The Little Things

We were late to church today. And last week. And probably the time before that. In fact, our church runs the time down in seconds on the screen until church starts, and I can't remember the last time we were there early enough to see it. And this both frustrates me and dumbfounds me.

I get up whenever Elizabeth says it's time to get up, which was 7:00 am today, and we try to go to the 9:00 service. I don't stop from the time I get up until the time we walk out the door. I feed Elizabeth, pump a bottle for the 10:00 feeding and get her bag together, take a shower and get dressed, get Elizabeth dressed, AND attempt to drink my cup of coffee as I'm sprinting past the cup. Usually, I just grab a granola bar to eat in the car on the way because I don't have time to have breakfast. Will we ever be on time anywhere again? Especially to church!

But today, after feeding Elizabeth and changing her diaper, I took her in to Dan who was still laying in bed. I went downstairs to prepare aforementioned bottle, and found the two of them still laying in the same position when I returned. As I climbed into bed, and noticed Elizabeth scratching her Daddy's goatee with her tiny little fingertips, I got it.

All of this time right now is but a fleeting glimpse. When Dan and I look back on our life together, we won't reminisce in pride that we made it to a church building on time every week. We will cherish the moments that we lingered in bed with our four month old daughter as she discovered all the life around her. And because God has given this incredible gift to us, I'm going to make sure that I am grateful for every single moment.

So I apologize to our church family, especially if you sit on the left side and we're disrupting you as we come in during the second or third song. Life is just too short, and we're praising God in other ways during that first song.

The Little Prince(ss)

"Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is exhausting for children to have to provide explanations over and over again." The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

This has been, without a doubt, the fastest two months of my entire life. It is impossible to comprehend that my daughter will be 2 months old tomorrow, and that I will soon be returning to work. My last post saw the anticipation of Elizabeth's arrival. The following weeks were just survival. Days that involved any type of housework, or even just more than one load of laundry, were considered successful. We were, after all, strangers trying to learn to live together. There was a lot of fumbling as we attempted to get to know each other.

So here we are, at the two month mark, and we are a family. My husband is the great father I suspected he'd be. My daughter is a greater joy than I could have ever anticipated. She is getting a little bit more predictable, and I understand her cues much better than I did even a month ago. I guess this is what trust does in a relationship.

This is where The Little Prince comes to mind:
"One only understands the things that one tames," said the fox. "Men have no more time to understand anything. They buy things all ready made at the shops. But there is no shop anywhere where one can buy friendship, and so men have no friends any more. If you want a friend, tame me . . ."
"What must I do, to tame you?" asked the little prince.
"You must be very patient," replied the fox. "First you will sit down at a little distance from me--like that--in the grass. I shall look at you out of the corner of my eye, and you will say nothing. Words are the source of misunderstandings. But you will sit a little closer to me, every day . . ."

April 24 - Closer to Baby

Well, here we are on Friday instead of Wednesday. They gave me stronger medicine last night to help dilate me, and it seems to have made a little progress. It's 6:45 and I just started Day 2 of pitocin. Without the pitocin, I'm having contractions about every four minutes, so I think we're hoping that things get ramped up and they are able to break my water. Up until now, I've only been dilated 1 cm and that's not enough to break my water. After 12 hours of strong contractions yesterday, I was pretty deflated to find out we'd made no progress, but Dan's been wonderful even when I'm a mess. I sent him home for a little while to take a real shower and relax a little bit, but he came back feeling bad that he could leave and I couldn't. I think we're both feeling much more encouraged this morning than we were last night, and that in itself feels good. And I'm tired of hearing babies cry. :) So listen up, Baby Shute...come out come out!!

The positive things are that they let me eat dinner yesterday after only ice chips all day, and I slept pretty well on the Ambien they gave me. I'm trying to look at the bright side of things. :)

What We Know

We finally got a phone call from the hospital around 2 pm and got into a room around 4:15 or so. They gave me some medicine to make sure everything is ripe and ready to go, and they'll start the pitocin around 6 or 6:30 in the morning. The break in the day wasn't terrible, even though we had definitely thought the day would look differently. I was able to eat all day, and we slept for a few hours in the morning. We're probably in much better condition now than we would've been had we stayed at the hospital all day. Again, we have no idea when this kid will show, but we're hoping it's Thursday. We're here for the duration...

The Waiting Is The Hardest Part

We are supposed to be induced today.  I say "supposed" because we got up at 4 am, got to the hospital at 5 am, and were informed that their attempts to reach us at 4 were unsuccessful and that all rooms are currently full of women who can go into labor on their own!!  The positive side of this is that we live very close to the hospital, so they sent us home and I got to eat breakfast.  The down side is that the breakfast I so desired (albeit toast & coffee only) triggered my heartburn.  It was still worth it.  

So now we wait.  The Labor & Delivery staff have all of our numbers and will call when a room opens up.  If we don't hear from them by 10 am, we have a number to call.  The grandparents are on standby, but we may or may not meet this baby today.  

