Latest doctor appointment...

Well, everything still seems to be going perfectly! I had another doctor's appointment today; just my regular monthly checkup. My blood pressure is still ultra low (which is normal for me), I've gained 12 pounds, and my stomach growth is consistent with my gestational age! (which I was a little worried about). So, all you people who think I'm not showing enough...I am!! People have been asking me lately why I'm not "showing" more ...then they started asking if everything was alright. You worry about everything along the way when you're pregnant, but when people start asking you things like that, it makes your worry more! But, apparently, everything is just right! Baby K's heart rate was 157 beats per minute. She keeps going up and down! The nurse said she kept moving away from her...so, she had to keep re-finding the heartbeat. But it sounded strong and... perfect. :) The normal range at this point is anywhere between 120 and 160. So, she's right on track! So, overall the appointment was uneventful...which is always a relief!! I'll only have one more appointment with this doctor in Augusta before I have to start with the doctor in Gainesville. I'm sad that I have to switch, but I can't be driving from Gainesville to Augusta until the due date! So, I've got to. Well, that's about it! Our little girl is doing perfectly....but we already knew she was perfect... :)

25 weeks!

Here we are...one more week down! Not too much has changed. Pretty much everything is going well. However, I have been sneezing like CRAZY and been super stuffy at night! Apparently, this happens to people who are "with child"...the increased blood volume decreases the space available in your nose. That paired with the increased mucus (snot!) production...not good!! Lovely. I've been taking Benadryl like crazy! Patrick also got me some of those really attractive Breath Right Strips to wear at night...and they work pretty well too. Let me tell you, I'm super cute when it comes to bedtime! :)

I've got a doctor's appointment for this Thursday, so I'm going to make sure that it's still alright that I'm taking the Benadryl pretty regularly. Every other time I have asked her, she said it was fine. So, we'll see! Baby K still kicks me a ton...I love it. I don't like it when she goes too long without kicking...I get nervous! So, everything seems to be going just fine...still no headway on the name, though! I'm still working on Patrick... :)

NO MORE DENTAL SCHOOL!!!

So, I'm officially DONE with dental school!!! I finished my last patient today! I finally cemented that last bridge!!! :) I have NO OTHER patients, no other procedures, no NOTHING!!! I checked with everything, and I am cleared for graduation!! No more finals, no more tests, no more practicals, no more competencies, no more requirements, no more DENTAL SCHOOL!!! I CANNOT believe that graduation is just around the corner!! Next Friday!! Then I'm free forever! Yahoooooooo!!!!!!!!!

Hello from the Bubbies!

The bo's are feeling very left out of this whole blog thing...so, here they are! Say hi! :)

A new pillow!

My loving, wonderful, fantastic husband (yes, the same husband who called my stomach "rotund" :) surprised me and bought me a body pillow so I can sleep a little more comfortably at night. I used it last night for the first time, and I loved it!! It gives me so much more support and is MUCH more comfortable as far as sleeping on my side goes! (I am already tired of sleeping on my side, but using this pillow helped a lot)! I recommend it to any pregnant woman...or anyone who has trouble getting, and staying, comfortable at night! ...just fabulous!!! :)

AHHHHHH!!!!! I'M GONNA BE A DENTIST!!!!!!!

We got our last board results today!!! I PASSED!!! ... even better....with FLYING COLORS!!! Don't mean to brag (well, kinda I do!), but damn, how awesome!!! My last exam EVER!! NO MORE BOARDS!!! I told some of you that there was one thing I was worried about regarding my boards, but apparently I had no reason to worry! I got a perfect score of 100% on the periodontal portion and a 98.3% on the restorative section (the fillings). What a relief!! I feel like I can finally relax now!! How great is this....now, I'm REALLY looking forward to graduation!! I'm actually going to be a real dentist!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

6 MONTHS!!

Well, here I am at 24 weeks! I can't really believe that I'm already 6 months into this pregnancy!! Crazy! Well, little Baby K is getting stronger and stronger! She's weighs a little over a pound and is about a foot long!!! She kicks me all the time now...I feel her all day long and before I go to sleep. She's not yet quite strong enough to wake me at night, though. I imagine that will happen later in the pregnancy! Also, FINALLY, Patrick was able to feel her kick! For the past two nights, he actually focused and felt her bumping around in there! :) I'm so glad he can finally feel her...I like for him to be able to share in the excitement! I'm looking forward to her moving even more! The magic jeans are still hanging in there, but my stomach is definitely growing. You can really tell when I lay flat on my back that my belly is bigger. Patrick's exact quote is that my stomach is "so much more rotund" when I'm laying down at night! He said it very lovingly, though! :) So, I think that's about it! We're all doing well! Now I'm just looking forward to graduation!! :) Can't wait!!

