Kicking it up a notch

So as I stated before I was going to start walking to see if that would help move things along. Well last night my mom said she would go walking with me. So after Jared got home at 7:30 I left for my mom's to go walking. When I left only one child was asleep (Landon our only one who likes sleep) and the house was in disarray. Dishes, Laundry, all the good stuff. I said to jared if you could just empty the dishwasher I'll do the dishes when I get back. Well my mom and I walked for an hour. I didn't get back until almost 9 pm. When I walked through the door the laundry was going, all the kids were asleep, my bedroom had been cleaned up, the living room had been picked up and the kitchen, oh the kitchen that had been a disaster when I left was completely cleaned up. Oh the joy. If this is the only thing I got for mother's day I would be one very happy girl. I woke up to a clean house, laundry that is almost done, and no piano lessons to teach (which means no keeping my kids occupied for an hour and a half) Today could be a good day! Thank you Jared!

I am nothing!

Well at least my cervix is nothing. My Dr. appt's are on Mondays until I deliver so that is when I will post an update for those that care to be in the know. I almost went to the hospital on Sat. I was having horrible contractions. They were really hurting and they were about 3-4 min apart. I finally decided that I would drink some water go lay down and see what they did. If in a half hour they were still bad and still close I would go in. I really do not want to make a trip to the hospital to be sent home, but I also do not want to be having this baby at home or in the car. Well, much to my dismay they calmed down and then slowed down. So here I am still pregnant. When I was at my appt. they said we will check you to see if the contractions were doing anything. I thought for sure they must have done something. Nothing. Seriously? Seriously nothing. They said if my cervix was even soft they would try and stretch it a little. Not even soft. Nothing has worked this pregnancy. Not my herbs or sex. Which I am now officially giving up on since honestly if it is not going to help me go into labor why bother. So I am resorting to walking. I figure the least it will do is help me continue to not gain any weight or help me lose some. I have not gained a single pound in almost 4 weeks. I think I will try to be happy with that instead of being unhappy with my cervix. So I guess this pregnancy will be more like ethan's was. I went from nothing to a 7 and 100% effaced in an hour. Now if I could just figure out how much longer I am going to have to wait for that hour to be upon me.

The flipping update

Well, today was a pretty good Dr. appt. Baby Ashton has decided to listen to his parents and flipped on his own. He is weighing about 6 1/2 lbs, his head and waist and pretty much everything on him is measuring as if I am due at the end of the week except his legs. They are right on schedule for a 35 1/2 weeker. So this baby will be just like Landon, short with a huge head, a big tummy, and hopefully the same big blue eyes as landon. The ultrasound lady said if she had to guess she thought that if I went pretty close to my due date I could easily have a 9+ lb baby. Since i don't think my hips are made for a baby that big and to quote Amy Pohler from the movie I really want to see "Baby Mama" "You don't come back from that", we are going to work on having this baby soon. If I went into labor tonight my Dr. said he would just let me go. Thank heavens since it was 95 degrees today and I remembered what it was like to be pregnant during the summer in San Antonio minus the humidity(does that bring back some memories Amy?). So now that i have the green light let the remedies, myths, and old wives tales begin. Hopefully this will be the last week I am pregnant. I am taking my herbs but if you have anything else that has worked to send you or someone you know into labor I will be taking any and all suggestions.

It's back on!!!

Hallelujah my Thurs. nights are back in full swing. I have been lucky enough to watch not one but 2 new hilarious episodes of The Office. Tonight I will once again get to watch my beloved Grey's Anatomy. Someone must know that I am miserable and feeling too large for my body and decided that now would be a good time to lift my spirits with a new episode. The countdown is on. Now if I can just get my kids to bed without a fight, find just the right sweet treat for my TV watching, and get myself into a somewhat comfortable position on the couch all will be good.

Elton John and Mackenzie's Birthday

This past weekend was a busy one for us. On Friday we were able to go to the Elton John concert . All I can say is WOW! I know some of you are thinking "didn't my parents listen to him" and yes they probably did. I know mine did and still do which is probably why I like him. He put on an AMAZING show. He played for 2 1/2 hours straight. He only stopped long enough to take a drink. I have never seen someone play the piano like that. He was a machine. It made my wrists hurt watching him. I can barely make it through playing our ward's choir's christmas cantata which was only about 35 mins. long without my hands and wrists killing me. I am so glad we went. It has been awhile since i have seen a concert that good.

