Update

I went to my appointment this morning and told the doctor before he even checked me I didn't want my membranes stripped. As wonderful as it sounds to be done, I just felt this is what I needed to do. My blood pressure was doing better so he said I could do whatever I wanted. I was dilated to a 3+ so things are still moving along. The doctor told me not to leave town - which at this point is not even a temptation since I'm so uncomfortable I can hardly stand to drive anywhere.

Chuck asked him how big he thought the baby was. I started laughing when the doctor told me I was hiding this baby very well. He must see some really big bellies, because I don't think there's much being hid! He guessed the baby was probably over 7 lbs. and by next week could be close to 8 lbs. Since there's really no way he can just feel around and know I can still hope for a 6 lb. baby don't you think!

I feel much more at ease after this appointment so we'll just continue plugging along and hopefully before too long I'll just go into labor by myself.

Nervous Ramblings

I'm sitting in my rocking chair with my legs kicked up feeling very restless and nervous. I decided I might as well blog a little to maybe relieve some of the anxiety. Tomorrow morning is my doctor's appointment and I have been wondering for a solid week what we should do. I have yet to have a smooth delivery, each has been rough and scary all for different reasons and so I find myself dreading the unknown. As tempting as it is to think I could have this baby tomorrow, okay for me more realistically Friday, I think I've decided even if I am dilated to a 3 I may wait another week and see if I go into labor on my own. I'm so uncomfortable and ready to be done I can't believe I'm leaning that direction! I've made my list of questions for the doctor and I very easily could change my mind tomorrow morning, but for tonight I think I may wait. Chuck is coming with me to my appointment. When I'm not thinking rationally he is the voice of reason!

We have got a few things prepared just in case - I put clean sheets on the bassinet, put away the baby clothes in the drawer (I was amazed at how many 0-3 month clothes Trina and I have between the 2 of us - there's no possible way to even go through that many clothes in 3 months), I don't have bags packed, but I have started a pile of a few things. Last night Chuck and I finally sat down talked about names and made a list of a few we like - now we'll just wait and see what fits her when she arrives.

My mom's been here for the past couple of days and so she has been finishing some of the sewing projects that I was planning on getting done, but had to be put on hold with my blood pressure issue.

This is the outfit we will bring the baby home in. Kristin I got this idea from your cute sewing blog - I had extra material from a quilt that I will eventually finish and so I used a few pieces to add the flower on what was a plain pink onesie. I cut the pieces out then my mom sewed them on today. My mom also made the little blanket under the onesie today. I have several little girl blankets, but they were all either Bella's or Kambree's so now at least this little one will get one new blanket.


And yesterday my mom made the car seat blanket cover I was also going to sew. Having to take it easy sure put a damper on getting all my projects done!! A funny story about this material. I took Bella with me to pick out material for this project and she of course was pulling every bolt of pink material off the shelves. The place was pretty crowded and I could hardly keep up with her trying to maneuver around everyone with my big belly. I absolutely loved this piece of material because it had no pink in it. When Bella realized this is what we were getting she went into melt down mode right there in the fabric store. At one point she was on the ground loudly crying that she and the baby didn't like brown they only liked pink. She was creating quite the scene there in the tight Lazy Daisy Cottage. But I got my piece of fabric with no pink and I LOVE it!

This is the quilt that I will eventually make for the baby. I have a lot of it cut out and my mom said she would finish it for me, but I have made each of the other kids their own quilt and so for some crazy reason I feel I need to do this on my own. But it's going to have to wait for awhile!




On Saturday my "birthing" present to myself arrived - a new lens for my camera. I figure after giving birth to 4 kids in under 5 years I deserve a little celebration present. So I haven't taken any pictures with the new lens, but I had Chuck take a few with the kids and I and I think I'm really going to love how sharp it is.

I'm not going to miss this big belly, but it sure has been fun to see the kids react to it. Bella is constantly giving my belly kisses and last night she brought me a blanket and wrapped it around my belly saying it was for the baby since she was sleeping. Samuel is always putting his hands on my belly asking if she is awake, hoping to feel her move. And Isaac just likes to point and say baby.

This picture almost brings tears to my eyes every time I look at it. It's sad for me to think that Isaac will no longer be my baby. Granted he has been the baby for longer than any of the other kids, but at 21 months it's hard to believe that he will soon be a big brother.

How I love each of these precious kids and can't wait (okay maybe I can wait another week!) for another baby to join our family!

Chuck's Half Marathon Run

Chuck ran the Painter's Half Marathon this weekend and we went to cheer him on at the finish line. Everyone started out with smiles, but they quickly disappeared as the kids began to get cold as we waited. Samuel was whining about it taking too long for daddy to come, Bella decided she needed to go to the bathroom right now, and Isaac just wanted out of the stroller. I didn't feel so great myself. On the walk from the car to the finish line I had several contractions and was totally out of breath by the time we got there. Oh I can't wait to be able to move again! Luckily Grandma was there to help!





Finally I spotted him and boy did he look tired! He has managed to keep running a few times a week all winter, but hasn't really been able to train very well because of the craziness in our life right now. I remember when he ran the Gunlock half marathon - his personal best time and coming across the finish line he looked like it had been a breeze. He did manage to finish this race in just over 2 hours with a time of 2:02:08.


