Call the presses!!!!!

Emma went to sleep in less then ten minutes.... Now that is nothing new... here is the best part....

It was by herself.... (like normal)... with NO BOTTLE!!!!!!

(I should have tried this sooner!!!)

Whew!! (Housecleaning and christmas spirit)

It took me two whole days, a lot of backache, and a million contractions... but I finally finished cleaning the whole house!!! I so proud of myself. I had the energy and decided to just get up and do it. I haven't been able to in weeks, or months. Everytime I would start cleaning and get too active the contractions would get too bad... So finally I sat there and thought hmm... last time I was pregnant I would clean straight through the contractions and nothing bad ever happened. So I just got up and did it...

Course if I post about a new baby in a couple of weeks I will know that I probably should have taken it easy! It would seem that the nesting has finally set in for good. All the cleaning and cooking I have been doing this week, not to mention getting the baby stuff ready. Today I plan on hanging the pictures above his crib. Been meaning to do that! I am going to start getting all the cloth diapers ready and set to go. I have decided to use cloth this go around to save money but I will still be using disposables at night till the night time feedings decrease, and I am able to afford the all in ones that don't leak at all! If anyone cares to buy Josiah a present the all in one's cost $14.95 a piece... wink wink.... I know, I know, it is a little steep but you only need four or five of them....

Well I finally found a Christmas Tree Farm around here so we can go and cut a tree down this year. I am so excited because I have never had a real tree. Pete finally agreed to it since he doesn't want to find a place to store a fake tree. So on the Saturday after Thanksgiving we are going to bundle up and take Emma out to get a tree. The farm that I found takes you out on a trolley into the woods where they have planted all the trees. When you get there they let you loose with a saw and a cart to haul it back to the trolley with. Then you ride the trolley back to the main area where the "shake" the tree free of loose needles, bale it up for you and then put it on your car. Then after all that they give you a mug of hot chocolate and a candy cane! How cute is that???

We are planning on making this our family tradition so we will be doing this in the morning (November 26th) towards lunch then heading home to turn on the music and decorate. Hopefully we will have a couple presents already wrapped so we can get those under there and make it look more festive. It's going to be fun keeping Emma away from the tree and presents!

We are planning to have the shopping and decorating done by that weekend since we don't know when Josiah will be gracing us with his presence. If he is like his sister it will be way before Christmas and we don't want to be shopping with a newborn. Speaking of.... Josiah... if you can hear me... Again I repeat come soon... preferably maybe the third week in December????

For your viewing pleasure

Well I guess it would be for those who don't mind seeing my naked belly and those who are wondering how big I am... Sorry for the quality of the picture... It is the best that I can do without Pete! I am 30 weeks and two days in this picture.

If you can tell.... I have a small stretch mark right near the point where my stomach and hip meet... I was kinda hoping to pass by unscathed like I did with Emma... But I don't think that that is going to happen... I guess when you hit your all time weight high you kinda tend to stretch in places! I can't wear my wedding ring anymore... that never happened with Emma... Makes me sad!

Josiah is killing me!! Carrying a boy is definitely different then carrying a girl... His favorite past time is ramming his little head down into my right hip and elsewhere.... while also stretching and kicking his feet into my left rib or sternum... Feels great!! Then of course there is the fact that he NEVER sleeps! Or if he is sleeping then he moves in his sleep.... Help me someone... I think I may have been taken over by a little alien!!!


Josiah if you can hear me... come soon... very soon... (well when you are done cookin'!!)

Woe is me

Well... it seem that the contractions that I was plagued with the entire third trimester with Emma have finally found their way home to me again.

The painful contractions started on Sunday. I just try to be careful about how much I do and when I notice that they begin to get regular than I slow down! I was kind of hoping that I would escape this but such is not the case.

My one consolation is that I am getting closer to the point when in this pregnancy where Emma was born last time. Seven more weeks and I will be 37 weeks and then I am going to start counting the days. I have made that my small goal to acheive. It sounds a lot better than ten weeks.

I have decided to give up on my knitted poncho.... Maybe after Josiah is born I will have the gumption to pick it back up again. Instead I think that I will make a shawl. My friend Jamie just finished this one and it looks pretty. Hopefully I will have enough yarn to make it.

In the mean time a nice lady at church has given me a buttondown shawl to wear. It is pretty warm when I wear two layers under it. I am currently enjoying it until I make one of my own.

I better get cracking!

Oh NO!

I had an appointment today with my midwife.

The good news first!
My blood pressure is great. My sugar is fine, don't have to worry about diabetes, and the baby sounds great!

The bad news
I gained 9 pounds in the last month. What is up with that???

Out of Emma's mouth!

Emma knows that there is a baby in mommy's belly she often points to my belly, pats it and says baby.

Today Emma came up to me and pulled on my pants...

I looked down and asked her what??

She pointed to her belly and said:


"Mommy.... Baby!"


I almost peed my pants laughing!!!

