She's here!

Vivian was born at 4:45 PMon June 1, 2009.

She weighs 6 lbs, 15 oz and is 18.5 inches in length.

Everyone is doing well!

One more day...

I can hardly even type that without feeling a wave of nausea. Seriously. I think it's entirely possible that I'm even more freaked out than I was before Ethan was born. Possibly because I know pretty much what's coming this time. Last time everything was very theoretical and vague and unknown.

I'm up early this morning, as usual. Enjoying some time alone with the computer and my coffee and my breakfast. Mentally planning my breakfast for tomorrow. I am not allowed to eat after 8 AM, so I need to make breakfast tomorrow count!

Our cats definitely know something is going on. One of our cats, the dumb one (trust me, this is not a mean comment, she just is not smart at all) keeps looking at me and then crying at the top of her lungs and running away, while looking back at me over her shoulder. From her perspective, seeing me walking toward her is probably like watching Godzilla attack Tokyo, so I shouldn't be surprised. It's a little creepy though, she just sits on the opposite side of the room and stares at me.

Today is church, then the final attempt at our to-do list. Vacuuming, kitchen/bathroom floor mopping, more laundry, the usual. The in-laws arrive a little before 7 tonight. Daniel was going to take them out to dinner right away, but has now decided to bring them here to see Ethan's nighttime routine. Which is a good idea. I'm glad Daniel's brain is still working. My brain pretty much has been reduced to mush. I just walk around muttering "laundry. c-section on Monday. having another baby. hot. need snack."

I'm not sure if I'll post tomorrow morning or not. I really have little of interest to say these days. See comments in last paragraph about my brain. If I don't post in the morning, then I'll try to post late Monday night or Tuesday morning with New Baby's info. I think we will have internet access at the hospital. If not, you're going to have to wait until I get home on Wednesday night (theoretical discharge date, at least). Thanks to all for your prayers. I can't wait to share our good news with you!

I'm done with prenatal appointments!!!

This morning marked the last of many, many prenatal appointments for me in the last two years. Unfortunately the morning also marked the highest number that I have ever seen pop up on a scale in my entire life. My response to the scary number? "Screw it, I'm only pregnant for 3 more days, I'm going to eat another cookie." :)

I followed up the last appointment by taking a solo trip to Target. Where I was, as usual, asked at the end of every aisle "can I help you find anything?" by an overly helpful Target employee. I tried to dodge them, but I don't move very quickly these days and they're pretty determined. Now we're all stocked up on diapers and cleaning supplies and all the miscellaneous things that I dont want to run out of in the next few weeks.

In other news, I'm running low on unimportant things to obsess about, so might have to actually start thinking about this whole c-section thing. Although my big giveaway prize is still missing and I still haven't heard from the person running the giveaway, even after I tried to contact her in 3 different ways. So I'm a little sad/obsessed about that. But the insurance things that I was worried about and the green card thing are more or less under control, so I can't worry about those anymore.

Today is Ethan's last day of daycare, so I have to go gather him and his belongings in 3 hours, and try not to cry. His daycare has been such a huge blessing to our family over the last year and a half. His teachers truly love him and are patient with him and have taught him so many wonderful things. He has loved seeing his little friends every day and playing games and singing songs. I know that the time is right for me to be home with him and New Baby, and that he will have many wonderful teachers and friends in the future, but it's still going to be a tough goodbye. Especially with the pregnancy hormones running amuck.

Thank you to all of you who have been voting for me at the Nickelodeon Parents' Pick awards. I'm winning right now! But there are still over 40 days left of voting, so please, keep up the good work! Do it to make a very pregnant woman dealing with 80 degrees outside (and a little above that inside, thanks to our lack of A/C and west-facing windows) happy! Vote here! You're the greatest!

At this point, I'm pretty much just a walking advertisement for why you should use birth control

Seriously, I should go hang out in front of high schools with my overly energetic/randomly whiny/temper tantrum throwing toddler and my huge abdomen. Trust me, there would be no babies born 9 months after the teenagers saw that sight.

As much as I'm not looking forward to going through surgery on Monday and all the post-childbirth and getting used to a newborn stuff, I am SO grateful that there is an end in sight. Because I've reached the point where I'm pretty much just miserable, all the time. Afternoons and evenings are the worst, but usually I wake up feeling pretty good. I did not wake up feeling good this morning, and I have a feeling that it's not going to happen again for a while. BUT... only 4 days and 3 hours left until the surgery is scheduled (I am not counting on it happening then, I know we'll probably be delayed by at least an hour or so, because that's how things work in hospitals).

Today was bible study, which was great, as always. Later we're going to the park to meet up with friends, so Ethan can run around and play happily in the sunshine. He's definitely been making up for his illness last week, and has more energy than I've ever seen in one small person. Someone asked me today if he is always smiling- I laughed and said that he is either smiling or throwing a temper tantrum. Just like his mommy- either at the top of the heights or the depths of despair. Seriously, this kid inherited so many of my personality characteristics, it's just not funny. One of these days I'm going to find something that he got from his daddy- there has to be some speck of Daniel's personality in there somewhere! Or maybe New Baby will be more like Daniel (I hope, I hope). It's going to be interesting to see!

Four days. I'm going to have a daughter to hold in four days. Wow.

