Just wanted to tell you all to have a happy New Year! I’m off to work as sucky as that is and after work I’m going to babysit for some extra $$$ so my New Year won’t be to exciting. I’ll try and get on during my lunch break to tell you about the stuff I left hanging in the last post. If not, I’ll tell you next year. heh.

I’m here. Had a doctors appt. yesterday. We did group strep B and a NST. The NST was to see how she is doing in there since she hasn’t been moving as much, and I had that spotting. She is fine. The little booger started jumping around like a Mexican Jumping Bean soon after we left the office. Since I’ve been having all of those nasty contractions, she did do an internal check. The “door” is closed, but I’m very soft and very thin. She said her head is RIGHT there so whatever we are “doing” is working. I think we’ll need to “do” some more! heh. **blush** She did schedule another u/s for Jan 19. I asked if I needed to schedule an appt for the following Monday and she told me no. That kinda makes me happy.

I did mop floors yesterday, did the dishes, and started washing baby clothes. Erich is going to interview for a new job tomorrow so I need to write and tell you all about that. I should also tell about how Operation Clean Out the Kitchen is still on going, mainly because we are frantic to pay off some bills, and keep neglecting the whole “we must eat” situation. I am going to the store tonight though for a few things. A local grocery has milk 3 gallons for $5, so Erich bought some last night. In the last week, the two of us went through 4 gallons! Simply amazing. I really don’t care for milk, but bambino must because I’ve been drinking it like crazy! I know there is probably more but I’m on my lunch break and really need to get back to work. More later.

As I finished up my 35th week of pregnancy yesterday and am charging into my 36th week lots of things are occuring. For one, my somewhat under control hormones have blown into full swing again. I watched Lucy get married on Seventh Heaven yesterday and I was a mess. In the show, her parents kept having flashbacks and seeing her as a baby and a toddler and a little girl. I was bawling thinking that I too would be there someday (hopefully in like 40, heh). Sheesh.

Also, I’ve told Erich that I am completely filled with awe, joy and extreme anticipation yet at the same time, I am completely scared shitless. Never in my life have I ever felt this way before. I’m sure he feels the same way. He says that if he were me he would just be scared of the way this baby has to exit my body. That isn’t so much what is scaring me. The fact that I am forever responsible for this tiny perfect creature and that my flaws could rub on to her terrifies me. I’m sure this is normal and everyone feels this way, right?

In addition to Erich and I feeling the pressure of change and the very close arrival of our first born daughter, we realize this is a huge change for the rest of our family… mainly the dogs. It’s funny how these dogs become such an intricate and important part of our families. Gracy, the older brown dog, will have no problem with this baby. I know that Gracy is very good with babies/kids and is just not interested in having our undivided attention anymore. She is old, set in her ways, and quite content just napping by our side. Ella, who thinks that she is our first born daughter, is going to have a bit more adjusting to do. And just like Gracy had to learn to be with kids, Ella now has to learn. I have no fear that Ella will be great with this baby and that they will be life long friends. I just want to make sure we do this right.

My mom and stepdad bought us the 4 in 1 play yard and also the boppy for Christmas. She also got us another sleep sack which I think will be great at night. The play yard has a bassinet and that is what we will be using in our room. Erich set it up in the nursery the other day, and today we moved it into our bedroom. We figured it would give us time to adjust to having it in there and moving around at night. It will also serve to help the dogs adjust and prepare. We took out a baby doll that looks “life like” and let Ella smell her while we held her and talked to both of them. Hopefully this will get Ella used to having a baby around, and we set the baby doll in the bassinet. We’ll see what happens.

Other than that, not a lot going on around here. Just a lazy day. Yesterday we went down to Erichs brothers house and he helped him clean out the barn. MIL and I went to an outlet mall thirty minutes away. I bought Erich three pairs of pants. I also bought two baby outfits from the Carters Warehouse. MIL bought baby an outfit and a Christmas baby doll that was on clearance. (Now lets just see if she can find it next year!) She bought me a nursing shirt (yay my first one) and I bought myself a nursing bra (yay! also my first one!). Now I must go continue being lazy.

anybody in there?

I’m here and awake. It’s 6:45am and I’m at work. **yawn** It must be a death wish. I’m sooo tired. Nothing really new here. After work, I have to stop at WalMart **shudder** and then I’m going to bed for a bit. Sooo tired, have I mentioned that? And I think baby is dropping into my pelvis or something. Strong shooting pains in my hips and cramping oh and some spotting. TMI? Okay to work…

I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas…

Track Santa on his journey December 24th!

