Miss me??????

Its been a few days since I last posted...did ya'll miss me?! I know Kelli did....thanks for the 'just checking in to make sure you're alright' email, Kel.....it felt good to know it my blogging was missed at-least a little. It's been a busy week, so I think I'll post in sub-headings.....

You know what they say about the squeaky wheel getting the oil???
That's kinda how I felt this week....my post from last week caught so much attention and comments that I kinda felt like maybe I should complain more often to get some of ya'll to post a comment or two! Sheesh! ***wink, wink***

My week in a nutshell....
Monday: A car-less day, since my 'ride' was in the shop for repairs. We hung out at home, doing laundry, catching up on chores and such, before Ty came home and I headed to a doctors appointment to get some suspicious looking moles on my skin checked out. All's well....have a dermatology appt. to have few removed two days before the baby is born!

Tuesday: Car-pick up day! Yay! I hate being without a car! Looking back, I have NO idea what I did that day! Grocery shopping, I think...sans Luke! :) A rare occurence!

Wednesday: Ummmm....again....no recollection! An interesting week, no? There's that pregnancy brain for ya!

Thursday morning: Hudson came to 'play' for the morning, while Sarah took Angel to some doctor's appointments. It was a good chance for Luke to have a play-date! Hudson arrived at 7:45 am and the morning was a non-stop play session for them (and a potty-training extravaganza for me! Whoa! Two toddlers learning to use the potty is back-breaking work, but they both did SO well and it was cute to watch them encourage one another!). One never realizes how active toddlers are until you get them together for an extended period of time! They had a blast playing in the playroom, learning to share, watching a little My Gym video together, snacking and just being silly, as you can see here:

They are good buddies! We shared a little cooking adventure too. We made Peanut Butter Clay (aka...edible play-doh) and that was a highlight of the morning. Here are the two washing up before we began:

Then anxious to start and full of enthusiasm"

And mixing....I was too engrossed in the fun (with hands full of dough!) to snap any photos while they played!

Sarah came back around 1:30 with lunch for all of us (thanks, Sarah!) and by then both boys were WORN OUT! Playing is hard work!

Thursday afternoon: Can you say N-A-P!!!! For both Luke and I! Phew! Much needed! But I awoke feeling even worse than I had before I slept! What's up with that?! Let's just say it was an emotional, and energy-zapped afternoon and Ty came home to find me sitting in my rocking chair upstairs with tears streaming down my cheeks. :( Luke was being such an angel, but I was so sore, frustrated, not feeling well and contracting a lot. My husband, being the sweetie that he is, came to my rescue with a long hug, lots of sympathy and an offer to take a drive for some fresh air. Ahhh....what a little change of scenery will do to take your mind off your own discomfort! We took a slow, leisurely drive up to Oak Glen with the windows rolled down (it was almost sunset) and just soaked in the beauty. We mosied home for a dinner of left-overs and I was conked out on the couch by 8:30.

Friday: brings me to my next sub-heading....

Reaching the summit!
Today marks 35 weeks of pregnancy! THIRTY-FIVE WEEKS!!!! I slept incredibly well last night (after several nights of fitful and broken shut-eye!) and I awoke with the feeling that I have reached yet another pregnancy milestone! I have, in my mind, hit the summit....the top of the mountain. Her development is pretty much complete and if she were born tomorrow, all would be well. The next three weeks are just a down-hill coast of fattening her up and dealing with my own discomfort. Gone are the worries. All is well. There is no longer anything to fear! What an awesome feeling!!!! Praise be to God!

35 weeks also seems to mark a new level for me as well....one in which my energy can be completely zapped in the matter of moments. I have found myself experiencing some strange episodes of extreme fatigue and funkiness the last two days. Almost like a sudden shift in my blood pressure, where all I can do is sit down and try (sometimes in vain) to catch my breathe and find a position where I am semi-comfortable. It seems to be related to my water in-take, and when I'm a little dehydrated, it's bad! But it gets better once I get a little more water in me, so I'm chugging like a camel! I know it's not a pre-term labor thing.....I'm not worried about that just yet. But I have to be careful not to over-do it now. and I'll be sure to mention it to Dr. Hage at my appointment on Monday. A bit frustrating, but so it goes, I guess.

