Home Stretch

Dear Soybean,

Your room is ready!  I think your dad and I did at least three takes for this video tour of your room and we STILL ended up looking like complete goof-balls.  Well, at least that means it's true to form and you know what you're getting yourself into  :-)

The last baby shower went great.  Your Aunt Charlene even had special embossed ribbon that said, "Chris & April" and "Shower 9-18-11" on all the brooches/pins.  Who does that??!  It was all over the top :-)  So many people showed up I even got a bit claustrophobic.  We were there for 5-1/2 hours--I'd call that a party!  It was a great success--not to mention it was the first EVER that your grandfathers met.

"Green Eggs and Ham" Deviled Eggs

Cat in the Hat finger puppets

Your Grandpas Meet for the First Time EVER

Monday will be the last prepared childbirth class.  We were encouraged to bring a "birth bundle" to the next class... so I'll see what we can find.  Never heard of a birth bundle before, eh?  Well neither had I.  Found this website though about it: http://www.birthingfromwithin.com/birth_bundle

At yesterday's appointment, the doctor said there was still "nothin' happenin'."  I guess that means we'll probably make it to the due date or beyond.  I am more convinced now than ever that next time around I want to go with a midwife or birthing center.    I know the doctors deal with babies all the time, but this is special for ME and I want a little time.  The doctor didn't even take the time to look over the birth plan I brought in and when I asked if he would consider my having a water birth he said, "You wouldn't want to do that anyway; there's been shown to be increased risk of infection in tubs like that."  Bologna! and that he'd have the audacity to guess what I'd want was a bit much.  Well regardless of whether the doctor cares to honor the document with his eyes or not, I was able to go to a neat website and create this handy little document.  I had heard several people recommend having a birth plan but no one would actually tell you exactly WHAT that meant/included.  This website made it easy: http://www.childbirth.org/interactive/ibirthplan.html

Today's been a bit rough and I'm not even quite sure why.  I think the money situation of how to keep things afloat once you're here are weighing on me a little.  Or maybe I'm just tired.  All I know is that I've been moody--oh yes, moody.  In fact, I found myself getting a little irked at YOU, all because you wouldn't quit having hiccups last night.  I was a bit horrified at myself for feeling that way.  :-O

Won't be much longer and you'll be seeing this little ol' world.  I hope you won't be too disappointed.  It's home, or at least will be until we all make it those mansions in the sky.

Love you baby girl,
Mama

Chewing One's Way Out

Dear baby girl,

I am so uncomfortable... I swear you are trying to chew your way out underneath my ribs on the right side.  As you can't possibly have teeth yet, maybe your doing your best to gum your way out.  I had always thought pregnant women rested a hand on top of their bellies because it was a "cutesy" thing to do and it kinda got on my nerves but now I'm more of the opinion that they do that to put a little extra weight on the belly to push, or rather "encourage" the baby to sit lower. 

HEY!... your room is done!  okay, not done done, but painted!! All the furniture you Grandpa Scheffler bought for you has arrived and is sitting in boxes ready to be put together.  The changing table parts have already made their way to the floor of your room.  Your daddy says he'll start putting it all together tomorrow.  :-)  With the paint done, it already looks so much better than it did before.  It had been bland, boring--not at all you.  It's going to look great.

Monday we had our first night of prepared childbirth education.  I think your daddy really liked it, which was really good because it seems like most of the material is for the support person since the preggo's job is pretty obvious.  I was a bit tired as I didn't have a chance to eat before I went.  Believe me, I helped myself to the offered snacks at halftime.  I think I had four graham crackers packets and an apple juice cup.  Next week's session may prove to be the most helpful as it gets down to the mechanics of pain management, including positioning, "mindful" techniques, and pressure points.  The instructor had the couples in the group introduce themselves, tell what the gender of their unborn baby is, why they came, and their due date.  She started with us, stating we "looked friendly."  We had a good chuckle at that.  Come to find out, the vast majority of the couples are expecting girls.  There was only one couple that are expecting a boy and one couple that will be leaving it for a surprise due to their culture (Indian).  We were the couple with the soonest due date.  We had everyone else beat by at least two weeks. Yes, I guess that proves we are procrastinators.  If you come on your due date (which only 5% of babies do), the information will only be a week old--so pretty fresh  :-)  I was surprised that I had the uncontestably smallest belly of the women, especially since I was the farthest along.  I guess I should feel pretty good about it (people say I should bounce right back to my pre-baby weight), but I found myself having the urge to poof out my belly a bit as if to assert "I'm pregnant too!"  haha. 

