Waiting for Baby!

Aside from growing a baby, we have been up to other things believe it or not! This is our 3rd year of homeschooling and we are loving it. Jonathan is in 1st grade and Aaron is in preschool. It can be a challenge juggling the two different grades and we're still working the bugs out, but both boys seem to be learning and enjoying it. We try and do history, science, and Bible together while keeping math and language arts separate, although both boys seem to hover when the other is learning, excited to see what's going on.

One of Aaron's favorite activities is to use pom pom magnets. I ran across the idea on one of the blogs I follow so I bought a cookie sheet from the dollar store as well as pom poms and magnetic tape...add in some printable worksheets, and he's having a blast. Here he is using the pom poms to practice one-to-one correspondence with the numbers 1-10.

He surprised me the other day and counted all the way to 30!

 Recently in history we were learning about Egypt, pharaohs, and pyramids. One of the suggested follow up activities was to make a sugar cube pyramid. After dinner one evening the boys and I created their own pyramids. They had so much fun counting out the cubes and building each layer of the pyramid.

Counting Sugar Cubes

"Ta-DA!" Aaron's finished pyramid

JJ's pyramid

 Jonathan has been loving math so far this year. We are using Saxon 1. We spent a couple weeks using apples.. cutting them in half (I did the cutting) to learn about fractions, removing and counting seeds for addition practice, and Jonathan drew pictures of the seed amounts so that we could great our own pictograph.

Close up of J's apple seed drawings

 Ok and some baby news... I saw my Dr. on Friday. He said I was completely effaced and dilated to almost 3cm, which was very exciting news! He said everything else looked great, but that we did have an issue to deal with. He is leaving town on Friday the 3rd and with my due date on Monday the 5th he suggested we think about inducing sometime next week so that he would be sure to deliver the baby. I talked with him at great length about the details of inducement.. yes I would be given pitocin (which I've had before), but that I wouldn't necessarily have to stay on the medication the entire labor. If they give it to me and things get rolling on their own (which he thinks is very likely since my body is already starting toward labor on its own) then they could take me off the pitocin. Even while I'm on the pitocin I can still be up and moving around which is very important to me. While I'm not crazy about the idea of being induced, especially after praying so hard to keep this kiddo in, I'm really really really not crazy about having another dr. deliver my baby. I really want Dr. Brunel to deliver because he knows and understands all my quirky issues. Kris and I talked and prayed about it and if Corban doesn't come out on his own, we'll move forward with the inducement. I will see Dr. Brunel again on Tuesday and we'll have to coordinate with the Birth Center to schedule the induction. I'm hoping we can do it on Thursday which is Nov 1st just to give Corban the most time in utero, and that is actually Kris' dad's birthday too. We may have to go with Wednesday the 31st, but I'm not crazy about having a baby on Halloween, although we don't celebrate it because of all the evil and nasty spookiness associated with it. Turns out Oct 31st is also Reformation Day, the day when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the doors of the Catholic church, thereby beginning the Reformation, which is highly important to our family's faith, so maybe the 31st wouldn't be so bad after all... Either way, Corban will be here in less than 5 days!!! EEEK!!!! 

Over the last couple days I've had what's likely to be the last burst of nesting energy! I made a gallon of yogurt, shredded 33 cups of chicken, cooked 2 pounds of pinto beans, made 27 breakfast burritos (I worked off this recipe here: http://www.momontimeout.com/2011/08/breakfast-burrito-bonanza.html, and cooked a double batch of pancakes (chocolate chip and blueberry). The chicken was certainly the deal of the week. Our local grocery store, IGA, had boneless, skinless chicken breasts for $1.48/lb!! I bought nearly 8lbs, which gave me 15 chicken breasts. I baked them for an hr or so and let them cool. Then I decided to try shredding them with my mixer. I'd seen the idea on a blog somewhere, although she used her fancy Kitchen Aid. I don't have a Kitchen Aid, but thought I'd see what my little hand mixer could do. It worked pretty well! It certainly saved me quite a bit of time (usually I shred chicken by hand). I ended up with 33 cups of shredded chicken which I packaged in 2 cups portions, so enough for 15 dinners, and a 1 cup baggie that is just enough for a pizza.

