39 weeks 6 days

Random thoughts from an almost 40 week pregnant woman.

I've been having contractions since about 30 weeks.  That's 10 weeks.  2 and a half months.

The contractions got really bad  a few weeks ago.  Like, laying on my couch not being able to do anything because if I stood up it hurt, bad.  But they never got regular or consistent.  Most days have been better since then, but I've still had a few bad days.  It is strange to feel somewhat normal some days and completely exhausted and run down on others.

Yesterday I had 7 hours (7!) of timeable, somewhat painful contractions.  Unfortunately, the timing was all over the place and not painful enough to send me to the hospital.  Went to bed at 9:30 and woke up today pretty much back to normal with very few contractions at all today.  It is the craziest (and most frustrating) thing.

I feel like a ticking time bomb.  Or at least like people look at me that way.  I feel like they think my water is going to break or my contractions are going to cause me to push this baby out in the middle of my conversation with them.

I'm trying really (really, really) hard to trust that my body is going to tell me when I'm actually in labor.  After having contractions for 10 weeks, it is hard to believe that I'll know when the real ones will be here. 

As much as I'm ready for this next phase of our life to start, I'm also very anxious about the major change that is about to happen in our house.  For example, yesterday when I got Rebekah up from her nap, she was content eating a snack and playing with her puzzles while I worked on dinner.  Our routine has really become fairly easy.  And for someone who has Discipline as one of their Strengths, this is something I thrive on.  I know that the lack of schedule with a newborn baby is going to throw all of this out the window.  (However, at least this time around, I know routine will eventually return.)

We are going to schedule an induction for next Friday.  I'm either getting a new TV or a new baby for Black Friday (maybe both).  While having an "end date" is somewhat comforting, I'm really going to be disappointed after all this (impatient) waiting if I don't get to experience going into labor on my own.

This whole not knowing the gender thing is getting really old.  I'm ready to buy some cute Christmas clothes for this baby.

Rebekah has been consistently telling me (for weeks now) that this baby is a sister.  "No brother, sister.  Girl."  I'm a little worried about what is going to happen if this baby is a boy.

At this point in my "pregnancy" with Rebekah, we were already home from the hospital with her.  I've learned this time around that these last couple of weeks are SO different  from the rest of the pregnancy.  Up until a few weeks ago I had only gained about 20 pounds the entire pregnancy and had actually lost some weight over a couple of weeks.  I've gained at least 2 pounds each of the last 3 weeks and I may not have looked "full term" at 37 weeks, but I definitely look it now just 2 weeks later. 

I have basically unpacked the hospital bag I packed 3 weeks ago.  I need that stuff!  I just hope I can remember to put everything back in.

Arboretum Pumpkins and The Fair

I guess my posts are just going to be a little out of order.  I was so excited about getting to the Dallas Arboretum and The State Fair and not going into labor while I was there!  (I was 34 weeks along the weekend we did both of these favorite family fall activities, and I've been having off and on contractions since about 30 weeks...)

 I just have to share these photos with you all...

Here's me at 34 weeks:







At the Fair, we did our typical family traditions: eat lots of fried food, play Flip-A-Chick, watch one of the shows (usually the pig race, but this time we got to see the dog show), and our new tradition of taking Rebekah through the little kids pretend farm.  She loved that this year and did a great job following all the directions along the way!

A link to the entire album is below, but here's a nice image of our trips to the fair since Rebekah was born!


Click for Arboretum pics:

2012.10.06 - Family Trip to Arboretum

And The Fair pics:

2012.10.07 - State Fair

Rebekah is 2!

Wow, my last post was February 27.  6 months.  Pathetic, really.  However, since that post I have been through 1st (and 2nd!) trimester of pregnancy. We had a 6 week period that included 11 doctor visits, 2 trips to the ER, and 2 day surgeries.  And we sold our condo, bought a house, and moved.  It's been a hectic 6 months.

I guess it is too late to finish getting those Christmas pictures posted.

The last time I was motivated enough to was about 6 months ago, for Rebekah's 18 month update.  So, guess what....now she's 2!!

Wow.

We had such a fantastic day on her birthday!  Adam stayed home from work and we started the morning off with presents and pancakes.
  

We stopped by the party store to order balloons for the party (and of course pick one up for her!).


Then went went out to the Frontiers of Flight Museum.  We pass this place every Tuesday and Thursday when I take her to school and go to work, and also on Sundays on the way to church.  She loves to point out the "AIRPLANES" outside, so we thought we would check it out.  It was fun and she had a great time!
     

Then we went to Celebration for lunch.  Super yummy!  I guess next year we'll have to let her pick. :)

We stopped by Gigi's Cupcakes on the way home to pick up birthday dessert!


We enjoyed a nice, relaxing dinner at home, complete with birthday candles and dessert!


