Baby Blues

I went to the doctor again yesterday and....absolutely no progress at all. She even said that Caroline's head is so far up that she can't even reach up enough to strip my membranes or help things along. She said she tickled as much as she could and hoped it would start moving things along. I guess technically I'm not due till Saturday, so it's not like she's late or anything (yet), but more than likely she'll hold out past Saturday.

There were three other girls that I know of that were due within a week or so of my due date and all three of them have had their babies now...so yes, the baby blues have definitely set in and I'm throwing myself a pity party today! I've hit that point where I'm just so ready to be done that everything is annoying. I've actually been having pretty strong contractions all day today but I'm still just assuming that they're going to stop and go away and not even be effective enough to dilate me anywhere past 1cm. Can you tell I'm being a little pessimistic today :)

The good (I guess) news is that my doc checked her schedule and we did go ahead and schedule an induction for March 1st if she doesn't come before then. I'll be 41 weeks and 3 days then, but since Caroline has been measuring 2-3 weeks behind anyway, the doc didn't see anything wrong with letting me go that long. I go back next Tuesday and I'm hoping I can get her to drop more before then so that they can at least try and strip my membranes and maybe send me into labor before March. I know it sounds silly, but I've been so excited to have a February baby that I'm hoping she'll come before the end of the month...but obviously it's not a big deal if she doesn't, the rest of you just have to put up with my whining and complaining for a couple more weeks :)

And all of this is starting to sound scarily similar to my labor with Charlotte...I went in for my 40 week check up, was at a 1.5 and she hadn't dropped at all, scheduled my induction and the next night we had a thunderstorm and my water broke...there are thunderstorms in the forecast for today and tonight, so I'm crossing my fingers that history repeats itself!!

I do have a lot to keep me busy, I just need to find the energy to get it all done. And that does include downloading the pictures I took Saturday of our family fun day...and while I'm thinking about it, please pray for Timothy, he's started on a new medication and we're having some trouble adjusting to it, hopefully it'll balance out soon!

Update and Random Pictures

I had my 38 week check up yesterday and all went well. I'm still dilated to a 1, no effacing, but she thought Caroline might be starting to move down...my ribs think otherwise, but she's the professional, right? I asked her about the measurements from last week and she took extra care in measuring this week and said it was more like 35 or 36 weeks and they must have measured incorrectly last week. That made me feel MUCH better!! She said Caroline still feels small, but if I go another two or more weeks she should be a perfectly normal size. I'm assuming I'll go late this time as well, it seems like no matter what I do to help speed things along, it's not really doing much so I just have to wait for her to come on her own.

The rest of the family fell victim to the stomach bug last week. It hit Brandon on Tuesday, me on Saturday and all of us except Charlotte had a small case of it on Sunday...not a fun week and weekend around here!! Thankfully, I think we're all over it now and I'm praying it stays far FAR away from our house for a VERY long time!!

I know these pictures have nothing to do with the rest of the post, but that's life lately! The kids are obsessed with iPods right now and I have to say, at times, they are real lifesavers! The last picture is from Friday, the kids had an early dentist appointment and we had some time to kill before I had to take Timothy to school, so we went to Krispy Kreme for breakfast! Enjoy!

Baby Update

Lots of fun stuff going on over here...Saturday night, Brandon and I went out to dinner to celebrate closing on our house and to enjoy what is probably our last night out before Caroline is here. It was so much fun to spend time together and I know the kids had a blast playing with Aunt Heather and Uncle Kevin and Tyler...we got home and put the kids to bed and I was exhausted...and then the contractions started and didn't stop for a good 5 hours...I was seriously considering going to the hospital, but they finally stopped. At some point during the night, I heard Charlotte cough a little bit, but didn't think anything of it...but when Brandon went in to get her up Sunday morning, she had thrown up all in her crib, poor girl, I can't believe she didn't cry or anything! So he stayed home with her and I got Timothy out of there so we could (hopefully) avoid the germs. Charlotte was fine by Sunday night and has been back to her normal, fussy, prissy, girly little self since then. It hit Brandon yesterday and he spent the day in bed and the kids and I spent the day out of the house avoiding the germs. So far, Timothy and I have been safe, but we'll give it a few more days before I'm sure! I'm really not feeling great tonight, but who knows what that could be from!

