She's HERE!

Turns out I never needed to go buy those teas, etc. that I was going to have to get to try to convince Wren to show up :)  Instead, I went into labor very quickly on my own!

Thursday morning we woke up, dressed for work, and started our day as usual. I had a "holiday lunch" at my school in which parents are invited and it's a pretty big deal for the parents and kids so I dressed up and was ready for my turkey and banana pudding! I definitely had a feeling that morning though and told Evan that I thought we shouldn't make the trip to Charleston for Christmas at this point (Wren would be at most 10 days old on Christmas day if she was born that morning) and also that I felt that we would meet her by the weekend.

At school, I was nesting all morning - I got grades put into the electronic gradebook, papers straightened up to send home, etc. I was definitely nesting. My doula, Rachel, texted me to tell me she had a very vivid dream of my labor to which I responded that I hoped it was vividly quick and painless! As lunch approached, many of the parents were very sweet and were coming up to me expressing their congratulations. I told a few of them that I had a feeling it wouldn't be long and that I may not be at school tomorrow, eventhough at that point I hadn't had anything more than the mild braxton-hicks contractions I'd felt all morning. 

We ended lunch, went out for a quick recess, then came in for SSR (30 minutes of silent reading). Rather than conference with the students as required, I spent that 30 minutes nesting some more. After SSR, we had writing and I was so excited to teach one of my favorite writing lessons. It was 1 o'clock at this point and as I began the lesson, I realized I was having a few stronger contractions. I did a quick teaching of the lesson and then allowed the kids to work independently while I hopped out of the room to make copies of morning work for the next day. Before the kids left for their specials (they last an hour and the kids go straight home afterward), I told them that I thought I may not be there tomorrow and we went over their routine for the next day. I dropped them off at specials and stopped in at my principal's office to tell her I was having contractions, was going home, and I needed them to find someone to cover my car duty.

I left school around 1:40, called Evan, called my Mom, and called my doula on the way out. By the time I got home at 2, my contractions were considerably stronger. Evan arrived home about 5 minutes after me and at 2:40 we decided it would be a good idea to call my doctor's office. Our nurse advised us to call back in an hour with another update, so we bided our time by straightening up Wren's room a bit, and packing the car. Oakes was going to be picked up from daycare by my cousin so we also got his overnight bag packed and put on the front porch for them.  By 3:30, we were ready to call the doctor's office again - my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart and were getting more intense. They had us come in for a quick exam (rather than send us to the hospital for triage).

My last "belly shot" before leaving for the doctor/hospital.

We arrived at the doctor's office at about 4pm and were hooked up to a non-stress test to measure the fetal heart rate and the contractions for about 15 minutes. Once they established that we were having regular strong contractions, the doctor (Dr. R, the pregant one who is on-call on Thursdays and was not too excited about my Hand-Foot-Mouth due to her pregnancy) did my cervical check and I was 5cm dilated. We were on our way to the hospital!

At the hospital, we headed straight for L&D (I need to applaud Evan's speedy driving and superb non-valeted but up front parking!) and were ushered into our requested water room for birthing. I think it was my very first contraction in that room in which I leaned over a chair for support, and my water broke. With meconium. Again. The meconium was certainly different (less green than with Oakes' and more brown) and the nurses informed us that it meant a NICU team would be present. Boy, we knew those familiar words. This all happened at 4:45pm.

Our doula, Rachel, arrived moments later and the nurses hooked me up to another non-stress test to make sure Wren wasn't experiencing anything out of the ordinary. She was healthy and once they put in my hep-block for a possible IV if needed, I was allowed to labor freely thoughout the room. I began by laboring leaned over the birthbed but realized that tensed up my shoulders quite a bit so we then changed to me sitting on the birthing ball leaned over the bed.  They ran water in the tub for me (which again, I never got to even use - sigh - but the sound of the water running was pretty good white noise for me at that time) and I began feeling the urge to bear down with many of the contractions. Dr. R arrived soon after and informed me I was already 7cm. This was so hopeful to me as I knew that I it was moving quickly.

At 6pm, Dr. R checked me again and said I was 10cm, 100% effaced, and while Wren was STILL at station -2, I would be ready to push. I'm pretty sure my off-color cheer let everyone know that I was definitely ready to push! I was allowed to push while kneeling over the head of the bed, with my back to the room (very similar pose to how I was laboring) and we only had to push for about 25 minutes before Wren made her debut at 6:29pm. 

The birth was so different than Oakes. I felt a bit removed with my back facing everyone as I didn't actually see Wren arrive, though I felt it much more than with Oakes. They whisked her away to let the NICU team inspect her in the room and all was well - praise the Lord! I birthed the placenta and Wren was cuddled on my chest, finding her way to my breast.

The mother-baby unit was also a completely different experience than with Oakes as we weren't tethered to machines and when Wren cried, monitors weren't beeping. We didn't get a whole lot of sleep that first night and on the second day we actually were tied to monitors as Wren's bili-levels came back high.

So we are home now with some still high bilirubin levels. We've been to the pediatrician's office daily for checks and it's slowly coming down with the help of bili-lights and a bili-blanket. Since we are continuing to go down, we get a slight break from appointments and get to go back on Friday morning for our next bili check and hopefully we'll receive some great news.

On a side note, Oakes became potty trained over the weekend as he spent it with Oma and Opa and they were on a mission. :) Today was the first day he stayed in his training pants all day with no accidents!

