Anthony's Birth Story

Before even writing anything down, I'm going to speculate that Anthony's birth story is probably the shortest one to tell out of all four of my children.  I had spent months wondering, as each Friday moved us a week closer to my due date, whether he would arrive early or late.  Delivering a baby a week past the due date after having two come two weeks early can make control freaks like myself go batty when speculating when the baby might come.  I had pretty much resigned myself to the idea that Anthony probably wasn't going to arrive early, but I still was hoping he would arrive mid-week and early enough in the day to be seen by the pediatrician the same day in order to facilitate us getting out of the hospital after just one day.  

Starting on Tuesday (April 29th) I started noticing that I was having a lot of contractions.  They didn't hurt and I figured they were just Braxton Hicks contractions.  Certainly nothing to worry about.  With the first three pregnacies I pretty much had Braxton Hicks contractions from about 16-20 weeks until I delivered.  This time around I seldom had any contractions of this sort which had me even further convinced that Anthony wasn't in any rush to make an entrance.  So Tuesday and Wednesday were just filled with lots of contractions most of which were relatively close.  Tuesday night I had a few hours late at night where I thought I was close to being in labor, but it was late and I WAS NOT going to be delivering a baby in the middle of the night when I was already feeling pretty tired so I stopped my crazy nesting and decided to lay on the couch and catch some sleep.  I was also determined to not have a baby on Wednesday since it was my brother's birthday.  Wednesday was the day when I decided that maybe, just maybe, it might be a good idea to set up the pack and plays in the family room and our bedroom.  I figured it would be a good idea if I made sure I had some things ready in the event that I had the baby sooner rather than later.  Let's just say it was a really good thing that I decided to get things set up on Wednesday.  But, I still hadn't finished packing that bag for the hospital.  I wasn't that convinced that labor was imminent.

I fell asleep on the couch on Wednesday night and when I woke up it was a bit past midnight.  I was pretty excited that it was now May since I've wanted to have a May baby since Bryan and I got married.  And then it occured to me that today [May 1st] was the feast of St. Joseph the worker so I asked for his intercession for a speedy labor and safe delivery of the baby.  All I can say is St. Joseph works fast.  I woke up about 3:15AM and had this crampy feeling that reminded me of when labor began with Katie.  Within minutes I noticed another sign that I was likely in labor, but I didn't want to wake Bryan until I was sure, otherwise he'd be carting me off to the hospital before I could straighten up the house and finish packing my bag for the hospital.

After a few minutes of cleaning up the kitchen as quitely as I could, I noticed that the contractions seemed like they were close.  I've never been the one to time contractions so I wasn't sure what to do so I grabbed my phone, a pen and a pad of post-it notes and started writing down the time each contraction began.  After had about six of them I took a look to see how often they were happening.  They were all between 2-4 minutes apart.  Hmm....the week before my doctor told me to call them when they were 5-7 minutes apart and to head into the hospital at that point.  I was beyond that so I did what any laboring woman who really wasn't in much pain would do, I ran around cleaning the house, packing my bag, going up and down the stairs all while logging contractions with my pad of post-it notes.  A little before 4:30 I had everything done that I felt had to be done so I woke Bryan and told him that I was in labor and thought we might want to head out to the hospital soon.

Our neighbor who said she'd come over to stay with the girls if I went into labor in the middle of the night didn't answer her phone, so we woke Madeline and told her that she needed to hang out in the family room and stay awake until my father-in-law got to the house.  Then Bryan called the answering service for the doctor.  The on-call doctor didn't call back which had us a little worried.  Bryan called a second time while we were on our way to the hospital and we didn't hear from him until we were checking in at the triage.

The ride over to the hosptial wasn't too bad.  There were a few times where I had to tell Bryan to drive slow over the stretches of the road that I knew had potholes and anytime a light was near I was telling him that he better not stop short since I was convinced that stopping short might mean that the baby would be born in the car.  I will say this was the least stressful ride I ever had while in labor.

We got to the hospital at 5:00AM.  The woman who handled the registration or whatever the check in process was at the OB triage was painfully slow and apparently oblivious to the fact that I was having contractions.  She kept asking me questions that Bryan was fully capable of answering and I was bewildered as to why she wasn't just talking to him but I was too focused on riding out the contractions to say anything to her.  At 5:05 the on-call doctor called Bryan and he let him know that we were at the hospital already.  Less than a minute after I got buzzed into the triage floor the midwife who was observing me from behind the counter while we checked in insisted on checking to see how much I was dilated since she was pretty sure I was close to delivering.  I was at 8CM and the refused to let me walk up to the labor and delivery unit.  They said something about not liking to have babies born in the elevator.  Since my doctor hadn't arrived yet, the midwife was sticking around in case the baby was born before he got there.

Once I got up to the labor and delivery unit they got me set up with a birthing ball since that seemed to help me a lot when I was in labor with Katie.  I wasn't sure how long I'd be laboring and I kept thinking that sooner or later the contractions were going to become very painful.  I had a few that were pretty uncomfortable but hadn't had too many where I started to get that panicked feeling that I've had with some of the more painful ones in the past.   I was up in the labor and delivery room for less than half an hour when I told them that I needed to push.  They hadn't even gotten through all of the questions they ask when you've been admitted and I don't even think I had been hooked up to the monitors for very long.  I was really surprised at how quickly they sprung into action.  With Katie they actually doubted me when I told them it was time, but these nurses and my doctor who had literally just shown up didn't second guess me at all.  I guess when it's baby number four they don't second guess you when you tell them it's time.  They confirmed that I was fully dilated and told me to push whenever I was ready.  I did let them break my water just before I started pushing and we found out there was meconium in the water which meant they need to get a special team of pediatric nurses in the room in case the baby didn't cry right away.  After three minutes of pushing Anthony was born.  At one point I actually had to ask if his head was delivered because I had no idea how much longer this was going to take.  It may have only been a few minutes, but it felt longer than that.  Once the baby was out he cried right away so the special team of nurses that were brought in for him were satisfied that he was ok.

Anthony weighed in at 7lbs 8oz and was 20 1/2 inches long.  He's my second biggest baby.  This was my fastest labor and delivery.  I was in labor for under three hours.  I'm still amazed at how quickly everything happened.  I had been hoping and praying that this would be a quick labor but I never dreamed it would be this quick or as easy as it was.  I think just staying as relaxed as I did helped tremendously.  Everytime I got hit with a contraction I just tried to relax and pray my way through it. 

Anthony's face was pretty bruised up from the delivery.  He actually looked a bit blue when he was born.  It was bad enough that the nurses placed a sign on his bassinet stating that his face was bruised.  They told us that if we were to take him out into the hallway that nurses who might see him would think that he was blue from lack of oxygen if they didn't know he was bruised from the delivery.  The poor little guy was very puffy and swollen the first day.  The doctors and the nurses all told me that the bruising was attributed to his rapid delivery.  

