Today was my check-up with Dr. Dupre. Let me just say, it did not go how I was hoping it would. Not at ALL. Put it this way: it was all I could do to make it out to my car before I broke down in tears. Here's the story:
I got to the office with 10 minutes to spare, and shortly thereafter, an ultrasound technician called me back to do a quick ultrasound to see how big Ryan is. In the last two or three ultrasounds I've had, he's been measuring pretty big, so my doctor wanted to keep an eye on him to make sure he didn't start looking like he was going to weigh too much for me to be able to deliver naturally. He told me after my last ultrasound at 36 weeks that if it started to look like Ryan was pushing 8 1/2 to 9 pounds, we would need to go ahead and get him out. Well... I don't know why I did this to myself, but I really got my hopes up that he would look pretty big in the ultrasound today, and Dupre would say, "Okay, forget inducing next week. Let's go ahead and induce tomorrow and get him out of there." Well, according to the ultrasound, Ryan weighs about 7 pounds, 10 ounces. He's good and healthy, but I knew right then that he wasn't big ENOUGH for it to be an "emergency" to get him out any earlier than planned. Nevertheless, I still wanted to ask Dupre if there was ANY way we could just go ahead and induce tomorrow and just get it all over with. I mean, I'll only be two days shy of 39 weeks gestation. What could it hurt, right? (Oh, before I move on from the ultrasound, Baby Ryan's heart rate was 150 beats per minute, and the tech said it looked like I had a little more fluid than normal. I asked Dupre about it, though, and he said it was just on the high side of normal, which is still okay.)
Anyway, after the ultrasound, a nurse met me in another room. She took my blood pressure (115/78) and checked my weight (136 pounds, meaning I've gained 29 pounds total) and told me my doctor would be in to see me shortly.
A few minutes later, Dupre came in and reviewed the ultrasound with me. I think he could tell as soon as he looked at me how upset I already was. I knew he wasn't going to tell me what I wanted to hear. He said the baby looked good, and he thought we should leave him in for three more weeks to see if we could get him to 10 pounds. I told him that wasn't funny. He laughed. He then said that, based on the baby's weight, we would go ahead and stick with inducing next week. I then proceeded to ask him if he could pretty please induce me tomorrow. I threw out the pity card (yes, I admit it). I told him we could really use the tax deduction. I told him about my mom's cancer diagnosis and upcoming surgery. Unfortunately, neither of those reasons are good enough to keep him from losing his job if he induces me before 39 weeks without an emergency. So, that was it. I KNEW I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up about inducing tomorrow, because I KNEW he wasn't going to. But, I still got my hopes up. And they got let down.
Then it was time for him to check me to see how dilated I was. At my last two appointments, I have been dilated 1 centimeter. I laid down on the table, figuring he would at least give me the good news that I had progressed to 2 or 3 centimeters. He checked me. I'm still sitting at 1 centimeter. Seriously. He did say that my cervix is about 75 percent thinned, so there is some progression taking place, but he was a little shocked that I wasn't any more dilated, especially considering how "tiny" (his words) I am and how very pregnant I am. He said I need to go home and do lots of walking and have lots of sex. (Sorry if that's a little TMI, but I'm just repeating the doctors "orders".) So anyway, once again, my hopes were let down.
We talked for a few more minutes about the plan to induce. He said, "I did schedule you for Tuesday the 3rd, right?" I told him that I knew we had talked about it a few appointments ago, and he told me that he would go ahead and tentatively schedule me for that day, so I was pretty sure he had, but I didn't know. He told me that even though I wasn't 2 centimeters dilated yet, my cervix was thinned enough so I could just show up at the hospital at 5am Tuesday morning instead of having to go in the night before. So, that was the plan. He told me to hang in there and that he hoped to see me before Tuesday (meaning he's still hoping I'll go into labor on my own in the next couple of days), and he patted my belly before he left the room. He's never done that before. I think he was almost as bummed about all of it as I was. Almost.
I got up, got my stuff together, and opened the door to head to the check-out counter. Dr. Dupre was standing right in front of me. He said, "Hold on - don't leave yet." That's right. Uh oh. He then said, "I can't believe this happened, but..." Yep... here it comes... "somehow, you didn't get scheduled for induction on Tuesday the 3rd. I had it in my notes to schedule you, but somehow it didn't get done. I just called the hospital, and they're completely booked for inductions on Tuesday the 3rd. And Wednesday the 4th. AND Thursday the 5th." This is the part where I started hyperventilating. Okay... not really. But I sure felt like I was. He continued: "So, here's what we're gonna do. I've got you first on call at the hospital for Wednesday the 4th if anyone currently scheduled for induction goes into labor before then. So, the hospital might call you in the next few days and let you know they've got an opening for you. Otherwise, I want you to come into the office first thing Tuesday morning (8:30), and I'll check you, and then I'll go ahead and send you over to the hospital anyway and lie and tell them you're in early labor. We do it all the time." I was a bit confused. Does that mean I'm still going to be induced on Tuesday as planned (just a little later in the day), or do I have to wait and hopefully hear from the hospital that I can be induced on Wednesday? So, I told Dupre that, even if the hospital calls and tells me they have an opening for me on Wednesday, I will be at his office at 8:30 on Tuesday morning, and he WILL send me across the street to the hospital, and I WILL have this baby on Tuesday. I am not waiting another day. I can't. So he laughed. And he said "Okay".