Finally, I have to give a huge shout out to my most favorite person in the world, my husband. Anyone who knows him well knows he doesn't like to be in situations in which he doesn't have control. And labor/delivery is definitely one of those places. So from his speedy driving skills (and running yellow lights, to boot!) to his calming music he put on for me in L&D, he definitely deserves a "husband-of-the-year" award. Now he just has his next out-of-his-control challenge: infanthood.

One of Wren's very first photos.

(And a very informative sheet of notes in the background - so glad Evan got this shot!)

Our sweet girl, just a few days old.

Still here

We're still here -- just a few days over the due date -- but if it means anything, I had some crazy dreams last night that I was having contractions and was going into labor. Really... I woke up multiple times and had to stop and think "Was that part of a dream or am I having a contraction?" Of course, we all know the answer to that: Wren is perfectly happy where she is so it was all just a dream. :)  One thing I could do without? Every person I see saying "No baby yet?" or something along those lines. I smile and answer with humor, but Evan and I are both feeling like we should just wear a sign to school everyday that says: "I'm here, so obviously the baby isn't." haha...

It's funny how much more relaxed I am now that her due date has passed. Anyone who knows me well knows that I'm a bit Type A about things and for some reason, having an estimated due date (eventhough I have always been well aware that it was estimated) seemed like a looming deadline hanging over my head. Now that it's passed, I feel relaxed and am very much at peace with the fact that Wren will come whenever she is ready. I'm also feeling less "bothered" by pregnancy symptoms. Yes, I'm still a bit uncomfortable at times but I'm not feeling like I was a few weeks ago -- maybe because I'm trying to savor these last few days of being pregnant.

As far as induction, I'm still not a fan of the idea of being induced, so I'm hoping that she makes her appearance sooner than later; and to be honest, I feel like she just might! Dr. C and I did talk about the possibility of me canceling the induction if I wasn't feeling comfortable doing that, so that's always an option if the 22nd is creeping up on us and I still feel uneasy. I'm positive we'll talk about that at next week's appointment, if needed.

I've been doing lots of research on natural induction methods and have received advice from some others on this as well, so I think that tomorrow afternoon I may run out to the store and buy the teas, etc. that are supposed to help things move along. If they work, great; if not, it can't be the end of the world, right? All of them are healthy and simple options (nothing like castor oil - Lord no!) so it's not like I'm trying anything out of this world.

We'll keep you all posted once the big day arrives. In the meantime, I've been exhausted the past two nights so here it is at 8:15 and I believe I'll be going to bed for the night in just a few minutes. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we try to patiently wait this out!

Showered with Love

We can't even begin to describe how blessed we feel this week - and Wren hasn't even arrived yet! 

On Tuesday we had a baby shower at Evan's school, it was a "Books'n'Bucks" shower where his colleagues could bring a copy of their favorite children's book and/or money/gift cards towards diapers for Wren. We already have an amazing library of sorts for Oakes, so we were fully expecting to have duplicate books at this shower. Fortunately, that didn't happen! We only had two books that were duplicates and they are such great books that we aren't even thinking about returning them - they'll be great to stuff in a diaper bag or leave in one of our cars! My favorite book we received? Hands down, it's an ABC book created by a few of the women on Evan's Title I team who I also have scrapbooked with. It was the first one we opened and I just started crying when I started looking through it (B is for Brother - with pics of Oakes all over the page; C is for Cousins - and photos of Graham, Owen, and Eva).

My school shower was today - it was a joint shower with another teacher who is pregnant (4 weeks behind me) with her second baby who is also a girl. My shower was a "diaper shower/fill in the gaps shower" and we really got a lot of great stuff! From girlie hats and socks and sleepers to boxes of diapers and gift cards, I was in awe at how much useful, cute stuff I received. It's funny that when you are on baby #2, you don't think you need that much stuff. But with having a second baby that is a different gender, you actually do need some of the items to be more gender specific and while I'll still probably use those blue socks and hats from Oakes, I am so happy to have some pinks and greens to add to the mix!

At both showers, we received quite a few gift cards and even some cash from Evan's. I think the plan is to wait until after Wren arrives before we spend those as I'm sure we'll have things that we'll need to run out and get (diapers, anyone!??!?!) at the last minute.

Again, we are feeling so blessed by all of the warm wishes and gifts that we received. You never really think of how many people love you and care for you and it's times like these that you realize how surrounded by love you are.

Enough of all that mushy stuff, now for a baby/baby mama update. ;) I'm doing well and am becoming very much at peace with the fact that Wren will probably be hanging out a while longer. She knows what she needs and as long as she's healthy, then I'll be happy. My ankles are continuing to swell more as the days go on, but again that's a small price to pay. Wren seems to be most active in the evenings these days (she's currently having some sort of workout in me and is punching me in all sorts of places that I'm not used to!) and quietest in the mid morning. I know this only means that when she arrives she'll have her days and nights confused, but I'm trying not to think about that at this point.

We do have a full moon and a lunar eclipse on the 10th, so along with a lot of walking, I'm hoping that helps Wren find her way out! :)  And Oakes will be going to Columbia this weekend with my cousin and her two kids. It's our family Christmas party and they are staying overnight Saturday night, so that will give Evan a chance to finish his presentation due next week and me a chance to nest. And it will also ease any stress we have over "what if we have the baby while they are out of town?" fears. So basically, Saturday would be a great day for us to have a baby!

