Yesterday was a typical Sunday. We had originally planned to go out to lunch as it was supposed to be the day before the c-section. After church Matt informed me that he still wanted to go out to lunch – so off we went. I had a few errands to do and then we drove kind of the long way home, but I didn’t think much of it. As we pulled up to home/church there were cars – Lots of cars! I asked Matt if he was missing some meeting and he says “No, I think someone booked the Parish Hall for a family reunion.” Nothing too out of the ordinary I’m thinking… then he says, “Why don’t you go in and see what’s going on.” And I’m thinking “No way, I don’t want to barge in on someone’s family reunion!” Finally he says “Just go in…” and then I knew it was a surprise for me… I have no idea how that many people kept it a secret for that long, but there was a HUGE surprise baby shower! There were members of our church along with friends from school – they had all coordinated together to make one big shower. I was very surprised and feel so blessed to have such wonderful caring friends.

Over the years we continue to be amazed at the genrosity and love we are given from this congregation and community. It is so different than anything we ever experienced in WA (aside from family) and words can’t express how blessed and grateful we are for the many things people bless us with every day. This shower was just one small token of the generosity that we have been shown.

I did wake up this morning at 4:30 a.m. and think – I’m sure glad we aren’t driving to the hospital for the c-section like we were originally scheduled to do! Sure, we have to be patient now, but that is most certainly worth the wait for an easier recovery and less stress and fear over the whole delivery process. Now we’re praying she just stays head down and all goes well.

Anyway, here are some pictures of my giant belly and the shower. (It was a bit bright out for this first one!)

Dane wanted to know if some of these were for him since his Birthday is coming up! Cute! He is soooo excited about his b-day -not an hour goes by when he doesn’t ask how many more days.

Allright, here is the update.

I called the Dr. Office this morning and there was a message on that said they closed at 11 a.m. yesterday, were closed all day today and will open Monday morning – and that you can not leave a message. No after hours number, answering service or anything. HMMMM

So… I called the hospital and asked if they could contact my Dr. for me or give me an answering service number or something… At first they said no, but then when I explained the situation she agreed to page my Dr. for me. Within 5 minutes Dr. Hannah called and said she would investigate the situation and call me back. About 5 minutes later she called back and said that she cancelled the c-section and that I could come in next week for a regular appointment. She asked what my schedule was like next week for my appointment. Well…. Let’s see, I don’t have anything on the calendar because I was supposed to be in the hospital having a baby! So I go in Tuesday morning at 10:15 for an appointment. I’m guessing that she will want to induce around 39-40 weeks to prevent a giant baby, but I guess only time will tell. So we’re just in a hold pattern at the moment. It is kind of strange to go from expecting a baby in 3 days to not knowing when again, but I’m just happy to most likely no longer need a c-section. She’ll be here sometime in the next 3 weeks or so!

Dane has his friend Carter over for the day, and they are having a great time as usual. They play so good together, that I actually get more done when he is here then when he isn’t. They are starting to get hungry so I need to figure out what to make for lunch!

C-

I only have a couple minutes before I have to take the boys to school but I wanted to let you know that at my ultrasound yesterday the baby was head down – YEA! I am sooooo happy! Thank you so much for your prayers and well wishes – they worked!

Story goes I was supposed to have an ultrasound at 9:15 and then a Dr. Appointment at 10:15 to go over the results. Well, the hospital messed up and had my ultrasound scheduled for tomorrow, but said they could squeeze me in at noon. So, I went to the Dr. first and then the ultrasound. At the Dr. she felt the baby and said “yup, still breech”. (I’m pretty sure she wasn’t at this point, but she felt that way to the dr. – I had that problem with Dane too – at 37 weeks my midwife sent me in for an ultrasound because she thought he was breech, but he wasn’t – so I must just carry weird or something… Yesterday my Dr. did an internal exam as well and said she couldn’t feel any body part and obviously the baby was all very high.) So she went over all the final c-section stuff and sent me on my merry way.

