Ready to pop...

...literally!

What is growing in your garden?

Emma and Aidan after we picked potatoes out of our garden!

Third AND final ultrasound

This past Wednesday I had my third ultrasound. And the GREAT news is...I don't have to have a C-section!!! Well, not for my low lying placenta anyway. Barring any "normal" complications, I have been cleared for a vaginal delivery. YEAH! My placenta is now 4 1/2 centimeters away from the cervix and the baby is head down. I can't tell you how happy I am about that :)

Now, if we can just get the baby to make it's grand entrance into the world, everything would be perfect!

Useless...

...that would be me the last month of pregnancy...completely and totally useless. I lay around, much like a beached wale, sweating, trying to parent from the couch and typically just saying "stop that" about a thousand times a day. I shower at night, in a hurry, throw my hair in a bun, and proceed to put on ANOTHER pair of sweat pants and my husband's T-shirts, which I will spend the whole rest of the next day in. That's about all that fits me these days. I don't cook anymore, I don't do laundry, I haven't vacuumed in a while and have no plans to any time soon. And yet, my kids get fed, the laundry gets done, and the carpets are vacuumed. How? This guy:

The guy in the goofy shirt who works hard all day, comes home to a very pregnant, very cranky wife, and takes over. He cooks without complaining, throws laundry in the machine without having to be asked, bathes the kids, plays with the kids, gets them down for bed, and then asks me if there is anything I want--pregnancy cravings, other housework to be done? And after my nightly lists, he sits down at his computer and goes to work for his web clients. He doesn't murmur. He doesn't yell at me, he doesn't even act like it bothers him that I am basically just taking up space growing this baby. He tells me I am pretty, (even when I have been in the same clothes for days) that he loves me, and that I am a good mom (even though that is debatable at the present moment.) He is the best husband in the world, and I am so glad that even though I am currently useless, he is anything but!

How do you sleep?

I wish I could say this is a rare occurrence, but more often than not, Emma falls asleep at night in the strangest places and in the strangest positions. She has a bit of insomnia, and even though we've put her down for the night, she frequently gets up, hangs out in the hallway or goes and falls asleep in the living room or family room. Sometimes we don't find her until the next morning...
This is one of my favorite "sleeping" shots we have of her. We went to Fudruckers for dinner one night, and the kids had balloons done for them and Emma wore hers to bed until it deflated, almost a week later. We'd take if off of her, she'd get up, put it back on, and go back to sleep.

Our crazy girl! Oh how we love her!!

Second Ultrasound

On Tuesday I had my second ultrasound to determine if my placenta had moved away from my cervix, or was still too close. It hadn't moved very much, but it did move enough to give us hope that I could still avoid a C-section. However, the baby is currently presenting breach. It's cute little bottom is resting right smack dab on my cervix. There is still enough time for the baby to move into the head down position, but if at 36 weeks, when I go back for my final ultrasound the baby hasn't moved, or the placenta hasn't moved enough either, it will be a C-section for sure. The good news is, that the baby looked good. We were able to see hair floating around it's head---that will be interesting. Emma was born with thick, jet black hair that fell out within a month, but the boys were both born with short hair and looked more bald than anything. The baby currently weighs around 3 pounds and 4 ounces which puts it in the 47th percentile for this stage of it's development. Hopefully the baby will be around 7+ pounds like the others.

Only 8 more weeks, give or take. I am definitely ready to be done with this pregnancy. Although, compared to Parker's pregnancy, I really can't complain much. I can still walk and get some sleep at night--here's hoping that continues :)

Desert Fun

A few weeks ago, some of the Carpenters' got together for some desert fun. We rode horses, ate dutch oven meals and smores, (thank you Matthew for the unflattering pictures of me stuffing my face) played horse shoes, shot guns, and sat around the fire talking and being a family. It was a lot of fun and the kids had a blast playing in the dirt. There was at least a pound of sand in the tub that night. My favorite pictures of the day were of Parker pulling uncle Benjamin's hair and his subsequent expression. Thanks for being such a good sport Benjamin!!!

And please feel free to continue to leave name ideas--we have a boys name, we just need help with the girls names!