final pregnancy update...40 weeks!

ok, so everything, and i mean everything we had "planned" about jacob's arrival took a complete 180 at about noon today. we are both still fine...let me start out by saying that. tim and i went to my regularly scheduled 40 week appointment at 10:30 this morning. after waiting quite a bit longer than normal, we got to see dr. williams about 11:15. she did my exam, said i was 3cm dilated but still not completely effaced and that jacob was still really high. we started discussing inductions for next week. so far, so good. then, tim asked, how big do you think he is? dr. williams pushed around on my belly for a few minutes and told us she thought he was probably 8 1/2 pounds or so. and since she knew sarah was 8lbs 11oz. she thought that was probably fine for a delivery. but, she said she wanted to get a fetal weight on ultrasound just to check on his size. she said it would make sense that he wasn't coming down into the birth canal if he was large.

so, tim and i wait a little longer, and go into the ultrasound room to check out jacob's size. sidenote: at NO point in this pregnancy has ANYONE mentioned worry over jacob's size. at 36 weeks, they thought he was over 7lbs already, but didn't act worried about it IN THE LEAST. so, this alone kinda threw us for a loop. anyways...so, the ultrasonographer does her thing and starts getting estimated weights ranging from 9lbs 13oz to well over 10lbs. yikes! now, she repeatedly says that weights at this point are skewed because he's not "free floating" in there anymore. she said weights can be off by as much as 1lb at this point. fine if he's a pound smaller, SCARY if he's a pound larger!!!

we had to wait a little AGAIN for dr. williams to finish a patient so we could talk with her. basically, dr. williams said we needed to do what was safest for me and baby. of course, this is our top concern as well! so, she said if she induces me there is a large chance that i wouldn't be able to deliver him anyway because of his size. so, long story even longer...

now we are having a c-section at 5:30 IN THE AFTERNOON tomorrow. we have to be at the hospital at 3:30pm. thankfully, my sweet friend alison who has had 2 sections called tonight and talked me through some of my questions. its been over 4 years since i went to a childbirth class where c-section procedures were taught!!! and i SO know better than looking up stuff on the internet! always worst case scariest scenario!

after a very tearful day, i am trying to wrap my brain around all of this. again, we OF COURSE want whatever is safest and best for baby. but, its still a MUCH different outcome than we were anticipating. and, all together now, we KNOW how much i LOVE to plan everything out... so, i am trying to make peace with all of this. i KNOW that as soon as baby jacob gets here, all of this worry and planning and stressing will seem like a silly little distant memory. but, i do covet your prayers over the next 20 hours or so. for peace, and patience, and calmness, and stress-less-ness...and for a healthy baby!!!

an afternoon on the square...10.25

sarah was FASCINATED with watching the "princess bride" in the gazebo...so sweet!!!

after our fun filled time at uncle fudd's farm, we decided it was too late to try to put the kids down for naps. so, we went to the collierville square to run off the last little bit of steam left in the kiddos. we walked around "exploring" for a while and headed over to our favorite ice cream shop, mensi's dairy bar for a little treat. of course, it was still the same beautiful fall day...so we thoroughly enjoyed capturing some of the kids' moments on camera!!!

a day at uncle fudd's farm...10.25

on saturday morning, the higginbotham's went on an adventure with our family to uncle fudd's farm in galloway, tennessee. it was SO MUCH FUN!!! there were TONS of activities for the kids. we went on a hayride, went through a corn maze, went to a pumpkin patch, rode on a train pulled by a tractor, rode on a little train, played on a playground, fed the animals, roasted marshmallows, jumped in a bounce house, etc etc etc!!! the kids all played hard...we were ALL exhausted as we headed home. it was a BEAUTIFUL fall day! the weather has been amazing lately!!! we are trying to squeeze in as many fall activities as we can before we have a newborn in tow!

pregnancy update...

i talked to the nurse at my OB's office again today. she officially cancelled my induction scheduled for october 31st. i am going in for a regular check up on thursday, october 30th at 10:30 (you know, if i don't go into labor before then...) at which point we will schedule an induction for the next week. on thursday, i will be 40 weeks exactly. that would push jacob's birth into november. that sounds FAR away!!! the nurse said dr. williams DID stress that she would not let me go past 41 weeks...hello? i'm not crazy! its not like i'm trying to stay pregnant forever! i just wanna give the little guy a chance to make his debut in his own time!

