39 weeks! Only a few more days!

Whew we made it another week. I know I keep saying it but after 15 weeks of pre-term labor, 12 weeks of bed rest, 8 l&d trips I am floored that this little girl is determined to stay in. But in saying that I know better than to expect anything less from my body and my kids! lol We apparently LOVE to do things difficult. I had my weekly OB appt on Tuesday. I was REALLY excited for this appt b/c my regular OB was finally back from a month long overseas mission to Vietnam. Of course I knew he was going to laugh when he saw me still pregnant but be thrilled we made it this far. He had also promised me that if we made it this far they would induce me after 39 weeks so I don't have to keep waiting around in pain contracting wondering when this little girl would arrive. At my check I am still the same for effacement (70-80% depending on who does it) and am now 3cm. I was a little disappointed to not have progressed more with how I have been feeling but ANY progression is better than none at this point, and it's less I'll have to do while in labor, so i'll take it! 


He did schedule induction. We were hoping for Friday(at 39 weeks exactly) but he needs to be on when the do it, since he can't pawn me off on one of the other drs. Which I totally understand, but being told it was another week definitely hurt a little.  So we are all set for induction on Tuesday!  I still have my weekly appt that afternoon and we head over to Cooper to get things going at 4pm. Hopefully by the time we register and get set up they can get the cervadil in by 6. I was hoping that we could skip that part since it goes in for 12 hours since i'm already fairly thinned out and 3cm dilated, but the dr said that he would rather do it in hopes that it'll dilate me more and get me fully effaced before we start Pitocin Wednesday morning. In other words in hopes that it'll minimize the amount of Pitocin that is needed to get things going and get me fully dilated. Although I'm not looking forward to an extra night in the hospital if there is a chance that we can minimize Pitocin I am all for it. After my labor/birth experience with Brayden and having 2 non working epidurals, I can honestly say i am TERRIFIED of the Pitocin. Here's hoping this time my epidural works and we will be golden! Plus the 'condition' of my cervix is the opposite of when  I was induced with Brayden so we have that in our favor!


So we are hoping Bella makes her big debut on Wednesday!! I am beyond excited and anxious to meet her. I can't wait for Brayden to meet his little sister, he is going to be great with her. We did get him some presents as a big brother gift to give him at the hospital from Bella so i'm sure he will be excited for that too! I am still nervous about how Brayden is going to do with this big adjustment in the long run.  He is very mommy-centric and I'm sure once Jason goes back to work we are going to have to deal with some major jealousy issues. Not that I'm happy he's currently going through a fever episode but I'm glad its out of the way RIGHT before Bella arrives so that we don't have to worry about one for at least a few weeks. The episodes are hard enough on him let alone throwing a new sibling on top of it.  This will actually be the first time I have been away from him overnight. I think I will have a harder time than he will! lol  Fortunately my mom is going to be taking care of him and is going to bring him to our house to sleep so that he isn't even more disrupted by things with us not being around. Once Bella is born Jason is going to come home at night to be with him.  


In the mean time I am hoping and praying that this girl decides to make her appearance on her own. Mentally I think i have resolved myself to the fact that we WILL be induced, to make the wait a little easier. I feel bad being so impatient about things. I felt like I had so much more patience when I was pregnant with Brayden but I wasn't in pain for 15 weeks contracting like this time, so I think I'm entitled to be "done" lol  

How far along? 39 weeks!  I still can't believe after everything we made it this far :) 

Total weight gain/loss: lost 10, gained 25- shes head down

Sleep: not sleeping well b/c of the contractions and cramping, lovely pregnancy insomnia, tossing and turning, sciatic pain, hot flashes and having to pee a lot, restless leg pain

How big is baby? prob about 7.5+ lbs: about the size of a watermelon

Movement: she is head down and tends to favor laying on her left side, so i'm always getting kicked and punched on my right side, this little girls is STRONG :) The last few days her movement has dramatically decreased, hopefully it means good things to come, Bray was giant and he never slowed down with his movement so who knows! 

Symptoms: preterm contractions, menstral like cramps, exhausted, intense cervical pressure, restless legs, vericose vein pain, sciatica pain, reflux even with meds

Symptoms I DON'T have: nausea

Food cravings: chocolate milk, cherries

Food aversions: none this week

Gender:GIRL! * ~ Bella ~ *

Labor Signs:  LOTS of contractions, menstrual like cramps, and intense cervical pressure, 80% effaced and 3 cm dilated

Belly Button in or out?  in 

What I miss: not making 100 bathroom trips lol 

What I am looking forward to: meeting this little girl!!! 

DIY Coat Rack!

