A good day indeed.

Today I had my 37 week appointment (I'll be 37 weeks tomorrow) and another ultrasound to see if Miss. Emery is going to cooperate. Let's just say it was pretty good news all the way around! She is indeed back to being heads-down and fluid levels, movement, etc looked good. She was measuring in at 6 pounds 12 ounces, so that's a gain of 28 ounces in 3 weeks... not bad! Dr. P pulled out the calendar and has decided that we'll be inducing on Oct. 12th, Columbus Day. I had already guessed that date, so I was spot on! I know a lot of people are against inducing but like I've said before, we'll do whatever to get her healthy and safe in our arms after all we've been through! So, unless something changes between now and the 12th, looks like that will be Miss. Emery's birthday!!!! I go back on Monday for one last OB visit/NST and then it's game on!!!!! Guess we'd better get our behinds in gear and finish all this last minute stuff!

Other exciting news is Chase got his new glasses last week! He looks adorable and is adjusting to them quite well, just took a few days and an adjustment to get him comfortable in them again. ;o) I'll get some pics up in the next few days since he's totally busy watching Spiderman right now and cannot be interrupted!




***I am grateful for
1) the flu vaccine, we've all gotten them and hopefully are safe
2) the cooler weather is coming
3) a good appointment
4) Emery will be here soon!
5) tomorrow is hump day!!!

Our Pumpkin is a Crenshaw Melon! (36 weeks)

Your baby is still packing on the pounds — at the rate of about an ounce a day. She now weighs almost 6 pounds (like a crenshaw melon) and is more than 18 1/2 inches long. She's shedding most of the downy covering of hair that covered her body as well as the vernix caseosa, the waxy substance that covered and protected her skin during her nine-month amniotic bath. Your baby swallows both of these substances, along with other secretions, resulting in a blackish mixture, called meconium, will form the contents of her first bowel movement.

At the end of this week, your baby will be considered full-term. (Full-term is 37 to 42 weeks; babies born before 37 weeks are pre-term and those born after 42 are post-term.) Most likely she's in a head-down position. But if she isn't, your practitioner may suggest scheduling an "external cephalic version," which is a fancy way of saying she'll try to coax your baby into a head-down position by manipulating her from the outside of your belly. (www.babycenter.com)

Monday we had our ultrasound and the tech asked if I was having a c-section, to which I responded, "not that I know of, why?" Turns out little Miss. Emery has decided to from heads-down to transverse. Ugh! My OB said that she could still turn back and to not worry (yeah right!) and that we'll check out her position and size next Tuesday. Send some prayers that she will flip back down... is she going to be our stubborn one????

Other than that, things are good. I did lose part of my mucus plug this morning (I know WTMI) and that was quite gross. That never happened with Chase and it took me a second to figure out what it was since I wasn't expecting it. I've been reassured though that it really means nothing and it's just a piece of it, so all is well. My in-laws just left for a 10 day trip to West Texas (meaning far from home since we live in very East Texas) and my MIL is terrified Emery will come before they get back! Say so some prayers that she'll stay put as well!

Here is a current pic taken last weekend (so 35w4d I think) on the left and a pic of when I was 34 weeks with Chase on the right. They look pretty close to me, but to others I must look huge because I get lots of, "Are you sure your not due until October?" and "Did they check to make sure there is only one in there?" and "You just get bigger every time I see you, it looks like there's a watermelon in there!" comments. Not that it bothers me, just means I look really pregnant I guess!

Hope everyone had a good week so far, the weekend is so close I can smell it! ;o) Too bad I have to pull a 12 hour day tomorrow thanks to Open House!!!!!


Oh, my friend Angela is having her baby boy tomorrow morning, pray for a safe arrival for Baby Taylor!!!! I think him and Emery will be good friends!




***I am grateful for
1) 36 weeks!
2) hump day, love it, love it, love it
3) some rockin' fall weather today, I hope it stays like this
4) the warm shower I'm about to take
5) cell phones

Another weekend gone just like that!

