The big 4

Happy Birthday Henry! 4 years! Woo Hoo. I am loving this age right now. Last night I asked him what he wanted me to make for his birthday breakfast. He started talking and I started writing.

Here is Henry's birthday recipe.

1. First waffles
2. Then pancakes
3. Cups of eggs
4. Blend
5. Add 2 colors (red and yellow)
6. Then you add the frosting
7. Then that's it, that's all

Well, as you can see from the picture, he just had waffles and milk.

Too bad I'm at work today, but I'm sure he'll have a great day and then we get to go a party and then trick or treat. What a great birthday!

H Pumpkin

Faulkner's Pumpkin Farm

Henry saw a painted pumpkin that his cousin Anna did on her blog recently. She painted around a letter "A" for Anna and Henry thought it was the coolest and wanted to paint an H pumpkin for his blog! Henry and I (Aaron) went to Faulkner's Pumpkin Farm with Grammy, Poppy, Rob, Jenny, Ashley & Anna (Laura was feeling a bit under the weather and took the opportunity for a long nap). After lots of fun playing at Faulkner's (feeding animals, bouncy houses, and Henry's favorite, "Mario Karts" (pedal cars for kids)) he picked out his pumpkin and we painted it as soon as we got home. I blocked out the H with tape and here is the result:

I asked Henry what he wants to say about his pumpkin: "Sometime I want to fight it. Sometime I want to smush it. I love Mario Kart."

Sick

Well, this being fall and Henry in preschool, it was bound to happen. This last month the whole family has been sick. First it was Henry and me, then Aaron and now back to Henry and me. Poor little Henry has an ear infection with bad tasting medicine. He does such a good job and we can convince him to take it because it will make him feel better (and we give him a popsicle after it is done). I'm impressed at how reasonable he is. Hopefully in the next few days he'll perk up.

As for myself, I just have a bad cold. The worst thing is that I cannot take medicine to help the symptoms (well I can, but every medication has side effects and risks and I would rather not).  Last night my nose was crazy. Instead of fighting it, I just gave in and went to bed at 7:30.  I had to work today and wanted to be in the best condition possible. It's not horrible, but I don't like blowing my nose all the time and feeling absolutely void of energy.

With regard to my pregnancy, I am definitely in the home stretch. Over 75% done! I am glad of this and will now take things easy. I stopped walking to work as of now and I find myself more often than not with my feet propped up at home. Instead of thinking about 10 weeks to the big day, I'm chopping it up into mini goals. My first goal is 32 weeks, for the morbidity of the baby significantly decreases at that time. After this, it will be 36 weeks, which usually is the time you can take your baby home at. After that, 38 weeks, a nice, term date. After 38 weeks I'll go with whatever. I had a dream a few nights ago that I delivered her at 34 weeks. Let's home that is not a premonition, although in the dream I did get to see her face, and it was beautiful. I can't wait for that part.

Gratitude

This pregnancy has been different, and one of the main reasons is that I am not the first anymore. When I was pregnant with Henry, I didn't really know anyone who was pregnant or had a little one. I had to buy all my maternity clothes and stuff for the baby. It was a little fun picking out things, but expenses can really add up.  This second time around things are much different. Since Henry, a lot of friends and family have had children. When I got pregnant the second time around, I received maternity clothes from 4 people. I believe I have only bought two tank tops and a dress this whole time. Not bad, not bad at all. I should say my only gripe is that all 4 people are shorter than me so sometimes a skirt or a dress seems a little to, um, casual, for work.  I just put on a pair of leggings and call it good. It is so hard buying clothes that last a few months and then you're destined never to wear them again (at least in my case). It's been really great not having to worry about my clothes.

But really folks, that is the tip of the iceberg.  Since we found out we are having a girl, we've stocked up. It's been marvelous, my sister, sister-in-law and good friend have given me as much girl appropriate things as possible. I am frankly overwhelmed with all of their generosity. As of this last weekend, Aaron and I are completely ready to care for this child.  We have a FULL dresser filled with only 0-3 month clothes. Amazing. All I can say is thank you.

I can't wait to return the favor someday.

Star Wars Party

Well, Henry's birthday party is passed and I am quite relieved. It's nice to just sit and relax and not have all that planning to do. My sister and mother came a couple days early and helped with everything. Renae made the cake and my mom made all the appetizers. Renae also made this cute little Yoda hat for Malcolm as you can see below. The whole day was a pretty big success and I think Henry had a lot of fun. He was able to sword fight as much as he wanted (which was a ton). I mean, look at the smile on his face.

As you can tell by his outfit, he was a storm trooper like me. Aaron was Darth Vader and all the kids were Jedi's (Malcolm being the famous Jedi Master Yoda). Some adults were kind enough to dress up too (Thanks Jenny, Rob, Mom, Renae and Jim). We found this great Darth Vader pinata and the kids had great fun getting it open.

After the pinata there was cake, presents and more sword fighting. All in a days work for a jedi.

I look forward to more themed birthday parties, but for now I would like to rest. Being a 30 week pregnant storm trooper is a lot of work.

Birth Plan

Last night I dreamt about my baby almost all night. Well, I woke up twice to use the bathroom, once to pick up Henry's stuffed animal and many times to re-situate my body. Every time I remembered bits of my dreams and they were always of her. In the dreams I was just holding her, feeding her, cuddling her. I can't wait.

Last night I watched a sit-com about the arrival of a new baby. In the show, the mother had an 18 page birth plan. Of course, nothing turned out right, but it got me thinking. I need a birth plan. After searching my soul, I think I've come up with it and I am ready to share it with the world. Here it is.

