Huntin'

We went egg hunting on Sunday at our neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt.

Noodle overcame her fear of the Bunny after several conversations that it was not an animal but a "mommy in a bunny costume."

Squash found the elusive "golden egg" -- a yellow egg with a note in it to come to the cookie table, where he was presented with an iTunes gift card.

All in all, an excellent hunt, and we even got a group photo taken of the family...possibly the last shot of our family of four!

No, I Did Not Have a Baby

...last night. I did, however, enjoy many many hours of contractions. Yes, fun.

After timing them on my iPod for about 4 hours with an average time apart of 5-6 minutes, we called my doctor and she had me go into the hospital to get checked. When I got there, I was dilated ONE CENTIMETER. Sheesh, all that for THAT!? I hadn't been dilated at all on Thursday, so at least it was something, but still.

Three hours later, after a bazillion more contractions, I was dilated TWO CENTIMETERS.

So we made the executive decision (at 1:30 AM) to go home. It was a good decision because both of us were able to get some sleep. Thank you to my angel children for letting us sleep in until 7:15 AM this morning.

They would have kept me at the hospital if I had been a little more pro-intervention/medication. But since -- as of today -- I am hoping to have this baby without pitocin or an epidural, I opted to come home where I could (1) sleep in my own bed and (2) eat and drink whatever I want. I am taking it day by day though, and am not unwilling to reconsider the induction issue.

So far today, I'm still having contractions and I've pretty much just been lying in bed. Worlds of fun. I will probably get up and about a little this afternoon and see what happens then. Cross your fingers...today sounds like an awfully good birthday for this little guy!

Labor Cake

I am thinking about making Labor Cake this weekend... follow the link for the recipe on my cousin Rebecca's blog: http://www.itsthejamils.com/2009/01/labor-cake.html

I must admit that I made the cake when I was very pregnant with the Noodle...and got to eat it several nights in a row before it finally "worked." But it is so good that who cares?

Free at Last

I got the most wonderful surprise at my checkup today: I am released from bed rest! I immediately came home and went for a walk. Let's get this baby outta here.

I weigh the same amount as I did with my last baby when I had her (on her due date), and according to my ultrasound, my due date was April 13 (not the 16th, which is what we had been going on up til now). So the doctor said he was comfortable that I am now past 37 weeks...and FREE!

I haven't been this happy in AGES. Eight weeks of bed rest behind me...and now just waiting for one bouncing baby boy.

Really Big Bump

36.5 week bump. Really ready to have this baby!

36.5

I have TEN DAYS of bed rest left, unless of course this baby decides to make his appearance before that. My doctor said that he wants me to stay in bed until 38 weeks (April 2) BUT in the event the baby starts to come, they won't do anything heroic to prevent it. All they would do is give me IV fluids to hydrate me (and if it's real labor, hydration really won't "stop" it). I was happy to hear this, because I DONOTDONOTDONOT want another IV; I can provide myself with fluids all on my own, thank you very much. So I am drinking as much as I can, staying in bed, and trying to keep the stress to a minimum.

Last week, I must say, flew by, because both the boys (husband and Squash) were home on spring break. It was SO NICE to have them here all week. Squash and I played Yahtzee, Scrabble and Monopoly. Noodle stayed at day care all week, although she woke up with a fever Thursday night, so she was home with us all on Friday. GOOD TIMING, NOODLE; she was fully recovered by yesterday. It was a weird illness; just a fever -- no other symptoms (other than being a super cranky 3 year old!). Everyone is back to school today.

And I have been looking forward to tomorrow all month because my SISTER is coming to visit from California!! She is on spring break and I am so excited that she was able to leave my darling nephew and her husband for a couple days to come out and keep me company. I have lots of projects for her...including painting my toes if I can persuade her!

Health Care Reform

I just received a link to this video of our Congressman Dennis Moore, reading an email from a staffer (who is a friend of a friend), about how the health reform bill would affect her, as a breast cancer survivor who was diagnosed when she was 24. I think this one-minute video (and really, the underlying email) is very powerful. Please consider watching!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TAz_HBAeqE

When You Are On Bed Rest

...your kids do not get cute St. Patty's Day shirts to wear, like they have had every other year. Instead, it was a frantic search this morning to see if they even had any shirts that had green on them.

In addition, Noodle informed me this morning that she was going to "punch" anyone who was not wearing green. Took me a minute to ask her...do you mean "pinch"?

Fast-forward ten minutes later, a crying Noodle informed me that her brother had punched her. Sigh.

