Just some pictures!

Eating chips at their brand new picnic table.  Don't worry, they're baked lays!!  I only give them healthy chips! Ha.

The couch is apparently not big enough for both of them.

Livi watching the animals at the zoo.

Addi pointing at the tigers (or lions as she calls them).

Alivia doing her crazy dance.

I asked her to smile - instead, she breathed in real deeply and said "pee-eww!"

Looked away at the very last second.

Addi had to get face to face with the tiger.  If you look closely, you can see the tiger and they're staring each other down.  The girl has no fear!

Walking with daddy.

To-Do List

I feel like my list isn't getting any shorter.  This baby is going to be here soon, and we have so much to get done yet!!

1) Name the baby!!  If Baby J is a girl, I think we *might* have the name finalized.  But if Baby J is a boy, then we have a problem.  We're really struggling there.

2)  Pack my hospital bag!  With all the preterm labor I had last time, it was packed and in the car 3 months before I was due.  This time, not so much.  I really better get on that.

3)  Do some car seat jockeying in the baby bus.  Both of the girls' seats need to be moved to different locations and the baby seat needs to be installed.

4)  Finish cleaning out the nursery.  There are still a few things that need to go - a TV, a box of CDs and a couple other miscellaneous things.

5)  Unbox (is that even a word?) some of the gender neutral baby clothes we have and wash them.  I will probably wash a couple of the pink outfits we have too just in case.

6)  Sterilize the new bottles we bought for the baby as well as all the bottles and parts for the pump.  I'm hoping not to have to pump as much as I did with the girls, so hopefully we won't even need the bottles right away (or for quite a while), but I better have them ready just in case.

7)  Bring the baby swing, bouncy seat and one of the carseats upstairs.  And then wash the linings on all three things.  After sitting in the basement for over a year, I want to make sure they smell really fresh for the new baby. 

8)  Find the missing Tigger from the mobile.  At some point, we removed a couple of the little Winnie the Pooh animals from the girls' mobiles and let them play with them.  Well, we are now missing one Pooh and both Tiggers.  Hmmm.  We have two Eeyores, two Piglets, and one Pooh.  The others are MIA.  The mobile just won't be complete without Tigger!!

I'm sure there's more, but I'm already overwhelmed.

35 weeks

I'm 35 weeks today.  I had another OB appointment a couple days ago.  I passed inspection right away.  However, the baby didn't.  When Dr L listened to him with the doppler, his heartrate was beating far too fast at about 185bpm.  It's supposed to be under 160.  Dr L just said that sometimes she catches the baby right after he was moving around for a bit and that that would account for the increased pace.  Immediately after saying that, the baby stuck its little butt high in the air at her...and then continued to move around for the next 5 minutes.  Finally, he started to calm down and his heartrate came down nicely with the slowed movements - right to about the 140s to 150s.  What a stinker!

I'm really trying to enjoy these final weeks of this pregnancy.  But it's been sooo incredibly difficult.  In addition to the back pain, I have pretty bad sciatica running down my right leg.  Yeah, I don't look very attractive as I'm dragging my right leg down the hallway at work.  Sometimes if I pivot the wrong way, my whole leg almost gives out on me and I almost hit the floor.  Dr L actually prescribed some Tylenol #3 which I'm so up in the air about taking.  This baby already gets enough Zantac as is.  I don't really want to be giving him anything else!  She also said that we could talk about/schedule an induction for 39 weeks.  I told her that I really don't want to do that because I would rather this baby just be ready to come on his own, whenever that may be.  The only way I may consider an induction is if the pain gets so bad that I'm unable to move at all or interact with the girls.  If it gets to the point that I'm really struggling to feed them or play with them, then I'll seriously have to think about the induction.

In slightly funnier news, try convincing the lady answering the phone at a Chinese restaurant that you would like an order of chicken and broccoli - without the chicken.  Nate and I ordered Chinese last night.  And when he made the order, the lady on the phone with her little accent replied with "haha, is this a joke?"  Nate told her that his wife is pregnant and right away she said "ahhhhhh.  Well, we have mixed vegetable."  When Nate asked if it was made with the same type of sauce she replied with "we'll make you chicken and broccoli, no chicken."  Apparently it's not a very popular order!  Ha!

3rd and final pregnant survey

How far along? over 34 weeks!

Total weight gain/loss: More than I had hoped!  I'm up about 26 pounds.  I only gained 33 with the girls, so I was hoping to maybe only gain about 25 by the end of this pregnancy.  However, I love my sweets much more during this pregnancy than I did with the last.  And the fact that my girls are terrible eaters hasn't helped one bit.  I'm one of those people who has a hard time throwing things away.  So if my girls don't eat it, guess who does?!  Half a sandwich here, a piece of pizza there, some scrambled eggs that weren't even touched, etc.  It all adds up.  Oops.

Maternity clothes? Uhhhh...yeah.

Stretch marks? No new ones that I've been able to identify.  Not that I'm really looking or would really even be able to tell anyway.

