Down to the wire

Well here we are, probably the last 4 days of this pregnancy. I'm trying to decide if I'm more excited to get it over with and never have to do it again or if it's a little bittersweet and I'll miss never doing it again. I'm leaning toward the first option because honestly I just want to sleep in some position other than on my side. Don't misunderstand me, pregnancy is fun and exciting and everything, but all good things must come to an end. I definitely don't want any more kids, but there is something to be said for the whole growing a baby in your body thing as creepy as that is when you really think about it. Anyway, I go tomorrow to decide what my options are for evicting the tenant that just won't leave :-P We are at 41+ weeks now and they really don't like for you to go over 42 weeks because of potential problems. I'm thankful that the midwife has allowed me the full length of time given our delivery choice of not having a repeat c-section (we hope). Things are progressing toward the whole labor thing, but obviously not very much or I wouldn't be writing this post. We are hopeful that labor will begin spontaneously before any kind of induction method is used, but I think that Henry and I are just ready to get it over with and inducing is still better than a c-section which is better than lots of other things that could go not according to plan. We have all the bags packed, everything is ready to go, Christmas shopping is done, heck, I even filled and plugged in the wipe warmers. Now we wait, more, and see if he will be a November baby, or a December baby. Sooo never thought that was an option... :-P ~Kellie~

Movies & Pregnancy

Groundhog Day the movie, that's what this pregnancy is starting to feel like. I'm all for letting nature take it's course and I know that he will get here when he gets here and I'm ok with that, really I am, but every morning I wake up and my first thought is that I am still pregnant and that nothing has changed. No "signs" of labor, no specific end in sight, just more of the same. I get over this after I've been awake long enough to get busy but it kinda sucks to wake up and think that every morning. I'm thankful to have at least one more day to get things done. There's always something else to get done.

I also feel like I'm in the movie Alien, and I'm sure that all of you who have been pregnant can relate to that. It's kinda weird to harbor another human in your body. As cool and amazing and miraculous as it is, there comes a point when you realize that they are fully capable of functioning on their own and much like the college student that won't find a job, it's time for them to move out. I have felt more elbows and knees and feet in this pregnancy than I think I ever have before. I swear yesterday morning I felt his butt overlapping the bottom of my ribs and it was not a pleasant feeling. It literally took my breath away and Henry can vouch for how high his little bottom really was. I had a dream last night that I could see and feel his knee in the middle of my chest, not pleasant.

For all of those who say "you're all baby", I'm gonna have to agree with you. Though I am not physically huge, I feel totally full, overinflated, & waaay too firm. My skin is stretched so tight that I can't even move it, and I'm pretty sure that I have horrible stretch marks around my belly button which is something new. I've had stretch marks since Colin, but they've always been limited to my hips, sort of an odd place to get them in the grand scheme of things. I guess my butt had so much extra skin that my belly borrowed from it, who knows. I also had a dream last night that he was born and weighed 8.4 and was 22 inches long. Folks, that's a big baby.

I said above that there was no specific end in sight, and that's true to a point. My "due date" which I've already said was more like the "use by" dates that they put on milk was 4 days ago. I don't place alot of faith in those guesses of arrival/time expiration, but it doesn't help the frustration of STILL not having him here on the outside. It kinda feels like waiting on the mail to arrive with an awesome package, you get mail every day, but the way cool package still isn't there. ACK! Anyway, I have an appointment with my midwife on Wednesday at my 41 week mark. If he's still not here by then, and it's looking like he won't be, she will set a date for me to be induced. As against induction as I've been in the past, I really don't care anymore. It isn't a c-section and I'm tired of feeling like turkey.

Speaking of turkey, we're hosting Thanksgiving this year because I really thought I'd have a baby by then and wouldn't want to travel 2 hours a week-ish after he was born. It seemed like a good plan to have dinner here, I could go to bed if I needed to, everyone could come see the baby... oh the best laid plans. I'm still going to LOOK like a turkey by then and with him nested up in there, there's going to be less room for me to gobble dinner. Oh I'm soooo punny! :-P My mom brought dressing yesterday because she's not going to be able to make it for dinner because my dad won't be able to travel due to a knee replacement. It's in the freezer and I'm so tempted to just heat it up and sit down with a serving spoon and stuff myself because honestly, what's more comforting than dressing??? Anyway, I feel a little better now and I can always go back and read my own blog and pretend that someone else wrote it and that they really understand how I feel . I'll keep everyone posted on delivery, but until then I leave you with a picture so that you can understand how I feel. I'm not sure if seeing the picture makes me feel better or worse, but you can at least have a good laugh at my expense. ~Kellie~

In case I don't see you before then, Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Not sold in stores?!

