39 weeks and my bags are packed!

The big day is... TOMORROW!

Charlie is set for his arrival into the world at 1:30 pm. We should arrive at the hospital at 11:30 am or so.

The problem is that we are always late. Always. I'm hoping that we can manage to be on time tomorrow!

I am so nervous!
So excited, but SO nervous.

Here's how I spent my last day as a mommy to ONE child:

8:00- woke up and cuddled with my Avery. What a great way to start my day!

9:30 - David and I took Avery to Preschool together. I had to show him all the procedures for checking her in and making her feel secure, etc. Inevitably, he won't remember any of them, but there are lots of lovely ladies there to help him out!

10:30 - went to breakfast with my sweet husband

11:30 - made David take me to the dollar tree where we got some things to put in Avery's "Happy Bucket" for the hospital.

By the way, I scored BIG TIME and found some styrofoam cones for $1 each (way cheaper than Michael's or Hobby Lobby). That's a beautiful thing.

12:00-12:45 - took a nap. Good stuff. Not long enough.

1:00 - got my hair cut

1:45 - got my car washed

2:20 - picked up Avery from Preschool

3:00 - made David go with me to Walmart.
I had a $10 gift card that was burning a hole in my pocket and had to spend it ASAP.

I bought this:

and this:

Exciting, huh?

4:00 - came home and got dressed for cheesy church directory family photo - in coordinating colors, of course. 'cause that's a requirement for cheesy directory photo.

5:30 - arrived SUPER late for cheesy church directory family photo session.

I felt like a blueberry in my light blue-too-tight cardigan.
I kept waiting for the Oompa Loompas to roll me to the Juicing Room...

6:00 - attempted to keep Avery from screaming during the ENTIRE church photo session while The Kinda Scary Photographer Guy was calling her, "Avera" and shaking a stuffed teddy bear in her face.

6:05 - tried to convince Kinda Scary Photographer Guy that we were not interested in posing for the "David touching my belly and looking sweetly into my exhausted eyes shot".

6:15 - sat through SUPER long presentation where sales lady tried to convince us to purchase a queer-looking staff photo and several random-looking family photos (while having major Braxton-Hicks pains).

FYI: Every woman should have a publicly viewed photo taken of her the day before she GIVES BIRTH. It's great for the ego.

6:30 - dinner at Sonic.
I cheated.
I'm done.
Seriously, done.
You don't even want to know what I ate.
Hint: It rhymes with "silli sneeze stony."

6:45 - dropped Avery off at my SIL's house and went to...

7:00 - David Crowder concert. A.maze.ing.

Side note:
Charlie either really loved it, or REALLY hated it 'cause he was going crazy the whole time. Our friend plays guitar for Jeremy Horn who was opening for David Crowder tonight. It was really fun.

9:30 - picked up a very sleepy Avery and cuddled, cuddled, cuddled until she ASKED me to put her in her crib.

10:45 - started BLOGGING and am currently listening to David clean my kitchen. Because he is precious.

Now... if I could just get to sleep.
I don't know if that's going to happen! Maybe I should lock up the Mod Podge.

I'm liable to start decoupaging the walls at 3 AM.

a strange turn of events

Look who's all about hanging out with Mommy these days...

Boxers are typically very affectionate by nature, but our Gunner is the exception to that rule...he's a good dog (most of the time) and very patient with Avery, just not super-affectionate.

These days, he won't leave me alone.
He follows me everywhere.
I mean everywhere.
He's all up in my grill.
It's kind of sweet, but kind of obnoxious.

Silly, needy, big 'ol stinky dog!

avery's never-ending-birthday party

Avery loves presents just as much as I do. Just look at her expression in that picture: that's PURE JOY. Over a wipes case.

I feel 'ya sister. I feel 'ya.
___________________

We have been spoiled rotten by our family and friends with gifts and showers over the last few weeks and have totally relished every second of the gift-a-thon.

It seems, however, that our family can't quite agree on WHO the gifts are actually for.

