{Cousin Love}

It has been no secret that Luke has not been the most friendly with his new cousin Molly. He doesn't do anything bad, but just has a scowl on his face whenever she is around and especially when I am holding her. When he first met her, he slammed my sister's interior french doors about 4 times and then ran into the hallway crying. Clearly we have our work cut out for us when baby brother arrives :). Since that first meeting, Luke has mostly ignored her. But yesterday we celebrated Thanksgiving with my family and Luke actually acted interested for a few moments. Luckily we caught it on Chat's camera phone because who knows when we will see this again!

{Christmas Tree Search}

Wow, can you believe it has been a year since last year's Christmas tree search. Luke has grown so much! We typically buy our Christmas tree the first weekend in December, however, this year since we know we have an impending arrival of baby boy and the fact that Chat works the next two weekends, we decided to go ahead and get it today! This is the earliest we have ever had a Christmas tree up in our house. We headed out early and had to try two different places before finding the best one...

Luke and Chat searching for the perfect tree.
Okay, Luke just following Chat and getting weirded out by all the trees poking him.

Luke's funny face amongst all the trees :)

And we found the winner!

{35 weeks 1 day}

Here is a picture of me at 35 weeks and 1 day. I went to my OB appointment today and things are looking good. I don't have any updates on the size of the baby this time, but the heart rate sounded good and I was 1 and 1/2 centimeteres dilated. That sure did make this seem MUCH more real!

{35 Weeks and Counting}

I thought I would give a quick update...

• I am 35 weeks today! Where has the time gone!?
• I went to my high-risk OB appointment last week to check on all the issues and the baby's heart arryhthmia had improved dramatically which is music to my ears! I am still off all stimulants. I haven't had anything with caffeine in 2 weeks and I am slightly missing my iced tea and chocolate. Although I have never fallen asleep as easy as I have, so this might be my new norm :). Staying asleep is a different story...
• I wake up between 2 and 5 times a night.
• The baby was measured again last week. At 34 weeks, he was estimated to weigh 7 pounds 1 ounce...with 6 weeks to go. This slightly terrifies me.
• My fingers are starting to swell which is new...I did not swell in the slightest with Luke. I can still wear my wedding band, but it is tight so I might be a single woman the rest of my pregnancy. My feet get a little puffy too as the day goes on and I am on my feet a lot.
• I feel the baby move in a very different way now. I will feel body parts protrude from my stomach and it feels so weird and so cool all at the same time.
• Baby boy is head down.
• When I wake up or stand up after sitting for long periods of time, my feet hurt so bad it feels like I am walking on pins and needles. This is new to me too since it never happened with Luke.
• Chat and I think we have decided on a name. I am ready to tell, but Chat all of a sudden has decided that we need to keep it under wraps until he is born.
• My back hurts in the exact same spot where it hurt when I was pregnant with Luke. I am fine unless I sit for long periods of time. It feels better if I am standing or laying down. The pain started later in the pregnancy this time than it did with Luke though for which I am thankful.
• We finished the nursery, although we are using most of the same stuff for Luke's nursery. Since we moved though, we needed to get it all out and pictures hung, etc. Since the room is significantly larger than Luke's room was in our old house, we did have to get a new rug. I got the same one -- just went from a 3x5 to and 8x10. It was back ordered for 2 months, so it finally arrived!
• I have had 3 Sprinkles for this baby and it has got us so excited about this new guy! It is nice to have a few new things special for this baby. I didn't realize how important that would be when agreeing to these, but so happy I did now!
• Luke still has zero clue what is going on. He still thinks my huge stomach is a platform to sit on or jump off of.
• As I was looking in the mirror on Monday as I was getting into the shower, I feel that my stomach is lower. I am not sure if this means he has dropped or not, but internally it feels the same so I am thinking probably not. Then a friend commented yesterday that she thinks I look like I dropped. Maybe this means he is getting ready???
• This is the first year in several years that we are not traveling for Thanksgiving.
• Dealing with getting ready for the new baby and getting ready for all the holidays is a little much for my brain to handle. I am overwhelmed to say the least.
• I am trying to make it to the birth without buying anymore maternity clothes. Which means if you see me, you probably will see me in one of the 3 shirts that still fit me. Please ignore my lack of anything fashion at the moment.
• I am trying to find a fun toy to have at home when we get home from the hospital as a possible distraction for Luke in case he is not welcoming of the baby. Any ideas?
• I started packing my hospital bag and it is so surreal to be doing this again. I think it is really different this time since I know what I am walking in to. I am getting very nervous but very excited!
• I just ate mashed potatoes for breakfast. They were delicious.
• Luke and I are off to music class! Hoping to post a belly picture by tomorrow!
  

