Today is my due date!

And I'm still pregnant, uncomfortable and grumpy.

The good news is that we got the solar cover for the pool in and the water is again warm enough to swim.

New beginnings for Reid!

Today was Reid's open house at preschool. They had an hour to explore their new classroom, meet the teachers and play with the other kids. Reid didn't want to leave when it was time! I should have taken the camera, but figured I'd save that for the 1st official day of school. Want to know his favorite part? The classroom has its own bathroom with a little potty and sink and he loved it. In fact, we had to use it twice in the hour we were there. However, he told me he didn't like the other kids on the way home. I'm assuming that is because they were playing with "his" toys, too!

And, yes, I'm still pregnant here (and don't want to be). Jeremy is off for the next two weeks -- it would be great if this kid arrived in the next day or two!!!

A crappy day...

...that is what today was. Ross was grumpy this morning. And we had a DISASTEROUS trip to the grocery store with the boys this evening. Reid is testing every boundry imaginable and I can't come up with a single strategy to deal with him that works. So, I'm surfing every possible parenting website for a new idea. Thank goodness today is OVER!

Still nothing!

I'm still pregnant and nothing is happening. Yesterday I had a midwife appointment, which was totally uneventful. Everything looks good still. My blood pressure was up a bit, but that didn't concern them at all. I was a bit disappointed when I left, because the midwife said I would be fine going to 42 weeks (or even 43, with frequent testing). Really, the thought of being pregnant 2+ weeks is depressing. I don't want to be induced, but it would be really nice to have an end date in sight. They are completely maxed out on space right now, though, so my doula thinks they'll let me go longer than normal because they just don't have the capacity for non-emergent inductions.

I'm just completely tired, sore and grumpy. I snapped at the boys more times today than I can count. Poor things -- it isn't their fault, but I just have no patience left. And it didn't help that, while I was loading the dishwasher this morning, they discovered they could pepper the breakfast nook with milk if they threw Ross's sippy cup around. It was on EVERYTHING!!! And I had to remove Ross from the top of the play kitchen more than a few times today. Oh, and it took almost 1 1/2 hours to get Reid to sleep, even though he had been declaring all morning how tired he was.

The worst things is that I can't find anything to occupy my mind with. I spent some time last evening scrapbooking, but I didn't really enjoy it. I don't feel like reading. I don't want to knit. TV is boring. Hmmm...I'm starting to sound like a moody teenager, aren't I?

Oh, and I've finally had to breakdown and start sleeping in the blue chair. It is a good thing Jeremy came up this morning to say goodbye to me, because I don't think I could have gotten out of the recliner without assistance!

Just sitting around waiting...

How can a few weeks go so SLOW? Last week I would have done just about anything to get this kid out. Now, however, I want him/her to wait until next weekend. Don't get me wrong, I have no desire to be pregnant anymore, but there are a few activities this week that I don't want to miss out on. Tuesday night is the parents orientation meeting for Reid's preschool. I really want to go to this, as I want to make sure I know all the rules/policies/procedures for the upcoming year. And Thursday morning will be his open house, where he can go in and check out his room and meet his teacher -- I just simply don't want to miss out on this. And, this one is a little fickle, but there is a huge consignment sale this weekend in town that is sponsored by one of the local MOPS groups. I have a massive amount of stuff ready to go to it that will need dropped off on Thursday. I really don't want to store the stuff until next year (they do two a year -- the fall sale only accepts fall/winter items and the spring sale only accepts spring/summer items). Plus, I can shop early on Friday, since I'm consigning items, so I want to go to that (of course, it would help me with my shopping if I knew what we were having...).

Yesterday Jeremy managed to finish up a few more little yard projects that have been haunting us. The big one was to repair our gate for our privacy fence. It was damaged in a storm this spring, but we only temporarily fixed it at the time, as we didn't want to fix it until after the pool install was completed (since they were bringing large equipment in and out of the yard). He spent most of the afternoon on this project, while I sat at the patio table and knitted (and, occasionally, did help a little). And no, I haven't started any major new projects. I had some extra yarn and am just knitting to knit, as I don't like to just sit. Last night, John & Betty were nice enough to watch the kids for a few hours, so Jeremy & I went to dinner by ourselves. I wonder when we'll do that again? Maybe next weekend, if the baby hasn't come yet, but it could be a good long time, too.