(Sort-of) Our last day

Today was the last "normal" day for Ethan and I. The last day where we had nothing planned and it was just the two of us just hanging out and doing stuff around the condo and the neighborhood. Every time I thought of that today, I got a little teary-eyed. Pregnancy hormones! Tomorrow we have bible study in the morning, then are going to the park with friends in the afternoon, then Friday Ethan gets to go to daycare one last time, and then the weekend is here already! Saturday is going to be one last push to get all the last minute things done, then Sunday is church and Daniel's parents arriving in the afternoon. So, today was the last "do-whatever" day for us.

We managed to take advantage of the nice weather and my temporary sugar high from eating french toast for lunch :) and went out to the Children's Museum at the Seattle Center. Just in the few months since I've waddled over there last, Ethan's changed so much in terms of which exhibits he's interested in playing in. It's amazing to see how grown-up he's gotten so fast. There's nothing as fun as watching him run around on his chubby little toddler legs and watch him trying to figure things out and see his imagination at work. Fills a mommy's heart with joy.

More pictures of my cutie- in case you didn't get enough yesterday!






Driving a bus, while wearing a fireman's hat from another playarea

















Our fireman goes grocery shopping










And then he "cooks" Mommy some food. We encourage this, since Mommy hates cooking and plans to make Ethan take over as soon as he can reach the stove!

Memorial Day weekend

Warning- long post ahead!

This weekend was such a huge blessing to my family. We've been really tired and rundown lately with all the pregnancy complications and Ethan's recent bout with illness and juggling doctors' appointments and job responsibilities and... We really needed a good, fun weekend, and we got it!

Saturday we took Ethan up to his favorite park where he got to run around and enjoy the sunshine and dirt and swings and all the other things that make a toddler happy. Daniel was nice and friendly and struck up conversations with other parents. I'm far too scared of strangers to do that, so just sat around and looked large. Later in the day we walked/waddled over to the Seattle Center for our annual tradition of wandering around the Folklife Festival and eating strawberry shortcake, while feeling like the least cool people on the planet.


Me at 38 weeks. I told you I look large. I'm laughing in this picture because I told Daniel to back up- I look too big if he stands close. So he kept looking in the display and then backing up further. Unfortunately for me, we have a small house. I'm not even standing straight, so I'm even bigger than the picture really shows. We're going to blame New Baby's 1/2 pound weight gain for my size, not my cake/cookie consumption of the past few weeks.


On Sunday my boys went to church while I took a nap. Probably the second nap I've taken in the past year. I'm not much for naps, but have been sleeping so badly at night lately that I had to take advantage of the quiet house and get a little sleep. Later in the day, we gave in to our Seattle guilt and headed back out into the sunshine. The weather has been wonderful here, but that's the one problem about Seattle- no matter how tired you are and how much you just want to lie around the house, if the sun is shining, you pretty much have to go outside. It's practically a law. We headed over to the Ballard Locks to watch the boats go by- always fun and entertaining. We also decided to work on Ethan's nature deficit and found a big patch of grass for him to run around in. He liked the grass and leaves, but did not like the pinecone that Daniel found for him. We apparently need to ease into these nature things.

I thought Monday was going to be a quiet day, but we ended up continuing our "let's see Seattle" tour, with a morning trip out to the beach at Alki. This was Ethan's first beach experience, and he had a blast digging in the sand. And rolling in the sand. And putting sand in his ears. He's a 21-month old boy, so these things shouldn't surprise me :) He was pretty much coated from head to toe by the time we got done, but he had a great time.

So, a busy, but fun weekend. I felt like it was nice to spend the time together as our family of three, before life is shaken up a bit next week. NEXT WEEK. I'm having another child NEXT WEEK. I think I'm starting to get a little nervous. I know that I am starting to get nervous about something when I start seriously obsessing over lots of little, unrelated things. Like Daniel's green card and why we haven't heard anything even though it's been 6 months. And what happened to the cool prize that I won on a giveaway a month ago and why isn't the person responding to my emails! And what if the coding is wrong on my ultrasound and the insurance doesn't pay it and I have to (gasp) make a phone call about it! Yep, this are the things that keep me up at night. Not being cut open and having another child in 6 days. But missing giveaway prizes. My brain does this for some reason, I'm not sure why. It's kind of strange. I'm sure you will be reading more angsty emails in the next few days. Prepare yourselves :)

Pictures below (for those of you reading in a reader).





At the park



















Driving the cars at the Seattle Center




















Trying to climb a tree



















Ethan and Daddy look at nature

















At the beach with Daddy and friends














Sand!!














Happily digging

















Daniel gave Ethan an old laptop to play with. Because THAT'S a good solution for the fact that Mommy and Daddy spend too much time on the computer. Just give the kid one too :)

Monday- early afternoon

Happy Memorial Day, everyone! I hope that the weather is nice wherever you are and that you're having a good day! We have been SO busy this weekend- I'll post lots of pictures later today. It's been a great weekend so far.

I'm actually doing a quick blog post to make a request of you guys (no, not begging for votes, although, if you're bored.... vote here!)  Actually, this has to do with Facebook. I know that some of you who read this blog are also Facebook friends of mine- if you could please be sure to not make any comments on Facebook about this blog, I'd appreciate it.  Right now my blog is fairly private, with few of my family knowing about it, but most of my family members are on Facebook, so any overlap could spill the beans! :)  

Okay, back to uploading photos and bugging Daniel about the to-do list.  Just a week left until the baby comes, and we have lots to do! 

I continue on in my quest for the most random pregnancy ever...

Let's see. We're almost to 38 weeks now in this pregnancy. For a while everything was totally normal, then we had the subchorionic bleed, then the low fluid, then the fluid was fine, but the baby started dropping off in size, then the size got worse and the fluid level got too high, then all of a sudden the baby jumped in size, but fluid level also jumped, which are generally not things that are seen together.

