37 Weeks!

Well, there isn't much more to report this week other than a lot of contractions and pelvic pain and very little progress. At most I'm 2cm dilated and 50% effaced (and I think he just upped it a little bit from last week to make me feel better). I have now officially been pregnant 7 days longer than I was with Mallory. Perhaps this is an early sign of patience??? Blood pressure was still low (117/58), heartbeat still sounded great, and still lots of movement. I am now 43 inches around the biggest part of my belly, which seems crazy to be over 3 and 1/2 feet around. I have also gained 33lbs so far and my feet are not very happy about it (although I am thankful I still haven't started to swell yet).

Despite trying every trick in the book to help labor along, we haven't had any luck. I even took Mallory to the bouncy place to try and bounce him out, took a walk, and did lots of squats. We'll find out tomorrow if any progress has been made, but I am not hopeful. Eric has finals this week so as much as I want him to come out, it would probably be better if he just stayed put until at least Friday.

This picture doesn't really do justice to how big I'm getting, but none of my maternity clothes fit anymore and I'm too cheap to go buy more for the home stretch (and by stretch that can be taken literally too because my skin is officially stretching everywhere!) I know I am big because I can't go anywhere without some dramatic reaction from someone going "Oh my gosh you are about to pop!" For some reason people feel the need to say something. Some advice to those of you around pregnant people, silence is ok. Here's to another week of roasting the little man.

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Mallory's Latest Things

Mallory has been making us laugh so much lately. I swear the way the mind of a 2 year old works is pretty amazing. Despite thinking they can fit in tiny places and end up stuck, they are much smarter than people give them credit for.

Lately we've been playing with Roscoe a lot. She likes to throw it over the railing and make him run all the way down the stairs to get it.

She had a water bottle and a snack and when Roscoe brought his toy back up he went for her food. She thought about it for a minute and then did this so he couldn't get it. I thought it was pretty clever of her.

She is really into things that involve find motor skills. She loves stacking. Her other favorite things include doing alphabet and shapes flashcards, and she loves naming everything by color now that she has mastered those.

This is her new favorite bath time toy.

All of sudden we were playing and she stopped and said "take my picture." She stood up against the wall like I do when I take my pregnancy belly photos. I guess after 37 weeks of seeing me do it she decided that is how you get your picture taken.

This one doesn't need any words.

And most of all she loves to talk. She puts "Sooo" in many of her sentences these days. For example she'll say "I'm really hungry, sooo...I need a snack." A couple of funny things she has said are "I don't think so," and "Back off Roscoe."

And last of all, how do you respond to this? Mom: "Mallory, Don't eat your boogers, they are dirt and bugs." Mallory: "But I like it, it tastes good."

Have a great week!

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Future Golfer?

Mallory has been somewhat obsessed with golf lately (so much that I had to explain to her why she couldn't take her golf clubs to school in the morning). It's almost as if the color green sparks her to talk about golf. She gets really excited when golf is on TV and she even picked out a golf Father's Day card for Eric.

Many mornings she sits at her table and listens to music while she flips through her golf magazine. Phil Mickelson is on the cover and that is who she calls every golfer now. When it's time to go to school, she puts her magazine in her school bag and heads out the door. I don't know what sparked all of this, but here is a little video of her and her golf magazine (or Daddy's golf magazine).

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Father's Day

This Father's Day, Lisa and I planned a little golf outting for Dan and Eric. I couldn't find the camera so I had to take this with my phone, but I made him a little candy arrangement and we got him a golf rain coat and grill thermometer. Eric has been wanting hybrids for some time, so I special ordered them and put them in his bag so he had them when he got there. Although he almost ruined the surprise many times due to his lack of patience in buying things, it all worked out. Although we got him gifts, that didn't even seem like enough for the great Dad he is! Mallory just adores and loves him so much and misses her Daddy anytime he is not around. I am so thankful to have such a wonderful Dad for my kids.

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36 weeks!

My appointment went well this week. They tested for Strep B and I should have the results in a week or so. The heartbeat still sounded great, he is still head down, blood pressure was really low, and my fundal height stayed the same, which means he must have dropped some, and I was 1 cm dilated (which if you've had a kid before you pretty much start at 1 cm) and not really effaced at all. This doesn't mean a whole lot because you can walk around dilated for weeks or you can progress overnight, so who knows when he'll decide to come. I have now officially been pregnant just as long as I was with Mallory - so he is already more patient than she was (so hopefully he is more patient on the outside too! :))

I also had my orientation appointment with the hospital. Anytime after June 20th I am medically cleared to deliver in the natural section of the hospital. Based on my appointment earlier, I don't think I'll have any problems making it that long.

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Science Museum

This morning I took Mallory to the Lil' Scientist Museum. I think she had fun but it seemed like a lot of the exhibits were closed. I probably won't take her back until she's 4 or 5.

We started "digging for fossils." We didn't do this long because she didn't want to wear the vest.

And she didn't like the pebbles stuck in her toes.

She wanted all the balls.

Then we saw baby mice.

She loved this little activity table. The shapes were all magnetic.

She stacked all the squares.

Then we played with the wooden blocks which she enjoyed stacking really high.

Then she went down the slide.

And we played in the water. She loved that when she poured it in the top it made the parts below spin.

This was pretty neat. You went in this room that had a big screen and as you danced it projected your image up there with different colors.

This station was filling up the balloons with air and then she had a blast kicking it around until the air went out.

This was a little courthouse that we went in just for Dad. Here she is in jail.

On the witness stand.

And in the jury box. She wasn't tall enough to stand behind the judge's area.

This was pretty neat. They had wooden pieces that you had to put in the different recycling holes.

Here she was telling me her belly was too big because she didn't want to get in the turtle.

I finally convinced her to go through.

