First Kisses

My first love at first sight...
Luke Wallace Tucker
8 lbs. 0 oz
19.5 inches

My next love...
Seth Jackson Tucker
8 lbs. 1 oz
20.5 inches

And my new best friend...
Ally Claire Tucker
8 lbs. 4 oz
20 inches

I actually have a longer relationship with the NICU than i had really thought about. They have been there to care for each of my babies since they were all c-sections. I don't remember who was there for Luke's delivery, but it was Dr. Novak for Seth's and Dr. Morris for Ally Claire. (and i need to bop dr. morris b/c he kept moving her before micah could get an actual kiss picture, but this will do...specially since she was kind of "drowning" at the moment!)

the best moment this week

is happening right now. i bet you know what i'm about to say...i have 3 kids ages 4 and under...ALL TAKING A NAP AT THE SAME TIME!!! i know this moment will probably never happen again, so i'm taking a second to document it. that and it's the first moment i have had to myself.

the week i was in the hospital, my kiddos decided to start waking up at about 6 a.m. and start coming into my bedroom to see pop and mimi. well, this is a problem b/c it took me a long time to train them to stay in their rooms until micah or I come in there to get them. it started when luke was little b/c we have a split floor plan and he has always been very quiet. and i couldn't guarantee that when he got up, that i would hear him. seth went through a spell of very early waking and what stopped it was knowing he couldn't get out of his bed. well...now i am having the dangdest time breaking this new habit. especially since they are in the same room together. someone wakes up and starts talking to the other even if they aren't awake. so over the weekend, i have got a little work to do. it wouldn't be so bad even if it were 6:30 or so. but a lot of mornings over the last 2 weeks, it is as early as 5:45 and i'm just not having that. luke has been battling sinus/allergy stuff for the past couple of days and he has been getting up at 4 honkin' 30 in the morning. i was up feeding sissy this morning so i told micah to get on to him for trying to wake seth up, for the second morning in a row, and that didn't stop things, so i make luke come sit on the couch, alone, until breakfast at 7. (it's tough to be my kid.) so let me recap...2 mornings in a row...up at 4:30. the first day neither kid had a nap. yesterday their naps were short. there is no doubt i have had a migraine. last night, i was thankful i had some left over "medicine" from my c-section b/c nothing else had touched my headache.

now, last night we were getting the kids in to bed, doing their prayers and the usual routine. now, i don't always participate b/c if i always did, we'd never get to bed from stuff needing to get done. plus, this has always been special "daddy" time. but AC was asleep and i thought i needed to give sethy some extra attention. i left the door cracked b/c i knew it was getting close to time for AC to wake up and have a bottle. seth, closed it in his haste to do everything before luke could do it. well...i told micah to open the door back up when he was turning off the light...and someone, probably seth, had LOCKED US ALL IN!! (i have the door locks on the outside of the doors so they can't lock me out and so that the lock doesn't keep knocking holes in my walls from the kids pushing on the doors and breaking the door stops.) i suddenly felt sick. so i told micah just to go out the window. (thankfully he has a hide-a-key).

today we had ally claire's 2 week check up and she is looking perfect and beautiful. she is weighing in at 8 lb and 10 oz (yep, that is a 13 oz gain since coming home a week ago) and is 21 inches (75% on both of those) and her head is in the 50% range...very odd for my kids. the boys always had melons for little noggins!! Her doc was very pleased with how she is doing and the lady who did her repeat PKU said the good thing about her being in the NICU is that they get a little desensitized from all the pricks (b/c AC didn't flinch or cry with the heel stick or the squeezes.) I did get to witness some female drama queen twice today. i'm guessing it's a car seat thing. but gracious! i had to pull over on the way home just to get her to settle down. poor sethy was covering his ears. (she is actually a quiet crier. wait til he hears her go off when she's his age if she is anything like him!!)

firsts part 2

Here we have an extremely common "new baby" pose with Daddy. I have countless pictures of Micah and the boys just like this. It is his absolute favorite time with the kiddos. Micah had already been talking about how he was ready to get her home so they could have some snuggle time in the recliner. I think when I took this picture, we had been home all of 2 hours. (I think I didn't get my promotion from princess to queen. I think someone came into the world outranking me.)

