Conflict Resolution

This is what conflict resolution looks like at the 1-2 year old level.  ;)

D: *Head butts cousin*
A: *Cries, grabs own head*
D: *Also cries*
A: *Climbs onto the couch next to mom*
D: *Stops crying, grabs dog toy to play with*
A: *Stops crying, decides she wants the same toy, holds hand out to request/demand toy, fusses when not given to her*
J: What do you say, Avery?
A: Please!  *Signs "please"*
J: Dayton, Avery said please, will you give her the toy?
D: *Hands toy to cousin*
J: Avery, will you tell Dayton thank you?
A: Thank you!  *Puts dog toy in mouth and walks away*
D: *Puts on sour face that he no longer has the dog toy*
J: Dayton, do you want to get on the couch and bounce and jump?
D: *Gets on couch, starts jumping and bouncing and having a great time*

All is forgiven and forgotten.  Sometimes babies can be pretty easy.  ;)  I love my job!  :D

On my own again...

Today is my first day back with all three babies and no help.  As many of you know, Mama watched Avery and Dayton for me for the passed three weeks.  The first week was the week before Connor arrived.  I had time to rest, relax, and clean and organized the house.  The second week was our first week with Connor and Michael's week off.  We had time to rest and relax, get to know Connor, and get back into the swing of having a newborn.  The third week was my first week alone with Connor when Michael went back to work.  I got a chance to rest, relax, and spend lots of time cuddling with Connor.  :)  On Thursday and Friday last week Avery and Dayton were back over here at our house, but Mama came too to make sure I wasn't overwhelmed and had plenty of help with the three babies.  But, my vacation had to end eventually.  ;)  Today is my first day with all three babies and no extra help.  I'm back to my normal new life and routine.  I must say, a lot of what zapped my energy the last several months was pregnancy.  Because now that I'm not pregnant, even though I do have a newborn (as well as my 19 month old), I have a lot more energy to get stuff done.  Just this morning (before 8am) I have cleaned the counters of more of the party stuff left over from Saturday, put away the clean dishes, hand washed more dishes (the dishwasher is broken), got Avery up, changed, a cup of milk, and some cereal for breakfast, put away Dayton's food, and picked up the living room.  I still have LOTS to do, but I think I've done a decent amount before 8am.  Hopefully the rest of the day is as productive as this morning.  :)  I think things are going to go well with all three babies.  :)  It helps that Connor sleeps a lot.  ;)

I have about one month left of maternity leave.  I have LOVED having all my nights and weekends available to spend with Michael, Avery, and Connor.  In fact, I've enjoyed it so much, that I'm not sure I want to go back.  When Avery was born I wanted to go back.  I got bored at home, wanted to get awsy from the house, and wanted some adult interaction time.  That was also well into the fall and heading quickly to winter.  Now I have a family of four.  I have a newborn, but also have a VERY active, fun, and entertaining 19 month old.  The evenings and weekends are the only times we get to spend together as a whole family.  I'm not anxious to give that up.  It's also summer now, and I'm excited to go out and have family outtings together and enjoy the warm weather.  I don't know what triggered the change in my brain, but suddenly Beldens doesn't seem so important, and neither does the extra income I get from being there.  The time with my family seems like it's worth so much more.  Before I left for maternity leave we got a new district manager at work.  His management philosophy is "everyone's replacable".  This fear tactic has caused a lot of stress in the store between upper management and store management and between store management and employees.  I was ready to go on maternity leave partially to get away from that stressful, toxic environment.  Now thinking about going back is not so fun.  :\  So I'm going to try to pinch pennies the next month and see how we do without that income, because it's one thing to go back to a job I enjoy.  It's another thing ntirely to go back to a job that stresses me out and that I don't NEED, especially if I'm also sacrificing time with my family.  We'll see...  3 years may be enough for me.  My heart is with my family, and it's with them that I truly want to be.

Two Weeks In

Good Morning, Friends and Family!

I know, it's been a while since I blogged.  Sorry about that.  Things have been busy and we've all been trying to rest in the meantime.  ;)  But I've got some coffee in me this morning and my day has begun really well, so I decided now would be a good time to update you all on how things have been going.  :)

First off, let me make a correction to my last blog.  Mama informed me that I accidently put that Connor weighed 9 pounds 12 ounces at birth.  This is wrong!  ;)  He only weighed 7 pounds, 12 ounces.  Sorry for the mistake.  Must not have been quite as awake as I thought when I was recalling his birth story.  ;)  Now, onto the last 2 weeks...

When we left the hospital Connor weighed 7 pounds, 3 ounces.  It's normal for babies to lose weight right off the bat because they aren't collecting fat in the womb anymore.  We had a follow-up appointment with our family doctor on Friday after he was born.  When they weighed him that day he was down to 7 pounds.  The weight loss had slowed and probably stopped, now we needed to get him back up to birth weight.  Our doctor wanted to see us once a week until we got him there.  This took 2-3 weeks with Avery.  Connor eats constantly, so it wasn't as tough for him to gain the weight back.  By the next Friday he was up to 7 pounds, 13 ounces!  He gained 13 ounces in a week!!  That's similar to a 175 pound adult gaining roughingly 25 pounds in a week!  :P  Guess the constant feeding is working!  ;)  He's also up to 20.75 inches long!  This puts him in the 39th percentile for weight and 76th percentile for height.  Very similar to where Avery began, tall and thin.  But when she started eating solid foods she evened out.  ;)

The first two weeks have gone really well.  The first week Connor slept 2-3 hours at a time through the night.  The second week he was up to 3-4 hours at a time.  He's working on sleeping through Michael's shift (9pm-2am) and has managed to miss Daddy's shift the last 2 nights.  (Although Michael was groggy last night and forgot when he was supposed to be done with his shift, so he got up even though it was 2:45am)  ;)  He also sleeps a good chunk of the day.  The first week it seemed that he barely opened his eyes.  This week he's had longer stretches of awake time.  :)

His eyes are still a deep, dark cobalt blue, very similar to the way Avery's were when she was born (Hers are now a gray-blue on the outside with a hazel center, beautiful!).  His hair is already starting to lighten up.  When it's been freshly washed and dried it's a light to medium brown, not the dark brown he was born with (which could be because it was wet to start with, making it look darker).  We're working on fattening up his skinny arms and legs.  Everyone seems to notice his long fingers and eyelashes.  We've heard lots of comments on them.

