Placenta Brain

So I really have not had much to complain about during my pregnancy. There have been a few minor things. Yesterday I realized that I am currently suffering from what I hear is a common pregnancy malady: Baby steals your brain. Here is a conversation from yesterday to serve as an example:

Tim: "We need to put that carseat in the car soon. Probably in my car. Then it will be ready to go when we need it."

Rachel: "Well we'll have to take it back out if Baby doesn't come before we go to pick my parents up from the airport."

Tim (looks confused): "Why?"

Rachel: "It won't be comfortable with two people in the backseat and a carseat between them."

Tim (a little slowly to be understood): "We have two cars."

Rachel (even more slowly to show Tim he is being ridiculous): "We're going to take two cars to the airport?"

Tim simply looks at Rachel like she has lost her mind. Then it clicks to her: We could take the OTHER car to the airport!

Baby, come quickly.

39-week checkup

Things are still looking good for me and Baby. The doctor wants to see me on Monday if I don't go into labor before then. At that point, he will monitor the baby for a little while, check my fluid level (sounds like an oil change), do an exam, and decide what to do from there. It looks like the latest he'll let me go is January 12. We are hoping for sooner...much sooner...and natural. Induction scares me. :)

"Patiently" waiting - the 2 of us. :)

I received a phone call this morning from a co-worker: "How are you doing? You just kind of disappeared. I just wanted to make sure everything is okay." Well, everything is still okay. We are just waiting! I have been experiencing Braxton-Hicks contractions but nothing regular and consistent. Tim says we need to go for a long walk today. That sounds like a good idea.

We tried to coax Baby out yesterday with the incentives of presents and a monkey of his/her very own. It was to no avail. What are we going to do with a child that cannot be bribed? :)

I wanted to share a driving experience from Christmas Eve, but there is no way I could top Tim's eloquent post. Therefore, I will refer you to the link provided.

Merry Christmas a day late! Our celebration consisted of morning gift opening, talking to the family via telephone, and dining at the home of a family from church - where we actually did sit around the living room and sing Christmas carols! It's not just in the movies! :) It was a good day. I hope you all enjoyed your celebrations as well!

Happy Birthday, Tim *Edited*

Happy birthday, Tim! We have spent the majority of the day just relaxing. We did have a doctor's appointment, and there is nothing new to report. We're still just waiting. We are planning on heading out for a birthday dinner tonight and eating birthday fudge for dessert. Fun times! :) Enjoy some pictures of the birthday boy:

Addendum: It is now evening, and we have enjoyed our meal at Cool Hand Luke's (yummy steak). Here is a picture of Tim with his Birthday Fudge Mound. Mmmmmmm!

38 weeks

Things are still going well here. This week has been less eventful than last, which is good. It has been nice to have a little bit of a break. We don't even have any weekend plans! Woo-hoo! :)

There really isn't much to report. Soooooo - here is another picture update.

Update

We had another doctor's appointment yesterday, and everything still looks good! Baby didn't do anything crazy this week like flip upside-down, so that's good. :) We're making a little progress -I am now 50% effaced. Woo-hoo! Otherwise, no changes. Baby's head is still "a little high", and I have not started to dilate.

It is beginning to feel a little more like Christmas-time here. It has been "cold" (40's) and rainy for the past few days. It's great! :)

Progressive Dinner

Last night we had our progressive dinner for the youth group. We started off by decorating the youth room at the church, then headed to our house for salad, to another house for massive burritos, and a final house for delicious dessert. I learned that I am a very bad estimator when it comes to making food for large groups. Tim and I will be eating salad for every meal until it goes bad. At least we didn't host the dessert portion! :) Here are some pictures for your entertainment. Click the link above for more!

It's a pear tree. Obviously.

That is a massive burrito. Massive and delicious.

Weekend happenings

This weekend was full and exciting! The church hosted a baby shower, and Baby received lots of love in the form of gifts. We are blessed to have a church family that loves and cares for us. They truly are our family here in California! Here is a picture from the shower - this is a diaper "cake" that one of the ladies' daughters made. It's beautiful! Yes, I did take it apart though.



We enjoyed hosting a few people from the church for dinner on Saturday evening. We had a delicious meal and I learned an easy way to make garlic bread!

Sunday was my last day of work. Yay!!! I am officially on maternity leave until 12 weeks after Baby arrives!

Tim and I went to a doctor's appointment yesterday, and everything is still looking great with the baby. His or her head is down - still "floating" though, so we're waiting for the little one to drop. I am not dilated at all yet either. I went on a walk today as part of my new housewife routine - maybe that will help Baby along. :)

We had lunch yesterday with some pastors from the area and their wives. We really enjoyed being able to spend time with them. This is the same group that Tim meets with for breakfast once a month, but these lunches only happen about twice a year. It was a special treat.

This Friday is our annual youth group Progressive Dinner. We will be meeting in the youth room to decorate for Christmas, hosting them at our house for salad, moving to another house for Mexican food, and ending at a third house for dessert. This is usually one of our bigger youth events. I'm looking forward to it!

December?!

Baby is due one month from tomorrow! It's hard to believe time has gone so quickly. We are anxious to meet the little one, and we look forward to his or her arrival more and more as the days pass. I have definitely been nesting. Example: I decided a few days ago to attempt to make my own baby wipes. If we're going to go with cloth diapers, it only makes sense to use cloth wipes too, right? So I cut up an old fleece blanket into 8x8 squares and am sewing around the edges to give a little character and keep the wipes from fraying. I'm not sure how well fleece will do as wipes. I've read that flannel is best, but fleece is what I had available. I've tested them out as face wipes and they work as that! :)

We had a great Thanksgiving. Tim and I enjoyed a meal at the house and just relaxed all day...actually, all weekend! It was nice.

We are in the middle of decorating for Christmas. :) I put up the nativity scenes last night, and we need to do the tree at some point today.

Tim started a blog of his own yesterday. Check it out - there is also a link to it to the right under "Blogs I Follow".

We don't really have much going on here until the weekend. The church is hosting a baby shower for us on Saturday afternoon. Then Saturday evening, we are having a few people from church over for dinner. It will be a "thank you" dinner for the worship team that leads music once a month at the church. Tim is going to grill chicken for that dinner. Mmmmm!