36.5 Weeks!



Caden took this picture. He chopped my head off
but the belly is really the main feature anyway. :)

This will be my last post of the year. I want to start off with that at the beginning of this year I never would have dreamed I would be pregnant and about to have a baby by the end of 2013. God has really blessed us and I am so thankful that He's given me a chance to carry a healthy baby again. Life is not without its challenges and I'm looking forward to the new year and seeing our newest addition in our family. I'm somewhat terrified actually but also overwhelmingly excited! I really am looking forward to meeting my daughter. I know God will give me the strength I need to be the best mom I can be. I have no idea what life will be like. I'm anticipating lots of sleepless but wonderful nights. Lots of love in our house. Making more family memories and enjoying two children. I'm trying not to fear the unknown but pray to God about it and lean on him and others. During these past few weeks as my family has dealt with illnesses I've seen God's family step in and help mine. I'm learning to ask for help when I need it, which is very hard and I still don't do a great job at it. But I know God will provide. 

I saw my OB yesterday and Gracie is still doing great. If I hadn't had 4 miscarriages before I was pregnant with her and found out I had two blood clotting disorders this would be a very normal pregnancy. Last weekend I switched to Heparin injections from Lovenox. I.HATE.THEM! I really do. I never enjoyed getting shots growing up and didn't enjoy the Lovenox either but now I have to give myself two shots a day instead of one. I also have to draw it from the little container. But all the pain will be worth it once she's here.

My appointment went well. She's measuring 6 lbs 9 oz. I'm dilated to 2cm and she's dropped. My doctor said she could come anytime and if we had to induce she could probably strip my membranes and she'd come pretty easily. That sounds kind of scary! I really would prefer not to be induced but that's the more natural way to do it. I've been having a lot more contractions and last weekend thought about trying to change to a home birth. However, since I'm on blood thinners it most likely wouldn't be safe. But it should would be easy. Getting to the hospital in time is my biggest concern. I tend to have a high pain tolerance and wasn't even fully sure I was in labor when we were about to leave for the hospital with Caden. I had had Braxton Hicks contractions for so long that I just thought I was having those. We showed up and he was born less than 2 hours later.

I've lost 2 lbs and now have only gained 38 lbs. Which is great. I think the last month I was pregnant with Caden I didn't gain anymore weight. I gained a total of 44 lbs with him. Thankfully I lost 20 lbs the first week he was born. I'm just getting uncomfortable. The other interesting thing is I'm starting to crave various foods again. For a while I just ate when I was hungry. Now I feel like I'm starving if I don't eat within a few hours from when I last ate. Last night for example, we had a Mexican casserole I made for dinner with a salad. Later I had some ice cream. Then before bed I wanted some roasted garlic humus. I've also been craving bagels and cream cheese. I had one for breakfast and want another one. Also lots of fruits and it's kind of cool, watermelon, strawberries, mangos, and melons are available at the store right now. Being the tired pregnant woman I am, I buy cartons of pre-cut fruit which is lovely.

 

We have finished Gracie's room. It's so cute! Pink was my favorite color growing up and I love her room. I hope she does too. We Incorporated light and dark pink, white, and black. I made her a rainbow sign with a James 1:17 on it. She's considered a rainbow baby because she came after a miscarriage. I'm hoping to make a mobile to go over her changing table using Caden's hands or feet but have been too exhausted to do it. Collin put together her swing glider last night. We tested the video monitor on Caden last night and decided to order a second camera for his room. I love the video camera. You can zoom, pan, take pictures, and talk to your baby. It works with just the little monitor it comes with and you can configure it to work with your phones, which we'll wait to do when we get a babysitter. Last night we were able to talk to him and see him when he wouldn't sleep. Poor guy woke up scared in the middle of the night and talked to us through the camera and we didn't answer - we had turned it off. That's why we're going to get one for his room too. Might as well be able to see both children. The video camera we got is called Lorex Baby. I did a lot of research on these and this seemed to have the most options, great ratings, and best price. Also Lorex is a well-known security company. You can add up to four cameras.

We are ready to have this baby. A sweet friend of mine is coming over later this week to help me get the rest of my house in order. The baby's room is done. I just need to finish the playroom, reorganize the guest room, and office. I could do this myself but it's so nice to have a friend come help.