Bryan told me after the fact that he pretty much was freaking out on the inside that I gave him so little time to work with in getting me to the hospital on time.  I think he should be happy that I decided to wake him when I did because I had contemplated waiting until after 5 to wake him, but I decided after having a few contractions that were a bit strong that I should wake him.  I suspect if I had waited that the baby might not have been born at the hospital.  

Because he was born on the feast of St. Joseph the Worker and I had asked for his intercession, I told Bryan that I wanted to add a second middle name for Anthony.  Despite all our trouble deciding on just the right name for our son, he was good with my last minute name change.  And that's the short and sweet story of how he came to be named Anthony William Joseph.

Pregnancy Update

Tomorrow I'll be 38 weeks along which is exactly when both Madeline and Ellie were born.  Katie, many of you will likely remember, hung on until 41 weeks on the nose.  Talk about frustrating!  So with my 38 week appointment tomorrow I'm not sure if we'll be possibly looking at an imminent labor or if it will still be some time before the baby is born.  At previous appointments the doctor has mentioned that we could attempt to get labor going by stripping the membranes at 38 weeks since it's worked for me twice before.  So if we go that route, it would be great if it works.

37 week belly dressed up for the Easter Vigil

I had another non stress test today.  The baby wasn't particularly interested in moving around as much as he normall does at these appointments so they weren't as thrilled with what they were seeing.  What should have been a 30 minute visit lasted over 90.  When they did an ultrasound to check the amniotic fluid levels the results showed that it was still in the normal range but had jumped up 2 cubic centimeters.  The nurse was a bit concerned about that given my elevated blood pressure.  Three times they took my blood pressure at this visit and each time they seemed to get more upset which was only stressing me out more.  I ended up getting sent over to the hospital to be evaluated by triage where they monitored the baby and my blood pressure more and did some bloodwork.  They tell me that everything looks fine, so they sent me home.  I have my 38 week appointment tomorrow and then later this weekend I have to do this awesome 24 hour urine collection for a test to further rule out I'm guessing preeclampsia or something like it.  I'm really hoping that the baby is born before then so I don't have to go through that less than pleasant task.  In fact, I'm going to ask my OB at tomorrow's appointment how necessary that test really is.

I am inching closer to being all set up for the baby.  Ordinarily I'd already have the bouncy seat and pack and play set up, but last time around it was just awful sitting around for three weeks after when I thought for sure I'd have already had the baby surrounded by all of the baby gear.  So I have everything ready to go, but not set up.  After today's experience, I feel a bit more motivated to make sure I have a bag for the hospital packed, and I might go ahead and set up the playpen for the downstairs.  I did pull out my nursing baskets with all the burp clothes this evening and a few days ago I made sure I had the diapers and related items set up in the nursery and also in the basket that will be downstairs.  I'm getting there.

Oh and at the ultrasound I got another peek at the baby.  The nurse who had been doing the ultra sounds the previous two weeks flat out refuses to even peek at the gender to put my mind at ease that the baby really is a boy like the other ultrasound techs have told me.  I haven't seen for myself since the 20 week scan.  Today I had a different nurse and as soon as she went to start measuring the fluid levels she landed in just the right spot for me to be 100% certain that we are certainly having a little boy.

I'm hoping all goes well at tomorrow's appointment.  I'm especially hoping that my blood pressure will be down enough to be soildly in the normal range.  I'm going to have to find a way to relax, I suppose.

Are we there yet?

The third trimester is really doing a number on me this time around.  Keeping up with a two year old, trying to keep the house in order and get everything ready for the new baby along with making sure we stay on track with homeschooling is a lot of work.  Most days I feel like I'm going to fall asleep while I sit in the parking lot at Ellie's school waiting for her to come out.  Saying I feel exhausted at times would be a huge understatement.

I feel like our plans for Lent never really took off.  I had planned to do the Jesus tree readings with the girls each day but the closest we ever got to doing it was me hanging up the felt tree and taking out the ornaments.  They'll all still sitting in the basket waiting to be used.  Aside from the kids just being busy with soccer practices and everything else that crops up, I just couldn't find the motivation to dig out the list with the daily readings and the picture bible that went with it.  I feel so lazy with regards to this, but I keep reminding myself that the bean jar and merciful cross Lenten activities are going well.  And, the girls are at daily Mass with me most days so that has to count for something.

I decided once again to do the 40 bags in 40 days thing for Lent and that's going really well.  I've detached myself from a lot of material things and I'm still not done.  I've lost track of how much we have given away, donated and tossed but I know we've gone past 40 bags or boxes.  I just started going through the baby girl clothes today.  My goal is to get through all of the sizes Katie has outgrown before Easter.  I'm trying to whittle down what we have to a reasonable amount of clothing in case we ever have another baby girl.  For the new baby, I'm trying not to buy more clothing that what we would reasonably need.  I have a hard time resisting cute baby clothes so this is a bit of a challenge for me.

I'm almost ready for Easter.  Candy is purchased and most of what I need for the baskets I have already procured.  I still have a few items that I need to order and I suppose I should do it soon.

Tomorrow I'll be 36 weeks along.  I've been feeling really off the past few days.  I can walk a mile around the neighborhood and feel fine but going up a flight of stairs makes me feel like I'm going to pass out from exhaustion.  At my doctors appointment yesterday they were concerned that my blood pressure was elevated but after having me lie down for a few minutes and taking my blood pressure again they were able to get a slighly lower reading.  So I'm wondering if perhaps I'm on the brink of having some sort of issue.  I really don't feel right and can't recall ever having felt like this with the other pregnancies.  I go for a non-stress test and an ultrasound to check the amniotic fluid level tomorrow.

Madeline's third marking period is behind us now and she's working her way towards the end.  I have most of the lessons plans for the rest of the year finished.  If we're able to keep everything on track even with a newborn in the house sometime in the next 2-5 weeks, she will be done before June.

Not knowing just when the baby will arrive makes me anxious.  I really wish I knew when labor was going to happen.  It would make things easier if I could just add it to the schedule. I'm hoping he makes his entrance sooner rather than later.  Things are getting a bit cramped and uncomforable in my torso and I sure would appreciate the breathing room.

I still don't think Katie gets that we're going to have a baby in the house soon.  We talk about the baby but it all seems to just go over her head.  I'm really not sure how she's going to react when we bring her little brother home.  She really loves babies so I'm hoping she will be happy to have a baby in the house but I'm bracing myself for what I suspect could be a difficult transistion for her.

I think this pretty much wraps up all the things I've had swirling around in my head that I haven't been able to blog about.  I have pictures of Katie enjoying the nice spring weather we've had the past week or so and also pictures from the older girls' soccer games.  I've gone to four soccer games in the past week!  I'm trying to get to as many of their games as I can before the baby arrives since I don't know if I'll be at many or any for the rest of the season once the baby is here.