So... in some ways, I still don't really know for sure where all of that leaves us, but I'm guessing that means Baby Ryan should still be here sometime on Tuesday. Hopefully. It's gonna be a long five days. Lord help me.
*After having said all of that, I do want to mention that the most important thing is that the baby and I are both very healthy, and that is all that really matters. As "miserable" as I am, and as anxious as I am to have my baby boy in my arms, I fully realize that every day of this pregnancy is a blessing, and I am thankful for each one of them. I know that Ryan will be born on the day God intends for him to be. I'm just a hormonal pregnant woman, and I needed to vent for a few minutes.
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Preparing for Baby Ryan
We are now exactly one week away from my schedule date to be induced with Ryan. ONE WEEK. I canNOT believe how close we are to finally meeting him. This entire pregnancy has flown by to me (for the most part, anyway), but the reality that we really are actually about to have another baby is slowly starting to sink in, and it's pretty overwhelming. I have been "nesting" for quite some time now, wanting to get EVERYTHING perfect for when we bring Ryan home. It's been driving me crazy, because most of what I have wanted/needed to get done is stuff that I can't do by myself (like painting, moving furniture, etc.). I've had to wait until Jordan is available to help me. Slowly but surely, though, we've been getting things done, and aside from a few little things left to do (like clean out the truck, load up the car seat, and buy a sheet cover for the changing table pad), I think I can now safely say that we are ready. As ready as we're gonna be, anyway. I have been taking pictures of our progress with different things, and I wanted to post them for memory's sake. Here's what we've done to prepare for Baby Ryan:
There are still other things I would like to get done before Ryan is born, but I at least feel content now that we are prepared (enough) for him. Can't wait to post pictures from the hospital and of us bringing him home!
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| Ryan's bedroom walls BEFORE Daddy painted them. HIDEOUS! |
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| Ryan's bedroom walls BEFORE Daddy painted them. HIDEOUS! |
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| Ryan's bedroom walls BEFORE Daddy painted them. HIDEOUS! |
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| preparing to paint Ryan's room |
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| preparing to paint Ryan's room |
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| Daddy painting Ryan's room. No more hideous wall color! Yay! |
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| Ryan's bedroom door |
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| Ryan's bedroom door |
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| a peek inside Ryan's unfinished room |
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| Ryan's bulletin board |
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| Ryan's crib, waiting for UPS to deliver the mattress |
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| Ryan's crib, waiting for UPS to deliver the mattress |
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| Ryan's crib is ready! |
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| Ryan's crib is ready! |
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| Ryan's crib is ready! |
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| Ryan's crib is ready! |
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| Ryan's crib is ready! |
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| inside Ryan's closet |
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| inside Ryan's closet (That plastic bag on the shelf is FULL of shoes of all sizes!) |
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| inside Ryan's closet |
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| inside Ryan's closet (All of those clothes on top of the two storage bins are clean size 0-3 month winter clothes. I just have nowhere to put them away right now, because his dresser is already full of winter newborn-size clothes! ALL were handed down to us!) |
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| Ryan's dresser, full of newborn clothes |
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| personalized bib and burp cloth I received at my baby shower |
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| Ryan's first monogrammed outfit |
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| the adorable Thirty-One bag my mom gave me to use as Ryan's diaper bag |
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| the inside of Ryan's diaper bag |
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| the zipper pouch to store miscellaneous items in Ryan's diaper bag |
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| Ryan's diaper bag is packed and ready for the hospital! |
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| The Pack 'n Play is set up in our room and ready for Baby Ryan! |
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| The Pack 'n Play is set up in our room and ready for Baby Ryan! |
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| the bassinet on the Pack 'n Play. All that is missing is Baby Ryan! |
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| The Christmas tree is put up for the year, and Ryan's swing is now in place and ready to rock him to sleep! |
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| Ryan's car seat, ready to be loaded into the truck |
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| Ryan's towels and wash cloths are folded and put away next to Big Sister's. We're ready for bath time! |
Monday, December 26, 2011
Christmas & 38 Weeks Pregnancy Update
Yesterday was Christmas. Christmas has always been my favorite time of year, but it just wasn't the same for me this year. To be honest, it lacked much of the excitement that it usually has for me. With all that has been going on recently with my pregnancy and my mom's cancer diagnosis and everything, it just hasn't felt quite as "real" this year. The Christmas music was playing on the radio, and the Christmas movies were showing on TV, but nevertheless, it just didn't really feel like Christmas to me. My mind has just been focused on too many other things, and a lot has been different for Christmas this year. It has been a very humbling experience for me, to say the least.
