No baby yet.

And that's about all that is going through my mind lately, aside from the thought "I can't believe we're almost a week overdue AGAIN." I think I'm just going to start lying about due dates in the future, and just PLAN to be 1.5-2 (or more?!) weeks late.

I took Rebecca for a walk today at one of the local nature parks, and what would normally take me about 20 minutes or so to walk, took us over an hour, because every time we saw water, we had to stop to look for 'tuts' (turtles). We spent about 5 minutes watching a bunch of turtles basking on a platform, and also found a baby turtle about the size of a half dollar... too far out of our reach for us to do anything beyond look at it's little nose poke out of the water. Anyway, I guess at least it exercised her legs, and I got some exercise as well. She ate quite well when we got home, and has already gone to sleep... hopefully for the night, so I guess it tired her out as well.

I revamped our menu plan for the summer, and have actually planned breakfast, lunch, and snacks, not just dinners now. I took a lot of ideas from the book Feed Me I'm Yours, and thus far Rebecca doesn't seem to have any issues with almost any recipes I've offered from that book! In fact, she seems to LOVE most anything from it. The only things she hasn't loved have been the tuna and chicken salad ideas, which is fine. She's been eating more and a wider variety for the last couple of weeks now, so I'm happy, even if she isn't eating *everything* I serve. :)

Finally, my house is feeling like it is a disaster, even though I'm sure it's not quite that bad... and my mother is arriving in 11 days. At the rate we're going it seems she may arrive before the baby does, lol! But, hopefully we'll have a baby, a relatively tidy house, and some organization going on around here before she gets here.

Some News

Well, many who read this will already know, but for those who don't... we're expecting baby #2 at the beginning of June. :) The official due date is June 3, but as everyone knows, babies almost never arrive on time, they're almost always early or late! I'm currently about 16.5 weeks along. For any who may wonder, no, I'm not showing at all yet, much to the disgust of my friend who is almost exactly 2 months ahead of me in her pregnancy, hehe! I almost think I look smaller than I did with Rebecca at this point, which is almost concerning me at the moment! However, the heartbeat sounded good when we heard it (150bpm), so we assume all is well, especially since all regular stuff has been normal so far. I've got a little 'ticker' to the right, now, that tracks fetal development as well as gestational age. :)

I haven't taken many (read: any) pictures recently (ie, the last 7-10 or so days) because first Rebecca was down with a mild case of Roseola, and we're pretty sure we ended up with it as well, and then we all got the flu. What a lovely time of year to get that! We're just starting to get back to 'normal', though I'm still not feeling very normal right now, as every time I think I'm starting to feel normal again I end up spending the rest of the day laying down feeling miserable. I think Rebecca hasn't fully recovered yet either, as she has taken 1-2 naps every day, even though she fought it, for the last three days. I guess that's what happens when you get hit by two viruses in a row! I do have more pictures from November that I ought to post sometime, and some pictures from about two weeks ago that I need to get off my camera, but haven't had the energy to put out that effort in the last week or so!

This week is Christmas week, so things are somewhat quiet starting on Thursday. Justin's off for Thursday and Friday, so we get a four day weekend. :) Next week he has Friday off, and I think he normally gets off early on New Year's Eve, so that will make for a nice three day weekend as well. :) Anyway, I must be off, but figured I should put something on here. :)

How very odd...

So, when we moved in here, there was one baby on this end of the street, and she was a beautiful healthy little specimen of a miniature human... or "cute parasite" as my sister likes to refer to them. Anyway, little did we know that by moving in here, we would become one of three pregnant couples at this end of the street. There are now four babies on the street all born within 12 months of each other (actually, I think the official span is 8 months).

The first of the three expected babies went a week over, and they attempted to induce, didn't work, they tried again a week later, still didn't work, in the end, Caylee finally arrived nearly a month late (and yes, it was by induction... C-section, actually). She weighed in just fine, but she has a very oddly shaped head, and to be honest, my baby, who is two months younger seems to be much more alert and appears to be somewhat more interested in the things going on around her.

The second baby, our Rebecca, arrived about two months after Caylee, and almost two weeks late, weighed in at much less than they wanted a two week late baby to weigh, and was much shorter than they wanted as well. Now, she's perfectly healthy, but she did have a "low" birth weight. Oh, and she was induced because the waters broke.

