39 Weeks

Bunnies, bloomers and bows! We are ready for Grace!

Grace's 39 week appointment went as well as 37 and 38. Still 2 cm dilated / 50% effaced. Her heartbeat is happy and she's sitting cozy. I have been well, sleeping great and feeling patient. I think the past couple weeks of enjoying our new home and letting go of running around has been the key. BUT the one bummer: my platelet count is still low - on top of taking my medication. Not terribly low, but still in the 90s which technically doesn't meet the usual 100 count standard of most anesthesiologist administering an epidural.

D-Day should be interesting.

My hematologist bid me farewell and sent me off into the wild blue yonder with a simple handwritten note as a one last Hail Mary: she recommends an epidural and my platelets have been stable in the 90s. Best of luck.

We will have to test the power of persuasion when we arrive in the hospital. I guess my only hope is that my labor went so quickly with William that this labor will go the same way. My OB said not to diddle daddle at home if my water breaks or I'm feeling contractions because she could possibly come quicker than William (Matt said this doesn't bode well for my desire to shower and re-style my hair ;) Gotta look for my first meet and greet!).

So we wait. My next appointment is on Tuesday, September 3. 40 weeks. I am feeling strangely OK, so I don't have a feeling she will arrive in the next few days. It all can change so quickly though, so who knows!

Grace 39 weeks from the front - not so bad!

Then BAM! Sideways shot - she's a pointy little girl!

18 Month Wellness Visit

This post is very late! I misplaced the card with William's stats, so I kept saving the post waiting till I found the card. My apologies for the tardiness!

William had a great 18 month wellness visit on July 25 - his actual 18 month birthday! Here are his stats:

Height: 34.75" / 99%
Weight: 25 lbs. 8 oz. / 69%

The doctor asked me how he's doing with words - he'd like 5 words, but William has gone well beyond that number. Then if he's interested in using utensils - William LOVES using a fork. He even prefers an "adult" fork over his spork. He wants to use the fork even with food that can't be "forked" - like a graham cracker. He'll hold the graham cracker to the top of the fork and bring his hand, fork and cracker to his mouth just so it's as if the fork is in use ha!

A few picture updates:

Marked William's height in the pantry on Move In Day at our new house!

He loves flipping through books by myself

Car and Ball - life is complete

I'd say his eyes are bigger than his stomach, but he takes the pancake down

The doctor gave me some advice for bringing baby #2 home with William and it was basically how I thought all along: don't act any different than normal. He said if you make it seem unusual or act differently then he's going to feel different. The biggest issue he could see is that William is clearly a very active little boy and wants to be on the go, go, go (which William actually tells himself as he runs! "Go! Go! Go!"), so if we're nursing or doing anything that takes up my time with the baby that William may get bored/antsy. That is what I've been thinking about lately and trying to think up different activities for him to blow off his energy... open gym, the park across the street from us, school begins in two weeks (he will go once a week for 3 hours).

Another impressive part of William's wellness visit was his throw. William's doctor was very impressed with the precision of his throw over and over and over. The entire time we were with the doctor William picked up the two balls and would throw them back and forth with the doctor. His accuracy is actually pretty amazing.

Another awesome visit! We won't go back until William is 2 years old, but with little sis on the way and the frequent newborn visits William certainly won't see less of the office. Kind of nice - any small question we have about William will be easily answered on our visits with Grace. Two for one deal :)

William's 1st Day at MSEE

William starts school today at the Methodist School! I am so excited for him. We had a meet and greet with his teacher Ms. Doudney last week and he was totally enthralled with the classroom. We had to pick him up and take him out to leave. His teacher and her assistant Christy are very nice and we met a few of his classmates as well who are adorable.

Meet the Teacher Day! William is a Friendly Fish in Mrs. Doudney's classroom

 

We got ready for the first day of school at home with a big breakfast! Scrambled eggs, hash browns and yogurt - yum! Dada stayed home this morning to eat breakfast with us and take the ride over to Methodist School. William was a little attached to Dada this morning and so picture taking was not on his agenda - sad for Mama. We got a couple cute pictures though! As soon as William got into his classroom he ran for the toys and didn't look back. Matt and I just waved bye to his teacher and hit the road! I'm looking forward to pick-up and seeing how he did. See you at 11:45a, William! You're such a big boy!

