35 weeks

35 weeks - only 35 DAYS left to go! How crazy is that!!! How is it that 35 days sounds so much shorter than 5 weeks? I certainly don't understand it, but it definately seems much shorter to me.

I have so much to do. So much so, that even making the LIST of things that need to be done seems overwhelming.

And that my friends is why I'm not updating this blog at the moment. Even the idea of forming a complete sentence seems like too much work right now. LOL So, I'm just not doing anything. Except knitting. And sleeping. And eating WAY too much chocolate.

I guess I figure this baby is going to come when she's going to come whether I stock the cupboards with food, wash the diapers, actually write down a birth plan - or not. Right?

Eight

Wow. When did I become old enough to have an 8 year old?!

Today is my precious little girl's 8th birthday. I can't believe that she is old enough to be reading, playing video games, getting excited about getting gift cards for her birthday, and understanding many things about "grown up" life. She has her moments (ok, she has a lot of these moments) that frustrate me, but mostly that's because we're too much alike. LOL Maybe I'm a little one sided, but she has lots of moments of brilliance too. She is SO good at math. I love to watch her play her video game where she has to do fractions and see how quickly she can get through all those math problems. Or how fast she picks up on new math concepts in her schoolwork. She loves everything pioneer related and can often be found acting out a trip "out west". She is very into her American Girl doll that she got for Christmas and is taking such good care of the doll and everything that goes with her. She is creative, kind, beautiful on both the inside and the outside, and amazes me every single day. I love you Kaelyn - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Age - a couple weeks. This was the very first time we ever met Kaelyn.

Age 5

Age 8

Preparations

I've had some serious nesting urges lately. I'm really wanting to get all the baby clothes out, washed, sorted, etc... however, we're waiting until the dresser from my grandparents house gets here. That should be this weekend, thankfully. We finally figured out where we are going to put this little girl's stuff. We knew that she would be sleeping with us for at least the first year (we co-sleep for those who didn't already know that) so we weren't worried about where we would put *her* we have just been wondering where we were going to put all her *stuff*. LOL We finally decided - after some wise wisdom from my mother - to put a dresser in the corner of the schoolroom/craft room/storage room. The kids and I are in there a lot and it will be convenient to have her clothes and diapers in a room other than one of the kids rooms. We're also planning on putting the glider rocker in there so that Jeff & I can rock her at night and I can nurse without disturbing the kids or while "teaching" during the daytime. Hopefully it will work out well.

So, I haven't done much in the way of preparing for this baby. Well, except for doing a lot of shopping. :-) I have found THE perfect outfit for bringing her home in....

The pants are knitted wool longies (we're praying she doesn't have a wool allergy!) that will go over her cloth diapers. I'm determined to bring home a cloth diapered baby! Whether she stays that way for the next couple of weeks is yet to be determined, but the plan is to start her in cloth and keep her there. Anyway, I had these pants done specifically for this purpose and I happened to find this hat in the same yarn on another website. And while my mom and I were browsing the clothes the other day I found this cute shirt that matches perfectly! We'll probably put a long sleeved tshirt underneath the shirt since it will be March when she is born. And to go with the whole ensemble.....

...these cute little booties that I made! They are definately not perfect. And they are SOOOOO tiny. Chances are great that they will only fit her for one day (if they even fit her then). My feet were huge when I was born - well, they still are - so I'm anticipating that she will not have small feet. LOL Hopefully they'll go on her for at least the ride home. :-)

So, that's about as far as we've gotten in the at home preparations. We start our birthing classes this Saturday, I've interviewed and decided on a WONDERFUL doula, I've scheduled my maternity photo shoot with my friend for the first week in February, and my baby shower is planned for the 1st Sunday in February. I feel like things are moving forward and that the next 8 weeks are going to FLY by! I'm starting to get very excited to meet this little one!

First swimming lesson

Cooper has been asking to "go in the pool" just like Kaelyn for about the past 6 months. We've told him over and over again that when he turned three he could finally take swimming lessons. Well, the time has come. Last night Cooper started his very first swimming lesson. Of course, he just thought that he was in a giant bathtub. He loved every second of it, except when anyone got his face wet or mentioned putting his face anywhere NEAR the water. Now we just have to work on him actually listening to his teacher. Who knows when that will actually happen. He is three afterall.

A special necklace

Some people are hesitant and suspect of online discussion boards. But I've been part of a couple (one adoption, one attachment parenting) boards for... well, since we started the adoption process for Kaelyn. One of the boards I'm on (the parenting one) has a forum for expecting moms. I've never really ventured into that forum for obvious reasons, but once I found out we were expecting, they were the very first people I told. I needed advice, comfort and congratulations and needed to get those things before we felt comfortable telling our "in real life" friends and families. A couple weeks later a group of us on that board formed a February/March Due Date Club within the pregnancy forum. There are about 20 of us and we've gotten pretty close over the past 7 months. We've shared things that we probably wouldn't share with anyone else, gotten lots of advice, talked about lots of "what ifs" and most importantly we comforted each other when one of the moms in our group suddenly was diagnosed with lung cancer and died a couple weeks later. She left behind 9 children and obviously lost the one she was carrying. We really feel as though we have bonded although most of us have never met each other in person.

Several months ago one of the ladies mentioned that she wanted to put together a beaded "birthing necklace". We all thought that was an awesome idea and we quickly decided that we ALL wanted one and that we wanted it to be something special for our little club. So, we all went and picked out beads, sent them to one person, who then divided them up and sent one of each bead to each person in the group. Along with each of these beads the original person sending them sent along a verse or a quote or some words of encouragement to help us get through our labors and deliveries. The purpose of these necklaces are for us to wear them during our births and to remind us all of the people who are out there praying for us while we go through this life changing event. The words are for us to read while we labor, or to have read to us as words of comfort when we need them.

I finally put together my birthing necklace last night. I love it. It means so much to me to know that each of these beautiful women will be praying for me and thinking of me during this birth. To know that I not only have my "real life" family and friends supporting me, but I have people all over the country who are supporting me too means a lot.

And the bead that means the most to me... the small pearl bead toward the top of the necklace. In memory of Mary who is now a beautiful angel in heaven and will never again experience this amazing event of giving birth to a beautiful baby.