The third baby, Danielle, was another two week late baby, and she only weighed 4.5lbs, which is what Rebecca quite likely could have weighed had we not started packing on the protein so she would gain some good weight at the end there. Danielle is a very cute, but small two month old now... though she's almost the same size as Rebecca, but like Rebecca, people ask if she is/was a premie regularly. And yet again, she was induced.

Isn't it a little odd that three out of four babies born within a six month span of each other would be late, all three require induction, and two of those three late babies be small for gestational age? I'm starting to wonder if I should be concerned about our water or something... :-S

Baby Birds + Pregnancy = Entertainment at times!

There are five baby birds, four of which have now started flying, one of which is just being a wimp and poking its head out regularly, but not actually bothering to *fly* yet. Maybe today that will happen. Anyway, one of them is four weeks old as of yesterday, the other four are three weeks old as of this weekend. Twig (grey all over), the oldest one, is relatively tame, and considering I've had nearly a week of being able to hold him (I think it's a male, at least), that's not a big surprise. The only problem with him is that he likes to take off flying across the room. He's pretty easy to catch again though, so that's okay... I can deal with it.

The other three fledglings are a little more difficult to deal with. They haven't been held as much, mainly because they only just emerged from the nest a couple of days ago, so they're still getting used to the idea that my hand actually is something safe to be sitting in. So, anyway, Pine and Spruce (both are grey with white wing tips) are pretty much okay with being held, so long as you keep an eye on them. They will fly to whatever cover they can discover if you don't pay pretty close attention though! Pine chose to land on our overhead fan yesterday morning... now that was fun getting him down from!

Birch (white wings with grey back) is another story, however, and the story of yesterday. I had got "him" out, because he was the only fledgling out of the nest at the time, and I like to at least try to get the birds out for five or so minutes each a few times a day. I figure if I have them out enough times they will eventually be tame enough for any one to get them, let alone for me to get them. Birch was happily sitting in my hand, until for some reason he decided to attempt his horrible landing and perching skills (he hasn't figured those out just yet!) and attempt to land on one of the lamps in the living room. That was fine, except that he didn't quite make the landing, and ended up down behind the lamp instead.

Okay, so I managed to get him out, and we were contentedly sitting on the couch together, and what does he do? Takes off flying again! But this time he couldn't be good enough to fly to somewhere easy to access! This time it was his intention to fly behind the couch! So, after he disappeared down the back of the couch, I pulled it out from the wall, and looked down on the floor expecting him to be there, and didn't see him. Then I realized, he was "perched" on one of the white flowers (part of the print of the couch) at the bottom of the couch. Now, keep in mind that I'm over 40 weeks pregnant now, and yet need to catch this baby bird before it hurts itself. Right... now how in the world am I supposed to bend over the couch and actually reach him? I don't know! While I may not look big, babies do not exactly allow you to bend at the waist regardless of your size at this point in the game! Hips yes, waist no. Anyway, thankfully he decided to hop off the couch, onto the floor behind, and scoot himself along until he ended up under the lamp at the end of the couch. But, would he be good enough to be within arm's reach?? NO! So, I had to pull everything out except the lamp in order to grab the poor bird who was now entirely flustered over being forced to get out from behind his newest hiding place!

I finally managed to catch him, and thought it might be best to put him back in his cage... and when I put him in, he wouldn't get off my finger. So, I had to stand there waiting for nearly five minutes while he decided to actually hop onto the stick in the cage. I don't think I saw him out of the nest for the next hour or so... but he seems to have recuperated just fine now, so I don't think he was *too* traumatized. :-)

My due date has come and gone...

...and there is still no baby. Maybe this weekend? Maybe next weekend? We'll see. Regardless, no, there is no baby here... yet. Actually, tonight probably would NOT be a good night to be having the baby, as we were just informed that there is going to be a party across the road this evening (to which we are welcome to come... food, drinks... ie, alcohol...). There wouldn't be any parking down at this end!

We're going to try importing my car today so we can *hopefully* get VA license plates on it also today! We'll see. If we can get all that done today we'll be doing well, seeing as it is going to be at least 1 before we even manage to get to a Homeland Security office at this point! I'm kind of tempted to get one of those lovely homeschooling license plates that they have here. I like the "Kids First" ones because of the hand prints, but I don't like the message behind the phrase, because while kids are important, they definitely don't necessarily "come first". *sigh* Oh, and while we're getting things for my car, we should probably be getting a "baby on board" sign, hehe. We still haven't got one of those!

