Natalie just can’t make it to nap time.

The girls have been waking up so early lately, and it’s really making them tired!  The last couple of mornings they’ve managed to sleep until 7am, so I’m hoping that will help!  We also try to get them into bed at 7:30 so they can get their sleep.  Regardless, Natalie wants to crash for her nap at about 12:30 or so.  Yesterday I could tell she was getting tired, but I was hoping to make her stay up until 1:00.  I got distracted though, and she fell asleep next to me on the couch before I realized it!  So I left here there, put Joanna to rest time and attempted to catch a nap myself.  It didn’t work.  Joanna just wasn’t feeling it so early and neither was I.  We sure were ready for Daddy to come home!  I think Natalie managed to get almost an hour, and she wasn’t too grumbley in the afternoon and evening.  The next time we’re actually at home all day, I may try to give her a morning nap and see if that works.  Poor tired girl!

Mamma and Pop’s

We dropped in on Mamma and Pop on Saturday afternoon to visit and to air up the tires in the van.  I totally crashed on the couch for a few minutes (there was a race on!) before we all went outside.  I tried to get some cute pictures of the girls.

Mamma handed each girl a big beautiful hibiscus flower which they held on to forever!

Daddy putting air in the tires:

Natalie being helpful:

 

Look at this SMILE!!

And this one!

Taking some time to cool off in front of the fan:

Could we totally pass for island girls or what?!

I couldn’t get Natalie’s flower tucked behind her tiny ear, so I tucked it into her dress buttons.  She thought that was okay, but then she wouldn’t pose for a picture!

I’m not sure what strikes me about this picture, but I just love it!

We had fun visiting!  And Mamma and Pop sent us home with dinner – yummo!

38 Weeks

37 weeks  5 days

How Your Baby’s Growing (from Babycenter.com):

Your baby has really plumped up. She weighs about 6.8 pounds and she's over 19 1/2 inches long (like a leek). She has a firm grasp, which you'll soon be able to test when you hold her hand for the first time! Her organs have matured and are ready for life outside the womb.
Wondering what color your baby's eyes will be? You may not be able to tell right away. If she's born with brown eyes, they'll likely stay brown. If she's born with steel gray or dark blue eyes, they may stay gray or blue or turn green, hazel, or brown by the time she's 9 months old. That's because a child's irises (the colored part of the eye) may gain more pigment in the months after she's born, but they usually won't get "lighter" or more blue. (Green, hazel, and brown eyes have more pigment than gray or blue eyes.)

How far along: 38 weeks

Pregnancy symptoms: Braxton Hicks, lower back pain, constant need to pee, heartburn, itchiness

Food Cravings: ice, shakes, oatmeal, steaks, cocoa pebbles, twizzlers

Sleep: still good (thank goodness!).  My carpal tunnel isn’t nearly as bad as it was with Natalie, and I find I’m usually able to get right back to sleep after waking up to go to the bathroom.  My children are waking up at 6am most days though, which is grody.

Measurement: ?? inches around the belly, 196lbs

Movement: he moves around a bunch, especially when I’m sitting still for a while.  He’s usually pretty still when I’m active.

Labor signs: Well, my cervix is dilating and the head is down – that’s moving toward labor.  I also feel pressure just because he is head-down, and my lower back is constantly aching.

What I miss: snuggling my girls close to me

What I’m looking forward to: meeting my son!!

Milestone: Joanna was born at 38 weeks and a few days, so there is a precedent in the delivery history of Jessica that makes it seem close.  Of course there is also a precedent of me waiting (im)patiently for easily a couple more weeks.  I’m trying not to get my hopes up or get psyched up for anything.  :)

Thoughts from the Girls: They are excited!

Doctor’s visit: My 38 week visit was this morning.  Again wonderful Lisa watched the girls so I could go alone!  My BP was 120/60.  My weight is 196 – will I have the baby before I hit 200lbs??  His heart rate was good.  My doctor checked me and I’m almost 3cm dilated and the head is right down there.  Just waiting on contractions!

Baby-related projects:

• Keep the house picked up, dishes done, laundry done, diapers washed, etc.
• Pull the “newborn” gear from the attic: bathtub and bouncy seat.

It’s October!

It’s the month of Baby Brother’s birthday!  (Nobody better tell me he can wait until November, ‘kay?)  I’m excited he will have an October birthday.  I don’t know why, but September bugs me.  I can’t explain this, and I really love all my peeps who have September birthdays.  :)  And now I can recycle/cut up my September magazines and put the October ones in the baby box.

This isn’t quite my due date, but here’s the milk I bought today!  It’s getting close!!

