More PIcs

No time to post much, but wanted to share some new pics:

Hugs Always!
Dawn

Giggles

Ahh, nothing like a new baby & experiencing all their milestones! Saturday the 25th our baby girl gave her first genuine giggle! It was so cute. I wish I could have recorded that precious sound to hear again & again! Of course since then she has not done it again, but I'm sure she will soon!

She also made a fascinating discovery last night, her fingers & hands! What amazing things these are that are attached to her! It's fun watching her learn these new things. She can roll on her side with little effort and can get most the way rolled over. It won't be long before she's up and running! She likes to pull herself forward to try & sit up in my lap, usually she's laying across my lap in a reclined position. But I have to be careful since she can throw her weight forward and roll off! And she can get on her knees & try to scoot on her belly. Amazing little girl!

That's all for now. She happens to be calling for my attention so I will try to update again soon! Between her, the boys & work I haven't more than a few moments to spare online!

New Pics!

Sorry I haven't been able to update as much as I'd like to, but hey, new baby = no free time! LOL She's almost 2 months old already & is close to 12 pounds! Very healthy & very sweet! She's been a bit shy with her smiles, but when she gives them they melt your heart! She also coos & gurgles at us, which is adorable! It's funny though, she's not shy about wailing for food, diaper change or to be picked up. But she's super quiet when she's 'talking' to you! LOL

Here's a new slide of pics, I hope you like them! Been thinking of uploading pics to snapfish or something for the fam to be able to print since I am so busy & can't get it together. Since I went back to work 3 weeks ago (evening shift) I've found I am even more scatter brained! It's the evening shift, but I still find myself out of time with too much to do by the time I have to leave! So I hope I can post more often, but I'll do my best!

Welcome Baby!!

Here is our little Autumn. Born 8-20 9lb 11oz and 20" long. Sorry it took so long to get pics posted, but she always has other plans for me! LOL

Comments Welcome!! Thanks for looking!

Updated Update!

I got a call from the Dr's office yesterday & we have been bumped up another day. So in 3-5 days we will have our little one! I say 3 because on Monday she might be provoked out on her own...and if not, well then 5 days when we get induced!

There's still a possibility of a c-section, which I'd rather not do. It depends on the width of baby's shoulders. Wish us luck! My nerves are wracked & I am on pins and needles!!

Baby update!

We had our ultrasound today to double check baby's measurements and she is big!! She already weighs 8lb 4 oz and according to her head & leg measurements is at least a week ahead. But her belly (which also equals her shoulders, the wider the harder to pass through at birth) is measuring at 42 weeks!!! YIKES! We also got 3D type pics of her sweet little chubby face & she's so cute! She has my nose LOL

So after discussing with my OB and comparing dates (mine vs the ultrasound vs her size, for more info see previous posts) we settled on a new induction date of the 21st of August. And as if the dates weren't enough, I'm already dilated to 2 cm & effaced at 75%, which is real progress since we couldn't even get a cervix check last week LOL!!

That means we will have her about a week earlier than what we originally planned for. Now I'm totally excited & anxious!! I go back in on the 18th to get checked and confirm the induction date. My OB said she will strip the membranes (ouch!!) and see if we can't provoke her out on her own. As I have been saying the last few weeks it seems like she's trying to get out on her own as it is! She's in position and seems ready to go. I'll update more as I learn more!

Hugs & love to all that actually read this! Thanks for caring!

Stay tuned

Today's OB appointment went well. Baby is head down where she needs to be and is doing well. My Dr said she will most likely be about 9-10 pounds. She is still measuring 2 weeks larger, but that doesn't mean she will be a really huge baby. I have been scheduled for another ultrasound next week to confirm her size and then I'll see my OB again after that. We'll discuss our options from there.

My Dr advised me she would rather not induce any earlier than what we have set up because she wants to be sure baby is not underdeveloped with her lungs etc. I totally understand and would rather be safe than sorry. She also told me that we do have the option of a c-section if she is larger than what my boys were. My main concern is her safety as well as my own. I know larger babies are born all the time. But if she's wide she could get stuck and that scares the shit out of me. But thinking back both my 9 pounders (9lb 4oz & 9lb 9oz) were natural and not wide. It was the little one that got stuck! LOL Mainly because he rolled face up and got his head stuck on my pubic bone. FUN! My Dr was able to flip him over thankfully and we avoided the c that time.