Hanging in there

I have no idea how long it's been since I've blogged but I know it's been a little while.  Everything is going well but I'm exhausted.  I suspect the third trimester is just taking a lot out of me.  I don't think I've ever felt this tired during this stage of a pregnancy before.

Last Friday I had an ultrasound and the baby, who is still a boy, is doing well.  Based on the measurements they did they estimate that the baby is already 4lbs 5oz.  They tell me this is around the 50% percentile for a baby at 32 weeks but it just seems huge to me.  As of right now I have about 7 1/2 weeks until my due date.  I'm really hoping that this little one decides to come early, or at least by his due date.

Saturday I had that awful tearing muscle pain that I experienced with Katie for several months.  This time it was on the other side of my belly.  Not fun at all, but I'm so glad that it only persisted for one day.  I'm hoping that it doesn't happen again.

We had a few days of nice weather so I got to go out and walk around the neighborhood.  I'd love to have nice comfortable weather for a few weeks straight so I could walk every day.  It seems so crazy that it was in the 50s and 60s on Friday and Saturday and by Sunday night it was snowing yet again.  I cannot express how tired I am of snow.

Since the ultrasound tech on Friday told me that the baby is definately a boy and this is the fourth time the baby's gender has been confirmed, I decided to just go ahead and wash the clothes I bought for the baby.  So between Friday and Saturday I got all of the baby clothes washed and organized in the closet and drawers.  It's funny.  I did my best to make sure I only purchased what we would need and I still feel like we have too much.  I did have a few people give me some hand me downs so that's probably why I have a bit of a surplus.  I am doing really well with not buying more clothing for the baby.  It's so hard to resist cute little baby outfits, but I'm doing it!

I realized the other day that I've been doing a dismal job of taking pictures of the kids lately.  I guess it's another thing I can chalk up to being so exhausted.  I am trying to grab the camera here and there and take pictures.  It's just not happening very often.

On the VBS planning front I've made some headway.  I finally got things together and registration is open.  I have a friend who graciously offered to do all of the data entry associated with registration.  Another friend is helping me to find resources that work with this year's theme, and two others are giving me input for the crafts portion of the program.  I really just need to come up with a design for the camp tee shirts and get those ordered and I'll feel like I can relax a bit.  Oh and so I don't have to run around like a crazy person the week of VBS I have not one, but two assistants!  That makes me feel a lot better about running VBS with a two month old.

Lent feels like it's slipping by pretty fast.  The girls are filling up the bean jar and covering up our merciful cross with flowers for each work of mercy performed.  Our Jesus tree on the other hand is still bare.  We just haven't found the time yet to read the stories for a single ornament.  I keep telling them that we're going to have to do a few days where we cover several stories so we can catch up but it just hasn't happened yet.  The third trimester is really kicking my rear!

Once again I'm doing the 40 bags in 40 days challenge for Lent.  I'd say we're already off to a good start.  We have already given away, donated or tossed at least 15-20 bags and boxes of stuff.  I suspect we will have a lot more than 40 bags before Lent is over.  I'm purging a lot of household items that we don't need duplicates or even triplicates of as well as a lot of clothing.  I'm coming to realize that we can't save all of the girl's outgrown clothing.  It's piling up way too fast and I'd rather see it go to people who can use it now rather than box it up with the hopes that some of it will get used by one of the younger girls.  I have a lot of clothing to go through, but my goal is to keep only the items that I know will get used and give away the rest.  I'm also trying to pare down the amount of games and toys we have since I've come to realize that the less we have the more the kids play with the toys and the easier it is for them to manage putting their toys away when they're done playing.  It's a work in progress and an exercise in detachment.

I don't think I even got around to blogging about my nephew's baptism on the first Sunday of Lent.  Bryan and I are his godparents.  It was a really beautiful baptism and I was just struck when I followed my nephew's gaze as he was being baptized and realised that he was looking at the painting of St. Therese who was right above the baptismal font.  It was a moment that just left me saying "Wow!"  As I held him for the baptism I just knew by the the look of wonder on his face that he was looking at something and I had to look over my shoulder and find out what it was.  I'm really glad I did.

Soon I hope to be blogging more and also sharing some pictures.  Right now I just don't have the energy to edit my pictures and go through all the steps to get them uploaded and added to the blog.  Provided I don't continue to feel completely run down I should be able to get back into blogging.

How to Frustrate a Customer

I've been noticing over the past several days that some retailers are really good at sending out mobile and online coupons when you sign up for their deals and others are incredibly bad by comparision.  I've been spoiled by retailers like Target where simply texting a word or code to their mobile number will get me whatever coupon I see advertized on a shelf tag or sale ad within seconds.  There's small handful of companies like Target who do these sort of deals very well.

I think the stores that instantly send out the coupon codes when you sign up for their mobile or email alerts understand that by doing so they are more likely to secure a sale.  I wonder if stores like Bed Bath and Beyond and other stores that are part of their company realize that taking up to a week to send out a coupon code could, in fact, lose them a sale.  Yesterday I was all set to make a $300 purchase and I signed up for mobile alerts from Buy Buy Baby that will allow me to save $60 on the item I want that isn't available in the store in the color I want.  So already I'm a bit annoyed that I need to spend $23 in shipping fees to get the color I want that isn't carried in the store and now I've been waiting for two days just to be able to make the purchase.  Even more frustrating is the fact that I have a 20% off coupon that I can use in their brick and mortar locations if they had what I wanted in the right color in the store,  but I can't use it on-line.

So essentially this store is driving me crazy while I wait to be able to place my online order.  I had a similar frustating experience about a year ago when I signed up for mobile coupons from their sister store Bed Bath and Beyond.  I was going to make an in store purchase but since they took 5 days to send me the mobile coupon they ended up losing a sale.

If I didn't have a gift card to Buy Buy Baby I would have already gone elsewhere and ordered the stroller I want from somewhere else, like Amazon.  I'm hoping I get the online code soon.  Third trimester nesting and having to wait just don't go together well at all.  Even though I don't "need" a double stroller for at least 7 1/2 more weeks, I want it now.  I'm a bit neurotic about making sure I'm fully prepared for the baby well before the baby is here.  It's just the way I am.

Pregnancy and Lent

Apparently I'm not the only one out in blog land that has been contemplating Lent while pregnant.  Both Djiwa and Christine have discussed Lent and pregnancy on their blogs today and at the risk of beating a dead horse and looking like a copy cat and using far too many puns all at the same time, I'm going to do it, too.

