Hey there, 7-pounder!

We had what I *hope* will be our last appointment with Dr. Sweeney just a while ago. He shook our hands and told us he enjoyed taking care of us these last months (baked goods for doctors go a long way, trust me!) as if he wouldn't be seeing us at our next scheduled appointment--next Monday, the 30th, and the day we go to the hospital to be induced if Matthew hasn't come. I hope he's right.

The sono tech was really having a great time with us and Matthew was very entertaining. He kept moving, was breathing up a storm and kicking my organs (my poor gall bladder is just being used for his own personal kicking bag) like crazy...and she felt really sorry for me! She's the one who likes to do the growth assessment as well, so we learned that Matthew was 7 lbs., 3 oz! This is a TREMENDOUS gain from last week, over a pound! Which leads me to believe (and hope, a little) that there is a little bit more of a discrepancy in measurements because of two different techs taking them. In any event, I'm pretty confident he's at least 6 pounds FOR SURE and probably a bit more based on how much more powerful the kicks and movements have been in the last week.

Tomorrow we'll get a Bishop Score from Dr. Shonekan and we'll see how close he is to coming on his own or how successful the induction may be. John thinks, "That little turkey will come on Thanksgiving Day," and that would be fine with me because then he would at least get to wear his First Thanksgiving outfit.

I'm not placing any bets on it though....he looked like he was having an AWFULLY good time in there!!

Oh, and Dr. Sweeney said he *is* betting...betting that he's found the second kidney. I bet he's right...it even looked just like a little kidney bean!! So, Uni-kidney may just turn into Pelvi-kidney!

The clock that mocks me....

When we first learned we were pregnant, John programmed a countdown clock to our due date. This countdown clock was originally Grandma's, and was used for her retirement countdown. We've been watching this countdown clock for the last 260ish days...and as I look at it right now, it says I have 13 hours. THIRTEEN HOURS. My dreams last night consisted of me saying to that clock, over and over, "You mock me, clock. You mock me." (I know, weird dream, but true)

Saturday night, I thought we might be in business as I was pretty much cramping/having contractions all night...but nothing regular enough or painful enough to wake John up and head to the hospital.

Needless to say, when we got up for church yesterday, I was EXHAUSTED. John must have been too, because he was CRANKY! Note all the caps in that word. Let me restate: CRANKY.

To wrap a very long (all day) story up: He was CRANKY, which aggravated me seeing as I figured if either of us got to claim rights on cranky yesterday, it should be the one who was NOT sleeping soundly the whole night before, but hey...that's just me. His cranky never let up, got worse, aggravated me even more, and I took it all out on the garden. I've been needing to pull the summer stuff out and rake and put the pansies and bulbs in for a while. I realize this is probably not a huge priority for most women a day and a half away from their due date, but it is to me as I love my garden and envision it as a cute little backdrop for pictures of Matthew in a few months.

John is king of hidden agenda. Apparently my plans interfered with his agenda (who knew?) and frankly, cranky AND a hidden agenda just were not what I wanted to deal with yesterday so I told him I'd handle it all on my own.

Which I did, mind you.

And paid for (heck, am still paying for) in spades. My muscles would be miserable today if I *wasn't* pregnant, but throw my aching, pregnant back and humongous pregnant belly in and I think miserable times 100 still doesn't cover it.

But hey, only 13 hours left, right? Once it's rundown, I'm resetting it for next week--Monday at 7 pm, to be precise. Anything that happens before that is gravy. Preferably on a turkey. That I am at home enjoying with mom, John's cousin and Matthew. On Thanksgiving Day.

Game on, clock.

Funny daddy....

That daddy is hilarious. Some of the things we laugh at (together, really...I find it just as funny as he does) with this pregnancy are my humongous feet ("sausage toes") and legs (trunks, he calls them "stumpy trunks"), the food that inevitably gets all over my shirt somehow ("You've got quite a shelf there; good thing too since you get stuff all over it.") and the maternity underwear that could be used as substitute flags for the capitol should we ever need some extra material (though I told him we could laugh at how HUGE it was while I was pregnant, but when I am no longer pregnant, we do NOT laugh at the size of ANY clothing, specifically underwear!!!).

