Baby Status

Well I had another doctor's appointment yesterday and unfortunately I haven't made a bit of progress since last week. He didn't give me any kind of a guesstimate on when this baby might arrive, but he did say he'd see me next week, so it looks like this weekend it out.

Which is a shame really. I'm so ready to meet our little guy! and pick out a name! and not be pregnant!

I have some things I'd like to get done before he arrives though. In that spirit, here's another list:

• Get my car washed and detailed
• Finish addressing all my baby announcement envelopes
• Watch our CPR video - Brian made me promise we'd do this tonight. Our Friday nights are so exciting these days.
• Clean out my dish pantry to make room in the kitchen for baby bottles and such
• Clean out my freezer
• Go on a date with Brian

Happy Friday everyone!

Packed

I have some kind of a mental block against packing my hospital bag. My biggest hangup seems to be that I'm still using a lot of the stuff that I want to pack like my face wash and my hairdryer.

But today I started gathering the stuff I'm not using. Here's my preliminary list:

For Me:

• Robe
• Flip flops and socks - not to be worn together :)
• Pillow with extra pillow case
• Fancy lip balm for laboring moms - thanks Mom!
• iPod & speakers
• Sudoku book & pencil
• Snacks for Brian
• Overnight bag for Brian - he's in charge of this
• Computer & power cord
• Camera & cord
• Cell phone charger
• Pajamas, nursing tank and other supplies
• Toiletries and makeup
• Going home outfit for me - Gap yoga pants, black t-shirt and sneakers

For Baby Boy:

• Baby book - so we can have them stamp his little feet and hand prints. That might be the only entry ever made in the book, but it'll be a great start.
• Boppy pillow
• Going home outfit for baby- blue sail boat shirt and pants, big blue coat sack in case it is cold outside, which isn't likely. It's supposed to be up to 83 degrees later this week, and I don't see a cold front on the way.
• Baby hats
• Folder for baby papers from the hospital
• Swaddle blankets for cute pictures

What am I forgetting? Brian thinks I want to take entirely too much stuff, but I think I'll end up using everything on this list. I'm also hoping to pack strategically so that I have one bag for labor & delivery and one for recovery.

Busy Week

It has been such a busy week. Brian and I finally joined our church on Sunday! We'd been visiting HPUMC ever since we moved to this part of town almost three years ago, so it was definitely time for us to commit.

Mom, Dad and Nana came to watch us join, and afterward we all went to one of our favorite restaurants for brunch to celebrate Brian's birthday a little early. We all came back to our place to open presents and have cake, and then I pretty much sat on the sofa and watched TV and played Sudoku for the rest of the afternoon. It was wonderful. Brian worked in the garage and took the dog with him so I didn't even have to share my space. :)

Tuesday was Brian's birthday, and we went out to an excellent dinner just the two of us. I kept thinking that it was one of the last times we'd be able to do that so easily for quite a while! He opened presents, and we had leftover cake that was still really good. Yum.

Wednesday was a most beautiful day so Kelsey and I went to Ozona's for lunch and sat on the patio to enjoy the weather. We had tickets to the Mavs game that night and Matt couldn't make it so Nana came in to town and used his ticket. It was a great game and the Mavs won again. And Nana ordered a beer. I think that was my favorite part.

The AAC usher by our seats has watched me get bigger and bigger throughout this season. Last night she asked me how much longer I had before the baby came, and I told her two and a half weeks. She was so surprised I was at the game, but what should I do? Just sit at home and wait for two weeks? I'll go crazy!

I had another doctors appointment today, and I still haven't dilated at all. But I've thinned out more, so that's progress. I treated myself to a wonderful massage at a spa in our neighborhood this afternoon, and now I'm going to take a nap while I wait for Brian to get home.

Naps are getting more and more important these days. :)

Happy Birthday Brian

Happy 29!


I can't believe this is our last year in our 20s. I want to savor every last moment of it with you!

