Christmas and more

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you had just as wonderful of a day as we did here. No, baby still is not here but at least I got to stay home and be with the family. :)

Just a quick update on baby, before I get into our Christmas pictures and fun. I went in for my next doc appointment today. Even though doc was surprised to see that I didnt have the baby over the holiday, she says everything is progressing still. I guess it's just a super long early labor. LOL She said when time comes and labor does hit, it'll probably be nice and quick - one can hope, right? She says that I'm ready to go, dilated some more even since last time I went in, just waiting on that magical moment for everything to be kicked into gear. She also offered, if I wanted, she would make the call, and I can go into the hospital tomorrow and they'll induce me. As uncomfortable as I am, I really want to avoid all that. I really don't want to be strapped in to the bed being induced. So I have decided to wait until Monday, go in for another appointment and see how things are then. The doctor is also happy with that. She said there's really no reason to induce other than for my own personal sanity (lol). The baby is doing fine, heart beat is perfect and I'm progressing steadily, with any luck the baby will come over the weekend (sigh, heard that before). She did another membrane sweep (again OUCH!!) and sent us on our way. I've been really crampy and contraction-y (is that a word?) since we've been home so.... who knows?!

OK!!! So back to Christmas!

The boys - all of us - had a wonderful Christmas! Thank you all for the gifts you sent! Santa brought them both scooters to ride around outside and brought the family a PS3 to play together. Unfortunately the scooters havent had a chance to be broken in because we've been rained on the past few days and now Ry has a head cold. But maybe tomorrow if Ry's feeling better. Sean's been pre-occupied with his video games (boys!!) and isnt much interested in going outside unless Ryan will be out there.

Sean's also been playing a lot with his WWE Wrestling figures and ring. He just loves those guys. And one of Ryan's favorite toys he got was a Whoopie Cushion from Nana and Pop pop. He is constantly blowing it up and then asking whoever's closest to stand up so he can "do something" (ie put the cushion under your seat).

Here are some pictures of the boys enjoying Christmas! I hope you enjoy them too. Merry Christmas everyone! :D (again, click on the pictures for a bigger, better view)

I love Ryan's face in this one, he REALLY wanted a BumbleBee Transformer!

Sean loves his Wrestling guys!!

Positive thinking

OK! I'm trying to stay positive here so I'm going to make a list of reasons why it's a good thing that I'm still pregnant.

• Looks like I'll be home for Christmas. LOL
• I can take long soaking baths without having to hurry up and get out for baby's (or Dennis's) sake
• I can still enjoy pie, egg nog, and christmas cookies guilt-free
• Laundry has an excuse to pile up- I hate doing laundry!
• I have an excuse for my absent mind - shh there's no need to mention my mind has been absent long before I was pregnant.
• I can sleep in... kind of....
• Dennis and I can have "together" time after shoving the kiddos to bed. And if they wake up we can say "go back to bed!" without 30min feeding and changings. LOL

Well that's all I can think of for now. It's a measly list, especially compared to the "other" side of the argument, but I'm trying to stay positive right?!

Now I'm off to make some dough for Christmas cookies so the boys can come down and help cut. They're both already at each other's throats from being around each other too long.

Light at the end of the tunnel

Today was my doctor's appointment. I'm now supposed to be going to see her everyday until baby arrives (minus Christmas eve and Christmas of course). My next appt will be on the 26th. I told her all about my adventures on Sunday and when she did the exam it seems it was not all for naught. They dont really tell you as much in detail about things in the doc's office over here as much as they do in the states - like how many centimeters, effacement, etc. But she said Sunday made a lot of progress, she can get 2 fingers through, according to what I've read that means anywhere from 2-4 centimeters. She also said she doesnt expect to see me on the 26th - of course, she also said she was surprised that I was there today. LOL She swept my membranes as well, (ouch!!) so hopefully that might move things along. Oh! I also had a few contractions register on the monitor, just little ones ;) but it made me feel better to see them because I was beginning to think I was just imagining things LOL.

I'm at the point now that I dont care if I end up having to be in the hospital on Christmas BUT I dont want the boys to have to spend Christmas morning at their friend's house. At least let them be home for that, even if I'm not here. They're a little concerned about that as well but they've been good sports. They've been so sweet, they keep coming up and hugging my belly and telling baby to come out. HAHA!

So come on baby! You have tonight and some of tomorrow to get things going. Let's GO!

Well I'm fixing Chicken noodle soup tonight... yum! So I better go tend to that. :)

NOT FAIR!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm sorry to say, if you read the previous post, that it doesnt look like the baby will be here tonight... and who knows when.

Around 1030 this morning my 5 min apart contractions that I had been having since around 3am suddenly stopped. Of course this was after we had already sent the boys over to our friend's so they could make it to church. They were planned to sing infront of everyone and do a pagent story - Dennis and I missed it.