And now I should do some cleaning...tomorrow will be a busy day (well, busy considering my energy level and condition, remember I work at the pace of a turtle).

Belly pics!

I've been meaning to take this for awhile now. With Reid & Ross I took monthly pictures...I guess I wasn't quite so organized this time! Anyway, these are my two favorite. Don't you love the green?!?!

That was so nice!

I just woke up from an hour and a half nap. I've officially decided to become a useless lump for the rest of the pregnancy (though, that decision has come mostly out of necessity). Beyond normal housework and laundry (and I have a strange fixation with keeping the laundry freakishly kept up right now), I'm not really trying to accomplish anything.

Sleep is getting harder and harder to get, especially in intervals longer than 2 hours, so afternoon naps are becoming imperative. And, it seems, that my "morning" sickness has returned. Three evenings/nights in a row now I have been horribly nauseous. I hate this more than anything. I vomited too much during the first 20 weeks of this pregnancy to be able to handle the nausea with any grace. Last night it reduced me to a blubbering, crying fool. I go to the midwife on Monday and plan on begging her to do something, ANYTHING, to help speed this process along. At the worst, though, this kid should be here by 9/7, which is two weeks from Sunday. While most babies come between 38 and 42 weeks (I'm 38 weeks and 5 days right now), Womack (the hospital we go to) will want to induce at 41 weeks. Now, normally this is something I would resist, wanting to wait until the full 42 weeks. However, if the nausea continues, I have no desire to wait any longer than necessary.

Sigh...Ross is too tired and already awake! I hear him downstairs pestering Daddy. I guess we'll have to go float in the pool for a few hours, as I don't think he'll be happy anywhere else.

Can someone explain something to me?

Why did I just clean my bathroom in the middle of the night and how could my husband sleep through it?

Pregnancy insomnia sucks!

I'm tired. Really really tired. And I can't sleep. And I can't get comfortable. Lying down makes me nauseous. Lying down make my arms go to sleep and my hands hurt (gotta love pregnancy induced carpel tunnel). Oh, and I can't breath right now, either.

If it were a little warmer, I'd go sleep on a pool raft. Maybe we should have gotten the pool heater after all.

This too shall pass...

Murphy's law says...

...that I'll have this baby tonight. My doula is on a trip 2 hours away and we're having Jeremy's entire unit over tomorrow (which isn't as bad as it sounds, as there are only 7 of them).

I'm ready to be done, but Jeremy wants me to hold out until after the party.

It's been such a nice day!

I just got up from a 45 minute nap (one that was much needed). The boys are still asleep, so I have some time to piddle around doing whatever I want.

We had hardly any fighting this morning. We ran errands, without any screaming or whining. And I got some one on one time with botht the boys before their naps. While Reid watched Mr. Rogers, Ross & I read books. And after Ross went down for his nap, Reid & I played with his new WASHABLE dry erase markers. I found a dry erase board that looks like one of those kindergarten writing tablets and Reid loves it, but it had come with just a regular black dry erase marker. The washable (and colored) dry erase markers are a definite improvement.

I really should be cleaning my upstairs. Most of my sewing stuff is still strewn about from my latest project. I wonder, though, if I can invoke Murphy's Law to get this baby to come out. The less prepared I am, the more likely the child will come, right? Maybe I should go unpack my hospital bag...that would do the trick, right?

Oh, yeah...

...nothing has happened yet and I have no idea when the baby will come. However, I'm tired of being pregnant and would be glad to evict this child sooner rather than later!

It's been a while.

And not for any good reason. We haven't gone very much of anywhere since Friday. We have, however, accomplished a load of things.

