The time is near!

We are now down to the final stretch as we await the birth of our new baby! We are all ready with everything we need so now we just wait. My body is making some slow but sure progress as it has done with the two previous births, and we are hoping for a quick labor and delivery as we had with the second child. I believe he will be born around his expected arrival date of April 28, but as I tell my daughters, babies come when they are ready so we will just wait!

In the meantime I seem to be growing larger every day and people are starting to shake their heads at me and say things like, "Bless your heart." Actually, nothing hurts and it's not hot here so I'm just fine! I'm enjoying these last few days while my whole family looks forward to meeting the new little one.

Good doctor's visit today

I went to the doctor this morning for my now-weekly visit and am happy to report that the baby and I are doing wonderful, we were in and out of there in one hour, and I wasn't harrassed much about my Medicaid application!

I'm dilated "a stretchy 2," according to the doctor, up from between 1 and 2 cm last Monday, and I'm 80 percent effaced. Nothing else has happened so I'm sure I'm doing the same thing I did the previous two times, just getting all ready for the due date. I hope that's what happens, since I'm rather busy up until the last weekend of this month, and I am thoroughly enjoying these last few days free from breastfeeding, diaper changing, and being on 24-hour mom duty!

They did ask about my Medicaid application and just shook their heads at DHS when I reported that the application is still pending but they said they'd see if they could put a rush on it.

Best of all, I got there at 11 a.m. and left at noon!

A bad mom and proud of it

I was a bad mom today but I still have my sanity and I'm proud of it!

My kids got out of school an hour early today for parent-teacher conferences. Of course they were rather rowdy and it was raining outside, so I couldn't send them out to play. I had plan B ... let them watch television. That they did, to the tune of FOUR movies!

First they watched an animal show on VHS, then they watched Babar on VHS.

After that we watched an old movie on TV. (Does it count as parent-child time that I was in the living room with them working on my laptop and watching the movie with them?) It was called "Showboat," a 1951 movie based on the 1928 Jerome Kern musical, about life on a Mississippi River showboat.

They also watched an old Kurt Russell movie (he looked 20) with their dad.

Normally they don't watch near that much TV in the run of a day so this was really unusual for them. But they were nice and quiet and I didn't have to threaten to do bodily harm to anyone and I had peace all afternoon long.

So maybe I was a bad mom for letting them watch that much TV, but I think I'm better person (or at least still sane) for it!

All morning at the doctor!

The girls and I spent all the morning long at the doctor's office today. It was actually two doctor's offices, as I had to take one of the girls in to see about an eye problem and then I had my regular prenatal checkup. The whole thing lasted from 9 a.m. to noon today, with much of that time spent just waiting.

My older daughter started complaining about something being in her eye yesterday afternoon, and it got really red and irritated. She didn't get much sleep last night because of it, which of course means no one else got much sleep either. (Except her sister.) Her dad wanted me to take her to the doctor this morning, so I got her an appointment at 9 a.m., right before my prenatal checkup at 10 a.m.

We got her to the doctor, and they looked at it and put some stuff in it that made her eye glow in the dark. They didn't see any foreign material but they did see a scratch. Evidently what happened was something got in her eye and scratched it. We're supposed to put medicine in it and cover it with an eye bandage until tomorrow morning, and the doctor wants to see her back in the morning.

We got out of there in record time, in time to get to my doctor's office in time for my 10 a.m. appointment. We sat out in the waiting room for over an hour, and then in the exam room for at least 15 minutes before I was seen. Of course it only took one minute for the doctor to examine me after we'd waited for so long.

The exam revealed that I'm dilated between 1 and 2, which is typical for me. I started dilating four weeks before both of my other children were born. My blood pressure is excellent and the baby's heart rate is wonderful. I won't mention anything about my weight gain but it is right in line with what I weighed two weeks from delivery with my other two children!

We went back out to the waiting room to wait for another appointment, and it was noon before we left. We were there for two hours for a one-minute exam. Goodness.

How's that for an adventurous morning?

This is rather interesting!

My five-year-old daughter was counting the letters in her first name (there's five of them) yesterday and so the seven-year-old child decided to count the letters in her name. She actually already knew that there are seven letters in her first name, but she made the interesting discovery that EACH of her names has seven letters! Wild! She thought it was pretty cool that she discovered that she has seven letters in each of her names when she was seven years old.

