D+1

Well, I just remembered that when I first found out I was pregnant before I went to the doctor, I had calculated my due date based on my specific chart and it was Aug 2nd. The doctor calculates it based on a "typical" cycle and told me July 30th. I accepted this since it was "close enough" at the time, but I should have made more of a mental note of it because when it comes time for that due date it's not "close enough."

Well, so far today has been an easy going day. The doctor told me to stay active, but that is easier said than done when you're not the one carrying an 8 pound (at least!) bowling ball strapped to your stomach in 88 degree weather where air conditioning is a luxury enjoyed only in the car and at the grocery store (oh, and at the hospital, which is just another reason I can't wait to have this child!) Anyways, I digress, back to my day today...Hannah had another highly enjoyable day at Vacation Bible School despite being a tad late because of some new construction going on that caused quite the detour. (Incidentally, this effects our trip to the hospital as well, so I am hoping it is a one day thing.) Hannah's teachers were disappointed to see that she was late because of a detour and not a new baby brother. Meanwhile, Genna ran the show at home, directing imaginary play with Nanna and Uncle James outside since the cleaning lady (there's probably a more politically correct word than that) was cleaning the floors inside. They hid from monsters and Big Bad Wolves and Genna saved the day by hitting them with a soft baseball bat. Kind of violent, I thought. When I brought Hannah back, they were all on a walk, so Hannah beat me in a game of Candy Land. Then lunch, and then nap time which I should be taking better advantage of right now...

What's in a due date?

Nothing!

I should know by now that a due date means nothing! However, I still had some hope that this baby would come sooner than my actual due date, like my last baby did. Well, my due date came and went with no precious newborn to show for it. I went to the doctor today, and she said I am still at about the same place as last week...3cms. Up until your due date, the doctor is hopeful and anticipatory, and then as soon as your due date comes, the doctor's demeanor changes to pity and talk of induction. She set a stress test up for August 8th and a tentative induction date of August 11th. I do not want to be induced, so I am really hoping and praying it doesn't come to that! I'll see what happens, but I may try to push that back if it comes to the 11th with still no baby. I was induced with my first and not with my second, and when it comes to having a medication-free labor there is no contest which one is easier even though they both lasted about the same length of time. In fact, I would dare say, comparatively, a non-induced labor is a piece of cake. August 11th is still a ways away, so this little guy has some time, right?

I am having some trouble sleeping. With all the contractions, my stomach starts to ache midway through the night. In fact, it is 4am at the moment, and I had to get out of bed because I was hurting laying on my side. Hopefully, I can lay back down soon and be more comfortable. I thought maybe a bowl of cereal and a quick post on the blog would make me feel better.

Hannah's still going strong at Vacation Bible School, and with Nanna and Uncle James to play with, Genna is dealing with her absence rather well. Every time they see my bare tummy, they talk to Isaac and tell him to "hurry up and come out." I am sure they don't even believe me anymore when I say, "Any day now!" :)

Genevieve's whistle :)

Genna was running around the house doing this silly noise while she holds her nose. The girls were laughing and being silly as usual, so I thought nothing of it. Hannah says, "Genna, show Mommy your whistle!" And this is what she did!



I had no idea she was trying to whistle! We have been cracking up at this for days now! I finally got her on video without Hannah trying to steal her thunder since Hannah was at Vacation Bible School again this morning.

Still no baby yet!

Busy day yesterday, I guess!

I was so busy yesterday that I forgot to update the blog and say that we still haven't had the baby yet. My friend who was due on the 25th had her baby though. Congratulations to her and her family on their new baby boy! Tomorrow's my due date and I have another doctor's appointment then. I am anxious to have the baby, but I am reminding myself continually how blessed I am to have a healthy baby on the way no matter when he gets here! I do wish it wasn't so hot here since I can't get away from the heat with no AC anywhere (except the car). It saps what little energy I have left!

Yesterday I picked up Brian's mom and brother from the airport. The girls are thrilled to have them here! And it was Hannah's first day at Vacation Bible School too. Hannah came home and wowed us with all the knowledge she attained at church. She could tell us all about Moses, down to the details of why he was put in the basket, what river he was put in, who found him and everything. Granted we've read the story before, but still we were all impressed! She said she had "so much fun," but that she "didn't enjoy the singing and dancing" which surprised me since she loves to do it at home.

Nope!

Well, I thought it was really going to happen when my contractions strengthened and were 15 minutes apart for about 3 hours last night. I was laying awake timing them starting at 2 am, when I got hungry. So Brian, being the sweet husband that he is, got me some cereal. Unfortunately, after I ate it they stopped being regular in strength and timing. So, still no baby boy for us to hold! And not much sleep for me either, because right after that all happened the electricity went off. I was so hot without the fan that I couldn't go back to sleep until it came on at 8am.