When Henry and I were expecting Kinsley, we decided to get her an animal from Build-A-Bear. We also decided that it would be a family outing and something special that the boys could help us do to prepare for her. They of course wanted to get her the camo bear, but we convinced them that she was a girl and that a girl might prefer something a little more... girly. Her bedding had little bunnies on it so we ended up choosing this little flop eared bunny. While they were stuffing it, the boys got to choose little red satin hearts to put inside. Their instructions per the stuffing person were for them to hold it in their hands and make a wish for the baby before putting the hearts inside the bunny so that it could be finished getting stuffed and closed up. It was so sweet, and honestly I cried in the store. Henry and I added a sound heart that makes a beating sound when you press it.

We decided that we would keep this tradition rolling with Henry and we've been searching for the right animal to get him. We checked the website and saw one that we liked and when we cruised by the store in the mall one day we discovered that they didn't have it. I think that they had had it, but they were out by the time we decided to get one. Anyway, that was a month or so ago and the pressure is now on to wrap up details. We checked the site again. They actually had the original one that we wanted, but then we saw one that we liked a little better. I'm still kinda stuck on the first one, but I think this one might be a little more fitting for him. See that little green paw print on the pic? Yeah, that means that you can ONLY get it online and NOT in the store. :( I called the local B-A-B store and asked them about this. I told the super excited girl who answered the phone my predicament, and it turns out that you can request them to send you the animal unstuffed so that you can take it to the store for the experience. I was sad that the "economy" shipping said that the delivery date was 6-9 days because honestly I'm not sure I have 6-9 more days before he's here. I could have upgraded the shipping but then it would have been as much as the animal which is stupid especially considering that he is lighter than usual because he's not stuffed! Anyway, I'm not sure if we'll get him in time to make a family outing to the store before Henry gets here. If not, I'll just send Henry and the kids to the store for some cool dad time or I might possibly go as well with Henry wrapped in the Moby and totally enclosed to form a germ barrier. In any case, the kids will get to make him a cool animal that he can keep and it will be a neat experience for them. I'll try to take and post pics of the "stuffing party". -Kellie-

All Things Baby Henry Part III- Maternity Photos

I got our maternity pics back today and I just have to share some. These were taken by our neighbor, Suzanne DuBose, who has gotten into photography. If you're doing photos at home, you just don't get more convenient than that. :) I tried not to repeat most of the ones we had done with Kinsley so that we have fresh new photos. So here they are, our maternity photos for baby Henry.

I could not decide which of these to post so I'm posting them both. We somehow manage to always get one amazing photo of us with each maternity shoot. 

One would ask, "where's Kinsley?" She was choosing not to participate in this picture so I'm calling this one "Me and All My Boys".

 Yay! She decided to join us. We only got her to sit with us by telling her to watch the butterflies that were thankfully flying around.

 

 Hint: One of the pumpkins above and below is not really a pumpkin, but a pumpkin poser!

Because I didn't want to be too blah and have all of the pictures serious, we painted my belly orange and added a mustache face to match the kids' shirts.

All Things Baby Henry Part II

Be prepared for photos galore in this post! I've been meaning to get to this post for over a month now, and I finally have time to do it. I've finished up work things and told everyone that I'm done until further notice. That hasn't stopped people from asking, but with only 2 weeks to go until my due date I don't feel bad at all saying "no". People are starting to ask how I feel and if I'm ready. The answer to question A is: I feel like I swallowed a watermelon whole, and as with every one of my pregnancies (except Jonas because he was born before it started) I have a compressed nerve that really gets on my nerves. I can barely bend over, squat or put on socks. None of those things are pretty, and last night I told Henry that I feel like a Penske truck trying to drive a road course meant for a Porche. I'm carrying him sooo low, lower than any of the others, that my pants really will not stay up. I'm so thankful for over the belly pants, the Bella Band, and long long shirts. On the up side of things, I've only gained about 32 pounds and most of it is belly with a little spread to my rear end. I like to think of the wide load in my aft end as a counter weight to balance out the extreme load in the front. :D OK, question B, am I ready? I'm not sure you're ever really ready. You can make plans and read books and pack bags and do stretches and relaxation things (all of which I'm/we're doing), but the actual act of hours of labor and then birth... face it, you can be prepared, but you are never "ready". :-P All that being said I'm really looking forward to meeting little Henry, probably more than any of my other babies. I think that comes from being in a different place in life and I'm sure that age and mindset are playing a role in that too. It is not saddening at all to know that he is the last one. I've probably enjoyed being pregnant the least out of all the times. I think that's because we have more existing kids and there's more to do which is obviously complicated by the whole beach ball belly thing. Some of you are probably thinking "well if things are that bad, why did you do it?". Things aren't horrible even though I'm really uncomfortable physically. I'm excited to have him on the way, but I'll be glad to put this phase behind me and move on. ON TO THE PICTURES!! :D