Shredding with my mixer

Close up of shredded chicken

15-2 cup portion, 1-1cup portion

27 breakfast burritos filled with cheese, scrambled eggs, potatoes, and sausage

7-2cup portions of cooked pinto beans

I know I will certainly be dragging once the baby is here so having easy and quick to eat items for breakfast and lunch will definitely come in handy. The house has also been swept, vacuumed, mopped, and dusted, windows cleaned etc....Oh and I washed Corban's bedding again today so that it will be nice and fresh for him. And I packed my hospital bag too.. guess everything is ready on this end! 

Come on out Corban!!!

38 weeks and the Bun is Still in the Oven!!

Today marks 38 weeks and Corban is still cookin'!!! I've been praying and praying to reach this far in the pregnancy, so thanks be to God!!! I'm not sure how much longer he will stay put though. I have been having contractions nearly all day long for the last couple days and lots of pelvic pressure... so we'll see what this week brings. I feel like he's dropped a little bit too... so maybe he's getting ready to come out and play soon!!

I don't have any new belly pics to mark this milestone, but here are a couple that Kris took around 36-37 weeks that I hadn't posted yet.

Love

Jonathan & Corban

Shadow fun

Aaron & Corban

Kisses for Corban

The bump!

 Thanks again for all your thoughts and prayers! I can't wait for Corban to meet you and feel the fullness of the Family of God!!

Guess I better get my hospital bag packed!

37 weeks!! Holding onto Baby while Losing my Mind!

Well folks, today marks 37 weeks!! It is the most pregnant I have ever been. PRAISE GOD!!! Aaron was born at 36 weeks and 6 days, so gestationally he would have been born yesterday.

I did have a dr. appt. last Friday and everything is looking great! My blood pressure is stable and I haven't been having any big contractions. Dr. Brunel said that he's encouraged and praying that I won't have any of the delivery complication like I had with J and A. He did suggest I go off the medication, but ultimately left the decision up to me. He thinks that I'm far enough along and with having had the steroid shots, odds are that Corban will come out perfectly healthy. However after having Aaron who was nearly 37 weeks (but no steroid shots) and he still had lung issues resulting in 2 weeks in the NICU, I'm really leery of going into labor now. I'm not taking the percardia every day and when I have taken it, it's been only one pill during the whole course of the day. So I'm opting to still use the medication if necessary, hoping to keep Corban in until I hit 38 weeks on next Monday, Oct 22nd.

This is Kris' "Look what I made!" face

Overall I think I'm feeling pretty good... I am slowing down though. I think I waddle more than I walk now, lol. My energy level is decent during the morning hours but by afternoon I am simply wiped out! Good sleep is hard to come by most nights due to heartburn and indigestion... I think I'm averaging about 4 hours per night. Oh and pregnancy brain is rearing its ugly head more and more. Just yesterday I asked Kris if he could take the clothes out of the dishwasher. He gave me a funny look. After he corrected my mistake he said that he really wouldn't have been surprised if I had put clothes in the dishwasher, my brain has been that scattered. Thankfully the clothes were in the washing machine! I pick up something and walk around with it, not remembering what my original intentions were... I walk into a room and forget what I came in for... things like that.

"Hello, is anyone in there?"

I look like I swallowed a basketball!

Oh no! Did my water break?!?!

Corban is still very active... and although my water never broke on its own during the previous two pregnancies, if ever it might happen, it would be with this baby. He is soooooo strong!

Love

We have some wonderful friends, Cameron & Helena Jukes who offered to take some pregnancy pictures for us. They turned out great and we all had so much fun!! All of the pictures in this post were taken by these talented people! We just love them and their family so much!!!

Loving my family!!

