What am I doing before this baby comes?

Well, since you asked, I'll tell you.

This entire pregnancy seems to have been made up of a particular routine. It goes something like this......

I'm pregnant!

I'll have time to think about the pregnancy and this new little sister after......

after we refinance our house....
scrap that, after we find a new house to buy.....
after we sell our current house....
after I get all packed up....
after we move.....
after we finish this yard....
after I finish school w/the kids...
after a birthday party....
after a baptism...

Well, all of that "stuff" is finally out of the way. So this week started out with NOTHING to do. Seriously, my calendar and to-do list were pretty darn empty. So Monday sort of stunk. (I really do hate Mondays....it's always such a bummer coming down off the weekend high.) The kids and I didn't get much of anything accomplished that day. (I did get a nap for the first time in forever, which was heavenly.) And I quickly decided the rest of the week would NOT continue that trend. I refuse to sit around, twittling my thumbs, waiting for this baby to make her appearance.

So yesterday we did chores like normal, the kids played with friends, and then we spent the evening at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House. It was lovely. Afterward we ordered Thai food from our favorite place and sat and enjoyed the evening with my little bro and his wife and their cutie daughter. (Don't tell, but I was sort of hoping that the spicy Thai food would kick my uterus into gear....no such luck.)
Then at 10pm my midwife, C, came over for (most likely) my last prenatal appointment. Why at 10pm, you ask? Because it worked out better for her and for us than a daytime appointment. And Brent got to talk to her a bit and ask her some questions he had and he got to hear the baby's heartbeat, which he hasn't been able to do for a while.
My sister called while C was here and was dumbfounded that anyone would have that kind of dedication. This is one reason (among many others) that I love midwives (especially homebirth midwives). The care I've received from C has been incomparable to the care I received with my other kids. And I haven't even had this baby yet! :)

Today is filled with neighborhood friends here at our house to play and I'm strongly considering getting a sitter for tonight to go to the temple (to do a session, not to the open house again) with my wonderful husband since we probably won't have the opportunity to go again for a while, what with a baby constantly attached to my breast and all (I can't wait!).
This afternoon we're going to go pick out a new member of our family. The gophers are finally driving Brent crazy enough that he consented to get a cat. It will be an outdoor cat, mind you (something I never wanted to do). Because really, how can it kill gophers if we have it inside all the time?

Tomorrow we've got a trip to the zoo planned and I may take my sister up on her offer and head down to her Enrichment night.

Friday we've got piano lessons and then possibly a homeschool field trip to Wheeler Farm (always a fun place).

If I make it past Friday with a baby still in my belly, this will officially be my longest pregnancy. This baby does seem pretty comfy in here still, it could happen.

So how much of this stuff will we actually get done? Who knows? But it feels good to have stuff planned so that I'm not sitting here, impatiently waiting for a certain someone to introduce herself.

It's hard to believe I'm at the end of this road for a 5th time. It's gone by way too quickly. I really do love being pregnant. I'm going to miss my belly and the wiggly little person inside of it. But I'm getting so excited to meet this child and see just who it is that's been taking up all this space inside of me, kicking, tickling, hiccupping, doing dances on my bladder, and all that other fun stuff I'm going to miss. Isn't it amazing how much you can love somebody that you haven't even met yet?

This is really happening! (Well, not right this minute)

My midwife, C, came again this morning and things are progressing well. Baby's descending and is "in position." She seems to be a bit on the small side, which is just great with me! None of my kids have been very big, though. I'm pretty lucky that way. I'm 38 weeks and measuring just under that. (Sorry about the crappy picture.....it was the best I could get in front of my (apparently dirty) bathroom mirror.) Notice that she's low enough now that it looks like I have to pee when I'm holding the bottom of my stomach! :)

Last week C brought the birthing tub and all of my supplies for the birth (she brings HER supplies when she comes for the delivery).
The kids were asking all about what it was going to be like and I apparently didn't explain everything well enough to them. I did tell them that Daddy was going to "catch" the baby. Roo was very excited when Brent came home and saw it all. He exclaimed, "Yeah, and you can catch the baby with the net!" He's got it all figured out!

Here's my preparation for this new little one.

We are all getting very excited for this baby's arrival, but we're hoping she holds out another week or so since AJ is getting baptized on Saturday. We really don't want to have to postpone that.

And this baby is coming just in time. Because just this morning I decided to put Lady in pigtails for the first time. And yep, it's official. She's not a baby anymore.

Where in the world does the time go? And how do they grow up so fast? Are there any vitamins I can give them to slow down just a bit?

Wanna know what Baby #5 is going to be?

I must be the most impatient person in the world. I can't stand waiting. I'm 17 weeks along....only 3 more to go before we get the regular 20-week ultrasound. But can I wait 3 more weeks? Absolutely not! Not after my sister, who's only 2 weeks ahead of me, has already known she's having another boy for 3 or 4 weeks. And also, not after I went through all the baby clothes in the basement. Brent thought that now would be a good time to clean out some of the boxes in the storage room, so Saturday I went through a bunch of boxes and threw stuff away, combined stuff, and condensed the number of boxes in the storage room. I first went through the baby girl clothes.....they're cute and I love them, but I've seen/used them all 3 times now. Then I went through the baby boy clothes. I cried. I've only seen/used them once. And that was 6 years ago!

So I went upstairs and informed Brent that we would be finding out whether this baby was a boy or a girl on our date that evening.

I NEEDED TO KNOW!!!

I made an appt at one of those Fetal Photo places in the mall and we went there directly after a spicy dinner at Pei Wei. (I was hoping the spices would get this baby moving!)

The ultrasound tech asked us whether we wanted a boy or a girl and I quickly informed him a boy was on my wishlist. He said he'd see what he could do.

We first saw the little tummy, full of fluid. Next the heart, beating away....155bpm. 2 arms, 2 legs, a perfect little spine. The head measures right on, the head-to-rump measures right on.

Ok, let's take a look between the legs.......



And here's a profile view, which the tech said actually gives a better picture of the proof (or lack thereof). See how she's rounded from her tummy around to her rump? There would be a couple of bumpity-bumps if she were really a he.Brent was just fine right away. He's excited to add another girl to the family.

I must admit, it took me a minute to recover. I was SOOO sure this was going to be a boy. All we've talked about are boy names, and how we're going to organize the bedrooms if this is a boy. But then......

The tech moved the wand over my belly and held it still for a minute. We saw her squirming and stretching and kicking. She gave us a little wave.....

And then she put her hand to her nose as if to say, "Neiner, neiner, neiner, Mom. I'm not a boy!"
How could I NOT fall in love immediately?

We've made 3 girls that look and act nothing alike so far, so I guess we'll have to see if we can do it a fourth time! :) And from the looks of it, we're going to have our hands full with a spunky little girl! I can hardly wait! :)

As the saying goes:

"Thank Heaven for Little Girls"