Little Guitarist

I was hoping to start Bella on some piano lessons once we got up to Spokane (we're taking my piano with us from my parents' house), but it looks like we might need to find somebody to give her some guitar lessons instead!

The Cradle

I mentioned yesterday that the cradle was all finished. If you have a really fantastic memory, you may remember that I said that same thing a long time ago. Well now it's really really true!

Not only is it all together, but Andrew spent many many long hours sanding, filling, staining, and finishing it and now it is officially completed. We never took the time to really finish it 3 years ago because Bella ended up just sleeping with us, but this time around we were bound and determined to get it finished! Baby Eva may end up sleeping with us as well, but we really wanted to be able to at least try having her sleep in her own little cradle in our room.

Like I said, Andrew is the one who spent the time making the cradle. My feeble contribution was the mattress (2" thick foam from JoAnn's) with a black and white polka dot oil cloth mattress cover and (so far) one sheet. Now that Andrew's part is all done, I need to get busy and make some more sheets!

As we near the end...

If you'll notice in the sidebar, I'm down to 34 days in this pregnancy. What's fun is that that actually translates to 20 to 27 days, because the verdict from the doctor (as of last week) is that I will be induced somewhere between 38 and 39 weeks. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before, but I'm being induced because of my blood thinner injections. We don't want to risk me giving myself a shot and then going into labor all of a sudden with a fresh dose of heparin coursing through my body! That could obviously lead to excessive bleeding after the delivery which would not be good. They could always give me a coagulant to counteract the heparin, but that makes me just as nervous (throwing a pulmonary embolism in the middle of labor just does NOT sound like my cup of tea!). A fresh dose of heparin in my body would also mean no epidural, and while I would love to have a natural birth, I remind myself to be realistic and keep my options open. ;)

This week marks the end of the busy season for me, although Andrew still has a few more weeks to go. The final two track meets of the year are this Thursday and Friday, after which I am done. Andrew has two more weeks of LaCrosse after this week and 5 or 6 more weeks of school, but after that it's just work and the Ambulance Company. 50 hours a week might sound like a full plate to some, but to us it will practically be a vacation!

The cradle is made and finished, all of Eva's clothes are washed and tucked away, the blankets and slings and wraps are (mostly) all made, and the hospital bag is half-packed and sitting in the cradle, ready to go. I remember being very agitated by my cluttered house that I didn't have time or energy to clean after Bella's birth, so I'm working hard to keep the house spotless for when Eva is born. I don't want to come home to a messy house! Of course, my definition of "spotless" isn't literal in any sense of the word, but it's definitely an improvement. ;)

There are no doctor appointments this week, but next week starts the weekly visits. I also have my last ultrasound next week and I'm excited to see how big she's measuring (at this point, Bella's head was measuring a good 2 1/2 weeks ahead...). Eva is extremely active these days. She has been head-down for many weeks now, but she still likes to spin around and the only way I can tell which way she's facing is by feeling which side the hiccups are coming from on any given day!

I believe that's it as far as the updates go...we'll let you all know if anything changes!

Seattle

We took a family trip to Seattle with the Logos HS Track team this last weekend. Every year, Logos goes to the big King's Invitational to compete against a lot of other christian high schools in the Northwest. It's a big meet with about 700 athletes which provides some great competition for our runners! Since Andrew is the Athletic Trainer for the team and I'm an assistant coach, and Bella is the team mascot/cheerleader, it really only made sense that we go. Here are some of our hilights:

Digging for worms and then "putting them to bed" back in the ground so that they could "nap"...


Napping in a pile of blankets in the team tent for two straight hours at a very noisy track meet...


A beautiful sunset and ferry ride (when we told Bella we were going to the ferry she asked if we were going to see Tinkerbell)...


And of course, throwing rocks in the river at Vantage...

Easter B

I'm just a tad bit late in getting this up here. This is B in her Easter dress - we opted for bright primary colors this year rather than pastels just to make sure that we could find her easily in the snow. Gotta love springtime on the Palouse!

Big-Sis-To-Be

Here's Bella practicing "baby-wearing" with her doll and very own Mini-Moby Wrap.

Fun Times...

So Saturday was a bit exciting for us. I'd been having more contractions than normal for about a week, but then on Saturday afternoon they really began to pick up and were coming every 8 minutes and lasting for a good minute or longer. Once that had been going on for a few hours, we decided that it would probably be a good idea to get ahold of the on-call doctor, just in case. Fortunately, my doctor was on call for the weekend and once we got ahold of him he told me to come on in to get checked out. So down to the hospital I went. The sweet nurse who was with us for the first 12 hours of my labor with Bella was there and they put me in the same room where Bella was born (yes, it was a little weird...). They hooked me up to the monitors (which Eva did not enjoy - she tried to hide her heartbeat for quite a while and then tried to kick off the monitors) and monitored my contractions, confirming that they really were happening and it was not just in my head. They checked me and fortunately I was not dilated or anything (which is a big relief after a week of contractions!), but they gave me some medication to stop the contractions anyway. So after 3 hours they sent me home with some medicine to get me through the night should I need it, and fortunately I haven't needed it yet. I have an appointment on Wednesday where we might discuss some sort of modified bed rest, but we'll see.

So it looks like she's willing to stay put for a bit longer, and I might just need to take it easy for a little while. As excited as we all are to meet this new little one, we'd much prefer that she be born just a little closer to the middle of May. :)

A Little Comparison...

We pulled out the old infant carseat the other day to get it cleaned up and ready to go for the arrival of Baby Eva. Bella was fascinated by it and loved to sit in it and "rock". When she sat down in it I realized just how incredibly huge this child is getting. Take a look.

Coming home from the hospital (December 2005)...



Today...

So funny...

So, Bella just saw the EMS symbol on the computer (the caduceus on the 6 pointed asterisk thingie) and said, "LOOK! It's the snake on the flower! Just like on Daddy's coat!"