Sleepless Nights and Inconsiderate Subs

Well, Friday turned out to be a much better day, contraction-wise!  I drank water like a fish on Thursday afternoon/evening and into Friday and I think that helped tremendously.  Unfortunately, my feet are the most swollen they've been during this pregnancy and I think that my water intake from here on out will have to just about double in order to keep me comfortable with both the swelling and to ward off braxton-hicks contractions. But like I said, Friday was a breeze in the contraction department and I hardly felt any all day long. I like to think that Thursday was just nature's way of helping my body prepare for an upcoming labor.

On a more stressful note, I got a phone call yesterday morning around 10am at school from the substitute they had hired for my maternity leave saying that she could not do it anymore as she just accepted an interim at another school to start in January. I literally wanted to cry when I hung up the phone. Here I am, 38 weeks and 5 days pregnant and with all of my maternity plans written with this lady in mind, and she cancels on me!?!?!!?!?!? 

By lunch, I was in the principal's office (still in shock, mind you) and was pleased to know that in the two hours since my principal had found out, she and the secretary had already hired a new substitute for me and the one they hired is absolutely WONDERFUL! I'm still really pissy about the whole cancelling thing by the first sub but there is nothing I can do about that and being pissy won't help either. My new sub came by after school on Friday and I gave her my maternity leave notebook and showed her around the room briefly -- afterall, she could have to come in as early as Monday, depending on Wren's schedule. Again, she's fabulous and I really think that things like this happen for a reason and this just means she's a much better fit for me, my students, and my grade level.

Well, it's only 4:15am on Saturday morning right now (I can't sleep, again).  I'm trying to creep around the house quietly in order not to wake my sleeping beauties, but Evan has already woken up and come to check on me to make sure everything is okay. I think I'm going to try to head back to bed in a bit and see if I can't force myself to get some more sleep, and if not, I'll go downstairs and try wrapping Christmas gifts until it's a reasonable time for the rest of the world to wake up. I'd really prefer the sleep!

Edited: I went back to bed and slept until the glorious hour of 7:30 this a.m. (thanks, Oakes!) so yay for sleep :)

Braxton-Hicks, anyone?

So last night was a terrible night of sleep for me. From 1am until around 4:30am, I was up 3 times to pee and was probably up another 15 times just trying to roll over and get comfy. Yet my 3 trips to the bathroom didn't really result in a lot of pee so that was super frustrating for me. Obviously, I felt pretty crummy this morning after a night of tossing and turning, then when I was driving into work I realized that my "not feeling so great" feeling this morning was due to some contractions, and I can only assume that this is what was keeping me up all night last night. I started timing them and they were about 30 seconds long and around 2 minutes apart. So after letting all of the appropriate people know, I went on with my day like normal and didn't let the kids know what was going on. They weren't that bad, especially compared to the serious contractions I know will come later on, but they certainly weren't comfortable, either.

Other changes I've noticed: I didn't get heartburn once today, which is really abnormal and makes me wonder if Wren has dropped. Apparently with a second baby, this generally happens just prior to labor, so we'll see if it's all something I'm imagining or if it really means something.

And here we are at 8:30pm, still with some Braxton-Hicks and exhausted from no sleep last night. Evan and I took Oakes on our "last date" to TCBY just like we did the night before Oakes was born, I packed my hospital bag, and Evan installed the carseat. So I guess we're ready for anything, but we'd really prefer for Wren to wait just a little longer to make her debut, even though we are ALL excited to meet her!

Happy Thanksgiving!

First of all, Happy Thanksgiving!  So much to be thankful for in our home...

Evan and I didn't have to work today, so we went ahead and sent Oakes to school and I enjoyed a much needed massage (Evan gave me 2 of them for my birthday and I'd already used the first one a while ago). I also stopped by my doctor's office to get my bloodwork done and it turns out they had made a mistake and I didn't need to do any bloodwork for my thyroid as my levels are fine. Not a bad mistake to make, if you ask me! After that, I headed to Hallmark to pick up a baby album for sweet Wren. I figured we should get that before she arrives so that we can get those cute foot prints done at the hospital.

We are at the cabin now and are enjoying the quietness out here (but also enjoying access to the internet!). Evan and I plan to do some of our National Board work while we are here so we each brought along a "bag of good intentions" and are hoping to actually open that bag at some point over the next few days. :)

Sonja had a wonderful surprise for us when we arrived - a basket full of goodies for Wren! I took some photos to share and to hold you all over until we have another belly shot next Monday (speaking of which, that's also when our next doctor's appointment is).

Again, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

A beautiful blanket that Sonja knitted for Wren. She had her name embroidered on a patch and then knitted the patch to the corner, almost like a postage stamp. I absolutely love it!



Some crib sheets, and a bunch of sweet clothes.

Sonja had chosen the center outfit for Wren a while ago as she saw it at work.

A great basket for storage and it was full of diapers, lotions, a bottle brush, pacis, and soap.

36 weeks

We both had the day off of school on Friday for Veteran's Day (happy Veteran's Day, Dan and Dad!) so we dropped Oakes off at school and then drove to Ikea, shopped, and returned in time to pick up Oakes from school. We wish we would have had time to visit some friends, but we were on a mission and on a time limit. So what did we buy? A rug, a door hanging thing, a few Christmas gifts for Oakes, and a duvet for the bed in Wren's room among some other smaller things. Oh, and we picked up a crib and mattress for Mom and Dad, but Wren will use it until they need it (Mom and Dad are going to have to buy a new one eventually as Tina will take the crib with her when she moves out in a few months, so until Oakes gives up his crib we will use this loaner for Wren).  We have a lot of it set-up but it's not photo-ready.  I'll post updated nursery photos by the end of the week though!

