Freedom for Now

I had my doctor appointment today.  I am not dilated yet thank goodness.  No bed rest yet.  I am not supposed to do aerobic exercise though.  I can do weights and squats, toning things but I can't get my heart rate up or really exert myself.  I have two months of no exercising, which isn't too bad.  I am going to enjoy it for now.  I just need to watch what I am eating so I don't balloon up these next few months.

I am going every two weeks now.  I have to watch my contractions and just relax as much as possible.  The baby has gotten huge.  At my last appointment 3 weeks ago, I was measuring right on schedule, now I am a little ahead.  I am 30 weeks on Friday, but I am already measuring about 31 weeks.  I know they are going to be paying a lot of attention to the size of the baby because I can't have another one as big as Samuel.  I guess at the next few appointments we will probably talk about natural inducement and preparing for an early delivery.  I may be having a September baby.  Dave really wants it to come on October 1st, so it would be 10-1-11.  We will see.

My babysitter is coming back on Thursday, so I am going to plan a day of errand running.  I need to get a few newborn baby outfits for the hospital and start thinking about what I am going to bring.  I want to last at least 7 more weeks, but I guess you never know.

We will probably try to set up the crib and changing table this weekend and get the office/nursery a little more organized.  There will be a lot of changes soon.

It is getting closer and I am so ready for this pregnancy to be over and meet our last Glasser baby.  I can't wait!

Ultra-sound

I had my ultra-sound today to check my placenta.  I am 28 weeks and 6 days.  Exactly on schedule.  It is growing at the exact perfect pace.  The baby currently weights 2 pounds 13 oz.  I forgot to ask about the heartbeat because I was so excited to see all the pictures.  Because they had to get a good look at my placenta they did a 3D ultrasound too, so I got to see some great pictures.  

The baby would not keep its hands away from its face.  I was telling the ultrasound tech that at 20 weeks Samuel was already sucking his thumb and we saw it on the ultrasound.  Then all of the sudden this baby started sucking its thumb.  It was so clear, I saw the cheeks moving and everything.  I don't know what came over me, but I just started crying.  It was so amazing to see how much the baby has grown.  It reminded me of when I saw Samuel for the first time and I just could control the tears.

Everything with the baby looked great.  The best part too is that my placenta has moved away from my cervix.  We are in good shape.  I can now have a vaginal birth, if that is the way it is going to go.  I felt so relieved.  

Here are pictures of the little baby!

This is looking straight down from the top of the head.  You can see that a hand it up by its mouth and it is clearly sucking its thumb.  

Profile picture

3D images.  You can see the face and the arm is right next to the face.  

This is a better picture of the face.  The nose looks really big because they had to zoom in a lot to get a good picture of the lips and chin.  You can see on the chin that it has a little dimple in it just like Joseph has.  It definitely has my nose too, just like both boys.  I can't wait to see this baby in person.  It sucks its thumb like Samuel and has a chin like Joseph.  I can't wait to see all its other characteristics. 

U2 Concert

Pictures from U2.  We had so much fun.  The stage was super awesome.  It was hot as hell that night, but I wore the perfect dress.  I didn't sweat through it and it kept me pretty cool, even though my boobs were falling out all over the place.  Who cares, I am big and pregnant and I enjoyed the amazing concert.

This is the opening band Interpol.  Dave loved them.  I thought they were pretty good.  The bass was so loud.  My whole body was vibrating.  When they first started playing it scared the baby shitless.  It jumped, like I have never felt it jump before and kicked and kicked the whole time they were playing.  At least it got to experience its first concert!

Michigan Pictures

Fun in the little pool.  Samuel, Jacob and Evan 

Samuel loved getting sprayed with the water

Love this picture.  He looks so happy.

Everyone enjoying Ice Cream Sandwiches.  I can't figure out where I was because I would have eaten a ton of them.

The boys were ganging up on Jules

Slip and Slide

Remote control truck playing

Family picture.  Excuse how ridiculously huge I look.  Melissa, Me, Dave, Joseph, Marleen, Jacob, Samuel and Greg

Big Family Picture. Greg, Ton, Adam, Evan, Uncle Joe, Karin, Jules, Ton's parents, Melissa, Samuel, Leone, Me, Dave, Joseph, Marleen and Jacob

Joseph loves sparkling water.  He couldn't get enough

Joseph missed George so he played with Lucy!

Busy Weekend, Busy Week

We had a very busy weekend.  We went to Michigan (I will post pictures later, I haven't even had time to download them yet) for our yearly visit.  We got to see family from The Netherlands and Canada.  It was a nice but short visit.  We left on Friday evening and didn't get into to Michigan until around midnight, then we had an early flight out on Sunday morning.