6th in the nation...
An interesting tid-bit Ty found on the net tonight....our little city of Beaumont is the 6th fastest growing subburb in the nation, according to Yahoo. Here's the link, in you're interested.
http://promo.realestate.yahoo.com/americas_fastest_growing_suburbs.html

And last but not least....
The baby's room in complete!!! The letters that I ordered to spell her name out on the wall came in the mail today, so we were able to place the finishing touches on her decor and now I can officially announce her name (even though most of you already knew.....)


When we got home from the baby shower in June, Luke simply began calling her "Ellie" and after several days, we made it official. She is now lovingly referred to as Ellie in the Belly 'round our house! Here is the rest of her room....




A teeny pair of Bunny Slippers.. ***sniff, sniff***

And a closet fit for a princess...


Do you like it?! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it! It turned out just as I had hoped! It took awhile, but we did it! :)

And that, my friends....
.....is all she wrote. I think I've written quite enough for one posting tonight. Time to relax a bit before sleep. More to come, I'm sure. Now go and enjoy your weekend! :) Oh! And leave me a comment, would ya?! :)

Better days.....

Sunday morning....5:45. Couldn't sleep. I've actually been 'up' since 4:45, but awake in bed since somewhere around 4:15. Insomnia, night sweats and a irrationally hungry belly! Gotta love 'em! So instead of tossing and turning, I opted to get up, pour myself a bowl of cereal and work on the 'puter for awhile. A quiet house is always good blogging atmosphere. :)

So anyway...after my last post and a few days time, life seems a bit more tolerable. I was just feeling overwhelmed. The weekend has been better. Probably because Ty is home and I've been distracted by life. The discomfort is still there (as it will be more and more over the next 3 and a half weeks, I know) but the emotional sensitivity has abated for a bit. Thank you so much you guys, for all the supportive comments you left and to those who called or emailed me instead! I felt your love and warmth through your words. They were much needed and appreciated. It was good to feel rallied around and uplifted. Thank you! :)

The weekend has been pretty busy for us, surprisingly. We actually had NO plans until Friday afternoon. We thought it was going to be a rather ho-hum kind of weekend. But our new neighbors (who have a little boy who is 19 months) asked if we wanted to get together for dinner and my parents invited us to the beach. So yesterday, we got up early for a concrete guy to come and give us an estimate on our patio, ran some errands as a family and then came home to prepare for our dinner guests. Having them over was as good an excuse as any to give the house a pretty thorough cleaning, so I'm enjoying a tidy abode this morning! :) Ty was busy whipping up the best strawberry shortcake EVER in the kitchen in the afternoon, so I dawned my supportive back brace and attempted to vacuum the floors. Of-course Ty wanted me to wait for him to do it, but I insisted that I could give it a try. Not smart. I paid the price for my exertion last night in the form of some pretty intense low back pain. Lesson learned. Absolutely NO vacuuming for me until post-partum! I actually haven't vacuumed in many weeks....until yesterday. Ty's been great about helping!

Anyway...I digressed. Our little dinner turned out to be really nice! It's just such a joy to have neighbors our own age, with kids that Luke can play with. We seem to have a lot in common and it just makes living here all the more enjoyable. I've never really had neighbors who were (or had the potential to be) friends. Its a novel concept for us, but we love the impromptu chats in the front yard or the mini play sessions with Luke and Egan. Our long-standing prayers for good neighbors when we moved in here have been answered. Our block is actually full of very nice people. Yay!

Dinner lasted a little later than we planned last night, but that was okay. After they left, I scrambled to get Luke in bed (it was almost 9:15!) and get things pulled together for the beach today. We'll be heading down to Carlsbad where my parents have their timeshare, to have a quiet afternoon lounging in the sand and getting 'away' for a bit. I'm looking forward to the change of scenery, and I know that Luke will have a blast...especially with Grandma and Grandpa there to play with! It was ALL he talked about before bed last night. "Doe to da beach wif Dwampa an Dwamma after nigh-nights???" Sweet boy. I'm a little interested to see how the potty training will be at the beach. Who knows if we will be close to a restroom, or if I'll even be brave enough to allow him to use it! Eewww! Beach potties are NASTY things! He wears a swim diaper at the pool still, so I guess maybe he'll be in one at the beach too?! Ahh...the things we mommies have to figure out. Dilemma, dilemmas.