We also had our 36 week check-up today which began with Dr. C coming in and announcing that in his entire career, he'd never had a patient with Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease!  So I'm a first for him and I guess it's a learning experience for all of us.  He hadn't received the paperwork from my ultrasound so hopefully we can all see that at next Monday's appointment, however since the ultrasound looked great, we don't think there will be any follow-ups to this ordeal.  Today's visit also included an internal exam and a Group B Strep test -- we're in the final stretch and these pelvic exams will be weekly from this point forward. 

Blood Pressure: 130/70

Weight: +4 (total weight gain = +12 pounds) -- It's a lot for 2 weeks, but Dr. C was happy.

Heartrate: 150bpm

The belly is measuring at 36 weeks (I'm 36 weeks)
Dilation = 1cm (I actually cheered "YAY" when I found this out!)
Effacement (thinning of cervix) = 40% (another cheer from me!)
Station = -2 (baby is typically at -3 throughout, then -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, and 3 would be birthing time!)

For some good measure, here is where I was with Oakes at 36 weeks:
Blood Pressure: 118/78 [much better than I am with Wren]
Weight: -1 (total weight gain = +31 pounds) [much heavier than I was with Wren]
Heartrate: 168bpm [this was Oakes' usual bpm]
Belly Measurement = 39cm [maybe because of the weight gain?]
Dilation = closed [we didn't "open" until the day before Oakes was born!]
Effacement = 60% [we stayed at 60% until the day before Oakes was born]
Station = -2

Now for the belly shots:


Cheesing it up for the camera - except Oakes actually has a mouthful of cheese...

 

The "36 week belly shot"



Ultrasound

Today we got to do our ultrasound to check up on sweet Wren due to the hand, foot, and mouth stuff that went on last month with Oakes. We debated whether or not we should bring Oakes, but after the last few appointments where he acted like a 2 year-old (can you imagine? haha), we decided he'd be a lot happier to stay and play at school and we'd be a lot happier to be able to actually focus on the ultrasound and hear what the doctors had to say. This was a good decision as our appointment was at 3pm and we didn't leave until 5:15pm.

We ended up meeting with a genetic counselor prior to the ultrasound - a surprise to us - and it turns out our genetic make-up is pretty healthy. Thanks moms and dads! :)  She basically assured us that even if Wren did have HFM, she would most likely be healthy as it's a pretty mild virus for a baby in the early 3rd trimester.  Which is good because according to the doctor today it turns out that I did have HFM.  While I didn't have a fever, a rash, or any other symptoms, my bloodwork showed elevated levels so I guess it's a really good thing we took these precautions.

So with the ultrasound, her heart looked GREAT!  We could see all 4 chambers and the valves and it was such an incredible thing to see.  Her heartrate was 120bpm, but there was no inflamation around the heart and the ultrasound tech said that Wren looked beautiful as far as her organs and such.  She's also head-down so that's another great thing we got to see.  Oh, and it looks like her weight is 5lbs 10oz. which puts her in the 40th percentile.  She should gain about a half pound each week, so that should put her right around the upper end of 7lbs by her due date.  Her other measurements seemed to measure a little smaller than my 35 week mark so I'm happy to think that she won't be a 10-pounder like her mama was. Oy veh!
 
It's so amazing to see her so big compared to her 20 week ultrasound.  Which also made for a rather uncomfortable ultrasound since she's so big and they were pushing all over my belly  to get good angles of her organs. Evan managed to sneak in a video of it (apparently we aren't supposed to video or take pictures while in there?!?) so I'll see if I can upload that when he gets home from his soccer game.  We got 3 photos of Wren, but none are good.  Homegirl is still camera-shy, I guess; she kept her fists in front of her face the whole time - no joke.  We did go home with 3 pics and I tried to scan them, but the scanner wasn't working so I took photos with my phone which turned out a bit fuzzy.  So our not-so-good pics turned out worse, but they are something at least:

It's a girl (still)!  Much easier to recognize those parts now compared to 15 weeks ago!

Wren's profile - or what she'd let us see of it.

Her cute feet - she has her daddy's toes.

Family Visits and a Doula!

We had another great weekend, this time with a visit from Mimi and Popi and Baby Graham. We watched the baby all day Saturday and even though he's pretty much a perfect baby (happy, sleeps well, eats well, etc.), Evan and I were both pooped by the end of the day and wondered just how we were going to handle the toddler and newborn that will be in our house beginning in December. Should've thought about that 9 months ago, huh? Oh well.

Mimi and Popi also brought along a few super-cute outfits for Wren and I'm so excited about dressing her up in them. And Tina sent a huge ziplock bag full of girlie socks for her so while that was a pain to wash and repair, Wren truly has enough socks so that she could wear a new pair every day of her newborn existence. So a big thanks to Mimi, Popi, and Tina!

I also got in a bit of nesting on Sunday night once things calmed down. We bought a cheap-o bookshelf (Oakes helped me put it together) for Wren's closet which gives me a spot to put diapers, etc. So I spent time putting things like that away then I began packing my "just had a baby" hospital bag and cleaning up the master bedroom so we'd have a clear spot for the bassinet to join us in a few weeks.