I'll know more next week when we get our ultrasound and discuss my concerns and our options again with my Dr. So, until then, Stay Tuned!

21 Days left....maybe less...

It's morning, and here I sit in my enormous glory! It's been a pretty good pregnancy. Nothing to truly complain about, well, aside from my fat swollen feet that are sore. But otherwise I've been really blessed to be overall healthy. My thyroid has managed to stay under control with medication, my blood sugar has remained perfect & my anemia is easily controlled by a supplement of iron a day on top of my prenatals. When I stop and think about the other women out there who struggle with pregnancy complications I say a little prayer for them and thank God at the same time that I'm not one of them.

Baby has surely gotten bigger, and is still as active as ever. It's amusing when people ask me when I'm due to have her, a lot of them say 'any day now huh?'. To which I smile and reply, 'hopefully!'. And many people seem to think it's cute to inform me that she hasn't dropped, or so they think. The way I carry it doesn't look that way. I am always contracting my abs to hold her up, and myself actually. So it makes my bulge look like it's riding higher than it is. Once I relax and press down on the top of my belly that's all my skin, fat and bloat it becomes very obvious how low she really is. As my hips & pelvis, they'll groan and tell you it's true!!

Tomorrow is my next OB appointment. As I posted previously I had an ultrasound to measure her to see how big she really is. Tomorrow I should get the results. The odd thing is when I have tests run the nurse always calls me to give me the results. This is the first time she hasn't. Either she forgot, was out sick or it's something the Dr needs to discuss with me. Whatever it is, I can't wait till tomorrow to find out. Once I do I will of course update my 2 readers of this blog! :o)

Here's what I've been tolling around in my little brain since this big baby issue came up. Is she really big or am I further along? Let's examine the facts: I got the positive result right after Christmas. Then got it confirmed via ultrasound on the 8th of January. Because of my hectic crazy work schedule during the holidays I wasn't has good about keeping track of dates, so when they asked the famous question, 'last cycle?' my reply, in November, probably mid Nov, around the 15th. I know for a fact it wasn't Thanksgiving week or after that. According to my 1st US my estimated due date with my dates was 8/21/08, but the machines estimate was 9/3/08. A big difference. During the fetal survey at about 4 months (per their dates) it said 9/1/08, but it did jump around a lot depending on what she was measuring on the baby. Seems they always take the later dates! But here's where it gets interesting. At that US, they took 3D type images of the baby. You could very easily see her face, her features, her ears, finger, you name it. I didn't think much about it. But my Dr said it was amazing they could get such a good shot of her face because babies at that stage are too little and not developed enough to get that good of an image of the face. At the time I thought it was just dumb luck. Now....well...not so sure. So the last ultrasound she got measured up again. This time was not so easy since she's so much bigger! We did get to see her foot on her forehead! And the new estimated due date per the machine was 8/22/08. One day later than what I had said in the beginning.

I don't know. So I'll find out what my Dr has to say tomorrow about it all and negotiate things with her. I don't feel that she will stay in there too much longer. It could be wishful thinking or intuition. Even my mother said the same thing. We both had the same week in mind as well, which is weird because we hadn't really compared notes much and we both had the same thought! Just wish us luck as usual and I'll post an update this week!!

Hugs & love to all! God Bless!!

Swell

It seems my feet have a mind of their own. Not that I'm a stranger to edema during the final weeks of pregnancy, but this is a bit different that pregnancies past. Some would say it's the heat, others would say it's from standing on them too long. I say, who knows?

I try to stay off my feet as much as possible, but as we all know that's not always possible with 3 kids. Granted, this week my oldest is staying with a relative so it's down to 2. But even so, they are the youngins and they require a lot more of me that the oldest! I have laundry and cleaning I refuse to keep putting off. I want to make sure everything is in order for our new baby considering I haven't any idea when she's really going to put in an appearance. After I made my last post I got to thinking and it's really not unlikely that we could technically be off a few weeks on our due date. And it's not uncommon for babies to come a few weeks earlier. When they're done cooking they exit the oven right? LOL So I may be in for surprise this time. None of the boys came early, they were all pretty much on their due dates. But she's gotta be different you know!

