7/23/10 - Car Troubles? Me?

Well, today started off not so hot. I dropped Olivia off at my mom's. There wasn't anywhere to park, so I just pulled up close to some cars and got Olivia out, in the house and settled in. When I went to leave...my car wouldn't start. Ugh...there I was, late for work, car parked in the middle of the street, extremely pregnant and uncomfortable, unable to go anywhere. My mom came out and gave me a jump, thankfully that worked! I went in and officially decided I am having this baby this weekend, so I got everything done and set up as if I was going to be out from this point on. I ended up taking the afternoon off because I was so tired and just needed a little me time. Then, I was off to meet the BFF for dinner...at Khan's of course! I made my food extra, extra spicy, with lots of pineapples, hoping for a little jump start :)

After dinner I met up with Christian and Olivia at home, and we took another nice long family walk down to the auto parts store. Christian was thinking my car troubles might be the spark plugs, so we went to check it out. The people at the store had some other ideas and offered to hook the car up to the scanner...but we didn't have the car, so we quickly walked back home to get it. When we got back, they hooked it up and the scanner didn't show any codes, so they are thinking it's either the alternator, or the battery. Low and behold, when we went to leave, the car again wouldn't start. They gave me a jump and we headed home for the night...looks like Christian will be unexpectedly working on the car tomorrow! Oh joy...

I didn't get a picture today, so I'll do a flashback! Here is Olivia last July...she's mastered sitting and is cute as can be!

7/22/10 - Almost There...Right?!

Today was a tough day. I have all of these pains, and I have no idea what they are. With Olivia, I had a lot of Braxton Hicks, then my "contractions" were all felt in my back. I get all of these pains on the top and sides of my tummy, which I assume are contractions, but they are not what I expected them to be. Ugh, I don't know. I hate to say it, absolutely hate to say it, but I'm just so ready to be done. I was brought to tears multiple times today and I just can't take much more of that. Hopefully this weekend something will move along!!

After work, Christian and Olivia went with his mom to dinner, so I did get plenty of resting time this evening. That was much needed. After they got home, we took a family walk up to Dairy Queen! YUM YUM. It was a nice long walk...exhausting, but hopefully it helps things along! And, Olivia had her first Ice Cream Cone! YUM...

I have the baby's stuff ready to pack for the hospital, I started gathering Olivia's stuff for when we drop her off at my mom's. Now, this weekend we just need to get my stuff together and get the car seat in. Thank goodness, we're almost ready!

7/21/10 - 39 Weeks, Still Here

Well, apparently 38 is not my lucky week after all!! Here I am, 39 weeks, and very much still pregnant! Oh well, what can you do! Hopefully everything going on lately is my body getting ready to go. As I mentioned a few days ago, this is the first week I've really felt miserable. The weather, the HEAVY baby in my belly, and life in general is just catching up to me now. I officially cannot sleep at night. It's not even a matter of getting comfortable, I just cannot sleep. It's horrible. But, I just have to remember, it's all going to be over VERY soon, and while I can't wait to see our little girl, it's going to be strange to not be pregnant, just like last time. It took me a long time to adjust after I had Olivia...losing that "piece" of you is hard!

Today was pretty low key. Work has been going great, they've been keeping me the right amount of busy, working at home has been a god's send and I think we're basically ready for me to go at any point. I've been getting really, REALLY tired in the late afternoons, so today, like the past few days, I took a little cat nap after I finished working, until Christian and Olivia got home. That's been nice, especially since I haven't really been sleeping at night! After dinner we relaxed for the evening, just thinking how crazy life is going to get any day now!

Chuy has been doing GREAT! We only had one accident, in his kennel, in the last couple of weeks. He's been sleeping great at night, going to the bathroom outside, eating well and I think the cats are finally adjusting to having him around. They still hate him with a passion, but I think they are beginning to accept that he isn't going anywhere. I think Olivia is still a little too much for him, but man she loves him to death! She couldn't care less who is around, as long as "puppy" is there!