Here is big brother #1 getting to hold Ally Claire for the first time. He has been waiting on her for quite some time and as soon as we wheeled her out of the NICU, he was already asking to hold her. For those who don't know...a couple of stories. We didn't let the boys go up to the NICU b/c we just didn't think our little tornadoes should go in, for one, and for two, we just didn't think they needed to see babies like that. However, we took pictures of sister while she was on the ventilator and when she was under the oxyhood and video and they watched her every night. When she was under the hood, we told them sissy needed to wear her Buzz Lightyear helmet to help her lungs get big and strong to help her breathe. When she was on the vent, we told them she had a special straw that was helping her. They were completely fine with those explanations and didn't ask any other questions. (and they said the sweetest prayers at night for "baby sissy" to get big and strong and come home.) More on Luke in the last picture.

Oh my little Sethy bean. I have been wondering how he was gonna handle things b/c he has been the baby on my side of the family for almost 3 years and he is a mama's boy. He loves her and loves to hold her and kiss her, just not as much as Luke. He's still into the "i'm 2 and the world revolves around me" stage. The most jealousy he shows is when we are burping her, he sometimes wants to crawl into my lap and says "mama, love me." and so she gets one shoulder and he gets the other. if that's as bad as it gets, I can handle that.

Now, this picture is not posed. We were home enjoying some quiet time and Luke just needed to be with his sissy. so he crawled up in the chair with Micah. I looked over and after a few minutes, this is what i saw while we were watching...Jungle Book I think. He just needed to be touching her...which I now know is NOT uncommon just yet. (She's still a novelty.)

That picture and this one are the ones i will definitely use as bribery one day...if needed. Since before even finding out we were having a girl, I would ask both boys "which name do you like". (hey, it was a way to distract them when they would come to visit me in the shower or a way to distract them when breaking up fights.) We finally had it narrowed down to Ally and Claire. Micah liked Ally a little better and I liked Claire a little better. But we liked them both. So I kept asking which Luke liked better and he kept saying he liked "Ally Claire". And so it stuck. At first I wasn't sure about a "double name", but if we decided on one, I knew I needed to like both names as equally as I could. And that is how she was named. Ultimately by her big brother. (And i'll use this time, since it's MY blog, to say that she DOES go by both names. I know I'll have to get over doctor's offices and such calling her just her first name. not a problem. But otherwise, I have already found that just calling her by only her first name really gets on my nerves. Who knew? Of course, on here I refer to her as sissy or AC for brevity, and that's ok.)
And the last little tidbit is that this is a picture of Luke carrying around a picture of his sister. We printed it one night while she was still in the hospital and he grabbed it off of the printer as soon as it spit it out, which of course, caused it to smudge. Well, the OCD got the better of me and i printed another for myself and gave him that one. Well they have pictures in their room of the 2 of them from this past Christmas, and Luke meant that I had to find a frame for sissy's picture. And he carried it everywhere with him for 2 days until she came home...even to the table to eat pudding.

kleenex, anyone???

there's a first time for everything

The last 2 weeks have been full of firsts, for sure. June 10th is the very first time I have ever had a baby girl. And I can say it is the first baby I have had that arrived with a head full of dark hair. We still are trying to figure out where that came from. Contrary to popular belief, Micah didn't have dark hair until he was a good bit older. It is NOT the first time I have experienced love at first sight. I've had that (and c-sections) twice before.

This is also the first time I have had a baby go to the NICU. What a surprise. I never imagined that she would go beyond that 4 hour transition period (at first since i was still enjoying some major medicine) and if she did, then I never imagined that I wouldn't bring her home on the same day I went home. And since I've never had a baby in the NICU, I have obviously never had a baby on the ventilator. Talk about a first! I am already praying that it's a last. I won't lie...that was hard. This was also one of the first times I have really felt that God allowed me to work on my faith. when I have seen or heard about other parents going through similar situations or anything with their kids, really...I always say "God knows who can handle those things and He knows I can't." What a liar I became!! He sure showed me a thing or two. But I'm assuming I'm always in the need for a kick in the rear. (look Harriette...someone has her laying "backwards" again!) And Susan...I do have flashes of PTNICUD--for non-NICU mamas reading this...post traumatic NICU disorder!!

