Abigail, part 1

Remember how we blogged Kessa's birth story all along the way?  Well, here we go again with Abigail's!


Yesterday I went in for a routine appointment at my midwife's and decided to get checked.  (I had declined last week, but so many people asked me, I figured I should have something to tell them.)  Turns out, I was 100% effaced, dilated to a 6, and baby was at a +1. Heather (my midwife) kept saying, "She's just right there!"  There were two assistants that asked, "How are you even walking?!"  Uhhh… one step at a time?  I didn't realize I wasn't supposed to be walking.  :D  I honestly had no idea that I could possibly be this far along.  I had felt a few, what I assumed to be, Braxton-Hicks contractions, and I've been uncomfortable, but having never reached this point in labor before, I just assumed it was all just normal end-of-pregnancy woes.  Turns out, they've been productive!  Who knew?

I really wanted my sister, Jalin, to be there for this labor, since my mom is gone on her mission, but she lives 10-12 hours away, so it didn't seem likely that she'd be able to actually be there for labor.  To make matters worse, her husband is going to be out of town starting next Tuesday and will be gone for a week.  So in order for Jalin to come stay with me for a week, I needed to go into labor right away or wait till my due date of Feb. 3rd*.

All things considered, we decided to try a natural induction.  This is much different than a medical induction.  From what they told me, a natural induction includes some capsules (like elderberry or something?  I can't recall edited: evening primrose), then an hour-long massage followed by an hour walk.  (And of course, it's raining.  So I think we'll go walk around the church.)  Worst case: my body isn't actually ready and won't do anything, but I'll get an hour massage out of it. Best case, I'll have a baby by morning!

So we're doing that tonight in about 20 minutes.  Wish us luck!

*Due date is Feb 2 according to my LMP and Feb 3 according to the ultrasound.

Out of the mouth of Kessa

Kessa is getting really verbal.  And she says some pretty hilarious things.  I've been trying to do better about writing them down, so here's a few from the last few days (these are copy/pasted mostly from chats to BJ):

• Hah!  Kessa is upstairs entertaining herself and I just heard her say, "No whining!  I didn't!  I didn't!"
• Kessa is playing Trainyard (on the iPad) and just exclaimed, "Oh! Holy Night!" Sure, she loves the song Silent Night, but to pull that out as an exclamation? Haha. Cracks me up.
• Kessa wants me to come help with a puzzle, so she's been hollering at me, "Mommy, mommy, mommy!" And I keep telling her just a minute, because I'm writing on a facebook wall to answer a question for a friend. Suddenly she says, "Holy night!  I want to do this!"
• Kessa has had a bad habit of waking up in the middle of the night and coming into our room. So we've started telling her that she can wake up when the sun wakes up. When the sun wakes up, then she can come wake up mommy and daddy. Well, last night she came in, but when BJ got up to take her back to bed, she very easily went back with him and went back to sleep. She knows the drill now, apparently.
  
  This morning BJ got up around 8. I had no reason to get up, so I kept sleeping. Finally, close to 9, I heard Kessa yelling, "Mommy!  Mommy!  Mommy!"  She often does this when she wants me to come or doesn't know where I am. She doesn't stop even when I answer her. So I heard that at a distance and figured she was downstairs with BJ and wanted me to come downstairs. So I took my time getting up, going to the bathroom, etc.
  
  Finally  I stumbled out of our room and realized that Kessa's voice was coming from her room. Not from downstairs. So I went into her room and found her sitting in bed, smiling. "Mommy!  There you are!"
  
  As I sat down next to her I noticed snow on the ground, so I pointed it out to her. She liked the snow. Then she looked up at the sky and said, "Sun not awake yet?"  It was quite cloudy, so I told her, "Oh, it's awake. It's just hiding behind the clouds. Is that why you're still in bed?  Because you thought the sun wasn't awake yet?"  To which she replied, "Want to make Mommy happy!"
  
  Awwww. Touch my heart. Seriously.
• The other day Kessa hollered this down the stairs: "Ok, I'll bring it downstairs so that Mommy will open it. So stay there!"
  
  When did my little baby start talking in full sentences?
  