The results from today's ultrasound were so surprising that the radiologist didn't believe the technician had done the measurements right, but he ended up with the same results. In two weeks, New Baby jumped from 8th to 21st percentile in size. During the two weeks when I have been on my feet almost constantly, dealing with toddler illnesses and Daniel working long hours and cheating on bed rest and going shopping. :) It's all that praying that everyone's been doing!

So, no baby for us today. I'm so ridiculously glad. I had my OB appointment this morning, and she had instructed me to come back if the results of the ultrasound were bad, and we'd discuss the baby being delivered immediately. I was briefly fine with the idea, but then I thought about Ethan being sick and wanting to cuddle and I just was sick at the idea of leaving him when he's not feeling well. I need a little bit more time with my boy before things get all confusing for us.

Ethan's still home sick- we just still can't seem to beat the diarrhea and vomiting both. It's pretty much one or the other, so we're having to wrestle him to the ground to feed him pedialyte in a syringe. He refuses to take it in a popsicle or a bottle or a sippy cup, so syringe it is. He really wants milk, but even the lactose-free milk made him sick last night, so we are not quite there yet. He missed day care all week this week- I try not to think about how much money that cost us, but I still do. Now we're just hoping he'll recover for this weekend, so we can get out and enjoy the sunshine and the Folklife Festival.

In totally random news- I had some time to waste between appointments today, so went to a couple of nearby drugstores to browse. While I was there I decided to buy Father's Day cards for my dad and Daniel, since who knows when I'll have time to shop again. At the first store I found all the cards I needed, except one for Ethan to give Daniel. Because the store had one son-to-dad card, and I didn't like it. They seemed to have lots of daughter-to-dad cards though, but I didn't think much of it. Then I went to another drugstore and found the same thing there- except this time I counted. In the one section I was in, there were 18 daughter-to-dad cards and ONE son-to-dad card. There was also one cat-to-dad and one dog-to-dad. Do sons not give their dads cards anymore? I found this whole thing very strange.

Today is my friend Liz's 30th birthday. Drop by her blog and wish her a happy one!

Another check off the list of parenting must-dos

Ethan's still sick. Fighting vomiting, fever and diarrhea, not all at the same time, thank goodness, but in succession, with one coming on as soon as the other goes away.  We took him to the doctor this afternoon and were sent over to Children's Hospital to the ER to get him rehydrated.  That was a first for us, taking our son to the emergency room. Hopefully not something we'll repeat again in the future.  

Amusingly enough (hey, you have to find humor where you can in these things), the questions posed to us at the doctor's office and the ER both went something like this.  1) what's his name and what seems to be wrong today and 2) (said with a nervous look towards my abdomen) and when are you due?  Everyone seemed a little scared that I was going to give birth on the spot or something.  

Anyway, when we got to the ER, they informed us that they were going to try oral rehydration instead of IV. I guess that's what they prefer to do, since kids tend to not be such big fans of being stuck with needles.  So they gave him a Zofran tablet and gave us a bottle of Gatorade, and we got to give him increasingly larger amounts of the Gatorade over the span of 45 minutes.  When he kept it all down, they sent us home.  While we were at the ER, Ethan did manage to have several disgusting diapers, including one that leaked all over Daniel's pants. Poor Daniel, the guy is just exhausted these days. He did not need a lap full of grossness to top it all off.

So now we're just waiting and hoping that Ethan will rehydrate soon.  And hoping that New Baby stays put a while longer, because we are definitely in no shape to deal with a newborn right now.   

Moving on to a new phase in life

It was a good weekend here-until 1:30 AM last night, when Ethan started vomiting. And getting nosebleeds.  Fun.  So he's home today instead of being off at daycare.  Since he only had 3 days left of daycare, I'm kind of sad about that, but I know home is the best place for him when he's not feeling well.  We're just hanging out and staying quiet today, and occasionally risking the consumption of cheerios or some other boring food like that. Hopefully it's going to be a fast-moving bug!  

Anyway, before the plague hit, we were doing usual weekend activities around here. After church, Daniel and Ethan took a walk out in the sun to the Seattle Center, where they played on some of the baby rides at the Fun Forest.  Daniel said Ethan had a great time on all of them, I guess he's inherited his daddy's brave spirit!  While they were out, I decided that it was time to get another activity checked off of my to-do list, and I headed into my office to finish cleaning and moving out my belongings.

As I've mentioned before, I'm now on leave from work for the rest of the year.  I'm hoping to work again next year, but that's dependent on where we're living and things like that.  No matter what, I'm not likely to ever physically work from the office again, so when I left this time, I gave up my office to make space for another returning coworker (people leave and come back at this company like nobody's business!).  

It was really weird and kind of emotional, packing up my office yesterday. I've been working at this company since I finished my master's degree in 2003, and I've been working from this particular office since January 2005.  Given that I didn't even meet Daniel until May 2005, my office and coworkers have seen me through a lot of transitions!  Packing up really made things real too- I've been feeling for a while that maybe I need to focus more on mommyhood and less on work, and I've not been working for almost a month now, but somehow it all didn't really sink in until I took my pictures off the walls and shelves and put them in boxes.  

I leave you today with some of the more memorable things from my time working at this office.  

My empty desk and filing cabinet

The courtyard of the Federal Courthouse, where we've seen a lot of protests and meetings and this bombsquad person walking around.

