still no bebe

Jenna must be quite comfortable in the oven. I tell her to enjoy her last days in there. Braden asked me how I was feeling early yesterday morning as I crawled back into bed after getting up to go to the bathroom for the fourth time, and I said, "Big and luggy." That's it in a nutshell. :)

Today is yet another weekly doctor's appointment. I was hoping that Jenna would get me out of that, but no luck so far.

I finally got paid for my freelance work...I got 3 checks from 3 different companies, all on Saturday. So it's nice to know that I haven't been working for free. I had done work for 2 of those companies since late January and hadn't been paid for anything that I'd done this year, so I was relieved to know that I don't have to start calling peeps up and asking where is my money, yo. :) And then I also received confirmation that I should be receiving a check from a different company within a couple of weeks. So all in all, I will only be waiting on the one just mentioned and another one from one of the companies that just sent me a check for January's work (I still need February's check...probably another month for that..grr).

Braden's job interview went really well, and he aced their computer test on Tuesday, so we're crossing our fingers that they offer him the job.

We celebrated Braden's birthday last night (as a surprise to him). I wanted to do it while I was still semi-functioning, as opposed to April 8th, when Jenna will almost assuredly be here already (I sure hope so, anyway), and I'll be sleeping and breastfeeding and not-so-inclined to celebrate.

I got him a Juanes t-shirt that says "Tengo la camisa negra" that he'd been wanting, and a t-shirt that was for me to wear but "for" him that says "I love male nurses". I also got a bunch of Sue Grafton mystery books and hid them around the apartment, so he had to find them with some clues. Mom got both of us 24, Season 1, so that means we have seasons 1 and 3 now, and in a few years we can watch them again when we've forgotten what goeth on. We're currently watching Season 5 and wish that the prez on there would get into a car accident or something. Lo, he buggeth. :)

Mom and I watched Stranger Than Fiction yesterday afternoon. I wasn't too impressed with it; it was okay, I guess, but if I had seen it in the theater, I would've regretted spending the money on it. I think that the trailer was misleading, intimating that it would be much more funny than it actually was...not that it HAS to be rip-roaring hilarious, but I just don't like that it led you to believe it would be. And it didn't really go anywhere and took a long time to do it. I guess "meandering" is a good adjective to describe it. Today we're going to watch The Devil Wears Prada. Mom's seen it before and said she liked it. And I guess The Pursuit of Happyness just came out on DVD, so we'll have to see if that's any good. It's one of those movies that you don't want to spend the money to see it in the theater but you want to watch when it comes out on DVD.

Gina (s-in-law) is within 40 minutes of the hospital as of Tuesday, so I'm trying to have this baby while she's here, so she doesn't have to turn around and drive back from Central WA next week...but I don't have a lot of control over that, unfortunately. Maybe Jenna will get us out of General Conference! jk. :)

Jenna has definitely dropped as of probably a week ago or so. She's so much lower! She kind of dropped down and out, so that now I'm measuring 40" around instead of 38". We haven't been measuring consistently, but it was 38" about a couple of weeks ago, and there is definitely a difference now.

I told the peeps at the front office that I had a week left, and their mouths dropped open. The one was like, "I thought you had a few months left!" Nope.

Well, can't think of anything else to say...later.

oh, come all ye jenna

false alarms = HOO-AH! HOO-AH!

let's just get this party started....come, jenna!! I am pretty much as ready as I'm ever going to be, I think. Which means that I'm not entirely ready, because who ever is, but I want to just do this thang...

I'm pretty sure that Jenna has dropped as of a few days ago. And really, I just feel that she's a lot lower down than she used to be. I kind of thought it would be more noticeable, like a bowling ball or something when I walk around, but it's not too terribly worse than it was before.

I think my body is storing up as much sleep as possible. Do not call me before like 2pm, no joke. And yet, when I tell one person not to call me, then the next day someone else calls me and wakes me up. Grr. I need my sleep, trust me.

Braden has a job interview right after work today. It's downstairs from where he's currently working. I hope it works out, since he hasn't been too happy with the current work situation.
He's been hoping that Jenna would get him out of work this week, but then yesterday, he told her to wait, b/c he wants to have this interview. Ok, so fine, I waited. :) I guess she's allowed to come after 6pm tonight.

