Woah

Check it out! Haylee is putting up a post!!!

I got my very first techie gadget that is all my own for Christmas. It's an iPod touch and other than the fact that I have no clue how to work Apple products yet I am pretty excited about it. Maybe, and that's a big maybe, it will mean I blog more than twice a year. There is just something about the simplicity of not having to sit at the computer and load my pictures, then find and organize and edit them, then put them into blogger. Yada, yada. It makes me tired just thinking about it. Anyway, speaking of pictures...

This is Blaine at nearly 5 months old. He sure is a cutie.

Miriam's First Loose Tooth

We've hit a major milestone at our house: Miriam has lost her first baby tooth.  I can't believe it!  She's only four and a half!!  I guess the theory that the earlier they teethe, the earlier they lose their baby teeth is spot on.  She cut her first tooth at 5 months old to-the-day.  But even she seems soooo young to me to be losing teeth already.

Before

Catching a "normal" picture of this little girl is impossible.  Pictures like this are her normal.  She's such a goof.  Good thing I love that about her.

Wiggle Wiggle

After

We first noticed the tooth was loose on the 8th when we were flossing/brushing for the night.  I'm pretty sure it wasn't loose even just that morning when we brushed teeth.  It was definitely NOT loose the night before at bedtime.

Miriam wiggled it around every day and was constantly checking it out in the mirror.  Like every 5 minutes.  No joke.  Then on Wednesday, the15th, after I had the girls put in bed (but, of course, not asleep) Miriam came busting out her door proudly proclaiming that her tooth had come out!!  And, in typical fashion for our household, it was one of those moments of mass chaos.  I was already on the phone with Owen (he was in Myrtle Beach on a business trip) and Blaine had just started screaming his little lungs out, so when Miriam came out of her room, she got snapped at just for being out of bed.

I'm not getting much sleep these days so I'm tired...and snappy.  Judge me.

But then what she was saying clicked...what, your tooth is out already?!!!!  "Where'd you put it?" I asked.  "Under my pillow for the Tooth Fairy to find it!" was her duh, why are you even asking such a dumb question response. I guess she didn't get the memo that the first child losing her first tooth is kind of a big deal and mom wants to see the little tooth BEFORE you put it under your pillow.  Well, she went to grab it and somewhere between all the previously mentioned chaos and Liesl jumping around on Miriam's bunk, that little bugger went missing.  Ensue more chaos in the form of lots and lots of tears.  She was certain the Tooth Fairy would skip her for good without the tooth to trade.  I told her we would find it in the morning and put it out the next night.  That gave me some time to put a few Tooth Fairy traditions together too.  We did find it in the morning and kept it safe all day to put out last night.

The tooth pouch

Growing up, my family had a tooth pillow with a little pocket to leave the "lost" tooth in for the Tooth Fairy to take and then she left her reward behind in the same little pocket.  I was planning to make something similar and then stumbled upon this tooth pouch idea and liked it even better.  Plus it didn't require stuffing and blind stitching anything closed.  A win-win in my book.  It was a fast project...or at least it would have been if I wasn't nursing a cranky baby every 5 minutes (I'm only exaggerating a little -- seriously) and had a craft room with everything out and easily accessible already.  I spent maybe 20 minutes actually making it, but start to finish it was a 2 1/2 hour endeavor.  Yeah.  Sigh.

The reward

And now the tooth right next to it is loose too.  Ahh, stop growing up, kid!  You're killing me.

Newborn Pictures

Owen's sister, Gina, is very talented and enjoys taking nice photographs as a hobby.  And now we live close to her, so I was excited to take her up on her offer of taking newborn pictures once Blaine finally arrived.  Neither of the girls have cute newborn pictures...sad.  I had professional shots done of both of them when they were around 8 weeks.  Blaine is only 6 days old in these.  And so precious and adorable.

These next two are my favorites from the few she got.  Blaine was being a bit fussy and very awake.  He wasn't in the typical newborn picture taking mood apparently.

Can you believe she caught a smile?!  I love, love this one.  He is such a sweet baby.

Blaine Owen

8.1.12 -- 12:30 p.m.

8 pounds, 6 ounces

20 3/4 inches long

Record Breaking Baby

With the summer Olympics in full swing, talk of breaking records is abounding everywhere.  Just add me to that list of record breakers.

