One busy weekend!

Well, I made it through the ridiculously busy weekend that I made for myself. :) I'm going to go in chronological order.

Thursday evening, Joni, Jason and Brandon got into town and we stayed up at Lauries until about midnight visiting with them. Friday I had just Jameson, and after he left we went back up to Lauries for a BBQ for Joni and Nathan (because Nathan is home on leave). Nathan didn't show because he had a better offer, but it was a really nice BBQ and I enjoyed myself up until the end... but we left so that wasn't so bad. :) Saturday was Vanessas babyshower, and it was wonderful! I'm really impressed with how it turned out, except for the madness that came along with me ordering the cake from stupid Kelso Safeway. But that got worked out and the guests didn't even know that there was no cake even made a half hour before the shower. Ugh! Anyway, we played two games, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves... even Laurie who really hates shower games. :) Vanessa got a lot of really nice gifts and seemed to really enjoy herself. Jen and I were worried that we wouldn't have enough food, but there turned out to be plenty... we even had leftovers. :)

After the shower Josh, Logan and I took a much needed two hour nap that was WONDERFUL! Then Joni came over and Brandon and Jason met up with her here and we all went, along with Tricia and Joes family, Ray, Vanessa, Olivia, Jen, Jeremy and Jameson to Diblee Point and played in the water. It was a lot of fun, and I think the kids really enjoyed themselves. At about 9 o'clock we left and Joni, Jason, Brandon, Josh, Logan and I went to Tricia and Joes and had a BBQ and played Catch Phrase. It was fun. We left there around midnight and came home and totally crashed.

Sunday was Logans birthday party... it turned out really nice, but holy cow, he got a lot of presents! I think he would have been happy if he could have stopped after the first one and played with that. Every present, he'd say, "Open it! Open it!" :) He didn't really understand he had to get through all of them. Josh and I had been worried that he would be mean to the guests because he's started this new thing where he doesn't like any adults to talk to him, but we prepared him before they came and he did wonderfully. He only really had one big meltdown, and I think that was just from him being overwhelmed. The party ended rather quickly, so afterwards we went up to the Lewis River with Joni, Jason and Brandon and walked to Big Creek Falls and then to the lower Lewis River falls. It was nice... the falls were both so full of water that I don't think I will recognize them if we go back later this summer. They looked almost angry. Logan wanted to "get in" both of them and wasn't really happy with the "no, we can't" that he kept getting. I think Josh and I have taught him to really love the water. :) I was a bit dissapointed with the very short "hike"... I was hoping for something more. Which is funny, because I'm sure I'd be complaining of how excruciating it was if it would have been too much longer. I just was hoping for something more. Ah well, it was still really beautiful.

So today we're back to same old same old, but we have house guests. We have another very busy weekend ahead of us... Jonis wedding. :) I'm looking forward to it, because it'll keep my mind off of the baby not coming. I've made the decision that it really would be most convenient if she didn't make her appearance until after the wedding. But even with that in my mind, the Melissa that wants to meet her baby girl still really wants to get the show on the road. I keep preparing myself that at my appointment on Wednesday Laura might find that I haven't progressed at all since last week. I just don't feel like I've done any progressing this week... which isn't that big of a deal considering I'm not even due yet.

I don't think I even mentioned what happened at the last appointment. Well, I had progressed, but Laura told us that dilation doesn't really matter that much with second pregnancies, and that what matters is where the baby is and how soft the cervix is. My cervix was softer than it had been the week before, but it was still only half of it... the top half was still pretty hard, while the bottom half seems to be really softening wonderfully. I was dilated from 2cm to 3cm and could be stretched a little further than that. (But again, Laura said that wasn't that important) The baby still seemed to be engaged, but Laura said that she could still push her head up... until she stripped my membranes... then she stayed put. So, like I said I don't feel like I've done any progressing this week, so I'm preparing myself for hearing it from her on Wednesday. It will still be an exciting appointment because I'm having the belly cast done. I'm really looking forward to it... but I'm afraid that if I haven't progressed I might just cancel the belly cast for this week so that I can wait another week of growing before she does it. We'll see.