Over the weekend Jeremy finished the fence around the pool. I power washed the back of the house and cleaned the screen porch as well. It looks SO much better, as there was a lot of dirt and debris on the house from the pool construction. I'm glad to be able to able to look out our back windows and not see mud and concrete splatters on the glass! The best thing, though, is that Jeremy cleaned the garage and I CAN PARK IN IT AGAIN!!! Woohoo! Oh, and we also cleaned out our paperwork files, but that isn't exciting, just something long overdue.

On Saturday morning, I treated myself to a manicure. On the way home, I stopped at JoAnn for something and found some cute fabric as a bonus. So, for the last two days I worked at making myself a tote bag for my knitting and a knitting needle holder. Now, neither is perfect, but my sewing is getting better. I decided, though, that I really need to pack up the machine until after this baby comes. I just can't have my upstairs trashed when I go into labor!




And I should have wrote this down right away, so I can't remember exactly how the conversation went, but we had an interesting conversation on the way home from church yesterday. Jeremy & I were talking and I made the comment to him along the lines of "if you think that, then you're nuts". And Ross chimed in with "I nuts" and we had a nice discussion about just who is and is not nuts. Too bad we didn't have a video camera with us!

Ugh...one of those days.

I'm tired tonight. The kids were particularly ornery today. EVERY time I turned my back one of them either hit, bit, pushed, or pulled the hair of the other one. By nap time I was out of patience. Somehow, and how I don't know, I did manage to get my upstairs cleaned and 1/2 of the front flower beds weeded this morning.

I don' t even remotely have enough patience to go into details about my cat experience today. Let's just say, someone is shampooing carpets later this evening.

There haven't been many pictures lately because I have the camera sitting ready to go with the hospital bags. I did, however, snap this picture of Reid & Baer the other night. Reid insisted that I had to get a picture of him walking with Baer under the umbrella. It's a good thing Reid had the umbrella, else he wouldn't have been dry when he sat down in the wet grass while he was waiting for me to get the camera...

The midwife says...

...that she thinks the baby weighs 9 lbs + RIGHT NOW. Come on out, baby, that is big enough!

And everything else looks good. And, no, we have no clue when this kid is going to come out!

Rain, rain, go away!

It is a wet, cool day here. The weatherman says it is only 68 degrees out. If it weren't raining, I'd have the a/c off and the house opened up. I do have the front door open, though, and it is nice to have the fresh breeze blowing in. The nice thing is that I won't have to run more water in the pool, but I'm scared to think how cool the water will be by the time the rain stops and it starts to warm up again.

Yesterday the boys & I did pretty much nothing. We cleaned the bedrooms and washed the bedding, but other than that, we had a lazy day. I took a nap while they did and then did some knitting. It wasn't even knitting on a project, just knitting to knit. I've wanted to learn how to do mittens, so I took some scrap yarn and gave it a shot. It is nice to get a bit of a rest before the baby comes. Today is about the same. We've done some laundry, visited Grandma, but that is about it.

Tomorrow I have an appointment with my midwife. I'm excited to find out if things are progressing at all, but I have little hope that this babe will arrive early at all. Maybe right "on time", but I doubt early.

Someone little sitting next to me smells, so off I go to take care of that!

Woohoo -- pooping on the potty! (And other things, too.)

I am very pleased to announce that this morning Reid went into the bathroom, shut the door, removed his own clothes and "did his business" on the potty (and then started screaming for me to come help him clean up). This is FABULOUS! He didn't use one cloth diaper this weekend AND only used one pull-up. He also announced afterwards that he is now ready to go to preschool. I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am about this!

Yesterday, Jeremy & I spent the afternoon in Raleigh/Durham WITHOUT the boys (thanks, Grandma Burns). We had a nice afternoon, accomplishing absolutely nothing, and topped the day off with a trip to the Melting Pot. The Melting Pot is one of our favorite restaurants and is definitely not someplace to take the kids (yet, anyway). It is amazing how relaxed we both were by the end of the day. Yeah, there were a lot of things here that needed done, but there will always be stuff at home to do. I'm glad we took a little time to be grown-ups! Plus, I think we may have agreed upon a boy name yesterday.