This year, Jordan and I did a "hand-me-down" Christmas for Rylee. With another baby on the way, it's very important to us that we save as much money as we can to put towards our upcoming hospital bills, etc. Although my husband works VERY hard to provide for our family, and the Lord is ALWAYS faithful to provide our needs, we're on a pretty tight/limited budget once we get our bills paid. There's just not much of anything left over right now for gift-purchasing and things like that. And that's okay. Sometimes I have to remind myself of that, but it really is okay. We have all we need and SO much more, and we are blessed beyond belief. However, it was still pretty hard on me when I realized we wouldn't be able to afford to "do" Christmas this year. Since becoming an adult and being responsible for my own finances, I have realized just how blessed I truly was growing up. Every Christmas, there was never a doubt in my mind that I would have presents under the tree. Not just one or two presents, either. Don't get me wrong - my parents were always good about keeping their gift-giving on a realistic, reasonable, affordable level. We never got all the DVD players and iPods and laptop computers and $100 name-brand shoes and all the other fancy things that my friends were always getting for Christmas. But my brother and sister and I each had several nice presents to open every year. That was reality for me back then. And it was good. And I always took it for granted. Reality for me now is different. It was hard for me to accept the fact that I wouldn't be able to buy Christmas presents for my husband and our little girl and our families. It was hard for me to know that our families would be getting us gifts, but we would have no gifts to give them in return. It was hard for me to look at our tree with no presents wrapped underneath it. It was hard for me to picture waking up on Christmas morning, knowing that my little girl wouldn't have any presents to open. And it was hard for me to realize how upset I was about all of that when I know good and well that Christmas is NOT about presents. Not to my family and me, anyway. We were given the ultimate gift in Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, it was very hard for me to come to terms with all of it. Technically, COULD we have gone out and bought presents for everyone? Yes. But we would've had to pull from savings to do it, and we know that we have a more important need for that money right now. Ultimately, we just had to make the difficult decision to discipline ourselves and not spend it. As I mentioned earlier, though, the Lord is always faithful to provide for us, far above and beyond what we need, even, and He did in this case, too. A few months ago, a sweet older couple that Jordan used to go to church with gave us a BUNCH of stuff for baby Ryan. They have two young grandsons, and they literally had a storage unit FULL of boy clothes and baby/toddler accessories of all kinds. We met up with them, and they told us we could take anything that we needed or wanted. They even gave us a crib for Baby Ryan. We were so overwhelmed by their generosity. Among the things in the storage unit were several tubs of toys and a three-in-one Fisher Price tricycle. Jordan and I looked through all of the toys and found a few that looked like they would be fun and educational for Rylee. So, we cleaned them up, and that was our Christmas to her. We also cleaned up the tricycle and decided it would be her gift from "Santa Claus". At first, it was still a little hard for me to know that we would be giving our child "used" toys for Christmas, but over time the Lord gently reminded me how blessed we were to even have those to give her. There are SO MANY precious children all over the world who didn't receive any gifts at all yesterday. My child is so fortunate to have gotten the gifts she did, even if they weren't brand new and still in boxes. I am thankful for the lessons the Lord taught me this Christmas, and for the ways He used this experience to humble me and remind me what is most important in life. We are so blessed.
I wanted to post the few pictures I took on Christmas Eve/Day. Of course I'm not in any of the pictures since I was the one taking all of them, but that's alright. I do wish I had taken pictures with my family when they came over yesterday afternoon/evening to celebrate with us, but of course I didn't. Oh well. This was our Christmas:
We had a great day, and I'm looking forward to next Christmas. It's hard to believe Rylee will be two-and-a-half years old by then, and Baby Ryan will be just shy of a year old! It should be a fun Christmas to say the least!
On a totally separate note from Christmas, yesterday also began my 38th week of pregnancy. Even though I'm technically not due for two more weeks, I seriously can't believe I'm still pregnant. NOBODY - including myself - thought I'd make it this far. I guess Ryan is following in his big sister's footsteps and proving everyone wrong as to when he is going to decide to make his grand debut into this world. Normally I would've gone to the doctor today for a check-up, but the offices were closed today since it's the day after Christmas, and the soonest my doctor will be able to see me this week is Thursday. So, unless I go into labor between now and Thursday, I'll be headed back to the doctor for what will most-likely be my very last appointment before Ryan is born. I'll be having another ultrasound done to see about how much he weighs now, so I'm anxious about that. Apparently he's a pretty big boy, so it should be interesting. As of right now, I'm tentatively scheduled to be induced on January 3rd, but we'll see if that changes on Thursday. I will do my best to post an update after my appointment, but for now, I at least wanted to share my belly picture from yesterday. Here's my big ol' baby belly:
Getting BIG, huh? Like I said, I'll try to take a minute and post an update after my doctor appointment on Thursday. I have also taken several pictures of Ryan's nursery and other things that we have done in preparation of his arrival, so I'll try to post those soon as well. Until next time...