I like to think they are for me - cause I'm the one carrying a CHILD inside of me. Hell-o?

Avery prefers to think they are for her - because she's two and everything is hers.

David attempts to tell us that they are for Charlie, but that's just silly.


Our friends John and Beth threw a couples shower for us last weekend, and we decided to allow Avery to come with us. We figured that the more exposure she has to the idea of having a new baby around, the better.

Avery had a blast opening her presents, and after all the gifts were opened, she said, "I want biwrfday cake, Mommy".

She reluctantly agreed to settle for some 2-bite brownies and rice krispy treats instead.

So did I.

My moment of weakness started innocently enough... just ONE little 2-bite brownie. No problem, right?

The sugary goodness was just beyond words.

When you don't get to eat sugar, just a little bit of it is INSANEly good.

Feel free to test me on that.
No?
I don't blame you.

I enjoyed my brief return to the Land-O-Sugar tremendously...

So much so, that I it took more than a couple of 2-bite brownies AND a rice krispy treat for me to shake the "sugar spell".

Thankfully, I did so just before landing in a Diabetic Coma...

I said, "Oh my gosh, what am I doing?" and insisted that David remove the sinful confections from my presence right away.

He gladly obliged.

Such a good sport, that one.

party pooper

Remember this?

This is the recycling bin from my neighbor's house. It's been full like that for almost a year.

At first, I thought that maybe our young neighbors were just a little...lazy. I mean, they really haven't been loud or crazy since we've lived here.

Until last night.
Last night, everything changed.
Last night, we discovered the real reason for the overflowing bin.


Listen, if you are going to party, do it. Whatever. I'm not your Momma. I'd just appreciate it if you would do it WITH YOUR FRONT DOOR CLOSED.

That's a pretty reasonable request, right?

While I'm asking, here are some further questions I'd like to know the answers to:
1. Is it WISE to throw a loud, crazy party when you live in a sleepy little neighborhood full of old people and small children?
2. Is it SMART to slam beer bottles into your overflowing recycling bin when a grumpy pregnant lady is trying to sleep next door?
3. Is it PRUDENT to scream expletives near a pastor's sleeping toddler's window?

Before last night, I would have thought that the answer would have been quite obvious. I guess not.

First, David and I laid in the bed praying that the loudness would miraculously cease.
After that, we complained about the noise to each other while staring at the ceiling.
Then, we peeked out the window to watch the show a few times (3 words: White Boy Dancing. It looked like the poor guy was having a seizure).


I actually WISH the dancing had been as cool as that video...
It wasn't.

Finally, at 2 AM, we began to weigh our options:
1. Crazy pregnant lady's husband politely asks party people to quiet it down and gets decked by a party person.
2. Crazy pregnant lady waddles over and decks a few party people.
3. Crazy pregnant lady brow-beats husband until he agrees to call the cops.

We went with option #3. We figured that it was probably the kindest, most reasonable option.

I think that we finally got to sleep at 3 this morning. Sad isn't even the word for how I feel right now.

I'm thinking that I may have to pay them a visit at 3 am one morning while baby Charlie is screaming for his morning feeding and see how they like that.

Who am I kidding? No one deserves that kind of punishment.

38 weeks and hanging in there

I'm still pregnant.

I'm still grouchy.

I'm still tired.

I'm still insane.

Poor David.

Baby Charlie is just big enough now to feel like he's going to bust on through my skin in Alien Style at any moment. Sometimes, I swear I can almost make out the outline of his toes and knees pushing against my belly. It's crazy.

We had our doctor appointment today and Charlie is doing great. I am healthy and feeling well except for crabbiness and extreme exhaustion. I blame my ill disposition on my total and complete lack of sleep - caused in part by David's very loud snoring (despite the fact that he isn't allowed near the bed unless he's wearing a Breathe Right strip. I'm so mean!) and my humongo belly.

