Tomorrow's the DAY!!!

Tonight marks the last time in my life that I will go to sleep with a baby growing in my belly.  And while I am excited that soon I will be able to sleep on my right side, or better yet, my back, I have to admit that my heart is sad to know I will never feel a baby inside me again.  Sure, we could keep on having kids but the hubs and I both know 4 is enough.  And really, I'm ready to take my body back, have a glass of wine, end the heartburn once and for all. 

I know I'm different from a lot of my friends in the fact that I truly LOVE being pregnant.  It is, by far, one of the most amazing, beautiful things I've ever done in my life and I know that I am so blessed to be able to bring life into this world.  It's something I seem to do well.  I will miss being pregnant after tonight, even if I am more than ready to meet our final baby.  I will go to sleep tonight with my baby tucked sweetly inside of me for the last time and in the morning we get to see who's been growing in there for the last 39 weeks. 

Tomorrow is also the day people will begin to look at me and wonder if we know anything about birth control.  It is NOT the day I begin driving a minivan.  However, tomorrow may mark the end to my sanity.  Or it may just be the day we buy stock in wine. 

So here's to my sweet, final baby - I am so grateful to have carried you inside of me.  You are a gift from God and I am so excited to finally meet you.  I cannot wait to hold you in my arms and see your sweet face.  And I am thankful that God has chosen ME to be your mommy.

Until we meet tomorrow, goodnight sweet baby.

2 Trips to the Hospital and a Microphone

We had a rockin' weekend, complete with 2 trips to the hospital and the discovery of one completely rotten chimney.  I know, you're probably jealous and I can't say that I blame you. 
Friday night I started having some contractions so I thought it would be a good idea to have a walk around the nieghborhood to see what that might do for them.  Look, I consider myself proactive.  A real go getter.  No sense in sitting around waiting on contractions when we can be walking to get them going, right?  Isn't that what every pregnant mom does?  Right?  At any rate, the walking did the trick and they were coming every 2-5 minutes and were getting more intense, just like they're supposed to.  So we loaded up (have you ever seen me on vacation?  I don't pack lightly.) and headed to the hospital, hoping that this wouldn't be a false alarm.  Make our way to labor and delivery where they get me changed into a gown (which is totally hot.  I really should consider getting my own...) and hooked up the monitors to see what's going on.  Sure enough, the contractions are still coming every 2-5 minutes.  They check me & it seems I've moved backwards since my doctor's appointment on Thursday (dialated to a 1, 70% effaced & baby was at -2).  The resident now tells me I'm dialated to a 1, 50% effaced & baby is at -3.  At any rate, they send us walking.  The same lap.  For an hour.  In the middle of the night.  Let me tell you, my husband did his best to annoy me so I would tell him to just go back to the room but I'm determined to make him suffer with me, any opportunity I get.  So we walked.  And the contractions came even quicker.  And started to hurt.  Great sign, one would think.  Until she checks me & tells me NOTHING has changed.  So they send us home with instructions to take benedryl & get some sleep.  AWESOME. 

This is the same game Ryder played and it nearly put me over the edge.  For 2 weeks I had regular contractions that never went anywhere.  2 weeks people.  It was hell.  I finally told my doctor - you have to do something.  Every single day I think I might have a baby & he won't come.  I can't live like this anymore.  HELP ME.  So she did.  I was induced with the stubborn little guy and it was great.  I'm hoping for an outcome simlar after my appointment on Thursday (if this one doesn't decided to arrive before then).  I mean, a girl can only wish/pray her water breaks so many times in a day, you know?

Okay, so the rotten chimney.  What.A.Nightmare.  Zach decided he was going to reside it on Sunday, you know, really quickly, to get it off our list of things to do.  Once he got the siding off, this is what he found:

Not exactly what one wants to find when they are simply wanting to replace some siding. What started as a small project, ended up being a rebuild of the chimney. We considered the 7 dead birds inside the chimney a bonus.  Simply stated: awesome. However, the great news is that the repairs are done and there's one more thing we've knocked off our to-do list. I use the term "we've" loosely in this instancel since the only thing I really did was take some pictures. Sometimes I like to think of myself as the supervisior. This was one of those times.

