Stiiiiiiilllllll Waiting...

Well, I am 38 weeks and 5 days pregnant. I have never made it past 38 weeks and 3 days, so to me, I am feeling overdue. I am not going to lie, it is emotionally and physically exhausting. We have everything done and ready for this baby, so I pretty much just wake up every day and wait and hope that that day is the day...so far, no luck. At my appointment on Monday, I was mostly thinned out (90%) and 3cm dilated. She stripped my membranes and I had contractions all day...they fizzled out by bedtime. I am praying he is coming soon. I am so done. This is my 38 week photo! We went out to a festival at Good Records on Saturday, The Vintagemobile was there that our friends run. Kelsey and I are due just days apart! She is having a sweet little girl named Eden! This photo we took on Monday evening. We had a time where we all prayed over Ezra. All 5 of us had our hands on my belly and each said a prayer! It was a really sweet time. Everyone is anxiously awaiting this boy's arrival! This last photo was taken yesterday! Yesterday was the official "I have never been this pregnant before" day! This was my "I am completely unamused by this" face. Ezra, it's time! Come out and meet your family! Here's to hoping he is born before Friday because my midwife is out of town this weekend. Praying hard!!!

Preparing for Ezra

I have obviously had to be doing a lot of preparing to have this new sweet boy in our house! I am 37 weeks, full term, and he can come any day now! As I have mentioned before, I had some pre-term labor issues and started progressing at 33 weeks. Bed rest helped and at my 36 week appointment, hadn't progressed too much more! 36 weeks, I was 90% effaced and 1cm dilated. Our goal of course was to get to 37 weeks and we have! I am so thankful! I have been having a lot of pains and early labor symptoms. I am really hoping this means he is coming soon...I am so ready to meet him and be done with this pregnancy...it has been one of a kind for sure! Because we live in a smallish 3 bedroom house, Ezra will be bunking in our room for a while and then will eventually share a room with Zeke! We set up this little dresser with his stuff in it in our room. While I was on bed rest, there wasn't a ton I could do, but I did manage to make and do a few things! I made a blanket, burp rags, potato printed some onesies, and sterilized pacifiers. During the 4 weeks I was on more serious bed rest and doing this a lot... Josh had to take on a lot. He did a great job taking over and taking care of us all. It was very difficult for me to have to not do anything and not help out. The kids learned to be quite helpful and sometimes, things got a little out of hand... All in all, he did awesome! Needless to say, it was great to hit full term and start being able to be up and in the land of the living! We got the car seat in the car and bags packed. We have also been doing some walking to try and encourage Ezra to come on and join us out here!!! This photo of me is at 36 weeks. Last night, we celebrated hitting full term and went on our last date before this baby gets here. We got pedicures, went to dinner, and attempted to go sit on a blanket at the park with ice cream, but sitting there was so uncomfortable for me we left after a few min!

April so far

Aydia turned 6 this month! She is such a sweet, tenderhearted, silly girl! Right now, she loooooves art and is really good at it! She is very creative and loves animals! We got her an etch a sketch for her birthday, it was the perfect gift for her...she is really good on it! She is shy and though she likes when people recognize her, she gets really quiet...we saw this when we were singing her happy birthday! The girls got to go to one of Aydia's friends birthday party from school at Celebration Station. They had a blast, but let me tell you, not really the place one wants to go 9 months pregnant!

March 2013

At 31 weeks, I was taken off bed rest! I was so excited and went crazy with nesting and trying to get things ready for our Ezra! Little did I know, it would only be for 2 weeks...but I got a lot done in those 2 weeks! During those 2 weeks, we went to Austin for a wedding, we took the kids with us! We went to the wedding on Friday and then spent all of Saturday shopping, eating at Home Slice Pizza...it was a blast! We were planning to stay for 2 nights, but being 31 weeks pregnant, I really just wanted to go home and sleep in my bed the second night! That same weekend, my awesome friends threw me a baby shower for sweet Ezra! It was amazing, my friends outdid themselves! Also in March, our sweet Riley turned 7! I cannot believe she is so old! Right now, she loves Lalaloopsy, prefers wearing pants or shorts over dresses and skirts, she is very outgoing, affectionate, does well in school, is such a joy to be around! Because I was put back on bed rest at 33 weeks, Josh had to take the girls to the nail salon to get their nails done with their friends! What a good dad he is! Easter also fell in March, rounding this busy month out!

February 2013

In February, Zeke turned 3! We went to Chuck E. Cheese with a bunch of his little friends! We took him to Build A Bear where he built his football penguin named Tux! He is all into sports, dinosaurs, superhero's, cars...all the typical boy stuff! Back when all the flu craziness was happening toward the end of January, we got an offer on our house. Because Josh was soooo sick, he was pretty much totally out of commission so I was dealing with it all myself. We entered into our option period into February and had to leave so many times during that 10 days for inspections, appraisals, they had specialists come in. We were constantly in and out because of all this. 3 hours before our option period ended, the buyers terminated the contract. It was devastating. We were so confused. A few days after that, I began having contractions at just 27 weeks. I was sent to the hospital and ended up being put on bed rest for 4 weeks. Now that all that has passed, I am very thankful we didn't sell the house and when I went on bed rest, we took the house off the market, which was right at the end of February. It was such a relief to not have to keep the house "show ready" which was just getting more and more difficult the more and more pregnant I got.

January 2013

Well, our family spent 2 weeks in January with the FLU...the God awful flu. It was pure misery. It definitely deserves it's own blog post. Josh, the only one who had the flu shot, brought the flu home from work where they were all spreading it around. It started with him, went to Riley (who had it the worst, she had a fever of almost 104 at one point and was delusional and almost febrile...scary), then Zeke, then Aydia. The amazing thing about the whole thing was, Ezra and I escaped it...it was a true gift from God. We prayed and prayed that he would protect us and he did! Of course, I have documentation of the longest 2 weeks EVER!!!

September-December 2012

In September, we found out we were expecting baby #4! We were very surprised about this news as we thought we were done having kids...we were literally 4 weeks away from Josh having a vasectomy! After the initial shock, we were very excited! This photo is what we used to tell Josh's family! To tell the social media world, we used this photo! October was Halloween! I did not go trick or treating, I guess I wasn't feeling well. Josh took the kids, so I don't have great photos of them. I have one from a Trunk or Treat we helped with at our church...it was bright and they weren't being very cooperative so I just took what I got! Riley was Supergirl, Aydia was Barbie pop star, and Zeke was a firefighter! I dressed up as an Indian! November, Zeke got a big boy bed! This bed was his Uncle Andrew's bed when he was a kid! Of course, also in November we had Thanksgiving over at Carol's house! December, of course we had Christmas! It was a fun one this year. All the kids understand and enjoy it! My family came out and that was of course a blast! While they were here, we did a big "gender reveal party" for our close friends and family! Josh and I had known for a few weeks what this baby was and had been keeping it in! It was great to get to tell! We also went to Madagascar on Ice! The photo of Riley is awesome! She wanted a boy sooooo bad! She was so excited! That wraps it up for 2012!!!