38 Week Appointment

My appointment was a bit disappointing today, only because I'm ready to hold my baby boy. 

Last week I was 2 cm dilated and baby boy was -3 station. Today I was between 2-3 cm and -2 station. So it IS progress, just not as much as I was hoping for. And the dr said the same thing. She did try to stretch me a bit and did a membrane sweep so we'll see if that does anything. Also, she said my belly is measuring small so I have an ultrasound scheduled for Monday to make sure he's not turning. Eek! She said she thinks she feels a head but is still going to do the ultrasound. I'm looking forward to getting an estimation on his size Monday!

As far as the sweep goes though, I've had pain ever since she did it but I don't know that it's contractions. I'm crampy and my lower back hurts and I almost feel gas-like pains accompanied by really strong Braxton Hicks that come and go. But I don't think they're regular. But when I got home, I went for a walk with the kids, then after dinner I did 5 loads of laundry and cleaned the entire house. So if the membrane sweep is going to do anything, I know I did everything in my power to help it along. If not, he's obviously not ready to come out yet. And if that's the case, at least my house is clean!

My next appointment isn't scheduled until April 10 because of Easter. That's the day before my due date. Lord willing, I won't make it to my next appointment!

Guess Who Has a Big Brother?

This little girl knows just the right way to play with Matchbox cars, with sound effects and everything! She also has sound effects when she plays with airplanes. :)

38 Weeks

38 Weeks! At 38 weeks with Hunter, I (unknowingly) still had 3 more weeks to go. With Kylee, I had an induction date scheduled for a week later and had a light at the end of the tunnel. With this one, I'm just playing the waiting game. I really, really, REALLY don't want to be induced with this pregnancy. I'll say it again that I am not getting an epidural with this labor so I want my body to naturally go into labor and not need pitocin, since it intensifies contractions. So...I'm seriously just waiting around for labor to start. I know my body is working in that direction I just hate not knowing...And I have googled every single symptom to see if it's a sign of impending labor. I'm going crazy over anaylizing everything haha. I am just so ready to hold my baby boy...and take back my hip bones from being treated like a soccer ball. He is definitely getting big in there because he is SO painful when he moves around. Momma is ready for him to come out!

In the past week I have had a night or two of crampiness and contractions that kept me from sleeping but nothing that's stuck around. And the other night I did have two very real, strong contractions, but only two. The past few days I have been extra tired and extra hungry. Hopefully that means my body is trying to store energy for labor very soon. Only time will tell. I have another appointment Friday morning. I'm anxious to see my progress.

Here's this week's pic:

 And Hunter wanted to be in the picture too :)

He is SO excited for his baby brother to come. He asks me every single day when his brother is going to come out of my belly. It's hard to get a 4 year old to understand that we just have to wait for mom to go into labor. Lord willing, he'll be here very soon though. :)

Dr's Appointment

I had another appointment today. 

Well, first let me update that I had lots of cramping Wednesday night and even had a few sporadic contractions that woke me up in the middle of the night. But yesterday during the day, I didn't have anything. 

At my appointment, she said last week he was -4 station. Today when they checked me, he was -3 station and I'm 2 cm dilated. So it is progress from last week, he's just taking his time. I have another appointment next Friday. Hopefully more good news...or hopefully he'll decide to speed things up and not wait that long! ;) But probably not...

37 Weeks

I'm officially full term! Baby boy, you can come out now!!!

I don't want to sound like a whiny pregnant woman and complain, complain, complain like we all do in the last few weeks, but I'm so ready to be done. Yes, I'm in pain and can't sleep well. And yes, I'm uncomfortable. And yes, I'm sick of having to run to the bathroom every time I sneeze. But more than all of that, I just really want to meet him. I want to hold him and kiss him and tell him I love him. I'm so ready to see what he looks like and to get his siblings to meet him...and tell everyone his name!!

I'm trying to be patient and not complainy, but I'm just ready for my boy. :)

I'm to the point where people at church say things like, "wow, you're really getting far out there!" and "you're almost done, right?" Hopefully before long he'll be here. 

