A Year to Remember

2008 will definitely be one of those years that stands out for our family. Let's recap:

January - Ripped out the kid's bathroom and remodeled it.
February - Found out I was pregnant.
March - Stayed sick, sick, sick.
April - Quit both of my jobs so I could focus on being sick. :)
May - Tiled the master bathroom.
June - Tiled the kitchen.
July - Helped organize and attended the big South Family Beach Vacation.
August - Sold the house.
September - Moved to the apartment.
October - Gave birth to Kira. Mike started a new job.
November - Moved to Austin.
December - Tried to settle in. Visited my dad for Christmas.

My goodness, this has been a busy year. No wonder I'm so tired! But our family has been greatly blessed. We are happy to be where we are and to have our newest member. We hope this year has been filled with happiness and good times for you and your family.

Merry Christmas - a few days late...

Christmas is all about the kids, right? So here goes:

Reid is doing well at the new school. He's taking three pre-AP classes which means he's getting high school credit for them. The subject he likes best is math. (Be still my heart.) He's taking Algebra and is doing great. He's also in pre-AP science and social studies. He's planning to go out for track in the spring. It's so funny because this guy we met in our new neighborhood commented on Reid having "a good stride" when Reid was running up the street. He's about the third person to say that to me. I guess Reid got some of Tommy's running genes. Hopefully he'll have a good running coach who can help him develop his apparently natural talent.

Zach seems to be fairly happy at the charter school. They don't have a whole lot of homework, so that makes him happy. He has enjoyed hanging out at Matt's house down the street. Matt is Mike's friend who's lived in Austin for several years. Matt's house is apparently a hang out spot for some of the neighborhood kids, so that has been nice for Zach. And on Matt's birthday cake, they put Zach's name too (Matt's birthday is Dec 13th, Zach's is the 11th).

*Harry Potter 7 Spoiler Alert*
Jacob has had a good time hanging out at home and at the Sudbury school for the past couple of weeks. He has developed a great love of reading in the past few months. He started reading the first Harry Potter book just before school started and now he's on the last book. When he first took the 7th book off the shelf, I witnessed (to my horror) him turn to the back of the book and read some of the last pages. He then told Cole that Harry didn't die. Mike said that his grandma used to read the last page of a book before she started it. Perhaps he got it from her. After he's done with this series, we'll have to find a new one for him. Suggestions are welcome. And he'll start school at the charter school after Christmas break. I'm sure he'll do well there.

Cole is quite spunky these days. He spends a large amount of his time wrestling with Reid. He also spends a lot of time building with Legos. He often comes into my room sporting his latest creation. Ships with lots of firepower seem to be his specialty. :) Overall he seems to be a fairly happy child. Which is all a parent can ask for.

Kira is growing fast. I weighed her at my dad's this past week and she was right at 13lbs. Everyone in the house is in love with her. And she's repaying all of this devotion with lots and lots of smiles and coos. She's really starting to interact with her busy surroundings. And, of course, she's keeping her mother guessing still. She seemed to really be helped by the acidophilus powder that I am giving her. So I thought, "Maybe it was that all along and not the dairy." So I had some milk the other day and she got fussy and a little gassy, but nothing bad... so I thought, "Okay, I'll try it again." This morning I had a bowl of cereal and then I spent the morning dealing with a fussy baby while Mike and the boys were at church. Then when Mike changed her diaper this afternoon there was blood in her poo again. So. I think that clears that up. Good thing she's so darn cute.

And we had a really nice time at my dad's house for the week. Darlene cooked and cooked and cooked while we were there. It is probably the first time in a long time that I've relaxed a little. The kids got lots of nice Christmas presents and we saw lots of fine family. And we were reacquainted with Texas weather. We started the week at 76 degrees, then we had two nights of 15 degree temperatures, then we ended the week with tornado warnings. And leaving my dad's house reminded me of the time I left John and Judy's house after Mike and I were married. There was no sadness because I knew I'd be back soon. :) Nice to be so close to my dad.

Two Whole Months!

Can you believe it? Kira is 2 months old (yesterday).

She is really starting to look like a baby instead of a newborn.

The Baby's Jarro-dophilus seems to be helping her a good bit. She had some trouble yesterday with diaper rash and general fussies. But when she finally nursed and went to sleep at 9pm, she decided that she was tired and slept until 4:30am. I did not complain one bit! Hopefully we can have more nights like that without the pre-screaming.

And we are enjoying our visit with my dad. We went to Shawn's 18th birthday party yesterday. Shawn is my step-sister's son. Seems like only yesterday that I took Reid over to see Shawn when Shawn was four and Reid was a baby.

And the kids are chomping at the bit to open presents. I don't usually put presents out until Chrismtas morning, so they have been deprived of the torture that it is to see presents under the tree for weeks before Christmas. It's kind of fun to see them getting all excited about all of the presents. :)

Losing My Mind

Yesterday was activity night at church. Reid and Zach (who's now in the young men's program) needed to be at church a little early to go on a service project. Since I didn't make dinner, Mike sent me with Reid and Zach and asked me to just stop at Wendy's and get them something they could eat on the way to church. He stayed behind and made some food for Jacob and Cole since they didn't have to be there until a little later.

So I get to Wendy's, drive up to the drive thru, and place my very specific order:

For Reid: A Gourmet Mushroom Swiss Burger Combo with a Vanilla Frosty. Can I have American Cheese instead of Swiss, please? 'No problem.' Thanks.

For Zach: A Baconator Combo with a Chocolate Frosty. (Hey, no modifications... go Zach.)

For Me: A #1 Combo. No onion, no pickles. 'Would you like cheese with that?' Well, yes, I'd LIKE it, but I don't want it on there. (Okay, I didn't say that, but I wanted to.) No. 'What to drink?' Sprite.

'That will be $19.21, please drive to the first window.'

I pull up, then realize that I don't have my purse. How could I not have my purse??? I tell the lady, "I'm soooo sorry. I don't have my purse!" She starts yelling, "CANCEL ORDER! CANCEL ORDER!"

So I pull away... what do I do? I ask the kids if they will starve if they don't eat until after the... "YES!", Zach interrupts.

Then I pause... and realize to my horror... my purse is right there. Right where it always is... why didn't I see it? Why was I so quick to assume it wasn't there?

So now what do I do? I tell the kids that I don't want to bother the Wendy's people any more and that we'll find somewhere else to get food. They fuss a little and I keep saying I don't want to bother the people again.

Then Reid, who likes Wendy's and almost nothing else, and who is a very reasonable and mature kid, says, "Mom. It's okay. Just go back and reorder."

Taken back by his directness and calmness, I obeyed. We parked, went in and I said, "Hi, I just went through the drive thru and cancelled the order because I didn't have my purse... well, it turns out I had it." 'Okay. No problem. Happens all the time.'

Really? Okay. Thanks. And thanks, Reid, for helping your poor mother out. :)

We'll Try Anything

It's not like Kira's fussing is so horrible. She's not screaming bloody murder all the time by any means. But when there's as much to do in a given day as there is in our house, having a high maintenance baby is hard to deal with. And knowing that her tummy hurts her is hard for me to deal with.

On Monday Mike was doing a search on acidophilus for babies and he came across a brand that I hadn't ever bought before (I've been taking some "probiotics", but not giving any directly to Kira). I read about the strain that it contained and figured it was worth a try.

So we're on our second day of this and it's possible that we're seeing some improvements. Yesterday, for the most part, she only cried when she was hungry or tired. She's had fewer bowel movements and her poo is more yellow (well, maybe a yellow green, but definitely less dark).

