30 Weeks & Counting...

I went for my 30 week OB appointment this week.  I had to do the follow-up 3 hour glucose test because (of course) I failed the one hour.  That test sucks soooo bad :/  This time, because I had already done this test two times before and knew the ins and outs, my OB said I could leave between blood draws.  So for one hour I had my OB appointment.  For the 2nd hour I walked across the street to the hospital and pre-registered for labor & delivery.  For the 3rd hour, I drove to TJ Maxx!  Not too bad I must say.  Maybe I'll have the results tomorrow....

A few highlights from this appointment:

• I only gained ONE pound!!! Hallelujah!  I actually acted like an idiot and made the nurse give me a high five.  I considered it jump-up-and-down worthy, but was afraid doing so would result in a baby on the floor, so I stuck with the high five ;)
• Baby is head down and will hopefully stay that way.
• I don't have syphilis (ha! I didn't even know they tested me for that, but apparently I'm good...)
• Next appointment is in 2 weeks!  This is when it always hits me that we are in the "homestretch".
• I'm still trying to decide whether I want the tubal ligation or the new "Essure" procedure done.  Either way is a permanent baby-stopping procedure.  The tubal is obviously a small incision done while you're in the hospital after delivery.  The Essure procedure is where they insert two small spring-like thingies into your tubes at your post-delivery appointment.  After the springs are inserted, you wait several weeks and go back in to see if your tubes have in fact "closed in around" the springs.  The Essure process is considerably less invasive but is also pretty new and I've heard mixed reviews....

How am I feeling??
I'm still feeling pretty good.  Sleep is non-existent thanks to a baby girl who likes to hang out on my sciatic nerve.  I spend most nights tossing and turning and somewhere between 1 & 3 AM, I end up on the sofa.  I am still walking 2.5 miles 2 or 3 times a week with my neighbor friend.  It's getting more and more difficult to carry on conversations during our walks (and that's really what I walk for ;))  and the last time we walked I had some pretty fun braxton hicks contractions afterward.  Fun times.  Most people look at me like I'm crazy when I tell them I'm still walking but as long as it's not too hot, I want to keep it up.  It's good for my soul and good for my sugar issues.

Are we ready for her to get here??
We're still trying to get started on Tessa's nursery.  Unfortunately, this has been such a slow process thanks to our work schedules.  We're also trying to nail down a *bigger* vehicle for our growing family.  We've been car payment free for two years now and we're a little spoiled :/  A couple of my sweet friends are throwing me a small baby shower in a few weeks and I'm getting excited.  I certainly didn't expect one, but I'm very grateful to have friends who love me enough to do something so sweet for us.  I'm excited to see my friends in a couple of weeks and celebrate this crazy miracle baby :)

I think that's it for now friends.  I've got supper to cook, a walk to take, and two little boys to love on :)

Our Memorial Day Weekend

We had a wonderful long weekend full of swimming, grilling and playgrounds.  Do weekends get any better??  On Saturday, I spent the day sewing the bedskirt to Tessa's mommy-made crib bedding and my three men went to Brandon's parent's house to assemble their new playset.  I'm not sure Brandon knew what he signed up for when he agreed to spend his Memorial Day weekend putting a wooden playset together.  Do NOT let anyone fool you - those things are a major PIA.  Brandon suffered the consequences of waiting about two hours too late to apply sunscreen (scuse the ugly toe in the pic) -

After about 6 hours spent with pink silk fabric and a sewing machine, I met up with the boys for some swimming and hot dogs on the grill.  Yuuuummmm.  Will is going to start swim lessons next week and given his EXTREME fear of the pool, his swim instructor ask me to have him in the pool as much as possible before lessons start.  So my goal this weekend was to get that little guy in the pool as many times as possible in our three day weekend.  He does much better this year considering he can touch the bottom of the shallow end and can hold his head above water, but his fear is still very much in place.  He will jump off the side to me and even voluntarily stick his own head under the water, but he does NOT want me to let go of his hand unless he's firmly planted on the steps.  Still, this is a great improvement over last year's screaming fits every time he caught a glimpse of the pool.  (And for the record - no, the child has never had a traumatic water experience, but he's still just as nervous as a cat around any body of water larger than his tub.)

I have the opposite problem with Brooks.  This child is fearless and jumps in without waiting to see if there is an adult anywhere close.  Unlike his older brother, Brooks will float along by himself without any assistance (except from his floaties), he'll paddle to where he wants to go, and enjoys every minute of pool time.  My main concern with Brooks is keeping him from drinking half the pool while he's jumping, splashing, and acting like a crazy person.  So me caring for both boys in the pool by myself usually means Will is attached to one hand or arm while I'm chasing Brooks from the deep end or pulling him up from the bottom of the pool after one of his dare devil jumps. 

(Will was upset because his bandaid got wet.  Go figure.)