Monday I had my 37 week check up. I was dilated to 1cm, but not effaced and she hasn't dropped at all. I figured some progress is better than nothing, so I wasn't too upset. The thing that worried me most was the doc said she's measuring really small (like closer to 30 weeks), but she didn't seem concerned so I'm trying to not worry! I got back again Monday, and I'm thinking we're making even more progress because the contractions are really picking up this week and (TMI WARNING) I think I'm starting to lose my mucus plug, so I'm hoping that means we're getting closer to delivery. I've been trying to rock on my exercise ball as much as I can hoping that will help her move into the right spot but it usually makes the contractions worse so I can't do it for too long without being in too much pain!

I feel like we have so much to do before she gets here, but at the same time, I'm also just thinking it would make things a little easier to just get it over with and then I might not have so much stress! I do need to clean up her bassinet though and get a fresh coat of paint on there, that's the priority for this weekend!!

So that's our life in a nutshell right now...I'm living for Mondays when I get to see my doctor and see how much closer we are to baby time, while at the same time stressing about what else needs to get done around here. It's lots of fun, trust me...

New Look

I thought I would update the background on here and make it a little more girly since we're about to welcome a new little girl to our home!!

I went to the doctor for my check up last week and she went ahead and checked me because I had been having some cramps, but no progress yet, she's still up really high and my cervix is firmly closed shut!! I went back today and didn't even bother having them check, I go back again on Monday and then every Monday after that until she's here! We will technically be full term (37 weeks) on Saturday and my mom will be back in town Monday, so anytime after that is fine with me. I think it would be sweet to have her on Valentine's Day, how fun would it be to be a little girl and have your birthday on a day filled with hearts and candy and lots and lots of pink!!

We had a little bit of drama with our house yesterday that has been resolved, thank goodness!! I was hoping the stress from that would jump start some contractions, but no such luck. Now we get to look forward to painting and buying the last few baby items that we need to have.

No new pictures, my camera battery is dead and I'm lazy and haven't charged it, but Timothy starts his new classes at the YMCA this week so I'm sure I'll get some shots of him then!

Finally Pictures!!

Brandon finally found and downloaded the software for our camera on the new computer so I'm trying to catch up on pictures from the last month. These are mostly from Christmas, but the last few are from life after Christmas...crazy to think it hasn't even been a month since Christmas, it seems like it's been so much longer...probably because the days are going by very very slowly for me, wonder why? :)

All of the stockings were hung in a row...from left to right, Heather and Kevin, Stefan and Stacia, Lindsay and Brandon, Brittany and Mike, Tyler, Hadley, Timothy, Linden, Channing, Charlotte, and Gibson...can't wait to see Caroline's up there next year!!


I tried to get a shot of the kids in front of the presents on Christmas Eve, but this was the best I could do...it seemed like there were so many presents, but I guess when you consider it was for 12 people (yes, Caroline got a couple gifts this year already!!), it doesn't seem as crazy, right?

This was the best shot I got of them together...such cuties!

Working on their Christmas cookies

Charlotte just wanted us to put a plain cookie on her plate and then drizzle a bunch of icing and a few piles of sprinkles and she just ate it all like that, she wasn't really into the decorating part...

Leaving reindeer food in the front yard, we had just finished saying, "don't dump it all in one place" when I saw Timothy had just dumped all of his out in one place...oh well!

Playing cards after the little kids went to bed...I don't remember what game they were playing, but it looked like they were having fun! We did have the world's longest UNO game before this one, it seriously took FOREVER!!

Timothy's gifts from Santa, a big boy scooter and a Buzz Lightyear Helmet and pads...and he's wearing his Transformers sunglasses with it all, pretty cool guy, huh?

Charlotte's toys from Santa, a baby doll bed and highchair, a new Disney princess Barbie and some dollhouse accessories.

The new racetrack, they both love it!

Charlotte playing with her shopping cart and Bitty Baby

Putting together Timothy's new favorite game, I think we all got to play!

Post-Christmas, in our new house, all dressed up, she comes down from her room almost every day in a princess dress with all of her necklaces and bracelets on...I love having a daughter!!

And Timothy doesn't miss out on the dress up play either, he found his boots and Brandon's cowboy hat and a day doesn't go by that he doesn't wear either the soccer jerseys that my dad brings him from all of his international travels or his Sonics or Celtics basketball jerseys...the other day he had on the Sonics jersey, a soccer jersey, and a t-shirt on top of it all...

This "minion" came with our Despicable Me dvd and Charlotte has decided it's name is "Friend". She takes him everywhere, this was her singing to Friend and rocking him after she read him her Ariel book.

Timothy being Timothy...gotta love that boy (and note the Sonics jersey)!

And Charlotte being Charlotte...all dressed up and playing with her dollhouse!

Bedtime

See? Two posts in one day, I am a woman of my word :)

So anyone that has had the privilege of being around my children for very long has gotten to see Charlotte yelling at her brother. I know, you're thinking there's no way that sweet little girl would yell at anyone, but believe, she is such a little Miss Bossy!