{An Unexpected Day}

Today turned out quite different than what I expected. It's funny how life throws you a curve ball just as you are feeling comfortable with things.

I dropped Luke off at school and after a quick visit to see my sister and Molly, I headed to my regularly scheduled OB appointment. I got there about 5 minutes early and sat down but was quickly called back. I immediately thought "yay!" because typically I have to wait a bit and I had lunch plans with two friends and now I knew I was going to be able to get there with plenty of time to spare. I headed back and they took my blood pressure and weight and then I gave a urine sample. I then was brought to the examining room and the nurse checked the baby's heart rate. She looked puzzled as she tried to track it, but blamed it on the machine and left and said she would be back with a different doppler to get the heart rate. About a minute later, my doctor comes in with the doppler and she quickly says that the baby's heart rate is very high -- close to 200 (normal is 120 - 160). I laid there as she continues to track it and it remains steady at that number. At this point she says I need to head to the hospital for testing and observation and to go now.

I immediately rushed over to the hospital and they had me hooked up within about 5 minutes. Everything seemed great -- the baby's heart rate was back around 140 and no contractions. I laid there for quite some time and it seemed as though that this possibly was just a blip. Then the baby's heart rate started racing again, heading up to 190 and then 200. It maintained that for about 5 or 6 minutes and then went back to normal. Well, this happened several more times over the next hour. The nurse called my doctor and updated her and everything started going full-speed ahead.

At this point, I was signing admitting papers, changing into a hospital gown, given an IV, gave lots and lots of blood and was told that I would be having an ultrasound soon with a high-risk OB. At this point, I really started to get worried. Luckily when you are an OB patient and there is a problem with the baby, things happen very quickly. Within 20 or 30 minutes, I was up on the L&D floor getting an ultrasound with a doctor. The result?? They discovered the baby has a heart arryhthmia - both an irregular (extra or skip beats) heart beat and tachycardia (beating too fast) heart beat. My heart sunk.

But the more I learned from the doctor, the more comfortable I felt. He seemed concerned but very positive since there were not any other abnormalities. The good news is that most arryhthmias resolve themselves once the baby is born. I was discharged by late afternoon with strict orders to be back in his office within 5 to 7 days, to cut out all caffeine (which can aggrivate arryhthmias) and to montior the baby's movement. If there is any decrease in movement, I am supposed to go in to the doctor immediately. I will now see this high-risk OB to monitor the condition and hoping this is the last of surprises from this little guy.

Speaking of little guy....he is not so little. During the ultrasound, they measured him and he is measuring 3 weeks ahead. I am currently 33 weeks and 1 day and I was measuring closer to 36 weeks. They estimated him weighing 6 pounds and 3 ounces already which is very large for a baby at this gestational point. They seemed concerned about this too, but it will be something we will just continue to monitor as well.

This pregnancy has been very eventful. I am so ready for a few dull weeks with no news to report! Although I am nervous about being a mother of two, I am ready for this baby boy to be here so all of these worries can go away. I am ready to hold him in my arms and know in my heart he is ok. But for now, we are all doing well and hoping for a very boring Saturday!

{Halloween Exhaustion}

Wow...I am tired from the Halloween celebration we had yesterday! Luke was Mickey Mouse for Halloween this year -- although he never would put on the ears. Luckily I think you could kinda tell what he was by his shorts and yellow shoes. Oh well! Maybe we will have better luck with the next kiddo with this costume.

This year we met up with friends in the neighborhood for fajitas and drinks and then went trick-or-treating with the toddlers. I will let the following picture display how the night started out...

Luckily after this rough start, Luke perked up and got the hang of it and even enjoyed himself. A lollipp definitely helped change his mood :). He probably went to 20 or 25 houses (with the help of daddy) and did really well (thank goodness!).

I have to say our neighborhood celebration was incredible. Everyone was out on their porches, kids were everyone and it felt like a true community. There was a man on a tractor pulling hay bales for kids to jump on for a ride. There were haunted houses set up in front yards. Orange twinkle lights danced all over the streets. It was so fun and made me realize how fortunate to finally be in this neighborhood that we have wanting for so long.

After trick or treating, we headed to Luke's Papa and Hattie's house around 8:00 pm for their Halloween party. After about an hour, I was pooped (yes, I was -- not Luke!) and decided to call it a night. Luke went to bed around 9 or 9:15 pm and was covered in stickiness from the candy. He definitely had a bath this morning to wash it all off. Oh yes...candy. Luke loves it....can't you tell?!? I think it might become a problem...