9 Months- 36 weeks!!!

Well here we are- 9 months with only 4 weeks to go!! After last week's labor scare, every day I wake up still pregnant is a HUGE blessing!! I may be the only pregnant woman in the world who would LOVE LOVE LOVE to still be pregnant on her due date!

36 weeks

I'm feeling pretty good. The main challenge right now is heartburn/indigestion. How I wish I could extend my torso by a few inches! It seems like no matter what I eat for dinner or when I eat it, I end up with heartburn and indigestion, making sleep elusive and uncomfortable. I had the same issues with both Jonathan's and Aaron's pregnancies so this is nothing new to me. During J's pregnancy I ate so many Tums that even today the smell of Wild Berry Tums makes my stomach churn! With Aaron I tried peppermint Tums and even took Pepto Bismal when it got really bad. This time around I started taking peppermint Tums and they worked ok... but then my dad told me about an article he read that said eating an apple would reduce heartburn and indigestion pain. I figured that an apple would be much better for me than Tums or Pepto so I gave it a try. I was surprised at how well it has been working! We usually eat dinner around 6pm and then I'll eat my apple slices (usually with some peanut butter for dipping) around 9 or 10pm. Oftentimes I still can't lay down to sleep when I go to bed around 11pm, so I sleep in a chair in our front room for a few hours, usually waking up sometime in the early morning and then I get in bed and sleep peacefully and painfree for the next few hours.

Having my apple snack- notice how it sits nicely on my "table"?

My first bed of the night

Baby Corban continues to be very very busy although these days I'm feeling less jabs and pokes and more rolling and twisting. He is still head down and has dropped a little, so we're definitely getting ready! I'm still on the percardia medication but I don't have to take it every day. According to my weekly email update, Baby is packing on an ounce a day, and is likely around 6 pounds right now and about 18 1/2 inches long.

36 weeks

My blood pressure is holding steady and everything is progressing as it should. I have my last appointment with the perinatologist in Modesto on Wednesday and continue to have NST's 2x a week and my weekly OB appt. We're still praying for 38 weeks, which is only 2 weeks from today!! EEK!! I'm feeling pretty prepared, the only thing really left to do is to pack our hospital bags, maybe I'll do that this weekend.

My fantastic husband took these wonderful pictures this weekend! We are having so much fun savoring this pregnancy!!

Proud Big Brothers!!

They can't wait to meet Corban!

My Wonderful Husband and Me!

What a Week: A Labor Scare

Last Friday (9/28) I went to my OB appt, everything was looking great. I even lost 1/2 pound!! Not sure how though, lol. Dr. said I was about 30% effaced (thinning of the cervix) but that I wasn't dilated at all. He also said that Chewy had dropped a little. I started having some contractions over the weekend, nothing regular and certainly not painful. Honestly when I was up, moving around, and busy I hardly noticed them. In the evenings however when I'd sit on the couch to hang out with Kris I'd have quite a few of them. Then by Tuesday I went in for my first NST of the week. After being on the monitors for a while the nurse said I was contracting every 3-5 minutes. She said that I was doing what they wished all their labor patients would do. At 35 weeks and 1 day that was not what I wanted to hear. I wasn't feeling most of the contractions and was surprised to hear that they were coming so often. After a call to the Dr. the nurse gave me a shot of tribulatline, a smooth muscle relaxer, in my upper arm. She warned me that I'd feel warm and that my heart would feel like it was racing. The shot did increase my heart rate and baby's heart rate too, but it knocked out the contractions. After about an hour later, I was released to go home. I had a few contractions on Wednesday, again nothing painful or regular. Then came Thursday...

Not my test strip, but mine looked like this one.

