Wow

Today is Sept. 17th. Etta will be here Oct. 20th, at the latest. One month and 3 days. Ummm....that is quick. I was just looking at the calendar to verify Carter's vacation at the end of this month, and skipped to next month and man oh man, it's just going to fly by. Vacation starts Sept. 26th and goes til Oct. 2nd. That week we hope to get lots of loose ends tied up, have a family day out, and a date day (cause a date night isn't going to happen with me being so tired. BTW, anyone want to watch the kids on Sept 30th so we can do that? I also have a dr. appt. that day). Steven and Carter are going to put in our new flooring on the 1st. October 6th is Savannah's birthday party. Exactly two weeks later is the induction date. Two weeks! Craziness.

Don't get me wrong. I'm ready for her to be here already. If she wants to come earlier, I'm cool with that. Provided it's good for her to come early. Got that little girl? And provided that Carter is home and I don't have to freak out on my own. I just want to see what she looks like. How can that not drive you crazy? I actually looked up the ultrasound place at Southtowne mall the other day because I wanted to see how much it would cost to get a 3D ultrasound. Out of my price range that's for sure. I was really hoping though.

My feet and legs have been swelling on and off. Nothing too worrisome, but still gross to me. Some days though, my feet just kill me. After five minutes of walking I'm in horrible pain. I can't figure that out. I'm totally waddling. I know it. My back has been my biggest discomfort lately. Right around my ribs, mostly on the right side, and especially after eating in the evening, it really hurts. Like, really hurts. Sitting is so uncomfortable and lying down only helps sometimes.

Savannah told me today that she wants us to put the crib right next to her bed so that she can be close to Etta. I told her it would be close enough and that Etta would sleep in our room for a couple months. The girls room is about 90% finished. We just bought the second dresser we needed and now just need to put it together. Ideally, the kids would watch a movie the entire time we put that together, but that's just not going to happen. They always want to help with those projects and then it takes 5 times longer to finish. I've been washing baby clothes the past few days. I know, I know. I have a month to do that, but I'm too excited!! I wanted to look at it all! So now it's all sitting in boxes in their room waiting for that dresser to be built.

Signing off....gotta ask Carter to rub my back.

Lesson Learned

One should not try to buy a maternity bra with their two year old. You won't try it on, or pick the right size. And then you'll have to return it, but won't buy another. Put it back on the list.

I just went pee.

And I already need to go again. Like two minutes later. Ettagirl is pushing on all the important parts to make that happen. She's a pusher and a stretcher. I'm still amazed at how a baby fits in such a small space.

I'm feeling bigger lately and have gained two pounds, according to my last doctor visit. Woohoo! We talked to the doctor about an induction date last week. The earliest we can do it is the 20th, so we're aiming for that day because all around it would work out best for us. We still need to do a tour of the hospital and find out all the rules. I'm taking my iron pills everyday now so hopefully I won't get all lightheaded and off balanced again. I've noticed my legs and ankles swelling a little lately. Especially if I sit a lot during the day or if I'm walking a lot. Luckily it hasn't been a lot of swelling. That grosses me out and makes me nervous about the high blood pressure. But everything has been fine.

We're glad we went ahead and chose the name. It feels better calling her by a name. Savannah has brought me multiple pictures lately and said they are for Etta. I think she's pretty excited. So are we. I can't wait to wash her clothes and look at all of them and imagine her wearing them. Ohhh...We bought her coming home outfit the other day.

Savannah starts preschool on Wednesday. This is going to be a new experience for sure. Just being on a schedule and having to get up and get her to school by 9:30 should be interesting. Once the baby gets here it will be even more interesting.

Carter is taking some vacation time at the end of the month, for a week. We weren't planning on that but his boss said he should take some since his job is so demanding. We were saving it for when Etta was born, but we found out Carter gets 5 days of Paternal Leave, plus whatever we use of his vacation too. Even taking the early vacation, he'll still have a few days when she's born. So, now we just have to cross our fingers that everything goes well with the delivery and after. Two day stay please.

I've got a list of things to get done before she gets here. I'm trying to cross things off slowly. I just have to find the motivation. Right now our room is a disaster because I've been cleaning out our closet and trying to organize paperwork today. Paperwork....it's just everywhere.

I guess I should get back to that.

