And the latest...

C section scheduled for Friday, Dec 2 at 8am. Crossing fingers it won't be a hellish recovery, I'll need my energy for baby!

Oh, and DH is home with visa! Yay!!!!! I'd write more but I have a 10lb baby inside of me who doesn't like it when I lean over to type.

Yup, 10lbs at last ultrasound. They can be off by a pound sometimes, we'll see. He's a big boy. DH and I went to build-a-bear to make him a bear, we named it Clifford. Very cute.

I can't believe I'm about to be a mother. I can hardly take care of myself, yeeesh! Next time you hear from me I'll have gone from preggy brain to mommy brain (still scatterbrained) but all I'll be able to talk about is Toby. Get ready!

Sis and Bro in law goofin' 

More Nursery 

Nursery 

37 wks pregnant  

Still Cooking

The baby is still in the oven, but letting me know most of the time that he has no room in there by pushing and kicking and trying his best to squeeze out of my bellybutton or ribs if he could. I told him to wait until Daddy comes home, we'll see.

Speaking of Daddy, DH got his visa! Now it is just a race of time to see what happens next - Toby's arrival or DH getting back in the country. His plane ticket is for Wed the 30, but that's the day my doctors think we'll be having little Toby, depending on my appts Tuesday afternoon. He's off in England spending some time w/his mates and family, which is good for him - but I sure hope he gets back in time!

We had a simple Thanksgiving, didn't go overboard with food and ate in the garage watching football on the tv in there, since our kitchen is being fixed at the moment. We were allowed to go in and use it, but there is dust and insulation everywhere, so we didn't spend a lot of time in there. The workers come back Monday, so far they've repaired part of the roof bit, taken down the entire ceiling, put half of the ceiling board back up, and once they finish that it is time to take down the walls, replace the insulation and put them back up... then I think we can have our kitchen back. Let's see... this is... 3 months after Katrina. All I can say is - don't ever use State Farm insurance.

One Less Worry, possibly

Update since last night - we believe that they already sent Pete's police clearance/certificate and mum-in-law has it in her possession already! One answered prayer down, one less thing to worry about!

Now if just the medical and interview go well... and somehow we find a way home for him a little sooner than the 30th in case Toby won't wait. Phew!

Down the Stretch

Hey y'all, so sorry it has been a while. Things go a little slower when you're carrying an 8lb+ baby on your sciatic nerve who also loves to squish that "gotta pee" nerve.

That's right, 8lb 5oz at the latest ultrasound estimate which was Tuesday. Had both appts w/the maternal-fetal medicine doctor who i guess is a perinatologist who does the biophysical ultrasounds and the regular OB. We asked when they thought we might be delivering this big boy, and the OB said Nov 25 or 28 was his guess, the peri said Nov 30 if we could stall that long so he could have ample time to develop (big babies like that need more time to develop in the womb), but he is already so big, it would most likely be a c section if we waited that long.

Want more news to make it even more finger-nail biting? DH got his green card interview date scheduled in London. We applied for this thing 3 and 1/2 years ago, actually a little longer than that. He has been here on a temporary visa made just for spouses of US citizens who have to wait on the green card processing b/c it takes so damn long. Don't ask me why they created another visa to create more work for the same people who could just be working harder and faster on the green card applications - but that's what they did. Anyway, it is scheduled for Nov. 23.

It gets better (really, worse, depending on how you look at things).

Our friend and Rector of our church got DH's plane ticket to England since he has so many air miles and we have so little money (and just short on the air miles). Because it is around Thanksgiving, the only dates he could go are from Nov 20 to 30. But hey, it's a free ticket. We're crossing fingers and praying that DH will get his visa and be able to somehow get an earlier flight if he begs at the airport, even if we have to shell out a little more money, so he doesn't miss the baby's birth.

But, another snag. The embassy requires a medical exam and a police clearance/certificate at the green card interview. Without those, DH gets no visa. We have his medical scheduled for the day he arrives, the 21st, but they warned him it normally takes 3 days to send the results to the embassy. Not too bad, it would just take an extra day. They'll do the interview w/out the medical results and just wait for them to come in and issue the visa then if the interview and results are all good. But it's that darn police certificate/clearance that we're worried about. Minimum time it takes to get - 6 weeks. I have heard reports of some getting theirs in 2 weeks or even 10 days, but others have taken a month or more. Fingers crossed.

