Still on schedule

I had a dr. appointment yesterday and we're still on schedule to go in on the 3rd!  She checked me and said I was dialated to a 1 and that she could feel her head!  She said I have a really long cervix and that compared to last time, I'm not thinning out as much as she thought I was, but it was good that I made some cervical change.  Then she kind of sat back and was thinking about what to do.  Because at my last appointment she said depending on how things were looking at this one, we might decide to hold off another week (my official due date is Nov. 3rd, which I thought it was the 8th, oh well) or continue to stay with the 3rd and 4th as the induction date.  I didn't say anything but in my head I was yelling "PLEASE DON'T HOLD IT OFF ANOTHER WEEK!" then thankfully she said we're going to keep it on the 3rd.  She said I could still go at any time on my own (doubt it) and that usually with first time moms she likes for them to go on their own, but she said since we live an hour away and I've already made some change she would feel more comfortable inducing on the 4th.  It's so weird to think that in 6 days she'll be here!

I've been trying to keep the parents at the daycare updated so they know when I'm planning on being out and a few of them are actually surprised to see me still working, they're really surprised that I haven't taken maternity leave yet.  Not my husband.  When I called Colton and told him that we're for sure scheduled for the 3rd I mentioned that Friday (today) would probably be my last day and I'll take Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off to get everything at home ready and rest up.  He said "What!?  You're not going to work until Wednesday?"  I told him "gosh...I guess if you think I should I will, I just want to make sure everything is ready for her."  That boy is crazy!  He's gonna work me to death!  Physically I have no reason for not working except that I am just exhausted ALL the time, my main reason for taking a MEASLY 3 days off is just to prepare.  He of course is working until Wednesday evening, he'll probably get home an hour before we have to leave for the hospital!  He also thinks I'm being ridiculous for keeping our bag in my car.  I told him I don't want to have to worry about forgetting everything if for some reason we have to rush out the door.  I told him just to leave me alone and let me do it for my own peace of mind :)

Dr.

Just wanted to give everyone a quick update...there isn't one!  Well at least nothing really exciting.  She said my group b strep came back negative, yay!  So I won't be needing antibiotics during delivery.  She checked my cervix and she said it's definitely softening and "ripening" but it's still closed, so I haven't dialted at all yet.  But she said that doesn't mean anything and I could still go into labor at any time.  She said we'll see how I've progressed by next week to see if we're keeping the 3rd on the calendar or if we want to push it back.  I will get on my knees and beg her not to push it back if i haven't progressed!  I've already gotten in the mindset that she'll be here in 12 days or less and I really don't want to wait any longer!  I'm kind of hoping that I'll go into labor on my own though, just to experience it all :)

When I stepped on the scale at the dr.'s office I think it said that I gained like 8 pounds in one week!  The dr. said it looks like all fluid and she's not concerned, whew!  I have to say, I can definitely tell I'm carrying around more weight, whether it's just fluid or not.  Colton and I went to the mall to get Cara and Nathan a wedding gift (they're getting married today!) and all we did was walk through Sears and Macy's and I was exhausted.  And yes, I was dressed comfortably and had on tennis shoes, but that still didn't help.  By this time my whole lower body was just aching, from my hips to my toes, I was so ready to lay down in bed!  We went to go eat before heading home and I went to the bathroom and came back and was literally winded.  Colton looked at me and kind of laughed and said "long walk?"  At first I didn't know what he was talking about then I realized that I was breathing pretty heavily and could hardly catch my breath!  I started laughing and told him "o hush, you have no idea!" 

Korbyn's Room

Her room is finally ready!  It feels so good to have everything we need (I think!) for her now.  Sunday afternoon I think the nesting instinct kicked in for myself AND Colton.  We were cleaning like crazy!  Cleaning all the air vents, the ceiling fans, washing our couch pillows and pretty much anything else that we could fit in the washer.  Luckily he was there to help me, it seemed like we got so much done.  Sometimes I enjoy cleaning like that, cleaning things that normally don't get cleaned, but then I almost kind of loathe doing it becuase I know it won't stay like that forever :(  If only! 