Our Last Prom!

So, this was our last formal of dental school! I decided to go get a new dress at the last minute. It's hard to see b/c the lighting isn't that great! You can see a little bump, though...good thing the bottom part of the dress was flowy! I barely squished into it...but it worked for a night!! :)

23 Week Bump!

Hello, hello!! I hope all is well with everyone! Things are going just fine for me here in good ole' Augusta! You can see that my belly is getting a little bigger....I guess....but if you didn't know it...I still just think most people are wondering why I'm allowing my fat to push out from my jeans! :) But, oh well! My magic jeans are still holding up quite well...don't think I'll be washing them too much though! I'm not sure they'd be very magical if I shrunk them!

The pregnancy is still going quite smoothly. One thing I didn't think I'd care too much about...I really miss sleeping on my back! I always thought that I was mostly a stomach sleeper...so, I thought I'd really miss that. But, apparently, I like to sleep on my back. Some of you may know that "they" tell you not to sleep on your back past 16 weeks because of the weight of the uterus on the vena cava (which, for you non-medical folk, brings blood to your heart from the entire bottom 2/3 of your body- kinda crucial)! So, I'm really comfortable on my back...but I get paranoid that my baby isn't going to get enough blood because I'm squashing my vena cava....so, I prop myself up on a pillow. Not quite as satisfying, but it'll do. Also, it doesn't help that I get up about 4 times every night to pee! I mean...geez....our baby girl only weighs about 1 pound, but she really does a number on my bladder at night!

So, I've also discovered that I like it about as cold as Antarctica at night. One night I woke up SO HOT!!! We have a little thermometer clock thing in our room.....I looked at it wondering if it was just my hormones, but it was....SEVENTY EIGHT DEGREES!!!!! Most of you are probably thinking..."that sounds normal to me!" Okay, NOT for me! Patrick is in charge of programing the air, and for some reason, he has something against Antarctica! But little did he know about the wrath of a hot pregnant woman... I marched myself downstairs and checked to see what the air was set on. (I like it set on 68 degrees at night...and Patrick is fully aware of this). It was set at 75 degrees!!! I was so mad! Well, I pushed that dial right down to 65 degrees and put it on hold so it wouldn't turn off!!! Ahhh! Relief! (Even the doggies were panting). So, the next morning (as Patrick was wondering why it felt like December in our bedroom), I told him that from now on, the air needs to be set on 66 all night...and that he was just going to have to wear more clothes!! I was SO not kidding. I already wake up 400 times a night, and when it's too warm, I can't get back to sleep!! ....so, Antarctica = happy, pregnant wife!! I think maybe he'll just wear more clothes..... :)

DMD...here I come!!!

So, today was the big day! My boards! For those of you wondering, I did find all of my patients...I found my last patient just a few days ago! Better late than never! So, I think everything went alright. We wont really know for sure until we get the results in the mail in a few weeks. But there weren't any issues that were enormously huge...from what I could tell!

It was a really long day...I got to school at 7:15 am and was there seeing patients and doing all the lovely, oh-so-necessary sh....stuff... associated with becoming a dentist until about 5pm. All my patients came and were actually early!! ....just as I asked! They were all pretty fabulous patients....especially my wonderful, fantastic brother, Ian who's very first dental restorative experience was today!! He did great, and he left with a very numb right half of his face! (...and maybe his ear was a little numb too)! :) Thanks, Ian!! You are the BEST!!

Half of the class went today (Sat) and the other half will go tomorrow. Those of us that finished today all went to a local Mexican restaurant and took over the entire patio. Everyone got to enjoy many margaritas....except pregnant me. :( But, it was really fun. One of my classmates' wife made some buttons for us to wear...I put a picture of the button I got on here! She made lots of different buttons, had door prizes, and bought us a congratulations cookie cake! She was so thoughtful, and it was a really fun time!! Can't wait for the other half of the class to get done so we can all celebrate together!