 I have this cube thing in the baby's room to store toys or blankets or whatever else needs to be stashed at the time. I recovered the top of it with minky dot when I did the room for Kinsley. It was cute enough but I felt like it needed something. I had some awesome appliques that I thought would look great on them. I stitched them out on felt and glued them to each side of the cube. I think it adds a little whimsy to the boring cube.

I also took the time to make Henry some burp cloths. I saw the designs maybe before I even knew what we were having and I immediately purchased them after I found out.  

The font for this one is called "boots and bows" Luckily his name doesn't have any of the letters that had the bows, but if you look closely you can see the boots on the "H" and "R" as well as the cute little smiley face in the "d".

 Here is a close-up of the little fox and his fringy tail. It cracks me up because his little tail is so fluffy. I was dying to try a fringe design and this provided the opportunity. I'm gonna talk shop here for a sec and explain sorta how this works. You will see that the body of the fox is stitched flat in what's called a fill pattern. The tail is stitched with a different type of stitch that tacks town the top of long stitches really well to prevent them from coming out when you clip the bottom of those long stitches and fluff them up creating the fringe look. I feel like such a geek for being so psyched about this, but it's what I do and now you know. :-P

While I was in the mode of making things, I made all of this stuff from fabrics that I think I may have featured in a previous post. I even bought most of this fabric before I even knew what I was going to do with it. I saw it, I loved it, I had to have it, I had coupons!!!



Top left is 2 flannel crib sheets. I learned alot about elastic on that project...
Bottom left: 2 sheets (1 cotton, 1 flannel) for the pack and play  that he'll sleep in in our room until he sleeps long enough periods to go to his room.
Top right: Boppy covers, 1 entirely flannel, 1 entirely cotton, and 1 half and half, but to add a twist I made it a solid circle instead of the "U" shape, thus mimicking that new Boppy Nest thing that they have out.



So here's the blanket that I made him. It's fleece, and it's printed in these cute little blocks, I didn't put them together like a quilt. He will use this blanket in his pack and play, as well as chilling in the house when he gets older. All of my kids have a special monogrammed blanket, and the boys still tote theirs around. Below you'll see a close-up of the monogram on the left. On the right, you'll see these adorable animals that I ordered from Etsy. I had been eying that fox since I got on Etsy and didn't have a reason to get one. The raccoon was originally a different version of the fox, but I had her morph it for me.

 Here are the little shoes that I bought him, all also from Etsy. The pair in the middle is a pair of hand-made leather "cruising shoes". The girl that makes them gets the leather as scraps from a furniture upholsterer so you get super high quality leather that's so soft and pretty. They even have little cotton faux laces. The booties on either side of the tennis shoes were hand crocheted in Italy by a French woman. I find humor in that. Anyway, they are so cute and tiny. He'll hopefully wear the brown ones for Thanksgiving and the striped ones for Christmas.

Speaking of things from afar, I got this little pillow from a fellow embroideress that I'm on a forum with. We've become long distance friends and we have lots of fun talking shop. She lives in Brazil and makes some of the most awesome stuff. She's a workhorse, and I'm a little jealous of her talents. :) Anyway, she made this cute little pillow for him.

Last but not least, we bought him this cute little coming home outfit. We searched and searched to find something we liked. We wound up having to order it online because we couldn't find the correct size in the store. We also ordered him 2 "babies" right up front since Jonas only had 1 and we lost it all the time, and Kinsley started with 1 but we wound up getting another because washing it was an ordeal since she had to be without it for 2+ hours which inevitably interfered with nap.  His outfit has been packed up in a special box, the same box that has held the coming home outfit for each of my babies. It's lame, I know, but it's my thing. It's a very OCD thing because everything has to be folded perfectly and put in in a certain order. I always include 1 tiny diaper in addition to the outfit. The bow tying is also an ordeal because I'm terrible at tying bows so I have to do it multiple times to get it to my satisfaction.

 So here's the 3D ultrasound of his sweet little face. The pic is a little distorted because he honestly had/has no room in there. He was also moving around alot and it was super hard to get a still shot. The guy wound up replaying the video frame by frame several times to get an unobstructed view of his face that he could make into a still shot. It was so cute that during the ultrasound, we got to see him sucking his thumb for a few seconds. I plan to do at least one more post about him before he's born. Be on the lookout for that post which will include maternity pics that are anything but typical.