I don't know if our weekend was busy or what, but boy did it fly by. Friday Chase has his flu shot, so it was a rough start, but certainly got better from there on out.

Saturday Chase had an eye doctor appointment to see about getting his new glasses since his prescription has changed (if you'll notice he hasn't had his glasses on in quite some time.. bad, I know). He did great until they put the eye drops in to dilate, in his words, "he HATES them!!!!!" It was not pretty. However, he survived and his new glasses will be in here w/in a couple of weeks. They said he has a significant far-sightedness, he didn't get that from his dad or I, so I'm blaming it all on grandparents! ;o) To make up for the dilating torture we took him to the Halloween shop, which he loved. He is so ready for Halloween to get here (and so are we for obvious reasons)!

When we got home we decided to get Emery's crib put together. When I sit and think of how soon she'll be here I get a little panicky because there is still so much to do! Hopefully now that all the furniture is together it'll start moving a little faster!

Sunday Jeff got up early, picked up my brother, and then went over to get his dad and our boat (we keep it there since we have deed restrictions against it where we leave) and they headed out to the lake. Chase slept in, but as soon as he woke up I got him ready and drove out to meet Jeff so that Chase could fish too. They apparently did great and caught about 40 fish. Chase told me he caught 10 billion, but I think he may have been telling me a tale! ;o) He's learning early!

Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend! We have an ultrasound tomorrow afternoon and then a birthday party (don't get me started on that one), so I can already tell it's going to be a long Monday. Here's a shot of Daddy's Fishing Buddy to give you a smile!






****I am grateful for
1) weekends
2) ultrasound tomorrow!
3) me time (it was nice to have just me here)
4) ice cold water
5) great weather today so the boys could take the boat out

Our Pumpkin is a Honeydew-Melon!! (35 weeks/35 days to go!!!!!!)

Your baby doesn't have much room to maneuver now that he's over 18 inches long and tips the scales at 5 1/4 pounds (pick up a honeydew melon). Because it's so snug in your womb, he isn't likely to be doing somersaults anymore, but the number of times he kicks should remain about the same. His kidneys are fully developed now, and his liver can process some waste products. Most of his basic physical development is now complete — he'll spend the next few weeks putting on weight. (www.babycenter.com)

I have more baby shower pics to post, I'm just so tired by the evenings that I don't have the energy to do it! This weekend I am hoping to get the letters for her room painted, the strip on her wall painted (we decided to paint instead of chair rail due to time/$), and then start organizing her room some. We are also going to get the car cleaned out and install her car seat that arrived today!!!! I think if we can get her room a little more "done" then I'll feel better.

I have my next OB appointment on Monday and they'll be doing an ultrasound to monitor her movements. I'm hoping to get a weight estimate too. If they don't I got back in on the following Monday for a growth ultrasound and I should know more on a possible induction date at that time.

If you didn't notice in the title, today is a big milestone! I'm 35 weeks pregnant with 35 to go, yipppeeee!!! I can't wait to hold this baby girl, safe in my arms!

On a side note DH's cousin is going through chemo again right now. They have two small children and I can only imagine how hard this is (I've mentioned him on here before). You can read his wife's blog by finding it on my sidebar, "My Life." Please send some prayers for them during this time!

Have a great week, it's almost the weekend in my book!!!




***I am grateful for
1) hump day
2) 35 weeks!
3) 35 days to go (although we know I probably won't go that long)
4) indoor plumbing (seriously, I'm very grateful for it, especially now)
5) prayers for Wade!

A Sneak Peek of Emery's Shower!

Just a sneak peak, since I'm out of time to post this evening!!

Here is what it looked like when we were setting up....

My awesome cake that my grandmother made!!!

Me and my two favorite guys!!!

Opening gifts (why did it make this a link?)
Chase helping out! He was so excited!!!How awesome is this, my friend Brooke made it, it holds an ultrasound pic!

And these are too cute!!!!

I am exhausted and going to bed early, but I wanted to give a sneak peek. I'll work on taking pics of all the goodies, let's just say there was a lot of pink and we loved it!!!

