Another Baby Update

Or not........

I guess there's not a lot to update! We're still WAITING!

I guess the peanut took me pretty seriously when we had our discussion about waiting to be born until my schedule cleared. Well, maybe this is a battle of the wills because the schedule has been clear for well over a week and there's really no sign that we'll be having any arrival coming.

I was having contractions last Monday night around 1 in the morning, but after staying awake for about 2 hours timing them (10+ minutes apart), I got tired and went back to sleep and woke up to nothing happening. As my midwife told me when I saw her last Tuesday, real labor won't stop, so it was not real labor. At my visit, there wasn't much change. My only new happening was that I got Hannah's cold - thanks!!!

So the rest of the week was completely uneventful. We had no plans for this weekend and it was nice to relax a little. We got the new car seat and stroller out and I put together the bassinet, so we're ready......not the baby though!!! Last night at dinner, we asked Hannah if she knew when her baby was going to come and she said, "in about 10 weeks". We said, "oh, no, it'll be much sooner than that." Then she talked to my tummy and said, "Baby, come out of mommy's tummy. Don't make me come in there!!!!" We laughed! It was hilarious!

So my cold went straight to a sinus infection as my colds always do. I could feel the sinus pressure building up yesterday and today I called my midwife to ask her to call me in a prescription. I knew I couldn't wait until tomorrow and I was hoping to not have to pay to go to the doctor to just get a diagnosis that I already knew I had. I've had plenty of sinus infections to know when I've got one. Mary Jo did call me in a z-pack, so I started that today. I'm hoping to start getting some relief in another day or so and it might be all cleared up for baby's big day.

So that's it! At least as far as our peanut goes. Not much to tell. However, I need to send a huge shout out to my friend Maggie!!!! Her long-awaited bundle of joy arrived this morning - 6 weeks early. Congratulations Maggie and Brian! I'm so happy for you. Miss Molly Anne may never know how long overdue her arrival has been (even despite being so early) I hope everyone is doing well......call me (I got your voicemail when I tried calling)!!!!

Baby update

I'm a little late with this post, but this is the first chance I got to sit down and post the update.

Last Tuesday, I took a vacation day to go to the doctor and get my ultrasound. I had an unexpected guest on my day off - Hannah. She came down with a fever Monday night and had this horrible cough. Whatever she had went straight to her chest. I kept her home due to the fever and even took her into the doctor which I never do on day one or two of a bug. I thought I'd better do that in case the baby came so we knew if it was a flu thing or something else. Tony ran her to the doctor since she got in the same time I had my appt but on opposite sides of town. Her doctor said they've been seeing a lot of this, but didn't really have a name for it, but it was viral and should get better in a few days. They wrote a prescription for an inhaler for her to help clear her airways if she was having trouble breathing. Her fever was pretty much gone by Wednesday afternoon and we were done using the inhaler by Thursday. We kept her home from story time, gymnastics and swimmng lessons which was a bummer, but I needed her to get better so she'll be able to come to the hospital to meet her baby - whenever he/she decides to come!

I had my 37-1/2 week checkup last Tuesday. Nothing more has happened since the week earlier. Same old stats, which was a little bit of a bummer, but fine at the same time. I left there and headed to the hospital to get my ultrasound. They did a bunch of measurements - no gender peeks!!!! Everything is measuring right on target, perfect for dates and all healthy measurements. The machine estimated weight at 7 pounds 2 ounces, but the tech said it's always about 1/2 pound heavy, so she thought it was about 6-1/2 pounds now. There was one measurement that was a bit oversized - it's NOSE!!! It's ginormous!!!! Like seriously, I'm a little afraid to see it for real! It looked really big on the 3D pictures!! See the face in between it's arms - it's sort of smashed like "against a window" looking, but there's the little peanut's picture!!!

It was cool to see it yawning and it kept sucking it's thumb, so the hands were in the way of getting really good face pictures. Here's a profile picture when it was beginning to yawn.

