Waking Up Daddy

I think I have mentioned before that I've been having a hard time sleeping at night. I usually wake up to visit the bathroom sometime between 2:30am and 3:00am. And after that, I have a very difficult time going back to sleep. I lie awake and just toss and turn for the rest of the night.

Sometimes I get up and try to get comfortable in my recliner. Or on the couch. Or in Noah's room. I try just about anything I can think of to get comfortable and go back to sleep.

Unfortunately, Mike's alarm clock starts going off somewhere around 4:00am or something. And, sadly, he often does not hear his alarm. If I let him, he'll let it go off for a good half hour at least. Let me tell you, his alarm is LOUD. I can hear it in any other room of the house, even if the bedroom door is closed.

Even our unborn baby can hear his alarm clock! The alarm starts going off and Noah starts wiggling all around in my belly. He's like "Wake up, Daddy!" and turn that noisy thing off.

But most mornings, Mike needs some intervention in order to get him moving. Depending on which way I'm facing in the bed, I usually either kick him in the leg. Or I just reach over and smack him (hard) a couple times.

And as if that's not bad enough, sometimes ... when Mike comes back into the room ... to wake me up I'll just start fussing at him and telling him that I KNOW he can hear that VERY LOUD alarm clock and he's just ignoring it.

And, while I'm half-asleep, I'll give him all kinds of practical advice. Like "Don't set your alarm so early because your body knows that you don't have to really get up any time soon." And "You should try setting your iHome to wake to music from your iPod and then just turn it up really loud." Or "You need to tell yourself before you go to sleep that you will turn off the alarm when it goes off." And "Just listen to it!" And "Stop ignoring it!"

Now ... if I'm sleeping in my recliner or in another room, I will usually just ignore his alarm too. Oh, I will still hear it. And it will still make me mad. But my body will refuse to get up to go wake him up.

But I can't ignore it if I'm in the same room. It is just SO loud and annoying. It's just too easy to smack him and get him to hit the snooze. But, the snooze button only turns off the alarm for 9 minutes. And you're not supposed to be able to go into a deep sleep in that short amount of time. But many times, Mike will still ignore the alarm when it goes off again nine minutes later ... and nine minutes after that .... and nine minutes after that. I just do not understand it.

I KNOW he has to hear it. I just don't know why he won't respond to it and turn it off. Unless ... he just enjoys getting smacked by his wife at 4:00am every day.

Well, Baby Noah and I would really appreciate it if Daddy would wake up and turn off his alarm clock as soon as possible in the mornings. We need our sleep!

Read more »

37 Weeks - Full Term!

At 37 weeks pregnant, Noah is considered to be full term! That's exciting news.

The other day, I had a total freak out moment when I realized that I'm having a baby next week. Like, NEXT WEEK! It's very exciting, but it's a mini-freak out at the same time. So many wonderful changes are coming for our family and we can hardly wait.

Today was my 37 week doctor's appointment. My blood pressure was slightly high, but not too bad. I didn't even have to lay down on my left side so that was a good thing!

Noah measured right on track for 37 weeks. I meant to ask my doctor how much she thought he weighed so that I could put it on my weight "guesstimate" post, but I forgot to ask. I know what she would say though - probably about 7 lbs. That's what she said with Emily too, but of course she turned out to be quite a bit smaller.

My cervix is still very thin and soft, but I am not dilated yet. So that means we will probably make it to our scheduled cesarean section date next Friday. That is fine with me because we'll have the special August 6th 100 years later Noah Smith thing.

Fortunately/Unfortunately, I'm doing so well that I will "get to" work until my c-section date. Actually, I'm doing so well that I don't even have to go to my 38 week appointment next week if I don't want to. I can just show up at the hospital on Friday for my c-section.

I'm supposed to keep monitoring my blood pressure at home and watch for contractions that are getting worse, but there is really need to show up to the 38 week appointment if things are going well. The doctor said "it's really kinda pointless to come in since we're having a baby just a few days later."

In Other News ...