Incidentally, the five-year-old daughter and I each have five letters each in our first names, eight letters each in our middle names, and then her last name is the same as my married name so we each have seven letters in that name too.

What makes this TOTALLY weird is that our son is going to have seven letters in each of his names. We realized that last night when we were relating the story of the kid with the seven letters in each of her names last night to some friends. We couldn't believe it.

Now my sister and her husband's two children together have five letters in each of their three names, but they did that on purpose. Ours was all a complete accident!

Less than a month to go!

We have now about a month or less before our little boy arrives. The excitement is building for everyone in our family.

We've gotten a lot of nice things for the baby and now a couple of drawers are full of little blankets, sleepers, tiny t-shirts, washcloths, and stuff like that for a sweet little boy.

This month is going to be a busy one as we carry on with all our activities and wait for the baby to come!

Baby gifts

With the birth of our third child and first son drawing closer, we're receiving a lot of nice baby gifts. We had a baby shower this past weekend and got a lot of things like onesie t-shirts, blankets, clothing, and diapers, all things we really needed!

We also got a couple of beautiful hand-crocheted afghans for him in the last couple of days. My grandmother (who died this past weekend) made a yellow and green one and my sister made a gorgeous blue striped one. My mother is working on a couple of quilts for him and she made him a blanket with some fleece my aunt bought for him and using my grandmother's sewing machine.

Now we just need a little boy to wear all the cute clothes and use the beautiful afghans!

Homework in pre-k

My five-year-old pre-kindergarten daughter came home with homework yesterday!

It was actually practice work but I thought it was funny her teacher sent work home, along with reward stickers to go with it!

My daughter had a blast doing her work, which was practice writing her name. She does a great job with that but she could use some more practice with the whole writing on the line thing!

Countdown to baby time!

We are all counting down the time left until our new little one enters our lives ... six weeks now!

We're collecting supplies for the home birth we're planning while trying to be prepared for the hospital in case we have to go, and I'm cleaning up around the house a little at a time. Very slowly we're getting things for the little man to wear and I'm thinking of a few other things we need (a sling, a boppy pillow) and others have things they won't need anymore (a swing, a car seat) to hand on to us.

A baby shower is being planned by one of my friends for next weekend so that is exciting for us.

We've already got a name picked out, although we aren't telling anyone what it is until he's actually born. The girls really want to know what it is but if we want to keep it a surprise we most certainly can't tell them. We've assured them that they will be the first to know what it is as soon as he gets here and then they can tell the whole world!

We aren't preparing a nursery as we've never done that and don't see the need when he's just going to be sleeping with us for the next several months and maybe even the next few years. I'm just figuring out where we'll put his clothing and other things and making sure all the sheets are clean for whatever bed we end up using!

I'm trying to get quite a bit of work done this month so that next month I can focus on more preparations and then the month or so after his birth I can focus on him and the girls. I'll still have some regular assignments but I'd like to have other things out of the way.

Hopefully six more weeks will pass quickly for us as have the previous 34! I'm not so sure about the girls but I'm fairly certain the weeks will pass quickly for me.

An attitude adjustment

With my blossoming belly has come quite a change in attitude about my pregnancy.

At first I was rather upset about the whole thing, having decided that our family had a good balance with two children and having grown quite used to having "big girls" who can do a lot for themselves. Finding out another one on the way meant I had to again give up my body for several months (years actually, counting the pregnancy and breastfeeding) and all of me for many more years to come.

I'd walk by the mirror and observe my growing belly and just shake my head as if to say, "What have you gotten yourself into?"

Along with that was the feeling that although at 36 I'm quite young, that's still a little old in my book to be starting all over with another baby.

But as my belly continued to grow and could no longer be hidden by what I wore, I began to accept and enjoy what was going on inside me and to look forward to the changes in store for our family. Now I look in the mirror and say, "You're beautiful. This is a beautiful thing happening to you."

Now I view it entirely as a blessing and that I'm up to it (might as well be, right?) and that we are all going to be better off for it. I'm actually glad it happened because the girls have gotten so much enjoyment out of seeing my belly grow and from looking forward to the birth of their little brother. That right now makes it all worth it.