Actually, we laugh at a lot because it is all pretty funny....so here's the latest I thought was hilarious. Last night in bed I told john that I really wish that new knot in my foot would stop hurting because I actually had a lot of energy and things I wanted to do but limping around certainly put a crimp in those plans. I said, "Maybe I'll bake some Christmas cookies and freeze them." He said, very seriously, "How about you just focus on doing stuff to get him out of there?"

Oh, okay....why haven't I thought of that? Let me just pull out all my secrets that up to this point I have failed to exercise and talk Matthew out of there.

So, do you hear that Matthew? Daddy thinks I have some control over getting you to come out. I will say that the pregnancy ticker at the top of this page isn't working for some reason--can't download the picture--so maybe that's a good sign that I'm at the end? We can just tell daddy we worked on you coming out together!

39 Weeks...and thankful!

In hindsight, I wish that I had made a little post each week as to what was going on throughout the pregnancy. I think between this blog and my pregnancy journal I've done a decent job of chronicling, but a consistent, weekly update is probably what I'll go for (at minimum) for when Matthew is born. In any event, today is 39 weeks and still no sign of my little guy deciding he wants to meet us. Some things going on:

• He's still moving like crazy and I am thankful for that. It's probably the most reassuring thing I've ever felt and I know I will miss it (maybe not the karate chops to the kidney or gall bladder) when he's born.
• Sleeping is the most foreign concept in the world to me. (PLEASE do not send me a cute comment that says something like, "Ha...you don't even KNOW what not sleeping is like...just wait until that baby is born." If I hear that one more time, I swear, I'll explode. I get it, babies wake up A LOT. I won't get much sleep once he's born either. Check.)
• When I *do* fall asleep, I end up snoring. I've NEVER snored in my life. And it's not snoring-snoring...it's this weird, throaty thing that makes me feel like someone scraped my throat with a razor blade when I wake up in the morning. John says it's because I'm on my back, so we'll see if that's the case when Matthew is born.
• I can sort of keep the swelling under control by just being off my feet but now I have some knotty thing in my right ankle (much like the thing they thought was a clot in my left ankle) that REALLY hurts and pretty much makes me limp if I put any pressure on it. It's very varicose-veiny looking and so again, I'm pretty sure it's just some veins or something being cut-off. I actually have some energy, and would like to do some things, but putting any pressure on it really is not comfortable.
• I'm tired of looking at birth announcements, personalized stockings, bubble outfits and Christmas shopping online. I have an announcement style we really like, but it is on card stock and not glossy paper, which I'd like. There are just TOO many stocking styles out there and to pick one for a little boy for life is just overwhelming. It's probably going to something with a train for his grand-dad and that will be that. There are so many cute little bubble outfits and smocked things for boys (I know where ever John is right now, a chill ran up and down his spine!) but I just don't know what size he'll be so it's just overwhelming to look. And Christmas shopping? Too much online to look at. I just need John to say: "Buy this for____; buy this for ______; buy this for ____." My brain is mush these days.
• Another *perk* of being laid-up day in and day out is having lots of time to blog-hop. I posted the other day about how thankful I was that this whole process has been relatively non-eventful and I still feel that way. There are so many blogs out there about trials of infertility and I just am so thankful that when we did decide to go IVF, it was as successful as it has been. Granted, it took 10 years of heartache to get there, but for success with our first official cycle, I am eternally grateful to God.
• We have our next OB appointment on Thursday. At this appointment, I imagine we'll decide that if he's not born by December 1 (the day I am 41 weeks), we'll induce. Next Monday is the next specialist appointment and we'll look for that kidney again, and then Tuesday (my due date) will be the last OB appointment before Thanksgiving....it will be a pretty dry doctor time from Tuesday the 24th to Tuesday the 30th, so my hope is that the little stinker will think that's a FINE time to come! In the meantime, we wait.

And wait. And wait some more.....but heck, after this long--what's a few days more?

Progress!