I really can't believe how much this little girl has blessed our life over the last 2 years!  She is absolutely fun, loving, and precious.  She brings joy to our life and to everyone we meet.  Can't wait to see where life takes her!

Of course, I can't leave you without a 2 year old bee photo!  This one was taken at 4:47 pm, 2 years to the minute!


Birthday party update coming up next!  (I promise it won't take me 6 months....)

If you want to see more bday photos, click album below.

2012.08 - Rebekah 2nd Bday

And you can take a walk thru memory lane of bee photos.

Rebekah and the Bee

Christmas 2011: Chapter 2: Breakfast with St. Nick

I think I may just post one Christmas chapter each month - that way I'll keep Christmas going all year! I actually didn't mean to wait this long to do another Christmas post, but things have just been...well, you know, busy.

So, my 2nd chapter in the Christmas 2011 recap is all about breakfast with St. Nick. The church my mom works at hosted a breakfast with St. Nick and the whole family made it to the fun event! They had pancakes, crafts, a story, and a visit with St. Nicholas.

We had a fun, busy morning chasing all the kids around! You don't get much time to talk to one another when everyone is chasing 5 cousins under the age of 3, but I think all the kids had a great time! They looked super cute in their coordinated Christmas shirts (thanks, Grandma!)!

Enjoy the photos...

2011.12 - Christmas Ch2 - St. Nick

18 Month Update!

I still have not gone back to finish my Christmas chapters (or November, or January...), but at least I can get around to doing an 18 month update within a week of Rebekah's year and a half birthday!

Went to the doc today and Rebekah is 33 inches (87%) and 24 lbs (49%). She's still a tall girl!

18 months is such a fun, busy stage! Rebekah is a little runner. She giggles and runs and loves to play with everything in sight. Her absolute favorite thing is reading books. It is the first thing she wants when she wakes up in the morning, she has to have one while her diaper is changed, then she heads straight for the bookshelf to pick out a few more. She loves to read on her own, but she loves it even more when she can sit in our lap and have us read to her. Rebekah can even read all the (3) words in the Hug book all on her own! She's also so good at identifying animals as we look at them in books. I'm amazed every time she does it!

Rebekah is "talking" all the time. Some words are mostly understandable (banana, snack, up, down, momma, dada, ball, fish, book, block, snake, and others - the latest is "salsa!"). Others are entire sentences of incomprehensible words, but she is definitely "saying" something because it is the same string of syllables when we ask her to repeat it! People often call her "very expressive" and "a good communicator," and one of her teachers tells me how much she loves having conversations with Rebekah.

And she is still our little socialite - saying hi to everyone and blowing kisses everywhere! She is so sweet giving hugs and kisses when asked - even to her friends and her cousins. She is just a sweet, sweet little girl.

Ok, I think I've done enough mom bragging for one blog post. I'll leave you with comparison photos...

12 Months, 18 Months


...and photos of her 18 month celebratory Czech stop kolache.




The progressive bee album can be found here:

Rebekah and the Bee

Christmas 2011 Chapter 1: Christmas Decorating

I am so overwhelmed by the number of photos we have from Christmas! We seriously have well over 1000 photos...we obviously had LOTS of fun and made lots of wonderful memories with family and friends. I decided I'm going to have to break this up into "chapters" to even be able to tackle this. I'm completely skipping my November post in an effort to get Christmas up before the end of January. Hopefully I'll get back to it because there are some fun experiences to share with you!

Our Christmas season kicked off with decorating our own tree the day after Thanksgiving. Rebekah wasn't sure what we were doing, but once we started she caught on and wanted to copy what we did (this is a frequent occurrence in our house these days). Our tree had all of our nice ornaments on top, a blank area, then a bottom area with "Rebekah-friendly" ornaments. We had to leave the blank area because we didn't want things too high but within her reach for fear of the tree tumbling down while she was trying to grab for something!

She really loved having her own area of the tree. The ornaments were frequently taken off and put back on each day - but her way of "putting them back on" meant throwing them on the branch however they landed. It really looked like a battlefield of facedown snowmen and sideways santas. Totally fitting for a tree in a house with a 16 month old!
Helping with the tree topper


Rebekah's decorating skills


Finished product


Rebekah also quickly learned how to say "Santa," and practiced lots throughout the Christmas season! It originally sounded very similar to "dada," but eventually had its own sound!
click image for video


We also went to Grammy and Grampy's that weekend (Adam's parents). Rebekah helped Grammy decorate the tree while Adam and I went for a long half marathon training run.


Adam also helped his dad with outside lights while we watched.


Then we took a trip to downtown Grapevine to check out their decorations! A cold front had come in that day, so we didn't spend as much time there as we would have liked, but it was still fun!


Here are all the photos from Christmas Decorating:

2011.12 - Christmas Decorating

Next up - breakfast with St. Nick!