And finally, after a very long 4 days, I got to hold my daughter for the very first time. Oh how sweet that was. I will never forget that moment. I say a lot of times that I prayed that child into existance (b/c sometimes her brothers have completely worn me to a frazzle and that is putting it lightly) and if our last baby had of been a boy, I am POSITIVE my new address would be located at Bryce Mental Hospital in Tuscaloosa. (however, i will say that might not have been toooo bad come the fall. i mean seriously yall...have you been there on game day with the lingering smell of some Dreamland?) But all of my little life I have dreamed of having a daughter. My mama and her mama (my meemaw) had a wonderful relationship and I talk to my mama every single day. I just always wanted to experience the other side of that mother/daughter relationship and now, PRAISE GOD!!! I get to!!

And here, little miss decides to go home for the first time! Luke has asked me to sit in the back with him a few times this week, so I decided I would take the opportunity to do so, plus snap a few pictures of sissy's first car ride. She was bright eyed and bushy tailed and soaked everything in on our ride home to Athens.


coming up next...firsts at home...since blogger can't seem to handle more than a few pics at a time (or my brain won't let me figure out how to outsmart it, dangit!)

working on it

i have been working on a post for a little bit about all the firsts we have experienced this past week, but blogger is being a bah-hooty, so stay tuned.

but quickly, we went to the doc for our discharge appointment today for ally claire and she is doing really well. she was born at 8 lbs 4 oz. at discharge on friday she weighed 7 lbs 13 oz and today she is back up to 8 lbs 4.5 oz. everything looks healthy, she is eating, sleeping and pooping like a champ and isn't spitting up much at all since i changed her formula since coming home. i haven't even had to thicken hers yet like i did the boys. so we will see.

speaking of firsts...today is my first day taking care of all 3 by myself, so just say a quick one that we all make it. after the last couple of weeks, i'm sure i can handle it, it will just be figuring out how to prioritize who needs me worst at the moment!!

she is HOME!!!

i am cyberlly (cause that's a word) screamin' from the rooftops...

Ally Claire is HOME!!!!!!!!

I can't even tell you how excited we are. Luke has proven to already be super excited about her. As soon as we wheeled her out of the hospital, they were both asking to hold her, touch her and kiss her. We got home and she was ready to eat and be changed. Luke keeps asking if she is still asleep...and she is...right on her daddy where i knew she would be. And Micah has already referred to us as "his girls" and i think that is the absolute best! I like being his girl and I'm so greatful that we have a girl together. Luke is over in the recliner with Micah and AC b/c he thinks he just needs to keep an eye on her I guess. He keeps asking me if she can play or if i will teach her to talk. How cute is that? Sethy got up so early this morning, he didn't get much love on sissy time. he was in desperate need of a nap. But he did help me burp her.
So we are settlin' in as the Tuckers...PO5!! (party of 5 that is!!)

Thank you God, for my 3rd little angel. I pray she'll be as fun as the first two!

annie said it best...

"tomorrow, tomorrow, i love ya tomorrow...."

looks like sissy will get to come home tomorrow!!!! we are so completely excited. she doesn't have any respiratory issues and isn't expected to. she does have reflux, but we have dealt with that before and is nothing new to us. i am so greatful to all my friends, family, and people i only know through the web for all of your prayers for Ally Claire. it means more to us than you will ever know. i always say i think God puts certain people in your life for a reason. i know i could not have made it through the last 9 days without everyone's constant support. and to my God who gave this mama the real strength she needed and gave Ally Claire His healing hand...

"My Jesus, My Savior, Lord there is none like You. All of my days I want to praise the wonders of Your mighty love. My comfort, my sheltor, tower of refuge and strength. Let every breath and all that I am never cease to worship You. Shout to the Lord all the earth let us sing. Power and majesty praise to the King. Mountains bow down and the seas will roar at the sound of your name. I sing for joy at the work of your hand. Forever I'll love you forever I'll stand. Nothing compares to the promise I have in You."

