39 Weeks... Nothing New to Report

Back from my 39 week checkup and despite having what I thought was lots of progress this week, apparently nothing has changed.  Oh well!  Here is the latest belly pic... I am going to topple over soon!  But on the bright side, Ethan is getting plenty of time to work on his breathing and swallowing.  And my blood pressure is great.  Now I just need to walk, and walk, and walk and hope things get started!!

38 Weeks... Nothing Changed

Just had my 38 week drs appointment and nothing has changed she said.  His head is still down, but I'm not dilated anymore than I was last week.  But I did lose a pound, so that's always nice to hear!!  I was surprised I wasn't dilated more after all the pressure he's been putting on me this past week.  Oh well! 

Trey Growing Up

My little boy is growing up so fast!  I realized that after Ethan is born, I might be writing alot about him at first so this is a good time for a Trey update.  I don't know how many people actually read this, but I write them mostly because I'm so bad about keeping his baby book up-to-date.  Atleast I can always go back to my blog and print it out;-)

Trey LOVES his etch-a-sketch.  It's not even a nice one... just a mini $2 one I picked up at Target one day to keep in the car for trips.  But he loves it!  Well this morning he drew a bunch of circles for the first time ever!  So far all his drawing has been scribbling.  I was very proud of him... wish I could save it!

Trey has also been learning colors, shapes, 123, ABC.  He can recognize green and blue alot of times, but not always.  He can recognize numbers, but doesn't know what to call them.  He recognizes all letters, but the only one he can identify are A, B, and C so far.  Speaking of "ABC", I hear this phrase ALL DAY LONG.  He follows me around with his Etch-a-sketch or crayons and paper and says, "ABC, Mama, ABC!" over and over again until I draw it for him.  Then he scribbles for a minute, then it's back to "ABC, Mama, ABC!"  I love that he is learning but wow it gets tiring hearing that over and over and over again. 

The other phrase I hear all the time repeatedly is just my name, "Mama? Mama? Mama" "What Trey?" "Aerhhfdoahdsfih" "Ok Trey, that sounds good"... two seconds later, "Mama? Mama? Mama?"  And this goes on all day long.  Sometimes if I pretend I don't hear him calling me he will go on forever and grab my leg.  I suppose I should enjoy this while it lasts... eventually I will think its cute and not annoying;-)

I haven't mentioned the new member of our household... Barney.  I introduced Trey to Barney one day just to distract him and he fell in love with him.  Now that's all he wants.  I can't stand Barney, but I have to say the show does a good job in teaching basics.  Trey has learned alot and will even sing the songs!  I may not love Barney, but I like it alot better than the new Sesame Street!  I did get him a little Barney doll and he carries it around everywhere in addition to Duckie #1, Duckie #2, and Bob the Tomato:-)

Most of our days lately have been pretty much the same since my energy level has dropped.  We often go for a walk in the morning around town in the stroller... or we go play at the park for a little bit.  Then we come home and get the paper and crayons out and draw things, plus work on shapes, colors, 123s and ABCs.  We play with the blocks and cars and balls... typical boy stuff.  Trey doesn't want to be read to much lately.  He isn't reading as much as he used to either, but sometimes I will find him surrounded by a pile of books he reads to his stuffed animals.

A new thing I've noticed these days is that he plays pretend.  He will get his farm animals out and set them up side by side and have them pretend to talk to each other.  He also likes to arrange his cars a certain way and will make sounds as they zoom across the floor.

In terms of food, Trey has gotten alot less picky!  Part of this has to do with our new rule of you eat it or you leave.  But he will eat bread with jelly on it (but still doesn't always like peanut butter).  He no longer loves cheese and bananas as much as he used to.  But he loves cereal with milk on it and yogurt, peas, broccoli, hot dogs.  He will eat hamburger sometimes now (yay!).  His favorite is shrimp and salmon!  And the big thing lately... milk.  Seriously that is all he wants.  We have been going through more than a gallon a week just the three of us.  And the other end has been solid so I suppose he's not lactose intolerant after all like we kept thinking he was;-)  I'm glad he asks for milk and not juice all the time!