Life as I know it... (aka family updates)

Well this headache that I have had for two weeks is still going strong. I call the doctor's office about twice a week and tell them about it... hoping it isn't my blood pressure. They continue to reassure me that it isn't. Today my midwife called in a prescription for pain meds to take at night... She says they are okay to take when pregnant. I trust her. But I had hoped not to get to that point.

Then yesterday to top it all off I had to take that glucose tolerance test where you drink that nasty orange carbonated beverage then have your blood drawn an hour later... I uh had a little reaction to it to say the least. The room was spinning and I had all I could do to sit in a chair... I got through it okay then went down to the doctor's office only to find out that my midwife was upstairs in the middle of a delivery and I had to reschedule my appointment! I was so bummed. When you are pregnant you LIVE for those appointments!! But at any rate I will get to go in on Monday and FINALLY have my blood pressure checked.

Today I went to have my eyes checked... THANK GOD that my prescription hadn't changed enough to warrant new glasses so that saved us about $150!! But at least we ruled out my eyes as the cause of the headaches.

The baby continues to keep me awake at night and seems to have found a new comfy home under my ribcage! FUN FUN! We are very anxious to meet our Josiah though and pray every day for his safety and for the cyst to be gone at our next ultrasound.

We are starting our childbirth education classes next Tuesday... I am really excited because she is a born again Christian and incoporates God and the bible into her classes. I am hoping that I get through this labor easier and faster with her tuterage!

Pete is not getting such good hours at work lately. Although it comes and goes so we just roll with the punches. Other than that he can't complain about work.

Well I think that about sums up our life at this moment in the year!

A conversation with Emma

Today Emma and I were sitting in the rocking chair talking about baba's. Although I must admit that it was pretty much onesided!

"Emma don't you know that big sisters aren't supposed to drink baba's"

"Nooo"

"Well they don't! Maybe we should throw the baba in the trash?"

"Noo"

"Why not? Don't you want to be a big sister??"

"Noo"

"You mean you don't want a baby brother??"

"Noooo"


Will she ever learn how to say yes?

Please remind me

Dear Lord,

Would it be possible to remind me sometime in the future how much I suffered through my pregnancies???

When I suddenly become riddled with baby fever could You remind of me of the sleepless nights I experienced while pregnant?? Could You remind of the eternal back pain?? How it never went away and when I got up at night to answer yet another call of nature I would sometimes almost fall on the floor because my lower back could no longer support me??

Would it be okay if You could just gently whisper in my ear how I stayed up at night sometimes with heartburn to the point that I was sure I was going to die a slow agonizing death?? And how it didn’t seem to matter what I ate??

Would You remind me of my daughter’s four day labor marathon that ended with 2 and half hours of hellish pushing?? Only to find out that the problems all came from a "sunny side up" face and a diagonally positioned head?? And when the time comes, if it becomes necessary, remind me of me of my son’s magical entrance into the world???

In the future when I see a baby or hold one could You remind me that I already went through that?? And that I am now back into the blissful days where I can sleep at night?? And maybe even take my eyes off of my grown children for a moment long enough to find a bathroom??

And when I hold that baby and think about how nice it would be to have "JUST ONE MORE", remind me that I already used that excuse??

Please, sometime in the future remind me of how sure I was that I only wanted two children, a boy and girl, and while You are at it could You remind me, that is exactly what You blessed me with???

I say all this because Dear Lord, I am still not sure that I want to quit after this one even though at times lately I just wish someone would take me out behind the barn and shoot me!!

Give me peace with the two beautiful children that You have given me (I hope Josiah is beautiful!). Remind me that life isn’t just about babyhood! I still have toddler-hood, child-hood, and those wonderful teenage years ahead....

Oh and yeah.. One more thing.. Remind me that someday I will be a grandma! Babies without the pain of pregnancy, labor and delivery!!!!!

Amen

Fall is in the air!!!!

Finally!!!! I have waiting so long for the hot weather to disappear... Last night the weather man said, "Take a good look at this map, it won't look like this again till May!" He was referring to the 70 and 80 degree reading on the map. I was so HAPPY when he said that!

Now we are finally going to get the nice temps of fall. Although I believe that it is going to come in like a vengeance and just turn into to winter right away... that is okay though, the sooner Christmas comes then the sooner Josiah will be here!

I walked outside today, (it was still a little warm!) and looked around at the trees... they have finally started to change colors. Took long enough! Guess I shouldn't complain though because soon the trees will be bare and it will look bleak and gray and that seasonal depression will kick in...

Actually I was thinking about all the nice fall and winter things that I get to do soon! Like wear wool socks with my clogs, wear turtle necks and sweaters, and see my breath when I go outside. Oh and my favorite, that weird smell in the air, is it the cold, wood smoke or snow??? Who knows but everyone you ask knows the smell and loves it. While thinking about the fall today I thought of my friend Jamie who loves the fall too! Are you enjoying it as much as me??