So, anyway, everything is good according to the ultrasound. I'll get official results from my midwife tomorrow.

Here's another (not so good) picture of my growing body! I think this camera angle with my tripod doesn't do many favors! But, I feel huge! I'm still not as big all around as I was with Hannah, but I'm big! This past weekend, my hands and feet started swelling to the point to make my shoes and rings tight, but still no kankles and I can still wear the ring.

Tuesday night I had Bible Study. We didn't have much of a Bible Study this month. It was a lot of griping about the church politics. I wouldn't have known there were such politics, but boy, those women thrive on that stuff. I could care less! It was nice though, they all pitched in and made me a "mommy basket" with soaps and lotions and candy and stuff. Sure was thoughtful!

Wednesday was just busy at work and then hanging out at home. Thursday was another busy day at work and then I had my NAWIC meeting after work. It was a late night. The meeting went longer than usual because we had 2 speakers and there was no January meeting , but I also had to stay after to go over stuff with one of the girls for me to take over the holiday social planning for 2010.

Friday night, we ran to the mall to get Hannah some new tennis shoes. I can't figure out why her feet don't grow that fast, but we got her new shoes anyway that I think are a bit too big yet, a pair of Sketchers size 9.5. The left one is definitely too big, but I figure she'll probably wear them for at least another year. By the time we left the mall, it was starting to snow pretty bad and getting nasty out.

I had to get up early Saturday morning to go into work. We were having an office clean up day and I had to direct the activities. We got a lot more snow than we had expected, but I took the 4WD jeep, so I plowed through it. I got home mid-afternoon and was wiped out! I pretty much did nothing the rest of the night. Tony went to play poker and came home early. Bummer that he didn't do well, but yay for him bringing home a Steak-N-Shake milkshake!!!!

Sunday, Dad & Julia came over to celebrate Hannah's birthday belated. They brought dinner - ribs, potato salad and macaroni & cheese with some other snacky stuff. It was really good! Hannah opened her gifts - lots of artwork and crafty stuff that she loved. We had cake and ice cream and then took naps after they left. We went next door to Laura & Aarons for the superbowl. Did everyone get a good look at the KISS commercial for Dr. Pepper? If not, Tony DVR'd the game to get it!!!!! I was glad it ended fairly early and we all went to bed when we got home - I was tired!

So not much happening on the baby front these past few days. Contractions every day, but nothing progressive. I now think I'll go up to my due date, but we'll see if anything more is happening tomorrow. I'm fine with it, but I'm really ready too! I made it through the busyness of my calendar, so from here out, it's open and I'm ready! I really wouldn't mind working this whole week or even next week too, but I'm ready whenever! I think I caught a bit of a cold, so I'm hoping it's not that severe and it's short lived so it's gone in time for the big day!!!!

So for now, that's it - still working, getting rid of cold germs at our house and waiting for the baby's big day!

Hannah's 4th Birthday!

Our little girl has turned four! It's amazing. We couldn't be more proud of her and the person that she is, so loving, kind, smart and wonderful!

Her little brother or sister has held on so far and let Hannah have her own birthday - thank you little one! I was really afraid of that giant full moon I saw Friday night and I'm contracting more often and a little harder, but for now, we're still hanging on. I'm very doubtful I'm getting two more weeks, but at least we made it through Hannah's birthday and were able to enjoy her big day together.

I took Friday off to start getting ready - cleaning the house and last minute shopping stuff. Saturday morning, we got up and she got ready for swim lessons. Daddy took her alone this week so I could finish doing stuff at home. She started out the day a little cranky, but also very excited for it to be her birthday. She was just tired and her afternoon nap cured all the crankies away! She got up from her nap and was super excited for her Cinderella Birthday Party. I had the house decorated so she was thrilled to see everything prepared and wanted to get into her Cinderella dress. I got her dressed and put her hair up in "princess hair". She was ready to go!

