A slightly different kind of count down

At 34 weeks and 5 days I had a sign of early labor and was put on bed rest by my midwife. It's been almost a week and I'm still pregnant! It's been really dull having to lay around the house all day but on a positive note, not being very active and not carrying/holding my 27 pound baby has really relieved my back pain!

We've been so fortunate to have our wonderful church family bringing us meals and lots of people are helping with childcare - although I've been able to just stay home with both kids most of the time. I lay on the floor in Finn's room and play with them, and when they're bored with that we move into Maggie's room, where I lay on her bed and play, and then we move into the living room when we're tired of that! So I'm really getting relaxed in every room.

As of today I'm 35 weeks and 3 days. I just need to make it to 37 weeks which hits officially on October 10, so if you could just pray that she stays put until then, that would be much appreciated! If I go into labor before then then I'll have to go to the hospital and I won't get to have my sweet home birth that I'm looking forward to.

In other baby news, everything is pretty much ready! Her room is really close to finished, I'm almost done with the owl mobile I'm sewing for her, we have all of the baby gear and clothes we need, and now we just need that sweet little girl! Grant said yesterday that it just hit him that she's almost here and we get to see and hold her. This whole pre-term labor/bed rest thing has made us realize how close we are. I personally am DYING to see if she looks just like her siblings, who look just like each other, in my opinion. AND I can't wait to see if we got another red-headed little girl. Fingers crossed!

Countdown

The countdown has begun! Today I'm 34 weeks (and 3 days, but who's counting?!). All of my previous babies have been born anywhere from 37-38 weeks so I'm REEEEAAAALLLY hoping that I'll go around that same time again this time.

I had a midwife appointment today (at my house...awesome!) and everything looks good. I don't have any swelling (which is a miracle considering my first two pregnancies, and taking this insane heat into account). My blood pressure is low (100 over 65 - am I alive?). I'm measuring right on track with everything else and baby is head down. Now all I have to do is survive for 3-4 more weeks.

I have everything needed for my home birth now except a roll of paper towels! I have all the baby things I need (except I could use one more pink hooded towel - gotta get to Target!).

And Finn is officially sleeping in a pink room. Poor guy. I have a feeling he hasn't noticed though.

If I can work up the nerve I'll post a picture of myself. Lord, help me.

Another family video

Grant made this video for me back in May, for Mother's Day. It's really silly but funny (the last part where Grant has Maggie in slow motion makes me crack up every time). It makes me miss the days when Maggie had long hair and Finn would just sit still for a few minutes! But not really - I do miss Maggie's long hair but the stage they're at right now is pretty fun.

Anyway, enjoy!

Maggie Sings- mothers day 2010 from Howardyoudoing on Vimeo.

Finn's turn

Since the last post was predominantly about Maggie I thought I'd devote a blog post to the sweetest, most handsome little boy I know: Finn.

You know how everyone thinks their own child is the smartest child they know? Well, I'm no exception:) I think Finn is SO smart!

He loves to point out the objects he knows when he sees them in books, for instance, the moon. Whenever he sees a moon in a book he points to it and says, "Moon." He does the same for dogs, babies, apples, cars, buses, and several other things. When he hears a dog barking he stops what he's doing and says, "DOG! Ruff, ruff!"

He's also at that stage where he turns everything into a phone and holds it up to his ear. He says, "Yeah, yeah...yeah, yeah...yeah, yeah...bye-bye." I know where he learned that behavior from and I'm a little embarrassed but I can think of much worse things he could copy from me. But don't expect me to give any examples.

He's also a little bit of a tease. Today I was getting ready in the bathroom and he came over saying, "Up! Up!" I squatted down to pick him up and I said, "Hold you? Up?" and reached out for him. He ran away, laughing, and saying, "No, no, no, no, no!" He came back and the exact same scenario was repeated at least ten times.

Have I written about his Power Move yet? He must be watching some WWF wrestling when we're not looking. He'll walk over to one of us when we're sitting on the floor, put both of his hands up above his head, and then slam his whole body down on us. It's pretty funny, but he's a stout little guy and there is some power behind his Power Move!

Ohhhh...I just love that little guy. Although I'm worn out daily by the challenges of parenting, I count my blessings EVERY DAY. I'm so lucky to get to parent these amazing children (plus one more!)

Pregnancy Update-
As of today I'm 31 weeks along. Since I've gone 2-3 weeks early every time I'm DESPERATELY hoping that I'll do it again with this baby. If that does happen, then I'm about 5-6 weeks from NOT BEING PREGNANT ANY MORE!!!!!! I am over being pregnant. My sciatica has been horrible, probably due in large part to the fact that I'm still toting around a 25-lb baby much of the time. He's walking really great but still needs to be held/carried a lot (parking lots, uneven terrain, etc.). Two nights ago I couldn't fall asleep until 1am because the sciatica was causing my legs to go numb and I couldn't get comfortable. The baby kicks a lot and is very active, so that's a lot of fun. I love it when I'm rocking and singing to Finn before his nap and the baby kicks him. If only he knew what an ominous warning it was :) Let the countdown begin!