Picture from Today

37w3d

I just returned from my last midwife appointment… I have my pre-op with my surgeon/OB next Tuesday, and that’s that!  Forgive the muddled post… there are things I wanted to write and remember and they aren’t all that well grouped. 

Today I weighed in at +6 lbs; still amazing to me.  The midwife said at this point that the baby weighs more than I’ve gained.  I’m already measuring at 40 weeks, and she says I am “all baby”, and she wouldn’t be surprised if our baby was “in the 8’s”.  Julia was 7lb3oz, Raven was 7lb12oz, so I guess it holds to the old wives' tale that they either get bigger or get smaller as you have more… we’ll see what happens!  I better throw another outfit in the bag, though, as Julia and Raven’s ‘going home’ outfit was for babies up to 8lbs, and we don’t need this little one popping out of the outfit!

The midwife said my uterus seemed tired too, just based on feeling my stomach.  It should, as I’ve had contractions on and off for five days now… they started last Wednesday early morning and I had “false labor” for about 72 hours straight, and have had random contractions here and there since then.  I didn’t have this with either Julia or Raven, so it’s a new experience for me, and very tiring.  I don’t mean to complain, but it’s just truth that I don’t sleep well at all anymore and it’s hard to get comfortable sitting anywhere… my favorite place is the Adirondack chair on the back porch, but it would be silly to sleep out there.  Again… another new experience, as with both Julia and Raven it was Go, Go, Go! right up to the last day, and right now all I can think about from the minute I wake up in the morning is, “When can I rest next?”  Ha!

Lots of people have mentioned that I’m all belly and all out front and there’s a lot of truth in that.  This baby is lower than the other two were (so hey, I have NO problem breathing!) – I think the baby has dropped in the last week or so.  It’s funny/fun to try and find a shirt to wear on any given day that will cover everything it needs to, and I detest pants because the maternity band on them hurts too much… too bad I only have two skirts!  Two weeks to go… we can do it!

I’m anxious that might have this baby before we’re scheduled to on the 15th… starting to wonder if we shouldn’t have gone with the 11th when the midwife suggested it… but it’s all good and things will go as they should… no reason to worry and no reason to be anxious… the timing will be perfect and all will be well… I keep reminding myself of that.  :)

Off to take my very last test for my very last class and then I’m done with school for the semester… some work to do tonight, and then going to take it easy the rest of the week. 

erin

37w1d

Today – 37w1d pregnant

3 weeks ago… 34w2d

Anyone else besides me notice the drop?  It’s not significant in the picture, I guess, but physically it’s been pretty dramatic.  I can breathe easier… no doubt about that… but finding a position that is remotely comfortable or a shirt that fully covers the belly anymore has become difficult. *grin*

erin

My Girls

Less than three weeks away from Baby Makes Five… until then, we’re spending our evenings on the back porch and I’m trying hard to capture my girls as they are now so that when an infant takes over my life in a few weeks, I can remember what it was “before”.

(Maybe) Irrational Fears

I have developed two irrational fears in the last week regarding this pregnancy.

1. I have dreams about falling down the stairs and hurting myself and my child.  Due to this, I have been avoiding stairs at work as much as possible, especially when I am carrying something.
2. I am highly concerned that my water will break at work.  I never had this fear with my other two kids because I worked from home and it was a non-issue.  I also lived only 7 blocks from the hospital.  Now I work in an office 22 miles away from home, 25 miles away from the hospital, and on any given day, it can take anymore from 35 minutes to 1.25 hours to get from here to there.  I have no fear that I would go into actual labor and deliver a baby on the shoulder of I-70.  However, I am afraid of standing up and having amniotic fluid go everywhere.  So I brought a towel to work.  Because, you know, that will help.

I've entered the last three weeks (or less) and suffice to say that the crazy is starting to take over....................

erin

Soap Henge

I’ve always wanted to know the science behind soap.  Weird, I know, but soap has been used to prevent and minimize all sorts of diseases.  The black plague apparently could have been minimized if people used soap on a daily basis.  Anyways it’s been on my bucketlist for some time now to make my own.

I’ve been getting “Make” Magazine for a year now and it pretty awesome.  (think a modern day Popular Mechanics)  This last issue had an article on making your own soap using oil, water, lye and a mixer.  60 minutes of mixing to be exact (the article said 15minutes, but my batch took longer)  Here is a photo of my Soap Henge (the soap was hard enough for me to cut into pieces after 24 hours… in 3 weeks the caustic will have subsided and it will be ready for use.)

The mold was a quart-sized heavy cream container and I added “tea tree and lavender” essential oils for good smell-um’s.

Erin seems excited to try them too.

Prost!

Moon on the M(an)

R.E.M. had a song called Man on the Moon, this is the Moon on the M.  The photo shows the “other M” which is above Golden, Colorado’s “School of Mines”.  I went hiking last week and the moon was just setting behind the “M” and I snapped this with my phone’s camera.  Of course, here is a stock photo of the same hill so you can see what it looks like from the front and not from the bottom where it looks like a sliver of white smudge.

Prost!

I am in love with a Beer Geek

Woo woo!  Someone is sporting new glasses.  Ooo la la!  (Yes, I had a part in picking them out.)

erin

Easter Pictures

Not much to say… we had a great weekend, we went to Central City and Nederland, we went to church, we had pancakes for breakfast, and we took over 600 pictures… more pictures to come this week, but here are a few from today… one tired mama and gearing up for another week!