So I did update my blogroll as I mentioned I needed to the other day. If you find incorrect links and stuff, please let me know. I think I’ve fixed them but I’m not perfect.

Erich helped me set up a webpage this last weekend. We automatically get space from the cable company with our subscription to internet, so I figured I could post more pictures then one a day and be able to gush over my baby (not that I won’t do that here too) for family. If you would like to see this webpage, please leave a comment with your email address and I’ll send you a link. I’d like to know who is going there, since the url does contain our family name. Oh, and if you do go, please bear in mind that I am html stupid, so this is also a learning and growing process.

Let’s see. We had Xmas with Erichs side of the family on Sunday. It was okay. One of my New Years Resolutions is to not be so hard on my MIL. So hold me to it, okay? The dinner was at my SIL house, and they are in the process of remodeling the kitchen. BIL and SIL were both very tired combined with SIL and MIL don’t get along, it was interesting. There was no tree up so it made it a bit unfestive. Erich and I were joking later because SIL decorated excessively for Halloween/Fall. There were tons of decorations, yet nothing for Xmas. Just comical to us, considering we do nothing except pumpkins for Halloween. Since I did Thanksgiving this year, I want to do Xmas next year. I want to do it for a couple of reasons, I don’t want to go through the unfestive, no tree thing with a toddler. I want Baby Girl to remember Xmas with his family as fun and festive. I know she won’t remember this at 11 months old but **I** will and there will be pictures, yada yada yada. Secondly, I don’t want to drag Baby Girl all over on Xmas. I’d like to have a Christmas Eve dinner for all of us and then Xmas Breakfast and open presents from Santa. My family always had Xmas Breakfast and I would like to keep that tradition going. My grandparents are coming Thursday but I’m not going all out seeing I’m so tired and so pregnant. I imagine that our parents (Baby girls grandparents) will want to come next Xmas morning for Santa and such. We’ll see. Oh, so SIL doesn’t want to flip holidays every year, so I said I wanted Xmas for the rest of eternity. Later Erich agreed with me that it wasn’t very festive and he would have liked to see it be more personal and festive at our house. It made me feel good, because I got the impression that he thought I would have accomplished this better. I think Thanksgiving was a HUGE success. It was a lot of fun, but a lot of tough work. It was also smart of me to do that this year being 30 weeks pregnant and NOT doing Xmas this year, cause truthfully I don’t think I would have been up to it.

Okay moving on…Oh! Friday I was given VTO (volume induced time off) so I worked around the house, cleaned, and MOPPED THE FLOORS! Notice the comment in this post from my wonderful husband. Of course, it is starting to look like I should redo it and the carpets need vaccuumed but that’s the way it goes. I was give VTO tomorrow, Xmas Eve, so I will do it most likely then. I was sent home yesterday early and today early and tomorrow I have off and who knows what will happen Friday. There were only five cases scheduled tomorrow and 12 scheduled on Friday. My next check is going to look pitiful. I really wanted to work more too in case DR does induce in the middle of January. We’ll see. I’m sure we’ll be fine, I’m just going to miss those checks! I think I’ll be much happier when Baby Girl is here and I’m holding her. I won’t even think about the missed checks until I pay bills! hahaha!

Erich and I went to the library on Saturday. He rented “The Shining.” If you knew E, this would be surprising because he is not one for scary movies, but he enjoys Stanley Kubrick. We watched in on Sunday and it was very scary! REDRUM! REDRUM! creepy… I borrowed Xmas cookie cookbook and Good Housekeeping Cookbook. I just finished flipping through the entire 700 pg Good Housekeeping book and jotted down 30 or so recipes I’d like to copy and keep. I’ll put them on recipe cards tomorrow.

Yesterday after work I came home and cooked! I made salsa, spanish rice, chx rice “stuff”, baked spaghetti, and a pizza. I want to make cornbread muffins tomorrow and some drop sugar cookies. I’d also like to try my hand at some basic muffins, we’ll see.

So I’m in my 35th week of pregnancy, and I’m exhausted. Sleep continues to be a rough thing to get. Just not comfy. And I have to go to the batheroom so often. The worst is when I wake up and have to go really bad but I don’t want to get up because I know as soon as I stand Baby Girl and all of her five and half pounds combined with gravity will come crashing down on my bladder making a very painful feeling. And I’m so stiff that it takes me a minute to get going. I look like a little old lady getting out of bed in the nursing homes! It makes me think of all those night shifts I worked where I made them get out of bed to go instead of using a bed pan! I realize now why they wanted a bedpan, cause they ache! But I still hold that was better for them to get out of bed because if you can get up you should. The more mobile you are, the longer it sticks around.