i think i'm beginning to feel a little crazy about this whole thing regardless! i keep thinking and rethinking and rethinking everything again and again! my mind is racing all the time with all of the details of the "big" kids arrangements for our hospital stay. especially trying to get their halloween costumes ready in case someone else is dressing them and taking them to the pumpkin party. and with the crazy temperatures we have been having lately, its hard to try to pack for them when it might be 75 degrees or 40 degrees any given day. oh, well...i know it will all work out!

but, i'm not the only one stressing over baby jacob...my mom told me she's not sleeping because she's dreaming she's hearing the phone ringing (with us calling to tell her to come over so we can go to the hospital in the middle of the night) and sleeping through it! and DAILY my poor friends are calling to check on me because they can't believe i'm still hanging on...i think i have a few gals worried that i really am losing it since i've cancelled my induction for this week :)

oh, well...like i said, i know it will all eventually work itself out. don't they say patience is a virtue?!?

10 gazillion pictures from aunt becky's birthday celebration...10.24

once again, we all got together to celebrate a fall birthday...this time it was for aunt becky!!! we met over at nana and pop pop's to roast hot dogs and marshmallows, play, and have dinner to honor aunt becky. as you can tell from the 9 million pictures i took, we all had lots and lots of fun. blogger is being a booger, so some of these pics are out of order (which if you know me well, is REALLY REALLY driving me crazy!). nana made chili to go along with our hot dogs, marshmallows, cake, AND ice cream...so we were all stuffed stuffed stuffed!!! it was way past bedtime when we got our little zombie children home and slightly washed down from all the sugary goodness covering them from head to toe! sarah is obsessed with roasting marshmallows now after this and now this party too! good thing fall is FULL of marshmallow roasting :)

more embarrassing pictures of my son-who-dresses-up-in-sissy's-clothes...10.24

i made the kids biscuits and jelly for breakfast on friday. (THIS NEVER HAPPENS!) i called them downstairs to eat and drew was rockin' this awesome ensemble...NICE!!!

drew's day at the zoo...10.22

on wednesday after dropping sarah off at school, drew and i were heading out to the zoo. it was a beautiful day...so i called mimi and told her i was kidnapping her to come with us! so, we all loaded in the van and were zoo bound! drew had a great time being the center of mommy AND mimi's attention...and only asked where sarah was about 10 million times :) once he got tired of asking where sarah was, he moved on to wondering where griffin and ava were...

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we got to see the baby giraffe that was born october 10th (of course mimi and i thought that was way cooler than drew did!) and found out lots of scoop on our tram ride. drew and i had never been on the tram before...too many kids and too many wagons/strollers normally :) i was out of the loop and didn't realize one of the elephants was pregnant...23 month gestation...NO thank you!!! and i found out that the dama gazelle is the fastest land mammal, NOT the cheetah as most people think. it was a very educational day!!! we also saw a flamingo that was days old. looked like a blob of white feathers and fur sitting on the ground. but still neat-o!

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we completely wore drew out...he was in a trance on the way home! when we got to the church to "release" mimi from her kidnapping, it was about 1:30, so i ran in and rescued sarah from preschool and rest time a little early. she was SO happy to see me! she is not a fan of rest time! the next morning, she asked me repeatedly if i was going to be in her classroom again that day for rest time :) so, even though it was drew's special day, sarah thought her day was pretty special too!!!

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p.s. thankfully, sarah doesn't even realize what she is missing out on during her wednesdays at school. she has never even asked me what drew and i do while she is at school! the girl LOVES LOVES L-O-V-E-S preschool...she would probably choose school over zoo if given the choice anyway!!! i was just thinking it was sounding like drew got to have all the fun around here :)

update...with an update!!!

edited to add: okay, i just looked back at some SUPER old emails because i couldn't remember when drew was born vs. his due date. i had been thinking he was actually born on his due date...but he wasn't! he was scheduled to be a c-section (because he was breech) on his actual due date of february 23rd. so, he was born ON HIS OWN ACCORD at 40 weeks and 3 days, on february 26th. and sarah was an induction one day after her due date, september 29th at 40 weeks and 1 day. all that to say, i feel better knowing drew was born past his due date...why? i don't know, but i do!!!