36.5 weeks

People are starting to comment that I haven't posted any pregnancy pictures.  Well, that's because I don't have any.  With Kessa I took at least one per week (Even though I can't seem to find those pictures).  My second baby hasn't even been born yet and already I'm one of those moms.  I guess it was inevitable.  Anyway, so here I am at 36 weeks and 3 days.  Thursday I'll be considered full term.  I definitely feel bigger this pregnancy than I did with Kessa.  BJ thinks my belly looks like a bell curve in this picture.

And for everyone who missed it in one of my latest really long updates, we plan on naming this baby Abigail Pearl Homer.

And in the spirit of full disclosure, as I've realized there are people I'm quite close to that had no clue about this, I'm also planning a home birth.  I haven't really told a lot of people because I know some people freak out about it.  And I don't want negativity surrounding this birth.  So let's play by the rule here that if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.  K?  I figure it'll come out eventually, once I post the birth story.  And I want to make sure that those people who really care know about it.

*Yes, there is a hospital nearby.  Yes, I plan on transferring to a hospital if anything goes wrong during labor or birth.  No, I'm not scared about giving birth at home.  Yes, I've researched it.  Yes, I will have a midwife present.  Other questions are welcome, so long as they abide by the being nice rule above.

I feel like every post is entitled Update

Well, it's been 2 weeks (tomorrow) since the movers brought all our stuff.  We've got all except a couple of articles of furniture (stored at BJ's grandparents' house) moved in.  We've got probably… 85% of our stuff unpacked.  But have you ever noticed it's the last few boxes that are the hardest to unpack?  Mostly we're down to office stuff (I hate paper!), crafty stuff (which doesn't really need to be unpacked, but it would be nice to have organized), baby stuff (I am shocked at how much stuff we have in boxes in the nursery.  Probably more than almost any other room.  And this stuff isn't urgent, but I'd like to have all done by mid-January at the latest so it's ready for the baby to come), and a few random boxes in our bedroom that came from the Homers' (where we've been living).  There are a couple of boxes in storage I need to go through, too, as I'm missing a box of Christmas ornaments still.  Oh hey, and I need to put up all my Christmas decor. And hang up pictures.  Those are still in boxes, too.  But really, in the entire scheme of things, that's not very much.  It's just hard to convince myself of that when I'm faced with the prospect of unpacking more.

Ok, you don't care about my unpacking woes.  I know what you really care about.  Kessa.  So here's a little bit about what she's up to lately.

Kessa has discovered the carts with cars on front.  Unfortunately. Today she discovered a new way to sit in them. (And she almost always has to be holding some grocery item. Hence the chocolate chips. But she's really good at putting whatever she's holding on the belt when we check out, or handing it to the cashier.)

I was worried about leaving all of her toys at Grandma's house, but gaining all "new" toys seem to have taken her mind off of it.  They're all toys she had before, but that was over 4 months ago!  In her mind, they may as well be new.  I'm planning on putting half of them in storage and rotating them after Baby comes, to give her some "new" toys again.  To help her feel less left out.  (Mom Lovell, doesn't this remind you of my room growing up?  Except they would have all (and more!) been on my bed.)

She is fantastic about letting me do her hair.  I'm always amazed at how well she'll sit still (ish) while I play with her hair.  I now have hope that I might have a chance of learning to do girls' hair!  Hopefully she'll keep letting me practice on her!  Typically I just do two pigtails, but every once in awhile I'll get a little more fancy.  This is the second time I've done this one (with much better results) and it lasted only the morning.  When she went down for her nap, she made me take it out.  Resulting in really, really crazy hair later.  But she's a pro at crazy hair, so it wasn't anything new.  I'm just sad that I'm the only one that got to see it in real life.

She really is my girl in so many ways.  First the love with the stuffed animals.  Then her love of blankets.  When I unpacked the blankets, she pulled as many as she could into a pile, the cuddled up inside of them.  And she knows they're her blankets, too.  "Dat Sessa's blanket!"

Kessa has really gotten into singing.  Her favorite is probably Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.  She's got most of the words down pat.  Though, every once in awhile she says, "Up above the water so high" which cracks me up.  She's also getting good at singing along with Teach Me to Walk in the Light, I am a Child of God, and I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus since those are her bedtime songs.  BJ decided it would be fun to see if he could get her to pick up on the words to Silent Night this month, so he's started singing that to her at bedtime, too.  Apparently it's working, because the other day I listened to this (what you hear on the video) over and over again for probably a full half an hour.  And if she ever hears the song (which is often, as I like to listen to Christmas music) or is in any way reminded of it, she'll start again.  Repeatedly.  It's great.