Banner day on the paperwork front! Today my FedEx friends delivered our FBI clearance and my UPS friends delivered our marriage licenses! The wait now remains with an updated homestudy package, John's medical clearance, certification and authentication and COPIES--I'd normally say very doable in my goal time frame of this time next week but as that typically seems to jinx me, I'll refrain. I did see a blurb on the yahoo group that said their agency told them a year wait once the paperwork was in. Here's hoping that is agency specific...and this time next year little girl will be here. Again, I'll refrain from time framing, though, as it just gets me in trouble. In the meantime, I'll just continue to trudge along and watch others bring their babies home. There are a couple of families that just got back, I think and the pictures they have posted are PRECIOUS! I can't wait, I can't wait, I can't wait until I am in pictures like that with our sweetheart.

Still waiting...

Who would have thought that my waiting would be for my social worker to get back (from a well-deserved vacation) and FBI prints (even though we already had FBI clearance back in March) and our marriage license (which, again, was already in our possession but about to expire!) so that we could send our dossier in? Not me...but then again...that's been the path with which we've become familiar. So...I have to go back to school (ugh!) August 14. (I decided that I do NOT need to go to that workshop next week, why kill summer any more?) That means that I need to have EVERYTHING received, certified, authenticated, copied and on the way to AA by August 13. I am kind of frustrated because I thought that this would all be done by July 17 and the month delay sort of tosses me in the air, but as long as I can get it all done and on the way before school, I will breathe easier. I just spoke with Sharon at FBI customer service and she was SO kind...she said she would do her best to have our clearance cards back to us by Monday. I hope that we get our new marriage licenses by Monday or Tuesday and then I need to have them authenticated. depending on when I get them, I might take the trip to Richmond then--I couldn't go yesterday because I got stuck in the dentist office all morning and I figured I'd spend near $70 in my time and gas, might as well let someone else do it.

On the baby front...Nanci gave me some of the sweetest little baby things! I've divided all the things I have into sizes, figuring once we get a referral and size info, I can decide what will work and what becomes donations for the orphanage. We've also decided that we will buy baby furniture for Christmas. Again from Nanci's suggestion, I am decided on a convertible crib and am pretty overwhelmed with all the choices. I am going to have to just give John some parameters and let him pick. Lucky dog he is! Nanci and her husband closed on their MD house this am (sniff, sniff) and I watched their sweet little girl while they were at closing. We had such a good time! We played with the dogs, sang and danced, baked cookies...yep. I'm ready for that.

Patience is a Virtue Part TWO

Wow..can't believe I haven't blogged (you should know I just typed the word 'typed' and replaced it with 'blogged' because that's just how techno I have become!) since last weekend. We have had some very busy times, though, and they don't seem to be slowing down. One of our great friends from years ago is a Blue Angel, and their family came up for an airshow last weekend and we got to visit with them. It is amazing how those special people you know God put in your life for just the right times never seem to age and we fall right back into where we left off. We also had a wedding rehearsal, a wedding, Memorial Day, end of school cr*p and still getting over the crud. Oh, and friends coming in again tomorrow for the weekend. So, in essence, not really a lot of time to blog anyway.

Good thing, since there is not a lot to blog about. Turns out that most people only had to have 10 hours of training for their adoptions. Yep, good old Maryland needs 21. Soooo...guess what we spent the weekend doing? Money-making, I know it is...However, that is done, and all I have to do is get the certificates and our pictures to our SW and Home study should be on its way to USCIS. I am ok with the fact that out dossier won't be submitted until July 16 or 17, but I wish it was different. Ally has been great about checking in on me and letting me know she will help with whatever, so that makes me feel supported, and I guess that's a big thing to me. I know John would say, "Ya think?" Oh yeah, he, of course, is not home. I know he doesn't deploy like some people deploy, but these in and out trips here and there all the flipping time are frustrating! I won't complain, though. We are very blessed with his work arrangement and I thank God for it every day.

SOOOO many babies are coming home these days--I LOVE it. It makes my wading through the masses have a light at the end of the tunnel. I'm going to start throwing out names to try them on...some we (ok, I) have been tossing are: Clare Grace, Emma Grace, Emma Jane, Gracie Jane, Abigail Jane (but would probably call her Abby Jane) Caroline Grace, Hannah Grace...hmm, that's all I can think of right now. Any comments?