38 Weeks & Still Hangin' On!

Wow, the day (my 20 week check-up) Dr. Gass told me that my daughter only has 2 blood vessels running through her umbilical cord instead of the usual two and that she may not be full-term, we had NO idea that we would make it to 38 weeks! As soon as he told us that, I just had all these images running through my head of us having to deliver during the 2nd trimester and of Mallory being hooked up to all the machines in the NICU for months with us just being able to visit her but not bring her home from the hospital with us. I immediately thought the worse, but also knew that God would protect my sweet baby and me and that I just needed to TRUST HIM! Well, here we are now 18 weeks later with my baby girl still in my tummy waiting patiently to come out on her scheduled birth day! I will be 38 weeks, 6 days the day of my c-section; Thursday, February 10th. I cannot believe I have gone this long!

We have had at least 3 "scares" of thinking it was time to throw our bags in the car and get to the hospital to have this baby, but they've ended up being nothing. One of those was last night when I woke up at 2 am completely nauseous and barely even able to sit up. I have read that nausea is one of the signs that labor is coming on. Also, I could not feel her move for several hours and was so worried. I wanted to get up and get ready to go to the hospital just to make sure everything was okay, but I was too sick to even do that. So, I just laid back down and prayed that everything was okay. I drank some orange juice and felt a couple of movements from her, but still not as many as I would have liked. Marc just reassured me by saying that she was probably sleeping and giving me a break! Today I haven't felt her move much either, but as I am sitting here typing this, she has been moving a lot more. She's such a stinker, scaring me like this!

Anyway, so here I am sitting up at 1:58 am updating my blog and cleaning house just trying to do as much as I can to feel "ready" for Mallory to get here! I wanted to do a much better job this pregnancy keeping my blog updated, but it just hasn't happened. So I'm trying to do several posts tonight to get a little caught up because I know that once she is here I definitely won't be blogging much. We'll see! Tomorrow, well, actually later today, my parents are coming up with their bags all packed, ready to stay at our house until we come home from the hospital. My mom is going to go with me tomorrow afternoon to the hospital for me to go ahead and get registered and have some bloodwork done, while my dad stays at the house and keeps Mason. I also hope to finally get that pedicure I've been dreaming of for a month now! I want me some pretty toes during that c-section. Ha! :) Like I'll even be thinking about those toes! And we need to Marc's & Mason's haircut tomorrow. AND move baby girl's crib into her room AND I need to sit down and journal about my pregnancy (thank you) AND rest AND take a shower AND put the hospital bags & car seat in the car, AND, the list goes on and on and on!

Oh, this is just sooo interesting knowing the date I'm having me a baby! I kinda liked it much better with Mason when my water just randomly broke and I went into labor and didn't really have a chance to get anxious or nervous. My bags have been packed for weeks and I know there's just nothing really to be 100% "ready" to become parents all over again, but still, I'm a nervous wreck thinking about Thursday morning!

A side note: a woman at Gattliland tonight asked me if I was pregnant with TWINS!!!! ha!!! :) I told her, "No, just one baby girl and she'll be here on Thursday!" Hilarious! I also told her I would have loved to have twins this time, though!

So, here I am at 38 weeks:

Getting Ready for Baby Sister

We have been soooo busy these last few weeks getting ready for Mallory's arrival! It seems like we waited until after the holidays to do all the main stuff because we were so busy then and I was in the midst of my bedrest trying to take it extra slow. With Mason, his nursery was completely ready by 36 weeks or so, but this time around that's when I pretty much STARTED getting everything ready! It's okay though because since this c-section is scheduled, it seems that I am more anxious for the day and feel like I have to be extra prepared since I know when the day is. So, I've just been waiting and waiting and counting down the days to February 10th. Getting Mallory's nursery ready has given me something to keep my mind off the c-section and something to kinda help these final weeks fly by. Since I have been on bed rest and haven't been feeling very well, we have definitely needed the help from the grandparents when it comes to getting our house/furniture organized, and help from friends to keep Mason for me on the days I need to rest. We have learned these past 9months that it definitely "takes a village"!