That's what could hold him up. He could not only miss his flight out on the 30th by not having the visa by then, but may miss the birth, and I'll be stuck alone with a newborn that doesn't come with a manual and probably having to also recover from major surgery (the c section, apparently it's hell to recover from, and I didn't recover quickly at all from my last surgery which was the gallbladder removal - I don't do recovery well). I do have my family here, but my mom works 12 hour shifts at the hospital and will most likely be there most of the time, my sister just got a new job where she isn't able to take off work, and my dad calls being productive going out and playing 18 holes of golf. He also can't even turn on the oven without my help (it's digital) and it has taken him months to realize that I can't bend over anymore to empty the bottom rack of the dishwasher, nor lean over and stretch enough to put most of the dishes away. He also forgets my diabetic diet constantly.

So, next week and the following week will be interesting to say the least. I'm trying to convince the boy to stay in, and pray that the police certificate comes at a miracle pace, and that DH can fly home earlier than his ticket is planned. Is that too much?

I've been having some practice contractions, or Braxton Hicks as they like to call them. But Doctors seem to be mistaken about these. For some reason they seem to think they're not painful at all. I think it is b/c most of them are men and don't get that menstrual crampy feeling and basketball tummy tightening and extreme lower back pain all at once. I almost had us on a hospital run, but called the Dr first who calmed me down and I made it through the night and saw him the next day. I'm dilated just a fingertip with a very soft cervix. But the good news is that I haven't had another night of contractions like that since. Just a few moments, but nothing that bad. Maybe Toby will wait for Daddy. Let's hope. Daddy has waited for Toby for a long time and I think will be heartbroken to miss his birth. Everyone who talks to DH tells me just how lucky I am, they've never seen a father-to-be more excited and informed about pregnancy and childbirth.

Trust me, I know how lucky I am. And I'm even luckier and more ecstatic that we're going to have a little mini-DH as well. What could be better than that?

35 weeks down... yikes!

Not long to go now! Had my 35 week appt at the OB on Tuesday and things seemed sort of okay. My blood pressure is actually high, which is rare for me, despite my size, and the boy - who although showed at the last ultrasound to be in position with his head down ready to go, still has his feet stuck up in my ribs (sure does make breathing fun for me!) and is pretty high for being so far along and so big.

I reminded the OB that the Perinatologist who I see that does the ultrasounds and monitors my blood sugars said this baby was in the 86% percentile for size. Not that it means anything to me, just that he's big - and the OB mentioned we might have to consider a C section. Now, 8 months ago I was dreaming of having a C section, but since then I've done a lot more research on it and it's not really the ball of fluff that everyone makes it out to be. It's a major, major surgery, and not that great for baby either. Recovery is worse than the regular old method of birthin', and the boy will have more fluid in his lungs and will have to spend a few days in the NICU if this happens (usually the birth canal would push all this fluid out but in a C, he won't be going that route). He will already have lung problems most likely, just from being a boy, and a boy of a gestational diabetic, and also probably being pulled early b/c they don't like gestational diabetics to go full term (the placenta ages quicker and that means it will give less and less oxygen the closer to 40 weeks we go). So, there are some worrying things.

But honestly I am so uncomfortable right now, I don't care if they have to pull him out of my nose at this point. I made sure the Doc knew that.

So, now we're down to weekly appointments, I see him again on Tuesday and I guess that's when they start up the pelvic exams again. Then the following Tuesday is the perinatologist appt where they do another ultrasound, if the boy waits that long, and I have a feeling we'll be seeing him before December. Just a feeling though, keep in mind I've never done this before.

I still have a huge list of things to do before he comes, but a lot of it has to do with money, and sadly, I think we lost our money growing tree. *Sniff*. DH is "helping" do some construction in Covington (to the east of us and on the north side of Lake Ponchartrain - that big lake next to New Orleans) these past few weeks to help the situation, but it means he spends most of the week away as it is too far to logically come back and forth daily with the high cost of gas and all the new traffic we have thanks to the evacuees. So anyway, I still have to:

• Get a Diaper Champ (diaper disposal thingy)
• get some nursing pj's and bras (i have none!)
• somehow figure out a way to get baby health insurance without having to add him to my out of state Virginia plan which will cost twice as much
• wait on missing nursery pieces that have been backordered
• get nursery monitor
• get pack and play (will use as a bassinet next to our bed in the beginning)
• send out those thank you notes from those who sent baby gifts (they're written, just not mailed, d'oh!)
• do the christmas cards
• stop feeling guilty about not being able to get christmas gifts this year and fight the urge to do christmas shopping
• get car seat installed by a technician who can interpret those darn directions (have to make an appt w/the police dept for that)
• stop craving cake, i can't have it yet!
• somehow break it to the kitties that they might not be getting as much attention from us soon
• decide on a middle name!
• pack the hospital bag
• figure out what else

So there it is, lots of stuff to do, yet I don't have the energy to do any of it. I have to do more around the house now as well since DH is off in Covington, it's not fun.

I can't believe it is November. I can't believe I'm going to have a baby.