It's a GIRL!

For anyone who hasn't already heard, our baby GIRL was born May 29, 2010 at 5:29pm. She weighed 8 pounds 11 ounces, and is 20 1/4 inches long. She is perfectly healthy, and both mom and baby are doing fine. I will work on typing up our birth story to share with everyone soon before I forget things. Here's a picture to enjoy!

38 weeks

I'm 38 weeks pregnant now, still no baby, and that's pretty much it. I had an ob appointment this morning, and both baby and I are doing well. My blood pressure is still great, baby has a good heart rate, and I actually lost half a pound. I'm dilated to 3cm now (cause I know you all wanted to know how my cervix is doing), but really that doesn't mean much since I was 3cm for a week+ before my water broke with Megan, and I was 4cm for a week or more and was induced with Jackson. So really, being dilated means nothing for me, other than all the contractions I've been having are actually doing something other than annoy me. Of course my doc said I could go into labor any day now, but we both know and joked about the fact that we just get to wait until this baby and my body decide it's time. Neither of us gets a say in the matter. I asked him if I was still measuring big, and he said no, I was pretty much average now. I told him I just wanted to be prepared for another Nathan if that was going to be the case, but he said he really doubted this baby would be that big.
I am not looking forward to this weekend since it's supposed to be 90 degrees. I've been so hot all the time with weather in the 70's, that I can't imagine how awful I'm going to feel when it hits 90! Times like this I wish we had a pool.
Emma's recital was this past Saturday, and she did pretty good for being her first recital. Her whole class had problems with forgetting everything they know really well, so it's not like she was alone in her mess-ups. It was fun being backstage and helping out again, but very odd to not be dancing, or able to help do a lot of stuff. I promised Emma's teacher I will not be so useless next year, and hopefully I can dance at least a little.
Don't forget to check out my previous post with pictures from my maternity/family photo shoot. We had this session with our photographer from Bellies & Babies back in April. Thanks to my friend Cassie and her husband who met us and watched the kids so we could have pictures of just Sean and I as well as ones that included the kiddos. I think the pictures turned out great, and the only thing I'm unhappy with is how I look in some of them, but that's because of me, and not a problem with the photographer. Enjoy!
Hopefully my next post will be an announcement of our newest arrival (but don't hold your breath on that). Oh, and don't forget to vote boy or girl on the side of the blog. Only a few days left in the poll. :)

full term!

WOOHOO! I'm 37 weeks now, which means I'm officially full term, and the baby can come any day now. Sean asked last night if I felt like this baby would be coming any time soon. I had to laugh and pointed out that I've had 4 failed attempts at this going into labor thing, so I obviously have no clue what I'm doing. I would love to have this baby as soon as possible, but I have no idea how to make that happen. Today is my mom's birthday, so it would be cool for them to share a day, and tomorrow is Mama Sue's birthday, so that would be neat too. Part of me hopes I won't have this baby in the next couple days so I don't have to miss Emma's dance recital, but the other part of me says "to heck with it. She'll have other recitals and I'm miserable, so bring on the baby." Her dance teacher will not be happy to hear that from me since I'm supposed to be a big help backstage. But, I'm sure my mom could fill in since I know she's had plenty of experience doing that. So, if you could please pray I have this baby soon before I go insane that would be great!

really Nathan? REALLY?

Poor Nathan! That poor kid has so many more issues than anyone else is our house. I am seriously incredibly thankful that all of his health "problems" are minor things and nothing that seriously affects him, but I swear, it is just always something with that kid. In addition to having hand, foot, and mouth disease right now (which by the way, is not causing him any pain or symptoms aside from a few blisters on his hands and bottoms of his feet), yesterday evening I noticed he was scratching his stomach and side a lot. So I pulled up his shirt, and he was broken in a different rash/hives on his lower abdomen, around his sides onto his lower back, and behind his knees on his legs. At first I freaked out thinking, "oh my god! What is wrong with him? EEK, what are we all going to catch now?!" But then I thought about it and decided it was probably hives from an allergic reaction to something. Well, the only new thing in the past few days was the inhaler the doctor gave him to help with his constant cough. He had a dose on Friday night and Saturday morning, and the hives appeared Saturday afternoon/evening. So we stopped the inhaler and gave Nathan some benadryl and everything looked much better today. Tonight he started itching on the back of his legs again, so I gave him another dose of benadryl and put him to bed. I haven't heard from him since, so I'm guessing he's ok. I will be calling the pediatrician again in the morning to try to figure out if a) it's likely he has an allergy to the med and b) what else we can give him for the coughing. I think our family alone keeps the pediatrician in business.
I talked to my mom last night, and told her not to be surprised if I go into labor soon since Nathan is always sick with something when we have a baby. I kept hoping this time no one would be sick when we had the baby, but this weekend is not giving me much hope.

