Birthday Party Success

YAY! We were able to have Nora's birthday party today - we spent most of the morning straightening up and cleaning so no sledding today - but Emily's out of school tomorrow so maybe they'll go out and play again tomorrow sometime.

Nora had a blast at her party - she was quite the little hostess as people came in the door! Emily helped the little ones get settled in too which was a help! We started with the kids making little oceans in a bottle, then had a treasure hunt and then a fishy bouncing game. Onto cake and presents and just some play time. They had a great time.. here are a couple pictures and videos from the event and if you want to see all the pictures - here's the link to the album on Walmart:

http://photos2.walmart.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2838108004/a=3401034_3401034/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=walmart/

Snow Day #2

Today the snow finally stopped - we have about 6-8 inches on the ground and snow drifts in the corners of the house much higher (see the picture below of the door open in our bedroom- Gabby actually has to jump over it to get out!)
So today was just a snow day - lots of fun for the kids - Morgan not so much with shoveling the driveway and sidewalks. They were outside for about 3 hours between playing out back, "helping" Morgan out front and building various objects in the snow... good packing snow this time. Emily's religious ed. class has already been canceled for tomorrow so I figure it will mean more snow time - maybe a snowman this time? or some sledding? and then Nora's birthday party in the afternoon.

Morgan did venture out this afternoon for a run to the hospital to drop off my sample filled jug (all clear on that end - they already called with the results) and then made a quick food store run. He said the big roads were decent but the neighborhood roads not so good ... and that we now have the best looking driveway around (most people don't shovel)... So here are some pictures from the girls playing outside (Gabby had a blast too).. and then if you want more.. .here's the link to the album at Walmart:
http://photos2.walmart.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2832614004/a=3401034_3401034/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=walmart/

Snow Day

Today was an official snow day - the sleet came down most of the night and morning and then changed to snow this afternoon. It's still snowing now but only flurries - we have about 5 inches out there and the girls can't wait to get out there and play!
A few pictures from this afternoon - about 1-2 inches of sleet.. not fun to play or walk on...
Then the snow started....
This is what it looks like out back tonight... lots of drifts too... so in the corners of the house and fence it's pretty high.
We've put off Nora's party until Sunday afternoon - the roads will still be pretty bad in the morning... but Sunday is looking good.

Crazy Crazy Day

What a crazy crazy day! We got Emily off to school on time and from there I was heading to my dr. appt for what I thought was a quick blood pressure check. Boy was I wrong!! Thankfully Mom came with me with Nora... they first waited for my first check up which wasn't good enough for them to allow me to go home. So up to labor and delivery they sent me... so we relocated (after already being there for a half hour)... upstairs and I deposited Mom and Nora in the waiting room there. They hooked me up to everything from the baby heart monitor, a blood pressure cuff and a pulse monitor.

At 10:00 I saw my dr. and she wanted to run a battery of blood tests to make sure I didn't show any signs of preeclampsia. She said it would take about an hour and a half to complete and get the results back. At that point I called Morgan to be able to check on Mom and Nora and bring them home if needed. Well, 3 and a half hours after that I finally got the all clear to go home - not without my orange jug that I'm supposed to pee in for 24 hours and get back to the hospital tomorrow. Well, Morgan will be bringing it so I don't slip in the lovely weather we have! So for now it's so so so good to be home.. what a long long day!!! After listening to Peanut's heartbeat for 5 hours and watching my contractions on the monitor I was still ready to get out of there. I felt so bad for Mom out there with Nora that long - we were certainly not prepared with snacks and toys to have her busy for 5 hours so I'm sure Mom's pretty tired too!

We got home with about 20 minutes to spare before Emily got home from school - the girls had fun getting goodies from Mom and playing some before dinner.

We are now listening to the pitter patter of sleet hitting the windows - no snow yet but a nice slick coating and icicles already on the patio furniture out back. Here's the current radar - so nice and colorful! Blues and white are snow - the pink and purple is the freezing rain and sleet and the other is rain... It's 28 right now ... school hasn't been called off but we'll see what happens come morning!