On Tuesday night, my friend - and sorority sister from college - came over to discuss possibly being our doula for our birth. She is just completing her doula certification and needs to attend a few births so when I found that out, I told her we'd LOVE to have her as a doula if she wanted the practice.  And since she has to attend 3 live births for her certification, she has agreed to attend ours!  Rachel stayed over and chatted with us for about 2 hours and after she left I felt so much calmer about our upcoming labor.  Just having an extra person in the room who is knowledgeable and compassionate about what we want is a huge relief.  The plan is for us to try doing it all natural - I really truly want to have a natural childbirth and Rachel's done it 3 times herself so I feel like we're in very good hands.

Tomorrow is our ultrasound - I'll try to post pics tomorrow evening! :)

34 Weeks

Happy Halloween!


This past Monday marked our 34 week "birth" date and the belly is a big ole basketball.  Luckily, I haven't had hardly any feet swelling since my last appointment and I think this is due largely to the fact that I haven't had to be in a sitting position for very long (like car trips, etc.).  Yippee! 


So to update you on our lives:

• I finished out my target registry,
• Oma, Opa, and Aunt Amy stopped by for a nice visit and dinner on Saturday night,
• we did Halloween with a son who is no longer afraid of his doggy costume and quickly realized that by saying "trick or treat" he'd get candy :)  Also, Oakes has moved into the "big boy" class at school so the potty training has officially begun (rewarded with Halloween candy, of course!),
• Oakes had a doctor's appointment to follow-up on his ear infection and hand, foot, and mouth (all is good!),
• and we had our 34 week check-up today.  

We've also worked a bit more on Wren's nursery and with an unexpected package from Oma that arrived last week, we were able to add some diapers, wipes, a crib bumper, mattress pads, changing table cover, and a cute pillow to her room!  Oakes and I went through all of the "baby" toys this past weekend and filled a basket full of rattles and toys for Wren to play with when she arrives.  He also helped me begin to fill her nightstand with socks, burp cloths, and bibs.  I've got to say, Oakes has been quite the helper in preparing for Wren and he's super-cute about talking to her in my belly and giving her kisses each night!  His friend, Eli's, mom had her baby girl this past week and Oakes knows all about baby Abbie.  We got to have a sneak peek at her on Halloween and hopefully we'll spend some time over there over the next week or so to show Oakes that Eli is a big brother also.

So here are two belly shots from Monday and our appointment update from today!
Blood Pressure: 114/70

Weight: +1 (total weight gain = +8 pounds)

Heartrate: 150bpm

The belly is measuring at 33.5 weeks (I'm 34w 2d) so that's good. Wren is also not breech and Dr. R said she could even wiggle Wren's head back and forth through my stomach in the lower abdominal region so Wren was definitely in the "ready to launch" position. They also took my 2nd sample for my bloodwork, though the doctor said my numbers from the first one were great so there shouldn't be any need to worry.  Oakes went with us to the appt and got to hear both Wren's heartbeat and his own with the doppler!

Our ultrasound is scheduled for next Thursday, November 10th at 3pm.  And our next doctor's appointment is on Monday, November 14th at 4pm (we have a pelvic exam and our Group B Strep test). After that, we'll begin going weekly to the appointments - yikes! ;) We'll keep you all posted on any progress!

The tides are turning and things are good! :)

First of all, everyone is finally healthy around here (relatively, at least!) and things are getting back to normal in our house.  Yay! 

Second, I was able to reschedule my ultrasound.  It's still scheduled for Thursday, November 10th but they had a 3pm opening so Evan and I are thrilled to have grabbed that time slot.  I'm hoping there is enough time for Evan to pick up Oakes from daycare to bring him along so he can see Wren one more time, but I'm not sure if Evan's schedule will mash with that. 

I checked out Oakes' daycare schedule the other day and it looks like they are still open on Friday the 11th (Veteran's Day) which is a day that Evan and I have off.  And since Evan and I have been trying to figure out a good day / a good way to hit Ikea, we may just try to drop off Oakes at daycare that day, then make a quick jaunt down to Charlotte to finish out the nursery.  But, that's still in the air.  I haven't had any leg swelling since our last road trip to Charleston (which is a 3.5-4 hour drive) so I'm a little nervous about getting in a car for a longer car ride (2 hours each way), especially if we're having to go there and then drive back all in one day (along with walking around a huge store like Ikea all day). 

Also, my "drop-in" shower at school has been scheduled for early December.  There's another teacher at school also expecting her second child a few weeks after me, so we're doing a shower together and the super-nice thing is that the school has decided to do a "supply" shower for us.  So tonight I'm putting together a list of a bunch of the smaller things ranging from socks to diapers that we need.  It's funny that eventhough I'm able to reuse so much from Oakes, there are still so many little things that I need.  Case in point: all of the baby socks and baby hats we have are boy themed or neutral so while I'm okay with Wren wearing those around the house, I'd like to have at least a few things that show the general public that she's a girl if we go out on an errand.  :)

So that's our turn of events.  Last week stunk, and this week looks a whole lot better!  Yippee!

busy bees!

Evan stayed home with Oakes yesterday (Friday) and the two of them finished the frame for Wren's nursery and hung it up.  It was a great surprise to come home to and it really motivated us to put in some time on the rest of the nursery today!