We were screaming for him, but as usual he didn't see us. It was really cute because as Chuck ran by Samuel said, "He did awesome!". Samuel really wants to run a race with his daddy some day.

Proud of our daddy!

The kids favorite part of any race daddy runs in is when he shares his snacks they provide for the runners. The kids were so excited to eat his goodies.

Thank You Grandma!

I just wanted to say thank you to Chuck's mom for spending the past week taking care of us. We would love to hire Grandma as our cook, nanny and maid! Chuck was loving the fact that it felt like he was living at home again with his mom taking care of him. She would make him lunch each day when he came home. The poor guy didn't know what to do with himself because I have so many other little people I need to take care of he is used to fending for himself. I really am lucky to have such a great mother-in-law. I just wished I knew her secret for raising such wonderful sons! I hope I can raise Samuel and Isaac to be as kind, caring, helpful and as wonderful as their daddy!

My Little Sunbeam

I'm a bit behind, but thought I better get this down before the baby gets here. My sweet little Bella is now a Sunbeam! It was so funny because the first Sunday this year as we were driving to church Samuel was lamenting the fact that we forgot to eat a snack before we left the house and now he was going to starve clear to death before we got home. So of course Bella decided she was also going to starve to which Samuel quickly reminded her that she was lucky because she was a Sunbeam and Sunbeams get snacks. He on the other hand was now a CTR 4 and would not get any snacks so he was going to starve and she was not.

I play the piano for Primary and that first Sunday as we practiced the most beautiful song I looked out and saw my sweet little girl sitting on the front row and could not help but cry. Some days I really would just like to stop time because it passes so quickly - how could it be that my sweet little girl is already a Sunbeam. Of course there are days and stages that are hard, but I truly feel blessed being able to have my little ones so close in age. They are so much fun right now - well, most of the time!

And Bella really does love Primary. I was a little worried because she was not very excited about leaving nursery, but she has done so well with the transition.

While I'm talking about Bella I had to post a few pictures I took of her the other day. These were just a few of the outfits she was wearing throughout the day. And I finally went and bought her several pair of stretch pants. She currently has an issue with wearing jeans and we were having a huge battle every time we had to leave the house. I finally decided I was just to worn out and tired to fight her anymore so I got her some new stretch pants to wear. Now the only problem is she only wants to wear the pink ones because as she says, "I only like pink and purple". Oh how I love that the boys could care less about what they are wearing!

Notice the swimsuit tops with the princess skirts. Today she told me she was going to wear her swimsuit bottoms to church under her dress. Luckily I was able to talk her out of that!

In this picture I told her we should comb her hair and she said, "Princesses don't comb their hair mom"!

This was early in the morning and Bella came out of the bathroom and wanted to show me how she had done her own hair. Of course this lovely hairdo didn't last long!

Baby Update

I had another doctors appointment on Thursday morning. Chuck's mom has been here for a week helping take care of the kids, cooking us dinner and picking up the house so I could take it easy and hopefully get my blood pressure down. (It has been wonderful having so much help!!)

When they checked my blood pressure it had dropped by 20 points on the top and 10 points on the bottom, but was still in the high category. I did not realize how high it had been because they didn't tell me, no wonder the doctor was concerned. But the craziest thing was I had LOST 2 pounds! Yes, I actually lost weight this past week. I have NEVER lost weight when pregnant, but the doctor thought it was great because I had been swelling quite a bit. He was also happy that my blood pressure had decreased. Then he checked me and I was actually dilated to a 2+. With my other kids I have never dilated this early. I have been having pretty steady contractions for a couple of weeks so I guess my body is getting ready.

So the big news is the doctor said if I was dilated to a 3 at my doctors appointment next week he will strip my membranes if I want him to. I have mixed emotions about this so I'm not sure what we will decide to do, but we MAY have our little girl here by next weekend we'll just have to wait and see what the next week brings.


My sister is also pregnant and really wanted to get a few pictures of us together. I was not very excited about this because I am HUGE and she still looks so small. But she kept bugging me because it will be the last time we are pregnant together since this is our last baby. I finally gave in and had Chuck take a few pictures of us. I knew I was big, but when I saw the pictures I was even a little surprised at how large I look! But I'm almost done!

Wonderful & Not so Great News

First the Wonderful News - My mom had surgery to remove cancer from her kidney 3 months ago and we have all had to wait for the past 4 months to see if the procedure was successful. Well, yesterday she went in for her appointment and the doctor said the cancer was gone!!!! We are so thankful for good doctors, modern technologies and answers to prayers!

Then the not so great news. I had another doctors appointment yesterday and my blood pressure is still high. The doctor told me I needed to be spending several hours a day with my feet up and resting. I started to laugh when he told me this. I reminded him that I had 3 kids at home and the oldest was 4 - it's pretty hard to kick my feet up for hours each day. He then very seriously told me I needed to get help because if I didn't get my blood pressure under control he was going to have to take this baby. Another bad thing is if he has to take it early I will end up having another c-section which I want to try and avoid if at all possible at this point. So I came home worried and then called the Grandma's. Sometimes it's hard not having family live close, but at least they are within driving distance when we need them. So I am thankful that Chuck's mom and my mom are taking turns helping me out for the next couple of weeks and praying that everything works out!

Now I just have to not worry that all my projects are not going to be completed by the time the baby gets here. At least I can steal Chuck's laptop so I can do a few things while I kick the legs up in my chair.