This year, Jordan and I did a "hand-me-down" Christmas for Rylee. With another baby on the way, it's very important to us that we save as much money as we can to put towards our upcoming hospital bills, etc. Although my husband works VERY hard to provide for our family, and the Lord is ALWAYS faithful to provide our needs, we're on a pretty tight/limited budget once we get our bills paid. There's just not much of anything left over right now for gift-purchasing and things like that. And that's okay. Sometimes I have to remind myself of that, but it really is okay. We have all we need and SO much more, and we are blessed beyond belief. However, it was still pretty hard on me when I realized we wouldn't be able to afford to "do" Christmas this year. Since becoming an adult and being responsible for my own finances, I have realized just how blessed I truly was growing up. Every Christmas, there was never a doubt in my mind that I would have presents under the tree. Not just one or two presents, either. Don't get me wrong - my parents were always good about keeping their gift-giving on a realistic, reasonable, affordable level. We never got all the DVD players and iPods and laptop computers and $100 name-brand shoes and all the other fancy things that my friends were always getting for Christmas. But my brother and sister and I each had several nice presents to open every year. That was reality for me back then. And it was good. And I always took it for granted. Reality for me now is different. It was hard for me to accept the fact that I wouldn't be able to buy Christmas presents for my husband and our little girl and our families. It was hard for me to know that our families would be getting us gifts, but we would have no gifts to give them in return. It was hard for me to look at our tree with no presents wrapped underneath it. It was hard for me to picture waking up on Christmas morning, knowing that my little girl wouldn't have any presents to open. And it was hard for me to realize how upset I was about all of that when I know good and well that Christmas is NOT about presents. Not to my family and me, anyway. We were given the ultimate gift in Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, it was very hard for me to come to terms with all of it. Technically, COULD we have gone out and bought presents for everyone? Yes. But we would've had to pull from savings to do it, and we know that we have a more important need for that money right now. Ultimately, we just had to make the difficult decision to discipline ourselves and not spend it. As I mentioned earlier, though, the Lord is always faithful to provide for us, far above and beyond what we need, even, and He did in this case, too. A few months ago, a sweet older couple that Jordan used to go to church with gave us a BUNCH of stuff for baby Ryan. They have two young grandsons, and they literally had a storage unit FULL of boy clothes and baby/toddler accessories of all kinds. We met up with them, and they told us we could take anything that we needed or wanted. They even gave us a crib for Baby Ryan. We were so overwhelmed by their generosity. Among the things in the storage unit were several tubs of toys and a three-in-one Fisher Price tricycle. Jordan and I looked through all of the toys and found a few that looked like they would be fun and educational for Rylee. So, we cleaned them up, and that was our Christmas to her. We also cleaned up the tricycle and decided it would be her gift from "Santa Claus". At first, it was still a little hard for me to know that we would be giving our child "used" toys for Christmas, but over time the Lord gently reminded me how blessed we were to even have those to give her. There are SO MANY precious children all over the world who didn't receive any gifts at all yesterday. My child is so fortunate to have gotten the gifts she did, even if they weren't brand new and still in boxes. I am thankful for the lessons the Lord taught me this Christmas, and for the ways He used this experience to humble me and remind me what is most important in life. We are so blessed.
I wanted to post the few pictures I took on Christmas Eve/Day. Of course I'm not in any of the pictures since I was the one taking all of them, but that's alright. I do wish I had taken pictures with my family when they came over yesterday afternoon/evening to celebrate with us, but of course I didn't. Oh well. This was our Christmas:
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| Daddy and Rylee on Christmas Eve |
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| Rylee sitting in front of our tree on Christmas Eve, watching the train go around |
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| Rylee on Christmas morning |
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| Rylee and Daddy on Christmas morning |
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| Rylee playing with her "new" toys |
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| Rylee loves her presents! |
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| Rylee checking out her tricycle |
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| My sweet hubby surprised me and bought this Willow Tree figurine for me to add to my collection. |
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| I was trying to take a picture of her Christmas outfit, but she wouldn't stay still! Silly girl! |
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| I was trying to take a picture of her Christmas outfit, but she wouldn't stay still! Silly girl! |
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| my precious little girl |
On a totally separate note from Christmas, yesterday also began my 38th week of pregnancy. Even though I'm technically not due for two more weeks, I seriously can't believe I'm still pregnant. NOBODY - including myself - thought I'd make it this far. I guess Ryan is following in his big sister's footsteps and proving everyone wrong as to when he is going to decide to make his grand debut into this world. Normally I would've gone to the doctor today for a check-up, but the offices were closed today since it's the day after Christmas, and the soonest my doctor will be able to see me this week is Thursday. So, unless I go into labor between now and Thursday, I'll be headed back to the doctor for what will most-likely be my very last appointment before Ryan is born. I'll be having another ultrasound done to see about how much he weighs now, so I'm anxious about that. Apparently he's a pretty big boy, so it should be interesting. As of right now, I'm tentatively scheduled to be induced on January 3rd, but we'll see if that changes on Thursday. I will do my best to post an update after my appointment, but for now, I at least wanted to share my belly picture from yesterday. Here's my big ol' baby belly:
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Rylee - 18 Months Old
Last Thursday, Rylee turned 18 months old. I can't believe it's already been a year and a half since I first laid eyes on her and held her in my arms. Time sure does fly by.
