Ultrasound #3 ...

Yesterday was ultrasound number three of this pregnancy and most likely my very last baby ultrasound ever. Everything looks good! They confirmed for me that he is definitely head down, which is a huge relief for me. We also got to check on his weight and growth, the main reason for the third ultrasound. This happened when I was pregnant with Zach too; at 36 weeks and 4 days they estimated his weight to be an even 5 pounds. Yesterday I was 36 weeks and 3 days pregnant, and they estimated Baby #2's weight to be 5 pounds 4 ounces. Just a tiny bit bigger than his brother :) My doctor said this put him in the 20th percentile for weight, which is still considered big enough for them not to be worried. Good deal! Having been through this with Zach I wasn't too worried about what yesterday's ultrasound would find, but there was still that tiny thought going through my mind saying "What if something's wrong? What if they tell me they need to induce me today? I'm not ready yet!" Thankfully that wasn't the case and baby is still nice and cozy. It is getting down to crunch time though; I should probably pack a hospital bag and find the car seat bases one of these afternoons ...

I finally figured out how to work the scanner function on our printer, so I'll leave you all with a few ultrasound shots. Okay, or maybe it's more like ultrasound picture overload! Picture #1 - First ultrasound at 11 weeks and 3 days. Pictures #2 and #3 - Second ultrasound at 21 weeks and 2 days. Baby's profile and Baby's feet. Picture #4 - Third ultrasound at 36 weeks and 3 days. Profile pic of baby's squished face - can see lips, nose, forehead across the top.

Back From "Vacation"

We came back today from "vacation" - a weekend in Duluth. It was a much more relaxing trip than I'd expected, despite having two teenagers (K and her friend) and a three year old with us, which was a pleasant surprise. We got up there around 10pm on Friday night and got settled in. Jerome took Zach swimming Saturday morning while the rest of us slept in - so nice! Once we were all up and dressed we took advantage of the mini-golf at our hotel ... we did not do well! It was the course's fault, really ;-) But it was fun, though I think Zach may be better suited for hockey than golf.

After mini-golf we grabbed some lunch, took a nap, and then hit the waterpark at our hotel for a bit. It's been a while since we've taken Zach swimming - the last time I remember taking him was to the beach the middle of last summer - so we were a little surprised to find that he has no fear of water. None at all, not even after getting a few mouthfuls of the stuff ... or after emerging from the kiddie version of the tube/water slide on his back, headfirst, and partially submerged. (Don't worry; he was only like that for a few seconds!) That would have done it for me! I've been talking about swimming lessons for him for a while, but I think it's time to stop talking and sign him up already.

Saturday night we went to Grandma's Saloon and Grill for dinner. It was pretty much how I remembered - overrated. Not bad, but this is the third time in a row I have left there wondering what the big deal is. I think I would have been happier eating at Applebee's. Hopefully next time I'm in Duluth I'll remember that and try something different. Like this place.

This morning we did a bit more swimming before checking out, then we drove down to the lake to see the seagulls and look for boats. Gorgeous day, but chilly! We walked around for a bit, threw some rocks, and grabbed lunch and ice cream at DQ before piling back in the car and heading for home. Overall, it was a great trip and, as Jerome said tonight, probably the easiest one we'll take for another three years or so seeing as how it was the last trip we'll be taking before the baby arrives.

Speaking of baby, only 4 more weeks until my due date and one more week until I'm considered "full-term" (meaning if I go into labor they won't try to stop it and they won't consider the baby premature). Zach arrived 11 days before his due date; we'll see if his brother decides to follow suit. This coming Wednesday we get to have another peek at the little guy to check on both his position (he was breech for a while ...) and his size/growth, since I'm measuring small. Hopefully after the ultrasound on Wednesday I'll finally figure out how to work our scanner and can share some pictures!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Zach!

