Ch..Ch...Ch..Changes!

That was the theme of today.  Lots of new things have begun for me as of today.  A couple of major things include the following:

• Today my pregnancy is officially considered to be full-term.
• Today was my last day of work as Director of Human Resources for my current Company.

The first is a lot easier for me to come to terms with than the latter.  Drew and I recently decided that it is best for our family right now for me to take a couple of years away from the executive HR role that I have held for the past 6.5 years in order to focus on our family and raising our children during these important first years of their lives.   I plan on consulting in my field of Human Resources on a part-time basis for the next couple of years in order to maintain my skills.  Plus, I love what I do so much that I cannot imagine completely giving it up.  But, God has plans for us right now for me to be available more both mentally and physically for our family for the next couple of years.   I have had a very difficult time trying to find balance between work and home-life ever since Luke was born.  No matter how many hours I worked, the difficulty I found was in trying to give 150% as an employee, 150% as a wife and 150% as a mother.  As a "pleaser," I never wanted to sacrifice in any of the areas, which could really create some stress that I brought on myself.  Although it is a major leap of faith for our family, resigning my position will really help me have more time to focus on raising our children, which I feel is a huge responsibility and the most important and rewarding job I could have. 

On the pregnancy front, I had my 37 week check-up today.    I am officially considered to be "full-term" now, although my 40-week due date is 1/11/12.   We are really hoping our little girl will wait to make her arrival until January.  If she waits until 39 weeks gestation to make her arrival as Luke did, she will be here around January 4.  That sounds like a pretty good birthday to me.   I have guessed she will be born on 1/7/12 all along (7 is my favorite number).  So far, there is no dilation of the cervix, which is great!  At my 36 week appointment last week, they ran several standard tests.  One of the tests they administered was the Group B Strep Culture.  About 25% of normal healthy adult women have the bacteria in their system, although a lower % of pregnant women carry it (about 10%).  You can actually test positive at certain times and negative at others.  Therefore, studies show it is best to test between 35-37 weeks gestation, as that is the best indicator of whether it will be present at delivery.  Unfortunately, my test came back positive.  This means that I am a carrier for the Group B Strep this pregnancy, and I will need antibiotics administered intravenously once every 4 hours in the hospital once I arrive until the time she is born.  This is to try to prevent as much as possible our little girl from acquiring Group B Strep disease during the delivery process.  We are going to pray that the bacteria will not be present at the time of delivery and if it still is, that it will not affect her.  I have read about Group B Strep disease in newborns, and although rare, if they do acquire it, it can be extremely serious and even fatal.  The doctor didn't seem concerned at all--perhaps she sees so many of these cases and very rarely ill effects.  

Other than that, everything else seems fine.  I feel like she got a lot bigger in the last week, but my OB doctor says she's measuring right on target.  I am feeling much better lately as far as the contractions are concerned; however, I am getting very little sleep.  When I do sleep, I wake up every two hours.  But, I am more prepared this pregnancy for what to expect, and know this is nothing compared to when baby arrives.   So, I am looking at this as exercise or training for the marathon of hard work and lack of sleep that will be present for quite a while after baby comes.   

Here is a 37 week pregnancy belly photo:

Before my last day of work

And, here are some pictures of our very feminine-looking nursery.  We are hoping the ultrasounds were correct in indicating this baby is a little girl:

     

36 Weeks Pregnant!

I can't believe I have made it to my 36th week of pregnancy.  It seems like the time flew by this time--it probably has something to do with having an extremely energetic two year old at home! 

I think we are a lot more laid back this time around with trying to get prepared.  Last weekend, we finally pulled down some essentials from the attic and I just started washing a couple of things of our baby girl's so she would have something to wear home from the hospital in case I needed to go to the hospital in a hurry.  Last week I packed a last-minute hospital bag just in case my doc needed to send me to the hospital after a check-up for contractions. 