PS. Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. I hope it was a great day for everyone. :)

I continue to be perplexed by how busy we can be, and yet how boring our life seems to be since I have nothing new to say. Mama Sue (she's like a mom to me) pointed out tonight that it has been forever since I posted a blog entry, but as I told her, I feel like I have nothing new to say.
I really am just in survival mode lately. I'm just trying to get through this pregnancy sane, and to be honest, I've been a major crab for the last 3 weeks. I'm also just trying to get Emma and Nathan through the end of the school year, and survive Emma's first dance recital. I have to say, it's quite the experience being on the mom end of things instead of on the performer side of things. Hopefully though, next year I can do both. :) I know my teacher is dying to have me back in class (lol!) and I really am ready to find something to do that's just for me that I truly love. I will readily admit I'm a little sad dance isn't a major part of my life anymore, and even though I know when I do go back it won't be the same (boy will I miss my girls I danced with for years), I think I will still enjoy being there. And I know my body will definitely thank me for it. :)
In other news over the course of the last 3 weeks, here's what you missed; Nathan caught a cold, gave it to Emma, who gave it to me. Then Jackson got it, then Megan. Somehow Sean escaped. Now that we are all on the mend from that, Nathan was diagnosed with Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease. Now I feel like I'm just waiting for everyone else to get it. I swear Nathan brings almost every illness into this house. I'm not sure if he just has bad luck or a crappy immune system, but I'm about to put him under house arrest and see if we all get sick less often.
In the midst of his cold, Jackson has cut about 8 new teeth. 4 of them are molars, and I am shocked he cut all 8 of those teeth while having a cold, and was not hardly crabby at all, and his sleeping was not disturbed. What an awesome kid we have. :)
I'm still plugging along getting bigger and fatter by the day. The great news is I'm medically doing great with the pregnancy, and the baby is doing just fine. The bad news is I'm uncomfortable, and unhappy, and quite crabby. My doctor mentioned today how I never complain, and I had to laugh and tell him I just do all my complaining to my husband. Poor Sean has to put up with a lot. I am 36 weeks, and will be 37 next Wednesday, and I'm ready and willing to do almost anything I can to get this baby out of me after Wednesday.
I will try to keep up with posting more frequently, and put up some pictures of my giant belly, and of Emma's dance recital once it's over. Hang in there with me since I'm sure things will get more interesting in the next month as this baby arrives and our family grows again.

...and then...

(this is really long, so feel free to skip it)
Wow! What a crazy 2 1/2 weeks it's been. Back on March 28th I thought I was going to my friend's house for a purse party, but boy was I surprised it turned out to be a baby shower for me. I'm so lucky to have such fabulously sweet family and friends that wanted to do something special for me and baby #5. Sadly I'm still working on my thank you cards. Sorry it has taken me so long, but I promise I am working on them. :)
That was also the day Emma came down sick with some sort of stomach virus. So we all spent the next week trying to avoid everyone else getting it, and trying to get Emma better. She would get better, and then get sick again, and constantly complained of a stomach ache. Sean finally took her to the doctor on Good Friday, but they couldn't find much wrong with her. The doctor gave us some samples of prevacid in case it's a reflux problem. We ran out of those a while ago though, and no more "my tummy hurts" complaints so far, so hopefully we are past all of that.
By Easter everyone was feeling better, and the weather was beautiful, so we got some work done outside that weekend.
While all that was going on, my car was in the shop getting some hail damage repaired. The original estimate was that it would take 2 days, but each time I talked to the manager about it, I would get a different answer, and of course the deadline kept getting extended. So, we broke down and rented a minivan because not having a vehicle we could all fit in while the kids were on spring break from school was just not going to work. After a couple of nasty phone calls from me, and getting offered a discount because of the extra inconvenience and rental cost, we finally got my car back on the Tuesday after Easter.
After picking up my car, we got a phone call from school that they thought Nathan had pink eye, and we had to come get him. Thankfully Sean did that since I had the two little kids. Of course, he did not have pink eye, it was just his allergies acting up. The poor kid even tried to tell the nurse that he just has bad allergies, but they still made us come get him. By the time Sean got there, his eyes were almost completely back to normal, but Sean brought him home anyway.
Wednesday afternoon I got another call from the nurse, but this time it was about Emma. She had gotten hurt on the playground, and the nurse felt Emma needed to get checked out by a doctor and might need stitches. That happened at nap time, and I still didn't have the car seats installed in my car, and I was feeling sick all day that day, so this was horrible timing. I packed everyone up, installed the car seats, said a prayer I would feel ok while we were out, and picked up Emma and Nathan from school. It was late in the day and I knew I wouldn't be back home from the ER in time to get Nathan of the bus, so he had to come with us. We ended up at the Urgent Care near us, and Emma got two stitches in her lip out of the deal.
That Saturday (April 10) we had maternity/family pictures, so now we have pics of Emma's fat stitched up lip. lol! I haven't gotten any proofs from the photographer, but I will be sure to share some when I get them. I really love my photographer, which is good since she'll be there for the birth of this baby.
Because of the weather being nice, we've spent a lot of time outside, which means Nathan has had some serious allergy problems. Saturday night his eyes were almost swollen shut, and he was miserable for 3 days. I kept him home from school Monday because he was still swollen and miserable. Tuesday morning Emma got her stitches out at the doctor, and Nathan had an appointment so we could help him feel better. The doctor gave us a prescription for some steroids and eye drops, and so hopefully the combo of those and his regular allergy meds he won't be so miserable anymore. And I just have to say, I hope those eye drops are magic ones, because they cost me $70, and that's with insurance!
I'm hoping things will slow down a bit just because I feel like I've been going in a million different directions in the past two weeks, but at the same time I like that I've been busy, because the end of this pregnancy is going by quickly. I still have 7 weeks left, but would love to have this baby a little early since I'm already feeling ginormous and uncomfortable.