Yet One More Change...

Well, our baby will be here one day later than we had planned due to a change in the hospital's schedule. Our c-section is now at 11:30 on Tuesday, November 30th. Not a huge deal, but it was kind of a bummer to have to add a day onto our countdown! Jeremy took an awesome picture last night of what we think was a knee sticking out in my belly. It was crazy! However, I will not share that with you, due to the fact that my belly looks like a road map with all the stretch marks all over it. It grossed me out to see it from the angle he saw it, so I will not put my blog readers through that!

We had a very untraditional Thanksgiving at Cracker Barrel today with Jeremy's grandma and great-aunt. The food was actually fantastic and came complete with yummy pie! Now we are at home relaxing and napping, while watching gigantic snowflakes falling from the sky! Our deck already has a nice little coating on it! Hope everyone has a fantastic Thanksgiving day!

Update to the Update

Wouldn't you know, not long after I posted the last blog, my doctor called with our c-section date. It's actually even earlier than we expected. Our baby boy is scheduled to enter this world on Monday morning, November 29th! Guess I better get off the computer and start getting busy!

Baby Update

Since I know you are all sitting around checking my blog daily just wondering what is going on in our lives, I thought I would give you a baby update. I went for my 36 week appointment on Monday to get a final sonogram to check things out. We learned two things at this time:

1. We have a very big boy on our hands (his measurements show he is already over 8 lbs.)

2. Due to my placenta previa, we have to have a c-section.

I know a lot of people are unfamiliar with placenta previa, but in a nutshell, it means that the placenta is lying too low and covering my cervix, meaning that if I had a normal delivery the placenta would come out first, leaving the baby with no oxygen, and causing a large amount of blood to be lost by me. Obviously these are all very dangerous things. I actually had placenta previa with both girls, but often times when the baby grows it causes the placenta to shift up higher, which is what happened in those cases. However, we did have quite a scare after I delivered Ansley, in which the doctor had trouble controlling the bleeding due to how low the placenta actually was. I definitely would not choose a c-section, however, I was a bit nervous to have a normal delivery after what happened with Ansley. We'll all be much safer this way.

Placenta previa is still a dangerous situation and my doctor has asked me to change my preference of hospitals to one that he would feel more comfortable with me being at. In extreme cases even following a c-section, the doctors have trouble stopping the bleeding and a hysterectomy is required. My doctor plans on having a team of doctors prepared in case this were to happen. Obviously, we are praying it doesn't, and there are no complications.

We are still waiting on a date, as my doctor has to get it scheduled with the hospital and make sure the other doctors that he would like to be there will be. The goal is 10-14 days earlier than my due date, which is December 17th. We are hoping to know by tomorrow what the date will be. Until then, I am getting more and more uncomfortable by the day, sleeping less and less by night, and right now am dealing with an awful cold. Two weeks ago, Kennedy had strep throat, and this past Sunday Ansley woke up throwing up, so we are hoping all of our sick germs will be gone before Ian gets here!

Halloween Party

This is a little late, but last Thursday I got the pleasure of helping Kennedy's class with their Halloween Party. I had signed up to be a volunteer, but only two other moms besides me had volunteered as well, so I think I became a "room mom" by default--which is totally fine, I just hadn't signed up to be one given the fact that I will be out of commission soon and then will have a 2 year old and newborn to look after. Luckily the other two moms were super organized and had some great ideas, so I just had to help with some of the preparation of treat bags, etc. We had a pirate-themed party and the kids seemed to have a blast! I love being able to spend time in Kennedy's class with her and see how she interacts with the other kids. She's really growing up! Here are some pictures from the party:

Walking the Plank

We went on a treasure hunt and Kennedy found the treasure!

The treasure was hidden in the music room and the music teacher made the students have a "dance-off" to see whether he or the students were the better dancers. Whoever danced better got to keep the treasure...the kids won! :)

Look at my cute pirate!

Enjoying the snack

Report Card and Other Things

Today was our first parent/teacher conference for Kennedy this year. She's doing great, and her teacher had nothing but wonderful things to say about her. We are very proud of how well she is doing, and how much she is adjusting socially. We were so worried about her shyness, but she seems to be breaking out of her shell more and more each week! She also got her first report card and got all M's and +'s. I know what you're thinking--what the heck does that mean? Basically it's the best "grades" she could get. Her P.E./Art/Music teachers use M's and her main teacher uses +'s. She got to eat dinner on the "special plate" tonight in honor of her awesome report card.

We are excited for Halloween this weekend. There's no school this Friday, or the following Monday, so we have a nice long weekend with not much to do. We trunk or treated this past Sunday as the Scooby Doo crew, and had a lot of fun, and are ready for even more fun this Sunday! Here's a picture of us from that night: Velma, Shaggy, Daphne, and Fred!

And finally, one last picture for you. Jeremy took this of Ansley the other night. The girls were taking a bath and he asked Ansley if she was ready to get out. This was her response. I'll let you be the judge as to what it meant!

Field Trip!

I had the pleasure of joining Kennedy and her class to a pumpkin patch this week for a field trip. We had a lot of fun and I was so glad to get to go with her and finally meet some of the kids in her class. I love the fact that kindergartners are still so young and eager to meet each other's parents. I think Kennedy got a little jealous at times when I was holding hands with two other students and not her! I also love that kids that age do not see a person's skin color, size, gender, etc. They all just love to play together regardless of what they look like. I know that will probably change for some of them sooner than later, if nothing more than girls not wanting to play with boys (which of course that will again change again a few years later!)

Tonight Kennedy starts Girl Scouts. She will be a Daisy Scout--keep that in mind when you are craving Girl Scout Cookies in a few months! :) Although I am not one of the leaders, I am helping out and going to the meeting with her tonight. After that, one of her friends from school is coming home with us until her parents get off work. They live right up the street from us, and the really crazy part is that her mom also grew up in East Peoria! In fact this little girl's uncle was in the same graduating class as my sister Stacy! It is such a small world!

These next few weeks are crazy busy with Halloween festivities, parent-teacher conferences, a bridal shower for Jeremy's sister, Jeremy's mom coming to town, a book fair at school that I am working, and more! I'm afraid though that the word "busy" may just become a normal part of our lives until Christmas is over! We have a few down weeks in November, but the closer we get to December, the closer we are getting to becoming a family of five! Yesterday Ansley asked me "Mommy, when is that baby Ian coming out of your belly anyways?" Not that she understands weeks, but probably in the next 8-9 weeks!

Future Artists?

Jeremy and I are not the most artistic people in the world. However, somehow we have two little girls that love to draw and color. Kennedy has been impressing us lately with her coloring and drawing. She does really well, stays in the lines, and is getting more creative with her drawings. Ansley, on the other hand, usually just scribbles. However, yesterday during church she was coloring a picture and it was the first time she has been deliberately trying to color certain things certain colors. I was way impressed with her skills, especially with her only being 2 (okay--and a half). She finally got bored and started scribbling with yellow, but for a good 15-20 minutes she was focused on coloring each little thing. Here's her picture:

Yesterday afternoon, Kennedy came up with this picture. It's an alien, in case you were wondering, and she tried her best to glue on the red pipecleaner/antennas, but it just wasn't working, so she decided to go with masking tape. After she finished, she was putting it over her face saying it was a mask, and she mentioned she could hardly control herself with it--whatever that means!