Here are some pictures of Gracie's room. An artist friend of mine is painting another picture to hang on her wall. Once I get it I'll post pictures of it too. I'm also going to hang the picture frames once she's born and we have pictures of her to put in them. I can't wait to meet her!

I painted the letters for her name

Rainbow sign

Love the pink curtains!

The dreaded Heparin!

Caden is 4.5!

It's been a while since I've done an update on my sweet son. Caden turned 4.5 years old right before Christmas and I have been wanting to do a post about him.

 

God truly blessed our family when he gave us Caden. He is one of the sweetest and most selfless kids I know. He's very grateful, loving, and kind. I also think he's one of the most friendly kids. Everywhere we go, I mean everywhere, he's saying hi to people and waving and making friends. On the occasion we go to a restaurant with a playground he is quick to make friends with pretty much every kid in there. He doesn't seem to have a shy bone in his body. I love this about him, but honestly he wears me out. :) He is a true extrovert and has more energy in an hour than I do in a week. Of course I'm about 9 months pregnant so it's not hard to have more energy than me.



Talking to the pretend George because the "real" George is on TV

I've really enjoyed having him home this year and homeschooling him for pre-K. He's learning so much and has always been really smart. He tends to take after his dad in a lot of ways. :) I also just love having him home and watching him learn and getting to know his friends better. Several weeks ago he read his first stage one book. I was so proud of him! He started memorizing books at 2 and so it was hard to know when he was truly reading and I stopped really teaching him. Then I decided to let him play a few sight word games on my phone, then put the app on the Kindle and he loved the games. He picked up the words very quickly. I test him from time to time by writing a word on a piece of paper and having him read it to me. He's been able to sound out words for a while so I knew he can sound out most consonant vowel consonant words. He's also been asking what different words are and how to spell certain words for a few months. So the time came when I gave him a new book at night to read. I asked him if he wanted to read a book to me. He said yes and he got about 85% right. I was so proud! He was too! He read it a few nights in a row to me and got better every night. I never thought I'd have a child reading at 4 but he's doing super. He's always been a letters and words person. He goes back and forth counting in English, German, and Spanish. He also has his own made-up language he calls Chex. He memorized the first 10 numbers in his own language and will count in it sometimes. He also loves counting things and wrote the number 100 on a piece of paper the other day and showed us telling us that he wrote 100 on the page. The other thing he has been wanting to do lately is change his name's spelling to Kaden, instead of Caden. This morning at church he wrote his name on the attendence card and wrote "Kaden." He will argue when you tell him his name starts with a C not a K. I never knew a 4-year old to be so passionate about the spelling of his name. He's also starting to really like writing and drawing pictures. This is something I thought he'd never enjoy doing.

 

Here are some of Caden's favorites:

He didn't want to put the Christmas tree up
so he protested by getting in the box!

 

Color: Blue but he also loves green and brown



Food: Breakfast - Chocolate chip whole wheat pancakes with maple syrup; Lunch or Dinner - Cheeseburger (which he doesn't get often), and oddly he doesn't like french fries but he loves bubble gum (not really a food)

 

Friends: His best friend at the moment is Jacob, that's who he talks about the most. He goes to church with us and they went to preschool together last year. His other favorite friends are Jacob's siblings (Nicholas and Maya), Zachary, Andrew, Olivia, Neil, Gabbi, Shelby, and Kayman. Of course if you are around, you may quickly become his best friend. :)

 

Songs: He loves making up his own songs the most and making music. However, he does like church songs and Christmas songs a lot.

 

Books: Currently his favorite book is a Curious George book about making pancakes and Why Boys and Girls are Different. I think partly because he's about to get a sister.

 

TV Shows: Curious George and Calliou

 

Activities: Building, writing, painting, driving his car, riding his scooter, and playing with friends

 

Places: Church, he talks about wanting to go to church all the time. He also loves going to the park and playing with friends, having people over, and going to his grandparents' house.

 

Things/Shapes: His favorite shape is still a circle. After Halloween he took his Halloween bag and went around the house collecting anything he saw that was a circle. He kept his collection for a while and it was challenging to put away some of the Halloween decorations because he had so much fun with his bag of circles that stayed in his circle (pumpkin) bag.

 

Showing me a silly face!