The kids were so busy playing all day on Saturday that they were worn out for a few days when we got back.

On Sunday, Dave and I went to the U2 concert.  It was a great concert.  They sounded amazing live, better then on any album I have ever heard.  If I had a bucket list started, seeing U2 would have been on the list.  I love their music and I always wanted to see them.  I got some good pictures that night too.  We didn't get home until around 11:30, so needless to say Dave and I were worn out from the long weekend.

I have been trying to relax a little bit more this week, but it is hard because the boys need to be busy.

Joseph I think is already entering the terrible two's and Samuel is full into the ridiculously difficult three's.  There are a lot of tantrums going on in this house, lots of time outs, lots of correcting, lots of figuring out how to parent and lots of patience.  There are many times a day that I want to lock both boys in their rooms and not let them out.

This hot weather is killing me.  I have no energy to do anything.  I can't wait for it to start cooling down a little bit.

I washed all the newborn baby clothes that were all unisex.  I figured I wouldn't wash all the newborn boy clothes until I knew for sure what we were having.  I still think I am having a boy, but the other night I kept dreaming about having a girl.  We will find out soon enough.

We are off to play.

28 weeks

It seems like I really only have time right now to post once a week.  The weeks are flying by and I am just so exhausted I don't really want to do anything.

I am 28 weeks today.  I feel so lucky to have reached this point.  I always am relieved when I get through the first trimester and then again at 28 weeks.

I have started to feel really emotional.  I feel this overwhelming need to just start crying.  It is such a crazy feeling.  I know my hormones are going nuts.

We finally bought a crib and changing table last weekend and it will be delivered soon.  Once we get that set up and I wash the newborn clothes I have I will start to feel calm again.

Overall I am not that stressed about the prospect of having another baby or how crazy things are going to be, but I am stressed out.  I have been having a lot of contractions for the past few weeks.  At first I would have a random one that was really strong and painful, but now I am having that more often.  I posted before that I have to start keeping track of my contractions if they start coming fast and I have to call the doctor if I have more then 10 in one hour.

Last night around 9 pm I started having a ton of contractions and several were very strong, hard and long.  I started to get a little bit worried and was about to start keeping track of how often they were coming when they just stopped.  It was scary from 9-9:30, I had one more around 9:45 and then it ended.  I didn't have anymore the rest of the evening.

I am trying not to do too much.  It seems like when I relax they come more often.  It doesn't make any sense, but  that is what is happening.

I have another ultra sound next week and then a doctor's appointment the next Tuesday.  I will be almost 30 weeks at that point.

This baby is feisty.  It doesn't seem like it is happy with the close quarters in my uterus.  First lesson it must learn is that Mommy is in charge! It better calm down and stay in there for a while longer.

Well, I wish I had more of a break but Joseph is already waking up.  He doesn't nap longer then a few hours.

I am going to try to stay cool and hydrated.  We are having a heat advisory around here starting on Sunday through all next week.  It is going to be miserable I am sure.

Long week

We haven't had the most exciting week.  Joseph was sick most of July 4th weekend.  He had a fever, running nose and cough, but acted completely fine.  He didn't have a fever on Tuesday or Wednesday at all, but then Wednesday night was a complete mess.  He was up pretty much all night screaming.  It started around 9 pm.  We got him to go back to sleep a few times, but it only lasted about 5 minutes.  He just continued to scream.  I told Dave we should just bring him in our room, so I think around 10 we brought him in.  He just screamed and screamed.  He only wanted me to hold him and he wanted to lay right on top of me.  Dave finally moved to the couch to try to get some sleep.  I have no idea when Joseph actually fell asleep, but at some point he did and so did I but only for about a couple of hours.

I had a feel that he had a ear infection, just because he was so miserable.  I took him to the doctor yesterday and he has a double ear infection.  No wonder he was such a mess.  He took a 3 hour nap yesterday and slept all night (well until 6:30 am).  He is a little cranky today, but is so much better.

What a night!  I wasn't that tired yesterday, but today I am pretty exhausted.  It is really hard to only get a few hours of sleep.  Plus as I mentioned in a previous post I am starting to have contractions.  Some are just tiny ones, but others are big, strong and painful.  Because Joseph wanted to sleep pretty much on top of me, I had contractions all night long because of the pressure on my stomach.  It wasn't comfortable in so many ways.

This is actually the first time Joseph has ever slept in our room at night.  He doesn't get sick that often and never was so uncomfortable that he needed to sleep with us.  I remember having Samuel in bed with us all the time.  Even though I felt terrible for him and it was uncomfortable for me, I did like having him right next to me.

