Another Day

So, just a quick update. I went to the doctor first thing on Tuesday morning, after being up since 2am. I had been having contractions every 10 minutes or so from 2 until about 5am. I couldn't get back to sleep after that, so I was just up. Anyway, the doctor checked me and I wasn't dilated and only about 50% effaced. That was depressing. Then came the really unfortunate news. When I asked about induction my doctor said he wouldn't induce me unless I was dilated to a 2 AND 80% effaced or 41 weeks, which according to him wouldn't be until the 23rd of December. Are you kidding me? Yeah I broke down the second he left the room and didn't stop crying for most of the morning.

I never should have switched to a doctor (as opposed to a midwife like I had with my other 2 babies) or a man (who apparently has zero understanding or empathy for a 9+ months pregnant woman). He was almost rude about my asking about induction and seemed determined to not say or do anything encouraging or helpful. Since I'm pretty sure I might slap him if I see him again, I have not made another appointment for next week. If I haven't gone into labor on my own before next Tuesday or Wednesday then I will call his office and see if he will schedule an induction date for me without seeing me. If he insists on seeing me before doing that then I will go in, but I won't be happy about it. At this point I almost hope that he is unavailable when the baby is born so that the on call doctor will deliver me and not him. Sigh. If you think I'm being childish about this whole thing, you may be right, but please do not tell me. I have mostly been trying to avoid people so I won't have to answer the same questions and hear the same "looks like you're still pregnant!" comments. I promise that I (or Ian) will update the blog as soon as we have any news/are at the hospital. Thanks for your love and support, and send me good "go into labor" vibes!

The Best Laid Plans

I was really hoping for some baby action this weekend, but alas I was disappointed. I was having contractions Saturday afternoon for a couple hours, but then they stopped. Bummer. We still had a really fun Saturday. We slept in and relaxed in the morning. I took Weston to his friend's princess birthday party at noon, then went and got a fabulous pedicure while he played swords and ate cake and had a blast. I walked the mall a little after my pedicure, but it was kind of counteracting the leg massage, so I left. :)

Ian and Davin did a little shopping at Kohl's and went out to lunch together while Weston and I were gone. Ian finally got some new church shoes. They had been a long time coming. He was still wearing his mission shoes that were looking a lot worse for the wear. My neighbor is friends with someone who works for Kohl's advertising department, so she got a big stack of Kohl's mailer coupons. She gave me 10 of the $10 off $20 coupons. They are such a great deal, so we have been using those to pick up some things we need for the season.

Later that afternoon we all went to see Tangled! We had heard lots of good things, so we were excited to see it. It was definitely a cute movie. I loved the music and thought the story was pretty sweet too. By the time the movie was over it was bedtime. Davin actually fell asleep in the car on the way home. Poor kid. After the boys were in bed Ian and I curled up to watch Four Christmases, which I had rented from the library. It was awful. Seriously, one of the worst movies I've seen in a long time. I was highly disappointed that both Reese Witherspoon and Kristin Chenoweth were in it and it was so bad. And I wasn't in labor, so my Saturday evening felt a like a bust.

Sunday morning I was just grouchy that I hadn't had/was unlikely to have a baby this weekend. I went back to bed around 8:30 and decided I would just stay there all day. I'm such a lame-o. Finally around 10am after catching a little more sleep and feeling sorry for myself I dragged myself out of bed and barely got showered and ready in time for 12:30 church. It was still annoying having to hear everyone's comments about how I was still pregnant (yes, thank you I am aware), but I'm glad that I went to church. Testimony meeting was one of the best I've ever heard in our ward. Ian was conducting, so he got to bear his testimony and then Weston had to have a turn, of course. It was very sweet. Plus we got to sing Christmas songs! Albeit we sang the slowest rendition of Angels We Have Heard on High ever, but that's just part of living in a ward where the average age is 82. :)