Oh - and the fact that I have a highly demanding 2-year-old.
And a big, obnoxious, stinky dog who tracks dirt into my house all the time.
And neighbors who STILL won't take their recycling bin to the street - after 1 year.

Ahh...Venting. It feels so right it can't be wrong.

Anyway - without grossing you out too much, I'll say (as delicately as I can) that I am 70% you-know-what but not "d-wording" just yet. My doctor seemed surprised that Charlie was so low (Despite the fact that I told him that I felt like he was super low - Why do they never believe you??).

I have another appointment next week - just a few days before my scheduled C-section.

Oh my gosh, I'm about to have another child. Yikes!

I just vomited a little in my mouth.

37 weeks and a total insomniac

I have a severe case of Baby Brain these days, so I'm not going to attempt to be clever, witty, or even coherent on this post. That would be an exercise in futility and I'm just too tired for that business.

I figure that my best shot at sounding at least like a kindergarten graduate is to stick to the basics... so here we go:

My 37 week appointment was happily uneventful. No news to report except that baby Charlie has "dropped", but is still not going anywhere this week.

His heartbeat is nice and strong, and the doctor guesstimated that he weighs around 5 pounds right now. I'm very proud to say that I'm not waddling just yet - and aside from being very tired and a little edgy, I feel great.

We scheduled our C-Section for Friday, November 21 at 1:30 pm. I was hoping for an earlier time at day, but evidently, the 21st is a popular day for C-Sections. I reserved the last time that they had left. All I can think about is how hungry I'm going to be by the time 1:30 rolls around.

2 more weeks, people. 2 more weeks. How crazy is that?

Thankfully, you don't have to use big, impressive words to Craft - so I'm dedicating the remainder of this post to the only sure-fired-tried-and-true method for staying sane when willing oneself to sleep just doesn't work.

I think you know what I'm talking about...
_____________

My Craft Club friends came over on Monday night and we went to work cutting, gluing, pasting, creating beautiful things, and solving all of the world's problems. It was, in my estimation, an extremely successful night.

This was my project from the night:

It's entirely made of paper - except for the ribbon and the frame. I found the idea on Martha Stewart's website.

Oh, Martha. I have such a love/hate relationship with her.

The beauty of her projects always sucks me in. They're just so pretty, fancy, and fabulous...

Martha's spell usually wears off sometime during the third hour of my investment in the excruciatingly intricate details of the project. That's when I start thinking not-so-nice thoughts and vowing never to be fooled by her crafty trickery again.

This crafting experience was no different.

Even though this it wasn't HARD, it took forever-and-a-day to finish...not to mention a MILLION paper leaves.

Dahling Mahtha says to staple the leaves in place, but I decided to use a glue gun instead. 'Cause glue guns are so much cooler than staplers and Martha's track record with me hasn't been the best lately.

I'm not sure that my decision was a wise one with my reflex skills as they are right now...I came pretty close to burning off all of my fingertips by the time the wreath was finished.

Worth it? Sure.

Here's my second project of the week:
It's a fun little paper leaf garland

I read a million fun, crafty blogs, and found this idea on Just a Girl (she found it somewhere else in the blogosphere).

I adapted the idea just a bit since Avery isn't old enough to participate in the "I'm thankful for..." conversation just yet. But next year, I plan on writing our thankful thoughts on the leaves. Won't that be too, too cute?

Finally - I thought that I would include a little tutorial for making my little signs/plaques. I've had a few people ask me how I did them, so here goes:

Supplies:
Wood Board or Plaque
(I use Lara's Crafts rectangle wood boards from Michael's, but you could easily use any kind of small wood plaque)
Paint or Stain
3M fine sandpaper
Mod Podge (the greatest invention known to man)
Scrapbook papers
Paper cutter or Scissors
Corner punch
Flower punch
Circle punch
Computer and Printer (to print your verse or saying)
buttons/ribbon/embellishment of choice
Drill

What You Do:
1. Paint the back and sides of the board

2. Once the paint is dry, smooth the board with Sandpaper. Sanding the painted board creates a really cool aged effect.

3. Cut and glue the first layer of scrapbook paper to board. This will be your "background"

4. Print your saying or verse on a coordinating paper and then use the corner punch to round the corners. Glue that piece on top of the "background"

5. If you want, you can add additional punched paper embellishments at this point. I like to do flowers with a circle inside. It adds just a little somethin' somethin'.