My house is still not ready for him, but I'm getting there. I did make some progress this week. Nesting this time means keeping the house neat, laundry done, and dishes out of the sink. And I have become crazy about sweeping my floor. While I know it could be done after every meal all the time, realistically, I don't do that. But this week I have been. I'm constantly sweeping my floor! And all his clothes are finally washed and ready to go! I just need to finish up with the random stuff like the carseat cover and swing cover and stuff. I also need to pack all of our bags. I hope to have that done by the end of this week. 

I was on my feet a lot on Saturday and had some cramping, so hopefully that means progress was made with dilation. We'll find out on Friday for sure at my next appointment. 

Silly Faces and Phrases

Hunter pointed to the letters on the book and said, "Mommy, this is polka square, and this is polka line, and this is polka dot."

36 Weeks

Things are definitely getting more cramped in there for baby boy and my body isn't liking being pregnant. I can't believe how painful the end of this pregnancy is when I was fine (for the most part) with the other two. I have aches and pains all over. I can't even laugh or sneeze without it hurting. Gregory laughs at me. I feel like an old woman.

I had my weekly doctor's appointment today. Weight gain is still good. Because of all the weight I lost in the beginning and had to make up, I've only gained 21 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight. But, I've been anemic for weeks now and been trying to get away with not taking a supplement but apparently my iron is continuing to drop even with me trying to be conscious of the iron I'm consuming in what I eat. So I finally started taking my supplement today. The anemia is probably a good part of my current fatigue and I really should get my iron under control so I don't have more fatigue than what's normal after baby boy comes and I have to learn how to be a mother of three. So I'm trying to get it at a good level.

She checked me for the first time today also. She said I'm a definite centimeter but it's still long and thick and baby is still high. She said she was hoping for more. So that, needless to say, was a bit disappointing. I was hoping for more too! But the Lord already knows the exact moment our sweet baby boy will be born. There's no need to stress over it. And just as time sped up when each of my other two were born, I know it'll happen with this one. I have 4 weeks until my due date and I know before I know it, baby boy is going to be 4 weeks old! So no need to rush anything. I'm just trying to enjoy the end as much as possible.

We got a dresser for him! I had been looking on Craigslist and stuff for one to buy and then it occurred to me to ask if anyone had on from FreeCycle. Someone did and we got it last week! It needed a bit of TLC. Greg fixed one of the drawers and I painted the knobs a baby blue. It is now (almost) full with all his clothes. I'm so excited! Here's the finished product:

I think I'm nesting but it's manifesting itself in a different way than with the other two. With Hunter and Kylee's pregnancies, I was wiping down doors and scrubbing light switches with a toothbrush. With this one, I've just been extremely motivated to keep up with the daily messes...making sure everything is straight, the dishes are done, the laundry is caught up, etc. and I've been sweeping my floor multiple times a day too! I'm not sure if the crazy nesting will come, or if this is it. We'll just have to see!

35 Weeks

I think it's finally hit me just how close I am! I can't believe that we'll have another sweet baby boy in just a few short weeks!

I want so badly to have Greg bring the clothes down from the attic to start washing but we don't have a dresser for him so I'd have no where to put them if I did that. :( I'm currently on the hunt for a dresser.

I had a dr's appointment today and she said everything looks perfect! My blood pressure, weight gain, measurements, etc. are all great! I'm now going for weekly appointments and next week I'll start getting checked for dilation! The pressure from baby boy has gotten worse this week. I talked to the midwife about it and she said the best thing for that is to rest. And with the very strong Braxton Hicks contractions I also told her I'm having, she told me to rest as much as possible. Hah! I'll get right on that.

This boy is SO painful sometimes with his movements. He kicks me so hard, or even just rolls sometimes and I have to stop what I'm doing to bear the pain. I wouldn't mind getting him out of there sooner than my due date!
Here's this week's pic:

 

My shirt doesn't help, but my belly is such a funny shape!

Our New Truck!

About a month ago, we sold our Pontiac. We'd been trying to sell it for over a year...pretty much since we took Financial Peace University and realized we could really use a cheaper car payment. However, when we realized that 3 car seats weren't going to fit in the back, we knew we HAD to sell it. 

We've been actively looking for a replacement since we sold it, and last week we found the winner!

Here's Hunter in front of our new Suburban! (New to us, that is. It's an '04.)

