Nesting Overdrive

I have been off of work for a full week and I was determined to keep active rather than relaxing with my feet propped up. Now that I am at 38 weeks, my thoughts are that keeping active will encourage the baby to make his or her appearance sooner rather than later!
Monday was Memorial Day and we spent most of the day hanging out at my in-laws pool. It was great to be able to play with the kids, but be able to relax and stay cool at the same time.
While the kids napped on Tuesday, I started going around the house gathering items that I plan to sell at a garage sale later this summer. During the cleanout of my craft room, I came across 2 scrap pieces of fleece that were perfect for a project I pinned on Pinterest. I pinned this tutorial for car seat pillows several months ago and with a lot of travelling planned this summer, I really wanted to complete this project. The instructions were very easy to follow and I would have had both pillows done in one naptime, but I did not have velcro on hand.
Wednesday, my husband was out of town, so I tried to take it easy, I didn't want to go into labor when he was several hours away. I worked on school work for my summer class while the kids played outside. That evening we went to town and ran a few errands, to purchase supplies to work on a few projects on my to do list. We also purchased and put together a few deck boxes to store our patio cushions in.
Thursday was rainy and gray. Rather than sit around the house watching movies and tv, I pulled out the gallon of oops paint that I finally purchased for my son's room and got to work. You can see a before of the room here. I took time off that afternoon to go to the doctor and received the disappointing news that I was not even close to going into labor. That renewed my energy to finish the painting that evening after dinner!
Friday, I finished painting my son's room and then took the kids to walk around the zoo. We walked for at least 2 hours before heading home for lunch. While the kids napped that afternoon, I worked on cleaning the house. That evening we went out to dinner and a party to celebrate my father-in-law's 15 years of service.
Saturday we attended my daughter's last soccer practice/game and then spent several hours running errands and getting groceries. That evening I spent several hours in the kitchen preparing 5 loves of stromboli. We planned to take some out on the boat with us the next day and then I figured that we would have a few loaves prepared for meals while I was in the hospital or soon after I got home.
Sunday morning I woke up before Randy and the kids and decided to take advantage of the time to work on another Pinterest project. I pinned this nursing cover project several weeks ago and decided to go ahead and complete one with a blue checkered fabric that I had on hand. Though we are not sure what we are having, I think that the pattern is kind of feminine even though the colors may be more masculine. The cotton fabric that I had was light and see through and therefore not so well suited for a nursing cover, so I ended up lining the whole cover with a white cotton fabric. We then spent the rest of the afternoon on the boat at the beach. Thankfully, the kids were happy to splash and play in the sand while I sat back and relaxed. After eating a quick dinner and bathing both kids, we were all in bed by 9pm. It was a crazy busy week, but with our third child due in about a week, things are only going to get crazier!

Make room for baby

This pregnancy has been totally different from the other two in that I had both Aidan and Reese's room furnished and decorated within weeks of finding out what we were having. Since I do not know whether we are having a boy or a girl, and the baby will be sharing a room with Reese or Aidan, I have been unable to set up a room. Though I have been itching to finish off the kids rooms, it would not be practical, because baby will not even be in the room for several weeks. My plan is to keep the baby in a pack and play in our living room so that it will be close to our room, yet hopefully far enough away that Randy will still be able to get some sleep. Also, I do not want the baby to be sharing a room with one of the other kids and keeping them up all night or interrupting their much needed sleep. Hopefully by the end of summer, the baby will be sleeping well enough that we could then move TB into a crib in one of the other kids rooms upstairs. With that in mind, I got my pack and play out of storage and set it up in an empty corner in our living room. The pack and play is perfect because it is compact and movable. If I needed to move the baby into another room to nap while the kids and I are playing or watching tv in the living room, I could. I also love that my pack and play comes with a shallow bassinet, diaper changing table and diaper storage area. The diaper changing area flips to the side so that it is out of the way when not in use. The diaper storage area will also be nice for keeping all of the necessities handy and ready in one spot. We are officially ready for baby, now if only baby TB would finally make his or her appearance!

38 weeks and holding

I went to the doctor today for my 38 week check up and an ultrasound. I have been doing everything in my power to encourage this baby to make his/her appearance sooner rather than later and was really hoping to hear that my efforts were paying off. They called me back for the ultrasound first. After measuring the baby's head, belly and thigh bone, the ultrasound tech revealed that the baby was measuring over 41 weeks and around 10 pounds. Though I was expecting the baby to be large, I was not ready for the baby to already be at the birth weight of my youngest child, with 12 days still to go! After hearing that the baby was already ten pounds, I was really hoping for some good news from the doctor that the baby was getting close! After checking all my vitals, the doctor finally came in. We discussed my options, continuing with my plans for a natural vaginal birth, induction and c-section. She felt that since I had delivered a ten pound baby in the past, I would be ok to go ahead with plans to have a natural child birth. After our discussion, she checked the baby. I measured 39-40 weeks, the heartbeat was 154 and the baby was still positioned head down. She also checked and found me to be about 1 cm dilated, but that my cervix was still really thick and baby was high in the birth canal. Of course, immediately I felt disappointment that things were not farther along. She explained that doing something to induce labor would not be very productive or worthwhile as my body is obviously not prepared at this point. If I had been dilated to a 4 or more and the baby had been lower, it would have been a completely different story. I found relief in the fact that all of that could change at any time. I signed a release that I understand the risks of delivering a large baby and we discussed that at the time of delivery if things stalled or the baby was not progressing, they would not use forceps or vaccum to force the baby out. They would take that as a sign that the baby is too large and do a c-section. Finally, I scheduled an appointment for next week, though if it were up to me, I would have the baby before then!

Hospital bags

While Randy was out of town this week, I ran a few errands and picked up some essentials that we will need before bringing home baby in a few short weeks. Those essentials included baby body/hair wash, diaper cream, a bottle brush and a baby book. With the essentials purchased, I also started putting together some bags for the hospital. I packed up some of the things that I won't be needing until the hospital, such as nursing bras and pads, slippers and pajamas, a baby blanket, the baby book and a few other odds and ends. When Randy came home on Friday and found the bags packed on the floor of our bedroom, he looked at me and asked, "Are you going somewhere?" To which I responded, "Um, yeah! I am planning on going to the hospital sometime very soon to have this baby!"