This Thursday (two days ago), I took her to her pediatrician for her 18-month check-up. Rylee is starting to learn what it means to go to the doctor, in the way of associating it with getting shots, so I was anxious to see how she would do yesterday, because I knew she would be getting more vaccinations. Overall, the appointment went very well. She now weighs 23.6 pounds, putting her in the 35th percentile of growth among other children her age, and she is 33 1/4 inches long, which puts her in the 85th percentile on that scale. She's tall and lean like her daddy. We had a nice little visit with Dr. Trumbull. He said she looks great, and he is very pleased with how she seems to be doing. He's excited to hear how she'll take to being a big sister once Baby Ryan is born. After we finished talking with him, he sent a nurse in to give Rylee a shot. Thankfully, she only had to get one, so it wasn't too bad. Of course she cried, but I was able to calm her down almost immediately after I picked her up from the table, so I think she did much better yesterday than she did at her last visit when she had to get two or three shots. The nurse gave her a little pink bracelet that has a fruity fragrance to it, so Rylee kept holding it under her nose to smell it. Silly girl. So anyway, we survived the appointment, and we don't have to take her back until she's 2 years old for her next check-up.
While I'm here updating about her doctor appointment yesterday, I figured I'd update on how she's doing on a daily basis as well. Here's what Rylee is up to these days:
- She eats a pack of instant oatmeal and a cup of yogurt for breakfast pretty much every morning (sometimes she doesn't quite finish all of it for breakfast, so I'll feed her the rest of it for snack later in the day).
- She has recently started going through a stripping phase... every now and then, she will take her pants and/or her shirt off. Lord, help us.
- She is already beginning to show signs of being ready to start potty-training. Sometimes, she will start to pull her pants down and say "Pee!", and when we ask her if she needs to go potty, she will head to the bathroom. When we try to actually sit her on the toilet, though, she gets scared and won't do anything. She's supposed to be getting her own little potty for Christmas, though, so we might be working on potty-training sooner than I expected we would be. (I'm not going to force it on her, though. I know she's still very young, so for a little while at least, I'll just work with her on it when she shows the initial interest in it.)
- She has 12 teeth now.
- She loves to listen to music and dance. When we put worship music on, though, she will raise her hands up and "worship". I keep trying to get it on video, but so far, I haven't been able to get a very good one. It is so precious.
- She LOVES babies. I'm hoping this fascination with them will help her adjust to her baby brother when he arrives any day now.
- She has a tendency to walk on her toes.
- We can't get her to sit still and watch a Disney movie or anything animated like that with us, but she loves watching game shows. Her favorites right now are "Wheel of Fortune", "Family Feud", "Lingo", and "Deal or No Deal".
- She has recently come into a "little helper" phase, which I'm very excited about. She's getting good about helping pick up her blocks and other toys, and she loves to help me do things like put dirty clothes in the washing machine and throw her dirty diapers in the dumpster.
- She LOVES to read books. Sometimes, she'll have me read the same book to her five times in a row. She likes to turn the pages herself. A few of the books she has are picture books with pictures of different animals, so she is starting to learn different animals and the noises they make.
- She loves playing with my cell phone. She has her own little toy phone, but she seems to know it's not real. She is always stealing my phone, and she will walk around the living room holding it to her ear and "talking" up a storm to goodness knows who. She is so funny.
- She is a daddy's girl. She gets SO excited every evening when she hears him unlocking the front door of our house to come in from work. She will squeal and scream "Daddy!" and give him a big hug and kiss.
- She loves going to "Nana's" house. My parents have a bumpy gravel driveway, and every time we pull into it to drive up to their house, Rylee will immediately scream "Nana!" and get all excited. (She loves seeing her "Papa" and "Aunt Mana", too.)
- She is learning the parts of her body. She knows where her hair, eyes, nose, ears, mouth, teeth, belly, fingers, and feet are. Every now and then, she will show us where our parts of the body are, too. We have to watch out, because she will quickly poke us in the eye and say "eye".
- She has a pretty extensive vocabulary, and we have been working on teaching her manners. She can say "please", but it sounds more like she's saying "tease" or "keys". Her "thank you" and "you're welcome" sound exactly the same: "huh-huh". At least she's giving it SOME effort, right?
- She loves bath time.
- She is still sleeping very well in her crib for her nap times and bed time. She has to have her "baby" with her, though. "Baby" goes everywhere with us. She even made it in our family pictures with us the other day (see the second picture posted here).
- She does a good job saying prayers with us. Every time we tell her it's time to bless the food, she will immediately fold her hands, and when we finish praying and say "Amen", she will say "Amen" as well.