With all the excitement of the wedding, I'm not sure if I'll even be on here again before it happens, but I'll try. :)

Logan is 3 years old!

Well, yesterday was Logans 3rd birthday. I can't believe it... I really feel like I was just pregnant with him. The last two years we've taken him to the zoo, but this year after figuring out how much it would cost to drive down to Portland, the admission to the zoo, the cost of riding the train and eating in the zoo, we decided not to go. We sound like total jerks, but Logan wasn't really that interested, and both Josh and I don't really enjoy the zoo that much. On top of all that, there was a special where if you rode your bike to the zoo they would let you in for free... and it was a weekend. I think we would have been pretty miserable.

So, what we did instead... We took Logan to Diblee Point. That's the beach on the Rainier side of the bridge. He thinks it's "the beach" and had a great time. We took his big Tonka truck and he never stopped playing during the two hours we were there. Josh and I had a nice picnic lunch (that Logan was supposed to take part in, but was way too busy for food) and enjoyed watching Logan. I am an idiot and totally spaced off bringing the camera, so the only picture we have is this...

Logan, after playing hard at the beach. :)

After "the beach" we took a nice nap together as a family. Josh and I were planning on taking him out for pizza because that's something we don't get to do very often, and since we were saving so much by staying in town, we figured it would be okay to do. Anyway, I thought I would see if we could go over to Joshs aunt and uncles house so that we could visit with them and Logie could play with Levi (who he totally ADORES). Logan heard me talking to Tricia and decided that he didn't want pizza, he wanted to play with Levi instead. He told me, "I no eat pizza mama, I full... I play outside with Levi." So, we headed over there and ended up eating pizza at their house. :)

Logan with his "hat" on, the plate that he had been resting his fudgesicle on.

All in all, it was a very low-key 3rd birthday for Logan, but I think he had a great time. I'm such a space cadet though because I spaced two very important things... we didn't have our pictures taken and I forgot to get him a birthday cake. :( Ah well, when Lelah is born, we'll just go get our pictures done then.


Speaking of Lelah, nothing has happened yet. I'm still losing mucus plug pretty regularly, but I think that doesn't really mean that much. I've been taking Evening Primrose Oil every night, so maybe that's some of the cause, but I took it with Logan for over a month, and well, we know how that worked out. :) I have an appointment on Wednesday that she'll check me again, so I'll have more news then.

Yesterday, before all of our birthday festivities, we finished Lelahs room. It looks really nice, and I'm very pleased. There are still two walls without anything hanging on them, (which anyone who's seen my walls knows that I can't really stand for that) but I think once she's born and we have some pictures of her and Logan, we'll be able to fill them nicely. :) Along with finishing Lelahs room, we got a whole ton of other things marked off my "To Do Before Baby Comes" list. We still have 3 1/2 things to do. We have to finish cleaning out the upstairs kitchen. It's been our storage area for all of Desi's stuff since she left, so we have all of that packed up, but now we have to nicely arrange the stuff of ours that we had in there. Stuff= junk that we can't seem to part with just yet. :( That shouldn't take too long though, I know we'll be finished with that by the end of today. Also by the end of today, I hope to accomplish the other tasks... get rid of the sewing table that is currently sitting in our dining room (this will be put in the upstairs kitchen), organize Logans bed room (this is where I'll be having the baby... it's the most convenient place for the birthing pool), and make the curtain for Lelahs room. I know that we can finish all of them today, but I'm a little nervous about the curtain, so we'll see about that. Once all of this is finished we're ready. I mean, all we'll have to worry about is the every day stuff that we have to worry about any time someone comes over... make sure that Logans play room is clean, the dishes are in the dishwasher, I'm not overloaded with loads of laundry, clean toilet, clean floors, etc. Everything that was causing me grief will be finished once my list is done... and I'm so glad! I don't really think that Lelah was actually waiting for this list to be accomplished, but I know that when I go into labor, it's one less thing that will be on my mind. (I would have been so horrified if Laura would have seen what that upstairs kitchen looked like!!!)

Alright, so that's it. I think I'll wait to include pictures of Lelahs room until I've finished the curtain. I suppose it won't actually be completely finished until after I have that up. :) Hopefully tonight I can take that picture! Wish us luck... and have a wonderful rest of the weekend!