I'm very upset and not very happy right now but I will keep you informed if there's any changes.

Labor?????

I think I'm actually in labor!!!

It's just after 6am here and I have been up since about 3ish with contractions. I had been having uncomfortableness since last night but just shrugged it off as the normal false labor stuff. But early this morning they were keeping me up big time. I decided to get up and come downstairs around 4am and drink some water and start timing. Found a cool gaget online that you hit the space bar when your contraction starts and stops and it records how long and how far apart they are. They have been 5 mins apart since 4:15am. Still not time to got to the hospital but they are increasing in intensity especially the ones in the last 1/2 hour. I've been laying here on the couch trying to rest and listening to my Enya cds lol. Sleep isnt possible though.

I think I'm going to go take a shower and then go back to laying down. Hopefully by tonight we will have baby here. Of course, if labor stops and I've jynxed myself by posting this, then I'll update you all - probably will have a lot of anger in that post. ROFL! But we will keep you informed regardless!

Yay, thank you Jesus for this labor finally being here!!!

OH!!!!! PS Speaking of Enya. I found they have a new Christmas CD out and they are (or were) giving a free song on iTunes. It's O Come Emmanuel. It's got to be the most beautiful version of that song I've ever heard. It sounds like Angels singing! You have to listen to it, even if you're not a big Enya fan like I am. LOL

Impatient

That's it! I feel like I'm the last pregnant woman left and everyone else has had their babies. Look over at my ticker on the left. See!!! even that has had it's baby!!! Once it clicked over to 41weeks the baby disappeared in the little bubble *sob*.

The Duggers? Do you know who they are? They are a family on a TV reality show with (now) 18 children. SHE had her 18th baby!!!!

Remember the missionaries we had stay with us for Thanksgiving? I just received an email from them saying the 2nd pregnant lady at their church has had her baby. How about us? (if you dont remember the first lady at their church had her baby over that Thanksgiving weekend - they were both due around the same time I am).

I was pretty depressed last night after reading all this news. Though, don't get me wrong, I am happy for them... I just am wallowing in self-pity at the same time. I started thinking about Mary, Jesus's mother, did she have these feelings, anxieties? Of course, she probably handled them much better than I have been. But here she was, 9months pregnant (more or less), and her husband gets notice that he has to travel for some silly census. This isnt just hop in the car and drive a few hours to the next city, this is days on a DONKEY!! Can you imagine? my back hurts just thinking about it. Was she praying, "Lord, can the baby please just come now before we leave?" I'm sure she was fully aware of how hard the trip would be. Here, I complain about making a trip to the commissary. But no, she had to wait, for everything to fall into place perfectly for the perfect time and perfect place. I need to take a lesson from that and stop being so impatient.

Happy Birthday Ryan!

Today, our cuddly lil Ryan turned 6 years old! I cant believe it's already been 6 years!!

He had a great day today. It just so happens to be the last day of school before Christmas break and his teacher also threw a party today for all the kids with December Birthdays in his class. They got to watch movies and eat popcorn!

When he got home, he got to open all his pressies. Thank you for all the ones that you sent. He's been having fun all night tonight playing with his new toys with his brother.

Tonight we've been watching Christmas specials that are on tv. The Christmas Story - you know, "You'll shoot your eye out kid" - was one of them. It hit me tonight how much that movie reminds me of the boys. Especially since Sean is around Ralphy's age. HAHA! I guess, boys will be boys!

Anyway, here are some pictures of Ryan and Sean opening presents and blowing out candles. I love the shot of Ryan blowing out the candles on his cake! Puffed out cheeks and all!

Nothing to report

Well the doctor's appointment today was a big ol' let down. LOL Nothing new to report... no progress, nothing new. Baby is healthy and fine though so that's good. And we got to see him/her on the ultrasound. Doc even tried to look for the baby's sex for some ounce of good news but alas, it's still a secret. Sigh! So Dennis and I went to base and I drowned my sorrows in some Pizza hut, which I havent had in months YUM! lol

On a more positive note, Sean is feeling MUCH better and even made it to school today. He almost didnt go because he didnt feel well early this morning still but I knew it was because he basically hasnt had anything in his tummy for days. We kept him home, fed him some bananas and some breakfast and he felt much better. On the way to my doc appointment, we swung by and dropped him off at school. He made it just in time for the cookie decorating. Coincidentally (or not) Sean's 3rd grade class has been partnered up with Ryan's kindergarden class, so they do activities together. For instance, Sean's class goes to Ryan's and they read books together, etc. Today they all decorated gingerbread men.

Forever pregnant

I'm beginning to think I'm never going to have this baby. We all think that at some point, dont we?