I ended up going to my OB's office a couple of times over the past couple of weeks due to consistent (like 6 minutes apart for hours), regular, painful contractions.  The contractions were reminding me of when I was in true labor with Luke, which is why I was fearful.  I never had any contractions with him (other than the normal periodic braxton hicks) until after my water broke at 39 weeks, so this was all new to me.  Turns out they are not causing any cervical changes (thank goodness).  Unfortunately, they said that I am probably just one of the few women that end up having contractions until I deliver.  But, the doc also mentioned she didn't think I was going to make it to January or my due date before this baby is born.  Of course, we are still hoping for a January baby and no human (even a physician) ever can accurately predict exactly when a baby will decide to come!  The doc also mentioned that my contractions are probably painful in my lower back due to the baby being in posterior position (back labor).  This is not good.  Luke was posterior when I delivered him, which caused some very painful contractions and two hours of pushing.  According to babycenter.com, mothers whose babies are face-up at birth tend to push longer, more commonly need Pitocin to stimulate contractions, and have a significantly higher risk of having an assisted vaginal delivery or a c-section.

Those who do give birth vaginally to a baby who is posterior are more likely to have an episiotomy and severe perineal tears than moms whose babies are in the more favorable face-down position, even after you account for the higher rate of forceps and vacuum-assisted delivery.  Needless to say I am going to be doing some exercises over the next couple of weeks to try to get her to flip over!  The doctor left me with instructions to get lots of rest, take it easy and drink lots of water in order to limit the contractions.  She said they would not stop them at this point in the pregnancy, but they also want the baby to stay in there as long as possible.  I haven't had a problem drinking the water, it's "taking it easy/get lots of rest" that is very difficult--especially with Mr. Luke at home and balancing finishing up work (my last day is December 21--next Wednesday!)

Other than the lack of sleep due to having contractions all night long and just generally feeling uncomfortable due to my massive belly, everything seems to be going well.  Here are some 36-week belly pictures:

Christmas Festivities

At our house, the Christmas season is our favorite time of the year.  There are so many traditions and festivals surrounding this time of year and anyone who knows me knows I am all about the festivals!  My parents came to visit us last weekend and we decided to take advantage of some of the festivities in the area.   We did a little shopping at the San Marcos outlets (I think it is considered the largest outlet shopping center in the US) on Saturday, and then headed to nearby Gruene for their Christmas market days.  Gruene is a cute little German town with a lot of charm.  You may know Gruene from its famous, Gruene Hall, Texas's oldest continually running dance hall (built in 1878) and the birthplace to many great country songwiters and musicians (George Strait & Ace in the Hole, Lyle Lovett, Robert Earl Keen, and many more).  We were blessed with rain this day though, so we didn't get to spend as much time shopping in the outdoor market days as we had hoped.   We did get to enjoy a great meal at the Gristmill though.  This old cotton gin converted into a restaurant serves some yummy food, including these huge onion rings that Luke decided he loved!

Also on Saturday, we headed to Georgetown, which is a cute nearby town to ours, to participate in their "Christmas Stroll".  It is a fun festival with delicious food vendors, fun entertainment, and even a Bethleham Village.  The Bethleham village allowed us to step back in time to experience the village as it was when Jesus was born.  They had many different "shops" that were interactive for the children.    There was a local toy shop, grain mill, bakery, perfumery, dye shop, coin shop and stable.  Luke ABSOLUTELY loved this as it made all of the stories about Jesus that we have been sharing with him this Christmas season so real.   A lady even made him a "baby Jesus" doll at the Bethleham toy shop that he just didn't want to put down.    At the back of the village there was a live nativity, with actors/singers who shared the Christmas story.   Luke wanted to stay the entire time to watch it.

Luke takes a break with Grandma and Grandpa at the Georgetown Christmas Stroll.

It has been SO MUCH fun this year, as Luke really begins to understand what Christmas is all about.  Children are flooded with all sorts of stories about Christmas, so we are really learning as parents how difficult it is to help the kids focus on the true meaning of Christmas.  We do not want Luke to think it is all about receiving material gifts, but rather that we have already received the most amazing gift possible--the Gift of Jesus and Salvation.  This gift is available to everyone who asks and does not require special Black Friday shopping in order to attain.  That said, Luke still also LOVES all of the "other celebrations" of the Christmas season; this includes the Christmas lights, Christmas trees, Santa and what Luke calls the "Ho Ho Ho Deer".   Although difficult, we just try to tie it all back to the gift of Jesus and God's love. 