I went to my ultrasound at noon (after dinking around that tiny town for a couple hours) and she was head down! I was quite surprised and ecstatic. Her head is still pretty high, but that was the same with the boys as well until I went into labor so I’m not too worried about that – as long as she’s head down we’re good. So here’s where it gets complicated…

I had my ultrasound at noon and the Dr. office closed at noon so she didn’t get the results. Today she is out of town and then it is the weekend and then Monday morning I am supposed to be at the hospital at 5 a.m. for the scheduled c-section. So, I’m not quite sure how to contact her, I’ll have to call the office today to see if I can figure out a way to get ahold of her. She did say that if for some reason she was head down in the ultrasound we could cancel the c-section, so I just need to figure out how to cancel that.

The baby was measuring 7 pounds 3 oz. as of yesterday, so I’m guessing she will still want to induce early, but I’m not sure when.

So that’s the scoop as of now.

I had fun making this video this afternoon of Ryan’s first football game. ENJOY!

Six more days until our scheduled c-section – we are probably having a baby in six more days! It’s crazy to know what day to expect her arrival! I have an ultrasound Thursday morning followed by a Dr. appointment, and if she is still not head down, followed by pre-registration at the hospital for surgery. We have child care all set up for the boys for the entire week next week starting Sunday night as we have to be at the hospital Monday morning at 5:30 a.m. – which means we have to leave our house at 4:45 a.m. What a great way to start off with a new baby – exhausted. LOL I’m very excited to meet here, but I am still a bit aprehensive about the whole c-section thing. Apparenly I can expect to stay in the hospital until Thursday morning – or Wed. night if I’m lucky. Dane’s B-day is Wed. so that would be kind of nice to come home and see him, but we’ll see how it goes. Yes, I did order my stroller, bathtub and diaper pail. Now I am working on getting the laundry done and everyone packed – lots to do this week!

Let’s see if I can re-cap last week.
-Monday Dane went to the eye Dr. and everything looked good. He hasn’t complained about it since Wed. so I think it’s pretty much healed.
-Monday and Tuesday we also had our normal footbal evenings (which are starting to get kind of old).
- Wednesday we looked at our schedule and decided at the last minute that even though it was a school night, we were driving and 1 1/2 hours each way to Chuck E. Cheese as one last fun thing to do with the boys before the baby is born. It just didn’t seem like it was going to fit in any other time and we wanted to do something special with the boys before her arrival.
-Thursday I had a Dr. appointment and then that night we had school open house.
-Friday I had Mom’s Bible Study in the morning (which Dane comes with) then I went garage saling with a friend and her little boy, and then the kids had 1/2 a day of school.
-Saturday we had football – out of town in… well I have no clue I was totally lost – I’m so glad I followed someone and had my GPS to get home. It was a really good game, but they lost again 19-12 it was 13-12 until the other team scored right when the buzzer went off to end the game. Matt stayed home for church clean-up day. We left the house at 7:25 a.m. and got home around 1:30 p.m. Then that evening we went to the annual hay ride held at one of our church members home. That is always a fun time, but the boys were exhausted and all crying by the time we got home and of course they had to have baths as they were covered in hay.
-Sunday was Mission Fest. at church. That means we had Sunday School at 9 a.m. Church at 10:00 a.m. a Slide show at 4:30 p.m., Potluck at 5:30 p.m. and another service at 7:00 p.m. It made for a really long day and after having a big Saturday we were all ready to just jump into bed after all that. It didn’t really feel like we had a weekend.
-Yesterday we had major errand/shopping day. I bought a ton of groceries knowing I probably won’t make it back to the store for awhile. We should be set for quite awhile – we’ll just need staples – milk, bread and fresh produce which Matt can pick up as needed. He plans to take a couple weeks off after the baby is born. Then in the evening Matt took Ryan and Christian to football and then Cub Scouts and Dane and I stayed home and then went to a meeting I had to attend at church.

Busy enough for you? It definitely was for me!

Other events of the week: Christian decided in school that it would be a good idea (in his mind) to shorten his name to Christ. UM yeah, that’s not really going to fly. I think we got that straightened out. And Ryan proved to us that yes, he can get all A’s and B’s if he puts his mind to it. So he has his Nintendo DS back this week as a result of his improved grades. I knew he had it in him. However, he also read 3 big chapter books last week -and he never reads… so now I’m trying to figure out how to bribe him to have good grades AND read… Dane has taken up talking A LOT! He has always had something to say, but lately it is never ending he wants to talk to me at all times all day long. At the moment I have him watching TV because I just couldn’t focus enough to type while he was telling me all his stories, and he wants me to make sure I am looking at him while he is talking as well, so no multi-tasking allowed! (which makes sense – we all like to be acknowledged while we are talking, but my goodness I need a break from it periodically – although it is awfully cute too!)