We're just a few days away from the start of Lent and I've yet to decide on what I'm giving up and/or taking on for Lent this year.  Eek!  Part of this is because I already feel like I'm living a super long drawn out Lent while pregnant this time around.  I found out back in October that things like deli meats, soft cheeses, and ceasar salad dressing are all foods you shouldn't eat while pregnant.   Now I knew that moldy cheeses and feta were off limits while pregnant long before my first pregnancy, but it was news to me when I found out that hoagies, ceasar salad and fresh buffalo mozzarella were all off the menu.  And being the sort of person who always wants what she can't have, I find myself longingly looking at Wawa and wishing I could have an Italian Hoagie.

When I'm not pregnant, I'm willing to give up certain foods or even eating out/ordering take out.  Knowing how I am, I know those types of sacrifices while pregnant will make me and everyone around me miserable, so they're out.  What I need to do is find something that is non-edible to give up for Lent.

When I was pregnant with Katie I gave up FaceBook for Lent.  I've considered doing that this time around, but part of me would really hate to do it.  Perhaps that's an indicator that I should give it up since doing so will certainly impact me.  Some people are good with giving up internet during the day but I doubt I could handle that especially since that's how I primarily communicate with Bryan during the work day. Then again, I might be able to sacrifice browsing websites and blogs during the day but still utilize the messenger that I use to contact Bryan.  I imagine if I cut out a lot of my internet usage or limited myself to only a certain amount of time on line per day that I'd probably get a lot more done around the house than I presently do.

As far as taking things on for Lent, in the past I have added things like going to daily Mass two or three times per week.  I did that last year for Lent and by the time we hit Easter I was going to daily Mass Monday through Friday and have been doing so ever since.  So, unless I decide to sacrifice my Saturday mornings, the only morning of the week where I get to sleep past 6:45, I don't think I'll be able to add going to daily Mass as a Lenten sacrifice.

I'm hopeful that I will be able to come up with something that is meaningful to give up and/or take on by Wednesday.  If you have any suggestions leave me a comment.

Small Successes February 27th

Celebrating the little things in life that add up...

1. Yesterday morning I was pretty upset that the nursery bedding wasn't working on the crib right out of the package.  Nothing annoys me more than spending a nice amount of money on something (in this case an overpriced crib skirt) and then having to alter it.  I spent way too much time fretting and complaining about the crib skirt needing alterations yesterday afternoon.  Finally, after running it through the washer and dryer to see if it would shrink, I decided to try pinning it up to see if my thoughts on hemming from the top would work.  Washing it made the skirt lose 3/4 of an inch.  After I ironed it, I folded it up and under 1 1/2 inches (3 inches total) and pinned it into place.  After trying it out on the crib it was exactly where I wanted it and it was even all around.  I asked Bryan to lug my sewing machine from the laundry room and I decided I'd try to sew it.  Sometimes my machine likes to give me a hard time so I was preparing for a battle.  Fortunately the machine was already threadded with the color I wanted  andhad enough thread on the bobbin.  It probably took me 15 minutes total to sew all four sides and it came out looking just right.  Crisis averted.

2. The laundry is all caught up.  I spent a good amount of time on Monday and Tuesday getting the laundry situation under control.  Now, instead of having a mountain of laundry waiting for me every time I head into the laundry room I have just a few stray items that aren't enough to make a load sitting in a basket.  If I can stay on top of this it would be awesome.

3. My 30 week visit went really well today. The baby is head down and everything is looking good with him.  I still haven't actually written up my birth plan but I did go over my main points of concern with the doctor today.  He was just as receptive to what I want as the other doctors I've seen so far.  I also was telling him how I want out of the hospital ASAP after delivering the baby.  They're on board with discharing me within 6-8 hours after delivery provided we can get the pediatricians on board with letting the baby go home.  I called the peditrician's office today to see if we can set up a consult with the doctor we usually bring the girls to to see what he thinks.  The OB seems to think that as long as we have a plan in place to make sure the baby is brought in for the necessary bloodwork and is seen by the doctors the next day that we might be able to get out of the hospital quickly.  I can't express how much I don't even want to set foot in a hospital after my last hospital experience back in December.

4.  I organized a good portion of the basement last weekend.  I still have a lot to do down there but it's looking a lot better.

5.  It took about nine years, but we finally hung the Pooh Bear perpetual calendar that I bought before we moved to this house.  It looks nice on the family room wall.  (If I get a moment I'll update this with a picture.)

Nursery Decorating Woes

Now that it's been a week and a half since we moved Katie into her big girl room, I finally felt like I could go into the nursery and work on switching out the bedding.  I felt ill removing the perfect flower bedding that I had used for both Ellie and Katie.  I love this set and I was desperately hoping that this baby would be a girl so I could look at it for another two or three years.  So right off the bat I was setting myself up for an underwhelming experience.

Once I had all the girly bedding stripped away, I started to open up the boy alphabet bedding.  I put the pillow sham on our small Pottery Barn Kids pillow and was upset to see that it was huge on the pillow. So I went and checked the girly sham from PBK and saw that the dimensions on the tag were exactly the same as the new sham.  Odd.  The old one is a snug fit and this one is way too big.  Not a good start, but I told myself I could try to shrink it.

Then I pulled out the crib skirt.  I wasn't sure if I'd have to wash it first or not, but I knew either way, I'd have to iron it.  But first, I wanted to see how it fit on the crib.  I thought it was odd that the skirt was pooling on the floor so I checked to make sure I had it on properly and took a step back.  On the crib's lowest setting about 3-4 inches of fabric were on the floor on all three sides.  Seriously, how can this be?!  At this point I was on the verge of tears.

I went searching for a navy blue crib skirt that I have for my nephew's crib set and pulled that out.  I noticed the package said it had a 12 inch drop for the skirt.  So then I checked out the PBK one and see that it has a 16 inch drop.  I suspect it's just the perfect length for a Pottery Barn crib on the lowest mattress setting.  Had I been able to buy the crib skirt for Ellie's set 9 years ago (I believe it was either sold out or backordered.) I might have already known from experience that the skirt was going to be too long.  But since my mom made the skirt for that set I was blissfully unaware.

I'm tired and exhausted.  Naps don't happen for me at all thanks to a dog who barks when I try to sleep and a few other factors like me having to pick Ellie up at school when I would like to be sleeping.  I don't have the desire or the energy to alter a crib skirt for this new bedding set.

I sat on the nursery floor and cried for a bit.  Bryan offered to buy a new crib if that would solve the problem but I told him I didn't want it.  Then I decided to try the crib skirt from the girly set with the boy sheeting to see if I could live with it.  I thought it was a possibility until I added the baby blue mesh bumper.  I really dislike baby blue for boys and this was just too much.  I sent Bryan another text with a picture of that combination.  He suggested finding somethign that works, as in another bedding set.  No, I already brought wall decor that worked with this and my chances of finding something I like that goes with the wall color are slim to none.  I'm picky, and when it comes to decorating a nursery I have to have everything just so or I'll fixate on everything that is wrong.