• Mike's parents have come out two nights this week to help us get the yard all fixed up before Noah comes. We appreciate their help soooo much! Emily loves it when they come out and wants them to just play with her. But they really got a lot of things done outside and it's looking great!

• If you follow me on Twitter, you already know that I lost another hubcap on my way to work this morning. This is the fourth hubcap I've lost in the last 6 months or so. I'm really disappointed.

• A couple days ago, I dreamed about Johnnies cake and icing. SO yum. Love dreams like that.

• I need to pack my hospital bag. Mike REALLY wants me to pack my hospital bag. I do not remember at all what I packed five years ago for Emily's birth. The only thing I remember is that the nurse told me I couldn't use my hair dryer in the hospital room, but apparently that was not true. So I'll be using that sucker this time around.

• I cooked and froze a couple pans of Spaghetti Pizza this weekend so that we'll have something to eat in the days after Noah's arrival. Emily helped quite a bit. We made a pretty big mess in the kitchen. I didn't buy enough mozzarella cheese for the toppings. I need to put that on my shopping list for this week.

• I also cooked and froze some Chicken Spaghetti this weekend. It made enough for about 3 dinners. I didn't buy any Ro-tel tomatoes though. Mike's mom brought us a can when they came put on Sunday night. But, Emily "helped me" add it to the pot and about half of it ended up on the kitchen floor. *Sigh* It was a VERY long day on Sunday.

• Nanny invited Emily to spend the night with her on Sunday night. I tried to "encourage" Emily to do this, but she said she would "miss me too much". Awww, melt my heart! I love my girl.

Read more »

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

A couple weeks ago when we were out shopping, I found a super cute little outfit for Noah. It was not exactly what I was looking for, but I could not pass it up.

When I got home and showed it to Mike, he said it was "Planes, Trains and Automobiles." And if you know Mike, he loves older movies like that one! I mean he watches that movie every time he sees it on TV. And with as many TV channels as we have, we have to watch it often!

But ... that just makes me love this outfit even more. Isn't it adorable? Did you see that baby boy hat? Sooo cute!

Read more »

Sizzling Saturday

You guessed it - it is STILL hot at our house. But even with the heat, we still had to get out a run a few errands today. We did not do as much walking as we did at the malls last week. This was definitely a good thing for me!

Highlights:

• Took my car for an oil change and tire rotation. Took them several hours to get it done. When Mike was following me on the way home, he noticed that one of my hubcaps on the passenger side had fallen off. I'm totally bummed about this because I have been fighting with the hubcaps on my car since winter and I thought I had finally gotten them all to stay on. I think I have lost (and replaced) four hubcaps so far this year. *sigh* Better get one more.

• We took Emily on a shopping trip to the dollar store to spend some of her "allowance" money that she has recently started earning. She is quite the browser and ended up choosing mostly candy and gum. Better choices next time, I guess.

• I wanted pizza for lunch so we ended up going to Coach's. Not as good as the Hideaway pizza that we had last weekend, but we had a good time playing with the camera while waiting for our food.

• Mike took us girls to Gordman's so that we could look at some animal photo frames that my mother-in-law told me about. They are SO cute and we had to get one of each animal. Here are a few pictures of the frames on Noah's bookcases.
  
  

I think they are perfect for Noah's room! Can't wait to put his little pictures in them.

Don't forget to enter your guess on Noah's birth weight. We have only had a couple responses so far and I would love to know how big you think he will be. Click here.

Read more »

Quite The Day

Yesterday was quite the day for us. I slept absolutely awful on Thursday night and was sooo tired when I woke up on Friday morning. I knew I would not be able to make it through a full day at work so I was thinking about logging in to work from home.

Then Mike came in and said that his back was hurting and he needed a day off. He said he would stay home if I would. I said I would if he would. So we both decided to stay home together.

I got to sleep in a little longer and Emily did too. It was soooo nice to lay in bed knowing that I did not have to get up and go fight the traffic on my way to work. I probably could have stayed in bed most of the day. But, of course, I did not.

After breakfast, we started discussing when we wanted to do on our day off together. We had talked earlier in the week about taking Emily to see "Ramona and Beezus" at the theater. In case you didn't know, the movie is based on the Ramona Quimby book series written by Beverly Cleary. I read these books when I was a young girl and I was excited to share this with Emily.