I am doing GREAT!  I thought Avery's delivery went well, but it was rocky compared to Connor's!  Things went very smoothly during delivery, which has led to an easier recovery for me.  I would say my total recovery time has been about a third, or maybe even a quarter of the time it took to recover with Avery.  I'm so pleased it has gone so well!  :)

Knowing what I'm doing this time around has helped considerably.  I'm not as worn out from caring for Connor as I was with Avery.  She's way more work at 19 months that he is at 2 weeks, lol.  Nursing is going well.  Like I said earlier, Connor loves to eat!  It's still painful getting started, but I think we're almost through the worst of it, so things will be even easier here soon.

I've LOVED having time with Connor to myself.  I can't thank my mom enough for watching the babies for me these passed 3 weeks.  It's been wonderful to relax and enjoy Connor.  However, I'm looking forward to having Dayton and Avery again.  I've missed them.  :)

Well, that's about all I've got for now.  I'll try to post more later.  :)  Thanks for reading!  Love you all!

Connor's Labor and Delivery

Sorry I haven't been on here to blog in several days.  As you may have guessed, Connor arrived!  :)  So we have been busy with snuggles and getting used to life with two babies under 2 years old.  :)  But I finally feel like I have a rested moment, Connor is fed, and here I am to update you on how he got here.  :)

If you read the last few posts that I made, you know a lot of the story already, but I'll start at the beginning.  ;)  We got to the Birthcare Center at 6:30am.  We got checked in and into a room.  I was at 4cm when they checked me.  They took my blood to check my platelets and I explained that I wanted to start by having my water broke before we started pitocin.  We got approval from my doctor for the water break.  We didn't know my platelet count yet, so no epidural was in.  After they broke my water (at 7:30am) we walked around the hallway a lot trying to get contractions started.  I had a few, but things were moving pretty slowly.  At 11:30am they checked my dilation again and I was at 5cm.  I expected to have progressed more than just a centimeter in 3 hours, so I asked to start the pitocin.
We got the results back from my blood work, my platelets were at 96,000.  The anesthesiologist's assistant came in and told me I was allowed to have my epidural!  :D  Hooooray!!!!  I was stolked!  After the pitocin was started we got my epidural in as well.  Then I was bed bound.  After that we just had to wait.  The next time anything happened I was feeling contractions again and asked for more medicine.  They checked my dilation and I was at 8cm.  They gave me some more medication and the pain of the contractions died down.  Then, we waited some more.  ;)  When I started feeling the contractions again I was at 10cm!  We got everyone into position and got ready for the delivery.  Despite receiving more medicine, my epidural only did so much to numb the pain.  It was about half an hour before everyone was ready.  I kept waiting for the extra meds to kick in, but they didn't do much.  Finally, we were ready for the delivery.  My doctor went to check how far down Connor was and was surprised that he was right there and ready to go.  I had one more contraction and they had me push for 8 seconds, breathe, push for 8 more seconds, breathe, one more small push and he was here!!  5:21pm, our son, Connor Michael Voss arrived in this world.  :)  Weighing 9 pounds, 12 ounces and measuring 19 inches long, he is absolutely perfect!  :)  We could not be happier!

That's all I've got for now.  :)  I'll report more soon!  :)

2:10pm

Good news!  We're up to 8cm!!  Wooooohoooooo!!!!!  The pitocin seems to be working!  :)  My body also seems to remember what it's doing and is moving things along.  :)  We've still got a ways to go, but we're moving!  :D  Dr. Kauffman thinks that Connor will be here around 4pm...  We'll see.  :)  Other than feeling more contractions I'm doing pretty good.  Might have them adjust my epidural a little.  Thanks for your prayers!

12:50pm

Well, I'm back to give you all an update on our progress!  :)  From 8am to 11am my water was broke and I was walking around trying to get labor started and progressing.  When the resident finally came in and checked me, she said I was at 5cm, 70% effaced, and -2 station.  Not a whole lot of change since I got here this morning.  So I told them I was ready to start the pitocin and that they could get the epidural ready as well.  Hooking up the pitocin iv took no time at all.  It took a little longer to get the epidural ready, but I still never felt any contractions as bad as what I had when I went in with Avery.  ;)  I now have the epidural in place and working.  Things are going very well.  I feel comfortable (and hungry) and am thinking I might take a nap here soon.  :)  Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers, today could not be going any better!  :D

9:30am

Just waiting...  Little contractions here and there since they broke my water, but nothing major.  The resident hasn't come back in to check me since they broke my water, so no telling if I'm progressing or not.  I got unhooked and Michael and I walked around for about 20 minutes.  It's easier to walk around and wait for the contractions to come when I know my water has been broke and one way or another, Connor has to make his arrival today.  ;)  Come out, come out, little guy!  We're anxious to see you!  :D

Oh yeah, and I got ice chips for breakfast...  Lame.  So there's another reason I'm ready for Connor to get here, so I can eat again!  We have a bag of snacks that Michael is working on, but nothing for me...  *sigh*

8:00am

Well, we're here!  :)  We've been checked in and admitted.  I am in the Birthcare Center in room 3.  The resident came in and checked me, he had me at 4cm, 60% effaced, and -2 station.  We asked to have my water broken and see if we can go into labor naturally before we begin the pitocin.  My doctor approved that and we had it done.  Now we're waiting for something to happen.  ;)  My platelets are at 96,000 this morning.  Still not over the 100,000 mark where we wanted them to be, but hopefully we'll still get the epidural.  Our nurse is trying to find that out for us now.  :)  Now I think we just wait and see what happens...  I'll let you know more when I know more.  :)  Please keep praying for us as the delivery gets closer!  Still crossing our fingers for the epidural!

