Gymnastics

Carly had gymnastics this morning and had a fantastic time. The focus of today's class was on balance and the children were able to use various balance beams around the gym. They started on the full (competitive) sized beams - a new experience for all of them. Each mom hoisted her child up on the beam, and then either held the child's hand or full torso as the child made his/her way down the beam before jumping into the big blue pit of foam pieces. Thankfully, Carly was surprisingly confident on this tall beam and was willing to put both of her hands out like the letter T and use only one of her hands to hold onto my hand. (I'm not sure I could have gotten much closer to her with my current baby bump size.) She then walked down cautiously to the end of the beam and requested my second hand before jumping off of this beam. While in mid-air she actually let go of both of my hands before landing in the pit. She repeated this balancing act two more times before it was time to move on to the next station.

During the remainder of the class, Carly walked on her tip toes on a lower beam (with no help from me), walked backwards on a lower beam (she did want to be spotted/supported here), and completed many forward and backward rolls. She may never been the little gymnast, but she is having a lot of fun at the moment!

Our Little Mimic

Carly has become quite the mimicker recently. A lot of her friends are becoming big sisters and big brothers, so she is starting to visit with many babies under the age of 6 months. This has been fabulous at helping her "grasp" the idea of her baby brother coming soon or at least the idea of how small he will be and some of his basic needs. She told me early in the pregnancy that she would help hold her baby brother, change his diaper, and feed him. All of which I thanked her for, yet reiterated that she would need to do all of these things with help from an adult. Recently she has been paying more and more attention to various mothers as they breastfeed their new babies. She understands that when this is occurring, then the baby is getting milk. However, she doesn't seem to understand that it isn't just a shy baby under a nursing cover drinking "red" (aka whole) milk from the grocery store. (Last night she actually gave David a play by play about how her baby was drinking "red" milk, and then at 2 would switch to "blue" (2%) milk, and then move through all the different colors, to eventually end up with "light blue" (skim) milk like mommy and daddy drink.)

Yesterday morning, Carly saw my nursing cover pulled out and sitting on top of my hospital bag and began to tell me that she needed a yellow one too. Later that morning while at the park, she told a friend of ours the same thing. Then, after her nap time she tried to get my cover back out of the bag and explained again how she was going to ask "Ho-Ho" (Santa) for a yellow one. Then randomly as I was putting her laundry away (which included a burp cloth) I got the idea of just attaching some ribbon to one of her burp clothes (she uses them to wipe her noise, help me dust, or to clean up her baby doll poopies) to make a simple nursing cover. Well, 3 minutes later Carly had a nursing cover (burp cloth + ribbon + 2 safety pins = Carly's nursing cover) and it couldn't have been more perfect for her. She has not mentioned at all how it isn't yellow, but has fed her babies many, many times and even explained to her daddy exactly what it was!!

38 Weeks Visit

David, Carly, and I went for my 38 weeks visit. Nothing exciting to report - my weight, blood pressure, and measurements looked great. I'm still only a centimeter dilated and about 60% thinned out; however, his head is at a -2. Meaning he has dropped roughly a centimeter - only 6 more to go!

Baby Brother's Nursery

I can officially say that at 37 weeks & 3 days our little boy's nursery is DONE! Artwork is hung, clothes are put away, blankets are folded, the crib is made, his hospital bag is packed and this room is ready (minus vacuuming - but thanks to a golden retriever this job never seems to be complete). I'm sure a few items will be found as I clean throughout the house that need to be added to his room, but otherwise his room (and only his room) is decorated and functionally ready for him to make his grand entrance.

This completion was not done in haste (so please do not think that I'm in labor or showing any signs of that at the moment), but rather completed because it was all stuff that could be finished and checked off our endless to-do list well in advance. No one will be wearing his little coming home outfit between now and his arrival, so I went ahead and packed it in the bag. No one will be sleeping in his crib between now and then, so I finished making it. Artwork can't get knocked over by a big sister or golden retriever interested in checking out the nursery if it is hanging on the wall, so David hung it up. And since David spent an hour hanging the artwork in both the nursery and Carly's room today, I thought I owed it to him to spend an hour tidying up the nursery as well. (Let's face it, that is a lot more fun than cleaning up the kitchen or say a bathroom.) After spending less than an hour in the nursery the bouncy/vibrating chair was assembled and the room was fully in order.

View from his bedroom door.

View from the glider and window.

View from his closet.