Full Term Baby

I'm full term today so this baby can officially arrive any time. But really I think two weeks from now would be perfect. I still have a lot of things I'd like to do before he gets here, but I'm not exactly comfortable being 37 weeks pregnant. Most of all I'm just really ready to meet our little boy!

(Here's some medical stuff so proceed with caution...)

I found out at my doctor's appointment this week that I'm not a bit dilated. But I have started to thin a little, and he's already nice and low. She told me not to be disappointed with the lack of progress because it's still early so I'm just going to be excited that he's in the right position and look forward to seeing where I am next week.

Here's my almost 37 weeks picture. I hope this is as big as I get, but I've read that lots of women start to swell in the last two weeks. I'm so grateful that I haven't had much of a problem with this yet. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it stays that way.

37 Weeks

Fenway Anniversary

We brought Fenway home two years ago this week. He's added so much to our lives and now his world is about to be turned upside down by this new baby. I keep trying to warn him, but I don't think he's figured it out yet.

Fenway had a terrible, terrible first year.

He had a toenail that grew fast and crooked and pushed back into the pad on his paw. We tried to trim the nail the first weekend we had him and hit the cuticle. It bled and bled and bled (and we were at Mom and Dad's). I was afraid we'd scarred him for life, but it turns out that was just the beginning.

A few weeks later we took him to Houston to meet Brian's mom, and he managed to run into the freezing cold pool within the first 30 minutes we were there. Luckily he almost knows how to swim and he came right up to the top and no one had to jump in to save him.

Then in April he ripped that same crooked toenail off on a runner in the grass and he bled and bled again. Luckily we were at home for that one.

We went on vacation in July and left him at home with a dog sitter, but he had to spend the first two days at doggy daycare. By the time we got home he had a horrible cold and had to have an antibiotic shot that didn't do any good at all. He sneezed and snotted all over our house for two months.

And then the worst happened: He broke his back leg. I'm still not sure how it happened. Brian's convinced it was on the stairs since he still won't walk up our stairs. I think he might have done it with the (second) lamp he pulled off the side table and shattered into a million pieces on top of him. We'll never know, but it was an honest to goodness break; I saw the x-rays.

He had to wear a full cast for 4 weeks. And he had to have a head cone because otherwise he'd chew the cast off. (That only happened once.) Oh, he was so pathetic. He couldn't fit in his kennel with the cone on his head so he didn't sleep well. He couldn't eat out of his dog bowl so I fed him out of my hand...wow, it was really awful.

As soon as he got the cast off we had to get him neutered because he was already almost 10 months old by then. We decided to have the problem toenail removed at the same time since he'd be asleep anyway.

That was just cruel of us. We had to keep that front foot wrapped up for another 2weeks. It's really a miracle he can still walk.

We were so excited when he had his first birthday that Christmas Eve! We'd all survived.

He's been such a great dog ever since that first year. No broken bones. No more colds. He can run ridiculously fast if there's a squirrel in the backyard so we don't think there are any lingering problems from the broken leg or the missing toenail. He'll even get in the pool if he's on a raft.

He'll always be our first baby.

Maternity Clothes

We watched the Grammys on Sunday night. I was shocked when M.I.A. came out to perform. She stole my outfit! I was totally going to wear that to dinner this weekend. Now it's just so unoriginal.

All Boy

As a very girly girl who is about to have a boy child, this post from Beth Moore made me cry. I'm confident I'll be a great boy mom (and I'm really looking forward to trying it out), but I don't know if it'll come as naturally as being a girl mom will someday. And, oh my gosh, I'm going to have to go to Monster Truck shows.

Amanda and her new little girl are doing great. I bet she's dreaming of her big brother's toy trucks already.

Preparations

I still have so much to do to get our nursery ready for Baby Boy. We're close, but I've had a hard time deciding on bedding. You'd think that would have been the first thing we picked out, but no. We decided on paint colors with one bedding set in mind and have now found another we like even better.