Caden is truly a gift from God and again we are so blessed that God placed him in our family. While he's a work-out, for example, he would rather run than walk somewhere, and is very fast, he doesn't mean to hurt anything. He loves sports and is playing basketball starting in January, he's so excited. He loves to do things for himself and by himself. He likes helping me cook in the kitchen and loves learning new things. He also likes to help me clean! He can also cause quite the mess and quickly cause a mess if I'm not watching. He's such a great helper and has a wonderful sense of humor. The other day he came to sit on my lap, which is hard because of my growing belly. Once he sat down he said, "oh wait, I better not lean on your belly or your water will break." He promptly got down. How did he know about water breaking? I'm amazed with everything he knows and comes up with.

 

Tonight at dinner he wanted a boiled egg. He loves boiled eggs too. We asked him if he was going to eat it. He said, "no, this egg is my friend. I don't eat my friends." Then he told us his egg's name. He's cracks us up. Caden, we love being your parents! Love, Mom and Dad

Our 2013 Christmas!

We had a great Christmas this year. Last year I was very depressed around this time. I had just had my fourth miscarriage and was just sad. What a year makes! Now I'm 36 weeks pregnant with a very active girl. The week before Christmas was hard. The three of us all got sick. I got bronchitis, Collin got strep throat and the flu, and Caden got the flu. How I didn't get the flu, I have no clue but I am glad I didn't. I felt like I had it, though. It was a tough week.

 

We spent Christmas at my parents' house, since I'm unable to travel this close to delivery. I really wish Collin's parents lived closer. It's hard having them live so far away and it would have been nice to have them join us. I honestly love spending Christmas morning at home. As a child some of my favorite memories were waking up Christmas morning and running to see what was under the Christmas tree. Since this was Caden's last year as an only child, he got some really great gifts! He was so sweet when we asked him what he wanted for Christmas. He wanted a bubble gumball machine and toys for his baby sister. He ended up getting more than that and was surprised and excited! His big gifts were a Leappad Ultra Tablet with some games and a Jeep he could drive. He has always liked my Kindle but broke the screen so I decided to get him his own kid-proof tablet that doesn't have direct access to the internet. He loves driving his friend, Olivia's jeep, and so that was another big surprise for him. He also got the gumball machine, and some smaller gifts and games.

During Christmas we remember Jesus' birth, like we do throughout the year and we think about our loved ones who are no longer with us.  This was my first Christmas that my maternal grandmother has not been on earth.  I made her famous praline cake and finally nailed it. She would have been so proud. She made this cake every year and it was one of our favorites. I also wish my mom was here to celebrate with us and meet her grandson and see her granddaughter who is about to be born. I wish Collin's parents lived closer and we could see them more. All that being said, we are truly blessed and loved seeing everyone we got to see and spending time with my family. I am so glad that my side of the family all lives within 20 minutes of us. It makes seeing my family on holidays really easy. Here are some pictures. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Christmas Eve he got to open a gift!

It was his Leappad Tablet

He was excited about the Magic School Bus game

My Christmas Eve gift

Collin's Christmas Eve gift

Christmas Eve dinner, we had steak, peas, carrots, and white asparagus

Cookies for Santa

Christmas morning. Stocking time!

Caden's first car!

He loves his blue jeep!

This is a fun game, it's a Scooby Doo game.

Our mantle

Opening presents at my parents. His aunts giving him their gifts.

He got a magnifying glass from my parents and loved it!

Sweet boy in front the Christmas tree

After he opened his gifts he wanted to go home and play with them all

Merry Christmas!

Picture with my dad



Big family picture with my siblings, their halves, parents, cousin, uncle, and grandmother

Grandmother Dot's Praline cake, one of the best cakes ever!

Caden got another big surprise on Christmas, he got to see Santa and Mrs. Claus!
They came to visit our friends, the Ekpo's.

We hope your family had a wonderful Christmas!

35.5 Weeks!

I went to see my OB today. I've been going to my specialist weekly, which I don't think is really necessary, I'd rather just see my OB. But rather than see both every week, my OB said to wait until I'm 36 weeks to see her. Well, I got bronchitis last week and had an appointment scheduled for today that they told me to keep it since I was sick. I felt like I was on death's bed last week. I hadn't been that sick in a long time! All I wanted to do was sleep, I was barely hungry, and would go from sweating to freezing. When I got medicine from my general practitioner, I had an allergic reaction to it. I broke out in a horrible rash over my belly, sides, and arms that itched. I almost went to the hospital at night but was honestly too tired and weak to go. I thought I was dying and prayed that God would give me strength. I knew I was too weak to have a baby at this time. The next day I had bad chest pains and difficulty breathing. It seems like it was a bad reaction the z-pak they gave me. I stopped taking it after only having taken it for 2 days.  I had to get chest x-rays to rule out pneumonia. Thankfully everything looked good and I'm finally on the mend. Poor Collin and Caden both got the flu and Collin also got strep throat. I lucked out not catching either of those. We're still sleeping in separate rooms just until we know everyone is better. They told me I could take Tamiflu but I'm not going to take anything else unless I'm sick and truly need it.

