No Baby Yet

Hey guys! Just a quick update to say that we're still here in waiting mode. I was so hoping to have the baby on Aug. 28 - that was Cline's grandmother's birthday, and a nice 10 days or so before my due date - safe, but early :) In my mind, that's been my adjusted due date, so now I feel late, even though I'm only 39 weeks tomorrow! I truly can't imagine *actually* delivering past my due date. Just when I think I can't possibly get more uncomfortable, the baby discovers how to set my esophagus on fire and I start throwing up again. (And trust me, as fun as that is in the first trimester, it's especially wonderful when your basketball-sized belly prevents you from getting near the toilet :)

So, other than the total breakdown I had last night, we're doing great! Thank goodness Cline's off work, so he could prop pillows on the couch for me at 1 am. I'm hoping we can do something extra fun with Christa tomorrow, to savor some time with "just her" until the baby comes. It's been colder and rainy here, so we haven't been able to go swimming in a while, but maybe we can think of something else to do.

Well, have a great day! I'm off to try to find some clothes that I can still fit into!

T Minus Under 2 Weeks

Hello all! Another depressing doctor's appointment was had this morning. The highlight of it was the weigh-in - I've lost two pounds since last week!! And I started to get excited when the doctor walked into the room, took one look at my stomach, and said, "you're having a contraction right now." (I couldn't feel it at all). But then he checked me, and there has been little change since last week. I have decided to do my best to increase my activity level in hopes that things will begin to progress.... maybe I'll even start walking again.

Well, have a great day, and I'll update again soon!

T Minus 2 Weeks

Hello all! We had a very exciting and eventful weekend (don't get excited - no baby, yet), one that I would not have survived without my wonderful parents! It started when we tried to go to a local baseball game on Friday night. Cline worked all weekend, so Christa and I ventured out with my parents. Christa still loves "ball" of any kind, and loves to cheer for the teams. She also loves to stalk the mascots, and her newest entertainment is squatting and standing in perfect unison with the catcher. At any rate, it was a beautiful evening, and we were all set for a fun time.... until the storms rolled through. It must have poured and thundered for 45 minutes as we took shelter under the stands. When the rain finally let up enough to get to our car, we drove home to find trees down all over the neighborhood, including one that had crushed my dad's truck and part of my parent's deck. We also discovered that Christa and I had no power at our house, so we packed our bags via flashlight and candles and moved in with my parents for the weekend.

On Saturday, we ventured to the mall. I'm getting more and more comments about how I look ready to have this baby, and my sweet husband validates them with a daily, "man, your belly is huge!" Thanks, Honey :) Christa wanted to ride the carousel, so I proceeded to take her. The lady who operates the ride gave me a look and an, "Now I don't want to be delivering any babies on this ride if you're going to be the one to hold her!" (No offense, ma'am, but unless you have extensive training in placing an epidural, I'm not really interested in you delivering any of my babies either.) We finished the ride, and moved on to make a return. I'd been sort of waddling around in pain most of the weekend, and not the "oh fun, the baby's coming soon" kind of pain. I really scared my mom, when I suddenly bowled over and said, "ohhhhhhh." Once again, nothing exciting - the baby just chose that particular moment to add my sciatic nerve to the list of internal body parts that she likes to beat up, sending shooting pains down my left leg. She's finding new ways to torture me daily, and I wonder how she'll handle things when she's out and no longer has a bladder or set of intestines to kick around :) I've actually seen "stuffed animal-type organs" for kids in certain catalogs, and I'm wondering if I'm going to have to invest in that weird toy.

We gave up on doing anything else, and headed back to my parents' where my mom graciously entertained Christa so I could indulge in a hot bath and a nap. Sunday, Christa went to my parents' church with them so I could rest, and I'm feeling a good bit better today. Mom and I took Christa to the Chick-Fil-A Dwarf House for breakfast this morning, at Christa's request. We had a meltdown when we got to the little dwarf door, and realized it was locked. Poor Christa was beside herself. Thankfully, a nice manager came out and unlocked it so that Christa could peacefully enter the restaurant. Crisis averted, because she was NOT going in through the normal doors!

Well, I'm off to get ready for dinner. We're having dinner with friends tonight (again at the Dwarf House), and Cline is officially off work for the next 3 weeks!!!!! (Everybody join me in the Happy Dance)! Maybe we'll actually get the house cleaned, or at least presentable, just in case some of you want to drop by when Abby Kate finally decides to come into the world.

Dr. appointment is Wed. this week, so I'll update more then. Have a great day!