So maybe it's helping. It certainly doesn't hurt. And in a few days, I'll try some more dairy and see if the good bacteria will help her digest that.

And I'm not worried about her health at all. She's growing and developing normally. She's so cute. If you haven't seen my other blog lately, go to www.dailykira.blogspot.com and take a peak at how cute she is. :)

The Jury's Still Out

So... there's no rash all over her head, so that's a good thing. I ate the cheese pasta Saturday night. Then I had the leftovers from it on Sunday morning. I had about three bites of ice cream on Sunday afternoon and then had a little bit of butter in our dinner last night.

What I have noticed is that she's not sleeping as well. She has been having trouble going back to sleep after eating and this morning she woke up and was instantly screaming her head off.

So, could the sensitivity take time to build back up? Will it just keep getting worse? Or is it just my imagination? I don't know. I think I'll go back off dairy for now. What I know for certain is that a screaming baby is way more stressful for me than a restricted diet. Even if it's only helping in my messed up head.

Testing

So... today I ate some dairy. It's been right around 3 weeks since I had any (well, aside from the accidental chicken nugget). I'm waiting for the rash and general fussiness. If they happen, I'll continue to stay away from dairy. If they don't, I'll eat it in moderation for the next week, then go back to my regular diet.

So, I told one of my friends that I was going to drink a glass of milk and she suggested that I be more creative and maybe have some ice cream. Well... I decided that since I've been starving for the past few weeks, I needed to have some real food. So I chose some of the fresh three cheese tortellinis that you can buy in the refrigerated sections. Yum. They were really good. I did take a spoonful of some ice cream, but I didn't want to overdo.

So I'll keep you posted on her reaction. Given that I'm continuing to lose weight, I'm hoping that this doesn't bother her and I can get back to my cheese and sour cream.

Hallelujah

After weeks of caring for a sweet, but fussy baby, this feels glorious and well earned.

Rain in Fair Austin

We are having a bit of a storm tonight. If I wasn't so busy while it was lightening, I would have gone out on the porch to watch. Summer thunder and lightening storms were always my favorite weather in NC. I loved to sit out on the porch and enjoy mother nature at her finest. I didn't hear any thunder here, though. But it's still raining pretty hard, so maybe I should go out and take a few moments to breathe and relax. Something that has been eluding me for the past week and a half... wait... make that the past year. :)

UPDATE: Three minutes later... must be why I like SUMMER storms. It's freaking freezing out there! Guess I'll have to find my refuge somewhere else.

Or Just Very, Very Tired...

So my last post was a bit weird. I read it again today and thought, "Did I write that?"

I think the lost sleep is finally catching up to me. I haven't been napping much lately and with all the moving and packing and unpacking and having a baby!, I think I've finally developed a good case of the "I'm pooped"s.

What I was trying to say in my last post is that I find myself not handling change very well... and I interpret that as a sign that I'm getting old.

But I think it may have a little more to do with the fact that I'm tired. Really tired.

But, life goes on.

The kids start school tomorrow. Reid is going to the local middle school. Zach and Cole are enrolled at a local charter school, and Jacob is going to go to a start up Sudbury School for the next two weeks until a spot opens up for him at the charter school after the Christmas break. A little complicated, but only for a couple of weeks. Then the three kids will all be in the same school. That should be nice. And a couple of different people in the neighborhood have been surprised that we could get into the charter school. Apparently a lot of people try to get in and don't. So we feel blessed yet again.

So tomorrow I will be home most of the day alone with Kira. I think that may be the first time that will happen since she was born. Hopefully she won't freak out too much.

Oh... and on the allergy front, she's been doing better. That is until last night when I ate two chicken nuggets that Cole had left over from his kid's meal... Kira was up during the night and screamed for a good portion of today. The rash on her face also came back a bit. The nuggets have both egg and milk in them according to Wendy's nutritional information, so I still don't know if it's the milk, eggs, or both. But I think it's safe to say that it's definitely something.

I'm starving most of the time. I can eat a whole meal and still feel hungry. I ate large portions of kielbasa sausage, fried potatoes, and green beans for dinner and was still starving. Then I ate a huge apple that I sliced up and dipped in a massive pile of peanut butter. Nope, still starving. I guess my body wants its dairy fat. Being hungry all the time is really no fun. But it's funner than a baby that screams all day.

Anyway. It's good to be back to the blogging world. I'll have some pictures up of our place and the fam soon.

I'm Old...

Okay.  So here we are in Austin.  I'm struggling with all the new things to adjust to.  I didn't like the grocery store here that I went to last night.  I forgot a couple of things on my list because I was feeling flustered there.

And getting the registrations done for the kids at school caused me much stress.

I think I'm just used to my old places and people and I'm finding it difficult to adjust.

I'm thinking that the exhaustion of the past few months, the fact that I have a 6 week old baby, and just crazy life has made all of this adjustment harder to deal with.

But it's not all bad.  The kids have a couple of neighborhood friends already and one of the kid's in Cole's school classroom is a kid he already met at church on Sunday.

Okay.  Kira is ready for her mom...

Moving Eve

Okay, so that title doesn't make sense, but it's the day before the move.  We packed up most of our stuff in the truck last night.  Thankfully, it looks as if everything will fit.  Kudos to the guys from church who really know how to pack a truck!

The boys (I can't say kids anymore) are all at sleepovers.  It's their final hang out time here.  I spent the evening home alone with Kira trying to pack up the last stuff.  Needless to say, the swing I borrowed from a friend was a lifesaver.  Kira was in the swing for about three hours.  So I was able to get a lot done.  And she's sleeping in the swing again now, so I'm continuing to get things done.

So... just wanted to let you know how things were going.  James and Dad are on their way here from Atlanta this morning.  They got a little lost in Atlanta last night.  Hopefully they're not too stressed out when they get here.  It's so amazing of them to drive all the way here just to help us load up and then drive all the way back.  They rock.

Okay.  Ladies from church will be here in about 30 minutes, so I better get some more stuff done so they can actually do the cleaning like they plan to.  (Lovin' the Ladies!)

Wisdom

I thought I'd share an email that I got from my mom just now:

I know that you are overwhelmed with things today, but just pause a moment and look around. You are so blessed!

Mike - the loving, LOVING husband and father, good provider and your true soul mate;
Reid - a really good kid and good looking to boot;
Zach - a caring, challenging pre-teen with lots of love in his heart;
Jacob - the 'tall, dark, handsome' gentle little man with lots of caring;
Cole - the biggest little man around, with love and insight;
Kira - a blessing from above that 'binds the hearts of her family';
Kory - the silent keeper of the house.

No item(s) are more important than the love of the family. The move is a challenge but your love and patience is the part that will make the move a fun remembrance. Just keep in mind that the 'things' are part of your life, but nothing like the love of the family. Keep in mind that this can be a fun time; don't get to caught up on the little things to where you miss the big things that are fun.

I love you and think of you every moment.

Your Mom

Thanks, Mom. I needed that.

Crunch Time

My mom came this weekend and packed up my kitchen. That's a much bigger job than it seems. And it's only part of my kitchen. The rest is in storage... ugh. I'm so glad she came. And she got to hold Kira a good bit today while Kira slept. It was nice for them to get some time together.

So tomorrow I will be packing up clothes and putting together the suitcases for our trip. I'm going to do a little bit of shopping to pick up some trip goodies and some Trader Joe's staples to take with us to Texas. I'm going to miss Trader Joe's. I am moving within 15 minutes of an IKEA, but I think I'd rather have the Trader Joe's.