What a predicament we are in now though. Sean has been sick since Sunday. He's got some sort of stomach bug. He's acting normal, no fever, no listlessness, no normal signs of sickness other than vomitting and diarrhea (sorry). So now I'm at the point of praying for my contractions to stay away, you can imagine how painful that is to do. Especially since the baby is putting some severe pressure on me. I cant even stay standing up for longer than a few mins without being in tears.

We thought Sean was all better last night. He was bouncing around despite our pleas to for him to sit still. He hadnt been sick since the morning, he was EATING. Sure enough, bedtime comes around and not an hour later he was sick again and this morning too. I just got done bleaching down the bathroom and I'm PRAYING none of the rest of us get this bug, whatever it is.

I really dont know what to do if I go into labor. The lady that is going to watch the boys for us has 4 children that she homeschools, I'm sure she doesnt want this in her house.

Thank God that He gave Dennis the insight to take off this week, despite my protests. I dont know what I'd do trying to do all this by myself.

Pouting...

False labor is the pits!! An evil tease that gets your hopes up and then laughs in your face as it disappears. The only positive I keep trying to hold on to is that hopefully it's making even more progress so that when the real thing comes along, baby will be out quickly. Of course, hopefully not too quickly because we have decided to switch to a different hospital to deliver at, after talking to a few people. Dennis has off next week so we're going to try and arrange a hospital tour so we can see for ourselves. The hospital we were going to go to is closer (by about 20mins closer than the other) but we've been told they put 3 women to a room and there's no privacy curtains at all.

This other hospital that we're going to try and make it to. Though it's a 40-45 min drive through the heart of the city (without traffic), they give a max of 2 people to a room and try and give you your own room. AND if you are sharing a room, there is a privacy curtain. This is the main hospital in the area too so they have the biggest facility and most available. They even have a kids play room your other children. I'm just not overly confident that we can make it to that hospital. Especially as easily as we get lost here. LOL But, over here you dont have to pre-register at a hospital so we can just call it by ear and go to the closer one or try and make it to the further one when the time comes.

We're not going to church today. Sean woke up with a big tummy ache. HEY!! tummy aches are supposed to be OVER HERE!! Not OVER THERE!! LOL

On Friday, we had a Christmas party at church. We did a gift exchange for the children - they loved that and then did a "white elephant" gift exchange for the adults. Basically every adult brings in a gift and anonymously puts the wrapped gift on the table. There is one gift - in our case "the duck" - that is the gag gift and has to be returned next year. You can either choose a gift from the table to open or steal a gift that another person has. It was great fun!! There was a really pretty tea pot that everyone was fighting over. LOL And all the men were fighting over the tools. Dennis came home with a nice set of tools and I got a pretty candle with a lamp top. We had a great time! Took lots of pictures but of course I have misplaced my battery charger and cant get the pictures off the camera. HAHA!! Dont worry though, we arent planning on using that camera when baby decides to make an appearance. :)

Walking in a Winter Wonderland...

This snow is REALLY coming down and there's just no sign of it stopping. It's been snowing nonstop since early Weds (yesterday) morning. It looks like we have about 5 inches out there now. It's forecasted that we're going to have about 6in by the end of the day but I think we'll have more than that, it's only just past noon now.

I took these pictures this morning after getting the boys out to school. The sun was only just coming up. We have much more than this out there now.

Yes, you read that right, the boys are in school today. I keep checking the website to see if they'll be released early but no go so far. I'm really not very happy about them traveling on a bus for an hour in this weather. It's supposed to continue snowing through tonight and all day tomorrow too. I'm going to have to seriously think on whether I'm going to send them to school tomorrow, especially if the weather is still this bad.



I have to admit though, as much as I hate the weather being so bad I do love how beautiful it all looks.

Man! and it's only December! I dont really want to think about how Jan/Feb are going to be like. LOL

Progress!!

I'm going to try and keep this short and sweet and then go take a "lay down" before the boys get home. I didnt get any sleep last night thanks to my mind racing a million miles per hour worrying about getting Ry's Birthday and Christmas done before baby arrives.

Just got back from the doctor's appointment. Everything is good! Best news of all, we have dilation!! LOL She said she was actually able to feel the baby's head. :D Of course, we know that it doesnt mean much as far as how soon the baby will arrive but progress is progress! I'm just glad to hear that all that discomfort and nausea was actually doing something.

It's been snowing here all day. Hasnt let up at all. It looks like a winter wonderland. Unfortunately, I think it'd take a blizzard to get the kids out of school but hopefully they got to play in it at recess.

Well, I'm off to close my eyes for a minute before the boys come charging through the house.

Some pictures while we wait...

Still no baby yet. sigh! I thought for sure the other night was going to be the night. I was nauseous and crampy and all around feeling no good, but alas suddenly everything stopped and I was back to my old self again - kinda. What a let down. Two Sundays ago there was a birth from one of the mission churches, yesterday, the other lady at our church gave birth to her baby... so maybe next Sunday is my Sunday?! who knows....

