xiii:

Pregnancy: Had an OB appointment on Friday and was told I need to get an ultrasound done because the baby has been measuring too small. She's seems to be growing just fine to me. I can feel her regularly and I know for a fact she's big enough to shove her feet into my lungs as she does it frequently. However, my OBGYN wants to make sure she is developing just fine so Monday I have to make an appointment with the u/s tech to get measurements and proper sonogram pictures. I know our last "official" ultrasound was in February and that then Rose was measuring just fine. I'm not really worried about it. I'm not exactly "big" by any standard except maybe to someone with Dwarfism. Lily was incredibly tall, and still is. Iris was pretty average and still seems to be. Rose seems to have gotten the short gene from me. Poor kid. LOL

Anyway, my due date is in 2 days. I'm still going to be trying for a vaginal birth after a cesarean. My OB (who had a successful experience with this on her second pregnancy and who is not much larger than I am) is very confident. Either way, they won't let me go any further than 42 weeks so I scheduled a cesarean for July 31 at 7 am. So if I haven't contacted anybody before then with "please welcome to the family..." you'll know when she'll be here.

Iris: My family has a lot of skin problems, from Eczema, sensitivity, and just very dry skin. I am thankful that I only have a mild form of this, but still have to use certain lotions and treatments in certain areas. Unfortunately, Iris seems to have inherited this unpleasant condition. She currently now has a staph infection on her scalp. Apparently her scalp had become irritated at one point and she kept scratching at it. It then escalated when she scratched so much she broke skin. Then when it started to scab over she continued to scratch until it got infected. I had thought that maybe she had hit her head on the coffee table (which she has done numerous times) and those were just a result of a mishap. So I had cleaned them and left them alone checking up on them daily. On the third day, Friday, J and I realized that they had doubled in size so I took her to the doctor that afternoon and was prescribed some penecillin to get rid of the infection. *sigh* This poor kid. No matter how well we take care of her skin something always seems to pop up and get infected.

She's also been having nightmares. She'll wake up in the middle of the night calling for me. At first I thought it was just her teeth since she's getting all her molars at the same time, but last night I had given her pain medication for her teeth and she still clung to me (she's a mama's girl). She wouldn't let go of me for well over an hour or she'd start screaming. I had to literally lay my 150lb pregnant self in this toddler bed with her until she fell asleep. Every like 5-10 minutes she would suddenly wake and slap me in the chest just to make sure I was still there. I couldn't leave until she was knocked out and rolled away from me.

Lily: We were doing great with night-time potty training. She had been waking up and telling me when she had to pee. She had only had a few accidents here and there. Then the accidents became more frequent, almost every other day. And now it's gotten to the point where it's every day again. I've reminded her to call me if she has to go, which she does just fine when she's awake. But when she's knocked out she doesn't even notice. I even wake her up after an accident and ask her if she wet herself and even though she's completely soaked in urine, she still says no and is surprised when I wake her up enough to realize she's wet. I don't know what else to do. I've tried waking her up and taking her to the bathroom in the middle of the night, but that obviously hasn't worked. I'm just so tired now to even begin to think of something else to try other than putting her back in trainers at night time and I don't want to. :(

xii: One Week+ To Go

I had an OB appointment yesterday. All is well. Rose is still vertex but I'm not doing any dilating or effacing yet. My doctor give me an herbal remedy (evening primrose oil) to help my body going to into labor naturally without getting chemically induced or using anything synthetic. I still scheduled a cesarean for July 31 just in case, though. We'll see what happens.

Today is the one week point on time left. I've been keeping busy with cleaning all the things for the girls so by the time Rose gets here, I think the only thing we will have to do is a sink full of dishes, though I've tried to keep those well under control. All the things for the baby are ready and now it's just a waiting game.

There isn't much to report. Everything with the girls is pretty much the same. Iris is her weird self, and Lily had a physical on Friday. She needed one for her pre-school application; all went well. She is in excellent condition, and has 20/20 vision. J and I were cracking up trying to keep up with Lily on the vision exam; yeah, we are so blind. ;)

I just want this baby to hurry up and get here already.

xi:

You see this baby? She is so cute! If you notice, she's cutting teeth, all at her own time since she's almost 2, but it seems like all at the same time. Her top right central incisor came in June 23 while her top left took an extra week and cut through Tuesday. However, she woke up screaming not too long ago telling me her teeth hurt because her top 1st molars just started cutting through now, AT THE SAME TIME. Poor kid. Thank goodness she can tell me these things, though.