Guys from church are coming to the house Tuesday evening to help us pack up the furniture from the apartment and the storage unit. Then, if there's time, they'll come back to the apartment and pack up some of our boxes. We'll finish packing up the boxes on Wednesday, pack the cars, load up with my dad and James, and head out Thursday morning.

Sounds simple enough... sadly, it won't be. I'm sure I'll be one stressed out puppy by the time we're leaving. Then I get to spend two and a half days in a car with a newborn and a cat (and I bet my dad is looking forward to that, too!). Fun fun. I think by the time we get unloaded in Austin, I'm going to want to sleep for a month straight.

One Month

Wow. A whole month old. Time is just flying by. Next week we move to Texas. That's just crazy.

So I thought I'd let you in on the life of a one month old. Not that everyone reading this doesn't already know what it's like to have a little baby, but still... here's one aspect of life around here:

So, this is the outfit that I put on her this morning when she got up. It's one of my favorites. Such sweet little pants. Well... you can see what she did to them... she spit up all over them. So I changed her.

This is a sweet little outfit that I got from one of my mom's good friends. It has little owls on it. However, Kira is no respecter of owls and she spit up, peed, AND pooped on this outfit. So I changed her again...

This outfit came from the same lady that gave us the outfit in the first picture. Same sweet little pants (I do like the dark pink ones a little better). Isn't she cute in all of her pinkness? (Oh, and the blotching on her face is another reason I think she may be having a milk allergy.) She peed on this outfit, so Mike put her in this...

I can't remember who gave us this one. It is the definition of cuteness, though. I suppose Kira's just wanting to make sure that she's keeps up with the latest fashion trends, so she doesn't want to wear something too long. :)

Hopefully this little outfit will make it through the night. :)

Hard Night

On the eve of her one month birthday, Kira is giving her mommy a run for her money.

She has been crying pretty hard for a while now. Mike has her. She is just really not happy about life.

Here's what's been going on... she had started screaming really hard a couple of weeks ago at certain points during the day. Then she started having fizzy poop. Zach had what I called "coke fizz" poop. This wasn't quite that bad, but it was just full of bubbles. I started researching and most things said it was probably a foremilk/hindmilk imbalance. Meaning that she's getting a lot of watery breast milk and not enough high fat breast milk. Usually caused when the mom has too much milk. So I started working to make sure that she was getting the fattier hindmilk. Well, things were going alright. The number of poops seemed to decrease, the general fizziness also decreased, and she even seemed to scream less. Seemed pretty good, right?

Not so fast... her fizzy poop turned to a very watery poop and then a little thicker, but with lots of mucus in it. And finally today, she had a small streak of blood in her poop. And tonight she has been pretty much inconsolable.

So. There are basically two things that could be going on (according to what I've read, anyway). 1) This could all be from getting too much foremilk. Basically, the watery milk is very high in lactose and can overload baby's system and cause them to have digestive problems... thus the mucus and eventually blood. 2) This could be symptoms of a milk protein allergy. If she's sensitive to milk proteins that I'm ingesting, her body reacts with the mucus and blood in the poo. So I would need to cut out all dairy products.

Cutting out dairy can take 2 to 3 weeks to see positive results in the baby. And the foremilk problem can also take 2 to 3 weeks to resolve. So how will I know what's working? I suppose after 3 weeks, if she's doing better, I can have a glass of milk and sit back and see what happens.

But for tonight, and I suppose the next many nights, we'll just have to try to calm a crying baby. Hopefully it will all be a blur in a couple of months much like labor already is.

Oh, and she's still really cute. :)

What I Have To Put Up With

Hi. This is Kira. Mom's busy getting us ready to move to Texas, so I thought I'd give you an update and a glimpse into my life. Last night, somehow, I ended up with a purple onesie and a pink shirt over it. This morning, Dad decided that it would be funny if he put green pants and yellow socks on me. Very funny, Dad. I've got a closet full of sweet, adorable clothes, and you put me in this?


Granted, I'm cute in anything, but really... this is just over the top. Fortunately, you can see that Mom loves me no matter what. However, at the first opportunity, I made it so I needed a diaper change (I'm good at that) and peed all over my two shirts (I'm also good at that). Being the clever girl I am, I knew that with Mom being the one to change my diaper, that I'd get back into coordinating clothes. And I was right.


See how happy I am? Now don't get me wrong... Dad's great for a lot of things, but his sense of style is a bit lacking.

So that's what been going on with me today. Off to take a nap, or poop, or cry, or coo unbelievably cute... whatever I decide. ~Kira

My Favorite Part of the Day

Almost every morning, Kira spends a few minutes stretching and grunting while she wakes up. She will often make really sweet facial expressions and stretch and just be extremely cute.

Here's a picture of her this morning during her more asleep time of waking up (did that make sense?)

Upcoming Move

So... we're less than two weeks away from our move to Texas. I'm trying to figure out how on earth I'm going to get everything done that needs to be done. I think I'm going to ask a girl at church today to borrow her baby swing. That should give me some time to pack a few things here and there. I had intended to pack several boxes yesterday, but Mike spent the day helping Zach and Reid have a outing with friends. It was their sort of early birthday party before we go.

And yesterday I realized that I need to call to cancel all the utilities here and call to set up all the utilities there and it's just one more thing on my to-do list.

Then I got an email from Mike that his previous employer requires a copy of Kira's birth certificate before they can add her onto our now cancelled insurance. Really? I don't think I ever had to do that before... to-do list longer...

And so I just sit and feel overwhelmed instead of getting anything done. I guess I'll have to get over that!

Growing Baby

I just got finished folding a load of Kira's laundry. And I thought, "Hmmm... that doesn't really fit her anymore" when I folded this one little onesie. So I decided to go through all of her clothes and there were several things that she has already outgrown. Makes me sad. I don't know why time has to go by so quickly.

Kira's Blessing

Kira was blessed on Sunday. Our church doesn't do infant baptisms, but we do have a blessing. Basically, the dad and other elders of the church hold the baby and give her a blessing. Each blessing is unique and is given through inspiration. Kira was blessed, among other things, to have compassion on others and to be able to understand their needs. That she would recognize the sacredness of being a woman. And that she would be blessed to recognize the divine nature of families and be blessed by her own loving family.

It was really nice. She is a special person and we are grateful to have her in our home.

My mom made her a blessing dress. It isn't required, of course, to have special clothes to be blessed in, but it sure is a beautiful dress. She looked so cute. Here are a couple of pictures of her in her dress.

Three Weeks

My goodness time flies.

Three weeks ago I was soaking in this brand new little person. Today I'm stressing over whether or not something I'm eating is causing her tummy troubles. Last night I just broke down into tears at the thought that something I'm doing is causing her trouble. Probably a bit irrational, but it's really, really hard to hear your little baby crying so hard.

Fortunately, she's mostly doing good. She is fairly calm most of the time. And she's just getting bigger and bigger.

And let's see if I can't find a really cute picture to post...

This is her at four days old. I like how she's looking up at Reid. What cuties. :)

Growing Baby/Shrinking Mommy/Worried Daddy

This is Kira waking up this morning... great way to greet the day, huh? :)

Kira weighed 9lb 9oz today at her two week appointment. She's huge! I told the kids yesterday that Kira would be going off to college next week. :) She was the picture of health to the doctor. And her gaining 21oz in two weeks impressed him. He said his record was 28oz. I'm shocked by the 21oz. The boys were typically around 14 - 16oz.

And I got on the scale while I was there. I'm within about a pound of my pre-pregnancy weight. I thought I'd post a final belly shot.