The paint we chose will look great with the new stuff, too. Which is a blessing because I'm pretty sure I couldn't talk Brian into painting the room again.

The new bedding is awesome, but it means we're switching up our theme at the last minute. It's a good thing we didn't stencil those little animals on the wall like we'd planned now that we're contemplating hanging hot air balloons over the crib. Looking back, I think maybe I was never really committed to the first choice.

So Mom's coming in tomorrow for a big Buy Everything Else I Could Possibly Need Before the Baby Gets Here Day. I don't know how it's possible, but we still needs lots of stuff. And I have come to the conclusion that people are much more apt to buy clothes for little girls than little boys. This guy's closet needs some serious work!

So hopefully by tomorrow evening I'll have everything I need to finish decorating the nursery, and I'll be able to spend the weekend organizing and putting things away. Wish us luck tomorrow. We're getting down to crunch time.

Soup for Dinner

I have been all about the one-pot meals this entire pregnancy. I wanted to make soup and chili back in September when it wasn't even cold outside.

I don't know if it's because it's so much easier to clean up after making a one-pot dinner or if it's the comfort food factor, but we've had lots of soups and chilis this winter. And Brian hasn't complained at all. He's so good to me.

One of my new favorites is adapted from Cooking Light's Chunky Vegetable Soup. Let me know if you try it and enjoy.

Chicken and Vegetable Soup

2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 cup chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups chopped celery
2 cups chopped carrots
4 cups chicken stock
2 cups water
2 packages of precooked grilled chicken, chopped (I use Louis Rich)
1 can cannellini beans (I use white Navy beans - I think they're the same thing?)
1 (10-oz) package frozen lima beans
1 tablespoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Heat oil in large soup pot over medium-high heat until hot. Add onion, garlic, celery and carrots; saute 10 minutes or until tender. Add stock, water and remaining ingredients. (Go light on the salt at first if you're using packaged chicken. It could make it saltier than you'd like.) Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 30 minutes. Increase heat to medium-high; simmer uncovered, 10 minutes and serve.

Enjoy on a cold night!

Weekend Update

Brian brought home Chick-fil-a for dinner Friday night, and we spent the evening watching DVR'd episodes of Top Chef and Burn Notice. I went to bed early and Brian stayed up to play Wii Ski which is his favorite new pastime.

Brian found out months ago that I'd never seen any of The Godfather movies and neither had Matt or Kelsey. Judging by Brian's reaction you'd assume we had never even turned on the TV, growing up in the dark ages. So to rectify this great wrong we planned a Godfather marathon weekend to watch all three movies in a two day time span before the baby comes.

It's hard to watch three movies in a weekend, but we did get started Saturday afternoon. Matt and Kelsey came over just in time for the sun to shine directly on our TV screen. We had to stop the movie and play Wii Ski for a bit so the sun could move on and leave our TV alone. So by the time we got started we only had time for the first movie which was enough for one day anyway; it's a three hour movie.

I feel much more cultured now that I can say I've seen The Godfather. And now I know that Al Pacino was once a handsome man, and he didn't always talk like a crazy old man. Hopefully we can get the other two movies in in the next few weeks.

After church Sunday I told Brian I was either going to get a pedicure or clean out the pantry. Unfortunately I ended up cleaning out the pantry. It was a huge project, but it looks so much better, and there's not a bit of food left from 2006. I'm hopeful that completing this project means that my nesting instinct will start kicking in soon.

(As a side note - Mom cleaned out her pantry in Tulsa about a year ago and found food from the late 90's! How nasty is that?)

And then we settled in to watch the Super Bowl. I think it was the first time ever that I've just sat at home and watched the game, but it was great. We were able to really watch the game and all the commercials. We were a little behind, and I kept wanting to fast forward through the commercials to get to the end of the game, but I held out and we sat through that crazy game in real time. Poor Kurt Warner and the Cardinals.