The patio area of the apartments next door. We have seen naked people walking around their apartments and lots of skimpily sunbathers on the patio. Most notable the person who we refer to as the "hairy tan man in the small white speedo."  He liked to sunbathe right where those people are sitting, in the bottom right hand corner of the picture. It was like a trainwreck, I just couldn't look away. Hard to focus on work when you know what's lurking just outside the window...

And a local Seattle hotel, where my coworkers saw a naked person opening the curtains of his room, in the first two hours of our first day in this office space. Followed by many, many more sightings of naked people over the years. Seriously people, if you can see out the window, we can probably see in.  Put on some pajamas. 

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Thank you all for voting! Apparently my whole "vote for me I'm huge and miserable" campaign is working.  Keep up the good work! Go vote now! 

A great CD for babies

Music has always been a big part of my life- I took piano lessons for more years than I can remember and then switched to singing lessons as a teenager.  Throughout high school, college and the years after that, I was part of multiple choirs, smaller ensembles and worship teams at church.  I drive people crazy when they are in the car with me, because I have to sing along with pretty much every song on the radio.  My kids seem to be taking after me in their love of music.  New Baby is a fairly quiet in-utero-baby, but I can always count on her waking up and doing a fetal dance when worship time starts at church and I start singing along with the songs.  Ethan also loved the singing at church when he was younger.  He would stop looking around at the congregation when the music started up and he would happily sit on my lap and watch the musicians and sway along as we sang.

So, I'm really excited about this new CD that I heard about today Faith, Hope & Lullabies: Songs of Worship- it's like a lot of CDs in my collection, in that it's a lullaby CD for babies, but this CD is special since it's the familiar worship songs that we all know and love.  I've been listening to the CD online this morning, and I'm definitely hooked.  The music is pretty and soothing, and I love that the songs are ones that help me focus on God.  What more could you ask for in a CD!  You can listen to the songs below, and get more info at this website. Go  check it out.  

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Half-Chinese water torture

It is a glorious day in Seattle!  Just perfect weather- almost 70 degrees and sunny.  A few wispy white clouds are floating around in the sky.  *Sigh of happiness*  Yesterday was just as nice, and we ended up having an impromtu barbeque with friends after our regularly scheduled home fellowship get-together.  It's been a while since I've sat around on someone's deck and enjoyed the smell of grilling hamburgers and the taste of fresh, sweet watermelon.  A slice of heaven, to be sure. Now I'm seriously craving watermelon, so I think Daniel's going to have to make a stop at the grocery store later today.  

Speaking of watermelon, I discovered yesterday that the use of salt on watermelon is a very controversial topic.  Our group of friends was very evenly divided between those who always eat their watermelon with salt (I fall into that camp) and those who do not (Daniel falls into that silly group).  I had no idea that it was a topic of so much debate!

Okay, so you're probably wondering about the title of my post.  [For those of you who are new to this blog, my husband is Chinese, so my son (and New Baby too, of course) are half-Chinese.] Anyway, Ethan is becoming more verbal all the time, and now knows quite a few words.  We still don't understand a lot of what he says, especially the longer sentences and phrases that he uses.  But we manage to get by most of the time. Recently he learned to say the word "water" instead of "wa-wa". Which is great and exciting, except he has since stopped using the right words for about 90% of things and instead calls EVERYTHING "water".  No matter what it is.  He just runs around all day saying "water water water" over and over.  Until Mommy is about to lose her mind (not a long journey, I know).   

I think this whole thing is part of his diabolical plan to make me crazy so that he can be in charge during the day and just watch endless episodes of Clifford the Big Red Dog, instead of doing those silly things that Mommy insists on doing, like napping, reading books and eating vegetables.  

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Want to help save my sanity? Please, take a moment and drop by this site and vote for my blog!  

If you're going to tell me that the end of my pregnancy is not near, please don't look cheerful while you do so

If it's Friday, that must mean doctors' appointments for me and New Baby! And it did!  We had a ultrasound this morning, and things looked good.  Today I was told that she has "lots" of hair.  I'm starting to worry that this baby is going to come out with some sort of gigantic afro, since her hair has gotten so much attention on the ultrasound scans.  The ultrasound itself took 30 minutes, then I waited on the exam table for another 45 minutes while the tech tried to find a doctor to review the results.  Fortunately, I come to appointments with an ipod full of NPR podcasts and a book in my purse. So I was fine. Then I ate lemon meringue pie for lunch (my favorite) before going to my NST.  The pie made New Baby so hyper that the doctor wasn't sure what to make of the results of the NST, but she decided things looked okay :)

Then I had my regular OB appointment.  No progress on having a baby - apparently my cervix is still high (but soft), so my doctor cheerfully informed me that I would not be having a baby in the next few days. Not a surprise, but she didn't have to look so happy about it. I did sign the consent forms for both the c-section and the tubal ligation. I still think I want to write "tubal ligation" in big letters on my abdomen, just so it doesn't accidentally get forgotten. I am so done with pregnancy. 2 high-risk pregnancies in 2 years has been plenty. 

In Ethan news, he's definitely sensing that something is going on. He occasionally will stop playing and stare suspiciously at my abdomen.  I keep trying to explain that there's a baby in there, and that she's going to come out soon and be his little sister, but he usually just loses interest and wanders off. Heck, the idea of another baby is still a little hard for me to believe, so I can't really expect him to get it!  He also carries his favorite stuffed animals and his blanket and his paci everywhere. And sometimes his sippy cup and his dump truck. He's a tiny little guy, so it's getting pretty comical, watching him try to carry everything around. 