5:50am

Well, it took over an hour and a half, but sleep finally came.  It wasn't long before Michael was gently waking me to tell me that it was 5:30am.  :)  We didn't have much to do this morning once we got up, so we had time to slowly wake and get around.  We're ready now and waiting on my mom to get here.  She'll be here any minute and we'll be off to the Birthcare Center!  :D

Everything is packed into our bags and they are all in the car.  My stomach is in knots.  Not sure how much of that is excitement/anxiety and how how much is no food.  The first thing I usually do every morning is eat.

Well, she's here, and we're off!  :D  To the Birthcare Center!  Wish us luck!  :)

2:40am

Good Morning, Friends and Family!  :)  I can't sleep.  :P  You wouldn't have guessed that, right?  Yup, sure enough, I got up a little before 2am to go to the bathroom, and now that I'm awake I'm struggling to turn my mind off and get the few precious hours of sleep I have left.  *sigh*  So I thought if I took a minute to write down some of my thoughts, maybe my mind would quiet and I could get some sleep.  Because letting it run for the past 45 minutes has done nothing to help the sleep come.  :P

Michael set his alarm for 5am.  That's 2 hours and 17 minutes away.  We'll get up and get dressed.  We'll pack our final items into our hospital bag.  We'll take some pictures, and then we'll be off the the Birthcare Center.  I can't wait to get checked in and get going.  :)  I hope Connor's ready to make his way into the world.  :)  I know Michael and I are anxious to meet him.  I wish I knew what to expect out of today.  But I've never been induced before, so I don't completely know what the process is.  Guess I'll find out soon enough.

I've been spending time praying in the last 45 minutes that I've been awake (and in the time I was trying to fall asleep last night).  Only seems fitting that my pregnancy end with lots of prayer, the same way it began.  I was so scared when I found out we were pregnant with Connor.  It had been less than 3 months since I'd had my miscarriage and I was frightened to lose another baby.  Seems like I spent hours each day in those first 8 weeks praying that he would stay healthy.  Even after we saw him and his strong heartbeat, I don't think I was really comfortable until I began feeling him kick halfway through.  Then, finally, I felt like I knew he was going to be safe.  Now, as we approach the end, I find myself praying for safety again.  I want his birth to go easily without complications.  I want him to be safe and healthy.  It won't be long now, I'm sure.

Still seems surreal that Avery won't be an only child after today.  We took lots of pictures last night for our last time as a family of 3.  It was fun running around and playing with her.  She means the world to me.  It's hard to imagine having another baby who could capture my heart as much as she has.  But then again, I didn't think it was possible to love her as much as I do before I had her.  When I was pregnant with Avery I worried that I'd be a bad mom because there was no way I could love her as much as I love Michael.  I was surprised to find that I can love her just as much, without ever loving Michael less.  My heart just found a way to love more.  Now, I find myself faced with the same concern.  Will I be able to love Connor as much as I love Avery and Michael?  He's not my first baby or the one who took me from being a married woman to a mother.  It's hard to fathom without him being here yet.  I'm sure my feelings and thoughts will change when he's in my arms.  :)

Please be praying for Michael, Avery, and me today.  Our lives are all changing in big ways as Connor comes into the world.  :)  I think Michael and I have prepared ourselves more than it's possible for Avery to have.  So if you think about it, say an extra special prayer for my baby girl, that this transition will be a smooth one for her.  She is my world and I'd hate for her to feel sad or hurt because a new little brother is coming into her life.  We love her so very dearly.  If she hadn't been such an incredibly amazing baby, there's no way we'd be having another one only 19 months later. 

Well, I think that's enough for now.  It's been an hour now since I woke up.  Hopefully my brain has talked things through enough and will allow me some rest.  Only 2 more hours until the alarm goes off and we begin our big day of meeting Connor.  Thank you for your love, thoughts, and prayers as we embark on this very special day.  Stay tuned, I'm sure I'll be blogging more throughout the day.  :)  Love you all!
-Jen