Today I have been doing laundry and a little housework. After I picked up Weston from preschool we went and saw Ian's newly painted office. It looks very nice. Ian came with us to have lunch and then to the mall. We went to the mall that has had the crazy eye Santa in the past, but this year they had a new Santa. He was very cute. There was no line, so after the kids who were already there finished up, the boys both hopped up on his lap and told him what they wanted for Christmas. Weston stuck with his two sided lightsaber request. Davin was mostly unintelligible. I think he said something about his belly or a battleship, but I'm not really sure. This mall is much kinder about letting you take your own pictures with Santa, but I forgot the camera, so Ian snapped a couple pics with his phone. They actually turned out pretty cute.
We hit up the See's right next to Santa and bought our Christmas pound plus a couple chocolate Santas for the boys. Then we walked a lap around the mall while Ian and I discussed gift options for the last people left on our list to buy for. It is so much work to even walk these days. I have very little hope that my mall walk will put me into labor, but it was worth a shot and we got to have Daddy with us, so it was still fun.

Miraculously both boys are napping at the moment. I am going to make a batch (probably my only batch) of chocolate bread and fold laundry. We are having friends over tonight for a sing along FHE. Should be fun. Tomorrow morning is my next doctor's appointment. If baby girl is looking ready to go/healthy then I am going to request a Wednesday induction. Ian's schedule is fairly light and he would probably be able to take the rest of the week off then my mom can come during her district's teacher's strike to visit and help out. We'll see what my doctor thinks of that plan. I'll keep you all posted!

Magic Fireplace

Tonight we put together our magical Christmas fireplace. I love doing this! It's such a fun way to hang our stockings. It makes it seem more plausible that Santa can come visit us too if we have a fireplace, even a pretend one. This year Davin kept calling it a "fire station." It was adorable. The orange sparks in the fire were Weston's idea. Ian did most of the legwork though. We will be adding a 5th stocking to the "mantle" soon, but I haven't put baby's name on her stocking yet and we didn't want to pound nails into the wall since the boys were already asleep when we got it finished and put up.
Also, just for fun, here are a couple not-so-great shots of the nursery coming along. You can see the pink valence that my MIL made. There will be light blocking chocolate brown panel curtains hanging under the valence when we are done. You can also see the cute changing pad cover that I love and the teensy weensy lamp that I'm not sure I love. It's still wrapped up because I keep thinking I'll have time to go browse Ross to look for a lamp I like better. We'll see if I ever make it there or if I just end up using the tiny lamp because it's there.
Finally, I have a massive grocery shopping list that I really need to take care of tomorrow, but I also have both kids home all day tomorrow. Still not sure what I'm going to do about that. Sigh. I might have to suck it up and go in the evening so I can focus and not forget too much stuff. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Tick Tock

That's how I feel. A sitting time bomb. Just waiting waiting. I've been plenty busy but behind everything I do, I'm really thinking "Maybe this will put me into labor." "Maybe tonight is the night!" I do apologize for the somewhat broken record posts. It's hard to think about anything besides the impending arrival of this baby.

Yesterday I babysat my neighbor's girls all morning. After I picked up Weston from school we went back to Xpedx to do our returns, then picked up Ian and went out to lunch at Chick Fil A. We also ran across the parking lot into Target to pick up some more affordable and adorable stationery.

On a normal day, that would have done me in. Not yesterday. I was a machine. The boys wouldn't nap, so I turned on The Grinch for them then went and cleaned the bathroom. Like really cleaned it top to bottom. Scrubbed out the tub and shower. Mopped the floor. Cleaned the shower curtain rod, hung the new shower curtain and rings. Soaked the bathtub stopper in bleach, and washed out the toothbrush cup. It looks so pretty.

I cooked a real dinner. Not a hard one, but a real one. We had spaghetti and meatballs. I set the table and we ate together. I'm sad to admit that we hadn't done that this whole week. Ian took Weston to get a haircut. Davin and I vacuumed the front of the house, then swept the kitchen and I mopped it.

It felt so good to curl up and watch a Community after the kids were in bed. My back was killing me, but I had figured as long as it was already hurting after the bathroom I may as well keep cleaning and then not have to do any cleaning today! Plus I got to bask in the glow of a clean house for an hour or two before going to bed.