The first of our five baby birds took flight yesterday. It flew 20 feet (yes, it was out of the cage). It's very cute, about 2 inches long from the tip of its beak to the tip of its tail. It's quite friendly thus far as well. We're going to try to keep it this tame, as right now it is very easy to catch, and it would be nice to have hand-tame baby birds around! The other babies should start taking flight next weekend.

Anyway, we're about to head off, Justin's had a man here taking a look at his old red truck. We're looking into the possibility of a trade, whether straight trade or trade with minimal expense to us involved. Even if they would knock $1,000 off the price of one of the cars we saw, we'd be able to *probably* swing it. The car *I* like is $1,400, so if we could pay $400 for the car it would be good, I think. :-)

Four Days??

Well, that's what the counter thingy says. Me? I say the baby can just keep staying in there for a while yet. It's kind of funny, everyone around us is asking if there's any sign the baby is coming soon, if we're all ready, and basically displaying their anxiousness for this little one to be born, and I'm perfectly happy for it to not be born for another week or two. Maybe even three weeks! Yes, we're all ready for it (as much as one can be!), but signs the baby is coming soon? Umm... like... the head being engaged? That'd be about it. And, the really *big* drop of the baby only happened a little over a week ago, and with first pregnancies it often is two or three weeks before labour happens from that drop, so I'm not expecting much this week, lol. I do need to go looking for some Evening Primerose Oil capsule thingies, as I was told to start taking some of those every day, so perhaps I will do that today when I take some things to the post office.

While we wait for the baby to come, I have things I can get done. Like cleaning up the frog for my parents to stay in. It needs the bathroom to be thoroughly cleaned, as I haven't had the chance to get to that one since moving in. I also need to clean our main bathroom, as it hasn't been done in a little while (not nearly so scary as the frog bathroom though!). And organizing our bedroom so the baby will actually fit (LOL). Dishes and laundry of course are necessities, and currently I have a load of laundry in the dryer, and will have a load in the washer quite shortly... and then another load for the washer, that third load is going out onto the line though (it's waaayyy too nice today to use the dryer for all of the laundry!!). I've got winter wardrobes to put into the closet and summer wardrobes to put away. It's finally starting to feel halfway like fall in the mornings, but by mid day it is still quite warm, so I'm a little hesitant to change the clothing over already... but if I don't, it will never happen!

I should probably also figure out what to make for supper... I was thinking beans and rice last night, but I never got a chance to soak the beans last night, so that might have to wait until tomorrow. I ended up falling asleep really early. Of course, considering last night was the most sleep I've had in a night for seven days, somehow I doubt it was a bad thing for me to be asleep! Justin wasn't overly appreciative of the 7:15 wake up, but that is also better than the times I've been waking him in the past week! We've had wake up times ranging from 4:30 to 7:00 all last week.

We cleaned all of the kids' stuff out of the frog and our house yesterday, because they are no longer coming here each day. Their mother and grandparents decided to put them in the Christian school down the road instead. We'll probably still find a few things of theirs as we go along for a few weeks (in fact, I KNOW there are still a few things of theirs here!), but the majority is gone. Now I just have to tidy up the few manipulatives and teaching aids that belonged to me, and the frog will be completely cleaned of school stuff, and I will be able to organize it to be a guest room. We even happened to find frog face cloths, towels, and a bath/shower mat to put into the frog bathroom! The only annoying thing about them, to me, at least, is the butterflies on the facecloths are not the same colour as the butterflies on the bath towels, but I don't suppose that is really much of a problem... right? Now we just have to find a shower curtain, soap dish, and toothbrush holder! Of course, seeing as it has taken us... two months? to find the towels, it could very well take us that long again to find the other things. :-)

The baby birds are still thriving. We're expecting to see at least the oldest one attempt using its wings sometime this week. It's nearly the size of its 'parents' so that should mean it is about time to fly, we think! The other babies are getting their feathers and starting to look more and more like real birds, which is quite exciting! We're enjoying watching their development, though the bigger they get the louder they get as well! Last night we enjoyed terrorizing Bamboo (the father), while we turned out the lights and caught him so we could actually hold him. He's soooo tiny under all those feathers, it's like trying to hold on to a squirmy little twig or something! Perhaps we'll be able to get the babies to tame a little better than their parents did.

