Yesterday's appointment was a bit disappointing. My appointment was at 10:10, and I got there & checked in at 10:14 (the only time I've been late, amazingly!). I finally got called into the back at 10:50, and after doing the urine sample and the blood pressure and seeing the doctor....I was in my car (which was parked really far away) at 11:01. She told me all about having Monday off, and how great it was, and how she and her husband ate watermelon, and how it was really expensive when she was a kid but she doesn't know enough about agriculture to understand why it isn't expensive now. Then she told me that my GBS (Group-B Strep) test was positive, so they would just put me on antibiotics when I'm in labor. Then she tried to leave. This is something that's finally new to me, as my other three pregnancies were negative, so I had some questions. For example, I don't plan on being at the hospital long enough for them to start an IV. Evy was a "precipitous delivery" (she was born 23 minutes after I walked in the door) and that was great, and that's what I'm hoping for this time (although I know, every birth is different and you can't plan things blah blah blah). She told me that in that case, the pediatricians have some protocol, but she doesn't know what it is, but they'll take care of it. And tried to leave again! She wouldn't tell me anything else, only that it's not dangerous to adults, 20-40% of adults are carriers, and that it can cause problems if the baby is born and the mother is positive. I was so frustrated I just let her leave and decided I'd just do some research and try to talk to Scott's brother (who is a pediatrician but unfortunately lives on the other side of the country) if I needed more info. Also, she decided not to do a pelvic exam...she'll do it next week. Not that I really WANT one, but I'm curious if I'm dilated more and my due date is in less than two weeks, so it seems warranted. I'm really starting to hope that she is off on the day I deliver, because I'm worried she'll run in, say, "oh this is taking too long, let's give you tons of pitocin and then do a c-section if that doesn't work in 5 minutes!" I'm sure it will all be fine, and she's really nice and I'm sure she's a great doctor, I'm just getting anxious in general, and her personality kinda makes that worse. Oh well, too late to do anything about it now.

In other news, Scott just did a huge research paper last week, and had a smaller paper due a few days before that, and has another paper due tomorrow. He has been doing homework every night that he's not working late since school started (actually I think we took two nights off to watch Gladiator, but it's still very impressive). The two assignments he's gotten back he's gotten A's on, so he must be doing a good job! I'm very proud of how hard he's working, at work and at school and at home, especially since I've been pretty disabled recently so he's had to take care of me and do extra stuff as far as taking care of the kids too. I'm hoping he can have a chance to go golfing or disc golfing or something with his dad when they come, because he definitely deserves a day off. Or at least a few hours off.

Last night I had a baby shower! Some friends from church did it for me, and it was so much fun. We just sat around and talked and ate chips & delicious cookie things for a couple hours. It was great, and my friend Drena made some amazingly cute decorations (it was pumpkin themed). We've been planning on getting a pack-n-play, and I got some gift cards to go towards that, so I am excited. I decided it would be nice to have someplace safe to put the baby when I take a shower or whatever, other than just putting him in the bed with pillows on either side and keeping our fingers crossed.

I'm trying to make a halloween costume for New Baby.

I bought a pattern for hooded jammies, and decided I'd make the fingers & toes pointy claws instead of all rounded, and add the ears somehow. I still haven't figured that part out yet. I forgot how difficult and confusing sewing patterns are. But, I put a zipper in! All by myself! It was really hard, and the sewing isn't completely straight, but there it is. My first zipper. However, when I tried to turn the toes right side out, I can't get then through. I think I made them too small, so they won't come out. Then I think I tore some stitches out of the seam from pulling too hard. And the jammies look big enough to fit Evy, despite being "newborn" size. So at like 1am the other night I gave up, and tried really hard not to burst into tears. Thankfully my mother in law will be here in a week, and as she can sew anything, I'm optimistic that she'll be able to help me.


Will has next week off school, and I'm SO excited. Last year Scott took Will to school on his way to work most mornings, but this year with school and trying to get enough hours he can only do it once a week, and now he leaves right when we're waking up. This means that I have to get all four of us dressed and out the door, then park super far away (because the school design in lame) and get the stroller out for Evy and get Will over there...and will have to do this when the new baby comes, too. So I think I'm even more excited that he has some time off than he is! Plus, I miss him, and it'll be nice to have him home for a while.

Lastly, it has been HOT the last few days! Like high 90s and even over 100! Yesterday we went swimming at my sister-in-law's pool, which I was a little worried about. Even Will is not a swimmer, Evy needs to be held the whole time, my SiL's daughter is only 3 so she has to hold her, and Ben can't swim either! So the kid:parent ratio was far from ideal. But Will can touch the bottom on his tiptoes, so he walked around a lot, Ben stayed on the steps, and I sat on the steps with Evy. My SiL took her daughter and Ben around the pool a few times, and so everyone was happy, we had no near-drownings, and we all cooled off. Hurray! Hopefully it's cooler today, since I got really exhausted yesterday, and even though it was a "success," I don't think we'll be doing it again, unless Scott can come. Today I have to go to Target, do some cleaning, and get ready for Amanda and Rachel to come over and watch the RS broadcast tomorrow night. We are going to eat lots of ice cream!