I did hope that all that hard work would make me go into labor, but no such luck. I guess I've sort of given up because I have plans for the weekend. In the meantime I am going to try to take it a little easier and just get smaller things done, like making our Christmas fireplace, finishing Key Lime Pie (my book), writing baby thank you's, and doing laundry.

Steals and Deals

Everyone knows I love a good deal. I had kind of a mixed day out shopping today. After I dropped Weston off at school I took Davin and we headed to Xpedx (a paper store) in search of some cute thank you cards and a big box of blank notecards. I was completely out of stationery and I have a long list of thank you's to start writing. I was pretty disappointed in their selection. Plus they didn't seem to be very good deals. The box of 100 notecards with envelopes was $26.99 and the box of 50 cute thank you's with envelopes was $21.99. I bought them, but since I've been home I looked up stationery on Target's website and they have a cuter, bigger selection, so I will most likely be heading back to Xpedx to return my purchases.

I did a LOT better at Babies R Us. Seriously, you must get yourself there. They had 4-5 circular racks full of clearance clothes in all sizes that were ALL on extra clearance for $4.99 no matter what their tag said. Some of the onesies and shirts weren't that great of a deal at $4.99, but I scored a Carter's velour track suit outfit with matching onesie, an adorable Carter's corduroy jumper with long sleeve shirt outfit, and a Koala Baby bunting that goes over baby's regular outfit and has a hole so you can still strap them in the carseat for only $4.99 each! Had I paid original prices those 3 outfits would have cost $89.99. Had I paid the clearance prices marked on the tags the outfits would have cost $53.90. Instead I paid just $14.97! If you need winter clothes for a baby or baby gifts go check out Babies R Us stat!

I also bought the pink hamper for the nursery. It was $21.99, plus I used a 20% off coupon and my $10 gift card from registering and only paid $7.59 for it. I call that some shopping success. It was a fun high. :)

After a quick visit with my friend from BYU who just moved back up to Utah, I picked up Weston from school and dropped both boys off at my neighbor's house so I could go to the eye doctor. I have a few sets of contacts left so I was going to wait to go in until later, but then last night I had a weird loss of peripheral vision so I called and made an appointment. The doctor said my eyes are fine, but my vision "thing" was a textbook description of an optical migraine. I'm guessing it's hormone/pregnancy related since I have never gotten migraines in the past. I was glad to hear that it was not a permanent problem or something. My contact prescription did change a little which was a bummer since it's been constant for several years. Oh well.

By the time we all got home I was tired. I really haven't done much else this afternoon except put away the baby stuff and set up the hamper. I love watching the nursery slowly come together. It makes me smile and get even more excited/anxious for baby to come. I am making lots of plans in hopes of either inducing labor through Murphy's Law (if I am not ready for baby/have important plans she will come) or just staying busy until next week's doctor's appointment.

Baby It's Cold Outside

Literally. It snowed ALL day yesterday. It was windy and stormy and cold. The roads are horrible. I still haven't seen the plows go by yet. If I hadn't had a doctor's appointment to go to this morning I would have said forget about preschool and we would have stayed home. Luckily Ian is a trooper and went out early to dig out our cars/driveway. I really need to get that man a snowblower. Poor guy. Shoveling is hard work! I seriously have never seen this much snow in our yard before. It's not even Christmas yet! I think we may be in for a long, miserable winter.

The doctor's appointment didn't improve my morning much. I was really hoping for a report of progress or at least an admission from my doc that I was ready to be induced in the next week. Instead he had a hard time finding the heartbeat and thought the baby might be breech. At least that meant I got to have a quick ultrasound. Turns out baby is head down. She is just really high still. This means she's doing nothing to help me. Stinker. The only comforting thing my doctor could tell me was that only 10% of babies (after your first) actually drop before you go into labor, and a couple good contractions should push her down no problem. He basically looked at me sympathetically and said he was pretty sure she wasn't going anywhere for another week. I did secure a promise that we would talk more seriously about induction at next week's appointment.