Isaac's Blanket

I finished Isaac's afghan last night! Still no Isaac to cover up though!

Here is his star lamp that I found at Ikea. It goes well with the Starry Night painting and creates just enough light for a storybook before bed or a late night diaper change.

Perfectionista!

Hannah invited me to a picnic in her room this afternoon. She had laid out a blanket perfectly straight and was still working on the food. I laid down next to the blanket on her gigantic stuffed dog (we have hard wood floors and that was all I could manage at this point.) Genna came to lay next to me on the blanket and wiggled around a bit. Hannah came to serve us food and noticed how wrinkled up and askew the blanket was and just about lost it. She was very upset. I tried to straighten it a bit without kicking Genna off the blanket, but it wasn't perfect. I told Hannah she had a choice, she could either have a picnic with people and a wrinkled blanket or she could have a picnic with a perfectly straight blanket without any people. I was hoping her social side would overtake her perfectionist side, but alas it did not. She chose the perfectly straight blanket. So, we ended up not having a picnic after all. She then decided she wanted to dance anyways once Genna and I left the room.

She gets this trait from me, of course. She is such a neat freak that she even tells me when I need to sweep or dust or whatever. After Hedwig, the cleaning lady, left yesterday (Yes, I actually hired someone to clean the house for 2 hours a week!), Hannah woke up from her nap and immediately started pointing out any dirt she left behind. I mean we don't have any carpet to absorb and hide dust or hairs, so it never looks perfect especially with kids and pets. I thought she did a great job. Hopefully, Hannah keeps this to herself when she comes back next week.

Funny sense of humor

The girls have taken to making up silly names for each other and cracking up laughing. An example is Water Bottle Pie instead of the typical Sweetie Pie. Unfortunately they seem to think the funniest names involve the words: toot, poop, pee pee, mud, or eyeball. The strange thing is Genna came up with all these. It is not a case of the older child teaching the younger bad habits this time. She has a tendency towards a "potty" sense of humor. I am embarrassed to say she cracks up at bodily functions, and has as long as I can remember. I allow mud or eyeball, but I try to discourage the other ones. So now they will occasionally slip and use one of the "dirty" words and the other child immediately tattles, "Mom, she called me a dirty word!" in the whiny tattle voice all mothers come to know so well.

The Culprit
No baby yet, for all those anxiously awaiting the news!

3 cms

...And still dilating! I went to the doctor today and it looks like all these contractions are actually making some progress. Praise God! Plus, it looks like I won't have to wait too much longer to hold my first son. 4cms is active labor, so it can't be to much longer...I hope!

Hannah saw Isaac jutting a foot out of the side of my belly, and said with bouncing excitement, "Yea! He's coming soon! He's getting so big, and I can't wait for him to come out!"

Me too, Hannah!

Down Comforter Covers

I made these a while back, actually, but I never put them on the blog. I was in the states at my mom's house when I made them. I made them out of coordinating sheet sets. The pink one is going to be ultimately for Hannah (in her pink ballet/Degas themed room) and the butterflies will be for Genna (in her hot pink and lime green flower and butterfly/Monet themed room.) I want to wait to use it for them though until there are no more bed wetting accidents since the down is so hard to get stains and smells out. So, for now they are on the guest beds. All of our male guests have been very secure in their masculinity and not complained once about the girlie patterns and colors.

Hannah's

Genna's

Things to miss and to look forward to...

Things I will miss about being pregnant...

My baby kicking and moving inside my belly


Having my afternoons (from 2-4pm) and evenings (after 8pm) free since the girls are on a good schedule

My hair and complexion are better

My stomach can be huge and people just think it's cute :)

The girls kissing my tummy and talking to their baby brother

Things I am looking forward to once I have this baby...

Seeing and holding my new baby boy, our first son

Nursing my baby

Getting to not wear these compression hose anymore and getting to wear flip flops and capri pants again (hopefully, the weather holds out for me to get to do this)


No more contractions and uncomfortable sleep

No more baby up in my ribs

Not waking up a million times to go to the bathroom every night (but this may be canceled out by all the night feedings, come to think oft it.)

Being lighter

The Waiting Game Begins...

We are totally ready for this baby to make his appearance! I've finished almost every last possible detail. The car seat is installed, the star lamp is up in the nursery, and the bags are packed. I have a couple little things left on my to do list, but they were the lowest priority. I am almost finished with Isaac's afghan and can't wait to post pictures. I am working on it every evening, and expect it to be complete by the end of the week or so. I am going to try to plan something little (and flexible) to look forward to every day to make the waiting easier.

So, keep a close watch on my blog for pictures of Isaac Thomas, who could come any day now!

