Meeting Caleb!

Last week we finally got to meet sweet baby Caleb!  We've waited a long time to see this miracle baby and it was so nice to finally be able to.

I wish we had gotten more pictures, but it seemed like none of the kids all wanted to cooperate at the same time.  

At least we caught them all semi looking at the camera, here:

Logan was very excited to have a baby in the house.  She gave him lots of squeezes and cuddles.  I think she's a little more excited about having a baby brother around, now!

Brody was excited at the thought of having a cousin come over, but I think when he realized that he was just a baby and couldn't get up and run around with him, the novelty wore off.  He had a great time with Uncle John, though!

We're excited to have the Churchill's living closer for a while!  It'll be nice to have family around for the holidays and just to have somewhere to visit/people to visit us in general.

Bump #3 Update: 37 weeks

I'll be 37 weeks on Tuesday, but figured I'd throw in a quick update.  I've been having pretty regular contractions every night.  This doesn't seem to mean a whole lot because they always seem to fizzle out after about 3-4 hours.  I haven't found myself on the phone with my OB because they never seem to get closer together.  I'll just go the full 3-4 hours with contractions at 5 minutes apart or 4 minutes and 26 seconds apart, or 3 minutes and 56 seconds apart (yep, that was all this weekend....Thurs, Fri and Sat) but don't get closer.  Thankfully, the contractions are doing something because at my 36 week appointment I was 1.5 cm dilated.  Hoping to go into this labor like I did with the other two with a good 4cm down!

36/37 weeks

How many weeks: 37

Weight gain? 21lbs

Morning Sickness?  None this week.  Lots of heartburn!

Cravings: None.  I actually barely want to eat anything, anymore.

Sleeping well?  Thankfully, yes!  It's been usually between 11pm-1am right now when I fall asleep because of the contractions, but I've been able to sleep most of the night after that.  

Labor signs?  More pressure and dilation.  The baby is still pretty high and not engaged at all, but usually after my babies engage labor is right around the corner.

Things I miss: Eating a full meal.  Being able to sit up without feeling like I can't breathe.

Fun things we've done since the last post:  Our nursery is about 95% complete.  I'll try and post pictures of it sometime, soon!  It may not be until after he's born, though.  We got our hospital bags packed this week, the kids' overnight bags packed and delivered our extra carseats to the family who will be graciously coming to pick Logan and Brody up when I go into labor.  (Side note:  I have texted this sweet girl SO many times in the middle of the night the last week or so warning her that I may be in labor and she's still my friend.  And brought me dinner this weekend while Mike was away so that I'd have company and not have to cook a meal.)

Things I'm looking forward to:  HAVING THIS  BABY!  37 weeks seemed so far away 4 weeks ago when they were testing me for preterm labor and now we're here and this baby is full term.  I'm totally ok with waiting until my due date (sigh...even past it if necessary), especially since the days/weeks seem to be going just a little faster as the date approaches.  But, he can come when he wants to now!

Here's a picture of me at 37 weeks with Logan, Brody (I look rough,  we all had bronchitis) and then 37 weeks with baby boy #2.  Amazing how different each pregnancy has been!  Mike and I were reminiscing that when we were pregnant with Logan we ate out 4-5 nights a week, I was working and had retained a TON of water and we were just generally unhealthy because of how busy we were.  With #2 it was better and with #3 I've found that all I had to do to keep from gaining too much was be incredibly ill for 34 weeks straight.  Ha!  Also amazing to note that belly #1 is now little girl in #3!

Cinderella and Prince Charming

I wasn't sure if I'd have the energy to squeak out halloween costumes this year, but after finding out what Logan wanted to be, and the sticker shock of the costumes in store, I decided to go for it!  My kids are still little, so I'm thankful that we still get to be "themey" with our costumes.  Logan is picky about what she wants, but Brody will go with just about any costume that makes him some kind of hero.  

So, this year, we went with Cinderella and Prince Charming.

Logan especially loved the jewels we added to her fingerless gloves.  It just seemed to turn on the princess in her.

She's growing up too fast, I tell ya!

I wasn't even sure how I was going to sew the skirt and the top together because there was so much satin costume fabric, but it made for a great spinning skirt when it all came together!

 Brody was thrilled that he got to carry a sword.  He's been calling himself "Prince Charmin" now for days.  (ruler of the land of toilet paper?)

I've never really done any boy tops so I was a little nervous about how this would come together and really had no back up plan since you can't find Prince Charming costumes in store.  Thankfully, other than measuring a little off and having to add some fabric to the jacket, it turned out ok!

Don't mess with this boy's sister.  He wields a mean sword and can destroy you.

Or all of the dragons, since that's what he fights on a regular basis.

Both kids played their characters very well at the Fall Festival we went to.  

I'm trying to soak every moment of these little years in.  I know they'll be gone before I can blink.

I'm wondering what next year will bring with another little one to costume....

Logan is still bound and determined that they'll all be in Disney attire.  I guess we'll find out!!

Bump #3 Update: 33, 34, 35 weeks

We're getting closer and closer to the finish line with this one!  I still have a hard time doing any "counting down" because even today, with exactly 1 month until his due date, that makes it seem so far away.  The last few weeks have been eventful!

