Adjusting

Austin is getting used to the idea of his baby sister! When we first brought her home from the hospital on Tuesday he would not even acknowledge her. In fact he was not paying attention to Mommy or Daddy either. He has finally come around to the fact that she is going to stay and is doing a wonderful job at being a big brother. He finally got up the nerve to hold her yesterday and he can't quite get enough of her now. He is continuously asking to hold her, and keeps planting kisses on her. He's doing a wonderful job at getting things ready when she needs her diaper changed and tells her that everything is ok when she's crying. "It's ok Abigail" he says!

He is also getting spoiled by Grandma Grape! They made heart shaped sugar cookies today. He had so much fun with the cookie cutter and even more fun eating the end result!

More pictures

I'm Daddy's Michigan Girl

I'm ready to go home

I'm home

Aren't I cute!

How my Big Brother greeted me

Me & my Big Brother

Meet Abigail Hope

We welcomed our daughter into this world this morning. Here are her “stats” and of course pictures!

Born 2/12/07 at 7:45 a.m.
Weighing in at 7 lbs. 2.9 oz.
19 ¼ inches long.

I knew she wasn’t going to be as big as Austin but I didn’t think she would be this little either! We’re all doing great, even the Big Brother. He keeps telling us that her name is not Abigail, it’s “Baby Sister” and we can take her home with us. He wants Mommy and Abigail to come home today, but we reassured him that we would be home tomorrow (hopefully). Look for more updates after we get home!

I'm ready...

I've discovered that the link to the online nursery does not work! When the baby finally decides to come we'll post pictures here.

We brought the swing and bouncy seat out to the living room so we could set up the air mattress for Grandma Great yesterday. Austin kept turning the bouncy seat on to make sure it would still vibrate. When asked who it was for he proudly responded with "Our Baby Sister!" He's getting just as excited as Mommy is! Oh, remember how I said I hope he doesn't think his Baby Sister is going to get off the airplane with Grandma Great? Yesterday after picking her up at the airport, we got in the car and out of nowhere Austin says from the backseat, "Now our Baby Sister can come!" How smart is he? (Sometimes too smart for his own good!)

We're off to the grocery store this morning. Hopefully some walking will help move things along! She's not listening to me when I tell her to get out! We'll keep you updated!

It's almost time

I had my weekly doctor's appointment with Dr. L this afternoon. I have dilated another centimeter putting me at 3 cm dilated! Dr. L said that once I hit 4 cm things should really get going! My Dad is still sticking to his prediction of the 11th in the wee hours of the morning. At this rate he might be right on target! We'll just have to wait and see what happens. I'm loving all of the comments, keep them coming! Oh, I forgot to mention that I lost a pound! No weight gain this week!

For those who might be interested in seeing the baby when she's born, the hospital where I'll be delivering at has a website you can visit to see the babies after they are born. They seem to keep up with it on a daily basis but it might take a couple days if she arrives on a weekend. I'm also hoping to post some pictures on our website while we're still in the hospital via Michael's laptop. The hospital offers wireless Internet for their patients. We have the ability to take the memory card from our camera and put it in the laptop to retrieve the pictures. Of course it's a nice thought at this point. Who knows how it will all play out when everything actually happens! Where would we be without wireless Internet?

We'll keep everyone updated as the time gets closer!

The "Dunlap"

My husband has informed me that I have developed the "Dunlap" syndrome. My belly has "done lapped" over my pants! Ha, funny I know. I told him I can't help it and it will all be worth it in the end!



38 weeks! Yippee! Two or less weeks to go! At this point I'm ready to not be pregnant anymore and can't wait to meet my daughter. I have decided that Friday will be my last day at work. It's becoming way too exhausting to work everyday. I still have a few things I'd like to do around the house before going into labor and find myself too exhausted when I get home from work to do anything. My Grandma (or Grandma Grape as Austin calls her) will be here on Saturday to stay for three weeks. It will be nice to spend some time with her before all the chaos begins. She is going to stay with Austin when the baby finally decides she would like to join us. Austin also knows that when Grandma Great comes his baby sister is going to join us too. I just hope he doesn't expect her to get off the plane with Grandma Great!