Oh, had an appointment today and a NST. Emery is great (PA's words: She is the happiest baby I've ever seen!) and I had one contraction... not bad!!!




***I am grateful for
1) a great NST
2) Monday is over, I'm so not a Monday girl
3) early bedtime!
4) a wonderful shower
5) pink stuff!!!

The Joys of Boys

Yesterday Jeff's mom picked Chase up from school early so they could spend some time together, meaning he got ho nap (even after he told MeMaw he was tired, he would not sleep). Needless to say he wound up falling asleep when Jeff picked him up and they headed up yesterday evening at around 7:00. I was out helping get things ready for the baby shower so Jeff just laid him on our bed and he slept all the way until 7:30 this morning. When he woke up I told him that Duchess and Madison had come over while he was asleep and they were in the other room. Then I added he was not to wake them up since they were still asleep. About 20 minutes later we heard their door open and I told Chase that since they were up he could go in there. About five minutes later I heard lots of screaming from my mom and lots of giggling from Chase, here's what happened.

Apparently since they were in the bathroom Chase went and laid down between the side of the bed and the wall. Duchess and Madison came back into the room, climbed into bed, and covered up. After about five minutes Chase popped up from the side of the bed while growling and about gave my mother a heart attack. Let's just say she was also glad that Mads had just went the restroom because she's pretty sure she would have peed her pants!

Oh they joys of boys, he is a chip of the old block!!!!

**We had the baby shower today and it was wonderful!!! Pics and details coming soon!!!!**




***I am grateful for
1) wonderful friends
2) wonderful family
3) celebrating
4) so many blessings
5) our baby girl will be here soon and I can't wait!

Our Pumpkin is a Cantaloupe! (34 weeks)

Your baby now weighs about 4 3/4 pounds (like your average cantaloupe) and is almost 18 inches long. Her fat layers — which will help regulate her body temperature once she's born — are filling her out, making her rounder. Her skin is also smoother than ever. Her central nervous system is maturing and her lungs are continuing to mature as well. If you've been nervous about preterm labor, you'll be happy to know that babies born between 34 and 37 weeks who have no other health problems generally do fine. They may need a short stay in the neonatal nursery and may have a few short-term health issues, but in the long run, they usually do as well as full-term babies.

I think yesterday's update pretty much covers everything that is going on. I will say that by the end of the day I am so tired and just want to sit down and do nothing... of course with a toddler that never happens!! I took some pictures yesterday, please excuse the look of pure exhaustion - it was a long day!!! (Not to mention my son is running around in his underwear... he's just like his Daddy, what can I say?)

The proud big brother!

I think there's a baby in there. ;o)

Where the heck did my feet go?

So sweet, he does this all the time (and we have never coaxed it).

***I am grateful for
1) 34 weeks!
2) recliners
3) Tylenol, cause some nights I just need it
4) chocolate... yum
5) 5 pounds of baby!

Say what?

This afternoon we had a growth ultrasound and appointment for Miss. Emery. Imagine my surprise when the tech told me that our sweet baby girl (yes, she's still a girl for the fourth confirmation) is already weighing in at 5 pounds with six weeks to go!!! Her big brother was only 6 pounds 1 ounce three days early so I'm thinking she's going to beat him on the weight. ;o) When we got to the room and Dr. P came in he said she looks great, is measuring well, and the fluid levels are right on track. She is also head down now, which confirmed that I thought she had flipped. He then went on to say that we'll go ahead and have some kind of monitoring every week. Next Monday we'll have a NST, the following Monday we'll have a ultrasound so monitor movement, and the following Tuesday we'll have another growth ultrasound to see how much she's grown in the three weeks and the fluid levels. The following week we'll go ahead an schedule an induction. At this point I was rapidly trying to do some math in my head and in my book that came to four weeks. FOUR WEEKS! ACK! I know a lot of women hate to be induced but after going through all we went through to get our babies, I'm open to whatever I need that will guarantee them safe in my arms so induce away when you think it's time doctor!! Jeff and I were looking at the calendar and I won't be one big surprised if we end up with the date of Oct. 12th, that is so close and we have so much to do!!!! Deep breaths!