Which brings me to the Worried Daddy part of my title. Mike went to Sam's the other day and brought home frozen cheesecake bites, frozen mozzarella sticks (like at Applebee's or Chili's), and a gallon of whole milk. :) He's a bit concerned because I think I actually lost fat during the pregnancy. I had to stop nursing Reid when he was 10 months old because all of my fat was gone and my milk just stopped. I've assured Mike that I have 15 lbs on that 22 year old mother, but it's cute that he's concerned and taking care of me. He's a good husband and a good dad. And I'm fine. Really.

Two Weeks and a Day

I wanted to finish up Kira's birth story before posting much of anything else, so now that that is complete, I'm going to put up a few pictures. She has her two week check-up in about an hour, so I'll post again later with all of her baby stats.

This is Kira at one week old. She was sitting there staring into my eyes. It was quite precious.

Halloween. Jacob was "Dark Link" from Zelda, Cole was "Deku Scrub" from Zelda, Zach was a cloaked skeleton/evil dude, Reid was a cloaked figure, and Kira was a fussy pumpkin. :)

As a note, my mom made Jacob and Cole's costumes. They were quite proud of them. Jacob did make his own shield and Cole impressively made his own mask. Reid opted out of trick or treating and ended up scaring kids and spraying them with silly string at a person's haunted yard. He had lots of fun. And Zach was let loose in the old neighborhood and came home with about 15 lbs of candy. He had fun, too. :)

Just a sweet little picture. Kira loves to be naked and especially loves being free of her diaper.

Our little monkey with her good Daddy.

We continue to be completely in love with this little person. It's so nice to have her in our family: screaming and all. :)

Kira's Birth - Part 3

With that scare behind us, I tried to relax and get my body to get serious about labor. I was, unfortunately, unsuccessful. By noon (12 or 13 hours after my water broke), I was basically having no contractions. My doctor came by to check me and I was barely 5cm dilated. He felt a bulging sac and questioned whether my water had actually broken. It definitely had, but he broke the sac part that he felt and more fluid gushed. I hoped that that might get things rolling. He agreed to one more hour before starting me on pitocin. Their concern was the 18 hour mark after my water broke.

And then at some point during all of this non contraction time, the baby's heart rate went down to 64 and was staying there. The nurse got me to lay on my side to make sure the baby was okay and after a few minutes, her heart rate came back up. Now, you have to understand that a week or so before, I had a dream that I was having a cesarean. So during all of this drama with her heart rate and my body refusing to go into labor, I just kept praying that I would be able to have a vaginal delivery. I wanted the baby to be safe, of course, but I just wanted to avoid a cesarean if at all possible.

By 1pm my contractions had not started back up with any type of regularity, so they started the pitocin. It started working pretty much right away. First it just gave me stronger contractions, then they started getting more regular. The nurse turned the dose up around 1:20pm. At this point, I was in instant hard labor. With contractions that basically never stopped. When the nurse came in somewhere around 2pm and tried upping the dose, I told her no. I was actually concerned that my uterus might explode or something. I stayed at that for a while with Mike's constant attention to rubbing my back and trying to keep me comfortable. I finally asked for a shot of Nubane. The contractions were never stopping. I think I got the shot around 3pm. It was great for the first few seconds before the first contraction started. Then the contraction hit and I thought, "Okay, that literally took the very tippy top of the contraction off, and that's it." And within about three contractions, everything was back to the way it was, and more so, before I got the shot and I started to freak out. Fortunately, Mike did the "take charge" routine with me and got me to focus on the contractions instead of on my anger at the pitocin machine. I literally wanted to kick the **** out of that machine. :)

Now, at some point, the nurse came in again saying that they wanted to up the pitocin level (I still can't figure out why) and I told them that I wouldn't let them increase it unless I got an epidural first. There would have been no way for me to handle that pain. This was probably around 3:40 or so. In order to give the epidural, they apparently had to pump me full of fluid first, so she started the fluids and said it would take about an hour for them to get my hydrated enough for the epidural. Mike was super during this time. He talked me through each contractions and rubbed my legs, my back, and anything else I demanded. :)

I knew within about twenty minutes that I was getting close to being fully dilated. I didn't say anything to Mike or the nurse about it. I'm not sure why I didn't want to tell anyone, but I didn't.

Then I started feeling lots of pressure and I finally said something to the nurse. She checked and I was fully dilated. The pitocin got turned off because I was in one big huge contraction and they finally decided that "my body had taken over". At this point, they called for the doctor and were asking me not to push. The pain from the pitocin overshadowed the urge to push, so it wasn't terribly difficult not to push. But the doctor got there pretty quickly and after getting myself situated, I was able to deliver the sweet little baby. She was born 1 1/2 hours before the 18 hour mark that they were so worried about. I was so happy to have a healthy baby and to have the whole thing over.

And after her little "I refuse to breathe" moment, they weighed her and I was completely shocked to hear that she weighed 8lb 4oz. When Reid was born, the doctor asked where I was hiding that baby. This time I asked myself that question.

So that's Kira's story. Full of drama. Hopefully she got it all out of her system and we can expect an even keeled child from here on out. :)

Kira's Birth - Part 2

Over the next couple of hours, my contractions became a little stronger and little closer together. Mike and I timed them for a bit and they were 2 minutes apart, lasting 45 seconds. Normally, I would have stayed home since they weren't really strong, but by this point, I was gushing fluid during the contractions, so I decided we'd better go in.

Our friend, Anne, came over to the house, Mike and I got loaded up and headed to the hospital. We got checked in and set up in our room and I remember looking at the clock thinking that I should have a baby by around 7 or 8 am. (HA!)

I had some good, regular contractions for quite a while, but they slowed down at some point. Mike and I walked a lot, but it didn't seem to help. It seemed that I had the best contractions when I was sitting upright. I figure now that it had something to do with Kira's position, but who knows for sure.

Before the nurse shift change at 7am, my nurse, Cheryl, decided to check me. I was at 3 or 4. Boooo. I thought for sure that I was feeling a lot of progress. Oh well.

Around 8am, I got in the tub to see if it would help get the contractions going again. It just seemed to make them slow down, so after a bit, I got back out and when I got put back on the monitor, Kira's heart rate went up to around 190 and stayed there for several minutes. Concerned, our nurse Linda, wanted to talk to some of the other nurses and our doctor to make sure things were okay. This was a bit scary. But she came back and said it seemed to be a normal adjustment by the baby, and indeed, her heart rate went back down to normal a little while later. And Linda said that the tape from her high heart rate would probably be shown in a training type meeting as somewhat of an unusual normal event. Glad we could provide that service to the hospital!

(Fussy baby... more later)

Kira's Birth - Part 1

I went to my 40 week checkup at 9:30 on October 21st. I was still 2-3 cm dilated, 70% effaced, and the baby was still engaged. My cervix was tilted to the back, though. I didn't know that a forward facing cervix could turn back again... I was a bit on the fence about whether or not to ask the doctor to strip my membranes. But after the word "induction" came out of the doctor's mouth, I decided to go ahead and have him do it. Hindsight has me questioning this decision, but I think it wasn't a bad one, just not certain that it was the right thing.

So... I went home, took some castor oil that I had bought and figured we'd see what happened.

I'm not sure exactly what time contractions started. I know I was having them during our family home evening game of Cranium Family Fun, so that was around 8pm. Mike and I spent some time cleaning up and getting things ready in case we did end up going to the hospital. I tried laying down to get some sleep, but it didn't work. I got in the tub around 11pm and then in the shower. At some point during that time, my water broke. I wasn't completely sure at first, but it made itself pretty clear during the next hour or so.