Following my instincts?

Well, for the last month or so, I've been trying to tell myself that I really don't need many newborn items. Diapers, yes. Those are a necessity, lol. We now have newborn sized disposables to last (hopefully) the first week or so. Then we'll go to cloth. However, on the clothing front I kept telling myself that two sleepers in newborn size was plenty. I didn't need any more than that, because the baby will grow out of the size so fast, and will fit the 0-3 month sized stuff anyway. Well, telling myself that really didn't work well at all. I wound up dragging Justin to a store where I knew you can get newborn sized stuff in neutral colours so that we would have enough for the baby. Strange when I also know that most newborns will fit the 0-3 month stuff, but I really had this feeling that I needed a few more sleepers in the smallest size available (aside from premie sized!). Now I'm happy... I have all the newborn sized sleepers in neutrals that I feel we'll need. And, of course, I feel weird, considering I don't even know how big the baby is yet! For all we know, this kid is going to be an 8 or 9 lb baby, and won't fit the newborn stuff at all! But... for the sake of making my "instincts" happy, we have the sleepers. We also have the receipt so we can exchange if necessary, lol.

Oh, and, we're travelling about 4 hours away from here on Saturday, to Lynchburg, so I have everything (I hope?) we are likely to need for an "emergency birth" if we happen to have to birth while on the road/away from home. Towels, sleeper, onesie, blankets, hats, clothing for me, etc... Am I weird or what?! The only things we're NOT taking on Saturday are the baby seat (oh, we need to get a baby on board sign thingy... hmmm....) and the baby sling. Somehow I doubt we'll need a baby sling even if the baby were to be born en route! I figure if we were pulled over they would excuse us from having the baby in a car seat given the circumstances!

We got the baby's room completely tidied up, so I'm very pleased with that! Pictures will be coming soon. We had to find my camera cards before I could take pictures, and now I just don't feel like spending the time putting the pictures on my computer and from my computer onto here. Soon though. And, our bedroom is almost cleaned up completely as well, so I guess I'll take pictures of it as well.

So, now I'm trying to figure out sleeping arrangements for the baby. I'm a little afraid to try actual *co*sleeping, because I don't want the baby to end up getting squished by accident. I'm not quite sure how to fit the bassinet in, because of space constraints in our room, so I'm really at a loss. How does one do co-sleeping with a baby, anyway?? I would be afraid of the baby falling off the bed if it was on the outside, or being rolled on top of by mother or father if in the middle...

A Month

Yes, it's been a month. And, it is still a month. Two ways to take that title, I guess.

This past month has been total chaos. We've been trying to get things organized in the house while trying to keep up with two children and their schooling, and a pregnancy.

So, with all we've been doing we have actually managed to do a few things. We've finally got (somewhat) a living room. At least, there's a couch, a chair, an ottoman, and a rocking chair. Oh yes, and let's not forget that we also have the piano in there! I think that may just be a highlight!! We've got the rats in there by the fire place, and Justin made the addition of a couple of finches to our collection of pets. No, I didn't ask for them! Regardless, they are very cute, and quite entertaining to watch. We're not sure if they'll hatch their eggs or not, considering how much we stressed them out in their little move. If they don't hatch them, then we'll just empty the nest and let them start again, I guess. We weren't going to get the particular female that we did, as she was the one with all the eggs, but when we discovered that the male we (I) wanted was mated with that female, and that the females mate for life, we thought we ought to get her instead of the other one we were going to get so she would at least be happy and not die mourning because her mate was taken away!

The dining room is basically our room of disaster at the moment. Our bedroom and the baby's room are starting to look half way to "normal" or whatever you want to call it. Organized? Hah. I don't know if that will ever happen! The kitchen is starting to get there though. Justin hung a bunch of hooks for my pots today, so that gets a large majority of things out of my way. Now I just have to figure out how to hang all my utensils! Then the kitchen will have a floor to walk on!