6. Sand the papered board with a fine sandpaper to distress it.

7. Dust off the board and cover it with a light coat of Mod Podge

8. Wait a few minutes and then smooth any bubbles in the paper with your fingers once the Mod Podge is dryish

9. Embellish with buttons and ribbon

10. Drill holes at the top of the board to attach a ribbon for hanging

Total Cost: $4 at the most!

HAPPY CRAFTING, MY BLOGGY BUDDIES!

i love me some presents

Seriously. I do. I LOVE presents.

A pack of gum, a Diet Coke from Sonic, a pair of lovely shoes, and even a pack of Pampers can make me feel warm and fuzzy all over when wrapped with a little bow or given with a smile.

Presents are fabulous.

I'm feeling especially warm and fuzzy these days because I've been the extremely blessed recipient of not one but TWO baby showers over the last week. Traditionally, baby showers are given to first time mommies - So, how lucky am I to have been given more than one shower for my SECOND child? It's all so sweet and unexpected - and I'm absolutely loving it!

Shower #1:
The girls that I work with gave me a "Dipes and Wipes" shower/dinner last week. I had some yummy contraband food (don't tell my doctor!), great conversation, and got to open PRESENTS. It was the PERFECT evening.


Shower #2:
Our Worship Team at church gave David and I a baby shower this weekend. They are just SO generous and precious and I truly, truly love them.

Avery loved helping mommy open the presents and was convinced that each gift was just for her. There's no reasoning with a 2 year old. I just let her enjoy it. She'll be sharing everything in a couple of weeks. Especially her mommy.

Oh, Lord Jesus: I'm going to need your help BIG TIME...






I'm not gonna lie - I had a little contraband at this shower too, but could YOU resist that cake? Seriously?

Obviously, I chose not to test my blood sugar after that meal.

Here's the craziest part of all this Present Business: I am having 2 more showers over the next week! Can you believe it?!? My mood is definitely improving. ;-)

house update

This weekend was a super-important weekend in the life of our little bitty house... This weekend, we finally put the carpet in the new room.

Who knew that carpet could be good for your soul? Avery kept rolling around on the carpet saying, "comfy" and "my cahpet". If it weren't for my seriously large tummy, I would have been right there on the floor with her - giddily laughing and acting completely ridiculous.

David and a few VERY generous friends have been finishing dry wall, putting up trim, painting, and carpeting the room addition every single day and night for the last week or two.

Our little Charlie's room was painted a lovely shade of blue last week... Not the blue I had envisioned (because paint color almost never comes out right the first time you put it on the wall) but I didn't have the heart to ask David to change it.

At least, not right away...I'm seriously contemplating it though. I should probably wait a few more days, huh?

OH and ...My lovely Sewing Lady Friend came over last week to pick up the fabric to make Charlie's valance. As soon as the room is organized and put together, I'll post some pictures.

All this progress makes this rotund Mommy very, very, very happy. Slightly high from the paint fumes and sneezy from the dust clouds, but very happy.

My long, long, laundry list of "need to do's" is getting much shorter. I still need to:
1. wash and dry Charlie's clothes
2. wash and clean the swing cover, car seat cover, etc
3. get a Big Sister shirt for Avery
4. pack a bag for the hospital
5. get the construction dust out of my house. For good.
6. organize Avery's new playroom
7. organize Charlie's room
8. keep on craftin' - thus maintaining my sanity.

Not so bad, huh?

36 weeks and dreaming

I had my 36 week check-up today. Today's appointment was the first of my weekly doctor's visits. You know what that means...the END is near. I'm not quite sure how to feel about the end finally being here...I guess somewhere between elated and totally freaked out sounds about right.