This was the closest we could get of Austin kissing his baby sister. Daddy couldn't get the camera snapped fast enough! Also, if it seems as if I'm larger than life it's because Daddy was laying on the couch while taking the pictures.

Name Game

Ok, it's time for a little fun! We're curious to see what everyone thinks we should name the baby. We are not going to name the baby based on the poll results, we'd just like to see what everyone likes. We've agreed on the middle name of Elizabeth but can't decide on a first name. Place your vote before she makes her arrival!

What name do you like?

Abigail
Faith
Hope
Kaitlyn

View Results

What do you think?

What do you think of the new look of the website? I've been trying to think of a way to incorporate other colors besides blue as Austin will not be the only one featured on here soon.

I don't think everyone saw that predictions are being taken for the date and stats on the little girl in my belly. I've only gotten two predictions so far! Don't be shy, let’s have a little fun! Leave a comment to let us know what you think, I'm curious to see who is going to guess the closest!

Here are the two predictions we have so far:

Grandma Richards:
February 14th, 4:20pm 7lbs. 11 3/4lbs. 20 1/2 in and have lots of hair.

Grandpa Richards:
I say Sunday, 2/11/07 in the wee hours of the morning. Say around 3:00 or 4:00 A.M. I'll say 7 lbs. 11 oz. and 19.5" long. Just a Dad's intuition.

For my sister?

We received a package from my Grandma yesterday with some things she made for the baby. In the package she sent some beautiful quilts, blankets, burp clothes and an absolutely gorgeous sweater with matching booties and hat. She also sent a couple of knitted hats for Austin. Needless to say...Austin took it upon himself to try the hats on. And when I say hats, he tried ALL the hats on. I turned around, saw him wearing his sisters hat and couldn't stop laughing! Of course he thought it was really funny after that so I grabbed the camera and took his picture! If it wasn't going to fit her head before it's going to fit now, Austin stretched it out with his big noggin for her!

Oh baby

So my doctor's appointment with Dr. L was actually exciting today! When he checked for dilation he informed me that I was 2 cm dilated! I'm only dilated and not effaced so he doesn't think that I'll go into labor in the next week but it could be soon. While he was listening to the baby's heartbeat he also informed me that I was having a small contraction. I couldn't feel it but it's nice to know that things are happening and it might not be much longer before this little girl makes her arrival. Dr. L still discussed the idea of inducing at 39 weeks if something hasn't happened as I delivered "a big one" (yes he really said that) with my first pregnancy. I'm starting to think that she is not going to be as big as Austin was as I'm about 15 lbs lighter than when I delivered him. We'll just have to wait and see. I gained 3 lbs in the last week so by the time she does decide to come I could only be about 10 lbs lighter then when I delivered Austin. I guess that means I better get some last minute things around in the next week as I may not have much more time to get things situated. I think it's finally time to get some diapers and get my bag packed for the hospital. I go back to see Dr. L next Thursday. Maybe it will be my last appointment before I see him in the delivery room...

The turtle

Here are some fun pictures of Austin playing in his new sandbox. He had so much fun playing on his birthday he didn't want to come inside. It finally got too dark to see what he was doing! I think he will really have fun when it starts to warm up outside.

Of course I couldn't decide on what pictures to post so I posted them all! Isn't he the cutest! He always sticks his tongue out when he's concentrating on something!

37 Weeks

37 weeks down, 3 to go! I can't believe my due date is just around the corner. I go for my weekly check up with Dr. L tomorrow morning. He will be checking for dilation so we'll see if anything is going to happen any time soon! I'm a little curious as to when she's going to make her arrival. Is she going to be early like Austin? Is she going to be late because she's stubborn and wants to keep us all in suspense? I guess we'll have to wait and see! If you would like to make a prediction, this should be the post to do so. Leave a comment with the date you think she'll make her arrival. If you really want to get creative, you can leave weight and length stats too. Here is some information about what's going on with the baby and a scary picture of my belly! Not the best picture, but Austin and I were laid back relaxing!