 

It seats 9 people so we won't be maxed out in seating once baby boy comes...and I told Greg we're good for another 4 kids even after him!

We got a great deal on it too. Our car payment has dropped over $200/month and our insurance went down too. Yes, we'll be using more gas, but at least we'll all fit in one vehicle AND we'll still make it out ahead with the money we'll save from the payment and insurance.

Greg loves that we have two Chevy trucks. Mine is bigger and prettier though. :)

Greg and I were talking about how we would differentiate between the two trucks. I thought of the awesome idea to call them the Mr. and Mrs. and we could even get matching license plates!!!

I'm still trying to get him to agree to the idea...

February Goals Recap and March Goals

 Wow, are we seriously a week into March already?! Sorry I'm late on these!

February Goals Recap
 *Do at least 2 loads of laundry 5 days a week. Success! I think I've gotten the laundry thing down pat. I haven't let it pile up in baskets waiting to be folded in quite a while. I've got it under control just in time to throw another family member into the laundry mix!
*Stop over-eating. Total fail. I gained wayyy more than I should have this month. :( Being pregnant with boys makes me lose the inability to say no to delicious foods!
*Memorize 2 more verses, and still remember the last 8. Total fail. February flew by and got away from me. :(
*Organize the kids' closets. Success! I may not have finished it all in the month of February, but thanks to the help of Gregory's muscles tonight, we finished the last closet and they're ready to be reorganized with baby boy's stuff.
*Organize my walk-in closet. Success! It looks so much better!  And Jenny and I had a garage sale too so I tried selling stuff I haven't used in forever and donated what I didn't sell, so I have so much more room in there.  
*Organize shelf in bathroom. Success!

It's not magazine-worthy or anything, but it's better than it was and Gregory is happier with it too. It ended up not taking too much to do it. I basically just bought another basket to put stuff in so it's not just thrown on the shelf. I also changed the way I keep my makeup brushes and I love it!

*Throw a totally-awesome 1st birthday party for Ms. Kylee. Success! Read about it here. I also had thank you notes out 4 days after the party. I think that's a record!
*Have an amazing time with Gregory on the couple's retreat with our church. Success! It was absolutely wonderful. We had an amazing time and are still constantly using the tools we learned while on the retreat. Thank you to the Goodfellow's for keeping the kids. They had a wonderful time!

March Goals 
March's theme is Baby Preparation!!!
*Wash all newborn linens for baby boy. This includes sheets, blankets, clothes, diapers, etc. I can't wait to start pulling out all the newborn cloth diapers again! Is that weird?
*Get dresser to put clothes in. I think I may try to get one from a garage sale...or some second hand place. I want a good deal on one.
*Clean out our new truck. (We got a new truck! I'll blog about it soon...I promise!)
*Memorize 2 more verses, and still remember the last 8.
*Read Proverbs 31 every day.
*Nest! Yes, I'm making this a goal. I've felt like I've wanted to the past couple days but I've had two sick babies so I was taking care of them instead of deep cleaning.
*Make at least 4 meals to freeze for after baby boy comes. I never did this with either of the other two...but I know it will be a big help to do it and I'll be glad I did! 

That's all I can think of for now...

Pregnancy Comparison #4

 (click on the picture for a larger view)

Yay, another comparison!!! I must say that doing this comparison actually made me feel a bit better. I don't think I look much different from my size with Kylee...do you? I definitely look older though, wow!

And yowza, I canNOT believe how big I was with Hunter!!! Glad I don't have to go through that again!

34 Weeks

I'm a little behind on this post. Sorry! It's been a crazy week. However, the picture was taken on the correct day. 

Every time I go to church, someone tells me I took bigger than when they saw me last week. It's a bit discouraging, considering we have large babies as it is! I know they don't mean anything by it. I think hormones just get to me. 

I'm still really tired and our busy week just added to that. I'm also starting to feel more pressure from baby boy and it's getting pretty painful. 

Still no nesting. Hoping it comes soon though!!!

My Walking Girl!

My baby girl is so big! I was putting stuff in a box tonight, and Kylee was holding onto it standing up. All of the sudden, she just let go and took two steps! Then all night tonight, she has just been taking a few steps here and a few steps there. I guess she just had to decide she could do it!