...And Waiting...

We've decided once this baby girl is finally born, we need to sit her down for a talk about seeing thing through to the end and finishing what she starts. :) My OB appointment this week was relatively uneventful... there's been some progress, but not all that much. The big thing is that we've decided to go ahead with an induction after I reach 39 weeks if the baby isn't here by then. We'll see! At least there's some definite end in sight.

Until there's more exciting news, I thought I'd post a few videos of our sweet niece, Emma. She came to visit us last weekend... really to meet her cousin, but she ended up just entertaining and distracting her aunt instead. She's such a big girl now! She's walking! It's amazing how fast things change. She was here about a month ago and walking with help, but now she's good to motor around all on her own. It's so cute to watch her waddle along.





And here's a little one of Emma with the kitty she got for her birthday. She walks around with him all the time, which is hilarious because he's almost as big as she is! (She's also very helpful and is cleaning the rug for me...)

Still Waiting...

It is now Day 7 of our 5-day window during which the OB really expected we would have the baby. I do have an appointment this afternoon, so we'll see if there's been any progress. I'll be sure to keep you all posted! My sister-in-law, Mandy, is still here - doing a fabulous job of keeping me company and my morale up. :) I'm sure the poor girl is bored to tears. I haven't been sleeping well/much at all, so I haven't felt so up to doing much beyond walking in the neighborhood. How have we been passing our time? With Halloween neighborhood fun & games! The other night, someone rang the doorbell, but when I went to answer the door no one was there. Instead, I found a little garbage-bag ghost, bag of candy and a note similar to this one. Naturally, Mandy & I couldn't pass up playing the game. In fact, we decided we could make a WAY better BOO ghost than the one we received... a BOO anyone would be proud to hang in a tree in their front yard. :) We spent a surprisingly big chunk of the afternoon making these two fabulous BOO's and re-doing the note. As Ian said, we must have a lot of time on our hands. He really wanted nothing to do with the BOO's and felt quite sure someone would send the police after us for playing pranks on the neighbors. It was pretty hilarious to imagine the police chasing two little prego's (Mandy is 27 wks) running/waddling down the street trying to make our big getaway. (Although, I say, anything that involves people leaving chocolate on my doorstep is not a prank - it's a gift from heaven!) In the end, Ian decided he couldn't risk having a pregnant lady falling during the escape on his conscience, so he was awesome and did the dirty work for us. I have to say, I don't know that I've ever seen him run so fast. Good times! We've decided that if the baby doesn't come today, we're going to carve pumpkins. Please hurry, baby!

38 Weeks & Counting...

I think this has been the longest week ever. Actually, I think the 5 days from Wednesday to today have been the longest week ever. I kinda wish this whole dilating thing had never started so early. Ever since then, it feels like I've totally been on edge... I really was perfectly content to wait until 40 weeks before expecting the baby to come. It's only been since it seemed like we were on the verge of something happening that I've been anxious to get things going. This week has been especially that way, since the doctor fully expected I'd deliver before the weekend. She said that in her experience, women at my stage usually deliver within 5 days and that she expected she'd see us within the next couple days. Here we are - day 5 - and nothing. Boo. (Side note - I don't mean to say anything bad about my OB. She's AWESOME and I truly feel so blessed that we happened to end up with her. This is just such an unpredictable thing, especially for 1st-time mothers.) It's been especially frustrating because my fantastic brother & his family [not to say the others aren't fantastic... :)] happened to be able to come to Wichita this weekend & my sister-in-law was able to take off work for most of next week to help with the baby. Knowing that she would be around really helped alleviate a lot of nerves for Ian & I. We weren't sure if they should plan to come down if the baby hadn't actually been born yet, but schedules wouldn't work out quite as well in the next few weeks and we were all pretty confident she'd be here by the end of the weekend, at least. Apparently not. So, Kevin & Emma went home today and Mandy is hanging out with me until Thursday. Hopefully we'll have a baby by then. I have a sad feeling I'll go into labor as soon as Mandy gets home. :) We'll see. So that's the big, no-news update for now. My word for today is BOO and it's not because of Halloween.

Baby Updates

Just a quick little update for everyone... I went to the OB today and she said she really expects the baby to be here SOON. She said that in her experience, women like me deliver within 5 days, so we really should have the baby by the end of the weekend. She also said she really expects it sooner than that... like within the next 48 hours. For the record, I'd like to refer everyone to this post from back in April and just say that I called it. :) Hope you're all doing well and having a good week! Since we're really at the end, here's another letter for you. :)

Full-Term Day!

As of today, I am 37 weeks pregnant, which means the baby is now full-term! That means that if she were born today, her lungs should be fully mature and she should be fine breathing on her own. Hooray! Since we heard I'd started dilating, today's the day we've been aiming to make it to. Naturally, it'll probably be best for her if she can hang out for at least another week or so, but I'm also happy that I can start hoping for her to come soon guilt-free. :) Although, it would be really thoughtful of her if she could make sure to wait until at least tomorrow night, since Ian has his first gastric bypass scheduled for tomorrow morning. I'm sure the patient would be thankful, too. :) I really hope she doesn't wait until Nov. 9, though! That sounds like a VERY long time from now! I'm glad, too, that I'll be able to be a little more active now. I've really tried hard to follow the doctor's directions and keep the activity to a minimum for the past couple weeks. I have to say, I'm a little bored. I think it's been good to get some rest, but still... So, that's the news for today. We'll keep you all posted on any developments!

