37 weeks with a big belly

Disclaimer... Some details from my doctor's visit will be found in this post so if you don't care to read about that click away now or just skip the first section... :)

37 Weeks with a BIG belly

So I am now 37 weeks and went for a checkup yesterday with my amazing OB.  I have been having a lot of inconsistent contractions the last week or so.  At my 36 week checkup I had already dilated 1.5 cm and  was 50% effaced, so I was anxious to know if these off and on contractions of late had actually caused any further progression.  Well, they obviously had - at least a little bit.  I was 2.5 cm dilated and 60% effaced yesterday and the doctor seemed a bit surprised.  She upped my delivery date from the 21st to the 14th and told me to "take it easy" so that I would make it until then.

I really don't know how you "take it easy" when you have other children, ongoing construction and a 14-day to do list that now has to be crammed into 6 days, but I will prevail.  I know I have to get more realistic with my to do list and not worry about the parts of the construction that won't be complete before Emma comes home, but I want it all... You know I am the "have my cake and eat it too" kind of person.. Not necessarily a terrible fault, but not the best attribute to have either.

Emma's nursery is 99% complete. It would be 100% but Pottery Barn Kids threw a huge wrench into my plans.  I had ordered an adorable table lamp and shade over two months ago and the shade was on back order (of course) until March 3rd. No big deal, right?  I mean my due date is toward the end of the month, so no worries... Well, that was the case until I got an e-mail update from PBK telling me that my adorable shade had been delayed again until April 4th.  What?!?  So as of now I have a lamp base with no shade... not very pretty... but I am going to look for a temporary replacement shade today.  I say "temporary" because I still want this adorable shade from PBK (of course - the whole cake thing applies here too)...  Isn't it precious?

It goes very well with the rest of Emma's decor and will perfectly complete the nursery, but not until April ,I guess. :)  Anyway, I hope to get some photos of the nursery posted soon... So be on the lookout for those...  

Oh... Another update is that I had to unfortunately cancel my maternity session for the 17th because, well, let's face it, I won't be pregnant anymore... But I have a good friend, Alison, that is going to take some photos of me and the belly at the beach this week. She has great talent for photography and, even though she doesn't, she really should consider doing it professionally... So I will have maternity photos to post soon and I have a newborn session scheduled for Emma when we get home from the hospital... I am really looking forward to both of those shoots...

36 1/2 weeks...

 

Wow!  Where has the time gone?  It seems like we just found out that we were expecting and now we are just over two weeks away from Emma's arrival!  While I didn't think it was possible, my belly has grown bigger.  She has also dropped a bit which is nice for my breathing but not so great for my bladder ;)  Overall, I am feeling really good.  I get tired quicker but nothing that a short session of feet propping doesn't fix.  Brock jokingly reminds me that I now have a full-on waddle walk but what do you expect with a big belly and hips that are getting ready to birth a baby.  He also tells me how beautiful I am and that makes me feel very special. I love the way he and the girls love the belly.  Claire gives Emma kisses every day.  The first time she gave my belly a big hug and kiss the conversation went like this:

Claire:  (Big hug and kiss on the belly) I love you!

Mom: I love you too Claire!

Claire: I wasn't talking to you Mommy.  I was talking to Baby Emma!

Mom: Oh...

Everyone is getting excited about Emma's arrival and we are very close to being ready -- if you can ever actually be "ready".  But the construction is nearing the end and is almost finished on the inside -- just a few small details to complete.  The house may not be painted and the landscaping will probably not be completely installed before she gets here but I guess I will have to just learn to live with that.   Her nursery is complete so "Victory!" there. But I still have two weeks and a really big belly to convince our contractor to move quickly.  So maybe it will all work out and I can have my cake and eat it too. :)

Audrey and Claire attended a sibling class at the hospital, where I will deliver, a few weeks ago.  We toured the maternity wing, saw a brand-new newborn (a nice refresher of just how small newborns actually are), made onesies for Emma with their handprint and talked with the nurse about what you can and can't do with a new baby and how they could be big helpers to Mom and Dad.  It was a fun class and they both had a great time.  We have also made a countdown chain to countdown the days until Emma's scheduled delivery.  Did I mention that?  Our doctor has picked the 21st of March to be Emma's birthday.  It is also the first day of spring.  Yeah! Anyway, the countdown chain counts down the number of nights that the girls have to go to sleep before Emma is born.  We make these chains for things like this and other events like counting down until grandparents visit, etc.  It is fun because every day you get to see the chain get shorter and it helps the kids, especially Claire, visualize how much longer we have to wait.  It also helps me not have to answer the never-ending question of "When will Baby Emma be here?"  A photo of the countdown chain is below...

