An April fool, perhaps?

Today was our weekly doctor's appointment and we received more exciting news. We wanted to find out how soon we could induce, which required another internal exam. Hooray! Our doctor was surprised to find that Brook was already at 4 cm, fully effaced, and ready to pop at any time. She stripped the membranes and feels strongly that we won't make it to our scheduled induction on the 7th. Now Brook and I are hoping that Carter comes tomorrow so we can have an April fool for a son. We are officially on baby-watch, so keep your cell phones on and charged.

Good night

Ok, I'm going to attempt to go to sleep now. Wish me luck!

I am a Minesweeper master!

Still can't sleep, but I just played a killer game of Minesweeper!

The perks of insomnia

Right now as my darling husband snores and slumbers away I sit awake. I'm not at all surprised by this as I haven't really slept for weeks, but tonight is different. Usually if I lay my head down at 8PM I can fall asleep by midnight and then wake up around 2am, fall back asleep about 5am, wake up to the alarm at 6am and then fall right back asleep until 9am. Tonight, however, I not only couldn't sleep, but I got bored laying in bed so I got up and completed my last 32 thank you cards. I tried laying down to sleep after that, but I was still not able to and bored so I decided to hop on the computer. I'm thinking of paying a few bills and then searching Craigslist for a while until I get sleepy enough to go to bed or Dave wakes up. We'll see. Too bad I can't vacuum and do a couple loads of laundry... I'm really going to regret this whole not sleeping thing tomorrow. Oh well.

Sitting, waiting, wishing...

Brook and I are starting to get impatient, and we still have 2+ weeks to go before the due date. Luckily at our last appointment with our doctor, she said that we are still ahead of the game and if we were interested, she saw no problem with inducing as soon as 38.5 weeks. As the days pass by with no baby yet, inducing sounds more and more appealing. Our doctor believes that Carter is going to be a big one (she usually says this while looking at me), so the sooner he is out, the lower the chance of cesarean section. Brook continues to have sleeping problems, which will probably not change once the baby is born. We took some pictures of "Pregnant Brook" yesterday, just in case she soon morphs into "Mommy Brook". Hopefully, our next blog will have pictures of a cute little baby boy! We'll see...

Kaisa, Emanuel and I took a long walk around spring lake yesterday. She's been talking about trying to walk me into labor, so I should've known that I would regret this walk! I could barely walk afterwards and Carter definitely shifted downwards which makes me waddle... it's lovely. I wouldn't be surprised if he came soon!

An eventful trip to the doctor

We had a doctor's appointment yesterday and it was probably the most eventful one we've had so far! I've only gained 1 lb in the past 2 weeks which is good and she officially put me on disability! Hooray! It's probably a good thing considering she did an internal exam (very pleasant by the way) and discovered that I am already 2 to 3 cm dilated!!! Now this could mean absolutely nothing since some women sit dilated to 3 cm for a month before they give birth, but who knows how long I've already been dilated. The MAJOR plus side to this is it takes some women 8 or so hours of labor to get to 3 cm so I've already done a lot of the work without realizing it! Hopefully that means we will have a shorter labor. I think this scared Dave more than me since I'm seriously ready not to be pregnant anymore, but he just worries that the baby won't be fully "cooked." I keep telling him that a baby is considered full term at 36 weeks which is what I am today and plenty babies we know have been born early with little to no complications, but you can't blame the guy for worrying about his first baby. Our midwife also felt the need to say that the baby is "big." Really? I couldn't tell... Luckily she didn't give me a size estimate, it's better if I have NO idea how big she thinks the baby is. I will just go on convincing myself that he's not as big as he really is. We go back to the doctor next Monday and every week after that until the baby is born. I wouldn't be surprised to receive a call from us with good news in the near future, but don't wait by the phone. My little boy could prove to be stubborn and not come out for a while.

Cool shower gifts!

Here are some cool things Brook got at her work shower:

This "pack 'n play" was more difficult to set up than I originally thought it would be, but I am glad I know how now and it will definitely come in handy!

This quilt was handmade by Annette (Brook's co-worker's soon-to-be mother-in-law). We have been looking forward for this gift since we bought the fabric months ago (see blog from 12/20/07) and it turned out better than we ever hoped.

You give me Fever...