7/20/10 - Another Day, Another Appointment

Well, I had my "39 Week" appointment today. Ann tried cheering me up by telling me how great and fabulous I look...I think Ann took her crazy pills this morning! But, a few compliments never hurt anybody...especially an almost 10 month pregnant anybody! My weight was great, again, no gain. I am so excited and proud of myself when it comes to weight gain this time!! Go me! My blood pressure was higher than the last couple of weeks, but still in the "normal" range, so that was great. She checked baby's heartbeat and measured me...I'm still measuring 37 weeks, and baby's heartbeat was back up in the 150's (still normal), so that was all good. She said, from feeling around my belly, she is pretty sure baby has dropped a bit. With all of the pressure I've been feeling lately, I'm sure she is right. I did not request an exam this week because I didn't want to feel the worry and disappointment I felt last week. Like I've said, it's not a matter of "I want her here NOW", it's the ticking clock I'm on that makes me worry. So, I figure, it's better that I just wait it and wonder rather than think about the actual stats this week.

She did say that because of the baby's size, that she is on the smaller/average size, they will let me go a little past 41 weeks if I want to. So, I told her I'd like to give it a couple more days. So, if it comes down to it, I will most likely have my c-section on 8/6/10. But, every limb crossed, hopefully she will decide to come before that! Next week my appointment is with the OB that will handle the c-section if I need it, so we'll see how that goes.

Other than that, it was a Tuesday as usual! Work, home to work, little nap, little play time outside, cleaning up a little bit. I got some chalk boards and a dry erase board from the Relay for Life garage sale we had, so we finally hung those up tonight in the play area. They are so cute, I love it! Of course I had to color all over them first :) Now, it's off to bed. For Christian, to sleep, for me, to lay there and wish I was asleep! Oh, the joys!

7/19/10 - Oh Monday

It's Monday! Monday comes so fast! Today was an OK day. Still pretty uncomfortable, and anxious about my appointment tomorrow.

I did get a burst of energy this evening and took it upon myself to get the baby stuff out of storage. Can't wait forever!!! So, I unpacked the bassinet, the swing and the car seat. Christian finally hard me rummaging around the basement, so he came down and did all of the heavy lifting. The bassinet and swing are all set up and ready to go...the car seat did not make it into the car, but is patiently waiting by the garage door, so hopefully Christian will get on that soon. After everything was moved out, I decided I also wanted to clean up the spare bedroom, so that turned into a little bit of a cleaning frenzy. Nesting, much?? But, I'm glad we finally are making strides towards being ready! It's a great feeling.

Other than that, nothing new or interesting to share. Let's just see what this week brings, shall we?!?

7/18/10 - Officially Miserable :(

OK, so I’ve felt great all through this pregnancy (well, sick here and there, but physically good)…until now. I feel like I was hit by a ton of bricks today, and I will say that I am miserable! It took every aching muscle in my body to get up, move around. Olivia is obsessed with “roughhousing” with me, and I just can’t do that anymore. I feel horrible, like I’m neglecting her, but I just can’t! And tonight, oh man, it was horrible. I had some massive Braxton Hicks contractions going on, and I could not fall asleep to save my life. So, tomorrow, on no sleep, should be great as well.

I did manage to pull myself together this morning and we went to Perkins for a yummy family breakfast. We stopped at Bachman’s on the way home because they were having a sale on their hanging baskets, which we wanted for the plant stands next to our new bench. I love them. I actually took a nap when Olivia did today, and it felt REALLY good. Too bad she only took a very short nap, and Christian had left to pick up some tools from his parents’ house, so nap time came to an end.

Once Christian got home, he fired up the grill and filled up the pool. Olivia and I hung out in the pool while he made dinner. We spent the rest of the evening just relaxing and hanging out, well, trying to anyway! I did get some cute pool pics though!

7/17/10 - Busy Busy Bees

Today was a very busy day in our world…and a VERY hot one on top of that! We were all up bright and early. Olivia and I quickly downed some breakfast, then, got ready for the day. We ran off to Target and spent some quality time there. Stocked up on some groceries and picked up a few other necessities. While we were shopping, Christian was home working on the yard. Even by the time we got home, he was only about halfway done! We got everything put away, played for a little while, then Olivia was down for a nap. Christian finished up the yard while I paid bills, did some dishes and cleaned up a little bit. Lots to do!!