Sunday was spent with more of the same, minus the sewing.  Daddy worked on the playset and the boys and I swam.  At least Brandon completed the playset and the boys finally got to play in their "clubhouse."  Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans and biscuits rounded out our day.

On Memorial Day, I took the boys down to my parent's house for more swimming while Brandon worked on clearing out what will be Tessa's new room.  This room once was Brooks' and when we combined the boys into one room, we just threw her furniture into her room with Brooks' old furniture and closed the door.  We've just now gotten around to taking Brooks' furniture out (a crib we borrowed from my brother that we will now be returning since they are expecting too, and a Pottery Barn changing table that I scored off Craigslist and will be letting my brother use since we'll use Tessa's dresser as her changing table.)  Now that the room has a little more leg room, it's time to prime and paint Tessa's walls and hopefully start putting her room together soon.  Nothing like waiting till the last minute ;)  We celebrated the end of our long weekend with steaks on the grill and called it a night.  If there's anything better than the way a little swimming and Vitamin D makes you feel, it's how it usually knocks our kids out pretty quickly once the sun starts to go down.

Hello from Tessa!

This post will be a short one.  I'll try to give you a better update after this holiday weekend, but for now here's a little "Hello!" from our little girl at 30 weeks.  She spent most of her "screen time" with her hand directly in front of her little face.  

This is the best shot of her face.  She just moved her hand long enough for us to tell that she has a perfectly sweet little mouth and a little turned up nose.  

Her hand in front of her face.  Camera shy?

More hand in face.

Her little nose and mouth

A big yawn :)

Here are a couple of short videos...

More yawning and sucking on her hand...

She was either stretching or practicing her cheer moves.  If she has my coordination, it was a stretch..

Have a great Memorial Day weekend!

Hello 3rd Trimester!

Well, I've officially entered the home stretch folks.  I can't believe how fast this pregnancy has flown by, but I guess that's kind of what happens when you're too busy to count the days and/or weeks like I did with my first pregnancy (and a little with the second, but I eventually gave up on that too).  When people ask me how far along I am, I have to refer to my planner where I so ingeniously wrote down my due date 7 months ago.  I almost think I would forget that too if I hadn't written it down :/

I had an OB appointment last week and everything is looking great!  I did have to succumb to the ol' glucose screening, which is soooo gross.  I guess part of the reason why I dread it so badly is also because I have always failed them.  With Will I failed both the 1 hour AND the 3 hour test, and was officially diagnosed with gestational diabetes.  I was able to keep it well under control just by changing my diet though.  I remember how badly I cried and felt like my whole world was crumbling down when I got that phone call and then had to go to meet with a nutritionist.  They definitely made me feel like something was wrong with me and that he would surely have two heads, but alas he was a perfect 7lbs and 4oz :)  I failed the 1 hour with Brooks, but passed the 3 hour test.  3 months later, Brooks came into the world 1 week late and weighing in at a whopping 9lbs 15.5oz.  So I'm pretty sure I had diabetes and went undiagnosed with him.  He's also perfectly healthy - and has been since day one.  This go round, I'm definitely expecting to fail it, but I'm not stressing myself out.  I will just go ahead and restrict my sugar intake on my own even if they don't officially diagnose me.  I'm still waiting on the results from the 1 hour screening...

We also had a follow up ultrasound to check on my previously mentioned low-lying placenta.  Everything looks great there as well.  As this pregnancy has progressed, the placenta has naturally moved away from the cervix just enough that they feel comfortable saying that it won't be an issue.  Little Tessa was quite hyped-up from the sugar drink and showed off for us.  She sucked her thumb and wiggled all around.  The ultrasound tech said her measurements indicated that she probably weighs right around 2lbs right now and that is right on track.  My goofy husband said "Is that all?" when she told us this and I chose to take the high road and forget he said that.... ;)

We're certainly trying to get our home and boys prepared for little bit to arrive in 3 months, but it's a sllllloooowwww process.  The boys are officially sharing a room now - we moved them into their new twin beds nearly two weeks ago and I finally combined their closets last weekend.  This has proven to be an interesting transition.  Will has taken it in stride, Brooks however has not.  He cried the first night, asking to go to his old bed.  After that, he hasn't cried anymore, but he spends at least an hour getting up, trying to get in Will's bed, playing with toys and just generally being rambunctious (kicking his headboard, knocking on the wall, etc...)  Poor Will usually tries to tell on him for the first 20 minutes or so and then gives up, turns over and goes to sleep in the middle of his brother's shenanigans.  When asked about his brother sharing a room with him at school, Will told his teacher that he doesn't get to sleep anymore! Ha!  This is so untrue... he is the first to sleep every night.  (He also told his grandmother one day this week that we put them to bed without supper the night before because we didn't have any food.  This is such a tall tale and although it's funny, I'm just glad he told that story to his grandmother who knew better and not a teacher who would have probably been justified in confronting me about it...)  I plan on showing you what their new room looks like as soon as I tie up all the "loose ends" - framed prints, bed skirts, etc...

