To the hospital!

It is Wednesday night at about 7:00 pm. I still have not gone into labor much less felt a single contraction so we are headed to the hospital to start the labor induction process. Here is one last belly shot.

Almost 41 weeks pregnant here!

I'm guessing baby boy is at least 8 pounds, yikes!

My next post will be pictures of little baby Henry!!!! :) :) :)

Non-stress test

After passing the 40 week mark, my Dr. wanted to make sure that me and the baby were both still doing well. So I went last week for my first non-stress test and I went again just yesterday. They check the fluid levels, make sure that the baby's heart rate is good, that he is moving enough and getting enough oxygen, etc... It's not stressful for the baby, but it IS a little for me! Luckily, baby boy is doing just fine and passed both tests with flying colors! This is where I learned that I actually WAS having contractions! James was able to come with me for the second test and took some (rather unflattering) video of the test. Hard to look good while lying in a bed with monitors strapped to your belly!

I tried for a good hour to upload another video of the nurse explaining the printout to James but it just was NOT working so I said, forget it!

Now the next time I go to TMC, I will be having a baby! Scary!!! But soooo exciting too :) I am so ready to have this baby but there will be some things I will miss about being pregnant and some things I won't.

Things I will miss about being pregnant:

* Feeling the baby move. I love feeling my little boy move, kick, punch, squirm, roll and even hiccup all day and night! It really is amazing!

* Compliments from family, friends and even total strangers about how great I look while pregnant.

* Eating whatever I want without (really) worrying about the weight gain.

Things I will NOT miss about being pregnant:

* Body pains - Being so uncomfortable all the time! I'm big, fat and swollen. Peeing 40 times a day, eating a tiny bit and being hungry 10 minutes later, leg cramps, knee pain from the extra weight, hip pain, boob pain, bone pain, etc... the list goes on and on. I know I'll have more pains during and after the baby is born but hopefully those will go away soon after.

* The constant barrage of questions from well-meaning family, friends and total strangers about my pregnancy. AND the horrifying labor stories from people, no one needs to hear that!

* The awful maternity clothes and having nothing to wear. I would really like to wear normal clothes but I know that it will be a while before I can do that.

I am sure there are more things for both sides of this list but I can't think of them right now ;)

Happy Graduation!

What do you do when you are three days late and will probably be induced on the day your baby sister graduates from high school??? Keep your self busy by going to spend some time with your baby sis and recreate graduation! James and I had some time on our hands this weekend so yesterday we drove down to SV to spend some quality time with Emily. We took her out to lunch and then went shopping to get her a dress for graduation. Now I know it doesn't make up for missing graduation but it made me feel a bit better. We even made Emily put on her cap and gown so we could take pics with her as if we were at graduation.

The last of the Spencer siblings to graduate from high school! Way to go Lee :)

Me and Emily, and Henry of course! Henry loves his Auntie Em :)

Me, Emily, and James.

And of course, we HAD to celebrate graduation with some silly string! Here's a video of me and James helping Emily take her last steps out of high school. It's bit long but I think it's pretty funny :)

Who was right?

That would be me! Not that I want to be right in this case, but I am. I am ALWAYS right, just like I am now. Lots of people seemed to think I would have this baby early, James thought he would come right on time. But me, I knew I would be Rachel. I knew I'd go late. Unlike Rachel though, I at least have an end-point. If I don't go into labor on my own, which I'm pretty sure I won't, I'll go to the hospital Wednesday night and most likely have the baby on Thursday. The bad part about that situation is that my baby sister Emily is graduating from high school Thursday night. Talk about bad timing. I feel really bad that I won't be able to go to her graduation but I feel even worse that my mom probably won't be there either. I'm being selfish cuz I really need my mom there with me when I have this baby. Sorry Emily :*( Now I just have to find a way to make it up to Emily... any ideas??? Plus, Emily turned 18 this year. What did she get for her 18th birthday... her nephew Sean! Yup, my brother Matt's wife Kenya, had her baby on Emily's 18th birthday! So she spent her 18th birthday at the hospital! Oh, AND my other brother's wife Leah is due on the 27th too!!! Wow! How many ways can our family screw Emily's milestones this year? Jeez it's like we all got together and conspired against her! Sorry Emma, we really wanted Henry to be here by now!