Please note - while this room may be complete and neat, the rest of our home is not. It looks like it has been well used and played in during this Easter weekend. So I'm really not nesting.

Happy Easter!

Our family hopes that you have all had a wonderful Easter!

Our Easter was rather quiet and uneventful - which was a change of pace for us. Typically, Easter (like most holidays) is one where we hustle and bustle - celebrating with family and spending a lot of quality time on I-77 and I-26. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to travel this Easter weekend due to being 37 weeks pregnant.

On Saturday, Carly attended our Church's Easter Egg Hunt. There was a craft/snack portion to help kick off the celebration and gather the children. Carly colored an Easter Egg picture, decorated her own sugar cookie, and ran around chasing many of the other kids who were very excited and ready to hunt for some eggs. After a short skit that narrated the Easter story starting with Thursday's Passover Meal, the directions were given for the egg hunt. Carly was in a group with kids ranging from 2 - 4 and they were all quite humorous to watch. Their hunt was on the lower playground at our church, and many of the kids were easily distracted by the idea of playing on the playground. At one point Carly climbed up on a structure, kicked a handful of eggs out of her way so she could use the steering wheel. Carly did manage to pick up a golden egg - which entitled her to select a prize. With a little "encouragement" she picked up a hand shovel and rake to play with in the sand.

Carly getting ready for the Easter Egg Hunt!

About to start finding some eggs!

EGGS!!!

Easter Sunday was similarly as calm. Carly found her Easter basket during breakfast, we took family photos, and then attended church. Our afternoon involved dying Easter Eggs, David smoking some delicious ribs, and Carly playing with a variety of items from her Easter basket.

Looking through her Easter Egg Basket.

Posing for Daddy (and shouting Happy Easter!)

More photos from Saturday!

More photos from Sunday!

BOB has Arrived!!

A week ago tonight, David, Carly and I were arriving home from a full day of fun in Clemson. Upon our arrival, David and I noticed a LARGE box on our front porch. I knew immediately that it was "BOB" and was very, very thankful that it was still sitting on our front porch. I was giddy about "BOB;" however, I was also absolutely exhausted from a full day of fun in the sun. David opened the box and quickly assembled "BOB," took it for a quick spin around our downstairs, and placed it back in our living room.

Fast forward 10 or 11 hours later to when Carly woke up, was dressed for church, and walked down stairs. The bright orangeness of "BOB" immediately stood out to her. She began screaming, "BOB stroller is here" "Orange BOB stroller!" She continued traveling down the stairs at a quicker pace and was very interested in looking at the stroller.

Carly's fascination with "BOB" began with a trip to a local outdoor store. I was interested in test driving one and getting David's opinion about this mega jogging stroller prior to beginning my hunt for a used one during the spring consignment sale. Carly was very willing to participate in our test drive when we explained to her that she would sit on one side of the stroller and her baby brother would sit on the other side of the stroller. Our test drive ended with me very determined to fine one used. I did find one and took Carly and her Aunt Julia to check it out, but unfortunately it had a major rip in the seat that hadn't been minded well. Eventually, Amazon had a few for sale (but on back order) at a rather reduced price. After Dave placed the order I mentioned it in random daily conversation with Carly.

Carly has spent the past week announcing that the "orange BOB stroller is here!," playing with it, and buckling her baby dolls into it. She even sits in it and tells me that this is where she is going to sit and where baby brother is going to sit. After 7 days of this - David offered to take her and 1 baby doll for a stroller ride. Carly was THRILLED - I don't know if she will be this excited again until she meets her baby brother for real!!

37 Weeks (almost)

David and I went for my 37 week check up today (it was a day early due to the approaching Easter weekend and the office going to a reduced staff tomorrow and Friday). Unfortunately, we had to wait longer than usual for the growth ultrasound due to one of the machines being broken. (This delay made me very thankful that Carly wasn't with us, but rather at home with a friend's teenage daughter.) During our ultrasound we were able to see a lot of our little boy. The technician was being observed by a student - the student was asking questions and the technician was being more thorough in her explanations and techniques. She also was explaining how she always measures twice since a slight movement in the baby can make a difference in the growth measurements.

The growth scan confirmed that our little boy was growing well, even though my protruding belly doesn't seem to vertically be showing this growth. It also confirmed that we are in fact having a little boy. Since this was our first ultrasound since our 18 weeks anatomy scan, we were interested in confirming this detail.

With a great report from our growth scan, we spent minimal time with an OB doctor and were sent on our merry little way - at least for 8 days.