So yeah, I've got some pretty considerable swelling in my feet and legs. Most of it's on my right though. I'm not sure if that has to do with the fact that my hip and back bother me the most on that side or what. I figure something is getting pinched and it's just making it worse. So I get to stretch a lot, well, as much as I can considering I also cannot lift my leg up very much. I trip quite a bit because of it. And I can't walk very fast nor waddle quickly!! :o) I keep telling myself it's just a few more weeks and it will be done. I can't wait! I'm so excited to meet her face to face, not just foot to ribs or headbutt to bladder LOL!! Just a few more weeks.....

So anyway, I am not able to sit here as much as I would like to so that means I may not update as much as I want to. Though I have been spending a lot of time on Ebay these days. I am on the hunt for school clothes for the oldest. So far I won 3 pairs of jeans and 2 really nice shirts for him. I figure why pay a small fortune on all brand new things when I can get more at a lower price and they are gently used! Luckily he has quite a few shirts that are still in his size that are good enough for school wear. If he was in private school I wouldn't have to worry so much about that stuff, just a uniform! And tuition....yuck. It would be nice, but not in the budget at this time. I am also needing to tour a few preschools with the middle boy so he can get signed up. Needs to be affordable & quality at the same time. First stop will be the preschool my oldest attended for 2 years. Then off to a few more that I found and know a few people that sent their kids to.

It just would be nice if my husband could get his truck fixed so I had mine. But I'm thankful my vehicle can substitute for his work truck. At least he can go to work & haul his trailer full of tools! My old car would certainly not work for him!! But I sure miss the freedom of going to the store when I want to and not waiting for him to get off work. But, I can deal with it....for now!!

OK, my foot is sore & so is my back, hips and bottom from sitting here too long so I must sign off and find a more cushier landing to perch on. Translation, the recliner! Cushy & I can get my legs up. But not before I stretch and move around to get the blood flowing better!! Take care & I'll be back with a new post once I have new info!

Too big? Or not too big??

So it's been a while since I updated, but things have been busy around here & I've been so tired! Still working on cleaning up the house, which is a job entirely on it's own. Sorting, stacking, cleaning & taking a break because I can't stay on my feet for very long. I've got some things organized in the nursery closet and most of her clothes are dealt with. I still need to take apart her new car seat & wash the pad etc. It smells like dye and is really rough feeling. Not at all appropriate for a baby! At least not yet. Here's what it looks like:

Daddy helped me pick it out for her. We had looked at a few from Evenflo but I didn't like the quality, seemed cheap and flimsy to me. But I did pay about $30 more for this seat, and the quality is noticeable. It was on sale so I saved $10! What a deal! :o)

I also bought this diaper bag. It was part of the purchases I made with my gift cards, as well as the car seat!


Of course it's pink, what'd you expect? :o) She has a lot of pink, I know! But I've also got some lavender in there. I need more, but that can come later.

Here's a slide show of the crib set I bought her. It's the first girlie purchase I made, and I made it right after we found out we were expecting a little girl!

I got it from the local Craigslist, and what a deal I got on it! It retails for about $65 more than I paid too. The bonus sheet is cute, it has a neat design on it that matches the edging of the crib blanket and the underside of it. It's really delicate and the pic doesn't really show the detail too well. AS you can tell these pics are stock, I still haven't reinstalled my digital photo software since the reformat and I'm not sure when I will finally get around to it! But the stock pics give you an idea at least. The bedding is much more vibrant in color than what these show, but again, you get the point! Not only does it have butterflies (duh) it also has ladybugs and dragonflies. It's so soft & so cute! Some of the decorations are satin & some are fuzzy. Perfect for baby!

Still in need of bassinet sheets, by my mother in law has offered to make some. She picked out some really cute fabric too! Nice and soft, just perfect for baby. All the stuff I found online was either over priced or really poor quality. I didn't want to put her on scratchy and thin nasty sheets! Yuck!