Here's Emily on her 18th birthday with little Sean. Aren't they cute? :)

I love you Lee-lee!

Lots of random stuff

I NEVER used to get good fortunes when we would go out to eat. James would always get the good ones and I would get the crap ones like, "Persistence is its own reward." Lame. However, literally since the day we found out I was pregnant, I finally got some good fortunes! The day that we found out I was pregnant, we went out to eat at PF Chang's first. At that dinner the fortune I got read, "Good fortune is coming to you." Not a great fortune, very general. But when you know that you are going to take a pregnancy test that night, it seemed pretty damn good to me! And the fact that it turned out to be correct was even more amazing! James's fortune was pretty good that time too. His said, "Good news will come to you from far away." Well the good news wasn't exactly from far away but it was good news! The fortunes did not stop there. The next time was at Panda express a few months ago. Mine said, "Soon a visitor shall delight you." Hee hee :) James's said, "You will soon witness a miracle." It totally will be a miracle if we all survive the delivery! We went back to PF Chang's to celebrate my birthday a few weeks ago. This time, my fortune said,"Your troubles will cease and fortune will smile upon you." Ahhh! That means my pregnancy troubles will be over soon, right? James's said, "You will soon receive a gift, freely given, accept!" Well he is getting a pretty damn awesome gift! There was an extra fortune cookie this time around so we said that it was Henry's fortune. Henry's fortune said, "Your hidden creative talents will soon be revealed." How cute! I wonder what his talents will be... eating well and sleeping through the night? Hopefully! :) The last fortune I got was just last week from Oregano's (yes they have fortune cookies too!) This one said, "Your dearest dream is coming true." That one almost made me cry. I just hope now that my dream comes true fairly soon, quickly and painlessly! I tried to take pictures of these fortunes but it didn't turn out so great, but don't worry, they will all be going in my Belly Book! :)

In my attempt to get baby Henry to drop down and come on out, we got one of those big exercise balls for me to bounce on. While it is fun for me, Daisy HATES it! She is scared to death of it. I'm not sure why. She loves to play fetch with tennis balls so I don't know if it is because this one is so big or what. I have been trying to get her to not be so afraid of it. With so much time on my hands, I get bored quite easily. So instead of cleaning or doing something productive, I torture my dog :) I thought perhaps if she associates the ball with something good, she won't be so afraid. So I put a treat on top of the ball. Enjoy this video of my crazy Daisy trying desperately to get a treat off the exercise ball that she is so ridiculously afraid of ;)

Here is just another fun video of my alien belly in action. Most of the movement is right at the beginning and you can even hear me groan because his movements are getting to be a bit on the painful side! I think Henry is already camera shy because any time I pick up the camera he settles down. Hmmm maybe I should keep the camera by my bed at night. That seems to be when he is most active and maybe if I try to film his antics at night, he'll stop and I'll be able to sleep! Just a thought ;)

Done with work

Today was my last official day of work for the school year. There are nine days left but since I am due on Thursday, I decided to take the next two weeks off... just in case! I've literally had nightmares that my water will break while I'm walking my kids to lunch! I feel like I have gone just about as far as I can go. I have taught every standard, assessed every objective, tested these kids to death, got all my grading and report cards done so the kids really won't be missing anything the last two weeks. Plus, I was fortunate enough to have an awesome teacher take over for me, thanks Michelle!!! I'm pretty damn proud of how long I was able to make it. This school year, I will have taken a grand total of 12 1/2 days off!!! That's it! I took one sick day when I got food poisoning, one birthday day to celebrate my birthday, one half day to go see my nephew when he was born and ten days of maternity leave. There are some people who take more time off and are NOT pregnant so forgive me if I break my arm patting my own back here ;) GO ME!!! Now, I'm pretty sure that Henry will NOT be arriving next week but it will be nice to have some time off to prepare. You all know how I like to be prepared! I'm just bummed I can't plan for EXACTLY when he will come. James and I have a bet going, he is sure Henry will come on the 20th or before. I'm thinking he won't be coming until later... way later. I'm thinking I may have to be induced. In which case he wouldn't be here until like the 28th! We aren't betting anything monetary cuz what would the point of that be, that's no fun! We are betting the only thing that new parents have to barter with... dirty diapers! ;) While I am hoping that James is right, I'll at least have some silver lining when Henry decides to come late!