Wrong Foot Genna

I've mentioned before Genna's obsession with shoes and tendency (that may not be a strong enough word, because it's about 90% of the time) to get them on the wrong foot. You would think she could pick the right foot roughly half the time, but not so! She waltzes around the house with her decidedly flat feet, inherited from either her Dad or her Poppa Boat or a combination of the two, in many different shoe combinations. She wears everybody's shoes, even visitors if they are left by the door! What a character!

Oops, I cut off Daddy's head!

The girls just left with Daddy to go on their first bike ride of the summer (since we've been so busy traveling.) I did convince Genna to change her shoes before leaving. By the looks of it, they are going to get rained on! Here's a picture of the girls in their helmets before they left (and a peak at my massive belly in the background too.)

Yep! The rain just started!

Watercolors and Aprons

I finished Hannah's apron in half the time the very next day, but I didn't get a picture of it until today.

They wanted to paint, so now we get to use the aprons too. To give you an idea of how different the girls are...

When I suggest we wear our aprons to paint, Hannah says, "But then we might get our aprons dirty!" and Genna says, "Lets make hand prints!" and in minutes has her fingers covered in paint. Hannah keeps herself pristine for the duration, of course!

When I put on some Classical music and call it "Painting music," Hannah complains that she doesn't like it, and Genna says she loves it.

What a pair!

A hedgehog

...in our very own backyard. Brian found it and then reunited it with it's family on the other side of the fence.

Double Trouble

People keep asking me if the girls are twins, especially if they are sitting down, like at the grocery store. Sometimes I feel like they are since they are so close in age. Genna is going through a phase where she copies everything Hannah does at the moment. This kind of comes and goes. We've been in phases like this before and we've also been in phases where she wants to do the opposite thing Hannah does. So, at the moment, when Hannah says, "No, I don't want to clean up/go to bed," then Genna says the same thing and I have double the trouble. So, Hannah has been saying, "No" a lot lately, and so has Genna. I had to take away Hannah's most prized thing, her daily half hour of TV for many many days to get her to start obeying respectfully. Yesterday was the first day that she behaved and earned back her TV time. Her dad and I had talked to her about being my helper with her sister and brother. So, I just would remind her if she started to cause a problem that I need her to help me by showing Genna what I needed her to do. This worked like a charm since Hannah loves to help and teach her sister things. It was amazing because Genna would automatically change her mind too and obey as well. It certainly made my job easier yesterday and this morning too. I hope it lasts!

Genna had another potty success yesterday too! She is so funny because she wants to do it all by herself with the door closed, not like Hannah who would drag the potty all over the house to be in the same room as me. So, she closes the door and plays with dolls or purses while she sits on the potty. Then a while later I hear the excited joyful sounds, " I went pee pee!" She gets so excited! It's so cute!

Little Aprons

I finished the first of, hopefully, three kid-sized aprons today. This one is Genna's, but Hannah wanted to model it too. It turned out pretty nice and only took me about 3 hours from start to finish, and that's only because my sewing machine kept giving me trouble. I got the idea for this from my husband. When we were shopping in Belgium I pointed out how adorable the little handmade aprons were, and he said, "Couldn't you make that?" I thought about it, looked up some patterns on the internet, and used extra fabric that I already had to make them. I've started on Hannah's, making hers a little longer in a different left over fabric.

Here it is:Model #1

Model #2

I also trimmed a burp cloth for a gift for a fellow Aggie over here who is due to have a baby boy at the same time as me.

Here it is:

Gig'em Aggies!

The gifts at Mass

Yesterday at Mass, we carried the gifts to the altar as a family. We discussed it prior to Mass and went over what everyone would carry. Hannah had agreed to carry the collection plate since we thought she could do that all by herself. Well, when it came time to actually do it, she saw how much cooler the wine and water were to carry and changed her mind. I thought maybe she could do what Genna was doing and "help" me carry it, but that was not good enough and she started to try to pull it out of my hands as we walked down the aisle. So we were in a (hopefully) subtle tug-of-war match for a few steps until she gave up and took the collection from Brian and carried that up. I was getting a little nervous that we were going to drop it or spill it though. Whew! That would have been embarrassing!

This morning we said a tearful good bye to my parents as we dropped them off at the airport. When Mimi was explaining that she was leaving on the way to the airport, Genna said, "But then Mimi can't play with us, and that makes me so sad!" However, the girls were comforted to hear that their Nanna and Uncle James will be coming to play with them very soon!

The anticipation is building...

The girls can hardly wait to meet Isaac! Hannah said to me the other day, "I can't wait till Isaac ever comes out!" while hugging my tummy. Then this morning she said, "I wonder what Isaac is up to, Mom" putting her ear to my belly. I am so glad the girls are so excited! Genna can't wait to hold him on the couch, burp him, sing to him, and help put him to bed.

