Braxton Hicks Contractions and Mother's Day

I'm trying to get better at posting more often, but if it's 2-3x/week, then that will have to do. Immediate sidenote - the dogs were making a ruckus while having fun and the baby took a big ol' kick towards the front of my belly. That might be one of the hardest ones yet! I usually notice them the best when I'm sitting or things are more still. Back to the original line of thought...

Mother's day - well, pre-mother's day for me, was GREAT! Baby Schmidt got me a prenatal massage and pedicure from a nice place in town here. Our baby is really talented as s/he wrote me a note from the uterus that read something along the lines of..."I hope you like this mommy. You're going to need it since I like using your organs as trampolines. I can't wait to meet you and daddy!" which promptly made me cry. Adam is the sweetest husband and will make an amazing father...except for the fact that he wants to tie his/her right arm to his/her body IF s/he is right handed. He's already asked me for left-handed babies (all the better for baseball things) which he just might get since it runs on my side of the family and I am mostly left-handed. I told him I'll give him whomever wants to come out of there and there will be no hand-tying or I'll be tying him unpleasantly. :) Back to MD - it was a great day. We got up sort of early for an 8am tee time at the golf course a mile down the road. I definitely did not have my best showing but blame it on the extremely dewy grass and cold temperatures for the front 9. I'm not going to lie though - I had some pretty amazing drives around 200 yards. Woop woop! Then we went home for lunch and Adam cut the lawn before we went to Davenport for Adam's double-header softball game. The weather was nice and it felt good to sit and do nothing but watch the ball game, eat nachos, and soak up the cool sun. Then we went home and relaxed pretty much the rest of the night and I loved it. Great first pre-mother's day. I'm a lucky girl. :)

One thing that started since I posted last time was that I was noticing that my uterus was getting really hard here and there which at first I thought was interesting b/c it was so hard to the touch and I could feel it separately from the rest of my organs (new experience). Then it started happening more frequently and I started to get worried...I emailed a friend of mine who's about 30 weeks (maybe 31?) and she said that she started getting braxton hicks contractions (which is what I'm experiencing per the nurse and several other veteran preggers women I posted with/emailed about). Sunday night when I finally realized it was all normal I actually cried b/c I was so relieved. I didn't realize that I had been that worried about it until then. I started drinking more water (thus peeing even MORE often) which I was told will help and it's subsided somewhat. Adam works with a woman who is a secretary at GPC and used to be a birth coach. He checked in with her and she said to just change positions or whatever I'm doing at the time (ie. if I'm sitting, get up and move around; if I'm up, sit down). Thankfully it's subsided a bit so I really haven't had to try any of those things. It happened on my drive into work this morning (a mild one) but I wasn't about to stop and get out just so it would stop. :) For now, I'm monitoring it b/c if it happens more than 6x/hour I'm to call the doc and be worried b/c the contracting can change my cervix which can be bad for a myriad of reasons.

I'm winding down my school year now and am really getting the summer itch. I took some comp time this afternoon (just a half hour) so I could go home early and enjoy the weather while cutting the lawn. Yup! Bouncin' Baby Schmidt was the story this afternoon. My friend said that you're not supposed to just bounce just up and down but I reassured her that our lawn is not just up and down bumps and that we were bouncing all over the place. :) I'm SO pleased to admit that Jessie was outside with her electric fence collar on the entire time without Adam around or anyone to keep her entertained and not once was I worried she was going to cross the line and leave. She came every time I called her! Adam and I have really noticed a big change in Jessie the past week and a half or so. She seems to finally just "get it." She's behaving better and I'm not sure if it's b/c she and I are walking more and she has to mind me (or she'll be choked on the special leash Adam has for training heel). Overall she's just a better dog and we're glad! It's nice when they finally listen and get it. We have TWO great puppies! And Adam's bird launchers came today so now he'll be able to really train Jessie and refine Maddie's hunting skills this summer (launchers "launch" pigeons/birds in the air at the touch of a button) which I'm really excited for as I think Jessie might actually turn out to be a slightly better hunter than Maddie, who's quite good anyway. We're lucky puppy parents!

Other than that, we're just waiting for this two week wait to be over because two weeks from today, pending cooperation and some good leg spreadin', we'll find out who's in there! We're sharing the gender but not the baby's name. Sorry! Don't ask as you won't find out until his/her birthday. :) We are so excited and Adam always asks when he will be able to feel the baby from the outside. If movement keeps up like the kick I got at the start of this post, it won't be long! I think he's still got several weeks before he can feel the baby but who knows. It's still so inconsistent that I can't just have him sitting here with hand-on-belly all night. I have things to do! And I'm a pretty happy preggo person these days...I have lots of energy and just feel great. I'm a lucky girl!!