Did I mention that we are completely ready for the baby now? The nursery is done (and probably won't be this clean again for another 3 years when we move out of this house). The infant seat is installed in the van. In fact, my hospital bags are almost 100% packed -- just a few things are left that just can't be packed until we're ready to go. Oh, and I have my final meeting with my doula, Doris Ann, tomorrow night. (For those who don't know, a doula is a labor assistant -- someone who is there simply to provide comfort and support to the mother and who does not provide medical care.). My goal is for a completely natural childbirth and I'm hoping Doris Ann will help me achieve that! In spite of the fact that we're ready, I'm still in no hurry for this babe to arrive. I'm trying to enjoy these last few weeks of pregnancy (which I plan to never experience again) and spend as much time with the boys as possible before disorder erupts again!

And Hannah's gone...

Despite the fact that Reid & Ross can make more noise than 12 of Hannah, the house seems strangely quiet and empty today. She left last evening with John (and Judson, too) to go back to Ohio. I spent the last several days trying to squeeze in as much time with her as the boys would let me (and my tired and aching body would allow).

Yesterday I took her for her birthday treat -- a pedicure. She's not had one before and it was a fun experience for the both of us. She really seemed to enjoy the pampering! In retrospect, I wish I had scheduled manicures, too, because I think she would have enjoyed that as well. Something to keep in mind for next time...

I tried one final time to snap a picture of all three kids together. I did manage to get at least one decent one and lots of good ones of just Hannah. For once, Ross wasn't the difficult one -- Reid was just too wiggly to sit for the camera! Oh, and you can see the boys (particularly Ross) sporting their new hair-dos here.

Off I go to find something to do...

I have my van back!!!

We FINALLY got our van back last night. Wow -- I never thought I'd be so excited to drive a mini-van, but compared to our loaner, our van is like driving a sports car. Really, the other van didn't go -- there were several times I thought I was going to get hit, simply because I turned and the van just putted along. Zero to sixty in 3 minutes...wow!

Reid decided this morning that he wanted to wear big boy underpants out of the house. It was a scary thing, but I let him. And he did fine! He's only had one (maybe two, I'm not 100% sure) poopy accidents in the last 2 1/2 weeks. He is doing really really well!!! Plus, he is starting to tell me when he needs to go, which is fabulous. I'm so glad he is doing so well with the potty training...the thought of three in diapers was overwhelming!

I almost have the nursery finished. I just need 20 minutes when I can run the sweeper. The new car seats were on the floor until Jeremy installed them in our van last night, so now I can really finish it all. We still don't have names picked -- this is becoming a bit of a sore spot at our house. Some of us (I'm not naming any names) wanted to pick names months ago. And some of us wanted to wait until I was 36 weeks to pick names. And guess who still doesn't want to talk about it? Yep, "he who must not be named" is still dragging his feet. I know this kid will get named...eventually!

Hannah had a swim-a-thon as a fundraiser for her swim team this morning. She swam 83 laps and looked pretty worn out when I picked her up! Each swimmer was supposed to bring a snack item, so we made a double batch of brownies yesterday. Guess who forgot to set the brownies out? So, now I have a box of brownies sitting on the counter calling to me...it's a good thing my pants are extra stretchy!

FYI

A wet down comforter smells a lot like a wet dog.

A cleaning confession...

Tuesdays are bedroom days. I always wash sheets and clean the bedrooms on Tuesdays. The first Tuesday of the month, I wash all the bedding -- comforters, blankets, mattress pads, etc. Today, as I was tearing my bed apart, I realized that I DESPERATELY need to wash my down comforter and feather bed. We got the feather bed before Reid was born, because I remember removing it at the end of my pregnancy just in case my water broke in bed. We got the comforter when he was about 6 months old. And guess what? Neither one has EVER been cleaned. They say dry clean only and I'm just too lazy to take them in. So, I thought, why not try washing them in my machine. Heck, why else have a super capacity front loader? I did a little googling and found that most people had good results with machine washing them. For the record, a queen size feather bed DOES NOT fit in even the largest of home front loading machines. And guess what else? Yep, now I have a wet feather bed from this experiment, because I've been using the machine all day. So, I guess we're going to the dry cleaner after the boys wake up. The comforter, however, is in the machine as I type. I am hoping I don't destroy it...