So as for big....it turns out that for the last 3 appointments with my OB we've been measuring bigger than our due date. So after yesterday's visit I was scheduled for an ultrasound this morning to measure the baby's size. Bright and early at 7:30 am we were there to find out if my measurements were due to a larger baby or an excessive amount of amniotic fluid. I of course was rooting for the over flowing swimming pool! So I got up on the table and the tech started poking around and checking on baby. It's amazing how much bigger she is now! It's also amazing how much harder it is to decipher the images on the screen at this stage. I could make out the head and the abdomen, and when she put her hands up or moved her feet I could tell what those were too. But otherwise I couldn't tell. She showed us a good view of her rump too! That's my girl I tell ya! It turns out baby is bigger than her weeks and could possibly already be over 6 pounds....which doesn't sound bad. That is until you do the math and add up what her potential birth weight could be! Here's how it breaks down (this is my calculations, I have to check back with the ob on the 7th of August): Baby is being induced in 5 weeks, at this stage babies tend to gain about a pound a week, so potentially she could be 11-12 pounds.....YIKES! Not so thrilled about this one. Not just because she will be big, but the potential complications that could arise during birth. She could get stuck! I actually read up on this, and she could tear poor mommy up too!! OUCH!! I read about macrosomia. It's when the baby actually grows bigger than 9lbs 15oz. There's some known causes like gestational diabetes, gaining too much weight (which could be part to blame) and going past the due date.

Regardless, I'm a bit overwhelmed by it all. I'm just going to sit tight till my next OB appointment and see what she has to say about this. I'll update with the newest baby information after I know more. I'm just hoping that no matter what the outcome my daughter will be born without complications. Wish us luck!

Sunday Bloody Sunday

So this weekend seemed to be going along ok, and the boys were even getting along quite well. I had managed to get the 2 younger ones to sit down for a haircut. Usually my 2 year old screams and throws a fit so much so that we can't take him anywhere to get a haircut and I end up doing it. My 4 year old Dustin will pretty much sit there and deal with it. So will the oldest, Brendan, 8. But he'll talk your ear off and move around a bit too much at times too!

We had started to get dinner rolling, me trying to help & hubby pretty much doing it all :o) I have had upper back and neck problems this week which has made it impossible to do some things and very painful to do others. Hubby has been a real prince by helping me catch up on the laundry & chores I couldn't get to. I managed to clean both bathrooms and made my lower back scream. Hence my inability to be the chef last night.

The kids had gone out back to play, and I kept checking out the window to see what they were up to. I couldn't see them, and figured they were just out of sight playing around the corner. I decided I would sit for a bit and then go out & start the sprinkler to water and check on them. Not even a minute after I sat down I heard my oldest son screaming bloody murder!! I thought something was wrong with him by the way he was screaming and crying. He's quite a dramatic child and tends to blow things way out of proportion though so it was difficult to gauge what was wrong until I heard him saying that Dustin was hurt bad as I was trying to run (more like hobble) into the kitchen. Devin(hubby) was already out the door and over to Dustin and scooped him up and came running in the house shouting 'we're going to the hospital'.

I had just managed to get to the door when he came in (that's how slow 8 months preggo can move, damn pelvis & hip problems!!). I saw he was bleeding so I grabbed a kitchen towel and plopped down on the floor with Dustin. Poor baby was crying and visibly upset. I couldn't see what had happened except for his left leg was bleeding below the knee. I wrapped the towel around his wound and tied it off to stop the bleeding, which really wasn't gushing that badly. As I'm doing this Hubby is frantically trying to get the other 2 kids in the car and gather all our cell phones, my purse etc and is obviously freaking out. So I got up to Dustin's nose and calmly told him he was going to be ok, that we were going to the emergency room at the hospital and explained that they would clean the owie, give him a shot to make it feel better and probably stitch it back together. Other kids may have become more upset over this. Dustin isn't most kids. He calmed down and finally sat down with me so I could hold the towel better. After a few minutes I pulled the towel off to inspect the damage and found a 2-3 inch gash that was about an inch deep. I'm sure a lot of mother's would have lost it at that point but not me. Instead I got a closer look to see just how deep it went. Devin feared it was to the bone. I assured him it was only the tissue and nothing else.

Once he got everyone and everything in the car Devin came back to us asking what I needed. I asked him for a non-stick first aid pad and something to hold it on. He came back with the pad & dug out the ace bandage for me. I wrapped his cut up tight and had daddy carry him to the car while I got my shoes on and grabbed the tums. After all, I am 8 months pregnant with no dinner in my belly! The snack I had just churned up acid, the reflux...anyway you get the point! So we raced across town to the ER & had my mother in law meet us there to take the other 2 boys with her. They wouldn't have sat there and dealt with this and we knew it.