okay, so i've been thinkin'...

all along, i've been saying i didn't want to be induced unless it was

a. a medical necessity
b. past my due date.

so, i've called my OB's office to cancel my induction for the 31st. aside from all of the "halloween" stuff, i'm just thinking i should give jacob a chance to come on his own...the nurse i spoke with today said that until i hit 41 weeks, the office doesn't "push" inductions. at this point its still for the convenience of "knowing" and having my own doctor deliver. the induction was scheduled for 40 weeks and 1 day. so, i'm thinking i'm gonna take my chances at this point. i COULD still go into labor anytime...

the nurse i spoke with said that she would talk to dr. williams on monday morning. all of what i want to do IS one of the options dr. w, tim, and i discussed yesterday. the plan now is to cancel the induction and for me to just have a regular office visit next thursday when i am 40 weeks exactly. at THAT appointment, we will schedule an induction for the next week. again, presuming jacob doesn't make his debut on his own...AT ANY POINT...

i just KNOW that i've been "anti-induction" for this whole pregnancy for a number of reasons, and i don't wanna cave just because its getting so close to my due date...now i totally sound like a crazed, hormonal, wishy-washy pregnant woman :) so, now you are all in-the-know...

39 weeks...is this little guy ever coming out?!?

well, its another week down and little man is still cookin'! i went to my weekly OB appointment this morning. all my vitals and his are still looking great! thankfully, dr. williams was back this week. she was SO cute when i told her about dr. austin calling her generous last week! she said he didn't know what he was saying...you know, because he has 30 years of OB experience and all!

she said i was a "solid 2" this week. but, something i had never heard before, she said that she's not concerned about my dilation because that's just a measure they use ahead of time to see if a woman is going to be able to deliver "without a c-section" or not. she said that will 2 "non c-section" deliveries (see how i'm trying to avoid saying a certain word and getting the crazies reading my blog!?!), she knows that my body knows how to dilate to deliver. interesting, huh? i mean, i know if i was like 8 cm dilated or something, i would have been sent straight to the hospital, but otherwise, she said it was pretty irrelevant. and here i was thinking all along that i was doing something great by dilating along the way...i guess every cm that i do ahead of time is one less cm that i have to accomplish while in pain/real labor!!!

so, with my due date one week away and no real sign that jacob is eager to arrive, she started talking induction...she is at the hospital where i deliver on wednesdays and fridays. next week, wednesday is the 29th and friday is THE 31ST!!! halloween! of course, when the office called the hospital, the 29th was already booked up, but the 31st was wide open! so, right now i am scheduled for an induction on friday, october 31st at 6am...boo!

at this point, i am praying jacob will come on his own...you know, BEFORE halloween. i realize that whether he is born ON halloween or just the week of halloween, he will still always have an association with the holiday. you know, like my birthday being 2 days before christmas...BUT, i am seriously considering cancelling my induction for the 31st. i just don't think i can do that to a kid. i mean, if HE decides he wants to arrive on halloween, i can just tell him when he gets older that his birthday is his fault :) dr. williams did mention that she was not opposed to scheduling an induction the first wednesday of november...i know...who is this crazy woman WANTING to go past 40 weeks?!? but, couldn't jacob just decide to come on his own? hopefully? maybe?

i'm sure if anything changes, i'll let you all know! ya'll just keep praying that jacob decides when he wants to come and then GETS TO IT!!!

the anatomy of a cute picture...gbc weekday preschool fall t-shirt week 2008...10.21

sweet big sissy always smiles for the camera...
come on little brother...you can do it!!! that's a good smile bubby!!!
almost there drew!!!

now you've got it!!!

drew attempting to avoid camera time!!!

pumpkin patch...10.20

the kids weren't NEARLY as concerned as mommy was about getting a great fall picture...imagine that?!?

fall fun in our pumpkin wear...10.19

mulberry festival on the collierville square...10.18

saturday, october 18th was THE PERFECT fall day! we met up with the yorks and the jenkins at the mulberry festival for some great times! of course we tried to get some pics of the kids with all the great decorations that collierville puts out on the square too!


once we met up with the other kids, mommy and daddy were chopped liver :)





we finally did something OTHER than run around (although they had so much fun, they would have played all day)...
getting our faces painted...


