Week 33 Day 4

Taken October 14, 2014

I started thinking about getting baby things out of the basement this week, didn't do it, but thought about it.

Your dad and I went to my cousin's wedding.

Week 30 Day 5

During week 30, Daddy and I went away for the weekend to Marietta while your big siblings stayed home with Grandma Barb. 

Taken September 24, 2014

Thankful

For the last couple Sunday's at chuch, Elinore has been going with her big brothers to junior church.  After services, my mom usually goes to collect the kids.  This week after the services they came to find me in the office with this picture Elinore made in junior church.

 

Sherri (the awesome lady who runs the junior church class) said to make sure they told me about the blue lines Elinore drew on the turkey.  Each line was for someone she was thankful for.  She named them all for Sherri.

 

And my mama heart explodes with excitement for my girl. 

 

Then I asked Elinore if I was one of those people she was thankful for, and she promptly told me no.

 

We can't win them all I suppose!

Week 39 Day 5 Appointment

Keith, Elinore and I went to my appointment this morning to check on baby.  We waited 90 minutes before the nurse came for us this morning.  In that time Elinore made a friend with a 3 year old little girl in the waiting room and they played together for quite some time. 

We finally saw the nurse and went back where we sat and waited for about another 30 minutes before a doctor came to see us.  It wasn't the one we were scheduled with, she was busy at the hospital delivering babies, but we saw a doctor finally!

Not much has changed since last week.  I'm 2-3 cm dilated and still 80%.  She said she could feel baby's head moving around in there though. 

The heart sounded good.  I'd gained just under 40 lbs. to date and everything else was good. 

She said they'd wait until 41 weeks to induce.  I go back next Wednesday if there's no baby before then.  If I make it to the appointment on Wednesday they're going to talk about scheduling an induction then. 

Snow Day

Last Monday we had out first snow day of the year.  It seems crazy we had our first snow day before Thanksgiving, but it happened. 

Elinore was SO excited to go play in the snow.  She went out with her brothers for awhile; I sat at the window watching closing before joining them for a little bit.  She's a little trooper and stayed out there as long as Caden did, about 45 minutes to an hour before coming in.  Caleb really likes the snow, stayed out longer and went out again that afternoon. 

Elinore would have liked to have gone out again.  She asked frequently after that, even when it was super cold.  Keith took her out one night after work the next day for about 30 mintues before insisting she come in.  She's a fan of the snow!

Elinore is ready to go oustide!

Caden helped her down the backporch steps into the yard.  He also helped her up everytime she fell.  She couldn't managed to get herself back up once she'd fall down in the snow gear!

Caden taught her to eat snow.  Thought I don't know if she's old enough to watch out for the colored snow yet.  We watch closely!

It poop on me!

Elinore currently has a fascination with talking about her animals, toys and pictures in books, etc. and how they poop on her. 

Just last night, she was looking at the ornaments on the Christmas tree and found a stuffed elephant ornament from her first Christmas.  She poked it a few times, pooked it's butt and said "it poop on me!  It poop on my hand; it poop on my finger!"

Then she giggles.

And I giggle, but wonder where the heck did she come up with all this? 

Just yesterday morning she was reading a book during Sunday School with Erma when she said one of the animals poop on her!  (Because that isn't embarassing for a mom at all!) 

I'm Ellie!

Elinore sure does know her name!  She's insistent on telling you that if she thinks you're referring to her as anything else.  If I say "you're silly," she says no "I'm Ellie!"  Or if I say "you're wild!" She says "No, I'm Ellie!"  She doesn't let you forget it!

39 Week Appointment

This morning Elinore and I went to my regularly scheduled doctor appointment.  She was quite excited to go. 

The appointment went well.  There was no wait today, in part because we were 10 minutes late arriving.  Oh well, I'm used to being late!

The baby's heart rate was around 140bpm.

She commented at first that I'd had a large weight gain this week until we realized I was wearing my coat and winter gear still when I was weighed, she didn't care about my weight gain anymore.

She checked my cervix today, and I'm 2 cm dilated, 80% effaced and the baby is in a station 2 position.  She said this was all a good place and the baby could come any time now.  In fact, her words were that I could walk out the door now and have my water break.  She reminded me when to call in or come in with contractions.   

I have another appointment scheduled for Wednesday if there's no baby before then. 

Elinore's Babies

Elinore is a big fan of playing with her babies.  When I was home with her one day, she had be line them all up on the couch with her and all their blankets.  This lasted for for maybe five minutes before I heard them crashing to the floor! 

Sharing Lunch

Mid October I had a Friday off on vacation.  Elinore and I spent the day together, mostly running errands which consisted of fixing out car.  We picked up some McDonald's for lunch to eat while we were at the dealership waiting on our recall to be fixed.  The dealership had a nice little kids table with some coloring pages and a crayon.  The chairs had little animals cut into it.  Elinore wasn't interested in eating her lunch at first, until we decided to share it with the animals.  She shared her fries with the frog and other animals. 

Leaf Pick-up

The kids all had a great time playing in the leaves all morning the day we finished prepping outside the house for winter.  And they sure slept well that night! 

I even took a turn with the leaf blower, and it wasn't so bad.  I blew some of the leaves while Keith got the storm windows in and a few others things done around outside.  It was such a productive day. 

Jack-o-Lanterns

We carved pumpkins the night before Halloween this year.  The kids had great ideas they were excited about it, and each reflected them well!  The kids are sitting behind their creations!

Rides!