little boys and beautiful girls

well...a progressive day indeed. last night i emailed with the nurse that we had at nights last week on the serious NICU side and she helped me more than anything. i mean 2 sentences of what she said was all i needed to know. when you are a nurse, there are just people you click with and connections you make that last forever. i feel that way about her. i also talked to the nurse that we have had the last couple of days and she got the neonatologist to call me this morning. and...today she took sissy off of oxygen. she said she thought this was not a pulmonary problem. and she thinks it could likely be reflux b/c babies tend to hold their breath when they reflux into their esophagus, which might be what she is doing. also...the nurse started giving her more formula than i am sure she needs. (babies self soothe by sucking. well, if her belly hurts and you put a bottle in her mouth...duh...she's gonna suck. she'd do that on a paci, but i don't think anyone has tried that.) well today, micah and i were there to watch her for 3 feedings. i noticed with the 4 pm feeding she spit up afterwards...hadn't noticed that before. when i came back after quite time for her 8 feeding, the nurse said she had to give her an ounce an hour early b/c she was inconsolable. then the woman wanted me to feed her 4 more ounces at 8. ummmmmmm...my child has only been eating since saturday. she is just 8 lbs...she doesn't need that much! but what do i know? i'm just her mother! but she and i got to have a great visit. she opened her eyes and we just sopped each other up like a biscuit.

all of that to say, we are 13 hours without oxygen. she has had a few drops when sleeping, but it self corrects. i'm going to call it reflux. her brothers both had it so it doesn't surprise me at all! so i am curious to see what happens when the doc rounds tomorrow. i talked to both nurses and both think that is the issue as well. that, my friends, is easily taken care of. been there, done that. so my little prayer warriors, i am asking you again...please keep little miss in your prayers. i am assuming that she will make it through the night with no issues and i am praying that we will be home by the weekend!!!

now...for my boys. they have been such super troopers this week. they have really hung in there with everything being so out of whack. they have been moved (a couple of months ago) into the same room in preparation for this little creature that we tell them exists...that they haven't even seen yet. my parents kept them while i was in the hospital and they came to see me every afternoon. so lots of back and forth. they have had multiple babysitters until today and have been the best little men. a couple of nights ago, micah went in to check on them before we went to bed and he didn't see seth in his bed. and he looked and seth had gotten in bed with luke and that is how they fell asleep. they have never done that before and it was the sweetest thing i have ever seen...until today when luke carried around a picture of his new sissy allllll day. God love 'em. I guess if you know how to charm them, even little snakes can be sweet sometimes.

happy one week...sort of

Ally Claire is a week old today and she is still celebrating in the NICU. She has been moved to progressive care, is in an open bed, eating as much as she wants and doesn't have her IV any more. We are still trying to wean her off of her oxygen, so please pray about that. she is mainly having trouble keeping her oxygen levels up when she is sleeping. I'm not sure when she will come home and it's hard to keep my spirits up, but I guess I know they won't keep her forever. I am interested to know what the next step is though. So just pray that she decides that it IS important to breathe when she sleeps!

monday update

so we went to the hospital today and when we got there, she didn't have the oxyhood anymore, but had the nasal canula (the thing with the 2 prongs that go in your nostrils). they said that basically she is on a type of oxygen that can't be measured in percentage anymore, it has to be measured in cc's. (from what i understand it's next to room air.) when we got there, the doc hadn't rounded on her yet, but the nurse kind of gave us a small heads up of what she figured would happen when we came back after quiet time. so i came back (micah went and picked the kids up at ellen's and took them home for a nap before coming back to get me around 5.) during quiet time, they changed her to ad lib feedings (meaning give her all she wants, or full feedings), they stopped and took out her IV, they put her in an open bed, and she is now in the progressive care unit across the hall. they have her oxygen down to 25ccs which is the lowest she can have before none at all. hopefully tomorrow she will be at none. all of these things she has to accomplish for 24 hours (including being without oxygen) before she can go home. so we are standing at the door, basically. just pray that tonight is good for her with no set backs and that by thursday, we will be bringing home our little lady!

ps--i AM reading your encouraging words. thank you soooooooo much for your steadfast prayers. God is certainly in control and a hard lesson for this impatient person to learn is that everything happens only in HIS time. but i'll gladly learn any lesson He wants me to have. hopefully I will be a kinder, gentler mama from all of this and i will not just say i'm gonna pray about something...i'll mean it.

happy father's day!!