As for myself, I know having another child will be a delight. Although the challenges we are facing will be great (we have to learn how to deal with babies all over again and we'll have to adjust to the dynamics of having another person in the house) I believe this child will make us wonder how we ever lived without him.

A father's pride

As we make preparations for the little boy that will be entering our lives soon, we are having fun telling people that it is indeed a little boy. No one is more surprised than we are, the parents of two precious girls.

It's rather annoying when people respond, "Oh, I bet Daddy's so proud." Yes he is, but this comment rubs me rather the wrong way, like he's not proud of our two beautiful daughters or like the prospect of having a son is more exciting for a father than that of having a daughter.

Nothing could be further from the truth. He couldn't be more proud of our little girls and has actually wondered what he should do with a son. (I've told him it shouldn't be any different than what he does with the girls, which is everything. "Bench press him and teach him how to cook," I say. He lays on the floor and picks the girls up like he would a weight, bench press fashion.)

I realize the comments are well-intended, not mean-spirited, so I try not to make a mean-spirited response. My children's father is delighted to have another child, boy or girl, and is proud of all his children.

It's a ... (think blue here)

The specialist who did our second ultrasound really surprised us all when he said to our daughters, "Are you girls ready for a baby brother?"

"Oh, we want a sister," they both politely informed him.

"Well, it's a boy. There are definite boy parts here," he replied. He then proceeded to circle the "parts" on the screen and take a photograph. He gave the photo to us along with several others taken of our little man. They all showed a beautiful and healthy child.

It's probably going to take a while for all of us to get used to the idea of the baby being a boy and for the girls to get over their slight disappointment, but I'm sure there'll be nothing but excitement soon!

Back to school!

The girls went back to school today after having a couple of weeks out. We had loads of fun visiting family and doing things together here at home. They watched movies and played during the times that I worked while they were out of school.

I wasn't quite ready for them to go back to school this morning but I didn't let on since things were going rather smoothly, especially for people who've slept late and enjoyed generally leisurely lives for two weeks!

I remembered to pick them up from school today (got out of the habit of that during their vacation) and then hauled them around on errands for a couple of hours. Poor dears, but they handled it very well and were treated to a trip to Wendy's -- inside, no less -- before we came home.

It was a full day for the first day back to school, and they're back at it tomorrow. At least they only have two more days to this week.

Doctor's visit

The checkup at the doctor's office earlier this week went well and it turns out that we may find out the gender of the baby fairly soon!

The girls went with me and were really excited to hear the baby's heartbeat.

Since I'm over 35, my doctor's office is going to send me to another doctor's office for a more advanced ultrasound designed to detect problems more likely to crop up when a woman my age is pregnant. I have already made up my mind not to allow any invasive testing and really not to accept anything just because I'm told I need to do it because of my age, but the nurse practitioner assured me that it's just an ultrasound, and besides, the gender of the baby will probably show up on this one.

We had an ultrasound when I was 18 weeks pregnant but the little one, for the first time in his or her life, refused to move and reveal any telling information. I wasn't disappointed not to discover the gender, especially since the doctor could see how healthy the baby is. (So there!) I was thinking that we may have another ultrasound later on in the pregnancy, but as it turns out it may be sooner than later.

My doctor's office will make an appointment (and clear all the paperwork) with the other doctor's office and let me know when to show up. So for now we just keep waiting ... and growing!

Another tooth gone!

My daughter lost her second tooth tonight, the second tooth she's lost in three days!

She didn't snatch this one out herself like she did the one night before last. She said she wanted it to "fall out naturally." (Good grief.)

Her dad got after her with a string and that didn't work so finally he grabbed it, saying he was going to count to three and snatched it out on the count of one. She stood there and looked at it until I started cracking up (the whole scene really was funny) and then she started bawling.

She recovered from the whole thing quickly, and proceeded to go around the house flashing grins at everyone.

First tooth gone!

My seven-year-old daughter lost her first tooth tonight! Good thing too, because I was getting tired of being ordered to look into her mouth to watch her wiggle a barely-moving tooth.

She was just sitting there while we were practicing our ASL together after our family Bible study and snatched it out. I actually heard it come out.

Now she has another loose one right beside it!

