Tonight?

Has anyone else noticed that it is going to be a full moon tonight? Aren't the maternity wards at the hospitals supposed to be full on full moons? Maybe tonight will be the night. (Please let tonight be the night!)

Still pregnant

No real baby news yet...Bummer...I had my 39 week appointment with the doctor today. As I was telling her that I had been feeling some tightening on and off this morning, my body decided that a demonstration would be more effective and I had a braxton-hicks contraction right there on the table as she was measuring me. LOL! The doctor was amused and confirmed what it was...I was hoping that my water would break as she was checking for dilation but no such luck...A quick ultrasound confirmed that her head is down where it should be so all is well. The doctor also said that if the baby hasn't arrived on her own by my appointment next Thursday, that we will schedule an inducement for sometime during week 41...so the end is near!

8 days to go!

Well, she will have a sapphire as her birthstone for certain, now! This is a good thing since August's peridot is not the prettiest of gems. That is Emma's birthstone and even she agrees that the sapphire is better! :)

This waiting is not fun...I am sticking fairly close to home (and the hospital), just in case she decides to make her mother very happy and come early!

2 weeks to go!

Only 2 weeks to go...Will it ever end? I am SO ready for Lexie to be here...and to not be pregnant any more. I had a doctor's appointment today and got some great news. I am 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced! YEAH! I know that I could still have many days yet to go but at least I am making forward progress.

The nursery is all set up know, just waiting for our baby to come home. Maybe if she realized how nice her new room is she would get this show on the road. :)

My bag has been packed for a couple of weeks now and the car seat is installed and has been inspected by a very nice sheriff. She didn't even laugh when I showed her how Mark and I had tried to install it. The only part that we got right was having it face the right way. :) I guess that's why everyone says having an inspection done is a good idea.

Week 34

Only 37 more days until the baby is due! I am having a hard time realizing that very soon Mark and I will be responsible for a little person. I mean, really...the whole "responsible" thing is a scary prospect. If I am understanding this whole parenting thing, that means that we have to make all of her choices for her for the next decade or so...and deal with the consequences. Health decisions, moral decisions, educational decisions, financial decisions, social decisions...This is a lot of pressure. Considering the fact that I do this whole decision making thing for a living for the vulnerable adults that I am assigned to, one might think that I would be confident about this. After all, disabled adults have a lot of issues to be dealt with, right? But at work, if I screw up, the worst thing that could happen is that they take a case from me...and those people are already "grown up." If we make mistakes with Lexie, it could effect her personality/character and we (and she) would have to deal with those mistakes for the rest of our lives!

I know, I know...It will all be fine. I have been praying regularly that God gives us the wisdom and strength to be good parents to Alexandra and to guide us in making good decisions. And I know for a fact that I couldn't have picked a better man than Mark to be my partner for life, to help me raise our children. He is intelligent, kind, realistic and steady. All very important traits for a soon-to-be daddy. I am going to blame tonight's little panic-attack on hormones. Okay?

Here I am, in all my 34 week glory!

Marcia, Tina and Ryanne threw my Friend's baby shower this weekend and it was wonderful. We went with a "couples" theme so Mark and our male friends were in attendance and not subjected to some of the more traditional baby shower activities. We had a really nice time hanging out with our friends and celebrating our impending parenthood. We got a lot of great advise, wonderful gifts and several fun photos as a result of the day. Here are a few of the later:

My handsome husband!

Ryanne-the hostess with the mostess!
And various guests.

Family shower

My aunt Brenda and cousin Megan threw my family baby shower last weekend and it was wonderful! The weather was perfect, the food was fabulous and the company couldn't have been better. Megan came up with a great idea to have everyone decorate a baby bib with puff paint. They turned out to be really, really cute! I know I will get a kick out of them every time Lexie wears one!

Here is a pic of some of the bib decorating.

And here is my mom (Linda), me and my grandma (Jeanette).


The pregnancy continues to go pretty well. My feet are swollen daily and I get tired a lot faster than I did a few weeks ago but I can't complain...except about having to get up to pee every 2 hours at night! That is really getting old! Mark and I are looking forward to having our little Lexie join us. The nursery is 75% set up and we even have my hospital bag (mostly) packed.



Here I am, 33 weeks pregnant...

And here is Mark, after 33 weeks of dealing with a pregnant wife. (Yes, he is sticking is tummy out as far as he can in this picture)

Our dogs, Jackson and Daisy are excited about Alexandra's arrival as well. They have been around children quite a bit and have been really gentle and patient with even our youngest visitors, which makes us hope that the transition won't be too hard on them.

Daisy is looking forward to teaching her to play catch with the football.


Jackson is just hoping to have someone to share the couch with...



...because Daisy and Mark alway make him take the floor during nap time!

Getting closer-32 weeks

I know, I know...I haven't posted anything in a while but I have a good excuse...I swear! I have been really busy with work and my new responsibilities as well as getting things in order so it doesn't all fall apart when I go on maternity leave. Also, we have been taking our baby classes and I have been going to lots of garage sales to find baby stuff. I have gotten some really great deals on little odds and ends.

Here is a picture of Mark testing out one of the toys I found. Does anyone know what these things are called?

The baby class we took was through Mercy Hospital. The class was called "Birth and Parenting" and was taught by this really dumb doula (which is a birth coach person that you can hire to attend your birth) named Mona. She put us through 5 weeks of mispronouncing medical terms, calling body parts by kindergartenish names, never letting the class out on time, trying to get into gossiping about one of the couples and having absolutly no knowledge about basic math. Here are some highlights...

When telling us about c-sections she posted some statistics about how many births at Mercy and Unity Hospitals ended in c-sections she gave a percentage for each. The Mercy Hospital persentage was higher than the Unity percentage. When asked by one of the students why Mercy had a higher percentage of c-sections, she answered by saying that Mercy had a higher percentage because it is a bigger hospital so more woman delivered there. My wonderful husband tried to point out that the percentage has nothing to do with the number of total births and when she looked at him like he was crazy he explained what an actual percentage was. She gave this immature, valley-girl style giggle and told him that he was being silly because "this isn't a math class." By the way, this woman is probably around 50 years old...which made the giggling even worse.

And did you know that we give birth out of our bottoms? Me neither. Glad I took that class. And when a baby is premature, it often is attended by needle-neo nurses...Bet you didn't know that either. They must give lots of shots!

I have 3 things to say about that class...
#1 I am glad it is over
#2 I called and complained as well as wrote a scathing preformance review
#3 At least her idiocy makes me feel fairly well informed and educated since I could have done a better job of teaching the class...

On the brighter side, I had my Breastfeeding Prep class this week and it was taught by an actual RN with a licence in Lactation Instruction. That class was wonderful, informational and the teacher was everything I could have hoped for, and more.

Here is a picture from a few weeks ago of me at 29 weeks along.

I am really looking forward to my family babyshower this weekend at Aunt Brenda's and my friends shower the first weekend in August. I am excited to see everyone and to celebrate little Alexandra's progress. And FYI, I am now fully committed to my thong sandals because by noon, I can no longer fit into any of my other shoes...At least it's summertime!

See you all soon!