I had attempted potty training last week when he kept asking where his potty went (I put it away since I didn't think it was time yet).  So whenever I went, I put him on his potty... but he didn't seem to care for that.  I think I'm still going to just wait until later this year.  I've got to much coming way soon to worry about being consistent with that!

That's it for now!  I could go on and on about Trey but I need to take a little nap before this day gets crazy!  I will post tomorrow after my drs appointment with an update on Ethan!

1 Cm Down... 9 More to Go;-)

Just had a regular drs checkup and was so happy that it was completely positive... no problems, no worries, nothing!  I needed that like you wouldn't believe after the past weeks.  I found out that I'm 1 cm dilated... which is nothing of course but every little bit is encouraging.  Other than that, there aren't any signs yet that labor is coming.  Ethan is head down again and most likely to stay that way from now on, but he hasn't dropped yet.  But the doctor told me that after your first, everything tends to happen fast right before delivery rather than weeks before and then waiting.

And good news... I'm not on partial bedrest anymore since I've had no problems since I came home from the hospital!

FYI -- tomorrow I'm 37 weeks... aka. full term baby!

Pictures!

Our Fun 24 Hrs at Shady Grove Adventist!

Hi All!  Well just when I thought I was going to have a peaceful week without drama, the dog had to go pee on the floor!  Yesterday morning Trey and I were playing on the porch with bubbles.  It was so beautiful out and I was looking forward to all our fun plans for the day!  Without elaborating, the dog was mad and did his business on the floor, as I go clean up the poop part of it, I slipped on the pee I didn't know about, fell straight on my big 36 week pregnant belly and slid across the kitchen floor.  So I called the doc and they told me to go straight to the hospital for a non-stress test to make sure the baby and I were okay.  So I packed up Trey and the diaper bag and drove there (we met Pj there because he had already gone to work).  Well, I was shocked to find out when we had been there for an hour that my doctor wanted me to be monitored for 24 hrs, thus admitted overnight.  Agghhh, I was so frustrated!  At the same time, we are so thankful we have care for me and the baby too.  But its still frustrating that all that had to happen.  Ethan was active the entire time, so I knew he was alive... that was good.  They quickly assessed that everything seemed okay and I wasn't bleeding and my blood test came back that my blood and the baby's blood had not mixed, which was good.  But what Dr. Simmonds explained to me later that day when I saw him is that when you fall on a pregnant belly (especially at this point) it can shake the placenta like a sponge in a balloon (yes, that is the analogy he used even though I don't quite understand it).  The shake from the fall can sometimes rip the placenta form the wall causing bleeding that would obviously not be good.  So Mr. Placenta just really wants ALL the attention in this pregnancy I suppose.

Pj was so wonderful taking care of Trey this whole time (keeping a toddler busy in a hospital waiting from for 1 1/2 hrs while I was getting assessed in triage is not easy), getting our overnight stuff, taking Trey to Nana's for the night, going back to work and getting stuff done, and then coming back and staying with me... he should get a metal!  I love you, honey:-)  I spent the day yesterday doing what I hate most... laying awake in bed and not allowed to do ANYTHING.  I read Style magazine and discovered there are way to many ads and not enough articles, but was thankful to finally find HGTV.  It was a long day!

Dr. Simmonds, who was on call at the time, is head of my practice and is such a great doctor!  I loved him!  On his break between births he came in really relaxed with a cup of coffee and asked if I could be his guinea pig for teaching the group of six midwives how to do something in particular on the sonogram machine... so that was fun.  I got to see that my little boy decided while he was at the hospital to go from head down to being breech, but then he turned head down again before we left this morning, lol!  I also got to see the midwives get really nervous as they had to practice in from of Dr. Simmonds.  You never think of doctors being nervous and unsure about what they are doing... so it was a neat perspective to see!