***I am grateful for
1) Emery has flipped
2) fluid levels good!
3) Emery is measuring well!!
4) baby shower is Saturday (can't wait)!
5) in less than 6 weeks, our family will be complete!

Why do the weekends go so fast???

Am I the only one that feels like the workweek lasts forever and the weekends are over in the blink of an eye????? I swear it's like we just left work on Friday a few hours ago, even though we had three days off! Despite the quickness of the weekend we had a great few days and enjoyed it to the full extend.

Jeff has finished the paint in Emery's room and all we have left to do is the chair rail. We have decided to go ahead and start putting together the furniture and then the chair rail will get done when we have the money/time. As I type is putting her changing table (or something) together.

We got to visit with Duchess, Uncle Will, Amy, and Stacy a lot this weekend, which is always fun. Duchess even spent the night on Sunday night which thrills Chase to no end. We drove around a lot looking at possible houses for Nana and Paw and found some really good possibilities. We also got party supplies/food.... very exciting!

We finished up the weekend by going over to MeMaw and PawPaw's this afternoon and playing some card games (i.e. Go Fish and Old Maid) and Chase, Daddy, and PawPaw even went over to Greatpa's house for a short visit.

Tomorrow it's back to work/school and I'm really hoping Chase does well with the drop-off. Last Monday was a little rough after being home with Mommy and Daddy and since we had the extra day this time I'm a tad worried. We have talked about it and even reminded him that Daddy will be picking him up early since we have a doctor's appointment for Emery, so hopefully it'll be all good... wish us luck!




***I am grateful for
1) long weekends
2) hummingbirds, they are so neat to watch
3) doing nothing, it's fun
4) Emery's room is coming along because Daddy rocks!
5) a four day week!

Our Pumpkin is a Pineapple! (33 weeks)

This week your baby weighs a little over 4 pounds (heft a pineapple) and has passed the 17-inch mark. He's rapidly losing that wrinkled, alien look and his skeleton is hardening. The bones in his skull aren't fused together, which allows them to move and slightly overlap, thus making it easier for him to fit through the birth canal. (The pressure on the head during birth is so intense that many babies are born with a conehead-like appearance.) These bones don't entirely fuse until early adulthood, so they can grow as his brain and other tissue expands during infancy and childhood (www.babycenter.com)

Things are pretty busy around our house and the days seem to be passing very quickly. Emery's room is painted on the top and the bottom, but when Jeff went to remove the painter's tape from the ceiling it took the paint off and now we have to touch that up. Then we'll have the chair rail to install and we'll be ready to start moving stuff in! Hopefully we can get that done this weekend.

My next appointment is on the 8th and we'll have our growth ultrasound at that time. I can't wait to see Emery again, it seems like forever since the 4D, but I know it wasn't very long at all. After that I'll be going weekly to rotate non-stress tests and ultrasounds. I think we'll also be told to go register at the hospital at our appointment next week. Good that it means we are so close, bad cause it means more money!!! 49 days and counting!

Chase is doing great in school and really loving it. Monday's drop-off was a little tough, but I think it's because he had only been in school for a week and then after being home for the weekend he was having a hard time going back. I dread next Tuesday after a three day weekend! We have signed him up for the music class that is held once a week and prepares them for private piano or guitar lessons and that starts tomorrow. He had one preview class and loved it, so he is really looking forward to it. Of course today he came home with a registration for a class that they do athletic stuff in (really have no clue what it's called). Apparently they had the preview class today for that because he promptly informed us that, "We NEED to sign him up!!!!" Boy do they know how to work it with these little kids!!!




****I am grateful for
1) TV, something other than watching Chase and Jeff play Star Wars on the Wii!
2) Humpday, love it!
3) a three day weekend coming up
4) bedtime, Chase is tired too, this school stuff wears him out
5) 33 weeks!!!