39 weeks

I had my last Dr. appointment today. I can't believe it's so close.  I was also down to 169lbs again (I was up to 173 last week!)  So that means I gained about 30lbs this time..which is about the same as James. But I started 10lbs lighter than I did with James so I am at a lower weight. So hopefully I can get into my swimsuit asap!

Anyway, I was 3.5 cm today. Each week I have been progressing 1cm, so that would mean today I would be 4. But before Dr. Cada checked me she said, "if you are at 4 I doubt you make it to Monday" So when she checked me and said I was between 3 and 4 she told me to come right in if I was having strong contractions. She said he's really low and could come at anytime. So once again, who knows when Eli will decide he's ready. But I do kinda hope he waits til Monday because I found out a friend of mine, Julie, who has a little boy who is 5 months older than James, and is a regular play date friend, is going to be induced the same day! She is having a little girl, so Eli's girlfriend will have the same birthday as him if both moms can hold out for Monday! I just think that would be really fun.

I had my sister take some maternity shots this past Friday. Wow was it difficult to get James to smile for the camera! She hasn't let me see them yet though. She wants to do some editing to them first. So I am anxiously waiting to see them..and show them to you! I will get them up as soon as I get them!

Until then..I will keep you updated on Mr. Eli's status!

38 weeks

We are getting close! But Eli must be pretty comfy in there. My body is getting ready for eviction..I am at 3 cm this week, but Eli is holding on tight. We'll see if he waits 2 more weeks for my due date in which we will force him out. I have my induction scheduled for April 2 at 5:30 am.

We had a great weekend and I have some fun pictures to share. It actually started Wednesday night because Ali and Lux came in town. James and I had a great time hanging out Thursday and Friday. We got to meet Lyndi for lunch on Friday and got to introduce Ali to some yummy GUP food! SOO good!

Saturday my sisters and mom and I went and got pedicures! My mom took us for her birthday! We had a great time and it felt so good to sit and relax. So now my toes and nails are done..ready for labor and delivery :)

Saturday we also decided to be festive and make some St. Patty's day food. We went to Trader Joes and got the ingredients for reubens. They were super good. I got some pictures..not pretty ones, but I had to get a couple just to remember them. 

My family is super bread conscious, so they were opened faced sandwiches..with the option to put another slice on. We toasted the bread, put the beef and cheese on and broiled those and then everyone could dress their own with sauerkraut and thousand island. So that's why you just see part of the sandwiches.

We also decided to try out a pinterest recipe for a strawberry cake for my mom's birthday. Ali and I took the reigns on this one and it turned out to be quite the detailed instructions. Long story short...it didn't turn out like the picture. The frosting ended up being too heavy for the cake and it started to collapse! We had to cut the cake in 4 pieces and then put the pieces in 9x13 pans. So we had strawberry crumble for my mom's birthday. But hey..it was a delicious disaster. Just a reminder that pinterest ideas don't always turn out exactly how you had in mind! Here you can see what it's suppose to look like and how my moms is in a couple piles in a 9x13 pan.

                               

So after the pedicure and all the baking we did..I started getting contractions Saturday night. Not bad ones or even regular ones..until Sunday. They were about 4 minutes apart for a good 25 minutes. My mom was excited that Eli might be born on her birthday. So she wanted to get the process going. We went on a walk to try and keep them going, but to no avail. They slowed down and then completely stopped later that night. I did get my bag packed though, so we are ready for him at any time!

Yesterday at Mums we went around to different tables with activities. One of the tables was "rainy day activities". It got my preschool days side going and I decided to try finger painting with James. I had pinned a recipe on pinterest for "edible finger paint". It's just flour, water and food coloring. I knew James wouldn't be entertained for long with it because he doesn't really like to even get his hands dirty, but since this recipe wasn't a lot of prep work we jumped in. He had fun. He liked to pour the bowls out onto the plate and then wipe his hands on his belly. I am also glad it was edible because he decided to use the spoon to taste test. After about 5 minutes he was ready to be done, so I added a couple more drops of food coloring to the plate and he enjoyed mixing the colors together. I think we got a good 15 minutes out of the activity. Here are the pictures I took.

It's still raining today and maybe tomorrow! I am ready for the sun to shine again..and so is James! He is so tired of being inside already, we had to eat our snack outside under the little overhang on the deck today just to get some fresh air. He asks every other minute to go play in the sand or on the swing though so I hope the clouds part soon! Have a great day!

17 months

James is almost a year and a half. Unbelievable. It's amazing how quickly the time passes. I heard a great quote on Tuesday at Mums that really got to me.

   "The days go by slowly, but the years go by quickly."

Simple but so true! There are some days that I can't believe I still have 3 hours left until Mike comes home. And then it's already been a year and a half since I've had him and one more month until we have another one! It just really reminded me how intentional I need to be each day with my boys. Of course there are times when I am going to text back and forth with my sister while James is playing, but I really need to use the everyday play times and conversations to remind them about God's love for them and his desire to be in relationship with them. We only get to be their primary influence for such a short time!

James is of course surprising me everyday with the things he learns. Here's what he's been up to this month:

*Still napping twice a day, the length varies especially the past couple days since we switched him to his big boy bed (more on that in a bit). It's usually at least an hour each nap.

*Eating great. He loves waffles for breakfast with peanut butter on top. He then shares mom and dad's oatmeal. He loves the blueberries we put on it. He eats whatever I'm having for lunch and whatever I make for dinner. He has cheerios with raisins for a snack before bed.

*Can name the parts of the face. Last month I forgot to mention that he could point to the eyes, nose, mouth and ears. But this month he can name the eyes and nose.

*Loves to get the mail. Anytime we get home he does his sign for keys and says, "mmmmaaii" because he loves to walk up to the cluster box with me.