Yesterday I had lunch with my mom and she said "you know, this Friday is a full moon."  She said that it always seems that women who are near the end of their pregnancy tend to have their babies on a full moon.  Well that got me really excited because I have a dr.'s appointment this Friday!  I told Colton I want to have our bags with us ready to go...just in case.  But like I said before, I'll probably go until the last minute and they'll have to induce me anyway.

Ok, I finally have one physical complaint.  The heels of my feet are killing me!  My heels get very cracked very quick.  I don't know if it's because I walk around either barefoot or in flip flops all the time or what, but I can go get a pedicure and they can make my heels nice and soft and the next day they will literally look like they did when I went in.  Well the past couple of days I've noticed they HURT, and bad!  I find myself walking on the balls of my feet just so not to walk on my heels.  I asked Colton to look at them last night (cuz I can't really get a good angle looking at my feet anymore) and I pointed to where it was hurting and he said that where I would point there would be a literal crack in my foot where he could see the skin underneath!  So after my shower last night I put some really good moisturizer on them and slept with socks on.  I have no idea why they're doing that, I just wish it wasn't right now!  It's probably from all the extra weight they're having to carry around :)

Dr.

Korbyn will be here on the 4th, if not before then! I had a dr. appointment this past Friday and I thought for sure she was going to check my cervix this time, I was so excited. Come to find out she didn't think it was necessary at this point yet! She said we're only going to do the group b strep test to see if I'll need antibiotics when I deliver and that if she really wants me to be checked she will, but she said since I'll be back in a week why go through the discomfort if I didn't have to...which I guess I agree with but now I'm kicking myself because even though I know nothing has progressed down there, you still never know! She took me by complete surprise when she came in and said she put down an induction date on the calendar, I was like "whoa! Already?" but I don't know what I was thinking, I'm already 37 weeks! I guess I kept telling myself we had plenty of time still. It feels like I've been pregnant for so long that it almost seems like this is how my body is supposed to be! I can't believe she's almost here. She then asked how I felt and if anything has changed and I told her "I have to be honest, I thought I would be MUCH more miserable at this point, but I can't lie, I STILL feel great!"  Am I exhausted at the end of the day?  Sure.  Am I ready to have my body back?  Absolutely.  But really, I expected much worse.  And who knows, I might be speaking too soon and my misery is just around the corner!  Then she felt her and said she's definitely head down and ready to go and that she feels like a good size, definitely not too big.  So now it really feels like a waiting game.  I'm glad that we have a definite date on the calendar but I told Colton I've got a strong feeling that we need to be ready before then...just in case :)  I have had at least five people tell me in the past week that I won't make it to November, we'll just have to wait and see!

So of course we decided that it's close enough to put the carseats in the vehicles.  I have to say I feel kind of silly riding around with an empty carseat in my car, but I'm glad we put them in already.  It took us reading the instruction manual and at least 20 minutes to put it in!  I've put in dozens of carseats but I guess we wanted to make sure this one was in perfectly.  Colton was actually the pickier one in this case.  He would put it in, wiggle it around and take it back out and put it back in a little tighter each time...trust me, this carseat isn't going anywhere.  Now we just have to finish packing our bag and we're good to go.  I have another appointment this Friday and thankfully Colton will be able to come with me, this is actually only his second time to go.  He could have gone to all of them with me but we decided that it would be nice if he could take some time off with me after she's born, so he's planning on taking that whole next week off to stay home and help out.  It will be great because that will literally be the first vacation time that he will be taking in two years!  Although I don't know how much of a "vacation" he'll get, but it sure will be nice for his sake.  The poor thing works so hard and he only gets Thanksgiving and Christmas off the entire year, so I know he's excited to finally take some days off. 