2 Days...

I can't believe we're only 2 days away from meeting Connor!  :D  Wow!!  I'm sooooo excited!!  Wednesday our lives will change forever!  Our perfect family of three will be growing by one more sweet boy and we'll become a picture perfect family of four!  We'll have a son and a daughter!  What more could we ask for??  I'm so excited and happy for the direction that our family is going!  What a blessing they are to me!!  I'll certainly have my hands full for a couple of years, but it will be an amazing ride and adventure as I learn more about my sweet children and who they'll become in this world.  Another beautiful reality in having our baby boy in our lives is that I'll get to see a new side of Michael as he becomes the father of a son.  I've been in love with my sweet husband since just a month after we met.  He's the kind of person I want to always be around, because he makes me want to be a better person.  :)  He's an amazing Daddy, and although he had never really had girls in his life with no sisters or close cousins, he blew me away when we had Avery and he fit so naturally into the role of a Dad with a daughter.  I remember swelling with pride one day as I read his facebook status, "All Dads of daughters should be feminists.  My daughter can do anything your son can do."  How can you not fall in love with a man like that?!?!  He's so proud of his girl!  As I've said many times over, each day he gives me new reasons to fall in love with him.  :)  Now, as our son's arrival quickly approaches, I'm going to see an entirely new side of him as he becomes the Dad of a baby boy.  I know he's looking forward to doing "boy" things with Connor as he grows.  But even in the midst of the excitement about Connor's arrival, he mentions that in the evenings when he's home he'll have to have some Daddy-Daughter Date Nights to take Avery off of my hands and to spend some quality time with her.  I'm telling you, my man is one of the very few truly good ones!  :D  I'm sooooo in love with him!  I can't wait to see the look of pride on his face when he holds Connor for the first time.  I remember how excited he was with Avery, showing her off to the doctor's and nurses who had just helped deliver her, lol.  I know he'll beam just as brightly to show off his little boy to everyone who will take a look.  :)  Connor coming into our home and lives will be an adjustment, but we're looking forward to him and all the happiness, joy, laughter, giggles, and warm memories that he'll add to our lives.  :)  Our family is truly blessed!  We have a big beautiful home.  Michael can pay all of our bills, so I get to stay home with my babies.  Both of our cars are paid for and we no longer have car payments.  Michael has a fantastic job that he loves.  They treat him well and he has job security.  I have a job that works with my home hours, gets me out of the house once in a while, and I have coworkers who love and care about me.  They add to my life greatly.  We have a beautiful baby girl who's smart and feisty, she makes us smile and laugh many times every day!  We live in Wichita only a few minutes away from my sister.  Even when distance kept us apart, we've always been close.  Now that we're close geographically again, I'm enjoying all the extra time I get to spend with one of my best friends.  Being in Wichita also means we're close to my parents again.  Home is no longer 2+ hours away.  I don't know how I would have survived this pregnancy without my mom's help!  She found out early on because my morning sickness was kicking in and I needed help with Dayton and Avery.  Then she was here once a month (and definitely more) for my doctor's appointments.  She helped me bake cookies in the winter and freezer meals in the spring (and by help I mean, she did it in my kitchen and I sat around like a tired bump on a log).  She's been my sanity in being a stay-at-home mom.  She's my adult interaction and my extra set of hands and eyes so I can take an occassional shower.  I love my mom so much and am so thankful for her help, her love, her kindness, her generosity (did I mention I've hardly bought Connor or Avery any baby clothes thanks to her??), and her example of what I want to be as a mom and a grandma.  :)  My dad has also been so much help!  He's been over to our house the last several weekends helping Michael with projects like completing Nate's closet, installing a new garbage disposal, planting tomatoes and peppers, and changing the location of the light switch in the utility room.  All things Michael could have probably figured out, but having experienced hands to guide the way helped tremendously!  Like I said, I am so blessed!  We have such an incredible support system around us.  We are so grateful for all the wonderful people in our lives who take time to show us that they care about us.  I don't know where we'd be without you all.  Now we're 2 days away from Connor's birth and I know our support system will be here again in full force!  We're excited to see you all on Wednesday when Connor arrives!  Yes!  We WANT to see you on WEDNESDAY when he arrives!  We want visitors in the hospital!  Because after we go home we'll want to focus on us again and getting aquainted with our new life.  :)  But if you can't make it Wednesday, we'd love to have you on the 24th for Connor's Welcome Home party.  :)  Either way, please help us welcome our new little guy!  I know the second baby isn't quite as big of a deal.  No baby shower or anything when you're first is only a year and a half old.  But Connor is very special, he's a new member of our family and we're excited to welcome him in.  And I think that deserves a party!  So that's what we're going to do, party and celebrate our newest family member, Connor!  :D  Just because he's our second child does not mean that he's not worthy of celebrating!  I just can't wait to meet him!  Just one more blessing in our amazingly blessed lives!  Only 2 more days!  I doubt I'm going into labor today or tomorrow.  So far I have no signs indicating that I will.  So unless you hear differently, be ready for news on Wednesday.  I'll try to update the blog frequently about our day and progress as we await his arrival.  :)  Also, if you're on facebook and have text messages, you can expect to see updates that way as well.  :)  Stay tuned!  Our son's arrival is getting closer every moment!  :D

3 Days to Go!

Every day we get closer to meeting Connor I get more excited and more shocked that the day is almost here!  :D  I'm glad that we're supposed to be at the Birthcare Center at 6:30am, because I'm sure I won't be able to sleep I'll be so excited.  :)  I'm a little nervous about the idea of an induction, as I didn't end up needing one with Avery and went into labor the night before.  I've heard some horror stories about pitocin and how it can make your contractions really rough.  But Sis speaks very highly of her induction, so hopefully I'll have as good of luck as she did.  :)

Today I take my first round of steroids to try to boost my platelet levels back up.  I'll take another round tomorrow.  Then, hopefully, by Wednesday they'll have had enough time to work and my platelets will be back over 100k so I can get my epidural right away.  I know I won't be nearly as scared or nervous about Connor's labor and delivery if I get my epidural.  I know I can make it through as long as I have that.  ;)

Today is our last family day before Connor gets here.  Are you going to laugh and roll your eyes at me if I tell you I want to go out and do something with my family, like go to the zoo?  ;)  It's true.  :P  I figure we'll be home bound for a while after Connor gets here, and I don't want Avery to feel cooped up.  So I want to make the most of today.  I'll probably be complaining later tonight about how tired I am.  :P  Just tell me to suck it up and that you don't want to hear it, I did it to myself.  ;)

To make matter worse, my friend Michelle is in town today from Emporia.  This is obviously GREAT news!  I love her soooo much!  She is one of my oldest and closest friends.  :)  She wants to get together today for lunch to hang out one more time before I'm a Mommy of two.  :)  I am excited to see her and hang out with her for a while.  But it's going to add to my long day.  Oh well.  I'll have all day Monday and Tuesday without the babies to rest!  :D  Thanks again, Mama!!

