The Waiting Game

Well ya'll, I'm still here! Waiting and cleaning and anticipating meeting our precious baby. Our weekend has been crazy to say the least. Two nights ago, Jason had to get someone to bring him home from work because his car wouldn't start. So while he had my car last night (he took it to work because I didn't think to take him and drop him off myself!) my dad graciously came over and took me and Rebekah to Sam's and Walmart to stock up on groceries and goodies that we will be needing the next few weeks.

**Side note: I decided to clean out the fridge while I waited on my dad to get here and no joke - when I got rid of everything that had gone bad we were left with two things: leftover cheesecake and fruit cups! Needless to say it was about time we get groceries!**

Afterwards, I came home and organized the pantry and all the new groceries and did more laundry! (I have no idea where it all keeps coming from!) And then I finally finally got my bag and Noah's diaper bag ready for the birthing center! (I know, I'm a bit of a procrastinator.) I even remembered to put my bathing suit in there (in case I want to use the jacuzzi tub) and Rebekah's new baby doll that we bought for her as a surprise. We thought it would be neat for her to have her own baby to bring home that day as well. =)

This morning J and his dad took a look at the car and found that it was the starter that had gone bad. They got it replaced while Bekah and I slept in a little, and then, since I knew J had to go to work soon and they asked, my mom and sister came over and we shopped around my part of town for a little while. I got a few last minute things taken care of, and we had fun visiting and shopping together. We even drew names for our Christmas exchange with the family while we ate at On the Border.

At OTB: We used the tortilla warmer to draw the names out of.

I'm pretty sure my mom drew her and my dad's name out a million times before she got someone else.

After our trip to Target - our babies were tired and so were we!

So I guess now is just time to wait! I never imagined actually making it to my due date! It has been a blessing though to get some things taken care of. It was hard for me to get things done for the 4 months or so of taking care of Olivia, so I've been playing catch up with the apartment, cleaning and actually making it look like someone lives here and still getting rid of boxes, etc. I've also been trying to sleep as much as possible and get things organized in case family comes and wants to help out. I can't think of anything more stressful than having someone being here to help and me not even knowing where everything is when they ask! I've also been savoring every moment of being with our Bekah Boo and talking to her about our new baby.

Oh, and I thought I would mention that last week at our last birthing class I learned that in order to recover quickly and to take care of myself that I am going to have to basically be on bedrest for the first 3 days after having this baby. After that I think she said that it is still moderate bed rest for the rest of that first week and then still not doing much of anything or getting out for another week after that! And then finally the third week will be where I ease myself back into things. (I've definitely paraphrased the information given to us, but you get the picture!) This is not something I did when I had Rebekah, and I definitely regret not making myself rest and feel better quicker. So, I am SO very thankful that Jason will be able to be off work for 2 weeks with me to help me with Rebekah and the baby, and we have a supportive family that is willing to help. I know our lifegroup is even offering to help with meals, etc. So thank you in advance to anyone offering to help in any way you can and please just pray that I am obedient for those first few weeks and listen to my midwife and my body! =) (And pray that I don't get cabin fever too easily!)

Anyway, just wanted you all to know that I'm not holding out on you! I have had many people remind me that they would like to know when this baby is going to get here, or if I feel like he's coming, and believe me - you will know as soon as I do!

Love you all and I thank you in advance for your prayers that everything goes according to God's perfect will where the whole labor/delivery experience is concerned.

Thanksgiving...and tons of pics!

Thanksgiving was so fun this year. Wednesday, we got to go to my sister's house and spend the afternoon and evening with her and her family and my mom and dad. My uncle and grandmother were unable to be there because they live about an hour away and my uncle had something unexpected come up with work. But, we managed to eat and laugh and just enjoy each other's company all the same. We found out that Rebekah likes cranberry sauce! (Jason and I gagged while she gobbled it up!)

And then yesterday, we went out to Hillsboro to see Jason's side of the family. Jason's Ma and Papa have some land out there (and they happen to live down the street from his Aunt Rena and Uncle Drew) and every year the whole family gathers there to celebrate Thanksgiving. Rebekah thought she was in heaven to be able to run around freely outside and to see the "meow meows" (cats), dogs, horses, rabbits, hog, etc. Jason's cousins have a four wheeler that, once on it, she couldn't get enough of! That girl LOVES being outside, plus she didn't mind one bit that everyone there catered to her every need, playing ball, letting her run, letting her feed the cats, and feeding her until her belly couldn't take it anymore! I have to admit that I welcomed the break and enjoyed getting to watch everyone else take care of her and to see how happy she was. I forgot to take pictures on Wednesday, and my mom was the only one who has any. So, here are a ton of pictures from yesterday that Jason's mom took.