Today I a staying home, resting, doing laundry etc. until I pick up the boys from school, doing homework, dinner and football.

So I guess that pretty much catches you up on life.

C-

Are you ready? That is the question I seem to get the most these days in reference to our soon to be newest member of the family.

So am I ready? Well… that is kind of two-fold. Emotionally – yes, I think I’m getting pretty close. I can’t wait to see what she looks like, to fall in love with her in my arms, that newborn smell & softness. I feel more emotionally ready than I was with any of the boys. I think the fact that we have already done this 3 times before, along with the fact that our youngest is 4, not 2, makes a huge difference. I was always sad before that my “baby” was being replaced in a way – of course Dane is still the “baby” at the moment, but I think he is old enough to be able to handle this change pretty well. A new baby of course always changes family dynamics a bit, but I feel like the adjustment is going to go fairly smooth this time.

Physically – well no, we’re not totally ready… There are still things to buy – let’s see like a bathtub, stroller, diaper pail… etc. etc. I know, I know, I just haven’t felt in a rush – who knows. I have all the things picked out, just haven’t actually purchased them. We have the basics – the carseat, diapers, clothes. Matt yesterday was wanting to know when I was going to pack a bag for myself and the kids. UMMM, I’ll get around to it.. Then there is the prospect of the c-section. I like the idea of knowing exactly what day she is coming, but no… I’m not really ready for that.

So in answer to the question – are you ready? Well… sort of… I still have 4 weeks until my due date – 2 weeks until the scheduled c-section – I have time… RIGHT?

C-

We had kind of a hard day today.

We started with a Dr. appointment. The baby is not head down – as we found out in our ultrasond on Wednesday. (and knew about before) At the ultrasond she was butt down, head & feet up. Today at the Dr. she was side to side again. So she scheduled a c-section for Sept. 29th at 7:30 a.m. , which can be cancelled if she flips. (which I’m praying for) She said if I’m not too dialated we might be able to postpone it up to another week if we really want – so we’ll see. If we do it on the 29th I will still be in the hospital on Dane’s Birthday which would be kind of sad. That would make Dane’s and baby’s b-day two days apart. I guess only time will tell, but I really am not looking forward to the prospect of a c-section.

So after a short cry about the c-section I was recovering and Dane was playing with Tinker Toys right next to me when he pulled two pieces apart and one piece went straight into his eye. He of course screamed and would not open his eye. Matt wasn’t home and I was trying to decide if I should take him to the eye doctor or the hospital. I called the eye doctor and they said I could bring him there, so that was good. It was a different Dr. than normal, and he was excellent! He has a scratch on his cornea, so he has both drops and ointment that we rotate every 2 hours (and he hates) but he said it should heal by the end of the weekend. We go back Monday to get it checked. So he is pretty miserable but is going to be okay.

We were supposed to spend the afternoon baking cookies for school, but instead of baking Dane and I visited the bakery while his prescriptions were being filled to fulfill that committment. Then we stopped by the Dairy Queen drive through because daddy did finally make it to the eye dr. and told Dane mommy would take him to ice-cream afterwards if he was good. Matt was getting his oil changed when the event happened – he said once he told them his wife needed him it was the fastest oil change he has ever gotten! LOL

The good news is that my cold sores are healing, and not causing me quite as much pain. Unfortunately, Matt’s poison ivy rash is still driving him crazy.

Tomorrow is football – it has been raining all day, and it’s supposed to rain again tomorrow so I’m sure it will be a muddy mess. We are getting the rain from hurricane Ike and supposedly can expect 2-5″ by Sunday. We had that 3 1/2″ last week so the ground is already pretty wet, so they say to expect some flooding. I’m sure that’s not what the farmers want to hear.

Matt is working on Cub Scout stuff with the boys. Ryan is without his Nintendo DS this week (starting today) as he had a couple papers below the 83% – C cut off this week. We’ll see if that motivates him at all.

I need to go tuck the boys into bed. Have a great weekend!

C-