Mike checked out the theater's website and found out that the movie was playing at around noon, 3pm, and 6pm. So we decided to go to the noon showing. It was opening day for the movie so we wanted to go to the first showing.

Obviously, we had the whole morning before we had to go the movie. So I might have taken a short nap in my recliner.

Around mid-morning, Mike got a call from his work saying that they had a problem with a case he had worked on and needed him to come in and help at least for a few minutes. He asked a bunch of questions to try to figure out exactly what problem they were having and to see if maybe he could just explain what needed to be done over the phone. He got off the phone and said "Guess what? I'm going to have to go in to work on my day off." My response? Nooooo, whatever it is can surely wait until Monday!

So about 20 minutes later, Mike's manager calls back and comes clean. They had planned a baby shower for him and he was ruining it for them! She said that Emily and I were invited to come too since we were home with him that day. Mike agreed to come in for the shower, of course. So we pushed the movie time back to 3:10pm and started getting ready to go to the baby shower.

I wish I had taken pictures while we were there, but his group has gotten sub sandwiches and everyone brought homemade salads and sides. They also had cake and punch. The cake was really yum!

Baby Noah got lots of nice presents. He got probably about a dozen outfits, lots of bibs, several blankets, and a huge basket of "baby basics" like diapers and wipes, baby bath, lotion, and baby oil.

Emily was a big helper while we were opening presents. She was just ripping into everything! I think Mike's co-workers had a lot of fun watching her. They all said she looked a lot like him. She was being a little shy and would not talk to anyone, but she was really good while we were there.

I was glad we got to go to the shower. It was fun seeing Mike's work and meeting the people that I hear about all the time. A few of the people worked with Mike at his previous job too and remember when they had a baby shower at his work for Emily. They were tickled to see her growing up.

After the baby shower, we headed back home so that we could get our nap before we had to leave for the movie. Emily hopped in her bed for her nap and I told her that she could get up when the first number on the clock was a 3. (I knew I would have to get her up before this, but she didn't need to know that part!)

I snuggled into my recliner (again). It's just much easier for me to sleep in my chair these days. When I lay down flat, things just start hurting and I can never get comfortable. I am sure it did not take me very long at all to go to sleep. And I didn't wake up until Emily came out of her room at 3pm! Oops!

Mike had been sitting in his chair surfing the web the entire time so I asked him why he didn't wake us up in time for the movie. He said that I was sleeping so good (and snoring so loud!) that he just couldn't wake me up because he knew I was tired. So, the 6:20pm showing is our last choice for the day.

We decide to eat supper at Texas Roadhouse and then headed over to the movie theater. The place seemed pretty busy when we got there, but we had plenty of time before our movie started. We got popcorn and cokes and went to find a seat.

Here is a picture of Emily with her popcorn and coke.

She did really well during the movie. She sat in her own chair the whole time and watched the movie. She laughed at several of the scenes and hid her eyes when the parents kissed.

I thought the movie was pretty cute. Emily seemed to like it and I did too. I'm glad we finally got to go see the movie!

Here are a couple outtakes from our trip to the movie theater. Emily might be mad when she sees these pictures when she's older, but I think they are funny!

"Popcorn"

"Heeeey, man!"

Read more »

36 Weeks Update

Today, I went to the doctor for my 36 week appointment. When I got there, the waiting room was packed. This seems to happen quite often, but I always seem to get called back very quickly. Today was no exception and I am not complaining.

Total weight gain is currently at 8lbs. I'm not complaining about that either!

My blood pressure was good today. So good that I did not have to lay on my left side for a half hour in the exam room. This is always a good thing because I don't like laying there for so long. Unfortunately, this also means I still get to go to work for at least another week.

When I go back for my appointment next week, the doctor will check me to see how much I'm dilated, if at all. I'm betting I'll be at least a little bit dilated by next week. Sometimes it feels like Noah is really low and pressing down.

I'm measuring right on target for 36 weeks so that means Noah is still growing. I can hardly believe he will be here two weeks from tomorrow!