A Family Picture in front of our tree.

This weekend, we participated in more Christmas festivities.  On Saturday morning, we celebrated with a Christmas brunch at our house with our Church Community Group.  We had so much fun with our annual "white elephant gift exchange" and eating some delicious food.  Also, the kids got to see Santa come by on the fire truck through our neighborhood.  Santa does this every year in our neighborhood, and the firemen assist him by throwing candy to all of the kids waiting along the streets.

Luke and his friends, Dylan, Ford and Krystal, waiting with excitement for the firetruck.

Luke is excited about the sucker that he will not get to eat.

Bye Bye firetruck and Santa!

We also saw the Biscuit Brothers perform on Saturday night at a local church's festival and tonight we plan on visiting the Zilker tree of lights/HEB Holiday festival.  We love Christmas and look for every possible opportunity to celebrate!

7 weeks until our Due Date!

...and with Thanksgiving and Christmas, the 7 weeks remaining until our due date is going to FLYYYYY by!  I still feel like we have a lot to do (and buy) so that we are ready for our baby girl.  Her bedroom is coming right along.   We spent some time transforming an Ikea Chandelier from this:

Brushed Nickel Finish

Into this:

Painted white and antiqued...this was a job!!!!

We painted the room a pale pink, and have begun hanging a few decorations that we have bought and/or made.

We have even hung some letters to try to get used to one of the names we like.  Since we are going with a shabby chic style for the room, we thought it would be fun to hang the letters on a clothes line:

 

You can see a little better how the letters are hanging here. 

I still need to re-purpose some photo mattes and install them into picture frames to hang on the wall, as well as hopefully get some more items for the room,  but it is getting there.  

Luke wanted to pose with me for the 33-week belly pic:

 

This will be our first Thanksgiving and Christmas to celebrate away from our families, as our doctor recommended we not travel for Thanksgiving, and of course forbade me to travel on Christmas.  But, it will probably also be our only Thanksgiving and Christmas for a while to celebrate at our own home, so we are going to make it a special time this year and enjoy some local festivities.

I will finish this post with some pictures of Luke.  A few days ago when we got home, we found a used Lego Duplo table at our front door with no note attached--and whoever dropped it off also gave us a bunch of lego duplo blocks.  We were actually thinking about getting some of these for Luke for Christmas, but I know they can be pretty pricey.  So, we were so thankful to be blessed with this gift.  I guess one of our kind neighbors' kids outgrew it and thought Luke might enjoy it--we have no idea who dropped it off though!  I thoroughly cleaned the table and blocks and Luke has been enjoying it ever since.  Thank you kind neighbor, whoever you are! Here are some pics of Luke building some of his "tall towers":

Getting Ready for Baby in between Planned Activities

Drew and I have been so busy lately with various events, in addition to trying to prepare for our baby girl's upcoming arrival.  He knows that whenever he gets home and on the weekend, I have a list of things we need to get done so that everything can get done before she arrives.  I guess this is nesting.

This weekend was no different.  I counted that we completed 8 art/craft projects for our little girl's room, in addition to doing some shopping to purchase some necessities for our baby girl.  This was in between meeting some friends from our church community group for a day-outing at Inks Lake State Park on Saturday and in between the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure that we participated in on Sunday.  It was a wonderful weekend though and we certainly wouldn't change a thing.  Drew and I feel like we got SO much accomplished and had fun along the way.

I am now about 32 weeks pregnant and our baby girl's room is near completion.   We just need to finish hanging all of these art/craft projects that we completed over the weekend and then it should look mostly complete.  One of these projects was a brushed nickel Ikea chandelier light fixture that we decided to paint white and antique to go with our Shabby Chic styled room.  This still needs to be installed.  But, I should be able to share pictures of her room within a couple of weeks.