She was really wanting to lose some teeth. Most of the kids her age have a mouthful (or several) permanent teeth and she has all baby teeth. She was 12 months before she cut this tooth that came out tonight or any of her teeth, so we expected the teeth to be "late" coming out.

Now we'll see how long it takes for this next loose one to come out.

Little seamstresses

My daughters made this quilt and pillow this evening with my mom! Neither one of them have ever sewn anything before.

My seven-year-old daughter grabbed these squares and a needle and thread and started sewing them together. She had NO HELP with the exception of me threading her needle. After she had handsewn all the squares together, she sewed them together on the machine with my mom only operating the foot pedal. My daughter did most of the work on the backing and the binding too.

My five-year-old daughter handsewed the three sides of the little pillow then turned it, poked the corners out, stuffed it, and sewed it closed on the machine with my mom just operating the foot pedal.

My mom and I thought this was pretty good work for two little people who've never sewn anything before!

Ultrasound today!

We had the ultrasound today. It's a ...

BEAUTIFUL HEALTHY BABY that wouldn't cooperate so we could determine the gender!

Everything looked great and saw every body part except the telltale part we were looking for. We got a great look at the nice big round head (like daddy), along with the beating heart, spine, hands, legs, and feet. That little baby just wanted to lay face down with its legs curled up underneath it!

Afterward someone told my husband I should have had coffee or some chocolate before we went in for the ultrasound to get the baby hyped up. Normally I do have coffee first thing but the appointment was so early I didn't have time to make any!

I'm 20 weeks tomorrow according to my LMP but the ultrasound has me at almost 21 weeks. I think it's because this is going to be a BIG BABY! My two other children were a few ounces over eight pounds as well.

The next doctor's visit is Dec. 27 for a regular checkup, so maybe they'll tell me then when they can do another ultrasound. This office may like to wait until later in the pregnancy to do the second one.

My children were so excited to find out what the baby is but they weren't very disappointed that we weren't able to find out. We did go around telling everyone we were going to find out today, so it'll be funny to have to tell them we couldn't make it out.

We have a lot of people wanting us to have a boy -- and wanting us to want a boy, but we honestly do not care -- so they'll have to wait a bit longer to find out.

Got my ring back!

Good news ... I got my wedding ring back this evening! I dropped it (actually it was my engagement ring) Sunday afternoon in the car, and it got stuck up under the metal track under the seat that lets you move the seat back and forth. My husband and I tried to no avail to retrieve it by poking our fingers in every imaginable spot under the seat. Finally he decided he'd have to take the seat out.

This evening after work he got started on the project. First he went to the store and bought two vacuum cleaners (I would find out why he needed those later) and went out to the garage with his lovely little helpers. A little while passed, and the next time I went out there (laundry room's out there, too, and of course there is always much to be done there) he presented the ring to me. This time he did not have as much of a smitten look on his face as he did 10½ years ago when he gave it to me the first time, and he made sure to tell me getting to it required a lot of work! I was just elated to have my precious ring back.

The vacuum cleaners came next. Actually one was for the carpet inside the house and one of my daughters and I tried it other. The other was a shop vacuum for the purpose of shampooing the carpeting in the car. What's the point of taking a seat out of the car if you don't shampoo the interior while you're at it?

Now I've got a clean car AND my beautiful antique white gold wedding set intact on my left ring finger! Hooray!

Wedding ring gone!

I've lost my wedding ring!

Well, actually it's my engagement ring and I actually do know where it is but it's firmly stuck under the seat of the car!

I took my rings off in the car yesterday to get the hair grease (from fixing the girls' hair) from around my ring finger. I dropped my engagement ring in between the seat and that thing where you put your stuff in between the two front seats.

I could see it but the more I tried to get it the further it went down. Finally it got wedged under the track that allows you to move the seat back and forth.

My husband and I both tried to find it but we can't. Looks like we're (he, that is) is going to have to take the seat out to get to it.

It's so aggravating because I haven't been able to wear these beautiful rings in about five years because of the weight gain from my second daughter. I've been wearing just a plain band that I call my "fake wedding ring." I finally got them resized for our 10th anniversary in August and now I loose one.

For the time being my "fake wedding ring" is back on my left hand. I hope it won't be too long before we can get the seat taken out so I can get my beautiful ring back where it belongs.