The Name

No, unfortunately I will not be revealing the baby's name right now. Still not sure which one it's going to be. What I am writing about is how funny it is to me that between the two families there is such a divide. Well, actually, I only know that Barbara, Lesli and Kacey like Etta, but you guys are the majority at this point. I don't know anyone else's opinions. But in my family, I KNOW they all want Sabrina. My parents recently got back from Missouri where they visited my brother and his family, who are also expecting a girl. They're naming her Allison. They asked what we were naming ours and my parents gave them the choices. Now, I wasn't there, but I can only imagine how the conversation went, and that they would have fully supported Sabrina over Etta. Even though my Mom will say she loves both. Sure. Anyway, my Mom said all three of them loved Sabrina. Jeez....It's really hard to decide. I bet Carter knows what he wants. I just think both names are so different and I associate different personalities and traits with each. Like Etta. Etta Alexandra to me is so sweet. I see just a sweet little child. It sounds respected and proper. Sabrina Blake is very sassy to me. It has a lot of the same feeling to me as Savannah Paige. We know Savannah is one sassy, independent girl. I'm not sure I see this little girl being the same way though. I mean, really, how can you know, but that's just what I think. Maybe I'm just hoping that she'll be really sweet and easy as a third child and fit into the craziness with ease.

Sleep....

It's really hard to focus on eating and growing a human when your kid is sick. Again. This time we're pretty sure she got dehydrated. Although, if it's just dehydration, it's taking forever. Yesterday and today have been pretty miserable for her. And then in turn for us. The little sleep we're getting is very interrupted. She'll have maybe an hour stretch where I think she's feeling better and then it comes back. She didn't eat anything yesterday and we had to force liquids. Today she has at least eaten a few small snacks. She's had bad, bad headaches to the point of crying. She's been really hot and had lots of cold baths and showers. She dry heaved three times this morning. She did NOT like that. I'm sure she just wants to feel better.

I'm soooo ready for her to be better.

And I really hope that Cooper just fell asleep downstairs because that means I can take a nap.

27 Weeks

I went for my 27 week visit yesterday. I had to drink that nasty orange drink so they could test my glucose levels and see if I had gestational diabetes. That drink tasted worse than I remember. But, I really wasn't worried about the test. They also drew blood for my next visit when I'll get another Rhogam shot. The doctor had a quick visit with me. She mentioned how I hadn't really gained any weight. She seemed sort of confused, so I was kind of confused. According to my records, I've gained 7 lbs. She was kind of mumbling and adding up the figures on my chart and said something about 4 lbs. She said she wasn't worried about it because she could tell that I was growing and I measured at 28 weeks. Later, I still thought about that and what "4 lbs." meant. Then it made sense. That was what she thought I'd gained total so far. I think somewhere along the lines, probably when I switched doctors early on, things weren't completely accurate. And of course, scales can be different. Whatever, I'm not complaining.

I got my results for the glucose test back today and everything is great. She did mention that my hemoglobin was borderline though and that I should start taking an iron supplement or eating more iron rich foods. That seems to always get to me so I wasn't super surprised.

Savannah is so cute lately. I mean, she's always cute, but specifically, cute about the baby. She wants to see her kick, which of course she's never that active when someone is watching. Sometimes at night, before I leave her room, she'll say something like, "I hope the baby kicks your tummy really good." She'll randomly say how she's excited to have a baby sister. We told her last night the names we'd chosen. She's 4 1/2 and of course wasn't paying that much attention. When we said Etta, she raised her eyebrow and made this funny face. "Etta?" Apparently she isn't too fond of the name. Then she just started rattling off all her name choices while we tried to see what she really thought of our choices. At the end of the conversation, we asked her which name she liked more. Sabrina.

Cooper gets really interested in my tummy when everyone is huddled around it. He wants to talk to the baby but he will NOT hold still to even see the kicks and rolls. Half the time he's moving ME, so no one can see anything that the baby would be doing. We asked him to repeat the baby names last night and to him they were ET...uh and Brina.

I'm definitely getting excited to see this little girl. I keep seeing little babies everywhere, and I try to point them out to the kids and hope the Mom doesn't think I'm weird for it. I just want them to see how tiny babies are and associate it with how little their sister will be. We worked on the girls room this week and hung a few things. It's coming along. I know that I have a weakness for baby clothes, but now I see that I also have a weakness for matching sister outfits. Today, Old Navy had all bathing suits on sale for $4, so I went and checked it out. Savannah saw this cute Hello Kitty one for the baby and wanted to get it, so I searched and search for a 5T for her next year but couldn't find one. Then Savannah brought me a different Hello Kitty two piece bathing suit, and I was able to find her size. So, they don't totally match, but it's still cute to me. And ohhhh the shoes. I don't think I went crazy over infant shoes with Savannah. She never fit in them, and I'll probably have the same problem this time around, but holy moly I have found some cute ones. I just got 3 pairs at Kid to Kid yesterday that look practically new. And I can't wait to hold her. I want to snuggle with a little tiny body. Savannah and Cooper don't cuddle often, so I'm just going to love all the snuggles from a little baby. It feels like the last 27 weeks have gone by pretty fast. I was thinking the other day that these last weeks are probably going to fly by. Once Savannah starts school in early September, I think we'll be coasting from there. Then it will be her birthday and then the baby will be here. Hopefully it all goes in that order.

