37 weeks

I am now 37 weeks and 1 day! I had my 37 week appointment today and it was quick and uneventful unlike my 36 week appointment on Thursday!
I knew my appointment on Thursday was going to be long. I was seeing my regular doctor, whom I love, but she is ALWAYS running behind. So I dropped the girls off with Clara and headed to the doctor armed with Christmas cards to stuff and address. I got to the doctor and my blood pressure was 137/83 which isn't horrible but was quite a bit higher than it had been so I wasn't pleased with that. However, today when I went it was 125/80...I'll take that!
Anyway, back to Thursday's appointment. I spent the next 45 minutes waiting to see the doctor. When I finally got back to see her she had trouble getting a good heartbeat for the baby.  You could hear it but because of the angle the baby was laying at she couldn't get a good number. So she decided to do an ultrasound to get a better heart rate and to check the fluid level. So then I waited about 15 more minutes for an ultrasound. Baby looked GREAT on the ultrasound. Baby is head down, heart rate was 159, fluid levels looked perfect, and they estimated baby to be 6lb 5oz. As my friend Kristi said, that's a legit baby!
One of the reasons the doctor wanted to check the fluid level was because baby wasn't moving as much for me (probably because baby is now head down and so is no longer turning cartwheels!) and when the doctor was trying to get the heartbeat she tried to get the baby to move and it wasn't budging! This baby apparently has a sense of humor...as soon as the ultrasound tech started the ultrasound, baby was moving all over the place!
So I left the appointment an hour and a half after it started but I was armed with a few new pictures of baby (and all my Christmas cards stuffed)! (Today I was in the car 20 minutes after my appointment time, headed to pick up the girls...glad it was much shorter today!)

Baby was being a bit camera shy but finally moved it's hand to show us a little nose :)

A little foot...kicking me in the diaphragm...or maybe the stomach...I've been having a lot of reflux.

 

6 Years!

This weekend we celebrated Emmie's 4th Birthday and we were consumed with it all weekend (had to get the birthday celebration in early so we didn't have a baby before her party!). In the midst of all the birthday partying though we also had another celebration.
Today is our 6th wedding anniversary!
Paul and I celebrated our anniversary on Monday with dinner at the Melting Pot and it was so nice to have a night out. We had also gone to a movie together the week before while my parents watched the girls. We had 2 dates within a week...amazing!
I don't think that I ever imagined that on our 6th anniversary we would have a sweet little furbaby, 2 beautiful little girls and be waiting on the arrival of our third baby...it's crazy how fast things change in our lives! I am so blessed to have married a wonderful man who is not only a great husband but a wonderful daddy to our little girls!
Happy Anniversary Paul!

Oh Ellie Belly!

I'm pretty sure Ellie is trying to send me into labor. Tonight the girls were upstairs playing and Emmie came and got me and said that Ellie had locked herself behind the door. No biggie...all our interior doors have the little round keyhole and we have about 10 of the "keys" you use to unlock them. Oh...except for this door. Apparently it's the only interior door in our house with an actual key lock on the door so of course that's the one she decides to barricade herself behind. Also I'm pretty sure we've never had a key to open that door. 

After trying to convince her to unlock the door (apparently she hasn't quite grasped that concept yet) I figured I'd unscrew the door from the hinges except the screws were on Ellie's side of the door. So then I was able to knock the big screws out of the hinge (a helpful tip from Paul) but then one of the hinges was jammed so I couldn't get the door off that way. Thankfully our next door neighbor Leon was home and managed to bust her out in about 3 seconds with a table knife....perhaps I should have started the whole process with calling Leon!

I'm sure you're curious as to how Ellie fared through this whole ordeal. Oh she was just fine. She was busy playing with all the toys by herself (probably her motivation for locking the door to begin with). By the time Leon got there she was starting to get a little irritable and she was glad to get out for sure! (Emmie on the other hand was hysterical...I'm pretty sure she thought her sister was gone forever.)

