9 DAYS LEFT!!!

So, it's less than 10 days now. It's next Friday. Surgery... Hospital... Two Kids... No Sleeping... excuse my language, but, HOLY MOLY!

I had an appointment yesterday, and I'm already dilated nearly a centimeter. I've been having Braxton Hicks contractions extremely often (5-10 a day ever since the car accident, and dozens a day since Sunday), so I was kinda expecting it. I just hope I don't go into labor for real! Hear that, baby? Stay in until next Friday, when the doctor takes you out!

I absolutely cannot wait to meet this little guy! It's still so weird thinking that he'll be an entirely different person from Sawyer. Part of me keeps envisioning a Sawyer repeat, but that won't be the case I'm sure. I bet he'll be wicked cute though, and I can't wait to cuddle a newborn again. I don't really hold other people's babies, just my own, so it's been awhile.

So I have my lists of stuff to get done before next Friday. I made separate lists of things to get ready for baby, to do around the home, to do for family, errands to run, and finally a list of stuff to do for myself. Here's my list, and help me if you think there's anything else that should be added to it:

For Mom:

-Cut & Color Hair

-More Dates with Joe

-Create a diet/workout plan for after baby

-Buy new slippers, for in hospital

-Mani/Pedi

-Pick and read a book on newborn sleep training

Three Year Photo Shoot!

My baby is turning 3 in less than a month (Feb 12th)! I figured I'd try taking some portraits myself before the baby comes, since his professional pics last year didn't turn out well anyway. I don't think I got the perfect one yet, worth blowing up and giving out to family, but I still thought I'd share some that I took that turned out fun.

Tagged! 7 Random/Weird Things About Me:

1. I have a serious love of ice, particularly the frosty pellets that are so easy to crunch. I don't even care if all of my crunching bothers people around me, I can't stop.
2. I've refused to eat at McDonalds ever since I was 13 and saw how they made my hamburger (from a nasty yellowed bin full of hamburger patties, sitting in the microwave). I'm a serious Burger King lover ever since working there as my first job.
3. I spill fairly often when I take drinks. Just drip right down my shirt... I don't know why I can't catch on.
4. I actually enjoyed my 4 day hospital stay during my c-section recovery. I'm actually looking forward to it this time, and was slightly bummed when my Dr. told me it'd probably only be a 3 day stay if all goes well.
5. I don't think I like ice cream as much as most people do. Give me a brownie or cookie.
6. I'd still really like to be an architect someday (not with little kids though). I was top of my drafting classes over all the "guys" in college. That felt awesome. And I love love love home design.
7. I sleep with a fan on next to my bed. We used to have a ceiling fan right above us in our old house, and now I can't do without it; I love the fresh air over my face and the sound lulls me to sleep better than any other method.

The 3 I tag: Shanda, Lauren & Amy

One Month Left!

Yesterday I had some pregnancy pictures taken by the amazing James Fullmer, who also did my pregnancy pics with Sawyer (you can click on his name link to get to his pregnancy photo gallery with some of my old pregnancy pics in it if you want). It was a little sad because I'm so much thinner in my other pics... BUT, having pics taken of each pregnancy is priceless! Thank you SO MUCH, Jay!

Only 30 days to go! C-section is officially scheduled for 7am on Friday, January 30th!

Christmas Catch Up!

This is very late, but still thought I'd post some of our Christmas fun.

Here is the gingerbread house the Kindt kids and myself worked on on Christmas Eve (I did the front of the house). Fun fun!

Joe got a harmonica from his parents (he'd asked for it). He's been talking about wanting to learn the harmonica for the last few years, and has been playing it quite a bit since getting it (and getting good)!

Sawyer helping Joe open one of his gifts from me (titanium cuff links; they match his titanium wedding band).

One of Joe's first gifts he opened at my parents' place was a new Scout shirt. Sawyer loved it and wore it.

Sawyer with Grandma and Kindle (dog). He just opened a Hot Wheels city from his uncle J.P., and he LOVES IT. I think uncle J.P. won for Sawyer's favorite Christmas gift this year.

Sawyer with uncle J.P., checking out the new Hot Wheels items.

Christmas evening we gather with all of my extended family. It's tradition that we have a big dinner, then in the evening have a "Yankee Exchange" with a $5 limit (also known as white elephant). Here we are, gathering for the exchange, with all the gifts in the center.

I wouldn't have thought, but Sawyer was pretty good at playing the Rock'em Sock'em Robots! Here he's playing with Bubba (his mother is engaged to my cousin Joel, so they're about to be new to the family), and my cousin-once-removed, Drew.

Sawyer sure loves Jack, my parents' Schipperke. Jack doesn't love him as much. It's an awkward relationship.

About a foot of the snow melted off, so it was finally low enough to use the snowmobile. Joe went out a few times, and even took Sawyer out twice.

Snowy Christmas Eve

There was a little bit of snow in Oshkosh for Christmas this year... The snow bank the boys are in is about 6 feet high in front of Joe's parents' place. I'd guess it was generally around 2 feet deep across the flat areas. It was beautiful to be snowed in for Christmas, though.

For Christmas Eve dinner, there wasn't enough room for everyone at the dining room table, so the two boys sat at a mini table next to us, and I couldn't resist getting a picture of them.

The family gathered for a small Christmas Eve "program" where we sang Christmas hymns, read the story of the Savior's birth from the scriptures, and shared personal favorite Christmas experiences.