Oh, and while we were digging things out of the living room and dining room we finally found my school books! Now I can finish my course! Yay!! With the tidying and organizing and various other things that have been going on, I've been quite tired, however, so hopefully I will actually get it done. Most days I'm ready to crash around 7:00pm. That doesn't make it particularly helpful for Justin when he's coming home between 8:30 and 9:00, and I'm so tired that supper just isn't on my list of priorities (I'm normally so tired that I'm not hungry!). So, anyway... I need to really start planning out our menues, so that at least I will know what I'm supposed to be making, and maybe if it's all completely figured out I will actually make it! Most times we have a general "we'll have these seven meals this week" plan, but not a specific day and time or anything like that, which makes it so I don't actually necessarily make all the meals, because I'm tired and don't feel like picking one to make... I'm bad, I know...

I mixed up the dates of when some church stuff was happening, so while I thought we had a games night this past Saturday evening, I discovered it is actually this coming Saturday. That should be fun... it's supposed to be for the 18-40's crowd. I'm not sure just how many actually fit that age range. I know there are at least 10, but who knows how many will actually show up as well! Hopefully there will be at least a decent turn out. Oh, and the minister at the church was just an interim minister, and apparently his interim term was one year, and therefore he is leaving... as of this week. But, it really doesn't make sense to me-- they won't let the people of the church even keep in touch with interim pastors, because it "hinders the next minister's ability to establish himself in the church" or something like that. While I can understand that they don't want people putting things like "Well, so-and-so did it this way instead of that way" or whatever up in the new person's face, I don't think it is reasonable to say you can't contact/keep in touch with the pastor. I can't even think of any biblical basis for it. I mean, seriously, Paul wrote letters to all the churches he had VISITED, let alone ones he had stayed with for a year or more!

Anyway... yes, it is still one month to go until we are officially due with this little one. My prenatal went well on Tuesday, and they say the baby is probably of average size despite my small size. Apparently the baby is sitting very deeply, and so I may not show at all for the whole time. Considering we're only 3-4 weeks away from delivery (most likely... though I guess the baby could be late!), I guess there's a fairly good chance that that baby isn't going be doing much showing at all. All the stuff they measure is perfect, though my blood pressure keeps going down. I'm starting to wonder if perhaps I'm going to have low blood pressure by the end of this! Oh, and I haven't gained anything between the last appointment and this appointment. No panic there though, lol. I guess it doesn't matter to them if I gain or not! So... currently we have a whole 8 lb gain, because I actually lost 2 lbs between the two appointments. By the time this little one gets out, I guess I'll be literally right back to my "prepregancy weight", possibly less, and probably still lose. Hmm... this could be interesting. I guess all my regular clothing isn't going to fit?? I'm still wearing it right now with what little baby belly I currently DO have! Sure hope it isn't going to all fall off... I'll have to take things in and buy new clothing... Anyway, all that I have left to do, is to purchase covers for our diapers. I should do that sometime soon, seeing as the baby is due in four weeks, lol!

It's been a while...

Well, it's been a while, and while I do have things to post (such as pictures) I haven't got the time to be uploading them at the moment. They should be coming sometime in the next week though. At least pictures of the baby's room. Our room is still in progress, so maybe next week sometime? The kitchen is just going to drive me CRAZY, because I have yet to figure out where to fit my pots. There isn't a cupboard the right size anywhere, nor is there one near the stove even *close* to the right size. So I'm a little annoyed with that. Oh, and we are using a dresser to put our dishes, cutlery, and storage containers in, because I honestly haven't got anywhere else at the moment to put them!! How irritating! I think things will improve as we start getting more things done in other parts of the house. Right now I just have to finish vacuuming at the apartment, and then the vacuum can come here, and the apartment will be done. I think we may be steam cleaning tonight or tomorrow night, not sure which, as well.

I had my monthly prenatal appointment yesterday afternoon, and it's quite difficult to believe it's already been a month since the last one!

So, yesterday I was 30 weeks, 4 days

b/p: 115/64

pulse: 108

weight: used a different scale from normal, as we were in a different place, it said I've gained 9 lbs... I don't know if that is true, but it doesn't really matter to me, and they were not concerned at all. Everything else is "perfect" so it really doesn't matter.

fundal height: 30 cm. Funny story... she measured me, and said "you're measuring thirty too" and I thought she had said thirty-two, so I was wondering where the additional 2 cm had come from!! So she went back and corrected herself, as she realized that what she'd said was rather confusing, lol!

fht: 130's range resting heart rate, into the 140's when you bother it, which is a good acceleration I'm told, and indicates a healthy baby in there... so I guess that's a good thing.