Right before 33 weeks I started having very, very painful contractions.  I know everyone says you know the difference between labor and false labor contractions, but these contractions were as painful, if not more, than the ones I experienced when I first started laboring with Brody.  I knew it was bad when I had an inability to talk through them or walk through them.  They were coming about every 13-16 minutes one night for several hours.  Thankfully, I had an appointment the next morning or I think we would have ended up in the hospital.  The Dr. did a preterm labor test on me very quickly the next day when he saw me work through one of the contractions in office.  The test, when negative, gives you a 99% chance that you won't go into labor for at least two weeks.  It gives a lot of false positives, in which case they can't be sure, and I would probably have needed to go in for monitoring.  BUT, it came back negative, which set my mind at ease!

33 weeks.

Mike had been taking an intensive course at the seminary during week 33/34 and that's when the contractions were the most intense and I think we chalked it up to him being gone 14 hours a day.  The kids also had bad colds and were sleeping poorly, so I wasn't getting a lot of sleep.  Oh...and my nesting started and I literally could not be awake and not working on something.

34 weeks finished off ok.  The contractions went back to being painless but uncomfortable.  I had my 35 week appointment this last Tuesday and while I did end up with an additional diagnosis of pregnancy induced carpal tunnel (seriously?), the Dr. also excitedly let me know that the baby has grown to their satisfaction and if I go into labor now, they won't stop it.  I was so thankful to hear this! They certainly would prefer the baby to stay put until I'm at least 37 weeks, but at this point we probably wouldn't even be looking at any NICU time.

 34 weeks

How many weeks: 35.5

Weight gain?  19 lbs.  

Morning Sickness?  Some, but it has reduced GREATLY.  Praise the Lord!  It went strong for about 34 weeks but I finally have been able to stop taking Zofran completely.  The heartburn, on the other hand.....

Cravings: No cravings.  I don't even have the sweet over savory (or the other way around) like I did with the other two.  I do, however, prefer to eat when I don't have to cook, so my favorite night of the week tends to be Wednesday when we have small group since I only cook for them every 5 weeks.

Sleeping well?  Sleeping well.  I do have frequent wake up calls to go to the bathroom but when I sleep, I sleep hard.  The baby is most active from about 8pm-10:30pm and then he rarely moves again until the morning. 

Labor signs?  I've had a lot of pressure over the last week.  That combined with the contractions had the Dr. instructing me to come into the hospital if the contractions got any closer together than 10 minutes.

Things I miss: Being able to turn my body all the way to the left so I can see oncoming traffic when trying to turn right on red.  I get so many honks, now, but honestly?  I can't go unless I'm SURE we're not going to get hit and because I can't move my body that way people will just have to be frustrated for the next few weeks.  

Fun things we've done since the last post:  We got our carseat and the baby's "my-my" was delivered.  I also found my box of fall maternity clothing that went missing before this pregnancy began.  I was getting a little worried as the weather began to drop from the 70's to the 30's that my shorts, 1 pair of jeans and short sleeved shirts weren't going to cut it!  In one of my crazy nesting moments I went out to the shed and emptied it and found the clothes in a random box at the bottom of the pile.

Things I'm looking forward to:  The fall festival we're going to, tomorrow!  The kids and I finished up their costumes this week and we've been itching to get them out in them.  Also looking forward to my next check up to see if we've made any progression in the labor preparations!

Fall So Far

Happy Fall!  

We're enjoying the cooler temperatures and pretty colors here!  When the temps began to drop we took Brody out and got him his first baseball glove.

He has wanted to play catch daily since then!

We've been meeting up weekly with some friends from church for playdates at different parks around town.  The kids love being able to play with someone their own age/gender at the same time!

We've been doing a lot of Starbucks visits since Mike is so much closer to home, now.  Logan and Brody regularly wake up and ask to go see daddy, now.

MOPS started back up and the kids were excited to meet their new teachers and see their old friends.

We've been working on family responsibilities and the kids have been working on helping with a lot of our cleaning duties.  Brody had to wear a helmet to clean the coffee table....you know, in case one of those sponges happened to attack.

We've been going windows down a lot of evenings and on this particular night during storytime, Brody got chilly and tucked right on in to Mike's shirt.

We went to a super hero training session at church at the beginning of Oct. that kicked off their October series on being strong and courageous (learning about little people who did BIG and BRAVE things for God).  Brody has LOVED wearing his super hero mask ever since.

Brody can always be found with some kind of sports ball (or two, or three....) wherever we go.

Mike took a week long intensive course at Southeastern.  He usually had to work before and after class so we didn't see much of him.  So, we met up with him for breakfast in Wake Forest one morning!  The kids enjoyed the fresh donuts!

Of course, we've been watching a lot of football on the weekends.  As soon as GameDay starts Brody asks to get in his "you-me-corn" (uniform) so he can imitate the things he sees.

Sweet Brody has been doing a lot of flower (weed) picking for me!

And Logan's been helping me out a lot in the kitchen.

She's also done quite a bit in school.  We're nearly done with the first part of our kinder curriculum, which I thought would at least take us another 2 months to complete!  We'll head to the homeschool store in a couple weeks to get the rest.

She's doing more and more of these completely on her own.

Papa came for a quick visit and we took the opportunity to visit a new local park.  It was a LOT of fun!

The kids have enjoyed having pumpkins outside of our door this year since we're not bound by seminary rules for decorating, anymore.

And we can tell winter is on it's way because Brody found a box of his winter stuff and ended up asleep in his hat and mittens last night.  :)