rain. rest. wait.

the last few days have been making me and Jeremy very anxious.  I don't really know what to do with myself!  We thought the baby was coming last night almost for sure - except I am extremely skeptical of anything that looks like "real labor" to the point that I hardly know when to tell anyone that I am in labor!  But last night, I was getting steady and uncomfortable (tolerable, sure, but definitely not just braxton hicks) contractions for 3 hours straight - these were coming about 4 minutes apart and lasting a minute.  Which was weird.  Because they weren't getting any stronger, but at least they were consistent.  So after calling my midwife, I finally went to bed to try to sleep, and sleep I did.  But then at 2 I woke up in the middle of a painful contraction and thought, "Oh ok maybe things are going to get going now!" but I was tired, so I still tried to sleep.  And I did.  Then I woke up again randomly a few hours later from the same thing.  By morning, they were back to just being random like they had been the rest of the week.


My Midwife tells me this could go on for any number of nights, its just so different from when I went into labor with Shea...it was so obvious.  This time, it feels real, but it is just stop and go.  So, I'm pretty sure its like any day now, but its impossible to know how many nights this is going to keep up!  My morning and afternoons have been spent playing with Shea and spending time with him as much as possible, ignoring all signs of labor, and sleeping.  In the evening - which has been when I start getting regular contractions almost every night this week - I start cleaning like a mad-woman getting everything done I want done before I know I won't be able to focus on anything any more.


Anyway, this is the hardest part!  Part of me wants this girl to come out soooo sooo bad because I am so anxious to meet her and be done with the guessing and waiting, but part of me wants her to wait a little longer  because there are always more things I can do to get ready...plus we are going to the zoo with all of Jeremy's  side of the family on Sunday, and I don't know that I could manage that (well I'm sure I would try, but I would be told to stay home) if I had Hailey tonight or tomorrow (I do NOT have my hopes set on that thought!)


Anyway, now random pictures!  We got out and enjoyed the sunshine on Wednesday!  In the morning, a mom who joined my mom's group this week came over with her three kids for a playdate at our house.  Shea had a hard time sharing and we got to witness one of his screaming-the-entire-time time out sessions, but at least he's learning.  And I think I definitely need to go get another set of trains...having only one Thomas and two boxcars is impossible to share, because in the mind of a 3 year old, Thomas either needs a car to pull, or the cars need an engine.  Duh, mom.


After that, we went to my midwife appointment, and nothing interesting happened there...I picked up my tub, measured out right, and was on my way.  Oh and Shea was a stinkin' little angel there.  Playing it up for the midwife by being cute and acting like the perfectly obedient child.  Want to know how much I weigh?  174 pounds!!  Isn't that nuts? haha.  I think I gained about that much with Shea too, though, and its still right inside the expected range for my pre-pregnancy weight.  Jeremy loves to brag that I weigh more than him now though.  I don't mind.


After we got home, we went to the beach for a while before nap time.  The tide was out and it was so perfect, we were down there for almost an hour running like two kids!  Shea had a blast.  We walked back up, intending to get cleaned up and in bed, but...Shea's cousins were over from Federal Way (which I didn't know, but we saw their van parked at Tawny's house), and they were headed down to the beach.  I couldn't say no, so we went back down with them and didn't come back up until after 4PM with one sunburned maa and tired boy.  By the way, wearing a racer-strap sports bra under a regular tanktop with no sunscreen on?  BAD IDEA.  I didn't think I was going to be down there that long, and I don't usually burn that much.

Yeah look at those awesome tan lines.

Shea and I rested and relaxed and then rejoined the family for dinner later.  He didn't go to bed until close to 9:30, and with no nap he slept almost 12 hours!  I'm so glad he did, boy did he need the sleep!

This is just from yesterday when we were playing together.  Oh he is getting so big!

And here is our birth pool that is now taking up our dining/living room. haha.  We blew it up last night in anticipation, since we wanted to make sure we knew what in the world we were doing.  Its really nice!  Shea has been really good about not touching it too.  I even managed to find a drinking-water safe hose at Walmart for only $10 (Jeremy wanted to use our garden hose at first, but it is super long...he bleached it out in our bathtub, since there could be a risk of e-coli from garden soil getting in there...anyway, I wanted to buy a new one, but new hoses have so many chemicals in them, I was really happy to find an FDA approved one so easily!)

  

I still have to take a picture of Hailey's dresser to post, but Shea is sleeping, so it will have to wait I guess!  Today Hanna came over and took pictures of Shea, Jeremy, and I since we didn't get any with all of us during our maternity photo shoot.  We all had rain boots on and Shea was walking around with the umbrella, I can't wait to see them!  I know she got some really cute ones of just Shea, too.  He was so happy to be able to hold the umbrella, and I was able to use it to bribe him into a couple of poses (like kissing me, except he bit my lip one time really hard and it started bleeding!!)