I am still in the process of sewing Tessa's bedding.  I like about two more good sewing days which is proving quite difficult to set aside with t-ball, mother's day, our upcoming 6 year wedding anniversary, etc.... but I'm hoping to wrap it up soon.  We need to at least get her room primed so that we can start trying to find that perfect shade of paint.  I've got one picked out that is a perfect match to the fabric in her bumper, but I'm afraid it may be too vibrant on the wall, so we'll be sampling a few shades just to make sure.  I also need to get moving on window treatments and fabric for the glider.  Another day that needs to be dedicated to fabric shopping seems so far fetched for me....  I also really want the espresso colored (very expensive) furniture to be a pretty antique white, but I'm not sure I have the time/energy to dedicate to that (and I'm pretty partial to Will's teething marks on the side rail).  We'll see what becomes a priority and what takes a back seat :)  I know one thing is for sure - I'm NOT buying new furniture, so we'll have to make this gorgeous set work.  I've also been perusing Etsy for those perfect accessories/prints for her room. 

We're also verrrrryyyy behind on all the necessary items for a newborn - car seat, baby monitor, bottles, burp cloths, bibs, receiving blankets.....you get the idea.  I'm having a hard time choosing a car seat.  We need something on the smaller side, since both boys are still in their car seats.  We had a Chicco Keyfit 30 with them and I loved the safety, look, ease of use but it was quite huge and I'm not sure that something that large will work in our forth-coming crammed vehicle.  The only other gripe I had with that car seat was the sun canopy - it could have standed to be a little larger.  It never really seemed to serve its purpose because it was so short (that's not a deal-breaker, but for $180....)  I've looked at lots of options this time around - the Graco Snugride, Britax B-Safe, etc... but they're either HUGE or not rated well for safety.  I'm also fighting the fabric issue - Tessa will be born in hottttttt August, so I'm not crazy about all black or velvety-type fabrics.  And if they're not black, they're soooo pink that they look like pepto.  And ya'll know how I feel about all that pink.... (I'm slowly but surely coming around to pink, but I just wish they offered more purple/aqua/yellow/minty greens for girls!)

So that's all I've got today.  I want to spend my weekends perusing baby shops, Ikea, and Homegoods to get our house and/or lives in order, but most of my weekends are consumed with work, boys and a husband who wants to work in the yard most weekends (I don't blame him - I love yardwork too).  I just hope we can nail down the essentials before peanut gets here!  Stay tuned!

A Buzz Lightyear Birthday Party

We celebrated Will's 4th birthday this past weekend with a Buzz Lightyear birthday party.  Several months ago, when I asked Will what kind of party he wanted, he said "Buzz Lightyear".  Well, turns out planning a Buzz Lightyear party without including Woody, Jessie and the gang is kind of faux paux, so eventually we decided that "the crew can come Mama, but mostly just Buzz Lightyear." 

Will was very specific in his request this year and asked only for a "Buzz Lightyear cake that tastes like Buzz Lightyear" and a "jumping bean".  For a 4 year-old, no party is complete without a bouncy house.  Kind of like in college where it wasn't a party without at least one keg of Natty Light.  He thinks everyone, including adults should have jumping beans on their birthday, and how can you argue with that?!  And for the record, there are way more bouncy houses than kegs in my life these days ;) 

So we complied - we had a simple party in my mom's backyard (more flat and shady than our hilly yard) with the highlights of the day being this wonderful cake by Heaven Scents:

And this awesome jumping bean:

He had several of his buddies to play with and ate lots of cake and chips and drank plenty of juice boxes, and of course there were plenty of gifts to open.  That's about all it takes to make a 4 year-old happy apparently.  And balloons!  He went with me to pick up the balloons from the party store and he said "Mama!  I've been wishing for balloons all week!"  At his brother's party in March, we let the balloons go after the party and I told them we were sending them to my Maw Maw in Heaven.  Well that devastated Will.  He cried for HOURS after we let them go and he still to this day asks when Maw Maw is going to send those balloons back to him.  So I made sure everyone knew NOT to let them go for this party.  We brought all 17 balloons back home with us and tied them up in his room. 

He had a great time and received lots great gifts.  He's at the age where when he pulled the tissue out, he would either light up and inspect his toy, or say "clothes" and leave the bag untouched.  It's pretty funny but embarrassing for the parent :/  Of course, I would always rather the kids receive clothes, shoes or books, but they like TOYS.  Like they need any more plastic toys.  Oh well - whatever makes them happy.  To me, that's what birthdays are all about for the little ones - one special day a year to get exactly what you want all day long (within reason of course).  Here are a few more pictures from his big day (and for the record - Buzz Lightyear tastes like strawberry on top and vanilla on the bottom ;)) -