We had to wait quite a bit longer in the waiting room today than we normally do. Long waits can be completely disastrous with a toddler. Thankfully, Avery did a great job entertaining herself by entertaining US.

David and I dutifully played the part of attentive audience members while Avery did hand-stands, ballet moves, twirls, and fantastically realistic imitations of frogs and bunnies. She's a mess.






Things are going really well. Charlie's heartbeat was nice and steady and he is growing just like he should. My weight is good, my blood pressure is good, my blood sugar is good. Basically, Charlie and I are very... good.

Without going into graphic detail (because - ewww), I'll just tell you that the doctor surmised that Charlie isn't going anywhere for now...which is FINE with me. In fact, I'm ok if he stays put all the way up until my scheduled C-Section on November 21.

I say that now, but I have a feeling that in a couple of weeks or quite possibly a couple of seconds, I'll be singing a different tune.

When my doctor asked me if I had any questions/concerns, I had to share my crazy dream with him. Because that's what I do. I share. It's my thing. My friends nicknamed me Barbara Jean. I'm owning it.

(By the way, my mom told me that she doesn't read anything on my blog because I'm too wordy. She just looks at the pictures. I laughed. It's true. I know.)

Anyway - back to my story...

Last night, I dreamt that I gave birth to a beautiful baby... cat.

I'd always heard that pregnant women are prone to have that dream, but never experienced it until now. It was pretty upsetting.

In my dream, I gave birth to my sweet little fur-ball in the bathroom(!). A few seconds later, I proudly showed my meowing, scratching, bundle-o-joy to my friends who were having dinner at a nice restraunt. To my surprise, they all laughed at me.

I know... So unrealistic, right?

Who would laugh at a cat baby? That's just silly.

Honestly, I think I was more upset over being laughed at than giving birth to a cat baby in the bathroom. What does that say about me? Hmmm....

Good news: My doctor told me today that he's never delivered a cat baby before. I'm thinking I can rest easy.

34 weeks and... c-r-a-z-y.

I think I have a new love language: It's Drywall.

Drywall dust has never looked more attractive. I sincerely mean that.


When David emerged from our room addition looking like this, Avery almost lost her mind. She kept saying, "carey!"

It took a little convincing before she recognized that this strange, ghostly-looking man was indeed her daddy.

Gunner took one look at him and went nuts too. I thought that he was going to eat David. He was not happy about Mr. 'Carey Dust Man. Not at all.

I have to say that I'm so proud of my Handi-Man. He's been working his rear-end off to help get the house finished for Charlie's arrival.

I've been working around the house too. Sort of.

When I was pregnant with Avery, a nice bowl of ice cream could calm my raging hormones and clear my racing thoughts in no time. A big 'ol bowl of cereal could almost make me forget about my lack of sleep and massive leg cramps.

There's nothing like a mint-chocolate chip milkshake to make all your troubles disappear...

With this pregnancy, however, I've been forced to think "sugar-free" and "low carb" when it comes to comfort.
If I eat one more stinkin' cheese stick I may go completely nutso.
Ugh.
It turns out that Comfort Food has a serious problem with being low-fat and healthy.

My solution? Crafting.

It's low-carb.
It's sugar-free.
More importantly, it's not a stinkin' cheese stick.

What WAS a brilliant solution has become a little bit of a problem, as of late. It seems that I've turned into a decoupaging-scrapbook-paper-buying-crazed-lunatic.

Here are some examples of my obsessed craziness from THIS WEEK:

First, I made a little sign for our door.
Because it was completely necessary.
It's all about practicality, people.

Then I made some blocks for Charlie's shelf in his room.
Again, totally necessary and practical.


While I had the Mod Podge out, I made these little frames with scrapbook papers and ribbon.
I liked them so much that I made some for Christmas too - 'cause I'm going to NEED those later.

After that, I started the "Halloween Craftiness Kick" that I've settled into for the last couple of days.