Better Day Than Night?

Last night was one of those nights. Now that I think about it, it was kind of all around a craptastic day. And it was boring. Carter worked until 8 pm or so. Yeah. We went to bed about 10:45 and I just laid there. Carter was on a "pallet" on the floor. I'll come back to that later. Not long after, I heard Savannah crying so I ran into her room. It was so weird. She was kind of thrashing about and crying and not really responding to me. So I wondered if she was having a nightmare or something. But, I think she was aware enough and knew I was there. It was freaking me out because it seemed like she was in some sort of pain. Eventually, I turned the light on and Carter came in too. We couldn't get much out of her and she seemed like she just wanted to go back to sleep. So we gave her hugs and told her to call us if she needed. But she continued to cry and of course that bothered me. So I went back in and once again it just seemed like she was in some kind of pain. I finally got her to talk a little and she said her nose hurt. She was sniffling a little but I couldn't figure out what in the world would be wrong with her nose. Did she pump it really hard earlier? No. Does your head hurt? No. Anything else hurt? No. She seemed stuffed up so the only thing I could think of was to go in the bathroom and run a really hot shower and let the steam hopefully open her up. I tried to get her to blow her nose, but she still hasn't grasped the concept of blowing out, rather than up. I had the same problem until I was quite old. So we sat in the hot bathroom (just what a pregnant woman wants to do right?) for a few minutes. She talked a little and as I asked questions she said her tummy hurt and her throat. I figured her throat was dry because she was breathing through her mouth. So, a tummy ache and nose ache. Two totally different and random things. She thought she was hungry so after the steam shower we went downstairs and got some cookies and milk and watched a few minutes of the Bachelorette. She didn't eat the cookies and drank a small amount of milk. She just seemed super tired. So, we went back upstairs. She wanted to sleep in her bed, eventhough I kind of wanted her to sleep with me to make sure she was ok. I knew I would get even less sleep if she did though. As I came to bed I saw the clock. 12:15. Great. Eventually I fell back asleep. But I'm pretty sure I got up twice to check on her. And to pee. Then Carter got up, probably at 5:30. Then Savannah came in at 6:30. 6:30!! I was expecting her to sleep in. She was hungry. Oh wait, that's not right. She was crying again. "Mom! Get this stuff off my nose!". She had some crusty, very light snot under her nose region. I was thinking great, she was able to drain some out. She was having a meltdown over it and I had to wipe it off immediately. After that, we went downstairs with my semi-shut eyes and got her some cereal, while I went straight to the couch. But, of course anytime I get up and start moving around, little baby wakes up too. So, rather than doze off, I felt her moving around and kicking for quite some time. It felt like she was jolting my entire stomach. I do welcome those kicks though. Once Savannah finished her breakfast I told her I was so tired. She said to me, "But it's morning." I told her we needed to go up to my room so I could sleep some more and she could watch cartoons. She was game for that. So, from about 6:45 to 8:20 I tried to sleep. Sesame Street and such shows tend to have very annoying character voices and they're hard to tune out. Plus, Savannah just can't seem to sit still. She wiggles around and was even trying to sing the songs, until I shut that down real quick. I heard Coop crying at 8:20 and the day officially had to start. It's 9:32 now. I have a feeling it's going to be one of those slow dragging days and I will probably yell a lot.

Back to the "pallet". Yes, I hate the pallet. The pallet requires blankets. And those blankets get thrown at the foot of the bed each morning he uses them. They're added to the few that are already at the foot of the bed, because I don't want any blankets, because it's hot. So, their are a lot of freakin' blankets at the foot of the bed. The kids love it. They jump off the bed, onto the blankets. And then the blankets are all over the place. And then I get mad because I don't want them jumping off the bed in the first place and breaking something and secondly, their are freakin' blankets everywhere! So yes, I'd rather just have my husband sleep in the bed and get rid of the blankets. Plus, it's just weird.

What to call her?

"Please pray that the little baby girl in Mommy's tummy is healthy and strong." A common sentence in our nightly prayers. It bugged me last night. "Little baby girl in Mommy's tummy". What the heck is her name gonna be?

I'm really irritable these days. People are bugging me. Family is bugging me. Non-stop talking children are bugging me. 10 texts in a one minute period is really bugging me.

Irritated.

******

So, it's much later in the day now. Carter and I decided on our top two names for this little girl.

Sabrina Blake

Etta Alexandra

It shall be one of these. Three more months......

