38 Weeks

I just went twelve days without writing a blog post. You might think I had a baby in that time. I did not. See, still pregnant at 38 weeks and 2 days:

At my appointment on Wednesday  (just 2 days shy of 38 weeks) I was dilated to a 3 and about 80% effaced. My brother came into town that night, and I used his visit as an excuse to make a good Southern meal - fried chicken, fried green tomatoes, mashed potatoes (and Swiss chard so Eric wouldn't feel like he was about to keel over of a heart attack.) That night I noticed a lot more contractions while I was on my feet. Then the next night I tried to get my kitchen tidied up after the previous night's overzealousness, and also I cooked a carb-loading meal for my brother (he was prepping for a marathon for the coming Saturday), and I again noticed a fair amount of contractions. Both nights, by the time I settled down so did my uterus.

Then last night after going to the Relief Society broadcast, I was watching a movie with Eric, and I was having a lot of very noticeable contractions - also some that were hardly noticeable at all. This was different than the other nights where the contractions were going on while I was busy and on my feet. I really began to wonder if I was in labor. I even made Eric pack my hospital bag while I sat on the bed and timed contractions. Ultimately I was having contractions about every five minutes, usually lasting for at least a minute, but they didn't seem to be strong enough to merit going to the hospital. Plus it was late and I was tired and didn't want to harass a neighbor to watch Ike for what might ultimately be a false alarm. I decided to go to bed. If I was really in labor, then the contractions would wake me up.

I woke up many times during the night, but only to use the bathroom. No baby yet. And that's fine, because I really want him to have an October birthday, and now he will.

Also, in case you were wondering, I am measuring very small. This is for two reasons: (a) the baby is very low, so he's just not in my belly area as much and (b) he's just measuring kind of small in general. At 37 weeks the doctor was a little worried after measuring my belly and seeing it was small, so he did an ultrasound and measured Felix's head and femur. Based on those measurements it looked like he was measuring about the 18th percentile for babies at 37 weeks.

A Weekend in Park City

There were several times last week when I was very tempted to write a post that said, "I'M GOING OUT OF TOWN THIS WEEKEND WITH ONLY MY HUSBAND AND NO TODDLER!!!!!!!!!!!" Except that I never wanted to announce to the Internet that I was leaving my house for the weekend.

But now I'm back, so I can announce that I went out of town with Eric this weekend and without Ike! It was delightful.

Eric's work had a little retreat that was really not at all work-related and all fun-related. We stayed in a nice hotel in Park City and ate great food. Eric and his co-workers got to go down the aerial ski hill thing. Here are pictures.

Eric went down the little hill a number of times. This picture is from his first jump. Apparently it's much harder than it looks. (All I know for sure is that if this work retreat had happened at a time when I was not so very pregnant, I would have been all over this activity, even though we would have had to pay for me to participate.)

 You can just barely see Eric in the shot on the left, but this was after he went off the "bigger" slope the first time. (It's the slope on the far right.) He is in the air and about to land in the pool in both shots. They fill it with bubbles right before somebody lands to help soften the landing. It's really quite clever.

 And here's Eric getting ready to go on the big hill a few more times.

And also we went shopping and bought Eric new clothes for his birthday.

And we watched the BYU vs. Utah game. In Park City. Probably the most hostile place we've ever watched the game. And to top it off we watched the first half in a bar with Eric's co-workers. Double the hostility. We kept pretty quiet. And then the co-workers decided to go out to other bars, and we watched the rest of the game in our hotel room while consoling ourselves with a Cadbury Fruit and Nut chocolate bar.

We were so excited to pick up our little boy. We expected him to be excited too, but he didn't really care that we came home. I guess that means he was in good hands. And also that he won't be bent out of shape when we pawn him off on relatives when Felix comes in the next few weeks.

36 Weeks

 Here I am at 36 weeks and 2 days. I went to the doctor on Wednesday (35 weeks and 5 days) and the doctor told me that he didn't think I'd possibly go past my due date. (Baby head-down and very low. Dilated to a 2.) I told him I'd heard that before. (Reminder: I was told at 36 weeks with Ike that there was almost no chance I'd go past my due date. Then I was induced a week after my due date.)

So, yeah, we're getting another baby soon. I feel good. The baby seems to be healthy. Things are going well.

Our Cars

We have two cars. One is a gold 1996 Mazda 626 that has over 215,000 miles on it. (Pictured on the right. On our wedding day, in case you couldn't tell.) Eric bought the car in 2004 with 96,000 miles for $2600. That car has rust stains on the driver's side door, which is why he is called Rusty. The other car is a red 1996 Plymouth Neon with at least 150,000 miles on it. We aren't sure of the exact mileage because the speedometer often doesn't work, and when the speedometer is not functioning, the odometer doesn't work either. We bought the Neon in December 2009 at an auction and promptly named it Dudley, fearing that he might be a dud. As it turns out, he has served us well considering how little we paid for him ($900 at an auction, and then another $800 immediately for repairs).

As I've mentioned before, both cars are in questionable standing right now. Ever since we bought Dudley he's had small oil leaks that haven't been worth repairing. We've had all sorts of repairs done on him, and eventually he won't be worth repairing any more. Rusty is just old and tired. Back in November we were informed that he had a cracked radiator and could go at any time. Thankfully, his time has not yet come. (We seriously did not expect him to live this long after being diagnosed with a terminal illness nine months ago.) We are grateful we've had plenty of time to build up our savings so when we have to buy a car it won't be a horrible experience.

I've spent a fair amount of time looking online at cars. One thing I'm really going to miss about Rusty is his amazing gas mileage. He gets about 36 miles per gallon. Consistently. Granted, Rusty spends most of his time on highways or other fast-moving roads. We don't do a lot of errands in that car. I've looked through ads that advertised cars with 30 MPG fuel efficiency as really great, and it makes me sad in advance.

One thing I am really looking forward to are the safety features of having a newer car. I really want a car that has the LATCH car seat hooks. They make Ike's car seat fit so much more snugly than I can ever seem to get with our seat belts. I'd also really like a car with automatic locks and possibly a little remote to unlock the doors and the trunk. I know that sounds so simple, but I've had a few times where I'm trying to unlock doors manually and my toddler goes bolting out into a parking lot. Usually the parking lot is not busy, but one time when leaving the hospital after doing some blood work he ran right out in front of a large truck. You would have heard from me if there had been an accident, so obviously there wasn't one, but it was still scary. I could use a little help from modern technology that could help me in preventing this sort of thing. (I know it wouldn't solve my problem, but it would be nice if I could hold Ike's hand with one hand and unlock his door with the push of a button using my other hand. This is my daydream. Do not ruin it.)

Dudley doesn't have a working air conditioner. So obviously the thing I most want in a replacement car for him is a working air conditioner. Dudley also doesn't have a radio, so it would be nice to have a radio in the replacement car as well.

In the meantime, we are enjoying having two functional cars for however long we have them. Fingers crossed that neither of them dies at a really inconvenient time - like on the way to have a baby or something.

34 Weeks

I have been horrible about posting pregnant pictures of myself. Too bad. This is me at 34 weeks and 2 days. (The last photos were at 26 weeks and 2 days.)

 

I'm feeling really good and getting excited about this little person. Overall, this pregnancy has been easier than my first, and I'm unbelievably grateful for that. Fingers crossed that we can keep up the good feelings.