 

 

Hit the playground before going to his classroom



38 Weeks

We made it to 38 weeks! I felt very good this morning. Not too tired (though I did get up at 4 am to order a couple infant caps online because I couldn't fall back asleep without completing that task) and the pressure wasn't feeling imminent like the week before. Still 2 cm and 50% effaced! Dr. Moore said she is definitely down low there, so waiting continues and I'm happy I will be able to join William at school tomorrow morning!

Platelet update: I went to my hematologist last week and my blood was back up to 98. Pretty great! My hematologist wasn't too worried about it and said I didn't need to start the prescription unless I really wanted. She said a lot of her patients in the 80s and 90s range of platelets are able to get epidurals - though I still remember when I gave birth to William and my platelet count was in the low 100s they STILL wanted to check with the anesthesiologist to see if I could get an epidural. It definitely worries me, but it's been great that it's been much more "stable" this time around. I go in for a blood draw tomorrow and I did start taking my prescription on Monday, so I am very excited to see the results. Is it above 100 or no? Just a couple days can do the trick apparently.

On a much more fun note! On Monday at breakfast club with the other mamas and babies, the girls were kind enough to sprinkle baby Grace and recent arrival baby Ellis with some goodies! Ellis was born a couple weeks ago and is the 2nd child for Alexis and Blake. Alexis went the surprise route and found out on D-Day that baby #2 was a GIRL. It is a lot of fun to get together with all the babies and amazing how quickly they are all growing up! Wish I took a picture of the organized chaos of all the babies playing! On to next week - next Tuesday will be my 39 week appointment. 

Me and Alexis - who looks amazing and her daughter Ellis is so sweet!

I can't believe how they put this together!

Imitation is the highest form of flattery

We watched cousin Sam's new crawling skills this past weekend and William got in on the action regressing into baby mode! Uh oh... makes us wonder how he will be with the new baby sister around soon! It was pretty funny and he clearly thought it was very funny too!

37 Weeks

My 37 week appointment scared me! The doctor told me I was 2 cm and 50% effaced, which is nearly exactly what I was the morning I went into labor with William at 39 weeks! With him I was 2 cm and 60% effaced. I was convinced I would go into labor that afternoon. The pressure from Grace felt very imminent. I decided I would try very, very hard to sit down with my feet up the rest of the week and weekend -- which has been VERY hard for me to do with so many fun, new house to-do's. I'd love to get every last one done before Grace arrives, but unfortunately I move at snail pace and get exhausted quickly. A lot will have to wait, but there are a few priorities on the list.

So I laid low, we went to the beach Saturday a.m. and I sat in a lounge chair. Then Matt was very kind to run random errands for me. Luckily, no baby over the weekend! I just really, really want to make it to William's first day of school the following week! After that Wednesday then she is welcome to "grace" us with her arrival at anytime :)

New Smyrna on Saturday - Loves the water

Lunch snack before we go

Me and William

 

PASSED OUT with graham cracker all over his face :)

Less Than a Month...

until our family of 3 is a family of 4!

36 weeks along!

I can't believe it. I feel like Matt and I were saying... oh we have 8-9 weeks to go and now it's right upon us. We are in our new house, getting organized at rapid speed, trying to get Grace's nursery ready to go, and now I am going to my weekly OB appointments PLUS hematologist appointments at this point. To say life is a bit busy nowadays is somewhat of an understatement. We are doing well though and nearly ready to just kick back and relax till Grace arrives.



This looks like fun!

I had my first weekly check-up on Tuesday - 36 weeks - and Dr. Dukes said I was starting to efface already - but no dilating yet. Eesh! I was expecting nothing to report. It doesn't mean too much at this point. I would be happy to reach my due date instead of going early though :) I'm still relatively comfortable - of course, basic and normal pregnancy discomforts, but in the grand scheme I have nothing to complain about. Just tired. But that feeling won't be going anywhere anytime soon whether I'm pregnant or not!

Next appointment is Tuesday afternoon. It's pretty fun going to these weekly appointments and hearing the results. It's like gambling or something! Ha! What do I get today?? I see my hematologist next week too. When I went to my blood draw this past week my blood platelet level was at 84, which is the lowest it has been in this pregnancy. Time to start the scrip and get the levels hopefully over 100!