I am pretty ready as well for the little guy to make an appearance. I have a few things left on my to do list, but nothing major. My bags are packed, the nursery is ready, and I am about to pop! I have been getting comments this last week about carrying lower/the baby dropping. I have never been able to tell, because my babes are so big that they are still up in my ribs even after they drop. I hope we are ready for the natural childbirth thing again because we have not practiced much. I am hoping since I did it twice before that it should come naturally when the time comes.

Here is a random picture of the girls listening to Mimi tell stories. They love to be told stories, especially Hannah. "Mimi, make up a story!" is something we've heard all too often since my parents have been here. They even suckered Poppa Boat into a story or two.

Genevieve is developing quite the personality!

It seems a lot of it is coming from watching her big sister get laughs and attention. I never thought my shy little Genna would be such a ham! She will say made up words and then crack up thinking it's so funny. Hannah usually cracks up too. She will also dance on cue to get a laugh. Genna has notoriously been more difficult to get a picture of, while Hannah will pose and even insert herself into pictures when the camera comes out. However, I think Genna has finally decided to copy this aspect of her sister's as well.

I said, "Genna, can I take a picture of you?" And she popped up and posed just like this...

Then she changed to this pose. This one reminds me of a Saint statue's pose, but maybe I am just biased towards my little angel and see things others don't.

The Awe of a 3 year old!

I forgot to mention this in the Austria trip blog, and I thought it was so sweet...


When we first drove into Salzburg, Austria and Hannah saw the river, she said, "Isn't God amazing, Mom?!!!" My heart just melted at her sweet observation that was all her own!

Austria pictures!

We didn't get as many pictures as I thought because Brian had the camera and his hands were too tied up with fishing to snap as many photos as he usually does. I may have more once I download the pictures from my parent's camera.

The town we stayed in is a little fishing village in a beautiful valley. The town is called Mittersill. Here are the views right outside our hotel:



Here are the pictures Brian took of fishing , so they are mostly of my dad fishing. They fished from morning till night Saturday and Sunday. They caught some fish and came back all smiles:


We went into Salzburg for a few hours the first day and here are the pictures from there. We shopped, had some interesting versions of giant "pretzels," and learned a lesson about biting balloons:

I'm way too pregnant to be doing this, don't you think? Murray, our mini poodle, came with us too!

This was on the 4th of July, so the girls were all American-no blending in that day!

Breakfast and dinner was included in the hotel price which was nice. I don't like having to worry about finding a good restaurant every evening after a long day. Plus, then you're right where you need to be if the kids are exhausted and ready for bed. While the guys were fishing, my mom, the girls, and I shopped and went swimming.

Sunday Mass was nice! It was actually quite packed too, which isn't so common over here. The church was all decked out in beautiful statues and some stained glass. There was one statue of Jesus after he was beaten and whipped. He was bleeding, and his knees in particular were bloody. Genna noticed this, and I was explaining how he was hurt kind of like when she scraped up her knees and they were all bloody. She looks at me and says so seriously and sweetly, "Yeah, Mommy, when I died on the cross." Not quite, Sweetheart!

I'm back...

from my last trip until this boy is out! We took my parents to Austria, and it was stunningly beautiful! The doctor was a little nervous for me to go 6 hours away this late in the pregnancy, but she checked me and I was only 1cm dilated. So I took the chance, and we returned home safely. Actually, my contractions slowed down since I wasn't so busy trying to knock out my to do list.

We are having some computer difficulties, so that is the main reason for my silence on the blog. Hopefully, we can get those fixed in the next few days, and I can get pictures up and catch up on some other stuff too!

Silly Sisters

These crazy girls will do anything for a laugh!

Hannah has Daddy's shoes on, and Genna has Hannah's on.

What personalities!

Cuddling in our bed


Dress up time!


Notice Genna's shoe fetish!

The Whine Wiver Cwuise

...as Genna called it (or the Rhine River Cruise, as it is more commonly known) was our latest adventure this past weekend. It has taken me a while to get this posted because I am contracting like there is no tomorrow (up to 6 an hour sometimes) and trying to get my pre-baby to do list knocked out while resting a bit when possible. Although I would be very surprised to have this baby 4 weeks early, I am not ruling it out completely yet.

So, the cruise was great, but it did wear me out more than I thought it would. We caught a boat in Bingen, Germany and got off almost 2 hours later in St. Goar. We had lunch and did a bit of shopping. Then we headed back for a slightly longer trip back upstream to our car. It was windy and chilly on the way down, and it was sunny and hot most of the way back up.

Before the Cruise

At St. Goar

On the river

The boat