Slow Progress

I just wanted to give you all a little update... After last week's excitement, things have slowed down quite a bit. Since we're not at full-term until Sunday, that's a good thing! The excitement last week ended up with us going to the hospital on Saturday because we thought there was a chance my water had broken, but really weren't sure. Turns out, everything was fine. It was a relief to have someone tell me that, though. Since the news on Wednesday & Thursday was such a sudden surprise, I kinda went into overdrive for a few days. Ian & I did some last-minute baby-prep cramming and I was feeling hyper-aware of every little thing going on with me. So, it was very reassuring to find out the baby wasn't going to come any minute. Since then, I've been WAY calmer and, surprisingly enough, had many fewer contractions. Funny how that works. I've really done very little this week, since the doc recommended keeping the activities to a minimum until we hit that magical 37 week mark. I had my weekly OB appointment today and found out we're at about 3.5 cm now, which the doctor said is a good, normal amount of progress in a week for a first pregnancy. If it keeps at that rate & we can make it a couple more weeks, I should be in pretty great shape once the baby does decide to come for real.

We're running out of letters already! I'm getting nervous that one of you is going to guess the baby's name. ;) We do have enough left to make it a couple more weeks, so we'll see! Here's your letter for this week... S! Don't forget that the letters are for the baby's first AND middle names, so "Zaileen" could still be in the running, Kit. :) You'd just have to work all the other letters into her middle name.

Busy Baby

So, it's been an eventful few days. We're on the clock! At my weekly OB appointment on Wednesday, I found out that the baby is head down, engaged, ready to go and I am dilated almost 3 cm. So, it's not at all uncommon for women to spend weeks at that state, but it certainly was a big shock to the system and reality check to realize that all of this is truly coming soon. The other big part of the prediction puzzle is effacement. My doc didn't mention anything about that, so I called yesterday to check what that is... 80%. Yikes! I was expecting it to be something like 10%. So, it still could be a few weeks, but probably won't be. So, that's our news for now. We'll post as things develop (within reason, of course). Since it looks like we'll be early, I'm giving you TWO baby name letters this week! Bonus! :) The letters are I and L. And yes, Mandy, Bertha Camille is still possible!

Life in Kansas

We've had a busy week once again. I think there's a flip-side to the nesting instinct... I'm suddenly feeling like I need to get out of the house and do as much as possible now, since once the baby comes, it'll be much harder for a while. So, in the past week we've done a lot! Here's a brief rundown & you can see more pics here...

• SAT, 9/27 - RACE FOR THE CURE: I signed up to walk in Wichita's Race for the Cure with my moms' group. It was a lot of fun... and I discovered that a one-mile walk really isn't very long. I'd been a little worried about it because I'd had some trouble just walking around the neighborhood sometimes, so I wasn't sure how this would go. It was a breeze and fun to spend some time with the other moms' in the group. (You can't really tell from the pic, but the 3 of us on the right are all 30+ weeks pregnant! I was not waddling alone.) Ian's practice also had a tent there, so it was a good chance to see a lot of those folks, too.
  
  
• SUN, 9/28 - CHURCH PICNIC: In Farmington, the annual church picnic is a HUGE deal. Maybe that's just country life. :) It really is something that people from all over town - and the county, really - come to, even if they're not Catholic. It's also a huge fund-raiser and how a good chunk of the parish's budget is covered each year. Apparently, not all church picnics are quite like that. They had a sign-up after Mass a few weeks ago for people who were planning to go. I thought that was kind of strange, but whatever. This picnic was way smaller and - strangest thing of all - everything was free! Even the funnel cake! It really was a nice thing... there were some speakers, activities for the kids, chances to meet other people in the church. We ate with a couple who lived in the Chicago area for about 5 yrs and in NC for a bit. What a funny coincidence. They were a lot of fun - we compared notes on the best places to eat in Chicago and got some good tips on places in Wichita.
  
  
• FRI, 10/3 - ZOO DAY: I went to the zoo with the moms' group on Friday. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and it was great to get outside, get some exercise, and meet more new people. It was nice because the people who went to the zoo were different than the ladies I'd met at the other events so far. It's a pretty good little zoo. I saw the biggest tortoise I've ever seen in my whole life! I think I sounded like one of the kids when I first saw it. :)
  
  
• SUN, 10/5 - PUMPKIN PATCH!: We went to the pumpkin patch yesterday! Neither of us had ever been to a pumpkin patch before, but the moms' group was going, so we thought we'd try it out. It was fantastic. They had a corn maze that we really were not sure we'd ever find our way out of. In the end, we thought we figured it out, but ended up coming out the entrance! We considered it a victory, though, since I was beginning to imagine going into labor in the middle of the maze and needing a helicopter to come save me. :) There were a bunch of other cool things, too... a giant pumpkin cannon, pumpkin sling shots, great food, etc., and those are just the not-necessarily-kids-only things. We're excited to go back next year with the baby. I think it really must be one of the most fun places ever for kids.

So that's about it from here! I'm resting up today, which has been very nice. It's a kinda dreary, rainy day, so it's perfect for resting. We have a childbirth class marathon this week... there really is a class on our schedule every night this week! Childbirth, Dad's Class, Car Seat, Breastfeeding... Phew! Hopefully, we'll learn something this week. :)

Last, but not least, here's your name game letter for this week... As promised, it's not alphabetical order! Your letter this week is R.