They got Dustin back pretty quick considering it was really busy. The room had a little Tv so he got to sit back & watch cartoons. The Nurse Practitioner came in and inspected the wound. She was pleased with how well we wrapped it up. She then put a numbing gel solution into it and covered it with gauze. She asked my husband if he was ok and if he needed anything because he was terribly pale. That scared me a bit. I told him to speak up if he's feeling shitty as I couldn't peel him off the floor if he passed out! He said he was ok....but man was he pale! About 45 minutes to and hour later she came back and cleaned up the wound a bit. She had another nurse sit on the bed and lean over Dustin so he couldn't watch what was going on. She injected the local anesthetic, which even with the numbing gel proved to be painful at times and he only cried once for a brief moment. Once that was over he was ok. She left the room for about 10-20 minutes (slammed with patients, poor woman!) and came back to clean it out. She showed my son the syringe that would spray the saline solution into the owie & wash it out. He thought this was pretty funny actually! He got to watch her clean it out and he got to look at the owie better since it wasn't full of gauze, blood or anything else. Typical boy, he wasn't too worried about it, though it was quite a big gash and had opened up and out with swelling, making it look much worse that it was. She confirmed it was only tissue damage and nothing more. That seemed to calm daddy down. He had taken a walk to call grandma and check on the boys prior to this and I think that helped too. He ended up with 8 stitches in total. We finally rolled out of the ER at 10:30 last night. We picked up the boys at grandma's house, got Mc'Donalds for dinner per Dustin's request and headed home. The boys didn't get to bed till almost midnight. We didn't get to sleep until almost 1 am. By the time we got everything cleaned up from our dinner prep and the drive through dinner it was late...ugh

Anyway, today he is a lot better and other than the occasional comment about his sore leg and his retelling of events at the ER you can't tell anythings wrong with him. He'll limp off and on when it gets achy. But daddy ran to the store this morning and got him some Tylenol and new large band aid pads to redress his wound. Tomorrow is he pediatrician appointment for a wound check. They'll probably prescribe more antibiotics for him since he did get hurt on a dirty rusty old wheel barrow. Note to self: Get rid of the wheel barrow!!

I'm back!

Well, I was officially back on Monday, but it took a few more days to get everything reinstalled. Who knew a simple reformat would turn into a 3 day fiasco?!

Originally I attempted to reformat and ran into several problems. One, the installer from XP wanted to create a dual booting Operating System....2 XP's!! Uh no thanks. Then it kept crashing! So after a few attempts I finally called tech support (father-in-law) and picked his brain the next morning. He had several great ideas. He also confirmed what I feared as well. If I did a total drive format it would erase my other partitions on the drive. Which would have been a tragedy!! I have all my back up documents, files, PSP goodies, photos, you name it & it was there on one of those partitions! So contrary to what the forums on the web stated, you cannot delete the original partitions (the C: drive) and not lose the info on your partitions. Something to do with the fact that the file format information for the additional partitions is stored within the files of the C: partition. If that goes, so does the information about the partitions & they go POOF! Not an option.

I finally gave up and handed the phone to my husband. He proceeded to fill in the blanks and it turned out that my hard drive was causing the issue. Not that there is anything wrong. It's a RAID HD, and because of that we were supposed to load the drivers for it at the beginning of set up. Since I hadn't been doing that, well, it was redirecting to another drive, causing problems & crashes! OOPS! Once that got solved we proceeded to install XP. You would think that was the end of this saga, but sadly not!

Once we got the OS loaded I noticed things were not loading properly, so I finally got fed up with the errors & proceeded to redo the OS again. When we were going through the process we noticed the drive was missing a considerable chunk of space. By the 3rd go around (I know, w3rd times a charm!) we realized the OS was just installing multiple copies on top of each other & not erasing the original files, which is not what I wanted! I finally managed to get the drive formatted and cleared (but not total aniliation that would have screwed up my partitions) and got a clean install. Since then it's been a lot better & all of my programs have installed with no errors, crashes or headaches!

So there it is, that's the reformat saga. I got my Incredimail back on, it took a few hours because of all the files that I needed to import (letters, animaations etc) and finally loaded PSP. I actually made some new stats, which says a lot since I haven't really been making things lately. 3 stats in the last month....and nothing for over 9 months I think. Personal life and work had taken over and I just didn't have the energy yanno??