My record: Longest pregnancy length.  Currently 41 weeks, 2 days (9 days post-dates)

Just my personal best, of course.  Regardless, it was a record I had set, and now I've broken it.  Send me my medal.

And for the record, Miriam was born at 41 weeks, 1 day (8 days post-dates) and Liesl was born at 40 weeks, 3 days (3 days post-dates, obviously).

I'm still hanging in there and since it's 10 p.m. here currently, I'm going to say this baby is for sure an August baby.  At least I hope he is since I'm not currently in labor and having a less than 2 hour, start to finish, labor isn't another personal record I intend to set.  Although I would take 2 a.m. or so tonight.  Just sayin'...

No News is...

...well...no news, that's what!

Still pregnant.

There is good news to report though and that is that I'm still healthy and this baby boy is still healthy.  That's good because it means I can keep ticking along without too much bother from the midwives.

I had one non-stress test on Friday and it went very well.  They aren't worried at all based on those results.  I have another one on Tuesday, and as hopeful as I am to not get that far, I'm not going to count on it either. I expect it will likewise have reassuring results.

So, in the meantime, I'm trying to stay on top of laundry, dishes, vacuuming and otherwise keeping our home nice and tidy.  Just the usual end-of-pregnancy "nesting" paranoia that something might not be done and caught up when it's time to go and I will come home to a mess or disorder.  Weird hormones.

Other than housework, we haven't been doing much.  We are bored.  I've tried to keep the girls busy, but I quit.  I'm out of energy.  And every time we go or do anything I blow up like a water balloon.  So, cooped up it's been.  I think we are ALL ready to be done with mom-being-pregnant.  I know I sure am.

I'm even going to disagree with all the well-meaning people who say "At least they are so much easier to take care when you're pregnant."  Yeah, well, I haven't slept more than an hour stretch for at least a month...I'd rather be nursing every 2-3.  And I may not have diapers or spit up or another person crying, but my girls are usually crying over something so what's another scream here or there?!  Plus, Liesl still wets her pants just about every day at least one time; what is a diaper compared to pee-on-the-floor?  Not to mention the can-hardly-roll-over-in-bed situation or the dang-gotta-pick-something-up-off-the-floor dilemma.

Yeah, I will take a newborn over all of that in a heartbeat.

Oh, and labor...you know I've got it bad when I'm depressed over my contractions just not feeling strong enough and wishing I was experiencing all the misery of labor nausea and chills/hot flashes and all the other wonderful aspects that only happen simultaneously during a hard, fast labor.  And every morning I wake up and nothing has changed, and I'm not in labor, makes me want to cover my head and stay there until I am.

7 days post-dates and counting...

And depending on the attitude undercutting this post, I'm really not doing too bad...but I'm really not doing great either.  So, if this seemed super depressing, I'm much more cheerful than I let on.  And if I seemed more upbeat than expected, don't worry, I'm still fairly disappointed.  Whew!  Glad we cleared that up.

Happy Due Date

I celebrated my due date today.  And by celebrated, I really mean I endured the countless end-of-pregnancy questions all through church.  No baby yet?  How much longer?  Any day now, right? When are they inducing you?  And my favorite...How far dilated are you?  You know, cause it's customary to tell other people about the status of your privates when you're 40 weeks pregnant, I guess.  People are always shocked when I tell them I don't get my cervix checked so I have no idea.  So, now you know too...I have no idea how much I'm dilated.  I like it that way.

Really though, it could obviously be any day now.  I don't have any clue as to how much longer.  And there's clearly NO BABY YET!  :)  I was nice to people though, despite my inner-very-pregnant-grump-self and I got to hear lots of fun old lady (and some not-so-old) baby stories.  I always love talking to the generations that actually know what it's like to go beyond the dreaded date of disappointment because back then, inductions just didn't happen.

So this is the home stretch and we will be waiting and waiting until this little boy makes his appearance on his own.  Hopefully he makes it soon, because I know I'm not waiting patiently thus far and that's just bound to get worse.  Even Liesl comes up to me multiple times a day, kisses my belly and says "Blaine, come out now!!"  She must be feeling anxious too.