I started to wonder what I'd have to do to make the crib skirt work.  I can't hem it from the bottom since it has a design and applique work at the bottom.  My only choice would be to hem it from the top.  After I had my little pity party and cried again about the bedding situation I put the skirt back on the bed and tucked about three or four inches under the mattress on one side.  That gave me the look I wanted.  So now I know what has to be done.  I either need to alter the crib skirt myself, or take it to a seamstress.  I'm not sure which option I'm going to go with at the moment.  I really don't want to get into a sewing project.

I talked to my mom and she suggested running it through the washer and dryer to see if it shrinks up a bit so that if I take on the alterations myself I don't find myself having to alter the crib skirt twice.  The bedding is in the wash right now and will be going in the dryer soon.  Here's hoping that it shrinks a bit.    If not, I will probably cry a bit more.

On the bright side, I do like the way the bedding looks and I think it goes nicely with the color of the room and the wall art I picked for the nursery.  

Quick Takes on St. Valentine's Day

~1~

I'm really not much of a Valentine's Day person.  It's just one of those holidays I don't get into.  I'm more inclined to go all out for St. Patrick's Day.  Does that make me a Valentine scrooge?  I'm not sure.    The girls really place a lot of importance on St. Valentine's Day so last night Bryan and I went to Target for bread, eggs, and Valentine gifts for the girls.  Apparently the foot of snow we got Wednesday night into Thursday morning meant that eggs and bread were nowhere to be found in the store.  So we ended up with a cart full of junk food, a couple of books and a small chicken.

~2~

I'm 28 weeks pregnant today.  Just twelve more weeks until my due date.  I feel like I still have a lot to do.  Katie still needs to be moved into her new room which has been painted for nearly a month.  I'm still trying to decide if I should paint Madeline's old armoire white (It's presently a honey pine finish.) and use Ellie's white headboard for Katie's bed, or if I should leave the armoire as it is and use Madeline's old four poster bed (which used to be mine).  Both Bryan and my Mother would prefer I not get into a furniture refinishing project right now.  I'm just not sure what I want to do.  Part of me really wants Katie to have all white furniture and part of me just wants to take the option that requires the least amount of work on my part.  After all, I already had to paint a room for her and it took a coat of primer and two coats of pink to cover the blue walls.  What do you think? Paint the armoire white or stick with the present finish.?

~3~

Since I hit the 28 week mark today I am able to pre-register for the delivery and the hospital stay that I would very much like to avoid.  I've had dreams where I've managed to deliver the baby by myself in the laundry room.  Strange, I know.  It's funny, but I really feel like if I can labor without anyone knowing, I could pull off delivering at home.  Bryan isn't amused and insists that I will be at the hospital with plenty of time to spare before the baby is born.  Not if I can help it.  I told him I'm good with delivering the baby in the hospital parking lot if need be.  The less time I can spend in the hospital the better.  He says I'm being selfish, but when it comes to this I'm ok with that.  I'd be more inclined to happily go to the hospital if I knew they'd let me and the baby go home two or three hours after I deliver.

~4~

Snow.  I'm sick of it!  We had twelve inches of the white stuff when we woke up yesterday.  It started to melt when it warmed up a bit (mid-30s) and began to rain.  The rain stopped, the temperatures dropped and we got a couple inches more overnight.  When will it end?  We're supposed to get a bit more tomorrow.  And thanks to all of this snow Ellie's last day of school is now June 30th.  That's just insane.  Imagine spending the whole month of June in school.  I can't think of anything less fun than that.  Madeline on the other hand was complaining that she doesn't get any snow days with homeschooling.  She stopped complaining when Bryan asked her if she'd rather be doing school when it's warm enough to go swimming.

~5~

I'm wondering how minimalist I can go with baby gear this time around.  I really don't want to feel closed in with tons of baby gear and toddler toys on the main level of the house.  I'd like to thin out some of the baby items we have and just use the things we really need.  My adversion to big baby gear has been triggered by a Fisher Price swing I'm presently trying to evaluate for an Amazon Vine review.  I've had to assemble and disassemble this thing multiple times in the past two weeks due to defective swing motors.  Three to be exact.  The third replacement motor was just delivered today.  Here's hoping that the 4th time's a charm.  If not, there's no way I can give this swing a good review when it's time for me to do a write-up on it.  If anything, the swing has convinced me that the older model that a friend gave to us is better and that I should stick with using the travel sized one that we used for Katie.

~6~

Katie is doing really well with the potty training while she's awake.  I had been putting her in pull-ups when we go out but we've had several instances in the past week where we've forgotten about the pull-up and she's been just fine with going to Mass, or the store or even out to eat.  I'm just amazed at how well she's doing.  She's not even the least bit timid about using public rest rooms which was always a stubling block for the older two.   I don't think we'll see any real progress during nap and bedtime until she's in her big girl bed and can actually get up and go to the potty.  

~7~

I decided that since just about everywhere in the house is a mess that I'd break out my camera remote and take a picture in the only room that doesn't look like it was bombed.  There's my big ol'28 weeks along belly.  I keep telling Bryan that I think I'm as big now as I was when I was full term with Katie.  He keep assuring me that I'm not, but I'm not so certain.  I'm hoping that the baby is born early and is 8lbs or smaller.

Theme Thursday: Hearts

Madeline started this water color painting yesterday.  She wanted a heart that looked like it was part of a stained glass window.  I'm looking forward to seeing the finished project.

I drew this sidewalk chalk Sacred Heart many years ago when I was doing chalk drawings in the driveway with Ellie.  I liked the way it turned out so I snapped a picture and it's been the background on my past three phones.  I imagine most people have no idea what it is since it's covered with apps, but it's there.

I asked Ellie to take a picture for me and then I noticed that she had a heart on her shirt so I figured I needed a picture of her to include in this post.

I'm totally copycatting a friend of mine who is about nine weeks ahead of me.  She posted some pictures last night and I loved that she made a little heart with her hands over the baby.  I'm 27 weeks 6 days along today.  I feel like I'm getting closer to the end.  It's crazy to think that in 12 weeks or so I'm going to have a baby boy in the house.  I have no idea what to do with a little boy.  I guess I'll be doing a lot of learning on the job!

Visit Clan Donaldson for more Theme Thursday.

Advanced Maternal Age--Is there something to it?

I'm noticing this time around that pregnancy is certainly more taxing on me than it was when I was in my twenties, which has me thinking that maybe there really is something to the whole "advanced maternal age" label that I have slapped on me because I'm 35.  Pregnancy at age 32/33 wore me out but I still had months where I had energy.  Just two and a half years later I find myself feeling every bit my age and more.