Anyway, I'll post the header images for your viewing pleasure. Maybe I'll add the IMF for you IM users that would like them. Comments are welcome! That is, if anyone actually reads this! LOL

Reformatting

It's that time. The time where I back up every file I can and reformat the computer. Yes it's been over a year, and slowly but surely my system has been driving me crazy! It's slow, it's quirky and it causes thing to hang forever or just plain crash. This is one of the things I hate most to do because it seems like just when you have everything set up just the way you want it you have to start over. Thanks Microsoft. Thanks Bill!! We really appreciate it! But sadly, soon enough, I'll be having to leave XP behind and move on the the bloated Vista OS that will most certainly look pretty, but cause conflicts and probably piss me off big time! UGH According to Microsoft's XP page:

Free help updating with Windows SP3
Free unlimited installation and compatibility support is available for Windows XP, but only for Windows XP SP3, until April 14, 2009. Chat and e-mail support is available only in the United States and Canada.

So that means no more updates and no more support past then. How nice of them!! They also are still selling this OS for a hefty price just so new owners can lose the support and new updates after April 14th. Tax time. The one time of the year everyone can afford to shell out extra cash right? Well maybe some but certainly not us. UGH!!

So, on to better topics. Yesterday's 4th festivities were pretty casual. We spent the afternoon with the kids over at the in-laws. We got to spend time with extended family and our boys got to go swimming and play with their cousins. It was a good time. Since my feet were killing me (thanks edema) and I was just plain tired (lack of sleep thanks to the good ol' hip and back issues) I pretty much stayed in the house watching TV. I somehow got on A&E and watched a lot of paranormal shows. Interesting and creepy!! Then we headed home at about 5:30.

Since the smoke had cleared out of the valley the kids were anxious to head out and play. So that gave me some peace and quiet for a bit. It wasn't too hot, only mid 80's. Which is nice. That way I can go out and do things. That is, if I felt up to it! By 8:00 PM the kids were tucked into bed and by 9:00 pm so was I!! Nope, we didn't delight in the excitement of fireworks. But I did get woken several times by idiots here in the neighborhood lighting them off all night. I say idiots for several reasons. Mainly they are illegal here in city limits. Not to mention how dry everything is and they could easily start a fire. But I also hate loud sounds. Especially the ones that sound like gun fire. UGH!!

But hey, it's a new day, the smoke is not too bad again and the kids are still sleeping. Hubby went to work and I have the house to myself for the meantime. Wait, cancel that. My 4 year old just got up...darn! :o) Oh well, at least he'll lay on the couch for a bit & watch Noggin. I guess this is my cue to start breakfast soon.

Have a good day! I'll be back with more once the reformat is done...and all my stuff is reloaded...and I'll hopefully get the pics up I have been promising!!

It's Morning......

UGH! Flashbacks of morning sickness are no fun at all!! Top it off with lack of sleep because my hips, pelvis & back keep me tossing and turning every hour and that's one exhausted ill mommy!! Part of the sick stomach is attributed to the fact they changed up my meds. I had to get my thyroid meds increased and start taking SlowFe Iron. I found out last week that I am anemic again. Oh boy what fun! That explains the lack of energy, aside from the poor sleep I've been getting!

On a more cheerful note, I spent yesterday afternoon washing up the rest of the baby clothes, bibs, blankets and sheets. I usually don't care too much for doing laundry, especially since I practically do a load or two daily. But this was different. It was like I got to do something special....man I need to get my hormones under control! At least I didn't burst into tears or anything. Seems to be happening a lot these days. More on that later. Anyway, so I sorted out all her clothes and have the newborn sizes up to 6 months hung up and ready for use. The rest I am putting away in the dresser until it's time to use them. Some of them are still hung up, but on another pole. I've been trying to find more of these really cute pink baby hangers I purchased at Wal*Mart by Delta. Funny thing is they are hard to find. I managed to buy the last 2 packs last week.....and my mother reported her Wal*Mart Super Center is out of pink hangers! Hopefully they will restock them. Not sure if they will since Wal*Mart has a habit of putting out specialty items and never bringing them back when they all sell out. But such is life right?