 -Kellie-

Separating conjoined twins

So I've been thinking about this whole office/bedroom situation and about how we're slowly making the one big space into two separate spaces.

Here are exhibits A & B. The situation is interesting because everything is shared between the two rooms, much like how things are shared by conjoined twins. The process of dividing this room is sort of similar to separating conjoined twins in that we aren't doing it all at once, not because it would be a shock to the rooms, but rather because it would be a shock to our wallets. We put up a temporary wall as seen in the photos. It's not pretty, but it sorta does the job for now. Today we installed ceiling fans in each room. Now we've wanted to do that since we bought the house, but it hasn't been a huge priority. We chose to do it now so that we can take another step in the separation by allowing each room to have its own air circulation and light. The rooms are still on the same circuit, and one switch still controls both fans, but now we can leave the switch on and just use the fans to control the lights :) This also removes the need for the fan on the bucket since the air is being moved by proper means. Sorta. We are still pondering the next step in the great separation, but we're not in any hurry and it will happen whenever we randomly have the time and money to invest in it. Until then, I am going to enjoy sitting in my office in the mornings with the light off without fear that the light of the sun will suddenly shine down on me when the boys get up and flip the switch.  -Kellie-

Respecting your elders

During this last trimester of pregnancy, I've developed a whole new respect for old people. I find myself having more and more in common with them as the days go on. I'm telling myself that it's not that bad because unlike them, my life will start to go back to normal in soon. I hope. Here's what I'm talking about. I'm uncomfortable and that's only going to get worse before it gets better. I talk about how uncomfortable I am because it pretty much consumes most of my day. I can't bend over without feeling like I'm either going to suffocate or break something. I'm very thankful to the person who invented flip flops and slip on boots because I am so not wearing shoes with laces until after this is all over. I can't do the things I used to. Oh in my mind I can still leap tall buildings in a single bound, but here in reality land where there are physical limitations, not so much. This is wreaking havoc with my mind and self esteem. I was going to change a light bulb the other day, and actually did finally get the globe off and the bulb out, but then I was too exhausted to finish. Luckily Henry was home and I didn't have to sit in the dark. I got some ceiling fans for the office and boys' room. In my mind I can just put them up in nothing flat, but in reality I have to be happy with the fact that I sat in my little chair and put the little arms on the blades with a screwdriver so that they are ready when he gets home so that he can install them. This reminds me of those trivial tasks they give old people in nursing homes so that they can still feel productive. I'm telling myself that I got started and that I got busy and just didn't have the time to install them and when Henry comes home and really installs them I'm going to tell myself that he's just being sweet and helping me finish projects that I ran out of time to do. Actually, I'm probably going to try to take down the existing light because I refuse to believe that I'm that bad off  (I seem to be ignoring the whole thing about the light BULB!!) and I'll then be too exhausted to install the fan and I really will have to sit in the dark until he gets home. Boy am I glad there are two big windows in here. ;) I can't remember things either. I've always had to write things down because I have a very active mind that goes ten different directions at once, but I forget to even write things down now. It's sad!! :-P I actually overfilled a glass with water while standing in front of the fridge the other day, and just stood there continuing to pour thinking that someone really should turn the water off! Several seconds later I realized that I was the one who needed to stop the water and I then had to kick a towel around on the floor to clean up the water because as I said, I can't bend over. I also fear slipping on the floor and falling down. I used to run across hard floors in socks and purposely slide, but now the thought of doing that is like thinking about walking across the interstate. Are you crazy? You'll get killed! Or at least maimed! I actually thought the other night that I would lie in the tub while the shower was on and pretend that I was taking a hot bath. Problem 1. Getting down into the tub was not easy. I got most of the way down, but the rest was basically a controlled slide. Problem 2. I somehow managed to suction my back to the tub and it made it really hard to attempt what became... Problem 3. If I can't get out of the floor, what the crap made me think that I was going to get out of the tub? I was on my back, in the slippery tub, suctioned to the bottom, and it's not like there's alot of room to maneuver in there! I did finally manage to get up, but I seriously thought about yelling for Henry to help me. Talk about an insult to my self esteem. I will not be doing that again, I'll just stand in the shower from now on. If I wanna sit in there, I'll just take a 5 gal bucket and a towel and pretend that it's an elaborate shower seat. Hmm... that actually doesn't sound too bad... Hey Henry! Can you get me a bucket out of the shed?? :-P -Kellie-