Congratulations! Your pregnancy is now considered full term -- meaning your baby is developmentally ready to handle life outside the womb. (Babies born before 37 weeks are pre-term and those born after 42 weeks are post-term.) Your baby probably weighs a little over 6 pounds at this point and measures between 19 and 20 inches, head to heel. Many babies have a full head of hair at birth, with locks from 1/2 inch to 1 1/2 inches long. But don't be surprised if your baby's hair isn't the same color as yours. Dark-haired couples are sometimes thrown for a loop when their children are born blonds or redheads, and fair-haired couples have been surprised by Elvis look-alikes. And then, of course, some babies sport only peach fuzz.

Scary isn't it!

Finally, pictures of our house!

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Appointments

Austin was supposed to have his three year check-up yesterday but when we got to the doctor's office it was discovered that he had a "physical" on February 21st of last year. Since our insurance will not pay for another "physical" if they are less than a year apart, we did not see the doctor as planned. I thought it would have been nice if they would have looked at his chart and mentioned this when we were there a month ago and I scheduled the appointment! The receptionist asked me if I wanted to schedule his appointment and I had to kindly tell her that my due date was February 20th so no, I don't think so! Who knows what will be going on around that time! Hopefully we'll have a baby by then but you never know! She has proven to be a little stubborn already!

After Austin's appointment we headed about two buildings over for my weekly appointment with Dr. L. I am proud to announce that I did not gain any weight in the last week! Maybe I'll get lucky and this girl won't be as big as Austin was! Austin was really fascinated when Dr. L raised the table and listened to the baby's heart beat. Dr L. did not check for dilation this week but stated that he would next Thursday. Hopefully I'll have some more exciting news to share after my next appointment as the pressure seems to be increasing each day! I now feel like I have the pregnancy waddle down to a perfection! Not to mention having to pee every hour on the hour and getting heartburn after drinking water! I'll be very surprised if she comes out without any hair!

Austin has been talking about his baby sister a lot lately so I think he's starting to feel my anxiousness! Tonight he gave his baby some milk and we changed his clothes three times! His baby sister now has clean clothes to wear and her diaper bag is packed with an outfit to come home in! Now we'll just have to wait for her to decide when she wants to come. The next couple of weeks should prove to be exciting for us all! Here's a picture of her laundry before Austin and I removed all the tags to stick them in the washer! So much for my nightmare of her being born and not having any clothes to wear...

Happy Birthday Austin

I can't believe he's three today! Time flies when you're having fun! Because Daddy has to work tonight, we celebrated Austin's birthday last night! He got his presents from Mommy & Daddy and got to blow out the candles on his birthday cake! We ended up getting him a sandbox and toys for his birthday. He has a sandbox in Michigan but we forgot to pack it when the time came. He really likes playing in the dirt with his tractors so we thought the sandbox would be a great gift! Besides, what do you get a kid who has everything and doesn't really need anything!

Fresh air & backyard friends

The weather was so nice today that Austin and I got outside to get some fresh air. Austin played with his tractor while I cleaned out my car and went through some of his baby things. We went this morning and got a mattress for the crib so I was trying to find the crib sheets so that I can put one on the bed until the baby's bedding arrives in the mail. I also got the pack and play set up in our bedroom so that she will have something to sleep in when she gets here. With all the company we're going to have she'll be sleeping in our room the first few weeks. After that she's in her own bed! I'm hoping that less noise means longer spans between feedings at night!

I thought everyone might be interested to see what our new backyard animals are! When we lived down here before it was cows, now it's deer! Austin and I walked out back several times to try and get some good pictures of them and they didn't seemed phased that we were there. Or that the neighbors dogs were barking at as. They are usually out back in the mornings and between 5 and 6 in the evenings. They were out there for a long time this afternoon. It's been rumored that people feed them apples. I've been meaning to get some but I seem to forget each time we go to the grocery store! The bottom picture has five of them in it, but there have got to be at least a dozen out there.