(Kira's crying and needs a diaper change... more to follow.)

Great Shot

Isn't that a great shot? I was so impressed with Mike. He figured out a couple of settings on our camera and got this shot in a fairly dark room without any flash. Pretty impressive.

And pretty cute!

Kira is doing really well. She's eating, peeing, and pooping like a pro. She often gets mad when we change her diaper and can wake the dead with her screams. :) Of course, if she wasn't so good at pooing and peeing while we're changing her diaper, she probably wouldn't have as much reason to get mad... but try telling her that. She's already not listening to her parents. :)

And we can already tell she's growing and changing. Her arm flailing has decreased. She will sometimes sit and just stare into my eyes while being all peaceful and quiet. That's really nice for me. And today, she managed to get her thumb in her mouth and keep it there longer than she ever has before. Pretty sweet.

"A Joy Beyond Measure"

I've not found the time to sit down to write Kira's birth story just yet, but I wanted to just say that after 5 days, I am in love, in awe, and in heaven. She is just so perfect. I feel so honored to be her mom. And so blessed to finally have this little child that seemed like maybe wouldn't happen. I'm so glad that it did. I feel like I've reached both the end and the beginning of a long journey. I fully intend to enjoy every step.

40 Weeks

No picture today... I know you're sad about that! :) I don't look much different than last week.

So... the doctor was surprised to see me today. I would think they would avoid telling people that.

My stats for today were:

Weight Gain: 22 lbs (maybe she's not looking out for me as much as I thought!)
Belly Measurement: too lazy to take one...
Baby Heart rate: ~130

Nothing had really changed internally from last week. That was a bit of a bummer since I've had all kinds of contractions over the past week. But we'll see how it goes in the next day or so. I had him strip my membranes and I took some castor oil. Which I had done with both Jacob and Cole and they were both born the next day. October 21st seems like a perfectly great day to be born.

So...

We're just waiting.  I don't feel extremely impatient in general until I start having lots of contractions that eventually just stop and leave me feeling a bit frustrated.  It takes me a while to get out of the "this might be it" mode.  I decided this afternoon to just take a long nap.  That has helped my feelings a good bit.  So tonight when I go through the whole contraction thing again, I'll just try to ignore it and relax.  Maybe then it won't frustrate me so much.

My hope is that all of this pre-labor junk is working to make my actual labor a little shorter and a little easier.  A girl can dream...

So Far, So Good

Well, it's Thursday morning and there's no baby just yet. I'll be soooo happy if she waits another 48 hours to even think about being born.

Yesterday was quite the day. It was my only super busy day. I got Zach, Jacob and Cole and we all went to Reid's game. Someone forgot to tell Mother Nature that it was October 15th, and it was 87 degrees out when we got to the football game... where there was no shade... We suffered in the sun for a little while, but eventually, the shade expanded over on the visitor's side of the field, so we moved over there (I thankfully brought a folding chair) and sat in the shade for a little over half of the game. And aside from one very whiny child, I did fine sitting in my chair, watching the game.

Reid's team won 56-0. Poor other team. They are a new school, so they don't have any 8th graders. All 7th graders, and they were LITTLE. By third quarter, our coach was mostly playing our 7th graders... who were still killing the other team. Our third string quarterback got to play a good bit and Reid was playing a new position that he had never tried before. I can't remember what he said it was, but it was nice to see the coach letting the kids get a little experience.

This may very well be the last game I get to watch. Thankfully, Mike will be working from home once he gets back, so he can go to Reid's last two games. I will be sad to miss them, but probably would be sadder if the baby still wasn't born by then. :)

39 Weeks

Well, the doctor says this will probably be my last weekly pregnancy picture and post. I went in today and here are the stats:

• Weight Gain: 20 lb (I lost almost a full pound this past week. I think this baby girl is trying to watch out for her mama's figure.)
• Belly Measurement: 39" (It seems that my belly and my weight are inversely proportional.)
• Baby's Heartrate: 130-ish

So, I got the "internal exam" this week and I am between 2 and 3 cm dilated, my cervix is rotated forward, I am 70% effaced, and the baby is at 0 station (fully engaged in my pelvis). The doctor thinks it will be in a couple of days, but recognizes that no one really knows these kinds of things.

Mike left for Boston this morning. I'd like to have this baby wait until he gets back on Friday night, but I have people in place who are willing to step in and who say they won't let their cell phones leave their sides. :)

I decided to clean before I laid down for a nap today. I'll deny that it was true nesting and say that it was just me not wanting people to come in to my house and see the small load of dirty dishes on my night stand. :)

So things are going well here. I feel calm and sure that things are going to work out just fine. I have no place to be all week except for dropping off and picking up the kids (and Reid's football game on Wednesday), so it will be a slow week unless the baby decides to be born. I'll certainly keep you updated.

Reid's Game - Small Baby Update

So the game this past Wednesday didn't go too hot. We lost 12 - 41. Ouch. Apparently this team practices from early summer and has 5 coaches. We start practices on the first day of school and have 2 coaches. I don't know how programs can be so different from one public school to the other, but you certainly could tell that the kids from the team we played were much more "coached" than ours. But, I could really care less about winning or losing, so I was just happy to see that Reid was playing and that he seemed to really have his head in the game.

And I'm happy with the coaches we have. They really emphasize a well rounded athlete. They want their kids to be well behaved in school, get good grades, and to have good character. I think that's a great way for Reid to begin his football "career". They, of course, want to win games, and get stressed out when players aren't doing their jobs during the game, but they know that it's not all about a winning record.

And I'm doing pretty good. The baby just about kills me sometimes the way she moves about, but it's nice to know that she's plenty healthy and plenty strong. Mike flies out early Monday morning and gets back around 10pm Friday night. I'm going to say many prayers that this baby stays put until he gets back. Then she can be born whenever she feels like it. Hopefully she'll cooperate. :)

Farewell to Another Long-Time Friend

We traded in the Chevy Venture today. After two days of it stalling on Mike, he decided that even if it was an easy fix, it wasn't a good idea to have an almost 11 year old, potentially unreliable van as our main family car. Last night I found a car at Carmax.com that looked pretty good to me, so we went there today and ended up buying it. We both feel like it was a good decision. I've always said I would buy new again since we keep our cars forever, but this car stood out to me, and Mike felt really good about it. And after test driving it today and looking at the sticker price, I felt good about it, too. (We did buy a 4yr/48K mile warranty.)

So, here's the tribute to our Venture:


1998 Chevrolet Venture

You've been puked on, peed on, mistreated in every way possible and yet you took it all. You've been from Valdosta, GA to NYC, from Topsail Island to Dallas. You've seen our family through 11 years of growing and adventure, and for all of this we are grateful. You can go off to car heaven, if that is your fate, knowing you have served your purpose fuller than most cars can even dream of.

Thank you.
-------------------------------

Our new car is a 2004 Toyota Sienna LE. It has the 8 passenger seating which will work well with the addition of the baby's car seat. And it has some additional features that aren't standard like: Trip computer, side curtain airbags, 17" alloy wheels, power sliding door, and maybe another one or two that I'm not thinking of right now. It is Salsa Red Pearl which is my favorite of the Sienna colors. That's a nice little bonus for me. We hope to enjoy this car for years to come.


And it's a funny thought to me that the only house and car that my older kids can even remember will not be part of this new baby's life at all. I guess it's just more things to say, "That was before you were born" to. I hear John F likes it when things like that come up in conversation... :)

38 Week Pictures

So, here's the belly shot from Monday:


And here's a picture of my face... kinda weird, I know, but this blog is for posterity, so I hope you don't mind putting up with a little weirdness.