I also had a doctor's appointment yesterday.  I am now 27 weeks.  This pregnancy has been moving pretty quickly.  While she was measuring me and listening to the heartbeat, I started to feel a lot of pain in my stomach.  The more she pushed around, the worse the pain was.  When I looked at my stomach I was having a huge contraction.  My doctor said she was impressed with how a long hard contraction it was and asked how long I have been having contractions.  When I told her two weeks, she wanted to check to see if I was starting to dilate.  Luckily I am not dilating yet and there weren't any signs that the lining was thinning, so she was pretty relieved and so was I.

At this point I can continue to keep up all my normal activities and I can exercise, but I have to start keeping track of how many contractions I am having, even the non-painful ones.  If I have more then 10 in one hour I have to call and come in to see the doctor.  She wants to see me again in 3 weeks to check me out again.

I also have to get another ultra-sound to check my placenta to see if it has moved from my cervix.  I will probably have that in the next few weeks.  I haven't had any spotting or bleeding, which is a really good sign that it has moved, but we have to make sure.

I am keeping my fingers crossed (keep yours crossed too) that I don't have to limit my activity or go on bed rest.  I would go nuts, so would the boys.

I'm off to figure out what to do with the boys.

Happy Independence Day!

Hopefully everyone is enjoying the long weekend.  Our plans have been somewhat disrupted because Joseph has had a fever all weekend.  He woke up with a fever on Friday morning and he hasn't gotten rid of it.  The highest it has reached is 101, but it has been around 100 the whole weekend.  He is coughing and has a runny nose too, but other then that he is acting completely fine.  He is running around and not even acting sick.  Samuel has a bit of a cough too, but is also acting coming fine.

They are both napping right now, which both Dave and I needed desperately.  They have been waking up at 6 am.  What is wrong with them?  How do you get kids to sleep in later?  Joseph goes to bed between 6:30 and 7 at night (we can't get him to stay up any later, he literally can not function by 7) and Samuel goes to bed between 7 and 8 depending on if he took a nap or not.  They do go to bed at a reasonable time, but my gosh can they not sleep in later.

Other then not much sleep and dealing with wild children all weekend, I have been cooking up a storm.

On Saturday night we had grilled Bone-in Rib-eye (which was absolutely delicious), crab cakes, roasted fingerling potatoes (oil, garlic, rosemary, onion powder, cayenne pepper, pepper and salt all tossed with the potatoes and put on a baking sheet at 400 degrees for about 20-30 minutes), grilled zucchini, squash, and portabella mushrooms.

On Sunday night we had roasted turkey breast (cooked in the oven in a roaster with celery, carrots, onions, rosemary and brushed with oil, seasoning salt, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper and parsley cooked at 325 for 2 hours), garlic mashed potatoes and fresh green beans.  It was super delicious.  We had a lot of leftover turkey, so I sliced that up and we will use it for sandwiches for the rest of the week.  Yummy.

Tonight I am making Vegetarian Stuffed Bell Peppers.  I am going to post pictures and the recipe at Table for Two.

From now on I am going to try to post all my food related items at that blog.  It is easier to keep it separate from all my family stuff.

Here are some pictures from the last few weeks:

Every night Joseph wants to lay down with Samuel on the couch.  They are so cute together.

On the train at the Museum of Transportation

Joseph isn't much of a hugger but he loves to give Samuel hugs.  I LOVE this picture of the boys.

Check out that height difference

More hugs!

Growing and Nightmares

I think Samuel is about to grow because he is having nightmares again.  Last night he yelled for me around midnight.  I ran in there and he started yelling at me for poking him in the eye.  I told him I didn't poke him in the eye and he said yes I did poke him and his eye was killing him.  He was grabbing his eye and it actually looked really red.  I think he poked his eye in his sleep and it woke him up.  Anyway, I had to calm him down, turn on the light, look at his eye to make sure there wasn't anything in it and then I got him to go back to sleep.  By that time I was wide awake and it took me a while to get back to bed.

I was supposed to have a doctor appointment yesterday, but when I got to the office both doctors were out delivering babies, so I have to go back next week.  What a pain!  I am growing by the day.  I am so done with being pregnant.  This baby is wild.  It doesn't sit still and is always kicking me.  It is as wild as Samuel and Joseph.  Probably another crazy boy.

It is going to be a hot long weekend.  I think we will be spending time at the pool.  We bought a little pool for the backyard and the boys love it.  I love it because I can sit in it while they are playing and not get too hot.

I'm hoping to cook and bake a lot this weekend.  We will see if I come up with anything interesting.  Happy 4th of July weekend.