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Monday, April 30, 2012

38+ Weeks: "Any Day Now"

38 weeks have gone by and at my weekly Dr. appt on Friday he said I was 3 cm and 100% effaced. He also said baby was super low. Although you can walk around with those "stats" for weeks, I think this baby will be here in the next week. The Dr said "any day" and to jump in the car at any twinge of a labor pain since I am 45 min away from the hospital with a history of fast labor. Ok-I'm not taking it that far (i've had more "twinges" than I can count!!!), but I'm pretty sure this will be a fast and furious labor!

Q&A this week:


1) So the preggo pizza didn't work??
Not completely! The night I ate the "labor inducing pizza," we were 5 minutes away from leaving for the hospital in the middle of the night. Had steady, 10-15 min. apart contractions from 9-12am. At 11:30pm, I showered and thought for SURE I wasn't going to make it to the hospital in time. After that, I was feeling so tired so I laid down for a minute. Well, I woke up 3 hours later to pee, so apparently it wasn't in "real" labor!! =sigh= I never had "false labor" with the other two or any type of contraction that wasn't the real thing!! This is just annoying!!!


2) What was up with the pregnant cowgirl look?
Don't ask! My feet are still swollen from those boots!!! Probably the only picture I will take 38+ weeks preggo, too! It was for the sake of my daughter's education :)

3) When's the next appointment?
Wednesday!

4) Are you having a boy or girl?
One or the other :)

Monday, April 23, 2012

Full Term! 37 Weeks-YAY!

I officially won't have a "preemie" this time around-yay!! I am ecstatic I made it this far considering I thought I might be in labor around 28 weeks! Now it's just sit back and wait. Here are all the popular questions and comments I have been getting over the past week:

Popular comments this week: "WOW! You're really pregnant now!", "You need to sit down!", "Let me get that for you.", "How much weight have you gained?", "Wow, I looked like that at 3 months preggo." (I find people like to exaggerate to make me feel better and  I'm completely cool with that).

Q & A this week

1) How are you feeling? I've reached the point where I feel huge. Never felt this way with Will and I just cannot comprehend how I went almost 42 weeks with Brooke. Holy crap. Nothing fits without being skin tight and completely unsexy. :) The kids want to go to the pool every day, too so it's fun to try and find something to wear there!

Feeling Braxston Hicks on and off, mostly at night. Otherwise, doing OK!

2) When are you officially due? Mother's Day; May 13th. Dr. doubts I'll make it to that date, but you never know. I'm hoping it's slightly earlier, obviously.

3) When is your last day at work? Next Tuesday, May 1st. However, my last day with the students is this Thursday. :(

4) What are you going to do during **all** your time off (between May 1 and the baby): Very exciting stuff, let me tell you!!! Dentist appointment, take the car into the dealer, make more freezer meals, clean out kitchen cabinets and drawers, have the house deep cleaned, attend Brookey's school auction, get a haircut and go for a pedicure with a bunch of friends!

5) Are you ready? Yes, VERY.

6) How are you sleeping? Other than being on a 3 hour pee schedule, it's not too bad. I am using Brooke's Disney princess body pillow which is AWESOME. I couldn't sleep without it!


7) What are you going to do with Brooke and Will when you go into labor? Luckily, we have great friends who have offered to come over anytime we call. My parents are also on call and can be here in a few hours. I don't know what I'd do without great friends and family!

8) What are you looking forward to the most? Besides the obvious of holding my sweet baby and finally knowing if it's a he/she, I am looking forward to the first time I actually "know" labor is happening. Sounds weird but that's so exciting for me!!!

9) Do you THINK it's a boy or girl?? I really have no idea. The Chinese gender calendar says boy, however my overall "feeling" and pregnancy "wives-tale" symptoms point to girl (I MUST have dessert with every meal!). I guess I'd put my money on the Chinese, if I was a betting woman :)

10) Is it a boy or girl? Followed by...do you have names picked out? Don't know! Yes, we have names and no, we're not telling anyone!

Until next week!!!!!

Saturday, April 21, 2012

1st Grade Mass

Each month, one class is responsible for the Mass ceremony at Brookey's school. April was 1st Grade's turn and they did an AMAZING job! Those kids can really SING now, as opposed to "yelling" the songs like they did in Kindergarten. We were very impressed.

Brookey had a speaking/reading role, which I think builds so much character! Getting in front of an entire church and having to read at age 6 is such a great learning experience. I cannot imagine doing that at her age!

Brookey waiting for her turn at the podium:



Thursday, April 19, 2012

Brookey's New, Multifunctional Room!

Now that Scott is not working at home, we transformed the boring "office/guest room" into a multifunctional space...mostly for Brooke. She now has her own room. Since Will was born, they have both been sharing a room which has worked out great. In fact, we had to do a little convincing to get her to move into her own room! [she still hasn't completely "moved out"] They really love sharing and if it weren't for Baby 3, they'd probably continue to share until I heard complaints (which would come, I'm sure of it). And I will have to admit, it makes me smile when they are supposedly "going to sleep" and I hear them making each other laugh and giggle.

The room "decor" is not what humble, old Mom pictured for her little girl (i would love to do crystal chandeliers, pink toile and a french country theme). But I wanted to make this Brookey's space, not mine. So I let her choose the "theme," which turned out to be pink and zebra print!!! "It's my style, Mom." How can I argue with style?