A day late

Well my doctor’s appointment update is a day late and once again I don’t have much to information to share. I did find one thing exciting this week; I’ve only gained a pound in the last week! I have been gaining a lot more than that every two weeks so it was pretty exciting when I found out I’d only gained a pound. Of course my appointment was first thing in the morning (and I hadn’t had breakfast yet) instead of in the afternoon, but that shouldn’t matter right? The baby’s heart beat sounded great. She even decided to settle down a little so Dr. L could listen to her heart beat! She was bouncing off the wall while I was sitting in the waiting area. It’s actually getting quite fun to watch her try to get comfortable in there. She doesn’t have too much room to move around in there anymore so when she really decides that she is uncomfortable my belly really rolls from one side to the other! Dr. L said that she is in a head down position and is on her way down, however she hasn’t descended as far as I thought she had. Of course with as many trips as I’m making to the bathroom lately she’s got to be getting further into position each day! So, I got the “Everything looks good, I’ll see you next week” from Dr. L like I get every time I’ve had an appointment. We’ll see what next week brings!

Speaking of next week…I can’t believe that my baby boy is going to be 3 years old on Thursday. It seems like I was just in the same situation with him, eagerly awaiting his arrival! Of course I was a little heavier and a lot more uncomfortable, but it was all worth it! 3 years old, I still can’t believe it! Has it really been that long? He told me tonight that he is not a baby anymore; he is a “big boy!” So not only do I have a doctor’s appointment on Thursday, but so does Austin. He has to go for his 3 year check up. I think this will be the first “well child” check up that he won’t have to get any vaccinations. He shouldn’t have to get any more until he’s 4! We’ll see if he’s reached the 30 lb milestone! Here’s a cute picture of him doing a breathing treatment! Gotta love the wild hair-do! We finally got it cut last night!

Where are we?

I feel like we're not in Texas anymore! We've been experiencing some winter weather lately and the reaction around us is proving to be absolutely hilarious! I have found that with the threat of snow, everything closes! Yesterday they were sending people home early from work. Of course that was after they threw grape size water softener salt tablets on the walkways to "melt" the ice and prevent anyone from falling. This morning there are a bunch of school closings and delays. I myself included in the delays as I just received a call telling me that I don't have to be to work until 9:00 a.m. this morning. All because there is maybe 1/4 inch of snow accumulation on the roads! Needless to say, they'll be getting the sand out on the roadways this morning! Here is the link to one of our local news station's website. Check it out for a good laugh if you are part of our family from Michigan!

http://www.kwtx.com/

They also have delayed the opening of Fort Hood yesterday and today. Yesterday morning it took me ten minutes to get in the gate on post to take Austin to school, only to find out that they were not accepting children until 9:00 a.m. Oh, I was mad. They are also delayed again this morning, not accepting children until 11:00 a.m. So lucky Austin gets to stay home with Daddy again this morning! They've been spending a lot of quality time together lately!

On another note, yesterday marked the beginning of my 35th week of pregnancy. Only 5 or less weeks to go. I have a feeling that it might be less as it has felt like the baby has dropped over the weekend! Even one of the girls at worked said that it appeared as though I had dropped when I asked her if I looked different! I wanted to make sure it wasn't just me who thought that the baby was lower. Of course with her dropping this means that I've had an increase in aches and pains in my lower belly and my back is bothering me a little more. And no it's not because I'm over doing things, it hurts when I sit at my desk for a long period of time! I go back to see Dr. L tomorrow morning. I'll be surprised if he checks for dilation again, but he might after I mention that if feels as though the baby has dropped. We'll just have to wait and see! Here is some information about what is going on with the baby. I receive a weekly email and I think it's kind of fun to share with everyone!

Your baby doesn't have much room to maneuver now that she's over 18 inches long and weighs over 5 pounds. In fact, most of her development is complete. From here on, she's mostly concentrating on fattening up. You don't have a lot of room to grow either— your uterus is now about 15 times its normal size.

Well, I better get ready for work. I'm going to try and get there before 9 so that I can beat some of the traffic associated with this mess! Not that there are going to be too many people out there. With schools being closed I can't imagine that traffic is going to be really bad. That and people are too afraid to get out and drive! I'm sure it wouldn't bother me as much if people actually knew how to drive in this stuff and didn't act like idiots! Oh well, after all...we do live in Texas!