Week 38 Update

Hi Everyone!
Nothing new to report here - since I've been taking it really really easy though I haven't snapped any pictures in the past couple days. I did receive my week 38 update this morning so I'll post that.
Right now we're just hanging out - watching a few different things... the weather for one - it's supposed to be pretty nasty over the next couple days - rain, freezing rain, sleet and snow.. all before the week is out. I'm hoping we can still have Nora's birthday party on Saturday - if not, we'll aim for Sunday.
The other is flights - Mom will be boarding soon and will be on her way... so glad that she was able to switch her flight especially with the incoming weather now too!!
So I'm sitting here and scrapbooking while Nora is coloring... hopefully she'll have a nice quiet day today too and let me just sit as much as possible!
Here's the latest on Peanut (I go back tomorrow for my blood pressure check - hopefully it will be fine and we'll just see the dr. agian on Monday for my regular appt!
"How your baby's growing:Your baby has really plumped up. She weighs about 6.8 pounds and she's over 19 1/2 inches long (like a leek). She has a firm grasp, which you'll soon be able to test when you hold her hand for the first time! Her organs have matured and are ready for life outside the womb.

Wondering what color your baby's eyes will be? You may not be able to tell right away. If she's born with brown eyes, they'll likely stay brown. If she's born with steel gray or dark blue eyes, they may stay gray or blue or turn green, hazel, or brown by the time she's 9 months old. That's because a child's irises (the colored part of the eye) may gain more pigment in the months after she's born, but they usually won't get "lighter" or more blue. (Green, hazel, and brown eyes have more pigment than gray or blue eyes.)"

Happy Birthday & Peanut

Happy Birthday Nora!!! She was so excited when she woke up - so cute... sat up saying she was 3 now and that it's her birthday party day! Our morning was a tad crazy after that though.... Morgan was at work all night... I had a dr. appt. pretty soon after getting Emily to school... so off we went... gathered everyone up and off to school we went... after that we ran to the bank... then to UofA to get Morgan to come to my appt... then there we were.

It started off with my blood pressure being a little high - I usually run low so they said they would check again before I left. Dr. Birch came in - mentioned the blood pressure... checked the baby's heartbeat - nice and strong in the 130s/140s... the baby is head down and I measured 38 weeks which is what I am weekwise... my antibody count from last week is back down to a 2 and oddly enough my Group B strep results came back negative - with both girls it was positive... anyway - then the baby check... I am now 2-3 cm. dilated and 75% effaced... so things are progressing - but Dr. Birch noticed my ankles were a little swollen (nothing like what they were with Emily) and that combined with the blood pressure being higher she was concerned. So she has me coming back on Thursday to just check my blood pressure - if' it's fine than we're good until my next appt. Monday. I've had another time that my blood pressure was high but then checking like they did this time at the end of the appt. it was ok (just as it was today). I know this weekend was crazy and I wasn't drinking as much water as usual so hopefully that was just it... but just to be on the safe side Mom was able to change her flight and is coming up Wednesday. So now Peanut just needs to stay put until then - I've tried to take it easy this afternoon and just rest... so as long as I can do that tomorrow and Wednesday I think it will be ok...

Then for the birthday celebrations... Nora was so so excited. A couple more birthday packages came in the mail - so the girls were enjoying dressing up, dancing to music box music and watching themselves on the computer's webcam...

Then Morgan came home between meetings to enjoy cake and birthday presents.

They played, ate, and then off to bed. I'll be heading that direction soon as well - trying not to worry about things but just hoping to sleep good tonight! Here are a few pictures from tonight - if you want to see all of them... here is the link at Walmart:
http://photos2.walmart.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2809984004/a=3401034_3401034/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/

Busier Than Planned Day

Today was going to be a busy morning but ended up being a busy day. A little more achy than I figured I'd be and a few more contractions but that could be because I indulged in too much Coke today too... but before dinner we had some down time and the girls played with the webcam for a while which was nice...

But backing up some... my morning some what started at 3am when Nora came into bed with me - before I could even voice an opposition she was in Morgan's spot (he was at work all night in the lab) cuddled up in the blankets and honestly I didn't feel like trying to drag her back into her bed.. so there she stayed. We fell back to sleep until 6 when we watched some TV.. by 6:30 I heard Emily in her room and went to invite her in to veg some more but when I got to her room she was all dressed and ready to go for pictures...