The rotten chimney is what led to my little Chonger stepping on a nail. You might be quite surprised by this incident considering the stellar parents we are, and anyone who knows us knows that we very rarely make any parenting mistakes (*ahem*), but yes, we made a poor choice this particular day.  It was probably due to the heat (It was like 90 degrees out.  And humid.) and stress of what had been uncovered that led to poor judgement.  And lack of fluids.  At any rate, we let Ryder play outside while Zach demolished our existing chimney.  That meant lots of boards that were previously nailed down were thrown on the deck.  And clearly there were nails attached to said boards.  I like to think our 2 year old is above average when it comes to intelligence but he really let us down on this one.  It was his ear piercing shriek that first clued me in something wasn't "right".  (They don't call me super slueth for nothin', folks.)  When I got out there Zach had pulled his little foot off the board (The thought of that just makes me sick.  GAG.) and Ryder was hyserical.  Once it started bleeding, I started crying.  (You now know who NOT to call in an emergency since I clearly panic.)  We got it all cleaned up and he was probably fine but I'm a cancer and a worrier so I insisted Zach take him to the emergency room to ensure his little baby foot wasn't going to fall off.  After 2 hours there, we had confirmation the foot wasn't going anywhere.  I am happy to report that he has since become very careful when on the deck, taking extra precautions to help protect those sweet feet:

"I'm not going to get any nails in my feet daddy." 

I'm telling you, he's gifted.

And that is how we spent one of our remaining weekends as a family of 5.  I'm certain that anyday all of these contractions I've been having are going to be the real deal and a baby will be on its' way.  Or, perhaps I will just spend the rest of the summer pregnant.  That would be ideal, really.  Afterall, it's helping to cut down on the expectations at home - I just blame my lack of motivation on pregnancy and poof!  I'm off the hook.  Let's all hope after the doctor today we get some good news that this baby is ready.  I'm ready for some wine.

It's Only Been a Month, or Two, Since My Last Post....I'm BACK!

April 17h.  That was the last time I posted anything on this blog o' mine.  But let me tell you something - I've really been busy.  Since then, we've sold our house, bought a house and moved.  And my pregnancy is nearing the end.  So you see, for once I really do have a good reason for not updating this thing.  I'm legit.  Too legit to quit.  Really.

I had finally decided on what I wanted to do with our dining room when we decided to list our house (long story but it was a quick decision that ended up being the right one).  We went from this:

Well, that's cute. 

And really, brown.

To this:

Oh, don't you LOVE this?!

I really do have great taste. 

Such an improvement.  And I LOVED it.  The fixture was fabulous...we FINALLY put up something nice and then we go and move.  The story of my life.  Seriously - did you get an idea of what was up before?  Yikes.  Oh, and please note that I did NOT, I repeat, NOT, have anything to do with the painting.  I've been banned because, well, I suck at it.  Let me tell you something, I don't feel bad about this banning either.  I've tried slacking on the housework to get banned from that too but so far the hubs isn't taking the bait. 

So here's where we are now:

This is before we moved in.  Just so you know. 

And here's an idea of some little things we've done....

This light?  NOT my style.

This one is my style.  Fabulous.

Well that's an idea of something we've done so far, because I need to get the rest of my "afters" taken.  It's called the pregnancy stupids and it's a very real, serious issue.  And I clearly suffer from it.  Let me tell you this:  I've peeled more flipping wallpaper than one person should EVER have to peel in their lifetime.  And I have a ton more to peel.  1989 was apparently the year of wallpaper and this house was COVERED.  I'm not complaining though - I'm so thankful for the quick sale of our home (we put a sign in our yard on Friday, a guy stopped by because he LOVED it, saw it on Sunday and put in a full price offer, which we accepted that day.  What-what!!) and our new home that is so much bigger than the one we had lived in for 7 years.  Everyone has their own bathroom now, where at our old house we were squeezing 5 of us in the same bathroom.  Really.  It was like the phone booth trick, however, we never tried to get more than 5 of us in there.  This is definetely a move in the right direction. 

Now, onto this preganncy of mine...We're almost to the finish line!  I've been so blessed with an easy pregnancy that it really isn't far to so many who suffer for 9 months, so I'm not bragging here.  Simply stating the facts.  We chose not to find out who's baking in there this time (I should clarify - I made that decision for the both of us.  Sometimes a girl just has to take the lead.  So I did.) since it's the last one we'll be haivng.  And yes, we'll be making this is the last one - we do know what causes all these little babies, I just like being preggo.  Call me wierd.  I don't care. 

Now that we're settled (ahem, never mind the few lingering boxes that I've yet to do anything with.  They probably have more to do with my attempts to getting banned than anything else) I plan on getting back into the swing of things...meaning making time for the important stuff - you know, this blog, catching up on my favortie blogs, facebook, twitter.  Okay, perhaps not the most important stuff, but rather the fun stuff.  Sign me up for the fun.  Even if pregnancy is easy for me it's still been 9 months, ya know?!

I'll get a picture up soon of me preggo since I don't I've put any up here.  I'm such a loser.  Maybe I'll have the hubs take one tonight.  You guys are nothing, if not LUCKY.  Be glad you read this.  You'll be feeling extremely LUCKY after you get to see me knocked up.  So just wait kids.  I'll get one up here STAT.