain about how they have it so hard when all they do is go to class during the day and get drunk at night!

Also, my birthday is on Monday so that is fun. I had dinner at my dad's this evening. It was very good, he made baked chicken, mashed potatoes, and green beans!!! Tasty if you ask me! Tomorrow Matt and I will go to my mom's for a birthday dinner as well. I have to work on Monday, but I will have off Thursday for Thanksgiving through Sunday. Friday we are going to Washington DC to meet Kathleen and her family!! I am so excited for that! We haven't decided what we are going to do yet, but either way it will be nice to get out of West Chester and even nicer to meet one of my homegirls!

Lastly, I am really excited because we have been getting some work done on the nursery. Tomorrow we will be moving a bunch of boxes upstairs and I hope that the room will only have the computer and desk left down there and I know Matt's mom wants to get rid of the desk and we can probably fit the computer upstairs if need be, so woohoo!!! After that I will vaccuum, we are going to paint, get new carpet, take care of the mold issue, and then I can start to decorate and get the baby furniture!! Very, very exciting!!! Our little Chase will get to have a little room of his own!

So I guess this is all the updating as of now, I will leave with some updated belly pictures because I have grown since my last update!