In non-picture/video documented news, she also:

• is working on potty training (all her idea, I assure you!)  She has only had 2 successes in the past week (both yesterday) but I'm only half-heartedly working on it.  We're going on a week and a half vacation soon and I've had a cold the last couple of weeks, and I'm pregnant.  So I haven't really had the energy to push it.  I figure after Christmas we can work harder on it.  But my favorite part is that no matter who goes to the bathroom, even if she's across the house, she'll yell, "Wash your hands!"  She's very, very insistent about it, too.
• loves watching the workers build the house next door.  We've put a chair up to the window so she can climb up and just watch them for ages.  She thinks it's great.
• is finally getting the hang of nap time again.  We gave her a toddler bed when we moved in (and put the dismantled crib in the nursery—out of sight, out of mind) and because everything was new and because she could get out by herself, nap time pretty much went out the window.  It took almost a week, but we finally are getting nap time reestablished.  This is resulting in a much happier toddler and mommy in the afternoons/evenings.
• Speaking of sleeping, night time was fun for a few days, too.  Her getting up an hour after we put her down and trying to sneak around before we catch her.  Or the one morning when BJ got up early, went downstairs, and found her asleep on the couch.  Luckily night time has been better and easier than nap time.  Now she just wakes up before us and comes and stands or lays in our doorway until one of us wakes up and notices her.
• can talk a storm.  She ends most questions with "huh?"  (Like, "Where daddy at, huh?")  One of her favorite phrases is, "That would be fun!"  I want to know where she picked up the concept of "would be".
• has a great memory.  She'll remember that Daddy is at work.  One time we were going to go play with a friend, Katya, at Jump on It, but she didn't take a nap, so we didn't go.  The next time we had plans to go see Katya, she said, "Tatya?  Jump?"  This was probably close to a month later.  
• has much better balance.  Today I watched her climb onto my exercise bike, then climb down by herself.  Not many months ago I would have either rushed to help her or sat there biting my nails, praying she didn't fall.  Today I watched from across the room saying, "Hurry! We still need to get your shoes before we go to the store."
• loves to be my big helper.  She'll even tell me, "I big helper!"  She'll put her dishes in the sink or dishwasher after meals.  She loves to help me do laundry (yay for front loading washer and dryer) and is even learning how to fold towels.  I'll ask her to put her shoes in the closet and she'll yell, "Oh!  Ok!" and run to do it.  That doesn't mean she does everything I ask.  (Hahahaha.  Yeah right.)  But in general, she really is my big helper.
• is super excited for the new baby.  We're pretty sure we're actually going to name the baby Abigail Pearl (I told you the name was subject to change) (you like how I always announce these things at the bottom of super-long posts?) and Kessa is excited for Abby to come.  Her new favorite thing is to kneel on my lap, facing me, putting both hands on my belly and saying, "Come out, Abby!  Come out!"  She really wants to hold her hand, give her hugs and kisses, and give her high-fives.  (She already does all of that, minus holding her hand, but to my belly.  High-fives to my belly can be a little dangerous.)  She's very excited to help change her diaper, be soft with her, play with her, and even share with her.  I'm really hoping her excitement lasts and that I'll be able to share my attention sufficiently that she doesn't get jealous.  Here's to hoping!

And with that… I think I'll be done tonight.

Housing Update 11/12

18 more days until move-in day!

So, this is actually an update from both Thursday and today (Saturday).  It is so close to being done.  I'm having a hard time figuring out what's left to do.  I know they need to put on the closet doors and touch-up the paint.  And add the railing on the front stairs.  They need to wait for the concrete to cure (maybe that'll take the next week?)  And they need to clean.  But other than that, seriously, I'm having a hard time figure it out.  But I'm sure there is something else to do and they aren't just making us wait for kicks and giggles.  :)

Here is a non-blurry picture of our 5-burner gas range/stovetop/cooktop!!!

(I told you I was excited about it.)

The island, complete with drawers and cupboards.

(No, it's not granite.  Just looks like it.) 

