The Family Doctor Visits

"Mommy, what is that!"

Our family doctor came up from New York this weekend to take care of Anne, Jody, and Jeff. She will be watching Anne tonight while Daddy and Mommy spend the night at the hospital with Owen.

Anne Visits Her Brother

Anne came to visit her new baby brother tonight. She seems to be taking this all in stride. She knows there is a baby, but we are not sure if she knows we are taking him home at the end of the week. During her visit, she was more interested in eating pizza, apple sauce, cup cakes, cereal, and drinking juice.

Here is the Hero of the story with her new son! Can you believe Jody was carrying around almost an 11 lb baby!

Here is Owen immediately after being weighted and cleaned up. He has barely cried at all so far and seems quite content.

Ahoy Matey! Thar Be a Whale in your Belly!

Owen Stanton Reifenberger finally arrived through a scheduled c-section at 3:19pm today. Mommy and Baby are doing well. You are reading the scale right, Owen tipped in at 10 lbs 12 oz! Even if Jody had attempted a VBAC, we probably would have had a c-section in the end anyway.

Does snow shoveling bring on labor?

Guess not. At least, not so far, but I thought I would give it a try. I'm down to about 23 hours before my c-section is scheduled. I won't give up hope until the last minute, but we're starting to make plans for my stay at the hospital. Not looking forward to that, but definitely excited to meet our baby boy!

New Blinds

Well, we keep having more time to get projects done around the house. Today, Jeff's brother, Matt, was over to help him install our new blinds, which I think look great. Now, all we need is some paint on the walls and it will almost be done in the living and dining rooms.

Yes, I am still here.

As It Stands

Well, I'm still here 6d post due date. I have my next OB appointment tomorrow where they'll do a fetal stress test to check on Baby O. I think he's fine though. Moving around quite a bit still, though there doesn't seem to be much room in there left for him. You'd think he'd want to come out.

I can't actually complain too much though because I feel pretty good overall. I don't have any back pain, my hips just get sore from sleeping on my side, so I have to shift quite a bit at night.

For those of you wondering, it is not safe for me to be induced because I've had a previous c-section. If I do go into labor naturally, they could potentially give pitocin to speed things along if needed. However, I cannot receive any cervical ripening agents as that would increase my risk for uterine rupture.

If Owen decides he doesn't want to come out on his own, I am scheduled for a c-section on Monday at 2pm. So, either way, we'll have him by then for sure.

Still Counting

Well, I'm still here without baby Owen in my arms yet. Jeff and I really made the most of it yesterday though. Anne had daycare, but Jeff had the day off. So we went out to lunch, the bookstore and to see The King's Speech. Great movie, by the way. I highly recommend it. Colin Firth was great. So we had a great day together. We keep thinking, "wow, this might be our last chance to get out before the baby comes", but then another day comes and another opportunity to do something.

I've been trying to stay busy. Today we went back to the Museum of Science with Bethany and Evie, which was great fun as usual. The girls have a great time together and the mom's always enjoy catching up. Tomorrow we'll be going to playgroup in the morning and to pick up the new blinds we ordered for the living room and dining room. I'm pretty excited to get that squared away. I've had just about enough of the white pull down shades. Time to step it up!

40 Weeks and Counting!

Well, here I am in all my pregnant glory on Friday when I was 40 weeks. So, we are "patiently" awaiting the arrival of our little guy. Okay, so it's not really patiently. Jen is here for the weekend and we were all sincerely hoping I would go into labor while she was here. However, that doesn't seem to be happening, but things could start at any moment.

We're been a house full of sickies too as Anne and I have colds and she is just getting over a GI bug and I have pink eye! Oh what fun. Jen and Jeff have been trying to decontaminate themselves repeatedly so they don't catch anything.

Jen and I have done some shopping and picked out some paint chips for Jeff's review for the living and dining room. I got pulled over on the way to Target on Friday night for driving on the wrong side of the road (I was actually just pulling around some cars, but apparently, all 4 of my tires crossed the yellow line). Plus, my license had expired 2 days prior. Thankfully, I was let off with a written warning. The cop asked me if I had ever been pulled over for driving on the wrong side of the road before....what? So, it's been an eventful weekend. Jen treated me yesterday to a pedicure for my birthday, so my feet and toes are looking super snappy for going into labor!

We'll keep you posted. Please pray he'll show up soon. We're just so ready to meet him!

Fun in the morning

Here are some fun pics of Anne from this morning. Our neighbor, Nancy, who runs the daycare had a Valentine's Day party on Tuesday, but saved Anne a bag of goodies as she goes over there on Wednesday afternoons.

Potluck

Last weekend we hosted our small group potluck. Jeff thought I was crazy to offer to host, but I've been trying to keep myself busy and distracted. Today, I have my OB appt and then this afternoon after naps, Anne and I are going with our friends to the museum of science.

We also hosted our Christmas potluck, but since then we now have 2 other kiddos who are walking, so its a house full of craziness, but loads of fun!

Super Bowl Birthday Party

Matt, Darcy, and Ellie came over the weekend before last to watch the superbowl. Jeff turned it into a little early birthday part as we weren't sure if the baby would come on my birthday. However, he did not and I'm still pregnant! We had a good time though. Ellie is getting so big...and so am I!

Preventative Measures

This picture didn't turn out so hot, but it gives you an idea. We have been most grateful to our neighbor, Bob, who has been over repeatedly this winter snow-blowing our driveway. He also had a roof-rake that Jeff borrowed on Monday night to clear the snow off our garage. It's a super old, rickety garage with a flat roof. We've been hearing a lot of reports on the news about roofs collapsing. With 2 storms forecasted for this week, Jeff took some preemptive measures and cleared off the roof. Good thing as we've had another 6 or so inches with an icy mix.

Guess if the garage does collapse, perhaps insurance will pay for a new one. Just don't want that to happen while the car is in there. Jeff and I can just picture us having to call a cab to take us to the hospital.

37 Weeks and Counting

Can this belly get any bigger? Here's a picture of me at 37 weeks on Saturday. I told Jeff my belly looks like its about ready to burst. He said, "well, if you wouldn't keep wearing such tight shirts...." I promptly replied, "Honey, all my shirts are this tight!" Not much is fitting these days.

Snow, snow and more snow

Here are a few pics from last week's snow fall. We had another 5 or so inches on Tuesday and another 3-4 today with a nice coating of ice on top. I did not step foot outside the house today...too dangerous.