We can easily take down the frilly canopy and Brookey can sleep in her old top bunk whenever guests come. So the space is still functional as a guest room. We kept the computer workstation in the room, too. She thinks she's the coolest kid on the block with a computer in her room! Plus a quiet place to do homework. So it still works as the "office," too. Truly multifunctional. So far, no complaints from anyone!

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

36 Week Appt.

So the status is 2cm and 60% effaced. However, she said most likely I won't go into labor in the next week. So YAY! Hopefully I will have a "full term" baby (at least 37 weeks) this time and not have to see the inside of a NICU!

She also said she doubts I will go the full 40 weeks. But who really knows! Saturday, May 5th would be good for me :) My calendar is free that day except for a Cinco de Mayo party :)

All of a sudden I feel a huge rush to do everything. The days are going by SO FAST. I only have 4 more work days left and trying to cram everything into those days is crazy!! I'm sure something will get left not done...hopefully it's not my toenails (pedicure) this time!!!! Until next time....

Thursday, April 12, 2012

36+ Weeks!

It's hard to believe that Little Buddy came into this world during this week of my last pregnancy!! Although he wasn't drastically "pre-term," anything before 37 weeks is considered "preterm," which means I'm at a slight risk for going into labor early again this time around.

So our bags are packed and now it's just a waiting game....it literally could be any day now. My last day of work is May 1st (seemed like a nice, easy to remember date!). I still have not decided if I will work my 2 days next school year--and I won't know until we are a Party of 5 and I see how everything works when kids outnumber parents in this house!!! LOL!

Over the next few weekends I plan to get beautified and pampered--got a massage this past weekend, hair, nails next weekend and then a deep housecleaning!! I spent the weekend cleaning drawers, the pantry and making a ton of freezer meals. Can we say **nesting**????!!!!

My 28 week contractions have returned with a vengeance, so hoping it's not much longer than 3-4 weeks!!!

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Random Easter Week Pics

Between the business of all of Scott's events this Easter week, I was REALLY bad at taking pictures!! We didn't bring the kids to Easter Mass just because Scott's confirmation and ceremony was just too late and too long for them.We brought them to Mass on Thursday and of course, I took hardly any pics. Here are just some random ones I took from the week...





Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Less than 5 Weeks Left!

This is truly the home stretch!! I'm ready, but I still can't believe it's APRIL. I really don't have too much to complain about but this has by far, been the hardest pregnancy of the 3. First trimester was plagued with just that "gross" feeling and extreme fatigue (but no puking or anything horrible!). Second trimester was glorious!! As soon as the third trimester came, I hit a major wall. I had long bouts of contractions that would last hours at a time. I felt more tired than I did in the first trimester and if that wasn't enough, I caught a cold and nasty, nasty cough that had me coughing in 3 hour spells during the night!! It got so bad, my OB had to give me codeine cough medicine--all that coughing was not great for the baby. That lasted an entire month.

Fast forward a few weeks--I was just minding my own business and had to sneeze...most PAINFUL sneeze of my life! I thought I had broken a rib. Every time I moved, the pain was so AWFUL! At night, I had to CRY just turn my body over. I finally decided to ask my physical therapist friend to take a look at it. Apparently, I tore some ligaments between my ribs and there was lots of swelling between certain ribs. Went to my OB the next day and he told me exactly the the same thing. He said it was most likely from all the coughing last month and the sneeze was finally the last straw! I can handle pain, but my concern was that there would be NO WAY I'd be able to push out a baby in my condition! I could hardly sit up in bed!! However, my OB assured me it was nothing an epidural wouldn't cover :) So that was a relief.

Last Friday, my PT friend taped me and did a little PT and ever since then I am SOOOOO happy to say it's been getting MUCH better. He is seriously a miracle-worker...and free, too! :) Now it's just remembering to "take it easy."

Last weekend, I got my third trimester burst of energy and we did some massive cleaning, purging and getting ready! The kid's rooms are all complete, clean and organized, the new crib set up, baby clothes washed, bags packed, diapers ready :) This weekend, we celebrated Easter and Scott's confirmation and now it's just waiting for baby!!! Based on Will being 4 weeks early, it could be any day now!!

The pic above is literally 1 of about 3 pictures taken since I've been preggo. It was taken this weekend-35 weeks!

Monday, April 2, 2012

First Report

I've mentioned before that the jump from Kindergarten to First Grade was no joke. It went from reinforcing letters/sounds and crafts projects to reading 20-page long stories, spelling tests and reports! Yes, reports! I can't remember the grade I was in when I did my first report, but I'm quite certain it wasn't before 4th.

Times have changed. Brookey was assigned a TEN PAGE report on an animal of her choosing. Of course, it's not ten typed, single spaced pages, but still...she had to write out all the pages and illustrate the whole thing. Only 5 pictures could be printed from the internet.

The class even went to the Oakland Zoo to do "research" on their specific animal. She originally wanted to do a report on chinchillas, but their exhibit was under construction at the zoo, so she had to change to giraffes. It was crazy time-consuming but she actually enjoyed doing a lot more than "regular homework." Now she has to prepare for a 6 minute presentation on her report after Easter Break. Man, I need a break!! LOL!

Doing "Research" on giraffes at the zoo

Quick and Easy Meal Prep for Breakfast + Lunch + Snacks!

Ready for a SUPER quick and easy meal prep?! No joke, it took me longer to find all the lids to these containers than it did it prep my b...