She really enjoyed this magnetic ball thing. You had to move the balls through the maze with the magnetic pen.

Last, we went to the animal zoo, which was under construction so all they had was an opossum and snakes.

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35 weeks!

I don't have a lot to report this week other than that he must have grown a lot. I had a ton of stretching and tearing pain at the beginning of the week, along with a lot of heartburn, nausea, and a 2lb gain, 26lb total. This was the first time I have really felt so uncomfortable I was ready for him to come. Since those few days, things have been much better so I'm hoping he stays in there a few more weeks! I have an appointment this Tuesday so I should have more of an update then.

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Farewell Princess

Last Wednesday, June 9th we put Princess, our Betta fish, to sleep. I had Mallory say goodbye to the fish before she went to bed. I explained that he had to go home just like Lisa, Dan, and Natalie do after they come to stay with us. When Eric got home from school we put him down. He had not moved from the same spot in the top of the bowl and hadn't eaten in 3 days and I couldn't watch him suffer anymore. I am not sure what happened, but even though we only had him 10 days, I was emotional having to put him down (probably the pregnancy hormones). Mallory asked about him the next morning when she saw the bowl and I reminded her and she hasn't asked about him since.

I did ask her this morning if she was going to help feed "baby brother" when he came and she said, "No, that's fish food." :)

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New Bathtub (Pool)

We got Mallory a little pool to put in the back yard and she calls it a bathtub. Eric got her all ready in her swimsuit and robe and they headed outside. Unfortunately the sun wasn't out and it was towards the end of the day so it was more of an ice pool. She didn't stay in it more than a minute because we are pretty sure her legs were going numb. I think this may have deterred her from ever wanting to get in. I ask her every day since it's warm now and she never wants too. Maybe if she sees some other kids she'll go in.

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Bounce U!

When we were at the Memorial Day "parade" we got a flyer for this place called Bounce U. Last weekend I decided to take Mallory there. Apparently it was a good time to go because there were only 4 kids there. We had to buy socks because there is a no bare feet rule. The first thing she did was this slide. I had to walk her up (so I had to buy socks too). It was extremely fast (I know because I had to go down it and I thought the baby was going to pop right out!). I think it scared it her a little bit so she was pretty slow to warm up to the bounce pits after that.

So we went over to the t-ball game so she didn't have to be in anything. It took a while for her to figure out how to swing it right, but she finally got it.


She was actually really good at throwing the football, but when it came time to throw into the holes she had to be right in it.

I asked her if she was having fun and she was saying "yes!"

Here she is getting used to the bounce pit. She has been in these many times before so I really do think it was the slide that through her off.

This was an obstacle course that ended in a huge slide. I got her over this wall and then attempted to get over it myself, but I couldn't do it with my massive belly. This is definitely not made for people 8 months pregnant! I'm actually surprised they let me on the equipment. I had to have the worker take her the rest of the way through. After that we avoided this one.

The other side of the the wall above.

Here is a little video of her bouncing. She was getting quite a bit of height after she warmed up.

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Cleaning out the Fishbowl

I don't have any pictures for this, but it was a moment that I thought Mallory might like to remember one day. The fish bowl needed cleaned out, so I started by putting the fish into a different bowl.

Mallory was playing on the counter while I was cleaning everything out and she apparently missed me putting the fish back into his bowl once I got the clean water in there. I took the temporary bowl over to the sink to dump out the water and as soon as she saw me dump out the water she terrifyingly yelled, "MY FISH!" I quickly had to show her the fish was back in his bowl and she settled, but she really thought I poured her fish down the sink.

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Sneaky Starburst

Ever letting Mallory eat a Starburst was one of the biggest mistakes I've made recently. All I hear morning and night is "canny" because she wants a piece of candy. She thinks if she says, "I'll just hold it" that I'll give her one. I stopped falling for that because within minutes she is off somewhere trying to eat it. I've had to completely hide them because she has found a way to get them off the counter and sneakily go unpeel them and eat them.

Here is the smile she makes after she has been caught being sneaky with one.

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Advertising at it's Finest

I've been all about the Barbecue Beef sandwiches lately, so I bought this thinking I was getting what the picture on the left showed. When I opened it up to cook it, I about lost the bruschetta I had just eaten. The smell along with the look was enough for me to put it back in the box and go out for dinner. Seriously, there should be a disclaimer on picture.

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34 weeks!

I gained another half of a pound this week, but I'm pretty sure I felt my stomach stretch to what felt like doubling in size. The baby is gaining about a half a pound a week so the growth this week really was "all baby" as everyone keeps saying. At this point I'm getting uncomfortable and having a rough time sleeping. I have a lot of heartburn, reflux, and nausea at night and get contractions often, but nothing that alarms me that I'm starting the real labor process. Hopefully we can make it at least another two weeks.

I won't mention any names, but the photographer of this picture apparently didn't realize he wasn't getting my full belly in the picture.

So here is a close up.

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One More Thing

It seems like every time we go somewhere Mallory has to bring one more thing. Today it was not only the baby, the baby carrier, and baby blanket, but also the hat, the purse, and the watch.
She did not want her picture taken but I couldn't help it - and when you ask her what time it is, she answers, "Quarter to Five."

All set to go. All that is missing are her new pink Crocs that have now taken precedence over the princess shoes (thankfully!).

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Spit

After getting Roscoe all cleaned up, I started to sweep to clean up the hair and found this...

and a little bit further found this...

And then this one...

So I turn around and look at Mallory and she has decided to start spitting anywhere and everywhere. I don't know if this is something a two year old just thinks of and decides is a good idea, or if she learned it from school, but it is not favorable. From this we learned that if we feel the need to spit, we do so in the sink. Sometimes I wonder how the mind of a two year old works.

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