Since learning how to sew just before Mason's 1st birthday, I said that I wanted to make the crib bedding for the next baby. I knew this would be a HUGE project, but I wanted to make it extra special and I was determined to give up on that goal! But, being on bed rest made it so difficult to reach that goal. I was determined, though, and finally got around to making it during my 35th week of pregnancy. I had been researching the fabric for months until finally deciding on those "perfect" fabrics. What a hard decision that was! :) I worked hard at it and got the bumpers done in less than a week. I'm so proud of them! I made the curtains last week out of this beautiful ivory rosette silk taffeta fabric that I ordered off Fabric.com. They're just so girly and "shabby chic" and exactly what I had in mind. I'm going to make the crib skirt out of the same fabric. I've been puting off the crib skirt until after the crib arrived so that I could know exact measurements, so that'll be something I work on in a few weeks after recovery from surgery and after some adjustment of having another baby in the house! :) I also want to make a sweet blanket to match the bedding.

We found a couple of distressed, antique furniture that I LOVED on Craig's List, so we quickly picked them up back in November and had them at our house ready to go. It was nice not having to order them and then wait for months for them to get here. I'll show better pictures of our Craig's List dresser & vanity later! I ordered the crib back in October from JC Penney expecting it to arrive by December, but to make a long story short, it didn't arrive until February 1st. Thank you. And that was even sooner than they said! So, it's been kind of hard to complete the nursery and all the sewing I wanted to do for it without having the crib. Ever since it came, I have been in full force trying to get everything finished. It's such a relief that most of the nursery will end up being done before she gets here! Even if it is the night before! Ha! :) Tomorrow when my parents arrive, we will move the crib into the nursery, throw that mattress & bedding on it, and hang this sweet plaque on the wall above it. Just in the nick of time for Mallory to be here! :)

Mason has been such a good boy while Mommy has been doing all these preparations. He has been so patient and has really entertained himself when I've been sewing and doing other things. He's been such a good big helper when it's come to getting all his newborn items ready for babys sister to use. It's just been so sweet watching him figure it all out and have this discussions with me about everything. I really think he's understanding what is going on and hopefully won't be too overwhelmed on Thursday when he meets Mallory for the first time, and especially when we come home from the hospital with her. We have talked to him about Mallory Jane from the second we found out we were pregnant because we wanted to give him lots of time to try and understand everything. Plus, he's almost 3 years old so I think he's at that age where it all does kinda make sense and he's excited to be a "big helper" once baby sister gets here.

I'll tell y'all more about the nursery and show pictures of the "completed" look after we come home from the hospital with Mallory. It's not ready yet anyway and I don't want to rush in this post and explain the theme, cuz I wanted to focus more on the other preparations and Mason helping with everything. :)

Here are some pics in random order of us getting everything ready!

We had to do some switching around with rooms... Our extra bedroom was our guest room/playroom/sewing room. So, all that had to go to make room for Mallory! Thankfully we have a pretty good sized formal dining room so we just took the dining room table out of there to make room for Mason's toys & my sewing stuff.

Here are Papa Jack & Mason busy carrying Mason's toys into his "new" playroom. Mason thought he was big stuff helping out and felt so important to have a new playroom!

Ta da! The new playroom! We'll still have our piano, china cabinet, fancy paintings & curtains in there, so it'll be an interesting mix of a room, but for now I really don't feel like re-decorating the whole room. So it'll just be kinda random for now! Well, probably the whole rest of the time we live in this house. Ha!

The big "reveal" to Mason!
He had to check and make sure the plastic bins were all organized to his liking... Thank you. Grandy, Paw T, and Papa did a great job getting his new playroom ready!
He got over the big change right away as soon as he started playing with his train table! Now that the toys are cleared out, time to move the dresser & vanity into Mallory's room! They had been sitting out in our garage for weeks, so I was so glad to finally get them into the house.

Connie (Marc's mom) directing the furniture movers... Ha! :)

Putting the drawers into the dresser

MaMaw came up the day the furniture was being moved in so that she could help take care of Mason. He was soooo excited to play with his great-grandmother and to get to take a nap on her lap!

Time to bust the bassinet out of the attic and get it all washed up and ready for Baby Mallory! She will sleep in this in our room the first couple of months since her room is so far from ours. Mason was sooooo excited to help me put this thang together! He wanted to do ALL of it!

He was so cute... he brought his little chair over and set it all up so that he could get a closer look! I can see him looking over at his baby sister now when she is sleeping soundly in there! :)
Fluffing up the bedding
He especially loved hanging up the mobile
And of course Mason has needed to "listen" to Mallory's heartbeat along the way, just like he sees them do at my doctor's appointments! He loves playing "doctor"!
I just think these pictures are some of the sweetest thangs I've ever seen!!! Definitely some we'll bust out and show Mason & Mallory years from now!

Getting the car seat ready... Can't believe Mason actually fit in this 2 1/2 years ago!! He was in for 14 months since he was so small at first and only in the 3rd percentile, but now he is a big boy and even bigger than a lot of the 3 year olds he hangs out with!

