Any Day Now

Tomorrow is my due date and I am anxious for my little girl to get here. Not because I am uncomfortable or feeling bad, but just because I am tired of being pregnant and ready to finally meet her. I know that having a baby will change my life forever but I am excited about the change and looking forward to it. Right now I am just nervous about actually having to deliver her. It's a little scary to think about so I try not to think about it too much. I decided I would keep working until she came, but I am having a hard time going into work every day. At least I was able to get my replacement trained before I left so I know everyone at work will be taken care of.

At my last doctor's appointment everything still looked fine. He did say that I had progressed a little (about 1 cm) but wanted to go ahead and schedule an induction date with the hospital. It is official. My baby will be here on February 5 if she has not come already. I would much rather her come on her own, but at least I have a date to look forward to in case she doesn't. Now we just have to wait for her to decide when she wants to come. The not knowing part is hard. I wake up every morning thinking that today could be the day, and then it isn't. Then I will have a contraction and think my labor is starting, but then no other contractions come. My trust in God and His timing is what keeps me at peace these days.

Here is a picture of me at 39 weeks. Hopefully I won't look like this too much longer!

Doctor Update: 37 Weeks

Yesterday I had another doctor's appointment and once again I got the same news as the week before... no progress. Last week he told me that he did not think she would be early. This week he was even talking about how long after my due date he would let her stay in there. According to my doctor, our baby will be here, one way or another, before February 12. I don't mind if she waits until her due date, but if it starts going too much past her due date I will definitely start to get anxious. Actually, I am already a little anxious for her to be here. However, I know she will come when she is ready and not a moment before that. Right now it is in God's hands and only He knows what her birthday will be. One other thing my doctor said yesterday was that he thought my baby was around 5 1/2 lbs right now. He guesses she will probably be around 7 lbs when she is born. That sounds like a good size to me! I definitely don't want her to be much bigger than that or I might not be able to get her out!

Last night I woke up at about 4:30 and could not fall back asleep. All I could think about was all the things I wanted to do before she got here. There were a couple of times I was tempted to get up right then and there and start working on some of those things. None of the things I want to do have to be done before she comes, but for some reason I felt like they did. I guess it was my "nesting instinct" in full force. The only thing that kept me in bed was the fact that I would have to get up for work this morning and I knew I needed as much sleep as I could get. It took me about an hour but I was finally able to go back to sleep. Hopefully I will be able to work on a couple of things this weekend to help satisfy my need to get these things done.

My next goal is to have Colin take another picture of my belly so that we can continue to document my progress. Eventually I will also get these pictures developed so I can put them in the baby book.

Nursery Pictures

Here are the "before" pictures of the nursery.





Here is what the nursery looks like now.







A closeup of the bedding.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I had such a wonderful Christmas this year and I always wish it didn't go by so quickly! Every year we spend Thanksgiving with Colin's family and Christmas with my family. However, because I was going to be 35 weeks pregnant during the holidays, I wasn't sure if my doctor would let me drive the 5 hours to be with my family for Christmas this year. At my last appointment before Christmas, he said I was good to go! Thanks goodness because I would have been very sad this year if I couldn't spend that time with my family.

We drove to my parent's house on Friday night and stayed until the Tuesday after Christmas. From the time we got to my parent's house until the time we left, I feel like I ate more food than I ever have! Of course it was all delicious! (That is also probably why I feel so big right now! People still tell me I am small at 8 months but I don't feel that way.) We didn't do anything out of the ordinary this year, but I just love being with my family and enjoying each other's company. I really tried to take the time and enjoy my last Christmas being kid-free. Next year will be a completely different story with an 11 month old.

Our dogs discovered this year that they like to open presents! It was pretty fun to watch. I don't think Colin opened a single one of his presents but instead let the dogs open all of them. Here is a picture of Harley opening a present.



Not only did our dogs have fun opening presents, but so did all of our nieces and nephews. It seemed like each one had a tower of presents. My mom does a great job of wrapping each grandkid's gifts in their own special wrapping paper so you can tell which kid it belongs to. I think of all the kids Madison had the most fun this year because it was her first year to really understand the whole "Santa Claus" thing. She even thought Santa would come again the next night! I really enjoy buying presents for the kids even though it seems to stress me out every year trying to find the perfect present for them. This year I am going to try really hard to start my Christmas shopping earlier instead of doing it all at the last minute.

Here are Austin and Madison with their tower of presents.





After Christmas with my family we had Christmas at our house with Colin's family. It was nice having it at our house so we didn't have to travel anywhere, but it is also hard having that many people in our small house since we are not used to it. At least all four of the kids are very well behaved. It was fairly nice outside so they were able to take their new toys and play in the front yard.

Every year the grown-ups draw names and buy gifts based on a theme. This year our theme was the number "three". We then have to use our creative talents to figure out what gift we want to buy that has to do with the number "three". It is always interesting to see what everyone comes up with. I wasn't very creative this year and just bought John "three" gifts. John, on the other hand, was very creative and bought Colin a gift certificate for us to take pictures as a family of "three". Damon was also creative with the theme by coming up with several lists of his "Top Three". One of my favorite's was Janet's because she made Damon a photo album which included "three" pictures from his past "33" years of life, since he is currently 33 years old.



I can probably say that this was the most uneventful New Year's Eve I have ever had (not that it was a bad thing). We went and hung out with our good friends, David and Laura, at the their house. The whole night we just sat around and talked and before long it was midnight. We didn't even realize it was midnight until it had passed! Oh well! We all had a good time sitting around and talking. Plus, we found out that Laura is pregnant. Happy news (especially baby news) always makes for a fun time!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year! More to come (and hopefully pictures) in my next post regarding the nursery. With the free time I had over the holidays, I was able to get most of it done. Plus, my in-laws brought the rest of the furniture with them when they came. (At least now I feel more comfortable if she were to come early, even though my doctor says she won't.)