We have carpet!!! [squeal!]

Damian looked at it today.  It doesn't hold up to his high standards (what do you expect, carpet is his life) and gave us a few tips of things to make them fix, but for the money, it's good.

And I promised to consult him whenever we upgrade.

The chandelier above the dining room table. 

This is the half-bath on the main floor.  We have toilets and sinks!  Also, see that toilet paper roll holder?  I am so going to make them move that.  It's ridiculous how close it is to the toilet.  Like, mere inches.  Moving it forward 6" would make all the difference in the world.  Easy reach instead of twisting clear around.  Also, lower the chance of the toilet paper roll actually brushing against bare skin.  I mean, really?  (Ok, I am not a very picky person about most things.  But apparently I have definite opinions about toilet paper roll holders.)

Maybe this isn't the best order, but I'm too lazy to change it.

Because our house is so tall, they put a tiered rock wall around our front porch.  This is the top view.  I plan on putting in a rock garden full of low water plants.  

I'm dreaming of a succulent garden.

The kids' bathroom upstairs.  (This toilet paper roll holder (not pictured) is acceptable.  In case you had a burning desire to know.) I love the built-in shelves in the tub.  I'm kind of jealous, actually.  My shower only has one built-in shelf.

Laundry room 

They've even installed the water heater! 

Our shower is now installed.  As well as the tub hardware.

This is the view from the bedroom.

Getting blinds on that window will be a top priority. 

Tub and shower as viewed from the walk-in closet.

Which, come to think of it, we've never taken a picture of.

Master bathroom sinks and counters and lights.

View from bedroom door.  The open door directly across is the toilet room (yes, the toilet paper roll holder is horrible in here too).  The half-open door to the right in the mirror is the closet.

Our back porch.  

Or rather, the right half of it as seen through the sliding glass door in the kitchen.

View from the front of the house.  See?  The stairs aren't nearly as daunting with those rocks there.  I like it.  (Also, they'll put a railing in on the driveway side of the stairs.)

From straight on.  (The driveway is poured, it's just covered by a concrete blanket (Damian, did I get the technical term right?)  because it's getting really cold here.

View of the back porch.  I don't think they stain it.  

We may have to do that.  Someday.

Go ahead.  Be jealous of us.

Housing update 11/4/11

This is about a week late.  Sorry!  Hopefully more pictures to come in a day or two.

Look!!!  We have a kitchen!  With cabinets!  And an island!  

And a sink!  And a dishwasher!  Wooooo!!!!!!! 

And the cabinets continue!  Over the double oven!!!

Yay for a double oven!!!

Let's swing back over to the other side for a second.  I forgot to get excited about the microwave!

And what's that down there?  The stove top*?

 Please excuse the blurry photo.  It's probably blurry because BJ was laughing at me while he was taking this picture.  BECAUSE I WAS FREAKING OUT OVER THE FACT THAT OUR GAS RANGE HAS FIVE BURNERS!!!  I had no idea about this brilliance that is to be mine.  It was a complete surprise.  And it is ridiculously exciting to me.  You have no idea.

Ok, moving on.  Upstairs we also have cabinets in our master bath!  And sinks!  And lights!  Did I mention that we actually have lights throughout the house, and they work?  Hooray!  Because now that it's getting dark earlier, we can still go see the house in the evenings.

See?  Cabinets!

We also have toilets.  And a back deck.  (BJ, how did we not get a picture of the back deck?)  That was a drama, because the stairs went the wrong way!  And I wasn't happy about it.  But then we talked about it a lot, and I decided that maybe the stairs going the way they are would be better.  So we decided not to make them fix it.  We also have the washer drain pan in.  And the drain cut down to be level with the floor.

It's so exciting!!!

And hopefully we'll be going down again tonight or maybe tomorrow, so we'll get new updated pictures up here soon.  Weeee!

*Poll time.  Do you call it a stove top?  A stove?  A range?  Something else?  

Please, help settle a disagreement here. Tell us your opinion in the comments.