**scroll down for pics from yesterday**

i hope all the other dads from here had a great father's day. ours was a really good one!! we got to the hospital and sister was still under her hood, but the oxygen was at 20.9% (room air) and her saturation was staying between 97-100%. the nurse told us that the only time she is desaturating is when she is really, really asleep. and then she just needs just a tiny bit. so that is a great improvement. they decreased her IV again and went up on her feedings to 1 oz, which she gulped down and isn't spitting up any. we finally got to see her with her eyes open and to hear her little cry, which is a little hoarse right now from having a tube for so long. the best part of all...we got to hold her for like an hour and a half!! it could have been longer, but we needed to get home to the boys. yesterday we had to keep "blow by" oxygen by her face, but today were instructed to only use it if her O2 sat dropped below 85. we had to do that 4-5 times the whole time, so not too bad. she was fast asleep and was keeping her sat around 92% for the most part, so that is a good step. when we left, she didn't even put her back under the hood, she said she would just wait and see. so all in all, it was a really great visit for us. the doctor is hoping to get her out "towards the end of the week." i'm hoping thursday. so please continue to pray that she can keep her O2 sats up without need of additional oxygen. when she can do that, she will move across the hall to the progressive room to an open bed. i would love to see that by tuesday evening. i know it is all in God's hands and in His time. I cried out to Him this morning with an aching heart and aching arms and He answered. I am finding that I need this time to praise Him in every situation and to learn to pray without ceasing.

6/14/08 update #2,3,& 4

read below to see what has gotten us to this update.

11:20 AM- ally claire is under the oxyhood down to 23% oxygen (room air is 21%) and will start feeds at noon today. if she tolerates the one with the tube, then they will advance her to a bottle feed when we are there today at 4pm. so please continue to pray for our little girl. she has had a huge past 24 hours and we are so proud of her and so thankful to our Almighty God for what He is doing. He is already making her a lesson to me.

4pm-AC is still doing well under the oxyhood at pretty much the same saturation. she took a bottle at 12 pm and gulped it down. we got to HOLD HER and FEED her for the 4pm feeding and she did great! holding her was absolutely the best thing this week. and it was an especially awesome early father's day gift for micah. i fed her and he burped her today and tomorrow we will switch duties. if she does well during the night, they will continue to go down on her oxygen under the hood. the goal is for her not to need any and to stay that way for at least 24 hours. they still have to go down on her IV as she continues to progress with her feeds. so those are the major prayer requests right now. we generally call before going to bed and in the morning. we will see her tomorrow afternoon. hopefully we will get to talk to the doc tomorrow to see how he thinks she is doing.

10:30pm- AC is doing the same. still hanging on at 23% under the hood. took her 8pm feeding like a rock star and burped really well. she had to have her IV replaced, but they only had to stick her once and she didn't even flinch (yay for the nurses and my super strong girl!!) hopefully she will just rest over night and will decide she is ready to be done with oxygen tomorrow. i will have my regular update times at 630ish, 11, 4 & 10. a super happy father's day to micah tomorrow. hopefully i'll get a good pic of him getting to hold his little lady and feeding her.

She's Here!!

I'm sorry I haven't had the moment to let everyone know what is going on. Tuesday we went to the hospital and had our little girl, Ally Claire. She is 8lbs 4 oz and 20 inches. She was born with wet lungs, so she went to the NICU (which by the way, Huntsville hosp. has the best NICU. I hope none of you ever need it!) Anyway, because she had so much fluid in her lungs, she used up all of her surfactant. (that is basically like detergent in your lungs that keeps your air sacs from sticking together and keeping your lungs from collapsing.) She went under the oxygen hood for a little bit and then they ended up needing to put her on the ventilator for a few days and giving her a synthetic form or surfactant. her worst day was thursday. friday, she looked really good and they were able to start weaning her off of the ventilator. the doctors allowed her to "self extubate" (which she quickly did b/c she is a big girl) and this morning at 1230 or so they put her under the oxygen hood. she is at 31% oxygen (room air is 21%) and doing good. she is taking her paci really well. the other goals we need to meet are for her to be without oxygen, be without her IV, be in an open bed and take her feedings. as of now, she is doing really well. we will go back to see her this afternoon. we haven't gotten to hold her yet, but i'm hoping we will get to tomorrow. if you would keep ally claire in your prayers, we would be forever greatful!!