I know those are all pretty random things, and I'm sure I'm leaving a million things out, but that's about all I can think of for now. That should give you at least a little bit of an idea as to what Rylee is like these days. She sure does keep me busy, but she's so much fun, and I wouldn't trade spending my days with her for anything else in the world. I love my little girl!
This Thursday (two days ago), I took her to her pediatrician for her 18-month check-up. Rylee is starting to learn what it means to go to the doctor, in the way of associating it with getting shots, so I was anxious to see how she would do yesterday, because I knew she would be getting more vaccinations. Overall, the appointment went very well. She now weighs 23.6 pounds, putting her in the 35th percentile of growth among other children her age, and she is 33 1/4 inches long, which puts her in the 85th percentile on that scale. She's tall and lean like her daddy. We had a nice little visit with Dr. Trumbull. He said she looks great, and he is very pleased with how she seems to be doing. He's excited to hear how she'll take to being a big sister once Baby Ryan is born. After we finished talking with him, he sent a nurse in to give Rylee a shot. Thankfully, she only had to get one, so it wasn't too bad. Of course she cried, but I was able to calm her down almost immediately after I picked her up from the table, so I think she did much better yesterday than she did at her last visit when she had to get two or three shots. The nurse gave her a little pink bracelet that has a fruity fragrance to it, so Rylee kept holding it under her nose to smell it. Silly girl. So anyway, we survived the appointment, and we don't have to take her back until she's 2 years old for her next check-up.
While I'm here updating about her doctor appointment yesterday, I figured I'd update on how she's doing on a daily basis as well. Here's what Rylee is up to these days:
- She eats a pack of instant oatmeal and a cup of yogurt for breakfast pretty much every morning (sometimes she doesn't quite finish all of it for breakfast, so I'll feed her the rest of it for snack later in the day).
- She has recently started going through a stripping phase... every now and then, she will take her pants and/or her shirt off. Lord, help us.
- She is already beginning to show signs of being ready to start potty-training. Sometimes, she will start to pull her pants down and say "Pee!", and when we ask her if she needs to go potty, she will head to the bathroom. When we try to actually sit her on the toilet, though, she gets scared and won't do anything. She's supposed to be getting her own little potty for Christmas, though, so we might be working on potty-training sooner than I expected we would be. (I'm not going to force it on her, though. I know she's still very young, so for a little while at least, I'll just work with her on it when she shows the initial interest in it.)
- She has 12 teeth now.
- She loves to listen to music and dance. When we put worship music on, though, she will raise her hands up and "worship". I keep trying to get it on video, but so far, I haven't been able to get a very good one. It is so precious.
- She LOVES babies. I'm hoping this fascination with them will help her adjust to her baby brother when he arrives any day now.
- She has a tendency to walk on her toes.
- We can't get her to sit still and watch a Disney movie or anything animated like that with us, but she loves watching game shows. Her favorites right now are "Wheel of Fortune", "Family Feud", "Lingo", and "Deal or No Deal".
- She has recently come into a "little helper" phase, which I'm very excited about. She's getting good about helping pick up her blocks and other toys, and she loves to help me do things like put dirty clothes in the washing machine and throw her dirty diapers in the dumpster.
- She LOVES to read books. Sometimes, she'll have me read the same book to her five times in a row. She likes to turn the pages herself. A few of the books she has are picture books with pictures of different animals, so she is starting to learn different animals and the noises they make.
- She loves playing with my cell phone. She has her own little toy phone, but she seems to know it's not real. She is always stealing my phone, and she will walk around the living room holding it to her ear and "talking" up a storm to goodness knows who. She is so funny.
- She is a daddy's girl. She gets SO excited every evening when she hears him unlocking the front door of our house to come in from work. She will squeal and scream "Daddy!" and give him a big hug and kiss.
- She loves going to "Nana's" house. My parents have a bumpy gravel driveway, and every time we pull into it to drive up to their house, Rylee will immediately scream "Nana!" and get all excited. (She loves seeing her "Papa" and "Aunt Mana", too.)
- She is learning the parts of her body. She knows where her hair, eyes, nose, ears, mouth, teeth, belly, fingers, and feet are. Every now and then, she will show us where our parts of the body are, too. We have to watch out, because she will quickly poke us in the eye and say "eye".
- She has a pretty extensive vocabulary, and we have been working on teaching her manners. She can say "please", but it sounds more like she's saying "tease" or "keys". Her "thank you" and "you're welcome" sound exactly the same: "huh-huh". At least she's giving it SOME effort, right?
- She loves bath time.
- She is still sleeping very well in her crib for her nap times and bed time. She has to have her "baby" with her, though. "Baby" goes everywhere with us. She even made it in our family pictures with us the other day (see the second picture posted here).
- She does a good job saying prayers with us. Every time we tell her it's time to bless the food, she will immediately fold her hands, and when we finish praying and say "Amen", she will say "Amen" as well.
I know those are all pretty random things, and I'm sure I'm leaving a million things out, but that's about all I can think of for now. That should give you at least a little bit of an idea as to what Rylee is like these days. She sure does keep me busy, but she's so much fun, and I wouldn't trade spending my days with her for anything else in the world. I love my little girl!