My newest mission, aside from the coming home outfit which I found one, just need to pop into Kohls & see if they have a newborn or 0-3 mo size (will update later with pic), is to locate bassinet sheets. Sounds easy right? I thought so too! Turns out no two bassinet brands/styles are alike. I have this really cute bassinet from Kolcraft. It's oval shaped which pretty much rules out most sheets in stores. It's also a funky size, 15x29, which rules out a lot more on the web. I found something I might try, but they are not oval. If all else fails I will either make my own or enlist the help of my super sewing star mom-in-law to make some. She's pretty good at those things, though she might tell you differently! Since baby Autumn is going to be here next month, I think I better get busy on working the sheets out!!

As for the tears, of course this time in a pregnancy can prove to be exciting, stressful and exhausting!! Not to mention the over flowing hormones cause tissue grabbing moments when you least expect it! I read an article in one of my pregnancy mags that it's normal as long as you don't wallow in sorrow all the time. So far so good! I just need to be sure to be prepared with tissues if I want to watch movies that make me cry. Like Jersey Girl. I watched it last night, only remembering how cute it was last time I saw it a few years ago. Ha! It's sad too!! Seeing that teeny tiny baby with no mommy made me cry like a newborn! In fact, just seeing her made me tearful. I just can't wait for my teeny tiny one to be here. It's the end of next month and boy am I getting anxious. Only 56 days to go...sounds like a long time. But in baby speak it's only a few moments and before I know it the big day will be here and I'll be dumbfounded wondering where all the time has gone....at least I know I'll be prepared. I expect to have all the baby preparation done this month so I can at least try to relax and take it easy next month. Wish me luck on that! I'm sure I'll still be hustling around here and clearing clutter out....man there's a lot of shit in this house that needs to go away! HAHA!!

Take care & enjoy your day!

It's Hot....and smokey!

All's well on the baby front today. But thanks to the Northern California fires we are catching a lot of smoke here in the valley. I just hope they get them under control soon! But there's like 1000 fires burning throughout the state so this might be the norm for a bit!

On to a happier topic, baby shopping! Nothing cheers me up more these days than that! As I've mentioned previously, I still had gift cards to burn and a list of things to buy. So back to Wal*Mart! This time I chose to cruise the website because the items left on my list were sold exclusively online. Oh sure, they say "available in most stores", but according to the store locator the items were not sold anywhere within a 100 mile radius! Thankfully they offer free shipping to the store so I don't have to shell out the extra funds to UPS.

My first agenda was to locate a new infant car seat. The one we were planning on using, come to find out, was set to expire soon. As unthrilling as that was, it was a good thing we found that out before we used it. So I chose the new Graco Snugride in Betsey. It's a cute pattern with pinks and solid chocolate browns and perfect for a little princess! Then on to storage solutions. I found these really cute collapsible storage cubes in pink and lavender. Which is great, since that's the nursery colors! Since I pretty much filled the rest of the list on my last trip I splurged the remaining balance on a new toddler bed set for my 2 year old. He has a major thing for Thomas the train, and Wal*Mart had a great deal on a set for him. All in all, it was a great shopping 'trip' to the website!

My next adventure? Finding the perfect outfit for her to come home in. Sounds easy right? Not so much! Since she's my first girl and my first summer baby I'm totally unsure about what to buy her! Once I figure it out I'll be sure to update!

Big Day!

Phew! I spent most the day running around to what seemed like everywhere! I got up early this morning and decided that I needed to get some shopping done. I had promised not to shop for the baby until after the shower. Well, it's after the shower, and with gift card in hand I set out to Wal*Mart!

Since my oldest son is visiting my grandmother this week it was me and the 2 younger boys. I thought a nice treat for them would be breakfast at McDonalds. So we headed over there after I put some fuel in my starving pig of a vehicle. They were such good boys at breakfast! And since Mc'D's is located right across the parking lot from Wal*Mart, it made for a convenient stop as well!!

Once we finished up we headed over to the mega retailer and first stop was something for mom, after all, I need things too! Then on to the baby section! Woo hoo!! I was set on finding the perfect pink diaper bag that I had seen there a month ago. Since it was sold out online I hoped they hadn't sold out locally too. Lucky for me, they hadn't! Then it was on to other baby needs like bottles (BPA Free of course) and a new bottle brush. On the next aisle I collected a new baby bathing set of wash and lotion in a refreshing cucumber melon scent. Yummy!! I also wrangled up some much wanted (and needed) baby pink hangers that were hidden on the bottom shelf in a box of the last aisle...sneaky aren't they? I had a few sets and wanted more, but when I returned last time to find more they were all gone! ACK!