This past Saturday we celebrated Zach's 3rd birthday at our house - what a fun day! Amazingly it didn't rain and was sunny and beautiful all day ... I say amazingly because no matter the forecast, every time we planned something at our house in 2009, it rained. And I do mean every time, no exaggeration :) Hopefully that curse is broken now! Anyway, we had a good time seeing all of our family, eating yummy cake, and I know Zach enjoyed opening his presents. Thanks to everyone who came! Here's a couple of pictures from the day.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes ... and Updates

After nearly two months of putting it off, I finally did it - imported my Wordpress blog into Blogger! Unfortunately, I didn't keep up with posting in the Wordpress blog and I now have two months of events to catch up on! Here we go:

Zach's Room:

The painting part of Zach's room is pretty much done. I still need to paint Zach's name on the banner behind the plane, but that's pretty minor. We inherited a fabric covered headboard from my sister, which we recovered to match his room. We also caved and bought some pretty cute bedding. I do need to get going on his curtains. The material for those has been bought and prewashed. The part I'm putting off is the cutting and pinning ... eventually ;) I would also like to make a bed skirt for his bed, but that's pretty far down on my list.

I have a picture ... but like most of my pictures, it's on a memory card somewhere. I'll work on finding it!

Baby's Room and Stuff:

Um ... yea. Baby's room has pretty much been taken over by sewing things. But, all the baby clothes have been washed and put away! Still a couple of things I need to get in that department; hopefully I'll be able to find some good deals at garage sales this spring. As far as baby's actual room though ... nothing has been done! Yikes. The crib is almost set up, I guess, but we're missing a screw so one side is still detached. I need to get going on the painting. Fortunately the existing paint matches the bedding set I picked out, so I'll be able to get away with just touching up. I should probably get on that! As well as the washing of the car seat, bouncer, and some other baby paraphernalia.

Pregnancy:

As of today I am 34 weeks and 1 day pregnant: 5 weeks and 6 days until my due date. 4 weeks and 2 days until the point in my pregnancy when I had Zach. The big day is coming up fast :)

I made the mistake of asking at my 30 week doctor appointment how baby was positioned - I was worried about having another sunny-side up baby. Imagine my surprise when I was told baby was breech! After that appointment I tried all sorts of funky yoga-esque positions to try to get him to flip. Played music for him. Did some other crazy things :) I didn't think it worked. But this past Friday when I went back to the doctor she said it felt like he was indeed head-down. We'll get to triple-check in about two weeks when I go back for another ultrasound: just like Zach, this baby is measuring small and they want to check his size. I'm excited to see my little boy again before he's born, and it will be nice peace of mind to get a visual of his position! (Sorry if that's too much information ...)

Life:

Easter was yesterday and was a good time. Zach woke up and found his Easter basket waiting for him on the table. After a nutritious breakfast of jelly beans, he and his dad dyed a couple of Easter eggs while I got the egg bakes made for brunch at my sister's house that morning. We stuffed ourselves on yummy food there, and then the kids hunted for Easter eggs outside. 12 kids x 10 eggs per kid = a LOT of Easter eggs! But a good time :)

 

This Saturday is Zach's 3rd birthday party, so that is what all my energy is going to for the time being. Well, the birthday party itself isn't so much work, but cleaning the house before people come over sure is! I'm excited to give the house a good cleaning before baby comes though, and the birthday party is good motivation for getting it done!

Progress in Zach's Room!

Huzzah! I finally feel like I am making some progress in Zach's new bedroom. That's mostly in part to my awesome sister who broke into my house and did some sneaky painting on Saturday night. Zach and I had plans to go to a friend's house for dinner, and I'd asked my sister if she'd come over when we were done (and once Zach was in bed) to help me do the final coat of green on, well, every place that was to be green. I'd had a minor issue with running out of paint and the next can being slightly different from the first, so it needed one more thin coat on everything just to even things out and make everything the same shade. We were a little later leaving the friend's house than I'd intended, and I was thinking as I turned into my neighborhood that I should call my sister and see if she'd still be up for painting or if it was getting too late. When I turned the corner onto my street and saw my sister's car parked in front of my house, I was feeling pretty bad about it being roughly an hour later the time I'd told her I was aiming for! Turns out that she "broke in" about two hours before we got home and had already gotten a great start. Love her!! Lol, although I have to admit I was a bit jealous that she got to spend two whole hours ALONE in my house; I can't remember the last time *I* got to do that :)

While she finished "rollering" the green paint, I drew the outline for the street and managed to get a couple clouds painted. You can see in the pictures that I left a large gap between the two clouds. That's because I'm still debating on whether or not I want to attempt painting an airplane. The plane will definitely be a last minute decision based on how the painting of everything else goes. Today during nap time I attempting to stencil the first coat of the sailboat. After that's finished I will paint a lake around it. The stenciling was super easy, but I've determined that this is the one and only stenciling attempt until I'm able to get to Michael's and buy some spray stencil adhesive. Apparently there IS a reason way every website I looked at recommended using the spray adhesive! Until then I'll stay busy doing the second (and maybe third?) coat on the sailboat, painting the lake, and cutting out the stencils for the car and trucks.