Everyone's warning me that Mason's gonna look even BIGGER & OLDER once we put sweet little Mallory in this on Sunday!

Oh, very carefully making sure the seatbelt is installed properly! He wants his baby sister to be extra safe!

Nope, sweet boy, not quite gonna fit!! :)

Whoo!!! Just going back and re-reading all this is making me exhausted!! So, as you can see, our entire family has been very busy getting ready for this little girl, especially the proud big brother! You can tell she is already extra special and SO loved!! Can't believe we are going to meet her in LESS THAN TWO DAYS!!! This is sooo surreal!

37 Weeks

37 weeks
Friday, January 28, 2011

I had my 37 week check-up today with Dr. Gass. I am measuring 39 weeks and he says I'm definitely having me a big baby girl! At my last ultrasound Mallory weighed 6 pounds, 6 ounces, and that was 3 weeks ago! They're predicting that if we go to the c-section date of Feb. 10, that she will weigh 9 pounds! Whoa, baby! I had a surprise cervix check today and I'm 1 cm dilated. He checked the cervix last week but said that would be the only check since we're having a c-seciton anyway. But, I've been having real contractions since my check-up last week and also last Saturday we thought my water had broken, so he wanted to check the cervix just to make sure official labor has not begun. He did a test also today to see if it is my water breaking, but of course it's just my inability to hold in my urine! Ha! A problem I've had ever since pushing for 3 hours with Mason!

So, today just revealed that Mallory will be much bigger than Mason, that her heartbeart is fast and strong, my blood pressure is right where it needs to be, and my c-section is still scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 10. I'm still thinking sooner than that, but we'll see. :) I've had so much pressure and pain for the last 3 months to the point where some days I literally thought the baby was coming out of me. I never once felt this with Mason, but I've heard it's way different the 2nd time around. The pressure hasn't been as bad since I was put on partial bedrest back in November. I'm so glad I've been forced to slow down and stay off my feet because it has really helped me to feel better and I'm sure it's helped me to be able to keep the baby in this long.

I knew my baby girl was a big 'un and that my belly is measuring further along than what I really am, but I didn't realize how huge my belly was til looking at these pics right after Marc took them a few minutes ago! The first bare belly pic is unbelievable. I'm definitely bigger now than I was the day I delivered Mason at 39 weeks, 1 day!

Please continue to keep Mallory Jane and me in your prayers! These next couple of weeks are so unpredictable. Who knows if she will be here tomorrow or February 10th! Either way, we get to meet our miracle baby #2 very, very soon and we could not feel any more thankful or blessed! Our God is SO good!

33 & 34 Week Belly Shots

33 Weeks

New Year's Eve in Gatlinburg!

34 Weeks

Whoa, Baby!!

The Greatest Crib Ever!

The first huge furniture purchase Marc and I ever made was Mason's nursery furniture. I did the most research for months to find the sturdiest, safest, longest-lasting, highest-quality furniture for our son. We use hand-me-downs for our living room furniture, a dining room table from Goodwill, and a $200 Ikea dresser for our bedroom, but when it comes to Mason we only wanted the BEST for our firstborn! We found this beautiful Munire Essex set at USA Baby in Franklin, TN, and with the help of Marc's parents we were able to order it. We could not believe how much was being spent on this furniture, but knew it would last forever... and that's because we got a convertible crib! That's right folks, the crib that converts to a toddler bed and then eventually a full-sized bed! So, in other words, Mason is stuck with it til he's 18, oh and I'm sure his wife would just love it if he even decides to take it with him when he moves out of the house and gets married. Thank you.

After almost 2 1/2 years sleeping soundly in his crib, we decided to go ahead and change it to the toddler bed in order to A) transition him into the full-sized bed by getting him used to not having a railing or "protection" going all the way around; B) give him more room to spread out and not feel as "claustrophobic" since he's getting taller every day, and C) just all the changes that come along with getting a baby sister! On September 2, 2010, Mason's DaDa spent countless hours converting the crib to the most perfect toddler bed for his son. Well, not really hours... maybe an hour or so. Mason LOVED it, to say the least, and jumped right in that bed with his juice and posed away for that camera. For the first few weeks we would put him to bed at naptime & night and he would stay in the bed, not even attempting to escape. Even though it had the most obvious open space and would have been the easiest!! Well, the day in October I was hosting a baby shower for my friend, Stephanie, Mason decided he was done with his nap and wanted to join in the excitement of the party. So, he hopped right out of that bed and came running into the living room and plopped himself smack dab in the middle of the kids who were playing. I walked into the living room and was the most confused as to how he got out there. Some ladies told me they saw him hop right out of that bed. So that's when it began. The very challenging phase of the 2 1/2 year old! Mason has always been an "easy" child until we started dealing with this sleeping issue.