In an effort to be fully informed, I've been reading up on all the ways to get the baby to drop and labor to begin. Some I will not mention and some I will NEVER be trying out! A few that I have and will be doing are walking and swimming. Our pool is finally warm enough for me to swim in. So every night, I throw on my bikini (yes it still fits! whoo-hoo!) and go float in the pool for a while. It feels AWESOME on my feet and my back. I just hope it is working! Enjoy my 39 week bikini belly pics :)

Jeez that is one white belly!

Look how big Henry is!

Now all I have to do is wait. Sounds easy right???

My first Mother's Day

Happy Mother's day! Here are some pics from my very first Mother's day!

My 38 week belly pics. Oh and my new mom do ;)

My very first Mother's day gift. I got this adorable diamond baby bootie from my mom. Made me a little weepy to think that MY mom gave ME a gift on Mother's day!

Here's my mom with her first grandson, Sean.

Awwwww!

My brother Chris wanted to get some practice with Sean since his wife is having a baby very soon. Check out what little Sean did as soon Chris picked him up!

Hee hee hee hee :) We all thought this was freakin' hilarious! Get used to it Chris, there will be plenty more of that coming up in a few weeks!

I'm very excited for next Mother's day :)

Belly casting

As most of you know, I am a huge reality TV junkie. Well, I had seen something interesting on this episode of Kendra that I really wanted to try. Kendra was just about to have her baby but first she wanted to make a cast of her belly to remember what it looked like all big and pregnant! I mentioned this to James a while ago since we are getting close to baby boy's due date. I didn't think he would go for it, but he was all for it! He even went to Michael's to get the necessary supplies! Michael's and I don't get along too well ;) I was a little afraid that we wouldn't be able to pull this off, it seemed complicated and messy but James handled it like a pro. If you are pregnant and want to try this, it's not too difficult. I'm really glad we did it! Here's all you have to do:

* Buy some pre-plastered strips from Michael's. They are not too expensive.

* Strip down to your skivvies and cover the floor and a chair, it is going to get messy.

* Cover the areas you choose to cast with a thin layer of petroleum jelly. You can do just your belly or you can do your belly and your boobs. We chose the latter. The jelly is messy but prevents the plaster from sticking to you and hurting when you pull it off.

* Cut the strips to size, dip in water and lay flat on the skin. Start from the top and work down covering in a few layers. You only need to go about half way around your body to create the cast.

* It dries quickly so work fast! It only takes about ten minutes for it to dry and then you can pull it off and let it dry off your body for a good half hour.

* You can sand and decorate it if you wish, we haven't gotten that far yet ;)

* Clean up! It takes a while to get all the plaster and jelly off the belly! But my belly felt really soft and smooth after!

* Enjoy your big belly cast!

We took some fun pics during the drying process and I wasn't going to share them on the blog because I'm basically naked but really, everything is covered and I have shared everything else on here so why not this? Please enjoy my belly casting pics :)

Sexy, yes?

Daisy is wondering just what in the world is going on here!

So there you have it, a 38 week belly cast! I'm not sure exactly what we are going to do with it now but we'll figure it out. I wonder how Henry will feel about all this ;)

A brand new car!!!!!!

