Booooo.

My OB checked my "progress" for the first time today. It turns out that I'm only about a centimeter dilated with no effacement or anything (apparently, the baby still even needs to settle down into my pelvis a lot more, which I was surprised to hear 'cause I totally thought he had dropped in the last week). I was a little bummed to hear that (although, I know I shouldn't be: they say that these things have no bearing on when a baby is actually going to arrive) because I've been having some contractions. I guess I was just disappointed to find out that they weren't doing anything (or doing as much as it felt like they might be doing).

Maybe I'm a little bummed, too, because this is where I was when I got checked with Nora at 37 weeks (I'm over 39 weeks now). I thought maybe this time around, things would happen a little sooner (because this is my second baby, and I was really hoping it'd be different from when I had Nora—I ended up induced at 41 weeks because a non-stress test revealed a creepy, irregular heartbeat in the baby).

I'll probably end up going past my estimated due date again, though. I'm already setting myself up for that ('cause if I don't, I'll go nutty). (And, yes, we are aware of the hundreds of things that a pregnant lady can try to do to get labor started. We've probably tried all of those things both with Nora and this bugger.)

My OB did try to encourage me by telling me that he had a mother that was at two centimeters yesterday and went into labor during lunch time today. So . . . I suppose that did make me feel a little better. The only thing is: I'm not two centimeters.

What's weird: my blood pressure was a tad high today, and that's never, ever happened to me before. I wonder if it was the giant plate of Chinese food I had earlier in the day (lots of soy sauce action). They didn't seem concerned about it at all. It was just higher than usual, but it wasn't any cause for concern.

Nora actually behaved quite well at the doctor's office today. I was really surprised. I put her down for an early nap today, so I think that was definitely beneficial. She didn't get into too much, and she wasn't too hard to handle (she did try to climb up onto the counter in the doctor's office via a rolling stool—I had to hop down off the examination table to stop her from cracking her skull or something of the like with that nonsense, but that was about the extent of her difficulty). So, I was grateful for that.

Oi. Nora's crying. Gotta run . . . or run-waddle.

Photos from the Bergrens

Our neighbor, Bill, took these pics of Nora and uploaded them to facebook for us. Check 'em out! (I hope you can see them!)

She only had that crown on for about two seconds.
Bill and Pam bought Nora some fun things to play with whenever we come over to
chit chat with 'em. The crown is one of many of those items.


Nora likes Bill and Zach.


She also likes to ride their goose. (She calls him "ducky.")
She also gives him hugs and kisses.


She's probably watching Zach pop wheelies on his bike in this one.


Hobbes is a fan of the Bergrens, too.

Photo by Maggie

Maggie posted this photo to my facebook wall today. Here's what she said with it:

"I was going through photos for my website & came across this cute little number. Can't wait for the next little Brown!"

That photo was from Nora's six months photo shoot. I miss her bein' that small. It went so stinkin' fast.

39 Weeks and Still Huge

Here we are at 39 weeks.

I actually had to do some cropping on this photo. Nora was having some regularly scheduled naked time when we took the picture. I didn't realize it at the time, but Hobbes is totally laying on several stuffed animals on the couch. The cat is in the hallway, too. So, the only person we're missing in this family photo is Willis.

Nora's continued to kick her difficulty level up a few notches. We've been seeing a lot of this lately:

And this . . .

It's kind-of sad. I've been trying hard to spend some good quality time with her since I got caught up with work stuff. I think that's helping a little, but she's still all about testing her boundaries, um, constantly.

In other news, I got stung by a yellow jacket in my kitchen two days ago. I had seen one on the floor, bumped it to see if it was alive, and when I did that, he disappeared. I guess when he disappeared, he flew up into my shorts and was hanging out up there (and I somehow didn't feel him moving around in there). I squatted down in the kitchen to pick something up off the floor, and low and behold, BAM! I lifted up my shorts to find the little punk digging right into my leg with his butt. That hurt. Strangely enough, I don't think I've ever been stung before. I didn't know what to do. I called Willis all frantic and asked him what to do. I didn't know what stung me at first: I thought it was some kind of bee, but I wasn't sure.