So, how much do you think Noah will weight when he is born? Leave your guess in the comments and we'll see who comes closest without going over.

Read more »

Jumping Jack Flash

Tonight was the first night in about a week that I felt like it was not unbearably hot outside. Oh, it was hot alright but at least there was a little bit of a breeze.

And I was still sweating like a pig, but that is pretty much a daily occurrence any more. It is really awful to start sweating in inopportune places. Like in church. Or in meetings at work. Or in bed at night. Or just about anywhere. Uggh!

But we sat outside for a while and Emily played. But first, we had to clear the area of any bugs or anything else that looked suspicious. There was a wasp flying around outside her trampoline, but I shooed it away. And then there was "wasp poo" aka bird poop on the trampoline. So I sprayed that off with the waterhose.

The trampoline was still wet when she started jumping, but she didn't really mind. It did not take long at all for her to start plopping down on her bottom and then springing right back up.

Emily also played in the water table a little bit. It was pretty filthy though. I tried spraying it out with the hose, but it still had some yucky stuff in the bottom. After we were done playing, I filled it up and put some bleach in it to clean out the muck. I'll rinse it out in a day or two and it should be good to go.

Here are some action shots from tonight. Enjoy!

Read more »

Sisterly Love

This weekend, we took Emily to the Build-A-Bear Workshop to pick out a gift for Noah. Emily went in knowing that she wanted to make him a puppy.

She picked out a cute little puppy and then we went off to find some clothes for him. She picked out a sailor suit with some big black boots. It came with a cute matching hat "just like they wear in the Navy" according to Daddy. And Daddy added some cool shades for him.

In case you were wondering, puppy's name is "Hearty".



Emily wanted to get a new outfit for her bunny "Sweetheart" too. She picked out a pink bikini. You heard me right. I won't allow my child to wear a bikini, but I'll allow her stuffed animal to wear a bikini. Am I cool or what? Right.




After we finished up at Build-A-Bear, we wanted to go to the Disney Store. Except that they don't have a Disney Store at the mall where we were. So we decided to go to another mall farther away from our house that has a Disney Store.

But first, I was hungry. I'm always hungry. And I always like pizza. So we went to Hideaway Pizza for lunch. Can you say yum? Yes, it was so so good. I love their homemade ranch dressing with my pizza. It was a perfect lunch spot. Could not have been better.

After lunch, we went ahead and headed up to the other mall to the Disney Store. Emily got a few things with some Disney bucks that we'd had since 2008. Yep, 2008. Wow. She picked out a Hannah Montana game for her Nintendo DS and a notebook and stationery set. It was fun for her to pick out "anything she wanted" and I think she is happy with her choices.

So that was our fun day shopping. We don't do things like that very often, but we are trying to focus on family in the last few weekends before Noah gets here. In case you haven't done the math, we have two more weekends before he will be here.

We cannot wait!

Read more »

Hunger

Can I just say? I am HUNGRY lately. For the last few weeks, I have been hungry during the day. I've been hungry during the night. I'm hungry when I wake up. I eat a meal and then I'm hungry again just a couple hours later.

As of this week, I have still only gained 7 pounds total during this pregnancy. But I have a feeling that will soon change.

This morning before I even got out of bed, I noticed that Noah had the hiccups. I wanted to go tell Emily because I knew she would be tickled to hear this. She is all the time asking me what Noah is doing or what Noah is saying.

Mike was tickled too because he said that means his boy is growing. Mike has a lot of ideas about what it means to be a boy. And I think one of those is that boys should be BIG. And apparently, that applies to me when I'm pregnant and carrying a boy, too.

Here's an example - I prefer 1% milk. When I go to the grocery store, I buy 1% milk. But if Mike goes with me and gets to the milk case first, he always gets 2% milk. No sissy 1% milk for his boy. Ha! What is up with that?

So anyway, I worked from home today so that I could do my 24-hour urine collection. Tomorrow before work, I have to take it by the lab and get my blood drawn. Hopefully this will be a one-and-done deal. Lets hope we don't have a repeat from last time with the multiple blood draws.