When I switched to a new practice last month I asked specifically what the "advanced maternal age" label meant for me.  Did it make me high risk?  Did it require additional tests or anything of that nature?  What I found out was just my age alone was considered a risk factor but didn't necessarily mean I was high risk.  That was a relief.  What they did tell me was if I had other risk factors, those, combined with my age would intensify the other risks that might otherwise be of middling concern.  Good to know.  I was told that I would have an additional growth scan done of the baby at 32 weeks and would also have a consult with the maternal fetal medicine department.  Also, once I hit 35 weeks I'll be doing weekly non stress tests, so there's certainly a bit more monitoring this time around.

As far as how I'm feeling, I'm just not feeling like I have much energy most days.  I felt absolutely horrible my first trimester and I anxiously looked forward to that second trimester energy that I've always had in the past.  This time around, however, there was no burst of energy with the second trimester.  I'm not sure if that's just age related or if my finger injury and related hospitilization just sucked the life out of me.  Mentally, I still haven't recovered from it and it has me daily thinking of how I can find a way to deliver the baby at home without anyone knowing about it so I can avoid another trip to the hospital.

Depending on which source you consult, I'm either at the tail end of my second trimester or the beginning of the third trimester.  In two days I'll be 28 weeks along.  I feel like I'm in the final leg of this and I'm hoping that the baby will come before my due date this time around.  I just don't think I have it in me to go a week past my due date like I did with Katie.  But, at the same time, I'm also not very interested in any sort of induction.  At the new practice they told me they would try to make sure I didn't go past my due date, but the old practice tried, too.  They also offered to induce me at three different visits and I declined each time because I'm just not willing to trap myself in a hospital for the entire duration of a labor.  No thanks.

One thing that hasn't changed for me with regards to pregnancy is my nesting.  I've always been of the mentality that I have to have everything prepared now, even if the baby isn't due for several more months.  I've managed to get most of the clothing the baby will need for the first 6-9 months already.  And, all of the essentials that I will need for those first few weeks with the baby are already set aside and waiting to be needed.  I'm doing my best to relax and take it easy with getting the nursery ready.  Katie hasn't yet moved into her big girl room, so I need to take care of that before I can set up the nursery.  I suspect the nursery will be set up and ready for a baby boy within days of Katie vacating the nursery.  I already have all of the bedding and decorations for the room.  It's just a matter of moving Katie's belongings across the hall to her new room and making a few changes.  I keep telling myself that we're almost there.  Almost.

22 weeks 5 days

It's official, I've switched to a "new" (technically I'm a new old patient at this practice) OB practice.  After the finger incident last month I came to realize that I really wasn't happy with the way things were done at the OB office where I had been going.  I wan't particularly thrilled with them when I was pregnant with Katie, but they had four midwives and I'm more comfortable having a midwife for my deliveries than an OB.

So I had my appointment today and of course I hit some crazy traffic on what has to be the most unlikely road to have traffic which made me late for the appointment that was I supposed to get to 15 minutes ahead of my scheduled time.  I really hate being late so that added some anxiety to my day.

I felt much more at ease as soon as I walked into the door of my old OB/GYN office.  I never had any issues with the place and have heard so many people rave about how much they like the practice.  I only left because the midwife I really like left the practice and I followed her.  But, when it comes to having a baby and relatively short labors, it's not feasible to expect to drive from a NJ suburb to Philadelphia to have a baby.  Not happening.

So back to my appointment.  I gave the nurse practitioner I saw at this visit the rundown on why I'm back.  And I asked her hypothetically, what she would do if I came in and said I had just caught my finger in the car door an hour ago and had washed it out and had the skin that came off placed back over the cut.  She cringed as soon as I mentioned the last part and told me she would have wanted to see it and would probably call in an antibiotic to be safe.  Ding, ding, ding!  We have a right answer.  Then I proceeded to tell her about how the midwife I saw on 12/12 wouldn't look at the injury when I asked her and had assured me that I'd be just fine.  No suggestion that I head to my family doctor or the ER or urgent care or anything like that, just a story about someone she knew who broke some fingers in a car door once.  So I certainly feel like I'm using a practice that will take action if I come in with a concern that isn't necessarily pregnancy related.

Since I was a "new" patient they did an ultrasound to confirm that it was a viable pregnancy.  I got to see our little guy who is always face down.  Perhaps he's trying to find a way out.  I would if I were him.

I asked about the fact that I'm of "advanced maternal age" which has never been addressed at the other practice.  So I know now that it's not considered a huge risk factor but it does mean that we'll have another ultrasound at 30-32 weeks to check on the baby's growth and I'll be doing weekly non-stress tests starting at 36 weeks.  I'm also only about four to six weeks away from the fun glucose test but I won't have to fast for it so that makes me happy, or as happy as I can be when it comes to blood work.  I know a lot of people hate that glucose solution but it doesn't bother me one bit.  I'm more put off by the two rounds of blood work than anything else.

I asked about when I should bring in my birth plan and was told if I want to bring it in at my next visit that works and it will then be around for the four OBs who handle the deliveries to review when I cycle through them for visits.  One of my big concerns was whether or not me wanting to labor in my own clothes would be an issue and I was told it wouldn't be.  I can't tell you how much of a relief that is to me.  My last labor was my most comfortable one and I attribute that to me wearing clothes that I felt were comfortable.  I hate trying to manage a hospital gown.  Being in a hospital is bad enough if you ask me, don't ask me to look like I'm actually one of the patients, too.

Right after I left my pre-natal appointment I headed over to my family doctor for the follow up visit for my finger.  He thinks it looks like it's healing up nicely and suspects it will be feeling and looking a lot better in a few more weeks.  The knuckle is still a bit sore and red, but it looks and feels a thousand times better than it did a few weeks ago.

So that's pretty much where I am at this point.  Oh and I even got two more pictures of the baby.  When I had my anatomy u/s the week before Christmas they only gave me one picture of the baby (and it was a really crummy picture) and told me that he wasn't very photogenic.  So this time I got a picture of his face down head and spine and his leg with a foot!  I get excited when I see the baby's feet on the ultrasound after having many ultrasounds with Ellie where we never saw her feet.  Hooray for baby feet!

Quick Takes with a Dash of {PHFR}

It's been a while since I've done a quick takes post and I think the same is true for {PHFR}.  So I'm going to multi-task a bit.

~1~

Do you ever have moments where you sit back and say to yourself that something is so crazy off the wall that people will think you're making it up?  I don't know what it is about me, but I have so many stranger than fiction moments in my life that are 100% {real} and often very {funny}.  It's stuff I simply file under I can't make this stuff up.  So back in October my aunt passed away.  She lived alone and was a bit of a recluse when it came to interacting with family.   My uncle is handling the estate and is a bit surprised at what he's finding.  Now he lived a few states away from my aunt, but I spent 22 years living a block away from her, so my parents and other relatives who lived near by knew how she lived.  But, even when you know someone, you can still find some surprises.  Can I tell you that I spent quite a while laughing when my mom forwarded me this picture that my uncle sent to her of my aunt's back yard? 