then playing with the huge sidewalk chalk exhibit...
p.s. i think in these pics sarah and drew are drawing on top of previously drawn "OBAMA '08" drawings. we were NOT responsible for those drawings :) the kids were actually doing a pretty good job of completely coloring out those words...

moving on to the coloring table...

one last attempt at a "fall picture"...

make room for baby...10.16

we have been terrible at getting "prepared" for baby jacob...i mean, truly. and if you know me...you know this is VERY unlike me. i am a planner. a list maker. basically your garden variety OCD overachiever.

jacob's nursery is still missing a few finishing touches and he is due in ELEVEN days. sarah's nursery was finished by 21 weeks gestation. completely done. drew's wasn't too long after that. i JUST remembered about 2 weeks ago that we needed newborn diapers. seriously. washing 0-3 months clothes? just in the past month. washing the outfit for jacob to wear home from the hospital? last week. packing my suitcase for the hospital? last thursday after my OB appointment. getting big sister and big brother t-shirts made? got them last tuesday. see what i mean?!? scary...

and then, just LAST week, i remembered to get the infant carseat, swing, and bouncer seat out of the attic. LAST WEEK! so, the covers were freshly laundered in the past few days, and we put the carseat in the van on wednesday night. we literally would not be allowed to leave baptist women's hospital without the carseat. so, i had been planning our van seating arrangement for a while in my head. for some reason, THAT was something i was thinking about in advance. go figure.

i decided that the FAIREST idea was to move both big kids to the back row. that way, we wouldn't have to argue EVERY TIME WE GOT IN THE VAN about who sat next to jacob and who had to sit all alone on the back row. plus, then i could take an entire captain's chair out of the van to give us a little more room. now, sarah and drew sit on the back row and baby jacob will be in the seat behind mommy. nice set-up if you ask me! i figured there's not really a "safe" place for jacob. i'm sure he'll receive a few flying missiles from the big kids no matter where he is. i am hoping as he becomes aware of his surroundings that being able to see big sis and big brother will be instant entertainment during all the hours he will spend in the van toting them around. sarah is able to get in and out of her carseat completely independently so she is in the far corner of the van where i can't easily reach. drew can do the top of his carseat only. so, i can reach him a little better to help him with the bottom part. or on the rare occasion that sarah and drew are both in the mood, sarah will strap drew into his seat as well. getting out, sarah undoes her own seatbelt, then gets drew out of his seatbelt. SO nice. anyway...

when the kids went out to the van to leave for preschool on thursday morning, they were confused and excited all at the same time about the changes in the van. and we took pictures. imagine that?

new toy...10.15

ok, so we are so NOT smart...we got our new van at the very end of june. at that time, we didn't know if we wanted the kids to use the headphones or not while watching movies. i don't ever listen to the radio myself, so i don't mind listening to their movies play...and i like that with no headphones, i can still communicate with them. so, basically, we had not tried to use the headphones for a few months. well, about 2 months ago, the kids, tim, mimi, poppy, and i headed to pickwick to look at houses ALL in our van. the men were in the front, the kids in the middle, and the women in the back. so, we decided that it might be nice if the kids were entertained while the adults could discuss pickwick options. leading to the first time to try the headphones...

i remembered being told at the dealership that the headphones were cosmic. we didn't have to turn them on or off, the kids could listen to a movie through the headphones while the radio played through the stereo system, etc. again, at the time, i was vaguely listening... so, poppy and daddy were sitting up front trying to get the headphones to work so they could hand them back to the kids to use them. they couldn't ever figure them out. so, we ended up listening to shrek the whole way there and the word factory the whole way home. all 6 of us. how nice.

fast forward to bunko at our house in october. we are casually discussing our minivan since several of us drive the same one. i mention that we don't know how to use the headphones. eventually, our troubleshooting leads us to the fact that the headphones only work in the back seats!!! another safety feature!!! so, i feel completely dumb. poppy and daddy were both sitting up front when they were trying to get the headphones to work. i did feel SLIGHTLY better when my friend said the only reason she knew this was because she was in the front trying to use the hp and couldn't get them to work, so she leaned her chair all the way back to see if the screen was working and the hp suddenly started working once she passed a certain point!