We're having our carseat installation checked tomorrow at a local hospital- that's the last thing on the list that we HAD to do before New Baby's arrival. So we're pretty much ready! 

In celebration of a sunny Friday in Seattle and my baby's alleged huge amount of hair, please go vote for my blog on the Nickelodeon Parents' Pick site! And have a wonderful weekend!

Another realization about motherhood

Okay, so in most of the ultrasounds that New Baby has had done, she's had her little arm up near her face or over her head. And I am 99% certain that she is now using that arm to punch/claw her way through my cervix. OUCH.  New Baby- you owe me a BIG Mother's Day present next year. And the year after as well.  

I'm definitely getting to the less-than-fun part of pregnancy.  The part where people ask you how you're feeling and you just sort of stare at them and wonder if you a) know them well enough to tell the truth or b) have the strength left in you to lie.  Just don't ask people in their last month of pregnancy how they're feeling. If they say that they're feeling good, I'd be willing to be it's not the truth. There's just no way. 

Most days I actually feel not too bad until about 2 PM. Which is also the point in the day that Ethan wakes up from his nap and starts running around and asking for snacks which he then rejects and throws across the room. He's hitting a bit of an independent/stubborn streak.  Good timing on our part, yes? :)  You can tell we hadn't spent much time around almost-2-year-olds when we decided to get pregnant again right after Ethan's 1st birthday.

Anyway, yesterday I had a great morning with a friend and her kids and then Ethan napped and all was going well. But then the afternoon started and everything was insane and Daniel was busy at work and it was raining, so traffic was awful (because we CANNOT drive in the rain in Seattle. True story.).  And finally my hormones and everything got to me and I just sat down and cried.

Normally I'm the type who wants to be left alone when I'm upset or in pain. I do not like to be touched or hugged, I just need to be alone to regroup, then I will let people know when they may enter my presence.  This, of course, is not a concept that toddlers comprehend.  So, instead of being off in a corner crying, I found myself on the couch with Ethan (and his stuffed animals and paci and blanket) on my lap, one cat sitting on my head, the other cat leaning on me from the other side, and New Baby kicking me energetically from inside.  It actually made me laugh (eventually) because this is just a new reality for me- this is motherhood! 

Then when my wonderful husband battled through the rain and traffic and got home, he just got Ethan's shoes on and went to SushiLand to get takeout for dinner. You've got to love a man who knows when to go get food. What would I do without him!

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Tired of the begging for votes yet? I promise, I have a short attention span and will probably lose interest soon in bothering you.  But until then, feel sorry for me and go vote, I'm being beaten up from the inside.  Seeing my little percentage go up on the vote tally will help! Really! 

Wednesday morning

We're making progress through the week! It's Wednesday already!  Daniel's off to work now, and Ethan and I are sitting at the dining room table, waiting for 9:30 to roll around, because that's when Clifford the Big Red Dog comes on our local PBS station. Ethan is playing with playdough. "Playing" with playdough for him consists of ripping it into teeny tiny little pieces, some of which he will casually hold up to his mouth while looking at me, just to get me to react and say "NO! DON'T EAT THAT!".  The rest of the teeny tiny pieces (particularly the teeniest of them) will be dropped onto the floor for smashing into the carpet.  Fortunately, we have completely given up on the carpet and will just replace it before we sell/rent out this place. 

It's been a pretty quiet week here so far. I'm definitely getting bigger by the moment and am usually fairly miserable by the end of the day. The baby is very very low, so walking and standing are not the most fun things to do. The Braxton-Hicks contractions are picking up too, but definitely are not anything more than that.  I have a lot of conversations with New Baby these days. Mostly trying to convince her that she'll be full-term this weekend, so any time she wants to come out is fine.  And explaining to her that she has a closet full of pretty dresses and cute shoes waiting for her, so life would be much more fun for her on the outside. 

But, as much as I want to meet my little girl and be done forever with pregnancy, my type-A, organized, planning side knows that it would be best if she stayed put until June 1, since we have all the grandparents lined up for Ethan care around that date. Daniel's parents will arrive the day before the c-section and will stay until Wednesday. Then we have a few days at home alone before my parents show up on Monday (they aren't staying with us) and will stay for two weeks. Ethan's going to have lots of quality grandparent time!  He's going to be in for a VERY big shock at the end of June when all the grandparents leave and it's just him and mommy and that crying thing, alone in the house.  

Oh, and did you go vote for me today?  Seriously, I'm hugely pregnant and stuck at home with a toddler. I need sympathy votes :)

  

One Lovely Blog Award

I got a nice email today from Amy at Thoughtful Parent letting me know that she was giving me the One Lovely Blog Award.  How sweet! 

My only responsibility with this award is to pass it on to other bloggers that I also enjoy. It's supposed to be blogs that I've newly discovered, but as I've been slacking off on that front, it's going to have to be ones that I've been reading for a while already. 

I'd like to pass this award on to these lovely ladies whose blogs brighten my day whenever they write. Thank you for sharing your lives and thoughts and hopes and struggles and triumphs with the blogosphere.  Please accept this award with my fondest thoughts and pass it on to those who bring smiles to your day.  

Don't Count Your Eggs

Emily Ella

Family Life in the Desert

Just a Day in the Life

Kelly's Korner

Life Starring Ellie and Eve

Mighty Maggie

Random Ramblings of a Blonde Woman

Seriously?

