36 Weeks

ONLY 4 WEEKS TO GO!!!

Another Birthday

As we approach my birthday weekend I feel like I'm in a funk. I should be at least a little excited, but in the back of my mind I keep thinking about my last birthday. I was turning 30 and Joel actually planned a nice dinner party with some of my favorite people to celebrate. I just remember not even wanting to celebrate because my birthday was the day I had planned to announce our pregnancy and the next "birthday" that was coming up. I don't think I ever even told Joel that those were my plans. After all, we only knew that I was pregnant for 11 short days before it ended. I can clearly recall being so excited about the pregnancy. We had been trying for what felt like SUCH a long time. It had been just a little less than a year at that point and the pregnancy came as such an unexpected joy and surprise.

This year as I sit here 35 weeks pregnant and turning 31, I am so thankful for the sweet little life that is growing inside me. I can't wait to meet him and I know without a doubt that if our other baby was here, I would not be having THIS child. With all of that being said, it's still a bittersweet feeling and a sadness that I wish I could completely forget.

Can't Believe I Forgot to Write This Down...

Back to the first day of school.
We get up, get dressed, eat breakfast and take our traditional first day of school pictures on the porch and head off to school. We park the car and start walking towards the entrance and as we get closer to the front doors Jacob turns to me and says, "Mom, please don't hug me or anything when we get inside." Hearing those words was crushing. I assured him that I wasn't going to embarass him but asked if I could at least walk him down to his class and take a picture and while he didn't answer, he just kept walking and before I knew it he was 10 steps ahead of me. We got close to his classroom and I could hear the teacher talking. Before I knew it he was in the classroom and I didn't even get to say goodbye. It was one of my hardest mommy moments yet. Never again will I be able to take a picture of him in his desk on the first day of school... my baby is all grown up.

Getting Ready for Baby!

Amidst all the craziness going on with my mom and her health the time has been flying by. I am almost 34 weeks pregnant now and it's astonishing that we are supposed to have a new baby in just 6 short weeks!

There are a few big things that I have wanted to do before this baby gets here. One of them was to take the boys on a fun trip before summer was over and the baby came, but with mom's surgery and all, we weren't able to do that. We were able to go to Hyatt Lost Pines over Labor Day weekend and had a great time though. We've also been able to do some other small fun things around town, so hopefully that will make up for the lack of a real vacation this year. We did manage to get two things checked off our list though!

A new car! Yay!



We have had my suburban since Keaton was 6 months old and put 120,000 miles on it since then. Since it was a 2000 model, had many miles, the dent from the pole at the school and things were starting to just generally malfunction, the time was right to move on. I am so excited about my car and am even more excited about how CLEAN it is! 7 years of kids riding and eating in a car really does make it dirty no matter how much you wash or vacuum it! Somehow I just couldn't picture myself putting my new, clean baby in that dirty old suburban! I know that sounds completely crazy, but I am truly relieved that this BIG item is checked off our list!

The other big thing that we (and by "we" I mean Joel) have gotten done is the nursery. We have been waiting for a reason to tear the carpet out of all the bedrooms in our house and this baby gave us one! We bought all the material to do the other bedrooms in the house as well, but they can wait for a bit until things settle down around here. Joel has worked hard to rip out carpet (with the help of Keaton and Gavin), paint and lay new floors in the baby's room. Everything turned out well and now all we need is accessories and a baby!

After ripping out the carpet


New baby blue paint


Starting the flooring


Almost finished


Gavin helping


Finished

Gavin's First Day of Preschool

Gavin's preschool started the Thursday before Labor Day. He was SO excited to get back to school and was really hoping to go 5 days a week. Unfortunately for him Mommy doesn't like her boys to be gone! I had only signed him up for a Tuesday/Thursday morning class, but at his request put him on a waiting list for a 3 day a week class and the 5 day a week class. On the night we went to meet his teacher, Ms. Gloria (Keaton had her when he was 4), he went to the director and asked if she had found a spot for him 5 days a week yet! Of course there wasn't a spot, but all of us laughed at his persistance! On his first morning back to school he stopped in the preschool office again and asked the director if she even had a 3 day a week spot for him. Requests from someone as cute as him must go a long way because by Friday afternoon he had a 3 day a week spot! He's super excited to be going to school 3 days a week and if he's happy then I'm happy. My house sure is going to be quiet on Monday, Wednesday and Friday for the next 6 weeks though!

Here's Gavin ready to get back to school.



Here he is in his classroom.

First Day of School

I can't believe how the summer flew by and we're already 3 weeks into the school year! The boys weren't really looking forward to going back, but once they finally met their teachers, their excitement grew. Both boys were lucky to get great teachers this year. Keaton has Mrs. Fleming, the same teacher Jacob had for 2nd grade and Jacob got Mr. Benthall for 5th grade. It's amazing that Jacob is in his last year of elementary school...how sad!

Here they are ready to head off to the first day of school.


Gavin just had to take a picture with them even though it wasn't his first day.

Mom's Progress

This whole cancer thing has really not been fun for any of us, especially my poor mom. August 13th she had a double mastectomy and reconstruction. The surgeries took about 5 hours and my poor dad was on pins and needles the whole time. He was actually breaking out in hives in the waiting room! Mom did well and was released 2 days later. Jacob spent his last week of summer at their house helping to take care of their dogs and doing anything that needed to be done. He is such an amazing 10 year old. He never complained once about missing his last week of summer to help his Mom-o and Papa. Unfortunately mom's wounds on the right side did not healing correctly and to make a long story short she ended up having a second surgery to remove dead tissue and skin, reduce the size of her expander and give the remaining tissue and skin the ability to grow back healthy. The pathology reports came back that there was no cancer in her lymphnodes and she was thrilled. It even made the thought of having a second surgery bearable. That joy was short lived after her appointment with the oncologist who told her that while it was great there was not cancer in her lymphnodes, her pathology report was troubling. He did a new chest x-ray and bloodwork and sent her home to rest and heal completely before he started her on any kind of treatment. After receiving the bloodwork analysis, he called and let her know that going without chemo was not an option. He also suggested that she have a port placed to make receiving her treatments easier. She was upset, but seems to finally be getting back to normal. Emotionally she has had a hard time accepting that she is sick and my dad has been very cautious and has not really let her do a lot up until last Thursday. I think all this laying around at home resting and not doing anything has contributed to her feeling down. She went out over the weekend to see a movie, did some shopping and even had the boys come over for a visit, so she's starting to improve. She was able to go back to work from home on Tuesday and has enjoyed feeling somewhat normal again. Tomorrow is her appointment with the oncologist to really discuss her blood work at length and find out more information about her treatments. I'm just praying that what the doctor has to say is not a devastating blow when she's just starting to feel normal again.