 Another thing that I am very excited about is my maternity photo session that I have scheduled for March 17th (so I hope that Emma doesn't come before then).  I am excited about the session because I love my baby bump and look forward to having it professionally captured.  We are going to shoot the maternity session at the beach -- I mean, that's where we live and what an amazing background to be able to use.  So pray for a sunny day with blue skies and no labor! :) The photographer is also going to shoot a newborn session of Emma at home so be on the lookout for those great photos later.

I will try to get more blogging in before Emma's delivery, so stay tuned!  

29 Weeks

So the belly is HUGE and I still have 11 weeks to go at this point... I'm thinking I might not make it to the end of March, but we will see...  As large as the belly is, my weight gain is still hovering right around 12-13 pounds.  As most people have told me, the weight is all in my belly which is a good thing.  Especially since my brother and his fiance just set the date for their wedding to be August 6th - that's only five months after my due date!  It's is not that I am actually in the wedding party, but one must still look good as the sister of the groom.  I mean, there will be photos taken! ;) But I digress...

So at 29 weeks, I went for my regular doctor's visit and everything looked good.  I passed my second glucose tolerance test (the yucky 3-hour one) and was very happy about that.  At the end of the appointment my doctor said "We'll see you in 2 weeks".  This caught me off guard... What?  I'm not that far along yet, am I?  Well, I guess I am because I am going to see the doctor on Monday for my now "Every 2 weeks" checkup (I am a bit behind in blogging because I am now 31 weeks hence why I am going to the doctor in two days)... I know this means that the remainder of my pregnancy will begin to fly by.  While part of me is anxious and excited to finally hold our little bundle of joy, there is a small part of me that loves being pregnant and doesn't want to give up the special moments that I get to share with the baby - you know, the flutters and kicks that you feel all of the time and the closeness that you have because she is with you, a part of you, I'm not really sure how to describe it but I know that all of you Moms out there know what I am talking about.  Maybe I am just feeling this way because I know 100% that she is the last baby that I will carry and while I am very settled with that decision, it is still just a little sad.  However, I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to experience pregnancy one more time.  Many of you know, Brock and I thought that our family was complete and had made plans and appointments made to have permanent measures taken.  But one month before those plans were to be carried out, we were given a wonderful surprise!  I believe that we were meant to have three children and that God has special plans for each of them.

Our Trip to Babyland General

While we were in Atlanta for the Christmas holidays, Claire decided that she wanted to go to Babyland General in Cleveland, Georgia and adopt a baby!  For those of you who may not be familiar with Babyland General, it is the home of the Cabbage Patch Kids!  So on the morning of her 5th birthday, Claire, Brock and I ate the  breakfast of her choice - Chick-fil-A.  Then we went to Gran and Grandaddy's house (Brock's parents) to pick up Gran, who was having a "Girls Day" with us at Babyland General and drop off Brock, who was having a "Father/Son Day" with his dad.

Babyland General moved since the last time I visited with Audrey six years ago.  The new facility is huge and beautiful!  It sits on over 650 acres in the mountains of North Georgia!  Very picturesque!  The new hospital has the look of an old Southern plantation which adds even more charm to the experience.

One thing I will say about Babyland General is that they take all of this VERY seriously!  There are rules and procedures to follow.  The No. 1 rule is that the Cabbage Patch Kids/Babies are BABIES, not dolls!!! In fact, that four-letter word is known as a bad word at Babyland General.  So it was no surprise when we got to the front doors and it looked very much like a real hospital.

Once we passed through the "Admitting" doors, we were in the lobby, where a very nice, grandmotherly woman was sitting behind the registration desk... dressed in a complete nurse uniform, of course!

Claire signed in and told the nurse that it was her birthday and she wanted to adopt a new baby!  The nurse explained where everything was and told us that new babies were born throughout the day in the cabbage patch.

After leaving Registration, we walked through the Nursery, where we saw some of the Cabbage Patch Babies that had already been born.  Claire was so excited as she walked by each of the cribs filled with babies.

We then went to the main room, where the cabbage patch is located.  Mother Cabbage is in the middle of this room and had just delivered a new baby when we were walking in.  Claire walked around and admired all of the babies that were still in their cabbages and those that were freshly delivered from the patch!

She found a "Lullaby" baby, which is a baby that is found in one of the cabbage heads in the cabbage patch, and fell in love with her.  She named the baby "Crystal".  She has blond hair and blue eyes just like her new mom, but her new mom (Claire) has a few issues with her wild and crazy newborn hair!

