Patients

Another week has passed and still no Cohen.
Today at my 37 week prenatal appointment Dr. Langer measured me at 37 1/2 centimeters, I was now dialated to a 4 and still hanging around that 90 percent effaced mark. She said that he had dropped even further than he was last week.
It is so hard waiting! Twice now I have thought that he was coming. The contractions start, get a little painful, and then gone. My pelvis bone aches more than I thought possible. Dr. Langer's instructions to me were to "be patient".
So, I will be. He will be here soon. I have been scheduled for induction on August 27th, only 2 weeks from today. If it comes down to it I can wait that short time. The way that time flies around here, he will be here before I know it.

Catching Up

I've been a blog slacker! Time is flying, and I'm not quite sure where it is going!

August 1st I celebrated my 30th birthday. To my request, we had a semi-lazy morning and then went out to breakfast at Mimi's Cafe. I LOVE breakfast there. I had French toast stuffed with a cream cheese and orange marmalade mixture, topped with fruit and served with eggs and bacon. Yum!
We came home in just enough time for me to leave for a pedicure, arranged by Chad. How nice to have someone touch my feet! I can't exactly bend down there to do it myself, so it truly was a treat.
My day was really nice. Chad and the boys made it extra special and I am so thankful to them. They even bought me Dunford donuts for my birthday cake :) Thank you to all of my wonderful family members and friends for their birthday wishes as well. I am blessed to have you all in my life.

My brother Luke, knowing how desperate I have been for a haircut, called and told me that he had made arrangements to trade roofing work with his friend in exchange for me to get a free haircut. I talked Luke's girlfriend Lindsey to driving with me down to the Gateway to visit this famous Umi (no clue how to really spell his name!) this past week. I have NEVER had a haircut like this before (sorry girls who have cut my hair before). He seriously spent about and hour and 20 minutes just cutting my hair. It is thinner and laying better than it ever has. I LOVE it! It feels so good to have a really great haircut. Now if I can figure out how to afford having him cut my hair every couple of months...Thank you Luke! Here is a pic of the new do:


Today was my 36 week prenatal appointment with Dr. Langer. I definitely believed her when she said that things were progressing. I was measuring right on at 36 cm, the baby has officially dropped right into position, I was 90% effaced and dilated to a 3 1/2! This past week has been a little harder for me. I am feeling extreme pressure down there and my pelvis bone- WOW! It KILLS. We don't have very much longer to go though. Dr. Langer said that she guesses within 2 to 2 1/2 weeks we will be holding our little Cohen in our arms. I am so excited for that! We seem to have everything ready for him. His dresser arrived safely, we have the nursery all set up and we ordered and received our new infant car seat and stroller system. Did you know that car seats expire? We didn't. But thankfully we figured it out before he arrives and the one we got is a really cool one, the Combi Helio:


Hopefully our next blog post will be pictures of our new baby :) Okay, wishful thinking, I know. Soon enough :)

34 Weeks and Counting

Time is flying and baby Cohen will be here before we know it! I can't believe how quickly the months have gone past. We are just over a month away and I can not wait to meet this little guy.

It has been a hot couple of weeks full of sweat and swollen ankles, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. I love this special time to feel him move, hiccup, and kick (even though sometimes very painful!). He is going to be a wonderful addition to our family and despite the knowledge of the scary things to shortly come, I am filled with great excitement.

I got the nursery painted and had Chad set up the crib. We have ordered a new dresser and expect it shortly. We are currently on a car seat hunt and slowly stocking up on diapers. Things are coming together and even though I still feel like there are many more things to do, we are ready.

I went to see Dr. Langer yesterday for my routine appointment. She checked me out and I am so excited to report that I was already dilated to a 1 1/2 and 80% effaced!!! Realizing that doesn't mean that the baby is coming tomorrow, I am thrilled to know that things are on their way.

Give me a couple more weeks Cohen, then common out!

His Name Will Be...

Our poll is closed and we are glad to know that our friends and family agree with our baby name choice! The baby's name will (most likely) be Cohen. Cohen is a Hebrew name meaning Priest. Although all of the names on our poll were actual possibilities for us, we both agree that Cohen will be the best.
Just over a week ago, my friend Kim called me and said "I just got back from my daughter's soccer game. There was the cutest kid there and he had a great name. I want you to write it down and think about it. His name was Cohen." I immediately liked it and took it to Chad. He too immediately liked it and it seems to be sticking. Thanks Kim for the wonderful suggestion!
As for the other names...
Royal was Chad's choice. He loved it. I, on the other hand, did not love it.
Sam has been on my list for a long time. I still love the name, it just doesn't feel like "the one".
Miles is a darling name. We considered it for a few days but realized that it is a bit hard to say with Williams.
And Jonah was my choice. I loved it, but Chad did not.
So, Cohen it is. I feel such a sense of relief to have that decided!