Thanks to all of you who were thinking of, praying for, and worrying about me!! Hopefully, I'll get some good new in the mail here in the coming weeks!! I CAN'T BELIEVE I'm actually, really to this point in dental school...

WOW!!

Our new House!! :)

Most of you know that Patrick and I are moving to Gainesville, FL this summer for my pediatric residency. We'll be there for 2 years. We've been down several weekends looking for a house, but to no avail. :( It was pretty frustrating....then we went down again last week and finally found the cutest house ever!!! We put a contract on the house and it was accepted. I was waiting for the inspection to go well before I posted it on here. But the house passed with flying colors! So, here it is! It is our very first house purchase together!! We love it, and we're so excited to get down there and get settled in. Now...I've just got to graduate! :)

Click here if you want to see pictures of the rest of the house!! It has the most fabulous back yard!!! :) To see pictures of the yard, scroll down the online brochure and click the underlined words under the "exterior" section!

I picked PINK!!!

Never in a million years would I have thought that I would pick pink baby bedding! But I did!! I knew I wanted something plain...I didn't really want a pattern of any sort. I found some bedding that I LOVED online by Little Giraffe, but it's $498!!!! WHAT?!?!? ...for three pieces of baby bedding that are going to be pooped, peed, and spit up on!!! No way! So, luckily, my mother is much more wifey than I am and can actually sew! (Sorry, Patrick. Not sure I got many of those typical wife traits)! :) So, I picked out fabric, and she's going to sort of emulate the bedding that I liked so much...for just the cost of the fabric! WAY more affordable! However, I don't want the room to look too girly, so I think we're going to go with a light tan or khaki color for the wall. That way we can just use pink on the bed and for accents if we want! :) I'm so anxious to get this nursery going!!! Can't wait to have pictures to show you!!

22 Weeks!! :)

Hello there! So, I'm 5 1/2 months along now! Everything is going well! She's still moving around, but still no really big kicks, so Patrick hasn't been able to feel her yet. It'll come!

So, I thought I was having Braxton Hicks contractions yesterday, but I'm not totally sure. Not to worry, though! They're also known as practice contractions and actually happen all throughout pregnancy...you just can't usually feel them until the 2nd or 3rd trimester. It's basically your body preparing for birth. So, if it was or wasn't Braxton Hicks...they weren't regular and haven't happened since, so no worries. :)

My belly is slowly, but surely, growing. I can still wear my stretch jeans (although, these aren't those jeans). I think maybe I should start calling them my magic jeans...because there's no way they should still be fitting! I wonder how long they hold out! Stay tuned... :)

21 Weeks!!

So, I'm a little late this week...but I'm still truckin' along at 21 weeks! Everything is still going very well. My belly is getting a little bigger, but unless you know I'm pregnant and are looking for a pooch, you still can't tell very much when I'm in street clothes! I'm sure it will come soon enough! So, our baby girl weighs about 10 ounces and is about 10 inches long!! Can you believe it!? I can't believe she's that long! Wow! I have still been feeling her every now and then. She seems to be more active during the day than at night...which apparently is backwards from the norm??! :) But, I'll take what I can get! :) No other big kicks yet, but definitely some good, solid rumbles! :) Patrick tries to feel her, but she doesn't move enough for that yet. I can't wait for him to be able to feel her as well!

FINALLY!! A Kick!!

I felt her!!! FINALLY!! It was last night when Patrick and I were driving to Gainesville to look for houses! It was so cool! I feel so much better now that I've felt her move around! It's a really hard feeling to describe, but I'll try. Imagine an air bubble at the bottom of a shampoo bottle working it's way up to the top and then kind-of popping when it got to the top. That's kind-of what it was like...except the "bubble" was popping just under my skin in my stomach. Cool, huh?! I was feeling some bubbly stuff and I told Patrick that I think I might be feeling her. Then, about 15 seconds after that, there was a big, strong kick that completely startled me. I actually jumped in my chair and said (to Patrick) "oh my gosh, I definitely feel her." Then, I sat really still for the rest of the ride trying to feel her some more. I felt little rumbles after that...but nothing as big as the kick that startled me! :) How cool is it to feel that there's a little baby moving around inside me! ....so cool... :)