I still have a huge, hot, itchy, red patch on my leg. So, that's annoying.

In the meantime, we're playing the waiting game. I've been having some contractions here and there but nothing that sticks.

I'm doing some nesting activities to try to settle my mind a bit. Maybe that'll help. I'm doing a bunch of laundry today, and I plan to vacuum my downstairs. Once that's done, maybe my body will relax and be like, "Let's do this."

I need to go get some clothes onto that kid before she makes a mess somewhere. Dilly out!

38 Weeks

Here I am at 38 weeks.

Hello.

Sprinkler Fun!

I'm trying to figure out how to share photos all over again. I maxed out Photobucket the last time I uploaded (didn't see that coming), apparently. It's quite unfortunate. I'm not wholly comfortable with uploading all of my photos to Facebook, either. In the meantime, enjoy this Flickr slideshow! (Please ignore my hugeness and scary, white legs.)

Flickr album link.

Nora is about 19 months in these photos, and I'm about 38 weeks pregnant. Oi.

Mean Daddy

Willis Hoses Nora (Mean Daddy)

I don't know if it's just me or what, but this video makes me laugh hard.

Quick Photo Post Before Nora Tears the Place Down

Here are some recent pics of Nora pants (the ones of her in the cute, fancy outfit are from this morning):


I put a little mousse in her hair today.


This shot is to show the complete look. A smile would really set it off, I think.


Yep. She's zoned.


She's pretty good at stairs these days.


She's running away from me and laughing about it.


Her hair completely goes up into pig tails now.


Playing her organizing games.


She sits on the potty, but not for real.


Blink!


It's more of a toy than anything at this point.


She can be really sweet.

Willi's at work this morning, and we're having one of those days where Nora is into EVERYTHING. I've already caught her sitting on our kitchen table twice (she waits until I'm out of sight—I was in the kitchen, the next room, one time that she did it). She's pretty stealthy. And nutty.

She was playing with my digital camera while I was spraying out her dirty (she totally says "dirty" now, by the way—it sounds like she's saying "duty") diaper in the toilet. She doesn't waste any time, either. She gets right to it.

I'd better supervise. Catch you kids later.

My Little Nutter

While I'm waiting for my work computer to load, I thought I'd upload some photos and share a couple of things about my little nutter. She's getting into everything lately. Everything. She is not willing to give me any leniency since I'm huge and pregnant, which I will remember. Oh, yes. I will remember.

Here's what she did while I was doing some work this morning:

Note that she has completely removed the toilet paper roll core from the toilet paper holder. That's no easy feat.


I knew I should've been concerned that she was quiet.


She's pretty pleased with herself.


If she weren't so cute, it'd be a lot easier to be mad at her.

Yesterday, I took Nora outside at about 5:30 p.m. to play for awhile. Willis was at a work meeting all day (and all evening), and I hadn't been outside once. It was actually quite nice out there.

As soon as we got out there, Hobbes had to pee for, like, twenty minutes straight (I guess it had been awhile since I had let him out). I walked over to the garage to shut the door on it, and when I turned around to look back toward Nora, I discovered her sticking her hand under Hobbes into his pee stream. I about lost it. I screamed at her, and she just kept on with it (as if I had said nothing). I ran over there, yanked her up, and ran her into the house to wash her hands.

A few moments later, we went back outside. I had her come with me to the front of the house. She was staying close to me, so I started getting a little more confident. I grabbed the hose to water the mums that we have sitting on our stairs out front, and as I was watering the first pot of mums, Nora decided to take off at a dead sprint toward the road. I dropped the hose and went sprinting after her: I was hearing cars coming (so I was running extra fast and freaking out extra hard). We were about two or three feet out into the street before I caught her. You can bet I scolded her pretty hard. The little rat still had a bit of a smirk on her face about it (probably because she saw me sprinting in my current state).

Before I was able to get the hose put away again, the kid had attempted to run back out into the street two more times. She about killed me. I don't know why she did that: she's actually been pretty good about not running out toward the street. I seriously think she finds it amusing that I'm huge and can't catch her easily. She's getting a sense of humor going. Some of it is a bit sadistic, I suppose, but she's got a sense of humor, by golly.

