Nesting dilemma

I am a huge "nester" when it comes to pregnancy.  I think the normal nesting instinct combined with my extreme need/desire to plan ahead (like waaaay ahead) pushes me to nest like a crazy woman while I'm pregnant.  A big part of my nesting is doing the nursery and getting clothes etc ready.  I've done a different nursery for each of my babies - some people probably think that is silly and unnecessary, especially since I have all girls, but it was important to me.  It's my way to make sure that each of them is seen as special.  It's also a bonding experience and a way for me to mentally prepare for their arrival.  I love the whole process of planning the room, sewing, monogramming things, all the little touches!

My dilemma this time is that there is no "nursery" to do since we'll be a family of 6 in a 3 bedroom house=) and with 3 big sisters she really won't need any clothes.  My whole routine is thrown off.  I don't know what to do to mentally prepare for this sweet girl.   She'll be living in our bedroom/den in the bassinet and then possibly sharing a room with Selma Grace until we move next summer when she's 8 months old.  We might put another crib in the room with SG, but I hate to commit to that if they don't sleep well together.  The baby clothes never got put away, so they're out and clean.  There's not much I need to buy, although I do want to get a few things - baby gear has come a LONG way since I had Sophie!  I might smock something for her and if we ever pick out a name I'll get her some bloomers monogrammed, but other than that I'm at a loss.  Let me know if you have any ideas...

As far as things I want to get before she arrives
1. double stroller  - we got the city select, i just have to get the second seat kit
2. aden and anais bamboo blanket - i have the regular ones, but the bamboo ones are soooooo soft!
3. ergo baby carrier - love a sling for newborns and comfort of the moby but i want the convenience of buckle straps this time
4.  possibly a snapngo stroller for times (if there are any) when i'm running errands with just her, i'm not sure if i'll ever have just her with me, hehe

 1 girl

2 girls

3 girls

4 girls!

A Birthday, A New Baby and Big News

It's been over a year since I've posted on this site, but a LOT has happened and I had a free moment, so I thought I'd share!

My Sweet Selma Grace turned ONE which totally blows me away.

  The last post I did was of newborn pictures.  

Hard to believe in just a few short months we'll be holding another sweet baby!

Here she is enjoying her day - crown, balloons, cheetos, and a hotdog.  Loved it all!

We sang happy birthday and she looks excited to get her hands on that cupcake!

Once she tasted it though, she wasn't so excited.   

She wasn't quite sure about all that sugar...

In fact, she was sure she didn't like it and promptly spit it out.

Gagged a little...

 More protesting...

 Pretty much a total rejection of her Dreamcakes cupcake.

 Onto presents 

a sweet card from Selah

Sophie and Selah helping open the presents. 

a surprise... 

 "watch me"

Everyone watching as they realize they're not only at a birthday party but a "gender reveal" party too!

We made them watch the dvd and it told them there was one more present.

Our girls didn't know about the surprise either, so Sophie was super excited to find out.

It's another sweet girl!  

Would never have guessed we'd be blessed with 4 beautiful girls=)

***a HUGE thanks to Lindsay for taking the great pics!!

Here's the video we made of the whole thing!  It was so fun! 

Cravings

I have been so tired and worthless lately, the first trimester blahs I guess.  Not much has been going on with us and I just got my camera back from getting fixed so I don't have many pics to post either.  The one thing on my mind the most is food!
I have been having major cravings with this pregnancy.  It started out salty but we've already moved to sweet. Here's my craving list so far.  It changes daily, but once I want something, I feel like I HAVE TO HAVE IT!  And not only that, but almost nothing else sounds appealing to me except that one thing.
1. Jalapeno cream sauce from Chuy's. (highly recommend it)
2.  Strawberry and Banana smoothies.
3.  Red meat. (flank steak especially!)
4.  Hot dogs.
5.  Caesar salad with chicken. (early on, not anymore, ew yuck!)
6.  Apples.
7.  Gatorade.

I love pregnancy cravings though because when you do eat what you're craving it tastes sooooo good.
On the flip side, I have aversions too.  Coffee for instance.  I am normally a daily coffee drinker but I haven't touched the stuff in a few weeks now.  
I absolutely love being pregnant though and am so thankful for such a precious gift!  We got to see our little peanut yesterday on ultrasound and it just always blows me away what a miracle it is to have a life inside you.  God is so amazing!!!  He is so creative and wonderful!

Destination...

Yep!  We are expecting Warren Baby #3 on June 1, 2011.  (It was pretty fun to shop for maternity wear in NYC)  We are so excited and overwhelmed with God's blessings in our lives.  I will be delivering at UAB this time, so if anybody has any advice or good experiences from UAB, let me know!

Selah Rose Warren - One year old!