Wednesday my coworker Becca hosted one heck of a shower for you--coworkers, some current and some former, showed up.  I was really touched with how much time, effort, and money she put into it.  I wasn't expecting anything nearly so like a real shower.  I had thought it'd be more like a a simple social hour where we got together to eat and opened some gifts as an afterthought of sorts. She had a huge cake, balloon bouquet, little pacifier necklaces for the "don't say the word baby" game, paper and pencil for a baby word scramble game (in which I was the proud winner of a Subway gift card), etc.  Our friends Liz and Dezryn showed up too.  It was amusing to find out that Dezryn prefers Liz's left side whereas you prefer my right.

Sunday will be the last of the showers and it promises to be perhaps the biggest.  It's going to be fun.  Some of your daddy's family from Henderson are coming down.  You are quite the star! 

I've found the perfect photographer!  Yep, Subrina will be coming out a week from Sunday to take the maternity pictures and she'll be coming out on/around Oct 14th for your newborn pics as well.  I don't know her personally but she was recommended by Jessica Matthews and after checking out Subrina's portfolio, I couldn't be more excited. 
Love ya baby doll,

Mama

Psych!

Dear Soybean,

Did I tell you that we had pretty much decided on naming you Erin?  Well.. Psych!!!!!    The new forerunner in this name game is Natalie.  Dad had mildly asked at the Scheffler family baby shower on Saturday if we had considered the name Natalie. I love my Daddy so much that I think I may have taken any suggestion of his to heart, except for the name Brunessa  :-)    I said it was pretty and then asked Chris about it later that night as we drove to New Braunfels to surprise your Aunt Kadi for her 31st birthday party.  I was almost certain Chris had suggested the name himself somewhere along the way.  He said he liked it too and of course I had to ask a few more times just to make sure; he finally said that I should know by now that if he didn't like a name he'd say so.  And, yes, he was right.  I asked him what his feelings were about the name Erin now--he said he still liked it but that Natalie was great too... as long as the middle name was Ann.  And that's was the only middle name I had even thought about to go with Natalie.  Everyone seems to think the name is pretty--everyone except my mother of course.  She said the name seemed old and not in a cute way.  I somehow knew she'd feel that way, but she quickly added that she would/could grow to like anything we named you.

As I write this, wildfires are still burning in Magnolia north of here.  Yesterday was pretty scary not knowing if we'd have to start evacuating or  not, but so far the crews have managed to keep the blazes north of 1488.  The picture below is one I took this evening on my way home.  To me, it looks like huge smoke clouds that are drifting downwind from the flames.

Your dad did a lot of work on the house yesterday and today to get it ready for you.  All of the junk has been moved out of  your room and either thrown away or put into storage.  Almost all of the painting has been done except a second coat is needed on one wall and he wants to touch up the trim with some white paint.  It's starting to all come together!

Oh, your Uncle Mike got engaged over the weekend!  Saturday evening he proposed to Marianna.  We found out on Facebook which wasn't exactly the way we would have preferred to learn about it but we're happy for them all the same.  :-) 

Saturday's baby shower was great.  Family is such a wonderful thing, when it works.  Definitely a blessing and I hope your experiences will reinforce the same message. 

Oh, and sometime during this holiday weekend I went from being a preggo to a preg-OH!!  Yep, Sunday Sarah exclaimed that my hands were swollen; I then decided my ankles were swollen too and that's why they had looked unexplainably strange/foreign to me.  Everyone promptly put my feet up and Sarah arranged pillows behind me.  Everyone is so sweet, except that Sarah would have denied us the bit of whipped cream I put on my decaf coffee that night if she had had her way, haha.I've had to take off my wedding ring and put it on a necklace, and today my ankles are still swollen--you can't really see the anklebone clearly defined.  At least, the swelling hasn't gone to my face... yet!  Pregnancy is so hard on one's one body-image. But it's all worth it.. YOU're worth it! 

