We've given Nathan his eviction notice.

Soooo......at today's 38 week appointment I am 2 centimeters and 65% effaced and he is finally engaged. I've lost my mucous plug (that was disgusting - let me tell you) and she said that my body is ready. Thank God!

We've given Nathan his eviction notice. He has exactly a week and 3 days to pack up his stuff and get out. If he decides to wait until said date, he will be physically removed from the premises. Either way - he's coming out! This means, he really won't live in my belly for the rest of his life. I won't get any more stretch marks and my heartburn will finally go away.

The very first thing that I plan on doing when I get home from the hospital (assumming he comes naturally and not via c-sect) is lay flat on my stomach. Oh, how I miss laying flat on my stomach! I'm going to kick the snoogle out of our bed and cuddle up to my husband. I'm going to bend down to pick something up without having to do it from the side and I'm going to walk like a normal human instead of like a beached whale!

Do you think my ankles will come back? Will I be able to wear my wedding rings again? Will I be able to actually run from my house to my car if it's raining? Will I be able to enjoy a tomatoe sandwich without fear of waking up with acid in my mouth? Will I be able to feel the urge to pee and actually be able to pee more than just a trickle?

Ah, it's the little things in life that bring us the most pleasure... remind me to re-read this post next time you hear my say "i think I want a baby."

Rainy Sunday

It's raining outside and I got to sleep in with my husband! It sounds so trivial, but since he's been driving the transfer truck it's something we don't get to do very often and will be doing even less of once Nathan's here. I wake up and realize that this is the happiest I've ever been in my whole life. For all that I have to complain about - my life is really, really good.

I am married to my very best friend. I love everything about this man. We've been together almost 3 years and I am still utterly smitten with him. I'm so proud of what we have and am so thankful for the marriage that I've been blessed with. I can't imagine what our lives would be like without each other and feel so lucky to be married to my favorite person in the whole world!

I'm a mother! This child will call me mommy. He will be my son. I'm so in love with him that I can't even think about anything else... I plan and dream and worry and pray and cry about every essence of this child. I'm so ready to meet him I could burst.

I have the most amazing family. I can call on any one of them at any point and I know that they will be there for me. I have grandparents that I admire, cousins who I like to hang out with, aunts and uncles that are hilarious and even a whole family of in-laws that I truly love. Not many people can say that, but I really mean it. I adore my step-son and am so lucky to have such a special little boy be who Nathan will look up to. I wouldn't give anything for any one of these people and am so lucky that they will all be here to help me raise Nathan. I talk to my parents and both of my sisters almost every single day - I don't know what I would do without them. My heart literally hurts when I hear of people who aren't close to their families like this.

I haven't even blogged about my baby showers. They were the 3 nicest baby showers that I've ever been to (even if they were mine). The fact that so many people felt compelled to do something for me makes me want to weep. I truly am humbled by these people and for what great lengths they went to to make this pregnancy so special.

I have been so blessed. There are days when I hurt so badly from being pregnant, or that I'm so hormonal that every single person I see makes me angry, or that I am so worried about how we are going to afford this little person that I forget about these things. I needed to write them down somewhere so I can look back on it and know that I. am. blessed. We all are if we can just realize it. I've got it really good and I need to learn to be more thankful. I guess bringing a new life into the world makes you realize it. Let's just hope that he will realize how good he has it and be thankful, too...

birthday?

Well, at yesterday's doctor's appt (37 weeks), I had finally started to progress some. She said that I'm 1 cm dilated and 50 % effaced. Yay! I never knew I could get so excited about silly numbers like that. She also wanted to do an ultrasound b/c as she put it "it looks like you're going to have a pretty big baby."

We went back to the ultrasound room and got started. It was so good to see my little boy again. He's so cute in there - head down, which is good and hiding his face of course. She said that he is measuring right on everywhere except for his head and his belly! lol. I had a feeling he was going to have a big head since his daddy and older brother both do, but to hear it was funny. He's measuring in the 80th percentile for his "age." So, she had me come back to her office for a chat.

She said that she really doesn't want me to go past my due date (sept. 9) since he is measuring big bc they want to give me a chance to have a vaginal delivery. But, they would like to see me get to 39 weeks (sept. 2) so that we're sure his lungs are fully developed. She advised Jason and I to find a time between the 2nd and the 9th that we want to have a "birthday." :) Of course, we want him asap, so we picked the 2nd and depending on how favorable my cervix is we'll either be doing an induction or a c-sect. Meaning, if I'm still progressing next week then we'll do an induction, but if I'm about the same place I am now, we'll plan for a c-sect. So, unless I just naturally go into labor on my own before then, our little Nathan is coming September 2! We can NOT wait and now I'm getting even less sleep because I'm up all night making sure that everything's taken care of....ugh. Wish us luck! :)

Nathan, you trickster!

So, last night about 11:30 I rolled over and felt a tremendous twinge in my lower back. It seemed to stretch around towards my lower abdomen causing me some menstrual-like cramping. At the same time, my uterus became very hard like a braxton hicks, but stronger. The worst part was the pain in my back. Of course this happens when Jason's not home! I thought that maybe I had pulled something so I tried to change positions, but nothing was relieving it. I was up and down all night with having to go to the bathroom every 30 minutes to an hour and just could not get the pain to stop. Around 6:00 I called my mom to see if she could offer some suggestions and her sweet self dropped everything she was doing to come over - at 6:00 in the morning! She rubbed my back some and we looked online at "back labor" and realized that this was what I was experiencing. So, about 8, when I knew the doctors were up (i hate to wake them in the middle of the night) I put a call in that I thought I was having contractions. Seriously? I thought they would tell me to take some tylenol and put my feet up, but they wanted me to come into the office as soon as I could. So, still not wanting to over-react, I drove myself to the hospital to get hooked up to the monitors. Luckily, Nathan's heart-rate was just fine and sure enough - I was definitely having contractions. They had been hard to time at home but were probably 5-10 minutes apart there at the office. My doctor had me admitted and they started me on a fluid drip to see if I was just dehydrated. Apparently, I was a little because after an hour I had only had 3 - about 20 minutes apart and I still had not dilated. So, they decided to send me home. She said that they will either go away completely or they will start getting stronger and I will start dilating at which point I will need to go straight back there. Now, it's just a waiting game. I've had a few more since I've been home but like an hour or so apart. Let's hope that he's not quite ready to come yet because I've just realized how much more we have to do! I don't have our hospital bags packed or the carseat even installed! ha! I guess this was a big wake up call. Jason's on his way to Newnan tonight and we're just keeping our fingers crossed that everything will turn out okay. It was so funny to leave the hospital this morning with my little i.d. bracelet and bandaids on my hand. People kept looking at me like, "wait, you're still pregnant!" Maybe next time I go in, I'll leave with a baby! :)