Here's what the next month or so looks like for our family:
-Mon-Tue: Mama watches the babies, Michael finishes his last 2 days of work before his leave
-Wed: Connor's induction!!  :D
-Thurs: Come home from the hospital, Mama continues to watch the babies
-Fri: Michael and I have the day with Connor while Avery is off with Grandma Henrie and Dayton
-Sat (May 10): Glenn and Linda are coming to town to visit, more of Michael's family may be coming, but I haven't heard yet
-Sun: Connor's first day at church!  Everyone's going to be anxious to meet him!
-Mon-Wed: Michael and I are home with Connor, Avery is with Grandma and Dayton again
-Thurs-Fri: Michael goes back to work and I'm home alone with Connor for a couple days, Avery is with Grandma Henrie
-Mon-Wed: I'm home alone with Connor, Avery is with Grandma Henrie
-Thur: Linda and Grandma Judy are coming to town to visit, I'll have Connor, Avery will be spending her last couple days with Grandma Henrie
-Fri (May 23): Michael's and my 5 year anniversary!  Good thing we celebrated in February!  This month is much too busy!
-Sat: Connor's welcome home party!  Hopefully lots of people will show up!  Nate should also be moving in sometime between Thursday and today.
-Sun: Chris and Kristine's wedding at Botantica
-Mon-Fri: Avery and Dayton will be back at my house.  I'll be watching all 3 babies again, with Mama's help (hopefully), unless the babies drive her absolutely crazy and she never comes back, lol
-Sat (May 30): Weekend in Topeka, Payden's birthday party
-Sun: Connor and I head to KC for Maggie's baby shower

Obviously there's a lot going between now and then!  Most importantly, I'm anxious for my son to get here safely and to meet him.  I love him so much already, I can only imagine how much love for him I'll feel once he's in my arms.  :)  I am soooo excited!!  Only 3 more days!!!!!

Avery's Bottle

Here's the short story I posted on facebook.  Just glad everyone was out of the kitchen and stayed safe.

Michael and I got a bottle of sparkling wine when Avery was born.  It has her name, the date she was born, and her birth weight and length on it.  We intended to keep it as a momento all her life.  Well, today we learned a valuable lesson about the differences between champaigne and sparkling wine.  Packaging.  You see, champaigne bottles have a little wire caging on the top of the bottle to keep it closed since it's sparkling, pressurized, and full of carbon dioxide.  Sparkling wine DOES NOT have this same feature.  That means that over time, the pressure can build up and push the cork out of the bottle.  Thank goodness we were home when this happened!  The wine uncorked itself, shot wine across our kitchen (from the top of the fridge to the picture window), and POURED down the side of our freezer.  It managed to knock a vase of flowers off the counter and onto the floor (which thankfully didn't break) and has seemed to have covered the entire kitchen in a layer of stickiness.  I feel sad that this momento has lost some of it's wonder and magic (as now it's just an empty bottle), but I'm glad the bottle didn't break or do any more damage than it did.  What a way to end the day!  *sigh*  I'm going to bed.

Awesome Day!

Well, I didn't rest again today, but it was an awesome day anyway!  :D 

I didn't really sleep in, I was actually awake before 7am.  I did, however, get to wake up slowly, read some baby articles on my phone, catch up on facebook and my email, and blog a little.  :)  It was after 8 before Avery was awake.  She was probably up earlier, but we mistakenly had the monitor on mute, so I didn't hear her until she was pounding on her bedroom door to be freed.  ;)

When Avery got up she came into our room to find her Daddy and wake him up.  Of course, like every Saturday morning, he was still in bed.  So she climbed in bed and we turned on some Tinkerbell.  While the two of them watched and woke up, I took a shower.  Then when I was done and the movie was over, I made Avery some breakfast and Michael got a shower.

It wasn't long after that when my parents showed up.  Daddy and Michael got to work on the closet in Nate's room.  Mama and I took Avery and went to run some errands and stay out of the house (where lacquor was supposed to be sprayed after the shelves were done).  First, we went to Sherwin Williams where we got some stain samples to try to match our kitchen cabinets to our pantry that's being built soon.  :D!!!!!!  Then, we went to Gymboree where Mama got Avery and Dayton each a new outfit and Avery some new sunglasses.  We didn't really have anything else to do until our pedicure appointment, so we went to Sams and picked up a few things, including lunch supplies.

Finally, we were headed home again.  Avery fell asleep in the car.  She hadn't shown any indication that she was even tired!  :P  I got her into her bed without waking her up, but ended up waking her when I tried to take her shoes off.  Despite giving her milk and trying to get her to keep sleeping, she refused. 

We had Kippy Burgers, grilled pineapple, and chips and dip for lunch!  Yum!  Then, Mama and I left with Sis to go get manicure/pedicures!  :)  We all picked BEAUTIFUL shades of coral/orange/pink!  Sooooo pretty!  :D  After Sis dropped us back off Mama and I grabbed Avery and headed to Grandma Heorman's (to stay away from the fumes, and because we would end up there to cut trim pieces). 