I guess I better make some big plans for this week so I don't sit around feeling wronged and irritated that I'm still pregnant. The trouble is that it's just a lot of work to do outings in the snow while huge. We'll see what the week holds for us. I think we have a couple days before the next storm hits, so I will try to get the kids out of the house.

Things I Want to Do This Week (if I feel up to it/the weather cooperates):
-Go to Babies R Us and get a pink hamper for the nursery
-Buy some Dreft and wash the newborn clothes
-Take the boys to the aquarium or dinosaur museum
-Clean the tub/shower and hang the new shower curtain
-Mop the kitchen, entry, and bathroom floors (they need it badly!)
-Go on a date with Ian (even if it's just to Babies R Us) :)
-Cook dinner at least a couple nights this week
-Read Key Lime Pie
-Go through Weston and Davin's drawers and pull out all the summer clothes and add Davin's winter clothes.
-Start wrapping Christmas presents while listening to John Denver & the Muppets.

PS-Congrats to Ian on his 5 years (today!) of dedicated hard work at Verite Inc.! It's amazing to think of how our lives have changed in those 5 years.

Happy Turkey Day!

We had a very nice, low key Thanksgiving. I am so grateful for the blessings in my life. My family, my friends, the gospel, my home, Ian's job/my job, my talents, freedom, and all the myriad of things and/or conveniences I can't seem to live without.

We started the morning watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. This was never a big deal at my house growing up, but it was on and we were just having a slow morning, so I decided it would be fun to watch. The kids, Davin especially, love the giant balloons and got really excited to see Spiderman and Buzz in the sky. Weston enjoyed getting dressed and running to Smith's for donuts with Dad. Luckily Ian beat the Thanksgiving morning rush at the grocery store. I looked through the newspaper ads while I watched the parade. At first I thought I better not even look, but since we were on the hunt for a good deal on a TV I decided I would go through the ads.

I handed all the ones with TVs I thought we would be interested in to Ian and he researched the models online. There were 2 different models at Smith's Marketplace near his work that were the same price and mostly the same specs. Since the store was going to be open most of Thanksgiving Day he decided to run over there and check out the two TVs before we left for our Thanksgiving dinner. Wouldn't you know it, he came home with a Samsung 40 inch LCD HDTV! I kind of felt guilty that we bought it on Thanksgiving Day, but at least we didn't have to get up at 3am this morning and camp out in front of Best Buy or Target to get a deal on a TV.

Anyway, we spent the rest of the day up in Ogden at my Auntie B's house with family. It was wonderful. She even let me off the hook and didn't ask me to bring any food. It was all delicious and I didn't have to do any of the work. Thanks for always hosting us Auntie B! It was also nice that the boys are a little older and were pretty independent the whole time. They didn't eat much, but they had great fun playing with their older cousins. It was a successful, lovely Thanksgiving.

When we got home Ian set up the new TV, of course. It looks ginormous compared to the little 20 inch one we have had since we got married. It also looks really nice. Ian decided to look into signing up for cable so he could watch the BYU v. Utah game on Saturday in HD on his new TV. It ended up being a little bit of a hassle, but 6 phone calls and 2 trips to the Comcast office later we think we've got it worked out. Sheesh!

This is where Ian has been for a good part of the day either enjoying watching the new TV, playing around with settings on the new TV, or on the phone with Comcast about the new TV. :)
I spent the day decorating the house for Christmas. We also went and got our Christmas tree this afternoon. If you're planning on getting a tree this weekend . . . check out your local Lowe's. Our 5-6 foot noble fir tree was on special for only $19.97! I think we paid $40ish last year. Anyway, I think it's a pretty cute tree. Sorry my picture turned out blurry, but you get the idea. The tree and the new TV. It seems like Christmas is coming early at our house. It kind of is.
Tomorrow I have a couple stores I want to go to just so I can use my really great coupons. Then we will watch the big BYU v. Utah game in the afternoon, and hopefully get the Christmas boxes and other stuff that has been displaced put away before we start a new week of waiting for baby. Speaking of baby . . . I am SO done being pregnant. My back was killing me today. My cough is still lingering and I think I sprained my toe. It's really annoying. Any time baby wants to join us would be good with me!