Weekly Baby Update...

Hoping this is the last one of these types of updates. . .

Went to the OB today. I am now at a three, almost completely thinned, and very low. Still having tons of irregular contractions and on & off cramping. I am ready to be done. I have started having trouble sleeping just because I can't get comfortable. We three are walking in the turkey trot tomorrow, so maybe that will get things started for this little turkey! Happy Thanksgiving!

Baby Update

I visited my OB yesterday and am now dialated to a two, thinning, and the baby is very low. She doesn't think that she'll have to induce me or that I'll make it to my due date. I haven't had anymore episodes of contractaions that are regular. Even though I already had the swine flu, I wasn't tested for it so I got the swine flu shot yesterday. Luke has been running a fever since Tuesday and we got him started on antibiotics yesterday. The doctor thinks it is just a sinus infection. (Thank goodness it is not the flu!!) My mom came over on Wednesday to help us get the house closer to ready. Once I finish the laundry today (hopefully) all we will have left to do is fixing our new office/guestroom and straightening up the garage--which took a major hit with all this cleaning out/unpacking/rearranging we've been doing. Will's room is 95% ready to go. I have to work all weekend. We'll see if history repeats itself--at this exact point in my first pregnancy, I worked Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (three in a row) and went into labor Sunday night/Monday morning. I am working three in a row--maybe we'll have a baby on Monday or Tuesday!

Tricks and Treats

Tricks:

Not too surprised, but the contractions turned out to be false labor. I never went to the hospital--just stayed at home waiting for them to get painful. After about 13 hours of regular contractions, they dwindled off. I am back to having irregular contractions. I have been having irregular contractions since I was about 17 weeks along, and since I was about 33 weeks or so they have been as often as once an hour--but not regularly spaced and not painful. That means they are just Braxton-Hicks contractions and not real labor. I worked on Friday night and about 2am I started having some painful contractions but they were not regular so they don't qualify as real either. They lasted until I went to bed around 8am. I think I was having those just from the irritation of being at work. I remember last time with Luke, I had this really painful spot on the biggest part of my belly that would actually be sore after working. It is from where my belly hits the edge of the beds at work. This is where all my contractions were starting from and radiating out. Once I stopped banging my belly on the beds at work my contractions stopped. I don't know when Mr. Will is going to make his appearance, but I don't think we'll make it another four weeks. One thing the false labor did for us was get our butts in gear and get this house ready for a baby. Although we aren't quite there yet we made some giant progress this weekend. My mom is coming over on Wednesday to help me finish up and I'll have Thursday to work on it too before I have to go back to work.

Treats:

I love, love, love the state fair. I love everything about it--the corny dogs, the stinky animals, the midway filled with hooligan teenagers. I have only missed it a few times in my life and that was during college when I lived in Waco. This was Luke's third state fair, and I think he had the most fun so far. We spent around an hour in the petting zoo--which Luke loved up until the goat ate his feed cup. This resulted in lots of tears and shortly thereafter we left that petting zoo. Luke got to have his own Fletcher's corny dog. He didn't care too much for the corny part, I think it was too hard for him to eat. He picked the breading off and was happy to eat the hot dog inside. Like any good American kid, hot dogs are one of his favorite foods.

Luke really enjoyed Halloween! I think this is the first year he is truly going to "get" celebrations and holidays. He's real into parties right now. We had a bunch of birthday parties followed by Halloween parties followed by birthday parties. I know he has the association down that birthday party = cake. Kid loves cake. I was trying to get a picture of his Halloween shirt that he wore to his Halloween party at school but he was too busy eating his crackers. I think it's a cute picture anyway.

Trick or Treating:

The actual night of Halloween was great for Luke. I was still trying to fully recover from my flu (but not contagious, just tired and weakly). Luke loved putting on his costume, loved carrying his pumpkin bucket, loved trick-or-treating, but most of all--loved the kids trick-or-treating at our house. In a crafty mood this year, I made his costume. Not the work of the worlds greatest seamstress, but I think it turned out okay for a two year old. I decided to spare him this year and not force him to wear anything goofy on his head. If you remember, his first Halloween he was a pea pod and last year a penguin. Baseball player it is! He already wears his baseball caps willingly. (Ignore the messy playroom in the background. I am sick and weakly, remember?)

Making goofy faces for my camera.

Nope, he's not looking for the ball. He is checking out the fairies in the front yard across the street and BEGGING to go over there. They were out having their pics taken too. Luke was fascinated that they had a pink pumpkin bucket and a purple pumpkin bucket and was just dying to go check out those pumpkins. (Or the fairies, not really sure which one.)

This is him telling me "I want to go over there!!" to check out those fairies pumpkins.

Practicing for later.

His agent took him out for some door to door action.

After they had enough, the boys came home and helped me hand out candy. Luke loved the kids ringing the doorbell and parked himself right by the door until we shut it down. Later that night he woke up crying and I went to his room. After he calmed down all he could talk about was the kids at our door. I guess he was dreaming about them. Man, if he liked Halloween so much, what is he going to think about Christmas??

Part II & update

Part II (in response to Part I of an older post of things I am just now getting around to doing)


These are our pics from our trip to San Antonio at the end of August, just before school started. Luke was excited and ready to go!!








Of all the things the town of San Antonion has to offer, all Luke wanted to do was ride a bus. There were lots around the riverwalk and it nearly brought him to tears to see one--thats how badly he wanted to ride it. So Mommy & Daddy finally gave in and we compromised on a street trolley. There were just less vagrants loitering around the street trolleys as it seemed to center around the riverwalk and hit up more touristy locales. Just look how much he enjoyed it!





And, lucky kid, the trolley took us right to the San Anotonio Children's Museum, where the first thing you see when you walk in is a bus/street trolley! This was his favorite part of the whole museum and he kept running back to the front to hop on.

Even Mommy took a turn driving the bus.

We were able to get him interested in a few other things. The museum had so much to offer and was a good fit for Luke's age. Luke & Daddy took a turn driving the bull dozer. They got to scoop up gravel and dump it in a bucket, but not without their hard hats!

We were only in town for two nights, but it was long enough! Of course we had to do a boat ride on the riverwalk. Luke had sat so still on the bus I thought he would do great on the boat too, so I convinced Gene that we should do a boat tour instead of just a water taxi ride. Oh boy, was I wrong. Maybe it was because it was late and nearing Luke's bedtime or maybe the boat just wasn't as exciting as the bus, but getting him to sit still (which according to the tour guide was an important rule) was impossible and kind of made the second half of the tour miserable. The first part went okay though. This pic was taken before everything went south. . .

The last day we just had a leisurely breakfast followed by swimming in the hotel pool before it was time to load up and head back to our lives. It was time to start thinking about school starting and, as you have seen, Luke was in desperate need of a haircut. This was the first time I ever cried over his hair being cut. I don't know why--maybe the pregnancy hormones but I welled up and had to fight off tears. It has never been this long before and I liked to play with it.

This is before:
(This is his "cheese"-y smile)



And here is after. He always looks older to me with his short hair.

And now is the first day of school--Luke wasn't sad about going to school so much as he was sad about having his picture taken.


Now for the update part. I saw the Doctor on Thursday and I am just beginning to dialate--fingertip. My due date is still a month away and the house is in a bit of chaos. I am needing the time to get ready. After all our illnesses around here I am just now getting the energy back to start working on it. But God always has his own plan--I have been contracting all day. Starting around 9am they have been 3-6 minutes apart all day. They are not painful and most only last about 30 sec so I haven't gone to the hospital yet. We'll keep you updated!