Five on Friday - {Week 48}

Hello December!!

{ONE:}

I absolutely love making items & decorating my home for Christmas! I probably have way too many little knick knacks that I'm thinking it might be time to find new homes for them... so I can make more room for the other stuff I want to make. . . .  Like this adorable shutter snowman! I did not have to spend a penny on this! I already had the shutter, the wood, paint and ribbon. Matt cut the wood for the nose and hat brim then spray painted it for me.... He's a little neurotic about me being pregnant and breathing in the paint fumes. 

 I have to do a few touch ups but otherwise, it's a favorite! I love how it turned out!

 Aside from decorating, I also bought bundle of yarn to make my son a scarf. He really loves it and asks for his scarf when it's time to go outside.

One of the many things I love about the cold weather is my husband's instinct to pull out his guitar! I think it's because he can't go outside to do anything that he sticks around in doors and serenades us with his amazing guitar skills. Every time he play, I fall in love with him that much more!






{TWO:}
We are just a bunch of sickly Clarks at our home. Poor Zeplin had a wicked cough (which my mom maliciously gave him.) and I'm super congested. Everything is making me gag. For whatever reason, I forgot about all my oils until my mom brought up using them to help Zeplin's bronchitis.
Of course, within hours of using a few oils in my son's bath and in his diffuser, his cough was drastically diminished.
Since we had Tuesday & Wednesday off work, I stayed diligent in applying Breathe and Eucalyptus.

As for my congestion, it also got significantly better. Then my ears started to get plugged. Throughout the course of the week, my cold symptoms went back & forth between tolerable and miserable.

I hate being sick while pregnant!

{THREE:}
On Thursday evening, Matt and I attended the hospital tour designated for couples having C-Section deliveries.  This is a new hospital for us and I want to be familiar with it before this baby comes in 2+ months.

Adam met us at the hospital to pick up Zeplin and take him to dinner while we went about our tour.
The walk was short, sweet and to the point. The hospital is a great hospital and so close to our home! I was a little nervous when the guide was showing us the room we would be in after the c-section because it's shared with another mother ... She left out that it's a room you stay in for the first few hours until you get your feeling back in your legs. Once you can walk, they transfer you to the 8th floor to recover for the next few days. I plan on maxing out my stay. I left the hospital less than 36hrs after having Zeplin - about the same amount of time a natural delivery would have been released.
Overall, it was nice to see where I would be having our baby and spending it's first 3-4 days of life.

{FOUR:}
We chose not to get a real Christmas tree this year.
Before we made our decision, we actually went to a few tree lots only to be discouraged by their outrageous prices. We didn't want anything bigger than 3-4ft but even the tiny tree lots were asking $50!! With a baby on the way, we just couldn't justify spending that money on a tree... especially when we already own a fake one.

Zeplin had a great time decorating the tree and loved putting the ornaments up.




{FIVE:}
How far along? 28 Weeks. This has been a hard week. All my 1st trimester symptoms came back and I have a head cold. Not a great combination. 
Total weight gain/loss: Well, Thanksgiving dinner didn't do too much damage. I gained another 2 lbs in the last 4 weeks so I'm at +13 pounds total per the doctors office scale. My goal, NOW, is to keep it under 20 pounds total through the rest of the pregnancy. I think it's a realistic goal- Even with the holidays. 

Exercise: Monday was my last day of prenatal swimming and I didn't make it since I needed to go to the hospital. But Matt and I did a few workout videos this week at home. I signed up to do swimming again in January. 
Sleep: I'm really uncomfortable and I wake up numerous times in the  middle of the night to pee, wiggle my tingling fingers and toes, or just readjust my body.  Also, falling asleep is nearly unheard of.... 
Movement: Lots. Mostly low and almost always on my hip bones.
Food cravings: None. I'll get cravings every so often but they're really random. 
Anything making you queasy or sick: Everything. I threw up all last weekend. It was depressing.  
Gender prediction: Girl. But only because I've been so sick. 
Best moment this week: Hearing the baby's heart beat again and seeing the doctor.  
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy. Even though I've been nauseas & throwing up. We are so close to meeting our little baby so I'm so excited!
Weekly Wisdom: Trust your gut. 
I thought I was having contractions but it turned out I was just dehydrated. (Talk about feeling like a hypochondriac) But I realize now that my anxiety is ridiculously out of control and I will make myself sick with worry. Part of me knew that I didn't need to go to the hospital but because my doctor told me to come in, I went in and was so worried when I should have just taken a chill pill and gone to bed. 
Looking forward to: My next appointment in 2 weeks. 
My appointment this week went well! My blood pressure is incredible for this stage of pregnancy. At the hospital, it was 127/76. YAY!!!
My tummy is also measuring true to what it should be.
  
AND - Baby is (tentatively) scheduled to arrive on February 19th, 2016!!!
We say tentatively because if I do into labor before this date then obviously I will have baby sooner OR if my blood pressure rises like it did with Zeplin.