Getting ready for Baby Sister

I've been starting to feel like we are not ready for this baby to arrive. Michael is calling it the beginning of my "nesting" phase. So with having today off work, I decided to get some things done around here in preparation for the newest addition to our family. We kept almost everything from when Austin was a baby so it has been just a matter of getting things in the house and washed up. We got the crib put together and we're going to be buying a mattress for it within the next couple of days. I got the swing and the bouncy seat wiped down and also got all the fabric covers washed that go on all of them, including the car seat. Austin was a big helper with everything! He decided that his baby and Elmo needed to test everything out.

He was really good about telling me how things needed to be for his baby. He brought his police car in the house to "drive to work," leaving his baby with Mommy. At one point he instructed his baby to "not go potty in his pants" and to stay where he was at because he was going to work! Too funny, I can't wait to see how he reacts when his sister actually gets here! It will be interesting to see if he acts the same caring way with her as he is being with his baby! I'm hoping to video tape their first meeting so that everyone can see it. We'll have to see how hectic things are at that point so I'm not guaranteeing anything! I am also looking for suggestions for something that Austin can either bring home from the hospital when his sister is born and/or a special something from his sister. If you have any ideas, please leave a comment! I haven't quite put my finger on that special something yet!

We still have not decided on a name yet! She might remain nameless until she arrives and we HAVE to give her a name before she can leave the hospital! Michael and I are set on the names we like and can't seem to pick one or the other. Of course, Austin is no help when it comes to picking one either! I'll probably be taking a couple polls in the next few weeks to see who can guess the date of her arrival and how much she's going to weigh! I think it will be interesting to see what everyone thinks! I know there are a couple of people guessing that she'll be a Valentine's Day baby, but only time will tell...

Appointment Update

My appointment was not the most exciting today and unfortunately I don't have much information to share! My appointments are now going to become my weekly routine however I'm hoping to receive more encouraging information each week as my due date quickly approaches. Dr. L did test me for Strep B today and checked for any dilation. His response after checking for dilation was "hardly dilated" at which point I can't say that I was surprised! I didn't expect to be dilated at this point in my pregnancy but I'm hoping that as February 20th approaches that my dilation will increase. At this point our house is not ready for her to arrive but I'm hoping that it will be within the next few weeks. Look for another appointment update next week!

Painting fun

Here are some pictures of Austin painting pictures of Thomas! As you can tell, he used his favorite color the most!









I tried to capture the "I'm concentrating so hard I have to stick my tongue out" look but I could never get the picture snapped before he stuck his tongue back in his mouth!

Austin continues to do well with the potty training. Tonight he actually told me that he wanted to get out of the bath tub because he had to pee. Sure enough, he went when he got out! He had a few wet clothes when I picked him up from school today but I've learned that this potty training thing doesn't happen over night. He's bound to have accidents and I'm sure that he doesn't think about going potty all the time at school because he's so busy all day. We're getting there. I just hope that this all isn't wasted energy and he falls backwards in a couple of months when his sister arrives.

Speaking of his baby sister, no she doesn't have a name yet, Tuesday marks week 34 of my pregnancy! I go for my appointment with Dr. L on Thursday and then again each week until the big delivery day! I'm starting to feel really uncomfortable and simple tasks are beginning to take a lot of energy! I retained a lot of water with Austin at the end of my pregnancy and I feel that it's happening again with this one. I've come to the point where I can not wear any socks or shoes at home because my socks are leaving huge indents in my legs! Sleeping at night is providing to be a difficult task because (a) I can't get comfortable (b) it's hard to roll over to gain a new position in order to get comfortable (c) once I get comfortable she thinks it's time to party or can't get comfortable and (d) my body just aches like crazy. I'm interested to see how far I actually make it before she decides that it's time to enter this world! Hopefully she'll decide to be early like her brother! It feels like she's running out of room in there! She has had the hiccups about three times, has constantly been in motion, and managed to get her little legs under my ribs and give them a good kick about 10 times today!

Here's what's going on with her this week:

Your baby now weighs about 4 3/4 pounds and is probably almost 18 inches long. Her fat layers -- which she'll need to regulate her body temperature once she's born -- are filling her out, making her rounder. Her central nervous system is still maturing and her lungs are well developed by now. If you've been nervous about going into preterm labor, you'll be happy to know that 99 percent of babies this age can survive outside the womb -- and most have no major long-term problems related to prematurity.