I was released this morning and everything looks good, I just have to try to not do anything except what is necessary until my checkup next week... what else is new, sigh!  I'll tell you, this pregnancy is really really wearing on me with all this drama.  Adoption is looking REALLY nice after this one!!;-)  But just wanted to let you all know what's been going and that we are just fine now but please pray that nothing else goes wrong before (or during) labor... we've had enough;-)

Good News from sonogram!

Really quick update -- the sonogram tech today told me that placenta is 4 cm or more away from the cervix.  It needed to only be atleast 3 to escape the dreaded c-section, so all is good!  Ethan is head down and should stay that way now.  I got to see him open and close his mouth and his hands were up by his face... cute!  She estimates he is getting close to 5 lbs!  Here is a pic looking straight down at his face.  It's a little fuzzy, but you can see the nose in the middle, and the eyes, mouth, forehead:-)

Just A Few Weeks Left...

This pregnancy has flown by so fast!  I'm 34 weeks now and definitely starting to feel all the fun stuff that comes with carrying a big baby around in your belly.  The doctor and I think Ethan may have dropped into position, but I won't know for sure until my sonogram tomorrow.  Be praying for that the results of this final sonogram are good... it will determine whether the placenta is far enough away to not need a c-section (which I REALLY don't want, if you haven't noticed from past posts;-)).  But, then again, as long as we have a healthy baby, we'll do what we have to do.... uh, I mean I will do what I have to do (yeah, Pj just gets to sit there and wait lucky guy!). 

I had an appointment today and everything looks great otherwise -- my blood pressure is perfect, weight gain perfect, energy level normal, Ethan's heart rate is in the 130's and he's very active!  In fact, he was so active that today I was sitting on the couch talking to my mother-in-law and all of a sudden a foot popped out of my belly.  It freaked me out at first!  After that we could just see him doing his kicks over and over again.  Trey got to feel him kick too.  It freaked him out a little bit, but then he got excited.  When I ask him where his brother is, he points to my belly.  It's cute!  Hopefully when Ethan is in our arms he will figure out its the same baby!

Trey has a big growth spurt we think the past few weeks.  We were watching him run around today and he looks so tall and lean (not that he was every a chubby baby to begin with), definitely like a toddler and nothing like a baby anymore.  Its sad but exciting at the same time.  However we are also dealing with tantrums like never before.  He is very particular about wanting to do things his way and in his time... which leads to spanks and the time out chair often.  Sometimes I feel like I spend my entire day disciplining... but it helps that we see progress in some areas.  We bought Trey his first tricycle ($10 off of Craig's List... woohoo!) last week and took him up to the basketball court behind our house to try it out.  He's sort of got the idea that you have to push the pedals, but he would rather stand behind and push the bike.  But I'm sure by the end of the summer he will get it!  He is also starting to learn some of his letters, numbers, shapes and colors.  He can identify A, B, and C... but then all the rest of the letters he can't tell apart (other than identifying them as letters and not something else).  We're working on it!

Work is starting to get busier for Pj.  It's hard to believe students come back in less than a month I think.  I don't know if I mentioned this before, but in addition to being dean of students and family, he will be teaching a high school Bible class and a senior thesis class.  He's really looking forward to that, as he can use some of his knowledge from seminary (plus he gets an excuse to buy more books;-)).

As for me, I've been nesting big time.  Everything is ready.... everything is clean.... meals are being prepared.... lists are being made, lol.  There isn't much left for me to do... besides installing the newborn carseat, but there is no rush for that since we know how to do it now.  I did work on a project to create some art for Ethan's wall above his crib... which was bare before (pics below).  But I've also been getting tired and achy so I've spent alot of time off my feet on the couch rewatching "One Tree Hill" or just whatever I've been in the mood for.  I feel so lazy doing that, but it helps that I'm supposed to be resting so I don't feel as guilty;-)

That's it for now!  Once I know the results of the sonogram, I will post:-)  Here are some pictures!