24 Weeks

This morning I went in for my 24 week prenatal appointment. Everything is still going great. I feel really good. For a while there I was exhausted all of the time, but for now I seem to be over that.
I can feel our little guy move all of the time and I love it! It is so neat. Jack has been telling me for a couple of weeks now that he wanted to be the first person to feel the baby kick. I laid down the other day while baby boy was moving around and had Jack put his hand on my stomach. Just a second later, Jack was being kicked. He laughed and ran into the living room where Nixin was and said "Nixin! That was so freaking cool. I was the first person to feel the baby move!" And as far as he knows, he was.
This past weekend was a big one in the baby naming department at our house. I think that we may have finally agreed on one. I would like to know what our family and friends think though before we make it official, so don't forget to vote on our poll!

100% BOY

What a great day! I am sitting at my computer with dinner on the stove, fresh cookies coming out of the oven, the windows open listening to the laughter of my little guys playing in the back yard and everything looked great at my doctor's appointment today. I am happy.

I am officially half way through this pregnancy! I can't believe that when I say it. It is bitter sweet for me. I don't mind being pregnant, in fact, I usually quite enjoy it. This one has been a little different with the placenta previa and all of its scares, but over all I have felt great. Knowing that it will be my last go at it makes me a little sad. It is such a neat thing to be able to make a baby, I will miss so many things about this.

I had my 20 week ultrasound this morning. I love seeing the little baby! We had questioned the last ultrasound's sex prediction, but it was, without question, still a boy. I was shocked 6 weeks ago when I heard that news, but have come to be very okay with it. It will be great to have another boy in our home.

Everything else looked absolutely perfect with our littlest guy. It is amazing to me the things that the ultrasound can see. The little chambers of the heart, the spine, kidneys, stomach, diaphragm, blood flow through the umbilical cord, and not to mention all of the baby's features. We could see his little profile, his mouth opening and closing, his little arms that he loves to keep right up there by his face, his feet, and of course, the "boy parts". How amazing it is to be able to see those things.

Good news for me too. The placenta was a good 4 centimeters away from my cervix, so this placenta previa really does seem to be taking care of itself. Hooray!

Here are a couple of the pictures that were taken today:

Isn't he adorable? I can't wait to meet him :)

Picture

I've been meaning to post the "It's a Boy" ultrasound picture, so here it is:



It's a little blurry, but it's the best that I could seem to get. What do you think? Looks like a boy, right?
As for me, I am still having some bleeding. I have been resting and taking it easy and that seems to help. Chad and I went to a couple of stores last night and walked around a little and that did not seem to help. I will be calling my doctor in the morning to see what I need to be doing. I'll keep you all posted.

Well...

It's a BOY!

A little scare...

We had a little scare at our house this morning when I woke up bleeding. I called the doctor who reassured me that these things can be normal early in pregnancy. She suggested that I come in for an ultrasound to make sure that everything was okay.
After we dropped Jack off at school, Nixin and I went in to the doctor. The baby was perfect, moving all over the place. They did find however that I have "minor placenta previa" and that seemed to be the source of my bleeding. Both the ultrasound tech and the doctor seemed to think that as the placenta grows, this problem will fix itself. What a relief! They will check it again at my next ultrasound.
The nice lady doing the ultrasound asked me if I wanted her to tell me what the sex of our baby was. I was surprised that at only 14 weeks she could already tell! The truth is that I was dying for her to tell me, but I really want Chad to be a part of that. So...she had me close my eyes and she took some "sex of the baby" pictures and sealed them in an envelope for us to open when Chad gets home from work today!!!
Here are some pictures that I can share with you now:

What do my kids think about the sealed envelope?
Nixin has asked multiple times if we can open it. About five minutes ago he said to me "Mom, I think it is time to open the envelope so I know if we are having a brother or a sister."
Jack just walked in the door from kindergarten and I showed him the pictures that we got today. Then I told him what was hiding in the envelope on the fridge. He started clapping his hands and had one of the biggest smiles on his face. He said "I think it's a brother!" I left the room a second later and listened as he leaned down to Murphy (our dog) and said "Murphy, what do you think the baby is? Huh Murph? It is probably a brother."
I love that they are showing such an interest in this baby. I was so certain that they were going to be pretty upset by the idea, but to my surprise they are constantly asking questions, touching my stomach and talking to each other about it. They are darling!