One of the kids new favorite activities is to have Elinore lay down on a blanket and have her brothers pull her around the living room and kitchen floor.  They all get a real kick out of it!

38 Week Appointment

This morning Elinore and I went in for my 38 week dr. appointment.  We had to wait about an hour to see the doctor because they'd had a small emergency that morning that sat them behind.  I used to be so much more annoyed by that kind of thing, but I've learned patience, and it wasn't so bad.  I think I learned patience after I was the patient that caused a back-up one day.  It suddenly makes things more clear. 

Anyway, Elinore charmed the waiting room for half and hour or so of that time, and then she turned her charm to the nurse when I was moved back to another room.  She didn't let the doctor not get her a sticker either.  She was insistent and not very patient about it. 

Baby's heart rate varied between the 130s to 160s while we listened.  When we finished it was about 145 bpm.  I also had her double check that baby was still head down, which it was!I knew I didn't really need to worry about it, but a sleepless Wednesday night had me worried about it for sometime, so I just needed some reassurance there! 

She said next week they'll check my cervix again and see if anything is happening.  

Hospitality

For well over a year now, I've been following She Reads Truth.  It's an online, women run, daily devotional.  It's flexible in that it's in my email, in my RSS feed reader and now on my app on my phone too.  They have an online community converastion daily about the devotional too.  I've not really participated there, but now with the new app, I am reading in there more than I ever have too!

Anyway, the plan we finished over the weekend was a devotional plan about Hospitailty, and it was very moving. 

In our modern culture today, hospitality seems to be about hosting parties and dinners and celebrating with friends, but from a Biblical perspective, hospitailtiy is about opening your heart to everyone and loving your neighbor as yourself.  It's not easy, and it's doesn't come naturally, at least not to me.  But it is so important to consider when trying to live our your life like Christ. 

After I finished the study, I've gone and ordered their paper study pack to go with it because it's something I can see myself revisiting and sharing.  It has had me thinking a lot!

One day's devotion espeically has stuck with me.  The theme of which was to allow myself to be interrupted. 

http://shereadstruth.com/

Sister Now!

Keith and I installed the car seat for the new baby about a week ago.  Now, everytime we get in the car, Elinore tells us her new sister is going to sit there!

This morning I was adjusting the mirror for us to see baby from the front seat, and Elinore asked for baby sister there NOW! 

As sweet as that was, I told her she'd have to wait hopefully a couple more weeks!

She's been talking a lot about waiting for a baby sister now though. 

Monotone

When Elinore gets deteremined to have or get something from one of us, she transforms her voice from the nice little girl voice she has to a lower monotone voice.  It is usually saying something like "get me napkin" on repeat.  Or "get me something"  on repeat.  We have to remind her to use her manners!  It's hard not to giggle sometimes though at the lower, monotone sentences she spills out there when she's determeined to get something.  Even her brothers giggle sometimes at it. 

36 Week Appointment

Last week I had an appointment with the doctor at 36 weeks. 

I had gained 30 pounds at that point, which I think is getting close to more than I gained with Elinore, and more than I was expecting too.  Although that combined with the time change over the weekend and I started a little bit more working out again (at least for two days now anyway)!

The doctor checked, and baby is no longer breech!  Sometime in the last 2 weeks, baby flipped.  I had thought baby had flipped, but I was confident, and I needed that confirmation!  She also thought so, but we did confirm with an ultrasound, so we got to see baby's little head in the down position and baby's little legs crossed!  We avoid certain areas so we still don't know what we're having, which is just the way we want it!

Baby's heartrate was 160bpm, which is higher than it's normally been.  I asked about that and the doctor said that it was probably due to the feeling around she'd done to check for head down position. 

Before we confirmed the baby was turned, we learned all about what we could have done at the hospital to manually turn the baby by one of the doctors.  I think we'd have gone that route if baby was still breech, but luckily we don't have to!  She said there was little chance baby would turn again.  Also good news!

She checked and said I might be at 1 cm already, but hadn't progressed much and that it was normal at this point in the pregnancy to be there since I've had a baby before. 

We're down to weekly appointments now, so we'll see how they keep going! 

T-minus 3.5 weeks, plus or minus!

I went through the baby clothes over the weekend and started laundry so the little one has some clean clothes!  I have the contained in Elinore's closet with the boy clothes and girl clothes we have too, so I can wash those up once the baby's here and we know what it is!  But, either way, most of the clothes are very summer-y.  After all, Elinore was a July baby!  So we may have a need there, but Christmas will be right around the corner once baby's here, so I'm sure we'll receive at least a few gender specific items for the holidays! 

We also installed the car seat base in the van for the little one.  I had to put a replacement part on Elinore's over the weekend, which I did while it was out since she had been with my mom over night anyway.  So I got them both out.  The seat itself has some parts being washed currently, but I'll assemble it soon to put in the van too!

Jokes

About a week or so I ago I had a very proud mommy moment.

Elinore told her first knock knock joke.

I have a love of corny, cheesy, kid friendly jokes.  And there are many knock knock jokes that fall into that category!

Her joke went like this:

Elinore: Knock Knock

Me: Who's there?

Elinore: Daddy

Me: Daddy who?

Elinore: Daddy's here!

She's repeated it many more times, and it's always Daddy.  She's shortened them though, we know longer go through the daddy who? step.  It's just: knock knock, who's there?, Daddy's here!

Keith wants to know why he's always the butt of Elinore's jokes!

The boys love it though and they're trying to get her to get back to the full length knock knock joke version! 

The boys current favorite joke: Why didn't the skeleton cross the road? 

Because he didn't have any guts!