Avery fell asleep again in the car.  This time we got her successfully to the pack and play without waking her up.  ;)  She still didn't sleep for very long before we heard her making noises.  Buddy heard her too, and since we hadn't latched the bedroom door closed, he nosed his way in and said hi.  We knew he was in the room when we heard her say "Buddy".  :P  Michael and Daddy got over and we sat around for a bit and chatted.  But Michael and I had other plans for the evening, so it wasn't long before we were on the road again.  *sigh*  (Getting to be a long day)

Our next stop was in Bel Aire where we met up with 5 other couples who used to go to Cru with us.  Of the 5 couples, 4 of them met and married their significant others from Cru!  Michael and I made 5 out of 6!  I guess it's a good organization to meet your spouse!  :P  One of the couples, Justin and Becca, live in Blue Springs, MO.  Since they made the trip to Wichita, we all got together to see them.  Unfortunately, after my long day, I was tired and ready to go after not too much visiting.  :(  It was good, however, to see everyone again, if only for an hour or so.

Finally, we made it home.  :)  We played and Avery had a bath.  We tried to put her down for the night, but she's not quite ready, so we're just waiting now for her to finally throw in the towel.  ;)  I'm exhausted, but I had a great day!  Avery was well-behaved, I didn't work on any housework all day, I got to spend the day with my mom and a little with my sister, and I got to see some friends from out of town whom I haven't seen in years!  :D  Overall, it was a very good day. 

And of course, to make things more interesting, the bottle of wine we received when Avery was born just exploded...  Details to follow...

4 Days...

Can it really be that soon??  I'm so looking forward to meeting my son!  I can't believe that it's almost time.  During pregnancy there's so much time spent waiting and counting down.  This is my final countdown.  I'm focused on enjoying the last few uninterupted days with Avery and Michael, enjoying the feeling of being pregnant, and soaking up all the final moment, because it will all be gone forever soon.  That's not a bad thing though, because with the ending of this chapter comes the beginning of a new one.  Sure, my pregnancy days will be over, but that means that for the rest of my life (after I'm done nursing) my body will be all my own.  I will (try to) focus on eating better, exercising, and taking very good care of myself so that I can live a long and happy life with my family.  :)  And although the chapter of Avery being an only child will be over, she'll be getting a lifelong friend.  :)  One day soon I'll look back and wonder why I ever worried about adding another baby to our family, because that baby will make our family who it is.  I remember the same fear with the puppies and Avery.  Adding another family member can be scary when you have a routine already, when you know how to do things, when things are good.  I worry that our happy family will be stressed and that a new routine won't form, that things will never be as perfect as they are now.  But it's never true.  Each time we've brought a new family member in, it's taken some time to adjust, but our family is better for having added that extra member.  I know things will be the same with Connor.  :)  It won't be long before we wonder how we ever got along without him.  :)  I can't wait!  I wonder who he'll look like?  Will he have his Daddy's dark hair and eyes?  Or will his hair be light like Avery's and mine?  Will his eyes change colors like Avery's who started slate blue, then gray, now change with the light and her mood like mine?  Will he be tall and grow to 6 feet or taller like his Daddy?  Will he be strong from the get go and hold his head up early like Avery did?  Will he enjoy tummy time?  Will he eat well?  Will Avery like him?  Will having a little brother cause my baby girl to grow up even faster?  So many things I can't wait to find out!  :D  Very very soon!  :)

In 4 days we'll be an hour into the induction process.  We'll have checked in, I'll have changed and gotten into bed.  They'll take some blood and send it to a lab to be tested.  They'll hook up my IV.  They'll put 2 monitors on my belly, one for Connor's heartrate and one for my contractions.  I remember when I was in labor with Avery, Michael would watch those monitors and tell me when the contractions were coming (because I had an epidural and couldn't feel them) and how Avery would react to them with her heartrate going up and down at the beginning and end of each one.  I hope Connor's delivery is just as smooth as hers was.  :)  After we get the blood work back, hopefully my platelets will be high enough and they'll set up my epidural.  No need to wait for the painful contractions to kick in.  I felt them once.  I don't need to feel them again.  ;)  As soon as I'm able, I'll request my epidural.  :)  Then, they'll start the pitocin to progress my labor.  After that starts, it's just a waiting game.  Michael and I will watch TV play games and cards, and just hang out until Connor is ready.  :)  Now that I think about it, I think I'll like the way Avery's labor went better, lol.  All of the waiting on dilation and effacement occured over night, so we weren't sitting around twiddling our thumbs.  :P

I think I've put this in a previous blog, but I'll mention it again.  Michael and I like visitors, especially while we're at the hospital/Birthcare Center.  After having gone through this process once now, my mindset on it has changed a little bit.  We don't mind if you want to come and visit before Connor arrives.  Like I said, we'll be sitting around twiddling our thumbs anyway.  ;)  And the more people who are there (in the waiting room) when he's born, the better!  We can't wait to show him off to all of you when he's only minutes old.  :)  The only people who will be in the room when he arrives will be the medical staff, Michael, and Courtney, our photographer.  :)  I've even changed my mind a little on that matter, but not enough to ask for half my friends and family to be in the room to watch me deliver.  No one else needs to see that.  :P  But the more people who want to come visit, the better!  :D

A Day of Rest... Not!

Well, I suppose I should be glad that I rested yesterday, because I certainly didn't today.  *sigh*  I watched the babies this morning at Sis and Adam's so that Mama could go to Botanica and get tulip bulbs.  It was nice watching them for a couple hours, I missed them yesterday.  But it was what it always is, changing diapers, encouraging them to eat breakfast, filling drink cups, and keeping them out of stuff they shouldn't be getting into.