I find two things very interesting: 1) The dark freckles on my cheeks and nose. They are very pronounced and I hope they fade after the pregnancy. 2) How thin my face is. If you've ever seen a picture of me at the end of my pregnancy with the boys, you'll know that thin was not a word used to describe it. I generally get quite puffy and look pretty bad. Maybe I look equally as bad with my sunken in face, but it's a lot closer to normal for me than the puffy look. Anyway, here's the weird face picture:

38 Weeks

Today is 38 weeks. I took pictures and downloaded them to my computer, but then my computer decided it didn't want to accept my power source anymore, so I'm writing this on Mike's fancy new work laptop and am in the process of taking my computer apart to see if I can get it to work properly again.

So the pictures will have to wait a bit. Here are the stats:

Weight Gain: 21 lbs
Belly Measurement: 38" - it shrank an inch
Baby's Heart rate: 152

I've been having lots of sporadic contractions. Nothing regular, but enough to make you realize that it could be any time now. I picked up the last item on my list today: nursing bras. So I suppose I'm pretty ready for this baby. Except that I'm not. I'm glad for the two weeks remaining and hope that she'll stay put til then. :)

I do have other children...

So I've realized that lately, all of my posts have been about my oldest and my upcoming youngest. There are other children scattered about in our family, so I thought I'd give them some much overdue blog time.

Zach:

Zach has been doing pretty well in middle school so far. He and I have that quiet time together, before Jacob and Cole get home from school (Reid is at football practice), so that's been nice. I can focus on Zach and help him with his homework.

He's also adjusted fairly well to our move. The first day we were here, he saw a group of boys out playing and just ran right out and became part of that group. We haven't seen those boys since, but it was nice to see him just jump right into a new situation.

And he still is the one who keeps me on my toes. I drive him and Reid to their bus stop most mornings and we chat while we wait for the bus. Zach always has interesting bits of conversation to contribute. I think if it were just Reid and I, we might sit fairly silently (which would be fine, of course), but Zach just brings a little zing into the morning: "If you had $10 million dollars and the biggest house in Preston, what would you do?" (Preston is the golf community that we live on the tail end of... very, very posh and fancy... come over and I'll drive you through the streets with the huge houses that back up to the golf course.) Every day is a little adventure with Zach. Some days good, some days not so good, but it sure is nice to have him in our family.

Jacob:

Jacob has become a reading machine lately. He flew through a series by Rick Riordan called Percy and the Olympians. Then just before we moved into the apartment, we convinced him to start reading the Harry Potter books. He's reading the third one now. It's exciting to think of him enjoying far off worlds and what books he'll decide to read next. He did reject something that I brought home from the library in between the two series, so I don't know that he's become the kind of person who reads anything anytime, but he is definitely finding some joy in reading and that makes me happy. It makes his dad really happy. :)

Cole:

Cole is, well, Cole. Happy and full of life. The past few months, our cat, Kory, has taken to Cole and will cry at him for what I call "Coley Love". Cole will pet him and rub foreheads with him and then the cat is usually happy to go off and do whatever. But for whatever reason, he needed his Coley Love. :) I told Cole I knew how the cat felt. It just seems unnatural to walk by Cole without stopping to get a hug or something. He's just so cute. :)

Reid's Third Game

So yesterday was Reid's third football game. The great news is that Reid started as defensive end. The kid that he replaced at defensive end starts on offense as tight end, and he and Reid have been good friends for a couple of years, so hopefully there aren't any hard feelings there. And that kid ended up getting to play a good bit due to an error on Reid's part:

At some point either late in the third quarter, or early in the fourth, our team fumbled the ball and it was recovered by our opponents. Reid apparently didn't notice the switch out of sides and missed playing in the first play of that switch. He barely got out onto the field in time for the second play. After that, he didn't get to play anymore. He would go out with the defense, but the coach always sent the other kid in to replace him. I didn't disagree with the coach's decision at all. I was sitting in the stands watching as Reid was not paying attention to going into the game and it just about killed me to watch. I think I'm too pregnant and emotional to be able to shake even little things off right now.

And I figured that when I picked Reid up at the school after the game, that he would be upset, but he apparently didn't think he did anything too bad. And he said the coach only said, "Know when you're supposed to be on the field." Hopefully he'll still get to start next week, but we'll just wait and see.

And we lost in overtime again. We went to overtime at 0-0. Too bad, too. But we turned the ball over a few too many times and are really lucky that the other team didn't score during the main game, so it turned out better than it could have.

And I'll definitely keep you posted on Reid's play time next week.

37 weeks

I'll spare you weekly pictures and post one next week instead.

But I did have a doctor's appointment today:

Weight Gain: 19 lbs
Belly Measurement: 39"
Baby's Heartrate: 138 (she must have been sleeping because she didn't respond to the doppler at all and her heart rate was lower than it's been in a while... cutie)

I actually lost half a pound this week, but I've been rounding my weight gain, so it still rounds to 19 lbs. But my belly grew about 1/2" in a week, so the baby must be doing fine. I'll chalk it up to all the moving and stress of the past week.

Changes Changes

We had the official closing on the house yesterday. It went well. I cried a lot during the final cleaning out of the house. I got lots of pictures of the measurement wall (we also transfered the measurements over to a nice piece of wood). I think I decided that some of my tears were from missing the four little boys who once occupied our home. Such sweetness (and chaos, I know). Looking at Cole's first measurement on that door jam and thinking of him at that age was just overwhelming.

Then I went to the house at 4pm to pick up Jacob and Cole off the bus (I warned the new owners that I wasn't going to be stalking them, but that I'd be there every school day) and while I was waiting, Dennis, our tile facilitating neighbor, came over to talk to me. I started crying right when I saw him (hormonal?). He hugged me and had lots of nice and wise things to say. Still, it's hard to leave a good neighborhood and such wonderful neighbors.

But I will honestly chalk up a lot of the emotion to hormones. When I think about getting out to Texas, I get excited about being in Austin, being near my dad, and starting a new adventure.

You also probably know that Mike got a new job. He starts on October 13th. One week before the baby is due. They want him up in Boston (the headquarters, but it's a telecommuting position) during that week. So he'll be gone from the 13th to the 17th. A little unnerving for me. I don't want him to miss the birth of his little one. But I've never had labor that lasted less than 7 hours, so hopefully he could make it back in time. But I've still got some arrangements to get together for that time so that the kids and I are taken care of while Mike is gone (in case I do go into labor during that time).

But the really good news is that we'll be double covered with insurance, so I should get all of my $600 back that I've paid to the doctor and instead of owing around $1500 for the hospital portion, we'll only owe $250. That will help offset the moving costs, so that's a good thing.

And now I'll get back to my slow attempt at getting this apartment feeling like a home instead of a war zone.

Pictures

Here I am today... 36 weeks, 2 days. I am facing the wrong way... I guess I'll know that the other pictures were in the house and this one and the rest are in the apartment... 3 and a half weeks to go. I should get the pack n play put up and start washing the baby clothes. Ack! I'm having a baby!

And then there's the not so baby aspect of our lives... this is Reid this morning on his way to school. Looking quite dashing in his fancy football jersey. He was quite proud to be wearing this.

Sadly, they lost their game tonight. But they played a team that is typically quite good. Last year they lost to them 30 - 6. Today they went to overtime at 8 - 8. The opposing team scored on their four plays, but we didn't. Sad to lose, but nice that we did so well compared to last year. Reid played about the same amount as he did last game, but I think he did a bit better. Hopefully he'll start seeing more and more playing time.