That fine piece of life sized bovine statue was something my aunt picked up at an auction.  If any of you are interested in acquiring this piece for your back yard statue collection drop me an email.  My uncle is looking for a buyer.  I'd like to meet whoever buys it.  

~2~

I've spent who knows how long avoiding the supermarket.  I've gone to Sam's Club and Target but not to the supermarket since October or possibly early November.  I suppose at some point I'm going to have to break down and get to the grocery store.  Anyway, on Monday it was pretty clear that we were sort of running out of food options, so as much as I dislike going to end of season soccer banquets, I was quite happy to fill in for Bryan and go with Ellie so I could have my fill of so-so buffet food that didn't require me to cook or visit the grocery store.  Ellie was  very {happy} to get her soccer trophy.

~3~

I'm 18 weeks along today and I'm feeling {pretty} big even though everyone assures me that I'm not.  Usually I don't have any sort of baby bump until I'm more than half way though a pregnancy.  I already have people coming up to me asking when I'm due.

~4~

I feel so unprepared to have a baby boy.  I've known for nearly a month now that we're expecting a little boy and I just feel like I need to get everything in order NOW.  After three girls I just feel like I have no idea what I'm walking into.  Even selecting a name seems far more difficult.  I am pretty sure we're settled on the baby's name.  

See if you can guess his first name based on the picture above.  I'll be ordering this from Abbey Ceramics for his bedroom soon.

~5~

I'm realizing that my standards for grading Madeline's work for homeschool might be too high.  We submitted her first ever book report to Seton a couple of weeks ago and we got her grade yesterday.  The book report that I told her was probably going to get a C at best came back with a 95 on it!  She's thrilled and I'm starting to realize that perhaps Bryan is right when he says I'm expecting too much.

~6~

I have no idea how the display screen on my camera broke.  I had ordered a replacement screen but I really have no idea if we'll be able to fix it successfully.  Since electronics and small screws are involved I'm just going to leave that to Bryan.  In the meantime I decided to try and reduce my chances of cutting my nose on the broken glass by adding a layer of packing tape.  Yeah, it's about as classy looking as it sounds.  This is the before picture in case you're wondering.

~7~

I think I may have killed our paper shredder this week.  I was working my way through over two years worth of papers that needed to be shredded and this afternoon it made some sounds that make me believe that our shredder has seen the end of it's useable life.  Fighting with the shredder makes me wish we had a fire pit in the back yard or a real fireplace instead of our gas one.

Guess what I've been up to?

I know most of you have probably been wondering why my blog has been a bit a bit quiet over the past  three months.  Part of that is due to us unexpectedly jumping feet first into homeschooling.  My goodness, I never realized just how much time and energy homeschooling could take.  And, those Jesse Tree swaps I hosted also took up a nice chunk of time.  But there's another reason why I've been so quiet.  We're expecting another baby!

I'm presently seventeen weeks along and our little one is due to arrive on May 9th.  Of course, with Katie coming a full week late and Madeline and Ellie arriving two weeks early who knows when this little guy will make his way into our arms.

We went to one of those ultrasound places where they do the gender determinations twice last month.  We went when I was 14 weeks along and it was pretty obvious that we had a little boy on the way.  Talk about a shock!  I already had a name picked out for my new princess and was already digging through hand-me-downs to pull out all the cute 0-3 and 3-6 month spring and summer clothes.  So when we discovered that he wasn't a she I went into hyper nesting mode and started getting everything ready for our little guy.

This past Friday we went back for another gender ultrasound (it was a two visit package) and the baby is still a boy. Oh boy!  So now we have some room shuffling to figure out and we certainly need to decide on a name for this little one who my husband is presently calling Quattro.

Looking Forward to Sleep

Does it not sound insane that I'm looking forward to getting sleep of all things once the baby arrives?  I know babies don't sleep through the night right away, at least most don't.  I do know people who claim to have these mythical babies who have slept 8-10 hour stretches from day one, but I tend to think they're exaggerating tremendously a little.

I'm barely sleeping these days.  During the day things like naps simply don't happen.  The phone rings, the pain in the butt dog barks, and being the type of person who doesn't know how to relax I simply can't just slow down and try to rest.  Most nights I'm able to pass out on the couch for an hour or two before I go to bed.  Last night armed with my new iPhone that is making Bryan quite jealous I was too busy rearranging apps to rest.  I also spent a while folding and hanging all of the baby's new clothes since we got very good confirmation yesterday that we are certainly having another little girl.

I think I got 45 minutes to an hour of sleep on the couch last night before waking up at 1:30 to go to bed.  Once I move upstairs it takes me a little while to actually fall back to sleep.  Since I was annoyed that Bryan left the clean clothes in the laundry room, it took me longer than usual to go back to sleep since I couldn't help yelling at the sleepy guy.  Once I finally fell asleep I woke up about three hours later starving.  Nothing like needing breakfast at 5am.  I spent about 30 minutes trying in vain to ignore that my stomach was gnawing on itself in hopes of me falling back to sleep before I gave up and got out of bed.  So here I am now sitting in my dark dining room trying to quietly occupy myself while the rest of the house sleeps.  Fun!

I'm pretty sure that once the baby arrives I'll be getting a lot more sleep than I do now.  I imagine I'll be able to get several 2-4 hour blocks of sleep throughout the night.   Since I'll be exhausted from taking care of a newborn, falling back to sleep should be easy.  And if I'm wrong, at least I'll have Bryan to commiserate with me over the lack of sleep.  Oh, and I'd rather be sleep deprived with a baby in my arms than overly pregnant and sleep deprived.

The Case for Future Baldness

I'm pretty sure that me going bald sometime in the near future is a real possibility.  If this happens it will most certainly be the result of me ripping my hair out by the handful.

I blogged about how Madeline was hit with an umbrella on the school bus yesterday which resulted in her getting a cut near her eye and a pair of badly bent glasses that are pretty new.  I spoke with the principal about this last night and I was happy to hear that she was not only concerned but was going to address the situation today during school.  It turns out her idea of addressing the issue was to ignore it.  Not the brightest thing she could do when the mom of the injured child is overdue.  I called and left her a message this afternoon and have yet to hear back from her.  She clearly has no idea who she is dealing with.  Perhaps she'll move on this issue if I call the superintendent of the school district.

Ellie came home sick from school again today.  She was fine all day yesterday and this morning so we sent her to school today.  At 11:30 I got a call from the school nurse telling me that Ellie threw up at school again.  I seriously can't catch a break here.  So since she was signed out before 1:20 today she's considered absent.  She also can't go to school tomorrow because she vomited during school today.  So she's managed to log three absences in one 3 1/2 day school week.  Awesome.

