He's HERE!!!

Nahum Levi Estes was born early at 37 weeks and 2 days on Thursday, May 6, 2010. He weighs 5 pounds, 10 oz and is 19" long! Not much baby fat, so they are monitoring his body temp to make sure he's ok. We're both doing well and happy to have him here!

More to come~

36 weeks and counting...

Today I am 36 weeks pregnant and worked my very last day of work! YAY! I can now sleep past 5am and get some much-needed chores done around the house before Nahum comes!

We had a doctors appointment yesterday at Kaiser. The fetal heart monitor reading was good. They did have to "buzz" him to get more movement but it worked and it was fine. Our nurse practitioner measured my uterus and did some kind of vaginal/rectal test for a bacteria that could be there. I'm pretty sure it's not anything to worry about otherwise they would have notified me by now.

My blood pressure was higher than they liked to see so she's going to have me come in for the fetal heart monitor 2 times a week now until delivery instead of just 1. That's ok with me because I want to make sure there isn't any pressure on Nahum's heart.

I have been having more and more contractions throughout the day; especially yesterday and today. There have been a few times it was painful or felt like stretching or sharp pain for a few seconds. So, I think my body is still just getting ready. I should start keeping better track of how long the contractions are and how far apart they are. I guess I just keep thinking that when REAL labor starts, it will feel MUCH more painful and then I'll know the difference. That may not be accurate or very responsible of me, but I really don't have any other experience to go off of.

Nahum continues to move in rolling movements and lately I've felt him stretching (like w/ a yawning movement) towards my bladder and that is making things more uncomfortable.

The last several times I've gotten to take a nap during the afternoons; I'm sleeping VERY soundly. So much so that I wake up drooling and in the same position (which is good for me 'cause I usually switch sides a lot.) I am also waking up not remembering what day it is or how long I've been asleep. So, my best quality sleep is during the afternoons. At night it's spent tossing, turning and getting up to use the bathroom or straighten out a leg cramp (which are also more frequent now.)
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My co-workers threw me a surprise baby shower on Monday and that was so nice. I honestly thought they were going to forget about me and that I'd have my last day of work and that would be it, but they did a great job! We got a couple more cute outfits, a home-made blanket, some full-sized Johnson & Johnson bath products and a REALLY big Target gift card! AND my co-worker made a Hungry Caterpillar cake too! We felt very blessed by them all.

I have one more baby shower this Sunday afternoon for the ladies I grew up with in Sanger and some of Steven's and Debby's close friends from Reedley. I haven't seen many of these women in years so it will be SO nice to catch up! I'm really looking forward to it!

34 Week Ultrasound

Well, we're coming right along now. At 34 weeks and 3 days we had another ultrasound and although the doctor wasn't actually there, the tech still got all the good shots of measurements that she needed.

According to his measurments, the doctor estimated his weight to be 5 pounds 2 oz!!! He's really getting big now and running out of room in my belly! Doc also said that he would recommend delivery by 41 weeks unless of course I go into labor naturally sooner than that.

So, in this picture, you can see his head to the right and follow his profile to the bridge of his nose and mouth and then you can see his tummy and I think his hand at the bottom left.

He's still moving a lot these days, which is good news that he's active and means that, even with a 2 vessel cord, he's getting enough blood-flow to move around.

I will now be going in to Kaiser every week for doctors appointments in addition to the fetal heart monitor for 20-30 min each time. I guess I'm glad about that. I keep hearing stories about pregnant women around the same time-frame as me having their babies early or other women who have had their babies around this time and it doesn't sit well with me. At only 34 weeks, he is NOT done "cook'n" yet and if I'll be monitored every week, then it makes me feel better that they would catch something if it arises.

Thanks for your continued prayers for us. I'm down to only 8 days left before my maternity leave starts and I can't WAIT!!!

!!!CoNgRaTuLaTiOnS!!!

Congratulations to our brother Peter and his new FIANCE Katie Hughes!!! Peter proposed to Katie on their 3 year anniversary last week. He took her for a ride in Sam's plane and had the kids at Great Western school out in the yard holding letters that spelled "Will you marry me?" Katie was surprised and VERY happy! She said "YES!"


We're SO excited to have Katie as part of our family and look forward to their wedding day!

Nahum

We were inspired to take some pictures of a verse in the Bible that we hope will a source of joy and encouragement to us as well as our son. Nahum 1:7. We'll be framing these and hanging them in his room.

~Showers of Blessings~

Saturday, March 27th was our "family" baby shower given by one of my best friends, Hannah. She and her mom and friend Jenn did SUCH a fabulous job with the Very Hungry Caterpillar theme! I mean the details were just amazing and EVERYBODY loved it!!!

My friend Megan was such a big help to me too. She drove me to the shower, wrote down all my gifts for me and organized it all so it made writing my thank-you's a LOT easier! I just love her.~

I really did miss some of my family who wasn't able to be there with us; my Schletewitz girls in TX and my two sister-in-laws from Southern CA and my nieces too. Peter's gf Katie was there and that was really special though.

We got some great gifts for Nahum: a Graco swing, the changing table that matches our crib, lots of great clothes, some stuffed animals and my FAVORITE gifts were the crib bedding and quilt that Aunt Kathy made for us. I mean she did an INCREDIBLE job and we just couldn't wait to put it in Nahum's crib!

Steven put the changing table together and helped me unload all the gifts the next day. We even organized all Nahum's clothes into size and hung them up in the closet. It's beginning to look more like a little person is going to live in there. SO exciting!

30 week ultrasound

Well, we saw his hair! Weird actually because, of course, I don't know WHAT I'm looking at, but the tech showed me that it was illuminated white on the screen and looked like it was floating in the fluid, so that made more sense.

His Right kidney is back into the 'normal' range now. It's measuring a 6 now and if it was a 7 it would be considered at risk, so we're IN THE NORMAL RANGE!!! Praise God!

All other measurements were normal too and he weighs 3 pounds and 5 oz now! They couldn't tell how long he was 'cause he was all bunched up. We got some pictures, but it was really hard to get a good shot of his face/profile because his arms were both up next to his head, like he was boxing or something!

They want to do 1 more ultrasound in 4 weeks and then they will wait until after he's born and do an ultrasound directly on him.

In 2 weeks they want me to go to my doctor and have them do the fetal heart monitor for 20-30 min. I guess they strap on some device to my tummy and just listen to his heart beat for that time frame.

Other than that, we're all good! Thanks for your continued prayers for baby Nahum!