Quick Update

I went in to the doctor today. I'm finally to once-a-week appointments, so I've been stressing about finding people to watch the kids. My doctor doesn't work Wednesdays or Fridays, and doesn't do appointments after 3:00, so it's impossible for Scott to watch Ben & Evy without ditching something. My sister in law has been awesome, and lots of friends have also offered. I just always feel bad. Anyway, so I'm now 37 weeks! She said he's definitely head-down (yay!) and that I'm at a 1.5. I think I was at about 4cm before I even started contractions with Evy, so I'm hoping that the same thing happens this time around, so that half of the work is done for me before things get painful. She also asked how big my other babies have been (Will 8# 6oz, Ben 9# 8oz, Evy 7#), and she said that this definitely didn't feel like a 9 1/2 pound baby, or even 8--she thinks he'll be closer to 7. Which is exactly what my doctor told me about Ben--who came out pretty darn big! So I'm pretty sure she just jinxed me into having an 11 pound baby.

Honestly, this baby could come any day! How weird is that!? It could be today, or in three weeks, or in five weeks. So crazy. There's just so much stuff on my calendar right now, and Scott has a million things to do, and has midterms the week the baby's due, and is going to Arizona for a few days when the baby's like two weeks old, and it just seems like stopping everything in order to have a baby is just not going to work for us! Thankfully, Scott's parents are coming from NC on the 7th, and they'll be here until the 21st, so Scott will still be able to go to school, and Will will have someone to take him to soccer and school and stuff. The boys are super excited. They are going to get haircuts from Grandpa, and go to The Bakery for croissants for breakfast with Grandma. I really wish we had a spare bedroom, because it would be so much easier for everyone if they could just stay here. Someday, I'm sure we will. And we'll have more than one bathroom, and a dishwasher, and closets that hold all of our clothes. Until then, I'm grateful that we have a driveway to park in, and a fireplace, and a fenced in backyard, where the kids can all dig in the dirt for crystals while I wash dishes. Or, I can let the boys turn the hose on and get REALLY dirty.

{I hate how Blogger uploads pictures; for some reason these are all super small. If you click on them you can see them big. Also, I made it so anyone can comment, you don't have to sign in to a Google account or anything!}

So! A lot of Things have been happening around here! Ben had his fourth birthday! We went to "Daddy's new Golfland" for his party, and he had a great time. He also got some sweet presents.


Obviously he was having a great time opening presents!


4 Candles!

It's kinda crazy that he's four. Also, he has had a recent growth spurt, but Will hasn't in a while. When Will went in for his checkup last month he was 45" tall and weighed 45#. Last week Ben went in, and was 40" tall and weighed 40#. So they are really close in size right now!

Also, Evy played with Play-Doh for the first time last week:

And I'm proud to say that she did not try to eat it at all! Hurray!

Will started soccer! He loves it, although the team is kinda disorganized, and he still (after 4 practices and 2 games) has no idea what to do. But he gets super excited and has a ton of fun, and that's what matters anyway.


First soccer game!


And playing on the playground afterwards!

Yesterday, after Will's game, we went apple picking at Gizdich Ranch in Watsonville. It was super fun! Will picked like 14 pounds, and we ended up with a total of over forty pounds of apples--which cost $53. Oops! Next time we'll have to be a little more careful. So now I have to figure out what to do with a gazillion apples. We also got sandwiches and cookies and chips and the BEST apple juice ever for lunch, and the kids played in a hay bale tunnel and had an apple war with some other kids. Somehow, no one got too hurt and no parents got too mad, and the kids got good and dirty and had a great time. They can't wait until strawberry time next year. Today Will was asking if they had any other things to pick there, because he wanted to go back! Here are some pictures:



Baby belly!

Cuddly Evy.


Hilarious Ben face


"Baa-puh!"


Very proud Will



More baby! I had just put Evy down, and she had been playing in the dust/dirt for a long time, so my shirt was super dirty!


Evy had a great time riding on Daddy's shoulders and holding her two apples!

AND...in other amazing news, I finished the quilt for baby number 4 today! Hurray! It looks super awesome.




I'm so excited. I made it super fast, didn't make any huge mistakes, and it looks really cool. Will said he really wishes he could have it for himself. But he still likes his Castle Quilt best, and he's very happy that now I'll be working on that again. I did really different quilting on this one. Usually I quilt "in the ditch" (along the seams where the stitches are fairly hidden) or along with the print of the fabric (for example, if there's an animal print, quilting all around each animal). For this one I quilted 1/4" away from the seam on each side of the diagonal and vertical seams. My batting needed to be quilted at least every 5", so I had to add those parallelograms. Scott made me a little template that I traced using my awesome chalk wheelie dealie which is seriously the best thing ever. You draw your chalk line on, quilt, then just flick or brush the fabric and it's gone. Mine is white, and it was just slightly more cream-colored than my white fabric, so I could still see it. I'm going to wash it tonight with one of those dye-grabber cloths, so hopefully that dark blue binding won't bleed into the white.

Also, I'm pretty sure that baby #4 has a first name (although I'm not going to tell it to you!). Not 100% sure, but there's no runner up, or anything else we remotely like, so we're pretty close. Although we've got nothing for a middle name. By the way, have you looked at that little baby counting-down thing over there? Twenty eight days! Yikes!