Saturday

Austin and I are getting ready to take the Christmas tree and decorations down. I would like to keep it up for a little longer but I feel that it's time to start getting all of the baby things ready to bring in the house. It's so hard to believe that our little girl could be here in less than two months.

I just talked to Michael and he said that they are getting ready for the football game this morning. The game will be on NBC at noon CST. Austin and I are going to watch it to see if we can catch a glimpse of Daddy on TV. He also said that the pregame information can be watched on the internet but it will not be on TV. If anyone is interested in reading his soldier bio, click here. The bios are in alphabetical order so you'll have to scroll pretty far down to read his!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Feeling a little more encouraged

Ok, so yesterday must have just been a day to adjust. With Grandma and Daddy leaving and having to go back to school after about two weeks of staying home, yesterday was bound to be a rough day for Austin. However, when I arrived to pick Austin up at school today he had only 1 bag of wet clothes waiting! Of course he had just had another accident before I got there so we had to change his clothes before we came home. So we only brought home a total of 2 bags of wet clothes today! Yippie! Apparently he stayed dry until around 3 p.m. before he had his first accident! I was also told that the potty targets worked great today. I'm going to have to find some more of those things around here! For those of you who don't know about potty targets, click here. My mom and I happened to find some at Babies R Us when we were there but I don't think I'm going to be driving an hour away every week to get more! So needless to say, I'm not as frustrated today!

I talked to Michael today and he said that he had met some cool people, including Deion Sanders, while he's been in San Antonio the past couple of days. He is in San Antonio for the US Army All American Bowl. One of his friends took a picture of him and Deion Sanders so I'll be sure to post it when he gets back along with some other details of who else he's met. I'm actually kind of jealous because they're shacking him up at the Marriott on the River walk! Of course he said that the River walk has no water in it right now (they drain it once a year or something) and it stinks, but he's got a room at the Marriott all to himself! The game is on Saturday and he will be returning home on Sunday, we can't wait!

Well our dinner is ready! Let's hope that tomorrow is as successful as today was!

Our adventures in potty training

Warning: This post is a release of pent up frustration, read with caution!

Why is potty training so frustrating? I thought we were doing good until Austin went to school today. It seems that he wouldn't pee in the potty all day and was content to just pee in his pants. From what his teacher explained, he started out by peeing in his pants and not wanting to get his clothes changed. Then he changed his mind and every time he peed in his pants he started to take his clothes off to get them changed. Was he peeing in his pants because he was afraid of the potty at school (he was freaked out by the little potty when I dropped him off) or was it because his teachers were not taking him to the potty enough, or even at all? Is it considered babying your child if you take him to the potty every 30 minutes just to try? Or are you supposed to let them go an hour and then pee on themselves? What does that accomplish? How is it that Austin can wear underwear from the time he gets up until the time he goes to bed at home and have only two accidents, but at school he comes home with six bags of wet clothes? And they were wet! Am I overreacting because I think this should be easy? Where's the easy button for potty training?

Did I mention that I didn't even have to do the hard part! Grandma Richards took care of the hard part when she was here and got the whole potty training thing jump started. We all know that I may have been avoiding it...now we know why! I'm getting frustrated with the easy part!

Daddy & Austin

Who would have guessed…my mom went home yesterday, my husband would leave for San Antonio this morning until Sunday and I would have to take Austin to school today so that I could go to work. But...when we arrived this morning school was closed because of President Bush's orders regarding Gerald Ford. So because we've been working on potty training and things are going really good, I decided to stay home with Austin today rather than sticking him back into diapers for the day and having someone watch him! Wouldn't you know that the one day I have to take him to school (because he hasn't gone in about 2 weeks) that they would be closed?

Today marks week 33 of my pregnancy. It’s kind of hard to believe that I only have 7 weeks left, possibly less than that! Only a little over a month and a half to go! Here’s some info about what’s going on with the baby this week:

This week your baby weighs a little over 4 pounds and measures 17.2 inches from the top of her head to her heels. Her skin is becoming less red and wrinkled, and while most of her bones are hardening, her skull is quite pliable and not completely joined. This will help her ease out of your relatively narrow birth canal.

Happy New Year!

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