Huggies, what is your deal?

While we were in the hospital, they provided us with Pampers newborn diapers. These were fine, but they came up a little high near his umbilical cord stump and we were constantly having to fold them down on the top.

I always used Pampers when Emily was a baby and I liked the way they performed very well. But I had heard some bad stories about the new formulation of the Pampers diapers. I heard that it caused a lot of diaper rash and irritation in some infants. This weighed heavily on my mind because nobody wants their infant to have any type of discomfort if it can be prevented.



When we got home, we switched to Huggies newborn diapers. Within the first few days of being home, we noticed that the diapers often leaked. They leaked urine out the sides and they leaked poop out the top and around the legs.



This leakage happened multiple time a day and I think just about every night since we've been home. The other night, Noah woke up with a wet bed three different times. I'd had ENOUGH. Noah hates having his diaper changed and it's worse when we have to change all his clothes and the bed at the same time.

And on top of that, Noah has had diaper rash since we have been home. We had been using Desitin on it, but our pediatrician recommended Aquaphor ointment. Both creams helped a little, but neither cleared up the rash completely.

So last night when we went to the store, we bought a big box of Pampers newborn diapers. We started using them immediately when we got home. Noah had NO LEAKS during the night last night. He had one huge poop today that went all the way to the edge of the leg openings, but didn't come out of the diaper at all.

It's still too early to tell about the diaper rash situation, but I hope the new diapers help clear that up as well.

See you later, Huggies. I don't know what your deal is. Are your diapers not made to fit a 6lb 8oz baby?

Regardless, we're sticking with Pampers for now.

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First Visit to Nanny and Poppa's House

Noah made his first visit to Nanny and Poppa's house. We more or less worked all afternoon to get out of the house and finally left home at around 5:30pm. Yeah, we'll have to get quicker with that. But it was a good day - I showered, fixed my hair AND put on some makeup.

Nanny and Poppa watched Emily and Noah while Mike and I went to Walmart. We had to get some new diapers (more about this tomorrow) and a few other things. We were going to take Emily with us, but she said she wanted to go with her little brother. Aww, melt mama's heart.

This is Noah getting buckled into his carseat for the trip.

He did really well in the car and slept the whole way. He was good at Nanny and Poppa's house too. He didn't fuss except when he had his poopy diaper. Emily was good too. She kept hugging and kissing on her brother.

We made it all the way home before Noah had to have his dinner. I hope he continues to like riding in the car.

Tomorrow is my first day at home alone with two kiddos. Please pray for me! I know I can do it, but I am sure it will take some juggling. Emily always seems to need something as soon as I start feeding Noah. She's going to have to learn to be patient and wait until I'm done. Overall, she is a good helper though.

Mike said that if I need him to come home and help me, all I have to do is give him a call. I hope I can make it through the day without having to resort to that though. The weather is supposed to be cooler tomorrow so we might be able to go outside and play for a little bit if we need a change of scenery.

I'll try to update tomorrow to let you know how it went.

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Being Real

My mom has been staying with us for the past week. She came up the night before we went into the hospital for Noah's birth and has been staying with us since then. She has helped us with everything - cooking, cleaning, laundry, baby care, mommy care, girlie playmate, expert advice giver and the list goes on.

Today was the day she had to go home and we already miss her. I will admit that I have cried a lot this afternoon and evening. It was time for her to go home and I am fine with that. I will definitely miss having her around. But I also know that things will be more difficult here at home for the next few days as we try to figure out how to live together as a family of four.

Thank you, Mom for everything you have done for us in the last week. We really appreciate everything you have done to make this transition easier on us. We had a lot of fun and we can't wait until next time you come to visit.

I wanted to share a few pictures with you that Mom and I took this morning before she left. We wanted to get some pictures of Emily too, but she wasn't ready to have her picture taken yet. We'll have to work on that another day.

Hope you enjoy the pictures. For now, we're off to bed. Midnight will come too quickly.

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Noah - One Week Old

It's hard to believe that Noah is already one week old. He is such a good baby. He eats about every 4 hours and sleeps much of the time in between. He has a few periods of wakefulness during the day and loves to look around and listen to people talk to him.