T Minus 2 Weeks and 4 Days

Hello all! Sorry I didn't get this up after my doctor's appointment. No, it isn't because the doctor took one look at me and said, "you're ready to have this baby now - go on over to the hospital." (Do you think if I stop wishing for that every appointment, it might actually happen?? :)

It was a completely unexciting appointment, actually. The baby's head is still high. I had a couple of friends who were 4 cm dilated by now with their second babies, so I think my expectations might be a little too optimistic. I'm between a 1 and a 2 - so disappointing. I've had some pretty significant discomfort that I was hoping might warrant some sort of intervention. No such luck. Apparently, my body just likes to have all of the annoying effects of pregnancy that make life difficult, but that nothing can be done about and must be tolerated until the baby is delivered. Plus, I'm a huge wimp.

Speaking of huge, funny story. Cline and I met his grandparents at a local restaurant for lunch the other day. I'd already eaten, so I sat down at a table while they got their food. There were two girls sitting at the table next to me. As I passed by their table, one of the girls said, "excuse me, when are you due?" I replied, "two or three weeks." She answered, "Oh, good. You see, she's (pointing to the second girl) pregnant, and was terrified that she would get that big. I was trying to reassure her that this is either your second child, or you're about ready to have the baby."

Um.... thanks for that.

Thankfully, I have some great friends who keep telling me how "adorable" I look. Nonetheless, I can't help but look around the waiting room at the doctor's office, and admire the other girls and their normal-sized feet :)

Alright, enjoy some more outdated pictures from the 4th of July and a very nice baby shower given by a dear friend in July.

Thanks for the dress, Kathy! It looked great, and Christa had fun riding her car in the parade.

I just love this cake, and Christ just loves the shoes that we got to keep off of it :)

Thanks again for a wonderful shower, Shanda! And thanks for taking these great pictures, Ali!

The big sister got plenty of attention and presents, too.

This is the sweet daughter, Gracie, of my friend, Shanda, who hosted the shower. She and Christa share the same birthday, 3 years apart.

Christa had a great time playing with some of her friends at the shower.

T Minus 3 Weeks

Alright, I'm 37 weeks today. Some moments, I think I'm going to make it, like right now for example. I woke up on my own at 7:15, got a few things done before Christa woke up, and am about as comfortable as I get these days. Other moments, like most of the day yesterday, when the baby was kicking/punching/head-butting every one of my internal organs rendering me unable to walk or sit up straight (that little 6 pound, 9 ounce kid is a strong one), I wonder why doctors don't allow elective inductions before 39 weeks. (Doesn't intense pain and an inability to keep food down count as a "medically necessary reason")???

For the moment, though, I'm doing well, and feeling grateful for the energy that allowed me to rearrange pictures last night and put the car seat back together this morning. Cline has a rough work week this week (play date anyone??), but after that, he's around for 3 weeks!
Well, Christa's calling for me, so I'm going to go get her up. I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow, so I'll have a quick update and hopefully some more pictures tomorrow.

Have a great day!

My Firstborn

Hello all! I'm finally tackling this whole picture thing. Downloading and printing out 8 months worth of pictures is a lot of work! Note to self: print pictures every 3 months, to avoid this frustration! These birthday pictures are grainy - I'm not sure why. I'm hoping they print out clearer than they look here.

We had a Finding Nemo themed party for Christa. She had a blast playing with water toys and running around with friends. She sang Happy Birthday to herself and we had to blow out the candle a couple of times, because she loved that part so much. Sorry I'm almost 3 months late in posting these :)

More pictures to come - I'm doing this in shifts, so as not to overwhelm myself! Have a great day!

T Minus 3 Weeks and 6 Days

Hello all! We had a long doctor's appointment this morning, and all is well. Nothing too exciting is happening yet - the baby's head is still fairly high up, so I'm only 1 cm dilated so far :( We did get an ultrasound, and Abby Kate insisted on keeping her hands up to her face the whole time, so we didn't get a good look at her facial features. She does have hair on the back of her head, though - that was pretty cool to see. Her head is much smaller than Christa's (Christa's head was in the 94th percentile, and Abby Kate is measuring in the 35th percentile). Maybe that will make for an easier recovery this time around, although it did NOT help me justify an early induction like I was hoping to :) Her foot looked huge - I don't know if it was just the angle, or if I'm going to have to spend lots of money on new shoes for her (Christa's feet have always been tiny). We'll see, I guess! It's so hard to imagine her being different from Christa. In my mind, she looks exactly the same and will grow at exactly the same pace as Christa has. She is a different person, though, I'm starting to realize (and one that I fear has her days and nights confused already! Is there any way to remedy that before delivery day??)