 Thursday morning the boys and I headed off to Community Bible Study. I was having quite a few contractions while driving and they were stronger than ones on previous days. While waiting for CBS to start I was sitting with Corissa and Tiffany and I shared with them that I was having contractions when I really shouldn't be. They prayed over me right then and there. Thanks gals!!  I continued having contractions during our Core Group discussion time, but I didn't have my watch to time them, so I just started tallying them up. By the end of Core Group (which is about 45 min long I think) I'd had 7, so about 6 min apart. Our leader Mary asked for prayer requests and Tiffany asked the group to pray for me because I was having contractions. I was so glad that she brought it up, because as soon as I started explaining about our previous preterm deliveries and the complications that Jonathan and Aaron had (underdeveloped lungs and 2 weeks in the NICU) I started crying, and how I was so scared that this baby would come too soon as well. Then I felt the amazing power of the Family of God- the gals in my group surrounded me and laid hands on me as Mary prayed for God's hand to keep Chewy safe and for His perfect peace no matter what the outcome. Thanks so much my dear Sisters in Christ! You are a huge encouragement to me! I kept having contractions through lecture and the whole drive home, about 6 min. apart. I told Kris about it when I got home and he immediately sent me to bed with a big glass of ice water. The contractions tapered off a bit, to about 10 min apart for a while, but then picked up again to about 5-6min apart. So we decided to call Dr. Brunel. He told us to go to the birth center to be checked out. My mom came to pick up the boys and we headed off to Sonora...

At that point I was 35 weeks and 3 days and so not ready to have this baby! We got checked in and I was happy to see that one of my favorite nurses, Lea was on duty and was assigned to me! She got me hooked up on the monitors and started tracking my contractions. Over the next hour or so they were about 5 min apart but I had a 10 min run or so where they were about every 1-1 1/2 min and they were pretty intense. She did a cervical exam and said I was about 50% effaced but still not dilated at all. I was amazed that after having an entire day of strong contractions that not much had changed from Tuesday (PRAISE GOD!)! Lea called Dr. Brunel to update him on what was going on. She came back and asked me what I wanted to do, did I want to let the contractions go and see what happened or did I want to try and get them to stop. I really liked that I was asked to give my input and I told her that I wanted to try and hang onto this baby for a couple more weeks. So she gave me another shot of tribulatline which did stop the contractions. Over the next hour or so I had 2 contractions. So around 8pm I was allowed to go home. I was also send home with a medication called percardia that helps stop contractions that I can take every 6hrs needed if I start contracting again. I took the pills as scheduled that evening and during the night and still didn't have any contractions. One of the side effects of the medication is that it lowers blood pressure. Since my blood pressure tends to run high, this side effect could actually be a huge benefit to me! I was not put on bed rest per se, but encouraged to rest as much as possible, so I'm trying my best to follow dr.'s orders.

I had my regular Dr. appt on Friday (10/5), and Dr. Brunel said everything is looking great and stable, even my blood pressure. He was glad to hear that the percardia was keeping the contractions away. So we're aiming to use the medication until I hit 38 weeks (which would be Oct 22nd) and then see what my body does on its own.

As of today I am 35weeks and 5 days, so 16 days until the 38 week mark. One thing that my sweet friend Corissa reminded me of on Thursday... she said she'd be praying and praying for me to reach 38 weeks, but realized that she was praying for the wrong thing, that instead she should be praying that Corban's lungs be ready, whenever he's delivered...because that was the real issue, the real need. I hadn't thought of that before, but she was so right! Thanks Corissa for sharing such wisdom!! So please come along side us and pray the Corban's lungs (and whole body really) would be completely mature regardless of his delivery date, and for peace during the waiting!

Preparing for Baby Chewy!!

I've had some high energy days over the last 2 weeks so I've tried to make the most of them and bake some yummies for the freezer. The problem is that I'm running out of room in my two freezers. Yes I am blessed to have two freezers- one under our refrigerator in the house and one that is a chest freezer (about 3 cubic feet I think) in the garage- both are packed full! We also have our landlord's frig in the garage but the frugal side of me just can't justify plugging it in only to use the freezer... so for now I'm just waiting until we cook some of the other food in the freezers and then I quickly fill up that space with something new! Here's what I've been creating recently:

English Muffin Bread: This stuff is amazing!! We really like it toasted with butter and honey. This recipe makes 4 loaves but I halved it so we got 2 good sized loaves, one was left out for eating and the other was sliced and went into the freezer.