So we got up - had breakfast... the girls played Barbies while I got dressed... Morgan got home and we left. We first stopped to get our comforter after getting it cleaned from throw up mess... then to JCPenney's for Nora's 3 year old pictures. They did so good - I actually already have the link to share that has all the pictures and composites that they put together.. you can take a look here:
To view the pictures click below and enter the Customer Name, SANDRA WARE:
https://www.smilesbywire.com/home.asp?AC=LTPP0701103012JCPSHR

We then went to Claire's - Emily had a coupon from getting her ears pierced to get a discount on her next pair. She wanted to get some hoops and so we did that and got the girls some lip gloss.. so fun! Then to the food court for lunch... after lunch - we headed to get our haircuts.. all 4 of us got all prettied up and then off to the library... we had some books due and I didn't know if we would make it to storytime this week or not so this way they have some new books. From there we grabbed a snack at the little coffee shop there and home for a Skype appointment with the May's... the girls were so excited to chat with Kellianne! So cute... they then played watching themselves dance and make funny faces until we found Morgan's mom online and said hi to her... then off to grab dinner and back home for bed. Whew! Tomorrow SHOULD be calmer. :o)

Lots going on

These were my helpers last night - I still try and tutor here and there even though it's hard around the belly to sit typing with the computer sometimes... but it's still a nice way to earn a little extra money and I don't want to be placed on their inactive list... I did put in for a maternity leave though after the baby's born.
Last night went really really good! Nora slept all night - she got up for the day at 5:45 but I'll take that over up 3 times or more during the night! It was so nice to sleep plus I didn't wake up as much as I usually do with bathroom breaks so a double plus!

The rest of today was really pretty quiet - Nora was busy as always - I was having a few braxton hicks contractions - nothing major and nothing to get excited about - I had them for about a month before Emily was born! But still, signs of things moving along... I did some laundry and got a meal together for a mom in the MOMS club that just had a new little one... and sat! I haven't been upstairs in about a week but need to get up there to clean up some toys from the girls playing last week... but it'll get done!

When Emily got home the girls played with the fish some more but made it more of an ocean game and turned into mermaids... they did that 'til dinner.. then bath/showers and off to bed. Nora's asleep and Emily will be following soon.

We have a couple things to do tomorrow morning - Nora's 3 yr. portraits and then family haircuts... then home the rest of the day - maybe I can sneak a nap while Morgan's home!

Quiet day?

So much for a restful night - I'm not sure how Nora would have slept with her cough and all but we had horrible storms come through at 3 different times last night which had me up as well as Nora. She ended up in bed with me saying the thunder was too loud in her room. When we woke up everything was tossed around outside... crazy weather!
The other surprise of the morning - before I even got into her room Emily was up and dressed. She was ready for school and done with breakfast by 7... we leave at 7:35... it was quite a shock - she even had time to make a whole potholder while waiting!Nora spent the day playing with various birthday gifts that came through out the day.. nice that the delivery trucks space it out some. :o) We were going to go to storytime but between the rain and cold day... and then I did laundry and straightened up some this morning -well, that was the end of my energy for the day.
The girls had fun after school playing on of the planned games for Nora's birthday party next weekend. Things got a little crazy but they had a good time!
As for the quiet day title - Nora was busy on one hand but interactive busy ... so always wanting me to play with her and "talk" her animals and toys... usually love to but these days getting a little tough... but the quietness that I realized today is the phone. For a month now we canceled the landline and the house is so quiet - the phone doesn't ring constantly... it's so nice!!!

A Day of Sleepy Eyes

Today was just a day - got food shopping done but the rest of the day I could have curled up in bed and slept all day. I just could not wake up! I think Nora's night time coughing fits are starting to wear on me - not that I sleep great anyway - but I get up, go to the bathroom and right back to sleep.. but with Nora getting up it's more a big procedure... so we're hoping for quiet restful slumbers tonight!

This morning Nora was so excited to have some birthday presents to open! She can not wait until her birthday and then her birthday party! She's so funny! But the girls had fun playing with everything and then off we went to school and to Walmart.
After that , thankfully, Nora played mostly on her own all afternoon - she'd bring me things here and there but otherwise I would just keep checking on her and she was quite content either reading books, playing barbies, puzzles or magnets! It was great. Not that I could actually sleep but at least veg in one spot most of the day...
We then picked up Emily from school and headed to piano - back home for dinner but had to pull Emily away from her books - she loves to read!!