And, that's basically it. No swelling, no other problems, and no problems anticipated.

In other news... I want blinds for my windows, and I want tiles for my floors. I have a feeling I'm not going to have the tiles for a long time, the blinds... I'm hoping will be sooner!!

In case anyone is interested...

...prenatal appointment outcome for today...

I am currently 26 weeks, 4 days

b/p: 120/80

pulse: 80

weight: back to maintaining what I had maintained for the last 6 months, lol.... I think they were relieved I hadn't lost anything!! I'm not sure why I gained the weight back... I haven't eaten any differently than I have been. Perhaps I had more water in me, perhaps their scale was slightly off last time. Whatever, it's back up, which is GOOD.

fundal height: 26 cm... a little small for 26 1/2 weeks, but essentially perfect for where it is supposed to be anyway.

fht (fetal heart tones... which is actually rate in my case, because they don't use a doppler to measure for me): 130's range

They did my glucose screening (ie, for gestational diabetes) and my hemoglobin testing thing...

hemoglobin: 10.8 that's a little low, so I've been told to find molasses that says at least 20% iron on it, and have a couple of tablespoons of that every day, because they want it up near 12, and the iron in molasses is apparently highly absorbable. There's a little home remedy for anyone struggling with low iron, lol.

glucose: 81 I'm told that is a perfect measurement for the conditions under which they took my sugars (fasting-- hadn't eaten in 3 hours, hadn't had anything to drink other than water in the same amount of time)

So, all in all, everything is essentially "perfect". They're not even too concerned about the iron, just want me to find something to boost it up a little, which if I can find the molasses to do it, I should be able to do just fine. :-)

Happy Canada Day!

Despite being in the USA, I DID celebrate Canada Day with my niece and nephew. We all wore red and/or white, and we painted "flags" and had a red balloon water balloon fight. I thought that was sufficient.

After the kids went home, I went to my prenatal appointment. I'd missed last month's because I was in Canada, and it turns out I've lost more weight, which is quite amusing, because no one is really concerned. I feel good, I look good, and the baby is wiggling and kicking like CRAZY, so I'm told that despite the fact that no one could get a steady reading on the heartbeat, the child is definitely healthy judging by the amount of movement, lol. They couldn't get the reading simply because the baby didn't stay still for more than about two seconds at a time every time they managed to find the heartbeat! Oh, and I'm measuring dead on for where I am supposed to. I'm 22.5 weeks today, and I measured exactly 22.5 cm! I guess that's a good thing too, hehe.

My nephew can be cute!

He can also be very NOT cute, but this was cute... So, anyway, we announced the coming baby last Sunday, and then that evening, after our nephew had been put to bed he was caught out of bed a number of times. When he was finally asked WHY he was out of bed, he apparently used the first thing that popped into his head as the excuse for his being awake! His words were, "I don't know when I'm going to have a baby..." The poor kid, lol! The idea of having a baby cousin had him so worried because he didn't know when HE was having the baby!

And... both our niece and nephew regularly ask me how big the "babies" are. Now, to my KNOWLEDGE, there is only one baby. We'll find out in a few weeks, I suppose, when they decide if I'm measuring right and all that, but for now we are working on the assumption that there is and will only be, one baby coming. So, I've been correcting the miswording every time! Of course, Justin isn't much help, seeing as he is still insisting we're having twins, and regularly makes the mistake of saying "babies" instead of "baby"!

Well, I had my biometrics appointment yesterday, and was finished there before my appointment was even supposed to happen, so I suppose that means everything went well. We should have work and travel papers sometime before the middle of June! Isn't that exciting? :-) We're hoping to have the travel papers before the middle of May, actually, but who knows if that will happen or not.

Big News!

Well, I was going to wait until tomorrow to post this, but I think I will post it tonight! You may notice a little "ticker" at the right now, and it is a count down... to our due date! We are expecting a baby in October... well... really, it could be October OR November, because the due date falls on October 31 (or October 30 by my calculations, but it never hurts to have an extra day there)! Anyway, there's our big news!