Aunt Julie (J's sister) and Bekah Boo

Aunt Julie and Uncle Rhett, waiting on some turkey!

Jason's Uncle Paul carving the turkey

cousin Taylor playing football with Bekah

Little Miss trying to be a big girl on the bike (even though she couldn't reach the pedals!)

Daddy and Bekah on the four wheeler (side note: every time someone would come to get Rebekah off, she'd cover her face and fake cry and whine until they left her alone. That girl did NOT want to get off!)

Say cheese!

Granna(J's mom) and Bekah

Pappy (J's Dad) with Bekah

Most of us women enjoyed watching all the excitement from the front porch, where we got to talk and relax! (left to right: me, Aunt Debra, Aunt Rena, and cousin Chelsea)

(look real close and you can see that prego belly!)

Jason finally talked me into riding the four wheeler with him. I didn't want to at first because I was being lazy and I thought he might try to take it too fast. But once on it, I was just like Rebekah - I loved it! Everyone else said they thought that I might get Noah to come if I got on it! Ha! All I got was dirty hair and a good laugh out of Jason getting smacked with a few bugs!

Our munchkin watched us on it for awhile, and then couldn't take it anymore. She had to get on it with us!

She took turns riding with Granna...

..And then with Mimi (J's grandma)

Everyone made predictions on when they thought Noah will be here. Everyone has their own ideas, so we'll just have to wait and see! I have piles of laundry to catch up on and tons of cleaning to do around here, so I've been secretly telling him to obey his Mama and stay in there until the weekend is over! =) We'll keep you updated! Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

Craziness

Well, since I finally uploaded some pictures from the past few weeks, I thought it would be good to get caught up on here. I have been running around crazy trying to get clothes washed, the apartment cleaned, and my bag ready for the birthing center. But I have to say that I really want to make it to the weekend before Noah actually comes! You see, my midwife's very precious and sweet student and my photographer won't be able to be there until then because of Thanksgiving! So, I'm okay with waiting so they both can be there!

(37 weeks)

On that note. thank you to everyone who has given me their "birth date" prediction! It has been fun to see what everyone is thinking and it will be interesting to see if anyone will be right! If you still want to guess, please feel free to post it! I'd love to hear what you think! =)
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Yesterday was a busy busy day. We had a picture appointment with my dear friend, Amber, (who takes amazing pictures) and then we had a midwife appt. and our last birthing class session. We didn't get into bed until about 12am! Sadly enough though, that is early for Jason and I these days. He's been getting off work late and we've been staying up to see each other and to unwind together. I'm not getting too much sleep these days anyway because I just feel more pregnant than I've had this whole time (not to mention a million trips to the bathroom at night!) and it takes me awhile to fall asleep. Still, I try to take advantage of every opportunity to take naps that I can, especially when Rebekah takes hers - which by the way she's been taking like 2 or 3 hour naps lately! What a blessing!
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Anyway, these two pictures of Bekah in red are from the photo shoot (from my ameteur camera, of course!) Amber had this cute outfit she wanted to see Rebekah in for a few shots, and I couldn't resist taking my own!

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The next few were taken at Rosa's and my parents' house. Rebekah and I met my parents and my sister (and of course, Jaeden) there to have dinner last Friday night. Rebekah and Jaeden were so spoiled by Nana feeding them to their hearts content with yummy tortillas, rice and beans, and sopapillas!(my favorite!) Afterwards we went to my parents' house to hang out. My mom had taken out our little kitchen that Cristina and I used to play with. Rebekah and Jaeden had fun with it.

kissing cousins...

(they wouldn't stop loving on each other which was so cute, but we felt we needed to break it up at some point! ha!)

Jaeden biting...er...sucking on a play bottle. Yum!!

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And finally, here are a few of Rebekah being goofy with Jason's shoes. She loves to put my clothes and his shoes on!