 

Since I was at my doctor's office today, she said we'd go ahead and monitor the baby and that way I can cancel my appointment for Friday with the specialist. I had a sonogram and they monitored the baby's heartbeat, movement, and contractions. My OB told me I need to see her next week at 36 weeks so I'll have to tell his office I'll see him sometime but we'll have to wait because she really needs to be the one monitoring everything from this point forward. Thankfully baby is still doing great. I haven't gained weight in a few weeks but the baby has! It seems like with Caden I really didn't gain any weight the last few weeks with him either. She literally could be here at anytime. I just want to make it past Christmas and new years. I think we will. Although I cannot wait to see her!

 

By the way, I have to brag on some of my friends. Last week was super hard, I felt absolutely horrible most of the week. 3 different friends brought me meals, one friend sold me some oils and a diffuser which I've been wanting which helped me breath better, another friend delivered some Christmas cookies I bought but was too sick to pick up, and another one came and cleaned my house! I could not believe she cleaned for me. That is probably one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me. I was really wanted my grandmother last week. I used to like going to her house when I was sick because she knew how to help me get better faster. I miss having my mom around too. I know she would have come over and helped me. I hope I'm as good of mom as she was. Then God put these sweet friends in my life to help me out.

 

How far along? 35.5 weeks

Baby’s size? She weighs about 6 lbs, 11 oz. - another big baby!

Total weight gain: 40 lbs gained! 

Maternity clothes? Yes and I'm getting tired of them and am outgrowing them...sigh.

Stretch marks? Maybe a few new ones.

Sleep: Okay. I have to get up to go to the bathroom quite frequently. I'm very tired so it's been pretty easy to fall asleep.

Best moment this week: Friends coming over to help me by bringing food, oils, and cleaning my house when I was sick.

Miss Anything? My pre-pregnancy weight. Love this baby but am getting uncomfortable and want my body back.

Movement: Yes, all the time! She is very active!

Food cravings: Nothing particular at the moment.  When I was sick I stopped drinking coffee so I cured that bad habit before the baby arrives.

Anything making you queasy or sick: Spicy foods at night cause heartburn which hurts!

Gender: Girl!!

Labor Signs: Braxton Hicks Contractions. They monitor me weekly for the contractions and it was neat seeing them on the chart.

Symptoms: Growing belly and lots of movement and kicking. Having to go to the restroom frequently.

Belly Button in or out? Flat unless I cough, then it sticks out. Kind of funny.

Wedding rings on or off? Off!

Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy and blessed!

Looking forward to: Meeting Grace.

Please pray for: A healthy baby and pregnancy.

Here's the sign I made to cover over Gracie's changing table.  She's considered a rainbow baby because she's born after a loss, actually 4 losses. A good friend of mine who is a talented artists is painting another verse for me on something. I can't wait to see what she comes up with!

Here are a few more pictures of my belly. I haven't really shown too many people this. I feel pretty huge! But I love the gift inside.

Church Baby Shower

Some ladies from church gave me a beautiful baby shower for Grace last Sunday. I have to say that I have some wonderful and generous friends! I honestly thought nobody would come. I was mistaken! After looking over my gift list I have 49 thank you cards to address! Again, I am seriously blown away by all the love these ladies have shown me. I have a number of friends who would have liked to give me something but can't and I want to say that I don't expect gifts from anyone. Well wishes mean a lot to me too! Also many of my friends showered me with love when I was pregnant with Caden and some you have again with Grace!

My lovely hostesses

Callie and Laura

Wanda and Callie

 

Me and Helen

 

 

Some of the gifts

Stephanie and me

Laura and me, my shower photographer

Family - Caden was so excited to get so many balloons!

Little hostess gifts I sort of made. They had a gift card inside the mug.