As of today, 3 of the Ellisi sisters-in-law are 29. Happy Birthday, Teresa! And yesterday was Braden's mom's b-day. March and April are just insane birthday months.

So I was in Relief Society on Sunday for the first time in a few weeks, since it's been hard for me to get through all 3 meetings lately. On the bulletin board behind and to the right of the teacher was this announcement that at first glance read like this, no joke: SIMPLY CRAPPIN
I mean, I guess it's a brand name, so a lot of people would be familiar with it if they're into scrapbooking, but I'd never heard of it. You really shouldn't have a ribbon partially obscuring the "S" in "SCRAPPIN". :) It was pretty hard to contain my laughter.

schtuff, O

So I have dropsy. I drop things...no, really, I think that I have a good grip on them, and then they just fall out of my hands. My stomach gets in the way, too. I opened the fridge the other day and hit my stomach, b/c I thought that I'd given it enough room, and I hadn't. I forget things, like putting away food so it doesn't go bad. That's particularly annoying, since I hate wasting. I had this nice chicken avocado sandwich that I was going to eat today...yummy! And then this morning, Braden said "Uh oh" and picked it up from where it had been all night (the shoe rack, of all places). Grr. :)

I've been watching Lost, Season 1, which I believe I had requested from the library back in June or July...a looong time ago. So I've really gotten into it, and plan on getting Season 2 from Blockbuster with my month pass that Braden got me for my birthday. It's like pseudo-suspenseful, and I made the mistake of watching Part 1 of the finale last night at midnight--alone. So I crawled into bed scared and kept grabbing Braden's hands. He laughed this morning when I told him, b/c he doesn't remember any of it; he was out as soon as his head hit the pillow. Anyway, so I am looking forward to Season 2; if any of ya'll have spoilers, don't tell, or death cometh.

Last night was the first time I've had insomnia during the whole pregnancy, I think. I'm hoping that was a one time thing. It was a pretty crappy night; insomnia's no fun...especially when a TV show scared the crap out of you! :)

We forgot about daylight savings...oops.

Happy Birthday, Kevo-bobby!!!

Braden cleared out a good portion of Jenna's room yesterday and did general straightening, etc, of the car and apartment. You can actually walk through most of Jenna's room and sit in the chair and read. Yay!

We also bought our tickets yesterday for the family reunion. Turns out there is a direct flight to Cleve-o. We won't be bringing a carseat, though, so we will need one when we get there.

another year, another dollar or two

So I have this habit of getting up a little before 7:58am, if I don't happen to be up already for work or school (this is the first year in a while that that isn't the case), and watching for the clock to turn those magical numbers...and not wanting it to. Like it even matters!!! For some reason, I've not much cared for getting older since my teen years; I remember doing this when I turned 18...maybe I didn't want to grow up, I don't know. But I never have to grow up in spirit! :)

The baby shower went well. We had a lot of fun. Jenna's bottles will be VERY clean, since I got 3 bottle cleaner-things (it looks like a little toilet brush, really). :) I got some way cute clothes, and some essential stuff for breastfeeding, like pads, lotion, a privacy wrap, etc. I'm sure my brothers wanted to know that. We got a baby book, too, which we'd been talking about getting one, so I'm glad we held off. We played a game where everyone cut a length of yarn that they guessed would go around me measurement-wise. April from our old ward and Teresa (sister-in-law) were almost tied, but April won. Everyone was like, "You're so small!!"...so even when they thought they were guessing small, they really weren't.

I have to admit, my favorite gift was a $20 gift card to Olive Garden that was to Braden and I, saying that it was for us to get out and enjoy some time just us before the baby's born. Needless to say, we were all over that last night when I got home, b/c I was STARVING by the time the shower was over. So we went and had soup at 9:30 last night, and then Braden asked if we could have some of the soup they were just going to throw away, and, since we had a cool waitress (and apparently a lenient manager), we also got two bowls to take home. Score!

April (sister-in-law) and Braden's mom really did a great job with the shower, especially considering what's been going on with Granna (stroke a few weeks ago). Everything looked fantastic, and there were little green cookies and a cake that said Happy Shower and Happy Birthday! So that was cool. Neat decorations, too. We took some pictures, but the ones of the cake are on the in-laws sd card, so those will have to wait for postage (they're leaving for SLC this weekend for a bit).