He likes having his bottom patted, but he hates the hiccups and having his diaper changed. Anything to do with his diaper is just the worst thing ever in his little world! He is a good eater, but he's slow. He will get faster as he grows bigger, but right now I will just enjoy this special time with him.

In the evenings, he usually has Daddy time where he will curl up on Daddy's chest and listen to Daddy talk or sing to him. I love watching them together. It is so sweet.

Sometimes Daddy even does double duty where he'll hold both kids and talk to them. Isn't he just a rock star???

On Wednesday, we had to take Noah to the doctor for his newborn checkup. I was worried about having to walk so far to the doctor's office, but Mike helped me with everything I needed. He got the stroller out of the car, got Noah out of the car and handled everything for me.

The doctor said that Noah was looking good. He weighed 5lbs, 14oz which was 1oz smaller than when we left the hospital. Dr K thinks this is the bottom of the plateau and his weight should start coming back up now that my milk is coming in.

Noah has a couple spots of baby rash that we can treat with Neosporin ointment. Other than that, he's doing great. He's eating right on schedule and having plenty of wet and dirty diapers every day.

After we got out of the doctor's office, we went back home to feed Noah. Then Mama and Daddy went out for a little lunch date. We went to Mazzio's pizza for the lunch buffet. Here, again, Mike took care of everything I needed. He got my pizza for me and refilled my drink. Then we went over to Best Buy to find something for Emily for being such a good helper. While we were in the store, I noticed that I was beginning to walk slower and slower. My pain medicine had pretty much worn out and it was hard to get around.

Speaking of my pain medicine, one of the prescriptions that I take makes me very drowsy. I have been blessed to have my mom here for the past week so I have been getting some extra rest during the day. But I was realizing today that I will be home alone caring for two small children next week and I will have no room in my schedule for extra naps. So I am going to have to somehow wean myself off the heavy pain medication before Monday. I am sure I will need all my resources to make it through the first few days.

I am going to try to do better with updating my blog. I want to do a better job updating, but it is hard to choose computer time over sleep time. And I am sure that part will just get harder as we move into the next few weeks.

So ya'll just pray for me and I'll continue to do the best that I can.

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Emily's Little Brother

Well, we've been home from the hospital with Noah for a couple days now. We got to go home on Sunday evening. Nanny and Pops brought us some fajitas for supper and some pain medicine for me. Both were much appreciated!

Noah has done well at home. He's eating and sleeping well. Right now, he usually goes between 3.5 and 4 hours between meals. We go to the doctor in the morning for our newborn checkup so we'll see if he's gaining well or if we will need to start waking him up to eat. He got down to 5lbs, 15oz in the hospital before we went home. That's well within the normal range, but we want him to grow!

Emily has done well since we got home too. She is SO excited to see Noah when she wakes up in the morning and likes looking at him in his crib. She helps with diaper changes and feedings and any other way she can think of. At diaper changes she holds his hand and gives him his paci and says "it's okay baby Noah, it's okay". Soooo sweet.

The first time Emily saw Noah was when they wheeled us by on the bed after surgery. Pops held her up and she looked really unsure about the whole thing. My mom said she seemed to be surprised at how small he was.

This is a picture of Emily holding Noah right after we got to our hospital room. He was maybe an hour or two old in this picture. I think it is just adorable how she is holding him so tight and snuggling him with her cheek.

It looks to me like whatever reservations she had about him were long gone by this point.

This afternoon, Emily helped with Noah's first sponge bath at home. Of course, she wanted to put every kind of baby product on him imaginable - baby oil, baby lotion, baby powder. She did a good job helping and talking to him during his bath.

He was not really excited about taking his first bath at home, but he did really well. He smelled so sweet and clean when we were done.

He must have felt really good because he took a long nap in Daddy's arms after that.

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What day is this?

This will be a short post tonight. Mom & Dad are tired tonight. Today the doctor advised Jennifer and I that the hospital considers today as the first day. Noah was born yesterday morning. Jennifer and I thought that today would be the second day, but we were wrong according to the hospital. We also have been wrong about some other things during our stay, but I will probably leave that for Jennifer to tell you when she gets back. Daddy is too tired to get into that tonight. I will say that today was a good day and we are excited to learn new things about Noah. We hope the hospital releases us tomorrow. Doc says we may be able to go home, if everything goes well. Please keep us in your prayers, and we promise to post more pics soon. Time for bed.