Spacebooke

The Big Trade-Off

The Center of the Universe

The Looney-Bin

The Tacheny Adventure

Veater Family

Another blog party!

By now you guys have caught on that I'm spending most of my time on bed rest reading blogs and entering contests. I'm going to have trouble transitioning back to being a busy mom- I need to work on my one-handed typing skills so that I can keep up with everything while nursing New Baby.  Speaking of New Baby, she actually behaved herself on today's NST and, for the first time EVER, we were done in 20 minutes! Hurray!!!

Anyway, there's another blog party starting over at Rockin Mama. Visit this post for the details!  Blog parties are a lot of fun- it's a great way to find new blogs that you didn't know about and to make more online friends. I know it's summer now and you're all probably out and about and busy- but you will want to have fun blogs to read during the rainy/snowy/cold winter, so find them now!

For those of you visiting my blog from the party- my name is Carrie, I'm 32 years old and live on the edge of downtown Seattle, only about 4 blocks from the world famous Space Needle. I'm mom to Ethan, 21 months, and have a baby girl due to arrive in 20 days!  I'm married to Daniel, the most patient, wonderful man on the planet.  And I've recently been nominated for a Nickelodeon Parents' Pick local blogger award, so if you'd like to vote for me, go here! In my non-mom life, I'm a toxicologist, but I've recently started my maternity leave and will be out the rest of the year. I'm totally addicted to the computer and am online way way too much.  Oh, and I'm the worst Seattle-ite ever, as I hate the outdoors and dirt :)  

Okay, enough about me- go check out the blog party!

Mother's Day recap- and did you go vote for me today?

I am getting my rapidly expanding butt kicked by Kathryn of Daring Young Mom over at the Nickelodeon Parent's Pick voting.  Good thing I like her.  Did you go vote today? You can vote every day! And voting continues until July. Be glad that I'm going to have a newborn in a few weeks and will have to stop harassing you all about it.  I was reading the email from the Parent's Pick people last night and talking to Daniel about posting a message on my WW message board. Daniel just looked at me and said "oh good, now you have something new to obsess about." I have no idea what he meant by that.  :)

Anyway, it's Monday, which means I'm home alone and on the couch.  Have I mentioned how much easier bed rest is getting these days? It about killed me back in January because I wasn't even really showing back then and I felt fine.  And even when this round of bed rest started 4 weeks ago, it was tough. But now I am huge and New Baby seems to be trying to claw her way out or something whenever I walk more than 5 steps. So the couch is a much more likeable place.  MUCH.

So Mother's Day was yesterday and we had a nice one here.  My in-laws came down from Vancouver and met us at church. I hadn't been in a few weeks so it was good to be there with the rest of the congregation. Daniel is on nursery duty this month (I bowed out of that), so it was just me and my mother and father and brother-in-law and future sister-in-law in church.  But not much talking goes on at church, so we survived.  Then we headed home and they went and did some shopping for an hour while Ethan napped, then it was off to lunch.  Lunch went well too, although conversations were a little difficult, with the noise and the fact that my in-laws are very soft spoken and sometimes have trouble finding the right English words. But we all ate well and Ethan was fairly well behaved.  They did come back to our condo for a while, where Ethan

 refused to spend any time with his grandparents, since he's completely and utterly in love with his uncle's fiancee and no one else is allowed near him when she's in the room.  But the grandparents will be back in three weeks, so they didn't mind too much.

Daniel even said how well I behaved myself and patted me on the head at the end of the evening.  Poor guy, he really deserves better than me behaving like a spoiled brat whenever we're around his family.  Maybe I'm starting to make progress though. Who knows. 

Okay, now go blog about something interesting so I can be entertained for a while. Daytime TV stinks. 

Here's me yesterday (36 weeks).  It's getting scary. 

I'm a little confused...(a plea for votes!)

So I was going through my google reader this morning and reading my blog, and got to Daring Young Mom's blog. Daring Young Mom was the first blog I ever read- she used to write a blog for our local paper and I read that, then got hooked on her personal blog.  She's darned funny and open and nice, so this morning, when I read that she had been nominated by the Nickelodeon Parents' Pick website for an award, I went over there to vote for her. 

And then I got there, and saw that another of my favorite blogs, Absolutely Bananas was also there. Oh, and another familiar blog was on the list. Mine.  This is all totally news to me!

So, if you are a Seattle person and are a reader of my blog or Daring Young Mom or Absolutely Bananas, go there and vote for your favorite! If you're just a reader of mine, please go vote for me!  It's super easy- no registration required, just click the button. Someone on another city's blog said that you can vote once per day, I'm not sure if that's true or not. But if it is, please vote often :) 

For Local Blog
in Seattle

 

How totally cool!

All alone at home again- Ethan and Daniel have gone out to the park to dig in the dirt. Even if I wasn't on bedrest, it would be best for me to miss outings like that :)

Okay, so the cool thing!  I've been able to see New Baby doing her practice breathing on the ultrasounds for the last few weeks.  But today she had her back pressed up against the top of my abdomen, and I was able to feel it and see it for the first time.  She's getting pretty good at it! It's not something I ever felt when I was pregnant with Ethan, so I think it's pretty cool. Of course now she's given herself the hiccups with all that practice breathing, so we're back to that funny feeling. 