Halloween 2011

This is Kessa's first real Halloween.  She dressed up for the other two, but really just stayed in the house, maybe wearing her costume for an hour, then sleeping through trick-or-treating.  What can I say?  BJ and I aren't big Halloween-ers, so without the kid wanting it, we just didn't do it.  (Both of her costumes before this year were given to her.)  This year we were living with BJ's parents, which meant we got a lot more pressure from Teresa, plus Kessa was old enough to enjoy it this year, so we did it.  Since Papa Homer's goal this summer was to turn Kessa into a cowgirl, I thought it would be a perfect costume.  Teresa thought she needed cowgirl boots months ago anyway, so Mama Homer bought her some pink ones (at Teresa's insistence).  The denim leggings (jeggings, I think they're called?) and the shirt she's wearing in the first pictures came together (even though you can't see them for the coat) and the cowgirl hat is borrowed from a neighbor in the ward.  (Kessa refused to try on any cowgirl hats in any stores, so there was simply no way I was paying $20ish for a hat I didn't think she'd wear.  But then a neighbor lent us hers, and since we were all wearing hats the first night, she happily wore hers too.  So yay!)

Neighborhood Halloween Party

Here's Kessa and I to prove that I did, in fact, dress up.  Costume thanks to the Homer's stash and Teresa's insistence that we dress up.  :)

Closer-up of Kessa.  Sorry for the graininess.  These were all taken on BJ's iPod Touch.

Ok, maybe Kessa still didn't want to wear the hat at first.  So Daddy wore it on top of his hat.  Y'know, to make it cool.  It worked.  She wore it after that.

At the party Kessa went straight for the blow up toys.  Here's a video of her trying to get through the obstacle course (at least part of it).  There was also a giant blow-up Twister game that she liked bouncing on.  So, in other words, the second we got there, her boots and hat came off.  So she didn't really look like she had a costume on.  :)

Trick-or-treating Practice

Unfortunately, we don't have any pictures or videos of this.  Use your imagination.  Since Kessa had never done any trick-or-treating, we decided to practice with her that morning.  BJ hid in the pantry and I helped Kessa knock and say "Trick or treat!"  Then BJ gave her an animal cracker.  Her eyes lit up and I helped her say "Thank you".  So we closed the door and did it again, this time with much less prodding.  She loved it.  It definitely helped later.

Halloween at Daddy's work

BJ's work has an unofficial mascot of a panda bear.  So someone there dressed up as one and wandered the area, giving kids high-5s and such.  Kessa loved him.  The second she saw him she yelled, "Panda Bear!"  Then despite her usual shyness, she ran up to him, gave him a high-5, knuckles, and a hug.  It was adorable.  As we walked around trick-or-treating in the various departments (which she did very well at, if still quietly and usually with prodding) she'd look around for the panda.  If she couldn't see him, she'd ask, "Where panda, huh?"  So finally I decided we needed a picture of her with the panda.  So immediately she got shy.  The first picture is of me trying to encourage her to go over and stand next to the panda.  Once she finally did, she was happy, though.

I love that when we tell her to smile for a picture, her smile looks real, not like some cheese-job.  Hopefully that stays as she grows up.  [crosses fingers]

Oh, and as a side note, Dum-dums are officially her candy of choice.  If there were ever any dum-dums in the bowl of candy she was choosing from, she immediately went for them.  Even if there was also chocolate!  Mommy was very disappointed.  Kessa ended up eating 4 dum-dums in the course of 2 hours that day.  It was only due to BJ's creativity at the dinner table (this bite's for the panda!) that she even ate any dinner.  She also got a full-sized box of Junior Mints, but Mommy confiscated them almost the second we got back into the car.  As a taxi fee.  :D

Halloween Night

Oh look!  Her jacket is open!  You can see her shirt.  (She actually had 3 options to choose from.)

"Where's the candy?"

"Outside?  I'm outta here!"

Teresa (an Indian) and her friend, Alexis (a cowgirl) took Kessa trick-or-treating around the neighborhood.  (Oh why, oh why didn't I get a picture of them together?!  Teresa chose her costume based on Kessa's!  [sigh])  Two other of Teresa's friends showed up at the end, then Papa took them all over (all the girls and BJ) to visit Nana at the rehab center and show off their costumes.  (Again, not pictured, sadly).

Kessa got to bed much later than normal, and on much more of a sugar-high than ever before, but she loved it.  And two days later, she seems to have completely forgotten that she has a stash of candy in the pantry.  I am ok with that.  :D