okay, so this lengthy story is irrelevant to the big picture...i know that. but, i think its so funny that we had just given up on the hp...so, little drew used the headphones for the first time on this past wednesday while sarah was at school. he was so proud! of course i grabbed the camera that lives in my diaper bag to capture the silly moment!!!

donuts with drew...10.8

on another fun wednesday for mommy and drew, we were planning to head to the zoo, but it was a gloomy, rainy day. so we opted for the next best thing...DONUTS!!! after we dropped sissy off at school, we went to oh! susanna's! and drew picked out his own donuts and beverage. of course icing and sprinkles were involved! and CHOCOLATE milk...something i NEVER let the kids drink (although the word on the street is that mimi orders chocolate milk for sarah at BYB!!!-busted mimi!) so, we ate our yummy (and oh so healthy) breakfast and then drew played for a while with the toys there. then, because we are SO sweet, we took daddy a box of donuts at his work to share with his friends. sweet little boo boo wanted to make sure we had a donut for sarah as well...

after that we did some not-so-fun errands in the rain--definitely not drew's fave thing, but i DID let him walk everywhere instead of making him ride in the cart! so that upped the fun factor a little bit! poor little man asks me all day every wednesday when we get to go get sarah from school! i hope this attachment and love lasts for a lifetime!!! so, i guess we can't really call this particular wednesday a FULL day of fun, but at least we got to do ONE fun thing...

38 weeks...

ok, ok, ok...here's the update. first off, i'm going to tell the long version, because, well, its my blog :) the phone rings this morning a little after 8am...and that's even early for mimi to be calling :) so, its my OB's office. my doctor was delivering a baby earlier this morning, and almost passed out. she apparently started feeling bad during the night, but was trying to finish her 24 shift/deliver that one baby before she left. the nurses she had been working with during the night made her lay down and wouldn't even let her walk back to her office til she started feeling a little better. (her office is in the medical building attached to the hospital.) so, they tell me, she's sick and not going to be in the office today. they were calling to tell me all this and to tell me i still HAD to come in because i'm almost due. normally, they would have had the nurse practitioner from the other office come see dr. william's patients, but, get this, darby had a wreck on the way into work, so she wasn't coming either!!! when they tell me all this on the phone this morning, i start thinking, maybe i don't wanna come to the OB office today either :)

so, i'm supposed to come in a little earlier and MAKE SURE I'M ON TIME, because i'm gonna see dr. austin (he delivered sarah, so i'm fine with this...) and dr. austin has a surgery scheduled for 30 minutes after my appointment time. no problem...i can be there anytime.

so, i get to my appointment with a few minutes to spare, and they can't find my appointment in the computer OR find my actual chart anywhere....apparently in all of the hul-a-ba-lub of the crazy morning, things were not going really smoothly. thankfully, they quickly realized i was supposed to be there and they located my chart.

so, i go back to "leave my sample" and to be weighed. except i'm superstitious. i've been wearing the SAME outfit to the doctor's office for, like the last 10 visits. and i've been weighed on the same scale each time. but, since i'm seeing a different doctor, the nurse takes me back to a different area. so, i ask her if she minds going back to my regular area to weigh. she looks at me like i'm crazy, but obliges. i told her that with the way things were going around here today, i didn't wanna have a huge difference in my weight loss/gain and them freak out and send me to the hospital thinking i'm getting preeclampsia or something. ok, so then she wasn't looking at me quite so crazily...

everything is still looking great as far as my blood pressure, etc. so that's great news. jacob is still doing what he's supposed to be doing...great heart beat, etc. so that's great news. SINCE I'M NEVER GOING TO GO INTO LABOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! when dr. austin examined me, he said that dr. williams had been GENEROUS when she told me how dilated i was last week :( how completely depressing! i told him that was the meanest thing anyone had said to me in a long time!!! he did finally concede that its typical for different examiners to have different measurements since its a subjective measurement...yeah, not helping at this point, dr. austin!

so, he says he thinks i'll still be coming in for my appointment next thursday morning! hopefully i can see dr. williams again. and she can be GENEROUS again...at least that makes me feel better :) so, i'm 38 weeks today and still pregnant. again, i'm truly praying for a 40 week full term healthy fat baby...but, come on, can't i at least make some progress at the same time?!? until next week...