Her friends all started coming around 3:00. Once everyone got there, we headed down to the party room and the girls all decorated crowns with their names, sparkly princess things and jewels. They loved it!

Next we played pin the slipper on Cinderella.....I guess I didn't take any pictures of that. I was too busy blindfolding them I guess. We did a couple rounds of that.

After that, we played a few games of Cinderella BINGO. They had fun with that too!

And then they all sat around and watched Cinderella and had popcorn and drinks.

They had a great time, but sort of got bored of the movie about 2/3 through and just wanted to play. So they played until the pizza arrived and we all ate - salad, rigatoni, pizza & rolls.

Then Hannah opened her gifts. She got a lot of nice things. I'm glad it was a relatively small party because she just needed nothing!!! But she got some great things that were very nice of everyone to bring her.

Then we sang Happy Birthday and had cake. That's Hannah's favorite part - cake! Wonder who's kid she is?!?!? The girls played a little more and then everyone headed home.

It was a great party and I think the girls all had a lot of fun. It was a lot of work, especially being 9 months pregnant, but I would certainly do anything for my little girl! She had a much deserved special day. I hugged her so tight and said I was sad that she was getting so big and her response to me was, "But Mommy, I still love you even when I'm four". And of course, I told her "I will always love you too honey!"

One last thing about her turning four....today, she kept saying, "Now that I'm much older....." It was funny!

I love you big girl Hannah! You're going to be a great Big Sister and are the best daughter I could have ever wished for!

Who's in Charge?

I'm facing my first test with the new baby. I'm soon to find out who is in charge - me or the baby. I'm now at 37 weeks. I've officially got 3 weeks left until my due date. Sticking to this plan really works best for me - that's the way it's been in my planner so I've scheduled everything around this date. I was faced with a bit of a curveball this week that I am having a hard time swallowing.

This past Tuesday at my doctor appointment, I had gone from closed cervix last Tuesday and my midwife saying I'll most likely go to due date or overdue to 2 cm and 80% effaced this week and her telling me there'd be no surprise if I go a week or two early. Normally, that would be good news, but I'm just too busy right now to have a baby earlier than the plan!!!

I had a realy hard discussion with this little one Tuesday night telling him/her that I needed at least 2 more full weeks before it was time to be born. I've just got to get through this weekend for Hannah's birthday party and she deserves to have her own birthday, so there will be no baby this weekend. Next week is pretty full wrapping things up at work and a few things in the evening that I've got to do, so next week is no good either. Then the week of the 8th gets better as far as being free goes, however, if the baby comes this week, the weeks I have planned off for my maternity leave get a little screwed up and I'm not so happy about that. So the deal is that after the 12th, I'm open and will be ready to take a 2-3 day trip to the hospital to meet this little one. Sounds fair to me.

So, the battle has begun.....who will win? Hannah is very obedient, so this is the first test to see if I get another well behaved good child or one that will test me and push the limits forever!

I really wish I wasn't so routine and had to stick to a schedule because then this wouldn't matter so much, but it really does bother me that what I have planned may get thrown in the garbage!! I don't like not being in control - maybe this is a good test for me too!

So anyway, stay tuned for weekly checkup updates. We have another appt next Tuesday as well as the ultrasound. We'll see what that brings and then I guess we just go from there - anxiously awaiting - but not too soon!!!

One week from Four!!

I can hardly believe it! My baby will be four years old in 6 days. It just seem so unreal. I've been looking back through pictures of her infant and toddler years and it's amazing how she became such a big girl this past year. Vacation 2009 in March, she was still such a toddler and then since this summer and fall, she really grew. It's just so amazing. I keep telling her that I want her to just stay three and her response to me was, "Mommy, I'll still love you when I'm four"......how sweet she is! So I guess I'll let her turn four!