"...little ones to Him belong...they are weak but HE is STRONG!"

the last one

this is my last post for a bit. micah may brave it and guest post tomorrow or wednesday. we will have to see. i was hoping to take today kind of easy, but there are a few last minute things to do and i apparently am NOT a fan of sitting still. but both sets of my parents are on the way, so things are looking up. i can see the light at the end of the tunnel. i have done my motherly duty of taking the kiddos out for a bit this morning, even though my ankles no longer exist and my right arm/hand hurt so bad from carple tunnel/swelling last night i seriously thought about just gnawing the thing off. i have been working on getting the boys a bag packed off and on and hope to finish that up when they go down for nap. all that should be left after that is getting the last minute stuff together.

finally...she will be here in 20 hours. i will be loopy, but will have already held my last baby. it's bitter sweet to know that i will never again feel little kicks and hiccups from the inside. but i'm glad i was able to do it at all. three times even!! God blessed me with easy pregnancies and i am super thankful for that. i pray that any of my friends trying (whether i know they are or not) are blessed in the same way.

so for now...mama is signing out. hopefully we won't make you wait for pictures. (micah, even though he is a computer man by occupation, hasn't done any of this blogging stuff, so forgive me it it takes longer than i am originally planning.)

suz--send yo digits.

2 days 20 hours

but who's counting??

this morning i got up early and braved walmart. between what we already had on hand and what i bought, i am hoping we are good through the end of the month (with the exception of milk which i am starting to think we should just buy a cow cuz milk surely ain't free.) thank goodness for sam's, though where you can still get it for 2.79. we go through more than 2 gallons a week. when sister starts in a year...oh my goodness. i got a few new freezer casserole dishes to put a few things in the deep freeze and got my hospital magazines, so i'm good to go. today micah is cutting the grass and we are gonna go swim this afternoon. tomorrow is church, micah bathing the pups and we are doing some general cleaning. monday i need to get the car washed and the boys bag packed and i will be all set. all my peeps should start arriving mid afternoon and the chaos will ensue! i look forward to getting some away from home time (a LITTLE quiet) and i really especially look forward to those couple of nights when i'm there b/c those are some super sweet night time feedings. that is some serious bonding with me, micah and the babe. it's quiet and no one is around but us. you never have those times again in quite the same way.

pop and mimi don't read this, but i'm super thankful that they will be parked right outside and that i can wake them up to come inside with the boys at 4 a.m. on tuesday. that's love.

To Do List

there are lots of things we need to do, here at the last minute. all of this doesn't have to be done today, but by monday night. and my list keeps getting longer. and unfortunately some of it will have to be done twice since little people find a way to undo things after i get them done!!

General Declutter
clean bathrooms
Put up all clean clothes
wash any dirty clothes
vacuum/swiffer/mop
grocery shop
bathe pups
get boys bag/clothes ready
buy BBQ for tuesday supper
take boys swimming
fill up gas tank
have bloodwork done
micah shoe shop
sweep front porch
test outlets for "pop's bus"
load car

i'm gonna have to stop b/c now i feel behind and overwhelmed. OCD coming...

oh yeah...and take care of the kiddos that are already here. do NOT call DHR about the fact that my kids are gonna probably get some quality TV time today and monday. i don't want to hear it. (if it makes you feel better, i have to check on them every 5 minutes to break up a fight.)

get a kleenex

it's time i posted this. i love this song. i have always applied it to my boys, but now, it has even more of a special meaning.

In my daughter's eyes I am a hero
I am strong and wise and I know no fear
But the truth is plain to see
She was sent to rescue me
I see who I wanna be
In my daughter's eyes

In my daughter's eyes everyone is equal
Darkness turns to light and the world is at peace
This miracle God gave to me gives me strength when I am weak
I find reason to believe
In my daughter's eyes

And when she wraps her hand around my finger
Oh it puts a smile in my heart
Everything becomes a little clearer
I realize what life is all about
It's hangin' on when your heart has had enough
It's giving more when you feel like giving up
I've seen the light
It's in my daughter's eyes

In my daughter's eyes
I can see the future
A reflection of who I am and what will be
Though she'll grow and someday leave
Maybe raise a family
When I'm gone I hope you see how happy she made me
For I'll be there
In my daughter's eyes

thankful thursday

the main reasons i'm thankful that it's thursday...

