Single digit weeks!!

Catie is coming in 9 short weeks!!  I had a check up yesterday and asked the doctor how often women who have scheduled c-sections actually deliver on that date and he said a majority do.  I'm still not putting March 26th in stone.  The check up went well yesterday.  I got a TDapp shot.  Matthew said I got it when I was pregnant with Alex, but I don't remember that.  I know I have gotten my flu shot with each pregnancy, but not a TDapp.  I figure something must be going around because, while I know they have told me each time to get it, I don't remember them offering to do it in the office.  My arm is a little sore this morning, but I know I slept on it yesterday when I took a nap and some last night as well.  I don't think it's as bad as the flu shot, though.

I found out officially yesterday that I passed my glucose test.  I was tested at my last appointment 2 weeks ago and was told that the results take 2-3 days and I would get a call only if I didn't pass.  I was cautiously optimistic after lunch that Friday because the office closes at noon on Fridays.  When I didn't get a call Monday I felt even better and I didn't really give it any more thought after last Tuesday.  Of course, when I was actually with the doctor yesterday I forgot to ask him how my levels were.  I tried to find it in my chart after he left (yes, they actually let you hold your chart!) but I really didn't know what I was looking for and didn't see anything.  I was going to ask a nurse when I checked out, but then I heard the doctor leaving another patient's room and asked him when he came out.  He knew right where to look and told me that anything under 135 is good and I was 104.  Yeah, I feel like I aced it!

I go back in 2 weeks for another check up.  I think I have 3 2-week check ups and then I'll start going every week  in March.

Catie's heart beat

Catie's Room

Matthew took the boys this weekend to his cousin's baby's first birthday party.  I've been thinking about all we need to get done before Catie comes and secretly decided to paint her room while the boys were gone.  (My doctor said it was ok to paint.  I did ask first!)  Luckily Matthew and I had already picked the color (Sweet Lemon) so I didn't have to make that decision.

As soon as they pulled out of the garage I put my painting clothes on and got to work!  I took down all of the shelves, pictures and Alex's pirate ship decal (that made me a little sad) and started puttying up the holes.  Then I went to Lowe's to pick up the paint and got started.

The pirate ship

Bye Pirate Alex!

The bare wall.  There was no way to save the pirate ship, either.  It was cute while it lasted!

Curtains came down, too.  (The lighting makes the walls look a little yellow already, but they aren't.)

Bare walls with the holes patched.

First swipes of paint!

I did the trim first...2 coats before I started on the walls.

Ready to roll!

One coat on!

Can you tell where I ran out of paint?  Yup, I had to go back to Lowes Sunday for another gallon.

 I emailed this picture to my mom and Lisa.  It read " I tried to get some work done in Catie's room while the boys were out of town.  I'm not sure you can even tell I was working in there!!" I don't think either of them looked past the mess in the middle to the new yellow walls. :)

I did 3 coats of paint and I'm leaning toward (Matthew) doing another one.  Of course, that means another trip to Lowes for more paint.  I'm a little annoyed about that because I bought paint with primer so I figured it would cover better.  I also didn't think it would be that hard to paint over the blue walls because they weren't that dark.

We decided to do dark furniture in Catie's room, mostly because we moved the dark bookshelf from they boys' room to her room and that way it will match what we are getting her.  I figured I'd go ahead and switch the fan blades from the lighter side (that matched Alex's furniture) to the darker side.  I know you can't tell in the picture, but the lighter fan blade is actually the 3rd one I flipped, but apparently I didn't actually flip it.  I know I didn't skip it on accident because I wiped the blades before I put them back on and it was clean.  I was a little upset with myself!  Yes, it is the right way now!

Speaking of furniture, Matthew called Buy Buy Baby (where we ordered Catie's bed and dresser) and found out that it takes 10 weeks for it to be delivered!!  That puts it at March 13th, 2 weeks before Catie's due date, to come in.  I'm not so worried about the crib not being put together because she will be sleeping in a bassinet in our room for her first few weeks, but I'd like to have the dresser here, put together and filled with clothes before she comes.  Matt just might have to take a sick day when it comes to put it together. :)