On Sat. we had mackenzie's birthday. My niece chloe's birthday is on the 19th and mackenzie's is on the 21st so we have just been celebrating them together. Seeing how I am way too pregnant and my sister just had twins, neither of us were up for going all out. So we went to the park had cake and opened presents and called it a day. Although before we got to the park anything that could go wrong went wrong. I tried to put Mackenzie's scooter together and found out we didn't have all the parts. I run over to target and exchange it but before leaving check for all the parts. Not a single box there had all the parts. So I leave. Go home shower start getting kids ready tell jared to go to toys r us and get another scooter. He decides to price them on the internet before he goes and then informs me he needs to stop at the hardware store for some bug killers for our plants. What?! After I get done telling him what I think of that idea he says he will pick up the cake and lunch at mcdonalds and meet me at the park. We all finally get there (mind you the cake was not ready when jared got to costco and he had to wait for it) and we go to cut the cake and it is not what I ordered. We eat part of it anyway. Later I go to get my money back for the cake and realize after I have been standing in the line to return at costco for 20 mins. that I am probably going to need the half eaten cake. Of course this is costco's and jared's fault that I now need to go back home and get the cake and then come back and wait in line. Finally it is all taken care of and I can go home and sit and continue to have my contractions and hope that I don't have to make another trip to the hospital for some pre-term labor.

To flip or not to flip.... that is the question!

So I had a Dr. appt yesterday. The baby is apparently going to be a spitting image of landon because he just wants to do what he wants to do. He still hasn't flipped into a head down position. I have about 2 more weeks and then he won't be able to flip most likely. So my dr. gave me my options yesterday. He could try and flip him at about 36-37 weeks and then either induce me if it works or just do a c-section then if it doesn't work, or he can just schedule the c-section and if he flips great if not everything is already scheduled.

He generally does not like flipping he thinks that the risks to the baby are greater than the risks of a c-section. He is not aggressive with flipping. He said unless the baby flips pretty easily his success rate of flipping is pretty low. He has had 2 babies in his career die from distress caused by flipping, hence his apprehension for it. Although he will let his patient decide.

I did have Dr. Wen (my Dr. in texas and my favorite dr. ever) flip Landon. I am not really sure if you could actually say he flipped Landon though. He gave me my epidural before he tried to flip him, and because of all the pre-term labor I had throughout the pregnancy, Dr. Wen thinks that the epidural relaxed me and my uterus enough for Landon to just flip on his own.

Jared really does not want me to have a c-section. He doesn't like the risks for surgery and the recovery time is longer, and because Landon flipped he thinks we should try and flip. I on the other hand am a little scared of the flipping since I have had no pre-term labor this pregnancy so I don't think giving me the epidural will work the same as last time. So I am now asking for outside opinions. I know some of you have had c-sections, and some of you may have had your baby flipped. What would you do? As of right now the c-section is scheduled for the 21st of May, and my next ultrasound and dr. appt. is on the 28th of april, and I have to let him know what I want to do then if the baby still hasn't flipped. Thoughts please!!!


P.S. Just in case anyone was wondering, I am really not one of those people that needs to have a regular childbirth. I have experienced the long drawn out and painful process more than enough times. Having a baby in 20 mins. without having to do all the work really doesn't sound all that bad to me.

Pinewood Derby and Our Garden

So for our faithful from the beginning blog readers you will remember that our ward does a "ward pinewood derby". It is the best activity I go to each year. The only bad part is when your husband somehow runs out of time to actually make the car and I end up having to start making it about 3 hours before the activity. Last year jared made a skateboard with a gorilla on top. We actually won a few races and won the award for most creative. This year was a total bust. We lost every race we were in by a long shot and we didn't win anything for the car itself. I thought it was pretty creative making a "Simpson's" car. I did the entire thing with a dremmel. Everyone that heard that laughed pretty hard but I am not sure what else I really could have used. I printed the characters and then ran them through my laminator so they would look like they were sitting up. My brother dustin should really appreciate this car since he is a huge "Simpson's" fan. My kids came up to me during the races and informed me that our car sucked because it kept losing. Besides that we all had a good time. They had an auction of baked goods and babysitting from the young women to raise money for camp. My dad has deeper pockets than I do and won a few things that we decided to enjoy right then. Homemade Tres Leches cake and popcorn balls. The cake was delicious and was completely gone in about 10 mins. I think we will start working on the car a little sooner for next year.

The kids just hoping we might win at least one.
Ethan and his "friend" Hannah
My parents and the kids. Landon is actually looking at the camera and kind of smiling.

We decided this year to plant from tomatoes, zucchini, and strawberries. The kids are very excited about this. Hopefully they will leave the plants alone so that they can actually produce some food. We under estimated the size that the zucchini plants would get. We are going to have to split them up. We were all very excited when we found some strawberries on the plant the other day.