It is supposed to rain for the next four days... I had forgotten about that part of fall... Oh well soon it will be snow!!!

Knitting, babies and pregnancy.

Well my poncho is not turning out so good! I was doing really well until I got to this one mock granny stitch that totally confused me! Now I have so many stitches on my needle that it is more than what I ever even started with!! Which I don't think was the idea... Hopefully the lady at church that knits will be able to help me.... Bums me out though I really wanted to wear it on Sunday... Maybe if I get enough gumption I will try and look at it again later tonight and see what I can see....

Well here is a picture of Emma. This morning she emptied her laundry basket so that she could play with it! I caught her walking around with it on her head! She is so cute.... Here is another cute picture of Emma. She is wearing the scarf that I knitted her.


She always manages to cheer me up on bad days!

She cracked me up this morning... I said hey Emma are you being bad??? And she says... Nooooo!!!! Right in the middle of touching something she shouldn't!

Then later she emptied her laundry basket just so she could play in it.... I caught her in the kitchen and had to take a picture of it!


I am not sleeping at night... It could be my back... it hurts!!! Or maybe it is the fact that everytime I wake up (which just happens to be every 45 minutes) Josiah decides to have a party in there and do jigs on my bladder! Hey kiddo, need I remind you that you are a guest in there?? What gets me is that I am supposed to be resting at this point and trying not to overdo! Yeah okay let me just tell my body and the foreigner in there that we have to sleep now... LEAVE ME ALONE!!

Oh and let's not forget that the dreaded contractions I had with Emma for ten weeks have started up again with Josiah. What a girl woudn't give for a normal pregnancy. Last night they were pretty regular all night long. Anywhere between 5 to 10 minutes apart. I debated calling the midwife on call. But it wouldn't have done any good! Pete was at work till 3AM and Emma is not a force to be contended with when woken! So I just bade my time and figured I would call if they were still around in the morning. Which of course they weren't! Same thing that happened with Em! Keep me up all night then disappear in the morning.

At any rate. Soon the baby will be here and instead of being woken every hour to pee I will be woken every couple of hours to feed. Not so bad considering I might get longer stretches of sleep then!

Sheer boredom!

I hate the fact that when Emma is sleeping I can't do anything that makes noise! We live in such a small house that I have to be careful if I don't want a cranky child on my hands! I hope that Josiah will be used to noise and I won't have problems with him!

Well I started a new knitting project. I am making this. The website called it the Martha Stewart Coming home Poncho... whatever!! I saw it and thought it looked pretty so I decided to make it! When I started to work on it on Friday I ended up taking it out 3 or 4 times and got so frustrated that I just decided to quit. So on saturday I started it and actually accomplished something! I am using size 11 straight needles but there are so many stitches that I am cramped on there. So hopefully before I start the next panel I will be able to buy some circulars to finish the poncho on. It would definitely make life so much easier!!!

So until I switch over to the circulars I can't really take a pic because it is too squished together to see. Maybe the pic will have to wait till I am done... then maybe I can have Pete take a picture of me with it on.... wow... won't everyone be thrilled to see my big belly under a poncho!

Strange Dreams

I am wondering... are we brainwashed at a young age to believe something?? Or is it just a principle that is ingrained into our beings that just suddenly becomes a sense of propriety???

The reason I ask? I have always been brought up that girls where dresses to church... the whole nine yards. Dress, stockings, dress shoes, nice hair.... you get the idea. The problem becomes that when one is pregnant it is VERY hard to find dress clothes for women the size of cows that don't make you look like a cow... or better yet... the side of a barn... (or is it just me??) I went to the maternity store yesterday in desperate need of a skirt. NOTHING! Well nothing modest and certainly nothing that would allow me to go stocking-less. Can you imagine a big pregnant lady trying to put on stockings?? So I leave the store empty handed after all.... IT IS TABOO TO WEAR PANTS TO CHURCH!!!

In the end I had chats with several people that I consider my closest mentors... They all agree... Wear pants if it will make you feel comfortable, never mind what people think! It is only temporary! So back to the store I go... this time with an aunt and grandmother ( worked nicer than with the hubby and dearest daughter!) And came home with three pairs of lovely pants and shirts to match.

Here is where the dream comes in! I go to sleep last night thinking... Oh my gosh! I can't where pants...what are people going to think??? I am the associate pastor's grandaughter. I then go on to dream that I walk into the church with pants, everyone so shocked I would do such a thing! Then the pastor calls an emergency meeting and says... Women are supposed to wear dresses!!! At which point half the church gets up and walks out. I wake this morning thinking OH GREAT! I caused a church split because I wore pants!

So I ask again is it brainwashing?? Hmmm.... I don't really know. I do know though, that I was SO much more comfortable today, no one said anything to me about my outfit except that I looked nice and most importantly our church congregation is still intact.....

Boy I sure will be glad when this baby comes and I stop having these weird dreams!