10 Months & 3 Days Pregnant

As promised I am writing to "lament the woes of the tenth month of pregnancy." I am three days past my due date which I am assuming means that the baby has adopted the same philosophy as we have with the remodeling of the house; that dates are more like guidelines than a deadline. However, I must admit that I anticipated being extremely uncomfortable and a bear to be around (although I guess you could ask Brandon for a true assessment about the latter) but for the most part I feel no different in the tenth month of pregnancy as I did in the ninth month of pregnancy. He seems to be making the majority of his progress at night because that is when I am noticing my contractions being the most consistent. Last night, they were strong enough that we debated calling the hospital. However after a hot shower, some shifting positions, and a back massage from B the pain seemed to subside and I was able to go back to sleep. I am hoping all this movement at night is not an indication that he is destined to be a night owl like his Aunt Emily, who can be up all night and then sleep half of the next day away leaving all of us non-nocturnal people wondering how she functions. 

At this point I have made the decision to not go back to work next week baby or not! I came to this realization last week on my due date when I had bent down to pick up a piece of trash off the floor for the tenth time that day, solved three playground squabbles over Rainbow Loom bracelets and evil eyes, and attempted to manage a room full of ten-year olds from the wheely chair behind my desk. As much as I love a challenge I have fully come to terms with the fact that this is one challenge I am willing to let go of for awhile. Don't get me wrong I will miss my students terribly but as they say absence makes the heart grow fonder : )  And thanks to my wonderful teammate Julie whenever I am missing them I can pull out my advice book that all the 4th graders put together to give me their perspective on how to be a good parent. Their advice was heart felt and sincere, which is why I feel slightly guilty that I found it so incredibly amusing. But I will let you be the judge!

In addition to reading advice from my students, doctor's appointments and our remodeling project will continue to occupy most of my time until baby's grand arrival. I had my "final" appointment on Friday where the doctor told me three things: I'm overdue, my amniotic fluid levels are fine, and according to a stress test baby is content hanging out where he is. This is all good news considering it means he is still a healthy, growing baby and my desire to have a natural birth is still attainable. We will be going back to the doctor on Tuesday, and we have a tentative induction scheduled for Friday. Prayers are appreciated! The remodeling at our new house seems to be finally making some progress. This is thanks to many hard working workers, including Brandon who is spending every waking hour at the house trying to get it done so we can move in. Here are some updates that I am particularly pleased with : )

                                                       Master shower tile

                                                  New stairs are finally going in

                        All the rooms upstairs are painted and ready for flooring and trim

Maya has been enjoying lazy days on her new deck and backyard

I am confident that next time I post we will have welcomed our baby boy into the world, so until then here is to a productive and comfortable tenth month (and some days) of pregnancy!

Andrea

  

Home Remodeling is the new "Nesting"

They say that in the last month of pregnancy women develop this instinct called "nesting" where mommas feel the need to clean, prepare, and rearrange their homes. Mother hamsters do it. Mama cats and dogs do it. Even expectant birds mothers do it. And like many human mommas-to-be I have been experiencing this same urge to prepare our "nest" for the arrival of our little guy. However, this urge to "nest" has been made difficult due to not having a livable house, because it is in the throwes of an intense remodel. To satisfy this urge to nest I am deeming home remodeling as the new "nesting" : ) 

Remodeling has been a whirlwind of trips to Home Depot, meetings with designers and contractors, paint selections, and about a thousand other decisions. Now that we are exactly a month into our remodel/nesting I must tell you some of the "we just bought a house and the possibilities are endless" phase is wearing off. Now don't get me wrong I could not be more excited about the idea that in about a month I will be cuddled up on my couch sipping hot tea in front of a beautifully renovated brick fireplace, with hickory hand-scraped floors, and my parchment paper colored walls. But as I look around at what seems to be an endless pile of sub flooring, nails, and half-finished projects it seems like that idea is a long way off. What's worse is that as I approach my tenth month of pregnancy (I will be 40 weeks on Thursday) the amount of help I can give to our remodeling project is limited and I am beginning to feel useless. I keep being reassured by those around me that I am doing the hardest job of all by growing a human, but I can't help but feel like if I could only bend over that all the sub flooring would be nailed down by now! I am assuming this feeling of wanting to nail down sub-flooring can be attributed to the "nesting" urge I referred to earlier. So for now I will have to settle for bending down at least far enough to put on my socks and my daily walk-thrus to see the progress that my hubby, and all the other wonderful people in our lives who have sacrificed their time to help us, have made.

                                            Hallway Bathroom

                                            Living room fireplace

                                            Kitchen

                    Hard at work (notice my coat is on, so this was on one of my walk-thrus)

                              Views from the front door entry and the garage entry

                                             Bedrooms and hallway to bedrooms

                                                     Paint selections in nursery

                                            Master Bathroom

                                           Downstairs Family Room/Fireplace

The next time I post it will be either to share all the joys that new motherhood brings, or to lament all the woes that the tenth month of pregnancy brings…hehe! Until then thanks for all of your continued prayer and support as we go through very many exciting changes in our lives.

Andrea

Our Nest of Two is Becoming a Nest of Three

In just a few weeks our "little birdie" will be finished incubating and ready to hatch : ) On that mid-June day when we found out we were expecting it was hard to imagine what our lives would be like nine months from then. As I reflect on these past nine months many changes and blessings have come to our lives and I praise God for His faithfulness through it all!

As many of you know we have been undergoing a lengthy moving process. We sold our house back in October in Linwood, KS that we had been living in since we got married. Our little house was a wonderful place for entertaining, close to several lakes for our boat, and the perfect size for two! However, once we found out we were to be three we put our house up for sale. Due to the housing market we weren't sure of how long it would take, but God was present in that situation too. Our house sat on the market for about a month without much activity, and then within about 5 days we had 11 showings and 3 offers. The offer we ended up accepting was above asking price and to a couple that we knew would love the house as much as we did! The only downside to the quick sale of our house was that we were still in the middle of the hunt for a new house. My Mom and Dad were quick to let us  come live with them in their house in Shawnee, KS until we could find a house that fit our growing family's need.

Luckily, not long after moving we found the "perfect" house only about two miles from my folks house. The only thing not "perfect" about it was that it was short sale home. Take it from me there is NOTHING short about a short sale. Coincidently several years ago we had passed through the neighborhood where this house is located and talked about how this would be the ideal neighborhood to raise a family in, so it was hard to pass this house up! After what seemed like an eternity (67 days but in pregnant days that is a loooonggg time) on Christmas Eve they finally accepted our offer : ) We had a few more bumps in the road after that, but we were able to close mid January. The house is in need of some updating and we are probably looking at about six weeks of renovations, but we could not be prouder of our little fixer-upper.

Brandon has taken on most of the renovation projects himself with help from friends here and there. Our hope is to have all new flooring, paint, and bathrooms done before the end of February. Then new kitchen, family room, and various other projects by Spring. We are planning on being at my folks house until all the major renovations are done. This most likely will mean that we will have the baby before we are able to move into the new house. However, I consider this to be a huge blessing that we will get to still be at my parents house. I figure the first few weeks I will want my Mommy's help as much as possible as I navigate the unfamiliar waters of motherhood :)

Throughout it all God, our family, our friends have proved their faithfulness and love and we are eternally grateful! 

Andrea

P.S.-Stay tuned for updates and pictures!