And, yes, part of my nesting urge is an insane desire to wash everything I can get my hands on!

Ah....I'm crossing things off my list!!!

Slowly but surely, I am getting to the point where I am ready for this baby. No, some of the things on my list aren't vitally important for the new baby, but they are things I feel compelled to complete now.

Last night I got the crib bedding completely washed and put back on the crib. I did the same with the moses basket. I even got that half of the nursery completely cleaned (pulled everything out, dusted and swept, cleaned the woodwork, etc.). And the bouncy is now sitting safely in the crib waiting to be used. This was a must on the list, as leaving it down where the boys could get to it was going to end in severe damage to the bouncy. Which makes me think -- this baby might never get put down, as I'm not sure the floor is a safe place at our house anymore. I also got the nursery closet cleaned out and in the process pulled out the rest of the baby stuff we'll need. It is a good thing I actually cleaned the closet, because I would never have remembered to get the baby bath tub out! I also found the pillowy inserts for the car seats and strollers that keep the baby's head from flopping about. The diaper bag for the hospital is pretty much ready now, though it does have shockingly little in it. Funny how much different it looked when Reid was born -- I've discovered just how little you really need for a babe! My bag isn't ready, but hey, I need my clothes for the time being.

I also got all my stuff priced and tagged for the consignment sale that is coming up around here. All of my winter maternity clothes have now either been set aside for this sale or been donated. It is a nice feeling freeing up that space int he closet for other things! Besides, I really, truly, don't EVER want to see those clothes again!!!

Depending on the mood of the kids tonight, I just might be able to finish cleaning the nursery, which will relieve a lot of worry for me. I can't clean while they are sleeping, since the nursery is right next to their room.

Oh, and on a completely different topic, we made one more (and probably last) trip to the blueberry farm this morning. Reid, again, had a blast. Ross hated it, though. He was grumpy and cranky the entire time he was in the carrier. So, against my better judgement, I let him down. Yeah, he gravitates to dirt. And he LOVED the mud puddle that Reid pointed out to him. All I can say is that I had to give him a shower when we got home and put his tennis shoes through the washing machine. The blueberries are divine, though, and seem to get sweeter as the season goes on. So, that makes about 26 pounds of blueberries we picked this year -- probably not nearly enough to get us through to next season!

So, off I go to knock a few more items off my "to do" list!

The (almost) brithday girl!

Here are a few shots from Friday night, when we celebrated Hannah's 12th birthday! She requested steak for dinner, which is absolutely no surprise. Her gift from us is still a surprise until next Friday (it is an activity, not a thing).

She requested chocolate cake. We ended up doing cupcakes. By the way, in case anyone is wondering, the patterned cupcake liners really don't work with chocolate cake. So, that is why there is a second (very loose) liner on each cupcake. I'm so glad I went out of my way for the fun liners (and even waited in line 20 minutes to pay for them)!


I captured these shots when she was opening her gifts from Grandma & Grandpa. Holy smokes -- how did she get to be so grown up looking?!?! Oh, and on that note, she is indeed taller than me now, by about 1 inch. Her feet are still several sizes larger than mine, so I suspect she has a bit more growing to do.

A few quick things.

Ah! It has been a busy week!!!! Plus, I'm slowing down...I get more tired every day!

Hannah had a "fun" meet yesterday morning. She did really well. She came in 1st in her age group for freestyle and breast stroke and 2nd in the butterfly. I might add that the coach accidentally put her in with the 12 - 13 year olds, too, so she was swimming with girls who were all older! Here is a shot of her in action -- she's the one at the top!



Oh, and I thought this was hilarious. This is how I found Ross sleeping yesterday. He must be trying to learn through osmosis!


We celebrated Hannah's birthday last night (for a slew of reasons, last night worked out best). I'll try to upload pictures from that later today!