I walked around the neighborhood for an hour today trying to get contractions going.  As long as I was walking things were picking up, but as soon as I sat down everything stopped.  I was really hoping to have something going by this afternoon so I could head to the hospital tonight.  The midwife who is on call tonight is totally willing to break my water and make sure I have this baby provided I can show  up at the hospital already having contractions.  Obviously this is easier said than done.

I'm on edge right now.  I'm tired of being pregnant and I'm fed up with all the school BS that I have to deal with right now.  It's all very frustrating.  I'm fairly certain that if we had gone forward with homeschooling that I wouldn't be dealing with a sick kid and I certainly wouldn't be having the issue that we have with the bus incident.

I'm hoping that tomorrow will be a better day.  At the very least it would be nice if it were a little less stressful.

Never Ending Pregnancy Update

I just got back from my appointment with the midwife a little bit ago.  Just as I had suspected, I haven't progressed any more.  So I'm still at 4cm.

The midwife let me know that if I haven't had the baby by next week's appointment that we would have to talk about doing an induction.  I'm hopeful that I will go into labor before my appointment on Wednesday.

Because I'm past my due date, I'll be heading to the hospital on Friday for a a non stress test and a amniotic fluid level check.  I did some searching on Google and I gather that the fluid levels will be checked via ultrasound.  If that's the case then I'm hopeful that I'll get to see the baby and possibly have the technician confirm that I am, in fact, having a girl.  I've been waiting over 20 weeks now to find out if the ultra sound I had in May is right.

I found out which midwives are on call for which days this week which makes me feel better.  It really doesn't matter who delivers the baby, but I like knowing who I should expect to see at the hospital.

Oh, I did find that at this point there are no more membranes to strip.  After having them stripped at the last three appointments there was nothing for her to strip this time around.

I keep referring to this baby as my 10lb baby since she won't come out, but the midwife feels confident that she can't be more than 7lbs 5oz right now.  That's how big Ellie was so we'll just have to wait and see.  I'm betting she'll be a little closer to 8lbs.

40 Weeks 2 Days

If you didn't guess it after reading the title, I'm still pregnant.  I'm actually rather shocked that I have now gone past my due date.  How did this happen?

I'm doing my best to keep busy and trying to stay sane.  Keeping busy is easy enough, but staying sane is the hard part.  For one, I have Madeline driving me crazy.  I received her mid-term grades in my email this morning and went from being incredibly happy to feeling sick.  She currently has all As and an F.  Seriously, an F.  Apparently she bombed a pop quiz in her World Languages class and that is the only recorded grade this teacher has posted on the district's power school site.  If there was a class participation grade or some other quizzes or assignments up there I'm sure she'd have a D or a C, but all we have to go on is one pop quiz and it's an F.  I seriously want to rip out my hair.  Madeline doesn't seem phased by the fact that she's failing the class.  She was more upset that Bryan and I asked her to ask the teacher if there was some sort of extra credit assignment she could do to help raise her grade. (The teachers at the middle school are very big on giving extra credit to help you boost your grades.)  She's scared of the teacher and thinks he's mean so she's very rattled that we told her she needs to ask him how she can pull that F up to an acceptable grade.

I also have a neighbor who thinks nothing of calling my house every 10-15 minutes like a psychotic girlfriend when I don't answer the phone.   She almost never leaves a message.  I assume that most normal people would call once, leave a message if it's important and wait for me to call back.  This person, however, thinks that calling me excessively is the way to go.  I went shopping this morning and when I got home Bryan said she had already called 3 or 4 times.  Then she called another 3 times after I got home.  Calling me excessively makes me not want to answer the phone at all.  I'm tired and quite frankly I don't want to have to field loads of phone calls and IMs these days.

After nearly a month of constant calls, texts and IMs asking me if I've had the baby I really don't feel like communicating with anyone.  Really, would you want to have the same conversation 15 times in a day?  No, the baby's still not here.  No, I really don't know what's taking her so long.  I really have no clue when or if she will be born anytime this month.  And yes, I'm sure my dates aren't off.  Do I really need to tell you why I know I'm not off?  Perhaps you'd like me to fax you a copy of my NFP chart from January.  Oh, and by my calculations, you'll notice that the baby really should have been due on the 8th, not the 9th, thereby making me even more pregnant at this present time.

I have another appointment with the midwife I like the best at this practice this afternoon.  Bryan would like me to ask about being induced, but I'm really not interested.  I'd prefer to get through this labor with no IVs hooked up to me and I'd very much like to avoid those horrid fetal monitors as much as possible. I doubt I'd get to do either of those things while on a pitocin drip.  Last week the midwife mentioned that if I wanted to just be induced they would get it all set up for me, but she cautioned me that I'd have a harder time going without any pain meds.  I'm determined to go completely natural again so I'd like very much to avoid being induced.  Who knows, maybe having my membranes stripped for the fourth time will put me into labor.

I do think it's safe to say that I'm a little grumpy.  I feel like I'm in a holding pattern at the moment.  I have prepared multiple times for the arrival of the baby only to have to repeat the process.  I'm tired of cleaning the house thinking that it will be nice and clean for me when I get home from the hospital only to find it a mess three days later.  Every day I'm washing all of the laundry and putting it away so I can avoid a massive backlog when I get home from the hospital.  Foods I have made for myself because I was craving them are now gone (let's just say I had a lot of help with the pumpkin cheesecake) and I have no motivation to make more only to have others gobble it.  Oh, and I've come to the conclusion that the baby is not going to come when it would be convenient for the rest of us.  We've had several weeks pass by where her arrival would have been perfect timing.  This weekend is a prime example.  It was a weekend with not obligations and the midwife I like was even on call.  It couldn't have been timed better save for the fact that the baby wasn't feeling it.

Completed Nursery

I posted pictures a while back of the nursery, but the room was missing the finishing touches.  Since I had the camera out, I decided to snap a few pictures of the completed room.  All it's missing is the baby.  I hope  we'll have one we can put in there very soon.

The Belly

I've been asked a few times to share a picture of my ever expanding belly and haven't gotten around to it.  Over the past few months there have been a few pictures here and there of me where you can sort of see the bump my stubborn little one currently calls home.  I've never really had many pictures taken of me while I'm pregnant.  It's not that I avoid the camera, but rather that I'm usually the one behind the camera, so I don't get into very many pictures.

Here's a picture Bryan took of me at 37 weeks 4 days:

Here's a picture of me today at 39 weeks 6 days:

Sixteen days certainly make a big difference, wouldn't you agree?  While my shirts are now barely fitting me, my regular pre-pregnancy jeans still fit.  The button is simply held closed with a nice strong elastic hair tie (and has been for months, I should add).  I never would have guessed that I'd be pregnant this long or that my regular pants would fit me the entire pregnancy.  How crazy is that?  The maternity pants I do own are still too loose to stay up.