Next year, I am making all three kids wear cute St. Patty's Day attire...even though Squash will be 7 1/2 and (I am sure) way too cool for such things.

Blue + Brown + Polka Dotty

I have bought virtually nothing for Baby #3's room. But I did buy this:




And it arrived today from Amazon. I love it.

35

So close!

I've now been on bed rest for almost six weeks. At my doctor's appointment yesterday, I had only gained 4 ounces, so in my book, NO weight at all. That is just not like me, especially given that I eat eat eat and burn zero calories. But who knows? Nothing about this pregnancy has been predictable or "normal" for me.

I came to the conclusion yesterday that I really just don't like movies. I had DVR'd several and decided to watch one over the course of 2 days (short attention span!). Unfortunately, I picked "Little Children," with Kate Winslet and Jennifer Connolly. It had some good parts, but I HATED the end. And then I just felt like I had wasted 2 hours. You know, 2 hours that I could have been watching the Today show or HGTV.

This should be a great week upcoming, because both my husband and the Squash will be home on spring break. Yay for company! My goal is to teach Squash (who is in 1st grade) to play Boggle and Bananagrams with me. If all else fails, I know he will be willing to lay here with me as long as I put on a Harry Potter movie for him. I'll take the company I can get!!

Sporty Spice

Noodle had her first soccer practice this week. It's a parent-and-me soccer clinic put on my the city parks & rec department for 3-5 year olds, so she's on the young side, but she has been DYING to play soccer, probably because she has attended two years of her brother's soccer practices and games. Also, no, they do not have uniforms, but these ARE three-year-old girls, after all, so when one of her preschool buddies' mom found these cute pink soccer jerseys at Wal-Mart, she bought them for all the girls we knew in the clinic. There are at least four girls from her preschool in the same clinic (and it's coed). I love living in a small town.

And Mr. Squash has his first soccer scrimmage of the season today. We are so lucky that it is going to be sunny and 50ish. I won't get to go, of course, but I'm going to beg my mother-in-law to take pictures and video. This is the same gaggle of little boys who have been playing on a team together since they were 4 (they're now 6 and 7).

Exciting that soccer season is beginning! It's a busy time for us, but lots and lots of fun. And it means that spring is (hopefully) here.

34 (weeks, not years)

I'm 34 weeks along today! In honor of the occasion, I attempted a self-portrait.

It's been a really good week, all things considered. My awesome friends Amy, Jamie, Carolyn and Michaela brought us dinners each night, so we only had to cook for ourselves once (and by "we", I mean the hubby). Then, my equally awesome friends Tracy, Dana, Sharon, Dasha and Jamie brought me lunch (and more importantly, conversation!) every single day this week. Also, it is finally sunny and warm enough that I can open the bedroom window and get some fresh air. Plus, I had an excellent doctor visit yesterday where everything was going well and I got the "only four more weeks to go" speech.

And I've watched some excellent TV this week too. Today I watched "Radical Parenting" which I had DVR'd from Discovery Health. They featured three couples, all of whom have, um, nontraditional parenting philosophies: unschooling, attachment parenting, and gender neutral parenting. The unschooled kids seemed totally out of control to me...eating junk food all day, staying up late watching tv...and the parents just seemed kindof lazy. The attachment parenting mom, on the other hand, was like super mom with her 1.5 year old attached to her 24/7. The gender neutral parents didn't seem all that "radical" to me. The only thing they did was encourage their two sons to play with girl toys, which (hello?) you don't really even have to do if you just let your boys play with girls (either sisters or friends) in my experience. But the show was interesting food for thought; I recommend it.

Halfway Point

Since I have what some people refer to as "some time on my hands," I've calculated this whole bed rest thing backwards and forwards. And today, I have long looked forward to as the halfway point of the whole experience: 4.5 weeks down, 4.5 weeks to go! It's all downhill from here, right?

I finished my 10th book of bed rest yesterday: Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah. It was great. I give it a solid B+. Chick lit about two friends, tracing their lives from the 1970s to today. The only part of the book that I did not like was the interview with the author at the end, where she said that she wrote the first draft of the book while on bed rest with her first child. Well, heck, that makes me feel unproductive. Other than that, the book was a good read.

And today is extra celebratory because two ladies I used to work with are coming over for lunch and they are bringing Jimmy Johns! Turkey Tom, no mayo, yum yum yum.

In Like a Lamb

It's March! And I am happy as a clam for two main reasons. One: only one more month of bed rest. Two: this:



Spring is almost here! This might not look like a great weather forecast to my friends in California, but after this miserable winter, it looks FANtastic.