One year ago today our lives were changed forever by the birth of our sweet little Selah Rose. She is a sweet and spirited little girl and possibly may be my "strong willed child." But, I love her so dearly and I know God will mold and mature me as a mother through learning to parent this precious little girl. Selah, I thank God every day for what a blessing you are to our family and I pray that He will use you for His glory all the days of your life.
My view of birth in general was also changed by the amazing experience of Selah's birth. I am slowly but surely learning more and more about the benefits of natural birth and hopefully the next one will be totally natural without any medical intervention. I have come a long way since then but I still have a long way to go!

Stay tuned for birthday pictures!

Baby Fever!!!

My head (and my husband) tell me no but my heart is telling me something else! I feel so surrounded by pregnant people right now, not just at work either. So many of my good friends are pregnant. I feel like everybody is pregnant but me! I saw a picture of me pregnant today and almost started crying. Am I crazy? I must be hormonal! (Hmmm... what day is it?)
We cannot be ready for another baby. We are busting at the seams in our house as it is. Selah is a red hot mess right now and I know I have a lot ahead of me this year with both girls. Plus Trey is gone most of the time and when he is home he is exhausted. But I have to say that if I did happen to get pregnant now unexpectedly, I would feel nothing but JOY!
I will admit that about a week ago when I was having a bad day with Selah, I went on and on about how I WAS NOT ready for another baby, but other than a few days like that one, I am mostly really wanting another little one ( and deep down I really don't think it'll be the last one either).
Does anyone have a remedy for this illness BABY FEVER!

Slideshow of Selah's birth!

Ok, haven't actually written the birth story yet, but here is the slideshow of pictures that were taken. I cry every time I watch it and remember the details. Having a baby is such a spiritual experience and I hope I can remember her birth forever. Hope you all enjoy!
A couple things....
1. You'll want to turn down the music from my blog before you play the slideshow. Just scroll down to the bottom of my page and you can pause it or turn the volume down.
2. If you are thinking about natural childbirth, note that I really don't look like I am in that much pain in most of the pictures, because I wasn't. It was not that bad. If I can do it, anybody can do it!
3. The song I have playing with it was my inspiration/theme song for this experience. I love Rita Springer and the words to the song are amazing.

Let me know what you think!
Abby

Coming soon...

Baby pics and birth story of Selah Rose Warren. I can't wait to write the birth story just because it was so amazing. I know a lot of people won't care, but if any of you are interested in natural childbirth, you might like it. I had an amazing experience and plan on definitely doing it again. I can honestly say that it was one of the most amazing things i have ever done and totally gave me a sense of empowerment/accomplishment. Not that giving birth in general doesn't do that for women, but it was just a goal I had and actually being able to achieve it was great. I've also got to write it all down soon or I know i'll forget a lot of the details! Hopefully i can get it up this week sometime.

To induce or not to induce...

That is the question. Should I even be thinking about this now? Well, probably not, but when you work in labor and delivery and watch everyone get induced at 39 weeks, it's bound to be at the back of your mind. I also feel like my body is blissfully unaware that I am due in 11 days and is not doing anything to gear up for labor. My patient last week went into labor on her own and she was due after me! I was thinking "Hey, no fair! I am more pregnant than you are, and here you having your baby today."
I will be 38 weeks and 4 days tomorrow, which is when I was induced with Sophie. I had a lovely labor and delivery, so why wouldn't I just want to do that again? I can't really give you a black and white answer other than that I just want to experience going into labor on my own. Throughout this pregnancy I have had a desire to experience the whole process of laboring and delivering naturally. I can't tell you exactly why, but I really feel that God put that desire in my heart. Why did I not desire it last time? I have no idea, but I was definitely begging for that induction and would've been appalled to be still pregnant at 40 weeks.
I will say one thing though, it is much easier to say that you don't want to be induced earlier in your pregnancy as opposed to 39 weeks. I think our culture revolves around planning for the future so much that it is hard to not want to "plan" your birth. You start thinking about things like, when is my doctor on call, when can my husband be off work, will my family be in town, who will take my other child.... No wonder induction is so desirable to so many people.
Right now, I am praying for faith, patience and believing that I will go into labor on my own!

Isaiah 26:3 "You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in YOU. Trust in the Lord forever."

Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart."

John 14:27 "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."

38 weeks and no baby...

Not that I am surprised. I never expected the baby to come on his/her own this early. I really feel like this little one is gonna ride out the whole 40 weeks and come the week of my dute date. It's funny, people keep saying, "Oh, I think the baby will come this week." I however, have no such feeling. I think that this baby is perfectly content to stay right where he/she is. The good thing is that I am feeling very patient and not anxious at all right now, but I think patience will take on a totally new meaning the day after my due date. I have seen too many 41 week c/sections to feel great about waiting that long. One thing helping with my patience is that the baby was only estimated to weigh 6 lbs 9 oz last week on an ultrasound. I had one because I am measuring small, imagine that, me with the 9 lb first baby. Who would've thought. Needless to say, it's comforting to know that this baby is probably not going to be bigger than sophie.