After nap time and some lunch, we all headed out to run some errands. We stopped at Menards to pick up some home improvement supplies (AKA, boring!), stopped into Michael’s to pick up some craft supplies I needed (of course they didn’t have everything I needed…), stopped into Target (again) to FINALLY buy the double stroller and Olivia’s potty (we’re planning to start potting training while she’s home with us after the baby is born), then, finally, stopped into another Michael’s (and still didn’t get everything I needed). Ugh, so much running around…and, in the meantime, the storms started rolling in. We finally picked up some dinner and headed home. Immediately after getting Olivia in bed, the REAL storms blew in, and WOW, it was pretty crazy out. Luckily for us, Olivia slept right through the thunder and the tornado sirens, and we were at the very bottom edge of the storms, so we really didn’t get hit too badly.

7/16/10 - Take Me Out To The Ball Game!

Today was my Friday off...YAY! Olivia and I spent the day together, and she was quite entertaining. It was nice spending some quality time together…I really don’t realize just how much I miss that girl until I get a nice full day with her! While she napped, I did a tiny bit of cleaning, showered and got ready for a very exciting evening…we were heading out to our first Twins game at Target Field, and we were VERY excited about it! After nap time, lunch and getting ready, I dropped Olivia off at my mom’s. She took Olivia over to my aunt’s house for a pool party and was on babysitting duty for the night. I met up with Christian at home, we finished getting ready, Nate and Gini showed up and we were off! We got the game nice and early so we could wander around a little bit and check everything out. It was SO nice! The weather was beautiful, we had GREAT seats, and it really was a different experience watching the game outside. The stadium is gorgeous…they really did a good job. On top of everything, it was really nice to get out, spend time with friends AND the Twins won!! It was a really good game!

After the game, we all headed back to our place, relieved my mom, and spent a little time by the fire. Catching up, joking around and just laughing and laughing. It was an all around great night! Here are some pics of us and the new stadium!

7/15/10 - Quiet Day

Well, I had a bit of a rough night, so today was a very quiet day. After work, I pretty much just relaxed and laid around. I was up much of the night with a lot of pressure and I ended up getting sick in the middle of the night. So glad tomorrow is my day off, I’m going to need it! After Christian got home from work, we did go on a little walk around the neighborhood and played outside for a while, but I was definitely not feeling too hot. Olivia got a hold of our old camera, and filled up the memory stick taking pictures of herself. I could not stop laughing…it was absolutely hilarious. Once she went to bed, I finally got a hold of the camera and looked through them…she definitely got EVERY angle of herself…here are a couple of my faves!

7/14/10 - 38 Weeks!

38 Weeks today! Olivia was born at 38 weeks 6 days…maybe this will be my lucky week!!! According to everything I read, there really aren’t any risks to a baby born at 38 weeks, so I feel completely relaxed and ready to go. I’m still feeling really well…I don’t feel overly uncomfortable, super huge or anything like that. The worst is definitely at night. It takes forever to get comfortable, but I finally will and baby will settle in. Of course I then wake up a couple hours later and need to shift, only baby has different ideas and refuses to join in the shifting. Now that is a bit painful, I will admit, but if that’s the worst of it, I will definitely take it.

I updated on most everything yesterday. I’m feeling emotionally better today. I’ve heard a few positive stories about quick progression since my appointment, so that has helped. I just have to have faith that all of my hard work will pay off and I’ll finally get to experience the natural birth I didn’t get last time! I want to be a positive success story for fellow c-section mom’s, nervous about going for a VBAC. I want to have that pride in myself, knowing that I did it. I don’t want the incredible emotional let-down I had after my last c-section. I don’t want to “heal” and “recover” rather than play with my toddler and snuggle and care for my newborn. I want my body to just do what it is supposed to do! So, now we just wait…and wait. And HOPE! 3 weeks, although I still don’t think that is a lot of time, in the world of babies and pregnancy, a lot really can happen in 3 weeks, so I will focus on that!