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Happy Birthday Noah!

We arrived at the hospital this morning at 6:45am, and we left for the operating room around 8:15am. Jennifer went through the spinal process four times. It seemed like forever before I was allowed to go in. Jennifer handled the C-Section like a champ. I was very proud of her, and I love her very much. Noah was born at 9:02am today, and he weighed 6lbs 8oz, 19 inches long. Noah is in great shape, and Jennifer and I are very proud of him. We are also proud of our daughter Emily. Emily was very excited when she was allowed to help with Noah's first bath. She did a great job. Noah also had a birthday party tonight at the hospital. We had a great time and it was a wonderful day!

We want to say a huge thank you to all of our family and friends. You helped us out BIG TIME and we sure do appreciate it. We love you, and we feel very blessed. We also want to thank God for answering our prayers, and blessing us with two beautiful children.

"Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD"...Genesis 6:8

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We are having a baby tomorrow!!!

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Never Been This Pregnant Before

That's right, I've never been this pregnant before. Emily was born at 37 weeks and I'm now almost a week and a half past that.

I meant to take a picture of my pregnant self tonight for the blog, but we had to go to the grocery store after work and I forgot about my plan until I had already changed my clothes. So maybe tomorrow night I can remember. I need to get one more picture before "D-Day" for sure.

Rookie Mistake





Several months ago when we picked out Noah's baby book, we also purchased a First Year Calendar. It included some stickers to use to mark special events in the first year. It also included stickers with the month name and then I'm supposed to fill out the dates for each month.

I had been waiting to do this just in case Noah decided to come early. I had to be sure he was going to be born in August so that I would get the starting month right.

So Sunday was August 1 and I was so excited to be able to fill in the dates on the calendar. That night after Emily went to bed, I started filling in the dates. It took me a while, but I finally got all the months filled out. Then I started applying the stickers for a few of the major holidays - Christmas, Valentines Day, Thanksgiving, Easter, etc.

I got to Easter and didn't know date it was in 2011 so I asked Mike to look up the date on the internet. He said it was April 24th, 2011. So I looked on my calendar and it COULDN'T be the 24th because the 24th was a Saturday on my calendar and I knew that Easter was always on Sunday. Mike checked again and said it was for sure April 24th. OH NO! I quickly realized what I had done. I used all dates in 2010 instead of going to the 2011 calendar starting in January.

OH MY GOODNESS I can't believe I did that. I totally messed up a full eight months of my unborn baby's First Year Calendar. What in the world was I thinking? Apparently, I wasn't thinking.

So after I got over my error, I quickly went online and ordered a new Baby's First Year Calendar. Oh yes. I did. I'm not gonna lie. I just couldn't go back and white out all those dates. I think it was a $14 well spent.

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Want to See My New Storage Shed?

You may remember a few months ago around Memorial Day that we got a new storage shed. I have failed to blog about it and post pictures since then, but I wanted to show you.

Do you want to see it?

It's a beauty. I love it!



So what do you think?

Want to see inside?

Okay here it is ...




Now, we still have some rearranging to do, but we are making good progress. We got all the metal shelves at Homer Depot.

We got a loft as part of an upgrade program through the shed company. We put all the baby/kid toys up in the loft since they are lighter but bulky.



I am working on getting a section for "future yard sale" merchandise - things I don't want, but think I can sell. That will make it super easy to get things ready for the next yard sale. And we have plenty of room to store that type of thing now.




I'm looking forward to the cooler weather this fall so that I can get out there and rearrange some things. It has just been way way way too hot to do anything outside lately. Especially for a pregnant lady.

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Ouch!

Two posts in one day? Yes! I can do this.

Last night, not surprisingly, I slept in my recliner again. I just could not get comfortable in the bed.

But when I woke up in the morning (because I heard Mike's alarm going off, coincidentally) and tried to get out of my chair, it hurt SO bad. I guess I slept wrong in my chair because it felt like I pulled something in my groin. Ouch!