36 weeks plus a few days

Well... I'm officially down to less than a month to go (hopefully, anyway). I had my doctor's appointment on Monday:

Weight gain: 19 lbs
Belly Measurement: 38.5"
Baby's Heartrate: 156

The baby almost jumped out of my stomach when the doctor put the gel on my stomach. She's getting smarter and knew that the doppler machine was coming and expressed her continued displeasure at that, I suppose. :)

And aside from swelling feet and a stinging pubic bone, I'm doing alright. Although, the pubic bone thing is keeping me from walking much today. I know it's been made much worse with all of this moving and cleaning and packing and lifting. I'm hoping a little rest today will help it calm down a bit.

Housing Update:

The closing is still on schedule for Friday. We have almost all of our stuff out of the house, so we're pretty much on track that way. Mike's been making evening runs over there to load up stuff and bring it either to the house or to the storage unit. But there's only one load plus the kid's bike left. Well... and a bedroom set that I'm going to be donating to the local thrift shop.

Several women from church came over yesterday and cleaned, so that was really nice. I don't have any more cleaning to do except to vacuum the living room once more after everything is out. One of the ladies from church even accepted the assignment of going around the house picking up trash that was around the sides of the house. Amazing how much junk ends up between the bushes and the foundation. Especially when your kids and the neighbor's kids all play around your house. So anyway. Things are moving along. The apartment is slowly coming together, but will have to wait until after the closing on Friday to get much more attention.

And Reid has his second game today. I'll post about that tonight (now that we have internet at the apartment!).

Reid's First Game and Our Last Dinner

Reid's first football game was today. Obviously, he's number 88. :) They won 12 - 6. Reid is on the starting defensive special team. And he got to play about 5 or 6 plays at defensive end. I think he is a little disappointed in his performance, but I thought he did pretty good for his first game.

And tonight is the last night we're having a good cooked dinner in this house. Tomorrow is frozen pizzas and Friday is probably an eat out night. I made lasagna, french bread, salad, and blueberry coffee cake. The only problem is that it's Wednesday, so by the time Reid and I got home from his football game, Mike was heading out the door with Zach and Jacob for scouts and they had lasagna in plastic ware to eat on the way. (I cooked the dinner early this morning.) So no family time with this dinner, but that's okay. It's nice to have a good meal when you know you won't for several days.

Here are some pictures from the football game.


This is Reid on the first play of the game. He's standing right to the left of the referee's arm in the picture.
And if you look carefully, you'll see a white helmet in the middle of the red team's main blob. That's Reid playing as defensive end. :)

Apartment and Packing

The really, really good news is that our two month apartment here is going to be on the first floor! We are soooo happy about that. We will move into the apartment on Saturday. That will give us almost a week to do what we need to with the house to get it ready for the new owners.

Mike spent the day yesterday moving boxes into the storage unit. And with near record highs of 91 degrees and unusually high humidity for September, I was very impressed. I supervised the kids taking boxes outside for easier loading, but didn't actually lift a box all day. Given that I kind of threw my back out last weekend doing lifting and such, I think it was wise... but it's hard to not be in the thick of everything. I am still the primary packer, so that's making me feel quite useful.

The attic is almost completely empty thanks to Mike, Reid, and Zach. And I think we're close to having all of our miscellaneous junk in piles in the dining room. I can start packing those up this week.

So the plan for now is for me to get everything packed up that's going to the storage unit by Wednesday. Then on Thursday and Friday, I'll pack up the things that we'll be taking to the apartment. And I need to call the utility companies to get things worked out for the apartment and house.

One of the big problems with this plan is that life is going to be busy this week. I have to go to Shodor for most of the day on Monday (I know... WHY?). Turns out their bookkeeper quit and so the new bookkeeper needs a little bit of direction. I agreed to one day. It's bad timing, but it's also the last time... for real. :) Then Tuesday, Jacob and Cole have a dental appointment. Wednesday is Reid's first football game, Zach has an appointment on Thursday, and I have to pick one day during the week to call our pediatrician's office and try to get Zach in for a nurses appointment to get a vaccine that he needs in order to stay in 6th grade. Friday is clear. That's something at least.

Picture and Update

So I just now got around to taking a 34 week picture. So now it's a 34weeks 5days picture. I don't think I've grown that much in the past two weeks. The baby seems to be finding lots of nooks and crannies to fill into. That's been really fun for me. Yesterday I had the first little twinge of "I might just be ready to have this baby" feeling.

We're leaving in a few minutes to go look at the first floor apartment. Then we'll spend the day moving boxes into the storage unit. The kids are really looking forward to that! Life is such a blast sometimes! :)

Housing Update

Mike and I signed a 2 month lease at the regular apartment complex. They may have a first floor apartment. If not, it will be second floor. So the third floor thing is no longer an issue. That's really nice for me. I sure hope the first floor works out. We'll find out this Saturday if it will.

The complex is called Bexley at Preston. It is a nice floor plan, so we should be fairly comfortable there for the two months.

We'll move into the apartment on the 20th (not this Saturday, but the next) and then closing is supposed to happen on the 26th. Things seem to be moving along with that as well. The buyers have final approval for their loan, the appraiser came yesterday, and the attorney's office has been in contact with me about getting some information for the closing. All good things. The buyers called us a few days ago asking for a measurement on one of the walls in the living room because they were going to go buy a couch. Pretty cute. I hope they enjoy the house as much as we have.

And as much as I like the house, I have to admit to being happy about not having to worry about paint, kitchen floors, rotten trim, etc for a while. I'll be a happy renter for the next 8 months. Then we can buy another house and I'll start worrying about those things again. But a little break will be nice. Especially when it corresponds with having a newborn. :)

HE MADE IT!!!

Reid made the football team! He is beside himself and I had a teary moment. :)

Their games are on Wednesdays and the first one is September 17th. How a coach gets a bunch of kids ready to play a real game in 5 practices is beyond me. But, it doesn't matter. All that matters is that Reid made the team and is just so excited. The season ends on October 29th.

I'm going to pretend for now that his games don't start at 3:30... the littler kids get home at 4:00. And when we move into the apartment, they have to be picked up at 4:00... we won't have the option of letting them come home to a parentless house. So... I'm going to ignore that for now and just focus on how awesome it is that Reid made the team.

And keep your eyes out for lots of upcoming blog entries and pictures of Reid playing in the games. And hope that none of the blog entries contain details of serious injuries. :)

Gift Pictures

These are the gifts (still in their fancy bags) that I got from the shower at my Mom's house.

This is a beautiful little dress I got from a lady at church. It's actually way more blue than it looks in the picture. Isn't it just so perfectly sweet?

I love this little jean jumper. How precious! I like that it will work in summer or winter... whenever she decides to grow into it will be completely fine!

And this little outfit is just beyond adorable. So elegant. Hopefully it will fit right around Easter. I just love the little sweater. And, of course, there are matching bloomers. :)

34 Weeks

Well. Today is 34 weeks. Only 6 more weeks to go.

I'll put the belly shot up later. I haven't gotten around to taking it yet, but wanted to put in the statistics before I forgot.

Weight Gain: 17 lbs
Belly Measurement: 37.25" (It grew a whole 1/4 of an inch!)
Baby's Heartrate: Around 155... I say that because she wouldn't stay still long enough for the doppler machine to get an accurate reading.