that means only 3 more days of doing this alone until i get my "vacation"

that means only 2 days until we go swimming in a big pool (note to self...look in drawer for maternity bathing suit.)

that about does it for today. sad but true. however, there is a post from last night below.

the last visit

This is the last little picture of my tinkerbell. not that you can tell much, but it's just her profile and her hands up by her face. they estimate her to weigh 7 lbs and 8 oz. which might actually be pretty close. they were waaaaay off with luke and i never got a weight measurement with seth. but i have been thinking the whole time she'd be a little smaller and be around 7 1/2 lbs. so come tuesday we will see. i have to go monday morning and get some blood work done and he wants me there around.....4 honkin' thirty on tuesday. i believe i have already addressed the fact that i don't own a clock that has any hours before 6 a.m. on it, but i guess you gotta do what you gotta do for the ones you love. i did ask when i would be able to get out of bed and especially get my catheter out since this one would be earlier in the morning. i was thinking it would be that evening before bed or something. oh no. he said it would be the next morning. so i need serious prayers that i remember my Christianity and don't say anything profane to anyone about the catheter. i hate them with a passion and as soon as i get the feeling back, i know i'm gonna be begging someone to please relieve me from the beast. (yall know nurses are NOT good patients.)

we are otherwise doing well and right on track. i have a major grocery shopping trip for early saturday morning, hopefully followed by some swimming in my BILs pool. did i mention it was hot? how have any of you ladies that may read this that have summer babies made it?

less than a week

ya know what i hate about summer time? i hate bugs. seriously. we are putting a hurting on OFF skintastics and cortisone cream. this afternoon i spent 2 hours outside with the kiddos. we played in the back yard, then went in the pool and then back out back. from all the afternoons i have been spending in the swing, i am starting to sport a major flip flop tan.

tomorrow is my last OB appointment and after that i am going to the Macaroni Grill with my main squeeze as part 2 of our last date for a while. nice. then i am going to dinner with a friend. my feet will be huge tomorrow night from all the sodium, but i'll survive.

ADDENDUM: was inside for about 20 minutes and then went back outside for another hour with my neighbors. i love day light savings time. plus...that will make my kids even easier to go to bed. i'm thinking little ones will be passed out no later than 8 tonight. SWEET!!

i had a point to this post over an hour ago when i started it, but now i'm not sure what it was. so i'm off to make biscuits and scrambled eggs for supper and the best part is my sweet neighbor brought me some awesome nanner puddin to wash it down with. probably not a good idea before the last weigh in, but i'll deal!! trust me when i say it's worth it!! maybe i'll have a new/last pic to post tomorrrow. so until our next nail biting post (lol)...

T minus 8...

a week from tomorrow, my little girl will finally be here. i am certain this will be a loooooong week as i really have nothing to do. my plan is to just kick back and try to savor the last remaining days as a mom of just 2. not that these 2 are easy. 2 boys equals 4 girls anyday in my opinion. but that remains to be proven from this gene pool. i have a doctor's appointment (my last OB appointment ever) on wednesday for an ultrasound. saturday i have a major grocery shopping trip to make as i will need to cover 2 weeks worth of stuff. fortunately i get my last pay check this week so that should be quickly burned through!! my family will come to town next monday. i need to be deciding what my "last meal" will be. it will probably be wednesday morning before i will want anything or can hold anything down, so i feel the need to make the most of it. our plan for now is for my dad and step mom to stay here with the boys at nights. i have no idea what the boys will want to do during the daytime, so we will play that by ear. micah will come home at supper time with them and help them get baths and ready for bed and will then come back to be with me, even though we DO live about 35-40 minutes from the hospital. but that really will make things easier. they are specific in what they do at night and how they are put to bed and things will already be so crazy, a little normal might go a long way. however, our plan is for them to just stay here thursday morning until i come home (which i expect i'll be coming home around lunch on thursday). 2 less people to wrestle in and out of things is always good, especially when you are already one down.

so barring anything exciting like going into labor or my water breaking, this is all there is left to do. my goal this week is to have all my laundry caught up (which for a brief shining moment it is) and to mop my floors. otherwise, i'll just get on with the thumb twiddling and refereeing. i knew this would happen in all of my OCDness. i don't even have thank you notes that need writing. so everyone update your blogs daily so i have something, anything, to do!!