Oh and Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! We are so blessed beyond belief and thankful to our Lord for so many things and for so many people this year! We get to celebrate Thanksgiving two days in a row this year! Today we get to spend time with my parents, my grandmother and uncle on my dad's side, and my sister and her family. We'll go to Hillsboro tomorrow to see Jason's family (his grandparents live there) and spend the day there. So, we'll definitely be eating like piggies these next few days. (I'm sure Noah won't mind a bit!) My personal favorite has to be the homeade cherry pie my mom makes and yummy mashed potatoes!

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So what will you be doing for Thanksgiving? And what is your favorite part of this holiday or your favorite food?

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I hope you all have a safe and happy Turkey day!

Guess that Birth Date!

Now that my due date is only 8 days away, I want to know what you think! Give me a guess on when you think Noah will be here.

Again, I'm due the 30th, but I don't think my midwife won't induce until 2 weeks past. (haven't actually confirmed that, though.) Rebekah came 6 days early. Let me know!

Chocolate Contest

On Saturday evening, our small group girls got together for a Chocolate Contest at my sweet friend Lori's house. Each person was to make and bring a chocolate dessert of their choice and we voted as a group on who's deserved to win.


This spread isn't even everything that was there. I can't believe it, but I didn't get a picture of all the chocolate dishes! But in addition to this, there was a yummy oreo cake, cupcakes, lots of fruit w/chocolate dip, and cookies.


I put together the grand prizes and door prizes. The two grand prizes were Starbucks' milk chocolate bars paired with Land O' lakes hot chocolate mix; and the others were sticky note pads with a Bible verse printed on them, and notecards paired with matching notepads.



Although the turnout was sort of small, it was SO much fun and just a relaxing time of fellowship and great conversation with friends. Taylor (far left) and Lori(4th from the left) won the two grand prizes, and Shannon and Julie got to pick from the basket of goodies too for bringing their dishes. Everything tasted wonderful! (Thank you ladies for coming and participating and for NOT disappointing with what you brought!)


Lori had it all taken care of for Rebekah, too! She had dress up clothes, toys, and a doll house ready for her to dig into and play with. Now I know why her nieces love her so much. And Lori shared her snacks, too. So Bekah pretty much made a new best friend for the night and thoroughly enjoyed herself. Really though, everyone really helped me with Bekah, and I am so grateful for being able to just relax and let them love on her and entertain her!

Fireproof

Thursday afternoon, Jason and I were blessed enough to get a date together (thanks to my wonderful sister who offered to watch Rebekah)! And not just a regular date for us where we go out to eat and that's it, but we actually went to the movies! Now, this is pretty monumental for us for those of you who don't know us that well. Jason is not big on movies pretty much at all so for me to get him to take me was huge. (Although it helped that it was a Christian movie that we were going to support so he wasn't completely opposed to going.)

In fact, it's been so long that when we went to pay for our tickets, we thought we were getting ripped off because I just knew that the matinee could not be $7.25 per person!! (Regular admission is over $9!) And (it gets better) when we went to the concession line, we were starved because we didn't have time to stop for lunch before the movie, so we thought that the #3 combo that came with 2 large drinks and a large popcorn sounded good. So we ask how much and the guy says $17.50! Good grief! We settled on splitting a medium (refillable) drink and a medium popcorn for $11.25. Now, I know we probably sound tight, but really - we get more for our money when we eat at On the Border!

Anyway, enough griping. =) The movie we saw was Fireproof. It's a Christian film about a couple who struggles in their marriage. The whole movie is basically about them finding out what makes a marriage and about them trying to save theirs. There is a great parallel drawn about how our relationship with Christ should be as well. So, if you are married (or even if you're not) and you haven't seen this movie, please go out and see it! It was so awesome and had such an amazing message, and I'm pretty sure I was brought to tears throughout the whole movie(which to me, makes it a good movie =). This was probably one of the best dates J and I have had in such a long time. I'm so glad we were able to reconnect and get some more face time in with each other before our baby boy gets here!

