35 weeks

This is what I thought would be the last photo documenting this pregnancy after seeing the midwife last week. Thanks to the Lord for giving our second angel more time to "bake" and to my dear friend, Christie, I will soon have some pictures of Bella, Ava and I at almost 36 weeks. Until we head to the hospital, there will probably not be anymore pre-baby!

No news...

It has been about a week and a half since I saw the midwife and last Wednesday I was about 3 cm and my doctor had the same advice- try to rest and keep her another week. Tomorrow I will see him again so maybe we will know more. I am much more comfortable with the idea of her coming now that I am only a few days away from being full term so with that said... bring it on! Of course now that I am at a safer place, the contractions have really slowed down and most days I don't have any at all. I really don't have any insight as to when baby Ava will arrive.

On another note... Bella has adopted this idea of saving things- not just food- and it cracks me up. I find her best drawings in the refrigerator now because she wants to "save" them.

Jesus Loves Me

The other night Bella preformed her newly learned song for some of us. She had just finished singing it almost perfect on her own for the first time before we caught this:
Click here to see the video

Ava Update

Now that we have had a few days to process, it is time to share what is going on with baby Ava.

Last Friday morning I woke up on my own after an incredible night's sleep. Ava, unlike most days, did not wake me up with her hyperactivity. I started getting dressed and brushing my teeth- I was on the way to pick up Bella from Nana & Grandma's. After doing everything I needed to do, I still had not felt her. I decided to wait until I felt better to leave the house. I ate breakfast and had some coffee- after eating is when kick counts are done so I continued to wait. I ran up the stairs and tried jiggling her around, but still nothing. After more than an hour, I called my mom and then the doctor. The nurse asked me to come in right away. I updated Randy and he headed home. By the time I got to the office, it had been right at two hours with no sign of Ava. They hooked me up to the monitor and we could hear her heartbeat! phew. The nurse was like an angel- Amy was her name. She started talking to Ava and almost immediately she gave her a little kick! It didn't take long and baby girl was back to being her bouncy self.

I saw the midwife next and we talked about some of the reasons Ava could have been still for so long including the contractions I have been having at night. She decided to check my cervix and found that I was dilated 2 cm. She confirmed that something was going on and that babies born at 35 weeks do fine and usually get to go home with mom, but with that said, she suggested rest and liquids to try to keep her in another week. Since that morning, I have been doing just that. Randy has been amazing and Bella is trying to understand. I am trying to keep from cleaning and I am definitely spending more time laying down. We are prepared as possible with bags packed, plans in place and the nursery finished.

As usual, we will keep everyone updated but as for now, we are laying low and saying prayers for a healthy baby above all else.

Tiny Dancer

We are really cherishing this time with Bella while she is our only daughter for a few more days. She never ceases to make us laugh. She is so sweet and so much fun.

For Christmas from her GaYa she got money to go towards dance class at the Y. She is going to start ballet on Saturday and we can't wait to watch!

This morning I showed her the outfit she has to wear and told her how they want them to wear their hair and she loved it. I pulled up some videos on YouTube to show her ballet and she mocked every move! She is going to be so great. I didn't catch any pictures of her actually doing ballet but we have some of the ballerina playing "baseball"- she makes her daddy proud with all of her many talents :)

Sweet Dreams

The other night Bella started yelling for me about 3am. This happens occasionally when she wets the bed so I went in prepared to change the sheets and all, but to my surprise... she wanted... a cupcake.

She said, "Where's me cu-cake mommy?" to which I said, "What?" and she said it again, "My cu-cake!"

Me: "Well do you have one?"

Bella: "Daddy got it."

Me: "Oh, well we will look for it in the morning."

No idea where she got this from. We have no cupcakes in the house but she must have been having sweet dreams :)

Christmas Joys

I am so late blogging about our wonderful Christmas but things have just slowed down enough for me to process a little bit. The 23rd we went to my Grandma's and celebrated with my mom's side, including Uncle Les and his doggy from Knoxville, TN. We ate too much and opened presents that night. That was the beginning of the three day train we rode for Christmas...


On Christmas Eve we headed to my aunts where we do my Dad's side and hang out with our favorite cousins and their kids.. I think I have said before there are at least 15 adults, 5 great granddaughters, two more on the way, including Miss Ava, 1 great grandson and another baby expected in July (boy or girl?? we don't know). Anyway, we have a lot of people at that celebration! After that we headed to my Dad's- just my
sister, Will, Randy, Bella and I to open gifts.



Christmas morning we spend here at home, reading the story of Jesus' birth and open a couple of things as a little family.


We headed to Randy's brother's shortly after for brunch and gifts and then to end it all, we ate Christmas dinner that night at his parents with Uncle Dick and Aunt Joanne, visiting from Knoxville.




Randy and I were also able to get a lot of projects done around the house over his break and finish preparing for the birth of our second little angel. As usual, it goes by too fast but we thoroughly enjoyed each day!