39 weeks and counting

I've never been pregnant this long. On one hand, it's good because I have a hubby that is knocked out of pain meds still and not able to help that much, but on the other, I'm getting to the point where I'm done. 

our easter

Easter as a holiday always throws me. I'm never quite sure what to do for it since we are not religious in any sense and I don't do things like Santa, Easter Bunny, etc...  I think I'm finally ok with not trying to do much more then egg hunts, egg dying and candy, which is what we did this year! 

We also ended up making a trip to the ER for Ryan. He had sudden onset of severe foot pain with no injury, when it started radiating up his leg and the swelling was increasing, I forced him to go in. It was bad enough that the man who never ever takes a day off of work for illness/injury was given IV narcotics for the pain.  He was diagnosed with gout which actually surprised me for a minute because I never thought of it because of his age. His blood pressure was quite high as well so I'll be having to force him to do follow up care for that.  Of course he isn't doing anything that he is supposed to, taking meds, resting, changing diet, drinking water, sigh. For a minute I thought he might take his health seriously, but that might be too much to ask. 

not a baby post

Someone is still happily inside. I would be happier if it decided to emerge but since it isn't up to me, I wait. I am trying not think about the fact that Madeline was already born by this point in my pregnancy with her...

 Anyway, the point of this post was about other news. For 4 years now I've been getting credit for being a LLL leader, my end goal was to combine those hours, my RN, and sit for the IBCLC exam. I discovered today that the pathways for the exam have been changed, and I have twice the hours already to sit! The exam is only offered once a year in July, but with all my contact hours out of the way now, I can focus on the last things I need to do to qualify for the 2010 exam. Which involves more school, blech. Not really what I want to do with a newborn, and everything else we have going on but I can take the classes online and it shouldn't be *that* difficult. 

I'm not going to use the IBCLC for a while, it's more about having options. Having been out of the work force for over 6 years already, I know employers frown on hiring a "rusty" RN, but if  I am an LC and have been doing volunteer work for the last x amount of years, then it could play out differently. I'm one of those that always like having something to fall back on. I don't want to pursue employment for years, but it's always nice knowing that if need be, that I could still get a decent job. 

38 weeks

Ok baby, don't you want to keep up with your big sisters and come out when they did? That would be this week, so get working on that!

random pics

I'm awful about taking and actually posting pics so here are a few recent ones. 

Madeline loves the diving board at the swimming pool. Too bad Ryan has yet to figure out the focus feature on the camera, next time I'm going to be in charge of taking the pics there. 

Someone decided that Mimi needed to go potty.

I liked Cinnamon and Dobbie in the background of this pic. 

37 weeks

Everything is ready, I think. I'm tired and not sleeping much at all. I'm really ok if this thing decides to vacate soon. 

Despite all the extra weight gain this time, my belly looks the size as it did with Gabrielle which means I *might* get a 7lb baby if I'm lucky. She was 6lbs 11ozs, Madeline was 6lbs 13ozs. Apparently I'm just not meant to grow larger babies. 

Birth arrangements have panned out to my and Ryan's liking. The midwife will come if she is available, if not then I have the option of just phone support or her student which I know and would be ok with. If she does come then she will stay downstairs, I have my birthing space all ready to go upstairs, I don't even have to see her if I don't want to. 

getting there

Not much time left so we are getting prepared! The family activity this morning was setting up my pool, of course it had to be child approved, which is was. 

Gabrielle is quite the little ham for the camera these days. 

I'm really pleased with my fishy pool. It's deep enough, the sides are very sturdy, it retains the heat excellent, and the bottom is really cushy. I used an AquaDoula for Gabrielle's birth and had a number of complaints about it. The sides were too hard to lean against, it was too deep, I couldn't sit on the bottom without my face being in the water, and the bottom was very uncomfortable to kneel on. 

I had a blessingway last night! It was unexpected, and wonderful. I went out to dinner last week with a woman that I know from the center where I hold my LLL meetings at, I don't know her that well, and I was surprised when she decided to throw me one. It had to be this weekend since she was leaving for Hawaii today for several weeks (I'm so jealous!), I doubted anyone would come, but they did. I couldn't get a good pic, the light in this house bites, but they painted a gorgeous flower on my belly.