Overall, the potty training is still going pretty well. He stayed dry and clean all day yesterday until Egan had a poppy diaper while playing here. Then miraculously, Luke had an accident minutes later. Was he feeling left out of the whole diaper changing experience, or something?! I was a little irritated with him, since by now, he knows to tell me he has to go. But oh well. I just re-enforced the "you need to tell Mommy before you go because it's not okay to poop in your big boy pants" thing and let it go. I could tell he knew better. But I can't complain too much when he's doing so well most of the time. Accidents are going to happen.

Hmmm...what else? I turned 34 weeks on Friday! :) YAAAAHOOOOO!! That is precisely 2 weeks and 6 days longer than Luke! It's a celebration each and every day! I decided to snap a few self-portraits really quickly when Luke went down for his nap yesterday, just to log my belly progress. Wanna see one?


And this one is one Jennifer took last weekend when we at my mom's for Kailyn's birthday. I just thought that big 'ol belly looked funny to me! Not the prettiest of pictures, but you get the idea of how much she's growing in there! You can see that I'm actually attempting to pull down the edges of my shirt, since my belly was hanging in the breeze! I'm outgrowing everything!


So.....that's 'bout it for now, I think. I'm sure I will be hearing the pitter-patter of little feet upstairs soon, so I'm going to log off for now. Thank you again, my friends, for your loving words this week! Lord knows I needed them and will probably be in need of them again in the coming weeks! :) Have a wonderful Sunday!

Taking a ride on the hormone coaster?

Ahhhh...the up's and down's of pregnancy hormones. Am I hormonal???? I must be. There really isn't any other explanation for why I feel as I do. I'm actually quite sensitive the last two days. Not moody or cranky, really. Just sensitive to a lot more than I usually am. Sensitive in a way that makes me feel sad and lonely more often. :( I'm in a funk, and I don't like it. Especially when I only have four more weeks left until our little missy arrives. I want to enjoy these last few weeks and make the most of having one on one time with Luke during the day and Ty in the evenings, because I know those days are now numbered. But even the things that I want to do, I don't feel physically up to doing. I'd love to head to the zoo to use our passes one last time before she arrives, or spend a day at the beach. Or take Luke to the park to play (he hasn't been in what seems like ages because it's been so hot!). But all those things require so much exertion on my part that I don't truly believe I could handle it. Especially when its so hot. I feel frustrated and I feel like I'm jipping Luke. Poor child. He needs to play outside and be active more than he is. HOW do other pregnant woman do it this late in the game? I'm not one to usually be a wimp about things...I'm usually quite self-sufficient and active....but now I have to both rely on others and I tire easily or I'm so uncomfortable that I can't do what I'd like to, which is hard for me. And then, I feel guilty for complaining or moaning about how tough everything feels. Hopefully, you all know me well enough by now to know that at ANY time, I feel extremely blessed and lucky to be sitting here typing to you at 34 weeks pregnant, with a healthy pregnancy. I truly, in my heart of hearts, do NOT take any of this for granted! I know what it's like on the 'other side' and I thank God all the time that I'm not there right now! But does that gratefulness also require me to keep quiet about how hard it is sometimes? Sometimes it feels like I'm not allowed to voice it. Or maybe I don't allow myself to voice it, I don't know. Then there is the other side of that coin....the twinge of guilt and irritation I feel when people say "See....now this is what you've been "missing" with Luke's pregnancy. You're sure experiencing now, aren't you?" or "It's not all that it's cracked up to be, huh?" It feels almost as if they are telling me to shut up and stop moaning about it.....this is what I asked for after all, right? :( (And no Mom, I'm not pointing fingers at you....I've heard these things several times). Feels kinda crappy. And I know that whenever something like that is said, it's not said to be malicious....no one would intentionally be mean. I know that. It just doesn't always come across as maybe it was intended. And yes....I DID ask for this (many, many, many times!) and I AM grateful (more than probably anyone could know!) but I can't say that the fact that every single bend or twist hurts, or how each step I take is riddled with either back, tummy, or foot pain....that having to sit to 'rest' so often makes me feel like others see me as a wimp, or that sleeping in hour spurts at night and waking fitfully in pain or a hot sweat and THEN having to care for a little boy all day and keep our home in decent condition, food on the table (and in the pantry) AND then be in a pleasant mood about it all isn't tough. Grrrrrrrr...........maybe tomorrow will I will feel better.