We made it to church today ( i know, right?) for all three hours. I stayed with Cooper of course, but whatever. Both the teachers in there I semi know. One of them was filling out the Relief Society roll and they have announcements in there for babies and such. Anyway, she goes, "You're having a girl?". Yeah. "Oh, I didn't even know you were pregnant. You're so tiny." You gotta love people.

So we recently rented Gnomeo & Juliet. The kids have seen it before, but on Wednesday night Redbox had 50 cent family rentals, so we all watched it. It was pretty cute; at least what I saw of it. I fell asleep. Anyway, since that night Cooper has been saying "Jewi-ET". I mean, it's freaking adorable how he says it. I'm almost considering adding the name to our list, just so I can hear Cooper say it more.

Update

Still peeing a lot. Really no surprise there.

She is moving a lot more lately. Although today was a rather quiet day. Savannah saw her kicking the other day and that was really cute seeing her reaction.

Cooper still thinks my boobs are where the baby is. Tonight he was hitting my boobs and saying, "kick, kick"

We are gradually getting things ready around here for her. We bought one of the two dressers last week that the girls will need. Savannah's new bed is in, but I'm waiting on the mattress. We decided, why in the world would be buy Cooper a toddler bed, when we will have a completely usable top bunk that can be a twin bed for him. Duh. So, we'll get to that the closer the due date is.

I think we've stalled on the name thing for awhile. I know I've thought about it a little, but mainly thinking, wow, we haven't talked about it a whole lot lately. Still getting some feedback on certain names and it still surprises me. Etta seems to be one that people are either loving or hating.

I'm glad summer seems to be moving fast. I was just looking at the calendar today and it says I have a doctors appointment on the 28th. I was like, didn't I just go the other day?

This past Tuesday was fun. My Mom and Aunt took me and the kids out for a day of spoiling. Savannah and I got mani/pedi's first and they look so cute. The kids got some fun toys at Toys R Us and then the baby got spoiled at Babies R Us. It wasn't even like we really needed anything new, but after you have a couple kids, new things come out and you decide that some things would be really nice to have. Like a Boppy.

The next day I went to Gymboree with the Gymbucks Caren gave me and got some adorable stuff. Is it just me, or wouldn't you want to have matching outfits for two girls? I didn't want to have totally matching stuff, but stuff in the same line and colors. I found a couple things that will make for some cute photo shoots later on. Can I even tell you how excited I am to take girly baby photos with big bows and tutus?!

I purchased the first pack of diapers today. I feel behind.

I don't know why I get so irritated when my case nurse calls. I just do. I hate being asked what I'm eating and drinking. Really?, what I eat is what sounds good, and not a lot sounds good. And my husband works for a pizza and ice cream company. So yes, I am eating salty processed foods, but in moderation, because I just can't eat as much as I normally can. And I have one McDonalds hamburger when I want because I need MEAT. But lady, I'm freaking flooding myself with water and peeing non stop, so I'm pretty sure that any salt hanging out in my body waiting to cause high blood pressure, is going to flush out. I've only gained 5 pounds, I'm not retaining water and swelling and I'm not working full time and on my feet all day. So lady, I'm pretty sure the circumstances are quite different this time. However, she did say she was going to drop my "case" and they would just call me two more times, at 28 weeks to check on the blood pressure and after the baby is born. Good, cause it's irritating reporting to you.

Little Lady @ 23 Weeks

It was so fun getting to see ______ today. (I leave a space as IF we have a name. Ha!) They got a new ultrasound machine, which definitely gave more detail and also did some 3D. That was so trippy. She only did the 3D for a minute but that was so neat. We've never had that done before and it was crazy to see all the little features. At one point it got all weird on her head, like it was a bad frequency or something, and it looked like she had this huge hole in her head, when of course their really wasn't. Carter was like, "Well, that's disturbing." And it was, but it was also hilarious. We both started laughing and then the tech started laughing. She flipped back to the normal ultrasound, but I kept laughing so then I'm seeing the baby jumping around on the screen, which made me laugh more! We were able to see all the important stuff again and her cute little profile. The nose doesn't look so big anymore. One view she did was kind of from the chin up, and you could see her lips and nose. At first I couldn't see it, and then I was like holy cow, look at those lips!! Guess she's going to be blessed with the juicy lips as well.

The actual visit with the doctor was pretty fast. Everything looked good and I asked her about the whole hot dog/deli meat thing. She wasn't that worried about it and said as long as it's being properly sealed and is in the refrigerator, it should be fine. So, now I feel a little better and might splurge on some deli meat every now and then.

On a different note, we did come up with another name combo while waiting today. I was trying to find a middle name to go with a certain first name. I totally pulled out a wild card name that I know Carter LOVES. Lol. That totally worked.

I sneezed a couple times in a row this morning. The third sneeze came with pee. Here's to hoping THAT doesn't happen again.