all up to date...

i am trying to get all my pictures/events posted "just in case" we have any big news to post soon :) i go to the doctor again on thursday...stay tuned...

riding in cars with boys...10.5

pop pop's birthday party...10.3

edited to add: from my blogging, it seems as though all we do in the late summer/fall is celebrate birthdays...and that really IS all we do :) between the end of july and end of september we have nana, daddy, poppy, pop pop, and sarah's birthdays!!! at the very least, we all get together for dinner for a birthday celebration, making for many many good family gatherings!!!

silly cousins...


helping pop pop blow out the candles...multiple times...
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poor poor pop pop...his birthday is september 26th, 3 days before sarah's. imagine who gets the short end of the stick on THAT deal every year?!? thankfully, pop pop is more than happy to share--ok who are we kidding?--give the spotlight to sarah's big celebration :) we were able to get together at pop pop and nana's house on the friday night after sarah's week long hoopla to celebrate pop pop!!!

picture day...10.2

sarah's class had group picture day on thursday, so they all wore their new red gbc weekday preschool t-shirts. i just had to snap a pic before we left for school because sarah looked SO grown up to me that day...how is she already FOUR?!?

the end of sarah's birthday celebrations...preschool party...9.30

on tuesday, september 30th, the day after sarah's birthday, sarah took treats and goodie bags to preschool to celebrate her 4th birthday! she received the beautiful birthday hat pictured above and was the LINE LEADER for the day. big stuff in the life of a 4 year old! when she came home, she modelled her school headwear for a few more hours while she and drew checked out her new barbie jeep from mimi and poppy! daddy had just finished assembling it that morning! of course, the kids didn't realize at this point that it moved, they just thought it was awfully cool to sit in!!! sarah eventually ditched the preschool crown for her princess tiara...gotta keep those accessories fresh, huh?!?

sarah's 4th birthday...9.29

i asked sarah where she wanted to eat to celebrate her birthday a few weeks before her birthday. she told me she wanted to eat at chili's. no big surprise, the kid LOVES chili's for some reason...although she hardly eats anything while we are there. well, since her birthday was the day chili's donated all profits to st. jude, we decided we should brave the crowds at lunch time rather than dinner time. so, mimi, poppy, nana, pop pop, and daddy joined mommy, sarah, and drew for a big lunch celebration! as you can see, sarah thoroughly enjoyed herself and being the center of attention!!! also, sweet girl thought that all the balloons outside and inside the restaurant were for her birthday, not for the st. jude event. of course we didn't tell her the truth!!!

i LOVE how sarah is explaining something HIGHLY important to poppy in this pic...

37 weeks...current events...

well, i had another OB appointment this morning. things are supposedly moving right along. its funny, i WANT to have my baby at 40 weeks-full term-so he will be as big and healthy as possible, but its still disappointing when you hear that you aren't going into labor in the next 2 minutes :) i am dilating and effacing a bit, but nothing that sent us rushing right over to the hospital.

i just realized as i was typing this, that to me, and all other women of childbearing age, these words and conversations are so commonplace...but, to some random person on the internet, this might all be a little too much information :) so, if you aren't into routine OB discussions, you may want to skip these little weekly updates until jacob arrives!!!

bottom line from the appointment, mommy is still healthy and baby is still healthy and it appears that baby will come when he is ready...hopefully no induction necessary! dr. williams said if she HAD to guess she'd say it would be another 2 weeks. again, i'd only be 39 weeks at that point, so REALLY that's what we want...but i think it would definitely be more comfortable on the OTHER side of delivery at this point. i go back next thursday, so until then...

the afterparty...9.27

after sarah's birthday party, everyone headed home in time for a late lunch and naps. but, we had the inflatable slide/bounce house and snowcone machine until later that night...so, tim invited the yorks and higginbothams to come BACK over after naptime for an easy dinner and more playtime! after i convinced the other 2 moms that YES, i really did want them to come back over, and NO just because i am 35 weeks pregnant i am not lying...i just told them not to expect the house to look any better than it did the second everyone had left the party!!!