I've started washing Christa's old clothes - boy she had a lot! I've only bought a few outfits for Abby Kate - mostly warmer 0-3 month clothes, since Christa was born at the beginning of the summer and Abby Kate is coming at the end. It turns out that Christa had more than I remembered, but I guess there are worse things in life than starting out with too many clothes :) I'll have to make it a point not to buy ANY 3-6 month clothes (unless of course they're *really* cute:)

Well, gotta run. We have to figure out what to do for dinner, since I haven't made it to the grocery store in a while!

T Minus 4 Weeks

Hello all! We're doing well around here. Not much to report today. I start going to weekly doctor's appointments tomorrow, so I'm hoping to get more information on when we might expect little Abby Kate to make her debut. I'm hoping they'll tell me that we were way off on the dates, and I can just go on over to the hospital :) Yeah, right.

Christa has decided to stop sleeping all of a sudden. She opted to jump up and down in her crib for an hour yesterday, rather than nap. Then, she went to bed an hour early, but woke up at 5:30 this morning. She rested happily a few hours longer, since I was not ready to start my day at that time, but I don't think she ever truly went back to sleep. Maybe she's trying to tell me that I might as well go ahead and move her to the big girl bed :) It's ready for her - I just hate giving up the crib. It's nice to squeeze in a quick shower right after she wakes up, knowing she is safe and happy. She took an OK nap today - I'm hoping yesterday and this morning were just a fluke!

I am making progress on getting pictures up. I went through my memory card and deleted all of the ones I didn't want, which took a while. I'm hoping to get them into the computer in the next few days so the card can be cleared for the delivery.

Gotta run - Christa's requesting to get up now :)

T Minus 5 (hopefully 3) Weeks

Hello all! I'm doing even better this week (knock on wood, since it's only Monday)! Cline's still working a lot, (although feeling better - more on that later). My parents return to town tomorrow, and my life-saving mother offered today to help me out with whatever I need several hours EACH DAY!!!! I'm so giddy, I don't know what to do with myself! Although, I don't want to exhaust her before the baby comes, so I may not ask for her help "every" day.... 6 days a week should be plenty :)

My energy level is a little better. I've actually managed to do some cleaning like I did in the old days when we first moved in - real cleaning like sweeping and scrubbing things. I get so upset with myself for feeling like I'm not doing as much as I could be or should be doing. But others have pointed out that I have been pregnant for all but about 2 months since we moved in. And in the last 3 years, I have either been pregnant or nursing for all but about 3 months, so maybe it's reasonable that my body is tired. Nonetheless, I'm making progress on getting things ready for the baby and getting Christa's big girl room ready for her.

Speaking of the big sister, we hit a milestone today. We went to the potty!!!! It might have been a fluke, but I'll take it. We haven't really been potty training, per se, for several reasons. But I occasionally ask her if she wants to sit down on the potty, just for fun, and she almost always says, "yes!" Tonight, when I went to the potty, and she said "Elmo potty" several times. I took her back to our bathroom where the Elmo child's potty converter thingy (you know, those things you stick on a regular toilet seat so the kid doesn't fall in) is and let's just say she did more than sit this time! I'm so proud and trying not to get my hopes up that potty training her is going to be this super easy process that she just does on her own!

Pictures are still coming, I promise. I'm still having a hard time finding the time to download them, and our computer is acting a little strange, so I'm hesitant to overload it right now. I'll get up the courage soon, though - hopefully next week when Cline's off to help out some.

Cline, by the way, is almost back to normal. He has been sick most of the week, off and on, and we were a little concerned that he might have mono. (Our neighbor has it right now, and Cline had gone to check on him a couple of days before he got sick). We now think he got a pretty bad infection from being stubborn :) Apparently, he hit his head on an X-Ray machine at the hospital several weeks ago, and noticed that it hurt for several days, even though it wasn't a very hard hit. When the scratch continued to get worse, he told himself it would get better eventually, and delayed taking antibiotics until his whole scalp was red and crusty and his head hurt from the infection building up. Hopefully he's on the mend, and will be ready to complete my lengthy list of projects for him next week :)

Well, I'm off to bed to rest up. I'm attempting a road trip with Christa and some friends of ours to a children's museum about an hour away tomorrow. Hopefully the swollen feet will fit into my flip-flops - that's becoming another fun issue :)

Have a great day!