We went inside after that. Well, shortly after. She had to ride on the Bergren's concrete goose (and give it hugs and kisses) that's in their flower bed first. I didn't get any photos of that, but Bill did! I'll see if I can link those for you once he gets them uploaded.

So, yeah. She's kind-of a handful right now. I'm not sure what's up with that. It's a good thing my armpit has healed well 'cause I'd be in serious trouble if it were two weeks ago again. I wonder if she just knows that something's about to change. I don't know. It's weird, though. She's wearin' me out. I hope she isn't still going nutty when this kid arrives. Oi.

She's definitely been doing a lot of flopping her body to the floor and throwing little fits. It's pretty dramalicious. I typically just have to let her have her little fit, and I just wait for her to get done. It seems like each fit is getting a bit shorter, now, though.

What's funny: is she's also gotten all sweet with me all of a sudden. She'll actually stop mid-play now and come to give me a kiss—all on her own accord (she never used to do that). She even gives me some good, quality hugs after I change her diaper, which I'm enjoying. So . . . I suppose all of her behavior isn't terrible right now. It's just that the stuff that's a challenge is really a challenge: like trying to keep her from killin' herself. God help us.

Gah. My work computer is still loading. This could take all day.

Nora is 19 Months Old

Nora is officially 19 months old today. It's pretty weird to think that she's reached the month age that she'll be when her baby brother arrives (hopefully).

Here are some photos of this little rascal.


She decided she needed to be in the toy box.






She climbs like nobody's business. She's turning her music on here.
(She used to have to ask us to do this for her, but now, she doesn't need us. Obviously.)


She can also walk up the stairs by herself using the wall.
She still likes to have Willis and I walk her up by holding her hands on both sides, though.


She likes to "do" her own hair after Mommy does it.
I'm still trying to convince her not to do that. (She always messes it up.)

Her vocabulary has just exploded lately. Every day she's saying something new. Her hair is getting thick, long, and even more curly (which really has me surprised). She's also displaying a feisty sense of humor these days, too.

We're having a lot of fun with her. She's such a good kid. We can only hope her little brother is as easy on us as she has been.

Dilly out!

No More Stitches, B______!

Sorry if the title of this post is offensive, but that's really how I feel about it. Good riddance to those freakin' stitches.

I had my follow-up appointment today with the surgeon. He told me that the lump they pulled out of my armpit was called a Lactating Adenoma (it was, indeed, breast tissue after all). I looked up some articles about those things on the internet, and the more I read about this sort of weirdness, the more I realize I made the right decision to have it removed when I did. Check out this scary article about one of these things.

Spookilicious.

Now, I just need to get some things done for work, and this baby boy can show up anytime!

Dilly out!

Good News!

I called the surgeon's office today to see if I could get some answers about the biopsy. I was on hold for quite awhile (which was a bit nerve-wracking—especially since their hold music is, like, ultra serious).

Everything was benign!

I still have to keep the follow-up appointment on August 11th (and I will go 'cause I've got stitches that need to come out, and I would like to know if the armpit thing is healing properly).

Thank God.

Now, I just have to finish healing and focus on Baby Boy Brown's arrival. Next chapter.

More Recent Photos

Here are some more recent photos:


This photo was actually taken this morning along with the next two.


She's strikin' a bit of a sassy pose here.


Nora had actually asked for juice this morning. She said the words!


These pretty flowers are from my sweet co-workers. Thanks, ladies!


Bethany's Emily and my Nora got along quite well when Bethany came to help last week! Thanks again Bethany!


Here's Nora and Emily "reading" together.


Aren't they sweet?


I caught Nora with two loveys.


I got really busy with work one day, and this is what happened to my poor girl.

Famiy Pics from July

We had these taken a few weeks ago. We just became new members at our church in town, and they took photos of us. (I'm guessing they're going to use them to help people recognize us?) The woman who took our photos gave me a photo CD on Sunday so that I could share the pics. That was quite nice of her. Here they are. Enjoy!