We finally have her room all ready to go!  I'll try and post some pictures of it this week.  Wish us luck!  :)

Baby class and first anniversary

All day Saturday Colton and I had our "Prepared Child Birth Class" in College Station.  We walk in the classroom and thankfully Brook and Timmy were there!  For those of you who don't know they used to be our neighbors and she is due only two weeks after I am so it was SO nice to see familiar faces and to have someone to talk to and discuss the class with.  I was super excited to take the class just because as a first timer I still had so many unanswered questions and had that feeling that I still don't even know all the right questions to ask.  But this class and the instructor were amazing.  We really did learn so much and Colton keeps joking that we don't even need to go to the hospital for delivery that he's now an expert and can deliver her at home by himself, I don't think so.  There were 11 couples including us, so it was a fairly large class.  My favorite part of the entire class was when we all had to get in a circle on the ground and practice breathing and relaxation techniques, just because I LOVE being massaged and this time Colton had to do it and couldn't weasle himself out of it!  She then told us that we're going to practice breathing and pushing (without actually pushing).  That was hard and we didn't even push!  The dads were behind us for support and we had to hold our knees and curl over our bellies and practice holding our breath for 10 seconds then exhaling for like 2 seconds and then doing it all over again three times, I honestly can't imagine having to do it for real.  Apparently I wasn't holding my legs wide enough and the instructor's helper came over and pushed my legs down and apart more and she said "I like to remember that the same way they got in there is the same way they're gonna come out!"  Alrighty...thanks for the tip stranger, Colton and I just laughed!  We then all went over to the hospital and they gave us a tour of the entire labor and delivery floor, it was awesome.  St. Joseph's recently redid that entire floor and is still opening up a brand new section of rooms on the weekend of the 24th so we may possibly get a brand new room which is really exciting!  We of course got to walk by the nursery and there was one set of twins and another little baby being rolled in right when we were walking out...SO ADORABLE!  After the class I was thinking about how much we were actually able to take away from it and so glad that we took it, and then I was thinking about some of the other couples who obviously needed this class!  One couple actually asked while we were on the tour of the hospital if they needed to bring a carseat after the baby was born!!!  Colton of course thought these people were out of their mind but I had to remind him that some people really have NEVER been around any babies their entire lives, it's all completely new to them.  We are by no means baby experts but thank goodness we have been around babies enough where we still feel comfortable bringing another life into this scary world!

Sunday was our first anniversary, yay!  This year has flown by, granted I've been pregnant for the majority of it but it has been a great year.

Colton surprised me by sending flowers to work on Friday, they are so beautiful!  They remind me a lot of the flowers we used in our wedding.  Doug and Loranne thankfully were able to watch Rocky and Pixie for us Saturday, they probably would have been fine but I feel so much better when they're around people during the day and not always left by themselves, and we were gone for over 12 hours and I didn't want them to be miserable.  And even better, they kept them the rest of the evening for us.  It was really nice to just come home and relax together without dogs in both of our faces, although we both missed them terribly it was great.  I told Colton that I feel like we dropped the kids off at the babysitters and have a quiet night at home to ourselves!  So the next day we went to church and then had lunch at Doug and Loranne's and picked up our babies.  That evening we went out to Fedor.  Wednesday was my dad's birthday so my mom invited us all out (Mike, Lois their kids, Cody, Katie their kids and us) to just hang out and spend the afternoon together.  We fished, talked and roasted hot dogs and made smores and just had a great time all around.  We brought Rocky and Pixie with us (hey, they're our babies) and my dad keeps cattle out there and as soon as they saw Rocky they all ran up to us and were just watching every move he made, the little calves were even following him around!  I guess they thought he was one of them!  Overall it was a very busy, very tiring, but very nice weekend :)

Dr.

