Almost Ready!

Today I haven't really had any contractions, yay!! I was beginning to think that I would have those things until I went into real labor. I did read tonight that most of the time when your Braxton Hicks contractions become more painful and come anywhere from 10 to 20 mins apart you may be only a couple weeks away from real labor. At the thought of that for the first time I did get a little excited! I am looking forward to meeting this little guy, but dreading the actual labor and mainly sleepless nights. I think that I am also ready to have my body back to almost normal. I do remember that since I seem to gain all out front then I will probably have a huge belly even after the baby comes out. To help with that problem, I just go the books "Eat This, Not That." They are very informative! It helps you make healthier choices at restaurants and the grocery store without "dieting." I don't diet, so this book is perfect it is more like helping you make a lifestyle change and the region the author focuses on is your belly. The only I need to help my workout routine once the baby arrives if a single jogging stroller. I just haven't decided on the one I want.

The boys are very ready to have the baby here. When my mom asked Cale when were going to pick out a name for the baby his response was, "When the baby gets here we will just look at his hair and see if he looks like Cale or Carter. Then we will name him." I am not sure where this idea came from, but it was pretty funny. I kept asking him what if he looks different and Cale just said, "We'll see." This kid will pick up anything he hears us say. It is so funny to hear them talk to each other. We constantly hear one ask the other to do something with them and the others response will be, "You will just have to wait a minute, I'm busy." Gee, I wonder where they have heard that before?

Here I am at 35 weeks and 2 days


Here I am at 2 days shy of 35 weeks with the boys--hopefully I look much smaller this time.

A New Challenge

Last week in my Good Housekeeping there was an article about a family who stopped shopping for a year. They didn't spend money except for food and depletables (toilet paper, etc). I was inspired to try and do the same. This family was doing it because they felt like they were too wrapped up into material things. I sometimes feel that I am too and it would be nice to have more money in savings. The really strange thing is that I told Andy about it on Friday and then on Sunday our pastors sermon went right along with what I had said to Andy. When we left we both thought that it was so crazy how things like that happen! It was something we felt God must really want us to do.

I think that I can be successful with this. I am going to try really hard for 6 months at first and see how it goes. I am not going to buy the boys any clothes unless I find that theirs' don't fit. I bought them a lot of 4T stuff at the end of last season because of a growth spurt. Really the only thing they absolutely need that I will have to buy is tennis shoes. The baby is totally set! He doesn't need anything until maybe winter and that only depends on how big he is since he is just a little off from the season the boys were born in. Andy is definitely set and I will hopefully be set. I saved my big girl clothes from after I had the boys and I have a lot of elastic waist skirts and work out pants that I wear all the time, not to mention the fact that I will be home with a baby and what other clothes would I need other than work out pants.

As for Christmas, I will probably spend as usual because that is something we never spend a lot at. Last Christmas I spent a total of $100 on both boys combined. This family in the article had three kids and spent over $1000! Andy and I are not real big on buying the boys tons of stuff and we don't really buy each other gifts either. The boys have a lot of toys and they were pretty much all used and gifts. I do want the boys to have a trampoline for Christmas, but Andy thinks they are dangerous. I think that would be a good gift for the family and great way to exercise.

So far, it hasn't even been a week, and I haven't bought anything we don't need. Our vacuum died, so with a BBB coupon we got another one. Our old one was over 8 years old. I went to Target and BRU today and left with the items I went in there for. Andy was so impressed. I am a shopaholic and really hope I can stick to this. I have just been trying to look at the bigger picture and the fact that we are blessed and don't need anything else.

Lots of Work

Within the last week Andy and I (and my Mom) have been doing serious amounts of work. Thankfully we were not dumb enough to move while I was 7 months pregnant this time like we did with the boys, so we don't have nearly as much to do to get ready for this baby. There is still several things we want to get done. I am really starting to fear that I am running out of time since I had bad contractions again yesterday afternoon and some all night long. They were just Braxton Hicks, but I know stuff must be getting ready to happen.

Last week Andy hung one new door in our house. We are going to redo all the interior doors, because they are plain wood doors circa 1954. These are what we chose and we are doing bronze handles and hinges. Our house is a pain to hang doors since all the floors are now slanted, but we started with the attic door just to see how it would go. Andy discovered that he is just going to have to order custom doors and will still have to sand them some. Anyone want to come help Andy do the next 9 doors?! My mom painted it for us and the whites look a little different, but they are from the same can of paint. The lady before us decided to paint all the trim is acrylic paint, I have no clue as to why. We have changed it in the other rooms, but the door looked funny next to the shiny trim. We found her paint she left and fixed it.

My mom and I also spent Friday morning making freezer meals while the boys were at gymnastics camp. I didn't have any freezer meals made or realize that I probably should have when I had the boys. This time I feel more prepared and decided to give it a try. Hopefully everything will turn out, as they are pretty much all new recipes- I have only made the lasagna before. I still have one more to make and I am going to do that tomorrow morning. These are what we made, lasagna, baked spaghetti, cream cheese chicken, BBQ chicken and tomorrow I am going to do sloppy joes (thanks to my friend Tara for the last two). I am also going to try and do a baked ziti (also thank you Tara), if I can get the stuff and make it before having this baby!!

We also had some extra carpet from when we carpeted our stairs bound and made into two rugs. That is what the boys are sitting on in the pictures. You see how quickly Andy gets things put away. This rug is probably going in our room since we moved ours into the boys' room and the man didn't cut it as small as Andy wanted. He did however bind the left over piece for free which will go in my sewing room. I have finished a little more in the baby's room. Now all we still need is a name!!! Why is this so hard. It's like my mind is blank and I have no clue what to call this kid. That is another reason I don't want to go early, but mainly the fear of having to go back to the NICU. Please pray that I make it until at least 38 weeks, that's only three more weeks.