Well, new for me anyway! After we finally got little Henry a carseat (thanks Ami!), James tried installing it in the backseat of my car. It fit... barely. It looked so cramped back there with barely enough room for the carseat. I had been contemplating getting a new car for a while now. My mom had been telling me I'd like a car a bit higher up so it would be easier to get the baby in and out of and I'd probably want more room and storage for all the stuff that goes along with the baby! So on our ditch-day yesterday, James and I went to Desert Toyota. Yes, I got another Toyota despite the problems they've been having, they are still awesome cars! It didn't take us long to decide on what we wanted. I knew I didn't want another car, I absolutely didn't want a mini-van, an SUV seemed a bit too big right now so that left what I refer to as the mini-SUVs ;) We settled on a Rav-4. It's a pearl-white, 2006, V-6, 4-door, with tons of storage and a giant easy-open hatchback. Now I'm not sure what half of that means but it sure is cute! Picking out the car was the easy part... getting financing and all that jazz took much longer. Nearly three hours later, we rolled out of the parking lot in our new wheels! I miss my little car but I LOVE my new car! I know that it is bigger, safer and will be much better for my little boy :) Here are some pics of my birthday/mother's day present.

It looks HUGE in the garage! So not used to this big of a car.

And what is that I see in the backseat??? A baby carseat! Isn't that adorable? I have a carseat in my car! I'm still not sure exactly where to put it. It seems roomier to put in the middle but would it maybe be easier to get in and out of on the side? Input please :)

Ok now I think I am really, really ready! I have just about everything I could ever possibly need (hopefully) for my baby boy :) You can come any day now Henry!!!

Officially full term!!!

This past Thursday marked 37 weeks of my pregnancy! This officially put me at full-term!!! Which means, baby Henry can come any day now! While I am happy to have come this far with so few problems, I am very scared for the next part. However, I'm so ready to have this baby. I know that I will miss being pregnant so I am desperately trying to enjoy my last few weeks of pregnancy. I just cannot wait to meet my little boy :) I feel like I have been pregnant FOREVER and I'd just really like to be done with the pregnancy part so I can do the mom part. I get so excited when I think about meeting Henry! Who will he look like? Will he have my eyes? Will he have James's smile? Will he have his mommy's feisty personality? Will he have his daddy's laugh? Will he get the hiccups just as much when he gets out as he has for the past few months? ;) At my last Dr visit the baby was measuring about 6 lbs and 13 oz! Big boy so far! If I go for three more weeks, Henry will end up being close to or over 8 lbs! Yikes! That's a bit scary. I'm not sure just how much bigger he can get, he has no where else to go! Check out this belly!!!

A few weeks back I did a post about all the things that are different now that I'm pregnant. Well now that I'm even MORE pregnant (like that's possible!) there are a few more things I can add to the list... So you know you are FULL-TERM pregnant when...

* You do anything and everything to get the baby to come on out. Including but not limited to: walking excessive amounts everyday, eating spicy foods, bouncing on an exercise ball, etc.

* EVERYTHING requires effort. Not just difficult things like, teaching, cleaning, getting up from the floor, etc. But things you would NEVER think are difficult, like, sitting down and SLEEPING!!! Sleeping is difficult! Who would have ever thought that sleeping would require effort!

* Your ankles are the size of Sequoia tree trunks! My feet started swelling a few weeks ago and I got a couple of cheap pairs of shoes from Payless. Now even those shoes don't fit! My feet and ankles are now the barometer for whether or not I can do anything. Example: Hey Sarah, want to go to Target after school today? Hmm let me check my ankles? ;)

* Just when you think you have had every pregnancy symptom in the book, something pops up to surprise you. I thought everything that could possible hurt on me has hurt from my boobs to my feet and everything in between. Now there are pains coming from places I didn't even know existed! Fun!

* You have never been so excited to meet a person in your entire life! All I think about it is meeting my little boy. I cannot wait :)

Now we get to see who is right on my poll. It's been up for a while now but if you have not voted on when you think the baby will come, please vote now. It hopefully won't be much longer. Everyone at school seems to think I'll have the baby early. James thinks he'll come right on time. I think he'll come late. So when will it be????