Monday, December 19, 2011
37 Weeks
Yesterday began the 37th week of my pregnancy with my precious baby boy. Let me just say that, though I am VERY thankful for EVERY DAY of this pregnancy, I am SO ready for it to be over with now. This pregnancy has definitely been a lot harder physically than my pregnancy with Rylee. Although I have thankfully still been in very good health throughout this pregnancy and have had no actual complications, I am "feeling it" a LOT more than I did the first time. I think back to my pregnancy with Rylee, and it was just about as perfect as a pregnancy could be. I worked part-time (although many days I ended up working several hours over my actual scheduled time) my ENTIRE pregnancy with her... right up until the weekend before I delivered her. Now... I cannot imagine working. I seriously don't know how I could do it. It's all I can do just to keep up with Rylee every day without feeling like I'm about to die. Every time I stand up, the very bottom of my stomach (underneath my big baby belly) HURTS. It literally feels like it is just ripping open. And the insides of both of my upper thighs feel like I pulled muscles in them. I am seriously beginning to resemble a 90-year-old woman when trying to walk. Between the inevitable pregnancy waddling and trying to fight through the pain, it's not a very pretty sight. I get a lot of "Oh, bless her heart!" and "Dear Lord, PLEASE don't have that baby right in front of me!" looks from strangers when I'm at the grocery store. I guess I can't blame them.
Having said all of that, I do want to reiterate that I am SO thankful for this experience. As rough as it has been physically, it has been such an incredible blessing. There is nothing in the world like being able to experience the miracle of life growing inside of me. I have cherished every kick and jab from my little guy, even when they've been a bit uncomfortable. I'm just ready, though. I'm ready to have my body back to myself (for the most part, anyway... it still won't be completely to myself since I'll be nursing). I'm ready to meet the little person who has been living inside of me for almost 9 months now. I'm ready to hopefully have some relief from the physical pains I've been enduring with this pregnancy. I'm just SO ready. But then I think about just how close we are now (I mean, considering the fact that I could go into labor at ANY moment), and I'm not so sure just how ready I really am. I cannot believe I'm about to have ANOTHER baby. I just can't believe it. I'm so excited, but at the same time, I still don't think it'll actually sink in until he's in my arms. Even then, it might not feel real. I'm sure reality won't REALLY hit me until he's home with us, waking me up at 3 in the morning to nurse. Am I ready for that again? How am I going to do this when I'm already so busy with one little one? It's just all so crazy to think about. But I'm looking forward to it. As scared and nervous as I am about it sometimes, I am really looking forward to it too. This pregnancy has been an exciting chapter, but I want to move on to the next chapter now. Ready or not. I want it. And in only 15 more days - at the very most - I will. Insane, right?
Anyway, enough rambling. Today I had another check-up at the doctor. I had to see a different doctor today because my normal doctor is on vacation this week. The appointment went well. My blood pressure was good, as always, thankfully. I weighed in at 135.5 pounds, meaning I've gained a pound and a half since my appointment last week, and a total of 28.5 pounds (yikes!) so far this pregnancy. Hopefully it'll come off fairly easily/quickly after I have him. My "height of fundus" measured a week ahead at 38 centimeters. Ryan's heart rate was 154 beats per minute. All good stuff. The only thing I was slightly bummed about was that I haven't made any more progress in the way of dilation. I'm still only 1 centimeter dilated. When I thought about it, though, I think I'm actually okay with that for now, because, like I said, my doctor is on vacation this week. Although all the doctors in the practice I go to are wonderful, I still feel most comfortable with MY doctor, and I'm praying he will be the one to deliver Ryan when the time comes. So, hopefully he (Ryan) will stay put this week, and maybe by next week, I'll have made a little more progress. We'll see. My next appointment is next Thursday, December 29th. Although I usually go on Mondays, the offices will be closed next Monday since it's the day after Christmas, and Thursday was the earliest my doctor had an opening. So, Thursday it is. If I make it that far, that is. I will also be having another ultrasound that day to see how "fat" Ryan is getting, so I'm looking forward to that (as long as they don't tell me he's 9 pounds!).
Anyway, I guess that's about it for now. I'm sure I could ramble more about how I'm feeling and stuff, but I'll go ahead and wrap it up instead. I will say, quickly though, that we are almost done getting everything around the house prepared for his arrival. I still plan to post "before" and "after" pictures of his bedroom, etc. once everything is done. I'm looking forward to that. Anyway, I'll leave you for now with my belly picture from last night. I had to take it myself, because I totally forgot about it until after Jordan had already gone to bed for the night. Here's how big I am now:
Until next time...