I am staying busy though and I actually have 4 more days to work, the last of which I will be 39 weeks and 2 days. After that I am throwing in the towel on work and focusing on Sophie's birthday. I really hope that these two will have their own birthday, but if not, then I guess a baby would be a pretty good birthday present for a three year old little girl who is obsessed with dolls and babies!

I'll keep you posted on any news. Feel free to leave me encouraging thoughts, especially if you are one of those who had to ride it out until her due date and beyond. I am excited to see what plans God has for this delivery!
Love you all,
Abby

Baby Countdown!

I am in total countdown mode with this pregnancy now. I am 34 weeks and 1 day! Yippee! We are getting so excited to meet our new little bundle. And no, we still don't know what the sex of the baby is. I think it is funny the looks you get when you tell people you don't know if you are having a boy or girl. Most people give you this crazy look and say something like, " What, can you not find out yet?" With a quick glance down to my ever growing belly, I laugh and say, "Oh, we just decided to let it be a surprise." I do have to say that lately, I have been getting more positive reactions from older women who never knew what they were having. It's nice to hear a few people tell you how much fun it will be in that moment of surprise and joy. I can't say that I haven't had my moments of weakness. I definitely begged trey around 30 weeks to come with me to an ultrasound so we could find out. Of course he said, "No way, we've waited this long, we are not finding out now." I am so glad he didn't let me do it. I will say, they only negative thing has been not being able to do the nursery ahead of time. I am such a planner and love decorating anyway. I also didn't want to do a totally gender neutral nursery, so that has been frustrating at times, but I still think it'll be worth it.
It's wierd, this pregnancy has been similar to my pregnancy with Sophie, yet so different. Because of my job, I have a totally different mindset about childbirth, a different doctor, a different hospital, and it's a surprise. With Sophie, I was pretty much planning my induction at the moment of conception. I ended up being induced at 38.5 weeks and had all internal monitoring, epidural, episiotomy. . . and I still felt like it was a great delivery. For some reason I have had a huge desire to have an unmedicated delivery this time. I also don't want to be induced, but that is easy to say at 34 weeks. We'll see how I feel at 39 weeks when that induction is sounding so good! After having such a big baby the first time (9 lbs) I have no desire to find out just how big of a baby I can deliver if you know what I mean. Especially since I want to try to do it without drugs! (BTW, I am totally not knocking all the medical interventions we have available. So it you are pregnant and going to have an induction etc... I say go for it. You should do what you feel led to do with your baby and your body.) I really hope that this delivery goes how I want it to, but ultimately I have really had to let go and realize that no matter what, I am not in control and God is!
I am sure I'll be blogging about the delivery afterwards, so stay tuned. I have been addicted to reading people's birth stores lately, so it'll be fun to write my own.

Can I just enjoy getting fat for 9 months without being weighed all the time?!?

When you are pregnant and seeing your OB at very frequent intervals, as a form of torture, they like to make you stand on a scale in an office full of people and weigh you in all your clothing every single time you come for a visit. Then, your dr comes into the room and the first thing they look at is how much weight you've gained. My feedback this week was, "Well, we've had a little weight jump this month, but that's ok, because you didn't gain as much last month." Next thing you know, they'll be measuring your hips and thighs every week!
Because it seems that I am gaining weight exponentially at this point in my pregnancy I have come up with many ways of justifying my weight gain to make myself feel better....
-My favorite one is remembering that I had a 9 pound baby at 38 weeks, so when they tell you "your baby weighs 2 pounds this week" I am like, "Whatever! My baby probably weighs 3 or 3 1/2 pounds!"
- "Oh, well this appointment was in the afternoon, and I just ate lunch."
- "I think I am just well hydrated today."
-"I have heavier clothes on this time than I did last time, that's at least 5 lbs right?"
Anyway, to add to my distress I have two weddings that I am in within the first 3 months of giving birth! I am also about to go to the beach for the week with my precious (and skinny) sister in law, and my little sister Elaine (also precious and skinny) is 17 weeks pregnant with her totally flat stomach and I am sure she hasn't gained a pound!
So, if you too have had the weight gain woes with your pregnancy, never fear, I am right there with ya! Just trying to get through the last few months without weighing more than my husband.=)

***disclaimor***This is just a vent and I promise I will continue to eat a healthy diet and I know it'll all be worth it in the end. I am just hoping we don't approach 10 pounds with this baby!