40 weeks tomorrow

Well, here we are! Our midwife thought the baby would be born sometime between last Monday and Thursday, but alas, here we are and I am still pregnant.

We are enjoying every day that the baby isn't here yet as "stolen" time with Caleb - only one child who sleeps very well, is a lot of fun, and is growing and learning so much every day!  He surprised us this week with a few new talents - singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," made a joke of his own with a play on words and thought it was hilarious, and has developed full sentences on his own such as "Mama please (insert item)"   and saying "thank you" and "excuse me" without prompting.

He's also doing great on his potty training!  He is in underpants all the time (including sleeping time) and accidents are few and far between - maybe only about once per week.  This is good news for mama as we were not interested in having 2 children in diapers!  :)  We're hoping he won't regress after baby sister is born, but are ready and willing to tackle whatever kinds of interesting dynamics adding a new little one to the family will bring.  Caleb is VERY excited to have a new baby sister.  He talks about her often, pointing at mama's big belly, the swing, the crib, the high chair, the car seat, or anything else that is for baby sister and says "baby sister!"

June 2012

Here's hoping to the baby in the next few days...  but if not...  she'll be here by July 8th at the latest!

A new chapter

We're almost there!  8 more days until my due date.  I've got bets on the 19th, 20th, and of course those who are less friendly who want me to have a July 4th baby.  ;)

Thursday was my last day of work at General Mills. It was a great day, complete with lunch with some great coworkers, cake with my department, and several people dropped by to say bye that were really encouraging.  I'm sad to leave it, a bit scared of the ambiguity of this new adventure, relieved to let go of the stress associated with the job, and thankful for the 3 1/2 years that I had there working with some great people.  I learned more in the past 3 years than I expected - in my technical/manufacturing knowledge and skills, time management, people management, working with difficult people, multi-tasking...I could list out a million things.  I'm really glad we were able to make it work for both of us to continue working even after Caleb was born.  It has been a difficult 2 years with managing parenting, working, and school, but Eric and I have grown so much closer as a result of it.

Now onto the new adventure of being a stay-at-home mom.  We decided that I need a "vacation" between jobs, so Caleb and I will not be working on cleaning, dishes, house projects, laundry, etc. any more than absolutely necessary in the next few days.  We are going to have fun hanging out, waiting for baby girl to come!  Everybody needs vacation time.  In fact, stay at home moms almost never get vacation time away from children and home responsibilities, so I am embracing this next week or so until baby girl comes to enjoy having just 1 adorable child, catch up on sleep, and do whatever it is we feel like doing.  :)

In baby news, at the doctor last week they said baby is currently around 8 to 8 1/2 lbs and long.  If she comes 2 days past my due date like Caleb did, that would put her right about 9 to 9 1/2 lbs.  Tested negative for gestational diabetes this time again, so I guess I just grow big babies.  That's thanks to Eric.  Grrr.  Thankfully, Caleb's delivery was pretty smooth so we'll trust that will be the case again.

We'll keep you posted when we go to the hospital!

T-Minus 3 weeks & 2 days

Not that I'm actually counting down...  but really, it's getting close!  I went to our midwife today and she is guessing baby girl to be in the 9-10 lb range at birth.  According to her, "Not enormous, but probably big."

Caleb is getting very excited to have a baby sister.  He regularly comes up to me and pats my belly, says "Baby!" and tells me that she is going to come out and sleep in the crib in his room.

We are getting ready for baby girl, as much as we can be, and are excited for this new transition in our family.  Besides adding another member to our family, we also made the decision a few months ago that I would be staying home with our children after this baby comes and General Mills has been very supportive of that decision.  I have 6 more days at work - two weeks on my part-time schedule.  My last day will be June 14th.

It's been a very busy several months between Eric's classes & work, my work, and family events - in March we traveled to Chicago to visit my Grandma and Grandpa (who has Alzheimers) and Eric presented for his research project at the Structures Congress in downtown Chicago, in April my Grandma on the other side passed away and my cousin got married, and in May we visited Eric's family and Grandma!  All this in the midst of 3 major project startups between March - May for my job as well as wrapping up everything I've been working on for 3 1/2 years at the plant.  Whew!

We are getting ready to close this chapter and see what this new season of our lives will bring.  Two children and one career + school is significantly different than 1 child and 2 careers + school!  We have no delusions of the ease of being a stay-at-home mom or balancing finances on 1 income, but we are definitely excited about the possibilities of the additional home time that we will gain with the change.

Here are some pictures from our family photo shoot a few weeks ago.

Maternity 5-2012 Photo Shoot

We'll keep updating here over the next few weeks through when the baby comes!

And in other news, Amanda & Spencer had their baby last night!  Whoohoo another baby boy in the family - grandbaby #9 for my parents.  And the oldest one isn't even 4 years old yet.  Wow.   :)