the kids played outside for a few more hours getting extremely dirty again...and then it was time for them to settle down a bit :) we lined all 6 of them up on the couch (with 2 plates of skittles, mind you) and they watched a movie! they were so still, it was hilarious! they had ALL had a really big day of too much sugar and too much activity! all in all, sarah's big party day was wonderful! of course, the next morning we were all a bit tired from all of the celebrating, but it was so worth it! and as i've said, with my 3rd on the way any time now, i wanted to give sarah a big blowout while i still had the ability to do so!!!

sarah's 4th birthday party...9.27

sarah's 4th birthday party...the narrative...9.27

i realized after i posted a bunch of pics of sarah's 4th birthday party on facebook that her party wasn't one of those easy, self-explanatory parties like a princess party, another character party, or an activity party like park, art party, etc...of course it wasn't...that would be too simple...

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so, back in the summer, i started asking sarah what kind of birthday party she wanted. i was never expecting ANY answer other than "princess party". the child constantly has on some form of royal bling. boy, was i WRONG...she immediately asked for a "letters" party. great, but what's that?!?

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she explained to me that she wanted all her friends to come to her birthday and learn their letters. this summer was the summer of letter discovery at our house. sarah learned to write her name, all her letters, tell us the first letter of most words (except those pesky ones that sound different than their starting letter), give us a list of rhyming words for whatever we were saying, and tell us the sounds that every letter of the alphabet makes. making for some drawn out conversations as we had to have a "letter lesson" on almost every word or sound. so, since she was enamoured with letters, she thought all her friends should be too! and since most of her friends were recently 4, they thought letters were pretty cool too!

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so, i kinda took a little liberty with her idea to make the actual "theme". i mostly did activities, foods, and favors that started with the letter "S". for activities, we had a big inflatables slide, snowcones, star shaped sugar cookies to decorate with icing and sprinkles, bracelets with letters for kids to spell their name in beads, swings, a sand table, see-saw, and our regular ole swingset slide. for food, we had the above mentioned snowcones and sugar cookies, along with letter shaped sandwiches, tortilla spirals, chips and salsa, sausage balls, and then some other foods too-like a veggie tray because can you honestly host a party without a veggie tray? (can you tell from the menu that i'm pregnant?) we also had a bunch of "S" candies--starbursts, skittles, sour patch kids, smarties, sour skittles, sweetarts, etc. in big buckets--you know, just in case the kids hadn't had enough sugar yet :) for the favor bags, we had ABC flashcards, slinkies, stickers, and all the "S" candies.

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our cake was covered in letters and made by our favorite cake maker, lucy hazel. she made our wedding cake 7 years ago, and has made every one of our kids' birthday cakes since then. they are always so cute and taste really good too! she is in collierville (convenient!) and is really reasonably priced! our only problem is that drew's birthday (in february) and mardi gras usually coincide, so we sometimes have to slide drew's party around so we can get a "lucy cake"!!! she is from new orleans and usually goes down there for a week or so to celebrate with her family.

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oh, and sarah's party REALLY turned into a big event for a couple of reasons. #1: my third child (tim) really wanted to rent the inflatable slide and snowcone machine...i was content with all the other activities. but, the kids LOVED the snowcone machine more than anything. one of sarah's friends called mr. tim "mr. red-hand-man" since he was dyed from making cones! so funny! most of the kids had multiple snowcones and the writing was all over their faces and clothes :)#2: i invited LOTS of people to come to sarah's party. for the past few years, we have had LOTS of rsvp's of NO because of it being SEC football season, pee wee league football and soccer, etc. well, this year EVERY SINGLE child was able to come! it was tons of fun...but a little overwhelming as well! and this was really the first year that sarah helped with the guest list, and between preschool and church, she had A LOT of requests!

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thankfully, baby jacob did not make his appearance prior to the big party weekend! at my ob check up 2 days before the party, i told the doctors that they better give me a good report that NOTHING was happening yet! and then, the week before the party, i had TWO friends tell me that they had gone into labor following their older children's birthday parties! NOT encouraging!

i think this LOOOOOOONG explanation should help with the pics i post over the next few days...i AM trying to get caught up on pictures so we can immediately start posting baby pics when jacob arrives!