Okay, so I'm so excited I can barely stand it. I just got back from my 36 week appointment with my midwife, Laura. I have been preparing myself since my last appointment that when she checked my cervix, I couldn't get my hopes up because no matter what, I could still have another 6 1/2 weeks left if I go as long as I did with Logan. But that has all been thrown to the wind because of what she had to say. While she told me Logan that I would deliver before my due date (and I still went over by 2 1/2 weeks) she didn't say what she said today! Alright... first I just want to say why I'm believing her full-heartedly. My 20 week ultrasound put me at 2 weeks ahead of schedule... it said that I was actually 22 weeks. But Laura and I had decided that we would stick with the original due date because it would be a lot less suffering for me if I went two weeks late and landed right on my due date than two weeks after... so we kept my July 16th due date instead of the July 6th one. But when she started measuring my fundal height, it was always 2 weeks ahead also. At 30 weeks I measured 32 cm, at 31 weeks, I measured 33 cm, etc. That was up until an appt. or two ago. I measured 34 cm at 33 weeks and then 34 cm at 34 weeks. But at 34 weeks she was pretty sure that the reason that I wasn't measuring ahead at all was because the baby had "dropped." Last but not least, today, for the first half of the day, I have been losing mucous... not bloody yet, but definitely the beginnings of my mucous plug. Anyway, today when she measured, I was at 37 cm... which is a week ahead... I'm starting week 36 today. So I had this thought of, "Oh my gosh, that means she's not engaged!" But then she asked if I wanted her to do a check, and how could I say no, so she did. As soon as she was in, she said that my cervix DID NOT feel like a 36 week cervix, it felt most definitely like a 38 week cervix. She told me then that there was no way that I would make it to my due date of July 16th... she thinks that the July 6th one is much more accurate and that I could have the baby anytime between now and then and she wouldn't be surprised one bit. I was 50% effaced and 2 cm dilated, the baby was at 0 station and Laura felt her head! My baby has been touched by someone other than me!!! That's soooooo exciting to me!!!! I'm so totally thrilled I can barely stand it. She told Josh and I to have lots of sex and she gave me a box of red raspberry leaf tea to help get my uterus nice and strong. (I didn't know that it would work that quickly though... I thought I needed to be drinking it all third trimester or something.)

I looked at my journal that I kept for Logan and it said that at 38 weeks, I was dilated 1cm and was 25% effaced... the baby was at +1 station. So, Logan was lower, but I was less thinned out and less dilated. So, this is good news... I have probably less than 4 1/2 weeks to go! Yayyyyy! Today I'm off to buy some Evening Primrose Oil tabs to help soften my cervix even more... after I took those for a week, my cervix went from a 1 to a 2-3 according to my journal. We're going to have this baby! Yay!


I wrote all of that earlier today. Nothing really went on today except that I drank 9 tea bags worth of the Red Raspberry Leaf Tea. It's not so bad as long as you mix it with a whole ton of sugar and kool aid or something. In fact, I actually enjoyed it a little. :)

Chelsea had Chase today. He weighed 7 lbs 5 oz. and was 21 inches long. He had his hand up by his face so the poor little thing has a bruised little hand. I cried when my mom told me about how excited Anthony was to meet him... it makes me SOOOOOO excited for Logan to meet Lelah. Speaking of Lelah...