I didn't tell anyone that I was going to paint Catie's room, but obviously Matthew still smelled the paint when he got home.  It would have been fun if they were gone longer so the paint smell could have gone away because I wasn't going to say anything and just see how long it took Matt to notice.  He asked me about it right away, but since it was late when they got home and we wanted the boys to go straight to bed I made him wait until they were asleep to talk about it.  When Robbie woke up this morning and went into Catie's room I asked him if he noticed what was different.  He said "Catie got new walls!"  When I told him I just painted the walls he said he wants a blue room.  Then he said he wants a yellow room, but I'm not sure I'll ever paint a room yellow again!  (Now he's saying he wants a blue room, Daddy wants a blue room and I should get a purple room.  Not sure which room is going to be Matthew's, though.  The bedrooms have all been claimed!)  I told Matt after Christmas that I want to redo the boys' room for Christmas this year (2014), so Robbie is going to have to wait a little bit longer before getting the walls in his room painted.  Plus, did you see the mess in Catie's room??  We have some more pressing things to do than paint another room.

28 week appointment

Tuesday was my latest OB appointment.  I dropped Robbie off at Mother's Morning Out and then came home to measure out my 5 oz of orange syrup for my glucose tolerance test.

I don't think Alex appreciated all of the getting into and out of the car, though.  The hardest part was him trying to play with me while the nurse was doing the blood draw.  I think he really wanted the ball I was squeezing to get my blood moving.  The ARNP I met with said I would get a call if I did not pass and it would take 2-3 days to get the results.  I'm optimistically thinking that I passed since 3 business days passed and I didn't get a phone call.  I also had my hemoglobin tested.  I'm barely above their minimum level before they tell me I have to take iron supplements (I was 10.7 and the minimum is 10.5).  The nurse suggested I go ahead and take them anyway and I finally started today.  Prenatal iron-deficiency anemia isn't uncommon and hopefully within a week the extra iron will help.  (My biggest complaint has been fatigue, which is a symptom of anemia.)

Better news: Catie is measuring well and her heartbeat is great.  I don't think she like the Doppler, though, because it usually takes the nurse a while to find her to hear the heartbeat.  It would make me more nervous if I wasn't feeling her move around every day.



More news: I asked the ARNP about scheduling Catie's c-section.  She wasn't sure how long it would take for the scheduler to get back to me and I was surprised to get a call the next morning.  (Actually, I was a little worried they were calling to say I didn't pass my glucose test.)  The only 2 days that my doctor is on the schedule was March 26th and 27th, so I picked the 26th, one day before her due date, the 27th.  Really, Wednesday just seemed like a better day no matter what the date was.  I'm still not setting the date in stone as Catie can still decide to come on her own earlier.  If that happens I will just go in for an early c-section.  Hopefully we'll be ready whenever she comes. :)

We have ice!!

The polar vortex actually made it's way down here and we had a couple of freeze warnings.  Monday night Matthew and Robbie put out a couple of bowls of water to see if they would freeze.  It was cute listening to Matthew trying to explain freezing to Robbie.  I doubt Robbie understood the science lesson, though he couldn't want to check the bowls.  We let him check once before bedtime, but there wasn't any ice.  (Robbie was probably the only one surprised by that.)  One of the bowls that was set out didn't freeze, but one did!  Robbie loved seeing and holding the ice.

Excited boys!

It should be noted that, even though it's freezing outside, it's warm inside.

Robbie with the bowl.

The ice!

Merry Christmas!!

I know this post is long overdue, but I have pictures on 2 different cards, lots of videos and a lot to write about!

We decided not to travel for Christmas this year.  Obviously it's easier for us to not travel, plus we thought it was time to start our own traditions.  

We went to Christmas Eve service at church.  There wasn't any childcare, so we weren't sure how well the boys were going to do.  Overall the kids did fine.  During the first song, they showed a clip from the movie of the first Christmas.  When Joseph held up Jesus, Robbie said "I saw baby Jesus!"  Later the pastor was talking about his trip to Bethlehem and how different it is now and showed a picture of McDonald's.  "I like McDonald's," Robbie informed everyone.  We brought snacks, which helped, and left a little early when the kids had reached their limit.  I was fine with leaving early because it was getting late and I didn't want to be stuck in church traffic.

Once we were sure the kids were asleep we put the presents under the tree.  While we did talk about Santa this year, we didn't put too much emphasis on him bringing presents.  We figured they'd be excited enough to see presents under the tree and wouldn't care who brought them.  