before the big party...9.27

griffin's 4th birthday party...9.25

as i mentioned a few days ago, we got all dressed up as superheroes and headed to chuck e. cheese for griffin's big birthday party! it was so cute to watch all the little superheroes run around playing! everyone had a big time! and i was really impressed that there were no meltdowns being that it was a thursday evening after 3 days in a row of preschool for most of the kids there! i guess pumping kids full of sugar masks a myriad of problems!!!sarah LOVES this "game"--you pick up a phone and "talk" to chuck. totally NOT worth a token, imo...
like daddy, like son...playing basketball...
sarah also LOVES air hockey...everyone commented on how long she played and how she actually plays pretty well...here she is whooping on kiki (griff's grandmother)...
sarah and ava posing for the "sketch machine"...
drew, not wanting his picture taken...imagine that?!?
sarah enjoying her pizza...
singing happy birthday to griffin...

even superwoman needs her blankie sometimes...
the birthday boy!
just a cute pic of sar...
two superheroes running off to save the day...
i thought ava, drew, and tucker looked so cute staring at the mechanical chuck e. cheese character! mesmerized!!!

36 weeks...current events...

well, i went to the OB today for my weekly appointment and i thought i was getting far enough along to actually report what was happening now...

it started out like deja vu all over again...i was on the table and asked if she could tell if baby was head down or breech. (remember how drew was breech until the VERY LAST MINUTE? i was already prepped for surgery with an IV and everything...the ultrasound tech comes in to check ONE MORE TIME if he had flipped to head down, plops the wand on my belly and says oh-so-casually that drew is head down!?! dr. austin sends me home and i go into labor with drew on my own 3 days later?) so, she palpates my tummy for a while and says, "oh, i'm pretty sure he's breech. let's schedule a c-section for 39 weeks. how is oct 24th? i'm at baptist (hospital) that day. oh, do you want your tubes tied while i'm in there doing the section?" OH MY GOODNESS! information overload! all of those questions were worse than on your initial OB visit when they ask you if you are planning to breastfeed or have a male child circumcised and you are still waiting for the other nurse to confirm your pregnancy test!!! so, after discussing all of this for a few minutes, she does say that she wants me to have another ultrasound today to check his position. (this kid has had TONS of ultrasounds!)

so, we make the walk to the ultrasound room...completely SAD that baby jacob is probably breech! the ultrasonographer knows us now, and knows our history, and is laughing that we are back with baby #3 being breech too! anyway, long story even longer, she plops the wand on my belly and immediately says, "he's head down!" WE WERE ECSTATIC!!! now, we've still got 4 more weeks, and since he isn't engaged yet, he could still move, but she spent a long time checking him out...and i have a "low-normal" amount of amniotic fluid (less likely to allow him to flip), and he is already estimated at 7lbs 4oz. (85%tile), so we are hoping he will stay put!

after 5 weeks of ultrasounds with drew showing that he was STILL breech, i was so thankful that today's ultrasound didn't start us down that same path!!! other than the whole breech debacle, everything else was completely normal. we just keep going back weekly from here on out...i'll keep you guys in the know!!!

obstetrics, explained...

this morning while i was fixing sarah's hair for picture day at preschool, she began this story...

"so, mom (how most stories start around here)...when you go to the hospital, i'm going to stay with mimi at her house. you are going to go to the hospital and get in a bed. then, they are going to put a blanket on top of you, and THEN they are going to hand you a baby! its going to be baby jacob! then i am going to come sit on your bed with you and hold baby jacob very nice and give him a bottle! won't that be fun (how most stories end around here)?"

i'm so glad sarah has it all figured out at the ripe ole age of FOUR. if only it were that simple, kid...

superheroes...9.25

griffin had a superheroes party at chuck e. cheese for his 4th birthday. i headed out one evening with just sarah to go to target to get just drew a superheroes costume...i figured sarah could just wear one of her 15 princess dresses and that would be fine. as you've seen before, drew doesn't have a great selection of boy dress-up clothes anyway. so, even though this wasn't to be his halloween costume as well, i didn't feel too bad (plus it was $10!)...

well, i should have known better than to think miss priss wasn't going to want a new costume. of course she was DYING to have a supergirl outfit of her own. so, i ended up with two superhero costumes and two super happy kids! i have to admit, the supergirl costume was a nice change from princess dresses, tiaras, magic wands, and high heels...

once we got the kids dressed for the party, we had a mini photo shoot...i'll post pics from griff's actual party soon...