I have to say, even though I've had lots of ultrasounds and appointments and it's been a challenge scheduling everything and a big drain on my time, I feel incredibly blessed to have been able to see New Baby growing and forming and becoming a real baby.  Every time I see her little face on the screen, I think about the little blob that she was at our first ultrasound 29 weeks ago, and I am amazed. I've been able to see how she has changed so quickly and how God has guided her little body to grow and become what it needs to be. I've been able to see the chambers of her heart beating and the inside of her brain.  I always leave being amazed by modern technology and by the God who creates us.  She certainly is "fearfully and wonderfully made."  (Psalm 139:14)

Friday!

I had my usual weekly OB appointment and my Friday NST this morning. I think I scared the NST nurse when she called my name because I practically bounced out of my chair and across the room to meet her.  I'm always high energy, but this morning I'd had two cups of coffee, pancakes with syrup and fruit juice, all in an attempt to wake up New Baby and get her to behave on the NST. AND IT DID NOT WORK!! This kid is going to be born and is going to go through terrible sugar withdrawal, apparently!  After being buzzed she woke up and started moving around, so I was freed fairly quickly.  Then I got to meet with my regular OB, finally, who promised to not go out of town again until after my c-section.

Then I was a very bad girl and went to Target and wandered around for a while. It was so nice to be out and in the real world again. My shopping trip was shorter than usual, since I am fairly huge and not used to being up and on my feet any more.  It was actually nice to get back to my couch for a while. I made another Trader Joes/library/grocery store run before picking up Ethan, then tonight we went to pick up Daniel and out for Korean food. So it was a very busy day, especially for someone who has barely left the house in a month! Tomorrow I plan to lie on the couch all day and rest a lot to make up for it. 

Okay- I discovered something really funny about the name that we have picked for New Baby. I was looking up the origins of the name and came across a saint with that name. And the saint with the same name as we plan to give New Baby is the patron saint of a long list of things/situations that are less than good. I tried to read the list aloud to Daniel and could hardly make it through it because I was laughing so hard.  Remind me to post the list after she's born and the name is revealed.  You will be amused too, I promise. 

Ultrasound #14...

I had 7 ultrasounds with Ethan and thought that was a lot! Little did I know.  Today was ultrasound #14 for New Baby- this one was a growth scan, a repeat of the same measurements that landed me in the hospital two weeks ago. As usual, New Baby decided to be very busy and wiggly during the ultrasound. She made the technician work for the measurements!  I did get to see Baby's cute little face and watch as she played with her mouth and made funny faces.  It was all very cute. The technician remarked on how much hair New Baby seems to have- that's been a common comment lately, so apparently this kid has a lot of hair!  

And her growth looked pretty good- around the 8th percentile, so she's not dropped off any more, which is great.  Especially considering my very loose interpretation of the concept of bed rest.  My fluid levels are still on the upper end of normal, but nothing to worry about at the moment. I got spared the cervix exam this time, thank goodness :)  

So, we're continuing on as we have been. Trying to rest when I can and get everything done before June 1st! The c-section is scheduled for 4 PM that day.  I got my info packet in the mail yesterday, and was horrified to see that I have to stop eating for 8 hours before the surgery.  I'm so totally getting up at 6 AM to eat a big breakfast and drink coffee. Depriving a pregnant woman of food for 8 hours is just cruel and unusual!

Tomorrow is daycare day for Ethan and OB appointment/NST for me. And I'm contemplating a quick trip to Target while I have the car and the day to myself. I'm having serious withdrawal. It's been too long!  

I wonder if I'm always grouchy on Tuesdays

I've been in a fairly good mood on my blog entries lately, haven't I? I bet you thought that maybe we'd turned a corner and I was going to stop being all whiny and grouchy all the time. HA!!! I fooled you!!!

:)

It was another looooooong morning today.  Went in for my 9 AM NST, sat in the chair hooked up to the monitor. And sat some more. And then some more.  At 10:30 the nurse said that the on-call doctor didn't like the strip, so they sent me to triage for more monitoring and an ultrasound.  So then I got to lie on my side in OB triage for another hour, hooked up to the monitor.  The baby of course, decided to wake up at this point and was having a grand old time. So the monitoring looked great! And then I got wheeled up to ultrasound (how weird was that, since I was dressed in my nice clothes and heels, being wheeled around in a hospital bed) where the baby, once again, aced her BPP.  Then I was wheeled back down to OB and sent home. At 1 PM. To my home where my sweet, saintly husband had been trying to juggle work and Ethan all morning.  

I don't stress when I'm at the hospital and when these things come up. There's just no point. But I am starting to get discouraged.  My c-section is set up for June 1, and I have another 15 appointments between now and then. 15.  Today was one appointment and it ended up taking 4 hours.  I'm just tired of going to the hospital constantly and never knowing if the baby is going to cooperate and if I'm going to see my own doctor and, if not, whether I'll end up with a very cautious doctor or one of the laid back ones. Because, I guarantee you, if the Friday doctor had been on call today, I would have been home by 10:30 this morning. Different doctors in the practice have different levels of what triggers worry for them. I know that. 

And you know what else? I am so sick of being pregnant and being on bed rest that I would LOVE for this baby to be born now. But then I feel like a bad mom for wanting that, because it's still early and she's better off inside for a while longer. 

I'm going to blame the weather and my tiredness for all of this and am going to go find some junk food and use the rest of Ethan's nap time to read my novel.  If chocolate and chick lit can't fix a problem... it's probably unfixable :)

Photos of stuff

Okay, here are pictures of the cards that I made that I like best. I discovered that I am not cut out for using stamps at all, but I do pretty well with just cutting and pasting and using stickers and ribbons. 