Before I start in on the nursery, I should update you on some doctor news.  I had two voicemails (ummm... I never check our home voicemail so these have been on the phone all week.  Oops!) from the doctor that I listened to tonight.  The first one stated that my thyroid test from a few weeks ago came back normal, but my iron level was slightly low (normal is 11.5, mine was 11.1).  The nurse suggested I add an iron supplement, but since my prenatals are already iron supplemented, I figure I'll just step it up on my leafy greens intake, which I love anyway.  Also, we have an appointment set for our ultrasound, but I'm going to try to change it to later in the day.  Currently, we're scheduled to go on November 10th at 9:15am which is smack in the middle of our school day and is just a really bad time for both Evan and myself.  I'll let you all know if/when I get it changed.

Nursery Updates (with photos)!!!!
We ended up getting the nursery set-up enough so that if Wren makes her entrance way early, we'll be ready for her!  I also went through her dresser and put clothes in drawers and extra clothes for her later months in boxes under the port-a-crib. 

The original artwork was just the ironwork and we both felt that it needed something to make it heftier.  So Evan built the frame around it to beef it up.  He ended up doing a wash of white paint on the wood, then wiping it off which left the white in the grain and looks fabulous. 

The dresser is packed with clothes and the top will turn in to our changing table.  The plan is to add some white floating shelves above the dresser for some extra storage and to display some of her cutesy things.  The port-a-crib is temporary; Wren will get Oakes' crib as soon as he transitions to a big boy bed so we figure she'll only be using the port-a-crib until she's about 5 or 6 months old.

 

Here is our view from the double bed (this bed will go in Oakes' room eventually).  You can see the white storage bench on the right as well as the hanging peg thing that I made this summer under the window (Evan's idea to hang it low so that Wren can actually use it.  How cute is he?)

And now a view from the window seat.  Again, the bed is only in here temporarily and eventually the futon couch - in Oakes' room now - will replace it (which makes me second guess getting a duvet cover styled for Wren's room -- shouldn't I just buy one that will work for Oakes instead?).  We still need something on the wall over the bed and we need to buy the rug to cover the unfinished pieces of floor next to the bed.  Also, I feel pretty strongly about having a bookshelf in her room so we'll probably get some sort of bookshelf to put to the right of the nightstand.

So here's my summer project: the "door-knob-coat-rack-hanging-thing" (I've seriously got no better name than that).  Evan cut the backs of the screws off of it and we mounted it just under the window so Wren could access it.

That's it for now.  We've still got a few small things to finish off but again, if Wren arrives tomorrow we'll be ready for her.  Speaking of which... we've started talking about packing our hospital bag and are beginning to gather things for that.  There are still many weeks before I plan on Wren arriving, but it's best to play it safe, right? 

Updates...

I went in for my bloodwork today and got to speak to both the nurse and to the newer doctor whom I met last week.  My nurse mentioned that Dr. Ramsey had called someone about high-risk pregnancies and they recommended 2 bloodtests so that they could compare the bloodwork and see if I currently have HFM or if all is good (most likely).  They also recommend that I go in for an ultrasound in 3 weeks to just take a look at the baby's heart and make sure everything is good in that department.  In the meantime, we just continue to wash hands like crazy and not share any drinks or meals! ;)

So... I will go back in for bloodwork in 2 weeks (and also for my 34 week appointment with Dr. Ramsey).  Our nurse is faxing my paperwork to MAHEC and they will set-up my ultrasound (my doctor's office doesn't have the fancy high-tech ultrasound machines that MAHEC has).

It doesn't sound like we have anything to worry about.  Everything they are doing is precautionary and as Evan and I discussed this afternoon, if they were truly concerned about something then the ultrasound would be scheduled sooner rather than later.  So please don't worry about this (Mom!) but you are welcome to keep us in your prayers.

As for Oakes, he's definitely not feeling well, but he's being a trooper.  I'm staying home with him tomorrow and if needed, Evan will stay home with him on Friday.  So let's hope he improves a bit!

Painted Nursery Pics

I feel like all I've done for the past week was imagine/work on the nursery.  And I'm okay with that because I enjoy projects like this that I can do on my own (with a bit of help from the hubby, of course). 

Oakes came down with a nasty virus Tuesday night and maintained a 103/104 degree temperature all of Wednesday and Thursday, so with him at home and clinging to us, the house didn't get much attention.  He's rebounded and today is his first full day of being "better," so that's a good thing.  I stayed home with him yesterday and while he took a nap I was able to do the touch-up work on the baseboards and begin putting together the bed frame.  After Evan got home, we ran over to Target to pick up a bedskirt and I did some laundry (side note: our sump pump is not working correctly so in order to do laundry, I have to stay downstairs the entire time and manually plug-in the pump everytime the washer dumps water into the sink for it to drain.  So... I cleaned up the laundry room and my crafting area last night amidst my sump-pump managing).  And once Oakes went to sleep last night, Evan helped me put the double-bed together in the room, move furniture into place, and rehang the washed curtains.



Me, cutting in over the primer for the first coat last weekend.




Looking into the room from the hallway.  Painted chest is under the window.




Looking at the window overlooking the driveway.