We went to have her 4-year old pictures taken today. She was really good despite the photographer not being that creative. She did fine overall and took over 100 pictures, but none were like "oh, how can I choose" poses. I went to Portrait Innovations and really wanted to get the $9.95-one-pose package so I was hoping it wouldn't be terribly difficult to narrow down the choices and luckily, it wasn't that hard. Hannah took a lot that were good and oh so cute, but there really were only 3 poses that I really liked that captured her personality as she turns 4. I was able to get the one-pose package and then bought another 3-sheets of another pose just since it sort of marked her 4th birthday. Here's what we came up with:

The main pose

And the extra pose

And in other news, we started swim lessons this past Saturday. To clarify (and to answer Erin's question) yes, Tony goes in with her. This class is a parent with child class and I think Hannah is one of the older students in the class. There are a lot of little ones and probably several 3-year olds, but the lessons start in the baby pool area and then go to the deeper (5-foot) area of the pool, so at this point for Hannah, we definitely need Daddy there. It's starting very basic, which again, is good since Hannah has zero experience in a pool as of yet. They worked on blowing bubbles in the water, which she did really well. I guess the water was fairly cold, so her lips were chattering the whole time, but she still did really well for her first lesson.

They worked on front floats (to which the teacher remarked she had very nice form)

and holding on to the wall and kicking and blowing bubbles.

They also threw a toy and then swam to it.

Then they had a little play time down the slide.

She really liked it and I'm so glad we finally got her into lessons. Maybe now I won't have to worry so much this summer at Aunt Dawn & Uncle Jack's house and maybe we can actually take her swimming on a hot summer day!

Tony and I went on what is likely to be our last "one child date" Friday night to our favorite Japanese restaurant. We had a great meal and it was really topped off with the fact Tony's boss was there and picked up our tab. It was so nice of him and we tried to tell him no, but he insisted! We may have ended up with a free meal anyway since the chef was doing his little show with the bowls of fried rice and as he reached to give Tony a bowl, the whole thing went flying across the table and crashed in front of him and went all over the place! It was just rice, so it cleaned up easily, but it still was a mess with the glass bowl broken and rice all over the place. Leave it to Tony for that to happen to!!! At least it wasn't a knife (again)....yep, one time many years ago he got a knife in his lap when the chef was twirling them around. Those aren't butter knives either so that one was a little scary....nothing happened though! So anyway, we had a great meal and a nice night out together.

I went to see The Lovely Bones with the girls from my book club Saturday afternoon. I haven't read the book and most of them had read it several years ago. The movie was OK, I didn't LOVE it, but it was good. I guess it was quite different from the book. I was expecting to cry a lot and didn't at all. I mean, the thought of a 14 year old girl getting murdered is sad, but the story wasn't told in a way that I thought was sad. It was good overall, especially for a matinee price. The girls all surprised me at lunch with baby books for the new baby! I was so surprised and it was so sweet of all of them. It was also amazing that with all the books we have for Hannah, I only got one book we already had. It's nice that the baby will get a few things of their own and not all hand-me-down's from Hannah!

And speaking of baby, everyone at poker (well the girls) all think I'm much bigger than the last tournament 2 weeks ago, but still mostly all belly. My mom thinks I've dropped since a week ago and I just feel the same....big and uncomfortable. Everyone keeps telling me they think this is a boy, so I'm getting real anxious to find out if everyone is right. There are only a few people who have said it's a girl, so we'll see.......either way is fine for me of course. The only difference it makes is on clothes. If this is a boy, I'm getting rid of all Hannah's clothes in a child resale at one of our schools in town in March which I'm excited about. I had planned on taking everything to Once Upon a Child, but if I can sell it on my own instead, I'm sure I'll make out much better. We'll see what happens I guess.

And I think that's about it for now. We've got a super busy week ahead of us. Monday's our only free night and I have to go grocery shopping since I didn't have a chance to do that this weekend. Tuesday night is Bible Study, Wednesday night is Story Time, Thursday night is Gymnastics, Friday night is my nephew John's birthday party and and Saturday is Hannah's birthday.....there will go another week!!!!