This past Thursday I had a dr. appointment.  Nothing new or exciting AT ALL!  I had to see a different dr this time because my regular dr was going to be out on our usual scheduled time.  When the nurse put me in the room she gave me a sheet and told me to go ahead and get undressed because she will examine my cervix, I was like "yay!  Finally."  Well the dr comes in and is like "Sorry, I don't know why the nurse told you to change, you won't be examined until your next appointment."  Ugh!  Whatever.  They measure and listen to her heartbeat and she said she sounds really strong.  I asked her if I needed to be watching for anything and she said "nope, everything looks great and you've been very lucky so far.  You're doing just fine."  I'm really glad to hear that every time, because I think I have been very fortunate so far, but COME ON ALREADY!  I definitely have had enough.  My feet are always swollen, from the minute I wake up to the minute I lay down, it is getting almost impossible for me to get in and out of bed or off of the comfy couch, it IS impossible for me to get socks and tennis shoes on, and of course I always have to pee!  I have truly enjoyed being pregnant but I am definitely counting down the rest of my five weeks!

Bow hunting

This past weekend was the opening for bow season and of course Colton was excited as ever to go.  He really wanted me to go with him because he got a new pop up blind where you can sit like 20 yards away from the deer and it's really exciting to watch them that close.  I was excited to go of course because I've never bow hunted, my dad and my brother's have and Colton just recently got into it and I grew up rifle hunting but never with a bow so I wanted to see how it was done.  I WAS NOT however excited about getting up that early on a Saturday.  Colton told my dad about a week ago that I was going with him and my dad was like "nah, you don't want her to go she'll just be noisy and she'll want to leave early."  He jokingly told Colton that a way for him to get me to not want to go was to rub some skunk urine all over him and Colton said "I really don't think that would bother her" and my dad said "ya, you're probably right."

My dad was the one I always went hunting with since I was like 6 or 7 and yes, for a kid that young it's hard to keep quiet and still for hours at a time so it was probably more of a hassle for him to take me, but I always had fun and then when my dad bought me my own rifle I would go by myself or with Colton.  So needless to say hunting and killing a deer is nothing new to me.  Well this experience was WAY different.  We get into the blind about 6:15 a.m. and the feeder went off about 6:45, and at about 7 a doe walks out and I told him to shoot her and then a few minutes later her baby walks out and we both just look at each other and shake our heads.  Well a few minutes go by and sometimes I think mine and Colton's brains are hardwired together because almost at the same time we agree that the baby is almost as big as the doe and it will be completely fine by itself.  I know this sounds brutal and cold-hearted but we were both raised that we shoot deer to feed our family.  God put every animal on this earth for a purpose and a deer's purpose is to feed us, just like a cow!  So about 7:30 Colton draws back and shoots her, I wish I could erase the next 45 minutes out of my head forever.  It was AWFUL.  I'm used to hunting with a rifle where when you shoot them they instantly go down and die.  Well he shot too high and got her in the spine and she went down and started kicking around on the ground, at this time I turn my head and cover my eyes and beg him to shoot her again to put her out of her misery.  Let me remind you that we are only 10 yards away from her.  So she CRAWLS into the brush right in front of us and we can hear her kicking around and I just start crying!  I felt like an idiot but I think it was just the shock of the entire situation.  Yes, I'm used to seeing animals die for a purpose but I absolutely don't like to see or hear an animal suffer.  Colton starts laughing at me and hugs me and tells me that with a bow that's almost always normal, that they usually run off first and then go off and die and you then have to track them, he said "sorry, they usually don't do that!" (we didn't know he shot her too high at this point).  Well 45 minutes go by and we can STILL hear her!  We didn't get out right away because my dad was hunting in an oats patch about 100 yards behind us and we didn't want to disturb him.  So we kept watching for when he got down to finally get out and then Colton finally went and put her out of her misery.  I told him I probably wouldn't mind going again now that I know what to expect, but my first bow hunting experience is one that I will unfortunately never forget.