36 Weeks!

How about a 7 Quick Takes Friday?

~~1~~

at Monday's appt

Thurs at the hospital

Today I'm 36 weeks! I'm so grateful to be nearly full-term and hopeful that if baby was born now he wouldn't need much, if any, time in the NICU. Making it another week would be great, since the last two babies have both been born at 37 weeks and were totally healthy! I had an ultrasound on Monday where he looked great (although his cord was still around his neck), and another NST at the hospital yesterday which also showed normal reactivity. I'll go in again this coming Monday, and I'm hoping that maybe by the end of next week we'll have a baby here, so we can be home for Thanksgiving and so I won't be worried about my OB not being available on Thanksgiving Day! If all goes well, we might actually even host Thanksgiving for Steven's family that Friday. It was fun having everyone over last year, and although I may spend much of Thanksgiving in bed recovering, it would be nice to share the meal with everyone.

~~2~~

Katie's favorite books in my bed

Bed rest is hard. The last time I was on bed rest was when I was pregnant with Mary Clare, so I didn't have other children to care for, to teach, or to continually make messes that I can't clean up. The messy house can be really frustrating for a pregnant, nesting mama.  We've spent some time on the weekends doing some major purging and cleaning, finding and washing the baby gear, and last weekend even braving the boys' room...a cleaning project which took nearly two hours with four of us working! This weekend I'd like to clean the playroom (which is almost as bad) and start sorting the boys' clothes. There are about four overflowing laundry baskets in the hallway, plus clothes in their room, which need to be folded and organized. I've also got my eye out for a dresser for Katie (her clothes are stuffed on changing table shelves in our closet) and a bunk bed so that we can put Katie in Ellie's room. She's so attached to me right now, mores than even a few months ago, so I'm hoping she handles the new baby's arrival okay.

~~3~~

Steven and PaPa have been SuperDad and SuperGrandpa! My dad has been taking the girls to ballet several days a week, and he sometimes takes the boys to baseball. Steven attends all the practices and games, and does all the ballet pick-ups, while also working long hours and taking some road trips for work these past few weeks. We've also had some kind friends step in to help, or to offer, to give rides. I had hoped the baseball season would be over last weekend, but alas both boys had make-up games this week, Steven Joseph had a play-off game last night (which they won!), and now both have play-off games tomorrow. Neverending baseball over here!

~~4~~

All the baby gear is ready! We've washed the swing and rocking seat, all the tiny boy clothes, the blankets, socks, and burp cloths. I've ordered a few outfits and blankets, a cute bath towel, some new cloth diaper burp cloths, a new car seat, and a new diaper bag! I am loving my first JuJuBe diaper bag/backpack, and I just got it loaded up. It was time to move on from the pink floral Vera Bradley bag with its broken zipper. It's been well-loved! 

Up until now we've used cloth diapers that were given to me as gifts before Mary Clare was born! First they were actual diapers for the first few kids, then they were burp cloths and later became rags to clean up spills around the house. So it was time for a new set of those. Then we had a little car seat fiasco. I bought a really cool travel system last time at a huge discount because it was being discontinued. Unfortunately some kind of rodent got into the car seat in the garage a few months ago. I tried to get replacement parts, and Graco was kind enough to send them for free, but they didn't fit. I've searched for hours for the same car seat, but cannot find it. So I ended up ordering a new car seat that I'm hoping (after lots of research) will still fit into the stroller frame. It should arrive tomorrow. I do use the car seat clicked into a stroller a lot during the first year, so if this one isn't compatible I may just start over with a different seat and stroller.  Silly problems that aren't that big of a deal, but it's kept me busy while resting these past few weeks.

~~5~~

Ice, ice, and more ice! I have a major ice craving during the last trimester of my pregnancies. We've realized that you can buy big bags of ice from Sonic, and I go through about two a week. Normally, I have a big appetite and a weakness for fast food and fatty foods. But these past few weeks, my heartburn is so bad that I can't really eat much. I'm eating about 1 1/2 actual meals a day, and I can't eat much at night or I won't be able to sleep. So it's ice all day, and thankfully I've had almost zero weight gain in the last month or two because I was already so huge this time around!

My poor family is dealing with hunger since I can't grocery stop, stand for long periods of time to cook, and I don't have an appetite, especially at dinner time. They're subsisting on frozen pizzas, frozen nuggets, quesadillas, and a lot of chips! I know I'll need to take it easy after the baby is born, and we're always graced with generous friends bringing meals, but I'm definitely looking forward to being able to do a bit of cooking and cleaning again once I'm up for it. Oh, and exercising, I've really missed that!

~~6~~

The election. Whoa, what a week. My dad took me out to vote on Tuesday morning (I think we were gone for 10 minutes; love our little city!). Then Steven and I were shocked as we watched the results come in on Tuesday night. I finally fell asleep around 1am, but Steven stayed watching coverage until about 2:30am before leaving on a business trip early the next morning. Although we were not thrilled with the voting choices we had this time around, as conservative pro-life Catholics we are grateful that Hillary did not win. 

So our feelings are of relief and uncertainty about President-elect Trump, but we are also prayerful and hopeful. It's been quite scary to watch and read about what's going on around our country this week though. Facebook has been a mess of words, images, videos, and negativity, and I'm trying to really take a step away from that today. I am sad for the people who are so upset by the results that it is keeping them from functioning in normal life. I can't say I fully grasp what that means, because we have known disappointment in previous elections and yet still moved forward in prayer and hope. But I know many of these citizens don't have a faith in God to fall back on, and/or they have a true and deep fear for our country, so this is more than they can handle. My heart and prayers go out to them. 

~~7~~

Homeschool. It's also quite difficult to homeschool while on bed rest and as the weather becomes so nice for outside play! One child in particular is fighting doing work all day long. I try to do things from the couch, sit with them on my bed and do work, and sometimes even venture to the schoolroom for a bit until sitting in the chairs makes me crampy. I'm glad we have the online courses, grading, and teacher assistance through MODG so that the girls can stay on track. It's also nice to have checklists for each day that I print from the website. We've just finished Week 11 in most subjects and will hopefully get about another month in before Christmas break. So far, so good. While it's difficult, I'm definitely grateful to homeschool during times like this. The kids are having to spend a lot of time at home, but we're growing as a family and are all very much looking forward to meeting our newest member!

More Quick Takes over HERE with Kelly!