Funkins were 50% off at Hobby Lobby, so I decided to carve this one for Avery's room. I put one of those little fake lights inside to turn on at night.
She loves her "birthday cake" light and tries to blow it out at least 20 times a day.

Then, I made these votives out of food jars and crepe paper.
Avery painted the Mod Podge on the the outside and helped me put the paper squares on the jars. She kept saying, "I hep Mommy. I paint."
Then she got "diwrty" and decided to stop.
That girl can't stand being dirty.

I found this cute little project on another blog and decided that it would be fun to make. It's a candy cane garland - varnished to keep away the bugs.
This one almost made me nuts.
Just so you know, stringing candy corn is NOT recommended if you are preggo...especially if you have "The Sugah".
Too tempting.
Too frustrating.
But thankfully, also "too cute".
I only cheated a couple of times...

I decided to make these little gifts for Avery's teachers at preschool.
I had to make one for myself too, of course!



It isn't enough for ME to be crafty crazy...evidently, my innocent little one has started to catch the "fevah" too.
This craft is decidedly not super-original, but she LOVED painting her pumpkin cut-out for her daddy.
You should have seen her run up to him with that little pumpkin in her hand when he walked in the door after work.
She was so proud of herself and so pleased to give it to him. It was a really sweet moment.

There you have it.
Some pregnant women may eat pickles and ice cream...THIS pregnant woman is channeling Martha.
I'm officially crazy.

baby song - take 2

Remember this post?

Seems that we are slowly making progress with our little Avery. Check it out!

what happens when mommy stops being nice?

People get scared.

Then people get movin'.

Particularly husbands.

After my melt-down on Friday, David called for reinforcements.

I imagine that the phone calls went something like this:
Uh.
Dude.
Jennifer's not doing so hot.
I need help. Stat.

We've got some super-great friends who were more than willing to help us out. Our friends John and Bryan spent all day on Saturday helping David in the yard. I seriously love them for working so hard- and I especially love their sweet wives for letting them come.

Avery loved watching Daddy and "Dohn" work in the yard through the window.

Honestly, I probably could have done the same thing, but I figured that standing in the yard and micro-managing might be just a tad obnoxious... and staring out the window all day might be a little bit creepy. Reluctantly, I decided to get out of the house for a few hours. I DID manage to slip these little yard plans into David's pocket when I left:

When Avery and I returned home, we heard honking coming from down the street. This is what we saw:


That, my friends is what we like to call classy. REALLL classy.
I laughed my rear off.

32 weeks and counting

Kisses for Charlie...

We had our most recent OB appointment last week. Things are going well. I've managed to control my Gestational Diabetes through dietary changes - which is good (but not so fun). Baby Charlie's heartbeat was nice and strong and my doctor says that he probably weighs 3 pounds right now.

Avery watched the doctor as he listened to Charlie's heartbeat and measured my tummy. She was fascinated. During the days since my appointment, she has been touching my tummy like the doctor did and saying, "Doctah said. A Chayee. Seepin."
Translation: The Doctor said Charlie is sleeping.

It's impossible to know what's going on in that sweet little head during these changes, but we've been praying that she will adjust well after our little boy arrives.

Avery had a little emotional melt-down at school the day after we brought Charlie's cradle home from my parent's house. One of my friends suggested letting Avery play and climb into the cradle so that she can feel like she's a part of all the changes. She seems to like that a lot. She's been putting all of her baby dolls in it and patting their backs to help them take their "naps".

Here she is pretending to be a baby. She found a random paci around the house and likes to play with it. She insisted that I rub her back and give her a bottle too!


It's so hard to believe that we will have a new little person added to our family in just a few short days.
I try to imagine what it will be like based on what it was like when Avery joined our family, but I know that this time will be so different... It kind of scares me a little bit. I want Avery to feel loved, but I want Charlie to get all the attention that he needs. I worry that I won't be able to provide for their emotional needs and stay sane. Does that make sense?