Having said all of that, I do want to reiterate that I am SO thankful for this experience. As rough as it has been physically, it has been such an incredible blessing. There is nothing in the world like being able to experience the miracle of life growing inside of me. I have cherished every kick and jab from my little guy, even when they've been a bit uncomfortable. I'm just ready, though. I'm ready to have my body back to myself (for the most part, anyway... it still won't be completely to myself since I'll be nursing). I'm ready to meet the little person who has been living inside of me for almost 9 months now. I'm ready to hopefully have some relief from the physical pains I've been enduring with this pregnancy. I'm just SO ready. But then I think about just how close we are now (I mean, considering the fact that I could go into labor at ANY moment), and I'm not so sure just how ready I really am. I cannot believe I'm about to have ANOTHER baby. I just can't believe it. I'm so excited, but at the same time, I still don't think it'll actually sink in until he's in my arms. Even then, it might not feel real. I'm sure reality won't REALLY hit me until he's home with us, waking me up at 3 in the morning to nurse. Am I ready for that again? How am I going to do this when I'm already so busy with one little one? It's just all so crazy to think about. But I'm looking forward to it. As scared and nervous as I am about it sometimes, I am really looking forward to it too. This pregnancy has been an exciting chapter, but I want to move on to the next chapter now. Ready or not. I want it. And in only 15 more days - at the very most - I will. Insane, right?
Anyway, enough rambling. Today I had another check-up at the doctor. I had to see a different doctor today because my normal doctor is on vacation this week. The appointment went well. My blood pressure was good, as always, thankfully. I weighed in at 135.5 pounds, meaning I've gained a pound and a half since my appointment last week, and a total of 28.5 pounds (yikes!) so far this pregnancy. Hopefully it'll come off fairly easily/quickly after I have him. My "height of fundus" measured a week ahead at 38 centimeters. Ryan's heart rate was 154 beats per minute. All good stuff. The only thing I was slightly bummed about was that I haven't made any more progress in the way of dilation. I'm still only 1 centimeter dilated. When I thought about it, though, I think I'm actually okay with that for now, because, like I said, my doctor is on vacation this week. Although all the doctors in the practice I go to are wonderful, I still feel most comfortable with MY doctor, and I'm praying he will be the one to deliver Ryan when the time comes. So, hopefully he (Ryan) will stay put this week, and maybe by next week, I'll have made a little more progress. We'll see. My next appointment is next Thursday, December 29th. Although I usually go on Mondays, the offices will be closed next Monday since it's the day after Christmas, and Thursday was the earliest my doctor had an opening. So, Thursday it is. If I make it that far, that is. I will also be having another ultrasound that day to see how "fat" Ryan is getting, so I'm looking forward to that (as long as they don't tell me he's 9 pounds!).
Anyway, I guess that's about it for now. I'm sure I could ramble more about how I'm feeling and stuff, but I'll go ahead and wrap it up instead. I will say, quickly though, that we are almost done getting everything around the house prepared for his arrival. I still plan to post "before" and "after" pictures of his bedroom, etc. once everything is done. I'm looking forward to that. Anyway, I'll leave you for now with my belly picture from last night. I had to take it myself, because I totally forgot about it until after Jordan had already gone to bed for the night. Here's how big I am now:
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Saturday, December 17th
Yesterday was a pretty busy day for our little family. First, we met with our photographer, Mrs. Lynne Richardson, to have maternity pictures and Rylee's 18-month pictures taken. Rylee missed her morning nap, so she was a bit on the fussy side, and after a while, she decided she was DONE with the whole picture-taking thing, so we didn't get to do as many poses as I'd hoped we could. It's hard to get a lot of good shots of little ones her age who just don't sit still very well and get cranky easily when people try to make them do something they don't want to do (i.e. smile for a million pictures). Mrs. Lynne is always great to work with us as best as she can, though, and she still got some really sweet shots. She's already uploaded some of the pictures on Facebook, and I thought I'd share a few of my favorites so far. Please remember that these pictures are copyright of Lynne Richardson, Making Memories Digital Photography. Please do not copy, edit, or cut. Check out her Facebook page for more information (her website is currently under construction).
After our photo-shoot with Mrs. Lynne, we grabbed some lunch at Las Casitas in Prattville, and then headed to Bass Pro Shop so Rylee could visit Santa Claus. She was only 6 months old when we took her last year to meet him for the first time, and she did really well with him then. She smiled and everything. This year, however, I fully expected her to SCREAM the second we put her in his lap. When it was finally her turn to see him, Jordan put her on his left knee. The "elves" shook a little noise maker at her and snapped a picture. They did it so quickly, I don't think she even had time to process what was going on. So, the good news (I guess) is that she didn't scream... but she didn't smile, either. She's just sitting there with a "Huh?" expression on her face. I reckon it's better than no picture at all, though. Here it is:
After we visited with Santa, we went to Target and T.J. Maxx to exchange some baby gifts I received from my shower last weekend that we don't need. When we finally finished doing our running around town, we headed home to let Rylee nap for just a bit while Jordan made some Rice Krispies Treats for our Sunday school class's Christmas party. We had a good time hanging out, eating, and laughing with our friends for a few hours, and then it was time to head home for the night. It was a long and busy day... but a good one.
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