34 weeks and 2 days pregnant… hard to believe we’re in the home stretch already!  Feeling great!  (I had worn a different shirt today, but I jostled in our dark sanctuary at church today, and ended up with orange juice down my front.  Whoops!)

Why, yes, this picture is a perfect representation of Raven.

Not the dresses I had originally purchased for them for Easter, but as of Friday those dresses hadn’t shown up yet and I was freaking out a bit.  These were 50% off at Target.  SCORE!  Also, daddy always finds fun ways to get the girls to sit still and smile… today?  PINE CONES!

Standing in front of our… umm… weird mess that was probably a garden at some point.

Pretty girl.  Messy hair.

My whimsical one.

Look, mommy!  I can pose too!

Backyard egg hunt.

Adam having fun with mama’s new camera.

More camera fun.

We hope you all had a blessed Easter!  This is the girls’ and my second Easter here in Colorado… we’ll have lived here for a year in 10 short days.  Amazing how much has happened in a year, but I can say that we surely do love it here!  God’s blessings from our family here in Colorado to yours!

Easter Zombie?

Last night while I was making dinner, Julia and I were discussing Easter. She goes to a secular daycare, and so while they are discussing Easter with the kids, they focus on bunnies and eggs and obviously don't touch Jesus. Julia and Raven were very excited about the prospect of dyeing eggs at school today, and I wanted to make sure there was some understanding that Easter wasn't just about eggs and bunnies.

So, I said to Julia last night, "you know what Easter is about, right?" She said, "eggs?" I said, "Easter is about Jesus. Jesus died on the cross and then he rose again and we celebrate Him dying for us for our sins, vanquishing the devil, and rising again as He said he would."

She looks at me with wide eyes and says, "Dead? He died? Like dead? Someone killed him? Killed him dead?"

I said, "Yes, dead, the Romans killed him, but then he came back to life."

"Oh," she says matter-of-factly. "Like a zombie."

Umm... .............. umm.

So, now, how do you explain to a 4-year-old who is aware of what zombies are, and knows who Jesus is, and somehow strings them together, what being dead and raising again but NOT being a zombie is?

So we talked a bit more about Jesus. What He did for us. And then later I said, "So, Julia, what is Easter about?"

"Jesus, and eggs."

Okay, kid. Good enough for today.

Erin

We have a date...

... now we just need a name!

Wait, isn't that supposed to be the other way around???

The funny thing about repeat C-sections... they are scheduled.

As of today, our baby's birthday is scheduled for May 15, 2012.

Do I have any grand delusions that this is for sure the date? Of course not! If you were around for Raven's birth, you know the story of my water breaking the day before my scheduled C-section with her... so I have no expectation that this date will necessarily BE The Date, but it is fun to plan ahead, at least. We also have the possibility of being bumped from our scheduled date/time if an urgent/emergency C-section were to need to happen, as we are utilizing the on-call doctor of the day.

As stated above, now we just need a name. With Raven we went into the hospital with two names, and I'll confess that even though I thought I knew her name, we never checked in the operating room, and I was fearful to announce it until I was back in my room after recovery and could see the little card on her bassinet. (And, yes, Raven was what I was thinking her name was, so thankfully that all worked out!)

Very excited that in about 6 weeks and 1 day we'll get to meet our new little peanut... it's amazing how quickly this is coming upon us! And, finally with Child #3 I am practicing the advice that I give... I only need to be concerned with diapers/wipes, a place to sleep, and nourishment for this child... everything else will come when it does. Yes, that means that the room that I started decorating in December hasn't been touched pretty much since December, and that means that I haven't even pulled the clothes out of the basement yet. But, we have a car seat - which really is probably the most important thing as it's the only way we can get the child home - and we have some diapers and a loving family to surround this new little bundle of joy. Yay!

So... here's hoping and praying that work doesn't stress me to the point where I go into labor early, that God's plans for us are that this baby be born at a healthy weight and time such that we can enjoy my maternity leave at home instead of in a hospital, and that the Big Girls are as accepting of their new sibling on the outside as they have been with baby being on the inside. *grin*

Erin

Who do these children take after?

I wish I had a picture to go along with this post.

Julia: Would prefer not to wear socks. Removes socks as soon as possible upon entering the front door, and if possible, will attempt to leave the house without them. Don't even ask her to wear socks to bed. Doesn't care about the weather, type of shoe worn, etc. Simply doesn't want to wear socks. Even prefers tights to socks.

Raven: Changes socks as many times as physically possible in a day (i.e., as often as she is able to sneak off to her dresser without mom or dad catching her). Loves socks, especially those that she can pull up to and over her knees. Is very particular about the designs on her socks. Likes to wear socks to bed, and has been known to get up and change her socks in the middle of the night. She will then proceed to change her socks yet again in the morning. Does not care if said socks match her outfit.

Need help?

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So maybe Adam doesn't care about what his socks look like, but Adam likes to wear socks. And, typically he'll wear longer socks over shorter socks. He tends not to wear socks to bed, but he is a sock-wearer, and to the point where he rarely wears sandals - and sometimes when he does, despite social conventions, he wears socks with them.

Erin? Would prefer never to wear socks ever again. Doesn't even like tights or pantyhose - Julia will learn eventually. ;) Abhors wearing socks to bed. If feet are cold, would prefer to wear slippers or actual shoes than put on socks. Even in the dead of winter. (And yes, I've worn my Birkies more than once in the last, umm... week. :)

Ha!