Mama got to Sis' house a little after 9.  I stayed and talked for a bit before heading home to clean.  I cleaned up the basement and began working on Nate's room.  That meant carrying all of our stuff out and into the storage room, folding blankets, gathering bathroom supplies, getting things ready to wash, and bringing stuff upstairs.  Normally this wouldn't have been a difficult task, but at 9 months pregnant I wore myself out pretty fast.  I had talked to Michael before we left this morning about having lunch together.  By the time I got to a stopping point on Nate's room it was time for me to go see Michael.  But since I wore myself out I asked him if it was ok if I worked on laundry for half an hour and rested a bit before I left.

When my half hour was up, I was still tired.  I asked Michael how he was doing (if he could wait longer) but he said he was getting hungry.  So I got myself up, grabbed a gallon of milk and leftover Fusa Chicken out of the fridge and left again.  I had to stop by Sis and Adam's again because I forgot the food and milk this morning that I told Mama I would bring with me for the babies.  After that stop I was off to AeTR to get Michael for lunch.  We went out with one of his coworkers, Jason, for lunch.  We had a very nice time.  I appreciated Michael driving to and from lunch because, like I said, I'm wore out.  When we got back to Michael's work he asked me if I wanted to come in and say hi.  I told him no, that I wanted to get home and take a nap.  So I gave him a kiss goodbye and headed home.

Well, my nesting instinct wouldn't let me just rest, so instead, I picked up the living room and dining room, rotated laundry again, and began folding the clothes I left behind when I went to lunch.  By the time those clothes were folded, another load was coming out of the dryer.  I began folding those when I got a text from Sis saying that Avery had her jacket and shoes on, was standing by the door, and was waving and saying bye bye.  She asked me if it was ok for Avery to come home.  *sigh*  So much for that rest I was trying to get.  So I kept working on laundry until my mom brought Avery home.  :P  So much for me taking days off from the babies to "rest".

So I didn't rest much today, but I did get a few more things done around the house.  And without the babies here during the day, things stay cleaner for longer.  I'm glad things will be clean when we get home from the hospital.  Although, now that I think about it, we said Mama could watch them here on Wednesday and Thursday.  :(  I hope it's still clean when we get back.  One thing is for sure.  After a day like today, I realize the importance of simply resting when I take a day off to do so.  Almost done...

6 Days Left!!

I know what you're thinking...  "Wait!  Where did days 7 and 8 go??"  Well, if you read my post about my doctor's appointment yesterday, then you already know.  ;)

We have our induction scheduled for Wednesday, May 7th, at 6:30am at the Wesley Birthcare Center!!  Woooohoooo!!  :D  Because we're scheduled to induce 2 days before his due date, I got to cut 2 days off of my countdown!  Woooohooooo!!  ;)  So now we're down to 6 days until we meet our little man.  Of course, he could still choose to come on his own between now and then, but at this point I'm hoping he just holds out.  Here's why:

I'm not sure if you noticed or not up there, but we get to go to the BIRTHCARE CENTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!  :D  If you've been following my pregnancy posts for a while, specificially the sections about my platelet levels, then you'll know that I wanted to deliver at the Birthcare Center this time.  I was unable to go to the Birthcare Center with Avery because she was my first baby and my platelets had been dropping throughout my pregnancy.  My doctor didn't know how my body and platelets would react to labor, so to be sure Avery and I were both safe, I delivered at the hospital instead of the Birthcare Center.  This time, since I have a history of low platelets, but no complications because of them, and my previous delivery went well, I'm allowed to go to the Birthcare Center!!  :D  Even though I'm being induced and I want my epidural, I can do all of those things at the Birthcare Center!  I'm sooooooooo excited!

Now, I have nothing against the hospital.  My delivery with Avery went very well and we were treated well during our time there.  In some ways I'd like to return to the hospital just because I know what to expect there.  And I may still have that chance.  You see, the stipulation with me going to the Birthcare Center for Connor is that my platelets can't be too low.  So, if they test me in the morning and my platelets are too low, I may have to go to the hospital yet.  Either place is truly fine with me as long as at the end of the day I'm holding a healthy, happy baby boy in my arms.  ;)

I know that since we're being induced in the middle of the week, that's going to limit the number of people able to come to the hospital to see us when he gets here.  I doubt anyone from Topeka or Kansas City will be able to come until the weekend at the earliest.  However, if you can come, we'd love to have you.  We enjoyed visitors at the hospital very much.  It works out really well because we have a staff of medical professionals caring for us, so having people around is no big deal because we're being waited on hand and foot anyways.  ;)  Also, anyone who's there right when Connor arrives will be a part of the birth photo session that Courtney is doing for us.  She'll take pictures of special moments between Michael and I before Connor arrives, then will also take a few when the family gets to come in and meet him.  :)  So if you're able to come, we'd love to have you.  Just let us know what the best way is to update you on how things are going.  We probably won't be making many phone calls, but facebook, the blog, and text messages will be updated frequently.  :)

Because I got to cut 2 days off of my countdown, Mama took the babies today (4 days early, counting the weekend).  I got lots of resting done as well as a decent amount of housework.  It's amazing how clean things can be when you don't have little ones running around messing it all up.  :P  It was also almost eerily quiet.  ;)  I haven't had a quiet house to myself in qquite a while.  Feels very strange.  I'm looking forward to a few more days of rest before our big day on Wednesday!  :D  I'm soooooo excited to meet Connor!  :D  Aren't you??

Alrighty, that's all I have for tonight.  Have a good night, everyone!  Love you!
-Jen

Last Maternity Photo Post

These are the last 10 I'm going to post.  That covers all the pictures I put on facebook.  ;)  Now you're all informed in the event you're not on facebook.  :)  I thought the pictures came out great!  :D

Even More Maternity Photos!!

Yes, there are more!  I didn't post them all the other day.  ;)  Enjoy!