*Seems like he's got a new form of a word everyday. Some of his new ones are "ssss" for sand, "sww" for swing, "neigh" for neighbor, "bey" for belly, "d" for drink, "rai" for raisin, "bi" for bike, "aee" for ali, "wha" for Lux,  "wwa" for (gpa Russ)..it's so cute because the R sound is so hard he works so hard with his mouth to say it. He's real sure of what he's saying so if I don't get it right away he gets a little frustrated!

*No progress on potty training.  oh how I was hoping he'd be out of diapers before we have another one in them!

I mentioned above that we moved him to his big bed. We did that Saturday night. I was really nervous that I'd have to be up all night putting him back in or that he'd be crying all night again. He did awesome. He laid down and started to whimper so I laid down and patted him and sang Jesus Loves you for a little while and then left the room while he was still awake. He fell asleep a little bit later without even moving. He fell out (we have pillows on the ground, but no rail on his bed) around midnight so I went in and got him back in and he fell right back to sleep and slept the rest of the night! Naps on Sunday were a little more difficult. He took two 20 minute naps. I would stay in there a couple minutes and pat his back and sing to him and then leave. Well thanks to my video monitor I could see he was peeking out his window and rolling around. Needless to say that night he was exhausted and didn't even wake up in the night once. Monday he took two 40 min naps and I was only in his room for about 10 mins each time before he went down. Tuesday night he woke up once crying, so I went in and patted him and he had to kinda whine himself back to sleep. Wednesday he's taken two one hour long naps! I think he's gotten used to the space! He's never gotten out to walk around his room, he always waits for us to come get him. I couldn't have gone any better. Thank you Jesus.

Eli is still swimming away. I went to the dr yesterday and I was 2cm and fully effaced. He had moved back up a little bit and I lost 2lbs. My mom says those are sure signs he's getting ready to make his entrance!

The weather has been beautiful here the past couple of days so James and I have been outside as much as we possibly can. Today we even got to get a water bucket out..he loved it. Here are a couple pictures.

This is how the afternoon started out..

Starting to get a little wet...

So we took the clothes off. Still drinking the water...

Then he decided he needed to dump it out...

So I got more water and he decided to get in the bucket!

And then he needed to wash his clothes :) Needless to say he had a great time.



36 weeks!

I went in for my Dr. appt today excited to see if Eli has made any progress since last week and a couple questions for my Dr..I swear the week couldn't come fast enough! The appt went well. I was still 1.5cm but almost completely thinned out. So I haven't dilated anymore (yeah!) but there was still progress. So Eli is just going to keep us on our toes! Mike and I decided to schedule the induction for Monday April, 2. That way if he's not here by then at least we have a date set and will have some sort of plan. I also asked my Dr. if it was okay to continue to have sex even though I am dilated. Mike was worried it would cause labor to start and we don't want Eli to get as smart and big as he can before he comes. She said there is nothing that proves sex causes labor to start. I was really surprised by that because I've heard that greasy food and sex can get ya going! She said the only thing proven to work is nipple stimulation and they don't like to tell people that until 38 weeks. So I thought that was a fun fact..maybe a little too much info for some of you non-preggo people :)

In other news..James and I have been having a lot of fun lately. I have some pictures to post of him and I also have some cute ones of James and my belly. He will point to my belly when we ask where baby Eli is and he asks to see my belly and then gives him a hug. It's precious. Although a little embarrassing when he asks my grandma to see her belly and then wants to see my belly when we are in front of other people!

       Hugs for Eli
                                                           

This picture is at 35.5 weeks. Beautiful day for my birthday! Which I forgot to mention. I turned 29 last Friday! I can't believe it's my last year in my 20s. It's been quite the decade. I have learned a lot, made a lot of mistakes, and been truly blessed the past couple years. I am so excited for Eli to join our family and make it even more fun. I had a wonderful birthday although I had way too much food and was 3lbs heavier on the scale at my appt this week! Oh well..it was all soooo good!  On Thursday two of my friends (who are also stay at home mom's and we help each other stay sane every Wednesday with a play date!) brought me Chipotle for lunch. We had a great time eating on the deck and letting the boys run around. It was so refreshing to have the sunshine and get some fresh air. A little taste of spring! Friday I went to lunch with my mom, sister, brother and grandma at Five Guys. It's a burger place downtown and I had wanted to try it. It was really good! The burgers are delish and the Cajun fries were pretty good too. Then we went to Red Mango for a little treat..yum, my favorite! Mike took me out to dinner to Lazlos, a local restaurant that we both enjoy, and then to CherryonTop! I had a coupon for a free yogurt and it had to be used on my birthday..so I had a lot of food that day! Eli was doing somersaults! :) Mike and I also stopped at Target because I got a gift card from my mother-in-law..so we had fun shopping around! Mike was such a good sport and patient while I found some sunglasses and a new essie nail polish!

 Saturday we enjoyed a "better than sex" cake that Lyndi made with my extended family. We had fun opening presents and the cake was SOOOO good! :)

And the last day of celebration was on Sunday. My mom always makes dinner/lunch and the birthday girl/boy gets to choose the menu! So after church we had steak, cheesy hash brown potatoes, and my favorite pasta salad. Yum..the 3lbs I gained were totally worth it. I am so thankful I live so close to my family, and that James is so close to both sets of granparents. Thank you for everything you do!

Here a couple more of James that make me laugh!

He asked to get up on the bed and wanted the computer on his lap like mom.

He loves to be pulled around in his wagon. This time he wanted his balls with him. (Mike is using a towel to pull it because the handle is so short!)

James loves Lux

And has a new obsession with hats! :)

He can't get enough of the decaf mocha smoothie my grandma brought over. He seriously could have finished the whole thing! I don't know how he didn't get a brain freeze.