And, for cuteness, here are pictures of Ethan brushing his teeth tonight. He used to throw a huge fit during teeth brushing, but my amazing

 husband convinced him that it was a fun activity and now Ethan runs to the bathroom yelling "teeth!!!".  

Since I have no life, I shall blog about my purchases

I know I promised to post pictures of the cards I made. But they're in Ethan's room and that's like 15 whole feet from where I am sitting now and then the camera is another 10 feet away in the kitchen... and it's just not going to happen. You'll just have to remain in suspense a while longer.

Okay, so purchases.  Do you all know about the wonderful/addictive site that is mamabargains.com? They have more info on their site, but basically the gist of it is that they post really cool (and generally fairly expensive items) on the site at greatly reduced prices, and those items stay up until they sell, then they post something else. So you have to check back often to see what's up for sale. Clothes, shoes, toys, etc. I've been watching the site for a while,

 but made my first purchase this week.  I bought 4 bibs by Sugarbooger by Ore.  They are fabulous! I've been buying the 3 pack of vinyl bibs from Target, but the velcro keeps giving out on them, meaning that Ethan can remove them with the slightest tug.  Which pretty much defeats the purpose of a bib.

I got two bibs for Ethan in cool patterns, a car and a train. And I got a pretty flowered bib and a honeybee for New Baby.  They're really sturdy canvas fabric, and are wipeable and have snap button closures instead of velcro, so I think these will last us a lot longer than the others I've been buying. And they stay on when Ethan is throwing one of his "I dont want to wear the bib why are you torturing me" temper tantrums. And they're super cute too.  Photos below. So if anyone is looking for nice bibs, I'd suggest giving these a chance! 

What I'm lusting after today

As you all know, I'm not getting out much these days. Which means, internet shopping!  I have been doing a lot of it, for the most random things. But I think I'm probably spending less overall than I would if I was out and wandering the aisles of Target and Kohls.  At least that's what I keep telling myself. 

One of the blogs I read, My Mom's View, is hosting a giveaway for my newest internet shopping lust- purses with reversible fabric! They're from a company called Luvali and are the cutest purses I've seen in a long time. And I'm a huge purse fan, so that's saying a lot.  

I really really want one of these purses. I'm going to have to decide if I want one enough to ask for this from Daniel for my 'c-section present'. I'll have to think about it for a while.  In the meantime, I'm going to just keep my fingers crossed for winning this giveaway. 

Didn't do much this weekend worth blogging about.  Other than the cardmaking, which went really well. I'll post photos of some of the cards tomorrow. It took me a while to get into it, but I finally caught on and had fun in the end. I even bought some supplies online tonight and will probably make more cards.  I'm making some of New Baby's birth announcements and we'll order others from a website. A little of both, since we have lots of announcements to send out! Today we did go across the street to the coffee shop and met up with a friend for a while, which was nice.  I get so excited by little outings like that these days.  My standards for excitement are very low :)  

Oh my goodness, I'm 35 weeks pregnant.

Turned on my computer this morning, internet connected, my little baby countdown ticker popped up and said 35 weeks pregnant, and I freaked out a little.  Seriously, I have less than a month left. And that's assuming that she stays put and keeps growing and no problems show up at any of the 4 appointments I have per week. 

Oh my goodness. 

Speaking of baby arrival, have you ever tried to nest from a sitting position? I'm fairly limited to doing things like online shopping for cleaning supplies and bossing Daniel around. But that's just not cutting it.  This morning I was getting my coffee cup out of the cupboard and saw that the shelf was dusty and really really wanted to take all the cups out and clean the shelves.  I didn't though. Mostly because Daniel and Ethan are still asleep and that would have woken them up.  I need to clean and organize things!

Daniel and Ethan are off to go swimming today with friends at an indoor pool, and my best friend is coming over to help me make cards for New Baby. She took some sort of cardmaking class and has extra supplies, so thought we should put them to good use. In theory this will be fun, but in reality I have 1) no skills in the world of crafting, whatsoever and 2) an attention span which, I am realizing is shorter than my toddler's. So I'm not sure how well I'll do with this activity.  Normally this is the type of thing that I can handle only with a large glass of wine nearby. But that's out for several obvious reasons.  If they turn out at all, I'll post photos.

Friday afternoon update

68 degrees and sunny here in Seattle. It's GLORIOUS!  Yeah, I'm inside, but it's still nice to see the sun shining in through my windows.  

I did get out and about a bit today. I had an ultrasound this morning to check my fluid levels and blood flow to the baby. Things apparently looked good. I also had a NST and an OB appointment, both of which were pretty standard. Thankfully Dr. Dance was in a hurry, so he sort of breezed in and out of the room, giving me limited time to giggle at the thought of him doing interpretive dance.  And, he put in orders for the c-section! Looks like it's going to be June 1st (still waiting to hear from the scheduling department to get that confirmed), which is the date I've been pretty much assuming would be the one.  One month to go! 

After my appointments I cheated a little on bed rest and ran out to Trader Joe's and the library.  I see the point in wanting me to limit my activities, but I refuse to believe that a short grocery shopping trip at my tiny little Trader Joe's and running in to the equally tiny library for some books is any more dangerous for my baby than walking around the gigantic hospital going from one appointment to the next.  I felt so free, being out in the sunshine, shopping like a normal person.  I just might die from happiness when I finally make it back to Target.  That will be a happy day...

Oh, I nearly forgot- at today's ultrasound, the technician said that New Baby definitely has hair! I've had two different technicians comment on it at separate ultrasounds, so it's apparently noteable. Hurray for a non-bald baby girl!