So, I saw Dr. Seidel today. He is one of the two doctor's in the practice. It's only the third time this pregnancy that I've seen him. That hasn't bothered me primarily because I knew he was well liked and he was the one that Dr. Sheshadri (the one I see the most) went to to get me a prescription last year during my miscarriage time that Sheshadri wasn't familiar or very comfortable with. Seidel had no problem with it and so I knew he was probably more relaxed about things in general.

Anyway. I wanted to talk about the possibility of breech presentation today because I'd been wondering if this little wee one was head up. Turns out she's not (whew), but we talked a good bit about breech deliveries and how he's totally comfortable with them when they're not the first babies. But he said that her head was actually quite low and that he would be shocked if she could manage to pull herself out of my pelvis and turn around. So that's really good news.

He also complimented me on my weight gain and blood pressure (always low... today 98/56) and asked me if I was Super Woman. Now... I know that he was being overly complimentary, but it felt good nonetheless. A woman who is 34 weeks pregnant, packing up her house, finding temporary housing, dealing with the emotions of leaving long time friends, and trying to keep up with daily housework can really use blatant flattery from time to time. :)

Busy Saturday

Today I had the shower from the ladies at church. It was really wonderful. It made me realize just what we'll be leaving when we move. The people from church truly care about us and it's hard to leave that. I guess, though, that when you know that something is right, you just do it and figure the people from church understand that more than anyone else.

And I got really, really sweet little outfits today. My goodness. People know where the good stuff is. :) I also got a couple of big items on my list. A portable crib, which will be priceless during the apartment time and moving out to Texas. And a little bouncy seat that hopefully will help a fussy baby when needed. I will post some pictures soon of some of the beautiful outfits. I can't find the camera cord (again!), so it may take me a little while.

On my way home from the shower, I picked Reid up from a sleepover so that he could get home to help Mike load the rented U-Haul truck with the things we're taking to the storage unit. He got home and helped Mike for a while and then fell asleep on the floor (I don't think he got much sleep last night). Our neighbor, Derrick, helped with the couch and then a guy from church, Brandon, came over and helped with the last little bit of loading the first U-Haul load and we headed over to the storage unit to unload. We came back, talked for a bit, then loaded up most of the second load. We sent Brandon home and around 8:30pm, headed over to the storage unit with the second load. We brought all of the kids plus a neighborhood friend. :) We did a bit of a box brigade for the food storage boxes and Mike and Reid got all of the big stuff off. We were done and driving home by 9:15. Mike dropped off the U-Haul and when he got home, was very thankful that our church time will, for the first time this year, be at 2pm instead of 9am. I feel the same way. We'll be happy to sleep as long as possible tomorrow.

So... busy day, but very productive. We have little piles of junk everywhere, but it sort of lets you see what you have left to pack, so that's a good thing. At this point, we're going to take a few boxes a day over to the storage unit and that should be enough to get us ready by the time we need to move into the apartment. There's still a good bit of junk to deal with, but we'll do it in 5 box increments or something. :)

So... when we move into the apartment, we're only taking: the futon, the TV + stand, the recliner, the computer table + kid computer, the kid mattresses, the king mattress (big item!, but Mike decided we shouldn't mess with my sleep at such a crucial time...I decided not to argue since I'm not going to be carrying the mattress up two flights of stairs), and the kitchen table. Not too bad. And we'll get a couple of people to come help us with that. But we're trying to reserve all of the serious loading help for when we load up the apartment and big U-Haul to go out to Texas. That will be when we will need the most help.

Okay. I think I've rambled on enough about the move. I hope you all had a good Saturday.

Football Tryouts - Part 2

Reid made the first cut. He made the first cut last year, too. 15 more kids will get cut next week in the final cut. Last year I was watching a little bit of each practice and had a good idea that Reid wouldn't make the team. This year I haven't seen anything that's been going on, so I have no idea how it's going for him. I know he's a heck of a lot bigger than he was last year. And we had a talk about what it means to "hussle". I don't think he could grasp that concept last year. It's amazing how much kids develop over the course of a year.

Like with homework. Reid comes home from practice, pulls out his homework and gets to work. No prodding, no fussing, he just does it. I saw him doing that yesterday while I was finishing up dinner and cleaning in the kitchen and just about wanted to cry. It is such a beautiful thing. And then he packs it all up, hangs up his backpack and goes out to talk to his friend who did get cut yesterday.

I told Mike that when I see Reid all growing up and getting more and more mature, I almost explode with love. :) I dropped by his school the other day to give him some extra water for his practice that afternoon. And seeing him walk down the hall and then having him thank me so sincerely, I wondered why I ever thought I wanted to have a girl. I'd just take another Reid if I could. :) Okay... I wouldn't trade my girl now that I have her (almost), but that's the thought that went through my head at the time.

So has this been "my kid's so great" enough for you. :)

Football Tryouts

Today is the first round cuts. Reid will either show up at 2:40 from the bus having been cut, or he will not show up which means he's made the first cut. Final cuts will be next week sometime.

On Tuesday I went to pick Reid up and I saw him walking over to some other kids who were giving him the old high five handshake. (Don't really know how to describe it other than that.) He looked pretty proud of himself and when he got in the car, he told me he caught a football one handed. :) He said he tried for two hands because it's always better to catch it two handed, but he couldn't reach it, so he ended up catching it one handed. Pretty fancy. Then at the end, the coach said they couldn't go home until both receivers (they had two players running down each sideline) caught the ball. And Reid was on the duo that stopped practice. Apparently several pairs missed one or both before Reid's pair. So he was really proud.

Then yesterday he said that he was making really good tackles when the coach put him in at tight end. I think he liked the position.

So, so far, things seem to be going well. I sure hope he makes the team. I think tomorrow they will get their hitting rules and mouth guards and will begin practicing with pads next week.

And I was shocked to find out that Reid weighs 122 lbs. They did weigh-ins last week. He is solid muscle. He's about 5'7" right now. Crazy!

SO MUCH GOING ON!!!!!

I think I would just crawl under my couch and hide, but sadly, I don't think I'd fit anymore.

I would like to point out something I said back in July when we finished the kitchen:

"Now I'm going to sit back and enjoy my new kitchen and watch my tummy grow. :)"

Well, I'm watching my tummy grow alright, but I'm certainly not "sitting back" while it's happening. The best laid plans...

So what's going on? Oh, well... you'd think packing would be enough to deal with, but the apartment finding isn't going so hot. I found two options:

• A regular three bedroom apartment with a two month lease... sounds great, right? Nope. Third floor! Not sure if I'm up for that.
• A furnished corporate apartment with a month to month lease options... the problem? You can probably guess that it's the cost. It would be second floor, but it's furnished... you don't have to carry your stuff up.

We're only planning on taking the very basics with us to the regular apartment if we choose that route, but it's still a lot of work. And then the daily grind of going up and down the steps over and over again... So my plan is to try to talk the corporate apartment people down in price (I like negotiating) and if they won't budge, it will be off to the third floor for us!

And what else is going on? Well... life. Dinner still needs to be cooked, laundry still needs to be done. Homework still needs to be helped with, Reid still needs to be picked up from football tryouts (they haven't made cuts yet), and I have this ever expanding growth in my midsection that is trying to make all of that normal stuff really hard. Let alone packing and planning for major changes.

So once again I find myself in need of deep breathing and refocusing efforts. I'm trying to stay calm and trying to take it one step at a time, but it's hard to keep that attitude for long when there's so much going on.

However, it's nice to think of this house and how well it has served us over the years and how obvious it is that selling it was the right thing to do. Just think how simple life will feel when I'm not dealing with all of this packing and unpacking anymore.

Oh wait... there will be a baby getting ready to start crawling and walking by that point... I guess I'll have to take that statement back. :)