I planned out Christmas morning in my head and, luckily, the boys cooperated.  Since we moved Alex into Robbie's room Robbie would wake up in the morning and yell "Mommy, there's a 6 on the clock" until someone came in to get him rather than just get up and come to our room like he had been doing.  Christmas morning I sent Matthew in to get the boys, I turned on the Christmas tree and got the camera ready to tape them coming out.  The kids didn't disappoint (though Alex didn't sleep great the night before and was pretty cranky).

Presents under the tree.

Stuffed stockings.

A perfect picture to show the start of the morning: Robbie super excited and Alex wanting to go back to bed!

A couple of presents helped Alex's mood. :)

Alex opening a present.

Angry Birds

Robbie opening a present.

The boys did good taking turns opening presents.  I like to see them open the presents we picked for them.  Their big presents were waiting for them in the garage!

It took Alex a little while to warm up to the Buzz bike we got him.  He was pretty excited about the Escalade, too!

Ready to ride!

It was nice enjoying the rest of the day playing with new toys.  Matthew made us a nice Christmas dinner, too!

The next day Jim, Jean and Brittany drove up.  Unfortunately they hit a lot of traffic on their way up.  The boys were excited to see them when they got up from their nap.  After showing off all of their Christmas presents, they were ready to open more. :)

Alex's new Lego's from Aunt Brittany.

Robbie got Whack-a-Mole from Aunt Brittany.

Of course they had to try it out! :)

Opening Alex's present.  (A large dump truck with Mega Blocks.)

Opening Robbie's present (Car's racetrack)

First picture with my new camera lens!

Playing with the racetrack.

After breakfast Friday, Jim, Jean and Brittany headed to visit with Jim's brother and his wife's family.  We would have gone with them, but my parents were coming up.  Unfortunately, their trip was longer than expected.  Matthew checked the traffic and saw a few accidents on the interstate, so we tried to reroute them.  Let's just say it wasn't a shortcut!  We made it up to them with more presents! :)

My dad suggested driving up to Amelia Island Saturday.  We went with them 2 years ago around Christmas.  Matt suggested Jekyll Island since they had never been and it had been almost 5 years since we drove up with Jim, Jean and Brittany.  It was a lot colder there and I don't think we were really prepared for that!  But we had fun walking around.

 Sitting in an old toy car.

By the big Christmas tree.

Pointing to the snowflakes.

We tried to put a warmer jacket on Robbie (this was when my dad was switching them out), but he just wanted to wear his new Batman jacket.

Alex and Abuelo.

Playing in the fountain.

I love when Alex makes this face (though he doesn't always look so concerned when he makes it)!

We found Alex's room. :)

Robbie playing in a phone booth at the visitor's center.

These pictures were taken with my new camera lens and I love the quality!

Poor Grandma was worn out!

A baby turtle at the turtle center.  I guess I didn't really know what to expect and pictured what we saw when we went to the Caymen Islands on our honeymoon.  It was much smaller!

After the boys went to bed Saturday night I told my parents that Matthew and I were going out.  (Yes, I told them, I didn't ask if they wanted to babysit. :) )  We had tried earlier in the week to look at furniture for Catie at Babies R Us, but it was hard because Alex was asleep and Robbie wasn't too interested in looking at cribs.  We went to Buy Buy Baby, found a crib and dresser we liked and bought them.  I panicked a little when the associate said he would see if they were in stock because I was not prepared to bring anything home (I expected them to have to order it).  Luckily it wasn't in stock, though we did have the van and could have brought it home if it was.

We convinced my parents to stay a little later on Sunday than they planned, but only because there was some rain we didn't want them to have to drive through.  We had a quiet evening, just the 4 of us, before Barbara came up Monday morning.

We tried to do an early lunch at Metro Diner to beat the crowds, but were unsuccessful there.  Then after lunch and naps, there was only one thing left to do...open presents! :)

Opening their dinosaurs.

A new Thomas book!

The tool bench set up and ready to use.

Safety first!

I told Matthew that my last present was going to get a pedicure, so I did that Tuesday morning while he, Barbara and the boys ran errands and ate lunch.  They came home for naps (I took one, too).  That night we let Barbara feed the boys and put them to bed while Matthew and I went out to dinner (Kan Ki, yum!) and saw a movie (Anchorman 2).  It was fun to go out on a date night, but it was late when we got home making me realize I'm not as young as I used to be! :)

We tried to go to Metro Diner one more time for lunch Wednesday, but they were packed again.  Fortunately Hurricane Wings right next door wasn't busy at all.  Barbara headed home at nap time and that officially ended our Christmas. :)