In the Home Stretch

I'm probably one of the more lax bloggers out there. I have really good intentions and no time. This is going to be one big update.

In Baby News...we are still waiting. From week 26 to week 34 life was pretty much one big blur of Doctor's appointments and stress. I had so much that I wanted to accomplish and so very little I was allowed to do. Week 34 was a big victory because 99% of babies born after week 34 are able to survive just fine with no health or breathing problems. Also, I was allowed off of my modified bed rest schedule. Thank God!
We hit another mile marker this weekend as we have now made it to 37 weeks!! From here on out baby is considered full term and not preemie! Now we are waiting on him to hurry up and get here, instead of hoping he doesn't come. It's a big shift in focus.

We had a little bit of a scare last Wednesday when we went in for another check up. Baby's heartbeat was slow compared to normal. It was down from his usual 140-150 range and in the 115 range. They consider 120-150 normal. Vance and I ended up staying at our clinic with me on the heartbeat monitor for almost an hour.
We had been running almost late for our 2 pm appointment and had missed lunch that day. My midwife sent Vance out to get us something to eat while I stayed on the monitor. There was a possibility that missing lunch could have caused the lower heartbeat. I don't know if this was the reason or not. I'd had a snack as recently as 11 or 11:30 and really wasn't starving.
There was some talk of sending us to Vanderbilt for further monitoring, but apparently they considered his heartbeat steady enough to send us home with an appointment for another ultra sound the following morning.
We went in the next day for our 5th and hopefully final ultra sound . His heartbeat was in the mid 120's and he seemed to be doing fine. They checked amniotic fluid levels and blood flow, as well as monitored his breathing and movements. Once again we were sent home with a everything is okay diagnosis. It is a little frustrating because although I'm extremely glad he's doing well, I'm really tired of the "alarms" false or not. It's made for a fairly stressful last couple of months.
At our 7/23 Ultra sound baby weighed in at 6lbs 11 oz. However, I learned something I didn't know. Apparently ultra sound weight measurements have a 15% margin smaller or larger. This means 15% of his 107 ounces is approximately 1 pound. So he could actually be 5lbs 110z or 7lbs 110z. That really boggled my mind. According to their measurements he could be little, medium or big....thanks for narrowing it down for me.

As for how I'm doing, I'm tired of swollen hands and feet, and heartburn. Apparently I get to enjoy pregnancy carpal tunnel, mostly in my right hand. It's a rather funny feeling to go through the day with my fingers tingly or just numb. Also, at night sleep is a little tough because if I lay on my right side my right arm goes to sleep. If I lay on my left side my left arm goes to sleep and if I lay on my back both arms go to sleep. I woke up the other morning and couldn't turn on the bedside lamp because neither of my hands would work. Thankfully, we are in the home stretch and I really can't wait for him to get here.
I am extremely greatful for all the prayers and thoughtfulness of everyone as we've gone through so many ups and downs. Also, I know that the reason he's no longer preemie and we are safely out of any danger zones is due to God's goodness and mercy!

As part of playing blogging catch up I've posted some older pregnancy photos and some more recent ones. There is a gap between weeks 26 and on. Like I said it was mostly a blur.

Week 24

Week 26

Boys Graduation June 4th, 2009

Week 29

It was nice that the boy's grandma Vonda could come for their graduation. The ceremony was thankfully not too long and very well done.

The happy graduates!! We are very proud of them both!

July 4th weekend

Mom and dad were able to come down for a nice visit over 4th of July weekend. We were able to show them the locals festivities! We had a great time grilling out and were really glad to have the Manning's and Murphy's join us for lunch. Everyone had a nice time visiting. It was interesting observing the cultural clash of North meets South. I thought Mom was going to fall out of her chair when Mr. Murphy started talking about blacks in the white house. Only he used the old southern version of Negro.

Later that day we headed "down town" to watch the parade. This year I think the Watertown parade lasted about a whole 10 minutes. There were fewer participants in it because it wasn't an election year. It might have lasted a minute or two longer, but before the parade started one of the firetrucks and ambulances got an emergency call and they had to take off down main street. This severally depleted our parade participants, and they didn't even throw candy as they sped by!

Mom & dad and us with the Murphy's waiting for it to begin. Shane was in the parade riding in the Police Chief's car.

Me looking comfortable at almost 34 weeks...enough said.

The fireworks basically got rained out. There was a pretty good storm front moving through so everyone but Shane opted to stay home. We let Lil' Vance smoke us out by lighting a few sparklers on the front porch. Shane went up to see Watertown's fireworks. I was sure they would cancel, but the powers that be decided to just light all the fireworks off as fast as they could in order to beat the rain. They crammed what is usually a 30 minute show into a 5 minute fire fight.

The next day was muggy and overcast but the rain had moved through the night before. So we loaded up the fam and went to Burgess falls. The humidity at the falls was oppressive. Shane and Dad were the only ones that decided to hike down to the bottom of the falls. I didn't even want to think about trying it.

Vance and I waited at the top and snapped pictures. If you look closely that's Dad in the white shirt and Shane in the gray shirt is right behind him at the bottom of the falls.
Afterwards we stopped by Center Hill lake. It was a short stop because the storms were back and we drove through some pretty hard rain getting out of there.
That night Bill, Tammy and Adam came over along with Lorelle and we shot off fireworks in the back yard. Safety was our theme this year as Mom and Dad can attest to. We had several near misses and close calls, but everyone came away with all their digits! Overall it was a really nice weekend and a great time visiting with Mom and Dad.

As for other news Shane just started working at Outback Steakhouse. We were glad he was able to find a job as everyone is scaling back due to the economy. He starts his fall semester on August 31st at Nashville State Community College. We were pleasantly surprised to see that he had tentatively won a scholarship for the fall and spring semester. I say tentatively because it is the Tennessee Lottery scholarship and they base the amount on the availability of funds. I'm tickled no matter how much or how little, everything helps.

Lil' Vance just wrapped up his last week of Empower Me Day camp. He goes back to school August 3rd.

Vance and I have been busy getting the house ready for baby's arrival. We have almost finished the master bedroom and bath. There's really only some little stuff to wrap up, and I think we'll be moved into it by tomorrow. Everything turned our really neat even if I do say so myself.

I found a queen sized water bed frame with drawers off of Craigslist and just finished refurbishing it. I didn't take before pictures and kind of wish I would have as it really turned out nice. We are downsizing from our king size to make room for the cradle. I'm also really excited about the storage space under the new bed.
Also, as if we didn't have enough going on Vance found a 14' john boat. He got a great deal on the boat as it came with a trolling motor, battery, motor, trailer and depth finder. Shane helped me paint it and both boys helped Vance put down new floors/seats and carpeted them. Once again no before pictures but I will try to post some afters. We've already taken it out several times to go fishing, and are really enjoying having it.

Hopefully soon I'll also have some baby pictures to post. I'm secretly afraid that after all this hoopla about him being early he's going to decide to be overdue. We'll just have to wait...and see.