The rest of the story

Make sure to read the post before so you are all caught up first.

**WARNING** Contains plenty of pregnancy talk so if you are a guy or single person who might find this gross - read at your own risk!

I knew we were in the final leg of this race about 10 days ago. I started having contractions late Friday night and really thought I was headed to the hospital. But things stopped and all I ended up with a night of no sleep. Noah had a basketball game at 9 am the next morning and it was so hard to drag myself there. I was tired. I was hurting. My only seating options were to sit on the bottom row with no back rest (ouch!) or climb to the top so I could lean against wall, but making my way up the bleachers is equally painful right now. But we went to the top. Noah's team got crushed :(, and my little stinker Aly kept deciding she hade to go potty. I reached a point where I literally felt like I could not make it up and down the bleachers one more time and next thing I know I am bawling. Complete waterworks. Jon is looking at me like I have two heads and of course I am surrounded by people I know from Noah's school. Just a little embarrassing. I am usually not a cryer. This was purely a hormonal issue, and my first clue that things are a changing...

Then I spent the rest of last week nesting!! The girls room is done except for some wall decorations. I love the way it turned out and will post pictures soon. So that brings us up to this week. I had my doctors appointment on Monday (yesterday). I am currently 3 1/2 cm dilated! Yay! That is good news. The bad news is that he told me he will be on vacation all next week. This really sucks for me. I have been very spoiled. He is a great doctor and throughout this entire pregnancy, not to mention my entire last pregnancy, I never once had to see another doctor. He was there for every appointment and for the delivery. it will really be a huge letdown if he not able to be there. My doctor knows how ready I am to have this baby and really trying hard to work with me to get her before he goes on vacation. However, we did have a discussion about recent recommendations from the medical community. Turns out the consensus is that doctors have become to cavalier with non-medically necessary inductions and recent studies are suggesting inducing before 39 weeks is not a good idea. I completely agree and don't really want to be induced, but it is a bummer because I won't be 39 weeks until the day AFTER he leaves for vacation. But we did come up with a plan. Yesterday, I had my membranes stripped. I'll leave out the details. Just know that physically I am showing every other sign of being ready for labor and he was confident that with that procedure I would be in labor within 24-48hours. Well that was about 31 hours ago and I am still not in labor. I am so surprised because I had this done with Aly and she was born the next day. The only positive sign is that as of this morning I have also lost my mucous plus. Again, I will spare you the details. ;)
So here I sit! Playing the waiting game. The next step, is another appointment tomorrow where he will strip the membranes again. He also said that he *might* break my water. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I am really anxious to have the baby, but to me that pretty much seems like an induction so I'm not sure if that's what I want to do. I'm hoping I will go into labor tonight and not have to make the decision. We of course will be updating with pictures as soon as she makes her arrival. Oh and we now have the name "Avery Elise" back on the table. For a long time we have been settled on "Peyton Elise" but now feel like we need to see her before we can decide between the two. So who knows!

The good and the bad

I haven't updated the blog in 6 weeks! To anyoen who reads - sorry! I have felt a bit uninspired, not to mention quite busy. I wanted to take sometime and fill everyone in on my last few weeks of this pregnancy and life in general. I am literally just hours or days away from having our little one. I'm so excited and antsy. It occured to me that once baby comes these last few weeks are going to be remembered as a surreal fog and I wanted to make sure to take the chance to write it all down so I don't forget. I've been wanting to get this little one out since about 36 weeks along. Although I know it is better to stay in as long as possible I can honestly say I am TIRED of being pregnant! I had it so easy with both Noah and Aly so this is totally new to me. I try daily to remind to myself that this will be the last time I experience this and to make sure to savor it and take it all in. However, the reality is that I am having a really hard time getting past the pain in my hips and pelvic bone. I am also having a hard time getting past having the same conversation over and over again. People are brutal! Everyone was must much nicer and had a lot more tact with the other two. This time around everyone just seems to say whatever pops into their mind. Sometimes funny, other times - not so much. On the bright side...it is pretty cool because for the first time Jon and I are totally completely in sync - we both know FOR SURE that this little one is the little caboose to our family. Now all that probably sounds prett grouchy, but don't get me wrong. Although a surprise this gift has felt so completely right. I look at how our family has ended up and it fills me with such joy and peace. I truly know that this is how our family was always meant to be and we are complete now. So, now I just want to tell my story...

To be continued...

The fashion sense of kids!

Or perhaps lack thereof?

We have several nice cute pairs of PJ's for the kids and they are folded and put in their drawers. However, when I ask them to go put on their pajamas for bed they have their own idea of perfect sleeping attire. A bit eccentric maybe, but I still think they look pretty darn cute.

Dog on roof?

That's what happens when you have snow piled nearly to the top of your roof! Stealthy laboradors can jump it and voila! They have a whole new playground. Craziness I tell ya! Here's my little video. It doesn't have sound and I'm not a very good videographer but you get the idea. :)

Lighting of Christmas Lights Coeur D' Alene

The day after Thanksgiving my mom and I took Noah and Aly to Coeur D' Alene. They had a small parade, caroling and the big "light up" of Christmas lights. The kids like the parade ~ especially Noah ~ because superhero characters came over and shook their hands. We missed most of the caroling because everyone needed to use the restroom and so well...you can just imagine trying to cram a pregnant lady into a honeybucket with a 4 year old. The light up was beautiful and a perfect way to kck off the Christmas Season. Hope everyone is doing well!! Love ya. :)

Preschool Thanksgiving

These are not the best pictures in the world but I have to include them anyways. It is Aly's class doing a very informal Thanksgiving presentation. They did a couple of songs and then they had a "feast" in the cafeteria afterwards. Somewhere in there she bonked her head and you will see her sad-little-indian face.

Thanksgiving Day

Better late than never right? It was a great day! It was cold outside and warm inside. We had good food and hung out with the family. Here's some pictures from the day. My brother who is an amateur photographer took some of the pictures. You can tell a big difference between pictures from his camera and pictures from mine. :)