While Claire and Crystal bonded on the bench close to Mother Cabbage, we heard the announcement that Mother Cabbage was in labor - 9 leaves dilated actually (I told you they take this very seriously).  We moved over to be close to Mother Cabbage and watch the delivery.  It was a special one because it was a new delivery specially planned for Claire.  It is called "Planned Parenthood".  It was very cute!  There is a little bit of background noise in the video from people chatting and kids playing in other parts of the room, but you are able to experience the delivery of Claire's baby "Natalie"... the nurse calls her "Crystal" but Claire decided after the delivery that she wanted the baby born that day to be Natalie and the Lullaby baby to be Crystal.

Once Natalie was checked out in the Newborn Nursery, Claire was able to complete her adoption papers and take the official Adoption Oath.  The nurse got started a little faster then I was able to have the camera rolling but I was able to capture the majority of the oath.

Claire really enjoyed her trip to Babyland General (and if I am being honest, Gran and I really enjoyed it too).  Thanks Gran for helping make this trip a lot of fun!

If you are ever in the North Georgia area or just want to plan something fun for your daughter/granddaughter, then a trip to Babyland General is definitely something that you should look into doing. 

I'm Dreaming of a...

 You guessed it - A White Christmas! It hasn't happened in 128 years... The last white Christmas in Atlanta was in 1882! It was extra special for lots of reasons...

1. We were there to experience it.
2. It was Claire's first snow!
3. It was also Duke's first snow.  And...
4. As obvious as it is - It was a White Christmas!!!

That is something that people dream of (at least that's what the song says). The kids saw the first flakes begin to fall earlier in the day and the excitement began. Although those first flakes melted as soon as they reached the ground, the excitement did anything but melt. By the time we finished our Christmas dinner and opened presents there was a nice blanket of snow on the ground. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words so I will save you from reading a few extra thousand of those and I will just share some of the photos from our snowy Christmas fun!

Claire checking out the first snowflakes (even though it was more slush, than flake)

Audrey enjoyed the snow... although her nose turned quite pink! :)

Claire's 1st Snow!

Rolling a snowball for her tabletop snowman!

Just one more on top will make it PERFECT!

See!  It's perfect! :)

Duke really enjoyed trying to catch the snowballs that the girls tossed up!

Audrey's Snow Angel

 

Dad and the girls working on the tabletop snowman

Downtown Melbourne Christmas Parade

This year we were able to experience the Christmas parade in a whole new way... We were actually in the parade!  Our friends invited us to join them on their float, which was actually a boat!  It was so much fun.  Audrey and Claire LOVED every moment!  We rode in the boat while Brock and some of the other adults walked along side the boat passing out candy.  The parade was at night so the boat looked amazing decked out in lights and garland.  We waved and shouted "Merry Christmas!" to the crowd.  Sometimes the float would have to stop to navigate the turns and the flow of the parade.  When this would happen Claire would instruct me to "just keep waving" and not to say Merry Christmas again because we had "already told this group"...  When we would start moving again, she would tell me it was okay to start saying Merry Christmas again.  It was so cute and also very hard not to laugh because she was so very serious about it all.  At the end of the parade, Audrey and Claire had fun modeling the "Sold" sign that hung on the boat during the parade.  A few photos from the night are below... Enjoy!

Santa's Helpers on the boat 

 Brock and Eddie getting ready to hand out candy

Audrey modeling the "Sold" sign

Claire modeling the "Sold" sign



Our friends took some more photos that I will add to this post when I get them...

24 weeks

So here is a photo that Audrey took of my ever-growing belly at 24 weeks... I am a little behind in getting this posted because we are now at 25 weeks but it's been crazy around my house (more on that later).  I went for my checkup on Monday and got a great report.  Baby #3 is right on schedule and my weight is still progressing right on track - only 9 pounds thus far - but I am sure that will change as she starts adding lots of cuddly fat to her little body.  She has been kicking and rolling around a lot lately.  Everyone - being the immediate family - has been able to feel her movements.  Even Duke got in on the action last night... He was snuggled next to me with his body next to the belly.  Baby kicked and Duke jumped!  It was very funny!  She has also found my sciatic nerve or at least found a position to hang out that presses on it... While the discomfort is not a constant issue, it does catch me off guard at the intensity, albeit a short spurt of intensity.  I have added a number of stretches and exercises to my daily routine that will hopefully help alleviate most of the discomfort.  I don't remember having this issue with my previous pregnancies, but the doctor did tell me that subsequent pregnancies tend to carry lower and that may cause more pressure to be placed on the area around the sciatic nerve.  All in all, the pregnancy is still going very well... While I can no longer see my toes, I am able to move around very easily and my energy level seems to be getting better each day, which is a very good thing since the holidays are upon us and my schedule seems to be getting crazier by the day.  We are going for our 4-D ultrasound tomorrow afternoon so I will try to post new photos soon!