Sleep: Still on the couch most nights.  But otherwise, sleep in general is really lacking.  If baby is not moving, he's got the hiccups.  I tried to go to bed at 9pm last night and finally got to sleep at 11:30pm.  And of course up just an hour later to go to the bathroom.

Best moment this week:  The girls kissing my belly.  I don't think they really understand what's going on, but I think they definitely know that this big old protruding belly is not normal for mommy!!

Movement: This baby continues to be very, very active.  In fact, I've concluded that the baby still has major movements when he's sleeping.  It's almost around the clock that there's some tapping or bouncing going on.

Food cravings:  Okay, so I'll admit it.  I'm a Jelly Belly addict.  I hide them and I don't tell the full truth about my consumption of them.  I'm plain old addicted.

Gender: Still a surprise!!!

Labor Signs: Contractions are picking up a bit.  Most continue to be relatively painless.  But I think my body is gearing up.

Belly Button in or out? Does half and half count?  Depending on baby's movement, he can push it out for a bit.

What I miss:  Sleep.  Foods that taste normal.  Sleep.  Not having back pain.  Did I mention sleep?

What I'm looking forward to: I'm finally getting excited to meet this baby.  Not that I wasn't excited to meet this baby before.  But it was too early to meet him.  I mean, it's still a bit early, but we're really close to the end!  So knowing that we're approaching the "safe" time to have him, the excitement is starting to build!

Weekly Wisdom: Pregnant brain (and probably a whole lot of sleep deprivation!) have struck in full force once again, and therefore, I have no wisdom...again.

Milestones: Now that I'm over 34 weeks, I can deliver in our local hospital.

Me at exactly 34 weeks.

And just for comparison's sake.  34 weeks with the girls.  So even though I feel huge, I am MUCH smaller than I was at this point last time.  Heck, I was falling out of my shirt!!

I know I've been slacking

I've just been so stinking tired.  I have absolutely no motivation at all.  So I apologize.  My back has been killing me the past couple of weeks (which I know will only get worse), so sitting at the computer has not been easy.  Heck, sitting anywhere hasn't been easy!

Anyway.  We took the girls downtown today to Summerfest.  They each received a balloon right when we got there.  Adalyn successfully popped hers within seconds.  And Alivia let hers fly away shortly after that.  So we migrated over to the petting zoo.  The girls were really excited to see the animals, but not quite as excited to touch them!  Alivia actually did much better than I thought she would and Adalyn was a bit more hesitant which really shocked me.

By the time the ponies were ready to ride, it had gotten way too hot and we were quickly approaching the girls' nap time.  So we had to leave.  But maybe next year they'll get to ride their first pony!!

Livi trying to touch the guinea pigs.

And also admiring the big turtle.

Addi taking a peek at the tiny chickens.

Both girls watching the chickens.

Addi had just touched the goat.

Empty Nest

I've had the house to myself all weekend and I'm not exactly sure how I feel about it.  Nate took the girls to his parents' house yesterday, so today is my second night at home alone.  I've had to work all weekend, but when I come home at 5:30, there's no one here.  In ways, I'm enjoying it.  For example, yesterday I came home, laid down on the couch right away and fell asleep for about 20 minutes while watching the news.  But in other ways, this is too strange for me.  It's eerily quiet.  I find that I'm shutting the bathroom door behind me out of pure habit and I'm actually sitting on the couch right now blogging instead of at the table.  It's all just odd.

So yes, the rest and relaxation has been nice.  I'm definitely at the point in the pregnancy where I'm coming home from work pretty exhausted and being able to lie down on the couch without any toddlers jumping on me is great.  But I also miss my girls.  However, I'll be headed to work tomorrow morning and when I get home tomorrow night they'll be here waiting for me.  Then I'll probably wish I had just one more day to myself!!

I had another OB appt a few days ago.  Everything continues to look good.  I measured 33 weeks - which is great since I'm going to be exactly 33 weeks tomorrow.  The baby's heartrate was about 160bpm.  I saw the resident first and he thought that Baby J might be head down, which I was pretty excited about.  When Dr L came in, she wasn't entirely sure that the baby was head down.  She thought he might be, but she said she couldn't be positive.  And because the resident had already ventured a guess and because she wanted to confirm his assessment, she pulled the ultrasound machine in...sure enough, Baby J is indeed head down!  Yay!  So hopefully he stays that way now!!

My contractions have been picking up quite a bit lately.  In fact, one night within the past week I was contracting every 4 minutes for about 2-3 hours.  They ended up decreasing in frequency, so I tried not to worry about it too much.  I ran it past Dr L at my appt and she decided to check me really quick.  I'm about 1cm dilated, but she's not really concerned because she said it can be normal in women who've already had a baby.  So I'll just have my regularly scheduled appt in 2 weeks.  By then I'll be just shy of 35 weeks and winding down to the end!!!

Dog days of summer

We went to the park but didn't last long - it was way too hot.

So we went home and had popcicles instead!

Adalyn preferred to lick hers...

Alivia thought biting it was a better technique.