1. Go into labor

2. Have a baby

This is pretty ideal, but it doesn't cover all situations, so I might need a back up plan. Henry was induced because he was post dates. In attempts to cover all situations, here is my secondary birth plan.

1. Get induced

2. Have a baby

Now I haven't talked to Aaron about it yet, but I hope he agrees on the plan. Having a baby is a wonderful wonderful thing and I do not want to leave the experience disappointed. I expect that I'll get an epidural sometime and I hope to deliver normally. If my OB thinks I need a c-section, well, then I'm going to do it. I don't want to set myself up for failure and I trust my body and the OB to do the right thing.

Now that I have a plan, I'm ready to have this baby!

Pregnant Strom Trooper

Henry's birthday is coming up fast. He decided that he wanted a Star Wars party and has been excited ever since. This is the first time he wanted to help with the actual planning and it has made things a lot of fun. When he went to the YMCA the other day, he told the workers about the party. When I took him to the park, he told the other boy about the party. It's so cute to watch how excited it makes him. He started off by choosing characters for everyone. At first Henry was going to be Darth Maul because of the double edged light saber. Then it changed to Darth Vader, then Luke Skywalker and then a Storm Trooper. I think he settled on the storm trooper because he will have a gun, but sometimes he wants to be a guy with a light saber. I told him we can just pretend he took the light saber from a good guy. During his indecisive time with his character, he has always been steadfast with mine. I know what you're thinking, maybe the only female character in the whole movie, right? Umm, nope. I was always going to be a storm trooper. Also, Aaron was always destined to be Darth Vader. I think it is pretty interesting that he chose the Dark Side for all of our family. What does that mean?

Me being pregnant and all, I was hoping I could minimize my costume and just wear a white t-shirt and call it good. Well, that's not exactly what happened. Partially because Henry is also a storm trooper and partially because I got inspired, I now have a full costume (minus the mask because Henry doesn't want anyone to wear masks). My costume started out with a long sleeve shirt and sweat pants. Aaron looked at a storm trooper picture and sketched the black parts on the costume, then I painted it all. As you can see, I look pretty scary.

I'm sure no Jedi would want a match with me. I know I haven't put any pregnancy pictures of myself of this blog, so let this count. This is 29 weeks.

As for myself, I think I'm feeling pretty good. Last week I had a cold and was zapped of all energy. This week I feel healthy and the energy came back. It has been really nice since Aaron has been a little under the weather and Henry has been as active as ever. I'm still able to walk to work most days, but at the end of the walk my lower belly aches a little. My nurse at clinic gets worried when I walk because I walk "too fast." I like staying at least a little active. It makes me believe getting in shape again won't be such an uphill battle later.

I had my OB appointment today. After I peed in a cup I went to the waiting room and I heard an announcement for my doctor to go to the hospital for a delivery "now." His nurse came out and asked if I heard the announcement and if I could wait. She guessed it would be about 45 minutes, but really, it could be a lot longer if things didn't go smoothly. I told her I would rather not, and then asked her if we could just do the appointment ourselves. I mean, 29 weeks, they don't do much. They check the urine for protein, take my weight, blood pressure, measure fundal height (the size of the uterus) and listed to the baby's heartbeat. I have done all those things in medical school. She said she could do the doppler, but had never measured the fundal height before. I told her I could help and we did it. It was kinda fun and our measurements were right on target. I told her to call me if my doctor wanted anything else and I would come back. He never called, so I think we did a good job. It was kinda fun. I see him back in 2 weeks so it's not an overly important visit.

We'll see what he has to say in a few weeks.

Oh, and by the way, since Henry has started planning this birthday party, he has also extended it to his next birthdays. My favorite is a Zelda party when he turns 18. I can't wait to see it!

Busy and Tired

These last few weeks have been pretty tiring (with me being pregnant and a little sick). That being said, we still have had a lot of fun. We got to go to an apple orchard and Henry got the pleasure of being bit by a horse. Luckily he got over it pretty quickly and ended up enjoying the rest of the time at the orchard. As you can see by the picture above, Henry got some roller hockey action. It's fun to see him out on the roller blades. He is very cautious, but has started to got faster and faster. We'll see if he follows in his father's footsteps for roller hockey or if he can make the jump to ice.

This last weekend our friend Jackie got to come and visit us. It's so rare that friends actually make the trek down here. This was Jackie's second time. The first time Henry was just a little baby and we kept pretty much to the house. This time I wanted to show her what Kansas City had to offer her. We ended up going to Blanc Burgers on the plaza, the Jazz Museum, the Negro League Baseball Museum, Oklahoma Joes, Loose Park and the in-laws house. Not too bad for a weekend. I do like this city a lot, but there is always the inevitable comparison to Minneapolis. Still, compared to Mpls we have better barbecue, compared to Mpls we have better Jazz (or at least Jazz history), compared to Mpls..... um maybe that is it. Maybe it's not about which city is better, but just about enjoying the city that you are it. Now that I've been out of residency for over a year, I have found some great parks, trails, and sports. I'm sure every city has hidden things, you just have to search hard for them. It took me 6 months or so to find a basketball team.

Anyway, it was great to see Jackie as always and the weekend made me wish we lived in the same city. But for now we don't, so visits every other month or so will due. Jackie does have busy schedule, with being a National Champion and all (http://mnbrassinc.org). Thanks for coming Jackie!

And, as for me and my pregnancy, I think we've settled into a routine. I now expect to get achy when I walk, but I am still able to walk to work. I now expect to wake up several times a night to use the bathroom. I now expect to wake up in the morning with sore hips. I now expect to get hungry every 3 hours or so, and last but not least, I now expect this little girl to move around like a crazy circus person interrupting all of my thoughts and putting the focus back on her.

So typical!