Making Room

I embarked on the annual "clean out the refrigerator" task & discovered our 4 basic food groups:

Seriously?  4 jars of grape jelly??  Our condiment to actual food ratio is unreal!  

38 Weeks

Dan and I sometimes will look up old retro things on Youtube...you know, theme songs from TV shows, commercials from the '80's, etc. It's basically anything that will trigger a memory. Well this week, I found this:  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5unAvwnOaYQ

Let me make this clear...I LOVED the idea of owning this dog. I BEGGED for this dog. I did not GET this dog. How can you not like a toy dog named Puddles?! Something about having a toy that peed, but whatever. It was so much fun to see the commercial again, but it also triggered the realization that someday I may have a child who begs for a toy dog that pees. And I will probably do the same thing my parents did...not buy it, and tell all of the grandparents not to buy it either. It's funny how life turns around.  I guess it goes without saying that we're in for the ride of our lives!

Our appointment this week turned into an impromptu ultrasound when I mentioned that the Nurse Practitioner last week thought the baby might be breech again. The u/s showed that the baby is definitely head down, and currently weighs 6 pounds, 15 ounces. The doctor said that babies typically don't gain more than a half pound per week, so we are probably going to be alright in terms of baby size with a week and a half until the due date.  The practice won't let us go past a week overdue, so we are assured of a normal sized baby (I hope).  We got to see the baby in 3D, but the stinker refused to turn his/her head and we only got a good shot of the forehead and ear.  Oh well.  It won't be long before we are looking into the actual face, not just a photo.  We did get to see the baby practice-breathing, which was pretty cool, and of course we are addicted to hearing the heartbeat.  

In terms of preparations, I think we're ready.  I bought the stroller this week, and am looking forward to some neighborhood walks together.  All of the clothes have been washed and folded, and the baby's bag is packed for the hospital (mine too, but the baby's clothes are cuter).  We are still discussing names, and we've got a few strong contenders.  Don't worry...we will have something to write down when we fill out the paperwork.  And we got the car seat installed last weekend, thanks to the Lexington Fire Department.  Now if we could just wrap our minds around the fact that we will be parents in a couple of weeks, we'd be all set!!  

36 Weeks

Today marks the beginning of our weekly doctor appointments. It's hard to believe that we are so close to the end of this anticipation/beginning of parenthood. We're definitely starting to think in concrete terms of baby's arrival, ie. making sure bags are packed and ready, creating a plan for notifying Dan that it's time, creating a plan for notifying others, etc. I've also been taking stock of what I have for the baby, and purchasing the things we still need. It so difficult to gauge just how many onesies (for example) we need, without being excessive. The last thing we need is more stuff, and I'd hate to start this little one off with a love of materialism. lol.

Everyone asks how I feel these days. Well...I feel bigger. But I also feel pretty good most of the time. I haven't gained any weight in the last two weeks, which has to be Divine Intervention considering all of the Coke floats and milkshakes I've been enjoying! I'm dilated 1 cm, and I'm comfortable with this knowing we have 4 weeks left until the due date. I've been thinking of all the friends' stories regarding being sent to the hospital straight from the doctor's appointment, going into labor WAY early, etc.  A pregnant woman definitely has an active imagination!  

34 Weeks

We had our 34 week checkup this morning, and Baby Shute has already complied with our wishes and is head down!! This is a huge relief to us, as we were mentally preparing ourselves for the caesarean but hoping it didn't come to that. What an obedient child we have! What good parents we must be! :)

Now you must be asking yourself how this baby could've turned around without me knowing it. Well, I'll tell you...this baby moves ALL. THE. TIME. Sometimes it's vertical, sometimes horizontal. I did know that it was sideways at one point over the weekend, but I just assumed it went straight back to breech because of where I feel most of the little "kicks." Which are apparently punches. As I told the doctor this morning, obviously I'm new at this.

We'll take it!

A New Day

I've had this blog set up for a while now, but have never posted anything on it. However, with Baby Shute due to arrive in 6 weeks, I thought it would be a good time to jump on the blog bandwagon. With so many friends and family living hours (some MANY hours) away, this will be a good way to keep up to date.

There's not too much to report at the moment. We have our 34 week appointment tomorrow, and Dan and I are starting to walk around the house with that "deer caught in the headlights" look. We had a seven hour birthing class this past Saturday, and Dan likes to tell everyone that we saw four videos and all four contained a live birth. At one point, I had to silence his commentary..."Push 'em out, Shove 'em out, Waaaaay out!" LOL

We still have many items on our to do list before Baby arrives, but I'm finding that my Braxton Hicks contractions pick way up when I work for very long. So we take it slowly. The basement is making significant progress (almost finished), the rental property is on the market, and we have enough baby supplies that we could survive if our little gymnast makes his/her appearance early. As of two weeks ago, Baby was breech, and I'm pretty sure that nothing has changed. We definitely don't want those contractions to become real b/c we need all the time we have left! Hopefully, this kid will flip soon.