So, on my way out of the section I found a cute 2 pack of pink pants and the sweetest pink sleeper with butterflies all over it! I had to have it, of course! Then on to the front of the store to locate the cucumber melon baby powder. For some odd reason our Wal*Mart doesn't exactly keep the baby items in one location. The powder was on the toothpaste aisle by the pharmacy! Crazy, right? Then out the door. I was pretty tired after hauling all that stuff around with the boys. After I dropped all this off at the house, sorted the wash and settled down to watch some TV my husband called and asked me to bring him some lunch. It was ok with me since he had a check I needed to pick up and deposit. Win win! After lunch & the bank it was off to the grocery store. I figured I wasn't tired enough yet and also needed to pull my back out again....fun right? But it's all for a good cause. Because today is our wedding anniversary and I wanted to make him a nice dinner. Even if it means a night on the heating pad! It's rough getting around with a huge belly and a weak back! I swear, once she's born, and I'm healed up enough, I'm going back to my Pilates regimen!!

Well, if I get off my lazy arse I’ll take some pics of the cute stuff and post them for you all to see. Once you see them, you’ll understand just how obsessed with Pink I’ve become! I am trying to remember there are other colors, like lavender and so on. But since I’ve been in the blue with the boys the last 8 ½ years I want pink!

Some older pics

Baby Update

Ok, so I know I haven't really been updating as much as I should, or rather, ever. But hey, now's as good a time as any to start right?

So, to bring us all up to date, we are pregnant with our 4th child, a girl, who is due September 3rd 2008. She has 3 older brothers waiting to meet her as well as the entire family! Since she's the only girl, she should a) be totally spoiled b) be tough considering she has 3 boys to deal with and c) quite possibly rule this house.

Recently at my prenatal check up the topic of my tubal ligation came up. Exciting right? Well, from my point of view, it is! I mean, I love my kids, and I love having a large family. I just felt that 4 were plenty for us and our family will be complete. So, anyway, I asked my Doctor if we could have it done before I left the hospital. She agreed to do it on the condition that we schedule an induction on a specific date. That way the surgery could be scheduled the next day. I was totally agreeable (and nervous) to this idea. So this means her actual birth date will be sooner than the 3rd of September, it will actually be August 27th. One week early. I am both excited and anxious! That's one less week I have to prepare! I know she could show up earlier on her own, though I hope not! So that's put some additional pressure on me to accomplish all the tasks I have planned before she arrives.

Since I have 3 boys you can imagine all the new items that were needed. I could dress her all in blue boy clothes, but I felt that was not a choice! I want all Pink! And Purple! And Frilly!! I mean, this is my only daughter!! I have 3 sons; I want to keep it that way! So I've been sorting out all the boy items that my youngest son no longer uses and have been trying to prepare it for being sold. There's more than I had realized and it's become quite a large and tiring task! I have most of the clothes sorted out, but that equals to about 10 diaper boxes stuffed full! And a few of my laundry baskets too!! I was totally shocked when I saw the amount of things to sort and clean. I had no idea we had so much baby boy stuff. But I have to clear it out, there's no longer a use for it all. I also need that space for all her new stuff.

Speaking of new stuff, we had our baby shower last weekend. It was a lot of fun! It's so nice to be surrounded by people that care so much about you that they want to celebrate the new addition of your family and give her presents that they took the time to carefully pick out. She has a lot of fantastic clothes to add to my already growing collection, blankets, and decorations and so on. So, ok, it's not like I didn't have anything before the shower. I'm a woman who likes to be prepared, and as soon as I found out we were expecting a little girl I went shopping! I hit the sale racks, the second hand children’s clothing store, eBay and craigslist. A good friend of mine donated a huge lot of her daughter’s clothes too. And of course the grandmother's have exercised their shopping skills too! It's been a fun and exciting journey that will be even more amazing once she arrives. I know how wonderful it was to bring my sons home from the hospital, and I know this will be just as great.

Ok, so now that I've composed a novel for my first post in a long time, I better sign off. That way I have more to add later!

Thanks for reading!