Today I had more belly motion - nothing too new - just some different stuff - or I'm just taking it as different since I know things are progressing and getting closer. Just with every squat down to help Nora with something, I find myself wondering "should I be doing this?"... hmm.. Guess we'll find out Monday how things are coming along which is when my next appt. is. :o) But here is my 37 week update.. 3 weeks to go 'til my due date:
"How your baby's growing:Congratulations — your baby is full term! This means that if your baby arrives now, his lungs should be fully mature and ready to adjust to life outside the womb, even though your due date is still three weeks away.

Your baby weighs 6 1/3 pounds and measures a bit over 19 inches, head to heel (like a stalk of Swiss chard). Many babies have a full head of hair at birth, with locks from 1/2 inch to 1 1/2 inches long. But don't be surprised if your baby's hair isn't the same color as yours. Dark-haired couples are sometimes thrown for a loop when their children come out as blonds or redheads, and fair-haired couples have been surprised by Elvis look-alikes. And then, of course, some babies sport only peach fuzz."

Progressing....

We had a nice quiet morning this morning - Nora played baby dolls, magnets, cootie bug... I even got a nap while she played that on my bed... we ate lunch and then headed outside. It was beautiful out today! We got up to 62 today! It was great.. while outside I took care of a few things (nothing too strenuous!) and played with Nora. She loves being outside and playing on the swings.
We then had a treat of a couple helicopters going over... I miss all the air traffic we had in MD... there was always something neat going overhead...
But obviously Nora doesn't share my opinion as this is how she was "hiding" from them until they were gone.
She obviously recovered fine and continued her swinging adventures.
She then decided to give her bouncy ball a try ... up until now her legs haven't been long enough to do it herself - well, today they were - she was so excited!!
We then headed out to get Morgan to go to my dr. appt. I'm glad that I had told Emily I wouldn't be making it to her Brownie meeting as they were running pretty slow today at the office. I got there... everything looks good.. .blood pressure - weight..... 37 weeks now - baby's heartbeat was in the 140s... she also started my weekly "progression" checks... I'm dialted 1 cm (needs to get to 10) and 50% effaced (needs to get to 100%). So we're moving along! My antibody count remained stable since last night - she had blood drawn again today and will again in 2 weeks which should be the last time. So all looks good...

Back to school to get Emily... then home for dinner, homework and baths. Nora's still coughing - last night was a little better but she's still up a bunch at night... so we'll see how tonight goes.

Scheduling Fun

Ok - so I'm finally feeling the pinch of scheduling dilemmas... it's like everything has to happen mid-February... the first one was Nora's 3 yr. check up - the only appt. they had close to her birthday was 2/11 (reminder - my due date is 2/10) - so after much discussion I changed it to the end of the month, then yesterday we got a note in Emily's PRE folder that her First Reconciliation Service (she has to go to get her 1st Communion in April) is Feb. 9th at night... so I'm making arrangements for her to still get there in case I'm in labor at the time.... then cookies are supposed to be arriving that week as well... ahhh... so I'm trying to just make "what if" arrangements to be all prepared! Whew!

Today was a nice productive morning of cleaning and straightening up... then we had two of Emily's friends over to play in the afternoon. They play so well together and had a blast - before I knew it - 3 hours went by and we were heading to dinner. They're pretty tuckered out but had a lot of fun!

Nora is still coughing a lot so a lot of restless nights.. but she hasn't thrown up again and oddly enough has stayed dry potty wise for a week now - she's never done that! Hopefully it's a start of a good thing.. she's very excited about her birthday being a week away! She can't wait!

Catching Up & Preparations

Today was my "list" day - I started writing everything down the past couple days of things we really really needed to get done. Little things but that really add up - run to Good Will, the cleaners, Nora's party stuff... then things around here - finish Christmas box stowaways, scratching post (the cats broke the old one), and on and on...

Nora is feeling better on one hand but then on the other is still coughing. She was up a lot last night and joined us around 3am... so imagine this - Morgan, me (reminder! over 8 months pregnant), Nora and Gabby kept jumping up too... all in the same bed... ugh! She finally settled in after a while and then Emily came in at 7 and woke us up...

So we started our morning... it was drizzly and cloudy all day but we worked on inside stuff first and then headed out. Made our way around town and ended with an ice cream treat... it was quite yummy and the girls were jamming to Michael Jackson while eating - very cute... so after a busy day (somewhat) and a screaming bath from Nora (definite sign that she still isn't herself and really tired) we are both exhausted and ready for bed... now if we can just get Emily to bed!