So since I'm up, for more reasons than just Iris screaming, I decided to update. Now I've been having BH contractions for a while. Sunday the got so bad that everyone at church panicked, mostly Liz. So just to be on the safe side I went to the clinic where they confirmed what I already knew--I was indeed contracting, but I wasn't in labor. So after being monitored for a while they gave me some hardcore vicodin and sent me on my merry way. This little one is beating the crap out of me from the inside out. I seriously have bruises from her. *sigh*

I went to the OB today (or yesterday, actually) and all seems to be in order. I'm having normal pain, which is good. No pain whatsoever near my cesarean scar. :) My cervix hasn't dropped, but it has softened, and I'm only 1 cm dilated. Not closed, but not really open, either. Right now it's just a waiting game. Rose has been in vertex (head down) position for a while now and has begun to snuggle into my pelvis, so everyone is getting ready. :)

Other than being in a lot of pain everything and everyone is/are good. Lily is excited about having a new baby sister and Iris couldn't care less. LOL. I know I'm anxious and want her to hurry up, I can't wait to see her, and Justin is so calm about the whole thing I really don't know how he's feeling.

x. Baby Shower

My friend Liz from church threw me a baby shower at her house today with friends from the Kingdom Hall. The whole thing lasted 3 HOURS!! (5:30-8:30pm) I had a great time, I'm still stuffed with food, and the children were knocked out almost immediately afterward.

Here's the link to a couple of pictures I took at the shower: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=102600&id=502292446&l=8f97b8c9ed

And below are the videos. Enjoy!

ix: Full Term

On the pregnancy front, I am officially 36 weeks today. That makes me full term and I can go into labor any day now. I just wish my due date wasn't 4 weeks from now. I want her out!!

I've been having a lot of lower back pain, BH contractions, and getting walloped right in my girl parts. I figured it was because Rose is so low, even though she has her feet in my ribs. So to relieve some of the stress and pressure on my body I bought this awesome maternity belt. Granted, it's one of the most convoluted contraptions I own, but it is awesome and alleviates the pain in my back. I also bought the Tummy Sleeve so that I could wear my regular pants when all my maternity pants were dirty (some already don't fit).

Right now it's just the waiting game. I already have all the clothes and things ready for when she gets here, now all that needs to happen is for her to get here!

The girls are getting very big. Lily, who will be 3 and 6 months on Friday, is starting to learn Spanish. She remembers random letters and can count to 5 along with saying hello and goodbye. We're also working on the parts of the face. We still practice ASL so she won't forget, and she is starting to learn how to read. She's now to a point where she no longer needs her trainers at night. We've been Pull-Up free at nighttime for this entire month. She's only had three accidents since we started (one of them being yesterday) so we're really happy. Other than that, she's on summer vacation and just being silly and having a good time.

Iris will be 20 months on Friday. She is talking so much. A lot of times her sentences are mostly gibberish, but she is grasping the concept very much. She can sing her ABCs, remembers a couple of letters on sight (like O and Y), and can count to 3. She's also mean as hell when she's angry. Don't piss her off or she'll punch you in the eye and bite you. Right now I'm trying to get her to relieve her stress and anger in passive ways. Lily just throws a fit and whines and when she's done that's it. Iris though, she'll follow you, start screaming like someone is stabbing her, and throws things, particularly at you. I've at least got it down to where if they are tackling each other I can calm them down, get them to say sorry, hug, kiss, and let it go -- until the next fight, that is. Her teeth are still taking their sweet time. Right now she has what we call the Disney Goofy-Pete gap. Her top lateral incisors came in before her top central incisors, so she's got a "hi-yuk" kind of smile. One of her top central incisors seems to be trying to cut through right now, though.

Other than that, all is good. They've been hanging out and having a good time outside in our little pool. They are starting to golden and have cute little tan lines. I look day-glo beside them. ;)

Now I leave you with some videos.

viii: 43 Days To Go...

33w6d

Holy shit. Where has the time gone? I only have a month and a half left? Seriously, I knew I was close, but I didn't realize how close. I'm glad I'm almost done, though. My EVERYTHING hurts and I'm so heavy and tired. I hate feeling miserable, especially when there is so much to look forward to.

My friend Liz is throwing me a baby shower at the end of the month. It was a nice surprise when she told me her plan yesterday. When I was pregnant with Lily, I was the one who threw my own self a baby shower. With Iris, I didn't even think about one since I already had most of what I needed. Granted, I still have most of what I need (the joy of having nothing but girls) but it's still a nice thing to do all the same.

My allergies are no longer bugging me so much, and the only issue I'm having is trying to stay standing without toppling over or walking without passing out either from low blood pressure or overheating. I also have a hard time sleeping. I can't get comfortable at all, and since I'm nothing but baby, every time Rose moves it's like she's digging her feet and knees, trying to escape like Alien or something. Oh joy.

I want to go back to bed; I wish I could sleep more peacefully.

vii: Pictures

I know I haven't posted recent photos of the girls here, but if you have a Facebook profile and have me friended, then you've noticed I've been posting them there instead. :D

The most recent pictures can be found in the following album:
Family Photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=90133&id=502292446&l=8590a1e119



I'd post the videos, but unfortunately I'd have to post those one at a time instead of just all of them in one site. I'll figure something out soon.