On December 4, 2010, Marc convered Mason's bed to the final stage: the FULL-SIZED BED! And of course, the sleeping issue went even more downhill! Mason definitely wouldn't stay in his bed then. For the first couple of weeks one of us would have to lay down with him in bed for at least 45 minutes to help him fall asleep. We would pat his tummy, scratch his back, sing to him, read to him, etc... whatever we could do to get him to fall asleep. Then, we would very carefully sneak out of his bed and out of his room. Well, Mason wouldn't let that happen. He would immediate wake up, start crying, and motioning for us to come back to bed. So, then we would either make the decision to sleep the whole night in his bed, or bring him to our bed where we would be the most comfortable. We FINALLY got our child to sleep in bed with us! I know, I know.. a strange goal. But, for 2 1/2 years Marc and I dreamed of the day that Mason would cuddle up in our bed with us. Hmm... when that day did come, we wanted to take back our dream! Ha! :) Yes, we love Mason cuddling up with us, but we honestly cannot sleep when he is in bed with us. On top of the fact that we don't want him to get into this habit and still be wanting to sleep with us when Mallory gets here. We can't have 2 kiddos in bed with us! Mallory will be sleeping in a bassinet in our room for a while since her room is so far away. So, Mason will definitely want to get in on the action then! Anyway, after a couple of weeks of us having to sleep in Mason's bed or put him in bed with us, we decided to take control of the situation and NOT allow him to sleep in our bed. So, now we just take turns trying to put him to sleep in his own bed and then resting with him for a while until we tiptoe back into our room. It always works until about 3 am, and then Mason gets up and runs into our room begging for one of us to go back to "Mason's crib." Well, at least we're kinda conquering the "Mason sleeps only in his own bed" part of the situation.

Oh, and as for naps... you may as well forget it! And one more thing, at least all of this situation makes for some cute pictures! Thank you.

Last picture of Mason's sweet crib :(

Trying out his toddler bed for the very first time
Asleep within 5 minutes... it's hard work helping your DaDa fix you up a "big boy bed"!
Poor baby looked so uncomfortable & cold in that toddler bed, so we had to add a blanket.
Woke up on the wrong side of the bed already!

Day 2 in the Toddler Bed!

Already pushing his limits by trying out out the things that are "no no"!

Little stinker with his Capri Sun

Oh, let's try one of these things we call a "pillow"... I've never slept with one of these before! Hmm.... let me think about it...

And it can go this way...

Oh, this way should be interesting!

Oh, forget it! I'm getting rid of this thang!

He finally gave up messing with the pillow and fell fast asleep!

Okay, enough of that... Three months later: the final stage!

Da Da hard at work... again!

I just had to include this of Mason's special little Christmas tree. It's been in his room every year so that we can put his special ornaments on there that people gave us when we found out he was a boy Dec. 08 and some that I bought as soon as we found out. We need to get him a bigger tree for next year since he's a big boy now!

The finished product and Mason trying out his big bed for the first time! I promise, it was not an easy task to get him to fall asleep in it! This was only after lots of book reading, singing, discussing, arguing, getting up 500 times and turning the light on & off, etc. But then of course looks like a perfect little angel when he's sleeping! :)
We used his crib bumpers the first few days to kinda protect him from falling out of the bed or hitting his head against the wall. We now have bed rails that we're borrowing from a friend but haven't tried them out yet.

We had a full-sized bed we kept in Mason's nursery in Nashville since that room had to also still serve as our guest room. Target happened to have this bedding set that matched Mason's crib bedding perfectly, so I bought it for that full bed. I'm so glad I did cuz now I have something cute to put on his big boy bed that isn't too babyish. I really didn't want to have to go out now and buy him a new bedspread, and I ended up not having to spend a dime on this "transition." Maybe in a few years I'll let him pick out some new fun theme!

He woke up and had a brief spat with his monkey... I love in the pic above how you see the sweet little monkey asleep next to his big friend!

All snuggled up with his monkey & "special blankie"... he finally has found some items that he would like to sleep with. He has never really had a "lovey" so I'm glad he has one now cuz hopefully they'll help him feel a little more secure in his big boy bed.