Our home is older and just plain sucks with the lack of closets and other places to put things and keep things organized. With 2 kids we definitely need more closet space for coats, hats and anything you can imagine.  I saw some really cute inspiration pieces on Pinterest and decided to make my own wall mounted coat rack to put behind the door in the kids room. The door opens in to a corner type cubby so I figured it would be the perfect pace to make a useful space.  Now that the coat rack is finished, I'm not sure if I want to put it behind the door b/c it is SO cute! lol It was actually pretty easy over all, I took some basic pics as I went for guidance if you feel inspired to make your own. After making this I really want to make a mini fabric covered hook thing for the front door to hang keys and all. Especially since we don't have an entry way, I think it would be cute to hang under the light switches.

I chose damask fabric (big surprise). Which doesn't exactly match either of the kids themes but I figured it's the colors I needed and it'll look cute and "eclectic" if anything. lol The room is mainly turquoise. The wood is a espresso so I thought the two would pop on the walls. Brayden's wall still needs to be painted. His wall will have the turquoise with white and darker turquoise horizontal stripes. It'll be cute when it's finished. Just finding a time to paint so his room can air out has been harder than we anticipated. 

I started with a long piece of wood. You can do different shapes, widths ext. to fit what you're looking for. I needed something about 20-24 inches wide that was narrower and wanted 4 knobs. I drew on my wood (since I was covering it) to figure out the spacing for the hooks. We did the 6" standard spacing b/w knobs and 2.5" extra space on the sides.  

You'll also need:

- saw to cut the wood to length

- sandpaper to soften the edges

- dill with bits to pre-drill screw holes

- fabric in desired print to fit wood size you selected 

- modge podge or spray ahdesive (i prefer modge podge b/c i have more control over it vs a spray)

- screw driver

- # knobs or hooks to fit the look you're going for (I did 2 girly and 2 boyish knobs)

- Optional* construction staple gun. ( i found it was easier to wrap and finish off the ends with the stapler and secure the fabric after it was glued around the edges on the back to make sure it wasn't going anywhere)

- mountable triangle hooks for the back to hang it on the wall. ( i still need to do this part)

- exacto knife or blade

Pre-drill the holes for the knobs or screw holes for your hooks so you won't ruin your fabric when you attach them.  

Next, cut fabric to the size needed, allowing extra to wrap around to the back and to be able to fold over the edges.  I then spread a thin layer of modge podge on the front of the coat rack and laid out my fabric. If you're using a pattern fabric it can be a little tricky to make sure the pattern is straight. That's why i only use a thin coat of the glue so its just sticky and you can pull the fabric up and reposition it as needed.  

Follow the same procedure of glueing and laying the fabric over the edges and on to the back.  For the ends, I messed around with folding the fabric to get the look I desired. I then used the staple gun to tack it down since glue would of been a pain. I also took the staple gun and did a few staples close to the edge, down the wood to make sure the fabric wouldn't go anywhere.  Make sure when u wrap the fabric you don't cover the holes on the BACK if you're using knobs so u can feed the screw through. 

After everything was glues and tacked in to place I used my exacto knife to poke thru the fabric where I pre-drilled my screw holes. This way I could feed the screws through the back to the front to screw the knobs on.  

All that is left to do is put your mounting hooks on. Depending on what you are hanging on here you could still use wall anchor screws or just nails to hang it when you're done.  Mount your triangle hooks toward the ends of your rack  on the back. Make sure you put them far enough down so that you don't see them when the rack is hanging on the wall.  I still need to do this part so I don't have pictures but hopefully you get the point.  

You can embellish and decorate your rack any way you like at this point! Enjoy! 

38 weeks! Almost there!

Its been another intense weeks of crazy contractions, back labor and pain. I'm definitely exhausted mentally and physically at his point and can't wait to meet this little girl! We have been trying EVERYTHING to get my contractions to stay regular. On their own they will get in to labor patterns and then after hours slow back down. I'm still on EPO (evening primrose oil) to keep my cervix ripe, red raspberry leaf (to help contractions stay effective), I keep walking, having sex, birthing ball, marathon nipple stimulation sessions with the pump and even castor oil. Apparently my body just isn't ready for full fledge labor but the least it could do it give me a break then and stop the pain for a little bit. I did dilate a little bit more this week. Anything is better than nothing, and she had been fully engaged hard wedged in my cervix for some time. I'll ask the ob what station she is at on Tuesday but i thought it was -1 last wed.  The ob told me they would induce at 39 weeks on the day which is next Friday so i am hoping and praying that it won't be an issue getting us in when I see him on tues! wish us luck! 

How far along? 3/ weeks!  One more week to go! 