There are still MANY things to do, but the room is at least neat and if Wren arrived tomorrow, she has a place to lay her head.  I love the white against the blue walls, but there is an awful lot of white right now nad I feel the need for some major splashes of color to be thrown in there.  Here's a list of the next batch of projects that need to be completed before I'm happy:

• Buy material and sew a window seat cushion (and some pillows?)
• Hang artwork (we have 2 paintings that will stay in the room, but we want another for over the crib)
• Buy a duvet cover for the comforter
• Sew some small bunting for the 2 hanging lanterns above her window seat (my inspiration: http://youhadmeatbonjourblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/lantern-makeover.html)
• Buy 2 rugs - a round one for in front of the rocker/blanket chest and a rectangle to cover the mismatched floor (see photo #2) until we can one day have the floors refinished (any volunteers who want to do this free of charge are more than welcome to!  We'll give you a place to stay and even feed you!)
• Buy material for some fun pillowcases for the bed - we're going to use the bed as somewhat of a "lounge" bed until we move it into Oakes' room for him (at which point the porta-crib in here will be replaced with Oakes' crib)
• Finish cleaning out the dresser drawers and organize Wren's clothes - she is already collecting many clothes for her 6mo+ life but we need to get the 0-3mo clothes stash started and organized.
• Buy some small bins for sorting diapers, etc.

I feel like Ikea is calling my name to finish out that list :)

Nursery Update

I had an amazing weekend to get things done.  We spent Friday night at Evan's parent's cabin with his parents as well as cousin Owen.  On Saturday morning, Evan and I headed back to Asheville as Evan had his Labor Day soccer tournament all weekend.  Dan and Sonja kept both Oakes and Owen and while Evan ran his tail off in the hot weather (this was his first time back on the pitch since his knee surgery, so this was a HUGE event for him!), I primed my tail off in Wren's room.  Covering up all of that dark blue is no easy task, I tell you!  I finished priming Saturday evening and after a shower I ran over to Lowe's to pick up two gallons of the paint.  I began painting the first coat Sunday morning and it went amazingly fast.  After waiting a painful two hours for it to dry (I'm not a very patient person), I began the second coat.  Evan came home just in time to help me roll on some paint as the roller kept hurting my wrist when I had to paint up high.  By about two o'clock, the room was finished!  I absolutely love the color of the room, it's truly perfect.  It's very bright in comparison to the dark blue we had in there prior, but the brightness works and once we get the curtains hung and paintings on the wall it will certainly feel toned down a notch.  I still need to buy some roller shades as this room is on the south side of the house so the sun truly pours in the windows for the better part of the day.  I had considered wooden blinds and still may go that route, but I worry about the slats and the sun relentlessly peeking through them. 

I also finally finished that blanket chest I've been working on. I bought a lid latch on Saturday when I was at Lowe's as I worry about Oakes and Wren having a finger-smashing contest with it, so I'll install that as well and once we get the furniture back into place, Evan can bring that upstairs. 

The walls and trim still need to be touched up and the window seat is looking rough so I have to repaint that, but that's all pretty easy.  I also have to paint inside the window seat as I wasn't thinking things through when I taped the lid to paint and forgot that there would be a dark blue line where the lid rests - nice, huh?  Those are all small jobs though and things I can knock out in an hour or so over the next few months. 

I'm trying to work my patience a little more than normal - usually I'd like to have furniture back in place already.  We turned on the air conditioning so that the paint could cure a bit quicker and over the next few days I'll try working on the trim at night when Oakes goes to sleep.  Hopefully by next weekend we can have the furniture moved into place and can start personalizing it for Wren!  I'll post pictures then!

Bebe Has A Name

We've decided on a name!  It was an incredibly long process for us as we had a long list of contenders and even after narrowing it down, both of us still weren't finding one that we could agree on and love.  So last Wednesday night we decided that we were going to just take the plunge and go with the original name I have loved since we were looking at names for Oakes.  Drumroll please?  Go ahead and practice saying it: Wren Noll Guyer.  We knew from the start that we wanted Noll to be her middle name (it's Sonja's maiden name) and even though we'll now have kids with the names of a tree and a bird, we are both in love with and set on the name Wren for our sweet little Bebe.  Just go easy on all of the nature jokes, everyone! ;)

pass!

I went in yesterday for my 3-hour glucose test (yuck!) and guess what?  I passed!  My amazing doctor's office called yesterday afternoon at 5:15pm to let me know.  Of course, I assumed the worse since they were calling after hours, but my nurse said I had passed with flying colors - yippee!  So thank you for all of the thoughts as we dealt with that!  It was still gross going down the second time and I felt sick to my stomach about an hour after I drank it, but all's well that ends well.

Bebe's Room Update
I also finished putting together the coat rack thingy (really, I can't think of a better name to call it...) for Bebe's room.  Evan still has to saw off the backs of the screws (they are reeeaaalllly long) on the back with the dremel, but it is more or less ready to hang:

We've moved everything except for the dresser into the center of the room and I think I'll probably start to prep the walls and tape things off this Labor Day weekend for future priming and painting.  We ended up giving our wooden bed frame that was in the room to my parents as it was just too bulky to stay in there and Evan's parents have a basic metal bed frame that we're hopefully going to get this weekend to use in Bebe's room.  I figure keeping the bed in there will ensure a tired Mommy or Daddy has a place to catch some Zzzz's on some of those sleepless nights.  So with a three-day weekend ahead of us, I'm hoping to get just a bit more finished in Bebe's room so that we can soon get some color on the walls and get the furniture in place for Bebe's arrival in a short 15 weeks!

Nursery color picked?

Oma and Opa took Oakes to the cabin for the evening which gave Evan and I a nice chance to get some things done around the house (thank you, Dan & Sonja!).  We took a trip over to Lowe's where Evan helped me pick out my tiffany blue paint color I've been imagining in Bebe's room.  We ended up going with "Seaglass" from their Earth Elements line - I've put 2 coats of "test spots" up all around the room to test for lighting, etc. and I think we've found our color!  I've got to say I don't quite trust myself with picking out paint colors on my own.  I have a vision, but I always seem to need Evan's eyes to help make that vision come to life.  Anyway, here are photos of two of the test spots up next to the original dark blue that is currently in the room.  Obviously, we'll be priming first, but picking out a color is a HUGE step in this indecisive girl's world. 