Doctor's Appointment Update

Good morning, everyone!  :)  I am up at 7:22am to write this, but I've been awake for a little while already.  My mom has Avery and Dayton at Sis and Adam's house today-beyond Connor's birth.  This is a bit of a change to the original plans because of how our doctor's appointment went yesterday.  Here's the story:

We went to the doctor yesterday for our 38 week appointment.  My weight was good, it shot up a little last week, but remained very similar yesterday, so the two weeks evened each other out.  My blood pressure was good and closer to my low range that it usually stays at, it was 124/70.  Connor was a bit of a stinker and was giving the nurse a hard time with the heartbeat.  He did this last week too.  He kept moving and making things difficult.  But she finally got him to hold still long enough to get a heartrate of 128bpm.  He's slowing down, which is kind of interesting considering all the moving he was doing, lol.  But then again, we were told that as birth approaches, their heartrates tend to go down a little.  Just one more sign that he's on his way.  :)

Eventually my doctor came in.  Normally things go very quick because we're pretty easy going patients, but today we had a few things to discuss.  The first, not really medically necessary was that we got permission for Courtney to be in the delivery room to take pictures for us.  :)  My doctor is so laid back, I wasn't surprised that he had no problem with the idea.  In fact, he said it was a good idea to have her there taking those special moment pictures so we could just enjoy them with our new baby.  :)  So that was good, one more thing checked off the list and ready for when Connor arrives.  :)

Then, we got to talking about the medical stuff.  First he asked me, "So is this going to happen anytime soon?"  To which I responded, "Well, we wanted to talk to you about that."  Since my platelets keep falling Michael and I wanted to discuss induction in case Connor was stubborn and didn't come on his own.  Well, after getting my most recent platelet count, 92,000, we not only wanted to talk about induction, but we also needed to make sure that my platelets would be high enough to get my epidural.  That led to the conversation about steroids.  He told me that he could give me a small perscription for steroids, just 2 doses, that would help bump my platelets up.  He said he usually only perscribes them for people with platelets in their 60's or 70's, but that it's such a low dose it wouldn't do much of anything other than bump my platelet level back up to over 100k.  That way, no matter which anesthesiologist we got, I could still get my epidural.  Then, while we were in the process of intervening to make sure his birth went well, we went ahead and scheduled the induction.  Now, some of you may laugh at me for this, but here's the story on how we picked the date for the induction:

Connor's due date is Friday, May 9th.  I was not opposed to waiting until his due date to induce.  However, Friday didn't work well for my doctor, so that date was out.  My next choice was Monday, May 5th.  That way he'd be a 5th baby just like Michael and Avery.  He'd also be a Cinco de Mayo baby!  :P  However, Monday didn't work well for my doctor either.  That left Tuesday, May 6th, Wednesday, May 7th, and Thursday, May 8th for us to choose from.  Any of those days worked for Dr. Kauffman.  So I asked Michael what day he thought, because he'll be taking off work.  He'll take off the rest of the week that Connor's born and possibly a little of the next week as well.  I liked the idea of Wednesday, May 7th because then Connor and I would be 7th babies and Avery and Michael would be 5th babies.  But I wondered how that would work with Michael and work.  He told me that Wednesday would work well because then he could take off those 3 days and part of the next week too.  So, as anxious as I am to meet him, we decided to give Connor one more day than we could have, so that he will be a 7th baby.  ;)  Now, of course, all of this is subject to change if I go into labor and Connor decides to come on his own.  And, he could very easily do what Avery did and I could go into labor the night before I'm supposed to be induced, which would be fine by me.  ;)  So our induction is scheduled for Wednesday, May 7th!  Only 2 days before his due date!  :)

Later in the evening Michael asked me about his leave and how many days he should take off.  He's obviously going to take off Wed-Fri next week (or more if Connor comes early), but he was wondering on the next week if he should take off Mon and Tue to go back Wed or if he should take Mon-Wed and go back Thurs.  I told him that he should take the 6 days and go back on Thurs.  It didn't take any convincing at all!  :P  Lol!  I think that's what he wanted to do also, but wanted to see what I was thinking too.  ;)  So that's the plan as far as Michael's work schedule is concerned.  :)

Now, back to the original point I made in this post, Avery and Dayton's care.  Since we know Connor will be coming at least 2 days early, possibly sooner, I wanted to make sure I got some time off to rest.  My mom, of course, is a saint and willing to take over caring for the babies whenever I need her to, so we decided to begin today.  :)  She'll have them today and tomorrow, then all week next week.  The original plan was that once Connor gets here, we would keep Avery for that week so we could have some time as a family of 4.  Well, Michael and I got to rethinking that idea, and we realized Avery is pretty active, and the two of us will probably be pretty tired at that point, so we decided to leave Avery with my mom.  Hopefully Connor will be born on the Wednesday, we'll come home on Thursday, and my mom will watch both babies the entire week.  Then, when the weekend comes, my mom will be ready for a much needed break.  So we'll have Avery at home and we can have our family of 4 time over the weekend (as well as in the evenings the previous week).  Then, when the weekdays come again and Mama is back in town to watch Dayton, Avery will go over too.  That way Michael, Connor, and I will get another 3 quiet days together before Michael has to go back to work on Thursday and it's just Connor and I left at home.  As for when Avery and Dayton will come back to our house, that all depends on how Connor and I are doing.  One thing is for sure though, I owe my Mama BIG TIME for doing all of this for me!  She's the greatest!  :D

So that's what's going on now.  A few plans changing.  Now we just have to wait.  ;)  Either Connor will come on his own or we'll be ready for the induction on Wednesday.  :)  Either way, we are now 6 (or fewer) days until meeting our son!  :D  I can't wait!  Please keep us in your prayers as we get closer to the big day!