But without further ado or anymore jabbering, here are the newest room pictures:



Two clouds painted -- I picture a farm & sheep every time I see it like this. I really hope that stops once there are cars on the wall!



A close-up of the street penciled in ... but you can't really see it.






My angle is crooked in this one, not the boat. I promise.

There Goes That Great Idea ...

One of my crazy plans for baby boy's bedroom was to make a bumper and crib skirt since I no longer like the one we had for Zach and can't afford any of the ones I actually like. But I've ran into a little hitch: I can't find BOY material that meets my criteria. It's not like I'm being too picky or anything. I just want something that is 1) not babyish, 2) does not have flowers, pink, or purple, 3) does not have brown as a major color, 4) is blue, green, and hopefully orange. Like I said, not too picky ;) After spending way too much time (and I do mean WAY too much time) online looking at fabrics and hating everything in my price range, I've gotten super discouraged. I did find a really cute elephant print from Crafty Planet that came in blue, green, and grey. How cute would that have been, with one color on one side of the bumper and a second color on the opposite side? But alas, it was out of stock in all but one color. Oh, and it was also $15 a yard ...

Earlier this week I was at Target and found this. Houston, we have a winner. Probably more expensive than if I had made my own, depending on my fabric choice, but meets most of my criteria as far as print goes. Perhaps a little more brown than I care for, but not too bad. I know it can't be that much brown since Jerome, who hates anything and everything brown, approved of my choice ... although I have a feeling that part of that may have been based on me telling him that if he didn't like this one I was dragging him to some fabric stores with me. I'm feeling a little sad now about not making the bumper myself, but it's a nice weight off my shoulders to have a decision made. And I'll still have plenty of work to do: this set only includes the quilt/coverlet, a sheet, and the bumper. I don't love and can't justify the cost of the matching cribskirt, so I'll still make one of those - solid green. I will also make curtains for the room - either solid green or navy (or maybe a combination of the two). Ideally I'd like to get an extra crib sheet and include a stripe of the rocket print across the top of the curtains to tie it all together. We'll see.

So now the hard part: waiting for it to go on sale ... because I'm cheap like that :)

Get Lost

Or maybe that should read "Get LOST."

The Lost season premiere aired last night. Hurray for 3 hours of Lost! I was a little disappointed in last night's episode - I think I expected something a little more exciting to happen - but I'm not complaining. Jerome and I have been waiting a long time for this! Not as long as some, since we first started watching the show this summer (thank you Netflix!) and didn't finish Season 5 until the first part of January. But after watching 5 seasons of a show in just a few months, it felt like forever waiting for a new episode. And now we have to wait a whole week more to get our questions from last night answered (well, hopefully they'll be answered). Questions like "If 'it worked' then why are they still on that island? And how are they also in the airport? Do they have to figure out how to make time match up so that they can get off the island? Did they just create a parallel universe? Are their body parts going to start to not line up correctly from all this traveling through time, like in Michael Crichton's Timeline?" Yea ... probably not going to get all of those answers next week, am I? :)

During the show I worked on a hat that I'm knitting. Finished it, actually. It was my second time through the pattern, since the first one I made was too small (my fault for not measuring my head). I followed ALL the directions this time to make it a bit bigger, and what do you know - it was still too small! At least this time the circumference was right. I'm a little crabby, however, that it was still just a tiny bit too short, despite being longer than the first one AND longer than what the pattern calls for. I like the pattern, but am debating: should I see if the third time is the charm or just find a new hat pattern to make? Either way, it's going to have to wait a while since I have a baby project that needs to get started ASAP. Not to mention those bedrooms upstairs ... But before I can make more progress on those, I need to buy more paint. Again. Lol, at least the good news is I'm almost ready to start the mural that I wanted to have finished by last weekend!

And as far as my boys go ... let's just say that tomorrow is my Friday and while I love all my boys, I couldn't be happier about that!