Total weight gain/loss: lost 10, gained 23- shes head down

Sleep: not sleeping well b/c of the contractions and cramping, tossing and turning, sciatic pain, hot flashes and having to pee a lot, restless leg pain

How big is baby? prob about 7+ lbs: about the size of a pumpkin

Movement: she is head down and tends to favor laying on her left side, so i'm always getting kicked and punched on my right side, this little girls is STRONG :) 

Symptoms: preterm contractions, menstral like cramps, exhausted, intense cervical pressure, restless legs, vericose vein pain, sciatica pain, reflux even with meds

Symptoms I DON'T have: nausea

Food cravings: my home made decaf ice tea, cherries

Food aversions: none this week

Gender:GIRL! * ~ Bella ~ *

Labor Signs:  LOTS of contractions, menstral like cramps, and intense cervical pressure, 80% effaced and 2 cm dilated

Belly Button in or out?  in 

What I miss: not making 100 bathroom trips lol 

What I am looking forward to: meeting this little girl!!! 

37 weeks! I can't believe we made it full term!

I seriously can't believe we have made it to full term. Its awesome but when we started all this preterm labor stuff at 24.5 weeks I seriously thought she would have arrived by now. It's bittersweet because I want her to stay in as long as possible but the amount of pain I continue to be in with the contractions is really intense.  I think that I had prepared myself mentally that there was a chance she was going to come early so with everything I am more than ready for her arrival.  She dropped a LOT in the last week. The pressure is really intense b/c she is hard pressed against my cervix and it's making my pelvic bone a little sore. It definitely doesn't stop her from her usual punches, kicks and rolls. 

This weeks has been another roller coaster.  On Tuesday her movement dropped dramatically, to the point where I wasn't getting much if any movement from her no matter what  I did. I had a really rough day of contractions so I was chalking it up to that, but by late night (her usual beat mommy session) didn't happen I started to get worried. I woke up around 6am on wed and still wasn't feeling her move. I drank 16oz of orange juice and was poking and prodding her and barely got 3 movements. I called the on call dr and they sent me up to triage to get her checked out. Her heart rate was great, she's always in the 150's and her accelerations were good. For a little while her heart rate was really high, that said it was too high b/c it was staying b/w 190 and 200. So they kept me on the monitor to play is safe and her HR came back down.  She did start moving a little while I was there. Thank god, and they did an ultrasound and her fluid levels looked perfect.  The rest of that day she moved some but not her regular strength or pattern but she was fortunately back to normal as of yesterday.  While I was in triage the one nurse was trying to give me the "its the end of your pregnancy and sometimes movement slows b/c they're loosing space" lecture. Okay lady I know that, this is not my first child and there is a HUGE difference b/w a pattern change and slowed movement versus feeling nothing.  She wasn't rude about it but I hate when they talk to you like you're a moron. I waited almost 24 hrs to see if things changed before I even went in.  

Otherwise things have been okay. I keep having stretches where it seems like labor is starting. The contractions are timeable, consistent and getting closer over time.  But after 4-6 hrs they start to spread back out. SO frustrating. I try to not get my hopes up when it happens anymore, i think when/if I go in to labor I'm prob not going to believe it. Hopefully my water breaks b/c at least then I know it's go time.  It broke on it's on with Brayden during induction, but I guess it's wishful thinking.  


So we only have 2 more weeks to go at the most.  I am hoping and praying that I will be able to avoid induction (39 weeks) but so far nothing we have done has helped things to progress. Seems kinda backwards since we've been trying so hard to keep her in, but we all know I do things difficult. lol Guess we will see what she has in store for us! Even the ob told her that once I hit 37 weeks it's time to make her debut! Hopefully she gets the message :) 

How far along? 37 weeks!  We made it to FULL TERM! 

Total weight gain/loss: lost 10, gained 21- shes head down

Sleep: not sleeping well b/c of the contractions and cramping, tossing and turning, sciatic pain, hot flashes and having to pee a lot, restless leg pain

How big is baby? prob about 6.5-7 lbs: about the size of a little watermelon

Best moment this week: making it to full term! 

Movement: she is head down and tends to favor laying on her left side, so i'm always getting kicked and punched on my right side, this little girls is STRONG :) 

Symptoms: preterm contractions, menstral like cramps, exhausted, intense cervical pressure, restless legs, vericose vein pain, sciatica pain, reflux even with meds

Symptoms I DON'T have: nausea

Food cravings: my home made decaf ice tea, brownies

Food aversions: none this week

Gender:GIRL! * ~ Bella ~ *

Labor Signs:  LOTS of contractions, menstral like cramps, and intense cervical pressure, 80% effaced and 2 cm dilated

Belly Button in or out?  in 

What I miss: not making 100 bathroom trips lol 

What I am looking forward to: meeting this little girl!!!