 Other projects we've worked on today:

• This morning I went to a consignment sale and bought about 8 outfits for Bebe girl.
• I put on the first coat of urethane (not really urethane, but the same concept) on the blanket chest I recently painted white for Bebe's room.
• I added another coat of paint and drilled the holes for the coat rack thing I'm making for her room out of knobs we bought in New Orleans.
• Half of her clothes are washed and hung.
• I think we've decided that for the first few months of Bebe's life, we'll just end up using the portacrib in her room (the first few weeks she'll be in the bassinet in our room) since Oakes is still rocking his crib.  So this is a nice cost-saving decision and I like the design of the portacrib enough to be okay with the aesthetics of it as well. :)  A win-win situation!
• Evan has spent the day removing most of the summer harvest plants and then planting our fall/winter garden as well as a few flowers (yellow and red roses and a butterfly bush) that we found on sale.  I think we'll end up needing to buy a chest freezer at some point as we always plant way more than we can eat in a season!

f.a.i.l.

Yup... guess my gut was right: I failed the glucose test.  Boo.  Their benchmark is 140 and I was at 144, so now I get to go and do the fasting 3-hour test.  I went ahead and called the Mission Hospital Lab and my appointment is next Tuesday at 7am.  The plus side is that I'll be in my own little room supposedly with a recliner and TV (but who am I kidding, I'll probably be doing school work for those 3 hours instead of relaxing and watching TV).  I took a half-day that day so that I can then gorge myself on food as I imagine I'll be starving by 10am.  I'm just really not looking forward to drinking that nasty stuff again (and multiple times in that 3-hour period if the rumors I hear are true).

This morning I was thinking about what was different yesterday with the glucose test compared to Oakes' test.  Not sure if it's even a correlation, but I like to try to make connections and figure out the "why's" to things like this that probably don't have an answer. Anyway, the juice tasted disgusting to me this time and I was fine with it whenever I drank it with Oakes.  Also, I remember when I was leaving the doctor's office I felt a bit dizzy as I got to the stairwell -- maybe my sugars were coming back down from all of that?  I also know that I had a terrible headache after the appointment and in to last night.  I thought it was just because I was hungry and Evan was kind enough to have dinner ready for me whenever I got home, but it didn't go away until I fell asleep.  Anyway, just some food for thought.

Again, I'm really hoping that this next test turns out alright.  Dr. Cuellar agreed that my mom probably had gestational diabetes with me as I was so big (10lbs 3oz) so I'm hoping this isn't some sort of genetic thing.  Keep me and bebe in your thoughts next Tuesday!  In the meantime, I'll be eating a less carb-filled diet, I guess!

24 Weeks

Lots of stuff going on around here lately!
1) Converted Oakes' crib to a toddler bed for him in preparation for Bebe.
2) Converted Oakes' crib back to a crib as Mommy and Daddy weren't getting any sleep.
3) School started for Mommy and Daddy, which is always rather exciting.
4) Daddy found out he only has to take his capstone classes to graduate this May (yippee!).
5) Mommy has her Teacher-of-the-Year interview this week.
6) Oakes has had a much better time at "school" lately with no reports of biting or pushing and no more tears in the mornings!  Yay, Oakes!
7) Still haven't decided on a name for Bebe.

We're slowly but surely trying to work on Bebe's room.  We sent my bed frame home with my parents to use in their house when Tina moves out as it's entirely too big to use in a nursery.  So now we'll need to go buy a standard metal frame and we should be good to go with getting the nursery in shape.  I'm still thinking about painting the room and not sure what color.  I've also realized we'll have to buy a crib (see #2 above) so that means a trip to Ikea which also means that I can get a few other items I've had on my radar: duvet cover for double bed in Bebe's room, curtains for Bebe's room, etc.  Evan doesn't know this yet, so um, surprise!  I have been busy painting the blanket chest from the guest room white for Bebe's nursery.  I figure we'll use it for blankets for now and then when the kids get older, it can be a toy box for them. 

I went for my 24 week appointment today and all is good.  Took the glucose test: I didn't think it was all that bad with Oakes but I literally gagged drinking it this time.  That junk is n-a-s-t-y.  I really hope I passed (will find out later this week) so that I don't have to do it again.  For some reason though (and honestly, I don't know why), I'm feeling like I may not pass it.  Again, I have no real reasons to think this, but I just have a gut feeling that I'll be stuck doing the 3-hour glucose test.  And that just sounds like an awful way to spend a day.  Anyway, here are my other stats from the appointment:

Blood Pressure: 118/60 (still higher than normal, doctor didn't say anything though)
Weight: +2 (total weight gain = +2 pounds)
Heartrate: 156bpm

My plan by the next appointment (Monday, Sept. 19th) is to register with Mission Hospital as Dr. Cuellar reminded me today that I'm 60% through the pregnancy right now.  Yowsa!  That really puts this whole pregnancy time schedule into perspective.  I'll be 70% through by the next appointment... craziness.  Guess I'd better start getting my act together! 

On a side note, I'm planning on going to a consignment sale this Saturday and picking up a few items for Bebe girl and some more maternity clothes for myself.