But by the time I get out of the lab, I will probably be hungry again. Come to think of it, I'm hungry now.

Read more »

Noah's Baby Shower and Today's DR Visit

As I mentioned the other day, Noah's baby shower was over 4th of July weekend. Unfortunately, I did not get a lot of pictures. I did not get pictures of very many of the people who were there, but we had a good crowd.

It was also the family 4th of July cookout and we had a great time.

Emily and I at the gift table. The cute diaper cake again.

A closer picture of the diaper cake. Notice the animals are two-by-two pairs.

Noah's cake. Isn't that cute??? More two-by-two animal pairs.

Our little family of four. :)

Today's Doctor Visit

Today's doctor visit went fairly well. My blood pressure was pretty high when I first got there. I think it was something like 150/98, but it went down to 120/68 on recheck later. I do have to do another 24-hour urine check though. Boo! :(

I also had my routine Group B Strep test today. The doctor also checked my cervix. I was not dilated at all, but I was almost 100% effaced (this means my cervix has thinned out.) Baby's head is very low, but I could have told her that. Ha!

All this is good and the doctor thinks I will probably not go into labor before August 6th. Of course, all that is up to Noah but things are looking good for an August 6th delivery.

My next appointment is scheduled for next week so we'll see if she still thinks that.

Read more »

Nursery Preview And More Updates

Today I am 35 weeks pregnant. Noah will be here in a little over 3 weeks (or less!)

We have been working on Noah's room for several weeks and I just love how it is turning out.

I wanted to share a few pictures of the progress we have made.

But, this internet connection is very slow and it takes a long time to upload pictures to the blog. So in the meantime, I may as well share some of the other things that have been going on.

• On 4th of July weekend, Mike's family threw a baby shower for us. It was a combined Independence Day celebration and baby shower. Emily was SO excited, but it was mostly because she wanted to go swimming. Unfortunately, it rained that day. But the party went on. I have pictures and more details to share in a day or two.




• Last week, Emily had her 5-year-old checkup at the doctor's office. She was 41 lbs and 44 inches tall. She was in the 75th percentile in height (wow) and the 50th percentile in weight. She got two "pinches in the arm" and did not even cry. She was so brave!




• That same day, we had an ultrasound appointment for Noah. After waiting over an hour in the waiting room, we finally got called back for our ultrasound. (I was SO hungry.) Noah looked good. He was measuring on track for 34 weeks and he was estimated to be 5lbs, 5ozs at the time. We did not get any really clear 3D ultrasound pics, but that is okay. We will see him live and in person very soon.




• This weekend, my mom came up to visit for a few days. She brought Emily's birthday present - a trampoline!! Emily loves it and we have been out to jump on it every night. Well, Emily has jumped on it. It's "No Adults Allowed" although I would love to jump too. We have been very fortunate to have some less hot evenings the last few nights. Otherwise, it would be difficult for me to sit out there and watch her. Mom and Mike put the trampoline together and put the anchors in the ground. They did some small projects in Noah's room too this weekend.





• I have a doctor's appointment with my ob/gyn in the morning. We'll start going to the doctor every week from here on out. I'm hoping for a good report and no blood draws needed. Ha!

So here are a few pictures of Noah's room. This is still a work in process, but I am so excited to share it with you.

Noah's ark themed crib bedding

A closer shot of the "mural" on the wall behind the crib.

Two-by-two animal pairs on the wall above the twin bed.

Closer shot of some of the animals.

And the elephants on the other wall. These are the ones I can see through the doorway from another room and I just love that.

The diaper cake from the baby shower the other week. It is just a-dor-a-ble!!!! It could not be more perfect.
Daddy and baby giraffes. Emily fixed these up and put the red white and blue lei on them.

Noah's ark clock, Noah's ark lamp, and diaper stacker. Yes, even a half-packed diaper bag hanging on the door knob. Mike is worried that we may need it. He would be happy if I would just start packing my own bag as well.

I am missing a picture of the window treatments and the shelves. The shelves are mostly empty for now, but they will fill up over time.

Read more »