Well, your daddy has turned off the light so I guess that's my cue  :-) 

Goodnight little one.

Love ya,

Mama

Dearest baby,

So maybe I haven't been the best letter-writer here lately but you and I have been busy!!  1)  We had another ultrasound done last OB visit...




In this 3D pic you look so much like your daddy did as a baby; however, you know who you really look like?  Your Uncle Stephen! 



I call this pic "Sleeping Beauty".  The sonographer says you will be a small baby at at big 6lb'er if that.  But your daddy was a 6-lb'er too.  I was the 8lb 12oz one!

Even though you are a small baby in the 32 percentile in weight for your age, the sonographer says you have a wide foot  :-)

can you see the fuzzy hair?  :-)

2)  We had your first shower with the church ladies (which was a huge success!),

Deanna outdid herself again!

See how the traditional item was replaced with a Sobyean?  Haha, the perfect touch!

3) You went with me and Daddy on our 10th wedding anniversary trip (as much as I love you baby this will be the last anniversary trip you join us...haha)

This is us at Krause Springs



This your Daddy and I all cleaned up for a nice dinner



This is the 3 of us at the Longhorn Caverns.  Your daddy can't wait to bring you back.

So, yes, again, we have been busy.  And there's so much more to do!  I still don't have your daycare arrangements scheduled and we have more showers to go!  Your room has made SOME progress.  There's paint on 3 of the 4 walls but it will all need a second coat. 

There's been a lot of drama we could do without and maybe I will tell you about that later, but as usually happens, I'll probably forget because it probably wasn't that important to begin with.  Funny how time puts everything in perspective.

We had another OB visit today and "we" weigh a cumulative of 150.0 lbs.  I'm sure at least a good 30 of that is all you!  haha, yeah right!  That means almost 7 lbs gained in two weeks (yikes!). Good thing I finished off the last of the Oreos this evening... no more temptation!  ;-)

The main point I wanted to write about today though was your name.  I was driving to work last Thursday morning when I came to the conclusion that I should leave your naming to your daddy.  The names I like are a bit too odd/exotic for most tastes and I knew that the fact your daddy named you might be pretty special to you.  The daddy/daughter relationship is one-of-a-kind.  Well, not 30 minutes later, I get a call from your dad and he says with conviction in his words, "I have the name for our daughter."  I said, "That's great because I just decided you could name her."   "Erin Dawn."  He went on to explain that he loves his middle name of Aaron and had kinda wished he had been called by Aaron instead of Christopher.  So he'd give you his middle name with the feminine spelling and combine it with my middle name of Dawn.  I just asked that we not set it in stone until we see you... just to make sure it "fits."  He reluctantly agreed, still very leery that I am going to try to name you October in the "glow" of the moment.  He then stated that even if you come out with a birthmark in the perfect shape of the word "October" that you will not be named that.  I had to laugh. "Fine, fine" I said.    Everyone seems to like it and think it's cute.  I knew of two Erins when I was in middle school... and neither acquantance was warm.  Chris says I have to let it go.  :-)  And yes, he's right.  Maybe he'll agree to change the spelling up a bit more agreeable to me.  Plus, I know I will love you whatever your name... Why?  Because you are my baby!!!  I can't wait to hold you in my arms and kiss your nose and caress your hair (yes, we saw your fuzzy hair on the ultrasound!).  I asked for the sake of the baby book record when this name "came" to Chris.  He said the night before.  He had been on his way home from helping Grandpa Nall and was sitting at the red light on 2978, waiting to turn onto Carraway Lane when he said it just came to him.  In fact, he got a bit religious about it and said he felt it's what God wants you to be named.  How can I argue with that?

I love you.  I hope I can get some sleep tonight while you do your nightly acrobats  :-)  It's crazy how time is going by so quickly; before you know it, you will be here crying and messing in diapers! 

I still miss your Uncle Adam so much that I can't bring myself to write about it a lot but I just remind myself that there are many others here who love you too who will be ready with open arms to hold you tight.  I may hold you extra tight just for him.  I guess I bring him up because the day after tomorrow is the Scheffler family baby shower.  You are 1/2 Scheffler which means you are 100% "tainted"... LOL.  They are a great group and I can't wait for you to meet them all. 

Yours truly,

Mama