Yum! These smelled soooo good right out of the oven!

All sliced up and ready to eat!

I also tried making my own bagels. The process was fairly easy but certainly time consuming... but I do have to say that it was worth it! They were so good!! These didn't even make it to the freezer, we had all 10 of them eaten within a few days! I got the recipe out of my bread machine cookbook and I'll be happy to share if you let me know.

Bagels rolled out

In the water bath

All done! Don't they look tasty!!

I can't tell you how much I LOVE my crockpot!!! I use it to make yogurt at least once every two weeks. I also like to use my crockpot to cook beans. We've really started stretching the amount of protein in each meal by adding beans. I buy dry pinto and black beans and after soaking them overnight, can cook 2 pounds at a time in my crock pot. They cook on low for most of the day, then once they're cooled I separate them out into 2 cup baggies and freeze them. Now they are ready to be tossed into anything- tacos, burritos, enchiladas, taquitos, etc. Another way we've been stretching protein is to change the cuts of meat we buy and how we prepare the meat. I used to buy boneless skinless chicken breasts exclusively, but a girlfriend (Thanks Allison) shared with me that they started baking and then shredding their chicken and they were able to use a lot less per meal. So now I buy chicken leg quarters or even whole chickens and either bake them in the oven or in the crockpot. Once the meat cools I shred it and separated it out into 2 cup portions. Now it's ready for all different kinds of dinners: tacos, fajitas, casseroles, etc. I love that I can take a whole chicken which would maybe feed us for two dinners if we just cut off chunks and ate them, once shredded I can usually get 5 meals worth of chicken off each bird!!!

Pretty chicken in my crock pot

5 meals of shredded chicken!!

The other night I was going to be making roasted potatoes as the side dish for dinner. Since I was going to be running the oven for at least 45 minutes I decided to put 10 whole (washed) potatoes on the other oven rack and let my oven do double duty for me! Dinner was delish and the whole potatoes cooled while we got the boys to bed. After they were down for the night I pulled out some cooked turkey bacon from the freezer (I like to cook a couple pounds at a time on my griddle- another favorite kitchen tool and freeze it for quick uses like this one), chopped some green onions, added some homemade yogurt (in place of sour cream), and shredded cheese and TA-DA in less than 20 minutes I had 20 twice baked potatoes!!! I wrapped each individually in plastic wrap and then put in a freezer bag. Now when we want to have them with dinner I just take out however many we need, let them thaw, bake for 20 min and then broil for a few min more (because I like the skins and tops crispy), and they are sooo yummy!!

2x baked potatoes! YUM!

I also threw these freezer granola bars together one night in less than 10 min! The boys had them the next day for snack and gave them rave reviews!! I didn't get any pictures of my granola bars, but they look just like this:

No bake Freezer Granola Bars

All my preparation for Corban has not revolved around food, lol. We opted to use cloth diapers for him and they arrived last week! I was so excited to get them all washed and ready to go!! We ordered from Sunbaby.com and I am very pleased with the quality and design of the diapers! I also scored a bunch of inserts/prefolds off of freecycle, so I think his bottom will be good and covered, lol. We were also gifted quite a few disposable diapers and we look forward to using those as well as we get the hang of this cloth diapering thing.

Lots of diapers!!

I also finally broke down and washed his clothes. We had a labor scare this week (more details in another post to follow I promise) and just in case this little man decides to follow the ways of his brothers and force his way into this world before I'm ready, I don't want to be caught unawares. It's been 4 years since I've seen the tiny newborn socks, onesies, and sleepers! Oh how I can't wait to see Corban wearing them!!!

As of today I am 35 weeks and 5 days. Just for reference Jonathan was born at 36weeks and 3 days and Aaron was born at 36 weeks and 6 days. So in a week and two days I will be the most pregnant that I have ever been!! YIPPEE!!!