The shower was wonderful. It was so much fun, and there was a whole ton of people there. We really were showered with gifts. :) We got to announce what we have decided on for a name... Lelah Grace Kathryn. I get excited every time I think of her name... I'm so happy with it. Lelah just sounds like such a sunshiny name... I can't wait to meet her! Especially now. I almost wish I didn't know that I could go into labor anytime because I want to get things moving... and it's funny because we still have so much to do. And besides, I would be horrified if Laura came to the house with it looking like it does right now. I haven't mopped for probably two weeks, and it really does need it. The bathroom upstairs really needs to be swept and mopped before anyone sees it... ew. Monday Delores is coming to pick up all of Desis stuff, so we won't have to worry about the kitchen for too much longer. Thank God! Also on Monday, my mom gets home from Anchorage. I'm so glad, I miss her so much and am done sharing her and want her to be home now. I don't like her being so far away... I like her much better when I can visit her in person anytime I want. I'm so selfish! Anyhow, Joni, Jason and hopefully Brandon fly in on Thursday, and then the excitement begins. Friday there is a BBQ at Lauries house for Joni and Nathan so they can see everyone, Saturday is Vanessas shower, and then Sunday is Logans birthday party. Fastforward to the next Friday, it's the 4th of July, then the very next day Joni and Jason are going to get married at Cannon Beach. The wedding is planned for 11 am and then there will be a reception to follow at Lauries house at 6ish. It will be nice. Laurie has been working her patootie off since she heard news that they wanted to get married, so it's bound to turn out nicely. :) With all this going on, it really would be easier for everyone if Miss Lelah hung around in my tummy until all the mess is over with. I can be a lot more helpful having a baby in me than a baby outside of me... especially a brand new baby that wants to nurse all the time. I should keep reminding myself of that. :)

At the appt. last night, I asked Laura how long she thought I needed to not watch Jameson and Max. She said at the very minimum 3 weeks. I had read that having too much responsibility right after having a baby is one of the leading causes for post partum depression... I thought it might be an inflated theory, but Laura totally agreed. She said on top of that, it also can hinder breastfeeding by either not letting your milk come in at all, making it so you don't have enough to feed your baby, or even by making it low quality so you have to supplement with formula. And if anything could send me over the depression deep end, it would be that I couldn't nurse my baby. Ugh... it makes my eyes well up to even think of it. While this is causing huge stresses in both Kaylas and Jens lives, I think I'm making the right decision by saying that I can't watch them for three weeks. I would never forgive myself if I were to take them after a week like I had originally planned and something happened... Be it my milk, postpartum depression or just poor bonding with Lelah, I would never forgive myself. Aside from the huge worry about money, I'm kind of looking forward to having three straight weeks of nothing but my family. Josh has already arranged to take three full weeks off from work, so I won't have that much to do really... mostly just bond with Lelah and keep the bond I have with Logie. I figured we won't really be able to stray too far from home because of gas, but I'm sure that my mom and Laurie will visit just as much as they did with Logan, so it's not like we'll get lonely. :)

My visit with Laura didn't only consist of her checking my cervix and talking to me about the three week maternity thing. There were other things, that happened to be just wonderful. 1) My blood pressure was fine the second time she took it... it was high the first time, but fine the next, so that's great. 2) My Group B test came back negative, so no antibiotics in labor for me... woot! 3) I only gained 2 pounds, which I'm so surprised about because I've been eating like a freaking cow, and according to everything I read, Lelah is gaining 1/2 ounce to 1 full ounce every single day! 4) Laura doesn't think that Lelah will be any bigger than Logan was... which is wonderful news to me because I've been feeling like she is sooooo much bigger than Logan already. And while I understand that guesstimates can be totally off, I'm comfortable with just believing that she's going to be smaller than Logan or the same size as him. Once I'm in labor it's not like she won't be able to come out if she's a couple ounces over Logans 8lbs 2oz. Laura told us a whole bunch of great stories like normal, and answered all my questions... it was really great. I'm already looking forward to our next visit with her... but then again, I look forward to them from the time I step out her door. :) I'm so strange!

Alright, that's it for me... I'm going to go insert some Evening Primrose thingys and hope that they do some softening tonight. :) I'm hoping to get it all soft down there and then when mom gets off that plane I'm safe to go into labor. :) Josh wants to not tell Joni if we have Lelah before she gets here and just surprise her at the airport with a surprise welcome. :) I don't know if she would really appreciate being held in the dark for that long... and I don't really know how we could pull it off anyhow. We'll see. With our luck we probably won't even have the baby until she goes home. :( Okay, hopefully I'll be blogging better. Until next time, I hope you have a wonderful week!