Anyway, to hold us over, I finally got around to uploading the pictures we took of the boys singing on Thanksgiving at church. As you can tell from the picture, they are thrilled to be up there LOL! They had a good time LOL. The little boy that's standing next to Ryan (blonde hair) is their little friend they're always playing with. And the littlest boy in the picture (next to Sean) wasnt technically a part of the "show"but he gave us a very entertaining dance while all the kids were singing. HAHA!




I also wanted to show off some of the things I just finished making for the baby. First is the baby blanket. I'm so happy the way this turned out. It's an Irish Rose crochet pattern I found online.


And this knit sweater I literally just finished a few minutes ago. I haven't decided on whether I'm going to put edging or buttons on it yet but for now, it's done. I actually only had a pattern for the hat but after I made the hat, I loved the way it looked and felt so I adapted the pattern and made it into a matching sweater. If the baby DOES end up being a girl, I'm going to crochet a few pink flowers and put it on the sweater to "girl" it up a bit :)


Oh yah! and that pattern I posted a long while ago. The one I said I wanted to make for the baby... that's not going to happen. After fighting with the double pointed needles and several temper tantrums later, I gave up. HAHA! Knitting is supposed to be my relaxing hobby. :)

Weekly Doctor update...

Well there's not too much to report other than the baby is doing great. Doc did a measurement ultrasound again and NOW baby is measuring on time and at a normal size - 7lbs-ish. She said though that the u/s isnt accurate at this point because the baby is too big to really get a good measurement. And there's no dialation on my part, no real labor progress. :( I was hoping for at least some glimmer of hope that this was coming to an end soon - other than a calendar date. I am so ready to be done. I'm soooo uncomfortable and tired of feeling like I pigged out at a feast and pee'ing every 5 mins. LOL

We're expecting snow tonight and tomorrow. I'm hoping it's not too bad because I'm going to start walking everyday now. I have been walking some but not as regularly as I could be. I just dont want to go through what I did with Sean and him being so late... haha and I'm not even at my due date yet. I'm just demoralized by the "no dialation" news. LOL

Blood pressure was sky high at the doc appointment again today but has been fine at home so she just gave me the same instructions to keep on monitoring at home and record it in my "Mutterpass" (pregnancy record book) so when I go to the hospital on d-day they will see that it's been good at home. All my swelling in my foot is pretty much gone and the blood test they took last week came back fine, no problems.

And so we wait... I'm trying to be patient, I know God has the perfect time and perfect date set up for this baby to arrive. I just wish I knew what it was. LOL

Back to normal?

What a busy weekend!! Yes, I did take it easy, as promised. I didn't go to the Christmas Markets on Friday as painful as that was, but Dennis said that I wouldn't have made it through the whole day. They decided to go to the one in Stuttgart instead of Ludwigsburg. Supposedly the Stuttgart one is the biggest in Germany? or one of the biggest? and it was spread out throughout several areas. They didn't get back until about 7 that night. I think that's the longest I've been alone in about 8 years LOL!! I was so bored at home, I finished a baby blanket and knitting a hat, went for a walk, cleaned the house. HAHA!!

Our Missionary guests left this morning. They were so wonderful. I'm going to miss them. We're hoping to take a trip to Prague, where they work/live, to visit them after the baby comes and we have all our passports in order to travel out of country. They really lead an interesting and blessed life! They had so many wonderful stories to tell. Over on the left column of this blog, I have a list of links "Favorite Links"I put their website in there. It's called Prague Missions, if you want to click on it and are curious. I also put our Church (called "Our Church", I'm so creative LOL) link on there too. I know I talk about it a lot but never shared the link.

We got to meet other missionaries too, most of them from different cities around Germany but a few from other countries too. One of the families is in Romania. These are all American families and their children and them, out of necessity, are completely fluent in their countries language. It's really interesting learning about the lives they lead and how they are serving God. It's an amazing example of self sacrifice. I mean, we're over here with the nice cushion of the military. Have access to the commissary and "American convenience". They had to move over here with nearly anything, a very small, if at all support system, most of them with multiple children, learn the language and for the most part deal with a completely different culture.

Well, I'm left with a quiet house again. Dennis back at work, boys in school, and guests gone. I don't even know what to do with myself today... laundry? I suppose I should enjoy the peace while it lasts because it wont be much longer. Hopefully sooner than later our surprise baby will be here... these last 2 weeks (or so) will be the longest ever!! Every twinge of pain: "gasp! is that it?! Sigh, nope" Every tightening of the belly: "Is that IT!? *pout* nope" I know, when I least expect it and finally forget for a few mins that I'm waiting. :)