Baby Is Coming!

It's happening! I'm in labor! Regular contractions every 10-15 minutes and they are getting stronger as they get closer together. As of my appointment on Friday I was nearly fully effaced and already dilated a bit. This is so different than with Clara. With her, my water broke before I was having any significant contractions and we headed to the hospital at that point. Now I'm sitting here at nearly midnight, blogging, because I can't sleep, but things aren't bad enough to go to the hospital quite yet. I'm wondering...when do we decide to go? I'm sure my body will let me know. If I ever get to sleep tonight and wake up with contractions closer together I guess we'll do it then. I just don't know! I'd hate to go now and be stuck in an uncomfortable hospital bed for longer than necessary. Our bags are packed whenever we do. The contractions aren't bad enough that I can't breath my way through them with mild/moderate discomfort. But don't be fooled, as soon as we do get there I'm calling for an epidural as soon as they'll give it to me! We'll keep you posted, one way or the other!

Watch Our Garden Grow!

Call me goofy, but I thought it may be fun to do a regular "segment" on watching our garden grow. I mostly think it'll be fun to document it and be able to show it to Clara so she can get into the whole gardening thing. I won't bore you guys with regular posts about it, but I will put a little slideshow on the blog and take weekly (or so) pics of our vegetable garden and Clara's sunflower garden. You'd have to check the actual blog site for the progress if you'd like. We'll see if we are successful at supplying our own veggies this summer or if the whole things gets over-watered by all the rain we've been having or eaten up by the animals before I can put cages over the plants!

The first picture of our garden from this past Thursday, 05/13/10.

And Clara's sunflowers from the same day.

Happy Mother's Day 2010!

We hope all you mom's out there enjoyed your day! Whether you were pampered, did something active and fun, or just relaxed , we hope you had a marvelous day.

My day today was very nice. The plan had been for Aaron to wake up with Clara and let me sleep in. But the little munchkin was quite in bed until 9:00! By then I was wide awake so the three of us all got up and had a nice breakfast together. We don't usually get to do that because Aaron is up so early for work and on the weekends we take turns sleeping in. Naturally, we treated ourselves to Clara's favorite breakfast, waffles and eggs. After breakfast we played and chilled in the basement watching Clara's favorite show of the moment, Dora. Clara and I both napped while Aaron worked outside. The weather this weekend was perfect and we have been working in the yard digging gardens and planting flowers. After naptime, we planted our vegetable garden. Aaron worked very hard this weekend digging up weeds, putting down top soil, and tilling the little space I had picked for a garden. It was a lot of work and I couldn't be happier! Now all I need is a little luck and we'll have nice, fresh vegetables this summer.

The evening was topped off by a sweet snuggle time with my big girl and carry-out for dinner with dessert from DQ!

In typical Clara fashion, she keeps us smiling and laughing with her crazy little personality and goofy moments. Here a few recent pics of our girl being her silly-self.

Lookin' good Miss Hollywood!

Out for a drive, pull up for a little snack, and play a little masterpiece on the piano!

On the Baby front, we are getting ready and getting anxious. Swings, bouncy seats, car seats, etc are all cleaned and put together. Laundry is getting done and we are getting the house all ready for Baby's arrival. Clara is very excited...we think! She keeps talking to Baby and saying things like "you come out soon!" We can only hope she's as excited when Baby actually comes home as she is now talking about it. As of our doctor's appointment last Friday there is no progress toward delivery, but I'm having real contractions daily. We'll be sure to keep you posted.

Until next time. xoxoxox

3 Weeks & Counting

I can't believe it! Only about 3 weeks left until Baby arrives. Clara was a week early, and as much as I'd like to end the general discomfort of the end of the pregnancy, I'm not ready for him/her in 2 weeks! 3 weeks would be fine! But, of course, I know there's not much control I have over the matter.

We at least have made some progress with getting the house ready. Aaron swapped out my office furniture and put together the crib and moved the changing table into what will be Baby's room. I use the word "room" very loosely. Poor thing is barely bigger than a walk-in-closet and doesn't even have a door or a closet. It's basically a small bonus room upstairs that the furniture luckily fits in. It's the best we have at the moment. We didn't want to get rid of the spare bedroom since my parents come down to visit often and I don't want to get rid of that furniture, either. Aaron and I figured we probably won't be here long enough for Baby to even realize "Hey, how come my big sis has a real room and I'm stuck in this sardine-can-excuse-for-a-bedroom?" And, if we are, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it!