Our visit to Inks Lake was such a nice outing.  We want to go back after this major drought is over, because you can tell where there are normally some waterfalls and other beautiful scenery.   While we were there, we did some hiking with friends--the weather was perfect and it felt great to get away and get in some exercise between chores.

A family photo.

Luke and his friend Dylan, and mom, Brittnee, looking over the dock at the ducks and fish.

Luke and Daddy after our picnic by the lake.

On Sunday morning, we participated in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.  I participate in this every year in memory of my Grandmother, who had breast cancer.  I am also the team captain for our Company team, which is usually one of the largest teams at the race.  This year, our team had 120 members--it is awesome to be a part of such a supportive group of people of this worthy cause.  Drew, Luke and I had planned on doing the family mile since I am very pregnant and because we had Luke with us in the jogging stroller--we didn't want to get in the way of the runners.  But, we should have known we wouldn't be able to pass up the opportunity to participate in the 5k once we got there.  We saw the sign for the "Family Mile" turn-off and decided to just keep going on the 5K route.  It felt great and it is always so motivating to run/walk alongside others in a race such as this.   This year there were over 22,000 participants in the race, so there were many others there to keep us motivated.  Luke had a lot to look at to keep him entertained and he was a trooper.  It was so hard to fight the urge not to run when there are others running around you, and I just had to give in a couple of times.  I am definitely looking forward to doing some running and biking after our baby girl is born--something else to look forward to!  :-)

Drew and Luke in front of the State Capitol building at the Race.

Luke's Big Boy Room

Luke is becoming such a big boy!  Two weekends ago (On Friday night) we took apart Luke's crib so that we could move it to his new bedroom and convert it to a toddler bed.  We were a little nervous about the process of transitioning him to a big boy bed, but much to our surprise, he transitioned like a pro!  On the first couple of nights he was a little too excited about his new space and new bed.  In fact, he was so excited that he wanted to check it out instead of sleeping.  So, we ended up putting the pack and play in the room and having him sleep in there.  But, since then he only wants to sleep in his big boy bed.  Last night was night 8 in his big boy bed--and he has slept through the night with no complications on each of the nights.  We are so proud of him.  The pack and play is now back in storage waiting for our baby girl.

Proud of his new bed and room.

Moving Luke to his new room has created additional tasks for us to prepare for the arrival of our baby girl, but it has been well worth it.  We bought Luke a new bookshelf from Ikea (which required some assembly).  Also, instead of decorating just one room (the nursery), moving him into a new room required the decorating of two rooms.   Since we already had the monkey theme going from when he was a baby, we decided to keep that for now (to save money) and slowly transition him to something else when he requests.  Right now though, he doesn't know the difference.  :-)  Here are some pictures of Luke's new space.

He wanted to pose in his new bed for a photo.

Our Halloween Festivities

Spiderman and Batman.  The Spiderman costume came with a mask, but Luke didn't want to wear it.

Last weekend, we made a short trip to the Houston area to visit Drew's family.  We figured it may be our last trip for a while, since we are only 10 weeks from our baby's due date.

While we were there, we had a lot of fun with family.  We took advantage of some Halloween/Fall festivals on Saturday, celebrated Luke's birthday and watched Luke's cousins, Audrey and Lauren perform a dance routine.

On Halloween, we were back in Austin and Luke took part in his first trick-or-treating ever.  Our friends, Jennifer and Michael and their daughter, Krystal, joined us as we visited houses in our neighborhood.  Krystal is only a month older than Luke, so it was her first time to trick-or-treat also.   It was so entertaining watching them figure it out together.

As you can probably guess from the picture at the top of this post, we decided to take on the super-heroes theme this year as a family.  After Drew and I put on our costumes, we regretted the decision to dress as super heroes and visit our neighbors, but pushed through it anyway.   I think last year's costume idea would have been a better fit for me this year.  Here is last year's family costume:

Being pregnant as Mario would have been much better for me than pregnant as bat girl.  Oh well.  Here is a slideshow of some pictures of our Halloween festivities.  The slideshow moves pretty quickly, but you can pause it and move through it manually to see the captions.