So tonight, they're both in their beds and Brandon and I are sitting downstairs listening to the monitors. Timothy starts to yell about something and we immediately hear this on Charlotte's monitor (which interrupted her nightly singing, another tradition):

Timothy! Be quiet! Stop yelling! It's time to go to sleep and not have chocolate milk! Stop yelling and be quiet, OK?

And then she went back to her nightly singing...I promise you, this girl sings in her sleep. Every night before she goes to bed, she sings for quite a while and it almost always includes "Twinkle Twinkle", "Nite Nite Charlotte", "Jesus Loves Me", "God is So Good", and sometimes she throws in "Wheels on the Bus" just for fun. She will seriously just start randomly singing in the middle of the night, usually followed by some mumbling and a few "OK?"'s, she's a funny girl. And she does love her brother, she just also happens to love yelling at him, it's a constant battle around here :)

Bad Blogger

Holy moly I've been a bad blogger lately...to be fair, our old laptop finally crashed and we had to order a new one (which still doesn't have our camera software on it yet, so I haven't been able to download pictures), then it was Christmas, then we were packing up all the stuff we had at my parent's house and on New Year's Day we moved into our new house...since then we've been crazy busy unpacking and setting things up and waiting (as patiently as possible) to hear when our actual closing date will be so that we can paint and finish up the kids' rooms before Caroline makes her grand entrance into the world!! So, yeah, I've been busy :) Here's a quick re-cap and then I promise I will *try* to do a better job of blogging, at least until I have this baby and then I'm sure I'll regress to being a bad blogger again...sorry...

Christmas - our family was so spoiled this year, every single one of us, it was a great Christmas, all the family was together, none of us (except Timothy) slept on Christmas Eve, we all opened presents together Christmas morning and then had a yummy lunch and basically laid around all day being lazy, it was perfect! The kids have played with their presents almost every day since then and certainly use mine (a new iPod touch!!!!) every day. Brandon got a new golf bag and a new driver, so he hasn't had a chance to use it yet, but I think he liked it.

New House - we are all moved in and I've unpacked everything (except the mysterious box that we can't find that has the rest of my fine china and tablecloths in it). The kids' rooms are all set up and ready to be painted, and as soon as get our new washing machine (since ours conveniently broke), I can get all of Charlotte's old clothes and blankets and things washed and put away for Caroline. We're hoping to hear this week when we'll be closing on the house, and the owner's have asked that we wait and paint after we close...this has really been the house buying experience from you know where. In short, never buy a DOD HAP house that's for sale, no matter how good a deal it may seem, if you want more details, let me know. Thankfully though, the owner's agreed to let us move in and pay rent for this month at a ridiculously low rental amount so at least we're in and unpacked in the event that baby comes early.

Kids - Timothy started back to school on the 5th and thankfully has gotten right back into a routine. He's adjusting well to the new house, he just doesn't like to go anywhere by himself in it yet, so we're spending a lot of time together going up and down the stairs, to the bathroom, etc. Hopefully he'll get used to it all soon and feel more comfortable. Charlotte loves "this house" and told me when we were moving in that it was "really really fun" which sounded hilarious since she can't pronounce her r's or l's very well yet and they all come out sounding like w's (I'll let you figure that one out on your own)...she loves the new toy room and her princess room. She was very happy to re-discover all of her dress up clothes and spends most of her days in her purple princess dress with her "Tinkerbell wings" on her back. Caroline is still growing well and right on schedule. I was a little discouraged to hear at my last check up that I was measuring about a week or so behind my due date, but I know she'll come when she's ready. I did have a little scare yesterday, I had slipped down a few stairs trying to get the kids out and in the car to take Timothy to school yesterday morning, I mainly fell on my foot, and it's really sore today...but by last night I was having some stronger than normal contractions and back ache so I finally gave in a called the nurses line and they had me come up to the hospital just to check things out. I think I was only there for a little over an hour, and everything was fine. I only had one contraction while I was there and Caroline was doing fine, so thankfully they sent me home without doing anything more. Always a fun time around here :)

So, coming up this month, we'll be painting the kids' rooms and whatever else we can get painted before my due date, we have to hang some new blinds and basically do a lot of that kind of stuff around the house...Timothy has a lot going on with school, and other than that, we're in full "get ready for new baby" mode over here! I have a normal check up next week and then weekly after that, so I'll try to keep the updates coming on here, or at least on facebook...so Happy New Year bloggers, you can expect lots of baby pictures this year from our family!