Anywho, baby is getting bigger. Everyone says so. She keeps her foot stuck up in my left side that it feels like she is poking my left boob. I don’t think my mom thinks I will make it much longer. She keeps implying that I will go into labor soon after the New Year. And when I call her on the phone, the first thing she asks is if I am in labor.

Oh and a huge thank you to Allison. A card is in the works, but she made me a beautiful baby blanket. I’ll post a pic soon. It is gorgeous and way considerate. Thank you so much!

I think that’s about it right now. I’ll post more tomorrow.

Some love sleeping baby pictures, I also love sleeping doggie pictures.

Give the gift of blog!

Sorry I got away from my every other day posting. I meant to post last night then became way to busy and forgot. Just dropping in to say that I’ll have a real post of what I’ve been up to tonight. I’m off to work now, tired, after a “full” nights rest. ( I say “full” because anyone who has ever been 35 weeks pregnant knows that sleeping a full night is a gigantic joke.) But ya know, another day, another dollar, and all that other jazzy crap. Have a good day, more tonight…

I know this isn’t a real post or anything, but thought you may want to see me naked. Not completely you pervert, just my belly! 34 weeks. Inducing in 38 (hopefully!). Anyone else ready to meet her?

PS If I’m in a favorites list on your fotolog, this picture looks way funny and distorted!

a real post. I’m tired, achy, sore and just plain not wanting to think. Sorry. I’ll get you that post soon. Just so you don’t have to leave empty handed, how about a picture? This is a picture of the triplets over Thankgiving weekend.

I really must must must must MUST edit/fix my blogroll. It’s pathetic.

Very interesting appointment today. So let’s get down to it. Here is where Babycenter says baby should be at this point:

This week your baby weighs about 4 1/4 pounds and measures 17 inches long. By now, she’s probably head-down in your uterus — most babies are at this point — although she may continue to change positions. Her skull bones are still pliable and aren’t completely joined, to ease her exit through the birth canal.

That’s not exactly where our baby is. The ultrasound was tons of fun though, it is definitely a GIRL! She is head down and has lots of hair! You could see it on her neck. Those are knees that keep pushing into everything, and like I suspected she has her feet hooked in my ribs. Here is where it gets interesting. Baby girl weighs…. five pounds two ounces!!! She is measuring 35 weeks 4 days. (I’m technically 33 weeks 2 days.) Go take a look at her beautiful face. I know it’s just me, but she is the most gorgeous baby I’ve ever seen. So with that we went on to see the doctor…

Fundal (uterus) height is up. Usually you grow two centimeters in two weeks which is what I have been doing. This week though revealed that I grew 3 centimeters in 2 weeks! Dr. says we will do another ultrasound at 37/38 weeks. If baby is still big, and my cervix is favorable, she will induce. So we are looking at having a baby around January 17thish. So we’ll see. That was my exciting morning… now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

It’s snowing. It dropped at least two inches on the ground between last night and this morning. Tomorrow is our ultrasound! yay! I really don’t know why I’m that excited, but I am. I want to know how much she weighs and to know that she definitely is a she. I had a dream the other day that it was a boy instead. In the dream I had gone in for the ultrasound and ended up actually having the baby then. Which would be fine by me. (As long as shes healthy of course.)

I bought her snowsuit yesterday. It’s very cute, not exactly what I wanted, but it will work. My mom called to tell me that for xmas her and my stepdad decided to buy us the playpen/bassinet. That is what I’ll be using in our room. She said she also through the boppy on to the order but didn’t tell my stepdad. heh. She said he may be a bit “surprised” when he gets the bill. Things seem to be coming together, maybe because I had an absolute meltdown with my mom the other day about the stuff that I still need and such. I guess she’ll always be my mom and take care of me, huh?

We’re going to their house now, so I’ll update tomorrow after the ultrasound.

I just received a letter stating that I am a “prospective” juror for the fourth quarter of 2004. Couldn’t they have picked me for first quarter? Then I could say that I was pregnant/in labor/caring for a newborn. Bah. It’s inevitable that I will have to be on a jury at some point. And why didn’t Erich get a letter? Oh and it says please fill out the application and return it to the court within 14 days or we will hold your ass in contempt of court (those are the exact words! I swear!). Anywho, this letter is dated… November 1st. Sweet. At least they sent me an envelope with a stamp on it. Heaven forbid they try to pry 37 cents out of my fist for their jury duty. heh. I’m going to bed.