A good 24th birthday

Well, Wednesday was my birthday, and it was really good. It's the first year in like 4 years that I got a birthday cake, and I know it's stupid, but I was really happy to have one. :) It was my favorite kind... with the whip cream frosting and the fresh glazed strawberry center. Mmmm! I'm happy to say that I'll be having the same kind of cake at the shower on Sunday... YAY! We had an appointment with Laura on my birthday, which normal people would think is a crappy birthday present all in itself, but I was thrilled to go! I love going there... she is so fun to talk to and I just really love the feeling I have when I walk into her office. We brought her her birthday present, cause her birthday was on May 27th and when she saw it, she said to me, "What is this, it's YOUR birthday today!" She peeked around the corner and said, "And look what I have for you!" It was the newest edition of Spiritual Midwifery that she's been asking me if I've read and been telling me that I could borrow hers. She said that when she got her copy out she decided I should just have my own, so she went and got me one. I just thought that was so thoughtfully wonderful! :) I'm almost half way through with it now, and I'm enjoying it so much! :) The appointment went well. I only gained 2 pounds, which I'm so thrilled about, my blood pressure is almost back to normal (which is so wonderful because it had gotten a little high there for awhile), my uterus is measuring right on, instead of 1 or 2 cm's higher, but Laura is sure that is because the babys head is now engaged. She said that I can keep up with the hiking and that the contractions I was having after Saddle Mountain was probably just due to dehydration and too much exercise. She said keep up the good work though because it's probably what caused my blood pressure to go back down. Our next appointment is in two weeks (no more waiting three weeks or even a month... yay!) and then after that I'll go in every week. Woo hoo!!! I love going there! She said the baby looked good, and her heartbeat was good too, so everything was great! She thought that maybe the dizziness I've been having was due to having low blood sugar, so I need to eat every 2 hours to keep in good.

Instead of going out to dinner, my mom cooked us a steak dinner with baked potatoes... which was my request. I figured that for the past two months I've really not been enjoying going out to dinner very much, so I decided to ask for the dinner that I've been wanting my mom to make me for the last couple weeks... steak. It was good. I couldn't eat much, but it was so yummy... just what I wanted. :)

The shower is on Sunday, and I'm so excited for it! Mom bought me a new pair of sandals, and Jen is taking me to have a pedicure on Saturday, so I'll have beautiful toenails for the shower... yay! I haven't had a pedicure since January, and I'm so looking forward to it!!!

Last night Josh and I cut out the material for the babies carseat cover. I did all of the sewing on it except the holes also. Talk about tedious! Holy cow, I'm so glad to say that I'm finally finished with that project. It was really difficult, but it looks just like I was hoping it would... and we didn't have to pay $50 for it... I think the total $$ that went into it was like $8. Pretty good deal, I think. :) Of course, now I understand why they charge so much for them... they are HARD work! It probably would have been easier if I would have been able to use the sewing machine, but seems to how I don't know how to work it very well, that wasn't really an option... everything was by hand but two little 4 inch pieces. So here is a picture of that.

Ecola State Park Hike

Sunday, June 1st we went to Ecola State Park and hiked 2.7 excruciating miles. It's funny because when we started the idea of a hike, we were planning on a relatively flat hike that wasn't long. So, I guess we stayed within the "not long" category, but as for the flat part... ha! I first must say that I need to take most of the blame for this... it was my idea to do a "beach" hike, not Joshs. In fact, if it would have been up to him, we would have been going the exact opposite way, to Mt. Rainier to do our hike. When we got to the park, the ranger guy was a jerk and wouldn't let us choose our own hike, (and since we didn't come prepared with book in hand like we normally do on all other hikes) we told him we would like a map of the trails and he handed us a little brochure and said, "This is the best one right now." I asked if we could get the brochures for the other hikes in the area and he told me that they "were low"... Ugh... it was really irritating! Anyway, so we went on this hike that was "the best" and it ended up having only like a 1/2 mile of beach scenery, and it was such a dissapointment! :(

The babys room is painted!!!

We forgot to take real "before" pictures, so this is the best we have.

Well, one large thing has been marked off of my "things to do before baby" list... we have the room painted! It's much brighter than Josh and I were expecting, but it's really cute, and all in all, it looks VERY girly. :) So, here are the (kinda) before pictures and the after pictures. We still have some more to do, but this is the finished paint job.

These are the three "after" pictures... "After" painting but "before" the new hardware and all the baby stuff is added. :)