I have a fairly good reason for not writing these past few days. On Monday night at about 11PM I started throwing up and having other "digestive" problems. I couldn't sleep the whole night and I ended up staying home from work. When I finally took my temp that day it was 100.6 which is really high for me since I normally run around 97.2. I called the doctor and she told me to take Tylenol, keep my fever below 100 and to take it easy for a few days and just let it pass, so I did. Every time my fever would get over 100 (I could feel it every time) I would take a cool bath and some Tylenol and once the Tylenol wore off it would shoot right back up. So I missed far too much work to make up and even though my fever has passed I still feel horrible. I have a doctor's appointment Monday at which I plan to get my note for going on disability which puts me out about 3 weeks earlier than I had planned. That's not too bad I guess. The good part in all of this is my feet haven't been swelling AT ALL since I've been staying home!

All through my pregnancy I've been saying that it is going too fast and I never thought I would get to the point where I would just be ready for him to come, but I've finally gotten there. All of the sudden I can't really do anything. I can't sit for long periods of time, or lay down for very long. I can't get out of chairs or walk by myself (I feel very dumb gripping the wall to move around sometimes) and the bath tub is a whole new challenge. I'm just ready for him and who knows it could be more than a month before he comes.

In other news: We lifted some stress off ourselves by selling our Dana Carvey tickets for March 29th. We decided that if I am still pregnant it will be miserable because not only do you have to be in your seat and hour before the show starts, but it's a live taping so you have to stay in there the entire time. Plus if the baby is already born we won't be able to enjoy ourselves because that will be all we can think about. So we listed them on Craigslist and in about 20 minutes we already had someone who was willing to buy them.

Gosh, you never realize how much you have to say until you aren't writing as often!

We had birth class last night and it was my first time out of the house since Monday. Unfortunately the class was a bust because it was on breastfeeding and if you've done absolutely ANY research or picked up a book you already knew everything she said. We left at the break.

I have the last of the showers this weekend. My work shower is Saturday and my family shower is Sunday. These are the smaller showers so they shouldn't take too much out of me. We had a joint shower last Saturday for me and my friend Katie. It was so much fun but by the end we were both SO exhausted! The food was really good too, Karen made a gluten free chocolate cake AND gluten free pancakes!!! Carter and I have been so spoiled!

Carter and Alexis' first kiss!

What's in a name? (Part 2)

Dave and I had discussed the possibility of changing Carter's middle name from Pierce to James if he was born on my great grandpa, James' birthday. We decided to keep it the way it was because we like the name Carter Pierce and we thought the odds of delivering on that particular day were very slim. Well, on Sunday one of our favorite people, Jim Moore, walked up to me and we were talking about my due date. He told me that his birthday is April 9th and that it is a particularly good day to be born. I agree. I would love to have Carter on Jim's b-day... again though we run into the "James" thought... Did we pick the wrong middle name for Carter? Should he really be Carter James, or is this just coincidence? Dave says we should not change his name, but we can seriously consider James as the middle name to our second boy. I think that is a good option considering we love and respect so many people named James but can't shake the feeling that maybe Carter should be Carter James. Any thoughts?
Side note: Don't get me wrong, we love and respect the Pierce's too which is why we chose that name to begin with and why we aren't too keen to change it!

To answer your question...

This is where all the extra weight is located.

Depth Perception

It all started on Sunday, when I ran into Karen's arm over the pew with my stomach. Since then, I have been crashing and banging Carter into everything. Maybe it is the 6 pounds I gained in the past 2 weeks; maybe it is the dozen cupcakes I ate; or maybe I'm just huge! The jury is still out.

Showers and other excitement

Well, the games have begun! I had my first shower on Saturday (thanks to all who were involved!) It was really fun and we got lots of cool stuff!
I've been feeling much better lately. We went to birth class last Thursday for about a half hour and I just couldn't take it anymore so we went home. It's a good thing we did because I woke up feeling alive and well again. My big complaint now is the swelling. I'm so used to having these tiny little girly ankles (which I never really liked) and now have seriously have man ankles. My ankles are practically non-existent... and people are noticing! My sister was commenting on my "cankles" and then one of the Young Women (who shall remain nameless as to not incriminate her) told me she stared at my ankles the entire time I was teaching in YW on Sunday! Needless to say they not only look horrible but they are definitely not comfortable.
All in all though I'd still say I've had a pretty good pregnancy and I feel much better than I did.
I know more has happened these past couple days so I will have to think and possibly add to this blog when I remember. Only 19 days of work left!!!! Hooray!

Brook and Kathleen, both expecting boys in April