36 Weeks

I'm 36 weeks and 1 day...and feeling it! I have the pregnancy waddle down to an art and I can't lean over to pick things up anymore and I know that it has to be entertaining to watch me put on my socks and shoes. Also I'm to the point where even my maternity clothes don't really fit anymore. I keep having to go get bigger sizes (so if anyone has some large maternity shirts I can borrow for a few weeks my wallet would be very grateful!).

I actually still feel halfway decent. I have some back pain and wake up many nights with horrible reflux but I have a decent amount of energy still. 

At 34 1/2 weeks I developed a pinched nerve in my right shoulder/arm and was in horrible pain for almost a week. My whole back was a big knot and my whole body hurt and it was the deep bone pain hurt. It was pretty awful. I got in the car after barely making it through wal-mart one day and just cried I hurt so bad. Fortunately the pinched nerve got better and I'm back to just normal pregnancy aches and pains now.

I go to the doctor on Thursday but I think the baby might be head down now based on where I'm feeling kicks so that's good :)

This baby has been very active since about 15 weeks and the baby still moves a lot but baby is definitely starting to run out of room. This baby cut flips for many months and is definitely not flipping anymore. Baby still moves a lot but the movements are more contained to one location at a time!

As of my 34 week appointment I've gained almost 30 lb. I gained 35 with Emmie and 40 with Ellie so I'll probably be right around there again. 

I don't really have any consistent cravings...they change every few days or weeks. Right now I'm craving Frosty's, pineapple, applesauce, and chocolate pudding (which is probably the only craving I've had the whole pregnancy).

I think I've got all the basics ready for the baby. Things are washed, crib is set up (although Paul is going to switch out the cribs for me and we're going to keep the one Emmie used and sell Ellie's so if you know anyone who's looking send them my way!), baby has diapers, and the carseat is out of the attic and just needs to go in the car but by baby #3 we're pros at carseats so that can be done closer to my due date. I do still need to pack a hospital bag but I always wait until the last minute to do that!

I'm due December 29th and the general consensus is that I won't make it that long! This baby has strict instructions that it cannot come until after the 20th because that is Emmie's Christmas program at school. Ideally baby will wait until after Christmas but I'm not so sure that will happen! I was induced at 39 weeks with Emmie because of high blood pressure and had high blood pressure with Ellie at the end but so far my blood pressure is hanging out in my normal range and has even been at the lower end of my normal blood pressure! 

I think the little girls are very ready to meet their brother or sister...even Ellie seems to be ready for baby! Franklin on the other hand is not so sure he's ready for a new baby..it's a lot of responsibility for a little pup

Happy Birthday Papa!

Yesterday was Paul's dad's birthday but Tuesday is our super crazy day so I was unable to get a video made so we're putting up Papa's birthday post a day late!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAPA!

 



SNOW!

We came downstairs tonight and there was SNOW! There wasn't much snow but there is a little dusting on the top of our grill. When you live in Columbia this little bit of snow is quite exciting especially since it might be the only snow we get all winter.
I'm quite glad that I don't have to go anywhere tomorrow AND there's some apple cider in my fridge and Trader Joe's pumpkin pancake mix in my cabinet...yumm!

Please give it back God!

Emmie had chapel at school on Thursday and when she got in the car after school she told me that we can't hear God but he can hear us and we can talk to Him. We talked about this for a few minutes and then carried on with our day.

That afternoon the girls had been playing outside and left their shoes so I sent Emmie out to collect them. She had been out there for awhile and I went to check on her. As I got close to the door I could hear her talking quite loudly and when I opened the door she was saying "give it back! Please give it back!" And sounded quite distressed. Now normally I would have thought she was talking to Franklin but he was inside so I asked her who she was talking to and this was her answer: "I'm asking God to give back Ellie's shoe! I've looked all over and can't find it! (Looks up at the sky) Please God, give it back!!"

I was quite amused at this point so I went out looked around and spied Ellie's shoe across the yard. I pointed it out to Emmie and as I was going back in I heard her say (in a very relieved voice) "Thank you God. Ellie really needed that shoe!".

Now I wonder if this strategy will work on laundry day when I put 2 socks in the dryer and only get 1 back? Please God, give it back!