Voting, Dr.'s Appt, and 36 weeks

***Just to warn you, this is a long post. I really wanted to document my experiences with doctors lately, and I write how I talk (which can be excessive) so if you don't want to read through it all, feel free to skip to the rest of the post with the pictures and shorter stories! =)***

These past few weeks have been pretty crazy for us. I haven't been feeling too great, due to my asthma and allergies flaring up. When this happens my eczema follows too, which is just not fun to say the least. This whole pregnancy I've done really well without taking any medicines at all (from Tylenol to allergy medicine), so I didn't want to give in this time either. However, I started to feel worse about a week ago. I was getting up in the middle of the night to take breathing treatments about every 3-4 hours apart. Because I've had a really bad cough, it stirs up the asthma and I was gasping for air after a coughing fit. I've even dreaded going to sleep at night because that's when it gets worse. So, last Wednesday, I finally decided to make an appt. to see my primary care doctor to get some relief. (I knew from past experience that if I go too long untreated, I usually end up in the ER.) When I called, I couldn't get in to see him, so I settled with the first available doctor in the office instead. I guess you could say that it was a mistake to settle. She was just not the friendliest doctor, and it made things worse when I finally admitted to her that I didn't want to be on anything long term - I just needed relief now. She kept asking why I wasn't taking a particular inhaled steriod medication, and I told her that I've gone a really long time without having to take anything and I thought she'd appreciate where I was coming from. Instead, I think I made things worse. I asked her about getting a shot of steroids instead of the inhaler (because I've done this before), and she said it was much safer to go with the inhaler, and she seemed so annoyed with me. She told me to call my OBGYN and ask him to reassure me that she was right on this. She just had an attitude with me. Ugh! So I walked out of there with very little to go on and I was really frustrated because of her approach to talking to me and not really explaining things to me the way I'm used to. Fast forward to a few nights ago. I was taking treatments every two hours at night and about every 3 hours during the day. Even after taking them, I could still hear myself wheezing. Jason could hear me across the room. So again, I decided that I needed to do something. I contemplated going to my primary care to let him know my frustration with the last dr. and to see what he would recommend. But then I remembered the allergy specialist I've seen off and on, and thought I'd have a better shot at getting somewhere with him instead. Again, when I called Monday morning, I had to see the other doctor in the office, but I was miserable so at this point, I didn't care who I saw. The difference was night and day. I walked into the office and when I went to sign in, the receptionist could tell right away that I was short of breath. She gave me some paperwork to fill out, but told me it could wait and that she'd have me in a room as soon as she could. True to her word, I waited less than 5 minutes and they got me into a room, started me right away on a breathing treatment, and had a movie started for Rebekah to enjoy. When the doctor came in, he explained what he was going to do (did not waste any time with asking me questions about why I haven't taken anything or grilling me about anything else). He gave me a shot of steroids, plus the oral ones to take home. When I asked him why the other dr. wouldn't do that for me, he let me know that most primary care dr.s aren't as used to seeing what he sees every day since he is a specialist. He said that there was a slight risk with the medications, but since I'm so far along and that I am having trouble breathing that the good outweighs the bad. He went on to explain that not getting enough oxygen could send me into labor early, and that getting better would mean a better labor and delivery in a few weeks. He was SO gracious to answer all my questions and to set my mind at ease about what he was giving me. He even told me that he wouldn't make me stay on everything unless I absolutely need it. The appointment was at 11am and by 4 or 5 that night, I felt like a new person! I could breathe without wheezing and my skin was already clearing up! My midwife and chiropractor say that once I have the baby we are going to work on what I can do to stay away from the harsher medicines like the steroids, etc. But for now, I am so grateful that there is something I can take and for the relief I feel!

So after that whole long story, here are pictures of Rebekah being a cutie at the doctor's office. She was really enjoying herself!

And then yesterday, we went to vote. The only trouble we had here was that we were still registered to vote where we used to live. So, they made us go to a different polling place. It was so frustrating, but we knew we wanted to get it done. This put us voting at 5pm and we were so worried about traffic and long lines. But fortunately, we only waited about 10 minutes and we were out of there (thank the Lord!)

And lastly, here is me at 36 weeks and 2 days! Jason and I went to the first session of our birthing classes last night. The classes are once a week for this whole month. Since I'm due that last week, we are praying I make it through to the last class! But it was definitely so nice to grab dinner and be able focus on each other, and on what we're going to have to do in a few weeks to get this baby into the world! We can't wait to meet him!

Pearly Whites

Here are some pictures of our pumpkin brushing those toofies! We always brush them for her, but in order for her to open her mouth wide enough we have to get her to say "ahh!" We love it. And when she sees us brushing ours, she says "ahh!" for us to make sure we're doing it right. The other night I let her get some practice in on her own after I finished the real work. =) And might I add that she's gotten lots of new teeth in recently, too.