Alright....enough of a rant. Just one picture for today to share....as Luke and I were hanging out in the afternoon after his nap, he found a book in the coffee table that my mom had give me recently. He plopped his little nakey body down on the couch and began flipping through the pages. I guess he was feeling the need for some preparation too....


It is a book about the history of birth through the ages. Pretty interesting. I was able to snap a quick shot of him (a blurry one at that!) just as he was deciding he was 'done'. I just thought it was quite ironic that he picked THAT particular book. :) Silly kiddo.

Well....I'll blog again soon. I have to get some computer work done this morning before my little guy awakens. Until then.......

In just one short month.....

...our little girl will be here! :) Hard to believe! ONE month from today! Phew!

I saw Dr. Hage this afternoon and all is well. My BP was a little higher (116/78) than my last (112/70), but nothing to worry about. Still no protien, no swelling....no worries! :) Yay! I was utterly convinced that she was laying transverse (sideways) in there, but when Dr. Hage scanned me real quick to verify (he said he'd rather her be breech than transverse....easier to deliver, I guess) she was actually head down. I was quite surprised, since I for sure what I was feeling poking out all the time was her little round head. But apparently, it was her little, hard butt! :) Hehe. What do I know!?

Other than our doctor's appointment, Luke and I opted to stay home all day while I picked up the house, did massive amounts of laundy, ironing and just 'stuff'. We've had a productive and completely successful potty training day (so far!) , which is WONDERFUL! I'm SO proud of Luke! He's really doing an awesome job!

That's it from me today....short and sweet. Time to cook dinner, so I had better get a move on! More to come....

Mission Potty Training: Day 2

Its actually Day 3 as I'm typing, since I didn't have time to blog yesterday. Just a quick update....

The day started off well......potty usage right off the bat in the morning and we were on a roll until mid-morning until we had a yucky accident around 10am. Luke had told me that he needed to go potty and hustled to the bathroom (we had been waiting for poop!) but when he got there, I had to answer the phone and he told me he didn't have to go anymore. Being the stupid mommy that I was, I believed him (WHY did Id o this?????!!!) and let him play a few more minutes while I finished my quick phone conversation with Ty. Well....I learned my lesson because not one minute passed before Luke was standing in the office doorway with the 'look' on his face. He had had an accident. And not a pretty one, I might add. I was SOOO frustrated. Not at him....how could I be.....I was frustrated with myself! And I got to pay the price for my negligence......cleaning poopy pants. THAT was just SO MUCH fun, let me tell you!

So...lesson learned. No waiting...even if you think its a false alarm! Better to be safe than sorry!
Luke stayed clean and dry all the rest of the day and even through his nap!!!!! We are still putting him in a Pull Up for sleep, but when he woke from his 2 hour nap completely dry, I was ecstatic!!!! After naps, Ty was home so decided to head out to pick my car up from the shop (it's still not fixed....apparently there is a crack in the cooling reservoir...it's leaking coolant, and we think that will be covered under warranty, so we'll be taking it to the dealership instead. More days without a car.....pooey!!) Anyway, I digressed. We left the house around 3 pm and Luke used the potty right before we went. We went to the car place, by Meemaw's house to see if she was home (she wasn't), then to Target to pick up birthday gifts for my nieces and then for a drive around to for ideas for our block wall that we will be building. We were gone for nearly 3 hours and despite asking Luke if he needed to use the potty several times, he managed to stay dry the WHOLE time! Yay for Luke!!!! We came home, pottied and then went to play at the neighbors house for just a little bit. It was while he was playing with his neighbor friend, Egan that he had a little pee accident (must've been too excited and busy playing to tell me he had to go) so we walked back home, changed pants and all was well after that. All in all, not bad for just our second day! 2 accidents and a long venture out of the house. I'm pleased. I think that maybe this won't be as bad as I thought it might be. We'll keep plugging along!

Thanks for checking in! And THANK YOU for your comments lately....I love knowing you're out there and that you're willing to tell me so!