I'm going to try to sleep in the bed tonight and see if it feels better tomorrow.

The Weather Man

For the third day in a row, it was 103 degrees outside today.

It is SO miserable to walk outside the office in the afternoon into temperatures like that. I just get into the car out in the parking lot and it's like I cannot even breathe. Every surface in the car is just burning hot and the air conditioner will not cool it down fast enough. Ouch!

The good news is that it's supposed to be slightly cooler by Friday and there's a possibility of rain. It rained buckets on Emily's birthday. Wouldn't it be cool if it rained on Noah's birthday too? I think it would be really neat for their weather-lovin Daddy.

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Incentives

We have started a new incentive program for Emily. We're rewarding good behavior with a sort of allowance system.

We have a wipe board in the kitchen where we track her behavior and her allowance earned. She gets "strikes" when she does not follow the rules at our house. This also applies when she's with Nanny and Pops during the day. If she gets in trouble at their house, it's a strike on our board as well. If she gets three strikes in a day, then she loses her allowance for the day.

Unfortunately, there are many days where she does get three strikes by the end of the day. The picture of the board was from last week, but the board from this week looks just as sad so far. She gets a lot of strikes for coming out of her room at night or during nap time. I think this should be an easy rule to follow, but she continues to come out of her room for the silliest excuses imaginable. I think she has been out of her room about 14 times so far tonight and she's only been in bed for an hour and a half.

Yeah, not fun.

Now ... occasionally, Emily does earn her a allowance. Right now, she earns $0.50 per day that she does not get three strikes. She gets her money on Saturday mornings.

A couple weeks ago, Mike found her a safe to keep her money in. We looked for one all around the metro area, but never found what we wanted. But he did find a perfect pink one online. It has a pad lock and even an alarm that goes off when the safe opens up.

After we got the safe, we gathered up all Emily's money and it ended up equalling over $40! She and her dad like to look through her safe and talk about the U.S. Presidents that are on each bill denomination. She is learning to recognize and name each one. It's fun to see her soaking up all this knowledge.

We are teaching her about tithing 10% of her earnings at Sunday School, but most weeks she gives more than 10%. This past week, she earned $1.50 for the week and I think she gave $1.00 at Sunday School. She is so generous and loving.

Now if we could just get her to stop getting so many strikes and earning some more money for her safe ...

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Last Weekend as a Family of Three

Even though the weather was not cooperating, we really wanted to spend our weekend having fun as a family of three. It was so so hot!

On Saturday, we wanted to go to Andy Alligator's Fun Park with Emily. We told her that we could go after she took a nap, but ... she had to take a nap. And, as luck would have it, she did not take a nap. Not even a little one.

We were SO disappointed that we didn't get to go to Andy Alligator's. We ended up staying home most of the day. I just did not think I would be able to handle the heat.

Then on Sunday, we got up and went to Sunday School. This was our last week with our current group of kids because they will all promote to the four-year-old class next week. We will get our new group of three-year-olds next week, but I will be in the hospital so I won't get to see them for several weeks.

After church, went to lunch at Ted's with the family. We had a good time visiting with everyone. And the food was good, as usual.

After lunch, we headed home for our nap. Emily did much better at nap time today. I think she only came out of her room once. That's still a no-no, but it's better than it has been recently.

I think I went to sleep in about 5 minutes and slept for an hour and a half. It was a great nap after a very long and unsettled night.

At our house, we have been counting down the days until Noah comes. Today we have five days left. Every morning, we have to check the wipe board to see how many we have left. We asked Emily how many days we would have left tomorrow and it is so cute to see her mind working to count backwards to figure out how many more days. She is really excited to meet her new baby brother. I hope that feeling lasts after he gets here! I keep stressing the fact that once he gets here, he'll live with us "forever" and we won't be sending him back. Ha!

Guest Blogger

I forgot to mention that I've lined up a guest blogger to post some pictures and tell about our experience in the hospital. The guest blogger's identity is a secret, but I know they will do a great job! Stay tuned to find out who it is.

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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!

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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!"

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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.

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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!

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