The girls and I made a very quick stop at Kroger after a run to the bank this morning.  You can’t really tell, but they’d just finished eating little powdered donuts – love those samples!  :)

 

I have to do a little more testing, but I think the picture quality from my camera may have improved with the new battery I just got!  I’d been thinking about getting an additional battery for backup for awhile, but just hadn’t felt like spending the money.  I figured I could be responsible and keep it charged.  Well, in the last couple of weeks I realized the battery was actually failing.  It wouldn’t hold much of a charge anymore, sometimes it would take a few tries to turn on.  Yikes!  I need my camera for the new baby!!  So I found a battery for just about $14 on Amazon.  Have I mentioned I’m totally addicted to Amazon?  Anyway, I was a little worried it wouldn’t come before the baby, but it did!  I’m going to have to take some low-light pictures that always look awful and see if the new battery helps!  Wow, what a long paragraph about batteries.

Here’s my funny bank story of the day:  Every two weeks I go to the bank to make deposits and withdraw the next two weeks worth of envelope cash.  My system is to write a check to cash for the withdrawal (since my checks are free and I don’t have to fill anything out) and put a post-it on it of the bills I want.  Like this:

100 – I

50 – II

20 – III

10 – I

Or whatever the amount is.  It’s not rocket science or anything, but it usually works just fine and I think people get the tally mark thing.  Most people, anyway!  So today my post-it looked like the above, but this is what I actually got:

50 – II

20 – III

10 – I

1 -- (Okay, I don’t know how to make 100 tally marks on the computer but that’s what would be here.)

That’s not exactly what I wanted.  Oh well, easy enough to trade out.  And I did!

This morning my wonderful Joanna slept until 7:45!  Yay!  She possibly would have slept louder if her grumpy sister hadn’t need to scream and cry a lot this morning.  Natalie woke up at 6:30.  This is not good for her.  In fact yesterday her note from school said she tried to fall asleep at 12:30!  Makes sense if you’re up at 6 – ew!

So even though I am totally bushed after a week of being a wife, mom, bulletin printer, and incubator, I’m trying to get a lot done today!  I’m working through 6 loads of laundry.  All the hang dry stuff is out (and almost dry!)  and everything else is waiting in line for the dryer.  There will be lots of folding in the Pence house this evening!  I also managed a trip to the bank and the grocery store.  I really love having a morning to just do homemakery kinds of things.  We haven’t had one this week and I can feel it!  Sadly my back aches and my feet are swollen and it’s only 1:00!  I’m such a wimp, not to mention pretty out of shape.

Alright, long rambling post over with!

Puny Joanna

Yesterday was a school/work day for us.  I was hoping I’d get out a little before the girls so I could have some home alone time.  But I really had too much work (and that’s okay!), so I stayed the whole time.  A little after noon, Joanna’s teacher came and got me – Joanna had thrown up a little.  I fetched her, and we had “take your daughter to work day!”  She drank Sprite, she colored, she helped me carry things around.  She seemed to be feeling basically normal.  I could tell she wasn’t quite herself, but the vomiting was a fluke.  Maybe she’d gotten hot on the playground and drank too much water too fast.

I’d convinced myself she was fine until she almost fell asleep on the way home.

And all she wanted to do was lay on the couch and watch a movie.

And after a little snack (of goldfish inside an ice cream cone), she totally crashed.

She shifted around a little bit but fussed when I tried to take away the cone!  She was snuggling with it.  :)

She slept until after Daddy got home (not quite sure how long) even in the noisy living room, but still went to bed at a decent time too!  We checked her temp and it was 100.5.  She doesn’t usually run high fevers.  She also said she hurt “all over her body” so she got some Tylenol and perked right up!.  She also slept until 7:45am – ahhhhhh…

She was tuckered out!  But she seems really back to her normal self this morning.  Yay!

Custom Play Mat

How cool is this?!

I saw this post at Ohdeedoh today, and I’m thinking one of my children needs this for Christmas!  Okay, that’s a lie; they don’t need it.  But it’s way cool!  It’s from an Etsy seller, boardstiff.  Had to share!

Craft Time

This evening I felt inspired to do a little craft with the girls.  So I cut up a bunch of tissue paper, poured a little Mod Podge, and let them go after it!

Prepping their paper with a little watered down Mod Podge:

Natalie LOVED “painting” and would throw a fit if I tried to get her to stop!

Such concentration!

 

I think this would have kept them busy (and very messy) for a LONG TIME!  I’ll have to pull it back out after rest time this week and see if it helps with the grumpies.  They threw a fit when it was time to stop (they were tired!), so I may be asking for trouble if we don’t do it first thing in the morning. :)