In Labor...

I'm in labor...FINALLY! It looks like this baby may come today. And if he does, then all our boys will have May birthdays. ---Ok, I'm going to try and find a little comfort while I wait for it to be time to leave for the hospital. The nurse thinks I'll be ready to come in a few hours. ---What's crazy is that I've never been more relieved to be in pain.

...All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go...

Well, no baby news to share really...
...but I have had my bag packed to go to the hospital for over a week now. I'm super anxious for this little baby to get here! Mostly because I am miserable! And also, because Mom is going out of town on the 20th...in just 5 days. And my sister happens to be in town right now too, also leaving the 20th. So, if this baby doesn't come soon, then my babysitting plan for the kids will get a little more complicated. (No offense to plan B, I just like plan A the most.) ---Anyway, there is officially 15 days until my due date, but I'm not sure I can survive that many more days. I'm huge and this baby is only going to keep growing! If I go to term I'm afraid this baby will be 9 pounds. So, please pray that my baby can come soon.
I'll let you all know as soon as baby Paxton has arrived.

Pampers Gifts to Grow

I just wanted to share this cute wooden puzzle that I got from my Pampers Gifts to Grow rewards. I don't know if any of you do this, but if you buy pampers products you should. I have tried other diapers, but my favorite are Pampers and each bag of diapers has a code sticker that can be entered into the Pampers website. They're each worth a certain amount of points and then you can save the points to get free stuff. I finally collected enough points to get something cool and so I got this Melissa & Doug wooden puzzle. I checked on their website and it would have cost $9.99 +shipping, but I got it for free with my pampers gifts to grow. Cool huh? Anyway, if you use Pampers wipes or diapers you should save your points, if not for yourself, for me.

Baby Bump

For those of you who live out-of-town and are dying to know what I look like right now...

...here is the picture you've all been waiting for.

--Sorry to disappoint those of you who want to see my bare belly...that's never going to happen. After my first baby, I don't think anyone will ever see a picture of my unclothed mid-section ever again...even in it's best state. I did take my measurements, bust-waist-hips, but due to the shocking numbers, I will not be posting them here.

Here's the baby update:

I did have another ultrasound this morning, ultrasound number 5. The placenta has officially moved out of the way, so it's safe for me to have the baby any day now. And Paxton is measuring about 6 lbs. 4 oz. -- So I'm really hoping now that this little one can be on his way soon. Besides, I don't think that he's got any more room to grow where he's at. A month ago he was measuring 2 weeks ahead of schedule and now he is measuring one week early...so it looks like his growing has slowed a little. Your guess on when he will officially come into the world, is as good as mine. Josh thinks that maybe he'll come right in between the boys birthdays, which are May 20th and 23rd. May is looking to be a very expensive time of the year for us.

April Update...

Joshua has been busy going to school. He's in his 4th term and it should be ending on June 8th, I believe. He's also been working part-time, on his days off from school, at a CPA firm. And when he's not at school or work, these days he's been busy building a guitar. He's been playing guitar for 15+ years, but this is his first time ever to be making one. He's been learning a lot about guitars that he never knew before. He's been photographing the stages as he works, but didn't really want me to post any pictures until he's completely done. I figure that this picture doesn't really give much away...it still leaves a lot to the imagination.

Kaden is about to turn 6 next month and has almost completed Kindergarten. He's been really enjoying school, thanks in part to his teacher and his friends. And he's reading at or above a 2nd grade level, which is really exciting. It's really hard to get him to tell me anything that he learned, but every once in awhile he will randomly start telling me about something he learned. For instance, he must have really loved learning about simple machines, because one day he was building with his blocks and made a lever, and told me all about it. --For those of you who really know Kaden, he still loves the video games. But he also has a new love for legos. We bought him 2 of those little sets that you can build 3 different things with and he used to follow the directions exactly. But now he is getting really creative. Plus, he just started riding his bike without training wheels and he is really good! ---He's growing up so fast!

Versii will be turning 2 next month and is such a little busy body. He is obsessed with Dora the Explorer and going "bye-bye." He doesn't do it everyday now, but for awhile, every morning when we would be sitting on the couch with his sippy of milk, he would scramble to find the remote, hand it to me and say, "dorda, r u?" It's really cute to see how excited he gets to see Dora and he does the motions and talks with them too. And when anyone is leaving the house, he wants to go with them. --He still doesn't consistantly sleep through the night, but we're working on it. And he really loves his "mamma" and "bappa" (Grandma and Grandpa).

And, as for me, Joy, I am still pregnant. I guess I have 41 days left, until my due date. I'm really hoping that the new little one can arrive early. I know that you're all waiting for a picture of how big I am, and maybe one of these days I get around to it. Let's just say that I am so big, that it's a chore just to get up out of my bed or my chair, let alone lug 25 lb. Versii all over the place. And due to the intense heartburn I get to enjoy, I sleep most of the time sitting up, propped with lots of pillows. ---Besides spending time taking care of the kids, I almost ritually take an afternoon nap when Versii does and I spend a lot of time doing various house work. And sometimes I get to do my blogging and other things that I enjoy. And when that's all done, I'm tired again. ---Plus I can't get enough sugar right now. I love my chocolate! I've got another ultrasound scheduled on April 28th, so we'll see how Paxton is doing then.

Hoppy Easter...Last Week

Above: We took the boys over to the Primary Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday. Versii was a little cranky, at first, but they both edded up having fun. Kaden played the Bunny Hop Game and colored bunny ears...and they both colored on bags to use for the Easter Egg Hunt. Versii really enjoyed coloring his bag, since he had free use of markers. And at the end was the Easter Egg Hunt. Versii was very excited to realise there was candy inside the eggs!

Below: Easter Morning! The boys were excited to see that the Easter Bunny came and brought them fun things. Kaden got a new lego set and Versii got some sunglasses...and of course, they got candy! Yum, yum, yum! Kaden learned about why we celebrate Easter, but to Versii, this was all about candy inside plastic eggs.

(For some reason the slide shows aren't working right, even though I recopied the codes twice, but if you click on view all images you can see the pictures on the site.--Sorry.)

Another look at Paxton

Well today, I had my 4th ultrasound. I only had one ultrasound with Versii, so this is very different. Out of the 5 ultrasounds I've ever had, today was the first time they asked me if I wanted a disk with pictures, instead of a print out. Sure! For those of you who didn't know, we're planning to name this new little boy, Paxton Henri. And they say that he's currently measuring at about 4 lbs, 6 oz. ---Which is ahead of schedule. He's supposed to be 31 weeks along, but is measuring at 33 weeks. So, based on this information, the estimated due date would be May 19th. (But they say that they don't change due date just based on measurements.) ---The reason for this ultrasound was because I have placenta previa, and it's only moved 2.8 cm, but they want it to be 3 cm from the cervix. So they want to check again in another month. That means ultrasound no. 5. She said the placenta only has to move .2 cm, before they will officially ok no C-section...so we will see.

Here's Paxton with his mouth open...in the classic ultrasound view.
And here he is in 3D form. He looks kind of like a "clay baby". --But the crazy thing is that he had his eyes open and the technician said she's never seen that before. It will be interesting to see what he looks like in real life. (I never got to see Versii in 3D, so I can't compare.)