I did a bunch of baby laundry last weekend and we now have clean linens, blankets, and burp cloths. On the list for this weekend is washing clothes and covers for all the gear (swings, bouncy seat, car seats, play mat). Aaron is training in the field for 9 days and won't be home til next week so I'll have plenty of time to do all that and manage Clara, right? Well, it's supposed to be a rainy, stormy weekend, so the least I can do is toss some laundry in inbetween entertaining the munchkin and napping when she naps, right?

I'm going for weekly OB visits now. Everything is going right according to plan; good blood pressure for me, good heart rate for Baby, and belly measuring right on track. I found out today I am GBS+ just like with Clara, but at least this time we know what it means and know not to freak out like we did last time when we had no idea what it meant. Baby has "dropped" which gladly allows me to breathe easier and eat a bit more at meals, but annoyingly results in at least hourly (usually more frequent) trips to the bathroom.

That's the "Baby" update for now. I'll be sure to keep you posted. Until later...xoxoxox

Big Sister Practice

I wanted to share this little story with you guys. If this is any indicator as to what type of big sister Clara will be, we certainly are in for a treat.

The other day we were swinging on her tree swing in the backyard. During a break, when I was sitting on the patio chair, Clara came up and said "Baby's turn to swing". So, again, lifting my shirt to access my belly button, she stuck her fingers inside and "got baby". She was so cute and careful. She walked all the way to the swing, cupping her hands gently and talking to "baby" saying, "you swing, your turn". She sweetly set "baby" down on the swing, told it to hold on tight with two hands and proceeded to push the swing. She was even saying things like "wee", "you having fun?" Then, out of the blue she was done. She left "baby" abandoned on the swing in pursuit of another adventure - picking dandelions!

Catching Up...

Oops! Sorry, It's been quite a while since my last post. Things were really busy early in April with traveling to Detroit for Easter, Aaron working nearly 24 hours a day for 2 weeks with his leadership course, and then heading up to South Bend for grandpa's 80th birthday party. My energy level has been optimal on any given day past 7:00, so I'm sad to say our blog was the object of my neglect.

Congratulations are definitely in order for Aaron. He successfully completed the Army's Warrior Leadership Course, graduating as Honor Graduate. That means he was the 2nd top graduate in his class of over 100 soldiers. We are quite proud of him. It was a lot of work and I know he busted his butt every day he was there.

Easter weekend was quick, busy, but fun filled. We went to a few playgrounds with Auntie Keri, decorated eggs and celebrated Easter with the extended family.

Clara and her cousin Brooke in nearly matching Easter dresses

Spring has sprung in Kentucky in the past few weeks and my mom and sister has asked me to share pics of the daffodils and tulips Keri and I planted last fall.

We celebrated Aaron's birthday last week. It was more than a week late, but he was busy at his course on his actual birthday. I baked a cake and Clara helped me decorate it. Clara just loves singing "Happy Birthday" and, naturally, she loves eating the cake!

Clara is often coming home with different hair-do's than she left the house with in the morning. Playing so much, napping, and silky, wispy hair are not always conducive to her hair staying put. The other day topped it all. Connie french braided her hair! I couldn't believe it! It looked so cute. Most amazing to me was that Clara sat still long enough for Connie to do it. She will barely stay still long enough for me to put in two lopsided pigtails!

We made the trek up to South Bend last weekend. Aaron's grandpa was celebrating his 80th birthday with a family party. It was nice to see the fam and Clara hasn't stopped talking about playing with her cousin Madison and "baby", also known as Taylor.

The Barrett Family

Aaron, Clara, Kim, Sharon, Laura, Taylor, Jason, Lindsay, Madison, & David

That pretty much wraps up the past few weeks. We are four weeks to Baby's due date. We are still working on getting everything ready for his or her arrival. We are now to weekly doctor's visits. So far everything is on track. Baby is measuring right at 36 weeks with a good strong heart rate. He/she is beating me up from the inside out; I am so achy and sore most evenings. My sister will tell you I am "way cranky", but in my defense she only talks to me in the evening when I'm exhausted and completely beat!

I will try to keep up with things the next few weeks before Baby arrives. I can't believe we are getting so close!