35 Weeks...

I went to the doctor today and was told if I go into labor they aren't stopping me. Which I already knew since this is the exact time in my pregnancy that I had the boys. I am so not ready!! I think I might be the only pregnant woman to say that. On leaving the room the doctor said they would see me next week if not sooner. I was like, you will not see me sooner (at least I hope not). I did get the Group B Strep test today and the doctor checked my cervix and said nothing was happening. I was relieved and now I hope that my Group B is negative. I never made it far enough to have that test with the boys and just had to be on the antibiotics just in case I had it. On Saturday I had some pretty intense contractions for almost an hour and then today I have had several that were painful. I really want to be able to have this baby with no epidural. Don't ask why, because I don't have a good reason other than I really hated having these crazy back spasms last time from the epidural. I don't know if I will make it without one though, because the few I have had were a little painful. I love to watch the show, I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant, and those women survive the contractions the whole time and then get to the hospital just in time to have the baby. They always say that the pain was so bad that they thought they were dying. Well, I didn't not think that last time and not this time either, but I do hope that I can make it at home for a while first. The contractions were just worse this time than the other Braxton Hicks I have had. They were actually painful and not just tight. Hopefully I will make it until the boys start back to school. I would really hate to miss their open house or first day of school.

My friend Kristin threw me a baby shower last week. I got a lot of great items, diapers, wipes, and other things that I needed.
Here is the yummy cake!

Independence

I am so happy that right before the baby comes the boys are becoming more and more independent. This is why we waited "so long" to have another baby. We get the comment a lot, "Why do you want to go back to diapers?" Well the simple answer is always, "If you had two in diapers would you want to add another child that wear diapers and if so are going to pay for our diapers?" Andy and I had (have) our hands full with the two kids we already have, so we wanted to wait until they were potty trained, in school for 5 days a week and doing somethings on their own.

Making their own breakfast would be really nice, but we will take what we can get. This includes being able to wipe their own butts, get their own cups and water from the fridge, and now change the toilet paper. Yesterday I went to the bathroom to check on Carter because he had been in there awhile and when I went in he told me that the toilet paper had run out so he was putting a new roll on. Sure enough he had put a new roll on and correctly. This is more than Andy does sometimes. I have high hopes that when the baby comes the boys will be helpful. With my luck I have once again set my expectations way too high. Andy tells me I have a serious problem with that and that I need to have low expectations so that I am surprised when things turn out better than I thought. I just have a problem being a pessimist like my husband. I want to always think things will go good. Hopefully they will. My thought on the new baby is that at least it will not be as bad as having two newborns screaming at you.

Ready to Go

This past weekend the boys went to visit my parents and Andy and I had a lot to get done! I was able to finish getting the nursery ready. This included making a few things, like the changing pad cover, some blankets, and a tummy time pillow. I also had to pick up a sheet (this was a Pottery Barn sheet that is why it is only one) and few other items like, pacifiers and nursing stuff. I feel like now I have the bulk of everything ready for the baby. I got the pack n play set up in our room as the bassinet. I didn't bother getting an actual bassinet or cradle because the boys spit up so much they had to sleep in their car seats. All I really have left to do is sterilize the bottles, which hopefully I won't need, and the pacifiers, which the baby WILL take. We also need to fix the lamp. I go the lamp shade from Pottery Barn, of course but for only $10, and in their scheme to probably make you then buy their $70 lamp base the lamp shade doesn't fit on the lamp bases I have. Now Andy has to replace a piece that will clamp down on the shade. Granted this will still cost way less than $70.

Andy on the other hand did not get his main objective finished this weekend. We are starting to replace our 1954 interior doors with new ones. Since our house is so old everything is slanted, so a normal size door will not fit. Andy was going to do the nursery first, but then realized that we need a custom fit door, so we decided to put the door we bought on the attic doorway. Well Andy wants an exterior door for that, but I talked him into going ahead and using the one we have since our plan is the finish the attic one day. That door still isn't finished and up, but hopefully this week. Now we just need to order the other doors. Putting up doors is such a pain, but paying Home Depot to do it would cost more than the door!

View from the door, with the car seat and other items that will be moved out when the baby comes.


My Pottery Barn Sailboat set. No bumper, because I totally stress over the baby suffocating on it.

The changing table/dresser. That is the changing pad cover that I made and will probably never make another one.
It was very time consuming.

The blanket and tummy time pillow that I made.

Almost Finished

The boys' room is almost finished! All I need to do is pick out a new color, because I am a little tired of the orange and it doesn't really go with their new quilts. I finally decided on some quilts for their beds. I decided that it wasn't the best money decision to spend $300 on 2 quilts at Pottery Barn. I really hate that I came to my senses and didn't buy the Madras quilts that I wanted. They were so cute! Anyways, I got these with cars on them and the boys love them. Cale especially likes sleeping on the pillow with the sham on it, it is pretty soft. We also moved their rug and bookcase out and put them in the nursery. The boys got a new bookshelf from Grandma and Grandpa that holds book so that they can find them easier. Andy said he felt like he was at the library, the boys said it looked like school. They have a ton of books and love to read!! I am really glad that they do. Andy hates to read, but has done an excellent job of teaching them to read. They are starting to pick out words like, the, is, go, it, you, and other words that they have seen repeatedly. I am very proud of their intiative to want to learn to read and to learn anything. I just hope that they keep it up after the baby comes.

Cale with his backwards pj shirt

Carter excited about his new bookshelf