We hold to the tradition of opening new Christmas jammies on Christmas Eve (the one gift to be opened early). Sawyer of course was VERY happy to open his first present!

Here are my boys with their new Christmas pajamas! I made them matching flannel penguin pants, because I think they both love it when they match. :) Joe's very favorite pajama pants he'd had for years were red penguin pants, and they finally had to be thrown out last winter. I couldn't find any replacement penguin pants for him, so instead I found some fabric and made them!

Pre-Christmas Activities!

Grandma bought us some train cookie cutters, so I couldn't resist breaking them out to make Christmas cookies. Sawyer was so excited to finally use them, as he'd been looking at them in the kitchen drawer for weeks.

Here are Daddy & Sawyer with some of the cookies they'd decorated (we made sure Sawyer didn't slobber on any of the ones for other people, don't worry). We made up plates of them and went Christmas carolling last night. Sawyer is really good at the chorus of "Jingle Bells"! It's wicked cute. And he jingled some bells as we sang. Good memories!

Tonight we decorated individual graham cracker "gingerbread" houses that I'd put together this afternoon during Sawyer's nap. I figured Sawyer was too little to work on building & waiting for it to dry, but would probably enjoy the decorating! He did... for about 4 minutes... then just ate the candy for the other 45 minutes while Joe and I worked on our houses.

Our finished products (left to right: Sawyer, Joe, Carrie):

Fun fun Christmas stuff! We love having Joe off school to play with us!

Santa in South Bend!

Downtown at the College Football Hall of Fame, the city put on a free "Santa's Workshop" event. Sawyer was excited to see Santa, even though I'm sure he's till too young to get it. I'm glad he's still too young to "get it" though, because Joe and I haven't quite decided how much we're going to push the whole Santa thing anyway.

Joe couldn't resist chasing Sawyer around the Christmas tree in front of the Hall of Fame (and tackling him multiple times).

Inside, Sawyer got a sugar cookie and some decorating supplies. Here is the cookie decorating progression:

Beautiful!

Around the House

Since the scare of the car accident, I've caught myself taking many more pics of just the normal every day moments around the house. I really cherish all the cute little moments that make up our family life. Here are a few things we've been up to:

Sawyer made a snowman in a jar that he's SO proud of (an idea from a winter craft book we have that I'd forgotten about until last week):

Joe and Sawyer attemped to fit all of his wood blocks on top of the bin that they're stored in, creating a "city":

I finally attemped yeast bread for my very first time (whole wheat). It turned out ok, but not great. Sawyer helped me with the mixing & did a great job. It helped that Sesame Street that day had a whole sketch on kids baking bread from scratch.

Joe is such a good dad. He attemped to teach Sawyer some oragami by making frogs.

I love my family!!!

Two Rollovers by 25

Can anyone beat my record of two highway rollovers by the time they were 25?

This weekend I was going to work a craft show up in Kalamazoo Michigan with my mom and her boss. They picked me up on their way & off we went (Kalamazoo is only an hour and a half from here). Almost as soon as we entered Michigan, snow started falling. By the time we jumped on 94 East, it was starting to build up on the roads. The driver started sliding, the van turned sideways (sliding), and we went off the road, rolling several times. It was hard to count how many times, but I'd guess 2-4 rolls. Maybe the police report will show differently- they could see the tracks in the snow or something. I never stepped outside of the van after it stopped to be able to see for myself; they carried me to the ambulance on a stretcher with a neck brace on.

When the van finally stopped rolling (landing right-side up, thank goodness), I seemed to feel ok except for some pains in my neck and back starting, and noticing that I'd slid down and the seatbelt was tight right across the center of my pregnant tummy. That freaked me out, so of course I reached and undid the buckle to get it off. My mom and her boss seemed to be ok; they were moving around, and my mom even hopped out the van within a minute or two to check things out.

They took me in an ambulance to some tiny hospital in a town I'd never heard of, where they listened for the baby's heartbeat (it seemed normal, thank God), and did a CT Scan of my neck/back to check for damage. The results came back clear, so I finally got to take the uncomfortable neck brace off (this had been probably 2 hrs already), and get off of the back/body board that I was strapped to and put in a regular hospital bed (which seemed heavenly by that time).

The doctors said the baby needed to be checked more thoroughly, but this tiny hospital didn't have any OB equipment, so they had to get me to another hospital that did. Another ambulance ride later, and I was back at Memorial Hospital in South Bend. On the ride I started having contractions, which at first I tried to play off as bladder pains because I had to go to the bathroom so badly and the ride was taking forever. At the hospital I got hooked up to all the equipment and they confirmed that I was having contractions about every 3 minutes. Scary! Luckily they have a medication that can stop that, and it worked. They did an exam to make sure my water hadn't broken at all (it hadn't), and then sent me home around 10:15pm. Now I just deal with incredibly stiff and sore muscles, a banged up head and finding new bruises in random places.

Thank you so much to the Evans for taking Sawyer for the evening, so Joe could come be with me at the hospital. I don't know if I'd ever been happier than when we picked Sawyer up from their apartment, wearing his red fire truck jammies and he gave me a kiss, saying "I love you Mommy". Of course I cried and didn't want to let him go. We went straight home and all snuggled in our bed as a family, kissing and crying and saying so many "I love you"s I can't possibly count. I love my family and we are so incredibly grateful that me and the baby were protected so we could come home.