On a side note, I keep meaning to mention this, but on Fast Sunday, this nervous teenager got up to bear his testimony, and he said something to the effect of, "That'd be cool, to have God as the head coach, and Jesus as the star running back...we probably would've made it to States." And then when everybody laughed, he looked surprised...I really don't think he meant it to be funny, but it was hilarious. Aw...he was so nervous!

Well, I got up to mark the passing of 28, and now I retreat back to the comfort of my bed, for, lo, I am an tired. (That's like "an hungered")

jenna jenna bo benna

so, as a lot of you already know, everything seems to be fine. Jenna is approximately 5lb., 6oz. Braden guessed 3,12, and I guessed 4,2, so we were quite surprised (pleasantly, of course) that we were so far off. But that's great! The ultrasound tech said (although the radiologist needs to confirm) that from what she could see, the placenta looks fine, the amount of amniotic fluid is good, and Jenna looks good. The umbilical cord blood flow seemed to be a little bit erratic, but the tech explained that that was because Jenna was moving around. From what we could see on the measurements, Jenna seems to be pretty consistently about 1 week (and maybe a couple of days) behind her gestational age, but the tech said that babies can measure up to 3 weeks behind, and it's perfectly normal. She also said that Jenna was right on my bladder, and then added, "but I probably didn't need to tell you that", and she's right! :)

in other news, yesterday was GORGEOUS, with temperatures in the 60's. It was beautiful. So of course I overdid it, since I had the car after the ultrasound. I mean, I hadn't been out by myself in quite a while, the weather was great, and I had some errands to run that probably should've waited. But I had some stuff waiting for me at the library, and I'm never over in Lacey anymore. Also, I needed to stock up on some food, so I went to the grocery store. But yeah, it was too much. So today I am not doing ANYTHING! :)

I told the Dallas translation company last week that I can't take on any more work from them until the risk of premature labor is over...they just send too much stuff, and I'd be at the computer all day. I may just not contact them until after Jenna's born, IF I'm feeling up to it. I'll have to play that by ear. I need to contact the NY translation company about a kind of maternity leave, also. I haven't gotten anything from them for almost 3 weeks, but apparently that's because their client is just being slow about some jobs that are pending. In any case, I'm not complaining about that at all, b/c the rest has been great and much-needed.

My baby shower is tonight! It's at Braden's parentals' house. I'm a little nervous, just b/c I'm not a huge fan of being the center of attention, but it'll be a lot of fun.

Well, ya'll, today is my last day of being 28. Carolyn and I will once again be the same age for 2 1/2 months. :) Although, she's got a little bit of a head start in the children department...not that there was much I could do about that (I was just waiting for Braden all those years, really)! :)
All of the Ellisi sisters-in-law turn 29 this year. We were thinking of throwing some kind of party or having a girls-night-out for when we all turn 30...we can all commiserate the loss of our youth together! just kidding.

ultrasound

For those of you who don't know, we're having an ultrasound today at 2:30 to try and figure out why I'm measuring small. For some reason, I seem to be stuck at around 32 when they do the measurement of the uterus, even though I'm coming up on 36 weeks along on Thursday. I measured 31 at my 32 week doctor's appt, then 32 at 34, and it's stayed the same ever since. I think I already mentioned that the doctor at the Family Birth Center was concerned about it a week ago, and then on Friday, I mentioned it to my doctor, and she requested an ultrasound to see what's going on. According to what I understand, possible reasons could be that Jenna is just small (but healthy), she may not be growing like she should (whaddyacallit...I forget the initials), there may not be enough amniotic fluid (which apparently is a genetic factor and has nothing to do with how much I drink), she may not be getting enough nutrients, or the placenta may not be functioning properly. While Jenna really seems to be perfectly healthy (every doctor I've seen has commented on how healthy she is) and is moving around a lot...as her mommy, I can't help but be a little concerned. I hope that everything is all right. Please keep us in your prayers...

Thank goodness I was able to schedule the ultrasound at a time when Braden has to be at the hospital for school anyway, and his supervisor agreed to let him start clinicals a little bit late today. I'm grateful for that; I need the support, and...he's the daddy and has been there for the other ultrasounds we've had, so it will be special for both of us to see how much she's grown.